21st Century Baby

Our friend Vicky came over to visit yesterday and Mack showed off his advanced understanding of today's technology:

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Mackey smelling the tree:

(Sorry for the sideways video...)

Ironman and Thanksgiving

Two big events passed in the month of November: Richard's first Ironman as a daddy and Mack's first Thanksgiving!

Richard went out to Phoenix and competed in IM Arizona. It was not his best race ever but he completed it in under 10 hours, which wasn't up to his normal super-human standards but still above normal-human abilities :-) He ran/walked/sat around during the marathon but got to finish up the last 6 miles with his buddy Jon, who had an awesome race (his best ever IM) and I watched them cross the finish line together online (which was a miracle given the pouring down rain was interfering big-time with my satellite internet connection out here in the country). My mom came to take care of Mack and keep me company while Richard was away, so we had a nice visit together. And our neighbors also came over to help me manage my anxiety levels during the Ironman watching. I tell you, it's tough being an IM spectator...even long distance!

Thanksgiving was a amazing and I have a lot to say about it but I think I'll just make a list of the highlights:

1. Went to the mountains with my mom, dad, Jon & his fiance Dare. It got really cold on Thursday and Friday!

2. Cooked all day Thursday and then ate ourselves silly...yummmm. Mack really enjoyed his first turkey-bites.

3. It SNOWED while we were eating our Thanksgiving meal...how much more perfect could it get? It didn't last long but it was really pretty while it did.

4. A beautiful and challenging 5 mile hike with Richard & Mack on Saturday - probably one of our best family-times yet.

5. Mack's first Christmas tree: he slept through the selection and the cutting down of the tree (the hike and Christmas parade prior to the tree-cutting really wore him out) but woke up in time to see it tied to the top of the car. Richard selected an excellent tree for us all on his own!

6. Mack will be a pool shark when he grows up. The house had a pool table and it quickly became Mack's favorite toy...especially when Uncle Jon was hanging out with him.

7. We were able to visit with Richard's brother David, who we hadn't seen in about 2 years.

8. Got home early on Sunday enough to put the Christmas tree in the stand and get to bed at a decent time. That in itself was a Thanksgiving miracle! As you can tell, Mack was incredibly thrilled about it. The cutest thing is that we taught Mack how to smell the Christmas tree and now everytime he sees it, he reaches his hand towards it and sniffs!

MORE pictures: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2756957008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Christmas Songs

The time has arrived and I am listening to Christmas music all day long!

"I Heard the Bells" is my heartsong this season. While this year has brought mostly light in my life, I read the news and am heartbroken by the darkness of our fallen world. I pray every day that my baby boy would be protected from the pain that this earth can bring. But our savior was born to overcome the darkness and I trust Mackey to His hands. I love the reminder of these lyrics:

And in despair I bowed my head

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"GOD IS NOT DEAD; NOR DOTH HE SLEEP,

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

Christmas is a tough season with all the hustle and bustle, the shopping, and stress of making that Dec 25th deadline. But, oh, just to pause and recognize the awesome power in the knowledge that God came down to the world as a little baby to live amongst and die for us...

Let that be the power that reigns over this and every season.

Mack in a Box

I liked this...

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back."


William D. Tammeus

Mack's first Halloween

Another major first holiday come and gone. Here's the story of Mack's first Halloween:

You would think with our new house out in the country that we would have a really cool pumpkin-acquiring story. Perhaps we'd visit a historic pumpkin patch, or maybe a neighbor would grow a pumpkin and give us one, or maybe we would even grow our own! Not quite. We found ourselves on Thursday night at the Weaver Street Market grocery store hoping they'd have some pumpkins. They did...and they were on sale! Mack was super-thrilled, as you can tell:

He did eventually warm up to the pumpkin once we got it home:

Then the big night! Since we don't really know anyone in Efland/Hillsborough yet except our neighbors, we crashed our neighbor's friend's house for the evening (...I told my neighbor that we were hanging out with them and that I hoped they didn't mind, not giving the choice to say no). Their friends live in a real neighborhood, so there would be trick-or-treating going on (there is no trick-or-treating in Efland...unless you want to walk a really long way only to likely be met by the end of a shotgun at someone's doorway). We had some delicious food with our gracious hosts and then it was time to transform Mack into...Sad Monkey Boy!

