One party, two special guests

This weekend was one of those busy, busy, busy but great, great, great ones that make you think “we should do that more often!”  Especially when both children take 2+ hour naps (at the same time) on Sunday afternoon – then you know you’ve done something right.

Nana was in town Thursday and Friday nights, which is always a celebration in and of itself.  On Friday morning, we braved the botanical gardens so that my mother could see them for the first time in the daylight (each Christmas, the gardens put on a fantastic light display; the only downside being that you can’t actually see the flowers).  The temperatures were borderline oppressive, but it was still a fantastic tour and a nice change of pace for me to have an adult to converse with as we strolled among the flowers, over the bridges and through the conservatory (and a fair share of chasing after toddlers and coaxing three-year-old girls away from the tree house).



Organizing pennies for the fountain



I wonder what she wished for



Watching the volunteers water the flowers



Saturday we celebrated Will’s grandmother’s birthday at Will’s parents' home.  Frances and George love visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s house, usually visiting the toy corner first:

Cousins Trey and Justin also make any visit that much better:



Have I mentioned how much Frances adores Trey?



Baby Justin.  I took about 100 pictures of this little guy - he's at that perfect age when you just want to eat him up!



However, this visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s was made most special by Will’s great aunt, Catherine and her friend, Marie.  They traveled all the way from Cleveland for a first-time visit with the great-grand-niece and nephews.



Aunt Catherine with Frances, George, Trey and Baby Justin





Aunt Catherine, Barbara, George (who insisted on being in the picture) and Marie



Aunt Catherine (or Aunty “K” as she is affectionately known) and Marie are both retired nuns who give retirement a good name!  They are also avid readers of this blog, which is both incredibly flattering and a bit intimidating (in a good way of course). 

And what’s a birthday without cake:



Happy Birthday, Grandma Lee!



Frances thrilled to pieces to be eating the purple rose:

A picture of the whole gang, taken by Will. 

Please note the incredibly high angle of this shot.  I am aware that my husband is unusually tall, but I am still sometimes struck by just how tall.  This picture tempts me to ask him to take random shots of our life from his height, if nothing else so I can see the world from his point-of-view.  Not to mention, there are probably some serious cleaning/organizing/decluttering opportunities that I am missing simply because I am over a foot shorter than he is.  But I digress…

The weekend ended with a Sunday morning at home, a midmorning (HOT again) trip to the playground, lunch, the previously mentioned two-hour nap, and another visit at Grandma and Grandpa's for some pool time.

See?  Busy, but great!

Nana's here!

Nana’s in town for a two-night stretch, so there will be many activities and very little blogging.

The only thing missing in these pictures is Pop.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A boy and his dog

George and Max have a very special relationship.  George loves playing with Max—throwing him his favorite red ball, playing tug of war with his stuffed animals, chasing him around the house.  I think Max has finally realized there is some payoff to these kid-things who invaded his home over three years ago.

In truth Frances and George love both Marshall and Max.  Marshall is just a little more “private” than Max and prefers to slink off to his man cave during the day.  Conversely, Max loves the kids and his sweet side comes out even stronger when they are around. 

George and Max play a lot on those mornings when Frances is in school.



I love this one - they both have the same smile.



 

Frances is eager to join in once she is home for the day.

I feel very lucky that the children are growing up with our first “boys.”  I find that teaching them to be gentle with the dogs (George needs this lesson a bit more than Frances) has taught them to be gentle with a lot of other fragile treasures—flowers, plants, breakables, and most importantly the new babies in our family.  I also see the love in Frances and George’s eyes when they are with Marshall and Max; all four of them have learned to be more tolerant of each other; and it makes me smile to think that they are building memories of their first dog to carry with them through life.  It’s not always easy to have two dogs and two children (and some days I wonder why we do??), but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And no post about the dogs would be complete without a picture (or 3) of Will and Marshall—the other gruesome twosome in the family.

Talk about a boy and his dog!

Monday, Monday

Monday was a little rough, I won’t lie.  All three of us just seemed grouchier than normal (or maybe I was the grouchier one and Frances and George are 3 ½ and 1 ½ years old) and things that would normally just roll off my back got stuck there, festered and then exploded.

So, rather than bore you with the details of our arduous day, I thought I’d post some pictures of our last outing to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens.  I can’t look at these without smiling and feeling immediate appreciation for our gorgeous city and my (mostly) well-behaved children.

This trip we made our way to the conservatory building first, which has been under construction and difficult to view with small children.  We were the only three people in the entire building and we had a blast.  I didn’t take nearly enough pictures because I was so concerned that my little gardener-in-the-making (or maybe plant killer) George was going to overturn the rare orchids.  But he didn’t and all three of us truly enjoyed ourselves.



