You rock, Mom!

That's the quote of the day, for sure. She had gotten up from her nap time (nap time is a joke...it was 3 hours of fooling around going up and down stairs to try to get her to lay still...might have been easier to just let her stay up...but you won't hear me say that in her presence....) Anyway...she had asked for a snack and a drink, so I brought her some animal crackers and some juice, and she said, "Thanks, Mom! You rock!"

I was pretty much speachless. I'm normally mommy, not mom. Now, I do tell her that she rocks. Quite a lot. Because she does. I didn't expect to hear it back quite so soon though.








We've had a fun couple of days. We're finally getting back into the groove of things, which is really nice. The weather hasn't been too hot, either, so we've spent some time outside. Sometimes I watch her play and can't believe how like me she is, and then on the opposite side of the spectrum, how like Brian she is. Look at how she lines up her chalks to draw.





That's totally her father. I'm not that precise about anything. My stamps are where they are because my office manager brought her label maker to my house to tell me where to put things. I'm sure that this is a learned trait from her father.

Here's my girl doing her "I'm so big" dance. That is probably like me. She and I dance most of the day. The Backyardgians have a new cd, and we have been shaking to that one (that's the name of one of the songs). She asks to hear it all the time; thankfully there's lots of fun music. We're both getting excited about the new episodes coming this fall too.

I've finally figured out that if she has fancy hair or lipstick (aka - chapstick) on, she'll let me take about any picture I want of her. I'm going to use that little piece of info to get more photos that I want.








The fam. On the swing. Just chillin after supper in the backyard. We're liking to spend our evenings that way these days. It works for us.

The Zoo

Sunday, July 31, 2006

Today, we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park, Asheboro’s claim to fame (besides Brian, of course!) It was hot as fire (a nice southern expression I heard about 50 zillion times this weekend), and it’s not a typical “zoo” per say – it’s more like a wildlife reserve. But we saw the animals on the list. Thank goodness for the stroller.

Melanie had a blast. Grammy and Poppy went with us, and Danielle – better known by Melanie as Daniel (she couldn’t quite get the name right) – one of Brian’s second cousins (don’t even get me started on the sheer numbers of the 2nd cousins – remember that he has 42 firsts – the seconds are the rest of the state of North Carolina, I think!). Anyway, we saw lions. Giraffes. Chimpanzees. Bagrillas. (aka – Gorillas.) Rhinosaurs. (aka – Rhinoceros.) Snakes. Assorted other monkeys and birds. And zebras. Our favorites were the elephants.

The elephants were huge – and dirty! I don’t know if they had been rolling around in the dirt or what, but they were nasty clay colored things – on top of their brownish gray bodies. There were 3 that we could see at the time, and it was seriously hot out there. There was a little pond – I say little pond, because it kind of looked like a puddle from where we were – out in the middle of the field, but none of the elephants were anywhere near there. We were talking to Melanie about how the elephants went out there to cool off in the water, and she was talking to us about how it was like a bathtub for them. Right on. Well, don’t you know that the biggest of the 3 of them walked over there and stuck his trunk in that water and started spraying himself off – it was the coolest thing!! There was water everywhere (they were a good ways away from us) – but he took a little shower out there. We were figuring that the water was pretty shallow, because he was up to about his elephant ankles in it, so we figured it was a showering facility. We were wrong. All of a sudden, he turned with his butt towards us and backed up into the water – all the way in – and laid down in the “puddle”. Let me tell you – any water deep enough to cover up an entire elephant is not a puddle. He went all the way into the water – and then just stuck his trunk out to breathe. It was really, really cool. One of those moments I wish I had had a video camera, although I did do some continuous shots with the still camera and got like a little slide show thing happening. It was one of my favorite things about the zoo.

