Our week

Monday morning we woke up to a huge water stain on our kitchen ceiling.

Fantastic. Just the way I like to start the week.

We called the plumbers first thing Monday morning. It took them until Wednesday to get to the house. We paid them $69 - all they could tell us was they didn't know what the problem was and that to figure it out, they would need to cut a hole in the ceiling which would cost us another $149. Um, no. Thank goodness for a handy husband because that's just ridiculous.

Jerry cut the ceiling, and we started trying to eliminate possible issues. Was it the master shower drain? Nope. Was it the guest shower drain? Nope. Was it the guest sink drain? Nope. I decided to call our contractor who's finishing up the crown molding in Alex's new big boy room (pics to come next week) to get his take on things. He's much more affordable than the plumber and does fantastic work.

This morning, Jerry and I thought we had finally figured out where the water had come from. The contractor confirmed it. Get this. Alex had splashed water from the sink which flowed onto the floor. In excess, apparently. Because of the slope of the floors in this old house, the water rolled back toward the bathroom baseboard, flowed down the walls, and then onto the sheet rock on the kitchen ceiling.

The good news is that we don't have to pay for a plumbing problem to be fixed. The bad news is that we'll have to get the kitchen ceiling repaired and repainted. All because of a little splish, splash excitement that Alex was having. Hmmm, I think we'll have to find a new, less costly method of fun.

God's Extraordinary Creation

Dear Alex,

For more than a year, I have said to you nearly everyday, "You are God's extraordinary creation, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared in advance for you to do."

Today when I tell you that you are God's extraordinary creation, you jump right in and say, "Jesus." My heart leaps with joy to know that you are learning Whose you are.

I love you, sweet angel.
Momma

Cool Rider

Cruisin' the 'hood and checkin' things out. 

Hip hip hooray!

We're getting a Chipotle! We drive by every weekend to see what progress has been made. This is just down the street from our house, so I see many a meal happening here for the Correa family. Woohoo!

Ready for Rain

I've shared before how much Little Man loves his frog boots. Seriously loves these boots. When I saw this rain coat, I just couldn't resist the urge to bring it home to him. The lady at the store gave me the advice of buying a tad bit too big so that he could wear it for more than one season - great idea. Hope he loves it as much as those boots. If so, it will definitely be a worthwhile investment.

Baby Bump - 26 and 28 weeks

I know. I know. I'm way behind on these pictures. But I've reached the point of not being all that excited about having the bump photos made. Which also means little motivation to post them.

26 weeks

28 weeks - please note Little Man peeking out the window!

All in all, things are still going well with the pregnancy. I'm feeling great - just getting a little more tired at the end of the day and a few back aches at night.

Last week I failed the first round of the gestational diabetes test so I had the three-hour test at the hospital lab today. Other than the needle pricks in my arms each hour to draw blood, it wasn't bad. Results are coming Monday. Seems like a good excuse to get my sugar fix in this weekend...just in case Monday's call brings less-than-desirable news.

The swelling started around week 27. Mostly hands and feet at this point. I remember this happening when I was preggers with Alex, too. It gets ugly toward the end, people. Let this serve as my warning that you may not get that many bump pictures as I really start to expand.

Little Man's Big Adventures - Swim Lessons

Last year, Little Man really took to the water. He loved his inflatable pools, the local city pool, playing in the lake, splashing in the Chattanooga Aquarium river, and even "boat rides" in Noni and Pop Pop's fish pond. Give him a water hole, and he was one happy boy.

I'm not sure how much swimming we'll be doing this summer since Baby Boy (no, we're no closer to having a name picked out) is due June 11, but I still thought that Alex might enjoy some swim lessons at our local rec center. So I signed him and Jerry up for the Tiny Bubbles/Little Splashes swim class. I figured this would give Alex a new activity to try and some one-on-one time with his Daddy which they both love.

Little Man was all geared up and ready to go until...Daddy took him in the water for the first time. That water was pretty chilly, and he wasn't interested. He cried and cried and cried.

