more funnies

for some reason right now jenny thinks that when she wears Will's camo baseball cap that she is a robot. She'll put it on (backwards) prance around and proclaim with glee "I'm a wobot!!!!"
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i make jenny listen to my music in the car. am i mean or what. no barney sing a long etc for us. don't feel too bad for her, she won the battle on a car DVD player and its bad enough that i have to listen to caillou and clifford episodes. anyway i feel its my responsibility to teach my girl (and now my boy) what classic music is all about. We listen to Alison Kraus, Chicago, the Fray, Alabama, Norah Jones. its a wide variety. she will sing along sometimes, especially to the fray. the best lessons though are just listening to the radio and hearing a good one that way. I will tell her ""oh this one right here is a classic jenny, a real classic-- listen up" and then turn it up so maybe it will soak in her brain.
ANYWAY we were in the car yesterday and i was trying to get her to dance to some elton john. she is back there with fists in the air and feet flying, head going side to side. i am of course driving, but workin my moves with my neck and right arm. i hear "Go Mommy! Go Mommy!" oh yeah my daughter's getting into it. this is great fun! i'm just about to say go mommy it's your birthday when i realize she is saying No Mommy not go mommy. as in ---stop dancing--- you are a dork.
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i am not sure where jenny got her good manners but the other day in the grocery store troy sneezed and she said Bless You Twoy. And then she tried to poke his eye out.
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jenny has a friend Andrew. i think she has a crush on him. we were getting ready to go to his house and she said "i gonna hug andwew" about 50 times. then when we were leaving his house she hugs him goodbye and says "oh andwew". when we get home i tell will i think his little girl has a crush. he is like nuh uh--NOT COOL.
i asked jenny "do you like andrew?"
she said "I love him daddy"

the funnies

These 2 keeping me on my toes
Got to love this pic------and he's not even a fusser usually

Jenny's great at her new job: big sister
Notice that she gave him her precious "blankie"

oh my gosh! i have serious case of blogger's guilt to accompany this huge dry spell on my blog!!!!! i know that you know i'm busy with the rugrats, but still i want to keep up the blog and i make time to check facebook, so dang it, i can make time to blog you know. blogging does require more creative thinking than surfing facebook but anyway.
my new goal is to try for shorter blogs so as to not overwhelm the exhausted brain. brain thinks it must work on blog post for at least 2 hrs. Post becomes novel.
i am going to start posting sometimes little posts about funny kid stuff that has happened. I am stealing this idea from my blog friend jenny. she calls it "seen and heard". since i am a copy cat, i think the least i can do is come up with another catch phrase for my own "seen and heard" entries. haven't thought of it yet. work brain work! til catchy phrase comes to me, we'll call these posts the funnies.
here are some random funnies for you:
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jenny has named her first dolly. Rosie. after caillou's sister. yes we watch caillou. jenny LOVES that show. yes i use and abuse that. i know she'll be zoned in for that 30 minutes. so i can do whatever needs to be done. such as couch coma. yes she is getting to be just as whiney as caillou.
she likes for me to take blankie and rig her up a quickie baby wrap to wear Rosie in. then she will parade around house proudly. she will ask "you comftable Wosie?"
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troy is messer extraordinaire. he has blasted projectile poop onto our sheets once. (notice it was once--------you know, fool me once shame on you..........) he will get you lickety split with the pee stream. yesterday: onto his curtains and down the wall into carpet. when i see the pee spring up i will in a panic grab absolutely whatever i can find to cover the wee wee. my mom gave me some "pee pee teepees" but he squirms too much and they fall off.
he is always spitting up when he is freshly bathed or just got a clean outfit.
and at every doc visit weigh in, he waits til i have stripped him and wiped him clean and then he blasts the super poop everywhere. it is such a blast our instinct is to take cover. me and the nurses flinch at the noise.
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last night jenny said she wanted me to go get her dolly "stwoller" out of her room. so i go fetch and tell her not to run over hank with it. well i caught her doing just that. hank is looking at me like "serenity now woman". i asked jenny anyway "did you run over hank?" she looked at her feet and sadly said "uh oh".
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in the car today i pull into sonic. getting stuff just for me. greedy piggie momma. oink oink. i plan to share if prodded, but jeepers its like 2pm the girl should fall asleep soon. get a shake, coke, fries. jenny is in the back zoned in to her caillou DVD. pull thru drive thru and out onto road again with no comment from jenny. she is usually professing her love for "trench tries" from start to finish of drive thru. always potential to have "trench try" meltdown if you are making her wait to eat them when we get home. just like her momma. so she is zoned in like i said. i am thinking hee hee good. i can eat them all myself! maybe even right now in the car and she won't even notice it!! she then calmly says from backseat "don't eat trench tries without me mommy".
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troy is super mellow. thank the GOOD LORD ABOVE. thanking him daily without ceasing for no colic this time.
it was several trips before he cried in the car. i was parked at the bank with both of them strapped in. had to fill out deposit slip and sometimes you get the best work done when they are strapped in back there asleep or not running around in the house eating crayons. so at the bank and he is finally going to remind us he is back there. mind you his worst screams are comparable to jenny's grunts when she was a newborn. jenny is soothing him
"its okay"
"what wrong twoy?"
"poor twoy".
finally she says:
"stop cwying twoy!"
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jenny is excellent entertainer for troy during tummy time. i have decided i don't need one of those pricy tummy mats to keep him happy. just unleash his sister on him. she will lay all her dolls and animals on their tummies also right next to him and cover them each with blankie and troy also. she will talk mommy talk to them
"you seepy? okay baby"
"you nap? okay baby"
"want me drink you? okay baby" (want a bottle)
"sit still baby"
"its okay"
once i noticed her pulling troy's arm. i am like NO NO NO. she is frowning and says "no troy!" "no touch Wosie!" his arm was on rosie and she didn't want him touching her doll. and so it begins.
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okay so this was not a short post. lots of work to do.

