Date Night

It's crazy for me to think that we seemed to be more consistent with individual date nights with the kids while Ruby was in the hospital. Nothing like no extra time on your hands to make you more intentional!

Last week Maddux and I grabbed dinner one night, just the two of us. As usual, it was awesome because my girl talked and talked and talked. While I find my dates with Eli allow more conversation where I end up pouring into him (not sure how much he hears) without interruptions, with Maddux it is almost entirely the opposite. If you let that girl go, she will tell you anything and everything.

And I love it.

During this date night some of the random topics that came up were:

• Dating (She said, "No till I'm 18, mom. Cuz dating is to get married and even 18 is too young for that.)
• Kissing ("If I do that when I'm in middle school, then I won't have saved my kisses for 'the one'.")
• Boys as friends and how dating can mess that up ("I don't understand why girls try to hug boys when they catch them during 'tag'...")
• Maddux told me about a friend whose sister had a baby at 19 ("That must be hard because you're not even old enough to be a mommy yet and you probably don't have a husband when you're 19.") She then filled me in on how Mary was only 12 when she had Jesus and 'That's Crazy!'.

It's amazing what she'll share with me when I just sit back and let her without trying to control things. It's also so so so cool to me that she has heard some of the things I've tried to pour into her about boys and dating and marriage and purity. That was the biggest shocker for me that night: the things she told me without any prompting at all.

Father Daughter Dance

Last night Maddux and Lehr went to a nearby church/school for a Father-Daughter Dance. It's the same one they went to last year, and Maddux was VERY excited to get dressed up and go again.

The dress Maddux wanted to wear is one that Grandma Cathie bought her last Christmas. It fit perfectly then, so you can imagine how short it is on her now. Although it took some convincing, Maddux and I went to Target one day after school and picked out a new one, and some 'fancy' shoes (all she has is sneakers and winter boots).

Lehr got home a little early and brought Maddux flowers. (Sidenote: This morning I discussed with her why Daddy had done that, and how she should expect to be treated with the same respect he gave her last night on all of her dates.) I spent close to an hour curling Maddie's hair (only to have it fall pretty flat minutes later, despite hairspray), she put on fancy jewelry, tights and gloves, and the two of them posed for a few pictures before leaving.


Lehr said Maddux was in full-out 'Mad-Dog' mode at the dance; she knows many girls that attend the host school, so she felt like she was at a massive playdate. All in all they had a great time.

Bringing NOLA to ATL

Last night the four of us drove to a little college about an hour north of us for a very special family date night. Preservation Hall Jazz Band was performing in a small performing arts center and Lehr got us front row seats. The kids were really well behaved during the show, especially considering it was a very 'dignified' event, with the audience both in the 60+ age bracket and sitting securely in their seats the whole time. Both kids loved when the trumpet player used his mute...they thought it was hilarious.

The Perfect Gentleman

While Maddux was wheeling Lehr around the dance floor on Friday night during their Father-Daughter dance, Eli and I went on a casual dinner date. We often talk about holding doors open for people, offering a seat before you sit, etc, but we are not so good about practicing those manners. I thought this would be a 'non-nagging' time for me to work on Eli. He was able to see Maddux shower and fix her hair and clothing for her date, he saw Daddy do the same (minus the hair), so he opted for a shower and nice collared shirt as well.

Once in the car, I started talking about how the date would go with Maddux and Lehr. Daddy brought home flowers for his date, which I told Eli was a nice gesture to show a date. I also told him that if (when?!?!) Maddux goes on a date while she still lives in our house, the boy will come over to meet us and ask Daddy's permission to take Maddux to dinner or to a movie. Eli learned that Daddy had to do that when he asked me on a date, and it's a respectful thing to do.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I reminded Eli that it's polite for the boy to open the door for his date, so he got out and came around to the driver's side to open my door for me. (I'd purposely parked in a very safe place away from other cars or traffic.) We had a great dinner, and Eli never forgot to open the door for me the rest of the night, even when we got out of the car at on a quick errand after dinner. I do love that boy!

