old friends, new friends

Carolyn and I have been friends since I moved to Georgia back in 1992 at the young age of 15. Our friendship gets better with age and now we are both blessed to be mommas. Sadly, my dear friend no longer lives in Atlanta, she lives in Valdosta, so I don't get to see her as often...but they say it is quality and not quantity that counts. So of course I took advantage of being in Homerville this week (a short 30 minutes from Valdosta) to get some Carolyn time.

Today we decided to have a play date with the kiddos. Luke and Harris, her sweet boys, and The Mayor. Harris was napping when we arrived, poor baby is teething and needed an extra nap, so he missed most of the fun. Luke and The Mayor enjoyed the beautiful weather here in South Georgia. It was a cool 63 degrees when we headed to Valdosta for our play date, so the boys spent most of the morning playing outside. They took turns kicking and throwing the soccer balls, riding on the big trucks and playing with matchbox cars...such boys! They seemed to enjoy playing together, and I hope Luke, Harris and The Mayor have a lifelong friendship like me and Carolyn do. After lunch I had one worn out boy and we headed back to Homerville for nap time.

After nap, we played until MeMe and Big Daddy got home from work and then we all ate dinner together. After dinner, MeMe volunteered to give The Mayor a bath and this mommy graciously accepted! The Mayor is now sleeping and the adults are enjoying some peace and quiet. The week is flying by...tomorrow is our last full day here. We are going to miss everyone but are ready to get home and see daddy. We miss him terribly.

Playing with MeMe before bedtime

homerville bound

The Mayor and I are hanging in Homerville. We arrived yesterday after lunch and have been enjoying our time here tremendously! Yesterday we just hung out at Big Daddy and MeMe's house. The Mayor was in no mood to do anything but chill out at the house last night...he had only a 40 minute nap and was overly stimulated with our traveling so he was such a pill. Needless to say he went down extra early for bedtime and slept a long 14 hours. He woke up in a fantastic mood and ready to start the day.

This morning we loaded up and headed to Valdosta. I took him on a tour of where his mommy used to live while in college...obviously more fun for mommy than for The Mayor...but still, he got the tour. Afterwards, we went to the university bookstore and bought The Mayor a t-shirt. My friend Carolyn met up with us and we took a walk around campus. It is so beautiful! The Spanish style buildings and the Spanish moss hanging from the huge oak trees took me back to freshman year. The campus has almost doubled in size with beautiful new buildings, it almost seemed like a different school. After our walk, we went to pick up Carolyn's sweet boys and headed to Zaxby's for lunch. The Mayor LOVED eating with Harris and Luke. We are going back to Valdosta in the morning to have a play date with Harris and Luke and we could not be more excited! The weather here is gorgeous; we picked the perfect week to come visit.

Eating with Harris

After a 3 hour nap from The Mayor this afternoon, he woke up to find Big Daddy already home from work. After some play time with him, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tom, Trey and Luke arrived. The Mayor had the BEST time playing with his cousins. Once MeMe got home from work, we went to local favorite Jimbo's for dinner. You can't come to Homerville without eating at Jimbo's! More play time after dinner and The Mayor was ready for bed at 7:30. He played hard and loved every second of it. This week will be a fun week but tiring for him...but that is ok with me...he can catch up on his rest next week!

Playing with Big Daddy

Hanging out with Trey, Luke and Aunt Nat

Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tom, Luke and The Mayor

love this time of year

This is by far my most favorite time of year. When September rolls around I get so excited...college football is starting, cooler weather, holidays around the corner. So this weekend I was especially excited when the first fall festival was here!!

Today we were greeted with rain again, but that didn't stop us...we loaded up and headed to downtown Duluth for the Fall Festival. We got to the Fall Festival just in time to see the parade start. The Mayor enjoyed seeing the cars in the parade and people kept throwing candy into the crowd. The Mayor worked on a Tootsie Roll pop for about 40 minutes and loved every sticky minute of it. We walked around and checked out the vendors until lunch time and headed home.

Troops from Fort Benning getting ready to be deployed to Iraq in a couple of weeks

The Mayor and daddy enjoying the parade

After nap we decided to take advantage of the rain by going to Bruster's for ice cream and taking advantage of their free 2nd scoop when it is raining! The Mayor loved his free baby cone too. From there we went to the mall to get The Mayor's Halloween costume and then dinner with PopPop.

