The Bridges of Jefferson County

Milestones and Funnies

2012-01-26T22:27:00.001-06:00

Our little Sarah is already 4 months old as of last Saturday, I cannot believe it! We had her 4 month Dr. appointment with Dr. Simpson last Friday. I could not get over how much weight she gained in a short 2 months. She weighed 16 lbs 2 oz and was in the 95th percentile for weight! This meant she gained 5 lbs in 2 months. I love a baby with rolls, but I don’t think I will be able to carry in her car seat much longer to daycare. I would have given up on it a long time ago, but it is challenging carrying all the artwork, her and corralling Haines when we leave. Anyway, she was 25.75 inches long and was in the 97th percentile for height. I love Dr. Simpson because he is so helpful with helping you figure out feedings, what you should be doing, etc. After his input we have dropped one feeding at 9pm and just give her about 7-8 oz 4 times a day and space the feedings out every 4 hours. He also stated that she was ready to start spoon feeding… what!? I am not ready for my baby to eat from a spoon yet!

Here are some milestones and notable events for our Sweet Sarah:

January 2, 2012 – laughed for the first time
January 15, 2012 – stopped swaddling her at night (still slept like a champ, you go girl!)
January 20, 2012 – rolled over from back to tummy
January 21, 2012 – 4 month old birthday!
January 22, 2012 – had her last frozen breast milk bottle :( (at least it got us to 4 mos)
January 23, 2012 – dropped evening feeding and moved to 7-8 oz 4 times a day
January 26, 2012 – rolled over from back to tummy and then from tummy to back several times
January 26, 2012 – first attempt at spoon feeding (did not go really well, but was better than Haines’ first time). She had rice cereal, her favorite since she was 4 weeks old!

Haines has been hilarious lately (he always has been, but continues to say funny things). He is also getting into the practice of asking a million questions about “why” and “what is that”. He does impressively know his colors and some of his shapes. He also knows what a girl and boy are and understands the differentiation. Here are some funny words (pronunciation) and things he has been saying below (at 2 yrs. 8 mos.):

Smell = Snell
Diego = Awaygo
Thunder = Funder
Sack Lunch = Picnic
Cartoons = Carteens
Marshmallows = Farshmallows
He calls his hair his haircut (whether he just got a hair cut or not), for example he loves to say, “don’t kiss my haircut” if I try to kiss him on the head. And he gets really mad btw.
I always tell him he is silly and that he is my little nut and his response is, “no I’m not, I’m a little boy!”
When he gets up in the morning and are getting ready for school we always have to brush his “crazy hair” and he loves calling it that too.

You can see why I call him my little nut! He has my boots on and thought he would make a call…

Last weekend we went to visit MeMe and Mr. Mike (aka our sweet neighbors Michael and Marilyn Gross who are Haines and Sarah’s Birmingham grandparents). Haines and I made them some Valentines cookies to take over. Here is a sweet picture of MeMe and Sarah and another of Haines riding on their horse saddle. He loves riding on this thing every time we go over there!

Three Busy Days With No Naps!

2012-01-26T21:56:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 17th started early and ended late. We left for Montgomery at 9am to attend Whit Register’s 2nd birthday party at non other than Looney’s Skating Rink. What a blast from the past, I did not even know that place was still open and it really has not changed much at all. The kids brought their favorite riding toy and got to run wild. Haines had a blast trying to ride Eli Sommer’s bike with training wheels, but he could not quite understand that when you pedal backwards it puts the break on. It was funny! Here is a pic below of sweet Jenni and precious Whit.

Next we headed to Moe’s for lunch to kill time before we went over to Beth and David’s house. We feel like every time we go to Montgomery we are so busy visiting with family that we never get a chance to see our friends so this is why we decided to make a day/night of it. We went to Beth and David’s and saw their adorable kids Owen and Ella.

I cannot believe that Owen is 5 years old, I remember when we went to Montgomery when he was born. Ella is 4 and is a mess, she loved holding Sarah and feeding her a bottle. She will be a great babysitter! I could not believe that we have not seen them in almost 2 years, it had been way too long. We had a great time catching up!

Here is Sarah trying on Ella’s Repunzel wig, which we found long blonde hairs attached to Sarah for the rest of the day from that wig, it was hilarious!

After Beth and David’s we went to Shane and Amy’s house to meet their new baby, Sailor. He was adorable and looked so tiny compared to Sarah. He was born in December and was about a month early. Haines had a blast playing with Amy’s two older daughters toys in their playroom (including Barbies) and jumping on their trampoline outside. We had a great visit and need to get together again soon!

Our last and final destination for the day was to Unky William and Amy’s house. We have not been able to stay with them in over a year so we were glad this worked out (kind of last minute). I love this picture below of Amy holding Sarah, so sweet!

We got to their house around 7pm and William and Clint picked up Tomatinos Pizza that was delicious! We stayed up and chatted for a while and then hit the bed hard, it had been a super long day. The next day Amy left to go to Atlanta to stay with her cousin (since it was MLK weekend) and William, Clint and I took the kids to the park at FUMC when William got back from Sunday school. That park is so awesome! It brought back memories because this is where I had some of Haines’ 1 yr pictures taken.

After we left the park we went back to William’s and were waiting on Mom and Dad to get back from the beach. They went down to Seagrove and stayed at Adelaide and Charles’ so they could find a house to rent for the summer with a realtor. They were successful and I cannot wait to go in July! The plan was for Mom and Dad to keep Haines Sunday night and Clint, Sarah and I would head back to B-ham and pick him up in Clanton on Monday. Of course Haines was over the moon about this. Monday morning Mom read him the story Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and made him green eggs and ham for breakfast, how fun! After they played awhile they went to the zoo and had a picnic lunch (Haines’ favorite thing to do). He loves to talk about a picnic! He had a blast as he always does with my parents!

Below are some sweet pics of little Sarah from that Monday. Her face has really filled out since Christmas, just in a matter of weeks. She is the sweetest, prettiest baby ever (of course I am biased)!

So, as you can see three busy days with so much to do, there was not any time for naps! Haines was feeling it on Monday though, but easily got back into his routine. I am so thankful that he and Sarah adapt so well!

“Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!”

2012-01-02T17:32:00.001-06:00

Christmas was a blast this year: celebrating for the first time with Sarah and Haines really “got it” for the first time this year. The weekend festivities started on Friday at 4:00pm at Addie and Charles’ house for dinner and the annual Dirty Santa extravaganza. Everyone really gets into Dirty Santa at their house and is always in competition to bring the best gag gift. It is always so much fun! Before we even ate dinner, Haines had already eaten 3 candy canes.

He LOVES candy canes, despite the fact that he says they are “spicy”. Addie had a jar of candy canes within his reach on a secretary and I had to move them to another location before we had a stomach ache and an even more wired 2 1/2 year old on our hands. Dinner was great: ham, smoked turkey, salad, rolls and twice baked potatoes. For dessert we had key lime cake, chocolate cake and birthday cake (for Deloris’ 94th birthday. Dirty Santa was a lot of fun and Haines loved playing with “Russell” aka Ross the entire time.

He also helped people pick out and open gifts. I ended up with some gold chocolate coins (thanks Haines) and Clint ended up with a really cute hat for Haines. Grandmother ended up with a 6 pack of Shiner Bach beers each were decorated like reindeer that she stole from Greg Langley. Hilarious!

After Dirty Santa we packed up and left for Montgomery for Christmas. Haines was awake the whole way until we got to Prattville (of course). Sarah slept the entire time, she is so sweet! We got to my parents house and Haines was rejuvenated and stayed up until about 10pm running around everywhere.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and it was wonderful because it was a very relaxing day, we did not have to go anywhere until church at 3:30pm. Debbie always does her Christmas on Christmas Eve, but since Ally and Jackson would not be back from TN until Christmas Day their gathering was moved to Christmas Day at 1:00pm. That morning Harriett came over for a visit, I had not seen her since Christmas Day 2008!!! She was headed for ATL at 10am so we had to get an early visit in. It was so good to see her and she got to meet both Sarah and Haines for the first time.

We went to the family church service at 3:30pm and Haines and Sarah both sat through the service with us. Sarah did great, but Haines was a wiggle worm and kept wanting to go back and forth from my mom to me. They invited the children down to sing Away in a Manger so I gladly took Haines down there for a change of scenery. Next time we will remember to take some items for bribery such as candy or toys. We survived the service and it ended with the passing out of glow sticks instead of candles, how appropriate! We just wish the glow sticks had been passed out earlier for distraction purposes. Afterwards we headed home to begin our Christmas Eve celebration of traditions!

After we got home from church, Debbie came over for a drink around 5pm to visit for a little bit. After she left we began our traditions with the donning of Christmas party hats, then had my most favorite meal of the year (ham, pineapple soufflé, scalloped mushrooms, blueberry salad, bean bundles), then reciting the The Night Before Christmas with Grandmother as the mediator (usually it is “Unky” William but he and Amy were in MS this year), and lastly put out cookies and milk for Santa and celery for the reindeer.

For the last three years Clint and I have provided a party favor at the place setting for each family member, the last two years it was a pair of Billy Bob teeth and this year we did something different with mustaches, it was hilarious!

Haines had a busy day and ended up going to bed at 8:00pm which was pretty good. Before he went to bed we were reciting the The Night Before Christmas and it was sooooo cute because he pretty much has the whole story memorized, it was hilarious! His favorite line is “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.” For the rest of the weekend when anyone would say “Merry Christmas” to him, he would say “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!” It was too cute!

The next morning it was so exciting to see what Santa brought. Haines was still asleep at 7:30am so we had to open his door so he would wake up. We had enough time to feed Sarah her bottle before he got up. He walked in the den and he saw his tractor and was in amazement with everything. His eyes were wide open and he stood there with his mouth open and said “Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness” as he looked at his toys. It was so cute! He could not believe that Santa had been to Nonna and Paw Paw’s house.

There was no doubt that Santa came to this house!

Sarah put on her cute owl hat that Santa brought her and she has a sock monkey one that will fit her next year. She also got a Leap Frog activity table, clothes, bibs, books and a Minnie Mouse Pillow Pet. Haines got his tractor he wanted, the Polar Express book signed by Santa with a bell from Santa’s sleigh, clothes, shoes, Fireman hat, Fireman shirt and a Mickie Mouse Pillow Pet. He also got a Auburn football uniform from my parents complete with the helmet, pants and jersey. Needless to say, we had multiple costume changes all morning!

Fireman/Auburn Fan

Fireman/Tractor Driver

Auburn Football Player

Sarah’s Billy Bob Pacifier from her stocking (Haines calls it her “teeth”).

Another candy cane… yes, he was christening his tractor with extremely sticky hands!

After all the presents were opened, we got ready to go to Dusti’s house for Clint’s family Christmas. It was pouring down rain! We got there around 1:00pm and unloaded our gifts for them. Haines loved playing with Stone and Jackson and especially loved playing in Jackson’s room (in fact at night when we say our prayers he prays for Stone, Jackson and Jackson’s room). :) We ate a really good lunch of ham, hash brown casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, macaroni and cheese, 7 layer salad, deviled eggs and rolls.

Everything was so delicious! After lunch we opened presents and played Dirty Santa.

Debbie gave Haines the most precious swing that is made out of tires and is shaped like a horse. He loved it and kept wanting to ride it so we would take turns holding it up. It was really heavy!

We headed back to my parents house around 5:00pm and then Bobby and Jannah came over for Christmas dinner. Mom made turkey, dressing, spinach soufflé, sweet potatoe casserole and everything was so delicious. Mom really outdoes herself at Christmas. I don’t know how I will be able to do all that she does when we start celebrating at our house next year. I will need her help for sure!

We packed up on Monday and thankfully Debbie gave Clint a cargo carrier so we would be able to tote everything back to Birmingham. Haines’ tractor and horse swing fit nicely on it and everything (including us) made it back safely. That night Clint and I took all our decorations down so we would be able to enjoy our day off on Tuesday. Wednesday we were back to work and school. We were so thankful for all the fun memories with friends and family. We are so very blessed and I had already received the greatest gift of all on September 21, 2011, Sarah Louise Bridges.

See you next year “Mr. Elf”!

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

Sarah’s Baptism

2011-12-21T22:31:00.001-06:00

I think I am the first person in the history of our church to schedule a baptism before the child is actually born. Yes, I am guilty of this. I wanted her baptism to be around Christmas time and knew it would be a busy time with different church events during service and thinking it would be a popular time for baptisms. All that to say is that we had her baptism on Sunday, December 18th. The day could not have been better!

We are so blessed to have had all of our family in town for her baptism. My parents, Amy and William (brother and sister in law), Grandmother, Adelaide and Charles (Aunt and Uncle), Susan and David (Aunt and Uncle), Marie (Aunt) and Ashley (Cousin) from my side of the family were there. Also, Joy and George (Cousins) and Laura and Ross (Cousins) were there even though they are members of our church. From Clint’s side his mother, Cindy (Aunt), Dusti and Mickie (Sisters), Jackson, Ally, Stone and Caroline (nieces and nephews), Mandy (cousin), Kay and Larry (Aunt and Uncle) were all there. We really appreciated everyone driving in from out of town to attend such a special service for sweet Sarah.

Sarah wore the gown that my dad’s grandmother made the bonnet that I wore when I was baptized. The gown she wore was worn by Haines and everyone else on my Dad's side of the family. It is super special! The service was at 11am and I knew Sarah would do great, but was a little anxious about Haines. He does not understand how to be quiet or sit still, he is 2 1/2 ya know! Anyway, we sat towards the front at the beginning of the service and he did great, just clapped between each song, etc. Nothing too detrimental. Everyone did great during the service and I could not take my eyes off of our sweet Sarah the entire time. One of the ministers said she looked “Angelic” and I have to agree. I think that Dalton’s (our Sr. Pastor) voice is very calming and almost put her to sleep. It was so special to have a flower wreath that was given by her grandparents and great grandmothers.

Afterwards, we all went to Adelaide and Charles’ house for lunch. I made chicken tetrazzini and had it all taken over there on Monday before I went back to work. We also had salad, rolls and I picked up a cake from Edgars for dessert.

Adelaide also had some really cute cookies made for everyone to take home that looked like flowers. It was a wonderful day and we really enjoyed visiting with our family while celebrating Sarah’s day.

Tacky Christmas Party

2011-12-21T22:10:00.001-06:00

We had our second annual Tacky Christmas party with our Sunday school class this past Sunday at the Ballentine’s house. It was so much fun! Clint and I had a great time picking out our costumes and knew we needed to step it up from last year. People really get into it in our class and start collecting items for their outfits throughout the entire year! I won Gaudiest Lady and I feel like Clint should have won because he looked pretty good too! We had so much fun, but could not stay out too too late as we had tons of family coming in town the next day for Sarah’s baptism.

1st Week Back at Work

2011-12-21T22:02:00.001-06:00

I didn’t start work until Wednesday, December 14th. I wanted to make the best of the first few days of the week. Of course Clint was out of town my first week back, but that was okay because I was able to get into a routine very quickly. Monday, December 12th was Sarah’s first day at daycare. Haines was excited for her to go with him to school and he had to go drop her off with me. It was surprisingly okay, I was sad to leave her but I did not cry. I think it is much easier this time because she is in the same room that Haines was in and sweet Mrs. Claudia is her teacher. Haines was very attached to Mrs. Claudia and we love her!!!