Troy Mason Christopher

Our son was born on Tuesday July 21st at 9:29 a.m! He was 8 pounds 4 ounces, 21 inches long. He has a touch of strawberry in his blonde hair.
I know I have been blog slacking, sorry for that. I'll post these pictures for now and give more details about Troy's first week later on.

Jenny meeting Troy at the hospital
Yes I deliberately picked this picture because you can't see my face

What a big grin

Feeding Baby Troy
Aww how sweet
After I took this picture I attempted to show Jenny how to keep the bottle turned up so he is getting milk not air. This resulted in her clutching the bottle and Troy and shouting "Mine!" This resulted in me taking baby brother away. Then there was a drama meltdown and Will dished out several spankings. Yes--- aww how sweet--- ha ha.

growing up

can you believe that jenny sat on public potty yesterday????

for starters, i had been real proud a couple weeks ago when i had to change her diaper at church and she didn't freak. at first, i was going to oblige her once again by getting down on my knees on a carpeted floor somewhere in a private corner and changing her diaper, in hopes that that would keep her from wigging out......but momma is getting large and in charge, and so i declared that i spend enough time on the floor everyday without indulging her. so i ventured to a changing table in a classroom --and what do you know--- we both walked away unscathed!!
then a week later, yet another successful diaper change at church in the BATHROOM on a changing table. time to celebrate i'm telling you.
THEN yesterday at sears, i am looking for nightgowns and jenny keeps pointing to doors and saying potty. I am like "no thats the fitting rooms" "no thats an exit" ---finally she looked up at me and said "i need to potty." i was like "what?" this is new. so i tried to visualize for a minute how that would all go down, then i said "now if i take you in the bathroom you are going to sit on big person potty like momma?" oh yes she said.
that is nutso--- cause her usual routine for public bathrooms is: her in the stall w/me crying a river while i pee-- like i am going to get eaten up by the potty or something.
so i am thinking --yeah right chica-- you are going to flip out like usual.
but no she totally sat on the big potty and was very proud of herself. did not do anything in it, but its a start! i have to say --maybe she would have been successful if i could have managed to continue holding her on the potty. but the belly strikes again. i needed to be squatting down w/her and quite frankly i felt that that might lead to our son being born in the sears bathroom floor. anyway--- after that, i realized i would have to lay her on the change table to properly diaper her again. that is when i made mental note to buy pull ups and start putting her in pull ups when we go out on the town. (til we start to really train, that is) again she was fine with the change table.
i just cannot tell you how fabulous it is that she has overcome this fear. i am almost inspired to take her on a doctor visit.

