30/30

My 30-day photo-a-day is going out with a bang.

More pictures of the bean’s birthday bash to come…..!

28/30

Lord, have mercy on my child, and on my poor neighbors, who had to see him, um, take care of business in the front yard today.

29/30

Breakfast of champions, to fuel up for a big day of party shopping.

26/30: cheating, sorta

I didn’t take a single picture today, but….I did pay (way too much) money to have someone ELSE take some pictures today:

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25/30

Not quite sure how it’s possible, but we are in full swing party-planning mode around here these days…

24/30: Easter 2011

My boy:

My girl:

I loved seeing the open some special Easter treats from Nonna and Papa.  (Mom, the recorded book was a huge hit!)

And because He lives, and conquered the grave forever, I know that someday, Easter morning with be spent with this sweet boy, too:

23/30: Fulin’s fun

We were invited to join the birthday celebration of one of our friend’s at a local Asian restaurant.  Initially, I was excited only about the company, and not so much the cuisine.

But!  The food turned out to be great, and was up to par with the exceptional company. Check it out!

Have y’all met Erin’s fiance-t0-be?  (Shh, Sara, don’t tell Zeke!)  His name is Xander, and he is in love with our little miss, and a sweeter boy can’t be found.  I love this kid!

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And he, as I said, loves Erin:

Thank you, Kevin, for being born.  For growing up, and having Meredith, so she could marry Tommy and they could make Xander, and give me sweet dreams about my baby girl’s future….

22/30

Be thankful that I took a picture of only Part I of Seth’s little I’m-mad-at-mommy-for-reasons-unbeknownst-to-her tirade, and not Part II.

 
Part I was my broken china salt shaker. =(

Part II was poop, and lots of it, smeared all over the fireplace hearth and then walked through, from the living room into the half-bath.

It was a loooooong Friday at our house today.

And if anyone is feeling generous….our china pattern is Lenox Federal Platinum.

21/30: Organic teethers

I wish I could have taken a before and after, because, man, did she put a hurtin’ on this apple.  I was concerned at first; it’s not like I intended her to eat it.  It was actually a snack for Seth, but he, tiring of it, set it down on the coffee table, and she, being resourceful, swiped it for herself.

20/30: Make do

TV trays need not apply.

19/30: Erin, meet Chuck

   

Ugh.  Kicking myself big time for not having the camera settings on right for this one.  Erin is in LOVE with Seth’s Chuck the Dump Truck.  She chased it around the kitchen floor for almost on hour this morning, and the grin you see in the second picture?  Doesn’t do it justice.

Yea for brother’s toys!!!

18/30

Y’all, Monday, April 18?

It was a bad day.

Migraine.  Whining. Yelling.  Lots of tears.  Not enough sleep.  Pounds on the scale that we not there on Sunday.  Homesickness.  Loneliness.  Mango and sweet potato mush cramming into crevices on the highchair that I didn’t know existed.

Needless to say, no picture.

17/30: Greema and Grandpa

When Seth was a baby/young toddler, we couldn’t get him to refer to Jim’s mom as anything.  Not Grandma, not Nana, not Memaw, not any moniker you can imagine for grandmother.

But for about the last 9-12 months, the way he says “grandma,” in his Ohio-meets-Tennessee accent, comes out as gree-maw.  And we’ve waited and waited for it to change, because it just sounds so backwoods and hick-ish, but…..

Greema it is.

And he loves her like no one else.

Normally, we wouldn’t encourage pouting under any circumstances, but it was just so hard to scold him for his sourpuss face after church, when it was so clearly due to John and Linda’s departure.

 
Not too much longer, and we’ll be together again.  We love you guys, and we’ll see you in a month!

16/30

My wonderful inlaw’s came to town for the weekend to celebrate Jim’s birthday with us.  The weather didn’t cooperate on Saturday, but we ventured to downtown anyway to check out the farmer’s market, and have lunch at the Wildhorse Saloon.

There were a couple senior trip groups at the Wildhorse, which made for an interesting lunch, but the food was good and they even had a father/daughter dance that we suckered encouraged Jim into participating in.

 
We had a quiet evening at home, and introduced John and Linda to Phase 10.  Jim and I don’t get the opportunity to play games often, and I love them, so it was a fun way to spend the night with my favorite people.

Of course, the weather is going to turn beautiful on Sunday, just in time to send them back to Ohio. =(  But we enjoyed our time together, even though it was way too short!