I was able to run errands all day and get some last minute Christmas shopping done as well as get things ready for Sarah’s baptism lunch that coming Saturday. I had a very busy but productive day! It was strange running errands by myself because I did not have my little buddy with me. I was so used to toting Sarah and her carrier around with me, I really missed her. I ended up picking them up early from school that day. I had two extra gingerbread houses and invited our neighbors David and Becca over to decorate them and make cookies. Haines was super excited because he loves them so very much!

They had a great time decorating their houses, making cookies and drinking homemade hot chocolate. They are so sweet to Haines, we just appreciate and love them so much!

The next day was Tuesday and this was my last day before I went back to work. I dropped both of the kids off and went to the galleria to find a dress to wear for the baptism. Next, I had a hair appointment to get a haircut and highlights at 10am. Afterwards, I ate lunch at Savages and picked up some rolls (and of course some sweets) for Sarah’s lunch on Sunday. After running a few other errands I had a massage appointment at 2:30pm. This was absolutely wonderful and I am already ready to go back. After the massage it was straight to BH for Sarah’s Christmas party. What a way to start school than to have a party on your second day! She had so much fun she fell asleep right in the middle of the party!

Wednesday, was my first day back and I actually made it to work on time. I was actually kind of glad to get the first day back over with because I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time. My how 12 weeks flew by! My first day back was super easy. My manager, John, took myself and my two peers to lunch at J Alexanders so that was a nice way to start back. When I got back to my desk I got a call from Haines’ teacher and she said that Haines had a bad cough and could not stop coughing. I left work and went to the drug store to get him some cough medicine (btw Delsym is the best stuff out there!) I took it to him and it did the trick. I wanted him to feel better because his Christmas party was that afternoon and he was supposed to do the intro with a few other kids. They said he could not even get his lines out when they practiced because he was coughing so much. I came back to the center around 3:30pm for his party. The theme was the Polar Express and they all got to wear PJs to school, which they all loved. Haines still did not do his intro part as it was a little chaotic with a bunch of 2 year olds trying to put on a production. They did pretty good singing some songs. I was proud of Haines, he did great! They had a book exchange afterwards and they gave us some cute plates that had a footprint made into a snowman on it. It was a busy but good first day!

The rest of the week was fine. My routine is as follows: get up at 5:30am and take a shower and completely get ready, get Haines up at 6am and dress him before he leaves his room, get his banana and milk ready and put on his cartoons, make Sarah’s bottles for that morning and for the day, get her up at 6:30am and change her clothes/diaper before we leave her room, feed her bottle, brush Haines’ teeth and leave for school! Whew!

Christmas Crafting with 2 1/2 year olds…

2011-12-21T21:10:00.001-06:00

Well, I was feeling brave after my mom had 6 kids over to her house to make gingerbread houses. I was really wanting to do this with Haines and some of his friends from his Sunday school class. I wanted to keep the group small because I was not sure how it would go and plus our house is super small. Hudson Reed, Caroline Powell, and Caroline Draney came over. Margaret had a friend in town and her little boy came too, Warner. We had a great time and they did WONDERFUL!

The first thing we did was make either a handprint reindeer hand towel or a footprint Christmas tree hand towel. It was not bad because they involved minimal paint usage so the kids did not have too much exposure to allow for any messes. All of the towels turned out super cute!

Next we made candy cane cookies with red died cookie dough and also made sugar cookies with the cookie cutters. We had plenty of sprinkles so the kids went to town on decorating them. We don’t have many pictures because as you can imagine it was a busy action packed 1.5 hours. I did not even get a chance to get my camera out, thanks Mindy for the pics!

Our last activity was to make gingerbread houses and I assembled them all by myself that Friday night before. I was pretty impressed with how they turned out! They were soooooo cute after the kids decorated them. Each kid brought a bag or two of candy so we would have an assortment. I think Haines was more concerned with eating his than decorating it.

The first picture on this post was the best attempt at getting a group picture of all of them. Corralling a bunch of 2 1/2 to almost 3 year olds is a challenge in itself! We had so much fun we are going to try to make this an annual get together!

Visiting with Old Friends

2011-12-21T20:49:00.001-06:00

Every year my friends from High School get together for a Christmas Party. We have been doing this every year since we graduated college. This year our party was on Saturday, December 10th. We alternate having it in Montgomery and and Birmingham each year and play Dirty Santa. I love all my friends, but Eleanor and I have been friends the longest. She and I have been friends since we were about 5 years old or so. This year Adrienne Thames hosted the party at her house and we had a great time. I ended up with a beautiful emerald green scarf!

Later that day, my very good friend Sarah Ann Mockbee was coming over. She and I had made arrangements a few weeks prior. She was coming in town to visit several of her friends because she had a free airline ticket. She came by around 5pm. It was so good seeing her as I only get to see her about once a year. She and her husband live in Austin, TX so she does not get this way too often. She is one of my sweetest, most genuine friends and I miss her so much!

When Sarah Ann found out that we were naming our baby girl Sarah, I found out that apparently if your name is Sarah it is a big deal whether you spell your name with an “h” or an “a” on the end. I had never thought of this before. Clint and I named Sarah after his grandmother (his father’s mother) and we went with the traditional/biblical spelling. We did not realize until after she was about 2 mos. old that Clint’s grandmother (who has been deceased for many years) actually did not spell her name with an “h”. Despite finding this out, we still like our spelling the best. Sarah Ann told us that it “sealed the deal” when she found out we were spelling it with an “h”, I guess that is something that means a lot to the Sarah’s out there… I did not realize it was a big deal until everyone found out her name and that was always the first question people asked me, how we were spelling it. Who knew?!?!?!?

Thanks for stopping by Sarah Ann (aka Saran Wrap), we loved having you and just wish our visit was longer. I am glad she got to meet Sarah and see how much Haines had grown over the past year! We love you!

All Aboard the Polar Express

2011-12-21T20:31:00.001-06:00

Back in July one of my co-workers told me about the Polar Express at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. It is such a popular event that you have to buy tickets in the summer because it sells out. I decided to buy 3 tickets and figured this would be something fun that we would do with Haines after Sarah was born. We arranged for Adelaide to keep Sarah that night so we could take Haines out for a night of fun by himself. Haines started watching the Polar Express Thanksgiving weekend at my parents house and has loved it ever since. I bought him the movie and he has probably watched it at least 20 times.

Our tickets were for Friday, December 9th at 6:30pm. I was not back at work yet so Clint and I went to pick Haines up early to drive up and miss the traffic. We were going to go to dinner somewhere along the way. We picked Haines up from school and headed straight for Calera. We had plans to go to eat at Zaxby’s in Calera, but could not find it so we ended up at Hardee’s (not my fave). Anyway, there was not much to choose from. Good thing we got there early because it was the slowest fast food I have ever gotten! It took us at least 20-30 minutes to get our food. We finally got it and had to scarf it down and left for the train ride. We made it just in time. Haines was so excited about his ticket. He wanted to make sure he held on tight to it so the wolves would not get it!

We rode on the train to the North Pole and Santa and Mrs. Claus got on the train. We also had hot chocolate (aka chocolate milk) and cookies along the way. My only complaint is that you could not hear the book being read over the intercom. All of the kids were so excited on the train, it made it so much fun. The Elves delivered everyone a key to Santa’s train and we also got a snowflake ornament that says “North Pole Express”. I think they had some copyright issues since they called it North Pole Express instead of Polar Express. Also, I was expecting a bell instead of a key, but it was all fun despite the differences (and Haines did not notice).

He cried when we had to leave because all he wanted to do was to ride on the other trains. We will definitely have to go back to visit the museum again, it looked really cool. Haines was in heaven with all the cool trains!

One Last Hoorah!

2011-12-21T20:09:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to take advantage of my time off during my maternity leave to do some fun things with Haines and Sarah that I normally would not be able to do. I decided to take them on one last mid-week trip to Montgomery by myself on Tuesday, December 6th – Thursday, December 8th. My mom took off of work on Wednesday to do some fun Christmas crafts with Haines. The day started off on Wednesday by mom baking cookies with Haines. I let them have some one on one time together and took Sarah shopping.

That afternoon mom had some of the neighborhood kids over (which she has done every year since we were children). I helped her put together gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers so the kids could decorate them with candy. She ended up having about 6 kids over and they were all pumped up about the Christmas activities. They first got to decorate snowflakes with glitter paint. Next they decorated their gingerbread houses with all kinds of candy. They turned out so cute! Sweet Sarah just sat and watched and slept in between. She will be joining them before too long.

We had a great trip just relaxing and having fun. We left on Thursday and met “Unky” William and Amy for lunch at Chappy’s. Then it was off back to Birmingham and knowing that I would enter the real world again the next week was a little daunting! I just wanted to enjoy my last weekend with my family before we were back in the work routine (or it was more like figuring out a routine). It was good knowing that we would be back in just a few short weeks for Christmas! Plus we had an action packed weekend ahead of us!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-12T00:02:00.001-06:00

It is amazing that Clint has managed to be in town so much since Sarah was born. The week of November 28th was the first week I spent alone with the two kids by myself. It was actually not that bad and we got into a pretty good routine. In fact, Haines fed Sarah one night while I was getting dinner ready!!! Haines had Santa pictures on the 29th and I was feeling brave and wanted to take them to Aldridge Gardens on the way to take some pictures since they were already dressed up. I had to bribe Haines with a candy cane because he was more interested in the ducks in the pond (which there probably weren’t any) and the man outside blowing leaves. I ended up using one of the pictures as our Christmas card (the one on the right). The photo session did not last long, but I got a few decent ones. It is just so hard to get them both to look at the same time and have Haines hold her up by himself!

Santa was at Bright Horizons when we arrived. Haines was very timid around him at first. They were bringing in different classes to meet with Santa and sit on his lap to tell them what they wanted. Haines watched several rounds of children come through and then he figured out that he had to tell Santa what he wanted. Haines scooted up this close and Santa was trying to tell him that he could not hear him to come closer. He never sat in his lap until it was time for his picture. He told Santa he wanted “Woody, a Tractor and a Treat (aka Trick or Treat)”.

Smith and Weston came to visit us on December 1st. They just moved from New Orleans to Atlanta and she drove over for the day. I kept Haines home from school that day because we had a play date with Murray (Rembert) Marshall and her little girl Mary Charles at the library. We had a great time and then Smith and Weston came over afterwards.

Haines loved “Baby Weston” and wanted to hold him like a baby on the boppy pillow and of course cover him up with a blanket. Weston will be 1 in the first part of January and is at that stage where they cannot sit still and Haines could not understand that. Surprisingly though, Weston was so enamored by Haines that he did sit pretty still for a short period of time in his lap. Smith and I could not stop laughing! He also kept calling Weston, Baby Austin (because we had just seen Jordan a week or so prior).

Another brave thing I did was take Haines and Sarah to the Vestavia Christmas Tree lighting on December 1st at the City Center. We were all bundled up ready to go and Haines had an accident in his pants while standing in front of the toilet. We had to change and then we were on our way. It was crowded and cold, but was pretty fun. It would have been more enjoyable if I had an extra set of hands. Haines, Sarah and I ate at Zoes afterwards.

Daddy came home on Friday, December 2nd and we went that night to pick out our first live Christmas tree. We went to the Boy Scout tree farm near our church. Haines was more interested in climbing the stacks of unbound trees. It was fun watching how excited he was!

Haines was so fascinated with the fact that the tree was on the roof of our car. He wanted to help Clint get it down. He went inside and got his hard had, gloves and his screw driver. I could not get a good picture of them though it was really cute!

We then began decorating the tree. Haines found a strand of lights and decided to hang all of the ornaments on that one strand (see the second pic below).

Then Haines wanted to put on the tree skirt. He kept calling it his apron – he is pretty innovative!

Saturday, December 3rd “Mr. Elf” made his first appearance. Haines found him sitting on top of the lamp in his TV room. We read the story about the Elf on the Shelf that morning and started our Advent calendar. It is so fun to see how excited Haines gets about all the fun surrounding Christmas!

That morning we had Addie Stanley’s birthday party at Storyville Station and then that night we went to our friends, the Schreiners’ house, to watch the SEC Championship game. Several other couples from our Sunday school class came over too. Brandy has a son, Cooper, that is the same age as Haines so they had a blast playing the whole time!

It was a really busy weekend, but I think that is going to be our life for the next 18 years!

Haines – 2 1/2 yrs and Sarah 10 wks

It’s Turkey Time!

2011-12-11T23:31:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 23rd we packed the family up and headed to Montgomery for Thanksgiving. We stayed with Debbie and got in town around 5pm. She made Taco soup that night and Mickie, Stone and Caroline came over to eat. Haines loves all of his cousins, but especially Stone. Stone is so sweet to him, especially since he is 13 yrs old.

Thursday morning Clint went with my dad and brother to an annual mens breakfast hosted by Dad’s friends. We went to Mom and Dad’s around 10:30am for lunch with my family. My Aunt Adelaide (aka Addie), Uncle Charles, Grandmother, Great Aunt Renee, Cousin Drake, William and Amy all came over for lunch.

We had a fabulous meal and I once again made the dessert off the cover from the Southern Living November issue. It was a Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake and I have to say, it was delicious! I made two of them, one for Clint’s fam and one for mine. They are truly a labor of love because they don’t travel well and there were three steps to this process since you had glazed pecans and praline topping on it. It was worth it though!

We had a great time with my family and then we headed to Debbie’s around 3:30pm. We ate around 5pm. It was a small crowd, just his sisters and their kids and his grandmother, but we had a great time visiting.

Friday Debbie and Bruce headed to the beach so we headed to my parents and stayed with them for two nights. I was so glad we stayed because I wanted an opportunity to get up with Jordan. She had never met Haines and we had not seen each others new babies. I had to wake Haines up to go over there. He fell asleep in our bed while watching cartoons. He is really into pulling blankets over his head when he sleeps these days. It makes me very nervous so I have tried to tell him not to do this and how dangerous it is. I often have to move it off his face at night.

Here is Sarah meeting Austin for the first time! Austin is one month older than Sarah.

We went over to the Hughes’ Friday late afternoon and had a great time catching up. I wish we lived a little closer to them so Austin and Sarah could go on more dates! Saturday Jannah and Bobby came over and brought their granddaughter and daughter in law to visit. Here is Haines and Camille on their first date!

It was Iron Bowl game day so we were all getting ready for the game. We watched the game that evening and ate some of the best BBQ I have ever had. Even though we lost, it was still fun. I was not expecting to even come close to winning anyway. I am still hanging on to our success from last season. WAR EAGLE!

Haines watched the Polar Express for the first time and LOVED it! He watched it several times and I knew we had to buy it for him when we got home. Especially because we were taking him to the Polar Express train ride in Calera on December 9th. He loves building palets on the floor and getting baby sister to lay down with him to watch tv (here they are watching Polar Express) and it was so sweet because he was holding her hand!

Anyway, we headed home Sunday morning and again Haines was tuckered out. I think he did not nap for about 3 days straight this trip. He does not want to miss out on anything at Nonna and Paw Paw’s or Mamae’s house!

I should have done this a long time ago…

2011-12-11T23:01:00.001-06:00

For our anniversary Clint let me pick out a new camera. I had a Nikon Coolpix which I liked, but the shutter speed was so slow and I stayed constantly aggravated because I would miss all the good photo opps. I went to Wolf Camera in Homewood after consulting with lots of friends and bought a Nikon SLR camera. I absolutely LOVE IT! I should have bought this a long time ago. Here are some of the first pictures I took with it. They offer classes starting back in January to teach you how to use it. I really need to do this to learn everything there is to know to take great pictures. It came with a DVD to watch and I have had it on my list to do, but it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I cannot find time to even update my blog anymore. What did Clint and I do before children???

