No Longer the Favorite

I'm going to begin by saying typing this will probably make me cry. Actually, there's no probably about it. I will cry.

When Tim & I first discussed getting pregnant, I initially said I wanted to wait a year in the hopes to better prepare myself for the idea of pregnancy. He, on there hand, said sooner was better than later since my grandparents aren't getting any younger, and if we had children after my grandmother died, she would haunt us. (I don't care if you don't believe in that kind of thing, Miss Lillian would haunt us.) I try to never think about any family members dying; therefore, the idea hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm happy we did have the girls when we did because just seeing them brightens my grandparents' day tenfold.

So today, in the car, my grandmother told me that she loved me lots and lots...but that she loves my daughters more. I knew this. I may have been the favorite grandchild growing up, but I've known she loved my children more since the day she literally pushed me out of the way to say hello to them when they were around six months old. It wasn't that statement that brought a tear to my eye. It's what she said next: "Those girls are a ray of sunshine that makes our lives better, and I am so happy that your granddaddy and I get to spend the end of our lives with them here."

Now, I may joke on a regular basis that Grandma is one morbid person. She's convinced she's going to die when she has a bad headache. She even once gave me her diamond anniversary ring because she wasn't going to "make it through" her knee surgery. But I know the inevitable will happen. Everyone on this earth leaves it at some point in time, and I know my grandparents (especially Granddaddy) aren't in the best of health. To know that my daughters help them have better days both warms and breaks my heart. I want my girls to remember their great-grandparents; I hope they are around for a long time so  Lillie and Dani have some good solid memories of them.

Spend lots of time with your family. I know you know in your heart that you love them, but sometimes someone needs to say it for you to realize how much love is there.

Little Touches, Playroom Edition

As I stated in this blog, I've gone on a cleaning rampage. I have officially finished the dining room and, early this morning (around 1 AM), I finished the playroom. My goal was to dust, sweep and mop all the surfaces; hang new shelving and finish floor pillow covers for the girls. This morning, it was all about that last floor pillow.

Here are the results! (Click the photos to supersize.) I must say that I am very proud of myself. My dinky sewing machine broke halfway through the first pillow, so I had to sew those suckers by hand. And, of course, the embroidery is all hand done because I definitely don't have the money for one of those cool Martha Stewart embroidery machines.

The embroidered circles were my original design. In fact, I did a small version way before the girls arrived. I had planned on doing the pattern on curtains for their room, but that fell through. Then I started searching online and came up with the felt butterflies for the second pillow. I knew when I did the butterflies that I was going to love it more than the embroidered circles, but that's OK. I will not (will not, will not, will not) redo that circles pillow because I love it too.

The playroom will be ongoing--adding new art, replacing old toys. But for now, it's seems quite complete. When I finish the entire house, I shall have pictures.

Road Trip!

Last week, the girls and I (along with Aunt Mandi) came back from a trip to Maryland to see my dad. He was meeting his granddaughters for the first time, and it was absolutely amazing to watch him with them. I'd say a majority of the trip was a grand success. The other parts not so much.

The girls did very, very well in the car. Our attempt to drive overnight so they would sleep didn't go quite as planned. We ended up stopping at a hotel both coming and going. Both times being more for the adults than for the children. I think next time we'll travel during the day and just have plenty of leg-stretching, energy-expressing, eating stops since it seemed the day travel went better for everyone. I'm obviously no longer a spring chicken who can stay up all day and drive all night as well.

The visit was lots of fun. We nearly abandoned all sense of schedule, which I took better than I thought. The girls actually took naps in their strollers while we were out. They loved being out and about in the city--seeing people, museums, and lots of birds. The only thing that really seemed to make them unhappy was mealtime at Dad's. There was lots and lots and LOTS of screaming and crying every single time we had a meal. Dani tipped over in one of the chairs--scaring the crap out of everyone in the room. I don't know if that fall is what triggered the unhappiness for the rest of the trip, but as long as those girls weren't up to the table having a meal, they were relatively happy. (They also didn't particularly like when I left the room, but that's not a new thing.)


We successfully survived our first long trip. I'm not so scared of taking more now. I have learned to now pack every bit of medicine they might need. Be prepared for all kinds of weather, no matter what the Weather  Channel says. Travel with painters tape or plug covers. Having single umbrella strollers is nice because they take up less room and make for easier maneuverability in museums and public transportation, but they suck when it comes to storage, so take a big backpack and deal with the bag searches.