Cousin "Booke"

Hunter LOVES his family. Every single time we are in the car he either wants to visit or call or talk about "Poppy", "Gandee" (Grandee), "Nana", "Gandad" (Grandad), "Nanny", "Gampa" (Grampa), "Courtey" (Aunt Courtney), "Katie", "Seeve" (Uncle Steve), "Yack" (Zack), or "Yesa" (Vanesa)...with those last two being of particiular interest (they are his cousins).

...

This past week Hunter got to spend a lot of time with his out of town family: "Bop" (Uncle Bob), "Melli" (Aunt Melanie), "Carson", and his favorite, "Booke" (Cousin Brooke). Hunter has met his cousin Brooke a couple of times before, but he REALLY fell in love with her on this visit.

...

Everything Brooke wanted to do, Hunter wanted to do. Every toy Brooke played with, Hunter wanted to play with. His favorite phrase of the week was, "Booke coming?" everytime we went anywhere in the remote vicinity of Grandee and Poppy's house. It was really cute to watch them together, so obviously I took plenty of pictures...

meeting Cousin Carson for the first time -

excitedly waiting for his favorite cartoon intro song of all time..."Beggie Tae-uws" -

having tea with Cousin Brooke...It's actually coffee, if you ask Hunter -

hanging out with Cousin Carson and Daddy -

playing with his favorite person of the week and his favorite toy..."pay-toh" -Poppy got in Hunter's wagon and asked Hunter to pull him...He was a little unsure at first, but then he actually tried it! It was really more of a pushing attempt, but still the cutest thing ever...We love you Thayers! Thanks for visiting!

Shut Up

So today on the way home from work and picking Hunter up from school I was talking to Laura on the phone. We were reminiscing about what geniuses we were in high school chemistry, and how our lab partners, Nathan and Bryan, were so lucky to have us as their partners. We never just stood there smiling and adding cute, witty comments while they did the lab entirely alone. And we never, ever just copied their answers. We wouldn't dream of doing that in a million years.

...

I was laughing and enjoying our still cute, still witty comments back and forth over the phone and forgot for a moment that Hunter was in the car. (I acutally had to wake him up when I got to school today, so he was uncharacteristically quiet.) Laura made some comment that was semi-surprising, so I responded with my usual, "Shut up!" The instant the words left my mouth I thought 2 things...

1. I've really got to try harder to stop using that phrase because I'm waaaaay past my college sorority girl days and it's not nearly as charming as it used to be

and 2. That's probably not the best thing to be saying with my 2 year old whose language is exploding every day in the back seat.

...

Exactly 1.5 seconds later, I hear Hunter say (in the most staccato voice you can imagine) "shut up". Then he started repeating it over and over, "shut up. shut up. shut up."...staccato the entire time. I frantically whispered into the phone to Laura what was going on, and we both decided that taking the ignoring it approach would be best.....but it really seems like I need to just follow my own advice and shut it already.

...

Hunter thought the whole thing was pretty funny, though...

He just can't stop laughing about it...

Contortionist

Every night after we put Hunter to bed, we close his door and listen from the living room as he hums himself to sleep. Then when James and I go to bed we always stop by his room and silently pray over him. We've found him in some pretty crazy positions, but last week he looked like this...
No idea how that is at all comfortable. And no, the flash didn't wake him up...James was pretty scared about that, though.

Faux Hawk

Hunter got a new haircut. It can actually be styled now. What do y'all think?

I know. So cute.

Manipulation Station

So I've started noticing a teeny tiny amount of manipulation and deception in Hunter's behavior when he wants something that he knows good and well he can't have. Tonight at bath was the biggest yet...

Y'all know my son likes to clean. (You can start lining your daughters up now if you'd like because one day he's so going to be husband of the year with those mad cleaning skills.) Anyway. Every night in the bathtub, Hunter asks for the washcloth so he can "keen" (clean) the bathtub with it. (Be comforted in knowing that I never give it to him until we are completely done with washing his body. Y'all know I'm too germaphobic to let my child clean the grout of the tub and then his own precious skin. Nast.) I have no problem with his love for cleaning the tub because obviously it's helping me out in my current toohugetobendovertowipeitdownmyself state...until he starts putting the washcloth - sopping with the dirty bath water - into his mouth and s.u.c.k.i.n.g it. It grosses me out. We have zero tolerance for this in our house. And the child knows it.

