The After Party
As soon as Mary Clare awoke from her long (for once) post-party nap, she dug into her fabulous birthday presents!
…and what’s a birthday without a Mexican dinner?
…in Fancy Nancy costume, of course!
Archive for June, 2009
A Tutu Party for Mary Clare
We are too too excited! Mary Clare is turning two!
We are having a Tutu Party and inviting you!
You must wear a tutu, for plain clothes won’t do!
We’ll whirl and twirl and have birthday cake too!
P.S. We are tutu excited, and tickled pink too.
If a tutu is not for you, then pink will do!
The Tutu Cake almost didn’t make it to the party. The birthday girl decided to get a close look and try out a star to two!
Emerson, Mary Clare’s best heart friend, came to help celebrate, too!
Although we asked for and received many generous Annabelle Basket donations in lieu of birthday gifts, Mary Clare received tutu many fabulous gifts, too!
Happy 2nd Birthday to our little Sweetheart!
When you grow up living in the country, you learn to get creative with your surroundings. Without many neighbors, my sisters, brother and I had each other. For my poor brother that meant having to endure dressing-up, playing with girls and learning way too quickly how girls “operate.” We did, however, have THE most fun despite being 20 minutes from civilization and all of our friends.
Not many people can say that they have been “slung” behind a huge tractor on the top of a sandbox cover through snow filled streets with the entire neighborhood. All five of us. My granddad had a convenience store just around the corner which meant orange push-ups and fried “tator wedges” at any time of day for us! We had picnics in the fields and could whip up our very own water park with just a few kiddie pools, the water hose and our sliding board and sandbox. My sister, Kacy has such a huge heart for animals and was always trying to save an animal or two or three of some sort. To this day, I’m not sure if mom really wasn’t aware of all of the animals she tried to hide upstairs in her room or she just ignored it. We hatched eggs, got bucked off of horses, painted rocks, slid down the hardwood staircase in plastic orange sleds, made up dances and plays and performed them for huge audiences of three for small admission prices of course, dressed up Alston, roller skated on our wet soapy driveway, and got into so much trouble!
Although my girls are growing up in the “city limits,” I”m thrilled that they still experience a bit of what I did as a child. When my sisters, brother and I get together out at mom’s, it is as if we never grew up. Now, we all play freeze tag in the yard, Mom takes the girls on adventures “hunting” pecans (we finally realized what she was doing), they go on candy shopping sprees at “Pa’s store”, we gather yard sticks for sundown fire pits and mostly, we laugh. Some things never change.
Pennington Beach Week 2009
The entire Pennington Crew loaded up and hit the beach last week.
Under the tent…Aunt Michael, Uncle Michael, (nope, not a typo) Aunt Liz, PaPa, McCanless, Robert, Me, Mel, BB, Reese and a napping Mary Clare
Nothing cuter than cousin hineys in an outdoor shower!
Boat rides with Uncle Michael
Beach Yoga with Papa
A sandy peanut butter sandwich in a pail!
Sweet Reese
…and yes, there were a few moments like this.
To which Mary Clare just rolled her eyes…
Looking at the alligators in Georgetown with BB.
Mary Clare’s first water slide!
Beach Bums
McCanless and Mel at the “Princess Breakfast Palace”. (As soon as we walked into this perfectly pink interior Pancake House, Mary Clare grew wide-eyed and proclaimed it the Princess Palace. She thinks anything pink is for princesses.)
Thanks Papa and BB for a wonderful time at the beach!
MUSC Cardiology Visit
Yay! Mary Clare had a great check-up yesterday with Dr. Forbus, her cardiologist at MUSC. I was a bit nervous aobut the echo and EKG because it has been a while, and well, she is two and is completely acting like it these days. First and foremost, her heart function looked great! Whew! Can you believe it has been a year since her last echo? (I didn’t realize that and couldn’t believe it!) Her EKG also looked great! She sat very quietly through both the echo and EKG! (I couldn’t believe that either.) If you have ever had either you know what I mean. She has to have about 15 “stickers” and wires placed on her chest and sit still and quiet for a few minutes (consecutive minutes) before a good reading, and it took no time for Miss Mary Clare. Her echo went just as well. She jumped up on the table in the dark room, allowed the ulrasound tech to apply jelly and “take pictures” for quite a while. I was completely amazed. I’ve never seen Mary Clare so content and quiet.
