Greyson's birthday post

Almost two weeks ago, while P and I were taking Grandma Paige to meet Poppa Fred, C and Daddy A went to Greyson's first birthday party together. I think they had a great time having some "Daddy and C time", and C enjoyed the party.

It was pretty warm that day (Can you see how sweaty C's head is in the first photo? That's minutes into the party.), but C didn't seem to mind.

He loved the doggies.


He spent lots of time chilling out at the wading pool. He saw some other friends from church. Daddy A took this picture of him with Emme. (From what I hear, he was happier than he looks in this picture.)


The party was John Deere themed. The cake was adorable.


And, of course, Daddy A got a shot of the birthday boy and his mommy. (We also got some other pictures and videos, but as you've probably noticed, I've been having some trouble uploading lately, so I don't have plans for any of the videos to make a blog appearance. If you want to see the rest of the shots and/or videos, let me know, and you can see them in person.)


Happy first birthday, Greyson!

Boys will be boys...

...and bumps and bruises will follow!

This afternoon, while P was at dance, C and the babysitter were playing a game of "chase C" (this is funnier if you put his name in place of his initial, for those of you who know it) in his bedroom. In the process of running and laughing, C crashed into a corner and got a knot on his forehead. Our sitter explained it to me as "C had an accident with his face". One popsicle later, and he was quite cheered up.

After I got home and the boys and I had dinner (C for the second time), I asked C to show me his boo boo. The swelling has gone down significantly, but you can see a tiny cut and some bruising on the left side of his forehead.


Here's the obligatory close up shot:

Fortunately, he seems blissfully unaware of his mishap now, and as the title of my post indicates, I'm sure there will be more to come. Hopefully they'll all be this insignificant!

P's gymnastics routine

I'd intended to make this a "video extravaganza" post with all of the routines from P's Little Gym dance show, but I have been trying to upload the videos for (literally) days, so I'm going to do them one post at a time instead, and see if that works any better.
The show was on June 7, and this is P's routine on the big red mat in the gym. You'll see his teacher, Miss Sarah, too. Enjoy!

What a week!

I apologize for my sparse posting of late. This week we've had VBS at church until 8:30 every night (except for C, who had a neighbor bring him home so he could go to bed at 7:00), and P had dance camp Monday through Thursday night, too. Needless to say, we're all pretty beat around these parts. I'm only one load of laundry away from being caught up (with the laundry, not everything), and the boys' rooms got picked up today, too, thanks to Daddy A's help.

Speaking of VBS, P got really into the music. On the way to dance yesterday, "This Little Light of Mine" came on. P and I had this conversation:

P: This is the shine song. I do my finger like this (holding index finger in the air and waving it about) an' I sing.

Me: Oh, that's nice! Do you like the shine song?

P: Uh huh. An' Arfur (one of Thomas the Tank Engine's friends) likes it, too. I'm holdin' Arfur now.

Me: Good. Can you do the shine song again?

P: No. My hands are full of Arfur.

Me: Can Arthur do the shine song?

P: No, Arfur can't do it, Mom, because Arfur doesn't have fingers. Oh, here's the river song ("Peace Like a River"). We can do that one!

It was adorable! I'm really glad P got so into Bible School this year... but I'm ready to get back to 8:00 bedtimes, too!

Eat Mor (Spicee) Chikin

The Final Ta Dah!

The Little Gym of Hickory has closed. We had a great few years there, and the boys had a lot of fun. (I'd definitely like to thank those gymnastic lessons for, ahem, teaching C to do a front support and lift himself out of his crib. I mean, if C could climb out, that would probably be how he could do it. Not that he, ahem, can.)

The Little Gym had a big going away party for everyone, and we hung out there for quite a while. We saw the boys balance...

...and beam...

...and flip!

We'll miss our friends from The Little Gym, but we wish them the best of luck on their new adventures!

Thomas and Friends

We headed to Tweetsie twice last week, both times to see Thomas, our favorite little blue engine. I'm not going to write too much - this will be more of an "our day in pictures" kind of post - since it took a long, long time for said pictures to upload the pictures are, for the most part, self-explanatory. Enjoy!

C flips for The Little Gym!

P's "tummy's hurtin'" was still going on Friday morning so he and Daddy A stayed home while C and I headed to The Little Gym for his Show Week class. Friends and family gathered with cameras to check out what C and his classmates have been doing all semester.

As usual, class started with the bells.


This week, the large group activity was the Air Trac. After lots of bouncing around, C stopped for a rest.


It's still a mystery to me how he can go full speed ahead all day at home, but stop and rest in the middle of the gym full of padded material and actual climbing apparatuses.

Of course, that's not to say that he didn't do any climbing...


...and then class ended with bubbles.



Miss Melissa gave everyone a medal. C was the first one on the "podium."


At first, C was enthralled with his medal. He stared at it, and was more focused on that than anything else going on around him.


Pretty quickly, he was more interested in his ability to get the medal off independently.


