Month: March 2009

It’s amazing all the interesting things you can do in South GA when you aren’t swatting the gnats flying all around your face, up your nose and in your eyes at warp speed!  It rained the whole weekend, so we weren’t standing around outside for gnats to bother us. I trust you will be amazed when you see how much we did down on Lovers Lane in Leesburg, GA this past weekend.

This first little “activity” started as soon as we arrived.  There was this smell…this awful, something-is-dead smell.  Deb had been recovering from her last chemo treatment, so she wasn’t roaming the yard to figure out what had died.  And Irvin, well he had been at work and hadn’t really searched out this smell. Debbie was so funny because she asked us several times if we  had smelt her “sweet bush” (or something like that, but really, when there is a something-is-dead smell around, the bush might as well be in Texas).  Josh took it upon himself to go out the back door and take a look around.  He came in and said, “All I know is that y’all didn’t look very hard at all.”  We all were curious, so we went outside to see what he had found.  Y’ALL– there was a dead dog under a bush by their house!!  What in the world?  While Josh tried to pull it out with various objects, Irvin was walking around gagging and then giving out suggestions on how to best get the dead dog out from under the bush “without breaking my pitch fork!”   And me?  I was documenting this event by way of my camera, of course.  We sent the kids in with Gran.  They would have definitely been scarred.  I was.

 

 

You know, I titled this post, but really, I am not amazed at how quickly two years have raced by…because it doesn’t really seem that way to me.  I totally get that he is two.  I don’t feel like it was just yesterday that I brought him home; and hallelujah for that!  Maybe it seems that he should have already been two about 10 months ago because he weighs what a three and a half year old does. Or maybe it is because when I brought him home from the hospital Ruby was still 2 years old!  I don’t know.  Call me crazy, but I am welcoming the little bit of independence that Mack is having—eating by himself for the most part, announcing that he has pooped and running to get his own diaper, climbing into his car seat by himself, and that is just the short list.  

We leave tomorrow night for Albany, GA to see Gran & PawPaw, GG & Papa Mac, and the turtle that has returned to his summer home on Lovers Lane Road.  We will celebrate Mack’s birthday on Saturday.  Mrs. Debbie got a cake ordered of a train with Elmo driving it.  Mack will love that.  And Ruby.  And Molly, too.  

We actually started celebrating yesterday when Mrs. Mary, Ben and Katherine came over for our last day of the Easter craft.  She was so thoughtful and brought cupcakes and a book for Mack….really, it is my favorite book, and I have wanted it for at least a year!  She is a sweet friend.  It is entitled BOYS ARE BEST.  You have to read it to get it.  Parts of it are a bit inappropriate, but funny nonetheless.

 

 

Now, please don’t judge these horrible pictures that are to follow.  I don’t know if I have lamented here about the loss of pictures from my computer or not, but I did lose pictures from my computer, and I know it is best to leave it alone.  However, I was trying to find a newborn picture of Mack, but ended up having to take pictures of actual pictures in a book, so forgive the poor quality.  I will have to muster up the memories in my mind in order to remember what he was like as a newborn, but that is what they did in olden days, right?  And I didn’t include any of me holding Mack because, really, who would want to see those?  It was a long, long, night.  He was born at 3:54am.  Awfully tired was this mama.  And swollen.  And tired.  Glad Josh was able to nap while I labored.  Someone had to look refreshed in the pictures.

 

 

 

 

We are so thankful that we had baby #3.  Mack has been such a joy to our family.  He keeps us laughing.  The girls love having a baby brother.  It will be a fun weekend to celebrate and remember all the milestones Mack has reached in his two year life.  

 

 

 

“From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.”  John 1:16

I was doing a Pilates video  and the girls joined in on the “fun.”  It was so funny when after about 10 minutes of the video Ruby said, “This is really hard, Mama.”  Then, after a few more minutes Ruby yelled out, “I’m not listening to that lady any more!”  That is what I was feeling inside, but I followed through with the whopping 20 minutes!  And I laughed out loud on and off through the rest of the workout as I thought about what Ruby hollered.

