Getting in touch with her roots

At the beginning of June we flew to Missouri for Omar's mom's family reunion. For those of you that don't know, Pat is one of 13 children and is originally from a farm in Missouri.  How she got to Atlanta & met Omar's dad is a great story for another post. Most of her family still lives in Missouri and they have a reunion every year which can literally have hundreds of people, all of whom Omar is related to and very few of whom he actually knows their names. But don't feel bad, half the time he can't remember my name either. 

So me, Omar, EJ, Pat, Stephanie, and Erik flew out for a long weekend to visit with her family and we had a wonderful time.  We joke that EJ was going to meet "her people" since she blends right in with the Heitholds and their blond hair & blue eyes.  I honestly think she gets her eyes from Omar's mom (I know mine aren't that blue!).

We stayed with Pat's sister Cathy, who was such a wonderful hostess and made us feel right at home and so welcome from the minute we arrived!  Our first day we went to the park with Pat's other sister, Janet, and her two grandkids Jackson & Presley.  It was a great park with a fun playground, a lake with ducks to feed, and a cave to explore!

EJ and her great Aunt Cathy

Swinging with Aunt Steph, great-aunt Janet, and cousin Presley.

OF COURSE my child honed in on the biggest, tallest, rickety-est (is that a word?) slide in the entire park and demanded to go down it. No other child was using this slide, not even the 10-year-olds who were there. But that didn't stop my little daredevil.

 Feeding the ducks! 

 Jackson shows us how it's done.

 Sweet girl.

 Aunt Janet & Presley

On our way to explore the cave.

 EJ, Jackson, & Presley chillin' in the cave.

Being silly.

 Photo-op!

 EJ & Presley had a great time together!

That afternoon we went to visit another of Pat's sisters, where EJ met another cousin (Lily) who she had a blast with and even got to ride on a tractor with!  

Then we went to the Heithold family cafe, located in Halfway, Missouri. Yep, that's the name of the town. It is - wait for it - half way between two other towns you have never heard of.  But it was a lot of fun and the food was great.  The Heitholds took over the place and EJ entertained them all. 

The day of the reunion we gathered with about 100 of Omar's family at a local church, where everyone brought something yummy to eat. Mmmmmmm, that food was GOOD! EJ got to meet a bunch of her extended family and had a good time playing with the short ones on the church playground.

 Fun on the playground!

 With Omar's cousin Amy's youngest son, Braxton.

She had a good time on the tricycle.

 

 Sliding with her second cousin once removed. Or something like that. 

Tired girl after a busy day.

 All the living Heithold siblings!

 Thanks to the extended Heithold family for making us feel so welcome and feeding us so well!  We had a wonderful time and hope to be able to come back again soon.  If you are ever in Georgia, please stop in and let us return the favor!

Beach Bonanza 2012

A few months back, someone threw out the idea of doing a family beach weekend with our friends and everyone's kids. We thought it was a brilliant idea: rent a big house on the beach and cram eight families in there, with 16 adults and 12 kids. Clearly we were drunk when we came up with this idea.

Well, low and behold, Memorial Day rolls around and we all cart our families (and the ridiculous amount of STUFF they require) over to Isle of Palms, SC for a long weekend. And wouldn't you know it....we had a blast! (of course, we also had plenty of alcohol)

It was definitely chaos, but controlled, fun chaos.  It worked out astonishingly well and we can't wait to do it again next year!  The house was perfect and literally ON the beach (much thanks to Jessica for arranging it) and the weekend was full of tons of sun, sand, good food, and great friends. Amazingly the kids all went to sleep at night and sometimes they even napped!

This was EJ's first time at the beach, and from the moment she saw it, she loved it.  She also bolted directly into the ocean.

Daddy showed her the ropes.

 Beach babies!

Matteson (9mo), Hadley & Addison (3years), and EJ (18mo)

The kids all spent the days out on the beach, swimming, splashing, digging, running, and in general just having a blast.  It is a bit nerve-wracking trying to make sure your child is safe around large bodies of water, but you know the saying 'It takes a village to raise a child'....that is pretty much how we operated. Everyone kept their eyes on all the kids and made sure no one got into too much trouble.

 EJ and Olivia play in the sand.

 My beach baby.

Admiring the view.

Sarah and Anna

Throughout the weekend, Anna & EJ (who are almost the same age, EJ is about 2.5 months older) had a battle of wills over several items.  They also had a lot of fun playing together, but this picture shows the culmination of The Great Wagon Standoff of 2012.

