Bad Mama Moments

OK--I think we've all had these, right? The times when you do something accidentally to your poor, helpless kid and think, "Wow...I hope no one just saw that!" I think the first time it happened to me was when Aly was just a few weeks old; I had been grocery shopping with her in the Baby Bjorn, and as I was taking her out of it in the parking lot to put her in her seat in the car, I bumped her little newborn head on the door frame! My precious daughter is screaming her eyes out, and all I can do is look around the lot to see who saw and thinks that I have no business having a kid!!
So, I've unfortunately had a couple of these moments just in the past few days--Caroline being the unfortunate victim both times. Aly woke up Friday covered in hives from head to toe. As I had her on the changing table in her room, I put Caroline in Aly's bed (which has guard rails, a headboard, and a foot board!) I was taking Aly's temperature--you know where--when suddenly I heard a THUMP. I knew immediately what it was...Caroline, on the floor, on the other side of the bed! I ran over to her and things went chaotic: She was screaming, I was crying, and Aly was crying (legs up in the air, thermometer still in 'place'!) I couldn't/ wouldn't put Caroline back down until she stopped crying, so I just prayed that Aly wouldn't have a diaper-free accident on top of everything else! Side-note: I think it's time to invest in an ear-thermometer!

My most recent Bad Mama Moment happened tonight during the time of day that I sometimes wish I could fast-forward through: bath time. Pre-bath, bath, and post-bath with young kids takes skill and patience. With that said, Caroline has had a long day: fever and 2 infected ears (we live at our Pediatrician's!). Aly was waiting for me to put her in the tub as I undressed Caroline; I was trying to get C's shirt off the lazy way: just pulling and hoping that her eyes and cheeks wouldn't get squished. (Do you remember what I said about patience? I had run out of it!) Well, as I pulled, her shirt popped off--but her head fell forward and hit the floor...the HARDwood floor. More crying...from both girls. All that said... there are no scars, no bruises--until this blog was written, no evidence! Oh the stories these girls could tell (if only they could talk!)

Easter Week

Happy Easter! Before kids, I always thought of the week between Palm Sunday and Easter as "Holy Week". Now with kids, it seems like every holiday has so many fun events leading up to the big day--this week felt a little more like "Bunny Week!" We are usually on vacation in Rome (Georgia!) at Easter, so we just stepped right into our usual annual festivities here. The girls saw the Easter Bunny at the mall, and Aly was scared of him (until this point, she's always been fine with Santas, Bunnies, and every other big colorful thing!) Chad braved the annual Easter egg hunt by himself (with the help of his mom!), as I was in Atlanta with some friends. We had a wonderful Easter--the first picture is of the girls before church, and then the four of us afterwards. Obviously from those two shots, I paid very little attention to what was in the background! Nothing like cars and couches to make a picture frame-able!

Catching Up

For any of you who read this thing regularly, you've noticed that I've been a little slack lately. The reason? Basketball season is OVER!! So, rather than spending my evenings sitting in front of the computer being a nerd, I've been enjoying Chad! Just to brag on him for a minute...let me just say what an INCREDIBLE coach he is! In just his first year, his team won 19 games (the second most wins in school HISTORY!), they made it to their conference tournament for the first time in forever (where they beat our cross-town rivals in the first round), and now he can get no teams to play us out of conference next year because they're scared! Ok--enough about that.

Last week, the school where Chad used to coach-William & Mary- made it to their conference final; so we loaded up the girls spur-of-the-moment and drove to Virginia to see the game. While there, we stayed with our great friends, the Smiths. As I wrote about my friend Kristyn holding a special place in my heart, Cortney is the same way (though not due to pregnancy...she is a year younger than I am, and expecting her FOURTH in June!!) Cortney and I (along with sweet Krissy Vick!) are in the coachs' wives club...I think that every wife should be able to form a club with wives from their husbands' professions whom they can sit and complain, commiserate, and celebrate what that profession brings. So there should be a lawyers' wives club, a doctors' wives club, a preachers' wives club, a salesmans' wives club...whatever. Cortney and Krissy are my lifesavers around February, when I feel like I'm about to lose it... how great it feels to hear that they are about at wit's end too! There is definitely comfort in numbers. Although the time that Cortney and I had was too short (it always is!), it was so wonderful to have it. While there, we also got to visit the McPhersons and meet their precious new baby, Alley.

The pictures are a little random: the first is of Aly and her friend Lizzy hard at work in the kitchen. (Aly is an expert chef of imaginary soup.) The next is of the girls enjoying the hotel bed at our conference tournament (naked, what else?!) There is a close-up of Caroline, and then an 'action-shot' of Aly and Emma (Cortney's youngest) on the trampoline. Watching Aly 'jump' made it clear that the poor girl isn't what some would call "athletic". Bless her little heart!

Addy and Aly

For those of y'all who have been pregnant, you know that when you become friends with someone during pregnancy who is also pregnant, you just seem to bond as if you'd known eachother for years. This is my relationship with my friend Kristyn. We went through those nine months along with the first 4 months of our girls' lives together before Chad, Aly, and I moved back to Farmville. Kristyn and I took pre-natal classes and ignored our husbands as they laughed when the nurse talked about birth. We had free pre-natal massages, and commisserated about our aches and pains. Addy was born just 3 days after Aly: Jon and Kristyn were checking IN to the hospital while Chad, Aly, and I were checking OUT. Once the girls were born, we slept-walked through those first couple months together, met for lunches, and braved our first trip to the mall in Richmond with two newborns. Jon is a pastor at our old church, so Kristyn sat with us: she would make me feel so normal when she walked in on Sunday mornings on the brink of tears because she was so tired! My pregancy and first few months with Caroline weren't the same without Kristyn around.

The Ritner family (they are expecting again!) came to visit at the beginning of this week on their way down to Orlando. The girls didn't remember each other, but they warmed up pretty quickly. It was great seeing these friends whom we shared such a special time with. The first picture is of Chad, Jon, and the girls when they were just a few months old. The second is of the girls at 10 months old when the Ritners visited us in Farmville, and the last few are of this past week. Thank you, Ritners, for such a great visit!