Another First

Cate is officially a connoisseur of baby food...bananas and sweet potatoes to be exact! She's been such a hungry little thing for the last couple of weeks and was taking up to 5 ozs of formula which is a pretty hefty amount for a 3 month old! Towns never took more than 6 ozs even by the time she was a year old, so 5 ozs for a 3 month old is a lot! So I got to thinking...obviously her little belly isn't getting satisfied with formula alone, so why not try a little rice cereal. The stuff is pretty gross if I do say so myself, and Cate wasn't a fan so we skipped that all together and moved on to bigger and better things. She's been as happy as a bug in a rug the past two days that she's been given these new things to taste! Towns was 3 1/2 months old when she first started eating baby food and Cate is about a week shy of that so we figured why not! Towns turned out just fine starting it so early, so I'm sure Cate will live through it. I went back and looked at Towns' first attempt at it, and I'm going to let you see the pictures of both babies and see if you can tell who is who...

Two happy babies!

NOT so happy when the baby food has run dry!

There's a First Time for Everything...

Today has been one of those days where I've found myself saying "seriously, did that just happen?" more times than I can count. It all started this morning when I was cleaning out a drawer and found a box of jewelry my mom brought to me a while back that was mine years ago. I suppose I shoved it in a drawer with the intentions of going through it when I had time....which is rather comical because when you have children there's really no such thing has having "time". So when I ran across it this morning I decided to make "time" to go through it and see what was worth keeping and what to get rid of. There were rings, necklaces, bracelets, and even one of those best friend hearts where you wear half and your best friend for life (or so you think at age 8) wears the other half. There were only a few pieces of jewelry with sentimental value so I decided to keep those and chunk the rest. "But wait" I said to myself as I headed to the throw it out. Someone might want this stuff. But who? A PAWN SHOP! That's the first thing that came to my mind, and for some ridiculous reason I talked myself into seeking one out and stopping in just to see what they'd give me for the lot. I knew I'd seen one in town that said "We Buy Gold" on the sign so off I went. That would be the first "the first" of the day because I've never stepped foot in a pawn shop, nor ever thought I'd do so. I ended up with eighty bucks for my scrap gold, but I did leave thinking "did I really just do that?". When I told Jonathan what I'd done he nearly had a coronary. A woman and her two small children have no business being in a pawn shop, or so he says. So after my lucky run at the pawn shop I decided to try my luck at Lowe's. Since we live in the historic district and our house is 81 years old, the closets aren't exactly my dream space. They're very narrow but deep. I can barely get all of Towns' clothes in her closet because the rod is so short so I decided that I was surely smart enough to figure out how to put a second rod underneath to make extra room. Easy, right? HA! This is the second "the first" of the day. I made my attempt at being Mrs. Fix-It and I vow to never do it again. Going along with the old house theme are the walls that are for all practical purposes concrete. Or at least that's what it feels like when you're trying to drive a nail or screw a screw through them. It's not your good ol' sheet rock, that's for sure. After two hours of near insanity the rod is hung, but in just a few when I go try to hang clothes on it we'll see how long it lasts. Ok, hold on to your seats. Here's "the first" number 3 which is by far the most shocking of all the "firsts" that have happen today. As I was shopping for my closet rod in Lowe's, Cate got a little fussy. Since she's such a show out these days and loves to try to sit up, I took her out of her carseat and put a blanket in the front of the cart and sat her beside Towns. It was THE cutest thing I think I've ever laid eyes on. Anyway, I'm in the check out line about to swipe my debit card and out of nowhere comes older lady in a Lowe's vest and PICKED MY BABY UP OUT OF THE CART. Oh yes, she did. I almost hit crazy mom mode. Really, who in their right mind comes up to your cart and picks up your baby????!!!! Without asking, might I add. Not that I'd have given her the answer she wanted to hear even if she DID ask. Good grief! In her defence, she was the sweetest little old lady ever (which I found out AFTER she had my child in her arms, which is too late had she been a psycho) and apparently she loves kids by the