Elmo

We treated Mason to the Elmo Live show at Nokia today and he and Reese both loved it. Mason was his usual reserved self sitting in our lap the entire time. Reese would stand in my lap, dance, point, and clap her hands throughout the show. 

While at dinner afterwards, were talking about Oscar the Grouch since we all know Mason loves all things trash truck related, and our short conversation went something like this...

Somebody at the table: Does Oscar live in a grey or blue trash can?

Mason: (in the most I can't believe you asked that question voice) grey...Oscar is not recyclable!

Us: You're right bud, what were we thinking??!!

Poison ivy & poop

It turns out Gary, who shaves his head every other day, has poison ivy on his head. I'm sure shaving twice before he figured it out wasn't helpful.

A recent conversation with Mason and myself:

Me: Mason, Reese is asleep so you and mama can do anything you want. What do you want to do?

Mason: Pick up poop.

So Mason and I picked up dog poop in the backyard. Great bonding time!

Baby nursery tour

I know I am about a year late in posting this, but I am honestly just getting around to it. Not to mention the fact that my "baby" is fast approaching her first birthday and I am already getting very sentimental. When I found out we were having a girl, at first I was scared...then the fear wore off and it was replaced with the excitement of getting to decorate a little girl's room. It has  been nothing but blues around here since Mason was born and I have to say it was great fun getting to let my inner "girly-girl" out in a house full of boys (the dogs are both boys too). So for those that are interested (all 2 of you out there) here's Reese's almost big girl room nursery.

My mom came into town when I was about 8 months pregnant to help me install the wainscotting paneling (not sure if I spelled that right). It was a fun project because she helped me, but man that was a lot of trips up the stairs measuring and cutting the pieces. I definitely could not have done it without her. Thanks mom!

I wanted to include Mason in decorating her room because I spent quite a bit of time up there and he was a very good helper. He was very into coloring at the time so I gave him some paper and his crayons and he created this masterpiece especially for Reese. 

This was my most favorite pregnancy picture (and probably one of the only ones) the second time around. Mason loved to hug my belly whenever it was peeking out under my shirt, which was a lot towards the end. 

A friend was nice enough to give us her daughter's old nursery bedding so I coordinated the room around it. Who am I to pass up free, cute and free bedding?

I really wanted some curtains from Pottery Barn Kids, but that just wasn't in our budget. So instead, I made these curtains and I happened to like them better than the PBK's anyway.

My other favorite picture in her room. I got tired of plain wooden picture frames but I couldn't find the exact ones I wanted for her room, so I made this one too. 

So I know that Reese is my last baby so I will have to live vicariously through others for cute, new baby nurseries. I would love anyone else's if you're interested in sharing.

Cow Patty Bingo anyone?

I braved another road trip by myself with the kiddos this past weekend. We drove the  normally 5 hour trip without kids to see my parents in Southeast Texas. It took 2 stops and 6 hours, 15 minutes on the drive down and only 1 stop and 5 hours 15 minutes on the way back. They were so well behaved in the car. In fact, Mason didn't nap at all on the way down and Reese only took 2 short 30 minute naps and they were happy the entire rest of the trip. They fared much better than me and my back (or I should say my legs since they were the ones tingling with pins and needles all the way up to my knees requiring me to ride with the seat reclined back as far as I could to still drive and somewhat turned to as much of a sidelying position as possible). But that's a whole other story. 

While visiting my parents, my old high school had their annual Possum Bluff Festival. I had not been since I graduated high school a whopping almost 14 years ago. Not much has changed. So when I was telling Gary what all was there for Mason to see, I rattled off the events which included Cow Patty Bingo. I was able to get out a few more words before Gary said "Whoa, back up a minute...did you say Cow Patty Bingo?" I just assumed everyone knew what Cow Patty Bingo was... and if you don't, let me elaborate. 

There is a square enclosure, let's say it's about 10 feet x 10 feet (just for easy numbers sake) and it has a fence around it. So the space inside is lined with chalk, to make a grid with squares each 1 foot x 1 foot to give you a total of 100 squares. Someone also has a paper grid and each person pays $5 for a square until the page is full. Then they bring in a cow and wait until the cow poops and whoever's square the cow poops in wins all the money. Simple and entertaining right? Gary thought this was hilarious and didn't believe me at first. Apparently, they don't do that anywhere but the south since he had never heard of it. Anybody else familiar with it?

