Hello sweet girl, and welcome to Month Thirty-Nine! You’re having a pretty fabulous day so far today. It started this morning with a trip to the airport to pick up your Granddaddy. When you saw him walking toward the terminal I had to hold you back from running past the security gates to get to him. After a full day of playing with your grands, we are headed to your favorite restaurant this evening for dinner – The Crab Shack. You love all the baby alligators and the parrots there, not to mention the fun outdoor, marshside seating. I’m very much looking forward to our extended family dinner date.
This morning I got up just a little bit earlier than usual to make it to the airport on time, and for the first time in ages I had to set my alarm clock. On most days, I’m fortunate that you are my alarm clock, and thank heavens you no longer “ring” at 5 a.m. We don’t usually need to start our day until about 7, and for months when you woke up we’d tell you to go back to bed because it wasn’t 7. At some point, we got the brilliant idea of putting a digital alarm clock in your room and showing you how to read it. I was skeptical initially. But most mornings, I hear you begin stirring around 6:30 or so, and sometimes I’ll even hear you whisper, “It’s not seven yet!” Then at 7 a.m. on-the-dot, you loudly chime, “Mama! It’s SEVEN!”
This has become such a part of your routine, that you expect the same of all creatures. A few days ago I went into your room (after you’d announced it was 7, of course), and as we cuddled for a moment you said, “Mama, that bird was talking.” Sure enough, I could hear a bird squawking outside your window. You said, “I told that bird it wasn’t seven, but he kept talking!”
Well, I don’t know how to teach birds to tell time, but I sure am glad you’ve learned! We’ve all been waking up much happier now that we get to sleep until 7. Thank you, my sweet girl, for being so willing to cooperate!
This has been a very creative month for you. One of your favorite activities is coloring, but not with just ordinary crayons. You’ve discovered the joy of Color Wonder markers, which only work with special (i.e. pricey) Color Wonder coloring books. But the books are pretty cool, I must admit, with all sorts of hidden objects you can only find by coloring the pages.
You’ll often choose coloring over your limited television time, saying no to cartoons and yes to Color Wonder. You’ll sit at your table and color and color all by yourself, although your favorite is when your Daddy colors the pages with you. You’ve taken to calling him your “Color Buddy,” and have decided you make a good Color Team.
You also like to make up songs and stories. The other day you came up with this little tale, and I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget:
“Once upon a time, I went to the park with Daddy and Mommy and Elsie, but there was a witch. We went inside and played music, but the witch didn’t like it and she went away. I played the Barney song on the triangle. The end.”
One evening you got out your pink ukulele and made up a song called “Super Daddy.” The lyrics are:
Super Daddy/ and Mommy
I love you!
Love those lyrics! I have a video of you singing your song by the campfire and it’s coming up in just a minute, but first, I need to back up and tell you all about that adventure!
Oh, how excited I was this month to take you on your very first camping trip! Together with our friends Tony and Jessica, and their boys Will and Sam, we headed north last Saturday to a campground near Helen. When we left Savannah, the temps were hovering around 90 degrees and it sure didn’t feel like fall. But as we drove up into the mountains, the leaves of the trees grew more beautiful in hue and the temperature began to drop. It was wonderful for our senses to finally experience a bit of autumn.
The campground, called Enota, was in a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains, with several creeks meandering through the grounds. Our two tent sites were right along a creek, and the sound of rushing water was our constant companion. I had worried endlessly about the weather, but the rain stopped just as we were pulling into camp.
I had also wondered if you’d be bored at the campground, but my concerns were unfounded. This treasure of a campground has duck ponds, a farm with livestock, a playground, a play room, and ohmygoodness TRAMPOLINES! THREE OF THEM! You were very happy about the trampolines, and spent a lot of time jumping with your buddies.
We cooked some good food, and introduced you to the joy of roasting marshmallows. With your belly full of smores we put you in some fleecy pajamas and unrolled your sleeping bag in the tent. I wondered if you’d be able to sleep, and whether or not you could fall asleep without one of us in the tent with you. But you let me tuck you in and walk away. As we adults sat around the campfire, we could hear you inside the tent wiggling, laughing and talking to your unicorn. Then all was quiet as you drifted to sleep, lulled by the sound of the creek, warm in your sleeping bag despite the chilly night air.
