weekend update

This weekend David's dad came for a visit. The kiddos seemed to enjoy his company, but it drives me nuts that he is so partial to Scarlett. I hope it changes as they get older, but if it doesn't I am afraid it will mess up his relationship with Matthew. Time will tell, and I don't guess I can let it worry me now.

Saturday night we went to the Tigers/Rays baseball game. The Rays clinched their division Friday night (thanks to a Boston loss) so the outcome of the game didn't matter. I had sworn off the Tigers a couple of years ago but because David's dad is a Rays fan and David bought tickets from a season ticket holder (so we weren't giving the Tigers any money...they already made their buck off the tickets), I agreed we would go. Our seats were 8 rows behind the Rays dugout, and during the breaks between innings, we watched all the kids go down to try go get balls. Finally David's dad took Matthew down for their chance. They went down a few times with no luck, but then David's dad came back and said one of the pitchers promised to get them a ball at the next break. We were hoping it would be signed, but when they got it it was not. Oh well, it's still really awesome to have a ball, right? The people around us were all really nice too - the people behind us gave us tickets to ride the carousel and ferris wheel. We took Matthew on them & he had a blast. We got back to our seats and thanked the people again, then Matthew turned around and started telling them all about riding the tiger and riding in the baseballs. (The carousel has tigers on it, and the ferris wheel is all baseballs.) I think they enjoyed hearing from him how much he enjoyed it. The Tigers won the game and we all had a good time. There were fireworks after the game, and Scarlett LOVED the fireworks. She sat there and pointed and clapped - it was so cute!

Off to knit :)

and another little whine - **edited

I don't know what the heck people are walking for today, but there's been a lot of screaming & yelling & horn honking going on all afternoon. It's disturbing Scarlett's nap! and you know when babies don't nap, they are cranky. And when babies are cranky, mommies have to try really hard not to be cranky. I finally went & looked and there are a lot of people wearing bright yellow t-shirts walking by in groups. Even if this is some great fundraiser/awareness thing, shouldn't most of them have gone by now? This thing shouldn't be lasting over 2 hours, should it? Not in front of MY house anyway, right? ARGHGHGHGH!! Maybe I need to volunteer on the committee...I'll suggest that next year the walk take place in the business part of town, not the residential area! ;)

** Edited to say that I'm guessing Beth was right, this weekend IS the Michigan 3-Day and the route is probably going by my house. So now I feel like a total putz for complaining. It's a great cause. But why were they wearing YELLOW? Last weekend when we were in Atlanta we crossed the path of their 3-Day and it was obgvious from their t-shirts.

potty talk

I've been kinda trying to potty train Matthew. Since our last trip to Georgia he has shown more interest. I think because my niece is potty trained and they are best buddies. But he's very back & forth...one day he'll always want to go and the next day he fusses every time I mention it. So I dunno - he's also not showing a lot of the classic readiness signs. BUT I think to myself, he's almost 3, he SHOULD be ready!

Well, Scarlett has been saying "potty" and patting her lower belly every time I change her diaper lately. She also runs to the gate whenever I ask Matthew if he needs to potty. So I kinda thought she might be interested & understand a bit about it so we started putting her on the potty occasionally. Well this morning David let me sleep in and he said she & Matthew were playing & suddenly she stood up & said "potty" and went to the gate. He asked her if she needed to potty and she grabbed the gate and said potty again. So he took her & she peed! So maybe I will get her & Matthew both trained at the same time. Is it even possible to train one this young?

If anyone has tips on getting her or Matthew trained, let me know. I know there's tons of theories out there, but I'd love to know what worked for you. Do you leave them in diapers while you're training them, or do you put them in underwear/panties? Do you pump them full of liquid and take them to sit on it, or follow their normal eat/drink routine and just take them regularly? Do you take them if they don't want to go? Help me out here folks!

my own time whine

Sometimes I don't feel like I have any time that is my own. I know that comes with the whole motherhood territory, but I don't think I was really prepared for just how little time I would have that was my own. I have actually gotten spoiled this week because Scarlett has not taken a morning nap, she has only napped in the afternoon, which puts her & Matthew napping at the same time. I have a clean house, supper ready, and time left over to do what I want. Even if it's just an hour, I have time for me. Pretty sweet. It was obvious by 9 o'clock this morning that Scarlett wasn't going to make it to lunch time without a nap. So I put her down for a morning nap, which means she won't nap again until around 3:30-4:00 this afternoon. Matthew will probably wake up around 4, so I won't really have time to myself. It's bad that over the last 2 days I've allowed myself to enjoy knitting after lunch, and now today I'm sad that I can't knit!

