100 years later

You know it's been a minute since you blogged when you go to your blog and then stare at the screen (and the most recent post, from 1.5 years ago) for five minutes trying to figure out what to do to start a new post. Ha. Am I 400 years old, or is it that after faithfully blogging for what felt like a lonnnnng time, I've well and truly forgotten how to do it?! I'll let you decide that one. Also, let it be noted that being out of the habit of blogging does NOT mean I've forgotten the thrill of receiving blog comments. Shout out to the filthy comment-bots that find a 9 year old post every now and then and helpfully leave garbled comments with hot tips about products that can increase my "manhood" and/or make me rich if only I click this link!! I ain't clicking, but I do appreciate y'all thinking of me and finding some ancient story about my deep thoughts on that day's lunch and gym exploits fascinating and worthy of your robot-time. 

At any rate, it's turned out to be a slow afternoon, so I was digging deep and trying to remember what I used to do during slow afternoons, and here we are. I highly doubt anyone is anxiously awaiting a Life Update from me, but just in case- why not. (The girls in my Zoom book club, affectionately known as Blog Friends Book Club, since we all met via blogging, regularly harass me about not-blogging, but even they do not need this update, since our monthly meetings + Instagram keep them in the know. But I digress.)

Well, since the last time we spoke here in August 2019, there was a pesky global pandemic that made life quite...interesting. (I'm going for positivity here.) So nothing about the last year+ has been normal for my family, as I know applies to everyone...just need to write it down though, so that the NEXT time I blog (appx 2025, if trends hold) I will remember the context of this year. Because I'm sure otherwise I would never remember what a very special, special time 2020-2021 was. Mmmhmm.

Kiddos

Yep, still plural there. Still can only show you pictures of one of 'em, though. As you may recall, we because foster parents in June 2019. We were quickly placed with twin girlies, who stayed with us for five wonderful and chaotic and lovely and tear-filled months. We said goodbye to them right before the holidays, and took a little over a month off to breathe and focus on our family of 3. In January of 2020, though, we said yes to our next placement, and welcomed the absolutely cutest, sweetest baby girl ever (or since Millie was a baby, obviously) into our home. We expected her to stay for a short time, maybe a few weeks, but you will all be utterly shocked to learn that she is still with us...and we hope this will be the case for, oh, ya know, forever. Fingers crossed and that's all I can say, but keep checking back and maybe in a few months or 5 years I will update again and be able to share pictures. :)

But Millie (or Camilla, as she prefers anyone not family to call her) is doing great! She's 6.5, almost done with first grade, and nothing but personality and opinions. She adores being a big sissy, though she is going to adore it more when little sis can PLAY ACCORDING TO HER EVER-CHANGING RULES. Yes, Millie is in the stage where she likes to micromanage every single aspect of play (thus sucking all potential fun out of it, if you're me)..."OK, now you take the baby and say '_____' and now you go over there and sit down and do ____" and OKAY BUT CAN I NOT PLEASE JUST MAKE A FEW OF MY OWN CHOICES AS WE PLAY HOUSE?!?! Sheesh. Anyway, I too am anxiously awaiting the day baby sis can be bossed around in play so that I can go water the plants or something. For the love.

One thing the whole family can agree on, though? Our favorite family TV show- Naked & Afraid. Haaa. But for real, we watch it together all the time, and this guides most of our outdoor adventures as well. We go on lottttssss of walks around town (shoutout to the #1 and only entertainment option of 2020!!!) and on some trails in the woods nearby, and we have all learned so much from watching that show, we spend our time discussing the best place to make shelters, whether water looks potable or not, and pondering what kinds of predators might be after us in any given place. And then we walk home and enjoy eating and sleeping in our nice, air conditioned home. It's really the best of all worlds, since the Bates fam has no desire to ACTUALLY camp or experience nature too much. So there's your hot parenting tip for today (slash this year and probably next year too)-- a show the whole family can enjoy and learn from!

Exhibit A: a bamboo forest near our home that had a lot of shelter-building potential, and MAYBE even some panda bear potential!

Since we pretty much spent the last year at home (we're the mask-wearing, scientific-advice-following, err on the side of caution type folks), we've had lots of time together as a family and are happy to report that we still like one another. And more importantly, Matt and I both ended up buying adult scooters, and with the baby on one of our backs in an Ergo, we take many "family scoot-scoots" around town and are well-acquainted with basically every human, dog, cat, flowering bush, and holiday decoration within a two mile radius of our house.

We ventured off our street for spring break and made our way down to a house on an empty beach on Cape San Blas and it was a delight. But the water was freezing.

Matt & Erika (or...you could say...Matt y Erika...see what I did there?)

