Makeshift Chuck-e-Cheese

I don't know what I'd do without our friends, Tim and Denise Pettus.  I'm working on making new friends here in Charlotte, but it's a slow process, so Tim and Denise get shouldered with any and all Borchard favors/requests for help.  They babysat for me yesterday morning for a couple of hours, and my kids were in absolute HEAVEN.  Denise blew up a baby pool and filled it was a couple hundred plastic balls she had leftover from her little guy, Sloan's, birthday party.  All three kids dove right in.  Charlie was especially content.  I swear, that little boy came out with a crazy love for balls and wheels....I hear that's a pretty much a genetic trait of the Y chromosome.

Charlie also was obsessed with Mr. Tim.  He followed him from room to room, laid down with him in bed to watch TV (even copying the way Tim had his ankles crossed), and rode his hip all morning long.  I think that little guy misses his daddy.  

Thank you, Pettuses!

Ever the Ham

Charlie LOVES the camera!  I think he makes one face for me every time...the open mouth giant grin.  I never get sick of it.

Poor little guy got his first ear infection this week.  We all had the stomach flu, but then Charlie continued to run a high fever.  I took him in to the pediatrician once he spiked at 102.8 degrees.  Of course, by the time they took his temp at the doctor's office, he was down to below 98 degrees.  That ALWAYS happens to me!  I'm so glad I took him in, though, because he really was sick with a pretty nasty ear infection.  Anyway, he's on antibiotics now, feeling better, and finally giving me a few minutes a day without him permanently glued to my hip.

Barnes and Noble is Heaven

I've been on my own without Joe now for almost a month, I think.  I admire single mothers more than any other creature on Earth.  I just miss the adult companionship so much, as well as the extra set of shoulders to burden the worry and angst that comes along with trying to be the perfect parent.  I cannot wait to be with Joe again in less than a week!  We'll join him in Fresno on June 6th...phew.

As I'm sure any other single parent can attest to, the late afternoon/early evening hours are the hardest to kill with little kids.  Ellie's usually chock full of energy at that time (post-nap) and Charlie's just fighting to stay awake until his bed time...it's a tough one to balance...we fondly call it "The Witching Hour."  While on my own, I've discovered the wonders of Barnes and Noble during these hours.  It's my little slice of heaven.  I take the kids there to play with the Thomas the Train set; it's the one activity I've found that both kids can enjoy and participate in together.  I usually grab myself an iced coffee, catch up on some phone calls, and watch the kids play with the train set and try out every stuffed animal in the place.  An hour and a half later, I'm caffeinated and happy, and the kids are sufficiently entertained and worn out to take home and wind down for bed.

Leave it to Ellie...

Leave it to Ellie to find a new use for her "barf bucket"...and a fashionable one at that!  Beautiful.  Manolo Blahnik should be jealous he didn't come up with the design.  What a nut!

Ellie has come to totally accept her status as total "nut," as she yells at me at least once a day now: "Mommy, I a silly nut!!"  

Stylishly Sick

Ellie had a nasty stomach bug today.  She couldn't keep a thing down all afternoon...not even water.  Poor baby was such a trouper, though.  She had the sweetest attitude about it all, was just really love-y all day long, and thoroughly enjoyed her couch-time, catching up on her Noggin (cartoons, for those of you not in the know) and coloring every square inch of each of her coloring book pages.  Oh, and in case you didn't notice, she insisted on wearing her shades all the while.  But, of course!

My Nutty Little Red-Head

Just Ellie being Ellie.  What a nut!  Never a dull moment with that one.

Huey Head

No, I do not do that to his hair on purpose.  We call that his "Huey"...the little blonde feathers sticking straight up out of the top his head.  He has two insane cowlicks swirling in opposite directions on either side of the center of his head back there...poor guy is going to have to buzz his head for the rest of his life, I think.  For now, though, I'm LOVING the 'do.

Surrogate Spouse in Action!!

Check out my "Surrogate Spouse" in action!!  The kids absolutely ADORE her.  And doesn't she just look like a natural?  I want a niece or nephew in the worst way!  There, I said it.  Sorry, Anna.

Mother's Day - The Actual Day

On Mother's Day, the kids and I spent most of the day on our own doing our own thing.  We went to church...and made it all the way to Communion (the next week, we even made it all the way THROUGH Communion!) and then just hung out at home together, napping and playing the rest of the day away.  It was really relaxing, but I must admit, I was thrilled to have adult company when my sister came over early in the evening.  While I put Charlie to sleep, she and Ellie worked on a little art project for me...check out the sweet sign they made for me.  Thank you, Anna; you made me feel so special and loved.  Once both kids were down, Annie and I got to enjoy a couple of drinks out on our screened-in porch, made dinner, and called it a night.  Not a bad Mother's Day at all, considering my hubby was out of town.

Mommy's Day Cupcake Making

I seriously don't know what I'd do without my sister.  Joe has now been gone for more than two weeks, and it is LONELY around here without him.  Because we've spent so little time in our actual home here in Charlotte over the years, I have hardly any friends here.  Thank goodness we had Auntie Noni in town with us for the first ten days or so of Joe's time away.  She is totally my "surrogate spouse" and the kids' "Mommy #2."  

