things unseen

as if real life wasn't enough to keep up with, lately tayloe's been creating entire scenarios in his head and then trying to explain them in 2 year old twoglish. the combination is mind blowing. most of the time i have no idea what he's talking about even when i can clearly understand him.
yesterday we rescued a frog from under the sink (with a hammer no less) and chased him around the house. we also caught about 100 very large fish in wolly's dog bowl using cookies for bait. his baby (a doll i gave him when thomas was born) has had a tummy ache (mama, baby's dummy hwurts) all day and has been changed, burped, tucked and untucked into bed about 1,000 times. right now he's doing weekly maintenance on his fleet of trucks and farm animals.
he spends a lot of time with his gang of people, moving them around in trucks, putting them in the laundry basket, hiding them under things and talking to them.
i was going to get him this cool marble maze thing for christmas, but i think instead i'm going to get him a doll house because he loves to move things around and create situations (look, mommy, people watch george. look mommy, people to pete's house. look mommy make tookies.)
seen any good ones?

post script: before tayloe went to bed, i showed him a few doll houses i found online and asked if he liked them. he went bananas, chattering on and on about having a home for his people. he got so wound up it took close to an hour to get him in bed. he showed me the one he liked the most but of course it was out of stock so i just spent 2 hours scanning the web like a crazy person to find it somewhere else. i never did find the exact one, but i ordered one very very similar. i won't link to it because ... well, what if he checks my blog? you'll have to wait for christmas morning photos. and yes, i'll probably sit up all night christmas eve assembling the thing (while big tayloe snores on the couch) which will for sure have instructions only in korean and be missing 7 or 8 essential pieces and i'll have to call india to reorder and it'll take so long we'll be able to give it to him as a birthday present in july. but regardless of that i'm now very very excited for christmas because i know i've gotten at least one incredibly perfect gift.

3 months

thomas and i went to his 2 month doctor's appointment yesterday (um, a month late. second child, waddya gonna do?). he weighs nearly 14 lbs and is 25 and a half inches long, which apparently is really long. i think he's starting to look more like his older brother, though he's not nearly as active as tayloe was. he's happy to just lie on his back on his mat and occasionally kick his legs. he'll stand up if we make him, but he'd just assume snuggle up to us under his blanket and smile and gurgle until he falls asleep. i can't help but wonder (hope) if he'll be a little less active than tayloe. our family could use a thinker.
i find myself longing for time with him - when i can just hold him and talk to him and rub his little downy head and even when we have time i want it to last just a little bit longer.
both of our guys are sweet. tayloe's like a sour patch kid. yummy with a punch and very addictive. thomas is sweet like a marshmallow. fluffy and soft. you can eat a million and never feel too full.

why 2 year olds should be reporters

what if, 'what doin' mama? mama, what doin? dada, what doin? what doin dada? oh, why mama? why mama? mama, why? MAMA why? WHY? WHAT DOIN'? MAMA, MAMA WHAT DOIN? mama, dada, what doin?' was redirected to the president?
'mr. bush, was war wrong? mr. bush? huh mr. bush? was war wrong? mr. bush, was war wrong? why mr. bush? why? MR. BUSH? mr. bush? mr. bush what doin'? what doin' in iraq? MR. BUSH? c'mon mr. bush. c'mon. mr. bush, WWWWHHHHAAAATTT DOOOOOIIINN'?'
i'm pretty sure we'd have some answers.

owie rain

i took the boys for a walk today in our new amazing, fantastic superdooper BOB double stroller. we had a fine time and stopped at the park to play. on the way home, i noticed an ominous cloud behind me and pretty soon the wind picked up and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and before i knew it little pin pricks were poking me in the face. shit. it's freaking hailing.
i started running and realized i wouldn't make it home without freezing everyone to death, probably literally, so i made a mad dash for the service station nearby. i saw dusty, the hottest service station attendant ever, through a foggy window and started mouthing, 'shit, shit, shit' in hopes that he'd open the door, which he did, welcomingly. it was kinda like that scene in 'war of the roses' when kathleen turner and michael douglas meet on a rainy night at an estate auction, except it was broad daylight, i'm married (lovingly), have two young kids in tow and he's not a day over 17. anyway.
what was my point? oh, so we're sitting inside watching the hail and freezing rain and tayloe looks at me, holding his face, and says 'mama, OWIE RAIN!' (luckily not, 'oh shit, owie rain'). he talked about it all day, how we got caught in an owie rain storm.
i love it. owie rain.
ps - look at that dimple on thomas' cheek. slays me.
pps - dusty gave us a ride home in his truck. sigh.

