Beaumont 2

We finished our trip today and made it safely home, thankfully with everyone in much better spirits than during our trip there.



Do you remember the cradle that has been in Joe's family for 100+ years?  I snapped a photo of Elliot in it this weekend.  Can you imagine a brother and sister that look more different??

Yesterday Sadie planned an early Easter egg hunt, with each egg filled with gold fish and/or "bewies" (grapes).



She loved it!  It didn't take long for her to figure out what was inside the eggs and that the eggs were something precious to be hunted, eagerly. 



Matchy matchy buddies.



Before the egg hunt, we played outside some.  Pop was building a deer blind.  Do you know many 80-something-year olds who are still doing woodwork?



We also had a fun outdoor "tea party" with water.



She loves pouring the "tea".  



Despite the epic tantrums every 10 minutes or so, Lucy really enjoyed playing with bubbles and having a tea party. 



Lucy's mood sort of deteriorated during our trip.  But Elliot was so easy going!  It was so nice.



I'm in a facebook photography group, and the theme this week was "green" - so here was my sumission (taken in Sadie and Joe's yard).



Happy Thursday!

Beaumont

The bad news: the children were horrendous passengers in the car on the way to Beaumont.  The good news:  I did not crash the car, despite the screaming  cacophony of agony blaring at me from the back seats. 

Enough about that.  We made it safely to Beaumont, and I'm grateful for that. 




Sadie and Pop are good, good friends of ours, and I love visiting them.  Though Lucy's been extra clingy the past couple months, she's beginning to warm up to both of them.  She's still saying, "Mommy--hold you!" a LOT, but she let Sadie hold her a few times today, and that was progress.  And actually, when Pop walked in the door at dinner time, she walked up to him and held her arms up.  She even called Sadie, "Mimi" today when she got out of the car.  "Mimi" is the name of Lucy's actual grandma, my mom. 



We visited Evelyn yesterday.  She is a very sweet 92-year-old woman who still lives alone and loves Justin Beiber.  She is a wonderful hostess, always preparing coffee and sweets whenever we come over.  But yesterday we just had tea.



She has this lush little atrium in the middle of her house that is so lovely. 



And she was overjoyed to hold Elliot.  She kept saying, "Oh, it's been so long since I got to hold a little baby!!"  It was really nice to see her so happy, holding him. 



I tried to get Lucy to take a picture on her lap, but what can I say... she was melting down, and life was miserable for all of us during the few minutes I tried to make it work.  I finally wised up and put the camera away, and we headed back to the house for much needed nap time.



I mentioned before that there's this great play room upstairs.  This room was designed and decorated 26 years ago, and it feels like time has stood still when you are in it.  Everything is so well kept, you would never know it's been this way for so long. 




Did I mention Lucy's obsession with pacifiers?

 

She is a sneaky little one, always with her eye on Elliot's... just waiting for her moment to snatch it.

 

And then she looks at me with this huge grin, sort of waiting to see what I'm going to do about it.



And I'm very inconsistent.  Sometimes I make her give it back (or give it to me).  Other times I'm otherwise engaged and leave her to her thievery.  I bet more consistency on my part would help with this issue. 



He is so stinkin' cute.  Love those ears.  And those eyes.
 

Today we went to the park and the library.

 

Can you believe the difference in 6 months?  Crazy.

 

I was impressed with this library.  It was so nice.



We met up with a friend, Sharon, and she and Sadie had a nice chat while Lucy played with the toys.

 

Then home again for naps and play time.



We miss Daniel this week!  But we are doing alright.  We are in good company. 

Tomorrow, the drive home again.  Pray hard for us, please. 

Pacifiers for Everyone!

Lucy is obsessed with Elliot's pacifier.  She only gets hers in the car and at sleep time.  That's the rule.  Daniel's gone out of town this week, and I will admit -- I have had moments of weakness.

We are headed to Beaumont tomorrow to visit our dear friends Joe and Sarah.  Wish me luck with the munchkins - it's a 5 hour drive. 

Sleeping Peacefully. And Playing Puppy.

