Lesson Learned

I learned my lesson the hard way. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided it would be a great idea to take Virginia to a play group that also was a charity event. Let me explain better.

The CPM's were having a play group at a ladies house and while the kids are playing the moms were going to be stuffing bags for homeless people. The charity that we were working with is called Help Bags. They bag items for homeless people and then pass them out at local shelters. Items like crackers, band-aids, mens socks, and hand warmers are just a few of the items that get placed in the bags.

The ladies house was about a twenty minute drive for us. It was out near the town of Locust. The drive was nice and we got to see some beautiful country. The ladies house was gorgeous. It was at the very back of a new development. In the front of her yard she had a huge pond and on the side of her house she had another huge pond. Her house was also surrounded by trees. If I had a dream location for my house this would be a very close match. We were a little late getting there since I forgot how far grocery stores are in the country. I needed to stop and pick up a snack for the get together.

Once we got to the house and pulled into the drive I got a little nervous at the site of all the moms in a circle talking. But once Brandy one of the moms said hey Kathy I felt better. It is always great when someone remembers you. I was also a little disappointed because there was only one child that came and it was a 3 year old boy. Virginia didn't want much to do with the little boy.

Virginia did entertain herself for a little while with the ladies magnetic v-tech game. But that didn't last for very long. As we are all sitting in a circle feeling bags. Virginia kept getting in the middle of the circle wanting me to follow her into the kitchen. She was super whiny and wanting my full attention though out the whole party. The owner's big dog Max entertained her for a bit, but I knew that we were going to need to leave soon. Overall I did not have a great time, Virginia wore me out chasing her around the house trying to keep her happy and quiet. The best part about the whole get together other then helping out a charity was putting faces to some of the moms that I have talked with on the forum.

But like I said I learned my lesson the hard way. Don't expect a almost 2 year old to entertain herself while you try to hang out with adults. Also I learned a laundry lesson yesterday as well. Don't dry your clothes at a high heat level for an hour. Holes will form and sadly my Avett Brothers shirt was the victim. Luckily it is still wearable.

Saturday Adventures

Luckily, Saturday morning I woke up feeling a lot better.  I decided to go ahead and go out to breakfast with the moms from Central Piedmont Moms. Virginia and I got all dressed up and yes, Lisa, I even took a bath. We met the moms and their kids at this small place just up the road called Zak's Place.

This restaurant had just recently opened up from what I heard. It reminded me of RO's or really any mom and pop type restaurant you can think of. Once we got in, we met two moms and their kids and got seated at the table in the back. It was already Virginia's nap time. So I knew I was most likely in for a little struggle keeping her in her seat and happy.

I sat her right beside me and beside this 5 year old boy on the other side. The little boy was so sweet and tried to get Virginia to play with his stuffed dog. Virginia was a little too shy and decided to ditch her own chair to climb into my lap. I didn't mind, I was just trying to keep her happy. She was climbing all over me. Luckily one of the other moms came to my rescue.

She handed me her iPhone that had this awesome app called Baby Piano on it. She said, "Let her play with this, if you don't mind." Virginia grabbed that phone and in an instant it was like the angels from up above sang out and she was a quiet peaceful baby for the rest of the breakfast.

I ordered some pancakes, hash browns, and bacon. Oh my gosh, it had been a while since I have had a good breakfast. At least one that didn't consist of small bites from Virginia's left over waffle. I started to eat my pancake when I noticed a little mouth wide open with puppy dog eyes looking at me. Surprise! Virginia loves her some pancakes. She ate almost two whole pancakes by herself. I didn't complain at all. Lately it has been hit and miss with what she likes to eat.

It was great having dinner with the moms. Having adult conversation is always nice and I don't always get enough of it. By the end of the breakfast, we were all just sitting around chatting and letting the kids walk around the table and play. I usually don't allow Virginia to leave the table or my side. But this restaurant was very small and at the time, there was only one table in the restaurant. Also, the owners were super nice and told us that the kids could play and walk around.

