Friday, July 31, 2009

Caught in the Act

Earlier in the summer while I was out front finishing the lawn, Reese decided to cleverly document Tate's sneaky naughtiness with my camera, rather than just plain ol' tattle on him.

They are a bit blurry but you can still distinctly make out that he helped himself to a package of Swiss Cake Rolls.
 

 

 
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Lake

If you want to see snapshots of our day at the lake with my sister & her family, which include, but are not limited to: tubing for the fist time, a sleepy little boy, and general cuteness in life jackets, click on the picture. If you don't want to ...well, then there's just something wrong with you.
Lake

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Check Up Day

One of the exam rooms at our pediatrician's office is huge and has a wall of windows and plenty of room to roam around in. For some reason, which I have yet to figure out, they tend to give this room to the moms with one tiny baby secured in an infant carrier. And cram me and my brood into the linen closet sized room.

What is up with that?

Normally my kids act like crazy animals trapped in a cage while waiting for the doctor to come in. However, they usually turn to frozen silent statues as soon as Dr. Miller comes through the door.

Not today.

Tate chose today to look Dr. Miller straight in the eye as soon as he came through the door and say, "I do not want a shot."

Tate also chose today to inform Dr. Miller that Drue was wearing Tinkerbell underwear.

Tate then informed Dr. Miller (as we were going over Tate's growth chart) that, "I'm getting bigger."

And as I held the plastic cup under his boy parts to collect a specimen, he informed me, "My tee tee not coming."

And to think one of my concerns today was Tate's speech!

Oh and would you like to hear the professional medical advice and cure all for finger warts Dr. Miller gave us?

DUCT TAPE!

No joke.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Vacation Recap

When we go on trips or extended outings I always jot down the stuff I want to remember to blog about on a napkin, scratch paper, etc. If no paper is handy, I just text myself a word or two so I'll remember.

We really did have a great vacation. "Great" in my book these days could be translated in one of the following ways:

(a) No one was hospitalized.

(b) No travel horror stories involving hair pulling, carsickness, or vehicular malfunction.

(c) I was actually able to relax some and enjoy myself, even "go with the flow" at times.

And I'm proud to relay that all of the above were true of our trip. We put over 2,000 miles on the van and had great little travelers. And were still on speaking terms with each other when all was said and done.

We had a great couple days in Alabama fishing, riding the golf cart (Drue got thrown out once while Reese was driving), visiting with family, making S'mores. I got together with a friend of mine who still lives down there and now has three kids as well. As David pushed each of our kids higher and higher on the tire swing, I would cringe and hold my breath. She laughed and said, "You used to go a lot higher on there when you were a kid!".

Sure I did. But that was when I was invincible.

It's different watching your kids engage in mildly dangerous activities. But I couldn't help laughing at myself too after she pointed that out.

The whole time David and I were in Florida last year for our anniversary we couldn't stop thinking about how much fun the kids would have at the beach. So we were excited to take them this year. I wish I could put into words just how neat it was to see the beach through their eyes.

We had to walk up a few steps to get to the actual beach from our hotel. And as the beach finally came into view the white sand confused them all. "Why is there snow at the beach?", Reese asked.

Tate went running ahead and threw himself down in the "snow". Then he hopped back up, ran a few more steps, and threw himself down again. Over and over.

Drue even mentioned it a little later. "I thought the sand would be darker".

"Why?", I asked her.

"Because that's the way it is on our TV beaches".

They didn't waste anytime running into the water. The waves were perfect while we were there. Just enough to have fun in, but not too much to make me hyperventilate.

Tate had a little too much fun in the sun that first day we were there. Right after I took all their beach pictures in their white outfits he frowned and said, "My tummy hurts me."

He sat on my lap all through dinner (fresh seafood!) and didn't eat a thing. I drug them all out for one more picture on the beach as the sun was going down and as I was getting the girls in position, Tate projectile vomited about a gallon of salt water onto my foot. And then another gallon in the parking lot of our hotel.

He fell right to sleep beside me as I googled "salt water poisoning" and the like. The next morning he woke up and said excitedly, "My tummy feels better!". He then lifted up his pajama shirt and said, "You want to feel it?".

He said the reason he got sick was because he had too many waves in his tummy. We bought a little boat raft the next day to pull him around in and he pretty much kept his mouth clamped shut when the water got too rough.

Late in the afternoon that next day he said he wanted to sit with me on our beach chair. So I went one step further and asked him if he wanted to go take a nap in the hotel room. He was off my lap in a flash and headed toward the hotel! He curled up on our bed and went right to sleep.

It was a fun trip and I look forward to our next family adventure.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Pictures First....Stories to Come

I was excited to get our vacation pictures posted, but will write more about our adventures later in the week. Click on this picture and it will take you to the entire album. I like to view them in "slideshow" mode but whatever tickles your fancies.

2009-07-19 vacation

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Seriously?!

We took the younger two out to eat while Reese was at basketball camp tonight. We shared a dessert of brownies and ice cream. Drue and Tate were so excited when it came to our table. They hurriedly began grabbing bites with their spoons. But in all their excitement, the bites weren't exactly making it to their mouths.