When the class began, the teacher told the parents to ease into the water until it was belly button height for the children. With Alex crying out, "Momma, Momma!", Jerry could see that it might be in their best interest to stay at the back of the class, so he held back and let Alex get used to the water at his own pace.

It was about this time I realized I had probably better make myself disappear because Alex wasn't going to focus on the swim activity if he was constantly looking to me to rescue him. So I went into the lobby of the facility and watched through some windows where he couldn't see me. 

The swim teacher gave everyone pool rings to play with, and Jerry and Alex just sat at the entrance to the pool and played with the rings until Alex stopped crying. It wasn't long before he was laughing and splashing and having a good time (although Jerry said it felt like a long time and that he wondered what all of the other parents there thought of him keeping his crying kid in the pool!). I reassured him that the aquatics director had pulled me aside before I made myself scarce and said he was doing all the right things - distracting Alex while he got used to the water and not giving up. "Keep coming," she said. "Kids who are intimidated begin to have fun once they get used to knowing that everything's going to be ok."

At first, Alex pushed the pool ring away and wanted nothing to do with it.

It took a while to work their way out into the deeper part of the pool, but they eventually made it to where the rest of the class was participating. Alex kept throwing his little pool ring and Daddy would retrieve it. Alex also stood on a small pool platform they had in the water for the toddlers, and he really seemed to enjoy that, too. They made their way around the "lazy river" while Alex practiced a little bit of kicking. And at the end, the teacher and the kids sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while Alex showed off the hand motions he's been learning at library storytime.

Clinging on for dear life!

By the end of the lesson, Alex had warmed up to things, and I'm hoping that it only gets better from here. He didn't necessarily stay on track with the lesson, but we didn't care. We just wanted him to try some new things and have fun. Here's one last photo after the lesson was finished where Daddy was telling his Little Man how proud he was of him. I was so proud, too. He came a long way in those 30 minutes!

Way to go, Little Man! We're so proud of you!

A day just for Alex

Today (Saturday) is the day I've been dreading since Jerry left for India. I'm used to him being gone during the weekdays for work, and occasionally he has to travel to Chicago for a few days at a time, so I'm also used to having a few evenings a month without him home, too. But not the weekends. Fortunately, our Sundays are usually pretty full between church in the morning and our church group in the late afternoon so I knew I'd have that to occupy our time tomorrow, but Saturdays are wide open.  While I'm perfectly content to stay at home most of the time, I just couldn't do it today. It felt too lonely.

So I made a plan to create a day that was just about spoiling Alex. Somehow, spoiling him brought me great joy.

I got up early this morning to get myself ready before Alex woke up. After breakfast and a morning video call with daddy, Alex and I took off for Target. I had a few household things to pick up, but our main reason for going was to try to find him some Cars toys. He loves his Cars sticker books so much, I thought he might enjoy a Lightning McQueen car and Tow Mater truck. Our Target didn't have a great selection, so I told Alex we'd hit Toys R Us after our lunch at Chick-fil-A to see what we could find there.

At Chick-fil-A, he ate all of his nuggets, most of his fruit and drank all of his milk. I always smile when he eats well. Afterward we hit Toys R Us and found the Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater cars. (Oh, and did I mention that I got Alex some Reese's Pieces Easter Eggs as a snack treat, too? =) )

I also found another little goody that I thought he "needed" to have - a Thomas the Train bath toy. He loves trains, and I recently had to purge all of the bath toys that squirted water (which was mostly what he had) because of all the gunk that builds up inside that really grosses me out. So, see? He really did need it. ;-)

After Toys R Us, it was time for a nap, and then we hit the park. Alex has been dying to break in his new wagon outdoors, and since the weather was fabulous today, we took full advantage. We also saw the coal train pass by when we were at the park, and it was going slow enough that the engineer opened his window and waved at us as he passed by. Wish I had gotten a photo of that, but I wasn't that quick on the draw. Anyway, here are some pics from our park adventures.

Overall, today was much better than I thought it would be. I'm glad we kept busy and filled our day full of fun things. I feel like the toughest day is behind us, and I'm looking forward to Jerry's return home next week!

