Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Chickens & Curses

For many years Arch and I have lived in a house divided...I'm the Auburn Tiger and he's a Carolina Gamecock. Thankfully, rarely do the two meet on the football field so it hasn't been a problem with our relationship...but this year the Gamecocks should be preparing for a beating in the Fall on the Plains...oh, and trust me when I say Ruth Ann will be head to toe in ORANGE on the day of this meeting.

Arch has conceded that Auburn typically has better football, but he claims baseball as Carolina's sport. In 99% of his life Arch is not a superstitious man, but when it comes to baseball he firmly believes in the Chicken Curse. My interpretation of the Chicken Curse is that it doesn't matter how good a game the Gamecocks are playing or how great their season is going, at some point the wheels fall off the bus and Carolina finds a way to blow all their good work.

Well friends, the Chicken Curse may have come to an end...

CWS Finals Baseball

Meet the new National Champions in men's baseball! I can still barely believe it myself...South Carolina finally...after several unsuccessful attempts...brought home a National Championship. If you call Arch today, he is committed to answer all phone calls "Go Cocks!" Today at work I've seen LOTS of garnet and black shirts and I'm sure I'll hear all about when Spencer comes back home this weekend.

I share in your joy Carolina friends & look forward to seeing you on The Plains September 25th!

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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Dare Devil

We spent Father's Day afternoon relaxing in the pool at my mom & dad's house. Ruth Ann seems to have gotten the hang of her swimmies and showed off her moves with Grammy. Now that the pool water has warmed up Ruth Ann has in turn warmed up to the pool...I'm convinced the cool water temps in May are what led to her tears during our first visit to the pool this summer. Anyway, these two seem to be at home in the warm 86 degree water...

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Then Arch and Spencer arrived and we thought we would let Ruth Ann try out the slide. First we let her go down by herself from about 1/2 way up...success, she went under the water and no tears were to be found. So up to the top of slide she went with Bubba...I'm not sure who they're both looking at since I was the only one taking pictures, but take note of how similar these two look...

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And then upon entry....

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Look how they're both making the same face! So funny, and yet another reminder that this child looks nothing like me...let's hope Baby McCarty shares just a few traits with Momma!

Oh, and Ruth Ann was fine...those swimmies popped her right back up out of the water before Spencer had time to come up for air. She had a look of shock on her face, but no tears...however, when asked if she wanted to go again her short reply, "No". We decided not to press our luck.

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Monday, June 14, 2010

18 Months

In all the excitement of preparing for our beach departure I never posted on Ruth Ann's 18 month b-day...I also forgot to make her doctor's appointment for her 18 month check up so I have no stats to post at this time...we're headed to see Dr. Joey next week.

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What is Ruth Ann "up to" these days...or should I say "into" these days...EVERYTHING!! I am a super bad momma and never child-proofed our house beyond outlet covers...this means the contents of my tupperware/sippy cup drawer routinely end up out of the drawer and all over my kitchen floor. This drawer is right at her height so it makes since she picked this as the drawer to plunder...however, last week we discovered she can now open the drawers just below the counters and even though she's not tall enough to see into the drawer it hasn't stopped her from randomly retrieving whatever those chubby hands can grasp...I see some serious childproofing in my very near future.

We have zero concerns regarding Ruth Ann and language development. Her vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. In the last few weeks she's started repeating more and more of what we say to her...for example, when I changed her diaper last week and discovered a particularly nasty diaper I said "Shoowee"...and now she grabs her diaper and says "Shoowee". Ada has the best Barbie that doesn't have removable clothes or shoes...Ruth Ann loved it so I bought her one when we got home. I call it her Ballarina Barbie...Ruth Ann now calls her "Rina" or "Barbie". When we drive in the Expedition some times I take the curves a little faster than I should, so I usually say "Whoa" or "Hold on". Last night Arch and I went out to eat and as Arch very quickly pulled into a parking space Ruth Ann said "Whoa" which brought a laugh...so this morning on the way to The McCarty's from the backseat I kept hearing "Whoa...Daddy". She's really a mess right now...and we're enjoying every minute...well except when she acts like this...

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This is probably what Ruth Ann is very best at these days...pitching a fit! You may be asking yourself what in the world I could have done to this precious blond haired child to upset her so...I simply held the camera up to take her picture and that, and that alone, sent her crying and screaming "No" for all on the beach to hear. My goal was to dress her in this cute Lilly P. outfit and get some sunset pictures on the beach. I envisioned her playing peacefully on dunes or just at the water's edge...instead I got this...

