Olivia is one!

"New Grandma"

In my family, there are specific names for each of the grandparents...
My mom and her husband are Mimi and Grandpa. My grandma is "Grandma."
My dad and his wife are Grandaddy Bob and Gramma Sandra.

But the kids get confused sometimes because Ryan's Dad is also Grandpa. And Ryan's Mom wanted to be called Grandma. And she insists her boyfriend should also be called Grandpa.

There are long periods of time when the boys don't see or talk to Ryan's parents, so sometimes they forget. After his mom's most recent visit, Jackson took to calling her "new grandma" because my grandma was the only grandma he saw regularly.

We ate at a barbeque restaurant on Sunday, and the owner who is a sweet older man kept coming by the table to check on us and talk to the kids. After he walked away one time, Jack said "Mommy, think that is the grandpa that lives with new grandma?" Priceless.

The zebra

The boys really like to go for "walks" in the neighborhood which really means Ryan and I walk while Olivia rides in the stroller and the boys drive their truck. Last night Jack said "Daddy, can we walk to the zebra?" After some thought we realized he was asking to walk to the gazebo on the golf course. As we approached it, he said "Yay, the ka-zee-bro!" and Sam kept saying "Where? Where? I don't SEE the zebwa!" Not quite.

Awww, man

One day last week Olivia drooled milk onto the ottoman while she was drinking. Sam sighed deeply, looked at the rest of us, then at Olivia, and said "Awww MAN, now I gotta cwean this up." Heehee.

The funny things they do...

One day this week while I was desperately trying to get the boys to nap and NOT wake up Olivia with the constant jumping off their beds, banging toys on the wall, and going in and out of their closet, I kept going into their room to threaten, yell, and generally try to get them to lay down. After about three times (when I would hear them giggle to each other after the door would close) I started hearing some particularly loud jumping and laughing that was shaking the ceiling above me. I stomped up the stairs, hoping to scare them into jumping into bed before I made it to their door so I wouldn't have to make good on my promise of spankings if they were out of bed, and as I quickly pushed their door open, I started laughing. When the door opened, they froze on the spot, the smiles melting away and replaced with surprise, their little hands at their waists clasping the tops of the pillowcases they were wearing. They had removed their pillowcases from their pillows and were having sack races around their room. To my knowledge they had never seen a sack race or anything like it, and apparently just got creative from sheer boredom. After I took their pillowcases and demanded with as much seriousness as I could muster that they lay their head on their pillows and go to sleep, they smiled at me and Jack said with a coy look "We made you laugh, Mommy. You think we're silly and we made you laugh." Undermined at every turn, I say! Obviously, spankings were not had.

Then yesterday we took the kids to the pool. I was busily catching the boys as they came down the slide over and over and over again, while Ryan attempted to keep a bored Olivia entertained. She preferred to sit at the edge of the pool and play with everything on the cement. She was especially fascinated with the filter covers that have the little holes on either side. While she was looking at it, Ryan stuck his arm in the filter and his wiggling finger up through the little hole so it looked like a worm was peeking through at her. Now I have never seen Olivia scared of anything. The boys race past her on bikes and in cars, and it doesn't phase her. Loud noises, animals; none of it seems to scare her a bit. But that wiggling finger coming at her through the hole put pure terror in her heart and she began to stare at it wide-eyed and scream while desperately trying to get away from it. Over and over and over again. Now perhaps we won't get parent of the year awards (for this and many other reasons!) but we thought it was HILARIOUS. Ryan did it over and over and we cracked up each time as she went from calm and playing to staring and shrieking irrationally at this little prank. I am determined to take the camcorder next time and hope she does the same thing cause I'm telling ya, this is something I could watch a million times and still laugh each and every time. Good times, and cheap entertainment. What could be better?

Help! I lost a month...

This last month has been so incredibly busy I have scarcely had time to breathe! We have had loads of overnight guests, and been out of town 3 times. We have been working on projects around the house, and had new hardwoods installed in our living room and kitchen, and our old hardwoods refinished to match. We have purchased a new car because the Jeep finally gave up the ghost, and we have had to replace the windshield on the new car because of a flying rock on the interstate. Our garage door has stopped working, and we are still trying to get that fixed. Olivia has turned one, so that means a party for her including homemade invitations, tons of food, house cleaning, and more houseguests. I have had a pregnancy scare including a false positive pregnancy test and a blood test at the doctor's. We have been sick TWICE. We spent a week at my mom's while the floors were redone, and then came home with just a day to clean up, move the furniture back, buy the food and get all set for Liv's garden tea party. Then my sister and 4 of her kids stayed on for the rest of the week until the fourth of July when we all headed to my other sister's house for the night. My digital camera is broken and needs to be sent off for repairs, and if anything else breaks I just might scream!
THIS has been a CRAZY MONTH, and I'm looking forward to spending THREE whole weeks at home until we head to the beach on the 26th! Maybe, just maybe I'll get caught up.