2010 Christmas Card

Hope your Christmas was merry and bright! Here's wishing you a healthy and happy 2011! 

Waaaaaar Eagle! Hey!

 

Please don’t think that this means she will grow up to be an Auburn fan. My in-laws have taught her to say “Hey!” in response to “War Eagle!” It’s cute, it makes my husband happy, and the outfit was a hand-me-down from friends of ours.

When she gets old enough to make up her own mind, our little Half-Cajun will bleed purple and gold just like her Momma.

Olivia’s First Concert

So I apologize to anyone who reads this and may have wondered why I stopped blogging two (three?) months ago. It definitely was not intentional, but I was having serious problems sitting in front of the monitor and reading because of my morning sickness, which is now (thankfully) gone. I’m pretty sure that everyone who reads this is aware that I am pregnant (due in May) but if not, Surprise! We were!

At any rate, not a whole lot happened over the last few months worth noting because of the aforementioned sickness, but before that set in, Olivia attended her first concert – Sesame Street Live! I saw the commercials that the show was coming to town and called an old friend at the TV station where I worked before Olivia was born to get tickets. Even though she is a huge fan of Elmo and Abby in the mornings at home, I wasn’t sure how she would like the live performance. Turns out, she had a great time!

Our free tickets were mid-level tickets. This photo makes it look like we were light years away from the stage, but we actually had pretty good seats.

I couldn’t get her to look at the camera, but here she is emptying my purse during the show. She was dancing in front of her seat, but we had to pick her up because she kept petting the head of the little boy in front of her.

This is a photo of the balloons that Olivia almost owned. That’s Elmo in case you can’t tell. They sold them during the intermission; C was halfway down there with Olivia to get one when he heard someone say they cost $15. He turned around and came back to our seats immediately. I felt sorry for Olivia until I saw about 10 of those balloons floating in the rafters less than five minutes later. Good times.

Another "Okay" Day

Olivia's vocabulary is exploding-- it seems like she learns a new word every day. Sometimes several in one day. Occasionally there's a word that she seems to get stuck on, which is common at this age. Right now, she is hooked on "okay" which means that she says it roughly 4,296 a day. Here's how the conversations at our house are going today:

Me: Olivia, are you ready to eat some breakfast?
Olivia: Okay, okay.

Me: Olivia, are you done eating?
Olivia: Okay.

Me: Olivia, why are you crying?
Olivia: Okaaaaaay!

Me: What are you doing, Olivia?
Olivia: Okay!


You get the idea.

Frick & Frack

She might pull his ears and pop him on the nose when she's mad (we're working on that), but make no mistake: Rocky loves Olivia. 

And she is crazy about him.

Busted

So having a dog and a toddler is a lot like having two toddlers. Rocky has been with me for more than six years now, so one big difference between him and Olivia (besides the obvious) is that I know what Rocky is thinking. He, unlike my daughter, is done developing, learning and evolving and after years of watching his wheels turn, I am fairly in sync with my dog. Have you seen the commercials with the dogs who have thought bubbles on cards that they display to their owners? I swear sometimes I can see Rocky's thought bubbles. I like to think he is pretty smart, but he can do things occasionally that remind me he is just a dog.

Rocky knows that there are some things he is not allowed to do, and he has gotten fairly good at not getting caught doing them. Notice I did not say he has gotten good at following the rules. One of these things he is not supposed to do is play with Olivia's stuffed animals. I try to keep their toys separate, although neither one of them sees a problem with sharing.
 

I don't think these photos can properly convey his utter humiliation at being caught red-handed when I came home from the grocery store. Eeyore's tail got snagged on his collar, and his Walk of Shame was a slow and clunky one. I think all the laughing further wounded his pride.