Don't get me wrong, I'm always thrilled to have one on one time with the kids, and actually haven't pushed Scarlett to one nap a day even though so many people tell me how much easier it will be when she & Matthew are on the "same schedule." I love having time with him in the morning & with her in the afternoon. Or I thought I loved it, until this week when I discovered I love knitting after lunch. I think part of it is that last night I got almost finished with my latest project and thought to myself "I'll finish this up easily at naptime tomorrow" but folks that ain't happening! I thought it would be nice to have a finished project and then start another tonight. But now I'll finish one & immediately start another...somehow it just doesn't feel as good to know I have unfinished work.

I also have to add this disclaimer - don't take my complaining about lack of my own time as an indicator of what time I do have. I am lucky to have a husband who doesn't complain a bit when I take much needed me time on the weekends, or even during the week once he's home from work. He doesn't even complain when I tell him I'm going out as soon as he walks in the door. And I know it's important for him to have some time off too. When we first got married I hated it if he beat me home from work because I felt like that was my wind down time, so I try to be considerate of that with him. Everyone needs a chance to wind down, and sometimes I need it at 6:00 other days it can wait until 8:00. But David is wonderful about giving me that.

life is good

We had a great weekend. Busy but great. We flew to Atlanta Friday evening, took the train to our hotel, and finally got settled in around 10pm. The kids were pretty good on the flight - we fed them supper so that took a decent part of the trip and then they enjoyed looking around and playing with the window shade. Matthew has always enjoyed putting the shade up & down. He was so much fun getting around Friday - he loves everything transportation related, so he loved that we rode a bus, plane, and train. (We used a park & ride lot near the airport here so we took a bus from the car to the airport.) He told everyone that asked that we rode a bus and we were going to ride a plane and go to Georgia Tech to see Buzz and football. He was so excited and just seemed to really soak it all in.

When we got on the elevator to get to the train, he loudly exclaimed "it stinks" - which it did! I swear everything Marta related smells like urine but some stations and trains are definitely worse than others. Gag.

Saturday we had a busy day. David had his recruiting event most of the morning, so he headed to campus around 9. I stayed at the hotel with the kiddos and some friends came over to visit. We sat around the room so Scarlett could nap and just visited. I had taken toys and my former boss played football with Matthew. Matthew loved it. We usually don't let him throw balls in the house, but I had taken a nerf football and moved all the lamps in the hotel room. When I got Matthew dressed for the game he wanted to know where his football helmet was and I told him I left it home. He told me he would just play without it. When it got near kickoff time, we told my friends goodbye and I packed up the kiddos to walk to the stadium. We met up with David and went to the game. It is a different experience watching a game with kids than without. And the older they get the more rambunctious they are, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the game. I did enjoy watching Matthew as he played and watched for Buzz. Near the end of the game Buzz came over to our section of the stands and Matthew went down to say hi. I didn't get a good picture because as soon as Matthew got to Buzz we scored another touchdown and Buzz had to go to pushups. Fortunately Buzz high-fived Matthew and rubbed his head before heading off. That was the highlight of Matthew's day.

Scarlett was pretty oblivious to it all. She liked climbing around the bleachers and trying to see what was in people's cups! We entertained her most of the game with a big cup of ice.

After the game we went back to the hotel for naps, but Scarlett wasn't cooperative. We then met up with more friends for dinner. It was a good time.

All was well until Scarlett woke up screaming around 3:45 Sunday morning. Neither David nor I could settle her, so I finally offered the boob. That did the job, until she was full and spit it all up! I had to change both of us, then I put her back down. Ten minutes later she was screaming again. I decided to let her fuss for a few minutes (yeah go ahead, bash me, whatever) even though she was in the room with Matthew. We realized he had woken up because he started singing to her, trying to settle her down. Melt. That boy is just so sweet (most of the time!). Scarlett finally went back to sleep a little after 6. David & I were exhausted.

Sunday morning we met an online friend for breakfast. Unfortunately we were all tired and not very talkative. Scarlett was disagreeable about everything and all my attention had to be on her. After breakfast we went to the Georgia Aquarium. Scarlett took a quick catnap on the train and was in a better mood once we got there. Matthew also cheered up when we saw the fish. Then it was back to the airport and home again! We all crashed pretty early and slept late yesterday!

