When It Rains...

You would think that people actually liked us the way they are flocking to our door. Our friends Dean, Steph, Maya and Lucy made the trek this past weekend up to Nashville. Dean tried to play it off as he had some 'conference' to speak at Thursday night but we all know it was just an excuse to come visit!! Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we pretty much spent the weekend watching the rain come down from inside our little abode. But the rain doesn't matter when you have good friends and good beer to enjoy.

Hopefully the dreary weekend will convince them to stay in Atlanta instead of moving to the rain-soaked city of Seattle!!

We Have a Dry Fuzzy Caterpillar

There have been two big events that have transpired over the last week that I feel need announcing - both involving my little Quincess. The first being that as of one week ago I have declared Quinn potty-trained (knock on wood). Since last Saturday she has been in big girl underwear full-time (naps excluded) even on trips away from home (which for those of you who have had a newly potty trained child and even those of you who haven't probably realize what a nerve-wracking experience that is). She has had only one accident which was my fault. She asked for help on the potty I wanted to finish sauteeing the onions - it was only for a minute. I ended with a gallon of pee right next to the potty. I can't tell everyone how thrilled I am not to have to leave Costco every time I go with a vast quantity of diapers with me. Yeah Quinn!!

The other really big news around the house is that as of May 11 (day after Mother's Day), Quinn will be starting school at Susan Gray (if you haven't guessed by now in the Fuzzy Caterpillar room). We had originally planned for her to start in the fall at the start of a new school year. However, there is a child who goes to Susan Gray who summers in Italy (must be nice - though his family is Italian which is why they go, but I digress) and therefore his spot in Fuzzy Caterpillars is available. The administrators asked us if we wanted it and we jumped on the opportunity. Quinn is so excited to start school and be like her big brother. When you ask her about it she is all smiles and puffs out her chest and tells you how she is going to be a Fuzzy Caterpillar.

For me though, I will admit there are a lot of mixed emotions. I think the experience will be great for Quinn. She hasn't gotten a lot of interaction with children her own age outside of Greyson and our occasional houseguest so I think this will be wonderful for her burgeoning social skills. I am 100% glad she is going and I think it will be great for her.

My issue of course (as it always seems to be) is with me. Starting May 11th I don't know exactly what I am going to do with myself from 9 to 2 every day. As most people know, I had never thought of myself as a stay at home Mom. When I initially got pregnant we had planned to put the kids in daycare and I would continue my career, fate however, had a different plan. I never really had the choice to stay home; it was what I had to do to take care of Greyson's health and development. Now don't get me wrong - it was absolutely the right decision and I don't regret one moment of the time I have gotten with him or Quinn for that matter. Still, it was a really tough transition for someone who had enjoyed the work environment and its challenges and I found it hard to get that same stimulation from the day to day grind of staying home.

I sort of feel that I am at that crossroads again. I thought about going back to work but there are so many obstacles in my way. First with Raif traveling for his job I need to find a job where I can take the kids to school, pick them up, be able to take off on school holidays, dr appointments and sick days. There aren't a lot of those jobs out there. But the even bigger question for me is would I be happy with one of those jobs? The type of job that would challenge me and engage me isn't the type of job that I could do 20 hours a week or more to the point I could do it but no one offers that job at 20 hours a week. So where does that leave me - a bottom rung accounting job that wouldn't challenge me would probably bore me to tears and frustrate the hell out of me. The other option would be to put the kids in after-school program and work full time. But, while I love Susan Gray to death and know that they are doing a great job with the kids there are some things that a school can't teach and there are some particular things that I think need to be taught that are outside of the mainstream curriculum. I don't think I would be able to instill the values and such in my kids working full time.

So where does that leave me? I know that my staying at home will be great for the family. Hopefully there will be no more 'family time' at Costco or the grocery store and I will be able to get more done around the house during the day leaving more time for us to go on more adventures with the kids and (gasp) spend a little more quality time with my husband. So I am looking forward to that aspect of it. I am also looking forward to getting some projects done around the house that I never seem to have time for. Anyone who has been to the house recently knows that it looks as if we still have two babies if the pictures on the walls are any indication. And don't even get me started on the mess that is our basement. But after I tackle those projects - what next? Perhaps what my mother says is true - those daytime hours will fly by faster than I think and I will be able to keep myself busy. Only time will tell I suppose - but if anyone has any ideas to keep me sane around here - let me know!

Frequent Diners Card

As most people know - we live in Bumble and so when we want good food we pretty much have to drive into Nashville which is a minimum of 25 minutes or so driving time. When we want "I really dont' want to cook tonight and my children are hungry" food we have to settle for the fare in Smyrna which is limited to several not very good chains, a scary pizza joint, and even scarier Mexican restaurant and a Japanese steak house. We usually end up at the Japanese Steak House.