I figured Virginia would just stay right beside my leg. One little girl came up and was so cute. She was just kind of patting Virginia on her head and back. I guess trying to say, "Hey, come play and dance with me." Virginia quickly took a liking to this little girl and her green frog rain boots. I couldn't help but giggle as Virginia and this girl started chasing each other around the table. I know, not very good parenting skills letting your child run around a restaurant table giggling and screaming like a little girl.
But like I said, this is a one time only experience. I am sure I will pay for it when we go out some where else and Virginia wants down to play. The girls were just too cute.

I had my camera and was all ready to be that dork that asked for a group shot, so I would have a great photo for my blog. But I decided to be cool and considering it was my first time meeting these moms, I just took a picture of the building. Maybe next time I will let my Dork Flag fly and ask for a group shot.

Virginia was super tired by the time we got back to the apartment and took a nice long nap. During her nap, Reiggin cooked some Mexican food for lunch. Oh, it was so yummy and I can't say enough how lucky I am to have married a man that knows how to cook. We also watched "The A-Team" movie. I was a little unsure this movie was going to be good. But I was wrong; the movie was great. It made me laugh and it kept me guessing.

After Virginia's nap and lunch, we decided to try again to take our adventure to the pool. So we all got dressed and made the walk up to the pool. There were about 7 kids already playing in the pool. Luckily, they were staying in the deep end for the most part. I sprayed Virginia down with sunscreen and put her life vest on. I was expecting her to be a little scared of going in the pool. But she just stepped right in with me. For the most part, she loved the water. She may just be a fish like her mother. She did enjoy running around the pool a little more then swimming in it. But for her first adventure to the pool, I would say it was a success.

One thing that did shock me about the pool was how many kids were there under the age of 13 with no adult supervision. Call me a over protective mother, but I would never let my child swim alone with a bunch of other kids. Then to add to my shock, a mom come into the pool area to check on her child and asked another girl that was only 13 to watch her child swim while she went back to her apartment. My mouth was just wide open in shock. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I just wanted to step up and say, "Are you crazy?" But I decided I didn't want a big black woman cursing me out and telling me to mind my own business.

We decided to pack up since all of us were getting pretty tired. I forgot how much exercise swimming can be. We headed back to the apartment for some dinner and some much needed down-time watching some Nick Jr. cartoons. Virginia went to sleep that night with no problems!

When Virginia was first born, I found myself tip toeing into her room to make sure she was still breathing and sleeping fine. I still find myself doing this same thing every night before I go to bed. There is nothing more peaceful and cute then a little child sleeping. Some nights it is just too funny to see what position Virginia is sleeping in. Last night I had to cover my mouth from laughing out loud. I even had to go get Reiggin to show him. Reiggin grabbed the camera and took some pictures. She just had one little leg propped up on the back wall and her mouth was wide open. She was so cute and looked so peaceful.  It made for the perfect ending to a perfect day

Same Old Same Old

Not too much excitement today. I am still sick with a nasty head cold or allergies. Don't really know which, but I am leaning more towards head cold lately. I have been super lazy since my head feels like a 100 pound bowling ball this whole week. I didn't take a shower and get out of my pjs until late afternoon. Well I took a bath but still stayed in my pjs. I know Mom, I am breaking the one rule you gave me before I got married.

My Mom's rule was that I should always take a shower and put on something nice before Reiggin came home from work.

After Reiggin got home from work, I decided to take Virginia to the apartment pool. I get her all dressed and get her lil swimmers diapers on and manage to get her bathing suit on. That was a little bit of a challenge. I was going to let her just carry her life vest up to the pool, but she wanted to wear it. So here we go out and down the stairs and up the sidewalk with our bag and all our goodies to the pool. Virginia was super excited. Really, I think she was just glad to have her ball and be outside. We get halfway up the walk to the pool when a little boy asks if we are heading to the pool. I said yes. I mean, really, where else would we be going with our bathing suits on and a life vest on. Sadly, he informs us that the pool is closed today because of construction work being done to the office. I was not a happy mom at all. I manage to turn Virginia around and head back to the apartment. I didn't take a picture of her face when we got back to the apartment and tell her that we have to change clothes that the pool is closed. But just imagine the most sad face ever and that is what Virginia looked like. But it was for good because even if the pool was open we wouldn't have been able to swim for long. Once we got back in, a lightening storm started.

