Where does time go!?!
I honestly have tried to become a consistent blogger since this is my scrapbook of our life, and I really want my family to be able to look back on this and enjoy the memories. However, I recently have found myself busy from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning (of course, after being woken up by Thomas’s “talking” which greatly resembles a baby birds “squawking”) to the time I get back in bed at night around 11:00p.m. (eleven o’clock is the new ten o’clock around here….no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get in bed by ten anymore). For those of you know know me well, you know that I absolutely love going to bed early). Any down time that I did have has been consumed with chores and tasks that the busy summer months seem to bring.
These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy!! Since we got back from spending Memorial Day weekend in Statesboro, we have been making visits to Mama T at Emory, picking 40 acres of wheat (meaning Daddy has been picking the wheat and I have been parenting Thomas without my right-hand-man, whom me and Thomas miss VERY, very much!!!), baking for Audrey’s wedding shower, hostessing Audrey’s wedding shower at Raymond Lake, picking vegetables from the garden and making baby food for Thomas with them, and thinking about how to transition Thomas from sleeping in our bedroom to sleeping in his own room at night and being able to sleep without being swaddled.
And any suggestions on that last part are welcomed!!!
We tried not swaddling him one night, and he completely freaked out. Seriously. Like screamed for 25 minutes straight at the top of his little lungs, which don’t always sound so little. We have swaddled him every night and for every nap since the day he was born, and now he just doesn’t know how to sleep without it!
And if your suggestion is to “let him cry it out”….then I have one question for you: Have you ever heard Thomas scream hysterically at the top of his lungs while his face turns blood red and he is dripping in sweat and throwing his head back in a tantrum “cry it out”??? I don’t think he “cries it out” in the same way other babies do.
Anyway, I have just begun mentally preparing myself for these changes. There is something very sad about moving Thomas out of our bedroom. It just seems so odd to have him that far away from us for such a long period of time, even though I’m sure our eyes and ears will be glued to the baby monitor every second that he is away from us, even in our sleep. I know it is the right time for this to happen, and it will be a very healthy change for all of us. But still, I like him being in our room. I like him sleeping two feet away from us. I like not having to walk all the way across the house just to put his binky back in at 2:00 in the morning. Oh well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a mother, it’s that your life is constantly changing and being changed by your little loved one.
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We spent Memorial Day weekend in Statesboro with the whole family. I love, absolutely love (!!!!!), when we all get together. Just ask Daniel. I am excited all week long leading up to it. I ask him daily, “So what time do you think you’ll be able to leave work on Friday?” I always find myself a little sad on Sunday afternoons when it’s time to leave. You know the saying “home is where the heart is”???….Well, I think that’s true. And my heart is forever more wrapped up in Daniel’s and our son’s and the place where we lay our heads down at the end of every long day. But, a little piece of my heart is always with my sister and my parents, even though most of them live in separate towns three or more hours from me, too. My sister and my parents are my heart. There is such a unique and strong bond between sisters. It is distinctive from the bonds you share with your best friends. There are no words to describe the love you have for your best friends from childhood.
Ok, so on a not-so-gooshy-note: memorial day pictures!! I have truly fallen in love with photography. I love taking pictures of anything and everything, from the food in my kitchen to my adorable little four month old boy. Daniel bought me a "big girl camera” for my birthday, Christmas, and “thank you for carrying my son forty weeks and two days and not sleeping for nine months and enduring a constant heat wave of hormones” baby gift. I think he was really skeptical at first of how much use we would get out of it, but he told me the other day that he was so glad that we bought it when we did and that he enjoys seeing me enjoy it so much. In my personal opinion, it really is a great investment for when you are starting your family!
Speaking of family….this was the scene in Statesboro:
Twelve people staying in one house. Plus Charlie and Tuff.
Babies everywhere.
Burp cloths galore.
Three breast pumps.
Endless piles of pacies.
Constant love and adoration on the Grandbabies from Mimi and Papa Tom (see album below for proof).
This was Summer before Francie made her get out of those blue boy shorts and into the more stylish Nike ones…oh yeah, thanks for that purchase, Tom-Tom! It just might have gone on your credit card:)
Mary Frances spit up on Kiki….or Kinky as Daddy calls her??
We gave Kennedy a bath in some ghetto soap and lotion that Momma had!! She was sooo tiny compared to Thomas! We think that she was weighing about 8lbs. that weekend, which is what Thomas weighed when he was born, but I never remember him being that tee-niny!!
Papa Tom got in some lovin’ with his only Grandson, T-bird!
