Trick my Treat

Hello - so it's been quite a while since I posted. I returned to work three weeks ago and it has been an adjustment for everyone. Our computer was also on the fritz for a while... Anyway, I will try and do better.

Someone asked me the other day for a family picture and I realized that I don't have any pictures of the four of us. So we tried this weekend and it turned out okay. Our little owl Mary Martin wasn't looking but she made a mighty cute owl. James would have nothing to do his costume but thought it was fun to go door to door. He sometimes would just say "Candy?" And other times he said "Trick my treat!" It was pretty cute.

I'll try and post some pictures of our adventures the last few weeks. We are all adjusting to having mom go back to work. Mary Martin has been fine and I think she has enjoyed more simulation throughout the day and things to look at. She seems to really like mirrors. That's our little French princess for you. I am attaching a recent picture of MM as well. Enjoy!

Mary Martin is two months old

Mary Martin turned two months old today! I have attached a couple of recent pictures.

We get smiles often now and our little angel is developing a personality. She coos and says ahahh and still enjoys stretching out on her back. As I was typing this, Mary Martin had drifted off to sleep. Cooper barked and roused her, but she didn't wake fully. The next thing we heard was her laughing, in her sleep. And her laughing woke her up. It was the cutest thing!! Just like her dad - Jim will snore in the car when I drive and wake himself up. Little MM already taking after her dad...

We went to the doctor yesterday and she is 11 pounds 5 ounces (75%) and almost 24 inches long (90%). So she is very long! She is going to outgrow her outfits in length before anywhere else. She is also 75% for her head, which is just like James was and still is. The doctor was pleased and said she looked great. Mary Martin got two shots and an oral vaccine. She turns the darkest read when she gets shots. It is amazing how quickly she turns red!

We travel to Gulfport next week to see all the Calverts and Pelas... Stay tuned for updates from Gulfport.

Things I am thankful for

Last Saturday night we were able to visit with some good friends and their two beautiful daughters. Once Dianne and Darrell arrived home, we had five kids under five and one baby. The kids had a ball chasing each other and enjoying the wonderful weather we had that night. At one point I looked around and realized this was a night to count your blessings. So here is my list of things I am thankful for that I thought of that night:

1. A meal made by someone else.

2. Stuffed panda bears.

3. Slice and bake cookies.

4. The sweet silence that follows when you give five kids slice and bake cookies right out of the oven.

5. Pacemakers that work for 15 years.

6. Linley's curly hair.

7. Cool weather in August - amazing!

8. Jackson's rules for freeze tag.

9. Pipe cleaners!

10. Family and good friends.

Trip to Memphis Part II

Our fun in Memphis continues. Yesterday we met cousins Leighton and Lilly Ryan at the Memphis Botanical Gardens. They have a new exhibit there for kids called My Big Backyard. Anyone with children in Memphis must see this. It was the neatest thing. There was a house made of all natural materials (for example, flower beds: beds made entirely of flowers), a pond for the kids to explore and climb rocks over, a "birdhouse" for the kids to play in, water fun, a House of "Rock" with recycled musical instruments, and dozens of tunnels and arbors to crawl through and around. There was something in every corner to explore and play with.

Today we went to the Children's Museum which was also a hit. James liked exploring the grocery store and the river where he caught fish and boats. Also fun was the tooth puzzle and the cop car and fire engine he could crawl through. Mary Martin was a little freaked out by the disco room - too many flashing lights.

I realized all the pictures from our trip are of James so I am attaching one picture of Mary Martin. It is her sucking her thumb which is quite cute.

We return to Atlanta tomorrow. Here is hoping our stock of DVDs will get us through the long drive... Thank you to Gee and Grandaddy for letting us come play!!

Trip to Memphis!

We are having a blast here in Memphis. Here is the run down of our trip so far:

Sunday we made cupcakes and James helped. He especially loved putting sprinkles on the cupcakes. Master sprinkler for hire!

Monday we visited the Memphis zoo and saw pandas, elephants, lots of monkeys and all the big cats. The sea lions were very fun and one even touched the glass as if to kiss James' hand. He loved it. We of course rode the train and the carousel and chased Gee around the zoo like crazy. We also got to run through the sprinkler in the backyard.

