Beach Camping 2017

Well I break this 3 year blog silence to debut our beach adventure. This time we had two more kids in tow! Crazy that the last time I blogged Clive wasn't even born yet! IG has dominated my family memories the past few years - much quicker outlet for documentation :)

a report from Tink and Pan

the proudest I have ever been

It starts in your heart; this swelling of incredible joy that just makes your chest beat faster and faster. Energy quickly surges through your whole body and it's like an electrical shock paralyzed your face in a never-ending smile. That's what being a proud parent feels like. That moment when you are in awe at the strength of your child - whether that strength be demonstrated physically, emotionally, or mentally - you are in complete awe.

When I was in college I taught swim lessons at a renowned swim school, prided on the guarantee that we can get your child swimming on the first lesson. The method is very very intense, but very effective. I taught children ages 6 months and above how to swim. However, it's one thing to teach someone else's kid how to swim with this method, but when it came to my own I wasn't sure if I had a strong enough heart to do it because it is so demanding. I was worried Evelyn would grow afraid of me and the water, but it actually proved to do the opposite and I am 1,000 times over grateful that I was able to work with her, that she trusted me, and that she is rocking it! I am so so proud of her! For crying out loud, the girl isn't even two and a half yet!!!

a little film starring the New Jersey Shore

We just got back from a wonderful 3 days at our friends' beach house on the New Jersey Shore. We. had. such. a. blast! We did this trip last summer, and I can't believe how much our family has changed in the past year! Many thanks to our friends for giving us such fabulous memories!

acrobats

I've got two little monkeys that are keeping me busy! Warner started crawling this week, and good grief, I forgot how nuts it is to have someone's world only be 6 inches off the ground. He can squeeze into the oddest places, and he can hone in on any powercord, which is super stressful. Forunately (but mostly unfortunately because it is pretty irritating in most circumstances), Evelyn likes to take away whatever Warner is playing with, and this only comes in handy when he is getting in to something he shouldn't.

We've been shut inside the past 2 days with torrential rainstorms, which has been a huge bomber on my summer spirits that were soaring so high with afternoon dips in the pool, tanlines that were darkening, mid-morning picnics and such. Obviously I know summer will be back soon, but one June day with rain is one day too many in my book. So here's what these monkeys are up to:

if I had vine, this is what I would post.

When Vine first came out I was really put off by it. I thought it was ridiculous to have yet another way to connect with people. But now I'm finding that kids do funny things, but only for short periods of time. And it would be ridiculous to post a video on the blog of something that was 6 seconds long, but on Vine it would obviously be acceptable. The only downside is that android doesn't have Vine yet. So as ridiculous as this makeshift vine video of mine may be, this is funny to me. And I could watch it over and over again:

But in case this looping video isn't your cup of tea, maybe you can appreciate the humor in any of these clips:

NFL Bad Lip Reading "Hey, I found Fido! I found Fido!"
Jimmy Fallon and John Krasinski. 7:20 is when it gets real good :) (Thanks Jay for this gem)

Happy Friday!
And a huge thank you to all of you for your thoughts and hope in the last post. I've spent a good portion of my night and morning trying to restore what might not be lost. Thank you!

Evelyn, lately

Today I handed Evelyn a cup of water and without me prompting she said "pank (thank) you, mama." I was so impressed! I bent down and told her how much I loved her for using good manners.

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Last night Evelyn was talking to herself a bit in her crib, so I went in to give her one last squeeze and bedtime song before she conked out. As I reached back to shut the door, she called out "wuv ew, mama." My heart skipped.

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As she was on the potty, she looked up at me with a strained face and said "uhh! it no working!"And I busted up laughing.

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Lately Evelyn has developed a fear of the lawnmower. She woke up from her nap crying one afternoon because the noise was scoowah (scary). I explained to her that while lawnmowers were loud and that could be frightening, they weren't for Evelyn but they are for cutting grass. So now everytime we hear a lawnmower or leafblower, she explains to me "No scoowah, lawntutor. Lawntutor, it cut da gwass!" 

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The phrase most commonly said right now: "Lightning McQueen, cars go fast, McQueen sticks out his tongue." She is crushing hard on Lightning. Princess movies aren't our thing over here. We watched Tangled for the horsie, not for the beautiful Rapunzel or handsome Flynn Rider.

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My favorite Evelyn thing right now is our duet, singing "skinnamarink."

