7 things

Since I was tagged by Erin, here are 7 weird or random facts about me...

1. I, too, am a big klutz. But my klutziness seems to go in cycles. For a while it was spilling drinks. For a while it was Lucille Ball/Carol Burnett style pratfalls (maybe it's the red hair?). But right now it seems to be getting things on myself... my drinks, my food, the kids' drinks, the kids' food, all manner of baby yuckiness, dog slobber, dog hair. Bleh. Just add it to the laundry pile!

2. Word misuse bugs me. Specifically: there/their/they're; its/it's; lose/loose; you're/your

3. It pains me to pay retail for anything.

4. I dislike white condiments: ranch dressing, mayonnaise, sour cream, cottage cheese. Double bleh. But I will eat them sparingly when made into something else.

5. I fancy myself a champion Scrabble & Backgammon player. I would never admit that Wayne (usually) beats me.

6. I shouldn't ever buy Tagalongs because I will eat the box in one sitting. Every time. But I was the top seller in my troop in junior high (sigh, yes junior high girl scouts) for 3 years running. We went to Disney World.

7. After our first visit to Disney World (before the GS trip), my cousin Tiffany and I pinky swore to each other that one day we would work in the Haunted Mansion together. Sadly, that dream was never fulfilled. (if you go to the HM link, I had the "Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House" record and loved it.)

wasn't that fun? Now I'm tagging Tiffany, Jennifer, Paula, Jessica, Lenda, Brandi (to make her blog again), & Heather.

Audrey hates peaches

A little funny stuff from the weekend... Audrey really didn't like dinner last night!

A few days late

I think I'm finally rested enough to tackle a blog about last weekend. Our big exciting fun was that Tiffany, Lee & Ellie came to visit us for the weekend. Tiffany is my cousin and Lee is Wayne's friend from college. They were both in our wedding and Wayne made sure they met. The rest (as Tiffany says) is history. Friday night we took the kids with us to La Paz/Chez Guevara, which has become very family friendly in the wake of the state smoking ban. Then after the kids were in bed another of Wayne's college friends, Hunter, stopped by. We had a lot of fun catching up and made good use of the chalkboard surface on the new kitchen table.

Saturday was game day and I'm sooooo glad we had lots of friends over to distract each other from that terrible "game" being played at Neyland. Tiffany got to meet Erin & her family in person after getting to know each other over blogs. And all of our kids - ages 7 months, 1, 2 & 3 - got to play. Lots of fun, you can check out more pictures here and read more on Erin's & Tiffany's blogs.

Sunday we all wound down with a delicious brunch at Amerigo (another kid-friendly place) before bidding farewell to our guests. We had so much fun seeing the Brights and hope it won't be too long until we all get to visit again. Audrey can't wait until she can truly play with Ellie, although Miles may not be too happy when that day finally arrives - overrun by 2 younger girls!!

We realized Sunday afternoon that Audrey was cutting tooth #2, the other bottom-center tooth. We had a couple of nights with her waking a bit, but last night she slept from 6:30pm to 7:30am, only waking at 5:30 to eat. I can handle that sleep pattern!

Cutie patooties

I'll take a break from Facebook cleaning for our guests to post a little fun. Audrey had her 6 month checkup today and was quite the charmer. She's grown a bit, but isn't as high on the percentiles as she was... she's 15lbs 2oz. and 25.5". She's about to cut her 2nd tooth, it's rightthere under the gum. And she's become such a chatterbox! I think we can count as her first word: "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!" which is usually screamed when she's waiting to be fed. She also piped in with a really cute "Hi! Hi!" when trying to get your attention. I swear I heard "My!" yesterday, which of course means she knows her brother's name already. Such a smart girl. Hee-Hee. She's not working on crawling yet, but the girl can roll anywhere. She flip-flops all around, grabbing for toys, dogs, pacifiers, my hair, whatever. I just went to get her from her nap and she was turned, head where feet had been, on her belly playing with a stuffed giraffe in the corner. Silly girl.


