Memories...

There's a song about memories, pressed between the pages of my mind, I think. I have vivid memories of listening to that song in the car on the way to summer school with my mom and brother and being very sure that it said "pressed between the pages of my bible". I thought that made fine sense since most people I know have a ridiculous amount of things stuck in the pages of their Bibles. I lost my *favorite* Bible about 2 years ago. Gone with out a trace. It breaks my heart, I lost it once before for about a year and when I found it under the couch I cried. I mean, I broke down. I have so many precious notes, letters from people I love, irreplaceable things. When aforementioned Bible didn't show up when we moved, I resigned myself to the fact that it was just gone. So sad. I need to just buck up and start over..[edit:  I FOUND MY BLUE BIBLE!!!!  Actually, John found it, but I was so happy!!  It was up in the balcony at our church building under the communion table.  Yeah, I didn't look there.]..that's not really what I was thinking when I started typing! Here's what I was thinking:

Will is almost 2! I have been thinking a lot lately about what his first memory will be. You know that not super clear memories that you have from your earliest childhood that stick in your mind forever? I hope for my sake that it's not some kind of fight that we get in over morning oatmeal, or a time out for hitting me with a toy bat. I hope it's one of those precious moments that he will have in the "pages of his mind" forever like reading bedtime stories with us or playing chase in the living room and laughing wildly.

I have a really clear memory of sitting in my moms lap on the floor of the house I was born in with no furniture around and I think she was telling me that we were going to our new house. I even remember the positions we were sitting in, it probably wasn't anything special at the time, just moving day. But can you imagine holding your child and knowing at that instant that it was going to be their first memory??? Crazy. So make every moment count and yada yada, but how can you really do that?! I mean, real life people! Sometimes Will screams at me for the silliest things and I get really frustrated! I hope his little mind knows to file those memories under "irretrievable".

My cousin in law calls those first memories crystallized memories. She's in a child psychology class. Her first memory is dancing around with her mom to some pink floyd song I think. It's pretty cute. So here's hoping that his subconscious takes a snap shot of the good times. Like putting together the choo-choo track that he's brought over to me :)

Happy New Year, y'all!!!

Time for bed little pup, little pup...

If you don't sleep soon, the sun will be up! A favorite line from one of Will's favorite bedtime books. This child went to bed on time tonight for the first time in a week, and had dinner with NO sweets to accompany...poor baby. HAH! He's the opposite of that!
Last Thursday we left for Nanny's house, with a pit stop to stay the night at my bestest best friend's house on the way. He has been up late, entertained to no end, showered with gifts from all the wonderful people who love him, and FED. He has discovered a love of fudge, cashews and fruitcake cookies. So yum. Anyway, we spent the weekend at Nanny's and then back to my b to the ff's house on Sunday where her niece doted on him and her daughter (lovingly) bossed him! He LOVED it!

We barely had room in our car for all his new presents, and the snacks we smuggled from Nanny's. But we made it, and the drive home today was actually almost perfect. I could have done with out the rain, and the random mid-day Tuesday traffic trying to get out of the big D. Getting home was glorious, Winston could not have been more excited to see us! Will took a 30 minute bath after dinner, hah! And like I said, bed on time. I'm going to try to post some pictures here...bear with me :)Will meets Santa...see last post...

Will at Children's Museum, "bubbah!"












Trying to get him to stand still under the height measuring giraffe!











Melts.my.heart.

It's just around the corner.

Christmas, that is! We are up to our necks in Christmas activities around here. On Saturday, we had a big Christmas deal up at Levy. It was open to the surrounding community, there were crafts, cookie decorating, a bounce house aaaaaaaand SANTA CLAUSE!!! I was excited for Will to meet the big guy, last year went pretty well, he was more or less indifferent. But this year, our big boy has his own ideas, opinions and particulars. We peeked in from the other side of the room and watched a few of his friends get their pictures made. He really liked that, but when I asked him if he wanted to go see Santa, "no.". After a few failed attempts, we finally just threw him at Santa and the photo was snapped. It wasn't too cute, and I really felt guilty forcing him into it, but...I would do it again ;)
He looooved decorating cookies, for obvious reasons. Ate the entire thing himself too. He also got a turn in the bounce house, they cleared it out and let all the little kids jump for a while. That was great, he didn't really jump, but he ran around a lot which made for some funny staggering collapses.
Needless to say, naptime was very appreciated.

