The Adventures of Add-and-Land

Trees of Christmas 2011

2012-01-06T20:38:00.004-06:00

So I promise soon to have a couple of posts about Christmas, etc., but in the meantime, here is a fun guest post from Nana! Hooray! Thanks for the post and for spoiling my babies rotten! :)

I had wanted to have this ritual be a “Nana-Addie” thing but I could NOT exclude my precious grandson, Landon. Therefore PaPa also came to enjoy the day.

There were too many things going on in December so we couldn’t go see Trees of Christmas at Cheekwood until after school was out for Christmas. Of course the usual bribery was if they were good, then they could go to Phillips Toy Mart. They were great – there isn’t too much to the Trees as it was when our boys were young. Only florists and designers do the trees in the mansion now so there are just 6 or 7 trees to see. We blew through those pretty quickly. We did visit the Train exhibit again which they enjoyed. Lunch in the Pineapple Room was fairly uneventful. They wanted to play games on Nana’s phone, but Nana’s phone is in the dark ages and doesn’t have games. They were good.

As they were “angelic”, they of course were taken to Phillips Toy Mart. Mike (since around 1956 when Phillips was on 8^th Avenue) and our boys have been going to Phillips since they were little boys, so it is a tradition in our family. The deal was to get one small thing as a reward for being good. We circle the store many times. Addie dusting her fingers along most everything in the store. Landon wants everything he picks up. Addie finally decides on a “Play” mop. Landon picks out a ball. When we get in the looooong line to pay, somehow Landon shows up with 2 things. I tell him he can only have one thing. “Noooooo.” I said, “You have to choose one thing.” He says “I choose not to”. Sounds like a lawyer?:) Then Addie starts in – why does he get 2 things and I only get one? Well, if you have ever been to Phillips – once you are in line you better be ready to check out. Risking a total meltdown of not only one but 2 grandchildren – we hurriedly get Addie another item to be able to GET.OUT.OF.THERE! Hey, we’re Grandparents, we don’t have to worry about spoiling them. That’s what we’re there for!

We come home for a fun afternoon and spending the night. We have 2 inches of water on the floor for most of the day. Addie’s mop didn’t come with a wringer. Later Landon is scribbling on paper and brings it to me to read. I make up some crazy word that it says and he’s thrilled. Addie gets the drift and starts doing the same thing. After a point, she actually starts writing things for me to read. One of her pages she brings in says “Landon is a brat”. I express my displeasure that she is calling him that but also remind her that she should be writing the same thing about herself too. She goes into the other room, writes her sentence for me to read. She comes back and it says, “Addie is a Princess”. Too funny! They keep us in stitches, on our toes and we love every second of it! Another day(s) in paradise with our Grandchildren!

Practically twins...

2011-11-30T20:08:00.003-06:00

The other day Landon was looking at this precious picture of John Michael as a little boy. He said, "Mommy, yook! It's me on dis wocking horse!" I said, "No, buddy, that's Daddy! But it looks just like you, huh?" He then said, "Yeah, it does! Because I have jeans! And a head!"

(I took a picture of this photo with my camera, due to not being able to get my scanner to work. In other news, I love my iPhone.)

Who knew? All it takes for a doppelganger are jeans and a head! On a side (parallel?) note - it really is adorable how much Landon looks like his daddy, no?

Christmas Cards - yay!

2011-11-25T21:03:00.005-06:00

So although our family has decided to do New Year's cards each year instead of Christmas cards, I still love, love, LOVE to begin receiving Christmas cards shortly after Thanksgiving. Yay! I get so excited! I always have to display them all, because we love seeing photos of our family and friends (and most everyone does photo cards now anyway :)) throughout the Christmas season. Each year I've tried to put mine on a table in the living room, but last year, I bought a magnetic wire photo holder and made it into a circle and put it on the wall, so it looked like a wreath of Christmas cards. Genius! It saves room, and I don't have to deal with any of our friends ending up face-down on the table - ha!

As far as making our cards goes, I am excited this year to try a new-for-us card company, Tiny Prints. I love their designs! Check their holiday cards out here. They're having a special deal this year for bloggers where you can get 50 cards free if you post about them. LOVE IT! I am so excited to pick out our design. It's going to be hard though!

Hurry and check it out - I'm not sure how long the deal lasts, and it's definitely not one to let pass by!

Halloween

2011-11-08T17:50:00.004-06:00

(Okay, I know how late this is! I've got quite a few posts to catch up on - I think it looks like I'll be going backwards...)

We had another wonderful Halloween here! As with the past few years, both sets of grandparents came over for dinner and to help with our trick-or-treaters while we took the kids out. Addie has been asking for months to dress up as Cinderella for Halloween, and we didn't hate that idea since she had the full costume from our trip to Disney World. Landon, on the other hand, was a bit more of a challenge, as he insisted he wanted to be a princess :) If he were older, we would've let him do his thing, but I didn't so much want him hating us ten years from now ;) He ended up choosing a firefighter costume and he was adorable!

John Michael and I took the kids together and made it to about five houses before Addie and JM kinda left Landon and me in the dust. And Landon was really eager to get back to the house to see his grandparents, so it worked out pretty well. I have to say that one of the highlights of the evening was him singing "Patty Cake" at the top of his lungs while we were on our way back home. Our neighbors got a big kick out of it.

The babies had so much fun and were so good while they were trick-or-treating! They also enjoyed helping pass out candy back at home and were great helpers. The sugar high wore off after a couple of days, too, so that was good... :)

[Okay, turns out this is somehow the only picture I have from Halloween?! Nana? Mimi? Anyone?! I promise they had a blast, smiled a lot, and we took pictures outside, just not sure on whose camera the pictures are... :)]

First Parent-Teacher Conference

2011-10-13T20:31:00.002-05:00

Okay, so our first *official* parent-teacher conference. I once had a conference call with one of Addie's preschool teachers, but it was about a week after Landon was born and it took me a good four or five minutes to realize who I was talking to - HA!

ANYWAY. Back to the story at hand.

So, we went early Monday morning to meet with Addie's kindergarten teacher. We had been asked to list any concerns on a sheet that we turned in to sign up for our time. The only concern we had was that some of Addie's work was coming home messy. As in, looking like a two-year-old had done it. She has always been so particular with her artwork and handwriting that it was a little concerning - was she rushed or hurried? Also, last week, she had been whining (obnoxiously, and every evening) that "Math and Phonics are tooo haaaard..." Again, this was kind of concerning because there has never been a single thing (school-wise) that has ever been "tooo haaaard" for her.

So we arrived Monday morning and Addie's teacher had her report filled out. Her strengths were listed as kind-hearted, hard-working and diligent. She told us how all of Addie's classmates just love her and how sweet she is to everyone. She also asked us if she has an older brother, because she said that she watches her on the playground and she "doesn't take anything off of ANYONE!" WOOHOO! This was probably one of my proudest moments, given my struggles with timidity/assertiveness. :)

ANYWAY - she said that with regards to the sloppy coloring, that all the kids get competitive and want to hurry to finish their tasks first and that she's having to work with them on this. That didn't necessarily make us feel better, but at least we're not alone. We mentioned the whining about math and phonics and she just laughed and said, "I will tell you this - she is definitely not struggling with either." She did explain to us that their math block is NINETY MINUTES LONG and it's right after lunch. Can you imagine? I can't imagine sitting through math for 90 minutes now, much less as a five-year-old. She said that this is a new math program this year and that she and the other teachers are figuring out creative ways to break up the teaching/learning.

Addie's teacher also showed us Addie's kindergarten testing that was done two weeks before school started. She said that she was impressed, and we were, too! Addie was already "near-mastery" (the goal of Kindergarten being "mastery") for almost all of the subjects, and at "mastery" for some. She still has plenty to learn, obviously (the least of which are patience and non-whininess ;)), but we definitely feel good about where she is.

One thing Addie's teacher warned us about and told us to be on the lookout for is the clique-y behavior of girls. She said she's already starting to see some of it in her classroom so she is giving all the girl parents a heads up. I mean, REALLY?! I expected this conversation from say, a third or fourth grade teacher, but I can't believe in Kindergarten. *Sigh.* Hopefully my "kind-hearted" girl will miss a little bit of this. I can hope, right?

All in all, it was a great conference about our sassy little girl!

Yet another difference...

2011-10-06T20:51:00.003-05:00

...between a boy and a girl. I know for sure I never would've had this conversation with Addie at 2 1/2 (or any age, for that matter :)).

Landon: "Mommy, look! A little gold leaf!" [If you want the full effect, it was, "Mommy, yook! A yittle gold weaf!" :)]

Me, as I'm taking the 'leaf' from him: "Cool buddy! Thanks!"

Landon: "I'm just kidding Mommy - that was a booger!"

Awesome. :)

Two and a half

2011-09-06T20:31:00.003-05:00

Hooray! It's a half-birthday! It's the only thing almost as fun as a birthday to me :) I cannot believe that Landon is 2 1/2 years old. To say it has flown is a huge understatement, but I know, I know - I say that at each milestone post.

Landon is still just an absolute joy. I can't lie, I feel like lately he has spent about half of his days in Time Out, but still :) He saves up all his "two year old" behavior for mommy and daddy. Isn't that just the way it goes? His teachers all still adore him and act like they don't believe me when I tell them about his epic tantrums. Awesome :)

Even given his tantrums, he is still about the sweetest little boy ever. He has such a loving heart and is so compassionate but is also ALL BOY and loves to rough-and-tumble. He'll just cry if he thinks he's hurt you :) He has what I consider a far advanced sense of humor and it is becoming clearer how stinkin' smart he is! YIKES! He loves pretend play and doing anything that Addie is doing.

We had thought he was going through a picky eater phase lately, which concerned us a little until we visited the dentist a few weeks ago and it turns out that he is getting all four 2-year molars at once! Our dentist asked if he had been fussy lately (see Time Out mention above - ha!) or had trouble eating. Yes and yes! So we're hoping that they finish soon and we'll have our little table monster back.

As far as potty training, he is a pro! And by "pro," I mean he is a pro at refusing to go. HA! We have still not really started potty training. I don't foresee us doing it anytime soon, either. He is just not interested AT ALL. He did use the potty at school last week and his teacher was so excited to tell me. I said, "That's great! I kind of expected for him to not potty train until he started Kindergarten!" Both of his teachers said, "Yeah, me, too!" Talk about a stubborn little booger. Whenever we ask him if he wants to start wearing big boy underpants or using the potty like a big boy, he says, "No, not yet." We'll get there one day! But it really is true what they say about boys being more challenging to potty train than girls...for us at least :)

Okey doke - some little Landon tidbits -

* Reverse psychology poster child. All you have to do is convince him you don't want him to do something...

* Whenever he asks a question and you respond with, "I don't know," he says excitedly, "I don't know eeder (either)!"

* One of his favorite things to say is, "Oh! That's right!" and he uses it to act like he always knows what's going on - like someone else would say "duh!" For example, L: "Daddy, what are you working on?" JM: "It's a hydrogram, buddy." L: "Oh - a hydrogram. That's right!" Cracks me up every time :)

* After nearly everything he says, he'll make sure you're listening by asking, "Okay, Mommy?" or "Okay, Daddy?" or "Okay, guys?" But you cannot answer if he wasn't asking you, or else he'll say, "No! I was talking to Daddy!"

* For the past few months, whenever anyone asks him "Do you understand me?" he'll say very timidly, "Yes, ma'am." I have got to get this on video because it's the cutest thing ever. EVER.

* On the weekend mornings, he is not allowed to get out of his room until we come get him (safety, not being mean). A month or so ago, we heard him over the monitor saying, "Mommy! Daddy! Addie!" over and over again. After a few minutes, he said, "Hey Mommy! It's not funny anymore!"

* Another morning, he was doing the "Mommy! Daddy! Addie!" thing again and he said, "Somebody get me out of here or ELSE!" We didn't wait to see what the "or else" would be :)

* Is still a good bedtime baby but has started putting up a little bit more of a fuss lately, wanting to stay up with Addie!

* Will sit and play by himself and sing for looong stretches of time. I got a few minutes of one of these on camera the other day - having trouble uploading right now :(

* Has two volumes: silent and LOUD. I say on a regular basis that he is my "karma baby" - for every mom I have ever judged (pre-kids, of course, because when else are you a perfect parent? ;)) for "not being able to keep her kid quiet," I get it back tenfold. He is the happiest, loudest little boy ever! Whenever we try to settle him down with a game of "Quiet Mouse," he'll scream, "No! I am NOT playing kiet mouse! I am Loud Mouse!" Teehee. Hard to argue with that one.

Landon Matthews, we just love you so much, cutie pie! You keep us on our toes for sure, but we wouldn't trade our crazy days with you for anything!

(pictures and video(s) hopefully to follow!)

Confession time

2011-08-20T12:03:00.002-05:00

Okay, time to confess. Although Addie's first half-day of Kindergarten was easy for me, the first full day was not so much. We had planned to drop her off ourselves at school for the first few days, but at the parent meeting on Monday night, we were asked to use Thursday as a day to start their routines since they'd have extra helpers at the school to help. So, we decided to do just that. Because our work days begin at 8 a.m. (roughly :)) and Addie's school begins at 8:30 (with the doors to the school opening at 8:15), we decided to keep her enrolled at her daycare's before and after school program. She will ride the school bus to and from there. So now that I've given the background, back to Thursday ;)

We arrived at the daycare at our normal time and got the kids checked in. We knew the bus would be coming soon, so we decided to wait to be with Addie. Let's just say nothing can prepare you for seeing your five-year-old get on a school bus. Or maybe I should say nothing could prepare ME for seeing MY five-year-old get on a school bus. :)

Addie was so excited to ride the school bus. She climbed up completely fearless and with a huge grin on her face. I, on the other hand, started weeping immediately and didn't stop until I got to work. And the waterworks started back up every time I talked about it that day. She just looked so little! How did this happen?

Of course I worried all day that she would have trouble making it to her class and back on the bus that afternoon. To say I was relieved to hug her happy little self that afternoon is a huge understatement. But her happiness was shortlived and soon we were dealing with tears. What made her cry? Hearing that she had to wait until Monday to ride the bus again :) Love my sweet little big girl!

The Big Day!

2011-08-16T18:48:00.005-05:00

Do I really have a kindergartener? Seriously?!

Addie has been so excited for the past few weeks about starting Kindergarten. We went school supply shopping a few weeks ago (note: NOT a good idea because we ended up having to go back for Rounds 2 and 3 because SOMEONE kept getting into her supplies...and I can't blame her...). We made a paper chain countdown so that she could have a more visible and tangible reminder as to how far away Kindergarten was. She was thrilled! She loved ripping each chain off every morning (well, she stopped this past week because it was easier for her to understand one week :)).

Anyway, last night I went to the Kindergarten Parent Orientation at her school and found out that one of her good friends from preschool was in the same class as Addie. I texted my mom to have her tell Addie, and by the time I got home a couple of hours later, Addie was bouncing off the walls with excitement! We chose her outfit last night and she reluctantly went to bed (after asking me allll about her new teacher).

This morning was a little hectic as John Michael was out of town, but we got Landon taken to preschool after lots of pictures and a few fits of him wanting to go to Kindergarten, too. Sweet boy. :)

Addie and I arrived at her school a little early and had to sit in the car for about five minutes. She kept asking to go inside over and over again. Finally, when it was 8:10 (the school opens its doors at 8:15), we got out of the car and took lots of pictures. One of Addie's first daycare friends was there with her parents (who we've become friends with) and so we took pictures of them together. Then Addie's friend Emma (the little girl in her class) got there so we took some more! Then it was time to go inside - hooray!

I have to say, Addie's excitement made everything so easy and I wasn't the least bit teary. That is, until we went inside and a teacher saw Addie and said to someone else, "Aw, look at the cute curly-headed girl! She's so little!" I then got choked up. She is still so tiny, it really is hard to believe that she is a Kindergartener! But Addie was barreling through the school, so that moment was fleeting :)

We made it to her classroom and we were the first ones there. Addie acted timid for a split second and then was off to check things out. I honestly think she forgot I was there - ha! By the time I left (seriously, no longer than five minutes after we got there) she was already sitting with her friend Emma and was talking to another little girl. I had to call her over to me to say goodbye. Now I know how my mom felt when she said I called her over on my first day of Kindergarten and said, "Mommy, you can go now." HA!

Today was just a half-day for the girls; boys go a half-day tomorrow, then girls go a full day Thursday and boys go a full day Friday - they all start together on Monday. I went in to work for a couple of hours and then headed back to pick her up a little after noon. Her teacher brought her to the car and she said, "She is just about the sweetest thing I have ever seen! I wanted to just pick her up and squeeze her!" So not only is she cute, but she's good at fooling people, too. ;) Seriously though, she is precious and I was so proud to see that her teacher realized it on the first day.

Addie told me all about her day on the way to meet Mimi for lunch and it sounds like she had a blast! By the time we got home from lunch, she was already figuring out what to pack in her backpack for her first full day on Thursday. She has also already packed her snack. Too cute!

Her teacher seems absolutely wonderful and we are so excited for the school year. We're just hoping her eagerness continues!

Cheekwood Art Camp - Guest Post by Nana

2011-06-28T21:35:00.004-05:00

Nana took Addie and Landon to Art Camp at Cheekwood June 6-10. Here is her recap of the week! Thanks, Nana, for writing about it and even more for taking them. They had a blast!!!

We are members of Cheekwood so we take our grandchildren there as much as we can. I received notification about the Summer Art Programs at the end of 2010. John Michael & Nathaniel had attended art camp as children and given Addie’s artistic abilities, I knew I wanted to take both Addie and Landon. The classes are highly prized and fill up fast. I was traveling on Saturday, January 22 on the sign up day and was frantically trying to get online, email and call to be sure we got a space. That afternoon the Camp Director left me a message that we were signed up. I WAS SO EXCITED!!! WE WERE GOING TO ART CAMP!

