Luck of the Irish

As luck would have it, the weather has been amazing in Charlotte lately and so we decided to go watch the St. Patty's Day parade in uptown Charlotte (can you tell I'm a native? I still call it "uptown" instead of downtown). Just a few of my favorite pictures:

Is it coming yet?

The Budweiser Clydesdale's were HUGE...and so beautiful!

A US Airways employee saw how excited Alex was to see the plane and so he asked if we wanted to take his picture by the plane. Alex is looking at the guy like, "Are you sure its ok if I am out here 'cause my mom has been telling me to stay behind the white line all morning long?!?"

Alex loves a good band.

A beam from 9-11

Trip Down Memory Lane...

On 3.11.06 Scotty and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said this was the best year of our marriage...in fact it has been the hardest one yet. It doesn't mean that you cant grow from that together and be closer than ever in the end...so that's what we are aiming for. Scotty is my best friend, he makes me laugh, he makes me cry...but in the end he makes me....well...me. So anyway here is my salute to the last 5 years...and here's to many more.

Pre married life at the beach

December 2005

3.11.06

Everglades, Florida after our honeymoon cruise

St. Thomas, USVI May 2007

July 2008

November 2009

October 2010

Playgrounds & Potty Training

It was such a nice day we headed to Coulwood Park to play on the playground and walk the trails....we even watched some of the CoulOak baseball tryouts (I find it funny that size wise, Alex could have been out there fielding the ball with those kids).



It was really a great day. Alex had fun on the "ello" (translation: yellow) playground.








[Foul language ahead...you have been warned]

And since we are in the midst of potty training I packed an extra pair of pants and underroo's. We are pretty much 100% pee trained and struggling with the #2 aspect of potty training but that seems to be normal....and he is holding it in until night time on #2 so we should be good....Oh and let me also say, there was this topic on CM (Charlotte Mommies) the other day about a kid pooping in the bushes at a local park. ::::gasp:::: Yes, its gross. But as I can attest to today....SHIT happens. Literally.

Let me set the scene....we are alone on the playground (THANK GOD!) and the only other human in sight was the man detailing his car in the shade. Alex slides down the slide and gets off and assumes the position. For those of you who have seen him, you know what I am talking about. I'm all, "Alex do you have to go poo in the potty?" Too late. His face was already red and he had his little fists balled up to help force out whatever was backed up inside of him. I begin to panic...I'm going to be the park pooper on CM this week! (Ok, that didn't really cross my mind but I do laugh about it now.) So I casually walk to the car to get our spare pair of pants, undies (April that is for your friend Buckeye!) and wipes as to not alert the poor man detailing his car...STILL.

We get the kid cleaned up, poop disposed of properly (apparently previous mentioned park pooper did not clean up...so there, I disposed of it in the trash can wrapped in wipes) and returned to playing like nothing happened. I mean this is easy...a cakewalk...not a problem.

Until..."Mommy, I pooped." OMG we are out of clean underwear and are 10 minutes from the house...do not be alarmed...do not panic...do not freak out. Turns out it was just a little one...a shart if you will....so we got him cleaned up again (Yes, the man was STILL detailing his car!!!) and continued to play.


Until...."Mommy...." You know what is coming. The kid sharted again, only this time it was between a shart and a shit...So here I am sitting on the slide telling my son to bend over and touch his toes for a THIRD time in 15 minutes. The poor man was still detailing his car, and so he got mooned for the THIRD time. I cleaned my child up as best as possible - at this point he had soiled everything clean we had in the truck so we headed home with our stinky kid. I'm not sure if the man noticed all the poo commotion or not. I hope not.

Next time 3 changes of clothes will be in the car.

Spring Has Sprung

And we have put air in our tires and taken our bikes out 2 days in a row. Alex loves his new "Mack" seat. We told him it was like Mack from the movie "Cars" since the trailer hauls Alex around. I don't love the new seat but options are limited for front carriers (like we use to have) for kids in the 40+ pound range....plus I got a STEAL on this Schwinn carrier. It was almost brand new...used only a couple of times and I only paid $50.00

It's going to be 68 degrees this week. I see a lot of biking in our future.

FIXED! Shew. Not that kind of fixed ;)

Serioulsy frustrated with Blogger lately. Why cant I post titles anymore???

*update* I think I fixed it!

Tears of Joy and Sadness

What started off as a great week at the circus will end with saying goodbye to a man who was always gracious, kind, loving and welcoming...up until his last day. Scotty's grandfather had a hard fought battle with Leukemia and finally said his final goodbyes this week. Funeral is tomorrow.

One of the biggest struggles as a Mother is how do you explain this to your child? He knows his Great Grandfather by Papa and many nights after daycare we would go hang out with Nana and Papa and Alex and Papa would play cars together. It has and always will be Nana & Papa's house to him. We can leave daycare and he will say, "Papa not sick no more...can I go see Nana and Papa?" Alex got to play cars with Papa one final time on Friday. He played beside Papa's hospice bed and Papa said, "atta boy" and "pull that one back, now let it go..."

He was right, Papa isn't sick anymore. He is in heaven with Jesus and singing with the choir of Angels. That's what we have told Alex...and if you ask him, that's where he says Papa is.

Hello!! {{echo}} Hello!

I use to love Blogging...then I stumbled across this little thing called Facebook, and the blogging just kind of slipped to the side. BUT we upgraded to AT&T Uverse this weekend and my computer is back up and running at higher speeds so I thought I would try to dive back in and give an update. So...since November 11th which is my last blog post we have been busy (Wow...November 11th...really? Yeah I stink at this lately).

Lets see....Alex went to his first NFL game at Bank of America Stadium...



And he was VERY happy about it.



We renovated our downstairs....(and Mommy is VERY happy with the outcome)



Alex met a Santa (or 2)...




And he waited patiently for Santa to come visit us....



So he could open his presents...



Oh and we got Snow on that same day....



And then we got MORE snow in January...



So we went sledding...



We are still trying to thaw out from the coldest Dec/Jan that I ever remember in Charlotte. Today we were in the 60's but they say it wont last long. We are headed to the beach this weekend so Im sure it will be cold and rainy....stay tuned...lots going on in the Todd family...

Scotty and I are going to Bald Head in March, I am going away for Mothers day (YES!!!!) with some of the best girlfriends anyone could ask for, we are going to the OBX with some crazy family that we cant seem to shake in August, and in Sept we are taking a trip north to see some friends we miss dearly. So I dont have excuses...lots to blog about.