Matt and I both worked from home beginning in March of last year. Matt is still working from home, and will be permanently, as it was apparently a big hit with his company. I started phasing back into my office in January with a hybrid WFH/work at office schedule, and have been full time back in the office since the beginning of April. I truly loved working from home, and even enjoyed the extremely chaotic double dip of working from home full-time while managing Millie's digital learning for the fall semester. We sent her back to in-person school in January, when my office's patience with me being home all the time ran out, haha. She is doing great at school, but I so miss getting to see her throughout the day. Kids, man. 

But MOST excitingly....

Matt and I are now both double vaxxed, post-two-weeks, and SO EXCITED! We celebrated by re-joining the YMCA last week, which is great, but not as great as my REAL "congrats on surviving being stuck at home for a year with your very loud children" present to myself, which is a very fancy (by Athens standards) and long-awaited mani/pedi with allll the extras. It's been a LONG TIME (since March 13, 2020, actually, as the first thing my coworker and I did when we got sent home from the office "for two weeks" was stop and get our nails done in case we wouldn't be able to do it again for *gasp* like a whole month or something. OH TO BE SO YOUNG AND INNOCENT.) and I am VERY excited. (Sure, nail salons have been re-opened for a long time here, but spending any unnecessary time indoors in public places is not a thing I have been willing to do until I was fully vaxxed, so NOW IS THE TIME!) I am...perhaps overly excited. It's fine. Just give it to me.

I am so thankful that relatively speaking, the last year has been bad only in a stress and inconvenience sort of way. Though many of our family members and friends got the virus, no one close to us passed away, and I am deeply thankful for that and aware that it certainly is not everyone's situation. As someone who during a "normal" year has a 9-5, lives half an hour out of town, has kids and millions of foster care-related appointments, and is fairly introverted, I don't generally have a busy social life or a group of friends I see regularly (beyond work friends and church friends). By far the best part the last year has been the close friendships I've developed with a group of girls that started with our Bachelor group text (remember how Pilot Pete's season ended JUST as the world shut down?!?!) and just kinda...never stopped. Those girls (a subset of my real-life book club-- ya know, the Bach-watching contingent of the club, haha) were my constant text companions and eventually real-life companions, too, as we started gathering masked-up around someone's fire pit for long conversations after our kids all went to bed. I imagine my feelings for them are something like what soldiers might feel for the people they went to war with. But those ladies were a life-saver this past year, and the joy we've shared as we've slowly all gotten ourselves (and our partners) vaccinated is just...priceless. I cannot wait to sit INSIDE THEIR ACTUAL HOUSES very soon and drink my margaritas WITHOUT A MASK IN MY WAY!!

I guess that sums up the last year-ish, pretty much. I should note that we had to say goodbye to sweet Lola, our beloved doggie, in February 2020 (thanks a lot, 2020). We missed her greatly those first few months of being home all the time, and know she would have been so happy to have her people home all of the time. Thankfully, we welcomed a new furry friend into our home in August, and Lucy is the sweetest little blond ragamuffin dog. She's definitely the girls' favorite member of the family, and our house is just a lot happier with a dog running around in it. 

As school wraps up and the hot weather rolls in, we look forward to more walks, more Naked & Afraid marathons, more time with friends, more time working out (hahahahaa...I mean, yes, but am I actually looking FORWARD to it? Debatable), and less time scrubbing makeup off the inside of masks (THE WORST, why do I even bother with makeup, honestly?). More importantly, I look forward to hopefully someday soon telling Millie she's gonna get to be a big sissy forever...that all of her dandelion wishes have paid off (it's legit what she wishes for, every time).

Until next time, friends.

xo

apples and cabins and cows, oh my!

We had a wonderful weekend adventure with some of our favorite friends this weekend...so fun that it inspired me to blog, which is really saying something these days! You may recall that a few years ago Matt and I went to Mexico with our friends Adam and Jessie. It was glorious and relaxing and rejuvenating and people waited on us hand and foot and all we had to do was decide what angle to lay in the sun and what combination of blended alcohol and fruit to imbibe. Glorious. Well, this weekend was really similar because it was still me and Matt and Jessie and Adam...but also our five children (between the ages of 1-6), and instead of a luxury resort in Mexico, we went to a...ummm...rustic might be too generous...cabin in north Georgia. A cabin with two bedrooms and one bathroom. And there were no attentive staff waiting on us hand and foot...it was more like endless children crawling underfoot and demanding things. But otherwise is was basically exactly the same.

HAHAHA no it wasn't. But it was its own kind of wonderful, I promise.

Our primary goal was to go apple picking. Matt and I have never been, so obviously Millie hasn't either, and it was high time to cross that off our bucket list!! Millie, as expected, was REALLY EXCITED about the whole thing. 

