Red (cheeks), White (legs), and Blue (beer)

Please avert your eyes from the glare of my blindingly white legs- I see some self tanner is definitely in my future.  You know you are pale when your five month old baby girl has more color than you!

We skipped the lake this year and headed to the neighborhood next to ours' children's parade.

Miss Priss' best little buddy, Caitlin, was our hostess with the mostess.

 She shared a wagon with her future husband, Taylor.  They share a birthday and are therefore destined for each other, right?  Then we will bring out these pictures at their wedding, and there will be collective "aws" all around.

Leland eschewed his ride in favor of walking around in his cool blue baby Toms.

 Mary Carlisle's pink tricycle was gussied up in style!  Also, I want a pair of those shades in my size.
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Hayes was ready for that heat, and his wagon ready with hydration!

 Dell Harper (who looks so much like her daddy here- that is his look of concentration to a t!), was a bit chagrined to not be big enough for a wagon yet.  However, she intently (and quietly!) watched the chaos around us the entire time.  We then headed to a carnival at the pool, where she promptly passed out in her carrier and allowed us to eat dinner.  This was shocking and delightful.

We decided not to push our luck and stay for fireworks, so everyone was home and in bed before dark.  A different kind of Fourth of July, for sure.  Honestly?  I missed being up at Norris Lake and drinking beer on the dock until the wee hours of the morning.  However, on a middle of the week holiday, a couple of beers and a baby parade will work!  She will be able to stay up and watch fireworks next year, and I might just have to wrangle her into that life-jacket tonight for a little post-work cruise to get my lake fix.  And maybe get some sun on those white legs of mine!

The Bumper Controversy

I am throughly confused.

To bumper or to not bumper.

Miss Priss is mobile, y'all.  She is a restless sleeper and all over her crib.  I have no idea where she got this from. . . ahem.  Tummy, back, side, and every position in between.  Her head ends up where her feet started.  She sleeps horizontally.  She sleeps vertically.  I dutifully lay her on her back to sleep, and check on her five minutes later to find her on her tummy, face smushed down unto her mattress.

At my parents' house her crib is bumper free.  My sleep was also free from continuous.  A little arm or little leg would manage to find it's way through the slats of her crib.  That would be it for the nap or a night's sleep.  One little bonk of her head during her nightly rotations and gyrations and I could kiss my sleep goodbye.  Farewell, sweet slumber.

Now we are back.

Her crib here has bumpers.  Like such.

Not poofy. Damn if that girl is not super cozy and back to taking naps and sleeping again (knock, knock, knock on wood!).

So what to do?  Pretty much everyone I know has bumpers.  I survived bumpers.  But then you google bumpers, and they are apparently a dangerous choice/deathtrap.  Oh, law.

I just do not know what to do.  Obviously, I do not want to choose sleep over the safety of my beloved baby.  However, I do need to sleep.  I love to sleep.  Especially for more than two hours at a time.

My instincts are that she is fine with her bumpers, and enjoy the coziness they bring.  As well as the head-cushioning properties.  Then I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, debate my worries for fifteen minutes, and go check to see if she is breathing.

Please share what you fellow mamas did regarding bumpers.  To bumper or not to bumper, that is the (neurotic yuppie mama) question.

My Love Affair with AC (and break-up with NYC)

I just love air conditioning so much.  Such a gift. 

When I lived in New York City one summer, I sublet a room in a charming West Village walkup from an older girl who graduated the year ahead of me at Georgia.  NYC was experiencing a heat wave like the current one, and the darling little place did not have any air conditioning whatsoever.  Even worse?  I had a completely interior room, with nary a window.  It was like sleeping in a sauna.  I ended up sleeping on the couch with open windows in a wrung out nightie that I soaked in cold water before attempting to sleep.  My lucky roommates absconded to boyfriends' places, but I was a penniless intern with no boyfriend in sight.  I longed for a pool, a beach, a lake.  Hell, I would have settled for a bag of Sonic ice and a baby pool!

This is likely why I detested living in New York.  I needed my AC, some shady trees, and a river.   I used to listen to Dixie on My Mind over and over on my daily subway ride home from my boring internship.  I also packed on the pounds despite my walking and gym membership due to comfort eating of Ben and Jerry's.  Needless to say, it was not my favorite summer (for the record, favorite summer is tied between living in Charleston, and one when I lived in Knoxville, nannied, and waterskied every single day).

Source: charlottetrounce.tumblr.com via Samma on Pinterest

The passage of time is a strange thing.  Those 2 and a 1/2 months spent in NYC at 21 years old seemed to drag on forever, but the last 2 months spent renovating our house have flown by at age 30.

We are now settling back in our little stone ranch house.  It's amazing, but Dell Harper has spent pratically half of her life living at her grandparents.  It was such a blessing- I was able to help Mama with cooking and such after her thumb surgery, and always had a willing grandparent to hold that little girl.  Even better, my parents got to really know their granddaughter- her cries, her schedule, her faces.  It was so amazing to see her recognition and love of them grow daily.  I'm so happy to be home, but thankful that the last two months were so delightful!

Please note- I am not a philistine- I adore visting New York.  Just not living there.  Especially in the summer.