Across the Branch

Sand, meet Leighton. Leighton, eat sand.

2013-05-02T23:44:00.001-04:00

I dumped out our sandbox for Blair’s birthday party in October, so we have been sandless since. You know, the ducks had to have a pool! And now the dogs have to have a pool, so this week, we finally put sand in the little box of our playset.

Blair and I played in it one day, and while she was at Grandmom’s for a bit, I introduced Leighton to the sandbox. He just wanted to eat it all.

Sweet, sweet boy.

A Boy’s Non-Toys

2013-04-22T07:05:00.000-04:00

I guess I’ll learn boy as I go. Lately this non-toy thing is so funny to me. Here are some of Leighton’s favorite things to play with, ie put in his mouth.

The toilet.

The nose sucker.

Hair brushes.

The dishwasher.

The refrigerator.

Shoes.

The leashes.

Gus’ food bowl.

The trash.

Boys!

Golf Carts Galore – It’s a Boca Grande thing.

2013-04-21T23:27:00.001-04:00

Growing up, Boca Grande had golf carts. On the golf course. Now, almost every one living on the island has one to get around in, and they have a garage for it too! Then there are multiple golf cart rental outfits for visitors. In fact, when we called to get one for our trip, we had to call 5 places and found ONE golf cart available. Yikes!

Riding around this one small island in south Florida, one can get a full golf cart experience. Here is my cheesy little rhyme and my photo parade of carts!

There are ordinary carts,

And those for hire,

Some have wood grain,

And others fight fire.

Locals’ have blinkers,

This one’s got eyes,

Vacationers’ seat six,

and there’s one in disguise!

This one’s a vintage,

and this one’s got style,

plug in while you eat, and drive for a while.

Everywhere there’s parking,

they’re lined up on the street,

Some ride around barking,

Some have stripes on the seat!

The carts have their own road,

Or they might fly in space?

They carry a load,

Or are tough in your face.

This one’s real nice,

This one sits high,

And some carry their beach stuff up in the sky!

There are those that look Smart,

And some are old school,

Some have to work,

But they’re all pretty cool!

All those pictures were taken in a short ride one afternoon. There’s no telling what I missed!

Fish Love

2013-04-20T07:43:00.000-04:00

We have had fish for almost a year. The miracle is that I have only replaced them once – after the first week (knock on wood!). I don’t know that I’ve ever had fish this long.

Here are some pictures when we got them:

Blair loves these fish. She responsibly feeds them a couple of times a day and worries about them when we’re away.

And they have names, of course. This is the best part.

Her tank loves:

Clown Fish the angel fish
Happy Face the black and white molly
Lemon the yellow tetra (original in June 12)
Dorothy the purple guppy
Ariel Sucker Fish the, you guessed it, sucker fish
Speedy the neon (original June 12)
Cookie and Big Bird the orange guppies (whose names change from those to Hank and John or Bert and Ernie)
and finally, Nemo the clown fish statue

I really can’t get over how much the angel fish has grown since we got him. He’s at least twice the size he was!

Not as clean as it used to be, but they’re happy!

Maybe, just maybe?

2013-04-18T07:37:00.000-04:00

I got a kid who looks like me a tiny bit? Maybe?!

The Orange Tree House

2013-04-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

Blair is getting better at riding her bike, and now that the weather is nice, we go out and about quite often.

We have the best neighborhood for riding bikes – reminds me of my Mema’s growing up!

When we were riding last week, I noticed some sort of fruit trees in the backyard of an empty house. They looked super interesting, so we walked over to check them out.

It turns out that there is some sort of orange tree – the oranges are super small and so sour they turn your mouth inside out! – and what I’ve now found is a loquat tree. There is also a fig tree ;).

Now when we ride, Blair wants to go to “the Orange Tree House.” And this child eats loquats!

I read on wikipedia that they taste like a tangy mixture of peach, mango, and citrus, and that just about hits the nail on the head. They are quite yummy! I guess they are just about to the end of their “season” because they are getting overripe. Blair is going to be sad, but there is one other mystery tree that is blooming.

I have enjoyed teaching Blair about different plants and trees, so we’ll have to watch it to see what happens!

