hilton head, part 2 (a sunrise)

on our last full day at the beach, we woke up before dawn so we could sneak out and watch the sunrise. since wilder was sleeping in our room (the sleep situation is always the hardest part of vacationing with kids, isn't it?!), we woke him up, pulled a jacket over his pjs and brought him out, too. he was so happy to be included, and it was great that we got to take him with us on a little adventure. after we watched the sunrise, we went back to get evie up and brought them back to the beach for a few photos. we were really trying to hit that golden hour, but were just a tiny bit too late to get the perfect lighting. it was still pretty magical, and evie was in HEAVEN. that girl. i swear she is part sea creature! i first tried to set up one of those sweet little sibling photos but evie felt a little strangled (and held back;), so we quickly ditched that attempt and let them roam around free while we scurried after them, trying to make sure no one fell in the water. i love the series of evie running from her papa. she loves to be chased. mostly she loves to get away though. ;) i wished we could have done this every morning, but we are sooo not morning people. maybe by next year we will be! haha, a girl can dream right? i love these photos so much.

wilder bonded with his uncle gordon this trip, especially after uncle gordon took him to get a star wars sticker! def highlight of w's trip!

i feel so bad that i didn't get nearly as many photos of wilder as evie, because i was constantly having to run to keep her from running straight into the ocean! 

wilder and evienne's cousin beau! he loved the beach too:) 

running from papa! hahaha

this is evie. complete wild baby and loving her freedom! :D

hilton head beaaaaaaach!, part 1 (first look)

last friday we headed out to hilton head island in south carolina for a little beach vacation. we rented a beach house with j's parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their little boy Beau who is just five days older than Evie! we had the best time! our beach house was just a five minute walk to the beach, and the beach was absolutely perfect! also, may is THE time to go to the beach, especially if you have little kids, because the rates are better and the weather while we were there was perfect! we never got too hot and the sun wasn't as intense as it is in july.

we arrived at our beach house around 4:30 on friday and after getting settled into the house, walked the kids down to the beach for a quick little toe-dip. evie's face when she saw the beach was amazing! she was a little out of her mind with giddiness the entire trip, but i love that i captured that first look at the ocean in the photo down below. doesn't she look completely ecstatic? haha. this little girl was a complete wild thing! if i hadn't held her back every day, i have no doubt she would have dove straight into that water! her favorite part was just getting to walk and walk and walk with all the open ground. freedom!!! haha. she is our little free spirit. ;)

also, it is so hard for me to believe that the last time we were at the beach was two years ago and wilder was evienne's age! i cannot believe how fast time has gone! and how big my little boy is! he seemed so much older to me at the time, but nope! in fact he was still nursing! so weird!

this face!

and this! her happiness is contagious:)

reflections on this season

lately my thoughts have been circling around what this season of motherhood and my life looks like right now, as i reflect on the meaning of spring (yes, i know, it's basically summer...can we agree that i'm just always going to be late to the party? yes? okay good.). outwardly we are celebrating the arrival of shorts-wearing temperatures, planting our gardens, and approaching our cleaning lists with something akin to joy, but i've been under this realization that i am in a season of spring personally, as well.

i like to think that spring is a time for refreshment and possibility. for hope. it's funny when i compare this spring to last spring. it's really hard for me to look back in a way,  because i think i generally tend to forget the bad stuff...and i've forgotten a lot of last year;). but i do know that this spring, i feel more content.

i was telling a friend of mine recently that the stay at home mom life has ebbs and flows. some weeks are just so hard. and some weeks are so completely lovely. this spring i've been feeling both in balance and out of balance. in balance more with myself and a little out of balance with my motherhood. i think i am in a new season with my kids where they are asking just a bit more than i've been accustomed to give, and so i am feeling that stretch of having to cope with increased demand. it is a season that i am simultaneously cherishing and feeling completely incompetent for. a little like i'm failing. or missing something. missing patience. missing nap time. missing energy. missing inspiration. missing focus. missing my alone time. missing the two extra arms i must have originally been destined to have for these two kids (ha;). and even so, i am still madly in love with my role as a mother.

