John is Moving Up!

So, John graduated this week from the baby room to the toddler room. I am very excited for him! He gets to play with lots of bigger boy toys, and be around lots more fellow walking babies.
He was really happy to be there, but as with any transition, it was a bit stressful.

John is now sitting in a little toddler chair to eat his meals, and sleeping on a little cot. His naps and meals are served at a certain time, and not just whenever he's hungry or tired. This week John has been very needy and wanting reassurance from Mommy. I've decided to postpone the Binky weaning and let him have his comfort.

Tonight I had to whip up a mini-version of his blankey. Today he carried his blankey around so much he kept tripping over it and he fell and bumped his head twice. So, now he'll have a little swatch of blankey so he can rub his face on it when he needs some comfort.

I think most of the stress was for me than anything. On Monday I went to check on him during my lunch break....while it was naptime. I peeked through the window to see him sleeping on his cot, and wouldn't you know he was the only kid who was awake. Wouldn't you know he just happened to look at the door when I peeked at him! So he saw me and started crying and woke all the kids up. I felt really bad.

AND of course along with a new room and new toys and new kids comes new germs. John's nose started pouring gunk just after his first day. Greaaaat.

Anyhow.......see how grown he is! He loves to immitate me. This morning he decided to help Mommy clean up.....

It Works!

A great big thank you to Amie for calling in to help fix my phone. Not only is it working, but I got to chat with a great friend!

Boxes and Spelling

What's more exciting than playing in a box?














When your big brother invites you to play in it with him!

We managed to unpack another box last week and the boys had lots of fun in their castle.















Seth brought back a progress report of his work from pre-school this week. In it was a sampling of his latest handwriting..... which he is proudly displaying here. He has improved a lot since he first started!

I think my phone must be broken. I don't think it's rang all week.

Finally Saturday

Finally! It's Saturday. Man this was a looooong week. I didn't think it would ever end. Work was really tough and coming home was tougher. It's really been the past two weeks that have felt like a month. At weeks end we did have some good news though. For the past week Dave's work has been thinking about rearranging the schedules of all the dispatchers, and one of the guys on the swing shift (3 till 11) with seniority over Dave wanted Dave's spot.....which would've meant Dave would get his, and no one to pick up the kids from Daycare....which would have meant me having to find another job. A domino affect, but not a worry anymore. We found out today that his is the only schedule that is not going to change. So thats good for us. :-)

Weekend

<---Before Haircut After Haircut ----->





<--- Trying to be like his Big Brother. Sunday afternoon outdoors Mommy taught me how to kick! -->

Faces of John

Peek-a-Boo John

Chillin' like Daddy John

Hey Baby What are you Wearing? John

So long snow.

Ok, so the snow only lasted a few hours, but it sure was exciting to watch! I hadn't seen snow since we went to WV for Christmas in 2005, and Seth certainly doesn't remember that. So, it was even more exciting to watch Seth's excitement to hold a snowball in his hand, and make footprints in the snow, and admire how COLD the snow was! He ran around the back yard for an hour before I made him come in for bed, and when he woke up the next morning he wanted to go right back outside! Seth kept saying....Look Mom! It's Christmas! How funny that a boy who's never had a white Christmas can automatically associate the feeling of snow in the air with the excitement of Christmas. It was a nice treat. I can't wait for the day when my kids can sled down a hill or build a real snowman.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland!

Yippie! Ya Hoo! It's snowing in Georgia!!!

Baby Signs

This weekend John learned his first sign. Here, he is asking for More! Though he hasn't quite got the finger positioning perfect, I think he did a pretty good job!

The Weekend

Like most other weekends, this has been a somewhat ordinary one. The week's worth of laundry, trying to catch up on the cleaning, playing outside with the boys, planning meals for the week, grocery shopping, taking movies back, etc etc etc. I got to talk to Kerrie yesterday for a lot of the morning and my parents in the afternoon. I had a headcold for a few days but it seems to be on the mend today and not spreading to my lungs. Thank God too, because we certainly can't afford to get sick and miss work this month! After the busy-ness of the holidays I reveled in a relaxing ordinary weekend like this. But now that I've had a few in a row I wish I had some sort of social activity planned. It's hard though, now that 3 of my close friends and their families have moved away recently. I need to get out there and make some new ones....with people willing to hang out with me and my 2 curious boys. With Dave sleeping during the day I can't invite people here to my house (even though I'd love to) which means I have to wait for an invite. To everything there is a season, and I guess loneliness gets it's season for now in my life. I'm sure every Mom feels this way at some point.

