One Shot.

You know, time passes so quickly. One minute you're staring at the tiniest little person sleeping on your chest and in the blink of an eye you're chasing a busy toddler around the house.

Lately I've been feeling guilty about all of the quickly fleeting moments I've wasted frustrated or angry at Henry. I'm realizing that time you get your child as a baby is very short. I know it's normal for parents to feel stressed out and worn down at times, we're not perfect. But as I watch Henry grow into a little boy, I wish that I could go back in time and do it all over again. If I had a second chance, maybe I wouldn't worry so much about the cup of juice that spilled all over the new couch or that we're fifteen minutes late again because of a meltdown. These things are so, so trivial as time leaves you in the dust.

And someday? I am going to really miss those juice stains.

King of the Grains

If given the opportunity to choose his own snack, guarantee you Henry's plate will look like this:

Happy St. Patrick's Day & a Parade!

green water, gettin festive over hurr

right before that branch landed on his head :(

unnecessary sunscreen placement mom fail

my hot husband doing bike stuffs

This morning we biked to the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown. Henry has been talking about this for the past three days, even though his definition of "parade" is based on an Sesame Street book in which Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Grover roller blade & skateboard through a park. I put a green necklace from my dresser on him and he ran into his room and grabbed two others to complete his ensemble. I love this kid.

Today Henry loved the marching bands and Irish dancers and probably all of the attention he was getting from people who had started drinking at breakfast. Strangers would say, "Hey! You're cute!" and he'd reply with a huge grin, "I'm doe-in to a parade!"

MUST SEE! charming southern rental: price includes animal cemetery!

We knew something was wrong with the fireplace when we first noticed the spray insulation and water soaked boards blocking off the inside. All of the old homes down here have fireplaces but landlords will usually say, "that's ornamental, NOT functional...okay?" So we didn't think twice about the wood jammed inside it.

The first weekend in our new house, it rained the most I've ever seen. We were sitting on the couch and we noticed water dripping inside the fireplace. UM? Not good. So we called the landlord and he sent someone out to "fix the problem". The next day they completely sealed off the top so rain wouldn't get in. He said with a thick southern drawl, "Well, I took care of y'alls problem. Sealed it right up! If y'all hear something thumping around then ya know I probably trapped a squirr-ell or a bird up in there...Har har har".

Flash forward two days and we're sitting in the living room, listening to a very active squirr-ell fight for it's life in our dark and wet chimney. Awesome, right? That's some good ol' southern entertainment for you right there. Except that really, it's so sad. I hate that there's nothing we can do but wait for it to die. I even talked to the same contractor who trapped him in there and he said, "Well, call me when something starts smellin' real bad and we'll take care of it then".

UGH.

I'm usually not a rodent lover but I can't even let myself think about that fireplace and how that squirrel might be feeling because it totally bums me out. If he was meant to die, it should have been from eating too many acorns or the best poisonous berries he's ever tasted- not accidentally stuck in some chimney with no food or light! Poor thing.

To make light of the situation Garrison takes control via text:

G: Having gross flashbacks of this now....super yuck.

Me: Of dead squirrel smells in our living room?

G: Yeah...I bet it will be nutty.

O'Donnels Happy Meeo

Dear 20 year old Allie,

This may come as a shock to you, but someday you are going to let your two year old eat large amounts of McDonalds!! He's going to call it "O'Donnels" and you'll swoon every time. I know you have it in your head that your future kid is going to eat so healthy every meal, but guess what? Organic is expensive and there are only so many ways to be creative with broccoli. Oh, and FYI. He's going to watch so much more TV than you're picturing. Gasp!

Love,

Your future self.

planting with toddlers (do not try this at home).

Henry was really into helping me plant the strawberries, tomatoes, and basil that we bought! He carefully scooped the dirt from the bag into the pot and lightly pushed the dirt around the base of each plant.

HAHAHAHAHAHA- NOT!

Henry threw the dirt all over the porch and tried to rip the plants out every two seconds. Also, apparently he hates getting messy because he had a mini freakout sesh when some dirt fell on his arm. He kept using the muddy shovel to dust the dirt off and then getting frustrated that he was even dirtier than before. Planting with toddlers. Fun!