He was a little happier once we got out on the street. He was so cute! (Forgive the bad photo quality, we couldn't find the camera battery charger and were stuck taking cell-phone pictures!)

But Mack was super happy once he was back inside and out of the monkey costume. This is Mack helping Vince hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters...what a helpful boy.

Then we came home, Mackey went night-night and I got to work, finally carving that beautiful pumpkin that Mack picked out for us. I am planning to dress Mack up again tomorrow and take a picture of him with the jack-o-latern. Poor baby! It was a really fun night and Mack was a real trooper, not to mention the absolute cutest little fella in the whole neighborhood. For more Halloween pics: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2372479008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

Child Prodigy

Saturday Parade

Hillsborough is a really cute little town (we live right outside of Hillsborough in Efland of course, and Hillsborough is our connection to civilization). On Saturday, we decided to go to the "Creatures of the Eno" parade in downtown Hillsborough (the Eno is the river that runs through these parts). We didn't really know what to expect and ended up being blown away by a really wonderful afternoon.

Mack LOVED the parade. He was so interested in everything he saw going by - he was so much fun to watch. The parade was completely home-grown, with townspeople having made their costumes and puppets that they paraded down Main Street.

After the parade we followed the group up the road to the Burwell School yard where they had a New Orleans-style jazz band, a drum circle, grills cooking and a bake sale.

That afternoon was one of those rare, unexpected and fantastic surprises.

Next year, we will so be IN the parade!

For more pictures of the grand parade:

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2281391008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

This evening's cuteness

Tonight was an extra cute one. We began our evening having a quick dinner at Weaver Street in Hillsborough. We made Mackey a hat out of the bag my bread came in:

Then we lounged around on the couch together (this is a great shot of his THREE upper teeth - you can't really see the third one yet, but it just broke through today):

Next came Tubby Time! Mack loves the tub and being in the buff:

And now it's 9:40 and Mack is ASLEEP, time for mommy & daddy to...GO TO SLEEP, TOO! Woo hoo & night night!

Mack has four teeth now, he waves and claps, feeds himself Cheerios and is basically the most adorable little guy ever. His funniest new thing is screeching/shrieking at the top of his lungs when he gets excited about something...and Mack gets VERY excited about cabinet doors. This is Mack "helping" me shelf-paper the cabinets in our kitchen yesterday:

In other fun news, Richard and I went to our 10 year high school reunion last weekend. That was fun...interesting...and fun. Richard also surprised me with a stay overnight in downtown Charlotte after the reunion. This was the first night that we'd spent away from Mack together, it was very very nice...to sleep through the night! This is us on our way to the big event:

And this is us goofing of during the reunion when we took a break from socializing (my introverted self can only take so much...) to tour the museum exhibits where we found a dress-up area with fun hats:

And lastly, Richard & I have been marveling at how gigantic our little man has become. He's now in a big car seat and we have him facing forward (please don't tell the AAP). This is him in his car seat on the ride home from the hospital vs. now:

8 Months and Some Change

Mack's third tooth broke through today! Last night I could see that his top-left-tooth was right under the surface of his gum, and sure enough, today it made its appearance. He's still a pretty easy going teether, phew. The only major side-effect so far has been the massive amounts of drool! Yay for Mackey!

He also has a hilarious new grin - it's this big, wide mouthed grin where he sort of sticks out his bottom jaw and scrunches up his little eyes. I've been trying to catch it on camera and this is the closest I've gotten so far but my camera just can't do it justice:

My favorite toy

Growing and changing

Mackey sprouted tooth #2 today! He now has teeth instead of just tooth.

He is also starting to wave, what a sweet boy.

Beach Baby

Mack's first trip to the beach! I love the beach and I hope Mack will, too. His first few moments watching the waves with Daddy were met with trepidation. But I can't blame him, the magnitude of the sea is quite awesome. He warmed up to the little tide pools and enjoyed coating himself with a fine layer of sand. Our day was cut a little short by bad weather ("day" translates in this case to about 1.5 hours), but I was really worried about him getting too much sun exposure so the sprinkle was really a blessing to my overly-worried-mother-self.