These are pictures from November 13th at David and Becca’s house across the street. They love playing in the huge pile of leaves! Clint even had fun doing it too!

Haines – 2 1/2 and Sarah – 7 weeks old

Sarah LOVES bath time. She never cries and really enjoys the warm water. She is so much more alert these days and smiling often! Her little smile just melts my heart every time!

This picture (below) was taken on November 18th, the day of her 2 month check up. She had a great report from Dr. Simpson. She weighed 11 lbs. 8 oz. (85th percentile) and was 23 1/4 inches long (95th percentile) and her head was 15 1/2 inches. She has really shot up in her length, which I was surprised. She is growing so fast already, I wish she would slow down!!! We were so thankful for a great report from the Dr. and to see how well she is doing. He recommended for her to continue taking her Zantac for her refulx and to continue to put rice cereal in her bottle since it seems to be helping. We will not go back until she is 4 months old in January. It was sad because she got her first round of immunizations. She got three shots in her legs and was so content and then in a split second was screaming. It was so sad and pitiful, I wish I could take the pain away for her. I know they will do much good for her though.

I tried to take advantage of them already being dressed up for church for a photo session, but it was not happening!

See what I mean about how sweet Haines is to her. He told me the other day that she was not my baby, she was HIS baby. He kept arguing with me until I gave in and said “ok!” I hope it stays this way, if not I can look back on these times and cherish the memories! :)

Happy Haines and Sweet Sarah

2011-12-11T22:18:00.001-06:00

Haines loves his baby sister more than anything. All he wants to do is kiss her and take care of her. You can see below where he is kissing her hand, although it is usually on her mouth or cheek. He was also using his stethoscope on her to listen to her “tummy” and when he listens to it he says, “tick, tick, tick”. I later saw where on a Barney DVD where they were playing Dr. and when they listened to the heartbeat they sang “tick, tick, tick” in the song. He is a little sponge soaking up everything!

Sarah and I had a photo session below on November 9th (7weeks old). I wanted to get some diaper pics of her. She was okay with it at first, but when I turned her on her tummy so I could take a picture of her monogrammed diaper cover, she got upset with me. I love the last pic of these three where is is crying (or as Haines would say “kying”). She really looks like Haines when she cries, sticking that sweet lip out!

Haines loves for us to put baby sister on her “placemat” as he calls it. She really does like her activity mat and I thinks she likes it more than he did as a baby. He likes to lay next to her and always likes to cover them up with blankets. We have to be careful of this because he always wants to cover her up and sometimes puts it too close to her face or covers her face up. Sweet Sarah started smiling really good around 8 weeks old. You can see her smiling in the second pic below… too cute!

There is nothing more peaceful than watching a sleeping baby (11/10/11, 7 wks old).

Everyone comments on Sarah’s eyelashes. I do think they are the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. She definitely does not get it from me, she gets them from her daddy. Clint has really thick long eyelashes and she and Haines were lucky to get them. Sarah’s are even longer than Haines. I remember when Sarah was born, the first thing the nurse said when she looked at her was, “Wow, look at those eyelashes, they are very long!”

Haines always wants Sarah to lay on the couch with him, and of course cover up with blankets. He must get the blanket thing from me.

On November 13th, we went to Charlie Ballentine’s birthday party at the Oak Mountain Petting Zoo. It was lots of fun and the animals walk right up next to you. I am glad to know this is out there, we will definitely be back. Haines was a little apprehensive about the goats and horses. He warmed up after a little while. He was more interested in checking out the barn and playing with a chain on the door. The party was super cute and Jenny is so very creative. Happy Birthday Charlie!

I have been writing down some funny things that Haines says. He is learning so many new words everyday, I don’t even know where he picks them up… school, us, friends, etc. I love how he pronounces certain words and I often play “Translator” for Clint, my parents, and others. Here are a few things I have written down:

Look = Dook (Dook Mama…)
Mr. Potato Head = Hot Potato
Sarah’s Activity Mat = Sarah’s Placemat
Elephant = Ephelant
Imagination Movers (one of his favorite Disney shows) = Moobers
Spicy = Picey
Onion = Ungun (Mama, I don’t like unguns)
Apple Slices = Apple Pices
Sandwich = Samich
Bob the Builder = Ob the Builder
I always ask Haines to say “Hoola Hoop” and “Balloon” because I love how he says it and pronounces the words!

There are some other funny things that he says often":

Every night when we say his prayers (I usually put him to bed), we say “Now I lay me…” After we finish that prayer, he will say, say the “White one”. I will proceed to say another prayer. After the second prayer he will say, “Say the pink one” and we will say a third prayer. He is a staller, but after we say a third prayer he is ready for bed. It is so funny because he names each one with a different color. White and pink are the two colors he names most frequently.
In the morning Clint used to always ask him when he woke up “Did you sleep good last night?” Now before you ask him one of the first things he says is “Mommy (or Daddy) I sleep good last night”
Clint used to always ask him what he dreamt about the night before. His response every single time is “my facie”. He calls his little silky blanket that he sleeps with his facie (because he rubs it on his face). He has never said he dreams about anything other than his facie.
In one of Haines’ books there is a unicorn. He does not understand unicorns and thinks that it is a horse that has a boo boo (where the horn is).
In his Curious George book some of the artwork on the pages runs off the page so it may not be a full picture. For example, there is a page with hoola hoops in a toy store that fall off the stack. They are half painted hoola hoops on the page and Haines thinks they are broken because it is not a full hoola hoop.

It is busy being a 2 1/2 year old. He is learning so much and we are so proud of him. He is so smart and we just love him so much! He has a lot to teach his baby sister Sarah!

Fun in the Fall!

2011-12-11T21:42:00.001-06:00

Goodness, time has gotten the best of me. I am so behind on updating the blog that I have over a months worth of events to document. Back in November Clint had a meeting in Montgomery on 11/4 so we decided to make the best of it and planned a trip to Montgomery. Our 6 yrs wedding anniversary was on November 4th. Clint had a great idea to drive to Mgm on Thursday 11/3 and spend the night with my parents and then get a room at the Renaissance in Montgomery on the 4th and my parents would keep the kiddos. It worked out perfect because my mom’s birthday is also on November 5th. Sarah, Haines and I went to her office Friday morning and then took her to a birthday lunch she was having with a bunch of her friends. Afterwards we headed home so I could get ready to go to the hotel downtown. I still have lots of connections through my previous job so we were lucky in getting a great rate and also the Presidential suite!

I did have a bit of a hard time completely relaxing because I was still pumping and it was my first night away from Miss Sarah. I missed her so much! Clint and I had a great time relaxing at the bar/lounge and then had an excellent dinner at the House Restaurant at the hotel. After dinner we took a horse drawn carriage ride through downtown which was lots of fun. We did not even know this was available downtown, how cool! Mike Eveleth, the GM, had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne sent to our room. We had a blast soaking in the fabulous view!

The next day we ordered a delicious breakfast through room service. I was anxious to get back to my babies, even though we had not been gone very long. When we got back, Dad and Clint went to a gun show and Sarah, Haines, Mom and I headed to the Pike Road Art Show. Actually before we left I had to feed Sarah so Mom entertained Haines and took him to the fire station on Ray Thorington Rd. They took the Firemen cookies and they gave Haines special treatment. He got to sit in several different trucks and even took pictures with the Firemen. What a cool grandmother to take him to do such fun stuff!

When they returned that is when we left for the Art Show. Haines had a blast in the Kids Corral because they had a real cowboy doing tricks with his lasso. Haines got a real cowboy hat and got to paint and made a crown among other crafts. Sweet Sarah slept through the entire thing. The weather could not have been better, it was BEAUTIFUL. We took him to the playground afterwards and to feed the ducks.

Mom did a cute Thanksgiving craft with Haines. They made a turkey out of an apple and the feathers were sweet gum drops. Sarah just sat in her car seat at the table and listened and watched, she will be crafting with them before we know it! The turkey turned out really cute! Of course Haines had to sample the candy the entire time.

Mom was feeding Sarah later that evening and Haines put his crown on Sarah and said “Sarah is a Princess”. It was the cutest thing ever! I have never heard him use that word before, he is coming up with multiple new words daily!

That night we had a birthday party for Mom and Dad cooked steaks and I made twice baked potatoes. We enjoyed some delicious food and cake while watching football. What a great way to celebrate Mom’s birthday and our anniversary. We had a tuckered out cowboy on the way back to B-ham the next day. Two days without a nap and so many fun activities wore him out!

Trick or Treat!

2011-11-07T22:26:00.001-06:00

Haines and I spent Saturday morning (October 29th) carving our pumpkin and it was so much fun. We decided that we wanted to do Mickey Mouse and used two small pumpkins for his ears. We thought it turned out really cute! Haines was very proud of it, but all he wanted to do while I was carving it was to play with the carving tool from the carving kit. I thought he was going to cut my toe off at one point when he flailed it around and braised my toe, so I had to take it away and of course he poured on the tears and screaming for a little while. We did finish and managed to separate all of the pumpkin seeds for us to toast later.

(Haines 2.5 yrs and Sarah 5 weeks)

On Halloween I picked Haines up from school a little early so we could go ahead and eat dinner early and meet our neighbors for trick or treating. Haines of course was Woody and Sarah wore Haines’ old Lion costume that he wore for his first Halloween when he was almost 6 months old. I had to make the Lion a little feminine so I put a pink bow in the mane. The costume was big on her, but she was so snug and warm inside the costume and slept the entire time. We met up with David, Rebecca, Russell and Mrs. Linn’s grandaughter. Haines is by far the youngest, but they are all so sweet to him (especially David and Becca). This was the first year that Haines knew what was going on and really got into it. We went farther than we had ever been before and Haines got tired and had to be carried a good bit of the way. He had the time of his life and was just enamored by the older kids and they were sweet to wait on him, and help him get candy and helped him keep up with his hat.

Girls Road Trip!

2011-11-07T22:05:00.001-06:00

Sarah and I headed for our first road trip together (and Sarah’s first trip out of town) on Wednesday, October 26th. We went to Montgomery and arrived around 7pm at my parents house. We were planning to stay Wednesday and Thursday night and drive back on Friday. I am trying to take as much advantage of my maternity leave as I can! Thursday morning Sarah and I got up and got dressed and went to Debbie’s office around 10:30am so she could show Sarah off to her co-workers. We went and picked up lunch and went to Libby’s house for a visit. Libby has not been able to meet Sarah yet because she cannot travel due to her hip. I was so glad that we were able to get in a quick visit with her. I was pleasantly surprised when we got there and saw Clint’s Aunt Cindy, Uncle Rodney and cousin Amiee too. We had a great visit and enjoyed catching up with Clint’s family.

I dropped Debbie back off at her office and then Sarah and I headed to Jenni Mc’s house to meet Cole. Jenni had Cole about 4-5 weeks before Sarah was born so it was so much fun getting to visit and catch up. Cole is so precious and I hate that I missed seeing Whit, since he was napping while we were there. Sarah is 5 weeks old and Cole is 10 weeks old. We took some pics so we can show Cole and Sarah when they are older and are good buddies!

We left Jenni’s house and had to run a few errands to Target and Storkland. We had to hurry back to Mom and Dad’s h0use because Mom had invited over 50 of her closest friends to meet Sarah. It was actually a great idea because everyone came to us instead of having to make rounds to visit people. I invited a few of my friends and enjoyed getting to catch up with Erin, Shana and Emily and of course all of my parents friends. William and Amy were also able to stop by and ended up staying to eat dinner with us. Mom had the house decorated really cute for Halloween and served some brownie eye balls that she made and other good finger food like pimento cheese and pretzel chips, candy corn, mixed nuts, etc. The picture below is of Sarah B. holding Sarah B. We all love Harriett’s mom and she just cracks us up! I was trying to do Harriett and Margie a favor by giving her a baby fix for awhile to get them off the hook, but I think it made her want a new grandchild even more (sorry Harriett)!

That was a very fun, but exhausting day and that night I fed Sarah at 7:30pm and should have fed her one more time before I put her down, but was too tired and did not. She ended up sleeping for 8 hours before she got up at 4am, so I knew she could stretch out her sleeping. She would have slept through the night that night if I had fed her again before putting her down. I think I was just as exhausted as she was!

The fun was not over because on Friday we were headed to Mom’s office so she could show her off there and they were having their Halloween party so everyone was dressed up. Sarah and I stayed for lunch and then decided it was time to go back to Birmingham (to hopefully get some rest). We had a blast and were so glad we made the trip. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family and friends!

Woody Under the Weather

2011-11-07T21:42:00.001-06:00

Every year since Clint and I have lived in our house, we have always gotten a pumpkin from St. Marks United Methodist Church. This is one of our family traditions, even though we went to the Pumpkin Patch in Hayden, we still had to go make a trip to St. Marks and pick out a pumpkin and support missions. The above is probably only the second time we have had our family picture made and it is hard getting everyone to look at the same time! I think this is why this is only our second attempt, the first time was our first day home from the hospital.

Haines’ Halloween party at school was on October 26th and he was so pumped about it all week because he was dying to wear his costume. Finally his party day arrived and I took him to school so I could take some pictures before their parade at 9am. Haines dressed as Woody from Toy Story this year and he was lovin’ his bandana the most. I took a few pics and then left before the parade and then was going to come back for the party at 3:00pm.

Above is Nicholas (aka Buzz Light Year) who has the exact same birthday as Haines. His mother had a c-section too and we were both at St. Vincents and did not even know each other. It was so ironic when we discovered this when they were in the Baby Birds classroom together. Below is Haines’ best buddy Sydney (aka Strawberry Shortcake). Everyday when Haines comes home from school or when we pick him up and ask him what he did that day, he always says “Played with Sydney Walters”. He loves to talk about Sydney! It is so funny that he knows the first and last names of all the kids and calls them by both.

I got a call from Haines’ teacher around 1:30pm and they told me that Haines had a fever of 100 degrees. They said they just wanted me to be aware since the party was in a few hours. Of course Haines would be getting sick because I had plans to go out of town with Sarah that afternoon after his party. I knew he did not feel good when his teachers told me that he did not eat anything for lunch and did not want to go outside and play. Those are his two favorite things so I know he was feeling crummy! When I got to the party he did not want to eat any of the yummy treats and he was very clingy. He started doing a little better after a little while. I just hated that he felt so bad on the day of his party when he had been so looking forward to it all week. It sure did not stop him though from wanting to eat candy though!

Sarah is a Sleeping Beauty!

2011-11-07T21:17:00.001-06:00

Well, I am way overdue for an update! I did take Sarah to the Dr. on October 21st and he did say that she had reflux and put her on .6 ml of Zantac three times a day before a bottle. He also said to start mixing rice cereal (1 tsp per oz) in each of her bottles. She was eating about 4-5 oz when I took her in and he said to try her with 4 oz with the rice. We started the Zantac and rice that evening and I could already tell it was making her feel better and it helped tremendously with the reflux. By the way, she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz at the Dr. so she is gaining weight quickly.

Last week on Tuesday, November 1st I made the comment to Clint that I could tell that Sarah is staying awake a lot more during the day and that she was preparing to sleep through the night for me on her 6 week birthday. Little did I know that I was right and she slept through the night that night and has ever since then. She goes down around 10:30pm and will wake up around 6:30am. I am mainly just pumping so I can mix the rice cereal in her bottles so I know this is helping with her sleeping because there is more substance and I know how much she is getting at each feeding. Every time I try to nurse her she ends up spitting up a good bit, which is why I am mainly pumping now. Haines started sleeping through the night when he was 8 weeks old so they were pretty close. I hope I am not jinxing myself by bragging on my Sleeping Beauty!

