First days of the new season

Fall finally seems to be making an appearance in our fair city. Who knows if it will last, but it sure makes time outside much more enjoyable. As we were out in the yard today I thought it would a great opportunity for a picture of the boys together. Apparently, the pleasant breezes caused me to go crazy and I forgot that that is just not happening. These boys don't stop moving. They walk toward me when I ask them to stop:


The sit on top of me if I sit and try to snap a quick shot (I am laying down in this picture, holding the camera above me):


And then I give up:

The boys are still sitting on me in that pic, too.

Individual shots go a little better...




And if nothing else, Sully enjoyed some attention as the boys happily played with her.




We'll continue our quest for the perfect pictures...


Stay tuned... :)

Coach to Cure MD

This Saturday, September 26 will be the second annual Coach to Cure MD day. Head football coaches for colleges and universities across the country will show their support to finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Coach Spurrier is proudly sporting his patch right now as I type! You've heard me cheer for this cause before as my good friend's son Jake was diagnosed with Duchenne a couple of years ago. It is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood, but it is not the most well known (and therefore, not the most funded in terms of research dollars). I will continue to beg for your support until a cure is found!

It is so easy to make a quick $5 donation to this extremely worthy cause. Simply text the word “CURE” to 90999 to make a one time $5 donation to our cause. When prompted, please reply with YES to confirm your gift. A one-time donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Service is available on most carriers. Donations are collected for the benefit of Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy by the Mobile Giving Foundation and subject to the terms found at www.mGive.com/A. You can unsubscribe at any time by texting STOP to 90999.

Or you can (hopefully) use this little widget below to make it even easier. It's so easy and it's SO very, very needed. Please help Jake and all boys affected by Duchenne. We must find a cure. We just must.

I appreciate your support, either through prayer or financially. Every little bit helps get us closer to a cure. As a mother, particularly of boys, it is easy for this cause to be very close to my heart.

Stepping away from the coupons for an update

I find it funny that my blogging friends are also the same friends who have climbed aboard the couponing bandwagon (I jumped on too!), and suddenly, I see them far more frequently in the grocery stores than in their blogs. The same has obviously happened to me. But now that another triples week has come to a close, I'm going to try to do better with my blogging. Though as a sidenote I should say that at one point last week, after about three grocery trips, I had essentially been paid (through "save $X on your next shopping trip" coupons) $0.48 to take $110.53 of groceries from Harris Teeter. Yes, I EARNED more than I spent. And in the end, I'm on track this month with my goal of spending no more than $50 a week on groceries...and our refrigerator, pantry and house are more full of food than they have ever been. I'm averaging saving about 65% for the month. So HURRAY for couponing...I'm just sorry it has come at the expense of blogging!

So back to what this blog is about... the boys! They are doing great. I don't have a ton of recent pictures, but thought I'd share a few of the ones I do have. Parker is really getting into books. He loudly says something that sounds like "Deed! Deed! Deed!" while handing me a book and he wants to crawl into my lap and read. Sometimes when I am cleaning up or something, he will pick a book out by himself and crawl up in the big chair in the corner and read aloud to himself. It's too cute:


He loves it most though when he can get someone else to read to him...as I see he did when his Aunt Beth came over to watch the game last weekend (I enjoyed a rare night "out" and went to see the game in Columbia with my brother):

He may not look happy there, but I'm sure he was! He was probably annoyed that his Daddy interrupted his reading for a picture. :)

The best part of life around here lately is watching the boys become more of friends. They really are starting to play (and conspire!) more with each other and it's so much fun to see. If I take my eyes off of them for a moment, frequently things will get quiet. I'll peek around the corner to find them chatting away together (as much as that is possible) in some little hideout they have found. The other day it was under the kitchen table.


