6 degrees of separation

So I've been thinking that being a mom in the Cary/Apex area is like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon :) I'm sure some of my mom friends out there can relate to this. You see people places all the time that you know from somewhere else. You may not really "know" them, but enough to smile or give a little wave or say hello. It's like, "oh, I know her from story time", or "they go to Sydney's preschool", or "they were at so and so's birthday party". Or "she goes to my gym and her daughter is in Sydney's dance class, and I've seen her at story time, and Target, and she went to Meredith, and she used to teach at so and so school, and she was in my workshop at blah, blah, blah and she was in my Master's program...but I don't really "know" her, haha.

Last week I re-ran into a lady who was at my friend Dawn's baby shower that we had here. In the Chickfila bathroom. The next day we went to the YMCA pool with some friends and there she was again. And it turned out that she knows my friend Kirsten who I was there with! Weird.

There is a little girl who was in Sydney's dance class last summer who I used to run into around town. She ended up being out waitress at Angus Barn one night on my birthday. The girl was in Sydney's camp at St. MM last week and is now in her dance class again. So her mom and I finally talked:)

Another girl, Juley and I ran into each other about a year ago at a coffee shop/kids show. She graduated from Meredith the year before me and was a teacher. I kept running into her and realized that she goes to my friend Dawn's church and she lives right around the corner from me, haha. Her daughter in Sydney's dance class this time too!

Tuesday night Phil and I got last minute e-plus tickets to the Counting Crows and Maroon 5 concert. We were in the parking lot hanging out before the main show and I saw a couple that I went to high school with walk through the parking lot and they still live in Mocksville. I was like, weird, but okay. Well, they were sitting in our box! There are 6 seats and it was us, James and Michele and then them! It was crazy! Apparently that guy works for a company in W-S that is a client of one of Phil's coworkers. They just got the tickets that day and came up. So we hung out for a while during the concert. Luckily they were people I knew and liked. So, anyway, not a mom-thing, but small world.

fun with friends

Saturday afternoon we headed back to Mocksville to spend the night at my parents' house and visit with my friend Holly and her boys Dylan and Corbin. Dylan is about 5 months older than Sydney and Corbin is almost exactly a year younger than Mollie. They had a great time all playing and I'm so bummed that I didn't have my camera. Sydney and Dylan love to play together and weren't even shy, they just picked up where they left off last time (I can't remember when that was...) and played and played. And Holly and I got to actually talk. Phil and Dad played golf then we picked he and Mom back up and headed back to Apex.

Today we played with my teacher friends Daniele and Ashley and their girls. So 5 girls in all ages 2, 3, 3, 4, and 5. They played outside, ran in the sprinkler, ate lunch, and got worn out!! Daniele and I had met at the gym at 8:30 and we got home at 1:30 so it was a big morning. Mollie went to sleep as soon as we got home and Sydney fell asleep in the car this afternoon on the way to meet Daddy at Remington Grill for our kids eat for .99 dinner:)

I think Sydney finally went to sleep after asking 5, 349 times if I was going to leave or if I left...

what?

Do not read if you don't want to hear potty talk:)

Mollie has been having a problem the last 2 days with peeing in her panties a little. Like, she needs to go, but doesn't want to so she pees a little in her panties then holds the rest in. Just now, I took her to the potty and her panties were a little wet again. I said, "Mollie! Why do you keep peeing in your big girl panties????"
She says very dead pan: "because. that's the truth. that's my story. see?"

I said, "where did you get that from???" She said, "myself".

TGIF

A few things I've discovered today:

• baked cheetos are really good
• getting the oil changed in my car is not as bad as I usually think it will be even though there are scary people out there who change oil
• both girls are getting runny noses:(
• taking a multivitamin on an empty stomach will make you feel really crappy

Update on Sydney's clinginess: Last night I went to see Mama Mia with some girl friends. What a girl movie! It was cheezy, Pierce Brosnan can NOT sing. But it reminded me of my Meredith days in many ways and it was fun. Anyway, I told Sydney all day that I would be going. She wasn't too happy when I left, but it wasn't so bad. I bet Phil $10 that she would go to bed with no problem. Because I wasn't there for her worry about me leaving! I was right. Never even came back out of her room once.

Have a super weekend!!!

sweet baby Mollie

So here's my little Mollie update. I think I'll call her sweet and sour these days, haha. She can be so darn funny and lovey and snuggly, then turn on me and say "no!" and hit and kick and pitch some really good fits. A good thing though is that they are generally short lived. She's pretty easily distracted. If she won't listen when it's time to go somewhere/leave a place and she sees me walking toward her she says "no! don't get me!" And will run like I'm a stalker or beat her regularly. But then once we get to the car she'll be fine. And a lot of times she says, "mommy, I'm happy now, are you happy?". It's funny. She now rarely wears clothes in the house. It's mostly dress up clothes. Cinderella, Snow White, Barbie cheerleader, wedding dress, general fairy attire, or apron with note pad and pen taking my order. Sydney loves to be a waitress as well. And Mollie is obsessed with the computer now. She wants to play on it all the time. I had to make a stop sign to hang on it when it's not computer time. She yells about this regularly too and will just take the sign down.