Weee!

Who's excited for American Idol this Tuesday!!!?!?

I will ALWAYS love you.

I remember quite vividly a long time ago when I was like...8 or 9 a specific instance after my sister and I were fighting. I was sent to my room and was laying on my bed and Mom was standing in the doorway when I said, "I wish I didn't have a sister!". For which Mom responded...."Some day you'll learn to appreciate her." and I, being all mad and upset said "No I won't". Mom just looked at me and said, "Some day you'll regret saying that." Even though I already did....as soon as the words had come out of my mouth.

Today I found myself for the first time in the opposite role, though it wasn't exactly a brother thing. I thought I handled the "you're not my best friend" thing from Seth pretty well, but today he pulled out the "I don't like you!" and "You're not my Mommy!" retorts because he was mad he had to take a bath instead of watching tv. All I could think about to respond was, "Seth, I will ALWAYS be your Mommy and you don't have to like me, but you do need to know that I will ALWAYS LOVE you no matter what. But that won't change the fact that you are dirty and need a bath!" And again later, while putting him to bed, he pulled out the "I don't like you" and "I don't love you". I really didn't know how to react at that point. It was really hurtful, and getting to me. I didn't know whether to be mad at him for being disrespectul, or express to him that his words can hurt, or just ignore him and put him to bed anyways. What to do?

Anyhow, once they were finally asleep I made a getaway to the grocery store (don't worry Dave was home) and had some time to think about it. It made me really understand how God must feel when we get angry with him, or turn against him, or try to disobey him. He loves us even more then even I love my children....which, frankly, seems almost impossible, but true. Our words and actions have absolutely no bearing on the amount of love he has for us, even if we tell him we don't want him. BUT, God does have rules and requires us to obey them, and they are for our own good! Sometimes we just have to get in the tub and get clean.

A Nice Surprise

Yesterday out of the blue some flowers arrived for me at work. I couldn't imagine who would be sending them. Turns out a customer I helped fix a SIM card problem on Monday was so appreciative that he sent me flowers! How often does that happen? It sure made my day! And makes me feel a lot better about my boring job. Turns out the guy had traveled to London over the weekend and his phone stopped working. His wife had just had a premature baby and having his cell phone working was extremely important. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary for them, but it's nice to know that I've really helped someone out in a bind.

Oh Yeah, I still got it!

So, today on my lunch break I decided to go to the gym and work out. I REALLY enjoyed the holidays. My scale not so much. So I finally dragged my butt to it's latest attempt at a reduction. Fortunately, the building I work in has a small gym, so I can go during my lunch. Surprisingly, after a year of no exercise because of my neck problems, followed by a year of a pregnancy, followed by a year of post-baby-got-out-of-the-army-and-don't-have-to-do-pt-anymore year, I still managed to run a mile and a half without stopping. And I feel great! Wow! I still got it !(sort of). Though, having a lot more junk in my trunk makes running a lot more difficult. I felt like I needed a butt bra to prevent it from jiggling (and kinda hurting too). I guess that's why someone invented spandex a long time ago. Too bad only people who DON't need it can wear it in public without scaring everyone away.

Is it quiet in here?

I had been trying to keep John away from the markers . He dove for the green one about 10 times when I finally thought he gave up and went and found something else to do. Little did I know.....he was just being sneaky.

M-O-T-H spells Seth

Seth loves to be the little jokester. He got tired of me asking him how to spell his name so he made up a different spelling to make me laugh. Now he says it EVERY time.

New Years

We had a great New Years Eve weekend with friends Nick and Ashley and their kids Hayden, just turned 4 and Brenya, almost 2. It was great to have them all here to celebrate with us. They drove back to Tennessee yesterday, and we will miss them!