What a Week! Part 1...

Seriously, this week was some kind of busy! On top of all the things we had to do, I started my biggest project. I went through all of autumn's old clothes and separated hand me downs for Roxie and future nieces from the consignment/to sell clothing from the things I feel comfortable putting in the garage sale. I still have a couple more boxes with toys and things like blankets to go through so the playroom is truly a disaster, haha. Does anyone in the Memphis area have a favorite consignment shop that takes kids clothes? Or is anyone interested in going through any of this for themselves or a family member/friend?

I didn't get any pictures of it, but last week Penny had Autumn and me over to her house and we had pizza and watched Tangled together. I really enjoyed Tangled...Autumn did, too, when she wasn't getting nervous about the two kind of bad guys. She was also really confused about how the mama ended up being the real bad guy which made for interesting conversation. We had another fun day this week with Penny. We're counting down until Penny takes a weekday job in May (she's a nurse and works on the weekends right now) by trying to do some of the things we've talked about doing. Wednesday we did My Big Backyard at the Botanic Garden. It was a lot of fun and not exactly what I was expecting.

We started off at the bird area where there's this big bridge the kids can go across and then take a slide down. Autumn must have done this 2 dozen times before we left for the day.


Penny's mother in law Mrs. Debby came with us and brought her grandsom Harrison. He is seriously adorable and was so happy the entire time. Autumn liked him a lot.


They had these wooden slat things in a natural puzzle area. I thought they were really neat and wouldn't mind finding some for our house. Autumn made basically a huge maze but we walked by some boys later who had made themselves a small box and were sitting in it. Super cute.


One of her favorite spots was the area with the playhouses. She had two that she really liked. One was made of big, um, sticks, I guess? And inside, the table and chairs were tree stumps and there was a washtub full of wooden blocks. Another had mallets in a box so you could play a wrench xylophone, some chimes, metal bowls, and wooden blocks.


We have a tendency to kill our grass so we have a yard service that comes and sprays weeds every few months--it ends up being cheaper than re-sodding every year! It's great but I do miss clover and dandelions. They had a whole area that was, deliberately or not, overrun with both. Autumn had so. much. fun.


There were also swings placed in various places along the path. This one was in the butterfly area and was shaped like a cocoon.


This is one happy little monkey.


On the way out, we stopped at the fountain and let the kids put their feet in. I'm not sure if this was actually allowed but, really, who could say no to these little feet??


By the end of the trip, both Autumn and Harrison were absolutely wiped out. I think Autumn could have stayed all day but I planned the outing a little too close to her naptime.


Sometime before it gets too hot, I definitely want to make the trip with Mike. I think he'd really enjoy it and I'd like to see more of the gardens. Autumn would certainly welcome the chance to stay longer!

This won't be the last time the words 'Land Whale' appear here...

When I was uploading the pictures for this post, I had to go through like 10 pictures Mike took of me and Autumn today and it was seriously depressing, LOL. I feel better than I have felt all pregnancy but between my hair not obeying, my skin pretending it is 14 again, and the fact that I am rapidly approaching land whale proportions, complete with a swelling nose...man. :P I did just look at how many weeks along I am and realized that, according to the books, this is my last week in my second trimester! So, I feel a little better.

I've been having a little bit of a hard time getting good exercise in. My acupuncturist friend Chuck and my chiropractor have done wonders for me but walking and doing aikido, my main sources of exercise, were really doing a number on my lower back and hips. Soooooo, after talking about it and trying to put it off...I joined a water aerobics class since there wasn't really a yoga class that fit in my schedule.
(I'll be the one in the back trying to figure out how to run in the water)


The first one I went to was okay. It was shallow water and the average age was about 500. They were super nice but I decided to give deep water aerobics a try and that was a bit of a better workout...the average age was more like 65 so more vigorous movement was encouraged. :) In both classes they were very, very concerned that I not hurt myself and it was kind of hard to figure out how to reassure the ladies that there is pretty much NOTHING that I'd do in there that could hurt me without sounding like a snob so I mostly smiled and nodded. I mean, considering that I spent about half of aikido Saturday doing techniques on my knees (I call that Japanese bar fighting--it's really called suwari waza) with guys twice my size...I think I'll be okay. Hahaha. But this will be good. Extra workout, no impact, maybe it'll help with some of the swelling.


Anyway, our yard is doing some serious flowering. It's been kind of fun to see what's hiding around here. The azaleas we knew would be amazing and I've enjoyed watching to see which bushes would turn what color. We have two red Japanese maples and one green one. We found some tiny flowers and we don't know what they are called. Today was so pretty and Autumn's new dress was so cute that I wanted to go outside and take some pictures in front of the flowers.


