Birthday Weekend!

We had planned on taking the kids up to Charlotte for the weekend and meeting Lauren there with her kids at the Great Wolf Lodge for their birthday. Unfortunately, the snow and icy weather forced us to postpone that trip and instead we ended up in Jacksonville for the weekend.

One of Callie's favorite things in the whole world is giraffes so we thought it would be fun to take the nuggets to the zoo and to let them hand feed a giraffe. It worked out perfectly and the weather couldn't have been better (Low 70s). We spent a couple hours there before heading to Jacksonville Landing for dinner. It was one of my favorite short trips so far and the kids really enjoyed it too. Callie kept saying, "Fun day, Mommy!" and Wyatt didn't want to leave.

Almost there!

So far, we've had an great weekend celebrating the twinks birthday (Tomorrow! 3! Oh my goodness! Already?!) But, before I get to all that, I wanted to update you on our potty training status so you know how totally incredible it was to go out of town for the weekend and Cal never had a single accident! So HUGE! Happy Birthday to us too!


(I wrote this during the beginning of last week.)

Both kids are doing awesome with potty training! Callie has been trained on and off for such a long time but she finally decided that she was ready to try for good. She went an entire week without a single accident, but had a set back when I tried putting pants on her. We convinced her to try again and it's been almost two weeks now without another accident. I'm crossing my fingers that we've almost got this nipped with her.

Shockingly enough, Wyatt has wanted in on the potty training action too. He's mainly been using the potty for entertainment and sticker-getting purposes only but I'm hoping that Callie is going to encourage him enough to keep up with her. Cross your fingers for us... I'm not gonna be sad to see the diapers go!

"Stupid" Debunked

We busted the culprit. It's 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' and it's been the kids' favorite movie lately. When I asked Callie where she got the word "stupid" from, she said, "Meatballs has it!", and she was right too. There's a part during the movie where the dude sprays his feet with rubber shoes that he can't take off. All the kids at school call him "Stupid!" and my nuggets have been watching it constantly since before Christmas.

I'm just glad that she didn't get it from me! (Our cat is stupid and I'm sure we address him as such from time to time.) Callie felt bad about it too because she ashamedly said, "I not tell you that anyyyy more!" without even being prompted. Little thing. She didn't mean it and I honestly think it was one of the first times she realized you can hurt people with words also.

Anyway, miss thing started gymnastics a couple weeks ago and she loves it! She's so bouncy and smiley during class and just absolutely shines! She's really good at listening to the teacher and following directions. I could literally melt when she is doing something challenging and glances over to make sure I'm watching her. Not only do I have the privilege of being this baby's mother, but she hopes that she's making me proud!

If she only knew...

Truth is, the most important thing to me in this entire lifetime is that they are proud of me.

Ouch!

January 20th, 2010... Callie just told me that I was stupid.

I'm sad.

I just put the kids down for a nap and walked back downstairs to crash. As soon as I sat down, I heard loud banging over the monitors. So, I walked back up stairs and found Callie banging on her crib rails with her sippy cup. I took the cup away from her and told her to be quiet or I was going to have to close her door since Wyatt was trying to fall asleep too. Of course, she got upset and started to cry just as she does every single time we put her to sleep. Nothing new. The kid hates naps.

So, I walked back downstairs only to hear, "Mommy's stupid!!!!" belting over the monitors! My knee-jerk reaction was 'OH! HELL NO!' and I jumped back up to head right back upstairs. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I had to take a moment to stiffle my giggles. It was kinda funny. (Where was she getting that from?!) But, after only a couple more steps to the door of her room, I felt sad and destroyed. My baby hates me.

That girl has a straight path to the root of my heart and holy shit, did it ever sting!

I asked her, "Callie? What did you just say?" to which she responded, "Mommy's stupid." I told her it wasn't a nice thing to say and that it made me sad. Then, I walked back out of her room.

What the hell am I supposed to do with that? Part of me wanted to beat her ass, part of me wanted to laugh, and part of me had just died a little inside. This baby girl, that I love more than breathing air itself, just told me I was stupid.

I know it's just gonna get worse the older she gets, but W-O-W. Now, I'm stuck in an internal prep-rally type of monologue with myself that goes something like, "Come on, Heather. She's two and just trying on different phrases. She didn't mean it. Where did she pick that up?!" over and over.

How am I supposed to discipline her on that one too? I don't want her to hate me more. I'm getting over it, but it's just so shocking because it's the first time that it has happened to me. I have no idea what the proper way is to handle this either. Help! Supernanny!

Happy New Year 2010!

I can't believe that I'm just now getting around to posting about New Years! We were so busy around the holidays! Laura came to visit and the kids renamed her "Snoopy" instead of Zippy. They love playing with her because she never tells them 'no' so they treat her like a human jungle gym. Infact, even when one of the nuggets would get upset, they ran to Snoopy for comfort instead of mommy or daddy.

We automatically fall into our typical New Years pattern when she gets here. I think she's only missed a few since we started spending it together right after college during a super crusty New Year in buttcrack Virginia. I can't believe that was almost 10 years ago! Once Brent entered the picture, we have never had a new year sans hot wings. It's tradition. Recently, it's evolved into wearing stupid outfits and doing funny stockings. I love it. Hopefully, the tradition will continue on until we are gray and liverspotty with tons of grown-up kids running around.

