Beach Trip and Ma Ma

Friday we left for the beach for the Memorial Day Weekend and to celebrate me being out of school. It was soo nice and relaxing! Thank you Jimmy and Emily (John's parents) for letting us use your condo!I didn't get to lay out and get some sun but I did get to hang out with Alex and John at the pool and other cool places. Lulu's is my favorite restaurant bc they have a fried green tomato BLT. In case you didn't know, she is Jimmy Buffet's sister and has a restaurant at Orange Beach. There is always a ton of stuff for kids (and adults) to do while you are waiting. We only had to wait 30 minutes and we were sweating by the time we sat down. Alex and I played in the big sand pile while John watched. Then we we went under a pavilion where some arts and crafts type vendors were set up. A band was also playing and anyone who knows Alex knows he loves to dance anytime he hears music. He always has lots of spectators:) I must admit he's got the white boy bounce down pretty good. Below are some pictures of him at the beach.


throwing sand


in the baby pool with his ball and float


with his new friend (who kept trying to kiss him)


look at those red cheeks and slobber (it was so hot)


sandbug


dancing at Lulu's

He loves the water. My dad is so glad bc he can't wait to take Alex to the water park in ATL. Alex would walk around the baby pool and would be doing great but then he would lose his balance and fall. I would lean down and pick him up but he would hold on to me and not want me to let him go again. That's why we got him the float to hold him up while he walked around. He liked it but then wanted to venture out on his own. On the last day when he fell he got right back up and started walking around like nothing had happened and he wasn't scared at all.

And Also...I'm so PROUD to announce he officially said "ma ma" while looking at me on Saturday, May 24th!!! YEAH!!! I've been hearing dada for sooooo long (too long really) and I'm glad he finally says my name and means me!!

Stay at home Mom!! (Finally)

YEAH!!! I am now (as of Friday, May 23rd) an official stay at home mom. What I've always wanted to be AND I accomplished it before I was 30. Mom, aren't you proud? :) I loved teaching 7th grade math but I think I began to get a little burnt out on it. So many students these days are lacking in basic knowledge (ie, 4 x 2 mentally) and we were doing decimals, fractions, and percents. It got hard many times! I taught for 6 years and now get to stay home with my precious baby boy who is almost 17 months old!! Alex's last day of school (daycare) was Thursday the 22nd. John hasn't had to work a lot this month so he stayed home with him Friday because we were leaving for the beach as soon as I got done with school. We wonder what Alex is thinking. Does he wonder when he'll see Ms. Shonda, Ms. Bianca, or Mrs. Kristen again? or is he just soo excited to get to hang out at home (with his mom) and not have Karen (aka, his girlfriend) steal his food. It's fun to wonder what he actually thinks about. Do kids his age even think?? :) I do have to admit I HATED the thought of daycare and cried my eyes out the first week I took him and many other random days in between but his teachers were wonderful to him. They loved on him and were so sweet to him. One funny thing, is that Kristen told me he scared Bianca when he ate. I asked "Why?" Kristen said he ate so fast Bianca was always scared he would choke. He still eats fast but like I said now that Karen won't steal his food maybe he'll slow down some.

Alex's Antics

Alex in his cool sunglasses. Ever since we went to St. Thomas he loves to wear them!


He loves to have any type of ball in his hands. Wonder where he got that from?


I think he looks like a quarterback getting ready to make a pass in this picture.

Good news...this doesn't pertain to Alex but I had to share. We have someone who has come to see our house 3 different times. We are getting pretty excited and hope it means something good!! :) We've been praying every night for this!

The best thing in the world to me is when Alex comes and hugs my leg. Sometimes it's like he is scared, sometimes he seems to do it to be funny but no matter what it is AWESOME! It makes me feel so special and loved!

He has started repeating a few more words. Today he had his play telephone in the car and he said "hhhhiiiii" (imagine it real long, drawn out and southern) and then I said "say bye bye" and he said "da da." WHAT??? That is not what I said to say! :)

I feel like a lot of times it's a game with him. He says "da da" and I keep repeating "mama" and he just says "da da" even more and sometimes even louder and with this big grin on his face like "i know what you want me to say mom, but this is so much more fun. I just love saying da da!"

Things about Alex

A few funny things about Alex:

I bought him a new yellow foam mat to lay his head on in the bathtub. He LOVES it! He plays with it constantly. He has also gotten to where he lays on his belly in the bathtub and he gets on the foam mat likes he's knee boarding on it. It's hilarious!

He has started saying "uh oh" after someone else says it. He says the real high "uh" and then the lower "oh." He makes me laugh all the time!

Last night we heard some light pounding coming from his room. It was probably around 9pm. I went in and looked at him and he was asleep with his body twisted sideways and both feet propped up between the slats in his baby bed.

