It Has Sprung!

Spring that is. Despite our wintery weather today, rainy and 50, spring has arrived. It is the most beautiful time of year around here. I love seeing all the trees and flowers come to life. I never really experienced spring until we moved here. Spring here is equivalent to Summer in Maine. Everything is green and growing and happy. The days are warm and the nights cool. Here summer is our harshest season. The heat and humidity keep all living things, people included, in a constant state of dehydration and stunted growth. It's spring when things are truly alive here in Charlotte.

 Above is a Bradford Pear tree. This one happens to be at the entrance to our cul-de-sac. Isn't it gorgeous? As the green leaves start to push the white blossoms off, the tree will snow down pedals. I could watch the Bradfords snow for hours. These trees are everywhere in Charlotte ~ even along the highway. They are one of our first spring blossoms and always a welcome sight towards the end of winter. Their shape is a very uniform 'pear' shape that they maintain without any pruning, and once the white blossoms have passed the leaves are such a bright and happy green they maintain their visual beauty. They are *almost* the perfect landscaping tree to have in your yard. The only problem? They stink. I mean really, really stink. Like gross bodily fluid stink. And I'm not exaggerating. It's grosser than gross. And the reason I will never plant one in my yard.  Smell vetoes looks in my book. But I guess it balances out it's extreme beauty, otherwise it would rule the ornamental tree world. And, well, that just wouldn't be fair to other trees.

 Now this? This is a cherry tree. We have lots of these around here too, not rivaling DC by any means, but there are still quite a few. They line the streets here in Ballantyne, making my numerous trips to and from home everyday a little less drab. These are probably my favorite. The pinkish purple blossoms are the perfect spring color and coordinate nicely with their dark brown woody trunks.  Pink and brown is one of my favorite color combinations. So I am a little partial to these trees.

 I love that we live in such a pretty city. These trees may not serve any other purpose than making things look good, but that's just fine with me. Pretty things make me smile.  And smiling is good.

And of course along with the budding trees and  blooming flowers come the mud covered tee-shirts and shorts. The mud around here is NOTHING like the mud in Maine in the spring. But we do our best to get our share of mud covered clothes, because as happy as the pretty trees make me, my kids are always happiest when covered in mud or dirt or paint or flour. Dirty kids equals happy kids. And happy kids make me smile. Even more than cherry blossoms.  

All In Weekends Work

Will learned to ski on Friday. On Saturday he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. We tried to let him rest on Sunday, but he was not about to take any time off. Here he is at our neighborhood park refining his skills today. Just look at him go!

Will, will you please slow down? The rest of us are finding it hard to keep up with you!

'Me loves you'

 That's how Camryn says 'I love you' ... and it's usually followed by the person's name which just makes it that much cuter. And heart melting. 'Me loves you Mommy' brightens my day everyday. It means that much more when your name is added in. And at 2am when she says it as she is kicking me for the umpteen millionith time it causes me to sigh rather than drop kick her across the room. I guess that makes her cute AND smart.

 But boy, is she getting big. She talks NONSTOP. We have to limit her stories at dinner so we can find out what happened in the lives of our other three children. She does everything 'by myself!' and with an attitude, but remains my sweetheart of a little girl. She is still so loving and snuggly. I know it's not going to last forever so I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can. Even at 2am. She has even stopped wearing diapers at night. I have friends ask me how I have done this, and I hate to say it, but I have done nothing. I don't know why my kids seem to get out of diapers so fast. They have all gone from potty training during the day to diaper free at night pretty quickly. I wish I had some good advice, I could write a book on the subject, but truthfully I don't 'do' anything. They seem to know what to do and when to do it and I just follow along. But it sure is nice. Except when she wakes me up to take her pee at 3am.

