A date with her daddy

Meredith and Josh once again attended Sacred Heart's father/daughter dance this weekend.  She loved getting all dressed up and going on a date with her dear old Dad.  They met some friends to eat before the dance and I was told the excitement started then.  Lots of squealing and giggling with lots of little friends!

She was just a tad excited when her daddy gave her a dozen pink roses.

Lots of sweet girls and I heard lots of giggles.

The girl has moves like Jagger.

But the highlight of the night was when she lost her first tooth.  Yes, at the dance.  I heard she had lots of cheers from her friends and they were all as excited as she was when she lost it.  That night when she got home, she was beaming from ear to ear with a pearly, white tooth to show me.  And I have to admit I cried. It is such a big deal, like kindergarten, but worse.  And I was also a little upset that I didn't witness it firsthand.  She had been promising me for weeks she wouldn't lose it at school, because I didn't want to miss it.  Her daddy was more than happy to witness a first, firsthand though.

When she got home though, I noticed the tooth she lost was not her loosest tooth in her mouth.  It was the other.  The tooth that was the loosest when she left for the dance was still in there, but now laying side-wards at a 90 degree angle where the other tooth was.  So with that I asked if we could pull it and being on her high from loosing her first tooth she said "Sure!" and out it came!

I mean does she look excited or what!  Her first two teeth.  And the tooth fairy was very generous....two in one night....she had to be!

The big apple

This weekend I took a quick trip to the Big Apple. I am a city girl at heart I tell ya, I was just born in the wrong place. Oh New York, how I would love to live there. But since I am a Southern girl, back home in the South is where you will find me. My trip was awesome. I would suggest that you grab a group of girls and head to the Big Apple as soon as you can. It is a trip you don't want to miss and something you just have to see and experience at least once in a lifetime, or in my case several times.


However this post is not going to be about the trip. This post is about what happened while I was away. While I was in Times Square taking in the sights, shopping on 5th Avenue, in Little Italy sipping wine, enjoying some shopping, dining and a street fair at the Seaport, watching the fireworks over the Hudson, drinking a beer in Hell's kitchen and at an Irish pub, having a beer at the boat house after walking through central park, having brunch at Tavern on the Green and perusing the shops in the Village.....my kids were home being taken care of by their dad.

I walked in this morning at 8am after spending the night at my sisters and going to bed at 2:30am then waking up to drive home 2 hours, due to a flight delay and I have to say I was happy and overjoyed to see the tikes and my husband and then I looked around and I was amazed.....astonished......in awe.

I was shocked to see how much my kids had changed in 4 days. Meredith was a little taller and her cheeks were slightly less rounded. She looked older. Noah was a little taller, his hair a little blonder and even more handsome than when I left to go. The kids were sharing and playing together and Josh reported not a fight happened while I was away. And then I looked around and the house.....the house was freaking meticulous. I want him to know that when I walked through the door I noticed and I thought to myself how the hell does he do it? Although honestly I ask myself that several times a day, because if you know Josh....you know he is a hell of a man, a hell of a dad, and a hell of husband.

Josh made what I do day in and day out look easy. He had no help, besides a babysitter Friday while he went to work. There was no one to take the kids for 5 minutes so he could have a moment to himself. For over 96 hours it was just him and them. He was responsible for preparing, serving and feeding the tikes 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, he gave 4 baths, brushed 2 sets of teeth 8 times, changed approximately 20 diapers, read numerous books, sang the goodnight song 4 times, did laundry, the dishes all on his own. He was the mom and the dad.

Not only did he do all of that, but when I walked in the house it was immaculate. The kitchen was clean, the living room and their bedrooms. He even did several batches of clothes and had them all folded and ready to put away. He took Meredith to get new shoes and weaned Noah from his nap time bottle.

He took the kids to the zoo, the donut shop, the bookstore, swimming, to target and for several walks around the block. He accomplished several things on my to do list that I never got done. He didn't stop and get fast food once, he not only managed to keep the kids healthy and thriving, but he made it look easy. He handled it like no other. I can't even do it all that well when he comes home everyday at 5. I know my husband is one of the many great dad's out there, but this weekend he proved that he is at the top of that list.

Thank you honey for an amazing weekend with the girls. I appreciate all you do and wanted to brag a little.....or a lot!

The Picnic

I promised the kiddo a picnic and she was thrilled, but she wanted her daddy to be there too. Since he was on call, we brought the picnic to him. Now that is service!

Opening the blanket Mom....put that camera down and pick me up!

Taking our shoes off for the picnic....her idea not mine....she can find any reason to take her shoes off.

Setting it all out.
An impromptu cheering session during the picnic.
I was there too!
And here are my two....the one is pink is full of personality.....the one is green is going to be full of hell!

On Call

This weekend Josh is on call, which means he basically lives in his scrubs and at the hospital with the occasional visit home. Since Josh put on his scrubs this morning, Meredith had to as well. She wore those scrubs to walmart this morning, to the picnic lunch, to play outside and to the mall, they are still on.

This is her "damn page" look. She has a play doctor kit (although don't tell her it is just pretend) and when the pager goes off, she picks it up very seriously and looks at it and says "Damn page!" Whew.....I don't have to go in quite yet mom!
Time to play....."Yay daddy's home!" - my favorite saying!
Even doctors know how to kick back and have fun!
Her serious side!

