Just a swangin'

I had to dig deep for this song--I think it came from my grandparents on my dad's side.  Who knows, but I promise it's a song!  Anyway, this has been a big week for us.  We got a wonderful new swing set on Thursday, and has been tons of fun.  It's pretty big and takes up a big chunk of or back yard, but it's worth it to see how much fun Campbell has on it and to know that both the boys will be using it for a long, long time.  Campbell especially loves the picnic table under the clubhouse.  On Friday we had to eat our snack and our lunch out there.  Little Andrew can't really play on it yet, but he had fun swinging in our old set and just watching big brother.  And as you can see, Daddy loves it just as much as Campbell!  Thanks, MeMe and Papa, we love it so much.   

In other news, Andrew has been a busy boy this week, too.  He's started sitting up on his own, and he has been going to town in his "johnny jumper" thing.  He will seriously sit in there for as long as you will let him.  He just bounces and bounces and cracks himself up.  It's so fun to watch.  Here are some fun pictures from this week.  I love the one of the boys playing together, and the one of them rolling on the floor is a glimpse into my future.  Campbell is really enjoying being able to "play" with Andrew.  It's going to be quite an adventure with these two.

And last but not least, we'd like to say "Congratulations!" to our friends David, Sara, and Taylor Whitfield on the birth of little Callie.  She was born Thursday morning, and we can't wait to get to know her and watch her grow up with our boys.  

Takin' Care of Business

Guess where Campbell takes care of his business...the POTTY!!!  Yep, that's right, my little man is wearing big boy underwear.  We stayed home all last week and worked on it.  The first few days were...interesting but we're doing great now.  We still have to remind him sometimes if we're in public or he's playing with his friends, but other than that, my daily diaper changes are now cut in half.  I'm so proud of Campbell.  What a big boy!

And here's a picture of Andrew doing his favorite thing these days--playing in his exersaucer.   It combines his favorite things, toys and standing up.  He's not rolling over yet, but he loves for you to help him stand up, and he can also sit up pretty well.  Who knows why my kids sit up before they roll over, but oh well.  He's such a happy guy that I can't complain about anything.

it's so hard to say goodbye...

...to yesterday--or preschool actually.  I had a hard time coming up with a song for this post.  Unfortunately, Boyz 2 Men was the only thing I could come up with.  And now I'm having all these flash backs to the last day of cheerleading camp.  Yikes!  Anyway, today was the last day of preschool for Campbell.  And it really is hard to say goodbye.  It's hard for me because it's been so great to have some one on one time with Andrew and to be able to run some errands with only 1 baby in tow (especially one who isn't mobile yet!).  And it's hard for Campbell because he has had such a great year.  He made 7 great friends: Reagan, Mason, Ben, Mary Francis, Ryan, Andrew, and Lucas.  He comes home with the funniest stories about what he did with his friends that day.  It's been so much fun to watch him make these friends  and to watch them play together the few times I've been up there to see them.  And his teachers, Miss Joanna and Miss Janda, are just wonderful.  They are definitely 2 of his most favorite people in the world.  And so, as we say goodbye to our most excellent first year of preschool, I can't help but look back on the day he started.  He has changed so much.  He's become a big brother, started sleeping in a big boy bed.  Wow!  Life is sure flying by.  I hope I can take it all in.   Here are pictures from his first day and his last day.

September

May

what's goin' on

I think I am going to try to make all the titles of my posts get songs in your head.  That way you'll be singing them all day and thinking of my blog.  Not sure if this will get me more readers or not...hmm, guess we'll find out.

Anyway, there's a lot going on around here, so I thought I'd just make one of those updates that has lots of little snipits in it.  First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there.  Mine was great.  We spent Saturday with my family and had a great dinner with GiGi, Grandaddy, and Uncle Trey.  (the Lamberts were out of town)  Then Sunday we went to church and then over to David's parents where David prepared brunch for us all.  His mom and I were repeatedly told to get out of the kitchen.  We didn't even have to clean up either!   Then we came home and spent the rest of the day around here.  It was so nice to just hang out for most of the day at home.  We have been so busy lately that all I wanted for Mother's Day was for the four of us to just be together.  But lucky for me, that's not all I got.  David and the boys got me one of Courtney's awesome love my baby necklaces.  Campbell loves looking at it and saying, "C for Campbell and A for Andrew."  It was a great day and weekend.  Thanks, my sweet boys.

