Miss Suck-Up.

Lately Anna has been giving me lots of compliments.  Today she gave me these: "Mommy, you look so pretty!", "Oh, I rea-wee like that shirt.  It's white!", "Cute fwip-fwops mommy!"  Hey toddlers don't lie, right?  ...oh wait...

AH-HAH!

Maybe there is a reason for Anna's whining lately.  After she brushed her teeth tonight I asked her to come show me her shiny, clean teeth.  She opened her mouth super wide and I saw the beginnings of two more molars!  I had no idea they were there.  And I promise I do help her brush her teeth all the time.

A Fairy Tale...

Anna and I were watching Cinderella this morning and I've decided something...  I want some little birds to wake me up in the morning with cute little tweets and songs.  And I also want some mice that wear tiny little clothes to help me make my bed, get dressed, bathe me, fix my hair, and help me with housework.  Sounds like a good mother's day gift to me!  Anyone know where you get some of those guys?

A normal day.

I haven't put any pictures up in a while, so here's one.  A day in the life...  Grey screaming for some unknown reason and Anna trying to console him.  She'll get pretty concerned when the crying starts to sound frantic or angry.  It's like she knows more than I do.  But when he's crying his usual, "I'm just going to cry just because" cry, she doesn't mind much.  I've decided she was born a mother...unlike me.

Panic at the Disco...I mean Lowe's.

Sorry, bad joke.  But this was legit people, and probably can be blamed on me.  Nana, Grey, Anna, and I all went out for a night on the town last night.  Well, we went to Lowe's to pick up some things for the major garage organization marathon.  We just happened to go just before the place closed for the night.  Nana and I were trying to decide of some hooks and brackets while Anna climbed all over the shopping cart.  She eventually was laying horizontally on the shelf thing underneath the basket.  You know that part right above the wheels?  The part where you put things that are way too long to go into the basket part and you end up knocking things off shelves with whatever you put down there and/or hitting other innocent bystanders because you can't see how far it sticks out from the cart.  ...whew...  Anyway, Anna was laying down there when we finally decided to go to another isle.  She somehow had her knees wedged in the bars and as I began to push, she decided she wanted out.  Instead of just lifting her knees out from in between the bars, she tried to scoot forward as she lifted her legs.  Big mistake.  The bars narrow at the front of the cart and widen at the back.  The more she tried to get out, the more stuck she became.  An instant panic, screaming bloody murder, fit.  Nana and I began working on her legs trying to free them.  They were stuck!  The scenarios began to run through my head... are we going to have to get the guys in the red vests to come with some bolt cutters?  ...are we going to break her leg trying to get it out of here?  and so on...  Only seconds had passed when we got them loose.  It seemed like she was screaming for 30 minutes.  She had a nice blue mark on her knee and she was very reluctant to go down the isle where it all happened when we went back to get something.  She'll never get under the cart again, I'm sure.

Echotown. Population: 2

Yep, that's what I said..."population:2".  No, not Grey.  ME!  I've realized the reason for Anna repeats everything I say.  And everything anyone else says for that matter.  She got it from me.  I just realized that I always, or at least the majority of the time, repeat the things she says to me.  I usually do it just because I am making sure I hear her correctly.  But I DO repeat the things she says.  So, it's all my fault.

Critter gift.

Since all the rain a week or so ago and me severely disturbing the flower bed, we've also disturbed some critters as I've said previously.  Daddy sprayed the miracle bug killer spray that somehow does not kill all of us and all the critters have turned up dead so far.  Or at least I've found them flipped on their backs quivering and gasping for their final breathes.  MooHooHaaHaaHaaaa!  Yesterday morning, like any other morning, Anna came into our bedroom letting me know that "it's light outside" and "it's time to wake up".  She did her normal routine of letting me know that she was missing her favorite shows and she needed me to come into the living room.  Like the good mom that I am, I tell her nicely and with my eyes still closed, "I'll be in there in a minute."  (not!)  Then I hear here run a few steps, stop, and gasp.  "Mommy! You have a nasty bug in your room!"  (pause) "I'll go get some toilet paper." Hmm.  Still with my eyes closed I wonder what she could be talking about.  I say again, "It's ok, go potty and I'll be in the living room in a minute."  Finally (45 minutes later) I get up and meet Anna in the living room.  She immediately takes me back to our bedroom and shows me what she had done.  I must have dosed off while she had done this.  She had gotten one of Grey's wipes and picked up the dead roach that she found in the floor and placed it on the corner of my nightstand...about 5 inches from where my head was laying.  Good thing it was dead.

