The Wilson 6 Chronicles

I've been meaning to post this pic for the last week and am just now getting around to it. We went to our 2nd Christmas parade last weekend and had a blast. It didn't seem as cold as the previous one but that might be because I had Justin along to help wrangle the kids. The kids, as always, had lots of fun and came home with a bagful of candy (which promptly disappeared later that day). I had all intentions of going to a parade on Sunday but completely forgot about it until about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start so our parade count stands at just 2 this year- well, have to try to do better next year. And poor Harper, as my assistant photographer, she never gets to have her picture taken but rest assured, she was there.

Today the kids attended the first of several (weather permitting) Christmas parades. We missed them all last year since we were in Florida and apparently Christmas parades are not a big deal where we were so we are making up for lost time. So we packed up this morning and, along with Shannon and Kelsie, we headed out to the big metropolis of Inman. It was an 1.5 hours of 36 degree cold Christmas-y goodness. And I managed to even capture a picture with Eleanor looking AND smiling at the camera which a small miracle in and of itself.

Since I have been a slacker in the blogging department, I thought I would repent by posting what I consider to be a super cute pic of my Harper Doodle. After a little bit of a health scare with her, we are happy to know that she is just fine. She might hate me forever for subjecting her to having a telescopic camera shoved up her nose though...

This weekend was a big weekend here in the Wilson household. I had my 30th birthdy and while many people freak out over that milestone, I was totally looking forward to it because 1. I looove birthdays and 2. there just seems to be something very liberating about leaving the twenties behind even though my twenties were a pretty good decade. Justin, knowing my love of all things from the decade prior to my birth, got me a birthday complete with tie dye icing and a Volkswagen Microbus. We celebrated Friday night with a meal at The Melting Pot (something new and very yummy) and then again yesterday with some wings and burgers at my mom's house because, well, one party just isn't enough and my mom likes to spoil me. All in all, a pretty great day!

My cake and new VW (courtesy of my sister)

At the risk of jumping the gun, I have a little bit of bragging to do. Eleanor has been strictly a potty-using girl since Friday. Friday! That is FOUR whole days of no diapers (except at night and even then she stays dry all night)! She has done so well with this whole potty thing- the biggest problem is that she wants me to come and sit for a chat while she potties. This involves me stopping whatever I might be doing and going to sit on the edge of the tub while she potties. And now that she is a big girl, no plain old underwear will do this girl. It has to be "pennies" which is her word for panties. No hand-me-down Spiderman underoos from Alden and definitely no diapers- it has to be pennies and preferably with princesses. Because you know, a Princess needs her pennies.

Big changes are going on in the Wilson6 household. First of all, my sweet little Harper rolled over last night. Yes, I said rolled over. She was on her tummy and just flipped on over. You could have punched me in the face, I was so shocked. Unfortunately, she doesn't get as much floor time as she probably should because the "Middles" will torment her with their twisted version of love and she ends up getting irritated. Plus, they are not always so attentive to the fact that my little Chubba-dub is in the floor and have at times come perilously close to falling on her or tripping over her. But she proved last night that she has places to go and things to do. I just wish that she wasn't in such a hurry. It makes me tear up to just think about.

And Eleanor has finally decided to use the potty. Today, we bought one of those padded toilet seat insert thingies at Target (complete with illustrations of Dora on it), came home and put it on the potty. And she pottied. And has been dry all afternoon. Amazing. After my false hope with Alden last December, I am trying to not get my hopes up, but I would love to only have one kid in diapers finally. I had a few months between Alden potty training and Harper's arrival but the idea of just ONE baby in diapers- it makes me squeal with glee just thinking about it. Unfortunately, Eleanor's decision to start pottying has also come with a fierce smart ass attitude which is driving me insane at a very painful rate and, for the life of me, figure where she got it.

I have to send a HUGE shout out to my mom and sister for voting today! My poor mom has had to listen to me rant for the past 6 months or more about politics and even accompanied us to the Obama rally (IN THE RAIN) yesterday. And she voted for the first time in 20 YEARS! Then my poor sister had to miss half of day at work because she waited for 4 HOURS to vote today. But can I just say how proud I am? Well, I am. I live in the largest precinct in my county and was astounded at the turnout this year. During the last Presidential election, I waited maybe 30 minutes to vote and this year it was 2.5 hours. It is an exciting time in American politics and I am glad that more people are getting involved. As always, Zachary accompanied me to the polls as he has since he was 8 months old. We're just hoping that we picked a winner this year since we are 0 for 2 so far. But we're hoping that the need for CHANGE is on our side. Yes we can.

