Two Cute!

This is now my new favorite pictures! How cute are these two?

Dogwood Arts Festival Weekend

This past weekend Bryan's parents visited from Florida. We wanted to do something different while they were here, so we went to the Dogwood Arts Festival "Chalk Walk" at Market Square. It was GREAT! They had never been to the square before, and we thought Lu would like the chalk walk. Let me tell you, those people do some amazing things with their chalk! This isn't your 1st grade teacher's blackboard...

We were there fairly early, so we can't tell you about who won, but it was a neat morning. We ate at Trio, a great restaurant if you don't know it. We came home and the boys smoked meat (Bryan's DELICIOUS ribs). Susan and I went landscape shopping, and also took Lucy to the "Cupcake Store" as she calls it. Susan had never been to a cupcake shop, but I think she was quite pleased! I think you'd have to be insane to NOT like the cupcake store. When I was pregnant, I was there no less than twice a week.

Anyway, Sunday we went to church and came home for a rousing afternoon of badminton. (Is that how you spell it? I realize I am a teacher, but that's not one I use often :) Bryan and I (well, actually mostly me) ROCKED, and won. Who knew I had such mad skills? No pictures of that, but I swear we are awesome.

Sick Day

I am sure she doesn't feel as cute as she looks, but when she has a fever, we keep her in big t-shirts instead of her regular long pjs. This sick day she chose her daddy's old little league t-shirt. How precious is this?!

Also, I forgot to mention in my previous post that she is now speaking Spanish. Counting at least. In the tub last night she started picking up her toys and counting them in Spanish. Bryan interrupted with a random number and she followed with the correct one, in Spanish. I took German, so I had no clue what was happening. Not sure how she learned it, perhaps Dora?

Spring Has Sprung (some really kickin' allergies)

Spring has arrived! The weather is beautiful, Lucy LOVES being outside, and she and her father are just plain miserable. Lucy and Bryan are both such outdoor lovers. If you know me at all, you know I am NOT 1% a lover of outdoors unless it involves me on a lounge chair with my feet in the sand. Since it got warm, all the two of them want to do is be outside. The only trouble with that is that after about 5 minutes outside, both of my nature lovers are coughing and sneezing. We did choose to live in this wonderful, allergen infested area I know. It beats tornadoes every week.

All that being said, in 6 weeks, Lu has been on 3 antibiotics for sinus infections. According to the pediatrician, sinus infections in children this young are rare (but you know us, we must be in the .04% that struggles). So, we got the ears fixed, and now we're probably on our way to having the adnoids taken out. I called the ENT as soon as they opened this morning and guess what?! He's booked until AUGUST. What the heck?! Do you think their practice might have accepted a few too many patients? I realize the group is FABULOUS but really? We have a meeting with the P.A. in a few weeks to consult about all this mess. The thought of my child going under "the knife" again makes me a bit neurotic (I know you are all shocked), but it will be worth it if we can get her to stop living on antibiotics.

We have had some fun outdoors though. We got zoo passes. Yes, we are dirt poor right now, but we figured a one time investment=free entertainment all summer and fall. Of course, it is OUTDOOR entertainment and will flare up both Lu and Bryan. Did I mention Bryan had sinus surgery last summer and is STILL struggling? Anyway, we went to the zoo recently and it was really fun.

We went early in the morning, and all the animals were out. Lucy was totally fascinated by everything. She kept saying "I need to hold them" and "I need one" when she saw the animals.

She requested "MONKEYS" the most, so we sat and watched the monkeys for a good long while.

She also is obsessed with snakes. If I didn't give birth to her, I'd swear she wasn't mine! She wanted us to take her picture with Buttercup, the 23 foot python. YIKES!

I suppose we'll be going back a lot this summer. Free entertainment is GREAT!

We've had random fun inside too. Lucy LOVES her rocking, singing, tacky horse, Lacey. Look at this madness!

She is having lots of fun at school too. They just did some art and charity work with the kids for a charity for elephants. Lucy made a very cute mask.

They had a fun egg hunt last week too. I picked up my child to find her arms covered in temporary tattoos. SOOOOO TACKY PEOPLE!