The other part we thought was really cool was when we went to the chimpanzee display. It’s all outdoors, but they have these little caves and tunnels that you walk in that have like observation glass in them. We went in with Melanie, and got her out of the stroller, so she could stand next to the glass to watch the chimps. The trainer was there in the tunnel sitting on the bench, answering our questions and stuff. While we were talking about random things about the chimps, who kept walking by the glass, but not really stopping, a HUGE female chimp walked up, and the guide said that she wouldn’t stop at the glass either, because she was the alpha female, and had no patience for people. I was asking questions about her (because I’m nosy, I guess) – found out she’s 32 – same age as me – and is so well groomed because she’s the boss :-D I said she looks better than I do and we’re the same age – the guide said that he didn’t know about “better”, but she’d give me a run for my money. I didn’t quite know how to take that one! Don’t you know that she stopped right in front of Melanie and just sat there looking at her. We got the greatest pictures of them – it was soooo cool! The guide was totally amazed, because he said as the highest ranking female in the clan, she hardly ever “graced humans with her presence.” She sat there with Melanie for about 10 minutes. Then, a little male monkey came up, and he was posing and stuff there by Mel too…until he got frustrated with something – I’m not sure what – and whapped on the glass really hard right at her stomach, then stalked off. Everyone around us – me included – jumped about 10 feet. Not Melanie. She turns around with this huge grin on her face and says, “Mommy, he got my tummy!” Then of course, more oohs and ahhs from the gathering crowd who were all watching the little girl and the chimps.

We’ve got a diva. And I’m not sure how to break that habit. I think she thinks that she’s the star. The sad part is, she mostly is most of the time. Good grief.

We also got some time at the camp today. Melanie and Brian went out on a canoe, and had a great time. Played some soccer. Ran. Swang. Basically, got the lead out. It was fun to watch.

The Big Wedding

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

Wedding Day, James & Ashlee. It was a beautiful day out by the lake, and I have to admit that Melanie looked like a little angel. She wore this little blue sundress with blue sandals (both about 2 sizes too big, but Grammy wanted them to be able to be grown into). She carried a little basket with her flower petals in it, and had her hair braided. She did look really sweet. I was the photographer for the wedding, and it was fun to do that…but I was distracted at times by my daughter. The other two flower girls, Ashlee’s nieces, pranced their way down the path, and threw petals along the way. Literally MINUTES later comes along Miss Melanie. She will not drop any flowers. Her Uncle James actually walked up the isle to meet her about half way so that she would mosey on down there. Everyone of course is ooooohing and aahhhhing all the way down, and the cameras were just snapping away. Where am I (the wedding photographer?) Down front, with the high powered camera in my hand, trying not to glare at my daughter in front of all those people. It was actually pretty funny, but I just didn’t want her holding things up. We had practiced our “chant” the entire day. “Keep walking. No stopping. Drop flowers.” I mean, we could have had a sandwich board with that printed on it, for as many times as we said it!

She and her Uncle James finally got to the front. She went to stand by the other flower girls, looking cute in her little blue dress, turns around, sees me, and asks (loudly!), “Mommy, can I have my PEZ now?” I’ll admit it. I bribed her. I’m not ashamed. Everyone laughed. I mean, this is the child who wouldn’t say boo to most people all day. Admittedly, there were a LOT of people there – 99% of whom she did not know – so I don’t blame her for being a little bit shy. But that pez comment was neither shy nor quiet. Goofy.

Brian’s cousins were there (most of the 42 of them) – but specifically, the cousins he was closest to growing up, and the ones I know and like very much. Derek & Kyle are brothers, and their sister Maria. Derek has a new wife, a very pretty Corey. Melanie met her and said “Wow – her hair is so pretty!” She is oriental, and just stunning, to be frank. Maria was there with her boys, Sam and Jack, and they and Melanie played for a bit too. Kyle was there with his girlfriend, Megan, and she was just a sweetie too – she and I got along very well for the several days that we were there. Anyway, Melanie took quite a liking to Kyle. She would play with him, and one really hot part of Friday, he had taken her for a ride in his car, because they were both bright red from the heat. They drove around in a circle about 2 miles per hour, with the AC blasting, and she thought she was big stuff, buddy! Well, Friday night she was talking to me and asked me if Kyle “mooed”. I was a little confused at first, until I figured out what she was saying. In the south, the name Kyle sounds exactly like COW. And that’s how she was saying his name. Cow. Let me tell you what, I laughed a LOT about that! Kyle was such a good sport about it; he laughed with her, and mooed for the rest of the weekend with her too. It was cute.