Actually, she was really confused about why we were pooping on her eating-apples-off-the-ground party, but she caught on eventually. We had a lot of fun picking (and eating) apples, although I must admit that it was a much stinkier project than I'd imagined. Who woulda thought that thousands of apples rotting in the Georgia heat (the apples on the ground) (yes, it's still in the 80s here, even in the foothills of the mountains...gah...) could create such a delightful smell? Phew! Anyway, it was great even with that.

The apple orchard had the whole fall farm festival thing going on, so there were all kinds of other fun things to entertain the kids (and adults, let's be honest) for the rest of the day. We ate loads of fried garbage and drank tasty apple cider slushies...I hear people who live in places that get actual fall weather drink something called "hot cider," but cider slushies are way more my jam when I'm sweating buckets waiting in line for the ponies!

Millie had loads of fun doing anything that involved touching animals. That baby cow in the top right picture was her SOUL MATE. I swear they were communicating in a secret language or something and plotting to run off together. It was precious. My little cow whisperer. But then again, her expression while cuddling the kitten was basically perfection. True love.

On our way back home on Sunday, we stopped in an adorable small town (Ball Ground, GA, anyone?) and ate some incredibly tasty German food and played in a lovely (and very Stars Hollow-esque) gazebo- or "my house," as Millie quickly named-and-claimed it. 

Trying to wrangle the kids to stay still for pictures was nearly impossible, but the chaos nicely captured the essence of the weekend, haha. It wasn't exactly relaxing, but it was an awful lot of fun...which I also think sums up parenthood pretty nicely! Now we have a few weeks to recover and detox from apple-themed, sugar-filled fried everything...because we head back to the mountains with our family for another weekend soon! Yaaaaay for fall and fun, and we'll pray many prayers that the weather will cool the heck off so that we aren't forced to continue our summer wardrobes well into November. UGH. (We may LOOK semi-fallish in these pictures, but trust me, we were all sweating to death because the mamas were overly optimistic about "mountain weather" when packing...)

neighbor of the year

Maybe you've noticed, but I don't get around to doing weekend recaps (or any sort of recaps, except maybe Millie's monthly updates, really) much anymore. Thus is the plight of the strapped-for-time-and-energy working mom, I suppose. But here it is on Sunday night and I have an hour and I just finished a book and haven't started my next book and what the heck, why not share a few of the more memorable highlights of the last few days?

Please note: "memorable" does not necessarily mean "good." You have been warned.

Since it's summer in Georgia and approximately 3,478 degrees outside for most of the day, I try to go outside with Millie in the mornings and the evenings, when it is perhaps only in the mid-90s and therefore somewhat bearable.

These lantana are delicious, Mom. I love second breakfast!

 We don't have a lot of fun outdoor toys yet, but Millie finds grass and flowers to be pretty amusing, so throw in a few sand toys from the beach and she's a happy camper. 

THIS GRASS!! Seriously, Mom, what kind of seasoning are you using? It's perfection.

The problem with being this adorable is that people never stop kissing you...

She's a really happy camper, though, when the two-year-old from next door sees us outside playing and comes running over. This is also one of my favorite things. I have long entertained visions of my children playing in the yard on long summer evenings with the neighbor kids, the way I played with my neighbors growing up...it was blissful. So when Wyatt recently started noticing Millie walking around and looking generally more interesting than the lumpy baby she used to be, he started yelling across the yards at us: Miiiiwwwwwwiiieeeee!!! Can I pway wif Miwwie?? Miwwie's ball? I can play wif Miwwie's ball? And he comes over and they play and the parents chat and it's really like a dream come true.

Most of the time.

Except for Thursday night. Because on Thursday night, something went terribly awry in our idyllic little summer neighborhood scene.

Wyatt and Miwwie were playing with her ball, and since Millie's defense skills are currently rather lacking, the ball went right past her and rolled into the garage and under our car. Uh oh!!! I get it!!!! Wyatt tells us, running to the garage. His dad follows him and lays down to reach under the car for the bouncy ball. I'm chatting with Wyatt's mom and not paying much attention to either of them as they retrieve the ball, but we both look over when Wyatt walks up to us holding something thin in his hand. I can get the ball with this? he asks, extending his arm towards his mom and me. 

Our garage floor is scattered with the random dried grass and sticks that falls off the bottom of the lawn mower when we drive it back in. So I assumed that what Wyatt had picked up off the floor was some dried up vine or something. As his mom and I moved in closer to look, she shrieked. IS THAT A SNAKE???!

I was about a foot away from my two-year-old neighbor, and as soon as she said it, I knew it was true. It was definitely not a weed wrapped around Wyatt's arm. It was a SNAKE. A very thin black snake. WRAPPED AROUND HIS ARM.

I was the closest adult to Wyatt by about two feet. Therefore I did what the Closest Adult was duty-bound to do.

