No Nap... Day One

yep, I bit the bullet. much like the potty training trauma of August, naptime wars have been the theme of September - to the point where I surrender. I raise my white flag and admit defeat to the 3 1/2 year old who really runs the house. On days like today - it's doable... well, that may be the glass of champagne I've poured myself to celebrate this passage in time talking - but still, I believe it's doable. It's glorious outside and so I'm sitting on our front porch, listening to Chris Rice's Living Room Sessions (a collection of instrumental hymns), listing stuff on ebay, contemplating working and watching my precious angel run around the front yard... barefoot and in her chicken dress.

Today was one of those days that I knew was going to just stink, but I put on a happy face, grinned and beared it. That's right - I loaded the girls up and off we went for a shopping trip to Target. Yep, there was bribery for Ellabee involved (Daddy's taking her to a special party at the hospital tonight - and I was given the power to take that away if necessary) but all in all she did well. It's just harder with 2, but I'm blessed with a laid back baby in Anne Bailey and Ellabee really does mind - if not hesitantly and with vigorous disagreement - she will do what I ask. The trip was made better because Catherine, Andrew and James joined us, did some of their shopping and then we all went to Moe's for lunch. I'm so blessed to have friends who are there, who understand the hectic life we lead and listen to my frustration with the chaos without telling me that I'm "too busy", "too involved", or "need to slow down." this is the season of our life and for better or for worse - it is what it is... and this is where we are. There is an end goal and we're moving in that direction.

So, nap time for Ellabee is no more. Yes, quiet time will come around every once in a while, but I recognize that she's growing up and can do without the two hours of sweet sanity that I truly needed. I mourn the loss of that time... but more so the loss of my little girl who needed it.

Baby Gates... a metaphor

So, in Anne Bailey's new found mobility, I trucked up to the attic and pulled down the baby gates. I also promptly ordered one for the kitchen... gates. Gates all over my house. As I started to think about having to section off the house I started thinking about how we do that in life. Isn't it true that we have babygates all throughout who we are. I mean, I tell you what I want you to know. I show you the deepest part of myself - well, the deepest part of myself that I want you to see.

I brought the baby gates out today when Anne Bailey made a go for the stairs. I, as her mom, have a duty to keep her off the stairs... to keep her safe and yet - am I taking away from her the very thing that God wants us to have? The curiosity of spirit? The ability to go out into the world and get to know his creation? Am I already teaching her that as long as you stay in the boundaries all will be well? And perhaps that's what I'm supposed to teach her, but the rebel in my heart yells no!

And then again, is there really anything we can hide from God? And is there anything we can do to tame a spirit that calls us into his creation, into a world of exploration?

"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. " (luke 8: 16-17)

So, we live in a gated off house again... much to the shagrin of Fennigan and Ellabee (and my back which will have to be used to lift Ellabee over the gates). But praise God from whom all blessings flow that my child can crawl and explore and be curious.

The moment of truth - I can't get to where I just got!

Two by Two teeth at a time!

Excuse the crude nature of the photo - but look at what I found when I put my finger in Anne Bailey's mouth this morning to get a pice of paper out! Two more teeth! We now have two on the bottom and one on the top... and we like to GRIND them... ugh. I couldn't feed the child at lunch because of the shivers I was getting because of the sound. And then there's the whole fact that she needs to get used to them! We've bit our lips countless times and then we just cry and cry... thank goodness you don't remember any of these years - it must be hard to be little.

Yep, sweet potatoes with three teeth in the mix.

A Ride on the Train at the Zoo

Sunday was rainy and humid - so we thought, "what a perfect day for the zoo!" We saw the snakes (mommy was thriled) and the crocodiles AND then rode the train... and that was the end of our trip to the ZOO... We did get the little engineer lady to take our picture... I'm a little into family pictures right now if you can't tell.

A Stone Tradition: Saturday Mornings at the "Biscuit Park"

Ellabee calls it the Biscuit Park, but the rest of Birmingham calls it Pepper Place Market. It's our taste of an urban city farmer's market, with chef demonstrations, fresh produce and folk art galore. We love seeing our friends, enjoying a cup of coffee and eating biscuits - yep, at the Biscuit Park!

Here are some pictures so you can enjoy our family tradition. We love our city, we breathe our city and we have hope for our city!

Ellabee loves Cullinard's "Birmingham" Croisants (stuffed with bacon and cheddar) - Mommy likes then too, but they are like 12 WW pts!

Anne Bailey and I bring our breakfast with us - yogurt!

Kiki and Doodal with John, Anne Bailey and Emma (right out of the frame in her sling)

WW Update: 33 lbs and counting!

R-O-L-L-T-I-D-E

What a game! WHAT A GAME! I'm still riding high from the adrenaline rush of that game. It seriously rivaled the Georgia game of 94 and the Florida game of 2005. Alabama 41, Arkansas 39 (or was it 38)? It doesn't matter - we won! OH MY GOODNESS.

It was seriously the type of noise that you opened your mouth to yell, you could tell you were yelling but you could not hear yourself yelling. What a game! Here are some pics!

I've decided the I'm a GIANT!

Thank you Mother for inviting me to go! What a GAME!

Here She Goes Again, Another Milestone

Anne Bailey is pulling up! Yes, my life is about to change drastically. Out come the baby gates and other barriers which block her in rooms (or off of the stairs). AND, she has started crawling on her knees. Unlike my experience with Ellabee, I have learned to keep the camera readily accessible for these milestones - so here are some pics from our exciting week of firsts:

What a face - Anne bailey was pulling up on the stool where I work at my laptop in the playroom. Had to catch this just this morning.

This is the moment she first pulled up on something... her toy box (well, ok - it's one of the laundry baskets that I keep to organize their toys. She got what she was going after!