tookies

it rained today so for lack of anything else to do, little tayloe and i made cookies. the chocolate chip kind.
i gave t his own bowl (own bowl, mama) to mix stuff up in. 2 cups of flour for me, a sprinkle for him. 3/4 cups sugar for me, some for him. tablespoon vanilla for me, a splash for him. and so on.
i got so caught up playing rachel ray & explaining everything that i was doing with gusto that i didn't read the instructions and just dumped everything together. it wasn't until my batter was sandy rather than creamy that i realized i'd done something wrong.
so i dumped it all out and started over.
'what doin mama? what doin'? bye bye tookies?
mama messed up, baby. do over! (ooooowwwww mama! do over!)
when i finally got it right and was ready to give him his first taste of cookie dough (the only reason to make cookies in my opinion), he wouldn't eat it. he actually said yuck.
no, not yuck baby. yum! the yummiest yum ever. here, try.
no, mama, yuck. yuck!
if you insist. i'll lick the beaters myself.
he did, however, dig the chocolate chips. i gave him a handful to dump in, only he crammed them all in his mouth before i could even explain that they were supposed to be mixed in with the batter.
we plopped the mixture on cookie pans and sat in front of the oven and watched them bake while wolly licked spilled flour off the floor.
mmmm, tookies.

god bless texas

hi from austin, where tayloe and i are having a deliciously relaxing time made even more so by the news that thomas slept all night last night at my parents house. horray!
i love austin, but i'm sure i feel that way because i'm getting spoiled rotten. tay surprised me with a hot stone massage at the four seasons this morning after the most delicious breakfast (brioche french toast and a bloody mary) and a stroll through the local farmers market. we walked the town all afternoon, stopping for the yummiest margarita you've ever had in your life at our new favorite place, texas chili parlor. tonight we're going to a honky tonk and to hear live music. tomorrow is the benefit.
our life with children is so full and wonderful and of course we miss them, but our life without them is pretty damn good too.
tater, there's no one else in the world i'd rather be with. austin, tx, scottsville, va, stranded on top of a mountain in -20 degree weather. i pick you. always.

the do nothing stage

i'm not one of those parents who is anxious for her infant to do something. if you ask me, thomas is the perfect age right now. he's sweet and wonderful and i honestly don't ever want him to grow up - and by grow up i mean turn 2.
not that 2 isn't fun. it is. and it's fascinating. but imagine what a mess you'd be if you couldn't control anything you felt - not jealousy, joy, anger, fear - nothing. and then imagine thinking that was OK but all day people were telling you it wasn't. and then imagine you had a little brother WHO DOESN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING but everyone cooed over anyway, using up valuable time they could be spending with you digging huge holes in the yard and running around in circles until your head fell off. you'd be out-of-your-mind bananas.
cute probably, but bananas.
thank god for curious george. the only time tayloe will sit still during the day (aside from his nap) is to watch george. that little monkey might as well be our third child. i hear william h. macy's voice in my sleep and i've seen every single episode ever made at least 300 times, but it's ok because when it's on my child stays in one place for at least 15 minutes.
anyway all this wonderful madness has earned big t and i a break. we're heading to austin tx on friday for a benefit for one of tayloe's new clients, the african children's choir, and my parents are keeping the babies. until monday. WOW. until monday! WOW! then we're meeting them at nags head for t'giving.
i'm pretty sure i know what i'm thankful for ...