Stare in shock and horror. A snake. Wrapped around his arm. OH MY GOSH. A snake!! In MY garage!! It's on his arm! Oh, wow! I wonder how it got in here? I wonder what my cat does all day...why didn't it kill it? Is there a mommy snake somewhere? There's a snake on his arm! Ahhh!

Obviously I was far too consumed with my own thoughts to do anything useful, like say GET THE SNAKE OFF HIS ARM.

Yes, I am ready to receive my Most Worthless Adult of the Year award.

Luckily, Wyatt's mom has better Mom Reflexes than I do, and she bravely slapped the snake off his arm. About one second after it bit him.

A SNAKE BIT A TODDLER IN MY GARAGE. It was the worst Thursday night ever. Ugh.

The weird thing is that although four out of four adults were freaking out about the whole Snake Biting Toddler situation, the toddler and the almost-toddler couldn't have been less interested or alarmed. Approximately the same second that the snake bit him and his mom frantically slapped it off his arm, Wyatt noticed my old bike sitting on the driveway (I had pulled it out to clean it off) and walked over to it. Ooohh, a bike!!! Can I touch it?

We spent the next few minutes trying to identify the snake and monitor Wyatt's arm. Thankfully, the snake ended up being a non-poisonous Southern Ringneck, and his arm showed no sign of trauma. They erred on the side of safety and called the after-hours nurse line (they said just to clean with soap and water and watch for signs of infection, but were otherwise unconcerned) and took him over to the fire station to have an EMT look at it (same story). By the following morning, they couldn't even see where the bite was, and so luckily this story has an uneventful ending. He's doing just fine, and they even came back over to play on Friday evening, so I guess they have forgiven me for being the most useless human being on earth ever.

You should probably all stop and say a prayer of thanks that I don't work in any kind of environment that requires the ability to make split-second life-saving decisions and actions. The world would be a scary place. Ugh. I really had no idea I was this bad in a crisis...so I've spent the weekend coming to terms with this new facet of my personality. Ha.

Luckily, Snakegate was pretty much the low point of the week...the rest of the weekend was much less eventful.

 On Friday night, Matt was hanging out with some guys, so Millie and I went on a mommy-daughter date to eat Mexican food. As you can see, it was probably the greatest night of her life. Ha. Actually, we had a lot of fun...this is just what her post-Mexican food coma looks like. She does me proud the way she inhales Mexican food.

On Saturday night Matt and I attended the wedding of a dear friend slash (now-former, waaaahhh) coworker. I had way too much fun getting dolled up (and attempting a fancy braided updo in my hair that you cannot see at ALL in this picture...the only picture I took all night...of course), and the wedding and reception were beautiful (and delicious). I got a new dress for the occasion and I loved it- so much that I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing it again next month for another wedding, ha, so pretend you've never seen it when I show pictures from that wedding, okay? Thanks. 

Oh hey, Mom. I'm cuter than all get out, right?

Four hours of being away from my girl last night was too much, so I've been happy to make up for the lost time today. It's been an uneventful (and snake-free, I might add) day of church and toys and chores and wagons and errands. We introduced good ol' whole milk to Millie's diet today, a few days shy of her first birthday, and so far she's a pretty big fan. She's moved to the one-year-old class at school, and they can't have bottles or formula in there (although they'll give us a little grace period to get her changed over), so I'm glad that she seems to be transitioning fine and not missing her bottles at all. And I'm REALLY excited at the prospect of perhaps never having to buy formula again (for Millie)!! Cha-CHING!$!$!$!

And with that, we head into another week. Birthday week. I have only two days left with a child whose age is measured in months instead of years. It's a little sad, but I can't help but remember how fortunate I am to have a healthy child privileged to celebrate her first birthday. I am currently mourning with my best friend, who will give birth next week to her son who has Trisomy 13. He is not expected to live for more than a few minutes to hours past birth, if he survives childbirth at all. I have mourned and wept with my friends over the past seven months of waiting for this tragedy (while desperately hoping and praying for a miracle) while simultaneously experiencing the joy of watching my own child grow up healthy and strong, and the juxtaposition is just too much sometimes. At any rate, I would appreciate it if you would keep Kristina, James, and their sweet baby Ezekiel in your thoughts and prayers this week. 

yay, friends! and predictably, flowers.

We had an awesome weekend with friends. And not just any old friends- super exotic international friends!!! Dave and Natasha (and Sam and Rachel) came all the way from CANADA just to see us!! Okay, maybe not- maybe they are actually doing a two-week Southern U.S. road trip and we were merely one stop of many...but the fact remains that they came from Canada and stayed with us for two whole days!

