Aunt Katie Visits

Aunt Katie came for a visit after UF let out for the summer and before her summer internship started. A 12-hour drive both ways - that's one dedicated aunt!

A note about this photo: yes, both of our kids OWN shirts, but James asked if he could, 

"leave my shirt off so I can go on Uncle Kevin with just my belly?" 

You betcha buddy.

James has loved this necklace of Katie's ever since he was a baby. It's amazing that it's remained on the chain this long given his freakish toddler power and vice-like grip.

Thanks for the visit Katie!

Knife In The Heart

Almost every day that Brian leaves for work, James stands at the top of the stairs and says "I miss my father..." And as if that's not sad enough, he says it while Brian is STILL in the house. 

Knife. 

In.

The. 

Heart.

Shortly after, he will tell me, "he's my great guy."

I tried to get him to re-create that one morning and 45 takes later, you have this:

Incidentally, I have no idea where the very formal "mother" and "father" is coming from, but I will take it over "hey you" any day.

Molly 16 Weeks....

and James: 153 weeks....

I Love This Man

Please, a moment, to profess my love for Brian. He is a great husband, father and friend. He is honest and doting and crazy smart. And he is brave. I love him most for that. Not because he is this kind of brave:

but because he is this kind of brave:

This is a pic of Brian trapping the SECOND (second!) BAT we found flying around our house on Friday night/Saturday morning. 

Yes, a real bat. 

No, not a bird. 

A big, brown, hairy, scary bat. 

It's 2am and Brian has trapped a bat in a cardboard wipes box (thank you CostCo) with a smile on his face.

Love.

That.

Man.

The first bat was found flying around our living room/dining room around 10:30pm. I immediately holed myself up in our room while Brian chased it around the house eventually closing it in the first floor playroom. He drove our car around to the alley, went in the back door and trapped it in a diaper box (thank you CostCo). I am up in our room, towel under the door crack, frantically searching "how to get rid of bats" on my phone. Turns out, most websites say, "do not chase the bat around your house or try to trap it in any way." Ha!

Here's Bat #1: making a temporary home on our A/C intake screen.

And here's us releasing bat #1 on our back patio:

Shortly after this, Molly woke up and was having a stuffy nose/can't eat/can't sleep kind of night so I took her into the living room and finally got her to sleep. Around 2am, I woke up to the sound of bat wings knocking into our walls, windows, and light fixtures. ANOTHER BAT! I could not believe it. I made a break for it, ran upstairs to Brian (with a blanket over my head), and announced the arrival of bat #2.

More chasing. More trapping. More panic on my part.

Bat #2 was released around 3am. James woke up at 4am with the following bad dream:

"I had a bad dream! I fell in the toilet and Daddy flushed me!" (earlier that day, James did fall in the toilet and Brian did flush a bug) so Brian laid down with him until morning.

Needless to say, between the six of us (Brian, me, James, Molly and the two bats), we got about two hours of sleep that night so we called for back up. Kevin (yea Kevin!) came over last night and not only did he and Brian seal up the hole we suspect was the bat entry point, but he slept in the living room all night on "bat watch."

As I type this at 7am, I am happy to report that we are bat-free.

We've Got A Runner!

James started his soccer lessons last week. It's a rigorous schedule of two lessons, 45 minutes each- ha! The lessons are at a field near James' school and the coach (Coach Erik) is the spanish teacher who also happens to have 20 years of soccer coaching experience. He was great!

Let me tell you, there is nothing cuter than 7 three-year-olds in shin guards. Well, there is one thing cuter. This is how James chose to go to his lesson. Holding hands the ENTIRE way with his little school friend Joshua:

Coach Erik got right down to business with drills and running. LOTS and LOTS of running!

 

This was a drill about finding a cone and knocking it down and then righting it by putting your foot on the side. 

James did it once and then was distracted by the cone......

KC: this one's for you - just look at these mad soccer skills!

Here was the part of the lesson that I kind of knew would happen because, you know, it's James.... At some point, he figured out that the field was MUCH larger than the little area they were using so he decided to try it out.... by running all the way to the other end. This did not even make me flinch as I am used to it and knew he would come back, but one of the other parents screamed, "we've got a runner!" I, of course, just laughed and kept taking pictures. 

