The finished backyard project

I keep meaning to post about our finished backyard weeding/mulching project.  I already posted the "before" picture, but here it is again.  

And here is the after picture.  In fact, it's even prettier now.  The taller green plants have sprouted pretty yellow flowers (daffodils, I think... but seriously, I know nothing about plants).  Oh, and the dog in the picture below is Skye, our neighbor's dog.  (Are you insane thinking we got a dog?  I can barely handle 2 kids, so don't even think for one minute I would throw another child into the mix!  Because pets are like children and that would be way too much work.  Maybe when Natalie is 8...) 

Da do do do, Da da da da...

Yesterday when I got home from work, Grant was lying in the playroom on his mat and talking up a storm.  From the kitchen, I thought I heard, "Da da da da da da."  So I went in for a closer listen.  And yep- Big Man was saying the D sound!  I have been working on this with him for weeks.  (Maybe months?).  So far my kids are pretty much alike in their gross motor skills development (or lack thereof), so I thought I would focus on Grant's verbal skills for a while.  Since he really seems to have no interest in moving around, much like Natalie when she was his age.  He's perfectly content to lay there and play with his feet.

The Celtics lost last night.  I cannot tell you how bummed Todd is. 

We went to the Sox game Wednesday night- they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It was a great game- we sat in our awesome seats right behind the visitor's dugout.  Dustin Pedroia hit a 2-run-homerun, and so did Youk.  Jon Lester pitched a decent game (although later, I read an interview with Tito Francona and he said Lester didn't have much control.  Really? We won, didn't we???)  I brought my camera but didn't take any pictures for some reason. 

Don't worry, I'll take a ton this weekend.  We are having the family birthday party on Sunday, so I'm sure plenty of pics will be taken.  I am going to be SO busy this weekend until then...

If it's not one kid, it's the other

Sometimes I find that coming up with a title for my posts is the most difficult part of the post.  That was not the case today.

So after Natalie spent some time in the ER on Saturday for her dislocated elbow, Grant came down with a 101 fever on Sunday.  And he didn't nap much.  He napped for an hour, and I spent that hour trying to get Natalie down for her nap (ahem... she also did not want to nap apparently.  I found her in her room having a "tea party" with her animals on the floor!).  Once I finally got her in bed, I went downstairs to get some work done, only to have you-know-who wake up from his nap about 10 minutes later.  He's a pretty darn good napper, so I immediately thought something was wrong.  He felt warm to me too, but really displayed no other symptoms!  Except for that not napping business of course, but he didn't have a runny nose or a cough and he wasn't sneezing.  He was like this on Monday too- woke up a bunch of times in the night (paci put him right back to sleep though) and Todd took him to the doctor Monday morning.  Thankfully his temperature was 100.6 at the doctor's office- otherwise, I'm sure they would have thought we were crazy.  They said it was probably viral and that it will run it's course in a few days.  This morning, he was in the 98's, so that is good.  He tends to fluctuate with his fevers (and not because he's on medicine- he hadn't had anything since about 7 pm last night when I gave him a dose of Motrin).  So hopefully the fever has broken, but I'm not holding my breath.

Let's talk about some FUN events we have coming up!  I hate being Debbi Downer with all of this illness/injury talk.  Tonight Todd and his friend Mike are going to bottle their beer at Barleycorns.  Admittedly, this isn't much fun for me (me + Natalie + Grant + no help = not so fun) but I do get to enjoy a tasty brew when he brings it home.  And I know Todd really likes brewing, so it makes me happy that he is happy.  Second, tomorrow night, the kids are staying at Maureen's (BLESS YOU!) and Todd and I are going to the Sox-Diamondbacks game.  I just read that Jon Lester is pitching!  We are sitting in our super-awesome-wicked-cool seats right behind the visitor's dugout (thanks Jenny!)

This weekend should be pretty fun too, provided my kids stay healthy.  We are hosting Father's Day/Bean's Birthday/Natalie's birthday on Sunday.  Today is Warren's actual birthday - happy birthday to the BEST father-in-law ever!!!!  So the Bailey's are invading Natick and we are going to grill out and have cocktails and cake.