Anna also went above and beyond her surrogate duties when it came to Mother's Day.  She made it truly special for me.  A couple of days before the big day, she had the kids come over to bake cupcakes and decorate cupcakes for me.  We even dressed both of them up in aprons!  Poor Charlie had to wear the "Diva in Training" apron.  He look GORGEOUS!  As you can tell from the pictures, he certainly thought so, himself.  Ellie thought the sprinkles were really cool and all, but she thought eating chocolate chips and licking up the frosting were WAY better.

We ate cupcakes for days and days.  Mmmmmm.  Charlie has had lots of cake-eating practice; he'll be an experienced veteran by the time his first birthday rolls around in July!

No More Bragging

OK, time for an update.  No more bragging.  Ellie is FAR from perfect!!!  Tough week in toddler land.  I've even been embarrassed in front of my own sister several times.  Ugh.  

"I a Good Big Sister"

I have to brag for a second here.  Ellie is really turning into a nice little girl...I think.  She still has her TERRIBLE toddler fits and most times thinks she's in charge of the whole household, but she's turning out to be generally quite sweet.  This is probably a given for most parents with their children, but let me tell you, there was a time when I wondered what kind of a devil-child I was raising.  She was TOUGH when she first turned two!...I cried multiple times to Joe, "I have no control over her...none!"  Anyway, she's mostly turned a corner, and I'm thrilled.  The best thing is how kind she is to her pest of a little brother these days.  She loves to share her food with him...see yogurt photo above (messy!)...I often get him out of his car seat only to find five gold fish sitting on his belly that she's put there for his enjoyment at his own leisure.  She also brings him toys all day long, telling me, "Mommy to give this to Charlie."  When she performs these selfless deeds, she, without fail, says to herself, "I a good big sister."  Hmmmm, wonder if she's got any of her parents' type A/people-pleasing/perfectionistic ways about her??  She still kicks him sometimes, too, though.  Usually she confesses the incident to me...unfortunately, she confesses her sins with pride, rather than regret.  Guess there's still some work to be done...=)

We really are having so much fun watching these two little ones grow into good friends.

"No Men, Mommy!"

On one of Joe's last days at home with us, he agreed to watch Charlie all afternoon while Ellie, Noni and I all took a girls' day shopping at the outlet mall for Anna's new interview suit.  As Ellie and I left the house to go get Anna, we said goodbye to Daddy and Charlie, closed the back door, stepped into the garage, and Ellie looked at me and said, "No men, Mommy; No men!"  Are you kidding?!  Where in the heck did she learn that one?  Too appropriate to have been what she really meant to say, right?

Because we skipped a nap for Ellie that day, she was exhausted by the time we got into the car that afternoon.  And, of course, she passed out just in time for us to exit the freeway for the mall.  I brought her old single stroller (left the double/Big Blue Cadillac at home) and loaded her into it in a laying down position.  She woke up but was in LOVE with the novelty of being back in the old stroller and getting to lay down flat in it.  The entire time we were at the mall, she rode around like she was on a stretcher and absolutely refused to let me tilt it up any for her.  She was way too big for that thing, and I suffered a perma-heart attack that whole day long worrying about her falling right off the end of it.  She survived without incident, though, and so did I.  And because she was so infatuated with her rolling stretcher, she was absolutely PERFECTLY behaved throughout our whole day of shopping.  I couldn't believe it!  No drama from Ellie and not a whine to be heard from a missing Charlie...it was vacation!  Annie and I had a ball, and Ellie loved telling Auntie Noni how beautiful she looked in the dressing room. All in all, it was a very good day.

Dog Sitting

Charlie and Ellie "dog sat" for their Auntie Noni's basset hound, Belle, last weekend, while Annie was down in Florida getting Uncle John settled there for his rehab from his recent Tommy John surgery.  (I swear, my mom is so right, Anna and I really need to write a book about our crazy lives.)  Anyway, we had Belle for three days, and the kids went from frightened of that goofy, harmless animal to madly in love with their new best friend.  On day one, Ellie had "Belle no get you" on repeat, but by day three, it had changed to "Come on, Cute Little Belle" over and over.  Belle went home to her mommy exhausted.

P.S. We have yet managed to snap a cute posed family photo, or even one of just the two kids; but, put Charlie and Belle together, and voila!, dog and baby hamming it up and posed perfectly. 

Ghetto Party Hat

I am a perfectionist by nature; we all know this.  I want to do motherhood perfectly, too.  Perfect mommy's don't exist, I know, I know, but dang it, I'm gonna try to be the first!  I fail miserably at mommyhood perfection each and every day, but never so badly as I did last week when I tried to be that crafty/ home-school-type-mom.  Ellie and I were watching a cartoon that morning that taught us how to make party hats out of construction paper.  If Special Agent Oso, the stuffed bear, can make one in a jiffy, I'll be darned if I can't, as well.  Ellie was super pumped about the whole thing; I told her all morning long that we were going have her friend, Sloan, over that afternoon, we were going to go shopping for supplies, and we were going to make super cool party hats together for our play date.  

