Adventures in Babysitting

This will likely be my first of a series of posts about Halloween. We have lots of Halloween activities planned, so I thought I'd get a head start. But before we get into all that, I must report on our Adventures in Babysitting last night. My friend Shay is chairing the committee that puts on the big annual fundraiser for the Junior League of DeKalb County. The event is next weekend and her last committee meeting was last night. She could not find a babysitter so I told her to bring Marie on over and Evan and Pressley and I would watch her. It was a hoot! Marie is absolutely precious. You may remember seeing photos of her birthday party earlier this month. She came over already bathed and in her jammies, all ready for bed. The kids were really sweet to her --not so much to each other the whole time, but sweet to Marie. At one point, I had walked away to get something and I overheard Evan say, "Pressley!!! We are showing Marie stuff, it is not playtime!" They had a ball showing Marie all their toys and making sure she was happy. I wish I had gotten out the camera, because it was all very cute. And, Marie has this lovey she calls bear. It is one of those little blankies with a head and arms on it. She apparently likes to suck on the arm and often just walked or crawled around with it hanging out of her mouth. That was how Corin found her when he got home from work. Anyway, Marie goes to bed early, so we put her to bed before we ate dinner and then the kids wanted to go look at her after they finished eating...and again before they went to bed. We'll have to babysit again for Marie. If I hadn't been worried that my kids would give her something that was a choking hazard, I could have just left them and let Marie actually babysit Evan and Pressley. They were that enthralled with her.

OK. So, Halloween: Pressley and I met some new friends at the park a week or so ago. Maggie and her mom, Evan. Maggie and Pressley are only 3 days apart in age and they played well together. Grown up Evan was gracious enough to invite us to a little Halloween party she was throwing this morning. It was lots of fun. There were at least 15 little kids, mostly under 3. The festivities included a game of pass the pumpkin, decorating pumpkins, having a group photo taken, and a fun little lunch followed by the richest cupcakes I've ever tasted. (Pressley ate about one bite and then insisted that I take the rest of the bites. I could only eat about 4 small bites, and if you know me well, you'll know that must mean it was one rich cupcake. I am not one to quit on a cupcake....) Maggie and our next-door-neighbor Sam were the only kids there that we knew, but it was a great, fun party. Pressley had a ball and passed out much quicker than usual for her nap. Yay!!

Pressley decorating her pumpkin

New friends

More photos of Maggie's Party linked under Albums.

Reaping the benefits

I am finally starting to be able to enjoy the new "playroom." My sweet hubby put shelves in the closet on Saturday night and we bought a whole bunch of new bins to sort the toys into. The kids helped me (sort of) separate the toys into new categories. This afternoon, I was talking to my mom on the phone and I was able to say, "Why don't yall go play in the playroom?" I've been so looking forward to saying that. I got to unload and re-load the dishwasher in peace before coming upstairs to check on them and start another project. I think I got this idea from Jon and Kate Plus 8: I just finished taking pictures of a representative sampling of the contents of each bin, printing the photos on the printer, and then cutting them to size to put into the label slots on each of the new bins. It would be useless at this point to put labels on the bins that say "Cars", "Dress Up", "Action Figures", because the intended cleaner uppers and sorters cannot read. So, I thought the photos would help them help me keep things organized. We shall see. They are totally happily making a mess of the room, and my blood pressure has remained relatively unchanged. So... success! Now, if we could just get rid of the crib and changing table (http://atlanta.craigslist.org/bab/881508077.html.), we would be all set to complete this process.

More fall fun

I think fall is Corin's favorite season of the year, and it is quickly becoming one of mine. (I'm still partial to spring, but fall is a close second.) The weather is so beautiful here in October and there is so much fun stuff to do. Today we went to church and lunch as usual on Sundays, but then we took off to the N. GA mountains to go hiking at Amicolola Falls and maybe stumble on some boiled p-nuts (isn't that how they always spell it) and fried pies. Even though we went to a great, fun pumpkin patch last weekend, there were no boiled p-nuts or fried pies, so Corin and I both felt cheated. We got up to the falls around 3:30 and I thought Pressley and I would just go about half way up (less than 1/2 mile), and maybe Corin and Evan would go to the first big landing (probably 3/4 mile, the last 1/4 being all steps). But our kids are adventurers, so we all 4 ended up going all the way to the top. Pressley got to ride in the stroller until we got to the steps, but then we had to ditch the stroller and she had to walk. I believe it was 185 steps to the first major landing and then 435 to the very top. (There are signs with this information. I did not count.) The kids seemed to have a ball and both had plenty of energy left when we made it to the top, which is more than I can say for me. I recovered quickly in the cool breeze as we let the kids run around and play, and then it was back down to the bottom. Again, the kids were troopers, even though they had significantly less steam on the way down.