WOW Fun

One recent morning, around eight o'clock, I was losing my mind. More than usual. Olivia had been up since before six and was on Wide Open with a generous side of Whine. So as I sat there wondering how I was going to make it through the day, I suddenly remembered that one of the moms I know from MOPS said she takes her kids to the Exploreum. A quick internet search for hours and admission info, and I called C to let him know that we were going. I called my friend Emily, whose daughter Halle is 4 months older than Olivia and we headed downtown.

The Exploreum has an area specifically designed for small children called the Wharf of Wonder, or WOW. The girls had a blast exploring and playing for a couple of hours before we headed off to find lunch. Here's a few photos from the morning:

Halle is crossing the Wharf

Those green things connect together, and Liv is trying to attach them

These wedge mats form a "Reading Room Circle"

This is Halle's baby brother, Max, who Olivia just adores. She's giving him hugs and kisses.

Building and climbing in a different part of the Wharf.

The only downside to our little adventure was the fact that Olivia and I woke up the next morning with colds. I can only assume this is because she played in a petri dish, WOW Style. I think our next visit will be the day after the monthly Wharf cleaning.

A Story

I am going to tell you a story of love and loss.

Once upon a time, there was a guy and a girl, and they fell in love. He bought her a ring, she picked out a dress and early one evening in May, they promised each other forever. The next day, the guy and the girl got on a plane, and they spent seven lovely days together on a small, exquisite island eating incredible food, lounging in the sun and sight-seeing. 

One of their sight-seeing adventures took them to a neighboring island where the streets were teeming with cruise ship tourists. They wandered through stores and sat at a sidewalk restaurant listening to music and watching people as they passed by. He smiled at her as she browsed in the stores, content to watch her shop. He even helped her pick out a watch. On their last day on the island, the guy and the girl packed their bags and took the ferry back to the neighboring island where they would board a plane headed back to Real Life. They ate conch for lunch and while they sat there, the girl realized that she really wished she had bought the sunglasses she'd tried on while they shopped. They were expensive, way more money than she had ever spent on a single item of clothing before. The girl looked at her new watch and assured the guy they had plenty of time to pick the sunglasses up -- she knew exactly where the store was and just needed to run in to grab them and jump back into the cab on the way to the airport. The guy, because he loves her, said okay. So they jumped in a cab and sped down the road until they ran into dead stopped traffic. They crept along slower than they could have walked (and would have except for the luggage and the airplane) until finally, finally the girl saw the store. She jumped out and ran in, grabbing the sunglasses and throwing her credit card at the clerk with a smile, running out the door as the cab and the guy passed the store. They sped off for the airport, where the guy and the girl ran to their plane as the final call for passengers was being announced. 

The guy and the girl came back to Real Life, where nine months later they had a baby. Eighteen months later that little girl was riding on her Pops and Gran's pontoon boat at the lake on a lazy late summer afternoon. She was having so much fun that she jumped into her mother's arms, which knocked her sunglasses right off of her head and into the lake.

 

The End.

Labor Day

Sunday morning during church, I asked C how he felt about inviting some families from church over for a cookout on Monday. Since he is incredibly good-natured and easy-going, he said sure. So we had four families join us Monday afternoon for burgers, hotdogs, tacos and a host of other dishes and desserts. We had so much fun! The kids all played so well together, and after we ate they splashed around in the yard until it was dark outside. (Miraculously, there were no bugs!) Rocky had more fun than anyone else, I think. He was in heaven with so many children turned loose with food. I never thought to pull my camera out once the whole time our friends were visiting, so thank you to Keri for sending me hers!

 
Here are the guys eating – the dining table was full of women and children. I think someone forgot to tell Matt to wear green.
 
(Most of) the ladies. We were enjoying a few minutes of adult conversation before we had to help wrangle the (missing from this picture) kiddos.

Lily and Blake having fun with balls. How cute (and up to no good) is this duo?
 
The par-tay moved outside. I’m not sure what John Michael is showing Lily, but these two are best buds.

Olivia is the youngest of this crowd by six months, which is a lot at this age, but she had a blast trying to keep up!



