Some sugar to start the workweek

Hot fun in the summertime

Like other parts of the country, Asheville has been hit with record-high heat the past few days. And what better past time for the scorching heat is loading up with snacks, apple juice and sunscreen, and hitting the pool. And apparently Paige, LeAnn and I weren’t the only people that came to this solution, as the Rec Park pool was packed to the gills this past afternoon. Complete with two YMCA busses full of pent-up energy, not to mention the normal crowd, we saw more tiny, scrawny bodies flailing into the water than in a stunt-scene from Titanic.

And, of course Taylor was amazed by all the action. Not so much interested in the actual swimming, as she was squealing at other kids, stealing fruit from Paige and giving her buddy, Miss Elliot, some sugar.



And because our three babes are all starting to resemble real-life little people, I tried to get a group shot of all of them. And this was the best I could get –



Well, it would have been better if we weren’t pointing them directly in the sunlight, and if Taylor hadn’t had discovered a bag of potato chips right before the picture.

Oh, and here’s another pic of the three of them, which I think gives a pretty good description of each of our daughters –



Miss Taylor, always looking for food. Miss Rell, extremely cute and well-behaved. And Miss Elliot, plotting her escape.

Yes, I think we gonna have lots of fun with these girls. Yes, I do.

Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I’m very tired...

We’ve had the same bedtime routine with Taylor for the past ten months – Bath, bottle, rock to sleep. And that’s rocking all the way to a sleep, which can take anywhere from ten to thirty minutes to get her completely conked-out. And then we would add an extra five minutes for good measure. Because once she’s out, she’s out for the night. And, yes, I know that by actually typing and posting this to the world, my daughter is going to wake-up, shrieking at 3.00 tomorrow morning. Yes, I know how the Universe works.

And, after rock-rock-rocking her to sleep, we would put her in her completely bare crib with just her binky and her blanket, and then turn on her Baby Einstein genius-breeding music to deepen her slumber. And that’s how we’d been doing it every night for the past ten months. And then finally one night a few weeks ago, after the bottle, Taylor kung-fu gripped her baby and pointed to her crib, and was all, Um, Mom. This is SO BORING. If you’re gonna be this lame. Just put me in my crib and let me entertain myself to sleep.

So I put her in her crib. Wide awake. And, without turning on her music, gave her a kiss and walked out. And then I stood on the other side of the door, holding my breath, waiting for her to cry. But she didn’t. And after seven minutes of semi-quiet, I ventured downstairs with the monitor, poured myself a glass of wine, put my feet up and watched the last ten minutes of the Daily 10. Score.

And finally, after a few minutes of relaxing and catching up on all of my celebrity gossip, I clicked the video monitor and watched her, sitting up, scoot to the bottom of her crib, scoot back, cover her doll up with her blankie and then turn on her mobile sound-board and then laid down. And went to sleep. All the way to sleep. Double score.

The next night it was the same deal – Bath, bottle, point to the crib, party with her doll, fast asleep. And then again the next night, and the night after that. And so on and so on. Not to mention it's the same routine at naptime. Triple-quadruple score.

And after a week of being such a good, grown-up sleeper, I threw a few more stuffed animals and a pillow in her crib. You know, so she doesn’t become a one-toy kid. After a few more nights into it, she convinced me to put in a few cloth books for good measure. Because it’s important for her to read. Or just use them as extra cushion.

It’s wonderful. She’s like a little person now. Done for the day, lay down on my pillow and read a book before bed. So grown up. And while on the outside I’m totally caught up on chores and tabloid trash, inside I’m a bit bummed that I’m missing my Taylor snuggle time before bed. And how I totally didn’t cherish that time when I had it, and how most nights I bribed her asleep so I could finish folding clothes or watch a movie or something so much lamer than cradling your baby girl and rocking her to sleep. I’ll never have that back with her, and that stings my heart a little bit.

However, as easy as the new routine is, the wake-up routine is still hampered by extremely full diapers, an empty belly, bed-head and a rather unpleasant disposition.

