Stickers! Stickers!  Everywhere!

In early March, this became a favorite new activity.  For the most part she decorates the paper or herself.  I am sure that will change and I will soon find stickers on walls and random places.

Disaster.  Capital D.  We arrived at lunchtime…too late and too close to nap time.  Poor planning on our part.  Thank goodness for a concession-stand style outdoor cafe and the hot dogs on their menu.  Heidi was averse to walking on trail or off trail, among other things, depending on whatever our preference was.  Wyatt was as happy as he could be.  I guess that’s nearly two and nearly seven months.  They did enjoy the animals in the petting zoo and the ponies in the pasture.  The half-day outing we planned turned into an hour and a half outing very quickly.  Despite all that, we did have fun and enjoyed the scenery and the day…azaleas popping, air smelling sweet, family time.

First trailhead after lunch, Heidi stops dead in her tracks, squats, sets her drink down, picks up two handfuls of rocks and puts them in her mouth.  Seriously.  When told to spit them out, she did so one at a time as if out of a pea shooter. 

Happy on the bridge.

Smiley

Swinging will fix a bad mood anytime!  Heidi loves to swing and this was Wyatt’s first time in the swing.  He of course loved it too!

Gotcha with that title, didn’t I?!  Tee hee. 

Heidi was napping and Wyatt was up.  House was clean; laundry was done.  All tasks complete; nothing on deck.  What to do?  Head outside where Mike is working on the boat and have a photo shoot!  Natural light is great and the model was first class.  Yamaha Outboards Ad?  I never tire of hanging out with these kiddos or taking their pictures.  This blog is my running love letter to our children and I hope one day they enjoy looking back at it as much as I enjoy creating it.

Their daily routine.  Floor, lap, book.

Uncle David’s boots fit just right.

Hi, Bailey!  Like my boots?

A little bit of “puppy love.”

Sweet hands.

My main men.

Can’t resist sharing this one…walked by him and saw the cutest crack I have ever, and most definitely will ever, see!

Gotta love a bank sucker.

Cutie Patootie!  Even with carrots on his nose and dribble on his chin!

Heidi’s version of riding gear.  🙂

There’s just something about a pair of red shoes….

My fancy reader.

x 2

Mr. Moose and Heidi enjoying a whole lot of fun with “Lenard” on the ipad.

Oooooweeee.  You all saw this one already this month.

Now that guy has good style!

As does Aunt Keira, who sent Heidi these great pink cowgirl boots!

Poor Wyatt.  He already suffers the plight of a little brother.  😉

We had dinner with the Glenn’s over here the night before Wyatt’s Baptism.  Mom and Dad hadn’t met Allison’s girls, so it was a special night.  Wyatt thoroughly enjoyed being the center of attention, as evidenced here by the series of increasingly dramatic grins.  🙂

My Dad, Grandy, was of particular interest to Heidi and Audrey since he was willing to share his sweet tea.

Doug and Ella.  A Daddy and his daughter.  XOXO

Audrey and Heidi gave hugs goodbye.  There was even a sweet kiss but unfortunately you can’t catch everything on camera.

“Too Cool For Words” and her YaYa.

Almost ready to head out to church.  Well, the men are ready.  (At least these two are.)

Yay!  Wyatt is Baptised!

The Dunlap Family

The Moritz Family

The Turner Family 

The Dunlaps and The Glenns, minus one.

Allison and Doug, Wyatt’s Godparents

What a day!  He even lost a sock!

A party ain’t a party without a princess!  Meet Princess Amelia.

The rest of Febuary to come….

So, I am on day 5 of 14 flying solo with the kids.  Mike is away at training for work.  To my equal surprise and pleasure, we have done fine…so far…I’m not a complete dummy.  We had help a couple of nights from friends and some nights I have had friends over after the kids go to bed so I don’t go stir crazy and get lonely.  For some strange reason, the house is cleaner and more organized and the kids make it to bed earlier.  The laundry has been caught up for days.  It’s kinda weird how efficient I have been despite flying solo.  Hmmm.  This being said, I do not know how spouses of service men and women do it.  I raise my glass to them.

Today is “stay in pjs day.”  Who can be bothered to change into day clothes when the pjs are comfortable and warm and there is so much fun to be had.  It’s nasty outside so pj day it is!  We need to make Valentines anyway.  I am a HUGE fan of these washable markers!  I just got them for Heidi; she has crayons too but they require her to apply more pressure for result, which is unmotivating for her.  The markers give way better results; she LOVES them and for some reason is not inclined to eat them like she does the crayons.

Getting started. 

Halfway done. 

All done.  I love baby wipes.  I think we’ll keep them in stock long after diapers are gone.

PJ Day Heidi style.   Boots over footed PJ, jacket over PJ and later she dons her tiara.

Wyatt provided some mood music with his “fish piano.”

All of the sudden I heard him crying and before I turned around he was asleep, thumb in mouth.  I guess all of the excitement of the morning wore him out.  Poor fella; it’s not even 10 am!

