Cutting Hair

I always buzz-cut Mitch's hair but we usually take Andrew to a "professional". However, as I was about to have Mitch sit for his monthly cutting, Andrew said, "Mine! Like Daddy!". We didn't think he was serious but he sat still and ready. So, against my better judgement, I proceeded. Now I wish I hadn't. I don't like his hair at all...he doesn't look little anymore and I'm not a fan of buzz-cuts on little boys. It's just a preference. I have chosen to think on the more positive side - "it's summer time and will be cooler.....we won't have to take him to get his hair cut for at least three to four more months, etc". Afterwards, I buzzed Mitch's hair and the picture above was the final result of both.

We have been busy this past weekend....Andrew pooped in the potty for the first time. He's been potty training himself and enjoys the accomplishment (the promise of candy helps). My mother and brother came to visit for a few days. We played outside, went shopping, and took naps. Andrew loves spending time with Uncle Stuart and his Gami. Andrew played hard with his friends at a party Friday night and again this afternoon at a local kid's gym. He has been going to sleep quickly these past two days! Luke got lots of hugs and kisses, too!

At the park and more

We've been visiting the park about three times each week. Andrew misses his preschool friends so we met two of them yesterday for a picnic. He and Marly like looking over the bridge into the creek and Alley likes to share her wagon with others. Most every afternoon you can find us in the backyard playing in the water - sprinkler, slip and slide, small pool. Andrew hasn't quite mastered the skill of running and propelling yourself along the slippery slide but he likes to crawl under the spitting water. The sun is so bright that I found a cute cap for Luke to wear. He liked it! Hope you are having a fun (wet) summer!

Huh? Say what?

I just can't resist taking pictures of my children. Luke appears a little confused in the above picture. I wonder what he was thinking... hmmmm..... I think Luke looks more like Mitch is this picture. We have a playgroup with my friend, Kirstin, and her set of triplets. Last week, we put them in the small pool together. Noah liked the water best while Andrew and Emma barely got wet. Dylan wanted nothing of it as he'd rather explore how the digital camera works ("I see...let me see, Jawan!"). We're gonna miss playing with them once they move to Atlanta in a few weeks.

Highchair Happiness

Luke still finds it hard to sit up on his own (he's not quite 6 months old yet) but he really likes getting the chance to strengthen his abdominal muscles by practicing in his highchair. I've found that he likes pears but isn't too fond of rice or oatmeal. He's happy in his highchair, though. This picture proves it.

The Barbers

More friends! We love getting together with friends. Tonight, we visited with Scott and Leesa and their children, Elizabeth and Sydney. They are moving to St. Louis next week where he'll be starting seminary at Covenant (I've told them to seek you out, Kicklighters and Tuckers!). We love this family so much and will miss them after they leave. God has blessed us with many close relationships!

Lake Harding with the Patricks

Shea and John Mark Patrick (our friend and guy with three first names) were in our area visiting their family for the long weekend and invited us to their lake house to play (at Lake Harding). It was Andrew's first time on the water and he loved it! First, we relaxed while riding around in the pontoon boat and then we played on the SeaDoo. It was fun to jump in the lake and swim around to cool off 'cause it's humid and hot here! Shea and John Mark are awesome friends and were excellent hosts. Thank you for letting us spend Memorial Day with you on the lake!

Another visit with Laura

Laura came to visit us again this weekend. We love it when she's here. Not only is she super with my boys (although she's not here to babysit) she's a great friend whom I enjoy spending time with and talking to. We took the boys to the park this morning where we walked two miles before eating our sack lunch and playing on the playground. Here is a picture of Laura playing with the playdough on the floor with Andrew and Luke. If it were up to me, I would have Laura come visit everyday....I'm just glad Auburn University is only 45 minutes away!

HOT summer days

Boy, has it been hot these past few days. After waking from his nap the past three afternoons, Andrew has spent a few hours outside playing in his small pool and sprinkler. It's so hot that he didn't even want to wear his swimsuit.....so, I let him go naked. Why not? I mean, he was in the backyard where no one could see him! He had a blast.

My little Penguin

Andrew put his Pull-Up on all by himself today. He ended up with both legs in one leg hole. I tried to fix it but he wouldn't let me. So, he walked (waddled) around the house, strutting his "bad self".....he soon came to his senses and allowed me to make the proper adjustments.

Time with the boys

We are home.....the journey north this past weekend went smoothly but the drive-time home was hard. We thought that both of the boys would be extremely tired and would quickly fall asleep in the van on the way home; however, they were SO tired that it was too late and they cried almost the entire three hours home (we'll maybe not all three hours, but it felt like it - it was probably just an hour's worth of crying). We're glad to be in our own space, enjoying the familiarity.

