Rachel Callahan

Double Your Fun

June 2, 2009June 2, 2011 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, The Blissfulness of Life, Toddlers: The Experience

Besides all of the baby excitement, we’ve been having a double-night sleepover with Ali’s BFF AJ.

Which, of course, means that there is now an added matching jammies sleepover picture.

Here’s the history:

April 2008, Ali: 15 Mos, AJ: 18 Mos

November 2008, Ali: 22 Mos, AJ: 25 Mos
March 2009, Ali: 26 Mos, AJ: 29 Mos

And now, Ali: 29 Mos, AJ: 32 Mos
They have had a blast. From swinging on the swing:

To doubling up (in a quite squooshed manner) in the CVS car:

To having girl talk in AJ’s “special special” bed before they went their separate ways for the night:

These girls, without a doubt, love each other.

And the great part is, they’re old enough now to invent games together. Here are a couple videos of their play from the past couple of days:

“Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy”

“Pop Goes the Ali and AJ”

But besides THEIR fun, I always learn something at every sleepover. I learned TWO things this sleepover:

1. When having a pottytraining child staying at your house, it is imperative that you make sure to use their terminology for pottytraining, not yours.

For instance, if they use “tinkle”, don’t ask them if they have to “tee tee”, and if they use the term “make a stinky”, don’t ask them if they have to “poo poo” – the answer will always be no.

However, pottytraining children are not as volatile as one might suspect. They WILL be able to hold it until you figure out the correct potty verbage.

2. Although all of Ali’s sleeping buddies are quite soft, Iris (AJ’s baby doll’s) head is QUITE heavy and loud. And, although Ali’s friends make NO noise when thrown, when Iris is thrown from a bed, it might sound like the bed itself just fell over onto a toddler.

However, it’s just Iris’ hard head. There is no need to rush up the stairs in a blinding panic.

We’ve had a wonderful sleepover, and even on their THIRD day together, the girls are still getting along beautifully. And that is a true toddler miracle!

A New Baby!!

June 1, 2009 Rachel Callahan Newsflash, The Blissfulness of Life

AJ spent the night with us last night, and we headed to the hospital VERY bright and early this morning to meet her new baby sister!!

The girls were QUITE dazed on the way:

We got to the waiting room and sat down to. . . wait.

AJ waited expecantly. . .

And Ali waited sleepily.
I’m pretty sure she FELT like doing this:
But of course she didn’t. I just caught her mid-blink.

AJ got nervous. She got a morale boosting hug from Ali:

And then the moment came!!! They opened the blinds, and there stood Daddy with a new baby!!

A beautiful baby!!! But was it a boy or a girl?

David came around and told AJ the secret. She came back in and announced to us all. . .
“I HAVE A NEW BABY SISTER!!!”

Tessa Faith was 7 lbs 5 ozs, 20 inches long!

Everyone was overjoyed:

And Dandee changed into her appropriate pink colored shirt (she, along with the rest of us, was feeling “boy” this morning, so she came in her blue shirt. What a good Grandmother to bring both!)

Well, everyone was overjoyed but Ali. She got really quiet for about 10 minutes, then tapped me on the shoulder and said quietly, “I don’t. . .I don’t want Mommy to have a baby in her tummy.”

I guess the reality hit her.

We looked at pictures. . .

And then it was time to wait for Mommy and baby Tessa to get into a room. Everyone was feeling quite sleepy by now.

An hour or so later, we went to see new Baby Tessa up close:

And AJ fell immediately in love.

She begged to hold her over and over:

And then Baby Tessa gave AJ a present! A camera!

Baby Tessa is beautiful and happy:

And the whole family couldn’t be more thrilled.
AJ is already completely in love with her little sister.

And currently, now that we’re back home, the girls are “playing” sleep in the floor.

I think today will be a PERFECT day for an early, LONG, nap.

Congratulations, David, Ashley and AJ!!!

Tailgating, Baby Waiting, Orange Stores and More!

May 31, 2009 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, Football and I have a Complicated Relationship, Toddlers: The Experience

It’s basically June now, which means that it’s only three months until football season. Which means, of course, that my husband’s mind is filled with grand plans and lofty ideas about tailgating and ballgaming.

