Tar Heel born and Tar Heel bred...

Happy almost Labor Day, friends!! We haven't yet decided what our big plans will be, but we assume we'll be outdoors. Perhaps we'll hit some trails or a nice, slow river.

Yesterday was an exciting day, as we made it to our first UNC sporting event as a family unit. We were successful and enthusiastic and well-behaved for one whole quarter. We left before we made a scene. But for that first quarter, which Adam claims is the best quarter of a football game anyway, our girl was a champ. She clapped when appropriate and threw her arms up when we made touchdowns. The latter is a skill her Daddy has been teaching her when they watch soccer. She can also yell "Gooooaaaaaalllll" for an extended period of time, much like the Spanish-speaking announcers, which she did beautifully for our Tar Heels.

After leaving the game, we headed back towards Franklin Street, passing the Old Well and letting her frolic on the quad. This was, at least for me, just as exciting as the game. We were eaten by mosquitoes (Adam sustained no bites, as usual), tripped over roots and ran into trees, hugged a fire hydrant, chased squirrels, laughed and ran, and pitched a terrible fit when we had to head back to the car.

I love my little family, and I love this town.

gracen and walker, sittin' in a tree...

K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

We're having to peel them off of each other. Both little darlings have recently discovered the kiss. They blow them, plant them, whatever, with a nice "umm-waah" or a smack. For the last few days, however, the kiddies are taking it to a new extreme and are embracing in a full mouth-to-mouth lock. If Amy and I could stop laughing long enough to pry them apart and explain that this behavior is bordering on inappropriate, we would. But, the laughter wins. We really have to get a picture. It probably won't be too difficult to do.

Gracen is napping. Her head started bobbing while sitting in her high chair at lunch. I rescued her, and she was in full slumber by the time we made it upstairs. I suppose this was the result of waking up at 5:30 [her very mean parents (and by parents I mean mother) changed her diaper, gave her milk, turned off the monitors and ignored her until 7:15]. I figure she needs to be comfortable with some "alone" time.

Ghi-ghi left us yesterday after a short, but lovely visit. We forgot to take pictures, again. Sorry, Mama. Thank you for coming...

baby BOOM!

I am attempting to upload a test video. Did you see the new icon on your post page? Very exciting. Blogger's getting crazy. Unfortunately, I set it to upload about an hour ago, and nothing seems to be happening. I'll give it another hour, but I suppose I should be writing something whilst I wait. [have now failed and am bitter--YouTube is also anti-shanna today--sorry!]

New rule for self (and because I'm making my sister angry): I will publish a post every Sunday and Wednesday. No more excuses, even if it's just a picture.

It has been a busy couple of weeks of female procreation for our friends. Kevin and Annice just had a little girl, Naki Dahn-Bi. Justin and Emily just had a girl, Simone. Brooke and Ryan just had a girl, Lily Grey. And Jo and Aaron just had a girl, Rory Grace. Jason and Victoria are expecting a girl in a few weeks. I love little girls. Congrats to all of you!!

Last night, we had a send off party for Jason and Alison who are going on a sailing sabbatical until April. They have a wonderful website to keep us up on all their travels. We'll miss you friends and will hopefully come join you for a long weekend! We're still recovering from the festivities...

Pics of G in her party dress...

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHE JUST MADE PEE-PEE IN THE POTTY!!!!!

Book Report

A Confederacy of Dunces, can finally be checked off my book list. After seven years of beginning and pausing, I am finished. And I might add, it is a brilliant book. I see why it won the Pulitzer. I was just disappointed when searching Amazon.com for a picture of the jacket cover for this book, and I found two completely different covers than mine. These had depictions of our main character, Ignatius, and I am grateful not to have seen them beforehand. The writing was so impeccably descriptive that seeing a vision before reading would have taken away from the image the writing creates for you. He is an exquisite character, in so many dimensions. And the picture in my mind is so much more interesting than these cartoonesque cover productions. The book is laborious, at least for me, but worth the time of reading it and soaking in the language.

The following are bedtime pictures.

