Favorite Photo Friday

Joe's sister w/Grandma

Atlanta, GA April 2010

Sorry for the absence . . . had to take off for Iowa to attend a funeral for Joe's 91 year old Grandmother who passed last weekend. This sweet woman was the mother of 6, a hard working Iowa corn farmer, a gardener, and quite the matriarch. With 6 kids of her own, the legacy she left included 16 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. What a lady.

I met Grandma in August 2002, after Joe and I had been dating nearly a year, and he invited me to attend his family reunion. The thing I remember most about meeting her was not how welcoming she was to me, the potential new family member . . . but that she was drinking a beer. At 82 years old. I thought Joe had one cool grandma.

She was very independent, living on her own until her time came. She traveled here for Joe's sister's wedding just 6 weeks ago . . . which was, as it turns out, was a wonderful thing for everyone. We all had a chance to spend time with her. We didn't know it would be our last time, but, as it turns out, it was a great opportunity.

Grandma had a stroke last week, and she passed about 2 days later, with all of her children there to say goodbye. She had a very peaceful passing. Those in the room actually did not know she had slipped away until someone noticed that Grandma was no longer breathing. I believe all of her kids were glad that the event was so calm and simple.

Grandma lived a great life. As Joe's aunt said at the funeral: Grandma lived until she died.

Now we are back home, getting ready for a nice weekend. It was a long week, but everything went on without any problems or hang ups. Just as Grandma would have liked it.

The No Nap Endeavor

Okay, so much of what I post here on the site (for those of you new readers) is related to myself and my life as a stay at home mother. I'm blazing the trail, here . . . forging my way into our life with 2 kids, one experience at a time.

Our newest endeavor: life with no nap for Big.

No nap for my nearly 4-yr old. At least, that is the way it's going around here. She has been wavering on the fence of the to-nap or not-to-nap debate for months, but I finally have come to the realization that it is time for Big to drop the nap. She no longer needs the daytime zzzz's. I say that I have come to this realization . . . but, really, the late nights and bedtime fights forced me understand that the time for napless days had come.

I know -- many of you are saying to yourself, "Stop complaining! You made it to 4 years old with a daily nap! Consider yourself lucky." And I get that. But no matter what age the nap is dropped, I imagine it is still a big adjustment.

Ah, but who is the adjustment bigger for? For my daughter, who has to struggle to stay awake some evenings and make it through our nighttime routine? For the lovely preschooler, who wants so badly to be a 'big kid' but still falls asleep on the couch in the early evening (if I let her)?

Nah. Probably not. I would venture to say that it is a bigger adjustment for me. Me, the mom who now has to keep her kiddo occupied daily for better than 10 hours with NO BREAK. This, my friends, is going to take some getting use to.

This means no more mid-day break. It means Big from sun up to bedtime . . . though, bedtime is back to being on the earlier side, now that naps are gone. It means that my precious time to blog, email, return calls, clean, do laundry . . . that time is fading. We tried the 'quiet time' thing, but it doesn't really work. The only thing that works -- scratch that, the easiest thing that works -- is TV. So on days when I really need my break and I really don't want to fight with Big for 90 or so minutes, she gets to watch more TV than I'd really like her to. That's life.

Let's look on the bright side. Please -- there is a bright side, honestly there is. I now get a bit of time each day with just my Big girl. That really is a treat for us. I don't typically entertain her for the two-ish hours her sister sleeps -- I won't make myself out to be THAT great of a mom -- but I do try and take some nap time to just be with Big.

And it's not like I miss out on my downtime all together. For heaven's sake -- Little still needs her nap, so we still have a definite 'nap time' at our house.

Bedtimes are back on track, and there is little fighting after a long day of playing. That is certainly a plus. See? There is a silver lining.

I've posted about the napping many times . . . schedules, routines, patterns, etc. It's such a part of the life of a mom, it's something that I couldn't help but write about. And now I can't believe that I'm posting about our NO nap lifestyle. I can't believe Big is old enough to skip her nap. Daily.

Wish me luck in the no nap endeavor. There is certainly a 'learning curve' to this all . . . the afternoons aren't easy as we stretch Big's ability to go without sleep. And I'm having to figure out what to do with a wakeful preschooler in the mid-day oasis that is the 1-3pm hour. It's tough around here some days, but I'm trying to make the best of it. I hope that by the summer's end, we'll be back on track, less moody, well rested, and ready for PreK.

Favorite Photo Friday

Me, Big, and Little
Disney World, May 2010

Because I am nearly never in a picture, I thought I'd start my 'Photo Fridays' with a pic that includes me :)

This was Friday morning on our recent Disney vacation, just before our Castle Breakfast. I would say that this morning was certainly one of the highlights for me . . . and I'm not even talking about the actual meal. I just love having about 25 minutes on Main Street USA without the crowds, without the chaos, and WITH great light and my camera.

