true love

There is nothing better in the world than a parent's love for their own child...nothing. And it is a love that you can not experience until you have a precious angel to call your own. It is always expected a mother adores her child, and I absolutely do, but it is such a wonderful thing to witness the pure unconditional love between my husband and our son. It is amazing to see how the love for that child can penetrate your husband's heart and change him.

And as I watch the The Mayor and my husband coloring together, and hear The Mayor cracking up from the animal noises they are making to each other, it makes me wish these days didn't pass so quickly...

a thomas christmas

The good thing about having grandparents so close by to you is they cater to your child's likes. The bad thing about having grandparents so close by to you is they cater to your child's likes. The Mayor loves "Thomas the Train". He calls him "Tah" (I think he is trying to say "Tom"). When we pulled into my dad's driveway for Thanksgiving dinner, we saw this huge inflatable Thomas the Train in his front yard. Of course, we received no warning. So we hid The Mayor's eyes so we could get him into the house. After dinner, we took him outside to see "Tah" and every few minutes, he would go to the door and want to go back outside to see "Tah" again. My dad got the rest of his lights up tonight, so we took The Mayor back to see the finished product. The house looks fantastic, and The Mayor loved running around outside with his PopPop and seeing his "Tah". Thanks to my dad for buying "Tah"....now I don't have to!

giving "Tah" a kiss

The Mayor laid on the floor, patted the floor next to him and told his daddy to go "nite nite" with him

The Mayor squinting his eyes closed to go "nite nite"

merry merry

Ah, the Christmas decorations are up and we survived venturing out during Black Friday. As soon as The Mayor woke up this morning, we greeted him with his own Christmas tree for his nursery (a yearly tradition) and decorated it together. This year he is more aware of what is going on...he still doesn't get it (that will probably come next year) but he is still more aware. He was so excited when we plugged in the lights and saw his own Christmas tree all lit up. I love that he has his own tree with his own ornaments. Can't wait until next year when we have 2 little trees to decorate for our babies.

After breakfast, we went to the mall to do a little shopping. We accomplished what we needed to do, sadly, none of it was Christmas shopping! The Mayor needs new winter clothes, so we decided to take advantage of the discounts and coupons to get some really great deals...and we did!

I can't wait until tonight so we can take him outside to see the front of our home all lit up with white lights.

thankful

We had a wonderful time visiting my in-laws in Homerville this week. We came home this morning and then had dinner with my family this evening. It feels so good to be home and sleeping in our own beds tonight. The Mayor was so happy to be back in his crib that when we put him down for his nap this afternoon, he laid completely out and let out a huge "ahhhhhhhh". That boy loves his bed.

But it was all worth it. We are so blessed to be so close to both families that we can see them both in the same day for a holiday. And we are so blessed to have such a healthy son, who although he does love his crib, is adaptable enough to deal with sleeping in a pack-n-play for 5 nights. Every morning when he woke up in Homerville, he asked for his MeMe and Big Daddy. Then he would knock on their bedroom door to wake them up. He loved playing with his cousins Trey and Luke (who The Mayor calls "Buke"...we are still working on our L's). It was a fantastic Thanksgiving.

I wish I had kept up with the blog while on vacation, but to be honest, I was so exhausted! Keeping up with a 2 year old while pregnant and not in your own home...wore...me...out. I am so tired, I don't even have the energy to get out my Christmas decorations tonight. It will have to wait until tomorrow. Here are just a few photos from our trip this week. Happy Thanksgiving!

on our way to Homerville, he was wiped out

sharing mommy's favorite: a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake.

Next time, mommy will get all she wants before she shares...he loved it

loving on Trey and "Buke"

riding with daddy and Big Daddy in Big Daddy's new golf cart

Big Daddy let The Mayor drive...notice they are no longer on the road

"playing Wii"...he just kept swinging his arm. He also started cutting his 2 year molars,

so he did a lot of chewing on his fingers

"playing" Wii with Uncle Tom

homerville bound...part 2

We are headed out to Homerville tomorrow for Thanksgiving! We will be there until Thanksgiving morning and then coming home. Fingers crossed Meega doesn't go into labor otherwise we will be back early.