Georgia Boy Concert

2013-04-15T00:20:00.000-04:00

This weekend my mom, sisters, and I got to go to Sanford Stadium for its first ever concert. We saw Jake Owen, Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean put on a great show!

I can’t imagine how that felt having grown up as Georgia fans and getting to perform the first concert ever in their stadium. Pretty neat for those guys!

Lots of people.

After the two openers, Luke Bryan came on. He was great! We didn’t have bad seats, but in a stadium that huge, it’s hard to see one little person unless you’re right up on the floor!

Forget the lighters, now everyone breaks out their phone flashlight!

Even Josh…

The place was packed, and the concert was phenomenal. And I’m not one to brag on concerts! This was a great show.

Jason had a Kelly hologram. Lots of folks thought it was her!

Luke and Jason did their song together.

And then Ludacris came out for Dirt Road Anthem.

It really was worth all the pumping, getting home after 2am, feeling hung over the next day (I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol; I was just that tired!). And I guess it was worth it to be in Sanford Stadium. :) Brad can have his dawgs though; I’ll keep my Jackets.

Two by Two

2013-04-13T12:32:00.000-04:00

Leighton seems to like doing things in twos. At 6 1/2 months, he basically sat up and crawled in the same week. Now at 8 1/2 months, he’s decided to pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo in the same week too!

The pat-a-cake started as him shoving his hands in his mouth and then scraping on fist on the other. Over the last few days, it’s changed to a bit more of a clap.

And now he’s added “bye bye” as well. He’s on a roll this week!

Love my happy thing!

Attack Baby

2013-04-12T17:18:00.001-04:00

There is a baby on the loose attacking innocent dogs in our area of Nowhereland. The dog does not attempt to fight back during the attack. He experiences hair loss and is the victim is full-fist pinching of his eyes and head. Both parties are subject to licking, drool, and open mouth kisses. The baby is entertained by his reckless behavior and is brought to laughter by what he deems to be sport.

Gus Update. He’s on the mend!

2013-04-11T00:53:00.000-04:00

Gus spent the weekend after his surgery at the vet. We went to visit him Saturday morning on the way to our Easter egg hunt at my mom’s church.

He was SO happy to see us. He was a little groggy – dilaudid will do that, you know! – but he was already feeling better. He didn’t want us to leave without him.

The vet called both Saturday and Sunday with good updates. She told us that we could come visit again Monday morning. So we packed up and went back over to the vet (nothing is closer than 20 minutes away from Nowhereland).

We were so surprised to hear that they were sending him home! He had a cone of shame, or “crown” as Blair called it, because he had chewed out three IV catheters and was licking his stitches.

Gus’ “crown”

He came home with meds, a special diet, and a date with the vet on Friday.

Happy to have him home!

Blair trying not to smell his “stinky liver food.” She said, “Can I feed him without smelling it?!”

This week, he’s been great. He has not touched his incision at all. He was just bored to tears at the vet. And he knows when no one’s watching – that’s when he does his best counter surfing, pyrex dish prying, trash digging, sofa diving, and bed hopping! If we when out for a walk, I put the cone on him for the first day, but he was fine otherwise.

He was quickly back to his old begging self, perched under Leighton’s high chair for the smallest treat he can find.

The vet was pleased at one week post surgery last Friday, and she thinks all is well in there now. We started mixing in his regular food, and we added meds for kennel cough – ugh!

But he’s doing great and hanging out in all of his favorite places – the den rug, under the coffee table, and next to Blair’s bed.

Playing hide and seek!

Begging in the kitchen.

We made him a costume for the Dogwood festival. (It got rained out though!) Can you tell what he was?

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Almost a Nickel.

2013-04-09T14:57:00.000-04:00

Blair is four and half today. She’s about to go to school and be going more than she’s home. When she’s asking me 482 questions a minute, sometimes I wish she went to preschool, but I know that I will sure miss her every day come August.

