Just Another Sunday

My pediatrician told me that with all of the viruses going around this year I should not take Autumn anywhere that she'll come in contact with crowds until APRIL! I was shocked. I said "really? nowhere? not even places like church?" She said "especially church. It's a germ-fest" I would be lying if I said I haven't thoroughly enjoyed it. I have had almost four months of getting up to get the boys ready, sending them out the door, and then having a long nap and leisurely shower while they're gone. Plus I love how on Sundays the boys both look so cute.

Calvin reading a book.

For ages three and under at church there's a class called "nursery" where the kids go and eat snacks, play games, and have a short lesson. He absolutely loves it. He begs to go to church. He comes home all chatty and tells me about the toys and the "friends."

Sunday naps are my very favorite time of the week. They have been my whole life. There's something really wonderful about knowing there's nothing else going on and you can just sleep guilt-free for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

I love this picture because Autumn adores her daddy. I know some babies just want their moms, but Autumn is equally content with Andy. She watches everything he does and whenever he looks at her or talks to her, her face just lights up. I hope she's not a daddy's girl though. It already bugs me that Calvin likes Andy so much. I can't lose both of them to his charms.

The place you'll find Calvin 60% of his waking hours. I dragged the rocker from the nursery into my room so that I could have easy access to it for the baby, but Calvin has commandeered the chair. Any time I sit in it, he'll push on me to get out. I started telling him to say please, so now when I'm there he'll come up and keep saying "say please!" until I move. He can routinely be found covered with his blue blanket, sipping a chocolate milk, and watching one of his shows. In this chair he feels like a king.

A Night on the Beach

Tonight the boy pulled out all of the beach towels and curtains from the linen closet, spread them out, and declared it a beach. I helped him arrange them more nicely, stretching from my bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen and then he ran back and forth across the towels screeching for over an hour.

And then he ran around the house hiding from me and slamming doors.

And then he jumped on the ottoman like it was a trampoline.

And then he ran back and forth slamming into the walls of the hallway yelling "hicko!" as he hit one wall and "tunnel!" as he hit the other. He calls the hallway "the tunnel" (carpet is "grass"). No idea what hicko is, but he thought it was so much fun. I swear he'll have bruises all over his shoulders tomorrow.

Tonight he was super hyper and I was so happy to put him in bed. I love that his imagination is running wild these days - even if it does involve a lot of messes.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Yesterday Andy left town while the boy was down for a nap. When Calvin woke up he kept asking for his daddy. I showed him that his car was gone and tried to explain that he'd be back soon. He said "daddy at computer!" so we'd go look in his office, but no one was there. He then said "daddy downstairs!" so we looked in every room downstairs. This went on and on until we'd looked through the entire house, garage, and yard. Then when he finally believed me that his daddy was gone, he doubled over and sobbed. The afternoon didn't get any better. When Andy called last night I had Calvin talk to him for a few minutes, but when he hung up Calvin was again devastated. It was time for bed by that point, so I held a kicking screaming boy as we headed for the bathroom to brush his teeth. As tears were streaming down his face I started to feel sorry for myself. Both kids were temperamental yesterday, and I was tired and sad myself. I thought how I wished I had the luxury of throwing a temper tantrum every time Andy left home, and I got a little teary eyed. Calvin noticed my mood and, still in his fit of passion, started slapping my face with his little hands screaming "Mommy be happy! Mommy please be happy!...." and on and on until he cried himself to sleep. It was devastating that he was so sad. I went to bed totally depressed.

Today started out rough as well, but then we decided to get out of the house. Calvin had been asking all morning for a cheeseburger so I loaded the kids up, went to McDonald's and then we drove around for an hour while we ate our healthy lunch. We ended up out in farm country and Calvin loved pointing out all of the cows, horses, and sheep. He kept asking for pigs, but we never did see any of those. When we got home we all took a long nap and then I just played with the kids. I got no housework done, but Autumn laughed for the first time and Calvin chatted incessantly and seemed much happier than yesterday. Right before bed he wanted to put together a puzzle that we had borrowed from Grandma, so we sat on the floor and put it together. As I fit one of the pieces in, he patted my head and said "good boy!" then he stopped scrambling around long enough to really look at my face for several seconds. Then he put his arms around my neck in a tight squeeze and said "I love you so much, Mommy." It was the first time he has ever said the three magic words and it completely melted my heart. A little reminder that there's nothing in the world I'd rather be doing with my life.