way she was acting, BUT STILL. I bit my tongue for about as long as I could stand it and finally asked her to hand her back over since it was time for us to leave. I got Cate from her and put her back in her carseat and within 15 seconds there were 6 ladies in Lowe's vests swarming my cart talking to my children, touching their hair, and pinching their cheeks and I knew it was time to make a mad dash. I couldn't stand the thought of one of them picking up my child again. If you have kids you know that one of your biggest fears in life is someone taking your child from you and it's enough to send every single ounce of adrenaline through your body in .5 seconds at the very thought of it. Call me crazy, but as I go into a store I take note of the security cameras, all the exits, etc. just to get a game plan in my mind if something like that really did happen. So imagine what went through my head as I watch a lady take my child from my cart right there in front of my face. Wow. Moving right along... "the first" number 4. Yesterday in Wal-Mart I stumbled upon the deal of a lifetime. I've gotten to where I can't stand to go in the regular entrances of Wal-Mart because I can never find a decent parking place. I now am a garden center parker because it seems like you can park up front and get in and get out a heck of a lot quicker. As I went into the fenced-in area of the garden center, behold, there sat pure bliss in the form of an elliptical machine with a sign on it that said "clearance - $99.99". WHAT?? An elliptical machine for $99,99?? I NEVER run upon deals like that which is the reason this is included in my "the first" category. I got on it to try it out and floated off into a dream of me with a bottle of water on my brand new calorie-burning machine, up at the crack of dawn before the rest of the family was up. I could get in a great workout before anyone ever woke up. Thirty minutes ALL to myself....HEAVEN! After I had Towns I joined a gym mainly for the elliptical and ended up being so busy that I never went. Especially since it's on the other side of town. The first thing that went through my head was "oh my word, I could OWN my very own elliptical machine for what two months of a gym membership costs me"....this had to be a wise investment. Especially since the money I received as gifts for Christmas was just about what this beauty would cost. Merry Christmas to ME! I was literally as excited as one human can possibly be. As I did my shopping at Wal-Mart I mapped it all out in my head. Go home, put the groceries up, wait for Jonathan to get home, leave the kids at home with him, go back and get my elliptical machine. Genius. Except for one thing...by the time Jonathan got home and the kids were fed and ready for bed I was so tired that I decided to get up and go first thing this morning. Little did I know, that was the mistake of the century. After the pawn shop and Lowe's, I stopped at Wal-Mart and was so pumped I couldn't control myself. That elliptical machine was about to be MINE. I went in the garden center and my machine is nowhere to be found. I went inside and asked the garden center lady and she directed me to sporting goods. I said it was in the GARDEN CENTER yesterday, NOT sporting goods. She really didn't want to fool with me and I could tell I was on her nerves so I shut my mouth and carted myself to sporting goods. I walked up and down the sporting goods aisles and it was still nowhere in sight. So I found a lady to ask because I wasn't about to leave there without knowing for sure where it had gone. She proceeds to tell me that it was sold yesterday. NOOOOOO!!!!! Are you kidding me??? Seriously. It's gone?? Yep. And she also told me that the only reason it was on clearance is because someone had bought it and returned it and they can't do anything with it a big piece of equipment like that once it's been returned. So they mark it down to sell. She told me that it had been sitting there since before Christmas (so why I didn't see it until yesterday is beyond me). Isn't that something? It's been sitting there for weeks, I see it yesterday with the intentions of buying it, and of course someone would beat me to it after they've had all this time to buy it if they really wanted it. This also falls under my "first time for everything" story because this really is the first time that I've seen something that I wanted so very badly, waited to buy it, and then it's gone. Usually I just never really buy anything so I never have an opportunity to miss this kind of deal. Just my luck. And the icing on the cake is Jonathan telling me "they have them that cheap ALL the time, you'll find another one" which made me want to SCREAM. NO they don't have them that cheap all the time and NO I won't find another one!!!

