Desperate Times

No, this post is not some belated archive of Easter pictures that I forgot to post.  I just took these pictures last week, when my child was having such an epic meltdown in the backyard that I thought someone was going to call the police.

Remember when I told you about Morgan "helping" David mow the lawn a few weeks ago? Well, that plan totally backfired.  You see, toddlers are quite literal people. So when I told her she could help, she thought I meant forever.  Like every time.  Until the end of time.  

When Morgan and I came home one afternoon and she discovered David was mowing without her, she literally fell apart.  She started wailing, yelling at David, "put the grass back on, Daddy - put it back!!!"  Clearly, that was not going to happen.  So I did what any loving and responsible parent would do - I bribed her with candy.

To seal the deal, I not only offered her an array of gummy goodness, I told her we would have a little Easter Egg hunt.  Except we didn't have any eggs, so I used plastic carrots.  You get the idea.

I thought about making this little adventure super challenging (you know, so she would keep crying), but eventually decided better of it.  So I hid the carrots where she was mostly likely to find them...right in front of her face.

My tactics worked.  The wailing in the backyard was soon replaced with squeals of victory.  The broken grass was quickly forgotten as Morgan moved on to growing her candy collection.

My relief, however, was short lived when I realized Morgan fully planned to eat all of her candy right there. Most likely all in one mouth full.

Here's my dilemma. I am not the mom to let her child eat all of her Halloween candy in one sitting.  In fact, we still have conversation hearts left over from February.  But you know, I decided not to pick this battle.  I handed her the entire pile and told her to dig in.  And she did.  And there were no tears.  It's just too bad she now wants to look for Easter eggs every time she hears a lawn mower.  

Flippy Floppy

I probably should have given my husband a shout out on Father's Day.  After all, he is the World's Best Dad.  You know those coffee mugs?  Yeah, they made them for David.  

Anyway, I didn't give him a shout out because we were on one of our most buck wild camping trips yet.  We met some friends and boated to our camping spot.  There were several dads involved and lots of daughters, so the whole thing felt quite celebratory.

The trip started out fairly normal...well, normal enough when we're involved and spending some time with our redneck karaoke friends.

Before the sun set, we decided to take some time and get our tents put up. We have been camping in a trailer for the last 5 years, so inflating air mattresses was a bit overwhelming.  I had no idea we would eventually  be using our air pump as a blow dryer at 3:00 in the morning when Morgan wet the bed and we had no additional jammies for her.  I tried to make her sleep in her jeans and coat...she just stared at me and said, "but those aren't sleeping clothes."  Fair enough.

But back to our evening.  We started out with a little campfire and a spectacular s'more assembly line.  We also put together a beer and wine assembly line, which very quickly made the night much more interesting.

Over the next few hours, the kiddos went to bed, our supply of beer dwindled, and the number of items in our bonfire grew.  At one point, our friend Jeff decided to kung foo fight the fire.  Except he forgot he was wearing $2.00 flip flops from Old Navy and hadn't brought any other shoes.

Did you know plastic is really flammable?  Jeff just stood there wailing, "My flippy floppy, my flippy floppy!!!

But it was too late.  He spent the rest of the night wandering around in the darkness with one bare foot, crying in his beer.  Okay, he wasn't really crying.  Whatever.

But Jeff is a resourceful man (and an electrician), so the next morning's sunlight (okay, and sobriety) brought with it some very creative designs in summer foot wear and electrical tape.  It's like you can't even tell which one was burned.

And so we headed out to the lake.  Not only is Jeff an electrician, he has a boat.  And my husband learned how to lake surf.  Unfortunately, the entire time David was in the water, Morgan was sobbing uncontrollably.  Then one of our friends thought it would be funny to tell her there were sharks in the lake.  So she stopped crying, looked him right in the eye and said, "No there's not. There's only fish." And then she went right back to crying.  

As soon as David was back in the boat, Morgan was all smiles.  Because it was Father's Day, and we were on a boat.  With good friends and fancy shoes.  Here's to summer, and lake surfing, and flippy floppies.  Let the good times roll.

