There's no whining in street hockey....

Happy Sunday! First a little housekeeping. I forgot to mention a few things in the last post that added some sunshine to our lives.

1.Auntie Cait (Tom's sister), graduated from her basic military training program on Friday April 6th. We are very, very proud of her. We got the opportunity to have a Skype date with her (the first time since she left in February), Gramma, Poppa and Dan (they all travelled to TX to attend the graduation) on Friday afternoon. She looks great and it was so nice to see her face and hear her voice. I have tried to be good about sending something in the mail-a card, a letter, a picture made by the boys, each week to keep her spirits up.  She has since left Lacklund Airforce Base and is now at Fort Sam in Houston for her medic training.  For this part she is allowed her cell phone and computer so we have been able to send some texts back and forth and I even sent her a video of Will walking! Again, we are so proud of all that she has accomplished so far and look forward to hearing more about her adventures in Texas!

2. Our good friends welcomed their second baby, Kayla Anne on April 7th. She weighed in at 9lbs, 10oz! Congratulations to Camilla, Jason and big brother Tyler. We can't wait to meet her!

3. Lastly, in the days leading up to Easter, we found 4 baby bunnies and a mother bunny in a nest by the side of our house. Jack and Bella (our neighbor), checked on them each morning and brought them carrots to eat. Jack was convinced that this was in fact THE EASTER BUNNY and her babies.  Mother Bunny took her babies into a safer  cozier home in the bushes at the back edge of our yard, leaving the carrots untouched. We have seen Mother Bunny a few times, eating from the numerous patches of clover spread through our yard, but no baby bunny sightings again.


Jack has found a new little passion. Over the past week, the older boys (ages 7-10) that live next door, have been coming out in the afternoon and playing a little street hockey. Jack was immediately drawn to them. He ran to the sandbox and retrieved a Boston Bruins floor hockey stick and joined right in. Although the stick was a little short for him, he wanted to be a part of the game. The older boys welcomed him into their game (none of them have ever played ice hockey), passed the puck to him and cheered for him when he would score. It was very sweet to watch. At Jack's first birthday, he received a floor hockey set from his Uncle Brendan. The net has been hanging in our garage and as I took it down, all the boys excitement grew. They pushed the cones away that had been the previous 'goal' and set up the 'real' net. Tom and I decided that we should find him his own street hockey stick, so that he didn't have to play hunched over at the waist. Although it was hard to find, I finally came across a street hockey set with an adjustable stick and a net. It is the perfect size for Jack. The boys were now even more excited to have 2 nets to play with. They could now set up a 'real' game. Even though they might just be using Jack for his equipment, they do take the time to include him too, so I think it is win-win. My brothers will be so proud!

This past week wasn't all fun. In fact, there were moments that I thought I would lose my mind. I love our boys dearly. I love being home with them all day. But they found my buttons and they pushed and pushed. This is the recap-

There was a fall with a scrapped knee (you would have thought the leg could not be saved) that resulted in a long, drawn out chorus of whining and crying. There was a lot of whining. There was a lot of mischief. Dumping out ALL the toys in the playroom while staring me down, laughing and saying "Look at this big mess I am making." The cabinets were emptied of all their belongings-tupperware, sippy cups and parts, plates, bowls, water bottles, the list goes on an on. The floor got peed on twice. A pair of undies, in a show of excitement, were sent soaring through the air and landed with a plunk into a toilet full of pee. This was brought to my attention as they were plucked from the water and carried dripping through the whole first floor. GROSS. Oh little boys! By Thursday night I had had enough. When Tom came home from work, we ate dinner and I told him-"I need to leave, I need to get out of this house." He chuckled and sent me on my way. I took a few hours to myself at TJ MAXX and recharged my batteries. I listened to music loudly in the car. I enjoyed the silence that comes with shopping alone.  We made it to Friday, to the weekend, to some extra hands to help with the chaos.

I chatted with my neighbor Hope yesterday. She asked me how my week was. I would normally leave it as a friendly, vague chat and say-"oh it was just fine." Something in me told me she might understand what I just went through and I said- "It was rough. I am glad it is over" She shook her head in that knowing way. She wisely told me-"It is just a season and it will pass. Another will be waiting to come in next, but it will pass." She should know. Her house is very full with a 12 year old, 10 year old twins, a 7 year old, a 2 year old and a newborn. Who am I to complain? At first I thought, she is going to think I'm crazy. How can my days be so hard to manage, I ONLY have 2 kids? Again, she gave me some of her wisdom. She told me that at least she has older kids to help her out. I am on my own during the day. She knows that the stage we are in is a tough one. She reminded me that she was there for me if I ever needed to talk. It was a nice feeling.

