All About the Weekend

The weekend went by way too fast! We went to Cousin Callie's last Upward game Saturday morning, then met my in-laws for lunch (it was as awful as I thought it would be), came home for nap and then I took Maggie & Ellie to the grocery store while Big Daddy worked on his project for school. The highlight of the day was seeing my sweet friend Tina and my sister and Callie coming over for some play time Saturday evening.

On Sunday, I took both girls to church by myself...twice. Church was even better than usual, but I was exhausted after getting them from the car to their classes while wearing high heels! Maggie & Ellie were happy to be back at church and Maggs was thrilled to be back in her Worship & Music class. She'll be singing at church next Sunday, but doesn't want me to tell anyone! I was also able to introduce my strong-willed angel to the associate pastor that teaches the parenting class that I've been attending. Of course, she acted shy and smiled sweetly when he talked to her. He has a strong-willed son (19 year old Zach), so I'm sure he knows the act. I introduced her as "my Zach" so that he would no that she was my strong-willed one.

We've had a busy morning! Ellie and I have shopped at two different grocery stores, put away groceries, have snack, put away a load of laundry and do another load, vacuum and clean all of the counter tops in the kitchen (not to self, buy granite cleaner). I decided to do a quick post before we go to pay a few bills, return Library books and check out new ones on the way to get Maggie at preschool. I have a long list of more things that I'm hoping to accomplish during nap today.

On a side note, please say a prayer for Big Daddy as he works on his school work. His job and school assignments are overwhelming and time consuming, and I want things to be easier for him.

All Grown Up

Every once in a while I really realize that I'm a grown up.

Getting married.
Seeing my best friends have babies.
Buying a house.
Seeing my name on a real estate sign and having business cards.
Buying my first pistol.
Going to my 10 year high school reunion.
Finally getting a positive pregnancy test.
Having a baby.
Being in charge of a baby all by myself.
Taking my big girl to the Library and to Kindermusik and to Sunday school.
Planning to get pregnant again.
Getting pregnant again.
Being in real labor for a really long time.
Having another baby.
Seeing my two daughters together.

And after today I can add one more thing to the list.

My very first favorite little girl (Kelly Grace, and no it's not really a coincidence that I have an Ellie Grace) from when I first taught preschool has been accepted to her top college picks!

Needless to say, I am so proud of her! I hugged her dad and my heart squealed with delight. Kelly is an amazing girl and she has the most wonderful sister and parents. She really wants to go to Wake Forest or Elon University, but she may "settle" for UNC because of the outrageous tuition at a private university. She's going to be a great lawyer one day. She lives just down the street from us and I constantly imagine her outside playing in the yard as a sweet, little five year old, but she turned 18 this past October. She's the girl that you want your daughters to grow up to be. She loves Jesus and sings at church and has the sweetest heart you could ever imagine.

Anyway...I must really be an adult.

Guess who...

is saying "ma-ma"??

That's right, this sweet girl is! She was playing with Maggie and couldn't find me, so she crawled away and was saying "ma-ma-ma-ma" in the most pitiful voice.

Of course, Maggie said, "I think she's really saying Nana".

I should also say that she's been saying "da-da" for several weeks.

She Writes & Draws & Colors & Writes

It has been a busy week around here in more ways than one. After two weeks of spelling out M-C-M-I-L-L-A-N for two weeks, Maggie finally memorized the spelling! She writes Maggie McMillan, Mommy McMillan, Daddy McMillan and Ellie McMillan. She found out that my last name is hyphenated so I spent quite a while explaining that. I think she has decided to hyphenate her last name when she gets married too. ;-)

Her writing has changed so much. She used to "dot" her i's. Then the "dot" changed to a "curly Q". Now it is a giant dot that gets colored in. If she makes a mistake or doesn't like the way a letter looks (she's very picky) she scribbles it out and will keep writing until she gets it "right".

She also colored this picture of a house that I drew. She added dark clouds, flowers, green grass and multi-colored snowmen. If you're wondering, she was pantless in this picture.

You can see in this picture how Big Daddy gets attacked by the girls when he gets home each evening! This was before dinner, so Maggie was creating at the table. She was wearing Babylegs, so I guess her legs had gotten cold. I was letting Ellie play with the broom and an assortment of other things because it keeps her occupied while I cook. She absolutely lights up when she sees the broom, dust mop or vacuum cleaner. (That's my girl!!)

This is a picture of Ellie with her bruise. She also busted her top lip this morning, so she looks a little rough right now. Her nose was so runny this morning that she stayed with Nana for 45 minutes while I took Muff to Storytime. A few people were surprised that I usually bring Ellie when I could have Nana keep her every week. It's proof that we actually choose to take our kids places with us!

