Channeling Grandma

About 3 years ago, we bought a lovely dining set. We knew it was time to replace our dining set when we had to preface dinner with a speech about how to distribute your weight evenly or you will fall through the hole. And trying to sneakily grab the faultiest chair so any male dinner guests wouldn't smash it to bits, without seeming rude was getting a bit ridiculous.
Of course, this would all come to a head while we were in Korea AND I was 7 months pregnant. But nonetheless, we found a great set at the Yongsan BX and were super-duper excited about it.

Dark wood, cream colored cushions.....
Oh what's that? Cream colored cushions? With toddlers? Oh, no. I can just put a towel over them and they'll be FINE!
Turns out, toddlers can ruin cream colored cushions in .003 seconds.


After dirty feet/shoe stains, RED birthday cake stains and crumbs that were smushed into the chemical makeup of said cushions, what's a desperate mother to do?

I could either look at the disgusting stains every time we eat at the table (2 times a day) or suck it up, and reupholster them and then cover them with...vinyl.
ewwww, I know, my hair stands up on my arms thinking about it too.....



So here I present to you, my latest and greatest:

Happy Valentine's Day!

...from the cutest baby you know.

My Valentine

I was SO excited to get this Valentine from Carter today at school. He NEVER makes me stuff. When we were at Edwards, all the kids would run to their parents after class and show them the bazillion things they had made in the short 2.5 hours.
I would ask Carter, "Did you make me something?"
Carter would always reply, "No."

So imagine my surprise when he walked to the car carrying this giant Valentine that took up A WHOLE PIECE of construction paper!
I told him I loved it and put it in the front seat next to me after I strapped him in.

On our way home we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some of Clay's medicines and I asked him about all the parts of the picture. I added the colored circles in paint (because that's the only computer editing tool I know how to use) for reader clarification. Here's our conversation:

"Carter! Tell me about your Valentine you made for me! What are all of these things on here?"

"Well, I know you like hearts, so I made you a lot of hearts on it."

"Oh yeah?! Thank you!"

"And this (pointing to the black circle) is the baby Snowman. And this (pointing to the purple circle) is Rudolph, but he's stuck in a hole. And these here are the puddles. The big red heart is a cloud and it rained and then made these Valentine puddles."

"What! I didn't know there were Valentine Puddles!?"

"Yeah, and then this (pointing to the red circle) is the little snowman, and this (pointing to the blue circle) is just some grits."

"Some grits!? Why did you put grits on a Valentine's Day card?"

"Well, I was going to make it into a big snowman but I couldn't so it's just some grits now."

"Oh, ok.."



Happy Valentine's Day.

**For you northerners, these are grits. 

How Visible

Is my daughter's unibrow?

I'm going to need a tally over there to the right.

Vivian 6 months

Dear Vivi,

Today you're 6 months old. I promised you 3 months ago that I would try to be better about writing your birthday blogs. But, life is so busy, and all I can do is say I'll try harder in this next six months.

When we moved from Edwards, you were the most upset of all the kids. You apparently took it very personally and decided the only remedy was to attach yourself to me 24 hours a day. You were a miserable, miserable baby while we were in TX. You cried, and screamed and very rarely slept. However, the day we brought daddy home from the hospital (because of his appendectomy), the nurses on the med/surg floor were all crowding around to see you and ooh and aah over you. One of them even took you on a round-a-bout to show you off.

Even if you don't have good sleeping on your side, you are awfully cute and I very much enjoy the compliments you get on a daily basis. Although, sometimes I feel weird and don't know what to say when people say how cute and bald you are. Is it appropriate to say "Thank you"? does the same apply when they say you're so cute AND bald? What's right response to that one?

You're still very very bald, and there is no sign of hair growth in sight. Sometimes right after you've had a bath I get excited because I think your hair is growing, but really it is just a little 'fluffier' for a day.
You had your second cold already, and this one was quite miserable for you. It lingered forever, and there's nothing worse than a baby with a cold. You were so angry that you couldn't nurse (because then you couldn't breathe) and your voice was hoarse, and you had snot running out of every orifice in your head. It was really becoming, let me tell you.

You have finally settled here at our new home in Florida and are usually quite pleasant to take on errands now that you can ride on my back in my Beco. You fall asleep or chew on the straps and then people ooh and aah over how cute of a backpack I have.

You're a master roller-over, love to grab things and put them directly into your mouth, and do a HILARIOUS thing with your tongue that I have YET to catch on film. You have a strangely long tongue and you love for it to be out of your mouth and I'm pretty sure you could lick your eyeball if you tried.
You've grown very tall but have refused to gain any weight since your 2 month doctor appointment, so we started you on cereal last week. Two days ago, you finally figured out how to latch onto the spoon and suck the cereal off of it. I'm going to count that as success.

You don't laugh very easily and are very offended by other people holding you these days. You try to be very high maintenance, but I'm afraid there's just not room for a 3rd child to be high maintenance.
We decided a few weeks ago that some tough love was in order. You are a TERRIBLE sleeper (remember how you just slept through the night on accident and then you had us all fooled that you would just be a great sleeper from then on out?) You were a BIG FAT LIAR and only did that for 3 weeks and then turned into the worst sleeper on the planet. So, in order for mommy and daddy to be a good mommy and daddy to you, we started letting you cry for awhile at night and about 2 weeks later you usually sleep through the night. I am actually shocked you are not sleeping through the night 100% of the time by now. But like I said, I think you think you're going to be high maintenance.

However, you are the most beautifully bald girl that has ever been, you are LOVELY and snuggly and a mamas girl (for now). You still love to 'snurse' early in the morning before your brothers wake up and you love to eat the tags on any toy or blanket. You love when I let you suck on the bottom of the glass that I'm drinking from. I imagine you like the cold on your mouth.
You're 25.5 inches and 12 pounds of wonderful.


Love,

Mama

Vivian and Oatmeal

Vivi's had a pretty big drop on the growth chart recently so we've decided to start her on solids. She doesn't take a bottle and this is about the only way to get her more calories. So, here goes nothing.

Note: We're not getting far with this. Even after 4 days, we're not seeing any improvement on the food-in-mouth-then-swallow curve.

The Young and the Restless

I've been trying to come up with some spectacular story, something interesting, funny, profound. But then I just sit and look at the same post that I wrote over a week ago.
Nothing exciting or profound has happened. Cory is gone for training for an unspecified about of time, and in the mean time I sit here and make crafts with an unprecedented amount of glue and sequins, watch Toy Story 3, and shuttle everyone to school, doctor appointments, and other mundane errands.

I have also been singing this song in my head that Carter come home from school singing. But what bothers me is that the words don't fit, but I still sing it anyway,and then it drives me crazy, but I get it stuck in my head again. Carter probably just doesn't have all the words quite right, but I can't seem to make them fit any better. Here, have a stab at it:

It's to the tune of jingle bells:

Ring ring ring, ring, ring, ring,
Groundhog it's your day
Come outside and if you see your dark shadow
winter will be far away, Hey!



Also: I am EXTREMELY disappointed in my Mom Survival Kit contest. Boo on you friends. Y'all can all be jealous of my dad's boiled peanuts and cheap beach store trinkets he will be receiving in the mail. SO THERE.

While you're waiting for something exciting to happen over here: