The grate in the hallway

Our house is old. Very old. So old that it pre-dates heat pumps and modern electricity. At this point in the post, my mom is cussing me a little because she was in middle school when the house was built, which means I'm calling her old. Sorry, Mom. Don't fuss.

Anyway, the old furnace grate in the hallway now serves as the air conditioning intake, so it cannot be covered for fear that we will hinder proper air flow. Children who have come through this house over the years have all approached this grate in different ways.

When I was growing up, I always carefully stepped around it, stepping on one tippy-toe on the thin strip of floor that runs along side of the grate (and I still catch myself doing that). Jacks never allowed the grate to hinder his movement, and he generally went right over it as if it wasn't there, even when he was crawling. My parents' dog Abby refuses to walk over it, and she insists on being carried over the grate. I have seen kids leap over the grate, study it carefully before walking over boldly, and some have even taken baby steps along the side with their feet turned sideways.

Nealy has finally been introduced to the grate. She's been crawling for a while, but she has stuck to one side or the other, unsure of her approach. She finally attempted it the other day. By now she's okay with it, and she just goes right across. But for a few days she would finally get the guts to crawl on to the grate, then she would get confused, upset, and stuck until someone came to save her.

That's one more thing to love about living in my grandparents' house - I get to see my children discover the quirks of this house just like I did as a child.

*yes, I realize that I grouped my parents' dog in the "children" category.
**yes, i realize that there is dust and crap hidden beneath the edge of the grate. I'm fine with that, and the fact that I'm not fastidious or OCD makes me like me a lot more.
***I have since observed Nealy Bug's little toes curled into the grate for leverage. This makes me laugh.

Bow head

Nealy doesn't really have enough hair to hold a bow, and the hair she has is super fine. So every time I try to put a bow in her hair, it quickly slides out or it flops over since it is only clinging to about 3 strands of hair. I am going to try to make a little twist of hair and put a bow in there more often, because she is SO CUTE with a bow in her hair - can you stand it?


Her laugh is infectious. See, I'll bet you're laughing right now!

3 parties in 1 day

Every other weekend or so, we are lucky enough to be invited to a baby birthday party or 2. Sometimes it seems stressful, but we are always grateful for the planned activity on an otherwise unplanned day, and we feel blessed to have so many wonderful friends who extend their kindness to us with party invitations.

Well, last weekend was a doozy. Jacks was invited to 3 parties in one day, and we were determined to make all 3.

Some people might think, why would you bother with all of them. What does the kid know? He's 3 for crying out loud, he can't read! Well, no, he can't read invitations, but we wanted to make all three parties. It's always nice to be invited, you know?

The first 2 were at Premier Athletics, which is probably Jacks's favorite place in the world. He had his own tumbling birthday party there, and it has inspired many other friends to host tumbling parties there. We don't begrudge the copy cats at all, in fact we are thrilled to continue to attend parties there. We love the family who runs Premier so we're happy for them to receive the business, and it is a comfortable, familiar place where we all feel at home. Plus, when you have a party there, no one else is there - and by no one else, I mean none of that pesky general public.

Our plan was to stay at Premier straight through for the first 2 parties, then head over to Opelika for the last party at Frog Legs (which is a liability nightmare - a warehouse full of inflatable bounce houses. You basically sign your life away when you walk in the door, but the kids love it because all kids love danger.). Well, the first 2 parties were an hour apart. So, rather than stick it through, we decided to go out for lunch in the interim.
The first party was chock full of Jacks's good friends from school who he knows and loves dearly. Those boys ran and jumped and played and hollered, and they all had a great time. While we were out to lunch, it because pretty apparent that Jacks was going to completely lose it by the end of all this. He was already acting pretty rowdy, and we weren't even 1/3 of the way through.

We returned to Premier, and Jacks quickly fell into party mode. Nealy began to get sleepy and fussy, so I sent Joe home with the little one to nap.

Then I was alone. All alone.

It is a good thing we don't have photographic evidence of this part of the day, because it would reveal an absolutely insane look on Jacks's face from too much stimulation paired with too much cake, and you might see a murderous look in my eye which might prompt you to call some authorities somewhere.

Jacks. Lost. It.

