This -n- That

Today at lunch, Sadie was eating half of a cheese sandwich and Josie was putting away blueberries by the dozen. Sadie said through a mouthful of bread, "Me love Daddy." I said, "You do? Who else do you love?" She said, "Me love Becky." "And who else?" "Me love Sarah." "You love Aunt Sarah? Who else do you love?" "Me love Scotty. And me love Angela. Angela like a turkey. Gobble-gobble-gobble-gobble!" I have no idea where this little insight came from, but it made me laugh. Josie is a full-fledged crawler now... she started on Thursday, and perfected her technique while we were in NC over the holiday weekend. Now she's getting fast! Sadie runs from her and says, "Don't get me, Jos-a-bean!" We had a good time over the weekend at home... the girls, as usual, get more love (and food) than they can stand. They ate livermush and bacon for breakfast every morning (courtesy of Grammie and Great Grandma). Sadie got to feed the birds ("Come and get it, birds!") and she found a little bird's egg with Grammie. She had a great time pushing around this little toy grass-seed spreader that Grammie got for her. She also dressed up in every piece of jewelry that Mama owns, and walked around saying, "Look at me! I beautiful!" Which is true. :) Josie cracked herself up looking in the full length mirror in Great Grandma's room... she thinks (and is correct) that she is just about the most beautiful baby ever to grace the planet. We rode the golf cart with Scotty and Angela, fed the baby goat with Cameron, played with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Elizabeth, Josh, and Natasha, went to a cookout with Lou, Brenda, Becky, Stephen, little Hailey, Chass, and her three wild kids (her little boy, Dalton, took Sadie's picture down the other day and carried it through the house saying, "My Sadie, my Sadie... I love her so!"). We got to watch a video of Kimmie singing at her church, which brought me almost to tears... she looked just like her mama and me when we first starting singing long long LONG ago at church. It was so cute. Then we went out to breakfast/lunch at this cool old home-cooking place way up in the mountains with "Papaw and Mamaw." We ended up staying there for almost 4 hours.... After we ate, we all sat out on the big front porch by the little creek and listened to old-timey mountain music. The lady that was singing asked for volunteers from the audience, so of course Daddy and I ended up on the stage, singing "Blessed Redeemer" and "In the Garden." Sadie finally came up and gave a rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and her old standby "A Bushel and a Peck." It was a lot of fun. Probably the highlight of Sadie's trip (besides getting to sleep with Grammie and say, "Stop snoring, Grammie!!!") was riding with Papaw on his HUGE new tractor. She was so excited about it, and she's been telling everyone. Oh, and she also got to paint her toenails green, just like Mamaw. All in all, we had a good trip. I didn't even cry when we left this time... because we're going back in (count 'em) THREE weeks.

I Repeat, We Have a Sadie Down

On Sunday, Jesse didn't go to church. He was recovering from a late night at a Pearl Jam concert the night before. Brave soul that I am, I decided to take both kids and go by myself. Without backup! Sunday School was fine (Sadie LOVES Sunday School and goes in there all by herself), but then the actual service started. At first, all was well... Sadie busied herself with pulling out all the hymn books, stacking them up on the pew and then putting them all back in the seat in front of us. Josie "sang" as loud as she could during the first couple of hymns. I thought, "Hmm. This isn't as bad as I thought! I can do this!" Then, Josie started fussing for her bottle. I gave it to her, and she proceeded to make these immensely loud slurping and "gulk, gulk, gulk" noises. Before I could get her quieted down, Sadie informed me (not in her quiet voice) that she "Need see James now! Need go see Grandma!" Josie started squirming; Sadie took her sippy cup and about 4 bags of snacks out the diaper bag and threw them down. While I was picking them up, Josie started crying, and Sadie tried to get my reserve juice box out of the bag. This was all too much commotion, so I finally just stuffed everything in the bag, scooped up Josie, and scooched Sadie out the end of the pew in front of me, toward the back door. Well, as we were headed out, she decided to make a pit stop by the FIRE EXTINGUISHER. She opened the glass door in front of it, grabbed it, and was just about to pull it down and set off who knows what kind of alarms when I nudged her with the end of the diaper bag (in my semi-free hand). Of course, instead of just moving along to the door like she should have, she tripped and fell and thunked her head and her knee on the floor and started bawling. This was all in front of EVERYone. Of course I felt terrible, because I essentially pushed my child down, even though it was an accident. When we finally made it to the nursery, they took turns crying and pooping until it was time to go home. For Pete's sake. This isn't exactly the "religious persecution" I thought was going to befall me in the last days....

