Rain, rain go away.

I know I am supposed to be happy that we are getting so much rain since we've been in a draught, but come on already! The good Lord doesn't think about us mommies who have little ones who need to get outside a RUN! I should be counting my blessings...my 2 aunts and uncle in Reno, Nevada are dealing with lots and lots of earthquakes. Billie Lee said the "...earthquakes have lost their charm." I think I'd think that after the first one. Hang tough!!

We had a good weekend. Our good friend Bree gave us 3 tickets to the Theatre IV production of Peter Pan that she could not. So, Scott took Molly and Jack to the performance after breakfast at the Dairy Bar. He said they all loved it, that it was long and that we need to take them to more plays! Molly loved Wendy and Jack thought Captain Hook was "cool" and a bit scary. Later that night, our favorite babysitter came over and I took Scott to dinner for his birthday. His 34th birthday is not until tomorrow, but we celebrated early. Molly is SO EXCITED about Scott's birthday. She has a lot of Aunt Emmy in her in that she is always counting down to her birthday. (Emmy could always tell you how many days until her birthday and would tell us often) Anyway, Molly knows that after Scott's birthday is mine and after mine is hers. I am sure she will soon be counting the actual days and telling us like Emmy did. Molly also loves to celebrate and share her love for other people. She has a list a mile long of gifts she wants to give Scott. What we are giving him is pretty cool, but I can't say anything until later. Scott always figures out his gifts and I want to truly surprise him this year. Molly, Jack and I are going to decorate the house, make posters, and bake him his favorite cupcakes. I think it should be a fun time.

I put Becca in an outfit today that was once Molly's. I found an old picture of Molly in it when she was 9 months old. Becca is only 5 months old wearing the same thing! I used to think her size was cute and that she looked fine. Now, I feel a little sensitive about how big she is. Her GI doc, Dr. G., saw her on Thursday and used the word obese 3 times! He said"...you are clearly feeding this child to much." Which after he told me the most she should be getting a day (32 oz) I told him she only takes between 28-30 oz a day. I've tried giving her more but she knows when she's had enough!!! After the appointment, I called our beloved pediatrician and told him all about it. (he wanted me to call anyway to fill him in on the visit) He made me feel better about her size and reminded me that he thought I wasn't feeding her enough. :)

Molly.
Becca.
Becca, telling me she'd had enough. I think she looks like her cousin Grace here.

L-O-N-G, lonely weekend

It has been a L-O-N-G weekend. Scott is in California running a relay race. He started running them about 4 years ago. This race is called "The Relay". A 10 member team runs a total of 199 miles. Other races have been longer. Scott ran 3 parts totalling 19 miles. I looked at the results on line and their team, Southern Stride, came in 26 out of 198 teams. Not bad!

Anyway, he left on Thursday and I've been alone with the munchkins ever since. It has been fun, lonely, exhausting and has given me a newer respect for single parents. My pictures are all out of order from the weekend, so bear with me.

Sunday, it RAINED. We got 2 1/2 inches. By the afternoon, Molly and Jack were crawling up the walls. When I hadn't heard thunder in an hour, I let them run around outside for a while. They had a blast. You can see Molly is having a great time. I was laughing at her so hard the camera moved when I took the picture.
Jack thought he'd shovel the rain.
On the deck ready to come in!
On Friday night I let them sleep together in Molly's bed. They stayed up until 9:30 talking and giggling. I love that they love each other so much. I went in to check on them around 10pm and took these.

On Saturday, my friend Anya and I took Molly, Jack, and Wyatt to see Diego Live! . We laughed how in another life we would have been so excited to get tickets to see Dave Matthews or something of the like. Now, we get excited when we get good tickets to see a cartoon character dance and sing! :) It was a good show and I am glad we went. Alison graciously offered to watch Becca for me which I really appreciated. It was fun to do something like this alone with the biggies.
This is from Sunday. I turned on some music and we danced around like crazy people. Molly decided Foster was the audience. I give him a hard time but he really is a good dog and they love him! (AND yes, my son is dressed up in a pink dress. he doesn't think his "boy" dress-ups are any fun. they aren't. who really wants to put on a stiff firefighters jacket and dance when pink tulle is soft and twirls nicely??)
All in all it was a good weekend. I can't wait for Scott to get home late tomorrow night. I don't sleep well when he's gone and I could use a good night's sleep. Also, Foster gets hyper alert when he's away and barks and growls at every sound. I also just miss him.

