Walkin' Shoes and Playing Outside

We got Macie her first pair of "walkin' shoes" last week. She still much prefers to walk barefoot (who doesn't?!?), but she loves that I'll let her get down and play in her sneakers when we're outside now!


Speaking of playing outside, we recently got Ivie her first "real" bike, as she's outgrown her tricycles. Remembering that Ivie is only 3 years old, we decided against the fancy (and oh so expensive) Trek bikes at the local bike store we first checked out, opting instead for the cheaper "Dora" bike at Toys R Us. Which Ivie, of course "adora's"! So the bike has taken over as her favorite cul-de-sac mode of travel, leaving the scooter and the foot-propelled Radio Flyer trike (which actually belongs to Emerson) to entertain Macie, who, once again, thinks she's older than she is. More proof that it's true what "they" say about younger siblings growing up faster because they're eager to chase after the bigger kids. Slow down, Mac - I'm not ready for 2 "big girls" yet!

She Thinks She's Three...

Now that she can walk, Macie loves to show off her new skills (including climbing slides and stairs!) at the playground at the mall (which is the only place around here cool enough for the girls to run around during these dog days of summer)...

Major Hops...

I know I've already blogged with several pictures of Ivie playing t-ball, but I had to share this one, specifically. It was taken by our team-photographer-for-a-day, Grant Halverson, who also happens to be a photographer for Sports Illustrated. You don't see a photographer of that caliber at the t-ball fields every day! And after I have a chance to go through more of the pictures he took, I might have to share them, too.

But this one caught my eye in the first quick scan. Check out the air under those sneakers!

Day 5: Traveling Back Home

You know how the travel day going home isn't nearly as fun as the travel day on the front end of a vacation? Well, that held true for our trip back to North Carolina on Sunday.

Since we're too cheap to purchase a seat for Macie, we always get to the gate praying that there will be an empty seat that we can snag. Even if it means asking folks to shift around so that it works out (which we had to do on both flights TO Missouri). We weren't so lucky on the return trip, however, and both flights were booked solid.

I certainly felt sorry for the nice lady that sat next to me on the first leg. Heck, by the time the short, 40-minute flight from Springfield to Memphis was over, I pretty much felt sorry for everyone on the plane. Macie was overly tired and, after being force-fed about 10 ounces of milk (in my feeble attempt to keep her quiet), she was having none of the sit-still-and-be-quiet that I was begging of her. So she proceeded to scream and wrestle with me the entire way. I was "that mom" that couldn't control her child on the plane. But you know what? I was so busy trying NOT TO DROP HER that I didn't really have time to care all that much!

But the best part of this leg of the journey was that, after we landed and were taxiing to our gate, Macie fell sound asleep. Perfect, I thought to myself (and everyone else surely did, too), the kid finally falls asleep, as we're exiting the plane, and now she's going to take her nap DURING OUR LAYOVER. So she'll be primed and ready to scream her lungs out again on the 2-hour flight back home. Does it seem odd to you that the folks on the plane were very interested in where our final destination was?!? This was NOT what I had visualized as we started our day. So I only let her sleep for about 15 minutes before waking her up to eat lunch and hopefully use up all of her remaining energy.

After boarding our second flight, I was at first concerned about the lady sitting next to me. She was no-nonsense, folks. Seemed nice enough, and mentioned that her "baby" (who is now 18), was sitting several rows up from us, but wasn't quick to give a reassuring smile. Or even a smile of any sort, for that matter. As we were taking off, Macie went back to squirming, picking up where she'd left off on flight #1. My mood headed downhill at breakneck speed. Until, that is, straight-faced lady asked if it would be okay if she let Macie listen to Mozart on her iPod. I wanted to say, "Are you kidding? I'll try anything!". Though I doubted it would work, I wasn't in any position to scoff at the idea, since I clearly didn't have any better ideas. So we gave it a shot. Laid her down on my lap and put the earpiece in her ear. Which, rest assured, was a challenge in and of itself.

And wouldn't you know it - after only about 30 seconds of listening, she calmed down and laid very still on my lap. As if she were really into it! Three minutes later, she was sound asleep. And didn't wake up until the very end of the flight. Good work, lady! Dale later described her as potentially the nicest person in the world to have never smiled. I mean, she literally didn't smile the ENTIRE time we were on the flight. Not even when I looked at her in amazement when Macie drifted off to sleep with Mozart rocking in her ear. Since anyone else would have probably laughed their head off at the look on my face, her not smiling must have been pretty hard to do, but she pulled it off masterfully.

So that was the story of Macie. Thankfully, Ivie is old enough to do pretty well on flights, now, so there really isn't much to report about her. She, too, fell asleep on the long leg (lying on Dale's lap), which was nice. Dale and I had a few quiet moments to ourselves, which certainly doesn't happen very often!