Tate dropped a big chunk of brownie on the table.

Drue's scoop of ice cream slipped off her spoon onto the table as well.

"Let's try and make it to our mouths", I reprimanded them...a split second before my own brownie bite plopped right into my lap.

Fast forward an hour or two.

I was at Old Navy getting some extra flip flops for the kids when I spied some school backpacks hanging up. I knew if I procrastinated like I normally do, the backpacks would disappear. So I brought the girls back a little later to each pick one out.

There were little matching lunchboxes and pencil cases and, we also discovered, water bottles! The nice stainless steel kind that won't get deformed if placed in the dishwasher.

As we were waiting in line, the girls each dropped their water bottle on the cement floor about 3 times. The loud echoing clatter was enough to make me want to hurl myself through the front store window.

Reese dropped hers one last time and I caught her little arm and hissed through clenched teeth..."Give. Me. Your. Water. Bottle. Now.".

When our turn approached to check out I was helping sling everything up onto the counter while I got my money out...then watched in horror as the water bottle slipped from my grasp...and fell in slow motion to the floor below.

Moment to Treasure

I was outside with the kids this morning while they splashed about in their blow up pool. It's large enough for all three of them to fit with plenty of room to spare when ol' mom wants to wade through and cool down.

I wanted it to be a fun-filled, carefree morning so I instructed the kids not to fight with each other and instructed Drue, especially, to tone down her eardrum shattering cry when a water droplet would accidentally make its' way to her face.

Reese and Tate played well together belly flopping their little selves into the foot deep water. Drue stood at the one end of the pool shrieking at them to stop splashing so much.

So she was banished to sit on her towel a couple times to watch in silence. After about the 3rd time of this, she wrapped her little towel around her and perched herself at the end of my chaise.

She befriended a firefly (whom I could only assume was a wee bit confused as to why it was sunny outside) and carried on a little conversation with me about bugs in general.

After a few minutes she stopped talking and studied me intently. She studied my face, then her gaze moved down to my swimsuit and I had no idea what she was looking at.

"What are you thinking about Drue?" I gently probed. Preparing myself for any one of numerous questions such as "Why do you have wrinkles on your face? Why is your tummy lumpy?" etc.

She simply answered, "I want to get all the people in the world together, and have them hold hands, and that would be how much I love you."

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Thru the Years

People are always telling me how big my kids are getting, how long the girls' hair is getting, etc. And I can see it, I really can. But I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and say, "Wow guys! You each must have grown an inch last night!".

In fact, I usually don't notice until the girls put on a nightgown that used to fall to the middle of their calves, and it's now above the knee. Or until Tate put on his dino jammie pants the other day, which instead of dragging the floor, are now capris!

So I thought it would be cool to post not only this year's 4th of July picture but a few previous years' as well. Just for comparison sake.

2009
 


2008-I remember looking at this picture last year and realizing how long the girls' legs were getting! And Reese's face looked older to me as well.
 


2007
 


2006
 
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Reese loved the fireworks last night!

Tate clutched Boo Key tightly to his face in David's lap but managed to peek around it with one eye to see them. He also inquired as to who was shooting at us.

And Drue sat on my lap whimpering for half the show because she was afraid the fireworks were going to land on us. We had a spot away from the crowd...but directly under the fireworks! Midway through the show I asked her which one was her favorite and she said, "None!". She mellowed out a few minutes later and was able to timidly admit which one she liked the best.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Two Different Wavelengths

As we drove home tonight the girls had their windows down and were stargazing and trying to catch fireflies.

Reese wondered out loud, "I wonder where the sky ends".

I am always caught off guard with comments like that and feel like a complete idiot.

"Ummmm....I don't think it does end", I said uncertainly.

"Well, I wonder if it does? And how do we really know?" she continued.

Drue piped in with her completely out of the blue contribution to our scholarly conversation, "And we should get some pudding sometime".

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

If You Ask It...They Will Answer

Kids have no concept of rhetorical questions.

In their simple minds (and I mean that in sweet way, not an insulting way) if a question is asked out loud--it is meant to be answered.

And I ask a lot of rhetorical questions out loud.

Usually in sheer frustration.

"Why are there 50 pairs of shoes lying around when we have 3 shoe baskets in the house?".

"Is it bedtime yet?".

"Why is this entire family rendered incapable of replacing an empty toilet paper roll?"

And the list goes on.

Many times I ask rhetorical questions, however, just because I happen to be thinking out loud at that particular moment.

Today the kids and I made a quick jaunt to Dee Anna Rose Farm. I planned for it to be so quick in fact, that I didn't even bother putting sunscreen on the kids.

Tonight, right before Reese headed to bed, I noticed her otherwise snow white cheeks had a pinkish tinge to them. As I wracked my brain trying to figure out how that had occurred, it dawned on me and I asked out loud, "Did you get sunburnt at the farm today?".

She took it upon herself to answer, "Well, I didn't go outside anywhere else so....yeah...let's go with that."

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