(that's James, the little red spec on the left)

Back to the drills...

and then we were done.

Sometimes Manners Happen!

I'm happy to report that James is fully housebroken. You should feel safe to invite us back into your homes and allow us on your furniture.

While we were enjoying/enduring the potty training process, three things were happening at the same time:

#1  Accidents would happen and like any other parent, we would always tell James, "it's okay- accidents happen!" 

#2  During this same time, he had a small obsession with a little book called Manners Matter, about a moose saying please, thank you, excuse me, etc.

#3  James is also almost three, which is apparently the exact age when kids sometimes just dig in their heels and refuse to say "thank you" for gifts or "please" for any of their 1 billion daily demands.

Somehow in his little almost-three-year-old brain, James has melded all of these new things together in his mind and is now fond of saying, "Sometimes manners happen!" Given the fact that the manners are so hit or miss around here, I must say, spot on kiddo, spot on.

Here he is with his "Congratulations on doing such a good job potty training" certificate from Oma & Opa.

Molly 14 Weeks

sweet...

playful...

and slightly devious?

Mother's Day - Dessert

I had a funny little anecdote about breast feeding on the plane, but Brian tells me that it is inappropriate for this blog.... Intrigued? Email me and I will send you the little story. I am laughing out loud as I think about it now.

Oh, if only I could just eat those cheeks!

Happy Mother's Day.

Mother's Day - The Main Course

So, as I was saying.... Molly and I packed up and flew to Phoenix for Mother's Day weekend while James and Brian stayed home for boy time. I haven't lived in Phoenix since 1996 and I haven't visited in the summer since 2004 so I had forgotten about the heat. We landed at 7:30pm and it was just under 100 degrees. Here is what that felt like:

Seriously, I took these pics with my phone while we were waiting for my mom to pick us up. 

Clearly, Molly was in a state of shock. 

SO

HOT

My mom (best mom ever!) had a magic swing all set up for us in her living room. 

(See? We really don't go anywhere without it).

Here is Molly, content in her swing, recovering from heat shock, my mom is knitting and I am NOT chasing a toddler around. Already worth the five hour flight and freakish desert heat.

Molly chose my mom's house and Mother's Day weekend to pull out all the stops. 

Holding her head up like a champ.

My mom, a self-proclaimed "not a baby-person," had a small love affair with Molly while we were there. The feeling was mutual. Molly just lit up every time my mom talked to her.

Off to Grandma's for Mother's Day. 

Molly is my grandma's 12th great-grandchild and they bonded the second we put the car in park. Grandma Honey met us in the driveway and took the baby. 

Seriously. 

My mom and I just stayed outside unpacking the car. 

We are old news. 

(It's just a saying, mom - I am not calling you "old!")

My brother, sister-in-law and my nephews drove down from northeast Arizona (also five hours). Here, Molly is very confused about Natalie's decorative headwear.... 

It was a gift from her youngest, Garrett (age 7) for Mother's Day - so I guess I have that to look forward to....

All my nephews wanted to hold Molly. I think mostly because a girl is such a novelty in their house. Here's my sweet nephew Trevor and Molly.

Remember Devon from his visit last summer? Remember how he was VERY tall? 

Now he is even taller! Easily 6'2" and he is 15.

Grandma and 1/3 of her great-grandchildren.

I made this shirt for her and she loves it so much that she put it on immediately and danced a little jig while she was wearing it. Those are pictures of each of her grandchildren on the back. 

It's a Kington rite of passage to get in the pool at Grandma's house. The earlier, the better. True to her genetics, Molly LOVED it. I think she could have stayed in there for hours if it were not for the IMMENSE HEAT.

Me and my nephews: posted here simply for the purpose of height comparison. 

Yes, I am taller than one of them. 

He's SEVEN.

My brother with Molly. They were about to leave and I realized he hadn't held her. 

I asked if he wanted to and I didn't see her again for half an hour.

Leave it to my brother to sing her some kid-friendly songs sung to the tune of "What would you do with a drunken sailor?"

Another "visiting grandma"/Arizona tradition: eegees. 

