Frog on Me

The other day we got in the car, and before pulling off, Charley said, "Frog on me." Well, we know she knows what a frog is, and she is just learning what "on me" means. However, we would have never guessed that there was an actual frog on her.... until.... we saw something jump clear across the back seat. Sure enough, there was a frog on Eli's carseat... And apparently it had been on Charley's lap...or foot....or something. Donald got the frog out of the car, and I explained that the frog had to go home to its mommy. Charley wouldn't put her feet down the entire ride home (imagine stirrups, ladies). She kept repeating, "Frog. Home with Mommy." Who would have guessed there would be a frog in our car.
SO, that very evening, I was leaving somewhere with both kids in the car and as soon as we got on the road, Charley said, "Ant, Mommy. Ant. I want DOWN." Oh no. Normally, I wouldn't think much of this, but considering our frog encounter earlier that day, I decided to pull over. I opened her door, to find her with both feet in the air (like earlier). I asked if she saw an ant, to which she replied, "MmmHmm" and pointed to the ginormous SPIDER on the back of my headrest!! I totally froze. My first instinct was to call Donald and have him come rescue us, but then I realized it might jump on one of my kids. The thing was looking at me and drooling. SO, I grabbed something out of the diaper bag and swiped the spider out of the car. It took everything in me. I thought it was going to eat my hand off, and the thought of it getting in my hair while I was driving was just awful. Thank goodness Charley can talk! I'm hoping that's the end of our wildlife adventures in the minivan. I couldn't believe it happened twice in one day. Crazy. Sorry...no pictures of these experiences. :)

Beach Week

I have a serious problem with saying I'm gonna go to bed "early" and then I somehow get distracted and "early" turns into really late (really late for me). Tonight's distraction is this post...But, it's been awhile, and I've got some cute pics.
We spent the last week at the beach with my family. 17 people under one roof... I felt like a Duggar. Our kids are the babies of the group and love being doted on by their older cousins for seven days. In fact, they love it so much that returning to the Upstate, back into reality, has proven difficult. Eli thinks that being in someones arms 24/7 is the new norm, and Charley's reaction to not being entertained by fun people all the time has been having meltdowns over...nothing. "Mom...Clearly you are not fun people," she is thinking. But, we will get back into our routine, and beachtime with family is def worth it. I'm already ready for next year.

Let's see...the Salley Family trip to the beach every year can pretty much be summed up in three words: ocean, sand, food. Yep, that's pretty much it. If given a fourth word, of course there's good conversation too. I like that part too, but I think food wins out. And ocean and sand... There's just so much of it.
This was Eli's first time at the beach. He is a fan. He loved sitting in the sand and playing. I thought he would be crawling all over the place, but he wasn't, which was kinda nice. The poor kid had diarrhea for five straight days while we were there, which needless to say was AWFUL, but he was a trooper and remained in a decent mood. He got the worst diaper rash of all times, and I won't even try to describe it b/c whatever I write will not do its horribleness justice. But he is better now, and I will try to never take for granted the fact that my children, as a general rule, have normal poops.

Charley loved the beach and even braved the waves in her daddy's arms later in the week. There was a time when all 17 of us got in the water. The waves were perfect and the water warm. And there were no jellyfish. Very important to me.

Dude. It's hot!

Our Big Boy

Well, Eli is eight-months-old already. He's a joy. He's a handful. Here are some quick things about him...

• Still scooting around on his belly by pulling with his arms and pushing with his right leg. His left leg is always up in the air, like a periscope.
• He's pulling up on toys now to get on his knees. Kinda cute.
• He's working on FOUR teeth right now. All at once. Ouch.
• His hair starting getting longer, just in the last month or so. You can see in some of the pics below the curly "wings" on the side of his head.
• Eli LOVES water. He "swims" around the bathtub like a fish. We broke out the baby pool a few weekends ago, and he was lovin' it. I can't wait to get him in a real pool, although I'm not sure he'll be okay with just sitting peacefully in a baby float!
• He is very inquisitive and likes to see how things work. Instead of playing with a push toy, he will turn it over and examine the wheels and the battery compartment. Instead of playing with the things in a drawer, he will open and close the drawer a million times. He will crawl over to a door and swing it open and closed, open and closed and just laugh b/c it's "so funny."
• Changing his diapers and/or clothes is like a WWF match. He is a strong little booger and does not laying still.

Looking back at the list above, it's funny, because all of those things are complete opposite of Charley! It's amazing how God made us all so unique, and it just stands out more when you have siblings so close in age, from the same parents, and they are so different! And a lot of things are "physical" things....it will be interesting to see how different their personalities are. Here are some pics of the sweet-heart boy!

Our Big Girl

Charley turned two last week, which is just nuts! We can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday, and now she is a walking, talking little girl. I'm trying to the think of ALL the things that have changed since a year ago. Well, for one, she was just learning to CRAWL a year ago. She was much shorter. As was her hair! Check out these pics for a comparison! Where'd all the baby fat go?!