Speaking of school, we do a hit and miss letter of the day curriculum – pretty much when she wants to. Most of it is boring for her because she already knows all of the letters and how to write them. She can spell out many words if I help her sound them out. She craves learning and is so easy to teach. A really neat thing about Blair is how well she takes instruction. I think this is why she did so well in speech. When we play ball in the yard, I will give her little things she needs to do – don’t spin around when she swings, hold her bat up, hold her elbow up, etc. And she does it all. You can almost see her brain checking off all the things I told her to do. It’s really amazing. And this happens all the time – t-ball, speech, cooking, whatever we’re doing!

Right now she’s going to dance and playing t-ball. She still goes to Sunday school with us, but we’re talking about letting her go to her class soon. We’re also planning on Bible school this year. Although she’s been sick off and on this fall and winter, she’s handled everything well. We will still be cautious, but she will be in school soon anyway. If we could just get rid of that oxygen when she gets sick….

She is so into counting right now. She wants to know what time and how long before we’ll be somewhere. If I tell her 20 minutes, she’ll say, “Ok, let’s count to 20.” So I explained to her that each minute has 60 counts, so now she wants to count to 60 all the time! And she is now even saying that she needs to count to 60 x times for x minutes. We usually get through about 1 1/2 minutes worth before she changes her mode. It goes like this, “…38, 39… I want GUS!”

She fit right in at a big girl birthday party recently!

She is getting better at riding her bicycle, and I wonder how long it will be before we adjust the training wheels!

Washing her hair by herself.

She has her first t-ball game yesterday. We started the year saying she didn’t have to play next year if she didn’t want to, but she loves it. I teased her about not playing next year, and she said she wanted to play now.

Oh the Target star shirt. We want to wear this every day. And the fuzzy vest (that happens to be a 2T) that she didn’t like when we got it, but now she wants to wear it constantly!

We’re still taking a nap from 2 – 4 or 4:30. We’re in a good spot where she’s okay if she doesn’t have it, but she takes one when we’re home. Mama likes naptime.

She can spin away on the Sit ‘n’ Spin!

Mommy being silly with her hearing aids.

We are going through a little hard-headed phase. She is sometimes slow to mind and disrespectful. We’re looking for her “number” to get her acting like she should. She doesn’t throw fits or have a temper, but she will tell me “no,” which is not acceptable. Time out and spanking don’t work too good. Taking her pacis away (she gets them for nap only) is somewhat effective, and I just started taking Gus away too. There is really nothing else she’s super attached to. She’s not a gamer, tv watcher, doll lover, etc. She likes to go outside, but that is not a good thing to take away. So we’re working on it.

She is so sweet to Leighton 95% of the time. Then she up and grabs a handful of his cheek and pinches it as hard as she can. Or she stomps on his hand. I’m thankful that this is not a regular thing; I have definitely addressed it in various ways (discipline, talking to her about hurting him, etc) each and every time it happens.

She’s my bread girl. She loves sandwiches, and while I’m fixing her one, she wants some “regular” bread… a piece of plain bread. And her Chick-fil-a order has changed to a “chicken hamburger” with no pickles and plenty of ketchup with a fruit cup or applesauce and chocolate milk. It’s the bread I think that made her swap from nuggets. She at almost an entire sandwich today!

Barbie time with mommy.

We got out her clothes from last summer, and she can still wear the 18 month shorts! There is one pair of khaki ones that are too tight, but they were 12 months. I will happily buy her some more in a bigger size for this summer – yay for growing out of something! I buy her 4T tops, and they do fine on her.

This is one happy girl! And she’s growing up too fast.

First Tee Ball Game

2013-04-08T23:22:00.000-04:00

Blair had her first tee ball game tonight. She was so stinkin’ cute! I thought she was going to buck the black uniform, but she didn’t say a word – and then she wanted to wear her Minnie ears with it. She said, “Mama, I’m just gon’ wear my Minnie ears and take ‘em off at the ball game and put ‘em back on when it’s over.” Ok, lady!

She was so excited.

She hit the ball really well both times she batted. She is one of the youngest and the tiniest one on the team, and she hit just as well or better than some of the others.

Obsessed with the pink helmet.

First time at the ball field that Leighton didn’t cry the whole time!

Each team had 14 kids, so the field got a little boring for everyone. Each team bats through for two innings. And we don’t keep score or try to get outs, really. We are trying to teach our kids to throw to first after fielding the ball, but no one gets “out.”