Miles had his last swim lesson yesterday. He still can't swim (I know, what was the point?) but he is much more comfortable in water and will willingly get his head wet now, so that's a plus. I'm not sure if the guy is doing anymore classes after this, so we may head up to the Y next summer for lessons. I think next year he'll be ready for the classes without mom there, yay! He was so excited after swimming when we got home and the prizes I won from Goodyblog were here. The backpack had a dump truck on it and the lunchbox has dinosaurs. Of course I'm enjoying the other goodies that were included. These are some of my favorites. He was so excited to take them to school today, even though the backpack is totally unnecessary.

Anyway, we have a big weekend planned, so check back Monday!!

Where to begin?

Wayne took his laptop and the place had WiFi, but I just couldn't bring myself to blog during the week. I'm starting to regret that, as now there is SO much I want to write and remember that I could be here all week. {sigh}. Oh well. Let see if I can get the best highlights.The trip started with Miles melting down while we were packing because he wanted to play with the Thomas stuff that was already packed. Great. Got him distracted through that one and he was fine. SO excited. All week long when I'd say "we need to go..." he would cut off my "to the grocery" with "to the BEACH!!!" So once we got on the road he was fine. Even said "This is FUN!" all the way to Newport. But then he switched to "Are we still going to the beach?" and "Are we at the beach yet?" for the next 7 hours. We listened to a bunch of Curious George stories on CD and then broke out the big surprise... we got a DVD player and a new movie for him. WOW. Of course the power cord didn't fit in our car outlet, so tears were inevitable. Many thanks to Kyle who called his friend in Columbia, SC, and found us a convenient Best Buy, then we were set.

Our friends Rob & Yen joined us this again this year and we were happy to learn that Yen is expecting. So they got lots of exposure to handling kids, hopefully it didn't scare them too much! We were blessed with gorgeous weather, all Hanna seemed to do was wash millions of shells onto the shore. We spent lots of time on the beach this year, building sandcastles for Godzilla and splashing in the surf.

We dipped Audrey's toes in but she wasn't really into it. So she & I mostly hung out on the porch with only a few trips to the sand. I took a shade tent that was easy to set up for a day on the beach. You know that's how the Casper family rolls at the beach: no evidence of sun whatsoever!But seriously, it was relaxing to sit there and just listen to waves crashing. We all napped everyday, which was required since Miles woke up every day at 5am. Yes. On vacation. Thanks, kiddo! I don't know if it was the strange room, bed or what, but he would not go back to sleep. We made him "sleep" in our bed until 6:30 when Wayne got up with him. We feel so bad for Robb & Yen because I know Miles's stomping around woke them up. Sorry!! But Audrey was a fantastic sleeper. She's converted to a belly sleeper now, rolling over almost as soon as we set her in bed. She also gave up her night feeding during the week, so I got some solid nights of sleep for the first time in months.

Oh and Miles slept in big boy underpants! So we're finally fully potty trained!! YAY!!! So far no accidents... but I've got a pad on his bed just in case.
Completely random thing... Miles doesn't like the smell of shellfish cooking. We did a shrimp boil at home one night and hit the All-You-Can-Eat seafood buffet once, and both times he held his hands over his face saying it tickled his nose and was stinky.

By Saturday we were all ready to be back home. Miles watched a little of his video and then fell asleep with 2 hours to go. He woke up when we turned on our street and exclaimed "We're home!!!!" Yes, and it was good to be there.

Just wanted to say...

Hi, we're home!

We had a GREAT vacation...

More about it when mommy gets some rest.

Happy Half Birthday and a BIG first!!

I should heed the optimistic, glass-half-full spirit of the blog title and not let the bad things of yesterday weigh too much. In fact, today Karma said "snap out of it!!" and threw some nice stuff our way.

The biggest great thing... Audrey cut her first tooth! We saw it tonight when getting her jammies on. It's her bottom left central incisor (I just downloaded a tooth chart). Sure, she's miserable righ now trying to go to sleep, but now I know why she was attacking the frozen banana I gave her last night! Yay Audrey! We gave her a little tylenol to hopefully help her (and us!) get some sleep.

