Girls Weekend

This past weekend, I had a girls weekend with my best buds. No matter where we are or what we do, even if it's in Winston-Salem on a random March weekend, I always feel like I am on vacation when I am with my girls. It reminds me of summer trips and college weekends from the past. Sure, we are a little older now, juggling the obligations of adult life, planning with an online survey and shared Google docs, but when we are together, there is an easiness and carefree-ness that reminds me of being in high school again. It's hard to believe that I have been friends with these girls for almost two decades! This past weekend, Carrie was such a gracious hostess, and we stayed at her house in Winston-Salem. On Saturday, there was another round of wintry weather, so it was the perfect excuse to be lazy indoors. The snow changed to rain, and we were able to venture out for dinner that evening. Aside from dinner, we mostly stayed in our sweats, chatting, eating, and laughing 'til our bellies hurt! Even though we stay caught up on each other's lives via an on-going [and hilarious] group text message, we still have so much to talk about when we are together. When Sunday morning came, we were all a little sad to say 'goodbye', but we have already penciled in a date for a beach weekend in July. I am certainly looking forward to having the summer off this year!

While I was away, Boomer took charge as solo parent for the weekend. I tried to make things easy for him by setting out Emmy's clothes and also lining up my parents to help out on Saturday so he could do some work on his dissertation. (He also managed to fit in getting my car serviced and inspected!) I received these photos Saturday morning when apparently the whole gang got together for breakfast without me -- how rude! Don't they know they can't have fun without me?! Emmy seemed to quite enjoy her biscuit, and she matched Grammy in their cozy sweaters. The sweater was a special gift from my mom's friend, Linda Crumpler. Auntie Linda made the sweater before Emmy was born (and before we knew "Emmy" was "Emmy"!) She looked adorable and so grown up!

Emmy's appetite is definitely expanding. She is trying more and more foods. At breakfast, apparently she had practically an adult portion! The other evening, we were over at my parents' house for dinner, and she ate almost an entire enchilada - tomatoes, chicken, cheese, and even a few bites of the peppers. She can still be a little unpredictable; she will eat something one day and then turn her head to it the next. We are supplementing her diet with the fruit and veggie pouches, so that I can be assured she is getting enough. Boomer and I laugh at how big her belly will be after a big meal! It is the cutest thing to see it sticking out over her pants!

After my girls weekend, I swung by the house to pick up Emmy and Boomer, and then we were off to Asheboro for another March birthday party. Emmy's cousin Ellison turned one on March 27th, and on Sunday afternoon, we celebrated with cake and presents. Boomer snapped these photos of his girls 'matching' in our hot pink tops! I sure missed her over the weekend!

I think this past weekend may be the last of the wintry weather. Over the past two weeks, we have enjoyed a few delays due to black ice and sub-freezing temperatures. On these mornings, everyone gets to sleep in a little bit, and there is not the usual rush out the door. During a delay last Wednesday, Emmy and I met Grammy and Grandpa at Fitz on Main for breakfast. We found that Emmy preferred Grammy's grits with sugar over Grandpa's grits with salt!

Amidst the wintry weather, we have had a few nicer days, and so there have been hints that spring is on its way. When the temps reach the 60s, I will usually pick up Emmy from daycare and then take her for a short loop in downtown Kernersville. We will then head home for dinner and the rest of the nighttime routine. If it isn't a bath night, there will be time to play for a bit. Emmy continues to like her board books and the rings from her Fisher-Price stacking tower. She will usually put all of them on her arms like bracelets. She is a busy girl as she plays with all her toys that have stayed at home during the day. 

I think we are officially bidding farewell to winter. My Spring Break starts on Friday, and I am hoping we can spend some time outside. I am so looking forward to the time off! Although we had the break over Christmas and the sporadic snow days, it has been a long stretch, really since my return from maternity leave last February. The weekends are just so short. I plan to soak in the next ten days with my little family! 