i am also more in balance with myself. which is to say, i am feeling more at peace with my life. with all that has come before and all that is. learning to accept and let go (at least a little bit) my victimhood, my yearning, my complaints, my unrealized expectations. learning to embrace the life i've been given. experiencing joy in simple things. in God. in my husband. in my children. in just living.

but sometimes it's easy in spring to feel like you are just getting ready for summer. bikini body workouts (or failed attempts at;) and beach-trip planning and restocking your sunscreens. especially the last two weeks it's been a mad dash for making sure we have everything we need for this trip (why is it that trips are always accompanied by a long list of errands you've been putting off?!). i like to think that my master procrastination organizational skills come to the fore in these moments;). and even though all of those things can be kind of fun because it's something tangible to focus on, i actually end up feeling unfocused, distracted, and discontent. somehow i start to think that my life service is making trips to targets and checking things off my to-do list, and sadly, the kids feel my impatience when i am Just Trying To Get All The Things Done!

so, i've been thinking too, about how to slow down. how to live a simpler life. how to live a small life (does that even make sense?).

even though i have a hundred things and goals that i am wanting to accomplish, and even though i have been feeling like i don't have enough hours in the day for it all (or maybe because of that?), i am also desperately wanting to slow down. i'm sure someone else reading this might be like: but do you do anything besides mother?? why do you need to slow down?? and i know right?! what do i DO all day long? i don't know if i necessarily need to slow down outwardly (although, yes, fewer trips to all the stores would be nice). maybe what i am really wanting is to slow down inwardly. settle in. soak in the moments (i know it's all i talk about and i'm sure it looks like that's all that's taking place). this feeling began with the birth of wilder and has just become more and more potent as i look back on two sets of photos and videos and feel like each of my babies was a newborn just days ago, only to be confronted by the real-life mystery of them now walking and talking. but i am not just talking about slowing down so that i can enjoy my kids, although yes, that is surely a motivation. i am talking about slowing down the incessant whirlwind inside. to live more purposefully. with a goal in mind.

and what is my goal?

i think my goal is to be more still. (i'm not talking about being still long enough to read a book for hours, because trust me, i've got that one nailed.;)

to be still in my motherhood, knowing that that is my primary goal and concern.

to be still in my social media interaction, instead of being overwhelmed by all the photos and images and letting them influence my perspective on life.

to be still inwardly and rest in God, no matter what life brings.


for now, i'm off to practice the art of sitting still and reading a book at the beach! ;)

on my bookshelf: beach reads (books five years and older)

we are on our way to the beach tomorrow, so in light of that, i thought i'd put together a little list of some of my favorite beach reads! everyone needs those books that are just perfect for picking up and putting down. sometimes, these are my favorite kinds of books, because as much as i love a book that i can't put down (obviously...), it's also nice to be reading a book that doesn't completely consume you. it means the book is maybe not as magnetic, but not necessarily less interesting. in fact some of the most interesting books i've ever read are the ones that kind of necessitate you putting them down. they require a little time to digest. which also means that you don't have that overwhelming urge to stay up all night (for which you will most definitely be kicking yourself all the next day!;) reading it. and sometimes you want to read something that doesn't require you to think or feel too much. haha. that sounds so bad. but you know what i mean? you want a book that is basically just fun. well this list has both books that require some digestion and books that are simply good reads. and all of these books i loved. these are also all books that are five years old or older! because sometimes you really can't make just one list. ;)



1. bel canto — beautiful, beautiful book! sad ending! maybe you didn't know but i have a thing with sad (beautiful) endings in (beautiful) books. i cannot stand a sad ending in a movie because i watch movies to not have to think or feel too much other than excitement and happiness. but books somehow are different. you will love this book. it is beautifully written and so different from the typical "beach" reads.

