Stories

When I began this blog, I never dreamed that I would have so many things to write. Maybe my life isn't quite as exciting (or funny) as I think it is, but I sure enjoy sharing the little pieces of the day with whoever reads this.

Roo got a new nickname yesterday. The whole family stopped by church in the evening. I had a meeting to attend and Derrick kept the kids on the playground. (we wanted to only take one car to the Downtown Athens Christmas Parade - so this was our compromise). When my meeting was over and I reunited with everyone, Derrick announced the new nickname -- Rooter (yes, it rhymes with Scooter). Evidently he "roots out" everything that he is not supposed to get into. That didn't surprise me in the least!!

Our other big news this week is that, after six years of discussion, Derrick finally convinced me to invest in an artificial Christmas tree. I think there is something exciting about selecting just the right tree, only to get it home and find out it has a hole in the middle and leans to the left a little. The smell fills the house (although needles are everywhere and I always forget to water).

We embarked on a shopping trip on Monday night and went to every store in town that sells artificial trees. I'm pretty pleased with what we got, although my stomach churned a bit when I pulled it out of the box and the artificial "limbs" unfolded. I felt like I was in one of those horror movies where the robots turn to life and terrorize everybody. Hopefully our tree won't do that. However, after "fluffing" the tree and turning on the lights, I have to say it looks pretty good. We'll head back to Lowes and get a real wreath or some cut branches to hang to get that good smell.

We are decorating tonight, so I'll post some pictures this weekend of our decorated house (and me "fluffing" the tree before all the limbs were in place.)

Brain Power

I think I went into this whole parenthood thing with the idea that it would be hard work, but it wouldn't really "work" my brain that much. After all, how stimulating can it be to converse with toddlers all day long? Well, now that my toddler is more of a preschooler, things are becoming quite a bit more complicated.

Today we were all in the car on the way to Sam's. I'm driving; Noah (our 4 year old friend that comes over twice a week) is behind me; Roo is next to him; and Scooter is way in the back. Out of the blue, Noah begins to talk about how God died on the Cross. I reminded him that it was Jesus that died for us. Then, from the back, came a request from Scooter to "tell me the story of Jesus dying on the cross." He is really into telling stories in the car. While we were heading to Texas, we stuck with the easy stories like "Three Little Pigs" and "Cinderella".

Here's the thing, that may sound like an easy request, but how do you translate "Jesus died as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He was pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed" into language for a three year old to understand? Then, the questions came flooding: "what is a cross? how did Jesus get boo-boos on his feet? (this was not something I said - he must have remembered it from Sunday School) what does God have to do with this?"

Then, the funniest part, is as quickly as it started, it all ended. Attention shifts quickly and the Salvation Army Bell Ringer suddenly became a much more exciting topic of conversation. We put money in the red bucket and headed in for our shopping.

And, speaking of brain power, I'm amazed how much a little three-year old brain retains. As we got out of the car, I recited my list of four items for Scooter to remember. Several times in the store, I asked what else we needed and he remembered everything! We had fun counting and remembering our list.

rainy day

Praise God for the rainy day! If you have been following the local Georgia news, you'll know that our drought is so bad that they are saying we have less than a month of water left. So, we were thrilled today to wake to a gentle rain. Well, let's just say that I was thrilled. Scooter was so disappointed that he could not go to the park, as we had planned. We worked on inside projects instead.

Our big art project this week is to finish our Christmas cards. We are individually decorating each card, so I hope you enjoy! It may be the only year of this. Here are the boys working on their cards. Nana gave us the snowman table cloth and it looks so festive on the table! Scooter is painting at the end of the table. He insisted on wearing his "chemical gloves." Roo is coloring with crayons. I have to keep a close eye on him. He likes to eat the crayon, or even better, feed the crayon to Farley.

I realize it has been 12 days since my last post. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting Derrick's family in Texas. The boys did so well with the long drive, including Farley. He loved meeting his "cousin dogs". Our Thanksgiving meal included 16 people and five dogs. Kevin & Elisabeth left their three dogs at home! I'll post some funny stories and pictures as the week progresses. Below are a few good pictures.

Roo is absent from this picture -- everyone knows not to wake a sleeping baby!!

Here are three of the dogs during the dinner. They weren't enjoying it as much as the humans, as they were forced to stay behind the gate for the meal. Farley was locked in his bed, because we didn't trust him not to bust through the gate. Molly is probably asleep on the couch, enjoying not having competition from humans. The dogs pictured above are: Tiger Lily (who thinks she is a cat - always has to have a lap to sit on), Pebbles and Sunshine.

Rudolph

Roo was the only casulty from yesterday's exciting events. He slid down our rock retaining wall and scraped his nose along the way. It happened before anyone arrived. He is now sporting a red "rudolph" nose. Needless to say, we canceled the family portraits that we were supposed to have today. I was willing to do them with one scrape, but not with a big red nose.

As you can see in this picture, he was quite a trooper and wanted to continue to play even after it happened. Not long after I took this photo, he poured sand in his eye and I had to flush it out by putting his head in under the running faucet. When he awoke from his nap, he was still crying out sand. What are we going to do with him?

