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...)

football, swimming, bikes, and trust issues

Last week was pretty rough- Millie had a round of croup that just would NOT get better, and she (and therefore all of us...) was pretty miserable all week. Thankfully, she started feeling a lot better right around 5:00 p.m. on Friday, because she knows that being healthy for the weekend is of utmost importance! Much appreciated, Mills.

On Saturday, we decided to go to G-Day, UGA's annual spring football scrimmage game. Matt and I went to G-Day a few years ago, and strangely enough, that remains the ONLY college football game (if you can even consider it that) that we've been to together (although we both graduated from UGA and went to all of the games while we were students...we didn't know each other then)!! I keep thinking one of these days we will happen upon tickets so that we can attend a real game together in the fall, but...not yet, I guess. Ha!

Clearly this was Millie's first college football experience- although she has two UGA basketball games under her belt from this season, so I wouldn't say she's a total sports newbie. You never would have guessed, though- homegirl obviously bleeds red and black just like her parents, and spending a long afternoon in the blazing sun was just fine by her!

Oh, you say there will be music and pom-poms? COUNT ME IN!

And while you're at it- count me sassy.

We had a ton of fun- much like her mama, Millie particularly seemed to enjoy the festive food that goes along with attending sporting events. Fistfuls of popcorn and a giant pretzel? Right up her alley. 

But not everything was up her alley, actually. I think that one day, if Millie ends up having trust issues and reflects back, looking for a cause...I think that this G-Day game may pop into her mind. Sure was funny at the time, though.

So there she was, slamming back ballpark snacks with Mommy and Daddy, when she notices that Mommy and Daddy are sharing a huge cup with a straw. She'd been drinking water out of her own lame sippy cup, but obviously Grown-up Straw Cups are far superior, so she reaches to grab ours. Up to this point in her innocent life, the only thing she's ever tasted from one of our cups is water. We're pretty boring people- we just drink water at home (well, and coffee. And beer. But she doesn't get sips of those, ha). But at a ballgame- well, different story. Millie didn't know that story, though. So she gets the cup and proudly sucks up a big ol' strawful of SPRITE. Her eyes got HUGE as soon as that sugary carbonation hit her mouth, and as she swallowed she burst out crying, making the saddest just-sucked-a-lemon face you've ever seen. It was SO sad (and hilarious!!!!). Baby's First Carbonated Beverage: not a success. She stuck to her own sippy cup after that, while giving mean glares to our sporty straw cup. (Also, after the game we went out to eat. The milk we ordered for her came in an opaque cup with a straw. She wouldn't TOUCH it, HAHAHAHA. Not even when we opened the lid, showed her the milk...nothing. Major trust issues.)

I had the most interesting (hahahaha) thought while we were at the game: the last time I was at a REAL college game (November 2004, the last game of my senior year!), smart phones hadn't even been invented. There was no such thing as a hashtag (well, there was, it was just called a pound sign, and it had no social media connotations). My friends and I took TONS of pictures during the football games, but we had to *gasp* wait until we got home to upload them to our computers (with a cord!!! hahaha!!!) and then put them on Facebook (since our college HAD Facebook...we were so lucky!). My, how things have changed.

We followed up our super-awesome Saturday with a Sunday Funday outside. The weather was perfect this weekend- 'twould be a shame to waste it! We pulled out her pool and reintroduced her to the joy of "swimming." Since she's basically the same size as the pool now, that equates to just sitting...but she still seemed to think it was fun. She spent most of the afternoon just climbing in and out of the pool, alternating her swims with playing soccer with daddy and making mud in the yard.

While she swam, I just sat there with googly eyes over how freaking cute she is in her bathing suit. Ugh. To be young and fabulous.

Who you lookin' at, Mom?

Well SOMEONE needs to weed this yard- guess it may as well be me!

We also took advantage of the lovely day to take Millie's new bike seat out for its inaugural spin! I got the seat for Matt for his birthday so that we would have something else fun and semi-healthy to do as a family. We used to love riding bikes (remember those days? Ahhhh), but we haven't done it in probably two years at least. But since Millie loves being outside so much, we figured she might go for it- and she did!!