Every year he adds something new to his Alabama Football “experience”. Last year it was a small(-ish) flat screen TV.

Because no tailgate party is complete without a television, apparently.

To fuel his new device, he had “borrowed” satellite signal from one of our tailgating neighbors.

So, ever since last football season, he’s been planning out how to get satellite service of his own. We have cable, so that’s no help to his grand plans. However, through a complicated web of “borrow this, borrow that, here’s my old equipment, you can pay $10 to have an extra dish on my service” with all of his tailgating compadres, he has been hard at work rigging up his “new” satellite dish:
(Obviously, his test television is not his tailgating flat screen.)
If I understand correctly, that dish is sitting atop a $2.62 piece of PVC pipe, which is now attached to a tripod ordered from ebay (rather than that nice cart that he was experimenting with when I got home from Lifegroup last Sunday night).

So yesterday, he needed to stop by The Home Depot (or “The Orange Store”, as Ali calls it) to get a few more odds and ends for his great project.

(You really should see his workshop – it looks like he is tracking UFO’s or something in there.)

While he hunted and shopped around, Ali and I were minding our own business playing on the “Balance Beam” that she had found (she really is absolutely obsessed with Gymnastics in every way. I think we might start lessons in the fall).

However, several of the associates (who looked quite bored) were entertaining themselves by watching her. Then a very nice older gentleman went and got her an apron of her own, and wrote her name on it and everything:
(Here she is showing me the vast lotion inventory that they have. She was trying so hard to squeeze that Gorilla Glue out onto her hands.)

Oh – speaking of her hands, she has apparently been watching other women (much more girly than her mother, seeing as how I never do this) who have their fingernails painted, and has been begging me to paint them for weeks. She’s always wanted her toes painted, but this fingernail painting business was a first.

So finally, on Memorial Day, I had no more excuses. I agreed to paint them, and braced myself for the chaos-mess that would ensue.

However, much to my surprise yet much like the first time I painted her toenails, she gladly sat so very still to let me paint them. And all week long, she’s been showing them to EVERYONE:
And, a wonderful side benefit of this was that I was able to break her of her long-standing habit of chewing on her fingers in one day, simply by telling her that she was going to mess up her fingernail polish.

Who knew that painted fingernails were so useful in training a toddler?

Well, I’m off to get ready to have twins. Tomorrow is the big day!!! AJ is going to be getting either a new baby brother or sister in the morning!!

She’s spending tonight and tomorrow night with us, and I am undertaking the grand adventure of getting the girls up very, very early and taking them to the hospital in time to for the grand announcement and baby introducing!!

I’m actually very excited about it. Since I have their kid, I have every excuse in the world to come to the hospital for the birth without being that weird friend who shows up that you really wish would go away and come back in a few days.

So, be expecting a fun blog sometime tomorrow on the grand unveiling of the new baby and toddlers running wild around the hospital!!

Extreme Hair Makeover: According to the Husband.

May 31, 2009 Rachel Callahan I embarrass myself just for your amusement., Utter Silliness

So about every six months, I get bored and frustrated with my hair. I want something new, but yet I’m usually too afraid to actually TRY something new (just like last time I bemoaned this subject).

In my estimation, there are three options, of which you can do any or all, to change your hair when you find yourself in boredom crisis:
1. Color
2. Curl/Straighten
3. Cut

I’ve never colored my hair – not because I wouldn’t like to try it – because I would – but because I’m way too practical to spend a ton of money and time getting it maintained every 4-6 weeks.

As far as curl goes, I have had a couple of body waves, and have considered trying that again. So I went in search of pictures of said hairdo (circa 2004) to see if I really liked it.

Unfortunately, it was WAY before blogging days, and, so, there are very few photos of those years. And most of the pictures that we DID take were cell phone pictures. So, I present to you, Exhibit A and B, poor quality although they are:It was a fun hairdo, because I could either straighten it or keep it wavy.