Sarah is also starting to smile some, but not too often. It is happening more and more everyday and I can remember Haines was smiling pretty good around 8 weeks old. I feel like she is on the verge of smiling often. She is also starting to make some sweet cooing noises that I just love!!! The picture below was of her smiling, I wish her eyes were open but this was the best I could get. My camera’s shutter speed is way too low for babies and kids. Thankfully, Clint is letting me pick out a new nice camera for our anniversary!

Has it Really Been 4 Weeks Already???

2011-10-20T21:11:00.001-05:00

It is so very hard to believe that Sarah was 4 weeks old yesterday. It seems like time is flying by much quicker this time around. I can tell that she is already becoming more alert and is getting stronger everyday. She is holding her head up more and keeping her eyes open for longer periods of time. I weighed her yesterday and she was 10 lbs. I could not believe it and I weighed her again today and I got the same results. I am glad to see she is gaining weight and you can tell that her cheeks are getting more full. She does have a bit of reflux after she eats and the Dr. wanted me to monitor this over a few days and then to bring her in if it has not gotten better. I plan to probably take her in tomorrow to see what they think we should do about it. She is still sleeping great and since day one has still only gotten up one time each night (I am knocking on wood as I type this).

I gave Sarah her first tub bath on Monday since her umbilical cord was off and the scab has pretty much healed. She seemed to like it and did not cry during the bath which was good. We started using the miracle blanket on her this week since she was breaking out of her swaddle at night. She does not like to be swaddled as much as Haines did. Haines wanted to be swaddled all day long and all night and the tighter the better. Sarah likes to grunt and moan when she is swaddled, although I think it helps calm her down since her arms cannot flail around. If she could have it her way she would like to sleep on her tummy.

I can tell her hair is slowly falling out in places and it is getting longer in others. She is starting to lose her dark baby hair that was on her arms and forehead. Her eyes had broken blood vessels when she was born, was just red in the part of the whites of her eyes, and this has all cleared up. She is such a good baby, if we could just get the reflux under control I think she would be a lot more comfortable and it would keep me from having to frequently change shirts and constantly wash burp cloths and blankets. I know this is very common, just not used to it since Haines did not have this. We shall see what Dr. Simpson says tomorrow.

Happy 4 week birthday sweet Sarah!

Eventful Sunday

2011-10-20T20:53:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday, October 16th was the first time we went to church as a family of four. This was Sarah’s first time to go to our church and to the nursery. She was 3 1/2 weeks old and we felt that it was time to get back into our routine. I have to say that it was rather challenging getting ready in time that morning and we were about 10 minutes late, but the more we do it the better we will get at it. I was so glad we went to the church service that day because they had rose buds on the alter representing each baby that was born during the months of September and the first part of October. Sweet Sarah Louise’s name was listed in the bulletin recognizing her with a white rose bud. It was very special!

That afternoon Haines and I went to a pumpkin decorating party at Carroll and Jeremy Stephens house. Clint stayed at home with little Sarah to babysit. Carroll invited all of the girls and their families over that have participated in our bible study this fall. It was so much fun and the kids had an incredible time playing in their playhouse, slide, swing set and sandbox.

They did not have a shortage of toys and Haines was loving it! We decorated pumpkins with cute stickers and then Jeremy grilled out hotdogs for the kids and Carroll made chili for the adults. The kids were so cute sitting in the den watching Charlie Brown Halloween Special while eating.

Afterwards Haines enjoyed playing dress up in Reese and Morgan’s dress up jewels. It was hilarious watching him put on the necklaces and bracelets.

Good thing Clint was not there! It was such a fun time and I am sad that we had our last bible study last night. We plan to do another one in the spring, which we are already looking forward to. We have such a great group of friends in our Sunday school class, we are so fortunate and thankful!

The Great Punkin’ Patch

2011-10-18T10:01:00.001-05:00

Friday, October 14th was Clint’s last day of his leave that concluded his 2 week baby duty. We had a great time with him being off with us for a short time. We wanted to make the best of his last day and the beautiful weather. We picked Haines up from school at 2:00pm and I greeted him with an appliquéd pumpkin shirt for him to wear and told him where we were going, to the Pumpkin Patch! I should have waited until we were closer to tell him because he asked if we were going to the pumpkin patch for about 45 minutes straight (it was really cute though). We got there around 3pm and he was so excited.

We went to the petting zoo first and then went on a covered wagon ride to the pumpkin patch and he immediately took off to find his pumpkin. He was tearing across the field and I could not keep up with him.

Clint stayed back with Sarah and watched from afar. I finally caught up with him and he picked out his pumpkin. Of course when we all the way clear across the pumpkin patch Haines tells me he has to go potty. We went tearing back across the pumpkin patch with his pumpkin tucked under my arm. We barely made it and Clint rushed him to the port o let (yuck!), but he made it in time (barely). Needless to say, Haines is doing incredibly well with his potty training, we are so proud of him!

After we got our pumpkin we headed back to the main area and headed for some picnic tables for a snack. Once snack time was over Haines spotted the bounce houses and was begging to go over there. He has never been fond of these at any birthday party we have been to so I did not feel he would be up for getting in these either. There was no one over there so we had the place almost to ourselves. I got in the first one with him and jumped around and he was very clingy and wanted me to hold his hand the whole time. In a very short period of time he warmed up and the next thing I knew he was climbing the HUGE slide by himself. I think he went down it 10 times. He was so much smaller than the other kids, I think he went airborne when he hit the hump in the slide. It was hilarious watching him go down and he was loving every minute of it. His cheeks were so rosy and his hair was soaking wet with sweat. We finally got him away from the bouncy area and went back to the petting zoo and he was fascinated with the pigs. After an attempt at a photo session we departed after 2 hours of fun!

We headed back to B-ham around 5pm and went to eat at Sol Azteca. Haines had such a fun time and he was so good. He talked about the “Punkin’ Patch” all weekend long!

A Visit from Clint’s Clan

2011-10-13T08:14:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday, October 9th, we had a fun visit from Clint’s family. Debbie (Mamae), Dusti, Mickie, Caroline and Stone all piled up in Mamae’s car and headed to B-ham to visit Sarah and Haines. They arrived with McDonalds and of course this made Haines’ day. His favorite meal (which he does not get often at all) is chicken nuggets and french fries. When you ask him what he had for lunch each day at school, this is always his response “chikin’ nuggets and fench fies”. So luckily, this is what Mamae brought for him to eat. He also drank Mickie’s diet coke, which he has never had before and drank every last drop. Needless to say he was on a caffeine high for awhile.

He was completely enamored by Stone the entire time and Stone was so sweet to keep him entertained and played with him for hours! Stone is 13 and it is hard to believe how fast he is growing. He is such a sweet boy and it meant a lot to Haines that he spent so much time with him. He is still talking about him and is dying to “go to Tone’s house”. Caroline is 10 and loves holding baby Sarah, just like she loved holding Haines when he was a baby. She is also into couponing and watches the show “Extreme Couponing” on TLC. She brought her binder with her to clip coupons and keep her busy. She brought Sarah some Johnson and Johnsons lotion, body wash and powder that she got with her coupons for $0.25 each! It was fun watching her get into the coupons and I am sure this keeps her busy for hours!!! It was good getting to visit with everyone and we really appreciated the visit. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again at Thanksgiving!

Two Weeks Old…

2011-10-09T10:53:00.001-05:00

Little Miss Sarah Louise is two weeks old (will actually be 3 weeks on Wednesday). Last week Clint was off of work to spend some time with us and we got out and about and it was WONDERFUL! I had cabin fever so bad, it was great to get out in the beautiful weather. Monday was SLB’s first outing: lunch at Cafe Lazio, trip to Costco, TJ Max and Target. She is a trooper and is such a good baby, of course we had a break coming back home in between our ventures. Thursday we went on a picnic to Caldwell Park and enjoyed the weather. It was wonderful and very relaxing! We had Sarah’s two week Dr. visit on Friday and she weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 in. long. She was in the 65th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height. We were glad to see she was gaining weight and she was 7 lbs. 6 oz. when we left the hospital so she has gained 1 lb! Dr. Simpson said she looked great and her small amount of billirubin was gone which was good news. He took her umbilical cord stub off that was dangling by a thread. They pricked her heel to take blood samples for the PKU test. She won’t have to have any vaccines until her 2 month appt. on November 18th… Yeah!

We took Haines to school every day and on Friday we picked him up early so we could spend some time outside together. Clint and I bought a tree (shrub) to plant for Sarah. We did this for Haines when he was born. My Aunt Adelaide gave us a sprig of a Japanese Maple tree and we planted it when he was born. These are slow growing trees, but it is amazing to see how big it has already gotten. This picture is of Haines next to his Japanese Maple.

He helped Clint plant the Camellia next to his tree for his baby sister, Sarah. Haines did a great job helping Clint dig the hole. We hope this beautiful weather keeps up so we can keep playing outside!

We are officially on our own!!!

2011-10-01T15:28:00.001-05:00

Well, Nonna officially left at lunch time today so Clint and I are on our own with two little ones. We have had a tremendous amount of help from Paw Paw who kept Haines while we were in the hospital and then Nonna came the day we got home and took over for Paw Paw. We kept Haines in school all week, but he has had plenty of attention. In fact, my mom and Grandmother kept Haines home from school yesterday and took him to the zoo. Haines had a BLAST, this was his first trip to the zoo and he cannot stop talking about all of the animals and the train ride. They took a picnic lunch and ate at the picnic tables afterwards.

My mom is so sweet and thinks of the most creative things to do with him. They took a nature walk last weekend and found acorns, sticks, hickory nuts, etc. and brought them all back in his collection bag. She let him make his own personal pizza last night, which he loved! I think that he ate more of the toppings than he put on his pizza though. Every time I turned around he had a mouth full of cheese.

Needless to say, Haines is going to have serious withdrawals from my mom this week. She was such a big help and cooked lots of food for us all week and froze some too! She also did laundry, made several trips to the grocery store, ironed and repaired some of my old baby dresses that she brought up, helped with her first sponge bath (on Tuesday, 9/27), took care of Sarah in the early mornings so I could sleep in, and lots more!

Although, I can say I don’t feel sleep deprived because since the first night, she only gets up one time during the night.l I am just letting her sleep and let me know when she is hungry. The first night I woke her to feed her, but have decided that she will let me know when she is hungry. So, as you can see my mom has been invaluable. I have loved spending time with her talking, going on walks, etc. I will and already do miss her very much. I am just so thankful to have such wonderful and loving parents!

We had a photo session with Miss Sarah on her one week old birthday, September 28th, which also happened to be my due date. The first week has flown by and Sarah is such a sweet baby. She is very easy going and she has one HUGE admirer (other than her parents and grandparents) and that is her super proud big brother Haines! He loves her so much and is so sweet and caring towards her. He has been such a big help feeding her bottles, holding her, handing us diapers when we are changing her, putting the dirty diapers in the diaper champ, putting dirty bottles in the sink, and so much more. When he holds her he gets the sweetest smile on his face and says “Hey Baby Sister” in a high pitched voice. He loves to kiss her and pet her head and he thinks she is so funny. He loves to giggle when she makes little noises or stretches (as seen in the picture below).

He is already so protective of her and got upset when my parents were leaving today because he thought that my mom was taking Sarah with her. I know he cannot wait until she can play with him because he is already sharing his toys with her and wanted her to watch Toy Story with him last night. She will be chasing him around before we know it, I just want to soak in every minute. It seems like things have flown by faster than ever with Haines’ growth and development. I feel like in the last month (since his first haircut) that he has turned into a little boy and you can have long conversations with him and he is just more mature acting. He says and does the funniest things. I know he will set great examples for his sister and will be ready to teach her everything he knows. We are so thankful and grateful to God that we can be parents to such incredible children!

Happy 1 week old birthday to Sarah, we have lots to celebrate in our lives!

Introducing Sarah Louise Bridges!

2011-09-27T08:37:00.001-05:00

Our precious angel arrived safely on Wednesday, September 21st at 7:35am. She was 7 lbs. and 10 oz. and was 19.5 inches long and had a head full of dark hair. I can now see where all of my heart burn came from!!! The c-section could not have gone better and was a much smoother experience than with Haines, just because I did not have to labor for 11 hours prior to the surgery. One of the first things I heard after she was born was that she had long eye lashes, she definitely gets those from Clint and I am so glad! Her features are so feminine and so petite. Haines was about a pound heavier than she was when he was born. She got down to 7 lbs. 7 oz. by the time we left the hospital.

Her birth date was a wonderful day and we were able to spend it with our family. My parents came up the night before since we had to be at the hospital at 5:15am on Wednesday. Post surgery I was supposed to get just liquid Tylenol and Torgesol (sp?) in my IV for pain, but Dr. Christine said since she had to cut out scar tissue from my last c-section and there was some excess bleeding she recommended me to go onto a morphine pump (which I did last time). I was a little disappointed in this because I knew how it was going to cause me to be completely loopy, but I of course know she recommended what was best. She did not want the pain to be too strong and wanted to make sure I had something strong enough to take care of the pain. Needless to say I was out of it that afternoon and was very sleepy by late afternoon and had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I do remember everything though and was so glad to spend time with our family and new baby Sarah!

I was very anxious about how Haines would react to his new baby sister. My parents dropped him off at daycare on Wednesday morning and then came to the hospital and were able to come in around 9:30am to see sweet Sarah. Clint’s mom and our two nieces (Caroline and Ally) came up around noon. My brother and sister in law came that evening as well as my grandmother. My mom went to pick Haines up after his nap at daycare around 2pm. When Haines arrived we had a birthday party for Sarah and had hats, cupcakes and birthday plates/napkins. Haines was very interested in her and was very excited. After he warmed up from seeing me in the hospital bed and in a strange environment he immediately wanted to “hold baby sister”. Haines got lots of gifts that day and days after. His sister gave him a Buzz Light Year and Toy Story II movie. He also got a personalized Big Brother book from my parents that included a Big Brother Medal. Debbie gave him a truck and baseball glove and ball (with Velcro inside). My grandmother gave him a car that lights up and included decals to add to it and William and Amy gave him a soft dart gun. Of course Sarah got lots of sweet gifts too, but you would think that it was Christmas for Haines!

I decided I wanted to leave the hospital a day early on Saturday. For c-sections they allow you to stay 4 nights, but can leave as early as after 3 nights. I primarily wanted to leave because I missed Haines so much and was a little stir crazy in our room. I was finding myself constantly cleaning and picking up trash around the room. I was ready to go and was getting around really well. We did stay 4 nights with Haines, but the circumstances were different last time.

Our trip home from the hospital was uneventful and we got home around 11:30am. Haines and my dad were there and had made Sarah and me a “Welcome Home” sign that was so very sweet and thoughtful! I was so glad to be home and Haines was glad too. He and Paw Paw had a great week together and enjoyed every minute of it. Clint was able to come home each night we were in the hospital to help with his bath, dinner, etc. I am so thankful my dad was here to help because Haines thinks that he has hung the moon and he is very comfortable with him! That day my mom drove up and my dad went home. My mom is staying all week to help which is invaluable.

Nonna has been busy already this week cooking, doing laundry and helping with Haines. Clint’s first day back to work is today and then is he taking off the next two weeks to help out after Nonna leaves this weekend. I am so very fortunate to have such wonderful help during such a special time and while I heal from my surgery. I love and appreciate my family more than words can express!

