Embracing the Messes: Making Advances

Remember when I talked about embracing messes when there is fun to be had? Well, I still am working on not cringing at the mess and not having an anxiety attack when I see dirty clothes, but I’m progressing. Apparently, I’m one of those “just jump right in and get it over with” type people because we didn’t start small.

Exhibit A: Oobleck (google it if you don’t know what it is. FUN, FUN, FUN—especially for the older kids who understand states of matter….so that’d mean I had a blast with this. It made me giddy about homeschooling.)

I’d rate this as easy clean-up, just in case you’re wondering. If you’re looking for the recipe, it’s just cornstarch and water, with food coloring if you wish. You can find exact measurements through that handy thing called Google.

Exhibit B: Slime/Gak. You’ll note this project took place outdoors, mainly because Hannah was napping and we can’t be in the kitchen during that time. However, I’d be lying if I left it there. It was pretty messy at first, so we headed outdoors. I was planning on saving this gak for a while. Unfortunately, the outdoors added elements to our gak including leaves, dirt, and rocks. We found the slime recipe from Pinterest. It starts out quite watery, but with lots of kneading gets much “gakier.”

He loved this one. We even saved it one time and he played with it outside again. We would have saved it again except, as mentioned above, the dirt in it was causing it to change colors. Yuck. We’ll be doing this again!

Exhibit C: Baking soda and colored vinegar. I don’t have a picture of this (so I think that invalidates calling it an exhibit—whatever), but he really enjoyed it. I covered the bottom of a 9x13 pan with baking soda and gave him 3-4 individual little cups of different colored vinegar. Then he took a dropper and added different colors of the vinegar into the baking soda. He loved that it fizzed, but also enjoyed making all the different colors run together. A big hit, and he requested to do it again!

Exhibit D: Fingerpainting. This is where I apparently lost my mind. We started out with individual circles of paint on a lovely Christmas plate. I envisioned him doing just as I would do (my downfall most of the time)—using one finger for each color. You know, as to not mix the colors and make it ugly. HA. Continue looking.

When he was done, there was paint EVERYWHERE. He had to have a bath afterwards. We might wait 6 months-10 years before doing that again. I had to do deep breathing exercises to make it through that one.

And now for the final exhibit, Exhibit E, I give you….planned mudhole maddness.

(Deda, this is a video! I have no idea how to fix that the video isn't centered. Everything is "off" on my blog, but not on youtube. Strange!)

The shower desperately needs to be cleaned now, as you can probably imagine!

So we’re having fun with all this uncharacteristically warm weather for this time of year and really look forward to the other MESSY activities we have planned!

And can I say….I LOVE BEING A MOMMY!!!!! This make life fun!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Drew! (video montage)

It is so cliché, but time flies when you’re having fun. And being your mom is just that: so very much fun. I have so much I want to write about you at this age; I just hope I can remember it all. I imagine I will come back over the next few days and edit and re-edit this post to add tidbits I’ll remember after publishing.

As for the last year, I’ll say this: they don’t say the terrible twos are rough for no reason. They were quite rocky and patience trying. PRAISE GOD it’s getting easier at times! Your attention span is longer, you listen and obey better, and you sometimes enjoy playing by yourself at certain activities. This is making life easier. I’ll attribute this to two things: age and improvement in speech. Both have played a large role! And maybe my increased patience, grace, and realization that boys are loud and rough—that they SHOULD be that way. God didn’t make you a girl for a reason, so neither am I!

Boy, do you love to be outside. Everyone else can be sweating bullets and begging to come inside, and you’ll be continuing to play in the heat, totally red faced. You love to ride your 4wheeler and “wan-whoa-whoa” (lawn mower) all over the yard, splash in your pool, and streak around the backyard naked chasing grasshoppers, crickets, and frogs. And, yes, I do put clothes on you when you go out. But 10 minutes later you’ll be stark naked running after a random bug, attempting to stomp the life out of it. Such a boy! I just laugh and let it go. The other day I helped you catch a big ‘ole frog and a baby frog. You thought I was pretty cool for that. (And I was praising myself on the inside for getting within 10 feet of the croaking thing without screaming.)

Every day when Daddy comes through the front door, you greet him with, “Hey Daddy! Wanna go play in the crunt (front) yard?” EVERY DAY. Your other favorite thing is cutting the grass. You just eat that up. And what better way to cool down than in the sprinkler? Outside + water= fun times for you.

