A Dog Called Drop

This is our wonderful, fantastic, super-shedding family dog Beau.  Or as we have always called him, Mr. Beau.

Beau was our first 'baby' together (skyler is more like BT's step daughter :).  He has really turned into the best family dog.  Even though he had some typical sibling jealousy at the start....

He's grown to really love and protect Thomas.  Now they are becoming the fast friends I knew they would.  Thomas absolutely adores Beau.

Our goal was to have Thomas' first word be 'Beau.'  We just thought that would be so cute, and I had a secret agenda. My first word was my grandparents' dog's name: Jaques.  I know, I know.  Pretty strange, but it was.  I always thought how fun it would be if T's first word was his favorite puppy's name too.

Cut to about two weeks ago: he said it!  But not quite how we envisioned it. 

You see, Mr. Beau loves to play fetch with his kong with us. He'll go get his kong, and the following events ensue:

"Mr. Beau bring it to me."

Mr Beau brings us the kong, holding tight onto it with his strong bite.

"Mr. Beau DROP.  Mr. Beau DROP. Mr. Beau DROP."

We normally repeat the above phrase about ten times before he'll actually drop the kong.

Then we throw the kong.  You know the drill.  He goes and gets it, brings it back and the entire scene replays again and again.

Thomas loves it.  He'll squeal and jump and smile the entire time. 

About two weeks ago, he was REALLY taking it in.  Then all of a sudden, there it was:

"DROP!"  He pointed at the dog and smiled. 

It was one of those things, you know what I'm talking about, where you're not QUITE sure if number one, that it was actually a word, and number two, that they cognitively connected the dots.  We can for sure say now, that he got it.  Now, every time he sees Beau..."Drop!" 

This morning I got him out of bed, and Beau, like always, ran in there to see Thomas.  Thomas kicked his legs, smiling, and said hello to Beau: "Drop!"

TOO cute.  Sorry, Mr. Beau.  You will temporarily be called Drop. :)

Baby Dinner Date

Some friends of ours from college, Roderick and Christy, recently moved back to town from St. Louis.  We've been meaning to get together with them, and finally made it happen this week.  The best part about having them back is that they have a daughter just a few months older than Thomas, which means they don't look at us funny when we ask if we can do a get-together at 5:00 in the evening due to his early bedtime.  Caroline Elise goes to bed almost as early as Thomas! 

We also were lucky to have another sorority sister of mine coming through town with her daughter that same day.  Kati and Wesley Kate were driving through Birmingham for a visit and got to eat dinner with the rest of us.  WK and CE are such cute, adorable girls, and it couldn't be more fitting that they're a week apart in age considering their mommas were best friends in college. 

Thomas, of course, was in his rare comedian form.  He gets like that every time he gets an audience.  He also LOVED having two girls to give his attention to :-)

What's cuter than these three???

I'm taking Thomas down to Mobile for the weekend for what I've been calling  mommy/tommy weekend.  We're going to spend some time with my parents, visit with friends, and I'm looking forward to my girls night out tomorrow night with Jess & Elizabeth!  BT is also very much looking forward to his entire weekend to himself!  I'm sure it'll involve lots of sleeping, watching the TV he wants to watch, and disc golf. 

Have a great weekend!

C25K Day 1

Yesterday was my Day One of C25K.  I was really surprised how well I tolerated it!  Of course it doesn't  hurt that there is a FANTASTIC app for it for the i-touch.  It is so simple and easy to use.  Start the workout you are on, your workout playlist that you've made through the app starts to play, and a man's voice will prompt  you when it's time to start walking or running, warm-up, cool-down, etc., so it makes it REALLY fool-proof, super easy for a lazy bones like me.  Plus who doesn't love working out to a little 'run this town' by jay-z and rhianna? 

I did the whole thing, and felt GOOD afterwards.  There was a point right there in the middle where I looked at the clock and thought, 'how can I only be HALFWAY done?'  but then that passed and the last half was actually when I felt the best.  Of course, last night, I was ready to go to bed at eight o'clock, but since my husband would have made fun of me I was able to make it until 9:30 (he deems that a respectable hour, it's interesting when an early bird and a night owl get married :).

So today is a 'rest' day, and I'll do workout 2 tomorrow! 

Don't worry.  I won't record the results of every workout, because I know why you really read this blog, so I won't keep you from seeing too many pictures of thug-life Thomas (BT and I went shopping the other day for him some shoes.  He had to borrow a black footie stocking to try on his shoes with, and this was what I found when I woke up from my nap on Saturday :)

Sorry to Disappoint

Wow, didn't know that many folks would be wondering!  My brother even texted me wanting to know!  Here are the suggestions I got:

-Moving to Mobile
-Buying a minivan
-Going back to school
-Moving to Mobile
-Moving to Mobile

To be fair, I have thought of ALL of those suggestions before.  And they (except for the school thing) are things I swore I would never do, and in even more fairness, are probably all things I will eventually do.  But no, none of those are right.

I've been thinking alot about something a LOT less exciting and life changing.  I'm thinking of starting the Couch to 5k program to really teach myself how to run.  (Like I said, sorry it isn't more exciting for you).  I've always said I hated running, but really, when I'm honest with myself, it comes more down to the fact that I'm just really lazy and a natural couch potato. 