Even though this is the first time we've ever met in 'real life,' it certainly didn't feel that way. I guess we're both pretty much the same way in real life that we are on our blogs and emails, so there weren't any surprises (like surprise, I'm actually a  60-year-old man!!! or surprise, I'm a serial killer!!...you know, like everyone warned you would happen if you met someone "from the internet"...) I had a great time introducing her (and her family!) to Athens, which mainly involved a lot of eating.

Sunday was rainy but not terribly cold, so we braved the elements and took a lovely stroll through the Botanical Gardens. If this discourages you from wanting to visit me now...it's understandable. But looking at flowers is seriously my favorite thing to do, especially with fellow flower-lovers, so bad weather be damned...we were going to the garden!!

Millie even seemed to enjoy it! Between the Ergo, Matt's rain jacket, and the umbrella...I don't think she even realized it was less-than-optimal weather conditions.

We had a lot of fun...who wants to come visit next? Maybe you'll get lucky and I won't drag you through a garden in the rain, but no promises.

Speaking of friends...

Last week, Millie's teachers reported that she and another little girl in her class have been spotted holding hands and babbling together lately!! This totally warmed my heart and made my day (just ask my coworkers, I couldn't stop talking about it)- so far Millie only really shows interest in me, Matt, and animals...I've been so excited for her to start making friends with other babies! I begged Millie's teachers to please text me pictures if she did anything adorable like hold hands with other babies, and I was only sliiiiightly excited to receive a long string of picture texts later that morning showing just that!! (Again, my deepest apologies to my coworkers who probably got really tired of hearing me squeal over these pictures...all day long...)

LOOK AT THAT HAND HOLDING!!!!!!!!

 Sorry for the obnoxious cropping of Millie's friend, but I don't know S's parents' policy on plastering their baby all over the internet, so I'll err on the side of not. Hopefully cute hand-holding is fair game, though.

We're both super cute! We should be friends!

Oh wait, excuse me? Did you just take my rattle? I'm not so sure about this friendship thing.

I really like Millie's girl, please face in that last picture. Hopefully she also shares smiles (and toys! and germs!) with her friends, too.

Do you remember last year when I talked about the tulips that popped up in my gardens and surprised me (because I'd forgotten I planted them)? (Yes, flowers again...sorry.) Well, they've done it again. Obviously I am the dumbest person alive when it comes to bulbs (or at least tulips)...I 100% thought that they were a one-and-done thing...that they wouldn't come back this year (unless I planted new ones, of course). But guess what!? I was wrong!!

Hey, where did these come from??

 Last year those tulips gave me such hope when they came up. They symbolized beauty rising from the ashes of the previous fall. And now here they are again. There were no ashes this fall. Just happiness. And now a little extra beauty piled on top of the happiness.

My little hope fulfilled sitting beside last year's symbols of hope. I don't even know what to make of it, but I sure am thankful.

christmas card roundup

You pretty much saw my Christmas card (proudly displayed on my own piano!) during my house tour last week, but I figured I better share it "officially" for good measure. We used Costco for our cards (we also used them for our birth announcements) and they did a great job. Actually, they messed up the order the first time (gave us the correct number of envelopes but shorted us a set of 25 cards...), but as soon as I let them know, they re-sent the entire (correct) (and ENTIRE, sooo...we had WAY more cards than we needed) order immediately. So...high five for prompt problem-solving, Costco!

Wow. The mustard yellow throw pillow I chose to set the card on to photograph it REALLY does a lot for it, right? That nice glow? Special. 

Anyway. I love the card and especially love that Costco prints your return address on the envelopes for you, saving my poor hand a lot of writing (or stamping, actually).

Back in 2011 I would update my "Christmas card stats" at the bottom of (some of) my December posts. I had fun keeping tabs (and now it's fun to compare this year's cards), so I figured I'd assess the cards we've received so far this year.

The door looks a lot happier than last week! Also, does it drive you crazy that I just stick the cards up there all willy-nilly and not in lines or rows? I like it, but I feel like it would cause some folks to lose sleep at night. All the uptight people. ;) But trying to put them in lines/rows would drive ME crazy because I want to put them up as they arrive...and how could I know how many I'll ultimately receive to accurately judge how to space them? How to account for horizontal/vertical orientations? See, that would be worse. WILLY-NILLY IT IS.

So far we have a total of 22 cards.

Number of Non-Photo Cards: 4
Number of Photo Cards: 18

Of the 18 photo cards...
Number of collage cards: 10 (So this is apparently a big thing now! I swear in previous years collage cards were NOT this prevalent! All you indecisive people...)
Number of cards from blog friends (that I would not/did not know outside of blogging): 10 (Matt really loves opening cards from strangers and seeing them displayed all the time!)
Number of cards with pets: 2 (Poor pets.)
Number of cards from people named Amanda: 4 (this is Matt's favorite joke- every time a new card comes: IS IT FROM AMANDA?!??!!)
Number of cards from Georgia: 6
Card hailing from furthest away: Northglenn, Colorado (1,447 miles). I am actually shocked- I had already written down Ontario, Canada...but then consulted Google Maps and discovered that Ontario is actually CLOSER than Northglenn by about 500 miles! Who knew?

