I've Been Tagged...

Amy has tagged me, but I am so not good at these things! I tag Jamie, Vanessa, and Kelly. Here goes nothin..

*Maybe I should…try and relax about the mess that my house has become.

*I love the smell of…clean laundry, baby lotion, fruity stuff.

*People would say that I…am anal, which is true in most respects.

*I don’t understand why…they can't just do things my way.

*When I wake up in the morning...I brush my teeth immediately!

*I lost my will power to…try not to eat dessert.

*Life is wonderful with…a healthy family and good friends.

*My past made me…a little short tempered.

*I get annoyed when…people drive or walk slowly right in front of me.

*Parties are not...as much fun to attend as they are to plan.

*Dogs are…great when they belong to other people and stay out of my yard.

*Cats are...not something I ever plan to own.

*Tomorrow I am going to…hopefully get a little sun.

*I have a low tolerance for…lazy people.

*I’m totally terrified of…someone hurting me or my family and flying. These are the source of most of my nightmares.

*I wonder why I thought my life would be…easy, not that it's been especially difficult, but just living, in general, is not a piece of cake like I once thought.

*Never in my life…did I imagine that I'd enjoy cooking and gardening as much as I do. I'd love them even more if I actually had time to do them!

*High school was something that...thinking back was fun, but at the time I didn't think it was so great.

*When I’m nervous…my face turns red and I play with my hair.

*Take my advice…who am I to give advice?! Get an epidural..that's about all I've got!

*Making my bed is…something that I recently asked my husband to do in the mornings, even though I feel like I have to adjust it every time he does it, so it's the way I like it.

*I’m almost always…in the middle of some type of project.

*I’m addicted to…sugar and sometimes caffeine, but not right now!

*I want someone…to tell me how to get rid of crabgrass! Weed killers do not work!

About My Little Guy

Sweet, sweet boy, I don't even know where to start! This past year has been one of new things for you. You moved out of our bed (finally!) and into a big boy bed. You made it through potty training and into big boy underwear, and perhaps, the biggest change is that you became a big brother. You also went to your first baseball game, first movie, first fishing trip, first ride in a convertible, first sleepover at Nana & Papa's, and of course, your first (and hopefully last) Doodlebops concert. I'm sure there are many more monumental events that happened in the last 12 months, but these are the ones that I remember the best. You have handled everything so well and continue to crack us up on a daily basis. You don't forget anything..seriously, which isn't always a good thing for me or daddy! We think you're incredibly smart and cute, though I'm sure we're a little partial!

I was so worried about how having a baby sister would rock your world. I was even a bit conflicted when I found out I was pregnant the second time just because I was having so much fun with you. I just didn't want you to feel like you were being replaced or forgotten. Now that your baby sister is here, you've turned into a wonderful big brother. I know that you two will not always get along, but you are already calling her "your Claire" so I know how much you love her already. Just last night you two had your first argument over toys. I've never heard a 4 1/2 month old yell at her older brother like this one did. You were so funny trying to talk her out of your toys. I'm so proud of the way you've adjusted to having someone else in your house and to sharing your mommy and daddy. You and daddy have really become big pals in the last few months. He is definitely a better playmate than I am. You two stay outside for hours on end or even stay gone all day just doing whatever together.

I could write a book about how much we love and enjoy Grant, but I'll spare everyone! He's such a fun little boy. I couldn't ask for anything else in a child. His party Saturday was a blast. He had a big turnout for his party, so I feel like I barely talked to any one person. Sorry if you were one of those I neglected...it was a little overwhelming! He held his party at the place he calls "the putt putt place." The kids played putt putt, ate pizza and cake, and played in the arcade. I hope that everyone had fun. Grant really enjoyed the party and he's loving all of his new goodies! He slept for 3 1/2 hours after the party and Claire took a really long nap too! We had friends in from out of town and Grant loved playing with them on Saturday night. Sunday, we spent most of the day swimming at Nana and Papa's and Grant took to the pool right away. I think we're going to sign him up for swimming lessons and see if we can get this fish swimming this year! Yesterday, I was so thankful for rain (even though we planned to swim) just so I could get some of his toys under control. Since we live in a small house, everything has to have a home. Otherwise, we're totally overrun with toys! I think we found a space for everything..keeping it there is the hard part. Grant had a wonderful birthday and it was a great weekend overall! Thanks to everyone who helped to make it special for him!

