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Reasons I Liked Today

1. DANCING. Maggie loves to dance and her day is spent singing and dancing from start to finish. One of her very favorite things to do is play music off her “companio” and dance around the living room. This morning, while Audrey entertained herself in the swing for a few minutes, Maggie twirled around the room with New Baby ‘putting on a show’ for her sister. At times Audrey watches Maggie like a hawk, but today she was more interested in her reflection. Maggie didn’t seem to notice and boogied on down in her undies. 

 2. SMILES, BREASTFEEDING & READING.  The cooing and smiles have officially begun. Audrey has started to find her voice and makes the sweetest cooing noises at us and if we’re super lucky she flashes us a smile. I have yet to capture a full-fledged smile on film yet, but at the rate she dishes them out, it won’t be long. Most often while I’m feeding Audrey, Maggie and I will read a book together. This way we’re both engaged and can share in Audrey’s sweet smiles and Audrey gets to hear the story as well. This also means that Maggie gets read to throughout the day without a doubt. I love that she loves to read and finding her reading on her own in random places, like the kitchen, just reinforces the fact that no matter what I’m doing or where I’m at….reading with my children should always be a priority. 

AND Maggie announced that New Baby was crying and needed some milky. So, she proudly nursed her….standing up. I can’t say I’ve nursed standing up, so it was funny to see Maggie’s smug face nurse her baby through her shirt. Wearing her tiara, also something I’ve never done while nursing. 

3. MY PEEPS. Chaya came over today with her dog Jack. She didn’t just come over, she found us on our morning walk and joined us for the tale end of it. We also went to visit my former Kinder students a couple days ago to introduce Audrey and check in. It was really great, except for the fact that Maggie’s nose was running like a leaky faucet. The kids were doing Centers while we were there and Maggie joined in and was on task just like a proper Kindergarten student would be. She’ll be SO ready to start preschool in the fall and seeing her in a classroom setting reminded me of that. BUT, it was great to see so many of my teacher friends and touch base with them. I wish that I could teach and have my babies with me, but I don’t think that’d work out when my babies start screaming and the students actually need their teacher. A couple funny things happened: 

a.) Kids shouted “I like your baby” at me more than once. 

b.) Maggie was straight-up rude to some of my friends because she was beyond ready to go and I made her stay longer than I probably should have. The only reason it was funny? I’d never seen that part of her personality…maybe I’ll blame it on her cold, but she wore her ultimate grumpy face and marched out the door looking for our car announcing she was ready to go. 

c.) When we made it to T-Diddy’s room, we walked in to discover all the students wearing party hats. For some reason Mags took this as a good reason to walk from table to table checking in. I was halfway expecting her to stay close to me, but she quietly made her rounds with those big 4th graders staring at her while I talked to Tamara. 

Chaya’s sticker is a special one made by Maggie. If you come to visit, be prepared to get a sticker of the letter your name starts with.
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Weekend

The Girls ~ minus Joey

Tonight Barry and I finally sat down and looked at each other and wondered where our weekend had gone . We have had a fablous weekend, but it went by all to quickly. Since Audrey was born, we’ve been pretty low key and staying close to home. This was the first weekend that we ran a ton of errands and went up to The Valley for a day trip. Kannon turned one and we went up to MV to help celebrate. It’d been a while since we’d seen many of our friends and it was fun to have everyone together. 

The theme of the party was baseball with an antique feel, I’m not on Pinterest, but it had a very Pintrest feeling to it. Joey’s house is filled with family photos, crafts and things that she has embellished, which I found to be very inspiring. I might take a ton of photos, but I fail to print with frequency and our walls are bare in some rooms….it’s kind of embarrasing. I am now determined to get some more images from our life hanging in our home. 

The invitation asked us to wear our favorite jersey and I searched high and low for some of Barry’s old baseball uniforms, but came up empty-handed. (Okay, I didn’t search, but it would have been fun to show up in something of his from his high school or college days. I also wish that I had a jersey for him that said #1 Dad.) Bahl seemed to be the ONLY person that actually followed through on wearing anything jersey or sports team related. He showed up in a Starter jacket from the year 1992. 