So it’s not all sunshine and roses. Hear that, Universe? No need to be checking in at the Amys house. We’re just dandy.

All in the family

We’ve been lucky to have Taylor’s Grandpa and Grandma Amys in town for the weekend, allowing Chris to be able to spend Father’s Day with his own dad and letting Princess-T be spoiled rotten for the past few days. Seriously spoiled. And I’m no fortune-teller, but Momma’s predicting a pretty wicked grandparent-hangover starting tomorrow morning.

And yesterday, we all packed ourselves in the car and took a day trip a few hours north of Asheville to visit our extended Amys family, the Garcias, and check-out their new, mountain-vacation home. Wonderful views, wonderful visit.

Chris and I are super excited to finally have some family in North Carolina, even if it is only part-time. And Taylor couldn’t be happier to be surrounded by such fun, sweet kiddos.

And today we are celebrating Chris’s second-year being a father, as well as Greg’s 30th year as a dad.

And while I’m sure Greg will be able to pass much invaluable fathering advice down to his son over the following years, Chris already, in my mind, possesses the three greatest strengths in being a successful father – Patience, humor and, of course, love.

All grows up

WHAT? What do you mean I can’t have macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch AND dinner? That’s IT! I’m outta here. And don’t even try keeping me locked in this baby prison. I’ll find a way out. Just you wait and see.

It’s fun to pet the Rubes

So Chris and I have been logging some serious hours trying to train Taylor to be gentle when interacting with Miss Ruby Blue. And even though, overall, the Rubes has been 68% sweet, 32% annoyed with baby-T’s existence, we don’t want to give our four-legged daughter any excuses to become 100% miserable. And now that Taylor is moving, grooving and a bit more excitable, she’s been known to take that pent-up baby energy and smack Rubes across the nose or pull her ears. And don’t even get me started on the plastic golf clubs Chris got T for her birthday. Yes, that was a brilliant idea. The minute she reaches for the driver, Rubes vacates the room.

So for the past few weeks, whenever Taylor feels like attacking Ruby, Chris and I intervene and show her how to properly love on her sister. And, as you can see, it’s starting to soak in.

So, yes, it’s a process. But a fun one. Oh, and the video also shows some of Taylor’s celebratory, arm-swinging dance moves, and my super-annoying rendition of the dancing Zebra song that echoes throughout our house constantly. And, yes, Taylor is still OBSESSED with her plastic sandwich bag full of baby spoons. It's her most favoritest treasure of the moment. Other than Ruby.

Easy like Sunday morning

It’s been a pretty uneventful weekend for the Amys clan. And by uneventful, I mean relaxing and wonderful. The weather has been gorgeous, so we’ve spent the majority of the past two days at the park, the pool and, of course, our front yard.

14 months old

Yesterday was Taylor’s 14 month birthday. Yes, YESTERDAY. And do you want to know what I was doing that I was so busy I couldn’t post her monthly milestones? Momma was recovering from a long night of boogying at Tuesday’s sold-out Phish show. That right, Momma and Daddy can still have fun. Lots and lots of fun.

So, other than being a negligent-blogger mother for a day, this past month has been pretty remarkable for the Amys clan. And busy. Saying goodbye to Ryan Amys, taking a beach vacation with my family and extended family, Chris starting a new career, surprising my 30-year old husband with a visit from his college roommate and his wife, going to Dylan and Katie’s wedding, having Libba, Dirk and their two pups stay with us and then attending the show-of-all-shows earlier this week. Holy cow! That’s more action than we’ve seen in the last 14-months combined.

So, yes, busy. But so much fun. And the major reason everything’s more fun is because Taylor is about at cute and entertaining as she’s ever been right now. Our days are, for the most part, spent watching our daughter smile, laugh, say, Cheese!, and doing the arm-swinging, squealing dance. It’s heaven.

And another major reason we’re in such a good place right now is that Chris is home so much more. I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful it is to send him off to work at 8:15 and KNOW that he’ll be home at 5:10. And even though we’ve only had him home for two weekends, they’ve been the best weekends we’ve ever had. And not to mention he’s absolutely loving his new job. LOVES it. SO excited about it. And I’m crazy about the new dress code – Not only am I off the hook for pleating golf pants, but he looks so hot in his suits we’ve been greeting him in the driveway when he gets home.

