Ian Chadwick AKA David Beckham

Here is a picture from Germany. My husband was playin' y'all. So cute!

Top Learnings while Ian was away

So I didn't post that my husband was out of town because you can just call me old fashioned and I was afraid of broadcasting that on the internet. I know...nobody is watching me that closely, but you never know. 

Anyhow, Ian returned home on Monday night after 5 nights away in Germany. His company is German owned and every year they have a world cup of sorts where players from different countries come to compete. So last Wednesday we bid him farewell as he went to represent our country in the game of soccer :-). For those of you who know Ian he is an athlete to his core. Want proof?  He has athletic jerseys from high school, college and now he's started a collection of jerseys from other countries, thanks to this trip he has now added Poland and Spain to his collection. 

So while he was away I had the chance to be alone with the kids all day and all night. Doesn't sound so bad huh? Well here are my top 5 events of the time he was away. One event for each of the nights that he was gone ;-).

5. Traveling to the outlets..So this one is not that bad except for the fact that I tried to go after my kids naps which happened to be at 4:15 on a FRIDAY! Duh..the traffic was horrible. So it took us nearly an hour to make it up 400 to shop. What you may ask was the reason for such a dumb decision..I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket for pottery barn. Yeah, I just had to use it that day..couldn't wait. 

4. Not using the double stroller. Has anyone seen our garage? We have 5 yes count them 5 stroller options. Double jogging, single jogging, umbrella, snap and go, and a sit and stand. Of all the strollers to choose from, I chose to go shopping, multiple times I might add, with the umbrella stroller. This always meant that one child has to be held. But Ellison is 3.5 right...wrong! When she gets tired, it's all over she reverts back to a newborn. So many times I had to hold Jude while she was in the stroller. Try pushing around 35 lbs in a stroller and holding 25 in your arms, not easy work. But my love of the game (of shopping that is) fools me into believing that maybe this time will be different. So from now on 2 strollers will have to be in the trunk. Thank goodness for minivans. 

3. Before Ian left, we were thinking about lowering Jude's mattress because he has started pulling up to his knees. We didn't find the time to do it before he left and of course, I got awaken at 1:30 AM to find my son standing in his crib! He couldn't figure out how to get down. It was so cute! I've attached a picture of the little guy in action.  

2. Having a yard sale. Well, I decided that I could do a community yard sale out of our garage while my husband was away...need I say more? Thanks so much to my friend Joy this went off without much of a hitch. We had some pretty intense hagglers, some interesting participants and a ton of stuff, but that's what yard sales are made of. 

1. And...my number one event. Showdown in Wal-mart. So It's Monday, Ian's on his way home and I'm itching bad to get out of the house.  I think that we can make a quick trip to wal-mart in search of a quick bathing suit purchase and some other fun stuff to have some playtime at the pool with the kids. BTW..anybody know where to get a fun cute one piece bathing suit? I think that's an oxymoron these days. If it's one piece it's made for 70 and up. So not fair, not all of us can bare our tummies after our pregnancy service stripes.  I mean really! So anyways, Jude has a great knack for pulling Ellison's hair..like all the time. It drives her crazy. Well, I guess she like me had had enough of life without daddy. All of a sudden she decides to bite his little pinky. She bit it so hard that the poor little guy screamed like bloody murder and both sides of his finger were indented from her teeth. I said "I cannot believe you just did this. We are going to have to go to the doctor" Ellison looks at me with a blank stare. Not really much remorse. Well then I announce that her new floaties are going back as well as her fruit snacks. Immediately an erupiton of emotion to say it nicely. Keep in mind that Jude is still crying. So, I decide to leave my basket of goodies (very painful for me too I may add) and leave the store. Well, of course Ellison doesn't want to comply and I am dragging her through the store. There are moments when she looses control of her entire body and falls to the ground. People are staring, it's that bad. Man that was tough. We eventually made it home after 2 stops on the side of the road. Once to spank her and another time to hold Jude because he was so startled by all of the loud noise. 

And an honorable mention goes to stealing. Yes. My daughter has a knack for picking things up and asking if we can buy them. I tell her not today or let's remember to tell daddy about it (great trick). Well while Ian was away I would let her hold items to look at while we were in stores. Well that translated to her putting things in the bottom of the stroller. By the time I got to the car, loaded them both and was folding the stroller down, there I would find her treasures. What did we get? March of the Penguins(Target), a little teddy bear (Pottery Barn) and a pair of shorts (Target).  Don't worry we will return all of the items. Although I'm tempted because I so do not love Target's return policy and I'm now stuck with some shorts that I cannot fit because I used cash. DARN!

Welcome home honey! I really missed you and I'm so glad your back.

