15% discount

Meega and Bennett met The Mayor, Love Bug and me out to run some errands. We started at Michael's to get a Christmas tree for Love Bug's nursery and then walked over to Kohl's to check out their toys and get Bennett some clothes. I wanted to check out their toy inventory to see if it would be worth going on Black Friday. For some reason, The Mayor had a meltdown while at the store. I tried my hardest to get him to calm down, I did everything, including bribery but it was to no avail. I just let him sit in his stroller and cry it out while we waited for Meega to check out. He was so upset, the cashier checking Meega out gave her an additional 15% off her purchase...now that is a meltdown.

After he calmed down he was a completely different boy. He was sweet, I mean sugary sweet and exhausted. He fell asleep on the way to Target, and it is not a long trip. I didn't want him to sleep in the stroller (so he would sleep when we got home) so I told him he could walk while in the store. Normally he would jump at this chance. Instead he said he didn't want to walk, he wanted to be carried. Normally I would jump at this chance but do you know how difficult it is to push a double stroller while carrying a 37 pound child? It ain't easy. I'm going to have one bulging bicep.

Now that sugary sweet boy is sound asleep for a much needed nap.

inside the mind of the mayor

After reading a bedtime story to The Mayor, I had him lying on my shoulder while we rocked. The room was utterly quiet. All of a sudden, The Mayor burst into laughter. And it was the type of "old man" laughter where you have that wheezing sound coming from your throat because you are laughing so hard it is difficult to catch your breath. He sat up, looked at me, and started laughing again. Every time I asked him what was so funny, he started the "old man" laugh again. The laughter was contagious and we both just sat there cracking up over nothing. He was laughing so hard he snorted, covered his mouth with both hands in comedic horror and continued with the guttural laughing. Oh how I wish I knew what was going on in his mind that caused the spontaneous laughing. I know I will never know, but I was happy to be part of it with him.

This was a great way to end another great day. A beautiful sunny day with The Mayor in school, Love Bug and I having lunch with a friend, naps, dinner as a family and great play time with the kids before bed. D has work tomorrow and then he is off until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Can not wait for 2 full weekends sandwiched around a full week with the 4 of us at home together. I love this time of year.

just a motoring

It is hard to believe just a few weeks ago Love Bug could barely get her legs under herself and get on all 4s because she is just a motoring now. I put her down in one spot of the room, literally turn around and she is across the room. She has wasted no time in perfecting the art of crawling. She has gotten pretty good at pulling up to her knees and tonight while lying across D's back when he was laying on the floor, she pulled up to her feet.

Tonight was one of those nights I wish we had video cameras in every room of the house taping at all times. I just don't want to forget the sounds of Love Bug laughing, the sounds of The Mayor tickling his sister and saying "I got you, I got you", Love Bug babbling and all of the other things that made tonight a fantastic night.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

standing up on her toes

he loves this shirt...thankfully he has two that say "big brother" because every morning he requests to wear his "big brudder" shirt

why crawl around daddy when I can just crawl over him?

mr. independent

I believe Frank Sinatra's song "I did it my way" is going to be The Mayor's theme song for his life. Today was The Mayor's Thanksgiving lunch at his school and as the parents were in the gym setting up the tables and getting the food prepped, we noticed our children being brought down the hallway in their Thanksgiving costumes. Each child was wearing a t-shirt decorated with their handprints made into turkeys, necklaces made out of painted pasta shells, and construction paper headbands with their names on them and a feather sticking out the back. They looked adorable. And then I saw The Mayor, wearing only the t-shirt. He was the only child in his class not wearing the necklace or the headband.

He was so excited when he came into the gym and saw me. He ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug. I am so happy we are at the stage where he is still so excited to see me. The Mayor's teacher made her rounds talking to all of the parents and when she came up to me I said, "so he didn't want to wear the hat?" and she said "we are lucky he is wearing the t-shirt". I just laughed...that is my boy. He doesn't care what everyone is doing, if he doesn't want to do it, he isn't going to do it. I can only hope this strength continues through the teen years when peer pressure is kicked up a notch.

