Mother's and Father's Day

Jump in the DeLorean folks. We're heading back in time. I finally have a weekend with nothing to do. Well, I think I'm supposed to be helping my brother move. Crap. But for tonight, I can sit at this laptop with my happy juice (Blue Moon Summer Ale) and blog. I'm like 3 months behind so I'll hit the high points.

One thing I should add is that I got a new fancy pants camera. I have no idea how to use or how to download the hundres of pictures that I have taken in the past week. But once I finish reading the 8 million page novel that I bought to help me with my tutorial and figure out how to use the thing, you will be sick of all my pictures.

Here we go. My first Mother's Day with two babies!

My little Mommy Rhiannon with her baby in matching dresses.

And Father's Day.

Rhiannon like her Daddy often closes her eyes for pictures. Henry is throwing gang signs. What a thug.

B

I know, I know. I'm way behind on my blogging. I have a ton of happenings from this summer that just haven't gotten posted. Stay tuned for some back tracking this weekend to catch up! But I felt like I should share today's experience.

To start with, I should introduce "B". B is Rhiannon's lovey. Short for "Bunny". A stuffed bunny head attached to a soft pink blanket dress. And she's Rhiannon's best friend in the world. Rhiannon received B at her church dedication on Mother's day in 2008. It took a few months for the friendship to blossom but by the time we had Christmas pictures made in November of 2008, the two were inseperable. Rhiannon would kiss (suck on B's face) until there was a nasty brown circle around B's nose. B would smell like strawberries, milk, goldfish. . . whatever little Rhiannon's grubby hands had been into. Washing her is a challenge because you have to take B away from Rhiannon to put her in the washing machine. I usually do this late at night so that I can return B to Rhiannon's bed before she wakes up.

When we realized how strong of a bond Rhiannon had with B we thought it would be a good idea to find a replacement B. We found out where the church found her and made a trip to Dillards and found another bunny like B. But we needed new bunny to get worn in like B. So we tried to replace B with the new bunny. Rhiannon immediately knew the difference and named the new bunny, "B2". She decided she needed both B and B2 and they both started sleeping with her at night. B is usually the only one lucky enough to leave the bed.

I think that maybe I'm just as attached to B as Rhiannon. She's a member of our family. We make sure we have her before we leave the house. We tuck her in bed at night. We dress her up in doll clothes. We give her food at the dinner table. She's our babysitter, entertainment and playdate.

Today, I got a distressing call from my Mother (Rhiannon calls my mother "Momess"). Rhiannon and Henry were staying at her house for the day and my mom called to tell me in a whisper. "We don't have B." What? Where is she? I immediately text Russ to see if he's seen B. He tells me that she (because B is a girl of course) made it into Momess and Godfather's house with Rhiannon. (My stepdad wanted to be called Grandfather. Rhiannon decided to call him "Godfather") So, we know she's there. Somewhere. When I arrive to pick up the kids after work, B was still missing. Momess convinced Rhiannon by some miracle to take a nap without her. I think she should be thankful that the pool and sun had made Rhiannon so exhausted that sleeping without B was possible. But as soon as she woke up, she asked Momess if she had found B. So, after dinner the search continued. We searched garbage cans, under couches, in cabinets. In one closet, we found B2. Not sure how long she had been hiding in that coat closet or how B2 made it from Rhiannon's bed all the way to Momess' house. But no B.

At 8:00pm, I had given up. It was Henry's bedtime and after 7pm he's done with all of us. So, reluctantly we pack up to leave.

As I place Henry in his infant carrier and lower the shade on the top. . .

There is B. Hiding in Henry's carrier all day long.

Apparently, Godfather had threatened to take B to school with him and Rhiannon decided to hide B from him so that he wouldn't take her.

It would have been nice if she would have shared that information with us 11 hours earlier.

But, he search is over and B is tucked into bed with Rhiannon. And we can all rest easier tonight.

B and Rhiannon - November 2008 (Notice how clean and new B looked then. When we show Rhiannon this picture, she says it's B2 in the picture because B2 still looks this new.)

B and Rhiannon - April 2010

One photo, two kids. . .

You start with one kid. . .

that's in a super good mood. . .
You then try to persuade your almost 3 year old that she wants to take a picture with her brother.

You attempt to bribe her by letting her take a picture first of her brother.You get her on the couch. She's not thrilled about the idea. Maybe because he just pulled out a fairly large chunk of her hair. He's still happy though.
Okay Rhiannon, hold his hand so he won't pull your hair.
Nope, Rhiannon. That's not Henry's hand.
Yes mam. That's your hand.

Almost there. . .

Success!!

Big News!

Where have I been right? Working + 2 kids = one tired Mama. But stay tuned for more posts and pictures.

But the most important news is. . .

MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!

That's right folks. Believe it! It's true. Stephen and Jenny got engaged last night.

