Lookin' in the mirror

Amelia likes mirrors right now. She really likes this baby that lives in her closet door...
She has been trying her hardest to roll over this week. She can get all the way over except for one shoulder.
The kids had a bunch of daddy duty time this week. I went to a Pampered Chef party, a church meeting, and a Dream Dinners session. We had My Gym sessions Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday we went to the Children's Museum. The Creature Teacher was there. Seth sat for about 2/3rds of the presentation, I was impressed. The animals were a ball python (eck!) and a de-stinked skunk named Amelia. (That confused Seth quite a bit!) Thursday we tried out a new place called Funigans, it's kind of like ChuckECheese with a better playground and way better food. Friday we went to the mall to return a bunch of stuff.

Saturday we went to the park for Blair's first birthday party. Seth has become a way better climber since the last time we went, and braver too; Melissa and I about had heart failure several times spotting him!

The kids got to bring balloons home from the party, and Amelia talked to hers for the rest of the day!

Youngest Hey Jude

Nathan recommends you watch this video to ensure you get a smile in today...I recommend you watch it to the end (it's less than 2 minutes)!

party like a rockstar

This shirt used to be Seth's...I thought if I paired it with some pink, Amelia could wear it. Unfortunately, she thought she should party like a rock star last night, I was up with her a lot last night (of course it may have been do to the little bit of espresso chip ice cream I ate last night...live and learn...).

special day for the Mayse girls

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! Ours was very special, because not only did we get to see both our moms, Amelia was baptized. My original plan was to have it in June, then we could have a combination Amelia's baptism/Seth's birthday bash. We recently found out that our pastor is retiring on June 1st, so we moved the baptism up. Luckily our parents, the Johnstons, and Lisa and Michael could still come. Amelia wore an Old Navy dress; I had Lisa's long, traditional dress, but Amelia hated having her legs covered like that the times we tried it on, and I figured it wasn't worth having an unhappy baby all through church. Amelia was a very good girl for the baptism and the rest of the service. We all came home for lunch together.

Mommy and Amelia...
Another family picture (can you believe it?)

Lisa and Michael are Amelia's godparents. They are pros...they have one other godchild together, and Michael has another one in Ohio!

cutie Will and Addy

Two things wrong with this picture

For those of you who have been to our house before, no we didn't buy dining room furniture. We moved the kitchen table into the dining room for the weekend to accomodate for lunch tomorrow. But that's not the only thing wrong with this picture. Look what I saw as I was coming down the stairs. I don't know why she was up there, the bag of SunChips was unopened and she wasn't anywhere near Seth's empty dish. I had to take a picture, because I knew Evan and Ryan would love to see Colette on the table again! She didn't even get down when she saw me, brazen dog!

Fifteen hours

...that's how long our power was out.

Last night it had started to storm as I was making my last post. I decided to turn on the news, and found all the local stations doing continuous weather forecasts. After just a few minutes, Lanie Pope said to take shelter if you were near I-40 in Clemmons. I found flashlights, carried Seth and Amelia down to the basement, then woke Nathan from a sound sleep and told him what was going on. It didn't take him long to decide to join us. Amelia slept through it all, Seth dosed off and on, and when he was awake, he wanted to be in charge of a flashlight. The power went out at 10:30. The boys moved back upstairs around 1:30, Amelia and I stayed downstairs all night. The power was still off this morning, and Nathan left really early again. I took the kids to Cracker Barrel for breakfast to kill some time. It's a good thing that was my intention, because everyone else had the same idea! We got home and the power was still out, so we went back out and got some ice...I don't care about my food spoiling, but I have a lot of milk stored away for Amelia when I go back to work, and I would hate it if I lost all that. Our neighborhood was very lucky. It sounds like the worst damage was about three miles away. Click here if you want to see local pictures.

update: I just went for a walk and saw that half of one tree against the chimney is bent to the point of no return. It looks like it should have a crack in it, but it doesn't. More mulch!