Rocky was never very far from the action – he’s hoping John Michael will share his fig newton here. And Olivia is displaying her “shock and awe” face, which cracks me up.

All in all, it was a great day, and we are so thankful for our friends.

This Photo Needs No Explanation

Look Who's Rockin' a Pony

She looks like such a big girl! Where did my baby go?

Summertime Fun

We've had to stay inside a lot this summer because of the ridiculous heat and the bugs that infest our lovely wooded neighborhood, but we have enjoyed the occasional day playing outside as a family. I've tried to keep the plants in my flowerbed alive (somewhat successfully) and now that Olivia is walking, she has enjoyed exploring the yard around the house. I think on this particular weekend, C was weeding while I watered. After a while, Olivia insisted on trying her hand at using the hose. These are the photos I got before she turned it on me.

Everything goes in the mouth, even the water hose.

She has absolutely no control over where this thing is pointing.

Soaked but highly pleased with herself.

After all that hard work in the flowerbeds, Olivia was ready for a break. C had the ultimate summer time treat for her to enjoy -- watermelon! He chopped up a seedless melon and gave her a slice. I think she likes it.

C and Mini-C

Mmmm.

 

 

So at this point, Olivia decided that Rocky should get to enjoy some watermelon, too. He got the rest of this piece, and she got a new one.

Then she dropped this one on the ground -- watermelon is slippery! -- and before either of us could do anything about it, she picked it up, gave Rocky a lick, and started eating it again. Oh well, she's eaten worse.

Paw Paw Chick

My Paw Paw passed away one month ago today. He was my Daddy's (Pappy) Dad, and most of the world called him Chick. He was married to my Maw Maw for 61 years, and as she will tell you, they played together as children. Most of my life (and his), he lived in Chalmette, Louisiana, in St. Bernard Parish, but five years ago Katrina forced them to say goodbye to the home they had lived in since I was three years old. They had evacuated to Paw Paw's sister's house in Picayune, Mississippi, with their box of important papers and two clean pairs of underwear. They thought they would be gone from home overnight -- two days at the most. The eye of Katrina passed directly over Picayune, and I remember the ride with Daddy to go look for them the day after the storm. We knew we had to go before road blocks were set up (to keep the vandals and idiots out), and most of the drive on I-10 was in silence. I don't know what you remember from the storm or what you saw on TV, but I'm here to tell you that you can't wrap your mind around the devastation we saw. I know I felt like we were on a Recover Mission instead of Rescue, and Daddy has said since then that he was sure of the same thing. It just didn't seem like anyone could still be alive in the middle of all that destruction.

But they were. Paw Paw and Maw Maw were fine, and they were out with Gertie and Bobby looking for ice when we arrived. They had no power, so they hadn't seen the TV coverage of where their home used to be, and we couldn't convince them that they weren't going home in a couple of days. So we left without them, and two days later, they pulled up at Daddy and Momma's house. Rocky and I lived there, and for the next five months, Maw Maw and Paw Paw did too. I had never lived near my grandparents before, not like my cousins had. My cousins all lived blocks away; I grew up almost an hour across town. I saw them all plenty, and spent the night with them several times each year. But I learned in the five months I lived with my grandparents that I didn't really know them as well as I thought I did.

I don't think you ever really know someone unless you live with them. When you live with someone, you see the parts of them that never leave the house. I learned that my Paw Paw was moody. I learned that he could hold a grudge, something I had always attributed to Maw Maw. I watched these two people I love deal with the grief of saying goodbye to 78 years of familiar places, things and people. SEVENTY EIGHT YEARS. Even now that is hard for me to comprehend and fills me with a sadness I can't explain. I also learned that as painful as that loss was, my Paw Paw was a man of incredible strength. He had his dark moments during those months, but Paw Paw faced this challenge head-on. As soon as he was allowed back, Paw Paw was at his house to survey the damage and salvage anything he could. Even when he slipped and fell, tearing a rotator cuff and reigniting a spinal cord injury that would eventually cripple and kill him, Paw Paw never stopped.

