Put Mickey in a Corner

For Christmas last year, Steve got Brigid one of those creepy Mickey Mouse dolls that sings and dances and moves his way across the floor when you press a button on his foot. And also, says things like shake that mousketail. Which...no.

But Brigid LOVED it.

Then, Mickey broke, and he was added to the pile of 'things that need to be fixed'. And while I thought that pile was just the places where toys go to die, it turns out, Steve actually intended to fix Mickey. And he did.

But B is now terrified of him.

She's fine if he's sitting all quietly on the kitchen counter. But the minute Mickey hits the floor? Hysterics. But, if we swear to her that he won't start dancing, she'll walk up to him, while hanging on for dear life to Steve's hand or mine, and offer up a knuckle bump. But that's it. She won't go near him alone. And if he starts talking/dancing, she's inconsolable.

(Side note: My kid knuckle bumps, and it's hilarious. She likes to knuckle bump the Masters teddy bear we got her at Augusta and named Rory, for Rory McIlroy, before she goes to bed. Also, my kid can say Rory. And we made her say it every time he was shown on t.v. during the US Open. Because of course we did. Now if we can just get her to say Go Irish! in time for football season...)

This does not bode so well for our plans to introduce B to Scooby Doo at King's Island when we're in Cincinnati next weekend, you know?


PS: Cincinnati folks? We're coming your way the weekend of the 8th, if you're going to be around. We'd love to try to meet up if y'all have time!

On the River

For a friend's birthday this past weekend, we decided, sort of last minute due to some weather concerns, to shoot the hooch on Saturday morning.

(FYI, in normal person speak, that would be 'float down the Chattahoochee River at a very slow pace in a very large raft'...)

I've never done this before, but luckily, I was on the river with some pros. We had eight people in a ten person raft, with coolers, some fishing equipment, and four paddles.

Which we did not use very well.

As evidenced by the multiple times we all had to bail out of the boat to pull ourselves off of some rocks in the middle of the river (and forced one friend to swim through the really, really cold river water after we pulled ourselves off of the rocks and left him behind...).

And that one time we almost got knocked out of the raft when we floated directly into the tree branches hanging over from the river bank.

And the hour and a half it took us to reach an island that was maybe a quarter of a mile ahead of us.

And yet, it was totally worth it...

I can't wait until Brigid gets a little bit older, because she is going to LOVE this...

Backyard Fun

Brigid and I spent twenty minutes this morning, running barefoot up and down the (very small) hill in our backyard with the dogs, while Brigid giggled  like a loon the entire time. She absolutely loves running around in the grass, and she really, really loves when Riley is doing the running with her. She'd grab onto Riley's neck, and hang on for dear life, as Riley drug her around the yard. It kind of scared me at first, but they were having so much fun, I didn't really want to stop them, and nobody ended up hurt, so I guess it's all ok.

I thought about taking a picture to document the fun, or a video to preserve the toddler giggles, but I didn't. I didn't want to, this time. I just wanted to enjoy the fun and the giggles while they were happening.

Sometimes, I get so caught up in documenting the toddler moments for the future that I forget to enjoy the toddler moments in the present. Today, I didn't do that.

And I'm pretty sure I won't be forgetting them anytime soon, photographic evidence or not.

She's on a boat...

Sometimes, I look at my daughter and think that I somehow lucked into having the most perfectly well-behaved child in the history of children...

Sometimes, I look at her and wonder who in the heck the crazy person is that has possessed my poor child...

Always, I look at her and wish I had the words to tell her just how much I love her with all of my heart...

{photos by my brother-in-law}

Fashion Statement

My poor Riley has a hot spot/callous/open wound type of sore on her elbow that she won't stop messing with, and it's gotten a little gross. We (and by we, I mean Steve) took her to the vet on Friday to see if it was something that we were going to have to have surgically removed, or if we could just take care of it with a topical ointment and some antibiotics. The vet said surgery wasn't really necessary, but we really had to find some way to keep Riley from licking that spot if we wanted it to heal.