Shopping for the supplies was a snap, of course.  Joe watched Charlie, so that I could take Ellie to the store on my own.  She even got to push her own kid sized cart throughout the store (it even had a flag up top that read, "Customer in Training"...too cute!  With neon construction paper, crayons, and star stickers in hand, we headed home to meet Sloan for my genius idea of  craft day.  Mind you, my mom still has some of my clay artwork from Mayfield Jr. School on display in her home...NOT because it's beautiful, but rather, because it is hideous, hilarious, and kid fantastic.  Ellie's and Sloan's party hats might just have to go on display in Mahgie's house, as well.  

First of all, the construction paper that Harris Teeter grocery store had to offer was way too small for party hat making.  Secondly, I had no stapler or glue, so we had to use the little bit of masking tape I had left in my kitchen drawer.  Thirdly, I forgot about the rubber band or string we would need to affix to the hat for the kids to wear under the chin, in order to keep the hideous hats on their heads.  Sloan was so not into craft day...would much rather play with Ellie's toy or beg to go outside to hit the kiddie pool.  Ellie, on the other hand, was bound and determined to wear that party hat!  Try #1: I used masking tape and one rubber band to make a chin strap...first try on Ellie's head....SNAP!....waaaaah!  Try #2: I tied a second rubber band to the first to make the strap longer and affixed it again with masking tape....SNAP!...waaaah!  Poor Ellie.  Try #3: I affixed the rubber bands to both sides of the hat with painters tape...yep, you guessed it, SNAP!....waaaah!  Finally...try #4: Found Joe's duct tape...success!  Check that baby out.  Ellie thought it was gorgeous...she even wore it into the pool that afternoon and for several days later.  Martha Stweart would be horrified.

First Dip of the Year

Just to catch up my oh so large and inquiring reading audience, the kids and I moved down to Gwinnett, GA to be with Joe (playing for the Gwinnett Braves, Atlanta's AAA team) about three weeks ago.  We unpacked, got all settled in, joined a gym, decided on a summer camp for Ellie, etc, only to find out six days after our arrival that the Braves were releasing Joe.  So, we packed up once more, moved back to our home in Charlotte to wait for a call from another team, and unpacked yet again. It took just under two weeks for Joe to get his next call from....drumroll!!... the team he's always dreamed of playing for, the San Francisco Giants!  What a gift.  God always seems to have a greater plan.  Joe found out the good news Wednesday evening and was on a flight out to Phoenix to the Giants' Spring Training facility by 6:15 Thursday morning.  Joe got off the plan and was immediately jetted to an imaging center for an MRI of his elbow and then to an orthopedist for a check of his arm's health.  He passed both and is just dealing with some normal remaining inflammation from his Tommy John surgery in June.  He'll play in some extended spring training games in AZ for a bit, until the Giants deem him 100% healthy and ready to go.  Once he gets the go ahead, he'll be sent off to Fresno to play for the Giants' AAA team, the Grizzlies.  We're thrilled!  The kids and I are waiting it out at home for a bit, until it all shakes out and Joe gets finally settled out in Fresno.  Family, here we come!  We are DYING to see you all and be with you again soon.

Our two weeks at home with Joe in Charlotte between the release and his pick-up by the Giants was, amazingly, quite vacation-like.  Joe was nervous and stressed, but by no means did it dominate our days or his overall attitude.  What a bonus that two weeks of unexpected family time ended up being.  We had great weather here in Charlotte, got to take the kids to the park almost every day, hung out with Auntie Noni and Uncle John a ton, and even had the kids take their first dip in the kiddie pool of the season.  As you can see from the picture above, Charlie was not a huge fan of the cold water at first.  He totally warmed up to the idea, but he was such a crazy wild man in the water that there was no chance of me taking my eyes or hands off of him to catch a picture of him enjoying it.  Ellie is a total water baby, like her momma, and I have just got to get her in some swim lessons this summer.  That little girl has NO fear whatsoever.

Finally Un-Blobbed!

In the past month, Charlie has started to FINALLY move! For the longest time, he was unbelievably content to just be a "blob" and watch the world go by...well, kind of...mostly, he would just whine and cry until someone (i.e. Mommy) would either grab/retrieve a toy for him to play with or pick him up and carry him around all day, like a little baboon riding the hip.  He's still not crawling on his hands and knees, but he's getting around quite efficiently with is military crawl/inch-worm act.  And he's SUCH a boy...aggressively into everything.  He also can't pull himself up onto a coffee table or anything yet, but he is SO proud of himself once you stick him up there, because he can stand there for a while and hold himself up.  After a couple of minutes, he inevitably overestimates his abilities and performs a super back flop onto the carpet.  Sad.  Check out the above picture of a happy boy holding himself up to play with a Thomas the Train table at a local bookstore here in Charlotte.  

Mr. Wiggle also managed to roll himself off of the curved changing table in a FLASH this morning.  Ellie never once managed that feat!  Boys...ugh!...a totally different breed.  I brought him to day care at the Y with rug burn all over his face.  Bad, embarrassed Mommy, for sure.