My hair revisited

Stop the presses...I had to laugh at this one. I think most guys wouldn't understand, so this is definitely for the ladies. Someone left a comment about my hair cut photo and said they loved the hair color. WHAT???!!! I thought that was hilarious since that is my natural hair color. I have always had almost jet black hair, and of course, like most women you aren't happy with what you have and want someone else's.  I tried to be adventurous once about 10 years ago and color my hair myself (with my sister's help). After all the mess, I ended up with the same color I started with. So, thank you for the compliment on both my cut and the color.  There's nothing like a good hair day. Especially since you can't ever get it to look like the day you walked out of the salon. 

I Heart Faces

It's fun going back through my old photos trying to find a picture that matches each week's new theme at I Heart Faces. This week is Wonder, and even though I already posted this picture on my blog earlier this week, I just had to post it again because... I wonder what she is thinking.

The long and short of it

I used to have really long hair. Then I cut it off when I was pregnant with #2 as I knew there was no way I would have the time to "fix" it.  Just recently though I thought about growing it out, but then I thought, who am I kidding...it would go into a ponytail everyday. So today I told Mason I was going to get me hair cut. This was our conversation:

Mason: Where you going Mama?

Me: Going to get my hair cut.

Mason: Why you do that?

Me: Because it needs it.

Mason: You hair stickin' out?

Me: Yes, sweetie, it is.

Me: Mason, do you like my new hair cut?

Mason: No, you hair still stickin' out.

That's a man boy for you.

Bits of random information

All is well in the Kearns house today. Reese has managed to gain a little bit of weight and has started getting some chunk back in her legs (despite having an ear infection). She does still go to bed between 5:30 and 6 most nights and sleep til around 6:30. So we don't know if that's the anemia or if she just needs her beauty sleep. The other day she woke up from her nap with her pacifier stuck in the hoodie of her jacket.  Reese and her pacifiers crack us up all the time. Once again, the text is blue and I don't know how to change it.                                                                       

This was us the other night taking shelter in our laundry room when the tornado sirens were going off. We woke Reese up from a deep sleep and so, of course, when it was time to go back to bed, she was ready to play. Mason was fine with it until we got out of there and the lightning came. 

Just a cute picture of her up close. 

This is a boy in love...with suckers. Just for the record, he did not eat the entire thing. He had a little help from mama and his puppies.

 This is a girl in love...with her bath time. She now just likes to stand at the faucet and try to catch the water. 
Daddy got a hold of what little hair she has and tried to give her a mohawk. The funniest part was that he was so caught up in her mohawk that he forgot to rinse out all the shampoo. We had to go hold her over the tub and rinse her hair when I realized the girl still had a head full of shampoo.

Last thing tonight, I promise. 

We have started helping Mason says his prayers out loud each night. Tonight, this was how it went.

Me: Let's say our prayers, you go first.

Mason: Ok. Dear God.  (long pause)

Me: Dear God. Thank you for...

Mason: Mommy and Daddy... and baby Reese... and Miles and Jack (our dogs)... and Cody and Missy (horses)... the puppies... the horsies....the puppies... the horsies... (long pause)... Dear God.

Me: Amen (chuckling)

Mason: Amen

That makes my heart smile.

Is it just boys...

Obsessed with bodily functions? Mason wanted to know if he could bring his new "balloon" (a.k.a.  whoopie cushion) to church this morning. Without thinking, I said the first thing that came to mind..."no, we don't toot in church". I never ever thought that was something that I would have to tell my son.

Tonight we made lentil soup for the first time. I gave Mason some lentils, he took one, held it up and with a very serious face says..."will this make toot?"

It turns out he likes lentils.

When the boys are in charge

Reese has an ear infection so I chose to stay home with her while Mason and Gary went to a birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza today. Apparently, they had enough tickets to purchase something from the store there. Mason LOVES balloons, and of course Gary knows that. So with Mason's tickets, he makes a purchase. My wonderful husband convinced Mason that "it's a balloon"...it being a whoopie cushion. So, yes, I leave them alone and they come home with a whoopie cushion, which of course now Mason loves. Poor boy couldn't quite get it figured out how to sit on it on the floor as he kept overshooting and his booty would miss it. Plus, he almost doesn't weigh enough so he has to sometimes bounce on it. Reese didn't know what to think of it so she just stared in utter amazement. The dogs went a little crazy.  I could have done without it, but did enjoy hearing Mason laugh so hard at himself.

