Catching Up

There's so much catching up to do I don't know where to start. I so desperately want to use this blog as a tool to capture our family memories, but there seems to be so little time for such things at this phase of our life. But I'll continue to do the best I can.

I have many updates and photos to catch up on, but right now I just want to take a moment to catalog a few things I want to remember about Henry at 3.5 and Eleanor at 2 years.

The biggest milestone we've seen lately is the transition of the two of them from enemies (of sorts, maybe aggravators is a better term) to friends, and, maybe, co-conspirators. The jury is still out on whether this is 100% positive for me, as they seem to be finding new ways to gang up on me...but that's ok, because they really are starting to show themselves as the very best of friends. What a joy it is for us to see them playing together, imagining together, building together and laughing together. This is what I pictured in my head when we found out we were expecting a second child, and it makes the first two tough years worth every challenging moment.

Make no mistake, life is not all roses...they are 3 1/2 and 2, after all. But they so obviously love each other, and that makes my heart sing.

Eleanor is talking up a storm and stringing two and three sentences together. She has an amazing vocabulary and can now repeat any word you throw at her...even words like "ballerina" and "refrigerator." She has lots of favorite phrases, but one of the ones that cracks me up this most is "it's not working now" which she uses when she can't make something work the way she wants it to.

She still loves MMCH and is obsessed with all things Mickey Mouse. We have tons of MM coloring books around the house, and she will ONLY color the pictures of Mickey...not Minnie, not Pluto (although he's her second favorite...whenever she's watching the show and he's not in the scene, she says, "Where'd Pluto go?"), not Donald or Daisy...JUST Mickey. She is interested in no other television...only MMCH.

She was recently diagnosed with asthma (boo) and also spent a night in the hospital with pneumonia. It was our first trip to the ER with one of our kids and was a very scary experience, but they took fantastic care of her at VCH and she recovered very quickly.

Henry is growing up so very, very fast and it makes me sad and happy all at the same time. He can carry on very adult-like conversations with us and has an unbelievable ability to both convey his emotions ("I am mad" or "I"m so frustrated" are two of his common complaints) and to express himself ("Mom, she's antagonizing me!!"). He is bright and social and, although we recently went through a bout of the terrible 3s, a clamp down on the rules of the house restored order pretty quickly. He's such a great kid. Loves us and his sister, is eager to please and follow directions, has turned into quite a good little eater. He loves school and has made two very good friends there this year (Jack and Teague).

As much as we've loved Crieve Hall for the kids, we recently decided to move them to the preschool at our church. We struggled with this decision a lot, but I'm absolutely certain now that we made the right decision and I know it will be an easy transition for them. It will be so sad to leave CH, though. I cried in the hallway yesterday just talking to the administrator about it when she approached me to say she'd noticed we didn't register for next year.

Otherwise, life is rolling along peacefully. Winter is nearing its end and we are thankful for that and looking forward to spring. We recently registered the kids for swim lessons for this summer. I can't believe those summer activities are right around the corner! And Easter is later this month!

It looks like this weekend we will get what may be our last snow of the year.

Santa

{Photo from our original visit to Santa.
Eleanor obviously wasn't impressed, although she seemed ok with him today...of course.}

This morning, after being cooped up in the house for two days (when you live in the hottest shopping district in the city, you don't go out this time of year unless you HAVE to), I decided I'd wrap the kids up and take them to the mall first thing this morning. I wanted to pick up a small stocking stuffer for Barry and figured I'd let them run out some energy at the mall.

 

Henry wanted to walk by and see Santa while we were there...we had visited him last week, so I explained we couldn't talk to him but we'd walk by and wave at him. Santa hours hadn't started yet, so we killed some time and then went to the elevator to go to the upper level where the Santa area of the mall is. We were waiting to ride the elevator up, the doors open, and Santa is standing there...in street clothes.

 

I thought Henry's eyes were going to fall out of his head. "Santa" gave a little ho-ho-ho, waved at us and walked down the hallway through an "employees only" door. Henry didn't say a word until he was out of sight and then looked at me and said, "Why was Santa wearing a baseball cap?" LOL Luckily, we had a conversation that very morning about why he couldn't wear his Batman costume to the mall (me: "Even Batman doesn't go the mall in his costume...he wears regular clothes"), so I explained the same applies to Santa. "Maybe," I said, "he's out picking up a few stocking stuffers for Mrs. Claus before he goes to talk to the other kids who are here to visit today."

But that wasn't the best part. Henry wanted to see him again so we waited until the Santa hours started and then walked by that area hoping we could get another glimpse at him. We walked up to the fencing around him and Santa looked over at us and said, "Hello, Henry, how are you?"

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

 

Best moment of Henry's life, no question. Little guy was wearing a knitted winter hat that has his name knitted into it, which is how Santa knew his name, but of course Henry doesn't know that. He just looked at me and whispered, "He remembers me."

So, so priceless. One of the best moments of MY life. My sweet boy was so blown away and I was crying at how wondrous it all was for him.

 

Best mall trip ever. :)

 

 

 

Letters to Santa

This is the first year we've done them, and the kids were slightly less than interested. It was fun anyway.

 

{E was clearly more interested in the crackers.}

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, Henry has changed his mind about what he wants Santa to bring approximatly 5,372 times since we wrote these letters.

