Lots of Updating....
DANG YANKEES
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a foreign country…..in fact, when Braden and I flew down to look at apartments before we moved, Braden actually had a panic moment when he went to pay a cashier because he thought he had forgotten to change his money…..oh wait, it’s still U.S. currency in the South. For all you Southerners (Mariah, Ryan, Sig…) go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense. Frankly, I deserve it. It’s a little bit Yankiee and a lot bit Charbonneau that has caused me a long maladjustment period here in sunny SC. It started a few weeks ago (I think I may have mentioned this earlier) when I saw Emma playing in a very large sand mound by our apartment door. A brief thought of “maybe she shouldn’t be playing in that” passed through my mind, but the fact that I was trying to buckle a fussing Bela into her carseat kept me from actually doing anything about it……after a minute or so I went to get Emma to put her in the car when I noticed that she was covered in ants, not the cute black ones we have in Michigan……that would be too easy. No, these suckers were fire ants! Dang, I had read about these. What’s the good in being an English major if I put none of my knowledge of literature to work?! So I brushed them off and put her in the car. A day or so later I noticed what looked like pus filled pimples on her toes. Chalking it up to the Cinderella sandles she insists on wearing causing blisters, we promptly went and bought boy sandals which are waaaay more comfortable for her. Soon after those little bubbly sores popped and out oozed a gross pus like substance. YUCK! After asking Aunt Mariah what this could have been, she said it was definitely a battle with fire ants! And turns out these crazy bugs are everywhere. I used to let Emma sit in the curb at the park while loading Bela into the car (so that she could play in the dirt while I took my time) but then some guy said “Uh, Miss, you might not want to let her play there- that’s a fire ant hill”. Please remind me again that I’m the Yankee idiot who lets her child play with fire ants all the time. So now Emma hugs my leg (so she doesn’t run into traffic) while I load her sister. It works out I guess.
So the ants are different…..but the snakes…..that’s another ballgame. For Memorial weekend, we decided at the last minute to take a trip down to Savannah to visit Aunt Mariah and Ryan (more about this later!). They took us on a nature walk through a little trail where we came across a snake. Now, I’ve never seen anything but a garter snake unless it was behind glass at the zoo. But this thing was all coiled up and ready to attack. So our hero of the day Braden decided to get a better look. Seriously you Southerners can laugh out loud at this one (who does that?!) Luckily it didn’t attack, but Braden thought he’d add humor to the tense situation (thanks to the Charbonneau side of me!) and said “Yup, definitely a Cobra”. But seriously, there are some deadly snakes here, so really he shouldn’t have messed with it. Mariah told us later she had come across a diamondback rattler in the same park before. We saw one more snake before finally leaving the park, whew, in one piece.
Okay, the snakes are different too. But the cats? We were loading Emma into the car when she spotted a “kitty kitty” and got excited. But this thing looked big and a bit strange, so we wouldn’t let her out to see it. It was far away, so who knows what it was- could have been a large mangy cat, but…..??? Again, I’m a Yankee. This is all new to me. So I decided it’s time for a manual. Really, it should be a law that if you move to the South, you need to be handed a manual on the wildlife that could be found in your backyard or crawling up your wall (still trying to identify the 2 inch long insects that crawl up our walls that have about 20 legs, 2 large antennae, and move faster than lightning- did I mention the nasty crunch they make or the guts that are leaving stains on our walls?). So I plan on contacting the county and seeing if a guide to dangerous backyard wildlife exists. If it doesn’t, then I am planning a day trip to the library soon (this is the Charbonneau in me again). Until then, all playing in the dirt and excursions into the woods are coming to a halt. These Yankees aren’t going to fall prey to anymore Confederate bugs- wait…..is that politically incorrect? If so, I’ll take it off, please tell me.
So the wildlife is different…..as is the post office. I’ve sent out a few packages so far and have discovered that we have the Pony Express down here. Our mothers still have not received their Mother’s Day presents. Grant it, we sent them out a little late, but it’s been over a week! AND, our pediatric records have only now just gotten here!! Oy yoy yoy!
On the flipside, I’m finding out that the South is a wonderful place to raise kids. We get to be outside all of the time and the people are so friendly down here! Faith is a lot stronger too (can’t say GD on the radio and Sunday services are on almost every FM radio channel on Sunday mornings) and there are SOOOO many stay at home moms- I’m in heaven!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Today Emma walked around all day practicing “Happy Bud-day Unco Benger” (Happy birthday by the way!) only to chicken out when the time came to sing it to him. But she did great singing it all day (minus the couple of times she sang “Happy Bud-day Monkey Benger”), so I guess that’s all you can ask. We are really hoping and praying to see Uncle Benger and Aunt Gretchen (and little Braden Jr.) soon!
GEORGIA PEACHES
So I promised a little on the trip to Savannah….We decided to drive down to visit Aunt Mariah and Ryan for the weekend and it was a blast! Emma wanted sooo badly to see the beach (she’s been studying her “Dora Beach” book for the last month or so), so we decided to head down Saturday at naptime. We made the little more than three hour trip without stopping- woo hoo! After we checked into the hotel, we headed to the beach….only to have Bela start howling. After 20 minutes and a few stops to feed and change her diaper, we just couldn’t put poor Bela through that anymore, so we stopped at the “beach”. See, in Georgia (yes, this is where you Southerners can chuckle again when you hear a Northerner describe Georgia) there are parts where you can drive and drive and see nothing but that grassy wetlandy stuff where those airboats drive around (I’ve seen this only on tv before our trip). That’s what we were driving through. Bela was just howling so Braden suggested we stop and just let Emma play in the sand at this Fort something or other (the only place we could stop for miles) where there was a river, a bridge, and some sand. The other side of the road was that grassy wetlandy stuff. The Charbonneau side of me kicked in and I said “Absolutely NOT! The gators will eat her up!” I’ve seen enough t.v. to know those airboats are for Crocodile Hunters and other Animal Planet personnel and that we shouldn’t be messing with any of that. But Emma decided this was “THE BEACH!!!!!” and took her little water shoes and swim suit out to the river and splashed and collected seashells. The locals were lined up waiting to fish (apparently they can’t until the gate closes for the night) and looked at us like we were idiots (more reason for me to believe the river was loaded with gators). But that was enough beach for Emma, whew. So we never did see the ocean. That night Bela and I hung out at the hotel and watched crappy television while Emma and Braden headed to Aunt Mariah’s. When they got back, Emma went on and on about “Woosee and Meatball” (Lucy and Maple- Mariah’s two dogs). In order to calm her down and allow all of us to sleep, Braden set up a contraption made from metal poles and the comforter on the bed to make a room divider. That way Emma could sleep without feeling like it was a big slumber party with her sister and parents! But a couple of minutes later (while I was in the bathroom) I heard BANG, CRASH! And “Ooops, I sorry. Hi Daddy”. The room divider, which took 20 minutes to build, apparently takes a two year old (or almost two year old) approximately two minutes to take down. Luckily she’s a very good girl and laid down when we asked her to and fell asleep. Exactly 8 hours later though her little eyes popped open and she started talking again about “Woosee and Meatball”. The next day we spent hanging out at Mariah and Ryan’s house (which is THE coolest house ever- made from an old garage turned house, with decorating done via garbage picking and elbow grease…..seriously awesome, the fence is made from bamboo they had in their backyard, everything’s just awesome!) Anyways I digress…..while we were there Ryan found an old Civil War button in the backyard (apparently Sherman marched down their street back in the day). Excited by this awesome find, Braden, Ryan, and Mariah began digging and prodding all over the backyard. In an effort to “save time” Ryan was poking a metal rod into the ground when this geyser of water began spraying everywhere- it was like a scene from a movie (and I’m still laughing while I type this!) Turns out there is a PVC pipe that runs water to the neighbor’s house and Ryan just happened to puncture it! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So rather than taking the heat and calling the landlord, the two boys decided to fix it with a bolt and some glue. I suggested they at least let the neighbors know there was a boil water issue in effect, but they seemed to think it would be okay. Hope they don’t get sick! That night we had yummy pizza and toured downtown Savannah (GORGEOUS!). We were sad to leave so soon, but we had a lot of fun. Here’s to hoping we get to see a lot of Mariah and Ryan, who are such amazing, artistic, creative, and loving people (not to mention fun and hilarious) as well as their dogs. Poor Meatball, she’ll never live that name down.
BELA, La Petite Charbonneau
The Little Munchkin is sick again, but she’s really growing into a happy baby overall. Her smiles can light up a room and she can now squeal in delight! She scoots to get around a little and sleeps with her little butt in the air while sucking her thumb. As her personality begins to shine through, we are realizing more and more that she is indeed all Charbonneau. She is very sensitive and can get her little feelings hurt easily (unlike Emma who likes to pretend she loves timeouts and uses this time for toe fuzz picking and singing her ABC’s). She’s a snuggler, a giggler, and needs to be within eye and earshot of her mama all of the time. She gets nervous when left to herself for very long and is just sooo lovable. Yup, Charbonneau all the way!
