IT'S PAPA'S BIRTHDAY!

WE LOVE YOU!

my little slugger

Happy Weekend Everyone!

I'll be working on learning how to walk at this place called Springtime Tallahassee. Hope to see you there!

prisoner of war

Life with boys....dungeons, prisons, pirates, bad guys, and swords...what more can I really say?

5/6 of a year

Keegan is 10 months old!

Since his illness, he has thinned out a little bit which is helping him crawl and learn to walk. I really think it was all the baby fat that was slowing him down earlier. He also does this sort of thing where he scoots along the floor using his right foot to push off. He does this so much that he has a permanent water blister on his big toe. He is so agreeable and mild-mannered. He just goes with the flow and is such a pleasure in our lives.

Likes: Dancing, laughing, clapping, signing -- especially "milk", taking a bath and singing the Allison Bath Song along the way, practicing walking and then applauding his own efforts, crawling (a.k.a. mopping my floors with his white onsies).

Dislikes: Anything to drink besides milk from the "source". He'll wait all day long until I get home without so much as a sip of anything else.

Vocabulary: dadada, mamama, bububu (brother?), all done.

Thoughts about mommy

I saw this on Facebook, but thought it would be more appropriate to post here. If you have kids of your own or have ever had kids of your own or have ever seen kids in your life, you'll understand that this is an awfully long survey for them to sit for. It cost me 4 jelly beans and a twenty minute game of Hot Hoops to get their cooperation.

1. What is something mom always says to you?

Gavin - you love us

Logan - you love us

2. What makes mom happy?
G - you saying you love us
L – when we play nice

3. What makes mom sad?
G – fighting
L – when we fight

4. How does mom make you laugh?
G – saying funny words when we cry
L – when you say funny words like when you say, well, I can’t really remember.

5. What was mom like as a child?
G – movie, the little toaster (?????????)
L – a princess (good answer, Logan!)

6. How old is mom?
G – don't know, 15 or 50.
L – don't know, 21. No! 31!!!

7. How tall is mom?
G – 30 or 31. Does that make sense?

L – I really don't know. How many more of these questions?

8. What is mom's favorite thing to do?
G – read and check news on the computer
L – read books

9. What does mom do when you're not around?
G – play with Keegan and read
L – mop the floors

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
G – don't know (Actually, he doesn't understand the question, and being the well-trained school psychologist that I am, I cannot bring myself to break standardization and re-phrase it for him).
L – for being your best friend

11. What is mom really good at?
G – reading the news and cutting coupons
L – writing words

12. What is mom not very good at?
G – papers (???)
L – Cooking. Like sometimes you burn yourself.
G – NO! Mommy IS good at cooking.
L – Mommy’s not good at baseball then. Yeah, not at all.

13. What does mom do for her job?
G – work at your school
L – talk to people that are sad because that’s what a psychologist does

14. What is mom's favorite food?
G - broccoli

L – ramen noodles and p-sketti.

15. What makes Mommy proud of you?
G – happy
L – when we play nice and when I play t-ball and when I read to you.

16. If mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
G – don't know, a newsman (Again, he really doesn't understand the question).
L – you'll be on TV on the army show and you can win some money (Can you guess what he's talking about?)

17. What do you and mom do together?
G – read and play
L – play games.

18. How are you and mom the same?
G – don't know
L -- don't know. Geez. This is so boring. How many more?

19. How are you and mom different?
G – we don’t have the same flip flops
L – cause God makes us different, so we are.

20. How do you know mom loves you?
G – cause daddy telled me
L – from being proud of us

21. Where is mom's favorite place to go?
G – Wild Adventures. Can we go there today?
L – Wild Adventures and Universal Studios

Little Leprechauns

Great things come in small packages

He's the smallest one on the team, but his confidence makes up for it! He doesn't have a clue that they're towering over him. In case you're wondering, he had a check-up the day after this practice -- doctor says he's between the 25th and 50th percentile. Part of the reason why he looks so small here is that he barely made the age cut-off. Ok, so that's not entirely true. He DID NOT make the age cut-off, but Jay is extraordinarily good at calling people on the phone and persuading them to do what he wants them to do (think back to his RPOF days...), so I had him call and get Logan on the team. Unfortunately, this means that some of the kids on this team are almost turning 8(!!!!!), but note the puffed chest and pride exuding from my little Cub!

A well-check, followed by a not-so-well-check

Keegan's 9 month check-up!

2/25/2009

Height -- 29 inches
Weight -- 23 lbs, 12 oz.

I'm assuming, by the look on the nurse's face, that both numbers are off-the-chart.