And I need to make a correction to this post, it has actually been 32 YEARS since my mom last voted. Her last election was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Crazy.

Zachary and I are in line to vote right now. Surprisingly, I could see my backyard from the line at the high school. Perhaps that makes me qualified to be the principal. LOL.

Dr. Wilson's name tag

The Aldenbot 3000 complete with a functioning light switch. If I had just 1 more week, it would have had functioning lights too.

Eleanor has a bright future as a fashionista. She changes clothes multiple times a day and her combos are a source of never ending humor to me. Sure, I get tired of washing clothes 39750945 times a week but the laugh value that I get from some of her get-ups is worth it. And since I am not a selfish person, I thought I would start sharing the funny with everyone else to enjoy.

So Saturday while going for a walk with the kids, between gasping to catch my breath and wincing at the pain in my knee, I decided that today would be a great day to make a scarecrow.













No planning ahead of time, no thought as to how I've never made a scarecrow before- just the decision to make.a.scarecrow. So after letting the kids play in the yard with our across-the-road friend Logan for a few minutes, we head off to Lowes to buy some winterish flowers (pansies) and 3 bales of hay/straw/whatever the correct term is. Yes, I said 3 bales- in the back of our new, 3 week old van. Had Justin been here, a heart attack would have ensued but seeing as how he wasn't, the deal was done before he found about it so all is good. Back to having no plan, so we get back home and have no clothes for the scarecrow- we have some old pants of Zachary's but no shirts- this is were Nancy (across the road neighbor and Logan's grandma) swoops in to save the day with some pants and a shirt. Now, you may not know this but to fabricate a scarecrow, you have to actually take apart a bale of the hay/straw/whatever. And while this may seem insignificant, let me say this now, loose piles of hay are like crack to a little kid. You will unable to keep them from jumping, diving, or sliding into the pile. And occasionally they might bury their siblings entirely in hay. But it is worth it when you're all done and can stand back and admire your scarecrow fabrication skills.












And no, I didn't sneak another kid into the herd, the non-Wilson kid is our friend, Logan.

I love to sew. To me, it's very therapeutic and calming for the most part. I love making patterns and altering them to make things in different sizes. I was never the kid that was good in art class but I love to create and make things. So, this week I carved out some time for myself which is damn hard to do and made a super cute bag and a pinafore for Eleanor. I have a feeling that Eleanor might just have a pinafore for every single holiday. It was wicked easy to make and fast to sew together. Anyway, I just wanted to brag and show off because I am in looove with my bag and because pics of Eleanor looking at the camera are as elusive as sightings of the Yeti.












Those 2 straps on the front are short shoulder straps plus it has a long adjustable messenger strap.













Yes, they were each placed specifically and sewn on my hand. I am hoping to get feeling back in my thumb soon. But I love it so it's worth the pain.













Eleanor striking a pose in her Halloween pinafore.

When we first moved to our house back in July 2002, one of the first things we noticed was that the house across the street had a ton of little flags in the ground on the perimeter of the yard. When we soon met our new neighbor, Nancy, we found out the flags were training markers for the underground fence for her dog, Greta. And so began a wonderful relationship between us and our neighbor-dog Greta. Greta is the kind of dog that makes people want to own a dog. She is well trained, nice to children, beautiful, and will tear a person apart should they appear as though they might hurt Nancy. She is the alpha-bitch (as Nancy and I lovingly refer to her) and quite frankly I have always harbored dog envy for a dog like Greta. When she runs, it is like watching a fine thoroughbred horse galloping at the Kentucky Derby. My kids have all grown up around her and love her to the point that Eleanor associates most dogs with Nancy (even naming her favorite toy dog, Nancy). Harper is just getting to know the feeling of Greta's tongue as she licked her little baby toes- Greta has a thing for baby toes. She is just a great freakin' dog. Well, Greta died today. She had lupus and it was slowly eating away at her quality of life. Nancy came home at lunch today to Greta not feeling well (I will spare the details) and when she went to the vet, she had to have her put down. She held her until she fell asleep, then came home to cry into her beer. After getting off of the phone with her, I cried too. Farewell to you Greta, you were truly a giant among dogs and I hope you are enjoying your time galloping in the fields of wildflowers and swimming the ponds of the doggy afterlife.