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a foreign country…..in fact, when Braden and I flew down to look at apartments before we moved, Braden actually had a panic moment when he went to pay a cashier because he thought he had forgotten to change his money…..oh wait, it’s still U.S. currency in the South. For all you Southerners (Mariah, Ryan, Sig…) go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense. Frankly, I deserve it. It’s a little bit Yankiee and a lot bit Charbonneau that has caused me a long maladjustment period here in sunny SC. It started a few weeks ago (I think I may have mentioned this earlier) when I saw Emma playing in a very large sand mound by our apartment door. A brief thought of “maybe she shouldn’t be playing in that” passed through my mind, but the fact that I was trying to buckle a fussing Bela into her carseat kept me from actually doing anything about it……after a minute or so I went to get Emma to put her in the car when I noticed that she was covered in ants, not the cute black ones we have in Michigan……that would be too easy. No, these suckers were fire ants! Dang, I had read about these. What’s the good in being an English major if I put none of my knowledge of literature to work?! So I brushed them off and put her in the car. A day or so later I noticed what looked like pus filled pimples on her toes. Chalking it up to the Cinderella sandles she insists on wearing causing blisters, we promptly went and bought boy sandals which are waaaay more comfortable for her. Soon after those little bubbly sores popped and out oozed a gross pus like substance. YUCK! After asking Aunt Mariah what this could have been, she said it was definitely a battle with fire ants! And turns out these crazy bugs are everywhere. I used to let Emma sit in the curb at the park while loading Bela into the car (so that she could play in the dirt while I took my time) but then some guy said “Uh, Miss, you might not want to let her play there- that’s a fire ant hill”. Please remind me again that I’m the Yankee idiot who lets her child play with fire ants all the time. So now Emma hugs my leg (so she doesn’t run into traffic) while I load her sister. It works out I guess.
So the ants are different…..but the snakes…..that’s another ballgame. For Memorial weekend, we decided at the last minute to take a trip down to Savannah to visit Aunt Mariah and Ryan (more about this later!). They took us on a nature walk through a little trail where we came across a snake. Now, I’ve never seen anything but a garter snake unless it was behind glass at the zoo. But this thing was all coiled up and ready to attack. So our hero of the day Braden decided to get a better look. Seriously you Southerners can laugh out loud at this one (who does that?!) Luckily it didn’t attack, but Braden thought he’d add humor to the tense situation (thanks to the Charbonneau side of me!) and said “Yup, definitely a Cobra”. But seriously, there are some deadly snakes here, so really he shouldn’t have messed with it. Mariah told us later she had come across a diamondback rattler in the same park before. We saw one more snake before finally leaving the park, whew, in one piece.
Okay, the snakes are different too. But the cats? We were loading Emma into the car when she spotted a “kitty kitty” and got excited. But this thing looked big and a bit strange, so we wouldn’t let her out to see it. It was far away, so who knows what it was- could have been a large mangy cat, but…..??? Again, I’m a Yankee. This is all new to me. So I decided it’s time for a manual. Really, it should be a law that if you move to the South, you need to be handed a manual on the wildlife that could be found in your backyard or crawling up your wall (still trying to identify the 2 inch long insects that crawl up our walls that have about 20 legs, 2 large antennae, and move faster than lightning- did I mention the nasty crunch they make or the guts that are leaving stains on our walls?). So I plan on contacting the county and seeing if a guide to dangerous backyard wildlife exists. If it doesn’t, then I am planning a day trip to the library soon (this is the Charbonneau in me again). Until then, all playing in the dirt and excursions into the woods are coming to a halt. These Yankees aren’t going to fall prey to anymore Confederate bugs- wait…..is that politically incorrect? If so, I’ll take it off, please tell me.
So the wildlife is different…..as is the post office. I’ve sent out a few packages so far and have discovered that we have the Pony Express down here. Our mothers still have not received their Mother’s Day presents. Grant it, we sent them out a little late, but it’s been over a week! AND, our pediatric records have only now just gotten here!! Oy yoy yoy!
On the flipside, I’m finding out that the South is a wonderful place to raise kids. We get to be outside all of the time and the people are so friendly down here! Faith is a lot stronger too (can’t say GD on the radio and Sunday services are on almost every FM radio channel on Sunday mornings) and there are SOOOO many stay at home moms- I’m in heaven!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Today Emma walked around all day practicing “Happy Bud-day Unco Benger” (Happy birthday by the way!) only to chicken out when the time came to sing it to him. But she did great singing it all day (minus the couple of times she sang “Happy Bud-day Monkey Benger”), so I guess that’s all you can ask. We are really hoping and praying to see Uncle Benger and Aunt Gretchen (and little Braden Jr.) soon!