When we got to the bottom (around 5:30), we headed over to Burt's Pumpkin Farm - a mile or so away. We got there in time to score some fried pies, pumpkin bread and a slice of pumpkin pie, but they were sold out of boiled peanuts. Oh, the humanity. I would not be discouraged. I've seen all the signs for boiled p-nuts between here and the mountains, so I knew we would find something. Finally, after passing a second stand that was sold out, we found a stand that had the leftovers they had just brought back from Dawsonville's Moonshine Festival. I'll take it. This is the one time of year I get boiled p-nuts, and I was not going home without them. So, we ate a very nutritious - and very messy - dinner of pumpkin bread and boiled p-nuts in the car on the way home. I didn't have room for my fried pie after I had stuffed myself with p-nuts, but Corin tells me I am not missing much. Evan polished off most of the pumpkin bread - which means I need to find a recipe for pumpkin bread.... Then the kids passed out in the backseat much like they did last weekend.

It was a good day. More pictures are posted under Albums.

By the way, check out yesterday's post for the newly-added photo of my exhibitionist daughter in her "outfit" from during the costume alterations.

Trick or Treat (a preview)

Every year, Corin's firm has an afternoon of trick or treating for the kids of its employees when the kids get to come in costume and go trick or treating office to office. We usually hit about 3 floors and the kids come away with quite a haul. This year, the event kinda snuck up on me. As is my custom, I ordered Halloween costumes on line really early. Evan is to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (yes, they are still around) and Pressley is to be a fairy. Their costumes came weeks ago, but when I took Evan's turtle shell out of the package, the green coating on the shell stuck to the inside of the bag and it was ruined. Pressley's little fairy costume was cute as could be, but was snug as a bug in a rug. So, back they went. I re-ordered them in plenty of time for Halloween, but not so much wiggle room before the Kilpatrick trick or treating. The costumes came on Tuesday or Wednesday and Evan's costume was fine. Now Pressley's costume was big enough for her to wear a shirt under it if she needs to on Halloween, but it was about a foot too long. This is how it happened that Pressley and I spent all day yesterday at my mom's house. Because she is a saint, mom agreed to help me hem the thing. (She tried to get out of it by offering to lend me her sewing machine, but when I reminded her that she never taught me to sew, she was stuck...) The costume has one layer of satiny dress under two layers of tulle. Oh, and the hem is shorter in the front than in the back. We arrived at mom's house sometime after 10:30 yesterday morning because we first had to go and collect the ballet slippers I had called all over town to find. I mean, who has ever heard of a fairy wearing pink crocs?? So, we had to have the slippers, right? Anyway, we got to mom's house after 10:30 and the first thing we did was make Pressley try on the costume to pin it. She chose to spend the rest of the 3 and a half hours at mom's house in nothing but a diaper and her new ballet slippers. Oh, and a bow in her hair. Try as we might, we could not get that child back into her clothes. We (and by "we" I mean mom) finally finished the slap-dash alterations with just enough time for me to race to get Evan from school at 2:30. I finished a couple of minor things when we got home (and Pressley was sleeping in the car in the garage), and then we were off to Corin's office.

Now, Evan has been looking forward to this event for days. He remembers the last couple of years, and what kid wouldn't be excited about gathering so much candy with so little effort. It is not cold (or wet). There are no porch steps to climb. No doorbells to ring. Just the occasional forced "trick or treat" and/or "thank you." But, for some reason, the child never changed his expression. He says he had fun, but he face never betrayed that.

These were taken before my camera battery died. The rest of the photos were taken with my camera phone and are mostly too blurry to be cute.

