The houses that Bay built

Several years ago, Momma and Daddy were out shopping in a store just before Christmas. He saw a gingerbread house kit. Being an ever thoughtful, awesome Grandfather, he picked it up to build it with Jessa. This seemed like a fun thing for her to do with her Bay. At the time, Spencer was almost 1, so he was not that into it. But Jessa and Bay built their first gingerbread house together right around Christmas, 2006. And a tradition was born.




The next year, we all thought about it again. I actually think that Momma bought the kit that year. And Bay and Jessa built another gingerbread house in 2007.

I think that we must have skipped 2008. I cannot find a picture of it. I have no doubt that it had a little something to do with the kids and I moving out of Momma and Daddy's house to officially move in at Ft. Stewart and welcome David home on January 1. You think maybe that could have been the reason?? We were a little preoccupied. . .

Then in 2009, we had moved to Scott and we lived about 1 mile from Bay. He and May already had the kit and a plan. Then someone I know had to have emergency gallbladder surgery. BUT that did not stop the tradition. The gingerbread house was built at Bay's house, and I only got to see it in pictures. But this is the first year that Spencer was way into it. He was just as excited as Jessa to build something cool and sweet with Bay.

So it is December 2010. Spencer and I are out running errands at Wal-Mart one morning. You know it is that crazy time of year when you are always on the go. Spencer notices a gingerbread house kit. And he tells me that we need to buy it so they can build it with Bay. And I explain to him that Bay already bought one. I was positive because Momma told me when they bought it. But my Spencer did not trust me. He was convinced that we needed to buy it just in case. He could not be convinced. Until, I grabbed my cell phone and called Bay right then and there. Spencer got on the phone and asked him. Bay confirmed what I had already told him. But since he heard it straight from Bay, he finally believed it. I guess he just loves the tradition so much that he could not imagine a Christmas without building a gingerbread house with his Bay!

When May and Bay saw that first gingerbread house kit and bought it on a whim, I doubt they could have ever imagined how much the tradition would grow. And they could not have guessed how much it would mean to the children. A good excuse to get sticky and messy and eat candy and perhaps most importantly, spend some quality time with your Bay. What more could you ask for??

Gotta love Christmas traditions. . .

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Stewart found the warmest spot in the house,

and he is pretty happy about it.

Spencer don't lose my number

I am 35 years old. Yet, to this day my Momma and my Mimi still tell the story of the day that I learned Mimi's number. That was back in the day before Atlanta required the area code to dial. So I learned those magic 7 numbers. And that day while Momma was cooking supper, I sat by the phone and called Mimi about 12 times.

These days, you have to dial more numbers to call people. Plus, we are hardly ever in the same area code as our family, so we also have to dial the handy dandy "1" before we even dial the area code. (A side note if David asks me for a number, I have to say "1" first or he dials the area code, the number, and then has to start over. . .)
This makes memorizing phone numbers tougher for my kiddos. One time Jessa was going somewhere with David and Bay, and she asked me for my cell phone number. I of course wrote it down for her and put it in her pocket. Well, that little sticker saved it. She uses it whenever she needs to "tell" on something that her Daddy is doing when I am not home. Once she called 4 times while I was at a Pampered Chef party to tell me just how awful her Daddy was acting. David had no idea she even had the phone. Recently, I also added May's number to her special scrap of paper, and she is forever sneaking off to call May to "tell" on me. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, she is my daughter after all.

Spencer was not as interested in the phone. He just let Jessa be his spokesman. If David was acting up, he trusted Jessa to handle it and alert the proper authorities (you know, authorities like well, me. . .). But a few weeks ago, Spencer decided he wanted to be able to call May all by himself. At first, I would just tell him the numbers, and he would dial. This worked for a while. But you know, he is not a little boy anymore. Nope, he is 5. So one afternoon, he found me upstairs to tell me that he wanted to call May but that he had some trouble. I didn't question him. I just helped him on the upstairs phone and did not give it another thought. Later he mentioned that he had tried to dial her number, but it did not work. I grabbed the downstairs phone and scrolled through the "Redial" numbers.
And there it was.
These are the numbers that me sweet boy dialed trying to call his May:

In case you can't see it, he dialed 12-345-6789.
I cannot imagine why that did not work, can you?!

