Merry Christmas 2009

Santa Baby

Today my baby turned 15 months old. He is quickly becoming a "non-baby" and turning into a rambunctious little boy. So tonight in the tubby, I gave him bubbles for the first time. We had just a tiny amount of baby wash left in the bottle and it just wouldn't come out well no matter how much shaking I did. So I let the tub water run into it a few times and filled the tub with bubbles. Curly LOVED it. He has decided to try and blow bubbles in the tub almost every bathtime. This time, he had suds everywhere. So, below, you can see the result. I think he makes the cutest little Santa anywhere.

The Halloween crash

So this is "the morning after"...Halloween that is.

The reason why...

Larry is in "Enrichment" at his elementary school which is, I suppose, the equivalent of the gifted or accelerated program. Anyway, his teacher, Mrs. Williams, asked the class to write an essay about why they were chosen to be in Enrichment. Larry wrote this:

"Well first I am in this class becuase she may think I am smart but thats just my thout I don't no its right. Well I am in this class because I love any proublums with math, since [sic. science], and evy thing els. But most of it is that I'm smart.
I would put friendship in this class and become better friends with people and do my best work. I will contabute my head to learning.
I want to lean some math, since, and evy other thing you teack me Mrs. Willyams. this class can help my brain grown when my brain grows I grow."

A little piece of heaven

On the way home from Mississippi Monday I suddenly noticed that the van had gotten very quiet. This is what I saw.



I just had to capture the moment digitally. Otherwise, who would've believed me?

Happy First Birthday

Curly had a big birthday on Wednesday. He turned one!! I can hardly believe it's been a whole year since that sweet little soul joined our family. We took him to a local restaurant for his birthday dinner and were served a gigantic piece of caramel pie to celebrate. He could hardly wait until it hit the table. When the waitress came around the table from the kitchen with the dessert Curly nearly jumped out of his high chair. She could barely put it down on the table before he had his mouth open waiting for a bite. It was hysterical and we all had a great time.

Then on the Friday we had a few friends meet us at a local ice cream shop for scoops and cake. My wonderful boss made the cutest cake for Curly. It was a big orange T-Rex with green spots. Curly was reluctant to dig in but finally did enjoy getting icing on his hands. He enjoyed his vanilla ice cream more than the cake, but then again, he'd never really had cake before and didn't know what it was. Ice cream on the other hand, is one of his favorite treats.

Welcome to my world

It's been a long time since I've posted. Life happened. My children are older, school has started back, work has begun, and I am sleepy. Most of the time. But it's ok. Surely by the time Curly starts elementary school he'll be sleeping through the night, right? In his defense, and in my denial, he has had some issues. Like his first ear infection. Big Stooge took him to the doc yesterday b/c his school teachers had said he hadn't been his happy smiling self for the past couple of days. (Believe me, I'd noticed!) And the doc said he was starting in a big ear infection. If we hadn't brought him in [yesterday] we surely would've [today]. I had the doc check him out last week when I took Larry in for his eight year old checkp up b/c of a cough and runny nose and he said it all looked fine then. But thankfully, we were able to start w/ some medication before it got way bad.

And I am just today taking his eleven-month-old picture. Now that he's almost a year. Oh well. It was the toughest one yet. He didn't want to sit OR smile OR be beside his dinosaur. So what you get is what you get.

Future Olympians?

Our boys are fabulous and talented swimmers, if I may brag a little. They have both been on swim team for the past three summers and absolutely love it. We all do. The meets, although sometimes long and hot, are a lot of fun. It always seems the season ends just as we're getting into the groove of things. This season, the only competition remaining is Senior County. For it, a swimmer's personal best time must be as good as or better than a particular standard. The meet we had on Tuesday of this week was the Divisional meet. All six teams in our division swam against each other. Our team placed 2nd overall and got a nice trophy.

Larry and Moe had awards of their own and did very well. We are so proud of their efforts. Both are considering trying year round swimming.

Happy Ten Months Old

I can hardly believe it's been ten months since I gave birth to Curly. The time has simply flown. I almost can't stand it. It's hard to think he'll be one very soon, especially since he's still pretty small really. I know several babies younger that are several inches taller and several pounds heavier. I know he's fine;he's just short. Like his daddy. And his grandaddy. So, happy birthday, Curly!

The Final Countdown

Larry's eighth birthday is one week from today and he is counting down the days, I'll tell you. This weekend we were at my parents' house in Mississippi and he and Nana decided to make a cake to celebrate. He got to help make it and ice it and decorate it. Poppa bought the mix and icing so he got the flavors he wanted but Larry really isn't picky so it worked out well. And we all had fun eating it. He wants to have a laser tag birthday party and if I can get it together we might actually do that. Nana and Poppa also bought him a portable CD player when he told them he'd listened to mine on the drive over to their house.

