things that make us "us"

I think there are unique things that make each person who they are. Which is awesome because truth be told, it would be pretty boring out there if we were all alike.

Same goes for each family. I think there are little quirks, little day to day activities that make each family unique. Which is awesome. I also kind of love hearing the different things/traditions/rituals that each family have. Maybe I'm nosey (I totally am) but I love it. I love hearing bits of what makes up people.

These days my little family of three has settled into this nice little routine. There are things that happen daily that are different, probably downright odd to other people but they make us who we are. It's just part of us. It's part of what makes us a family.

Every morning Mr. P goes to work early. Like really early. So it's always me and the little in the morning. Sometimes she wakes up when he does and if that happens, he moves her into bed with me nine times out of ten. On the mornings he doesn't, I always wake up before her and move to her bed with her for a bit. We snuggle for a while before it's time to get up. I can't think of a better way to start my day.

If it's E and I in the car; the music is on and LOUD. If I turn it down, she wants it back up. She gets it from her Mama. If it's E and Mr. P; it's conversation. And lots of it. They are talkers. I am not. I love that she adapts to whichever parent she's with.

We eat out a lot. Like a lot, a lot. We're working on it. But we've eaten out so much with our kid that she now asks "where are we going for dinner?" instead of "what's for dinner?". She's also a restaurant champ. She gets to watch Netflix on her phone til the food comes while Mr. P and I chat about our days, then when the food comes, the show goes off and we eat and talk as a family. It's routine. It's fun.

Sometimes I let E sleep really late in the morning. It's good for me to have peace and quiet and sometimes I know she's tired so I let her sleep. On those mornings, she eats breakfast in the car on the way to school. I should feel guilty about that. I don't.

E has show and tell on Thursdays. Every Thursday. Most Thursdays I forget. Most Thursdays she throws me under the bus right in front of her teacher when I pick her up. "Mom! You forgot my show and tell item again!". She knows her days of the week. I really think she does this on purpose..... I didn't forget today.

Every night before bed, I tickle E. Hard. Like til she can't breathe. Mr. P tells me every night that this is the opposite of settling her down. I don't care. He really doesn't either. We can't get enough of that laugh.

E has started telling us "you always do that" when we do something dumb. It's like having a tiny teacher around all. the. time.

On Fridays we eat pizza. We also have tried to instill family movie night. Most of the time though, we put the little to bed at 7 on the dot like the rest of the week. Because let's be honest; by Friday? Mom and Dad are tired. Kids got to go to bed.

Saturdays we have ballet. E dances while I work out and Mr. P gets a few girl free hours.


We like to laugh. A lot. Most of the time at one of our expenses. It's true. Someone is always being ganged up on. I need a boy. He'll be on my side. ;)

The older E gets, the sweeter she gets. She likes to be carried and sit on our laps more now than ever. I should be ripped from carrying her 40 pounds around. I'm not.

Every morning E eats while I get ready. Every morning she plays around and when I holler down for her to come brush her teeth, she hollers back "but I'm trying to eat!" and every morning I tell her to come brush anyway and go back and finish. It's like clockwork. I laugh every morning because I know it's coming. She always comes.

E gets mad at Lacy no less than five times a day for breathing on her. They are the same height. It's not going to stop.

Dragon Tales is basically the soundtrack to our lives. I get mad daily for how much it's on.

Mr. P can't handle whining. I can tune it out like a champ. I can't handle incessant chatter. He can tune that out like a champ. We tag out a lot.

E and I daily fight over her hair. She never wants it how I want it. I usually win. It's my hands doing the work.

I have a problem with shopping. Mr. P gets home first in the afternoon and always finds my packages. Usually I tell him I "won it from the blog" somehow. But then I quit blogging as much and the packages kept coming. Pretty sure he's on to me... ;)

Our house is a three ring circus most days. Someone gets mad daily. Usually at least one set of tears is had (usually E's). But there is so much laughter. So much good. I love us. As crazy as we are, I can't get enough.

another first for the books.

Weekend Wrap-up huh? Does anyone still do these anymore? Probably not. Oh well. Today I am.

This weekend was awesome. Absolutely positively so much fun.

A few months ago, my very football crazy aunt bought tickets for the Charlotte Panthers/New York Giants game. She was stoked at the chance to come see her beloved Eli Manning play so she snatched up tickets basically the minute we moved to the Charlotte area. My brother and sister in law made plans to come up for the weekend and we've all been so excited for this weekend.

But plans change. And when kiddos are involved, they change quickly.

The day before my S & Kiki were supposed to come down, their little one came down with the chicken pox. Which quickly put a kibosh on the weekend plans.

My aunt and granddad still came down though so Saturday we took them with us to the littles' ballet practice and then headed over to Southpark to do a bit of shopping. My Papa and Mr. P did most of the entertaining of the little one (who is finally at the age where these excursions are mostly fun) while my aunt and I hit basically every store in the entire mall. True story.

BG hit a few stores with us and as she exclaimed "look! isn't this so cute!" over and over as she showed us stuff, I was hit with a memory so hard it took my breath away. I remember spending Saturdays growing up shopping with my Grandma and aunt and now here I am, with the same aunt and my little girl shopping away on a Saturday. Some traditions are too awesome to not keep.

Since we now had two extra tickets, we decided to just take E to the game with us instead of leaving her behind. I figured if she got super bored, we would just walk the concourse for a bit. I honestly wasn't too worried about it.

And I truly shouldn't have been.

We dropped the three of them off at the stadium while Mr. P and I went and parked. We then walked the mile back to the stadium and met back up with them. We went on through security and checked in at the guest counter where BG was gifted a certificate to commemorate her first Panthers game.

We found our seats, then found some overpriced hotdogs and drink to consume. BG ate and kept her eyes on the beginning of the game. She was being so good!

She lost interest for a bit but just sat down in front of her chair and played on the stadium floor (no judgement!) for a bit. After a quick rest on her Mama's lap, BG was ready to finish out the game. And finish the game she did.

In no time she was high fiving those around us, dancing with the cheerleaders, and having a blast watching the Panther dance around the end zone. I'm not sure she watched a bit of football, but it didn't matter. She clearly had a blast. And so did the rest of us.

The weather was perfection. The city is perfection. And though the Giants basically didn't show up to play at all, it was still worth it to go. It was an absolutely perfect day.
We ended the day with wings and ice-cream before collapsing in the bed pretty early. It's safe to say my girl enjoyed her first NFL game. And so did her parents. Such a good day.

our fourth

In the grand scheme of things, our Fourth of July kind of rocked.

We thought about driving into the city for fireworks and such but ex-nayed that as crowds and toddlers don't usually mix. Mr. P wanted to stick close to home and avoid that whole cluster so we decided to just grill out at the lake with the bff and her kids and let the kids swim before cleaning up and watching the fireworks here in town. Perfect plan.

We spent the morning unpacking (it will NEVER be done) and cleaning while BG played. After naps for the two kiddos of the house (never the Mom), we packed up and headed over to J's to swim for a bit.

The kids had a BLAST. There was the bickering which always occurs when you put two girls together (BG will probably stay an only child, because oh my stars the bickering), but overall, they had a blast.

As has been the norm this entire summer, the fun was rained out all too quickly and we literally had to grab everything and sprint as the clouds all too soon opened up and the daily downpour commenced.

*SIDENOTE: what is UP with the weather this year? Wettest summer ever.*

Once it cleared up again, we packed up the goods for lunch and headed down to the lake where J and I quickly found a spot to lay while the kids played and Mr. P grilled. Should have been perfection.

And it was. But we're Moms and all too soon the kids were over letting us do nothing and were throwing things in the lake and talking our ears off. We wouldn't trade them for the world though. ;)

After lunch, we let them play down at the lake for a bit before we hustled everyone back to the house for showers before getting ready to see the fireworks.

Only it poured again. So laying at the pool watching the show didn't happen. Because they canceled it. Boo.

We trekked down to the lake again where we found a couple of guys setting off fireworks of their own. We found a bench and curled up together and watched as they attempted a show of some sort that really was not going well. The kids were losing interest about five minutes in when the guys messed up and shot the fireworks backwards; directly at us.

Obviously we're okay but it was kind of scary and my poor child is now completely TERRIFIED of fireworks and has told us every night since that she's good on fireworks and is okay if they never go off again.

Fun.

But all in all? a day spent with friends and family, good food and cold drinks? Total win. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday as well.

when the carnival's in town, we must play.

