a day late and a dollar short

I am so behind on blogging.

We took Sunday morning to recover from the day trip to Charlotte and by the afternoon, we were all climbing the walls. We took the kids to Catch-Air (an indoor bouncy house joint) and let them burn off all of their energy for an hour and a half. They had the best time. Especially Love Bug...she went down the slides by herself and pitched a fit until you took her to the top so she could go down again. She even attempted to climb up the steps and the slide by herself. After Catch-Air, the plan was to go grocery shopping and come home for a quick dinner. Well we must have burned off too much energy because the kids were disasters at the grocery store. They were still so tired from the trip and then the playtime just made them go over the edge. The Mayor wanted to be carried and Love Bug just wanted to cry. We could not get out of there fast enough.

Yesterday and today we spent all day at Meega and Bennett's house. We are in the middle of a heat wave and it is way too hot to be outside but I just didn't want to spend all day inside this house. So we spent all day yesterday and today in Meega's house. It was still a change of scenery and The Mayor and Love Bug loved playing with Bennett. And I think Bennett loved playing with them.

Tomorrow The Mayor has an appointment with a pediatric ENT and then Meega and Bennett are coming over here. I love having my sister 3 miles away.

Thursday we are taking The Mayor to see Cars 2 and then Friday we are heading down south to celebrate cousin Luke's birthday. Going to be a fun weekend!

such a big girl...coming down the slide by herself

climbing UP the slide

here comes The Mayor!

sweet brother...patiently waiting for his sister to climb the steps

whew...tough day of playing

happy birthday sydney

We woke the kids up before 7AM this morning and headed up to Charlotte, NC to celebrate cousin Sydney's 2nd birthday! We left the house at 7:23 and with a 15 minute stop at a Panera somewhere in South Carolina (so The Mayor could use the potty and I could get a coffee) we rolled into the party exactly 1 minute after the start time...11:01. I was pretty proud of us.

I am so happy we ventured up to Charlotte. It was awesome seeing the cousins play together. We don't get to see Sydney nearly enough, but when we do, the kids love playing together. Meega, J and Bennett were there too, so it was great seeing all 4 cousins together. They haven't all been together since Thanksgiving (which is just way too long. It would have been at Love Bug's birthday but Bennett was sick). Aunt Amy rented a bouncy house and that soaked up all of that pent up energy The Mayor had from the 3 1/2 hour car ride. After 4 hours of serious playtime (and I mean serious, check out the sweaty hair on The Mayor and Sydney...they don't mess around when it comes to playing) that boy was slap wore out. He didn't even make it the 20 minutes in the car ride to dinner before he passed out.

Mamie and PopPop were also there so it was fantastic having the family together. And I am really loving this stage we are in right now. The Mayor is at the age where he doesn't need to be constantly monitored so when he wanted to go play in the bouncy house, he could go and do it on his own. And Miss Love Bug will not venture out of your sight, so you can literally leave her in one spot and she won't leave our sight. And you know what happens once I brag on my kids...so tomorrow I am sure all hell will break loose...but seriously, we had a great time today.

After dinner in downtown Charlotte, we loaded back up in the car and headed back home to Atlanta. We rolled into the driveway at 8:30 and the kids were asleep by 8:35. They are exhausted (and so are we) but it was worth every single second of today.

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Sydney! We are so happy we got to celebrate with you!

the birthday girl

The Mayor and Sydney bouncing together...they did this for hours

my boy Bennett

one happy girl

Sydney and Aunt Amy opening gifts (notice how sweaty Sydney's hair is!)

the boy loves him some cake (notice how sweaty his hair is!)

best buddies

worn out...a great day!

hooray!

The Mayor pooped in the potty today. I mean full on pooped in the potty. No little poops with tears and fears...a full on "I gotta poop, goes to the potty and poops" poop. We all partied like it was our birthday up in here. No tears or fears either. Are we finally turning the poop corner? I think so!

Love Bug cracks me up. She loves to stand up and then put her head on the floor while her little hiney is in the air. And she loves to look at you upside down. We were hanging in the kitchen eating a snack and she decided to eat her snack like this. She kept dropping food and then would bend like this to pick it up and eat it. Sister has an appetite and makes us laugh.

