Easy Like Sunday Morning

We had a great day. I started my herb garden, FINALLY took a moment to paint my toenails, then we went exploring at a state park nearby. There were also slushies from Sonic at some point in there. We finished off our evening with a great dinner cooked on our brand-spankin' new grill, which was part of my birthday/Valentine's day gift.

DISCLAIMER: Readers living in colder areas of the globe may ending up cussing and hating me after seeing these pictures. Should you choose to continue, you will know why Marcus and I wanted to move back to the south. (we don't like snow much) Behold the 70 degree February day:

Planting herbs. Anybody need chives? Because I should have a TRUCKLOAD soon. That starter greenhouse thingy I'm planting? One of four!

And now, the 2 most beautiful parts of my weekend:

Dean was just happy he got to eat his YoBaby outside.

Moooooooom, what's an herb? (or a herb if you pronounce the h...)

My new favorite picture of my son.

My son who discovered pine cones today.

A perfect day.

Pitchas

That is how old southern people say "pictures." (Pitch-uh-s)
Anyway, here are some illustrating how we spent our week.

Dean LOVES his new Radio Flyer car that he got for his birthday from G-Mama and Pop Pop. He wants to sit in it all the time and has become quite the expert at turning on the blinkers and the radio. Today he learned to beep the horn. Then he tried to eat it.

Just like he tried to eat this leaf.

We read "Moo, Baa, La La La" exactly 328 times.

No Mom, I won't get out of my car and eat my broccoli. So there! Blaaaaaaaaah! Can you see my tonsils?

We had a crazy hair day. Or 5.

And we went to Old Navy.

Speed it up, Dad, I gotta cruise this place for girl babies before my nap time!

Have a good weekend!

Happy, happy birthday, Deano

I totally had a waffle with a candle in it this morning!

I have literally written this post a million times in my head and in "draft" form. I've read my favorite bloggers' archives to see how they put into mere words what they were feeling on their babies' first birthdays. I could say a million mushy things, but I won't. I will say that on this day last year, a little boy entered my life and my heart has been his ever since. With each passing day and each milestone, each smile and giggle, each new discovery, each goodnight hug, I love him more and more. When you're falling in love with someone, the rest of the world seems to fall away. I remember when Marcus and I were first together, we'd talk for hours about nothing in particular. Neither of us could tell you what any of those conversations were actually about, but they were some of the most important times in our relationship because they helped us learn about each other and about how we would function together. There have been times this year when the rest of the universe has seemed to fade away, leaving just our little family of three, or some days, just Dean and me. Watching the world through his eyes has been amazing.
Words are starting to fail me and Dean REALLY wants me to read his birthday book to him (again), so I leave you with my very first video montage. I was going to set it to a sappy song, but then decided to use one of Dean's favorite dancing songs, "I'm On My Way" by the Proclaimers from the Shrek 2 Soundtrack. (I think he likes it when they say "uh, huh.")


Happy first birthday, Deano. I love you to pieces.

Picture pages....Christmas edition!

Best Christmas present ever. :)















Dean had lots of quality time with his G-Mama!














He also took quite the liking to his Pop-Pop!!














Me, Dean and Mim (my dad's mom). I have had that sweatshirt since 6th grade. Are you horrified that I'm wearing it or impressed that I can still fit into it???




















Reindeer bum-bum! Hanging out with Grandma Willie (my mom's mom).















Dean checks out his new wagon.
















Family photo! Marcus, my mom (Grammy), Deano, my Dad (Papa) and yours truly. We clean up ok, huh? We added a little extra Merry to our Christmas by celebrating the first anniversary of my mom's kidney transplant on Dec. 19.















Double trouble...Dean and Adam.















Could you eat his face off in his monkey jammies?





















Dean got this cool zebra from G-Mama and Pop Pop. Marcus thinks it's awesome.





















