From the road

We left the lake yesterday morning by 9:15 (just 45 minutes past my goal) and we got to our first pit stop in Aiken by 11:30 after turning around a few times trying to find my aunt and uncle's house. They had a delicious and generous lunch for us and it was a welcoming, eclectic crowd. I got to meet baby Brody for the first time - he's the same age as Samuel, but is a big boy! He was already wearing 9 months clothes!




We were back on the road by 2:00 and made it to Florence where we had plans to stop at a Museum that claimed to have an interactive Children's exhibit. Um, no. But, it still worked out for us to get out and stretch our legs. There were lots of stairs and rooms for us to wander around in (no one else was there) but a museum is not the best place for kids, really! They would run ahead and sit on the chairs with the signs "Please Do Not Touch" or touch the old pianos or spinning wheels, etc. But, Dellaina was pretty cute, she'd walk into a room and say "wow!" and act like it was really cool. There was a train outside that we got to climb on, but then it was back in the car.

Wyatt fell asleep again and I had planned to stop again at a McDonald's, but while he was sleeping, I just kept pushing. Dellaina was getting fussy by now and wanted to get out, but we kept on trucking. Wyatt was waking up, but by now we were nearly there. .
until I got a little lost and had to call Penelope and have her husband talk me through getting to their house. We'd been texting all day long, so our first chance to hear voices came from me calling for directions! Dellaina finally fell asleep during the brief period of getting lost, so was a little out of it when we arrived! K.Lo was so sweet and excited and N.Lo was still up to greet us, too. We played with toys and had introductions, but they all took to each other pretty well. We had an immediate dress up session!



Then, after N.Lo went to bed, K.Lo spilled some water on herself, so had to shed her princess dress, which got Wyatt wanting to take his clothes off and we were blowing up our bed for the night, so it was a great bouncy party! I was delusional enough from the long day of driving to offer to do bath time with the other 3! But, it went really well.

We had a little meltdown at bedtime, which I was worried would be a challenge since Wyatt had slept so much in the car, but we were all out relatively soon. And up this morning at 7:20. We met J.Lo in the hall and I asked how he felt about waking up to double the amount of kids! Breakfast went well and we hung out. K.Lo seemed a little out of it and was laying around on the couch, when suddenly she threw up all over her daddy and the couch! So, he stayed home with her while we went to meet Niki and Jeff for lunch. It was an adventure, but went well for the most part. The boys were pretty cute smearing food all over themselves and Dellaina wanted to take pictures, but did pretty well, actually.

We're back at the house now with 3 of 4 kids down for naps (Dellaina is resisting like a champ).

Stay tuned for more updates. . .

*pictures are taking too long to upload and move in this post, so I'm just going to post the rest all together in a single picture post.

Pics continuted

On the Road

I've been planning a big trek across North Carolina to visit family and friends and we were scheduled to head out tomorrow. Then, I had an unemployment workshop that I thought was scheduled for tomorrow, but turns out it was today and I completely missed it. So, I will be calling to find out how to reschedule or what I need to do rather than getting underway on our trip. Luckily, we did have an extra day built in. We'll be going to the lake first, then, hopefully, the schedule will remain:

Saturday - head out from lake and stop in Aiken to visit family for lunch. Head out and possibly stop at the Zoo in Columbia, SC or a museum in Florence, SC before heading to Wilmington, NC to meet Penelope and her family for the first time ever in person! I think it's a super first impression for us to invade their home for 3 days!

Sunday - meet up with Niki, who was gracious enough to come to Wilmington when I realized I'd plugged in ETown rather than ECity, which was a difference of 2.5-3 hours one-way!!

Monday - we're still cramping The Lo.Co. and having a blast, I'm sure.

Tuesday - head out for Raleigh, NC, possibly going to the Marble Museum before staying with cousin and her husband.

Wednesday - dinner with uncle and his wife.

Thursday - coming back through Charlotte to stay with another cousin, his wife and their 3 year old son; possibly going to the Zoo en route.

Friday - still in Charlotte.

Saturday - going to Children's Library or Theatre or a museum with cousin's fam.

Not sure if heading back Sat. night or Sun., but will stop at aunt and uncles in Anderson, SC on way home.

All of these stops break the trip up into about 2-3 chunks, which is what we are used to traveling to get to the lake and back, so should hopefully be manageable. I'm excited and hope this blunder isn't foreshadowing.

All that to say, I may be a little sparse in my posting and such over the next 10 days!!

Eye-yi-yi

Wyatt’s eyelashes are super long. Especially on his left side, they almost curl up over his eyebrows. It’s amazing. But hard to capture. But, he definitely has that bluish outer ring, that I think I have.  