June 6 rolls around and John Michael brings Addie and Landon to our house. They were very excited. I was too. Landon & I were enrolled in the 2-4 yr Guardian & Child ARTStart – Summer Sampler from 9:00-11:00. Addie was enrolled in the 5-6 yr Mixed Media Madness from 9:00-12:00 then in Summer Sampler from 1:00-4:00. The “plan” was for Landon and I to hangout and wait for Addie, then have a picnic and Addie would go back for her afternoon session. Landon & I were to be flexible and hang out in the gardens or go to the office. The weather was beautiful and clear but HOT – 95+ degrees every day.

Miss Adrian was our teacher and we learned about lines the first day. We colored, pasted and painted. Landon enjoyed it. Addie’s morning teacher was Miss Aimee and she worked in water colors and made a nice painting. I packed a picnic lunch for us on Monday and Landon and I played with leaves and made airplanes to pass the time until Addie was out (note to self bring more to do tomorrow). After Addie went back to her class, Landon and I went to the office because the gardens are closed on Monday. We came back to pick Addie up and she did an amazing painting in Miss Rachel’s class (Miss Aimee’s non-identical twin sister). Addie was explaining that you can “fill the page with color” which she did. I think that was an AH-HA moment for her.

Tuesday we painted with large sweeping strokes. Mostly Landon was interested in eating all his snacks – that boy can pack it away! Addie brought home more watercolor paintings. A lot of the things she did had different things to add each day. She always came out of every class beaming! Landon and I picked up chicken strips at Publix and came back for another picnic. The locusts were still out so Addie basically sat in my lap, scared of the bugs. Landon and I spent the afternoon in the gardens visiting the bullfrogs and dragonflies in the pond and the train exhibit. We met up with Addie’s class at the trains also. Cindy Jo’s husband, John, is one of the train engineers at the exhibit. He let Landon hold Thomas The Train and wear one of the engineer’s hats! All the classes had outdoor time all week to visit the museum, the gardens, the trains and to gather items for class. While Landon and I enjoyed it, it was WAY too hot. We spent the rest of the afternoons that week at the office.

Wednesday, Landon and I worked with texture and made some clay tablets. Lunch, requested hot dogs from home, was eaten outside at the picnic table close to the building where there weren’t many locusts. After the first day, Nana knew to bring books, markers and paper to pass the time until it was time to go back to class. That girl NEVER got tired of drawing. Matter of fact, she drew at our house in the mornings until we left and drew in the car to and from class.

Thursday, Landon and I glazed our clay tablets and did resist printing. He enjoyed rolling the paint on the plexiglass. Addie continued to work on her projects to bring home at the end of the week. She always had a little something to show for her day though. We met Daddy and PaPa for lunch at the Sportsman’s Grill at the Hwy 70-100 split. It was nice to be in the air conditioning. It was cute, they both wanted to sit next to PaPa so he sat in between them.

Friday was hat day. We worked on small projects, as we were to clear everything out for the week. Landon and I made a mobile out of sticks and leaves he colored. Addie requested McDonald’s for lunch so Landon & I went out to pick it up. I was surprised when she said she wanted to have a picnic. We did and the locusts were not as bad. Addie brought some neat projects she made, a painted turtle made out of a bowl and an interesting sculpture head. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a self-portrait or not.

All in all it was a good week and I was thrilled to get to spend so much time with my grandchildren. What a treasure! A few weeks later, I asked them if they enjoyed Art Camp. Addie beamed saying yes and she would love to go back next year. I asked Landon if he wanted to go back and he resoundingly said “NOOOO” - not just NO but NOOOO! Oh well, we’ll find something else special to do with him. It was still a great experience.

Landon and Uncle John at the trains

Nana and her babies!

It really was...

2011-06-01T20:45:00.009-05:00

the "happiest place on earth." For the week at least :)

We got back from Disney World (two weeks ago) and had SO MUCH FUN! It was my first time to go (I love the reaction I get whenever I tell people that :)) and it exceeded my very high expectations.

We left Saturday morning around 8 a.m. To say I was dreading the car ride would be the understatement of the year :) (Airfare for four just wasn't in the budget due to the last-minute-ness of our trip.) We were set up with a new DVD player for the car - one that has screens for each headrest - and John Michael and I had discussed not turning them on until it was necessary. After all, we survived car trips as kids without them, right? We had a movie going before we were on the interstate :) Ha!

The kids were absolutely WONDERFUL in the car. Landon had one meltdown (again, this was before we had left town and let us know it was "time" for DVDs :)) and after that, they were angels. We stopped at an awesome rest stop (seriously) just past Chattanooga and got the kids popsicles and that just about made their day. We then stopped for lunch a little before Atlanta and let the kids run off some energy. I will say that if I didn't adore Chick-Fil-A before this trip, this would've really sealed the deal. LOVE that place :)

We kept on with our trip and Landon took a good nap. This thrilled Addie as she got to choose two movies in a row - ha! Once he woke up, we took an ice cream break at a Dairy Queen, and then headed on to our stop for the night in Valdosta. Our "BFF"s, the D'Amicos, had already arrived at the hotel and so we met up with them for dinner. We took the kids to a park and let them get out (nearly) 8 hours worth of stored-up energy, and then headed back to the hotel room to get some rest before completing our journey Sunday morning.

First, I have to say that my little chatterbox Landon was so stinking cute when we were trying to get him to fall asleep. He kept asking us all if we were still awake and talking to us about our day and how we were going to see Mickey. If I hadn't been giggling so much, he probably would've had an easier time going to bed. Hindsight. :)

So we got up Sunday morning and headed on our way - only four hours left to get to Orlando. The trip went fine - the kids were just completely tired of being in the car. We got to the rental house and their energy came right back! We searched vrbo.com to find a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a swimming pool that was about 10-15 minutes away from the parks. It was a great deal and it was nice to have the option to cook and also be able to wash clothes. The kids loved having the swimming pool right there, too. The one bummer is that the hot tub wasn't able to be used. That would've been reeeeally nice after some of our long days walking miles and miles at Disney!

Anyway, after a rough time getting the kids settled on Sunday night (and by kids, I mean the ones 5 years old and under and myself - I was soooo excited), our Disney week was officially underway!

Monday morning, we got to the park super early. We had planned on getting to the park (Magic Kingdom) right when it opened, which we thought was 8 a.m. After a few stumbles in the plan, we arrived at 8:30. I was a little disappointed, because I had heard about the "rope drop" that happens upon opening. Well, turns out the park didn't open until 9 a.m., so we were there with plenty of time to spare! We were thankful for our lolly-gagging kids and the wrong turns we had taken, after all, as waiting to get into the park for an HOUR would've really pushed everyone over the edge :)

Us waiting with our "1st Visit" buttons!

The rope drop was quite cute. All the characters came in on the train and they sang and danced for a few minutes. Then, they opened up the park, and we were off!

We rode all the good "little" rides (Dumbo, Peter Pan, It's a Small World - which I admittedly LOVED - Toy Story), watched Philharmagic (awesome!!!!), watched one of the shows at the castle (can't remember the name) and watched a parade (can't remember the name of that one, either :)). But the highlight of our day was when we went to see the princesses at the Town Square Theatre. Addie was excited, but I must say that Landon was ECSTATIC! It was absolutely precious to see both of their faces when we walked into the room with Cinderella, Belle and Aurora. And I must say that the actresses were absolutely wonderful. They were so kind and didn't rush the kids at all. And they talked to them like adults, which surprised me (I guess I admit that I expected "kiddie talk" or something :)). I may have been a little giddy myself, and I was never a "princess" girl growing up!

Belle, Addie and Landon discussing the "Beast" on Landon's shirt (a tiger with the words "Wild Thing" :))

We headed back to the house and ate dinner in on Monday night, and then the four of us went back to the park for the Electrical Parade and fireworks (the D'Amicos decided to call it a day, and we almost followed suit, but I'm glad we didn't!). Ah-mazing. It really was magical. Addie fell asleep right after the parade so she missed all the fireworks, but Landon was awake to watch them and he and I shared a Dole Whip (yum). He fell asleep very shortly after they were done, and rather than try to exit the park with the thousands of others, we went against the crowd and walked around for another half-hour or so. John Michael and I really enjoyed this "quiet" time! Plus, it was quite cool to see everything all lit up :)

Tuesday, we pretty much took it easy all day (swam, played hide-and-seek) and then decided to head to Downtown Disney for dinner. One of my work friends had suggested T-REX for dinner, but when I had tried to make a reservation online, I had no luck. Kris called and was told that if we arrived before 4:15 or after 8:30, we should be okay. We thought that sounded way too early (the later time wasn't even an option with the kids, of course) but decided to head down to check everything out anyway. By the time we got there, we decided to give it a shot, and got right in (at about 4:45)! With a party of 8, we were pretty excited about this! The timing actually worked great for dinner, and the restaurant was SO COOL! Dinosaurs everywhere and they had a "meteor shower" every 20 minutes. Addie wasn't the biggest fan ("It's too scary!", but Landon, Holland and Quinn LOVED it! After dinner, we went to the Lego Store where the boys all built with the Legos outside the store, and to the huge Disney store where Addie got her most prized possession, her Cinderella dress (the other parts to the outfit were obtained day by day - she had actually gotten the gloves the day before).

Wednesday, John Michael and I decided to take Addie and Landon back to Magic Kingdom to revisit the princesses, see Mickey and Minnie and check out Frontierland and Adventureland. We did "It's a Small World" again and also rode "Splash Mountain"! Addie went with John Michael and I went by myself. I think Addie was braver than I was! I no longer apparently have the thrill-seeker mentality that I used to. I spent most of my ride trying to convince myself that I would more than likely not die so I should just relax and enjoy it. Yes, I'm serious :)

Thursday was another take-it-easy day with an evening in Downtown Disney. Our dinner was terrible (not to mention overpriced!) at a place called Cap'n Jacks. However, we found a margarita stand where I got an awesome grapefruit margarita :) And the kids played in some little water fountains and had a blast. Landon kept getting squirted in the face and he found it hilarious. Within a few minutes there were about 5 or 6 people who had gathered to watch him and they were laughing hysterically. I didn't know whether to be offended or giggle with him (and I know you all know which I chose :)). They were all commenting on how stinkin' cute he is. What a little mess :) We also walked over to Pleasure Island. It looked fun! It'll definitely be somewhere we'll go back if we're ever there with babysitters!

Our last day was Friday. This was one of the two days that we had "planned" out. And I still use that word quite loosely, because if you talk to many families preparing for a Disney vacation, they have every. single. hour. planned out. Not us, and I am SO glad we didn't. No room for disappointment :) ANYWAY - we planned for Friday to be our Hollywood Studios day because it was a Star Wars Weekend, and Holland and Quinn (and all the grownups, of course) love Star Wars. I admit - it was so cool seeing all the Storm Troopers walking around. We also got to see the Star Wars parade which was AWESOME and very well done! John Michael and Addie went on the Star Wars ride but since there was a height requirement, Landon could not go. We went with Quinn and Lynn to play at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" area instead. Very cool, but Lynn and I decided it should've been called "Honey, I Lost the Kids" because it was pretty difficult to keep up with them! We also all did the Toy Story Mania ride (VERY fun!). For lunch, we did the character dining at Hollywood & Vine. Leo and June (from Little Einsteins), Handy Manny, and Special Agent Oso were there and walked around. Addie and Landon adored them. They were so excited to see them and give them hugs and get their autographs. We had hesitated doing this lunch because character dining is fairly expensive, but we were SO GLAD we did! The look of pure joy on the kids' faces made it completely worth it :) We then went to the Little Mermaid show and a Disney Junior puppet show. The kids were enthralled. Nothing like having all your favorite Disney shows all packed into one 27-minute show.

We all packed up Friday night and left Saturday morning. Like all vacations, the end was bittersweet. We had so much fun but were of course ready to get back home! We had one more stop though - we stayed Saturday night and all day Sunday (we left at about 10pm...not smart...) at our friend Nick's dad's home at Lake Martin in Alabama. It was amazing. We actually got a full day to relax and enjoy the sun and water!

We didn't get home until 2 a.m. Sunday and boy, were we exhausted. But we had so much fun! The only complaint we had was that it was HOT, but hey - nothing we could've done about that :) We can't wait to go back!

This poster summed up our trip perfectly.

My Five-Year-Old

2011-05-17T20:26:00.003-05:00

Addie Leigh,

Last Tuesday was your fifth birthday. FIVE! I can hardly believe it. I look at you every day and wonder where the time has gone. I love when you ask to watch "Addie movies," because it seems to me that you should still be as little as you were when most of those were taken! And although it sometimes makes me sad when I think how quickly you are growing up, my goodness - I wouldn't trade the fun we have now for anything! You're my sweet little peanut and my favorite "teacher," "cashier," and "mommy" when we're playing pretend. You'll never be the "student" or the "daughter" and it cracks me up every time - especially when I slip up and call you by your name and you so quickly correct me and say, "No, it's Miss Addie," or "No, it's Mommy!"

You have also decided that you like to be rocked for a few minutes before bedtime. I love that you love "rock-rock time" as it gives us time to talk about your day. Oh how I love this! I love how you tell me how many of your classmates got on yellow light or red light that day. It makes me giggle especially hard that you'll gloss over that part of school if you were one of the guilty parties - ha! Thankfully that is not too often. You are constantly bragged on by your teachers as one of the smartest, sweetest students in school!

You're still my little stinker, too. Your tantrums have definitely gotten better, but you still know how to throw a good one. But I guess you're just trying to keep things interesting, huh? :) That you do! There is certainly never a dull day with you around, sweet girl!

I just can't get over how the past year has seemed to really take you from being a baby to a little girl. Watching you every week at gymnastics reminds me how big you're getting! You're still super petite size-wise, but you look and act like a BIG GIRL! When did this happen?! If you wouldn't mind slowing down, I'd be just fine with that! ;) You told me the day before your birthday that you wish you could be four forever. I had to bite my lip to not tell you that I agreed! :)

Addie Leigh, you are my "favorite girl" and I love you "even bigger than a house"! I am excited about all the fun things we will do together while you're five years old, and also the fun things you'll learn and do on your own (not the least of which is going to Kindergarten! EEK!). Thank you for being such a precious baby girl. You make me SO PROUD to be your mommy!

Addie's five-year stats:

* teeny - 39 1/2 inches (3rd to 5th percentile)

* 35 pounds (25th to 50th percentile)

* wearing 4T clothes, although she insists she needs 5Ts now - she can wear some :)

* size 7 1/2 or 8 shoes - little feet just like her mama and daddy!

* loves, loves, LOVES to write words. She has lots that she can write on her own without any spelling help

* according to her teachers, can read quite a few words and can sound out a lot more. She is still playing bashful with reading at home but will point out some simple words to us and can find some words when asked. Dr. Hood seemed impressed with the reading (probably more recognition) that we could verify ourselves, so that's good!

* loves to play pretend - school, store, family, princess and dolls, you name it!

* loves to play UNO! and board games and is quite good

* so excited to start kindergarten!

* so excited to go to see Mickey next week!

Twinkle, Twinkle - Second Go-around

2011-04-19T21:18:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago, I posted a video of Addie singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," so when I heard Landon singing it a few weeks ago, I knew I had to catch one of him singing it as well. So here it is, a little late. He was a little more into watching whatever was on tv than he was into singing, but you get the gist. :)

Roughing it, and...not.

2011-03-24T19:40:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, I went with the Lynns and Leslie to Atlanta for a girls' weekend! We left Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning. What a blast! More on that in a minute. But first, what did John Michael and the babies do while I was gone? Well, Uncle Nathaniel was in town, so they did what he does best - went camping!

Okay, so I have to admit that when John Michael first told me that they were going camping, I thought to myself, "Phew! Dodged a bullet with that one!" Camping is not necessarily my idea of the most fun in the world. But I have to tell you, after hearing about their campout, I am super sad I missed it. According to all the grownups (JM, Nana & Papa, and Uncle Nate), Addie and Landon had a blast and spent a couple of hours in the tent talking and singing with one another. It brought back awesome memories of my childhood and my brother and I singing (loudly) at the campground some songs with choice words (nothing too bad, but we replaced half of the words to "Hotel California" with the word "fart"...hehehe...my parents were mortified to say the least :)). ANYWAY, John Michael took plenty of pictures, so here goes!

And about my NOT roughing it...we had so much fun in Atlanta! We ate, ate, ate and shopped. We started out Saturday morning at H&M and hit bank. It was definitely an "on" visit. Then we went to Ikea where I got some shelves I've been drooling over for months. That made for a cozy ride home in Lynn R.'s Saturn Vue - good thing Lynn D. and I love each other so much :) I was practically in her lap for the ride home. HA! Anyway, we then went to Flip Burger where we had awesome burgers and the most amazing milkshakes ever, made with liquid nitrogen. I got the Strawberry Shortcake one, Lynn D. and Leslie split the Nutella & Burnt Marshmallows one, and Lynn R. got the pistachio one. Mmmm...I need to figure out how to recreate those. Sans liquid nitrogen, of course, 'cause that's just crazy talk.

After lunch we went to Lenox Square where I got to see my "favorite friend" Elizabeth!!!! Oh how I miss her. I only got about an hour with her but we had a blast :)

Then we rushed to get ready for dinner at Woodfire Grill. I don't watch Top Chef, but it is Kevin Gillespie's restaurant, who apparently was second place on a season. Lynn D. and Leslie are huge fans :)

Hmm. I don't know if I have words as to how amazing this meal was. We opted for the five-course tasting, which meant that we didn't know what we were getting - for any course - until they brought it out to us. They brought each course and explained what everything was. After dinner (and after Lynn and Leslie telling our server how much they enjoyed watching Kevin on tv), they gave us autographed menus, complete with a header that said "Happy Birthday, Lynn." It was so much fun and we had lots of things I never would've ordered from a regular menu (quail, pork belly, beets, bison, sunchokes, I could go on - there was a lot of awesome food). I would very highly recommend going. Plus, the service was wonderful. Our server's name was Kristen so that probably had something to do with it, no?

