Yesterday Afternoon

Yesterday, a few of us were going to do "a day in the life" and link up our blogs. It would give us a chance to make a great memory and a fun way to see how our lives overlap in this great big city.

I forgot. 

Correction, I remembered.... but not until about 11am yesterday. So, I'm flying solo here and giving the "from lunchtime on" caption.

Husband's parents are coming in town in a few weeks for his graduation. LMC and I had to take a check to the neighboring apartment complex to pay for the guest suite. LMC with her Rapunzel Baby and I with MB- dueling strollers, we headed out on the brick sidewalk in DC. 

I promised LMC that we would make strawberry jam, so we got right on that.

 

Using this recipe-- because what about Bon Appetit doesn't scream "working with a toddler?!"

 

I fixed a stellar lunch, of which she ate exactly half. We lacked bread. Mental note: add bread to the grocery list. 

 

After lunch, we set to making the tea biscuits for the strawberry jam to go on. That green stuff is lime zest, which really perked these puppies up! 

 

 

LMC was surprisingly helpful painting the egg, making thumb prints and dripping the homemade jam. Mental note: when homemade jam has been made, remember not to dip the spoon into the jam after it has been on the raw egg. It can't be salvaged and the fear of salmonella is real.

 

We sent a picture to Husband to tell him we were having a great day...

 

And then it was time for Baby Rapunzel's nap. 

 

Husband found out that his shift was canceled (read: he read his schedule wrong), so I told him to pile in with my plans and come have a drink with Mama Bits and I at the Portrait Gallery. I loaded up MB, and her snotty nose before getting around to drying my hair and putting on makeup. Makeup is a new addition to my routine. My allergies are killing me- runny nose, red skin, the works. I'm attractive without it, promise.

 

I made the discovery that I don't lack metro cards. After taking this picture, I'd find another two... one of these cards has $123.50 on it. Don't ask me which one. One doesn't work, one has $13.45, and the others? I have no idea. 

I love taking the metro. It is a little more difficult with two now, but with Husband in tow... well, it makes things easier (and a little more complicated). Typically, I'm holding LMC's hand and she trots along beside me. MB is in the sling and we carry only the bare essentials, needing only the things we did not pack. With Husband, there's a stroller, a diaper bag, a whiny kid saying she needs to be carried, and a plethora of metro cards. It means we are ready for the apocalypse, which was good-- because I forgot to pack LMC's supper, but had enough snacks to cover my tracks.

 

We hitched up and made the second train. LMC sat next to Husband and MB was strapped in her stroller. We were off!

 

Mama Bits picked up sushi for all of us and we took turns holding babies, wrangling wet kids who ran through the fountain, and checking diapers. She's truly Super Mom.

 

 

 

This was a last second decision to press the camera button one more time, how glad am I?!

 

I tried to tell Husband that this was all Mama Bits' third baby... the mess, that is. He laughed and told me he knew better, he has seen our house. He was right...

 

After Mama Bits headed out, we started wrapping up. MB had a diaper change, I cleaned up and the security guards kicked us out.

 

We Uber:ed home, which is my other favorite way of transportation around the city. I'm seriously going to miss Uber. 

 

We headed home... that's our house-- with the curtains and the lamp in the window. I always look for it when we drive this way.

 

LMC got a bath while MB and I watched TV.

There were kisses before a storytime with Daddy, who is currently in the midst of The Princess Bride. LMC says, "My real name is Princess Buttercup, but my nickname is Rapunzel." 

We watched The New Girl season finale and Husband grabbed the camera and told me it was time for bed. 

More kisses before passing her off to Daddy and prayers.  

She was already sacked by the time her little head hit her daddy's shoulder, or as we fondly call it-- The Narcoleptor. 

Both babies down for the count, we shut down the house, lock the door, and kiss each other good-night.

Medicine and Prayers

Currently, there are a lot of shows that are set in DC and I love almost all of them. Since we sold our last house and started renting- any monument or DC scene coming on the screen would prompt one of us to say, "Home."

This is home.

Home is also on the shore of the Savannah River, a place we will be returning to quite soon- about a month, actually. I am both very sad and very happy to pack these bags. Over the past few days, the texts messages, emails, and phone calls have set in asking about Brother and how he is doing.

He's doing... okay.

I'd love to throw that pie-in-the-sky-lie and say, "GREAT! What stroke? You'd never know it." But, you would. Now that time has passed and the dust has settled, I feel I can mention this now, not because it is not a secret, but because -well- when these things happen, everything is on the surface, everyone wants to help, and we can do is pray.

And Pray Hard.

Mom and Dad dropped us off at the airport on the 3rd and drove directly to the hospital where the ambulance would meet them. Husband and Wife did not know it, but he was in the midst of more seizures. Three days later- three agonizing and frustrating days later- he was discharged. The doctors needed to get the tremors under control. 'Seizure Activity' was a term they used over and over. I asked the question, "Is that a sugar coat for 'seizure'?" Mom did not have an answer. Husband did not have his phone. Dr. Mobile (like the city, mostly because that's what I call her, and think she might not want her name here) got a phone call. 'Seizure Activity' means that the body is starting a seizure episode but the medicine is catching it and preventing it from breaking through. The seizure activity went on for several hours. These were much milder than the last ones, but they were there and kicked driving back another six months. Maybe Thanksgiving? Here's hoping and here's praying that this is it.

After getting discharged, Brother went directly to Husband's alma mater to see a nationally recognized expert who made a few tweaks to his medicine, but otherwise wanted to stay the course of action.

Medicine and prayers.

Someone the other day used the term "gregarious" to describe my brother and that is exactly what he is-- gregarious. Through all this, he has lost so much, but that part of him, and that love for love is there.

Brother and SIL were married in July several years ago. It was hot. Damn hot. Brother wore the dinner jacket that was the favorite item in his closet. SIL had a beautiful Amsale silk strapless dress and carried white flowers. Her blond hair was tucked under the mantilla that her mother wore several decades prior. SIL's eldest cousin, who traveled over from her home in Italy, spent the weeks prior to this occasion with two large sheets of sheer paper and a pair of scissors. She hand cut a lace pattern for the two full-length windows that were anchored on either side of where they said their vows. The ceremony was nothing but immediate family.

As SIL walked down the aisle with her father, Brother started crying. Tears streamed openly down his cheeks and stained his jacket as he watched his future bride take the 37 steps from fiancée to wife. When the two arrived at the end of the make-shift aisle, Brother started laughing- that loud and infectious laughter that once you hear, you can never forget. SIL started laughing and wiped her tears away, from under her lashes so as not to disturb her mascara. Dad was laughing and started crying. My mom, ever the rock, shook her head from left to right, probably with mummers of something like, "soup sandwiches" before laughing with everyone else. SIL's parents did not know what to do, but laugh. Brother and SIL were the 19th couple to marry in this family homestead of SIL's small hometown, blocks from the county courthouse.

They would have two babies. They would battle work problems, house problems, and life problems. They had no idea that these moments that they thought were the hardest would prepare them for their seventh wedding anniversary and the way their life tipped upside down. They are flying through this time in their life with the best that they can and praying to get to the other side. Life is a new normal and a new level of difficult.

But, all this to say this-- I am eternally thankful that he is here to be frustrated with. He is here to love. He is here to see, to touch, to kiss, and to hope for that laughter to return. It will come, of that I am certain.

In the meantime, it's medicine and prayers. And lots of both.

So, thank you. Thank you for your calls, emails, messages, prayers, thoughts, words, deeds, and all those things that make us an intimate web of friends and family, both known and unknown. Close and distant. Here and there. Young and old. Stranger and companion. It's being here and typing in the abyss that helps me know that the sun will set before it rises.

It has to rise.

We've got a lot going on

It's a quarter to five and I am sitting at the kitchen table watching Husband read a book to LMC and rock MB in her "bee-bopper" chair. I asked if I could take a few minutes to blog on this Mother's Day and then I would return to the world of parenthood.

Alan Jackson is in my ears with a crisp violin and I am still wearing my favorite green Masters visor from our morning outing.

This has been a fantastic Mother's Day. Tunnicliff's for brunch- we walked since it was Mother's Choice. Champagne corks popped left and right for other mothers celebrating. I never noticed how much I liked the sound of champagne corks. No champagne for us this morning- we have been celebrating all weekend. Celebrating Husband having a whole weekend to himself, celebrating spring, celebrating each other, and just celebrating the fact that we can celebrate. It's been a full weekend of being together and these are weekends that make me so happy.