Sunday we enjoyed more trampoline time, a hike up to a waterfall, and a tour of the campground’s farm. After another good dinner and some more marshmallows, our last night at camp ended pretty perfectly.
Until morning. I woke up around 6 to the sound of rain. In the dim morning light, I couldn’t see any drips or leaks, so I assumed our tent was holding up. But when I reached for something on the tent floor, I was alarmed to find my hand had plunged into a puddle. Our tent had flooded. In a frenzy, your Daddy and I woke you and tossed you into the car seat as he and I began to break camp in a mad rush. It was POURING, and we didn’t even take time to properly roll the tent or organize anything. We just shoved our wet camping gear into his new car, mud and all, piling it up to the roof.
Only after we’d packed everything in did I realize that our clean, dry clothes were at the bottom of the pile, so your Daddy and I had a long drive home in our wet pajamas. Fortunately, I had access to a spare dress in your diaper bag, so when we stopped in Helen for breakfast I changed your clothes. Then you threw up your grits – all over your one clean outfit – so it was back on with the pajamas. At least yours were dry. When we stopped around 1:30 at a McDonald’s for lunch, I hoped fervently we wouldn’t see someone we knew. We looked like a rather backwoods bunch, all damp and crumpled and in our pajamas in the afternoon. I think if anyone had questioned me about it, I probably would’ve just snarled. We were feeling rather feral after all that craziness.
Thankfully we made it home in one muddy piece, and a shower had never felt so good. I hate that our trip ended on that kind of note, but now that I’ve had sufficient time to dry out, I can see the adventure in our experience. And I’m pretty sure you loved camping despite the rain, and I can’t wait to take you again.
I love you so much sweet girl!
It has been a crazy week or so with lots of fun things to write about, but I’ve just been too busy to write! Our camping trip was great (although not without adventure) and I look forward to documenting it soon. But I had to take a moment to share this.
Right now we’re enjoying a visit from Nana, and last night we girls spent some time in the kitchen concocting bat cupcakes. Camille has been really into bats lately, so I had high hopes for this project and I was not disappointed. The recipe was super easy, and I think the results are adorable. Basically, you make regular cupcakes and frost them. Find some round chocolate cookies (we used thin mint wannabes) and cut them in half. Push the cookie halves into the icing for the wings, place a hershey’s kiss in the center for the body, and use red gel icing for eyes. Next time I’ll use orange icing to help the bats stand out, and we’ll definitely make these again!
I had planned to post nightly bathroom remodel updates, but instead I’ve been busy taking deep breaths in a paper bag and trying not to faint.
Lee and I have been having commitment issues – not with each other, thankfully, but with our bathroom remodel decisions. Once some of our choices began to materialize, we had a serious bout of second-guessing, mostly about a new wall. I won’t get into the details, but let’s just say I had nightmares about this wall. I’m not kidding.
Then on top of the stressful choices, there’s all the dust. I’m not a neat-freak – in fact, I can be a bit of a slob. But it has made me absolutely batty to live in a house layered in plaster dust, with the continual crunch of more dust underfoot. And while the sheetrock guys did a great job repairing the major plaster cracks in Camille’s wall, the amount of dust generated by all that sanding was, simply put, insane.
And on top of all that, all the destruction and construction has driven Camille and me out of the house on those days she doesn’t have school. All the noise and (have I mentioned?) dust meant Camille had to spend nap time on various floors of various friends. I am so lucky she will sleep well in her sleeping bag, but I’m ready for a return to our routine.
But today we’re finally seeing the bathroom come together, and I’m beginning to think it’ll all be ok. My breathing is returning to normal, and I can post about it without a knot in the pit of my stomach. The floor and shower are tiled, and I love the decorative glass band in the shower and our handy-dandy inset soap box. And our new tub is so white! Up next: glass blocks to finish out the shower wall and the installation of our toilet and sink.
With T-minus 6 days until we launch our first family camping adventure, I spent the afternoon digging through the garage hunting for our camping gear. This gear has been hidden away for seven years and I didn’t know what condition it would be in when I found it, if I found it.