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i'm so crafty.

Okay, I'm not really all that crafty, but I want to be eventually, and I'm going to work on it. And now that I've got a sewing machine that isn't working against me, I can play and see where it takes me. I still have to figure out how to make straight lines. This seems to be a problem. So far I've made:

1) a dress for Gracen out of one of Adam's work's t-shirts (kid size), which reads "Make Wetlands, Not War." She's quite the political environmentalist, you know.

2) a pair of drawstring pants for Gracen out of an old t-shirt of mine. I was very proud, as this was made while I was still forcing my broken machine to produce something. After all was said and done, and I turned it outside-in for completion, I realized that one of the seams had been done inside-out. I decided to put it on her anyway, and they came mid way up her bootie and the legs were about 4 inches too long. I threw them away.

3) pillow for the glider to match the ottoman that I had recovered (using that upholstery fabric I sent you, Kate). If I want the ugly seam to be hidden, I have to have the fabric upside down (it's a funky landscape scene). I had even rationalized this as I was sewing and still did it upside down.

4) a shirt for Gracen out of one of my old shirts. This lovely number is the blue and white tank she's wearing a couple of posts ago. The original shirt was too small, so I had to cut the back, reseam and add little straps across the back. I was quite proud of that one, though I think she's already outgrown it.

5) AND, my biggest project to date, a slip cover for Gracen's crib bumper out of an old white bedspread. I had grown tired of the pastels, flowers, and butterflies that I had been staring at since a few months before her birth. We took the bumber and bed skirt away altogether, but her 10 pacifiers kept falling out during the night, which upset her greatly. I was also inspired by a new bedskirt I got at the PTA thrift shop (for $1), which matches her crib quilt perfectly. In that thrift store visit I also purchased a pair of river Tevas for me ($3), a new rolling desk chair ($3), and a hat for Gracen ($1 and pictured in last boating post). I still need to make straps for the bumper, but I haven't decided what I want yet. Right now, blue knitting yarn is sewed on, holding it in place.

In other news, our first molar has broken the gumline and is peering through. I'm hoping this has been the source of her refusal to sleep the last week or so. She made it all night last night!! At least I think she did. It's entirely possible that I turned off the monitor and ignored her due to my 3 hours of sleep the previous night.

singing: "peeea-nuuut, peanut butter (hands up), jelly (low voice, hands down), repeat...

For the six of you Weaverville Primary readers, I hope you enjoy having that little diddy stuck in your noggin for the next 48 hours. For the rest of you, just ignore me. Shall I continue?: "First you take the peanuts and you smash 'em, you smash 'em, you smash 'em, smash 'em, smash 'em, then you spread 'em, you spread 'em, you spread 'em, spread 'em, spread 'em, then you eat it, you eat it, you eat it, eat it, eat it."

AND THEN YOU BREAK OUT IN HIVES!

(Mrs. Smathers left that part out of our musical education)

Gracen has had peanut butter before, has smeared it all over her pretty little face, ingested it and whatnot. No reaction. Nada. However, last night I was having a snack of a spoonful of peanut butter (and I wonder why the baby bulge is taking so long to recede?!), and let Gracen have a bit, which she quickly smeared all over her face. When I wiped away the goup, everywhere that the peanut butter had been had turned BRIGHT red. After a couple of minutes, the redness spread to her neck and chest. We WebMD-ed peanut allergies (it'll scare the ba-jeezeles out of you), called the emergency nurse hotline, called Dr. Laura (who by the way is back in Chapel Hill and expecting a BOY on January 1st--WOO-HOOO!!), bathed her, and dosed her up on 3.75 mls of Benadryl. The redness quickly subsided, she showed no signs of respiratory distress, and she survived. Some children are knocked out with Benadryl. In fact, I was a little excited about the idea of an early bedtime and sleeping in. Other children, we were warned, get hyper. We had the latter reaction. Of course. I think she finally fell asleep around10:30 (her bedtime is 7:30), and woke up for a play date with Mama at 4 AM. After falling back to sleep in bed with me sometime after 5 AM (I fell asleep with her still giggling, playing with my face and making Froggy kiss me 427 times), she woke at 7:45. She has now been lying in her crib talking to herself for one hour and eight minutes. It's nap time, kid. Anyway, we go to our 15 month well-baby check on Wednesday, so we'll be discussing her potential peanut allergy and further testing. It's possible for some kids to have only topical reactions and eating the peanuts are fine. A life without peanut butter just sounds so very sad to me.