2. tender is the night — this book just screams the beach to me, since a large part of it takes place...on the beach! this is actually a horrible story about mental illness, the complexity of marriage, divorce, the descent of humanity, infidelity, murder...i don't know why i put it on this list, haha. i just find fitzgerald's imagery so powerful, so read this book for the imagery but don't expect to be uplifted. hmm, that's the second sad book on this list. don't worry! it gets lighter!

3. a year in provence (or anything by peter mayle!) — this book is just pure delight. especially if you have a thing for food, france, the french countryside, the english, a slower pace of life, etc. this book is for you!

4. the elegance of the hedgehog — this is a novel disguised and propelled by philosophy. it is oh-so-very French, and thus oh-so-very clever and also, so simple, in that the characters are just so certain, so clear, so clean. how a book can utilize philosophy and be wrapped up in its study while narrowing its characters down to the pristine, tiny moments they experience, is the trick and the charm of this book's genius. it makes you want to go live in a flat pre-internet-era in europe, find a job doing something menial and unrewarding, and make friends with stray cats. or maybe that's just me? either way, it is imbued with the appreciation of the simple things in life and that alone makes it a worthwhile read.

5. the lost continent — i have a confession: this is the only bill bryson book i have ever read, despite loving it and finding him such a hilarious and wonderful writer. i am getting on my library website to rectify that stat! but in the meantime, i highly recommend this book. bryson is wry, insightful, witty and will cause you to look at everything with new eyes.

6. saturday — another gorgeous book. what can i say except this book is about the writing and the characters, which is as every good book should be. i don't think there's much more to say on it, is there?

7. beach music — pat conroy is a legend in the south, and this book will show you why. there is so much drama and feeling in all of his books, which sometimes is too much, but in this book just pulls you in with both hands. might fall more on the side of can't-put-down but i can't remember since i read this probably 10 years ago.

8. the steep approach to garbadale — i have been a fan of ian banks since i read the bridge (which i considered putting on this list, but it's kind of a strange book and definitely more of the can't-put-it-down variety). i actually read this book at the beach on my honeymoon! his characters are magnetic and i loved reading about scotland.

9. the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society — oh my goodness such a good book! not a bowl me over backwards book, but a really delightful book with really lovable characters all the same. this was on every reading list when it came out so chances are you've already read it (like the rest of these titles haha), but if not, go read it! you'll thank me!

10. the swan thieves - i really loved this book. i think because elizabeth kostova has such an amazing way of making art and history come to life in a way that makes you (or just me?) want to go back to school and be a historian...or an artist...or both! i really loved this story and the mystery in it. and i found the characters to be so vibrant (except the main character...how odd but also a problem i have often grappled with as a writer).

w & papa at the splash pad {micro vlog}

on saturday we had some repairs done to our house, so instead of all leaving the house together as we usually do, evienne and i held down the fort while wilder and papa went down to piedmont park's splash pad. normally i would hate to be left in the house on a saturday morning, but it actually felt good to be able to have some one on one time with evie and also get some chores leftover from the week done without too many interruptions. i am getting so domestic! i almost even considered baking! ha! but then decided to watch a movie while evie napped instead. ;)

j and w had a really good time at the splash pad, and i can't wait for us all to go back as a family. i'm sure evie will love it! here's a cute little micro vlog j put together of their morning out. :)

a mother's day treat {micro vlog}

on mother's day, j gave me some time off to go do some shopping and stuff without any little people to worry about. i think it's a little funny/ironic that the best mother's day gift is time alone, but it's really kind of true. i actually told j that the only things i wanted for mother's day were a good cup of coffee and a photo with my babies, but when he told me that he was going to take the kids and give me some time to myself i was like heck yeah! haha. it's not that i didn't want to be with my family, but when you're a mom, i think the main thing you really don't get much of is personal space, so you take it whenever you can get it! it's so weird to think that before kids i was lonely a lot! that is definitely an emotion i don't really experience anymore, ha! which is perfectly wonderful to me. but anyways, after i had all my alone time, which naturally i spent running around and doing errands for the most part haha, i came home and we took the kids out for some frozen yogurt. it was actually hands down the best part of my day. here's our little micro vlog about it.