So tonight, as usual he asks for the washcloth and excitedly shouts, "keen it! keen it!" as he wipes down the side of the tub. Then he reaches the washcloth up to his face, and before he gets it to his mouth, he gets the standard, stern warning that if he puts it in his mouth, I'm taking it away. I look away for a second and it's up at his face again, but before I can take it away he says, "keen nose! keen nose!" Then looks at the washcloth and says, "no booguhs."

This continues for a while, and I quickly notice that each time he brings the washcloth down past his nose, he shoots his eyes in my direction, deceitfully wipes the washcloth on his tongue...very discretely, and announces, "keen nose!" I was amazed by this. In the words of my husband, that kid is too smart for his own good.

I do have to add...he sure is cute though:)

Time Flies

So all of a sudden my son is a boy. The baby is completely gone...completely. It's crazy. I feel like I can literally see him growing everyday, and it's the weirdest mix of feelings...awe and excitement and sadness and shock. I looked at his legs last night as he was climbing onto the ottoman and couldn't belive how long they were. Wasn't it yesterday that James's hand could cover them?

...

Then tonight I was looking through this month's pictures on the computer and came across this one...

and then this one......and I immediately thought of this one from when Hunter was 3 months old...I swear I can remember the day I took that last picture so vividly it could've been yesterday. I just know I'm going to blink, and he'll be 18. Okay I have to stop because my eyes are tearing up now. Literally. I'm sure this (and all of my recent sentimental-y craziness) has nothing to do with my pregnant lady hormones. I do love all of the mushiness though....even though it's probably driving some of you crazy:)

Mothers

We had a great day today celebrating our mothers...my boys did a great job of making me feel special too:)

We had a church-wide brunch this morning where the men served the women. Then after our naps we went to meet James's parents and my family for a late lunch at Two Rows...
Three generations...Nanny, me, mom, Kate, and Court

James and his mom

One proud mommy and her sweet bed-head boy...we woke up late from our naps, so there was not time to lay those crazy flyaway hairs down. I can't figure out what that child does in his sleep to make his hair so crazy...he doesn't even have that much of it to mess up!

After lunch we came home for a while, and then James, Hunter and I went to Bahama Bucks because baby Charlotte wanted a snow cone.

Her big brother did too...
(This one's for you, Laura and Marcy...
...I feel like that's pretty close to what my belly really looks like these days)

Being a mother is truly one of the greatest blessings God has ever given me. I cherish all of the lessons I've learned and feelings I've been able to experience over the past two years thanks to the gift of motherhood. I continue to stand in awe of the miracle that God lets me be a part of every day through watching (and feeling!) my children grow...


"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone


So true, Liz. My thoughts exactly.

The Latest Cuteness

Hunter is doing so many cute things lately, but of course any attempt I make at getting it on camera is unsuccessful either because he's had enough already with the camera in his face all the time lady!!! or because he wants to be the photographer...probably so I can see how it feels to have a voyeur following you around all day. Case in point...




He really does still loves to sing (at least when the camera's not around), but it's so much cuter now that he can sing so many of the words. He's developed a new love for Veggie Tales, and is asking to watch it constantly. The other day he'd already hit his tv max for the day, so when he asked for "mah mah Beggie Taews pease" I just started singing the theme song..."Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales..." When I stopped he looked at me and sang, "celery" in tune...for all of you non-Veggie Tale watchers the next line is "celery, broccoli, gotta be Veggie Tales." I didn't get that on video, but he did sing parts of some other songs for me tonight...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yeah in the Brooks house, we have no love for E, F, G, L, or M.

My favorite new cuteness is his burst of affection lately. He loves to give hugs all.the.time. He'll run up behind you, squeeze your legs really tight and say, "hug!" or lean over when we're sitting on the couch, squeeze my waist, and say "hug!" He also gave my tummy a kiss the other day. You have to understand the kid NEVER kisses. He will blow kisses or lean his cheek to you if you ask him to give you a kiss, but this was the first time he's ever actually puckered and smooched...and it was for baby Charlotte, who he appears to be tolerating a little more lately. I know what you're thinking, but for a while every time we mentioned her name we got a stern "no!" and now when we thank God for her in our prayers at night he excitedly repeats "baby Charlotte (which sounds more like shahdit)!" over and over again.

I can't wait to see him as a big brother!