I teased her about playing next year. At first, she was really skeptical about tee ball, but she loves it and is already talking about getting “signed up” next year. She always asks me if I’m signed up to coach! And she wants to know when we’re not going to be signed up anymore.

We’re looking forward to the rest of our games!

A Fancy Child Hoarder

2013-04-08T14:05:00.001-04:00

Spring cleaning – really any cleaning – is a little difficult with a child hoarder in the house. I hear, “Mama, this is NOT trash!” as Blair removes something from the trashcan.

This week, I took all of her panties out of her drawer and asked her to put the ones that she liked back in the drawer and leave the ones she didn’t out. She is notorious for saying she doesn’t like the pair I pick whenever I help get her clothes out after bathtime each evening. I figured we could get rid of some that she doesn’t like.

Here’s what I got:

In the 2 1/2 years since she potty trained, she is still wearing THE SAME SIZE panties. So we have 2 1/2 years worth of panties given by grandmothers, put in her stocking by Santa, bought if she wet her britches in the car, etc. Some of them – especially the first Elmo, Abby, and Zoe ones – are WORN out!

But, she left out *three* pair of panties to get rid of. And they were all plain white. She kept every single pair with designs or characters on them. She’s fancy alright. I made her add a few more to the pile, but we still ended up with a panty stack as tall as the drawer – and come tomorrow they will be all wadded up and strewn from one end to the other.

Oh well. It’s one of those battles that is not worth fighting….

I love a toothless grin.

2013-04-03T15:07:00.000-04:00

And I won’t be seeing it much longer. We are on our second tooth as of today, and I’m sure more will follow.

MY Gus.

2013-03-29T23:47:00.001-04:00

Gus is our hairiest child. I say he’s *my* Gus. So does Blair. He’s her best friend, so I guess she can claim him… every once in a while.

He slept in my bedroom from the time I got him until Blair fell in love with him. Every single night when I went to bed he would come up to the side of the bed and prop his head up on the mattress to tell me good night. I’d give him a good rub then he would make his way back to his bed and lie down. He still does it sometimes.

He’s always with us. Inside, outside, Gigi’s, the ranger, the car, the pond…. And I can’t even count the pictures in which I can spot a brown foot or tail. Then there are the tons of pictures of him with the kids. Gus with jewelry, Gus with washcloth “saddles,” Gus being ridden, kissed, nearly tortured! They waller over him all day long! And he loves them to pieces.

“Saddles”

Brown foot!

Gus had to have semi-emergency surgery today. I have been worried sick. He was not feeling well when we got home from Pop’s Wednesday night. And he wouldn’t eat. This is really, really odd. Gus eats everything. Gus comes running when I crinkle a bag in the kitchen. Gus eats paper towels with bacon grease on them. Gus not eating = something very wrong. And he vomited all over my house. Bless his heart; he thought he was in trouble.

I talked to the vet that evening, and we decided I could take him in first thing Thursday. He was super dehydrated, so they started an IV, did labs, and took x-rays. There was nothing remarkable. The vet said we would consider a barium study if he wasn’t better today. I called an checked on him twice this morning, and no one called me back until later this afternoon when it was almost too late to do a contrast study. Saying that she should have called earlier, the vet agreed to do it since he was no better. And she saw something abnormal in the intestine. So exploratory surgery it was.

We all packed in and raced over to the vet to see Gus. I didn’t want him to go to surgery thinking we had abandoned him. When I dropped him off yesterday, he leaned against me as the tech tried to take him and looked at me as if he were saying, “Mom, please. Please don’t do this.”

Showing him where to eat Leighton’s leftovers.

At 9pm, the vet called. They found a plastic grocery bag with some food in it. Part of it was stuck in the stomach and part had traveled down 2 - 3 ft and had accordioned the intestine around it. There was a intestinal perforation and a part in the intestine that was really aggravated, but they weren't able to remove it because of the location. So there are several things they will be watching over the next week before he is out of the woods.

I know I will have to say goodbye one day. But Blair doesn’t quite understand that he won’t be with us forever. She just knows he belongs next to her every night!

Gus’ Advair.