I think Thomas probably crawled under there to steal Parker's snack from him, but they were playing together too. :)


Thomas is having a great time at school. Every time I go to pick him up he asks when he will be going back. He started his weekly gymnastics class a couple weeks ago (he has it on Wednesday right after his morning class is over...it lasts for about 45 minutes) and I think he is really enjoying that too. I've unfortunately learned to accept that Thomas is just going to be that child who always gets whatever is going around. I think his nose has not stopped running since he started school...but such is life. He did have his first ever experience with discipline at school last week. The teacher said she had to put him in timeout (for 30 seconds!) for throwing a toy. She thought he was doing it playfully with the other children, but said he threw it hard and she had to put him in timeout. Apparently he was quite traumatized by that (she said she thinks it shocked him and straightened him right up!) and he has been a perfect angel in school ever since.

It's sad when things happen and I realize how quickly they are growing. Today they were playing in their little playhouse on the porch and Thomas had to duck to get in the door. I sat there wondering, "When did that happen?" Surely he hasn't always had to duck. I looked at Parker standing in the doorway (of the house) not looking as small as he once did and wondering when he'd have to start ducking, too. I took them both to get their feet measured today as Trey had been insisting that Parker's shoes were too small. Turns out Daddy was right (apparently that does happen!). Poor Parker has been wearing size 5 shoes when he quite clearly measured a definite size 6. Oops. I bought him his first pair of red Keds and found a couple pairs of Thomas' old shoes that are the perfect size, too.

So all in all, life is good. The boys are good, we stay pretty busy and they are very patient (on the whole) with my couponing madness. The good thing about couponing is that it requires that I am extremely organized for my shopping trips and that makes shopping with children much easier anyway. I'll try to do better with blogging...and I'll try to get some new pictures soon too!

More Pawley's pictures

About a month ago, we went back to Pawley's for a daytrip to visit my aunt, uncle, cousins and their spouses (from Virginia). I hadn't seen this family in three years, so it was nice to see them all. My cousin just sent these pictures to me and they were so great, I had to share. Note to self: I want a digital SLR camera! :) (Click on the pics to view them full size)

First, Thomas and his second cousin (or wait, would it be third?), Ty.


Parker did his best to charm the ladies...


He enjoyed playing with some little green army men and everyone enjoyed watching him with his new walking legs.

Ask Parker "Where is your nose?" and he will give you this face:


Thanks Kris for the fantastic pictures! I hope to get the boys up to Virginia soon so they can meet more of their family.

Aspirations

Thomas told me the other day what he wants to be when he grows up.
He said, "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a doctor, a race car driver, a cooker, a hugger, a kisser, a fireman and a policeman. That's what I want to do."

Out of the mouth of babes...

Happy Chick-Fil-A Day...I mean, Labor Day!

A holiday is good, but a holiday with free food is even better! If you haven't gone out today to take advantage of Chick-Fil-A's Labor Day giveaway, there's still time! Put on a school logo and get a free CFA sandwich. Our family of four all donned our school logos and we got four sandwiches for free. Can't beat that!

Even with one drink (I had water and the boys had their water) a medium bowl of fruit and one large order of fries, our total was still less than $6. And the boys had a place to play when they were through.

It was funny to see everyone coming in sporting their schools. I guess everyone loves a bargain! And for the record, I wore a USC shirt and Trey supported Notre Dame. Too bad I didn't have a College of Charleston shirt for one of the boys! As it was, one lady asked, "Now wow! Who exactly do y'all cheer for in your house?"

16 months old!

Parker celebrates his month-day with his "cheese" face...

How is it that Parker is now 16 months old? It certainly does not seem like that long ago that we were bringing him home from the hospital, or introducing him to solids, or watching him learn to commando crawl. And now he is 16 months and pretty much a full-time walker! He is simply growing too fast. I'll have to talk to him about slowing it down a little.