 Speaking of getting big, Will has been blowing our minds lately. The boy is reading. And writing. And spelling. It is amazing. The picture above is him writing Camryn's name for her. He sounded out Grace and spelled it G-r-a-s ... but then realized that was 'grass' so then he asked me what makes the 's' sound in Grace if it's not an 's'.  Will is smart, don't get me wrong, but I think his new found talent has way more to do with exposure than anything else. He sees (and hears and lives) Ben and Katie reading, writing and spelling and, well, he just is doing what they do. Neither Ben or Kate were anywhere near this point at 4 years old. But they didn't have much exposure to it either. How often to do kids see their parents sit down and write or practice spelling or sound out words they are having trouble reading? Will has been a part of Ben and Katie's 'schooling' since he can remember. To him, it's just what kids do. They sound out words, try to read them and then spell them. It's amazing to watch. And so much fun, too. Even Camryn points out the letters C and Y when she sees them. I guess kids really are sponges.

And the best news of all? Spring has sprung! Maybe not officially, but I am making the call right here and now. We have had a string of beautiful warm weather (thank you Liza!) that is supposed to continue for quite some time. We are getting ready to hit mid 70s this weekend. WOOHOO! You know what that means? T-shirts and lots and lots of lizards thanks to Katie and her ability to catch every living creature on Earth. But I'm ready. I got my sunglasses and buckets!

(PS My spell check is not working on here so excuse any typos or misspellings. I don't have time to go back and look over every word. I hardly even reread what I write. I'm such a rebel that way.)

Spring, where are you???

Is it Spring Yet?

We are in for a ‘storm’ tonight. And by storm I mean something wet 'may' fall from the sky as the temps dip into the low 30s. This scary senario has all the locals filing into the grocery store to stock up on bread and milk. I usually just shake my head and laugh. When you grow up in Maine it takes a little more than 60% chance of ‘something’ to get me excited. But here’s the thing. I am over winter.
OVER IT!
We’ve had a few glimpses of spring over the last few weeks, but otherwise it’s been a cold, cruel winter. I’m blaming Liza. It’s all her fault. Liza, it's all your fault! There, I feel so much better now. So while we prepare for another night of the sky spitting something at us I reflect on some of the warmer days we’ve had lately. But then I realize it's past 11:30pm and I don't have time to import any pictures of my kids playing outside in tee-shirts because I have to try to get some sleep. William is sick again. He's running a super high fever and has a nasty cough. He's not sleeping well which means I'm not sleeping well.
So com'on Spring, I can't take much more of this ‘winter’ stuff. If there is ice on the ground when I wake up I'm moving to Arizona. If there is ice on the ground when I wake up AND I have more than one child with a fever I am moving to Arizona alone.

Okay, not really. But this winter and these high fevers have got to stop soon. No telling what color hair I'm going to end up with if they don't.

Just in Time

A surprise care package from Aunt Kathy and Aunt Barbie arrived in North Carolina just in time!

Each one of the kids got an Eric Carle book and stuffed animal. Katie got The Grouchy Ladybug. They must know her well.

Ben got 'The Mixed-Up Chameleon', which is just as fitting. A few weeks ago, Ben was reading an assignment at school about a chameleon. Having never read the word before he thought it was some sort of  'Spanish' animal. Leon is lion in Spanish, so Ben pronounced chameleon: 'cha-meal-leon'; complete with a Spanish accent. Once they started discussing the assignment, he laughed in spite of himself. It's been our running joke ever since.

It's a good thing the stuffed animals and book arrived when they did. The next day the flu hit. It hit hard. The kids suffered with high fevers. They were pathetic. Katie slept the entire day in that chair. Holding onto her Grouchy Ladybug.

Will camped out in this chair with his turtle from The Foolish Turtle. Will seemed to take the brunt of this flu. He has missed the most school, ran a fever the longest and still has a nasty cough. Poor little guy.