This may be the happiest news I have ever received. I'm truly giddy. I apologize to my sweet husband but I'm almost as happy as when I got engaged. Stephen and Jenny are perfect for each other and he just seems so content. As if she was who he has been waiting for. She was meant for him and he for her.

Oh, and I helped to set them up. So, I feel a little tiny bit of pride in this union.

But, mostly happy. I hope they are as happy as me and Russ. And produce a ton of nieces and nephews for me one day.

The happy couple:

Congratulations Stephen and Jenny! We love you!!

First Day of Preschool

My baby girl started preschool today. We enrolled Rhiannon in a 3 day half-day program at Grace Espicopal Church in Gainesville. It's a wonderful program that I just fell in love with when I visited. It just felt right. Rhiannon is in a class this summer with 5 other little girls. In fall the class will be 10 students with hopefully some boys. This summer is just a class of little princesses. Her teacher, Mrs Shauna, attends church with us and she rocks. She's already planned a princess party day.

Rhiannon has stayed with grandparents while I worked for the last 3 years. We thought it was time to give her the structure that a school environment would provide and she really wanted to be around more children. We also thought that we would give the grandparents a break. Her little brother is enough to handle without a toddler around.

So, I planned to attend with her for the day, thinking that she would need me since she's never been to daycare or school before. I was preparing for a breakdown. At least a hiding behind my leg.

What happened? I didn't even get a kiss goodbye. She ran to her room, introduced herself to some kids, and never looked for me again. I hung out in the hall for 30 minutes to make sure she was okay. And she was fine. All day long.

Boy do I feel needed.

Truly, I was proud of her. In her big girl panties, and lunch box and bookbag. She loved every minute.

And, when I got there to pick her up. I got my hug and kiss. And she said she wanted to go back to school tomorrow.

What a big girl!

I hope I handle my first day back at work tomorrow just as well. I've really enjoyed my time home with my babies.

This picture is deceiving. Henry would not take a bottle. He went from 7:30 to 1:30 without eating because he refused a bottle.




But he's just so darn cute!

Good luck tomorrow Mimi and Papa! He's spoiled rotten.

My sweet little man

Good news! Henry will now sit in a bouncy seat and a swing! So it may only be for 3 minutes at a time but that gives my arms a rest from carrying around a 14 lb baby all the time!

Check me out in my Bumbo! And I'm holding a toy!
Not a smile but not screaming in my bouncer.

Here are some recent smiles.

A Trip to the Cabbage Patch

Russ and I both were lucky enough to have maternity/paternity leave from our employers so for the last 10 weeks we've been in baby holding, toddler chasing bliss. But with our time off quickly coming to an end (sniff, sniff), we our trying to get in some outings in with the kids. Last fall, I had planned on taking Rhiannon to Babyland General before the old facility closed. The old facility was originally White County Hospital and is the hospital where my mother was born. So, it would have been sentimental to visit. Unfortunately, being put on bedrest in September ended those plans. But last week, Russ and made the trip to Cleveland to visit the spanking new Babyland General Hospital, home of the Cabbage Patch Kid, with our sweet little girl and our cabbage patch kid, Henry.

Let me start with an explanation. I LOVE dolls. As a child, dolls were my favorite things to play with. And as I got older, my mother bought me a doll every Christmas up until Rhiannon was born. Now she gets all the dolls. That being said, I was so stinking excited to visit Babyland General. I couldn't wait to see the dolls and to see Rhiannon's reaction to the experience.

Here she is pointing out letters on the sign.

The new hospital is amazing. It's a huge mansion that sits in the middle of the White County countryside with a view of the mountains. And the hospital did not disappoint. There were dolls every where. In cribs, in a school bus, in a classroom, in big kid beds, in a tree house, and in the cabbage patch. We saw a baby delivery and they named the little girl, Rianna James (no one ever spells her name right) after Rhiannon. Such a fun day.

We told Rhiannon that she kid pick out any doll that she wanted. She found a doll that she liked. A bald headed girl baby doll with green eyes and cute butterfly sleeper. I was excited because she wasn't one of the cloth face dolls that can clost up to $300! Good girl.

Here she is picking out dolls.

But then, she found Grover. Yes, the blue monster from Sesame Street. What is he doing at Babyland General? Home of the Cabbage Patch Kid Dolls?? However, he was found. And he had magnet hands and feet. Rhiannon immediately dubbed him "Ballet Grover" (because she already has a Grover doll at home but not sure why he's a ballet dancer. . .) and carried him around along with her doll. Well, Russ and I made her choose between Grover and the doll. Surely, she would choose the doll right? Wrong!! After much turmoil, the decision was made and Grover was chosen to go home with us. Out of the the hundreds of dolls we saw that day, we ended up with another Grover doll. At least it only cost us $11.