And did I mention that the Celtics are in the finals and are playing Game 6 tonight?  If they win, they will win the championship!  And there will be a parade, that I'm sure Todd and I will go to!  GO C's -- BEAT L.A.!

In closing, the babies are doing better, and fun times are ahead!  I will leave you with a picture of the kids playing together on the couch this past Saturday. 

A day in the life of a kid with nursemaid's elbow

This morning, we tried to go to a birthday party in Lexington at a park with a big playground, and about an hour after we got there, Natalie was playing with Todd and she got another dislocated elbow (nursemaid's elbow). You might remember she and Todd and KK spent some time at the emergency room on Thanksgiving day because of this same issue. So after about 20 minutes, we grabbed a cupcake to go (sorry to Tiff, Chris and the birthday kids- Jackson and Sami) and headed back to the hospital in Natick. 

And yes, she did have nursemaid's elbow. AGAIN. Thankfully this time, they showed ME how to fix it, in the event it happens again. They also said she's on the higher end of the age range of little kids who get it. So they didn't think she will have too much more trouble with it. But in case she does, I can fix it! 

Then we came home, had some chicken nuggets, and then the kids took a nap while Todd and I did laundry and watched USA-England. After the kids woke up, we all went to the Sherborn Inn. We had gift cards to use! I had the steak tips and Todd had the asiago crusted chicken. SO GOOD. Then we came home and put the kids to bed... and now we are watching Talladega Nights (in honor of my race car experience at Texas Motor Speedway). I just finished uploading the pictures and video to the June 2010 and June 2010 Movies folders on smugmug! Enjoy!

Long week away from my babies

This past week, I was in Fort Worth, Texas at the Texas Floodplain Management Association (TFMA- pronounced TiFMA) annual conference.  It was a lot of fun, and I actually learned a thing or two!  But it was a LONG week that started last Saturday... let's recap...

Last Saturday, after the kids nap, we went to Wilmington to Todd's sister's house so we could drop the kids off and head out to Haverhill to Mandy and O.B.'s house to pre party before the Wilmington High School class of 1990 20 year reunion. Can Todd really be 20 years out of high school???

Above is Todd with O.B., Mike, and Cooch.  We had a good time at the O'Brien house - eating and drinking, as we all love to do. 

 

Here's Cooch, Karen, O.B., Mike, Andrea and Todd.  Only Mandy and I are missing from this one!  Thankfully Mandy sober drove us all to and from the reunion, which was at Salvatori's in Lawrence.  Our guys pretty much mingled the whole night (as we expected them too... it's their reunion, right?) so the girls hung out at "the spouse table." 

Obviously, we had fun.  And anytime the Wilmington crew gets together, we... um... imbibe.  So getting up at 8 am after going to bed at 2.... OUCH.  But I had to be on an 11 am flight to DCA to pick up my friends (and co-workers) Brook and Bryan so we could fly to Fort Worth. 

And boy did we have fun in Fort Worth! The first night we were there, even though I was tired and hung over, we went to Babe's Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, Texas, on the recommendation from my friend Van. Holy moley... this food was AWESOME! You only get two choices- fried chicken, or chicken fried steak. It's family style too. It comes with mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade biscuits, and creamed corn. We had some good food while we were in Texas, but this might have been the best meal I've ever eaten. One word comes to mind when thinking of this meal: BUTTER. Actually, that word could be used to describe every meal we had in Texas. Of course... did I take a picture? No. To quote Bryan as he was eating this meal: "If you were on death row and you had to request a last meal, you ask for this." SO true.

Here's Bryan and Brook in front of Babe's.  They look pretty happy despite the fact that we were tired, hungry, and the mercury was pushing 100.

The rest of the trip was fun too.  And of course, most of it revolved around food.  I hit up Sonic for a corn dog and some tots.  It's been a while since I've had Sonic.  I was really missing it. 