rock bomb, 2 months & a haircut

our kids will never think it's weird or new or different or even historic that a black man can be president. to them it is and always will be the way things are. isn't that awesome?
yesterday i'd ask t2 who we voted for. 'rock bomb' he'd say.
in other news, our little baby ain't so little. i have no idea how much he weighs but i swear it's got to be close to 13 or 14 pounds. he's huge. he's a great night time sleeper but the days? not so much. at least once a day he takes a longish nap, but it's never at the same time. and some days he just cat naps and then konks out at 7:30 for his 7-8 hour stretch of sleep. i have no idea if he's getting close to rolling over because all i ever want to do is hold him and love on him. the sweet, warm, soft baby part goes by so fast, something i feel keenly aware of as i watch t2 run up to me and hurriedly say 'hi mom, bye mom' and then take off running as if there's pure sugar running through is veins.
there isn't, but at times tayloe's so filled with raw emotion and he's seems so confused about how to express himself that he does the only thing he really knows how to do - use his body. he hugs very tightly, he pushes when he means to just touch, he runs into other children instead of just saying hi, he tries to tickle but usually ends up scratching. he knows he can't hit or push when he's angry so he's taken to just walking by and shoulder swiping his victims. it's actually quite clever - neither a hit or a push, a shove or a kick. if she can't name it, she can't tell me not to do it.
none of this really surprises me. he's always been more active than verbal, more tactile than cerebral. to help him get over this aggressive spell (and end the 'pretty little girl' comments), we got his hair cut yesterday.
i kept telling him he was getting his hair trimmed like a grown up boy and grown up boys don't push or kick or spit (yes, spit) they use words and keep their hands to themselves. (play along).
maybe it'll work.
the haircut didn't go so well (notice the choppiness) and at one point i was acting like a human straight jacket and promising him just about everything under the sun. but it'll grow out and hopefully the joy of his mother's love will bury memories of her virtually strangling him in a barber chair.

looking for eggs in the chicken coop.

happy 'ween, pt. 2

this is just after leaving a very scary house (smoke machine, skeletons - the works) so tayloe looks a little freaked out, but i had to get the 'happy ween' on the record.

happy 'ween!

tayloe ran around all day yesterday shouting 'HAPPY 'WEEN! HAPPY 'WEEN!'. his excitement was contagious - despite being pretty wiped from our respective trips, t and i carved pumpkins, trick or treated, ate way too much candy and toted our little pony rider all over scottsville in search of sweet treats. t even rocked it and made us all grilled cheeses for supper when we got home (dad is the best).
and no doubt, we had the cutest little pony rider this side of the james river.
the only thing missing was thomas' costume, which is somewhere downstairs in the dark abyss of our basement. there's no way i wouldn't have dressed tayloe up when he was 2 months old. but poor ol t3 got the shaft cause i just didn't have the energy to go digging for it. as we were trotting through neighborhoods, i imagined him asking me later to show him pics from his first halloween. i started feeling really guilty, so i snapped one of he and i walking.

pics of the boys

aren't they gorgeous?

hush, baby

little thomas you're a trooper. already you've been on three overnight trips, braved several scrapes, been dumped on and been so overwhelmed by a weekend of wedding events that you just had to tucker out and sleep through the reception despite the loud music.
maybe it seems like we don't love you. afterall, your brother still only calls you 'baby,' generally refusing to say your name. and most of your face time with him consists of him whispering 'hush baby, hush baby, hush baby, hush baby' if you so much as make a peep.
but nothing could be further from the truth. i for one adore you. you sleep from 10 to 4 a.m. nearly every night (knock on wood), you're hardly ever upset and when you are, it's easy to soothe you. you're soft and cuddly and lately you've been showing us your tender, sweet little smile and the dimple on your left cheek that just about melts my heart.
i keep thinking, 'did i love tayloe this much at this age?' i know the answer is yes, though i don't know how because my love seems infinite and i don't know how a person can feel that way twice (three times counting your dad).
i'm filled with pride that you're mine and i adore every ounce of you, from the soft blonde swirl of hair on the top of your head to your teeny, tiny toenails. mmmmmwwwwaaaah.