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that we might eat there a little too often. Quinn, Greyson and I were upstairs playing and I asked if they wanted to play restaurant. Yes they cried so Quinn and I became the diners and Greyson was going to be the chef. He brought us menus but then informed us what we were going to have - steak. Then he said that we would be right back and went into Quinn's room to put on his imaginary big white hat. Then he went over to their little play stove/oven. I assumed that he was going to 'cook' our dinner there and bring it to us but no. He started pushing it to the table and informed me that it was his cart and then proceeded to get out his pots and pans and bang them together and throw all the food up in the air and try to catch it on his spatula. Thankfully we still have all of our eyes and no one was seriously injured. Then he had to go and turn all the lights out so he could make 'fire.' After he was done he proceeded to wipe our table down and push his cart away.

Perhaps we need to find some new restaurants around here....

The Erim Hilton

The guest room was filled again this past weekend. This time our crazy friend Keith decided that it would be a good idea to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and run a half marathon. While I think that this is completely nuts it did make Keith and Susanna drive up to Nashville from Atlanta and stay for the weekend so Keith could run the Music City Marathon so I can't really complain. We enjoyed a very relaxing weekend of catching up and enjoying the first really warm weekend of the season. Greyson impressed Kinley with his driving ability by driving her all around the neighborhood in his red Mustang. It was hysterical to see him drive up to the curve where she was waiting and have her hop in and watch the two of them take off. It was sort of reminiscent of a 50's movie - bad boy, cool car, young girl running away together. Then Quinn got to have her first 'sleep over' with Kinley which I think they both thoroughly enjoyed though perhaps not as much as Keith and Susanna getting the guest room to themselves.
Now if this isn't an ad for a Power Wheels I don't know what is

Future best friends...

Stem Cell Advances and Other Toddler Topics

We are having a bit of trouble around here with going potty. Now Quinn is doing great with her potty training and I think is almost there. Our problem is how we go potty. You see Quinn and Greyson always have to do what the other is doing. So when one decides to go to the bathroom the other feels the need as well. (Try fitting yourself and two little ones in a stall - not fun). So inevitably Quinn sees Greyson going to the bathroom and now has started to make a speical request - "Mommy I want to pee standing up." Trying to explain the physics of why this would be a total disaster didn't seem to work as well as I had hoped. So I streamlined things a little. "You can only pee standing up if you have a willy. Boys have willys and girls don't." This lead to the following conversation last night while on the potty.

"Mommy, if I grow a willy can I pee standing up?"
"Yes, I suppose if you grow a willy you can then pee standing up."
"OK, then I am going to grow one." (thoughtful pause) "Mommy, how do you grow a willy?"

Hmmm - that was a good question. I thought about telling her about DNA and stem cells and beginning her fascinating journey into micro-biology and anatomy but it was almost bedtime so I opted for this:

"I don't know because I never grew one for myself."
"Oh.....Greyson how did you grow your willy?"
"I don't know."
"Greyson, will you share your willy with me?"
"No"
(Crying and screaming) - "Mommy, Greyson won't share!!!"

There are many topics I figured I was going to have to discuss with my children - sharing private areas was never among them. Who knew peeing standing up was so much fun - I guess we ladies are really missing out.

Why I LOVE Greyson's School

OK - so I am no preschool expert, seeing as how with the exception of the preschool I went to when I was 3, I have only been exposed to Greyson's school. Despite that fact I think I can tell when a school rocks and I am pretty sure that Greyson's school rocks. This week is National "Week of the Young Child" and Greyson's school has a special event every day. Yesterday's event was the best. The school brought in the Vanderbilt marching band including the flag girls. The kids all made their own instruments - paper plate tamborines, paper towel kazoos etc. and kids and marching band all went outside on a beautiful spring day and marched through the Peabody campus (Vanderbilt's education school). Many of the teachers and students at Peabody came out of their classes and cheered the kids along. I was invited to come along for the event and bring Quinn and had a great time. It was hysterical to watch and listen to a marching band backed up by sixty some preschoolers banging away on their instruments completely out of tune. Greyson, of course, as he has to relate everything to sports kept telling everyone that that was the band from the football games. I just can't imagine many other preschools that have the ability to do things like this. We love Susan Gray!!

Friends, Dogs and Lots of Loud Cars....

Raif is considering a 'side project' with a Classic Mustang car shop in St. Louis. The owners of the company were down in Birmingham for the 45th anniversary celebration of the Mustang so we decided to go on a family road trip so Raif could meet them and talk a little business. I was THRILLED because as everyone knows there is nothing that I love more than a muscle car show :). The bonus of the trip was that we got to see our friends Ashley and John who live in Birmingham and were generous enough to put up the whole entire Erim clan (dogs included) for the weekend. I frankly don't know what part of the trip my kids loved more - Ashley and John's dogs or the actual car show itself. From the time they got up in the morning all the kids wanted to know was "Where are Duncan and Arthur (pronounced Ar-fur)?" They chased them around the house and loved on them and petted them and drove them insane. The day at the car show provided hours of entertainment crawling in and out of cars and 'driving' them all over the place. They even got to see a several Mustangs race around Birmingham's new IRL track. All in all it was a great weekend even though I was at a car show. Thanks to John and Ashley for their tremendous hospitality.