Enjoying his own personal ice cream cone

Tomorrow is church, tennis for mommy and then laundry and packing. Monday, The Mayor and I take off to South Georgia to visit Big Daddy, MeMe, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tom and cousins Trey and Luke (my in-laws). We hate that daddy has to work and can't come with us, but we are so excited to see them all!

I love this time of year!

milestones

One month away from The Mayor's 2nd birthday and today we had a big milestone. I wish it was something sweet and endearing like The Mayor sang me a song or when he started walking or came up to me and grabbed my face and said "I love you". No, today's milestone is a milestone in the not so glamourous life of having a toddler. Today, The Mayor figured out how to take off his own diaper.

The morning started out perfect. The Mayor decided to sleep in extra long and I got a call from a dear friend from Texas whom I haven't spoken to in months. I got to talk to her for a long 45 minutes when The Mayor finally started waking up around 10AM. I went upstairs to get The Mayor dressed for the day when I saw his pajama pants lying on the floor. Not abnormal, he usually takes his pants off when he is sleeping in separates. And I could smell that a bowel movement had occurred in the middle of the night, again, not abnormal. It was upon walking up to the crib that I saw it. And by 'it' I mean, yep, you guessed it....poop. All over. And by 'all over' I mean, yep, you guessed it...ALL OVER. All over his quilt, his sheet, his "dogdog", his legs, his feet, his back. And apparently the diaper removal had occurred hours before he decided to wake up for the morning because the poop was essentially lacquered onto his body. I tried to initially scrub him down with baby wipes so bath time would be easier but no such luck.

The Mayor had 2 baths this morning. One to scrub him clean, I had to scrub so hard that his legs were red. Then we cleaned the tub and started with bath number #2 to reclean him. By 11:00AM, we finally went downstairs to feed The Mayor breakfast. Then I was able to get back upstairs to disinfect his entire crib. Sheets, quilts, "dogdog" all went into the wash on the sanitary wash (a God send of a washing cycle). Then I had to disinfect his mattress and all the slats of his crib. By 11:30 this morning, we were finally ready to start our day. Only 2 1/2 hours behind schedule. Not too bad considering we hit a huge milestone this morning.

Somehow I have the feeling that we have already hit all the fun milestones like crawling, walking, talking, kissing and we are on to the "fun" milestones. I feel crayon drawings on my walls right around the corner.

All clean

seriously

seriously?! This is about the only word I can use to sum up our day. It was just "one of those days". Didn't even get the camera out to take one picture...I don't know if it was leftover frustration The Mayor was feeling from being cooped up in the house for 8 days, but sweet Lord, he was SO FUSSY. The Road Runner could have been his babysitter and he still wouldn't have gotten things done fast enough for The Mayor. If The Mayor wanted his cup, he wanted it 5 minutes ago. Apparently I should have just been smart enough to know he was going to ask for it and already had the cup prepared. Duh...

We had lunch with Aunt Morgan (who now is called Meega). We have been trying to get The Mayor to say Morgan since he could talk...always comes out as "daa", so we have been playing around with nicknames and Meega came out. When Aunt Morgan walked into the restaurant today, The Mayor saw her and said "Meega"! So Meega it is! Anyway, The Mayor was such a pill for me while we were waiting for Meega to show up and the second she walked through the door, he was the perfect angel. WHAT?! I am beginning to think I bring out the worst in him...hmmmm. Lunch with Meega was a great break in our day.

Nap time wasn't nearly long enough and the fussiness began immediately. One hour left in our day and that will be filled with dinner and a shower. Praying The Mayor gets good sleep and wakes up a new boy tomorrow...

here comes the sun...

do do do do...here comes the sun and I say, its alright...that song ran through my mind all afternoon. And what a welcome song it was! After waking up to yet another gloomy and wet morning, I just knew we were in for another LOOOOONG day. After breakfast, I loaded up The Mayor and we were off to Catch Air, an indoor playground/inflatable playground here in town. Best $5 I ever spent. The Mayor ran from one inflatable object to another for an hour straight, stopping only to have a sip of water. By the time we were ready to go, he was worn slap out and sweating from head to toe. When we exited Catch Air, what did we see? The Sun!! Something we have not seen in over 8 days. I couldn't believe it. My joy from playing with The Mayor at Catch Air went to sadness...had we just missed our opportunity to play outside in some sunlight? Was the sun still going to be there after nap time?