Shades of Grey...

So.....   Grey has been crying off and on all day.  Ugh.  I said he was a fussy kid a few posts ago, but this is ridiculous.  He only slept for about 2 consecutive hours today so I'm thinking he's just exhausted.  I hope anyway.  I did all I knew to do including change him, feed him, plug him, check his temp, and of course call Jenni.  She did the best thing anyone could do...  ask if I needed a break.  I'm actually doing alright in the sanity department as of right now.  I just put him in his bed where he is safe from injury caused by me, Anna, or himself (hopefully).  So maybe sometime soon he'll give it up.  I may take Jenni's offer up tomorrow depending on how tonight goes.  

Sneak Peak!

Here are a few shots I took of Meredith and Joseph on Saturday.  Meredith goes to nursing school with my sister and Joseph is a friend of an old teammate of mine, although I had never met them!  They are SUCH a sweet couple and we had a good time.  I still have a little more editing to do as I just realized.  :)  I hope you like the rest of the photos guys!

photography.

I'll soon be starting my very own blog with just my photography on it.  That way people can see just my stuff and preview some of their photos and bypass Anna and Grey's latest tricks if they aren't interested.  There will be a link on this page so you can check it out once in a while.  Since I'm just starting out, there may be big gaps of time between posts.  So hang in there with me...  It may take a bit to get up and running.  :)

Trash truck crush.

Anna is sooo  obsessed with the trash truck.  I don't really know why.  I guess she gets so concerned about all the ruckus happening in the alley when the trash truck comes.  She wants to go outside and watch it.  Then she begs to get in the car and follow it around and asks constantly where it's going.  Same answers every time... 

Anna: Mommy, where's trash truck goin?

Me: Probably to the next dumpster to get the neighbors trash.

Anna: The neighbor house??  To get da neighbor trash?? Where's it goin?

Me: To the next dumpster to get more trash.

Anna: To get more trash, Mommy? We go see it!

Me: No, we've already missed it.  It's gone now.

Anna: Mommy.  Where's it goin? We go see it! We get in Mommy's car and go see it...  Then we go to Target! (yep, for real...  she said it.)

Echotown. Population: 1

Anna has been repeating EVERYTHING anyone says lately.  It's like she needs to hear herself say it before it registers in her brain.  And it always comes back as a question.  So I have to really watch what I say lately.  I know she is a sponge for everything anyone says anyway, but now she tells others what I say.  Things like, "I've gotta get all this crap picked up".  Her echo, "Mommy put all dat crap up?!"  Nice.

Love this one...

The Ramsey Family

This weekend, with Daddy gone to a bike race, the kiddos and I drove to Nana and Papaw's house for some relief from the monotony.  The real plan was to do a photo shoot of Jon, Lee, Reese and Reagan (my brother and his family).  So after a quick scout out of some places out in the country, we all piled in the car and headed to some abandoned barns and houses.  We had a really good time.  There are too many to choose from to upload onto the good ol' blog, but I thought these were super fun and really captured the personality of this family; the awesome and genuine smile of an (almost) 10 year old Reagan, the many expressions of Reese, 13, and the true happiness of Jon and Lee, married in December.  These are their first real family pics!