A day at the camp...

Friday, July 29, 2006

No zoo today. We spent all day out at the camp, after Miss Melanie slept in until 10am. Of course, she didn’t go to bed until after 9:30, and she had no nap yesterday. So it was worthy.

She is sleeping in the basement (as are we) on a couch and a love seat pushed up against each other to form a little “box” of sorts – so she can’t go crashing into the concrete floor. She actually loves it – and I’m liking it myself, because she can’t get in and out by herself – the arms of the furniture are too high for her. We are not sleeping on the couch bed – we have an actual mattress bed, and it’s cool and dark down here. It’s all good.

The camp is quite lovely – but it is HOT here! I spent a lot of time today in the kitchen helping to cook vegetables. I think I peeled more vegetables today than I’ve eaten in my entire life. They did end up really tasty though! We also went in a paddle boat today with Melanie and a few of Brian’s younger cousins. The highlight of my day by far was falling out of a hammock. Actually, let me clarify – I didn’t fall – it BROKE and dropped me – on my neck. It hurts pretty badly; I’m having a hard time moving my right arm at all, and cannot move my neck. Ashlee’s brother is a massage therapist, and he worked on my neck a little bit tonight and said I messed things up in there. Might have to get that checked out when we get home. The van ride was horrible – it’s kind of bouncy in there, and it hurts pretty darn bad. I hope sleeping tonight doesn’t mess me up.

Melanie was the star of the show today, shock shock. She spoke to everyone about everything. She had her playdoh out at one point, and it was just she and I to begin with. Within 10 minutes, I had to get up and walk away from the table, because the picnic table (a full sized table) was full of people playing playdoh with her. Someone had given her a McDonald’s playdoh factory, and a Cookie Baker’s playdoh factory. She is in hog heaven, and spent probably 3 hours there making playdoh things with all those different people.

The wedding rehearsal tonight was fun, too. She is a little ham, and took her gay old time walking down that darn isle. She wouldn’t walk out at first, because she said she wasn’t in her flower girl dress, and she didn’t feel right walking down without it. She had no rocks to throw (she said she’d like to practice with rocks because they go further than the flowers would), so she was pretty bummed by the entire thing. All in all, an ok evening though. She was very hot and very tired by the end of the day, and more than ready to sleep. She was out in less than 5 minutes after laying her down. (As will I be!)

More details tomorrow about the wedding.

Our last day at the beach...

Thursday, July 27, 2006
12:37 pm

Well, our stay at the beach is over. I have to admit that I was a little sad this morning. We went to the beach this morning for a couple hours before checking out of the hotel, and the lighting and everything was just perfect – I was able to get some beautiful pictures of Melanie, and some fairly decent pictures of us as a family – well, as decent as a picture can be with me in a bathing suit! (No comments from the peanut gallery there, please!) We looked for shells for a while; Melanie wanted to bring home a bucket of wet sand also – but Brian won that argument. She said that Meredith would really like sand from Virginia Beach. Daddy said Meredith could come and get her own sand. But she could have some of our shells. It was a fairly comical conversation.


