Firecracker, Firecracker, Boom Boom Boom

We had an absolute blast tonight.

We laid in the grass under the night sky and watched fireworks. Just the three of us. On a blanket. Counting firecrackers and blessings, all at once. Coop was too busy peeping for fireworks out of the corners of his eyes to look at the camera. He thought we were under attack.

Our neighborhood does it up big and we sure did have a ton of fun. From afar. Waayyyy up on the hill. With our strawberry icebox pie and Liken A-Queen cars.

Coop was in aw. Complete.

We let him stay up late. And eat 4 brownies. And lay on his belly on his bed watching even more fireworks from his window after we drug him away from the action outside.

His feet may just about touch the ground when he sits in my lap these days, but he fell slap asleep in my arms tonight. Hasn't done that in the longest time. My heart just about exploded  as I laid him down and prayed over him tonight.

Thank you Lord for these sweet, sweet blessings.

"Clean Eating"

I'm two bags of Ranch Bugles in and I somehow randomly just lost 30+ minutes on a "clean eating" blog.

That's ok though because I ran across some fabulous 10 minute "inner thigh" workout on Pinterest this morning and jumped right on it. I was about 23 jumping jacks in when Coop and I decided we needed to hit up Yogli Mogli instead.  

Then we went to Pirkle Park, had a picnic, and played at the pool.

About the pool. Let me just say: #epicwaterwingfail.

I taught swim lessons for like 6 years. For this reason, I feel that I should not be the lady at the pool with the toddler thrashing and scraming and clawing and climbing his way to the top of my head.

Don't let him fool you. This was from the safety of the baby pool.

He was practicing his bubble cheeks. Which he is a pro at.

He's also super great at blowing bubbles.

Epic fail didn't start until we put the blasted water wings on. In the big pool. Pre-marshmallow bicep pillows, he was happy as a sailor splashing around.

Today, not so much. I tried to take a picture but I am pretty sure someone put a call into DFACS, so I didn't dare stop to capture it.

You can imagine it.

Room 519

I love Ranch Bugles. That's right. Ranch flavored Bugles.

Love them.

They are ridiculously yummo and they are ridiculously hard to find. Cheddar Cheese doesn't cut it. Original definitely doesn't cut it.

Once when I was pregnant with Cooper,  I even tried the Buffalo flavored ones out of desperation. Bleh.

But the Ranch ones. Ahh.

The last bag I can remember having was circa 1987.

But we were down at Tybee Island this weekend for a wedding and when we got down there I realized I forgot my toothbrush. Chris rode off on his white horse to fetch me a new one. And get back Jack, guess what he found?

I was excited.

I ate them one by one grinning from ear to ear while Chris stared at me like I had two heads. Crunch.

*I might have gone back and bought the gas station slap out of them. 4 bags. Scooped 'em up and didn't look back.*

My step-brother Brian married his little darlin' this weekend down in the sand. It was beautiful. And hot. Shoo-wee.

After the wedding we came back to our room to shower and cool off. We slipped our key in the door but the door wouldn't open. We tried the other key. Nothing.

We traipsed back down to the front desk and they told us we probably deactivated our keys by putting them near our cell phones. Whatev. They also verified our address twice. Whatev. New keys in hand, we came back up to the room and immediately noticed something was up.

There was stuff in the room that didn't belong to us. A wet towel on the bed. Some one else's makeup on the counter. The iron was out. Some Forever 21 tags were thrown around. Someone else's room keys were on the desk.

Mysteries.

Suddenly we realized someone had been in our room. With our stuff. Without us.

We called the front desk and became foul tempered and started ranting and raving about security and privacy and wet towels and used toiletries. They came right up to our room and admitted that. they. gave. our. room. away. while. we. were. out.

Insanity.

There are no words. Thank heavens to Betsy our mystery roomates were only weirdos and not thieves. They showered and did their make up and ironed their clothes. All while OBVIOUSLY in OUR occupied hotel room.

Did I mention there are no words?

We got a full refund (duh) and assured the Hilton folks that we would not be back. Ever. Evvver.

Oh and I am totally calling John Quinones over at "What Would You Do", our fave Friday night show, and turning this in as a future episode idea. I'm probably going to be on TV. Look for me. I will be the girl crunching on Bugles in the background of some hotel room.

Only us, y'all. Only us.

Sweet Tea

I started running again. Coop asked me if someone was chasing me. When I reassured him through fits of laughter (and gasps for breath) that they weren't, he asked me if I was looking for something. Nope, just running Coop. Strange concept, I agree.

He's growing like a weed these days. Gracious goodness, I can hardly keep up.

I'm addicted to McDonalds sweet tea. It's terrible. One dollar gets you a gigantic gallon in a styrofoam cup. Shame. I got hooked the day after I tried to kick my caffeine habit. Ironic.

I'm not feeling too blogtastic these days.

I'm blaming it on my hormones. I've been preggo twice in the past 5 months and I feel like I've sprouted an extra head. And maybe a third eyeball. I get hot and sweaty in the middle of the night and dizzy and cranky and weepy and silly. All at once.

Being home with Coop two days a week has been an absolute God-send. I am soaking up these precious days and don't take a single moment for granted. We've been to the aquarium, to feed the ducks, to the train store, to Target, to the dry cleaners, to the bank. We've laid in the floor and played cars. We've splashed in the pool. We've played pirate ship. We've read books. Every second is glorious. Even the ones where he strips nekkid in his bed at nap time.