...well, she went for most of it, anyway. She wasn't a huge fan of her helmet. But she loved the riding part (and the part where we rode by cows and goats). So as long as we were riding, she was happy...but when we stopped for selfies, she remembered how awful the helmet was, and then she wasn't happy. Too bad for her, I'm a helmets-non-negotiable kinda lady. But all in all, it was a success...and I'm thankful that I'm not the one hauling an extra 28 pounds behind me, haha.  (Side note: it was shockingly challenging to find a baby helmet that wasn't COMPLETELY OBNOXIOUS. I'm still holding firm on no ridiculous 'character' nonsense adorning my child (or my house), and since she doesn't have the first clue about Mickey or Elsa or Doc McStuffins or anyone else...I wasn't in the least bit interested in having them all over her helmet. But apparently those guys have cornered the market on baby helmets! It was either that or pink/purple/hearts/peace signs...like...peace signs? How about no. Anyway. Just didn't anticipate finding a solid-colored helmet would be as challenging as it was, but Amazon came to my rescue with this only moderately-obnoxious highlighter yellow monstrosity. Picky mommy- but NOT BABY- approved!)

I rode behind Matt and Millie today and it occurred to me that the last time we were bike riding, I spent the whole time daydreaming (slash stressing) about having a child. There's not much else to do when you ride besides think...and that's what I would think about. Back when we were riding pretty often, it was when we were still waiting for an adoption match...and that's what I'd think about. I always rode with my phone, just in case we were to get The Call while we were on the road. And that's what I remembered as I was riding today...staring at my daughter's highlighter yellow helmet right ahead of me. I'd pull up beside them and Millie would reach out for me, and when we passed the cows, she hollered "HEY MOOOOO!!! HEY MOOOOOO!!!!" The last time I rode, I worried that I may never be a mother. And today...this.

What a crazy, wonderful life.

ahhh...warm fuzzy feelings.

We had a marvelous, lovely, grandparent-filled weekend around here!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before or not, but sometimes I'm jealous of Millie's sweet grandparent set-up. I loved my grandparents as a kid (and as an adult!!). But I lived in Georgia, and they all lived in Texas. So I only ever saw them once or twice a year. I didn't really understand how some of my friends saw their grandparents all the time, or went to their houses after school, or like actually knew their cousins. Everyone besides my immediate family was 1,000 miles away in a pre-FaceTime, pre-free-long-distance-phone-call era. So although I loved them, I really never knew them on a consistent, day-to-day basis.

But that's not so with Millie, and for that I am thankful. She sees Matt's parents at least once a week, since they live all of about 15 minutes away. She knows them and recognizes them and I love that. Not to mention what a huge help they are when we are sick, or Millie is sick, or we need some last-minute childcare!

"Meeeeee-meeeeee!!!" is what she was screaming into her phone. Her Mimi has taught her everything she knows about talking on a phone, since Mommy and Daddy are both 100% anti-phone talking. Ha!

My parents live more like two hours away, but that's a heck of a lot closer than the 18 hours away from my grandparents I was growing up! We usually see my parents once every 6 weeks or so, and we FaceTime at least once a week. I feel like Millie knows them, or at least understands enough that she regularly demands "Pop-pop!! Pop-pop!!" while holding my phone...so, she knows that Pop-pop appears on my phone screen, which seems pretty smart to me.

Anyway. So this weekend my parents were coming up to visit. They ended up getting to town before I was even off work, so they met me there and then we drove over to Millie's school together. I had been telling Millie all week that Nanny and Pop-pop were going to come visit us on Friday...but like, she's one. I have no idea if telling her that made any sort of impression at all. :)

So we get to school and (as is the norm on lovely days like Friday!) they were playing on the playground. We went out and scanned around and saw Millie waaaaaay on the opposite side of the playground. One of my favorite things to do is to just watch her playing when she doesn't know I'm there, so we planned to do that for a few minutes. But one of her teachers noticed me pretty quickly and told Millie "look, your mommy is here!," and so Millie looked over and noticed us. And then she started walking towards us.

And then she started running- nay, sprinting. Sprinting as fast as her itty, chubby little eighteen-month-old legs would carry her. Her arms were stretched out and her mouth was open wide and as she got close to us, we could hear what she was yelling.

"Popppppp Popppppp!!!!!! POPPPPPP POPPPPP!!!!!!" 