We went to a rooftop bar after dinner where we enjoyed the "supermoon" and the amazing weather. Plus, I ran in to one of my closest friends from law school, Matthew, and his fiancee! What a small world! He does not live in Atlanta, but they were flying out of the Atlanta airport the next morning to go on vacation. Crazy.

We headed home late Sunday morning. Although we had an awesome time, I was quite excited to see my sweet little family! Addie and Landon had had a blast with Daddy, Uncle Nate, and Nana & Papa. I didn't get quite the overly excited greeting I was hoping for, but sometimes even mama can't compete with camping and being spoiled with love by your uncle and grandparents :)

Welcome to having a little boy?!

2011-03-16T20:33:00.003-05:00

Two years old. Two years and five days old, to be exact. That's how long it took for Landon to enter true boyhood and get his first (hopefully only, but I'm not holding my breath :)) set of stitches. Ah, little munchkin.

Last Friday, I was volunteering downtown for the Tennessee State High School Mock Trial Championship. I was a "floor monitor," helping make sure things were going smoothly on one of the floors of the courthouse where teams were competing. I had left my personal phone downstairs at the volunteer check-in center and only brought my work phone upstairs. In between rounds, I went downstairs to get a drink and checked my phone. I saw that I had a missed call from daycare along with a voicemail. The missed call was at 4:45, so I knew that wasn't a good sign, since we normally arrive a little after 5:00 to pick the kids up (by that I mean that usually if it's that late in the day, there's no need for them to call us for minor illnesses, etc., since they know we'll be right there). I listened to the voicemail and it was the Assistant Director saying, "Hey Kristen, it's Judy - Landon just tripped and fell and has a little cut on his head. I'll just give John Michael a call." I couldn't figure out why she needed to call either of us for a little cut so close to the end of the day, so I just called John Michael. He was already on his way and had talked to Judy. He said she told him it was bleeding quite a bit and so he told me he'd call me once he got there.

My phone rang about 15 minutes later and he said, "Yeeeah...we're gonna need to be seen for this." Yikes. He called the pediatrician's office and they said to go on to Vanderbilt E.R.

I went back downstairs to tell the Mock Trial leaders that I was leaving. Actually, I ate dinner first because I knew they were still in Spring Hill and I had time :) Then, I left and headed over to Vanderbilt, and John Michael and Landon arrived a few minutes after I did.

I was impressed again with Vanderbilt. We waited for about an hour and a half, which at the time seemed like a long time but I know it really isn't in the grand scheme of things. They put some numbing gel on the area right when we got there, so he never had to have a shot or anything! The staff were amazing with Landon, and he had a blast in the waiting room (although he did keep coming over to me, grabbing my hand and saying, "Come on, Mommy! Let's go home!"). He charmed a few of the parents in the waiting room and made friends with a six-year-old boy. He also crawled around all over the floor and stuck his hands in his mouth. Still shuddering about that, almost a week later. Ew.

When it was our turn, we went upstairs and the doctor confirmed that stitches it would be! He and the nurse kept telling us to be prepared for Landon to be really upset and cry a lot because they'd be swaddling him while they did the stitches. Our little brave boy barely cried, and only after the fourth stitch (out of five)!!! He was so good. Both the doctor and nurse gushed over how well he did and told us how they had never seen a two-year-old be that good! I know it's just that he wasn't aware of what was going on, but I was proud nonetheless.

Thankfully, they used absorbable sutures, so we don't have to go back! I'm not sure that he would be as good as he was for a Round 2 :)

(Okay, I took one picture and it makes his injury look FAR worse than it was, so I've decided not to post it...but rest assured, he was adorable and quite happy most of the time while we were there!)

Baby boy

2011-03-06T20:04:00.002-06:00

(I got scolded the other day by one of Addie's classmates for calling Addie "Baby." I told the little girl as nicely as I possibly could that I would call my children "baby" as long as I wanted to :))

My sweet baby boy is TWO YEARS OLD! I truly cannot believe it has been two years since I wondered whether my heart would grow to love another child. I think it's hilarious to think about that now :) Landon makes my heart so happy. He is just about the cutest little boy I think I've ever seen. He is such a happy little guy and gets so excited about things! His emotions are so strong. His tantrums make us laugh hysterically because he is so. very. serious. about them. I think Mike (Papa) said it best when he said that they are really quite ineffective. We do at least try to hide our laughter, don't worry :)

Today we had the grandparents and D'Amicos over to celebrate Landon's birthday. He has been so excited for his birthday. This morning he kept telling us, "I be four! I be four!" Awesome. Landon had so much fun opening his gifts (with the help of Addie, Holland and Quinn) and gave us all a laugh when he excitedly said about his first present, "IT'S A BOX!" Too cute. He didn't realize there was something even more fun (in the adults' eyes, at least) inside! The next one he opened was a tall skinny box, and as soon as it was unwrapped he said, "IT'S A RECTANGLE!" The kiddo loves his shapes :)

(p.s. I know parents say it all the time, but why do we not just give our children boxes for their birthdays? :))

I think he had a wonderful birthday today. He was extra good today, too, so I'm hoping this is an indication that we'll have the "terrific twos" instead of the "terrible twos" (ha!). Either way, I'm sure it'll be another fun year with my beautiful baby boy. Landon, we love you SO much, sweet boy!

Time for some milestones (size ones coming after Friday's checkup...). At two years old, Landon is:

* still quite the chatterbox. He says the FUNNIEST things now and his vocabulary seems to grow exponentially from day to day.

* a book lover. His favorites are Panda Bear, Panda Bear; Baby Bear, Baby Bear; and Polar Bear, Polar Bear. He has them all memorized. He also loves Everyone Poops (or as he calls it, "My poopie book!")

* slightly obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (which, by the way, we figured out that this where he learned about octagons!)

* becoming a pickier eater. He sometimes worries me with how little he eats lately. We'll see at his checkup!

* so loving and lovable. He asks constantly, "Where are Mimi and PawPaw?" and "Where are Nana and Papa?" and "Where are Honnen and Ken (Holland and Quinn :))?"

* making his thoughts on potty training clear - it's for the birds! When I change his diaper, he often says, "No potty big boy!" Eh, we'll get there :)

* a paci/blankie baby. He thinks it's hilarious when I tell him we'll be giving his pacis away soon. I think the goal may be the end of the month (the first weekend we'll both be home the whole time - eek!)

* so incredibly ticklish still. He has the most contagious laughter ever, too.

* genuinely sweet and compassionate. It's adorable.

Sometimes my heart hurts from loving this child so much. I am so lucky to be his (and Addie's!) mommy!

(Photos to come soon!)

Oops.

2011-03-06T19:43:00.002-06:00

I just realized it has been over a month since I last posted. Oops! I think that is a new slacker record for me. I have been in a slight funk lately, to say the least. Work is going well, but it is super busy and it seems like I have been working a lot of evenings lately (or going in early). By the time I get home I am DONE with thinking and just want to zone out. I also tend to kind of become super introverted when I am stressed, so I guess that's the explanation, too. I've been a turtle and retreated into my home. I'm feeling a little better now :)

SO, I have missed writing lots of cute things the kiddos have been saying and doing. I hope to catch up over the next few weeks! We have also been slacking a bit on the picture taking but hopefully that will pick back up with the weather getting nicer, too!

Fun with Shapes

2011-01-30T09:39:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, Landon and I went with our sweet friends, the Hills, to celebrate the adorable Kate Kelley's second birthday. As he and I were marveling at the beautiful spread of food Jessica had set out, Landon started saying, "Sickle!" (Circle) "Sare!" (Square) And then I heard him say "Ock-a-gon!" Sure enough, I looked down and there were circular, square, and octagonal-shaped crackers! I was amazed!

A few minutes later, he and I were coloring with one of the Kelleys' family friends, and the nice gentleman was drawing shapes for Landon and telling him what they are. I decided to "test him" again and draw an octagon. I said, "Hey Landon! What is this shape?"

"Ock-a-gon!"

The man and I were amazed. I decided that I just HAD to try with some other polygons. I drew a hexagon and got excited to see what would happen. "Hey Landon! What is this shape?"

He looked at it thoughtfully and got a huge grin on his face as he said,

"A BABY ock-a-gon!"

Well played, kiddo. Well played. :)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-10T13:04:00.007-06:00

I am home today for a snow day so I figured what better time to catch up on posts! I may be nearly three weeks late from Christmas Day, but thanks to my friend Jessica, I realize I'm only four days past the last day of Christmas :)

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas Eve & Day! We started by having brunch at my parents' house on Christmas Eve (we decided to bypass our annual lunch out at a restaurant after three of us got a little touch of food poisoning last year!), and then we had everyone to our home on Christmas Eve for appetizers. I have to say that this is my favorite part of the holidays now! We had our usual brie en croute, mini quiches, and some new vegetarian options, thanks to Aunt Rissa and Uncle Nathaniel!

Trying to get a good photo of the kids at my parents' house, in hopes of using it for our New Year's card...

Instead...

Almost, except for Landon flashing the camera...

Closer, but still no cigar (at our house)

Addie and Landon went to bed fairly early on Christmas Eve and Addie was super excited to see what Santa was going to bring her. It's a good thing they were in bed early, because John Michael and I had a looong night ahead of us, helping Santa assemble some of the kids' gifts. Addie got a beautiful dollhouse that Santa began building on Black Friday and worked on every day between then and Christmas. We were up until 2:30 a.m. on Christmas morning when we decided we had to call it quits. It is absolutely beautiful! Word on the street is that Santa is QUITE proud of his handiwork and that of his elves :)

Part of the inside

The kitchen and dining room (yes, that is miniature hardwood and linoleum flooring)

Christmas Day was lots of fun, bouncing from house to house (ours, then Nana & Papa's, then Gran & Pop's, then Mimi & PawPaw's). It was exhausting, but it was our traditional Christmas and we loved it. I have to admit that one of the best parts was that it was a WHITE CHRISTMAS! We got a beautiful snow - it was gorgeous on the trees and ground, but the streets stayed clear until later in the evening.

Landon got a little overwhelmed and started saying "No more presents." That was 6:30 a.m.

So we ate a lot, played a lot, and spent a lot of time together. It was pretty perfect! I don't mean to wish my life away, but I'm kinda already ready for next Christmas :) We hope your families had a great set of holidays as well :)

Ahh, pure joy!

2010-12-12T15:53:00.006-06:00

I LOVE this time of year! The smells, sights, sounds - perfect. I have to say that this year has been even more magical than years past, because Addie is REALLY getting into the Christmas season (admittedly, she is excited about the impending gifts, but we're working on the true meaning :)).

We started decorating on Black Friday and got our tree the first weekend of December. It is my year for the tree, and I decided to do something a little different and got a Douglas fir. I am actually trying to convince John Michael that we need to get this same kind every year because it kinda looks like a cross between a Cedar and a Fraser fir. He is not buying it ;)

Addie has had a BLAST decorating the house (and Nana & Papa's house, too!). I have taken her to the Dollar store three times to let her pick out more decorations (for her room - our Dollar store has a limited selection... :)).

Yes. Yes, I did.

We have also started the Elf on a Shelf tradition this year. Our elf is named "Snowman" and he sure does love to hop around from place to place in our house! Addie and Landon both get a kick out of finding where he has moved to each morning. I have heard other parents say that they get a good solid month of outstanding behavior out of their kids due to the elves - we were this lucky for about two days. Ha!

*photo credit: Addie Corn

We went to go visit Santa last weekend. Addie and Landon were so good while waiting in the long line. They were both excited to see Santa and kept peering around the people to see him. It was absolutely adorable. I was a little surprised that Landon was so excited given his age (and remembering how Addie reacted to him at around the same age), but he was thrilled. Until we got to him. As soon as John Michael placed him on Santa's lap, he completely lost it. Addie did great and sweetly told Santa that she wants a doll house and a baby doll. Her meltdown began as we were leaving - turns out she thought she should get her presents right then and didn't quite understand it. Makes sense to me! ;) She also flipped out because the photo package we purchased came with one stuffed animal. Because Landon had been so traumatized (and at this time Addie was still smiling), we let him choose which one they would take home. She had just about the worst tantrum I have ever seen from her. I had to strap her in Landon's stroller to get her out of the mall. She was screaming and crying - I was *that* mom. It was pretty amazing. John Michael and Landon walked behind us, gradually falling more behind so as to not be associated with the crazy lady who couldn't control her kid - HAHAHA!

Well, I have honestly thought about taking them back for a second shot, but this one may just be awesome enough to keep. We'll see...

Today we got the ultimate Christmas-mood-setter-inner in the form of a little over an inch of snow (thus far). The weather forecasters said that it would happen, but I just knew it'd be a bluff. I thought they had said it would begin Saturday night/early Sunday morning, so when we woke up to NO SNOW this morning, I made a little bit of a pouty comment about it and went on with our morning. Then it started really coming down around lunch time, and by 1:00, the ground was covered enough for us to break out an early Christmas present (a sled) and put it to good use. HOORAY!

We went out for Round 2 after Landon woke up from his nap and he was thrilled with sledding. I admit - I hope this is the first of many snows for this season. And I wouldn't hate if the next one came in approximately two weeks. Just a thought :)

Going 'halfsies'

2010-11-24T18:36:00.003-06:00

Alright - I am not oblivious to the fact that I haven't updated much on the kids' milestones/cuteness lately, so I thought I'd jump on the fact that Landon was just 20 1/2 months (I'm grasping for straws here, people...but work with me...) and Addie had her half-birthday a couple of weeks ago and is now 4 1/2. Yay! So here goes (and I'm not even going to apologize for the obnoxiousness):

Addie at 4 1/2:

* is still a little peanut. It is becoming more obvious to me how petite she is compared to her classmates, but she seems to be growing fine.

* wears a size 7 shoe and 4T clothes

* seems to have turned her corner of the "f_ fours" :) She still has the occasional tantrum, but is generally very sweet and thoughtful

* is a little smarty pants. We still get comments from her teachers on a regular basis about how smart she is. The funny thing? She pretends not to be at home. For example, her Spanish teacher was telling me how advanced she is in Spanish class and how she helps her friends. But when I ask her to help me with any of the words (even simple ones like colors) she'll tell me she doesn't know. Hmph.

* has outstanding fine motor skills. She has been staying in the lines and able to cut along very detailed lines for a while now. She seems to be quite gifted in art.

* shows ZERO interest in starting to read. She still loves to be read to, but gets upset if I try to have her help me sound out any words (and I swear I am not pressuring her!).

* loves her once-a-week gymnastics class!

* says the funniest, most grown-up things to us - we never know what's next

* is 4 1/2 going on 18

* loooves all things pink and girly (princess, baby dolls) but also loves to get dirty outside and help Daddy in the garden

* has randomly decided she is afraid of kittens (and suggested to Nana that she put their kittens in the car)

* goes to bed around 8ish and is still sound asleep when we go to wake her at 6:30

* is a fantastic big sister to Landon and loves to spend time with him

* would eat chicken nuggets or hot dogs every day if allowed; she is quite a picky eater lately. So frustrating! We have a hard time getting protein into her diet. She loves nuts, thank goodness. She still won't eat any fresh fruit but will eat dried.

* has started testing the waters of fibbing. So far she's finding out it doesn't work so well.

* went to her first sleepover about a month ago, and had her first friend over to spend (almost) the night (her friend got homesick around 10:30 :)) last night. What a big girl!

A little Q&A with my girl:

What are your teachers' names? Miss Emily and Miss Candi

Who are your friends in school? the girls

What is your favorite game to play? Hide and Seek

Do you have any boy friends? Hunter and Holland

What is your favorite color? pink

Do you have a favorite song? Twinkle, Twinkle

What is your favorite book? Cinderella

What is your favorite TV program/movie? All the Princess ones

What do you want to do when you grow up? A cow! [gotta love having big dreams! :)]

And now, the boy...

Landon at 20 1/2 months:

* is growing pretty steadily - wearing 24 month clothes

* becoming a pickier eater

* knows most of his colors and all of his basic shapes

* can count to ten! Sometimes he skips 2 and 4 though :)

* sings an adorable version of the alphabet - he stays on tune/tempo the whole time but misses about 1/3 of the letters. But boy, he sings it with soul ;)

* goes from zero to ANGRY with little-to-no warning; ends up throwing himself to the floor and having tantrums at least once a day

* is putting multiple words together and becoming easier to understand

* seems to understand most everything we say (whether or not he decides to listen... :))

* likes to follow Addie EVERYWHERE and do whatever she is doing

* got his first haircut a couple of weeks ago!

* asks to sit on the potty ALL THE TIME - so far only two "successful" trips. I am trying not to discourage him from sitting on the potty, but it is quite obvious that he is quite a ways off from being ready to really train.

* is still (mostly) a happy, loving baby boy!

"Seriously, Mom - what is going on here?"

First haircut - November 14, 2010

Christmas cards, or if you're slackers like us...

2010-11-22T19:20:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year Cards! We started the tradition of doing New Year cards a few years ago. Okay, I admit - it started because we hadn't gotten off our duffs in enough time to get out Christmas cards (law school midterms/finals, anyone? Yeah, that's what I thought! ;)). But then we just got to where we liked it better. And now I think it's a fun tradition because everyone (i.e., ME!) has started getting bummed because the Christmas cards in the mail have come to a halt, and BAM! Re-energize the holiday season. The point of this post? One of my favorite card/photo places, Shutterfly, is doing a special for bloggers! You can get 50 holiday cards for free! WOOHOO! We have gotten tons of items from Shutterfly, including photo books for the grandmommies (and great-grandmommies), and our holiday cards from last year.

