just a little "horsing" around

lawtons new favorite thing to do:

just when you are leaning down to pick something up, he runs behind you and slams into your back saying "horse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

he then maybe gives you a nice slap or two to go faster

fun times and it's cheap! ;)

THANKSgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year to think about what you are most thankful for. The list can go on forever, but i am truly most thankful for my family and friends. My loves Jack and Lawton have blessed me with many smiles and many many flutters of my heart. My friends have become my family as well. These are people you laugh with, cry to, share advice with, help when they are in need and visa versa, these are people you hold very dear to your heart. so, needless to say, I am very very thankful!

This is the first year in 4 years that we have had Thanksgiving with my family ON Thanksgiving. We didn't have much to do that day until dinner which was nice. Funcle Trent came over for most of the day and we just hung out and watched football. SHOCKER. so ready for it to be over!

excuse Trent's shirt being open. he had a late night the night before. ;-)
now: this hotness has an explanation. jack took the week off of work to spend it with us. first time in 2 years. SO, that being said, he grew a beard and shaved just in time for Thanksgiving. I am thankful his work doesn't really allow mustaches ;-)

lawton doing some puzzles while sus cooks

big boy at the table. no highchair or booster seat for this kid. won't have anything to do with them. so, for now, towels it is.
Friday morning before heading to Greensboro to spend the weekend with my other family, we had brunch with my aunt and cousins at Eddies. It is a Christmas tradition that I think has now turned into a Thanksgiving one as well!

he ate every single one of our lemons. no sour faces either....seriously??

kk and lawton
oh wait. back it up. before brunch...
my good friend Libby asked me last week if i wanted to go "black friday" shopping. i was in! i have never done this before and wanted to see what it was all about. i didn't have anything in particular to get, but i thought it would be fun. PLAN A was to go at 12am. that day we decided to go with PLAN B. 5am.

we were ready to face the crowds, ready to push our way through target and have many stories to tell. this is what we found:

an empty parking lot! where was everyone??! we had the ENTIRE store to ourselves. and with maybe 4 others. no joke.

for 3 hours.
how do you spend 3 hours in Target? well, we enjoyed every minute. strolled down every aisle. put a million things in our baskets and took a million out. talked, and left at 8am when people started showing up. it was perfect.

now, on to greensboro to the in-laws for the weekend!

billy STILL has all the cars that he played with as a boy. lawton was in heaven! how special is that? well, they did have lead in them, but one weekend won't hurt ;)

they also pulled out this old rocking horse. remember these? i think my brother and i had one - do they make them anymore because Law LOVED it!

sweet cousins. these 2 kids are so wonderful and love their cousin so much. lawton isn't a very good "sharer" right now and they are so patient with him. they bathe with him, sit with him to eat, play endless hours of cars and just love on him. love you emmie and will!

saturday we got to visit our good friends jack and anna craven. my jack and chris (their dad) have known one another and been best friends since the day they were born. i have known craven (as i call him) and maggie (their mom) for almost 14 years now. jack and i met at their wedding and the story continues...

law, jack (4.5 yrs) and anna (one month older than lawton)

we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and i am so thankful that everyone was WELL....i am so excited for the upcoming holidays and spending more time with family and friends!

good riddence!!

to croup that is!!!

we have had TWO good night sleeps over at the Hall house. that is the bomb.com

here is a face who now just has a cold and some leftover cough. huge.

his color is back. his energy is back. his smile is back. his appetite is back.

which all means, MY smile is back ;-)

when baby ain't happy, mama ain't happy. mama sad.

resting up for Thanksgiving this week and daddy took the week off, so family time here we come! this NEVER happens...needless to say, we are very THANKFUL around here!

you know what i have been dreading?

croup.

ever since 2 kids in lawton's class were diagnosed, i have thought about it. let's be honest, ever since lawton started having breathing troubles, i have thought about it.

and my poor boy got it.

last night we rushed to the ER because he couldn't breathe. i seemed to have ran out without my bra or shoes. and my shirt was tucked in my underwear...the nurses told me that one. FAB.

we were there for 4 hours and after a steroid, breathing treatment and some days at home, i am hoping this will be gone and we will never have it again.

the bed is calling my name...this mama hasn't slept since monday night.

praying that i will be able to take some smiling pics of my boy for the blog soon - he is so big!

