Grandpa’s little man

While over at Gammy and Grandpa’s house one day, James went swimming.  (Surprised?)  Gammy was outside with him and I was inside with Thomas and Grandpa.  We were playing and having a good time, and at one point I went outside to check on James.  Gammy was on the far side of the pool watching him, sitting next to the fountain.  I pulled up another chair and together we watched James play.

After about five minutes, Grandpa came out with Thomas.  Both were laughing hysterically, and he told us to watch his new game with Thomas.  He had this block that if you squeezed it, it would squeak.  He was squeaking it at Thomas, and Thomas was belly laughing.  Within seconds, James was out of the pool saying, “Do me, Grandpa!  Do me!”

It happened very fast, but I anticipated every second of it.  Pam was to my right in a chair, then Jim holding Thomas, and James was standing in front of him.  I saw that Jim was putting Thomas down to his right, and knew that I wouldn’t be able to get past Pam, Jim, and James in time, so instead I stood and just walked into the pool myself.  I met Thomas about three feet into the middle of it.  He smiled, I smiled, and he had no idea that he did anything wrong at all.  After all, he’d been swimming for the past week, and was getting quite good at jumping in. 

Pam now realized what had happened, but Jim was still squeaking at James.  A total of about three seconds had passed at this point.  I handed Thomas up to Pam, and reached for what I thought was my phone in my pocket.  Ends up it was my camera instead.  I was actually very thankful that it was my camera, because I have come quite attached to my new phone. 

When everyone realized what had just happened, there was a little bit of panic in the air.  I explained that I saw exactly what was going to happen, and rather than panic, I just went straight in myself and met him in the middle.  I knew he was going in, and together we made just one splash.  We ended up taking his clothes off and putting him in a swim diaper, and I just removed my shoes and swam in my clothes.  Jim worked feverishly trying to dry my camera out. 

It didn’t work for a long time.  This happened on the 19th, nine days ago today.  I tried for about three days to get the camera to turn on, but it wouldn’t.  Someone suggested putting it in a bag of rice, so I did.  After that I just forgot about it.  If it worked, great, if not, oh well.  This morning I pulled the bag of rice out of my purse and put the batter and memory card in it.  Wouldn’t you know, it worked!  Imagine that. 

This was the last picture that I took before I went swimming with it.  Kinda nice, right?

Three backyard pools to burn up all that energy

One of the neat things about going to Florida is that we have three of our four sets of grandparents living within a two mile radius of each other.  And all three of them have swimming pools in their backyard!  Woo Hoo!  We did a lot of swimming while we were visiting. 

Last summer my mom signed James up for private swimming lessons while we were in Florida.  He did great and was swimming pretty well for being on the tail end of three years old.  At the beginning of this summer I signed him up for three weeks worth of private lessons here.  He was very timid at first, but by the end of his lessons he was a fish.  Now I can’t keep him out of the water.  Thomas isn’t too far behind him, either.  That little one has NO FEAR, which has made me very careful. 

Ready, set, JUMP!

And all the way across the pool he goes!  What a great swimmer I have. 

Faith LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her cousins James and Thomas.  And when I say LOVES, I think it’s an understatement.  I might have to kidnap that little girl and bring her up here for a bit.  Here she is feeding Thomas some ice cream.  Looks like he likes it. 

Lake Panasoffkee fish camp

Last week Jim had to travel to Dubai.  I had planned on just staying here with the boys since he was only going to be gone a week, but my mom talked me into going to the lake with the Turner’s for the last part of their annual  lake vacation.  This vacation has been going on for decades.  I’m not kidding.  The Turner family has been going to this fish camp for over forty years.  I, personally, have never been, but my mom and Gerald have been going for years themselves.  She’s tried to get me to go, but I never have.  This year she was able to talk me into it.  It ended up that one of the girls that was going had to leave on Wednesday to go back to work, so when she moved out of her cabin, I moved in with James and Thomas. 

This place is nothing fancy, far from it, but it sure was fun.  The lake is definitely NOT swimming material, but that didn’t keep the boys from fishing in it.  It was alligator filled, snake filled, and more importantly, fish filled. 

James went fishing one morning with his Uncle Wayne and his Grandpa.  I was sure that he’d last about 15 minutes, but two hours later he came back with 13 fish, and more excitement than any four year old boy should be allowed to contain.  In fact, he couldn’t contain it.  I guess it was built up excitement, because getting excited on a fishing boat just might scare the fish away.

James and his Uncle Wayne showing off their fresh catch of the day.   

He really didn’t want to touch the fish, or the worms that went on the hook, either.  He told Uncle Wayne that he’d do it when he was eight, though. 

Grandpa was pretty proud of his fishin’ buddy, too.  That’s what they’ll forever be known as now… fishin’ buddies. 

