How trouble found him all in 1 day

Trying to pour himself some Sprite....you can imagine how that went.

Building a makeshift stool during quiet time to climb on top of the dryer to reach 3 bottles of glitter and spilled it all over the play room floor. Bet you can picture that scene as well.

After he got in trouble and was exiled to his room to think about what he had done, he snuck out and squirted Olivia’s baby wash all over the kitchen floor.

And last but not least I discovered two clorox bleach products designed to clean the bathroom open, on the bathroom floor and all over one of my good towels. He says he was trying to clean the potty.

Oh I’m sure you all are thinking that I must leave my children unattended for hours upon end for him to be able to find this kind of trouble. I can assure I do not. He is quiet, quick, and ever so sneaky. He’s all boy. But he’s my boy and I love him to pieces.

p.s. we just caught James attempting to squirt a large bottle of dish soap on the floor. His daddy said “James, I know you aren’t thinking about doing that again” and James threw the bottle back on the counter and said “No!! I wasn’t thinking about it all”!!!!

2 months

Olivia,
Yes, I’m a few days late. Sorry about that.
We went on Wednesday the 24th of August for your 2 month well check. You weighed in at 11/14 and were 21 1/2 inches long. You had your first round of immunizations and were ever so pitiful when that mean old nurse stuck you in the leg three times. But you were quickly comforted and slept pretty much round the clock for the next 36 hours! Dr. Walker took one look at you and asked how many ounces you were eating now. When I told him 4, he laughed and said “every hour?” You have become quite the chunky monkey in the last month and your daddy and I are enjoying every ounce of it!!

You can roll from tummy to back now because you get to kickin so hard when you are on your tummy you just flip right over! You coo and blow bubbles at us when we talk to you and smile every time you see our faces after a long period of time has passed with out seeing us. You have also laughed out loud a few times in the last week. You have started to pay close attention to your brother and sister when they are around. But it’s kinda hard not to since they are in your face the whole time you are in the room like the paparazzi on Princess DI!

You went to your first annual meeting this weekend at Union Hill and did exceptionally well. Every one at church was so happy to finally get to meet you and they just raved and raved about how beautiful you are! I must agree with them.

Not sure if it’s just my age or if it’s actually that having 3 kids has made me feel like a “real”mother. What ever the case may be, having you has sparked something in me that I didn’t know existed. When I look in the mirror now, I no longer see the child I was when I married your father 8 years ago but I see Amanda, mother of 3 beautiful, perfect children and wife of an amazing, faithful man. The Lord’s been good to me and I want you to know it. He blessed me beyond measure with your precious little self, Olivia Ray, and I will love you forever and always acknowledge the good and perfect gift that He sent me from up above.

Mama

A day of firsts

Yesterday Olivia had her first ride in a stroller and her first trip to the park. I tried to get out as early as possible so it wouldn’t be so hot but 10:00 was the best I could do. It wasn’t to bad walking but once we got the playground down the street from our house it got a little steamy. James and Audrey enjoyed it for a while but were soon saying they wanted to go home and get a drink! Olivia on the other hand enjoyed her little outing because mommy was the one swatting at all the gnats!

Olivia also had her first social call yesterday. A pair of surrogate grandparents of ours who are members at Tired Creek and live down in Crawfordville, FL bought a piece of land here in Grady County and put a camper on it for weekend excursions to the country. James was in desperate need of a hair cut and Sister Jenny just loves to cut the kids hair for me so I guess that was the sole purpose of our visit. But I enjoyed getting to see their place and the kids of course enjoyed a little Bro. Sammy and Sis. Jenny time!

Olivia also had her first trip to a restaurant when we decided to go to Tallahassee yesterday evening for supper and a little grocery shopping. The kids had been begging to go to the “fire” restaurant (aka the Hibachi grill) and insisted they wouldn’t be scared this time! (The first time we took them was back in April, I think, and the fire scared them so bad they hid under the table for pretty much the whole time the cook was cooking!) Well, they were wrong. They were scared! Not as bad as last time but Audrey did dash under the table a few times! But they enjoyed their food immensely and complained of a tummy ache afterwards. Guess that was their first encounter with “glutony”!

Angel baby

My darling 3rd born child continues to amaze us with how wonderful and EASY she is. She slept all night last night, from 9:15 p.m. to 6:50 a.m. When she started rooting around, I got up to get her but looked at the clock first like I always do. When I saw the number’s 6:50 on that clock it took me a few seconds to realize that she had slept all night long. Amazing! Have I mentioned before that I could just mash her in half?

Tiny Dancer

Audrey Grace has always been so active I’ve wanted to put her in some type of ballet or gymnastics class for a long time now. But I wanted to wait until she was old enough to really enjoy it and get a lot out of it. And this was the year! She loves to watch Angelina Ballerina and is always doing spins and twirls and stretches so I decided ballet was the way to go. And I think I made the right choice. The day I took her to the little shop here in town to buy her leotard, tights and shoes I thought she was going to burst at the seams with excitement! It was precious and a memory I hope she can remember and one that stays with me forever. To me, and I know I am her mother, she is the most beautiful little ballerina in the world!