I look forward to Thursdays

thursdays are my special day with my boy. it is the only day that he is not in school and i try not to take a job unless it is for a few hours, so that i can be with my little man. usually, we just chill out. no Y, no playdates, no errands, just stay at home and play with toys, draw, etc. this morning i thought we should try monkey joes since we have never been...ummm, he loved it.

we got there before anyone else and had the place to ourselves for a good 45 minutes which was the way to do it. once the kids poured in, it gets to be "against the rules" as my dad likes to say. along with Times Sqaure, Carowinds on the weekends and Black Friday.

i only had my cell phone, so this is what i got - at least it shows how much fun he was having!

today is rainy and the perfect day to stay inside, snuggle and watch a movie. lawton has never seen a movie before and i saw Cars 2 was on demand. score! this is what he is currently doing:

look at that little under bite (is that one word or two?), where did that come from?! so thrilled to spend the day with my man especially since i have to go out of town for work this weekend...le sigh.

ps- now the movie is still playing in the other room and he is playing cars under my feet. guess he can't watch a movie yet!

Nifty Ninety

this saturday night, we celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday....isn't that amazing? she has been very healthy, still drives and has more energy than a lot of us!

i grew up going to her and my grandfather, Pap's house and playing dress up, war, you name it with my 10 cousins. she and my grandfather would take all of us to their mountain house every year and we would build forts all week then the last night, they would wake us up in the middle of the night (it was probably 9pm for all we knew) and we would put on war paint and cammo and all hell broke loose. girls against boys and whoever "took over" the others fort won. i don't know many grandparents today that would take all those kids away for a week without any help...but this woman also threw a christmas dinner every year seating about 80-100 all using her own china. for reals. i have a panic attack serving 8! ;-)

cheers to you grammy, happy 90th!

cousins...still growing!
me, lawton and grammy. he does this when he get nervous

the birthday girl

as we were singing, lawton found a picture of Pap (my Pap, not his Pap my dad's dad) and immediately said Pap....he has never seen his picture before!

trying to get all the little ones together for a picture...you know how that goes!

wonderful time with family celebrating grammy ;-)

Nov 4th 2011

oh boy. i will remember this day for as long as i live! THIS will be the story that i will tell to lawton when he becomes a parent himself and he thinks his kid has gone loony. my mom has a similar one of me, and i met the day with lawton yesterday.

lawton and i planned on meeting melissa and van to ride the light rail to imaginon in the afternoon. park and ride and then ride back to the car. i truly thought he would love it since he is obsessed with "choo-choo's". i was wrong.

the moment the doors closed and the sound came on overhead, he freaked. and when i say, freaked, i mean, screaming, crying, kicking, freaked.

van was calmly sitting in his seat, people were staring at us and i was just trying to calm him down and tell him we were okay, this was a choo choo, etc. well, he didn't give a crap. he was terrified. after 4 stops, i told melissa we had to get off. so, lawton and i got off and he was fine. like nothing happened. just glad to be on steady ground.

well then i told him we had to get back on to get to our car and when the train pulled up and we got back on, he freaked again. this time, he slapped my face, pulled my hair, wrenched his back, and people were bold face staring and most likely saying to themselves "what is wrong with that kid and that poor mother, he is slapping her in the face!" OMG.

looked a little like this. i tried to console him while sweating from holding him down and having people stare. we had 4 stops to go!! i held his hands down like a straight jacket and was whispering to him that it would be okay...well, then i lost it. tears of frustration, tears of sadness that i had terrified my child. i just lost it. and again, everyone stared. when we got off at our stop, he was normal. said bye bye choo choo and waved. WTH. a very nice woman came up to me and just gave me a hug. i needed it that is for sure.

i called my mom and thought something must be wrong with him. he has never in his life acted this way. my parents came over, had a beer and lawton was again, my normal, sweet child.

here are the lessons i learned:

1. when your child is in school 4 days a week, by friday, he is most likely exhausted and doesn't want to do much. fridays are going to now be a "resting" afternoon.

2. he is afraid of locomotives?? i guess? tweetsie is not in our near future.

3. alcohol helps on bad days

4. when people say "oh, he never acts like this"i used to roll my eyes and be like "sure lady"...but now, i am going to believe them because dammit, it might be true!!

PS. my eyes are still puffy this morning.