Last Hurrah

We were living on the edge. In our terms.

It's a tough day when you admit that driving with a toddler that isn't going to nap at all, scares you. We have been those parents until this weekend.

When I arrived home from work on Friday afternoon, Charlie asked my thoughts on leaving before dinnertime (note: this is UNHEARD of in our house. We are bedtime drivers from the get-go). We agreed that this would really make us a traveling family if we could pull this off.

Before we even got halfway into the measly 3 hour trip we had to stop for dinner. This may have been my need more than MM. I mentioned on Instagram and Facebook that there was a teeny escape attempt as I was paying for dinner, MM pushed the door open to this particular Subway and ran her little legs into the parking lot.

My pregnant heart that is filled with double the amount of blood almost had a heart attack and had a little PTSD as we were eating.

Once we got past that and a MUCH needed poop diaper, MM was the little peach that we knew she could be.

Immediately upon reaching the beach,  we all relaxed and bit and had a few drinks.

Perfect size? No?

Also, she went pant-less for 80% of the time. We are a wild and crazy bunch we are.

When we got to the actual beach MM was NOT a fan of the sand and/or the water.

But things go much better when Nana is involved.

I hope MM had as good of a time as we did with all of the grandparents around because this is about the last time she is going to be the center of all their attention.

We are 1 month our from the "due date" (what a loose loose term) and that means MM is something around 1 month away from being a sister.

We have begun putting our babies to bed and also giving them a bath these days, so I'm really hoping that is a good sign.

Also, it has officially started at work. They have hired someone new, and will be putting her in my seat once I'm gone. The REAL fun begins when I get over-due, I get angry especially when everyone is asking if I'm feeling anything. "Are you having any contractions?" "Are you dilated?" it goes on and on.

But who wouldn't want to know when another one of these will be coming out?

We have matching bellies and I am a primo beach photographer.

Who Knew?

I know I didn't.

When you meet your husband and future father to your children you just don't know. When you date and fall in love with that boy (let's say it, the woman makes the man) you don't know what kind of father he will be.

When I met Charlie, he was (and still is) a teacher, which you would think meant he had some affinity for children. That was about all I knew about how he interacted with children. He had never held a child much less watched or babysat one. When we had Mary Margaret, he had changed only one diaper before hers.

Honestly, he, nor I, were the most responsible people when we met.  We drank a lot and ate really good meals, throwing caution to the wind, nor glancing at our check books. But we did know that one day we wanted children, and being the weirdos we are, knew the names of our first boy and girl that we had even before we were even engaged. That was a good sign, but I still didn't know.

We got our first "child," Buckley, when we were engaged. And Charlie was already a great daddy who would get up and take Buckley to relieve his little puppy bladder at 3 am when the partying neighbors would wake him up. Then they would both sleep together on the only "couch" we had which was a love seat that barely fit either of them.

You don't KNOW, know until it happens. Until that little baby comes and your lives change forever.

And little did I know that the boy I married would turn into not only a stand-up man, but the most amazing father to our children I would have ever have known to ask for. He was a little scared at first because he didn't have the, um, equipment to solve all world baby problems like I did. But once he got the hang of it, ohh has he excelled.

He, of course, has more patience with MM that I ever do. He is also become a stay-at-home Dad for the summer, which means taking the time to think about things to do with her, and of course lots and lots and lots and lots of book-reading and playing in the car. He takes her to the library, takes her on walks when I need a break to nap or what-ever. Plays tea time and encourages good manners. Takes her to Mass and teaches her how to pray. He is SO proud of her, and I am So so So proud of him for the man and husband is has become.

As completely cliché it is to say, I realllllly got lucky. There must have been clues leading up to it, but I didn't know how wonderful a husband and father could be until him. Of course, no offense dad.

Here a little montage of MM and Charlie pictures:

This last one was taken last week, and really shows the kind of parenting we condone. I was told it was empty, but it was also like 2 PM, so really you never know. When it's summer break (during World Cup) for these teachers, all bets are off.