Her first day was last Thursday from 3:45 to 4:00 and the studio is within walking distance of the house (not that we will ever walk) so it’s super convenient. There were 17 little 3 and 4 year olds there that day (that is a lot of kiddos people) and Jon and I knew a lot of the parents so that was fun. Audrey knew 2 of the little girls, one of which was a bestie of mine’s little girl. And one of the dance instructor's is a girl that we go to church with, Shelley, who Audrey absolutely adores. The studio was hoppin that afternoon but Audrey didn’t bat an eye. She lined up with all the little girls, put her hands daintily above her head, popped up on her little twinkle toes and danced right in!

She really had a great time and was so excited to go back this week. I got a phone call earlier in the week from the director asking if we could possibly change our time to 3 instead of 3:45. They had decided to split the class into 3 and 4 year olds since there were so many girls. I of course didn’t have a reason that we couldn’t make the 3:00 so I obliged. The good thing is that now there are only 6 little girls in her class so the instructor can get to know them all more closely. The sad thing is all our friends are still in the 3:45 class since most of our friends are teachers and Shelley doesn’t get out of school until 3 :(

She still enjoyed her class today though and didn’t even mention the fact that her little friends weren’t there and that Shelley wasn’t her teacher so I guess it doesn’t matter to her. And as long as she enjoys it, that’s all that matters!

Audrey is the one right behind the teacher

(and yes, the teacher is expecting. she is due

in october and how she can still move like that

is beyond me!)

By the way, I’ve had a few people tell me they were having trouble commenting. I think that when you click on comment and it takes you to the comment box and once you have selected your id and then wrote your comment and clicked on the post button, it brings up a preview of your comment so you have to click on the post button again. That can be confusing because it looks like your comment has posted but you have to click post twice. Make sense? Not to me either really but try it out any way :) Maybe I’ve helped.

The one with the super cute baby

Long Pause

Sorry for the absence lately. It seems I just can’t find the time to squeeze in blogging lately but I will try to update more frequently in the future*cough* Moving on. I have lots of blog ideas through out the day, just no creativity to put them down in readable format so I will just give a quick run down of the goings on of late in Cairo:

Audrey started Ballet (technically creative movement) class last Thursday. She was todiefor adorable in her little leotard and slippers and of course when I pulled the camera out of the bag at the studio, the battery was dead. So, pictures to come later on that! She had the best time in class, I think she will really enjoy it. She wasn’t nervous or shy. She participated about 85% of the time and the other 15% she spent following the 2 dance instructors around chattering their heads off!

James and Audrey had a dentist appointment last Thursday morning in Tallahassee and Sis. Juanita graciously kept Olivia for me. When we got to the dentist’s office, I found out I was an entire week early for the appointment. Now, I like to be early for stuff but that’s going a little too far. However, they were really sweet about it and worked us in on the spot. Just another reason I like those doctor’s so much and don’t mind driving 30+ miles. Audrey jumped right in the chair and held her mouth wide open this time! She did have to hold my hand the whole time but that’s ok! Neither of them had cavities so woohoo for Mama!!!

We’ve started our chore charts and quarter rewards. It’s going.......ok. Sunday afternoon we took down their piggy banks and counted their monies. James had $3 worth of quarters and Audrey only had $1.50. Hhmmm, smells suspicious to me. I KNOW James Bryant did not do $3 worth of work. He must of found some laying around the house! I made them save some (trying hard here people) and let them each have $1 to go with. They had the best time picking out what they wanted and I was encouraged that they understood they could only get one thing. It was a fun trip. My hope is that they remember what it felt like to have money to buy what they wanted so they will clean up better. Ha!

The twins still love to “make with me” (Audrey loving it the most) and I’ve been letting them help me in the kitchen every day. Sometimes is just making their sandwiched for lunch or trying a new recipe, like in the above picture we were making chocolate covered frozen banana’s and that would be a butter knife James is using! Or they help me make supper. Makes supper a little late getting to the table sometimes but again, that’s ok!

Last week, James came real close to total isolation for the rest of his life. One morning while I was trying to insert an sd card into the computer and it would not go in, I realized someone had shoved a dime in the hole. I then understood why I thought I had heard a rattling sound when I had picked up the computer. Upon further investigation I came to the conclusion that some one had been shoving money into the “holes” on the sides of the very expensive laptop. Of course I asked who had done it but I already knew who the guilty party was: James. (one day I will have to blog about how trouble just seems to find that boy!) Long story short: Jon was able to get all the money out and no permanent damage was done to the computer or to James. Ha, just kidding on that last one!