The Big Dance

Maddux went to her first dance last night, and she even had a date! A church down the street had a Father-Daughter dance, and we knew many families that planned to attend. So Lehr invited Maddux, got dressed up in a suit, and brought her flowers. Maddux and I bought new shoes and tights, she wore a fancy dress and jewelry, and we curled her hair. (That took quite a while as Maddux's hair does not hold curls well. After many failed attempts, I sprayed it with hair spray, then curled it, and then sprayed it again. Even with all of that, the curls lasted for the pictures, but not very long afterwards.)

Maddux was so excited about dancing with Daddy and going to a fancy date. She told me she danced on his feet and did the Chicken Dance with him, all before eating cake and having lemonade. That girl has it made!

Trombone Shorty

Over the weekend we had a rare opportunity to include the kids in a musical event they would normally not be able to attend. Eli's current favorite N'Awlins talent, Trombone Shorty, was performing downtown Saturday night. Even though it was a late (10PM-ish start) show, it was all-ages. We offered it up to both kids, but Maddux voiced her preference to stay home with a babysitter and have a movie night instead.

I personally guaranteed that Eli slept a GOOD nap that afternoon (read: I 'rested' in the bed with him) before we had a quick snack and headed out. We planned to eat with some other friends attending the show: I even let Eli have a milkshake. (Crazy, I know!) We got to the show just as the opener was finishing her last song or two. Not much later and Shorty took the stage. Eli got so excited when he walked out with his horns....his smile was enormous! Eli stayed with Lehr and I, alternating who held him up to see, for the first half of the show. Fatigue was definitely setting in at this point (11PM), so Eli and Lehr went back to sit down and watch from the seats for a handful of songs. They came back up front for the end, and Eli was totally impressed when all of the band members switched instruments for the last song. Especially because Shorty took over the drum set.

Shockingly, Eli even stayed awake for the drive home, meaning he didn't sleep until 12:50AM. I'm not sure how we managed to not have a meltdown the next day, so I'll just chalk it up to a great experience!

Family Date Night

We've only intentionally 'named' a few family date nights in the past, but I hope our schedules allow us to keep this in the rotation. Last night we did not have a formal date night, but we had a night open, so we chose to do a few fun things together - very low-key.

We drove to Doc Chey's (a fave of ours and a dinner spot that Eli has been asking for a lot lately) on the early side of things to allow for plenty of time at our next location. Due to a later than usual lunch, the kids actually didn't finish their food, but I think that also had a lot to do with the insane amount of effort they were putting into their artwork at the table. You'd think after going to the same place with the same coloring menu for 5 years, they'd be tired of it, but they weren't/aren't.

From there we drove to Piedmont Park to check out a new section that recently opened. We'd heard they had some 'spray grounds', so I brought my camera and the kids dressed in swim clothes. What fun (and free!). There was a huge flat, grassy area in front of a wide-open spray ground. Plenty of room to run, plenty of room to splash, and all within our sight! Eli and Maddux had a blast alternating between running through the water and then doing laps around the grassy area. Eli challenged me to more than one race, Maddux did lots of somersaults and pseudo cartwheels, and no one got lost. At one point, the kids were in the water and I was shooting. I couldn't believe what I saw through my lens so I stood up and then looked at Lehr in disbelief: Eli and Maddux had their arms around each other and were just 'being'. I got as many pictures as I could before the moment passed, but it honestly lasted a good minute or so. Life is good.

Manis & Pedis

So I've struggled the last two days to fill our mornings with fun, time-passing activities. We are sequestered to our bedrooms given the heat and the renovations, so out-of-house activities are preferred. For some reason I'm having a hard time coming up with enough of them to last me until Eli comes home. I blame the heat. If it weren't 150% humidity, Maddux and I would be park-ing it a lot, or at least going for hikes and/or walks, but it's ri-don-kerous out there!!

This morning I asked a friend if she and her daughter wanted to get together for a bit...a good play date ought to help! She suggested letting the girls get their nails done and I thought it was a great idea. We went to a shop nearby that gave us mommy pedicures and mini manis and mini pedis all for $35/family. Good stuff!! Maddux picked out pink and purple...I think the pink is on her toes and the purple-ish is on her fingers. Then the nail tech painted a few small flowers on some nails, but most of them look a little 'finger paint' like now, due to Maddux not letting them totally dry. That being said, she did REALLY well. Both Maddux and Anni sat very still while the women put lotion on their toes, scuffed the bottoms of their feet (even though I know it tickled) and painted their little nails. They even cut Maddux's fingernails, which was great because they were getting too long anyway.