Yahoo! The sun was still shining when The Mayor woke up from his nap! The sky was the perfect blue and every cloud was puffy and pure white. If a non-Atlantan came to visit my house today, they would have had a tough time believing that just 24 hours before we were a floodin'. We hopped right into our jogging stroller to walk up to the store to pick up a couple of items, and then we hit the playground on the way home. We spent time on the swings, going up and down the slide, running around...you name it, we did it! The best part, daddy got home early and met us up at the playground. Now it is dinner time, bath time and then off to bed for The Mayor. Praying for sunshine tomorrow...would love another great day like we had today!

if you can't beat 'em...

...join 'em. We are so over this rain that we really need to come up with a new word then just over. And since there is no end in sight...well, I lie, but the end in sight isn't until NEXT Monday, we are going to Target as soon as nap time is over today and buying rain boots and a rain coat. Tomorrow, we play outside in the rain. Neither The Mayor nor myself can stand another day locked inside the house.

date night

I know, date night, so exciting! But only if it had been for me and daddy. Nope, it was date night for The Mayor. Friday night we had our good friends come over and their precious daughter, Emersyn. They played well together, shared their food, tried to share their sippy cups, sat together on the couch and The Mayor even leaned in for a kiss! Of course, all the while the parents are egging it on and taking pictures. So cute when they are under two years old. Now when they are 15, it will be a different story. They will be locked in separate rooms!

The rain never left this weekend, so we found lots of ways to entertain ourselves indoors. Did some shopping for some new work clothes for daddy, cheered on the Dawgs (whew, close one) and played in almost every room of the house trying to pass the time.

Now that The Mayor is learning to ride his tricycle and his mini four-wheeler, I thought it only appropriate that a bicycle helmet be purchased. If his walking skills are any indication of how he will be on a motorized vehicle, trust me, the head protection is a must! He loved it, kept checking out his reflection in the oven door and walked around with it on in the house. Now the next test will be using it in the great outdoors. Fingers crossed!

rain, rain, go away

Seriously, rain, go away. I admit, I love a good rainstorm and day inside the house every once in a while...but an entire week of rain is torture, especially with children. Can I get an Amen?! Day 2 of serious cabin fever hit this morning, almost before I even got The Mayor out of the crib. No lie. It was like he could feel the rain outside and knew the day ahead was going to be a boring one. Mr. Whiny Pants then made his appearance. And this is after he slept in until 9:30. Can't imagine how the morning would have started if he had woken up at his normal 8-8:30 time. Breakfast was actually a good one...he ate 3 waffles (you would think I was starving the kid) and 2 glasses of OJ. While he was eating, I was trying to map out the day. I then realized I got a free 60 day membership to BJ's wholesale club. PERFECT! Who doesn't love killing time in a wholesale club? Aunt Morgan even agreed to meet us for the field trip...bonus!

The trip was fun. They sell all the brands we use and I realized we could be saving a lot of money by buying this stuff in bulk. Such a productive morning. Got us out of the house, realized I could be saving this household some money, found a Thomas The Train DVD on sale for The Mayor...good day! The Mayor welcomed the change of scenery and mommy welcomed some adult interaction. Win Win!

On a side note, I finally caved in and got The Mayor a haircut. I LOVE the curls he has, but the sides were getting a bit too long and he could barely see with the hair in his eyes. I took him to Halfpint Haircuts and they spoiled him rotten. They loaded him up with a DumDum lollipop and put in a Thomas DVD for his own personal TV at his haircutting station. He was mesmerized. Didn't move. The perfect toddler getting his haircut. I, on the other hand, held back tears as I watched his sweet curls fall to the floor. Luckily, his hair grows quickly and those curls should be back in time for The Mayor's 2nd birthday.

what a day...

...and I wish I meant that in such a good way. You know when it is still dark outside but already 9 in the morning, you are going to have a day where you just want to crawl back into bed and sleep for another couple of hours. Oh, but wait, a toddler resides here. So plans of course change, no going back to bed for me. Why is it when it is a nice day outside but you want to stay in, everyone seems to be happy with that decision? But when it is raining and you have no choice but to stay inside, everyone gets cabin fever? By 9:30 this morning, we were already tired of being in the playroom so we moved play time to the family room. That bought us about 45 minutes (and I am being generous). Not even Elmo and Thomas could keep The Mayor entertained. By 11 AM, the torrential downpour had finally stopped so we could finally run errands. Play time moved to mommy and daddy's bedroom so I could take just 5 minutes to get some clothes on. In those short 5 minutes, The Mayor had managed to wander in the closet, play in the luggage, be put into time-out and tear a page out of his "Little Engine That Could" book. At that moment, I resorted to every mother's eventual best friend...bribery. "Do you want to go to Publix and get a cookie?" God bless the Publix bakery and their free cookie club for kids. I have never seen a kid move so fast...shoes were on and we were out the door in under 2 minutes.