Here was last year's card, which I'm admittedly disappointed that I can't use twice in a row (because we've been told that it's still on refrigerators and up in cubicles, and that'd just be weird :)):

This one is also completely adorable:

I'm going to stop with giving away all my potential New Year's card ideas and give some of my favorites for those of you who actually get your cards out on time:

I love how classic this one is!

How fun is this one?

Anyway, all my blogger friends (and lurkers) - you guys should check more of these cards out here, and also check out this awesome promotion by going here.

I'm so excited about picking out the perfect card, and can't wait to personalize them and send them out. Now I just get to pore over wording for hours. Yes, I'm serious.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-14T21:32:00.006-06:00

I mean, at the rate I'm going, we'll be talking about this Christmas around the Fourth of July :)

Anyway - we had a fantastic Halloween weekend! We kicked it off the weekend before by going to Ring Farm in Columbia (yes, this was during my birthday weekend, but I decided to add it to this Halloween post because it made more sense). We had so much fun! It was similar to Gentry's Farm, which we also love, but smaller (and therefore a LOT less crowded). The kids, John Michael, Mimi and I headed over there a little before lunch time and we had a blast.

They had a cotton field (patch?) that the kids thought was so cool. I admit, I did, too! I hadn't seen "real" cotton up close since elementary school and a trip to one of the local farms in Nashville. Fascinating.

The babies also enjoyed the tractor tire tower, but especially loved the long slides! John Michael seemed to have just as much fun :)

We also got our pumpkins that day! We got some really pretty ones. We didn't end up carving them until the day of Halloween, which was probably the best idea - the weather has been so beautiful here (read: HOT for October/November) that they surely would've rotted on our front porch had we carved them too early!

As has been the tradition for the past few years, all of the grandparents came down for dinner. This year was the most fun yet; no tantrums from either baby, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect! Addie decided a few months ago that she was going to be Snow White. We tried to convince her to be something different or unusual, but she was determined. The best part about it is we already had her entire costume. Nice! We had planned to make Landon a costume to be one of the Seven Dwarves, but then life got in the way. JM ended up buying him a monkey costume two days before. He was adorable!

We took them trick-or-treating up and down our street (probably 6 houses or so) and I decided to take Landon and the wagon back home. Of course Addie wanted to keep going, so JM said he'd take her to a few more houses. Almost an HOUR later, they returned, and she had TONS of candy! He said she had wanted to keep going, so they did! Needless to say, she was exhausted by the time her bedtime came around that evening :)

The big 3-0!

2010-11-11T20:58:00.004-06:00

It got here. The day I thought I'd dread. I turned 30. :) Actually, months before my birthday, I started getting excited just like every year (yes, I do start counting down to my birthday approximately nine months beforehand - don't judge :)). Then as it approached, I became kinda bummed about it. Why? I have no idea. ANYWAY - I snapped out of it and became kid-on-Christmas-Eve-excited as usual. I believe I called my mom every day for two weeks to remind her my birthday was coming up. It's our annual ritual, and it's a silly one: I call my parents to tell them, "Hey! Did you know that my birthday is in __ days?" And my mom will say, "I do know! I was there!" and my dad will say, "And it was the longest day of my life!" (He thinks he's hilarious :))

Again, I digress. My birthday was on a Sunday this year (October 24) so naturally, we began celebrating on Saturday. We went out to dinner with Lynn, Kris, Leslie and Skye to Flyte and it. was. amazing, as was the margarita cheesecake that Lynn made for me. WOW. We then went to Patterson House for a drink and that was pretty fantastic, too! I felt like a grownup - ha!

Sunday morning (the big day!) John Michael and the babies made my breakfast, and then we headed to Arrington Vineyards for a few hours with Lynn, Kris, Holland & Quinn; Sam (boss' husband), Shauna (my sweet boss) and Claire (Shauna and Sam's beautiful 2-year-old); and Sam (coworker) and Shelly (his adorable wife). The kids all ran around and had a BLAST! I have never seen five kids who were so dirty! And there were no meltdowns! Miracle, I tell ya. That may have been due to the fact that they had chocolate cake AND cupcakes to keep them occupied, along with the sticks they insisted on carrying while they ran (!).

From there we went to Mimi & PawPaw's for more yummy food. I swear, I know it sounds like I ate the whole weekend, but...well, I think I really did. HA! It was awesome! My mom made one of my favorite meals, a pork loin (a particular one - recipe by Emeril Lagasse - I'm not sure what it's really called; we just call it the "Emeril roast") and a chocolate truffle cheesecake. Double yum.

But wait, there's more! Monday I obviously had to work, and I was actually in Day Three of a four-day training class. My friends Brandi and Shauna surprised me by having an extra slide added to the PowerPoint (they did this during our lunch break - still not sure how I didn't see them!) and bringing ANOTHER cake and more cupcakes! Everyone in the class sang to me, which was half-embarrassing, half-awesome (I can't lie - I loooove birthdays so!).

We celebrated one last time on Wednesday by going out to lunch with some more of my coworkers. Yes, more food.

All in all, it was one of my best birthdays yet. Oh, and by the way, it's 11 months and 13 days til my birthday! :D

Arrington photos!

My world, hovering over a barrel :)

I'm going to try to pretend that this wasn't a trash can, and that my son wasn't playing inside said trash can. But I'm pretty sure I'm pretending for naught...

(These three photos swiped from Kris' Facebook account - taken with his iPhone)

Boys!

"God made dirt so dirt don't hurt."

Addie requested that I wear her tiara, just for a few minutes. It says "Birthday Girl" and she likes to wear it year round. That's my girl!

18-month checkup

2010-11-11T20:28:00.002-06:00

Okay, so Landon is 20 months old now. And I already posted all the suuuper adorable stuff he was doing two months ago. But what I didn't post were his stats (and let's be honest - there's no way I'd remember otherwise, and I kinda keep losing the little stat sheets from the ped's office). So here ya go!

Height: 32 1/4 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 25 pounds, 8 ounces (40-50th percentile)

John Michael took him to his checkup (we normally both go, but it was when I was out of town) but he said the doctor is pleased at his development - yay!

Slacker...

2010-11-07T10:02:00.002-06:00

So I was catching up with my friend Nancy yesterday and realized I've completely slacked on blogging the past month or two. So here are some things I hope to blog about this week:

- Addie's first sleepover

- my 30th birthday

- Halloween

- Landon's new accomplishments

- Addie playing "dumb"

Hopefully I'll start tonight after the kids go to bed (if we can get them to bed, with the time change!).

A whole week...

2010-10-19T21:22:00.002-05:00

Well, I survived. I was away from my babies for a whole week, and contrary to my prediction, I did NOT have any mental breakdowns :)

I left Wednesday, October 6th for my friend Kristin's wedding in Portland, Oregon. Kristin and I have been best friends since fifth grade, and I had the honor to be her matron of honor! I was excited to get to Portland a few days before the wedding (which was on Sunday, 10/10/10) to visit with Kristin and help with some last-minute wedding errands. I had an absolute blast! John Michael came in on Saturday evening, just in time for the rehearsal dinner. I think having him there definitely eased my homesickness! It also helped that we were busy, busy, busy and stayed that way all day Sunday! Our days included a walk around Kristin & Clint's adorable neighborhood, a trip to Ikea, a long afternoon at the tattoo shop (yes, seriously; no, I didn't get one), yummy meals out and playtime with Clint's sister Jamie and his best friend Mike (and Jamie's boyfriend Joseph).

The wedding was absolutely perfect. Kristin was even more beautiful than normal, and Clint (her new husband) was just as handsome. What a perfect pair! I hadn't met Clint before my visit but was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are just as great together as I had imagined from our phone and email conversations :)

Sadly, I had to leave the reception early to catch a redeye flight. Those were my only sad tears of the entire trip! It was so hard to leave Kristin, knowing it'll be at least a few months before I see her again! Boo. Just keep reminding myself how much fun we had and how we'll pick up right where we left off, as we always do.

Anyway, John Michael took me to the airport for my flight to New Orleans for a work conference. I had the genius idea of flying out at 11:35 p.m. (the latest flight I could get and still get to NO at a time early enough to not miss a large part of my conference), thinking that I would sleep at least a good portion of the first leg of the trip, which was 3 hours and 45 minutes. WRONG! I did not sleep a single wink! I had a very nice, but rather large man sitting next to me who was able to fall asleep; in fact, he fell asleep so deeply that he was "all up in my business," as Addie would say. Anyway, I landed in Houston at 5:15 CST and *think* that I slept about 30 minutes to an hour before my next flight (which was also sleepless). I arrived in New Orleans at 8:45ish a.m. CST and headed straight to the conference. To say I was exhausted would be an understatement, but somehow I plugged through! My boss Shauna was there and we even got to do a little sightseeing (and beignet-eating) that afternoon before meeting up with some other Tennessee city attorney friends for dinner. I ended up staying awake until 10:15! WOW! I never would've thought!

Tuesday was another full conference day (the conference was GREAT, by the way) and I flew out Wednesday afternoon. Although I didn't have the expected homesickness meltdowns (thank you, Skype!), I have never been so excited to get home! I think it's safe to say that the kiddos were pretty pumped, too - especially Addie!

So where were the babies when John Michael was in Portland? They had an adventuresome weekend! They spent Friday evening with Mimi and PawPaw due to JM's early flight time; Saturday afternoon and evening were spent with Lynn, Kris, Holland and Quinn, and Sunday afternoon and evening were Nana & Papa's! It sounds like they all had a blast and we are SO blessed to have such loving family and friends to help us out!

Okay, right now you're going to have to forgive the lack of pictures. I'm going to have to swipe some off of others' Facebook pages. But soon, I promise! Here's one of my favorites though :)

Rocky Top!

2010-10-02T20:47:00.004-05:00

A couple of weekends ago we had a fantastic getaway weekend with Nana & Papa and Aunt Carol! We stayed in THE. MOST. AMAZING cabin ever in Wears Valley. *Sigh.* I'd go back in a heartbeat!

Anyway, John Michael and Papa arrived Thursday afternoon because they had had a business meeting in Knoxville that morning. Nana and I finally got away from Nashville around 6ish and arrived at the cabin around 10:30 p.m. EST (we made awesome time! Two babies and NO STOPS along the way! WOOHOO!). Although it was dark, I could already tell that the cabin was by far the nicest we'd ever stayed in.

On Friday we woke up and took it easy for a good part of the day before taking a nice short hike (to go see this Schoolhouse). The weather was great - a little warm in the sun, but perfect in the shade. The kiddos rode in their backpacks again and loved being able to get out and run around when we got to the schoolhouse. They were too cute! Addie "taught" Nana and Papa while we were there.

We left from there to go back to the cabin and Aunt Carol (Nana's sister) got there right after we did. Addie and Landon were excited to see her (we were too, of course, it was just adorable that they were so excited :)) and Addie quickly recruited her to color with her. Let's just say the cabin was covered with Addie's masterpieces.

Saturday we went to campus and tailgated and went to the game. Nana and Papa were generous enough to give us their tickets (they got others) so JM, the babies, Carol and I were able to sit in the shade to enjoy a little bit of the game. Addie spent the whole time complaining that it was too loud (yes, it is - it's Neyland Stadium!) but seemed to forget when we bought her Dippin' Dots and popcorn. Funny how that works. Landon was pretty good but was exhausted so then he just became delirious. We ended up leaving with about 5 minutes left in the first half. Not too shabby :) We were not overly disappointed that we weren't there for the whole game anyway, given the sad loss to Florida.

Aunt Marci came to visit us and went to see the Vol Walk with us!

We had a great weekend full of family and fun. There was lots of coloring and board game playing (Addie is a pro at Mouse Trap!) and plenty of relaxing, too! I think we all decided that the only thing wrong with the weekend was that it was too short. We can't wait til next year!

We saw the most gorgeous sunsets while we were there!

Eating dinner out in the gazebo after the game

A year and a half?

2010-09-08T19:32:00.002-05:00

REALLY? My cutie pie is seriously a year and a half old (plus two days - yeah, yeah)?! I really can't believe it. He is changing and growing every day and is starting to look less like a baby and more like a little boy (*tear*). He is still just about the sweetest baby you can find, and although he is now officially a master of the tantrum, he is nearly always a complete joy to be around, and we get compliments on how good/cute he is whenever we're in public. I still find it comical that I was worried that I couldn't/wouldn't love a second child. I can't explain the love I feel for this little munchkin. I think we've decided to keep him ;)

I don't think I've posted a "milestone post" in a few months, so some of these will be old news for us, but I figured I'd put them down anyways.

At 18 months, Landon is:

* made of lead, I'm sure; his height/weight check is not until the end of the month, so I'll post official stats then, but I can tell you that he is heavy!

* in size 5 diapers (I don't think we ever got to size 5 with Addie!)

* in size 4 shoes

* in 18-month clothes

* talking A LOT! New favorites this month (ahem, these months) include: flower ("fower"); tomato ("momo"); yogurt ("ogur"); Landon ("nanu"); swing ("wing"); a very emphatic "GO!" for whenever he's ready to leave somewhere; all of his animal sounds. He also tells us yes by a full head (and most of his upper-body) nod, and is quite fond of his verbal "NOOOO!"

* enjoying coloring with crayons and markers, especially on the floor and on our furniture. Awesome.

* now purposefully tormenting Addie

* still a great sleeper: 7 p.m. to around 6:30 a.m. (unless it's the weekend, then it is earlier, without fail); at school he will take a 2-hour nap, but at home he will nap close to FOUR HOURS if given the opportunity

* getting close to needing his first haircut, but I know that his curls will be gone forever, so I'm postponing as long as possible...

* still in a "mine" phase. This was one of his first words - we should've known we were in trouble when he pulled this one out about six months ago. :)

* a charmer and is still a big ol' teacher's pet

* obsessed with "buh"s (books) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. At least there's a balance. ;)

* CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!

There's a Party Goin' On Right Here...

2010-09-04T23:06:00.001-05:00

We caught Addie singing this over and over (and over) again the other night. TOO CUTE!

The 'Ham

2010-08-20T20:53:00.005-05:00

Now that our favorite newlyweds, the Goodens, are living in Birmingham (read: about 3 1/2 hours closer than they were before), we decided that we needed to take a day trip to visit them! So last Saturday it was...

We piled in the car and left the house a little after 7:45 a.m., and arrived around 10:45 to Chris and Katie's beautiful new home. It was POURING in Birmingham (actually the last 45 minutes to an hour of our drive, which added a little bit of travel time), and that was a real bummer because we had planned on going to an amusement/water park while we were there. We went to lunch and then decided that Katie and I would take the kids to the McWane Science Center to have some indoor fun time. Of course, by the time we got out, it was a gorgeous day! Figures. :)

We had a good time at the science center (and John Michael and Chris enjoyed playing Chris' new Madden '11 game) but I think we had the most fun just hanging out at Chris and Katie's house. And Addie and Landon would agree. In one of their guest rooms, there is a closet that made the PERFECT hideout for the kids. They had a BLAST taking everything out of the bedroom and putting it in their "playhouse." Plus, Katie and I got to catch up a little more, too, without having to try to chase munchkins around a madhouse. Woohoo!

We headed out around dinnertime in hopes that we'd have two sleepy babies (we were 1 for 1). It really was a perfect day trip! I am so excited to have them so close, especially now that Katie and I are done with school. Now we have our crazy lawyer & doctor schedules to contend with (okay, really just Katie's doctor schedule, but I wanted to make myself feel more important for a split second ;)), but it's still nice to know we can just pick up and go to visit without months of planning. Yay!

Oh, I do have to eat my words from my last post - for the most part, Addie and Landon were little angels. No major meltdowns ALL DAY LONG. Woohoo!

Ahh, the water table...

In the submarine (yep, Landon's shirt is wet)

"Hello?"

Digging for fossils

Landon and Aunt Katie

The F______ Fours?

2010-07-18T21:36:00.005-05:00

Okay, so I don't mean the "'F-Word' Fours." Well, maybe some of the time. What I mean is that, "Hi-my-name-is-Kristen-and-I-expected-some-kind-of-180-in-my-child's-behavior-on-her-fourth-birthday." I admit it. I had always heard about "the Terrible Twos," and even "the Trying Threes." I suppose I figured that since I had never heard about the Fours (and in fact, could almost swear that I had been told "Four is SO much better/more fun!"), then it meant that my sweet, but SUPER-headstrong little girl would magically outgrow the tantrums. Haha. <--- (that is me laughing at myself)

Dealing with Addie as a four-year-old has been a challenge lately. She is so sweet and loving, but can also be...well...(for lack of a better term): a brat. To say that she is stubborn would be the understatement of the year. She's quite happy-go-lucky, until she's not getting exactly what she wants. Then it is a complete 180 and the tantrums, meltdowns and defiance begin. I am at a loss, to be quite honest. I've gotten mixed advice from other moms & dads: "Be stricter." "Maybe you're being too strict." Who knows what to do?! But I never thought I'd have the kid who others watch and think, "Man, that kid is being obnoxious!" Guilty. Is she spoiled? Yeah, probably. And this is where my working mom guilt comes in a little bit. I choose my "battles" in what little time I have with my children. Maybe that means she's been told "no" fewer times than she could've/should've been. But what can ya do?

I think I should've taken better notes at her four-year checkup, because John Michael has reminded me a few times that Dr. Hood said, "Four is when girls start getting really whiny, so be prepared." So perhaps this is just a phase? I hope so. I mean, I'd be lying if I said she has always been "easy." In fact, the traits that wear me out are many of the traits I am so proud that she has, knowing/hoping she'll be a strong young woman. But GOODNESS! Some days I think I won't survive four years old with sanity intact.