Pictures of all of the festivities:

This is how he started out the day.. pancakes with whipped cream!

Playing putt putt at the party!

Grant's birthday cake, it was a CARS theme.

They put his name on the sign outside.

This was in his car seat after the party - can you say exhausted?!

This is our friend's little girl and Grant at dinner on Saturday night. They had so much fun!

Miss Claire's first trip to the pool. This isn't her swimsuit though. Every time I even touched her feet to the water, she'd scream. I think we'll wait until the water warms up to try and really get her in.

This is a picture of Grant when we were at the pool Saturday. I just thought this was a sweet picture. I have lots of goofy ones before & after just trying to get one that was decent.

We Now Have a 3 Year Old!

Grant's birthday is today. I cannot believe that it's been 3 whole years since he came into our lives! It's been a great day, but exhausting. He actually took a 3 1/2 hour nap today after his party if that tells you anything. Now, it's after 10 pm and he's raring to get into all of his goodies! I have lots to say but not the time nor energy tonight, but I couldn't go to bed without saying how special the last 3 years have been. I always thought I wanted all little girls until he came along. After that, I decided maybe boys were more fun. He has filled our lives with so much joy these last few years. I cannot imagine, nor do I really even remember what life was like without him! I will post more about him and his party later!

A Sign??

This was in my mailbox yesterday! I've been thinking about trying to find someone to clean my house for quite sometime now, but I haven't actively pursued it. I am somewhat of a clean freak, though you wouldn't know it by looking at my house these days. Having a dirty/messy house creates an unbelievable amount of stress for me. I know that it's not important in the long run, but it seriously drives me bananas! So, I'm thinking that this was a sign that maybe I should really hand the cleaning over to someone else. It would be a small price to pay for removal of stress, and there's not even any therapy involved! It's really pitiful to hire someone to clean our house since it's really small. We're talking less than 1500 square feet folks! When we moved into it, we thought we'd be there less than 3 years, and now we're getting close to 4. It's small, but we love it. It has so many upgrades that many larger houses don't and we're totally spoiled by them. When we look at houses that are for sale, they just don't me my expectations because of what we're accustomed to now. I just need 1 more room in it and I'd be totally happy...we need a bonus room/playroom in a bad bad way to contain all of the toys that are quickly overtaking our home! Regardless of the size, the stress is still huge so we'll see what happens, but I may have 1 or 12 fewer dustbunnies in a few weeks!

Just Stuff

My hair is now falling out. I know it's that post-pregnancy thing, but I was hoping it would skip me this time around. Last time, I seriously thought I was going bald, and so did my husband. He told me after it was all over that it was starting to freak him out, but he didn't want to say anything! I couldn't wear my hair in a ponytail (which is how it ends up virtually every day) because I had no hair on the sides of my head, for real! So, if you see me and my hair is looking a little rough, now you understand.

I took Claire and Grant to the doctor yesterday for their 4 month and 3 year old check-ups. Sweet Claire weighed in at 15 lbs, 9 ounces and she was 24 1/4 inches long. That's the 85th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She was in the 90th or something for both last time, so let's hope the downward trend (at least on the weight end) continues :-)! Grant weighed a whopping 32 lbs and was 37 1/4 inches tall. They said he's just a little below the 50th percentile for both, so nice and average.. suits me just fine! I never knew that a 3 year old check up was so involved. It was a test of sorts, jumping, answering questions, etc. I had no idea! Thankfully, our "nanny" went with us so I had an extra set of hands. I don't know how all of that would have gone if she hadn't been there. He had no clue what I was talking about when I told him to stand on 1 foot. Trying to get him to do it was a test for me too. Claire had to get all of those nasty shots again and just like after her 2 mth appt, she slept all night long last night. What is it about those dr. appts that makes her sleep all night???!! Maybe it's the Tylenol, who knows, but it was great!