Happy Fall

We had a fun, fun weekend. It was busy and exhausting, which is why I'm just now getting around to telling you about it. The kids are downstairs - playing with Playdoh unsupervised, so I may regret this, but here goes. Friday night, soccer practice was rained out, so we didn't do anything special. Just dinner at RuSan's for sushi. The only thing to report about that is that Evan has ventured into the world of sushi. I'm very proud of him for being so adventurous. No, we did not let him eat raw fish. He had a shrimp tempura roll. Nevertheless, I doubt there are many 4 year olds out there that can say they had sushi for dinner on Friday night. I digress...

Saturday morning brought a 9 a.m. soccer game followed by a fun day at Washington Farm in Watkinsville, GA. Our friend Jeremy has planned our pumpkin outings the last 2 years in a row. Last year we went to Southern Belle Farm in McDonough. This was very similar, but the lines were not as long to do stuff and so we were able to pack more into the day. There was a petting zoo, a giant slide made out of some kind of rolling pvc-type pipes, a mini-hay-bale-maze, a giant corn maze, tricycle racing, hay rides, pumpkin sling shot, corn cob hydraulic shooting, pig races, and a cute little cow-train ride for the kids. We did it all. The kids had a ball. We were lost in the corn maze for at least an hour. Evan kept getting all up into the corn, which was against the rules. I kept fussing at him to get out of there, but after a while I decided that the behavior might get us thrown out, which might not be such a bad thing.... We went to dinner in Monroe, GA at the Applebee's on the way home and the kids both passed out in the car for the trip home. It was a good day.

Sunday, Briarlake had community service day. It all started with an outdoor service on the ballfield followed by lunch and dispatch into the community for various projects. Corin and I signed up to go to a local elementary school with our Sunday school class. When we arrived, we were assigned to a team that was to paint a stripe down the middle of the wall in each hallway in the school. Each hallway stripe is a different color, so Corin's guess is that the purpose of the stripe is to tell the kids to line up in the red hallway and then go to the purple hallway, etc. That guess is as good as any. The principal was there and was very pleased with our presence. Apparently, last year some Briarlake folks had painted the overhangs on the front of the school. He said he had been asking the school board to have it done for 5-6 years -- to no avail -- so he was thrilled to have our group volunteer to get it done. It was satisfying to get out and work in the community, but I was pooped when we got home. The kids stayed at church the whole time we were painting, and I was very worried that they would be irritated to have been left there for so long, but they had a great time and had to be pried out of the building to go home.

There are photos of soccer and Washington Farm linked under Albums.

What a day

Pressley and I ran errands today. We went to the FedEx/Kinkos, the mall, lunch, home for naps, to pick up Evan, and then home again. This afternoon, I've been nursing a bad back. I don't know how it happened...or when for that matter, but I have hurt my back. Corin asked if it happened at the gym. Answer: no we skipped the gym today and I managed to get injured shopping. So, anyway, I've been lying on the couch on an ice pack this afternoon as much as the kids will tolerate. I got up a few minutes ago to get them a snack while we wait for daddy to get home for dinner. I gave them each a few cheese crackers on a napkin and then went back to lie down. I had asked Evan to use the dust buster to get the crumbs from underneath the table after snack -- his new "chore" that he enjoys a lot more than I do. When I heard the dust buster crash to the ground in the garage after he had brought it to me for me to turn it off, I struggled up off the couch again to check it out. This is the scene I found on the way to the garage...

The image is a little blurry, so let me tell you what you are looking at. Those are goldfish crackers on a napkin in front of Pressley. Apparently, this is what she thinks is an acceptable serving size for a snack just before dinner.... the second snack, that is. I was on my way to put the crackers back in the bag when I decided I just had to capture it on film first.

TGIF!

See? We're getting there....

Our housekeeper was here today, so the new beds are made up as neatly as they will be until next time she comes. So, it seems an appropriate time to take a photo to show you that we really are making progress. The kids' new rooms are so cute. Here is Evan's new sports-themed bed. He picked it out all by himself (from among the mom-approved choices I gave him). I'm not sure if you can see the super-cute lamp on the night stand. It has a baseball bat and balls around the lamp base.