(Exhibit C, straightened, again forgive the horrible picture quality – this was in the dark ages, after all:)
However, it was also pretty damaging to my hair – I’d always have a few unnoticable-except-to-me bald spots after receiving a body wave, plus I would actually have to use a flat iron to straighten it, which I don’t normally have to do.

Now to cut. I’ve kept it long for almost all of my life (and the only times it was short were very awkward years anyway, so I have this perception: me + short hair = AWKWARD).

My hubby is categorically opposed to me getting it cut short (and by short, I think he means REALLY short – I believe I have more leeway than I act on), but says I can get anything else done to it that I want.

So last night, I was telling him (yet again) that I was bored with my hair. What should I do? Should I finally get adventurous and get it colored? Should I potentially bear your disappointment and get it cut? Should I get another body wave?

He put on his really serious voice, and then described in full detail exactly what he thought I should do with it.

So I tried it.

THIS was his suggestion:

I sure hope someone else has a better one.

How Did Alabama Get the Short End of the Beach Stick?

May 30, 2009 Rachel Callahan "Deep" Thoughts by Rachel, Utter Silliness

I wrote this on Tuesday for Alabama Bloggers. And, since I have been completely busy AND unbelievably sleepy, (which equals no blogging time), I thought I’d try to sneak one past you guys and reprint something I wrote for somewhere else, hoping that some of you would maybe have not read it at Alabama Bloggers. Or maybe you did, but that you’d have mercy on me either way and show me some love.

Which, by the way, if you’re from Alabama (or even if you’re not) and haven’t been checking out Alabama Bloggers, you’ve missed some fun stuff this week! We have nearly 100 Alabama Bloggers already participating – don’t miss out on the fun!!! Be sure to stop by, link in, and say hi to all of your blogging neighbors!!

There is nothing I love better than going to the beach, and I especially love that I can go to the beach and still be loyal to my wonderful state at the same time.

However, Have you noticed that someone is a bit of a hog down there?

I mean COME ON – Florida has a completely three-sided peninsula with thousands of miles of coastline that is in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, but they still HAD to come across Georgia and steal most of our beach too!?!?!?

Here’s the stats, as well as I could find with the help of Google:

Florida has over 2,200 miles of coastline.

Do you know how many miles Alabama has? 60.

Our border with Florida is over 150 miles long. If you figure in the curves and dips and squigglies of the coastline, that’s AT LEAST 200 miles of coastline.

Stolen.

Before our very eyes!

I can see Florida getting their slickest ~~Politician~~ Salesman with the greasy hair and the fancy suit to come offer to do us a favor: “We want to be good neighbors. That land over there? The nasty sandy land? It’s eat up with crabs and sharks and hurricanes!! We’ll take the responsibility of that awful land so that you don’t have to suffer from all of those ailments.”

How do YOU think it happened?

And how can we take them back?

I know it CAN happen, because several years ago when the Perdido Bridge was built, Florida “gave” Alabama an extra mile or so if we agreed to build the bridge. So we ARE taking it back, one mile at a time!

At any rate, here’s my proposal, Florida. Take it or leave it (funny, I think I know the answer to that option).

(While we’re at it, maybe we can be good neighbors and retrieve Georgia’s for them as well.)

Conquer The Caption: Week Nine

May 29, 2009 Rachel Callahan Conquer The Caption

So I’m pretty sure that last week’s CtC was my favorite ever. And yours too, apparently. There were SO MANY great captions! I couldn’t just narrow it down to one. So the top two are:

Lianne

Ali closed her eyes a little a envisioned her future as Farrah Faucett’s replacement in the new “Charlie’s Angels” tv series.

Laura
“Oh that Kris Allen, he’s so d-r-e-a-m-y…”

As usual, you people are geniuses!!

And, Heeeeere’s this week’s CtC!!

Here’s how to play:

Write a caption for the above picture(s) and post it in the comments of THIS POST.
AND/OR:
Put up your OWN photo (not mine) on your own blog and link it here (using a permalink – let me know if you don’t know how) with the mister linky below. Then other people (like me) can come to your blog and write captions for YOUR photo, too!

Good luck!!

Yet Another M&M Deception.