Next post will be from the deep south!! Gobble Gobble

I love this...when he sees the camera,

he bends to the side like this and says "cheeeeeeese"

one more time

The Mayor knows almost every letter in the alphabet and how to count to 10. We are so proud of our little man. The other night we started teaching him the alphabet song. He loves to dance while we sing our ABCs. And when you get to the end and sing "next time won't you sing with..." he sings "me". Then he puts his little index finger up to his check, smiles and says "one more time". Of course it sounds more like "mun mo tine". We giggle and start all over. He cracks up when you start over knowing he has you right where he wants you. After he sings "me", he holds up that finger to his check and says "mun mo tine". This can and sometimes does go on for 15 minutes. And when we do it at bed time, after we have kissed him and covered him up for "nite nite", we can hear him through the door "singing" his ABCs. It just doesn't get much better or much sweeter than this age.

some days are just good days

You wouldn't know it is November; today was a beautiful 75 degree day. So we obviously didn't waste one second of it indoors...we headed to the playground this morning for almost a 2 hour playdate with our MOM's club. The Mayor had such a great time, and is really becoming so big. I barely had to help him up the stairs to get to the slides. He was walking all over the playground contraption, playing with all the other kids, just being so big. Made me proud and sad all at the same time. My little baby boy is growing up.

After our playdate, I had to go grocery shopping since he was in no mood to do it yesterday. He was such an angel. He talked to me while I grabbed my groceries and quietly snacked on his goldfish crackers. After shopping was lunch where he proceeded to eat 2 bowls of applesauce (all by himself...and not too messy either) and a PB&J. He took a long 3 hour nap and then "helped" me make chocolate chip cookies. He watched and ate some chocolate chips while I did the baking. He clapped for me every time the mixer was turned off and then on. Such the cheerleader! I hear the laughter from upstairs while he and his daddy play in the playroom while I finish baking cookies and making our dinner. Yes, some days are just really good ones...and this was one of them...

Looking forward to tomorrow...

enjoying the chocolate chips

he takes after me

santa came early

This weekend, we decided to take The Mayor to a local outdoor mall for the lighting of the Christmas Tree (seriously can not believe we are lighting Christmas trees 2 weeks before Thanksgiving...but whatever...) and see Santa. Since The Mayor just recently turned 2 and he will be sitting in Santa's lap in about a month and a half, we thought we need to get The Mayor as used to Santa as possible to attempt to avoid major meltdowns come Santa picture time. While we were waiting for the big guy in red to arrive, we bumped into our friends Mike and Wendy and their sweet daughter Emersyn. The Mayor and Emmy are great friends, so they had quite the time entertaining each other (and in the process, wearing each other out). Also, we are Georgia fans and they are Auburn fans, so it is a rivalry in the making. They were both dressed the part and just as cute as could be.

The Mayor really could have cared less when the lights came on the tree and he didn't pay that much attention when Santa rode by. But he still had a great night. He did think it was hilarious when we told him Santa says "ho ho ho". That got a lot of good laughs...he tried to mimic what we were saying and it came out "oh oh oh". We're getting there...

play, play, play

Today is such a beautiful day. Sunny with not one cloud in the sky and the temperature is hovering nicely in the 60s. Thank you Jesus for such a beautiful day. This was needed and badly. I have no idea if it is the full moon, the rainy weather, the fact that we are now in our 2s...whatever it is has been tough these past couple of days. This morning we met up with our MOM's club at a local park to play on the playground and to feed the ducks. This was the first time The Mayor saw "quack quacks" in person. He was so excited. We brought some bread to feed the ducks and The Mayor had the best time. He was the group cheerleader. After each piece of bread was thrown into the lake, he jumped up and down clapping saying "yay!!". After a nice walk around the lake, we went to Mickey D's for some lunch with some other mom's from the group. By the time we got home, he was more than ready for nap and today he is sleeping soundly. As soon as he wakes up, we are going back to the park. We are not wasting one second of this beautiful day inside. This energetic toddler needs to be free!

cheering on his friends while they fed the ducks

so excited to see the ducks

steak 'n' shake

One word: "Yum". We got a flyer for Steak 'n' Shake in the Sunday paper and I immediately started craving it. So much so that I could have eaten the flyer itself the burgers and shakes looked so good. Gotta just love being pregnant...

PopPop, Meega, The Mayor and myself met at Steak 'n' Shake for lunch today. It was just as delicious as I had hoped it would be. The Mayor loved seeing his PopPop and Meega during the day, and I got to satisfy one strong pregnancy craving. Win win. I am so blessed to live so close to my family where we can decide to meet during the day for lunch. The only thing that would be better is if the in-laws were just as close by. Luckily, they will be here for a whole week for Thanksgiving...can't wait! The Mayor is going to have such a great holiday season with his family.

best part of my day...

