come on dad.

"Can we go outside, dad?"


"Pleeeease? Come on daddy. It will be fun."


"Think. Think. How do I get outside?"


"The doorknob. Jackpot. I'm a big boy now. I don't need their help. Except I can't quite reach it. Okay, I do need their help. I'll beg some more. Pleeeease?"


And then we give in and go outside.

Typical "dialogue" between us and P. He wants to do something. We say no. He does a little begging. We give in. That's how things happen around here. P runs the show. How can you say no to this sweet boy with big blue puppy dog eyes? We're in trouble, aren't we?

sweet boy.

a day in the life.

Of baby P, that is. The kid has it made. For the most part, anyway. We spent the day relaxing at the pool and playing in the yard. Just doing what P loves to do. Don't get me wrong. I like to just hang out and play all day, too. But too often I find myself obsessing over the other things that I need to be doing, like cleaning my house. Since P was born, my Type A personality has rapidly fallen by the wayside. I am beginning to learn that it's not the sink full of dishes, piles of laundry, and moldy toilet bowls that matter the most. It's the quality time that I spend with my sweet family that are most important. The dishes, laundry, and toilets will get their fair share of attention. Just not today. Nope. Today was a wonderful day spent with my P. Just doing the things that he likes to do.

We visited the neighborhood pool, encountering fewer problems at the check-in table. Phew! No pool police today.

P made sure to puff out his chest for the cute girls. (Not sure where he has learned this new gesture.)


It was hot, hot, hot today. A cold, refreshing juice box hit the spot. (Not sure why he won't hold the juice box, either. He moves his mouth to the straw.)


After the pool, we managed to squeeze in a little wagon-pulling and grass-cutting to close out the day. (Note: The sad eyes and excessive eye contact from P in the following pictures were a direct result from the excruciating pain that P has been in this week. Two bottom teeth are the culprit, and P has not been a happy camper. We are doing our best to distract him from the pain and keep him comfortable. Can't you just see the pain in his eyes? Poor guy!)





Well, there you have it. The sinks still full and I will be up late washing clothes, but my time with the little dude was well spent. There's always tomorrow for cleaning. (Or the next day.)

fountains, frosted o's, and fun.

Sunday was a jam packed day of fun for the Rice family. Our day was so full, I am blogging about it in three sections. You may want to pace yourself.

First, we headed to Atlanta to celebrate Taylor's Nanny's 90th birthday at the Varsity, her all-time favorite eating establishment. We enjoyed some good (and greasy) food and some yummy homemade chocolate cupcakes a la Rita.


P is not too fond of hats at the moment, so you're getting the one and only picture in which he left it on just long enough for the shutter to click.


And here's the Rice clan, with the birthday girl front and center. Happy birthday, Nanny!


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After lunch, I had the grand idea of taking P over to Centennial Olympic Park to play in the fountains. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. The fountain was packed to the max with screaming and sprinting kiddos that must have never seen a pool or a lake. (Or a fountain, for that matter.) The crowd was a little too rowdy for our little tike, so we headed to the north end of the park and let P explore. He is quite the social butterfly, as he stopped and waved, or talked, to passer-bys. He made lots of new friends, a few of which followed us around and begged to take P home with them.

It was super, super hot and poor P has my terrible thermoregulation, i.e., he does not cool off very easily. So, his sippy cup was a necessity at the park. Plus, he is ultra proud of his new and improved, handle-free, hard spout, BPA-free, reusable and recyclable sippy. Pretty fancy, huh? (Not really. They're just Take N' Toss.)



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In the evening, we headed down to the lakefront park in our neighborhood to enjoy the cool summer evening and let P do some more playing. I swear my son is the energizer bunny. He never runs out of energy. He is quite the little explorer lately, and he had a ball searching for new hills to climb and bodies of water to splash in. I just love his innocent enthusiasm for nature.


"Look at that, daddy."



And yet another beverage break.


He is fascinated with ice. He won't eat it, but he plays with a single cube until it completely melts, then he moves on to the next piece.




It was a super Sunday with my super family. I just love days like these.

love at first sight.

This is what I found in the pots and pans cabinet in the kitchen last night when I got home from work. I have an incredible and kind of crazily spontaneous husband. I think I'm in love. And not just with my husband. This D90 fellow is kinda hunky, too. Don't you think?


I wonder what my husband is up to....

p at the pool.

It's open season at the neighborhood pool, and we are surely going to take full advantage of this amenity throughout the summer. It's too convenient not to, and P loves the water. We posted up in a nice little area in the shallow end of the kiddie pool, but only after jumping through a thousand hoops just to get in the gate. Seriously, I felt like I was a criminal or something. First, we had to scan our key card to get the gate open. Then, we had to sign in with the pool police and include our address, phone number, and show my drivers license. I also had to include P's name and birthdate. The pool police denied my entrance because I was not registered, whatever that means, so I was sent to the lodge to where I had to fill out a three-page waiver and show my drivers license, again. We were then given a "pink slip", which I had to show to the pool police, and then I had to sign in all over again. You probably think I'm joking. Nope. Dead serious. All of this just to get in to my neighborhood pool in which we pay hefty dues every year to have free use of this marvelous amenity. Nice, huh? You'd think the magnetic key card would be enough.

Most of the other kids at the pool were much older than P. He was a little bummed that he had to play by himself, but P's sand bucket kept him entertained for a little while.




He tried and tried to get the other kids to notice him, but to no avail.