Do NOT cover my two year-old in fake tattoos. I scrubbed her poor arm in the bath that night! Bryan said I was a party pooper, but I am sorry, I refuse to pierce the ears and paint the nails of a two year-old child, let alone have her be covered in TATTOOS, fake or not!

We also had an egg hunt on Easter. There were NO tattoos involved in this one. We didn't make it to church, as we were up from 12 to 3:30 with Lucy who had a 103 degree fever we couldn't get down. That was fun. She woke feeling ok, but we didn't want to grace the other children in the nursery with her presence. We did make it to my parents house for a nice lunch and an egg hunt.

Lucy did pretty well, but crashed by 6:45 instead of her usual 8:00. It was a good think I went to bed when she did, as we were up again from 12 to 2 getting her fever down. Like I said a few posts ago, these are the things teens don't think about doing when they're having sex. If only they could see what all parenthood entaills...

The terrible twos seem to be at bay for the moment. You never know when they're going to rear their ugly head though. It is hysterical to me when I stop to think about the fact that I can keep 21 8 year-olds in TOTAL control all day and a two year-old can make me come apart at the seams in about 7 minutes. What is that all about? I know it is hard to believe that this little doll can make you want to pull all your hair out (on your way to the airport to hop on a plane to California and not come back for a good 10 days or so). But really, I had parents on my recent field trip say, "How do you do this all day?" and "I can't believe how good your kids are. They aren't this way at home." I know, I have magical powers. I wish the press that reports all the crap about teachers and how we're failing America and its youth could come to a classroom for just 2 hours and try to keep it all together. I can keep it together there sometimes much easier than I can at home. It is a gift to be able to teach and not lose your marbles.

Speaking of teaching, Bryan has one more class to take this summer, but has kept a perfect 4.0 in all of his classes this past year. He passed BOTH of his Praxis exams, and will be student teaching at Farragut High in the fall. It is hard to believe we've almost survived all the crazieness the past year has put us through. Thanks to the generosity of many, we have been able to afford food :) Perhaps our child will become rich and famous (and super well-balanced) and she can support her two parents that chose to be poor educators. Can you say medical school Lucy?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Well, I seriously know why they call them the "terrible twos." This past Tuesday, I could have been the poster child for prozac. Somebody, something, something real bad, invaded my child's body and turned her into a HORRIBLE creature. Now, I will say the good Lord only allowed it to happen that one time this week, but that is PLENTY. Ever heard the term "Looks can be deceiving"? Well, this cute thing, was actually the devil in disguise.

We should have gotten a clue (isn't gotten a total southern word?!) when she told us that AND I QUOTE..."I kicked Cole and he cry at school today." Warning #1. Then at dinner, she smacked her daddy up the side of the head (another southern phrase-ha! look at me go!) when he bent over to talk to her about throwing food on the floor. WARNING #2 AND #3. The list goes on and on. Our night was NOT GOOD. We are in the thick of it folks. And yes, sometimes when she's crabby, we let her eat with sunglasses on. PICK YOUR BATTLES PEOPLE.

Top of the Mornin' to Ya!

Just a few pics from St. Patty's Day 2011. Lucy woke up wired and ready to party. I guess TWO straight nights of 12 hours of sleep really DOES do a body good.

Hooray! We might have mastered the big girl bed :)

Spring Break 2011

Spring Break baby! It is funny how it has a totally different connotation than it did 10 years ago! Spring break now means sleeping till 6:30 instead of 5:30, drinking coffee and actually getting to watch the ENTIRE Today show! It also means that on days Lucy goes to school, I can stay in my pajamas until I have to go pick her up. However, the best laid plans...

We decided that since it was a week off for me, we'd put Lucy in her "big girl bed" and see what happened. It was more emotional for me than I thought. Once again, I've come a long way in 10 years from beer on the beach to crying over my child's moving into a toddler bed. Anyway, night one went well. Lu slept all night, no issues. We even got a video monitor which is hilarious. We love to watch her now. How did our parents raise us without all this insanely wonderful technology?!?!?!

Night two wasn't so good. We were up from 12 to 2 a.m. Lucy also figured out how to open the door. We had considered ourselves lucky that she hadn't mastered that skill yet, but she got pissed enough to figure it out Monday night. Then there was last night-a.k.a Hell on Earth a.k.a. a MAJOR flashback to EVERY night for the first 5 months of my child's life.

