every captive thought

Happy birthday to you.... Happy birthday to you.... Happy birthday sweet Mommy... Happy birthday to you! Proverbs 31:28-29 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." You Are My Sunshine...my only sunshine....you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.

The two loves of my life!

Brad is incredibly intelligent and he is good at a lot of things. One of those things in NOT cooking though. Not even a little bit. I heard him get out of bed this morning and try to sneak into the kitchen to surprise me by making breakfast. After several huffs and puffs of exasperation, I finally went to check on him to see what was troubling him. It was this... (And never mind the ghastly state of my cookie sheet...it needs a good rub down with an sos pad.) He looked at me with so much frustration and cinnamony-doughy-gooey hands and said, "What's wrong with these!!!???" I asked him if he read the instructions and he claimed that he did. I think his mind just can't grasp the simple things. He said he even tried channeling his inner-snuzi and still couldn't figure them out. Leave the gourmet cooking to me and Pillsbury dough-boy. But after the kitchen drama we had a great relaxing Sunday. James and I stayed in our jammies all day...not Brad though...he ...

My sister, Christi, said to me "you grow into your kids and your kids grow into you" or something that sounded similar to that but probably much smarter and better worded. You get the idea though. She told me this while I was pregnant and worried sick about learning how to be a mom. We've done some growing this week...and testing each others limits...James and I. He's busy. He's into everything...all at once...before I can get to it. He's fast. He's reckless. He's not tidy. And there's been lots of snot coming out of him...and I don't do snot. Snot and vomit. Those are not my areas of expertise. Tonight he threw a plate of food off his tray. He KNOWS this is a big time no-no. So I took him out of his chair and placed him in his crib. (I stressed the "placed" because it took every ounce of self-control within me to calmly place him in his crib...as opposed to tossing him in from the doorway and slamming the door behind me....

James has his first ear infection. He was still acting puny today and I took him back into the doctor. So after getting him all dosed up on antibiotics, cough syrup, motrin, and ear drops...he finally got some relief and started acting more like himself again. Which made Mommy and Daddy very happy.

This morning I gave James a bath, lotioned him up, powdered his hiney, diaper, socks, onesie, pants, shirt, combed his hair, cleaned out his ears, and cologned him up. Then I went to get myself dressed. You know how you are always hearing all that noise about not leaving a child unattended in the bathtub or around standing water??? Well...turns out it is not so much the drowning hazard as it is this... Yeh...fully dressed... Puppy and all. And not an ounce of remorse. But the poor little guy has had a tough day. He threw up this afternoon...I think due in a large part to the amount of congestion So I got him all snuggled down in his jammies and then he became obsessed with wearing his cousin's hand-me-down slippers. Only problem is that they are still 2 sizes too big. It was like he had duck feet. But it didn't slow him down one bit.

James may look like Brad but he definitely has the Pridmore mouth. We, collectively, are plentiful in the lip department. Some more than others. I won't name names. They've often been referred to as "soup coolers"...among other things. But today James took the voluptuousness to a whole new level. He fell and busted his lip on a chair today. It bled a lot and freaked me out. I called Christi, who is a pro in the boy-accident-don't-freak-out-department as well as the fluffy-lip-department. She calmly instructed me to get an ice cube in a wash cloth. So the trip to the emergency room that I was ready for was not needed. Whew. That was close. But let me take a moment to tell you about how resilient and tough my little guy is. He rarely cries. He takes some major bumps without batting an eye. So after a few little whimpers and maybe one teeny tiny little cry...he bucked right up. Started drooling. Rolled around. Laughed. And acted adorable. But at the end of t...