Sarah is such a good baby and has just been eating and sleeping. The first night at home (Saturday, September 24th) I had to wake her up at 1:30am to feed her and then she woke up around 4:30am and I fed her. This was a remarkable difference from Haines (whom I had a sleepless night the first night). Her second night she only woke up one time at 2:30am and then again at 5:45am!! So I bragged about her all day yesterday and then last night we were up a little more, but she has been sleeping in this morning to make up for it. She is very sweet and beautiful and I cannot wait for all of our friends and extended family to meet her!

Last Weekend as a Family of 3!!!

2011-09-19T05:45:00.001-05:00

This is our last picture of our family of 3 before we welcome little Sarah this Wednesday! I feel like we were just a the hospital with Haines being born and it has been over 2 years. I am 38 weeks pregnant as of this weekend and am pretty uncomfortable. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep combined on Friday night. I had terrible heartburn that kept me up all night. That is what you get when you eat pizza at 8:00pm. I knew when I was eating it that I would be hurting and I surely was. Needless to say Saturday night was much better! We spent a gorgeous day inside on Saturday watching our AU tigers lose to Clemson… not much more to say about that. I did get my hair done that morning which was a 2 hour venture that I thoroughly enjoyed. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting and relaxing. I started packing my bag for the hospital and of course cleaning up and cleaning out took place.

Sunday we went to church and then Haines had a birthday party at IJump for one of his friends from school, Braden. Let me just put it out there, I severely dislike IJump because it was sooooo crowded and we were mixed in with all other parties. You had 12 year olds jumping and running around 2 year olds, not a good mix! It was also extremely hot in there, which was not totally in part because I am 38 weeks pregnant. Haines was too scared to get in any of the jump houses. He did go down the big slide twice with his friend Addison’s dad, since Clint did not bring or wear any socks. He was more interested in the cake and pizza and could not wait for it to be served. When it was served in a private party room we had a special visitor which was the IJump Kangaroo which put about 4 of the 8 kids into hysterics and tears, including Haines. After about 5-10 minutes the tears subsided for most everyone. The next venture was to the arcade. I am not sure who had more fun, Haines or Clint. It was fun watching them both be kids. Haines got to get some “prizes” for his tickets he won in the arcade which he was thoroughly excited about. Then it was off to the homestead where we anxiously awaited for him to come down off his sugar high for several hours.

Today I have been up since about 4:00am as I have a hard time sleeping these days. I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I will be birthing our precious daughter in two days! Today is my last day at work for 12 weeks. I am taking tomorrow off to run some last minute errands. I have to say I am looking forward to a break, but know I will be working just as hard at home. Here is to the beginning of our new adventure with Sarah! We go to the hospital at 5:15am on Wednesday and she will be here by 7:30am. We cannot wait to meet her and see what she looks like. We know Haines will be a great big brother and are happy to share this exciting time with him. Stay tuned for a busy week and please keep us in your prayers!

38 weeks – 9/17/11

Happy 80th Birthday Grandmama and“Rest and Relaxation”

2011-09-19T05:26:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Clint took Haines to Montgomery to stay with his mom Friday night, but the true purpose of the trip was for an 80th birthday party celebration for his grandmother (Grandmama) on Saturday. With me being 37 weeks pregnant at the time, not sleeping well at night, uncomfortable, swollen and just too close to the due date I felt (and my Dr.) it was best for me to stay close by to St. Vincents. Clint and Haines trekked out on their excursion around 3:00pm that Friday, September 9th and headed to Mamae’s house. Haines had so much fun playing with all of the “new” toys at Mamaes house and they also went to the park. Mickie (Clint’s sister) and her kids, Caroline and Stone, came over that night for dinner. The next day they went to Clint’s Aunt and Uncle Cindy and Rodney’s house for the birthday party.

I think Haines was good and spoiled over there as we had lots of adjustments when he got home over the next few days. It was all worth it and I am glad that they got to go and visit with his family and celebrate 80 fabulous years with Libby/Grandmama!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was planning for a nice relaxing night off. For those of you that really know me, I do not relax very well. When I try to sit down to relax I find myself thinking of everything that I could be or need to be doing. Friday I was not feeling very well, had lots of swelling and worst of all lots of muscle pains. It was very painful for me to walk at work (must have been because I just had a Dr. appt. the day before). I left work a little early and went to get a manicure and pedicure which was fabulous (I guess that can count as rest and relaxation)! Friday night I went to dinner with my Grandmother. She just had carpal tunnel surgery on her left hand two days prior. We went to Leonardo’s in Vestavia and had a wonderful dinner! The best part about it was spending time with her and catching up. Saturday I worked on downloading videos, pictures, etc. to clear out the memory on my cameras and did some things around the house. Of course I watched the first half of the Auburn vs MS State game. I did leave and go run some errands afterwards, went to the grocery store, etc. My sweet boys were back around 5:00pm. Even though they were gone for a short time I missed them very much (but thoroughly enjoyed my freedom)!!! I don’t think I will get this luxury again for a very long time!

37 weeks 9-12-11

Look at my beautiful pedicure! At least my toenails look good…

Haines’ First Haircut!

2011-09-03T13:51:00.001-05:00

I know, I know, he is 2 years and 4 mos. old and is just now getting his haircut for the first time. I took the “before” pictures above that will capture his long curls for one last time. Clint has been bugging me for months and months about getting his haircut and I have not been willing to give in until now. I was scared to lose the curls and the look of my baby boy! My parents are in town for Labor Day weekend and we took Haines this morning (September 3rd) to Clint’s Barber Shop, Village Inn Barber Shop, and Sandra cut his hair. Haines did great and was only a little squirmy, but Sandra said she is used to working with a moving target.

We were her second first haircut of the day and it was only 10:15am. She did a great job and we were able to save plenty of his hair and he looks so cute! His curls are still there and it is now out of his face and I have to say he looks a lot better. I cannot believe my baby boy is growing up so fast! Enjoy the pics!

Sprinkled, Diapered and Showered!

2011-08-28T08:11:00.001-05:00

I feel so very fortunate to have such a wonderful support group of friends and co-workers. Even though we are having our second child people were still interested in giving us small showers.

My sweet long time friends from High School hosted a Sprinkle for me on Saturday, August 6th at DoDiYos in Homewood. It was so much fun because it was a small intimate group of girls that I have been friends with for a long time. We sat in a private dining room and the decor of this restaurant is so very cool so it made for a great atmosphere. My very good friends Jenni, April and Emily drove up from Montgomery and Eleanor drove from Tuscaloosa.

Everyone else lives in Birmingham. It really meant so very much to me for those that took their time to come and celebrate with me. We had a group of about 9 girls.

My sweet friend Jenny Ballentine planned the shower and made super cute invitations, had strawberry cupcakes made with chocolate dipped strawberries on top, and took care of all the details of organizing. I got some beautiful gowns and dresses, Auburn outfit complete with AU booties, blankets/sleep sack, burp cloths, sock monkey, book, etc. We truly had a great time and I love my friends dearly!!!!

On Tuesday, August 9th my wonderful Sunday school class at VHUMC had a diaper shower for Mindy Reed and myself. Mindy is due a week or two after me and we loved sharing the event together!

It was held at the new La Paz restaurant in Vestavia City Center. The food was awesome and again Jenny Ballentine planned the shower. We had chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cupcakes from Ashley Macs that were to die for!!! Our class hosts diaper showers for any new mother expecting and it helps out tremendously. I think that Clint calculated that we are set on diapers for at least 2 months! We are so very lucky to have such wonderful friends we have met through our Sunday school class.

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Lastly, my co-workers at BCBSAL hosted a shower for me on Thursday, August 18th my co-workers planned a shower for me and it was so much fun! My mom also works for BCBSAL so she came up for the shower and Haines came too! We got so many clothes, blankets, diapers, bibs, etc. I think we are really set. My two co-workers that are in the commercial side of Pharmacy did most of the planning, Julie and Connie. They arranged for the beautiful flowers, delicious cake and punch.

They had a beautiful pink bow on the door to the room and we will use this for our mailbox to announce when Sarah arrives. I am so fortunate to work for such a wonderful company and especially for such a great group of peers and co-workers. My friends from Corporate Staffing and a few from some other areas came too. It made for a great break from work and was so very thoughtful of them to do this for us. I think that Haines had the best time. My sweet manager got him a gift which was a microphone and a stuffed dinosaur. He also gave him multiple pieces of cake, about 5 cups of punch and 6 plates of peanuts (nee-nuts). Needless to say Haines was putting on a show and was super hyper to say the least. He was busting out of the room and running down the hallway, my mom and/or co-workers would have to chase after him and he is fast! I am so glad he enjoyed his baby sister’s shower!

Thank you to the generosity of all of my friends and co-workers we are ready for baby Sarah! It was so much fun going back through all of the gifts and getting them organized. Now all I need to do is just wash her sweet little clothes and pack for the hospital! Thank you to everyone!!!

Sarah’s Room is Ready!

2011-08-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

A few weekends ago I was feeling a little crafty and bought and painted the letters above Sarah’s bed as well as made the bows. I also painted an old lamp we had with the leftover pink paint (seen above on the night stand). I bought a new lampshade for it and it actually turned out really cute! Her bedding is a green and white toile pattern that I love! The mobile is Pottery Barn pastel green and pink butterflies that I found on Ebay (I love Ebay)!

Also, with the leftover paint I had Haines put his hand prints on a piece of paper and found a sweet poem online titled “Sister, Please Hold My Hand”. I bought a picture frame with a matte at Dollar General and spray painted the frame white and painted the matte pink to match. It really turned out well. I am telling you, I love crafting, but just don’t have the time to do it. I can make time to do it for little Sarah though. I am including an enlarged copy of the poem below the picture, it is very sweet!

The sock Monkey below is from one of my best and oldest friends Eleanor and the little owl is from one of my Sunday school friends, Margaret.

One of my sweet good friends Jenny Ballentine gave us the beautiful cross painting above the chest of drawers. She also gave us the white cross that is hanging below the pink shelf in the picture on the left (below). She is so very talented!!! I put the book that my friend Eleanor gave to Sarah on the shelf just for Eleanor! I hope she sees this! The title of the book is “Eleanor the Hippo” and the first page of the book depicts my friend Eleanor to a tee!

Below is the dresser and the glider from Haines’ room. The rug below has since been replaced because our sweet son is potty training and had an accident on the rug. I don’t believe it was because he was jealous, I just believe it was truly an accident. In my panic I poured carpet cleaner on a sisel rug (which I later learned was a no no) and stained it for life. We bought a beige colored shag rug to replace it and it looks great!

Clint worked last weekend on the closets. I had to clean all my clothes out of it and put some in a portable closet I bought that is down in the basement. Clint put up a double rod in the closet and is having to use the bottom portion for his clothes and Sarah gets the top part. We are having to make do with the space we have and be creative where we can. We are already at maximum capacity in our house, but we just have to make it work. Sarah, your room is ready and waiting… only 4 more weeks!

Baby Girl Bridges Has a Name!

2011-08-08T21:32:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, August 5th I sent an email to our immediate family to announce our little Baby Girl Bridges name. Well, I did not come out and tell them, they had to work for it. See the email below:

Crossword Attachment:

Btw, Uncle William was the first to figure out the puzzle and then Mamae (Debbie) finished 2nd. I was impressed with how well everyone did! If you try to work the puzzle above, make sure that you put a hyphen in between the date of the day of the month in September that she will be born on.

If you are not interested in taking the time to complete the puzzle, her name is………..

SARAH LOUISE BRIDGES

We have been discussing her name for a long time now and are so excited that we have decided on her perfect name. Sarah was Clint’s grandmothers name (Dad’s mother) and Louise is a name that I have always liked. My dad does have a cousin named Louise and on both sides of the family we do have the name Louisa. Overall, we just liked the name a lot. We are going to call her “Sarah” and we cannot wait to meet her.

She is very active and moves often. I am not sleeping very good at night and have incredibly terrible heart burn, which leads me to believe she will have a head full of hair. I cannot eat past 6:45pm or else I will be up with heart burn all night. It is hard to believe that I have only 6 weeks to go from this Wednesday until my scheduled c-section, which will, by the way, be on September 21st. My Dr. gave me three dates to choose from – September 21st, 22nd or 23rd. Clint felt that it was not right for us just to pick her birth date, so he wanted it to be somewhat random. We put all the dates in a hat and he drew the number 21! It will be easy to remember because it is the opposite of Haines’ (12th day of May). We are so excited that our sweet baby girl has a name, Sarah Louise Bridges! We already love you so much and are praying for you everyday!

Happy Birthday to Mama and Paw Paw Bridges!

2011-08-08T21:14:00.001-05:00

Clint, Haines, Bo and I headed to the lake for a long weekend on July 29th. We took the day off on Monday so we could stay longer and enjoy being at the lake and not have to rush home. My parents met us there and we had so much fun and celebrated my big “32” while we were there. Btw, Haines calls our family the following names when you ask for someone’s full name (hence the title of this post):

Me = Mama Bridges
Clint = Daddy Bridges
Baby Girl Bridges = Baby Sister
Nonna (My Mom) = Nonna Bridges
Paw Paw (My Dad) = Paw Paw Bridges
Bo = Bo Bridges
Lacey (My Parents Dog) = Lacey Girl

I guess we are all in one big Bridges family together :). We got there Friday afternoon and Haines immediately wanted to go “simmin” so he put on his “bathing soup” and jumped in the water. We took an evening boat cruise that was fun as the lake was not really busy. Haines of course had to drive “Paw Paw’s boat”. Saturday was a pretty day and we had an afternoon shower that did not last very long. Clint took us on a 2 hour boat ride and we swam and swam (or floated on noodles) in the luke warm water. Haines wanted to swim the whole time we were there.

Mom and Dad grilled out filet mignon for my b-day dinner that we celebrated on Saturday night. We had Publix b-day cake afterwards to celebrate my b-day on August 1st and Dad’s b-day on July 23rd.

Sunday was a great day too, we went to Chimney Rock and had a picnic and watched kids jump off the big rocks. Haines swam in the big water for the first time and he was a little clingy, but did good. On our way back to the house, we got caught in a rain storm and had to pull over by Stillwaters un til the rain passed.

Clint and Haines caught a fish too with a real worm that Nonna found while they were planting a Crepe Myrtle.

Needless to say it was a lot of fun and I think it took Bo and Haines a week to catch up on their rest when we returned.

Thanks to my sweet husband, my parents and my loving son that made my birthday so very special!

Big (and Bigger) Belly, Watermelon, 4th of July and Beach Bummin’ it in the rain!

2011-08-08T20:46:00.001-05:00

It is hard to believe how long it has been since I posted an update. My belly has gotten much bigger since the last post from our beach trip in May. The picture below is from June 16th and I was 25 weeks pregnant. The pregnancy is going very well so far and we are so excited about our little girl that is growing more and more each day!