(Funny aside regarding my fear of sunburning the baby: Richard went for a run on Saturday before we would be taking Mack to the beach for the first time. So while Richie was working out, I prepared Mack for the beach. I was absolutely mortified that I'd forgotten his hat and was really concerned his scalp would get burned. So I set to work coating Mackey in sunscreen...no small task with my little guy who won't hold still for more than half a second. But I succeeded in my endeavour and Mack was ready to hit the beach. Or was he?!?! I started to worry that I might have missed a spot...so on went the second coat of sunscreen! When we actually got out to the beach & Mack began to perspire in the heat of the day, his layers of sunscreen began to surface and his whole little head turned white! And bless his poor tiny eyes, the sunscreen made his eyes water as it dripped off his head into his little peepers. Luckily, none of this seemed to bother him much and the sticky sunscreen helped him accomplish his lovely sandcoat. And all of this sunscreen drama just to be followed by clouds rolling in and rain sprinkles! Maybe next time I won't be so paranoid...somehow I doubt it though.)

We had a wonderful time celebrating MeeMaw's 85th birthday with the family and are so thankful we were able to make the trip down.

More pictures!: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1775367008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Family Time

At the end of July we were blessed to spend a very relaxing weekend with Poppy and Nanny (Richard's dad & Ellice). We didn't really do a whole lot other than rest, talk, eat, and catch the last few stages of the Tour de France. It was excellent.

This is Mack finding it super cool that his outfit coordinated with Nanny's socks:

Mack and his cousin Ellicia (oh so precious):

And lastly, fun with Poppy!

And for a few more pictures from the weekend: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1774648008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Tooth post

Mack has a tooth! A little tiny tooth has broken through his bottom gum (his left front bottom tooth). The boy is taking it all in stride - so far no major tantrums or fits or fevers...hopefully this will continue. I have no pictures yet because it's hard enough just to get a glimpse of it. You can definitely feel it when he bites though!

Our little man is just growing and changing so fast.

Coming soon - Mack's first beach trip! Here's a snapshot of the ride home, we were all getting a little loopy towards the end of the very long ride:

Steps

Today, Mack climbed up the staircase in our house all by himself. Richard was following him and spotting his progress as I watched from the top of the staircase. What a little man. Now, where is that baby gate?!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Mackey and I read books together almost every night before sleepy time. I think it's my most favorite part of the day. And, he's getting to be so helpful!

6 months and 1 week old...my how the time flies. Mack is mastering crawling, and having almost done so, is moving on to mastering standing up. He first stood up...gasp...in his little bathtub! He almost gave me a heart attack. Now, any time he can get his hands on something that will provide him with leverage, he's pulling himself right on up. I'm guessing that mastering getting back down will be the next big step... (I love the picture above because Mack looks like a little mini-Richard instead of a mini-Melanie for once!)

Mack also LOVES his books these days. This is Mack reading his absolute favorite book, one full of pictures of little babies. He's looking very serious in this photo but usually he's giggling and smiling at the babies.

I'll post a video soon of Mack helping me read Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He is such a smarty-pants!

Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! (And Efland update)

Mama C (my mom) really knows her stuff when it comes to little kiddos. The last time her and Pop came to visit, they brought Mack a swing! Oh what fun! He really likes chilling in the swing now, watching the leaves fly by overhead and the dogs run around below. And it's especially fun when Daddy is nearby:

In other news, we had our first brush burning in Efland over the July 4th weekend. It was quite thrilling for us city folk. Our yard is a mess (but getting to be less so, especially after the fires) and we had a lot of branches and leaves that needed ridding. My dad and Richard busted out the hose, gasoline, and matches. See below for the result (this is actually the second brush pile, you can see the smoke from the first wafting by...and yes, that's my mom talking to Mack in the background...bonfires are totally appropriate for 5 month olds, no worries):

And just in case you haven't seen enough yet, here's a link to some swing and fire pictures:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1396325008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

First Swim Workout

Mackey has always loved his bath, so I was pretty sure he would love the pool. Last Tuesday, our friends Aaron & Casey invited us to their neighborhood pool, so I got Mack some swim diapers and on we went. He loved it! It was so fun seeing him splash in the water and watch the bigger kids in wonder as they played on the big play-set in the kiddie pool. I think we have a water baby on our hands - yay!