Yesterday was a rough day and I thought I was about to hit the breaking point, but we survived. Today has been great! Matthew & Scarlett have been loving on each other a lot - it is so sweet. Life is good.

random tidbits

• I'm down another pound this week. Yay me! It's coming off, slowly but surely. I also think I've developed habits that will help me keep it off.
• I mentioned developing good habits - I just LOVE the boot camp class at my gym. It is hard, really really hard, but I always feel so good afterwards. I also feel great when I realize how much better I keep up now than when I first went! If there's a boot camp style class near you, I highly recommend it.
• The weight loss thing is going well for David too. He weighs less now than when we got married! I won't mention how good the weight loss has been for our sex life. It's a matter of being in better shape. With both of us going to the gym several times a week, we both have more energy. But I said I wouldn't talk about that.
• Scarlett is getting sweeter every day it seems. She's getting so free with hugs and kisses - she just randomly walks up to me smacking her lips and then holds her face up towards me until I lean down and kiss her.
• Matthew is growing up so much - he's such a little boy now, wanting to play with matchbox cars, airplanes, and rocket ships. His imagination continues to amaze me.
• My pc crapped out on me Monday. I think it got a virus, but whatever happened it decided to do a system restore all on its own. Getting programs installed and all is a complete pain in the ass. I keep running into things I can't do because I don't have the right software. And while I think the computer is clean and virus-free now, any webpage I try to view is taking forever to load, if it loads at all. I *think* this might be a provider issue though.
• Tonight I go to photography class again. I skipped the last few classes over the summer because of our trip to Georgia. I'm cheating though & not doing the homework - I'm just going to take in the same pics I took last class.
• Tomorrow night we're going back to Georgia, but we're flying this time. It's a quick weekend trip. David is working with a recruiting group from his company. They are having a tailgate at Georgia Tech Saturday and we're all going to the game. Matthew is excited to fly on a place and see Buzz, but has no concept of "tomorrow".
• On our AFI list, we still haven't watched #94(Pulp Fiction), but we've seen it a lot - we are just waiting on the library copy on DVD to be available. We did wtach #93 - The French Connection, last weekend. I didn't care for it. Just not my type of movie. It was boring. Not worth its own post.

whew

I'm exhausted. See, I have this crazy thing - I can't go to sleep in our bed at our house if David's not there with me. Well, I exaggerate - i can go to sleep but it takes forever! Normally if he's home I don't even try. He's been having to work a lot of extra hours lately. This is his busy time of year due to certain annual reports they do, so combining that with the recent layoffs and reduced staff means a lot of extra work for everyone. He's pulled at least 3 all nighters in the last 2 weeks, and several other nights where he worked until 2-3am and then was back up at 6 or 7. Most of these nights I stay downstairs with him and fall asleep on the couch. Last night I got wrapped up in a "new" tv series that we dvr'd last fall and never watched. I was also knitting. I ended up watching 8 of the shows (one hour shows) and finally at 3am told him I was going to bed. He said he wasn't. I went up and it took me an hour to fall asleep even though I was so tired. So today I'm living on caffiene and still having trouble keeping my eyes open. I hope this crazy work schedule ends soon.

It is insane that I can't sleep without him in our bed. I've been this way since we got married. Even though I travelled for work almost every week for 6 years, and I never had trouble sleeping alone in a hotel room, I can't do it at home. ARGH! I need to get over this huh?

where to begin

This weekend was somewhat chaotic, but it couldn't have been more perfect. We decided pretty late Friday afternoon to do our grocery shopping after dinner Friday night. It worked out pretty well, even though I missed the yoga/pilates class I normally go to on Friday nights. I decided I just didn't have time for 2 trips to the gym over the weekend, and I prefer the Saturday boot camp to the Friday yogalates.

As for boot camp, I am finally getting to a point that I can *almost* keep up with everyone else, and I don't feel utterly exhausted after class. I also don't feel that I *must* get in the hot tub before bed to ensure that I can move the next day. That's a good thing, but I did like having an excuse to get in the hot tub every weekend! Although it's been good I didn't have to, since the last 2 Saturday nights it's been raining.

Then most of the rest of the weekend was spent cleaning. You see, I am a horrible housekeeper. I know a lot of people say this, but I really mean it. Anyway, Saturday, we got the kitchen really clean. I mean sparkly, eat off the floor clean. We also made progress in other rooms, but the kitchen was the only room I felt was truly clean. Sunday we finished the rest of the downstairs....and yes, it's all eat off the floor clean. (Mind you we wouldn't really eat off the floor, but it's super clean!)