Good thing she's cute :)

("exercising" with Daddy and the Wii/EA Active. With Christmas tights on. Love this girl!!!!!)

I fibbed.

2010-07-18T20:08:00.005-05:00

I had the best intentions to post these right away, but just didn't get around to it. But here they are - better late than never!

p.s. In my mind, we had taken LOTS of pictures. Turns out, not so much. I guess that means we were too busy enjoying ourselves. I'll take it :)

Beach babies

2010-07-05T20:27:00.002-05:00

We went to the beach with Mimi and PawPaw a couple of weeks ago and had such a good time! We arrived in St. Augustine on the 19th and stayed til the 26th. The kids did amazingly well on the flight down (Addie watched her DVD player and Landon slept the whole time), and we hit the beach Sunday morning! Addie and Landon LOVED the beach, which made us all so happy. Addie had been afraid of the ocean the past couple of times she had been near it (too loud), so we were thrilled that she wanted to play in the water. Landon was completely fearless. That was a little exhausting, but adorable nonetheless!

We spent most mornings out at the beach and most of our afternoons taking it easy inside while Landon napped. Addie, Mimi and I did go shopping at the outlets one day (um, hello HUGE Carter's sale! I wish we had had extra room in our luggage...) and then we saw my Uncle Buddy and Aunt Bobbi two afternoons - so awesome. We also took Addie and Landon fishing for the first time, and Addie caught a fish on her first cast! She was so excited until she dropped her bunny ring in the ocean and it was allll downhill from there. I ended up pacing with her on the pier until we decided just to cut our losses and head out for ice cream. But let's be honest - ice cream was a better time had by all anyway :)

The best part - and the worst part - was that I got completely spoiled by getting to spend so much time with my sweet family. We had such a good time! The kids were (for the most part :)) absolutely adorable and well behaved, and although Landon started the week with a cold, and JM ended the week with a tummy bug, I'd say we could classify it as a near-perfect vacation.

Here's a few pics to hold you over (missing the camera and only got some of them off the other day...odd, I know...).

Airport play area - GENIUS!

Landon had trouble sleeping our first night there and ended up in our bed. The humor in this photo is that this was a KING bed, and little mister had me pushed all the way to the edge. Ha!

More to come!

Double-Duty Doctor Time!

2010-06-18T22:41:00.003-05:00

Last week we went to visit Dr. Hood for Addie's four-year checkup and Landon's 15-month. I figured I'd better go ahead and post about it, since we're leaving for the beach tomorrow, and hopefully I'll have lots of fun beach-related posts when we return. Anyway, I love well-baby visits. I love to see how much the kids have grown and if they're doing what they're "supposed" to be doing. All was well, and Dr. Hood was pleased with their growth and impressed with their development. What can I say? Baby geniuses, I tell ya! ;) Hehe.

Here are the stats (and some extra mommy commentary for my memory):

Addie:
* 3 feet, 1 3/4 inches (10-25%)
* 32 pounds (25%)
* "normal" body mass index
* almost in a size 7 shoe (munchkin feet!)
* wears 3T and 4 clothes
* goes to bed a little past 8 p.m., wakes up around 7:30 or 8 (on the weekends; we wake her up around 6:30 on weekdays)
* has an AMAZING vocabulary
* still loves art and is quite talented
* loves to spend time outside
* still obsessed with wearing dresses!
* becoming a little more of a morning person (thank goodness)
* makes up hilarious stories and "games"

Some Addie-isms:
* "ungrella" for umbrella
* "oskritch" for "ostrich"
* "becation" for "vacation" (I may have blogged that one before - still one of my favorites :))
* She was trying to get ready to go swimming and when her underwear were caught around her foot, she said, "Get off of me, panties, I need to be nekkid!" (Wow.)
* Is increasingly excited about July coming up because she'll "get to throw candy in the parade!" (Huh?)
* Honestly, she has us practically in tears from laughing at least once a day. I need to be better at writing this stuff down...

Landon:
* 30 1/4 inches (20-25%)
* 23 pounds (25-30%)
* size 4 shoe
* is getting four molars at once - three have broken through!
* size 4 diaper
* starting to run instead of walk everywhere!
* has LOTS of words and a few phrases: "dee-do" for "thank you" (unprompted!); bye-bye, ball, baby, hi, cheese ("sees!"), dog ("daw!"), diaper (biper), Addie ('Dee or Addie), Papa, Nana, banana (both "nana" :)), Mama, Dada, Mimi, PawPaw (BawPaw), milk ("me"), more ("ma"), shoe ("boof"), Dagny (a classmate), cookie ("doot-dee"), Mickey ("mimmey"), probably some more...
* has started playing hide-and-seek when we come to pick him up
* every single day has a note on his daycare sheet about how much his teachers love him and how sweet and cute he is
* is still a good baby, but of course he is getting quite skilled at the tantrums :)
* still a Daddy's boy!

Sweet pea.

Just-as-sweet pea.

Zoo time!

2010-06-08T21:29:00.002-05:00

We have actually done lots of fun things in the past few weeks, but one super-fun thing we did was take a whirlwind trip to Memphis this past weekend with the D'Amicos and the McCaskeys! We left Friday after work and stayed the evening in Germantown, then got up and hit the zoo bright and early (okay, not really, but we got there a little bit after it opened at 9 a.m., which was impressive for three families of little ones!). We had a great time and all the kids were really good! Addie and Holland (and Quinn, a lot of the time) ran around and checked out all the exhibits. Landon and Britain stayed in their strollers for the most part - Landon hasn't been 100% for the past week or so (teething? tummy bug? cold? who knows?) and Brit isn't big enough to walk yet :)

After the zoo we headed to Rendezvous Ribs and we were so glad we did! YUMMY! I know there were plenty of other awesome restaurants that we didn't get the chance to check out, but maybe next time. It was a great trip!

He woke up with an upset tummy but was rarin' to go after finding this chair - ha!

Look at those adorable cheeks! Love this kiddo!
(Britain and Skye)

Thinking hard about where to go next...hmmm...

Carousel fun time

HAHAHAHAHA!

vonGooden Wedding

2010-05-21T20:47:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of my favorite people - my friend Katie! Katie and I became friends in college when we were in the same sorority. Although we were very close during college, I think it's safe to say we've become even better in the years since. I could try to explain how much she means to me, but we'd be here all evening. Suffice it to say, she is one of my biggest cheerleaders, but in addition to her giving me support and helping me maintain my sanity (I know, that's a relative term ;)) through law school - mostly via email - I have to also say that she did all this while she was getting two Master's degrees and oh, you know, graduating from MEDICAL SCHOOL. Minor details. Hehe. Anyway, Katie and Chris are one of the most perfectly matched couples that we know and we could not be happier for them. We are thrilled that they will soon be moving to Birmingham for Katie's residency. HOORAY! That knocks around 3 hours off of the distance between us. So fun.

Anyway, the wedding weekend was an absolute blast. We headed out to Chattanooga on Thursday morning and got to meet my sweet friend Amber and her husband for a late lunch (it is ALWAYS good to spend time with you :)). Then we checked into the hotel and JM took a little nap until time to go to Katie's parents' house for her uncle's cajun cookout. Oh. My. Goodness. Talk about some amazing food. And the company was even better! We got to know some of the groomsmen (I already knew the bridesmaids well due to our Vegas trip - which I failed to post about. It was AMAZING.) and had a wonderful time. Friday morning, Katie and the bridesmaids got manicures and pedicures, compliments of the "Phyllises," two of Katie's mom's friends who are both named Phyllis. They also provided us with mimosas, fruit, cheese petit fours - it was awesome. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were wonderful, too, of course!

Saturday was the wedding day, and it was perfect (from my perspective, of course, but I think Katie and everyone else would agree!). We got our hair done, pictures, etc., and then it was time for one of the prettiest weddings I have ever been to. It was so "Katie." I don't have many pictures, but it was gorgeous. The colors were black and white with red accents, and we each had different bouquets. So cool. Of course, I cried throughout the whole ceremony, but it was just so sweet. Love those two!

I still feel so honored to have been a part of the weekend. I had SO much fun with the other bridesmaids and the groomsmen, and of course, with Katie and Chris. And it was a nice little getaway for John Michael and me, too (thanks Mimi and PawPaw and Nana and Papa for taking care of the munchkins!)! Congratulations, Chris and Katie!!!

Katie and me

The girls at the rehearsal dinner :)

John Michael and me at the reception! We had a blast!

My Day with Addie by Nana

2010-05-17T19:42:00.003-05:00

(Addie and Nana (John Michael's mom) had a play day on May 6! Here is Nana's account of their fun time :))

To set the stage for today, Addie and I were talking about her kite being stuck in the tree. We discussed flying a kite in the soccer field but Nana didn’t have a kite. I asked her where she thought we could get a kite. She said “the kite store!” (of course – how stupid of me). Then I reminded her of Phillips Toy Store where we went at Christmas and her eyes lit up. Then I suggested we go there to do birthday shopping and she was more than agreeable to that.

I requested that I have a stroller and Addie to bring her Birthday Princess tiara.

We first go to Cheekwood. We tour the East Gardens, going through Turner Seasons Garden, Herb Garden, Carell Dogwood Garden, Howe Wildflower Garden, and the Burr Terrace Garden. We start in the stroller but Addie ends up walking/running most of the way – except up hills, of course. At our first stop was beautiful purple Japanese iris. I took a picture of her there. There were many photo opportunities. There were not too many plants blooming but the ones that were I identified for her. At some point she started pointing to plants and identifying them also (by making up names for them). So cute. She loved all the water features. When we got to the pond, we stopped and looked at all the critters. There was a mud turtle, many tadpoles, koi fish and a dragonfly that Addie pointed out. We heard a big bullfrog croaking. I told Addie that he was croaking “welcome Addie Leigh Corn to my pond.” She liked that. As we were moving on, Addie said, “Goodbye pond, goodbye Mr. Frog, goodbye Mr. Fish, goodbye Mr. Dragonfly, goodbye Mr. Turtle.”

As we arrive up the hill at our picnic spot, with a very serious look on her face she said, “Actually, I believe they were all girls.” I told her they may have been except I was sure the bullfrog was a boy. After some serious thought, she determined that the turtle was a boy, and one fish was a girl but 2 were boys and the dragonfly was a girl.

We spread a blanket on the side of a hill for our picnic. Addie takes off her shoes and rubs her feet in the grass. It was a beautiful day, bright blue sky, a great temperature and a slight breeze. The picnic lasted about an hour as we were discussing many important issues. Then it was time to be heading back to the car. As we’re going back Addie parts a plant with her hands and looks into it. I asked what she was looking for and she said Peter Rabbit. So we looked for Peter Rabbit in many more plants on the way back to the car.

On to Phillips Toy Mart. I don’t know if Addie had this calculated or not (I think so) but she steered left in the front door (away from the doll and Princess sections). We wandered up and down the aisles, watched the trains for a while and played with various toys throughout the store. She didn’t see anything she wanted for her birthday. We finally got to the doll section but there wasn’t one she wanted. She did want a stroller but I told her she already had one and can only push one at a time.

Next came the Princess section. She pointed out the Princess dress she got at Christmas. Next to it was a Snow White dress. She said, “Nana I would like this dress please.” I said of course you may have that dress. Then she said, “May I also have those red shoes?” Absolutely! Then she said “May I also have that crown?” How can you refuse when she asked so nicely and politely? Of course this dress was to stay at Nana and Papas house since she didn’t have one there. I went along with that one. We picked out a toy for Brother and checked out.

When we got home she was so excited, jumping up and down, to get her Snow White dress on. She of course looked like a fairy tale come true in it. We were watching a movie and after a while Addie said, “I think I would like to take this (dress) home.” I was certainly expecting this and gave her a minimal hard time but told her of course she could.

She requested I sit next to her and we snuggled together on the couch the rest of the afternoon.

Another day made in heaven for a Nana and her little girl!

Four!

2010-05-10T21:36:00.002-05:00

My sweet Addie: Happy Birthday, sweet pea! I cannot believe you are four years old. It really does seem like just yesterday that you were born. Funny enough, today's weather was exactly like it was in 2006 - unseasonably cold and rainy, or as you told me this morning, "It's a little bit chilly on my birt-day today!" I will never forget that day four years ago - how excited and terrified I was, but then the second I saw you I was madly in love. And (most :)) every day has been even more fun than the one before it. How has it happened that my sweet, content little baby has turned into a smart, sassy girl?! I love finding out what each day is going to bring and what funny thing you're going to say next. You are so loving and caring towards Landon. I am still amazed at how wonderful you are with him, and even though you're starting to get jealous of him when he gets your toys, you're still quick to try to make him happy whenever you can. You are also so sweet with Daddy and me and with your friends at school - you've even gotten extra stickers for being such a good friend! We are so proud to be your parents.

Sometimes we think your intelligence is going to do us in - you are already trying (often successfully) to outwit us! You are clever and funny and a complete joy to be around. Every day I ask you how your day was, and you say, "Gooood." Then I asked you what you did at school, and without fail you say, "My favorite part was..." You're also the most fun hide-and-seek partner EVER! When you're hiding, you giggle and squeal, and when you're the seeker, you count so fast that there's no way anyone could possibly hide!

You are quite the well rounded girl. You can go from wearing your princess dresses and pretty shoes to playing in the mud without missing a beat. You are dainty when you want to be but can very much hold your own and be tough. You never cease to amaze me!

Addie Leigh, you are the light of my life. Although I wish I could make time slow down just a little bit, I am having so much fun and can't wait to see what each day brings. You are my pride and joy and I love you SO MUCH! Happy "Birt-day"!

The PAR-TAY!

2010-05-09T20:30:00.001-05:00

So we did it. We finally broke down and had another birthday party for Addie. The last one was her first birthday party (a HUGE joint celebration with Holland). Even though Lynn did most (ahem, close to all) of the work for that one, I think I'm still exhausted from it. HA! Anyway, we decided to have a small party for Addie's classmates and a couple of her other friends at a local JumpZone-type place here in town. It was awesome!! The venue provided EVERYTHING except the cake and kids (and goody bags - yes, I sent kids home with clutter-inducing crap - HA!). We just told them the "theme" (I chose just "pink," not quite ready to enter the realm of character birthday parties) and they set everything up in their party room. Granted, it wasn't exactly how I would've decorated things, but the relaxation factor won me over enough to not care. Anyway, the kids ran around like crazy, jumped in the jumpy things (I'm sure they have a technical name...) and had a BLAST! There were a few tears due to some (okay, one) of the kids being...well...a little rougher than others, but I think overall, it was a success. Addie was the little queen bee. It was hilarious! All of her little girlfriends wanted to do whatever she was doing. I have never really seen her interact with more than one or two of her friends at a time, so it was really cute to see them all playing as a group. Of course, Addie was "number one" because it was her birthday, but it was great to see them all playing so well together. But I definitely have a new respect for her preschool teacher! PHEW! :) Just watching those kids play for two hours was exhausting.

Because the kids were running/jumping like crazy, I had a hard time getting any good pictures. But rest assured, Addie was adorable!

Check out that hair!

Up they go!

You know it's been a while...

2010-05-08T21:56:00.003-05:00

when you type in "blogger.com" and the firefox "fill-in" doesn't remember it for you. Whoops! But to say there has been a lot going on here would be an understatement.

Of course by now everyone knows about the flooding in Tennessee. It was the craziest thing (actually, still is the craziest thing - I think the really hard part is just beginning for most). I have been speechless. It is absolutely heartbreaking to know that so many people have lost their lives, their homes, their belongings. And it's also heartbreaking to see my beautiful hometown of Nashville essentially in ruins in many areas. And it all seemed to happen so quickly! When the flooding really started happening, we had stopped at Nana & Papa's house to feed their dogs (they were out of town). We were on our way to Clarksville to our friends' Derby Party, and since the kids hadn't eaten lunch, we grabbed a snack at "Old MacDonald's." The kids and I were inside eating and John Michael said he wanted to go check on the greenhouse before we left because he said sometimes water would get in it when it rained hard. It was about ten minutes later when he came back in, and he said, "You probably need to give Jessica a heads up that we're going to be running a little late." I was confused and asked him why, and he just told me to come look. WOW - it was unlike anything I had ever seen. The creek had flooded completely over the driveway into the front yard and as we stood there and watched, the water was rising. He told me to rest assured that as soon as the rain let up, the water would drop quickly.

So he went back out to "rescue" some equipment and other things around the farm, and I went back in with the kids to check out what the news was saying. The rain just kept. on. coming. And there was more behind it on the radar! I started getting worried that we weren't going to make it to the party at all (please don't think I'm the most selfish person ever - I still had no idea the magnitude of what was happening!), Addie kept asking when we were going to see "Baby Kate," and Landon was irritable (we had counted on our drive to Clarksville for a nap :)). Then JM came back inside, changed his clothes, and said he thought we'd be staying the night. Unfortunately for SuperMom, Landon had been a little wheezy that week (diagnosed as allergies and we've started Claritin and are seeing a little improvement) and I had not brought his medicine, never imagining we wouldn't be home before morning! The weather reports were starting to talk about flooding everywhere and the numerous street closures in Franklin, including the INTERSTATE! Geez. I spoke to my mom on the phone and she told me that she and my dad were unable to get out of their neighborhood to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert. Yikes! After about an hour - and when the radar showed a "lull," we decided to brave it to try to get home. We had to take some creative detours, but we made it home fine - and just in time for the tornado sirens. Yuck. They went off three times that night. Thankfully, they were just warnings. Of course, we know how very blessed our families are to have stayed safe and not have permanent damage to our homes (we had none, our parents' homes both had water in their basements).