and a seperate, very deep and ridiculous thought i was having concerning this momentous potty sit is..... that my poor girl is now no longer completely sheltered from the reality that is "the woes of womanhood".
yes dear you have to sit on public toilets. might as well get over it now. whether you decide to freak out about sitting there each and every time your entire life-- that is your own choice to make.
next thing you know you'll have to wear a bra, tampon, make up, shave various areas of your body, attempt to be as beautiful as possible in order to thrive in our hideous culture. You'll be married. Take birth control. You'll have to go to obgyn for any number of wild issues that only bother women. (while your husband goes to doc like once every 10 yrs and gets freaked about things like blood pressure cuffs.) You'll be pregnant and give birth and be Mom. (that sentence is packed to the brim with understatement.) Then you will snicker when you remember how you used to spend time thinking about the germs on a toilet seat.

need brain to work better

wow. i think i have alot to post about. i am going to have to collect my thoughts.
first i know i still have to talk about my baby shower that was may 30.
then we made a trip to AL on june 12 for Will's family reunion.
will's b'day was june 19 and then fathers day was 2 days later.
we had jenny's 2nd b'day party on saturday june 27.
we had toddler celebration at church yesterday.
between all of these events we have been cramming in doc appts here and there like crazy. i mean i feel like we have been to docs 3 times a week since january. and we are healthy people. maybe that is why ---b/c we go so much. ha i have my doubts.
we have really been frequenting the dentist, chiropractor, ob-gyn, and veterinarian like nobody's business.
we've only been to the pediatrican maybe 3 times this yr thankfully, but her 2 yr exam is coming up, and also i am past due on the eye doctor as usual.
not to mention the newborn coming and needing to go get all his check ups.
its a shame that my child is petrified of all of these doc offices, even the vet office. but it always ensures that i get a break from her at least! ha
"SCORE another break for momma! time to get a pelvic exam/rabies shot/tooth cleaning/neck adjustment/bloodtest etc!"
anyway i have kind of set this day aside to relax to the max and i have dwindled myself down to slug mode apparently cause it seems that "collecting my thoughts" is even too much to ask today??? maybe its just writers block. anyway i'll get with the program soon i promise.

missing: one dozen eggs

i think it was friday that i went to get a few groceries. on saturday i found myself staring into the fridge wondering......... where were those eggs i bought? will had put some of the groceries up so i asked if he saw them but no. so i looked in the car but they didn't get left in there. i did pay for them....... so where are they??? i can only hope that i left them at the check out, because i really fear that i may have put them in some random place in the house. that is totally something i would do right now. i have been busy putting stupid stuff in the fridge as it is.

also something that i find majorly disturbing: i was baking chicken last night and realized that i liked the smell of RAW CHICKEN. my skin was crawling and yet i was enjoying the aroma. WHAT.
i have always kind of thought that if you "crave" something then you might have a deficiency in that area. like if you want an orange you need the vit C for example. let me state here that i do not want to EAT raw chicken have mercy. i don't want to hear any of you running around saying "Kristen craves raw chicken!" ----------but i was simply thinking what could that mean for me to have that bizarro experience? that i need more ......protein? salmonella? ha ha

on a more typical level of "cravings" i am definitely digging waffles again (big ole fancy ones, not eggo) like when i was preg with jenny. also loving the canned corn and the OJ.

to keep me from going directly to jail

the blog police called and said i must post again. okay so i am bad.
i will make this a quickie update post. here are some news tidbits buzzing around the Christopher household:

