Monday, June 27, 2016

Monday, Monday

Here's this. 

Mondays always feel so good. Fresh starts I guess. Also, trash and recycling day. Those things combined. ; ) 

I signed Abigail up for a frozen dance camp this week at the pace center so we were up early for that since it goes from 9-11. We always get birthday/Christmas money for the kids so I explained to Abigail that grandparents that live far away give money and I bought her four ballet lessons. She was giddy and squeaking and squealing with excitement. 

We left the house around 8:30 to allow plenty of time to get there and find the room and turn in registration and everything. Brady was so so sad that he couldn't stay. I had considered signing him up too, but it had a lot of emphasis on "your little girl will love this class" and zero mention of it even being open to boys. I'm sure they wouldn't have discriminated, but I refrained anyway. But he was sad and multiple times today he's asked when he can go to ballet class and can I please find him a boy ballet class. I told him I would sign him up for sports or soccer or something but he's still sad about ballet. 

So I comforted him the best way I know how and offered him a trip to chick fil a. I'd just grabbed him and Elizabeth and got them clothes and in the car so neither of them had eaten. I nursed Elizabeth in the car and then we went to chick fil a. Brady brought in his ticket (a coupon for free small waffle fries that we got at Parker days) and was so cute when he gave it to the cashier and said "can I have French fries please?"  And I got my free frozen lemonade from my calendar card (thanks mom!) and then two chicken biscuits that we actually paid for. ; )  I got Brady saltines while we waited but he was playing. When he came back, he promptly gave me two (I'd given him four). I don't know what it is but he has been super into sharing lately. Even food and candy which is crazy because he loooooves food and candy. Honestly, I don't even share my candy. But he's been so good lately about looking at what he has and then looking at what other people have so he can share (like when Chris gave him two Pringles and then Brady immediately gave me one of them... And kept doing it every time) and it blows my mind every time. It's probably just a phase until he learns that it's more fun to eat it all, but right now I'm really trying to learn from his example. I got two white chocolate temples on Sunday from the RS instructor. You better believe I thought about sharing and definitely decided against it. I'm terrible. Anyway, Brady played and ate with me and it was just great. It was so fun to have that one on one time with him (because Elizabeth doesn't really count... Sorry Elizabeth!) and just talk and share and eat and laugh. He's such a funny guy. And really into manners lately. Opening the door for me and saying thank you. He loves to say your welcome too. As we were leaving, I helped push open the door and told him "thank you" for opening the door for me and he said "thank you" too. I was all "no, you're supposed to say 'you're welcome' to me" but he corrected me.  "No, I say thank you too because you were holding the door too so you say thank you and I say thank you because we were both helping each other!" Also, he ate an entire chicken biscuit and half the fries and half the drink. I was stuffed so I have no idea how he managed to our eat me... I mean, he also had saltines and cherrios too and I didn't even eat my whole chicken biscuit because I was sharing with Elizabeth. The whole date was just perfect. 



We stopped by sprouts on our way back and picked up bananas and a bit of produce to last us for the week. So much easier with two kids than three. 

Abigail had a great time this morning at her dance camp class. I hope she enjoys the rest of the week too. She makes a cute ballerina. 


We went straight to the library after because it's just down the street and story time starts at 11:15 now. I love that time so much better than 11. We left around noon and just did lunch, cleaning up, Elizabeth down for nap, etc when we got back. The kids watched a show and I started a blog for Chris's parents just making the texts and pictures they've sent us into organized and titled posts. We'll see how long I last until I can't keep up anymore and have to turn it over to Klaudette if she's still interested. We'd talked about it a bit before she left but I'm sure she'll be busier than even she anticipated. We'll see. 

Honey was traveling today so he came home early at 4 instead of fighting traffic to go into the office for a few minutes. He brought us chick fil a as a surprise (not knowing that Brady and I went there this morning) and we took it to the pool and ate and swam for a few hours. Speaking of swimming. All of Brady's practice in my tub paid off I guess because he know how to swim! He can't and won't, but he knows how. Like he can swim several feet but will only do it in shallow two feet water. So we need to work on having him take breaths and then put his head back under to keep swimming. Abigail still only wants to swim with her head above water which means she bobs into deeper water until she can't reach. It's like she's strategically drowning herself. Man, those kids. 

Then bedtime. I fed Elizabeth more when we got home because I mostly only gave her watermelon at the pool. Some chick fil a but I don't want to spoil her taste buds. ; ) And the girl eats so much that she could have downed probably ten nuggets so I just gave her a lot of watermelon instead and then at home she ate 2.5 Roma tomatoes and a third of a can of corn before I cut her off and took her up for bed. 

Every morning and afternoon and night, I'm completely exhausted. And then somehow I stay up past midnight again. Summer is killing me that my kids don't fall asleep until after its dark and I just need more time to myself. 

All day today, I've been thinking about Granny. She had a fall yesterday. And got a new hip today. Never a dull moment with that whipper snapper. With her new hip factored into the rest of her body, it just seems she's only getting younger. I wish I was there for her. I know she probably wouldn't know the difference, but for me, I do, and it kills me not to be there. I just want to hold her hand. We held hands when I visited her in the hospital on my last visit and it was magical. I just want to hold her hands again. 

I need a good night of sleep for my tired mind. Hopefully this brain dump will do the trick. 


Friday, June 24, 2016

Goodbye for three years

6.16.16 

I think Abigail and Brady have lost the ability to play independently. They are inseparable from the moment they wake up... If you can even call it that... They sleep about five feet away from each other. 