Happy 4th of July

We're in Mississippi at my parents' house. The boys have been having a blast with my brother. We saw Mammaw and Pappaw today and my uncle D. I took the boys to Wal Mart and they bought a few Pokemon cards. Why, oh why, do I let them do that? Anyway, I guess it's fine.

Curly had an extremely difficult time going to sleep tonight. Actually, he went to sleep easily around 8 p.m. but awoke suddenly about an hour later and was inconsolable. Finally he crashed back out around 11 p.m. I guess. I actually fell asleep with him in the recliner for a while so I don't know when he actually went to sleep. I hope I don't wake him when I get into bed. He's on a nice little soft pallet on the floor.

We will probably try to get Larry a cake for his birthday either tomorrow or Sunday. He will turn eight years old in ten days. I remember July 4th, 2001. I was home alone while Big Stooge had Moe out of town for a family reunion. I was due with Larry any minute and therefore wouldn't make the trip. (I think I was really due on 7/24 and nobody wanted to believe I might go into labor early but I wasn't taking the chance). I sat on my back patio (actually it was the neighbor's patio but nobody lived in that apartment at the time) in the rain and watched the local fireworks display and hoped that I wouldn't go into labor early. I didn't obviously, luckily for me. Can't believe that was eight years ago. My little Larry is growing up. They all are.

Hope your celebration is decked in red, white, and blue. Thanks to all my fellow Americans in the service. I appreciate what you do and have done for me! God bless America!

Three at the pool

Today we went to the pool for swim team stroke clinic and stayed for a couple hours after just having fun until Curly got really tired. I finally remembered to bring the camera to get him "swimming". He is so funny. He absolutely LOVES to swim. Apparently I wasn't moving fast enough getting him ready and he saw the floatie and just flipped out. Eventually we got into the water and he was just fine, even getting splashed in the face.

Home again, home again

When we got to Camp Maywood to pick up Moe, he and his group had just gotten to the pool to swim. He told us that after swimming he HAD to play baseball and then basketball so he couldn't leave yet. We opted to get a late lunch (which we had originally planned to do anyway but just thought he'd be ready to have something besides camp food and would go with us) and come back to get him. Luckily, when we returned he was ready to go, having apparently missed the games he wanted to play by opting to swim instead.

He got in the car talking about what he was going to do next year and what he needed to bring. I knew he would love it. And Larry's ready to go, too. He actually wanted to stay on Sunday when we dropped Moe off. We told him he'd have to wait until next year for his turn.

Moe said he only took a few photos this week. Since we didn't get home tonight until 7 p.m., obviously we haven't had those developed yet. Tomorrow is a swim meet (invitational) so we'll be at the pool most of the morning I am sure. When we get the pix back if there are any "good" ones, I'll post then.

Camp

Today we took Moe to camp for the first time. He was very excited but also very nervous. We met nearly our entire family there b/c most of the children of my cousins are going to be there this week as well and everybody showed up to welcome the kids to the wilderness, so to speak.

Moe wanted a top bunk but we got to camp and checked in just late enough that only bottom bunks were left. I think he was disappointed but didn't even complain. I left Larry to do the job of photography and we only got a few decent shots that weren't ridiculous. Oh, and I won't even mention the video he got of Moe in the bathroom!

So, we'll go pick Moe up on Friday, only a few hours short of when camp is over anyway, because the boys have a swim meet (invitational) on Saturday. I sent three disposable cameras in the suitcase and can't wait to see what kind of photos we land from those.

The elusive great white

...teeth, that is. I have been trying to capture Curly's first two teeth on photo with no success. Today is his nine month celebration and in taking his monthly photo I captured a glimpse of those elusive pearly whites. Enjoy!



Also, I have been remiss about taking Moe's nine year old photo. Everytime I think about it it's not been a good time. So today, I finally got it done. Only four months late. Voila!

World's cutest baby

Need I say more?

Summer Haircuts

We were finally able to go get the boys their summer haircuts yesterday since school is out. Larry has been waiting all year for his. He gets so excited! So I present to you, in living color, with a lot of flair:







My mohawk men! Gotta love it!

Swimming: A Non-contact Sport?

