So apparently I'm a once a month blogger now. I know, I know, I don't like it any more than you do. Hopefully it will change as I get into a better routine. Right now my routine is wake up, nurse, change and dress Annabel, drop her off at the Treehouse, go to work, pump every three hours, leave work, pick up Annabel, nurse, bathe and change Annabel, get her to sleep, wash bottles, rinse diapers, perhaps do some more work or laundry, watch a tv show, sleep, nurse, sleep, repeat. Throw in the occasional trip to the grocery or vacuuming, and the blog is getting left out. Boo. It's hectic, but I really do enjoy every second of my time with Annabel -- even if it's a 3:00 a.m. feeding.
However, it hasn't all been work and routine around here at The Foxes Three. We've had some big fun too. Here's a summary of our recent adventures in chronological order since we returned from California:
We went to a lovely wedding in Augusta (Annabel's first!) -- congrats Anna and Justin!!
We went to Bruceton to see Fox's family, which was great. We got to see Aunt Jordan's new place. We got to read books with GranDeb. We got to swim in the pool. GranDeb even got Aunt Jordan's old swing and slide out and we discovered that Annabel loves to swing (and that Aunt Jordan is good at sharing her toys).
Fox's band, Bellwether Station, competed in the Atlanta Bar Association's battle of the bands, LawJam. The guys had been practicing a lot in the basement, so I knew they were ready. They had prepared a sweet set of Too Loud Guitar (original) into Folsom Prison Blues, followed by Outrun the Night (original), Bound For Jackson (original), and finishing with The Clash's version of I Fought the Law. Pretty much a perfect set for something called LawJam. However, there was a lot of competition. There were 8 bands who were selected to compete after submitting information and music to the committee. I was really excited about seeing the band play at Variety Playhouse. It's a great venue in Little Five Points where we've seen some spectacular artists -- Bright Eyes, Iron and Wine (with Calexico), Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, Todd Snider, Bobby Bare Jr., The National, and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting. So I decided to get Annabel's first babysitter for the occasion. We have a good friend who is super responsible and great with babies, so I booked him for four hours. I was pretty nervous leaving her at night for the first time, but the guys sure made it worth my while. They sounded amazing and won both awards given -- Best Original Song (written by Fox!) and Overall Winner. One of the judges was Phaedra Parks, local entertainment attorney and Real Housewife of Atlanta. She gave them a 10 and said their song Bound For Jackson is a hit. The awards are giant gold records. Big Time!
Before the show with their number one fan
Rocking outAfter all the rockstar excitement, we celebrated Fox's first Father's Day with some much-needed family relaxing time.
Last weekend, we headed to Athens for Fox's cousin Ryan's wedding. It was beautiful. The venue was a place called The Hill that is sort of an orphanage for historic homes in distress. The owner relocates them to the Hill and rehabs them. The wedding was behind a lovely house from the late 1700's in a sunken garden, and the reception was under a big tent in front of the house. We had fun touring the old house and snapped a picture of Bug next to an antique bed warmer. Congrats Ryan and Kiel! We had hoped to catch some music at AthFest while we were in town, but it was a little bit too warm to subject Annabel to that. Maybe next year!
After a delicious brunch at The Grit with our good buddy Frankie, we headed back to Atlanta. Annabel was invited to her first ever birthday party! Avery was celebrating her second birthday with a luau. So we put on our best grass skirts and got our party on. The big kids played in a sweet bouncehouse. The even bigger kids had some frozen drinks. Annabel just looked at everything and handed out smiles.
I've discovered several things that make Bug laugh. She thinks her feet are hilarious. If you show them to her, she will give you some chuckles. She loves to play rocketship and blast off then fly though the air. Depending on how vigorously you blast off and fly her, you can get a few laughs to a small fit of giggles. The newest and best way to get some laughs is to lay her on a bed or couch, put your arms on either side of her and bounce. She will giggle really hard, and it's almost too cute to handle.
I hope you all giggle really hard this week.