So we are praying that he does well and that we get to bring him home in a few “night nights.” I’m already missing the “tink tink” of his nails on the floor as he comes to see what I’m doing. I sure love my dog.

Little Mama

2013-03-21T10:51:00.000-04:00

Blair is all about being Leighton’s mama.

Leighton, no sir!! I SAID, no sir, Leighton!!

Leighton, you can’t have plastic. Mama, can he have plastic?

Mama, Leighton is kicking me. Why’s he trying to hurt me? Tell him no sir.

Here, Leighton, here’s your…. (so he’ll drop what she wants that he’s got).

So when I started giving him yogurt, she of course wanted to feed him. So she did.

She did a great job!

8 Months

2013-03-20T22:31:00.001-04:00

The Leightonater is 8 months old. Sigh.

Leighton, you have not changed your happy little self at all. You’re still happy, smiling, and laid back. And you love your mama. You really love everybody though. Especially Blair. You laugh at her when she just looks at you.

You weigh close to 18 pounds. You’re in size 9 months clothes, inching to 12. You wear size 3 diapers. I bought you size 2 shoes for the summer. And you got your first tooth last week – on the bottom left. You’re in your new carseat and liking it as far as I can tell.

We are considering two long naps, but we’re not there yet. Some days you go down an hour after waking, take a long nap, are up for a few hours, and take another long nap. Sometimes, you take two short naps in the morning and one longer nap in the afternoon. You go to bed around 8. You still get up around 3am to eat. I don’t have the heart to let you cry.

You love food. I even had to back off on feeding you in the high chair, because you backed off on your milk drinking! I had added lunch to the variable breakfast and supper schedule, and it was too much. So now we skip lunch. I also decreased what I give you at breakfast. Now you get a little fruit (not unlimited strawberries!) and 1/2 a YoBaby yogurt. You LOVE yogurt. You whine for food in general but especially yogurt! At supper, I give you some of what we have and some fruit. I let you eat whatever you want in the evening. Last night you had some hamburger steak, spinach, blackberries, blueberries, and a corn on the cob. You were so happy!

I always nurse you before giving you food. And you still don’t get food every single day. You’ve gotten so good at eating though! You prefer your left hand at this point, and you’re pretty good at getting things with your thumb and index finger. You’re so cute chewing with your gums!

You’re crawling fast, pulling up, and thinking about cruising, letting go, and standing on your own.

Bathtime is a favorite, and you usually take one with Blair in the big tub. She doesn’t like you to have anything. She wants whatever you pick up to play with. We’re working on it though. You like to suck on the washcloth. And you laugh when I bathe your feet :). You’re the most ticklish baby I’ve ever seen!

You scrunch your nose like Blair did!

You dance and know who Gus is when asked, “Where’s Gus?” One of your favorite games is “get ‘im!” -- I take your arms and pretend to grab Gus (or anyone). You laugh so hard!

You love the jumper. I take it outside sometimes, and you jump away while watching the dogs run around. You like pat a cake and peekaboo. I would say your favorite things to play with are Scout, a rainstick, and rings. You love chewing on anything though.

You love the rainstick. You like to chew on it and push it on the floor.

You also love balls.

Mommy likes to rock you sometimes, and you but your head on my shoulder when you’re tired. You go to sleep on your own though for most any nap and at bedtime. I couldn’t rock Blair, so I’m glad I get to rock you sometimes.

You love outside.

Tapping is your way of exploring things. You tap, tap on all sorts of stuff. And sometimes you use your mouth like Blair did. Of course, you give things kisses too!

You are really exploring different sounds. Gawa, baba, guh, duh, mmmmma, aba, etc. I haven’t heard any words though!

You are mommy’s joy. You are so easy going and fun. I love walking into your room and seeing you standing up in your crib, instantly smiling your big, open smile when you see me. Melts my heart. I love you, my Leighton-bo!

We do Entertainment

2013-03-19T23:10:00.001-04:00

We just have all kinds of entertainment going on in our house in the evenings.

Leighton eating anything is entertainment for us all, but I found out right quick tonight at supper what I can give him to keep him busy for a WHILE!

This boy was some kind of possessive of his corn on the cob!

He tapped it with the right.

He tapped it with the left.

And he sucked on that thing like it was a bottle!