Pressley's bed is really cute, too. When I was pregnant with Evan and we had just bought this house, I fell in love with some baby boy bedding that was khaki and red. I somehow talked Corin into letting me have it, and then I talked him into letting me have some roman shades made for the nursery that are khaki with red trim.... which meant that Pressley's nursery bedding, and now her big girl bedding, had to incorporate the red. I don't regret the decision because I still love those window treatments. And, with all the cute choices out there for girl bedding, it helps to have the boundary of finding something with red. If I didn't have that restriction, I might be still deciding on her big girl bedding when she goes to the prom. I think what we ended up with is perfect for her. A little girly, but not too frilly...because this is not a frilly child. And she loves it. She climbs her little steps (which she also loves) and runs her hand across the quilt like Vanna White and says, "Look at my f-lowers, mommy!"

If I ever get around to doing the decorative painting and such that I have in my head, I'll be sure to update the photos. But, seriously, who are we kidding? The chances of my following through on that are slim to none.

A conversation with Pressley

Here's what transpired in the car this morning:
[Out of the blue]Pressley: What's work, mommy?
Me: What's work? Is that what you said?
P: Yes.
Me: [thinking] Well, it is something people do that adds value to society, and most of the time, they get paid to do it.
P: Oohhh. [pause] Sounds fun.

In case you are wondering... yes, I know she is two, but do you know how hard it is to come up with a definition for some random thing off the top of your head 4 times a day and then have to figure out how to dumb it down for a 2 year old (or 4 year old - whatever the case may be)?? Corin talks to them like they are adults, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Another to do list

Get a new picture of the kids (read: not in their bathing suits) to go with Halloween background...

Stupidity Fee

So, I finally figured out what it going to take to correct the mistake of ordering regular box springs instead of low-profile box springs for Evan's bed. $100 bucks. A $50 re-stocking fee plus another $50 delivery charge. Outrageous! I find this whole thing frustrating and insulting, but here's what I choose to take from the situation: I should just be grateful there is not such an egregious (monetary) penalty every time I make an error in judgment. We'd be in poor house.

But, we couldn't leave it like this, could we?!?

The good news is that the swap is supposed to take place between 9 and noon tomorrow, and then, knock on wood, the whole ordeal should be over. Well, the mattress part of the whole ordeal anyway... The other good news is that his bedding arrived today. I love it and he loves it, which is definitely a win/win since he makes a point of disagreeing with me on most everything. Stay tuned. I'll eventually change the subject back to something more interesting than our "remodel."

Will it never end?!?

It is starting to come together around here, but the house is still a bit chaotic. The crib is in our bedroom, half disassembled. The changing table is in the office, and there is a wardrobe in the hall. Evan's mattress was delivered this morning and the box springs are all wrong. The mattress sits up at least 4 inches above the footboard. I have called the store to see what my options are for exchanging for a low profile box spring, but they haven't called me back yet - despite the fact they told me an hour ago it would be 10-15 minutes. There is only so much a girl can take in one week. I know it was my crazy idea to do all this in the first place, but holy cow!! Will it never end??

Meanwhile, Pressley is refusing to nap in her big girl bed unless mommy is laying with her. I cannot seem to convey to her that mommy needs both the time it takes her to fall asleep and the time she is actually sleeping to get her work hours in. She is unimpressed with my plight. At night, she doesn't crawl out of the bed every 5 seconds like she does at nap time. Instead, she just cries pitifully until she wears herself out and falls asleep. It kills me to let her cry, but I do know that if I don't, she will just keep manipulating us at bedtime until she is 14 (which I realize she is liable to do anyway).

Here's hoping for a more sane week next week. I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel -- however faint.

Quick aside: Sometimes it pays not to screen your calls. I just got an out of state call and I was tempted not to answer. Something made me answer anyway, and I'm so glad I did. It was my mail-in pharmacy company. Get this: there is an automated voice asking if I am Amy McCarthy and telling me to say yes or no. After a number of other steps to verify that I was indeed Amy McCarthy, the automated voice tells me that one of my prescriptions is ready to be refilled and asks if I'd like for her to go ahead and take care of that for me. Umm, yes! It would have taken me days to get around to noticing I was low and calling in the refill. That is customer service. It is the little things in life that make me happy... My house may be completely chaotic, but some computerized woman somewhere in Massachusetts cared enough to refill my prescription for me. Ahhhhhhh. I never got that kind of service from the Rite-Aid.