Speaking of celebrating-- LMC got her first kiss last night! We went to dinner with friends last night. The children were dancing to Brittney Spears of Shakira or some other pop glam hard-core singer. I looked over and my eyes got really wide and all I could do.... was just point. The other mom asked, "What? Are they doing something bad?" and wheeled around to see the same thing as the fathers asked what was going on. No words, just pointing from both of us and trying not to laugh.

Preacher Man was the first of us to get a grip and say, "OK, kids- y'all come here." Her boyfriend (his son) says, "That was fun!" while LMC jumped up and down saying (with a good bit of glee), "Do it again! Do it again!"

"Nono, y'all just sit back down and eat your supper."

Being a mother is awesome.

Fast forward back to brunch this morning- we had a round-about stroll on Pennsylvania, purchased a painting at Eastern Market, down past the Folger library, before making our way over to the Capitol where LMC asked (begged) to jump in the water fountain. We saw a memorial bike race for fallen police officers and the beginnings of the stage for the Memorial Day concert. We went to the Botanical Gardens where our little lady watered plants (literally, not figuratively) with a green water pail. She got a daddy-back ride back home thanks to her soaked through shoes. MB fell asleep on the shoulder of her mother while LMC watched Mickey Mouse and Husband took a much needed nap.

I spoke to my mom, my SIL, and Husband called his mom. LMC and MB made me cards with paint and permanent markers. The cards are covered in their tiny paw prints. Husband was worried I would get mad that he used too many paper towels to clean them up. I didn't notice and felt a little guilty that he would worry about that. Sometimes I am too cheap for my own good.

We talked about our fridge and how much I love my {early} mother's day present. What's not to love about an 18.5 cubic foot fridge with LED lights? It screams Happy Mother's Day to me. Husband thinks he is getting the matching freezer for Father's Day. Little does he know, I have a trick up my sleeve (and a present known as Happy Graduation + Father's Day + Happy Culmination of 10 years in training).

MB had her first bites of rice cereal this week. Unlike her sister who gagged and gagged when we introduced it, MB took a lick, spit it out and then screamed until I refilled the spoon and her mouth. She jabbed her thumb in to assist with the inhaling of the cereal. As soon as her thumb was sucked clean, she removed it and wanted more. Once she discovered that some of the cereal ended up on her bib, she took to sucking on the bib until it was both clean of the goodness and soaked through with drool.

This kid ain't starving. She's got the cheeks to prove it.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but after we bought the house- I laid MB out on a blanket and walked out of the room for a moment. When I came back, she was not how I had left her. She discovered rolling over! What a great way to christen the house and make our first memories.

The house is rolling along. Our crew is almost done with the drywalling, the wall has been knocked out, and all the carpet is out. They are laying the sub-flooring for the hardwoods this week and then the floors to follow. The painters should start next week. Turquoise. Green. Purple. Pink. Khaki. While I promised Husband that our house would not be an Easter egg, I could not help but get a little bold in my choices.

The pantry is going to be turquoise. Don't laugh, I'm pumped. If you can't be bold, what can you be? Of course, those lovely formica countertops will have to stay put for the time being. Bit by bit, we will chip away at the house.

We have to buy a vacuum for the pool. And a gate.
Pools are expensive.

I found a high school kid who is going to cut our grass for us. He calls me ma'am.

When did I get old?

Progress

I'm both happy and sad that I am not at the house to watch the day-to-day work. Happy, because when I get home in a month it will be a new place and I don't have to watch the paint dry. Sad, because I don't get to see the progress firsthand.

Fabulous though- we have this great guy who is working with us, Jerry, and he sends me pictures every day. He must know that I'm a Type-A personality and like to see things. We text back and forth all day and he asks questions to make sure it is exactly how I want it (unless Husband has an opinion-- and he has plenty of those-- and then it's how Husband wants it. He is paying for this, after all.)

What was once this:

Is now this:

It might not look like much to you, but it looks like a space worth living in to me! Those walls will be ripe for painting, hanging pictures, and knee high crayon doodles in no time!

Progress! I love progress!

Swinging the Hammer

We closed on our house this past Monday. Officially we are, once again, home owners. 

It feels good. 

After leaving the closing and handing off the nest egg we have been sitting on for three years, we headed over to the house and started wielding hammers and jigsaws the way writers wield pens and fencers, swords. I had my iPhone in my ears with music blasting louder than I would ever allow LMC to play her music and beat the stew out of the hammer on the boards. 

It felt good.