Saturday

In response to the SNOW, yes, INCHES of SNOW outside my window this morning, I am trying to remember that we had a sunny and semi-warm Saturday just two days ago. The other morning when I went about doing my usual round of swooping the kids out of their cribs and greeting the day with two babes on my hips, I looked at them and thought "these two are beautiful." I wanted to capture them at their waking moments and right before they went to sleep at night. But that would have made a really short and weird video, so I thought to just video our whole Saturday - some footage of what it is to be just us with nothing fancy going on. And in videoing everything I caught Warner's first roll from his front to back all by himself! Hooray! What I didn't capture was Evelyn falling down on our walk home from the park and scraping the whole right side of her face :( Poor girl has had it rough lately with teething, a cold, and now a banged up face. So heres's our humdrum Saturday.

keel over

We started Warner on solids and that is always a tough thing for a baby. The thought of someone stuffing my mouth with something bland and mushy turns me off too, so naturally Warner wasn't a fan. I'll tell you who was a fan of his grimaces and squinchy faces - oh, his loving sister Evelyn Rae. She loves it when I feed Warner because she thinks his faces are hilarious. I truly believe part of her gets pleasure out of his misfortune. As sad as that might be, it is still pretty funny to see her keel over when Warner shows his displeased face.

because baby talk does a soul good

Bright smile. Sparkly sparkly eyes. High pitched chatter. Big dumbo ears. It's all so yummy!

I totally realize that this video is probably a good minute longer than it should be, but come on, like I was really going to cut my son's greatest speech short. The kid had a LOT to say about Pottery Barn Kids, apparently. So continue with your discourse, Mr. Warner! I'm all ears!

SNEAK!!

Evelyn is a sneak. A lovely, cute sneak. She loves to turn Warner's swing on and I am always having to put her in "timeout" for repeatedly doing so. Lately, when she's going to do something that she knows she shouldn't, she comes and finds me and says "bye! bye!" which she thinks is warding me off but in actuality it is the most perfect warning that she is about to get in to some trouble. The other day she came and found me and said "bye!" and ran into my bedroom. I grabbed my camera to record what kind of mischief she was up to...

*** no children or swings were harmed in the making of this video ;)

Christmas on film

vertigo + winner

Last week Ev discovered the magic of a tire swing. She wanted to do it again and again. And by "it" I don't mean the spinning but rather the after effects of being spun - the stumbling, the vertigo. She's a crack up!

Happy weekend!

our little mermaid

A short and sweet video of our little fish.
She's a swimmer like her mama!
Maybe brother will be a pole vaulter like Dad.

in the Capital of the South

This past weekend we decided to take one last getaway as a family of three before morphing into a family of four. Evelyn is NOT the best traveler, so we decided on somewhere not too far away so we all would stay sane in the car {We also bought a portable dvd player, which SAVED us. Judge all you want, but after our last road trip of screaming for 4 hrs straight, no nap, tears, this trip was heavenly!}.

I spent my childhood in Richmond, Va and with such fond memories I thought it'd be nice to re-visit with the two loves of my life, and luckily they conceded :) Richmond is such a fabulous city, with so much history being the Capital of the Confederacy. I wish we had more time to do more historical things, but with limited time we did the "fun" stuff.

We first walked Carytown. It's such a charming street with little boutiques and the Byrd Theatre is iconic. I mean, look at it! The interior is a brilliant red velvet, with gold trim, and antique lighting. Before the evening show, an organist pops up and plays beautiful melodies. The place has not left the 1920's and it is magical. While we didn't see a show, we did eat some fab ice cream across the street at Bev's much to my delight. After our window shopping was done I had my sights set on Maymont, a beautiful mansion estate whose grounds are home to Japansese Gardens, a "zoo" and a children's petting farm. It was rather fun to see Evelyn run the same paths that I once did as a girl. I don't feel much older than my 5 year old self, you know.

While we were chillaxin on a bench, some jazz music could be heard off in the distance. Evelyn pulled out her best dance moves, which had Jared and I roaring. I love that girl!

fireflies

stomping in the rain

Tornado warnings and torrential rain storms were our companions this past Friday. The weather over here was caa-Razy. The skies were relentless with their blackened downpours and claps of thunder. We were without power for 2 hours, but luckily it came back on right in time for me to pop a margherita pizza in the oven and homemade breadsticks. While I was making the dough, Ev and Jared went for a little walk during a calming period of rain. As the dough was rising, I went to go find them and I found this happy gal singing stomping in the rain. 

Saturday in Charlottesville

a rainy day with evelyn

Evelyn tells a story

The other day when we were waiting in the parking lot to pick Jared up from the metro, Evelyn gave me my very own story time. Dr. Seuss has never brought such a smile to my face :)

I love how when I ask her if the story is done, she gathers her thoughts after being swept away in a daydream and looks at the book as if to say "ah yes, where was I..."

*** if you are wondering if I video everything Evelyn does, then the answer is yes. I have to restrain myself from posting about 5 videos a day.