Luckily the trip to Publix took us to lunch time, lunch time led to nap time and the blessed child is still sleeping 3 hours later. Oh look, I see the sun peeking through too. Looks like it could be a good day after all...

one happy boy

boys weekend

I believe the motto of the weekend was "no girls allowed". Daddy and The Mayor had a great long weekend of spending time together...boy time. While I was working and missing my boys terribly, they hardly knew I was gone. At least this is my version of the story. When daddy goes out of town for business, The Mayor does nothing but talk about "dada". And by the end of the 2nd day without daddy, The Mayor really gets depressed. He will walk to the garage door and cry for his daddy...just hoping he can will his daddy to walk through the door. Since I am never out of town, I was kind of excited about the response I was going to get upon my return. I just knew when I got home there was going to be such excitement from The Mayor. I mean, 3 days without mommy...that would have to just be heartbreaking for my little guy. Ha! Mommy was so wrong...

I was able to finish the project early and come home Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I got home after The Mayor was asleep. Sunday morning daddy went to get The Mayor and brought him into our bedroom. I just knew he was going to be so happy to see me! Nope. He said "Hi Mama" and then proceeded to walk away from me, climb into daddy's lap and snuggle with him while they watched "Thomas The Train". Hello?! Over here, remember me? Your mother...been gone for 3 days...can I get a little love?

The rest of the day was just fantastic. The Mayor decided since I had been gone that I no longer had any say, so when I would tell him to stop doing something or leave something alone, he would just look at me...and then continue doing it. Daddy would repeat exactly the same words I had just finished saying and The Mayor would immediately stop. What the?

Oh yeah, daddy also cleaned out our entire closet, washed our sheets and made the bed, cleaned the entire house (including our bathroom - which if you knew what my side looked like, this would be impressive) and managed to get our son to turn against me. So now he is a better housewife and the favorite parent. Again, my version of the story, and since I am the author of this blog, that is the version you are going to get.

Of course, this is written in jest. I adore the relationship between my son and husband. I am extremely lucky that they love each other the way they do.

Today is day 2 of me and The Mayor alone while daddy is back at work, and life seems to have gone back to normal. At least until my next trip out of town...

They found my old Scooby slippers when cleaning out the closet,

they are now The Mayor's new toy

the turtle and the bear

Almost 2 years ago, we were blessed to have The Mayor enter into our lives. After 5 years of trying to have children, our prayer had finally been answered. Although the road was a long one, sometimes met with tears, fears and always a lot of prayers, it was a road definitely worth traveling.

When I was just 6 weeks pregnant with The Mayor, we thought I had miscarried. It happened on a Friday night after dinner, of course after the doctor's office had closed, so we had no choice but to wait through the horribly long weekend. First thing Monday morning, we went to the doctor's office for the ultrasound. With butterflies in our stomachs and tears in our eyes, we saw him. This teeny, tiny little speck. So tiny, that every time his heart beat, he would go out of focus...but he was there. Our miracle was still safe inside me. They scheduled me for one more ultrasound for the next week to make sure baby was growing and the heartbeat was strong. At 7 weeks, we were elated to hear his heartbeat again and see that he had almost tripled in size! He was upside down and his little arm and leg buds dangled beneath him and the yoke sack that was still attached to him was above him. He looked like a turtle walking around my uterus. And thus "turtle" was named. It was fun having a nickname for the baby; it sounded better than saying "it" and it seemed to make this so much more personal and a fun way to bond with the baby for us.

"Turtle" at 7 weeks gestational

We always knew having other children was our prayer for this family. We just didn't know if the long road that took us to having The Mayor was going to be the same road for future children. Many months of worrying and wondering if I had it in me to truly do this again, I had a peace. We finally gave it to the one person who could let us know what to do...we gave it to God. One month later, we found out we were going to have another baby.

At 8 weeks gestational, we went in for an ultrasound. There was baby #2. So sweet, so innocent, so small. The baby was upside down and his little arm buds and leg buds made the baby look like a gummi bear. And thus "bear" was named.

