Birthday Eve

We've nearly made it another year . . . Another amazing year with this heaven-sent boy. If I type away about this year with this boy, I'm sure to get sappy. Instead, I give you pictures!

From the camo-bandaid to the missing front tooth, he is boy through and through. He took to his new bike like a duck to water {thanks Big Dad & Kate}. Ben, kiddo, thanks for teaching your momma to love dirty fingernails and monster trucks. Happy 4th Birthday!

PS Cameron recovered from the unveiling of big brother's new Rip Rider nicely, thanks to her Minnie Mouse backpack {courtesy of her Mimi, thank you Mimi}.

a quick note from the magic kingdom

Live from Disney World! Two tiny people have soaked it up, the sun, the characters, the junk food! The bigger people are sporting fever blisters and are running out of clean socks. Jim & Diane lovingly invited us and the Bulcroft clan to join them, and we have partied like under-aged rock-stars! A gazillion laughs, tons of Purell, and magical memories sum it all up!

More soon. Well, probably not soon. The mere thought of laundry is taking up free time as I type . . .

Picture this . . .

Sweet, happy children, rested and energetic. Three grown-ups yelling directing. Tons of brilliant, beautiful sunshine. Did I mention one of the grown-ups is none other than the talented Allison of Blue Mutt Photography {lovely sister to the lovely Michele}. This was, without a doubt, my lucky day.

These pictures stir my soul. I grin happily at the faces in them.

Allison, thank you . . . these pictures are a cherished gift.

a documentary {in pictures} of a happy girl and her bed-head

Kim, if you're reading this, I stand corrected. No amount of Noodle and Boo anything can fix brillo-pad bed-head. I think Vaseline may be our only hope!

Laughter is the best medicine . . .

The tooth fairy came . . . about two years too early!

Other appropriate titles for this post might be "My Snaggle-Tooth Sweetie" or "Benjamin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day".

A perfectly happy Friday afternoon turned sour unexpectedly. After surviving three days of non-stop 102-104 degree fever, Ben finally woke up well. It was so good to see him full of energy, talking non-stop, back to his busy-little-boy normal self. After a week cooped up in the house, some sort of an excursion was fast-becoming a necessity. We high-tailed it to see Daddy at the office, a rare and special treat. While happily bopping in and out of his dad's office, Ben tripped. Not the kind of trip where you gasp and catch yourself. This was more in keeping with a major league baseball player diving into home, face-first. And his pearly whites made direct contact with the leg of a chair.

I knew he was hurt. His mouth was hanging open and he wasn't making any noise. I scooped him up and began the trusted whispers of 'hang on' and 'it's okay, baby', but Greg was behind me frantically telling me to look at Ben's mouth. CRUD. It wasn't good. We ran down the hallway to the bathroom and started trying to put cold wet paper towels in his mouth, but this was a serious injury. Paper towels weren't really helping. At all. Greg took over in the bathroom and I called my precious dentist who told us she'd stay on the phone to walk us through pushing the teeth back into place. Um, WHAT???? We decided we'd meet her at her office. Nothing beats five o'clock traffic on a Friday with your traumatized, screaming child in the backseat and a super-cranky one-year old who wants her milk. Never mind the fact that I was now hysterically sobbing {I suffer from major dentaphobia}.

The next part gets a little fuzzy. Some of the details include me holding a terrified child on my lap while the dentist tried to push the tooth back into place. I distinctly remember the tooth flying through the air and lots of blood. Ben was screaming. Something was said about part of the tooth still being way up in there . . . I promptly excused myself to the ladies room, where I laid down on the bathroom floor and put my feet up on the toilet. More hysterical crying on my part . . . Lots more, actually.

We're probably not entirely done with this bump in the road . . . Two more teeth are question marks . . . Root canals may be necessary. X-rays will help to determine if his permanent teeth might have been damaged. I seriously wish we had dental coverage.

The best part is my Ben. He's okay. He was okay long before I was okay. Tonight he's checked out his new gap in the mirror about seventeen times. And he's just darling with the new window in his smile. He looks a wee-bit more of mess to me, but I'm his mother, and I'm allowed to think that.

Aunt Coco checked on us this morning and wanted to know how we were going to spend our day. I told her we'd probably just play on the drive-way {we love to do this, it's a huge driveway, and we haul out all kinds of ride-on toys}. Coco said, "I think you should stick to the grass."

My precious friends have cheered me. My family has supported me. I've never felt so loved. It's going to be okay.

Pictures soon of the little darling.

What's old is new again . . .

This sweet old rocking chair was in my nursery. My mother refinished it some thirty-something years ago, while awaiting my arrival. I'm told often that I was a bad colicky baby, and that my mother rocked me non-stop for the first year of my life. After spending several years in my parent's attic, and then several more in my garage, it finally received it's long awaited make-over.


Somehow I managed to stuff the chair in the front seat of my car. I sped over to The Collection so Gretchen {owner and master painter} could work her magic! I adore Gretchen and her two lovely daughters. I also adore their store! Paint, distressing and glaze made the old chair look farmhouse-old. Sweet, soft linen from Calico Corners was chosen to go with Cameron's soft grey walls . . . Once the paint dried I hauled my little rocking chair to the upholstery shoppe for some fake down and a corner-pleated flat welt cushion.

Voila! It was finished & delivered Christmas Eve's Eve. Perfect timing to go under the tree, a little bit of family history for my Cameron-Girl. We've already logged some serious snuggle time together, rocking happily away in her sweet room.

Big Daddy & Kate, thank you for saving this lovely chair. Thank you too for Cameron's Christmas bucks, which paid for it's new look. I think it just made heirloom status.

A spoonful of sugar . . .

103.2 is not fun. Sweet Benjamin has only just recovered from a round of the crud. The runny nose {his and hers} and late-nite coughing {mine, all mine} is behind us. A round of antibiotics cleared up an ear infection. Sadly, a nasty new virus showed up today.

This is Ben's constant companion. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to play monster trucks or hide-and-seek. A perfect 98.6 degrees.



R&R is hard to come by with Cameron by one's side! I think their expressions say it all!!

Old favorites & a new look

Keep calm and carry on!
-The Queen of England

We lived very simply but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for: hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy.
-Winston S. Churchill

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.
-Elsie de Wolfe

May the warm winds of heaven blow softly on this house. May God bless all who enter here.
-unknown, but may soon find it's way into my home, traced softly on the stairs . . .

Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility... It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where he who does not love would faint and lie down. Love is watchful and sleeping, slumbereth not. Though weary, it is not tired; though pressed, it is not straitened; though alarmed, it is not confounded.

The expression we live by . . . The one that best reflects spilled milk, cookie crumbs, lost keys and more . . . C'est la vie!

My mother and I still talk about writing a book of favorite quotes, bits of wisdom, cherished words otherwise stored in our minds. Maybe we'll accomplish that goal, cook all the recipes, and stay caught up with the children and their laundry. Maybe not! That's life!

Double Trouble

Try my patience. Melt my heart. One right after the other.

They're trouble, these two, and they're usually two steps ahead of me!

The Odd Couple

She'd dance the night away with Rocky if her big brother would let her . . .