Where did the week go?  Did I miss it? 



I did lots of things this week.  I took photos for friends, at the park and at my house.  I kept both my kids alive and well and made lots of snacks and meals and changed lots of diapers.  It was a really good week. 



Today Lucy showed us that she has learned to play, "Puppy" -- a game I recall Jack playing when he visited us in Galveston and he was about her age.  It basically consists of licking people and watching them freak out as you do it.  It's hilarious. 



And tonight Elliot was sleeping peacefully (for, like, an hour).  The nights with him are still horrendous (feeding 3+ times/night), but I captured this sweet moment and wanted to remember it. 

Antibiotic Annoyance, Swings, and Pizza

The last week or two has felt really busy.  Partly because I worked last weekend and work again this weekend.  And because I volunteered at the women's clinic on Wednesday evening... so I just feel like I've been gone a lot.  And I think I've been trying to accomplish a lot during the week.  Not anything grand... just laundry, dishes, keeping the kids alive... that sort of stuff.  I returned to work last weekend with mixed feelings.  I was sad to be away from the kids all day, and sad to miss out on a weekend with Daniel.  But for as much as I invested in my education (and for what we're still paying on it), it was good to pick up a stethoscope again.   

Soap Box Alert: The Z-pak, which I assume was created with at least partially good intentions, is now the bane of my professional existence.  Everyone comes in demanding it - most of the time with viral infections.  As an antibiotic, it is not indicated for viral infections, so I do not prescribe it.  But oh. my. word... to hear the way some of these patients react... as if I were withholding oxygen from their lungs.  Unbelievable.  I could say more on this topic, but I'll leave it at that.

 

The swings in the back yard are the kids' best friend.  They love them.  We had swings in our backyard growing up.  Swings are awesome.



After seeing the picture of Lucy pouring sand over her head, Jack was determined to get a similar photo of himself.  Done and done.  The thought of pouring sand over my hair gives me goosebumps - and not in a good way.

 

Lucy got a vaccine yesterday and spent the whole afternoon crying about her "KNEEE!!"  I tried to correct her - that the booboo was in her leg, not her knee.  But she just kept crying about her knee, pointing to her thigh where the tiny needle had left its mark.  So sad.  At least the corn seemed to cheer her up for a bit.

 

Finally, to round out the randomness of this post: I love pizza night.  It is the best.  Quick, low maintenance, almost no dishes, and healthful nutrition to boot (Hah.  Right.  But the rest of it's true).

Addendum:
I really should add that the reason the antibiotic thing finally got to the point of annoyance where I wanted to blog about was this: a man came in to the clinic, and I quickly realized we shared the same birthday!  Dec 27th is not a common birthday, so I was excited to have someone I could talk about it with -- ya know, the likes and dislikes and so forth.  Well, turns out he was just coming for his Z-pak (which he didn't need), so I had to spend the whole visit arguing explaining about that, and I didn't even get to talk more about our birthday!  What a bummer.

Tea Time with Lucy

A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of introducing Lucy to tea.



English breakfast tea with a little cream and sugar.  She fell in love, hard and fast.



She has recently taken to rejecting her milk or water, in favor of, "DEEE!"



"Tea" is really any drink that is sort of warm and sort of sweet.  A lot of times it's just warm milk with a little of my decaf coffee in it.



I can't blame her.  I love tea, too.  In fact, it was my strongest craving during Lucy's pregnancy.  I drank it every day.

Hands!

 "Fun" is a new word Lucy's been saying from time to time.  "Hands" is another one.  Not a new word, but with new meaning.



"Hands!" is the code name for the. most. fun. thing.  Playing with the kitchen faucet!  I think she says "hands," short for "wash your hands."



I assume she thinks that between washing our hands and doing the dishes, we adults must just have the best time in the kitchen, because truly she could spend hours pouring water from one container to the next.



She takes it seriously.  Like a job.  I guess water out of a faucet is kind of fun, in a way.  



There is a small lake under her chair whenever she's done playing "wash your hands".  I've been learning, though.  One towel is not enough.  2-3 towels are a must.