their first fishies

Last night I received an impromptu call from our friend who asked what we were doing for dinner, wanting to know if we would like to come over and grill hot dogs. As luck would have it, I already had pork chops marinating so I said I’d just bring them over and throw them on the grill with their hot dogs.

I like how Dexter is OBLIVIOUS to the world aside from what he’s focused on while little Mari is posing and smiling from the camera, which was a good 50 feet away. She makes me smile!

Dinnertime!
After dinner, Brandy asked the kids if they wanted to go fishing. Bianca was kind enough to bait the hook with a worm since no one else wanted to.

Success!

Worms! Dirt!

Just about as quickly as they cast the line, a fish started biting.  Perfect first fishing experience, even if it was a little misleading. Ha.

Theo was so proud of his catch!  To watch the smile on his face while he was reeling it in and admiring it afterwards was the cutest thing ever. He was happy. Reminded me of the moment I had at McCormick’s Creek when the boys were overjoyed to just be throwing rocks in the creek. 

Dexter’s turn.

Look at his little smile. He was loving it.  And as it turns out, Brandy is a pretty good fishing coach!

Again, within a few seconds, we had another fish on the line. 

It was such a fun, spur-of-the-moment kind of evening and the boys really enjoyed their first fishing experience. I couldn’t help but keep thinking how much my Dad would have loved to see them catch their first fishies. Bittersweet.
xo, 
~C~

sunny day at mccormick’s creek

Sunday was a beautiful day so we decided to go hiking at McCormick’s Creek with friends who were visiting from Tennessee.  Being the poor planners that we are, we arrived at naptime so Theo protested a little as we started down the trail and wanted to be carried a lot, but overall he had a great time. Dexter is the Energizer Bunny. It was a 2 mile trail.

Couldn’t have asked for a prettier day. Just a couple of weeks ago, there would have been no green on the trees. 

They both loved this hollow tree with a front and back door. They both barely fit inside but thought it was really cool. 

Tired boy.

Doing a little rock climbing/crossing to get a better view of a cave.

My best friend is so good about stealing my camera to get some rare photos of me with the boys. THANK you Em!

Theo and Ryan are so tiny compared to the trees towering above Wolf Cave.

Whatchu talkin’ ’bout?

Always one of my favorite features of a creek hike – til I step in the freezing cold creek water! Dexter also loved crossing the creek multiple times during our hike.

By far, their favorite part of our day was throwing rocks in the creek.  Endlessly entertaining. I had such an a-ha moment while we were watching them here.  Simple pleasures in life…this is all they need. Have you seen the articles {like this} going around on Facebook? It’s about how childhood is innately magical and we (as a culture/society nowadays) do too many things to try to MAKE childhood magical. It just is, on it’s own. I have to agree. These moments are the ones I think they will remember. I hope they do. I know I will. 
Such a great day.

Treats at a nearby mom ‘n pop shop on our way home. 

Of course I realized after they left that the group shots of us are on my best friend’s camera.  šŸ™ I will edit and add one to this post… as soon as she emails it to me. šŸ™‚ 
I hope you were able to enjoy some time with people you love this weekend. 
xo,
~C~

filed under: most embarrassing moment #37,428

Now Iā€™ve taught him bad words. Oh, and you can add “dropping his little brother on the concrete sidewalk” to the list of reasons why I win Best All-Around Mom.  
Picture it. Easter Weekend. 2014. 
(Real quick and then Iā€™ll get to the point — did you ever watch Golden Girls? Do you remember when Sophia used to say ā€œPicture it. Sicily. 1923ā€ or some other year before telling stories about when she was young? No?  Right. Just me then? Okayā€¦thatā€™s what I figured anyway). 
We visited Ryan’s sister in Cincinnati for the weekend.  We were walking through Newport on the Levee and I was carrying Dexter because he was still tired after napping in the car.  We were on a mission. We were hungry. We were ready and excited to eat lunch at Tom+Chee (have you been? LOVE).
This lady (me) trips and goes flying through the air (not really, I kind of vaguely remember my feet going into auto-pilot, shuffling on the ground as I attempted to save myself and my baby son). My thought process was something like ā€œIā€™m falling Iā€™m falling wait maybe Iā€™m catching myself no Iā€™m for sure fallingā€¦ā€ before there was a big SPLAT.
Next thing I know, I am lying on top of Dexter on the sidewalk and our group, who was walking ahead of me, turns around and starts saying things ā€“ Iā€™m guessing along the lines of ā€œare you okay?ā€ but I really don’t recall specifics. I sat up and picked up Dexter, who was screaming, sure that he had a broken bone or massive bleed but there were no signs of injury.  I was in shock and pain and stood up, quickly looking at my camera to see if it was destroyed. It also appeared fine.  What wasnā€™t fine, however, was the fiery sensation coming from my left hand and both knees.  My knees were bloodied but we couldnā€™t just stop moving so we found a bench that was coincidentally in front of Tom+Chee (which was closed for remodeling for THREE days ā€“ why? Why, why, why on Easter weekend? Why on any weekend? Why on the only weekend I was in town and wanted to go there?).  I sat down and fell again – only this time it was into a deep well of self-pity. I wanted to cry, it hurt so bad. Ryan came back with some wet paper towels to blot the dirt and blood.
Theo. Sweet, innocent, little bitty baby Theo (okay, okay. I know heā€™s 4 ā€“ shut up. Heā€™s still little). He was concerned about his injured mama. He came over to me and squatted down in front of me, wincing. Looking over my boo boos with great care not to get to close or touch them. Then he said it. Sooo softly, he said it.
ā€œF*ck, mommy.ā€
Hmm? I said ā€œWHAT?!ā€
He shook his head no and said ā€œnothing! I didnā€™t say anything.ā€
I looked at Ryan and he shook his head as well. ā€œHe didnā€™t hear that from me!ā€
I looked at Theo again. Gently, I asked, ā€œwhere did you hear that?  Itā€™s okay. Iā€™m not mad. I was just wondering where you heard that.ā€
He looked at me and ever so quietly again said, ā€œfrom you, mommy.ā€  ~insert shock and horror on my face here~ He continued, ā€œwhen you fell,ā€ pointing to my knees.
WHOOPS.
Well shit. I mean, “jumping jellyfish” or something else more appropriate. Apparently I say bad words when I go flying through the air, drop my baby, and then land on top of him, while injuring myself in the process.
Whatever. I didnā€™t mean to. SO that whole lunch episode was pretty much a bust (literally, snort snort). End of story.  And that’s the tale of how I taught my 4 year old the F-bomb.
With that out of the way, itā€™s time for some reflection to ponder the remarkable, innate, motherly instinct within.  It is mind-boggling to me that Dexter did not have a single scratch on him. I donā€™t think Iā€™m some sort of super-mom or anything, but in the midst of that chaos, clearly my natural instinct was to protect him. I donā€™t remember thinking anything along the lines of protecting him (apparently it was just ā€œoh f*ck Iā€™m falling and holding Dexter and these things are happening simultaneously) but I did.  How did I not slam his head on the concrete when I fell and landed on top of him?  I DONā€™T KNOW, other than adrenaline and natural instinct kicked in. Iā€™m still having a hard time wrapping my head around that. I wish I could replay the whole 3 second debacle over and over to see what my body did in that situation while my mind was in panic mode. Oddly enough, it makes me more confident in my mothering abilities. It makes me feel like more of a mama bear than I already did.  I freakinā€™ excel under pressure. 
Well ā€“ aside from that whole language thing that I should probably work on.
xo,
~C~