I finally located half of the gear in a rubbermaid container (this is good), and the other half stuffed in an open trash can with water in the bottom (this is not good). It felt a bit like greeting an old friend and being so happy to say hello, but feeling guilty for not having written enough. I was glad to see my gear, but felt badly about not storing it properly.
The lantern and camp stove did not survive, and the fate of the smallest of my two tents is yet to be determined. But our large tent, my sleeping bag and backpack seem fine. Better than fine – it’s like we were never apart!
Inspecting the gear brought a surge of fondness I didn’t expect. I purchased these things toward the end of my time in college and right after graduation, a time when dropping more than $20 on a sleeping bag required serious deliberation and savings on my part. I remember being in the camping store, reading all of the descriptions of the various bags, hemming and hawing and finally settling on a great North Face bag that weighs less than 2 pounds and stuffs into a tiny sack perfect for hiking. I had the same experience buying my backpack and the same thrill of ownership.
Then not too long after I began investing in the gear, we moved to Savannah. While I love this city, it’s not known for camping. We have a State Park with a campground, but I find the heat and bugs discouraging. Mountain camping is more my thing.
For our first anniversary, Lee and I took a camping trip to Virginia and had a great time. But then we got busy with work and life, had a child, and the gear stayed packed away. It’s been great to see it again, and I’m even more excited than before about our trip. Now if only the weather forecast would stop calling for rain, we’d be all set…
I have officially decided that pygmy hippopotamuses are the cutest non-human animals EVER. How fun to hold a hippo in the palm of your hand? I could eat this baby pygmy hippo. I really could.
Thanks Zooborns.com!
No pain no gain, right? Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to bake a cake? What other cliches can I come up with to describe the current state of my house?
Today is Day 1 of our bathroom remodel project. I doubt our master bath has seen much renovation since the house was built in 1930. At one time it was probably quite nice, but now the grout looks bad, the tiles are cracked, and the bathroom just doesn’t look clean no matter how much we scrub it.
Making the Case for a Remodel:
I present Exhibit A – our sink. An old, white pedestal sink that doesn’t provide us any counter space and features nice rust stains we can’t seem to remove.
Exhibit B – black and white tiles on the wall and floor that are cracked in several places.
Exhibit C – a white tub that has faded to off-white, with old fixtures that have long lost their shine.
Exhibit D – serious cracks in the plaster walls.
Lee and I have enjoyed picking out new tile, fixtures, a tub and a sink over the past few days and dreaming about our new bathroom. I woke up this morning with excited butterflies. The crews arrived with their axes and sledgehammers and we left for work.
Fast forward to this afternoon. Holy cow there is a lot of dust in my house. Thankfully they taped plastic over all our upstairs doors, but there is still a film of dust everywhere. Unfortunately, Camille’s room shares a wall with the bathroom, and there are some major cracks in her plaster too. Sigh. I know it will be worth it in the end, but this is definitely not the fun part.
Here’s what we have at the close of Day 1. Hoping tomorrow brings and end to the demolition and a beginning to the build-out of our new bathroom!
Hello sweet sleeping girl, and Happy Thirty-Eight Month Birthday – plus one day! I’m sorry I didn’t get to write your letter yesterday, but we were enjoying a wonderful visit with a friend in the mountains – more on that in a bit.
Do you know what I have said to myself so many times this month? “I love age three!” Of course I have loved all your various ages for different reasons, but one of my favorite things about your current stage is how easily I can BLOW YOUR MIND. I absolutely love giving you some exciting tidbit of information and watching your fireworks.
For example, we ordered your first sleeping bag the other day. I pulled up several options online and let you choose your favorite (which to my surprise was the green one instead of the pink one). Two days later, we came home from work/school to find a cardboard box on our front porch. You spotted it quickly and said, “What is it? Is it for me?” And when we told you it was probably your new sleeping bag, you’d have thought we handed you some grand prize. “MY GREEN SLEEPING BAG!” There were gasps, squeals, sprints and a near-constant urging to “Open it! Open it! Openitopenitopenit!”
Just two days prior, you didn’t really know what a sleeping bag was. But to watch you open your new sleeping bag, it would be easy to believe you’d wanted one all your life.