such a perfect day

minus the formula dumping incident, t2 was a gentleman this weekend. here he is in his finest wedding duds just after walking down the aisle like he'd done it 1,000,000 times before. and then, despite my presumptions and plans to have him whisked away out of site the moment he handed over the pillow, he stayed quietly with his father during the entire ceremony. seeing him toddle down the aisle, dump the pillow with tayloe and climb up into his arms was more than i could handle in my weak emotional state. i cried a river.
mary was a beautiful bride, the food was amazing, mt airy was magical and the fireworks show at the end rivaled many i've seen on the 4th of july. the whole scene brought back a lot of great memories.
but best of all - to me anyway - was our kid. with his little white suit and little shoes and socks, his hair combed, his pink cheeks and rosy lips - the way he'd say 'i'm the wing bearwer' like he had an entire loaf of bread in his mouth. for one moment (one short, fleeting moment) he was an angel.

is little tayloe jealous?

oh i don't know, sometimes. LIKE WHEN HE DUMPS AN ENTIRE CONTAINER OF FORMULA ON HIS BROTHER'S HEAD. he was so shocked by my shrieks, he pretty much put himself in timeout.
for the record - thomas slept through this entire incident, including the clean up.

snap

my digital camera is so slow i am never really able to capture tayloe's expressions. but this once, it happened. this picture cracks me up.

7 years

hey buddy. seven years today you and me. i still dig you like crazy. our life is really bananas right now and it wouldn't be fun with anyone but you.
you're my favorite and if you want to know my plan, well it's to just keep lovin' you of course cause it seems to be workin'.

dum dum dum dum

my sister in law mary is getting married in 11 days. wow! 11 days! that's really soon!
anyway, we're all in the wedding (except thomas, he just gets to be cute). this is little tayloe's ring bearer suit (the shorts and peter pan blouse do da, not the bubble suit. that one is thomas'). i really want to try it on him, but i don't have the guts. i know we'll mess it up.
he also has little white saddle shoe type things. he's gonna slay 'em, even if he doesn't manage to get down the aisle, which is really a toss up at this point. i have a feeling he'll do it, but i don't want to get my hopes up.
so look people, i need you to pray with me that it doesn't rain AT ALL next week. there can't be a puddle anywhere within 10 miles of mt. airy on saturday the 11th. not a single one.
no puddles, no puddles, no puddles ....

t3

ok i'm not sure how we got so lucky, but thomas is seriously the best baby on the planet. tayloe was a good baby. if it's possible, thomas is even better.
and big tayloe is such a sweet husband. all day i sit around and daydream about how my life sucked before tayloe came and rescued me from my evil and disreputable life and drove me away on a silver pumpkin carriage made of love and sacrifice. i've been in AA for 6 years now and sober as a polecat. god bless john mccain and sarah palin.
(obviously t1 hijacked my blogger mid-post while i was putting t2 down for a nap. however, he is a sweet husband and an amazing dad. and he can be rather funny).

but he looks so sweet

doesn't he? he certainly has moments, but don't be fooled.
obviously having a little brother is confusing. he cries, he stinks sometimes, he doesn't do much and yet he takes up a remarkable amount of his parent's time. what's a 2 year old to do? why, act like a blazing, mad maniac of course.
some clips from the week's highlight reel:
* at the park, he shoved a friend into the soccer goal and ran away with his arms in the air yelling 'GOOOOAAAALLL'
* swat, spit or do both at any human who tries to say hello in public. scowl when someone says 'you're adorable' or 'what beautiful hair.'
* launch tv remotes and the phone off the couch onto wolly's peacefully sleeping head.
* dive bomb off a chair. when you're ignored, stand in the middle of the living room and drop suddenly from standing to lying down (the way someone would if they'd just dropped dead) over and over until someone notices and tells you to stop.
* take your diaper off when you're supposed to be napping and scream 'PEE PEE, PEE PEE, PEE PEE, PEE PEE' until someone comes in and takes you to the toilet
on the plus side, he didn't pee all over his bed. for this, i'm thankful and also slightly proud.
luckily, none of this awfully offensive and at times embarrassing behavior (because none of it limited to the confines of our home) has been directed at his little brother. to him, he's incredibly tender and sweet. to us, though - specifically to me - he's punishing.
so unfortunately, the honeymoon is over. do you have any idea how difficult it is to be compassionate but really firm with a wailing, flailing little rager? sometimes i seriously want to poke his eyes out.
on the plus side, this can't possibly last forever and it certainly can't get much worse (knock on wood).
and he is pretty cute.
it's a damn good thing.

naptime

what a gorgeous saturday afternoon looks like at our house. i could nap too, but i can't resist the urge to just sit here and listen to the silence and enjoy no one needing anything. even wolly's asleep on his bed.
aaaaahhhh.