And all three of us were kneeling down with outstretched arms, and Millie had the hugest smile on her face as she ran straight into my dad's arms. Her Poppppp-poppppp.

(Not surprisingly, I believe that all three of us may have had leaky eyes. I mean, come on. It was just too much.)

And that was the start to our pretty perfect weekend. Millie just couldn't have been any more excited to have (some of) her fan club staying with us for a whole weekend. When she woke up Saturday morning, the first thing she said when I came into her room was "Pop-pop? Pop-pop?" And then on Sunday morning, her first words were "Naa-nee? Naaa-nee?"...so at least she's a fan of equality. :)

We didn't do anything overly exciting, just hung out, ate, and played with Little Bit a whole lot. Well, that's not entirely true. My mom and I did venture out on Saturday to treat ourselves (or rather, she treated me!) to an hour of blissful reflexology at Foot Palace. That has quickly become my favorite place in this entire city and the center of most of my daydreams. I knew my mom would feel the same way, so I've been anxiously awaiting her visit so that we could go together! And basically the minute our massages ended, she said "well, this is definitely going to be our new tradition every time I visit!"...and so, let me repeat everything I said earlier about how great it is to live close by to your parents/grandparents. :) Come again anytime, Mom!

                  

On Saturday we dug out some Easter eggs from the depths of my closet and taught Millie how to hunt eggs!! She caught on pretty quick. I think she's going to dominate the Athens egg hunt circuit this year!

                    

I am getting really excited about Easter this year. Now that she really "gets" life a little more (compared to last year!), I am feeling way more enthused about holidays. She will understand that it's special and exciting and she will be ALL ABOUT a basket filled with treats. And since I put some raisins and marshmallows in her eggs on Saturday (for training purposes, obviously), she also understands how awesome it is to find all the eggs...so it's going to be a really fun next couple of weeks!!

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the TIME CHANGE next weekend! Time change haters are gonna hate, but I love knowing it won't be dark by the time we get home from work and that we'll be able to take walks after dinner, so bring it!! I can't remember whether springing forward/falling back means Millie will sleep in later or wake up earlier or what, but so far she's never really had any issues with any other time changes, so hopefully it will remain that way this time. But obviously since I just wrote that, I'm sure we are jinxed and she will freak out and our lives will be ruined for the next six months. Ha. But at least we'll be able to play outside after dinner, so...all things in perspective.

Hope you have a wonderful week! 

hugging and cousins and fashion and love

Remember all those times I said "this is the best age ever- I want her to stay ____ old forever!!!"?? Well, scratch them all. I was clueless. This (eighteen months) is the best age EVER, and this time I'm for real. Life with Millie is so incredibly full and fun right now, I clearly have time for nothing else (well...except work. And reading a lot of books. And taking pictures.). So let's catch up.

For one, her eighteen month appointment. Homegirl is up to 26.7 pounds, putting her in the measly 80th percentile. Barely even a B, if you look at it like it's a grade...which I don't, obviously. ;) I was convinced she was over 30 pounds, so this was definitely a surprise- I guess my arms are just terrible at estimating weight. She's gained only about a pound since her 15 month appointment, so...I don't know why she feels so much heftier these days. Maybe it's her boots.

These boots are made for FLYING!

She's (supposedly) 32.25 inches tall now (66th percentile), but I was watching carefully and her head was definitely tilted to the side when they marked her height...by my calculation, she is probably at least half an inch taller than that. But whatever. All in all, she's stretching out and has hardly any baby fat rolls to speak of, but at least she still has that impressive belly and cheeks. So she doesn't look COMPLETELY grown. She can wear a variety of sizes, depending on the item/brand/what diapers she's wearing, but mostly 18-24 month and a few (gasp) 2T. I tell myself that the "T" in 2T stands for Tall Baby. That makes me feel better.

She's been SO much healthier this winter than last, and I'm incredibly thankful for that. I mean, it's been like...probably 4-5 months or so since she's even been on antibiotics, which is a lifetime achievement. We continue with daily (and occasionally up to four times daily...) steroid breathing treatments and those seem to be helping to keep her asthma in check perfectly. 

