This will probably be a long one.
We've had a lot of craziness going on in the Riggsbee household of late. Our hope is that the drama is dying down and that our lives will get back into a groove of normalcy. Here's hoping...
AVERY
I'm going to try and combine several posts that should have been written before now. Life has been nutty, and the blog just doesn't rank very high on the priority list these days. For poor Avery's sake, I need to start keeping records of her life again, as I still haven't gotten into that whole baby book business.
For that record, Avery started taking her first steps on Easter Sunday (10 1/2-ish months). She's a full on runner by now, and has completely given up crawling. A few weeks after walking, she got her first tooth. It was a painful and ugly experience for all, which seems to have started again last night. Fun. She has also begun sleeping through the night occasionally. I shouldn't even write that down in case I jinx the progress, but she was down from 7:45 PM until 7:20 AM night before last. Pretty damn awesome. I also forgot to open their door, so it is entirely possible that she woke up, and I didn't hear her. I prefer to assume that she just slept through. You might recall that Gracen was sleeping a good 13 hours straight by 5 months or so. She is learning so much these days. She waves, blows kisses, brushes her hair and teeth, climbs stairs, loves her Daddy and sister, and is really starting to understand a lot of what we say. She has also learned to sign for milk. She'll run at me squealing, opening and closing her little hand, jump in my lap, and proceed to pull down my shirt. Brilliant, I tell ya!
GRACEN...a letter
Dear Gracen,
You turned three while we were in Utah, somewhere on the road between Salt Lake City and Moab. There are so many things about that day three years ago that I recall so vividly. They say you forget--that we are chemically wired to forget. My dear child, a mother does not forget that sort of pain, that sort of fear and that sort of bliss. I'm in the midst of writing out the full story, but you and your baby sister seem to take up all of my waking energy, and your story will just have to wait a little longer. I'm pretty sure you don't care yet.
We had your Chapel Hill party the week prior to your big day, and you had a blast. You have largely broken away from your shyness, and can handle the spotlight. All of our friends and your grandparents came celebrate with you, and it was such a powerful reminder of this amazing community we are a part of. Living in a town without family close by, it's pretty awesome to feel like you are a part of one huge, glorious one anyway. This place is good, and these people who lift us up absolutely rock. You are a lucky girl to be loved by so many.
You are about to finish up your first year of preschool, and we have come a long way from the crying mess we started out as. Your love of all things animal and outdoors continues to grow. You spend most of your time at home and school putting families together. Your ever faithful Froggy, which you initially called "Dodgie" because you couldn't say Froggy, has morphed into Doshi. Doshi was then broken into Baby Doshi (the original frog) and Clean Doshi (the backup frog purchased on eBay that you found and refused to give up). You now have several little frogs, referred to as Baby Doshi's Baby or Clean Doshi's baby. And most recently Baby Doshi is occasionally referred to as Mommy Dosh. It's complicated. It's also a big, fat pain in the ass for your father and I, as the favorite Baby Doshi's baby, a dark green 3-inch knitted one that hardly resembles a frog at all, is almost as important as the original. We are having late night freak out sessions because this little booger is missing. We're contemplating throwing him away, and I haven't noticed him around for a couple of days so your Daddy may have just taken matters into his own hands.
You continue to be kind and attempt to be gentle with your baby sister, whom I should start referring to as a toddler. You still carry her around and do your best to keep her away from tiny toys, yelling, "NO AVIE! DAT'S A CHOKING HAZARD!!" You still don't quite understand what an "inside voice" is, though you tell Ave and Harley to use theirs several times a day.
I have started napping with you again (as it's the only way you'll stay in bed to sleep anymore, and I need to go do it RIGHT NOW, as you are not cooperating with my blogging), and it's such a reminder of this time last year when I was so pregnant and so miserable that the only thing that gave me peace throughout the days was curling up with you for a couple of hours. If I have something to do and tell you that I can't rest, you'll always say, "But Mommy, I need you to snuggle me up." And you use that voice, and I just can't say no. It is, however, messing with my Clean House Initiative, so we're going have to find a compromise. I just find it impossible to lie down with you and not fall asleep. It's always been this way, and while it diminishes my productivity, I completely love it.