Olivia Ray just continues to be a joy. She can now roll from stomach to back, push up really tall on her arms and just with in the last 2 days has started smiling just about every time you look at her. She still sleeps excellent during the night going down between 8:30 and 9:30 and sleeping until around 4:00 or so. After she eats that bottle she will go back down until 7:30 or sometimes (if I’m lucky) 8:30 or 9. She doesn’t really sleep all that well or long during the day. Usually just cat naps until around 4 and then she will sleep for about 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs. She goes next Wednesday for her 2 month checkup. Oh and she is getting some thunder thighs on her. SO stinkin adorable!!

p.s my camera is doing something funny and I apologize for the blurry pictures

Productivity

I can vividly remember getting to the end of many a day when the twins were itty bitty infants and realizing that I had yet to take a shower or that I skipped a meal somewhere along the way and was utterly starving. I can also remember being so depressed because I’d look around thinking how busy I had been the whole day and it looked like a tornado had come through and I’d wonder just what in the world I’d been doing. Well today was one of those days. I was so busy I haven’t showered yet (actually still in my pj’s!), it’s 9:32 at night and I just got finished eating supper, AND it looks like a tornado swept through. The only difference is I know and can tell what I was doing all day: being extremely productive. For real.

I was so sick of seeing all the bills and papers and plain old junk that accumulated over 6 months of pregnancy where I was just a blob and then the 6 weeks postpartum where I was just focused on keeping my head above water. So today I sorted through the ridiculously tall stack of papers, threw stuff out and made piles for all the bills (paid and unpaid) and other things that will go in my nifty little organizing containers that will go in the new home office I created in our bed room and will create in part of our closet. Oh and in order to get that home office in the bedroom, I had to rearranged the whole room and am pleased as punch with my efforts. JSYK, it was a pretty huge effort seeing how I moved everything by myself since Jon is on a preaching trip this weekend.

I also made shadow puppets on the wall, went to the deep, dark jungle to capture an elephant, and played paper dolls with my Peach. James went with Jon to Mississippi for the weekend. Audrey was supposed to go but she’s got a little sinus infection and I decided it would be best for her to stay and get plenty of rest. It’s been totally different here with out the two of them tag teaming me! Audrey has been perfectly content to entertain her self most of the day and by that I mean staying glued to the t.v. watching the same two Strawberry Shortcake movies pretty much all day long. I think she enjoyed not having to share with James! I asked her today while she was helping me make her lunch if she missed James and she said “Yes!! Well, most of the time.”

And lets not forget all the sweet sugars I got from Ms. Tookie!

It’s that time again

It’s August in Georgia and even though July is a scorcher around here, August is always our hottest month. And I am SO glad I’m not pregnant any more. SO GLAD!!!! I think I’d literally melt if I were. Anyway’s it’s been so stinkin hot here this week the kids haven’t even mentioned going out side and I haven’t suggested it. We’ve got the shades pulled tight, the fans blowing and they are eating their body weight in Popsicles and frozen gogurts while rotting their brains out in front of the boob tube. Of course, it’s all educational shows they are watching. *cough* No Spider man, Superman or Iron man around here!

We are trying to get into some type of routine around here, again, since Jon has gone back to work now (i.e getting the kids to help out more, lots, more around the house). I’m working on a plan and have semi-started it by asking the kids to do something new to help me everyday. They enjoy doing most things I ask of them and as soon as I figure out what they “enjoy” doing and what they need to do that’s not too much for their little minds to handle, we will start with a chore chart and behavior chart where they will get stickers and quarters and a trip to the Dollar Tree. More to come on that.

Any who, I said all that, I guess, to say this: It’s finally paying off to have a couple kids running around!!!

Starting Over

Jon had to go back to work on Monday. Monday was not such a great day around here! I felt like all the work we’d done getting used to having a new mouth to feed around here was pointless. I almost wished Jon had never had the Summer off!!

But Tuesday was good. James had a neuro appointment and that went GREAT!! The doctor released him on a as needed basis! He just insisted that we keep up with the orthopaedist saying that his ankle/foot problem was gonna be around basically forever and needed to be kept under a watchful eye. I’ll be honest here, I’ve been slack in that area. I forgot to make a followup appointment way back when (basically because if you didn’t know he had a problem you wouldn’t notice and it just got put on the back burner) and it’s extremely hard to get an appointment with this man. He comes from Pensacola 2x a month......
But I intend to get right on that!!

I had my 6 week postpartum check up and I am officially released to do any thing I want! Guess that means no more excuses and I will be hitting the gym soon and picking up that darned old mop as well!!

Today has been a really fabulous day as well. For the most part any way. We (the kids) have been banned from the t.v. once again today for some serious attitude problems so that makes a little extra work for me. I can’t let them rot their brains while I get stuff done which means unless I want them gouging eye balls, pulling hair or throwing punches I have to actually engage my children in activities from time to time during the day!! I let them help me make a cake for tonight which they L-O-V-E to do!! Audrey loves to “make with me”!!

Tookster is sleeping soundly at the moment. She really is such a good baby and I truly believe the Lord has had mercy on us in that area. He knows what all we went through with the twins :)