Treasure

You know how they say one man's trash is another man's treasure? Well, apparently, one man's tiny, cracked pieces of sea shells are one little girl's beautiful gifts from the ocean....

Related?

I'm not really sure why, but this Llama we fed at the petting zoo kept reminding us of an all white Sophie... maybe we were just missing her while we were gone on our trip?

Growing Up

It's a year later and we have another beach trip in the books.  I always enjoy looking through our photos to see how the kids have changed.  While Amelia has certainly grown a bit, Everett has transformed from a toddler to a little boy.

Full Day

We fed animals at a petting zoo, rode horses, caught waves on a boogie board, built sand castles, swam in the pool, and had a few family members come visit us....I'd say that is a pretty full day.

Beach

Hmmm, blog or head to the beach? Blog or head to the beach? Blog or head to the beach? Yeah, beach wins.

Yum

You know how sometimes you promise your kids ice cream and then you realize the only ice cream you have is super old? Yet, you try to scoop it anyway because a promise is a promise and it is technically still in date...and then your ice cream scoop snaps in half because God saw you being an idiot who serves his kids prison dessert? Yeah, I do...

Boys and Girls

Amelia and Everett still love playing together, but there is definitely a separation forming between boy time and girl time.


Ev playing at his train table while Amelia is in princess fantasyland...

Rain

While I generally hate the rain, it has provided at least one silver lining today...the blooms on our myrtle got so wet they actually bent the limbs over to create a beautiful arched walkway out of our house. I wish we could keep that look all year...

A way with words

Everett is really developing a way with words...you just don't always know what he's talking about.

This afternoon, I asked him if he needed to potty and he replied "no, I have mashed potatoes in my diaper"

Tonight, Meggan was putting him to bed and said "I love you" to which he answered "you're welcome" and after a pause said "I'm so proud of you"

A Quarter For Your Thoughts

While in the car the other day, Amelia found some change I had been saving for her. She wanted it, but I told her to wait and I'd give it to her later. Then, I told her there was like 3 dollars in there and it was all quarters. She asked me how many quarters were in a dollar and I told her 4.  So, I asked her how many quarters that would be thinking this might be a good time to try to teach her a little bit about money. However, before I could launch into a beginner lesson, she said "12 quarters! whoa!".  I'm not sure if she is just good at math or just loves money so much she gets multiplication super powers around it, but I was pretty surprised she could do that when all she's seen in school is counting.

Tough Cookie

Amelia has never been one who likes to go to bed. The past two nights were no exception. I'm not going to go into all the details of her bedtime business, but I will give you a sample ...

At one point last night, while Meggan and I were repeatedly placing her back into her bed as she was continually getting out of it, she literally said "Which on of you do I have to fight?" . That's how she brings it.

Tonight, we had this...

Me: I love you so much.

Amelia: I love you too.

Me: I hope you know that whether you're in your bed, your school, or anywhere else in the world, daddy will always make sure you are okay. I promise.

Amelia: People make promises all the time. Then they turn right around and break them. (as she starts singing the rest of Justin Timberlake's Not a Bad Thing...) When someone cuts your heart open with a knife, now you're bleeding....

Me: Good night

Amelia (still singing):.....But I could be that guy to heal it over time. And I won't stop until you believe it. It's not a bad thing to fall in love with me.....

I don't know what I'm going to do with her. But, I do respect her freakish song lyric memory and her comedic timing. So, there's that.

Camp

Amelia is enrolled in Cookie Camp right now. This is a camp where a chef teaches children how to make several kinds of cookies. So far, she has brought me oatmeal chocolate chip, sugar cookies, and double chocolate.  This is the perfect camp.  I'm never paying for swimming lessons, ballet, or any other camp again unless it yields me fresh baked goods on a daily basis. The bar has been set high.

Old

So, just when I was saying Amelia is growing up so fast, she let me know how old she thought I was.....

Amelia: Our cots are in a different place every nap time.

Me: I think it's cool you have cots. We didn't.

Amelia: You didn't even go to preschool.

Me: No, but when I was in kindergarten, we took naps.

Amelia: Reeeallly?

Me: Yep...and we didn't have cots to sleep on.

Amelia: Of course you didn't! When you were a kid with the cavemen, they didn't even invent cots yet!

Big Girl

This not so little girl goes to camp tomorrow at big kid school.  In a month or so, she'll begin kindergarten at that same school. I'm guessing in two more blinks, she'll be headed to college.

Why do they wake up so early??