Haines is at such a fun age and keeps us laughing all the time. He is talking so much (more and more each day) and says the funniest things. I have been writing some of them down during the months of June/July because they are so cute! Please enjoy the list below:

Pajamas = Namas
Banana = Bana
TV = TB
Swim = Sim
What he says when he wants to do something himself = Haines turn
Peanuts = Neenuts
Knuckles = Nunnles
Flip Flops = Flop Flops
Gummies = Nummies
What are you doing? = Doin’?
Bathing Suit = Bathing Soup
Coffee = Foffee
Back Pack = Pack Pack
Eye Brow = Eye Brown
Smoke = Snoke

These are just a few examples of some of the funny things he says. I will keep writing them down. He moved up to his new class Memorial Day Weekend and has learned so much in a short period of time! Here are some other fun things he has learned:

6/8/11 he dropped some popcorn seeds on the floor and started picking them up and counted to 10 all by himself!
6/13/11 started using pull ups and potty training at school
6/26/11 started using sentences such as “Nonna where are you?”
7/26/11 started singing alphabet and can get through “g” by himself

4th of July was great because it was actually one of the first weekends that we did not have anything going on. We had fun just hanging out at home. You can see that we enjoyed some watermelon, even Bo got some!

This is me at 27 weeks pregnant on July 3rd. I actually felt little Baby Girl Bridges hiccup for the first time on July 1st. She is becoming more and more active and her movements are getting much stronger!

One of Haines’ favorite things to do is to “mow the gas” with Daddy. Clint lets him ride on the tractor on this really small/flat area of our yard and Haines loves it! Please note that he has his glasses on just like Daddy. Everything he wears is just like Daddy (and everything he says and does). It is so very cute!

We headed to Seagrove Beach, FL on July 19th for a long weekend. It was a great trip, but I cannot say that it was very relaxing. Being 29 weeks pregnant in the hot summer, with an active 2 year old, sand and seaweed made for a rather uncomfortable (but enjoyable trip). Haines had a blast and absolutely loved the waves in the gulf and he especially loved his baby pool that we took with us (which by the way was the best $10 we have ever spent)!

The weather was overcast on Wednesday and Thursday and it rained on Friday morning. Needless to say, this made for much “cooler” weather than we were expecting.

There was lots of green and brown seaweed in the water which was yucky, but it did not seem to bother Haines at all. We took our annual trip to Goatfeathers for dinner on Wednesday night and it was delicious! You will find our pictures fro each year we have been with Haines.

2011 2010 2009

This was the first restaurant that Haines ever ate in when he was 8 weeks old on our trip in 2009. Wednesday was the only day that Haines actually took a nap, which made for some long days and a worn out little sand puppy for the rest of the trip, but he really did good despite the lack of sleep. He was having so much fun that he did not care. We cooked in on Thursday night and then Friday night we ate at Old Florida Fish House for the early bird special and it was very good! We had planned to stay until Sunday, but it started pouring down rain Friday night and did not stop on into Saturday. We decided to pack it up and come home a day early, which ended up working out well so we had a day to regroup before going back to work! We were at the beach for a good amount of time being that I am uncomfortable since I am pregnant and the weather was not very desirable. We still had a blast and Haines had even more fun than you can imagine!

A Happy 2 yr old, the Beach and the Lake… life doesn’t get any better than this!

2011-06-09T22:05:00.001-05:00

Wow, we have had a super busy last couple of months! We have had something to do every weekend or been out of town since April. It is nice to have a little down time now to catch up on things, such as updating the blog! On May 19th we went to Montgomery and stayed with Debbie. We had Haines’ 2 year old pictures on that Friday morning with Stacy Schaub (www.heart-photography.com) at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. We are super pleased with how the pictures turned out. I told Clint that I wish I could just freeze time because I love this stage that Haines is in right now! When she sent me the slideshow it was put to the most touching music and I balled crying while watching the slideshow. I picked out a few (ha, ha) of my favorites below.

After the pictures, we headed straight to Debbie’s beach condo in Gulf Shores. She bought the condo back in December and this was our first trip to check it out. Unfortunately it happened to be the same weekend as the Hangout Music Festival and the traffic was rather thick on the way down, but we did make it in a reasonable amount of time. We had a blast just hanging out on the beach, fishing, swimming, eating good seafood, etc. Clint bought Haines his first fishing pole which has Spiderman on it and they caught two fish on it in the lagoon, one being a red fish! Way to go Haines!!!

Haines was much easier at the beach this year because he would at least hang around where we were, whereas last year he would run off and wander off everywhere. He did still enjoy eating sand this year mixed in with his snacks. This will probably be the case until he is a teenager. We had a great time and it hard having to leave. We drove back that Monday, hoping to avoid the concert traffic, but no such luck. It took us 1.5 hours to go 3 miles and it took us a total of 7 hours to get back to Birmingham!!! Needless to say, we were exhausted and Haines was such a trooper the whole time.

Our next trip was to the lake for Memorial Day weekend with my parents and brother. We had a blast and it was a nice change having some other helping hands around (that we did not have a the beach). We ate incredible food all weekend and went on boat rides and hung out on my parents new and improved dock. They are in the process of having a boat house built, which it should be completed this coming weekend but was under construction when we were there. Grandmother (aka Marnie), Adelaide and Charles came up for the day on Saturday. Dad grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and it was so good. Marnie made homemade peach cobbler which was unreal. We went on a long boat ride and saw some of the tornado damage over near Children’s Harbor. It is so sad and unbelievable at the damage that the tornados did back in April. Haines was fascinated with Paw Paw’s boat and loved driving it with him. He was such a trooper all weekend and was off his schedule completely. He fought off a nap on Saturday and Sunday and on Saturday Haines fell asleep at the wheel, it was HILARIOUS! He is so funny and keeps us laughing all the time. After we put Haines down that night, Clint did a low country boil with shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes and it was delicious and really hit the spot! Sunday, my cousin Ashley came up for the day and we had fun hanging out. That night dad had his famous ribs… YUM, YUM! You can tell that the weekend revolved around food (or maybe that is just my take on it since I was 22 weeks pregnant at the time and this is all I seem to think about these days…)

Two Cakes for Two Special Occasions!

2011-05-17T21:04:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to our baby boy Haines! It is hard to believe that Haines is 2 years old. I still remember him being born like it was yesterday. Two years flew by way too fast. We had Haines’ party on Saturday, May 7th. We had our family over for Jim n’ Nicks BBQ and cake. We had an Elmo theme for his party and I was so very pleased with how his cake turned out. He had a blast eating cake, opening presents and of course being center of attention. I had so much fun planning his party and made some table decorations out of pots and put Elmo faces on them as well as made him a special Elmo visor.

I think everything turned out so very cute. I had to make it so special for my sweet baby boy.

Our second celebration of the day was cutting our cake that revealed the sex of our new baby. We were so surprised and excited to find out that our cake was pink! We had a strawberry cake which of course meant we are having a little girl! It was so much fun! My sweet sister in law, Amy, made flags and everyone selected a boy or girl flag and we took a group picture. Also, my Aunt Adelaide made a sign that everyone had to sign indicating whether it was a boy or girl. We had a blast and it made for such a fun and exciting way to reveal the sex of the baby. Haines is going to be the best big brother any little sister could ever ask for. We cannot wait to meet our sweet little girl in September!!!!!!

Eventful Easter Weekend!

2011-04-26T22:05:00.001-05:00

What a very busy, but wonderful Easter weekend our family had! Our little fam started off the Easter weekend by attending the Maundy Thursday service at our church, which was incredible. It was put on by our youth and they did an unbelievable job. The service was very moving and I am so glad we were able to go.

Clint and I had the day off on Friday and it was a much needed break. We went to the Alabama Farmers Market Friday morning to buy fruits and veggies for our neighborhood co-op. It was so much fun being able to buy in bulk for 12 families. We really had a blast! We could not believe the great deals you can get down there and we were able to get so much food! Clint and Haines mowed the grass when we got back (of course, Clint only let him on the tractor where it was flat for a short period of time so it was safe). While Haines was napping, Clint went to find me a new car as he had been researching them on the internet all week. He test drove a few and brought a 2009 Honda Pilot over to our house and I was able to see it and drive it. It was super nice and after Clint came home and comparison shopped over the internet, he found that it was a really good deal. We decided to drive back up there and buy it. By the time we got there around 5pm it had already sold. They did have another one that was a dark blue color and had more features and leather interior, sunroof, etc. It did have a good bit more miles, but it was the same price and Honda’s will go forever. Needless to say, we ended up buying it. My mom was on her way in town and she met us at the dealership to entertain Haines. After the big purchase, we headed to Habaneros for dinner. We were exhausted after a long day.

Saturday I had a hair appt at 7am and then headed to the grocery store. By the time I got home at 9am, my dad had already arrived. He and Clint had a big project to put up french doors in our living room and believe me, this was an all day event. Mom and I took Haines to a neighborhood egg hunt at 10am.

When Haines found out that there was not candy in every egg, he was easily distracted and played on the riding toys for the entire time. Mom and I ran errands while Haines napped. We went to a few stores and got manicures. We headed home and Haines was up and ready to dye eggs.

This was hilarious, as you can tell he really enjoyed it as his hands were a green/black color from all the dye and his legs were streaked as well. He really actually did pretty good!

That afternoon we hung out on the deck and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We grilled steaks form Mr. P.’s for dinner and had a great time.

Easter morning, Haines got a visit from the Easter Bunny and got to hunt eggs again. He had 4 or 5 pieces of chocolate within 15 minutes of him being awake that he took out of his eggs. Good thing I had some Winnie the Pooh band aids in some of the eggs!

Church was wonderful and the sanctuary was decorated so beautifully with fresh flowers everywhere. The sermon and music was so very good and was very touching. Haines wore an outfit that my mother made for him and worked so hard on for the last several months. She is so very talented and sweet to do this for him. When we measured him he was wearing a 2T and it ended up fitting a little snug as he is growing so quickly. Needless to say he popped 2 buttons off the outfit while in the nursery. Mom is reinforcing the buttons for me so he can wear it at least one (and hopefully two) more times.

We headed to Aunt Adelaide (aka Addie) and Uncle Charles’ house for lunch and another egg hunt. Haines was spoiled rotten all weekend. We had a blast watching him have so much fun. He is so funny too! He was going in and out of the dog door at their house and thought it was hilarious. He found lots of eggs and ate even more sugar.

After staying up to 4:00pm he still only took a 45 minute nap and was up again. I think he was still on a sugar high. At least we were able to put him to bed at a reasonable time that night and he is already back on his schedule. I think we were all more exhausted than he was! What a fabulous and memorable (and busy) weekend, it came and went way too fast!

The Plans are Coming Together!

2011-04-22T07:17:00.001-05:00

Haines’ 2nd birthday party is right around the corner. We are having one last year of just a family party just to make it easy and since our house cannot accommodate large groups of people (even though our immediate family is almost 30 ppl)! I love the invitations that Peyton James did for me (she did the one’s last year and some of our Christmas cards in the past). Check out her blog at www.doitcute.blogspot.com. I came up with the idea and placement of pics along with the wording and she did her magic and made it look cute.

We are going to have BBQ and cake of course. We will actually have 2 cakes. Jenny Ballentine introduced me to Amy Baurele that is incredibly talented. Check out her blog at www.indulgewithme.blogspot.com. She is going to do the cakes for the party. One cake will be an Elmo cake for Haines and the other will be a small 6 inch cake that will reveal the sex of our baby. I have my appointment on May 4th and will have the ultrasound tech write the sex of the baby in an envelope and also in a separate Mother’s Day card (we did this with Haines with a Christmas card). I will then take Amy the envelope and she will make a strawberry cake if it is a girl with white icing or a vanilla with blue food coloring and white icing if it is a boy. We won’t know the color of the cake until we slice into it at Haines’ party. I am so excited to share this great moment with both of our families. We will find out in 2 weeks so it will be here before we know it.

We are excited about Easter weekend. We are shopping for our neighborhood co-op this morning at the AL Farmers Market and will be looking for cars since they totaled mine out. My parents are coming today and we have a neighborhood Easter egg hunt tomorrow and are going to my Aunts after church on Sunday for another egg hunt and lunch. I will have lots of great pictures to post after this fun weekend! I wish everyone a Happy Easter and enjoy time with your families and friends!

Easter is Here!

2011-04-17T07:12:00.001-05:00

I am so excited that Easter is here, it is one of my favorite times of year. I love to see the new life blooming in all the trees, flowers, plants, etc. Also, more and more people are out and about in our neighborhood and one of my favorite sounds is the sound of a lawn mower, it reminds me of beautiful spring and summer weather. Most importantly I love Holy week at our church. It was kicked off this weekend with an egg hunt yesterday, which was a blast. Today is, of course, Palm Sunday and last year Clint and I started going to the weekday services during Easter week. They are truly incredible and our church does a remarkable job creating very emotional and realistic feelings reminding us of the sacrifice made by Jesus dying on the cross for all of our sins. I cannot wait to go to the services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and of course on Easter morning when we can celebrate the resurrection! I also love that my parents come to spend Easter with us every year and we have been doing this now for about 4 or 5 years. I am looking forward to worshiping our Lord and Savior, dying eggs, hunting eggs with Haines, spending time with family and of course eating good food!

Enjoy the pictures from the egg hunt yesterday. Needless to say, Haines does not like the Easter bunny. The bunny came to his school this past week and they told me that he was scared of him so I did not have real high hopes for yesterday. I tried standing up close while Clint waited in line so he could be used to seeing him and used to seeing other kids get their pictures with him, but our approach was not successful. Oh well, the Easter bunny does look kind of scary, especially if you are a small child! I cannot say that I blame him. We had a blast hunting eggs and Haines would pick up an egg, plop down on the ground and then open the egg, discard the egg and hand me the candy and instruct me to open it. He did not quite understand that you should collect as many eggs as you can and then go through the !candy. He ate enough candy yesterday to keep him up for days. You could definitely tell when the sugar kicked in, but it was a blast. Some of these pictures are of Charlie Ballentine and Haines. They were so precious together! I wish everyone a very Happy Easter week

We are so thankful for all our blessings!

2011-04-09T07:52:00.001-05:00

I feel like we have been in a whirlwind for the past three months. We have experienced so many things that we are so very thankful to God for… First, on January 24th Clint and I found out that we are going to be parents again. What a blessing and answer to prayers. We are so very excited and are so appreciative for this sweet baby that is growing more and more everyday. I am now 15 weeks pregnant and had a great check up last Wednesday. The baby’s heart rate was at 160 and is doing great. My next appointment is on May 4th, which will be an ultrasound to find out the gender. We are going to do the same thing we did with Haines and have the Ultrasound Tech write the gender in a Mother’s Day card that will be opened with our family on May 7th at Haines’ birthday party.

Secondly, I found out on January 28th that my position was being impacted due to department cut-backs. My peers had 15 and 18 years of service so I had the least amount of tenure so I was faced with finding a new job. Throughout this whole process, my manager was extremely helpful and supportive and wanted to help me find a job internally. I cannot thank her enough for her support. I looked at this as more of an opportunity and had a positive attitude about it the entire time. I am so very thankful that I was offered a position in the Pharmacy Department and have now been in my new role for 4 weeks. I have a lot to learn, but I absolutely love my new job and really feel like it was a blessing in disguise. The work is very interesting, I have a great new manager and the team has been very welcoming and warm. I have already learned so much in such a short period of time.

Thirdly, we are planning Haines’ 2nd birthday party. It is hard to believe that he is about to be 2!!! Time has flown by and I feel like we just had his 1st birthday. We are going to have the party at our house again with family and lots of BBQ and cake. It will be so much fun too because we will be able to celebrate Haines and find out the gender of our new baby. Haines is growing and talking more and more everyday. His favorite sentence that he started saying in January is, “What is that?” He also loves saying, “Mama/Daddy help” and “Mama/Daddy here” as he hands us something. We are starting swimming lessons with him on May 7th and we are really excited to see our little frog learn to swim like a tadpole!