Have you ever clicked on the "goodyblog" button down on the sidebar of the blog? It's a blog by the Parents magazine editors about all things kid. They run a variety of give-away contests and I won! I won the Back-to-School gear, too bad none of us are officially in school. But it will still be a lot of fun stuff to play with. And Miles will get the backpack he's been asking for all year! Hopefully we don't get the one with hearts and flowers all over it.

"They" now have Hanna going a bit north of us, which still means rain for the start of our vacation, but hopefully not a full on evacuation. But on the bad side, it would be hitting closer to OBX where dad & Brenda are sailing right now and where some friends' parents live. Not so good. Maybe Hanna will just stay at sea!! Oh but then there's Ike, bearing down a similar path... DUM DUM DA DUUUUM.

And what a difference a week makes. Today at the pool Miles was telling me to go "way over there" when he was going to jump in and swim to me. Such confidence. But he was all about it, smiling and laughing the whole time. We're working on him being able to kick and paddle with his arms, but he's still not calming down enough to float. Hates the back float! But has NO problem getting his head under at all. Yay Miles!!

the trifecta

They say bad news comes in threes. Here are mine for today....

.: Let's just all mutually acknowledge the travesty that occurred in Pasadena Monday night and move on.

.: We just spent our second afternoon within a week at the pediatrician's office, this time for Audrey. Not for her 6 month check-up, that will be in a couple of weeks. No, this was for this rashy stuff that's been spreading across her belly and it seems to be eczema. Yuck. Basically no specific thing causes it, but lots of stuff can exacerbate it. There's hope she will outgrow it, but for now we have to keep her lotioned up and not itching. If anybody out there has dealt with it, I'd love some more insight!

.: And our vacation starting this weekend is being threatened by that mean ol' Miss Hannigan... I mean Hurricane Hanna. There are lots of varying opinions as to what strength, path, duration etc Hanna will take (yes, I've been researching it A LOT) but most options have us dealing with lots of rain to start our vacation. If we get to start it at all... some predictions have Hanna arriving in the Grand Strand right about the time we're due to check in. Oh joy.

On a good note (don't we always end on a positive?) Miles has greatly improved in the pool. On Saturday he started off screaming quite a bit, then Mr. Ed used him as the demonstrator. Being the center of attention and garnering applause gave him the confidence to jump in feet first... quite literally. We head back tomorrow and he's excited, so we'll see how it goes.

Just do it.

We went swimming on Sunday at a friend's pool and, though he never went under water, Miles had a blast and even jumped off the side of the pool to daddy. So I took advantage of his excitement and signed him up for swim lessons. The first was Wednesday. This is the kid who screams and wails about a hair wash despite having face and ears covered by a towel and careful water pouring. So in the pool we dunked him a couple of times and he screamed his head off. It was not pleasant. At all. But by the end he jumped off the ramp into the water. Then last night he ASKED to take a bath and didn't holler at all when Wayne poured water on his hair. So progress, maybe? We go back Saturday.

It was a busy Wednesday as we also had his 3yr checkup. He's 35 lbs & 39" (about 80% on both). He was a chatterbox, so I think impressed Dr B. It was his first "big boy" visit, complete with blood pressure, vision test and the old pee-in-a-cup routine. That part fascinated him. First, he did more that pee (ahem), then when I finally got the pee and put it in the little door he was full of questions. Where did I put it? Why? Who is going to get it? What are they going to do with it? Whew! We came out of the restroom and he announced, " I poopied!" which drew laughs (and cheers) from all directions.

After a long day, I asked him if he wanted ice cream (yes) then I remembered Raven's trip to the new cupcake place, so offered that alternative. He decided on a pink cupcake and so we were off. They didn't have pink, but had white with sprinkles (the Confetti). They were huge! and yummy! I treated myself to the Tuxedo - dark chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. Mmmm, mmm.

So now Miles has been telling everyone about going underwater, but not liking it. He even told me last night that he didn't want to go underwater again. But as "Mr. Ed" said, you don't have to want to, you just have to do it. I need to start telling myself that more when it comes to cleaning up the house.

the budding auteur

Miles has joined the ranks of amateur photographer.... one of his gifts was a super-cool kids digital camera from Mimi & PawPaw. He's enjoying capturing his day-to-day life. Check it out!
PS For more "real" photos from the weekend, click on the link at right "More pictures of Miles & Audrey"

Happy Birthday, Miles!