They got him to agree to wear the t-shirt once they explained to him why they wanted him to wear the shirt and only after they agreed to let him help take off his old t-shirt to put on this new t-shirt. Mr. Independent.

the placemat they made for their lunch

running free!

2nd tooth and breathing treatments

Love Bug is getting a partner for her loner of a bottom tooth...its neighbor has finally cut through! Sweet girl has half of her 2nd bottom tooth visible...and she is cute!! It hasn't slowed her down one bit either. To be honest, I would have never known she was teething without seeing the top of the white chomper. She hasn't been fussy (thank you Jesus) nor has she been biting (and considering we are still nursing, another thank you to Jesus).

I took The Mayor to the doctor this morning because we can not seem to get rid of his cough. Going on a month here, felt it was time to get the doctor to have another look. Wouldn't you know, he has an ear infection in one ear (which I had just said to D last night after The Mayor literally just fell over his own two feet, "wonder if he has an ear infection, his balance seems to be off" guess I should have gone to med school) and he needed a breathing treatment because he was wheezing. I am one of the few people amongst my friends who has never had to have a breathing treatment for my child. And I wish I was still one of those. You would have thought they were ripping out The Mayor's toenails one by one the way he screamed during the treatment. I was literally bear hugging him with one arm to keep him from pulling the mask off, while using the other arm to keep the mask over his mouth. My leg was wrapped around his legs so he couldn't thrash around. He and I were both in a full-on, dripping down his head and dripping down my back sweat. Poor Love Bug started crying because her brother was crying so loudly, so thankfully one of the nurses took her out of her stroller and walked her around until the nightmare was over. We left there with a prescription for an antibiotic for the ear infection and an inhaler for the cough.

Our inhaler treatment (with the chamber and duck mask) went OK this evening. Took a lot of bribing with some Skittles but he finally agreed to sit in my lap and breath it in. Can't wait until we get to do it all over again tomorrow...

saturdays, sec football and santa

Yeah, you actually read that title correctly...we saw Santa tonight. I know, seriously? The old man can't even wait until we've celebrated Thanksgiving before making his first appearance. We spent the day watching SEC football on TV (is there really any other kind of football to watch?) and then loaded up in the minivan and headed down the street to see Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive and light the Christmas tree. And normally this would panic me to no end, but this year I am a little bit on top of the Christmas shopping so seeing Santa didn't send me into a tailspin thinking my back is against on the wall before the big day arrives. Which for those of you counting, there is 41 days (and 4 hours) until Christmas. Where has this year gone?

cutest cheerleader ever

pretty much sums up The Mayor...on the move and holding a train

waiting for Santa

before

after

if it was only appropriate

The Mayor, Love Bug and I went to lunch with a dear friend of mine today. We usually hit one of our favorite Mexican restaurants when we go to lunch together because well, we love Mexican food but with chips and salsa immediately greeting us when we are seated at the table, it is conducive when dining with a 3 year old. "Chips and cheese" is The Mayor's absolute favorite thing to eat when at a Mexican restaurant, so when his kids nachos arrived, it allowed Sue and I to have adult conversation and kept The Mayor occupied for about 40 minutes. For a kids order of nachos this plate could more than feed an adult and takes him quite some time to finish what he can eat.

By the end of the meal, he had cheese on both sleeves of his shirt from where he leaned his arms over to grab a chip, cheese on both sides of his hands, cheese in the back of his hair from where he scratched his head, cheese in his bangs, cheese on the bridge of his nose, cheese on both sides of his pants, cheese on both sides of his shirt, cheese on the back collar of his shirt and cheese ALL over his face. If only...if only it was appropriate as an adult to dive into our favorite meal with no care in the world, where we enjoy it so much that we are literally wearing it...and still look cute as ever. If only I had my camera with me to capture the cuteness.