two months---in bullet points

When you've blogged pretty regularly for 5 and half years and then  you go dark for almost two months, you have a choice.  Explain why you were gone and catch everyone up, or just start from where we are now. 

So the short explanation is I've been busy.  REALLY busy.  I thought giving up the blog would just kill me.  But it didn't.  I think sometimes it feeds my crazy a little too much and lately, well the crazy level has been so high and things have been hectic that, well, the crazy has not needed feeding. 

Here is just a taste of what has happened since I last posted: 

• Henry had pnemonia and had to receive IV fluids.
• We put our house on the market and it was discovered that I can keep our house perfectly clean OR be a patient wife and mother.  But not both.
• We rode Thomas the Tank Engine, went to Field Days of the Past, the VA State Fair, walked in a fundraiser for Prader-Willi research,  and visited both sets of grandparents.
• Hosted our last Phillips Family Homecoming parade extravaganza for the high school homecoming parade that goes by our house.
• Regressed from potty training to being back in pull ups because Grace pooped in the foyer 30 minutes before we had a showing.  (But that's Ok, because we...)
• Accepted an offer on our house.  20 days after we put it on the market.  (GO GOD!  GO Elliott Gravitt, realtor extraordinaire!)
• Made an offer on a new house and are under contract.  (I will write about this house later on because it is ridiculous.)
• Given Gracie roughly 300 nebulizer breathing treatments (fall is not her friend).
• Had both kids LOVE LOVE LOVE their new teachers at school.
• Completely changed the way we parent Gracie because of some behaviors she's been exhibiting that we suspect are from the crank she was exposed to in utero.
• Prayed for more and more patience as we await news on our kids in the Congo.
• Discovered that Gracie has imaginary friends.  They are adults.  Their names are Mrs. Fox (?) and Mrs. Walker.  (Mrs. Walker is also a teacher at school.  But sometimes "Mrs. Walker" has tea parties here.)  Gracie also sometimes plays with Jesus.  She REALLY wants Jesus to come to her birthday party.  Because He is her best friend.  
• Henry earned his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do.  
• Henry can now count to 10 in Korean.
• Gracie started dance class and it is the cutest thing in the world.
• Learned some upsetting news about our son in the Congo and prayed him back into our family.  
• Hugged our kids who live here extra tight every night because never ever did I think I'd see the day when I'd be praying for one of my kids to get INTO foster care.  

I think that's it.  There might be other stuff.  I don't know.  I'm going to try and get back into the habit of posting more regularly, but my guess is that it will be shorter.  And probably kinda trivial.   But y'all gotta hear some of the things that come out my kids' mouth because they. are. hysterical.

Together We're Unlimited

Tonight, for what I'm sure will not be one night only, the Phillips and Pusey cousins performed pretty much the entire show of Wicked.  With a little bit of Tom Sawyer thrown in for good measure.  At one point, my 5 year old niece Isabel was crying because she wanted to perform Popular as a solo.  Seriously, she was crying.  Her red lipstick smeared and painted for the back rows lashes running.  It was as though I was watching myself thirty years ago.  Except, of course, I made playbills and forced my parents to buy tickets to watch me dance in leotards in the living room. 

There would be more pictures, but you see, I was one of the headliners. 

"There's been some confusion
For you see, my roommate is: "

"Unusually and exceedingly peculiar
And altogether quite impossible to describe"

 

 "Blonde."

 

 

And the leading man?

It was pretty much the best thing ever.  My nephew Caleb was more than annoyed.  Which made it even more fun.Then there was some running around naked (by the 4 and under crowd).  Followed by an ice cream party.  

 

 

2

This girl is two.

She loves to run and jump and wrestle with her brother.  Her favorite person is Daddy.  

She is both fiercely independent and fiercely affectionate.  Her favorite phrases are “I did it!” and “Hold me!”  She refuses to hold hands when walking across a parking lot and upon being picked up, she thrashes and kicks and screams as though she’s been abducted.  But if any person other than me, Sloan, Henry, or her cousin Rachel should try to pick her up, she will climb up my legs.  If Sloan or I sit on the ground, she immediately comes to sit in our laps.  She also likes to arrange Henry’s Thomas blanket neatly around him when he is reading a book or playing on his Thomas computer.

