Goodbye June, we will miss you

I took pictures of our first day of June... I am just now getting them uploaded.

We started our day at 1am with this little one.

This one greeted us at a more reasonable 7am

This one came back for more...

Then I had some of this, yum!

And I got one of these

I came out to this

Got them both dressed

Running from the camera

Picture of the day- what are the chances?!?!

Got him!

Super Why break

Out the door to friends

Avoiding the sprinkler

Bubbles... check out those curls!

This little one is going to break lots of hearts... or eat lots of ice cream, you decide.

Peek-A-Boo

Mini Mommy

This gem of a friend let me eat my lunch first while she loved my child

The three musketeers

All the action gave me a nap!

More of this, story of my life...

Artistic moment

The daily wrestling match

Another artistic moment...

The day ended with baths, more nursing and stories, like they all do, but we had lots of fun June, and we can't wait for you to come again!

Cherry Pickin'

You know when you have an idea, and think that it is just the greatest idea, and it turns out to be one of your worst? I had one of those last week. Cherry picking sounds like a lot of fun right? It sounds like cherry pie and Fourth of July. My favorite holiday. I love cherry pie.

Preston was all for it. Grant could have gone either way. Go figure. Preston, I am pretty sure, thought all cherries come on top of ice cream or in Grandma's fruit salad. I think it was quite a surprise for him to find them on trees with "seeds, not pits, mommy."

It started out exciting. Then it took us a lunch break with Grammy and a fifteen minute drive on a dirt road to what seemed like no where to get us to another mile long dirt road that we finally arrived. Both boys were asleep. Score for Grant, boo for Preston. As soon as the car stopped he woke up and started whining. Life was awful.

I got Grant in his wrap, and Preston on board to pick cherries. We were directed to some trees that had cherries.  Not before passing the portapotties (with the promise to use them later, yea!) and this:

Yep, an old cemetary. If I had a dollar for every question about it, Brandon could retire. Why is there a rock wall? What's the gate for? Why is it here? Who was burried here? What are they doing in there? Are they in heaven? You get the picture.  To me, old family plots are enchanting, and offer up lots to the imagination. I remember when I was in high school, we walked down to the cemetary near school and did pencil rubs, and then had to create a story about the person's possible life and what may have happened to them.  I loved that assignment. I have spent days now wondering about Mr. Massie, and what his story may have been.

It makes me wonder about my story, and what people will think of mine. I am still working on it and will get back to you.

Cherry picking included a few other mishaps, that included large clouds of gnats, me running down a hill, and of course, the portapotties. I don't know that we will make it back next year. I don't know that I could do that again...

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Last night, Preston and I had a much needed date. He was an only child again for a few hours. It was cute in the shy way that he saddled up to the grill at Kyoto's. He tried to act very grown up and ordered his own drink and meal. He weighed his options for drinks, and then again when I read him the menu. He sat very tall in his booster seat and very carefully scooped the rice into his mouth with chop sticks.  I was worried about the chop sticks and the mess, but he was surprisingly careful.

All he wanted to do on our date was go to Target and pick a toy and bring it home. I convinced him that since his birthday is in two weeks, that we could go scope out the toys and he could show me some things that he may want for his birthday. He found a bat cave... and fell in love. Brandon will have to sneak over there in the next two weeks. We also talked about how with a birthday coming, we probably need to weed out some toys to pass onto another little boy. He thought his brother would be a good one to give them to. Smart guy, he is. He wasn't a huge fan of the idea, but we will get there in the next two weeks, Grant willing.

I am looking forward to taking my first baby to Dutch Wonderland for his birfday, as he calls it. I am nervous about holding it together as we sing and blow out candles. I know I have dwelled on how fast time flies too much, but I can't seem to wrap my head around how he has gone from this:

To this:

In such a short time. We will have to make it a date once a month.

Side note- He is full on super hero now.  He got a summer haircut and "order" a Super Man haircut, and was impressed when the lady told him that she just did a batman cut the week before!

We made it!

We have been wrapping things up around here lately, and I haven't had the time to put them into words. Our biggest most current milestone was momma and two littles by ourselves for two days.

Brandon went to see some golf game. U.S. Open anyone? He has been pining for this for years, at least since the last time it was this close to home. He bought the tickets back at the beginning of the year. When I was still pregnant and a mother to only one. I told him to go. Obviously I thought all babies were angels like Preston. Grant has a very different way of handling things.  Not bad, just different. He likes to rule. Brandon had fun, I got one shower, and saw every hour of the night Wednesday night. We are all in one piece (well, except for the Tahoe, darn power steering gear, more on our adventure later.) We played with friends, took in a movie, got some groceries, went to story time, and fell asleep in the car twice.  Not me- Preston. Dad is home now, and all is well.

We have also wrapped up T-Ball season. This is very bittersweet for me. It really cramped our style, taking over every weekend, killing plans, rooting us at home. Now we are free to go again, and we owe Preston a trip to the zoo.  However, once he "got it" he had a good time running after the ball in the pack of kids.  They learned some T-Ball basics from Coach Crawford, and a little bit of tackle football, too. I loved watching them all run after the ball, and when they got close enough, at least three of them falling on it.

It was fun to see Preston get situated at home plate to hit one outta the park, hitting the plate with his bat, egging the pitcher on. Even if he did use the Tee seventy-five percent of the time. He made a good buddy that is teaching him all about being five. We are trying to find a day to have them over for dinner. I need to change the smoke alarm batteries first though because his dad is a fireman. Safety first.

We finished out the season with trophies and ice cream at the local ice cream stand. The kids loved it, and made a huge mess of the table because it was close to 100 degrees, and they were half eating half playing.

We wrapped up our first year of preschool just after Grant made his grand entrance. The end of year program was one of the sweetest things I have seen. His teachers are amazing with the things they can convince these twenty children to do. Preston sang and danced. In front of a church full of people. I held my emotions together really well, probably because I was no longer pregnant. I made it all the way to the goodbye song.  As the kids sang; "Oh, it's time to say goodbye to all  our friends, gooood-byyyee." The tears flowed. For a year passed, for new accomplishments, for a growing child, but mostly for the fear that I wouldn't hear the song again. Sweet Miss Keri informed me that I was crazy and I had another year. I love his teachers.

We are now going to enjoy our lazy summer, and let schedules go by the wayside. We are going to linger in the backyard later, skip a few rest times to play longer, lounge at the pool as long as a certain little babe will allow. We are going to enjoy the few truly hot months that we are blessed with, and soak up the warmth, to get us through the long winter.

Moving on

Yesterday was terrible.  It was one for the record books. I guess that we will have days like this (my momma said.) I guess you have to take the good with the bad, so that you appreciate the good, and life has been very good to us lately.

Grant wanted to do nothing, but nurse, and there was no consoling him without it. It made for a very long day. I was exhausted from being up late Saturday night, and feeling stressed and emotional. I so desperately wanted to check-in to a sleep coma for several hours. It wasn't going to happen though.

Brandon really tried to let me sleep in, but Preston wanted no parts of sharing his dear old dad with his brother, so he came in and watched some Care Bears while I laid in bed with my eyes closed so he wouldn't ask why about everything that happened. Real attentive, I know. Then the other two boys joined us because (surprise) Grant wanted to nurse. Once he was finally content, we took a short nap, and then we went to a cookout for Granddaddy and Brandon's birthdays. I think we may have been throwing Father's Day in there as well. I don't know that I saw anyone there. Grant nursed as soon as we got there for I don't know how long, but it felt like forever. Then I scarfed down my food, and he was passed around trying to get him to sleep so he wouldn't think he was hungry. This is our new game.

Last week's game was crossing our fingers hoping the garage door would open. That is another story though!

Once we got home Grant and I had more quality time, then I shoved him off on Brandon and hid out in the bedroom. Brandon managed to get him to sleep. I tried to sleep, but couldn't, I had reached the point of no return. There was no hope for me, so I gave up.

By the end of the day, Grant had blown through three bottles like it didn't take me 20 bazillion pumping sessions to get. I tried not to be emotional about the fact that he is hungrier than I can provide, but it is hard to put things into perspective when you are overly tired. Today I am feeling a little more sane, and feeling less stressed about things, and guess what? He is sitting in the swing by himself.

Yes, my one month old babe is content and happy. And asleep. Before I put him there though, I took this picture before he gets anymore rolls so we will always remember how little and skinny he was. He has already grown so much though. I hate that it took me a month to get this picture of my little frog. Happy one month birthday, Grant!

She works hard...

We are all working hard around here these days!  Grant is on the platform, ready to board the smile train. Preston and I are up to crazy antics trying to be the first to get the first real smile.  Not a "yeah, I am full smile," or "yeah, I am so sleepy smile."

We want the real deal.  We want him to smile at us because he thinks we are funny.  We have made faces, tickled him, "ate" his cheeks, played peek-a-boo. No dice yet, but it is coming.  I can feel it.  He almost smiled at me the other night right after I finished changing his diaper, and hadn't fed him yet.  Then he realized he was hungry, and the moment left us.

He is also becoming more aware through the days, and is spending more time with his eyes open, and less time snoozing away. He will stare at me with no expression while I will him to smile for at least half an hour before he realizes that I am holding him, and he is not eating. 

This all reminders at how fast this one is growing up.  Before I know it, I will be painting over sized boxes for preschool, so he can ride on a parade float. In the 90 plus degrees that has been our day. Thinking I got my first taste of sunburn for the summer for that one! 

Three weeks

It is amazing at the speed that three weeks can travel.  The last three weeks at this house have been busy.  We have had four T-Ball games, lots of visitors, a birthday, an anniversary, a trip to the beach for a concert, a cookout for memorial day, strawberry picking, Pump-It-Up, a preschool graduation and picnic, several play dates, and a new baby along for the ride.

We have gone from this:

To this:

He has already started changing. He is getting chubby cheeks. Some new rolls on his arms.  His legs are looking less like twigs. He is becoming more aware and sleeping less.  The proof is sitting at my feet now checking out the living room.

I can't believe that we are approaching a month already. I am pretty sure the only reason that my hospital bag has already been unpacked is because I had to use it to pack for the beach. I will say though, that bag hasn't been unpacked yet. 

Where did the last three weeks go? Into hundreds of pictures and memories.  I am determined to document my boy's lives better. I want to remember. Brandon thinks this might be our last child (the thought makes me tear up.) If that is the case, I am going to soak it all up. These lives are too precious.

I am celebrating that we have survived the last three weeks that were overflowing with activity. I know we didn't rush through Preston's first three like this.  There was a lot more sitting around and cuddling. With a three year old though, there is much less time to sit and cuddle.  For now I am using rest time to my full advantage.  So is Grant- he uses that time to pig out like no other. I will take it though.  It is probably the only time he gets to eat without interruption.

I plan to reflect on the last three weeks more on Sunday.  It will be June 5th, Grant's actual expected date.  I was hoping that since he came three weeks early, he would be the one to help me be early, but if not early, maybe closer to on-time. He has done the opposite, but its okay, for now.