We walked down the beach a bit this morning; found an old pier that was kind of in pieces, but it was a great photo prop. We also found some rocks, some steps, ya know – great vacation backdrop kind of areas. Melanie was very patient with me as I took her picture; I didn’t make her pose for many – most were candid, so she hung with me when I did pose her for the two or three family shots. All I can say is, as anal as I am, it’s a good thing once in a while. I read my camera manual (yes, the whole thing) and I’m so glad I did. I figured out how to make it take continuous shots – so I could get the ones of Brian tossing Melanie up in the air, and how to do the timer, which is how I got the family photos. (Thank goodness for sand toys which make great shelves for the camera while the family gets into position!) Anyway – my camera isn’t the best on the market, but with a little know how, I got some very decent pictures with it. Now to just experiment with my photo software; I want to pick my favorites and print a row of black & whites to hang at the house.

So we’re on our way to Grammy & Poppy’s house. I’m sure they think I’ve totally lost my mind. We called them from the surrey yesterday, where Melanie told her Grammy that she went in the ocean, but she didn’t like it because she kept getting fish poop in her mouth. Even after I translated, I’m pretty sure my MIL didn’t know whether to laugh at me or not – she wasn’t sure how to take me. I have that affect on people, I think. Turns out I’m the official photographer for the wedding :-D I’ve got my camera face on…hehe. Gives me an excuse to do therapeutic blogging too, which is another story all together.

Well, I’m trying to get Melanie to relax in the car seat and take a little snooze. She’s pretty dang tired. And if she sleeps a bit tonight, she’ll be able to stay up a little while with Grammy & Poppy tonight. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll hit the zoo.

More tonight.

Full Day at the Beach

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
10:07 pm

What a full day! We had a terrific time on the beach this morning. Someone (not mentioning any names) woke up at 6:30; I made her stay in bed until about 7. We went to the beach around 9 – after a really crummy breakfast. Since there’s no use complaining about it, I’ll just let that part go. Anyway, she LOVED the beach! We’re actually parked on the Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean, so the waves are much calmer, and where we are, there was a big rock formation that kind of blocked a lot of the incoming waves. The water was pretty shallow, and she was able to kind of just do her thing in the water without worrying about a big undertow or big waves. There are crabs EVERYWHERE on this beach though – Brian actually got a pinch from a mid sized one. Melanie wore her water shoes most of the time; I didn’t want to deal with a crab bite.

We built sand castles. We looked for seashells. We buried Daddy in the sand. We buried Melanie in the sand. (Notice who did NOT get buried in the sand – I’m no dummy!) We walked up and down the beach a lot. And basically just had a great time.

We came in about 12:30 or so because we were all starting to get a little bit crunchy. The sand was pretty hot, and we needed to hydrate and get a peanut butter sandwich. We were quite a picture trying to get back to the hotel with all our paraphernalia – 75% of which we didn’t even need or use, I have to admit. I took a sheet to sit on the sand, some magazines, some music, ya know – the basics of what we USED to take to the beach. I sat on that darn sheet one time – when Brian took Melanie in to go to the bathroom (number 2, as we told her she could go number 1 in the ocean – she found that rather interesting!!) I didn’t ever open a magazine or play any music, because I built castles and looked for shells and – yes – actually got in the ocean (or bay, whatever….it was still salt water). The water actually felt terrific, it was not at all cold – because I am a big chicken when it comes to water temperature!

So, after our peanut butter sandwich, she laid here on the bed with both of us – a double bed – and fell right asleep. All of us slept a little over an hour and a half, and boy – that was a great way to spend a vacation afternoon at the hottest part of the day. Got up, got dressed, and drove down to Virginia Beach. It’s so pretty there – but it was crowded. There are nice parts of it though, and I wouldn’t mind spending a few days there if we come down this way to vacate again. There were umbrellas everywhere, and one of the nicest things was that they had public rinsing areas. That turned out to be really nice.