Great 'girl' date for us, and Maddux had a blast. Life is good.

Date Night

For over a month now I've been planning to take Eli to see Toy Story 3 in the theater. This week was the first kinda-sorta-but-not-really open night. Lehr was out following up on a few car leads and we got a sitter for a few hours for Mad Dog. Eli was so excited. He was totally enthralled with everything from picking out his seats, to the speakers, to the 'commercials' before the movie. (He's been in a theater once, but it was for a short short time and there was no 'hype' around it.)

During the movie previews, Eli did tell me, "It's too loud" a few times, but I think that was in big part due to the content of a few ads. Not bad, just a little too intense for him. Eli is still such a little kid and I forget that in our day to day. But he's been exposed to such a small amount of media outside of online music concerts that it's easy to forget that he is very sensitive to climactic music, loud crashes and scary images still.

All in all he loved it. (So did I; it was GREAT!) Eli only wore the 3-D glasses about half of the time, but he totally got into the story and jokes. Several times he exploded into giggles before I even chuckled...he was thoroughly enjoying himself. He did get sad for one of his stuffed animals when we returned home for bed. Of course it is one that is packed away somewhere in our PODS unit, so there was nothing I could do for him. I think it was a combination of missing his toys and seeing the toys be separated from their owner in the movie. Eli is such a sensitive kid when it comes to seeing other people (fictional or not) sad. He couldn't bear the thought of Chaucer (his missing animal) all alone at the house. I did my best to reassure him that Clifford and a few others were there to play with him while we were moving around all summer.

Daytime Date

A few months back I caught wind that kids are allowed to run the bases after the Braves game finishes on Sunday home games. I looked at our schedule and found out that today lined up, so I got tickets and set the date. Eli didn't know about the bases until we got there, but he was excited about the game anyway. We sat just behind center field, right on the wall (front row!). No home runs were hit to us, but Eli and I practiced our catching strategy in the event of such with our gloves several times each inning.

We were supposed to get rained out - it was forecasted that we would have thunderstorms all afternoon long. Instead, we had a tiny sprinkle and then LOTS of sun. How we ended up not burned, I will never know. Right after the sixth inning finished, we packed up our stuff and made our way over to the line for the base-running. Kids were already lined up, but by the time the game finished, our portion of the line was probably the front 10%. SO many kids wanted to run!

They marched us down the walkway a few levels so that we were on the same level as the field. After a brief wait, we walked through some type of underground stadium hallway to the large doors opening up to the start of the outfield first base line (does that make sense?). Down the line we all walked, careful not to step on the grass. As we approached, I reminded Eli that I was not allowed to run around with him, but I'd be waiting at home plate to take his picture. Unfortunately that was not the case, but there was no time to explain it to him. When we got to first base, a Braves rep split us all up as we got to the base: kids to home plate to run and adults up in the bleachers. We had to take a HUGE detour up and around the seats before reuniting with our kids (most of which were done before we were able to get over there). This meant no quality pictures to speak of. They herded us through that detour very quickly, so the only shots I got were from WAY far away, and they were taken while I was briskly walking. Boo hoo. Eli did get a shirt out of the deal. It reads "I ran the bases at Turner Field" and it has the Braves logo on the front. He had a great time, and he even stayed awake the whole ride home. If he hadn't, he would have surely woken up when another car struck us after we got off of the highway. No damage, thank goodness, but what a way to end the day!

Date Night(s)

I had planned for a few weeks to take Eli on a date. Our monthly date nights have fallen by the wayside in the last few months: life has been too busy. Lehr decided to take advantage of the night and have a date with Maddux as well. (Going forward this will be our plan - easier to schedule one night each month rather than two.)

