"Boo, Boo!"

We have gone through a few different phases in Bennett's bedtime routine. From the time that he was about 8 or 9 months old until he was about 18 months old, we read two or three books each night before he laid down.

Some time around 18 months, he refused to sit in my lap and read a book. Instead, he wanted to face me and lay on my shoulder. So that's when I started singing to him each night. It was too hard to try to read a book with him like that so I figured, okay, we'll have some music appreciation time. Ha - like I need to be that kind of an instructor. For now, I'll do.

So for the last 6 months, every single night before bed he lays on me and I sing three or four songs before laying him down. Every once in a while I would try to sit him in my lap and get a book, but he would fuss and turn himself around. Also in this time, he developed a need for his stuffed animals. He has a little dog, cat, and pig that are regulars in his crib. Maybe not all at once, but always at least one of them. Lately, his favorite has been the cat. There were a couple nights that we didn't have the cat (we left it at my parents), and he would lie there looking at me going, "Mow. Mow. Mow." He never got upset about not having it, thankfully, but it was still sad to close the door on that sad little 'Mow.'

In the last month or so, he has gotten interested in the books again. No more singing at bed time. We're back to reading a few stories before he lays down.

Not only is he back into wanting to read a book before he goes to bed, but the last few nights after I put him in the bed, he calls out, "Boo! Boo!" It didn't take me long to figure out that he wanted to take a book to bed with him.

So, here's his new bedtime set up:

On a related note, Josh has this week off from work and we have decided that we're going to spend some time cleaning out the office upstairs in preparation to move it downstairs. The office will become Bennett's room and the baby will take what is now Bennett's room.

I'm excited about this transition, especially because it means Bennett is about to get a big boy bed! Let's hope he does well with that one...

Also, if you're wondering about the chipped paint on his crib in the picture above, let me remind you. Yeah. He was Bennett the Beaver for a while there.

Birthdays and Christmas

We've had a great past two weeks with my birthday, Bennett's birthday and Christmas.

For my birthday dinner, I had a great time with Josh, Greg and a few close friends eating tapas at Loca Luna in Atlanta. Very, very nice. And what a nice surprise that one of my girlfriends who couldn't make it called the restaurant and had two pitchers of sangria waiting for us at the table! Love you, Annie! :)

I took some cupcakes to Montessori for Bennett and his classmates to enjoy on his birthday. Here he is waiting patiently for what turned out to be pretty sad little cupcakes. The teachers asked that I put little or no icing on them, so they just each had a letter and all of them together spelled out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENNETT." The icing was a light orange that pretty much got lost on the yellow cake. Oh well.

Fortunately, I had the motivation and energy to make up for it with his actual birthday cake. We had a very small get-together the Saturday after his birthday, and I made a Sesame Street cake for him. I did the signs on the side of the cake no problem, but started getting nervous about free-handing the characters on the top. Josh is pretty talented when it comes to stuff like that, so I asked him to just draw out the shapes of the heads for me. He said, "I will if you want me to, but I feel like you'll be more proud if you can say you did it all." Ugh! Darn him for being right!

So I did it, and while the colors are kind of off, I am pretty happy that I was able to create this:


He didn't care much about what it looked like, he just wanted to eat it. All he said was, "Mmmmmm!" And he was very focused on that wish he was making...


Oh, and I should probably mention that using baking powder that expired in February of 2007 is NOT OK. I'm embarrassed to even admit that I had something so out of date, but I honestly had no idea it was that old. It definitely made a difference. The cake was like a brick. It was the absolute farthest thing from fluffy. Mama said, "It's like there's not any levening in it." I said, "I put baking powder in it, and I know I put it in there, because I clearly remember having to scrape the teaspoon around in it to get it to come loose 'cause it was kind of hardened in the can." Ding, ding, ding! Yeah, uttering those words made me go check the can. Oops.

Poppa and Grandmama gave him a workbench that is quite awesome.


Pop and Gigi gave him a drum that came with a tambourine, harmonica and a recorder. The very next day he took those drumsticks in the other room and started paying on Josh's real drum set with them. Hey- can't beat the real thing!

*I should add that the real drums do not take the place of the toy drum, by any means. He just knows that there are more than one instrument on which to use his new drumsticks. :)

Elizabeth had just as much fun playing with the boxes. Josh made a ride out of it.


Make that two rides.