I found a link to a blog that contains 2 of my favorite things on earth: babies and Barack Obama. Yes We Can (hold babies) is a blog full of super cute pics of Obama (and one of Biden) taken with children. Having been surrounded by kids 24 hours a day for the past 3.5 years, I can say that they tend to be on the money with reading someone's personality. So while I have tried to keep the politics to a minimum (I have another blog for that)- I thought this was perfect for here because my kids love them some "Arockabama"- now to just figure out to get close enough to him to toss one of my kids on him 'cause I am wicked jealous of those other kids. And if being jealous of a bunch of babies is wrong, man, I don't want to right.

I have managed to come up with no less than 47 random nicknames for my kids over the years. Zachary was Zachary-do-dah (and occasionally turkey butt). Alden is my Noni or sometimes Onion (his evil doppelganger). Eleanor has been Girlfriend (said with the connotation that it should followed with 2 snaps up). Now the time has come for Harper to earn her nicknames. I am fairly sure that I have called her 'Harper' maybe 4 times in the 9 weeks that she has been around. It started out as Chubba-Wubba, then it evolved to Chubba-Dubba (the kids call her Chubba Dubba Wubba) and now she has become Chupachubra- not to be confused with the chupacabra since she tends to prefer a goat-free diet. Notice the theme of chub in the names. Bless her heart, she has the sweetest little chubby legs and cheeks- I love them. After the craziness that was Eleanor's infancy (well, the craziness continues but just to a lesser degree), Harper is a welcome respite from the storm. Let's just hope that she doesn't hate me for all of the nicknames.

If you hear a strange popping sound around 8:00 pm tonight, don't worry. That's just my head exploding because I am *that* excited to see the Indigo Girls tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that Harper loves them too and let's me enjoy the music.

Since Justin doesn't get much face time here, I thought I would throw on some cute pics from this weekend of him with the girls. As a Daddy's Girl, I had some clue of what he was in store for when we had girls but he was completely blindsided. Just wait until they're teenagers. :) I had a wonderful relationship with my Daddy and I look forward to watching our girls develop that kind of bond with Justin. As you can see, they are a cute trio.

I often hesitate to post about politics here because this is supposed to be a blog about the kids and our family, but last night, I witnessed something that was simply amazing and has everything to do with the kids and their future. Anyone that knows me, probably knows that I have long been a huge fan of Hillary Clinton. During this past Democratic primary season, it was hard for me to not support her. Really hard. Her actions (along with those of Bill) made me sad- she was just not a candidate I wanted to support any more. She was a woman who let me down. I have long dreamed of a woman becoming President (as have so many women who came before me) and I have looked forward to the day that Hillary was able to raise her right hand and take the Oath. But unfortunately, for me, this wasn't a time where I could support her and I found myself almost to the point of hating her towards the end of the primary. And leading up to the DNC, I was just tired of the speculation of what Bill and Hillary were going to do about the nomination- what they were going to say and how they felt about the whole shingdig. But last night, she came through. She bought me back. As I was laying in bed snuggled up with my girls, I listened to her speech and cried. Cried for the hope that one day, one of my girls could be addressing the Democratic National Convention and know that so many great women came before them. To know that, while there are so many who don't agree with Hillary and her methods, she did indeed attack that glass ceiling and I am grateful for my girls that she did it and she did it her way. Last night in her address to the DNC, she was simply amazing and I still get chills thinking about it. Thank you Senator Clinton leading the charge and yes, it is time to get going.

In canse you missed it, here is the speech.

The one thing that is keeping me from finishing the 400m at world record pace is a serious lack of accessories. Sure, I've got the sunglasses down as an integral part of my race outfit but what I am missing is a large necklace and either a pair of diamond earrings the size of marbles or a pair of hoop earrings large enough for Eleanor to be able to jump through them. Maybe top those off with some seriously intense nails and I might just be able to break that record. Maybe.

If you are 5'8", you are considered freakishly tall for rhythmic gymnastics. Well, there's goes my other shot at going for the gold (after the trampoline). I am pretty sure we'll have to cross it off the list for Eleanor and Harper as well. Oh well, I need to call and cancel my order for a custom made zebra print sequined leotard. Darn.

I could never be an Olympic marathon runner. Forget the idea of even running 40km, but those women had to run for over 2 hours! Seriously, my mind starts to wander after about 15 minutes (30 minutes tops)- I know there is no way I could run for a solid 2+ hours. Heck, by the time they had run the first 30 mintes, I had already gotten bored and started prowling around the house. When I start my Olympic training, maybe I should move my focus onto something less time consuming like the Trampoline.