Luckily, we had brand new crayons to break in. This made Virginia happy along with Curious George on TV. So the world was all good again in her eyes. For me, I just relaxed the rest of the night and enjoyed a banana pudding milkshake from Cookout. I mean, if you're going to be sick, might as well be sick with a banana pudding milkshake in one hand and a tissue in the other.

Crazy Walmart Lady

If you happened to be in the Concord Walmart last Saturday. I was not the crazy lady speeding out of Walmart pushing her child 100mph in the stroller trying to get out to her car. Nope that was not I. But if it was me this would be my story.

Saturday, Virginia and I had our first official big gathering with the Central Piedmont Mommies network. Virginia actually slept a little later then usual that day. Which on most days I would be jumping for joy. But this day we were suppose to meet a lady at the Village Park to help set up for the Big Ice cream Social. Before our meeting I had to take a shower and head to Walmart for a few items.

We got to Walmart just fine. I threw Virginia into her stroller and I walked in and started my hunt for the jar of cherries. Since I am on the events committee for CPM, I volunteered to pick up cherries for our ice cream social. Reiggin quickly pointed out that I picked the most expensive item to buy for this event. I was not wise on how much cherries cost. After many up and down ventures into different ailes. I finally found the tiny little cherry jars. First they are super tiny and all the jars were super sticky. Oh well they will do since I am in a hurry. I tossed a few in my basket and grabbed a frozen pizza for Reiggin's lunch.

Next I decided to go ahead and buy some swim diapers for Virginia. Ok I don't know if Walmart was just under stocked or if there really is only one brand of swim diapers. I highly doubt that one company has the monoply on swim diapers. Luckily they had Virginia's size. So we had all our items and we were off to the check out line.

Early Saturday morning they only had 4 lines open. The first two were extremely long. So I decided to go all the way down to the other end to get into the smaller line. Once I got to the cashier I loaded my items to be checked out. Then as I am searching for my debit card, I realized I didn't have my card nor did I have enough cash to pay for all my items. Talk about embarrassing. Luckily no one was behind me waiting to be checked out. So with the most pitawful face I could make I asked the woman to void off all the items except for the cherries. As soon as she hits the void button I realize my debit card is in Virginia's diaper bag in my car. The one time I need that stupid large bag it is in the car. So I tell her the whole story and say that I will be right back. She kindly keeps all my items in the cart upfront.

I make a bee line for the door pushing Virginia in her stroller doing about 100mph and doing the best Mrs. Tuttle walk I could do. I made record timing and grabbed my card and made it back to the sweet cashier woman that I am sure was cursing my name. Luckily no one was in line so I quickly started to load my items back onto the checkout counter.

At that moment Reiggin texts me to tell me the exact pizza he wanted for lunch. Of course don't you know it wasn't the pizza I had in my cart. So to make this woman love me even more. I told her I would be right back as I ran to get that one special pizza. I felt the stares of death in my back as I speed away. Of course my luck continued with them not having the pizza. So I stayed with the other frozen pizza I had up at the checkout counter. But I couldn't come back empty handed.

I had planned to grab school supplies for the CPM school drive at Walgreens. But I went ahead and grabbed a few items at Walmart. Since it was already 9:10 and I was suppose to be at the park at 9:30. I finally get back to the lovely lady and get checked out. I am sure I made this woman's day and that I was the talk of her dinner table that night. I am sure it went something like," Do you know what this crazy lady did today."

Walmart and I are just not getting along lately. Last night I had the brillant idea to let Virginia just walk beside me though all of Walmart instead of riding in a cart. At first it was going great. She even behaved nicely going though the toy area. Then we are about to the checkout counter when she decided she didn't want to walk anymore. So she falls to the floor and just sits there. By this point I have my hands full and I manage to get her up and to the check out line. My brillance continues as I think it would be smart to let her stand beside me in front of the candy bar shelf. I know rookie mommy mistake. Needless to say she made a bee line for the candy.

Yet again I repeat I was not that Crazy Walmart Lady. Nope I was that perfect mommy with the perfect daughter standing quiet in line. At least in my dreams I was that lady.