He worked on this thing – breaking occasionally to spy and grab blueberries, ground beef, spinach, and blackberries – for a good 30 minutes. We’ll take it!

Meanwhile. The goofs (Brad and Blair) were entertaining themselves down the hall.

We had walked earlier, and Blair wanted to bring Buddy inside. She shut him up in her room. When you looked at her door, you could see shadows from his feet, right behind the door and ready to go.

So Brad decides to put some peanut butter on a wooden spoon to see if they could get his tongue to come out under the door. This is so the type of entertainment we see daily with these two!

They were both laughing, Buddy got peanut butter, and they made a mess. Success in their book (and mama’s too except for cleaning up the messes)!

Apps and Shows of the Moment

2013-03-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

I thought I’d share a few of the screen views we see on a regular basis around here. I love getting ideas from others about good apps for kids, so please comment with your favorites!

Apps

My sister Linsey told me about Duck Duck Moose apps for iPad and iPhone. She had some of the toddler apps for her daughter, and I found some preschool ones for Blair.

Blair LOVES Duck Duck Moose Reading (also called Kindergarten Reading).

It focuses on letters, sounds, and small words. As she plays, the levels increase in difficulty by adding new sounds etc. At the completion of each level, she gets a new animal for her zoo. I don’t know how many levels there are, but she has has just passed 20. $.99 for iPhone and $1.99 for iPad.

Also very neat for a wide age range is Duck Duck Moose Draw and Tell. Super cute drawing program with stencils, patterned paper, stickers, and recordings.

We also have their Park Math, which is a good little app for counting and pre-math: addition, subtraction, patterns, sorting, and greater than / less than.

*One small con for the Duck Duck Moose apps: they do not transfer from one device to another. If you want it on both iPhone and iPad, you must purchase the app for each. They’re inexpensive, so the cost is still low if you purchase both. pics from http://www.duckduckmoose.com/

The Toca Boca apps are so cute. One of their free apps that Blair plays with a good bit is the Toca Kitchen Monsters. There are two monsters for whom she can select food and prepare it in the kitchen.

pic from tocaboca.com

She can slice, blend, fry, microwave, or boil any of the foods. If she doesn’t cook it, the monster may not eat it, and if she puts too much salt, he will spit it out! This is a mini version of their Toca Kitchen.

An app we’ve used for quite some time now is Articulation Station. It began as an iPad and is now available for iPhone as well. It is primarily a speech therapy related app. The free version comes with activities for the letter “P.” One can purchase additional individual letters or buy them all for $49.99.

You can choose levels.

Then you can choose an activity.

We bought the letters that Blair needed to practice – B and S. We also needed P, and that one was free!

The difficulty of the activities ranges from toddler to school age children. You can track progress and record as well.

We can choose to have words with the “b” at the beginning, middle and/or the end.

These are little comprehension questions after a paragraph.

At the end, you get a little praise screen!

This word in the final B category, of course, is Blair’s favorite.

Another very simple app that Blair likes is ABC Alphabet Phonics Lite by Grasshopper Apps. There’s not much to it, but she likes it. There are three letters on the screen, and the audio says “touch the __.”

Other free favorites: Mickey Mouse Road Rally, Watch Disney Junior, and PBS Kids.

Television

Blair is not a TV person. She’s too busy for it. But, if I can get her to sit for a minute, there are only a few things she will watch. One is a new show on PBS: Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, a spinoff from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

This is a precious show with cute stories and even cuter little jingles that go with each episode’s theme. Blair’s favorite is episode 18, which is about getting ready for school and bedtime. There is a cute little song to remember the school or bedtime routine. And they sing a song in the bath that gets stuck in my head, “…sail the soapy seas….” Very cute show.

I beg Blair to watch Sofia the First on Disney Junior, and she just won’t. I watch it more than she does! It’s also a precious new show with good little story lines about kindness, not giving up, accepting others….

Those are the latest for us! We really don’t have much screen time around here at all. Blair is just more into asking me questions!

It’s chicken math.

2013-03-18T09:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I started with 9 chickens way back a few years ago, and even though I’ve lost a few here and there, I still now have more than I began with. It’s chicken math. I always just want one other breed. But now that mom has chickens, this chicken math has got my kitchen overflowing with eggs!