1---Tiny Troy, as i now call my baby bun i am baking, is not so tiny after all. ha ha I knew i was not crazy. he currently has estimated weight of 4.5 pounds. he is 78% percentile for a 31 wk old bun. another comparison is this: i get a weekly email from babycenter.com that reminds me what week i am. it was saying this week that my baby might weigh 3 pounds by this point. Looks like Troy will possibly follow in his big brother's footsteps: our mancat Little Dee who is so not little, who weighs 20 pounds but has been even porkier in the past. ha ha
my belly has been just bursting for what seems like forever. i was saying golly this boy is going to be a "big ole good un". my doc says if Tiny T continues at this growth rate he might weigh 8.5 at birth. i can handle that. but also dr. Jack says Troy might have had a growth spurt and now he could taper off and not be biggie size after all. so to sum up, dr. jack says "don't freak on me".
2---Tiny Troy is head down for the duration. He ain't goin nowhere ---he has no wiggle room. I have lucked out 2 for 2 thus far on baby's position. (jenny was head down)
I always thought it would be a bummer to have to have c-section just because of breech etc. having to do c-section for other reasons is another thing altogether.
on the other hand, if you have scheduled c-section cause of baby's position, that is like several weeks that you have to get used to the idea of surgery. If you are in labor for eons and then they say "surprise! c section right now!" then you are like huh huh HOLD ON A MINUTE at least i would be.
3---Jenny is 100% in the big girl bed!!!! more on that later.
4---Jenny's b'day party coming up end of June. yes a whole month early. hello i could go into labor on or before her actual b'day---july 24. and all moms know that the whole b'day party routine has all the potential to do things like make all your hair fall out...... or perhaps make you go into labor.
5---had a baby shower this weekend!!!! more on that later also. waiting for pictures from generous people who took some (aka you Nina) and also must examine pictures closely for a few days to estimate how fat I look before they make the cut. (where was my camera? oh at home with dead battery as usual.)
6---8th wedding anniversary coming up!!!! freakin old people is what we are. i was thinking today that in 8 more yrs Jenny will be TEN.
we have no plans yet, but will probably celebrate on june 3rd and 4th since those are will's off days.

okay that update will have to satisfy you for a bit, Officer Burleson (and any others of you who were getting impatient).

New Room for Jenny ---update

We are doing big girl bed swap. We have ~3 months til baby boy makes his debut.

Will painted Jenny's new room yellow at the end of April. Next we had to get a mattress. Then he installed a baby gate on her door. And last but not least he put together the bed rail.

(oh yeah----i bought what i hope is a fabulous waterproof mattress pad at the mattress store. It is called "Protect-A-Bed" and it is also good for allergies. So far I can say that it is comfortable and doesn't make crackle noise or make you sweaty. Lets see if it will stand up to wetting the bed..........)
The room is not totally complete, but here are the recent pictures:

Party on the new mattress
Little Dee was guest of honor

Playing on her new bed with dolly the day of her first big girl bed nap

Cage door (heh heh) This is my attempt to keep her from roaming the house at night----too bad that she can already open it. Maybe I can just put some fear in her.....

Yeah so yesterday was the big day. In preparation, I told her a few times that she was going to nap in big girl bed. Of course it has never done me any good to try to inform her of how things will go (in an effort to keep her from being scared) This has proven uneffective so far for doc office, public change table, bible class jitters, etc.....

Anyway, at about naptime yesterday she was playing alone in her new room. I went to check on her and found her snuggling in bed with blankie. Perfect! I asked if she was ready to nap---"yeah" she says. "sleepy" she says. So I covered her with special pink blanket and said naptime and shut the gate. No disputes. I am in the den going "ha ha ha yeah right that is too good to be true" of course after about 1 minute she came to the gate and said calmly "ope nit, ope nit" Back to bed i took her and that is when she started to realize my plan. Totally did not like it. Had to scream a good bit. She would do less screaming actually if I left her sight so that is how I rolled. Then she eventually pooped in diaper and got it on her hands and came to the gate like that (not too rare for her to do this unfortunately). "poo poo mommy!" So one clean diaper, one handwashing, one hand geling and one more lecture about not touching poop later--- back to big girl bed she went. Not happy again but she eventually conked.