Unfortunately, this smile didn't last for long. The following day (Thursday), Keegan was running a fever and pulling at his ears again. The "tummy issues" were soon to follow (I'm sparing you the graphic details here in an effort to maintain readers) By Saturday, we were back at Urgent Care, since my kids do not get sick enough to go to the doctor unless it's a weekend. Another round of antibiotics for a child that already hates to consume anything besides breast milk. On Monday, I realized it had been a LONG time since he had nursed or had anything at all to drink. Well, really he only nurses. Again, he pretty much hates anything else getting near his mouth. Maybe he likes pizza, but that's pretty much it. So, no water, popsicles, pedialyte, etc. Of course, since he wasn't nursing, he wasn't wetting diapers either, so in we went to see the pediatrician to assess for dehydration. Finally, today (Wednesday), I have good news to report....he's nursing happily again and seems to be getting back to normal, but it was tough goin' there for a while. I'll have to take a picture of him this weekend to show you how thin he looks, especially in the face. His baby fat is starting to disappear and he looks more like a little boy now.

why I don't wash my windows

Can you guess the culprit?

rebel without a cause

In Logan's attempt to rebel against us (I know, he's only 4!), he insists that he loves the Florida Gators thereby successfully crushing my dream of raising three Seminole sports stars/magna cum laude graduates/future doctors and lawyers. To retaliate (and because it's easy and cheap to find around here), I frequently dress him in Garnet and Gold. Check out this Seminole Polo sweater. You can't see the little gold Polo horse, but it's just too cute when he wears it.

Free Ted's burgers!

Fill out an entry for a free Ted's Montana Grill burger here. Or, take the contest seriously and win a car! Better yet, go to http://www.restaurant.com/ for a $25 gift certificate for $5 using the promotional code CHEF.

Like what you see? Click on the "frugal finds" category at the right for more!

**UPDATED**I must go for a run. I must go for a run...

With all this free food I've been getting lately, I've gotta find some time to go for a run...or else.

Free food off the $1 menu at Wendy's here.

Buy one get one free at Denny's here (no, we don't have one here in Tally anymore, but for my non-Tally readers)

And my personal favorite....
Free fondue for two at the Melting Pot here.

**UPDATE** The Melting Pot deal is NOT my favorite anymore. You have to buy dinner in order to get the free fondue, which was misleading on their part. Not a good deal seeing how you have to spend like $75 on food you have to cook yourself (as Jay would say) just to get dessert.

I guess my favorite deal now is the free Quiznos from earlier this week. Tried it yesterday and it worked like a champ. Didn't work so well for Dad. They accused him of photocopying mine. LOL. My was printed from my color printer and his was from his black and white printer. Nevermind the fact that mine had MY name on it and his had HIS name on it.

Want more free food? Check out my posts labeled "Frugal Finds".

BFF

Gavin is very motherly. He's never met a child/animal/stuffed animal he didn't like. And today he asked if we could have another baby. Nah, sorry honey. The next baby that comes around here is probably going to be yours! These two are going to be trouble one day!

He's a natural!

Not even another (yes, ANOTHER) illness could keep this boy from missing his first day of t-ball. We, the proud parents, took 151 photos. Check back tomorrow for photos of my son's natural-born talent! :)

I *heart* free food!

Two delicious free meals that I just had to share....

Free sub from Quiznos here.

Free pancakes at IHOP here.

Taking a time-out from time-out

The timer went off and I called for him to come over and talk to me about why he was sent to time-out. No answer. I called again. No answer. This is what I found.

Can you tell he spends some time here?

Who's spoiling who?

Just another beautiful day spent with two of our favorite people. You gotta love February in Tallahassee where the average high is in the upper 60's and humidity is always low. Kind of makes up for the sweltering Florida heat of June/July/August/September....

Baby Bears

I got a phone call yesterday from Logan's T-ball coach informing us of the practice time, place, and other information. The following is the conversation I had with Logan later that day.

ME: Your T-ball coach called me today.

LOGAN: Why?

ME: To tell me where your practices are going to be.

LOGAN: Where?

ME: Winthrop (their favorite park).

LOGAN: Whoa! Cool! I'm going to play on the playground!!!!

ME: No, you're going to do t-ball.

LOGAN: And play on the playground a lot.

ME: (ignoring this comment) And he told me that you're team name is the Cubs!

LOGAN: What are Cubs?

ME: Baby bears.

LOGAN: EWWWW, NO!!!!! I don't wanna be a BABY bear, I want to be a BIG, SCARY bear. I'm not going to be a Cub.

So Logan's first t-ball experience is going well so far.

Allison Health Update

We finally found out that Keegan has double ear infections. Fun. But at least it's treatable. Now if only he'd take the antibiotics like the good little boy that he usually is so he could get better. For such a mild-mannered child, he really puts up quite the fight when it comes to putting anything in his mouth other than milk. It's not like it even tastes bad, but he spits, thrashes, and screams his way through each dose. Twice a day, for ten days, which will then likely be followed by another round of antibiotics when the infection doesn't clear up since more of it usually ends up on me than in his belly.

We are looking forward to the weekend. I've been sick all week myself, and mom kindly came over on Wednesday for an American-Idol-dishes-washing-children-bathing-laundry-folding party since things were getting seriously out of control in my house. Much better, although there's still plenty of work to be done. Any volunteers!?!?!

Have a great weekend!