I Can Change My Mind, If I Want

That's what Josiah said.

Remember the post several months ago about Josiah telling the midwife that I wouldn't be having any more babies because three was "enough?" Well, this is what he told me about a month ago (delayed posting, what can I say? I've got three kids, I think that explains A LOT about me right now)

Josiah: Mommy, Molly really needs a sister because right now she's the only girl and that's just sad. So you need to have another baby so she can have a sister like I have a brother.

Me: I thought you said that three babies was enough because four babies would just be A LOT of babies?

Josiah: Well, I can change my mind, if I want and Molly needs a sister, so, you need to have another baby.

First of all, I think it is very sweet that Josiah cares about his sister enough to think about these things AND to realize how great it is to have a brother to pal around with and want the same thing for Emilia. However, apparently I haven't made much progress in terms of establishing who is in charge around here since he still seems to think that his opinion is the final decision. Oh well... you win some, you lose some.

Buddy Lives Again!!

For those of you who knew me in college, you will most likely remember Buddy, my singing sunflower. I discovered this gem while going through some stuff in the basement and I KNEW that my boys would love it as much as I do, because, let's face it, I think most of my friends hated Buddy and were plotting to destroy him when I wasn't looking. (Poor thing used to have leaf "arms" that he waved when he sang, but somehow those broke off) So last night I set up my beloved Buddy, primed and ready to delight my children. And love him, they did! (Now I sound like Yoda) The best was when he first started singing because they couldn't figure out what started him (they still don't know). They both got up and tentatively approached him, looking all around him to see what could have made him start singing. When there was no obvious answer they started coming up with their own theories: poking him in the eye, blowing in his face, giving him a hug, all of which will work because he is motion activated. They had fun and I had fun watching them and now you can have fun watching them, too! (Yes, I realized that in these videos Buddy has a rather evil look, what with the light up eyes and all, but he's not evil...HE'S AWESOME!)



As you'll hear in this video, Josiah has started (randomly) calling Micah "brother." John has joked about nicknaming him Desmond, especially since sometimes when he says it, it has a distinct, "broth-ah" kind of sound to it.


I can't imagine how anyone could think that Buddy is annoying...

Be sure to read the other new post below this!!

Our Sitting Beauty

The people at John's work got us (well, got Emilia) a Bebe Pod, which is basically a Bumbo, if you know what those are and if you've never heard of either, it's a chair for babies to sit in before they can really sit. Emilia is kinda moody about hers. Sometimes she likes it and sits happily for 15 to 20 minutes and sometimes she screams the second she sees herself descending toward it. For the times she actually sits in it, I just watch her and can't believe how big she looks sitting up like that. She's my baby...my BABY, shouldn't she be smaller than that?? Surely she can't sit already! (And she can't, really, but this bebe pod gives the illusion that she is) So here are a few pics of her "sitting." Isn't she just adorable?




I am always on a mission to get a good picture of all three kids. I thought with this Bebe Pod, it would be easier. Yeah, not so much. Here was my attempt (and another attempt pre-Bebe pod).

Photo Editing

I love photo editing software! I can take mediocre pictures and turn them into good pictures with a few clicks on my computer. If you're looking for some free photo editing stuff, I highly recommend GIMP. It's got a bit of a learning curve to figure everything out, but once you do, there are endless possibilies for your pictures. Here are Emilia's pictures that I fixed up a bit. Don't they look so much better now?

Micah's Pet

Two days ago, the boys were outside playing when I heard Micah yelling, "Mommy! Come see my pet!" closely followed by Josiah storming in yelling, "Micah has a pet!" With my boys, this could've meant anything, THANKFULLY his pet was only a ladybug. He was letting it crawl all over his arm, from hand to hand and even shared his pet with Josiah. He was sad that I made him leave his pet outside, but I convinced him that the ladybug needed to eat and we didn't have any aphids in the house. Yesterday when we were out he wanted help to find his pet again. "He's not here, Mommy. He flew away." He was very sad, so I told him his pet was just out visiting friends and would be back later. Let's hope he comes home soon!




One more picture for you...I wasn't completely happy with the tummy pics I took of Emilia the other day, so I gave it another try this afternoon. Not much more success, but I did get one good one:

Three Months, Really?

On Monday, our little Emilia was three months old. Can you believe it? She's been changing and growing so much these days, that sometimes she seems older than three months. She's started rolling over, both ways, but I don't think she realizes that she can "get around" that way, yet. So far, she just rolls once and then stops. Soon, though, very soon my days of finding her in the same spot I left her will be over.

She's also been talking, mostly only when it's quiet (not too often) and only when someone is "talking" to her. She really spills her heart to Josiah. I don't know what all she tells him, but every time he talks to her she just jabbers away. It's very cute.

