“Mommy? Why do they call it gymnastics?”
“I guess because it’s in a gym.”
“No but why is it called gym-mats-sticks?”
“Is this a trick question?”
“I get why they say gym because it’s in a gym. And there are mats. But why do they say sticks? We don’t ever use any sticks! I wish we did get sticks.”
Shirley is Baylor’s favorite doll. Shirley is generally never far away, always necessary for bed time and is responsible for teaching B how to pump her legs on the swing (according to Baylor). She is periodically the reason that Baylor can’t sleep as she likes to talk – a lot. And sometimes when Shirley has a bad dream, it wakes Baylor up. There was a time when Shirley did not like Noni and Noni spent much time and effort to win Shirley’s affection, which she eventually did. Overall Shirley teaches B good things so she’s allowed to stay.
Yesterday Baylor was busying herself “cutting the strings off of Shirley”. I didn’t know what that meant, but it was quiet and I figured I could repair anything that was cut. About a half hour later, Baylor walked into the living room with a face that I can only describe as sheer panic. In her left hand she held Shirley. In her right hand she held Shirley’s head (I’m dying as I’m writing this). I immediately burst out laughing and could. not. stop. myself. Baylor yelled “IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY!!!” which only made it worse.
I assured her that I could fix dear Shirley and put a safety pin in her neck as a temporary hold. I was able to sew her up this morning and Bay gave her a nice new princess band aid to cover her stitches.
Last night as Peter was putting B to bed he mentioned that Shirley had an accident. Bay abruptly turned to him and said “now, who told you THAT??“. Clearly, we are not talking about the accident.
Shirley. Shirley, are you ok?? I don’t think the drugs have worn off yet…
You know when you are flipping through channels and come across one of those strong man competitions and you see the guy with some enormous harness strapped to him and that’s strapped to a 747 and he’s trying to pull it? That pretty much sums up how I feel about life right now. It’s all. just. taking. so. much. work. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great gig and I happily take my problems over 99% of the world’s problems. But….it would just be nice if something, anything would go down without a struggle.
Until then, all I’ve got to do is iron my super woman cape and get to pulling. Fingers crossed for a strong tailwind.
We are so lucky that a week of “cry it out” went really well and the little guy was actually able to move into his crib in Baylor’s room. It went great! Like too good to be true….which means it wasn’t surprising when he started waking up every morning around 4am and waking Bay up too. We spent two weeks pulling him out every morning around 4am and putting him back in his pack n play in our room so he could fuss himself back to sleep without waking up B. I’m hoping another week or two of cry it out in our room will get him over this 4am wake up and back into his crib!
Until then, it’s hard to resist this view:
He’s trying hard to crawl – he gets on his hands and knees and rocks so hard that it scoots the PnP across the floor…
The Dad’s Pancake Breakfast couldn’t have turned out better! All the hard work and stress paid off 10 fold; we raised nearly $1000 for the school and the dads, grandpas, uncles and kiddos had a really fun morning together. Here are the highlights:
Stephanie’s ADORABLE centerpieces
Pin the Tie on the Daddy game
Make Your Own Tie
A happy recipient of Make Your Own Tie
These two were like a well oiled machine. They found every flat surface that could go on the stove and were flipping cakes at a rate of 20 every 2 minutes!
PW working hard manning the serving table. Please note that Auggie is eating a paper napkin.
Happy customers
For being at the school at 630 am and flipping pancakes, refilling toppings and doing whatever else needed to be done – we didn’t look too shabby!
A HUGE thank you to Ms. Stephanie D. I would work with you on any project, any time lady 🙂
What do you do when you don’t have enough time to get everything done in a day? That’s right! You agree to host the Dad’s Pancake Breakfast at Baylor’s preschool! I’m nuts, I know. But in my defense, I love being involved with her school and I was not sleeping a lot when I volunteered and therefore was a bit out of it.