i love my family. they make this mothering gig the best part of life. :)

weekly (monthly?) portraits

hat weather is upon us! we are pretty thrilled with all the opportunities to chase down the last of the dandelions, dig in the sand, and come home with dirty feet. this summer is going to be so great, i can tell, since now both my kids are able to walk around and play on their own. i'm amazed at how quickly the first year with my babies has gone by. and already 4 months into evie's second year?! how did that happen so quickly!? i feel like it's been eons since i did "portraits" of them, so here goes:

wilder:
is a singer. literally walks around the house singing made up songs ALL. DAY. LONG. also, he is a mashup genius! there's a bunch of incomprehensible are-those-even-words lyrics in there too though, haha.
for the last week we've been convincing him to stay in his own bed all night. so proud of him.
regularly asks "what do i get after this?" as he eats his meal (even if it's something he likes). i guess we've been bribing him too much? ;)
requests we go to the library to get a new bug book every other day. "bug" includes reptiles. ;)
has been practicing counting to ten in spanish and french and then trying to count back down to one! i did not teach him that.
was completely enthralled by papa's story of goldilocks and the three bears the other morning and kept asking "what happens next?"
is in the stage of wanting to "go to someone's house to play" every day. i guess our house is officially boring? haha.
loves to ask evie questions like: "are you hungry, evie? yes or no?"

evienne:
invariably answers wilder's questions with: "no." every single time. and i die every time they do it; it's completely adorable.
is now climbing on our dining room table (did i mention that?), so all our chairs are now on top of the table. this stage is so charming. ;)
likes to say: ball, hat, doggie, milk, bath, no, mommy, papa, bubby, cheese, star, and get down. haha!
has been called a boy twice, which is way better than the zillion times w was mistaken for a girl.
wants to do everything w does and have everything w has and breaks down in tears if she can't (see last picture below)!
is allergic to something that is making her break out in some kind of rash. chocolate? soy? :(
likes to run away.
looooooooooves her mimi (milk)!
doesn't like stickers. literally is annoyed if you put one on her.
likes to say "bye" whenever you close a door or shut a drawer or leave anywhere, haha.
will laugh if you start laughing, even if she has no idea what you're laughing about, which just makes me laugh harder!
also likes to make friends with everyone everywhere! somehow she's still shy though, too. so funny.
still loves to be held, except when there's something to get down and do!

a biking on the beltline date {a film!}

a few weeks ago, j and i went on a bike riding date on the atlanta beltline. j was an avid bicyclist for years when we lived in austin, before we got married and moved to atlanta. he actually has a nice mountain bike that's been sitting in our garage for 4 or 5 years. i feel bad that he doesn't get to take it out much, but working + young kids + living in the 'burbs just hasn't been kind to his bike-riding love. so anyways, we rented a few bikes and biked the beltline to ponce city market where we had a quick lunch and then hightailed it back to return our bikes and relieve the babysitter. it was my first time on a bike in 8 years! the last time was also on a date, before we were married, and my bike got a flat tire. also, it was not my bike, and i'm not sure if i even helped fix the flat. oops! sorry johnmark! thanks for letting me borrow your bike!

it was a quick and fun date out, and of course we had to make a little movie of it. i was nervous since it had been so long and i just felt so uncoordinated, but it was so fun! i love bikes! and it made me really, really wish we lived in the city where we could do this more often. also, we probably hit the bike date idea right on time because it is already warming up to the point of too warm for bikes in my opinion. i just noticed that i talk about the weather an awful lot. what's up with that? anyways, for your viewing pleasure! behold! another date movie!

my mother, my hero

i don't remember my mother being giant-sized when i was growing up.