It wasn't pretty....but this was the end result-----
first nap in big girl bed

Today she is in there again for nap and it was still an ugly drama but not quite as ugly or long as the first day. Here's hoping each day gets better and better...........

Rock City day o' fun

Jason, Valerie, Jenny, Will and me at the big lookout over "7 states"

On April 25th we spent the Saturday with our friends Jason and Valerie. They are from north AL. Jason and Will met at Auburn while trudging thru engineering school together.

We had a great day! Jenny's behavior was top of the line by my standards (and those are rigid standards) and also we had good weather. And I ----the out of breath fattie with the creaking hips---managed all the exercise just fine.
Will and I had never been to Rock City but we did know about the "no strollers". So we borrowed a backpack from the Reynolds to tote around our midget mama. Thank you again Reynolds!!! I was not sure how would she like it?? Some kids do not like it and most kids want to get out and walk at some point. Heaven knows Jenny asks alot to get out of the stroller and walk. Do you know....... that girl LOVED the backpack!!?? Cried when we took her out! Did not ever ask to walk. So that turned out well. Cause it is not the best place to have your 21 month old running loose. Oh I forgot to mention the one issue and that was----Will could not fit thru two of the passes ("needles eye" and "fat man squeeze") wearing the pack. So he took it off, left Jenny sitting in it, and sort of shimmied her thru the pass sideways. it was a sight---and i am sure that he worked some odd arm muscles that usually don't get alot of use.

This pic reminds me of a song from Elmo's world:
"I'm a chickadee and I live in a tree,
with my mommy, my daddy, and baby makes three
and we're a family, a family!"

Jenny takes in the fabulous view

The Christophers---all 4 of us

Backpack, backpack

After we walked the trail, we bought fudge ---then headed to downtown Chatt to eat at Sticky Fingers.
Oh yeah another huge bonus for the day: our best ever score for a downtown Chatt parking spot---right in front of sticky fingers' door! let the records show......

So i had to pull a diaper change in the sticky fingers bathroom and you know I was saying my prayers once more. As an update, in case i have not given an update lately, Jenny's rage level during a public diaper change revolt has dwindled by about 50%. As soon as I lay her down to change, she begins to scream bloody murder like I am pulling her toenails out, just like she always has, but at least she lays there and lets me actually change the diaper instead of the old twist, shout and stand procedure. Well in addition this time she actually STOPPED crying about half way thru the change which is another big step in the right direction.
Anyway after our meal, we walked downtown for awhile---(Northshore, over the pedestrian bridge). Then we headed for Soddy--- and more importantly ---Nana's frozen custard. After indulging there, we went back to the house and Jason and Valerie headed home. Jenny took her nap then at 6pm and so did we. She was a pooped out monkey. As she was laying down she wimpered some about Jason leaving her ha ha. But she did SOOOOOOOO well all day not going bizzerko about nothing --not having nap drama during the usual nap hours or anything.

And i should add that Jason and Valerie were very good sports!---- riding in the backseat all smooshed up together with Jenny and making sure Beauty and the Beast was playing all day. Will said it should not bother them to be smooshed up together cause they are still honeymooners--ha
But they are probably still singing to themselves..... "Bonjour! Bonjour!"

I will say i was very tuckered out and majorly enjoyed that late nap. lots of exercise for me and the belly. but it is good for me.