Annnnd...now I need to go to work, so that's all the fascinating statistics I have time for. If you're bored, feel free to assess your own cards! Fun for all (nerds)!

livin' the dream

Like I mentioned last week, I'd really been looking forward to going to the pumpkin patch this year. Looking forward to it for like...you know, the three or so weeks that it's been fall/OMGPUMPKINEVERYTHING!!! but also in a different sense, looking forward to it for five years. 

Side note, but...I don't even remember pumpkin patches being a 'thing' before like...five years ago. Did they exist? Were they around when we were little? I have no recollection (or pictures) of ever visiting a pumpkin patch. We got our pumpkins at the grocery store. We did not wear smocked thematic outfits to get them, either. I don't remember them existing in my city, not even in high school...but now they're everywhere, even around my hometown, so like...do I have pumpkin patch amnesia? Or is it a new thing? Or is it just something I never even noticed or cared about until I was afflicted with infertility and suddenly became hyper-aware of every single fun parents-and-kids thing that I was missing out on?? I've been pondering this for a few days. Also, is there a correlation between the skyrocketing popularity of PSLs that somehow made ALL pumpkin and 'fall' things become more prevalent??

I should probably go back to school and study this. Obviously it's important.

So there were a lot of years of expectations piled onto Saturday's trip to the farm, and thankfully, well..

I mean, I was at a pumpkin patch with my baby. What else mattered? I could have been ran over by a tractor, pooped on by a goat, and lost my purse in the corn maze- I was at a freaking pumpkin patch with my baby and my husband; it was the best damn day ever.

And then I went home and went all-out Obnoxious Mom on Facebook and posted a million pictures, so it was pretty much the quintessential Fall Saturday of Parenting.

The weather did us a solid and acted really fall-ish all day! I mean, it was in the 50s and WINDY when we got there at 10:00 a.m. That's legit by Georgia standards. It was in the upper 80s the day before, so...yeah, this was definitely Millie's first exposure to non-balmy temperatures. Matt and I were super concerned and hyper-vigilant about keeping her warm. We added layers upon layers. We cuddled her. We pulled the sweater back around tight. We kept grabbing her hands to make sure they weren't too cold. We don't really own any infant-sized cold weather gear like gloves, so we were improvising...

For instance, we found her (way too big) sun hat in the basket under the stroller. We stuck it on her head thinking it might help keep her head warm. A few minutes later we realized we had a hooded jacket in the car, so we swapped out her (much cuter) sweater for the (much warmer) hoodie. This ended up being a really hilarious (and maybe ironic) decision when at the end of the day we realized that she was indeed plenty warm, but had unfortunately acquired a sunburn on her face. AHHHH. Poor baby. Major parenting fail. Too concerned with warmth. Forgot to be concerned about the sun that can still inflict sunburns even when it's cold. UGH.

Anyway. We met my friend Amanda and her husband and son at the patch (it's actually a huge farm) and had a fabulous time taking in all the sights and attractions.

We corn mazed (maized?? HAHAHAHA)!

Wow, this is so much fun, Mom. Not.

 We ate tiny, lady-like portions of fresh kettle corn!

 We rode on various tractor-pulled train-type things!

We posed in front of giant rocking chairs!

We saw teeny baby bunnies!!! PS. I would like a baby bunny, thanks.

We rode the 'cow train'! Matt opted to ride with Spunky. Obviously.

This is also fascinating, Dad. Can we come back every weekend?

 We watched pig races!!

We wrangled every bit of fun we could out of the four hours we spent there. It was awesome. I think I had the biggest, goofiest perma-grin on my face the whole time. Millie was asleep and/or oblivious to what was going on for like 85% of the time, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it enough for the both of us.

Before we left, we walked through the sunflower fields for some final pictures. We would have walked for longer except for apparently sunflower fields are THE place for bees to hang out, and I'm not particularly interested in finding out if Millie has a bee sting allergy just yet. So we had to peace out quickly.

Speaking of allergies- apparently I have a really special one. See that orange bracelet thing on my wrist? You know, the thing they give you so that they know you paid for all the fun you're having? Yeah, when I got home my arm was all red and rashy around where the bracelet had been. You could see the band where the bracelet was (it was white/un-rashy) and then it was red bumps/welts around it. Really bizarre. Luckily I seem to have recovered, so...whew. I'm such an overcomer. And it totally will not stop me from going back. Can't no rash keep me down!