So he moved on from the pool to the woods. There he found an umbrella stand that was quite fascinating, but his momma kept wanting him to pose for pictures. I think he was a little annoyed....



We did have a blast at the pool once we were found worthy enough to enter. Next time we'll bring a friend or two. Any takers?

wonderful weekend.

We just got home from a great weekend at the lake. My parents came down to spend some quality time with their favorite (and only) grandson. Unbeknownst to them, they also got roped into helping us with some yard work. (Thanks mom and dad!) After working up a little sweat laying pine straw, we took the boat out for a cruise.

Here's P before sunblock....


And here he is after....


Nice do, huh? I'm just trying to make sure my kid doesn't get burnt. Poor boy got his momma's fair complexion.

Here's Taylor wakeboarding, looking like a pro.


Jump....


Crash and burn.


Ouch! Taylor is getting better and better at wakeboarding. He makes it look too easy. I'll stick with swimming in the shallow end with P.



We worked too hard, ate too much, and played too little, but it was a wonderful weekend nonetheless. (Thanks dad for sharing your pictures. I, again, was a slacker and only took a couple.)

14 months.

But he thinks he is a college student. He stays up late. Sleeps in late. Snacks constantly. Plays all day. Laughs a lot. Stays in his pajamas until lunchtime. Drinks too much (milk). No responsibilities. Not a care in the world. That's my P. He has a nice life. And he makes my life pretty nice, too. Fourteen months going on twenty-one years. He's already drinking from a straw! What's next? Dating?


Time keeps on slippin'. I better soak it all in before he's all grown up.

geocaching: part one.

As promised, I am finally getting around to posting about our Mother's Day geocaching adventure with my mom and family at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Lithia Springs. Now, I will have to admit, I had to do a little bit of research for this post. I, for sure, do not want to mislead anyone or give false information regarding geocaching and its sporting significance. I am definitely here to do it justice. (Because I, for one, had a lot of fun. So did my mom. But we may be the only ones.)

Here's the definition of geocaching straight from Wikipedia: Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. So in other words, it's an adult-version of a treasure hunt. You can find geocaches online at its official website www.geocaching.com, which is where my mom found the cache at Sweetwater. This particular cache is a multi-cache, which consists of three clues in which you must record what you find at each of the three checkpoints, and then combine the information to form the combination that is used to open the padlock on the cache at the final checkpoint. Sounds kind of dorky, huh? (Sorry, mom.) But it sure is dorky fun. I found myself feeling like a 9-year old kid again.

We geared up for our adventure by filling up on a good ole' KFC picnic by the lake, then we packed P in his off-road "geo-buggy" and set off into the woods in search of our hidden treasure.


Here's my wonderful husband sporting his "professional dad" shirt, complete with a paci keeper and toy pockets. He is a boy scout at heart. Always prepared.


The "geo-buggy" handled the terrain fairly well....


Up to a point....


Who would have known that the trail was this difficult? The geocaching website was fairly misleading. "You will walk about 2.5 miles on mostly level ground." Does "level" equal 20 flights of stairs and rocky ascents on the edge of a river? Hmmmm....I guess I don't quite understand the definition of "level". The boys, P and grampa stayed behind, while me, mom, and Jenny pushed forward to find the first clue.


We finally found it! Here's Jen and my mom (and Reilly) proudly posted up at our first checkpoint. Having fun yet?


Here's a picture of the mill ruins along the trail.


And here's my worst nightmare. Literally....


And Checkpoint #2. If you look very closely, the answer to Clue #2 was the last number in the length of the millrace.


And that's all folks. For now. We searched and searched for the third checkpoint, but to no avail. We were a little "geo-lost" and found ourselves "geo-loitering" on the grounds of a nearby police firing range. Not cool. And a rain shower moved in. So we decided to make this a two part, multi-cache (if there is such a thing) and call it quits for the day.

All in all, we had a great time on our treasure hunt and mom was just thrilled beyond words that we came along on her little Mother's Day adventure. Stay tuned for a part two post, because I promised mom that I would go back out there to find the last clue and the final cache jackpot. But next time, I will take baby P in the hiking pack. The geo-buggy just didn't quite cut it.

memorial day weekend.

We had a great weekend at the lake and are pooped out from all of the fun and festivities. The weather was the only downer....rain, then sun, then clouds, then rain. Very unpredictable, but we did get to soak in a little bit of sweet sunshine. Taylor's cousins, aunts, and uncles, and parents were down for the day today, so we took the boat out for a spin, and Taylor got to test out his new board. He had loads of fun, but I have a feeling he's going to be a tad bit stiff in the morning. In between thunderstorms, we had a chance to let P get a feel for the lake water. He wasn't so sure at first.


But then he was sure. For sure.



He loved it!


He didn't mind chillin' in the raft either. He just talked and talked to it. Yes, it. The raft. He makes friends with his toys.


Our swim was cut short due to another rain shower. We stripped him of his clothes and his 10-pound, lake water filled diaper before we took him inside. But P was not going in. He was not finished with the lake yet. Mama Croc and baby Croc would save the day. (He tries to give us our shoes to entice us to cooperate with his plan.)



We finally lured him inside with a cookie. No, not really. I would never, ever bribe my child with food ;-)

It was a great weekend. The swimming and boating were great, but I think that my favorite part of the weekend was the conversation I had with my husband about the true meaning of Memorial Day. To remember those that have sacrificed their lives for us so that we may have freedom. We are truly thankful to those that have served our country. And we are thankful to their families for allowing them to serve.