Immediately, I got an index card and wrote May's number and Mimi's number on it. I then taped it on the fridge at about Spencer's eye level:

I can tell you that he has already used it many time.
May and Mimi may not be too thrilled with my making it so easy for him to call them anytime the mood strikes him.
But those folks at 12-345-6789 are probably glad that he is not bothering them anymore, don't you think?

Keep Away: Puppy Style

Molly. is. bad. She is sooooo puppy. She is lucky that she is so precious because she really is so bad. She picked up on how to use the doggie door super fast. Watching Max and Abby and Cooper use it over Christmas was valuable teaching time. She is all over it. She is in and out all the time.

Now do not confuse this in and out business with being housebroken. She will play outside for 30 minutes, come inside and tee-tee right on the carpet. We are still working on it. BUT the doggie door thing coming so early is pretty cool. When (and if) she does ever grasp the whole potty outside thing, the doggie door knowledge will be even more useful, right? Right??

Well, she is also using the doggie door to just be bad. She is a puppy, so she is always chewing on things. At times, I look and realize that the things that she is chewing on are not terribly appropriate. So I go to reach to grab the item, and she sprints across the house and dives out the doggie door to safety. Nice, Molly. She is too smart for her own good.

Anyway, we have had so much snow lately that the yard itself was not even visible buried beneath the residual snow. Well, it warmed up this weekend. The snow melted. And this afternoon I was shocked at all the items that little Miss Molly had hauled outside for "safe keeping." She had them all spread out all over the yard. I walked around for a minute or two and collected a pile of Molly treasures that she is trying to keep away from us.

Are you ready for the craziness?? (see key below)

1. Chewed open Ziploc bag that had some Chocolate Chips in it

2. The sock that she pulled off my foot and then ran away

3. A penguin dog toy

4. A monkey dog toy
5. A tennis ball

6. Spencer's missing glove

7. A tennis ball/barbell dog toy
8. Jessa's brush

9. A garden trowel
10. Jessa's baseball

11. A squishy toy ray

12. A to-go kids cup

13. A change purse

14. A water bottle
15. A small tire from one of Spencer's cars

16. A fruit roll up wrapper - empty :-(

17. A Nestle crunch wrapper - also empty :-(
18. Half of a to-go cup top

19. A plastic tea set plate

Seriously?

Molly is keeping us all on our toes.

And after seeing her stash, I am thinking we need to step up our game.

Like I said, she is lucky that she looks like this:

How can I be mad at that face?

Procrastination is genetic

On early mornings when Jessa does not want to wake up, she asks me, "Mommy, why did you even sign me up for school? I changed my mind!" And I always laugh and say, "Silly girl, you have to go to school." And then she whips out the argument, "You could home school me." To which I laugh and say, "Uh, I don't think so." I am keenly aware of the fact that home school is not an option. I am not knocking it. I know it works for some people. But I also know that it would not work for us. Thus, she is in public school, and even though mornings are hard, she is overall pretty happy. And until very recently, I was pretty glad that I "signed her up."

At the beginning of January, her teacher told the class that their big assignment for the month would be to write a book. Her school has a Young Author's Program that requires every student to submit a book that they have written and illustrated. The requirements are different for each grade, based on their skills and abilities. This year, Miss Jessa's book had to be 3-5 pages with 1-3 sentences per page and one illustration per page. The rest was up to her.

When she came home with the assignment, she was thrilled, tickled, excited, FULL of ideas. We started talking about it right away trying to narrow her many thoughts. She finally chose her characters based on some of her favorite stuffed animals. She was all ready to go. Only she was easily distracted and not too focused at all. That's OK, I thought. She has the whole month. Then I tried again to get her interested. She'd do it later. She wanted to sled before the snow melted. She was tired. She had a spelling test to study for. You know, the busy life of a 7 year old! Who has time to write books, right??