When we were at the conference, we met a guy from FEMA (I think his name was Gary) who recommended The Ponder Steakhouse, also known as Ranchman's Cafe. This place was only mildly scary. In a way that I thought maybe we might get our butt's beaten for being from out of town.  It's in this TINY town out in the middle of nowhere and it looks straight out of a movie.

Now, get a load of this meal.  First, a T-Bone steak with butter all over it, and homemade fries. 

Next, it was homemade apple pie (fresh daily) with ice cream!

Really, I should either be dead from a heart attack or at least 10 pounds heavier after this trip!!!!

But... we actually did a few things other than eat.  One of the perks of this conference was that we all got to take 2 laps around Texas Motor Speedway in the new Chevy Camero pace cars.  Um... can you say AWESOME!!!??!!

This is what it looked like from the inside of my pace car. I asked one of the guys later how fast the pace cars went and he said about 85-90 mph (although we all thought it was faster). 85-90 isn't much on the freeway, but in those turns, it was kind of scary! They also offer the "160 mph experience" but I was under strict orders from Todd not to die while I was on my trip... so I didn't do it. But Bryan did!

That is Bryan, in the blue, with his arm in the air, waving at his adoring fans (me, Hux, and Brook).  He said it was one of the scariest things he's ever done.  He was shaking when he got out of the car!  Well, he's braver than I am!  My dad did something similar at Atlanta Motor Speedway about 10 years ago and loved it too. 

Here I am with the race cars behind me.  A good time was had by all!  But I'm SO happy to be back at home with my three favorite people.  There is no where else in the world I would rather be!!!!

Grant rolled over!

Two days past 7 months old, whew!  He finally rolled over yesterday in the playroom.  You know how babies roll over (or crawl, or take steps, whatever the milestone may be) and then don't do it again for weeks?  Yeah, Grant isn't one of those babies!  Todd came running in and said, "Grant do it again!"  And do you know what?  He totally did it again!  And then again for Maureen today!  He rolled from his belly to his back.  He's pretty decent at sitting on his own, but with the Boppy around him. 

I will have to report back about when Natalie rolled over (I have it in her baby book which is in her room and she's asleep), but I'm pretty sure it was around 7 months.  Let's hear it for my late developing kids!  Whoo hoo!

Memorial Day weekend

This weekend, we got a lot of things done around the house, and had a little fun in between.  Saturday, Todd and Mike went to brew beer, while Mike's wife Andrea and their two kids Annabel and Evan came over to play at our house for a while.  Then we went out to Panera for lunch.  It was a little chaotic, but was fun.  I don't know how, but I forgot to take pictures!  Grrr....

Sunday, Todd slept in, and Natalie, Grant and I went to Panera for some breakfast.  Aside from Grant screaming at the top of his lungs while I was trying to prepare his bottle, they were both so well behaved and we had so much fun!  Natalie ate an entire bagel with cream cheese.  She discovered on the Delta Shuttle flight from LGA-BOS (on our way back from Charleston a few weeks ago) that she really liked cream cheese.  So now, it goes on all things bagel.  AND, it was the Indy 500. One of my favorite days of the year.  It was a good race... the Tony Kanaan story was awesome.  I like Dario Franchitti too, so it was good that he won.  (He's married to Ashley Judd, in case you didn't know!)

PLUS... Rosie (Maureen's daughter) came over and babysat the kids Sunday evening, so Todd and I went to see Iron Man II.  It was SO good.  Robert Downey Jr. is so stinking funny.  And can I please be Scarlett Johannsen in my next life??  Sheesh.  Afterwards, we went to British Beer Company for a drink.  Ahhh, to be an adult again! :-)

On Monday, the morning started with a birthday party in the playroom.  Daddy, Suzy, Meredith, and Grant were all invited to Natalie's birthday party.  We are working really hard on Natalie's smile... and how to get her not to close/squint her eyes.  Not so successful with Natalie, but the look on Grant's face is hysterical! 