Miles turned 3 today so we celebrated all weekend with family visiting from far and wide. He'd picked the sandcastle cake (below) out of a magazine so we had a beachy party complete with sand(box), wavy sprinklers and a kiddie pool. But he also wanted the iPod cake from the same article, so we made it chocolate to match Wayne's black iPod.
We were so glad to have our family visit, especially newlyweds Uncle Kyle & Aunt Megan. They stayed with us on our lovely air mattress and enjoyed super-early wake-up calls from the birthday kid. We laughed with them as we all went to bed at 9 o'clock Saturday night - 8pm in their home time zone! Why did we turn in so early? The hurricane that hit us was not called Fay, but MilesEvanKateKarleyAbbyAudrey. Whew! Amazing that the mobile kids can be outnumbered 4:1 and still manage to wear out every single adult! We did our annual birthday family shot.... (I love the remote control to my camera!!)
Miles got a Big Wheel and LOVES it. He walked in on Wayne assembling it, shouted "What's THAT!??!?" and proceeded to "help". He's been riding it around our circle in the house, finally learning to not crash into things on purpose.
Here are the kids enjoying our (almost) complete breakfast nook. Many meals were enjoyed here this weekend, I'm so glad we added this! We're still going to paint the tabletop a deeper blue chalkboard paint. That will come, someday! And my stain resistant cushions were thoroughly tested by this crew:
We ended the afternoon with some sprinkler fun!
More pictures of the fun to come...

He's back!!

Miles ended up staying 4 nights with YaYa & B, enjoyed every second and has asked to return repeatedly. But this weekend is his THIRD birthday, so we will be welcoming almost the entire family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - for the weekend festivities. (We'll miss you, Uncle Shay!) We're excited that Uncle Kyle & Aunt Megan will stay with us so we can hang out with Megan a little more. I guess we're lucky that the pros of visiting with us and free lodging outweighed the cons of an air mattress and a likely early wake-up call. Maybe we'll wear Miles out enough that he'll sleep in til 7.

He's still going with the beach-y theme cake he selected a month ago, but he's added another cake to the list. Since I was going to make extra cupcakes anyway I'm going to attempt both theme cakes. I'll just leave it at that and hopefully get a picture to share next week. :)


Audrey & I had some more girl time today when we went to a shower for baby Lizzie and her mom Courtney. Baby Lizzie's already getting so big! I had fun visiting with Raven & Erin, noshing on the yummy treats. We tried to get a picture of the three girls... this is the closest I came. But I love it... look at Audrey grinning at Eileen, who obviously doesn't want some random baby in her mom's lap. And MK is just playing to her mom, "this smile?"

Here's a gorgeous one that Raven took... so much better, that's why she's the pro!

Okay, the sleep deprivation from watching Michael Phelps and the gymnastics last week is setting in and I have no creative thought left. Thank goodness for spellcheck or who knows what you'd have been reading. Off to bed!!

Girl Time

Since Miles's school is closed until Thursday, we took him to spend a couple of nights with YaYa & B. We met them halfway, at Wayne's grandpa Hebert & Lilian's house. Lilian made some delicious fried okra - which Miles wouldn't try - to go with our yummy fried chicken lunch. YaYa & B are brave - they had Miles, Evan & Kate all together last night and through today. I'm sure they're having a blast, just hope they take naps!

So with Miles gone, and Audrey going to bed at 6, Wayne and I got to catch up on our new favorite show, Mad Men on AMC. We made more veggie pizza and turned in early. It's so quiet here!

Audrey slept until 8:30 and I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I let her be my alarm clock. It was fantastic! I don't think I've slept past 7 in over 3 years, even on a weekend (okay, maybe in Italy). I'm taking this time to put away toys and revel in the fact that they will stay put away, at least until Wednesday evening. I will probably even take the opportunity to make some toys disappear, perhaps to be held for a consignment sale this fall.

Speaking of consignment sales, if you're in Franklin/Nashville you should check out the sale my friend Heather is organizing. It's called Monkey Business and will be in September. Should have lots of great stuff!