And I am completely and hopelessly in love with you, my three year old girl. Even when you're cranky and whining and a little bit spiteful, you are my sweet baby girl, and I couldn't be more grateful to be your Mama.
Love,
Mama
MOAB
It's taking so long to upload pictures that I'm just going to direct you HERE for vacation pictures. There are 466 of them. You're welcome.
We spent an AWESOME vacation in Moab, Utah with the Haynie siblings and their families. Tom and Kim did well! I think we're going to have an annual"Out West" trip, so get ready to join us.
Adam was in Salt Lake City the week before the vacation, so the girls and I flew out to meet him. We started the week by heading to Lisser and JPs for the first evening, and thankfully, they were there on the plane to help me with wrangling the little people. Gracen loved flying, especially the taking off, saying, "This is my favorite part," as if she was a world traveler and flying in airplanes were second nature. I really couldn't have asked for more perfect children, and it was much less painful than I imagined it would be. Thank you Lisser and JP!!
We spent the night in SLC and headed out to Moab the following morning in our rented Suburban. I had a little crush on the car and felt like I was cheating on Old Blue. Adam woke the Riggsbee clan up EARLY Sunday morning for Mother's Day to go see the sunrise at Dead Horse Point, which was probably the most magnificent thing I saw the entire week. He and the girls presented me with my present, a polished sandstone necklace that I love. It turns out that I left our big camera sitting on the sideboard in Chapel Hill. Thankfully, Adam had his small one, which I conveniently left at the house that morning. Adam took me off camera duty after that. We met up with the rest of our crew and headed to Arches National Park and learned a lot about air pressure in tires.
Monday was filled with Jeeping in the backcountry of Utah. Gracen often exclaimed, "I want more bumps!" We took the girls out of the Jeep for the "questionable" areas, but overall they loved it. I think it was my favorite part, and I'm feeling pretty certain that we need to invest in a 4-door Rubicon.
Tuesday the boys went mountain biking while the ladies and kiddies playing in Moab. Gracen and Rylie had some good girlie bonding time. It will be fun to see how their relationship develops throughout the years.
Wednesday we said goodbye to the Coates' family and headed to Kane Creek Canyon for a night of camping. It's really sort of crazy that you can just roll into places like this and set up camp. Gorgeous. And the G is ready to camp some more with her friend. Ave likes to eat the sand.
Thursday we sad a tearful farewell to the Carr family and went to Canyonlands National Park. Adam was determined to see every square inch before traveling north to Park City. We ended up spending 11 hours in the car. Owie.
We spent Friday hanging out in Park City, doing nothing of much significance. We played at an awesome city park and met up with our friend Brian for dinner and ice cream. We took one very bad picture, packed up the car and went to sleep.
Saturday, we hopped on the plane and traveled home. Gracen made sure that we and everyone else on the plane knew which part was her favorite.
I'll be back soon with The Garden update...
I would just like to report that packing absolutely sucks. It is therapeutic in that we're purging years of accumulated crapola, but it still sucks. We literally have 18 sets of sheets. Why? We rotate between two pairs on each bed. We have 40 baby wash cloths. We don't even bathe everyday. We have 20 wine glasses. Okay, maybe we actually need those. But it's crazy around here! I am proud to report that we started packing a few weeks before actually moving so that it won't be quite as insane after Adam finishes work here TOMORROW! I should be boxing things up now, but I'm using blogging to procrastinate. 
free trip home-ish, so we went for the interview. While Adam was off selling himself, the spouse of this interviewer/future boss took me to the Wilkes County Schools central office. I had not planned on teaching at that point. I was in the midst of the interview process to become a Red Lobster manager after spending six months waiting tables. Yeah, I know. Anyway, within three minutes of stepping foot inside the building, I was introduced to Michael Matheny. He was a principal, looking for an eighth grade English teacher, though he had only dropped in that day to meet up with a friend. The next thing I knew, I was in the middle of an interview myself, though I didn't realize it until I got a call a few days later back in TN, offering me the job. Adam also got an offer, so we decided to go for it and make a move. We never doubted it or questioned it, but all of our friends there were in disbelief that we would just pack up our life and leave, without remorse, without sadness, without doubt--just because we wanted to do it right then, and we assumed it would work out. 