So the moral of the story is:

1. Pawn shops really aren't THAT bad.
2. If you need a second rod installed in your closet, call someone.
3. If someone tries to take your newborn baby out of your shopping cart, deck 'em.
4. If you ever see an elliptical machine for $99.99, CALL ME.

Just Plain Fancy

This has absolutely nothing to do with my run at posting Christmas pics, but I had to add this because it was pretty funny....

The other night I asked Towns to get her pj's on and get ready for bed and the picture above is what she came up with. Anyone who knows my child knows that she's into wearing her fanciest get-up ALL the time. Sometimes we wear at least five or six different costumes in the course of a day (some of them my old tacky dance costumes which is hysterical), and most of the time I can't get her out of them when it's time to leave the house. So I've resigned to the fact that I'm gonna pick my battles and roll with it. Add a turtle neck and tights and it makes for wonderful Publix/Target/post office/bank/etc. attire. If I'm lucky (and I do mean lucky), I can get her in normal clothes with a tutu compromise....that translates into her wearing real clothes with simply a tutu over them. And this wouldn't be complete without telling you what she said today. It's been one of those cold days where it's almost painful to go outside so we've been playing in the dress-up trunk way more than usual. Towns is potty trained which means that going to the ladies' room isn't an easy task when you've got hundreds of layers of tulle from your waist down. So after probably the tenth time of taking all the hoopla off to use the restroom and putting it all back on she looks at me and says in the most dramatic voice ever "uuugggghhhh, I CAN'T keep doing this to myself"!

Here's the picture where she's all smiles because I let her get in bed in the clothes you saw in the previous picture. It's really funny to be honest, and it makes her feel so special to be so dressed up and pretty. So why on earth would I want to take that away from her?! The sun's going to come up tomorrow whether she's in conventional pj's or dressed as a fairy! :) This is why I L-O-V-E, LOVE having little girls!

Christmas Eve

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things so here's the first installment of Christmas McClendon style...

I let Towns make Santa's reindeer a little snack thinking it would pass a good amount of time Christmas Eve night. She was itching for Christmas morning to come so we thought this would be a good way to distract her. I had some simple carrots in mind, you know since everyone knows reindeer love carrots. But my creative little chick had something completely different in mind....

After my boring carrot idea she went and got marshmellows...

And then chocolate covered raisins and really pretty sprinkles!

And naturally, we had to get a pink spatula to mix it all together with.

When it was all done she had to take a good look and make sure she'd gotten it all just right. Obviously reindeer food is serious business to a 2 year old! We put it on the front porch and she was pretty excited to see that it was all gone come Christmas morning! :)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

A couple of weekends ago Towns and I went to the Happy Birthday Jesus party at our church...and it was a celebration if I've ever seen one! Our church has an amazing children's ministry and it seems like every other week there's something big going on. The party was complete with big inflatables, a carnival with more games than you could imagine, face painting, clowns, ponies, and on and on! To top it all off we had a big birthday party with huge birthday cakes to go along with the theme. We had a blast and it was a good reminder of what the Christmas season is all about!

We were first in line for the face painting!

Hart and Towns having fun jumping.

What's a party without a sugar rush?!

Emma and Towns went to check out the ponies and I overheard them discussing whether or not they should give it a try.

They decided to go for it!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Jonathan's office rented a Santa for all the employees and their children a couple of weeks ago so we went to check out the famous old St. Nick. Towns was all about it until we got there and she had a change of heart in no time flat. Once she laid eyes on Santa (which was a really good one as you can see from the pics) it was over! However, Cate didn't mind sitting in his lap and we managed to get Towns to agree to a picture if we were ALL in it, provided she didn't have to sit in his lap. It's not the greatest picture ever, but at least we've got something to remember it by!

My Dear Reindeer

Thought I'd share a few pics from Towns' Mother's Day Out Christmas party at our church...

Katie, Towns, Anna Bekah and Emma

Towns tells me that if she were a reindeer she'd be "Dancer"...which is so appropriate being that there are very few minutes in the day when she's not moving and grooving!

Towns and her friend Vivi