At 16 months Parker:

• Communicates very well. He has many words in his vocabulary, and though some of them most people would not recognize (like "mmma" for "medicine") he certainly has specific words for many, many things. It seems his current favorite animal sound is to say "mmBIT!" when he sees a frog.
• Is teething like mad. Right now he is cutting three molars and one of his front bottom teeth recently broke through. He has been a pathetic, sad little mess these past few days and my heart breaks for him. Poor little guy. He's been crying out during the night (also partly due to the fact that there doesn't appear to be a diaper capable of lasting him all night!), and that's just not like him at all. Once all of these teeth come through, he'll have 12 teeth total.
• Is really walking! He is not completely steady on his feet and he frquently likes to walk with his hands up as if I am holding them, but he is doing really well. He is obviously quite proud of himself too and I love that about him.
• Wants to still nap two times a day, but most of the time I force him to wait for his afternoon nap. He can do it and then he gets a much better afternoon nap, which I think is better for all of us!
• Goes to bed so easily it's remarkable. After so many bedtime and naptime battles with Thomas, it's so foreign to me to be able to put Parker down and he just says "night night" and goes right to sleep. But he does! At night we'll be reading books and eventually he'll get down and walk over to his CD player and turn on the music. Then when he's ready to go to bed, I'll ask him to give me some love and he'll give me a hug and a kiss. Then he'll tell me "bed" and I'll put him his crib and say "good night Parker," and he'll say "night night" to me and lay down and go to sleep. Naps are generally just as easy. Occasionally he'll fuss, but usually by the time I get out the door he is quiet.
• Is becoming quite the ham. As I was taking the pictures for this post, he was a little fussy. He was whining and carrying on, and yet when he saw the red light come on the camera (to indicate that I was about to snap a picture), he stopped fussing and smiled and said, "cheese!" He is always trying to get into something he should not...and he knows it! Here he is, saying "cheese!"

• Shows he is tired quite clearly. You know he is ready to go to bed when you see his right thumb in his mouth and he is using his fingers on his left hand to twirl the curls in the back of his head.
• Eats well, except when it comes to vegetables. He's generally a good eater, but if you try to give him a vegetable of any type, he says "uck!" He will eat sweet potatoes and sweet potato fries, but I can't think of any other vegetable he will eat at this time. Sometimes he'll eat black eyed peas, but he's pretty much sworn off all beans for the time being.
• Wants to feed himself. He makes a mess, but he does not like to be fed with a spoon or fork. It means that he makes an utter mess of things like yogurt, but he's actually getting pretty good with it. Seeing how Thomas still asks us to feed him some things, I suppose it's a good thing that Parker is so independent about it.
• Is really starting to get into books. He gets so excited when I pull out a book to read for him and he loves picking out exactly the one that he wants. Some of his current favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "Moo, Baa, La-La-La."

Here are some other pictures from our little ham...


Still no haircut. I'm still holding out and standing firm. Keep all scissors away from my husband. :)


Parker says, "That's right, Daddy. Love me just the way I am. I'm cute."


Just for fun, here was Thomas at 16 months (in the same outfit):




Some things don't change...


Thomas and Parker make a great duo, and it's fun to see them playing WITH each other, more and more.


A bit of a change from August 2007 (Thomas at 16 months):


Then...and now:


Though this post should be about Parker. :) And again, I must share his cheese face. He loves doing this every time I use the camera lately (excuse the painter's tape behind him. We've been painting trim. Anyone want to buy a house?!):


Three more pictures and then I'm done for the night! First Parker was happy to wear my visor the other day. I thought he looked quite cute (Trey thinks he looks like a girl here!):


Not sure what he was seeing or thinking here, but it sure is funny:


So another month down. Who knows what the next month will hold? Aloha!

First day of 3s school

Last Monday, Thomas started school for the new year. This year he is going three mornings a week instead of two, and he couldn't be happier. On his first day he was very much looking forward to going to school (though his "say cheese" face needs some work!):






I don't know if he's so eager to learn or just so excited about playing with new toys and such, but he couldn't wait to go to school.



And every time he comes home, he asks when he can go to school again. It's amazing to see how much he has grown since his first day of school last year.


Last year, he screamed and cried when I dropped him off in his class. This year, he ran ahead of me and by the time I signed him in, I looked in the class and he was already fitting right in. I had to go over to him to get him to tell me goodbye.


He still doesn't offer much information to me as to what he actually does at school, but I know he has fun and he is always learning new things. I hope he always has such a joy about going to school and learning!