We went to the mall again.  Amazingly, the kids were great.  We did buy over-priced pizza, but they all three shared the slushee…sort of.  Mack gets a mean grip on the cup, and I just let him.  Honnery Yarn Kids (Pottery Barn Kids) proved to be a fun time, as usual.  I walked out purchasing nothing this time.  A small step towards freedom from the PBK.  Disney was horribly uneventful.  Some sort of spell comes over you, though, as you walk through the threshold of the huge, red Mickey ears.  All of a sudden, the tacky Donald Duck shirts and polyester Hannah Montana pajamas look cute, and I really want to buy Molly a $10 pack of four princess pens that she is begging for.  Again, a small victory as we walked out empty-handed.  I had a coupon for Stride-Rite, so Ruby and Mack got a pair of shoes.  I am facing the whole second-born, hand-me-down thing with Molly.  The girl has enough of everything, but what is it that makes me feel so bad when she doesn’t get much at each season change?  It’s stupid really.  She has what she needs…..this subject is a whole ‘nother blog…..back to the mall—–  I made a HUGE mistake.  I tried to shop for me.  It’s a good thing I had my QT that morning because I wasn’t trying on just anything.  It was JEANS.  I hate jeans.   I loathe jeans.  Oh my.  I will spare the details of this episode, but the gist of it is that D.C. (the sales guy at Juicy something or nother) was very nice, suggested some fancy priced jeans for me, and sent me to the fitting room.  I pushed in the two seater stroller that I rented for five dollars from the mall into the room that only had a curtain hanging between me and my three kids and the rest of the mall…while I tried on jeans, which I hate to do and of which NONE fit me.  I was a nervous wreck.  I mean, really, how many times could I say, “Ruby, DO. NOT. TOUCH. THAT CURTAIN.”  or “MOLLY!  Sit. down. in. that. stroller. right. now. Donottouchyourbrotheragain!”  All the while trying to keep calm so that D.C. doesn’t wonder what kind of weird-o I am (as if he wasn’t wondering already with me pushing that silly stroller up into his store full of cool jeans for skinny, young people.)  UGH.  Long, horrible story short—all the jeans were way too tight.  But whatever. Right?  During the walk out of there, as I am trying hard not to knock over any displays with the stroller, I begin telling myself over and over again, “Kristy, at least your soul is prospering.  Your soul is prospering (see an earlier post about your soul prospering).  Forget about the jeans.  They are just jeans.  Don’t get carried away with this frustrating moment.”

Moving on….a little later when we had sat down for the girl’s cookie (after the routine visit to the soft play area), Mack was kind of mad and kept lifting his shirt up.  I didn’t know what he wanted, so after a few attempts to make him happy with a cookie (don’t cookies fix most problems?  hey, is that why all the jeans were too tight?), I realized his jeans were too tight.  And I could so relate!  So, I unbuttoned his jeans, he visibly relaxed and smiled and then opened his mouth and said “Ahhhhh” for more cookie.  He just needed more room to breath if he was gonna finish that cookie!  Hilarious.  

Oh, tight jeans.   If anyone knows where I can find some cute summer skirts, let me know because I am all about wearing things that don’t touch my rear.  

Happy Friday to all!  I am excited about this weekend….Friday night date night at church, Saturday morning pictures, Birthday party at noon, hair appointment at 2:00 (good bye gray!), and we get to serve in the nursery Sunday….it is my joy.

Mack can rest securely in his position as the baby of our family.  Even if we one day get a pet, I can assure you that I will not be calling it my baby.  I am not an animal fan at all…I worry about myself in this area, but I am just telling you the truth.  I do not like pets.  Anyway, back to Mack.  He is the baby of the family, and God has chosen to give him two older sisters.  I only have sisters.  Josh only has a brother, so we don’t know much about the whole brother-sister bond that these kiddos will hopefully have.  I am excited to watch it unfold.  Already I see some really sweet moments.  Already I see some really sour moments, too, BUT that’s ok.  We’ll work through the bossiness, the tackles and kicks in the head….and I will let Josh explain to Ruby why “Mack has two belly-buttons.”

I captured some pictures over the last few days that made me laugh.  Mack is surrounded with girl things.  He has tractors, trucks, balls, and stuff like that, but he also plays with a pink stroller, a baby doll or two, and other girl stuff.  It isn’t unhealthy, so just put away your “Bringing Up Boys” books.  We have a good handle on the manliness thus far.  Josh is by far his favorite of all of us.  And his favorite thing to do is to ride in Daddy’s truck.  Very cute.  But, here are the pictures I took this week…

 

 

 

 

 

Right before snapping this picture, I saw Mack sitting in Molly’s lap (sort of…he is as big as she is!), and I wanted a picture of it so bad, but he moved too quickly.  

And just for any of you who are wondering, “WHEN IS THIS BOY’S FATHER GONNA STEP IN AND TAKE CONTROL OF THIS NONSENSE????!!!!!”  Here is a picture of Josh playing Mack’s favorite game…they throw a small ball up to the chandelier in the foyer.  If it gets stuck, Daddy has to use a bigger ball to throw up there and knock the other ball loose.  (It is a fun game for all UNTIL the FedEx man walks up to the door and can clearly see you laying on the rug in the foyer.  Just ask Josh.)

And in case anyone is being critical that in most of my pictures my children aren’t fully dressed, well, that is just how we roll around here. And when I say we, I don’t mean me.  I make an effort each morning to dress them fully (unless it is just clear that it is gonna be a pajama day), but after that, it is up to them.  I cannot be held responsible for their choices of clothing or lack thereof.  I am only one person.   All three of them equal at least six people, maybe ten.