D singing "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" with Love Bug

Aren't these little goodies precious? I ordered them a couple of weeks ago and they arrived today. I got a large tote and a thermal picnic tote. They are from Thirty-One Gifts. This company is becoming one of my favs. A friend of mine met us at the pool a couple of weeks ago and she had this large tote and it carried all of their pool supplies, towels, snacks for her and her two kids. I went to their website and they were having a deal for the month of June, spend $31 and the large tote is $9! Jackpot! The cost of the thermal tote with the personalization was a little over $31 so I saved a lot of money on the large tote. I was so excited! We are doing a lot of traveling this month and these items are going to help a lot with packing snacks and goodies in the car.

Tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend starts! Looking forward to celebrating cousin Sydney's 2nd birthday...we love a party!

whiny wednesday

Yikes. Love Bug was so whiny today. Nothing made her happy. I fed her lunch an hour early just so I could put her down for a nap. And after nap and a quick errand, she did nothing but cry. This just wasn't like her.

D walks in from work and after 30 seconds of hearing her cry asks "is she teething?" DUH! I can not believe teething never once crossed my mind. D felt in her mouth and noticed her 7th tooth was cutting in, gave her Orajel and after a few seconds, the crying stopped. She was completely happy for the rest of the night. D was so proud he saved the day and I was kicking myself for not thinking of the obvious and saving myself all of the crying I had to listen to for the past 12 hours. Can't even say rookie mistake because I'm not a rookie anymore!

Other than the tears, we had a pretty great day. When Love Bug was napping, The Mayor and I hung out. I made us s'mores and we watched Toy Story 3. I really enjoyed the one-on-one time with my little guy.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow now that I know the issue is teething. Teething...geez! How did that not cross my mind??

mmmm...s'mores

orajel...life is good

happy 4th of july

We celebrated the 4th on the 3rd this year. Our county had fireworks at the fairgrounds the night of the 3rd and we thought this year would be the year we should take them. We had Love Bug take 2 naps and The Mayor took one long nap (3 hours) so they wouldn't be complete nightmares staying up late.

After dinner, we headed to the fairgrounds. The weather was a little hot but once the sun set it was perfect. There was a great breeze kicking so it was actually pleasant sitting outside. We set out 2 blankets, walked around, got the kids some ice cream from an ice cream truck and just enjoyed being together as a family. The kids actually just enjoyed sitting on the blankets with us and playing around. Before the fireworks even started, I was already chalking it up to a great night.

The Mayor was so excited to see these fireworks we kept talking about and Love Bug just thought she was an absolute rockstar being up this late. She was so giddy.

The fireworks started promptly at 9:30 and The Mayor and Love Bug were in complete awe of the colors exploding in the sky. The Mayor sat with D and wanted D to cover The Mayor's ears (he was a little turned off from the "boom") but other than that, the two of them loved every single second of the show.

Our 4th on the 3rd was a success. I can not wait to make this a yearly tradition. Happy 4th!

today was a better day

Today The Mayor was only in time out twice and only got 2 spankings. And that is about a 150% improvement on the past couple of days.

We have a busy holiday weekend ahead of us so I am hoping we continue on this upward path of improved behavior.

The Mayor, Love Bug and I had a great day of playing with each other this morning. Everyone was in a great mood and The Mayor and Love Bug shared all of their toys with each other. The Mayor didn't have to be asked either...he just kept going up to his sister and handing her toys. He can really be so sweet when he wants to be.

Tomorrow morning D will be training with a lake swim and a bike ride with his buddies and then I have a tennis match. We may hit a local farmer's market and then we need the kids to take great naps because we have a birthday party in the afternoon, followed by dinner with friends and then fireworks at our friends house in the hood, assuming the kids can stay up until 9:30.

Looking forward to our only free weekend of the month and so happy it is a long one!

unconditional love

The other day, during a difficult moment with The Mayor, D said "there is a reason why God gives you children as newborns".

I reminded myself of this at least 185 times today.

Thank goodness the second you lay your eyes on that sweet newborn baby you are instantly hook, line and sinker. There is nothing like the unconditional love we have for our sweet babies.

And it is because of that unconditional love that my child is sleeping soundly in his bed and not listed on eBay right now.