Ellie didn't sleep well last night, but we have had a really nice day...so far. Muff has been happy and is taking a nap right now. Yesterday she did flips on her bed for an hour and a half while I cleaned and rearranged the living room. She was a little hyped up after a birthday party at preschool.

Not Wordless Wednesday

Baby Ellie is in her high chair playing with a puff, (which she refuses to put in her own mouth) humming and signing "more" because she wants me to feed her. She has a bruise on her cheek from falling and hitting the very hard tile floor in my bathroom yesterday morning. She's been up for looong time, so she's had a short nap and is happily eating her puffs and cheerios and jumbo rice crispies for snack.

The Muffin woke up right on time (because Ellie was crying so loud) in a great mood. We had a nice, relaxed morning before preschool because I spent at least thirty minutes after I put the kids to bed getting everything ready for the morning. I fed Ellie extra early while Muff was still asleep. Her yogurt and milk were all ready in cups and I made applesauce for Muff (because that's what she wanted) and she dipped graham crackers in it. Her water cup was full because she drinks water for breakfast every morning, regardless of what she eats. My oatmeal was ready to cook and I pre-measured the granola to sprinkle on it because I'm doing W.eight W.atchers today...because I ate more Ch.ips Ahoy cookies than any woman should yesterday. (It wasn't really that many, but it was too many) I was feeling so proud of myself until I realized that I forgot to grind my coffee beans last night and grinding beans this early would be too loud and wake up my sleeping Muffin.

Anyway...
Her are a few pictures from the past several days.

Not a good day

In the grand scheme of things, it's not that bad, but I believe it's all relative to what you're used to, so I say with confidence that this has not been a good day at all.

I slept more consecutive hours than usual which was a surprise considering both Ellie and Maggie have runny noses and chest congestion. Ellie seems to sleep well when the humidifier is in her room. It's probably the white noise and I should go out immediately and by a white noise machine and I will start having many consecutive hours of sleep each night, but who knows?

I woke up when Maggie came into my room and said she had to use her bathroom because she needed "just a little bit of light". She said it with such a whine that I couldn't understand her and had to ask her to repeat herself...three times. I explained that one of the four light switches in my bathroom would give her "just a little bit of light" if she would turn them on. This set her off and then she woke Ellie up with her loud complaining.

After lots of crying and snot dripping on Ellie's part, we were ready to go to the grocery store. I wore Ellie in the Baby K'Tan for the second time while shopping. She loves, I love it and it's super comfortable. Maggie pushed the little shopping cart, ran over my heels a couple of times and entertained everyone in the sore with some very crazy antics.

We left with our groceries, stopped by the recycling center, returned Library book, checked out new ones and arrived home just in time for lunch. I'm choosing to remeber today in that way and leave out all of the stuff that made it not a good day at all.

Sick babies and date nights don't mix

Big Daddy spent most of the weekend locked in his room working on school stuff and I did my normal stuff with the girls on Saturday morning. My sister had a sick "baby", so we had a double date with Maggie & Ellie Saturday evening. Cousin Callie had a stomach bug and was really feeling bad. Of course, it wasn't at all a big deal to take them to Panera with us (like we have been doing almost every weekend since November). Of course, my sister has offered her babysitting services for next week, but we are having lunch with my in-laws and probably won't have any time for a date because of the whole school work-thing. (If you know me, you know I'd rather not eat for a week than to eat with them...and I like to eat.)

Big Daddy decided to stay home from church on Sunday morning and try and get caught up on his work. I decided to take Maggie & Ellie to my parents' church since the service started later and I wouldn't have to juggle both girls, two Sunday school classes and most of all the computer system that generates their name tags. I still haven't quite mastered getting them checked in yet.

Cousin Callie was feeling better yesterday so I begged my sister to let her go to the The Wizard of Oz play with us while she kept Ellie. Callie and Maggie had a great time! Of course, going to the play caused Maggie to miss her nap which caused a huge temper tantrum later. Maggie needs her nap!!!

This morning Ellie woke up with a horrible, green runny nose and chest congestion.

It's going to be a fun week.

It IS Important

I had to go to the not-so supercenter this morning with Maggie and Ellie for something very important.

Glue.

Yes, glue.

Maggie used the last of the glue sticks a couple of days ago and she's thought of "so many things that need glue". As soon as she's up from her nap we'll start cutting and gluing and taping. She loves tape almost as much as she loves glue. You wouldn't believe the things that she makes. On Saturday she made Dorothy's house (after the tornado), Dorothy and Uncle Henry.