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Yesterday, we took Gracen out on her first boating adventure. Adam got two new hybrid boats (canoe/sit-on-top kayak) for work, and they are conveniently living in our driveway at the moment. We took her to the Haw River, upstream of the dam, in calm water. She loved it, and we are very excited that she's taking to outdoor/adventure living so well. Adam is helping me overcome my overly-paranoid-baby-gonna-fall-out-be-stung-by-a-bee-attacked-by-a-copperhead-get-sunscreen-in-her-eyes nature. Sunday was a good step forward for me. Now, if we can just get the Chapel Hill 140 degree weather and choking humidity to back off, we'll be outside as often as possible. (side note: I can't even dry clothes/diapers outside due to the humidity!)

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Pics...

(check back later for some boating pictures from Adam)

Gracen practicing her writing skills. This quickly turned into a crayon snack, and I spent 20 minutes pulling wax particles out of her mouth, while dodging a 7-toothed bite.

If Mama or Daddy aren't there to let her sit in their lap while she reads, she goes to the welcoming arms of Big Bunny. Yes, that is his name. If you want me to branch out people, you might have to give me some suggestions.

Having snack (dried cherries and cracker bunnies) time sitting shotgun in the Prius and singing along to JT (belle and han will be so proud), while Daddy hauls two boats up a big hill.

Gracen has learned to crawl up and on furniture. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. She, however, loves it.

...burnin' down the house...

I'm not much of a girlie-girl. My hair is in a bun/ponytail/braid daily. I wear makeup less than 5 times a year. My attire is based on comfort, not style. And I can't remember to paint/repaint my toenails, even though I may be wearing a bright red shade from six weeks ago. The energy it takes to get dolled up stresses me out and takes away from whatever event I might be attending that required the fixing up. I just have to accept this about myself. Fortunately for me, my husband isn't overly concerned, and my mother and sister have pretty much given up trying to influence me on these issues. Ronny Mac, my precious brother, wouldn't notice either way.

Sunday, on a whim, I decided to straighten my hair. For those of you with natural curls, you might appreciate the joy of having sleek, flat-ironed hair that you can actually run your fingers through. That's what I was going for. I added a bit of product, which I later realized was the amount I used to use before I chopped these last 7 inches. Apparently, shorter hair doesn't need as much goupiness. Lesson learned. It was straight, but not particularly pretty. Back to ponytail.

Anyway, Adam, Gracen and I went to Durham to meet up with our birth class families to see how all of the little ones have grown. We had a great time. The park had this fancy sprinkler system, so the tots stripped down to their diapers and had a blast. (side note: sprinklers do not help flat-ironed hair, especially those that are overproduct-ed). We got in, had dinner, put the wee one to bed, and I took a shower. Shortly before retiring for the evening, Adam noticed that the flat iron was still on. Not plugged in, mind you, but wildly hot nonetheless. It's very odd, as I have a very distinct memory of unplugging it before we left for the park (10 hours earlier) and absolutely no memory of unplugging at any point that evening. Very odd. The entire top of the counter was hot and we're left with some beautiful burn marks. I wanted new counter tops anyway, so perhaps this was my subconscious destruction of a perfectly good but boring lavatory.

I almost burned our house down and all for a little vanity. I will straighten my hair no more. I was given curls, and I'll just have to deal with them.

