Mel started this blog over nine years ago, when this whole “mom blogging” thing was new.\u00a0 I quickly took over the reins and haven’t looked back.\u00a0 Well, except for the times I do just that, look back.\u00a0 There are many months with numerous posts of mommy tales, girls team stories and loads of photos.\u00a0 There are months of strictly heart-felt, pouring-my-soul-out, sappy posts.<\/p>\n
My blog visitor rates are quite interesting.\u00a0 They vary from 3,000+ individual visitors a day to one (hi, mom).\u00a0 It’s typically in those “tough for me” months that the blog sees more visitors.\u00a0 Those times that extra encouragement was such a blessing to me.<\/p>\n
I certainly love looking back over the years and remembering moments.\u00a0 I hope my girls do, too.\u00a0 I’ve not let a single month go by without at least one post.\u00a0 Some months, like March 2013 are (ahem) skinny, I’ll admit, but its usually those months that things are rolling along rather smoothly.<\/p>\n
The trend is simple.\u00a0 Less posts mean “normal” chaos, as opposed to “dramatic” chaos.<\/p>\n
So, without further adieu, may I give a brief update of our little family, in the event that someone still reads my blog, other than my mother.<\/p>\n
As I sit and type, McCanless is draped across the chair to my left with her Dr. Dre Beats (fancy headphones) and her Ipad.\u00a0 (She hates to be alone and will do whatever it takes to be amidst others.)\u00a0 She’s in her skinny jeans, one sock, one bare foot and\u00a0 a turquoise and neon t-shirt.\u00a0 She’s certainly grown into a little (pre-middle school) lady, especially after countless of mornings arguing over what shirt wasn’t too tight or too loose, what pants were perfect and seamless.\u00a0 All of those mornings I begged her to just wear whatever would make her happy.\u00a0 (I still say the same to her every morning-and some mornings are more pleasant than others-but typically, she gets it together rather well and doesn’t look like a ragamuffin (too often).\u00a0 Whew.\u00a0 Only took nine years.)<\/p>\n
She’s quite sincere, extremely thoughtful and sensitive.\u00a0 She’s a touchy-feely-needs-lots-of-hugs kind of person, much like her daddy and can play basketball like nobody’s business.\u00a0 (From her mother’s perspective, of course.)<\/p>\n
She’s an extremely talented writer.<\/p>\n
Mom always told me that I was born 30.\u00a0 I think McCanless was too.\u00a0 Most days<\/em>, she has wisdom well beyond her years.\u00a0 She would rather die than upset a teacher (not the case in her attitude toward me) and continues to make all A’s.\u00a0 She’s easy when it comes to knowing that she’ll get things done for school, but leaves a trail behind her at home.\u00a0 I’m constantly asking her to close the fridge door, flush the toilet, pick up the four pairs of her shoes in the den, find her book bag, find her book.\u00a0 I imagine that will only get worse.<\/p>\n She adores her little sister, but forgets sometimes that she’s much bigger than Mary Clare.\u00a0 They don’t argue often, but when McCanless has had enough tormenting and taunting from baby sister, I typically have to step in and separate them.\u00a0 McCanless has no idea how strong she is and Mary Clare wouldn’t back down if her life depended on it.<\/p>\n These days McCanless, or “Cannie” as most everyone at school calls her, is spending more time in the bathroom every morning, spraying her glittery-smelly spray all over herself and brushing her hair.\u00a0 I asked her last night who her first kiss would be and without hesitation, she said Grayson Moyd, when she’s 16, and she promises to tell me when it happens.\u00a0 (wink)<\/p>\n Mary Clare keeps me laughing every day with her quick wit and amazing sense of humor.\u00a0 She definitely gets that from her daddy.\u00a0 She’s fiercely independent and quite a handful at school.\u00a0 She’s pretty “easy” for me and maybe that’s because she’s my second child; maybe I’m more patient with her; maybe its’ because she’s my baby; maybe I just “get” her.\u00a0 Who knows?<\/p>\n She’s the child I have to remind to walk.\u00a0 “Open the car door, Mary Clare, get out, Mary Clare, come on, walk with us, Mary Clare, hold my hand, Mary Clare.”\u00a0 Her head is usually in the clouds and I’m certain it’s not that she’s intentionally ignoring the world around her, it’s just that she’s so engrossed in her own world of thoughts, she has little time for the real world.\u00a0 She sees what most don’t allow themselves to see. Her imagination and creativity are simply amazing.<\/p>\n She loves to play alone in her room with her dolls and Barbies and would do so for hours.\u00a0 She is still obsessed with all things pink and princess and girly and glittery and laughs so often.\u00a0 She gets in silly moods and will laugh until she drops from exhaustion.<\/p>\n She has mad puzzle skills.<\/p>\n She adores our neighbor friends, the Nutts, especially their two daughters, Kaiti and Ann Frances.\u00a0 We often check the Nutts house first if we can’t find her.\u00a0 No matter how often we threaten, if she’s determined to go for a visit she does it.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s the thing about my little MC.\u00a0 She’s a determined little person.\u00a0 No one can stop her and I love that little spunk.\u00a0 (As much as that same little spark infuriates me sometimes, I’m so glad it’s a part of who she is.)<\/p>\n I still can’t believe Mel and I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old.\u00a0 On May 19th, we will have been married for 12 years and life couldn’t be sweeter.\u00a0 Our house still isn’t quite back to normal after our fall renovations and we have much to work on in the yard.\u00a0 It seems lately; however, it doesn’t bother me as much as it once did-these unfinished, and insignificant projects.<\/p>\n He is planning his re-election kick-off soon and I’m counting down the days until Summer Break!\u00a0 (Our golf cart is in the shop getting spruced up for a busy summer.)\u00a0 We are looking forward to sunshine, beach days, lazy summer mornings<\/p>\n and quite possibly time for more frequent mommy-blogging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mel started this blog over nine years ago, when this whole “mom blogging” thing was new.\u00a0 I quickly took over the reins and haven’t looked back.\u00a0 Well, except for the times I do just that, look back.\u00a0 There are many months with numerous posts of mommy tales, girls team stories and loads of photos.\u00a0 There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8597"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8602,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions\/8602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}