Happy Birthday Ellie!

Today is a sad day... it's Ellie's fifth birthday and we are making arrangements to take her to meet a potential new family tomorrow. World's worst dog owners, I know. I seriously might cry. After a ridiculous amount of consideration, we decided it was probably for the best to find Ellie a new home. We are going to be living in an apartment (with all white carpet) and will have to board her whenever we go out of town. We also have to crate the dogs when we are not home, and I don't want her to spend 20 hours a day in her crate. BUT, if we can't find her a home we are happy with, she'll come with us. In the meantime, I'm so entirely guilt ridden that she is sleeping in our bed.

On a happier note, we all sang happy birthday to the birthday girl, and after we left the kitchen, John Dickson gave Ellie all of his breakfast casserole and his yogurt (two of his favorite foods). He said it was her birthday cake. This child has never left an uneaten bite of "brex-es casserole." It was maybe the sweetest thing ever.

Happy birthday to our sweet girl!

How I came to love Blueberry Frog.

Nana and Grumps came to visit a couple weeks ago as sort of a bon voyage to summer. Ah the life of working in public education. There is an indoor putt putt place in downtown Greenville that we have been wanting to try, and it was hot as you know where that day, so we decided to go when my Dad challenged us to a game of putt putt - Dad and Mom vs me and Adam. John Dickson played too, but we just couldn't figure out how to count the strokes of picking up the ball and carrying them down to the hole, so he just played for fun. Anyway, we decided to play for $10, which was really just me agreeing to play putt putt and give Mom and Dad $10, because there was no way I was winning with ::cough cough:: someone on my team.







We played. We lost. We bargained to buy frozen yogurt instead of paying $10. And can I tell you how incredibly bummed I am that we waited until now to indulge in the heaven that is Blueberry Frog? All natural, no sugar added bowls of heaven, topped with mango so good it took us back to St Lucia. Guess we'll have to find us a new Blueberry Frog.

Mom, as usual, came loaded with books for John Dickson, and spent every non-putt putt Blueberry Frog eating moment reading John Dickson those books. If you care to hear them, I'm sure she could recite them for you...

PS

I thought Henry should tell you himself what he thought of the baseball game.

What a Weekend

We've had quite the month in our house with week long stomach bugs for 3 out of 4 of us. Poor Henry started his turn Thursday night, and by yesterday morning, his diaper rash was out of control. (His appetite, however, is just compensating for everything he is losing with this bug - he's ravenous, all the time) So I called the pediatrician yesterday morning to see if she could prescribe something for the diaper rash, and was slightly irritated when the only prescription I got was for baking soda baths. Whatevs man. We decided to give it a try, and I just have two words.

Miracle drug.

I won't be too graphic, but let's just say that was the worst diaper rash I had ever seen, and after 3 baking soda baths yesterday afternoon, he was almost back to normal by the time he went to bed last night. Holy moly, why am I just now learning about this?!?!?

Anyway, so Adam was in Charlotte Friday afternoon, so I decided to do what I usually try to do when Adam is away - bribe my kids into mom-is-the-favorite-dom. You see, I have to, because John Dickson is a huge Daddy's boy. Rango after bedtime? Why not??? So we went to the store, brought home Rango, got snuggled up on the couch with our pillows and blanket, when my "why not" question was answered.

4 letter words.
"Look me in the eye. I want to WATCH you die."
"I'm going to drag your soul down to hell."
"I killed all 7 of them with just one bullet."

Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera. Are you kidding me?!?!? In an animinated PG rated movie?? Thanks a lot Johnny Depp, I knew I didn't like you. (No I am not a Pirates fan, thankyouverymuch). Thankfully they put most of the bad stuff at the end so you don't see it coming. Sarcasm. Note to self: prescreen. Win over kids with ice cream.

Saturday morning my weekend got infinitely worse. I have been dying to pressure wash my house. Im old now, ok? Ok. So I got up at 6:30, headed to Easley to pick up the pressure washer, got it home, and we couldn't get it assembled because of some weird connector thing. So Adam took it back and came home with a working pressure washer, except that it wouldn't start. Details. We got it started 3 times, but it never ran more than 30 seconds or so, so we finally took it back and they refused to give us our money back. I was so ticked.

