Our Growing Family

Boys at Home AND The Name Game

Brothers together after Alder and Kingston arrived home from Chattanooga.

THey could not get enough of their baby brother. They absolutely adore him, love to kiss him, and are always asking to hold him (Kingston asks by patting his tummy and sitting on the floor since he is not talking yet).

We continue to just call him "Conrad Hudson" and have yet to decide or rather fully commit to either one name or the other or even a nickname. I love Hudson and Jared loves Conrad and Alder loves calling him both. Who knows what he will end up being.

And here I have captured just how much danger Conrad Hudson is in if on the floor between his brothers....look at his older brothers' faces---up to NO good.

Alder rocking his baby brother on the porch Saturday night. Alder thinks this smile is great and asks me to take the picture again so he can smile like this. 

Life right now: baths at 7 am

 I wish that I could report that we have totally gotten over our sickness and moved on to bigger and better things. Sadly, we have not. I am routinely every morning bathing Kingston at 7 am due to the diarrhea. I know that the readers of this blog are probably not interested in tales of caring for and cleaning up after my toddler who continues to have "poop-plosions" multiple times a day. It really isn't a pleasant topic. I can understand that. But, as this is a running journal of our day to day life (and in the hopes of me writing it down will keep me from losing my mind) I must say....we still have poop and throw up at our house! I haven't had to clean up the horrid throw up since Thursday night and I am hoping that that was the last of it, but as far as diarrhea goes....oh, my my. 

We are struggling. I am struggling and poor Kingston is starting to look like he is from Ethiopia( do know we have seen our pediatrician and we are waiting on some test results that should come back today). 10 days now and I think I am about to go crazy. All of this made worse by the fact that it rained EVERYDAY last week and it is dreary and yucky today too. It is gray and gloomy and just plain sad outside. I am sorry. I realize I don't have a very good attitude. I just don't love winter. I spoke to my sister-n-law today and she worded it well, "I feel like I am a terrible motivator for my children during the months of January and February." I agree Jen. I think a lot of Mamas can relate, that it is just plain hard to mother cheerfully during the "JanFebs."

So here we are making Valentine's Day cards this morning trying to find new and exciting things to do to occupy our time while stuck in the house. We enjoyed our crafting and as long as I keep a smile on my face....the boys do too. 

Merry Christmas to us and Gingerbread Making (aka killing time on dreary winter afternoons)

Jared and I have not exchanged Christmas gifts with each other for the last several years because unfortunately money does not grow on the trees in the backyard. I have sometimes felt a little sad about this, but all such silly sadness was swept away recently when the best gift ever was given to us. Actually the gift comes with its own bitter sweetness, but I will explain. 

This big, beautiful piece of stainless steel is a wondrous espresso machine. I will confidently say that Jared and I fully appreciate what is actually sitting on our counter as we have been (somewhat secretly) coffee junkies ever since living abroad for a year. We fix it every morning, grind the beans (in a magic bullet (have you seen those on TV?) which I would not recommend but then again money does not grow on trees and so you have to use what you got), obsess over getting the first cup, and so on. I think we swore that we would never be THOSE people, but alas we are. Maybe a gradual lack of sleep over the last 3 years with the arrival of little ones has gotten us to this point. Anyways, we were given this espresso machine by our dearest friends who recently moved away and had once owned a local coffee shop here in town. We are so tremendously sad to see them go, but in their parting I am thrilled by their gift to us. It is like Christmas morning every morning (almost) to have wonderful lattes, espresso, and so on all without much effort or clean-up. So in some ways this gift really seems to be making up for all the years without gifts for one another. It is so fun for Jared and I that we have been making coffee at night, laughing out loud at how good it tastes, how we feel like we just ran to Starbucks (which the closest one is an hour away), and feeding our slight addiction more and more each day. In fact, I am thinking of opening a coffee stand on the grassy median outside our house. "Main Street Coffee" sounds like a good name. I can just see Alder and Kingston now, taking orders from car windows, then calling the order into me via a walkie-talkie, making money, becoming a real barista. Wait, this image cannot work. Alder loves to sit down in the middle of the street and collect rocks and Kingston will wander from here to Mississippi without looking back. Yeah, not such a good idea. Maybe in a few years.....