 

In other weekly news, I took Eleanor to the pedi to check a lingering diaper rash and she was diagnosed with an ear infection. Wouldn't you know it? I am constantly dragging my kids into the doctor's office thinking their ears are infected and they never are...until I unassumingly take them in for some other reason. Oh, well...I'm just glad we found it...it was a recurring infection in the same ear from our T-giving trip to urgent care, so it's unlikely it would've healed on its own.

 

 

We have dubbed this "the greatest outfit ever." Homemade pilgrim hat, Elmo shirt (about two sizes too small) adorned with a glitter Tonka sticker (a gift E picked up at the doctor's office for her Bubba), stylish blue Target sweatpants (which have a hole in the back you can't see) and froggie rain boots. Awesome.

 

 

Gingerbread Pancakes

Barry was in NY on business for a couple of days, and we all miss him so much when he's gone.  He got in late last night after the kids were in bed and it's always so exciting for them when they wake up and he's here after being away.  This morning we decided to celebrate with some seasonal gingerbread pancakes!  YUM!

More Kid Funnies

{this may become a new feature}

Tonight as I was lying in bed with Henry, saying our prayers and singing our songs, he had LOTS of questions about God. I love this, aaaaand I sort of dread it a little, because I never know exactly how to answer these questions and one answer always leads to another question and so on and so forth. But the sweet baby is very curious about God, and that's a good thing.

So, we're talking about God and how he's all around us, and Henry wants me to tell him how God is in all places at all times (if I knew, kid, I'd certainly share it with you), and then he says, "Does he have a car?"  LOL

We, sadly, have a pretty big homeless population in Nashville, and he sees a lot of people walking down roads with all their wordly possessions in a bag. Often, he asks me about them and I simply tell him that not everyone has the money to buy a car and that we should be very grateful that God has provided us with this luxury and pray that He will provide for that person's needs. I guess now he's wondering if God saved a car for himself!

Bless him. He has such a sweet and loving heart. I pray one day all his questions about God will be answered.

Kid Funnies

While watching a Christmas episode of Caillou before bedtime tonight, Henry says, "Mommy, I want to leave some cookies for Santa....and keep some for myself, too."

Ladies Lunch

{A sweet photo of Henry, window shopping at Franklin Toy Company...before the carnage.}

 

My dear, dear mother-in-law, Diane, has friends in town this week. Friends who were fellow ex-pats during her time living in Paris with Barry's late father. I've met many of these friends (some of them were at our wedding), but not these two particular women. Diane really wanted to show off her grandchildren (understandably...they are ADORABLE, after all) and invited us to lunch today in downtown Franklin.

Now, normally, I don't take the kids out to lunch because they eat lunch pretty early and Eleanor is usually napping already by noon. But this was a special occasion so we decided to go for it and make the best of it.

What's that they say about hindsight??

The kids were actually really well behaved considering the circumstances. But that doesn't mean there wasn't some fun. Oh, no...we couldn't let this be a peaceful, pleasant ladies lunch.

We arrived a little early so I took the kids to the restroom so Henry could potty and I could change E's diaper. Except I found that her diaper was dry, which was odd because she hadn't had a wet diaper since she woke up. A little odd, so I filed it away in my brain and we went out to greet our fans.

Lunch went reasonably well, until Eleanor started to get antsy and Diane took her to sit in her lap. First mistake.

Eleanor decided to "relieve herself" and soaked through her diaper and peed on Granny's lap. The damage was minimal, so while Diane blotted her pants I took E to the restroom to change her diaper...finding her dress to be dry, I just took her bloomers off.

Return to lunch.

Diane offers the kids each a cookie. Second mistake.

Eleanor took one bite, found something in it offensive, begins to gag and then  PROJECTILE vomited at the lunch table all over me, herself, the floor. IT. WAS. UGLY.  I've never been vomited on in this fashion in public. Panic ensues. Lots of Wet Ones are employed. Cloth napkins from the table are used to wipe chunky vomit off the floor. IT. WAS. UGLY.

I wiped us down as best I could just to get us to the car, then decide that I need to rush Henry to the bathroom before we leave (it's a 30-minute drive back to our house and the last thing I need is an accident in the car). Third mistake.

WHILE sitting on the toilet Henry says, "Uh-oh, I'm pee-peeing on myself!" So I look down, and he is, indeed, peeing on himself. On his hand, on his shirt, on his pants. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  I am not a boy, so I have no idea, but at this point I'm fighting back tears.

So let's take a tally. I'm covered in puke. Baby girl is covered in puke. Granny is covered in pee (I may be exaggerating a bit here). And now Bubba is covered in pee (I am not exaggerating on this one).  I'm just gonna go ahead and call this the worst ladies lunch ever. I hustled out of there as fast as I could, but I'm guessing no one finished their lunch after the vomit episode.

And of course I'd left their change of clothes in the car, so I had to walk two blocks with two of us covered in vomit and one of us covered in pee. I'm sure we looked and smelled loverly.

Oy. I'm pretty sure MIL won't be inviting us to lunch again with her fancy friends any time soon.

{Her friends were very sweet and gracious and helpful and I pray I have not scarred them for life.}