Onto other things, Will started walking-really walking, EVERYWHERE. This is great and wonderful news for our little boy. Just when I thought he was going to keep on crawling and hold out on us he started walking. One morning as I got breakfast ready, I saw him let go of the couch and move on to the chair. As the day went on, he went further and further alone. Now he is choosing walking as his primary mode of transportation. I am amazed. Where did my little baby go? He toddles around, stops, picks up a toy and moves on. He walked into the playroom the other day, saw a goldfish cracker, stopped, squatted, picked it up, stood and took a few steps to another and another. All the while keeping his balance! Yay to Will. Unfortunately he has acquired my clumsy gene and the bruises on his head and body are increasing day by day. The forehead is a mess. Just as one heals and turns yello, another is born. He fell INTO the tupperware cabinet last night and bruised his leg. He took a digger into the bottom of a wooden chair and secured a nice egg on his forehead. He has a bruise on his cheek from the window sill. Poor little guy. I remember Jack being the same way.

So another week begins. As I said, I am happy to leave last week behind. I hope to hear less whining and have more fun this week. I am starting my job search so fingers crossed that something comes my way that will be great. 

Lastly, here are the pictures of some of my sewing projects that I promised.

Will's Birthday Outfit

Minnie Dress

With matching diaper cover

I actually made 2 because I loved it so much. 

Curious George Pillowcase

My bucket is full

Back when we were moving, I spent a whole day sitting around our condo while the packers packed up all of our stuff. It was awkward and weird. I couldn't do anything to help and I didn't really want to hover over them all day while they packed our stuff, but at the same time, I didn't think I should just leave them alone. Like I said, awkward and weird. I happened upon a book on Tom's bedside table; "How Full is Your Bucket?" by Tom Rath. It was given to Tom at work. I read it cover to cover (it is very short, sweet and to the point) while I sat with the packers. Tom and I still make reference to it in our day to day conversation. The premise of the book centers around everyone having a 'bucket' and every interaction we have with another person is an opportunity for us to dip or fill that bucket. The book talks about how being more conscious of whether you are "dipping or filling a bucket" helps you to lead a more positive life. I really like the metaphor the book creates and I do try and "fill buckets" and not "dip" from them to fill my own. Where am I going with all this you are probably wondering?.....

My bucket has been filled. The kind of filling that can only be done by the arrival of a new baby, close friends, uninterrupted long chats, pedicures, cupcakes with too much frosting and a pregnant belly. I had the best weekend. It started on almost 2 weeks ago now on Friday afternoon with the welcoming of a new baby girl into the lives of 2 of our close friends. Welcome to the world Braxton Carolina Beatty! We can't wait to meet you in person. I am sure you are stealing hearts everywhere! Saturday brought Jack's best swim lesson and then I headed out, on my own to  Concord, NC to meet up with 2 of my closest friends.

Since moving down to SC, I have made it a mission to try and make more get togethers with my close girl friends. I know we all still live quite a ways from one an other and we all lead very busy lives, but I need them. I need to see them. I need to chat live and in person with them. It is just so much better than on the phone. A few months ago, the girls that live in NC and I decided to just pick a date and set it up. We chose Concord as an equidistant location for each of us (as best as we could). We kissed our babies good bye, gave the dads all the instructions they would need and met up by 4pm on Saturday. It was a quick trip. We were all home by 12 on Sunday.

It was exactly what I needed. 

I didn't realize until the short and very sweet trip was over how much my bucket needed to be filled by them. Our lives have gotten so crazy since we found out we were moving, since we moved and now since we have started trying to put a life together here in SC. I love being home everyday with Jack and Will. I am trying to cherish every day-crazy or mundane because I know they are coming to an end. I will be returning to work eventually. At the same time, I have come to realize how important time for myself is in order to maintain my sanity and be the best mom that I can for both of our boys. I have been trying to be better about taking time for myself. As I have mentioned in other posts, I am trying to get out a few mornings a week to the Y to workout and let my racing mind have a rest and think-but it is only in 45 minute increments. This weekend was about 3 amazing friends and moms taking the time for themselves to  recharge their batteries and fill up one an other's buckets. We laughed and talked and shared parenting tips and tricks. We got pedicures. We uncovered that pregnant belly from the jacket it was hiding under while waiting at the bar for a table for dinner in order to use it to our advantage and score some prime seats and eat.