i remember the chocolate chip cookies.
i remember saturday morning crepes.
i remember that one really bad goulash.
i remember books (the chronicles of narnia, the indian in the cupboard, the Bible, that other one i can't remember...).
i remember our cats.
i remember the time we came back from a weekend vacation to find that our closets (and all our clothes) smelled like the pot of beans she left on the stove...
i remember our "hunkering down" days, when she would unplug the phone (really the only way people could get in contact with you short of knocking on the front door, back then!) and draw all the window shades and we'd stay inside and do nothing but read.
i remember the pies.
i remember the big cups of water she'd take everywhere.
i remember her crying at all the sappy parts in movies.
i remember shapeless sweaters.
i remember her taking her glasses off to clean them on her shirt whenever she cried or laughed....so basically all the time.
i remember evening walks around the st. edward's university track.
i remember asking her to help me with my pre-calculus homework and then watching her sit down to read my math book (and then i took it back and did it on my own).
i remember, too, when she got remarried and started to become "domesticated" (to a degree...she still didn't cook dinner), which is probably all she ever wanted.

my mom made her own kombucha and dried her clothes on a clothesline in the backyard before martha stewart made those things popular again. she was a fan of natural products (or really, no products), simple living and simple pleasures, long before that was ever a thing. she loved cappuccinos before starbucks was a household name. she didn't wear makeup (at all) or much jewelry. her favorite perfume was chanel no. 5, but she hardly ever wore it.

my mom would not have professed to be "good" at many things. she was absentminded. she was a slow grader (high school math teacher). she didn't like to cook. she always fell asleep when i was baring my soul to her.

but she was extraordinarily good at laughing.

today i looked in the mirror and saw my mother's face. i think i have her eye shape. i definitely have her jaw and smile and hair type. maybe her eyebrows too. and, i got her freckly, smile-line-wrinkled skin. i loved the crinkles around my mother's eyes. i thought she was so beautiful.

growing up, my mother was my bedrock. she was identity, safety, security, love, joy. she was home. but she wasn't mythic or epic-sized. she didn't have wings. she couldn't do everything.

i don't think it was until i was grown up that she became my hero. now i can't even comprehend the amount that she could and did do.

she raised me to be strong, independent, to take care of myself. in some ways, i've always thought that it was being the child of divorced parents that made me like that. now, i see it was just her.

she taught me to do my own laundry and pack my own school lunch at 13. she gave me an allowance and taught me to save for what i really wanted. (and then she endured my ceaseless obsessive talk of getting a dog for years before i finally did.) she held us while we cried after she told us about our cat dying at the vet (our pets didn't ever got to "the farm"). she believed we could do everything, but she didn't push me to do anything.

even though i feel sometimes like i see my mother's face in myself, what i hope i'll see is her — the mother that she was to me.

i have no idea what i'm doing on this motherhood ride. sometimes, yes, there are days—when dinner gets made, the kids eat all their veggies and give each other spontaneous hugs, my chores get done and i manage to exercise and do a little something on this blog—that i feel like i have it together. but then there are the other days, more often it sometimes seems, when i realize i am getting it all wrong. when i realize if i should read more parenting books and pray more desperately. when i doubt i'm up to this herculean task called raising children.

my mother made it look so easy. i think from her i got the desire to have children in the first place. she made mothering look fun. and even though i could do without all the new wrinkles spots i see on my face lately, and even though it's just a face, i feel bolstered by the idea that at least a little bit of her is in me.

i've struggled all my life with what i want to be when i grow up. but i've finally realized — all i want to be is my mom.

she was the ultimate, the best, the most beautiful and wonderful mother in the world.

i hope one day my children will think that even slightly of me.

on my bookshelf: top 10 sci fi novels

hopefully this is not the most boring blog post ever, but being a monstrous book lover, i have been wanting to do some top 10 lists for awhile now. my first top 10 list is for science fiction, a genre near and dear to my heart ever since i discovered it on the overflowing bookshelves at my grandparents' house in fort davis, texas, all those years ago. my grandparents traveled and lived all over the world, and when my grandfather retired, they decided to build a house in fort davis, tx of all places. i say of all places because it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere texas. it is very dry, very "mountainous" (no one outside texas would call them mountains but we persist), very sparsely populated, and very beautiful. i will always have the best memories of their house there, where i would often get out of all the chores my cousins and our parents were being put to because i was holed up somewhere voraciously reading through my grandparents' amazing library. clearly a love for books is in the genes. i feel like i've probably told this story before? well anyways, that's where i first discovered science fiction, even though most of these titles i've read rather recently.