So, as I wrap up the vacation blogs, I'll end with this:

As many times as I've traveled, I still can't get over the phenomenal feeling that engulfs me when I walk through my own front door (or garage door in this case, but you get the picture). Sure, I was super sad to leave my family that morning. Gosh, I wish I lived closer - I miss them so very much, and seeing them just brings those feelings to the forefront. I mean, I'm about to shed a tear as I type this, and I'm not even dealing with pregnancy hormones! Now THAT'S some serious love for the fam!

But, even still, there's nothing better than home, sweet home. Thank you, God, for such a wonderful blessing. Please let me never take it for granted.

The Dirty Marshmallow Meltdown

Emerson, our 2-year-old neighbor, joined us for dinner tonight, as her mom, Brooke, had an evening meeting. After the girls all finished their dinner of chicken nuggets, peas and carrots, and peaches (which Em didn't eat, by the way, Brooke!), Ivie pulled out the bag of marshmallows from the pantry and put some on the table for her and Em to share.

To preface the rest of this story, Ivie started the day today a bit wheezy, and it continued into this evening. She kept saying that she "wasn't sick" (probably because she was anticipating the "dinosaur" breathing treatment), even though she was more crabby than normal.

Anyway, at some point during the sharing of the marshmallows, Ivie went nuts. Started crying, spitting out a marshmallow, and saying "Emerson gave me a dirty marshmallow, and now I'm sick!". It was a complete meltdown, particularly since we couldn't decipher what, exactly, had made the marshmallow "dirty".

After her anger caused her to slap Macie's open sippy cup and spill milk all over the counter and floor, I carried Ivie up to her room for some cooling off time (read: Ivie screaming her head off for 5 straight minutes). Don't worry, Brooke, Em didn't witness any of this - Danny's mom came to get her right as I was carrying Iv up the stairs!

After about 5 minutes (it might have been closer to 7 or 8 - Ivie wasn't the only one that needed some cooling off time), I went upstairs to talk to her about getting angry (the standard "take a deep breath and make good choices" chat). But when I opened the door, she was standing at her bookshelf and had apparently just thrown up all over the floor. GROSS.

So I went over to comfort her and determine the best mode of clean-up, thinking to myself that it must have been the combination of her not feeling well and the hysterical screaming from being put in her room that pushed her over the top. But right about that time, Ivie gave me her opinion as to why she got sick. She said to me, "See, Mommy? The dirty marshmallow made me throw-up!".

Yeah, that must have been it, Iv. It's amazing the power of a "dirty" marshmallow, isn't it?!?

Day 4: Girls Shopping Day and the Family Fun Park

Since the guys got a golf day, it's only fair that the girls got a shopping day, right? On Saturday morning, Mom, Sarah, Bobbie, and I headed to Tanger Outlets, located conveniently just up the road from our hotel. Matt and Carla decided to take a side trip to the Titanic Museum, and Tony took the Anderson kids to the Farmer's Market in Springfield, so that left Dad, Scott, and Dale with the 4 remaining kids.

It was clear that us girls don't get out enough to shop. We were giddy with the excitement of a day out, and it showed with the free-flowing credit cards. Oh. Wait. It was only ME that went a bit overboard with the shopping. You know, the only one that had to fit all of the purchases in her luggage and meet the 50-pound airline weight limit? Yeah, that girl. The REST of the girls managed to keep control of themselves with 4 or 5 purchases each. I won't tell you how many items I bought, but I WILL tell you that it's the first time in quite a while that I've shopped for myself. And also the first time in a while when I've spent more money shopping than Dale spent golfing!

While we shopped, the guys took the kids to a local playground. Macie fell asleep in the car on the way (shock!), and apparently slept for the entire hour and a half they were there. So Dale hung out in the car with her, while Ivie played with Brayden and Gavin. And us girls? Well, we had a wonderful day, and ended up back at the hotel around 4'ish. The kids were down for naps, but we ended up rounding them up fairly quickly to go up the road to the Family Fun Park, which had mini-golf and go-carts for the older kids/adults, and a $15 armband that allowed the little kids to ride the rides over and over, as many times as they wanted, for 2 hours. PERFECT.

Before leaving the hotel for this evening entertainment, we decided to try to get a family picture. The story about taking it is a pretty funny one itself...

After we rounded everyone up in the hotel lobby and found a friendly soul to bear with us and snap a few shots, I had to explain to her that I had my zoom lens on the camera, so she was going to have to step pretty far back to get us all in the frame. I wasn't joking. Turns out, she had to step through the automatic doors of the lobby entrance! So that was a pretty funny sight. And it got even more comedic when, on her first decent timing opportunity for the shot, the doors started closing on her. And you could see them in the sides of the frame on the picture she took. By this point, it was written all over her face that she was sorry that she'd agreed to the task. But it turns out that we ultimately, on the very next shot, got a great picture, with everyone looking at the camera except for Macie. Not too bad for 17 people...


For the Family Fun Park story, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking...


We wrapped up the evening with dinner at Fuddrucker's. Couldn't have found a more family-friendly place to take the clan and enjoy each other's company on the last night of our trip. Where did the weekend go?!?

Pony Rides

Saturday was a day full of t-ball and birthday parties. Since Dale was here this weekend, we decided to attempt to attend all 3 events: T-ball from 8:50a - 9:50a, Violet's birthday party at 10:30a, and Caroline's party at 3p.

Turns out we might have bitten off more than we could chew. Or more than Ivie could, at least... T-ball was great; Ivie even put on a non-UNC batting helmet! And after hitting the ball the second time, she took off running even without Dale jogging next to her. Never mind that she made a beeline straight for second base - at least she's running somewhere! So we're making progress in that arena, though she still gets really upset when the ball doesn't come to her in the field.

Violet's party was at a park in Apex, which turned out to be about a 40-minute drive from the ball field. Ivie does not do well in the car. She loves to talk. Incessantly. And loudly. And the more you ask her to quiet down, the louder she gets. Poor Macie - if she does manage to fall asleep (which she did on Saturday), it's certainly not a peaceful sleep and it doesn't last long.

So by the time we got to the playground for Violet's party, Dale and I were already worn out and had threatened to turn around more than one time. But we made it, and Iv had a great time with the pony rides and playing on the playground.





We hoped that the party would wear her out enough that she would behave on the way home. And she did, partly because she was chowing on her cheeseburger and fries. By the time we got home and got her upstairs for nap, it was 1:15p.

Which meant that her afternoon nap was going to have to be a short one, because Caroline's pool party started at 3p. So, at 2:40p (the absolute longest we could wait), Dale went upstairs and gently woke her up.

And what he got in return was the craziest thing we'd ever seen. We should have predicted it, really, given the tiring morning she'd had. Apparently we'd have been better off just letting her sleep. Because she woke up sobbing and delirious, and literally didn't stop crying for 30 minutes. It was unbelievable, really. Words can't even describe it. I should have pulled out the Flip to document it. Nothing worked. Macie just kept looking at her like, "who is this kid, and what did she do to my sister?!?" By the time she pulled herself together enough to get into her swimsuit, it was 3:20p. Thankfully, the pool party was only about 10 minutes away, so we made it in time to play in the water a bit before the cookie cake (yum!). As it shook out, playing and swimming with her friends was all Ivie needed to turn her afternoon around. She had a blast, making the ordeal of getting there worth it. Or so I can say now, at least, since the day is over and we all got a good night's sleep...

SippiGrip

This thing is one of the best inventions EVER. Why didn't I have one (or ten) of these with Ivie?!? I cannot tell you how nice it is to not have to bend over and pick up the sippy cup, oh, about 8 million times a day. Moms of toddlers/new babies (all, let's see, 2 of you that read my blog), make the investment! You'll be happy you did!


Macie likes it, too. Can't you tell from her ensuing smiles? And check out those teeth!

Show-and-Tell, Round 31: "Felicia"

Dale and I had a conversation yesterday morning about Ivie's choice for Show-and-Tell. Dale said, "Surely you've already done a blog on Felicia!?!", since she's been a member of our family for so long. But I questioned it, thinking that Felicia might have gone to school before I started the Show-and-Tell blogs.

Turns out I was right. No blog on Felicia yet. Felicia (obviously one of the babies from Shrek the Third) is one of the ugliest dolls you'll ever see. It was on sale at Target over a year ago, and I'm not surprised that it wasn't a big seller. But it turns out that it was one of the best impulse toy purchases we've ever made (and we've made a lot of them), because it's become one of Ivie's favorites. Felicia rarely has all of her clothes on, since it's very simple velcro on both the shirt and the diaper, so they're more often than not pulled off and left strewn somewhere around the house. So it's pretty huge that I was able to find both pieces yesterday morning to send Felicia to school fully clad.

Macie has grown to enjoy Felicia, too. Why, you ask? Because Felicia's ears (made of a soft rubber) are GREAT for chomping, which is Mac's sole requirement in a toy these days. In fact, maybe we should take Felicia to MACIE'S class at school so she will spend her time biting the ears instead of her classmates...

Dear Concerned Reader...

While I fully acknowledge that a PICTURE of a new tooth would be much more exciting than the boring "tooth chart", I must explain that when a new tooth just cuts through, it is impossible to take an identifiable picture of it. For some reason, an almost-11-month-old resists the wide-open-mouth-with-camera-lens-inserted position. Heck, I, as an almost 33-year-old, would probably fight that battle, too!

But I promise that there will be MANY more pictures of the cutest girls in the world. And probably very soon. And in one (or several) of them, I promise that you will get to see Macie's new teeth as they come in. So please accept the tooth chart for now.

It's the least I can do for my favorite Stacy (aka, "concerned reader") on her birthday. Love ya, girl! And miss you terribly. Do we have a job for you at UNC yet? Oh, wait, we have to at least wait until after you prove your mettle by passing Comps... We're praying for ya!