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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Girlie Thursdays: So Sweet

Julia calls her baby dolls "Dee-dees". She loves to rock them, hold them, feed them her milk and her food, and only occasionally tell them, "No, no, NO Dee-dee!" She usually holds them sweetly and says "My Dee-dee."

So, imagine my delight the other day when Julia, sitting in my lap, looked up at me and said, "Ju-ju Mama's Dee-dee."

Why yes, sweet girl. You will always be my baby.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

Apparently I need to step it up in terms of my wardrobe. Admittedly, I often wear work-out clothes because A) I work from home and B) I actually work out at lunch at least a couple of days a week. The other day, I happened to be wearing "real" clothes--nothing fancy, just capris and a sleeveless shirt--but it wasn't work out gear. When Will saw me, he immediately looked concerned and surprised.

"Mama, why are you wearing those clothes?"
"What's wrong with these clothes, Will?"
"Nothing, but are you going somewhere? You look like you're going to a meeting." (A "meeting" is what we call any sort of going out--we learned early on that if we told Will we were going to a party or out to dinner, then he would want to come.)

So it seems that me in anything other than work-out clothes confuses Will. I guess I'm not setting very high standards!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Girlie Thursdays

Excuse me, but did Julia turn into a teenager when I wasn't looking? This is what she wore to the pool this weekend. Please note the boots and the attitude.


Where did she get this move?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

The other night I took Will to Yogurt Mountain as a special after dinner treat. As usual, he came up with the most disgusting combo you could think of: watermelon sorbet, raspberry yogurt, birthday cake yogurt, and  peanut butter yogurt all topped with Lucky Charms, gummy bears, sprinkles, and chocolate sauce. Dis-gust-ing. (I am not making this up. This is the exact combo that he ate.) Of course, he LOVED it. At one point, I looked into his bowl, and my face must have said it all:
"Oh Will, that looks..." (I trailed off, at a loss for words)
"Looks kind of yucky?"
"Well, yes. It does look kind of yucky."
"No it doesn't, Mama...it looks like a birthday party!"

I just had to laugh, because it did look like a birthday party. Or rather, the aftermath of a birthday party where fifteen toddlers had run through a house, leaving decorations, food, and wrapping paper in their wake. It did look exactly like that kind of birthday party.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Tales from a Plane

We're all antsy to get off of the plane, but apparently Julia was more antsy than most.
"Julia, as soon as these people walk up the aisle, it will be our turn to go."
Julia decides to take matters in her own hands...literally. She put both hands up on the man's butt that was right in front of her, pushed, and yelled "GOOOOOO!" He never even turned around.

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Will and Zach are sitting together, and Will does not stop talking the entire time. He's asking question after question. Making up story after story. Sharing his ideas, plans, schemes, and every little thought that comes in his head. As they get off the plane, the woman behind him notes (hopefully nicely), "Your son has quite the imagination!" Why yes he does.

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Julia and I are sitting together in the first row of the plane. She is all over the place. She doesn't fuss too much, but just won't sit still, doesn't want to be buckled in her seat, doesn't want me to hold her. What she apparently wants is to walk around the plane and make new friends. It seems that the flight crew frowns on this. At one point, the flight attendant even offers me her iPhone that has some Sesame Street videos downloaded on it, in the hopes that this will keep Julia occupied. It doesn't. I try books, snacks, play-doh, coloring, more snacks, suckers...nothing matter. She just doesn't want to sit still. I spend the whole flight picking her up and putting her back in her seat.

Once we land, we're waiting in our row for Zach and Will to come up from the back of the plane. I'm still trying to corral Julia, trying to keep her in her seat (or near it) while I gather up all of our stuff. Trying to avoid her leaving the plane with a different family, which seems to be her new plan.

As a woman exits the plane, she pats me on the shoulder and says (very nicely and with a gleam in her eye), "I'll pray for you honey!" I thank her because I need every prayer I can get. (Side note: Only in the deep South do people say this, especially to people they don't know!)

