More, please!

Brady is saying two words at a time now. It is SO sweet to hear him learn how to talk. For example, when he wants more food (which is ALWAYS)... he starts by saying, "Mooooh?" (translation = more)

So now I say to him, "Say 'more please!'" And he does! "Moooh peees."

His blanket, which our friend Laura Weego gave him (and swore it was the best blankie ever... she was right!), he calls "bluh-blee."

He's always been able to say "mommy," "daddy," and "sissy," - but anything other than that has been kind of hard.

He knows his afternoon teacher's name (Adrienne) = "Ay-yin."

His favorite food = apple (which is VERY easy to understand cause he actually uses all the correct letters!)

And my favorite.... with THREE syllables... "I duh doo." No - not poop. He's saying "I love you." That, we can thank Barney for. The big purple dinosaur is my LEAST favorite character (that's putting it mildly), but if his annoying songs teach my sweet son how to tell me he loves me, then he's allowed on my TV anytime.

Hair DO-NOT!

My friend Gina used to say in college... "hair doooooo-NOT!"

Well, I have had a FEW (okay, several) of those in my day. I used to have VERY short hair. I have also had very BROWN hair. At one point in my life, I wasn't making enough money to get highlights. Never .... again ..... will I go without highlights.

I have become a hair snob. It's actually a running joke by a few of my friends! Susie asked me once, "If you got a bad haircut/color, would you go and have it redone?" Uh... YEAH!

Some people are car snobs. Some people only carry designer handbags. Me? I must have good hair!

Let's review.

Never again will I go without highlights. Never again will I have boy-short hair.

Never... never.. again.

Brady = No Fear

There is a big difference between my daughter and my son. Earlier this week, I blogged about Kennedy losing a bit of her fear. Brady was born without any! Kennedy refused to go in a bounce house until she was three. And even then, she wouldn't jump much. At four years old, she started enjoying them a bit more.

Last weekend at Cole's birthday party, Brady experienced his first bounce house. He literally jumped in head first, climbed the squishy ladder, slid down the slide, bounced his little not-yet-two-year-old heart out.

"Helping" Daddy...

I've mentioned this before, but I'll write it again. Brady LOVES to be outside. He points to the door or window and used to say "side"..... now it comes out more like "uh-side." So last weekend when Chris mowed the yard for the first time this season, we all went out to help... more like watch. Brady decided he would like to help daddy sweep off the sidewalk. Well I couldn't help but snap a few photos of daddy's little helper.

Okay, so he didn't actually help clean up the grass at all. He spread it around a little bit, but had a great time wielding the broom.

And how on earth could you not smile when you see this face? What a sweet boy. (Oh - and his daddy put him in that Cowboys shirt. I'm thinking it was laundry day.....)

Old Friends...

My dear friend Leah Hickman. Let me tell you how I met her. In 2003 while living in Dallas, I heard a radio ad for the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I was inspired to attempt the adventure. In order to participate, walkers had to pledge to raise $2100 for breast cancer research. Once I registered, I was given the name of a team captain who had volunteered to train the group of walkers in our area. By my lonesome, I went to the first walking meeting and started training every Saturday with an amazing group of women. Leah was one of them.


We began to walk and talk, at some times for hours. Our team was the Asphalt Angels. Believe it or not, they are STILL walking together as a group!

When we started training, Leah had recently lost her dad when we met and during our training, her mom, Sara, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a tough time for Leah and her mom. Today, Sara is cancer-free. Since our 3-day walk in 2003, Leah got married, had a son Tommy (who is the same age as Kennedy) and when he was just a few weeks old, they moved to Longview. She also had a daughter, who is the same as Brady!

So since Leah lives in Longview, which is about an hour from here, we try to get together to catch up, trade kid stories, commiserate about the hectic nature of our lives... and we also try to RUN! Yes, we have moved on from walking to running. Our walking friends would not approve. We got together last weekend to run a Longview 5K race. Good earth!? It was HILLY! I had no idea Longview had such big hills!!

Leah is the kind of friend you can not see for months at a time and then pick right back up where we left off. She is a wonderful friend and I am lucky to have her in my life.

The joys (and smells) of motherhood......

When Chris is out of town, it's NUTS during the morning routine. We have to leave the house much earlier than usual, which typically means I have to wake up the kids. This morning, I started waking up Kennedy and then went to finish getting ready... and left Brady to sleep for an extra 10 minutes. That meant I would just pluck him from the warmth of his bed and throw in the car... PJs and all.

One quick tangent: He has been eating A LOT of apples lately. A lot = 2 or 3 per day. On top of that, he is learning to drink from a regular cup so he drinks tons of water. He likes to practice big-kid-cup drinking.

SO - since he is eating lots of apples and drinking lots of water - yup! You guessed it! Lots of poo! This morning was no exception. The first thing he told me when I walked in his room ... "Poo poo!" But there is no time to change the diaper before we get to daycare. Kennedy will miss the daycare bus to Legacy, so we hop in the car and go. We get to Cypress Run, I get Kennedy to her room and then head to Brady's room. Don't worry - I wasn't THAT parent who dropped off a poopy kid in his pajamas. I changed his clothes and his *NASTY* diaper and got him settled in before I dashed off to work.

When I got back in the car, I took a deep breath and started my 30-minute drive to work. It's a part of my day that I actually enjoy. Me and my 30 minutes can just enjoy the quiet. But on this drive, I was not enjoying myself because of the wretched stench! I was blessed/cursed with an amazing sense of smell, particularly from pregnancy on. I can smell a fart a mile away. So when I couldn't get Brady's nauseating poo smell out of my nose, I rolled down the windows a little bit to circulate the air. When that didn't help, I wondered if the poo had leaked in his car seat. Nope. Then it hit me - it was ME! I pulled my shirt up to my nose and.... WHAM!??! I started to gag.

Apparently the stench had seeped through Brady's pajamas and rubbed off on my clothes. You KNOW it was a strong smell to be able to transfer from one piece of clothing to another. SERIOUSLY!?!!

By the time I figured out where it was coming from, I was half-way to work. Being the only store open before 8:00 a.m., I held my breath (literally) and walked into Walmart to buy a shirt to wear to work. Ten minutes later, I walked out with a $3 shirt and a little treat for myself.

Happy Wednesday!!!!! (I think.......)

Books with Brady

The past two nights, all this sweet boy wanted to do is read books. Book, after book, after book, after book.....

We migrate to his room or the office (where the bottom shelf is jam-packed with books) and we start reading. We read at our normal bedtime routine - we read to both kids - but Monday night, two books turned into eight. But how on earth do I tell those puppy dog eyes that we can't read anymore. Uh, you DON'T! You keep reading!

Tonight, he crawled into my lap with his truck book. (Note to self: Buy Brady some BOY TOYS! Kennedy's hand-me-downs are not fun for him anymore. He is interested in trucks and dinosaurs!) So he climbed into my lap and kept saying... "More?" So more books did this tired mama read.

But as I think about the endless "to do" list (clean kitchen, pack bags, grad school homework), I purge my brain of all things unrelated to this sweet face and our books... because before I know it, he'll be graduating from high school and I'll be begging for these snuggle days again. So two books or ten - we'll read until he passes out.

(Kennedy - if you are reading this, you were outside playing with your friends! Snuggling with mommy is NOT high on your priority list these days...)