We had our first swimming casualty this afternoon. Spent a good deal of time wondering if we should brave the ER for stitches. In the end, decided on just a band-aid. Hope I made the right choice. I did ask a friend of mine who is a nurse who was at the practice with her own stooges. Of course, she's an ENT nurse so I'm not sure that counts as the same thing. She said it was deep enough for stitches but the location would make it a purely cosmetic thing. Since it was underneath the chin, I opted out. Of course, Larry thought he wanted stitches but his reasoning was he thought stitches would make it stop hurting. Luckily for us all, he's never had to endure the pain or trauma of stitches so he was clueless if not a little pitiful. Even the life guard at the pool offered to call the paramedics but all that was way too much drama for me. Especially since this wasn't a very bad cut at all and we had the bleeding stopped except for slight oozing by the time practice was over. Being that I used to work for a plastic surgeon, I knew that if we didn't go right away to the doctor, our window for stitches would be closed. I usually didn't see a lot of beforehand photos but did see lots of afters. This one was minor and I am grateful.

More photos from this weekend.

We really enjoyed visiting with The Henderson's this weekend. Thought I'd post a few photos of my in-laws and nephew, Nana and Poppa. We all had a grand time. And don't see you all enough, btw. Love you!

All in the Family

Big Stooge's family is here this weekend for Curly's baby dedication. Plus, Uncle Stooge and his family are moving back to the U.S. from overseas and are passing through to their new home. We are having fun visiting with them. It's been quite a while since we saw any of them and the boys are enjoying playing with Cousin Stooge who is five years old. Today had two baseball games and two soccer games on the schedule but the rain started about ten minutes before baseball and both those games were cancelled. The first soccer game had a spattering of rain and then cleared up. We had fun watching Moe's team wax the competition in both those games even though the humidity level was HIGH, HIGH, HIGH!

Happy Mother's Day

to all the mommies out there: in reality, in your dreams, in your future or in your past. And to Grammaw Ara, Mama Grace, Mammaw Shirley, Nanny, Anne, and the matriarchs I didn't have the privilege to meet: Thank you for helping to make me who I am today through your direct actions or directing the actions of those I love. I hope I can follow in your footsteps and be the best mom I can be to my three sons. I love you all.

new pix

Just wanted to post a new pic of the boys. They were reading together tonight. I loved watching the big brothers teaching Curly. Good times.

Oh, and the first one is my newest favorite picture. Sweet feet!

Two days later...

What a difference a couple of days make. This is some video of the same creek looking more "normal" at its current water level. In fact, most of the time it's not even this noisy and high water.

Raging Waters

We had storm warnings today. Lots of fast rain all compiled into a 30 minute stretch. And flood warnings. Turned our usually nearly dry and quiet nearby creek into this:

We love Homewood

Today has been a good day. We thought the boys' baseball games may be rained out since it was sprinkling when we woke up this a.m. but we didn't get a call from the coach so we packed up the stuff and headed down to the fields. It was raining lightly off and on for about thirty minutes but we continued to play nonetheless. Eventually the rain stopped and the games were fun. Larry's team didn't fare very well but they had loads of fun trying. Moe's team was smokin'! They actually tied, 20-20(runs are limited to five runs per inning) but the teamwork was outstanding. Moe picked off a hit mid-air for an out and made some other terrific plays. All the boys played well and had fun.

After lunch we went to "We love Homewood Day" and hung out for a bit before coming home. They had some "rides" and games but the ticket prices were steep and we just spent a bundle last weekend at the elementary school spring festival fundraiser. So
we didn't stay long before coming home to veg. The boys have been outside all afternoon playing with the kid across the street and now playing with the two new kids that live next door. Curly and Big Stooge took a nap. I watched "Nanny McPhee" and folded clothes. Now we are watching basketball. Actually, Curly and B.S. are watching. I'm tolerating. And typing.

Winding down

Can't believe April is almost over. Only three more weeks of work before the summer. Looking forward to the pool and playing and training Curly to sleep through the night. Got a haircut today. Actually not a good one but that's ok. It'll grow back fast enough. At least it's off my neck, just doesn't seem to have much style. Not much to this post. Can't really think right now. Just felt obligated to put something down "on paper"? for some reason.

He is Risen!

Happy Easter! We have had a wonderful day. I made communion bread for church last night and it was pretty fun. I apparently made enough for today and next Sunday as well. I was told to double the batch which apparently was quite enough. We were assigned one month at a time. I picked April to maybe give Curly enough time to get into a routine so I could manage better. Last week we were still in Lent so we didn't even do communion. Next time I make it I hope to not be waiting until everyone is asleep so the boys can help me. I think they'll have fun.

We awoke to some filled Easter baskets and I think the boys were pleased. Curly sure was interested in the goodies in his. I tried to snap a few photos of the boys together since the last group photo I had of them was back in the fall. We had an amazing service at church and then after lunch had an Easter egg hunt at a friends' "new" house. Larry found two prize eggs and even Curly found an egg (with a little help from Big S. When we got home the boys played with the neighborhood kids in various yards while B.S., Curly, and I had a much needed nap. Now we're all just chillin'.