The wedding reception was held at Chicopee Woods in Gainesville last night. It was absolutely beautiful! Today, before leaving the Atlanta metro area, we stopped at the Mall of Georgia to eat and play. Andrew loves riding the merry-go-round so Daddy snapped a picture of us enjoying the ride. Luke was strapped on Mitch's chest in the Snuggli so I grabbed the camera and took a picture. I love spending time with all my boys.

Reflections

We are in Gainesville, GA, this weekend for a wedding. We visited one of the parks that sits on beautiful Lake Lanier where I captured this moment between Dad and son. They were talking about the water and then started watching it ripple as they began throwing rocks.

My favorite

Hooked on 24 on Monday night.....who was the best on the show tonight? Agent Aaron Pierce. He rocked my face off when he addressed the "President" by his first name, Charles, after realizing the president was a traitor.

RoboCop is on 24...did you know that? He's playing the character of Chris Henderson. He's a much better actor at RoboCop than at being a traitor to his country.

The woman who plays the First Lady was one of the ladies on Designing Women. Cool.

Goodnight.

These past few days

These past few days have been rough on Andrew. I took him to the doctor Friday afternoon and it was confirmed that he had strep throat. I felt like a bad mother since three days had passed before I actually took him in. I just kept treating his fever with Ibuprofen and prayer. It was a good thing I took him to see the doctor (Mitch was gone to Presbytery so I was alone) as they are closed all weekend and I would have been stuck in the ER since I was told his fever would have gotten higher. Andrew slept so hard last night after the first dose of medication. He awoke feeling weak but seemed to be in a better mood. He took a three hour nap today and woke as a new person. The medicine was magic! The only bad thing about this whole thing is that he has to finish the pink berry medication over the next ten days....he's like his daddy was when he was little, running from me and kicking when I try to give him the stuff. Fortunately, he's not contagious at this point.

Luke is enjoying life. You can tell he loves the camera. He likes being naked, too. I'm gonna have a fantastic Mother's Day, I'm sure!

Solid food and not so solid food

Tonight, at five months of age, Luke had his first taste of solid food. He wasn't too impressed, as you can tell by these pictures. He still has a tongue reflex so most of the rice cereal ended up in the fold between his chin and neck. I'll try again tomorrow night. I'm sure he'll like peaches and pears better than the nasty bland cereal.

Andrew, however, found it hard to keep anything solid down. He upchucked three times before finally settling down for the night at 10:3o. He fell asleep at 8pm in my arms, which is rare. He didn't have a fever so I had no indication he wasn't feeling well until I heard him upchuck (via the monitor). I picked him up, stripped the bed sheets, put him in the bathtub, put clean sheets on the bed, and decided to lay down with him and sing him to sleep. It worked but I heard him upchuck again about ten minutes later. I only have two sets of sheets for his bed (yeah, I know you feel my pain, Amy) so after stripping the bed again and bathing him again, I made his bed with our bedsheets and a quilt. This time, however, I decided to rock him back to sleep. Guess what? He upchucked again but this time all over me. Back into the bathtub we BOTH went. He finally settled down and seemed to be in a better mood as he wanted to play and talk. Guess we'll see how late he sleeps in the morning.

Back Home

I can't believe that we were on vacation for five days and I didn't take any pictures! We had a great time visiting friends up in Birmingham. I was able to spend some time with Crissy, Maja, Anita, Angie, Tasha, Leslie, Nancy, and many others. I love you all!

I was also able to make some new friends.....Stokes and Connie Skellie, Adam Wright, and Rick Barnes. If you're looking for some new music to listen to and like the sounds of Caedmon's Call, Allen Levi, or anything by the RUF ministry, then check out some of their soundbites on their sites by clicking on their names. I sang along with Stokes and Adam on Sunday morning in church and, in the words of Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire, "I [felt] God's pleasure".

I always get inspired with a new craft project when I spend time around Tasha. This time she showed me how simple it was to make a dress from a pillowcase. So, after getting her instructions, I went straight to Maja for her help in getting my "new" project started. Below is the final result.

Luke's first sink bath

We're on vacation this week so I was forced to find alternatives to bathing Luke since I didn't bring his safety bathtub with us (it's so bulky!). While staying at our friends' house, the Claytons, I just put him in the kitchen sink. It was hard to hold him up since he's not sitting on his own completely yet but it was a fun time. Daddy took a picture.

One sleeps & one plays

Andrew loves his new large backyard. One of his favorite things to do is to play with the water hose and get all wet as he is here in this picture. While Andrew plays, Luke does a lot of sleeping.