The time has come

So I've had almost a year of 2 kids napping at the same time. Considering I just finished battling Ellison to bed and it is 10:30PM, I'm thinking the time has come to cut it out. So it is with great sadness that I say good bye to my friend the afternoon nap. 

But here's the dilemma. She gets so cranky in the afternoons and turns into a child that surely did not come from my womb! If I let her sleep and wake her up within an hour then she is not a happy kid..at all. So it's like I'm stuck with a cranky little one from about 3 until 7:30 or I fight her to get to sleep until 10 at night. The issues, I tell you. They don't write about this stuff in Baby Wise. 

So farewell my dear friend. I will sorely miss you. It's been a great 3.5 years of afternoon silence. My time will now be shared with my little princess Ellison. We have been working on room time and it's time for mom to kick it into high gear. For all of your wonder what is room time, it is a chance for Ellison to play in her room while mom has some mommy time. We've worked on like 30 minutes of room time, but we need to push the time up a little more now that she's older. If not, mama will not be happy and you know what they say about that...nobody else will be either :-). 

A Quiet Spot

For the past few years, I've been wanting to have a container garden. I've tried to create a spot but things just never seemed to work out. The idea has been to create a place outside of my house to do some quiet times and to have a place to share with Ian. There have been quite a few factors keeping me from getting it going: lack of time, kiddos and ummm... I don't have much of a green thumb. In fact I've killed quite a few things with the exception of vinka and ivy :-).

I am pleased to announce that as of last night at 10PM, we put the finishing touches on our deck garden! We have been working on it for over a month and it's been so cool to do it together. Ian and I would get out there after kids are in bed and plant and reorganize the furniture. All along the way we would sit in the rockers with some candles and debrief the day. It's been really cool. 

So what's in our garden you may ask...We have tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, onion chives and lots of flowers too! So, we will be eating lots of salads this summer:-). 

I have to say that a huge factor in finishing this project is once again one of my neighbors. He has a gorgeous deck, I mean it should be in a magazine. So I've been asking him for his help. This year, we asked him to host a container gardening event for the rest of our residents and I was able to learn some cool things from him. In addition to that, he has taken us under his wing and is showing us the way. He even reserved some ferns for us at a local nursery to make sure that we got the healthiest ones. So basically, I've borrowed his green thumb :-). 

And, while we are on the subject of neighbors, I think we've got some of the best. We have so enjoyed living here and making new friends. We've been at this complex for about 2 years now and we've made some great friends along the way. Next week Ian heads to Germany (company soccer tournament) and one of our neighbors is landing in Frankfurt on the same day. How cool is that! So they are going to meet for a meal in Germany.

So wish us luck as we keep try to keep our garden green. I just hope our friend is not moving away any time soon, because we will be heavily relying on his help to keep this thing going.  

Well it's Friday and that means some fun times with the kids! I think Ellison wants to go to storytime at Barnes and Noble. So I better get off of this computer and get our day going.

By the way..Happy Memorial Day to everyone. We are headed to Summerville this weekend to see my family so more chatting next week.  

See you soon,

Beth

Another crazy Saturday

For the past 3 years we have been serving as a CARES team. We live on a complex and plan social events and care for our residents. Today we had a great day doing both of those things. The morning started off pretty early with a 5K with one of our residents. We left at like 6:30AM and started the race at 7:15. I must say that I am happy to have finished in the top 200! I was number 199 and finished up at 33:45. It was so much fun and I got to hang out with one of our neighbors...Beth!

After the race we set up an event for the dogs at our complex. We had a good turnout and the dogs seemed to enjoy the doggie ice cream and pools. We are not dog owners, although Ian would love to own a great Dane, but it seems like we did a decent job of planning in spite of our lack of knowledge on the whole dog thing.

We finished the day up with shopping where we found some fantastic deals. Gotta love the 2.99 rack at Children's Place! And now I'm blogging :-). This really is addictive.

9 Months Today!

Today Jude is 9 months. It is hard to believe that it has already been nine months. Jude is developing right on schedule! He is now starting to eat lots of food on his own. He love waffles for breakfast and had some cheese toast last night (thanks Allison ;-)). He loved every bite of it! The stage 3 foods just don't seem to interest him at all so it looks like we're going from stage 2 to table food. Our wallets are very happy for it. He is still scooting all around now. It looks like he is going to stick with his soilder crawl. He loves to walk when we hold his hands but he is not pulling up yet. He is still a very happy baby, lets us get our sleep through the night and he loves his sister. Not sure how long the love relationship between the 2 of them will last, but I'm praying it's for a long time to come.

Going Home

So we made the big decision to make me part time at work. It was a really tough decision, but one that we are so happy that we made. This is my second week and I'm really enjoying more time with Ellison and Jude. It makes me sad in a sense to think of how quickly the time has just flown by. I want to make the most of every opportunity with them and I am hoping that cutting back will allow me the energy to do that.