I've got videos to share about all of this, but I have to figure out how to upload videos now that we have a REAL video camera and I'm not feeling up to that challenge right now. Maybe later. I've also got to tell you all about Micah's pet 'cause that's a cute story! But for now, here's Molly's three month pictures...I've got to do some editing to the first two, but they're still worth sharing (thanks, Jen, for the adorable bow!):

And We'll Have Fun, Fun, Fun

(sorry, I guess I've got Beach Boys on the brain)

This past weekend we spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning in Gatlingburg with Karen, Nana, Emily and families celebrating Karen and Bruce's 10 year anniversary. I know, MOST couples go somewhere alone to celebrate, but Karen and Bruce thought it would be more fun if we all got together for a game weekend. I don't know about them, but I definitely had more fun than I would have if they had gone off somewhere just the two of them! :)

We played all kinds of games and took the kids to the pool for awhile (actually, everyone else took the kids to the pool, I stayed with Emilia so she could nap) and we all had a really great weekend. Well, John's weekend may not have been quite so spectacular since he had to get up at the crack of dawn to drive an hour and a half to Oak Ridge to be in attendence at traffic school so that his latest ticket won't get reported to our insurance. :( Poor little speed demon, but other than that I think he had a great weekend!

Bonus stories: Micah just asked me to put his watch on so he could tell time. "I need to be able to tell time, so may you please put my watch on may you please." After I got his watch on him he looked at it and said, "It's 30 pounds." Guess we need to work on telling time a bit so he can at least be using the correct measurements!

Micah: Mommy, if I touch this part of my foot, it hurts.
Me: Well, then don't touch it. (I learned this line of sympathy from my own mom)
Micah: But I want to.
Me: Oh. Ok then.
Micah (smashing his fingers into his foot): See?? It hurts!
Me: Sorry 'bout that.

Finally, here is a picture of Josiah and Micah livin' it up at the cabin in Gatlinburg. You should always begin any great adventure with a nap.

And for some reason that is the only picture I took over the weekend, so I dont have any others to share with you. Oh well.

Holden Beach Slideshow

Stories about Holden Beach:

Our trip started with an 8 hour drive, which with little kids (one of whom is an infant and eats every 2 to 3 hours) and a few technical difficulties turned into a 10 hour trip, but most of it was pleasant, amazingly enough! We got a little worried when we were an hour into the trip and Josiah asked how much farther it was to the beach. John and I looked at each other and said, "Oh boy..." But then I guess he settled in for the long haul because he didn't ask again until we were about an hour away from the beach and when we got there he said it had been a fun car ride, so I guess we can't ask for much more than that with three little kids!

The boys had so much fun in the water on this trip to the beach. Last time we went to the beach, Josiah wouldn't even get his feet wet (Micah has always been willing to run in, even at 18 months). The first day he (Josiah) was still a little hesitant, but after that he was in there jumping waves, splashing, "snorkeling" (sticking his face under with the mask), riding the waves...it was fun watching them both enjoy it all so much. Micah was fearless, as usual. In trying to keep up with Josiah and Justin, he got taken down by a couple of waves, but most of the time, he got right back up, spit out the "yucky" water and kept on going. There were a couple of times when he got a double dose of water and then he came out and sat for a few minutes to recover, but within 5 minutes he was back in the water jumping, splashing and laughing.

Josiah went to play golf one day with his Uncle Paul. When he came back we asked how he did and if he had fun and he said, "I hit the ball hard, but Uncle Paul kept hitting it in the sand."

Molly had a good week, though I'm not real sure she knew we were at the beach. It was WAY too bright out there for her, even with a hat in the tent under the umbrella she still had to keep her eyes closed and she screamed about it. And she hated her sunglasses, so other than a few photo ops, she was inside. I do know she enjoyed all of the attention she got there, though, because she has wanted to be held almost all day today!

The kids made some fun crafts while we were there: bucket hats, sand collages, sand castle cake and every day (almost) they drew a picture of their favorite part of the day on a mural. Here are some of the things they listed as favorites:

Micah: Talking to Justin, jumping waves with Mommy, M&Ms, pretzels and raisins (snack--M&Ms were a favorite every day),

Josiah: Playing golf, building a sandcastle, jumping waves, playing in the tidal pool

Other highlights from the trip include, looking at jellyfish, finding a dead crab, seeing a live crab, taking a bike ride with Aunt Jenny and Daniel (they claim to have had fun on this anyway, though you wouldn't have known it at the time because they complained and/or whined the whole time), painting in their underwear, all getting to sleep in the same room, swapping pillows with Justin (he had a Batman one), digging in the sand with shovels (we had four and of course two were better than the others, so it was REALLY fun getting to dig with those), jumping on the beds that they weren't suppose to be jumping on, being bribed with cookies to smile AGAIN for the family pictures...at 8:30 in the morning, Micah being a sabertooth up and down the stairs, going out at night to find ghost crabs, seeing the turtle tracks where a turtle came on shore to lay her eggs, Justin's mask and snorkel, pancakes for breakfast 3 times in a week, getting slimed with sunscreen AGAIN...oh wait, no that wasn't a favorite, the animal visors from gramma, and just playing with their cousins on the beach (or in the house, or on the porch...)

We had a great time last week. Josiah didn't want to come home. In fact, when we were packing up on Friday he said that he was going to stay, so we didn't need to pack his stuff. We convinced him that we would miss him, so he finally agreed to come home, but I think Micah said it best this morning, "Mommy, some day can we go back to the beach? That was fun."