Out of the mouths of babes--May

The quotes are few this month, but the pictures are plenty. So I'm throwing them in, too. Enjoy.

5/6--Something you don't hear from your son every day, "Dad, my pig just exploded!" And unfortunately, he was right. B had this squeezable pig filled with some sort of gel and it ruptured all over his sheets, comforter, etc. Bleck.

He can also catch a football in mid-air.

5/10--Today was kind of a lame Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong, Andrew did his part--wonderful gift, pancakes for breakfast, cooked the dinner of my choosing.... But Brandon was sick and I had to stay home from church with him and my nephew Carson and Caroline. Not my idea of fun. Or Brandon's.

Anyway, to top it off, here were two of the things my kids had to say to me today.

B: "You have chicken pox!"

He was referring to the unusual outbreak of zits I have on my chin.

Um, yea. I noticed.

W: "You're not cute."
When I responded with my pouty face she came back with,
"You're PRETTY, not cute."
Well...thanks?

Happy Mother's Day to Me

5/14 Carson has been staying with us this week. When Andrew got home from work, he was asking Whitney what she and Carson did today. "We played vampires. Carson was Edward and I was Bella." Whoa.

Maybe this is a scene from the fifth book
in the Twilight series where Edward and Bella
attend veterinary school together?

Speaking of Twilight,
after a ride home with the windows down,
Brandon looked like this:
Now that's an Edward bouffant if I've ever seen one!

And he used these goldfish as fangs and said,
"Mom, take a picture. I'm a vampire!"

5/19 While eating pretzels today, Whitney bit one into a little circle and said,

"Look, Mom! It's my monocle!"
What is it with this girl and monocles?

5/20 Breakfast table conversation this morning.
Me: Did you have any dreams last night?
W: No. I'm all out of dreams.
Me: Uh oh. What are you going to do about that?
W: I guess I need to go buy some more.
Me: Where do you do that?
W: There's a store in my closet called "Dream Sell." They sell dreams.

I wonder which dreams are on clearance this week.

Later we were talking about when Whitney was a baby.
She said, "When I was a baby Caroline was still in heaven. Then she got into your tummy. Then she popped out just like popcorn pops out of a bag." Oh, sweetheart. I wish it was that easy.

Future OB/GYN?

5/31--As the weather has started warming up, there have been a few times when we've gotten into the van and it has been very hot. This is how Whitney described it, "It's as hot as a fire...or as hot as the sun...or as hot as a fire on the sun!"

Random pics of B

He's turning into such a big kid.
He's all skinny and masculine.
Not a little boy anymore.

He's playing baseball on the Terrapins this year.

Loves it. Especially playing infield.

Did awesome singing and saying his lines in the
2nd grade program at school.

Got absolutely SOAKED on the 1/2 block
walk home from the bus stop one day.

Random pics of W

She saw a girl doing handstands
in the park as we were passing by.
Decided to try her own headstand
and did pretty good, huh?

Weee!

Caroline pics

I just love to kiss her little cheeks!

Enjoys my Gerbera daisies almost as much as I do.

She's finally growing some hair and it's curly
in the back. Too cute!

I'm sure this is NOT the intended use
of her stroller. Please make it through
toddler-hood without a broken bone!

Future cop?

And, finally, this is for you, Gigi.
A pic of all the Gerber grandkids together.
It could be a long time before we get another
one like this. We miss you, Carson and Sydney!

Home Improvement

I'm SO into little home improvement projects right now.

Yes, there are piles of laundry and dishes that need to be done.

Yes, I'm still behind on the persuasive writing class I'm supposed to be taking right now.

Yes, my bedroom is a disaster.

But....

This is what my front door

used to look like:

Notice all the brass fixtures.


And this is what it looks like now:

I like oil rubbed bronze.
How about you?

This is what my garage used to look like:

So much wasted space!
And this is the wall we walk past every
time we get out of the car and into the house.

So I took everything down.

And built this lovely shelving system
from Ikea. It's called the Broder.
It's like a new member of the family.
We love Broder--especially the
shoe storage feature.

And my favorite little project:

A vinyl headboard.
We bought a Sleep Number bed last year
to help with Andrew's back. We LOVE the
bed, but it's not a traditional frame and I wasn't
sure what to do about a headboard.
Then Andrew got Belvedere Designs
to sponsor his blog and I had them make
this headboard for me. I think it's so cute.
It makes me smile.