6 month belly reveal

okay here finally is a picture of my baby belly. maybe i need to remind you that i still have 3 months to go!!!! how much bigger can it get??!!
as probably all of you have heard me whining about, i am already waddling around in discomfort equivalent to my 7th month of pregnancy with jenny. and i have been on this discomfort level for 2 months already! ha!

my current complaints are:
1--there ain't enough room for him in there--- i can somewhat alleviate this by raising my arms to make more room for him
2--muscles and bones or joints are just killing me------ feel like i have worked out all live long day ----and as far as "bone pain" i just feel about 95 yrs old like my whole lower body is arthritic. i remind myself of the tin man creaking around needing to be oiled.
3--sleep is misery. sooooooooooo not sleeping due to all of the aching, and lets not forget that i can't sleep on belly or back, so its flip and flop, flip and flop my giant belly back and forth all night.

okay so if you have somehow missed out on my whining, then there you go-- you are all caught up.

Nurse Kristen

First splinter, first bandaid

We have been walking alot. Will was off last week and the weather was divine. Jenny likes to walk alot too (the unpleasant part is making her get back into the stroller). On one of several downtown walks last week, Jenny got her first splinter while she was chasing pigeons on the pedestrian bridge. It was pretty big, but she was not too upset about it til Will started to pull it out. Then alot of tears had to fall. Then back into the stroller eventually, and more tears due to that. Then since I am a bad mother and do not carry any first aid antiseptic (yet) in my gigantic bag of tricks, she proceeded to talk pitifully about her "hurt tinger" all the way home (40 minutes). So when we got home I hooked her up with peroxide, some sort of cream and most importantly.... a Diego bandaid. I was not sure she would leave on a bandaid cause she loves stickers (loves to put them here and then there) But we had a talk and she seemed to understand. She was very excited about "Ego and Jaguar" on her hand but I could not get her to hold up her hand for the camera...............

Then my attention turns to Hank who is again licking his foot. I get a closer look and discover a swollen toenail area. There is a tick attached near the nail that is making it swell up. So out to the back porch with my trusty peroxide. Pulled the evil monster out with tweezers and doctored up that golden toe.

Two patients taken care of.........

NEXT!

Fun times with Jenny

Looking out the window in her new bedroom with Hank

She always asks her daddy to draw a mouse in the bathtub

Posing in front of the doggy statue downtown

Those are just some random shots from this past week.
I know, I know......I still have to get the Easter dress picture up on here.

yay for pee in potty!

here is the scenario for us lately:
jenny wants to sit on potty for about 2 hrs a day. nothing to show for it--- absolutely nothing in the potty since january. but what are you gonna do when your kid is telling you she's got to go, asking to sit on potty, willing to sit if you ask, and not fussing one bit? well this momma is gonna let her sit on it all the live long day.

so we are busy on all these fruitless trips to the potty for months now, and i don't know about jenny, but i was needing a little something to keep me going. a little motivation. if there was just a tiny tinkle or nugget deposited there, that is all i would need to keep pressing on thru the potty preliminaries.......

well tonight we got a pee in the potty! i'm telling you it was thrilling. jenny was sitting on potty watching elmo. she had been there like 45 minutes. she finally looked down in it and said "some". i went over to examine the potty like always........ and lo and behold there was real pee in it!!!
so then there was the fun of flushing, saying bye to the pee, then a sticker for her chart, then a sticker for her shirt, then a big hunk of chocolate for her reward. i was glad to see that she didn't panic and have a meltdown when she saw her pee this time (like she did in january).

now to poo in potty.
her fave time to poo is in her crib alone. she is forever calling me back into her room instead of falling asleep and saying "poo poo" and after diaper change THEN she will go right to sleep. but lately she will say "poo poo" and i go in there and there is none yet. so then it is up out of crib and onto potty for who knows how long.

so tonight after our pee hoopla, it is bedtime at 10 and she has called to me from the crib 4 times telling me "poo poo" or "potty". (and believe you me, she needs to go) we sat once in the bathroom, once in front of TV and the last 2 times i went in there, i just did the old "time for bed ---lay down" routine. i can not bear to do another potty sit tonight i mean for crying out loud its 11:00.
i mean should i really keep up the potty sits she is requesting into the wee hours tonight hoping it will finally arrive? should i just let her sit there until she conks out and falls off? i'm not going to come out and tell her to poop in her diaper. that contradicts all this big girl stuff that i feed her all day. and how do i know its not just a conspiracy to get out of the crib??
have MERCY

ahhhhhhhh.......she sleeps.......

