Q is for Quilt

For Max

Oh, Max, how I love you so.

I came to your room at school today to pick you up. You didn't see me at first and I got to watch you play for a minute. Then, you saw me. You ran over to the door and I picked you right up. You put your little hands on my neck and pulled me in close to you. You gave me a huge kiss, smiled, and said so sweetly "Mommy" with a sigh of relief. You held my neck the way down the hall to get Charlotte.

You however, are giving me lots of trouble when it is time to get dressed. You will only wear a t-shirt, and you are very particular about the one we choose in the morning. You refuse to wear pants, only shorts, and I am very thankful we live in the South. I'm hoping the weather stays warm for a little while longer. You scream like a wild animal in captivity when we try to get a polo and khakis on you to go to church. You went in a t-shirt and gym shorts a week ago. It's a battle I'm not going to fight too hard with you about.

You play so sweetly by yourself with your trucks and cars and trains. I just watch you line them up, one by one. You are learning your colors and shapes. You like to walk everywhere - but that's OK because you always stay right with me.

You are my little buddy. I spoil you. I let you do things that I wouldn't have let your sister do at your age. I give in and give you juice and snacks when I shouldn't. But, when you say, "Shank you, Mommy", I would really give you anything in the world you asked for.

In a little less than a month you will be 2. It seems impossible. You are growing into a "big boy" - can't you please stay my baby?

Our little parrot

Maxwell is really flapping his gums these days. He is saying new words daily. Constantly aware of what is going on around him - always mimicking his older sibling.

Charlotte and Max were playing with the Duplo blocks last week. Charlotte's creation crumbled to pieces multiple times while she was building it. (They are always super top heavy). Each time this happened she would yell, "NO FAIR!!". At one point, past the point of frustration, she stomped upstairs to her room and slammed her door. Max picked up some duplo pieces and started to build a creation all his own. He then broke it and said, "No Fair!". It was pretty cute. Since then, he says it whenever something isn't going his way. That's not so cute.

Charlotte is pretty into the Annie soundtrack. I have a few of the songs loaded on my phone and we listen to them in the car every so often. Charlotte really gets into it and belts out "Tomorrow". Sometimes I hear Max in the back singing, "morrow, morrow". I put him to bed every night. We read some books and I try to sing a song to him - something like "Jesus Loves Me" or "Twinkle, Twinkle." But he usually says, "No Mommy, no song." So, the other night I started singing, "When I'm stuck with a day..that's grey..and Looonely". And he said, "Moorrow, morrow!". So, now we sing that every night.

I forgot how awesome this language stage is. You just never know what's going to come out of those little mouths.

Bubble

I saw this post and just knew we had to try it. So simple, but provides loads of fun. And allows me to cook dinner in peace.

One duvet cover.
One fan. (We tried with different kids of fans, the box fans work the best)

Just add kids.









Here's what it looked like in our house. The idea is simple, you just set up the fan in front of the hole in the duvet. It blows air in and makes a "bubble". I had to tie the top of the hole of the duvet to the fan so it would stay open.



Charlotte's favorite part, talking into the fan.

Afternoon Jam Session

She calls this "Soccer Days"



In case you don't catch all of the lyrics:

This song is written by Joe Talkinberry.
Playin' soccer in the Fall, hey hey
Sweatin' in the Fall, gay gay
Trying to get it in the goal, yeah yeah
I go, wooo it's hot
Can you give me a treatment for hotness
(I'm not sure....)
And I'll get a trophy and I'll say, Hey Hey I win
I go to bed and I snore this snore...snoring
I love to play soccer and a boccer
and a 2, and a 3, and 4, 5, 6
do da do doo...

I have no clue who Joe Talkinberry is - or why he wrote this.

Future songwriter? I'm not so sure, but she sure cracks me up.

I'm a soccer mom!

Today was Charlotte's first soccer game. She sported her pink soccer shorts with her jersey. She was SO excited. I braided her hair, helped her into her socks and shin guards, and laced up her cleats. I'm not sure who was more excited - Judd, Charlotte or me - it was probably me. I played soccer for years - from the time I can remember through my junior year of high school. I loved it, I want Charlotte to love it.