...just walked through the door from work. Thank you Jesus for reinforcements. Rainy days and Mondays may get me down but rainy days and Tuesdays make me want to slam my head against the wall.

he is sweet but some days a 2 year old will just wear you down

pj day

The pregnancy insomnia has hit me and hit me hard. I will get 2-3 nights of pretty solid sleep and then inevitably, the next night hardly any sleep at all. I was up from midnight until 5:30 this morning. The Mayor started waking up around 8:00 so no good sleep for me. It was then I decided we were staying in our PJ's and playing in the playroom all day. I tried to see if The Mayor would cuddle with me and watch a movie. I had "Finding Nemo" in the playroom so "Finding Nemo" it was. I talked up the fishes and we made fishy faces while I loaded in the DVD. At exactly 1 minute 4 seconds into the movie, The Mayor got up and started playing. Boooo, no quiet time for me. We played hard and ate lunch and The Mayor fell right to sleep when I put him in his crib. Of course, I should be napping right now, but I would much rather be sleeping when the rest of the world is sleeping tonight. So I am finding enough energy to do our laundry for the week and creating new baby registries for "bear". "Nite nite" can not come fast enough for both of us tonight.

the 1 minute and 4 seconds he sat down to watch the movie

birthday celebration

This time of year is so much fun for the obvious reasons...cooler weather, football and the holidays. But it is also the time of year where we celebrate lots of birthdays. The Mayor and Meega share the same birthday and then 4 days later it is Uncle J's birthday. Tonight we finally celebrated Uncle J's birthday.

It was the perfect way to celebrate; PopPop ordered ribs from a local Bar-B-Que place so no one had to cook. We ate, shared stories, laughed and then stuffed ourselves with cake. After dinner we laughed even more while we watched The Mayor burn off all the sugar he had devoured...

helping Uncle J open his gift

cheesing it up for the camera

can't say he doesn't have personality

loves cake

playing in slippers

happy anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary...I know, we were babies when we got married. We celebrated while enjoying cocktails at the beach at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean...oh wait, nope, that was the plan if you asked the "me from 10 years ago". See the me from 10 years ago had such a different vision for her life. I had imagined the house and 2 kids but the 2 kids would already be school-aged (or about to be school-aged) and we would scurry off for a week in the sun celebrating the blessed anniversary while the kiddos stayed with the grandparents. But God had such a different path for our lives...and it is a path I wouldn't change for anything in this world.

With a two year old and a baby on the way, our celebration of 10 years of marriage was low-key. And in my opinion, far more enjoyable. We stayed home last night and ate spaghetti, played with The Mayor and watched some recorded shows after The Mayor went to sleep. This morning we continued celebrating by taking The Mayor to "Krispy Kreme" to enjoy his first hot Krispy Kreme right off the conveyor belt. Shocker - he loved it. Then we went furniture shopping for "bear". After shopping, we reorganized The Mayor's playroom and ate lunch. He is currently napping and who knows what the afternoon holds.

I couldn't be happier celebrating our wedding anniversary with the 2 people I love most in this world. Let's face it, The Mayor wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the two of us saying "I Do" on that fantastic night 10 years ago. And spending the weekend preparing for the arrival of our sweet baby girl just makes this anniversary even more enjoyable.

his first bite of a hot Krispy Kreme

he had a few bites of daddy's chocolate covered doughnut and then decided to wear it

i LOVE that kid

Man, am I in love with my son. Seriously...head over heels. Two years old can be a tough age; they can't really verbalize what they are trying to say therefore temper tantrums ensue, fits of anger seemingly from nowhere can occur at any moment. But the moments when that precious two year old is happy and wants to express it...priceless.

We just finished lunch and I went to put The Mayor down for his nap. He laid down so I could cover him up, and then he lifted his head and said "momma". I said "yes baby" and he said "momma, I love you". Then he said "nite nite". Oh...I just love that kid.

so big

Yesterday we had a playdate at an indoor playground facility. It was awesome! There were rubberized floors so I didn't have to worry about The Mayor's toddler legs keeping him upright at all times. He went from playground to playground climbing the ladders by himself and going down the slide. When did my baby become so independent? As I watched him hold on to the railing and climb the ladder alone I just wanted to cry. He still needs me but not like he used to. He is only two, and just turned two at that. How do they become so independent in such a short period of time? I guess I need to be thankful I have another little one who will be here in March to baby.

Today we met with our MOM's club for doughnuts and coffee at a new doughnut place in town. This pregnant mommy totally took advantage of the fact that she is pregnant...I got 2 of the biggest doughnuts to eat. And I loved every second of it too. The Mayor loved the doughnut holes I bought for him...he is so like his momma!