Her language and comprehension are EXPLODING lately, and I feel like she learns new words every single day. Listening to her talk and sing is the best thing in the whole world, and I think she enjoys being able to express her wants/needs as well! One of my favorite things is how we'll remind her to "use her words" when she's whining or moaning or crying and pointing at things, and so she'll stop the whining/crying, collect herself, look us in the eye, and say "mmfwphergah" (or something equally intelligible) very clearly and expectantly. And then we're like...well, dangit. Thanks for using your words, Millie. Next time can you try English or Spanish or maybe some established language that we could at least use Google translate to help us comprehend?? Ha. 

Last weekend we traveled to Augusta to celebrate Christmas with my family! Yep, on Valentine's weekend. Ha. Better late than never though, right? 

Millie spent most of the weekend hugging her cousins.

I'm a lover, okay?

Millie is all about giving hugs. No one (human, pet, or inanimate object) can escape. Her teachers report that she keeps busy all day at school, working the room and hugging all of her friends and toys. I love it.

While Mills was busy hugging, playing, dancing, and generally being adorable...I took the opportunity to have a MAJOR HAIR CHANGE. My hair has been way incredibly too long for about...uhhh...five months or so. It's been miserable. And I was just SO ready for a change. So my sister went all the way. Hacked it off AND dyed it red!

I feel like a new (and cooler) person! It's been a week now and I have no regrets, so...that's good. Now, back to our regularly-scheduled baby pictures.

Each time we all get together, we try to take a picture of the cousins sitting on this same quilt (in the same pose). It's even cuter at Christmas (or "Christmas") time, when my mom gets them all matching PJs. I'd thought that it might be slightly easier this year, with the girls being 1.5 and 2.5, but I was definitely wrong. It was more like a hot mess, but it was still a lot of fun! (Also, let's note the difference between taking pictures outside using a real camera (2014) and inside at night using an iPhone (this year).)

Christmas 2014- LOOK AT THOSE TINY BABES!!!!! waaaaaahhhhhh

"Christmas" 2015...the year Millie couldn't stop hugging.

These nutty girls...for the life of us, we couldn't get them to all smile and look in the same direction at the same time. Ugh! Oh well. The great thing is that next year's picture will have ANOTHER girl cousin in it!!! Carley will become a big sister this summer, so having a six-month-old in the picture next year should definitely make things run more smoothly...ha.

Speaking of doing hair...at one point we caught Laney (my sister's baby) "fixing" Millie's hair! It's hilarious because it's just exactly what they see Sarah and me doing. Every time we're together, Sarah's fixing my hair. So the babies decided to assume our roles. GENIUSES.

There wasn't a whole lot of excitement this past week (except I was sick a lot, ugh), but Millie enjoyed wearing a bunch of the new clothes I've bought at consignment sales recently. Actually, I don't know if she enjoyed it at all. I sure did, though.

And on Friday we (okay, I) decided to be twins. Plaid shirts and vests for all!

We had some nice weather this weekend, so we spent a lot of time playing outside. Millie found her sunglasses from last year (I guess they still fit?) and it made all her dreams come true. She's always trying to steal our glass/sunglasses...and now she has a pair we won't immediately try to steal back!

THIS OUTFIT THOUGH

She also discovered our beach wagon thingy. It was a pretty happy discovery. Especially when Daddy added in a bed pillow for extra safety/comfort!

This is SO FUN!!!!!!!!

So that's been life lately. My heart just explodes with gratitude and joy for this life I've been entrusted with, and I couldn't ask for more.

hit the road, jack.

Our weekends are pretty predictable. And that's pretty much fine by me, because I tend to like predictable things. Routines are my jam. Uneventful, fun-yet-productive, quiet weekends with Matt and Millie are pretty much all I ever want. But on Friday night, as Matt and I enjoyed a thrilling game of Scrabble as we binged on Goldfish crackers (hahahaha our snack choices are as exciting as our nightlife is!), he suggested we break out of our Saturday errands-and-chores routine. "Want to go hiking at Tallulah Gorge tomorrow?"

WHOA NOW MATTIE. A) It's going to be freezing cold tomorrow. Like LITERALLY. Thirty degrees. Who wants to walk around the woods in 30 degree weather? B) It's TOMORROW. That means we would be making out-of-town plans that require over an hour drive each way on LESS THAN 12 HOURS' NOTICE. That means this is spontaneous, and that makes me nervous. Spontaneity scares me.