Don't say I never post pictures of myself. My hair's even brushed in this one. You can't even see Dean's forehead bruise. ;)

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope everyone's holidays are happy and bright and full of wonderful things like family, friends and food. My grandma arrived today with an entire carload of fresh veggies, homemade cookies and candy and, most importantly, cheese straws.

I am horribly behind on my blog-reading. Last week was not a good week for me to be out of town with limited computer access. All the babies I've been following all year (AJU5, Kara, Megan, and others) turned 1! I promise to go back and read every entry on all of my favorite blogs that I may have missed.

Here are some pictures because BOY do y'all want some pictures! (Thanks for all the emails!)

Have a great Christmas, everyone!














Dean was REALLY happy to see his cousin, Adam. Adam eventually accepted the baby and they worked on sharing all week. By the end of the week, they were partners in crime...and dressed exactly alike...for three straight days.














See? The Handy Manny talking tool kit was quite popular.














Now he's in Oxford hanging with Grammy, Papa and 2 great-grandmas for Christmas!
I promise to upload more pictures tonight once the festivities have concluded and do an all picture post!
Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!!!

And the winner is...

AJU5's Mom!! Yay and congrats. A long time reader, AJU5's mom could probably use some pampering--they are in the middle of a huge home renovation. Email me your address and I'll get your prize in the mail. (Eva, I haven't forgotten about you! I've just been to lazy to go to the P.O.!)
I used random.org to pick the winner. You can roll a virtual die. It's totally fun.

Happy Sunday, everyone. Our weekend was good. My friend Meredith came to stay with Deano and me while Marcus was out of town picking up our car. (Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, new car!) The insurance people, by the way, never showed on Friday to pick up the wrecked car. Color me surprised.

Here are some picture from our weekend.














This is our car, or what's left of it. (Look over to the left. That silver thing sticking into the picture is the bumper.) If they don't pick it up soon, I'm going to decorate it for Christmas.














Dean met Santa. Unfortunately, this picture is better than the ones I bought. We may have to try again. See his cute sweater, though!?!? When I noticed Santa was at the mall (with NO WAITING!), I called Marcus. He said to buy that kid a Christmas sweater and give him to Santa! Meredith and I always have a crazy time together, but add a baby to the mix and hilarity is sure to ensue. Picture, if you will, the two of us shoved into the bathroom at JC Penney changing a wriggling Dean out of his one-piece outfit and into jeans and a sweater. We had an audience by the time it was done. But it was worth it. ;)



















Dean also got his first pair of "big boy" shoes from Stride Rite. (We had a gift card from The View.) He went completely insane in the store, probably just happy to be freed from the stroller. He tried to crawl back to the store room. He tried to climb a display. He drooled on the saleslady. But we came out with a cute pair of "pre-walker" shoes that are supposed to help him learn to walk. I like that he doesn't seem to be able to pull them off easily.














Mostly, Dean enjoyed visiting with his Auntie Meredith. I think she likes him a little bit, too. :)

Everyone have a good week!

Caption Contest Friday!

Here it is, Friday already! Dean and I just dropped Marcus off at the airport and are now chilling at home. He got me up at 4;55am. There will be many naps today.

Today's caption contest features a great prize! My friend Amy, who sells Beauti Control, has donated a great 2 piece set from their Herbal Serenity line. One lucky winner will receive the Show of Hands Instant Manicure and Moisturizer! This stuff is amazing...I own it myself. It makes your hands so smooth and shiny! All you have to do to be entered in the random drawing is leave a comment in the form of a caption for this lovely picture:



















That's my husband, Marcus. Yeah.

Have a great weekend!

Some fun things my little boy has done this week

Taken this picture of me, which, except for the fact that I have no mouth or chin, ain't too shabby.



















Ridden in a duffle bag. You know, because the 2 million and 20 toys scattered on our floor are just not enough to hold his attention sometimes.



















Ok, this picture does not do justice to what happened here. Somehow, Dean's right leg ended up in the left leg of his PJs and the right leg was just kind of hanging over to the side. I have no idea what's going on at the top, but it kinda looks like a toga.