2 weeks

some recent shots. thomas went for his 2 week appt on tuesday. he's gained 21 ounces since friday the 5th. so he's up to 8 lbs, 15 oz, only i'm sure he's at least 9 lbs by now because he's a piggy.
here's how our night went last night. bed at 10, up at 1:30 with thomas. asleep again at 2:15. 3:30, tayloe comes in our room - something he never does. we're both too sleepy to get up, so he stays in bed with us until i can't take it any more and return him to his bed at 4:15. 4:20 the baby starts crying. i leave tayloe and get up to feed thomas. thomas goes back to sleep at 4:35 and t2 starts crying. i get in bed with t2 and fall asleep (of course) until i hear the rooster crow at 6. i go get in our bed, taking thomas with me because i know he's bound to wake up the moment i fall back to sleep. we sleep until 8:30.
somehow, i feel rested. i'm not even sure how that's possible.
that was one of only two (maybe three, i can't remember) really unsettling nights we've had. thank god for the new coffee shop down the street that makes a killer double latte.

1 week

one week down, 1,203,357 to go. or maybe more. but who's counting?
t2 managed to catch himself a cold, so he's been at his grandparents house since saturday. that's given t1 and i time with thomas and i gotta say, it's been awesome. so far he's an easy baby and is really predictable. i like that in a kid. he's also very sweet and warm and soft and i like that in a kid, too.
t2 is back tomorrow. today i called my parent's house and he answered the phone. hhhiii mama, he said. then he told me how he's been playing with pop and pop and grandjane's dog eddie and that at that very moment he was watching choo choo. he sounded so grown up. since when does he answer the phone and carry on a conversation?
i like this photo of thomas because of the furrowed brow. it's so hard to determine any features belonging to one parent or another at such a young age, but this brow is very very hard to mistake.
am i the only one who recognizes it?

happy birthday thomas bouldin

well, wouldn't you know the weekend tayloe and little t go away for 48 hours is the weekend i go into labor.
thomas bouldin emery was born monday morning (labor day!) at 7:52 a.m. he weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and is 22 inches long. he's got a sweet head of blonde hair and eats and sleeps just the way a baby should. he's named after my dad. we can only hope he's as kind, good natured and loving.
as promised, here's the charity water link. (note that i had to put that his birthday is sept 1 2007 because choosing 2008 wasn't an option). more soon ...

guesses

the tally so far ...
cat: sept 7
tayloe: sept 1, high noon
grandjane: aug. 31
cousin suzie: aug 31
kate: aug. 7
pierce posse: sept 7
ganny: sept 6
grandpolly: sept 4
aunt c: sept 9
276 main street: aug 31
linz: sept. 5

anyone else?

as a side note, if he is born in september and you're thinking of sending a little something, we'd much rather you watch this trailer (click on the blue link, silly) and consider making a donation to charity water. once he's here, we'll set up a birthday page for him and link to it from this site.

bwak bwak

i can't believe i haven't blogged about our chickens. here they are in all their glory, making their once daily venture into our kitchen.
generally chickens are pretty stupid. i expected these guys to make it all of a week or two. but we've had them about two months and they don't show any signs of going anywhere anytime soon. in fact, they're kinda smart.
maybe it's because they're bantams. they roost up in trees at night so they don't get eaten by critters like fox. and they all stick together - two hens flecked by four roosters. poor gals.
the guys, though, are terrible at crowing. maybe it's because they're small or they're still kind of young. i'm not sure. the noise is this horrid pre-pubescent squawk that might not be so awful if it was just one. but all four typically carry on for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. in truth i've gotten used to it and usually just tune it out like a 2 year old tantrum. it's our visitors who suffer.

