pulling the wool over your eyes

Once upon a time, there was a sheep skin rug. It was a beautiful sheep skin rug, brought back to the USA from the far away land of Australia. Great Grandmommy and Great Grandaddy Sanders brought the rug back with them after one of their grand adventures. Their young grandchildren loved this sheep skin rug. They would lay upon the rug and roll around on the rug and rub their cheeks on the rug and fall asleep on the rug. It was one of the favorite things to do at Great Grandmommy and Great Grandaddy Sanders house.

After a while, the grandchildren all grew up. They no longer laid around on the rug, rubbing and sleeping. The rug was sad and lonely. It sat, alone, upstairs in Great Grandmommy and Great Grandaddy's house.

Until one day... a new Great Grandchild came to visit for the very first time. He was but a young lad, no more than 5 months in age. His Great Grandmommy and Great Grandaddy loved watching him squirm and wriggle on the floor, squealing and giggling with joy. Great Grandaddy had an idea. He said, "I have just the thing... this boy will love! Stay there, I shall return!"

Return he did... with the long lost Sheep Skin rug! He laid the rug upon the floor and put the young tot right in the middle of all the soft fuzzy wonderfulness. LittleMrPerfect didn't know what to do with himself. It was so fuzzy and warm and soft and, did I mention, FUZZY?! He was instantly in love. So Great Grandaddy sent the coveted rug home with his Grandaughter and her young one.

The rug found its way to the living room floor in a land called Kernersville, NC. The young tot was placed upon the fuzz one evening just before bath time. He decided he wanted to squiggle and squirm his way off the rug. Maybe take a taste or two of the Sheep Skin rug. He found great joy in this. And once off the rug... he proceeded to pull the rug completely over the top of himself. And even after his mother pulled the rug off of him, he managed to pull it right back over himself... until all you could make out were his little feet.

And the Sheep Skin rug was once again loved... and feeling very content with life.

The end.

a meeting of the generations

So here are a few shots from today...
After over a week, being thinned out by over half the blooms... My anni lilies are still absolutely beautiful! And there are 3 blossoms that are getting ready to open up still! Thank you again, baby!






















and here we see some photos of Caden with his Great Grandparents. Aunt Lizzy and I drove out to KY to see them on Mon. The trip out was rough, but Caden was REALLY good on the trip back. (thankfully). Anyway, Great Grandmommy and Great Grandaddy were really happy to see us and thrilled to be meeting this new great grandson. Michael, they send their love and can't wait to see you again when you return to Campbell.

Here is a before and after shot of my haircut this morning. I told Greg to do whatever he wanted with it as long as he cut it off. Personally, I think it looks pretty cute.

raising the bar...

So it's almost time to raise the bars on the crib. I awoke yesterday to a little monkey just talking away in his crib. I laid there listening to him for a while in the dark before making any movements. Then I looked over to the crib and saw the top of this little face. There were 2 eyes and a nose peeking over the rails of the crib looking at me. And then a little hand came up over the rail. And the face rose a bit higher... revealing a perfect little mouth. He looked around the room. Talked a little bit. Then collapsed back down in the crib. It wasn't long before the show started again. He proceeded with this pulling up, looking around, then collapsing to rest many times. I watched him for a good 15 min. Once I got the camera, he just looked at me expecting to be picked up. His spacial awareness has really improved. I will try and catch him in action in the next few mornings. (I am keeping the camera in bed with me... so I don't have to get up and distract him). In the mean time... some pictures. :)

spit and roll

So here are a few clips from earlier this afternoon. I wanted to capture Caden rolling over for you on video. I did eventually catch it... but there were some cries and spitting up before I was successful. Silly little boy! He's always full of surprises. And full of liquid... that he likes to share with me in one form or another. Never a dull moment around here... Now back to washing my sheets...

stargazer

aren't my anni lilies beautiful! my champion has amazing taste in flowers *he knows what i like*! I love you darling... thank you for the beautiful flowers. they continue to open up and bring a smile to my face. of course, the little monkey just wants to touch them and pull them out of the vase... oh well. :)


on another note... here's a little story. so last night, i laid the little one to sleep on his tummy (as he sleeps longer that way). he woke up around 4:15am wanting to eat. i got up to get him, only to find that he had inched his way up into the corner of the crib (yet again). well, this time he had found his passie and was in the process of putting it in his mouth. now, this is impressive for many reasons. 1. he has rejected his passie for the last several weeks, so it's just sat in the corner of his crib untouched. (i admit, i am glad he isn't taking it anymore). 2. he managed to grab on to it in the dark and get it to his mouth. I'm impressed. he's amazing.

it's done!

ok, i did it. i cut his hair. turns out it is as blonde under there as it appeared to be. strawberry blonde in fact. personally, i think he looks younger. as does gmommy. aunt lizzy wasn't happy to see that i had cut it. oh well. the damage is done. and he's still really cute! he's presently stomping and bouncing in his jumper in the kitchen. and talking up a storm to gmommy while dinner is being prepared. guess i should go help...

