poppop's birthday and july pics

Some random pictures from this month - my little guy collecting things...

And climbing in one of his favorite spots - He moving all the time so that I can not get a clear picture! And we celebrated Pop-Pop's 63rd birthday! We are so blessed to have him so close and I absolutely adore seeing him interact with and love on our kids. Happy Birthday Dad! We celebrated with a "surprise" dinner - because how impromptu can you really be when you are going to dinner with 7 people, including 2 people 2 and under. It was great!

A is 13 months

Andrew is 13 months as of yesterday and I read a quote today that I thought adequately described how I feel about my kids growing up and time going by:

"It is interesting how as the days go by nothing seems to change, but when you look back everything is different."

Andrew is a pro at walking - he is all over the place. He is also proving to be the ABSOLUTE pickiest eater that ever existed. Adam and I were talking today at lunch about how before Andrew when we saw a kid that screamed in his highchair and wouldn't eat anything (except peanut butter or something else equally kid friendly), we would totally judge the parents and think it was the parents' fault for always giving in to the cries for a different food or catering to their child. Not anymore. Lord - we repent! We are going to take the plank out of our own eyes now! Andrew is so picky - we put him in his high chair, give him his tray with his dinner on it, and he takes one look at it and immediately starts crying his eyes out - and after an entire day of crying and neediness from him we cave and give him something he likes just to make it quieter at the dinner table. So basically he eats fruit and carbs. And that is pretty much it. Here's to hoping that this is just a phase! But we love our sweet boy - stubbornness, persistence, pickiness, and all.

don't worry about it

Yesterday, right after Caleigh woke up from her nap she was laying in my lap as I was sitting on the floor of my room. Andrew was in there with us and after a while walked out of the room. I thought about it for a minute (briefly pondering all of the troubles he could and often does get in to - playing in the trash, pulling out all the toilet paper, splashing in the toilet water, eating something unknown from the floor...) and then said to Caleigh -

me: "Caleigh, Can you sit up for a minute? Mommy needs to get up."

Caleigh: "Mommy, not worry about it."

me: "What?" (it wasn't very clear)

Caleigh: "Mommy, not worry about it. Andrew be right back."

Hilarious that my oh so perceptive daughter sensed my anxiety about all the things Andrew was potentially getting in to and felt the need to reassure me not to worry about it - that Andrew would be right back. So I didn't worry about it (I usually don't really worry about it which is why Andrew gets in to so much mischief) and Andrew did come back in a few minutes.

impromptu chapel hill day trip

On Saturday we woke up with the day ahead of us and no plans and we decided to drive up to Chapel Hill for a quick day trip. We grabbed bagels for breakfast and then left Charlotte around 10 and arrived in Chapel Hill around 12:30. Andrew slept for about an hour in the car so he was feeling quite rejuvenated for our campus jaunt. After a lunch at Ham's on Franklin Street we walked around some of the shops. Caleigh decided to complete her cheerleading outfit with pompoms and a loudhorn - somehow she knew exactly what to do with them... maybe I should prepare myself for actually liking/respecting cheerleading as a sport.

She got a little jaded by the 2nd store. But was refreshed by a ride on Daddy's shoulders. Family photo... Andrew - I apologize in advance that your tummy is hanging out in this picture. There was a little tackling going on. One of my favorite pictures of the 2 of them so far... We're going to school now Mom - see you later... After the campus exploring we headed over to Maple View Farms for some homemade ice cream to top off the day before our drive back to Charlotte. We had a blast returning to our roots and we were so proud of ourselves for doing something so impromptu with the kids.

blackberry picking

Last week Gigi was off of work Tuesday - Friday and her and Poppop joined us for several activities all week. Tuesday they came with us to our usual storytime at the library, then to the park for a picnic lunch. On Wednesday we went to the pool and then on Thursday we went blackberry picking!

This place was awesome - it was about 40 minutes from our house, out in Concord in the middle of nowhere. Without directions it would have been impossible to find. We pull up and it looked like it was just someone's house (which we were worried about because they don't have a website or anything). But then, you drive down this little dirt path that goes to the back of their land and there are the most blackberries you have ever seen. I mean, rows and rows of awesome looking blackberries in various stages of ripeness... and no thorns! I thought that Caleigh would love it because she loves picking and eating cherry tomatoes, blueberries, and picking strawberries. She was in a funk when we went and after a ladybug landed on her arm while we were walking through the rows she was pretty much done (she is terrified of all bugs). This pic below is so real life - my dad is picking berries, Caleigh is freaking out in the background about bees (there were like 2 there that day), and I am trying to smile and look cute while Andrew isn't the least bit interested in taking a picture. Blackberries are one of our kiddos' favorite foods and they ate almost every one that they picked. Blackberry in mouth... Andrew actually attempted to pick some off of the vines. At one point he crawled over to one (a red one) and tried to pull it off but because it was red and not ripe yet it didn't really want to come off of the vine. So he pulled again, no success. So he leaned over and put his mouth on it and pulled it off that way. And then after taking a bite he promptly spit it out - too sour, lesson learned! Good thing I chose old clothes and dark colors for this guy - he was a gooey mess! And when the kids got tired a picking they did a little playing. We had a blast. Gigi remarked that seeing the abundance of fruit must really be similar to heaven or like the Garden of Eden - fruit from the vine in glorious abundance. We had a great time and might actually make another trip out there this season. For dinner we had a wonderful blackberry cobbler - yum!

andrew is walking!

Wow - I can't believe I haven't posted on the blog yet that Andrew is walking. He started taking a couple steps at a time the week after his birthday party (the week of June 20th) and got exponentially better by the end of that first week. I think I posted on Facebook that he was officially walking on June 24th. Since then we have been trying to capture him in action (which proved extremely difficult since he loves the camera so he would plop down and crawl to it since that was the faster way to get what he wanted). We finally got some footage of him walking - this was taken on July 2nd (about 12 months and 2 weeks old).

I love that he is walking - I really like the walking stage and I think it makes a lot of things easier. I am looking forward to the day he is really fast so that I don't have to carry him as much (though it means I will probably chase him more) - those almost 23 pounds of sweetness give my arms quite the workout. We are so proud of our little buddy.