Today I Am Grateful For....

You know, to balance out my IM A PISSED OFF, STRESSED MOM GAHHHHHH! post from yesterday....

1. A fridge full of food.

2. Our new house.

3. Henry is taking a LONG nap.

4. KFC chicken pot pies, even though I haven't tried one yet. But seriously best idea ever, right?

5. Garrison has the day off.

6.. SPRING BREAK Y'ALL

7. I taught my first lesson plan and it went really well!

8. This song (Cheesy. I know.) :

2 is Hard.

I've been having a really hard time with Henry lately. Before I was a mom, I always thought I'd have the most well behaved kids. I mean, I kind of pride myself on getting kids under control and teaching them to be kind and polite. But haha jokes on you, Allie. It's soooooo different when the kid is your own. Henry knows how to irk me and I'm at a loss as of what to do about it.

Sometimes I feel like he rules my life and I'm not okay with that! Obviously your child needs to come first like 99% of the time, I get that. But the screaming, "GO AWAY MAMA!" and pushing my face away is not fair. Seriously, I wouldn't let my friends treat me that way, so why does my own child get to do it? Today after story time, he grabbed my coffee and started running away with it. When I asked him to come back, he giggled and threw it. I'm afraid to take him places now. Things that used to be really fun are more of a hassle these days and for once I'd just like to do something fun and have it be totally awesome. I'm scared that once he really starts talking, he'll be that rotten kid at the playground yelling, "I hate you, mom".

We've tried time out, we've tried being firm and then ignoring him until he's nice, we've tried everything. What the heck am I missing?

Is anybody else going through this same thing? How do you handle these situations?

We've Got a Friend!

So I've started putting Henry in this mother's morning out program, two days a week while I do my student teaching. Yesterday I asked him, "Do you have any friends at school?" and he said, "Arr-say mama!" Naturally, I was like, "Arr-say?" And he said, "NO. Arrrrrrr-say mama." And then it was like this:

Me: Arrrrrr-say? Ashley?

H: No! Arr-say mama!

Me: Oh! Orson?

H: NOOOO! ARRRRRR-SAY MAMA!

And then he gave up (whatever mom!)

So today when I picked him up, he was playing in the gym with the other kids. He ran up and gave me a huge hug and said, "Arr-say, mama!" and ran over to this little boy on a tricycle. He pointed at the kid's face and said, "Mama! Arr-say!" I asked his teacher what the boy's name was and she said, "That's R.J." and I about melted. Henry has apparently made his first friend and likes him enough to remember his name.

Henry and Arr-say. Awwwww.

MAYCON!

For whatever reason, I hadn't thought to give Henry bacon until very recently. For like a week after he first tried it, all he wanted was, "Maycon". Can you blame him?

* The move is going really well! At least, that's what I keep telling myself. We've gotten most of our stuff moved out and we're finishing up the rest tomorrow (tons of storm today!) We slept in our new house for the first time last night and it felt really good. The problem with our old place was that it never really felt like a home. Even before we moved in I remember thinking something about it just didn't feel right. I love that this new house already feels good, even in spite of the fact that our stuff is in boxes and we're totally disorganized. We won't have a stove or hot water until Monday so it's kind of like we're camping. In a really nice, empty house. Time to get creative with the Forman/Microwave! Camping as a kid, my parents would bathe us in a large cooler....with water that they heated up on the fire. Hahaha, that's such a funny picture in my head. Ready for a microwaved water bath, Henry?

Moving Sucks.

I was going to post super cute pictures of Henry eating a tonnnnn of bacon but that would be the opposite of what's really going down this morning. We've started moving our crap over to the new house and WHOA. Why is it that the move seemed more manageable when everything was still here? I forgot how much the odds and ends stuff really stresses me out. Like, you know it needs to go to the new house but what box should it go in? Does it even need a box? And then you're all like, "Eh. I'll deal with it later" and it just sits in a growing pile up against the wall (until Henry sees something he likes in the bottom of the pile and drags everything across the living room). So yeah, fun day here! Wish us luck.