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Apparently her pricey Lilly P. outfit was too similar to a bathing suit so she shot out to the water and never looked back. Moments after I took this picture she sat down in the water (while wearing a standard diaper...not a swim diaper) and began splashing in the water. My blood pressure went through the roof and from this point forward I'm sure the other families on the beach probably thought I was an abusive parent. Because of how wet her bottom was I had to carry her under my arm like a sack of potatoes to get her to the car...but so goes life with a sassy 18 month old...we take the good with the bad and love every single minute with her!

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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Beach 2010

So the McCarty/Becker Family rolled out of town on Saturday June 5th with the hopes of getting a little R&R on the shores of Hilton Head Island Beach. This is the first time we ventured to Hilton Head...we usually prefer the beaches a little farther north...Litchfield or Garden City...but since my mom became a Disney Vacation Club Member we decided to cash in her points for this year and stay at the Disney Resort at Hilton Head. If you remember, I checked it out a few weeks ago, so I assured my family it was nice and we would all enjoy our stay...and for the most part we did. Arch was scolded about the spot where he parked his boat when he first arrived, I got into a little disagreement with the front desk over a parking pass and I was denied entry into my parents condo to retrieve my camera bag, but other than that, our stay was great.

We arrived early to find our rooms were ready for us a little early...very pleasant surprise. We unloaded, applied SPF, suited up and headed to the closest pool.

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You may notice Ruth Ann wearing new swimmies...I love the pink with white ruffle swimmies, but they just don't keep Ruth Ann out of the water enough for her (or her mother's) liking. Andrea told me about these at Walmart and they worked out great...they're a little bigger than the other pair we have so I think we'll use these this summer and maybe start to transition into the others by the end of the summer.

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Ada and Ruth Ann really get along great...at times it was a love fest...

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But we're still talking about toddlers...so there was the occasional disagreement...

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Although I can not give Ada the credit of teaching Ruth Ann "No"...this word has been firmly in her vocabulary for some time now and may be the her most frequently used word...but I can give Ada the credit of introducing Ruth Ann to the word and concept of "Mine"...another word I would now like to see dropped from her limited vocabulary. Ruth Ann now says "No" and "Mine" so often and also usually in very close proximity to each other that I would consider this her 2nd 2 word utterance...great! I'm not sure how many of you read John Rosemond's books or even know who his is...he's great by the way and if you have children you should read his parenting books or if you have the chance to hear him speak go quickly. I went to hear him speak just a few weeks before Ruth Ann was born and he made this statement "2 year old children are the embodiment of all criminal and anti-social behavior." Ruth Ann's newest phrase screams anti-social!

Anyway, Disney does a great job catering to families with children and the pool area was definitely a kid friendly zone.

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But we didn't spend all of our time at the pool...these girls also loved the beach. The resort is on the marsh so on our 2nd day we loaded up and headed across the street to the Beach House. There was plenty of beach to run around on and enjoy and when you need a break from the sand there was another pool at the beach where you could cool off, get some lunch or an adult beverage...no adult beverages this time, but maybe on the next trip.

I was a little concerned about how Ruth Ann was going to take to the beach. Last summer, she didn't love it so much and in the Spring she didn't love her sand box as much as I would have thought. She was a little slow making her way to the water's edge and she did turn around a few times but eventually she made it to the water and never looked back...she loved it!

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Eventually it was time for lunch. On this day we decided to pack our lunches so we sat under the umbrella my mom rented and enjoyed our lunch...

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Yummm...PB&J and juice box...life is good!

Before leaving for the beach I made 2 outfits for the girls to wear at the beach. My mom also purchased a few outfits, so not everything I made was worn or pictured. Here was one of the 2 beach inspired outfits...these pictures aren't great...it was kinda a late dinner and Ruth Ann was melting down...

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I had seen the fishing lure appliques on one of the websites I enjoy and when I ran across this fabric with tiny fishing lures on it inspiration hit...I knew this was a beach outfit in the making...it was precious!

The next morning we decided to get up and just head straight to the beach. We opted out of packing lunches and decided to just eat pool side. Arch and Spencer joined us on this morning so we all had a lot of fun. One thing that is different about the beaches at HH versus Garden City or Litchfield is these big pools of water all along the beach. As the tide goes out it leaves behind little kiddy pools...they were just Ruth Ann's size...