Ben, on the other hand never really got what the rest of us had. He had an upset stomach for a few days and stayed home from school with the rest of, but he really didn't NEED to. As sad as it was to have all four kids sick at once, I am thankful no one puked. I hate vomit more than anything. Stomach bugs are the worst, I am so glad that is NOT what we had. I'll take fevers, runny noses and coughs over stomach stuff any day!

Miss Camryn had already had her bout of fever by the time the older kids came down with it, so she played nurse with me and loved every minute of it. I didn't get a picture of her with her Hungry Caterpillar, but she sleeps with it every night.

I'm so happy Aunt Barbie and Kathy were able to ease the kids' woes with a new book and animal to love as soon as they got sick. It was perfect timing! Thank you!!

Down But Not Out

What does an active four year old boy do when he's home from preschool with a fever? When Mom won't let him play soccer or basketball or baseball or run circles around the house?? He sits quietly, but continues to move, teaching himself sign language.

 This wasn't even my idea. I suggested he grab a book and curl up in the chair for a bit. Only Will would grab a book that requires physical movement.

 He sat there for a good hour learning and practicing signs. The funny thing is, he can't read, so he really didn't know what he was signing.

 But was able to figure out most of the words by the sound of the first letter combined with the sign itself. It was pretty amazing to watch him.

 He was quiet, engaged, entertained and even excited about what he was doing.

Of course, he was running a high fever. Even Will knows when to slow down and take it easy, even if he refuses to stop completely.

What NOT To Do On A Snow Day ...

I was hoping to avoid this topic all together, but the reality is I can’t. After seeing my good friend, Frances, at preschool the other day she asked me if I had changed my hair color. Well, I told her, that is a funny story. She suggested I share it with all of you. All four of you. I was really hoping no one would notice and I could pretend none of this ever happened, but drastic changes in hair color don’t seem to go unnoticed around here. Sigh.
Here’s the story:
When it snows in the south, and then rains on top of the snow and the temps don’t get above freezing for days on end, we get stuck at home. Literally stuck. We don’t have snow plows to clear the streets. It’s an ugly, slippery, cold mess and schools stay closed for many, many days in a row.
Now if you know me at all you know I love to be home with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I really do love it. BUT when the weather TRAPS us at home, well that’s a different story. If I choose to be home for days on end I am a happy camper. Being trapped at home for days on end is not good for me. And really not good for my hair.


I was feeling trapped. And cold. And longed for warm, sunny days. So I did what any crazy person with hair dye under her sink does. I tried to dye my hair blonde. Did you know that you can’t dye dark brown hair blonde with store bought hair color? Nope. Can’t do it. It won’t work. I know, it was news to me too. Now, I know better than to try to do something as drastic as going blonde by my own hands. I’ve been going to professionals long enough to know that there is a science to these things and that certain procedures ~ like going blonde~ are better left to the professionals in that line of work. But I was mad. Mad, I tell ya. It was either eat every last morsel of food in the house or dye my hair (I wasn’t about to be productive and organize closets or anything). So I tried to dye my hair. Guess what happens when you try to dye dark brown hair blonde by yourself …. It turns ORANGE. I mean, REALLY ORANGE. Fan ~ freaking ~ tastic!

So I had to go to the professionals THAT NIGHT and have them try to fix it. It’s still a work in progress. I will go back in two weeks to have the final color done and hopefully be done with trying to do my hair myself. Sigh. 

Why, you may ask, would I do such a crazy thing when I have beautiful dark brown hair with natural caramel highlights? Well, it might have had something to do with a certain picture that sits on Jon’s dresser. It might have something to do with that husband mentioning something about liking my hair in that picture. Never mind that the picture was taken in the middle of the summer when my skin was a nice bronzed brown. Never mind that I was voluptuously curvy and positively glowing in my second trimester with my third child. Never mind that it was (ahem) FIVE years ago, and I was (ahem) younger. Nope all I heard was he liked my hair. I was just trying to make him happy. And I ended up with orange hair. I’m such a good wife.

Sigh. At least Ben liked it. Orange is his favorite color.