Just rambling.....

I watched the best show on television tonight....yeah, that's right.....24. Only four hours left of the 24 hour day. I'm hooked on Jack Bauer and am planted in my chair for the entire hour. It's cool how Jack never goes to the bathroom, can receive a great signal from land to the commercial airliner he's on, always has the right equipment on him to get the job done, and relies so heavily on his PDA. My question tonight is, after all that drama to get the recording back that implicates the president as the bad guy, why didn't Jack just download the digital recording to his PDA so Chloe could send it to CTU/Homeland Security? Don't tell me it an old-fashioned tape recording, cause I don't buy it.

Anyway, on a different note: We were up late last night cleaning the apartment since we had to be out by the first of the month. We called a babysitter at the last minute to basically sit and watch TV at our house for three hours while the boys slept so we could go back to the apartment and scrub toilets, mop and vacuum floors, and pack the last load. Now all the random piles of stuff are sitting in my dining room.

I would like to post a few pictures that I've taken these past few days but, since our computer is at Gateway headquarters getting "fixed", I can't just stick my Memory Stick into the hard-drive. That means I now need to find the USB cord in one of the many packed boxes so I can upload the pictures to Mitch's laptop that I've been using to post to my blog. Later!

Our new house

Tonight is our first official night in the "new" house. It's almost midnight and I'm staring at boxes of stuff sitting around me throughout the house. So much to do....glad that my mother is coming tomorrow for the weekend! Mitch and I had a neat time putting Andrew to bed tonight because, you see, it was not only his first night in his new bedroom but also his first night in the big bed with a bedrail as well as his first night sharing a room with his little brother. We feared it all might be too much transition at one time, but Andrew fared well. The monitor is on high so I can hear any little bit of movement before one wakes the other up. It's so nice to be in a house and out of an apartment where you can hear everything. My friend Amber is also moving out of an apartment into a house with her husband and two boys. Amber, isn't it wonderful? The only thing about moving that I hate is the cleaning up...especially scrubbing the refrigerator, floors, tubs, and sinks. Not to mention packing all the little items of things that don't really have a place anywhere....that would be related to my "random piles" post a few weeks back. Well, here's a picture of our cute little house with the HUGE fenced in backyard - Mitch almost came home with a Beagle puppy the other day since we now have a place for one. He knows that the kind of dog that I want. However, I don't think a dog is a good idea right now so I'm glad he decided against it. Email me if you need our new address!

Remember this?

I sometimes think about my childhood and the funny memories I have. I wonder what memories Andrew is making now. Will he look back and laugh like I do? Why do we have to grow up?

What about you.....got these same memories?

1. a banana seat bicycle with a plastic basket that had flowers on it?
2. Love's Baby Soft was the first "real" perfume you ever owned.
3. Holly Hobby sleeping bag, stationary, and wall hangings.
4. the electronic game, Simon.
5. homemade ribbon barrettes in every color imaginable.
6. you wanted your first kiss to take place in a roller rink
7. Strawberry Shortcake, Blueberry Muffin, & Huckleberry Pie.
8. metal lunchboxes
9. annual gathering around the TV for "The Wizard of Oz"
10. a magic eightball
11. Friendship pins on your shoelaces
12. Weekly Reader
13. Sit-n-Spin
14. Big Wheels
15. Shrinky Dinks
16. Judy Blume books
17. recording songs off the radio by holding up your tape recorder to the speaker
18. Little Debbie's Star Crunches
19. Cookie Crisp
20. LA Gear
21. Wax on, wax off
22. Star Search
23. Miami Vice, Magnum PI, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Facts of Life, Moonlighting, Knight Rider, Different Strokes, Benson.
24. Ferris Bueller's Day Off & The Breakfast Club
25. Atari
26. pegging the bottoms of your pants
27. wearing two different color socks to match your outfit.
28. Twisty-bead necklaces
29. leg warmers
30. banana clips, Wet-n-Wild makeup, scratch and sniff stickers
31. Pop Rocks with a Coke
32. Donkey Kong & Mario Brothers
33. snap bracelets and jelly shoes
34. Tiffany or Debbie Gibson
35. Member's Only and the Izod alligator

Festival & Friends

Angie & me

We spent all day Saturday playing. We enjoyed the Moon Walk at our church festival, spending time with extended family, and visiting with friends who were here from out-of-town. Now, we have a week left to get moved out of our apartment into the house so blogging might be light!

Time with Pop

My boys love spending time with Pop. He always makes them smile. Here he is having a conversation with Luke......and below is Pop giving two of his grandchildren, Andrew and Emma, a ride on his back. Thanks for loving our children, Pop!

