Step Lively! A Walk for Hospice

You've probably received an email from me recently asking for $ in support of an upcoming charity walk. If you read it, you know that Charles, Devlyn, Blake and I are participating in a 2 mile walk this Saturday to benefit Hospice of Wake County.

Here are a few things you may not know:

1) A team of freelance marketers (including me) spent the last 3.5 months helping Hospice of Wake County get this thing off the ground. It's the very first year for Step Lively! and we have 400 walkers participating!!!!

2) Our team, "The Dream Team", has raised a little over $2,000 during the last month in support of Step Lively! Thank you to all who have donated! Thank you to all who may still donate ; )

http://madmenmakingchange.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/a-different-kind-of-dream-team-steps-out-and-steps-lively-for-hospice/


3) Over the past three years, we've helped Hospice of Wake County raise nearly $16 million dollars, all of which has gone towards purchasing land and building this area's first and only freestanding hospice facility. It's been an educational and inspirational experience for me...watching the building go from red dirt and concrete to a fully operational facility serving patients and their families at all levels of our community, regardless of their ability to pay.

If you'd like to donate please visit www.steplivelyforhospice.com, click donate and search for "The Dream Team".

Warning! Extremely Cute

After bathtime this evening, we were getting into our jammies and talking about the potty. I asked Blake if he was going to wear underwear like Devlyn some day and use the potty. Blake ran into the bathroom, pretended to "pee" in the potty, came back and took a few pairs of Devlyn's underwear. Then he headed downstairs so he could beat Devlyn to the "movie chair". Devlyn and I joined him in the living room soon after and this is what we found. He sat like this, perfectly content, watching Robin Hood for 10 minutes until Devlyn pulled the top pair off his head. Blake was not happy about that last part. As far as he was concerned he was just wearing underwear like Devlyn!

Happy Birthday Beebsie!

Effective 10-27-10, I'd like to officially wish Blake Lyon Upchurch a Happy 2nd Birthday! He is our sweet, smart, happy boy with a wry sense of humor and an electric smile. He's Daddy's wrestling partner, Devlyn's eternal sidekick and Mommy's little puppy : ) We love him soooooooooooooooo much. Happy Birthday Beebsie! Click on the new slideshow to see highlights from Blake's 2nd year.

Ice Cube Soup

Devlyn and Charles went to Chapel Hill yesterday for the UNC/ECU football game. They had a blast and Blake and I had a wonderful time playing together, just the two of us. He whipped up a special batch of ice cube soup for me. Had to post this video b/c he's too cute with those cheeks in a chef hat.

He's getting to be a real big boy these days - wants to do EVERYTHING himself. I've started to realize that this parenthood thing makes so much more sense the second time around. Much easier to let them do it themselves when you realize that's what you're supposed to do! Trying to relish the last of Blake's babyhood - it's fleeting fast! It's nearly cold here - very exciting. Finally some real Fall weather. In just a few weeks we'll be hitting the beginning of the Upchurch family Fall crazy stretch. Birthday, Halloween, birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Whew, I'm tired and broke just thinking about it ; ) Enjoy the video!

In Defense of Freddie Mercury

It's a cyclical thing. Every month or so Devlyn will latch onto a new rockstar and absorb as much about him or her as any 4 year old can. Their style, their tone, their stage presence, and most importantly, in his own estimation, whether or not they can rock. It can be someone C or I introduce him to or someone he hears on the radio and asks about. One thing is certain. Devlyn has an ear and he recognizes musical greatness immediately. His most recent pick is Freddie Mercury. I never imagined that anyone could listen to Another One Bites the Dust 30x in a row. I watched Devlyn listen without him knowing. He was listening hard. Staring off into space as he did with a look of very focused fascination on his face. He figured out how to use the laptop mousepad himself and hit the repeat button the second it ended. He did this for half an hour. It was awesome. Finally he ventured over to the alternate recordings of AOBTD offered by YouTube and landed on this:


The look on D's face when Freddie struts on stage wearing a Canadiens hat, a red bandana scarf, a workout towel and not much else is one I will never forget. Not ever. It sent me flying into a fit of laughter as we watched the performance together. Devlyn laughed a little with me at first but eventually he got upset and in a very composed, empathetic way he told me not to laugh at Freddie. You could tell he knew better than to laugh at Freddie Mercury no matter what he was wearing. He sensed the awesomeness and he wasn't about to let me take even a sliver of it away from Mr. Mercury.

Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Conversations with Devlyn

We sold a few things on Craigslist today so people were coming by the house and checking things out, negotiating....picking up stuff, etc. When I was putting Devlyn to bed this evening I thanked him for helping out with selling stuff. I asked him if he thought we should try to sell Blake just to see what he'd say. His eyes got real big and he shook his head no. "Ya, you're right," I said. "We wouldn't get much money for him anyway...he's too loud" Devlyn laughed. "What about me?" I asked. "We might get a lot of money for me!"

"I'd give my whole piggy bank for you," Devlyn replied, dead serious. Major love moment for Mommy.

"Well what about Daddy? Should we sell him?" I asked.

"No, I love him." was Devlyn's reply to that. Not sure what that means for me but hey I AM worth an entire piggy bank (which for the record is mostly full of pennies).

Much later in the bedtime ritual - as he was drifting off and I was just about to leave I whispered, "I love you so so much Devlyn." Without missing a beat, in perfect deadpan humor tone he shot back, "That's why I don't want to sell you."

I will forever laugh remembering that conversation - ha!

Summer Vacay - Picture Show

He won't sleep but he sure takes cute pictures ; ) Stop by the bloggy blog to see what we were up to at the lake last week!