29

You might ask, so how does one celebrate her birthday when her husband is incapable of doing anything but this all day?:

 On birthday eve, while picking up groceries to cook your favorite items the next day, you spot flowers on special.  Roses are not your fave, but for $3, they'll do and will give a sense of birthday cheer in the house.  You splurge on a case of 4 Starbucks Frappucino and a 6 pack of Snapple Peach Tea.

You stay up much, much later than you anticipated baking a cake for yourself.  Since you've been on a crazy almond kick lately, you dump a bottle and a half of almond extract into your homemade buttercream a half teaspoon at a time, in efforts to achieve a strong almond flavor, which actually just ends up making the frosting taste funky.

Since your husband was supposed to have back surgery the day before your birthday, he had your presents wrapped and on the table for two days now, which he begged you incessantly to go ahead and open.  However, you stayed true to your convictions because a birthday doesn't feel like a birthday if you have no presents to open on your big day.  Therefore, on birthday morning, his impatience could wait no longer.  So after being permitted to sleep in until 8 a.m., you are greeted with a bed full of boys, grins, and presents!

You love all of your gifts because your husband is the most thoughtful gift giver and remembers everything that you ever said you loved/wanted.  You love the new crackle nail polishes, in pirate theme no less, as well as the new beads for your bracelet - a skull and crossbones and a Celtic cross.  And you totally bust out the tears when you open this breathtaker:

That's a handpainted plate by my hubby of my favorite Van Gogh.

 After present time, it's on to breakfast, which just so happens to be your favorite meal of the day.  So much so that you are considering serving it again for dinner.  (It is your birthday.)  Waffles, hashbrowns, applewood smoked bacon (another birthday splurge), and it wouldn't be your birthday breakfast without something pumpkin or cinnamon.  Because you could not find canned pumpkin in the middle of Summer, despite multiple failed attempts, you whip up, from scratch, some french toast muffins you found on Pinterest instead.  However, don't bother next time.  The eyes feasted way more on these than the palate.

While you're deep in the thresholds of meal preparation, your parents call to wish you 'Happy Birthday', and you invite them to the feast.  You're excited that they agreed to join you, and wish the in-laws were in town so they could also attend.

You left no counterspace unharmed in the making of said meal, (refer to exhibit #4 on the right) and you were totally content with leaving the mess until your un-birthday.  But you have the sweetest Mom in the world who insisted on cleaning it up and then proceeded to fold some laundry and clean a bathroom.  Yes, you can all be jealous of my awesome mother.

You then pack up everyone, except for the hubby, to head over to cool down with a swim.  Some were more happy to be there than others, which directly correlates to the truth that some require more sleep (aka naps) than others.

You wrap the day up with a Papa Murphy's pizza and head to bed without doing the following, which were all on your birthday to-do list:

A. Blogging

B. Napping

C. Watching Beauty & the Beast with your home full of boys (You're brutal with your birthday requests, obviously)

D. Indulging in a slice of cake (you still haven't finished decorating your cake yet)

The next day, you do catch a nap and enjoy a slice of cake with a scoop of the best vanilla ice cream on the planet.  And as it turns out, your funky almond icing is actually not bad when paired with the sour cream almond cake.  Your doped up hubby had difficulty waking from his late nap so he missed out on the festivities.  It's just you and your boys.  It was a wonderful birthday weekend, despite all the sarcasm that may have led you to believe otherwise.  29 was truly awesome!  Stay tuned for my '30 before 30' list!

Proverbs 3:24

...and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Growing Up, Almost

Hawkins has only a few inanimate loves in life and they are as follows:

Candy
Scooby-Doo (which has recently replaced Dora the Explorer)
Frog BB (his blanket)

When Hawkins was just nine months old, he traded his bottle for a sippy cup on his own accord and rather suddenly.  One day he was downing a bottle and the next he refused it.  The same goes for his pacifier.  At around fourteen months, he traded his pacifier for a blanket.  It started off where any blanket would suffice, especially a fleece taggie blanket.  But after a month or so, he had chosen his favorite and from then on, only "Frog BB" would do.

For the last two years, Frog BB has gone everywhere with us.  He has been on multiple road trips, several hospital stays, subjected to hundreds of baths, and thousands of naps.

Adam and I had been discussing for months when we should take away Hawk's security blanket.  If he only snuggled with it, we'd have no problem with him keeping Frog BB indefinitely.  However, he sucks on it, which he calls "chewing".  His older brothers did not have a pacifier beyond 2 1/2.  Here Hawk is nearly 3 1/2.