So we had four glorious hours to enjoy the crisp weather, the tasty food, our fun friends, and lots of cute animals. We came home with a few souvenirs (some gourds, the remainder of my kettle corn, sunburns times three, and my rash) and a lot of pictures so that I can remember how incredibly happy life can be sometimes. It really was the best day. I mean, I feel like I say that about every day now, but...it just kind of feels that way, you know? I had a lot of crappy days over the last few years...it feels really good to be living in a season where every single day feels like the best day. Gah. Bliss.

a shower, a rugrat, a fall stereotype

 I have several (super important, life-changing, mind-blowing) (not) things to share. Since they aren't really related at all, a list will do ya.

1. I had my fourth shower on Sunday!! It was SO much fun. And I got exactly two pictures. (Well, about 5 takes of the same picture...but I'll only count that as one.)

Here we are with the fabulous hostesses- Amanda, Mollyanne, and Catherine. They did such an amazing job with everything- convincing people to come, making all of my favorite snacks and drinks, and having the supplies for an amazing scrapbook that everyone put together for Millie and me! Just picture all of these things in your head, since...yeah. Here's the only other picture I took. Let's hope Amanda remains friends with me after you see it. ;)

With my knack for photography and catching people at their best...it's a wonder folks aren't beating my door down for the chance at a photo shoot. Then again, they'd have to fight past the people waiting for the chance to hold Millie, so...things could get crazy. But for real. People love holding Millie. She doesn't seem to mind it much, either. Anyway, it was a wonderful shower and I had so much fun hanging out with friends from various groups. And Millie received a lot of really sweet presents!! So everybody wins.

2. I let Millie be a rugrat on Tuesday.

I know, I know. Judge away. I had to judge myself. In case you aren't me or Matt (unlikely, but it could happen) and you aren't sure what I mean by rugrat, let me define.

Rugrat (n): a baby or child that is not fully and/or cutely clothed and/or has a dirty face. May also have 'grocery store feet' (if walking).

I am normally firmly anti-rugrat status. I like Millie to be adorable, fully clothed, and to have a clean face. But if Matt is in charge, she often leans toward rugrat- hanging out in nothing but an unsnapped onesie with the residue from her last bottle still crusty on her cheek. He thinks it's cute. I typically don't. Until yesterday, when all by myself I made the decision that she should play outside like this:

Because SHUT UP- that is one cute rugrat. She'd spilled something on her shirt, so I was changing her outfit...and then I just saw how precious she was in her diaper and made the executive decision that we (well, she) would enjoy the warm weather in the almost-buff. Besides, she'd probably just spit up on the clean shirt, anyway...this is really the more environmentally friendly choice.

Look at that adorable drool hanging off her chin. I was so committed to rugrat-status that I didn't even think to take a burp cloth out with us. When she spit up, I just wiped it on my own t-shirt. So basically I was a Mama Rugrat. Two of a kind.

I texted Matt a picture. Naturally, he approved. 

We spent a good 20 minutes outside being rugrats. When we went in for a nap (on my chest, cause when she's that cute...I just can't put her in the RnP to sleep), we kept our good thing going.

Only time will tell if my new and liberal stance on rugratiness will stick, but dang. She was super cute.

3. We're going to the pumpkin patch (farm) on Saturday!! And I am so excited I can hardly focus. I know it's silly- Camilla is going to be completely oblivious and get NOTHING out of this...it's really for me. But like...'go to the pumpkin patch with my child' has been on my wishful to-do list for like fifty years. I finally have the chance. I refuse to wait another year. Also, there is kettle corn. So like...yeah. And we're meeting some blog friends there! And the weather is going to be freaking amazing- high of 65!!!! So please excuse me as I use 400 exclamation points to express my enthusiasm. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and also, please note Matt's reaction to the news that we are going to be meeting friends at the pumpkin patch.

E: Hey, we're going to meet some of my friends at the pumpkin patch.
M: Cool. Friends? Or blog friends?
E: Ummm...blog friends, but they can just count as friends, you know. We've met them in person before.
M: Oh. Let me guess, is her name Amanda?
E: Yes...
M: [thinks he is hilarious because in his opinion, ALL BLOG FRIENDS ARE NAMED AMANDA. Which is pretty much true, but somehow I just don't find it as hilarious as he does. Besides, he still doesn't actually know who we're meeting...since I really do have like 12 blog friends named Amanda...]

Anyways. I cleared up the which-Amanda situation and we're good to go. But seriously. I wish parents in the 80s were a little more creative naming their baby girls...

Alright, well...my ability to form cohesive sentences is quickly waning, so we'll leave it at three. Have a happy day!

weekending

In a drastic departure from how things went last week, today I can pretty much guarantee that you won't need any Kleenex to get you through my post! Feel free to read away at work!

"Right, so, anyways...like I was saying..."

 I just think it looks like Camilla is mid-conversation in that picture. It kills me.

