9 months and (close to) perfect

On Tuesday, Baylen had his 9 month well check appointment in Bowling Green. (He's actually a little over 9 months old, but with Christmas and moving, I scheduled it after everything had settled down a bit.)

He weighed in at 18.35 pounds and was 28 1/4" long. In other words, he's long and thin (completely opposite of big brother).

His pediatrician said all looked good, and he couldn't believe he had been walking for so long. Baylen showed off his walking skills for him and babbled while we discussed some things.

I praise God today for a happy, healthy baby. I am continually amazed and humbled by the blessings in my life.

I will proclaim the name of the LORD.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

- Deuteronomy 32:3

A morning at Gran-Granny's

One day this past week, we spent a morning at my Granny's house. She's Gran-Granny to the boys, which comes out more like "Nanny" for Cash. We are so blessed by her, and I'm very thankful that the boys get to spend time with her. Since we are so close to her house right now, I'm hoping to take advantage of lots of "Nanny" time. We're thinking about a morning at her house becoming a weekly thing, and with all there is to do in Roseville, why not?

Don't turn your head, Nanny, or B will quickly be in places he's not supposed to be.

(Is a 9 month old supposed to be climbing like this?)

Cash loved "checking on the fish." In other words, he liked sticking his hand in the water.

B took a nap in the bathroom (because it was the quietest place, of course!)

We spied on the cows in the field behind Nanny's house.

According to Cash, they were eating their lunch, too.

And I got started on something I've been meaning to start for a few months now.

Any guesses?

Getting started

On Monday, we officially started building our house. We, as in the excavators, not we as in me. They showed up early and by mid-morning we had a huge, swimming pool-looking hole at the top of the hill. Heath was so excited that he decided to leave early from work to check it out. Everything is going pretty well. We've only had a few glitches, one of those including the workers dozing down our favorite tree, a large sycamore (that will be a different post, I'm sure). Other than that, the footers were poured Tuesday, and hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we will have basement walls. Don't worry, I'll keep you up-to-date with lots more pictures soon.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

Garth and telephones

The Wednesday before Christmas, Heath checked something off his bucket list (...if he had a bucket list. He doesn't, but if he did, this would be on it). He has always said he wanted to see Garth Brooks in concert. "He's a legend," he would say. "He's done more for country music than anyone else." And it happened.

We were able to get eight tickets to see him at his last show. My sister, brother-in-law, aunt, two cousins, Heath's sister and the two of us fought the crowds (and had an awesome time doing it) to get into Bridgestone Arena to hear the best country music from the 90's.

Heath and I waiting to go inside.

That's me with my aunt Kathy and two cousins, Jeremiah and Josh. Between the crowds going in, the wait before the concert, the concert itself, and the walk back to the car ... we really had too much fun. :)

I sang every word to every song (sometimes holding my imaginary microphone), screamed for more when he left the stage, and left knowing I'd seen the best concert I will ever see.

The best concert...ever.

It left me thinking though about the effects of modern technology. Cash's favorite thing to watch right now are some old Mickey cartoons that we borrowed from the library. One cartoon includes an old telephone. You know, the one that you hold one part to your ear to listen, and with the other hand, you hold the second part to your mouth to speak? Yeah, that kind of old telephone. He asked me, "What that?" the first time we watched it. I replied, "That's a telephone." And his reply, "No it not, mama." He pointed to my cell phone on the arm of the couch. "That's phone."

Wow. I kept thinking about phones as I sort of watched a black and white Mickey skip rope over the cord of the old telephone. Cash doesn't know any other phone except a cell phone. Crazy. Cell phones have seriously taken over the "phone" image in this next generation's mind. We don't have a house phone, so even a cordless phone was just something that he played with a my parents' house.

That brings us back to Garth. My second favorite Garth song (we won't discuss my favoritest song, since Heath says it's the most immoral song he sings) is Callin' Baton Rouge. You know it, right? Well, for all you non-Garth fans, it tells of a guy "out on the highway" that was "stoppin every hundred miles" to call Baton Rouge. (There's a girl there, of course.) But think of what the cell phone has done to this song. If this guy had a cell phone (which I'm sure he didn't back in 1993** when Garth recorded it) he wouldn't have to stop with his "couple dollars change" to talk to "Samantha." See?

**They especially didn't have cell phones back in 1978 when this song was originally recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys ... what you can learn from a google search.

Another song that comes to mind is Travis Tritt's Here's a Quarter. Most people, again, have cell phones, and they wouldn't need to find a pay phone. Do they even have pay phones anymore? If so, I'm pretty sure they would cost more than a quarter (inflation).

All in all, the songs are still great, especially Garth's Callin' Baton Rouge (which he did sing that night). Cell phones coming into the picture doesn't ruin the song for me, but I'm sure one day Cash will ask the question, "Why doesn't he just use his cell phone?" And I'll be more than happy to explain it all to my lil' man...

Trapped pictures

Remember those commercials that showed images "stuck" in a camera wanting to be printed? I found two such images on my lost-but-now-found little camera. (I have a smaller camera that I used to take with me everywhere because it was, well, small, but I had lost, er, misplaced, it.) Something happened when we started to pack up our house, though. I found things. Crazy. (You see, I'm not the most organized person. To Heath, it's amazing how I lose so much stuff. I laugh it off knowing I'll eventually find it. Heath, on the other hand, well, nevermind.)

These are two images that bring back memories of October 2009.

Here I am with my 15 month lil' man at Lulu's in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I am also 15 weeks pregnant here with Baylen. Look how much he's grown!

Ten years later, the class of 1999 gathered at the state park to catch up, have a great meal, and enjoy a laugh or two. This is the only picture I took before my camera's (lost, but now found) battery died. Doesn't look like any of us have aged a bit!

I guess I'll go print some pictures now.

By the numbers

It's a new year. I thought I'd give you a run-down of our family, at the beginning of this new year, by the numbers.

Miles that we are, right now, from our land - 34

Minutes that it takes Heath to get to work in the mornings - 80

Number of teeth that Baylen has - four

Number of letters Cash can recognize - 26

Number of cars parked at my parents' house on any given night - 7

Miles from our land to PawPaw's new place - 15

Number of times I hear Cash's sweet voice say "Mama" - countless

Number of times I said, "No, thanks" to black-eyed peas today - 3

Number of emails from Heath that included pictures of deer poop on our land - one

Number of times Heath threw Baylen up in the air today - I wasn't counting, only laughing at Baylen's belly laugh

Times that Cash took pictures of us with his imaginary camera during supper - 11

Number of times I tried to convince Cash that the Rose Bowl Parade was more fun to watch than Thomas (and failed) - 2

Number of times my heart melts when Baylen flashes his buck-toothy grin my way - too many to count

Number of football games I watched today - none

Number of times I pulled plastic nuts (you know the kind that go with bolts) from Baylen's mouth - at least twelve (then I put Cash's workbench away)

Number of times Cash said "Happy New Year" today - enough

And now I'll say it to you, Happy New Year!