I took Eli to a Mongolian BBQ style restaurant where he could pick what he wanted to eat and then watch the chefs cook it near a big fire. Of course he was a BIG fan of the fire. He enjoyed the chicken won tons I ordered for an appetizer also. He kept asking me, "What-er these called again, Mommy?"

Since I had no activity planned for our date, we also stopped for dessert. Before we left the restaurant I told Eli that we would stop by our local ice cream shop for a cone. He was VERY excited about that. In the last five minutes of dinner, I told him to save room for ice cream.

He responded: "I have a lot of room in my belly for stuff. Actually I have room in my leg for some stuff. My dinner can go in there."

Good to know.

The whole drive to the ice cream shop, Eli vacillated over which flavor to choose. He went back and forth between vanilla ('banilla'), turtle (I think from when Grandma Cathie was here), and cherry (just cuz). When we finally go there, he chose vanilla. We sat in the front seat of the car and ate it, since it was pretty chilly outside. Of course Eli wanted to try some of mine also (cookies-n-cream.) He told me, "I love banilla. But your ice cream is warmer than mine. Yum."

One of the funniest conversations came from something pretty serious. We were almost to the ice cream shop when I mistakenly went through a red light. We were on a smaller road and the arrow turned green. My foot reacted before my brain and we were half-way through the intersection before I realized my mistake. Eli asked me what was wrong and I explained that I wasn't paying close enough attention and I disobeyed the light, so on and so on. (I also reiterated how dangerous it was to not pay attention. When we approached the next light, Eli used a very kind, almost motherly voice as he told me, "Pay attention this time mommy! Be careful." We stopped at the red light and then the arrow (which we were not using) turned green. Then he said, "OK, that is a green arrow, but a red light....don't go." What would I ever do without him!??!

Pretty Much The Best Day Ever

The kids woke up in the BEST mood. Eli started off sharing and cooperating from the first few minutes of this morning. We all went downstairs after getting dressed and the kids played while I made breakfast. Instead of the standard argument over toys (Maddux taking and Eli complaining), Eli came into the kitchen and asked, SO sweetly, "Max, wanna pway cooking wiff me?" Then he took her hand and tried to help her come with him. The day continued that way. Lots of sharing, lots of sweetness, lots of obeying. At one point, Eli found a bouncy ball and started tossing it around downstairs. Then I heard him say, "Go get it, doggy!" I looked over to see Maddux running after the ball. I was tempted to stop him, since I don't want him to treat anyone like a dog. But he was being so sweet, and knowing Eli's love for the four-legged animals, I knew this was not a put-down in any way. The two played that game for quite a while. I wish I had some video tape of Maddux chasing the ball. It was really quite comical and her expression was exactly that of a dog waiting for her owner to toss a ball.

After naps, we played a little before Lehr got home. At one point Eli asked to go downstairs to play with his trains. I told him he could and Maddie and I stayed upstairs and read. Ten minutes later we went down to join him. Eli had built a great big train track, all by himself. Maddie ran over to it and started to play immediately. This scenario ALWAYS brings about loud, whiny protests from Eli, but he sat back and said, "Pweese be gentle, Maddie." That was it. (Can I just say, "WOW!!")

When Lehr got home, Eli and I left for our monthly date night. I decided to take him for sushi since he's recently figured out how to use chop sticks. (At least some of the time.) We had edamame, ebi (shrimp sushi), and chicken teriyaki. Eli used his chop sticks 97% of the time and even mastered picking up plain rice with them! He told me, "Look, Mommy! I not squeezing it too hard!" He tried a tiny bit of wasabi, but vetoed it immediately. The same thing with ginger. After our dinner, I had a few errands to run. One of those was going to Michael's for a particular sticker. Eli found some food stickers he wanted to get for Maddux, so I let him. He also picked out some pizza stickers for himself. When we were driving home he told me, "I gonna give deez to Maddie and let her have dem. She can rip them, or fold them, or do whatever she wants, cuz they're for her." That was cool to hear because usually Eli is the typical first-born, control-freak big brother that tells Maddux what to do and not do with her toys. We came home and he gave her the stickers. She immediately brought her hand to her mouth, thanking him in sign language. Life is good.

