Phone Dump

What did I do before Eric bought me an iphone!? I am seriously using it for more and more of my daily activities and it is sooo handy when I want to snap pics of the kids on the fly but cant reach for our regular camera.  

Its almost TOO handy though, as I havent taken a legit picture in a while...but cute is cute no matter how its captured in pictures :)

See?

Ive also been able to use the "Notes" app to quickly jot down blog topics and things I dont want to forget before I get to my computer next.  I have a tendency to "write" the posts in my head while Grady is drinking a bottle at 3am...then never get a chance to come to the computer and type it out or completely forget what I "wrote" by the time I wake up in the morning.  I have the following "notes" written in my phone:

* We had a playdate next door with the twins who are just seven weeks younger than Whitney. It wasnt as chaotic as it has been during other playdates with "da boys", but it was still filled with yelling, chasing, ride-on toys making laps around the island in the kitchen, and lots of laughter.  Good times for everyone involved! Summer and her boys wore the kids out and guaranteed us all some nap time in the afternoon!

Yes, Whitney is still napping.  I have been told many times that I didnt nap after my first birthday, but Whitney is allllll about some nap time! Some days, she even asks if its nap time yet and plans which toys get to join her for her snooze.  She sleeps from two hours to 3.5 hours and I LOVE it.  She needs it.  I need it. It works for us. 

*Grady is getting easier and easier (Quick! Knock on some wood!!) and it makes life so. much. happier!  It was a long six weeks of finding our new normal, but Grady has found his spot in this family and he fits right in! He's learning how to go with the flow, happily joining us for playdates next door, dinners out to celebrate his Uncles 21st birthday, church, and a loud birthday party at My Gym! He is now happy to be in his car seat, thanks to the straight-jacket we have rigged, and doesnt really need the white noise anymore.  He rarely cries at all anymore, and when he does, its only because he's hungry.  I LOVE that he wakes up happy like Whitney used to.  He no longer wakes up in a panic-strickin scream. He grunts and stretches and yawns and talks and gnaws on his hand until I can get across the house to get him up.  It is such a nice way to start our day :) 

* I got my very first massage last weekend. Aaaahhhhmazing! Eric's cousin is in school to be a massage therapist and I fully intend to reap the benefits! She did such an amazing job and I might be hooked! I immediately told Eric that we might have to find a way to fit it in the monthly budget because it helped soooo much! My mom mentioned that my doctor might be able to write a prescription for massages, thus making insurance pay for it. Hmmm...might have to look into that a little further!  

(seriously, how freakin' cute are these pictures!?) 

*My big brother won an Emmy! ANOTHER Emmy! That makes TWO Emmies for my big brother!! I am sooo proud of him and love to brag about how awesome he is! He is the Executive Producer for NBC News in Boston and he is THE BEST! 

*Grady actually fell asleep in a restaurant as we celebrated Parker and Dawson's 21st birthday.  He used to be difficult to get to sleep because he would fight it SOOO bad, arching his back and tossing and turning. But now that we have him figured out, he has us trained nicely and we are settling into a nice routine with less crying and way more smiles (from everyone!)

*And f'real....how ADORABLE is this kid!? 

I still cant believe it was less than eight weeks ago that I pushed this dude out.   I had my six week appointment last week and was given the "almost-all-clear" from my OB.  I am allowed to run but that's it.  I still have stitches and some pain from time to time, but the doc says things are healing nicely...just taking longer than I'd hoped.  That being said, I came home from the doctor's office (where Grady and I had a tear-free visit!) and hit the treadmill right away! That first mile felt amaaazing...especially considering I havent exercised since September! And because we are crazy and determined, we are registered for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon this November! And the best part?.....

....two of my FAVORITE girls in the whole world are joining us!  With their hubbies! Kid-free! 

The race is run at night and ends in a beer garden. It is during Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, so it will be such a fun weekend! I just need to make sure I get my butt in gear and actually start running OUTSIDE and more than ONE mile at a time :) 

Whitney had her first ballet class last week. ADORABLE! I think every little girl should take a ballet class just so their mother can "oooo" and "awww" over every little thing they do/try to do. :) Whitney was soooo excited and couldnt wait to get to class! I think we found her "thing", as she picked up a lot of the moves right away and couldnt wait to go back!

The class was perfectly geared to her and her age group.  One of her Besties, Avery is in the class, too, and they were just toooo cute! The teachers are AWESOME and have some God-given over-abundance of patience and perkiness. They taught the girls a brief little dance about a Princess getting ready for a ball, and then they had.....a tea party!! I mean, c'MON! That has Whitney written ALL. OVER. IT!

This is the move she was trying to do, in lieu of a "curtsy". LOL She knew she could do what they wanted, but couldnt remember what it was called :) 

Miss Whitney is having a FUN and very BUSY Summer so far! She has gymnastics on Tuesdays, ballet on Thursdays, swim lessons on Saturdays with Daddy, and she is doing Vacation Bible School at our church this whole week! The first two weeks of swim lessons were.......exhausting.  And I wasnt even there.  I just know I couldnt have witnessed it in person, as there were tears and screaming involved.  We didnt do the "lessons" where the instructors just toss the kid in the pool and prove they cant swim.  Never. But Whitney saw the other kids put their faces in the water and she was out. "I dont want to, Daddy.  Daddy. Daddy, I dont want to. I dont want to do dat, Daddy." Ugh. It is good for her for so many reasons, and we knew she would LOVE it once she got over her fear of putting her face in the water.  