Parent's day at Ballet

Molly takes ballet at the Richmond School of Ballet. It is very serious and formal even at the young ages. Parents are asked to wait downstairs during class so the students can concentrate. Twice a year, we are invited to observe a class. I loved watching Molly twirl, spin and have fun. One mom leaned over during class and said to me "...Molly is so cute I could just eat her up with a knife and fork. I love how happy she is all the time." I feel the same way.

Hair cuts

Molly and Jack got hair cuts yesterday. After many bad hair cuts at the local kid salon, I started taking them to my stylist, Rebecca. She's awesome and the kiddies look great! Molly said she wanted a shorter hairdo this time. Jack said I could pick his hairdo.
Jack wanted to wear his new birthday outfit from Nana and PapPap but it was to cold here today. So, he asked if he could wear the belt that came with the outfit. He was very proud of himself for putting it on all by himself!

Here we go again...

My sweet little thing is having gut issues again. The last few days she has gotten fussier and fussier. Sorry to say, it's not something I noticed right way. A little fussing here (she's tired) and little fussing there ("Molly, Becca doesn't need 10 toys, you've upset her...") and the next thing I know, I have a baby who is crying all the time no matter what I do to sooth her. Then it dawned on me to check her diapers and there it was, BLOOD! I took her to my beloved pediatrician the next day and his nurse tested 4 diapers and they where all positive for blood. As luck would have it, a rep from Mead Johnson, the makers of her formula, was at his office that morning. Dr. W. went out and spoke to him and they both came back to discuss a different formula to start Becca on. Regular formula is made mostly with cow's milk and the proteins are made up of long strings of amino acids. The Pregestimil formula that Becca was on have the protein chains broken down into smaller strings. The new formula, Nutramigen AA, the proteins are completely broken down. The Mead Johnson man gave me his card and said to call him in 2 days and he'd arrange to have the company send me the first case free. When I asked how much it was going to cost us, he gave me an 'I'm sorry ' look and told me the cost. Pregestimil was Oh-My-God expensive. This new stuff is MAKE-YOU-THROW-UP expensive. Kindly, the Mead Johnson man said he would help me fill out all the paper work to have our insurance pay for some of it.

Good news is, despite her tummy pains, she continues to thrive. Today she weighed 17 lbs 14oz. She is well on her way to weighing more than Jack did at 5 months. (Molly weighed 19 lbs 12 oz at 1 year!)

Isn't she sweet? I took these last night as I was getting her ready for bed.

Busy weekend & a Firetruck

We had the busiest weekend ever and it started Friday morning. Scott and his partner Brett are venturing out on their own and leaving Wachovia Securities. They are opening up their own office and couldn't be more excited. I never realized how much work it was going to be, for all of us. The boys have done a fine job getting everything in order, but forgot about silly little things like furniture. So Friday, Scott, Brett's wife Kelly, and I went to Greenfront Furniture in Farmville to purchase some of the much needed furnishings. Saturday we went to my nephew Riley's 1st birthday party. I have no pictures from that day because I went to Appomattox with out Scott, who had to work all day. We had lots of fun playing in their HUGE backyard and I never once pulled out my camera to snap a picture. Thankfully, Emmy took lots. Sunday was our neighbor Tommy's birthday party. He is 1 month younger than Jack and they are good buddies. His parents asked the fire department to come for the party. Jack, who wants to be a firefighter, wasn't sure about the truck. He said it was to big and loud. Molly, of course went straight to it, climbed on and asked millions of questions.

I was able to get some great pictures of the kids and the truck.



I love these...

I'd like to think the week will be quieter, but it won't. Scott is at work now and will work late every night this week until he leaves on Thursday for California. Things will settle down before long...I hope.

O Baby!!!