Right now I have a variety of my favorite breeds: 3 cochins, 3 speckled sussex, 2 production reds, 2 easter eggers, 2 buff orpingtons, a barred rock, a wyandotte, and a black australorp. One of the easter eggers and the australorp are the only ones left from my big flock from 2 years ago. The rest I got last spring, and I’ve only lost one. But I haven’t been letting them out.

Since we’ve been spending a lot of the day outside, I let them out for a bit this afternoon. I’m happy for them to enjoy making holes in the leaves in the woods behind our house. And I just love watching them.

Making a few holes!

The rooster is very watchful over his girls.

He called them while I was standing there, and they huddled up around him.

The speckled Sussex are the sweetest.

In this picture there is a production red, buff cochin, grey easter egger, buff orpington, white easter egger, and barred rock.

Pretty buff cochin

Pretty man

Cochin bottoms are fluffy!

Grey cochin

Hopefully I can keep letting them out without losing any. We’ll take it slow!

Tiny Toofy

2013-03-15T16:25:00.001-04:00

Leighton was a tad on the fussy side yesterday, so I knew something was going on. And we woke up last night with a cold. A super snotty cold – yuck! And today he has a tooth! Bless his heart; he deserved to be fussy!

I can barely see it, but I can feel it, and you can tell that his gum is white around where the tooth is pushing through.

Doesn’t seem to be phasing Mr. Smiley today though!

Giving Gus kisses!

And Gus returns the favor!

If he’s like Blair, he’ll just teeth away while playing, and we won’t even know until we look!

The Teeniest T-baller

2013-03-14T21:07:00.000-04:00

We had our first t-ball practice tonight. I walked up to the field and saw another team practicing. Oh, look at that boy team over there… they’ve got it all organized already… wait… that boy AND girl team… and that big big boy… hitting off OF A TEE!! Oh my. That is a team WE will play. Oh my. These kids are huge!

Then our team members started showing up for practice. And she’s the smallest one. It’s not even close. We know she’s small, but it’s not on a regular basis that I see her around a bunch kids her age – no school does that to you. She’s pretty much the smallest (and oldest) in her dance class, but that’s all girls so there’s not a big difference. Most of the t-ball kids are older than her, but some were younger. They were all bigger. Much bigger.

Look how much smaller she is than those boys on the left!

Blair wasn’t sure about t-ball. I have told her that I wanted her to try it but she didn’t have to play next year if she didn’t like it. And she repeated that before we left for practice tonight. I think she was a bit apprehensive!

But she had a great time. The bats were too heavy, but she hit anyway. And she looked like a little pixie running around the bases… tip-toeing, really. She daintily floated around the bases with big boys passing her by. But she had fun.

And fun is good.

She’ll catch on and get the shyness out in no time! She’ll be running circles around those big kids – she certainly has the energy for it!

Three Dresses

2013-03-12T12:17:00.000-04:00

I could have bought three dresses for Blair to wear this winter. I got her three Zuccini stripe dresses I had monogrammed with her initials. She would wear one every single day if she could. Every. Day.

We have the brown one.

The red one – her favorite. (Faegan has them too. This makes the dresses extra cool to Blair. That and the fact that they have her monogram on them. She’s a southern girly girl for sure!)

And the green one – mama’s favorite. (And I think this is about the last time we saw the navy bow. Don’t you hate that?!)

They weren’t but $20 each, so I would have saved me a lot of money if I’d known that’s all she needed! They have them for summer too, so we’ll have to see what color Miss Blair takes a fancy to!

Tiny Dancer

2013-03-11T23:43:00.000-04:00

She may be a little thing, but I think she packs the most energy!

This one was a wild one for recital practice at dance tonight. I guess we’ll see how it goes on the big day!

Fat boy seat.

2013-03-11T15:55:00.000-04:00

Leighton moved to his new car seat this week! Why is it a fat boy seat? Because he’s officially too fat to be carried around in the infant seat – killing mama’s arm!

He looked at me like I was crazy, squirmed a little, and then realized he could actually see a little better. All was well with the fat boy.

First of many many big boy seat rides.