She rarely goes anywhere without LaLa the pink poodle.  

She loves cookies.  A lot.  She was afraid of her birthday cake so we just let her have Oreos.  She prefers Double Stuffed as she mainly just wants to eat the cream.  We consider this to mean she has excellent small motor skills.  Her favorite toys are her baby dolls, purses, and to play trains with Henry.  She also loves the trampoline and the sit and spin.  And she can not only jump high off the ground with two feet, she began jumping repeatedly on one foot this afternoon.  Her favorite shows are Curious George and Sesame Street.  Her favorite book is Go Dog! Go!  Her favorite songs are Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me, and “What I Am” by Will.I.Am.  She lets me know she wants to dance to “What I Am” by pointing to the Ipad, mimicking playing on drums, and chirping “I be strong.”  When I showed her how our new TV could play YouTube videos and she saw Will.I.Am and the Sesame Street gang in their full size glory, she began the jumping on one foot shenanigans.  She dances like she is Lord of the Dance.

She will only eat vegetables if they are in those uber expensive baby food foil squeezy things.  I don’t get it.  We offer her loads of veggies and healthy foods at dinner, but she ends up going to bed without dinner a lot.  Mainly because she won’t even let the plate sit in front of her if she doesn’t like what is on it.  Her favorite foods are cookies, sliced turkey, cheese, strawberries, and bananas.  She eats a lot of rice.  Which is to say I sweep up a lot of rice from the floor.  She also likes milkshakes. I’m going to start trying to make her some veggie smoothies.  So if you’ve got some recipes, link them up in the comments section.

She is at that stage where every day brings new words and phrases.  As of late, she really enjoys saying “Thank you.”  She thanks me for changing her diaper, which I appreciate.  She also likes to put her toes in my face while I am changing her diaper.  Then she says, “Kiss, kiss, Mommy.”  So I’m fairly certain that I’m ruining her for my future son-in-law.  

She has been known to throw a temper tantrum.  Or two.  Or thirty seven.

She is also great at shutting doors and putting things away.  She is the most helpful person in the family when it comes time to clean up the sunroom.  She excels in throwing items in the trash.  We often times cannot find our shoes because she has put them away.  

She laughs with her whole body.  She’ll do pretty much anything for a second (or seventh) cookie.   She lights up when her brother walks in the room, and they usually share a fist bump when they first see each other in the morning.  She is slowly growing used to being the prettiest girl in the room and can often be seen wearing giant sunglasses.  Even indoors.  

She is loved.  

Thank you Grace for rocking our world for the past two years!

FYI--A Marriage License won't get you into a bar

For starters, it must be said that Saturday was bittersweet for me.  Sweet because my dear bestie R got married to a wonderful man.  The wedding was a celebration of God's goodness and many answered prayers.  Moreover, it was an excuse to get dolled up, paint my toenails, and wear my fabulous open toed black satin wedges and shake my money maker.  But bitter, because the aforementioned wonderful man is moving my dear R to Fredericksburg.

Yes, Fredericksburg is only about an hour away.  But still.  Lunch dates with her are going to get tricky.

That being said, we had a blast at the wedding and reception.  The highlight of the reception for me was the open bar the Father-Daughter dance.  R and her dad had choreographed a dance that included music changes, the moonwalk, and every other dance style you can imagine.  What was sweet to me was not the silly dance, but the excitement with which they both danced it.  I envisioned R's dad at the computer putting the music together and then the two of them in their family room practicing.  And then I thought about Sloan and Gracie in 25 years or so and of course, I teared up.
But then, after tearing up, I got my groove on.

Sloan gets a little embarrassed when we go out dancing.  Mainly because a) our closest friends all go to church with us and b) I like to spank things and shake things whilst dancing.  Bonus points for Saturday as R used to work at our church so there were a lot of pastors and the like in attendance as well.  But we had practiced our shagging skills and were impressive, even manging to double pretzel on several occasions and basically showing up everyone.  (Which, of course, is always my goal.  I asked Sloan earlier in the day about which earrings to wear.  He responded, "You do know this isn't your wedding, right?  That everyone's not going to be looking at you?)

