93 Years of Awesomeness

We took EJ to visit her great-grandfather, the "original" Everett, this past weekend. This was such a special & priceless time that we were able to spend with him and I am so grateful we were able to be there.

They really enjoyed their time together and she kept him quite busy all weekend.

While we were there my Aunt Barbara & Uncle Fred stopped by for the afternoon. Uncle Fred took some time to impart some wisdom on EJ, then he & daddy took her to look out over the sea-wall. I have a bunch of memories from growing up spent sitting on this very sea-wall, watching the boats go by and fish swim under my feet.

On Sunday, Papa's younger brother Ronnie and his beautiful wife Jackie stopped by to meet "Little Everett"

I am so glad Uncle Ronnie & Aunt Jackie were able to meet EJ and she had a lot of fun getting to know them.

In the picture below, there are 3 generations of Wilcox women represented: EJ is sitting in the rocking chair that belonged to her great-great-grandmother, and the picture over her shoulder is of her great-grandmother, my amazing & dearly missed Mimi.

Thanks, Pops for an amazing weekend spent with wonderful family. It was really special to spend this time together and I am so glad my daughter got to get to know you better.

Team Trouble: Adventures with the Tufts

This past weekend EJ and I drove over to Charleston to visit with the Tufts family. Kristen & Pete have two beautiful children, Peyton (Everett's BFF) and Brayden (Everett's future husband). EJ and I both really enjoyed spending some quality time with them, and I can already foresee these three getting into some mischief together down the road. :)

Peyton (6 months old) & Brayden (2.5 years old)

Brayden took Everett for a drive in his new car. Despite their ages and the fact that the car could only go 2.5mph, I already got glimpses of their highschool years. Lord help us all.

After going for a cruise, we put Everett to work mowing the lawn. Gotta earn her keep!

On Saturday we went to the Charleston Aquarium, where EJ enjoyed climbing on enormous sea turtles and rocking in an Everett-sized rocking chair.

Kickin' it after a long day.

One of my favorite things to see was how much Everett seemed to love Peyton. Sometimes she loved her a little too hard (gotta watch out for those overzealous pats and hugs)

And of course no visit would be complete without the obligatory babies in the bath picture.

Can't wait to pull these out for the wedding slide show. :)

Big thanks to the Tufts for making our visit such a pleasure! We miss you already!

Spring in February

The weather this winter here in Atlanta has been a bit crazy and for the most part felt more like spring. Even the cherry trees are starting to bloom. Last week we decided to take advantage of this awesomeness that Mother Nature was providing and headed to a local park.

EJ's favorite new game is tag, which basically consists of her giving you "the look" and then putting on the jets while you chase her or she chases you. Whittier Mill Park offers a nice big field for her to practice running in, with daddy and Miss Beyla as willing participants.

Swinging also appeals to her sense of adventure and she loves it when daddy pushes her as high as possible before letting go.

And of course, what could be more fun than zooming down slides? Even Miss Beyla enjoys that one.

Just another day in the life of the world's busiest 15-month-old.

Trouble with a Capital T

This kid is what we like to call "busy". Us and everyone who has had the pleasure of watching her for any length of time. In addition to being busy, she is also very curious, brave, and clever. Which leads to a lot of gasps of terror on our part. Here are just a few examples of the ways in which she likes to test our resilience, when we actually had time to grab our camera.

She really loves to climb on things. She started walking early at 10.5 months, and that quickly lead to piling things on top of each other so she could climb up onto even higher vantage points.

She also likes to squirm her way into small spaces, which sometimes results in her getting stuck.

Then of course, she also likes to climb IN to things. Like boxes. And wagons. And storage bins and cabinets and pretty much anything.

All those adventures are exhausting.

Putting it all in Perspective: "Carry on, warrior. Six hours till bedtime"

I ran across a wonderful article today that sums up the meaning behind the name of our blog much better than my post about it does, so I thought I would share. Enjoy reading while I go try to find some Kairos time with my munchkin.

Don't Carpe Diem (Huffington Post)

best friends

Everett's love affair with Miss Beyla began right from the beginning. Beyla seemed to understand immediately that this was a baby, something small and fragile and precious that needed to be handled with care.

As EJ has gotten more mobile, she has become even more interested in "her" dog and follows Beyla everywhere trying to play with her. Sometimes (like when EJ is carrying around her snack trap and dumping cheerios everywhere) Miss Beyla returns the favor and follows her around. EJ thinks they are playing some version of hide & seek/tag, but I think Miss B is just there for the snacks.

Of course, they both seem to love the open-mouth kisses, much to the disgust of Omar.

Miss Beyla makes a pretty good First Mate for Captain Everett. They are a good team. =)

It's hard to beat the love of a girl and her dog.

EJ's second best friend is Beyla's cousin Frankie, so we will give her a shout-out too. Even though Miss B doesn't like her very much.