Those were my immediate thoughts, but after about 30 additional seconds of careful consideration, I thought...why not? And so...we did it! Chores and errands be damned, we're going hiking! (They weren't that damned. They just got postponed a few hours, ha.)

Millie's at a really great age/personality right now (well, she's always been a great age and personality, so I don't know why I started with that) and is very adaptable to whatever's going on. Random road trip and then schlepping through the freezing cold woods for a few hours? Bring it on, she says. As long as we also bring on plenty of snacks, that is. She's not adaptable to hunger.

It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the foothills of the mountains (which reminded me again how much I love living where I live). While we were driving, we selected which trail we wanted to do (yay, PLANNING! Haha.) and also listened to the Serial Season 1 hearing updates (???!!). And then we were there, and I made final decisions about precisely how many layers I was going to put Millie in before we loaded her into the Ergo. Ha. I don't want any babies catching frostbite on my watch!

Hang on, Mommy. Let me at least choose a good trail before you guys stuff me in that Ergo...

I think I went hiking at the Gorge once in college, approximately...13ish...years ago. So basically I didn't really remember anything at all. And also it was summer and totally different. So this was a hike full of pleasant surprises (like the view! the waterfalls! the friendly fellow hikers with friendly dogs!) and a few less-pleasant ones (like a billion stairs. and a suspension bridge, aka MY ARCH-NEMESIS/SECOND GREATEST FEAR IN LIFE (right behind birds)) (omg, what if I'd seen a bird while walking on the bridge?!?!?!?!?!?!? I wouldn't have lived to tell the tale).

These stairs were all fun and games...if you happened to be riding on someone's back. Otherwise...nope. LEGS ON FI-YAH!!!

It was pretty cold, but we still had a fantastic time. Millie did great- she was happy to be in the Ergo (we rarely do a back carry with her, so this had some novelty going for it), and she loved getting down to look around when we stopped at "scenic viewpoints." She especially loved looking down and screaming "WA-WAH!!!" every time she saw water. Our little scientist!!

She also enjoyed (as per usual) waving at and greeting all of the people and "Nonahs" (Lolas) (dogs) walking by. She did not enjoy (also per usual) most of the times we tried to convince her to smile for a picture (or even look in the general direction of the camera). I kept on trying, though. Eventually she has to give in, right?

Okay, fine, I'll play along for JUST THIS ONE family selfie!

But now I'm getting very sleepy, Mommy...

Okay, night night.

The above picture is what we'll call Millie is Pretty Adaptable: Exhibit A. Catch a nap when you can!

All in all, it was a pretty perfect day. I give 10 points to Team Spontaneity. Maybe there is something to it. And anyway, we were home (with groceries!!) by like 4:30...so there was still a good bit of time to do my usual Saturday lazing and puttering around. So boom.

One last view before we go...

The rest of the day was spent basically letting Millie raise herself. HA. Matt and I were just a leeeeettle bit exhausted from hauling our 30 (??? she has a pedi appt later this week, so we'll finally find out how much she really weighs!) pound chunkalunk up and down mountains. Somehow, she arrived back to our house filled with ALL THE ENERGY IN THE WORLD, and Matt and I were more like...maybe if we just lay here, she won't burn the house down or severely injure herself? It worked out okay for an hour, but I wouldn't recommend it as a long-term parenting strategy.

Except for she did at one point decide she really needed to wear her daddy's hoodie. And then she looked like a Ewok Jedi Star Wars character (it's been awhile, I don't remember which). So that was pretty hilarious. (Or maybe I was just really tired.)

So the moral of this story is...sometimes a spontaneous road trip is exactly the right thing to do. Just be sure to take a lot of snacks.

currently...freezing cold Sunday ed.

So much for my "blog more regularly" New Year's resolution, right?? Just kidding. I didn't resolve to do that (or anything). It was more like a fleeting desire that keeps getting beat out its competition: reading, watching Netflix, and sleeping.

But I have approximately 15 minutes right now, so how about a round of "currently"? You know, since the last time I did it was while I was on maternity leave...hahaha. Not so very current, is it?

Listening...well at the actual current moment, nothing. But in general, I'm all into my podcasts these days, so that's what I'm usually listening to. My favorites are Gilmore Guys (duh) and Serial II (not as great as Serial I, but still intriguing). If I don't have a fresh episode of either of those, I listen to random episodes of Freakonomics Radio, Planet Money, and Stuff You Should Know.