"Apple City" (Greenville)

Because the traffic in Atlanta can make a tightly clenched inky hole scream for mercy, we decided to see if Greenville was an alternative to moving back to "Stick City". We also wanted to catch up with our friends Byron and April who live in Simpsonville, and since it wasn't too late by the time we got up there, we stopped by their house for a little while and let all the kids to play together. Callie fell in love with Ella. She asked to bring her home with us.

In the morning, we just wanted to get a quick feel for the area, so after a couple of helpful pointers from Byron and April, we sniffed out Simpsonville and then headed downtown to see Reedy River Park. We were so tired by that point though, that all we wanted to do was to eat lunch and go home.


We stopped at Rafferty's (an old school fave) to eat lunch before finally getting on the road to come home. Greenville always feels bittersweet to me. I love being there and all the memories it floods me with, but it's so sad that they are just memories now. My life changed so quickly and so dramatically after I met Brent about a year after college. While I wouldn't change a single thing about my life now, I will cherish those memories and the people I took that journey with forever.

"Stick City" (Atlanta)

After Christmas, we took a day off before we were on the road again to Atlanta for a mini Christmas #3 with Brent's family. It was nice to see his mom and dad, both of his brothers, and their families too. (We missed you, Kayla!) Callie and Wyatt loved being able to play with their cousins for a little while. Brent's precious grandpa was there too.

Of course, we had to go to IKEA before checking into our hotel and crashing for the night. It turned out to be a milestone night for Poodie too. It was the first night he ever slept on a big boy bed all by himself! Technically, it was just a pull-out chair but it worked out perfect because the arms of the chair worked like guard rails. I also threw tons of pillows on the floor just incase he rolled off but he slept like a champ and did such a great job!

In the morning, we headed out early to the Pink Pig at Lenox and got a chance to shop a little bit after that. For lunch, we stopped at our old favorite Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall joint before heading out to do a little bit of househunting. (With Brent being gone so much, moving back to the dirty is always a possibility for us.)

The best part of our day though was getting to catch up with Caroline and Christine and all of their babies. Sadly, I didn't even take a single picture while we were there. All the nuggets were so cute though and I just couldn't get over how grown up Frances and Ansley seemed. It was ridiculous! We didn't stay too long before hitting the road again off to Greenville.

Christmas! (Finally)

Christmas was a blur. I woke up early with a migraine from hell and doped myself up on some left over drugs I still had from being knocked up with the twinados. I was able to pull myself up to walking zombie status, but I was loopy as a goon. I had the brilliant idea to set up the video camera and leave it running while we woke up the kids and brought them downstairs to dig into the goods. However, I completely forgot to take ANY pictures with a regular camera the whole morning. Oops. This was the first one I took as we headed out the door to my folks house for Christmas #2.


The lucky winners of the morning were the Ariel doll and the firetruck. The long-term winners however, were the baby hippo and the tea party set. Callie really loved her pink glittery princess shoes and this Fur Real puppy we all kinda named Lola. Wyatt was so overwhelmed that it took him days to warm up to each toy and is even still getting used to some of them. Vern. They really did love all their presents though. Santa was a pimp.

Christmas at my parents house was typical and so nice. It's my favorite day of the whole year. I love giving stuff and I love getting stuff. I love food. I love hanging out with my nuts fam. I love listening to my dad and his clone brother pick on my feisty grandma and her stubborn, out-of-touch-with-reality viewpoints. She can hold her own too! She's a precious and frail little thing who shuffles along with her stylish butterfly cane, preaching about natural medicinal alternatives and Buddhism. I dig her.


Anyway, we opened presents all day. I mean, we even had to stop and eat halfway through because there were so many gifts. My mom wants to put a smackdown on the amount of gifts for next year. But, I say screw that! It's tradition. I got spoiled this year too. My parents got me an itouch that I've been obsessing over and I had to refrain from wallowing in my Victoria's secret gift cards. Brent got me a cruise. Happy girl.


To be honest with you, I have no idea how the day even ended. And funny enough, when I asked Brent about it, he couldn't seem to remember it either. Weird. It must have been the eggnog. But what I do know, is that I hope that you all had a wonderful a Christmas and that 2010 brings us all tons of happiness and joy! We are so thankful for each of you! Love!

Christmas Eve

We have been so busy! I feel like Christmas could have been over a month ago because it was such a whirlwind for us. My house still looks like it barfed up the innards of a toy store and I'm dreading taking down the tree. However, Christmas was awesome. For me, the best part was having Brent home. It was like we had our old life back again and I'm so scared to get back into the swing of reality. Sooooo scared.

Christmas eve was nuts. I don't know what exactly stressed me out so much but I almost didn't make it out of bed on Christmas morning from a tension migraine that you would not believe. It started out slow and easy. Brent made breakfast and we let the kids each open up one of their presents. I loved doing that as a kid and would dwell on it for weeks prior to Christmas Eve. Which one single present I was going to choose to open ahead of the game? I used to shake and squeeze every single one of them. Callie started shaking them this year while Wyatt, of course, opened the first one he touched.

After that, we headed over to my parents house. I cooked for hours with my aunt, stopping only briefly to run errands. I didn't even end up making anything good either the whole day. I attempted oreo truffles which ended up in the trash, average shrimp salad, mediocre squash casserole, stuffing, and had the kids help me make green and red rice krispy treats to leave for Santa that evening.

When we got home, all I wanted to do was crash, but we still had to feed the kids and get ready for Santa before we could even sit down. Also, I'm the world's biggest procrastinator on wrapping so I had mounds of that to do too. Regardless, I was silly with excitement over getting to see the kids waking up to their loot in the morning. I felt like Santa had nailed it this year!