It was an unlikely pairing by all accounts. On one hand, you had a brown haired, hippy-ish girl who liked rave music and the Indigo Girls. On the other, a blong haired, blue eyed preppy boy who liked rap music. In what can only be called a cosmic occurance, these two kids met up one day and became a couple. She taught him about an appreciation for good music and opened his mind to ideas like recycling. He taught her about cars and nitrous oxide systems. Together they learned about true love and creating a family and sticking together no matter what. Then, on August 11, 2001, they became one. Thank you, Justin, for our 4 crazy babies and for 7 years of what can only be called a wonderful start to a grand adventure. Happy Anniversary and I love you.

As with any self respecting woman who was 12 years old back in 1989 or thereabouts, I had an intense love of the New Kids on the Block. Personally, I found Jordan to be the hottest (with Joey as a close second but he seemed so young at the time) and backed this deep affection up with a small collection of oversized buttons, jumbo puzzle, a couple of dolls (or action figures), and a set of NKOTB sheets on my bed. And now, like any good mother, I am passing my traditions on to the my daughters by brainwashing Eleanor into loving then new incarnation of the New Kids. Whenever their song "Summertime" comes on VH1, Eleanor squeals (who am I kidding, I squeal a little too) and starts to dance. By watching the video, you quickly figure out a few things: 1. Donnie Wahlberg needs to button his shirt and perhaps tone down the precision haircut 2. Danny and Jon (Jonathan?) are easily the least popular Kids as they have almost no face time in the video (and rightly so as Danny looks slightly like he might hurt someone as any minute) and 3. age and time cannot tarnish the utter hotness of Jordan Knight. Even Eleanor has to agree with my on the Jordan thing, she will say that "Jorjan" is hew New Kid on the Block. At least I am able to rest easy knowing that I am teaching my kids the important things in life.

Well, apparently great minds think alike because we also went to see The Dark Knight on Sunday. I am a bit of a superhero fan so I was stoked about it and that is saying alot because I do not enjoy going to a movie theatre. I honestly have a hard time just sitting still for that amount of time and doing nothing but watching a movie. I like movies at home where I can read or surf the net or do something other than just sit there. We mistakenly thought that Harper would stay content during the movie since she basically nurses and naps 24 hours a day but we were wrong wrong wrong. That's not entirely true- she did let me watch all of the previews (OMG- how awesome does Twilight look?) and about 5 minutes of the movie. So I grabbed her up and left the theatre. I took her to the family bathroom, tosed her up on the changing table and swaddled her which is generally the surefire way to get her to calm down. And she did. But I didn't want to take the chance on having her freak again (I think the loud sound was scaring her) so I stood up and rocked her the entire time. The entire 2.5 hours. It worked out well though because I could just kind of wander around in the little corridor and still hear the movie and see the parts that I wanted to see (some of the Joker's parts were a little intense). Heath Leadger's performance totally lived up to the hype- he was unrecognizable as the Joker- everything from his appearance to his mannerisms were so creepy and twisted. And I liked how they handled the Harvey Dent story and the haters who say his story was rushed or whatnot need to watch the movie again. And thank god they replaced Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhall- I'm not saying I hate KH or anything but I do hate the way she seems to speak out of the side of her mouth- it's just to Joey Potter for me. And the Bat-Pod, I was totally geeking out over it and the way it separates from the Batmobile/Tumbler. Very cool. Poor Zachary is dying to see it but for once, I am pulling the mom card in regards to movies (we pretty much let him watch anything- I know, we're horrible parents) and not letting him see it until it's out of DVD. I just think it's too intense for him- hell, I thought I might have nightmares after seeing some of the close ups of the Joker. But if you're one of the 8 people in the US who have not seen the movie, you need to head out asap and see it.

Justin and I spent a huge chunk of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning painting and decorating Eleanor's new room/playroom. I hesitate to call it straight up Eleanor's room since there are still some toys in there that are communal but let's not kid ourselves- this room is pure girly fun. And I love it- I'm tempted to throw down a sleeping bag and sleep in there myself.