Judd's cousin Jen came to watch the game with us. We found the field, found her coach and watched her get some pre-game motivation.



Then after a little warm up, it was time to huddle in and shout, "Gooooo Tigers!"



She did awesome. The very first play of the game, she dribbled down the field and scored a goal! The first goal of the first game. She came to the sidelines and we were all so proud. We clapped told her how awesome she was and she said, "Ahh, it was nothing." Her smile was from ear to ear. She went on to score one more goal. She didn't back down, she wasn't afraid. She got right in there and got the ball.



During her time off the field, she sat in Jen's lap cheering on her team.



After the game all of the parents made a tunnel for the kids to run through. They LOVED this part.



She was a little disappointed that she didn't get a trophy at the end of the game. We had to explain that she got that at the end of the season.

We are excited to see what the rest of the season brings.

The bees

It dawned on me today that I never told the story of Charlotte and the bees here on the 'ol blog. I've gotten to be such a bad blogger, not really capturing the "every day" - even though this incident isn't really the "every day".

A little background: I have a friend, Bri. Bri has 3 kiddos - Clara (5), Lucy(2), and James (baby). Clara and Charlotte play very nicely together. Max thinks Lucy hung the moon. So, we switch up the kids every now and then. I take Clara and Bri takes Max or vice versa. It works out well for us.

One day in July, Bri and I swapped kids. I took Clara for the morning and Bri took Max. (This is secretly my favorite swap because the girls just go off and play and I enjoy surfing the web) Around lunch time I brought Clara back to Bri's house. We went in and I talked to Bri for a while - finding out how much trouble Max was. They had a friend staying with them. The friend had a dog. The girls wanted to go outside and throw the ball to the dog in the front yard, so we all went outside. Max, Lucy, Charlotte, Clara, Me, and Bri - holding 3 month old James.

The dog chased the ball into a wooded section of the front lawn. It came out and kinda scooted it's rear end on the grass quickly. I didn't really think anything of it, but remember thinking the dog acted like something bit it's bottom. The girls followed the dog into the wooded area.

Then, I heard the scream. Clara was frozen in the wooded area, just screaming. My immediate thought was she stepped through a spider web or something. Charlotte was on the other side of the wooded area and she immediately froze and started screaming. I ran to her as Bri (holding James) ran to Clara. Lucy and Max are just running around.

Then, I see them. Bees EVERYWHERE. I pull Charlotte out of the wooded section and see she is covered in bees - head to toe. There are at least 40 just on her back. I'm brushing them off of her as fast as I can, but they just keep swarming us. Max is standing beside me screaming, Charlotte is screaming. I see Bri run inside with Clara and Lucy. Luckily her husband is working from home that day. He comes out and takes James and closes the baby in a back bedroom. The bees are following us inside, they are everywhere. Bri's husband is trying to kill them with fly swatters, the girls are screaming, Max is screaming, Lucy is crying, we don't know what to do. Finally it seems all of the bees are off of us, but there are still some flying around downstairs in their house. I take the girls and Max upstairs to Clara's room. I'm trying to calm them down - they are shaking.

I get Charlotte undressed. A bee flies out of her pants! They start screaming again. I step on the bee. We count stings. 13 on Charlotte - 18 or 19 on Clara - 2 on me - 0 on the rest. Thankfully the little kids and the baby weren't stung at all. Bri and I are looking the girls over making sure to get all of the stingers out.

Finally we feel like everyone is calm enough for us to leave. I carry Charlotte out to the car and then come back and get Max.

I ended up taking Charlotte to the doctor that afternoon just to make sure everything was OK. The only sting site that ended up swelling was the one on her eye lid. Her poor little eye was all swollen the next couple of days. The sting sites itched quite a bit the next day.