I wanted to go on the boat, too, but I didn’t want to fish.  Wayne took me, James, and Jessica back out on the lake for a little ride.  It was beautiful on the lake, but we didn’t get to see any alligators like I wanted to.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

I loved this tree and it’s reflection.  This lake is spring fed, and very cool for Florida water.  It’s too bad that you can’t swim in it. 

What a mess!

I should be fired. 

One, I should be fired from being the owner of this blog.  Today has been one month since I last posted.  Blame it on being home with my boys and being a busy bee running around after them, teaching them right from wrong, keeping them out of trouble (which, as you will see in a minute, I’m not doing a good job of), helping them learn, and just being there for them, or blame it on that nastiness called Facebook.  Either one, I haven’t blogged in a long time.  I have updated a lot of things on Facebook though, so if you want to see what’s up with me and my boys, become my friend.  You’ll get a lot more information that way. 

And two, I should be fired as a mom, because I obviously can’t keep a good eye on my children. 

A few weeks ago I was down in the basement with James and Thomas.  James was playing short order cook and was bringing me bowls of alphabet soup and sandwiches.  Both were quite yummy, if I recall correctly, but the playing distracted me from Thomas.  He was rather quiet, and when I found him, this is why. 

My little tiger found one of Jim’s Sharpies.  Permanent marker comes of quite easily with Huggies baby wipes.  Makes you wonder what they put in those things. 

And since we have been home from Florida, Thomas has taken to a new play area.  Our sinks in our bathroom.  He was content with just Jim’s sink, but since he realized that I turned the water off he has migrated over to mine.  Little did he know, I was one step ahead of him and turned the water off on that side, too.  It was only a matter of time, and sheer dumb luck, that he hadn’t burned himself yet.  He had either just turned on the cold water, or both the hot and cold together, but not just the hot yet.  Like I said, it was only a matter of time.

Beach Baby

This might be the cutest. baby. ever. 

Tybee Island

We took a family vacation a few weeks ago to Tybee Island.  It was our first time camping at the beach and it was wonderful.  The beach had a nice breeze, and with our shade tent, we kept nice and cool though the temperatures reached into the 90′s.

My three handsome boys soaking up some rays and salt water. 

Look Mom!  Buried Treasure! 

That’s a pretty big hole there, James…

Uh oh… buried alive!

Two handsome boys relaxing in the water.

Proof that I was there. 

Someone wanted to get in on the action of being buried.  He climbed into the hole, then back out.  Over. And over.  And over.

My attempt at growing things

I really don’t have a green thumb.  In fact, I am really good at killing things.  I either over water them, under water them, ignore them, or something to that effect.  But so far this summer I’m doing pretty well. 

It started out when Jim was in Dubai and my mom came up here.  I had already bought some begonias to go at my mailbox, but hadn’t had the time to plant them.  It’s difficult with two little boys to do that.  While she was here we were able to plant them, among some other things. 

We bought these hydrangeas and planted them here.  I love how pretty and bright they are, but unfortunately, the sun is starting to fade them.  They are still very pretty though. 

These are the begonias now that they have been given some time to fill in.  It’s amazing… plants really do need a lot of love.  I have really taken an interest in these plants this summer, and it’s amazing what a little love will do. 

These two pictures are random plants that my mom planted in my front planters.  I love how they have grown over the sides and are filling in so nicely.  The small red chair holds a lima bean plant that James brought home from school.  It’s growing nicely, but no beans are on it. 

The begonia on the right is from a little girl in James’s class.  It has a red pin wheel mixed in with it, and I think it compliments it well. 

I am so proud of these hydrangeas.  We planted the big one the summer that James turned one.  It bloomed that first summer, and then didn’t the following summer.  Last year it had a handful of blooms, but nothing like this.  The one to the left (which I kind of cut out of the picture) was planted the following summer.  It didn’t have very many blooms last year either, but this summer it seems to be thriving as well. 

This little lady decided to climb on one of my prized hydrangeas.  She’s got a nice sac of eggs on her back.  I hope that they stay outside, and don’t venture anywhere near my house. 

My last attempt at growing something this summer is on my back porch.  I am trying to grow some basil, parsley, oregano, and cilantro.  I just planted these puppies so I’ll let you know if they sprout and bring me any herbs.

Mr. Mom

Jim and I started a babysitters club.  It’s something that we have talked with our friends about for a while, but no one took the initiative to actually start it.  What we are doing is we joined up with two other families and are switching nights to go out.  Last weekend was the first one.  Steve and Mandy, and Bob and Julie both dropped their kids off at our house and then went on a date.  Bob and Julie went to dinner and a movie, and Steve and Mandy just went out to dinner.  I went on a girls night out at one of my girlfriends in the neighborhood was having, and Jim stayed home with six kids.  Yep… six kids. 