I tried for about a week, as I tucked him in each night, to convince him to just cuddle with frog bb.  "Don't put him in your mouth."  Hawkins would sweetly nod and agree, though he didn't understand why.  Sure enough, he would "chew" on it all through the night.  (See here for one of my attempts to talk him out of chewing on his blanket.)  I knew talking him out of it would be futile and unsuccessful but I couldn't bring myself to remove what Hawkins loved most.  Frog BB was like a member of our family!

The three big boys slept over at Grammy and Papaw's house and we decided it was time.  Adam "hid" him up on the top shelf of Holt's closet, which also happens to be in Hawkins' room.  The next night, when we were putting him to bed, he asked for Frog BB but we told him that his blanket had disappeared and we couldn't find it.

He was slightly upset, but went to bed fine without it.  Over the next few days, each morning I found a substitute in Hawk's bed.  We figured since Hawkins was faithful to just the one blanket for two years, there would be no replacement.  Apparently, his addiction was a bit more serious than we had anticipated.

It wasn't but a few days later and the boys discovered Frog BB.  It was as though they had uncovered a sunken ship filled with buried treasure.  "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!"  They all bolted into the living room with such joy and excitement.  "We found Frog BB!  He wasn't lost, he was just at the top of the closet!"  It never occurred to them that his location might have been a bit more intentional than coincidental.

Perhaps all Hawkins needed was a bit of a hiatus to realize that he doesn't need anything in his mouth to sleep.  Hawkins now continues to sleep with his beloved Frog BB but he no longer chews on him.  In fact, some nights he has not even noticed that his favorite blanket is not in his bed with him.  Truth be told, I'm kind of glad that Frog BB is still around and not in anyone's mouth.

Noodles & Green Beans

This brings a whole new meaning to the old adage, "You're not getting down until you've finished your plate."

Now don't look at me like that.  I know for a fact that all of you have done the same thing.  It wasn't like we were torturing the poor kid with livers and squash.  It was a botched fettuccine alfredo recipe which turned out to be glorified butter noodles.  And Hayes is all about some butter noodles, just not these, for some crazy reason.  They were served with a side of fresh green beans, which is my children's vegetable of choice.

He nibbled on his lunch while we all enjoyed it.  Then, he sat there staring at his plate as we all got down.  After a few reminders that he was not getting down until he finished his plate, he just curled up in the hard wooden chair and took a nap.

Needless to say, when he woke, I showed him some compassion and gave him some mercy.  The kid took a nap at the dinner table!

Look What I Can Do!

 Ta Da!

Forgive my fuzzy pictures.  Daddy was letting Mommy sleep in when he discovered my new trick.  Daddy doesn't quite know how to work Mom's camera but wanted to capture the moment for her anyway.  And if it looks like I was wailing, I was.  You see, I didn't understand when Daddy opened the door to rescue me, why he turned around and hurriedly left.  But as you can tell, once he returned and I figured out what was going on, I even "said cheese."

Hawk-ism: Chewing On Frog BB

Hawkins' creature comfort at bedtime is his Frog BB, which is just a fleece blanket with frogs on it.  He sucks on it every night instead of a pacifier and has so for years.  However, he refers to this action as "chewing."  Frog BB has been confined to Hawk's bed for some time now.

For several nights, I had unsuccesfully tried to convince Hawkins to just snuggle with his blanket, rather than put it in his mouth.  "Your brothers do not put their blankets in their mouths," I would explain.  I knew it was asking the impossible of him but that didn't keep me from asking.

Me:  Goodnight, Hawk-man.
Hawkins:  Night, Night, Mommy.
<bedtime kisses>
Hawkins:  Please I chew on Frog BB now?
Me:  No, buddy.
Hawkins:  Why not?  I just chew on him when you shut the door!

Lizards

Does anyone else have a problem with lizards in their home?  When I was a kid, I loved searching  for lizards but very rarely ever found one.  My kids, on the other hand, are about sick of seeing lizards, mostly because we make them pick them up.

The cat always finds them first, we suspect sometime in the middle of the night.  The next morning, we find the tail before we ever spot the lizard.  They're always the same species of lizard but their size varies.  We did actually have one that was a good six inches long.  However, most of them are smaller than my pinkie finger.

We had two or three last summer and it was about the time that my brother and his wife returned our carpet cleaner to us.  We blamed them for our infestation of reptiles.  Since we haven't loaned them anything since, and we've had nearly a half dozen lizards this year, I guess it's safe to say Uncle Shep is not the culprit.