 

He really wants to walk down steps now. None of this turning around backwards and scooting down. He tried to hold on, but he’s just not quite coordinated yet. He’s getting there. And he knows the word, “step” as we go up or down each one. And tonight in Mary Poppins they were singing a song about Stepping with a crazy dance and he kept dancing and shouting, “step!”

Every night this week, Dellaina has been getting up and going to the bathroom after we’ve tucked her in, sometimes more than once. The first two nights, it was a traumatizing, crying event. Now, I think it’s just something to do. It’s hard to discourage her from getting up if she really needs to go, and getting her to not get out of bed just for kicks is tricky! She’s been wearing new fleece footed zip-up PJs (thanks Mammie for getting some that actually fit her), so she has to get completely undressed and ends up cold and shaking! We wrap a towel around her, and I try to explain she’d stay warm if she stayed in bed! And she kind of looks at me, tilts her head, holds out her hands and say matter of factly, “but, I had to go potty.” She has gone to the bathroom a few times (less than half of the times she’s gotten up and even sometimes very very little when she did) so it’s hard to say is she’s being gun shy because she doesn’t want to go in the bed or if she just wants to get up or really feels like she has to go. I don’t think her stomach is upset, because we don’t have issues any other time. She’s also been talking about scary things at night. Like one night she sat up in bed as I was petting on her, getting ready to leave and said something about her suitcase (that was still lying in the hall, just outside her doorway) moving. Then, later, something about it having thumbs sticking out and moving! And one night, coming back out of the bathroom, she kind of drifts off looking down the stairs and I ask what she’s doing. “just checking. to see if the stairs have horns” or some nonsense! It’s hard to know what’s going on in that little head of hers, but I hate for her to be creating scary things out of the shadows or falling asleep to unpleasant thoughts! I always try to recap the fun parts of our day and what’s happening tomorrow and encourage her to “think happy thoughts!”

Play dates and lunch dates

Monday – Mama Megan, recently re-planted in GA, on her day off no less, brought her beautiful girls, Ella Grace and Ashley Kate, all the way up to our house to play (and meet AK in person for the first time!) We had a big time. Dellaina was mesmerized watching Ella and would call her to show her things and shared and colored and even raced! We managed to get a little visiting in between all of the playing, but once nap times had been extended beyond the acceptable time frame and we couldn’t secure a safe sleeping place for Ashley, they decided to hit the road and have naps in the car. I’m so glad we got to catch up and can’t wait for more visits soon!

It’s only fair Ella gets to try out the toy they sent Dellaina!

Ella really liked Bossy and Hanky, and they continued to give her lots of kisses!

Ashley wanted to get some pats in, too.

Cutie patooties! Easy to see where she gets her good looks.

We went outside and they would start up the driveway and run down.

Woody clearly helps her run faster!

Wyatt had to join in as well. It’s a normal occurrence for us to do this while yelling “aaahhhh!” as they run down (as Wyatt is demonstrating), but Ella really got them moving, she’s fast! And a tall drink of water (is it appropriate to say that about a female?)

Watching Dumbo, winding down for naps.

Tuesday – We met my friend, Beth, from Berry at Chili’s for lunch. I finally gave in and joined Facebook (much to Greg’s chagrin) on Friday and we connected and managed to schedule a lunch date after an embarrassingly long time “trying” since we live so close to each other. It was great to get out and catch up and I’m sorry I made you miss the actual inauguration-I didn’t even realize; when you said you’d been sucked into watching TV that morning, my first thought was Soaps. Hope the other coverage watching satisfied you. The kids actually behaved really well, amazingly, until the very end, when they were ready to go.

Today (Wednesday) – We took Tyler to IHOP for his birthday (which was last Friday, but he had the day off and wasn’t nearby). It was. . a bit crazy. I might have stretched it doing two sit downs in a row, the kids were a bit restless at first. And I think it’s sloooow. But, once the food came, they settled down pretty well and you just have the mess to contend with. Those strawberries have some powerful red gel. Then, we got in naps and met up with Cassi, M&M’s and Jenna and Aidan at McDonald’s.

Mom! He’s up there and he won’t listen to me!

We were all playing on the little play area or had been eating, then there was one point when Wyatt went missing and I’m searching around all of the little corners and then I look up and he’s sticking his head out of the bubble up in the big playground! He’d crawled up there all on his own! He’s done it before, but it was still a funny sight to be calling him and hear him start answering/calling me from within and way up high. I was holding Micah while Cassi and Jenna got some food, so I couldn’t go up and get him back down. I tried sending Dellaina, who didn’t want to go at first, but when she finally did, she reported he wouldn’t listen to her. I went to go put Micah in the high chair to eat and was about to climb up inside when two big kids and Wyatt come sliding down the big slide! Normally, he can’t quite climb up the shelf to get to the slide and has to come back down the steps or have help. Apparently, the bigger kids assisted him! That was a definite first, to slide on his own. It was pretty amusing.