these top 10 are listed in order of my reading of them, because i don't really think i could say which is number 1 (okay, maybe red rising) or number 10. in case you are wondering, i am including dystopian (#s 5, 6, 7) and post-apocalyptic (#s 4, 8, 10) titles in here, because those actually do fall into the genre of science fiction, which at its core is fiction that is set in a world like our own, but with important scientific or technological differences. in other words, i like to think, it is what is possible, versus fantasy which deals with a world totally unlike—and unlikely ever to become—our own. science fiction is about what our future could be. usually, as in the case of dystopian or post-apocalyptic scenarios, it is what we hope will not—but fear will?— happen.

a final note about these books: they are mostly all heavy on the heavy stuff and some are pretty violent too, with the exception of the martian. that one is almost solely pure fun. if you saw the movie first, i pity you. so! without further ado:

1. the giver 
every grade school child was probably forced to read this for school, as i was. (was i?? i actually can't remember) and while i usually hated all those school-assigned readings, this one was amazing. it definitely introduced me to the world of what if in a powerful way. but if you're an adult reading this, i can't vouch for this book from an adult's point of view, not having read it in a long time. it is definitely youth/ya reading level.

2. ender's game
this is what ya science fiction should be: psychological, cunning, deeply immersive, extremely well-thought-out, beautifully written. it (and author orson scott card) is every bit deserving of all the awards won. i'm a die-hard believer that every book is better than its movie. this one is no exception.

3. the time traveler's wife
after reading this book i actually looked up the author to see what else she'd written (nothing at the time). i think this was maybe the first book i ever did that for, which maybe is only because i read it as an adult and could think that way. especially what with this new invention of the internet. ;) suffice it to say that this story in someone else's hands may not have been the delicate, poetic masterpiece that it is. i know this because when i was trying to describe the story to my new husband at the time, i realized how uninteresting and lame i was making it sound, compared to what i knew it was...breathtaking.

4. the road
did i read this during grad school? or before? i can't remember! but i think it was during grad school for an assignment. it. was. in.credible. raw. rough. beautiful. crystalline. this is one of those post-apocalyptic titles that will make you squeamish at times. but the writing! i'm such a sucker for good writing.

5. never let me go
another one that stands on the merit of its writing alone, because the subject is just so hard. and trust me, there have been many times in my life i could not handle this kind of drama, even in fiction form. but i read it for school, and i'm glad i did.

6. the handmaid's tale 
so margaret atwood is a genius. duh. you all knew that. but i just thought i would state the obvious anyways. if however you have not discovered margaret atwood yet, Read. This. Book. she is powerful.

7. red rising
this is one of my newest reads, and it has two sequels which i've read as well. i don't know what it is exactly about this book (which is far better than its sequels in my opinion), but i found it completely entrancing. i think mainly it's because unlike so many books, you do not ever know what's going to happen next. the author is so, so, so good at making sure you know that the main character knows, but he doesn't ever tell the reader (and you can't really guess! bonus!) what is about to happen. sheer genius in my book. so this one is like a 9 on the violence rating for me (i don't dig much violence), which was hard, but the genius of the story sold me.

8. ready player one
okay i have a confession. i'm not sure if this title will make it into this list five years from now. it's not the most amazing writing ever. and it's light in the sense that it's (to me at least) purely pleasure reading. there isn't really some deeper psychological light to it. but! it was such a fun read, and it's a new, not-over-done (yet) storyline, that it makes the cut for now. if you like the 80s, easy reading, and fun reading, this book is your next beach read.

9. the martian
oh my goodness this book was good! it was so different too. you'll understand when you read it, but right away i could kind of tell that it was written by someone who isn't concerned about traditional story telling. not a writer, per se. but very much a scientist. which somehow, was magic. almost like life of pi? but without the psychological bits. anyways, i'm rambling. but if you haven't seen the movie (or even if you have!) read this book! you will like it!