Also this week and weekend we've been dealing with some food allergy issues with Andrew.  He's always kind of had this eczema on his face and it has recently spread to his arms and legs.  At our 4 month checkup the doctor said it was probably due to a milk and/or soy allergy.  Not to worry, he said, he'll most likely grow out of it.  He left it up to me as to what I wanted to do about it. Since it didn't seem to be bothering Andrew outside of the skin thing, it wasn't too severe.  So, I've been trying to stay off both dairy and soy for the past week.  Let me just say that is next to impossible unless you eat no prepared food.  Who knew they put soy in EVERYTHING!!  Even the cashews Campbell was eating for a snack the other day have soy in them--what?!?  But things are going well with Andrew.  I actually found these great skin care products that have just about taken care of the eczema all together.  It's a brand called California Baby.  We've been using the Tea Tree Oil shampoo and the Calendula cream.  It's amazing what this stuff has done.  He also had a pretty bad case of cradle cap, and that's almost gone, too.  I highly recommend it if your kid, or you for that matter, have skin issues.  It has definitely saved the day.  And who knows, it might even allow me to eat again!!

In addition to the other food stuff going on, we started Andrew on cereal this weekend, too.  He didn't love it but didn't hate it either.  I think Campbell had more fun helping us than Andrew did eating.  Here are some pictures.

And last but not least, a few notes about Campbell.  This is the last week of preschool.  I don't know who will be more sad, me or him.  He's had a great year and I'm so thankful for all he's learned and experienced.  Luckily he's signed up for summer play days at Brentwood Baptist, so he'll stay busy over the summer.  And wish us luck on Saturday as we attempt to say bye bye to the diapers.  Yikes, I'm sure some interesting posts will come out of that.  But anyway, thanks for checking in on us.  I hope this didn't bore you to sleep, but I guess it can't always be super exciting.

Come on ride that train...

Ha Ha--who's singing that song in their head now?  Sorry, I couldn't resist.  But ride that train is just what we did on Friday.  There's this group of people called the Mid South Live Steamers and they have these model trains.  But they're not the tiny little model train you might think--they're big enough for people to ride on.  And they come out to Maury County Park in Columbia a few times a year and have a sort of festival.  Jamie had been before, and since both Russ and Campbell love trains, we decided to head down there on Friday morning.

Thankfully Mom agreed to come with us--I definitely couldn't have taken care of both my boys without her--thanks, Mom, you're the best!  Anyway, we checked the forecast before we left and it looked like there was a little rain, but we thought we'd head down anyway.  As soon as we got there it started pouring rain and they had to stop the train rides.  The boys were so upset.  But they had some tents set up with other things to do, so we decided to try to stick it out.  First order of business--funnel cakes!  Yum!  You can't have a festival in the south without deep fried dough, and this one was no different.  Between the 5 of us (Andrew did not partake) we downed 2 of them.  I couldn't even get Campbell to quit eating his to pose for this picture.  But before you start to worry about Andrew, he still had fun without the funnel cakes.

They also had some other fun activities.  There was a band playing when we got there, and Russ and Campbell had a blast dancing and entertaining the people around us.

Then they had a storyteller who was pretty good, and after her was a kids' music show where they brought some of the kids on stage to dance around.  Look who tried to grab the microphone--his dad would be so proud.  

But they loved being on stage.  The picture above is Campbell dancing with the lady who was leading them.  Unfortunately, I missed this part because I was in the car feeding Andrew who had been a trooper and finally conked out.

Then finally, the rain stopped and we ran over to jump in line for the train rides.  At this point we'd been there for a pretty long time, so the boys had all just about had it, but when it got to be our turn, they couldn't wait to hop on that train.  I had Andrew in the carrier thing strapped to me, and as you can see above, he was sound asleep.  They had told me at the gate that he could ride with me like that since if I let him go he wouldn't fall, but the conductor said they had new rules and no one under 18 months could ride.  Bummer!  But I understand that they have to follow these rules for insurance stuff.  Those darn insurance people--what can you do with them!?!  :)  Anyway, so I ended up being the photographer and Mom rode with Campbell.  You can see he is clearly devastated that I couldn't go.  The ride was 2.5 miles long, and they wound all around the park and even went through a few tunnels.  It was really neat.  It ended up being a really long day, but it was definitely worth it.  We all had a great time and will probably go back and see them next time they're here.  We'll just hope for a little more sunshine next time.

And I'd also like to say Happy 4 Months to Andrew.  He's getting so big and growing up so fast.  I can't even believe it.