Summertime

Summertime

and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich

and your ma is good-lookin'

So hush, little baby,

don't you cry.

*DuBose Heyward

Life has been good at 52. We've been here three weeks already! It has gone by very quickly.

The Boogie loves being here. In the morning she goes in search of her grandparents. One morning she woke me up asking if she could go find Pop-pop. I said she could, not thinking that he might not be in the house. He was in fact outside watering before the day warmed up too much and she just opened up the back door and went outside looking for him. Praise the Lord he was out there! There is now a door-knob cover on the door so she cannot escape again.

She has been able to play in the wading pool several times a week and loves it. Finally she seems to have gotten over her apprehension of water on her face and will fearlessly dump a bucketful of water over her head. 

The Boogie's latest fascination is with doctors and hospitals and being hurt. Several weeks ago she saw a picture of a little boy who had broken his leg. She saw pictures of him in the hospital before his cast was put on as well as afterward with the cast. She has become obsessed! She tells us all the time that she is hurt; usually it is her leg or foot but sometimes it will be her arm. Always she has to go to the hospital. The other day some cousins were over and she followed them around asking to play doctor (she was, of course, the patient.) Last week FIL took a spill off of a ladder and sprained his ankle pretty badly -- you can imagine how tickled the Boogie was to see her Pop-pop wearing an ace bandage on his foot! She was delighted when I found a bandage to wrap her leg in.

She still says funny things every day. Tonight in the car she was telling us about getting a burrito from "Talker Bell." I think that is a combination of Taco Bell and Tinker Bell. They are easily confused, right? Meanwhile if she sees a picture of Tinker Bell she calls her Twinkle Bell. 

Whenever we leave anywhere she asks, "Where we go next?" Tonight when we said we were going home she moaned and groaned, "Nooooo, I don't wanna go hooooome." So her daddy asked her where she wanted us to drop her off. She thought for a minute. "I wanna go to Wawa." When asked why she said, "Bycuz I need to get some ... [long pause] coffee."

Last weekend we went to a wedding. Of course the Boogie wanted to know where we were going, so I told her that we were going to see our friends Mr. N and Miss A get married. "Where's Married?" the Boogie asked. 

"No, Married is not a person," I tried to explain (how DO you explain marriage to a 3-year-old? It is quite the abstract concept to their minds.) "Daddy and I are married. Mom-mom and Pop-pop are married. Aunt and Uncle are married," etc. 

"Ohhhh," she nodded knowingly. "And me and H-man are married?"

I gave up and told her that she was going to see Miss A in a princess dress. That was distracting for a few minutes but then she asked again where Married was ... and continued to ask for the next couple of days. Oh well. 

It was a really lovely wedding and so exciting to see God's hand in bringing the bride and groom together!

The Phebis is growing and growing. I weighed myself alone and holding her to get a rough idea of her weight -- fourteen pounds! Goodness. Both girls have check-ups on Monday so I will post the real stats then. The Phebis has gotten a bit more control of her hands this week and manages to get them into her mouth more consistently. The last several days she has been awake more during the day and has been very happy and content. I can't help but wonder if it's because she can finally suck on those elusive fingers she has been wanting so badly. It will be interesting to see if she is a binky-lover or a thumb/finger sucker. She is starting to notice things around her. There is a musical toy in her crib that she will stare and coo at for a long time. She loves her big sister and lights up when she hears the Boogie talking or singing. She loves face time, as her Mom-mom says, and will smile and gurgle and coo back at us when we talk to her.

I went back to work on July 5. I worked two days last week which was nice, and then my regular three days this week plus this morning. So far it seems to be working out fine. Thankfully the Phebis will take a bottle. I'm sure it would make for some miserable afternoons around here if she refused to!

Our friends the R family moved away. We were sad to see them go but we know they will have a wonderful time at their new duty station in Germany. We're excited to see pictures and hear about their adventures in Europe.

The other night we went with my office to a Riversharks game in Camden. My boss takes us every year! It's really fun. Last year the Boogie was very afraid of the mascot so the Doctor bought her a little stuffed one and she loves it. This year she got to pick out a couple more toys so now her Shark has a friend.

And now ... picture overload. Here are some that SIL1 took at the wedding. I love these of the Boogie and the Phebis.

And this is a picture that I found while packing; it is me with my mom. Not very good quality because it is a photograph of a photograph behind glass, but you get the idea. I think the Phebis looks a LOT like I did!

 Often I just have my phone instead of my camera nearby so these are not great quality.