Time Apart

Raise your hand if you knew my husband is a wedding officiant.  Okay, Mom, you can put your hand down.  For the rest of you, here's a little background. Nearly three years ago, David became ordained online and married his brother and his high school sweet heart in an awesome ceremony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Since that time,  David discovered he really enjoys performing weddings and playing a very special role in the new chapter of a couple's life together.  Cheesy, but true.

David was recently asked to perform a wedding on Redfish Lake.  For those of you not familiar with Idaho, it's one of the most beautiful places in our state.  It now also marks the official spot of our very first vacation without our daughter.  Yeah, it took us almost four years to decide to leave her with someone else for weekend.  We're those parents...don't judge me.

We rented a cabin in the woods, where we spent the majority of time drinking coffee, laying around, and reading.  The cabins have no phones, no televisions, and no alarm clocks so we also spent a good deal of time staring at each other trying to talk about adult things...you know, like what we were going to have for breakfast and whether we could figure out the time by looking at the sun. We couldn't.  So we slept in. Because we didn't have a toddler jumping on our heads yelling at us to get up.

Once we got settled in, we headed over to the lake to watch the moon rise. We're cool like that.

The wedding was the following evening.  The morning started out a little overcast, but that didn't stop us from taking a boat ride around the lake.  We were under-dressed and almost froze to death, but it didn't matter.  The views were so breathtaking and the fact we didn't have to stop 10 times to let our daughter pee off the side of the boat (not that we've ever done that) made us giddy.

By the time 7:00 rolled around, the clouds had parted and sun had begun to settle behind the trees. The bride and groom had picked a little spot on the beach and had invited just a few friends to share in their day.  It made me want to get married all over again. To David, of course.  I still like that guy.

David spent the next 20 minutes performing the most beautiful ceremony, helping two wonderful people begin their lives together.

Of course, I spent the whole time crying my eyes out, so excited for this couple and so proud of my husband.  A trip to the woods was just what we needed to recharge our batteries and remind ourselves just how much we still like each other. We should leave that kid more often.

Scene of the Crime

It started innocently enough.  Morgan and I were outside drawing on the driveway when I had this brilliant idea that we could trace her shape and she would color it in.  Of course that's not what actually happened.

As she laid on the sidewalk completely motionless, I suddenly realized that the front of our house would be a lot more interesting if it looked like we had just taken down the crime scene tape. So we got right to work. 

At one point, Morgan started to squirm.  I, in my infinite wisdom, said "You can't move.  Look dead."  And so she did.  I probably shouldn't let her watch any more Dexter.

It was just a matter of minutes before we had a whole row of chalk outlines.  Like 27 people shaped like Gumby died on on our sidewalk.

I was totally digging our new look, but Morgan thought the whole thing lacked personality.  She asked me to take a few pictures of her next to  each outline...

 

After the first few shots, I noticed her smile was starting to look a little strained.  I figured it was because we had taken too many pictures, but Morgan insisted that we take a few more.  

I finally noticed the look on her face was no longer strained, but downright panic.  Just as I realized what was happening, she let out a little gasp and said softly, "Uh oh." It was too late.   Our little art project was officially a crime scene.  Let's just hope the sprinklers wash away the evidence. 

She's Like The Wind

With graduation season in full swing, I thought it only appropriate to recognize the little graduation that just took place at our house.  We are now officially rockin' a two-wheeler.

Truth be told, it's technically a four-wheeler, but we'd like to think of those two bonus wheels as a little bit of insurance that Morgan doesn't lose her two front teeth any sooner than she's supposed to.

As I watched her start her first ride on a "big girl bike" I could feel the tears beginning to fill the corners of my eyes. My chest tightened as I tried hard not to let them fall-

 My emotions were all over the board.  I was excited to see her taking the next brave step-

I was so sad that my baby girl is growing up and quite simply not a baby anymore - 

But mostly, I was just grateful she kept looking back to make sure I was still there.  Yeah, I'm here.  Always.