Dog?

The boys' new favorite word is...can you guess? DOG! They say "dog" all day long, especially when they haven't seen Goldie in a while, like after their naps. Micah says, "Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog?" And Benji will say, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hey dog!" It is so cute. They also recognize dogs on tv, movies, books, and toys. Sometimes they call animals "dogs" that aren't dogs, at all, like cats, or our stuffed toy opossum (a wonderful birthday present from their Aunt Candace....)

Well, last night, apparently, animals aren't the only thing the boys are calling "dog." Micah was sitting snuggled in Aaron's lap. Aaron had his arms around Micah and they were sitting contentedly. All of a sudden, Micah pointed to Aaron's arm, his rather hairy arm, and said "Dog?" We couldn't stop laughing. 

Goldie!

We have a DOG!!!! Yes, a dog! We got her this weekend, Saturday March 21 at 9:30pm.

In my last post, I mentioned that we were looking into getting a dog. We looked at petfinder.com and saw her picture online. I fell in love and knew that I had to e-mail the rescue to find out about her. Debra, one of the rescue owners, told us that she thought Goldie would be  perfect fit for our family--and she is! Goldie is a 2 year old yellow lab, about 70 lbs and has short legs! She is gentle, sweet, laid back and is completely non-aggressive. We think she may have been abused before she came to the rescue because she seems fearful at times and cowers down a lot when we want to do things like put on her leash. She just wants attention and to be loved. She loves to have her belly rubbed and go for walks. 

The boys love her! We introduced them to her Sunday morning. They just gasped and said, "Dog? Dog?" Micah said "Woof! Woof!" The kissed/licked her on the nose and loved to pet her. They also liked to poke her eyes and grab her mouth. We kept saying, "Gentle! Gentle!" but she didn't do anything. She just let them mess with her. She is going to be great with them.

She was kind of sad yesterday and just laid on her bed. We think that she is lonely for the other dogs at the shelter. She always had a buddy with her. She perked up when Aaron took her for walks. We also gave her a bath yesterday. She was STINKY! I hoped she would love the bath since labs are supposed to like water but she was terrified. Poor girl. I actually need to get some flea wash today because we spotted some little buggers on her. Great....

We are excited to be dog owners but nervous too! We think she is going to be a great addition to our family.  (I am still trying to figure out this picture thing....I really didn't want them all at the top...any advice, bloggers?)

Where I've been

Wow! It has been a long time since I blogged. I have been so busy! I survived the insane school work load and have now finished one of my classes. I actually read my term paper aloud today for an audience (of four- my professor and three of my fellow students) and got lots of great feedback. My paper compared Sandra Cisneros' "The House on Mango Street" and "Cinderella." Fun topic and fun paper. I am so glad it is over though!

In the middle of all this school work craziness, we went to FL for 5 days. Aaron's stepmom's mother died and we went down to FL from Thursday through Tuesday. We drove overnight on Thursday. The trip went really well except for Benji vomiting in the backseat at 2:30am. Carsick? Who knows! He was very happy after he threw up though. I guess he got all his sickness out. The boys were great and slept for most of the trip.

 It was a sad reason to make a trip but we really enjoyed seeing everyone and were glad we could be there to support the family during this hard time. There was a memorial service on Sunday that was very special. We also got to see my grandparents for brunch on Monday morning. We always meet them at Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee. We loved seeing them had a great time. Benji shared toast with jam with Nonnie and then decided to style his hair with blackberry jam. It was everywhere! The boys love going out to eat and we had lots of laughs and took lots of pictures with Nonnie and Poppie. We love seeing them! 

We also spent the night with my best friend from high school, Megan and her husband Matt in Atlanta. They have a beautiful and comfortable home and a very energetic puppy! The boys loved all the dogs we saw on this trip (there was one at every home we visited!) and their new favorite words are "dog," "pup," and "woof!" It is SOO cute! We are seriously asking ourselves if we want to get a dog now.....DOG, not puppy, though. We'll see...

The trip back was really long and stressful. The boys were really very good but it was difficult keeping them entertained for the LONG hours in the car. Micah's favorite game was dumping his snack bowl of cereal all over his lap over and over again. That child was swimming in cereal by the end of the trip. I just had to keep telling myself, "deep breaths! deep breaths!" Benji is not a very happy traveler but thankfully slept most of the way. He has a really hard time dealing with change in routine and cried a lot while we were away and was very clingy. He is SO glad to be home and hopefully will be back to his happy self soon. 

While we were away, Lynchburg was dumped with 8 inches of snow!!! We were enjoying the sunny weather in FL but were sad to miss such an awesome snowfall. Apparently there were some other things falling while we were away too- my (original) painting that was setting on our mantel fell off while we were gone and shattered! There was glass all over our living room when were walked in the door. All I could say was, "oh no! oh no!" Aaron was afraid someone broke in. Thankfully, that was not the case but I was really sad about the painting. It was punctured by a utility knife that was on the floor but hopefully it can be fixed. I tried to pick up as much glass as possible before I had to rush to class. Tuesday is my busy night- I usually don't get home until 9:30 but amazingly my professor let us out at 8:30! YEA! It was so good to go to bed. I worked on the chaos that is "coming home from a trip" today so the house is a little back in order but it still needs some work in the coming days. Whew! Life is an adventure! I'll try to be more faithful about blogging in the future but who knows what else life will bring in the day ahead. :)

Where I've been

I realized I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks. And this will be short. I am SWAMPED with school work! I have a huge paper due at the end of this week and have only had a week and a half to work on it, thanks to my teacher only letting us know of the deadline a week and a half ago. Grr. Plus I have book review due for another class on Friday as well. I am still frantically trying to get the book read. I can only work on school work while the boys are sleeping so I have been up late every night and letting housework go out the window as I am hitting the books during nap times. And I am sick. Life is hard to say the least. Tired, tired, tired. I just need to survived until the end of the month when one of my classes ends. Say a prayer for me!