But don’t get me wrong, month 13 wasn’t ALL Twinkies and beach sunsets. Taylor entered the Cling-all-over-your-Momma stage, resulting in many dramatic YMCA Child Watch episodes, three babysitter freak-outs and a vacation where I had a permanent baby-appendage on me. And every other mother I know that has children older than Taylor all chimed in saying, It’s normal. It’s just a phase. Well, How LONG does this last? Because it’s really hard to walk when you have a giant baby with a kung-fu grip around your knees.

And even though she was attached to me for the majority of my family’s beach vacation, it was still so wonderful for us to spend time with her in the sand and surf. I, like Chris, have so many priceless memories from our own coastal vacations, and we were so excited to carry that on with our daughter.

And, after this month, I feel like I have to stop referring to Taylor as my Baby, and now as my, Little Girl. Because that’s what she turned into this month. We’ve outgrown all of our size-4 shoes. She’s eating mostly adult food. She would rather walk than ride or be held. And, with a lot of help from Aunt Libba, she has finally let me turn that baby-mullet into pigtails.

She’s now a bona-fide toddler. A little girl with a funny, sweet personality, who her father and I love more than anything else in this entire world. And as much fun as we had grooving last night to the amazing Loving Cup encore, we both agree it’s even more fun to watch HER do the airplane-propeller, exotic bird dance in our living room.

Congratulations Dylan and Katie

Yesterday afternoon we made the short-trip to Fletcher for our friends, Dylan and Katie’s, wedding. Both the ceremony and reception were at this fabulous, yet properly titled, venue called Taylor Ranch, which boasted a pond, horses and amazing mountain views. Chris met Dylan when he started working at the Country Club when we first moved to Asheville, and Katie and I have spent the past few years cheering our boys on in both city and church-league basketball games. They are both such sweet, genuine people, and we are so happy for them.

This was Taylor’s second-ever wedding, and since she was just three months old for the first one, we were a bit nervous on keeping her quiet during the ceremony. But she did great – Thanks for the most part to a steady supply of Cheerios.

And after eating her weights worth in cereal, she later got her first tastes of pulled-pork, wedding cake and Twinkies. Yes, Twinkies. Can you say Sugar-Buzz?

The energy-boost resulted in a few extra hours of moving and grooving after dinner, allowing us to celebrate a little longer than planned and having Taylor amaze everyone with her arm-shaking dance moves.

Hello, old friend

So it had been a few weeks since Paige and I had an afternoon play-date with the babies, and yesterday the stars and schedules aligned for a Taylor-Elliot get together. And it was funny, because when Paige and Elliot got here, Taylor was in the middle of pulling something she shouldn’t have out of a drawer and running away from me with it. What was that thing, you ask? Well, a plastic bag full of baby spoons. Yep, total treasure. So when the girls walked in the door, Taylor was in panic-mode and clung, with the spoons, to my legs and refused to look up. And after about five minutes of Elliot walking around her, my daughter finally relaxed and realized that, YES! My best friend is HERE! In my house! To which she continued to whoop, scream and screech like a bird for the next ten minutes. And then dropped the prized spoons to show Elliot all of her toys.

And because her BFF is in the 100-percentile of 15-month olds – no joke, Paige took her to the pediatrician a few weeks ago and confirmed that Elliot is indeed the tallest baby ever – Taylor decided to put this to use and try to get her to jump the baby gate.

And when the escape didn’t go through as planned, we moved the party outside in order to get them to run-off some more energy. And get a cute picture of our growing girls.

Ruby & Me

So the other night Chris and I finally got around to watching Marley & Me. And by watch, I mean I cried uncontrollably throughout 40% of the entire movie. Super sad. And it’s not like I didn’t read the book, follow the reviews or hear everyone else in the world talking about it and reiterate over and over again how sad it was. I knew what I was getting into and I STILL looked like I got punched in the face afterwards. I’m talking tears streaming down my face and hiccup-sobs. Serious bawl-fest. And after I was able to breathe out of my nose again, of course the first thing Chris and I do is tackle Ruby to the ground and remind ourselves how much we love our four-legged daughter.

