A Little of This and That...

Alright, I feel as though I've been MIA in the blog world lately so it's time to catch up. I've been quite busy the last week or so because I actually SOLD some things on eBay and it got me all in a tizzy. (Not a bad tizzy I might add, it was very exciting, yet time consuming!) I listed and sold 9 items amounting to a grand total of nearly $90! It was exhilerating!!! Really it wasn't all that exciting, but it was enjoyable to watch things that have been taking up space in our small house go to a good home where they will be loved. For a few hours on Tuesday, our house literally looked like one of those pack and ship franchise places; boxes of all shapes and sizes everywhere! Addie was in heaven finding all kinds of new things to get into!

Speaking of the little darling, she has been just a joy lately, despite the fact that she's working on getting some more teeth! I have been accused by my husband of not following through with my best intentions about keeping track of the little things she does that are fun and new to us...so I have decided that rather than try to find a non-existent place to write them all in the baby book, you all get to read about them.

First of all, she loves to help me with the laundry. Since I feel like I should be getting paid by the hour to do the laundry, I try to find ways to make it more fun (for both of us). Addie sits in the laundry basket as it glides on the floor to and from the dryer to get new, fresh loads and then she plays in the basket full of clothes/towels/diapers, etc. handing me items to fold. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of leaving the nice, neat folded piles alone, but anything to make it interesting for mama.

Recently, when we read books she turns the pages on cue for me. She started this yesterday morning and did it several times throughout the day, so we'll call it one of her new tricks. It's darn cute, if I do say so myself! She absolutely LOVES books, period. We have been going to the library for "Born to Read Babies" the last couple weeks and she really enjoys seeing other kids and doing all those "sing-songy" things. Although I will say that it happens to be right in the middle of her morning naptime so she does create quite the emotional show now and then.

She amazes me more and more each day when we go outside to watch for butterflies, hummingbirds, and chickadees. The first time I saw her looking out the window at a butterfly, I couldn't believe she really saw it. Now, it seems like she sees them before I do sometimes! Even when she is sitting on my lap facing away from either of the bird feeders, if I say "Look Addie, there's a hummingbird at the feeder," she'll turn around quietly and watch it. If I whisper something to her while we're watching the birds, she'll "whisper" right back to me (of course this doesn't work the same way in church!). I read somewhere recently that babies at this age (around 9 mo.) understand a lot more than we give them credit for...and I am a true believer of that as I watch her take it all in!

We've got a big weekend/week ahead of us--Addie's getting baptized on Sunday (FINALLY!!) and then we're leaving for the Smoky Mountains that afternoon. Chris is especially in need of a vacation and I can't wait to get away from the daily routine and spend time together as a family in the mountains. We are excited to hike the beautiful trails and see nature from a whole different view. I am probably the most excited for Addie to go someplace she's never been and to experience all sorts of new things. Hopefully I'll have a lot to write about when we get back. Until then, I'll be doing laundry, doing more laundry, packing, doing last minute laundry and repacking, and getting us all ready to go on our first "family vacation." Yeah!

Parenting 101...or is it 403b? 401K?

I'm just going to go ahead and say that being a mom is the most wonderful job I could have ever dreamed of and I feel incredibly blessed that God trusts me this much with a precious little life. Before our little dear got here (which I still think it's funny to say that because it's not like she was somewhere else and just "flew in" one day)...I had no idea what to expect of myself as a parent. I hoped to raise kiddos using consistent discipline of some kind, but who in the world knows what kind of parent they'll be before the kid even arrives? (again, it sounds like the child is landing on Earth from another planet)


To go along with my very first blog when I discussed teaching the Nonner to leave "Mommy's things" alone around the house, I'm finding out that the word "NO" is unavoidable. Chris' aunt just told us a funny story this weekend about a 2 year old little girl she knows. When asked, "What does a horsey say?" she replies, "Neigh"...when asked "What does a cow say?" she replies, "Moo"...when asked "what does Mommy say?" she replies, "NO, NO, NO!" I almost wet my pants. Fortunately, Addie knows what "NO" means and so far my efforts to help her resist touching things she shouldn't is working out for us. We'll keep up the good work. **Patting myself on the back***


And NO, I am not the lady in the news who potty trains her infants, however....***WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COULD CAUSE A SENSE OF SHOCK TO MOST/ALL READERS*** Addie does go potty/poopy on the toilet sometimes. Back to the cloth diaper issues--you see, why would I want to clean a poopy mess out of a diaper when I know she needs to go and I could just conveniently FLUSH the mess down the commode? It's all about the timing. I'm not trying to potty train her, but why not stick her little boukee (rear end, for those of you who have forgotten my terminology from two blogs ago) on the pot when I think she might need to go. Here's the embarrassing part: we wave "bye bye" to the poopy as it's flushing! Enough said.


I think the whole goal of this blog was just to point out that every parent is different, every family is different and I have learned to stop any judgemental thoughts in their tracks when it comes to others' parenting styles. A very wise woman once told me to stop worrying so much about what other people think and what works for us may not work for others and vice versa. Addie slept in our room in a bassinet/pack n' play until she was 6 months old. I had some issues with telling people that (only because I was the person who used to say, "My kids will NOT sleep in the room with my husband and I"). Hey--we were all getting 8+ good hours of uninterrupted sleep, which made for a happier mommy and we all know that if mommy's happy, every one's happy! Typically, I'm not the type of person to even begin to care what others think, but being a parent is BIG stuff, man! One of the things I love to do more than anything is research different parenting philosophies and learn how others are raising happy, healthy, loving children. I guess I truly am a lifelong learner (that Franklin College motto paid off in one way at least!)


Enjoy this lovely photo below of our dear daughter on the pot with her "grunting face" on! It's a classic!


PS--For all of you who heard about the lady who potty trains her infant and think she's nuts, you should Google "Elimination Communication" and do some research yourselves. I'm not necessarily for or against it, but it is another one of those interesting things I had NEVER heard of before and I find it all very fascinating!

PPS--I WILL NOT take a picture of Addie with her poopy like I saw a mom of twins and sextuplets do on TV (Jon and Kate Plus 8--great show)!

PPSS--I promise this is the last one, but "poopy" came up on spell check! Can you believe the dictionary doesn't know the word "POOPY"!? But it knows that Google should be capitalized!!! I'm appalled!

Mikey, are you allowed to "PS," "PPS," and "PPSS" in a blog? Just checking.

A Blog About My Blog...

Okay, here's the thing...I now realize that when a person blogs, he or she is secretly being critiqued by all of his or her readers (especially English major mothers and apparently brother-in-laws). As sweet as I am, I invited my dearest brother-in-law, Mikey, to join in the fun and read my/our blog (everyone knows it's really mine because it's a great way for me to vent/secretly brag about how much I love being a mommy, plus it's great "adult" time for me...tangent officially over!).

Anyway, I wanted to apologize in advance for any mistakes I make as a blogger. I am new to this creepy world of writing and I may goof up sometimes. Like for example, in my second blog (and probably my first one, but I didn't look back at it), I didn't use very many paragraphs and I created a "daunting wall of writing" (Michael B. Knight, 2007)...which by the way I'm going to a new one right now so I don't create that same daunting look.

So, back to my point now that I'm completely sidetracked. I tend to think of myself as a pretty good writer. I was raised by an English major who taught me how to use tenses correctly (broke, broken...seen, saw, etc.) and I am very picky when it comes to grammar errors. In fact, apparently at the young age of 3, I told Santa that "we don't use ain't." Mikey, is it time for a new paragraph now? Okay.

I was also taught in school that paragraphs should have topic sentences and stick to that idea throughout then transition to the next topic for the following paragraph. What the heck is that all about anyway? Yes, I taught the Yankeetown first graders all that bizarky, but I also taught them to write how they talk and use "voice." That is my main intent on this blog...especially for those of you who don't get to see me very often. I am sharing my personal life stories with you all and I'm so sorry if pictures are jumbled, paragraphs are too long, or heaven forbid I make any grammatical mistakes. (My mother will be cringing if this ever happens, in fact, she's probably cringing right now because I'm not sure how to spell "cringe" and it's probably wrong, but I honestly don't give a hoot!). Oh my, new paragraph time.

Enough of my vent session. I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that I DO realize that humans are not perfect (especially me) and my blog is certainly not going to be like yours, Mikey, but thanks for the offer to proofread and edit for me anyway! Love ya dear! I promise I will get the hang of this eventually!!! Does this look better?

Isn't he sweet??? Couldn't get this text to center so I'm writing more so it appears that it wasn't supposed to be.

Sticky-uppy Hair Day!

This morning when Chris brought our little darling to me in bed, I took one look at her with my half-opened eyes and started laughing out loud. Many of you may know that I am not a morning person, but when I am awoken by a sweet, smiling baby brought to me each morning--life is good :) This fine morning, my laughter was brought on by our beautiful baby girl's "sticky-uppy" hair, or sleepy hair as some may refer to it. I know, I know, everyone has "bed head" in the morning, but Addie has never really had it like this, so be patient with me--it's a FIRST.

As I was thinking about the fact that Chris and I call it "sticky-uppy" hair like that's the technical term for it, I then realized that there are several words we use when referring to our daughter or anything that has to do with her that are quite silly to say the least. Here are a few:

"Beanel"--the nickname Chris gave her at the beginning of her life.

"Super Beanel"--came a little after she outgrew Beanel.

"Super"--the Beanel fell off and our sweet baby girl was called Super.

"Nonner"--apparently this came from how Chris used to say "Monster" when he was little and now our precious beauty is a, excuse me the Nonner.

"Boukee"--pronounced boo-kee, this is the word we use to refer to the tiny one's hind end (I have to admit, this one came from me as my family used it growing up).

"Dookee"--thanks to my grandma (Addie's great-grandma), we use this term to describe a little snack. This one can also be used to mean "poo" when I forget that it really has to do with food, oops!

There are probably more, but of course since I use them on a daily basis, I don't think anything of it and can't seem to come up with more to list right now. I'm sure I will add more in the future, as our little Nonner grows up!

By the way..."sticky-uppy" hair lasts ALL DAY!