Mission Impossible

Getting a picture of a 2 yr old smiling at the camera.

Jenny likes to dress up and come find me in the kitchen to show off her fashion. She was so proud of her hairbow this morning. This is my attempt to get a shot of her looking at the camera............







Yes she is wearing Christmas PJs. They are Gymboree and I'm getting my money's worth so help me.

Easter Fun

Poor Jenny got a fever on Saturday night, and therefore could not go to church. So you'll have to wait even longer to see a picture of her all dressed up! But we did hunt eggs at our house, and of course Peter Cottontail left Jenny a basket of goodies.

(I waited til Will got home from work on Sunday to do hunting and basket .........)

I dyed eggs while Jenny took a late nap--
I dyed a dozen, but the orange ones were the most photogenic

Jenny found her basket from the Bunny on the back porch after her nap. Will told her that while he was mowing the grass, he saw the Easter Bunny hopping away into the woods............

Jenny got lots of toys and candy----
She got a doctor kit
Here she is saying "Give me a shot so I will get better"
(yeah right)

Of course her favorite thing in her basket was "chockit"

Time to hunt eggs!
(yes, we put bunny ears on our girl and let her hunt eggs in the yard even though she had 101 fever)

Found one!

This is alot easier with no big kids hogging all the eggs.........

Golly I found alot already.....

Close up of bunny ears

Hank helped me sniff out the eggs

Score again

Holy smokes that is a load. Why did I not take Hank to hunt at the church the other day?

Last egg discovered!

Heading inside with my loot

Comments on my PAAS egg kit

---Just wanted to also note that, as a rookie egg dyer, I forgot to buy vinegar. I was resigned to have to wait an extra day to dye eggs, but I read the fine print and realized that I could use lemon juice. Then I left the eggs in for a long time so they would get darker. I was pretty pleased with lemon juice and heaven knows it smells better than vinegar.........
---Also wanted to add that I was majorly disappointed with the shrink wrap for eggs. Like I said I am a rookie. So I dyed all the eggs and then I planned to shrink wrap 6 of them in boiling water. But of course the dye came off in the water (duh) and you know that ticked me off so there was only one shrink wrapped egg. I really loved the shrink wrapped ones when I was little, so I was bummed. I guess you wrap them first and then dye them???

I sent Will to work today with an egg salad sandwich. Lets see if he notices it is rainbow colored........ and who wants to place bets on him not eating it at that point??? he he he

The Loveliest Village

Me and Jenny are headed to Auburn this morning.
For those of you not familiar with War Eagle Country, this post will seem dorky, strange, annoying.
For those of you who know Auburn, have lived it and love to tell about it ----you will get me.

There is something about Auburn.
Conveniently I will take this time to quote David Housel since I need only glance up from our desk to see his framed statement titled "What is Auburn?"
"Auburn is a spirit, an attitude, a way of living. Unless you have experienced it, you will never know what it is, you will never understand it."

When we lived in Auburn, I wondered sometimes if the same spirit could often be found in other school towns. I am still not sure and may never know the answer to that, but this I do know:
We are so glad and proud to be part of the Auburn family.

I tried to pick an Auburn picture off the internet. I found that I could not decide which picture might depict the essence of Auburn. So here are just a few selections----you can pick your favorite:

Our Samford Hall

Our eagle


Our stadium

Our Toomer's Corner

In Auburn, things are always changing. Constant construction on campus and in the business area. People are in and out excluding the locals. (who keep the place running) (and who often are just alum that couldn't bear to leave town). So you can't be falling in love with places and people necessarily. What you are in love with is the spirit of Auburn. You can't be upset when you travel to Auburn and things are different cause that is just the way it goes. A visit to Auburn is like a pilgrimage to your second home. You know that when you get there the essence of auburn will just hang in the air all around you. That is what you are going for.
And for all the times in between all your future pilgrimages there, you rely on the Auburn family to give you strong "war eagles!" here and there along the way to remind you of the auburn spirit and refresh you.
And now I have only one thing left to say..........WAR EAGLE!