Grant's MDO program was last night. Two of the kids in his class weren't there, so it was just 4 sweet little boys in his class. He was so funny up there. As soon as he sat down on the stage, he started looking around the auditorium. He was searching everywhere for us. He finally found me and forgot the song and just started waving and yelling, "Hi, mommy!" Then onto Daddy and Mammy. When everyone clapped at the end of each song, he covered his ears. I don't think he actually sang a word up there, but he did do all of the motions. It's a shame because he loves to sing and has been singing the songs all around our house, but couldn't perform under the pressure! It was an improvement from last year though. He just ran off the stage when he spotted me last year yelling he wanted his mommy. Maybe next year, he'll actually sing a song or two.

Tomorrow is family yard day! Yippee! I'm so ready to have it over and done. I usually have worked on our yard a bunch by now, but every weekend has been yuck and I just don't have time in the evenings anymore. I know after it's done the watering and endless weeding begins, but at least it will look SOOOO much better. I cannot wait! Maybe I'll post pictures, although it really won't look that special, just groomed and not weedy!

Claire is 4 Months Old!

Claire turned 4 months old on Saturday. I had great intentions of doing this post then, but weekend posts rarely happen because we are so so busy! Warning... this is long, but I want to write all of this stuff down.

Claire has changed so much this past month. She is really starting to develop more personality and she is so happy most of the time. She is sleeping pretty well. She had been sleeping all night long until the week I came back to work. Then, she started waking up around 4 am every night and would then go back to sleep for several more hours. Just this week (Friday night), she started sleeping all night again. She's done it 3 nights in a row. I'm hoping this is the beginning of a pattern. I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day present! She goes to sleep so well on her own. I just lay her down and pat her bottom a few times and then leave. She flips her little head a few times and grunts and then she's out. I'm really trying to avoid all of the issues we had with Grant's sleeping.

Just this past week, Claire has really started rolling over lots. She rolled over for the first time 2 months ago and has done it a few times in between, but all of the sudden she's really figured it out. Now, when she wakes up in her bed, she'll roll over onto her back. She did it several times last night when I was trying to lay her down for bed. I lay her down on her belly, and she'd flip right back over and look at me. She's rolled from back to belly only a handful of times, so she's not as good at getting back to her belly.

She is putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. I don't see any teeth below the surface yet, but Grant got his first ones around 5 months, so they may not be too far off if all of this chewing is any indication. She tried to drink out of Grant's sippy cup this weekend. It was just water, so I put it in her mouth and she really tried to suck on it. She is also grabbing everything! She tries to pull food off your plate, the table cloth, or anything else that's in site. It's amazing how quickly they go from totally uncoordinated to being able to grab pretty much anything you put in front of them.

Last week, Claire got to try out cereal for the first time. She did pretty well with it the first night, but she didn't want too much of it. We did it several nights in a row, but these last few days have been so busy that I haven't bothered with it. She doesn't seem extremely interested in it yet, and I know she's getting enough to eat elsewhere from the rolls that seem to be everywhere on her little body! We go to the dr. Thursday for her 4 month check-up, so I'll have to update then with height/weight stats.

Lil Miss loves to talk and be talked to. She just babbles and it's so sweet. I could just eat her up. My babysitter is off for 2 weeks starting next week and I'm bringing her to work with me several days. I can't wait to spend all day with her again. She's so much easier to take care of now than she was when I was on maternity leave. She still likes to be held (by me) and sometimes my arm aches at the end of the day from holding her. She's starting to do better with other people though and actually didn't cry when I left her in the nursery yesterday at church.

Grant is doing so much better with her. I think it's really helped that they're spending more time together at nanny's now. I think the problems we had at first may have been more of a result of us taking him to nanny's when he knew I was at home with the baby. I don't regret it because I couldn't have dealt with both of them effectively, but I know it was really hard on him. Claire just adores him. All he has to do is talk and she grins ear to ear. I hope it stays that way when he's stealing her toys. I got the first glimpse of things to come one night last week when they were in the tub. Grant has this stuffed Elmo that is for the tub and Claire was holding it (chewing on it) while I was washing Grant. When I got done with him, he wanted Elmo. He tried to grab it from her, but she was holding on tight so he didn't get it at first pull. The look on his face was hilarious as he grabbed it again and snatched it from her. She just started laughing, but I know it won't always be that way.