Sibling Shots part 2

The other day I was trying to take some pictures for a grandparent Valentine's card (Grandparents: yes, I know you haven't actually seen the card yet. Please don't take it personally, I'm behind on everything in life). It was reminiscent of my first attempt at getting a picture of the kids together. Here they are in order. I don't think they need any explanation except that I love how oblivious Autumn is to Calvin's obvious frustration.

Paint Huffer

Pretty much everyone has seen this picture floating around the web of a mugshot taken right after this man was getting high sniffing spray paint.

What is sad is when this picture is the first thing your husband thinks of when he sees his baby daughter:
At her two month appointment the doctor said that Autumn had a bad case of thrush. She seemed appalled that I hadn't noticed the white fuzz growing on my baby's cheeks and tongue. I just thought it was milk residue. She had us start a regimen of gentian violet which stains everything, including cute little baby cheeks. For three days she looked like a sad little mime, but we're happy to report that the evil purple stuff did the trick.

A New Mattress

For quite a while we've been planning to get a bigger mattress since our room tends to be our gathering place and we spend so much time with the whole family piled on the bed. Also in the mornings when Calvin joins us and Autumn is already asleep between us, it gets a bit tight. My dad helped us haul it in, and Calvin loved jumping on it to break it in.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we decided to actually celebrate since we didn't do anything last year. On Saturday night we ended up going to Thanksgiving Point's annual V-day dinner dance. It was in the Show Barn where everything was covered in flowers and balloons, complete with a fancy dinner, candy bar, a live band, and dancing.

We decided that if we do it again it would be more fun with some friends instead of having dinner with 3 other couples we didn't know. We were with an age 50+ crowd at our table. Two of the men talked the entire time, completely ignoring their wives. I tried to chit chat with one of the wives, but ultimately ditched her since I was there to spend time with Andy. After dinner we went to the dance floor to bust a move. The first half hour or so was pretty fun - the highlight being a Michael Jackson impersonator doing a fun and funky version of Billie Jean. He was hilarious as he danced his way through about every woman in the crowd.
After that the band continued to play a bunch of Earth , Wind, and Fire type songs that were too fast to dance slow and too slow to dance fast. We used up all of our good moves, and then decided we were done. Overall it was pretty fun but I think we'll try something different next year. As you can see in the photo above, Andy gave me roses and a beautiful pearl necklace. I'm not really a pearl kind of gal, but it's very pretty and classy without being the least bit Barbara Bush-ish. I gave him a couples massage appointment for next week and Brian Regan tickets. We had a wonderful day and I felt so lucky to spend it with my best friend and the love of my life.

For the PA grandparents we tried to make a fun card with hand prints. Calvin loved it and ended up painting about 10 pieces of paper. Autumn didn't want to cooperate, so her hearts ended up being prints of the sides of her fists balled up, but I still think it's cute. Hopefully our crafts will get better as the kids get older.

For the local family and my BFF Robyn we made cupcakes. Calvin loved the ladybugs and ate the tops off of 3 of them before discovering that the pink ones actually tasted better and ate several of those. At least he enjoyed the process.

Las Vegas (Feb 10-11)

This week Andy attended a conference in Vegas and gave a presentation that is really significant in his career. We decided that since I couldn't be there for moral support, I'd come afterwards for a night to play. We stayed in the Mandalay Bay hotel which was gorgeous and made me wish I were staying longer. After a quick flight and a taxi ride, I met him at the hotel and we went straight for dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant. We lingered over a long quiet meal and then wandered around the casinos for an hour eating gelato and watching all of the bizarro people that seem to gather there. After returning to the room and getting ready, we then went to see the show playing at the hotel. The Lion King.