countdown

people are having a lot of fun guessing baby no. 2's birthday, so let's make it public.
what's' your guess? the due date is sept. 5. i'll tell you my mother has already claimed the morning of aug. 31, partially because it's her birthday and partially because it's the day following a full moon in a blue moon month. but that doesn't mean you can't join her. (i'd say it's a pretty good guess as guesses go, except that'd put me a whole week early and i just can't imagine doing anything that ahead of time).
i'm guessing sept. 7 for no real reason except that's when i'd like it to happen. which means it won't. also, tayloe was due on a friday but was born 2 days late on a sunday, so it seems to me this birth should follow suit. it's funny how your brain falls back on what it knows when it doesn't have any other information to go on.
now that the house is finished (pictures soon) i really should get some things done this week, like get a bag packed and get some fall clothes & shoes for t2 and maybe buy a decent looking pair of pajamas since we'll have a few more visitors this time. maybe i should start a list.
we're pretty much ready though. his room is clean and his clothes are clean and i even have some diapers. tayloe and i have surrendered to being tired and exasperated and have promised to remind each other that it won't last forever.
it's anyone's guess whether little tayloe is ready for the storm that's about to rock his little world. he knows there's a baby in my belly, but when we tell him there'll be a baby in our house soon he says, 'no way.' and not like , 'NO WAY, GET OUT! HOW FUN' more like, 'no way am i going to tolerate that.' sometimes for kicks i ask him where the baby should sleep and he either says with wolly or outside with cheese, his fish.
anywho, waddya think. early, late or right on time? i'll keep a running tally and post it here. the winner gets to host t2 in his/her own home for an ENTIRE WEEK!!! NO WAY!!!! HOW FUN!!!!!!!

what a mom is

my mom and her best friend have been here the past two days cleaning and unpacking our house. i'd like to say helping me clean our house, but that would be a big fat lie because i haven't been doing anything. no one can tell you to sit down and shut up the way your mother can.
they've unpacked our kitchen, assembled cabinet doors, cleaned floors, dusted, washed windows, done laundry and moved and rearranged and moved again our furniture. my mom even talked the guy working on our bathroom into hauling away a bunch of trash that would have taken us years to get rid of.
our house looks absolutely amazing (i'm taking pictures soon, just gotta find that camera ...) and there is no way under heaven that i could have done it. i can barely bend over to look in the fridge.
throw away all the parenting books and take a lesson from my mother - the greatest gift you can give your child is love. and my mom gives it perfectly.
thanks, ma. a million times over, thanks. (you, too, brenda)

recap

we went to hershey park and had a great time, but i didn't have my camera with me so i have no visual documentation whatsoever. i can, however, offer you this excerpt of the moment i knew it was time to go home:
little tayloe wants to ride the ladybug saucers. we say ok! tayloe sees a bench and leaves us in line to go sit on it. that's ok because he'd ridden pretty much everything else and won t2 a stuffed animal at one of the games and bought us all lemonade and cheeseburgers. it's our turn and the only saucer left already has two little girls and their mother in it. tayloe climbs in and says, 'mama, sit!' i'm not sure i can, i say. he looks at me funny.
see, the saucer has a wheel in the middle for kids to hold on to. and the space between the seat and the wheel may have fit nicole richie or angelina jolie at 8 1/2 months pregnant but i was pretty sure it wasn't going to fit catherine emery 8 1/2 months pregnant. besides that, the whole apparatus is really low to the ground.
then the mother of the girls says she thinks i can get in. i ask her if she has any vaseline. then the ride operator weighs in and before you know it we have something of a scene over WHETHER OR NOT I CAN FIT IN A SEAT. ON A KIDDIE RIDE. horrid.
tayloe's on a bench, watching, remember.
i decide to just get in for no other reason but to make it all stop. so i do. my ass is hanging off the seat and i'm sideways in the ride and my knees are pretty much in my mouth and the baby has decided to roll over entirely to my right side, but i'm in. 'yay mama!' tayloe says. yay mama i say back.
we start moving. round and round and round in circles. tayloe's holding on and giggling and yelling, 'WHEE' and i'm about to vomit. and just then, i look over at his father - my husband, the person i adore more than anyone in the world - and i can make out through the whirls and the blurry vision and the extreme discomfort that he's laughing. really hard, actually. and so i start laughing because really, it's pretty funny.