After that, I decided to attempt duel naptime while Adam ran errands. I put Henry in his crib and put John Dickson in our bed, and I laid there wondering what kind of freak alignment in the solar system was causing John Dickson to just hop in bed, lie down and be still and quiet and almost asleep when I heard a big crash. I jumped up and grabbed the video monitor to make sure it wasn't Henry, but there was Henry's crib, safe and sound. And no Henry. That's right people, my 13 month old can hop the crib. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, just upset, but not too upset to not try it again. We took the bumper pads out for now, but if it happens again, I don't know what we are going to do... 13 months. I decided the solar system was unfair afterall.

We have 3 weeks left in Greenville, and so we decided to do something we've been dying to do the entire time we have been here - go to a Greenville Drive game. I hoped John Dickson would enjoy it, but I had no idea how much he was going to truly love it. However, Henry was having none of it. He doesn't like baseball thankyouverymuch. (Two in one post, I know). After an hour or so we had to bribe John Dickson to leave, and he finally agreed. As soon as we got home, he insisted on getting out his bat and ball and playing some baseball in the front yard.

I'm tellin ya, the kid is a natural.



And he hits the ball!



We knew he was fast... he tells us all the time how he is faster than his best friend Mackhue. He says that we need to learn to run faster so we can beat his best friend Mackhue. He even admits that sometimes Mackhue even beats John Dickson. But John Dickson beats him back. (Trivia: There is a winner and a loser to every game. And another winner, who happens to be the loser. If said winner/loser is John Dickson.)



John Dickson played baseball for a solid hour. I have never seen him do ANYTHING for a solid hour... except of course watch Rango. Whatevs man. I knew I should stick to Winnie the Pooh. I may or may not have taken the day off to take John Dickson to see Pooh on opening day.





Last night as we were winding down and getting ready for bed, we sent John Dickson to go brush his teeth. He was in there counting...

John Dickson: "Two, three, four, five"
Me: "What are you counting?"
John Dickson: "Three!"
Me: "Three what?"
John Dickson: "Three twenty!"
Me: "Three twenty what?"
John Dickson: "Three twenty two!"

Aaand I gave up.

Also on Saturday, I left John Dickson unattended with Play Doh while I rocked a sleeping Henry, and came out to find John Dickson had mixed every last color together into one big ice cream cone. I actually managed to somewhat separate the colors back out, and as I went to put the orange back into the bag, I noticed the top half of the bag was missing. Magic? No. He got the scissors. He later colored a business card with a sharpee. Note to self: Pencil cup on the desk is no longer ok.

We learned a lot this weekend.

A Visit from Aunt Lie

Aunt Lie came for a visit the weekend after the 4th. My boys are obsessed with their Aunt Lie, and I imagine part of it is due to her taking John Dickson to Panera for a gingerbread cookie breakfast, or maybe that they know there are always chocolate chips in her pantry and baked goods on her counter, or maybe it's because she makes a killer Toy Story cake. It's hard to say. Personally I think it's because they are bigger than she is. Regardless, it's hard to argue with an affinity for Leslie. We lived together for 3 years back in college and I'm excited to do it again, if only for 2 weeks this time.









Leslie asked John Dickson if he wanted to go live with her, and he said no. She asked if Henry could go live with her, and he said sure. Little booger.

And before she left, this happened... hmm... grab the baby or grab the camera... I chose camera. Aren't you glad?

4th of July - the Zoo

All those posts and that wasn't even the actual holiday. I promise to keep this one short and sweet. The 4 of us headed to the NC Zoo on our way home from Winston Salem. Best day of the year to go to the zoo... no one was there. We practically had the place to ourselves, which really came in handy when we got to meet this guy:



Had it been any other non-family kid, I totally would have pushed him out of the way, but alas it was my sweet little boy.

