The Domestic Goddess

I just want to say that Shelly Carey is a domestic goddess. I don't say this out of jealousy or resentment - I think that a domestic goddess is a wonderful type to be around. Hopefully she doesn't mind being around a slacker like me! When we discussed bringing food for the Memorial Day weekend trip, I tossed a pack of hotdogs in a mini-cooler. Shelly arrived with a made-from-scratch chicken tortilla casserole, complete with salsa, sour cream, a side of chips and cheese and a delicious homemade dessert! Remember also that the girl is Mama to a toddler AND works fulltime. Did I mention that she tries to (gasp!) get her child to eat balanced meals, complete with whole grains and a restriction on sugar intake? Talk about ambition! Several times over the weekend, sweet Shelly would ask for my theory or thoughts on a particular aspect of parenting. I thought I had a relatively well-developed, moderate parenting philosophy, but my answer always seemed to be a brilliant, "Um... I don't know?"

So, in all sincerity, Shelly, thanks for raising the bar for the rest of us. Thanks so much for all you do for other people and to serve other people. And most of all, thanks for never rubbing it in!

Surfin' Safari '07

Beach bunnies...

And surfer boys, eying the waves...
Even bathing beauties get camera-shy sometimes...
And the waves can really take a lot out of little surfers.
Thanks to Doug & Shelly for the group shots (and the foresight to take them!)...

OK, so we aren't actually surfers, but for once we actually saw some due to the rough waters! The big waves were fun to watch and would've been fun to play in, but they were a little too rough for the younger set, so we spent most of our time on the beach and in the pool. The weather was beautiful all weekend, with a nice breeze. After the illnesses that defined last year's trip, the mere absence of a raging stomach bug insured that the weekend would go down as a monumental success, and it did!

See more about our wonderful weekend on Shelly's blog...
http://thecareyclan.blogspot.com/2007/05/surfs-up.html

Later dude!

Kathy

Pukefest 2007 Cancelled Due To Good Health

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! We are back from the beach and had a wonderful weekend. I'll post details and pictures later. Shelly coined the term Pukefest 2007 for this weekend due to some health problems that we all encountered during our 2006 Memorial Day beach festivities... thankfully things were quite a bit calmer and went more as planned this time!

Too Good To Be True?

I picked up the above book at a garage sale last weekend. I'm pretty skeptical, but I've read through most of it and it seems to have some good ideas even if the timeframe promised seems unrealistic. It was, incidentally, published the year I was born, and it cost me a quarter. I asked the lady I bought it from if it worked and she laughed and said, "Not on my kids!" which didn't give me high hopes. I think training yourself to follow the plan outlined in the book is the real challenge. If I could hire one of the authors to come and potty train Will (assuming they're still living), I'm sure it would go very smoothly. I've assembled all the "tools" and plan to try to implement the big plan on Wednesday. According to the book, he may be trained by lunch! I'll let you know how it goes...

Bacuum Keenah

Some of you already know about Will's obsession with vacuum cleaners. Honestly, I fear without intervention he could grow up to be like the little vacuum boy on Leno. We actually have three vacuums (none of them stellar, for sure!) and he is constantly dragging them out, pretending to plug them in and making "bacuum keenah noises". We've had to institute a one-vacuum-out-at-a-time limit; otherwise we are constantly tripping over them. He also has his own Dustbuster. (If anyone is looking for a great birthday gift for him, check back with me in the fall as a replacement may be necessary!) Needless to say, he was ecstatic when I suggested a picture with the vacuum cleaner and became upset when I called the photo shoot a wrap after only three shots!

Great Wall of Gerber

How long do you think it will take an 8-month-old to eat this?

There was a sale at Publix recently that at least in appearance, caused me to lose all sense and reason. Over the course of several trips (in my defense, these were several days apart as the sale has been quite long), I've been buying up a large amount of baby food at a significant discount. The clerks are always shocked by the quantity, which I don't understand. Do other babies not eat like mine?

So I've done the math, and this is approximately a three-week supply for Sophie! Pretty shocking, isn't it, that all of this food will be consumed by that little body in that span of time?!?

So, what do you think? Is this an unreasonable accumulation? Am I going to be one of those little old ladies that buys huge vats of mayonaise and pickles from Costco?

Durrrett Drive update

Thanks to Andy and a little help from Papa Morris, the new tile is in the bathroom, and I think it looks great!



















Andy has also closed a door that connected the third bedroom/office to the kitchen. This required research to find the exact paneling, which we still have to stain to match. Below you can see both the bedroom side and the kitchen side of the new wall.