I just can't believe how fast they are both changing. Grant will be 3 in less than two weeks and that blows my mind! It seems like just yesterday we were going through all of the baby stuff with him. They are so different from one another and both so much fun. Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. My husband did remember to buy me a card this year (before the actual day). This is an accomplishment! I let him off the hook by saying we'd join the gym for Mother's Day/Father's Day presents...it's something we needed to do and I don't need anything and his birthday is right around Father's Day. How many presents are really necessary all at once?!

Derby Days

This past weekend me, my mom, and the kids went to Louisville to celebrate the Kentucky Derby. We don't actually go to the race, but we go to my aunt's house for a big family party. We do a pot for all of the races and a couple of big ones for the Derby. It's always lots of fun, but we haven't been able to make it up in several years. This was the longest car ride Claire has ever been on. She did great on the way there, slept wonderfully the 2 nights we were there, and was great on the way home until we were about 45 minutes from home. She cried the entire last 45 minutes, but was fine as soon as she was out of the car.

To make the trip a little easier on all of us, I borrowed a friend's new Chrysler Town & Country van. Let me just say that I never thought I'd be in love with a minivan, but I think I'm there. Grant is too. He was hilarious talking about it. He loved watching his movies (mainly Doodlebops) and wearing the headphones. On the way home, he fell asleep with them on and started drooling. Mom went to wipe the drool with one of Claire's burp cloths and Grant (still asleep) grabbed it and put it over his head. You had to see him doing this to appreciate how funny it was. I was hurting I was laughing so hard. He kept adjusting it and he was totally out of it.

After we got home and traded back to our car, Grant got in and said, "Aww mom, this is the one without the TV." He then asked if we could go buy a van next week. I never thought an almost 3 year old could be that into a vehicle.

This picture is of the kids that were there. They are all mine and my first cousin's children. The two little girls on the right are twins and the middle boy with dark hair and girl in the green shirt are twins. We were missing my other cousin's twin girls and son, and another cousin's son. Yes, there are 3 sets of twins on that side of my family.. crazy! I'm just thankful that none of them belong to me!

This is Grant and my cousin's little girl, Camryn. She was Grant's pal all weekend. He followed her everywhere she went and he played with her hair too (go figure!). He's already asked when she can come to his house. They live in Ohio, so we don't see them very often. I think this was the first time he'd met her. Camryn's mom thinks she looks more like me than her.

This is Camryn's little brother Tyler. He was a bit of a surprise! He is only 3 weeks older than Claire. He cracked me up all weekend. He is very very vocal and moves like crazy. I thought Claire was vocal and loud, but in comparison, she's very quiet. They were funny looking at each other. Next time they see one another, they'll probably both be walking around everywhere.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, I took a pregnancy test that revealed baby #2 was on the way. It's easy to remember because it was Cinqo de Mayo. We were going to Kentucky Derby / Cinqo de Mayo party and I just had this feeling. I can't really explain why I thought I was pregnant, but I did. I went and bought a pregnancy test early that morning because I wanted to know if I could partake in a margarita or two to celebrate the day. Needless to say, the answer was no. The 2 lines appeared very quickly, much more so than they did with Grant. I took 3 tests with Grant and the lines were so faint, both at home and at the doctor. So much so that the dr. wanted to do blook work to confirm the pregnancy because they thought it could be a false positive. A baby was not really something I was planning on right then, but I knew we wanted another one and just figured God knew what timing was best. One year later we have this sweet little thing! She will be 4 months old on Saturday. I cannot believe how fast this is all going by! We once again had a big weekend, but I'll post about that later this week!

Clumsy

Grant loves this song! I haven't listened to all of the lyrics, so I have no idea if there are inappropriate parts. Pookie listens to 107.5 sometimes and when Grant has ridden with him, they've heard this song several times. In the process, he's learned a lot of the song. Pook and I swapped cars this morning so I could get the oil changed in the car today. When I turned the car on, this song was playing. Grant yelled, "Turn it loud, mom!" I did and he sang and sang.. so funny! He asked me to play it again a little later, and didn't understand that we don't have the Fergie CD. He is such a little music lover!