It was a beautiful day here. The sun was out for the first time in several days and the kids and I couldn't wait to get outside. After quiet time, we decided to go on an adventure. Jack thinks he's a pirate and is always looking for fun and excitement. So, I walked with Becca in the Baby Bjorn and Molly and Jack rode their bikes from one end of our street to the other and back. It is 1 mile round trip! We stopped many times on our way looking at bugs, flowers, trees, rocks, and talking to neighbors. The baskets on their respective bikes were filled with all the treasures they found.

Before we left, I took these pictures. (Yes, we are a family who believes in change!!!! Scott got the onsie for Becca!) She is also wearing Baby Leg Warmers made by Emily's friend Ashley. Aren't they awesome! They are the best Big Sister and Big Brother ever.

Beach Baby!

I had such a wonderful time at the beach last week. It has taken me until now to "recover" from being gone so long. My house was not as messy as I had envisioned. I do think that Molly must have worn 7 outfits each day because the amount of laundry was staggering. They were all happy to see me and I was thrilled to see them. Emily made the comment a few times how she couldn't imagine being a single mom. I guess the weekend away with Will wasn't truly a break for her. For me, it was. Having only Becca for 4 days was easy compared to what I normally juggle. It was also lots of fun to have so much time alone with her. She talked and talked and enjoyed being the center of attention.


Here is Becca and Will playing on the bed in their adorable diapers.

Becca having a giggle with Auntie Em.
In the BIG chair.
We went shopping one day and worn Becca Boo out. This is us sitting on a bench after a bottle. Emmy took several pictures of her asleep. She looks like an angel...
Becca again!
I love going to the beach with the Goetz women. It is something I look forward to for months. We don't "do" much which makes it perfect. There is a lot of talking, drinking coffee, eating ice cream and simply being together.

Tuesday

I love to look at old photos saved on our computer from time to time. This one caught me off guard. At first glance I thought it was Becca. It's Molly. It was taken when she was 5 months old.

This one is Baby Becca taken on Sunday. It was cold and rainy Sunday but we HAD to get the kids out of the house to run/walk around. I carried Becca in the Baby Bjorn. This cute jacket was given to her from Aunt Nika (Scott's sister), Uncle Dave, Grace and Sophie. **Am I crazy or do they look a lot alike??? Another of Becca. This is from Saturday...off to dinner.
An old one with Aunt Emmy. I LOVE this picture of Emmy and Molly. It makes me smile. Molly has this one in her room.
Maybe my all time favorite picture of Jack. This was taken first thing in the morning when he got up.
I love my kids and my life. I am truly blessed. I sit and look at old pictures to remind myself about really matters. Today I was feeling very overwhelmed. I felt like no matter how much I did, how hard I worked, I could not get everything I needed to done. I wanted all the laundry washed, folded and put away, house tidy and clean, children clean, groceries purchased and put away, dinner cooked and ready on time and everyone happy. I also wanted to have enough time to sit and do a puzzle with Jack, read millions of books to Molly, and play with Becca on the floor. There just is not enough time in the day. I try to convince myself that other things are not as important as the time with my kids, that anyone would understand when they see my piles of laundry, but I am a perfectionist. I want to be able to do it all. As I sit here, listening to the washing machine spin, knowing it's the last load, tomorrow morning, Jack will head straight for the first mud puddle he sees and give more laundry to wash. I can't be mad at him, he's drawn to them like a magnet. I need to remember that childhood is about getting dirty, taking the house apart while playing, and spending time with your mommy. The laundry and everything else can and should wait.

Chop Chop

Scott and Jack. Jack hasn't seen the "fire" yet!
Georgie, Molly and Sam playing with chop sticks.
The crew of kids.
Knox, Paul, Scott, and Charlie.
Babies in love. Becca & Taylor.

Saturday around 3:30 our good friend Knox called to see what we were up to for dinner. He and Sarah thought it might be fun to take the kids to Kabuto, a Japanese Steak house. We planned to meet in two hours since we all have small kids. Well, there ended up being 4 families total. Us, the Hubards, Dickinsons, and part of the Guthridges. (all of the fellows in these families are childhood friends) There were 7 adults and 9 children. It was crazy fun and a little scary. Jack and Anne were terrified of the fire. I must say though, all in all, it was a good time. I am so thankful to have great friends to share this time in my life with.