Before the end of party #2, he was completely losing it. I kept asking him if he was ready to go to the 3rd party, to which he firmly declared, "NO MOMMY! I STAY!" This demand was paired with a finger pointed in my face (yes, I know I do a lot of pointing. Yes, I know where he gets it from).

When I finally tore him away from the 2nd party, we were already late to the 3rd. We ran in the door to Frog Legs, quickly signed the waiver, then he was off and running all over that place. I kept hearing him screaming my name, and when I gave him my attention, he said (from inside a bounce house), "It's NOT time to GO, MOMM-MMEEE!!!" I wasn't even attempting to leave, but he was letting me know it was totally not happening.

When the party was finally over (and it was a lovely party - the birthday boy's mother went all out with the Frog theme, and it was darling), I attempted to haul Jacks out about 3 times. He started hiding inside bounce houses and screaming demands at me, which just caused me to want to drink heavily and hide behind my hair. Another mother finally had to snag his arm and hold him down for me to pick him up and haul him to the car kicking and screaming.

About half way home, after he screamed and screamed, he calmed down and said, "I'm sorry I was a bad boy, Mommy. I love you." And all of a sudden, he's my favorite boy again.

Joe's Birthday!

My sweet, amazing, darling husband celebrated yet another birthday yesterday. I'll let you guess how old he is, because he is so devilishly handsome and debonair that it's hard to tell (he's 41).

Poor Joe always gets shorted on birthday gifts from me, because come January 29th, we are basically skint since we haven't been paid in nearly 6 weeks. Don't get me wrong, we are appreciative for the early pay check when it comes to finishing up Christmas shopping, but the last 2 weeks of January always get a little lean.

So, for Joe's birthday I decided to shower him with his favorite foods. My friend Mandi (the cake master) made him a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, I got him a 5 guys double bacon cheeseburger for dinner, and I promised to make boeuf bourguignon on Saturday.

Since he bought me the Julia Child tome "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for Christmas, he has mentioned making boeuf bourguignon at least 985 times. I have caught him thumbing through volume 1 several times, and I am never surprised at which pages appear to be more worn than the rest. The book practically opens to the beef stew section on its own. So, I decided he would finally get his beefy filled wish the day after his birthday.

What he really wanted was a classic Schwinn bicycle. I will get that for him, but just not yet.

For now, he will have to enjoy his strawberry cake and beef delights.
Please enjoy the pics of Jacks fawning over the cake, then putting in as many candles as he could find. We never counted how many there were, but there was quite a large smoke cloud after Joe blew them out.

Happy birthday, darling Joe. I love our small family birthdays we enjoy year after year - a small gathering of my favorite people in the world.
(by the way - I did make the boeuf bourguignon today, and it was amazing. It took me nearly 4 hours to finish, and I hired a baby sitter to help out with the kids for a couple of hours, but I think it was worth it. He has had 2 helpings so far, and he is pleased as punch.)

**if you already read the crossing the grate post - you will notice Miss Nealy's toes curled every so tightly around the edge of her high chair. I'm beginning to notice a trend - little one has to hang on for dear life all the time.

We've seen this before....

Nealy is 9 Months Old!!

Twilight Assignment Update

Well, I'm nearing the end of my deadline to finish all 4 Twilight books by the end of the winter holiday, but I'm not close to actually completing the assignment. I managed to read the first book, with little interest (in fact, I spent most of that book bored out of my mind). And I've read the first 100 pages of the second book, but I'm not anymore interested.
A good friend of mine (who loaned me the books) who has read all four books and loved every minute of them told me that she is falling out of love with the Twilight series. She very cleverly compared the series to New Kids on the Block. You kind of had to be into them when they were hot, or else you never really got it. I think I'm totally feeling that with Twilight.
The whole thing reads like a very tame teenage romance novel, and the vampire story line kind of lives in the background of the primary romance story line. And it's my opinion that you can only talk about one seventeen year old kid living and dying for another seventeen year old kid so much before you reach complete ennui.
I will certainly finish the series - this is my solemn vow, but I'm not promising that I'll like it or get it or catch on anytime soon. In fact, I'm thinking of going out and renting the movie tonight so maybe I can get a better feel for the book? That thought is just about completely crazy - to have to watch a movie adaptation of a book in order to like the book a little more. I'll be sure to keep you posted.