And while I’m sure that everyone related with the characters and their adventures and mishaps with Marley, Chris and I felt a special connection and almost eerie resemblance to the story of a young, newly married couple trying to raise their first dog. Both labs. Both absolutely nuts. Ruby’s totally pulled each of us down while taking her on walks. She’s chewed up more than a few pairs of shoes, underwear, reading glasses, pillows, chairs – and the list goes on and on.

But we love her. And even though she’s gotten less and less attention over the past 14 months, that horrible sad movie helped remind Chris and me to take some extra time in our day for the Rubes. Even Taylor’s kicking-in with the Ruby love-fest.

30th birthday surprise

So in order to make my man’s 30th birthday extra-special, I arranged to have his bestest friend, Ryan Larsen, and his wife, Rachel, fly in from Minneapolis to surprise him. And after months and months of sneaking and planning, we were able to see the shock and awe in Chris’s face last Thursday when Larsen greeted him with a beer after he got home from work. And the fact that I was able to keep the entire set-up a surprise deserves a little credit, because not only do I have the worst poker face in the entire world, but keeping a secret from my husband requires more will-power than turning down ice cream. So, Cheers to everyone!

And while Chris was working on Friday, I took the opportunity to show them around town. Rachel had never been to Asheville, and Ryan hadn’t been here since our wedding, so I decided to treat them to some authentic Carolina barbeque. Nothing like a good serving of ribs and pulled pork to soak up the previous night’s fun. And, surprise-surprise, Taylor very much enjoyed her macaroni and cheese.

Saturday was the big birthday, not to mention Chris’s very first working-man’s weekend, so we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a picnic overlooking the great Smokie Mountains.

That night Taylor stayed home with the babysitter, and the adults went to the Grove Park Inn for a few drinks and some spectacular views.

We then had a deliciously spicy meal at Limones, followed by more debauchery downtown at Scully’s, where Chele and Paige surprised the birthday boy with cake and balloons. And a few shots of Wild Turkey.

And after a foggy Sunday brunch, we were sad to have to say goodbye to our friends and send them back up north. We had a great weekend celebrating, which is obvious from our overflowing recycling bins, and Rachel and I are only waiting until the end of the week before we start planning our next adventure.

Loud family vacation

Alright, so even though we’ve been back from vacation for over a week AND most of you have already seen the pictures on Libba’s blog, I still need to post about the wonderful trip we took with my family and extended family to the beach. Because it was that fun. And loud. Two words that are sure to be under the definition of Blackwell-Young-Graffeo-Amys get-togethers. Other words included would be cheese curls, Savages, Pinot Grigio and, now, beer pong.

First off, I need to tip my hat to Matt and his big brain. My cousin graduated at the top of his high school class, and will be attending the University of Alabama this fall. Where I’m sure his sister-Blair will eagerly show him the ropes and fill sister-Sarah in on all the juicy details. Even though I grew up ten years older and about 1000 miles away from my southern cousins, I feel we are about as close as cousins can be and I love them with all my heart.

I cherished every second we were able to spend with parents and siblings. I hadn’t seen Will since Thanksgiving, and my Mom and Dad since Christmas. Being so far away from each other limits the frequency of our visits, but it also ups the fun-factor when we do get together and makes every moment special.

Taylor’s second-ever trip to the beach was amazing. Even though Chris and I have been frequenting the Atlantic for the past six years, nothing beats the white, sugar sand of the Gulf squishing between your toes, which our little girl seemed to very much enjoy. Except when the surf would bury her feet, resulting in total panic. She also loved the pool. LOVED the pool. And even though the weather was a bit cold and crummy, she still would make a mad dash for the water when given the chance.

Once again, Lib took some fantabulous pictures of everyone during the trip. Enjoy!