Moments That Make Me Smile

There are little moments though out my day that just put a smile on my face.  Today my smile came before I even got out of bed. Virginia usually wakes up around 7:30am, but today she slept until after 9:00am. Oh the joys of sleeping in late. It is funny to think sleeping past 8:00am is sleeping late for me now. I can remember as a child hearing my Dad climbing the stairs to wake up me and my sisters at 11:00am. That was the latest we could sleep most weekends. Like my Dad always said we were wasting the best part of the day away.

My second smile and a little bit of a giggle was when I was sharing some cream cheese, colby jack cheese, and wheat thins with Virginia. Virginia decided that she wanted a little more cream cheese and decided to ditch the cracker and go for the finger dipping approach. Oh it gets better, I go into the kitchen to get me something to drink. I come back to find Virginia holding the big block of colby jack cheese and just nibbling on the corner. I just had to laugh at the site.

Since we are talking about food. I also was happy to get a phone call from Reiggin telling me he was coming home for lunch and bringing some Cook Out in for me. Having a Cook Out just five minutes down the road is super dangerous for my waist line. I just can't resist a good Cook Out burger and milk shake. Oh I also have to add how great it is enjoying a Cook Out lunch with my hubby while Virginia takes her nap.

I can't help but smile and laugh when Virginia farts really loud and she turns around like Wow who did that? You would never think such a little girl could make such a loud sound.

Also I guess I left our camera a little to close to the edge of the table.  I come out of the kitchen to find Virginia with the camera perfectly around her neck taking pictures of me. I guess she has watched Reiggin and I enough to know what to do with the camera.

Got to love the simple pleasures of the day. Virginia's small silly things make a big difference in keeping me happy though out the day.

Sick Day

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a sick day for mommies. Sunday night, Virginia had a mild fever and it continued into Monday. But she was a champ and kept a smile on her face. Come Monday, I realized I was sick also. Sore, itchy throat, and stuffy nose had made themselves at home.

Darn my allergies at least I hope it is just allergies and will be gone in a couple of days. Virginia has just been really sleepy and a lot more lovable. I have been getting tons more hugs and couch time these past days with my baby girl. But I will be glad when my baby is all better.

As for me being sick it is no fun whatsoever. It is not like before when I wasn't a mom and I could lay on the couch all day and watch tv. As a mom I still have to get up early with the baby and clean house. At least I have been trying to still keep the house clean. There is just not a button to hit for a sick day to stop everything.

 Reiggin has been great he even went out to Walmart and got me some chicken noodle soup. He really loves me, he even got the double noodle chicken soup. Also he took out the trash without me asking. Another bad side effect of being sick is my patience and fuse are short or non existant lately. I will be glad when all the sick bugs are gone and things are back to normal. To end on a happy note my bowling league starts up August 18th. More to come about that, I am so excited to be bowling again!

Busy Busy Bees

We have been busy busy bees around here. I have a lot to catch up on. First, we finally got everything moved down from Statesville to Concord. The move went pretty smooth. Reiggin's brothers were awesome and helped us pack up the house and unload the truck at the apartment. I stayed at the house and cleaned up before our landlord came to do her walk-though. I believe next time I am saving enough money up to hire a maid service.

The apartments have been great. All our neighbors have been super nice. The maintence people have been great too. We had a few repairs that had to be made and I have been happy to say that they have been pretty quick to fix everything. It took a while but I got all the boxes put away and now just working on cleaning up and hanging pictures. Once that is done I will have to post pictures of our new home sweet home.

We have been enjoying our new surroundings a lot. When the wind is blowing the right direction we have the smell of fresh brewed coffee in the air from the S&D Coffee Factory. Reiggin's store has been running smooth as far as I can tell. I have joined the Central Piedmont Mommies Group and have been starting to get active. This Saturday Virginia and I went to their Ice Cream Social at Village Park in Kannapolis. It was so much fun. This park definitely ranks as one of my favorites. It has a couple of different playgrounds, a splash pad, and a train.

The splash pad and train were a major hit with Virginia. She was a little shy at first when we entered the splash pad. But she quickly realized how much fun it was playing in the water. I believe she would have stayed in the splash pad all day if I would have let her. One bit of knowledge I learned was when you have the brains to put sun block on your child you should have the brains to put it on yourself. Needless to say, this white chicken got a little burned.