Work has been very busy due to the flooding in Franklin. It seemed so abstract to me until the other day. Don't get me wrong - I had seen Hillsboro Road covered in water, and seen pictures of the parks in Franklin as lakes. But I had my first upclose glimpse of the aftermath while driving to Publix the other day. Such a routine task, right? Well, I looked over to my left and saw what appeared to be the entire contents of a family's home on their front yard - clothes on what appeared to be 10 to 12 makeshift clotheslines; baby toys everywhere; and a crib on its side. It brought me to tears. I can't imagine.

In case you haven't seen this video yet, it has some moving photographs...

Easter!

2010-04-13T21:14:00.007-05:00

It was a beautiful day, even if it was ten days ago :) We had a great long family weekend and we were definitely not ready for it to end! John Michael and I both had the day off for Good Friday, so we took the babies to school late and then went to discuss some things with the Easter Bunny (a.k.a, we hit the Target dollar spot :)). Addie and Landon both had class parties early that afternoon, so I went to those - SO CUTE! I am pretty sure Landon ate his body weight in mini-Oreos. He had the ones he was given in his class, and then when he and I went to Addie's class, her friends kept sneaking him more. What a mess! Addie was so very proud to have him in her class. She kept hugging him and patting his head. I also got to see the first instance of her sticking up for him. One of her friends said, "Why doesn't he have any hair?" And Addie got angry and said, "He does TOO have hair! He has lots of it! Look at all this hair!" HA HA HA. I thought she was going to jump across the table at the poor little girl. Awesome.

Saturday, we dyed eggs and had the D'Amicos over for a yummy dinner. Sunday was family fun time! We had a wonderful day - we went to Nana & Papa's, Gran & Pop's, and Mimi & PawPaw's. It was a long day, but it was good!

Landon's class Easter party

CUTIE!

Sissy's class party

Taking a break from the egg hunt

Back at it!

Addie is a little egg hunt master!

Getting a little help from Papa

I love Landon's expression in this one

My boys

We hope you had a wonderful Easter, too! It was a beautiful day for the most beautiful holiday!

Haircut #2

2010-04-01T21:12:00.009-05:00

Addie had her hair cut for the second time a couple of weekends ago. It was admittedly way overdue, but it's so hard for me to keep in mind that healthy hair grows faster and that it will grow back. I took her to my stylist, Lauren, again, and we had so much fun on our girls' outing. She was a wiggle worm to the point that I wasn't sure the cut was going to get finished, but a little promise of ice cream got us through.

You've all seen the "before" pictures (um, all the rest of the pictures on this blog before these :)), but here are the "during" and "after" pics.

(Okay, so I did have a "before" picture - she was a little nervous!)

Addie with straightened hair (and deciding she's done being clothed - charming :))

We compromised with her socks

Ready to cut!

(Self-portrait)

(Another self-portrait :))

Making it even!

All done!

The ceremonial spraying-in-the-face of Frasier!

Twelve months

2010-03-30T20:57:00.002-05:00

(Okay, the "official" check-up stats, that is). We visited Dr. Hood yesterday, and here's the goods:

22 pounds, 2 ounces (45th percentile)
30 inches long (55th percentile)

So it looks like he's staying on the same curve! Dr. Hood was pleased with his development and said that he is adorable (FACT!). She also noticed that he was a little wheezy, which was disappointing. So we've been hitting the albuterol/pulmicort combination since. Hopefully that will clear it right up. (Okay, since I haven't gotten around to actually posting this post until 3 days after starting it, I can go ahead and tell you that it has cleared up just fine :)). It was an overall uneventful appointment - the best kind!

Anyway, in the past few weeks, Landon has really gone crazy, development-wise. He is now walking as much as he's crawling (although he still looks like Frankenstein); he's babbling all the time and is quite certain that "uh-oh" is his favorite thing to say; and is having tantrums like they're about to go out of style. I had forgotten that the "terrible twos" start in the second year Luckily, he's cute enough to get away with it... ;)

Sweet baby boy

2010-03-06T23:15:00.008-06:00

Landon - I can't believe you are already a whole year old! Goodness, where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were on the way to the hospital and I was kind of feeling sorry for myself (and you :)) because I doubted that I could ever love a second baby the way I love your sister. Boy was I wrong! The second you were born, my heart grew (as I had been told it would). It was the craziest thing. And it has only gotten stronger since then! You have been the best baby we could've hoped for. You are so easygoing, happy, and lovable. You make the funniest expressions, and now that you're entering into tantrum territory, you make us laugh even more than ever. And even though you get frustrated now, you can be made to laugh within seconds. You have the most contagious laughter! You are the cutest, most ticklish boy I've ever seen. Everyone who knows you loves you. Maybe not as much as your mommy, daddy, and sister do, but that's okay :)

Happy Birthday, sweet boy. Here's to many more! I love you SO MUCH!

At one year, Landon:
* has six teeth (four on top, two on bottom)
* wears 12-18 month clothes; size 4 diapers, size 3 shoes
* is heavy - hehe. His appointment isn't til the end of the month, so I'll update then
* is still a SCHEDULED baby. You could set a clock by him - sleeping, eating, even his poos. Yes, I'm serious.
* is becoming increasingly talkative. Has a few words: hi, bye, bottle (baba), Addie, mama, dada (pretty consistently meaningful), dog (da); doesn't say no, but shakes his finger - adorable!
* is baby signing "more" and "all done"
* points and babbles at everything
* loves to "color" with crayons and markers
* is standing on his own for a few seconds but still no independent steps
* is transitioning decently to whole milk and sippy cups - we have been a lot more relaxed with this than we probably should be...oops. I promise he won't go to kindergarten with a bottle though!
* is in neither a "mommy phase" nor a "daddy phase" but seems to love us equally right now ;)
* still thinks Addie is NUMBER ONE!

Picture time! These are from today - we had our parents and JM's grandparents over for lunch. It was so much fun. We are so blessed to live so close to our families!

Waiting on the cake!

"Guys, I'm eating my hand here!"

That's more like it...

(Look at how he looks at his sister! PURE LOVE - so cute!)

The one-year-old

Four generations

Mimi, PawPaw and my babies and me!

Addie and Gran in serious conversation (watching CareBears :))

2010-03-01T20:31:00.008-06:00

Well, I guess I could just pick up where I left off and pretend like it hasn't been three whole weeks since I last posted. We have been busy, busy, busy but having lots of fun! John Michael and I have been seriously considering putting our house up for sale to move closer to work/our families, so we have been busy doing things around the house. Two packrats + two babies + six years = MESS. So we're "sprucing things up" and decluttering. Yikes.

Work has been exciting - my boss was officially appointed City Attorney (she had been serving as Interim for two years). This is great news because our department can finally feel "settled" after all this time. YAY! I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with things so that's good. I know it'll take some time, it's just frustrating feeling like I don't know anything! The comforting thing is that I have been talking to a lot of my classmates/other new attorneys, and apparently this is normal :)

Anyway, the kiddos are doing great. I can't believe that Landon will be one in five days. February just flew (and I don't think it was just because it is a shorter month!). I'll do a big ONE YEAR post, but before then, I'll just say that he gets cuter every day. I. Love. Him.

And his big sissy - I love her, too. She is such a big girl! Every day is even more fun (and often more of a challenge) than the day before. :) We play lots of silly games together. My plan is to do a post devoted to these games so I don't forget about them (because I know one day she'll think she's too cool to play them :)).

Anyway, enough jibber-jabber - time for photos!

Look at that hair!

Uncle Kris, Holland and Quinn

All four babies at the zoo
(Lynn and I were cleaning out the garage - yippee!)

Greenhouse!

Time to plant!

Taking a break to pump some iron

The NSL Babies
(Olivia, born 3/4/09, Eamon, born 3/2/09, and Landon, born 3/6/09)
Mommies: Monika, Marian and me!

(This was at Eamon's first birthday, which is definitely the cutest first birthday party I've ever been to!)

Eleven months

2010-02-08T19:34:00.007-06:00

(Plus a couple of days - not like you're surprised).

Is there really just one month til my sweet baby boy is a year old? I can't believe it. Admittedly, January was the s l o w e s t/hardest month of my life EVER but still, it is crazy overall how quickly the time has passed. I have started thinking a little about what to do to celebrate his birthday, and then I keep realizing that we need to hurry up and decide because it'll be here before we know it.

Landon has had a good month. I just looked back at his "Ten month" post and there really wasn't a whole lot new to add developmentally, so I'll just list a few fun things. At eleven months, Landon:

* is a little over 21 pounds
* is still in 12-month clothes, size 4 diapers, size 3 shoes
* has FOUR teeth now! He actually got his fourth one the day after I posted his ten month update but far be it from me to ruin the surprise ;)
* is still a daddy's boy - it's the cutest thing ever
* is getting even more feisty and vocal with his wants
* isn't taking steps on his own quite yet, but getting closer. My guess is he'll be walking a little after his birthday, just like Addie...
* is still a great sleeper but has moved his bedtime up to around 6:30 p.m. I'll be glad when that gets later again!
* loooves to wave "hi" and "bye"
* is chubby, chubby, chubby - so cute.
I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! I could eat him up.

Does he not look HUGE in this picture?

The Sweetest Sound in the World

2010-02-01T21:37:00.002-06:00

Okey doke - try to ignore the talking with the mouth full for a second to hear the cutest thing ever :)

LOVE THAT GIGGLE! And that proud big sister, too!

ICE DAY!

2010-01-30T10:10:00.002-06:00

So last night the snow turned into sleet, making a slippery (albeit gorgeous) layer of ice on top of our snow. I'd say we got another inch of ice for a grand total of 4 1/2-ish inches of accumulation. WHAT?! Spring Hill always gets the weather shaft, so to speak. We get hail, wind, etc., but usually no pretty snow. I am quite pleased. The only bummer is that I had a baby shower I was really looking forward to today that had to be cancelled. *Sigh.* But being snowed in with the family isn't too shabby, especially given the vast library of Netflix On Demand ;)

The ice made for PERFECT sledding

Ice and snow on one of our leftover pepper plants - so pretty

SNOW DAY!

2010-01-29T20:38:00.005-06:00

Oh, how I long for days like this! Well, mostly. The weather forecasters started calling for snow here earlier in the week. For once, I didn't get my hopes up - probably because the "snow" that is usually predicted normally disappoints me. So anyway - Addie did her snow dance yesterday, and apparently it worked! We woke up this morning to see ZERO snow on the ground, but the radar looked ominous. I decided to head on in to work because I felt silly staying home with no actual accumulation. My plan was to keep an eye on the roads and head out as soon as it started sticking. JM wisely decided to work from home. We took the babies to school, and off I went! It was clear, clear, clear, BAM - streets completely covered. It really seems like it happened that quickly! I was checking fairly often and called my boss (who was working from home due to her little girl's school being closed) at 11 and told her I was about to head out. But then I checked the parking lot and roads, and they looked fine. So I stayed around a little longer. BIG MISTAKE! When I left at noon, the roads were already white. I made it fine for the first two or three miles of my commute, but then when it came time to turn onto the main highway, the traffic was stopped. I ended up making a u-turn (oops - illegal in Franklin :)) to try a different way. That went a little better except I got behind a MORON driving 15 mph. Now don't get me wrong - I'm aware that it is not a good idea to go the speed limit in inclement weather. And I wasn't comfortable going much faster than 30 or so. However, I was quite nervous that we wouldn't be able to pass over the many hills going so slowly! Thankfully, I turned off and got away from that buffoon (who I hope made it home safely, although it may have been six hours afterwards at the rate he was going). ANYWAY - long story short (too late, you say?), it took me an hour and forty-five minutes to get home. It normally takes me 25-30. I really can't complain, though, because last year it took me over three hours to get home in another snow where there were far better conditions than today's.

Sooo, enough about me. I finally got home and JM and the babies were safe and sound and warm and toasty, thank goodness. We went out to play and Addie had a blast! She made a headless snow angel (refused to lay her head on the ground). Landon wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow, but he was definitely not a big fan of his "snowsuit." But seriously, he looked so adorable, I really didn't care. He did seem to have a good time "sledding" with Addie! We're excited about Round 2 of playing outside tomorrow, but hopeful that we're not completely "snowed in" because we have a few events we're really looking forward to attending this weekend!

(I promise Landon really did smile & laugh while we were outside, I just never caught it with the camera :))

*As of right now (9:00 p.m. Friday), I'd guess we have around 3 1/2 to 4 inches. Gorgeous!

The Grab Bag

2010-01-25T19:51:00.003-06:00

What a week. Well, really, what a month! We have had the hardest time staying well in January. John Michael kicked it off with a sinus infection that required not just one, but two, rounds of antibiotics, and I have also have two colds/sinus infections. We took Landon for his ENT consult at the beginning of the month and we were told he had another ear infection. I think this made his sixth, although I honestly can't remember. Then, last week he had a nasty tummy bug and bad cold. I thought SURELY we were through, but we woke up Saturday morning to find Addie's eyes with the yuckiest case of pinkeye I've ever seen! At this point, all I could do was laugh. We certainly have had the grab bag of sicknesses here! It ceased to be quite so funny when we got called to pick Landon up this past Tuesday because he had a fever of 101.8. Ay, ay, ay. Dr. Hood had noticed some fluid in his ear when we were visiting her last week for the tummy bug/cold combo (we were afraid it was pneumonia), but she did not want to give him antibiotics because he had just finished a round and he was already scheduled for his tubes today (Thursday, the 28th). So, the bright side is that we didn't have to trek up to the pediatrician, because she had told us to give her a call if he ran a fever and that she'd just call in some antibiotics. ANYWAY...Addie now has the nasty cold. Please pray that it won't settle into her chest!

Today was the big day for the tubes! He was still running a low-grade fever (100.6), but that's the tricky thing about tubes...we can't keep his ears from getting infected long enough for him to be completely "well" for the procedure. So after discussion with the ENT and the anesthesiologist, we felt quite comfortable with them proceeding. And he did just great! The only downfall of the whole thing is that we were scheduled to arrive at 8 a.m. Remember, no food or drink after midnight. Kind of hard to explain to an almost-11-month-old. But he did well with very minimal fussing, and he certainly won the hearts of all the nurses! We were asked no less than five times if he could be taken home with someone. Hehe. :) They ended up taking him back around 9:30 or so (yes, seriously! I was so angry!), and we were back in recovery with him by 10ish. He did GREAT with the anesthesia. Addie was inconsolable after hers, so we were prepared for that. Our little man didn't fuss a bit! He was obviously groggy, but seemed fine. Of course, the difference is that they gave him an intranasal pain medicine (something Addie did not receive). He drank a little water while we were there and I gave him a bottle once we got home. He's sleeping soundly now after fighting being put down. Once I decided that I needed to put him in his crib (rather than hold him - can't blame a mommy for trying), he was out like a light by the time I got down the stairs. I am so glad he's doing well and we are hoping this will be a great improvement for his ears! The doctor said there was active infection in both ears, and that both eardrums were retracted. Yikes.

*Update - here's the photos!

In the waiting room, playing with the HIPAA notice! Lawyer-to-be?

Landon and I were getting irritated by this point...I believe it was nearing 9:30.

It was a family affair! At least we weren't crying like we were when Addie got out of her first tubes surgery :)

Sweet punkin

CeCe

2010-01-10T20:26:00.003-06:00

I am not quite sure where to begin with this post, but I feel like not posting anything is just unfair to myself (and the rest of my family). My sweet grandmommy passed away Thursday evening at the age of 85. She was an absolutely wonderful woman. I grew up with her literally next door (she had what we now all know as a "mother-in-law suite" in my parents' home), so we were very close. I have awesome memories of her from my childhood, of course, but even more since I've been an adult (and not just because I can remember more :)). I can't begin to explain the amount of support she gave me over the past few years (along with the rest of my family, of course). She always told me I could accomplish everything I set my mind to, and without ever making me feel dumb, told me she thought my nerves and fears were silly. And nearly every time, she was right!

The past few months, she had been having a lot of pain in her legs, and being not quite herself. My mom finally convinced the stubborn old lady (well!) that she needed to go to the doctor, and eventually ended up having her taken to the emergency room. This was Monday, December 28. She was diagnosed with cancer in her hip bone, liver and lungs the next day. Of course, we were all devastated, but were hopeful that we'd have a couple of months to spend with her. Obviously, that was not God's (nor her) plan. When she and I sat to talk, right after her diagnosis, the first thing she said was, "Well, I get to go see Wayne!" That is my grandfather who passed away nearly 50 years ago. It was amazing to see her peace. She knew she was going to Heaven and honestly, I think she was ready. And I think she gave us a week for the rest of us to catch up with her peace. I told her a little fib and told her I was okay with her leaving us. It hurts so bad, but knowing that she is without pain, and is with her husband and her son (my uncle, who died five years ago), I am happy.

Of course, not only was she my grandma, but she was "CeCe" to Addie and Landon. She had originally chosen "G.G" (Great-Grandmother) to be her nickname, but Addie couldn't say it. So it became "CeCe," and it really seemed perfect. She loved those babies more than anything. Even on a day where it was obvious that she wasn't feeling well, one sight of either Addie or Landon would cheer her up. I have prayed every day that Addie will remember her and remember how much her CeCe loved her. I think at the very least she'll remember the York Peppermint Patties that she got whenever she visited her :)

I don't think a day will go by that I don't miss her. I am so thankful that God gave her to us for so long. I am also so grateful that I got to sit with her and tell her just how much she meant to me. I know that she knew, but it (selfishly) began my healing process. She was a beautiful woman, and she will be loved and missed forever!