Michael, you are my hero and my champion. thank you for taking such good care of me and standing up to those mean cc people. i really do appreciate it.

the question at hand

To snip his hair, or not to snip his hair... that is the question. Gmommy says YES... that hair is in his eyes and all in his ears. I don't know. I don't know if I can bring myself to do it. She's right, of course. His hair has gotten really long. In many spots, it's longer than my hair. And I am going to get mine cut here pretty soon. So what do you think? Do I trim it up, or just leave it alone?

a few new tricks

so this is something that has been getting more and more obvious in the last week or so... Mommy trying to eat, and Caden grabbing whatever it is that Mommy has and trying to get it into his mouth. At the beach, he did it with a (couple of) peach(es). I did let him suck on a lemon wedge. He liked it. He went back for more. Had to stop that when he started rubbing his face... can't get lemon juice in the eyes... that doesn't make for a happy baby! But, the point being that he is displaying the signs of "it's time to start on solid foods". I have been avoiding this for as long as possible. The dr said i could get him started, well, 2 months ago. But I really wanted him to stick with the exclusive nursing as long as possible. It helps with not getting food allergies, helps build strong immune systems, it's perfectly balanced for his digestive system, it's inexpensive, etc. But now that he's getting close to sitting on his own, is grabbing for whatever it is that i'm trying to eat, and is totally gumming my knuckles now... i think the time is almost upon us. Our little boy is growing up! To give you a preview of what I'm talking about, these 2 videos are from this afternoon. Yes, we were bad and went to Sonic for shakes. I know, I know, totally not good for me... yes, I am fully aware. But that isn't the point. The whole time i was sitting there drinking the thing, the boy wonder kept grabbing for it, licking and drooling on my straw, and yelling at me when i wouldn't give it to him. So here ya go... make note of the serious tongue action!
A side note, before I forget... he is also responding to voices now. When he hears my voice, he talks back or turns to see where I am. He does it for the others in the house as well. Especially Daddy and David. It's funny to see how differently his responses are to them compared to Mom, Liz and me.

And earlier in the day... we had him in his bouncer and he was jumping all over the place. Not particularly talkative... but definitely getting more comfortable bouncing around on his own. I am still working on getting a REALLY good video of this, but he just doesn't bounce on demand. Oh well. Maybe he's not a male model after all! :) (Then again, that's not such a bad thing, is it!) So here are a few clips of his bouncing escapades this afternoon. I am hoping to get a video of him flipping over for you soon. But like bouncing, he doesn't flip on demand. Liz is right, he's going to hate cameras when he gets older! oh well...
and while i know this is video overload... oh well! :P

he did it!

So the little monkey rolled over yesterday for the first time (unassisted). He did it twice. From his belly to his back. He has almost gone from his back to his belly... but not quite. He gets almost all the way over, looks at me, smiles and then rolls back to his back. He's such a cutie. Hopefully when we get home tonight, he will do it again and I will catch it on the camera. We will see though. I did something to my back yesterday, so I'm not so apt to getting on the floor just yet. (as I don't know if I will be able to get back up). Think it's just a muscle spasm, but it's still a pain. (literally!) oh well.

We are off to catch the ferry back to the mainland in about an hour. Michael, I will have my cell on in about 30 min or so. Mom, I want to know why it is that you aren't flying into Gboro! I'm bummed! We were really looking forward to seeing you! Ok... final packing to finish up. Will get fresh pics up tomorrow when I'm at home. :) Love you!

rain, rain, go away!

So it's been raining today... ALL day. Bummer! Oh well... took some pics anyway! The one of the porch, I don't know that you can see it in the smaller version, but there is a huge line of water falling off the roof right in the middle of the steps. Sorry I missed your call, baby! Gdaddy got him his 1st BHI shirt today. Will get him in it once he gets a bit bigger... :)should only take a day or 2, right?! OH, by the by... it looks like we are heading home on Fri, rather than Sat. So I will be back on my cell as of Fri afternoon, baby. :) And Mom, I am assuming that you are still coming on Sun, right?

another day at the beach

Here are a few shots from today: I love you my Champion!

of course there was a point where he fell asleep at the beach... ha!

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Happy 2nd Anni baby! It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years already! But outstanding! I can't wait to get you home again and be a whole family! I will get the boy out for another photo op once he wakes up. Hopefully we will actually make it out to the beach today! I need to feel the sand between my toes. :)

the little stinker bug!

So we went for a walk today. As he just wouldn't take a nap at the house, I gave up on making him stay down. (after 3 hours of trying, i finally took the hint). So on our first walk, we were going to go up to the lighthouse to take some photos and drop a package off at the post office for daddy. But don't you know, he fell asleep! So we walked back home. No sooner had I brought him into the house than he woke up! So after finally getting him down for about 20 min, we went for another walk. Up to the harbor to take some pics. As you can see, he stayed awake for those. But within 5 min of these shots, you will see that he knocked out in his stroller yet again. And he slept the 45 min it took me to walk home. But as soon as I stepped into the house with him, he woke up! AGH! Yeah, thus the reason there was nothing written until today (tues). Oh well... It was a good day. He's down for a nap now, so hopefully when we hit the beach this afternoon, he will stay awake... we will see! :)

a few shots at the harbor...
chillin' like villains
gotta get some singles shots...
yup, he looks good, and he knows it!
on the porch at home... right before the stinker woke up again
fast asleep in his stroller! i felt kinda bad that he couldn't recline and really stretch out while he slept. oh well.