He has really started copying things you do. If I stretch and yawn and make lots of noise while doing it-he does it too...or at least tries to


I took a day off of school today and took him to the library. We've been before but we haven't really got to check books out and look around. They have a section at the Hoover Library with tables of puzzles and games where you push the balls over the metal pieces that are all intertwined. Does that make sense? You see them in dr's offices a lot. Anyway he loved it! They also had puppets of all kinds of animals-crabs, centipedes, raccoons, dogs, cats, dolphins, etc. There was another little girl about 4 and a little boy almost two there also playing with the puppets. The girl had the crab and Alex took it from her. I said "Alex, she was playing with that." The little girl said "it's ok...he's cute. He can take it from me." I thought that was hilarious!!! The picture below is of him playing on the computer having an Arthur book read to him. It was really neat. He mostly liked playing with the mouse and the keypad. Guess he's seen his mom and dad do enough with computers:) After we left the library we went to Chick fil a. He ate a 4 pc nugget meal with a fruit cup. The boy lives to eat! Then we went to play in the play area. He had the best time and didn't even climb and go down the slide. He just wanted to play with all the stuff that turned and flipped. He also likes playing with mirrors-kind of like peek a boo. He could have stayed there and the library all day I think.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a great day to tell your mom how much you love her. I think my mom knows how much I love her and care for her and appreciate her but it's always NICE to be told again-So THANKS mom for being you and for always helping me when I need it! You are a wonderful Mommadar to Alex! I hope one day he realizes all the people who love him.




Since being married, I've had more mother's come into my life. Mostly, John's Mom, Emily. She lives in Tuscaloosa and I know I'm very blessed to have her as my mother in law. She would do anything in the world for me (just like my own mom)and John. Emily you are a great grammy to Alex!

Visit to Nashville

Mom, Alex, and me at Black Eyed Peas on Mother's Day

My brother, Russell, turned 30 May 6th. Mom wanted to have a surprise party for him but we opted for just surprising him and his wife, Nan,(she knew) last Friday night at Goten. Russell thought we were coming in Saturday to surprise Mom for Mother's Day but we came in town Friday about 2:30 and met Mom at her school so Alex could see everybody that she works with. Everyone there has heard so much about it they needed to meet him:) He had just woken up and it took him a few minutes to get used to everybody but then he was fine.

Russell said he was surprised when he saw us at the restaurant. We spent the night at their house Saturday night and then went to church at Joelton with mom and dad. It was a fun Mother's Day! I got a sweet card from my little boy and got to spend some good quality time with my family. Mom and I went for a much needed pedicure too! Thanks mom!

Visit to Tuscaloosa

Last Thursday me, John, Jimmy(John's dad)and Parker(John's brother) went to hear Nick Saban speak in Tuscaloosa. For the few of you who don't know about Alabama football he's the head coach. :) It was really nice and it was very interesting to hear him speak. I was so excited and wanted to have my picture made with him. Of course the line was really long and we waited but we waited too long. When Jimmy (my father in law) and I got up there they had just shut the line down bc he was supposed to start speaking. I was upset but at least I was there! Thanks Jimmy for that fun night! Above is a picture of Nick.

While we were in Tuscaloosa, we also went and checked on the house we are building. Now I'm still not really sure how to get these pictures labeled but I'll do the best I can. I need somebody to tell me how to do this (or I need more time to play with blogger). We are supposed to close on it sometime in the middle of June. We are getting really excited about it. I can't wait to have hardwood floors, a screened in back porch and a fenced back yard for Alex to play in!

Healthy Sleep Habits

Alex wasn't sleeping much...I guess it was around 6 weeks or so. I'm not exactly sure. From that point on I got obsessed about his sleeping and how important naps were. My OB recommended this book to me. "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. It helped me a ton. I couldn't even put it down at first. It pretty much says that babies have periods of wakefulness 1-2 hrs long. After that you should see signs of tiredness. I started looking for them and I definitely saw them. Mostly at the beginning his sign was fussiness. If he fussed we put him to bed and he went to sleep on his own. Sometimes (and he still does) he will just lay in his crib and play and talk to himself and then go to sleep after 30 min. to an hour. Then it got to be if he rubbed his eyes or put his head down we put him down. I have a champion sleeper! I also think God blessed me because he knew I didn't have such an easy time physically after Alex was born and he cut me a break. :) I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a child, no matter what age. It has suggestions for all ages. Now we did let him cry it out some but it was just like Dr. Weissbluth said after just a few nights it was all over. At 9 weeks he slept from 7pm to 7am and he hasn't had any problems since then. Now I know after I post this he won't sleep for a week, but I'll take my chances. I hope this book helps someone else out there who may need it. Happy Sleeping!

Loving Well

This past Friday we had a ladies retreat for our church. We did a Beth Moore study which is pretty much a ladies retreat in a box. It was called "Loving Well." It was great! If you ever get a chance to do it, you should:) If you've ever done one of her studies you know she usually has something she wants you to memorize. This was it
1. God is perfect love
2. Nothing can separate me from
God's perfect love.
3. God pours his perfect love into
my imperfect heart.
4. Accessed, I can love anyone through
anything.

Alex has 14 days of daycare left (or less). John has an easy rotation this month so hopefully Alex won't have to be in daycare too much his last month:) We still haven't sold our house. I guess I won't mention that every post. I think we could have this house for a while. We love it though and can't understand why anyone else wouldn't want it:)

This morning on the way to church I looked back at Alex and he was just sitting there smiling with his arms raised up. It was hilarious!!! Like he was already ready to be praising the Lord. He loves any type of ball and bats. He holds the bat correctly and we are working with him on swinging the bat and hitting the ball off of the tee. The tee is bigger than he is but he loves baseball!