SO...yesterday, whilst biking ten miles on the bike at the gym (yay me!), I decided I needed to take a much more structured approach to getting in shape.  I realized while I DREAD going to the gym, once I'm there, I actually very much enjoy it, and I love the way I feel afterwards.  I've just never been diligent about it at all.  And it's time.  Time to shed the rest of the baby weight.  And time to take a proactive approach that goes against all my baser instincts.  Probably because I was struck by the thought that I can when so many people can't.  And I shouldn't take advantage of my ability to do something and not do it anymore.

So that's it.
I will, however, make myself accountable through this by blogging occasionally on my progress.  So remind me every now and then, if only to hold me accountable.

Sorry it's not more life changing, like a move to Mobile, or, I don't know, a minivan ;-)

Those Toyota Siennas sure are sweet, though.

Been Thinkin...

about doing something I swore I'd never do...

stay tuned.

Flashback Friday

Well, not so much a flashback, but as Harold & The Purple Crayon was my favorite book growing up, and this is my old copy of it, it certainly caused quite a flood of memories when I saw this picture from last weekend.  Gotta say, made me tear up a little bit...

If you haven't read "Harold," or don't have it for your kids, you need to. 

It's magical....

“One night, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight.”

Such simple words to start a book and open a world of imagination.

Can you tell I love this book?

On a side note, I'll have to ask my parents when they painted their bedroom red. 

I must not be much up on the details :-)

T's Big Time

Wanted to share some pictures from T's weekend with the grandparents in Mobile.  He had a blast with them, and of course with his Uncle Myles!  They took him tons of places, to eat at lots of good restaurants, and on plenty of shopping trips!  Of course he got in lots of good time at home too relaxing and playing and eating :)

Jess-I know how much you love his "I'm too sexy face," so here's one from one of their lunches out :)

N'Awlins, Yall...

We're back!  We had a FANTASTIC time in New Orleans.  I can't even tell you how much we needed this.  It was such a great getaway.  Would you believe...I hardly took a picture.  Oh wait, here's one:

That was obviously our view from our carriage ride :)  Pictures were just not our priority.  We've been there, done that.  We just wanted to enjoy our favorite city.  So here's a quick synopsis: we ate.  we ate a lot.  Masperro's creole breakfast, po boys from sugar shack, beignets and cafe au lait, crawfish etoffee from Coop's Place, more po boys, and a DELICIOUS dinner at Scarlett O'Hara's.  It's a fairly new place that we stumbled upon on Saturday and decided to try it Saturday night for dinner.  It was fantastic.  BT had crawfish and tasso beignets, a petit filet on top of a crabcake covered in jalapeno hollandaise, and a fudge brownie with ice cream.  I had a creole tomato salad, honey pecan crusted chicken with roasted potatoes and asparagus, and bananas foster bread pudding for dessert. 

When we weren't eating or sleeping, we went on a carriage ride, took the streetcar to magazine street to walk and check out the shops, and walked and walked and shopped and shopped.  When we weren't doing that, you could find us on our balcony overlooking royal street.  In fact, this is the view:

No pictures of the two of you, you ask?  Nope.  None at all.  I meant to take one at dinner Saturday night and completely forgot.  To me, that's a sign of a great weekend. 

In fact, this is the only one with at least one of us in a picture...waiting to go on our Saturday night date :)

I do know, however, that there are TONS of pictures from Thomas' weekend with my parents.  I'm just waiting on dad to get those to me and I'll post a ton.  He had A BLAST.  And I know they did too.  Thanks again, mom and dad, for keeping our sweet baby this weekend!

I'll see you next year, New Orleans. 

I miss you already....

Little Break

Won't be hearing much from me until next week.

Tomorrow is a busy day of work, getting an oil change for the car, making a wal-mart run, laundry, and packing.

We're headed to Mobile on Thursday to drop of Thomas to visit with his GG and Doc and Uncle Myles for the weekend while we enjoy some much needed time to ourselves in New Orleans.  We'll miss T terribly, but know he's going to have a blast, and know it's time for us to have a BREAK! 

Until then...

Fourth Fun

We didn't have many plans for the fourth weekend.  Mainly just to relax, sleep, eat  and get some  stuff done around the house.  I did, however, plan a quick trip over to Georgia on Saturday to celebrate Amber's little boy Drake's 2nd birthday.  Saturday morning, Thomas, Karen, Kristen, and I loaded up in the car and headed over for the festivities.  We had a great time.  Drake is such a cutie, and he's definitely an energy-filled toddler!

The Birthday Boy!

Thomas had a great time with all his favorite 'aunts' :-)

Of course when Amber, Karen, and Kristen started playing with Thomas, they were bouncing him, and lifting him in the air.  I gave them fair warning what happens when you bounce the spit up monster after he ate. However, Karen didn't seem to listen!

It was HYSTERICAL.

Yesterday was a really relaxed Fourth of July.  We spent the day relaxing and playing around the house.  The highlights of the day for Thomas were his 'picnic' outside on the deck with his toys, Beau, and his puffs and sippy cup.  He had a blast out there, and we only had to cut it short because of the mosquitos.

Learning to share with Beau...

Almost Crawling!

Then later on in the day, Thomas helped BT put his new grill together.  Who knew a box could be so much fun!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Flashback Friday: Siblings

Have I mentioned how much I love these two?  They were my 'first' babies.  It may not look it now, but there's a nine year and eleven year difference.  Felt like a lot back then.  Not so much anymore....

Summer 1989

Spring 2009

Spring 2010