It's FRIDAY!!

I'm not sure why I gave my Friday two exclamation points. Truth is, this weekend will feel like any other weekday to us since Jerry's gone. Nevertheless, Fridays always feel a little more joyful, don't you think?

In celebration of our week's end, we started our day out with these.

Have you tried these? Oh, my. They are delicious! You can find them in the freezer section at the grocery store. I say that, but here we can only find them at Walmart. Thank goodness that's not a place I shop very often. It could be very dangerous for me, otherwise.

You just let them rise to twice their frozen size and then pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes. There are 12 in a bag, and they come with two generous packets of cream cheese frosting. I was tempted to make my own frosting, but decided to go ahead and use theirs. It was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Later in the morning I loaded Little Man up for a much needed (read: overdue) haircut. It was so needed that Jerry told me I only had one job while he was gone - to get Alex a haircut! LOL! You know how Jerry likes Alex's hair to look good. ;-) Can't blame him for that.

For the last week I have been talking to Little Man about going to see Mary Margaret (our hair lady) because he has had some serious meltdowns the last two times I've taken him. I'm talking serious meltdowns, people.

When I would say her name to him, he would say "choo, choo" and "truck, truck" because she has a train book and trucks in a basket of toys there at the salon. I would say, "Yes, you can read the choo-choo book and play with the trucks while she cuts your hair. And we're not going to cry. It's going to be a great day because she is going to make your hair look so handsome." After repeating this exact same bit to him over and over and over again, I was curious to see if it would sink in and do any good.

The result? Little Man didn't even so much as wince at his hair cut today! Yeah, baby! He sat in the chair all by himself for the first time, and I immediately whipped out Ba-ba on the iPhone - you know, as a supplement to the choo-choo book he had already found. He sat quietly and watched Mickey catch that big red gooey fish for Mr. Pettibone all while Mary Margaret snipped and trimmed him right up. Oh, his daddy would have been so proud! Mary Margaret was so proud of him that she gave him his very first sucker - a little dum-dum. And boy, did he like that! I had to take it away from him on the car ride home because of my fear of him choking, but once we got home he finished it right up. Sucked down to the very last drop.

Maybe I gave my Friday two exclamation points because I got to walk out of the salon with my head held high instead of hung in red-faced embarrassment like the other times. On the inside I was even giving a double-fist pump because of our little victory. It's like I always say, it's the small stuff, people. Gotta take it where you can get it.

 Happy Friday, y'all!! Hope yours is worth at least two exclamation points, too!! =)

He totally rocks my world

I could just eat this little guy up! He has really become a ham lately.

When we have company, he will run around laughing and acting silly just to garner a bit of attention. He's always been into a little drama, and the picture below is what he did when I asked him to smile for me. Cracks me up! I'm so glad I get to stay home and have my day full of this kind of joy.

Here he's covering his Scout dog with Cars stickers - one of his daily favorite pastimes. We have at least one dozen Cars stickers scattered throughout the house (and on my clothes) by the end of the day. Every day. He doesn't have any other Cars toys, but I'm thinking I may have to remedy that for him.

A couple of other things he's up to these days...

Whenever I ask him, "Can you say ____?" - fill in the blank with a new word he's not said before - his immediate response is "buuuurp!" Don't ask me why. He learned "buuuurp" from his Jimmy Zangwow's Moonpie Adventure book (the Grimble Grinder burps after eating his Moonpies), and it is one of his favorite new words. He really seems to amuse himself with this.

He also has a thing for damp towels - paper towels, dish towels, a wipe, etc. He likes to grab any of these out of my hand, wad it up with his left hand, and then stick his left thumb into his mouth while he holds the damp towel. I'm not sure of the attraction here, but the second he gets a damp towel, it's like a magnetic force between the thumb and the mouth when he's holding it.

Alright. I'm signing off for the night. Hope to be back soon with new pics. Alex can show off his haircut he's getting tomorrow!

Solo with my munchkin

Daddy is in India until next week, and my sweet angel and I have been hanging out trying to keep dry from all the rain we've been getting. I am jealous of all of you who are having spring weather. We're back to cold and dreary for a few more days.

