Jack's 3rd Birthday!!! We love you!

We celebrated Jack's birthday at the bowling alley at his request. He had been bowling one time before this and he really enjoyed it. He can barely pick the ball up but he has the best time watching it roll "sloooooooooowly" down the lane. Thank goodness for gutter blockers! Jack had a dinosaur cake but I am sorry to say that was his second choice. I was unable to fulfill his first request for a "Jonah and the Whale" cake. Let me tell you. I searched high and low. I called every bakery in Columbia and just about every one asked "what kind of cake???" There is a story behind this Jonah and the whale thing. This is Jack's favorite story of all time up to this point. He can tell you the entire story including words and phrases like "Ninevah and the sea will be calm again." He is hilarious. He will also be glad to tell you the story of David and Goliath fully equipped with words like Israelite and Philistine. But back to the birthday.... he had a great time and even enjoyed the dinosaur cake. Happy Birthday buddy, we love you!

Hole in One!!!!

The last day we were at the beach, Patrick played golf with James, Allen and one of Allen's friends. They were on hole 7 at a beautiful golf course called True Blue, Patrick hit his shot and saw it land close to the green. Everyone was apparently trying to find the ball until someone looked in the hole for laughs and saw it in there! Hole in One. Congratulations to my husband who does not get to play golf as often as he should but he may have to start now! Anna insisted on getting him a cake before he got home from golf and we had a small celebration for him.

Family Beach Trip

We went to Garden City Beach last week with the Darby clan. We were busy!!! The kids had a great time because the more excitement the better and there was definitely some excitement. When you have 24 people in one house it gets very interesting. Nobody got sunburned (we love our ONE STEP AHEAD sunsuits, so convenient!!!) and nobody was seriously injured (major accomplishment)! Jack still was not fond of the sea grass, Anna was still a waterbug, and Alec still was not afraid of anything! We were very lucky to have a pool where we were staying and Jack was much more calm in pool water, he must take after me! Looking forward to next year!

For a link to the children's SPF suits:

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=525797&parentCategoryId=100180&categoryId=100182&subCategoryId=100184

Litchfield Trip

The Monday after we returned from Arizona we left for Litchfield Beach for our little family beach trip. We had a wonderful time and pretty much followed the same routine everyday.
AM-beach, naps, PM-beach and waterpark. The kids loved the beach! It was really Alec's first time seeing it and I don't think Jack remembers ever seeing it so it was exciting. Patrick said it looked like Alec was reenacting the baby sea turtles trek to the ocean. He would crawl to the surf and keep going with the waves crashing on top of him, he thought it was hilarious. However, this does not seem to follow the cautious child stereotype! (See Alec is Walking post). Everyone had a blast digging in the sand, building castles and finding sea clams. Patrick and Anna, the waterbugs, spent lots of time out in the waves and left the cautious people up on the beach. Jack had one day where he was not at all pleased with the sea grass that was washing up on the beach. Truly the beach was just about covered in this nastiness. He would have nothing to do with it. He wanted to leave right away and would scream when it came near him! The schedule of that day looked more like AM-pool, nap, PM-pool. Leaving was not fun. Anna and Jack were very sad to be leaving the beach and Alec was sad to be getting in the car period! So we stopped by one of the local "hard to find" Eagles or Wings stores. We bought shells to take home with us so that they could "remember" the beach until we came back in August!!!

Our Arizona Trip

Patrick and I went to Phoenix the last weekend of June for his annual company meeting. Thank you great big to Mom and Teddy for watching the babies! We had a really wonderful time. The resort where we stayed was extremely nice and getting to experience the West for the first time was fun for me! The heat is hard to describe. It was over 110 degrees all the days we were there. When you walk out of the A/C and into the outdoors it feels like stepping into a pre-heated oven, the heat hits you like a wall. It doesn't seem to affect the people who live there. The great thing is there is no humidity, I had 3 great hair days!!! One man who lived there said it hadn't rained since January. Friday, Patrick was in meetings so I shopped and read and relaxed it was so much fun, but I started missing the kids after about 5 hours! I always call too much and they get tired of talking to me. Friday night we had a great company dinner and meeting and I was able to meet all the people Patrick works so close with, they were all very nice. Saturday Patrick and I went to the water park at the resort and acted like college kids. Rode the water slides (I rode the kiddie slide), sun bathed, floated in the lazy river, and drank fruity drinks. The drink we "shared" was called Shark Bait and was served in a plastic fish bowl!!! Very cute! Sunday we flew home and couldn't wait to see Anna, Jack and Alec, four days is the longest we've been away. They were asleep and looked very angelic. We put their "peace offering presents" I mean souvenirs in the bed with them and they very excited when they woke up. I'm sure the excitement was because they were happy to see us and definitely not because of the gifts, hahahahaha!!