We took a trip to Augusta for the weekend. Not only had my parents gone an ungodly THREE WHOLE DAYS without seeing Mills, but we also had a shower in our honor on Saturday to attend! I'd been looking forward to this weekend for awhile, and it didn't disappoint!

For starters, my in-laws lent us their minivan for the weekend. Praise the Lord, this meant we didn't have to have Erika, Lola, and Millie Together In The Back Seat of the Matrix: The Reunion Tour. It also meant we actually had space to bring home the gifts we received at the shower. Very important.

The shower was hosted by my lifelong friend Laura and her mom, Debbie. When I say 'lifelong,' I mean it. I don't mean 'since high school' or 'for 20 years.' I mean life. Well, since I was three. So...basically my entire life that I can remember. That's pretty cool. It meant so much to me that they would put together a beautiful shower for me and Millie!

With the fabulous hostess

Although we took plenty of posed pictures, when I was looking through the pics on my mom's iPad, some of the candid shots made me laugh a lot. So I will share them instead. You can just use your imagination to envision all the pretty, posed pictures of various people holding Millie, me and guests, me and decorations, and so on. 

I always think it's funny to see pictures of myself when I'm not looking and I'm (apparently) listening to someone else talk. I guess this is what it looks like. Laura and I are apparently very interested in whatever someone is saying!

During gift-opening time, my mom and I became Facial Expression Twins over this freaking adorable Christmas outfit!!

Okay, that's all the candids I'll bore you with. How about a semi-posed (as much as you can 'pose' a one-year-old and an infant) picture of Carley giving her cousin some love?

I had such a wonderful time at the shower- the food was delicious, the gifts were incredibly generous, and I loved catching up with friends, many whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Oh, and showing off my daughter wasn't so bad either. Millie was a perfect angel and slept through the whole thing (with a few brief periods of waking up and looking around) and didn't mind a bit that she was being handed from person to person the entire time. 

Other than 'showering' (the party kind, not the bathroom kind...clearly), we spent the rest of our time eating, watching football, and enjoying the more fall-ish weather. Oh, and eating. My mom taught me how to boil shrimp!!! I realize this doesn't seem like something that needs teaching, especially when you're a literate adult moderately capable of cooking stuff and following recipes, but...shrimp have always really intimidated me. But these turned out great (we didn't do anything special except use copious amounts of Old Bay) and then I ate basically all of them by myself, which was awesome. I didn't even like 'naked' shrimp (like...I'd eat them fried or cooked into something, but not just plain boiled/steamed) until a few months ago, and now they're all I can think about. So this was a big deal for me.

Oh, dangit. I lied. I am about to show you something that might make you cry. Grab a hanky.

Look what happened to my Kindle!!! A tragedy!!!

No, not the advertised romance novel, although it's probably a tragedy in its own right. 

 Something happened to the top quarter or third of my screen!!! It's all line-y!!!

I can't read it now!!!!

(pretend this is a string of really sad, crying emoji)

I have no idea what happened. I was using it as usual on our drive up on Friday. I put it in the diaper bag. I took it out at some point on Saturday and left it on the dresser in our room until Sunday afternoon when we packed up and left. I turned it on in the car on Sunday and NOW IT IS BROKEN!!! It wasn't dropped or stepped on...I have no idea what happened. :( :( :( :( :( (Sorry, I know that's obnoxious, but like...MY KINDLE IS BROKEN.) Do Kindles just spontaneously break? I think mine did.

Although this Kindle was a gift several years ago, now it is more in my 'necessity' category. Like, I don't think I can wait until my birthday (a million years away in December) to replace it. But I also don't really have a 'Kindle replacement fund' line in the budget. Do you think Kindle Replacement counts as a big enough emergency to tap the Emergency Fund? Someone call Dave Ramsey and let me know. It's an emergency to me. Also, I'm stressing about whether if/when I get a new Kindle, will it transfer all the books from this one onto the new one? That's a big deal. I have books (PAID FOR books...not just free ones!!) that I bought but haven't read yet!! Also, I'm only about halfway through my free 30-day trial of Kindle Unlimited!! Can I pause it since my Kindle is unreadable? Ahhhhhhh!! TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS!!!!

Oh wait. I just looked and discovered that I could get a new (basic) Kindle for $79. Maybe this isn't as big a tragedy as I had thought. For some reason I thought a new Kindle would be like $$$$. I think I can justify $79. I mean, what with the cost of gas...it practically costs that much to drive to the library, right? Right. Thanks for helping me justify.

But still, will it transfer my books? I won't rest until I know. Just kidding, I'll rest whenever the baby rests. Mama didn't raise no fool.

Well, time to go reheat my coffee for the 20th time. There are thank you cards to write, baby announcements to address, and first world Kindle-related problems to freak out over! Have a great Monday!