You say the most hilarious things! Yesterday at your family party someone asked, “Drew, will you sing us a song?” “I can’t,” you replied. “My batteries died.” You use the word “disgusting” a lot and “dadgumit.” You may or may not have gotten the latter from me. I’m slowing turning you into a country bumpkin, I assume.

You are incredible with directions. Even on the interstate when we’re riding along, you’ll shout out that if we take that exit we’ll be at Grammy’s house…or that one goes to Senatobia. Amazing! You did NOT get this from your mother. (You’ll ‘amen’ that in a few years.)

You enjoy some TV these days (hallelujah) including Caillou, Curious George, Elmo, Pooh, and Veggie Tales.

You love your sister. I catch you hugging her all the time. You tell her, “Bwess (bless) you heart, Hannah. I wub (love) you!” You love to see her poop. I have no clue why, but you like to exclaim, “OOH Hannah, that stinks!” Getting her up from her naps is a highlight of your day. You’re excellent at making her laugh, and she grants you the laughs rather easily!

We’re continuing to work on your southern manners. You say yes ma’am and no ma’am, yes sir and no sir, and excuse me, although it takes a little prompting most times.

Other things you love: markers, toy trucks, chocolate, suckers, the Wii, singing loudly, going anywhere, visiting relatives, painting, baths, juice, helping with just about anything, and breaking stuff. You’re good at the last item. LOL!

The other day in church someone was baptized and you said, “I wanna follow God, mama! I wanna mind God and go to heaven!” It made my heart happy to hear your little voice say that, and I hope you always have that desire.

You and Hannah make me want to be a better Christian woman. I try every day to better myself in Jesus so that I can model the behavior you should follow. It’s so hard some days, but you are so forgiving and sweet on days that are rough. Your hugs are the BEST and your kisses melt me! You really enjoy reading books at night and saying your prayer—and I love it too (even though Daddy usually gets this privilege since he works all day).

Drew Laney, I sure do love you. Life with you is fun, fearless, and never boring. You are a burst of energy at every waking moment! And I wouldn’t change a thing about you! This last year has been so rewarding, even though it was trying at times. I cannot wait for what this next year of your life holds. The only drawback is that you’re slowing losing your dependence on me as you foster your own independence. It’s a good thing, but it makes me sad! That said, you will ALWAYS be my baby!

Drew's 2nd Year Video

*Scroll to the previous post to see birthday bash pictures!*

Happy 23 Months, Drew (plus video!)

One month to go until you turn the big T-W-O! That seems impossible, but we'll save all those statements for next month's post. :)

Drew-man,

You are so fun!!! You keep me and Daddy laughing almost all the time. You love the outdoors, playing in the sprinkler, playing in the bathtub, climbing on things, playing with all household appliances, "helping" with chores, being with your relatives, swimming in the pool, opening and closing things, sliding on slides, giving kisses, having blankey at night, having mommy rock you at night, and drinking chocolate milk. How could you not be fun with such a great list of interests?!

You're not so fond of bedtime, naptime, and being confined while out and about. You still like your Step 2 push car most of the time, but you're getting to the point of wanting to roam freely in public areas. Ahhh!!!

You have several nicknames: Drew-Drew, Drew-man, & baby Drew are the main three. You're still getting into pretend play. I love it! You've started playing chase with other kids--it's so cute! You're finally showing affection and giving kisses to family members. Your language abilities are EXPLODING. I can't keep up with all the new words you try to say. Sometimes I thought this day would never get here! Your favorite words are: apple, roll, bug, daddy, mama, papaw, pop, bop, foofoo, our food, outside, truck, fork, moo, woof woof, shoe, nose, eye, dark, light, ah oh, bye bye, & ball. Just today you learned to say your name! You're catching on quickly! Pretty soon we won't be able to get you to be quiet!

You have an uncanny memory. You remember things that I've totally forgotten--whether it be a toy at someone's house that's kept hidden, a cup you "stored away" the night before, where a certain item goes in someone's house, or where a particular event happened--you keep us amazed with the detail of things you remember!

Our daily routine goes something like this now:

9am--wake up, milk, and breakfast (if you'll eat anything)
9:30-11:30--play, play, play. Veggie Tales is usually somewhere in here for about 15 min.
11:30-12:00--lunch and clean up
12:00-2:00--play some more!
2:00-4:00--naptime
4:00-5:30--play while waiting on daddy to get off work
5:30-6:30--play outside while mommy cooks
6:30-7:30--play outside some more
7:30-8:00--bathtime with Daddy
8:00-9:00--snacktime, pajamas, play in living room floor, diaper change, brush teeth
9:00-9:20--rock with Mommy, sing songs, read "Llama, Llama Red Pajama," and say our prayer.
9:20--Mommy is implanted on the couch.