After they moved into a home of their own a couple of miles from my parents, I tried to make sure I spent time with them at least once a week. Eventually, Paw Paw had to give up his driver's license, and these two people who had spent my entire life "dragging the streets" were suddenly penned up by four walls. I know he hated every minute of it, and he certainly wasn't in love with Alabama, but Paw Paw rarely complained about any of it to me. When he saw me, Paw Paw asked about my job (recalling specific details of the last report I had given him) and then when I started seeing C, he wanted to know all about him, too. Eventually, our talks became about parenting and marriage, the things most important to him. It was his purpose, his sole reason for living: family. I heard stories for the first time in these last couple of years, things that I suppose he thought I already knew. I listened to him talk about his memories, the happy and hard times, the triumphs and the regrets. I asked questions while I watched him grow weaker and sick. I grew angry.

I had just finished cooking dinner on a Thursday night in July when Daddy called. It was the third time that week that the nurses called to say Paw Paw wouldn't make it through the night. I was exhausted after the week we'd had and I didn't believe he was really slipping away. By the grace of God, though, I called a neighbor to watch Olivia and C and I headed to the nursing home where he was in hospice care. When I walked in the room and saw him, I knew I was saying goodbye. I am so thankful for the precious hours I got to spend talking to him and holding his hand while he fought to the bitter end. Daddy wanted to get a few hours of sleep and we went home after midnight. True to form, Paw Paw did make it through the night, and he slipped away a few minutes before Momma and I walked back into his room on Friday morning.

After seeing him so miserable and sick, I thought it would be a relief to know he's not anymore. I don't feel relief, though. I just miss him. I walk into his house to visit Maw Maw, and it is strange and not right. The air in the house is different with him gone. As my grandmother would say, he was a little man, but he left such a big imprint on everything he touched. And I miss him.

My Momma's daddy died three and a half years ago, and I still feel the loss as keenly now as I did then. There are days when I still well up with tears that he will never know my husband or child. I'd like to think it will get better, but Maw Maw's parents have been gone more than twenty years and she still cries every time she mentions them. I guess when you love someone that much, there is no getting better. You just get on. So I face the challenge head-on, the way Paw Paw did.

Expiration Dates, They're Not Just For Sissies.

Our day started at 4:22 this morning. That was when Rocky came to the door of our bedroom and timidly peeked into the darkness. There are only two things that can wake me up during the night: the sound of Olivia crying, and the jingle of Rocky's collar. And early this morning, I heard the jingle at our door and instantly knew that something was wrong. Rocky does not get up during the night unless something is wrong or he is cold. And if he is cold, he curls up on the rug at the foot of our bed and tries to bury himself in the covers that have fallen on the floor. So, I sat up and asked Rocky what he was doing up; he immediately ran to the laundry room door (which was shut) to let me know that he wanted his water. I opened the door for him and watched him lap up water like a camel headed into the desert. Suspicious, I turned on the light in the kitchen, and about that time I was hit by it: The Smell Of Something Seriously Wrong.

At this point, I feel I need to explain something about our family: we (ahem, C) won't eat leftovers that have been in the refrigerator for more than 4 days, but tend to be a bit cavalier about expiration dates. It seems that we (ahem, C) read or heard a story about how those are more guides than rules and to use good sense and your nose when determining if something should be eaten or thrown out. Thus a strange and scary new game of Intestinal Roulette was born.

So when Rocky ran out of dry food late last week, I decided it was high time he ate his canned food before it went bad. It has been in the laundry room for a sweet forever being saved for reasons I have forgotten, and he loves the stuff. Then I saw that the expiration date on the cans was May 2010. I thought I might should just throw it out, but I didn't have anything else to feed him, and the date is just a suggestion, right? And it's only dog food, it's not like it's milk or something. Right? Right. So, Rocky started happily wolfing down his canned food.