 Moving on. I have found myself impressively full of energy for my children lately. I do not have the kind of energy this late in my pregnancy to pick up the dog food that Alder spilled this morning whilst feeding Ally and so it still, at 10:00 at night, lays around me on the floor, under the desk, and trailing on into the playroom. I just cannot bear the thought of bending over and the energy it will take to clean up one more mess today. So I will wait until Jared gets home from his business dinner and nicely ask him to sweep it up for me. But I do still seem to have a lot of patient energy for my children. We are doing crafts, having a lot of learning time, reading, building amazing train tracks around their room, mastering floor puzzles, and even making gingerbread men and decorating them. I am sure this energy will die off in the next several weeks as my body gets pushed to the limit and this baby's arrival nears. For now though I am enjoying this time with my two boys who are so fun and bring me such joy. We had such a great time last week making these cookies together after nap time, cutting them out, decorating them, and eating them (which is their favorite part). Alder and Kingston both loved the activity and it really held their attention. It also helped pass the time during these dreary winter days that darken so early and make entertaining the children a little more difficult. 

Christmas: Post 2

Random Shots and Thoughts

I just happened to have my camera the other day at church and I snapped these of Kingston. I think his reddish hair photographs so nicely against the light shining through the stained glass windows. He is my little buddy during the church service. I keep him occupied and entertained and Jared has Alder. The system works nicely now that it is "man on man" but what will happen when we go to "zone defense?" And not just for a 1 hour church service, but everyday with 3 little ones 3 and under? I am trying to prepare mentally, but am not really intimidated by the jump from 2 to 3 just because the jump from 1 to 2 who were 16 months apart was harrowing. We figure that will help put the jump from 2 to 3 in perspective.

There are some really sweet things about living in a small town and one of them was watching the homecoming parade last Friday. It is going to sound crazy, but it can be an emotional thing to watch such a parade. The streets are lined with seemingly everyone in town out to support the Tigers, to hear the marching band, to see the pride on the faces of the football players, coaches, cheerleaders, and the supporters. Combine all of that with the thunderous sounds of the fire trucks, police sirens, and honking cars and you may just find yourself really moved. I did. Its the heartbeat of America, a small town at its best. 

I took the boys and they absolutely LOVED it. LOVED IT! I dressed then in the school colors and tried to explain to them what it was we were about to see. Words cannot explain it and so I just let them wait, listen, and watch for the parade. 

Alder was captivated by it and it was clear that all the sounds and the spirit of the whole parade moved him too. 

Alder stood on the side and "conducted" the parade as they passed. He shook his arm with a very serious look on his face. He acted as if he was sending them off to "war" or something like that (not that he has any idea what war is). In the picture below, he may look as if he is angry, but he really just being serious and "conducting." He got a real kick out of the fact that the many floats that passed threw out candy. That was certainly an added bonus. 

Recently we made a homemade trail mix as an afternoon activity and it was a big hit. In this pictures though, it seems like Alder is whincing in pain or is not enjoying the activity. I assure you he loved the whole experience, but the kid consistently makes halirious facial expressions. Currently when he talks, he wrinkles up his nose, his brow, and squints his eyes and just talks. Oh, and at the same time he is twirling his hands. So silly.

Anyways, I just gathered a lot of "snacky" type things I had in the pantry and put them in individual bowls and then let Alder go to town by adding them to a big container. We used pistachios, chocolate covered raisins, cereal, golden raisins, crasins, sunflower seeds, cashews, and white chocolate chips. It was as easy as pie and somewhat healthy too.

And by the way, this funny-faced guy is paci free as of two weeks ago and is in a "big boy bed." He tells everyone how, "I'm a big boy and I threw my pacis away because they were broken and I a big boy." Of course taking him to Wal-Mart to pick out any toy he wanted as a reward for giving up paci helped immensely and he picked out Disney's Robin Hood. He is currently addicted to it, is Robin Hood for Halloween, and is daily practicing how to shoot his $2 bow and arrow. 

And some more random thoughts....

It is us VS. wasps right now in our house. Is anyone else having this issue? I can handle the recent influx of roaches, but wasps are a little intimidating when you have two small children and these wasps are aggressive. Between Jared and I we have killed about 15 in the last two days and I hear one right now flying against the windows in the dining room. What is the best thing to do about them?

I am 20 weeks pregnant today and still find myself struggling through each day. Seriously? This pregnancy has been so different that it still surprises me each day. But I am encouraged by the fact that I am half-way there.

Happy Hump Day!

oxford town, a home visit, and the 4th....