So, we found a way...








She looks good, doesn't she?

(Seriously, dogs in t-shirts and massive piles of toddler toys in the background. This is my glamorous, glamorous life, folks!

Backyard Disaster

I know I've mentioned this before, because I have been unable to talk about anything else for the last couple of months in my everyday life, so of course it would spill over into my online life, as well, but we're in the middle of a backyard renovation. Our backyard used to look like this:

Why yes, our backyard did consist of dirt, exposed tree roots, failed drainage tubing, and weeds. Just perfect for a toddler, right?

I swear, it was like walking into an abandoned lot every time you dared to step off of our deck. Which we didn't dare to do very often, let me tell you.

Then we did this:

 

 

And by this, I mean we had four trees taken down, including a massive oak tree that I would have loved to have kept, but it was growing over the house, and every time the wind blew at all, I freaked out with thoughts that the stupid tree was going to land on my house. So, yes, it had to go, along with a willow tree whose roots were taking over the water supply, a dead dogwood, and a stupid tree in the front yard that shed leaves 365 days a year. That was a nice little step in the right direction.

Then last Monday, the extensive yard work started. Our whole yard was dug up, everything was leveled out, new drainage was installed, some sod was laid, etc, etc, etc.

Everything was looking so much better...until the monsoon hit on Tuesday night. At which point, we were left with this:

 

Obviously, we were a little off on where we thought the water was coming from, and we did absolutely nothing to stop the river running through our yard...so, that's nice. And really, really muddy, too.

Luckily, this all hit when we were in the middle of the work, and not after we had finished all of the work, so we're doing a little bit of a mid-project redesign. We're adding a much, much larger drainage area, as well as some additional sod to the upper level of the yard (which was going to be all pine straw originally). So, yeah. We'll get there. At some point.

I hope.

It's the little things...

When I ask Brigid who my favorite baby is, she gets an absolutely adorably rotten smile on her face and points to herself.

I think she's onto me, that one...

Daddy and Daughter

I keep telling him he's the favorite parent...

Someone likes being difficult...

(Last Friday, before we left to meet Steve for lunch...)

Hey Brigid? Can I take your picture? Can you smile for mommy? Please? Just one smile?




No? Really? If you smile for mommy, we'll go meet daddy for lunch today.



Thanks.

Brigid, can mommy take a picture of your whole outfit, since you look so cute today? Please? Just one picture?




What if I promise to give you an M&M after I take it?




Ok, what if I promise to give you two M&Ms?




That's what I thought...

What do you mean by no Internet?

I think I mentioned this last week, but we are having an insane amount of work done to our yard right now to correct several problems that have been driving us nuts since we moved into this house over three years ago, most of which can be traced back to the terrible drainage system someone installed back in the day that never actually drained anything.

In the process of digging up the beautiful patches of weed and dirt that surround our house (which are soon to be replaced by something that looks more like grass and less like something you'd find in an abandoned lot), the workers apparently cut our Internet connection. Which is awesome.

Or not.

And when I called AT&T to report the outage on Tuesday at lunchtime, I was informed that my 'appointment window' was between that moment and Friday at 7pm. That's a mighty impressive appointment window, right there.

Here's to hoping they were managing my expectations a little aggressively, because I'd really like my Internet back, now, thank you very much.

I may or may not be ridiculously addicted to my laptop, and withdrawal symptoms aren't pretty. At all.

You know, I'm really not sure how I survived my cableless, Internetless childhood, now that I think about it...

Lazy Sunday

Sometimes, spending all morning at the pool and shortchanging yourself on your afternoon nap can be a good thing...




Especially if your dad is pretty tired from all of the swimming, too.

Yard Work

We are in the middle of some major yard renovations right now. We still have a long way to go, as all of the grass in the front and back will be pulled up and replaced by new sod, a new drainage system will be put into place, and a rock wall will be added to help with the erosion, but we're making progress. So far, the deck has undergone a bit of a redesign and we've taken down several trees that were causing problems.

