p turns three.

We met our families at Cracker Barrel (P's choice) to celebrate P's birthday. He ate a wholesome dinner of pancakes, cake, and ice cream. Do you think he likes carbs? He opened his gifts from his grandparents and us, and loved every single one of them.

P showing me how old he is now. Still trying to get that third finger to stay up.


Blowing out his candles. The waiters at the restaurant also sang to him. He was not impressed by them. At.all.


Look how big EK has gotten? P loves her so much. He smothers her with attention. Kisses her all the time. And barely gives her any room to breathe. It melts my heart how much P loves his "Baby Dista".


EK is quite fond of P as well. She follows his every move and really loved watching P try out his new scooter after dinner.



It seems like only yesterday I was bringing P home from the hospital as a baby. He is still very much my baby and he secretly loves when I remind him of it. I think part of him wants to stay a baby, too. All of the doting and attention make him giddy.

At three, our little man is full of life. Logical, comical, and analytical. So much like his daddy. He is constantly asking us "how" and "why", that little brain working 100 miles per hour, trying to figure stuff out. He loves to dig, jump, run, laugh, and cry. He is my little emotional sap. He uses words bigger than even I can use in everyday conversation. He is good at getting his way, always coming up with good, logical reasons as to why he doesn't need a bath or needn't eat dinner. But with his sweet, pleading eyes and his perfectly laid out alternative plan, it's hard to argue with him. He's still in his crib and still in diapers. Part of the blame should be put on this mama for allowing my baby to remain just that for as long as humanly possible. But P also resists change, an unfortunate trait he inherited from yours truly. At 38 inches tall and 32 pounds, he falls in the fiftieth percentile for weight and height. Average in size, but so far from average in personality. We love our little three-year old. God has blessed us with an incredible son that has stolen our hearts and filled us with so much joy. We love you so much, Phoenix. Happy birthday, buddy!

the four b's.

We are finally getting Emma Kate in a good routine in the evening. I call it the four B's....bath, book, breastfeed, bedtime. She really looks forward to our little routine and is even helping out during bath time.



Bedtime for EK is promptly at 7:30. A minute late and I end up with a fussy baby. As long as we stick to the schedule that she created for herself, I have a clean, fed, ready-for-bed baby. She is beginning to sleep much better at night, only waking once during the night to nurse. I don't mind it so much. It's one of the few times I am able to bond with her without other distractions. She's such a sweet baby girl. I love her so, so much.

hometown festival.

Today was a great day spent with my sweet family of four. We headed to our local Yellow Pollen Festival in Hampton. A little Mayberry-ish, perhaps? But I loved it so much. There is a bit of small town left in this rapidly growing county of ours. The Cheers theme song came to mind as we were perusing the craft fair booths....,"where everybody knows your name....."


The kiddos had a blast. P and I rode the train. I swear my lawn mower will move faster than that train did. And to add to the redneck ambiance a little, the train conductor lit up a cigarette about halfway through our ride through downtown. Nice....

We spoke to several folks we knew, checked out the city's only firetruck, and visited the booth that Taylor's pharmacy rented to conduct blood pressure and blood glucose screenings. It was a small festival, but we really enjoyed ourselves.


And to top off our wonderful day, we headed to Atlanta to get me fitted for some new running shoes. Turns out, I'm an overpronator. Who knew? Training for my first 5K....wish me luck.

green day.

This year's St. Patrick's Day was a lot of fun. I just hung out with my kiddos all.day.long. We played and did fun "green" activities. It was a really great day.

To start off our fun-filled day, we ate a wholesome breakfast of green pancakes while still dressed in our green pajamas. The pancakes were really yummy even though they might not look too great. P at least appreciated my effort.



Next, we all got dressed in our best green attire. In the process, I snapped some pictures of my super cute green-clad kiddos.






Later, we headed down to the lakefront park in our neighborhood on a quest to find a lucky green four-leaf clover. No luck on this St. Patty's Day. Although, we did find a green four-leaf weed that resembled a clover. Close enough for P.


And a few pictures of my camera shy first-born.


He loves my camera. He just doesn't know it yet.


And to top off our fabulous St. Patty's Day, we had homemade shepherd's pie for dinner. And, no, I did not color it green.

sittin' pretty.

Emma Kate is officially sitting up! She started sitting for short bursts at a time the day she turned five months old. Each day she has gotten stronger and stronger. Today, she sat up outside for twenty minutes watching P and I play soccer. I'm so proud of our baby girl! She's so much fun now that she can sit up and interact with her surroundings. I'm loving this age.

birthday hype.

Yippee, Phoenix is almost three! Less than two weeks until our little cowboy turns another year older. P is bootin' scootin' excited about his Wild West birthday party. Yee-haw!

bedtime stories.

This is a fairly old pic, maybe two or three months old, but I love it. My husband is the BEST daddy to our babies.

zoo.

Last week, when the weather was gorgeous, Jill and I took our wild animals kiddos to the zoo. I swear we picked the best day ever to go.....zero field trip groups, mild weather, and light crowds. We really lucked out. The animals were loving the weather, too. They were in rare form, showing out for their audience. Especially the gorillas....I think Willie B., Jr. about gave Jill a heart attack. Here are the only pics of animals that I took that turned out. (Don't judge....it's not like I work for National Geographic.) I was pretty bummed to not get any pics of the gorillas....they were cute little boogers.



Me and my sweet gorilla.....Silly P.


We tried to take get a picture of Jill and Jackson in front of the Willie B. statue and Jack was not having it at all. That statue is a little creepy, huh?

And the only pic I got of the boys. They are definitely in the anti-camera stage. So sad.


At least the sweet babies will still pose for my camera. EK and Truett were angels throughout our zoo visit. Thank goodness, because managing four kids three and under is a little scary for me. But we did it!



Jill, we had a blast hanging out with you and your babies! Let's do it again soon!

tease.

I had a feeling last week's warm temperatures were a big, fat tease.


Spring, oh Spring? Where are you? We're ready to get outside again.

juicy cheeks.

After a long, hard day at work, I just can't wait to get home and kiss her sweet, juicy cheeks. She makes a bad day much, much better.

operation c.i.o.

We are on Day 2 of Operation C.I.O.....aka Operation Cry It Out. For both of my babies. It sounds worse than it is. I promise. It really hasn't involved much crying from the kids. Just some tears shed here and there by yours truly. I just can't resort to actually letting then cry it out. A few wimpers from either of my kids, I run into their rooms, scoop them up, and rock them until my heart's content. Maybe our little operation needs a new name....

Participant Number 1 in Operation C.I.O: Phoenix

P will be three at the end of this month and he still sleeps with a pacifier. For documentation sake, he calls his pacifier a bye bice. (Not exactly sure how to spell what he calls it, so I'm spelling it phonetically.) He has called it a bye bice since he could ramble even a few words, so bye bice is what it remained. And will forever remain in P's mind. We have tried on a few occasions to rid P of his pacifier, and failed miserably. I always gave in after P broke into a screaming temper tantrum. Mind you, I haven't even attempted to get rid of the pacifier in at least a year. Mainly out of laziness. And partly out of sympathy. I felt sorry for our little man. He loves that bye bice. He looks forward to going to bed just so he can pop that baby in his mouth and suck away to sleep. Since he turned two, that pacifier has not left his bed. Don't worry. He's not that three-year-old in the grocery store talking through the big pacifier. It was for sleep only. But that is changing as I type. We have gone 36+ hours without the bye bice. How did we manage to succeed in this portion of Operation C.I.O., you ask? Simple. We gave the bye bices to the Easter bunny.

I mentioned it once to P while driving down the road on Thursday. I didn't even think he heard me. Me:"You know, P, you should leave your bye bices out for the Easter bunny. He would really like to have a bye bice of his own." The next morning when daddy got him out of bed, P scooped up all three of his pacifiers, drug Taylor out the front door, and scattered them across the flower bed. Why the flower bed, you might ask? I guess because P is confusing the Easter bunny with the terror of a bunny that lives in the woods behind our house that has eaten all of my pansies. He came back inside, started watching cartoons, and forgot all about the pacifiers. Until naptime. I put him down for his afternoon nap yesterday. He lifted up his pillow and blankets in usual routine looking for the pacifiers. And then he remembered. After searching the flower beds to make sure they were gone, the reality that the pacifiers now belonged to the Easter bunny began to sink in. But he handled the situation well. He went to sleep for his nap, and then last night he went straight to bed without even mentioning the pacifiers. He did say to daddy tonight, "Do you think the Easter bunny will bring back my bye bices?" Daddy shook his head no and then P layed down and went to sleep. I guess I don't have to worry anymore about that pesky bunny eating my flowers. He has something new to chew on. I think Part One of Operation C.I.O went rather smoothly.

Participant Number 2 in Operation C.I.O.: Emma Kate

Part two of this important operation is not going so well.....transitioning EK to the nursery. She is five months old and was still sleeping in our room. It was definitely time to make this transition, especially since she has recently decided that she wants to nurse almost constantly throughout the night. Nursing is her comfort, but at five months old, I believe she needs to at least try to sleep longer than three hours at a time. This mama is exhausted. Night number one with EK didn't go so well. She woke up every three hours from 7:30 pm last night until 9 am this morning, nursing three of those times. So, we're crossing our fingers and trying again tonight. I'll update later as to how tonight goes.

Since P is clearly winning Operation C.I.O, he deserves a blog post dedicated to him with pictures of him for your viewing pleasure.

My precious, paci-free firstborn.


I love this kid.


And even though he is growing up fast and no longer needs a pacifier, he will always be my baby. And I remind him of that every.single.day.


Way to go, P. We are so proud of you. And now, on to potty training.

sweet, sweet slumber.

Golden slumber kiss your eyes,


Smiles await you when you rise.


Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry,


And I'll sing you a lullaby.


Care you know not,


Therefore sleep,


While I o'er you watch do keep.


Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry,


And I will sing a lullaby.