***I realize that these pictures are not all aligned and it is DRIVING ME CRAZY! It appears that this is a common problem in blogland according to the forums. Has anyone had this problem themselves and solved it? Please let me know. Thanks!***

A couple of weekends ago I journeyed the back roads of Alabama into the heart of Mississippi to visit with my brother Houston. I traveled alone with only my sweet boys who gorged themselves on gummies and dvd videos for I do not have children that sleep in the car. I could sense their understanding that patience was needed as we drove and drove and I was quite impress with their resilience. The car ride took us into such rural areas that my cell phone hardly worked and I soon comforted myself with the fact that if my car was to break down or worse, I could knock (probably) on any door of any house that I passed and be greeted with a friendly face. I probably would have been helped by the whole family, given newly harvested produce from their garden, and my children would have been loved. Is it silly to think that rural America is still this innocent and charming? My parents and my brother Jes joined us too in Ole Miss. We had arrived to cheer Houston on in the the two plays that he was acting in. He is quite the actor with a lot of natural talent and a real passion for all things theater/entertainment related. I can see him growing up and "making it big" or becoming a producer/screenplay write/director. I feel as though we will soon lose him to world of LA and all the opportunity it offers. Well will see. Houston did a tremendous job in "Hamlet" and the "King and I" and I was wowed with such talent that was displayed by all the actors on the stage. Our family really enjoyed a special time in Oxford. We hung out at Houston's apartment where Alder loved playing his guitar. We toasted to my parents 34 years of marriage, I worried that my sons would contract some sort of disease crawling around the incredibly sketchy floors of Houston's home, played at the pool, ate ridiculously good food, and explored. We explored the wondrous stores of "the Square" and window shopped. The boys, KeeKee, and I lingered forever in a charming children's bookstore and ate some more. Oxford is a very interesting place and I just don't think you can get anymore southern than there.

Doesn't this little boy look just like his uncle???

Alder and Kingston both adore their uncles. As you can tell from the picture from above, Alder was having a thrilling time. Uncle Jes impressed him as well with amazing "skills" and my parents and I stood there watching and saying how blessed we were to have Jes be a so high-functioning. He swims, sleds, skips, runs, and jumps. He laughs at our jokes, carries on conversations with just about anyone, and reads at a 8th grade level. I marvel at him. 

Alder was not convinced that waiting as long as we did at Ajax Restaurant was really worth it, but changed his mind once he tasted the shrimp, green beans, and french fries. 

My sweet Kingston just doesn't care. 

Hallelujah for parents who have loved each other for 34 years. 

Then the best thing happened. My Mom came back with us to visit. It had been 13 months since she had come to visit by herself and we loved it. We had nothing to do, nothing planned, and just laid around enjoying KeeKee. I hate battle trying to find contentment in living so far away from our families. We miss so much time with Grandparents that we adore on both sides, all of our cousins, every birthday celebration, our birthday celebrations (because there is nothing like your Mom/Dad taking you out to lunch on your birthday), and so much more. Not to mention that as I write this I am struggling to find a babysitter so Jared and I can celebrate our anniversary tomorrow. Most likely I will once again be unsuccessful and once again Jared and I will "go without" celebrating ONE more thing. I would love it to have our family lived close by. Oh well, we are here, have never lived close to family since being married, and I try my darnedest to cope with it each day. 

 I love my Mom and I love how my kids love her. One morning I woke up to Alder saying on the monitor, "MOM!" "KEEKEE!" "MOM, WHERE KEEKEE GO?" with a tone that carried with it such panic and distress. We created, picked, read, and celebrated. It was utterly delightful. We miss her dearly, but sent her off with some delicious 4th of July food, boat rides, and fireworks. 

Delicious blueberries have now filled my freezer and we are (I am pretty sure) turning purple.

We kicked off the 4th with an enormous catch and release (or rather escape due to the crickets' freakishly strong legs) of another Chernobyl cricket. I mean what is more American than that? "Hunting," capturing, controlling, and staring at an animal that is unusually large???

We boated all weekend and especially on Sunday. Alder is quite "the Dude" with his sunglasses and both of my boys love being on the boat. We swam on "our beach" as Alder calls it and waved our flags. Speaking of which, my Mom purchased the flag in the before post. I love having a large flag flying in front our house because, damn it, I am proud to be an American. I am one of those that LOVE LOVE LOVE the 4th of July. There are so many reasons why and I will spare you the list. 

We watched fireworks with the Lessmann clan and Alder cannot keep his hands off little Sterrett. Alder may be an intense little boy, but he loves babies. It is a wonderful thing since he is and always will be the big brother.