Stroller Tan

I haven't had a suntan since I was 16 years old. But all this walking with Peri this summer has left me with a little color. Yes, color that will someday kill me by turning into cancer. Funny thing about my tan is that it's on the inside of my arms. I looked at the stroller and realized the handles are at an angle so you have to hold them as if you're holding a bottle upright. Ha!

Nails

What is with me and experiences at nail salons (see Hong Kong blog)? Maybe it's just when I go to places outside of my normal salon. A new place opened up last month near our house, so Peri and I set out to test it out. I got her fed and asleep so she could nap while I was there. Nope, she woke up. The lady running the salon cooed over her and told me about her 2 year old girl and how she could take care of Peri for me while I got my nails done. Sigh. Very nice. Until she started telling me "She's hungry-she wants to be fed now". Uh no, I just fed her. "Where's her bottle and I'll do it." I pointed to my chest. So she brought Peri over and I tried my best to get everything positioned under the blanket. The woman kept wanting to help so I told her she could hold the blanket. What I didn't say was "and peek your head over the blanket and tell me how to position my boob". Sigh. Too bad they did such a great job with my nails.

Hurt finger :(

So I'm pretty good at cutting baby finger nails. Even when they squirm, I can usually do the job. Except for this week. When Peri was being all still as I cut her nails and then she started crying. Yep, I cut off part of her baby finger. Just a tiny bit, but when fingers are tiny to begin with... Oh sweet baby!

Visit to the grandparents

Ahhh, we took a quick trip to see the grandparents last weekend. What does one do in NC? Eat. Chik-fil-A, Sonic, BBQ, fried okra, sweet ice tea. Sigh and yum!

We went to the Apple Fest where Nick and his cousin Emma rode the rides. Nick and Pop-pop did crazy stunts with the golf cart. And Nick examined the bugs in Mom-mom's Garden/Nature Walk.
Peri did a great job with her first flight. No one would make eye contact with us at the beginning. Can't truly blame them. But then as soon as the flight was over, they made an effort to tell us how beautiful and good she was. Uh yah, because she's a rock star like her brother!

More than meets the eye

Chris and I love to go for long walks. Nicholas - not so much. He slow pokes and makes us miserable. His stroller has now gone to Peri. He won't ride his tricycle or Big Wheel so we headed to the store last weekend to look at big boy bikes and scooters. He apparently has my sense of balance because he wasn't comfortable on the bike at all - even with training wheels. So we decided on a Razor scooter. We finally picked the one, but we couldn't get the sucker to unlock. Two of us struggling while Toys R Us employees walked by us. Sigh. So we decided to head to Target to see if they had it. Target was a complete disappointment too, so we decided to head home and try Amazon.com. But poor Nick couldn't leave the store without something, so he and Chris came out with a set of elbow pads, knee pads and wrist guards. Nick was so excited and wore them all around the house. Then he realized that when he paired them up with his Transformer pjs, he resembled a Transformer! "Mom, I REALLY am a robot with these!"

Finally, the big day came and his scooter arrived! We got him padded up and took him to the local playground. He was very cautious and not doing so well. So he took off his knee pads. A little better so he decided to take off his elbow pads. Better. Finally he took off the wrist pads and he was off! Zooming around completely unprotected.

At least we know he can use the pads to dress up as a Transf0rmer.

Bless her sweet heart

When you see a baby, you automatically say "how cute" or "so sweet", sometimes when you don't even mean it. I was reminded of this last weekend while in a neighborhood store. A woman saw the stroller and said "How cute!" I smiled and gazed adoringly into the stroller to find Peri staring at us cross eyed. I laughed and explained that she's learning to focus this month and must be focused on something. We both looked back to Peri to find her with these wide psycho-baby eyes. Jeesh! Show the lady how cute you really are! In Texas or the South they would just say "Bless her sweet heart."

Germs are sweet!

Nick loves his friend Lewis. They met when they were three and have stayed close, even when Lewis moved to a new school. So on Saturday, the boys were playing legos, Chris was cleaning out his car (his car resembles a mom's carpool minivan inside with the ridiculous stuff it collects) and I was puttering around not knowing what to do while Peri took a 3 hour nap (how much longer do I have?! Can I clean up the house? Time to email friends? Oh boy!). The boys decided to play soccer while I picked up a gift for a friend. We were going to meet at the hot dog joint afterwards. I finished up early and met them at the park. On my way to the park I stopped in for a strawberry milkshake. mmmmm. Then realized I couldn't show up without a chocolate malt for Chris. Then realized Chris and I didn't want to share with the picky eaters (N & L), so I got a vanilla shake for them to share. Got to the playground to find N, L and another little friend they'd made there. So of course all three gathered around the milkshakes with their hungry little mouths. Potbelly shakes come with 2 cookies on the straw, so first I gave out the cookies. New boy grabbed one up and popped it in his mouth before I could ask if he was allowed to have cookies. Oops! So Chris asked him where his parents were. He looked all around and found his mom and little sister waving at us from the swings. We yelled across the park and got the ok for cookies. The shared shake was then passed back and forth between all three boys. That's when Chris got a bit worried and headed over to ok it with the mom. When you get past the germiness and "I don't know anything about this kid" it was really sweet how they all just trusted each other and shared with each other immediately without thinking. Also kinda scary how kids will eat anything that an adult/stranger gives them. Sigh, but this one was cute.

Photo above is more germs while they shared a drink at lunch.