For those who are not familiar and I am sure that most of you are not - eegees is a lemon icee yummy treat situation. You need a straw and a spoon. It does not matter how full you are when you leave grandma's, you always stop and get an eegee.

Four generations of Kington women...

Happy Mother's Day.

Were the boys bored while I was gone? Uhhhh, no. They went to the zoo, a train expo, the playground, the park... James was exhausted! 

Here he is leaving the zoo. So tired that he can't even finish eating the lollipop in his hand. 

Mother's Day Appetizer

It was a BIG Mother's day weekend! Molly and I traveled all the way to Phoenix (5 hour flight - eek!) to celebrate four generations of women on my mom's side and I will post all about that trip, but for now..... here's a little sneak peek:

The girl knows how (and when) to put on a show. As if on cue, Molly rolled over for the FIRST time... at her Great Grandma Honey's house... on Mother's Day. I mean, c'mon!

This is a video of the second time. The first time was a real "roll." This one looks a little more like "falling" over.

College BFF

As I mentioned, I met up with my college BFF, Ashley while were in NYC. Thanks to Facebook, we have reconnected and it was great to catch up over steak au poivre, foie gras, and other yummy French things that I can't spell.

1992

2009

I Heart New York

Last weekend we were invited to NYC to celebrate Big Uncle Kevin's 60th Birthday. Unfortunately, it was a surprise and we were invited by his daughter so we had to actually invite ourselves to stay at his brand new, just gutted, remodeled, furnished and finished SWANKY apartment on the upper east side. NOT the place you would normally bring an infant, a toddler, a swing, and a plastic toilet. No siree. No place at all. But we're pleased to report that James didn't break anything and Molly stayed awake long enough to enjoy some of the party.

Here we are on our way to NYC, stopping for lunch, and an ice cream sundae. Nothing better than filling up a toddler with an ice cream sundae and sticking him back in the car for two hours....

Here we are at Uncle Kevin's place. In a word..... Niiiiiiiice! It's gorgeous. It's the kind of place where you take off your shoes at the front door and you don't bring children. I brought in my running toddler and a SCREAMING infant and immediately walked on a brand new rug in my wet shoes. Awesome. But Uncle Kevin is cool and he didn't even mind when James watched Wall-E five inches from his face, talking the whole time. He calls James "sir" which James loves and is certainly not used to.

Here's Missy getting some Molly-time.

Not only is Uncle Kevin's place crazy-nice, but it is also in a PRIME location.... One block from the subway, three blocks from the Whitney Museum of Art and two blocks from Central Park. We did the Park on Saturday, going past the boats and the children's park (famous Alice in Wonderland statue) to get to the Central Park Zoo.

Of course, James loved the Zoo and so did I.... first ever live sighting of penguins.... and puffins... and a red panda... and polar bears.

Then Molly and I left to meet up with a college friend of mine (thank you facebook!). Here's Molly taking in the "sights" again.

James stayed with Brian, Uncle Kevin, KC and Missy at the Zoo. Here they are on their walk back home through Central Park. James loves to support the arts (he gets that from me).

Yes, I am perfectly aware that James could be Missy's son. Could they look more alike? 

This is the walk to the top of a stone slide. Sounds like an oxymoron, but as you can see in the video below - it is a fast slide once you get going!

Saturday Night: The big surprise party. James and Molly were the only kids there so there was plenty of attention to go around. 

James found the horn blowers - that wasn't annoying at all....

Yes, I know I have 18 chins in this picture, but it's SO cute of Molly that I posted it anyway. 

Just another motherly sacrifice...

Less chins....

I honestly think this picture was taken around 10pm. James SHOULD be in bed, but that was not happening so we pulled out the trains (onto a BRAND NEW rug) and he coerced two guys into "playing trains."

The lovely ladies.... Katherine, Missy and Taylor. They are quite a team.

Sunday: No matter how many times it happens - we just can't get it through our thick heads.... A late night for a toddler does NOT equal a late morning. 

This is James and I on our walk to get coffee. James insisted on bringing his camera.

Then back to the apartment to wait for the first person/sucker to wake up. On Sunday that was Taylor. James didn't let her out of his sight until we got in the car to leave.

And this is what we listened to the WHOLE way home.... 

"I want to go back to Uncle Kevin's. I liked it there!"