The train was also one of Virginia's favorite parts of the park. The train rode in a circle around the park. Everytime the train came into sight you heard all the kids scream, "The train, the train is coming." Then a mass stampede of kids running to the fence to wave to the train and the conductor. After eatting lunch and ice cream we all made the hike up to the train station to take a ride on the train. I was so surprised how well she rode the train. She just sat still as can be looking out to the side and to the front. We were both quite exhausted by the time we got back to the car and made our way home.

Our Saturday was not over yet. After a couple of hours of rest we all packed up and headed to my sister Lisa's house for a family BBQ. Lisa and Mike cooked up some yummy hamburgers and hot dogs for us. Also, Lisa and Mom made the best desserts. I wish I had pictures of these pies. You just have to take my word on how great they were.

Virginia was not a happy camper when we got to Lisa's. She took one step into the house and just started crying. I think the busy day had finally caught up to her. We all filled our bellies and viewed all the photos from Mike and Lisa's recent vacation to Alaska. Then we headed down to the basement to play some corn toss. Dad and I were on a team and Joe and Susan were on a team. Dad and I kicked butt and took names. We took down Susan and Joe and then moved on to take down Lisa, Mike, Mom, and Reiggin. This game was a blast. Dad was the skills of the team and I was the beauty. I did save the day on one game or two. Mike and Lisa were also great and had brought gifts home from their trip for Samantha and Virginia. They both got these super cute red shirts that said "Chicken, Alaska" on the front. After getting our bellies full and having some fun playing games, we all packed up and headed home.

My Gang of kids at Carowinds!

Our weekend wasn't finished just yet. Sunday, we headed to Gastonia. My Mom and Dad were nice enough to watch Virginia while Reiggin and I headed to Carowinds to meet up with our friends, Steven, Laura, and their sweet kids. Yes, I went to Carowinds. For those of you who don't know, I am not a fan of roller coasters. They scare me to death. Not just the big ones; the medium ones and the small ones, too. Luckily, there were three young kids that sometimes were not tall enough to ride the rides. So I had a good excuse to sit out. At least I thought so until we got into the kids' area of the park. Lets just say I rocked out the kiddy park. I rode a couple of roller coasters with the kids. One roller coaster we rode four times back to back. The weather was perfect. It was cloudy with a little breeze. The best part of the day is when we were getting off the first roller coaster that I rode on with the kids. Angela, the little girl that rode beside me, gets off and turns to Reiggin and says, "You have to ride with Kathy from now on. She screams to much." Yes, a seven year old just dissed me. She did end up riding with me again and as we are buckling in she turns to me and says, "Okay, you are not going to scream this time; this ride is not scary." I just had to laugh.

After riding some more rides, Reiggin and I split off and made our way to the water park. I was the only one with a bathing suit on so Reiggin was kind enough to go with me to ride some of the water rides. The water park was great. The lines were a little long but well worth it. The first ride was tons of fun. Then I moved on to the tallest slide. First, the walk up almost killed me. I really need to work out more or work out to begin with. The standing in line that high up didn't help either. I am really afraid of heights. Then I get to the top and the life guard tells us to keep our hands behind our heads the whole way down. This ride was so fast and since I had my hands behind my head I couldn't hold my nose. I felt like I was drowning. Water was going up my nose and since I was scared half to death I was screaming like a crazy woman and I was drinking all the water the whole way down. Then I get down to the bottom and I was just glad to be alive. I get out of the water and Reiggin is laughing a little. He tells me later that he had watched everyone coming down waiting to see me come down. He says everyone was pretty graceful or they were just a little side ways. But then he sees someone coming down screaming and all you can see is feet up in the air and that's all. Yeah, that was me coming down the slide. To add to the entertainment, my bathing suit top flew up. Thank goodness for breast pads and netting. I kept the show PG.

I don't know who the crazy lady is that is screaming and laughing in this video!

It sure is not me :-)

After drying off a little, we met back up with Steven, Laura, and the kids to ride some more rides. We also got to go see Snoopy Rocks! on Ice. This was a super cute ice show. After the show, we made our way out of the park and back to my parents' house. Virginia wasn't feeling too good. She had a mild fever so we packed up and took her home to rest. I believe the busy weekend caught up to both of us and we both were not feeling 100 percent the next day. Guess this week we will take it a little easy and get to feeling better.