But for today Audrey and I are off for lunch with daddy then some shopping - Lowes, not the mall. I always have a DIY project, hope Wayne didn't think it would end when the kitchen was done. Now it's chair recovering and better shelving for our closet. Fun fun!

last one, I promise

I guess I'm twitter-blogging today. Just have a few minutes and something cute to share. Miles helped me make pizza dough tonight! This was another attempt to get him to try new foods. Of course he's asleep now that we're cooking it. But he helped me make the dough, here he is kneading it. Then after it rose, we broke off a piece and played with it. He even ate a bite but I'm not sure he was convinced. Maybe we'll make a raisin and blueberry pizza and he'll try it.

Look what I did during naptime!

I love my new staple gun! I wouldn't say this was the easiest home improvement project yet, but the next chair should be easier. I actually broke a sweat working that staple gun! {But maybe that says more about my seriously poor level of fitness right now.} Anyway, need to scotchguard, and will probably treat the rest of the fabric before upholstering the next one. I also bought a coordinating floral print for throw pillows in the banquette area. No, I'm not making those. I cannot sew at all! Coming soon, I promise.

Pictures & Sound

As promised, a little video from our evening. This was actually last night, shortly before the meltdown.

Cutie Pies

Wayne came home tonight to find me on the sofa with both of these kids in my lap wailing at the top of their lungs. Audrey was over it, it was the end of her day. Miles had just banged his head/ear while trying to open the plantation shutters to watch for Wayne's arrival. I think his crying was made more dramatic by Audrey's waterworks. And I just sat there laughing. Mostly because, well, what good would crying do? but also because Wayne's mom told me of a time when she had Wayne & his sister on her lap and all three of them were crying! I'm actually surprised I haven't had the tandem criers until now.

But most of the day they were absolute sweethearts. We had our playgroup and Miles had a blast running around with his girlfriends. Audrey sat up the whole time (in my lap) watching the action and checking out Noelle, who is 4 months older. Audrey's getting much better at sitting, though needs a prop for sure. Like above, where they were wedged into the sofa together. Don't they look sweet? I swear I have video of them giggling together, just need to get around to posting it.

I've been a mommy-brain blogger... I keep forgetting to share the fun stories. Like last week when I had to take Miles with us to the grocery store. First he did NOT want to go. I tried explaining all the things that we needed to get for him... Blueberry Eggos, OJ, fig newtons, jelly, but he didn't care. I don't know what he thought he'd eat. But finally when I said we were out of milk and couldn't eat Cheerios he said, "Okay, we'll go get one milk." What a stinker. Of course once there he didn't mind picking up everything on the list. I keep trying to entice him to eat new things. The kid won't eat pasta, cheese, or a bread product unless there's PB&J on it. And forget veggies. So this trip I worked on pasta. I showed him all the cool shapes, corkscrews, tubes, stars, letters, ears. Even went so far as the Nemo shaped pasta but he didn't care. So I moved on. At the checkout he picked up some M&Ms..."Ooooooh, M&Ms! I LIKE these!" he says. So I countered, "You try some pasta that I make tonight, you can have the M&Ms." The little stinker put them back so fast, even the checker was laughing. Oh boy, it's always fun!

Finally finished

A mere 7 months after we started, the final piece of the kitchen remodel was completed this week - the back splash! Thankfully this was the only missing piece, so it's not as if we were struggling to eat. As you can see, I've made use of the crock pot this week, making beef stew which Miles used to love. Tonight, however, he chewed the cud forever before eating it. Then he got up from his seat and Chelsea cleaned his plate for him. Why do kids do that? Sit there forever with food in their cheek like a chipmunk? I have fond memories of sitting for hours at a deserted table refusing to swallow some ghastly green vegetable, holding it in my mouth thus prolonging the torture. Why? I'm sure mom tried all the explanations we tried with Miles, but none worked.

Speaking of not working, the no-nap Monday really didn't work! He was very good for his "quiet time," even stayed in reading a book after I told him he could come out. But by the time dinner rolled around he was a mess, throwing a huge fit, even trying to fall asleep on the kitchen floor. That, of course, was NOT allowed! He eventually got over it, ate and went to bed, but that hour or so was awful. Thankfully he had school the next day and they got him back on track.

And I forgot two Audrey things...
.: she loves my watch. It's the one my aunt Kathy gave me for college graduation, but it's still going strong. If she can't get my hair, that's the next best thing.
.: She loves smooches! I love the little smile she gives when you kiss her, smushing in her chubby cheeks. It makes her grin and giggle, made even cuter when she coos through her pacifier.

{I lied when I said the kitchen is finished... we do still lack our table in the eat-in area, but that's really it and that will be done next week. Can't wait to show that!}

It's oh so quiet

We're experiencing quiet time today... not a nap, just quiet time. Miles is refusing to sleep so I told him he had to stay quiet in his room until I tell him he can come out. At school they have to nap/lay quietly for 2 hours, so that's what I'm doing too. We'll see how it goes. I still hear him pitter-pattering around in there, I had been hoping he'd eventually go to sleep. He just came out for a bathroom break, but is back in. 45 minutes to go.

Speaking of bathroom breaks, the "potty fairy" came to visit us this weekend. We didn't need the fairy's help in learning how to potty, but in getting rid of the darn Diego potty. Wayne & I were getting tired of cleaning it out! So the P.F. came and whisked away the potty, leaving in exchange a coupon for ice cream. So the tooth fairy may not be too happy with the P.F., but mommy sure likes the result.

Audrey's napping too, so it appears that I've wasted a golden opportunity with both sleeping, but I can never really nap when they do. She's got a few new tricks, I've been trying to keep track of so I can list them.

.: LOVES pulling my hair. Will grab a fistful on both sides of my head and pull me in for a raspberry. If my hair is in a ponytail, she reaches for the fine (tender) nape of the neck and give s a good tug. OUCH!
.: Can do some tricks with her pacifier - she can pop it back into her mouth when she's holding it. If only she could find it on her own in the middle of the night.
.: Still working on the sitting and rolling over.
.: Has eaten Sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, butternut squash. I made the sweet potatoes, it was really easy! I bake them in foil for about an hour, scrape them out into the blender and add a little water, puree, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Then pop them out into a bag to store. When it's time to eat, a few seconds in the microwave is all it took. My next food will be applesauce because our neighbor brought us a huge bag of apples (and tomatoes & peppers) from her garden.

Speaking of neighbors, I'd almost forgotten the weekend fun for me! We had social plans for BOTH nights, even including a babysitter. How unheard of. Friday we hosted the neighborhood yard party and had a great turnout. Several girls were demonstrating their babysitting skills and kept up with the toddlers, playing ring around the rosy and tag. We had no less than 50 people in the yard and everyone seemed excited to continue the events well into fall. And on Saturday we had a sitter so we could celebrate Josh's birthday. We didn't last very long, partially because our sitter had a swim meet at 7 the next morning, but we had a great time getting out for once in a blue moon. Happy birthday Josh!

Happy 6th!?!?!?!

Hard to believe but our sweet nephew is now (officially today) a 6 year old kid. He requires two hands to show his age! We celebrated this weekend out at his PaPa's "farm". There's a creek running behind the house, so the kids spent most of the afternoon splashing around, examining crawdads, snails and even a turtle that couldn't escape fast enough. As part of the party, the kids made sailboats and floated them for a while too.

Miles had fun with his boat until he fell backwards and got soaked. No, the tumble didn't upset him. Instead, he realized that he had an audience and proceeded to do pratfalls for a laugh for the next 20 minutes. What a comedian.





He didn't spend much time here, but he got a huge thrill from "driving" the John Deere tractor and riding the Gator. But he didn't last long, it was HOT.

More pictures from the weekend, click HERE.







And while she couldn't be out splashing in the creek, Audrey held audience up on the porch, getting lots of squeezes from YaYa & B. She's 20 weeks old now and really starting to show off her stuff. She is a definite attention hound (is that a 2nd child trait?) We were in a store last week and she cooed at anyone standing nearby. But the person whose attention she wants the most is Miles. Still just loves giggling at him. And he happily obliges.