The Wizard of Oz

Anna and I were lucky enough to get to go see The Wizard of Oz at the Town Theater last Saturday night (thanks to GG). We had a wonderful girls night out. We ate dinner at the Italian Pie and then headed down to the show. I didn't know if she would be able to stay awake for the whole thing since it didn't even start until 8pm, but she was wide-eyed until 11pm. She loved the show, it was very well done and very much like the movie. Anna told me afterwards that she wanted to do that and she wanted to be Glenda the good witch (probably because of the puffy pink gown and wand). She is signed up for classes at Town Theater starting in September but we have discussed that usually you start off as a munchkin and work your way up to Glenda!

Alec is walking!

Alec has started walking everywhere! He took his time (15.5 months), but he has gone from crawling to almost running. The pediatrician informed us that most children that start walking late end up being "cautious" children, I definitely see this as a good thing, I hope he is cautious at 15 years the way he is at 15 months! He has such a sweet personality already, and can certainly hold his own around Anna and Jack. He is saying "mama, dada, bot bot and ball. The boy loves any kind of ball and already has quite an arm on him. He and Jack already are wrestling and rough housing, I hope they stay such good friends!

Jack is potty trained!!!

Patrick and I have been stressing out all summer over getting Jack potty trained by the time he starts Kathwood, he has to be potty trained to start in the 3 year old room and they didn't have any openings in the 2 year old room. We have been acting like we are calm, cool, and collected to him, trying not to put any pressure on him. I got him some Bob the Builder big boy briefs and he really has done great since then. Bob is placed in a strategic location on the briefs and our ploy was "be sure you don't wet Bob." It worked, he can go to Kathwood!!!! He is so excited about his new school, he already has his Spiderman bookbag and he has decided that his teacher's name is going to be Mrs. Watermelon Head. We don't know who his teacher is yet but I am thinking she may not take too kindly to that name.

Anna's on the St. Joseph website

Please check out the St. Joseph website, our little Anna's picture is in the photo gallery. The link to St. Joseph is on the right sight of the blog. Anna's buddy Reagan is the child to the far right in the middle column.

Coffee seeds

I think most everyone is aware of the fact that I am fully addicted to iced coffee and expresso. I am not particularly partial to any brand in particular except for the fact that STARBUCKS is very close to my house and strong! We have developed a routine in the mornings when I stay at home. The children and I follow Patrick to Starbucks (usually we are not looking our best at this time either) he runs in gets me a Venti Iced coffee with a shot of expresso and I am good for the whole day. I really hope we don't get stopped on the way home from one of these little expeditions because the kids are most always still in pajamas and no shoes wearing half of their breakfast. Unfortunately Anna, Jack, and Alec are fully aware of my habit. Anytime we pass the notorious Starbucks sign they ask if we are stopping. The other day Anna was really wanting to make a trip to the Fresh market (one of their favorite hangouts), her ingenious method to persuade me went like this: "Mom, me and Jack need to go to the Fresh Market and you can get coffee "seeds" I saw them there one time!" She is too smart, and I need to lay off Starbucks. I'm working on it.

It's been a long time!

I am so sorry it has been eons since my last update. It's a short story. The blogger website changed enough to throw me into computer confusion (which doesn't take much by the way) and it has taken me this long to figure it out. I finally just got Patrick to help me. Why didn't I do that to begin with you ask, seeing as though he does that for a living? I don't know maybe because I'm a mother and my brain does not function properly at times!!!!! Anyway a lot has been going on since our last posts. I hope you enjoy all the new stories!