[Side note: When I was in 6th grade I had a boyfriend, William, that had a Starter jacket. At recess he’d take it off and drop it off on the ground by the bars. I’d pick it up and wear it for the duration of the recess and when the bell rang I’d drop it on the ground for him to pick  up to take back inside. We never, ever spoke at recess, let alone at school, but I’d wear his jacket during recess to prove that he indeed was my boyfriend. I broke up with him because he wanted to take me to the movies and I heard that he wanted to kiss me. Gross. ]

Cookie Monster

Bahl is one of those people that loves a good joke and might not admit it, but has a sentimental side. So as I ribbed him about the outdated jacket, he informed me that it was his grandpa’s, which I found somewhat touching. For a while the party felt somewhat segregated, with the men talking in one corner and the women in the other. It almost felt like middle school, except for the fact that we’re all married, kids were running wild between us, and our friendships are rock solid, unlike those teetering in middle school. Eventually the guys and girls melded together and we talked of Bahl and Allison’s upcoming wedding, the shared summer vacation plans, and why Barry doesn’t have a beard. 

Audrey & Grandpa M.

To say that we didn’t have ample opportunity to accompany Bahl in his jersey-wearing atire, would be a lie. We had a chance to stop by Greg and Linda’s before the party and Greg informed us that he had some old shirts that have Barry’s high school roster on it. I would have loved to rock that shirt, but I’m certain I would have looked like a round potato…umm, no thank you!

While we were visiting, it took Maggie about two shakes to get Linda to play Dollies with her. It is so fun to be an observer and watching Mags be creative with other people. The characters are almost always the same, but the story lines change. 

Maggie playing dollies with Nana

Barry’s dad has been working hard to restore Barry’s Nova and every time we go up there, there is a new, major change to the car. Both Barry and Greg love that car, so it is funny to hear them talk shop. I’m a total lame-brain when it comes to cars, at least when it comes to makes and models. Thanks to my dad, I do know how to do a few things here and there. 

Maggie headed outside with Barry and his dad to check out the latest improvements and it wasn’t long before I heard the rumble of a loud engine. About two minutes later Maggie came back inside and announced that the car was too loud. Pretty funny.  I’m betting she decided that she’d rather play Dollies than look at a car. 

[Side note: While we were all in the living room, Greg wandered into the room holding Audrey with a MASSIVE cookie propped on her tummy. I guess the cookie wasn’t all that massive, since she’s pretty tiny, but it looked massive. For the record, I’m pretty sure that was her first cookie….and if it wasn’t Brian that would ‘give’ it to her, it’d have to be Greggers.]

Maggie & Nana play magnet dollies

 Before we ran errands today, we went downtown Edmonds and walked around. Sadly, the weather was really nice yesterday, but we spent most of the day either driving or inside. I was a bit bummed to discover that today wasn’t nearly as nice,  but we still bundled up and headed out. Audrey is a rock star as long as she’s being held and slept though the entire walk. In fact, I’m not sure she even noticed she was put into a snowsuit…

We also went shopping so I could get some new tennis shoes since the ones that I have are practically as old as Bahl’s Starter jacket. While we were there, Barry oogled over the whiffle ball bats. I tell you, that man loves gear of all shapes and sizes. If there was a magazine simply titled “GEAR” and it was only gear reviews, he’d subscribe. Scratch that. He’d probably want to be the Editor of the entire magizine. There is something disgustingly cute, however, about my husband carrying an infant, looking at whiffle ball bats and talking to an almost 3 year old about how to swing a bat. 

Not to worry, I got my new shoes and the whiffle bat was left at the store….only because he needs to do some ‘research’ to determine which is best. I’m hoping that we can get together a group of people once the weather changes and play a game or two of Whiffle Ball, with the best bat, of course. 

I only hope when it does happen that Bahl wears his jacket.