At 52

Ahhhh, here we are at last. The packing is over, the moving is over, our stuff is in storage, and we are established at 52. We've been here a week and thanks to MIL I have been able to catch up on some much-needed sleep. The first two nights were horrible with the Phebis -- I don't know if I inadvertently consumed some caffeine, or too much sugar, or what the deal was, but I pulled a couple of back-to-back all-nighters with that child. I seriously do not remember having nights like that with the Boogie. But her Mom-mom saved my sanity by keeping her awake for a couple of evenings in a row which in turn caused her to sleep several hours at night. I'm hoping and praying that this trend continues and that we can get into a good routine. I have been able to sleep in every morning as well because as soon as the Boogie wakes up she makes a beeline for her grandparents who snuggle with her and make her breakfast and entertain her. I'm telling you, it has been nice for this mama!

SIL1 and SIL3 helped us clean our apartment which was a HUGE blessing. MIL kept the baby for a few hours each day so I could work uninterrupted. We turned in our apartment keys on Wednesday. It was so strange to see the apartment empty. It was a good place for us to live and we liked it just fine -- it was the neighbors that made us desperate to leave! Oh well ... I guess you never know what kind of neighbors you will get.

The closing on our house has been postponed yet again. The oil tank was leaking so there has to be soil cleanup and that is what we are waiting on.

I go back to work on Monday. It was a nice long maternity leave and I'm grateful to work at a place where my employer allows it and my coworkers cover for me. Living at 52 will hopefully make the transition a little easier as MIL is going to keep both girls for us.

I know I've been slack in posting pictures of the girls. I have a couple of good ones but they are on the other computer so I'll have to post them next time. The Phebis is growing like a weed. I foolishly allowed the bin of next-size-up clothes to go to storage, thinking there was no way she would outgrow in just a few weeks what I had packed to bring to 52. One week later I cannot even snap her onesies and had to buy some! She is just getting cuter and rounder.

I need to get back in the habit of writing down what the Boogie says because she cracks me up all the time. She has begun stating the obvious in the form of a question, like this:
We pull into the church parking lot. The Boogie asks, "Are we here at church?"
I ask her, "Well, are we?"
"Yes, we are!" she says.
"Then why did you ask?"
"Bycuz we're here," she tells me.

She has started telling us knock-knock jokes that are not even remotely funny. In fact she fills them with made-up words then laughs hysterically. I tried to teach her some new ones but unfortunately only one stuck:
"Knock-knock!"
"Who's there?"
"Flip!"
"Flip who?"
"Flip-flop! Hahahahaha!"
It gets pretty old after a while.

This morning she asked me, "Do burritos live in trees?"
"Do they?" I asked her back.
"No," she chuckled, "they live in Taco Bell!"
 Well, of course they do.

Goodbye, Number Seven

Goodbye, cramped little bathroom with the window in the shower ...

... no counterspace on which to set my makeup bag or blowdryer or hair straightener ...

... mirror that I had to stand on tiptoes in order to see my reflection in.

Goodbye, funny crooked hallway.

Goodbye, nice bedroom with two big windows ...

... and the beautiful tree right outside.

Goodbye, Boogie's "gig gill" room.

Goodbye, tiny kitchen.

Goodbye, living room with lovely big windows all across one wall.

Goodbye ...

Goodbye, number seven.

Baby Stats

Yesterday we took Pheboo (Phoobee? Phebis? PhiPhi? I still haven't decided.) for her one-month check-up. She was at actually 5.5 weeks and I can't help but wonder if that combined with her 2-week-late arrival has anything to do with her current size: 11 lbs 14 oz and 22.5 inches. She is in the ninetieth percentile for height and the ninety-seventh percentile for weight! Whew!

I refused the hep B shot for her again (I want to wait until 2 months to start immunizations) and mentioned briefly to the doctor that I am considering delaying vaccinations. What I should have said was that I am considering spacing out her shots -- hey, I have a 5-week-old, I have a difficult time communicating sometimes these days! The doctor was nice but made it very clear that he did not consider delaying vaccinations to be a smart thing to do. The topic has never come up on any of our previous visits to that office so it was interesting to hear what he had to say about it. We will see a different doctor at her 2-month check-up and I'll discuss it with her as well. I do choose to immunize. I want my children protected against infectious diseases. I just hate doing 3 or 4 shots at a time. If my little baby should have a reaction, how will I know which one it is to?

My Man has been working a lot lately. He worked last Saturday for 5 hours of overtime last week, and he worked a full 55 hours this week which will look fabulous on his next paycheck! The overtime won't last but it's nice for now.

Nothing new to report on our house closing. The Senate voted to extend the deadline for the tax credit from June 30 to September 30 so we'll see if the President signs it into effect. That would be nice for us should we have to extend again, but we're very hopeful that we can still close by the end of this month.

Sadly I do not have any new pictures to upload. I am slacking off in the picture-taking department. I'll try to get some new ones posted soon!

One Month Old

As you can see, it was no big deal to the birthday girl.

