A Few Pictures

Blogging With Mamma

Playing with Pop

Teaching Baby Adam how to Play "Cawrs"

Y'all can all stand around if you want, but I'm gonna stack some rocks.

My Mamma & Daddy

Daddy & Uncle Andy Getting Ready for Their Big Date

Playing in the Sand at the Park

Racing My New Cars

Hello, his name is Wilson . . .

. . . and he's been playing with cars for 5 months now.
Let me be the first to admit, we have a problem. (I hear admitting there's a problem is the first step to healing) I was so excited when Wilson first expressed an interest in his toy cars and trucks. It was really fun to see him develop a "hobby" and a vocabulary to match! Just out of now where he started budn', budn'ing one morning and we were off. He started noticing cars on the road, cars on TV, cars on his clothes. Then there were car books, sippy cups and tote bags. We have a fleet of cars and trucks and an identical "mini fleet" that travels in our bag with us everywhere we go. Thank goodness Baby Einstein came out with "On the Go"- we can now combine our TV and car/truck obsessions. We have cars on our big boy underpants that we wear every now and then. He takes a bite out of a sandwich or cracker and with that magical corner missing, wha-la! it's a car zooming across the dinner table able to crash into the toy car that would have to be surgically removed from his hand before he'd put it down to do anything (including eat). He is now talking in his sleep and can be heard over the monitor saying "brrrrrrrrr!beep!beep!cawrs". We go in to check on him and visually he is out cold but make no mistake- it's Talladega and the Indy 500 going on in his head. Last night he woke at around 3 am apparently from a bad dream and could not settle down. I put him in the guest bed with me and he laid down for a while. But you can't keep a racing man down long and before I knew it he was kicking and squirming and then standing up. I quietly said, "Wilson, you need to lay down". He stopped, gave his paci a good suck, knelt down, got nose to nose with me, and very seriously said "CAWRS", gave his paci another good suck, and stood back up. I'm still not sure if this was a threat or a demand. I gave up and put him in bed with his tow truck and he slept until 10 this morning.

I'm writing about this because this addiction has now crept into my life. You see, the garbage truck "Clean Carl" was covered in peanut butter. (I now know that Clean Carl is a misnomer- merely a ploy by the Playskool company to make a big, loud, scary truck fun. Clean Carl does not stay clean nor does he clean himself- do not be fooled by the innocent grin molded into his rubber grill) Peanut butter was in the indentions of his face and doors, stuck in the wheels, and worst of all in the tiny whole in the bottom that serves no purpose other than to retain just enough peanut butter to cause a mold problem. So eager to get Carl back to the fleet, I squeeze him to open the whole and turn it slightly inside out and with a toothpick begin scraping peanut butter out of the whole. I get most of it- but there is just one crumb left- I give Carl one more good squeeze- catching the web of skin between my thumb and forefinger painfully between the only two hard plastic pieces on the whole truck. Faced with the decision to release my own flesh or get the last remaining particle of goo- I choose the goo and a bruise. Someone please help. Is there CA (Caraholics Anonymous) anywhere? Does anyone know if this type of injury could qualify for workmen's comp?

Happy Birthday, Poppie!

This weekend we celebrated Wilson's great-granddaddy Poppie's birthday. Wilson was quite concerned that the cake was "OT!" (HOT!) and did his best to help Poppie blow the candles out. We are so thankful to have so many great grandparents in Wilson's life and really enjoy getting to celebrate all these birthdays.

We are also thankful that the sun has returned. We went for a walk this morning and Wilson screamed bloody murder when we got home- he did not want to come inside. I guess I need to be thinking up some outdoor activities for after naptime- a trip to Target probably doesn't count, right? He played with Pat-Pat last night while mom and dad went to Cups and curled up on a sofa with hot chocolate and an italian cream soda and tried to remembered what life was like B.W. (Before Wilson). We decided that it was much too quiet and very boring without someone screaming for a "tuck" or "cawr" or to get down or get up. But it was very nice to have a continuous conversation and complete multiple thoughts in a row!!