Then that evening, we had our annual white elephant gift exchange party! That is probably my favorite Christmas party to be a part of. It's potluck style, super relaxed and FUN! The gift exchange is the highlight. You know how sometimes at a gift exchange, you go out and get a cute body wash set that costs $10 and you end up getting stuck with used underwear or something? If that happened to you at this party, it would be your own fault! This is a clean out your garage and dig that stuff out of the goodwill type of gift exchange!! We brought a re-gifted diaper bag with a fake dirty diaper in it and a 4 pack of sports trivia books. Somehow, we took home a $10 starbucks giftcard and an Aromatique candle/potpourri set :) The giftcard was a fluke, one of the super generous organizers pitched that in and it was soooo sweet! It's technically John's though.....

Some of the funnier gifts: A VHS tape of some hunting show, crazy outdated computer hardware, a shrub...nothing else too notable, or anything you'd want to take home!!

After the exchange, they decided to fire up the bounce house again since it was already there....I am not sure the guys doing it were totally qualified though. They had a bit of trouble getting it to stay up and when the first batch of kids (older) started jumping, it COLLAPSED! I was holding Will and he was anxiously waiting his turn, and he saw the whole thing. The shriek he let out was blood curdling...So add that to his list of Christmas fears.

Monday night we went caroling with another family to the senior housing next to the church building. We only made 4 stops b/c their houses are so close together, but it was really fun! Will insisted on bringing his new truck and even showed it to a couple seniors, of course they thought it was adorable. But what isn't!

I worked today, and will again on Thursday then it's off to Nanny's!!

My goal for next post, figure out how to add pictures :) Stay tuned!

Happy Friday!

Today started veeery early! I actually had to be to work on time this morning, so that means I wake up at 6:30 so that I can be ready by 7:05, wake Will up and get out the door by 7:15. And we just almost made it :)

For a couple months now Winston has become increasingly annoying on the mornings I work. John usually feeds him, but when I work I get up first but still let John feed him. This makes Winston think that I hate him and wish he would jump off a bridge while I shower. He mopes, whines, cries and paces. The reason I don't feed him is that I would have to get up even earlier to take care of him and I just don't have it in me....SO, last night I came up with a plan! I prepared his 3 scoops of food and put his bowl in a plastic bag in my closet. This morning when Winston followed me into the bathroom, I put his food down, he ate, curled up and slept for 30 more minutes till John got up! It was great! I know he is probably winning this round, but I still feel like I am winning it b/c I thought of it...

We had our Christmas breakfast this morning at work, so it was worth getting up for. We could wear jeans as long as we were "festive". So I put on my red blazer with a wide black patten leather belt over it and went at Mrs. Clause! It was great! I proceeded to snack my way through the rest of the work day and was happy to pick up little mister at 5:30. He got to open some presents from great grandparents and loved it! He was not done opening once all the presents were gone. He "gets" the gift getting thing this year! It's fun, there's toys inside, he gets to tear paper AND make repeated trips to the trashcan, what could be better?
We had a fun couple hours at home and he played and played until at 7:15 he abruptly fell apart and we had to put him in bed. That's life! I love it!

Hope you all have a fun weekend, we are off to meet Santa tomorrow!!

Any takers...?

I was thinking today about what it takes to make a really good friend. A few months ago I was discussing this with a dear friend (who lives too far away) why it is that neither of us have made a truly close friend since leaving college. She has studied psychology and explained that one force that pulls us together is going through an experience together. Makes sense, military, residences, college roomies. And so on. But what makes a true friend with out these "experiences"? Similar values, interests, life stage and generally convenient to get together with. I have been living in Little Rock for over 7 years now and have had considerable difficulty turning up someone that I really connect with. There are lots of people that I can call on in a stressful time and need help, there are plenty of moms that I can call for a playdate, even couples or families that John and I enjoy getting together with for dinner. But the person who I can call when I have some kind of emotional freak out while Will is asleep (or awake!) and John is at work? Someone who can see me at my worst and I don't care? I'm not sure they live around here. I miss the friends who I could actually call family. Girls who I could call just to "hang out" with no plans. Someone to have coffee with, or just go to target or something. Every time I meet a female under the age of 40 I start thinking, "could this be my little rock bff??" And I get excited! But nothing ever seems to pan out. I put myself out there, I think. I invite, I conversate, maybe I annoy, who knows! But a good friend is hard to find. If it is someone with kids, then there are timing conflicts, if it's someone without kids, it's almost like we live on different planets. I just want someone who is available to me any time of day to hang out, have girl talk, mutually enjoy activities and fill that void I have been holding open! Any takers? I am glad I have a baby and a dog, they are about as loyal of companions as I could hope for.
The Psychologists found the same type of results were she lives. Things just never pan out to produce the deep connection that we yearn for. I am not trying to sound pathetic here. I have a loving husband who IS my best friend. But I would love a female friend to have around too. Maybe cloning will become less controversial and I can just duplicate the ones I love and keep them here at my house :) I might also try to find some "experience" to go through to forge some kind of bond with some unsuspecting stranger...So watch out citizens of Little Rock, you might be next on my "to do" list.

