Friends...

My friends are of utmost importance to me. I've been thinking a lot lately about my friends since we'll be moving soon and I'll have to start the process of making some new friends. Let me be honest...I hate making new friends. It takes A LOT of work and it's harder to do now that I'm older than it was when I was in college. Plus, you have to go through a lot of fakeness before you get to be "real" with a friend.

Last weekend Banks and I drove down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to spend the weekend with one of my best friends. As I was driving, wondering why I thought it was a good idea to drive six hours with a toddler by myself, I realized that none of the difficulties of the trip mattered because I was going to see a friend. And sometimes, you do whatever you have to do to be with a friend. Well, a good friend.

My good friends have been with me through many phases of my life: high school, college, marriage, and now babies. Several friends have sloughed off during various phases, but most of us still keep in touch. I have those friends that I talk to almost everyday and the friends that I can go months without talking to but pick right back up with them like we never left off. Recently, the mother of a college friend of mine died and all of us mounted up-planes, trains, and automobiles-to get to be with her for the funeral. It's at those times that I really realize how fortunate I am to have the friends I do. Gah, and now I'm getting all misty-eyed about leaving my friends in Memphis.

So, enough about me and how much I love my friends. I was attempting to work on Banks' baby book and one of the pages was about his first best friend. Hands down, it's our neighbor's son, AJ, with whom Banks is obsessed. Banks is really starting to interact more with his friends and asks and talks about them when they're not around. I hope he'll be as fortunate as I am to have great friends. Banks had a great time this weekend with June and of course, I have the pictures to prove it!

Just checking each other out:

Playing outside:Banks was obsessed with grabbing June's hand and "alk" (walking) her around. He pretty much dragged her all over the house all weekend but she seemed to tolerate it pretty well!Ok, this might be my ALL TIME favorite picture. Banks, being a wild-man and June covering her mouth giggling at him. Such the demonstration of the difference between boys and girls!

Our weekend

The best way to describe how it feels having your house on the market? See below:

I liken it to those last few weeks of pregnancy where you have the constant "is today the day?" feeling. So far, no baby, er...no bites on the house. In two weeks, we've had two showings. Granted, they've been to the same person, but alas, our house is still for sale. In those two weeks, I've convinced myself twice that our house was about to sell and stayed awake for hours in the middle of the night worrying/daydreaming/agonizing over the details of this supposed sale. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF???

In between my constant tidying up and cleaning-in case the house does show-we've managed to have a great time outside. Thank the Lord the weather has been nice. I even broke out B's seersucker bloomer shorts. I know what you're thinking...tisk, tisk, it's not even Easter yet. Banks is very interested in "durt". Especially the digging in and moving of said dirt. Here he and Buford are taking a break from such hard dirt moving work.

Enjoying our weekend at Big Backyard

And, being forced into taking a picture in front of the "petty fowahs." He was especially thrilled about this picture as you can tell.

Music!

Banks is obsessed with listening to music...and he doesn't care if it's kids music or Matt's music. So, Matt taught Banks to play the air guitar! It's very serious business...

What type of mom are you???

Sounds like one of those quiz type emails that you get forwarded, doesn't it? But, last week, I began to actually ponder the question "what type of mom am I?" You know, some moms just make being a mom look easy. Take my neighbor for example. Last week we took our kids to the park to play and have a picnic. While we were playing, a boy, close to five years old, comes up and asks us if we can watch him while his grandfather takes a walk. Wha?? As I am trying to pick my jaw up off the ground, the grandfather approaches, asks the same question and takes off after my neighbor politely tells him we'd be happy to watch his grandson. I had no words. And let me not fail to mention that this "walk" of the grandfather lasted thirty minutes. I could barely manage to watch my own child for the panic I was experiencing thinking that this man had run for the hills leaving his grandson for us to permanently care for. You know, like a park version of leaving a baby on someones door step. My neighbor handled the situation perfectly...correcting the child when needed but in a very diplomatic way so that he didn't feel he'd been scolded. I think she used "sweetie" or some other name a lot. I should have taken notes. Really.

My neighbor just knows how to handle mom situations. While I'm waving my white flag she is calmly dealing with her screaming baby and four year old (and mind you she's pregnant with her third). She's creative in her language, calm and direct. She knows the "right" things to say while I'm still trying to figure out how to say what I want to say so an 18 month old can understand it.

And, whatever type of mom I was before, let's say, four days ago, is completely different from the mom I am now. I'm not sure what has happened but someone crept in in the middle of the night Thursday night and replaced my loving, social toddler with a demon. It is officially safe to say that the terrible two's have hit and WOW was I under prepared. He asks for milk. I give it to him. He stomps and cries. For twenty minutes. Then I take the milk away and he stomps and cries for twenty minutes. Rinse and repeat with various scenarios. At first, since my parents were here, I tried frantically (and to no avail) to please him: here's this puzzle, let's read a book, let's play with your barn. Nothing worked. The word "no" prevails at our house. So now I'm just ignoring him, but let's be honest, there's just so much wailing this mom can listen to before she feels the need to guzzle a whole bottle of wine. Ugh, so not the mom I wanted to be...the one who just does whatever she has to do to make it through the day. But realistically, that's the name of the game for now. I keep reminding myself that "this too shall pass." Let's just pray it passes quickly.

Pre-demon possession showing off his new face:

He requested to wear this particular hat and boots. Whatever keeps the peace at this point.

The only picture of my parents with Banks I was able to get the entire weekend.