Pamper Me

Ainsley and I went with Caitlyn to get our nails done on Thursday afternoon. Ainsley just got polish on her little fingers and toes. Caitlyn and I got manicures and pedicures.

It was a little difficult getting her to sit still while my nails were drying, but it was fun. Although I would like her to stay a little tyke forever, it made me realize that we have a lot to look forward to as mother and daughter. When you're wrapped up in the day to day of changing diapers and wiping noses and enforcing time out, you forget that one day this little girl could be your best friend. It was a nice reminder.

Ainsley seemed to enjoy herself, but it was tough to get her to be patient and let her nails dry. She also broke a bottle of nail polish on the marble floor. Oh well!

The place we went was so nice. And Caitlyn and I got Mimosas while we got pedicures! Definite bonus. All three of us got a plate of strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Yummy! Ainsley loved that part.

I know I missed the post yesterday...but hey twice in one week isn't so bad! Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I'll share pictures from our trip to the Aquarium.

And PS...here are some cute pics of Freddie with Uncle Cam, just so he doesn't feel left out :)

Goin' to the Chapel...

Yes, we did watch Cam and Amanda tie the knot this weekend and we did witness the cutest display of a flower girl ever...however, before I get to that, we spent a few days at the beach with our NEW CAMERA!!!! Which, by the way is amazing! So, I'm going to try...again I said TRY...to update the blog every day this week with pictures and stories of our 5 days in Nags Head.

We arrived on Tuesday night late...so not too much to tell there. The kids were up late and we were all tired so we slept in a bit on Wednesday and spent most of the day at the beach. It was super hot, but we were at the beach, so I guess that's better than cold.

Ainsley loves the beach. But, what she loves even more than the beach is the ocean. I couldn't get pictures of her in the ocean because I was with Freddie anytime she and Clif went in, but she pretty much wanted to be in the ocean always.

She got to play with her cousins Sammy and Gavin.

Meanwhile, Freddie did a lot of sleeping on the beach.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about Ainsley's first mani-pedi!

Happy Father's Day Clif

We are still camera-less, so here are some pictures from Clif's iPhone.

We are beach bound this week for some vacation and Cam and Amanda's wedding. We had been thinking about getting a new camera soon, so with the camera gone and the wedding on the horizon, we're probably going to purchase one of the mac daddy D-SLR cameras. I've wanted one for awhile, so no time like the present.

I do have some news on the job search front. Clif has an interview tomorrow afternoon with a local market research firm. I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that it goes well. So if you could, say a little prayer for us tomorrow that all goes well and maybe they'll offer him the job on the spot!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. He truly is the best father I know and my kids are so lucky that he is their daddy.

Missing Camera

So our camera is missing...strange, but then again not so strange. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ainsley maybe did something with it. She loves to play with the camera and she also hides things, or just doesn't remember what happened to them. Our weekend was so busy that I didn't really have time to focus on the missing camera, so I plan on searching the house when I get home tonight.


Anyway, since we have no camera, we have no pictures. But I want to keep on top of my posts, so I'm going to post anyway.


Our weekend was jam packed. Friday we left straight from work and headed to a friend's house for a little get together. There were 5 couples there with all their kids. These were all Clif's fraternity brothers and we were joking about college and would we have ever thought that the kids would outnumber the adults at one of our parties? It is crazy to think about. On one hand college and the years following seem like yesterday...but then again I have trouble remembering my life before Ainsley and Freddie. Anyway, we had such a great time and the kids had a blast. Thanks to Chris and Liza for hosting. I hope we can do it again soon.


My mom and Charles also arrived on Friday. Ainsley was very excited to see them. She loves Grandma and she really loves Mr. Charles. He's so great with her. His son and daughter in law are getting ready for their first baby and he's going to be a great grandfather. I spent most of Saturday dragging my mom and kids around getting ready for the shower I was helping to throw on Sunday. Nothing like procrastinating!