They're already pinching them.....

...and I'm only four months old! I hope it's not like this forever. I mean, don't they know that I don't find this the least bit funny? Why are they laughing at me? Will someone please tell them to stop?!

Party til ya drop!

What seems like a weeklong birthday celebration is finally over. Don't get me wrong....I've enjoyed the planning, preparing, and celebrating, but I'm pooped! Andrew welcomed many friends and family to his 2nd birthday party this past weekend. They created flower pictures from their handprints, played on the playground, ate lots of sweets, and went on an egg hunt. Here are a few pictures that I promised.

Glorious Easter

What a beautiful day of enjoying God's unconditional love. The weather is warm, there's a breeze outside and we were surrounded by our church Body as we gathered to celebrate the resurrection. We sang hymns in church; such deep and profound words that rang loud and strong....

In Christ Alone! - Who took on flesh;
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died;
the wrath of God was satisfied.
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live....

...And as He stands in victory,
sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His, and He is mine;
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

A fun week

We've been having so much fun this week. At school, Andrew celebrated his birthday with his classmates during lunch by sharing cupcakes. Today he was able to go on an egg hunt at school and then, afterwards, we took him to see and hold some baby ducks. Birthday party is this weekend so there will certainly be more pics to come.

Went to the doctor

Today was Andrew's turn for a well-checkup at Dr. Oliver's office. Andrew loves visiting Dr. O but he hates the time with the nurses when they weigh him, check his height, and measure his head circumference. Today he did great....he didn't even cry when they pricked his finger for an iron/hemoglobin check. Andrew won't have to go back for another year, when he turns three. Luke, on the other hand, still has lots of shots to get since he's still a wee one. As usual, my camera goes with me everywhere......

Dr. Oliver with Andrew and Luke

"Well, well, well....how you doin'?"

Silly!

Just being silly.

The RIGHT hat & a cupcake

Finally....first it was the Red Sox hat, then the NY Yankee hat, and now the correct hat....the Braves! For Andrew's birthday, Mitch and I got him his own Atlanta Braves cap. To celebrate his special day, I made cupcakes. As you can tell, the cake and icing ended up all over Andrew's face. What a great picture! We'll celebrate with a party next Saturday so you can be sure to see more pictures of Andrew blowing out candles, playing and eating.

Also, Luke loves tummy-time. Here he enjoys a few minutes laying on his boppy pillow. He's growing so fast - already four months old!

Libby, Annie, & Riley!

My college roommate, Libby, and her two girls, Annie & Riley, visited with us this afternoon. We had a blast just watching the kids play, reminiscing about our college days, laughing at old pictures, and sharing "mom" stories. We put our kids on the couch to get a picture. Luke was starting to fall over so I snapped this one fast. Andrew isn't as fond of the camera as the girls obviously are...I mean, look at them! They're naturals.....could they be any cuter?

I love you, Lib-Dog! Glad you could use the dress. You're a beautiful pregnant woman! Come visit again soon....I can always use some "libby-time".

Spring Break means play time!

The week of spring break is no different in our household than any other week but we have done a few things these past few days that we've not done before. One thing Andrew has discovered how to do is to use keys....now, don't be scared. We don't let him get in the car with them nor have we shown him how to turn the ignition, but he does know how to open the storage room closet door on our porch. Here he is enjoying going though some of his toys that I had put away earlier last year. It's like Christmas for him when he finds toys he recognizes but hasn't seen in a while. It's cheaper and beats buying new stuff!

Andrew will be two on Saturday, April 8. He shares a birthday with his first cousin, Emily, but four years apart. Happy birthday Emily and Andrew!

Crissy, does this outfit look familiar?

Where's my third arm?

Things I can do with one hand and a baby in the other:

1. scramble eggs
2. load the dishwasher
3. load the washing machine
4. brush my teeth
5. type (very slowly)
6. sweep
7. pick up toys while stooping, being careful not to drop the baby
8. zip my toddler's jacket (I have to use my teeth when doing this)

Sox or Yankee?

Andrew can't make up his mind. Two of his best big buddies are Chad, the outrageous Boston Red Sox fan, and Seth, the Yankee fan from Pennsylvania. A few posts back I posted a picture of Andrew in Chad's Sox hat....last night it was Seth's turn to let Andrew wear his hat. Of course, when not in the company of Chad or Seth, Andrew is wearing his Braves hat!

At the Park

The spring weather is awesome! We went to the park this afternoon to enjoy the warmth and each other's company. Daddy and Andrew went on a tree climbing adventure.