When it rains it pours

What a week! We started the week with me at the Doctor's office Monday. I pulled a muscle in my lower back. I went to a Physical Therapist and he correctly identified my condition. He then told me I overextended my back and furthermore I need to correct my post-csection mush abs (not the words he used, but how I felt) so I can support my back. All of those sit-ups I've been doing? They weren't effective anyways since I was using my back. Look out...my six pack is coming!! HAHA
Meanwhile, Molly came down with another fever. In the back of my mind, another UTI situation came up, but I dismissed it, since we just went to the dr last week for a check on that. I changed my mind today. Molly had a 102 fever after Motrin and woke up with it being 103.8. Three hours later, it was determined she did indeed have a kidney infection (a UTI infection which is left untreated and travels up). One mean shot later, we're home. We'll have to go back for another shot tomorrow, and perhaps Saturday, as well. Poor Mol. Watching her get her finger pricked, being shot here and there...no fun.
Let's just hope we have a much better week next week. Summer is not for being sick!!!!!!!!! I can't wait for a relaxing weekend at home!

Lazy Days, New Photos with New Camera

The dust has settled. We've taken our trips, gone to camp, enjoyed our company, and now the lazy days of summer have begun. We have spent our time in the pool, at the Y's pool, at the Y, and having playdates with our friends.
Recently, I found a few pictures of the girls I thought were cute. This is what they look like at the end of a long, busy day:

In other news, we enjoyed playing outside since it's cloudy and not too hot today. I took my camera outside and caught a few cute shots of the girls playing:





Mary Stuart actually took this last picture of me, and I think she did a really good job. She was really careful and tried her best!

This weekend we have a lot going on. We're going to Davidson tomorrow to have lunch with the family. And on Sunday Charlie is getting baptized! I'm sure we'll have many fun pictures to post. Stay tuned!

PS

Tom didn't get that post. For those of you slow on the draw, bitty can be short for _itch. I will never look at Bitty the same

From The Mouths of Babes

I just put Mary Stuart down to sleep. She got upset because she wanted her Bitty Baby (which is a baby version of an American Doll, and is very realistic). Mary Stuart loves her "Bitty".
Here is our conversation about Bitty:

Mary Stuart: "Mommmy, where is Bitty? I want to go find her."
Mommy: "Well, Mary Stuart, I will find her and bring her to you tonight"
Mary Stuart, increasingly frustrated: "No, I want to find her now"
We banter back and forth
Mommy: "If you are so worried about Bitty, you should keep up with her and put her in your bed when you are done playing with her"
Mary Stuart: "But I want her"
Mommy: "Sorry"
MS: "YOU are a bitty!"

I thought I would roll on the floor. That was a hoot!

Slugs

See this picture?

It's called "We've been watching TV ALL day". Mommy is going to go crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness for Noggin. Have you all seen "Yo Gabba Gabba"? That's the new fave..not mine..I feel like I'm in the '60's.

Molly's been sick :( She's had a fever and not too many other symptoms for a few days, now. Poor girl had been to her ENT for an ear tube checkup on Monday (tubes are there!). I was so afraid she had a break-through kidney/UT infection. All of her symptoms were similair. So after being traumatized with yet another catheterization to rule out a UTI, Miss Priss is just fine...a virus! I think...

Mary Stuart has a nasty cough on top of it all.

Anyways, we have been hanging around the house. Literally. I tried getting Tom to take the girls in the pool, but Molly was miserable, although playing around seems fun for her...chasing her sister, playing monster, making messes, wanting to cook and help with dinner is just as fun. Motrin does wonders! Except for the pool. Understandably. For Molly. Not for Mommy.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more fun for all!

Isle of Palms

We just got back from a five-day trip to the beach. Tom's mom joined us, which was nice! We had great weather, good food and a relaxing time. The girls loved the ocean, and we did, too! It was nice to sit in a chair and just watch the girls wear themselves out! This was the first easy year at the beach. The only disappointment was the lack of good shells. They had no big shells...not sure why. Mary Stuart was SO excited to go collect shells, and she didn't care that they were so tiny.
Here are a few pictures from the week:

July 3rd and 4th

July 3rd

We had Stacy and Will and Drew and Jack over for swimming and dinner. We're really popular this time of the year :) Experience tells us that it's too hard to grill/cook and have friends swimming, as we want to swim, too. So we ordered pizza. The kids stayed up late. We tried to watch the Southpark fireworks, but couldn't. Not this year!
Mary Stuart, Molly and Drew really got along well. The funniest part of the night was watching Drew, 2 and a half, swim. He wears his water wings, but he is not afraid of the water! He jumps off the diving board solo, dunks his head in backwards, rolls around like a seal, and really enjoyed climbing on the float and jumping off. Oh, the difference with boys and girls.

Here are some pictures from our night:
All three kids in the bathtub!

Will reading..what a pro!

Molly in the toybox...we're getting crazy!

Drew found a Dora car. He likes chick toys!

Stacy and Jack

The best..Drew in an Ariel pull-up.


Oh, since that night, Mary Stuart wears her bathing suit like this:

She just can't understand why Drew and Daddy get to wear their suits that way! We had to have a small talk about why little girls cover up...the "talks" are starting already!!

July 4th

We had all of Tom's family over, minus Jeff (in Dallas). We also had our family friends, the Musgraves, over. We made ribs and had homemade ice cream. It was lots of fun!

Meredith Girl's Weekend!

Last weekend, Jaime and Peyton came to visit. Tom chose to flee the girl's weekend (can't blame him) and went to stay at his parent's house. On Saturday, almost all of the original crew from Meredith came over with their kids. Stacy was the only one missing from the crew (Megan, you don't live here, so I'm not counting you!), but we didn't feel too sorry for her, as she was on a boat, without kids, in Charleston.
We had a great time. Here are the mommies and their kids....

Me and Mary Stuart and Molly:

Here is Emily on the left with her newest son, Tate (Cam was home with Dad). On the right is hot-bod Mary Dare. She has three boys.


And here is Kristin and her baby, Walker


These are Mary Dare's two oldest sons. Taylor, the youngest, must have been off by himself somewhere!


And here is Jaime and Peyton:


Otherwise, Mary Stuart and Molly and Peyton had a good time. Mary Stuart wasn't a big fan of sharing her toys with Peyton, and Peyton was the brunt of some jealousy, but overall it was so much fun. Here are two more pictures of the weekend:

Hopefully I'll get my camera back soon. These are from Jaime's camera.

In other news, Molly has been on a "self" kick. In toddler-speak, she want to do everything "self", by herself, even when she can't! For example, she likes to climb into the carseat and buckle herself. When I help her, she swats and me and yells, "self". She has started pulling her diaper off, insisting to go potty, and putting her diaper on "self". She also likes to dress "self", put shoes on "self", brush teeth "self", you name it!! So, the exertion of "self" is upon us. Hello, two!

Yesterday we were at Chik-Fil-A. Tuddie and Pop bought the girls some ice cream, Mary Stuart a cone and Molly a gi-normous cup. We were in the food court at the mall. Mary Stuart sat nicely eating her cone. Molly gave me the evil eye when I asked her to share her abundance of ice cream, even hording it in her arms to protect it from me. At one point, Molly fed me a bite, but apparantly didn't want me to take THAT big of a bite, so she SCREAMED at the top her her lungs, in the food court, and proceeded to hit me. I got a lot of stares.

We just finished the terrible two's with Mary Stuart. No break before round two!
That's all that's been going on here! More pictures to come after the fourth!