Ramblings from Alabama

No, you didn’t miss anyone’s birthday…I just sort of neglected to blog about it nearly two months ago when it happened. So, in the spirit of keeping “current,” I’d like to wish my sweet Nora a happy two-years-one-month-and-sixteen-days birthday!

Nora celebrated her birthday (April 17) with her little friends (and some big friends, too) and a Winnie the Pooh party. We had a really good day, and MaMa and PaPa were even able to come up from Houma to celebrate with us, making it extra-special.

The birthday girl…

Blow out those candles!

It’s a party! Peach Nehi, all around!

“Bubbles! Just what I’ve always wanted!”

Now, with two years of age come certain privileges and responsibilities. Like the privilege of getting to sleep in a big girl bed and the responsibility of staying IN the bed when it’s time to go to sleep. Which didn’t happen the first night because, well, she fell out. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long fall (I’d say about 8 inches or so), so no harm done!

Big girl looking super cute in her big girl bed…

Big girls’ room…

Mary and Elise finished their first year of Cubbies. Last Sunday, May 2, our church had an AWANA awards ceremony for the kids.

Mary and Elise on stage, admiring their first-year book awards, which were tiny little Cubbie bears. They received this award for completing their Cubbie book, which included memorizing 25 short Bible verses. Way to go!

Cute little Cubbies!

Elise and her award.

Mary and her award.

Me and my award for one year of service in AWANA. I was a Sparks second-grade leader this year.

Mary says to me today, while I’m tucking her in for her nap (which is one of the times, along with sitting on the potty, when you really get to learn what goes through a child’s head)…

“Right now I have my baby teeth. But pretty soon, they’re going to fall out and then I’ll get my pregnant teeth.”

What have we been doing since February 6? Well…

We went to Disney World in February. Travis took a zillion pictures. I am not going to upload bunches of them to the blog. Sorry! If you want to hear all about it and see all our pictures, you will have to come for a visit! Or check Travis’ facebook page…he spent a lot of time each night uploading pictures there while we were in Disney. While he slaved away on that project each night, I relaxed in the tub!

Family picture with Goofy. See how much fun Nora is having at Disney?!

Goofy and Sleepy

Mary and Elise celebrated their fourth birthday!

Party fun

Black icing is always a winner!

Now Sleepy is Goofy.

A new fishing game and a butterfly kit!

Nora’s been talking for some time now, adding words here and there, and now I can’t even remember when she could only say just a few words. But it’s always exciting when your baby starts putting words together. A few days ago, Nora was helping me unload the dishwasher. As she pulled out each colored plate and cup, she would say “Das MayMee’s” (That’s Mary’s) or “Das SeeSee’s” (That’s Elise’s) or “Das NorNa’s” (I think you get it now!). And she was right every time. She has noticed what color each of her sisters prefers and she knew that Mary usually has pink or red, Elise purple or blue, and Nora green or orange. My little genius!

But today’s little “sentence” was really exciting. We had gone to the doctor and stopped at Sonic for slushies, to kill time while we waited for our prescription to be filled, which wasn’t even ready anyway when we got there, which angered me a little. Anyhoo, we get our slushies at Sonic and as you know, they put a peppermint on top of the lid of each cup. So I set the cups in the cupholders and made my way to Rite-Aid (where, did I mention this already, my prescription was NOT waiting for me). As we were driving, Nora starts calling my name. “Mommy, Mommy, Maaahhh-my, Mom, Ma, Maaaaa!” “Yes, Nora?” Then she says (and I am going to just write what I heard rather than try to spell what she actually said), “There’s candy cane on cup!” I am telling you, that was awesome. My baby can TALK!

Mary was the last one left at the dinner table tonight. Her sissies had finished and I was starting to clean the kitchen.

Mary: Mommy, don’t leave me!

Mommy: Mary, I won’t leave you. I’m right here cleaning the kitchen and I’ll stay here with you as long as you want me to.

Mary: I want you to stay with me forever.

Here are some things that haven been going on around our house for the past…ahem…three months or so.

We sprayed Mary and Elise’s hair pink and purple for “Crazy Hair Night” at AWANA. Pink and purple hair spray bleeds onto EVERYTHING! Fortunately, it is washable.

Nora is quite a little bookworm and computer nerd at times…

…but quite the little diva at other times.

Here are the girls (and Schwartz) enjoying their new Lite Brite. We learned the hard way that it is much better to play with a Lite Brite on a carpeted floor rather than a slippery table.

Nora and Jake on their first date.

The big girls now have bunk beds, and they have all moved into Nora’s room, so that their old room can now be a play room and soon-to-be school room.

Nora…

Mary…

Elise…

Mary and Elise…

got their AWANA vests and have already earned two patches! I will post an updated “vest pic” sometime after they get more patches.

Oh, and all that hair? It’s coming off on Thursday…ack!! This has been a long time coming. Their hair is so pretty and long, but we are all ready for a little break from the brushing and tangles and maintenance and hair in the face and food in the hair. And I am not too good at fixing their hair nicely every day, so most days it just looks plain messy. They both tell me they want their hair short like daddy’s. We’re going to one of those fun kids’ haircut places, and I am pretty sure I am not going to pay them to just buzz their heads…I would just do that myself! I am pretty excited to see what they’ll look like with shorter hair, and they are excited, too. For a sneak peek, look back at the AWANA picture. If you didn’t notice it already, it looks like Elise’s hair is short in that picture. It sure made me look twice! Anyway, I will be sad to see the long hair go, but I am excited about all the time we’ll save not brushing so much hair, all the tears that won’t be shed over tangles, and all the money we’ll save on shampoo. Ha!

…well, except to say that, in the future, these posts will not have…or need…words. Is not a picture worth a thousand words anyway? But as long as I am using words this first time, I have to say…is she not the cutest little stinker?!

Nora: Got what we think may be the flu last Wednesday. She was exposed on Sunday. Started to feel better this past weekend, but is now feeling crummy again and can’t seem to kick this cough she has.

Mary: Came down with the same thing on Saturday night, three days or so from when Nora started showing symptoms. (And Nora showed symptoms about three days after she was exposed. Hmmmmm….) Poor Mary hasn’t kicked her fever yet, but her cough isn’t quite as bad as Nora’s. Sometimes all she wants to do is lay on the couch. It’s a pretty pitiful sight to see.

Elise: So far, Elise has managed to escape “the bug,” BUT she shared slushies with Mary on Saturday, before Mary became symptomatic. The next couple of days are critical for Elise, if this three-day thing is really how the sickness works. I am hoping that if she is still OK by tomorrow, then she will have avoided it. As far as Elise on concerned, she would love to get to have some medicine like Mary and Nora. I hope she doesn’t get her wish! I would, of course, prefer to have her mad at me for not giving her medicine than to have her be sick, too. She’ll understand one day!

On the bright side, the girls are getting to watch lots of fun movies. They have really come to enjoy watching the old Disney Robin Hood, which is a movie that Travis loved as a kid. They have watched it three times now since Sunday night. Looks like we are going to have some hard habits to break when everyone is well again!

Please pray with us for the girls to feel better soon, and that Elise, Travis, and I don’t get sick. We sure would like to enjoy October one of these days!