Sitting and Singing

Blair went to play at Brad’s moms today, so I had some baby boy time (and some me time – thankfully since I now have the munchkins’ cold!).

We got some good playtime in, and now it’s hard to remember what it was like here with just Blair and me. I felt like I got a lot done today! Leighton and I played on my bed for a bit… he laughed and laughed at me saying “arrrgh!” to him. He gets so excited and buries his head in the bed.

As of today, my baby is a bonafide sitter. He’s pretty stable, and he sat from his tummy for the first time.

Since he’s been sitting better and better, I pulled out the Sing Along Stage. Blair LOVED the Sing Along Stage. It was probably one of our best baby toys.

Baby brother loves it too.

It’s funny how I can still remember the order of the songs that play. And the part that says, “Now you’re rockin’!” was always our favorite.

Dreams of a 4 Year Old

Blair usually comes and gets in the bed with me in the morning while her daddy gets ready for work. I like to watch about 15 minutes of news in the morning just so I’m part of the world. She usually won’t be still, but this morning, she let me love on her a little bit. I didn’t even turn the tv on because she was actually not as busy as usual.

Typical morning with Blair teaching Leighton how to play something or trying to get him to watch a video while giving him emphatic “NO’s” in hopes he’ll stop trying to grab the phone. It doesn’t work.

And this happens too. Bless him.

She’s so talky and smiley in the mornings. She wakes up at 100%, crashes for a nap, and goes 100% until bedtime.

One morning in Blair’s room while Brad was sick.

This morning, as she lay on my pillow, she asked me when she was going to Grandmom’s (we had planned for her to go play today). And then with smiling excitement in her voice for the first time she told me about a dream:

“Last night, when I closed my eyes, I saw Grandmom!! She was going over Gigi’s kadoonk!” (The kadoonk is the cattle gap.)

And she went on:

“Last week I saw your car, and it was broken! Why did you get a new car?!”

It also certainly made me hope that she’s not having bad dreams about our wreck. She didn’t seem to be worried about it; she said it in her “why are you so silly?” voice.

But I just loved the way she explained the dream… “when I closed my eyes I saw….” The whole thing made me smile -- how she’s learning and growing up so fast. I want to always remember these moments, but I find that even now I look back on this blog at things I have no memory of. I’m so thankful that I have them here!

They were matching when we left the house.

Well I just love matching outfits. And they’re not all that easy to find for girl-boy siblings. But I find them, and we occasionally wear them. Like today when we went to the doctor. Blair wanted to wear a dress, so I pulled out the sock monkey dress and john john.

They looked so cute. I even ironed the outfits. (The only clothes I iron are the kids’ clothes. I know. That’s pitiful.)

And then we got to Macon, and there was a smell. And then we were in the bathroom at the doctor’s office taking a paper towel “sponge” bath and washing out Mr. Sock Monkey john john!

But they were cute when we left the house! I didn’t even get a picture before the event!

Blair’s ears looked fine, which I was so happy about. She has yet another cold, and gave it to Leighton. And now I’m getting it. I just keep looking at it as one less cold they’ll have when they go to school!

When we got home, Blair was sad that too late to take a nap because that means she doesn’t get her addiction fix for the day – those pacis! She only gets them for nap. But she was happy to play outside.

Leighton is so close to crawling. He has the legs down and the arms down, but he can’t do both together. He scoots his legs up and lunges forward on his belly. But in a few days, he’ll have it.

My lip sucker.

A neighbor came by to see us while we were outside. She brings her grandbabies over to see my chickens when they’re in town. When she left, Blair said, “Oh, I forgot to tell that little girl….” Everyone is a little girl to her!

All that was left of the cute outfit! But they are cute anyway!

Disney Day 3 Evening: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

After rest time, we headed back out to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. I had hoped to be there around 4, but our morning ran long. And then there’s naptime in a one-room hotel room. Blair wanted to jaw it up with everyone in her view instead of sleep! We didn’t get there until after 6, but it was really perfect timing.

We entered and got in line to see the Princesses right off. Blair was surprisingly very into the princesses. I’ve tried to get her – begged really – to watch Disney movies, but she has not really ever wanted to and has never really been a princess fanatic (and I’m not complaining!). But she loved meeting them and continues to talk about them now.

Cinderella was the first of the three princesses. She was just beautiful. Her teeth were amazing! And she loved Leighton. She held him and talked to him… and then told us we could leave! Princess Aurora actually came and got us because Cinderella was holding up the line talking to my kids. So sweet.

She got Tangled for Christmas and has actually watched it in the car twice!

The princes make an appearance for the Christmas party, but we didn’t stick around for them.

We did see Mickey and Minnie together!

It was snowing on Main Street, and Blair thought that was neat!

Plans just didn’t go for this trip. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m just glad we did what Blair wanted to do! That being said, I had thought we might try Adventureland first thing, but Blair wanted to go back to the roller coaster. So the roller coaster we did! Again and again. Overall the lines for our trip were minimal. During MVMCP, they were even better.

Then we took a spin on the carousel… and Blair threw up in the bushes! Ooops. She’s not a stranger to throwing up, but I guess we let her go around a few too many times!

We took a rest by going to see the characters at the Storybook circus.

Then, the line for Belle’s Enchanted Show was non-existent, so we got to see Belle after all! It was so cute, but Blair still didn’t feel right, so she didn’t play a part.

But where did she want to go next? Yep, the roller coaster. By the time we rode the roller coaster a few more times and got some supper, it was time for the late parade.

We made our way back to the entrance to watch. The Magic Kingdom was beautifully decorated.

Blair entertaining her brother by wiggling his blanket in his face. He was laughing so hard.

Blair loved the parade. We had a perfect spot. And the reading I did that said the late parade was better was right on. My research also told me to get next to the Town Square Theater. Juuuuust right!

She was so excited to see her favorites: Minnie & Mickey, Donald & Daisy, and Chip & Dale.

I’m glad I don’t have to wear a soldier suit!

Blair waved and waved. It really is priceless to see her faces.

And that was the end of our first Magic Kingdom day! Whew!

Shhh… don’t tell the bunnies.

We’ve branched out a bit in the past and grown produce other than watermelons – on a small scale. This year though, we’ll be feeding the masses with our little cabbage patch.

If you follow me on Twitter, you saw the picture I posted last week. Just in time for bunny season, we planted 15 acres of cabbage. 15 acres… no big deal, right? We grow more than 350 acres of watermelon. But… watermelon doesn’t come 23,000 plants to the acre.

That’s right, we (well, not me personally) planted about 350,000 baby cabbages this week. By hand. No transplanter, no automation, just some hard working hands placing 23,000 plants an acre over a few days.

So come springtime, we’ll be feeding lots of folks cabbage – yum! And no bunnies allowed!

I like mine steamed sprinkled with a bit of Knorr Caldo de Pollo en Polvo (my go to seasoning – chicken bullion granules) and seasoned pepper.

What’s your favorite cabbage recipe?

Daddy’s Hat and the Blanket Hoarder

Today was another beautiful day in which we spent a lot of time outside. I went for a walk/run. I’m trying to get past week two of couch to 5K. How pitiful is that? I have never ever ever in my life liked to run. I played basketball and ran track (our coach made us if we played softball or bastketball), but I hated running. But I’m trying to like it. I feel like if I get past one point that it will be easier.

Blair is so cute about it. I’ve been talking to her about exercising and eating healthy. She asks to go on a walk and talks about my phone telling me to run. She wanted to exercise today so I let her get out of the stroller and walk the last block. Then we headed right back out with her on her bicycle.

Mr. Leighton loves riding in the stroller. He’s just a smiley thing in general. Here he is with some of his favorite toys.

Blair has another cold. We had a little bit of a break after being sick off and on from October to December. We pulled out the oxygen today for her nap, but she’s feeling pretty good and not running fever.

She’s a blanket junkie. I fold those blankets and all 10+ of them will be unfolded in the next breath. And she didn’t like that fuzzy blue one until I started letting Leighton use it. And now you see who has it.

One thing Leighton loves about his daddy is his hat. When Brad comes home from work, the first thing Leighton does is reach for that hat.

He usually gets it off, and it goes straight to his mouth. Yuck.

It will probably be a long night fighting the pulse oximeter. Blair puts her oxygen on and knows she needs it, but she takes it off in her sleep… But I’m glad we get to care for her here at home. We pray that this is the worst we’ll deal with this cold/flu season.

Datenight!

Tonight I had a date. A real date. I can’t remember when I had one last. Yes, we’ve traveled with Farm Bureau a good bit over the past year, and we’ve gone out to nice restaurants, but going out from home to the places I love happens so rarely.

It was great. We met a Farm Bureau YF Committee couple at one of my very favorite places to eat – Downtown Grill.

I had my usual. And I use that term loosely. I think the last time I made it up to Downtown Grill was three years ago. But I ate what I used to eat when I used to go there. And it was so good.

My favorite is the goat cheese and cranberry stuffed filet. Yum. I use steak to mop the extra goat cheese off of the plate. Oh. My. And I had the vanilla bean cinnamon ice cream pie with graham cracker crust and honey amaretto drizzle. Oh yes. My meal was divine.

And I even had a drink while I was out! An amaretto sour. My favorite. It had been about two years since I had a drink. It’s just not our thing around here.

Even better though was spending time with our great friends -- fellow farmers, parents, and a fellow RN / ICU nurse. We had a great time catching up and laughing. It was a great night.

(And Leighton took a bottle for Gigi like a good boy. And Blair ate a good supper at Mexican. Yay.)

Hopscotch and Smiles

I’m trying to blog more on a daily basis instead of my historical “event” basis. I really can’t remember what goes on from one day to the next as they all run together!

The past few days have been cool at night, but the days have been beautiful. We went outside this morning with Blair’s hopscotch game she got for Christmas. “Mama, where is my number and letter thing that you put together that I got for Christmas?” Whaaaat? Who did you get it from? “You. It was wrapped in pink paper.” Well I’m glad she remembers things!

So I had to look up how to play hopscotch. And I thought it was a super easy game. Notsomuch -- at least for this almost 35 year old mama. The rules said not to step on the borders, but my feet barely fit on these tiles she got, so that’s a bit hard to do for big mama’s feet! Much less the whole jumping on one foot. I did take some pictures of Blair. I’ll spare you what I looked like playing!

(We have a pebble drive and didn’t have concrete until recently. Now that we have it in the carport, the tiles are pretty much unnecessary, but I got them forever ago on clearance. :) )

Two hams.

Leighton loves outside and played while mama looked silly on one foot (falling over).

Gus got plenty of love just like he does every other day. He wore that bracelet for several hours. Bless him.

We let the chickens out for a little bit while we were outside. The only problem though is that they weren’t smart enough to get back in. I had to let two sleep in the woods because I couldn’t get them. And one of them was gone the next morning. We have a major chicken predator around here.

We have loads of eggs lately. Blair loves collecting them.

Blair celebrated peanut butter day with her usual lunch: a PB&J. Not cooked this time but cut “this way and this way” (in 4 squares).

My smiles for today:

B- Mama, can we go for a walk?

Sure!

B- Can we call Aunt Kimmie to go with us?

Baby, she’s at school today.

B- Why?

She’s studying chemistry.

B- Chemistry? Like Kimmie?

Yes. They sound alike.

B- Can I call her Aunt Chemistry?

--~—~--

Mama, I took some pictures of Gus. He’s in your room cause I was taking his picture. Come look at the pictures. She puts imaginary pictures on my leg. See? Look at this one; it’s so preeeetty. Flips imaginary picture. Look mama, isn’t this one so cute?! And on…

And later I discovered the “studio:”

She got these out all by herself.

Busy day as usual around here!