A Bushel and a Peck

Well, it's been a week, and I think I have gotten over the injustice suffered last week at the hands of the American public. No, I'm not talking about the political appointments as of late... if you're a regular reader, you know what I'm talking about! By the way, SOME people have voiced some criticism of my favorite show (excepting Dr. Phil, of course)... I won't name any names, but I will say this: I think it's better to sit at home with my dog and watch a hyped up version of Star Search than to be out doing numerous other things, like, oh, say, getting a nose ring!!! :) Enough of that, though. I digress. Bad news: I have seriously fallen off the diet wagon since my killer death stomach flu a couple of weeks ago. I guess I was just making up for lost time, eating-wise. Good news: I climbed (albeit with some huffing and puffing and overall exertion) back onto the diet wagon yesterday, even dusting the treadmill off late last night. Funny things that happened over the past week: Jesse was in charge of the Mother's Day dinner at church, and they did various kinds of entertainment, which was fun. Sadie kept saying, "Me want microphone. Me want sing in microphone like Mommy." I finally took her up front to "sing" in front of 70+ people, figuring that she would just get all shy and clam up once we were there. Boy, was I in for a surprise! She sang, "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck..." She filled in the whole chorus while holding the microphone... she was a pro! I, on the other hand, got so tickled that she was actually DOING it that I couldn't stop laughing. It was the cutest thing EVER! When she was done (amidst thunderous applause) she said, "Thank you, thank you so much." And then she looked at me and said, "Me did it! Me did it!... Me want sing again, Mommy." I think we may have a born performer here. Josie spent almost the entire evening hamming it up with one of the older ladies at church - having a great time. She has started squealing and squeeking and sniffing and generally just finding her "voice." I'm telling you - with those cheeks, coupled with the chubby hand clapping - she is so cute that it hurts to look at her. My eyes! My eyes!!

Oh, the Agony!

Are you kidding me?! This is terrible, bad, awful, horrendous! I cannot even write about it. It's too painful. Okay... I must say it, in case you do not follow the show - Chris has been robbed. Voted off, kicked off, ka-put. I think he was even more shocked than I was, and I was pretty shocked. That's it. I'm done with the show. Now I have to wait around until his CD comes out.

Just like Mommy

Yesterday, Sadie put on my sandals, my sunglasses, and my bracelet. She came into the kitchen where I was and said, "Look at me! Me just like Mommy!" She also says things like, "Me like Daddy. Me go to work, too."
"Me busy like Mommy. Me sing like Mommy." It suddenly hit me (like a ton of bricks to the chest) that she really does want to be just like me. I happened to think of something Dr.Phil said (surprise, surprise): "The absolutely most important role model that a child will ever have is that child's same-sex parent." Well, that's ME. For both of them. What an awesome and unbelieveable responsibility that is. Am I up for the challenge? Do I dare risk messing up their little lives because I can be such a selfish moron? Honestly, when I think back on some of the awful and stupid and flat-out wrong things that I have done, I can't help but think that I just don't deserve to be someone's role model - especially not when the "someones" involved are as precious and wonderful as my children. I'm not proud of a great deal of my past... there are things that I'd never want them to know about me. And I wonder if it's better to tell them those things eventually and hope they'll learn from my mistakes, or to just try to lead by a good example NOW. I have to really get to work on being a better person, because they are already always watching. I pray that God will help me not to be the person that I once was, but to be the person that they deserve to have as their mommy. Geez. I'm making myself cry here. Does anyone else feel this way, or am I just hormonal?

My New Theme Song

http://mp.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=2&pmmsid=1346509

Big News

Tonight, Sadie pee-peed in the potty!!! We were all so excited, whooping and hollering and clapping and calling everyone to share the good news... Sadie was so caught up in all the excitement, she said, "Me need go pee-pee in potty again!"

Josie got her 2nd top tooth yesterday (yay!). She still isn't crawling, but boy is she MOVING. As soon as I turn my back, she's scooched, wriggled, or rolled her way to wherever she feels like going. Unfortunately, tonight she felt like going to the side of the tub, pulling up on it (first time for pulling up on ANYthing) and sliding down... thereby whacking her lip right into her new front tooth. Ouch!! This all happened in less than 3 seconds... I'm telling you, the kid is FAST.

Funny joke:
The psychology professor was lecturing on emotional extremes. "For example," the professor asked one student, "what is the opposite of joy?" The student replied, "sadness." "And the opposite of depression?" he asked another. "Elation," the student replied. Looking toward a transfer student from North Carolina, the professor asked, "And you sir, what is the opposite of woe?" The mountain boy replied, "Wellsir, I reckon that would be giddy-up." Heehee!

Say Cheese, Matey!

Yesterday, I took the girls for a walk through the neighborhood. Sadie took her "camera," with her - a rectangular shaped yellow block with a hole in the middle of it. The whole time we were walking, she was up front in the stroller "taking pictures" and saying, "Say cheese, mailbox! Say cheese, rock! Say cheese, water fountain! Say cheese, woman! Say cheese, dirt!" Josie seconded these requests by growling this low, deep, throaty growl that she's been perfecting for the last few days... she sounds like a pirate. So I guess if you had been walking beside us it would've sounded more like, "Cheese, grrrrrr. Cheese, grrrrr." Arrrgh, mateys!

My Indian Princesses - Tigerfoot and Chunky Monkey

This afternoon, I was trying to explain the meaning of being "barefoot" to Sadie. I tried to tell her that there is a difference between "bare" and "bear." She was a little confused, and proceeded to tell me that she was NOT barefoot, but "Tigerfoot."

Josie is still teething... and is fit to be tied! She has incredible separation anxiety right now - every time I leave the room for 2 seconds, she melts into a little puddle of tears and screams bloody murder. It wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that she zooms from fine to "TICKED OFF" in about 10 seconds flat. It's amazing... and sometimes, (I know it's mean) I just have to laugh. Her little chubby face gets SO red and she just balls up her fists and shakes with rage. It's totally me all over, especially when I have PMS :) I have dubbed her the "Chunky Monkey."