24 weeks!

I'm 24 weeks pregnant today! This is exciting because now Nick is considered "viable". So if he were born today (pray he's not) his survival rate could be as great as 70%. For me that's a pretty big deal. I probably won't relax at all until he's safely in my arms, but until then I'm just happy my little boy has a fighting chance!

Praise Je-Asus!

My nighttime lullaby repertoire is quite limited. I only know "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me". I usually end up singing "Twinkle" because, I dunno, I guess I just want to. Well, the other day in the middle of "Tinkle Star" (as Natalie calls it) Natalie started saying "Je-ASUS! Je-ASUS! Je-ASUS!". It took me a moment to realize she was saying "Jesus" and requesting I sing my other beloved lullaby. I hope it made Je-Asus smile.

My life is complete

Southern Pines got a Cracker Barrel.

Mom and I took Natalie to CB for dinner last night, I ate my fill of beans n' greens and Natalie had pancakes. We're good southern girls. As we were walking out of the restaurant, Natalie spotted the rocking chairs. Natalie is ObSeSsEd with "rock rocking". We sat in those rocking chairs for at least 20 minutes... in complete silence. It's the longest Natalie has been silent (with the exception of sleeping) since the day she was born. Periodically I would ask her if she was ready to leave and she would simply say "no". I guess we're going to have a lot of meals at Cracker Barrel. Darn.




Mom asked Natalie to wink:

Over the river and through the woods...

..to GG's house we go!

Mom and I took Natalie over to GG's (my Grandmother's) earlier this week for an indoor adventure. She had never been to GG's house, so we knew it would be a new and exciting indoor activity to go explore. She had a wonderful time! My Grandmother is a sentimental sap and has saved every single dolly I discarded through the years... her house is filled with English dollies (not in a creepy way, though) at every turn. I can imagine Natalie must have thought it was the most magical place on Earth.

In other Natalie news: I got my very first unsolicited "Thank you, Mommy" the other day. Sweetest thing in the world. Her little voice is enough to melt the hardest of hearts. The "thank yous" or actually the "kank yous" haven't stopped. I'm so proud of the sweet little thing she is!

When in doubt, blame the media

Not related to the Blanton's at all.... just a vent.


In the fallout of the Casey Anthony verdict I've heard many people criticize the media for highlighting such cases as hers and not other equally deserving injustices. There have even been derogatory comments made to those of us who are publicly outraged, which I kind of want to say in reply "Seriously? If you're criticizing me for feeling anguish at the death of a young girl by her mother's hands... shove off." I think it goes without saying that a lot of people get away with murder and a lot of times it goes unnoticed, but for those times it doesn't wouldn't we be considered heartless to not care?
Anyway, all this got me thinking. Why does the media gravitate to some cases and not others? Surely some other pitiful excuse for a mother has harmed her child somewhere. I got my answer. A friend of a friend is good friends with (stay with me here) a superior court judge. This particular judge has before and most likely will again oversee some of the most horrific trials imaginable. Trials the likes of which Nancy Grace would sell her soul to cover. He never allows cameras in his courtroom. Did you get that? HE NEVER ALLOWS THE MEDIA IN. End of story.
So what's the media to do other than move on?

The Age of Reason

Natalie and I met a friend of mine and her son at the Reservoir Park for a walk today. (Thanks for the fun walk Libba and Nathan!) I decided to get there a little early so Natalie could get her sillies out before hitting the trail. When we drove up she immediately started saying "Fun!" over and over again. Once we got out of the car she beelined it to the reservoir screaming "smimmin poo! smimmin poo!" When I caught up with her (which was just before she jumped head first into the water) I explained to her that it was not a swimming pool and not meant for swimming. To which she replied by pointing to the ducks and saying "Momma, ducks smim!" Oh boy.

Music Together Class

I've been trying to get Natalie into a Kindermusik class for ages now and I keep hitting a wall. The teacher never gets back to me, she doesn't post classes until they're already full and quite frankly, the whole process had just been working on my nerves. I was elated when I heard about a "Music Together" class that was going to be offered this summer. I immediately contacted the teacher and got a response within minutes! Today was Natalie's first class and she loved it. There was lots of singing, stories, dancing, instruments and good fun. Mom registered her for the whole session and I can't wait to take her back next week!

Beach Babe

Mom and I took Natalie to the beach for the 4th and despite a few minor mishaps, she had a blast. She was hard work on the beach, though. She's not one of those kids that sits and plays in the sand. No, she's more of the run-at-full-speed-for-hours-with-no-breaks-for-mommy kind of kid. This mom-to-be got plenty of exercise chasing after her. Her energy is high and her fear is low. She ran into the waves head first, which terrified me. But even more terrifying is her friendly and inquisitive nature. She knows no stranger. Sometimes she would get so far ahead of me I would panic. Running at full speed, someone still could have grabbed her and I would have had a chase on my hands. I did the best I could, though, and we made it!

I was so worried about her fragile skin getting assaulted by the sun (it was her first sunny summer beach day) that I constantly reapplied sunscreen to her little body... even her scalp. Parenting fail. When we rinsed off at the end of the day all that sunscreen trickled down into her eyes causing her terrible pain. She looked like someone had punched her, it was awful. I ended up causing her more grief than a sunburn would have... Poor baby.

The best part of the whole trip was the first night. Natalie slept in her crib in the second bedroom and my plan was to sneak in there well after she was asleep to sleep in my bed. All was well until 3:30 in the morning. I got made. I stayed in bed hoping she'd give up, but eventually I caved and put her bed with me. I was thinking it was so late and we were both so tired that she would sleep. Wrong. Being in bed with Mommy is like the coolest thing in the whole wide world. Her nighttime rambles went a little something like this "Nanayee ni-ni. Mommy ni-ni, pretty pretty pretty toes, mommy's toes, cover up, cover up Nanayee, see pretty toes, Iwene go away, hush doggy, O-shun? Nanayee O-shun?" This went on and on and on. Complete with fake snores and pretend sleeping. I was doing pretty good at ignoring her and pretending to sleep in hopes she would settle down until she did the funniest thing ever. Natalie passed gas (loudly, I might add) and said "Bless you, Nanayee". I lost it at that point, put her in her crib and laughed hysterically all the way to the couch.