Call me crazy

You would think that after the busy day we had on Saturday that we would have just taken it easy on Sunday. You would think wrong. I have had it in my head for a few weeks now that when Pressley gets her big girl bed, we should rearrange "some" other furniture upstairs and convert the office/ guest room into an office/ play room in an attempt to re-claim the order in our downstairs living spaces. We ordered Pressley's big girl mattress yesterday and I talked Corin into my crazy scheme of moving most of the furniture in both kids' rooms and the guest room in a giant and heavy game of musical chairs. I knew it would be difficult, but I had no idea how difficult. Here was my original plan: Pressley would get the antique headboard and dresser from the guest room, a queen mattress and some cute new bedding. Evan would get the antique headboard that has been in our garage since we moved in, a queen mattress, and some cute new bedding. The queen bed in the guest room (and other furniture) would be replaced with Evan's twin trundle bed, leaving the whole middle of the room open for toys and play. Little did we know when we started this process - that we planned to finish up between dinner and the kids' bed times - that Evan's bed would have to come apart to fit through the door and Pressley's crib would have to come apart to fit through her door. Oh, and the antique bed (full-sized) in the garage that we had just purchased converter rails and a new mattress for would not accept converter rails. So, this morning I had to call and cancel the mattress order and order a full-sized mattress instead that will fit on the existing bed rails. Needless to say, we did not finish the project. There are stray mattresses everywhere. Last night, Evan slept on a twin mattress on the floor in the middle of his new full-sized bed frame. Pressley slept in her still-assembled crib in the middle of the floor with a head board and foot board behind it against the wall. Corin and I slept... soundly. We were exhausted. (And, I had to take two benadryl to combat the allergy attack brought on by all the dust we kicked up.) More to do tonight and probably tomorrow night as well. It's gonna be a long week. But the promise of not having to look at the doll house, the mini-kitchen and the tool bench every time I walk in the back door is spurring me on. And, I am convinced that the end result will be fabulous. I'm even thinking of doing some chair rails and decorative painting in the kids' rooms when we get everything else in place. Just don't tell Corin that part yet. He's liable to either have heart failure or divorce me -- not sure which.

To our future overnight guests: Not to worry, the kids will be sleeping in the playroom when we have company, and company will be sleeping in the kids' queen and full beds. I have it all figured out.

The busy, busy (Mountain) Day

Pressley and I had a big day yesterday. We left the house at 9 a.m. and drove to Rome, GA: home of my alma mater. We met some of my very best college girlfriends (and thier kids) at the Dwarf House in Rome for brunch and then headed over to the campus for Mountain Day. Mountain Day is hard to explain to someone who has never experienced it. It is a homecoming of sorts. To celebrate Martha Berry's birthday. (Yesterday, the Berry choir even sang happy birthday to Martha, which is a new tradition and kinda cheesy.) The big event of Mountain Day is the Mt.Day march. This is when all of the students stand at the top of this big hill and start to proceed down two by two. Boys on one side, girls on the other, for as long as the boys last -- which is not long. You were much more likely to get paired up with another girl for the march since boys are outnumbered at Berry something like 10 to 1. Anyhow, the procession starts out two by two, then you climb back up the hill and meet up with another pair. Then your foursome, tromps back up the hill and joins another foursome, and so on, until everyone is coming down the hill in these huge lines. I think it is supposed to symbolize unity or some such thing. I always called it Berry College Fitness 101 because climbing up and down that hill over and over is hard work. Oh, yeah - and the underclass girls wear pink (used to be dresses - apparently now it is just any old pink thing you have in your closet) and the seniors wear blue. I think underclass boys wear blue and seniors wear white. I know - you are thinking "And you think singing happy birthday to Martha is cheesy??" It is a fun and unique tradition and you know you are jealous that you didn't do it at your college!!