Busy Daddy!

Nathan has had a crazy week at work, not only is it requiring long hours out of him, they couldn't make up their mind about whether they wanted to send him to NYC to do some work or not. Now they say he's going next week. I'll believe it when he actually gets on a plane. So the kids and I have been left to entertain ourselves (and we all know I'm not as cool as Daddy). We were able to go on twice daily walks the beginning of the week, that helped. Monday we had Seth's gym class, and Tuesday we went to a surprise 30th birthday party for Lonnie and Lottie (this picture is from April, it's the best picture I have of them), which was awesome.

Wednesday the kids and I made a long day trip to Cary. I had originally planned to go while Nathan was gone, but after Nathan's business trip was rescheduled, Seth was REALLY disappointed and he needed a haircut, so we still went. The highlight of the trip was that I got a refresher course in how to use a Singer (I haven't used a sewing machine since 7th grade Home Ec) and I am very proud of the soft book I made. I think I did a pretty good job. The sewing machine the boys gave me for Christmas is still in the closet, but now I think I'll be brave enough to use it! Today we made a Target run, and this evening we met with our pastor about Amelia's baptism. I don't know how we'll fill the day tomorrow, but we'll think of something!

Amelia has started doing two cute things this week: she loves to look at books. If you hold one in front of her and turn the pages, she coos and goos for each page (takes after her mama!). Also, when she wants to let you know she's hungry, she starts smacking on her hand as loud as she can. It's not sucking to pacify herself, it's "hey lady, I'm going to chew my arm off here!" How dramatic!

Seth is having a growth spurt. He's done really well with not having as much daddy time this week, but I think the fact that Pops played hooky and worked from home during our Cary visit helped. Seth has been asking to snuggle Amelia more, and she just loves it. The picture is from this morning when we were reading books.

Have you hugged a nurse today?

I plan to hug several later! We are going to see some of my friends later today. It's National Nurse's Day today, in case you haven't figured it out. We get this freebie publication every month, and I thought you'd enjoy some of the t-shirts they advertise:

Not a threat......really...You can't say I didn't warn you! It tends to be a big hot mess when I do charge, I left with a bang back in February, so I'm sure more than a few people dread my return in three weeks...(and you know I'm at the top of that list...)

Overstimulated, maybe?

Amelia is really starting to enjoy playtime on the floor in the evenings now that she has realized she can reach out and grab what is in front of her. I had put two toys and a book next to her. I guess Seth didn't think that was enough to keep her occupied:

thought of the day

...the only person I have to be better than is the person I was yesterday...

Amelia's 2 Month Check-Up

Amelia had a well-baby visit today. She weighed in at 11 lbs 3 oz, which is about 3/4 of a pound more than Seth weighed at that age. She was a little over 23 inches long. That puts her at about 60th percentile for weight and 50th for height. Seth stood on the big boy scale for the heck of it and weighed in at 29.2 lbs. Amelia did very well with her check-up but did NOT like her shots. Seth got a Wonder Pets sticker for not destroying the exam room. We go back the end of June for a double appointment...Amelia's 4 month and Seth's 3 year check-ups.

Leebo is 30!