Birthday & Prom Season

I'm a couple of weeks behind, so it's time to catch up! Two Saturdays ago, Boomer and I enjoyed a date night - well, I'm calling it a 'date night', if you disregard the 200+ high school students that also had dinner with us! Forbush had its JROTC Military Ball, and like last year, it was such a nice event. This year, it was held in Dobson at the Cody Creek Depot. The venue was so beautiful, and even though it was close to an hour away from our house, Boomer and I enjoyed the time in the car, just chatting and talking the whole time. Getting all dressed up prepared us for the TWO date nights a.k.a. proms that we have in April. The Forbush prom is on April 14th, and then the East Surry prom is on April 21st - back-to-back weekends! While it's a bummer to give up the time on the weekend, it's always fun to see the students outside of the school setting, dressed in their best attire. While we were at the Military Ball, Emmy was in excellent hands. My parents were still out of the country on their cruise, so Carrie and Caroline came over to watch her. Based off of the pictures I got in text messages, it appears that the girls had a fun evening. Caro even managed to teach Emmy sign language for the word "more" -- Emmy really wanted some of Caro's pizza and was quite willing to do anything! We have continued using 'more' for other food, and it seems to have stuck. Emmy understands to use the hand motion when she would like to have more of something, usually a treat like Teddy Grahams or puffs. Overall, Carrie and Caro said Emmy was very well behaved, which gives me hope that they may babysit again if needed. I am so thankful for best friends that will give up their Saturday night to love on our little girl! We are blessed with such an awesome village!

This past weekend, we celebrated a couple of the March birthdays in the Kennedy family. The spring is a very popular birthday month for both sides of the family. Trivett turned 8 on March 5th and Kessley turned 3 on March 9th. Goosie's birthday is also in March - the 18th, and Ellison's 1st birthday is on the 27th. Add in Zack, and then mom's and my birthday in April, and whew, there's a lot of celebrating going on! On Sunday, we celebrated Trivett and Kessley with some barbecue and birthday cake at their house in Asheboro. When we first arrived, Emmy was a little shy, chewing on her fingers and standing still, not moving from the spot where we put her down. We've noticed that chewing her fingers must be a nervous habit; she seems to do it whenever we first arrive somewhere or if she is around a large group of people. She usually warms up within a few minutes, which she did on Sunday, and we finally got the smiles we're used to seeing. We will be adding one more Kennedy cousin to the group in July - another girl! Trivett is very outnumbered, but as you can tell, he is a great sport around all the females!

Sickness seems to be lingering in the Kennedy household. Since my last post, Boomer came down with strep and has since recovered; Emmy and I have had persistent coughs that just won't go away. There seems to be a lot of germs going around! All the sickness could also have to do with the weather. This week has been very un-Spring like. On Monday, we had a snow day! Then, the last two days, the temps have been below freezing, and my school district has had delays, which means I've been able to spend a few extra hours in the morning with Emmy. We've enjoyed sleeping in and getting ready together. On all the other mornings, I am completely ready when I wake Emmy up. Since I've been using the delays to get some extra sleep, I let her play around my feet while I am back and forth from my bedroom to my bathroom. She likes watching me put on lotion and is quite fascinated by the hairdryer. She has just recently added 'hair' to her list of body parts; now she can identify belly, nose, and hair. Emmy particularly likes playing with my shoes. Even though she likes to scatter them all around, she will also help pick them up afterwards. 

She continues to carry around her books and just recently started identifying the 'banana.' I know, I know, she isn't actually reading the word, but it is exciting to see her association of the word with the picture. 

Boomer and I both have been so surprised at the speed that she is picking up on things. She really is a little sponge! She turned 16-months a few days ago, and here are some of the things she is doing now: 

     - saying "All gone"

     - putting things in the trash when we ask her to

     - stacking her rings in order on the tower

     - fastening the Velcro strap on her tennis shoes

     - turning on and off light switches

     - pushing the garage door when we arrive home or are getting ready to leave

     - helping clean up

     - getting her blanket from her crib when it's bedtime

     - holding a book the correct way

     - turning pages in a book

     - going to her high chair when it is mealtime and she is hungry

     - holding our hands to pray

It's not consistent yet, but once or twice, she has pointed to her diaper when she needs changed. It has me thinking that potty training may be just around the corner. That whole process seems very intimidating (and messy!) so I am nervous. I had originally thought I would do it over Christmas break this year, but now I am contemplating trying it this summer - we'll see!

Emmy isn't the only one growing up before our eyes...this week, my sister sent a picture of my nephew Zander in his cap and gown. He will be graduating from preschool soon and starting kindergarten in August! The time is going so fast! What a big boy!