"Bear" at 8 weeks gestational

We will add to our brood on or around March 21, 2010. We couldn't be happier. The Mayor doesn't quite understand yet, but we know he will make an amazing brother. If you ask him to kiss the baby, he will walk over and kiss my belly, but that is the extent of his understanding.

In the meantime, we will enjoy our one baby and prepare for the balance and life changes that will come with two children.

workin' 9 to 5

Momma's going back to work! Well, just for the next 4 days...but still, momma is bringing home some bacon! I am heading out of town tomorrow morning for Greenville to work on a 4 day project for a friend's market research company. I help them out about 4 times a year; it is a little break from "mom duty" and I get to make some really good money on the side. Pretty nice setup!

Daddy is taking vacation from work so he and The Mayor get some awesome daddy-son quality time. I am leaving instructions for daddy to take lots of pictures and do lots of fun things over the weekend so I have some good stuff for next week's blog.

Until then...

I am gonna miss this face while I am gone...

labor day

Mondays are usually tough around our house. After 2 days during the weekend of constant attention from daddy, Monday mornings usually start with lots of requests for daddy. The answer is always the same, "daddy is at work". Of course, The Mayor's 22 month old mind doesn't comprehend my response. I imagine it sounds oddly like Charlie Brown's teacher "wah wah wah wah". You see, we don't usually have to deal with good-byes when it comes to daddy because daddy leaves for work while mommy and The Mayor are still fast asleep, so The Mayor spends a lot of his Monday mornings walking around the house looking for his vanishing daddy..."he was here yesterday...where is he now?!" is what I imagine is going through his mind. But this Monday was different...daddy was home! What a special treat...thank you Labor Day Holiday!

There wasn't anything fantastic that occurred this extra long weekend, just lots of fun family time. A trip to the playground always makes for great entertainment. The Mayor was spoiled with an extra day to his weekend with both parents and mommy was relieved to push our typically inquisitive, sometimes whiny, Monday mornings off until Tuesday.

i yove yo

Today The Mayor is 682 days old. He is told "I love you" and kissed no less than 15 times a day just by me. That is 10,230 single kisses and "I love yous" given out by me to him since he was born. Somewhere around "I love you" number 5, his daddy was already asking "how old will he be until he says this back?" Well, it was somewhere around day 652. What a day! Seriously, the joy that was felt when that sweet face with those big teeth grinned at us and said those 3 words...hearts melted here. But there was a trick. We tried since he started talking to get an "I love you" out of him...nothing. One day last month I sang it to him and out it came "I yove yo". Sweet perfection! You sing it to him and he sings it back. And some days the "yo" is drawn out with such emphasis that I could cry.

And this is why I started this blog...for this reason, to capture it and look back on this years from now and smile. I don't anticipate the "I love yous" to get any fewer...we are already at 10,230 so in the course of his life there will be millions. But the way it is said will change. I pray when he is 15 he will still have that sweet voice and "I yove yo" will come out. I know it won't...so when his voice changes and gets deeper and the "I yove yo" is "I love you", this moment in time will be a precious memory.

the mayor

Our 22 month old son is full of life and LOVES people. Doesn't matter if you are family or a stranger, he is going to greet you like you were his long lost best friend. Thus the nickname "The Mayor" was born. My dad (PopPop) gave this nickname to him one night when he was babysitting. He had The Mayor outside playing and every person that walked by the driveway got a "hi" and a big toothy grin. My sister says he is getting ready for his campaign trail for 2040...so if you see his name on the ballot in 31 years, you better vote for him!

The Mayor enjoying life!

the reason

I am a simple girl. One not interested in the latest and greatest when it comes to technology. I like to talk on the phone but I like to use my house phone not my cell. I can not stand texting. I was probably the last to really get into email; I was most definitely one of the last to get onto Facebook. And now the blogging world...why blog? Wasn't until I had my son and saw friends around me getting into this that it started to make sense. Here is a place where I can easily update the ins and outs of our daily life. Albeit, this daily life is most of the time extremely boring, but nonetheless, it is our life. And something I would love for our children to read about one day. Who knew I could find a place to write about what happened that day, at the end of the year get it made into a book, and then I can pass that book onto my children when they are older...and all for free (well, I am sure it costs money to make the book, but whatever)! So....here we are....bloggers! Welcome to Life With The Shirleys!