That same little boy got a big kick out of the zoo map. And the juice box.



The obligatory statue picture:



And OBVIOUSLY I had to take a picture of the Hen with the giraffes. Obviously. (PS Riverbanks has a 4 week old giraffe. This makes me so excited, I can hardly stand it)



The NC Zoo has about 5 miles of walking trails, and we saw all but one of the areas. I was amazed that John Dickson walked the majority of it, and I'd be shocked if he walked less than 2.5 miles. We had a busy weekend and we just knew, especially after the zoo, that the boys would just conk out in the car.

And so, naturally, they didn't.

We stopped for dinner and stopped again at the outlet mall. At this point it was after 9 and dark outside. We had pretty much given up on John Dickson sleeping, but Hen... The Hen always sleeps.

And so, naturally, he didn't.

That's ok though, because they never fussed, they just enjoyed each other's company. They played together (seriously, they throw blankets at each other and crack up) the whole way home. And at one point, they were laughing hysterically and when we turned to look at them, we saw this.



Melt. my. heart.

When we got home, Henry promptly passed out, and John Dickson stayed up another hour watching fireworks. His teacher told us the next day that he was just wandering around quietly all morning, not doing anything, until after his 2.5 hour nap (from which they had to wake him up) when he returned to his usual rowdy rambunctious self.

Happy 4th.

4th of July - the Playground

Some favorites from the playground:





I betcha didn't know juice boxes aren't just for the pool...



After the playground, Henry headed home for a nap, Ella slept with her eyes open in the stroller, and John Dickson fed the ducks.

4th of July

Our kids love going to see their grandparents. I mean, they LOVE it. I think it may have something to do with the grandparents having trouble resisting these faces...



And then you throw in some of this action...



Putty in their hands. I tell ya.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching Ella's rendition of the hot dog dance, if you're happy and you know it, and head, shoulders knees and toes. And my personal favorite, the Ewwa song. You just sing "Ewwa" over and over again while shifting side to side.



This face... she called me "Mumbly" that weekend and I nearly melted into a puddle. Since then it has evolved to more of a "Mamba" which is still pretty awesome and I hope it stays for a while.



And I managed to capture the one moment where John Dickson and Ella were silent and still (and awake). Oh, and did I mention John Dickson took a nap? Granna is like the nap fairy.

4th of July - the Pool

Some pictures from the pool (You may recall John Dickson jumping off of the diving board from this post)

Hennis loves the pool. I think he actually finds it pretty relaxing, as he has almost fallen asleep in the pool multiple times. He seemed to get a pretty big kick out of the kiddie pool.




Somebody else enjoyed the kiddie pool too:



Even if it was quite exhausting...



And of course the best part about any pool experience, the juice box. John Dickson isn't exactly our little fish. He's more of a poolside juice box drinker.

The Laundry Room Club

Did I mention we were in Winston Salem for the 4th? We spent the long weekend with Granna, Papa, Aunt Erin, Uncle Jason and of course, Ella. John Dickson and Ella love to play in the laundry room.



I've never been invited to the secret club, so I'm not sure what they do during the meetings, but I'm pretty sure Ella is President and John Dickson is ShoeTryerOnner, at the direction of the President.

There is also a lot of squealing, door opening and closing, and the most fun club game of all... putting fingers under the door. Seriously, best game ever. Or so I've been told.






I'd tell you how to get in, but I'm afraid if your name isn't Papa, you're probably out of luck.

Happy 4th of July!

That's right people. In blog world, it is finally the weekend of July 4. Which is much better than in photo printing world where Henry is just about to reach peanut in the belly stage... It has actually been so long since the 4th, I'm not sure I really remember what all we did, but I do know I have some favorite pictures :-)

These two hung out a lot, and co-founded the "Laundry Room John Dickson and Ella Only - and sometimes Papa Club." More on that in the next post. Think of this post as more of your table of contents...





We hit the pool - John Dickson ready to go



There was a lot of good food...



And in usual Hen fashion, Hen hung out all weekend