Anna's Birthday Party Photos

Anna's Birthday Party

Alec on the go...

Alec has started crawling in the past few weeks. This afternoon I was out in the backyard taking pictures of the kids. This was taken as Alec was crawing across the yard towards me.

New Years Eve!

We had a wonderful New Years Eve with our little family and some other little families, for a full exciting description and wonderful pictures please visit: www.whatsbakin.blogspot.com

Anna, Jack, Alec update

Anna is now spelling and reading a lot of three letter words, she is determined to be reading by her birthday! She continues to show a lot of interest and talent in art, she draws and paints beautifully. She got her first real haircut, about 3 inches off, she looks so much older now!

Jack is talking so much and has definitely had a verbal explosion. He is talking three sentences at a time now. This is hard to say but Jack got a real haircut too and the curls/rat tail is gone. I fought it as long as I could. But he still looks like a little baby boy so it's okay.

Alec is getting very mobile. He can pull himself to a sitting position from laying down, he has attempted to pull up on a few things and has been trying to get in the crawling position. The second tooth just broke through the gums! He will eat anything he can get his hands on or face in. At a birthday party recently, he very quickly and with conviction grabbed a hand full of birthday cake off of Patrick's plate and shoved it in his mouth before Patrick could do anything!

Reindeer Food

Anna brought home some "reindeer food" that her class had made so that we could leave it out for Rudolph and Blitzen and the gang. A couple days before Christmas a worried Anna came running to tell me that Jack had eaten some reindeer food and something was going to happen to him. I think she was legitimately upset that he might morph into a reindeer or fly away. It is very heartwarming when they are concerned for one another. FYI: Reindeer food is something along the lines of granola and blue cookie sprinkles, but it did look convincing!

Christmas 2006

Okay all of you know that my children do not sleep. They don't sleep as babies and they still don't sleep very much. We don't wake up later than 6 ever!!!!!
But guess what, on Christmas morning they slept. What is that? That was not going to work for Patrick and I however. We woke them up when we woke up. No it was not payback... we couldn't wait to see their little faces when they saw their gifts! Anna was thrilled to see her fully equipped dollhouse, (which Patrick swears I bought for myself), Jack was more excited about his books than his train set, and Alec was very excited about the gift wrap, bows and trash all over the floor! We had a wonderful Christmas, and between Santa and family the kids were spoiled as always. Anna and Jack were very cute on Christmas eve, they were playing in the living room where the tree was. We came in there and Anna had moved the fire place screen out of the way because she was very concerned Santa would not be able to get his bag out. Jack was more concerned that Santa was going to burn his "booty" on the logs. "Booty" is a favorite word around our house these days. By the way, for Santa's snack, the kids left him a Capri Sun and a Hello Kitty poptart.

Jack's tonsils

Okay, I know it has definitely been awhile since I last posted. Jack had his tonsils out on Dec. 13th. It was an emotionally stressful day for everyone and seeing his little body in that tiny hospital gown with the back open and his little diaper showing was almost too much to bear. However, the good thing for him is that he was not stressed because he didn't know to be. He was in surgery all of about 30 minutes, and the doctor said he did great, no complications, what a blessing! Going to recovery to see him was an experience, we could hear him yelling before we even opened the door to the recovery area. He was standing in the gurney fussing at the nurse wanting to be unhooked and released. As soon as I got to hold him and hug him (for the next 4 hours) both of us were incredibly relieved and instantly calmed. He was eating from the time they gave him his first Popsicle. On the Pediatric floor at Richland there are wagons for the parents to wheel the children around in. Jack rode and I walked many a mile on the pedo floor just going from his room to the family refreshment area restocking on frozen desserts. He ate scrambled eggs, zucchini, and a couple french fries on his second day. Now don't be misled, I am not saying he would have won any congeniality awards, because every time he swallowed anything he got mad but the determination won out. He ate it and just kept getting mad.
He was a true trooper and a very good patient to only be two years old, but I guess I am a slight bit biased. It has been about three weeks now and he is fully himself and talking a lot more, the doctor said the size of his tonsils was rare and very impressive. We are glad to have that behind us!