 (This involved Camilla shedding her jacket as we stood at the bar. A pair of nice gentlemen that were eating at the bar shared this exchange:
First guy: (while hitting the second guy on the leg) "That girl is pregnant, we have to get up."
Second guy: (Nods, Finishes up his dinner quickly, asks for the check, and pays while standing up) "Here, you can have these 2 seats. It will be a start".
Insert our smiles from ear to ear. :)

Lauren and I held a small little party to shower Camilla and Baby G with some little gifts and a large heaping of frosting topped cupcakes! Delicious. Baby G was dancing and doing back flips after that.

Like everything else with good friends, it went all too fast. We enjoyed a quick, complimentary breakfast at the hotel in the morning and headed on our separate ways. Buckets overflowing.

To the dads for taking on all the kids this weekend, Thank you.
To my two wonderful friends, Lauren and Camilla, thank you for taking time from your busy lives to get together. We need to start planning another get together soon-but with ALL the girls.



"Friendship isn't about who you have known the longest... it is about who came, and never left your side."

So this is a REALLY old picture, but the only one I have of the three of us and it is one of my favorites. 

Have a good weekend!

Swim Lesson Star and The Little Bruiser

Last weekend was Jack's last swim lesson. We skipped the week before due to the thumb injury (he is all healed up and back to his normal activity). I had low expectations for this final lesson. He hadn't made it off the step yet, and now with a skipped week-I hoped to just get him into the pool. We suited up and headed to the pool area. Jack sat cautiously on the step waiting for the lesson to start. He had a new teacher (for the first 10 minutes) and I thought that would throw him for a loop as well. Oh well, I thought, maybe we need to come back in a few months or after the summer and try then. I wasn't trying to be negative, but more realistic about his learning needs and attention span at 3 years old. And then he surprised me, I looked up and he was out in the middle of the pool with the teacher. There was a huge smile plastered on his face! He was making "ice cream scoop" hands and everything. I was so excited...FOR HIM! He even participated in doing the "spider crawl" along the edge of the pool to the deeper water and then jumped off the edge 3 times to Miss Ana!!! It finally clicked! I was so happy and so was he. Miss Ana made a point of coming up to him after class and telling him how proud she was of him for swimming and jumping in. After a quick chat, she encouraged me to sign him up for the next session, reminding me that it sometimes takes young kids a number of weeks just to get acclimated to the surroundings and that it has little to do with them having been comfortable or not in the water in the past. She also said that she really liked Jack and hoped to get to see him in more classes. We headed straight to the main desk after our lesson and secured the last spot in the Saturday morning class. Sorry no pictures (it is too hot in there and the camera gets all steamy).

10 Months old and ready for action!

Will is on the move. He is a crawling maniac, lifting his belly off the floor most of the time and resorting to the army crawl when he sees an opportunity that he needs to 'pounce' on. He pulls himself to standing on everything and anything in his path. He is fully cruising along furniture, windowsills and toys. Amazing what a difference a month makes. With all this increased activity, there has been an increase in injuries as well. We have grown accustom to a reoccurring bruise and egg combination that finds a home on his forehead. I hate to see him all battered, but I also know he needs to explore and figure out his balance for walking. He has walked pushing my kitchen stool, his push walker (both inside and out) and the wagon. At 10 months old he is such a happy baby. He loves following Jack around and even calls for him when he can't see him. ADORABLE! They play "camp out" together in a tent in the play room. Will loves to crawl in and out of the tent "chasing" Jack as Jack squeals and screams. Just the other day, he figured out how to climb stairs and I found him up 2 stairs hanging on with just one hand, looking at me and laughing. I had a minor heart attack as I lunged forward to catch him before he leap from the stair.  He still has just 2 teeth on the bottom, but boy are they sharp! He continues to eat everything in site.  He loves to play peek-a-boo and will cover his ears when you say "Will, go hide". Once you re-position his hands over his eyes, he puts them there on his own too. He LOVES peek-a-boo and will go into a fit of giggles when you pop out from behind your hands. If you say to him "Will, call Daddy", he puts his hand up to his ear, like he is on the phone and starts saying "dada" "dada". It is hysterical. He claps his hands to the Pat-a-cake song and will clap yours for you if you let him hold them.

The injured thumb.

Enjoying a graham cracker in the sun light. 

Peek-A-Boo

Give me that camera!

We have continued to go to the Y 3-4 times a week and Will is slowly getting more used to being there. He has grown to like Miss Phyllis and the other teachers and doesn't cry the WHOLE time I am gone. I have loved getting back into the routine of going to the gym. I feel so much better after I have gone. I love our little routine of getting up and getting there just as the nursery opens at 8am. I have even taken a few classes too.