some recent pictures

4 more weeks

i'm thinking about it and you know, i've always kind of thrived on deadlines. i think it's the reason i became a journalist in the first place - i knew it was the only profession that would allow me to actually accomplish something.
i pretty much need someone breathing down my neck.
in this case, it's a small baby. only he's not exactly breathing down my neck as much as he is needling me from the inside. which sometimes is just as annoying.
i'm pretty sure just my 8 months pregnant presence scares every workman who steps into this house. especially the young ones. they look especially frightened.
on thursday, the tile guys took the toilet out of the bathroom. on friday the contractor told me the 'thought' the plumber was coming to reinstall it.
you think? i said. i have no idea how i looked at him but before i could say anything else he was dialing the plumber's number on his cell phone. an hour later, they were here.
honestly, i've never been so effective.
we're getting there, though. we have new cabinets and a great new island, a new bathroom and new appliances. of course nothing's hooked up yet, but we're close. really, really close. if the floors are sealed this week and the electrician actually shows up on wednesday and the painter comes on thursday and the plumber and contractor make it on friday and they all do most of what they say they're going to do (which they all pretty much have so far), we'll be really really close.
i'm optimistic. no one wants a lecture from a pregnant lady. and they sure as shit don't want a phone call from tayloe.
anyway, it's one of our last chances to go on an adventure just the three of us so we're leaving to go to hershey park in pennsylvania tomorrow. i can't even believe how willing i am to go to an amusement park while 8 months pregnant in august, but i am. i'm super excited even. that should give you a little insight to what a wreck our house is.

news from lake wollygone

the day after little tayloe's birthday, we had to bail wolly out of the doggie clink which, it turns out, was a major pain in the ass.
the next night i let him outside before bed and though i was outside too he managed to sneak away only to return home at 2 in the morning. he stood at the front door and howled (not barked, not scratched, hhhoooowwwwllleed like we had done something to him) until we got up and let him in.
a few days later, he found his way out in the middle of the night and was gone when we woke up. he returned later in the day but had to be shut in our bedroom because the floor guys were here working. that afternoon, he decided our freshly painted walls were the perfect landing place the yellowish/greenish liquid that came rapid fire from his butt. i can only assume it was the bi-product of trash he'd been shifflett'ing around after the day before.
i feel like putting a sign around his neck that says 'if you feed or play with this dog, you keep him' because that's what he's going out looking for. and make no mistake, his first objective is to find a fetch sucker. if he gets a bologna sandwich too, well that's just makes the trip all the more worth the while.
he's managed to stay put the last few days, but that's not always good either. when he's here he either sticks to me like huge, panting, drooling magnet or he darts around the house trying to eat flies.
of course i love him. he's crazy, frantic, telephone book-eating, santa-loving wolly. but an 8 year old lab isn't supposed to act like a 2 year old lab. an 8 year old lab is supposed to lie around all day on the ac vent.
there's a nice one in the kitchen, by the way. give it a try?

flee the scene

we're out of the house this week while they put our new kitchen and bathroom floors in, install our cabinets and make the shower and tub operational. pray that this all actually happens. if it takes much longer i'm going to just ask my doctors to go ahead and admit me to the hospital and give me the epideral. i'll just wait it out watching 'dirty dancing' and 'flashdance' sipping cranberry juice on crushy ice.
there's this opsprey near mt. airy that builds its nest on the same silo every year. and every year at least once, a huge storm comes along and knocks the thing over. nevertheless the parents pick up the pieces and hold their ground, even through hurricanes.
i'm starting to feel like those birds.

a great birthday, with a hitch

big tayloe took a holiday yesterday and we all went on a mountain journey for t2's birthday. it was good fun, complete with blueberry picking in the mountains, gorgeous views and mud puddles.
the hitch was that wolly was missing for 24 hours, but now he's home. tayloe's my hero for finding him.