Now I'm in the midst of the Great Doorknob Revolution of 2009. I'm getting rid of all the brass doorknobs (and hopefully the hinges, too) and replacing with the dark bronze. Wish me luck. Six down, three to go.

And if I could just figure out how to replace the light bulb WAY at the top of our vaulted ceiling, I'd really be a happy girl.

Gerber baby?

It is really uncanny how often I hear that Caroline
looks "just like a Gerber baby!"

What do you think?

Five year old girl

My life is flying by and I'm missing out on documenting some of the important things.

Like Whitney turning five.

Five!

In some ways hard to believe, in other ways, she already seems like a pre-teen.

I thought I better capture some of her strengths and talents,
quirks and foibles at this age...before they slip from memory.

*Whit loves music. She loves singing,

dancing,
and almost always has a CD going on
in the background if she's playing inside.

*She is a GREAT helper.

She loves to help in the kitchen.

And out in the garden, too.
But she hates cleaning up her room at night.

*She can do puzzles for an hour and not get bored.
Sometimes she'll be up in the bonus room quietly playing.
When I go to check on her, I'll find six or seven puzzles
put together on the floor.
(No wonder she hates cleaning, right?)

*She is a girly-girl and loves to get dressed up.

And she can sure come up with some interesting outfits.
I do my best to restrain my opinions and just let her be herself.

*She loves to laugh and be silly.

Especially with her dad and big brother.
She and Brandon fight and argue A LOT,
but they can also crack each other up.

She's really into knock-knock jokes right now.

*Loves to go to the mall and try on clothes there.
Doesn't mind at all if we don't buy anything.

*Is getting more and more comfortable on her "Big girl" bike.
But not ready to take off those training wheels yet.

*Is a wonderful big sister.
Helps take care of Caroline.
Loves to share treats with her.
Tries to help keep her safe.

*She's tall. Very tall. Like 90th percentile.
The height predictor estimates she'll be 5'9".
Just like me.

*She has always had a very sweet disposition...
but over the past couple of months has started
getting some attitude with us. It's so sad.
I'm hoping it's a phase. A short-lived one.

*She loves preschool and always looks forward to going.
She is learning to read and it's exciting to hear her
sounding things out. I'll miss her when she starts
kindergarten in the fall, but she can't wait to ride
the bus with her big brother.

*She is a great eater and will eat
just about anything I put in front of her.
Especially loves pasta, waffles, and fruit.
(Strawberries, pineapple, melon.)

*She has a zest for life that is contagious.
She spreads happiness to everyone around her.
I'm so blessed to be her mom.

Beautiful Spring

About a month ago when we were on our

traditional Sunday afternoon walk,
I took this picture.

I was so excited that I could start seeing the green leaves popping out of the trees.

Look what happened in three weeks!
Same cul de sac.
Gorgeous.

I love, Love, LOVE spring in NC.
Of course, I don't suffer from seasonal allergies.
If I did, I might have a different opinion.

This is the view from my back patio.

Here are my very favorite trees--dogwoods.
(Not mine...we don't have any.)

White dogwoods up close

And some pink ones, too.

I LOVE irises, too.
(But I bought some cut ones earlier this week
and they died super fast. Is there a trick I
don't know about, or do they always do that?)

I even enjoy driving on the freeway.
The lovely green corridor makes me happy.

Anyone wanna come visit?

We heart our doctors

We had two good visits with doctors yesterday. It's always nice when they can give you good news.

First up, Whit got to see her BOY-friend, Dr. Buckley. The first thing he said when he walked in,

"Hi there, pretty girl."
She was on cloud nine!

So we have not been patching or doing any sort of treatment on her eyes over the past three months. I was terrified that her vision was going to drop significantly, but it stayed the same as last visit--20/30 in both eyes! Hooray! No tan lines from patching this summer!

He is still concerned about her alignment. When she looks to the right, her eyes diverge quite a bit. He's thinking she may need another surgery down the road to get them better aligned. I was just so happy that her vision was good, so I asked him why would he operate again. He gave two reasons: 1. appearance 2. binocular vision. I don't think I'd let her go under the knife again just for appearance. I feel like to anyone who doesn't know she has a problem, the misalignment is subtle. But I DO wish she had a wider range of binocular vision (using both eyes together). So we'll have to see what comes of that down the road.

Andrew also had a good visit with his orthopedist yesterday. He said it is encouraging that the pain is localized to his lower back area and not radiating down his leg. That shows that there's not significant pressure being put on the nerve from the herniated disc. So we're not looking at surgery right now.