Thursday morning we ventured out for our first trip as a family of four. We spent the weekend with Elise and Chad and had a very busy weekend down in Charleston. Thursday night Chad had a softball game, where there was the coolest playground ever: Friday morning we went to the SC Aquarium. It wasn't as fun as it could have been, because there were a ton of middle school field trips going on, so it was a little unruly in places. But SURPRISE! We ran into Leebo there. Um, yeah, we thought he taught school. Nope, he works at the aquarium! We played dumb about his birthday party, because it was supposed to be a surprise that we were coming, he wasn't expecting out of town guests!
Elise and Chad have a chair that Amelia liked to snuggle in. It made for a good picture backdrop, too!
At least on the Mayse side, it always seems like the uncles are the cool ones, and the aunts are along for the ride. But there were times this weekend when Seth thought Elise was the best. Especially when she let him play in the sprinkler in her backyard.
Leebo and Nathan go WAAAAAAY back. They grew up in Kings Mountain together, were freshman year roommates and then fraternity brothers. Lee's wife threw him this party, and they have a one month old baby! (good woman!) It was fun to see them again, and Tim and Tiff (of Baird...Cubed fame) were there too, Tiffany is the cutest preggo ever! Another surprise bonus of the weekend is that Elise and I ran into Mary Margaret, Wes, and Charlotte (of And Baby Makes Three fame) at the outlet mall. I saw all my Charleston buddies in one day!
Sunday morning we drove down to Folly Beach and spent the morning with Tim and Tiff. Seth was ready to go to the beach, and had a blast digging in the sand and putting his feet in the ocean.Our water baby...she fussed at the shock of the water temperature, then quickly settled down. (just look back to Seth's one month picture to get an idea of how he felt about late-July ocean the first time we took him)
First family picture since Amelia was three days old!
We came home to rain, and lots of it, but that's okay. We need it, the yard looks great, the kids need to regroup, and I have a lot of laundry to do!

future pastors can't dance

Lisa and Michael are always saying how BUSY they are...well, somebody down there has too much time on their hands. Watch this link if you want to see some bad dancing. Or you can just skip to 3:08 to see Michael and 3:18 to see Lisa (why is she dancing with another guy?). Lisa said, "You should show it to Seth to see if he can find us in the video." Bad idea. He just wants to watch Michael dance over and over again.

the unobservant mom

I know I've inspected my kids head to toe hundreds of times. My job is to look for the nuances in babies. So I am stunned that it took me until yesterday to realize Amelia has a spot (birthmark? beauty mark? I'm not sure of the derm-lingo) on the back of her head that is the size of the end of my thumb! I turned her around to face Melissa and there it was staring at me! Granted, it is located where her hair is the thickest. I know it hasn't always been there, I just don't know when it showed up. Melissa had to reassure me twice that it looked fine, I think I just freaked myself out since I'd never noticed it before.

March for Babies 2008

Saturday the kids and I participated in Forsyth County's 2008 March of Dimes' March for Babies (formerly known as WalkAmerica). Once again the kids did awesome in their "two-kid" stroller. Most of the time Seth stood on his perch and watched the scenery, he especially liked when we saw the police motorcycles (which were barricading streets). Amelia slept through the whole walk. She woke up afterwards to watch Seth play on the playground.

Natural Science Museum

For this month's playdate, we met at the Natural Science Museum in Greensboro. The kids had a great time, and we didn't even get to explore the entire museum before it was time to leave for lunch. They have interactive exhibits in the museum and an outdoor area of animals. Seth was scared of the dinosaur room and called the meerkats "squirrels".

There was a petting zoo area where the kids could feed hay to goats and sheep. Seth was much more brave than he was last fall at the fair. All us moms are NICU nurses, so afterwards it was time to PURELL, PURELL, PURELL!!!!
Amelia slept through the entire museum visit...this picture is earlier in the week when she was playing with her daddy in the evening.

Auntie Marie, I fit in my outfit now! (seven weeks old)

Is there a baseball playing pirate doctor in the house?

My Gym, my music

At My Gym, Seth attends a class with a handful of other kids his age on Mondays, and then gets one hour of free play with all ages of kids per week. During the classes, when the music is playing, the kids have free reign on the equipment. When the music stops, it's time to sit in the center circle for some structure and to learn some skills. Besides watching Seth have a blast, the best part for me is that there is music playing all the time, I just sing along as I chase Seth around. Seth likes Hootie (because sometimes I have to hold his hand on the equipment). Last week I embarrassed myself with my 80s knowledge (although I made myself act like I didn't know Weird Science). Today was all college music...what a fun two hours of my week!

