Don’t you wish you were in Alabama?  Thank goodness for central air conditioning and a drive-in garage.  Even if we go out (rarely), we can still stay pretty cool.  We’re in Stage 3 water restrictions, which means no watering with sprinklers – hoses only, and only on our designated days (Tues, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) before 10am and after 6pm.  Whew!  Our beautiful zoygia grass in the front yard is brown and dying, and the only plants we’re trying to save in the yard are my hydrangeas… and it’s not working.  Here’s the weather statement from today…

I think I’m so far behind with the blog, I’m afraid I’m not going to get caught up! 

My mom left last Thursday :(.  We miss her.  It was so nice to have her here.  I sure miss my family after my infrequent visits with them!  I didn’t get pictures taken but here’s a short list of the things she did – created pretty metal baskets of flowers for Analise’s room, decorated Analise’s window treatments, put up an ABC border near the ceiling of Josiah’s room, hung Josiah’s rainbow baby quilt, sewed me a table runner, recovered my dining room chairs.  She was seriously productive!  It was inspiring!

It’s BLAZING hot and humid here – like 100 with a heat index of 110.  And yes, my crazy hubby is still riding in this weather.  He’s got an extra water bottle with him, though.

We’re laundering and packing today for a trip to Chicago this weekend for my cousin’s wedding.  We leave tomorrow at 7am with Brian’s parents – all 6 of us in their SUV.  Add in Analise’s favorite movie of late – Ice Age – playing over and over in the background, and I’m sure we’ll all be a little crazy by the time we arrive at my Grandma’s on Thursday evening. 

On Friday we’re heading to Chicago to our hotel – a lovely downtown Hampton Inn & Suites.  Friday is Brian’s birthday (31!), and so we’ll celebrate at The Cheesecake Factory, and maybe, just maybe, I can get my kids to bed early so Brian and I can go out and enjoy a little of Chicago in the evening.  Maybe the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel or the Sears Tower to see the sun set and the Chicago Skyline…  Saturday, I’m hoping to spend some time with my family and squeeze in a visit/lunch with a friend and her kids at The Choo Choo Diner.  Saturday evening we’ve got the fancy wedding, dinner and reception in Downtown Chicago.  Sunday we’re looking forward to seeing the Shedd Aquarium before driving back to my Grandma’s in Indiana for the night.  Then Monday we’ll make the long drive back to Alabama. 

Should be fun!  We’ll report back when we can!

Josiah just 1 minute ago said his first word. It caught Kristine and I both by surprise. And the word was … "waffle". Kristine was getting his breakfast ready and asked Josiah if he wanted his waffle. Instead of his normal reply of "jah" or "dah", he said "waffle"! As Kristine prompted Josiah to say it again, Analise told us that he said it already.

That’s all it was about.  One green bean.  Oh, it started out as three green beans.  All I wanted Analise to eat was 3 green beans before she could be done with lunch.  But she didn’t want to.  She cried that she didn’t like them.  She cried and cried.  And cried.  As we cleared the table, I told her all she needed to do was eat 1 green been. 

And eventually, since her green bean started to get a little unappetizing with all the coaxing and an attempt to make it more appealing with a dab of sour cream, Grandma Sandy helped her pick another green bean from the bowl.  And being the sweet grandma that she is, she helped her find the smallest.  So I know I wasn’t asking too much for her to eat one half-inch long green bean.  But she refused. 

At one point, she thought she might like the green bean with sprinkles, so I brought her pink sprinkles and we covered the bean.  Now it looks much less appetizing, in my opinion.  But she still wouldn’t eat it.  And she sat at the table for 2.5 hours. I know that her stubborn-ness comes from me.  So it’s like I’m battling myself, which is painful.  And in the end, it was nap time, and I put her down for a nap.  There will be more beans in the future, and I hope that next time the battle is shorter, and maybe sometime after that, there won’t be a battle, because she’ll just see how easy it is to just take one quick bite and be done with it.  She’s gotten very picky about food lately, and maybe bit by bit we can work our way back to some reasonable eating habits. 

Just another day of parenting.  

(When I asked my mom if I was ruining her for life for eating green beans, she asked is I’d been ruined by having to eat just one bite of things.  Hm.  Not really.  Just imitation crab.  My mom would get it occassionally as a treat for herself, and sometimes my dad would find it and cook it up for dinner for all of us.  Nobody won.  Mom didn’t get much, and all 3 of us girls had to eat some.  Torture.  That’s the only thing I’m permanently against eating.  And my sisters would say the same thing, I think.)