Today has been full of porch-sitting, swinging, and long naps.
This is where I spent a good portion of my day:
I started reading The Help. We made things out of pipe-cleaners. The hot weather made us sleepy and quiet. But popsicles, new books about volcanos, and PINK PIE sure cheered us up. And Happy Birthday to my wonderful dad (who I haven’t caught on camera yet – he’s sneaky) who still gives the most wonderful hugs.
Our first day of vacation has been lazy, water-filled, and full of exploration. But before I get to all that I need to share a few pictures from our trip down.
The highlights of today were:
Relaxing on the back-porch and hanging out with The Adorable Stephen.
Bouncing all over the house and exploring every nook and cranny. I should go ahead and admit that before I’d see anyone else this morning, I snuck into my mom’s craft closet to poke around. I’m so nosy. There were STICKERS and PAPERS and SHINY THINGS and oooh, I want that and I NEED THAT.
There was time for silly pictures, too. Drew informed me today that I was the “best silly face teacher EVER.”
Stephen has a new swing set/fort in The Valley so Drew climbed all over it and spied on neighbors. I think he will be in there all week.
As the sun started to set, we got the sprinkler out and had enormous amounts of fun.
Also, it is my parent’s 34th anniversary today! This is a beautiful picture of them on their wedding day.
We also got to hang out with Granny this evening and even though Drew bounced all over her house in HYPER MODE she still gave him chocolate balls. They are best friends now. 😛 AND, we had Zaxby’s chicken today. Food coma + swoon + die happy.
Here’s the ongoing South Carolina Vacation Flickr set.
Surprise! We’re in South Carolina a day earlier. I called my mom two hours out and said, “I’m so sorry but we aren’t going to be able to come tomorrow.” She very quietly and sadly said, “ohh, okay. Are you going to be able to come at all?” “YES! I AM TWO HOURS AWAY.”
Cue southern screaming and giggling.
We’re here. We made an 11-hour trip in 14 hours. Heh. IMPRESSIVE, right? Three things before I fall over and crash in bed: 1.) I’m never traveling without the Internet again. This trip was so much more awesome. 2.) Packing all of our meals/snacks in the cooler was the best idea. Why have we never done *all* our meals this way? 3.) Always be prepared for the inevitable. You know, like your child running all over the house for two hours (after arriving), eating a ton of food, and then projectile vomiting obscene amounts of…everything. Oh, goodness. Yeah, it was bad.
But now he feels better and is cozily sleeping in his massive green bed. We’re in the Yellow Room and so incredibly thankful to have had a safe trip and to just be here.
P.S. It still counts as Day 5, right? Until 2am? Isn’t that the *cough* official rule?
It’s hot and sticky tonight. After doing laundry, sorting, planning, and making lists all day, I really want to soak in a hot tub and relax my stress away.
But instead of a hot tub, we made a fort in my bedroom tonight and pretended we were camping. Drew made crackers and cheese and milkshakes for us to eat while I watched for a thunderstorm. And when it started raining we dashed out to play in the mud puddles (pillows).
I do feel less stressed now.
Things I’ve enjoyed today: the new Kanye West & Jay Z album, pinterest, a PILE of pretzels, re-discovering some old recipes I hope I get to share with you, and a very long walk in the 72 degree weather.
FALL. COME HITHER.
We stayed outside for a long time today. It was cool, very windy, and we found sticks, leaves, and a few bugs to make it Most Exciting. While we took the long path home I noticed Drew was fake-limping and using his stick. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, “well, when I get older, maybe 5, I’m going to use this stick to help me walk around when my feet are tired.”
He also did this hilarious dance:
As we climbed the stairs to our apartment, I saw him pointing up at the door with his stick and I snapped a picture quickly.
Turns out, he looks like Drew Potter. ^_^
During lunch, we had a Cucumber Incident. I’d sliced some cucumbers on two plates and right after I told him please don’t eat off my plate, just eat YOUR cucumbers – the little punk snatched one of my slices and gobbled it up. I just sighed and grabbed one of his cucumbers and popped it in my mouth. There. We’re even.
BUT OH GOOD GRIEF. HE SHRIEKED “YOU STOLE MY CUCUMBER CIRCLE! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO EAT JUST YOUR CIRCLES!”
I tried to explain that I was EVENING THE SCORE but it didn’t work. At all. And finally after a few minutes, he started to tear up and said “but you did the WRONG THING, Mommy!!”
And that’s when it dawned on me – I’ve always said I’d never be the parent who bit my kid back if he bit me, nor would I spank a kid when I’m teaching him that hitting someone is the most disrespectful thing you can do but instead of just kindly reminding him that next time, please don’t eat my cucumbers since I made you your very own plate – I had to even the score. And I guess I should be glad that he’s clinging towards doing the Right Thing instead of always wanting to Get Even. Anyway, all three of us can be pretty stubborn so if I need to be the one to swallow my pride and eat fewer cucumbers then I will do so Proudly and Humbly and with Great Sincerity. And then when he’s not looking I’ll eat the ENTIRE OTHER CUCUMBER OUT OF SPITE.
I had lots of pictures to sort through after lunch so Drew curled up for a bit of volcano watching on Netflix and sure enough, we got to the scary parts pretty quickly and the narrator said but the men didn’t know it was about to erupt. They were standing on the mountain when the worst thing happened.
I paused it and said, “let’s play a game instead!”
That didn’t work.
“BUT WHAT HAPPENED ON THE MOUNTAIN?’
“Maybe dragons came out the top?”
“Nooo, Mommy. You are so silly. I BET FIRE AND LAVA CAME OUT. DOES IT HURT YOUR HEAD WHEN IT HITS YOU?”
I had to make a quick Rule about “no one watches volcano movies after 1:00” and we thankfully moved on.
He took a nap a bit later and let me tell you – that’s a breath of fresh air. He no longer takes regular naps and when he does happen to nap occasionally I just want to dance around the house. And get so much done!
We ate up the Awesome Food tonight. Chicken, corn-on-the-cob, green beans, and blueberry bread loaves. We’re trying to clean out the fridge before we leave for vacation and I think this means that the meals towards the weekend are going to be from the Dumb Food list. Like, cereal for dinner. Or something. It’s possible that I can be more creative than that but I’m really glad to be married to someone who thinks cereal is awesome.
I remember my mother-in-law asking me what I made for dinner one night and I casually replied, “we just had a big bowl of cereal.” There was SILENCE on the phone. And then a “oh, well. I see.”
If my MIL is reading this, I LOVE YOU…but really, that is just hysterical and I promise I’m feeding your son and grand-son very well. They may not get healthy vegetables like cucumbers very often but at least we get our grains in!
P.S. Look at this adorableness! It’s me, as a wee lass. I loved my bumble bee. And Drew loves it now.