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But because this water doesn't have a fresh water source the water gets a little warm...and a little dirty, so Arch spent some time taking her down to the water's edge...

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Eventually we were all ready to eat some lunch and cool off in the pool, so up to the Beach House we went...

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Notice the waving...I have un-officially named Ruth Ann the greeter of Hilton Head Island...she waved to any and everyone who walked by her at the beach and pool. She also does this at Walmart, but usually she picks the strangest people with the fewest number of teeth to become acquainted with!

Spencer and Arch joined Ruth Ann in the pool and this picture makes me laugh...who's the worse parent...the one holding the child and letting her appear to be struggling to stay afloat or the parent taking a picture of it all?? She's perfectly fine by the way...

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On our 3rd day Arch took the boat out to fish and Spencer stayed behind to join us on the beach...here's one of my favorite pictures from the week...

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Our friends, The Clark Family, were also at Hilton Head the same week as our family, so we invited them down to our beach for the morning. Roper is still committed to the crawl, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the sand and sun...

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Mason L-O-V-E-S the water and the beach...here he is lounging by the water...

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You may have noticed Roper ended up with a little wet sand on his face...I think Ruth Ann noticed too and was trying to help her friend out...

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Roper also wanted to check out Ruth Ann's cute suit...I'm okay with him touching her belly now, but it a few years Arch may have something to say about that...

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Since I looked like the crazy picture taking mom the first few days on the beach (I switched off between camera and camcorder) I took a break the rest of the week. You can tell we had a great time though.

As I ran around after this little girl all week...

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I couldn't help but think about what next summer will be like with a 6 month old and 2 year old. I'm not wishing any of this time away because I really love every minute of it...but I couldn't help but remember the days I use to spend on the beach when my biggest decision was what SPF to apply and what book I would read. Thankfully Arch spent most nap times with Ruth Ann so I got to spend some time by the pool reading...I guess I got to enjoy the best of both worlds!

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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

The McCarty family has arrived safe and sound back home after spending the first week in June baking in the sun at Hilton Head Island. I'll have a full beach report very soon...but for now I leave you with the cutest sun bather in our family...and one that I discovered tans very nicely even when wearing 50 SPF applied several times daily...

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Can you tell she was having a good time or what!

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

You have a little something on your face...

If you've ever shared a meal with me and Ruth Ann you know I'm very particular about what she eats and how it could potentially stain her clothes. My whole life has been a lesson in stain removal since I was known to end up with part of my meal on my clothes...maybe this is what has caused me to always have a watchful eye on Ruth Ann during meal time. Anyway, recently I made homemade spaghetti sauce...usually if we're eating something messy I fix chicken nuggets and a veggie for Ruth Ann...but not tonight...I stripped her down to her diaper and let her enjoy the spaghetti dinner with the rest of us...

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You could be asking yourself "How in the world did she get sauce in so many different places on her face??"

Well, when you eat like this...

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and like this...

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you're bound to leave a little bit behind on your face! But she loved every minute of it and after finishing headed straight to the tub!



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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Crashing Vacations

My BFF, Andrea, and her family enjoyed a vacation at the Disney Resort at Hilton Head Island a few weeks ago. Since Hilton Head is just a short 2 1/2 hour drive from our house, Ruth Ann and I decided to crash their vacation for just a little while.

We had lots of fun...this was the first time the Webster family has seen Ruth Ann walking around. Anna immediately showered Ruth Ann with hugs and kisses...Ruth Ann had to use some of her best defensive holds to get a little breathing room!

Here are the sun bathing beauties getting ready to splash in the pool...

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Is anyone else jealous of the Anna's tan??

Again, even though the water was warmer than a Grammy's house, Ruth Ann wasn't in love with the pool...at first. She eventually remembered how much she loves to float. Anna on the other hand was a fish! She loves the water and spent a lot of time in the air thanks to some help from her daddy.

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Here's Ruth Ann doing a little playing in the water...

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Actually, we spent all afternoon in the water...resulting in some serious pruning...

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Then we dried out, ate a little supper and Aunt Andrea gave us a tour of the resort...this is where our family is vacationing this year. There is a really great playground that Anna wanted to show off to us...

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Thanks again Webster family for letting us crash your vacation for just a little while! You're welcome to crash ours anytime!!

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