That night, mom and Charles babysat while Clif and I went to dinner. We went to a place on the river called The Boathouse. It was a lot of fun. The atmosphere was awesome. The place has walls of windows and it's right on the river overlooking the city. However, the food was just so-so. The appetizer was good, and the dessert was to DIE FOR!!! But the main dish was just OK. I wasn't super impressed.


After dinner we met up with Jeff and Amy at a local Irish pub and had a few drinks as grown ups with no kiddies around. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad my mom could make it up. Thanks to them for making the trip.


Yesterday, I helped a few other girls throw a baby shower for my good friend Tara. She's due with her first baby in August. The shower was great, and it was fun to hang out with the girls for an afternoon.

Freddie is growing, growing, growing. If my scale is accurate, he is tipping it at 16 pounds. We won't go back to the doctor until August. He's so sweet and loves to be held. He's so cuddly that I really just can't help myself anyway.

Ainsley is ever changing and getting smarter by the minute. She has started enunciating her L's. So, for instance, she used to say Ainsy for Ainsley. Now she's saying AinLLey. It's so funny because her little tongue just trips right over it, but she's trying.

We are in the process of planning her third birthday party, which is so crazy to me because how in the world could my little baby be 3!!!!

Clif is still job searching, but he's had some decent prospects lately so we're keeping our fingers crossed. For now, I'm just trying to be thankful that he gets to spend so much time with the babies.

I have been really busy at work since returning. I've taken on some really large projects, so I'm trying to not miss a beat. I'm also starting a new exercise program tonight, because my little Buddha Freddie made me a big Buddha!

That's all for now. I will try to locate the camera tonight and post some pictures.

What We've Been Up To

Life goes by so quickly. I can't believe I'm back to work, I can't believe it's summer time, I can't believe I haven't written a blog in 2 weeks.

Anyway, I'm not going to write out a long blog for each event I have pictures for...I'm just going to get all caught up so I can move forward.

Let me first tell you that everything is okay with Freddie's ear. It turned out to be a juvenile xanthogranuloma. Which is a benign growth that if left alone will go away on it's own. However, because of the biopsy, it was removed and now it's gone. So we are glad that's all over.

Now on to catching us up...

About a month ago we took Ainsley to see Sesame Street Live. She loved it and once again she desperately wanted to rush up on stage with her friends.

A couple of weeks ago we took another trip to Maymont and had another picnic. This time, Clif's cousin brought his two boys along. Sammy is only a few months younger than Ainsley, and Gavin is about 4 months older than Freddie.

We've been trying very hard to get Ainsley outside as much as possible. I've decided she watches way too much TV and I want her to be more active. A new activity we like to play is "water" as Ainsley calls it. I just fill up bowls of water, give her some stuff from the kitchen and she's entertained for hours.

Then yesterday we drove down to Stony Point mall where they have one of those fountains that shoots water out of the ground. She had a blast running through it and chasing after the other kids.

So that catches you up on all of our activities. The kids are doing well and Clif is adjusting to being a stay at home, solo, dad again.

Ainsley cracks us up every day. She is starting to grasp the idea that things have happened in the past and will happen in the future. She doesn't totally get it and she doesn't always know what to call it. She often uses terms like yestermorrow and last morrow. It's almost as if lengths of time don't exist, there is the past, present and future and that's it. If something happened 5 months ago it happened last morrow and if it happened 10 minutes ago it happened last morrow. If we're on our way to lunch we're going to lunch yestermorrow and if Santa is coming in 6 months he's coming yestermorrow. It's so funny how a toddler's mind works.

She's so much fun. She has such an imagination. She's always talking to imaginary friends or carrying an imaginary puppy. The girl always has something she's holding on to. I'll say "what do you have in your hand?" and one day it's an ice cream cone, the next it's a purse, after that it's a horse...whatever.

Freddie is also doing well. He's getting so big and he's laughing and smiling and talking all the time now. He can still have a bit of a temper, he's not as laid back as Ainsley was, but he's definitely cooling off a bit.

Next weekend my mom is coming to visit and Clif and I are going to attempt a night out. We'll see how it goes.