The Berry girls and their daughters. (The husbands and sons had already left when we broke out the camera.) [Back row: Me, April, Pressley, Amy F.; Front row: Addie Lee and Catherine (Amy F.'s daughters), Jolynn and Ajae (April's daughter); Not pictured: Jan, Kelly and Allison]

So after making Pressley sit through a 2 hour brunch and dragging her to the Mountain Day march in the October sun, I then dragged her to a friends house to see her new twins. My best friend, April, has a little sister named Nicki who became almost like a little sister to me during college and beyond. I love that girl. Anyway, she is now married and has three beautiful daughters. The youngest, her 6 month old twins, have had me praying without ceasing since last March. Nicki had to go on hospitalized bedrest at 20 weeks and spent the next month of her life in a bed, inverted at a 30 degree angle, trying to keep from delivering the twins. The twins were ultimately born at 25 weeks and the family embarked on the roller coaster that follows when babies are born that prematurely. I was able to keep up with the girls' progress through Nicki and Steve's precious CaringBridge site and I have felt like I've known the twins since their early April birthday. But yesterday, I got to meet them for the first time. They are home and doing pretty well, but both have severe reflux and some other issues that keep Nicki and Steve, and the whole extended family, on their toes. They are a strong, Christ-centered family, and I admire them so much for the grace with which they have handled the struggles they've faced, and I count it such a privilege that I got to visit with the twins yesterday.

Callie would not take her hand out of her mouth for me.

Sarah Kate and her Aunt April.

Finally, after we left Nicki's house, it was time to head back to Atlanta for Marie's first birthday party. Marie is the daughter of my dear friend Shay, who has been one of my closest friends since we met as summer associates at Powell Goldstein. Marie was a perfect hostess, and her mommy threw a great party. She even had a baby pool full of blue balloons that the kids got to jump in to to dive for treasure. They had a ball, and once Pressley finally got her oft-demanded cupcake, she was happy and exhausted and ready to go home.

Pressley enjoys diving for treasure.

It was a busy day, but we had a good time and Pressley was about as good as a two year old could be expected to be on a day like that. I did have to relax my expectations a bit by the time we got to Marie's party, but I figured the kid deserved to be cut some slack. There are more stories to tell about some funny things Pressley said and did during the day, but you are tired of reading and I am tired of typing. I'll try to tell those stories another day.

BTW - Evan also had a good day. He stayed home with Daddy to play in his soccer game and go to his friend Jake's birthday party. I don't know nearly as many details about his day, but didn't want to neglect reporting on him altogether....

Smacked that monkey right in the tree

I have mostly been a cranky, nagging, yelling mommy recently. I don't like to be that way. I want to be loving and nurturing and have just the right reaction to each situation that presents itself. But, I have a 2 year old. And she is STRONG willed. And she is wearing me down. I remember with Evan, even when I was frustrated, I always had some idea of how to handle a situation --whether it turned out to be right or wrong. With Pressley, I often find myself trying all the tried-and-true responses (read: threats and punishments), and when none of those work (which is often the case), I just sort of stand there with my head in my hands wondering..."what now??" But then the little stinker looks up at me and grins and I remember why it is all worth it.

Yesterday in the car on the way home from the gym, Pressley was in stand-up comedian mode. She had me absolutely cracking up. She talked non-stop. There are a couple of background pieces of information you should know before I go on: Beth and David are my sister and brother-in-law; Will and Abby are my niece and nephew; Corin is a graduate of the University of Tennessee whose idea of a lullaby is singing Rocky Top (I promise that is relevant. You'll see.) OK. So, the talking started out with asking questions about where everyone is. We do this every day that Pressley is home with me. "Where's daddy?" "At work." "Where's Evan?" "At school." "Where's GranNan and Poppy?" and on it goes... Yesterday, we got to Will and Abby, who she calls AbbyWools, and said they were at school. "I want to go a restaurant with AbbyWools" she says. I tell her that maybe we could work that out over the weekend. "I don't think so" she says. When I ask why not, she tells me that Bath and Davin are climbing Rocky Top, which will apparently prevent any eating out together. Turns out AbbyWools are also climbing Rocky Top. (I don't know if they are looking for a moonshine still or climbing for some other purpose.) At this point, she completely switches gears and holds her hand in a fist and says, "This a spider." Oh, really? Yes. "The spider smacked that monkey right in the tree" she says with a purposeful clap. REALLY?? Oh, yes. She repeated it over and over and over, each time with more enthusiasm. Each time, I became more and more tickled. I'm guessing there is some song they sing at school about a monkey in a tree, but I seriously doubt that the spider is the one who smacked that monkey right in the tree. It was all very amusing though. I know it probably loses something in being written instead of told, but I hope if you know Pressley you can envision how it went down.

As a side note, my spellchecker just went bonkers. Apparently AbbyWools is not in the dictionary. Go figure.