So, yesterday I had the bright idea to turn the cesspool that we were calling a playroom into a Eleanor room/playroom. It all started when I spied this shelving unit on sale in the Target weekly ad and thought it would be a good idea to combine all those 39585698 baskets of various toys into a cohesive area. I like organization- I want dinosaurs in the dinosaur basket, cars in the cars basket, instruments in the instrument buckets- but somehow it all ends up in a heap in the floor and when it does get cleaned up, the dinosaurs are mingling with the cars to the tune of a harmonica and tamborine. So, early yesterday morning, the kids and I were off and bought the shelf and 4 box/cube/baskets thingies. And it all started innocently enough. But somehow in the 15 minute drive from Target back home, I decided that I should get the toddler bed out of storage and move the changing table out of the boys room and make Eleanor her own little space. Then I talked my self out of it. But I managed to get myself worked up as I assembled the shelf (have I mentioned that I love to put stuff together? absolutely love it.) and went into the playroom to shift stuff around and saw the devastation of toys. So out to the storage building to find the toddler bed- half was there. So up to the attic to look for the rest- found it along with the mattress and bedding for it. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be climbing into the attic to get stuff but it HAD to be done. So my trusted sidekick, Zachary, and I moved the old bookshelf and play kitchen out of the playroom and moved the changing table in. We cleared space in the middle of the floor and, along with my other 2 sidekicks, assembled the toddler bed. So, then it was just a matter of sorting toys and putting stuff where it needed to go which sounds easy until you realize at this point, it looks like the cesspool has exploded all over the house- there are baby dolls in the bathroom, play oven in the living room, play sink and fridge in the hallway, doll strollers and shopping carts in my bedroom. But finally, around 6:00 last night, it was done. And now we have a bunch of stuff to donate to Goodwill and I am so freaking tired, I can barely walk. But the nesting must go on so now we are off to find bedding for Eleanor's new bed and hopefully Harper will stay put at least until Justin makes it back home tomorrow.

So we went for a doctors appointment today and found out that I am 3 cm dilated which is great because it means that those painful contractions I've been having every night are doing their job. Unfortunately, baby is still pretty high up so it could still be a while. As a matter of fact, she was so high, that the doctor was concerned she might be breech so we got to have a quick ultrasound and see a sneak peak of baby girl- I am happy to report that she does have some hair and it was very visible on the ultrasound. Apparently, that "thing" the dr thought might be her head was just her bottom- gives new meaning to "hard ass," right? So now the waiting game kicks in- we've got 3 cm out of the way, how long will it take to get the rest of them knocked out?

In case you are not the paragon of trivia that I am, you might not know that the sewing machine was first patented by Elias Howe. Well, there is some controversy over it but he was the first to patent the mechanism to perform a lockstitch- Isaac Singer (recognize *that* name?) invented the foot treadle machine but since it used the lockstitch mechanism like Howe's, he had to pay patent royalties to Howe after it was challenged in court. Why am I talking about all this broohaha? Because I like to sew and I just spent 3 days and took 5 years off my life trying to figure out why my blasted, not that old sewing machine couldn't get its act together long enough to stitch through freakin' 4 layers of canvas. I mean,seriously- it was working this past weekend, then nothing. I couldn't sew a straight line of stitches if my life depended on it. I cursed and cleaned the machine. I thread, rethreaded, threaded a new bobbin, and changed needles. I adjusted enough tension that the UN should send me to the Middle East to solve that crisis. Nothing worked, nothing. All that I wanted (needed) to do was finished the 2 blasted bags that I had started. I'm not sure why it was so important but seeing as how I am due to have a baby in 4 weeks, I am pretty sure that hormones had something to do with it. I started to doubt my ability to sew. I mean, in Home Ec in 7th grade, my hot air balloon pillow *did* come out looking more pumpkin shaped, maybe I was just not a good seamstress. How does this simple machine first patented in the 1800s manage to make me question my very intelligence? So I packed it up- last night, I said screw it (well, my actual language was much more colorful). My hips hurt, my back hurt, and I was pretty sure if I didn't stop that I was going to have a baby sitting in my kitchen. So, this morning, I decided to start fresh with my nemesis. I rethreaded the machine and took a deep breath.....and it worked. Perfectly. I pinned and stitched, pressed and topstitched. And one of the bags turned out pretty darn cute- the other one is forever ruined by the struggle I had to make it so it will be going to a new home. So now it is time to retire the machine for a few weeks, time to focus on anew adventure about the start, but in a few months, it'll be back out from storage- back to taunt me with it's promise of ease of use and creativity.

With Justin working on the road, we had to delay celebrating Fathers Day to this past weekend and now that we finallllly got to give Justin his Fathers Day presents, I can post them here- believe me, it has been killing me to have these cute pics and not post. But I didn't want to spoil the surprise for Justin.