And unfortunately, I feel like I need to be honest and let you know that about half of the time was spent with Bennett like this:


Yeah, he's getting very good at fit-throwing.

So after the birthdays came Christmas Eve. We spent that evening at my parents house. Mama fixed a great meal of green beans, corn, dressing and gravy, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and I think there was some kind of meat, but who cares about the meat? Oh, everybody but me? Oh well. If you know me, you know how I love my veggies. Mmm.

And I usually pass up the dessert too, in order to have more room for a second round of vegetables, casseroles, and gravy. NOT THIS TIME.

Ohhhhhh, man. About a month ago, I told Mama that I overheard Greg talking to someone about how his mom used to make him a cheesecake every Christmas, but that she hasn't in a long time. He wasn't at all complaining, they were just discussing old traditions and what they remember about Christmas. So of course, I had to pass along the word that there needs to be a cheesecake involved in our Christmas meal this year.

So. Glad. I. Did. That. It was the most wonderful thing I have put in my mouth in a long time. If you haven't ever had a real cheesecake, you are missing out. It was so silky, and creamy, and rich and wonderful. Heavenly, even. Ku-dos, Mama.

So anyway, yeah, there were presents and stuff too.


Malia took this photo of me and Josh. Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripes Gum. Sorry, had to.


And, again with this face.


Christmas morning was enjoyed by just the three of us, and Bennett did very well opening his gifts. He got the hang of present opening after his birthday party. He would open one, play with it for a few minutes, and then move on.


Santa Claus brought him some Dr. Seuss books,


a new blanket for his bed,

a stacking train,

a Home Depot apron, hard hat and hammer,

and a little trike. In one arm he has one of the Nerf balls my parents gave him the night before, and in the other, a little hobby horse ornament that a salesman at Macy's gave him. You can't just play with one thing at a time!

He also got a great set of stencils and gel crayons with a little hanging frame to show off his masterpieces. Josh's aunt and uncle from New Jersey are always so sweet to think of us at the holidays. Thanks, guys!

But.... the fun couldn't last forever. Out came the terrible two monster.

Later on that morning, we headed to Alabama to spend time with my dad's side of the family. I don't have any pictures of that, but we had another great meal, played dirty Santa, and Bennett tried my patience because all he wanted was for me or my dad to be holding him. So frustrating. Josh, Jeff and I left and Mama and Daddy said they'd bring Bennett back with them. Josh and I had to be back because his parents were coming that evening to visit with us.

When Mama and Daddy brought Bennett home, they said after we left he had everyone laughing at him. He was apparently putting on a show dancing to music, talking, and doing all his cute little things. I was sorry I wasn't there to see it, but I was glad he didn't leave there looking like a total whiny pants.

I think it's me. He acts out when I'm there. It happened at his Montessori Christmas party (I left out that chapter on purpose, because it was the morning from hell.) He was terrible! I had to take him out of the room more than once. His teacher said, "I think it's because you're here, because this is not the Bennett we know." It happened at his birthday party (again, left that out.) He spent the night with Josh's parents the night before his party and they brought him on Saturday. They said he was an angel the whole time; just a complete joy. As soon as he got home, oh no. Ugly, ugly. Of course, he hadn't gotten the nap he was used to, so that definitely played a part. And then as soon as I'm gone from my grandparents' in Alabama, he turns on the sweet, entertaining side of himself. Oh well.

Anyway, so Josh's parents came Christmas night. I had put together the workbench he got for his birthday and that's what he was interested in before supper.

We had everything ready to cook dinner, but decided to take the easy route and go to Waffle House instead. It was great. And no mess!

Pop and Gigi brought lots of nice gifts for us and for Bennett, including a red wagon and a rocking chair that I didn't get a picture of, and they also brought gifts from Josh's sister and her family since we weren't able to see them this year.

If we lie down in the floor, he immediately lies down next to us. He and his daddy were having a sing off. Basically, just who can hold the note the longest. He loves that game.

And of course the family photo, in which I look huge. I have been feeling really, really humongous lately. I am showing sooo much more than I was with Bennett at this point.

And that was our Christmas! Hope y'all had a great one!

Long Overdue

I think one of the reasons I don't post on here very much anymore is because I get intimidated when I go to write something. I start trying to sort out all my thoughts so that I can write an interesting post that fills you in on what's been going on. But there's so much going on that I get all overwhelmed and my thoughts get mixed up and I just wind up logging out and doing something else. I haven't even written in my good ol' Microsoft Word journal for myself lately. When I go back and look at that years from now, there's going to be a big gap from about September to December of this year.

