Lazy & Busy Days of Summer

Well, we're puttin along loving summer and the freedom it brings and realizing how close to August we really are. We've had an enjoyable and fairly calm past couple of weeks. Clint and I went to TJ and Becca's Bachelor/ Bachelorette parties a couple of weekends ago. They were fun but exhausting. It was nice to get dressed up and go out on the town but I'm not going to lie- I missed Clint- but I checked he didn't miss me :) The next day we had mommy and daddy "recovery" day where we basically let the kids run wild while we laid on the couch consuming large quantities of food and water.

Natalie proceeded to get 2 new molars starting the day I picked her up from the parties. She was actually pretty pitiful with these teeth. Both of my girls have been awesome at teething and I haven't noticed any of them coming in until now but she whined around- drooled like crazy- was obsessed with her paci and lived on Motrin. It lasted about a week but it seems as if we are in the clear now.

During our free time the girls are actually kind of playing together. They love to make forts and lay on top of one another and of course play feed the baby, change the baby, put the baby to sleep. This generally lasts quite a long time (sometimes even long enough for me to fold and put away a load of laundry before I hear "moooooooom....Natalie hit me" or "aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, no, no, no" (this is generally Natalie!).

For 4th of July Clint and I were kind of stumped as to what to do since Lawrenceville was not doing fireworks this year. We decided to take the girls to the GWinnett Braves Game where they were having fireworks at the end. They were all dressed up in their America clothes and looked so cute. Then the drama started. For about the 1st 45 minutes Natalie was TERRIBLE and I thought we would have to leave. She didn't want to sit which we were fine with- we could just walk around and play. However, we tried to feed her fries which she didn't want so I put ketchup on them which she proceeded to lick off and then throw the fry and then try to smear whatever ketchup was on her hand on us, her, Melanie, anything. I was starting to loose it when she had a complete and total meltdown where she wouldn't let me hold her and she was flailing on the concrete. Then she proceeded to get sunscreen in her eye which exacerbated the problem. I ended up taking her into the women's restroom for about 10 minute and just putting water on her face. The Gilbreath's had given each girl $5 and we bought them both Dip & Dots (which Melanie LOVED) and that totally calmed Natalie down. At this point she was calm enough to walk around with and we went in their air conditioned store multiple times and Melanie eventually picked a Chipper Jones jersey to buy. She LOVES him for some unknown reason (but, hey, he is better than my old Braves love- Lonnie Smith). Eventually we took the girls to walk the whole stadium and for Melanie to jump in their bouncy things in the berm. Finally it was time for the fireworks and they had the most AMAZING fireworks. They lasted 15-20 minutes and you were so close to them without any obstructions. Melanie thought they were wonderful and Natalie liked them for about the first 10 minutes and lost interest. It was a great end to July 4th and we will try it again next year when Natalie is older and hope for the best!

On a random note, I had a summer IEP meeting for a new little fellow I will be getting in the fall. It was at his house and he was oh so cute. But the cutest part- he was obsessed with pirate tattoos and put on a pirate ship/rose tattoo on my bicep before I left the meeting. He seems awesome and makes me so excited for my new job next year- I think it is going to be such a cool experience!