Hands down the scariest moment with the kids I've had so far. I had no idea that I had been stung until the adrenaline wore off. It really is true that when it comes down to it, you will throw yourself in front of anything for your kids. (Not that bees are really that bad, it's not like it was a burning building or anything) But, I learned that day that I would have laid on that hive, or attracted all of the bees to me if I had known how to do that. No questions asked.

Charlotte and Clara kinda laugh about it now when they talk about it. Bri and I call them the "Bee Sisters". But put a bee within a half mile of Charlotte and you'll hear her scream.

A Walk in the Woods

Disclaimer: I have lost complete control these days about what my children are wearing. It is a battle I've surrendered to. For example, that is why Charlotte is wearing frilly socks with white sandals. Max is worse than she is when it comes to his opinions on what he wears.

We wound down the first week of school with happy kids. I think all in all the first week went well. Charlotte likes her class and Max tolerated his on Thursday.

Judd was out of town this past weekend. He went on a guys trip to Kansas City. They went to the UGA game on Saturday and the Falcons game on Sunday. So the kids and I were left to fend for ourselves over the weekend.

Saturday we played at the park and went out to lunch. Saturday afternoon I planned to take them to the pool, but ended up strolling around Target since it rained. They pressed all of the buttons on the trucks in the toy aisle for a while. I picked up a few things I didn't need. I good way to fill up some rainy day time.

Sunday we got a taste of Fall. Lower humidity, lows in the upper 50's. After church, lunch, and naps we went to one of our favorite places. A path that runs between two different parks. It winds through some woods. It is half boardwalk and half concrete. We played on the playground for a while, but then Charlotte got too hot. (This would not be the last bench she laid on yesterday afternoon)



I just love it back here. We walked, pushed scooters, climbed trees, and talked about everything Charlotte could think of.













After an half hour Charlotte couldn't walk a step more and laid out on this bench.



Max sat by her side.



but, then he was ready to go.



It was a simple afternoon, but one of my favorites.

A Chipmunk and a Seahorse

Yesterday Charlotte had some quiet time in her room. About 10 minutes into it, she came out with red dots all over her arms, legs, and face. Astonished, I asked her what in world possessed her to do that. She burst into heartbreaking tears and said, "I'm too sick to go to school tomorrow!". I explained that I knew it was marker dots and not chicken pox. She cried even harder and said, "I'm just too nervous.".

This came as quite a surprise to Judd and me. The child is ultra confident. We explained that she knew some kids in her class and that she was going to be just fine. She seemed to feel much better about the whole thing this morning. She was excited to get dressed and ready for the day.

Max, however, did not want to hear the word "school" this morning. He would say, "No", anytime you asked him if he was ready, etc. He did get dressed OK and was excited to have his bag and his new Mickey Mouse sippy cup to take. I was feeling somewhat hopefully that he wouldn't completely lose it.

Charlotte is in a 5 day Pre-K class, the Seahorses. Max, is in a 2 day toddler class, the Chipmunks. Since he'll be two in a couple of months (what??) I thought he could go ahead and start this year. Also, my part time web development job has become something that requires a fixed schedule. So, now I have two mornings a week to devote. Also, I have someone to come watch him on Wednesday mornings. It works out well. I still have two mornings a week with Max, and will spend every afternoon with the kids. I'm excited about it.

Max was fine this morning until we got to his classroom door, then he lost it. I just kinda pushed him in and walked away. I walked Charlotte up to her class. She walked through the school like she owned the place, waving and saying "Hi" to all of the teachers. All of the nervousness seemed to have vanished. I kissed her goodbye and went back downstairs. I could hear a very familiar high pitched scream coming from Max's room. I knew who it was. I stood there for a second debating my decision to put him in this year. All I wanted to do was be with him. Hug him. Take him away. A friend walked up and said, "Is that Max?". I said, "Yes." She said, "Just go, don't stand here." So, I did.

Turns out he did just fine. He had a hard time with transitions - from room to playground, playground to room - but overall had a good day. I'm so thankful for that.

Charlotte had a great day and was in good spirits as well. I had no doubt that she would be fine, though.