A really interesting thing about Mollie is that I think she's just started dreaming. I don't remember Sydney ever alluding to the fact that she has had a dream. One night Mollie woke up screaming for me. I ran up there and when I picked her up she said that she fell in the ocean and the shark bit her. She went right back to sleep. The next day after her nap when I went to get her she said, "okay Mommy, let's talk about Planet Child". And this was not on a Planet Child day and we had not been talking about it. Then she told me about how she dressed up there and who she played with and what she did. A couple days ago she had only been down for her nap for a little less than an hour and a half. She usually sleeps about 3 hours. She told me that the big mouse was running in the tunnel and then jumped on her bed and it was jumping and she was laughing so hard! She said, so I had to jump too and it was so silly. I asked her if it woke her up when the mouse was jumping and she said yes. It's crazy. She told Mom a big story today also when she got her up from her nap. Something that made no sense.

Oh, and the girls have been telling each other "I'm not going to be your sister anymore" when they get mad at each other. I'm not sure where they learn things like this. Yes, it's hilarious. I laugh inwardly at them all the time (especially when Mollie has to leave the dinner table to go back to her "CAstle", aka the playroom), but I have to explain to them that they will always be sisters. They don't have a choice.

Sydney Lu

Sydney has had quite a day. After the girls' dance class this morning (which Sydney does not like she repeatedly tells me, 3 more classes...) we came home, put Mollie down for her nap, and went to Pelican's again with our friends. Mom was home with Mollie. I had decided to just take Sydney during nap time and go get some things we had been meaning to get: a new car seat and a new bike for her! She hardly ever naps anymore without a struggle. She does probably need it, but she's been having trouble going to sleep at night. So I just let it go for today. We went to the Super Wally in Holly Springs because I knew they had the car seat we wanted in stock there. It is great! I really like it. It is a newer seat that has a 65lb. limit on the 5 pt. harness. Most seats for kids her age go to 40 lbs. on the harness. Including her current one. I have been hearing/learning a lot about child safety seats lately and decided that I don't think I'll be ready for her to just be in a shoulder belt at 40 lbs. She is 38 now and just seems too flimsy. This Graco Nautilus seat can be a harness seat, a booster with shoulder belt, and a backless booster up to 100 lbs! Not that she'll have to have it past 80 (the law), haha, but it's super! I figure that what will probably happen is that Sydney will use this seat until Mollie reaches 40 lbs. and they we'll just buy Sydney a little $20 butt booster until she gets to 8 or 80lb. Mollie is 32 now so hopefully we can get through at least a year to year and a half before she is 40!

We also got Sydney a new 16" bike. She has been using a 12" that our neighbor sold us at a yard sale for $10 when Sydney turned 3. Her seat is all the way up and her knees were almost hitting the handle bars. I told Phil that we really couldn't make her wait until Christmas or her birthday until we got her a new one. It stinks that both she and Mollie have b-days so close to Christmas and sometimes we're just going to have to buy them stuff in the summer time! She rides it very well and is really happy that it came with a water bottle and "stuff" carrier.

Sydney has been going through a rough emotional time lately and I'm not sure why. She asks me if I'm going to leave all the time. Now, I know I do my share of leaving the girls with Phil or Mom or both and go do things. Like going to dinner with friends, dates with Phil, etc. But not every day or even every week! Last Friday morning the girls were playing downstairs with Mom and I really needed to run to Target and get just a few things, including milk. Sydney had heard me mention that I needed to go earlier and I had told her very casually that maybe she could go with me. This was not a big deal at all, she didn't mention it again. I go to the store frequently, haha. And it is so much easier to go alone! Many times I go after they go to bed at night or while they are napping on the weekends. But with Mom here it has made it easier to go out alone if she's around. Well Friday morning I snuck out and left while they were watching Dora with Mom. She was like, just go ahead and go. Well, Sydney started looking for me about 10 min. later and freaked out. Sobbing and crying. Ever since then she has had a hard time taking a nap (on the days she's very tired) or going to bed at night. Actually she didn't want me to go to the Melting Pot Thursday night either, so it was before then. She gets up a lot at bedtime and asks if I'm going to leave. She asks me all the time if I'm leaving and gets all panicky if she can't see me in the house. I can't go to the bathroom alone! But interestingly enough, she let me take her to camp on Monday at St. MM for the morning without an issue at all! I guess because she was the one leaving, not me. So I've been taking her everywhere with me. Sunday night I actually went to walk with a new neighbor and I warned her all day that I was going to go, but after dinner and I would be back before she went to bed. She was okay with that after lots of talking about it. Tomorrow I have a hair appt. at 3 and I think I'm just going to take her with me. I'm trying to give her a lot of attention, but we still have bedtime battles. She ends up in our room every night before like 3am and pulls up a pillow and throw blanket and will sleep there on the carpet for the rest of the night. She hasn't been wanting to sleep on the top bunk anymore, but the bottom. I feel sorry for her, but at the same time don't want to let her get away with always sleeping in our room! Ugh, it's hard to be patient and sympathetic!! I'm really hoping this is a phase. She is definitely my more sensitive child. I am noticing so much lately that she and Mollie are nothing alike at all.
I was going to write about Mollie tonight too (the beautiful princess as she calls herself), but this is WAY long. Maybe tomorrow!

Chase's first sleepover!

Chase spent his first night over here last night!

It was Nancy and Travis's anniversary and for his b-day she had gotten him some concert tickets. So we had Chase spend the night here. He was great! Unlike my 2 who were acting like they were possessed or something, haha.