I think Mike and Autumn are so cute together. Today I heard music and giggling and when I went downstairs, they were in his office spinning and dancing to the music.


Autumn's been going through a little bit of a phase where she's learning to express frustration. Poor kid mood swings from suuuper happy kisses to growling and stomping her feet. We have a lot of "ok, tell me why you are angry" conversations these days.


For the most part, though, she's such a great kid and a ton of fun to be around. The first thing she does every morning is say good morning to "her" baby and give him a kiss.


I took some more pictures around the yard. Autumn tried to find her toy camera but couldn't so she got her cell phone and "snapped pictures" alongside me.


She's getting to be such a big girl. She started buckling herself into her carseat last week. It was so funny the first time. I put her in the car and asked her to get in her chair while I talked to someone. When I looked in to buckle her, she was grinning and said, "I already did it!"


Oh, and we got to have Frank and Emily and Olivia over yesterday! That was a lot of fun. I made a chicago style pizza, by Mike's request. I like it when he has favorite meals that he asks for when friends come over. Autumn was really looking forward to seeing Olivia and I was hoping that when they finally arrived, Autumn wouldn't go into shy/antisocial mode where she hides. She actually did really well and after dinner, she wanted to be Belle and asked to dress Olivia up as Cinderella.


Olivia was a good sport but she was definitely more interested in coloring and drawing that indulging Autumn's dress up. :) I think Autumn is going to make her new baby brother a doll, poor guy.


The one thing Olivia wasn't having any of was a hat. She resisted all attempts at hatting. Autumn even gave Frank some bunny ears and Emily got a halo. Mike got a pirate gun which doesn't seem overly fair. Ha.


Wow, that was a long post! I probably need to do more than one a week when I have a lot of stuff going on. Ah, real quick...I have a couple blogs for anyone who might be interested. One is my sister's blog which is looking like a family blog kind of like this one. The other is my friend Michelle's. Michelle is in a unique situation right now with one of her daughters who was born with a meconium cyst and her blog is the story of their life since. Definitely check it out...she's a great writer and I might have to steal some of her super creative collages!

Lazy afternoons...

I went outside yesterday to find this scene...


After a hard afternoon of napping and yard work, Mike and Autumn took a break in the backyard together. They did the same thing this afternoon while I was cleaning upstairs. It was pretty cute, Autumn called me on Mike's phone and asked me to come down and sit with them, so I did. We never really got to do this kind of thing at our old house because golfers would always be around and it was annoying. Today was sooo nice with the wind and the birds singing and the happy little miss.


Yesterday, while Mike and Autumn were chilling in the backyard, I took advantage of some me time and started on a batch of soft pretzels! I had been thinking about making some and then when one of my friends started talking about wanting pretzels on facebook, I totally had to do it. I made some on Tuesday and they turned out okay. I didn't roll them thin enough and they ended up being pretzel rolls. This time was much better. Autumn actually ended up coming inside once the bread finished rising and helped me roll one:


Here they are after shaping and the baking soda bath.


And then after baking. Autumn decided to make hers a pretzel ball. :)


They were pretty good! Next time I will freeze about half of them before baking, I think, since they don't keep very long. I've been in a baking mood which is really inconvenient since I have so much to do with organizing the house! But maybe it isn't a bad thing. I've been pretty good about getting "real work" done before doing fun work. I've finished the pink room, I cleaned out the laundry room, and the hallway is almost cleared. Once the hallway is done, I'll need to finish going through our baby stuff and work on getting the playroom organized. Whew! So much to do! But through it all, I'm still trying to make sure Autumn and I get some good spring play time together. We planted some sunflower seeds together today. Autumn took the leftover seeds and put them in a straight line along the bricks (she's our ocd child, haha) so the ants and birds could take them back to their babies. :) And, of course, whenever it is warm, we're doing a lot of this:


She looooooves some sidewalk chalk!

Growing Up: Awkward Questions Edition

We've known it was coming. I've told you all about how Autumn is in the "telling people stuff" phase right now. My favorite incident is still the time I cut my chin in aikido and Autumn said to Lainey: "mama has a boo boo on her chin. Papa did it." :P So I am still requesting that if Autumn says anything that sounds crazy, ask for clarification because there's likely an odd preschooler interpretation to the story, haha. Well, now we're kind of getting into Awkward Questions I Need to Answer but Don't Want To. The first is regarding Autumn's forthcoming little brother. She was eyeballing my tummy a couple days ago and asked, "Is my baby going to come out of your belly button?" I told her no but that we'd talk about it later. This morning, she said, "Mama, we need to talk about how my baby is going to come out." I mean, what the heck? We need to talk about?? I've pretty much decided what to tell her but it was waaaaay too early in the morning for the conversation so I laughed and told her we would.