Ten months

2010-01-07T20:54:00.005-06:00

And only a day late - ha HA! This month has been a whirlwind with the holidays, but it was definitely a good one. Landon continues to be SO active. Changing his diaper and getting him dressed is practically a two-person job. He hates to be still for any amount of time anymore, but he will cuddle a little first thing in the morning while he drinks his first bottle. Addie, Landon and I all sit on the couch and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while he gets out of total starvation mode (he thinks, at least) and Addie slowly wakes up. That is my favorite time of the day! I'll pretend that they enjoy the snuggle time, too.

Landon had a visit with the ENT yesterday, who determined that it is time for tubes. Landon has had a little cold for the past week and the doctor noticed that fluid is just sitting in his ears and not draining properly. There was no active infection, but it was headed that way. Poor kiddo. SO - he's apparently a "perfect candidate." We're still trying to figure out whose fabulous genes gave our babies their bad ears! ;) He will have the procedure at the end of this month. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for a smooth procedure, and also that this will help his ears in the future. More on that closer to the time...

Anyway - here's the list:

At ten months, Landon:
* is over 20 pounds, although I'm not sure exactly how much
* is wearing all 12-month clothes; size 4 diapers; size 3 shoes
* is walking with assistance EVERYWHERE
* is climbing stairs! EEK!
* is still babbling a lot - I'm honestly not remembering if he has any new words since the last time I posted, but he is definitely more emphatic when he says things now!
* is a dancing fool when he plays with his musical toys
* is a daddy's boy right now
* chews on everything, but still only has three teeth
* is showing his temper a lot more readily lately
* only wants table food now and eats pretty much whatever we're eating
* wants to be held if he sees someone standing up
* is all over Addie's toys now and she is NOT a fan
* has pretty impressive fine motor skills for a little guy! He's getting very good at putting small items in slightly-larger boxes, etc.
* still sleeps from 7 p.m. til 6:30 a.m. - clockwork - and takes two to three short naps a day
* is still a sweet, cute, precious boy!

He looked like such a little man in this outfit!

"CHEESE!"

Oh, and...

2010-01-01T15:27:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year! As I put on my Facebook status, I hope your year is filled with more laughter than tears. Cheers!

I have a confession...

2010-01-01T14:50:00.002-06:00

I love when Addie says words incorrectly. LOVE IT. She has had such a good vocabulary for such a long while that it doesn't happen often, so when it does, I can't help but repeat the word(s) exactly like she says them because I think it's so cute. Yes, I know I should say them the right way so she learns, but hey, she has her WHOLE life to speak correctly, and I'm hanging on to my little girl as long as I can. And seriously, for the most part, she even uses "and I" and "and me" the correct way, so I feel I can let her say a few silly things without fear that she'd be embarrassed if she knew better ;)

My favorites?
"be-cation" for "vacation"
"whistletoe" for "mistletoe"
"reckles" for "freckles" (this is my ULTIMATE favorite!)
"lose" for "use" and "lellow" for "yellow" (even though she can say her 'y' sounds)
"Darbie" for "Barbie" (she doesn't have any dolls, but does have a cup with Barbie on it)
*"Old MacDonald's" for "McDonald's" (not that she's ever been there, it's just...er...um... :))
*"cheesebarger" for "cheeseburger"
*She also sometimes says "bees" instead of "be" - like "I'll bees ___ and you can bees _____." (I don't use that one back, but I do think it's adorable :))

I know, child educators everywhere are cringing...ha ha!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T19:54:00.007-06:00

Did we really just celebrate Addie's fourth and Landon's first Christmas? SERIOUSLY?!

We had a blast. We started off the week by having dinner with my family on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon, we went to Nana and Papa's for a "dessert drop-in" - soooo yummy and fun! Then they watched the kiddos while we went to a wine tasting hosted by Lynn and Leslie. It was such a cute idea! Each couple brought two identical bottles of wine. One was put in the "reserve," and the other was covered and marked with a letter. Lynn had made scorecards where each wine would be rated 1 through 10, and everyone went to tasting. All the points were tallied, and then the person who brought the highest scored wine went home with all the reserve bottles! Genius! Okay, I had never been to a wine tasting, so I thought that was just about the coolest thing ever. I still thought it was cool even though our wine didn't win. Ha!

Fast forward to Christmas Eve - annual Logan's lunch! We have officially outgrown a booth with four adults and two high chairs (yes, Addie still prefers a high chair when we go out to eat, and I admittedly love that she's "contained"). I'm trying to remember how this tradition got started, and I can't! I guess that's when you know you've truly got a tradition...

That evening, Mimi and PawPaw and Nana and Papa came over. Addie was bouncing off the walls, and Landon was pretty cute, too, of course, even though he's still been having some tummy problems and hasn't quite been 100%. The kiddos got Christmas books and new Christmas jammies (SO CUTE!) and the grownups got new Addie (and Landon, starting in March) calendars for 2010! THANKS, NANA!!! I think I speak for all of us when I say this is our favorite Christmas gift :)

Addie was super-excited for Santa to visit, but surprisingly went to bed without any trouble! We slept in a little bit (7:00) on Christmas Day, and were so excited to get Addie out of bed! She came downstairs and seemed a little confused, but then she announced, "It's a baby carriage!" That is the one gift she had asked for over and over. Precious.

We continued the day by going up to Nana and Papa's, then Gran and Pop's, then down to Mimi and PawPaw's before settling back home. It was a long day, but one of the best days ever. It's definitely the best Christmas I've ever had! Seeing Addie's face light up was just so exciting. Of course Christmas isn't about the gifts, but watching my little girl being so innocent and happy was just priceless. In fact, it actually was a constant reminder of the true meaning of the day!

Addie "helping" open Landon's first ornament

I promise I was not about to drop Landon, even if it looks like it.

Addie going through her stocking

"Seriously? For me?"

"Christmas can't be over already!!!"

Getting all better

2009-12-19T21:10:00.007-06:00

We have had a yucky week. We got a call from Landon's teacher last Friday that he had thrown up and had three loose poopies (after two at school the day before), so we had to pick him up. John Michael actually got the call, so he went down there. He called me once they got settled and said Landon was acting completely fine and playing like normal. Yay! Or so we thought. We woke up to Addie whining/crying around 11 p.m. (yes, we were asleep that early on a Friday - don't judge ;)). I went up to check on her, but she was still asleep so I went back down. Repeat at midnight. Then, at 1:30 a.m., I heard her get out of her bed and she was screaming and crying. I nudged JM for his "turn" to check on her, and before he was even upstairs, I heard her screaming, "I throwed up! I throwed up everywhere!" Sure enough. We brought her to bed with us and she got sick three more times throughout the night. She woke up at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, good as gold! We even ended up going up to Nana and Papa's for JM to cut down our Christmas tree (and help Papa with theirs) and had a great day playing, but taking it easy, just in case. Poor Landon was still having...um...diaper issues, but seemed to feel fine. We came home and ate dinner, and were looking forward to decorating the tree on Sunday!

But then it started all over again. Addie woke up puny and threw up Sunday morning. She spent the day on the couch and was so, so pitiful! I have never seen her so weak-looking in her life. We talked to the pediatrician's office about three times that morning to go over both her symptoms and Landon's. Poor kiddos. But the nurses didn't seem concerned at all since they were both willing/able to take in fluids. Addie did start to perk up a little by Sunday evening, so she got to help with the tree a tiny bit!

We kept both babies home Monday, because Landon was STILL not back to normal and Addie had said she needed to stay home. The cutest thing ever happened - I put Landon down for a nap at around 8:30 that morning, and starting at 9 a.m., Addie started asking if we could wake him up. She was saying, "I think he's poopie! I really think we need to go get him!" I kept telling her no, that he needed to sleep because his tummy wasn't feeling good. She finally said, "I stayed home from school today so I could play with my baby brother and all he is doing is sleeping!" Hehehehe.

Anyway, Addie was 100% Monday and went back to school Tuesday. Landon's poopie issues were still there, so he stayed with Mimi. She said he was really fussy and tugging at his left ear, so I made him an appointment to see Dr. Hood for Wednesday morning.

*Sigh.*

So, he continued to be fussy and have tummy problems throughout the night, and on into Wednesday. Dr. Hood was not at all concerned about the now-weeklong diarrhea, but did put him on a probiotic to try to help things. She did check his ears, and the left one was good. The right one had to be cleaned out (seriously, holding a nine-month-old while they take a WaterPik to his ear does NOT equal fun. Just in case you were wondering...), but sure enough...infected. Sooo...we're headed down the same path and it's time for Landon to visit the ENT doctor. The sweet boy had a later start with his ear infections, but he's a competitive one and decided to try to make up for them in a shorter timespan.

Boo.

Although, I must admit, I'm relieved when I think about how much Addie's tubes have helped her, and hopeful that if (ahem - when - let's be honest) Landon has to have them, they'll be just as successful.

So, that was our week in a nutshell. Poor little man's tummy is still having problems, making almost ten days. They said that viral diarrhea can last up to two weeks. Does that seem INSANE to anyone but me?!?! He's eating and drinking just fine (we still have him on a very mild diet, though - no baby food except bananas, plain yogurt, rice cereal and puffs) so that's good. We can't really tell if the probiotics are helping, because with the antibiotic for his ear infection, we don't know if the virus is still clearing its way out of his system or if the medicine is causing the problems now. I will be SO GLAD when he is feeling better. So will our water bill ;)

Unwrapping her Little Einsteins ornament

Poor sweet girl

Helping with the tree!

Snuggle time to recover from decorating

Landon "helping"

JM's year for the tree - it's huge (but yes, it's pretty)

All better and baking gingerbread!

Ooh, it's Christmastime!

2009-12-10T21:46:00.003-06:00

We went to see Santa tonight after Landon's appointment! As I think we've done at least twice before, we managed to show up rightwhen Santa had to take a dinner break. HOW?! Anyway. We caught a quick dinner in the food court at the mall and headed back down to wait in line. Addie was SO excited to see Santa and tell him what she would like for Christmas. She said over and over that she was going to ask for a baby carriage and a new baby doll. When it was our turn, she hopped up on his lap, smiled really big for the picture, and then told him she wanted a baby carriage. After we left, she said, "Oh no! I forgot to tell him I want a new baby doll!" Daddy consoled her by telling her we'd just write him to give him the update :) Cute.

Landon was juuust about done for the evening, and his pants somehow got bunched up, but I'm still gonna deem this one an overall success (Addie's hat-head and Landon's deer in the headlight look and all ;)).

Nine months

2009-12-10T21:01:00.005-06:00

Chubby McChubsters has apparently slowed down just a little bit! We went today and he weighed 19 pounds, 13 ounces. Now don't get me wrong - I cannot believe he is almost 20 pounds (I mean, I can, because I've HELD him...geez...), but he had been on the 50th percentile curve and he dropped slightly below this time. Addie's 9-month checkup was when she dropped from the 50th percentile to the 25th-ish, too, so I thought that was funny. He was almost 28 inches long (25th percentile) and his big noggin looked to have stayed on the 50th.

Anyway, Dr. Hood asked the typical questions and deemed him perfect! He showed off his standing and pulling up skills while we were there and she was quite impressed :) He also giggled practically the whole time we were there. What a charmer. It was easy for him to be entertained because his little monkey of a sister was bouncing off the walls!

While we were there, they offered the H1N1 vaccine, so we got the kiddos' second shots. Talk about feeling like the worst mom ever, since I had been telling Addie over and over that she wouldn't get any owies at the doctor's office. Oops. Both kiddos cried. Double oops. But - Landon was a CHAMP during his anemia test. He didn't even flinch for the finger prick. What a trooper!

So...at nine months, Landon is:
* pulling to stand
* sometimes taking a few "cruising" steps holding on to furniture
* crawling on all fours about half the time (army crawling the rest)
* "talking" all the time! He's added "baba" for bottle and "bye-bye" to his vocabulary for a grand total of three words (mama still being the most common :)
* EDIT: I did forget that he's been saying "momo" for "more" and Dada. Poor JM - I didn't mean to leave this one out! It was a happy day!
* plays peek-a-boo like a pro! He played with Cece by ducking below the arm of the couch and popping back up over and over.
* a human clock. He goes to bed - without fail - every night at 7 p.m., and wakes up - also without fail - at 6:30 a.m. You could also set a clock by his diapers, but no need to be any more descriptive than that ;)
* as happy as ever! He's a smiley, giggly boy.
* still a mama's boy
* the proud owner of three teeth (two on the top and one on the bottom)
* in 9- and 12-month clothes
* in size 3 diapers still
* wearing size 3 shoes!
* my precious little boy. I can't get enough!
* 100% a bottle boy now. He started nursing a few weeks ago, pulled off, looked at me and said, "Baba?" *Tear.*
* a table food king! We tried him with some red beans last week and he LOVED them! He's had bananas and lasagna (crazy, I know) since. I can't believe he is ready for this. I feel like we went so much slower with Addie, but since he was showing the signs, we gave it a shot.

Aw, shucks.

Yummy!

Speaking of chompers

2009-12-04T22:08:00.003-06:00

Addie had her first dentist appointment today! Of course, we have been meaning to take her for months now, but since I was studying for the bar this summer, let's face it: all non-emergency appointments were pretty much on hold. Anyway, so the other night I was helping her brush her teeth and I took a peek at her molars. They were a MESS! I completely flipped out. It looked like one of them was broken and it was really rough to the touch. I was convinced that I was going to be awarded the "Worst Mom Ever" award because I was positive it was a huge cavity. I told JM about it and he said it was probably nothing, but the next morning, I showed him and he got quiet and said, "Oh my gosh." It really looked that bad. So I called yesterday and got an appointment for her today.

We went to Franklin Pediatric Dentistry and I was SO impressed. Addie walked in the office and her eyes lit up. Everything was so kid-friendly! She immediately went over to the coloring table and sat down. When they called us back, she was still pretty excited. Overall, she did well. In fact, she was very cooperative with the dentist (who was AWESOME) until the end of her exam. She took a little coaxing to get her teeth cleaned but ended up opening wide for the marshmallow-flavored toothpaste :). Unfortunately, for the fluoride treatment, we did have to hold her down. But we had to have that done. It turns out that Addie's "huge cavity" I saw was really enamel hypoplasia. In short, she has little to no enamel on her molars, and the enamel on the rest of her teeth is malformed. The dentist explained that this is usually due to some event that occurs when the teeth are being formed (likely, a high fever). Interesting, huh? He also said that we are doing a great job taking care of her teeth and to just keep going with what we're doing. She will be very prone to cavities because of this, so we'll have to keep a close eye on it. We are so blessed that she has no cavities at this point, because we would have likely been facing a surgery to cap all of the molars with crowns (the surgery due to her age and need for sedation, not necessarily the damage to her teeth).

Because I was so worried about this appointment, I didn't bring our camera!

Chompers!

2009-11-24T20:43:00.002-06:00

Landon got his first tooth on Saturday! Oddly enough, it broke through the day after he turned 8 1/2 months - the exact time Addie's first tooth came in. This is his bottom right tooth. I was changing his diaper and noticed a little white in his mouth, and sure enough, there it was! Then Sunday, I was tickling him and noticed that his top two are right there at the surface! I'd expect them within the next week (and they are cutely as far apart as Addie's - if not moreso). The funny thing is that I can neither see nor feel the other bottom tooth at this point. He's been fussy the past few days, so I hope these teeth hurry up! Pictures will come as soon as they're visible to the non-mommy eye/hand. :)

It's official!

2009-11-21T19:15:00.005-06:00

I'm official! An official attorney! Scary, huh? I attended the swearing-in ceremony this past Wednesday, November 18, at the War Memorial Building. It was AWESOME! Okay, admittedly, when I first got there, I thought it was a crazy mess and wished I had gotten sworn in locally. But being there with the Supreme Court Justices was amazing. I think the Chief Justice mentioned that 140 people were being sworn in that morning. Each individual got introduced by a "sponsor," so it did take about 2 hours. After each motion was made, one of the Supreme Court Justices would say, "Mr./Ms. [Sponsor], your motion is granted, and Mr./Ms. [New Lawyer], congratulations and welcome to the practice of law." It was pretty cool.

My wonderful boss, Shauna Billingsley, was my sponsor. She made her motion (which was so very sweet and personal) and introduced herself and mentioned that I have accepted the staff attorney position at the City. At the time my motion was made, Justice Gary Wade was granting the motions, but after Shauna made hers, Justice Connie Clark interrupted and said that she would like to take mine. She said (something to the effect of...), "Ms. Billingsley, I know that you come from a long line of wonderful Franklin City Attorneys - me being one of them - so I am honored to grant your motion. Ms. Corn, you have chosen an amazing career path. I welcome you to the practice of law - and the politics - of Franklin, and also to the bar of the state of Tennessee." Of course, the audience laughed, and it was very, very cool. At that point, I was so glad that I had done the ceremony. It was awesome to receive a personal welcome from a Supreme Court Justice! Shauna and I both guessed that she would say something personal because she was smiling pretty big at us when we were in line. AWESOME. Still kind of on cloud nine from that one ;)

And...I know I'm a dork. :)

Anyway, one thing that I believe all the justices pointed out in their speeches at the end was that none of us could have gotten where we are without the support of our family and friends. Although I do think that's true for everyone, I think it was especially true for me. I have THE MOST AMAZING family and friends and I certainly don't even pretend like this whole long, drawn-out mess of the past five years was anything but a joint effort. I am so very blessed.

Again, anyway...

It was dark in the auditorium, so the ceremony pictures didn't really come out, but here's a few (the first two are from before).

Daddy, me, Mommy and JMC
(oops - for blog purposes, I guess I should say: PawPaw, Mommy, Mimi, and Daddy :))

Shauna and me

Okay, I know it's hard to tell what's going on here, but you can see the Justices and the back of my head. :) Shauna was making my motion (the back of her head is to the left of mine :)). The man standing up is the Clerk of the Appellate Court System.