My sweet boy

This morning when I dropped Mason off at school, his teacher asked if she could talk to me for a few minutes. Instantly, my heart sank because I had a feeling what she was going to say. She expressed concern with the fact that Mason doesn't really play with any of the other kids during school. She said when they are all playing in the gym, he keeps to himself and watches everyone, and as a parent herself, it breaks her heart to see him like that. I, too, hate to think that he doesn't want to play with the other kids, for whatever reason. We talked about the fact that he does play with some of his friends in smaller groups, but even then, I think he plays near them or at them, but not "with them. She also expressed her concerns with his "sensory issues". I kind of chuckled, and said "you mean the arm flapping he has done since he was 6 months old?" She was worried that he did it when he was frustrated because she has seen more of it lately. But I told her, on the contrary, he flaps when he is happy or excited. You should see the boy flap when the trash truck rolls through the alley, or when his favorite part of a movie is coming up. Again, I told her that we are very aware of his flapping and she agreed that she doesn't see anything else that concerns her in that area. Being an ECI employee, I have always been completely aware of his "quirkiness" and have come to accept that he is just that, "quirky". I wish I could do more to help him get over being painfully shy though. And I am very grateful to his teacher for at least bringing it up because she could have chosen to ignore it.  

By the way, I don't know why the text is blue and I don't know how to change it :)

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My turn to play. I have been following MckMama's blog for a while, but never played Not Me Monday yet. So I thought I would give it a try.

I do not have the most comfy pair of blue jeans and workout pants that I did not wear almost every day of the week. And my husband did not ask "Did you wear any clothes this week?" when he did the laundry and noticed that my pile of clean clothes was almost non-existent.

I did not sneak a spoonful of peanut butter with a squirt of Hershey's dark chocolate syrup to make my own peanut butter cup dessert when I absolutely had to have my fix.

I did not forget to brush my son's teeth the very morning of his first dentist visit. I then did not try to brush his teeth in their bathroom with their pre-toothpasted adult brushes when he doesn't even know how to spit out the toothpaste yet. And he most certainly did not accidently pee all over the walls behind the toilet and to the side of the toilet, the toilet, the floor, and the toilet paper roll because the toilet was too tall for him. I did not have to the tell the receptionist that we would be a few more minutes so I could clean it up since we were already 10 minutes late getting there.

I did not leave a sippy cup full of water that was at least 4 days old in Reese's diaper bag and the ladies in the church nursery certainly did not give it to her thinking it was fresh when they were trying to console her on Sunday.

Yikes! My parenting skills have been a little on the fritz lately. But seeing it in writing makes it seem worse.

first trip to the dentist

Mason had his first trip to the dentist today. I went first so he could see it was no big deal. They had Little Einsteins playing on the TV so I think they could have done just about anything to him and he would have been ok.

He was not a big fan of the foam flouride application. 

His favorite part had to have been the suction straw. We kept telling him he had to let go of it so she could keep working.

Apparently, they make flossers for kiddos.

Also not a big fan of the spinning toothbrush with the gritty polish. For the record, neither am I. That's my least favorite part.

Once again, it doesn't really surprise me that he did so well at the dentist. I think he's actually to shy to act out. Which makes most public outings wonderful, but not always.

Nothing new around here

Gary played in a flag football tournament this past weekend and is now finally over all the soreness. His team won 3rd (not bad for a group of men over 30, except for 2 who are pushing 30). They literally played a bunch of high school guys. We had the perfect kids that day. Mason played from 9am-3pm outside among all the chaos and we could not have asked for a better behaved kiddo. Reese also loved being outside all day, minus the nap she took at home. She loved crawling in the dead grass, and even ate a few pieces I'm sure. I think she has picked up a few pointers from her Auntie. Ann is notorious for storing objects in her sports bra and has even destroyed a couple of cell phones that way. (Apparently, running with your cell in your sports bra doesn't bode well considering sweat is a liquid and cell phones don't survive well in liquid). She's going to kill me for that one.

Mason can also be quite the ham lately. His new thing is always making a silly face when I try to take his picture. Thank goodness I don't need many serious pictures from him.

I Love Jesus, but I drink a little

This Ellen clip was hilarious! I saw it on another blog and then had to share it myself because I was laughing out loud at this lady.

My new favorite thing

This is one of my new favorite things. We got this quesadilla maker for Christmas and we LOVE it! We have used it for breakfast, lunch and dinner (not all in the same day though). It really spices up your ordinary everyday lunch sandwiches too. 

Weight Check

Reese had a weight check today. It has been a month since her 9 month well baby that showed she had dropped down to the 7th percentile in weight and was anemic. Well.......she is now in the 10th percentile for weight, 24th for height, and still the 82nd for her head. I'll take the 3 point jump. Woo-hoo! However, she is still anemic, in fact, it has gotten worse in the last month even though she has been on an iron supplement. So we will check it all again at her 12 month well baby.

I Heart Faces

Each week I Heart Faces has their kids and adults photo contests. Now I know we won't win, but it is still a lot of fun going through my old photos and picking " a winner". This week is The Eyes Have It.