Lucy has had a runny nose. She also started coughing last weekend. We attributed it to allergies, as her ENTIRE life, she's pretty much sneezed and coughed and had a runny nose. Plus, she'd spent a lot of time outside and we figured that had really irritated her poorly genetically designed sinuses. If you don't live in East Tennessee, consider yourself lucky. It is pretty much the worst place on earth to live if you are prone to have ANY allergy issues. Anyway, I digress...If you are a parent you know there is NOTHING to give a kid if they are under 6 to stop a cough. This is totally annoying and re-pisses me off every time Lu starts to cough. So she's been coughing. The one thing that seems to dry her up is Benadryl. It used to make her hyper, we tried it several months ago again, and it mellowed her out. So I've been giving that to her over the past few days. I gave her some at bedtime, and woke up to her hacking her poor head off at 1:30 when it had worn off. She wasn't awake, but coughing literally every 90 seconds (yes, I'm that neurotic that I counted).

So, as I'm lying in bed letting my neuroses get the best of me (you know, picturing her being admitted to Children's for a collapsed lung), I wake Bryan and we debate as to whether or not to give her meds. She'd been sleeping so well, and in her bed by herself!! Did we dare wake the beast? As more time passed and I was sure she was near death, I got the syringe, and gave her the big bad BENADRYL. It of course woke her, and she wanted me to hold her hand. I shhh-ed her and tried to get her to sleep, but to no avail. Finally at 3:45 I made Bryan come take over. She was awfully twitchy and loopy, and still not sleeping! I had just settled back into my cozy bed when he called me to her room and said, "I think she has a fever." Spectacular. Sure enough, low grade fever. We then gave Motrin (a totally amazing drug for our fever prone child), and put her in the bed with me (Bryan thought he was getting a reprieve). I was totally distraught, as we are really trying to focus on her being in her big girl bed ALONE this week, and now here she was in MY bed. At this point it is now 4:30 or so. She is singing, asking to watch Sesame Street, talking non-stop about parties and gymnastics and horses and Disney World (the list goes on and one). I realize Bryan has to do a lot today, including go to class tonight, but dang it! I MUST SLEEP! So, I kicked him off the couch and let him deal with Chatty McChatterson. I slept from 5 until 8, which gave me 8 hours of sleep (not awful, but as my good friend says, 8 hours of broken sleep is NOT the same as 8 solid hours). I called the pediatrician when I got my wits about me, and we were on our way at 8:45.

Needless to say, I did not get my coffee, or breakfast, or see ANY of the Today show. That is being a mom though. It is not always glamorous. It is in fact, very hard, most of the time. You never know if your are making the right decisions about things. You have a new set of worries with each new stage in your child's life. Take potty training...I'm about to LOSE MY MIND over it. Her teacher told me yesterday she needed to wear "big girl panties" to school now. HA! She hasn't peed or pooped in the potty for me in a WEEK! Also, has anyone ever bought a humidifier that doesn't totally suck? I mean, we probably could have bought a diamond encrusted one for the amount of money we've spent on crappy ones. These are the things that occupy my mind when I am awake in the middle of the night with my child who has become nocturnal. I would just love to let some sexually active teen into my brain for about 5 minutes. I guarantee that they'd be rethinking sex. Unless you are ready for all this craziness, you better just lock it all up!

So in case you were wondering, we now have meds for Lucy who has a sinus infection. She is also on Allegra and will be getting allergy tests soon if all this MESS does not clear up. We got the ears cleared up last year, but now we're having frequent sinus issues. The pharmacist at Walgreens knows me well. AND my child can pass ANY Walgreens and will shout, "WALGREENS MOMMY!" Not good. I took a peek at some humidifiers, but guess what? We've tried all the models Walgreens has to offer. No humidifier was purchased, but many drugs were. Here's my helpful hint to all of you who get your prescriptions filled at the trusty old Walgreens...take your screaming kid in with you, tell them you are waiting for the meds, and let your kid have another fit or two about some crap in the kid aisle, and all of a sudden that 15 to 20 minutes wait time becomes 6 minutes. Did I mention I love the terrible twos? AND PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT AND TELL ME THAT THREE IS NOT ANY BETTER. I'm not up for that news today.