Maggie has a slight cold or something, but we're still planning to leave her and Ellie with my sister tomorrow evening for our little date. She seems to feel fine, but has a little bit of a runny nose and coughs once in a while. We had a slight change of plans because Big Daddy has a test next week and will spend most of the day studying. We'll be going to dinner and then to pick up a pair of sunglasses for me.

On Sunday afternoon, I'm taking Cousin Callie and Maggie to see "The Wizard of Oz" at a local high school. Maggie is already so excited. She's planning to wear her Dorothy dress and ruby slippers.

Gimme More

I received my package today and you were right if you guessed it was a new carrier! I was just telling one of my friends the other day that it was sort of sad how terribly excited I am about this gift! If you had told me a few years ago that Babywearing would be one of my passions, I would have laughed. I have never (and still don't) really considered myself to be an attached parent, but maybe I am. I tell Big Daddy all the time that I'd like to have another baby just so that I'll have another little one to wear! I love Babywearing that much.

Big Daddy and I bought a Bjorn style front carrier shortly after I found out I was pregnant with The Muffin. It was on clearance and I thought it would be cute to wear our baby. I started using it when Muff was about 3 months old and Big Daddy and I both wore her like crazy when we went to the beach that summer. I continued to use it when I went to the grocery store, on walks and if we went anywhere that wasn't stroller friendly.

I still remember the last time I wore The Muffin in the front carrier. I remember what she was wearing and I remember knowing that my back would break if I had to wear her a minute longer. She weighed about 5 pounds less than what Ellie wears now, but the front carrier was killing my back and shoulders.

I discovered slings when I was somewhat desperate to find something to help with The Muffin's colic symptoms. I found out that Babywearing was supposed to help with fussy babies and placed an order for my first sling that day. I only used it on walks and never felt that comfortable with it, although it helped quite a bit with her fussiness and often put her to sleep. This is the same sling that I used almost every single day for Ellie's first four months and felt so comfortable. I wore her in it for the first time on the day we came home from the hospital. I fell in love with it and felt so much more comfortable wearing her, mostly because I was a more comfortable mommy!

When I became pregnant with Ellie I knew that it would be a huge benefit to wear her so that my hands could be free. I decided that I wanted a ring sling because it's what Steph suggests as a good start. It took a while before I felt completely comfortable wearing Ellie in it, but it quickly became our go-to sling. Ellie now weighs 20 pounds and I can wear her in the hip carry position completely pain free for quite a long time.

I've only tried to wear Ellie in the front Bjorn style carrier once and it was not pretty! I've used the backpack carrier with her once and that went pretty well. Big Daddy will be able to use it this Spring and Summer if we go hiking with Ellie perched on his back. Based on Muff's weight, I could wear her in our new Babywearing device, but I wouldn't want her to know that unless it was absolutely necessary. We may try it out hiking this Spring..we'll see.

Anyway...it's a Baby K'Tan and it arrived a couple of hours ago. I wore Ellie in the "Adventure" position and she kicked her legs and loved it! My friend Ms. A has the same carrier in a different color, so we'll sort of be twins!

Speaking of more...here's Ellie signing "more" . Our girl loves to eat.

Love Him!

I really don't talk about Big Daddy very much on the blog, but he's not off limits or anything. I wouldn't want to bore you talking about the long hours that he works, how his job is driving him crazy, how he is too much of a friend and not enough of a parent to the girls or how he stays up late and gets easily distracted while he's doing homework. I definitely wouldn't want to air our dirty marriage laundry on the blog and have you thinking that we don't have a picture-perfect fairytale life. I do occasionally tell about some of the things he does that drives me crazy, but for the most part I don't talk about him. I do love him oh so much and occasionally I'm amazed at how sweet he can be after nearly 14 years together.

Of course, he started out much sweeter than he is now. He used to mail me at least one card every single week and he would actually write something in it. (And they were very sweet) Now, he sends me flowers because "it's easier than having to shop for a card". I'd rather have a card or a scribbled note or something a little more personal. Sometimes he surprises me with sweet things and I usually cry. One of my favorite gifts was when he told me that I could name Baby Ellie, Pacey. In the end, it didn't fit, but that gift made me cry.

Tonight, he asked if I'd want to go somewhere with him on Saturday and maybe I could get a massage while he did the thing that he wanted to do. I told him that there were so many things I'd rather have than a massage. He asked, what I wanted, I told him and then we ordered it. It turns out he'd been checking the history on the computer and was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted. I had shopped around a lot, so he was clueless.

Feel free to guess what it is. I'll share all about it as soon as it arrives by UPS.

And why is all of that underlined??