Unexpected sweetness

Because sometimes she gets too quiet for too long and I feel the need to get my camera and go find her. 

Luckily, today, the quiet moment found her fast asleep and not hiding in the pantry putting jelly in her hair.  

Peaches

We have a peach tree in our backyard  - FULL of peaches, but none of them will ripen. We're not sure what the problem with the tree is, whether it's just a dud tree or if just hasn't been taken care of. So with hopes of the tree producing edible fruit in the future, we started some picking and pruning to see if it will perk up for the seasons to come. 

You can see how heavy the branches are in this picture because of the peaches. The good thing was the branches hung so low that Mary could pick her own peaches - and throw them around the yard because she thought they were balls.   

We have no idea if our work will pay off at all - but with as busy as we've been lately, it was fun to take it easy and play in the yard together on a hot July morning. But, if our work does pay off, you will ALL be getting peaches next year. 

A Fun Age

Mary is a big 20 months old. Whenever I tell people how old she is - a usual reply is "what a fun age!" I completely agree, this is my favorite age thus far (granted, I've said that about MOST of the stages Mary has gone through . . . but I'm serious this time). I took a few pictures of Mary while I was getting ready one day this week and they just to kind of capture the age she's at right now. Love it.  

She's curious, she's independent . . . she's a climber and she's a mess!

She also acts like such a big girl sometimes. She loves to pretend to put on makeup and always wants to sit in front of the mirror while I fix her hair. I know her side-ponytail isn't the best do, but it got her hair out of her eyes for the time being. Who knows, by the time she's fixing her own hair, maybe side ponytails will be back in style! 

But she's not a big girl YET. She's still such a baby and I love the perfect combination between her spunky big girl personality and her sweet, melt-your-heart baby side that's still in there at times. 

I pulled up a chair next to me that night while I was house shopping online and Mary climbed up there with her bear and her blanket, put her head in my lap, said "night-night" and was asleep in 5 minutes. Seriously, between writing on the walls and throwing her food on the floor, this age is nothing but sweetness. 

Another Mary story

It's pretty common around here for Mary to get two bath's a day. She always gets one at night before bedtime, something we've done since the beginning of time (Mary time at least). The second bath comes in whenever I get my shower. She cannot, CANNOT, stand it if I'm in the shower and she's not. She'll be on the other side of the house completely busy with whatever toddlers do and as soon as she hears the bath water, she is THERE. So today I jumped in the shower while she's playing in her room - but as soon as the water was on, she's right outside the shower door pulling on her pajamas and begging "peeeease mamma, peeease." I reached out of the shower to get her clothes off and heave her into the tub (heave is SUCH a good word for picking up Mary), but she get pretty serious, thinks for a moment and runs out of the room. 30 seconds later she runs back in the room begging to get in the shower - I was pretty positive she had a dirty diaper, so there wasn't any way she was getting in the shower with me. She was pretty pitiful asking for a bath again and again, and saying my favorite "hold-chu mamma." Since I was pretty helpless with a head full of shampoo, I told her that she couldn't get a bath because she needed a new diaper - after telling her that 15 times, she finally just ran down to her room, got a stack of diapers and wipes, brought them to my bathroom and threw them in the bath with me. Thanks girlfriend. That didn't really solve the problem, but it was a dang cute try.  

Six Flags

Went to Six Flags last week with my brothers and Becky - we love the rides, but hate the lines, so we love going on a Wednesday evening in the summer. We miss all the lines and get to ride everything in just a few hours. Plus it's not 10,000 degrees outside since the sun is going down (which is a plus for all of us who wore jeans?! that would be me). 

We were lucky enough to meet a whole gang of Super Hero's. I was pretty excited about getting my picture taken with Batman and Aquaman! Except they both looked so much more superhero-ish from from away. 

We also met Tweety Bird - and after Becky and I are done posing kissing all over this thing, I realize that "he" smells pretty girly. I couldn't resist asking if he was actually a boy or a girl inside there - whatever it was wouldn't tell me. I would bet money that it was a girl. 

The All American Scream Machine . . . the wooden coasters scare me so much more than the new ones! Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Cory has never let us ride this ride with our seat belt on (you still have a lap bar, you just come off your seat a lot). Probably not recommended by the 6 Flags Staff, or your rear end. 