We are still working on the whole "face in the water" thing, but she is far less fearful and is proud of herself, which is the best part.  She loves to show off her progress and say "I couldnt do dat before. But now I CAN!"  I wouldnt say she is "swimming" yet, but she is trying and she is having fun and it is building her confidence, so Im calling the lessons a success so far! She still has several weeks to go :) 

Happy girl!

We have been working on some more independent activities with Whitney, teaching her to put her shoes on the right feet (thank you, Pinterest!), put her own shorts/skirts on the right way, etc.  After a particularly successful attempt, I said, "Good job, Bug!"  Whitney looked up at me smiling and said, "Mommy, now say 'Im so proud of you!'"...so I obliged, laughing at her insistence on hearing praise. And then she said, "No, Mommy! Say, "Good job, Bug! Im so proud of you! Dat's awesome!' wike you always do!"  I hadnt realized it, but I DO say the same thing each time she accomplishes something great :) 

"Good job, Bug! That's awesome! Im so proud of you!"  haha Glad to know she is paying attention and appreciates the praise :) 

Whitney is drinking WAY less milk lately, which translates to her eating way MORE food! Whitney used to be an awesome eater as a toddler, but she fell into this rut of eating the same things.  Its typical preschool behavior, but I was running out of new things to suggest for her, and when she did decide to eat a meal, it wasnt much at all.  Now? She cut back to three cups of milk a day (as opposed to her 5 or 6 before), and she is eating WAY more food and trying new things without putting up a fight. She likes healthy foods, (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green peppers, turkey, yogurt, etc) but she was filling up on milk and wasnt willing to eat more than a few bites here and there.  So glad to see her expanding her horizons :) 

And she sleeps better at night!

Im not sure if I blogged about this, but my little iphone "note" tells me I need to remember this :) 

Whitney has loved the movie "Return to Neverland" for a while now.  She strays from the princesses and Toy Story long enough to spend a good week or two watching Neverland over and over again, reciting the lines and pushing her imagination to the limits by incorporating the story into her pretend play.  Well, she took it to a whole new level about three weeks ago when she INSISTED on being called Wendy.  Even told her teachers at school to call her Wendy instead of Whitney. Sigh.  We could NOT get her to respond to anything other than Wendy for several days, her behavior was less-than-stellar during this time, and she was showing signs that she held the belief that Eric was, in fact, HERS.  As in, she OWNED him. 

She would wake up, go to bed, greet Eric at the door, eat, breathe, and LIVE the following words:

"Daddy! I have an idea! I could be Wendy and YOU could be Peter Pan, okay Daddy? Okay?"

Same exact phrase, same exact way, every. single. time. Day and Night. We thought it might never end.  The funniest (funny: weird. not funny: haha) part was that she "played" this game the same way every time...and it wasnt very exciting.  She would lay on the couch, cover herself up with a blanket, close her eyes and wait for Eric to pretend to be Peter Pan flying into her window as she slept.

Creeeeepyyyyy! LOL

Im not sure how we finally steered her away from it, but Wendy has left the building.  But not before we had to have a stern discussion about her real name, how she should behave if she wants people to play with her, and what is fun to her might not be fun to others.  Ooooh, the trials and tribulations of a three year old diva.

Thankfully, she continues to be the BEST! BIG! SISTER! EVER! to Grady. She talks to him (non-stop!) and asks about him every morning. She tells him about her day and about all the cool things he is going to see when we go to Disney again. She is really good about being gentle and rarely asks to hold him anymore because I think the novelty has worn off and she's just fine with him in my arms in case he starts to cry like he used to :) 

Today, we had a low-key but FUN morning at home in anticipation of a late night at VBS tonight.  Whitney is missing some toys recently, but is earning them back with some great behavior and a positive attitude, so the first big toy she wanted back when she showed us how nice and well-behaved she can be was her tea party bin.  While throwing a tea aprty this morning, she realized she needed Snow White to attend so she politely asked if she could change her mind and get Snow White instead of tea party stuff.  I let her get Snow White back and the tea party carried on happily until Snow White spilled her juice and needed a bath.  Whitney has such a vivid imagination, she was pretending a pillow was the bath tub.  I debated butting in, but decided that *I* wouldve LOVED to use a REAL baby's bathtub when I was her age and playing with dolls, so I let her use Grady's tub to give Snow White a bath.  Well, it was all downhill from there.  Then she jumped on his bumbo, his playmat, his boppy, his mirror, and even donned a burp cloth to make it more realistic.  That Snow White had the best time using all of Grady's toys and making smiles on Whitney's face ALLL day :) 

Asking Snow White if the water was "too hot or too cowd or juuuust wight!?"

And while we dont have it down to an exact science yet, Grady is on his way to a nice schedule of awake/eat/play/sleep cycles and it makes us all happy :) 

Whitney wore this shirt but I think she was several weeks older than Grady is right now....will have to dig out the picture.....

...found it! And this pic was taken June 4th, 2009....so exactly one week earlier than Grady wore it :) 

sniff, sniff....my BAYBEEEES!!!!!! 

So now that I have successfully dumped alllllll the recent phone pics, I should probably go back to my Drafts file and work on the whole "Grady's First Disney Trip" post, huh?

Eh....Im not sure you handle it.  Havent you had enough cuteness for one week!? I'll get to it....eventually!