Uhm, mommy... can you help me with this rather large toy... I can't seem to get it out.

Crawling on our knees!!! Wow...

We Start Them Early

I will admit to beginning the brain washing process as early as the day my girls were born. Yep, we start them early and raise them to go to Alabama. Well, I'll compromise on where they go (unless it's Auburn). Seriously, though... Ellabee is fascinated with elephants and loves to yell Roll Tide when ever she sees UA crimson or the picture of an elephant. Much to the shagrin of her teachers at school (Ellabee is in the "Elephant" class AND there's a giant elephant painted on the door to her classroom).

So, this weekend in Birmingham we went to the Pepper Place Criterion (a really short bike race that goes really fast and encompasses 4 blocks with four pretty significant turns in it). The race benefitted Children's Hospital (I belive brain tumors) and the CH clown team was there painting faces (and other body parts, it turns out). Ellabee decided she needed an elephant. I guess we should have prepared her for the fact that paint washes off - you can imagine the meltdown experienced at bathtime.

Picasso Pants

Ellabee loves to paint. She loves to stand at her table and make masterpieces. Today, as she was painting in the early morning dawn (in her pajamas), she started naming her masterpieces. As she named them, I wrote down what she said - quite insightful if you ask me... and somewhat out there on others. See what you think:

The Beef of 21

Swirlies Around and Around and Around

Fish Angelina Ballerina Dance Class Beef

I'm not quite sure what the references to meat produces mean in the mind of a 3 1/2 year old, but there it is. My favorite is Swirlies Around and Around and Around.

Cute Girls

We're home today - here are some cute pics from the day:

First day of Dance Class. Miss Charla is our teacher and we really like her! Ellabee was great today... so fun!


















Hanging out in the playroom on the floor. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can convince Ellabee to NOT pick up her little sister - for the love of God and all that is Holy - TELL ME! (she doesn't seem to care that she could kill her)

Signs of Fall

Well, I will now bemoan the fact that we do not have any tickets to any UA football games. I will bemoan it but be grateful that for so many years we were able to go thanks to the generosity of my dad... It was great to sit down Saturday and watch a full day of football. And how about that Tide? Really I just have to say that because it's expected in the south... I really should take the "a" off the "about" and say, "How 'bout that Tide?" Now we're correct in Southern Lingo.

My favorite line in any movie is from You've Got Mail. "I would buy you a bouquet of sharpened pencils if I only knew your name and address." Ahhh, Nora Ephron. I read a blog today that said when Fall comes she has a "welcome fall" party where she pulls out all her Nora Ephron movies (you know, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seatle). All my favorites as well. Perhaps I'm hearing a new tradition... wanna join me? And then I read farther in her blog and it spoke to me...

I've been feeling lately that my life is in utter chaos... I mean, it just is and I really am ok with that but it's the teetering tottering on something beyond chaos that makes me worry. Like last week - Ellabee had an "incident" where my creative and inquisitive 3 year old experimented with scissors and hurt a little friend of hers. Truly, I'm not in denial - she wasn't angry, etc... just wondered what would happen if she scissored her friend... stitches. But my first thought was, "If I had been home [I was at work] this wouldn't have happened..." but really what I was saying is, "if I had had her at home, I could have protected her from this chaos that is life. Is it my job to protect her? Is it my job to create this world for her where there is no tv watching, only play in the park, only nature walks and ice cream pushups on a warm summer day. Perhaps this ideal I've been killing myself to maintain is not the ideal at all... deep thoughts.

Anyway, my new blogger friend (that I linked above) posted this commencement address portion from when Nora Ephron addressed Wesley... I thought it was appropriate:

"This is the season when a clutch of successful women -- who have it all -- give speeches to women like you and say, to be perfectly honest, you can't have it all. Maybe young women don't wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don't be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I've had four careers and three husbands.And this is something else I want to tell you, one of the hundreds of things I didn't know when I was sitting here so many years ago: you are not going to be you, fixed and immutable you, forever.

We have a game we play when we're waiting for tables in restaurants, where you have to write the five things that describe yourself on a piece of paper. When I was your age, I would have put: ambitious, Wellesley graduate, daughter, Democrat, single. Ten years later not one of those five things turned up on my list. I was: journalist, feminist, New Yorker, divorced, funny. Today not one of those five things turns up in my list: writer, director, mother, sister, happy. Whatever those five things are for you today, they won't make the list in ten years -- not that you still won't be some of those things, but they won't be the five most important things about you.Which is one of the most delicious things available to women, and more particularly to women than to men. I think. It's slightly easier for us to shift, to change our minds, to take another path. Yogi Berra, the former New York Yankee who made a specialty of saying things that were famously maladroit, quoted himself at a recent commencement speech he gave. "When you see a fork in the road," he said, "take it."

Yes, it's supposed to be a joke, but as someone said in a movie I made, don't laugh this is my life, this is the life many women lead: two paths diverge in a wood, and we get to take them both. It's another of the nicest things about being women; we can do that.Did I say it was hard? Yes, but let me say it again so that none of you can ever say the words, nobody said it was so hard. But it's also incredibly interesting. You are so lucky to have that life as an option."

I guess it's not really my job to create a movie titled life for Ellabee and Anne Bailey (and any other vowel named Stone's that come along), but to just live life, serving the Lord, loving my husband and my girls while we make a life together. Hum....

Running with Daddy

John is really an obsessive runner. I didn't think he had a problem until I learned that there are days when he runs 3 times a day... Most of the time, it's by himself, but there are some days when Ellabee gets to go along for the ride. She loves it and usually puts together a somewhat outrageous outfit. This one was quite fetching and reminded me of the kids walking around on campus at UAB. I'm not liking the fact that my baby is nearing 4 years old.