He who forms the hearts of them all…
Take 8 minutes to watch and listen to this. So worth it!
Archive for March, 2009
Girls Only! (and Baby Edward)
Photos from our girls weekend…
The dynamic duo…
Mary Clare shook her groove thing in the center of the skating arena!
Jennie, McCanless, Mary Clare, “Baby Edward,” Eliza and Lori (Mom)
We hit the town after the Hannah Montana Skating Party!
Leave it to our girls to find the nearest abandoned train car to climb in and on…
Trouble
We weren’t really “thinking safety.”
Baby sister will not be left out!
Church on Sunday…good thing, after that drawing of mommy!
Can’t wait!
We’ve had a crazy, busy girl weekend this weekend, as Daddy was at the Atlanta Market. I have photos to post but had to “jot” this down tonight before the week got the best of me. McCanless, as you know, is my free-spirit, strong-willed baby girl. I have learned this weekend, however, she is not quite my baby girl any longer. She had a couple of “firsts” that must not be forgotten!
After a rockin’ Hannah Montana skating birthday party on Friday afternoon, and a dinner date with her friend Eliza, Eliza’s mom, sister, two brothers, Mary Clare and I…(yes, two adults and six kids and it was on the patio at Bizzell’s downtown during Renofest Bluegrass Festival) much to my dismay, she asked Eliza’s mom if she could spend the night. (I wasn’t dismayed at the spending the night part, but the asking part. My mother would have choked us if we did such a thing, and I thought I had instilled this in McCanless. Who knew I would really need to teach her this before she was five?) She loves to go to Eliza’s house. A house in the country, baby chicks, kids galore. Who wouldn’t?
I just knew I would get a phone call in the wee hours and have to drag Mary Clare out to the country to pick up my big girl. I even slept with the phone by my pillow, just in case. She did it, though. Her first friend sleepover. She stayed all night and when I went to pick her up, she and Eliza had already schemed decided that Eliza would come with us. Apparently, this begins way earlier than I remember. The duo came running out to my car with that look in their eyes. Completely convincing and nodding her head, McCanless said, “Mom, Eliza’s mom said she could come with us.” Oh, really. Then she whispered to Eliza, “Go ask your mom.” Off they ran. I didn’t have time to think, or stop them.
So off to lunch and the park we four went: Me, Mary Clare, Eliza and my pre-teen. We met up at yet another birthday party that afternoon and as I watched my McCanless with her friends I noticed that she is the same baby girl I have always known and adored, she is just growing up right in front of my eyes.
She is bossy, the ring leader. She is fun. She is a show-off. She loves to make her friends laugh, even if it means at her, especially if it is at her. She laughs very often. She is a leader. She is silly. She is sassy. She loves to be around lots of people. The more the better. She is confident. She loves to dance. Loves to dance. She dances and sings for her friends.
This morning before church, she became very angry with me because I asked her to put her dirty breakfast dish into the dishwasher. (She had just placed it into the sink, and I thought I’d throw in the extra task.) She immediately looked at me with wide eyes and a sour look on her face. (As if I had asked her to go jump into the lake.) She began to scream and pitch a fit…something about getting her hands dirty and touching that nasty spoon. The very one that was just in her mouth.
I told her she could ask me to do it for her if she didn’t want to get her hands dirty. Yelling, she replies,…”YOU do it….you are the mom…you get dirty…etc.” Calmly, I walked to the sink and began to rinse and load the dish. I knew better than to reason with her at this point.
A few minutes pass and she grew quiet. It was short lived, at least. Then a drawing shot across the kitchen floor coming from the direction of the playroom. It is a drawing of a red devil with horns and MOM written across the top.
So, I have received my first hate letter from McCanless. I think she will make a fine teenager, don’t you?
Spread the word…
Thomas Hart Academy is hosting a blood drive in honor of Mary Clare on May 1st from 11-4!! Click here to schedule an appointment!
McCanless…
Is as fabulous as ever…
…and now has green eyes!
…still loves to dance and dress up. (She dressed up as the tooth fairy in this photo.)
…continues to amaze me with her strong desire to learn to read and spell. She drew a picture of a slide on her chalkboard table and “sounded it out.” I thought “SLIED” was pretty close.
…is in love with tooth fairy dust.
The tooth fairy is becoming a regular at our house…turns out McCanless’ two bottom baby teeth weren’t prematurely loose as I originally thought. She has two huge permanent teeth taking their place already!! She and Stella proudly marched into my 3rd period class today and announced that her tooth landed (and stuck) in a cheese puff during morning break. She is more excited, however, about finding more fairy dust than actually loosing the tooth or getting her golden dollar coins.
Mary Clare at 21 months
Loves my shoes…
Hates diapers…
Have I mentioned she loves to dress up?
…is crazy about panties and has even gone poo and tee-tee in the potty.
(We think it is a total fluke, but who knows?)
Mary Clare is still at a petite 21 lbs, although the cheeks won’t stop. She loves cake, candy, sweets, sugar and anything that comes in a shiny package…a total junk food junkie. “MOVE”, “STOP IT” and “NO” are her favorite words these days and her sister gets on her last nerve, although she imitates her every move. She immediately removes her socks and shoes as soon as I buckle her into her car seat and before I can get around the car and into my own seat. She has yet to sleep through the night. Mel tells me that it may be a sign that it is time to give up the paci when she can do tricks with it in her mouth. We often have strangers run up to us telling us she is going to swallow it. She can literally flip the entire paci around inside of her mouth and pop it back out. She’s my outdoor girl and refuses to even glance at the television. She loves music still and gives the sweetest fish kisses to everyone. She is a complete mommy’s girl and loves to be held. Extremely independent and completely and utterly entering the “Terrible two’s.” She is hilarious and so much fun…
March Madness
Two lost teeth, two family birthdays and one terrible two have all attributed to too little time around here. Thus, the blog suffers.
Baby Kate’s 23rd with my crazy family…
NaNa’s 88th with Mel’s crazy family…
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
McCanless decided to go all out for St. Patty’s Day this year! Mel took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese tonight to celebrate. So long are the days of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah donning beads and twinkling four leaf clover glasses. We had a fabulous day with our girls sharing green milk and cheese pizza. Life is good.
We keep growing and growing and growing…
7 mommies, 4 five-year-olds, 4 toddlers, 1 baby, and three more on the way!
You know those girl friends that know you inside and out, know what you’ve done, who you have dated, how bad your hair was in high school…and STILL call you friend? Well, here they are. (Minus a few of us.) We grew up together and are still growing together. We’ve been through bad prom dresses, cheerleading camp, Spring Break, college, marriages, births (obviously), deaths, divorce, crazy parents, crazy jobs, crazy husbands, heart defects, mommy beach trips, far away moves, moves back home….collaboratively, we’ve just about done it all. Although we live as far away as Texas and as close as 15 minutes apart, we try to get together at least once a year for a mega playdate with everyone plus kiddos. We love seeing each other become mothers and love that our children know each other and have fun together.