The carnival was in town Easter weekend. After driving by it multiple times during the week and promising BG over and over that we would go, we finally decided to head on over there. So after we left the Easter egg hunt, we headed on over. BG couldn't quit talking about how she wanted to "ride the ferris wheel with Daddy". Who's going to say no to that?

I'm sorry, but when did my teeny, tiny baby get big enough to ride carnival rides?! By herself?!

She was the only one we even bought tickets for. Craziness. We eventually bought a few for the two of us so that we could ride a few rides with her. I'm glad we did. We had such a good time.

I really, really hate how fast she's growing up, but I have to say, this age? I absolutely love it. She is just so dang fun. Her laugh as she rode the rides is a sound I wish I could just bottle up and listen to on repeat. I went through the fun house with her (nightmare for this girl) and we giggled and laughed as we both slipped and fell all over the past. She's so fun.

An absolutely perfect day. I love days like this with my little family.

Easter shenanigans

This past weekend was epic. One of those weekends that just make you smile.

It didn't start that way. We actually had plans for Saturday that we had to cancel when the little one woke up not feeling so hot, but after a lazy morning hanging around the house, we thought she might be feeling well enough to head out for a bit. So head out we did.

We drove to a local park that was putting on an Easter egg hunt. I took BG to a big hunt last year in Anderson and she had a blast, so I was excited to find one she could go to this year. And Mr. P was able to go too. It was the perfect little afternoon plan to get the three of us out of the house for a bit.

BG had a blast. There weren't really any hiding places for the eggs so they made the kids use spoons to carry them back to their baskets. Made for some entertainment for sure. The rules were the younger kids could use their hands, but as soon as BG saw how hard everyone else was working with the spoons, she decided she had to use a spoon too. She definitely gave it a hardcore shot.

We had such a good time. BG ran around like a crazy person and laughed and giggled the whole time. We just enjoyed the heck out of watching her. Kids make everything more fun.

We'll pretend that she didn't have so much fun at this hunt that we'll now be doing egg hunts for weeks. That's how you know a certain toddler had one good 'ol time.

spring? please?

Hey remember when it was warm for like a few days?

That was nice.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when it was warm enough to go outside and play after school/work? When those dirt piles in our backyard weren't piles of mud because it rained for days and days and days??
*squee! baby plumber's crack! ;) *

This weather is putting me in a mood. A serious funk. I've found the older I get the more closely my mood correlates with the weather. And this weather? makes it not so pretty.

I am so ready for summer and all the fun that warm weather brings.

I'm also ready to not be posting about the weather. Winter makes me dull.

(almost) wordless wednesday

Sunday, we had a snow day. Which is huge around these parts. In fact, when I walked outside Saturday night to all the crazy snow falling, I couldn't believe it. It had been snowing off and on all day but it was still a shock to see all the snow on the ground the next day.

So we did what most South Carolinians probably did; we found our warmest clothes and we trekked out to enjoy our snow day. BG was a huge fan, but even she was over it after a while. We truly are warm weather folks in this house.

mark it down: a first

Last month when I heard the circus was coming to town, I got a bit giddy.

I absolutely loved the circus as a kid. It was amazing. It was big and loud and there were all these animals and trapeze artists and guys jumping through fire. So much to see and take in. I loved going.

So obviously when I heard the circus was coming to town, I immediately purchased tickets for the three of us to go. It was going to be a Valentine's Day present of sorts from me to Mr. P and BG. I just knew she would love it.

And if it had been the circus in my head, I just know she would have.

This circus was a bit different though. I guess I should have read a bit more about it but this was one called "Fully Charged" and had more of just people doing different tricks. It was also a one ring circus; scaled down a ton from the 3 ring circuses I remember from being a kid.

Mr. P and I really enjoyed it but BG? well she spent most of the time perfecting her "Mackayla Maroney is not impressed" face.

She perked up a bit at the dog exhibit (dogs?! where are the lions and tigers?!), and she enjoyed the elephants but... let's just say we'll wait a few years before taking her again.

Next time I'll be sure to pick the show with more animals. Or Mr. P and I will go alone.

She had fun though. I think she just enjoyed being out and doing something special with her Dad and I. Next time, we're just going to the zoo. That's a bit more my little animal lovers speed.