This doesn't look like much, but me and my hammer DOMINATED taking out the louvered doors 

Remember that bar? Yeah, it's gone.

I sweated. I pulled boards. I used power tools. I hammered things for the hell of it. I beat out the frustrations, the anger, the love, the everything. And then I hammered some more. Because I could.

At four every afternoon, we would drink Coors Light and continue to work on this little home that we will raise our daughters in. We kicked back the dust, took down the drapes, and let the light pour. I would take down hardware, nurse a baby, call the [insert any number of people here], take out the trash, blow off the driveway, and then circle back to do it all again. I watched Husband work harder and faster than me, but with an equal mindset of making this home ours. 

To use my hands to accomplish things, use the ax, the saw, and absolutely ruin my pink manicure-- made me feel .... good. Damn good.

My in-laws drove up on Monday from SoWeGa (Southwest Georgia) and the small town that raised Husband with a load from the barn and a slew of tools. FIL helped Husband with electrical shockings and MIL silver leafed the chandeliers, while supplying those Coors Lights and the ever necessary Band-Aid. 

Husband has also become an expert at installing canned lights.
Shockingly so- not being a wise guy, literally-- he got a pretty good shock... or two. 

My parents housed us, fed us, and helped with the girls. Dad pressure washed and handled the yard work. Mom kept the babies entertained and Wife Saver in business. Husband broke a hammer. Literally. 

A father's love, Part I

A Father's Love, Part II

The refrigerator was delivered. It's so beautiful, I actually screamed with glee when I saw it. Please note, that there is no freezer on this fridge. We'll live out of our little freezer that we currently use for MB's milk in our tiny apartment. I think the freezer is 3 cubic feet? In a few months, we'll buy a freezer... and a few months after that-- an ice maker. Slowly, but surely. 

We took the trash out. The trash guys love me. I'm going to bake them cookies. 

We hired Jerry to handle the removing of the paneling, the hanging of the sheetrock, and the knocking out of a wall.

We hired Preston to handle the painting.

We hired Charlie to handle the removal of the carpet, laying of the subfloor, and installation of the hardwoods. 

Obviously, I enhanced this picture... to show what the walls look like now.
Gross, no? reason #87 to not smoke in the house.
(Or, at the very least- reason #23 to paint the walls more than once every 45 years)

4 1/4 inch Hard Maple Hardwoods.

I make a pretty good general contractor. 

Over the weekend, Jerry knocked out the wall. It opens up the whole house. The paneling is down and the work is moving forward. Monday, they will start removing the five different colors of shag carpet (blue, green, pink, white, what-was-once-off-white...). 

My move date has moved slightly, well- not slightly- more like in a few weeks, I will wrap up this adventure and pile our little ladies into the car and head back down South. Some moments, I dread it and other moments, I cannot get home fast enough. Forever, I am reminded that this move is the Right Decision. Husband and I are looking forward to spending time with Brother, SIL, Niece and Nephew. SIL and I are already working on a carpool schedule for the girls, ballet classes this summer, and 'bentures we can find. Husband is scouting birds, fish, and where he can take Nephew with those hours he will have now. Husband might have a house full of girls, but lucky for him- Nephew and Brother live less than a mile up the road. 

We did not get to see much of the Juniors while we were in town- our days were spent at the house and Brother has trouble with a crowd now. When Niece, Nephew, and LMC get together... it's a little chaotic. Brother did get to hold MB for a while and she looked up at him with those big Mama eyes and cooed. It made my heart melt.  Several times, I reached out and patted his arm he can't feel. It's just nice to see him, and to feel those monster hugs and make Brother Sandwiches.

When the paneling came down, we discovered this box of crayons, unused!

FIL and I stayed up one night sitting around the kitchen table talking, just the two of us. We sipped good wine and talked about everything and I mean, everything. We talked about Brother, the farm, his plans, our plans, I think he mostly listened while I talked. And it felt good to talk unencumbered. I love my FIL so much, and I think I love him so much because my husband is so much like him. He has this deep southern voice that commands notice. Yep, I will keep him another day.

Husband and I are also making plans for our family. They are going to start with Pool Party Thursdays. BYOBBB-- beer, baby, and burger. It will be a great way to kick off the weekend, the summer, and get together with all friends, while hopefully making new ones.

We have a ways to go on this project but what'cha think?

This wall... gone.

Thanks, Jerry!

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