Autumn and the baby doll she got for Valentine's Day. She said, "Mama! It's the Me doll!" The doll has been named Belle.


The second Awkward Question of the week is a little sadder. We've been cleaning out the pink room, which is eventually going to be Autumn's room. The upstairs looks like we just moved in which is a pain but it's for a good cause--I'm doing some serious organizing as we go. Anyway, she saw a picture from our wedding in there and asked, "who are these people with you?" :P The way she said it was funny, like a little belligerent. I said, "that's Uncle Donnie, Aunt Valerie, Lula, and mama's papa. You didn't get to meet him." She responded, "that's your daddy? Where is he?" We've talked about it before but she didn't seem to remember so I reminded her that he had died so we couldn't go see him. "Can we get in the car and go see him?" "No, baby girl, I'm afraid not. He's not here anymore...he's probably in heaven with Jesus." "Oh, okay." A couple days later, she showed Mike the picture and said, "that's mama's daddy."

Dual-wielding swords she found in the pink room. That's mama's girl! Also, I just realized how weird her shirt is. Minnie's feet are seriously huge.


And that's just this week! We've also had questions like "why does it get dark?" and "why does it rain?" but those aren't nearly as hard as the ones above and some of the ones that I am sure are coming!

Anyway, it's been a good week again! I'm having some troubles with my left hip. I hurt it snowboarding a couple years ago and I think being pregnant has made the old injury flare up. Other than that and the never-ending tiredness, I'm feeling good. Mike's had a better week or two, also. Things were a little rough work-wise there for a little while so, all in all, we're kind of in a much needed lull. Well. There's the organizing of the upstairs but that's something I've been able to work on slowly. Oh, I do have a couple pictures...here's baby Hudson! This is from our visit two weeks ago so I'm guessing that's he's totally different looking now! Autumn was really sweet with him. She was also really sweet with our friend Elyse's new baby Lianna. We met her on Friday. So many babies!


You know what is something I really hate doing with Autumn? Puzzles. I have no idea why. And I do them anyway. But I don't enjoy it. :D Mike got a dose of trying to figure out one of my least favorite of her puzzles...it's a disney princess one where there's, like, a hologram image. You know, the kind where when you turn it one way it's one scene and turn it the other way and it's another? Man. It gives me a headache.


And just because this is cute:


And that's it for today! Wish me luck as I navigate the "how is my baby going to get out, mama?"

A Much Better Week and Weekend!

I mean, it wasn't going to take much to top last weekend, was it? :) I'm not complaining, though. Miss Autumn is doing great and I'm soooooo glad. She babied her left arm a bit but by Tuesday she was completely back to normal. Pretty awesome! I think something that helped was having stuff to do to distract her. I didn't take any pics this week with my regular camera but I got a few with my camera phone. Sunday, my mom and sister came over with Roxie. My mom was a little uncertain about playing with Autumn but I told her to pretend nothing happened and play normally and I think that really helped. By the way, apologies for the flashy eyes in some of these.


Monday was a work day for us since it was rainy. I just didn't feel up to running errands in the rain. Autumn decided to pretend that she was at the park with her sheep and they had a picnic in our still-furniture-less living room.


On the day we finally did make it to the store, Autumn dressed herself in this. :)


She's gotten rather opinionated on her clothes. I don't really mind unless it's a day where the weather's just not going to work with what she's got her heart set on. Thursday she decided to wear her octopus shirt to school. We had aikido on Thursday. I watched her to see how she'd do with her elbow and everything went really smoothly. No problems, no babying the elbow, nothing. She was too excited about her octopus. :)


Another thing that was kind of neat about Thursday is that Autumn took her change to school to donate to the school's change drive. She has a little money in this mickey bank she got for her birthday, mostly change she finds or my mom gives her. But she also has some coins she carries around in this tiny teakettle--this teakettle also houses a stuffed heart and two buttons. Pretty cute, huh? Anyway, they made coin banks and she was soooo excited about it that she got her coins out of her teakettle and put them in her new coin bank to take her change to school. I made sure she knew that she was giving the money away permanently and when she stayed certain, I gave her all my change, too.