Daycare at the Seusers!

Somehow today we ended up with seven kids and two adults at our house today for playtime. It was lots of fun, but definitely confirmed to me that I do not want to open an at-home daycare. There were two four year olds, two three year olds, one two year old, one 20 month old and a seven month old. The adults were 30+ -- no exact ages given! :)

Good thing we built the big sand box for Scooter's birthday. They all fit! Once we came inside, it seemed as if someone was always eating and someone else was always in the bathroom (or getting a diaper change). I guess that's how large families work.

Oh and, doesn't the house look so clean in the second picture. Don't worry, about 10 minutes earlier, I looked around and wondered when was the last time I saw every single one of our toys on the floor. You could hardly see the carpet! This picture was taken post-clean up. Roo was already napping.

Growing so Fast

I can see that this is going to be a title that I use often in this blog. It is just so true.

Last week, little Roo graduated to his own booster seat at the table. He loves that he can climb in and out by himself. It is a great height, not only to eat food, but also to color - one of his favorite activities. Today at lunch he was eating and "coloring" the table top. He loved his squash soup. Before I knew it, it was fingerpainting time! Good thing I have Farley to help clean up.

Scooter's hair is finally growing out, after his September buzz cut. You probably can't see in this picture, but some of the hairs in the back are starting to curl again. I'm so glad because we have family portraits on Wednesday. If they turn out, we'll use them on our Christmas card. Now I just have to figure out what we are all going to wear. I'm disappointed because Derrick doesn't think that Farley will be able to come. He may have to be photoshopped into the picture. :)

Georgia Football

Today is the big Auburn game. The boys and I dropped Derrick off at the game to work at 12:30, with the intention that we would find a quick parking spot and join some friends for a few hours to tailgate. Well, "quick" and "close" are not words that would describe the spot we finally ended up with. But, "free" is always good. Before we found it, I was ready to head home and forget about the idea, but Scooter was about to pitch a fit that we weren't going to go. He is such a chip off of my block -- not wanting to miss a thing. He was a trooper as we walked for over a mile. Roo was carried, so he didn't mind a bit. I had a good time visiting with friends, while Scooter played with the kids. The best part about it was we got a ride back to the car.

So, here I am being a football mommy. I'm in the office with the game on the radio, while Roo is asleep and Scooter is watching Dora the Explorer. We've never watched her, but got a video from the library this week and he has absolutely fallen in love with it. When it is over, I'll go back in there and turn on the game on the big radio and find some more activities that we can do while I listen to the game. Now, where are my priorities? Both boys slept through the first half, so I only have one half to feel guilty. But, the game is just too close to turn it off.

crafts and bugs

Today has been one of those great days that makes you want to stay at home. Our bible focus this week has been on Joshua. As soon as the boys awoke, we built Jericho with our MegaBlocks, marched around it seven times and destroyed it. The best part about our little Jericho was that we could rebuild it several times. There is nothing more fun for the boys than marching, singing and destroying, especially while still wearing jammies.

I did learn today that looking for insects outside isn't the best lesson plan for studying the letter "I" when it is the second week in November and we had our first frost two nights ago. They just don't exist any more. Instead, we had a good time looking at sweetgums and acorns with our big magnifiying glass. Scooter still thinks the word "insect" starts with the letter N - makes sense to me. Boy, the English language is so hard to learn! Maybe we should focus on igloos.

In all our fun, we didn't take any pictures. I tried to get one of Roo while he was wearing his jacket with a hood. His little face is just so cute, but he wouldn't pose. I'll work on getting some tomorrow.

An Artistic Aside

Below is my new favorite painting. I've always loved Mary Cassett. This is a painting that we saw in a little gallery in the Memorial Student Center at TAMU when we went for a football game a few weeks ago. The game was really the most incredible football experience I've ever seen, but this painting just was the icing on the cake.

I love the image of the mother with the baby, looking out the window, perhaps longing to be outside, but knowing that nap time is near. Of course, the other side of me wonders how many times the baby peed on his mother while posing for the painting.

Big Hair

As my first official "story post", I thought I would try to also share pictures to go along with the story...

Derrick has alot of hair and it seems that the boys have inherited that from him. Here is big-hair "Roo" (as I will refer to him on this blog).

Below is "Scooter" sporting his new hair style. The buzz that Daddy gave him a few weeks ago is finally growing out and we can spike it again. He has alot of hair to spike! The funniest part of this picture is that it was taken in the morning when you are supposed to be wearing a clean shirt. Scooter insisted that this shirt was clean and he had to wear it again. Clearly, there are yogurt and other goodies stored on the front of it. Later in the day, he said that he had to wear dirty clothes because he was doing construction. That night, I hid the shirt in our laundry hamper.

A new "thing" for me

This is something new that I've decided to try as a way to keep friends and family up to date on our daily life and to remember all of the cute and unusual things that happen during the day with two little ones. I always have great goals of writing them down, but never seem to get around to it. Maybe this will help keep me accountable to remembering funny phrases from the boys or silly things that they do. After all, I have to have good stuff stored up for future graduation speeches and rehersal dinners!! It may not be too exciting to you, but staying at home has taught me to get excited about the little things.