Highlights of Independence Weekend

* We caught a fireworks show the weekend before the 4th.
The boys and I met my Mom out behind the property of the biggest church in our area so we could catch "the bootleg" version of their show (aka not get stuck in their parking lot traffic for 30 minutes).

*  Hawkins caught Fifth Disease so he looked pretty sketchy.  Fortunately, no one else got it.  Did you know it's no longer contagious once you see the rash?  That's great!

* We swam to stay cool.

*  Our air conditioning at home gave out so we moved in with my parents until we could get it fixed.

*  So we swam some more.

*  We hung out with the Schwartz family on Monday.
We had some awesome shrimp and scallops!  And how could I forget the apple pie a la mode (both homemade) and both to die for, courtesy of Natalie.

God Bless America!

Holt is 8 Months!!

You're getting to be such a big boy while still maintaining your status of "best baby ever"!  Mommy and Daddy really appreciate how awesome you are!  Though, I do wish you would slow down with the growing.  Geez!

You have become extremely mobile this last month.  You're still scooting around on your tummy but you are fast and good.  You're technically crawling, just with your tummy on the ground.  Your brothers all did the reach and pull with dead legs.  You, sir, move your arms and legs opposite each other just like crawling.

The other day I walked out of the living room while your brothers were "watching you" and all of a sudden you had found me all the way back in the bathroom.  You love to beeline for the kitchen because you have discovered that there are "goodies" left behind on the floor by your endearing brothers.

You do get up on all fours, rock back and forth, as if you're gonna crawl, but then decide to flatten out and take off.  You can cross the house in a couple minutes flat.

You have begun to babble a lot and blow zerberts.  You love your pacifier, so we have to snatch your plug to hear you talk.  Other than random, adorable baby noises, you do say "dada" but it's just babbling and not actually calling Daddy--yet.

I'm not going to lie, I am a little bitter that you say "dada", when I am the one that you have a complete meltdown over immediately after I walk out of your line of sight.  You are a bit of a Momma's boy (may be the understatement of the year).

Grammy and Papaw introduced you to graham crackers, which  you LOVE.  We will neglect to tell Dr. Owen about that.  You have joined us for several meals in your Bumbo at the dinner table.  You eat your puffs and I could watch you do that for hours because it is just that cute.  I suspect it will not be much longer and you will have a permanent reserved seat.

And for the purposes of comparison, you are actually 8 months and 13 days old in these pictures.

Hayes' First Tooth

We learned from experience when Houston had his first wiggly tooth that it actually could take months before the tooth is actually ready to come out.  Of course, this lesson was taught by several missed attempts at yanking the tooth out prematurely.  So we were a little more prepared when Hayes' first tooth began to wiggle.

If you didn't already know, Hayes is far more tender and sensitive than Houston.  About once a week I would call Hayes over to inspect his tooth's "wiggliness".  He would remind me every time, "Not hard, Mom.  Just do it gently, right on the top."  Then he would close his eyes, hold his breath, and cringe every time.  After a few back and forth motions, he would immediately pull away.

I had just inspected his tooth a few days prior, and it did not seem that it was anywhere ready yet.  It had a good wiggle to it, but certainly was not haning on by just a thread, yet.  I took the two big boys to work with me today.  Grammy fed them lunch and then sat with them while they swam.  When it was time to get out of the pool, she noticed something different about Hayes.

He had a gaping hole in his mouth.  "Hayes!  When did you lose your tooth?"  He had no idea his tooth had come out.  He either swallowed it at lunch in his peanut butter sandwich, or it is in the pool.  This was definitely a blessing in disguise.  There's no telling what measures he would have made us go to when it was actually time to extract the dangling baby tooth.

The whole idea of the tooth fairy seemed to weird Hayes out.  Since he shares a bedroom with his older brother, he knows the tooth fairy has been in for multiple visits.  However, since the tooth fairy was coming to see him this time, it made him a little worried.  He had asked Adam earlier in the day, rather nervously, "Does the tooth fairy come in our room every night looking for teeth?"

That night, when it was time for bed, we wrote a note for the tooth fairy, since there was no physical evidence to leave behind. 




Dear Tooth Fairy,
I lost my tooth in the pool while I was swimming and I don't know where it went.  Please can I have some money?
Love, Hayes

Houston made sure we didn't neglect to make a point of asking him/her to leave money behind.  The kid is shameless.  The tooth fairy deposited $5.

It actually breaks my heart a little a lot because I have also learned from experience that once those big teeth grow in, your baby no longer looks like a baby.  He looks like a boy.