GEORGIA PEACHES
So I promised a little on the trip to Savannah….We decided to drive down to visit Aunt Mariah and Ryan for the weekend and it was a blast! Emma wanted sooo badly to see the beach (she’s been studying her “Dora Beach” book for the last month or so), so we decided to head down Saturday at naptime. We made the little more than three hour trip without stopping- woo hoo! After we checked into the hotel, we headed to the beach….only to have Bela start howling. After 20 minutes and a few stops to feed and change her diaper, we just couldn’t put poor Bela through that anymore, so we stopped at the “beach”. See, in Georgia (yes, this is where you Southerners can chuckle again when you hear a Northerner describe Georgia) there are parts where you can drive and drive and see nothing but that grassy wetlandy stuff where those airboats drive around (I’ve seen this only on tv before our trip). That’s what we were driving through. Bela was just howling so Braden suggested we stop and just let Emma play in the sand at this Fort something or other (the only place we could stop for miles) where there was a river, a bridge, and some sand. The other side of the road was that grassy wetlandy stuff. The Charbonneau side of me kicked in and I said “Absolutely NOT! The gators will eat her up!” I’ve seen enough t.v. to know those airboats are for Crocodile Hunters and other Animal Planet personnel and that we shouldn’t be messing with any of that. But Emma decided this was “THE BEACH!!!!!” and took her little water shoes and swim suit out to the river and splashed and collected seashells. The locals were lined up waiting to fish (apparently they can’t until the gate closes for the night) and looked at us like we were idiots (more reason for me to believe the river was loaded with gators). But that was enough beach for Emma, whew. So we never did see the ocean. That night Bela and I hung out at the hotel and watched crappy television while Emma and Braden headed to Aunt Mariah’s. When they got back, Emma went on and on about “Woosee and Meatball” (Lucy and Maple- Mariah’s two dogs). In order to calm her down and allow all of us to sleep, Braden set up a contraption made from metal poles and the comforter on the bed to make a room divider. That way Emma could sleep without feeling like it was a big slumber party with her sister and parents! But a couple of minutes later (while I was in the bathroom) I heard BANG, CRASH! And “Ooops, I sorry. Hi Daddy”. The room divider, which took 20 minutes to build, apparently takes a two year old (or almost two year old) approximately two minutes to take down. Luckily she’s a very good girl and laid down when we asked her to and fell asleep. Exactly 8 hours later though her little eyes popped open and she started talking again about “Woosee and Meatball”. The next day we spent hanging out at Mariah and Ryan’s house (which is THE coolest house ever- made from an old garage turned house, with decorating done via garbage picking and elbow grease…..seriously awesome, the fence is made from bamboo they had in their backyard, everything’s just awesome!) Anyways I digress…..while we were there Ryan found an old Civil War button in the backyard (apparently Sherman marched down their street back in the day). Excited by this awesome find, Braden, Ryan, and Mariah began digging and prodding all over the backyard. In an effort to “save time” Ryan was poking a metal rod into the ground when this geyser of water began spraying everywhere- it was like a scene from a movie (and I’m still laughing while I type this!) Turns out there is a PVC pipe that runs water to the neighbor’s house and Ryan just happened to puncture it! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So rather than taking the heat and calling the landlord, the two boys decided to fix it with a bolt and some glue. I suggested they at least let the neighbors know there was a boil water issue in effect, but they seemed to think it would be okay. Hope they don’t get sick! That night we had yummy pizza and toured downtown Savannah (GORGEOUS!). We were sad to leave so soon, but we had a lot of fun. Here’s to hoping we get to see a lot of Mariah and Ryan, who are such amazing, artistic, creative, and loving people (not to mention fun and hilarious) as well as their dogs. Poor Meatball, she’ll never live that name down.
BELA, La Petite Charbonneau
The Little Munchkin is sick again, but she’s really growing into a happy baby overall. Her smiles can light up a room and she can now squeal in delight! She scoots to get around a little and sleeps with her little butt in the air while sucking her thumb. As her personality begins to shine through, we are realizing more and more that she is indeed all Charbonneau. She is very sensitive and can get her little feelings hurt easily (unlike Emma who likes to pretend she loves timeouts and uses this time for toe fuzz picking and singing her ABC’s). She’s a snuggler, a giggler, and needs to be within eye and earshot of her mama all of the time. She gets nervous when left to herself for very long and is just sooo lovable. Yup, Charbonneau all the way!
THE QUEEN OF CLEAN
The one piece of advice I got most from moms before having Emma was to forget about cleaning and enjoy the kids. So, I've spent the last two years really trying to live by that credo, cleaning enough to keep the bugs away and the toddler safe. But today Emma kept bringing me crumbs and scraps off the floor, and the last time she did she said "Mommy vacuum?" Okay, so when your toddler tells you that you need to be cleaner, that's bad isn't it? Sadly, I haven't vacuumed yet.....
posted by LittleMama at 4:05 PM
2 Comments:
Come home and be a Northerner again! The pics and stories are absolutely adorable and had me rolling in laughter. Wish you were all here but know you're all in my thoughts every minute of every day.
Love you!
Mom
PS - You really should write a book! You really write so well!
9:52 AM
Melissa, I am in a library in Roanoke, VA right now trying not to disturb others with my laughter. Your stories are awesome. I especially appreciate the ones about the scary animals down here, I can relate. I love Bela's chubby arms and legs :) Miss you guys!
10:03 AM
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