Saturday night we watched an AFI film, but not Pulp Fiction (which was next on the list). We have it on VHS but want to get the DVD from the library & it's checked out. I'll post about the movie we watched later. While we watched the movie, I folded & put away all the laundry that I had let pile up. Again, NOT a housekeeper...I don't mind washing the clothes, but getting them put away is a real thorn in my side!

The weather all weekend was awful and the Sunday evening forecast was even worse. 80% chance of rain, cool, and strong winds, with possible tornadoes! EEK! We had concert tickets, for an outdoor venue, in the lawn area (which is uncovered, unassigned, grass). I told David that no matter how much I was looking forward to the show, if the weather was as bad as they predicted we should find something else to do. I wasn't going to pass up the chance to get out of the house, since we had a sitter lined up & we desperately need to find someone willing to sit for us on a regular basis.

The sitter showed up right on time, and we were surprised to see she brought another girl with her. The sitter was a girl from the daycare center Matthew & Scarlett used to go to, and the other girl was another teacher there. Fine by us, we had actually called her before we called the girl who was available. I had been telling Matthew all day that "Miss J" was coming to play with him. He ran to her & gave her a big hug, and then ran to Miss A and gave her one too. Scarlett was even agreeable about them being there. I think being at home put her at ease with them. We left for the concert - the rain was seeming to hold off, but who knew what the next few hours would bring!

Let me just say Toby Keith puts on a great show! We missed most of the opening acts, but saw Montgomery Gentry (also great) and I don't think it could have rained hard enough to tear me away once Toby was on stage. I heart him. But fortunately, the rain was light & the wind was not as bad as they'd said. Oh but the hill...quite muddy. Lots of accidental slips & falls that resulted in people sliding all the way down. I almost fell as we were trying to find a spot to enjoy the show. Thankfully I was holding the hand of my big strong hubby and he rescued me. While they were getting the stage set for Toby, a lot of people just started sliding down the hill on purpose. That kept the rest of the crowd entertained during the break! But oh Toby - he rocked! His new album isn't coming out until the end of October so he sang mostly 'old' songs, it was pretty much a performance of greatest hits. Sweet! I hate when I go to a concert and they sing a lot of stuff off their new upcoming album and I don't know any of it.

We got home & Miss J and Miss A told us how great Matthew & Scarlett were. They hung out with us for a while, talking about our kids & the center. They talked about how Scarlett is a "real pistol" and "into everything" and that Matthew is "so laid back and sweet" - sounds like the kiddos showed their true colors! After they left I went in the kitchen & realized these girls also emptied the dishwasher & cleaned up all the supper dishes! I told David we didn't pay them enough! :)

I feel gypped

I'm frugal, most of you know that by now. And I grew up on $8 haircuts. BUT, I grew up in a small town where everyone charged $8, and most of them did a really good job. Most of them also owned their own little shops, so I went, got a cut, gave them $8 and left. No tipping, no fancy salons, no wine & fruit, just give me a haircut & I'm outta there. When I went to college I stayed faithful to my "back home" hairdresser and got my hair cut when I went home for visits. Sometimes I even planned visits home because I needed a trim. Since I stayed in Atlanta for a long time after college, I continued to plan visits home regularly enough to get my hair trimmed, but eventually that became difficult and inconvenient. So I went through the process of finding a stylist in Atlanta that I liked. I quickly realized I wasn't going to pay a bargain $8 and get a good cut. I wasn't going to get a good cut for $40, much less 8. And then, there's the whole tipping thing. But alas, it's worth it to have a stylist I like and who can cut my hair so that I'm satisfied.

I finally found someone here that I thought I liked, but really I don't like her, but she does a good job on my hair. I don't like her because she is bland, she has no personality that is obvious, or either we just don't click. I've never had a stylist that didn't chitter chatter the whole time they were cutting, but this chick struggles to put together 3 sentences. So I sit and babble, and eventually decide to STFU cuz I'm tired of hearing myself talk. But that's beside the point - she does a decent job on my hair. I just had a cut and feel totally gipped though. I go in, discuss what I want changed from the way it looks right then, and we head over to the shampoo chair. She wets my hair, says oh it is so clean, let's go back to the chair. What? Huh? You mean you're not going to wash my hair with the yummy smelling shampoo that you sell for $20+ a bottle? (Again, I'm frugal, the only time my hair sees $20+ shampoo and conditioner is at the salon.) But I don't say anything, because frankly I'm stunned. (And in case you're wondering I had washed my hair at 10am and the haircut was at 6pm...more time between washings than a lot of days I get it cut.)