Both babies went down for a nap at the same time.  Score!  Time to clean up the morning mess so they can make the afternoon mess!  🙂

Oh, and Mommy needs a snack.  Yeah baby, that’s what you call a double doozy.  Icing between two chocolate chip cookies.  Mmmmm.

On a completely different note, I took the trash out to the can and there was not one thing in it.  Shock!  I mean, come on, we are a family of four with two in diapers.  We are trashy.  Trash day is Monday and by this time in the week the can is normally so full that it will not close.  One bag!  Just one bag this week?  Pause… light bulb!  We have a new recycling program.  Instead of 2 little bins we have one huge one and can put everything into it without sorting the paper from the metal and plastic (with the bins we had to sort).  As a result, we recycle so much more stuff and it is our recycle bin that becomes too full to close!  That is so cool.  Think of it….that much less trash/ more recycling per family.  Buh-bye landfill.  Buh-bye incinerators.  Or whatever they do with the trash these days.

Duty calls…my short napper is up.  Enjoy your day!

Skip to the end if you just want to hear the funny part.  Last paragraph.

Just a quick story.  We are trying to acclimate Heidi to the church nursery because she is too active for church.  She is plus/minus on the nursery.  Michael had to study this past Sunday, so Heidi and I went to church by ourselves.  I’m thinking, “This is nice, just the girls on an outing.”  Heidi was likely thinking the same thing until we exited the stairs into the classroom/nursery section of church.  Instant tears.  It was so sad!  But alas, I was committed and Heidi needs to become comfortable in the nursery so we proceeded. 

I recently read somewhere that the “drop and run” method of leaving your kid somewhere is not always best and can sometimes appear to them that you do not like where they are being left, resulting in anxiety for them.  The article said you should go in and explore the nursery/classroom and show them how neat you think it is.  It did not work.  She cried the whole time I was in there.  She’s no dummy.  She knows what she’s there for…to be left.  So, the wonderful lady in the nursery, Noni, came over and took Heidi and distracted her while I left.  The church has a small sign that flashes your child’s assigned number if they need you.  I got through church with no flashing number! 

I returned to the nursery to collect Heidi before communion.  She was having fun and interacting with the other children and did not notice me come in, not even when I was standing next her talking to Noni.  I had to touch her and even then she was more interested in playing than she was in me!  Success!  For the record, I do not think the fact that I stayed in the nursery a little longer before leaving had a thing to do with the success.  It was Noni, pure and simple.  So next Sunday, tears or no, we are going to “drop and run” because she cries less and Noni has the touch.

And here’s the best part, the reason for the whole story.  I would give anything to have a 2 minute video clip of this.  We re-entered church right as communion started and our pew is up so we got directly in line.  Heidi is on my left hip; the minister puts my wafer in my right hand.  I turn toward the person with the wine and Heidi leans forward, nearly right out of my arms, hand outstretched for a wafer.  The minister asks if she can have one and I nod.  She is pleased with herself and he smiles.  We turn to the wine and I dip my wafer and put it in my mouth, Heidi watching me.  I turn to head back to our seat and again she leans forward hand and wafer outstretched toward the wine.  Uh oh.  Red liquid.  Toddler hands.  But the nice lady holds the cup out toward her.  So, knowing that not allowing her to dip her wafer will result in a tantrum in church, I let her dip.  The dip is not just a dip, it is a 30 second wafer and finger swishing contest and Heidi is the winner!  The nice lady chuckles as I quickly remove her hand from the cup and tell her to eat her wafer.  She looks at it and shoves it toward my mouth saying, “Yay!”  So I had two servings of communion Sunday.  As we head back to our seats I hear the minister say to the nice lady, “That was funny.”  Sorry to the majority of the church who took communion after us; you got finger-wine.

Charles Towne Landing is the site of the first settlement of Charleston, which dates back to 1670.  The park is on the Ashley River, right across from The Citadel.  Among it’s attractions are a reproduction of a ship that would have been taken from Europe to the Americas and the Animal Forest.  These two things are a lot of fun for kids, along with the wide open, vehicle-free acreage the kids can run around in without parents on their heels.  It was the kids first time there and they had a blast.  Everyone loves fresh air, especially when it is 72 degrees and accompanied by sunshine! 

The black bear initially made Heidi have “nervous” fingers.  😉

But she relaxed and called him over and over, “beer, beer, beer!”.  There was also a puma, bison, turkeys, deer, elk and marshland birds.

She even wanted an unobstructed view!

Wyatt got to ride “up front” in Heidi’s seat in the stroller so he could enjoy the Animal Forest and scenery.

Heidi and Daddy, melting eachother’s hearts.  🙂

She loved her first shoulder ride!

So much so that she felt inclined to give Daddy hugs and kisses for it!

All of that sighseeing and the bumpy stroller ride put the little man to sleep.

He didn’t even wake up in the transfer to the car seat and Heidi followed suit within five minutes of leaving the park, but not before reaching out to hold Wyatt’s hand.  Be still my heart!

Same story…if you want to print, let me know and I will email you the hi-res image.