Tannehill Historical State Park

This past weekend we went to the Tannehill Historical State Park. It was a little cool, so we bundled the babies up in some coats.



I was really impressed with Tannehill. It's not that far from our house, and it's gorgeous. It's going to be awesome when the leaves start really changing colors.





Yeah, I don't know what Gary was doing either. . . .



Proof that all three kids can walk:









At one point, Rosemary took off running down a hill straight toward the water. Rosemary did not intend to take off running down a hill, but her little legs got to moving so fast that she couldn't stop. Luckily Daddy caught her before she got wet!



Even though he can walk, Henry much preferred to crawl around. Just like at the pumpkin patch, Henry is attracted to dirt. He was absolutely filthy when we got home.



We had a great time and have a new weekend place to visit and go for a walk!

Writer's Block

Apparently I've had writer's block. I just haven't been blogging the last week and a half. . . . It's not like nothing has happened. Lots has happened.

For instance, about a week and a half ago Henry became a walker. One day he just stood up and started walking! I had reconciled myself to the fact that he may be 18 months before he walked, but he got it in at 15 months!

Now we have a Target just right down the road from us!!! I hadn't been that excited about it until I pulled into the parking lot this past Saturday. I felt this strange calmness come over, as if everything was right in the world. I walked around the store in a daze staring at all the clean, nice aisles. Also, everyone kept asking me if I needed help. But, I think that was probably more so due to the expression on my face. . . .

We also put Piper and Henry in forward-facing carseats!!! Kids need to be one year of age AND weigh at least 20 pounds before they can be forward-facing. Henry was ready when he was one, and Piper was ready shortly thereafter, but we weren't in a huge hurry to buy three new carseats. We have plans for a road trip in the next month or so, so we decided to go ahead and take the plunge and buy the three carseats. Piper and Henry loved it!! At first they were pretty confused, but by the time we pulled out of our driveway, they were smiling and laughing and kicking their feet. We just hope that Rosemary will weigh enough to go into her carseat before she's 2!!

And then not this past Thursday night, but the Thursday night before, I had to take Piper to the Children's Hospital ER (yes, Piper!). Every night before we go to bed, we go upstairs and check on the babies. When we checked on them that night, Piper was breathing very fast and was running a little fever. We gave her some Tylenol and then checked on her again in an hour. Still breathing fast and still hot. So, I called the pediatrician after hours number, and was sent to Children's ER. Now here is the amazing part: We left our house at 11:45 p.m. and got home at 1:30 a.m. Our pediatrician said that the Children's ER has been running a 6-8 hour wait, but we only saw one other patient. In and out for us. Luckily, Piper had a very short-lived fever virus that ended about as quickly as it began. In fact, she was fine by the next morning. If we hadn't checked on her that night before bed, I wonder if we would have ever even known it happened. We were also extremely fortunate that Henry and Rosemary stayed well.

Anyway, I went on a blog break but not a picture-taking break. I'll leave you with some adorable pictures of Gary and Henry bouncing around in the house:

Those Baby Clothes. . . .

Whenever I need to make more room in the babies' closet for new bigger or seasonal clothes, I put the outgrown clothes into plastic bags or bins and put them in the guest bedroom closet. Beyond that I don't pay much attention to all those retired clothes, other than to know that they're there.

Since Laramy was born, I've been asking Zac and Kimberly to come down and go through the girls' old clothes for Laramy to use. We really have a ridiculous amount of clothes (in my defense, there are 3 of them and since they're the same age we can't do hand-me-downs). Finally this past weekend, Zac and Kimberly came down to visit and go through the girls' clothes.

After we ate, I sent Gary and Zac upstairs to pull out all the clothes. Gary was apparently pretty shocked at the amount of clothes we had, because all I heard were mutterings of "I know they never wore all those" and "[censored]" and "what are we going to do with all that stuff" and "how the [censored] did end up with that many clothes" and so on and so forth, with Zac laughing the whole time. Then Kimberly and I headed up there to go through everything. At some point Zac came up to see what was going on.

It was all really going quite well. And then I ran across these little coordinating diaper cover and swing top sets that I had specially ordered for the girls. They only wore them once or twice. I felt a little lump in my throat, quickly determined that my girls would never wear them again, then told Kimberly they would be really cute on Laramy next summer and passed them to her for her pile. I was fine.

We went through a few other things. . . .

Then we got to some summer pajamas. Pajamas that my babies recently wore, but now it's getting too cool to wear them now. And I knew that next year they would be too big to wear them, I felt some tears welling up in my eyes, and I passed the pajamas on to Kimberly for Laramy to wear next summer. I was fine.

We went through a few other things. . . .

Then it started. Out of nowhere, I was crying. No, really, I was more than crying. I was sobbing. Because my babies would NEVER wear these clothes again. Kimberly described it as bittersweet, and I think that is completely accurate. I am so happy that my babies are big and growing and healthy, but I also can't believe that they will never go backwards and be little babies again. Intellectually I understand the concept quite well, but emotionally it's not quite so easy to accept.

Anyway, when I started my sobbing, Zac did as most men would do and quickly left the room, leaving Kimberly there to hug me and tell me that the kids would always be my babies. . . . I somewhat recovered, then worked hard to convince Zac and Kimberly that I really DID want them to take some clothes for Laramy. And this part actually embarrasses me -- but I actually took back some of the things I had put in Laramy's pile. I know my girls will never wear those outfits and that Laramy could put them to good use, but for some reason I feel better knowing I still have those clothes all packed away in my house. I can't explain it, but it gives me great comfort.

I was very blindsided by my entire reaction that day. I still don't understand it, but I'm just trying to accept it for what it is. It makes me wonder what else is going to happen in the future to cause that same reaction, because now I know that it will happen. . . .

Rosemary at the Pumpkin Patch

Henry at the Pumpkin Patch

Piper at the Pumpkin Patch