Yipee-yai-yay!  Molly has graduated to not wearing pull-ups at night.  She kept a pull-up dry for several nights, so we started talking about wearing panties to bed.  (Molly is 3 1/2 years old, and I don’t know if that is “early” or “really late” to be completely potty-trained, but the wonderful thing is that I don’t care.  I am slowly learning that each kid is different and all of those standards can just be thrown out the window…for the most part.)  So, as Ruby and Molly and myself were talking about Molly being a big girl and maybe wearing panties to bed when we ran out of her pull-ups, Ruby had some great insight to offer Molly.  Oh, the benefits of having a big sister….”Molly,” she said very firmly, “when you have a pee-pee dream at night, you just open your eyes and get up and go to the potty.  Don’t go to Mama’s room or to her potty.  Go to the one by our room.”  (VERY GOOD ADVICE, seems that Ruby should heed it.)  I was laughing inside at this conversation.  Molly was taking it all in, making a mental note of such valuable information.  I asked Ruby who told her that.  She said, “I told myself that.  I remember one time I was having a dream about having to pee-pee, and I got up……blah, blah, blah….”  She told the whole story of realizing she was dreaming and that she needed to get up and potty.  Molly re-hashed the whole thing this morning with me as we celebrated that she woke up dry.  

So, for the first time in almost four years, there is only ONE kid in diapers.  OH HAPPY DAY.  Oh happy, happy day.

My sweet friend, Mary, decided to do an Easter Craft with Katherine, and she included my girls.  I am so thankful that she did!  Each Tuesday after Timothy, they come over and eat lunch with us, then Mrs. Mary reads from God’s Word and lets the girls each open an egg to find something that symbolizes a part of the Easter Story.  Then, they move over to the kitchen table where they are cutting out eggs, gluing a picture of the object into the egg, and eventually making a completed book of their own set of eggs that can help guide them as they tell the story of what happened to Jesus—His death, burial, and resurrection.  Here are some of the pictures of the past two Tuesdays.  I was going to wait until the end, but I thought I would throw it up on the blog and maybe it would inspire some of you to do something similar with your kids.  It is amazing how God honors the reading of His Word and how much the kids remember!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more pictures and the end product.

Molly is stubborn.  She does not listen and obey well.  She gets out of her bed numerous times unless she is dog-tired, which is rare.  I love her, but she makes me crazy.  Crazy love, that’s what it is.  Last night Josh and I were meeting with a family friend’s college-aged kid who is selling Cutco knives.  (They were impressive, so we bought some…What unstable economy?  I rarely leave my house, we don’t watch the news, so we are oblivious…or so it seems.)  Anyway, while we were downstairs, Molly was upstairs just doing whatever she wanted to do.  WARNING:  These are spooky.  Josh was scared at first glance.  Seriously.

 

 

She informed me this morning that “athter I fixed my hair, I used Daddy’s toothbrush.”  It’s an electric toothbrush of which Molly is intrigued.  The girl never stops.  She knows no boundaries.  

I really do watch my children.  I do!  I also get lots of emails from Sunday School people, so I am in the office on and off all day.  I also check facebook and, admittedly, get sucked into looking at what everyone else is doing or thinking…slight interaction with other adults.  ANYWAY, yesterday morning Molly said, “Mom, you gotta see Mack.  Come here.”  I have learned that this statement is never good.  It isn’t usually for me to come and see how cute he is while he sits quietly sucking his thumb or how sweet he is when he plays calmly with his cars and trucks.  No.  Never.  This is what I found  (get my Mother of the Year Award ready, please):

This is Molly getting up there with him and telling  him to get down.  They just about got into a fist fight over it, which would not have been good considering how high up they were.  And me?  Oh, I am taking pictures of the scene. (Award, please.)

 

 

And what am I doing?  Still taking pictures.  Oh my…let me run get my acceptance speech written out…..remember, my award?  

I will end with this picture of Ruby.  She was given this by her Gran.  She doesn’t take it off unless commanded to by me or Josh.  She sleeps in it.  Seriously.  I am not sure why I just bought her some spring/summer clothes.  She’d rather be in this night and day.  Thanks, Gran!!  Seriously, I couldn’t care less what she wears around here.  I just have to draw the line when we are going to church or Wal-Mart.

Marcy came through with the pictures, so here they are….cute cousins!!!  To me, Baby Rennison looks like Ruby did at that age.  She is so sweet.  Molly was talking about her yesterday and referred to her as Miss Baby Rennison.   Funny.

 

 

 

 

 

We really did have a great time visiting everybody.  Molly asks me regularly when we are going back.  Mack says, “PawPaw, Wee-Wee, gof-caaat.”  He also holds is arms and hands out for PawPaw to hold him and says in a very sad voice, “Where PawPaw?  PawPaw!  PawPaw!”  Very sweet.