Sharing snacks in the airport


Looking out the window as we land
(No, Julia is not bigger than Will--it's just the angle)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Reuniting

As I mentioned, we just returned from a trip to Charlottesville where we attended our ten-year college reunion. I love that Zach and I both went to UVA because we both love it and love to visit, we have lots of common friends from college, and our memories of that time include each other. So, we were both excited about reuniting with lots of old friends, although, particularly in Zach's case, some of the people he really wanted to see weren't able to make it. He joked that the only one who came from his pledge class was Peter...who he sits next to every day at work.

Since Carol and Bill live in Charlottesville, we had the perfect place to stay and the perfect babysitters. However, all weekend I still felt like I was pulled in so many directions. While many of our college friends have kids, very few brought them to the reunion. And, since our kids are still young, they weren't really able to participate in many reunion activities, which mean they stayed home with the grandparents a lot of the time. Which is great, except that it made me feel guilty--that's a lot for Carol to handle, and I felt bad not spending more time with the kids. (Bill can't help for reasons that are too long to get into here.) We had lots of fun catching up with our friends, but then had to get up at the crack of dawn each morning to deal with the kids. As my mom says, you can't hoot with the owls if you're going to soar with the eagles. Or some such thing. Basically, it sucks to get up really damn early when you've been out the night before pretending like you're still in college. (To give credit where credit is due, Zach got up most mornings with our early bird, Julia. Several days he took her out to Bodo's, my favorite bagel place, and then brought stuff back for everyone. Wonderful husband!)

So while the visit was good, it just wasn't the carefree time that I was hoping for. Traveling was difficult. The cat peed in my suitcase on our second night there. A heat wave made it hotter in Virginia than it was in Alabama. Julia screamed bloody murder any time I had to leave her...it even got to the point that she would lose it if I tried to leave the room to go to the bathroom. I'm glad we went--not only for the reunion, but also just because we need to get to Charlottesville more often. While it's challenging to do so, I want Will and Julia to visit their grandparents.

Enough complaining. Here are some pictures from when we took the kids to play on the Lawn. They seemed to enjoy that except for when they got in a screaming match (like nothing I've ever heard them do) right in front of a huge tour group. Zach and I just started laughing hysterically because we didn't know what else to do. I guess that kind of sums up our trip...sometimes you just have to laugh and be thankful that you're all together.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms: Charlottesville

We were in Charlottesville this past weekend for our ten-year college reunion (a whole other post is needed for that), and apparently all of the traveling wore Will out. We left on Wednesday and came back on Monday, so it was a pretty long time for us to be gone...especially in the mind of a three-year-old. Around Sunday, Will looked at me and told me, "Whew, I just can't hold my breath in Charlottesville." I was a bit confused by this and said, "You mean catch your breath?" Will replied, "Yeah, I just can't catch my breath!" I can see where playing all day and being spoiled by grandparents would do that to a boy.

Later, Will asked me when we were going home. I told him, and asked why he wanted to know.
"Because I don't even remember what our house looks like, Mama!"

Oh, the trials of being on a vacation when you are three!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wednesday Will-isms

This weekend, Julia was trying to get in the chair that Will was already sitting in. He looked at her, held up one finger, and in his most serious voice, says, "Don't start, Julia. Just don't start."

At least I know he hears me some of the time!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lake, Part 2

As I noted in my last lake post, the weather over Memorial Day wasn't stellar. So, we had to find other activities to occupy our time. Maybe it's because the kids are more relaxed at the lake (or the parents are!), or maybe everything is easier when you're sitting on a screened porch overlooking the water, but they seem to be a bit more laid back when we're at the lake; every little thing doesn't turn into an argument, time out is employed less frequently, and there are more shrieks of joy and fewer temper tantrums. So, here are a few more pictures of our "indoor" activities:



Julia in her "muscles" aka the best toddler water product ever made (by Puddle Jumpers, in case you care)