Amelia's first party

Last week we stayed just as busy as the week before, and it looks like this week is going to be more of the same. Last Wednesday I made a MASSIVE grocery store trip and then I had my OB checkup. It took two hours. The kids were so good. I took Seth for ice cream with sprinkles afterwards. Thursday we went to the mall, I was in desperate need of some pants. Friday Amelia attended her first party...we had a baby shower for my coworker, Stacey. This is the outfit Uncle Bryan bought her. At last minute we were able to make plans with Nathan's Aunt Margaret and Uncle Tony to meet for dinner Friday night. They were in Winston for the Davis Cup, we met them at Time to Eat.

Saturday morning Seth and I took Amelia to Cary for the first time. Seth promised me he'd let Gram cut his hair. It took some bribery, but it looks so much better now!

Our new game is to go up in Amelia's room in the evening and play on a heap of blankets. Seth asks for me to take pictures. This one is my favorite from Saturday night. Amelia really likes watching Seth right now.

Sunday I took the kids to church, and they were both really good. Amelia should have napped through the service, but was wide awake, so I got her out of her carrier to snuggle during the sermon, thinking that would cause her to fall asleep. Big mistake. The retired teacher sitting next to me stole her from me, I only got her back to take her up to communion, then she took her again! So much for indulgent snuggle time! And now there is a list of who gets her next time!

little blue dress

circa 1978..29 years later...

a little grin

Amelia has been back to being a happy little baby this week. She tried to stay awake most of the day yesterday, and slept the morning away today. At lunch, she started to make a little grin. Seth and I made a big deal out of it, so she kept doing it over and over again. You can almost see the dimple in her left cheek here...I'll post another one when she starts making the gummy grins.

Baby Blues

No, I'm not battling postpartum depression (although I think I'd feel a little better if I'd see some blue sky soon!). Two weeks ago the Baby Blues comic strip did this "The Days Are Long..." series. I usually like this comic because the oldest daughter reminds me of me, but I relate to this one on a parent-level. Just thought I'd share! (I'll add the other three as the week progresses...they aren't available online until two weeks after they run in the paper!)

Shedding some light on the subject

Seth has been spending a lot of time in our dining-room-turned-playroom lately, but last night he surprised me by turning on the lights when he went in there. He's tall enough for light switches now! Amelia is also growing and I'm starting to retire some of her clothes already! Sad day!

We (especially Seth) had a fun week...last Monday he had his gym class, Tuesday he played first with his sitter Kim while I went to the dentist, and then at Jake and Cami's while I went to the doctor, Thursday Case and Blair stopped by and we went to free play at the gym, and Friday Seth went to BounceU with Melissa and Case (I got the best end of that deal, I stayed at Melissa's with Blair and Amelia, and both the girls slept!) Friday night I had my first extended solo trip out, Melissa and I did our Dream Dinners session. Amelia wasn't very nice to her daddy, but he did fine. And they made up Saturday morning when she ate the bottle she didn't eat the night before.

Five weeks old...playing on my bed waiting for Seth to wake up Thursday morning.

Nathan requested another bottle feeding this morning, and the little stinker took it from him! We know it's just a fluke, but she held her own bottle for the second half of her feeding.

Seth still is choosing not to nap most days...last night he fell asleep on his beanbag chair with his hand in a box of CheezIts. The camera battery was dead, so I took a picture on my cell phone...so sorry the picture quality is so terrible!

Birthday Serenade

For the past few years, Nathan and I have been serenaded by Evan and Ryan on our birthdays. Looks like now we can finally return the favor...happy birthday, Lisa!

Remember WalkAmerica?

Well, this year the March of Dimes has changed the name to March for Babies, but the concept is still the same, to raise money to help prevent prematurity and birth defects. As I have for the past eleven years as I've been able, I will be participating this year. The walk is April 19th, and Seth and Amelia will join me in the "two kid stroller." If you would like to sponsor me (the website will accept donations as small as $5!) the link is www.marchforbabies.org/saramayse. Thanks!