THOMPSON TOWNE

6/05/2010

Beach Baby

Memorial Day Weekend - 2010!!!

What a blast it was!

Nana flew into Atlanta on Wednesday and we packed up the car and headed to Charleston on Thursday afternoon. Lily's first trip the beach, mom's first trip to Charleston and my first......I'm sure there was something......

My dear, sweet friend Erin and her hubby and baby boy are living in Folly Beach for the next three years and allowed us to come take advantage of the situation. We are so incredibly grateful for the wonderful opportunity and the excellent southern hospitality that Erin is famous for.

However, I need to make some notes for our next beach adventure:
1. Take more than one swim diaper. And if I only have one and it's been used but we decide to go back to the beach, perhaps I should consider taking it off when we actually get to the beach. Just in case so we can avoid the possibility of peeing on the bathroom rug because she thinks she's taking a bath. And so we can maybe not slip and slide on a pee puddle in the middle of our hosts' hardwood floors. I might also want to think about the chance of her peeing in the wagon on our way to the beach. (And I thought she was dehydrated! Phewy!)

2. Don't be pregnant so I can wear a suitable bathing suit, drink lavender martinis and take a shooter at Pearlz restaurant.

3. Go into the first night with low expectations on the sleeping situation for Lily. I'm not sure who was screaming louder....Charlie or Lily. Needless to say, we ended up bringing Lily into our room and she finally got the hang of the routine on our final night there.

4. Take John with us. "Mama." "Mama." "Mama!!!" "No, Nana." "Mama." "Mama." It was a little exhausting. (Guess I should be careful what I wish for.)

Lots of pictures to share! Enjoy!

Nana's first photo op in Charleston at the market

Festival downtown with lots of fun things to do.

Met up with Bobby and Emily for breakfast one morning.

John used to babysit Bobby when he was Lily's age!

(Mainly to pick up chicks, I think.)

Tractor Charlie

Could she be any sweeter?!?!

Yes, Lily's first bath with a boy. They did well together!

My sweet Erin

Erin getting her work-out

The Awesome Arnold Clan

She really couldn't get enough of the water or the waves.

LOVED IT!!!

Enjoying the waves together for the first time thanks to Erin allowing me to stretch out her bathing suit

Lily and Brett enjoying the waves

Thank you for such a fun weekend, Erin, Brett and Charlie!

We love you all and can't wait to visit again!

Catch up

Just some shots of what Lily's been up to since the summer weather has arrived. Playdates and pool time. Well....one of each, but still....they count!

Not exactly sure what her fixation is with water bottles.

I think she learned it from Bear.

Leaving home already

Lily: "Sidewalk chalk is cool!"
Mom: "Target's $1 section rocks!"

Free pool time in our neighborhood. (Too bad it's not free all summer.)

Yes, those are matching shoes.

I have matching hair things, too, but I've told you how that goes.

5/17/2010

Tennis Anyone?

Lily's first ponytail!!!!
Well, that's what I like to call it.
It's really just a little twig of hair wrap very tightly in a mini-rubberband, hidden by a pink bow.

She didn't dig it as much I did so I knew I had to grab the camera and take as many shots as I could.

Mark my words: Kennedy will come out WEARING A BOW.
She will have a bow in her hair, on her head, wrapped around her ear or neck E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y.
I so much as breathe on Lily's head and she thinks I've snuck a little barrett or clip into her hair.
You try to just smooth out her hair and she immediately reaches up there to pull out whatever it is that might be there.

This is supposed to be one of the fun parts of having girls......bows and clips and fuzzy things in their hair. (Although I hated bows and dresses as a kid, why am I trying to force it on my children?)

Anyhow....
Lily absolutely loves being out on the tennis court. She loves the racquet. She loves chasing the balls. She even loves trying to carry the basket of balls like a purse even though it's still taller than her.
Several months ago....and when I say "several," I mean A WHILE ago.....John asked the crazy question: "Do you think we should hang a tennis ball over her crib so she can start tracking the ball?"
My response: "Do you want to start her in therapy now or wait until she's 3?"
Needless to say, he was kidding (I hope) and we never made a mobile of tennis balls for her room.
But she loves being outside on the court with her daddy! It's very cute to watch!