Knowing what a thrill it is to watch you react to fun news or new experiences, I have been positively giddy about an adventure your Daddy and I are beginning to plan. Next month we are taking you on your first camping trip (hence the sleeping bag purchase). You seem pretty excited when we talk about it, but I think the real joy will come from experiencing all these firsts with you. I’ve wanted to take you camping for a while, but I’ve been nervous about how you will (or won’t) sleep in a tent and whether or not you’d get bored hanging out in a campground all day.
We made reservations at a campground that has lots of activities for kids, so I’ve been feeling much less anxious about the boredom issue. But this weekend, you made those anxieties dissipate completely on our trip to visit Mr. Glen at his home in the north Georgia mountains. Saturday morning we announced we were going on a hike. “What’s a hike?” you asked.
“It’s a walk in the woods,” I told you.
“Oooooh! I’m so excited!” you exclaimed. And you were. Despite a slight drizzle, you could hardly contain your joy as we wound our way through the woods along a creek, admiring the leaves and talking about wildlife. You practically skipped along the path, singing one of the tunes you learned at school called, “We’re going on a bear hunt!” Now I absolutely cannot wait to take you camping. I’m not naive enough to think just because you liked one hike you’ll like everything about our upcoming camping experience. For all I know two nights in the woods may drive us all insane. But I’m really looking forward to watching you discover the potential delights of camping (s’mores, anyone?), and sharing those experience with you and your Daddy.
I also know that one day it will take more than a new sleeping bag or a walk in the woods to elicit in you such a sense of pure wonder and joy, so I’m soaking all this up now.
This month you got to spend some more time with your cousin Stella – and I know I say this every time, but it was so fun to see how much more you two enjoy each other as you get older.
We all met at Nana and Granddaddy’s house for a weekend. I wondered if you’d be territorial about the toys since you usually have them to yourself, but you did a great job of sharing with your cousin. But do you know what your favorite thing was? Chasing each other in circles around the house. One of you would take off, and the other was quick to follow with shrieks of glee. You’d run and run a circuit until you couldn’t run anymore, and you both were so fun to watch.
You experienced another first that weekend in Tennessee – your first real boat ride.
Some of Nana and Granddaddy’s friends were nice enough to take us out on their pontoon boat, and you loved it! You even got to drive the boat!
This month your independence seems to be growing, as well as your focus. One of your favorite solo activities right now is a puzzle. You got a big floor puzzle for your birthday, and we helped you put it together a few times. But now, you don’t need or want our help, and you seem to love the feeling of accomplishment you get from putting all the pieces together on your own. And I feel very proud watching you.
One of your other favorite activities is playing with your bunny house. It’s a cute little dollhouse full of teeny-tiny furniture, and currently occupied by a family of bunnies (although you generally prefer taking everything out of the dollhouse so you can spread it out on the floor). As I’ve mentioned before, I had something similar as a child and still have fond memories of playing with my woodland animals. It looks like you are creating some similar memories now too.
I think another thing that makes your current age/stage so special is that, although I see signs of budding independence, you are also still small enough and willing enough to curl up in my lap and snuggle. The other day we were playing in your room and I asked you if I could have some cuddles. You stopped what you were doing, wrapped your arms around my neck and stayed that way for a long time.
Sitting there, holding you, my arms felt almost tingly. I tried to decide what that feeling was, what name I could give it. The only name that made sense was love. Love from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. The kind of love that makes a hug feel like magic. Thank you for being so generous with your love. I love you, my sweet girl.
Every morning, Camille pulls back the curtain over the dining room window to give us a report on the status of the American flag at the school next door. If it’s up on the flagpole, she’ll exclaim, “The flag is up! I see the flag!”
On weekends when the flag’s not flying, she’ll moan, “The flag’s not there! Mama, why is the flag not there?”
Today when she pulled back the curtain, she told me in a worried voice, “The flag’s not up!”
For just a second I was confused because today is a school day after all. But then I knew what she was seeing before I even looked for myself. A flag at half-mast.
I can imagine her confusion, but I didn’t know how to help her understand. “They’re not going to put it all the way up today,” I said matter-of-factly, hoping we could close the discussion.