She charmed all of the nurses and doctors, as usual, and was a complete doll for her entire three hour visit. She is up to 23 lbs and her O2 saturation levels were in the upper 80′s! BP also looked great. A “little blue,” but that seems to be typical for Mary Clare. (Although, it was a bit difficult to read her fingernail color, as they typically do to get a good color check. Mary Clare’s nail color just happened to be Double Decker Red, thanks to Aunt Kate.)
Since her heart function looks great, all we do now is wait. She needs to be about 30 pounds for her next surgery, the Fontan, unless her oxygen levels begin to drop, in which case, they will operate sooner. Her next appointment isn’t until December. She will have another echo, EKG and blood work to check her blood gas levels. What a relief to know that she is as healthy on the inside as she seems to be on the outside! Now Mary Clare and I can focus on more important matters, like a Tutu for 2 birthday party this weekend! We have plenty of pink princess tutu’s and sparkle rice krispy treat wands to make!
This mess in my house…
was not made by the kids in my house.
Rather, the funeral director-by-day/creative entrepreneur/web designer/photographer extraordinaire-by-night in my house, otherwise known as my hubby, Mel, who just happens to be running for Mayor of Hartsville.
Have I mentioned that?
Mary Clare thought it was fantastic to have a photography studio in our dining room this weekend…
to show off her brand new pink sparkle shoes.
Meet the Bailes (Tygh) and Pennington (Mel) of Pennington & Bailes Clothing Company.
and their tiniest mascot, Mary Clare.
“We have a limo. Do you want to take the limo the movies tonight?”
“You really have a limo?”
“Yes, my dad keeps it at the funeral home.”
is what I overheard McCanless discussing with her friends, Jennie and Eliza tonight as they were getting all dolled up for their movie date with Mel. Tonight is a milestone for our little girl. It is her first big girl sleepover. It marks the first of many, many sleepless slumber play dates, I’m sure. This was all Mel’s fault idea, as he adores Jennie and Eliza and has been hyping up these girls for months for a sleepover at our house! (McCanless has stayed with them several times, so I guess it is all fair play.) He was just as thrilled as they were, however. As I sit here in the momentary peace and quiet as Mary Clare sleeps and I await their arrival from the movies, I wonder if Jennie and Eliza will make it through their first overnighter, if there will be a quarrel, if I can get them to bed at a decent hour, if Mel actually went to get the funeral home limo to ride 1/2 mile downtown to the movie theater? But mostly, I wonder where the years have gone? Is she really at this age? Five and a HALF she is always sure to tell anyone who asks. Time certainly flies. If only tonight would.
Prestwood Pool
With summer comes
daily scrub downs in midday bubble baths
in attempts to remove caked on sun block after
ice cream sundae parties on Fun Filled Fridays, and noticing
new freckles, pink noses, and white hineys.
This is about all that I see of McCanless once we hit the pool gate. This year is even easier because I feel comfortable with her in the “big girl pool” alone, well, with her entourage of pals and the constant watch of the lifeguard, as I play with Mary Clare in the baby pool. She completely wears herself out playing Marco Polo, and “Pom Pom” in the deep end for hours!
As does this one splashing and bouncing around in the Baby Pool with all of her baby pals. Rarely does she make it all the way home without falling asleep on our golf cart ride, which is about three minutes. Too bad that is about as long as she sleeps!
I spoke too soon…
This morning, as I slowly woke and I realized that my dear hubby had placed our daughter in the bed between me and our other daughter in the wee hours without my awareness, I heard the following… “Mommy, wake up. Mommy, get up. Mommy, I need juice. I need it. Juice. I can go, too. Move. Mommy, get up. I need it. Juice. Here it dis. Cup. I can go, too. Help!! Mommy, get up. Hold me, Mommy. Push wegs.” (As she attempted to push my legs off of the bed.) When I finally was able to open my eyes, I realized that it was my sweet almost two-year-old. The same two year old whose verbal skills I was just a bit conerned about several months ago.