Eating...today for lunch we had Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Peppers and it was ridiculously good. Like when I walked in the door from church, I almost fainted from how amazing it smelled. So you should probably go make that asap.

Drinking...coffee, hot chocolate, and hot tea. Not all at once, though. But it's finally cold, so I'm taking advantage of all my favorite toasty drinks!

Wearing...yoga pants and a huge sweatshirt. But to my credit, I am actually going to a yoga class in a few minutes, so the pants are legit right now. A little while ago, though, we went on a walk around the neighborhood. It was FREEZING (and that's almost not an exaggeration...it was 40 degrees!) and very windy, so Millie and I wore All the Layers. And then I realized how extremely COLORFUL we were, and it made me pretty happy.

Millie learned the sign language for "cold" last week at school. She's had a lot of opportunities to use that one today!

Feeling...pretty good. Actually, my back hurts. I hope yoga helps. But other than that, I can't complain. It's been a happy and relaxing weekend. 

Weather...haha, I think I've covered this. It's cold! But it's kind of nice to not being shorts the way we were a week or two ago.

Wanting...well, I'd never turn down a massage. I went to a new reflexology place in Athens last weekend and it was DIVINE and now I live in a constant state of wanting to go back. So anyway, when I win the Powerball and get my check for the cool $1.2 billion...that's probably how I'll spend a good chunk of it.

Needing...not much. I'll stretch this one and say that I need everyone to know how incredibly adorable it is when Millie plays her current favorite (self-taught...or friends-at-school-taught) game: put all the babies down for a nap.

She lays all of her blankets on the floor, then puts all of her dolls/stuffed animals on (or near, haha) a blanket, then she carefully rubs/pats/smacks their backs as they (I suppose) fall asleep. She will walk around and repeatedly adjusts/covers/pats the babies and IF YOUR HEART ISN'T EXPLODING RIGHT NOW THAN I AM SERIOUSLY QUESTIONING YOUR HUMANITY. You might need to check to see if you're actually a robot or something.

But seriously. She does it all the time, unprompted, and it'll bring tears to your eyes.

Thinking...about buying a new house. Not too seriously. But a little bit. We drove out to look at some contenders yesterday...what I really need to do is reread my blogs from last time we did this so that I will remember how awful it is and stay far far away from the whole thing.

Enjoying...everything in my life right now. It's just really, really good...and I can't take that for granted. So I try to always be conscious of the good things and the good days and weeks and seasons...and yeah. It's just...good. :)

And now I've got to leave for class! Sorry for all the Instagram repeat pictures...at least I'm decent at keeping ONE form of social media updated, I guess? Ha. 

Hope you have a wonderful week!

halloween. and some other stuff, too.

Millie's second Halloween has come and gone, and I must say...my baby in a costume really doesn't get old. I need to find more excuses to dress her up in fluffy adorableness. Pageants, perhaps? Okay, maybe not.

This year, Matt and I got into the spirit and went all out with a family theme. Probably the easiest/laziest theme ever, but it's the thought that counts. 

The best flower we've ever grown!

We were a pair of gardeners with our prize sunflower (and also a butternut squash in Matt's hand...because of course). Since I just know you're dying for the details on my amazing outfit, I'll tell you: I dug around for one of Matt's old button-downs, and scoured my garage for the least-sharp gardening tools I could find and manage to carry around a bowling alley for the night (since that's where our church's costume party takes place). Then I showed TRUE commitment to the cause by going to my actual garden and RUBBING ACTUAL DIRT ALL OVER MY FACE AND CLOTHING. So...yeah. Commitment. I'm not a rub dirt on my face kinda girl. Because that dirt went on top of my fully made up Tarte-and-Urban Decay-and-Benefit face. It crushed my spirit a little. But we won the costume competition, so I guess it was all worth it.

Unlikely, but there's a chance that we didn't win because of my dirty face. It coulda had something to do with the flower, but I guess we'll never know.

I have no idea what is going on! Why am I wearing this?!

I had no idea how Millie would feel about the costume, but luckily, she turned out to be a fan. She's worn the costume (including the hat) for probably a collective 7-8 hours over the last week, and she doesn't seem to think it's anything but fun! In fact, she's even been spotted digging the hat part out of her closet and attempting to put it on during non-costume-designated times!