February has gone by so quickly! We continue to enjoy days with lots of sunshine and temperatures reaching up into the 70's. Jack has played more and more with the kids that live next door and he gets so excited to see them outside and have someone to run around with. He talks like such a "big kid" when he is with them. It makes me so happy to see him find some 'friends'. The family next door just welcomed their 6th child this past weekend. One of the girls, Bella, is about 7 or 8. She and Jack are great friends. They play restaurant in her playhouse, pull each other in the wagon and make mud pies. When ever they are playing together, I stay close by to keep an eye on Jack. He says to me one day (while Will was inside sleeping for his nap)-" Mom, why don't you go take Will for a walk to calm him down." I replied, "Jack, Will is inside asleep." He came back with "Well, can you just go for a walk then, we want to play alone." Am I already that UNCOOL? :) TOO FUNNY!

Children's Museum

This past week was very busy! We made a few more trips to the Y, increasing Will's comfort level with Miss Phyllis at this point. Yay! My workouts are a little nicer to complete without worrying about him crying the whole time. We went to another story time at the library and enjoyed dancing, singing and playing instruments. Jack did NOT secure a drum this week-which I thought was going to lead to some tears, but he handled it well and made the best of his time with the maracas. :) I had prepped him the whole morning and ride over that "Sometimes we get a drum, and sometimes we don't-but we can still have fun!"

We were blessed with lots of sunshine and took advantage of it. I left my To Do list gathering dust on the counter, the floors gathering a few extra Cheerios, and the laundry piling up a little more than usual. I just couldn't bring myself to be inside that much. We actually brought the water table out when the temperature went up into the 70's. What a nice treat!

We went on our first road trip since arriving and drove to Charlotte to the Children's Museum. We met my friend Lauren (aka-Auntie Ed) and her daughter Anabel (1 month older than Will). It was an hour and half drive for both of us and both boys did great. Will was able to catch his morning nap during the ride and he was very happy most of the time in the museum. Jack enjoyed looking out the window at the farms we passed along the way and was anxious to point out "The Peach Butt"-a water tower in Gaffney, SC that is painted to look like a peach, but at a certain angle, looks like a big butt. Jack, of course, finds this HYSTERICAL. One of the things I was most looking forward to with our move to SC was the ability to get together with a few of my college girlfriends a little more frequently. Since I am not working, I wanted to take full advantage of my open schedule and make the time to meet up. Will and Anabel last saw each other over the summer when they were 3 months and 4 months. It was really great to get to see them both, swap some mommy tips, see the kids interact a little and just catch up.

The children's museum was AMAZING! First, it was super clean! Second, there was so much to see and do. Jack had a blast running from exhibit to exhibit. There was even a great area for Will and Anabel to play. Unfortunately, Jack did not want to stay in the "baby" area for too long, so Will and Anabel were forced to hop back into their strollers or loving Mama arms while Jack ran around. We stayed for about and hour and a half. Since we got there right when it opened at 9am, we basically had the place to ourselves. By 10:30am, the buses of school age kids started arriving, I started to feel like Jack was getting lost in a sea of kids and little ones were starting to squirm a little more so we decided to call it quits. Jack was NOT A HAPPY CAMPER! There were tears and stomping and pouting. I guess that means it was a successful trip! He had such a blast and we did not even get a chance to check out the second level.

On the Move!

Awesome firetruck to play on 

Water table fun

Will and Anabel splashing around.

Jack getting in on the water fun too.

 The water table in the baby area was great! These seats allowed them to be up close and personal with the water, while giving our arms a little rest. The aprons were a little big and I dipped Will's into the water as I was trying to put it on him-oops-negating the whole point of them! :)

Jack in his glory-on the Octonauts Submarine!

As I mentioned in the last post, Jack is newly OBSESSED with The Octonauts on Disney Junior. It is a very cute show that tells the tale of a group of animals that work on a submarine to save under sea creatures from all sorts of "disasters". Each episode focuses on a new type of underwater creature. The underwater room at the children's museum was a dream come true for him. He was "calling all octonauts to the HQ". This room gave Lauren and I a quick chance to have some catch up chatter while he was running from the submarine to the sunken ship to the octopus. 

We ended our morning adventure with a trip to Starbucks where Lauren and I fed the babies and Jack their lunch while we chatted. We meant to buy food, snacks or something while we took up a table and made a mess of the floor with puffs, goldfish crackers and baby food, but we ended up leaving an hour or so later with just the kids! Thanks Starbucks!!

The ride home was quiet with my babies asleep as soon as we hit the highway. Thanks Auntie Ed for meeting us on your day off and playing at the museum. We can't wait to go back! Maybe next time we can bring Tom ;).