Jellybeans!

So, we're visiting my parents for a week. We have a nice dinner of chicken & beef shish-kabobs, mushroom rice, and peas fixed. The boys aren't too fond of steak, so we were going to give them chicken. I served Phillip's plate with peas and rice and put it in front of him. I asked my mom to cut him up some chicken. I told Phillip to go ahead and eat his rice and peas and that Grandmom was cutting up his chicken for him. He said, "I don't want chicken." I said, "Well, what do you want?" (thinking he was going to say steak.) Phillip thought a minute and said, "Jellybeans!"
See ya later alligator...

A Day in My Life

Phillip, who's almost 4, talks all day, every day and questions everything! I thought I would give you a little glimpse into my life. Here's the background...It's lunchtime today. I normally give the boys their vegetables first so they can be eating them while I'm fixing their sandwiches. I give Andrew his in a little suction cup bowl because it's easier for him to eat them this way. Phillip gets his on his plate. They have to have eaten at least half of the vegetable (today, it was peas) before they get some PB & J (because this is the most coveted part of lunch, by far).

So, the conversation goes something like this -

Phillip: "Where's Andrew's bowl?"
Me: "I took it."
P: "You took it?"
M: "Yes, I took it off his tray."
P: "You took it off his tray?!?" (Totally incredulous, like I told him we were flying to the moon.)
M: "Yes, he finished his peas so I took his bowl off his tray so he wouldn't play with it."
P: "Oh." Slight pause "Andrew finished his peas?"
M: "Yes, he finished his peas."
P: "He finished his peas like a good boy?"
M: "Yes, he finished his peas like a good boy."
P: "I'm not a good boy?" (All sad like his dog just died!)
M: "Yes, you are a good boy, but have you finished your peas?"
P: "No."
M: "Well, eat up."

And on and on and on. That child can turn any sentence or even a thought into a question. And the questions just keep coming, once one topic is exhausted (about 3 questions past when it should be), he just moved on to the next one. I just keep chanting to myself, "he's learning, he's supposed to be curious, it would be bad if he wasn't talking"
See ya later alligator...

Easter Clothes

We hope you and your family had a blessed Easter!

So, obviously it's Easter Sunday. We had a beautiful day going to church and spending time with family. The best story of the day happened this morning...

The kids were sitting around the table eating their breakfast this morning. Chris was getting dressed and came out to 'relieve me' when he was done. In honor of Easter, he was wearing a long-sleeve button down shirt and a tie. He normally wears short-sleeve polo shirts or short-sleeve button downs to work and church, so the kids rarely see him in a tie. When Phillip saw him he said,

"Daddy, you look fancy!"

We all got a big laugh out of this one. See ya later alligator...

Easter Egg Hunt

My friend Amanda and her family hold an Easter egg hunt every year. Last year we were out of town, so this would be the first egg hunt that the kids had participated in. They both did great. See the pictures below.

Phillip spies some yellow eggs...

He loves to mug and smile for the camera now, especially with his new Easter basket.

Andrew spies a purple egg...

Andrew is very intent on finding more.
Just check out all those eggs!!
All Andrew wanted to do was crack them open and eat the candy out (wrapper and all)!
A nice family photo after lunch, thanks Aunt Terah for taking it for us (and look, both boys are smiling and looking at the camera, it's a true miracle!)Hope you and your family have a fun and happy Easter!!
See ya later alligator...

Just an Update

Okay, there's so many people out there that yell at me for not carrying recent pictures of my kids with me. I know, I know, I'm a terrible mother for not having a gallery of photos for friends to peruse when they ask me. But, you know we live in a digital age and all my photos are on my computer and online (all 6 something thousand!), so I never have actual copies to show people. So, to appease all of you people (and I think you know who you are), here are some recent pics of the boys hamming it up for the camera. Well, Phillip hamming it up and Andrew trying to avoid it! Enjoy.

This was a recent trip to the playground. It's Andrew in the top picture, I actually caught him smiling. Phillip is on the bottom and sporting his new sunglasses.
These pictures were taken on March 3, 2008.


These pictures were taken on March 18, 2008.
Phillip is 3 yrs, 10 mos. and Andrew is 2 yrs, 1 mo.

See ya later alligator...

Stinky!!