He still experiences a lot of pain constantly, but it's better than it has been in months. The doctor wants him to keep doing his back exercises, add cardio three times a week, and come back to see him in three months. Hopefully he'll have some relief by then.

Out of the mouths of babes--April

So I've been

relaxing at the beach...

oh, er, I mean working on my continuing ed
for my dental hygiene license.

OK, maybe a little of both.

We just got back into town so this month's OOMB is a couple of days late.

4/4--We were at a party where angel food cake was being served. I overheard Whit tell one of the other kids, "Do you know what it's made out of? Dead angels. And those aren't strawberries. They're angel blood!"

She appears to be so graceful and feminine...
who knew she had such a dark side?

4/4--Same party, Brandon grabbed this toy broom and a ball and said,

"Mom, I'm playing Quidditch!"

Ya think he's been reading a bit of Harry Potter?

4/4--Tonight Whit made a wish on the first star in the night sky: "I wish when I get home, there will be a real unicorn waiting for me and I can ride it to school every day."

4/6--Sometimes I wonder if W is from another time period. She uses words like "splendid" and "sundown."

And she's constantly swooning.

4/11--Here are the lyrics to Whit's latest original song:
I won't give up.
I swear that's true.
I love you.
So you keep your eyes on the prize
And I'll keep my eyes on you!

Or at least we thought it was an original. And we were SOOO impressed. The next day she told me she got that last line from a Barbie movie. Dang. We were seeing professional songwriting in her near future.

4/12--Speaking of future careers, Andrew was talking to Brandon today after church about what he could be when he grows up.
Andrew: You are so smart and so hard working, you can be anything you want when you grow up!
B: You think I could be anything? Maybe I'll be a bank robber.
Me: And you could also get arrested and spend lots of time in prison, which I hear isn't a lot of fun.
B: Maybe I could call the police and tell them that I'm going to rob a bank just to show the bank how I could get through their security system.

Future bank robber?

Yikes.

And later on in the day, he threw this out there:
B: I want to be a stay-at-home-dad when I grow up.
Andrew: Let me guess, but you'd have no kids?
B: Right.
Andrew: Why would you want to stay at home?
B: So I could play video games and eat candy all day.

I guess he figured me out. That's what I do ALL DAY LONG!!!

Maybe if the bank robber and stay-at-home
dad fall through, the Harlem Globetrotters
might want him?

4/17--This is a picture in the bathroom of a Quiznos in Virginia.

Whit's first observation?
"Look, Mom! He's wearing a monocle!"

4/20-Whit hurt herself on the back of her leg and was trying to describe the exact location. It was the part where her leg bends and she said, "It hurts in my leg pit!"

4/20--The questions my kids come up with really stump me sometimes. Today W asked, "Mom, what's dignity?" How would you respond to that on the spot?

4/21--And today she had another one, "What does 'Cindy advice' mean?"
Me: Where did you hear that?
W: On the Stuart Little CD. It says, "Hurry and Cindy advice."
Me: I have no idea what that means.
W: Grown-ups are supposed to know everything!

Uh oh. I'm busted.

4/21--As we were driving down the street here in our neighborhood Whit shouted, "I just saw an emu on the sidewalk!" That's a new one.

4/22--Getting ready for bed, W said, "I don't feel normal."
Me: What's wrong?
W: My bottom feels like roast chicken.
I have no idea how to respond to that.

4/24--When it was time for Brandon's hair cut this month, he convinced me to leave the top long and just trim the sides and back.

He said it was because he likes to spike it.

Well, he came home from school today and said, "Kaylee says I look just like Edward with my new haircut."
Me: Edward who?
B: The guy from Twilight!
Me: Has Kaylee seen Twilight?
B: I don't know.

Uh oh. I might have to keep an eye on this Kaylee chick.

4/25--Deep thoughts by Whitney: I don't think people poop in heaven.
Drew: Why not?
Whit: Because we want to keep heaven clean.

Gotta keep things clean.
Especially teeth.
(A girl after my own heart!)

And now for the bonus pics of Caroline.

My mom bought this bunny outfit for B when
he was a baby. It makes us laugh. Had to
put Care Bear in it for Easter.

She has turned into a perpetual mess-maker.
You can't take your eyes off her!

And she has started saying her first two words.
The first one? Da da.
How sweet is that?
(But I'll admit I'm a little jealous that I spend ALL
DAY with her and she says Da da first.)

Her second word?
Bye.
Or I should say, "Ba-ah."
She says it while waving and has a total
Southern accent. TOOO cute!