May 28, 2009 Rachel Callahan Deception: A Parent's Best Friend, Parent of the Year

Apparently, hiding our M&M consumption from our toddler is a big trend in our parenting. It doesn’t seem like we eat that many, but considering this is my third blog on the subject, maybe I need to reassess my habit.

Hold on. I’ll be right back.

Okay. Needed to get some M&M’s. Much better now.

So anyway, I wasn’t feeling too good a couple of days ago, so I snuck a handful of the best cure for all female ailments, M&M’s.

(Which, by the way, my wonderful hubby picked up on my hint and learned from CVS’ failures and surprised me with a bag of Premium Mint M&M’s yesterday.

*Sigh*

He’s the best!)

Back to the story. The reason I didn’t share my M&M’s with Ali was because she and I were headed upstairs to get her ready for naptime.

However, Ali must’ve smelled it.

She got suspicious and whipped around.

I had just stuffed the last ones in my mouth and showed her my empty hand, while trying to pull my cheeks in to make it look like my mouth wasn’t, in fact, stuffed with chocolatey goodness.

She calculated.

She analyzed.

Then she said decidedly:

“Mommy ate her medicine.”

With my full mouth, I said “mm hmm.”

“Mommy ate it to feel better.”

“mm hmm.”

“Does Mommy feel better?”

“mmmmm HMMM.”

Dear God: What Extension Do I Dial for the Warranty Department?

May 27, 2009 Rachel Callahan I embarrass myself just for your amusement., Just My Luck, Toddlers: The Experience

Ali and I have been ailing for the last couple of days. Me because of my own doing, and her because of I-Have-No-Idea-What’s doing.

Let’s start with me. Last night I was cooking dinner – an experimental dinner (which turned out marvelously delicious might I add – Chicken and New Potatoes in Nabeel’s Greek Dressing and Cavender’s Greek Seasoning, along with homemade creamed corn), and I was quite frustrated with it because it was taking much longer to cook than I thought it should.

I pulled the corningware out of the oven for the THIRD time, hoping that the potatoes would be soft and the chicken not raw. I poked and prodded around, and finally admitted that it was, yet again, nowhere near ready.

Then I reached over to get the glass lid to the dish. Forgetting, of course, that it had just come out of a 450 degreed oven.

I grabbed it heartily with three fingers and a thumb before recalling that it just MIGHT be warm.

I dropped it into the big pan of corn on the stove and ran to the sink in search of cold water.

Now I’m pretty clumsy as clumsy goes, so a burn is not too unusual for me. But for some reason, this one was quite intense. It was fine as long as I had my fingers on an ice pack or under cold water at all times, but the second I took them off, it was unbearable.

That could have something to do with the amazing nerve endings in your hands. I think I learned that lesson last summer, thanks to sleepwalking.

All I could think all night was “Dang IT, nerves!!!!! Hurry up and DIE already!!! You’re getting on my last. . .oh yeah you are my nerve.”

Anyway, my hand continued to sizzle throughout the night (I’m pretty sure I browned it. That reminds me – maybe my dish would have worked better if I had browned the chicken BEFORE baking it).

Finally, hours later, I let Chris hunt around and find the sunburn ointment, and he slathered my fingers up for me. It didn’t help at first, but miraculously, they quit hurting just in time for bed. Aren’t hubbies great?

On to Ali’s ailments (believe me, you’ll wish I stayed at mine). So Ali has had, um, digestive issues for two weeks now. I of course called the doctor’s office a while back, and they informed me that they don’t worry about such things until it has been going on for two weeks.

Actually, I normally wouldn’t either. But I have been a bit more paranoid than usual since our scare a few weeks ago, and I was concerned that this was related.

So I took her in this morning, and of course they did the usual blood tests and such. Those didn’t show anything out of the ordinary, so then Dr. Amy came in with this:

Let me get this straight: You want me to bring you a toddler poop.

Why couldn’t you just be happy with a shrubbery??

Well, as luck would have it, some was readily available about a half hour after leaving the doctor, and before we were that far away.

As luck WOULDN’T have it, no plastic spoons were allotted to me to accompany this mission.

