Mother's Day 2008

We started off our Mother's Day weekend with some sad news. Lee's grandmother, Adeline Likes - or Mammy to most, passed away on Friday. She lived in Tyler and was 90. Ellie was lucky enough to be born with three great-grandmothers, and while Ellie never met Mammy, I'm sure she would have enjoyed getting to know her. The picture of Mammy here is from the Tyler Rose Festival in 2002.


I was again not great about taking pictures (mostly because my dad was there to take pictures all weekend) so I'm going to use some from late April that never made it on the blog because I was too busy with Kyle's wedding, the trip to Austin, and Jenny's wedding in Cabo. I spent most of Saturday morning getting ready for Ellie's upcoming birthday party. This thing is taking on a life of its own. We are having it catered... which means I had to rent tables, chairs, linens, and a margarita machine. Lee has spent countless hours on our backyard (this includes tilling the entire backyard to plant new grass) and last night was busy until the wee hours making an "Ellie mix", which is basically a mix tape on his iPod for the party. Then there's the cups, napkins, CAKE, table toppers.... the list goes on. But I am SUPER excited about the party. I am so thankful we have so many friends and family members to celebrate Ellie's first birthday with us. It's going to be great!

We went to a beautiful wedding on Saturday night for a family friend, Catherine. Mom and Dad were able to babysit so I did not have to seek out Number Ten. At the end of the ceremony, a bagpipe player came down the aisle to lead them out. Very cool - I'd never been at a wedding with bagpipes before. Their reception was at the same place our was, the Dallas Petroleum Club. There were a ton of people in the lobby trying to get up to the reception so we were all crammed into the elevators together. As it worked out, we got onto the elevator with the bagpipe player, who was still wearing his bagpipes. I was standing directly in front of the guy with my back to him so when the elevator got quiet, I took the opportunity to ask the bagpipe player if that was his bagpipe or if he was just happy to see me. Ba-dum-ba! Thank you! You guys have been great. I'll be here all week.

Ellie got us up at 5:45 AM on Sunday morning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. We tried to get her to go back to sleep, but it didn't work. Lee got up with her so I could sleep in a little... which means I slept until 7:20. We went for bagels and then had more fun at church with Ellie. She is totally uninterested in any books or toys that we bring to keep her busy. I really think she sees church as her time to entertain the people in the four surrounding pews by playing peek-a-boo or waving. This Sunday, her game was blowing kisses with a "Mmmuuuuuooooooaaahhhh!". I heard people behind us giggling. It's almost like she'll do anything for the thrill of a cheap laugh. I have no clue where she would learn that type of behavior, but on a hunch, I'm going to keep her away from bagpipe players.

After church, The Brights, Ben, Elizabeth, my parents, and the three of us were back at the Dallas Petroleum Club for lunch. Ellie was really good and sat there at the table with us eating the same food we were eating. Lee even gave her some cheesecake for dessert. I wish she liked vegetables as much as she likes dessert. While we were in the bathroom, Ellie met another little girl, Laura, who was about 10 months old. It was there that I had a really weird exchange with Laura's mother who looked to be in her early 40's.

"Oh look at Laura! She is so excited to see another little girl. Can she play with Ellie?", she asked. I put Ellie on the floor and told her to walk over there, which she did. She and Laura were laughing and just beside themselves. Laura's mother asked me if Ellie had other been around other children, and I told her that Ellie was in day care, so yes. She even has a boyfriend. Several, in fact, but I didn't think it was appropriate to brag since we just met. Then she told me that Laura was really excited because she'd never seen another child. Stop the bus. "Never?" No. "Ever?!!" No. I'm sure my bad poker face had "you're nuts" written all over it.

"You know you're raising a serial killer, right?", is what I wanted to say, but I toned it down and told her that she should enroll Laura in Mother's Day Out or find a play group. For the love of all things holy, find something for the kid. Seriously, if Ellie was stuck at home with me all day without ever seeing another child, she would have packed her tiny suitcase and bolted last week when she figured out how to walk. Poor Laura. She had "my mom is going to breastfeed me until I'm 10" written all over her face. When we walked off, I told Ellie she'd better thank her lucky stars that I don't keep her in a closet like Laura's mom does. I think it's good to scare some gratitude into children every once in a while.


In case you were wondering about the doves on our window ledge, Margo gave birth to twins right before we went to Cabo and when we came back, they were gone. I think she had actually given birth to them long before we actually saw them because after a while, we noticed she was sitting on them. We named the doves Walker and Texas Ranger. If they were sissy birds we would have named them Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman.