so excited

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!

Drew had his last qualifying exam yesterday. I'm so excited for his first year to be over. The past month has been so hard. I'm not sure how single parents do it. Now Drew has a whole month off. Wahoo! I'm sure that by the end of his break he'll be more than ready to go back, but as of right now it's a much needed break for me and probably Drew too. I'm ready to hit the road.

shameful

I used to be a really good mom. At the first peep I would be awake and alert. Maybe not happy, but awake and ready to help whichever child was in need. I'm not sure what happened, but that isn't the case anymore. Molly has been waking up in the middle of the night. Drew has been coming to the rescue and putting her back in bed. Most of the time I'm slightly awake when Drew comes back to bed, but I never hear Molly jingling the doorknob. I'm hoping that this is a phase that she's going through and it'll be short lived. We didn't have this much trouble when we put her into a twin bed at 15 months. I know it's because she was a lot shorter then. She couldn't open the door and turn on lights. Poor Gabe. Unlike Molly Gabe is a great sleeper. He's really being thrown off by the lights being turned on and off at all hours of the night.

We went camping last weekend. It's been a long time since Drew and I have slept in the same space as Gabe. We forgot what a loud sleeper he is. But, yet again I slept while Drew laid awake being bothered by Gabe's grunts and squeals and constant moving around. A part of me feels bad about this and then another part is happy to be getting sleep. hmmmm...

In the Wilkerson game of Life Dad moves a few spots forward and mom moves a few spots back.

my big helper

I was making Islands Yaki Tacos for dinner. (It's a recipe from Todd Wilbur. Teriyaki tacos might sound strange, but they are super good. You make a teriyaki sauce for your chicken. Then you top them with monterey jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, pineapple and green onions. mmmm.)
Molly L.O.V.E.S. to help me cook because of this something that should take about 20 minutes turns into an hour. Sometimes it's a little frustrating, but it's something that we can do together while Gabe naps. I try to make it a sensory activity for her. Anyway the chicken is supposed to marinade 6+ hours. I started getting the stuff out to make the teriyaki sauce. The second Molly realized what I was doing she started yelling "ME HELP. HELP. ME HELP. PLEASE." "yes Molly go and get the stool" (usually the step stool is in her bathroom) She runs down the hall and comes back sobbing. After a few seconds I remember she was using it as a table for the tea party she and Gabe were having earlier. The stool was in the bedroom. So I quietly go into the kids room to retrieve the stool. The room stunk... Gabe takes a 3 hour morning nap he was only 1 hour in so I couldn't ignore it. I gave Molly the stool measured out the cornstarch and water; handed her the whisk. I told her I'd be right back. This is what I found when I returned.

She must have liked how the cornstarch tasted. When I came back she had cornstarch around her mouth and had added probably a cup to the water. A far cry from the tablespoon the recipe called for. She also decided to stir in the whole piece of ginger.

Sometimes I see things like this and it makes me cringe as I think is this really my life? Why do I even bother trying to keep the house clean? Then there are other days when I see things like this and I smile and think this is my life. This was one of the days that I smiled. Even though I was still cleaning up cornstarch days later.

the stories pictures tell

Sometimes we're really good sharers and other times we're not...

Happy Mother's Day!

What a lucky mom I am. Everyone was so nice to me today. Molly made me a flower sucker in nursery and Drew along with making me dinner and letting me take a nap also made me a book. He went to shutterfly and turned our blogs from last year into a book. It's beautiful. I know that he put a lot of time into it. I feel a little bad that I would always give him such a hard time for spending so many hours on the computer... I just finished the 4th Harry Potter book so we're getting ready to watch that movie. What a great day I've been completely spoiled.

I haven't posted any pictures of the kids in a while so here are a bunch.

Yes Gabe still has a bottle. We're about 1/2 and 1/2 with bottles and sippie cups. Anyway whenever he lays on the floor with one Molly runs to get her cup too. It cracks me up.

Here they are playing with sidewalk chalk after church last week.

Fun at the park with Dad. It's always a treat when Drew can come.

Molly feeding a baby goat at the zoo.

Molly has NO fear when it comes to the peacocks at the zoo. Here she is with Macady and Ben petting one. I guess after running away from her for so long he finally gave up.

We love bubbles!

About a month ago it was in the high 80's and even hit 91. I blew up the pool and we took advantage of the weather. Saying that Molly and Gabe loved it is an understatement.

1234-years

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! As of this morning Drew and I have been married 4 years. It's amazing how fast time goes by. I have the best husband and he is the best dAdA (Molly still prefers to say dAdA she loves enunciating the A at the end. Daddy doesn't have the same effect. I think it's funny that Gabe says it that way too.) I wouldn't change anything. Except maybe today... Drew left this morning at 8:30 and he won't be home until 12ish. He wants to grade his finals before he comes home. I can't complain too much, we did meet up downtown for dinner.



I thought I'd share a plain white t's song. It's always nice when a band you like makes it big and gets on the radio.

pots and pans

Next week is our anniversary. Luckily for me Drew will be proctoring a test all night :( Anyway, he told me that he'd give me my present early. I had no idea what he had up his sleeve. This is what I got this morning... I'd often complain about our old pots and pans. They were your typical $80 set. They worked, but they weren't heavy and the lids would get super hot. After saving for who knows how long Drew surprised me with this calphalon tri-ply set. I'm so excited and a little sad that I didn't know about them before my last shopping trip. (The past couple months I've only been going shopping 2 times a month. It saves us a lot of money and forces me to really plan out meals.) Unfortunately all the meals I planned for the next two weeks are all mostly crock pot, casserole, brown this and bake that kind of meals. Maybe I'll make some exceptions and add a few more meals that require real cooking. I'm so excited what a great husband I have! And as an extra bonus we got another $150 calphalon pot for free. sweet.

Maybe this is how I'll display my pots and pans on our breakfast bar :)