Part of it is able to be blamed on pregnancy; just being tired and not feeling well. The rest can be blamed on the fact that so much of what has been going on is not really stuff that I feel comfortable sharing with the whole world.

Both of my brothers have been dealing with some very difficult issues in their lives in the last few months. Well, Greg's has been ongoing for a couple years now, on and off, but Jeff's has just started in the last couple of months. Again, not something that I feel is appropriate to share, so I am going to be very vague. Basically, Jeff picked the WRONG GIRL to get involved with. He decided to not be involved with her anymore and she lost it. She is doing everything she can to make his life a living hell. And she's doing a very good job. For now things are calm, but we still are not resting easy, as we never know what could come next. All I'm worrying about right now is him coming home for Christmas and being able to give him a big ol' hug.

ANYWAY, moving on.

Let me tell you, in a nutshell, about all the other stuff that's been going on and that is coming up. We had a nice Thanksgiving, and then Mama and I had to get to work on a couple of Christmas parties that we catered the first week in December.

Also the first week in December was Douglasville's Old Fashioned Holidays Tour of Homes. Not only was I on the committee that put it on, but our tenants in the "Green House" (that is now the brown house) put their house on the tour. They are a young couple and didn't have a whole lot of Christmas decorations, so I wound up taking our whole house a lot up there and then decorating a lot too. It was fun for me to do, but it wound up being a lot given everything else that was going on (being pregnant, brothers in distress, parties to cater, committee member, oh, and a sick two year old at home).

Here is a picture of us with Rachel and Kyle, our tenants in the house formerly known as the Green House. They are so wonderful. We love them!



Daddy's birthday was on the 8th and unfortunately I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him because I worked that day and went straight to a bridal shower for a very good friend of mine from college at the Chocolate Bar in Decatur. I enjoyed a glass of wine that night - the first of this pregnancy, and boy, was it good. Don't worry, I don't make a habit of it.

Yesterday Mama and I went to the first (annual?) McLeod Women's Christmas Luncheon at the Jasmine Tea Room in Sharpsburg. There were 24 of us total, and it was so nice to see everyone. I hope it becomes a tradition!



Today is my birthday and Josh made breakfast for me and invited Mama, Daddy, Greg and Elizabeth to join. I think we're going to dinner tonight somewhere. :)

Thursday, the 17th, is Bennett's birthday. He will officially be 2 years old. And a 2 year old he is! What a handful that boy is. He can make you want to pull your hair out one second and have you in a fit of laughter the next. It's such a fun roller coaster.

Friday night is the Hilti Christmas party in Atlanta, and then Saturday we're having a small party for Bennett (um, that I haven't sent invitations out for and probably won't at this point, but it's really just going to be us and the grandparents this year - and Lauren if for some weird reason y'all are able to come we would love it). I plan to make his cake, but I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do yet. I'm pretty sure it's going to be Sesame Street themed because that's what he's into right now, but I need to get to work on the details.

The following Sunday is Josh's family's Christmas dinner in McDonough and then I plan to take the next few days before Christmas to make my homemade Christmas gift for the person whose name I drew. It's a family tradition of ours that we all draw names and we have to make a gift using only things that we already have on hand. Nothing is to be bought in order to make the gift. We usually get a pretty good laugh out of this little exchange.

So then there's Christmas with both of our families, and after that we'll be off to North Carolina to see Josh's dad's side of the family, which we are looking forward to.

So! There you have it. I'm exhausted just writing all of that. Will I be able to make it to the end of December? Stay tuned!

Tour of Homes Teaser

I soooo want to post a little something about Douglasville's Old Fashioned Holidays event this weekend and especially the Candlelight Tour of Homes.

But.... I can't because Mama and I are catering the preview party for the homeowners on the tour tonight and also have a luncheon for 50 on Monday. I am so very grateful for the opportunity to do what we love and make a little money at the same time, but sad that I don't have time to give you a little info on this weekend's happenings.

Guess it will have to be an after-the-fact post. For now, check out my post about last year's tour. Although last year, we were homeowners with a home on the tour, and this year Josh and I both are on the committee that puts the whole thing on. Fun times.