So at Virginia Beach, we parked at a parking lot, and took the stroller down. We had come with the intention of just scoping the beach out, but not getting in the water; we were going to go eat first and then come back to the beach if we had time. Didn’t work out that way. Right away, Melanie and Brian both wanted to check things out. So, we parked the stroller behind the lifeguard stand (another plus for the big public beach), and changed Mel into her suit real quick. She and her daddy went in – just up to their feet – but she was fairly freaked out. The undertow was much stronger, and the waves were a LOT bigger. He had to hold her the entire time they were even near the water. I sat on a towel, as I had my dry clothes for the restaurant on. I was pretty far away from the waves – or so I thought – on dry sand. Well, wouldn’t you know it…Melanie brings a shell for me to look at, and I wasn’t paying attention. Big wave. Wet pants. Sand in the whoohoo. And so I went the rest of the afternoon/evening looking like I didn’t make it to the potty in time. Not my best experience.

We rented a surrey on the beach – which is basically a little car with bicycle peddles on it. At first we had Melanie in this little basket thing in the front – and she looked darn cute! But she wanted to steer, so we brought her back and sat her in the middle so that she could pretend to steer. We did have a good time, but those things are not so easy to peddle. And the sand in my pants did not feel so good on the bicycle seat. I told Brian that I did not choose the exfoliation treatment here at the beach, and I’d like my money back. He didn’t laugh.

We went to Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant for dinner. It’s this huge, famous buffet here, and man…we ate way too much food. Our server was named Ryan – and Melanie kept calling him “Brian” – like her daddy. When we’d correct her, and try to get her to say “ra-ra-ra-Ryan” – she’d repeat – “ra-ra-ra-Brian” every single time. Had us all in stitches. Ryan was very good at his job; come to find out that he’s a middle school science teacher who works at Captain George’s during the summer. Brian said he looked like a model/surf dude – and he’d probably make more money doing that than teaching. But he spoke to us a bit about his job, and he really seems to love it. I think that has to be a calling, working with junior high kids – especially the boys! Anyway – had too much seafood. Brian ate soft-shell crabs – which I’ve never had – and said they were delicious. I just about got sick watching him eat those – I had to leave the table. He also ate a crawdad – I couldn’t even stay at the table for that either. Melanie had a TON of popcorn shrimp, some broccoli, and dipped bread into clam chowder. She ate really well, actually. I had crab legs – about a million on them – and then something called “Norfolk Special” – shrimp, scallops, crab meat – all done in this scampi type sauce – and that just ROCKED! It was way yummy. Brian and I had peach cobbler and baklava for dessert. Melanie ate all the icing off a piece of chocolate cake. We shouldn’t have to eat again for a few weeks after this evening!! It was way worthy.

So we get back to the hotel this evening, and I’m telling Melanie stories to put her to bed. (This of course is after I discovered that I left her toothbrush and toothpaste at home – so she had to use mine. This is something I swore I’d NEVER do – it’s amazing what having a child will do to your nevers.) So, we normally tell stories about Penny the Pig and Mildred the Skunk. Tonight, our stories were about contentment, and kindness. She loved them (and funnily enough, I love making them up. Even Brian stays awake for those stories). So anyway, one of the characters in the Mildred stories is named Wilbur – he’s a woodpecker. Another character is Billy – he’s a toad. Now, neither of these fine young gentlemen were in the stories this evening, but after I had finished my stories, Melanie wanted to tell Daddy & I a story. So she starts a story about Mildred going on vacation, and how she came up to a path and saw Toad and Pecker taking her bucket!! Well, forget the rest of the story. Brian was laughing so hard he about fell off the bed, and I was laughing so hard I got the hiccups. Then of course, Melanie is laughing, although she has no clue why – and she gets the hiccups too. It was a funny way to end the day, that’s for certain. By the by, Penny has a driving license for circle vans. I’m not exactly sure what a circle van is, but she is allowed to drive one.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to the beach in the morning for a few hours, then be out and on the road by checkout time. We’re off to Grammy & Poppy’s house – and the zoo and the museum too. That will be really fun! Can’t wait to take more pictures – I got a TON of keepers today!