 She doesn't like the flash which is why those are dark and blurry (apparently I do not have a steady hand. Aren't you glad I didn't pursue a career in surgery?)

She is getting so big! I don't like the growing part. Why can't they just stay small?

Still haven't decided on a nickname -- thanks for the suggestions. The Boogie came up with a new one on her own: Pheboo. It's cute when she calls the baby that.

We were supposed to close on our house yesterday, but found out earlier in the week that our loan was still in process. On Thursday we found out that the underground oil tank that had been pulled had been leaking, so now there needs to be soil clean-up before closing. Closing has been pushed back to the end of the month. We appreciate any prayers in this matter! We really want to be able to close no later than the thirtieth.

The other day I wanted some iced coffee. Dunkin Donuts is the only place around here that makes decaf iced coffee (which I can have with sugar but not cream), so we went through the drive-thru. As we were waiting for our coffee I thought I heard the Boogie say, "Look, Discover card!" I turned around and asked, "What did you say?" She  pointed to the Discover card sticker in the drive-thru window and said, "It pays to Discover card." *sigh* Not only does she know what it is, she knows the slogan. Too much television ...

Summer Monday

I love summertime, I really do, especially days like today. It cooled waaaay down last night and is even now only in the low sixties with a predicted high of 78 degrees. My Man took the day off so he could help with some things over at church this morning. When he is finished we are going to the zoo! It's the perfect day for it.

We are due to close on our house this week ... Lord willing! We're starting to get so excited and are praying that everything goes smoothly so that we can have those keys in our hands soon. There are walls to paint and carpet to rip up and appliances to replace before we can move in but we are hoping to be out of here and in there by the end of the month. Some friends just moved into their house last weekend and are giving us all of their boxes and packing paper! That is a HUGE blessing -- I was dreading hunting down boxes.  This week I will start packing and cleaning this apartment in preparation to vacate it.

Our girls are growing and adjusting. The Boogie is getting so tall and heavy. She is wonderful with her little sister, very gentle and loving. I haven't seen one single sign of jealousy, only lots of adoration. She is very helpful. It's  handy to send the 3-year-old for a diaper or wipes or clean burpie. She cracks us up with the things she says. The other day we went shopping and when we were finished she asked, "Where do we go next?"
"We're going home," we told her.
"Noooo! I don' wanna go home!"
"Okay, where do you want me to drop you?" asked her daddy.
"Hmmm ... Wawa," she answered. We laughed and drove home. When we pulled into our parking spot she got mad.
"Ugh, Daddy! You're 'upposed to drop me at Wawa!" (more laughing from the parents)
"But Daddy and Baby Sister and I are going home," I said. "If we take you to Wawa, who will help me put away groceries?"
Without missing a beat she pointed and answered promptly, "Daddy."

Our favorite thing that she says is "use-mick" instead of "music." Somehow she figured out that the truck driving around in the summertime has ice cream, but she still calls it the use-mick truck sometimes. She has not, however, learned that a person can actually BUY ice cream from the use-mick truck. Maybe we can make it through another summer without that fact being realized.

I haven't decided on a blog nickname for the baby yet. My Man calls her Feebis. My sister calls her Fooby. My mom told me about a conversation she had with my 4-year-old niece SL back in Warshington:
Mom: "Aren't you excited that you have a new cousin?"
SL, face wrinkled: "My new cousin? Oh, you mean ... Fifi?"
Fifi! I love it! So we call her any and all of those three names and I need to make a decision about what to use here. I like Feebis and Fifi the best but don't really like how they look written out (I could get used to anything, though.) I think perhaps I may have to take up a vote ...

And speaking of Baby, we had some rough days and I figured that something I was eating was hurting her little tummy. I stopped drinking milk for a few days and that seemed to do the trick. So, I am now venturing into the world of dairy-free. Thanks to some friends' suggestions, I have discovered that vanilla-flavored rice milk isn't bad on cereal. I would like to also point out that chocolate flavored almond milk isn't bad to drink, either. Just expensive! Thank the Lord that My Man and the Boogie can have regular milk or we'd go broke. It's amazing how much dairy I consume on a regular basis without thinking about it. Sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, regular cheese, ice cream, cream in my coffee. But thankfully it's only dairy and not more that I have to avoid. And hopefully it is something that she will outgrow.

I'm also hoping that we can soon get past the wake-up-at-midnight-and-stay-awake-for-3-or-more-hours business. That's getting old, man. I'm getting old, man. I can't function like this!

And now for your viewing pleasure:

While Vee was here she slept in the Boogie's bed and the Boogie slept on the floor. Every night I would check on her and find her all over the place. The first night back in her bed she fell out -- I guess she quickly got used to rolling around in her sleep!

We have started coaxing some smiles from this little one!