The key: getting a breakfast reservation at the Castle before 9am. That allows you in to the park early . . . not hours early, and not even to ride rides. Just about 30 minutes before your reservation, and you only have access to stroll down Main Street and to loiter in front of the Castle momentarily.

But that's enough for me. It gives me a few special minutes to be with our family in that magical place. And it gives me ample time to take 100+ pictures of my darling girls.

So, there you have it. Favorite Photo Friday, Castle Style.

The Title

Like the new blog title?



We have a House in the 'Hampton, if you will. It's a play on the name of our neighborhood, but it's more than that to me. Here is how I landed on the title:



First, I just wanted something catchy as the new blog title. Something better than my old title, which was just my family name. "House in the 'Hampton" fit that requirement. Easy to remember, short and sweet. Great.




And secondly, it's valid -- like I said, it has something to do with our neighborhood's name. That's all I'll say about that.




But the third reason is a little more complicated.





Having a "House in the Hamptons" -- isn't that, like, a dream for some people? "Oh, one day, when we 'make it' , we'll have our house in the Hamptons . . ." A house in the Hamptons is where the movie stars and the super rich go on the weekends to relax and recover from their busy lives. It's where non-movie stars and the not-so-super rich dream that they might vacation or visit some time in their lives.





My House in the 'Hampton might not be like those of the rich and famous, but to me, it's my dream. The blog title kinda reflects how I feel about my life . . . like I 'made it', and I'm right where I always dreamed I'd be. Married to a wonderful man, mom to fantastic children . . . and that's it. My 'making it' does not involve being a household name or owning a dozen cars. I feel like I've made it because I'm living the life I always wanted to live.





Anyway, that's where the name came from. Welcome to my House in the 'Hampton.























(Left: Big at our House in the 'Hamptons when we moved in - August 2007)

Gotta Start Somewhere

I have to start somewhere . . . but really, this is hardly a beginning at all. I've been blogging for 4 years about my normal, every day life as a doting wife to a loving husband and a stay-at-home-mom to two young girls. My stories are all out there in CyberSpace, though (supposedly) they can't be easily accessed now because I had to 'close' my old blog to unknown readers.

The internet is a funny thing. You can think that you are OK with putting your business out there, but then something happens . . . and all of the sudden you DO care about exactly WHO is reading about your life.

Anyway, I have to start new. And I have to start somewhere new. So here I am. Gotta start somewhere.

Welcome, if you haven't read about my lovely family before. I'll fill you in:

I'm 32 years old. I live with my family in the Southeast -- Georgia, to be more precise. I'll call myself "Helen" on this blog . . . though I won't do the quotes every time (because, man, that would get exhausting).

I've been very happily married to my husband, who we will call Joe, for nearly 7 years. Joe travels for work a lot . . . weekly, usually 3-4 days, which often becomes a big part of my story line here at House in the 'Hampton.

My beautiful girls are turning 4 and 2 years old in just a few weeks. Here, my oldest daughter is named Big and my youngest is named Little. Easy to remember, though not the most femenine of names. That's OK. I still plan to post pictures of them on the site, so you'll get to see just how girly they are.

Speaking of pictures . . . I am a pseudo-professional photographer, so photos are a big part of my life. For that reason, I'm going to post pictures here . . . I just can't seem to find a way to do a blog without photos. It would not be me. (So yes, the kids you are seeing are MY kids . . . but they are not named Big and Little.) I do family and children photography, and I travel around to people's homes for many of my shoots. I only shoot occassionally -- but there was a time about a year ago when business was booming. So much business, in fact, I was struggling to handle my duties as a mom, wife, and only-daughter to my widower father.

Yes, I'm 32, a mom and wife, a photographer, and an only child. My mom passed away last year, my dad has battled some pretty major cancer demons over the past 3 years, and it's all taken it's toll on my very small immediate family. I love the photography, but right now, my family is my priorty, and they often need a lot of my time.

I'm happy to do it -- to devote my life to them, my family. As long as I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel -- that my girls WILL get older (and easier to manage), that my husband MIGHT be home more one day, that my dad WILL be happy again.

Okay, so that light isn't buring too bright at the end of the tunnel . . . but I'm still happy to do it. And when I'm not that happy about it, I turn to the blog to vent.

That's the basics, I guess. It's me, Joe, Big, and Little, hanging out here at our House in the 'Hampton. Things are good most of the time, not great sometimes, and downright hard at times, too. But we manage. And we are -- no matter what I post -- a happy family.

Like I said, WELCOME to the new blog. Now that I've started, I'm really ready to get going.