That was last Friday. Rocky was at Camp over the weekend because of a last minute trip we made, and when we got home and back to normal on Monday, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. On Tuesday, our neighbors were over visiting Olivia and I kept noticing this terrible smell. I couldn't find a source, though -- it was like it was everywhere, this horrible Fog of Stench (FOS) hanging in the house. I febrezed everything and vacuumed, but the FOS remained. You can probably see where this is going, but sadly, I didn't add it up. Tuesday turned into Wednesday and still the FOS remained.

Back to this morning. The Fog of Stench transformed during the night into The Smell (and Evidence) of Something Seriously Wrong. And I will spare you the details, but let's just say that Rocky's intestinal fortitude held out for almost a week but failed him miserably sometime between 1 and 4 AM. He was so ashamed of himself and had even tried to hide some of the evidence (gag) but at some point I think he realized he was going to have to face the music. Probably around the time he needed water.

The moral of the story, People of the Web, is that if the can says it's best by May 2010, it's really bad in August.

I guess she had a growth spurt

Olivia routinely rearranges the contents of my pantry, which I think I may have mentioned here before. It was new to me, however, on this day when she reached up to a shelf I was unaware was within her grasp and helped herself to the Fig Newtons.

Look at how proud of herself she is!

Splashing at the Fountain

While Aden and Becca still lived here in the States, we enjoyed taking the kids to the outdoor mall to play in the water fountain. This was before the temperatures were in the triple digits and it was still possible to be outdoors for more than 10 minutes at a time. Anyway, we seem to have sunscreen-in-the-eyes issues that we can't overcome (despite several different kinds of facial sunscreen) but otherwise, O & A love the water.

look at them making friends!

this is not O's bucket, but she loved using it to get around (before she could walk)

filling up the bucket

Our Backyard Visitor

Occasionally, I will come home to find Rocky has caught a turtle. It usually happens after a heavy rain, and sadly, I think it is the same turtle every time. Rocky is very proud of himself and enjoys playing with his prey, tossing him around or gnawing at the edges of his shell. I know this because I saw him doing all of this the first time he caught the turtle before I realized what it was he was actually doing it with. Anyway, we all trooped in the back door one day and I saw Rocky had captured the turtle again and sent Chad to rescue him. Apparently, unbeknown to me, Olivia helped. 

Family Vacation

As I just mentioned, we were able to take a much-needed vacation this spring to Chicago. It's somewhere that I have always wanted to go, so we packed our bags and stroller and hit the big city. I was surprised by how kid-friendly Chicago is -- every museum we went in had an area especially designed for small children to play and learn. The weather was incredible; we had a little rain one day but clear blue skies the rest of the time. We weren't really sure what to expect temperature-wise, and Chicago did not disappoint: the weather went from downright cold and windy at the beginning of the week to shorts and flip flops by the time we left. We stayed downtown at the Hyatt Regency and were able to walk everywhere we went (except one museum we had to take the bus to).We also happened to be in town while the city was celebrating Spring with hundreds of thousands of tulips.

Some of the really cool things we did while we were there:

Took an architectural tour of the city on a water taxi

Saw the city from the top of Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower)
Got our picture taken with Sue at The Field Museum
Went to Lincoln Park Zoo and saw farm animals
Shopped the Magnificent Mile
Played in the Children's Museum at The Navy Pier
Ate the Best Pickles Ever Made
Had The Most Amazing Dinner in a Brazilian Steakhouse
Found the most delightful little breakfast spot

Some photos of our fun:

playing at the children's museum

playing in the park

Daddy and Olivia at the fountain

Sue at the Field Museum

checking out the view from the Sky Deck

walking to the Zoo on Lakeshore Drive

Silverback at the Zoo posing for his picture

It was really windy at Navy Pier

There was an entire farmhouse section of one of the museums. I guess those city kids don't get to see cows.

View from the boat tour

How cool is this sculpture? Olivia got to play in the water at the end of the week once it warmed up

Tulips blooming everywhere!