It Takes a Village

By Tiffany George

For those who didn’t know, I threw out my back for the second time in as many months. What’s even worse than the pain I feel is the fact that I simply can’t lift the kids. As a stay-at-home Mom, this is obviously a prerequisite for my job, so it has been incredibly difficult. It has taken a Village to help me out around the clock for the past two weeks, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped out. The one extraordinary thing about this entire situation is that everyone who has come here has gotten to witness the cuteness that is Andrew & Natalie every day.

Thanks, first and foremost, to Pete. He has had to seriously step up to be both Mom and Dad, from cleaning and laundry to dishes and diapers, and that is on top of all of the other helpful things that he always does to help me out around the house and with the kids. I love you hun! Pete has even been good natured whenever the cute little girl has happened to puke on him. A little over a month ago Pete was kissing Natalie in her mouth and all of a sudden Pete started spitting on the ground. As it turned out, Nat Nat had puked in his mouth...a first for us. Just the other day, Pete was having her fly above him like an airplane and shockingly (not!) she puked on his face. Here's evidence:

Coming in a close second in the helping out department would definitely be Grammy. Gail has actually slept over on our couch two nights so that she could be here to help me with the kids in the morning.

A big thanks also to Meme, Papa, and Grampa for pitching in in any way they could. God knows Andrew was ecstatic to be surprised by Papa getting him out from his crib on Tuesday! My friend Lauren has also been so supportive and helpful. My friend Robin even came over at 7 in the morning to be here in case Natalie needed to be lifted from her crib. Auntie Sheila actually took the day off today and came over at 6:45am on her vacation day…some vacation. Amidst school, working out, and working at the Road House, Katie has also been a huge help two weeks in a row. I know that I am incredibly blessed to have so much help over the past two weeks. I love you all so much!!! If I have forgotten anyone, my apologies!

The best part about this has been getting a chance for other people to share in the joy that I get to experience every day.

Natalie is just growing like a weed. She recently discovered that she can stand up in her Exersaucer, and she loves it. Just yesterday she started bouncing in her Jumperoo too.

She loves to play with her toys, and she always wants to have something in her mouth. She is already starting to like things that are off limits. On Tuesday I was unwrapping a package of wipes to refill the wipe container, and the wrapper enthralled Natalie. I put it on the floor and told her that if she could get to it, she could have it. Well, of course the little cutie rolled this way, and rolled that way, and then got up on her hands and knees. She experimented by lifting one arm way up high, then the other, as she has been doing on and off for the past week. And then, she did it! She took two to three crawl steps forward and got that wrapper. I was so happy that Papa got to be here to witness her crawling for the first time (September 23rd). She hasn’t done it too much since, but we haven’t needed to refill the wipes yet either!

Natalie’s favorite toy is definitely her brother. She is so excited to see him and she likes to look at him, even when he is looking the other way. She gives her biggest smiles when she finally captures his attention. It is adorable.

Andrew is just so cute, and did I mention “so nice”? We all always tell Andrew that he is so nice whenever he is helpful, or when he helps out with his sister. Well, obviously we do this a lot because lately when he does something to help out he’ll say “AnYou so nice”. You’re right cutie, you are so nice.

He is also very polite. He loves to say “thank you Momma” when I do something nice for him, even without prompting. It was the cutest thing, last week we came home from a day at the Lake and my friend Robin had brought by a basket of food to help me out while I was laid up with my back. Attached to the basket was a helium balloon. You would have thought it was a puppy drooling chocolate, Andrew was so excited. He was jumping up and down, clapping, saying yay, you name it. Then he said “thank you Momma bought that you, thank you”. I regret to say that in the heat of the moment, I took the credit :o)

He has also started saying love you, or sometimes I love you. For anyone who has had the chance to talk to this cutie on the phone, you know that at the end he always says “bye love you”. Most of the time if he is chatting on the phone, he has to be wearing my blue tooth. It is adorable. Papa gets many mid-morning calls from his cute grandson dying to hear his voice. Lately Andrew has been saying I love you to me before bed. He also likes to play with Natalie, and yesterday he’d just come out and say Love You Nat. It is priceless, Gail is my witness!

We also went to a yard sale last weekend and bought Andrew this car shown below. He loves it so much. He could honestly play in it for hours, just driving around the deck or driveway. I think he likes the fact that he can steer it, move it, and drive it all by himself.

Andrew is getting ready for Aunt Valerie’s wedding on Saturday. He seemed to like the tux when we got it, as long as he could keep his PJs on underneath. We’ll see what happens come Saturday. He is the ring bearer for the wedding, and he has been practicing with the pillow. I bought him some little rings to tie onto the pillow to help him understand his role in the wedding. He picked out big bird, elmo, a pumpkin, and other fashionable rings that I’m sure Valerie and Brian will love!
I am trying to make a green tie to match the wedding party for Andrew to wear for the wedding. Yesterday I took out the sewing machine (actually Gail got it for me) and I started to sew. Both kids were entranced by this endeavor. Andrew was so focused on figuring out how it worked, watching the thread as it moved through. He was such a big helper too. I let him put the foot up and down at the beginning and end of each row of stitches and he loved it. I also let him hold onto the thread when I started sewing. He was in Heaven!

I’ll keep you posted as to how Saturday goes. Not sure if he’ll walk down the aisle or not, but we won’t pressure him. I have told him that he gets to walk down the paper road (aisle) all by himself. He looked right at me and said “no hold Momma’s hand?” (thinking it’s a real road). This seemed to excite him a bit, but we’ll see if the real aisle fits the bill. He knows that Papa will be at the end of the paper road with a special treat snack for him, so that may help too.

Here are some photos of my adorable kids. Enjoy!

Andrew being adventurous and climbing the big rock with Grammy.

Andrew relaxing at the Lake with Grammy. What a life!

Or is it Grammy who gets to do the relaxing?????? :o)

Andrew with Teddy, his most sacred possession. Today Teddy got a little yogurt on him and just the thought of Teddy needing to take a bath in the washing machine prompted a flood of tears from this sweetie.