Wilson is now looking forward to a busy weekend with ALL of the Miller side of the family who are coming to town. He is going to get to meet his great aunt Sherry and cousins Charlie and Cole for the first time. He has developed quite a love for burping and trying to mimic other people (aka- Dad) burping. He howls with laughter as they sit at the table trying to top each other. We can't wait to share this time with Uncle Bruce (whom I believe was called uncle stinky as some point!). As an added bonus we're going to get to see uncle Andy, aunt Ashley, and cousin Adam for a little while, too. What fun!!

For Sale

For Sale:
One small and very nosey terrier. He will push small children's doors open with his nose while you're trying to get them back to sleep at 5 am. The noise of the door opening thereby agitating the child and keeping them from falling back to sleep. Not to worry if they should fall back to sleep- this little canine will shake his collar at just the right time, rousing the baby once again.

One crock pot that WILL NOT plug itself in, thus leaving raw meat sitting on your countertop no matter how high you turn the temperature knob. I have found that it works quite nicely if you go ahead and plug it in yourself- if you don't expect much out of your kitchen appliances, this baby's for you.

One blanket of thin yellow dust. Big enough to cover your entire yard, cars, or anything your looking to give that "spring" look to. It can even give you a new look- red swollen eyes, runny sniffly nose, & the voice of someone on a drinking/smoking binge. If this is attractive to you, boy do I have a deal for you.

Updates All Around

This weekend: Wilson woke up at 5 am Saturday morning with a 101 fever. He was very cranky for awhile, but it was nothing that a little Fisher-Price tractor pull in the backyard couldn't cure. He and I stayed home from church on Sunday and slept and then went to the park that afternoon while Dad cleaned up around the house. We ended the weekend with our almost-weekly BYOFP (Bring Your Own Frozen Pizza) at the Wilson's house. This is a fun little ritutal where Phil, Wilson, and I (and the dogs) go to the grandparent's house to catch up on the week. It almost always ends with me having a "discussion" with my son about the importance of not throwing food on the floor or "gucks" at people's heads and my mom having a "discussion" with her son about the importance of this week's upcoming vocabulary quiz and geometry test. Yes, I have become my mom- but stay tuned, we'll both be becoming HER mom soon!!

In the kitchen: Wal-Mart brand (not Great Value- "Wal-Mart") frozen corn bread. I'm sure many of you will dismiss this finding due to it's sweet flavor, corn kernels, and lack of cast iron skillet as Yankee, but I've got to tell you it's quick, easy, and mighty tasty. I was not afraid to serve it to my Bible study group and many went back for seconds.

Mystery solved: I had a quiz all prepared for you, my regulars, on a new word in Wilson's vocabulary that I could not for the life of me figure out. I'll pose the quiz anyway, but the answer is listed at the end. The word is Babu. The options I was tossing around were- a)bubble, b) he's been catching up on his Seinfeld and was concerned about Babu Batt's (Jerry's neighbor and the New Deli Cafe owner) deportation to India, c) if Tatu = tractor then Babu must = bracbor (what the ?!@# is bracbor?). It's actually d) non of the above. Babu is actually bupu with a p or maybe two p's- it's these subtle toddlerese dialect distinctions that I just can't get sorted out. Buppu is clearly supper. So when he says buppu he just means I want to eat.

Why am I blogging at 5:45am and no one but me and the dogs are awake?: I woke up at 4 with the same headache I went to bed with. I fell asleep thinking the headache was just an allergy thing, but now I'm thinking more miagraine, although it's getting better now. I tossed and turned for a while before deciding that I should get some crackers and a ginger ale before this beast turned into the kind that ends with me over the toilet (too much information? it's hard to tell at this hour!) I went in the kitchen to get some saltines, but alas, they had fallen all the way to the back of the almost top shelf of the pantry. In a moment of brief clarity I decided me perched precariously on a kitchen chair reaching into the abyss of the pantry at 4 am spelled disaster and woke Phil to rescue the Premiums from the clutches of staleness in the back of the cabinet. Amazingly, he completed the whole task without even waking up. I headed to the sofa where I pondered a few things . . . this Paid Programming show is awfully popular- it's on every channel, I think it's edged out Law and Order for most recurring title in the line up . . . are Roseanne & Fresh Prince of Bel Aire really TV Classics- I though Nick at Nite was reserved for shows like I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke, maybe an occasional new classic like Cosby . . . where did these dogs come from and how do they exactly where to lay- one on my throbbing head & and one in my rumbling stomach . . . I'm 26 and I still don't get the political jokes on Murphy Brown- if history repeats itself, don't come to me for answers- I still don't have the late '80's figured out . . . why is my left foot wet- apparently Jack "the Paw Licker" Ethridge had been napping on the sofa before I showed up and left his calling card . . . wow, Macy Gray sings the intro for a Nickelodeon (or am I on Disney now) cartoon- talk about a career 180 . . . I hope Wilson sleeps late today because at some point I'm going to quit having these profound thoughts and then I'm going to be really tired.