I'll post some before and after pictures when we get this all finished, but in the meantime...

...anybody needing any firewood?

In my defense...

(Steve has had a sore neck for about a week now, and despite my requests that he go see a doctor, he doesn't seem all that concerned about it. He says he's taking care of it, in his own way. But that's neither here nor there...that's just the background.)

Me (after listening to Steve complain about his neck again one evening this week): Why don't you go see a doctor already?

Steve: Well, I've already consulted a doctor, actually.

Me: You sent a text to [former college roommate who is now a doctor], didn't you?

Steve: Yes, he says I'm probably fine. I must have pulled something, and I just need to treat it with heat.

Me: I'd appreciate it if you'd physically go see a doctor, instead of seeking treatment from South Carolina.

Steve: He lives in North Carolina, actually.

Me: Really? I thought he lived in Greensboro?

Steve (after a brief pause): It's moments like this that I wish I had a blog to record these conversations...

Me: Wait, Greensboro's in North Carolina?

Steve (shaking his head and silently judging me...): Yes.

(See, honey, I can admit when I'm wrong. In my defense, and in that general moment, I may have confused Greenville and Greensboro...but I'm a Yankee, so it's to be expected, I think...)

Poolside Picnic

While I was at work on Monday, Steve and Brigid were at the pool...

Obviously, I am going to have to step up my game on Mommy-Brigid Fridays if I want to stay the favorite parent around here...

PS: I forgot to mention that I posted at Style Lush on Tuesday...so stop by and say hi!

Watering the Grass

Summer is just so much more fun when you can blame your desire to run through the sprinkler on the resident toddler...

Our Garden

A couple of months ago, Steve came home with this tomato growing kit that included some sort of cardboard greenhouse contraption that you start the tomato seeds in before the weather is ready for planting. And I mocked him to no end, because I told him there was no way these stupid seeds, in this stupid cardboard greenhouse were ever going to grow into tomato plants worthy of a garden.

I was wrong...

Now, if we could just fast forward through these next few weeks, until the drainage on our backyard is corrected, so we could get these off of our porch and out of the sight of our Homeowners' Association Board, I'd be even happier with the situation...

Full Body Armor, Take 2

At church on Sunday, Brigid reversed her recent trend of wanting nothing to do with her mother, deciding that she would instead be held by me the entire time we were there. And that was fine with me, up until the end of the Mass.

Because at the end of the Mass, Miss Brigid, getting a little tired of being in one place for so long, started getting a little punchy.

Literally.

After taking about four shots to the face, I sternly told her that we do not hit, that she was hurting mommy, and that it wasn't nice. I told her that she was being a bad girl and that I wasn't happy about it. And Brigid responded with an enormous hug and multiple kisses.

Because she may be rotten, but she is learning fast, that one...

Vampire Baby

Brigid bit me the other day. I have no idea where she got the idea, while we were reading, to lean down and bite my finger, but she did it. And it completely took me by surprise.

And it kind of hurt like hell, too.

(And no, Steve, I did not ‘have my finger too close to her mouth’ when it happened. Besides, this is our child we’re talking about here, not some creepy bird in a cage at the zoo. I don’t care how close my fingers are to her mouth, I’d rather not have to worry about getting bitten around her.)

I stopped reading and took her into the other room for a time-out, which lasted all of about 15 seconds, while telling her that biting was bad and it wasn’t nice to hurt people like that. I’m assuming this is just the next step in toddler aggression, as we’ve seemed to move past the slapping stage already, but I’m not really sure how many more steps I can take. In fact, I think I’m going to start wearing knee-pads and a helmet around her, just in case the next stage involves her throwing herself under your feet while you’re walking down the stairs. That kid…she’s sneaky, and I don’t think I’d put it past her at all.

I’m not sure anybody warned me that this parenting thing was a full contact sport.