Three-and-a-half

2009-11-17T20:39:00.007-06:00

I am also late on this post, but only a week. Look at me go! Slow down, Kristen!

I really can't believe that my baby girl is now closer to four years old than three. I used to roll my eyes at my parents when they would say, "Seems like just yesterday, you were..." and now I know what they're talking about. It really does seem like just yesterday that we were finding out we were expecting our first baby...then that she would be a girl...then welcoming her into the world. And now, here we are with a beautiful, smart, sassy little miss. I don't really know where to begin with my sweet girl. She is so full of herself and is well aware of how stinking cute she is. She is so exhausting with her little attitude, yet I am so completely overwhelmed with love for her and can't get enough of her. She is a little *girl* now and not a little baby, and SO MUCH FUN to be around! Her teachers still brag on how smart she is, and how "overall" she's such a good girl (yes, their words - ha!). She has started getting "sad faces" at school every once in a while, and although I take it seriously and we sit down and discuss why she got her sad faces, I get such a kick out of her explanations! My favorite one was this:

Me: Addie, why did you get a sad face today?
Addie: Because I wasn't listening.
Me: Did you not have your listening ears on?
Addie: No.
Me: Why not?
Addie: Because I didn't like the ones they had at school today. I was looking for some Princess ones.

[She also often tells me that she left her listening ears in the car, her toy bin, in bed, etc. :)]

Addie says the funniest things and is very into pretend play lately. I overheard her bossing around her stuffed animals a few weeks ago and asked her who she was talking to. She said, "Emma." When I started to look concerned (yes, I know imaginary friends are normal, it just surprised me), she said, "Don't worry, mom, I'm just pretending." Hehehe. She also thinks she is hilarious and now likes to fake laughing after she'll say certain things. She cracks herself up.

Along with keeping us in tears from laughter every day, Addie also amazes us with how smart she is! She is getting really good at writing her letters and loves to write "mom" all over everything. She can also write other small words if we help her spell them, but she is great with her name on her own (but has a little trouble with the 'e').

She is still a great big sister. She's really started getting upset with Landon when he gets her toys and has started occasionally wanting to pretend she's a baby. As long as she doesn't start truly regressing, I'm okay with that ;) Addie is also very good with Landon when he's upset. Sometimes all he wants is to be held, and she'll give him a hug or just say "boo!" to him, and both make him giggle immediately. I am so excited to watch how they play together as they get bigger.

There's so much more I could say about my sweet girl, but it'll get way too sappy. She is my pride and joy! Oh, and I'm well aware of how hellacious her teenage years may be ;)

Helping Daddy make dinner - she is such a good helper in the kitchen!

Mess of curls!

Love.

JM was trying to get a movie of Landon standing up on the dollhouse and got this instead - glad she's so concerned ;)

How old??

Eight months

2009-11-16T21:04:00.007-06:00

Okay, a teeny bit (almost two weeks...) late, but no big deal! I'm not quite sure where to begin with my sweet boy. He's growing too quickly! He is still such a happy, sweet boy, even if he's a SQUEALER! He's been getting in "trouble" at school the past couple of weeks for waking up the newborns with his squeals. He thinks it's so funny. His teacher, Ms. Jen, says that he'll squeal really loudly then look at her to see her reaction. He loves school SO much but is quite happy to see mommy at the end of the day! That's good, because picking Landon and Addie up is the best part of my day, too! So, here we go again...at eight months, Landon is:

* still heavy :) He won't be weighed again until his 9-month checkup, but we did the non-scientific step-on-the-scale, step-off-the-scale technique the other day and it said he was 20.5 pounds. I'm guessing that he's a little over 19, realistically
* in 9-month and 12-month clothes (but can still fit in a few of his 6-month - mainly Carter's brand, as they seem to run bigger)
* as mobile as ever with his army crawl. I'm not sure he'll ever "officially" crawl since he is so successful with his current technique...
* pulling up to stand a lot lately
* sleeping from 7 p.m. until somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. (and that's the only time he'll nurse!)
* still a paci baby, like big sister was!
* expanding his "vocabulary," including "mamamama" and "momomomo" to his babbling (and these honestly seem meaningful sometimes for "mama" and "more"!)
* a wonderful eater - he has had almost all of the prepared baby foods and loves them all
* loves his big sister so much! He thinks she is so funny and always wants to be near her.
* showing some signs of curly hair! YAY!!!!

Attempting to get an "8-month-old" shot...

And there he goes...

Still moving...

Landon "camping out" in the living room

Always running his fingers through his hair (after he puts them in his mouth and gets food on them...yummy...)

Cutie.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T20:09:00.006-06:00

(Okay, is anyone else just blown away by the fact that we're officially in the holiday season? AAAH!)

We had an exciting Halloween weekend! Thursday night we went to Addie and Landon's school's Trunk or Treat. Addie was so excited to go and wear her costume! That lasted all of two seconds once we got there. It was outside in the parking lot (duh) and I'm not sure if it was the darkness or what, but she wanted to be picked up and held the whole time! So our exciting outing ended up lasting about five minutes. Oh well :)

Friday, JM and I both had Halloween parties at our offices. He took Landon up for his (since their outfits kinda had to go together :)), and then I picked Addie up and we all went to mine that afternoon. Addie had a BLAST trick-or-treating between the departments in City Hall. She was a doll. Landon was a hit, too! Everyone loved his and JM's outfits.

Saturday started off kinda stinky - we went to get our H1N1 vaccines. From the time we got there til the time we left, it took about an hour and a half. Thankfully we had Mimi's help to keep the kids entertained! Landon didn't even flinch when he got his shot, but Addie flipped out! I was surprised because she didn't even whimper for her seasonal flu vaccine. Not so much this time. Poor punkin! We cheered her up by taking her over to see Holland and share some of his Krispy Kremes! Mmmm. Then we walked downtown to Franklin's Pumpkinfest. It was madness, but it was fun!

We then went home and got ready for Mimi and PawPaw to come over to have dinner with us and go trick-or-treating. All was going well until Addie had to take a bath. Oh my goodness - that set off the biggest tantrum she has EVER had. Ever. It lasted almost an hour. There were tears, there was screaming. Whew. She was screaming that she didn't want to be a froggy anymore, she wanted to be a princess! I put it off as long as I could, but finally gave her a little spanking (y'all know that means she was BEYOND BAD for me to do that - not that I'm against spanking, it is just my very last resort with Addie), and she shaped up practically immediately. We sat and talked about why she got her spanking and what mommy and daddy expected of her, and she was her sweet self from that point on. She later came up to me and said, "Mommy, I'm so sorry I had a fit." Hehe. *Sigh.* Little stinker. It was definitely one of those "she's lucky she's so cute" evenings ;)

So, all said and done, Halloween was great. Our little froggy and Stay Puft Marshmallow Man were precious!

The White Rabbit and Froggy Princess, on the way to Pumpkinfest!

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and a Ghostbuster

Tantrum Princess

Jumping the day after Halloween :)

John Michael taught Addie how to do bunny ears - silly!

p.s. Before you guys think I'm a slacker and am just now getting this up, I really did start it the day after Halloween (like it's dated), but Blogger froze and lost most of the post and I just now got around to being motivated to re-type it. :)

Before I get disowned...

2009-10-30T19:35:00.005-05:00

Okay, because I think my mom is taking applications for new daughters, I figured I had better get a post done! But we've had a fun couple of weeks! I found out on the 16th that I passed the bar exam which has been both exciting and terrifying :) I spent two and a half months worrying and it was a huge relief to see my name on the site! However, going from paralegal to attorney is quite a scary transition! I have to keep reminding myself that every new experience has an adjustment period, and I just have to make my way through this one!

We left the same day to go to Miami because I had a conference for work. I was so lucky to be able to have John Michael, Addie and Landon come along with me! We left our house to go to the airport about 20 minutes after the bar results were posted (I'm still not sure what I would've done had I not passed...thank goodness I didn't have to find out :)) and got into Miami that evening! We checked into our hotel and within 20 minutes decided we needed to upgrade our room. I can't imagine us all having stayed in that regular hotel room for five nights! It didn't even have a refrigerator! I was trying to figure out what in the world I would do with my milk when John Michael called the front desk to see if we could move to a suite. The only downside was that we were three floors lower in the suite, but still had an amazing view!

Anyway - I had a training seminar all day Saturday, but that evening we went out to dinner with my boss, Shauna, and her family to Bubba Gump's. I must say that for a chain restaurant, the food was really good! I was pleasantly surprised. And it was kid-friendly, which obviously is what we were going for. The next day we went to the Miami Zoo - AMAZING!!! I loooove our zoo here, don't get me wrong, but this one blew it out of the water. It was awesome. Addie loved it and was such a good girl! Landon was a joy, too. Monday, I had class again and right now I can't remember what JM did with the kids (and he's asleep right now so I can't ask him!). I think he had a blast with them, though, and was SuperDad once again, handling them on his own. Thankfully, both kids were really great the whole trip. We got a short trip to the beach on Tuesday but it was super windy. Landon was loving sitting in the sand and Addie was loving kicking it (*sigh* :)). We left to come back home on Wednesday! We had a great "becation" (as Addie called it). JM and I ended up with at least one baby in our bed every evening, but besides the sleeping issues, it was great. Oh, I also have to add that both babies were PERFECT on the airplane rides. I could not have been prouder. We got tons of comments about how good they were, and questions as to whether they are always that good. I, of course, said yes. HEHEHEHE!

Anyway, we celebrated my birthday last weekend and had Addie's last soccer game. Landon and I ended up not going because it was cold and drizzly, but Addie refused to play. She did have a good time tumbling on the sidelines! The other mommies got a kick out of it (they told me at her team party, which we did all go to right after the game). She's definitely a free spirit!

Saturday afternoon we watched a little of the UT-Alabama game with Lynn & Kris and then went over to Mimi & PawPaw's for my yummy birthday dinner. Sunday was fun, too, as we got to see Uncle Nate & Aunt Rissa and Gran & Pop at Nana & Papa's. I only wish birthday fun-time could've lasted even longer :)

Movie Star Addie in the hotel room

(Loved her hair in this picture!)

Too cute

Sissy was exhausted after a fun day Monday and fell asleep watching CareBears on her little DVD player!

The view from one side of our room. We had a corner room so we had great views all the way around! It was a great hotel - we'd recommend it (and the upgrade to the suite) - Hilton Downtown Miami.

Addie getting her first trophy!

Seven months

2009-10-11T21:45:00.002-05:00

Landon turned seven months old last week. My goodness! And so far, this has been the most eventful month (especially considering we're only 5 days into it). Phew! He came down with a little cold last weekend but seemed to be doing okay. Then on Wednesday morning, he seemed a little wheezy, so we gave him a breathing treatment, which helped. We took him to school, assuming the treatment had done the trick. Not so much. Around 1:30, I got a call from the daycare director that his teacher had called up to the front desk because she was really concerned about his breathing. The director said, "He's wheezy. Like, concerning wheezy." Goodness. After what seemed the l o n g e s t drive of my life (well, up there, at least), I got to my sweet boy. When I opened the door to the classroom, he was sitting on the floor with his teacher playing and laughing. BUT - I could hear him wheezing immediately. From the door. That's how loud it was. We went straight home to do a treatment (these are supposed to last at least four hours) and headed up to see the doctor. By the time we got seen, he was having a hard time breathing again. He was still smiling and laughing, so I wasn't too terribly freaked out, but it was still worrisome. Dr. Hood did a "super-dose" of an oral steroid and he got another albuterol treatment while we were there. Also, bad/good news: Landon will start a daily steroid breathing treatment, just like Addie. I say bad news for the obvious reasons, but I say good news because (knock on wood) I am hopeful that this will keep him from having another serious episode again. I'm especially cautious during this flu season (I had a young, healthy co-worker pass away from H1N1 about three weeks ago - it turned into pneumonia), and hope we can keep future colds from settling directly into his lungs.

Anyway, he's been doing...okay...since then. Not great, not bad, still smiling, but not quite my sweet Landon. But this morning he woke up with two VERY gunky eyes. Yup, pinkeye. It's by far the worst case I've ever seen. My mom assures me I had worse as a child, so that made me feel good :) We got eyedrops called in as soon as our pediatrician's office opened this morning, so hopefully that'll be cleared up by tomorrow. Poor sweet baby!

Back to the stats...at 7 months Landon is:
* getting heavy. Not sure how much he weighs ;)
* in size 3 diapers still
* in 6 month clothes but can also wear up to 12-month
* army crawling like a mad man!
* pulling up to stand with the teeniest bit of help
* not really content to be held but always wants someone nearby
* still in his mommy phase
* sleeping much better and now putting himself to sleep with NO cry-it-out phase! HALLELUJAH!
* enjoying his solids. He has had peas, green beans, squash, applesauce, pears, carrots, apples & prunes blend, squash & corn blend, vegetable blend, and tonight, he tried (and adored) whole milk plain yogurt (I'm super excited about that one - it was Addie's favorite :))
* still only drinking breastmilk, but I anticipate having to supplement a little with formula at some point this month. *Sigh.*
* INTO EVERYTHING! I mean, seriously! I thought Addie was into everything, but he puts her to shame. I know all my friends with boys are now saying "toldja so!" :)

Okey doke...looking for the camera. I'll find it and get pics posted asap, I promise!

Over and out, soldier!

2009-10-04T09:26:00.000-05:00

Dear Time: Slow down!

2009-10-02T18:50:00.002-05:00

We've got a serious army crawler! Video to follow...

Only a couple weeks late

2009-09-25T22:27:00.012-05:00

We went to east TN a few weekends ago for the UT/UCLA game with Nana and Papa and had such a blast! We stayed in a cabin in Wears Valley, right on the border of the National Park. Ahhh...so relaxing. The babies were both so good, and...(drum roll, please)...no one got sick! Sure, I do have to admit that they were both stuffy & coughy (is that a word?), but no puking! This is a first for Addie in the mountains - WOOHOO! She was 3 for 3 before this trip. Score one for us, finally.

Anyway, we arrived late Thursday night and then went hiking Friday. We did a 2-mile hike to and from Laurel Falls. It was gorgeous, and an easy hike (for out-of-shapers like me ;)). JM and his dad each carried a munchkin on his back and both kids seemed to LOVE their rides! I lost count of how many passersby said something to the effect of, "Now THAT's the way to travel!" Awesome. And I also lost track of how many times I responded, "Yeah, I tried to get them to carry me!" I think I'm so funny sometimes.

;)

Again, I digress. Soooo, the hike was great, dinner Friday was awesome (King Crab legs...mmmm...), and Saturday, we went to campus. Although Addie had been to a tailgate before, she had never been to a game. The last one I had been to was when I was pregnant with her! I can't believe I made it so long. Craziness. The tailgate went well, overall. We actually got there a little bit late (we had been checking out the black bear at the cabin!), so we ended up dropping Landon & Addie off with Nana and Papa for a "few" minutes to go to the bookstore to get a hat for Landon. Of course, it was Vol Walk time, so it took us a little longer to get from the Communications Building to the UC than we expected (yes, we now know to go to Stokeley, but we weren't thinking...), so we got back with only a few minutes before the game. It was SO exciting to walk into the stadium with my babies! It may sound cheesy, and I know they probably won't remember it, but I was so super excited to share that with them. What a feeling.

The game ended up being at Landon's feeding time, so he took a bottle and passed out for the whole first half of the game (yes, I really did pump in the car surrounded by about two dozen tailgate parties before the game - awesome :)). Addie started out a little timid with all the noise in Neyland, but then really got into it and was clapping and cheering. It was way too cute. She did great until about two minutes left in the second quarter, so we took our cue and left then. I'm still surprised we got to see (nearly) an entire half of a game with two little ones! We definitely couldn't have done it without the assistance of 1) Nana & Papa; 2) popcorn; and 3) Dippin' Dots. Ha!

It was such an awesome, relaxing weekend and we are so very grateful to Nana and Papa for it. Can't wait to do it again!

On the road (after nap #1)

Addie & Papa shelling beans in the cabin. Addie is a natural!

(actually, this was on the trail right outside the front door of our cabin, before our "big" hike)

Look at that face! AAAH!

Ready to hike!

On the way to campus

Landon was apparently not feeling so photogenic. But 3 outta 4 ain't bad... ;)

I think the Elmo hat was her "security blanket" for the stadium...

YAY!

As a matter of fact, I did airbrush the random girl's cleavage out of this picture. So there!

A half a year already?!

2009-09-09T21:02:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I think I'd be very interested in a device that could make time stand still. I can hardly believe how fast everything goes by! I am fully aware that it is cliche, but it really does seem just like yesterday that we were headed to the hospital to meet our sweet boy, and now he is six months old! I can't even begin to describe the amount of joy he brings to us. He is such a sweet, loving baby. Yes, Addie still thinks he is the greatest thing ever, but she is starting to get irritated when he grabs her things, or if he's kicking blindly while feeding and kicks her. He has been in a mommy phase for the past month or so, which I don't hate ;)

At six months, Landon is:
* 17 pounds, 10 ounces (50th percentile)!
* 26.5 inches long (50th percentile)
* sitting up all by himself
* grabbing anything and everything he gets near
* sleeping much better at night; wakes up once around 2:30 or so and usually puts himself back to sleep after babbling for a little while
* still squealing all the time
* rolling everywhere; still no signs of crawling anytime soon
* starting to eat baby food - so fun! We tried out sweet potatoes two days before he turned six months old - he did great. Peas came two days after, and he adored them. Tonight we tried carrots - he ate the whole jar!
* the proud recipient of the "Best Smiles" award at school. Ha!
* still thinking he's too cool to breastfeed. He'll nurse only first thing in the morning. I can't decide whether I think the breastpump is the best or worst invention in the world... :)
* babbling nonstop
* wanting to be held all the time lately
* my sweet little boy!!!

At sissy's soccer game