10. station eleven
this book was a trip and i mean that only in a good way. it took me forever to really get into the pace, and i couldn't quite tell where it was going. which is kind of nice sometimes. there's a build up. an attention to slowing down. this almost, almost feels to me like the backstory for another story. like it wasn't taking the stage in its own story. i don't think i'm making sense. basically i can imagine a best-selling series, and then i can imagine this being a companion story written after it, telling some other parts of the main story. that's not super flattering, i realize. because it's kind of like saying that this didn't really wow me...which is somewhat true. the story isn't as intense and exciting as it could be. and yet, it's still fantastic storytelling, so...that's my wonderful endorsement. i'm done. ;)

in closing, i would just like to point out that 4 out of these 10 authors are women! almost half! yay! that's somewhat rare in top 10 book lists. heck, in any writing lists. so, hooray for that.

a date with my (little) boy

on saturday i got to go on two different dates — one with each of my boys! so it was the best kind of day in the world, and I'm not sure how i got so lucky! in the morning, before j and i went off on a bike-riding adventure (more on that later), i told wilder that his papa and i were going to go on a date and that after we came back i was going to take him on a date! he didn't quite understand, but i could tell he was pretty thrilled about it, because the first thing he said to me when we got back home was "i'm ready for my date now!" haha! then the whole time in the car he kept saying "are we on a date?" and then "where's my date?" ha! so then i explained to him that our date was going out to do something together. and i realized that he and i basically went on a date every day for almost two years before evie was born! i don't think he realizes that, which is good, and i don't think he minds too much having to share me with his sister. but i've been wanting to give him a little extra special attention because lately he seems to get the shorter end of the stick when i'm constantly chasing down evie and doing all the other housewifely things.

i was originally planning to take him into decatur to look at books and get some frozen yogurt, but then he suddenly declared he wanted to go to the fernbank museum of natural history instead. and since we have a yearly membership pass, i didn't have any reason to say no.

if you live in atlanta and have never been to fernbank, you should put it at the top of your things to do with kids list. it is our favorite place! i love that there are a few permanent exhibits, which are super interesting for older kids and adults, a bottom-floor exhibit that changes, and an upstairs "naturequest" which is this really cool play room for kids. there are some reptiles in tanks (salamander, alligators, turtles, lizards, snake), two bridges, a tree house thing, a ball shoot, an archaeology area, a sea-life area, a tunnel, etc. it really has everything, and the best part is that it's even good for little kids like evie's age. we actually went just the week before and evie got to explore it on her own for the first time, which was heaven for her. she just adores playing (climbing)! we usually spend the bulk of our time in the kids room and if we have time, we walk through the "a walk through time in georgia" exhibit which takes you through the natural history of georgia and the planet with lifelike recreations of many of the animals, including a room full of dinosaurs, which naturally is everyone's favorite part.

this time, after playing in naturequest, we went to see the dinosaur room and then decided to check out the new exhibit called wild music. wilder is totally his papa's son, because he loooooves music. most of it was a little over his head because it was showing how animals are nature's musicians, but he loved the jamming room where he got to make a little music of his own, and he especially loved the gift shop (ha). he didn't quite understand that the instruments there were for buying, not playing, but thankfully he was fine leaving it all there to go get a treat. ;)

papa took our picture before we left. my star-wars-obsessed, 3-yr-old. how did he get so big? i treasure this photo so hard. 

big dinosaur skeletons on the bottom floor!

tiny alligators!

im not sure what he's making this face about, but there is one tree "sculpture" thing which he does not like because of the animal sounds coming from it, so maybe that's it?

my constant gatherer/sorter. what a little mini-me he is, too!

held on to this ball for dear life, after some of the older kids tried to take it from him, haha. i did not make him give it up, because sometimes you have to let them win, you know?

my sweet sweet sweet sweet boy.

a lovely lady took this photo of us and i love it so much, just wish our faces were in focus! ah! oh well. :)

my little love.