Once we sent the bride and groom off for their Caribbean honeymoon (which is hilarious because their dueling gingered paleness is only dwarfed by the Cullen family), a group of us decided we wanted to go to Carytown and go dancing.

Sloan wasn't too eager to go as he was thinking of the babysitter for whom we were already getting a second mortgage.  (She arrived at 3pm.  It was now 10.)  But, he was a trooper and I was loudly adamant having had three one too many glasses of chardonnay.  Sooo...we all hopped in our car and our DD, my pregnant friend A and her husband D, drove off for the techno stylings of the DJ at NY Deli.

Except there was only one problem.  Having thought I was just going to a wedding, I didn't have my ID.  I didn't think it would be a problem; I clearly look over 21, right?!

The bouncer at NY Deli, conceding that he was certain I was over 21, still did not let me in the bar.  I begged.  I pleaded.  I lied and said I wouldn't even drink if I went inside.  But no go.  We toyed with the idea of going home, but the boys wanted to go inside, so A and I were troopers and decided to walk around Carytown.  (Which is super fun for a pregnant woman in heels.  What a good friend!)   The bouncer told me if I had any government ID with my birth date or a photo ID, he would let me in.  So I went back to the car to search.

Randomly, I found my marriage license.  (Don't you keep yours in your glove compartment?)

He told me that would suffice for my age if I just had a credit card with my photo on it.

"I brought my husband with me, why would I need any money?"  I said. 

The bouncer neither budged or was amused.  He explained that if the ALE came into the bar and asked for my ID, simply my marriage license wouldn't cut it and then he would lose his job.  I tried reasoning with him that the likelihood of the ALE officers targeting a 30 something suburban housewife was nil.  He also said that my facebook page on my phone nor a Baby's First photo book did not count as official photo IDs.  I offered to play him the tape of my wedding ceremony.  (Also found in my glove compartment.  And yes, I did make us listen to it on the way home.)

So Ann and I walked around Carytown.  We ran into W, a friend of our church's with some mental problems.  He used to live with his parents near the church and he could always been seen smoking in our parking lot between cups of coffee in the church gallery.  When his parents passed away, he moved into a halfway home in Carytown.  So it actually was a treat to see him and talk with him.  A, being the church secretary and all, was close to W and asked him for name ideas for her baby.  He entreated her to name the child something "Pizazzy."

Once we were finished speaking with W, we then found a bench.  (Meanwhile, a group of men playing trashcans and the like as drums set up right next to us.  So. Freaking. Loud.)  I slowly went from laughing about the situation to feeling sorry for myself and then onto anger.  As in, How-dare-my-husband-leave-me- out-here-and-go-in-there-and-have-fun-without-me kind of anger.  I sent him angry texts.  I'd link up a screen shot of our texting conversation because it's freaking hilarious, but it is riddled with curse words.  I did, however, at one point, angrily text him to "Pick up a hottie."  He texted

A kept saying darling things like "You both need to be gracious to one another" and "now why are you being insecure, that has nothing to do with your ID" and "Oh, I don't think you need to cuss so much about this."

And so, if you saw me heavy lidded with my head in my hands on Sunday morning wishing my eyelids weren't so loud when I blinked--that's why.

All that said, I highly recommend when you're about to get into a stupid argument with your spouse that is really about nothing at all you're just hot and upset and mildly intoxicated (those are the BEST fights!), it helps to listen to your wedding ceremony on cassette tape.  Of course, sometimes I think it was rather foolish of me to write our vows and to include "to repent and to forgive".  Augh.  Who knew we'd spend so much time doing that?

So You Think Henry Can Dance...

It's a long video. But well worth it, I believe. Even if to merely dispel any thoughts you may have had about me NOT sounding like a redneck. Good grief! 

But here is Henry, in his Raymond Rabids Wii dancing debut.  Warning:  you should empty your bladder before watching...