Wedding Bells

Jon & Dare are engaged! He asked her on Independence Day. I don't know the whole story yet but will tell it once I know more.

Congratulations little brother!

1st Father's Day

Richard had a wonderful first Father's Day! I think he had forgotten that HE was going to be celebrated on Father's Day this year and was kind of surprised when I brought him breakfast in bed (a bowl of Cheerios and a banana...I am quite the chef). We opened Father's Day presents and then went to church. After church we went to lunch at Richard's favorite lunch spot - Doc Green's. Then we formulated evening plans with our neighbors to make ice cream and watch Harry Potter (not really Richard's idea of super fun, but 7 year old Mackenzie had just finished reading the first book and was ready to watch the movie). The big & best event of the day was hiking at the Occoneechee "Mountain" near our house. We strapped Mackey in the Bjorn and went to it. I hadn't been there before but the hiking trails are really pretty and the landscape & foliage isn't what you'd expect to find in Orange County at all - it really did seem like we were in the mountains. We took our time strolling along, taking tons of pictures, and really soaking in the afternoon. Then it was dinner at Weaver Street in Hillsborough after we picked up the ice cream ingredients, before heading back for the Harry Potter showing. The ice cream was delicious! And the whole day was just really perfect. Definitely one to remember.

Here's a link to more photos from our hiking: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1246909008/a=76796422_76796422/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

PS - Can you tell I'm playing catch up on my posting? I'll try to get caught up asap now that we finally have a good internet connection at the house!

Campus Tour

Mack had a tour of UNC's campus today when Richard had to go see the UNC Computer Support people (Richard's computer died...no good). As they lounged on the quad, Mack checked out his surroundings. His expression seems to say, "Look folks, I know you have grand plans for me and the things I will achieve, but I'm only 5 months old and am really not ready for college yet. Can I focus on figuring out how to crawl first? And do you think college girls dig my diaper?"

Lawncare

As I write this, Richard is on his way out to the front yard with his shotgun to kill a copperhead snake.


Ahhhh, life in Efland. Tonight Richard borrowed our new neighbors' riding lawnmower to try to tackle the 4 foot tall grass/weeds growing in our front yard. I was really worried that the jungle would be too much for the mower...and after a few rounds of the yard, one of the belts broke in the mower. Oops. So now, we are the neighbors whose dogs kill chickens and who destroy borrowed equipment.


So Richard gave the riding mower back to the neighbors and borrowed their push mower. Ha ha! Well at least we have a partially mowed lawn now. Which is a huge improvement! The house probably looks inhabited now, score!

Oh wait, you're probably asking yourself - their dogs kill chickens?! So, last Thursday around 3:30 Richard calls me at work to tell me the dogs have run off. Which isn't good because we've only been in this house for a few weeks & the dogs aren't used to country life. But the news got even better when Richard told me that they ran to our neighbors' house down the street and went after their chickens, killing one and mutilating another. The 9 year old boy who lives there scared our dogs off with a BB gun. Riiiiiiiiiight. So we don't see the dogs again until about 9:00 that night when Buddy somehow finds his way home. I immediately go into a panic, because in all of our dogs' escapades, they have NEVER been separated. So of course, Lil, in our minds, is dead. As I'm getting my coat to go ride around with my neighbor to find Lil's body, the 17 year old daughter of the neighbor whose chickens we recently murdered comes running up to my back door with Lil...soaking wet because it is STORMING outside. She had been driving her car when our dogs ran out in the road in front of her causing her to swerve off the road. The wonderful girl gets out of the car and scoops up Lil who is in the middle of the road having a seizure. Lil has no tags on, so Chelsea puts the strange, seizing dog in her car and heads home - realizing only as she passes our house that the dog in her car is one of the ones who she helped chase out of her chicken coop earlier in the day. So not only have our dogs killed this family's chicken but they almost killed the daughter, too. Oi! Thank goodness my mom was in town to take care of Mackey while Richard & I were panicking about the dogs. Geesh!

PS - Richard never found the copperhead after the initial siting...