Thankfully, I am on the co-chair for the event and the other co-chair is one Mrs. Stephanie D. Also known as Wonder Woman. She makes working and traveling for work and raising an awesome little girl look like child’s play. We are both crazy list makers, planners and multi-taskers. Yin to my yang. Ethel to her Lucy. Abbot to my Costello. Peanut butter to her jelly. I’ve tackled the donations and food, she’s done the signage, marketing and invitations. We have viewed this event as a game, and we’re in it to win it. Bring it on 300+ parents and preschoolers. We’ve got enough pancakes, toppings, games, crafts and raffle to keep you all happy and full.
If you see two women drunk at a bar on Saturday night mumbling about pancakes and laughing hysterically, it’s probably us.
Nine months of the year, our living space grows by several hundred square feet. We have a huge back patio and almost every room in our house has a door to the outside. This time of year they are rarely closed and life seems to just move outdoors. We eat dinner on the patio, play in the grass, pick lettuce to eat and even watch whatever game is on (I learned long ago that in March, there will be either basketball or baseball on our TV. Trying to change it is futile. So I joined) thanks to PW’s handy work converting an old armoire into an outdoor TV home. It was too pretty not to snap a few pictures this weekend.
In about a week, I’m going to have a whole bush full of these little beauties!
My new kumquat tree
I love the way lavender smells – this one under the kumquot looks distinctly Tuscan
The ocotillo loved all the rain. It’s finally getting it’s leaves back and it will have blooms in a few weeks
The prettiest thing in the yard…he was mid sentence when I snapped this one
Lettuce and herbs
Sprinkler time already!?
We are a baseball family. We played baseball, watch baseball and hope that our kiddos like it as much as PW and I do. Peter stocked up on spring training tickets the first day they were available. We’ve been to I think 4 games already and have two more on the calendar. It is a lovely way to play hookie, get a tan and enjoy cold beer.
We decided to take just Baylor to a Rockies v Dodgers game and sit in the grass. We knew we wouldn’t see much of the game, but we wanted to have some big girl time with Bay. We got to Salt River Fields (my second favorite stadium) early, laid out a quilt and proceeded to eat until we were full. She got to get lemon aid from the vendor, hot dogs from the concession stands and Italian Ice in a baseball helmet. She and Peter scoured the stadium looking for Dinger, the Rockie’s mascot, and she had her glove ready to snag any foul ball that came our way. The weather was perfect. She was happy. It was a sun soaked memory in the making.
Dinger. She is in love.
The crowd in the grass
Italian Ice in a batting helmet
We have had the pleasure of befriending the B family over the last year. Baylor and Ella have been in the same class for the last two years and Olivia, Ella’s older cool sister, is one of Baylor’s favorite people. Gretchen and Mike are their hilarious mom and dad and two people that Peter and I are always excited to spend time with.
This past January marked the end of TWO YEARS of chemotherapy for Olivia. She had been fighting leukemia for almost half her life and so we were excited to participate in all of the celebratory runs, luncheons and parties. We ran on Team Olivia in the Children’s Cancer Network 5 and 10k a few weeks ago. It was a fantastic event – there were games, obstetrical courses and tons of free food and swag. We ran like crazy and had a ball and the kiddos did too. We were so excited to follow Olivia in the kid’s walk as this was the first time she would be doing so as a survivor.
I did not anticipate the kiddos cooperating so I told PW to run on and I would just get as far as the kids would allow. Apparently running in a large group was wildly entertaining because they were angels the entire time. We finished the 5k in 38 minutes…which when you’re pushing a jogger that weighs 75lbs (no joke, we added it up), isn’t too shabby!
Ready to run…errr, ride!
Auggie, Baylor, Ella, Olivia and Morgan
Buddies
Team Wand was snuggled and packing snacks
Stephanie, Morgan’s mom and one of my favorite people. She also ran the 10k in 50 minutes. She is a freak.
Team Olivia ready to run!
The girls (and Augg) ready for the survivor walk ride
If you guessed that this poor baby’s mother didn’t check to make sure BOTH feet were out of his bouncer, you’re correct!
The Goon Room 