C-H-E-E-E-E-E-Z-Z-Z-E-ball

No chastising, please. I'm back with high hopes of regaining my former blogger self. I seem to be absorbed in anything but computing these days. I blame it on the kid. Gracen is crazy. She spins in circles 50 times a day, falling down or crashing into walls. She loves it. She's talking on the phone as often as possible. Please call and enjoy. She's giving kisses to her Mama (WHICH SHE SAYS AND MEANS, thank you very much) and Daddy and dolls. She gives hugs, especially to Harley. She's eating raw broccoli. I think she thinks they're little trees. She's held kittens. We were going to take them home with us, but after watching her "pet" them like she does Harley and Athena, we decided it would be kinder and safer for the kittens to leave them with their mama.

Last week, my cousin Olivia spent the week with us. She's going to be going away for her last two years of high school to South Carolina's Governor's School of Science and Math. She's always been ridiculously intelligent, so it will be good for her to be in a school that challenges that noggin of hers. We had a wonderful time and we were sad to see her leave. The rest of the McDaniel Clan came up to retrieve her on Saturday. Gracen loved the attention. (The pics above are of her laughing at Aunt Minerva and the girls)

And Ghi-ghi is on her way over right now!!!!

Random pictures for Aunt Belle.

Gracen has her very own swing. It's still not perfectly "stable" and we need to get some hooks, but it works. She loves it a little too much and is devastated when she has to get out. It's very "foggy-takes-a-bath-esque."

Gracen and Aunt Minerva. Gracen is playing with her new buddy-to-be, Lily Grey's shower toy.

Gracen and Olivia. Please come back over. She's been looking for you in your room...

You can tell Uncle Ricky's very happy, as his eyes disappear when he smiles, just like his big brother, my daddy. Mine do too. Gracen's do too. What a very odd trait to inherit.

After her first swim in a big pool at her friend Revy's house, she had some fun in the water and sand. We're going to have to get one of these things!!!

AND...

Some of you may have heard me complain about my inability to make my new sewing machine work. I have been assuming it was simply my lack of knowledge and genuine ineptitude that was destroying any attempts I was making at my creative endeavors. BUT, BUT, BUT, Aunt Minerva played with the machine for a while, determined it was "broken," and talked me in to returning it, which I promptly did. I got the same one, and it works like a champ. I still have no clue what I'm doing, but the machine is in run mode. I did make Gracen a shirt last night out of one of my old shirts. I have no idea if it fits, but if so, I'll take a picture. If it doesn't, I'll still take a picture, just off the model.

so sorry for my slackard ways...

yes, those are baby shades she's wearing.

And she even kept them on for multiple minutes at a time. I was very proud, and her eyeballs should still be working correctly. I think she realized that everyone else was wearing them, so she should jump on board without the usual struggle.

Gracen and I headed down to Figure Eight on Monday to catch up with the Papa who had been there on a "boy break" since Friday. We got to meet up with the Archers everyday as well, and Hannah came down on Tuesday with a friend. Fabulous friends, beautiful location, cute baby, sweet boy. Really, it couldn't have been more perfect.

I had fully intended to finish my book, Confederacy of Dunces, while there, but did not. Those that are following my reading list may have noted that nothing new has popped up in months. I've been working on this one for 7 years. I start, I stop, I reread, blah, blah. I really don't know what my problem is, especially since it is by far one of the most beautiful/hilarious pieces of literature I've picked up in my life. And I've read a lot of stuff. It will be finished by Sunday. Maybe I just don't want it to be over, so I'm lingering, feeling every word as many times as possible. And I have been reading. I just didn't think dime store romance novels probably should be added to my official list, as it might taint one's view of my literary aptitude. But sometimes, you just need a little reminder that you can indeed still finish a book in a day, and that dreamy men really do become captive to pirate girls (pretending to be boys), and they go to sea and fall in love and are forced to be married against their will, but fall hopelessly in love throughout their fighting, and have equally gorgeous children who become earls and ladies, who have glorious love stories as well (which will be other books). And they all have good hair in those books. I'm not sure why that's important, but perhaps true love just gravitates to those with a "luscious mane" of hair. Please don't think less of me.

Gracen and Uncle Matt. Thanks for letting us come and play!

Daddy and Gracen. Yes, they are supercool.