So now you're caught up. If there are any misspellings in the above please consider the source, the hour, and the fact that Jack is bouncing off my right arm trying to remind me that he's starving to death. Hopefully now that I've gotten all of the above off my chest I can sleep. I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite nephew. He's learned to smile and what a ray of sunshine. What a great reward for all the hard work that goes unappreciated in the first weeks of parenting- hang on tight guys, he's only going to get busier from here & it's a blast!!

The Storms Have Past

and Jack bravely weathered them in the comfort & security of the dryer.

Super Secret Spy School

Hello to all! It's been a little while since we've updated- I hope you're all doing well. This past weekend we went to meet our new cousin Adam. We had a blast meeting the little guy- although I'm not sure Wilson even knew he was there. He spotted the "big truck" in Adam's room at about 12:45 am when we arrived and was hooked on that for the rest of the weekend. We did get to test out Adam's park and Uncle Andy practiced his Kung Fu moves on Wilson while he was in the swing- I wish I had a video of it. I don't know who had a better time. We also got to give the nursery at Adam's church a test drive while aunt Ashley was baptized. Wilson was not impressed at first, but when we picked him up he had, again, found a truck and was also playing with a tiger and giraffe and had recovered nicely from the initial trauma! I got to return the trauma by taking baby Adam's temperature- how shall I say it- through the back door. Something I didn't realize his parents hadn't done before. Adam made it through just fine, but I'm not sure that his daddy did. We are shown below with our new nephew/cousin.

We have been enjoying great weather here over the past few days. We went to the park earlier today before having lunch with Pat Pat and our aunts. Last night we had a great family walk and we spent yesterday afternoon collecting pine cones and monkey grass berries in Granna's back yard.

Another highlight of the past few days is Wilson starting his very own Super Secret Spy School. It has long been known that he was a double agent of some sort, and now it's great to know that he's passing on the know how of his skills to others. 007 may have had some pretty nifty gadgets, but he's got nothing on the puzzle piece phone- Wilson is shown to the left teaching his Nanny the in's and out's of this impressive piece of technology. Look for satellite schools in your area soon!

Well- the tornados are here finally. Wilson is napping and I better go get everything done that requires electricity while we still have it. I guess I also better get to the store. We heard last night on the Discovery Channel that when people are stocking up on supplies for bad weather, Wal-Mart sells out of beer and pop tarts first, and we are fresh out of BOTH! Till next time. . .

TGFG- Thank Goodness for Grannas

We would all like to give a BIG thanks to our Granna. She played with Wilson for several hours yesterday while mom did a month's worth of cleaning and errands. (And all the people said . . . AMEN!) What a hero! She even managed to get a two hour nap out of him (something that has not happened in days). It looks like this has helped to push the sleep "reset" button on our little insomniac. As I type, he is taking the first nap in his bed since last Friday. He has also almost slept through the night two nights in a row. He woke up last night freezing because I had left the fan on. So we snuggled up on the sofa in one of his fleecy blankets and he fell back asleep. I was even able to get him back into his bed with out too much protest.

What's next on our superhero's list. Why, she's keeping the dogs while we take a quick trip up to Franklin. Another HUGE thanks. We are going to get to meet our new cousin Adam and see our Aunt Ashley be baptized. We're so excited! I'm pleased to say Jack & Tate both had a bath this morning and their beds were washed yesterday- now if they're behavior at Super Granna's can be as sweet smelling!

Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures to post after our getaway- maybe we'll even get some of the cousins doing some itsy bitsy yoga!

Love to all!!