Hosting a sleepover Friday night + going to bed at 1am after a Justin Timberlake concert on Saturday night + hitting the pool on Sunday = two tiiiiiired "old" parents.

"Sleep"over

Amelia is having her first sleepover tonight. Right now, Meggan is up there trying to get them to actually do the sleeping part. So far, her friend has been great at bedtime...and Amelia has had two crying fits, refused to share her stuffed animals, and under no circumstances would stop talking over her mom during storytime. Sooooo, I'd actually say it is going better than I expected.

Stick With What You Like

This picture means two things....1) My man wears his Woody boots so often, we had to buy him a bigger pair for fear he was damaging his growing feet and 2) Meggan brought a sense of reason as I was considering buying the next 10 sizes as well....

Shhhhh

Meggan is at drink wine with other moms away from your kids night book club. So, I had to put the children to bed myself tonight. For Everett, this usually literally means saying "okay, buddy, it is time for night night" and putting him in his crib. He doesn't complain. He doesn't cry. He just lays there until he falls asleep. A few nights ago, he was awake for over 2 hours. Aside from a few times where he started talking to himself, he didn't make a peep. Now, compare that with Amelia.  Getting Amelia to go to bed calmly is about as easy as getting Sophie to sit quietly through a cat beauty pageant.  She is more likely to get out of her room than she is to stay in it. She sometimes throws jabs at us like "Dear Jesus, please help my parents be nicer to me" when she says her prayers. And on occasion, she gets downright belligerent and just tells me that she isn't going to bed because sleeping is for lazy people.

Having said all that, tonight was like the Twilight Zone.  Everett absolutely lost his mind when I wouldn't let him sleep with several plastic toys. It was touch and go for his stuffed animals for a moment. I thought they were about to become fully launchable weapons. I haven't heard the word "NO!" come out so big from a body so small before. However, to compensate for this, Amelia went to bed like a sweet angel. She tried to calm Everett down for me. She said prayers for kids who "aren't nearly as lucky as her". She was wide awake when I left her room and she didn't even ask me to stay longer. So, I figure one of two things has occurred....either she saw I was near the end of my rope with Everett and decided to cut me some slack...orrrrr, the second I came downstairs, she got out of bed and started playing with all those toys Ev couldn't have and was too lame to climb out of his crib and reach. Either way, I'm enjoying it.

Missing

Thanks to work, I didn't get to see the kids tonight. So, if any of you did, feel free to tell me how they were. From what I understand, Amelia had a great day and Everett came home with a bloody lip and bruised forehead....I'm hoping those two things aren't related.

Duck Duck

Just when I thought Twister was a game adults should never play, we found a much worse way to spend our time tonight.  Amelia had the bright idea that we should play Duck, Duck, Goose. Let me tell you what isn't fun.....getting your old tail up and down off the hardwood floors to sprint around your house all while Amelia gets frustrated because she isn't allowed to catch Everett every time because he screams and cries when he doesn't make it all the way around the circle.  Running, sliding on hardwoods, crying, arguing...yay!

Gift

Amelia: Mom, you have lots of really pretty things

Meggan: Yeah, but you're my prettiest thing

Amelia:  I know. You don't even need a gift for Mother's Day because I'm your best gift every single day.


Okay, so she thinks highly of herself, but how can I blame her? She is our prettiest thing.

Swimming!

After 2 years and about a hundred lessons, Amelia finally swam on her own today. Sure, I had to peel her off me to get her to do it, but she still gets credit for eventually doing it. Now, the next step is to get her to swim further than 3 feet.

Shoes

There is no better way to go shoe shopping than to take your personal assistant with you so he can try on all the shoes you don't feel like dealing with.

One caution in case you are going to try this - make sure your assistant knows the shoes are yours and not for him. Otherwise, you may end up carrying a screaming toddler out of the shoe store while he yells "NOOO, I DON'T WANT MY LITTLE SHOES!".  

Let Me Eat My Corn

If there is somebody out there who has a better time eating their corn, I'd like to meet them...

Smile

it is nearly impossible to get a picture of my children both looking at the camera and both smiling. I can get one or the other, but never both. Amelia will smile like an angel and Everett will look at the ceiling. Everett will take the picture of his life and Amelia will weirdly smile like she has a debilitating facial disorder. The best chance I have is to act like a crazy person, get them both laughing, and take about 100 pictures. At the end of that, I can finally get one that looks mostly like a smile with them both generally looking at the camera. Luckily for me, they are so adorable it never really matters....