Charley still LOVES Eli and actually calls him "Eli" now. It sounds like "E-yie," which of course is super cute, and a step beyond calling him "baby." He still pulls her hair (all the time), and although it majorly hurts, she doesn't seem to resent him for it (yet).
Charley's working on about FIVE teeth right now..Painful! Three of the two-year molars and the two upper canines. Once these guys are in, that should be it for a long time. Yay!
Well... we certainly do love and cherish our Charlotte Rose and hope and pray that the Lord will do wonders in her heart, that she may serve others and love Him one day!!
Stay tuned for Eli's eight-month update!

Let's Give'em Somethin' to Blog About

I really have nothing to blog about. Well, that's not exactly true. Maybe I just don't feel like blogging. I have a really long story I could share with you regarding my flight back from Chicago last weekend, but I really don't feel like recounting it. Let's just say, never fly into Charlotte late at night, amongst tornadoes and a gum-smacking middle school basketball team, and expect to make your connection back to Greenville. I guess I can't blame the delay on the basketball team, but they sure made the flight seem ten times longer.

I could also blog about how we totally "went there" and bought a minivan. Oh yes we did. I can now drive entirely too fast through neighborhoods and think it's okay because I'm a soccer mom and have places to be.

I could also blog about how my six-month-old is basically crawling, and I am not cool with it. Charley didn't crawl until 11 months (actually, an exact year ago), so I had four GLORIOUS months of her just sitting there and playing contently. Eli is skipping that stage, and I am IN FOR IT. Homeboy is already getting in to stuff he shouldn't, and we need to majorly baby proof. Ug. [P.S. Even though I may sound like a whiny ungrateful person, I am ALWAYS thinking about how the Lord has been so gracious and the fact that our children are here and healthy is a beautiful miracle. I don't ever want to take for granted that they are here and that they can walk (or crawl) and talk and sing and whine etc etc etc. I love them and they are a gift. Okay. End of disclaimer.]

What else? D is heading back to Kenya soon. I will post more about that another time.

Hmm...what else? Oh. Charley is talking more and more each day and is becoming more and more in tune with the world around her. For example, she had a splinter in her hand the other day, and I was telling D about it at the dinner table. Charley, on cue, stuck out her hand and showed Donald the splinter and said, "Oh no!" Yes, that seems majorly insignificant, but we are used to having babies who just sit there and aren't used to having them contribute to the conversation. And thus it begins...

Here are the kids on Easter Sunday...

Happy Easter! "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died."
Galatians 6:14

Mobile Uploads

I finally took the time to put all the pictures on my phone on to my computer. Here are some of my favs from the past 18 months or so...

I'm so cute!

 

Charley and Maggie worn out from a shopping trip in Gaffney.

 

Poor dog.

 

 "What you talkin 'bout, Willis?"

At a Clemson Basketball Game.

Peek-a-boo! 

At a wedding last summer.

Charley hanging out in Eli's room right before he was born.

Welcome, Baby Eli!

The two sweeties. 

First Smiles!

Gotta love Holly Wild!

Under the mobile together.

"So what?! We're holding hands. And??"

They held hands for about two blocks and when I came around front to take a picture, they both looked at me like I was crazy.

I think Sadie likes this!!

I'm a cutie too!

Check out these two pics... Charley and Eli look nothing alike!

My Cooking Show

On my cooking show, we will make a cake, and there will be two kids and a dog in the kitchen with me. At least two of them will be covered with flour by the end of it, and the other one will be fussin' for a bottle (hopefully during a commercial break). I will not have all the ingredients already separated into neat little bowls, and as a matter of fact, I will probably be missing an ingredient. I will then decide to either cancel the whole ordeal, substitute if possible, or mobilize the troops and brave a trip to BiLo. Since, afterall, this is a cooking show, I can't cancel, and I'm sure it will be someone's nap time soon, so going to the store won't work. Okay, so we will need buttermilk, but I will just have to add something to my regular milk to make it... buttery(?). Cream of tartar? Nope, don't have any. Lemon juice? White vinegar? Aha! Let's try it. So now I will preheat my oven. I will turn around to catch the one-year-old with her hands in the eggs... up to her elbows in slime. After a good scrub down, I will hand her a spoon to help stir, which instead will be used as a drum stick or just plain mess maker (flour everywhere). Did I mention that I will not exactly be smiling at the camera? I may be smiling, but not at the camera. I will probably be too busy looking at the recipe 15 times because I will not be able to remember "how much vanilla?" and "did I already put it in there?" When everything is ready, there will not be a perfectly baked product waiting in the oven to impress my audience. I will actually have to wait 40-50 min for the thing to bake, and in those last ten minutes, I will be checking it every two minutes, because I will have no idea if 40 min is sufficient or if we will end baking for an hour. By the way, instead of checking it with a toothpick, I will be using a steak knife. It will be the closest thing within reach, as I keep everyone away from the oven. 53 minutes and the cake will be done. There will be at least three dirty bowls and at least 36 dirty utensils, or so it seems. There will not have been time to wash everything during the baking time because the babies needed food or naps or diapers or clothes that didn't have flour all over them. But of course, tending to these things will be much better than washing dishes anyway. Are we still rolling? Probably not. And we haven't made the icing yet. BUT, even though I won't have an audience and neither Oprah nor Rachel Ray will be impressed, I will have made a cake for my sweetie with help from my angel, who will surprisingly wake up from her nap, pointing at the glorious finished product and say, "Dada's Cake." And it will all be worth it. Not to mention eating the dern thing. Mmm.