I believe this "you never know what you're going to get" can be expanded to include grandparents. In our case, both of our fathers hadn't had grandchildren before. So you really just never know how they are going to react. I can say that like Charlie, it took a little warming up, and getting more comfortable baby-holding again, but once they got going... things really took off.

Papa or "George" as MM likes to refer to him.

"Boom" or "Boom Boom"

I am thankful for all of the fathers that MM, and soon V, have in their lives. And in particular, the one that I can say I picked, even if I didn't know how amazing he was going to be.

Happy Father's Day to all dad's out there. You deserve that next beer, so have the child you've trained go pour you another, and remember to let them get their deserved one-sip tax.

Winning.

It would be fair to start by saying that I'm writing this after work, after a horrendous dentist appointment where the "guest hygienist" really gave me the what's-what since I hadn't been there (or apparently flossed) since January 2013, and after practically chugging a hard cider Charlie bought me in place of the case of PBRs he bought for himself (all of the class here at the McCants house).

If you find that the previous paragraph fully describes the title of this post, no need to continue, you'll just become too impressed.

I should start by saying I'm a gripping 6 weeks away from Ms. McCants' due date, but as much as I KNOW when it should be... they always have and will always know better than yours truly.

I could take that as an excuse that I 100% botched a birthday party invite this weekend. In every way possible, other than the day and the person it was for.

* I should note that once we received said party invite, MM would not stop talking about birthday boy. And saying Happy Birthday to him numerous times while kissing the invitation.

I will begin with the time, first I thought it was 3 PM for the start time. Then, upon closer examination, I was under the impression it started at 1PM, ok so we could have a quick 1.5 hour nap and be a little late for the party. Fine, I'm not above being late (and as you know, it's in MM's general demeanor) and we had everything: cute clothes on, a little make-up for momma, the charity donation noted on the back of the invitation. MM was now clutching the invite as we walked out of the door. As I was checking the address, I saw the unthinkable.

See how obviously this says 1PM as a start time?? 

Also, I am a master a photo edit, obvi.

The party was from 10AM until 1PM. SHOOOOOT... We had missed the party completely. Like seriously, we were late to the post-party (which, I'll have you know, was implied naps for all attendees).

So amid MM beginning her chorus of repeated "Julian" and "Happy Birthday, Julian," I declared we were going to go drop of the donation for the requested charity, and maybe tell Julian's parents that we (I) were unbelievably sorry for missing the party completely.

As we were making our way to downtown I began frantically texting everyone who lived in Julian's vicinity that we could invite ourselves to hangout with. I am also checking the invite to see how such a critical error, I turn it over and BOOM; the donation was for a children's book. What do I have? Clothes and some size-1 diapers that have been in our laundry room (unopened) for 6 months. Fail again.

MM was reallllly digging it into me at this point with her frequent declarations of "Julian" all the way to his house. I hung my head in shame.

Charlie on the other hand was getting quite the kick out of the afternoon's events. He likes to pretend that I have my Sh*t together, and so these little moments of motherly shame really get him a little giddy.

As we are pulling up to the Birthday Boy's house his VERY sweet and VERY pregnant mother texts back and says it's cool if we stop by. Little did she know that we are going to eat the leftovers and drink their beer while their little man was napping and thus allowing them NOT to do their naptime plans, which I'm sure was cleaning or napping or whatever.

We came prepared to party

Our next stop on tour de South Raleigh was our non-childed friends Clair and Seth, as they are hosting AirBNB guest AND having some touch ups on their house painting done. Ohh, you can certainly host us for a little too.  We just barge in, break a few things, drink their refreshments, have a tantrum or 3 and peace.

Finally, we have also invited ourselves to a cook out! YAY! for them. More people feeding us. Ann and Bryan were so gracious to let us trample through their backyard and steal toys from their son while, unbeknownst to them, feeding their dogs at least 1/3 of MM's dinner. And the Rice Krispy Treats were fab. I'm not sure if it's completely obvious, but we brought zero to share with anyone (no bottle of wine, no 6 pack, not even a lame bag of chips). And I hear a rumor this morning that there was talk of how precious MM is. Good thing we have her to pull us out.