A Date with Daddy

It feels like February went by in a blink! Of course it is a few days shorter than all the other months, but even so, it is hard to believe that we are already in March. Now that Emmy is back in good health, she has been so fun and playful in the mornings and in the evenings. We have had a good streak of 'easy' mornings, with Emmy being mostly cooperative as we get her dressed and fed, then off to daycare. When we first wake her up in the morning, she will quickly pop up and hand us her blanket. Once or twice, she has even hung it over the side of her crib where she sees us put it each morning. She isn't really using the blanket while she sleeps; we usually see her laying on top of it rather than under it. At night, she wears a fleece, zip-up onesie sleeper, so even without the extra layer of a blanket, I think she is comfortable. After we wake her up around 6:00AM, we have a tight 30 minutes before heading out the door. It seems that Emmy is starting to understand the morning routine. She loves helping put on her socks and shoes. She will hold the socks to her feet, showing us that she knows where they go. She also likes fastening the Velcro on her pink tennis shoes. We have found that each morning, she will get attached to some item, usually a book or a tube of something (tightly sealed, of course!), and she will hold on to that item during the whole morning routine. We've given up trying to steal it away from her; it will usually go all the way to the daycare parking lot but then stay in the car. Here she is with her two favorite books right now, a book about baby animals with different fabrics and textures on each page, and a book with pull up tabs that describes everyday items. 

Grammy and Grandpa are away on vacation right now, and we are all holding our breath that no one gets sick or that there is no other sort of emergency. There are so many things that they do for us each week: dinners, errands, and childcare; they are pretty much the glue that holds us all together. My sister and I both have been able to save countless sick days because Grammy and Grandpa have watched the kiddos instead. In their absence, we've gotten the cousins together a couple of times in the last few days, and it is so sweet to see Zander and Maddox with Emmy. Zander has been asking for a baby sister lately, and we are trying to convince him that Emmy is a lot like one. (He's not really buying it!) The three cousins had fun playing in the Chick-Fil-A play-place, especially screaming in the slide. 

All three kiddos were dressed in blue this past Sunday at church, and we tried to capture a few photos of them sitting still on a bench.

Earlier this week, our school had a big college day, with our freshmen and sophomores going on field trips to college campuses. Our freshmen went to Catawba College, and our sophomores went to UNC Charlotte. It was a big task to organize it all: permission forms, money, lunch tickets, buses and bus drivers, staff assignments, chaperones, and the list goes on. Luckily, we had beautiful weather, and most of all - it's over! I think our students enjoyed the day, although I joked that we could have taken them to Golden Corral and they would have been just as happy -- the dining hall seemed to be their favorite part! Here is a shot of our freshman class at Catawba College: 

Closing out February, Emmy went on her first official date -- with Daddy, that is! A few weeks ago, I saw a post online about a special event at our local Chick-Fil-A. Boomer was with me when I saw it, so I got his approval before signing them up for the earliest sitting, 4:45PM. A couple of days before the date, the Forbush women's basketball team pulled off an upset win in the second round of the state playoffs, meaning that they would play in the third round at home that very same night. I was worried that the times would conflict, but luckily the game was set for 6:30PM, which meant there was just enough time for Boomer to do both. I got Emmy all dolled up, and with the warm temperatures, I decided that Emmy would wear the very special dress that my mom made for her. Emmy opened it on her birthday, and she fits in it perfectly now. While it is intended for Easter and she will wear it then too, I am so glad that she could wear it for her first date with her Daddy. We planned things out so that I would go to dinner solo and then meet them back at the Chick-fil-A just before 6:00PM. Then Boomer could go on to the game. Knowing that Emmy is still a little young and that eating out can be a bit of a wild card, it was risky sending Boomer off on his own, but Emmy is usually pretty well behaved at restaurants so I really wasn't too worried. Around 5:15PM, while I was enjoying my Arby's cheesesticks, I got a text from Boomer saying "Epic fail. She just threw up." I thought he must have been kidding! Threw up!? She hasn't done that in forever! His text also said that other moms were at the CFA, and by that, I knew he wanted back-up. When I arrived around 5:30PM, he had Emmy on his lap (another bad sign!) and looked so relieved that I was there. While Daddy may have been frazzled, Emmy was just as happy as could be! The only thing we can figure is that she went a little too fast with the chocolate milk, something she rarely has. He said that she also didn't eat much else. She was much too busy looking around at the other daddy-daughter couples and keeping an eye on Ariel. The theme of the evening was "Under the Sea", and the CFA staff had decorated the booth section of the restaurant with seashells, fish nets, lanterns, and other sea creatures. There was also a balloon artist, and each girl got a goodie bag of trinkets (and CFA coupons!) Even if it wasn't such a smooth date, if nothing else, the pictures make it worth it! :) I'm sure this will be the first of many Daddy-Daughter dates!