So you can see our day is nothing spectacular, but we sure have fun! I can't believe you've been with us for nearly 2 years!!! That seems so impossible, but I almost can't remember not having you with us. We love you, sweet boy, and we can't wait to party with you soon!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Oh and here's a video for your viewing pleasure. This is the new "rasberry blowing" game:

Daddy Chooses the Zoo

Well, Andrew's time has come. He's in the last year of his 20s! He chose to celebrate his birthday by taking off work and taking me & Drew to the zoo.

Remember, Andrew works from home, so our normal "alarm" is Drew's giggling over the monitor around 9:00am. He wakes up at 9am like clockwork. Well, on Andrew's birthday Drew gave him a big, fat present--Drew slept in until 10:15am!!! And therefore, we did too! I was so shocked to roll over and see that my body had actually allowed me to sleep in like that. We got up, got ready, loaded up the push car, and headed to Memphis. We had so much fun that day! We figured out that Wednesday is a lot better choice for visiting day than Thursday & Friday. We were actually able to park near the entrance and not be shoulder-to-shoulder with 5000 other sweaty zoo-goers.

I am really excited about taking Drew to SDC in a few weeks, but have been a little nervous about how he would do with rides. Not long ago, he FREAKED OUT over a silly carousel that he was crazy about 2 months earlier. Well, yesterday this was him unable to take his eyes off the carousel because he wanted on it so badly!

So we purchased the tickets to let him ride. It went like this:





I'm not so worried about SDC!

Well after all that excitement, we headed over to the rides section of the zoo which was none too impressive, but finally found the ticket lady, made a purchase, and held our breath...


Success! He gets to stay in the family after all. He likes rides! He kept yelling "Whoa!!!" as the ride spun him around 1000 times.

Oh, then we saw this adorable little guy....



How sweet, huh? ;)

All in all, we had a splendid day with daddy! We'll be celebrating more this weekend!

Spring? Is it really you?

Come stay a while!

We are loving the warmer temperatures coming our way here in north Mississippi. Last week it was in the 70s for several days...we're talking shorts and t-shirts! We tried to take advantage of it while it lasted by getting outside whenever possible.

One day Daddy took Drew to the zoo by himself. Since mommy's crazy tendencies weren't there to stop them, they played in the wading pool!


"Dad! You're the coolest! Mom would freak out if she were here! She would only be able to think about how nasty this water might be! "


I love these chubby feet!

A few days later Drew and I played outside for over an hour. We rode in the wagon & car, swept the sidewalk, and ran around and around the house. Nothing makes my little one happier than being outdoors.


Then last week, it was a gorgeous Thursday! Andrew took off 2-3 hours from work and we headed to the zoo again.

A real man wears a pink backpack...with his wife's name monogrammed on the back...from high school. Love you, hun.

Drew was most impressed with the bamboo leaves, "animals of the night," fish, monkeys, and the cheetah. He even attempted to say "cheetah" several times--quite a feat for a little one who would rather do than talk.

When I saw this huge tiger, I thought of Sher Chan (sp?) from The Jungle Book!


We took a leaf off the tree for Drew. He played with it for the rest of the trip. I think we need to plant A LOT more trees in our yard if one leaf will provide that much entertainment.

One of my FAVORITE parts of the Memphis Zoo is the ability to eat lunch with the monkeys. The restaurant has a glass wall between the monkeys and the eating area. One of the monkeys came up right by us and played with Drew for the longest time. Drew kept jumping up at down, waving at him, and making his monkey noise. It was so fun to experience that through a child's eyes.

I didn't have my SD card in my camera (duh, Audra!), so I took a video with my Android:






We had an incredible day that day was. It was fun to see Drew's mind working as if he thought, "That thing looks like the monkey in my book at home! I bet it makes the same noise!" Big light bulbs going off for him!

Drew is getting to be so much easier to take out to places since he can sit/stand in a booth to eat, walk around on his own, and has a longer attention span. I have a feeling this summer is going to be FUN. We've actually planned a vacation in July with my mom and dad and Kacie, Judd, and Caroline. We're heading up to a condo in Branson for 4 nights/5 days. I haven't been on a real vacation in forever, so I'm REALLY excited! All this warm weather makes for so much more to do!

So come on, Spring. Come in. Sit down a while. Make the summer heat wait a while. We enjoy your company around here!