Spoono

So Will has an imaginary friend who makes occasional appearances at our house, mostly when we are at the swing in the backyard. His name, inexplicably, is Spoono. Sometimes Spoono seems to be a baby like Sophie, but at other times I am told that he is a big boy. Also, Spoono has a on-and-off partner in crime named (what else?) Sporno. They must be quite small and also good friends as they often swing together. There are a million questions I could ask Will about these characters, beginning with the origins of their names (if anyone has their own ideas, let me know). However, I'm trying to resist creating an artificial legend and so I try to neither encourage or discourage their character development (although I secretly think it's quite cute).

Counting Chickens...

Well, my most recent chick hatched 8 months ago, but apparently I still can't count on her. Since her amazing performance on Tuesday, Sophie's refused all milk products packaged in sippy cups, especially when offered by yours truly. However, she is still drinking a little juice from them, and seems content to nurse just two or three times each day. Until she either A) stops having wet diapers or B) starts panting, I've decided not to worry about it and I am just enjoying the increased freedom. She is still eating baby foods voraciously, so I'm mixing formula with them to trick her into consuming a little extra milk product.

We had a wonderful dinner tonight with our friends in McMinnville, Tim and Dana and their kiddos Samuel (aged nigh-unto-4, I think) and Laura Grace. Samuel is a sweetheart but that Laura Grace is T-R-O-U-B-L-E at just under a year. Her best (but not only!) stunt was to grab a gallon pitcher full of tea off the table and throw it on the floor just before we started to eat. A gallon of tea is A LOT when running across a dining room floor, we can all attest now. Besides the tea tsunami, there was also the tea splattered - and now running down - the walls, the broken Pampered Chef pitcher, and the likelihood of ants to come. Ah, the joys of motherhood!

Oh, a bit of advice to the writers of "The Office" (who I'm sure are faithful readers of my blog): Do NOT, under any circumstances, let Pam and Jim get together. The show may be ruined. Didn't you guys see Moonlighting?

Oh Happy Day!

I just want to shout out to my girl Molly, who recommended the Nuby cup as a first cup for Sophie. Most of you know the bottle-rejection drama that both Molly and I have been through with those little like-minded cousins, Zoe and Sophie. After taking a bottle for about three weeks, at three months of age Sophie realized she had a choice in this matter and adamantly and consistently chose "HECK NO, NOW GET THAT THING OUT OF MY FACE!" I long ago abandoned all hope of ever getting her to take a bottle, but after buying a couple of Nuby cups, things started looking up a little, as she finally showed a little interest in drinking from something that wasn't permanently affixed to my person.

So today was the historic first, the day I've been anticipating for months. Today Sophie drank her lunch from a cup, and for the first time since Christmas, instead of spending my lunch hour (and a half!) and $3.00 in gas going for a nursing visit, I was actually able to have lunch with my coworkers (at our local "Japanese Fusion" place - yes, I'm still trying to figure out what that means too). It was SO NICE! (Although I do have to say that I love my kids and in an ever-so-small-and-overshadowed-by-joy-and-goofy-relief way I kind of missed seeing them mid-day.)

So thanks Molly and thanks Nuby. And rock on sippy cup!

Kathy

Motorcycle Mama

OK... so it's really just a big wheel...

Sophie Cottontail

Here are some pictures from Easter morning.

Sophie liked the bunny ears....

But Will was more reluctant...

Happy Birthday To Me!

So this weekend was all about me. My birthday was yesterday, and today is Mother's Day. I had a wonderful birthday garage sale-ing, shopping with my sister Ana, and having a wonderful dinner at P.F. Chang's. Mom and Dad were up on a babysitting visit, and Ana came with them, so we've been a party of seven all week. This morning after church, we elected on a quick lunch at Captain D's since we'd had such a big, nice dinner the night before.

Although I am claiming complete possession of the weekend, a certain daughter of mine did have an 8-month birthday which coincided with mine. As you can see, she has been partying it up.

Durrett Drive

So many of you know we recently purchased a rental-to-be house. Here are some pictures of the house as it was on the day we closed on it.

Unfortunately, it no longer looks quite so good! In every renovation project, you have to take a step back to go forward, so in typical fashion the house is in a bit more disarray these days! The bathroom has been torn out, the carpet pulled up throughout, and today Andy cut in a back door (through the brick)!

1st entry!

Hi everyone! This is my first blog entry. Most of you will never read this until I decide if I intend to start keeping a blog. I have no idea where I would get the time to update it, or who might be interested in my random postings, but when I read my friends' blogs, I am tempted!