A little bait, a little tackle and 4 fish

A container of live crickets......$4

A princess fishing pole........$12

Seeing your daughter catch her very first fish......Priceless!

This morning when Meredith woke up we asked her what she wanted to do today. Her answer was immediate and she didn't hesitate one bit....."I wanna go fish with Peepaw and his hat." Peepaw is Adalyn's grandpa and he took Adalyn fishing this week. Meredith saw a picture of that fishing trip where Adalyn had a caught a fish with Peepaw and he was wearing a hat. So this morning, that is exactly what she wanted to do too. Well we didn't call Peepaw, but she settled for a fishing trip with dear old dad and mom and Noah too.

Here is the proud dad and his daughter.....he's delightfully happy she wasn't wearing a pink, frilly tutu on this fishing trip.

Here they are selecting a good cricket.

And now they are baiting the hook.

And ladies and gentlemen we have a "fisher-princess", I can't call my two year old a fisherman.

Here she is with her 2nd fish of the day. (Being the control freak I am I stepped in to show both Josh and Meredith how to cast the line and she caught her first fish with me.....this is her second fish! Meredith caught 4 fish in all. There were a group of young boys with their dad and Mimi who came by. Their ages were from about 7-11 and they were so impressed that Meredith caught a fish right in front of them with a princess pole. They just couldn't believe she did it with a princess pole......who would of thought that could ever happen! It was really funny to hear them go on and on about the pole.

And of course my Noah was there fishing too.
Okay move over guys, I got a pole now.

Fine take away my pole dad, I'll just dive in a catch the fish with my bare hands! Lemme at 'em!

Fine, I will just catch momma's camera!

Noah was all over the deck and if I didn't have him by the tail he would have went in more than once. Brave little thing! I'm afraid he is going to be my wild child!

An airport, two stink bombs and a lot of swearing....

So Sunday we headed to the airport to await the much anticipated arrival of the daddy. Yes, he was coming home.....finally. He was at a conference finishing the 2nd part of a really big test. I was ecstatic, I missed him, I couldn't wait to hand off the kids and lock myself in my room for a little alone time.

As we were waiting in a field for the plane to come in.....yes I know how that sounds. We were waiting in a field of grass and the plane, well mini-plane was going to touch down about 100 ft from where we were standing. Well I say 100 ft, but in all honesty I have no idea how far 100ft. is....let's just say Josh saw us from his plane window waving.

So we are standing there waiting and Meredith has picked up every rock within a 25ft. radius of us and all of a sudden there was an explosion. Of the Oh Shit sort.....the Oh green shit sort! And it wreaked....god did it wreak. So I had two options, hold my full of green shit baby boy and await the highly anticipated plane or go inside to the terminal and change the diaper taking the chance of missing the landing of the plane that we had been talking about for 4 days. I opted for number one. The plane was delayed 15 minutes.....it was hot....my smallest tikes nasty bum was less than 2 feet from my nose....damn flight delays. And I was thinking....where is the god damn plane???? Maybe I even said it a time or two.

Finally I see a light in the sky and it looks to be headed straight for us.....

"Look Meredith there is daddy's plane!"

"What....what momma?"

"Daddy's plane is right there in the sky.....See it?" pointing at the bright light in the sky

"What....what you say momma? What momma?"

pointing furiously while holding a cute baby with a stinky bum...."RIGHT THERE...SEE IT"

"Plane scary momma!"

"No baby the plane is not scary...see look it is landing...see daddy?"

turns to the parking lot "what momma? where's daddy?" looking in the opposite direction

"Mizzie look at the plane...wave to daddy"

Waving furiously at the big, loud plane "HI DADDY! HI DADDY PLANE!....MOMMA SEE DADDY?!?!?!"

So we headed inside to get Josh and that is when I inform him that Noah has the most smelliest diaper ever and the diapers are in the car. So I leave him in the shoebox that they are calling an airport and head to the car to fetch the diaper bag. I come in and change the explosion in the said diaper and Josh and Meredith head off to retrieve the luggage with the other 15 passengers...I had never seen a plane so small.

"Come on Meredith come with daddy to get his bag"

"Going get bag daddy?"

"Yep come on!"

"Okay....HURRY UP DAMMIT!"

"DADDY....COME ON....HURRY UP DAMMIT!"

"HURRY UP DAMMIT!"

At this point I am just smiling at the people staring as I change the poop in the terminal and wave to my child who is yelling for everyone to hurry up dammit!

As they head back with the luggage I noticed that someone else has dropped a stink bomb in their diaper as well. I'm glad she didn't say "I shit in my diaper dammit...quit staring!" It is only a matter of time!

A conversation between a father and a daughter...

while shopping at old navy in the little girl's department.....well browsing in the little girl's department while mommy tried on clothes....

"Look daddy cute!" holding up a little girl's pink bra

"Uh-huh what is that?"

"Is a bra-ba-zere daddy......is for boobies"

Josh said the old navy employee next to him starting laughing hysterically and thought it was the cutest thing ever. What am I going to do with this tike?

Learning way to early....

Meredith walked up to her daddy with his wallet in hand. She handed it to him and said....

"mon-ee"

"what baby?"

"mon-ee, daddy!"

"Did you say money?"

"uh-huh, mon-ee daddy!"

I did not teach her that, she learned on her own!