I feel certain this should sit somewhere up here.

I WILL figure this out, dangit!!

 Please stop and die over that little lip stuck out as she concentrates. This is a regular feature around these parts and I could probably (and might) make a sizable coffee table book featuring just pictures of her making this face. It is too much. I can't handle it. I hope that one day she decides to take AP Calculus or something really hard like that and I'm going to quit my job and just stalk her around her school so that I can watch her make this face all the time. That doesn't seem creepy at all, right? Great.

Hey chillllldren!!! Come here! I will give you one piece of candy, VERY slowly and VERY carefully!

Millie took her candy-handing-outing duties very seriously last night. She was all about pulling a piece of candy out of our pumpkin bucket and depositing it into Elsa or Spiderman's bucket. It was really cute that other little kids (well, bigger than her, but still little) found this as endearing as we did. She is the cutest flower I've ever seen!!!, said one fourish-year-old boy who was apparently as smart as he was precious.

We paused our candy-passing for a few minutes to walk Millie over to a few neighbors' houses to show her off get candy. As suspected, she was a big hit. She can't say "trick or treat," but she waves, claps, smiles, and makes the sign language 'more' sign, soooo...she went over really well.

Incidentally, it was also Matt's first trick-or-treating experience! I didn't even know it until we were headed to the second house, or else I definitely would have had him pose with a little chalkboard sign that said "Matt's First Trick-or-Treating, 2015" or something like that. He just dropped it in all casually...so hey, what're the odds? Matt and Millie both experiencing their firsts on the same night? Precious. (Matt felt like I shouldn't have been so surprised that he'd never trick-or-treated before...as he has told me at least a thousand times before, his family attended a  Hallowed Be Thy Name church festival/party/thingie instead...which I definitely remember and laugh about on the reg, but it never really sunk in that that meant he HAD NEVER GONE TRICK OR TREATING!!!)

So in non-costumed-and-sugar-laden news, Millie has been exceptionally adorable and hilarious lately. I mean, she's always adorable...but she is just at a really fun age now where she's legitimately hilarious most of the time. And she knows it. This girl is t.r.o.u.b.l.e.

Who, me? I'm not trouble. I'm just really serious. And I will make this serious face until you laugh...which takes about one second.

 Her faces these days. I can't.

I MADE A CROWN AT SCHOOL AND I HAVE A BALLOON AND IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT AND I CAN'T EVEN PRETEND I'M NOT LOVING LIFE RIGHT NOW!!!!

 And yes, she does have 480 teeth. Ugh. Why don't you ask how much she loves to brush them all?

...........

Yeah. That's how much. If my arm muscles are looking particularly well-defined lately (HAHAHAHA), it's all due to our twice-daily alligator wrestling matches where we attempt to prevent tooth decay. And fail miserably.

On the plus side, I guess if all of her teeth rot and fall out, she will look like a little baby again!!! Wooo!!! #silverlinings

I may raise hell every time you brush my teeth, but look how happy I am in the bathtub!! Just stick to my strengths, okay, Mom?

 Now that the time has changed, our days of taking a walk after dinner are probably done. Too dark. Waaaah. Because she's just figured how much fun it is to lean back and laugh and laugh up at us while we push her...and it's really the best thing ever.

She started attending a new school a few weeks ago, and she's adjusting beautifully. I love that she's so confident and that her happy little personality shines so brightly even in a new place. Her new teachers have pretty much got her figured out already:

1. She's happy all the time, except for when a meal/snack is over. 

Who, me? I didn't become a big girl by pussyfooting around the dining room table, Mommy...

I am just so proud of the brave, joyful, loving little girl she's growing into. She always has a smile and a wave for everyone. It makes me so happy to see her so confident and happy in a new place- but also to see her face light up as she sprints to see me when I come pick her up each day. That really is the best.

So now it's November, and I suppose I'll start listening to Christmas music any day now. I won't actually do any shopping or decorating for another month, but I can definitely get on board with pulling out my Pentatonix Christmas albums ASAP.