15/30

Erin has discovered her voice, not so much in terms of speaking, but in the mere sound of it.  Lately, we have been finding her with her head in any given acoustic environment: a bucket, a basket, a bowl (be in plastic or toilet – I know, ew!), pretty much anything that can cause her little voice to echo and expand.  She loves it!

14/30

The most gorgeous day of the month so far, and he wants to do is camp in the living room:

13/30

A day late, and a jpeg short.

No photo for Wednesday.

Just me, feeling all sorts of hormonal.

Can I just tell you?  There was one huge, honkin’ benefit to being pregnant and/or nursing for 4ish years.  And that benefit is long gone.  And I miss it.  And if you can’t read between the lines here, tough.  I’m not spelling it out.  (But it rhymes with PMS.  Okay, it pretty much is PMS.)

Anyway, I’m irritable, sad, and bloated.  Just a barrel o’ fun, am I.

So….I’m going to go take a gratuitous 14/30 photo, and then waste away the hours until I can hand off my little ones for a much needed (but somehow not anticipated?  What is WRONG with me!?) girls’ night out.

Sigh.

12/30: finally

I swear, I wasn’t sure it was ever going to catch up with the rest of the trees on our street.

Seriously, I had to pull off the last of the dead fall leave myself, just last weekend.

I was so happy to see the first shoots of green appear. =)

11/30: playtime with Daddy

This is why I love it when Jim can get home at a decent hour.  We can make and eat dinner together, and still have time for play before rushing the kiddos off to bath and bed before they’ve even had a chance to interact with their daddy.

(And so that I’m not taken the wrong way….Jim tries very hard to balance his workload and his family time.  His commute and the rush hour traffic is the real culprit…)

10/30: The King’s Helicopter

128 potty-chart stickers later…..
 
While I’m not impressed with the construction of the toy, it is the only thing Seth has wanted for the last, um, 6+ months, so we spared no degree of fanfare in putting on the last sticker for his potty training chart, and watching his joy overflow as he found the (Disney Cars character) the Dinoco helicopter in our mailbox today.

Overall it was kind of a miserable day.  Temps were in the low 90s, and our downstairs air unit is not keeping up with the heat very well; my allergies are rearing their ugly heads; and both Seth and Erin seemed to want only mommy-attention today.  My day of rest, well, wasn’t.

But that picture of Seth, and the hundred pleas of “Momma, will you play cars and helicopters with me?” that followed make up for it.

9/30: Haiti’s Hope Festival

Our church hosted a wonderful 5k run and festival this weekend, and it was a blast!  Even the thunderstorms that were predicted stayed away (though the thermostat climbed steadily to the upper 80s!).

Hydration, of course, was vital (along with flexibility, apparently!):

   
Jim and our neighbor Stephen entered the corn hole tournament:

and ended up taking first place (and the $100 prize!):

 
Seth was just glad there was popcorn!
  
The heat wore Seth out enough that he was able to stand still for Miss Amy to paint a John Deere on his cheek:

We took a break from the festivities for lunch at Firehouse Subs (a first for me).  Eh.  I’d rather have something from Jersey Mike’s or Which Wich, but Erin seemed to love the dalmation tabletop and firehat!

More time in the bounce houses, and cheering on our buddy Charlie at his baseball game rounded out the day.

The little ones are fast asleep, worn out by a full day in the sun; and Jim is down the street, defending his corn hole title with Stephen.  I’m off to fix an ice cream cone, and wait for the washer cycle to finish.  (Oh, yes, indeed, I am living it up this Saturday night!)

I hope you all have had as wonderful and enjoyable a weekend as we have!

8/30

Friday’s Q & A Session:

Yes, I did give my baby a strawberry toaster pastry for breakfast.

No, I won’t be doing that again.  Digging jelly out of her eye creases was no fun for either of us.

Yes, I did have the cutest kids at today’s MDO luau.

No, you can’t have them.

They’re all mine. =)

7/30

Today was going to be a quick, easy photo post:

(This was Seth’s breakfast.)

But then Erin went down for her nap, and Seth and I went outside to water the newly planted rosebushes, and an adventure was just waiting to be had…..

       

And all I have to say about this series of photos is this:

• I love our backyard, and I am wholly convinced now that I do NOT want to ever fence it in;
• you can’t keep a boy from the things he loves, be it splashing in muddy water, or snuggling with the sewer cat;
• and even the dandelion weed looks beautiful in the bright sunshine of the perfect spring day.