Fourthly, all was going well yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were heading toward a beautiful weekend. I picked Haines up from school around 5pm and we were headed home in the lovely Birmingham traffic. We made it to our exit and got off of I-65 and I decided at the last minute to go pick up our dry cleaning that I had dropped off on Wednesday. As I approached stand still traffic, I got over into the right turn lane to go to my dry cleaners and out of nowhere a girl hit be from the side. The traffic lanes that were backed up were letting her through from the median crossing over and she did not stop to look to see if anyone was coming down the turn lane. I never saw her so it caught me by complete surprise. Both of my air bags deployed and smoke filled the car. When I figured out what happened I looked at Haines and he was crying uncontrollably, but he looked okay. A very sweet witness stopped to help us. I could not open my door and the witness had to pry it open. I went and got Haines and calmed him down. I was not hurt, just some burns on my arms from the air bags. Once Haines was calm, he kept patting me on the back saying “Mama okay”, it made my heart melt. He has the sweetest disposition! The witness stayed until the police arrived and Clint arrived shortly after. Both of our cars had to be towed, but I am so thankful that we were all okay. I called my Dr. when I got home and they wanted to make sure the baby was okay so I headed to St. Vincent’s at 6:45pm. We were able to hear the heartbeat, thank the Lord! The heart rate was between 140-156. I was there until 9pm because they had to send my blood to the lab and I had to have a Rhogam shot since I am O negative. Needless to say, I did not anticipate our weekend starting out like this, but I am so thankful to God that we are all okay. We thank him every day for all of our blessings, as we are blessed every single day!

Haines is going to be a BIG BROTHER!

2011-03-23T21:27:00.001-05:00

We are excited to announce that Haines is going to be a big brother on September 28th!!! I am 13 weeks pregnant today and have felt great the entire time. I am looking forward to a long hot summer :). I will make an effort to update the blog more frequently with Dr. updates. My next appointment is on April 6th so more to come…

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and War Eagle!

2011-01-15T19:54:00.001-06:00

Wow, time really has gotten away from me very quickly! My real excuse for not updating our blog since before Thanksgiving is because our sweet, precious little boy cracked the screen on our laptop. Thank goodness for our accident proof warranty through Best Buy, it was covered in full. We just got our laptop in July last year so we have not had it very long. We just need to keep busy hands and feet away from it! You don’t realize how much you rely on a computer until you do not have one. We were without a computer for a full 4 weeks and although it was nice at times to not have the distraction, I missed it immensely. Thankfully Clint brought his work laptop home occasionally so I could get my email checked and log into facebook occasionally. This post will span over the last few months of our life so it may be rather lengthy so please bare with me! :)

For Thanksgiving we went to Montgomery and stayed with Clint’s mom and had such a good time. Clint, Haines and I were lucky enough that we got to eat twice on Thanksgiving. We had lunch with my parents and grandmother at my parents house. We had turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, squash casserole, broccoli salad and other yummy dishes. We had a great time visiting at my parents house and after Haines’ tryptophan kicked in he took a nap and then we headed to the Calhoun's to do it all over again. We ate dinner at his Aunt Cindy’s house and Haines loved it because he could run wild out in their huge yard. He did not take to well to the horses though, maybe next time. We had a delicious dinner and I was so proud of my chocolate truffle cheesecake that I made from Southern Living’s December edition. In addition to dessert, we also had turkey, dressing, ham, macaroni and cheese, asparagus casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, etc. Haines had a blast playing with all the big kids!

December was a busy month for us, but was lots of fun this year. Clint and I surprised William for his birthday and met he and Amy at the Pine Bar on December 3rd. We ate dinner that night at Village Kitchen and had a great time together. This was the first time we had stayed at their house. Meanwhile Haines was in good hands at Nonna and Paw Paw’s house. They all came over on Saturday to watch the SEC Championship game. This picture is of Haines watching Aunt Amy put her make-up on and he thought he would give it a try. By the way, Amy made Haines’ shirt he is wearing. It is so cute, a reindeer made out of his handprints for the antlers. She is so creative, you can definitely tell she is a teacher and a great one at that! A group of my high school friends had our annual Christmas lunch at Allison Ferrell’s house on December 11th. It was so much fun to get to visit with everyone and I had not seen most of them since our beach trip this past summer. We played dirty Santa and a great time catching up. Next we had our Sunday school Tacky Christmas party on December 12th. This is a picture of Clint and me before we left for the party. I was amazed at the time and effort everyone put into their outfits! Clint and I really need to step it up next year. Jenny and Brooks Ballentine won the overall tackiest couple prize. It was a blast! These pictures are from Haines’ school party. I promise I had him dressed in a cute Christmas outfit and he had an accident earlier in the day and had to put on his “back-up” clothes. I was disappointed, but he did not know the difference.

On a completely different note we participate in a neighborhood fruit and veggie co-op, which is so AWESOME! There are like 15 families in it and we rotate going to the farmers market every other week and buying for all the families in bulk. Clint and I don’t have to go until April, but it helps force us to cook more. It has also been great because we get fruits and vegetables that I normally would not buy and adds variety. Haines has enjoyed it as well and is very adventurous in trying all kinds of things. These are pictures of him eating Pomegranate seeds. He absolutely loved them!

This Christmas was very special because we knew going to Montgomery that it would be our last time to spend Christmas in Montgomery. Clint and I decided that we would like to start our own traditions for Christmas 2011 and stay in Birmingham. We really want to attend our candlelight service on Christmas Eve. This decision has probably been the hardest on me because I am such a stickler for traditions. I love everything our family does each Christmas and we do the same thing every year. You could only really understand it unless you spent a Christmas with us. Also, since we moved to Montgomery when I was 4 and joined FUMC, we have always attended the candlelight service at FUMC. It will be great though, because Haines will be even more excited than he was this year and will maybe understand a little bit more. He was soooo excited this year and definitely knew that something was going on. He ran around my parents house squealing and loved playing with my dad’s collection of dancing and singing Santa’s. His favorite one was the low rider car with Santa and Reindeer that played the song Low Rider and they were bobble heads that went up and down as the car went up and down with its hydraulics. Needless to say it was loved so much that Dad had to take it apart to fix it after Christmas because Haines played so much with it that the hydraulics gave out. He would play it and dance and then tote it around to another spot, it was so hilarious! No need to worry, Dad (aka Paw Paw) fixed it for next year. Dad is just glad that he has two people (Clint and Haines) that appreciate his collection of at least 20 Santa's/Reindeer/Gingerbread Man/etc!

Christmas Eve we went to Mamae’s house and helped her get ready for a late lunch with the fam. We played Dirty Santa and opened all of our gifts with everyone. Haines was so proud of his new Elmo slippers that he wore until he opened his new real cowboy boots that are red and brown. Even though they are a little big, he made sure that he kept them on his feet. He loves them!!! He got some great clothes, books, nativity set, etc. We had so much fun with Clint’s family and then we were off to church at FUMC for the candlelight service at 5:00pm. The service was beautiful and the sermon was excellent and was based on Sheppard's. After the service we headed home for my most favorite part of Christmas, Christmas Eve dinner with my family and everything that goes along with it. Again, all the traditions I would have to document that we do this night would make this post even longer than it already is so I will refrain to keep your imagination going. My favorite meal of all time consists of Honey Baked Spiral Ham, green bean bundles, pineapple soufflé, scalloped mushrooms, blueberry congealed salad with cream cheese topping. It is really out of control, my mother is so sweet and goes out of her way every year to make sure all our meals are just as we always have them. She probably spends more time in the kitchen than anywhere else. We truly appreciate her so very much! The night was capped off with reciting Twas the Night Before Christmas, watching FUMC Christmas concert and Midnight Mass. The next morning started early around 5:30am. Haines tore into his Santa stuff that was displayed on a chair pretty quickly. He got some tools, tool belt, bath toys, bubble bath, etc. We then opened our stockings and presents. It was a nice relaxing lazy morning, it was nice not having to rush to do anything. We still had our pajamas on at lunch time. Mom made a delicious Christmas lunch around 2:00pm with turkey, dressing, spinach soufflé, sweet potatoes and the best pecan pie I have ever had. Needless to say, we had an incredible Christmas with all of our family as we celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Onto New Years… Clint, Haines an d I headed to Lake Martin on Thursday before New Years. Clint purchased some fireworks on the way up. He was most proud of his $50 fireworks display that he got for free. The guy gave it to him because he could not resell it because the tube you put the fireworks in got wet. He also threw in some free bottle rockets and Clint was amazed because he only spent $15 there. This was the start to a great weekend! New Years Eve we had a bonfire and made smores and had dessert before dinner. The neighbors next door came over and joined us. Clint shot off his professional fireworks and they were AWESOME! Haines loved playing with the neighbors children, they had a 5 1/2, 4 and 2 year old and another due the next week… wow! Haines and the 4 year old Stephen hit it off and they were fast friends. They had been sharing their tools earlier that day and were already acquainted. It was lots of fun for all! New Years Day was extremely rainy all day long. Dusti, Eric and Jackson came up that afternoon to stay the night with us. We had a blast playing board games all afternoon and night. Clint and I found a new fun game called Blockus. We ate plenty of black eyed peas, greens, ham, sweet potatoes and cornbread. It was nice just relaxing away from home. We headed back to B’ham the next day with lots of luck to carry us through the new year!

This picture is from last Saturday when Haines was glued to the window watching Daddy mow the grass. It is rare that he will sit still for any length of time, but he stood there for at least 15-20 minutes watching Clint mow the backyard. He got a blower for Christmas and was following him around with his blower. He is going to have a blast this spring when Clint is doing yard work. He will have a little shadow this year for sure! On January 10th we had so much ice we were snowed in from work. My mom came up here last Sunday for a Dr. appointment that she had Monday morning. Needless to say, she ended up getting snowed in until Tuesday morning. Our roads and driveway were so iced over, you could not drive. Clint attempted it to see if Mom could make it out Monday afternoon, the maiden voyage only made it 10 feet and then he had to come back. Haines loved the ice and would have stayed out there all day! The first few pictures above are him bundled up in his pajamas going out to play, he could not stand it!

We snuggled up by the fire and watched the National Championship game last Monday night with Nonna. What an exciting game and an incredible end to such a fun season! I am proud to say I am an Auburn Tiger. Happy New Year and War Eagle to all of our friends and family!

Eventful Week!!!

2010-11-20T14:17:00.001-06:00

This past week was very eventful and included a trip to the Dr. and a trip to Children’s Hospital Emergency Room. Tuesday Haines had his 18 month Dr. appointment and an hour before I was supposed to pick him up I received a call that he had a fever and that I needed to come pick him up. I was initially thinking it was a good thing we already had an appointment for him that day. I was shocked because he had been acting completely normal as always and did not have any other symptoms so I assumed it was just a fever virus. We proceeded to the Dr. and it was in fact just a fever virus. Because his fever was 101 they would not administer his vaccines for his check up so I have to take him back next week! He was 34.25 inches tall (90-95 percentile) and was 29.10 lbs (75 percentile) so he is healthy for sure. Since he had to be symptom free for 24 hours he had to stay out of daycare the next day.

Clint stayed with him Tuesday night and I had a Girls Night Out with some girls from our Sunday school at the Melting Pot which was lots of fun! I had never been there before and it was really neat, although I know Clint would not have liked it since it is fondue. The next day I kept our busy bee at home and his fever was gone by morning.

On Thursday everyone was ready to get back in our normal routine at work and school. I dropped Haines off and went to work. I had not been sitting at my desk long enough to pull up my email when I got a call from the Asst. Director at his school. She informed me that Haines had an accident and fell and hit his head on a table. She said he cut his eye and busted his lip. I initially was not thinking too much about it since he falls all the time and is really tough, but when she suggested that I come take a look at it I knew it was serious. I left work immediately and drove down there and three staff members were tending to him (aka trying to keep him from running all over the place to keep his head from bleeding more). His cut above his left eye was about 1/4-1/3 of an inch and his lip had stopped bleeding by the time I got there. I had called his Pediatrician on my way to see him to ask what I should be looking for and they said 1/4 of an inch. I grabbed him and headed to the Dr. and called them back on my way. They told me that since it was on his eye lid that we needed to go to Children’s Hospital Emergency Room. This was a little unnerving since we had not been there before. I called Clint and he met me at home and we drove together. The hardest part for Clint and me was containing him on the hospital bed. He wanted to climb on everything and get into everything. Luckily we had some raisins to entice him to sit for a few extra minutes and Clint blew up a blue glove that he was fascinated with for about 5 minutes. The Dr. said the cut was not too deep, but that it was in a highly visible area so they recommended stitches.

The worst part for Haines was being strapped onto the Papoose Board and he was screaming and crying because he could not move his arms or hands. They had to clean his eye really good with Saline which he hated and then they did the stitches. There was one nurse holding his head while the Dr. stitched him up. Haines is so strong that the Nurse had a hard time holding his head. I have to say the Dr. had a very steady hand and I really don’t know how she did such a good job. He got two stitches that will dissolve in 5-7 days. Haines was ready to get out of there and when we got to the car he was so exhausted that he immediately fell asleep. I ended up staying at home with him again and was thinking he would take a long nap that afternoon, but no such luck… 1.5 hours. He was back to his normal self again and you would have never known anything happened! He went back to school Friday and so far it has been a quiet weekend. We went to Harrison Newell’s birthday party today and he is napping right now. Back to the Dr. next week for his shots… it’s never a dull moment!

200% All Boy

2010-10-30T20:22:00.000-05:00

There is no doubt that Haines is 200% all boy! He is the roughest, toughest wild little man that I know. These are some boots that were hand me downs from Caroline and are a size 7 and already fit Haines. He wears a size 6, but his little fat foot fits fine in them. We actually went to a Halloween party tonight at a neighbors house and he wore his tiger costume with these black boots and he was too cute.

These other pictures are from his Halloween parade at school this past Tuesday. His two best little buddies, Alex and Braden were also tigers. They were all too cute! We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

The three little Tigers – Haines, Braden and Alex

Tuckered out little Tiger!

Haines’ favorite teacher, Mrs. Lisa aka aka Mrs. “Leka”.

Haines parading through the big kid classes.

Mr. Busy Body

2010-10-23T21:45:00.001-05:00

Haines amazes me with the amount of energy he has! He goes 90 to nothing non-stop all day long (with the exception of his naptime from 12-2 everyday). I wish I had just an ounce of the energy he has – I get worn out just watching him let alone chasing him around. These are some pictures that I took of him last last weekend. He is so funny, one of his new past times is to pull Clint’s drawer open while I put my make-up on every morning in front of our dresser and he tries to “put on” Clint’s shorts.

He is successful as you can see and he will empty out the drawer with all of his shorts before he is done. He puts them on and so proudly walks around the house babbling his wonderful little language. He knows that he is fully dressed once he has “dressed himself”.