That means we've been holed up in the house quite a bit this week, and I'm telling you the nesting is beginning to kick in. I've been cleaning out closets and cluttered spots to gather up things that I'm going to put into a yard sale. I've tackled about half of my list of places to clean and organize. More to be done in the days ahead.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post. I decided to go ahead and order the duvet cover that many of you liked. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make a good decision without having seen it in person. I got it yesterday, and it's a winner! It feels great (very important to me), and the colors will look great with the star quilts. The only bad news is that I had to send them back because there were fabric flaws that I wasn't willing to live with given their cost. So I've got two new ones headed this way. I should get them early next week, and I'll try to get some pics posted then.

Hopefully we'll have some sunshine and warmer weather soon. Little Man has a new wagon he is dying to break in - somewhere other than inside the house - and I hope to take him on a ride outdoors first chance we get. And get some pics, too. =)

A little advice, please

Jerry and I are in the throws of converting our guest bedroom into – not a nursery, but – Alex's new big boy room.

I have held out on pictures because, well, quite frankly, the room is a huge mess, and there is still a lot of work to be done. But I just can't help myself. Jerry has done such an amazing job of making our vision a reality. So if you're up for seeing the "during construction" phase of our progress, I'll let you have a sneak peek. Please excuse the mess.

Here's the BEFORE:

And here's where we are TODAY:

See? LOTS of work still left to do. Crown molding, shelves in the built-in book cases, knobs on the cabinet doors, a kickplate at the base of the built-ins, and on and on. I promise more pictures to come later when the room is cleared out of the power tools and lumber scraps and everything is ready to be primed and painted. And just in case you're wondering, all of the new wood work will be white.

Now that we're making progress on the changes to the room, I'm trying to pull together the bedding. And that's where I need your opinions.

This room will have two twin beds. (Because it will still be used as a guest bedroom when needed and because I'm preparing for the day when the boys will (hopefully) share a room - we'll be all set with the bedding.) And the one thing I've decided on for sure is that each bed will have this quilt on the foot of it and one of the shams. I've loved this star quilt for years, and I've decided to splurge and order it!

Each bed will also have a duvet. I loved the duvet on our guest bed. It's hard to tell from the photo below, but it is a navy/ivory ticking stripe. I got it off of ebay, and my words to Jerry when he placed the bid were, "You must win this. Period." And so I thought that navy ticking stripe would be (will be!) precious with this star quilt. The problem is, I have searched the internet over for twin size (any size for that matter) navy ticking stripe duvet covers, but to no avail.

So then I started looking for fabric because I have a friend here who said she'd whip me up the duvet covers if I find the fabric I want. Score! Turns out, the search for the fabric isn't as easy as one might think. But I do think I may have found some. Here it is.

The problem is that the price tag on this stuff is not cheap - especially when we're having to make two covers. Oh sure, they make some that's cheap, but let me tell you that I've ordered swatches, and the stuff isn't all that soft. Now, I'm big on soft bedding, and since this room will still be used as our guest quarters, I can't have bedding that feels like sandpaper. You know what I mean?

In the meantime, I was doing another needle-in-the-haystack search for navy ticking bedding/fabric/whatever-would-come-up, and I came across this. Finally! A possibility! One side has the navy ticking stripe and the other side has khaki and navy stripes. First option I've seen in all of my searching.

I'm torn. I still like the idea of an all-ticking stripe cover, but the one with the two sides would give some versatility as the boys get older. I just can't tell if the latter looks too "nice/grown-up" to go with the star quilt. So what do you think? And please don't just say, "I'm sure that whatever you pick will be nice." ;-) I need to hear your thoughts so that I can noodle on this some more and figure out what I'm going to do. Here are all the pieces together so that you can see them side-by-side.

Now, lay it on me.

Inspired by Seurat

Little Man has made his first attempt in pointillism. He seemed to like the dot paint markers.

 Who knows. Maybe we'll have a future Georges Seurat on our hands.

(photo from Wikipedia)