Andrew -- My baby is a boy

As the time continues to fly by, I find myself so wrapped up in life and work and marriage and the wonderful time that I get to spend with Andrew. I almost did not notice how much he has become a big boy now. We have full blown conversations and he understands everything that I say. We talk like we are buddies. We negotiate to satisfy each of our needs and wants. But, mostly we have a lot of fun together.

This stage that he is in is overwhelmingly amazing to me. I understand most of his words and how he communicates. What seems like gibberish to others is very clear to me. That's how I know our bond. We are thick as thieves and I absolutely love it.

I still continue to miss and long for the times when he was a little tiny baby and he would be so calm and quiet and we would just stare at each other. But, I would never trade the little guy I have now who races me to the mailbox, throws a ball with me and gives me genuine hugs and kisses.

Being a mom to that amazing boy is the best experience ever.

Girls Night Out

On a rare occasion, I get dressed up and head out on the town with a few girlfriends. Just a few weeks ago, Lauren and I decided to go see Horrible Bosses and then find some live music. I am a huge fan of Horrible Bosses. I thought it was a fantastic movie and it had me laughing the entire time. It's raunchy humor for sure, but I found myself sad to see it end. Now, seeing a movie at the "Drinking Theater" always has a way of making things funnier so I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed it without the wine.

We met up with Jennifer after the movie and went to a bar to listen to some live music. We had more fun people-watching than actually listening to the band. Seems to be the case as I get older.

Night ended with the girls at around 1am and I could not resist a 'late-night Taquito run' at Whataburger. I brought home Taquitos for me and for Jeff (in case he was still awake). Turns out he was which is a really good thing because if he had been asleep, I would have completely devoured his Taquito as well. Saved myself about 20 minutes of an additional guilt-trip.

I love Girl's Night Out!

Sprinkler Fun

While we were visiting my parents, my mom bought Andrew a little kiddy pool and a sprinkler that shoots balls in the air. We were really happy that he liked it. It took a bit to warm up to but once he got used to it, he had a great time. I feel confident that the babbling and screaming with joy was accurately translated in the captions.

"Why is this water hitting me on the head? Make it stop!"

"Wait a minute - this thing shoots balls in the air? I guess a little water in my face is ok."

"Bravo! - Clap, Clap - This is my new favorite toy!"

"I've never been so happy in my whole life. This Sprinkler Completes Me."

"Ok, I'm done. Daddy go get this ball while I jump in the pool."

"Ahhh, this is the life! I love retirement."

Roar!

Pappy and Andrew having some fun.

Retirement Surprise

My mom retired last Friday, July 1st after 37 years of working in Education. She started as a teacher and worked her way up to Assistant Principal, Principal and then finally for the last several years has been working in a position reporting directly to the Superintendent. She has had a wonderful career and had a hard time making the decision to hang up her hat and take a break. The road to retirement has been emotional for my mom and the send-off she was given by her colleagues was so touching to her and made such lasting memories.

In that same spirit, I decided that I wanted to surprise her on her very last day by showing up at her retirement dinner. Jeff and I moved things around and I worked with several people to ensure child care, a middle of the night hotel arrival and increased reservations at the restaurant. We managed to plan the entire thing without my mom ever getting wind of it.

As she arrived to the restaurant in Baton Rouge with my dad and my aunts and uncles, Jeff and I were sitting at their table. Her reaction to our surprise was priceless (not to mention my Dad's shock and awe as well). It went off without a hitch and we got to spend the entire weekend with them to kick off her new 'easy life'.

Congrats to my mom for such a huge accomplishment,  a great career and a chance to relax a little and enjoy a much needed break!

And then there were two

I made a decision today. Hands on hips.

No drum roll is necessary because it's rather boring. 

Basically, I've decided that I'm starting another blog.

My reason for starting this blog was to have something that Andrew could look back on and see our family and life as he was growing up. Pictures of him, updates on him and fun stories of our family and what life is like with us as the years go by. Kind of a 'baby book' for non-crafty people like myself.

I will continue this. I love writing this blog and posting pictures and updating friends and family on my favorite people in the whole world.

But, there is an entirely 'other' side of me that tends to want to ramble on and on about things that have nothing to do with our family. I have held off time and time again on putting these types of things on our family blog because it has nothing to do with us as a whole.

In true Sesame Street fashion, my new blog is called TwinkleThink.blogspot.com. For those of you who don't have the pleasure of watching Sesame Street 5 times a week, Twinkle Thinking is from a segment called Abby's Flying Fairy School. Each episode the group is called on to solve a problem and to do so they must put their heads together and Twinkle Think.

The SesameStreet website says: During each "twinkle think" moment the characters use logic, reasoning, and a helping hand as they think out loud and analyze information to find innovative solutions to their problems.

I can't promise logic or reasoning but maybe a few innovative solutions.

For those people (like my mom) who think I'm already entirely too open about my life, this new blog may be the very last thing you want to read. I will likely use 'creative language, self-deprecating humor, make fun of people and pick on my husband."

For those of you who are just here to look at the pictures...here is a cute picture of my kiddo using chopsticks. :-)

Cute Pic From Tonight

Andrew came home from school today in yellow bloomers due to "another" blow out of his diaper at school. So, by dinner time, we were in diaper only watching Yo Gabba Gabba. He was having a ball and I could not resist taking some candid photos. Just for a split second - he stopped all the jumping and dancing and posed for mommy. I think it's pretty darn good.