Become obsessed with (and fearless about) the stairs. He crawls to them all the time and tries to climb. We finally had to build a barricade. And yes, we sang a song from Les Miz while we built it. Because we are JUST THAT GOOFY!














Done a little light reading. See the red thing? It's his new "book rack." (see the proper use of quotation marks there, by the way?) It's really a magazine rack, but I got it for 68 CENTS at the Target dollar spot to keep his books for him. And he dumps it out. And swims in the sea of books. And it is precious and makes me oh, so proud that he would rather look at books than do almost anything else these days.



















Fallen asleep on his daddy. In bizarre positions.















Cheered for the Crimson Tide against LSU. He said overtime makes him nervous.



















Played in the leaves. Which makes him super happy and giggly.















Worn cute old-man-style Spiderman flannel PJs. And apparently begun practicing yoga.

How's your week going?

One's trash is another's treasure

This is the most unbelievable thing to happen to me since I was on THE VIEW last year and got hooked up with a million awesome baby prizes.
Last night our friend Jason called. He was so excited that he was out of breath. The conversation went a little like this:
JJ (his initials): JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! Our neighbors just threw away a bunch of baby stuff!
ME: Oh, cool!
JJ: No, you don't understand, it's a BUNCH of baby stuff!
ME: Oh?
JJ: We just brought up 6 bags for Kate (their daughter) and we aren't going to have to buy clothes for her for 2 years! We pulled out about 60 outfits for Dean. I'm bringing them over!
ME: Holy cow!
JJ: There are also 2 car seats, 2 swings, a diaper genie, a BRAND NEW Graco high chair and some toys!
ME: WHAT!!? They didn't want Salvation Army to come get them? They'll pick it up!
JJ: I KNOW! I asked and they were throwing it out with their trash! I'm coming over!
ME: Why aren't you here yet!??!

Well, it was better than he said. We have over 50 new outfits that Dean can either wear now or grow into. We have like-new stuff in newborn sizes that I can pass along to my friends TJ and Amy who are expecting a girl baby (eeeeek!) in May. We have a NEW GRACO HIGHCHAIR! I mean, look at this:



















My bed is covered with baby clothes! (Please do not judge ugly bedspread---we are waiting for the really cool comforter we like to go on sale...)
And some of these have designer labels on them! I didn't know people bought designer clothes for their children! There is a Polo shirt for a 12 month old! Look!



















It's the Polo horsey! (No idea why this picture will not be right-side up.)
There were also shoes:














Spit rags (and who couldn't use more of those, right?)














This cool swaddling blanket, which will go to TJ and Amy's baby (lotsa luck figuring out how to use this, y'all!)




















And even 3 Halloween costumes of the Elmo, Pumpkin and Tigger variety.
(No idea why Elmo insists on only posting upside down. My pictures have a mind of their own today...espcially the ones of red items...)





















But the best part? THE EXTENDER PACK FOR OUR PLAYARD! We had already planned on buying this next month when the money tree blooms again and were making-do with the playard as a hexagon. ("Playard" still looks misspelled, doesn't it?) We dreamed of a square playard and only needed the two-piece extender pack to make it happend. Jason walked in and said "Here's two weird looking baby gates." And I almost passed out. I screamed for Marcus, who was burning pancakes in the kitchen. He came down and went "Is that the extender pack?" Then we did a little happy dance and now Jason probably thinks we're nuts. (or did until we explained. Then he was totally excited, too. He didn't dance though.)
Behold square baby jail:














Dean is very excited about his new, expanded play space. Perhaps that is why he refused to go down for his nap until 11:19. ELEVEN NINETEEN, PEOPLE! He better sleep for 3 hours...

Anyway, yesterday was certainly an unexpected blessing. It was like Christmas around here. I spent the morning washing all the new baby duds, so the house smells like Dreft. (not a bad thing...better than burned pancakes.)
Hope everyone's having a good Monday!