Baby Food?? No Way - I Want the Real Stuff!

Over the last few weeks, Brigdon's gotten more and more curious about what's on my plate at mealtime versus what he's having.  Taking that cue, we decided to start introducing "real" food little by little.  So far, he's a big fan of mashed potatoes, grits, biscuits, green beans, pasta, and peaches.  Though still no teeth at this point, there are 2 nearly through on the bottom.  I've been checking every day for those little teefers to just pop on through. 

I don't get what's taking so long.

Hoping to help those teeth come through, I picked up a box of Gerber teething biscuits.  These are like hard cookie things that babies can gnaw on to help with self-feeding and relieve their urge to chew on things.  My word!  This kid inhaled that thing and looked at me like, "Another, please.  Why are still standing there?" 

Is there anything cuter than plump little babies learned to ropes on how to feed themselves?? 

Disney Characters.... *sigh*

Study this photo closely.  These are pajamas that Harrison picked out himself one night before bed.  The shirt?  Buzz Lightyear, of course.  The pants?  Lightning McQueen, of course.  A perfect match?  In Harrison's mind, of course. 

Like many other little boys his age, Harrison adores the Toy Story characters (and by characters, I mean mainly Buzz Lightyear) and the Cars characters (namely Tow Mater, second runner up Lightning McQueen, AKA "Mighty Queen" as he's better-known in our house).  My little cousin Gavin handed these down to Harrison and though they do not match, it cracked me up that he busted out wearing these pajamas one night.  Two of his most favorite characters!

Funniest of all is that anyone who knows me knows that I totally loathe anything with characters on it.  I actually warned people while I was still pregnant to please NOT buy things with characters on them for my children.  They will be thrown away...thrown...a...way.  Well, all it took was for my first born to fall in love with the oh-so-annoying Thomas the Train, always chipper Mickey Mouse, and let's not forget the two VIPs mentioned above, for me to give in.  A little.  Feeding his adoration for brightly colored, obnoxious character-laden clothing, I make it a point to buy him character underwear and character pajamas.  If by chance you run into my children in public and they're wearing something character-y, their Daddy dressed them.  I learned quite quickly that the above-mentioned rules don't apply to Daddy.  :)

These are just my conclusions and I'm a tad OCD about this subject. 

Vacation Bible School 2010

My big guy's growing up! 

This summer, he was old enough to participate in our church's annual vacation Bible school, "Backstage With the Bible."  It took a few conversations for us to get him to understand this was not real school, but that it'd be something he'd have fun at anyway.  I was one of his leaders and this was my first year leading this age group.  We had 14 or 15 four and five year olds each night.  They were wild and funny and kept us on our toes.  Thank goodness for awesome helpers!  I did learn that in the future, I will not be a leader for any age group that I have a child in said age group.  Being Harrison's parent, I felt the need to get onto him constantly which after 5 nights in a row of, I was quite annoyed.  Anyone who knows my boy knows that his wild streak come through loud and clear whenever he's with his little friends!  Well, that wild streak was screaming all week long! 

When the week was through, that boy had had the MOST fun!  He can't wait for "akayshun Bible skool" next year.  The following Sunday night, the whole crowd of kids got to perform a few of the songs they had learned throughout the week for their parents and the rest of the congregation.  Where's my kid??  Front and center and proud of it!  During their performance, Justin and I laughed at his silly expressions and little dances until we were in tears.  So, so, SO cute!  If one thing's for sure, he keeps us laughing. 

Learning about being "fishers of men."

Meghan, Harrison, and Logan

Sing it loud, sing it proud!

Rocking Horse Revamp

We scored this sweet little rocking horse at a garage sale one balmy Friday morning and decided she had good bones, but desperately needed a revamp. 

The best part?  She was only $5!

(before)

First order of business...cutting off the nappy "mane" and "tail."  Harrison helped me sand her down and clean her up and we put a few coats of fresh black paint.  After letting it dry (which Harrison though would never happen), we lightly sanded it to give it a distressed look. 

The end result...

(after)

She's a beauty!

Keep an eye out in future blog posts about our new rocking horse.  I can't really say there's a happy story about it, i.e. "this wooden rocking horse was made by Great Uncle So-and-So and it's ___ years old..."  However, she was $5 and no one knows the difference!

Wordless Wednesday

Crazy Busy?? It must be Summertime!

I'm feeling a tad short of breath this week!  It has been crazy busy, which is all too common for Summertime.  Lots of fun and exciting things happening though....New carpet being installed, closet cleaning (the kind that requires a followup garage sale - also happening this week), vacation Bible school nightly, pick up and drop off sweet neice and nephew to and from said vacation Bible school, birthday party, monthly hair appointment, Mama Couture orders/projects...Oh, and this other little thing I have - WORK!

I'm totally not complaining.  I actually think I thrive off of this sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants craziness.  However, as can be told by the lack of housework and cooking happening this week, my homemaker duties do not thrive off of such craziness. 

That being said, fun new blogs coming up soon.  (Well, maybe not fun to anyone else, but fun for me!)  My sweet littlest critter is officially sitting up like a BiG BoY, so cutie pics of that as well as other happenings in our neck of the woods are on their way!

Brig's First Haircut

My little dark-haired fella was ready for his first haircut....already.  Seems that all babies have a little trouble keeping hair in the back of their heads and that was typical for Brig.  The hair on the sides of his little head was another story.  It was long and wispy and hanging over his ears; definitely not the clean-cut look that Mama likes.  Harrison was due for a haircut too, so on Sunday afternoon, I decided it was time to cut Brig's too.  He was such a champ!  Sat in his Bumbo seat and let me trim up the sides and a little off the back.  There was actually more hair to cut than I had realized.  He has the cutest cowlick in the front, so we left the hair on top as it was for the most perfect little comb-over.  It's funny such a huge difference a small haircut can make!

I guess Harrison was about this same age when he got his first haircut and, of course, I saved a lock of his hair.  I couldn't help but pull it out and compare it's shade to the shade of Brig's first trimmed locks.  Woah!  We all knew Brig was darker complected than Harrison, but there is a big difference in the shade of their "first curls!"  Brig's is MUCH darker than Harrison's.  Neither of my boys look like me AT ALL, but I gleam with pride that Brig has dark hair like me!  Secretly Justin has dark hair too, but his started off blonde (like Harrison's), so I'm ignoring that fact right now. 

Though it's hard to tell from the pictures, that little haircut has made such a difference in Brig's "look."  He looks so much older just from that - Besides the fact that he's learning and growing every day.  Such a big guy!

BEFORE

AFTER