To make it sound less daunting, Jim volunteered for this.  He knew that I was going out that evening, so he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to take me on a date himself.  He figured it would be easiest to knock out our night at home with all the kids, and he felt confident that he could handle all of them by himself.  Thomas was easy… he was asleep before the other kids even arrived.  The rest?  Well, they did very good, all things considered. 

At first they played on the rope swing in the back yard.  It was three boys, 4, 5, and 6, and two girls, both 8.  The girls were easy, as Jim put it.  They just played by themselves, and never argued.  The boys, on the other hand, acted just like all 4, 5, and 6 year old boys do, especially when there are three of them together.  All in all, there were no big fights, no broken bones, no blood, and not even any broken toys.  There was one missing bag of pajamas, but that wasn’t really all that bad. 

After the rope swing Jim popped about eight bags of popcorn and they all headed to the basement for a showing of Ponya.  The kids loved the movie.  Before he knew it, I was home and Bob and Julie had arrived to pick up the kids.

I can’t wait to have two date nights with Jim now that we have taken our turn at home.  What to do…what do do?

Birthday parties galore!

This summer has been the summer of birthday parties.  So far we have been home for three weeks and we have already been to three parties.  We even have another one next week to go to!  But the good thing is that we just love summer parties.  They are the absolute best.  I have always loved having a summer birthday, and I am glad that James does, too.  We planned for a September baby, but I’m thrilled to have an August baby. 

The first party was for a little girl named Meher.  Jim and I are friends with her dad, but this was the first time we met her.  We were able to see her twice that weekend and she and James hit it off big time!  You would have never known that they had just met.  The best part about this party was that it was at a delicious Indian restaurant.  It was extremely yummy, and they even packed up some leftovers for us to take home.  Jim and I were thrilled, and stuffed!

They had a clown who was doing balloon animals.  This wasn’t the one that Thomas got, but it was one that was on a table and Thomas snatched it.  I would have, too!  It’s very pretty!

Both of my boys got tattoos.  James was quite proud of his flaming car. 

Thomas was all over the place.  It was easiest for Jim to just put him on his shoulders.  This kept him contained, and happy, too. 

The clown turned into Dora.  Personally, Jim and I both thought that he was pretty creepy, but the kids seemed to like it. 

Even Thomas was intrigued by Dora.  He couldn’t keep his eyes off her, or him…however you want to think about it.

Our second birthday party was for Aurora, a little girl who lives in our neighborhood, and who was in his class this year.  She had a pool party at one of the pools in the neighborhood.  I had James in swimming lessons for two weeks, and I was very proud of how he swam at the party.  He’s turning into quite the little fish.  Thomas also loves the water, and this is why I only have one picture from the party.  The rest of the time I was in the water with him. 

The last party that we went to was a bike parade party for Dixon.  This was so cool.  Each kid brought something with wheels to the party and they decorated it and rode around the park in parade fashion.  The kids loved it!  It was such a creative idea. 

James decorated his bike with streamers on the handlebars, a pin wheel, colorful spokes, and a playing card on the back wheel that you can’t see in this picture.  It was neat to hear the sound the card made when he rode. 

The kids had a great time in their parade. 

James promptly smashed the pinata.  He needs to start t-ball.  He’s got a strong swing. 

Dixon’s cake was awesome.  His parents made it, and it was a huge hit!

We have one more party lined up for next weekend, and then we hit July.  I know of at least one in July, and two in August.  Whew…that’s a lot of parties!

it’s a neighborhood block party

We love our neighborhood.  We really do.  Legacy Park is a huge neighborhood that has a bunch of different subdivisions within it.  It’s a large community, with a small town feel.  Our particular subdivision is just one street with 25 houses on it.  Some of the neighborhoods are much larger with many more streets and hundreds of homes, but ours is the smallest in LP.  Within the neighborhood of Legacy Park there are five swimming pools, eleven tennis courts, and multiple playgrounds, plus other amenities like a town green, an amphitheatre, soccer and baseball fields, walking trails, and a work out facility. 

When we looked at houses to buy and saw this neighborhood we knew that we wanted to live here.  And we are so glad that we did, especially the street that we picked.  Ends up that the neighbors are all friends, care for each other, and even have block parties.  Typically the block parties are in the cul-d-sac at the end of the street, but since more kids have moved in towards our end of the street we decided to have it here this time.  It was a good call! 

Thomas enjoyed one of the lollipop cookies that I made while I enjoyed a nice glass of Pinot Noir. 

Odds brought a side and evens brought a dessert. 

Mr. Jim, Juan, and Jeff trying to find some grill space. 

It was a bring your own meat party.  Legacy Park graciously let us use their big grill for the occasion. 

We put some cones in the street to keep traffic slow, and everyone partied on down in the street. 

Jim displayed a movie on our movie screen and we had our own drive thru theater, except it wasn’t in your car.  This was a huge hit!

Little man fell asleep before it was over.  That’s what happens when they play non-stop for hours on end.