Friday was another day of fun and distraction. I can't believe I forgot my camera for this, but we went over to Penny's house and had a ton of fun playing with her two dogs. Autumn loves her Aunt Penny and loves the dogs, too. So much so that she drew Ace and Conan some pictures. I wish you could have seen her telling Conan to "sit!" and "let go!" :) We also fed some geese and walked about their neighborhood's lake. By the end of the visit, both kid and dogs were totally exhausted. I did get one Friday picture--I finally got Autumn to do some ponytails without immediately taking them out.


To round out our week, Autumn and I did some gardening. Kurt, who landscaped Mike's parents house and came to do the trees we can't do ourselves had suggested we remove some bushes that had died in one corner of our yard and put in some blueberry bushes. So that's what I did this weekend! It was exhausting, haha. Mike was trying to do yard work at this house and our house that hasn't sold yet so I didn't want to ask him to do it. I got all but one bush out. The last was just too big so he finished that up. Autumn spent the whole time I was clearing space yesterday and the time today that I planted the new bushes and the strawberries (I have a strawberry patch in another spot!) digging holes, cleaning up, and fetching things for me.

After we were done and cleaned up yesterday, Mike and I were in the hallway talking about what still needed to be done. When I called out for Autumn, asking where she was, she called back, "I'm being comfy." We tracked her to her room and found her sitting in her stuffed animal box with her pillow. Definitely comfy.


And that's pretty much it! One week after our Great Elbow Drama, things are going pretty well so I guess I'll sign off with our first official sign of spring: a pink, smocked dress for church this morning. :)

Another weekend adventure

Does anybody know what that picture is up above? Yes that's right, it's a hospital ID bracelet.

Does anybody know why I'm posting a picture of a hospital ID bracelet with Autumn's name on it? Yes that's right, it's because we got to visit the hospital ER this weekend!

So the story begins on Saturday night when I was being a good Papa and was out hunting down food for my family (getting a pizza) and the little miss was upstairs playing. This was no ordinary playing though. This was playing that involved doing silly things like jumping over her toy chair and generally ignoring the Momma telling her not do that. Sure enough like every tale you've heard that ends with "You'll listen next time..." the little lady takes a very bad fall and somehow manages to hurt her arm.

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth we realized that something was seriously wrong as she kept holding her left arm tight to her body and wouldn't let us move it or hold anything with it. After some calls to family and friends, we decided a doctor was in order so we packed up and headed to the ER about 8pm.

Fast forward 5 hours and we're finally heading home at 1am.

1AM!!

It seems that in her tumble (and possibly hitting her play table) that Autumn managed to dislocate her elbow.

The whole process involved having to get her arm up onto a small table to have it x-rayed for fractures(screaming and tears involved); one failed attempt by the doctor to push the bones back into place (more screaming and tears involved); and a final successful attempt by the doc to force the bones back into place (still with the screaming and tears involved). I had the pleasure of holding her in my arms while he was wrenching her elbow around trying to fix it. (*Almost* involving tears from me!)

Anyway, things are better now and she's sore but all better. At least it wasn't broken and no weeks of dealing with that kind of drama. But man it couldn't have been much worse it seems. So here's a parting picture of the sad little monkey with her momma post-elbow joint resocketed:

Celebrations, Part 2

This is catch up, haha. I meant to get this posted this week but obviously that didn't happen. It was a good week, though! I'm feeling pretty decent which is nice. Just tired. I've been slowly getting onto a normal schedule again. I've gradually gone from just making it through the days, to making dinner most nights and cleaning up the kitchen, to actually getting back on a pretty normal cleaning/calling people/errands schedule. It's nice! Anyway, I have a couple pictures from Angelee's birthday party. Angelee is one of Autumn's best friends and they have a lot of fun together.


It was funny, though, she declined a chair and took her princess tea sitting on a ball.


Angelee is also Stephan's goddaughter which is a neat coincidence--they became friends before I knew Angelee's connection to Stephan. He got pretty into the party theme.



The next party was Ella's. Annalise sent out some cute thank you cards. Autumn got a postcard thank you and the picture was of her and Ella.


At the party, Autumn played pin the princess on the castle.


And pretty much just had a great time.


I think everyone at the party had a good time.


Although there was one funny thing. After the party was over, all the little girls went into Ella's room. I think it was too much for Autumn because she came out and declared, "there are TOO MANY people in there!" And she sat with me until another little girl came out and played with her in the play area. :)

That's it for the parties! Next week I should have some pictures of our trip to Birmingham where we got to meet the very cute Mr. Hudson!