Today we watched the ducks at the "Poo-body," visited grandaddy's office and visited Me-Maw (great-grandma). The ducks walking from the elevator was not that exciting but watching them play in the fountain and shake their tail feathers was great fun. I think James managed to even touch one. He did shake his little bootie, imitating the ducks.

Mary Martin has handled all this with ease. She is still sleeping great through the night and charmed everyone at grandaddy's office.

Still to come this week: the Children's Museum and the Botanical Gardens with cousins Layton and Lilly Ryan.

Progress and Poo-body

Well we have turned the corner. Little Mary Martin has slept through the night for about a week now. She takes her last bottle at 10:30 and then sleeps til 6 or 7 am. Woohoo!! Mom is very grateful. She has found her fingers and I think that helps her sleep through the night. Sometimes I will hear her wake up, cry out and then hear the distinctive sound of her sucking on two fingers. Then I don't hear her for two more hours...

In other news, James' potty training is coming along. We switched to big boy underwear last week at day care and after a rough couple of days, he had three days accident free at school. At home he will still have a couple of accidents but we are working on it. For example, I learned yesterday the hard way that he still needs a diaper for nap time. On the whole we are pleased that it has gone well and know that patience and persistence for the next few months make it happen.

Jim and I loaded up the kids this past weekend and, after a stop over in Nashville for one night, I continued on to Memphis with the kids and Jim went back to Atlanta. I am in Memphis all week and we have many adventures planned. I will post some pictures and videos if I can make my camera card work with Mike's computer. Yesterday we went to the zoo and last night James got to run through the sprinkler. Sunday afternoon he got to make cupcakes. And of course he spends long hours playing trains with grandaddy in the garage, in between potty breaks... Today we are planning to go watch the ducks at the Peabody come out. When I asked James to say "Peabody" it came out Poo-body. Guess we might we focusing on the potty training a little too much..

Mary Martin's one month visit

Mary Martin turned one month old on Sunday, the 16th. Happy one month baby girl!! I had plans to post a entry that day and then the next day and then maybe the next day - but I just never got to it. We have been busy this week!

Anyway, we went to the doctor today for Mary Martin's one month visit. She is up to 10 pounds and 22 inches long. Both of these are in the 75% and so is her head measurement. So all is well. The little girl is gaining weight, getting longer and just doing great. She does have a stuffy nose and so we have gotten the humidifier out and elevated her crib, etc. But I was able to brag today that she really is a pretty easy baby.

I am attaching a few recent pictures. The ones with her cousin Madeline are from last week when we took pictures of the girls in their super cute outfits from Meme. Thanks Meme!!

And sadly she is starting to loose her hair. It is receding along her part line and then on the opposite side. We'll see if she looses it all and then it comes back full force like James!!

As for the James update: we have started potty training... Stay tuned...

Wiggles - not the ones on TV

Here are a couple of photos of MM I took today. She is definitely growing and getting longer. I know all the pictures seem to be of her in the moses basket, but she is outgrowing it rapidly. I love this little cherry outfit where she is half asleep. Thanks to Aunt Norma for the outfit!!

We are getting along just fine. MM has found her legs and likes to lie on her back and just "wiggle" like Anna Lauren used to do. The video is of MM "wiggling." She is still not a great nurser so mom is just pumping to get milk for MM, which is working fine for now. She takes about 3 ounces per feeding and is eating about every three hours. Her last bottle is at 10:30 and last night she went from 10:30 til 4:30! Woohoo! So she is starting to stretch her nights which is great. I got a big smile from her today but could not manage to get it on film.

You can sort of tell in the half asleep photo that her eyes and eyelids are red. When she gets really tired at night, her little eyes get red rimmed and her entire eyelids get red. Do my eyes do this? Who in our family does she get this from?

And yes, she still looks exactly like James...

Mom and MM

Today is my first day alone with Mary Martin! After a long, long, rainy Sunday where James was stir crazy from being inside all day, James is off to day care and dad is at work today. So it is just me and MM. So far we have had an uneventful day. After delivering the boys, MM ate again and then we both got baths and dressed. And now we are all dressed up with no place to go... I am going to try and take it easy the next couple of days and not get too busy yet. Now that my grandma help has left, I am now getting up with MM at night by myself. This is not too bad so far. Mary Martin continues to be a wonderful baby - very easy going (knocking on wood as I type this). After a bottle at 10:30 or 11, she sleeps about 4 hours, needs a bottle, goes back to sleep and sleeps until 6 or so. So she only needs one "night" feeding and it is not that bad. We'll see how long this continues.