Some of the many orchids (these safely out of George's reach)





Stargazers - one of my favorites





Hydrangeas just make me happy





One of several huge rooms - this one houses the Christmas tree and train set in winter.





I've always loved this little house




You can't go in, but you can see what is inside through this glass wall.  There is always something different.




Something for the adults!



We eventually made our way down to the children’s garden as we always do and made a beeline for Frances’s favorite part, the sandbox.  Frances was a perfect angel while George and I had a battle of the wills when he started throwing sand for no reason after I told him several times not to throw the sand (why do they do that??  And it’s always in front of those nice parents that you are thinking would be lovely to meet and make friends with; after George’s behavior and my necessary reaction I was too horrified to approach the subject).

Another great outing to “the flower garden” as Frances calls it.

Ahhhh, thank you.  I needed that!

Maintenance

“We're doing maintenance, but things should be back to normal soon.”  This is the message I keep receiving on blogger as I am trying to upload pictures. 

So, for tonight I am signing off and heading to an early bedtime.  Maybe blogger is trying to tell me that I need a little maintenance myself!  Although I can't promise that things here will be back to normal anytime soon.

Good night everyone!

Never, ever

If you had told me four years ago that I would have voluntarily purchased this bathing suit for a certain three-year-old I would have likely rolled my eyes, laughed and thought to myself that no daughter of mine will don a commercialized image of a singing mermaid no matter how much she begs.

It’s shiny.  It’s purple.  It has Ariel on the front.  In other words, Frances loves it.  And my true confession?  I found it for her while I was browsing in the girls’ bathing suit aisle with Frances and George safely playing with the store toys.  I could have escaped the wrath of Ariel and Frances would have been none the wiser.  But the minute I saw it, I could picture Frances’s sheer delight in wearing it.  Ariel is her favorite of all of the Disney Princesses because she “likes her red hair.”  How can I not nurture that simple affection?

While I am in no hurry to buy more theme-related items (much less have Frances actually see some of the movies where these princesses first make their appearance.  In fact, if it weren’t for her friends at school our poor neglected child would have no idea these lovely ladies existed in cartoon land), I also can’t help but be lured into her world of princesses and princes, queens and kings all of which live in our house (Will and I are sometimes the king and queen, but sometimes the prince and princess.  Marshall is always a prince.  Max is often a prince and strangely enough sometimes a princess.  Frances is always the princess and George is always the prince.  I hope you could follow that).

She is most definitely my princess; in every wonderful way imaginable. 

I hope I never forget

I hope I never forget the way that George feels sitting in my lap reading a book.  The way he rear-ends his way into my crossed legs to signal that he wants to read.  The warmth of his body against my stomach.  The easy access to ruddy cheek kissing I have in between verses in the book.  The sweaty boy smell he has at the end of the day.

I hope I never forget Frances leaning over George and asking him in her sweet Minnie Mouse voice if he wants to play something and George giving his classic nod.  “Okay!” says Frances and off she runs with George bounding behind her.

I hope I never forget the sound of George calling me Mimi.  I am certain that in a few short months (or even weeks), he will change his ways and call me simply “Mommy.”  And I am certain I will get a little bit weepy when he does that.

I hope I never forget that Frances uses the soft “g” sound when pronouncing her brother’s name (the same “g” sound that comes at the end of the word "beige") – very French!

I hope I never forget that every night I sing Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do” to George as I am putting him to bed.  It’s my small tribute to Bea Arthur who sang that tune on an episode of The Golden Girls and I have loved it ever since.  Yes, technically it’s a love song (and a sad one at that), but it fits our evening routine.  George puts his head on my shoulders as I rock him back and forth; sometimes he looks right in my eyes on the last verse as if to say “good night.”  That's when I really need to get a tissue. 

I hope I never forget that Frances calls my dress heels my “tap shoes” and always asks me when I am wearing them again.  It is inconceivable to her that I don’t voluntarily wear them every day as certainly she would if she were an adult.

I hope I never forget the sound of unrestrained giggles that my children make when they are playing.  I am forever grateful that (at least for now) Frances and George adore being with each other dare I say more than they like being with anyone else, including their own parents.  Frances begs to wake George up from his nap if he is sleeping longer than expected and George races to get in the car seat (I know!  I promise, it’s the only time he does that) if he knows we are picking Frances up from school.

I hope I never forget what Frances and George are like at these perfect ages of 3 ½ and 1 ½.



Can we just freeze them here, please?