Daddy helped show EJ how to build sandcastles!

One afternoon we took the kids down the road to the ice cream shop.  Matteson and EJ had the privileged of riding in the wagon while us lesser beings walked.

Even when they weren't out on the beach enjoying the sun & sand, the kids had a blast together.  To be honest, even though it was chaos, it was great to have so many kids there since they were all able to play together and seemed to really enjoy being together.  These are some good shots that exemplify both the chaos and the fun.

 EJ tries to impress Vince with her bucket face.

 Anna & EJ battle over the car keys.

 Vince & EJ plotting some kind of trouble to get into.

 Matteson and EJ confer on their own trouble-making plans.

 A great shot of most (but not all!) of the group. 

We were also able to get a few good family pictures!

 Before dinner out Sunday night.  Thanks Aunt Merrill for her absolutely adorable dress!

So, long story short: it was a rousing success and we are really excited to do it again next year!

Everett meets her Soul-Sister

At the end of May, EJ and I flew to Washington DC to stay with one of my very best friends and roommates from college, Kelly.  Kelly & Dave have a daughter - Natalie - who is about 6 months older than Everett.  Since she was born, Kelly and I have traded stories that continuously end with "OMG, they are just alike!"  I miss Kelly desperately and am sad I haven't had a chance to get to know Natalie better, so I was really excited to go visit her.

EJ had her first flight!  She did great!

We should have known. From the minute they met, E and N were like two peas in a pod. Double trouble to the nth degree. (see how I threw some fancy math in there for you, Kelly?)

The girls had a blast playing together!  First, Natalie showed Everett how to climb the tree in her backyard.

Then we went to the local Mexican restaurant / sandbox (yes, you read that right)

They hugged it out.

When we left, they continued the love fest and were ridiculously cute.

Of course, then they were filthy and needed a bath. Note their expressions. A huge splash-fest took place about 4 seconds after this picture was taken.

The next day, they conspired together to convince Kelly to drag them to the park in the wagon. 

I assume it worked because they are so cute. 

EJ decided she wantd to give it a try, railroad tie be damned! 

While we were in DC we went down to Alexandria for the day to visit my step-sister Rebecca and her husband Greg.  We had a wonderful time, I was so happy to see them and their awesome new house! Plus how freaking cute is pregnant-Rebecca?  Cannot wait for EJ to have a new cousin!!!

EJ gave her "cousin" Max some love. I believe "cousin" Atticus was quivering upstairs under the bed after his world was rocked from being invaded by two crazy toddlers.

This was a fantastic visit all around!!!!  I am so thrilled to get to spend time with such amazing friends and family.  And I can't wait for EJ to spend more time with Natalie and meet her new cousin in just a few months. Hopefully E & N will not get into as much trouble in college as her mother and I did, but I do hope they are as good of friends.

I get it now

I will admit, I am really behind on my posts and have so much to update over the past month, including our fantastic beach trip, the Heithold family reunion, our visit with the Jacksons (where EJ met her soul-sister), and many more.  But as I sit watching "Duets" on ABC (yeah, that's right, don't judge), what I want to take a minute to reflect back on is something that Robin Thicke (remember what I said about not judging?) just said about his son: that nothing is more important, not his career/fame/music/the show than his son is.

I used to hear people say this all the time, and I would roll my eyes.  Of course it is the party line: Nothing is more important than my kids! but I was certain that I would have a better balance and swore that my husband, my animals, my career, my LIFE would be, if not more, then JUST AS important.

Silly me.

I get it now. And I can roll my eyes at myself as I say everything that all the moms & dads before me said, but damn if it isn't the truth: these short people that monopolize your days and bring you to the edge of frustration again and again and prevent you from having anything recognizable to your previous self as a social life....they really and truly are the bomb-diggity.  Every belly laugh, every running hug, every standing ovation they give at the end of a terrible song you have created solely for their entertainment, every MAMA yelled at the top of their lungs as they search lovingly/desperately for you.....it really IS all worth it.  And truly nothing else is as important.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I would trade in my girls nights or naptimes or trips with the hubby: let's be clear, those things keep me sane.  But I want to give a shout-out to all who have learned this lesson before I did: I get it now.  You were right.  There is nothing greater than this.  (as long as I have a bottle of Pinot Grigio chilling in the fridge....kidding, kidding!)

All my love and kisses and smothering to the most amazing short person I have ever known. I love you, EJ.  Thanks for making it all worth it.

- Mom