I will say there might be a few things to contribute to this absentmindedness, one is that we may be trying to sell our townhome within the few weeks leading up to V's birth... but who doesn't like a little more excitement when you're about to bring another living thing into your world forever? Not me!

More on the house selling later, but for now, if anyone can tell me the name of a good  (read: pro bono) home-staging guru, I will love you for ever and ever. AND! I won't invite my family over to your house on a random Saturday afternoon. Deal??

This T-shirt from Frisco Rod and Gun 

does have Guns and Dogs on the back, I will come clean and tell you.

Give or Take

Welp, I'm reporting from 100 weeks + pregnant.

This is how I'd like to dress daily, aside from the diaper

It's getting to that point where I start getting really uncomfortable and sweaty everywhere doing pretty much all things. Sitting on the couch isn't comfortable, depending on the alignment of the stars and moon I am uncomfortable on one or all sides while sleeping, reading stories to MM isn't fun, even (sniffle sniffle) cuddling with MM while she's trying to get to sleep puts a lot of pressure on her younger sister. So don't be surprised when the next month and a half (who are we kidding, 2 months) will be mostly a complain-fest. Lucky you.

A while ago TOMS was having a deal on shoes for all the two legged in the family. I got MM the CUTEST tiny grey TOMS that she (and in turn I) consistently received compliments on ::Pats self on back::.

About 2 weeks ago the unthinkable happened (in the really cute shoe world), sweet Charlie was picking MM up from a friend's house and put said zapatos on the top of the car. When they got home, no shoes. He called back to the friends who, went beyond the call of duty and walked for at least a 1/2 mile and found a lone shoe. Which, honestly, may have been more sad than finding no shoes.

For some reason these little shoes meant SO much to us both. Of course MM could really care less as she isn't at the stage where she is attached to anything other than me when I'm trying to cook, clean, dress, shower, etc.

For a while we let it hang around the house, like a little mascot. I thought "well maybe if I find another one, or could order a spare... there has to be a website for spare shoes" NO. there isn't.  So then I was like "maybe I can like make it a little planter or something cute" but quickly came to the understanding I'm not one of those crafty cute people who can pull off Pinterest crap like that. I believe it was thrown away a few days ago, but I've been carrying the picture on my phone, finding the time to write this post, and this sweet little lone shoe was hanging out.  WHY WHY WHY was I having strong feelings for a SHOE? Ugh, pregnancy... I just need to remember the amazing amazing gift that comes from all this.

This is not the pool I'm talking about

So my most recent #firsttimemom experience happened today. I had re-posted an article on Facebook about Secondary Drowning. And of course, what do I do next? Ohh, take MM to the pool, where she falls down twice in the baby pool. Gets up with out crying, but I would keep those falls in the back of my mind for....ever. That night she starts coughing a little, I think about the pool. But she's acting fine, not a change in her personality at all, although being a little tired from being with the grandparents.

2:30 am she wakes Charlie and I up with A LOT of coughing. I FREAK THE CRAP OUT. I practically crash GOOGLE with all of the insane-mommy searching I'm doing about Post-Swimming persistent cough. I found some old random tube of Menthol rub that I'm sure my great-grandma used and prayed that she would make it through the night. I had dreams of Charlie sitting up with her while she slept and he didn't.

Cut to yesterday night when she had ALL of the SNOT and was having some slightly labored breathing and a fever that I can't get her to sit still enough to measure. I cover her in Essential Oils (Lavender, Peppermint and Melaleuca, if you care) call the Dr. as soon as possible this morning and direct Charlie to take her in after giving the whole story to the front desk lady making the appointment.

Turns out, she has a cold. Aside from a raw nose from lots of wiping, she'll be just fine. Really, I'm not ashamed that I freaked out, I'm sure the next time this happens Im not going to freak out as much. But then again, I might.