And while Summer napped, Scott, Daddy, and Daniel were supervising Kennedy. Just a funny thought: do you think any of us women ever would have put Kennedy in this position and with a heavy queen size quilt over her?? :)
Recently, Mary Frances has been the easiest person in the world to photograph…hence, I have seven thousand pictures of her!! (More than Thomas and Kennedy combined!!) She is one up on her other two cousins because she is more intrigued with people and the dogs and whatever else holds her attention long enough for me to snap photos of her. She is just so precious!!! Don’t worry Kennedy and Thomas, y’alls day will come where I’m all up in your face with my flashing camera and obsessively take pictures of you.
Mary Frances and Thomas love each other. Actually, they just kind of stare at each other and claw at each other’s face. It’s quite entertaining.
And do you know how creative my mother (Mimi) is?? Remember when she sewed all of this for Kennedy’s nursery:
Yes, she made all of these pillows….
And the curtains….
And the teddy bear an outfit that matched Kennedy’s crib bedding….
And the best part of it all?? Mimi finished it ON TIME!!!!!!!!!
Soooo, here’s a sneak peak of what’s going on in Mimi’s sewing room in the ‘boro…..
She just may be making this adorable little outfit for a certain little seven month old…..
And she just may have picked out these fabrics to make her little boy grandbaby something special and unique, just from his Mimi!
Thomas and his Daddy had some “man to man” talk on the back porch….I just giggle thinking of all the “talks” Daniel is going to have to have with his boy…..I am so thankful that Daniel is the one who is going to be setting the example and guiding our little boy into manhood!
May Fray has been taking swimming lessons, and they are really paying off! She is in constant movement, especially with her legs, so swimming is a great activity for her!
And do I even have to tell you that we ate good?? Daddy Tom does not let us go hungry!! In fact, he does let us go home without making sure that any weight we might have lost in the previous weeks has made its way right back to our postpartum bellies.
And I think Daddy Tom added the grease from the bacon and sausage to the pancakes and squash! You’ve got to watch that Daddy Tom!
Just four short years ago these boys were running free in South Georgia and staying up all night coon hunting. Now, they are staying up all night, but for very different reasons!! Reasons named Thomas and Kennedy!!! Oh, what I would give to have seen their reaction if you would have told them what the near future would hold. Never did they imagine….
Grandma B and Kennedy….
By the way, can I just tell you that I am so burnt out on blogging right now?? I have been working on this post for three consecutive days now, and I probably won’t even finish it today because as soon as Thomas wakes up I need to go to the grocery store and get food for when Katie and Andrew come up this weekend (YAY!!!) and then we’re going to go see Mama T because SHE IS COMING HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL TODAY….PRAISE THE LORD!!!! We have missed her so much!!!! Anyway, this post just seems like it’s going on forever. Is it just me?!
Maybe.
Every time I think of wrapping it up and saying “the heck with uploading the rest of these pictures”, I think about how much joy it will bring to my heart and my family’s heart to have these memories to look back on one day.
So I keep going….
In other news, May Frances (I know. More pictures of May Fray! Again, right?? I promise I’ll make it up to the other children and cousins one day.) is as flexible as a monkey and Tuff loves the pool almost as much as Andrew loves the ocean. Poor Tuff would run around the pool so many times in a day chasing his ball that his feet were bleeding by the end of the weekend, and we had to put the ball up and try to keep him inside.
Did anyone notice that Kennedy and Mary Frances had matching bathing suits?? I have no idea why I don’t have a picture of them together wearing their matching suits, but I don’t?? I remember taking one though so it must be on one of my sister’s cameras…
Thomas and his Great Grandma B….She was singing “rock-a-by baby, in the tree tops…”’ to Thomas while she rocked him, when she all of a sudden stopped and as plain as day said, “Well, I would keep singing but I forgot the words.” Thomas didn’t seem to mind on bit that BB couldn’t quite remember all of the words. Mimi was sitting next to us rocking Kennedy, and she joined in the singing and helped BB finish out the lullaby for Thomas.
May Fray has started eating some solids, and it is so funny to watch! I snapped a few photos trying to capture her funny little faces. Katie definitely had her hands full!!
Thomas also had his first experience in a pool this Memorial Day. He seemed to really like the water even though it was freezing.
I promise we all had on our bathing suits here!
And one other observation/milestone from the weekend: KenKen can suck her thumb!! Summer is already worrying about having to get braces for the kid! It really is adorable when she does it.
Ok, I see Thomas’s legs kicking around on the monitor. That signals the end of my free time to blog. Back on Mommy duty:)