I continue to be overwhelmed by my stuff. I finally tackled this drawer which has been embarrassingly disorganized for umm... years. There were literally five toothbrushes in this drawer. All mine. I have a habit of forgetting to pack my toothbrush (even though it's on my packing list) so I think I come home with a souvenir toothbrush from at least half the trips I go on. Also, I think that plane ticket was from our brazil trip. In March of 2015. Just keeping it real, this drawer was a hot mess. And of course I forgot the after photo. Whoops. 

Elizabeth cries a lot more than she used to. Separation anxiety and developing opinions. And teething pains thrown in there and I get a lot of this. 

How perfect was this? It's the book return slot at our library that they change out on a regular basis. This time Brady happened to match perfectly. Soccer, kelly green shirt, navy shorts. 

Don't worry, she's still happy a lot too. Just not allllll the time like she used to be. By the way, she's got six teeth. Four front ones and the two to the right. 

This was our going away party with the Hilliers. They've lived in this house for over 20 years and never fixed the jacuzzi (I think it was broken when they moved in) because they didn't want the drowning hazard. Well, they'll be renting out their house while they're away and so they got it fixed. Elizabeth and I just dipped our legs in. It was a lot of fun. 



Everything was cleared out and ready for the movers to come take away the furniture. 

Talk about empty. 

The sunset was incredible. You can't tell at all by this picture but it serves the purpose of triggering my memory. I first saw it through the window of Brent's office. I think Colorado has some of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen, but Klaudette did mention that this one was likely so brilliant as a result of the wildfire (near pueblo) that was going on that day. It's several hours south but the wind blew all of the smoke up our way so it was hazy all day and I guess the colors reflect off the smoke or something like that. It was seriously stunning. 

Who knew I'd be so nostalgic for this house? 

I think I'm just mourning the next three years without this being our gathering place. Pulling up to this view for Sunday dinners or playing games on this lawn. I'm sure it'll be a happy reunion in three years. 

Chris took the kids home in his car while I stopped by kohl's to use my $10 off coupon. I thought I was going to get these items for nearly three but apparently kohl's has a thing about applying dollar off coupons before the 20% off coupon so it wasn't free but the bloomer shorts were $1 each and the skirt with bloomer shorts built in was only 80 cents or something. 

And then I had to stop by Walmart because Brady's flip flops finally broke beyond repair. I was so sad to see them go because navy matches everything boy related and the baseball design was adorable. But Walmart to the rescue... New flip flops, full price but still around $2.50 and pretty neutral looking. Hallelujah because the boy flip flops as kohl's were all character designs with the hulk and all bright orange or green and the wrong sizes and way more pricey. Dropped Brady's broken flip flops in the trash can and that felt good. I'm [extremely slowly] getting better at throwing things away. 

Seeing the Hilliers clean out their house gave me even more inspiration to try to tackle mine. 

I know I suck at blogging right now and I hope I don't regret it later, but I'm enjoying the time of not really taking pictures and in general just being lazy at life. ; )  Next month will be crazy and busy with traveling and then Abigail will be back in school... So I'm just enjoying this little slice of summer. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Summer break

Apparently I'm taking a summer break from blogging. Whoops. I suck. As usual. 

In other news...

My baby turned one. We had a lame celebration and called it a party and really I forget it even happened. Elizabeth still looks like a baby except that when I see her I'm all "holy cow! When did you get so huge?!?!" So she looks like a giant 8 month old. Or a regular 8 month old. That's what most strangers think at least.  I swear I'll write a one year post on her sometime. Third child, I love you so.  


Brady is doing great. I'm just constantly amazed at what a great kid he's turning out to be since I spent the better part of his first year not liking him very much. He's funny and he's smart and he's super into sports and princesses. He's focused and confident and very aware of his appearance and fashion choices. 


Abigail still drives me crazy but I feel like we're inching our way to higher ground and occasionally I get glimpses of that light at the end of the tunnel. She's like me in that she feels things deeply. Her tantrums and outbursts are fierce, but so is her love. She loves hearing stories and anything about when I was younger, especially her age, and asks me things all day long like "did you like pizza and watermelon when you were my age?" just because those are her favorite foods and she likes for us to be similar. She loves me so much. I am grateful that she expresses that often these days and lately, knock on wood, she's had more days of saying "I love you, mom" instead of screaming "YOU'RE THE MEANEST!!! I'M OUT OF HERE!!!"  So y'know, that's really nice. She's really good at reading (in my opinion) and loves all things princess (she favors rapunzel) and ballet. This picture melts my heart. 


After church, I had Brady take a picture of me with my two daughters. I have two daughters! Today we played story time and I sat on the fireplace while Abigail was the librarian. She first told a story about Princess Elizabeth and then next about a little girl named Abigail who was a princess and kept running away from home into the woods. I may have had a few flashbacks to the hundreds of times that I ran away from home when I was a little princess myself. Anyway, I'm a queen now (ask Abigail if you don't believe me) and I have two princesses and one prince. And a king. Life is pretty good. 




Sunday, June 5, 2016

Like father, like son

Brady was so excited today that he could wear clothes that looked like chris. I told chris to check him out at church but he never got to and didn't see brady. So just now, five hours after we got home from church, chris said "brady, I heard we were looking the same today."  Brady ran upstairs and redressed himself in his church clothes. As he came down the stairs, chris said "brady! Looking good!" and brady enthusiastically replied, "looking the same!"