Of course my bill at checkout still came to $53, even though she didn't wash my hair and it took a lot less time than normal. And I tipped my normal $10, even though I was annoyed. I scheduled my next appointment, but now that I still feel annoyed over this I don't know if I'll go back or find someone else.

Would you be annoyed if you didn't get the shampoo?

the best kids

I guess every parent thinks they have the best kids. If not the smartest, maybe sweetest, the funniest, the prettiest, or the best singer, best dancer, best baseball player, whatever, but the best at something. Mine are pretty much the best to me. :)

Scarlett is so happy. She wakes up and when I get to her crib she flashes a huge smile and reaches her arms up to me. She often does the same thing when I walk in the room that she's in. She will stop playing and look up and smile or laugh. She's just delightful. She's also really good at entertaining herself. She will sit and play alone for a long time, but then suddenly decide she wants a little momma lovin' and she climbs up in my lap to hug and kiss me. Then she goes right back to playing. Could it get any better?

But it does! Matthew is such a sweet boy. He's rough & tumble too, he plays hard and likes to be rough, but he also gives the absolute best hugs I've ever had. That little guy will wrap his arms around you in a way that I can't even put words to. He's so cuddly and it's just so real. He's full of love.

I can't count the blessings when it comes to these kids - I'm so lucky to be their mom. Even on days that don't go like I want them to, or days I'm not feeling up to being a mom, they make me realize how good I have it.

#95: The Last Picture Show

Sunday night we watched The Last Picture Show, #95 on the AFI Top 100 list. I couldn't figure out what put this movie on the list, I just didn't get it. I suppose it's about teenage love and angst, and relationships, and trying to find the perfect match, but some of the scenes had me rolling my eyes big time. I told David that maybe we should watch the movie again, so I could see if I missed something, but honestly I think I'd just be wasting another couple of hours.

I did go read reviews on IMDB, to see if I could figure out WHY this was in the top 100, and I still don't get it. I am totally missing something. Anyone want to clue me in?

Next up: Pulp Fiction (seen it a gazillion times, but we'll watch it again)

#96: Do The Right Thing

I'm behind on my AFI Top 100 List updates! Oops! We actually watched #96, Do The Right Thing, before our family visit. I don't think I've ever watched a Spike Lee movie before...if I have I didn't realize it was Spike Lee, ya know? I actually commented to David in the early part of the movie that at the very least, watching the top 100 list was making me watch movies that I never before would have watched.

You see, Do The Right Thing starts off as a "day in the life" sort of movie. It's set in a Brooklyn neighborhood that is mostly black, with a pizza place owned by an Italian family and a grocery store owned by Koreans. There's a bit of plot built around the relationships between the community & the shop owners, but the movie starts off as an easy plot. Then it builds, with seemingly small things that happen or are said, and more and more of these, until things escalate to a point where you can feel the tension, you can feel the anger, you can feel the hurt. And then it explodes.

One might think with a title like this, the movie would *tell* the viewer what the right thing is, but it leaves that question open. What is an appropriate way to deal with racism? Is it ok to use violence to end violence? The movie ends with two conflicting quotes on violence, one from Martin Luther King Jr. and the other from Malcolm X. With these conflicting quotes, it is definitely left wide open. Maybe there is no right thing? Maybe the right thing for one person isn't the right thing for another? It's easy for me to sit here & say that it's never acceptable to use violence as a response to racism, but I've never been a victim of racism. I still can't support responding with violence, but I can understand it.

Up next: The Last Picture Show

what a find

So I got an email from my dad last night. It says "exploits in the yard" and the message is only "Yes, this was crawling across the front yard." I'm not very squeamish about things - I'm a country girl, and walking outside to find a snake wasn't anything unusual. We'd find rat snakes curled up at the bottom of the steps, or in the flowerbeds. And of course the occasional rattlesnake. But usually they were um, fairly small. Not like this. After seeing the picture, I'm glad daddy found this one this weekend instead of last weekend! Really glad my two little ones weren't the ones to discover it!

And I blurred Dad's face out because I don't want the animal cruelty folks jumping on him. No really, it's just cause I don't have his permission to post his pic, and I try to respect their privacy, at least a little bit! :)

kudos to my dad

I've always thought my dad was awesome, except for that one time....but I won't get into that one now. My dad is currently unemployed. He had been working as a sales rep for a tooling company and they wanted to expand his territory. My mom hates him being on the road so he refused the new territory, and that's that. I actually enjoyed his employment status during my visit - it meant we had a lot of time together and it was nice. I also love seeing him interact with Matthew & Scarlett - reminds me of why I always thought he was an awesome dad. He's an even awesomer 'bandaddy', as Matthew calls him. His being home full time also made it possible for me to leave Matthew & Scarlett for my Atlanta trip with David.