“But why?” she asked, of course.
I searched for an adequate answer for a moment, then settled on the old stand-by of “They’re just not.”
I know one day I’ll need to tell her about what happened on September 11th. I’ll want to tell her. But at the same time, I look at her and see so much innocence, and there is a big part of me that wants to shield her from knowledge of all the sadness and evil in the world. But September 11th also held many moments of courage, selflessness, patriotism and sacrifice, and I hope one day to help her understand those things as well. Especially those things.
Last Sunday, the Savannah Sand Gnats baseball team held their last home game of the season in Grayson Stadium and we couldn’t miss it. Camille seems to really enjoy the experience this year … or let’s be honest, we are able to enjoy it with her more this year. Last year, when she was between 18 months and 2 years, her main objective at the games was to climb the stairs. Over and over and over again. Did I mention that this often involved putting her hands all over the sticky, filthy concrete steps? And it also involved Lee or me following her up and down said steps to make sure she didn’t fall while the other parent sat alone in the bleachers. It just wasn’t worth the price of admission.
But this year she’s been more content to sit in the stands, mostly because we let her have popcorn or ice cream. She even watches the game a bit, asking Lee questions about what’s happening on field. “Take me out to the ballgame” is one of her favorite songs, and we all like to sing it on our walk through the park to the stadium.
During the game, when she’s not eying the field or her box of popcorn, she’s looking for Gnate the Gnat, the Sand Gnats friendly mascot. She has a love/hate relationship with the gnat. Every time we drive past the stadium, she points to it and says, “That’s where the Gnat lives!” She enjoys seeing him from afar, but if we ever get close enough for a photo she latches on to us with a death grip and makes it clear she doesn’t want to get any closer.
Well, at the conclusion of this final home game of the season, kids were invited to take the field and run the bases. Lee and Camille joined the throngs of children queued up at the first base line. I was near third base and that’s where I had my video camera trained, which unfortunately meant I missed the drama.
Things began well enough, and I smiled at the sight of my husband and sweet child trotting onto the field. Camille’s legs were churning and her blond hair was bouncing behind her as she pounced on first base and kept running toward second. Until she saw him.
Gnate the gnat was on second base, giving a high five to all the kids as they ran by. Lee says she hit the brakes so abruptly she was nearly run over by the crowd of kids behind her. With a shriek her base run was over as she leapt into Lee’s arms, crying “I DON’T WANT TO GIVE HIM A HIGH FIVE!” Walking around the gnat wasn’t even an option. Instead, she clung to her Daddy like an octopus as he promptly walked her off the field.
Oh well – I bet by the beginning of the next season, the trauma will have worn off and she’ll be ready to root for her Sand Gnats again. Meanwhile, we’re switching gears and trading our Sand Gnats cheers for Georgia chants, getting geared up for another Georgia football season. Her cheerleading uniform is all ready for Saturday’s season opener, and so am I!
The trip between Savannah and Fitzgerald is generally not very exciting. There was that time I nearly hit a whole family of pigs on the highway outside Lumber City, but that’s about the extent of the thrills.
But thanks to Boo, today we discovered a way to change things up a bit. We were heading back from Boo’s house to Savannah this morning and would still be on the road at lunch time. Food options are slim (we stopped at one gas station today by the Road With No Name, and they had a buffet – limit 2 quail per person). So Boo packed us a picnic lunch and advised us to stop at the Gordonia Alatamaha State Park in Reidsville.
We’re very glad we took her advice (and her yummy lunch). It’s a beautiful day, and we found a picnic table in the shade near the lake. The breeze was perfect, and after we ate we wandered down to the lakes’ edge to check out the lily pads. There were restrooms and a playground – it was a very nice break from the car. We usually stop at one of the two fast food restaurants on the route, but this was a much healthier experience, nutritionally and psychologically too!
You do have to pay for a parking pass, so it’s not a free option. But I like the idea of supporting our state parks, so I don’t mind. Also, you can check out a state park pass at your local library, so I’m going to look into that for our next trip as well. I’m also going to research more state parks along the routes we typically drive, because I sense a new travel tradition in the making. Thanks Boo!