Then we went outside and did some yard work.  We have this huge tree outside and it is in a bed full of weeds.  So we got out there while Grant was napping and pulled some weeds.  We pulled the weeds and cleaned up around the tree bed, and bought some mulch.  But our landlord is going to come in later this week and plant some flowers in the area (annuals?  perennials?  Todd couldn't remember) and then we are going to mulch next weekend. 

This is actually an after shot of the tree bed. There are a few plants still in there but we left those. See little girl digging in the dirt.

See a close up of little girl. Yikes, that's a lot of dirt!

                                         

Later in the day, we went to Walmart and BJ's and at Walmart, Natalie picked out this green nail polish.  Grammi always paints her nails when she goes down to Plymouth.  But her nail polish was coming off (not surprising, given the amount of digging she does at the playground) and she wanted some more.  So here she is showing them off at dinner.  Up next, the toenails!

Cute Baby Alert, Part II

CUTE BABY ALERT!!!

Seriously, I want to eat him up. 

Weekend with the girls

A couple of times a year, I like to go to Atlanta and see my best girlfriends.  It's so hard, because I have so many friends down there and not enough time to see them all.  But I got to see most of the ZTA girls when I was there this past weekend.  Here is a picture of us girlies...

It's Melissa Ayala Holland, Kara McLaughlin, Kim Robinson Schaff, Kristin Bayless Hammersmith, Stacie Wright Dees, and yours truly.

We hung out with Stacki on Friday, and got to enjoy seeing the boys (her twin sons Gavin and Owen) getting off the bus on their LAST day of kindergarten.  All of the neighborhood parents bombarded the kids with water guns and water balloons.  There were popsicles and water balloon tosses afterwards.  The boys were sad that they had to leave their teachers (ah, enjoy the innocence now!), which was really cute.  Friday evening, Kara, Stacki and I met up with Stacie, Braxton, baby Nathan, and Ayala at Mellow Mushroom. YUM!  I stole a beer glass, which is one of my favorite pasttimes.  :-)  Mellow Mushroom is one of my favorite pizza places- so I definitely needed a pint glass from there!

Saturday, Kara, Stacie, Ayala and I went up to the North Georgia outlets and did a little shopping.  I got a few things with my Ann Taylor gift cards that I had from Christmas and a few things for the kids.  But my big purchase was a Kate Spade big work bag. I'm so in love with this bag!  It was orginally $255, on sale for $179, with another 30% off.  So I got it for $134.  Which was about $100 less than my Coach purse, and it's twice the size!  Thanks to Ayala and Kare Bear for convincing me to get it! :-)

Saturday evening, we had a cookout at Kara's house.  Bayless and Kimmy joined us for burgers, pasta salad, pretzel salad (which I would like the recipes to both, ladies!), cheesecake, wine, and Taboo! Later on in the evening, Cory and Brie also joined us!  What?  Don't they live in Charleston?  Why yes, they do!  They were using the Delta pass to go to Costa Rica on Sunday for their honeymoon, but the flights from Charleston to Atlanta were full Sunday morning, so they had to go to Atlanta Saturday evening.  They stayed at Kara's with me, and then Kara was nice enough to take us all to the airport early Sunday morning.  I'm happy to report that they got first class to Costa Rica, and are enjoying their honeymoon!

Meanwhile, Todd and the kids went to Plymouth for the weekend.  Natalie got in some tricycle riding, and some time at the new heated indoor pool.  Also, Helen's birthday is coming up, so they had a nice dinner and cake on Sunday for her.  I won't say how old she is, but let's just say it's a big milestone! :-)  I'm sad that I missed it, but I got home Sunday afternoon and got several hours of cleaning and laundry in, which is so great.  Natalie was so cute when she got home, she said, "Mommy! I haven't seen you in a while!"  This is her new favorite phrase, because later in the evening, she said, "Let's read this book.  We haven't read it in a while."  

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend.  Now we are looking forward to our three day Memorial Day weekend!