This trip was the first time I've traveled overnight with our cloth diapers. I know my mom hates them so I was committed to doing all the diaper changes I could, so she wouldn't have to deal with them at all. (Usually when I visit she changes most of the diapers; I have a great mom too!) The day I was getting ready to leave from Atlanta, I showed daddy where all the cloth diaper stuff was, and had liners in diapers ready to go, but I also showed him where disposable diapers were. I explained that he could use whichever he wanted, but that IF he used cloth, he *might* run out before I got home, and in that case he should use disposables. Well, the condo work took longer than we expected, and we got home a LOT later than we planned. Once we got settled in back at my parents' house, I started to get the diapers in the washer. Lo & behold - DADDY had washed the diapers! Washed, line dried, folded, and put away! Liners in place, ready to use, really honest to goodness totally done! See how great he is! And I don't say that just because he did the laundry, but how great is it that he recognizes that cloth diapering is important to ME and he is totally supportive of that effort.

I give the best daddy in the world award to mine.

made it home

What a trip! We had a really fantastic time. I didn't get a serious case of baby fever - as much as I love newborns and all of the infant stages I realize a third one is just more than I could handle at this point. Someday, when Matthew & Scarlett are a little older.

Being around baby Jonah was great. You forget how quickly they grow, but he definitely grew a lot in the 2 weeks that we were there. He is such a cutie pie! I get homesick looking at pictures!

My sister and her husband seem to be adjusting to parenthood just fine. They tell stories of discussions in the middle of the night that one of them doesn't remember the next day - seems normal enough.

Matthew loved baby Jonah. He was very gentle and would pat his head and kiss him. He asked to hold him and we let him, with us standing careful guard! One of my nieces asked Matthew if he wanted us to have a baby at our house and he told them "my have a baby at my house - Scarlett is my baby." Scarlett was not interested in him much at the beginning of our visit, but the night I was away they said she kept going & loving on him. She got more & more loving as the visit went on.

I had my first overnight trip away from both kiddos. David & I had a good bit of work to do at our condo in Atlanta, so we decided to leave the kids at my parents' house and have a night to ourselves. We went to the Georgia Tech football season opener and then stayed at a hotel and got up early Friday to start work. The work ended up taking a lot longer than anticipated and we just barely beat rush hour traffic getting out of Atlanta. Then we stopped and did some shopping. We got all 4 of the small children clothes for Easter, or just church next spring/summer if they don't fit at Easter. I love the Strasburg store even more than Bailey Boys. But seriously, I can only shop their clearance racks, at least until I win the lotto! The dress I bought Belle fit perfect right now, so we decided she needed a bigger size. Since I had gotten the biggest one they had, we called a different location and they agreed to hold the larger size for a few days so we could exchange it. I decided to try Scarlett's on her, even though I bought her a 24M and she is only wearing 12M now, and it fit really well - she had a little growing room but not much. I decided since it was for next spring I should get a 2T instead. My older sister decided to go make the exchanges and I appreciated her saving me a trip. I mentioned that I wanted a lavender dress for Scarlett but it was only marked down a little bit so I wouldn't buy it. While she was making the exchanges, she looked at the clearance racks and realized it had been marked down more at that store, so she picked it up for me! What a great sister!

I am really not into clothes that much, but I just LOVE the smocked and embroidered dresses and jonjons. I joke that I will dress Matthew like a baby for as long as he will let me, but honestly I only do it on special occasions. Usually he's dressed like a normal boy. When we tried Scarlett's dress on her we declared her beautiful, and she ran to the mirror and then clapped. When we told her she was pretty she signed "more". Little diva! We tried Matthew's set on him also and he told us he wanted to look in the mirror. We told him he was handsome & when he looked he said "Wow" - not quite sure what to make of that but it was funny!

Matthew was SO happy to see David when we got back to my parent's house - I think it was the longest trip we've taken so I am sure he missed him. Scarlett was a little snot though and wanted nothing to do with him. She is so clingy it sometimes drives me nuts, but it made me want to spank her hard on her diaper when she cried in her daddy's arms! She took about 3 days to warm up to him! I think our next trip might need to be shorter. Change that, it definitely needs to be shorter, I was glad to get home again, even though I already miss Georgia. Every time I am sad to leave!