And, of course, since we were out and about, I had no implements of any kind to help me remove requested items from diaper and place into aforementioned container.

And, keep in mind, we weren’t going to the doctor because she had nice, normal, clean, turdish poops.

So I used the cup itself and scooped.

Of course, making a huge mess.

Then I scrubbed the outside of the container with multiple wet wipes while trying not to gag, hoping to clean it up well enough that the poor receptionist to whom delivery was headed for would be happily ignorant to what had preceded her hands on the outside of that container.

Then I text messaged Chris:

“I have now officially collected poo in a cup. Good luck to them finding the poo amidst all the corn.”

(Ali really liked dinner last night also.)

So, now that you need your memory wiped completely clean from THAT blog post, I bring you an innocent video of Ali and Daddy doing a nice, “calm”, sweet duet – part of our nightly bedtime routine:

Birthday Fun With Pop

May 27, 2009 Rachel Callahan Wordless Wednesday - as IF I could be wordless.

Cousin Eli’s first birthday was on Saturday, so much fun was had by all. Especially Pop and his two Grandkids.

Ali was quite happy about her hat and her bracelet. . .

But then Pop borrowed her bracelet so that HE could have a hat.

No, that will never do. . .a girl needs her bracelet!

Somebody get this man a hat!!!

Pop is weird. . .

Maybe if I ignore him. . .

I guess I should share Pop with Eli, since it IS his birthday and all. . .
Happy Birthday, Eli!!

Check out my other Wordless Wednesday at B-Sides!
Check out everyone else’s at 5 Minutes for Mom!

The Unfortunate Case of Frog Duck-Butt.

May 26, 2009November 12, 2013 Rachel Callahan I Love Birmingham, Shopping: A Girl's Best Friend, Utter Silliness

(For the record, I can’t pronounce the title of this blog without getting tongue twisted. Go ahead, try it – I bet you can’t either.)

Yesterday, we had a blissfully wonderful Memorial Day family outing to the mall.

Now, in Birmingham, although we DO have multiple choices, “The Mall” automatically means The Riverchase Galleria.

It’s the heaven of the mall world – completely gargantuan, with (nearly) every store that you could possibly want housed in it’s unbelievably huge glass structure.

I had an amazingly satisfying shopping experience – it was one of those rare days where I had spending money AND I found stuff that I wanted.

(Usually those two states of being are QUITE mutually exclusive.)

Plus, besides those two unusual things coming together, the Memorial Day bargains were amazing. So all three factors made for a VERY, VERY deliriously happy mall trip. In fact, I spent $155.16 and SAVED $237.65. An average savings of 60%!!

So of course, I bragged to Chris, “Aren’t you impressed? I can go the the mall and SAVE over two hundred dollars!!! How many wives go to the mall and SAVE money?”

Of course, he rolled his eyes. But it was, after all, MY spending money, so he was perfectly happy for me (THIS is why you should BUDGET, people!! Never ever argue about money again!!).

Anyway. I quite seriously digressed. Back to our glorious mall.

Right in the middle of it is a carousel:

Ali’s never been much of a carousel girl, so I don’t usually push it. We sit near it to eat and she enjoys watching it go around, but she has no interest in being ON it as it rotates on it’s axis much faster than her little cautious self prefers to go.

However, today she must’ve been in an adventurous mood.

Maybe my shopping euphoria rubbed off on her.

She actually ASKED to ride the carousel. I, of course, was so amazed that I immediately agreed.

The Galleria carousel is an animal one, as most are. All of the animals are quite normal – giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, horses. . .

Except for one.

And that one has ALWAYS perplexed me greatly.

It was as if the carousel creator was completely sober while making all of the animals, but then unfortunately got very, very high right before making the frog.

Because, you see, the frog has a duck head coming out of his butt, surrounded by a wreath of daisies.And a ladybug.

And, much to my excitement, Ali picked this animal, of all of the numerous choices, as her steed of choice:
So there you have it. Who else can say that they have had their bum and their daughter’s bum photographed with a duck-butted frog?

Had the carousel creator been there, I’m pretty sure this is what we would have looked like to him: