My Priorities

Lauren is all puckered up. Boys get in line--just kidding, my precious little girl is already too classy be loose lipped

Lauren is showing off her happy dance

Okay, so William loves to play with these two little happy meal guitars and pretend he is on stage. The other day he tells me "play guitar" followed by his guitar sound, "live it" followed by guitar sound, "on stage" followed by guitar sound. He always pretends he is onstage dancing or making music. Well the last two nights he has loved having Grandma introduce him before he comes running out onto the "stage" yelling "that's me!".

Linebacker

This is William running as fast he can to tackle me. Daddy taught him to tackle when he was about 18 months and he hasn't stopped since. Many of our friends and even some of his unsuspecting toddler friends have experienced tackling by William .

Delicate Flower

My very delicate and gentle girl is not quite sure how to play with her dolls yet. I think she must sneak and watch wrestlemania or something.

William loves his "red dip"--a taste he definitely gets from his Dad

L is showing very little interest in "ma ma" and showing very much interest in "da da". She is also showing off one of her very, let's say delicate, sounds.

Mommy and the Kids

William loves to cuddle. So I take every opportunity to cuddle with him and Lauren. It won't be too long before he will be all grown up and not wanting to cuddle with his mom anymore.

Taking Care of Business

What can I say here, reading on the toilet is innate

Playing together

Lauren is trying to figure out her sippy cup. She tried from every possible angle and then threw the cup on the ground. This is a very different concept for her having only had a bottle a handful of times.
When we eat dinner at Neenee and Granpa's, Lauren usually sits in the stroller to eat. But this time she sat in her Bebe pod and was more than thrilled with the change of scenery. She remained true to her nosy little self and checked every new thing out.

William had a great time sharing his ball tower with Lauren. He would drop the balls in top...

Then Lauren would watch them go down and try to get one...
And SUCCESS!!

Friends and Family

This weekend the kids and I traveled with my mom to Gulfport, MS to visit my brother and his family. On Saturday, Lauren and I hopped over to Navarre for a good friends baby shower--well really it was a very nice mid-afternoon party honoring Jennifer, Aaron, and the future Sarah-Grace. I was able to see several friends from our time at Hurlburt and do a little catching up. Lauren spent the afternoon with her Great Aunt Deborah and Great Neenee--they had some good girl bonding time. William stayed in Mississippi with his Grandma, Aunt Misty, and cousin Zachary. Uncle Kyle had to be off to his new job with the Gulfport PD.

This is William pitching to me in the the front yard. Zachary is beside him. He did a really good job throwing the baseball right to my glove.

Lauren is enjoying a book with Great Aunt Deborah

William riding his motorcycle. He really had a great time because Zachary and a friend were outside on their scooters jumping ramps; So he felt like a big kid.
Zachary read to William before bed. That book--Owl Babies-- is one of William's current favorites

William using the curb as his ramp

L's new skills

Lauren sat in a restaurant highchair for the first time. She was completely occupied the whole meal with studying the highchair cover and watching people at other tables--nosy girl. But, not only can she sit in a restaurant highchair at her ripe age of 5 and a half months--she can also roll over, sit up, babble with four consonant sounds, and she cut two teeth. She is a very busy girl.

I Love Hot Dogs!

As much as my son loves hotdogs, how could I pass up this photo op? This hot dog was parked outside of Dillards in Montgomery, AL. I think William was awed by its magnificence.

Tidbits

I have to share another conversation with William. I am standing in my closet pulling out clothes for myself when William proceeds to smack my bottom.
I say, "William stop smacking mommy's bottom"
(he responds with another smack and a laugh)
I say, "William, walk away from mommy"
He says, "No walk away. Best Friend, Mommy" and then gives me a hug.
Talk about stealing a mommy's heart, he made my day.

Simply Irresistible

William frequently lines up his cars to get them ready for the "Big Race". He usually picks some object as the trophy--it could be a shoe or a chair leg, you just never know until the cars are again lined up to look at the trophy.

I really could not resist putting Lauren in this little flower headband. I found it in the holiday dollar section in Target. She really doesn't mind wearing it, she goes about her business until it falls off.

Memories

Our time in Mississippi was brightened by the many great friendships we made. We developed close ties with many wonderful couples, some with and some without kids.. William made friends with lots of kids his age as well as some adult "kids" (you know who you are) that he still talks about. We would, on most evenings, meet William's toddler friends and our adult friends at the playground where the kids would climb and throw mulch, the Mommies would chit chat about the goings on of the day, and the Daddies would drink a "coke" and play a 9-hole game of golf on their imaginary golf course.

This video is of William and his buddy Noah showing support for their future college teams--UF and UGA respectively.

Bull Riding

Lauren is perpetual motion. Nearly every evening she spends some quality time with Grandad and the bull riding ensues--at least that is what Grandad likes to call it. Today, however, the rodeo was on TV and Lauren actually enjoyed watching the bull riders--she laughed everytime the bull came bucking out of the pen.

Magic Wand

A favorite thing for William is bubbles. He has always enjoyed blowing and popping them. So, today we played with bubbles. My mom has this gadget that makes giant bubbles which completely thrilled William. The Magic bubble wand was also a great hit.

Batter up!

William loves to play baseball. We have invisible bases that he has to run after he hits the ball and make it back to the tee before I get there with the ball or he is out--which really means bat again. Also, if he knocks the tee over with his bat it is a foul ball. He loves running the bases

Conversations with William

When William is using the potty we have some very interesting conversations. William is sitting on the potty doing one thing or the other and he says: "you have butt mom?" and I say "yes, mommy has butt". Then William goes on with:
"Grandma have butt?",
"yes",
"buddy Noah have butt?",
"yes",
"Noah's mom have butt?",
"yes",
"Noah's mom have weiner?",
"No",
"Noah's mom girl?"
"yes"
Then when he is finished doing one thing or another on the potty he says,
"Make you sooo... happy, Mom!?". To which Iof course say "Yes, that makes mommy soo... happy!"
Oh, by the way, William has not had a poop accident in 6 days and has only had 1 pee pee accident in these days. I am so proud of him.

She is growing up!

If Lauren could just undo the straps to her carseat, she could see everything she wants to see. She lifts her head so far out of her carseat to watch her brother and look out the window. How cute does she look peeking around her head support.
Lauren was very interested in William's new doctor's kit. Mostly because they were new things to put in her mouth. She stood at the coffee table (with me tightly holding on to her incase she threw back) for about 5 minutes playing with the toys--well, eating the toys. I could not believe how stable she was--she barely needed my support to keep from falling. She was too busy going through the toys to see which would fit best in her mouth. .

He is so fun!

William had a small accident on his motorcycle--He was a trooper and jumped right back on but, he did want to get his helmet. The last video is William revving up his engine on his motorcycle to get his trophy, right now!--as you can hear him say.
During night-night storytime, William decided he wanted to read a book to me. The first time through, he did a pretty good job retelling the story from the pictures in the book. It is a book about a day in the life of a train. This is the second, less patient, telling of the story. At the end he realized he missed his favorite part--the steam hissing from the engine.

Visit with friends

William, Lauren, and I made the trip to Atlanta this weekend for a delightful and much over due visit with the Marlatts. Lou Ellen is a friend from college and she was an attendant in my wedding. Mike, Lou Ellen's husband, was in ROTC with Eric. They have baby Kensley who has a very lively personality and was very sweet to meet. She is so tiny and squishy--she was so fun to touch.

Lauren decided it would be a good time to show off. She started rolling over everytime she was put on her tummy. She has dabbled with this skill before but, only then did she really perfect it. Now, she is working hard on rolling back-to-tummy. Not really, she is quite happy laying on her back and kicking up to her side.

William participated in poop-a-thon while we were visiting. He really enjoyed using the Wheeler's (Lou Ellen's parents) potty and pooping everytime. He would work very hard to produce little poop nuggets everytime he needed to pee pee. He pooped 3 maybe 4 times in the few hours we visited with the Marlatts. Then, we headed over to visit Wendy, Mark, and Brenden where William pooped another 3 times. He was more than pleased with himself as was I. Today, William did a trial gymnastics class with his buddy Brenden. It was a little too structured for William but he really enjoyed the activities. Mosty he enjoyed the trampoline. But he was able to practice his somersault and start learning how to do a cartwheel.

Cute Pictures

Lauren lovin' that corn on the cob

William building a tower for Grandad to knock over
Lauren reading her favorite book--baby einstein "mirror me"
Sweet sleeping Lauren
William had the best time playing cash register with his buddy Brenden

Mmm... Corn!

Lauren is really enjoying this food thing--bananas aside. She has now added avocado to her food range. She enjoyed the new fruit. But, she really enjoyed corn (I totally broke the introduing new foods rule)--on the cob, that is. She had a death grip on the cob and expressed her pleasure through various sounds while she was licking and gnawing the corn cob. Lauren became very angry with mommy when I finally took the cob away.

Big Date

William and I took a special trip to get ice cream this evening. We went to Cold Stone Creamery and William made quite a colorful confectionary treat. I thought for sure he would go for the chocolate ice cream but, he insisted on the blue ice cream ( it turned out to be cotton candy flavored). To his ice cream, he added M&Ms and sprinkles--It was a delicious creation.

Good Times

William and Kaylee are patiently waiting for their lunch--William wowed Karen, Kaylee's mom, by eating not one but two hotdogs and part of a slice of pizza. It takes a lot of food to maintain his 32 lb physique.

William played at Monkey Joes with his friend Kaylee yesterday. William loves to play with friends and always has fun playing at Monkey Joes with his friend Kaylee