sleep, snuggling, shawbies

i had to throw in the white flag this morning to insomnia.
often when will leaves for work at 5:15am i am stuck tossing and turning trying to go back to sleep for an hour or longer. of course you can imagine that he does not pity me.
anyway this AM i stuck it out til 7 and then hobbled from our room into the den.
the sun was not even up i tell you. most of you probably know this but still.........
let me stress that it is my policy to never get up before jenny wakes up.
why would i do that to myself???
the time will come --all too soon --for me to once again be in high demand at all hours, when our little man gets here.
after that my chances for sleep diminish further the more children that i pop out.
i often wonder if that Duggar lady sleeps at all??

anyway aside from my involuntary early rising that would normally have me in a tissy, we have had the yummiest morning......
jenny woke up and we snuggled on the couch for like 30 minutes! she never wants to sit still so that is pretty special. she had her head on my chest and looked up at me thru her bedhead and said "I love you mommy" -------that is the good stuff i tell you.
then i made homemade pancakes and she sang about cakes and shawbies until they were ready to eat. then she gobbled it all up with zero attitude and zero coaxing on my part. and she ate with her fork. the whole time she was eating she continued to profess her love for the cakes and shawbies.
now that is what i'm talking bout. lets show momma some appreciation!!!

but don't ask me tomorrow about how my day went---I'll probably be bald from pulling my hair out, due to a 5 hr. drive alone with jenny. more on that later...........

ummm........chockit!

after some time with aunt nina, jenny's love for chocolate candy has grown by leaps and bounds.
just like a grown woman with PMS, she has been having a chockit fit about every other day now. she knows where it is and she will open the drawer and try to talk us into giving her some.

but jenny is now only allowed chocolate candy if she pees or poops in potty. since it is such a huge motivator for her, i'm trying to use it to my advantage to see if she "knows the potty feeling" and is just not telling me it is time....
it hasn't worked yet but she sure knows the connection. she talks about "run to potty and chockit" all day.

she has been very willing to sit on the potty bare booty for about 30 minutes total each day. for about a week. usually she is the one to suggest it. yay!

i have this new lift the flap "corduroy" beach book that she likes to read there for a long time. she has like 200 books and she picks this one to look at for some reason. she lifts every flap and i ask her to point out about 100 items on the pages and i drag it out for like 10 minutes, because when we are done with the book she usually tries to stand up and claim she is "done".

she will stare down into her potty, all but sticking her head fully into it, and say "some?"
i conclude that that means "did i do something?"

i tried her dora panties on her to see if they fit. well she thought that was the bees knees. afterwards she wanted to wear them over her diaper but i am saving them for the special occasion of potty success. i want them to seem like a grand prize.
"panties are only for big girls who use the potty all the time like momma".

i think they should make dora panties in my size and maybe that would motivate her even more.......

self-spanking child

what does it mean when your 20 month old behaves badly in the backseat and then yells
"bad!"
"pank!"
and promptly lifts her jeans up and spanks her own leg?

i decided that it means "yay me! my child is learning to help others!"
one less thing for me to do, pulling over on the side of the road to spank that leg.
too bad that she is not spanking herself hard enough..........
but i give her E for effort.

pics of the diva

it was requested that i please post more often, and you've got to give the people what they want. so i'm really going to make an effort.
it has been awhile since i posted Jenny pics... and lets face it, that's all "the people" really want, so here is a few recent shots:

Dress up in Aunt Nina's bedroom

Check out my bustle

Mastering the barbie shoe (one shoe at a time)

Big smile as Hankers looks on

This is why we really can't bring ourselves to send Little Dee to "live at the farm"
or as the Christophers say "take Little Dee for a ride"

that good for nothing- pee on the couch -fattie