Hopefully it won't be Thanksgiving before I get around to blogging again- haha, but also...practically accurate. I've been meaning to do a 'day in the life' post for like six months, but haven't felt ambitious enough to actually do it yet...but maybe someday. Anyway. Gotta get back to watching through Season 4 of Scandal. It's as horrible and awesome as ever! Also, anyone watching Madame Secretary or Jane the Virgin? I've heard good things and am considering adding them to my post-surgery playlist...which by now is so long that I will need to take at least a year to recover from surgery, ha! Oh well! Gotta do whatcha gotta do...and Netflix just isn't gonna watch itself, right? Right.

mountain life, take 2

We enjoyed our second annual "family retreat" in the mountains this past weekend. Basically that means we gather with all of Matt's siblings and their spouses and kids and cram ourselves into a super awesome cabin where we eat junk food and have fun all weekend. Calling it a retreat just makes it sound more legit.

Last year (and like, go look at the pictures of my TEENY TINY BABY and shed a few tears with me, will you?) we met up in Maggie Valley, NC. This year we trekked all the way to Boone...a much further drive (well, for the Athens crowd), but well worth it. We went a few weeks earlier, too, to hopefully catch 'peak leaf season' (which is A Thing), and that was DEFINITELY a good call. Oh, and we stayed an extra day longer. Also a really good call. So that's your basic recipe for a great family retreat, I guess. Go to an awesome mountain town during peak leaf season and don't scrimp on your cabin rental. Jacuzzis on the porch are not optional.

I'll let my (millions of) pictures do the rest of the talking.

I love watching Millie get to know our extended family!! She took a special liking to her Uncle Tom this weekend- sometimes she'd run up to him to pick her up and read her books even when Matt and I were in the room! That really made me smile.

The porch at this cabin (and really, we shouldn't be saying "cabin" here. It was waaaaay nicer than a cabin should be) seriously brought its A game. Saturday was pretty rainy and gross, but the porch (with hot tub; did I mention that?) was covered and had plenty of rocking chairs, swings, and blankets to keep us occupied and let us enjoy the (wet, fog-surrounded) leaves.

We didn't want to waste a day in Boone, though, so we headed to explore Linville Caverns- an "excellent rainy day activity," the webpage promised. 

The webpage didn't lie- we had a lot of fun! And so did the rest of the state of North Carolina. I'm pretty sure we were all there. But oh well. I've never been in a cavern/cave (is there a difference??) before, and I thought this was really interesting. And not scary- it wasn't the kind of thing where you're crawling through narrow holes. You remain fully upright at all times, and the majority of the tour is wheelchair accessible, if that tells you anything about how non-spelunkingish this tour was.

On Sunday the weather turned gorrrrrgeous and we headed out for a hike. Again...the rest of North Carolina the entire US population east of the Mississippi joined us. For real though. Leaf season enthusiasts don't mess around.

We borrowed a hiking backpack from my friend and Millie loved being able to see everything, pat Matt's head, and eat snacks/drink water as the Spirit led her. She was also (not surprisingly) the Rough Ridge Trail Sunshine Committee, waving and clapping for every single person we passed- which was somewhere in the ballpark of ten billion. She makes more friends during a two hour hike than I've made in my entire lifetime. 

I'm not much of a hiker, but I really enjoyed this one. It was muddy and crowded, but the leaves and views were just incredible...and also, happy Millie in a backpack. It really doesn't get much better. 

The following picture is too amazing to smoosh into a collage, so please sit down before you pass out over the cuteness.

Ugh. For real.

Sadly, like all good things, the weekend had to come to an end. I'm not a huge fan of car trips, but even I couldn't complain much about yesterday's.

A good book, a breathtaking view, and a happily sleeping baby? I'll take it.

But now we're home, and it's kind of a bummer. The best thing about today was this little nugget in her fuchsia overall dress thingy. 

And when she runs to me and hugs my legs while I'm just trying to get a decent picture?? Ummm it's like the best thing in the world. Decent pictures are overrated.

In addition to returning to Real Life today, I also made a return visit to a place I haven't been in awhile: the reproductive endocrinologists' clinic. Womp womp. I guess we'll chat more about that later, because for now, my BFFs Laurelei and Rory are calling me to come hang out, so I gotta jet. I'll just leave you with one last picture that didn't make it to a collage. I'll let you decide whether the most amazing thing about the shot is Millie's adorableness or the way that the backpack straps smoosh 'the girls' in a most attractive fashion- ha!