We may try and run an errand or two later just to get out. We'll see. Jim is encouraging me to nap and who am I to argue with him.

I'll try and take a picture of the two of dressed with nowhere to go later on!

Mary Martin Thornton - 2 weeks old

Mary Martin is two weeks old today!! I thought y'all might enjoy a post about James first, but no. All you want is an update on Mary Martin. So here goes...

Mary Martin is a wonderful baby. She doesn't fuss much and has an easy disposition. Ways she is like James:

1. She tucks or folds her hands under her chin when she eats.
2. She has little smiles when she dreams sometimes.
3. She enjoys alone time. There are times that she wants to be put down and left alone with her thoughts.
4. Her eyes are deep, dark blue. It appears they will become dark green, then brown.
5. She has dark hair down her back and her little arms just like James did as this age.

Ways she is different from James:

1. She has MORE HAIR!
2. James fought sleep, screaming until he passed out. She just whines a little, not really screaming, but just whining for attention then passes out.
3. Her ears are different. Gee and Jim are telling me James' ears stick out more.
4. She doesn't nurse well. James took to nursing easily. Mary Martin is more dainty and it seems as if she will get all her mother's milk from a bottle.
5. She has narrow shoulders, not her dad and brother's broad shoulders.

We took Mary Martin for her newborn photos today and took the orange flowered chair with us so we would have some photos like James'. She was an angel during the shoot. She was asleep when we wanted her to be and awake when we needed her awake. I think they will be great. Stay tuned for those photos...

Update on James

So I know you all want to see new pictures of Mary Martin and hear how she is doing. I promise I will get to that in a few days. I am planning a two weeks old post... In the meantime, I thought I might send a few recent pictures of James and report on what he is up to.

Life for James has not changed much since his little sister arrived. We still have grandma help which means an additional playmate for James. So he is still getting plenty of attention at home. He sort of ignores Mary Martin until we tell him to tell Mary Martin good morning, for example, and then he does. He will kiss her when we ask him to. More often he will share his toys with her - gives her a Thomas train in her Moses basket or gives her a Thomas sticker from his sticker book. Notice the Thomas sticker on his head in the photo. James did "help" me wash Mary Martin the other day - we had to get her "all clean," he said.

Life is all about Thomas the Train and Curious George for James lately. He wants to play with his train table often throughout the day and wants someone to play with him. We watch a lot of Thomas and Curious George. He laughs out loud at George's antics, which makes mommy smile every time.

Things at his day care are going well, though he has been upset to go the last few mornings when grandmas are at home. The past few weeks his classroom has focused on a letter per week - first they did P, then M and then B. This week they are focused on Self Help - dressing oneself, getting their shoes on by themselves, etc. This works out great for us as we have another little one to dress as well.

James' other obsession lately is reading his nighttime books himself. He doesn't want someone to read them to him anymore, he wants to "read" them himself. This does two things. First, it avoids night-night time a little longer. It also allows James to make the story up as he goes.

Finally, James seems to have grown an inch in the past two weeks. I don't know if I was just so worried about my little girl lately that I didn't notice. More likely, I haven't given James his bath in a while (grandma job!) so I didn't have a chance to notice.

I promise an update on MM soon...

Mary Martin, come out and play!

In the final days leading to Mary Martin's arrival, we tried everything we could think of to hurry the process along. We even taught James to say "Mary Martin, come out and play! "

Well we are proud to report that Mary Martin has arrived and while not quite ready to play, she is quite adorable. She arrived last week on July 16th at 2:26 PM. I labored for about four hours and pushed for only 10 minutes. We were very blessed.

Mary Martin weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. She looks just like James did as a newborn but with more hair. She has lots and lots of hair which explains all of my heartburn during pregnancy.

I am attaching a few pictures including one of James as a newborn to see how similar they are!! James is the final photo with the white hat.

July 4th and trip to Memphis

So James got to go stay with Gee and Grandaddy for a week in Memphis. They said he had a great time but you can judge from the pictures. The best part is that he was never without a friend to play with. Jim's cousin Jennifer and her two sons were in Memphis and other cousins who have a pool and Thomas trains!!!!!!!!!!!! Our obsession with Thomas continues...