Two weeks ago, Justin took me on the best date ever in the 11+ years we have been together- he took me to see James Taylor in concert in Charlotte. Me, being the quasi-hippie that I am prone to be, just said that we should get the cheap lawn seats, but Justin, being the sweet husband that he is (and concerned father to the baby in my tummy), sprung for the goooooooood seats so we had an awesome view of the stage. Well, except for the couple of drunk baby boomers in front of us that insisted on standing up and swaying to half the songs like they were back at Woodstock. But otherwise it was fantastic. He had his "band of legends" with him and there were some outstanding muscians on the stage. I have long been a fan of James Taylor and many of his songs bring me such good memories (I know that at least one reader of this blog probably can't hear "You've Got a Friend" without thinking of high schoolers dancing in an overheated Assembly Room) but I have long been afraid of seeing him live because I worried that my expectations of his greatness wouldn't be met with a live performance. Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. He sounds just as good (better even) live than on any recording. He had just recorded a cd of covers with his band so he mixed those in with his classics. I have to say there was nothing better than a perfect spring night (warm but with a nice cool breeze) under the stars, holding my husband's hand while James Taylor sang "Carolina on my Mind" and Harper danced in my belly. Thank you for a perfect night, Justin.

God love him, Zachary is such a bright kid but getting him to get dressed and have all of his clothes match, it's a pretty hard task. He tends to match plaid or striped shirts with camo shorts. Just the other day, he emerged wearing a God awful John Deere camo shirt (which Justin allowed him to pick out and purchase) with a pair of camo shorts and let's just say that he definitely wouldn't be unseen by animals or snipers in that combo. But today might be the day he took the cake. As he is getting in the Ody to go to school, I noticed that his brown striped shirt was on INSIDE OUT!!!! So I told him to turn it right and out it back on before we left the driveway. On the short ride to school, I sighed with relief since we caught it before he got to school and others kids saw it. Big mistake. As he got out of the van and started walking into school, I realized that he had his shirt on BACKWARDS!!!! And it's a polo shirt to it is obvious that it's wrong since the buttons are at the back of his neck. How is it that he can plow through a Harry Potter book in a matter if days but can't put his shirt on right? Sigh.

With Justin being in Canada for two weeks and the kids too young to appreciate what day it was or have the ability to hop in the Ody to shop for some gifts, this past Mothers Day was shaping up to be a bummer for me. Add to that being 28 weeks into a pregnancy that has left me unable to breathe properly and ungodly exhausted plus being the poster woman for being hormonally unbalanced and it was not going to be pretty. But I completely underestimated the ingenuity of my Zachary. He actually got up early (and quietly) on Sunday while the little kids and I slept in (until 8:00!!) and he decorated the kitchen with Happy Mothers Day signs and made me a princess hat. And he made the best gourmet breakfast that an 8 year old can pull off- cheese toast. My day was instantly brighter and it turned out to be pretty special.

Four months....that's how long it has been since I've updated this blog. Let's see- what has happened in the last four months? Let's break it down by order of event and by the numbers. We moved back to SC just 6 months after moving to FL. Alden turned 3 years old. Zachary turned 8 years old. We found out there is only 1 baby in my womb (thank god) and it is a girl. Justin and I (as a relationship) turned 11 years old. Justin turned 29 years old. And we found our 100th geocache (well that one is a little out of order but I am too lazy to go back and edit). And Alden officially halfway potty trained. Apparently the pottying in FL was a one day fluke because he didn't start actually going potty on a regular basis until just recently. So if I can get him full-on trained in the next 3 months, I will be so golden. If I could Eleanor using the potty too, I will be out of my mind with excitement. Only 1 kid in diapers? I can't even remember those glorious days.

Speaking if glorious days, mine are getting numbered with this pregnancy. I am 25 weeks today which means I have 15 weeks left give or take a week. And while I am greatful (grateful? pregnancy has rendered me unable to spell) to be having a healthy baby and no complications so far, I look forward to having the baby in it arms and out of me. After getting over the wicked morning/noon/night sickness that knocked off 15 lbs, it has been pretty smooth sailing except for the tiredness that accompanies being pregnant and taking care of 2 active toddlers all day long. It's going to be interesting to see how baby Harper is going to fit into the dynamic. She better come out fiesty because she is going to need it to keep up with Eleanor.

And speaking of keeping up with Eleanor, time for me to sign out but I promise that I won't let 4 more months pass by without a post.