Last Sunday when I was putting on my make-up he ventured into our closet and was busy getting into anything and everything in there. He put an unknown object into his mouth which grossed me out and when I did a finger swipe (which is a common occurrence) I found out it was a piece of plastic from a dry cleaning bag! He then ventured off and it was quiet for some period of time so I knew he was up to something. When I rounded the corner of our room and looked into his bathroom, this is what I found. He was sitting on top of the toilet and had pulled off all of the toilet paper and was “blowing his nose”. He sees Clint and me do it occasionally and he tries to do it, but has not fully grasped the concept, he just likes going through the motions and slightly blows air out of his nose as he scrunches it up. Needless to say, he keeps us laughing and amazed at all times. He is so funny and is so full of personality. He is totally entertaining, who needs TV and SEC football when you have a 17 month old?!?!?!? Enjoy the other random pictures below (of course I could not leave out Bo, our first child of the family – and yes, he still does get attention)!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-10T22:53:00.001-05:00

Today we made our annual trip to the St. Mark pumpkin patch. We love going there every year and it is so very convenient to our house! Besides the fact that it was nap time and 90 degrees outside and Haines’ costume is thick fleece, everything was great! Haines actually did very well and thankfully we did not fully dress him until we got there. It was sweltering hot, but we made it quick and got away with one big pumpkin and three little ones that are Haines’ size. He absolutely loved all the pumpkins, but even more so he loved all the emergency tape that was roping off the pumpkin patch from a drop off in between the pumpkin displays and the church parking lot. Luckily he had a tiger tail that I could grab as he was trying to make a quick get away down the steep ravine. He was busy busy as usual and when we had to load him in the car he was not a happy camper – he was wanting to run wild. Enjoy the pictures – especially note how much Haines has changed since this time last year!

Fun Weekend in Montgomery

2010-10-09T13:13:00.001-05:00

Haines, Grandmother, Bo, Fitz and I headed to Montgomery for the weekend last week. We had the car loaded down and made it on Friday around 6:30 pm. The main purpose of the trip was because I was running in a half marathon on Saturday, but it was a great opportunity to go visit with my family. We had not stayed with my parents since probably back in the spring or early summer! My mom had a chicken alfredo for my “pasta load” Friday night. They were so excited to see Haines and to be in charge of him the next morning (since I would be at the race). Oh by the way, if you are wondering where Clint was he was on a hunting/fishing trip with his friends. Anyway, the race was incredible – the weather could not have been better. It was cool, but not too cold. It was a perfect fall day, which attributed to my great finish. My goal was to finish under 2 hours, which I finished the Mercedes 1/2 earlier this year in 1 hour 48 min. I did not think that I would do near that well because I have not trained near as much as I did then. I have maintained long runs every weekend since Mercedes though. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I beat my time by 3 minutes! My finish time was 1 hour 45 minutes. The course was awesome and I was so impressed with the organization of the race. It took you through all the great parts of Montgomery. For those not familiar with the area I am sure that they were impressed. It started at the Renaissance Hotel, went by Oakwood Cemetery where Hank Williams Sr. is buried and they were playing Hank’s music, through Capitol Heights, Oak Park, AL State University campus, Old Cloverdale, Huntingdon College campus, Bankhead/Thomas Ave area, FUMC, Dirk’s Filet and Vine, Trinity Pres, Church of the Ascension, Governors Mansion, Capitol, Court Square, Troy State Montgomery, Davis Theatre and then ended on the field a the Biscuits stadium. It was wonderful and well marked with lots of water stations and clocks along the way. My parents were to bring Haines down to watch me finish the race, but they were no where to be found. They saw me around mile 12 when they were trying to find a parking spot. Mom and Grandmother had been to the deer creek garage sales that morning to get Haines some new toys. Of course you will see in the pictures that his favorite was a tool bet equipped with all the tools he could wish for. They all made it in time for the after party and William met up with us too and it was so much fun – I think Haines had more fun than anyone else. We had Jim N’ Nicks BBQ and beer at 10:00 am! They had a concert, vendors set up around the amphitheater, activities for kids, etc. I could not say anything more about how fun it was – it was just wonderful! That night dad grilled out steaks and mom made twice baked potatoes and salad. William and Amy came over to eat and it was good getting to visit with them. Sunday morning we went to visit with Clint’s mom, Mickie and Caroline. It was a good quick visit and then we headed back to Birmingham.

Our Little Shadow!

2010-09-28T21:29:00.001-05:00

Goodness, it is amazing how time can get away from you. This update is long overdue! Nothing too exciting has happened since my last update. In August we celebrated my birthday and actually it is hard for me to remember what else we did… I think I still have pregnancy brain, I don’t think you ever fully get it back. My parents came to stay with us on Labor Day weekend which was relaxing and fun. We grilled out and watched the Auburn game. These late games coupled with heart wrenching edge of your seat winnings are about to do me in. Haines really enjoys wearing his jersey that we actually got for him last year and I am so glad that it still fits. He thinks it is cool that the sleeves hang down lower than his regular shirts and it is silky like his blanket. He also loves the fact that his dad has one just like his. Clint is over the moon with what he would call his early interest in footballs – he loves to carry them around and Clint has taught him to “throw” the ball and catch it with some adult assistance.

Haines is starting to talk more and says Bo, bubbles, duck, truck, Dada, ball and his favorite of all time that he says five million times a day is Mama. He calls any dog, Bo, and most of the words he says it is a struggle to understand what he is saying, but he is trying hard. He can understand things like when you tell him “let’s go take a bath” he takes off running to the bath tub and will get in with his clothes on. He can point to his nose, ears, eyes, mouth, leg, foot/toes (he thinks these are one in the same), and hair. He also can point to Mama and Dada’s nose , ears,eyes, and mouth. Of course I always tell him how smart he is, but he truly does amaze me at the things he understands and does. He had a fever virus last weekend and he was better on Sunday, but had a restless night last night. I was worried that it was his ears and so the Dr. recommended me to bring him in to check, especially since it was on the back end of his fever virus. It turned out to be nothing, just a sore throat from drainage but all this to say is that for the first time he got on the “big boy scale” and he weighed a whopping 28.2 lbs!!! He is such a big boy and it is hard to believe that he is almost exactly 20 lbs. heavier than he was when he was born. He is just growing up before our eyes.

Two weeks ago we went to Tuscaloosa to stay with my dear high school friend Eleanor. She and her husband Tom, have two kids. Ella is 4 and Frances is 2 weeks younger than Haines so of course they had a blast playing together. Ella was so cute and you could tell she was intrigued with having a little boy around. She like to feed the “baby” and she would make sure he had everything he needed. They liked to chase each other around – I really don’t know how they all have so much energy. It was a great, quick trip and we weren’t even there for more than 16 hours and still managed to have our car broken into. Unfortunately, a lot of the cars in their neighborhood were broken into, but the person was apprehended after he wrecked his car and we were able to get some of our items back. It was very random, but it could have happened anywhere. We did not let it ruin our weekend and enjoyed every minute with our friends.

Haines and I are headed to Montgomery to visit the grandparents this weekend and primarily because I am running in the Montgomery Half Marathon on Saturday morning. Hopefully my next update will include a positive outcome from the race. I am not expecting to beat my Mercedes time, but my goal is to finish under 2 hours. I will be looking forward to seeing my sweet little boy as I cross the finish line. Looking forward to a fun family filled weekend!

Is sand a new food group?

2010-08-03T19:56:00.001-05:00

Clint, Haines and I got back from a week of vacation on July 24th. Our vacation started with a trip to Montgomery on Saturday, July 17th and dropped Haines off with my mother in law in Montgomery. Clint and I headed to Atlanta to a Braves game. We stopped off in Auburn for lunch at Amsterdam Cafe and then pressed on down the road. We arrived, checked into our hotel, changed clothes and headed out to the game. We had a pit stop at the Hard Rock Cafe on the way for a few frosty beverages. The game was so much fun and our seats were awesome – about 10 rows behind the left fielder . The Braves played the Brewers and we ultimately lost, but we had fun not matter what. The next day we went to the Georgia Aquarium which was so much fun. It was amazing how large it was and how they have so many animals. Our favorite was the observation tunnel that housed the Manta Ray and the Whale Shark among a few. After the aquarium tour we headed back to Montgomery. We stayed with Debbie Sunday and Monday night and we stayed busy the entire time we were there. When we got there on Sunday we went to visit our friends the Williams’ and then my brother and Amy. The next day we went to see Jenni, Paul and Whit and ate lunch with my parents at Wintzell’s downtown for my dad’s birthday. Tuesday morning we headed to the beach to Seagrove. This was Haines’ second time to go, he was 8 weeks old his last trip down there. We had excellent weather the entire time we were there. Haines loved the beach and especially the sand. He would roll all around in it until he was covered, I would go rinse him off in the water and then he would roll right around in it again. He often would put handfuls of the sand in his mouth. I think he thought it was a snack for him and he seemed to enjoy it! He did so good on the beach – I think one day we had him out there for 5 hours. He would just nap on the beach each day for an hour or so. This was about the only time we had to rest and relax. All other times we were on point to follow (aka chase) him around. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Haines has really started talking a lot in his own language of course. It is so funny to listen to him. I think he started talking more and more while we were on vacation. He has also started pitching temper tantrums which are always fun too. It was easiest to cook at the house so we cooked at the house every night except one night (Wednesday) we went to eat at Goatfeathers for the early bird special. This was where we took Haines last year and it was the first restaurant he ever visited. We had to take a picture to commemorate the event again. We had so much fun together and enjoyed our time immensely, it just went by too fast. We headed home on Saturday so we would have a day to relax before getting back on our routine. We were glad we did this because it made our transition back to the real world a little easier. We are already ready for our next beach trip and need to plan another vacation so we have something to look forward to again!

Soaking up the rays!

2010-07-08T21:08:00.001-05:00

We went to the beach at Panama City Beach with Clint’s family the last weekend of June. We headed to Montgomery on Friday, June 25th and stayed at Debbie’s (aka Mamae’s) house Friday night. On our way in town we went to Grandmama’s house (Clint’s grandmother) to visit her and ate dinner over there. It was so good to see her. As you can tell from these pictures, Haines loves her scooter and wanted to play on it the entire time. The next morning we headed to the beach early so that we would have half of the day to enjoy. Saturday was a pretty day and so was Sunday. We hung out by the pool on Saturday while we waited to check in. Haines went swimming for the first time in a big pool (which he had only had exposure at this point to his baby pool and of course the lake). He liked it if you held him, but did not want to get into his float that we got him. Sunday morning we woke up early and Clint unfortunately woke up with the stomach bug! He was sick all day long and had to lay in bed all day – which turned out being the prettiest day and our only full day down there since we were leaving on Monday. The rest of us went down to the beach for the entire day on Sunday and it was very crowded. The water was very rough and was a red flag. Needless to say this was not ideal swimming conditions for a 13 month old. Haines did love the sand and liked sitting on the sand and letting the wave roll up to his toes and legs. The water could not have been prettier – it was very clear (no signs of oil or seaweed). That late afternoon we hung out by the pool and then took showers to go out to eat. We wanted to get some pictures of all the cousins together on the beach and we had everyone minus Jackson. Caroline, Stone, Ally and Haines all posed for pictures on the beach and I cannot wait to see how they turned out. Haines was fussy during the photo session as it was his dinner time and it was quickly approaching his bedtime. Afterwards we went to eat at a restaurant next door called Coconut Willies. The next day Clint’s sister Mickie and our niece Caroline woke up with Clint’s stomach bug. It was also raining and this was the day we were going home. Clint’s mom and the rest of the family were staying until Wednesday. They said it ended up raining the whole rest of their trip and everyone ended up getting the stomach bug except for Mamae! Wow, I have to say this was a very memorable trip. We had a good time anyway despite all the challenges. Thank you Mamae for a fun time!

Lakeside fun!

2010-06-13T20:00:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Clint, Haines, Bo and I joined my parents and Amy and William at Lake Martin for a fun weekend. Amy’s birthday was June 7th so we celebrated her birthday all weekend long. This was Haines’ first trip to the lake since he was about 5 months old. It is hard to believe that the last time we were there he was not even crawling yet, my how things change in such a short period of time! Friday night we got there about 6:30pm and my dad grilled out barbeque chicken and it was delicious! Saturday was a busy day and Haines is so very busy – I just strapped a life jacket on him and had to contain him on the docked boat so that I did not have to worry about him going overboard of the dock. He was not fond of his life jacket at all and wanted it off the whole time which led to him being fussier than normal. He did like the water and is still getting used to it. Clint and my dad worked on cleaning and fixing up a paddleboat that washed ashore about a year ago that no one has claimed. If anyone is need of a good workout they should climb aboard the paddleboat. Clint and I were sore for days after going on an afternoon excursion. Bo loves the lake (of course) and would try to swim out to the paddle boat while we were on it so he could climb aboard. He likes to be by our side at all times – he is such a good, loving and loyal dog! Saturday we rode out to chimney rock and back – the weather was spotty all weekend – raining off and on. Saturday night William and dad grilled out steaks from Derks Filet and Vine in Montgomery. They were to die for – the females all had filets and the men had rib eyes (expect Haines had macaroni and cheese). Sunday was a fun day as well and we spent the entire day on the dock and on the boat. Clint and I stayed Sunday night at the lake after everyone left because we had an appointment with Stacey Schaub (a children’s photographer) on Monday morning at 8:00am at FUMC. The photo session was great and I am sure she got some excellent pictures – I cannot wait to see them. We should be getting them soon. Enjoy the pictures and have a great week!

Bye Bye Pacifier!

2010-06-01T20:16:00.005-05:00

Haines had his 12 month check up on Tuesday, May 18th. He weighed 24 lbs 11 oz and was 31.5 inches long. This puts him in the 90-95 percentile for height and the 75 percentile for weight. He sure is thinning out because this is the first time his weight has not been in the 90th percentile or above. I hate that he is losing all of his rolls and sweet baby rolls. It is amazing to see how much his face has changed just in the last few months - you can really tell how it has thinned out more and more. His Dr. appointment went really well and Dr. Simpson was glad to hear that he has been off the bottle for more than a month, was already adjusted to drinking whole milk and was off his formula, has taken a liking to his toothbrush (and cries when you take it away from him), has been walking for the past 3.5 months, and was eating all kinds of table food. Which I am amazed at Haines' appetite, I was just telling Clint tonight that he eats as much as some adults do. I guess he works it off as active as he is.

The main question we had for Dr. Simpson was about his pacifier. He told us that there is a window of time from when they are 10 months old until about 14 months old when it is the easiest to take the pacifier away. He said after that it gets harder and harder because they become more and more dependant on it and then can eventually start asking for it! He said if we could make it through 3 sleepless nights then we should be in the clear and would be home free. What better time to try this out than our long Memorial Day weekend - we figured if we were going to miss out on some sleep then at least it would not be during a work week. To our surprise (especially as much as Haines loves his pacifier) he did quite well. He has not had his pacifier since 5:00 pm on Friday from when I picked him up from daycare. He cried himself to sleep Friday night and the crying lasted at most 20 minutes. The next night he cried about 15 minutes and Sunday night about 10 minutes. He has not cried the last two nights, but I am probably jinxing myself. He has been sleeping through the night and has not skipped a beat during the day. You can tell he wants it when he is tired, but hopefully he has forgotten about it. He is such a trooper and has adjusted so easily to every situation he has faced thus far.

I was so excited to get a call last Wednesday that he was going to be moving up to his next class on June 7th! I could not believe it because I did not think there was going to be a space for him until August. We bought him a napper for his cot - gosh that sounds crazy - our little baby is now a little boy! He drug the napper around all weekend and was so excited, it was as if he knew what it was. He would lay on it and squeal with excitement. In his new class, Busy Bees 2, they sleep on cots and only have one nap time after lunch. They have been adjusting him to the one nap for the last week by keeping him busy in the morning. He has done well because he would rather play than miss out on anything. Also, in his new class they don't sit in high chairs, they sit at a little table with chairs. They also eat off of plates. I really have got to see this for myself. It is amazing the things they teach them at such a young age! We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful daycare facility filled with incredible and loving teachers. We will miss his friends and teachers in Baby Birds 2 immensely, but he is so ready to move up. We are so proud of our little boy and are excited about his transition on Monday!