Also, for the Fourth of July we went to eat dinner at Aunt Kelly's house. At one point James and Spencer were burying Kelly's golden retriever Hailey with pine straw! Anyway, the evening highlight was definitely watermelon slices. Is there anything better than watermelon juice dripping down your chin? The boys certainly enjoyed it!

Wrestling with Uncle Jim...

So one night a couple of weeks ago, Michael and Kelly, Spencer and Madeline came down to visit. We ordered pizza and just hung out. The boys got to have wrestling time with Daddy/Uncle Jim - which they thought was great fun. And Aunt Kelly and I tried to take a picture of all three of the kids - with mixed results. See for yourself. The boys look cute and so does Madeline. Maybe we should have gotten the boppie to prop her up better. Oh well - we'll try again when all four kids are here!!!!! Because then it will be easier I am sure...

Some random shots

Here are couple of random shots from the past couple of weeks. First a shot of birthday cookies... I wanted slice and bake cookies for my birthday and we put candles in them so James to could blow them out. The next day when I asked him if he wanted a cookie he went and got the candles out. He was ready to sing again!


Then a father's day shot of Jim and James. Jim got two boxes of raisinettes to symbolize the new Blu Ray player he got recently. James thought the raisinettes were the best present of all.




Finally, we had a family trip to the zoo where James got to drink milk from a carton - he thought it was great fun. He kept saying Yummy Milk!

Mary Martin is coming...

When you are pregnant the question you get most often is "How are you feeling?" The first time I was pregnant, I quickly figured out that people don't really want to know how you are feeling. They just want you to say "Great, thanks!" For example, the real answer lately would be: my heartburn is getting worse, a good night's sleep is proving elusive, and my ankles look I have cantaloupes on my feet. But instead, I just answer "Feeling good, thanks!"

This time, the second most common question I get is, "Does James know what is about to happen?" or sometimes "Does James understand a baby is coming?" I have struggled on how to answer this question. I think most people, like the how are you feeling question, don't really want the long answer but just want me to say politely, "He is starting to get it, I think."

If it is a close friend or someone who I think really cares, I will explain that moving James out of the nursery and into his own room helped him understand a lot. Now he says "baby's room" and points to the nursery and also identifies his own room. It has also helped James to see Aunt Kelly and little Madeline. I think James gets that another person - albeit a small one - will soon be coming. We have also taught James to say Mary Martin which is very cute...

Well one day last week Jim and James were playing with James' bristle blocks (or clippo blocks, whatever you call them). There are family figures in there to play with - a mom, a dad, a little boy and a little girl. Grandaddy long ago taught James that the mom was James' mommy, the dad was James' daddy and the little boy was James. Well last week, James pulled them all out one by one and identified them for his dad. When he got to the little girl, he said "Mary Martin!" Jim and I were amazed. I guess James is getting the picture after all.

I will start going to the doctor every week this week to check on Mary Martin. Everything is on track and looking good. I will update y'all as it gets closer.

First "Homework" Assignment

James moved up to the 2s and 3s room at day care two weeks ago. James is officially in Family Group 3, known as the lollipop room (which I think is funny, lollipop is so hard for kids to say, right Kel?). As part of his new room, James had his first "homework" assignment this weekend. It was an "All About Me" exercise where we listed James' favorite foods, his family, his birthday, etc. We were strongly encouraged to have James participate and so we got out the colors for James. The colors were not as much fun though as the stickers - he put an entire sheet of dog stickers on his homework and loved it. He kept saying "not done yet" and asking for more stickers. The best part was that the smallest stickers were about the size of the end of a pen and James had trouble getting them off the sheet and onto the homework. They would stay stuck to his fingers or the table and he would just laugh and laugh. Anyway, I present our first "homework" assignment. And in response to the question What I Want to Be When I Growup - James responded "an engine" and "ride a train." So that is what we wrote down!

Adventures in Bowling

Jim's firm hosted a bowling night last week for their summer interns. We thought we would go and see what James thought - well, he loved it!! He started the night just watching the pins getting knocked down and exclaiming, "they knock em down, they knock em down!" Then he learned we are supposed to clap when a good bowl happened. He would clap wildly and laugh with glee. Then he discovered that the firm had cookies to eat - and the evening turned just about perfect. He bowled with his dad just a couple times, I think he was a little intimidated, but still thought it was fun... He and Jim got a couple of Granny bowls down the lane.