Even those.

Twos

Parker Baby is a tiny little rockstar! He has made amazing progress this week! Go Parker, go!

Check out the latest, greatest: http://abbylou9.blogspot.com/

Coop is a rockstar too. And by rockstar, I mean that he is rocking the twos. The lay-on-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming-and-pounding-your-fists-two-minutes-before daddy's boss comes over for dinner, twos. The-pee-in-your-pants-while-looking-mommy-straight-in-the-eyes, twos. The two-weeks-in-a-row-have-mommy-and-daddy-come-get-you-out-of-church, twos.

But the OH SO SWEET, twos. The twos where he rubs my hand and tells me that he loves me. The sings-songs-angelically-while-he-falls-asleep, twos. The mommy-this-lummy-cakebatterdip-makes-my-tummy-happy, twos. The picnic-at-the-park-shrieking-and-giggling-best-days-of-our-lives, twos.

Love him two pieces. We really do.

We found out we were expecting again (jazz hands). Then we found out that we aren't expecting again (sigh).

But you know what? God is mighty and for whatever reason, he is using this season in our lives to show us more of Him and more of His provision in our lives.

I love that His Grace is made evident in our human frailty. I love that when there is less of me, there is more of Him. I love that when I fall to my knees, He lifts me up and carries me.

The best thing in all the world is that God's plan for our family is bigger than these moments.

Laying low, keeping calm, and moving on.

"Because you are with me, I will not fear." Psalm 118:6

We Found Nemo

Super Coop has not been so super duper this week.

On Sunday he was so bad in church, they had to come and get us out of worship. We got the quiet tap on the shoulder that meant, "come now, you must tame your beast before we start losing members and visitors". I bet someone touched his Liken A-Queen car. For the love of Pete.

As his Mama, I know his MoodyMcMoodiness is due to the fact that he hasn't pooped in days. (I probably just lost some readers).

Anyway, it's true. The "I no need poop Mommy" trend has kept up. Good gracious, what are we to do? Stop the potty training all together? Call in our old friend Pampers and take a few days off?? I called the pediatrician and their recommendation involved a q-tip. Um, no thank you.

Anyway, Murphy's Law, he pooped today. I know you are all relieved. He is too.

We o-fish-ially paid our first visit to the Georgia Aquarium on Monday. Coop's eyes stayed as big as saucers the entire time. It was a hoot! FISH FACE!

Dol-pins! Stingerrays! Fishies!Opters!

My review, in a nutshell:

1. They say no big strollers. Go on. Take your little umbrella stroller. We did. It will fall over backwards 57 times within the first half hour and you will be a cranky, foul, sweaty mess. You will slam the ankle of complete strangers with your camera as it clanks to the ground. Your bags will spill and your fruit snacks and Capri Suns will scatter about the "No Outside Food and Drink" area and you will get scowled at by the giant whale playground police.

*Disclaimer: We will be those people with our humongo jog stroller next time. The repeat visitors learned this. I know because I saw them all giggling at us as we wrestled umbrella strollers through the Baluga Whale exhibit. They tooled around with their well-balanced big mama jammas all day. Sweatyless. Crankyless. Live and learn*

2. Go to the ATT Dolphin Show. Go. Run. You won't regret it one bit. Ah-mazing. So beautiful. So fun. Cooper and I are both still talking about it.

3. Order the $30 pizza and chicken fingers at the precious little aquarium Cafe. Enjoy the atmosphere and ambiance. Split them between your group of 10-12 and go to Chickfila on the way home. Loading up your cafeteria tray with more than 1-2 items could potentually break the bank.

4. Be careful of the moving sidewalk and crawl-through tunnels if you are suffering from BPPV. You will lose your balance and potentially drop your awe-inspired fishie admiring toddler.

5. If in the midst of potty training the day of your visit, take Pull Ups. It's likely that, (after climbing a gazillion flights of stairs with your 30+ pound toddler on your hip, to the top row of seats in the amazing dol-pin show that you simply cannot miss) your toddler will shout out "Mama I need tee-tee!" as the lights dim and the show begins. Pull Ups. They'll save the day. For sure.

Such an awesome experience! I am so tickled that we have such fun things to do right here in our backyard. Next up, the Choo Choo at Stone Mountain. Big time, y'all. Big time.

BPPV, the Truffle Shuffle

So apparently I am not totally crazy. I'm only half crazy.

Went to the doc and they induced my crazy falling over, room spinning, eyes jumping psychoness. It was a sight.

Apparently I have something called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or in case you have no clue what that is or how to say it, BPPV. In a nutshell, tiny crystals in my inner ear have (for no good reason) dislodged and migrated to other parts of my ear. There they lay, irritating tissues, hitting nerves, and interfering with signals from my brain.

The result, lots of falling over, sweating, spinning, whirring nights.

Shoowee, it's some kind of weird. It can come and go without reason and has no real known cause.

Until it packs it bags and gets to walkin, I am sleeping sitting straight up, armed with drugs that apparently don't do much except for put your lights out. If it keeps up, I'll go see a vestibular doc at Emory.

But at least I'm not crazy.