Next week will be our last week at The Little Gym. We're sad that they're closing, but looking forward to new adventures!

But my tummy's hurtin'...

Both of the boys' allergies seemed to be bothering them this morning. P woke up and coughed up some drainage. On the way to his end of school party, he "was coughin'" again. Yup, in the car. And yup, "coughin'" is what P calls... something else. Something that you don't want your child to do in your car. Then he seemed much better, and since I was pretty sure it was just drainage, to the party we went. Both of the boys had fun at the party, and seemed to be feeling much better.
P clearly wasn't feeling awesome, though, because he asked for "cow chikin" for lunch and then refused the nuggets when they arrived. But after lunch, P seemed to notice that a "hurtin' tummy" might get him more than "cow chikin" for lunch. When it was nap time, he explained that he didn't want to sleep because "my tummy's hurtin'". When he slammed into his brother with a toy car ( a ride on car, not a matchbox car) and got put in time out, he started screaming and kicking and said that he shouldn't have to go to time out because "my tummy's hurtin'". Around 4:00 this afternoon, P looked at me with this sad face and said in a soft, pitiful voice, "My tummy's hurtin'. I just want some chips an' pizza an' Sprite. It will make me feel better." His "hurtin' tummy" made a reappearance at bedtime tonight... because he didn't want to go to sleep. This could be an interesting phenomenon to work through, and I do hope that tomorrow P won't need to say, "but my tummy's hurtin'". I hope he and C both feel 100% better!

Memorial Day weekend

My apologies for a rather long absence from blogland - it turns out this thing doesn't write itself! We took a family trip to Tweetsie Saturday, and then headed to a graduation party and a birthday party on Sunday. Monday we spent some down time together at home, and Parker called both of his grandmas "on the phone". (He only got a chance to talk to his Grandma Hen this time, but I'm sure he'll try again soon.)

Here are just a few of the highlights of our weekend...

I finally coaxed P up on the stage with the cloggers, but his enthusiasm was a bit lacking... I didn't expect that, given his love of dance, but the whole audience thing is new to him. I guess that's obvious from this picture. =)

We kept busy throughout the day.

P and I rode the Ferris Wheel. He looks scared, but he wasn't. He laughed throughout the ride, and wanted to ride again until he saw how long the line was growing! He was really excited to find out he could see his car in the parking lot from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

C was worn out just from watching P!

While C napped, P took the opportunity to ride the "'copters".

We rode "the big train" twice. (That's right, P is no longer "scared" of the train.) After a full day at Tweetsie Railroad, we all slept well Saturday night!


We had fun at our parties on Sunday. P especially enjoyed "lookin' at the horses and donkeys"

and literally attempting to climb the fence.

C and I watched P's antics while Daddy A took pictures.


As you look at this particular photo, I know a question comes to mind. "Why Mama E," you think, "that sundress is adorable! I can't help but notice that it seems like the weather is warm. While I admire your cutting edge fashion sense, I am curious. Why did you wear a polo shirt and leggings with a sundress?" And the answer, my friends, lies in the right sidebar of my blog. I'm a mom. My time is not often my own. But with leggings and a polo on, who knows when I last shaved?

a catch up post... sort of

Well, I have a post written about our adventures over Memorial Day weekend. Written being the operative word. I can't get the pictures I've selected to upload to my blog, which I'm pretty sure is an issue with Bellsouth. I could write a whole post about Bellsouth, but I don't feel like being a Negative Nelly. Rest assured, though, that a new post is in the works. If I can't get the pictures to upload tomorrow, I'll post the words for your enjoyment. In the meantime, here's a bit of catch up on our day to day lives.

C has one molar that's broken through his gums. If his swollen gums (and dirty diapers) are any indication, the rest aren't going to be far behind. He has added the words, "Go!" "bubba (brother)," and "mo' (more)" to his vocabulary. He's still a daredevil. Just this afternoon, he climbed on a chair, fell out of it, and landed on his arm. We took a trip to see Miss Jean, our parish nurse, and had it checked out. He's fine now.

P tells longer and longer stories every day. His last day of school is Thursday, and he is not looking forward to a break from school. He plans to go to school "all the days of summer wif Ms. Temmy." He's excited about our upcoming trip to see Thomas at Tweetsie, a visit from his grandmas, and dance camp.

I'll close this post with a conversation the boys and I had last week:

P is sitting on the couch next to me. C walks over and swats his hand at P, smacking him on the leg.

Me: "C, we do not hit. Do not hit your brother."

P: "Yeah, C. We do not hit."

C walks over to the "Time Out Spot" and sits down. After one minute, I walk over to him.

Me: "C, you were in time out for hitting P. Please don't hit again." I give C a hug.

C walks over and hugs P.

P: "Thanks, C. It's okay; I know you're sorry."

I realize that C was copying what he's seen his brother do, but it was still nice to see him start to accept consequences for his actions. He's really growing up!