Rain=Critters

We finally got some rain a couple of days ago.  Of course it all came in the same week that I washed my car, which NEVER gets done, and a day after I watered the yard and sad plantless flowerbed.  I was trying to get the dirt to where I could shovel out the ugly rocks and till up the packed dirt that the last owners left me.  Anyway, we haven't seen many bugs around here since we've moved in.  But in the last few days, I've seen many crickets and spiders roaming around the house.  Those don't really bother me since I grew up on a farm and those critters were regulars in our house.  But what I can't handle are the "city bugs".  Cockroaches mainly.  I can't STAND them.  They are gross and give me the willies big time.  And I should know from living in our last house that when it rains they come inside.  Last night I was fixing Grey a bottle in the kitchen.  Since it was the middle of the night, I was walking around barefoot.  I took a step to reach for something when I felt a horrid, creepy crawly, six legged critter crunch under and between my toes.  I immediately did the thing we all do...freak out, jump back, shake your foot until you are sure whatever was there is not there anymore, then look frantically to see what it was.  Yep, a cockroach.  Gross.  It was still halfway alive so I got the closest thing, a spatula, and wacked it.  Even a double layer of paper towels wadded up didn't keep the willies inside of me as I carried it to the toilet.  Ewww.  So Daddy's job when he gets home is to douse the house in Tempo...the miracle bug spray.

Funny boy.

 

 
He probably wasn't thinking "funny" at all.  These are some pics I took today since I realized that we had a nice cloudy day with great light coming in from our windows.  I'm not sure I utilized the light to it's highest potential, but I'm workin' on it dang it!  And I'm sick of saying that I'm working on it!  I just want to be great at it NOW!  ...inhale, exhale, repeat...

Whoa.

A bolt of fire from my brain streamed down my arm and into my finger that was screaming, "HIT THE SHUTTER NOW!" the second Anna's eye's looked my way.  Now, where in the world do I get some more of that fire?  I'd pay a pretty penny...  I LOVE this pic.

Whatever works...

This is what finally caused Grey to give it up last night.  I've determined that now that Grey has awakened from his 4 week long nap, he's a little bit of a fussy baby (it could be way worse I know!).  Nonetheless, fun times for all of us.  It's not one of those pathetic cries; nope, more like a "I'm just pissed off for no reason" cry...a yell/scream cry.  Like someone clinching their teeth and fists when nothing goes right.  It's nice.  And every time he does it, it makes me clinch my teeth and fists as well.  I've remembered that the baby straight jacket (a.k.a. swaddling) helps things.  The awesome hand-me-down swaddler blankets that Kelly gave us are too short so we just velcro his arms in and let his legs be free.  Which reminds me...I NEED to send Kelly a huge thank you note for that carload of stuff!!  

 

So, this was the solution last night so I could catch up on some laundry.  The swaddler blanket binding his arms and keeping him from practicing any more self mutilation; incline on the (super cute) boppy pillow, and a washcloth over his eyes, and plug in mouth.  Ahhhh, quiet.  Quiet meaning that I still heard Anna crying from her bed and telling us that she NEEDED her batteries in her lantern.  

"I'm painting!"

I've been trying to finally get Grey's room painted.  The paint can has been sitting in his room for well over a month...before he was born.  I just haven't gotten to it.  But this week I've made a move.  I'm sick of having to step over stuff that has accumulated in the floor because it either needs to go up on the wall, moved into place after the walls are painted, etc.  So I busted out the rollers and paint brushes.  I've been working slowly, starting with just cutting in at the bottom then on to rolling when I know I have a fairly good chunk of time to spend.  

So yesterday, I got all the rolling done.  But just before I finished, Anna woke up.  I just had a little more to do with the second coat on the last wall when she walked into the room, gasped with excitement, and said, "Mommy!  You're painting?!"  I told her "yep", then began telling her that the walls were wet and she didn't need to get anywhere close to them or any of the paint supplies.   She agreed and stood there looking around for a little while.  She then, as I suspected, began asking for her paint and ran to get her apron.  I told her that I couldn't help her then and maybe we'd do it later.  Well, of course, there is no "later" in a bipolar toddler's vocabulary.  About that time, Grey started screaming so I had to leave the room to see what the deal was.  I reminded Anna about not touching anything...  She usually does what I say...usually.  I came back to find her sitting in the floor of Grey's room with a paintbrush painting Grey's dresser!  And what did I do?  I asked, "ANNA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?"  She said, "Mommy, I'm painting!"  Um, yeah.  Why did I even ask.  I did the typical grab her arm, drag her out of the room why I'm lecturing about doing what I say...  She was pretty sad and is banished from Grey's room until further notice.  

The dresser is fine.  It has a gloss finish on it and it was easy to clean up.  At least she didn't get paint on the carpet!