The only down side of the night was when Goliath broke while we were in line. We can't really complain because the line was amazingly short, but we were worried that we wouldn't get to ride it. Luckily - we hoped a ride in the front row just before the park was closing and OH wow! That thing is called Goliath for a reason - it is HUGE, and it is amazing! By far the best roller coaster I've ever been on. 

We stopped downtown for dinner on our way home. We thought it was pretty neat that we could see Paul's office building all night (he couldn't get off early enough to make the ticket worth it) - so Becky snapped a picture to show him we were thinking about him =). His office is in Peachtree Towers (the taller building to the left). Kinda fun to be able to see it from so far away!

So we wrapped up with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe - I can't remember being SO hungry and so thirsty in a long time! It was a great meal and such a fun evening! 

P.S. Cory and I both upgraded our passes for six more visits, so we can bring Paul back when he doesn't have to leave work early during his first week of work. He needs to ride Goliath . . .

Happy 4th . . . a little late!

I haven't posted pictures from the 4th of July - partly because it was a super low key weekend and partly because I'm just not sure how many pictures of Mary I should post in a lifetime.

 

We had lunch at my parents house, ate too much, and sat around watching the rain storms most of the afternoon - mostly just a good excuse to get out the camera and take some cute pictures!

 Mary was pretty sure that Uga was a horse and should be sat upon as much as possible - she was also positive that he liked peach cobbler and ice cream as much as the rest of us do! 

We got two of the best family pictures ever after lunch . . . 

How cute would it be to get a picture of the both of us kissing Mary on the cheeks?! This picture was a little different than the way I imagined! 

While Mary was being pretty persistent about protesting any family pictures, my brother Devin decided it would be fun if he jumped out from behind the camera to surprise her. It worked even better for Paul than it did for Mary. 

This is Devin and Becky. We love them.

Devin had to work in the Emergency Room for the night and Paul was finishing up a ton of work for Kaplan Legal before he started his new job the next week - so Becky and I celebrated together for the night! We took Mary swimming, went to see Made of Honor (super cute movie!) at the $1 theater, and hiked across Athens to watch the fireworks that night. I happily left Mary at home for the fireworks - she thinks they are completely scary and would have pulled quite a bit of my hair out trying to get away from them. 

 

She loves me. 

While we had a wonderful holiday, having fun and taking the day off from everything else, we didn't do much to really celebrate the day and the blessings that come from it. Makes me wish we were a little more patriotic and spent a little more time being grateful for all that we enjoy. I guess we wouldn't be able to enjoy the day with our family the way that we do if it weren't for the sacrifices of so many others - and we are thankful for that! As Mary gets older, we'll have to come up with some 4th of July traditions that may help us celebrate a little better each year! Like reading the Declaration of Independence! I bet she'll love it.  

Water Wings!

I have found my new favorite thing about the summer - WATER WINGS! 

As much as I LOVE taking Mary to the pool, it was getting a little boring for the both of us - she wanted to get out of her float and swim, but didn't want me to hold her. An awful combination if you're hoping for a fun, relaxing day at the pool. I let her go under water a few times to show her that I needed to hold her, but she was pretty darn determined to swim. 

Last week we got water wings and YAY, we can both swim now. As soon as she got them on her arms, she was kicking like a mad woman to get herself wherever she wanted to go all around the pool. The only problem is that she won't keep the HUGE smile off of her face long enough to keep the water out of her mouth. So she drinks her fair share of pool water, but we are both totally okay with that.  

Because Chef Boyardee is that good

I popped this sucker in the microwave for Mary's dinner and made myself a new best friend (Mary, not the ravioli). I put the little microwave bowl on her high chair and went in the kitchen to make myself a sandwich - before I had the cheese on the bread I hear "mo' please" coming from the other room. I walk in to see Mary holding out her empty bowl asking for more. No trace of dumping food on the floor or in her highchair, so I how could I say no? I warmed her up another bowl, and she finished it off in style. 

Great Great GREAT News!

Paul got a new job people! He's been toughing it out at Kaplan for the last year so I could go back to school and now that's he's DONE with them, he is moving into the big boy world of actually being an attorney! We knew that law degree would come in handy sometime! After a few rounds of interviews, The Weathington Firm in Atlanta offered him a job on Monday and Paul accepted right away. He will be defending doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, etc. in medical malpractice cases and he's super excited. He'll have to commute to Atlanta for the time being, but looks like we'll be moving that way in the next year! (I know I've used an exclamation mark after just about every sentence, but I'm a little excited!) . . . !!! Congratulations Paul!