Snapshot

I had a moment tonight that I just wanted to take a snapshot of...We got back from church a little early so Will didn't have to go straight to bed. He was playing around on the couch where John and I were sitting and he kept jumping on John's back and saying "Mine Daddy!". Meaning 'my daddy', he wasn't taking anything from him :) Then John would get up and piggy back him around the room and come back to the couch where it would happen again. It was just so sweet. I can't imagine that Will is ever going to grow up, I just want to freeze him right now. Especially times like tonight. I want him to always want to hold my hand, always want hugs and be my squishy little toddler forever!

Birthday and Bangs!

When I was pregnant with Will I had the awesome opportunity to take a water aerobics class called Aqua Moms. It is exclusively for pregnant women and it was a BLAST! It was probably one of my favorite things about pregnancy b/c of the relaxing atmosphere, the bonding and open dialog between all the other women and of course floating in a nice warm pool and feeling light weight! There are 3 moms that I have kept in touch with for the last 2 years (holy cow!) since we all had our babies. One of them had a birthday party this morning at this really cool activity center attached to some church out in West Little Rock. His name is Owen and he had a "T" themed party. It was really cute, train decor, turtle cake, ties for kids to wear. Will wore a turtle tee shirt that I made. He also was mildly adventurous on the play equipment. It was a really similar set up as the playground at chikfila but this one had a really big slide that he wanted to go on. He made me carry him up to the top (other parents were in there so it wasn't too bad) and then slide with him! He repeatedly asked for "moh" but was waaay to scared to go up more than one step himself. It was really fun though, John and I each took him down once. He ate some chips, sandwich, cupcake and juice and only one piece of candy. I'm not sure this child is genetically ours, we are both sugar fiends.
After the party, we ran home then I went out to get my haircut. I have been contemplating bangs for quite some time. I made a half hearted attempt a few months ago, but I decided to go all out this time! I wasn't totally sold when I left ( a couple hours ago), but I think I really love them now! Who knows, maybe they'll stick around for a while. Goodness knows I've got the forehead to support them! Maybe I will figure out soon how to post pictures on here...
I stopped by Dollar Tree on the way home, a lady held the door for me and said "Baby get in here, you're gonna freeze!" I love living in the south :) Also, I found Nature's Own whole wheat bagels for a dollar!! Yes please!
Well there are dishes calling my name and dinner hopefully around the corner!

So here I am

So I'm starting a blog! It sounds like so much fun, a sounding board to no one in particular! Hopefully a way to share a bit of our daily life with family and friends from miles away, and maybe a little free therapy for me :)
John and I had a fun time picking out a name for this deal! He wanted to make some kind of play on our last name, but nothing fun came out of it. Then I tried to search the internet for other people's blog names (I mean, they wouldn't know I stole their name or anything...and it's not like they copyrighted it!) but nothing we found suited us. Then I thought about what I wanted to blog ABOUT: our daily life. So here we are. You may notice that I write "we" a lot. Haha, that would mean that John had some say in this! I am sure his only interest is that I don't put anything embarrassing on here.
Today is not a particularly exciting day to start on. Work for both of us which means little man goes to a sitter. I actually got to work on time today (10 min late) so that was notable. For dinner we used some chikfila coupons and let LM play on the playground. He was terrified. He held my hand for a while, then all the kids cleared (btw NONE of them were under 3 as the rules stated one must be to play) out at once and he got braver. Not brave enough to actually climb on anything, you know, but brave enough to walk around sans-mommy.
THEN a sweet little 6 year old girl came in with about a bazillion questions for us about 1 year olds. She followed and was followed herself. She got LM to follow her up to the TOP of the jungle gym thing, which he did so willingly, and then pointed out where he was....weeelll he froze. He started "mama-mama-mama-ing" and I got to climb up to the very top of the jungle gym to carry him down, I had to set him down on the next to last step to maneuver my way out (since I am taller than the average 3 yr old) and he was still paralyzed! I felt really bad, but I know it's good for him. I guess I am glad that he's not super adventurous in situations like that otherwise I would already have many bloody noses and goose eggs on my hands.
Then we came home and I got so bored I started a blog.....