**Warning: Talk about poo-poo ahead!!**

So, we're riding in the car today (that's me and the boys) and I get a whiff of something no-so-lovely. So, I ask Phillip if he needs to go poo-poo, as he had yet to go. He very suspiciously says, "Noooooo". I then ask if he tooted and he says no. He then sniffs twice in quick succession and says, "Eewww! It smells." I then move on to the other suspect and ask Andrew if he has poo-poo in his diaper. Now let me explain that he may or may not answer correctly. Sometimes he tells us when he has poo-poo, but sometimes he totally tells us no when he's got a full load. He also acts all innocent and says no. So, Phillips sniffs twice again and says, "Eewww! It smells! Andrew do you have poo-poo?!?" After Andrew again says no, Phillip says, "It's Stinky!!!"

Welcome to my world full of testosterone! Come to find out it was Andrew just getting rid of a little (albeit stinky) gas. See ya later alligator...

Baseball

Phillip loves most sports. He's been kicking a ball since he was like 18 months. He goes through phases where he's really into one sport over another. Right now, it's golf and baseball. He got this Little Tikes sport set when he turned 1 that has a really small bat (can you tell how small it is?), golf club, and basketball hoop. It's been one of his favorite toys since he got it, but the bat and golf club have definitely been hits. So, after watching baseball on TV, he figured out how to hit a ball that someone throws at him with this itty bitty bat. He got pretty good at it considering how small the bat is. He's actually launched a few and almost broken some things! So, for Christmas, his Grammy & Grampy got him a real baseball tee and launcher. So, the weather is finally getting good enough for us to take him outside and try it out. He doesn't actually use the tee part, he uses the launcher. It beeps a few times to let him know when it's coming and then pops it up. He used it for the first time on Sunday and that's when this video was taken. Chris said it took him a few balls to figure out the beeps, but then we could hit almost every ball. So, watch the videos below for Phillip's debut as a major league baseball player. (The first one is just a 4 second blip of one of his first tries. The second one shows his true talent.)






See ya later alligator...

Daddy's Hair

As you know, we have two chocolate labs, which despite my best efforts deposit dark brown hair all over our house. Phillip is obsessed with telling me every time he sees dog hair. Which, as you can imagine, is 24/7! Because even when I vacuum the family room and kitchen (yes, I vacuum the kitchen), there's hair back on the floor before I can even get the vacuum put away.

So, Chris is sitting on the couch yesterday without his shirt on (since it is a balmy 78 degrees here). I wouldn't consider him a hairy person, but he does have a smattering of curly brown hair on his chest. Phillip was sitting in his lap rubbing his hands through it (why are kids so obsessed with running their hands through hair?) and said...

"Is this dog hair?!?"

Chris and I burst out laughing. Chris started to try to explain to Phillip that no, it was not dog hair, but his own hair. Chris started tugging it a little to show Phillip that it was attached and telling him it was like the hair on his head. The incredulous look on Phillip's face was priceless. I still don't think he gets it. I'm pretty sure that he still thinks it's dog hair, but he's smart enough not to say anything!!

I'm not sure if this story will be as funny to read as it was when it happened. But, this is exactly the reason that I decided to start this blog, to chronicle the everyday little things that I never remember and that never make it in e-mails and phone calls. Keep visiting back for more of our escapades. See ya later alligator...

The Characters

Hi. Welcome to our blog. We appreciate you stopping by and taking a look around. Let me introduce you to the characters in our little drama.

Chris - My sweet, wonderful husband of almost 10 years. He's an engineer who works for the Navy. He enjoys rough-housing with the boys, playing golf, and surfing the net.

Phillip - My firstborn son, he's now 3 1/2. He's currently into Spider-Man, Mickey Mouse, and all things Cars. He loves hitting golf balls with his Daddy and playing baseball.

Andrew - My second-born, he just turned 2. He talks up storm, only about half of which we actually understand, and is currently figuring out how to jump. He's into eating and everything his big brother is.

Fudge - Our 7 year old, male chocolate lab.

Brownie - She's Fudge's litter mate, also a chocolate lab.

All three of the men in my family could definitely be described as instigators. But, that's only part of the story of the title of this blog. You see, Chris & I are alumni of the University of Florida. Their mascot (in case you don't know...) is the Gator. So, you see, we tried to do a little play on words there. I do want to give credit where credit is due and thank my friend Susan for thinking up this very appropriate title. Believe me, I've been agonizing over the title of this thing for weeks now. Hope you can appreciate our little pun.

That's it for our first post. We hope to see you back here soon. See ya later alligator...