On Dancing with my Sons

Turn up the music

I love this song

Hold me, hold me

Bounce and sway

Socks on linoleum

Twirl and spin

Hold on tight

Again, again

Laugh and coo

Head on my shoulder

Tender kiss

The melody surrounds us

And this moment lingers

Like honey on the tongue

Potty Seat

I guess I am writing a lot about potties lately....

I bought a potty seat today. You know, the ones that fit on top of the regular toilet seat? It is soft and has ducks on it. :) I know the boys are only 16 months old but hear me out. I have been having them sit on the potty to poop since they were about 7 months old. Micah has really taken to it and really likes to sit on the potty. Benjamin, not so much. Micah, on the other hand, wants to sit on the toilet at least once a day, sometimes more. 

On Saturday, Micah started grunting and went into the bathroom and starting banging the toilet lid up and down. Aaron asked him if he wanted to poop and Micah got all excited. So, Aaron helped him sit on the toilet. I don't think he pooped- just had some gas. But he's got the idea. So, I bought our first potty seat today. Sniff! My little boys are growing up. 

25 Random Things

Ok, so everyone is doing 25 Random Things about themselves on facebook. I couldn't miss out on the fun so here is my note. 

25 Random Things

Potty Humor

I knew it was only a matter of time....

I was doing the dishes this morning and realized that the boys had been awfully quiet. I decided to investigate and discovered Benjamin in the bathroom with the toilet paper all unrolled. Thankfully it was the end of the roll. He was standing in the bathroom between the toilet and the wall holding a remote control. Thank goodness the toilet lid was down! And he had thrown the toilet brush out into the hall. LOL! Oh, I love my kiddos! :) I don't know what hand Micah had in this escapade. He was sitting happily in the living room. I guess I'll never know...until next time! 

That darn tooth!

Benjamin had a terrible day yesterday. Aaron brought him to our bed for me to nurse. He nursed for FOREVER! I am down to two nursings a day and usually they only nurse for about 5 minutes or so. But Benji probably nursed for 15 minutes. And he felt really warm. We took his temperature at it was 102.8! Poor  boy! Aaron loves to snuggle with the boys when they don't feel well so Benji had lots of  Daddy snuggles yesterday. His nose and eyes were poring all day long. I was planning on going to our weekly play group at 10:30 that morning but that idea was kicked to the curb because I was sure that Benji was coming down with some terrible sickness. He didn't even sleep very well during naps and would wake up wailing. We didn't give him any tylenol or ibuprofen because I wanted to let the fever "fight" whatever germs were "attacking" his body. Aaron was wonderful enough to stay home with both boys while I went out to lunch with Candace. We had planned the lunch date earlier in the week and had a great time at Applebee's. YUM!

By that evening the fever reduced and Benji seemed to be feeling a little better. On a whim, I felt inside his mouth and lo and behold, his second tooth had popped through his gum. Poor baby! I let him suffer all day with the fever and pain and it was all because of a tooth! Teething is hard work--for baby and for mom and dad. I hope Micah's come in without incident. He has yet to cut is first tooth. 

Good Weekend

Aaron and I have this weird radar between the two of us--food/restaurant cravings! One of us will say (usually too late) "I feel like Texas Road House/Chinese/Subway etc" and the other one will say "Me too! Why didn't you say something?"

Well, after sleeping in on Saturday morning (the boys were gracious and didn't make a peep until 9am! Amazing!) I got up and ate a bowl of cereal. I then got the boys up and nursed them. They started to play and I told Aaron, "Today would be a good day to go to IHOP. Too bad I just ate breakfast." And of course he said, "I was just thinking about going to IHOP! Do you want to go?" So we hurried and got the boys ready and I threw my hair into a pony tail and off we went. We had a WONDERFUL time! The boys sat in the high chairs and flirted with the waitresses as they came in and out of the kitchen. And they put away some FOOD! They ate a stack of 3 pancakes and scrambled eggs between the two of them, plus cherrios while we were waiting for the food. Micah couldn't get bites in fast enough. He is a very fierce eater! That boy is serious about his food! I got the Country omlette- yum! And Aaron had eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc. Are you hungry yet? We were there for an hour and the boys did great. 

The boys took a good nap when we got home and Aaron and I enjoyed a fire in our fireplace all day long. Mmmmmm. It was 3 degrees when we went to IHOP. Brrrrr!!!!!

Sunday morning I officially taught my first lesson as the Senior High Sunday School teacher. It went really well. I hope to build even better relationships with the kids as the weeks go by. 

After church we had a couple and their baby over for lunch. Jay, Tracey and Adalie are the only other couple in our church that our our age and have a child the boys' age. Micah, Benji and Adalie are good friends. She gets so excited whenever they come into the nursery and they all play together really well. For lunch today, I made Italian potato, sausage and kale soup and homemade key lime pie (key limes compliments of Aaron's dad who brought them up from Florida!) Everything turned out deliciously! We had a great visit with them even though Adalie didn't get to play with her "boyfriends" during lunch--they always conk out after church.