Lily and her new friend, "Melmo."

Out on the courts with Dad

So incredibly cute!

Helping Dad with his lesson

5/11/2010

Mother's Day and More

Okay.
So I've been getting grief for not putting any pictures of my pregnant self up this time around. The day this picture was taken, someone saw me and said, "Holy cow!"
I wasn't quite sure how to take that.

John and Lily headed back up to Nashville for Grandma's 75th birthday party while I got to stay home, rest and get rid of my persistently nasty hacky cough.

Thank you, Aunt Libby, for always giving us a place to stay.

Isn't Grandma pretty???

Happy Birthday!!!

Uncle Robby came for a quick visit before having to travel again

The two loves of my life...

Mother's Day was special!

Despite having to get up early and receiving some losing lottery tickets as a "gift," it was a fun day to be "mama." We got to go out to breakfast because I was craving IHOP pancakes....don't ask how many I ordered.

John and Lily gave me the world's sweetest cards and those are what really made the entire day wonderful. You wouldn't know it, but he's pretty good with words.

Later on in the day, I treated myself to a pedicure and wished it had lasted longer.

My squirmy wormy isn't much for being photographed these days so this is all I got....

Attempt #2

Feeling pretty good about myself after Mother's Day and because of the fact that Lily has finally started saying "mama" and running to me at the babysitter's and seemingly loving me, I pushed my luck to far:

After an attitude adjustment and perhaps a bit of coaching:

Some other fun things to report on the Lilster at 16 months:

Various new words...mama, no, mine, dada (of course), si (yes), tunk you (thank you), no, mine, peas (please), outside, go bye bye, no, mine, gracias, no, phone.

She's putting things together as well and follows commands extremely well. She definitely has her morning routine with her father and throws a fit if that bagel isn't quite ready for her when she's in her chair.

She loves saying "hi" to my belly and giving it kisses! I'm not pretending she has a clue of what's about to happen to her world but it's still sweet and cute. Besides, she lifts up her own shirt to show her belly and says, "Baby!" Let's wait a few more years for that, please.

She likes phones and remote controls. Sometimes the remote becomes a phone which I never knew you could do.

She's able to identify her mouth, head, ears, eyes, nose and belly. She likes showing you your nose and mouth as well.

She makes a silly face, happy face and fishy face.

She goes to sleep extremely well and wakes up happy almost everyday.

She's the best thing since sliced bread, if you ask me!

4/23/2010

Babies, Nashville and....Vampires?

Meet our new little one....
Kennedy Taylor Thompson
(This ultrasound picture is actually the least scary one.) It sort of looks like maybe she's waving to us.
We're past the halfway point....22 weeks today and it's going by a lot faster than Lily's pregnancy. SLOW DOWN!!!

And here's the other star of the blog.....Lily Grace being her typical silly self opening and closing the laundry room door saying, "HI!" "Bye bye." "HI!" "Bye bye."
It never gets old!

My droopy face that makes everyone ask, "Oh...did you just wake up?"

"No, I look like my father."

Lily and I packed up the car last weekend and drove up to see John's family outside of Nashville for Laura's (Lily's cousin) baby shower.

Apparently I'm old enough to have a niece who is having a baby. Where does the time go?

I digress.

We had grand old time.....closing all the open doors, meeting cats and playing the piano with Uncle Ahyah.

Grandma time!

Vampires.

I love 'em.

I'm hooked on the Twilight series.
I'm hooked on the True Blood HBO series.

And I'm hooked on The Vampire Diaries.

I received a call at work a couple of weeks ago from my friend at the Sunshine Kids (in Houston) asking if I might be able to get a group of teenagers together to go on the set of The Vampire Diaries. (It just happens to be filmed 15 minutes from the hospital.)

HELL-TO-THE-YOU-BETCHYA, I said.

I called on my fellow 30-something friend who got me addicted to the show to go with us because we "definitely need" two nurses on this outing, right? Right.

What a fun-tastically wonderful day it was! We, I mean the kids, got to meet all the main actors and watch how things were done and tour the different sets, etc. Fabulous!

I feel a little weird posting all the pictures on here for patient confidentiality but there's one good one I got of "Damon."

Hubba-hubba-hubba.

Mr. Ian Somerhalder