Date Night

Eli's friend, Cooper, scored a few tickets to the Hawks game tonight, so they took their dads out for a Boys Night Out. Eli and Daddy stopped and got dinner first at Six Feet Under. As of late, Eli's been obsessed with crabs and lobsters and their 'prickley' legs. I think it started on New Years' Eve when Grandma and Grandpa gave him an empty crab leg to inspect. Now we can't stroll through Publix without checking out the red legs.... Anyway, after a sunset dinner, the boys went to the game and had a blast. Eli insisted they stay until the end (even though his friend left around half-time). Lehr said Eli was completely fascinated by the action on the court. (10th row seats helped a little!!) When they got home, Eli showed me the (free) souvenirs he'd obtained, including a Chik-Fil-A cow attached to a parachute. Then he told me about a guy who ran and jumped and tried to make a basket. (Of course he acted it out for me.) Life is good.

Another Date

Several weeks back, when Eli found out Grandma Cathie was coming to visit, he informed me, "I gonna take her on date." We thought it was so awesome that he came up with that on his own, so we went full-force with it. Eli said he wanted to take her to "Ed's" (Ted's Montana Grill) and he and Lehr decided that Eli would pay. Every day for two weeks Eli reminded me, "I need some money, Mommy. I gotsta pay for da food." He asked Grandma over the phone if she'd go on the date with him. He told her he was going to pay. She then asked him if he was going to drive also. Eli said, "No, you gotta drive. I ride in back seat."

So tonight was the big night. Eli woke up from his nap and the two of them took off. First they went to Target so Eli could pick out a new pillow (his old one was lost due to a pull-up incident), and then they ran errands at the mall. The final destination was Ted's, where Eli talked my mom's ear off. They sat in a booth across from each other, but Eli told Grandma, "I wish you sit over heeeere." Of course she joined him on his side. He ordered sliders (three little hamburgers) and fries. I've been told that Eli asked Grandma Cathie, "Where my money? I need to pay for da food." That shocks me given Eli's memory: he and I put money in his jeans' pocket minutes before they left the house. The two of them had a great night and Eli is now dreaming about being the center of attention for yet another night....

Date Night!

Eli and I had a date tonight. Schedules have taken over and we've been so busy recently that dates have not been happening as often as they should. Since we have reinforcements right now (Grandma Cathie), I took Eli on a date I'd been planning for a while: bowling. I didn't tell him where we were going ahead of time, just in case it didn't happen due to parties or leagues or whatever. Lucky for us, we walked in and got a lane right away! Eli was sooooo excited. He was excited about Mommy's bowling shoes (they didn't have any small enough for him), he was excited about picking out a bowling ball ("I want the boooo one!!"), he got excited about me entering his name onto the screen, he got excited about watching other people bowl....there wasn't anything he didn't get excited about! The smallest ball I could find was a 9-lb ball, but since I knew he'd just be rolling it, I figured it was no big deal. Eli showed me that he could not only carry it himself, but he threw it (aka dropped it) instead of rolling it half of the time! I requested the bumpers be put up, which allowed him to score above 50 in each of our three games. I threw a few balls, but only at Eli's request. ("I wanna see it go fast!") He was fascinated by the ball retriever/returner. "It go under da ground, Mommy?" And I only had to tell him once about not sticking his hand in it. We had a woman playing next to us, so we discussed bowlers etiquette, and Eli was quite good at respecting her space and waiting (patiently) for her to take her turn. If she was bowling, Eli would come and wait back at the ball returner with me, which is a good thing considering it took a full two minutes for his ball to make it's way down the lane. The g00d news is, I never once had to throw an additional ball down to 'prompt' a stuck ball.

After an hour of bowling, the two of us headed to Eli's favorite joint: The Flying Biscuit. Eli had eggs, chicken sausage, potatoes, and (of course) a wheat biscuit. I also gave him almost half of my garden burger. He was a little moody before our food arrived, but I'm pretty sure it was hunger talking: I was starving too. During dinner we talked about our plans for Sunday: pumpkin carving after dinner. Eli tells me we are going to carve a happy pumpkin. Or a scary pumpkin. Or a sad pumpkin. Depending on when you ask him, the answer varies slightly.