Here's our official review:

• The costumes and sets were amazing.
• The young Simba's voice was so nasally and he pronounced everything so slowly and drawn out that it was beyond painful listening to him talk. It was a relief when the oiled up older version took his place.
  
• For some reason the hyenas did a gratuitous half-naked muscle man dance to spice things up. Brilliant idea.
• We have seen the animated version of the show about 10,000 times. Since the script is almost exactly the same, but theater is always different, the pace seemed really off. We had a hard time really getting into it.
• James Earl Jones is by far the best Mufasa voice. Everyone else just seems like a weenie.
  

Overall, it wasn't my favorite play ever, but it was enjoyable and the magic of the costumes made it all worthwhile. Andy and I both agreed that as much as Calvin loves the cartoon, we can't wait until he's old enough to take him to see the live version. He will be mystified.

After the show we went back to our room and sat in the ginormous tub sipping soda from wine glasses and watching The Fugitive on the flat screen tv hanging on the bathroom wall. A life we could get used to.

It was sad to wake up at 6 the next morning in order to catch our plane. We always want to get back to the kids quickly so we book the first flight out. Next time we need to remember that we always regret it. We spend the evening wishing for more time and saying "the kids would have been fine for just a few more hours...."

Two Peas in a Pod

Some sibling bonding.

I just realized that these sheets are on our bed in all of my pictures. I promise I take them off and wash them frequently, but they're just the coziest sheets, so I put them right back on the bed. When you see any pictures without them, you'll know it's finally warming up around here.

Fat and Grumpy...

Her dad says she's getting fat and grumpy. I totally disagree. I think she gets cuter every single day and she has the sweetest personality. 90% of the time she's an absolute doll. The other 10% she's just hungry, tired, or wants to be held. I adore her 100%.

Push Over

Right now since the boy is two, I think it's cute that his dad does whatever he's told. When he's a teenager, maybe not so much.

A Conversation

(adorable outfit compliments of my good friend Monica in Virginia)

At church this week...

Bishop: How are Emma and the baby doing?
Andy: Good, except that she's getting fat and grumpy.
Bishop: (with a gasp and a shocked look on his face) you didn't tell HER that did you?
Andy: I'm talking about the baby, not my wife
Bishop: (with an audible sigh of relief) Oh thank goodness!

2 Month Check-up

Dear Autumn,

It's hard to believe that you are already two months old. At your wellness check today the doctor confirmed what we suspected - that you are perfect. You are physically and developmentally right on track. At one point the doctor gasped and scared me a little but then went on and on about how amazing it was that you were staring at your fists and holding your head up at your age. She said it was very rare that such a young baby could focus on her fists and track them back and forth. Your stats are:

Weight: 10.74 lbs (49th percentile)
Height: 22.7 in (65th percentile)
Head: 15 in (34th percentile)

You are a sweet baby, Autumn. You love to smile and interact. You coo like a little dove and it's fun to have "conversations" with you as you respond to us talking to you. You are constantly trying to sit up, working your little ab muscles as hard as you can. You are constantly in motion and already at 6 weeks you fell, inching your way off of the couch. I'm sorry that I left you there, but you're just tiny and not supposed to be able to move yet. You also have very long feet and it's nearly impossible to find shoes and socks that fit you because if they're narrow enough they're too short, but if they're long enough for your feet they're just too loose.

When I feed you or lay down beside you, you will grab my arm or finger as firmly as you can. You love to make sure I am close enough to touch and if I'm not, you'll occasionally open one of your eyes just wide enough to peek and make sure I'm still there. You have the sweetest little spirit about you and the most beautiful and expressive big blue eyes. You have a ton of hair, but because it's dark and thick in the back and really fine and fair on top, you look like a balding accountant. You're the most darling little girl I've ever seen and we couldn't adore you more.

Love,

Mama