When you give a girl an apple

When you give a girl an apple....mommy will feel very virtuous for feeding her child right and steering her towards good food choices. When you give a girl an apple...you will watch with pleasure as you realize how grown she is.
When you give a girl an apple...her little sister will want one too. When you give a baby an apple...your heart will swell with pride for establishing good eating habits early and setting up a life time of health eating.
When you give your baby an apple...you will then follow her around to make sure she is not eating the seeds because you think you saw her eat one earlier and it grossed you and also made you worry about the apple as a choking hazard. When you give your baby an apple...you will sigh continuously as you pick up half eaten apples off the floor wash them off and hand them back to the baby when she points with her cute little baby finger and grunts at you with her cute pre-speech grunts.
When you give a baby an apple....you will finally lose the apple and go in search of it.
When you give a baby an apple....you will finally find the apple the next day in the pantry. You will look around for someone else to pick up the nasty, old apple but then you realize you are the mommy and have to pick it up.

That is a great dress...again...and again

I will need to start this post by saying I love this dress...really really love it. But, I paid too much for it. I am cheap and I don't buy expensive things, even for big events. I usually go for quantity over quality when it comes to clothes.
However, I needed a dress for one of my best friend's weddings. I shopped and shopped and couldn't find anything I liked. And then I found this dress for $200.00. It was not on sale, clearance or discount, it was just $200.00. I could not buy it. I put it back on the rack.
Two days later, I still didn't have a dress for LPB's wedding. I took Matt back to the store with me and all the kids (now you see how nuts I was) to look at the dress. I tried on a few other dresses too. I had to have it this dress. Matt's exact words were "we have to get out of here, the kids are going nuts, buy that dress and get over it."
So to make up for spending too much, I wear the dress every where. I would wear it shopping if I felt like it wouldn't cause too much of a scene.
1. Here I am with my college/high school girlfriends at LPB's wedding. First wear.
2. Here I am at my work annual awards part. Second wear.
3. Here I am at the neighborhood semi formal wine night (first semi formal wine night ever). Third wear.
If it were not for facebook, I could wear this dress even more than I have. Darn facebook is ruining me getting more value out of this dress. Oh well. Good thing I love this dress.

Family Planning

William loves his sisters. Sometimes they try his patience (as they do mine) but for the most part, he really likes having them around (as do I). I think this is what prompted the next conversation.
Will: Mommy, how old was I when Abby was born?
Me: 2.
Will: Mommy, how old was I when Harper was born?
Me: 4.
Will: Mommy, how old will I be when you poop out the next baby?
(Try not to spit my wine out.)
Me: Well Will, I don't know. I don't know if we are going to have another baby.
Will: You should have another baby. We could name him Justin.

I don't want to tell him that babies are hard. I don't want to tell him that some days I am just trying to keep my head above water with three and pooping out another baby is not on the radar right now.

Mommy's job

The kids do give me most of my material for my blog. I have gone through a dry spell so I was super excited when Abby blurted out this little gem on the way home from Christmas with my family in Greensboro. Thank goodness for long car trips.
Will, Abby, Harper and I were riding in the car. I had talked to the kids moments before about bad behavior (it is now a constant discussion about not being rude, saying kind things to our family or not hurting our siblings) and it was one of those times that someone was screaming. After that person calmed down, I heard Will and Abby talking. Abby said to William: Mommy has two jobs.
I then interrupted because I was interested. I said: Abby, what are Mommy's two jobs?
Abby said: One job is for her to work at Elephant.
I said: And what is the other job?
Abby said: The other job is for her to be mean.
Awesome.

Dinner with the Kiddos

Matt is out of town this week so the kids and I are having dinner together. We had picnic night together that went over very well. The menu? Chicken nuggets, apples and milk. I could go the rest of my life without eating another chicken nugget. My dinner is pictured below.

My dinner was awesome. Wine is dangerous on carpet but I made it work.

Papa Tim

Today was Papa Tim's birthday, he would have been 60. Papa Tim passed away December 29th 2010. It came very suddenly and unexpectedly. Oh Papa Tim, I will miss you.

Tim was Matt's dad and immediately welcomed me into his family. He took my side when Matt and I disagreed (except on politics). He helped with the kids and loved them fiercly.

And even when we didn't agree on politics, he did not engage me in political arguments because he knew I didn't like it- and he loved to argue about politics. Thanks Papa Tim for that courtesy. I never thanked you for that.

Papa Tim had a brash sense of humor. When I asked him to dial it back around the kids, I would say, "Oh Papa Tim (sigh). You can't say that. Oh Papa Tim (sigh) you can't watch that around the kids. Oh Papa Tim (sigh) don't do that." After a few years with the kids, he would prompt me to call him out after he had done something he knew would cross my "Oh Papa Tim" line. He would flash me a big, sheepish grin. He would say "Anna, I know what you are going to say," and then he would say it to himself before I could get to it: "Oh Papa Tim."

Even though we take comfort that you have gone to a better place, we miss you Papa Tim. We miss your off-color jokes and you falling asleep on the couch. We miss you playing with the kids and your laughter.

Oh Papa Tim.