Date-Day

Due to travel and night-time activities and potty training, it has been several (many?) weeks since we've had date night with Eli. Lehr did take him on a Father-Son day this weekend, but I haven't had one-on-one with Eli for quite some time. So today Miss Laura came over to watch Maddie so we could rectify that situation. Per Eli's request, the two of us went hiking at Sope Creek and had lunch at The Flying Biscuit Cafe. Eli had a blast throwing rocks into the creek and in several ponds along the way. He wanted to run most of the way down to the ruins, which was a long way and I definitely had to run to keep up with him. Of course it was all level or downhill, so the return trip was a little more difficult for him, but he made it back up. We had crazy storms last night, so the trails were pretty muddy...not that Eli was bothered by that. It is always so neat to see what happens when I get the kids one-on-one. Eli knew this was a special occasion and he commented on it quite frequently.

"We have date today?" "Just us....Mommy an E-i....goin on date!"

Then he wanted to talk about all sorts of things.

"Mommy, member the muffler broked? Let's talk about it?" (When he says, 'let's talk about it', that means he wants me to tell him the story of whatever again. In this instance, he wanted to hear about the car crash he and Lehr had last winter.)

I got the kids up a little early today to prepare for our big day. (We still ran late though, and Laura arrived before breakfast even started.) My favorite part of the morning was when Eli went into Maddux's room and looked through her closet. He saw me put her down on the changing pad and realized she needed some clothes to wear. As he browsed through the hangers, he told me, "Ummmm, maybe she wear dis? Or she wear deese shirts?" I think it is so cute that he wanted to pick out clothes for Max.

Second runner up to that cute moment happened when we were walking out the door. Maddie was standing up at the train table with Miss Laura. I told Eli to say good-bye to them. He said, "Bye-bye Me-ss Au-ra." Then he bent down and kissed Maddux's head and said, "Buh-bye, swee-tee." Melt melt....It doesn't get much better than that.

Back to our hike. While we were hiking and talking, the subject of bears came up. I don't remember how, but it caused Eli to tell me that we might see bears on our hike. Well....maybe.....I guess it's possible, but not at all likely. So I asked him what he would do if he saw one. He told me he'd run away from the bear, but then he also told me he'd talk to them (da bears). He then followed it up with, "E-i see bears and el-fants." Good luck with that.

We finished up with a trip to the biscuit. Eli ate a wheat biscuit and scrambled eggs. He was very well behaved and he was totally into it being a 'date' with a big-boy chair at the restaurant (I let him sit in a regular chair instead of a booster). Life is good.

Date Night

Eli and Lehr had their date night last night. They ended up at The Flying Biscuit, one of Eli's favorite restaurants. After eating, they went to the Apple store in the mall to pick up our (fixed) computer. This was still very much a fun 'date' for Eli. Not only does the Apple store have a cool area set up for kids to play neat computer games, but going to the mall is something Eli has no concept of. Neither of his parents are mall shoppers, so this big, noisy, bright open space was like an amusement park to Eli. Lehr said they rode the escalators no less than 12 times. Before Eli's nap today I asked him about his date. He summed it up by telling me, "I ride da eck-sah-laters!" Cheap entertainment only for this kid!

Again with the reports on Eli's blossoming dialect. He creates these sentences that just crack me up. Sometimes because they don't quite make sense and sometimes because they are dead-on. He uses a lot of "my" instead of "me". (Mommy's playin catch wiff my.) And the usual toddler-use of "him" or "her" instead of "he" or "she". (Maddux is crawling! Her is crawling!") For the most part, E is using correct gender specification though, so I'm not complaining. And he can carry on 'real' conversations. When we discussed his date with Daddy, he was totally telling me all about it, in his own way....not much need for prompting. My favorite sentence of the day comes from right before naps when we were listening to music. There was a break in the vocals, but I kept singing. First Eli kept singing with me, but then he stopped and told me, "They not talking, Mommy." (After reading this post, Lehr informed me that he gets a similar phrase from Eli when they read bedtime stories each night. If Lehr pauses between sentences, Eli will say, "Talk about it, Daddy.")