So finally last weekend about a week before this sucker was due, I put my foot down and told her she had to sit down until she came up with a rough draft. She could not leave the table. Period. Well, of course, then came a bathroom emergency, extreme hunger and thirst, spilled drink on her pants from quenching the aforementioned extreme thirst, the need for dry pants because the wet ones made her "miserable." Then there was Spencer. He was talking, which distracted her. He was laughing, which distracted her. He was chewing, which distracted her. He was breathing, which, yep, distracted her. Then I made her nervous or I was too loud. The dogs were distracting. She was too cold. You name it, and it was bothering her no end. After about 2 hours, she FINALLY had a rough draft. She came up with the characters all on her own. 5 of them. 5 main characters for a 3-5 page story. I suggested that maybe that was a lot, Jessa cried because she loved all 5 characters. Fine, I said. 5 it is.

Then on Monday, I told her it was time to recopy the story neatly on the papers for her book. And so began the longest week of my life. This child has cried and screamed and ran to her room and called my poor Momma more times than I can count. Y'all she could have written War and Peace with the effort that she put into procrastinating this week. She has fought me every step of the way. I called my parents to apologize for every project that I was assigned ever. NOW I feel their pain. And the worst part, SHE IS ONLY IN FIRST GRADE. Oh heavens, I am not sure I can make it.

I can also tell you that my otherwise precious child comes by this tendency quite honestly. I have always been a procrastinator - only I have learned how to cope with this throughout my years. So I know all too well that my sweet girl has to figure this out on her own. No matter how many times I say the words, "Jessa, you could have been finished by now." She doesn't get it. She can't. And I KNOW this because I was her. And it took me figuring it out for myself. And someday, she will figure it out, too. I just hope I live to see it. . .;-)

Want to see her book?

Oh, and I asked her, "Someday when you are a famous author and you are being interviewed on TV about your fabulous books, will you tell this story? About how you owe all your success to me because of how hard I had to fight you to get you to write your first book?" And that little stinker said, "No! When my fans find out how mean I was to my Mom, they won't want to buy my book anymore." I guess at least she realizes how mean she was, right??

#48 Mom

In a somewhat related story to my last wordful post, (at least in its numeric title anyway) I must tell you a story about my Spencer. See, he REALLY gets into the whole Christmas thing. It is almost February, but he is still dressing up as Santa almost every day. He puts on his red coat, a pair of red pants, his rain boots, black gloves, and a Santa hat. He talks to us like he is Santa. He poses for pictures with us. And he gives us all kinds of "gifts" that he pulls out of whatever bag is closest. He is all about giving of the gifts. I love this, of course, that he is so much more into the giving aspect of Christmas. I am not crazy about the bags of "gifts" that are strewn all over the house. But I roll with it. His teacher even commented that he is still playing Santa at school, too.

My boy.

So keeping in mind that Spencer is crazy focused on giving gifts right now, I take you to a scene in my bathtub. There are all sorts of random things in the tub. These are items that get dragged up there because they happen to be playing with it when it is time to take a bath.

And as you know, my children are slightly nuts, so there are some pretty interesting things in there:

On this particular night, Spencer was playing away in the tub. He told me not to look because he was making me a special present. He said it was going to be a surprise. Of course, he began telling me about it. This sort of spoiled the surprise, but it was still fun.

S- Mommy, I am making you a special present. Do you know what it is?

Me- Nope, but I cannot wait to see it.

S- It is a lamp. I am building it for you.

Me - Oh, wow! I can always use a new lamp.

S- Want to see it?

Me- Oh, yes!

Here it is:

(Pretty creative, huh?

He made it using a plastic cup with a political advertisement from Louisiana, a plastic slinky, and half of a Zhu Zhu hamster wheel.)

S- Yep, it is just for you because you are the #48 mom.

Me- 48?

S- Uh-huh.
Me- Well, is this out of the whole wide world?
S- (proudly) Yep!
Me- OK, I guess #48 isn't too bad if we are talking about the whole world.

Such a thoughtful and silly little boy I have!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

"Living the dream as a turtle"