Whew! What a week!.....(from Anderson's point of view)

Let me tell you a Story....

Wow, what a fun week I had this week. Mommy and Daddy didn't seem to have too much fun though, Daddy says this was the week from Hell...whatever that is?

Mommy went to some place called Tampa for some big party for Aunt Jenn...Daddy says that Mommy went away to stay up way past her bedtime with some other girls to drink "ikkie" juice and dance to really loud music and giggle alot. I don't know why she could'nt do that here with me and my Elmo chair? It makes me giggle and I we have juice here too....Daddy says she also went to do other stuff girls do before they get married.....I guess he will tell me later.

Daddy and I went to see Nana and Pop in Tennessee for Pop's 72nd birthday. It was fun, I played with my cousin Anna...she is really old. Daddy says she is in Jr. High School now, she is taller than Mommy. The best part was when we got to eat cake and strawberries! I made everyone laugh by telling stories.....I talked and talked while they ate, but I don't think they understood me. So, I decided it would be fun to put green beans on my head! That killed them, boy do I know how to work a room! It must not take much to make some people laugh. Then, I got to take a bath in a huge bathtub that was almost over my head it was so deep...it was Cool!

The weekend was great, but that's when Daddy started to not having fun anymore. On the way to our house his car stopped going in someplace called Huntsville, it is a really long way from our house....He tried to get the car to work by opening lots of little doors and things...it still would not go. He said it was a dead as a pile of poo poo and he said some other words he told me not to say......It was really hot too, the numbers on the inside of our car had three numbers....but I can't read numbers...it was really really hot though. Daddy sweated alot and his head was really red. I think that was from the heat, but it could have been from yelling at the car.... I had fun sitting in my stroller in the shade and drinking juice. I saw lots of cool cars go by and I watched birds, I like birds alot. Daddy just sweated alot and talked to the car from time to time...his head gets shiny when he sweats alot because he doesn't have hair on top. He said lots of words to the car...some that started with God... and some other words I didn't understand. He felt bad for saying those words and told me never to say them...

It took a really really long time, but a big hairy man came with a really big red truck gave our dead car a piggy back ride to some place where they make cars go again. He was a nice man, his shirt was dirty and he smelled funny. Daddy said he smelled like whiskey...., whatever that is...? Daddy gave him alot of the little green paper we use to get stuff at the store. Daddy said they were playing "stick up" and it was our turn to get the "stick up". He said the stick went someplace I did'nt understand... When the nice man took the truck away....Daddy said that he would have to sell the farm to get our car back....but I don't think we have a farm, so I did'nt understand that part either?...

We got to go walk to a gas station to cool off and wait for Pop to get us. I had a really big Stinky Stinky diaper...I got to even wear new clothes, then I did it again before we even left the gas station and got to change clothes again....Daddy's head got red again. He was tired.....Then Pop came in his truck and took us to a place where airplanes live and we borrowed a car from someone there...Daddy says it was the next to last car they had to let anyone borrow in the whole place...Daddy was happy to borrow this car he said the car they gave us must have been made of gold...I think he had to give them alot of that stuff to borrow the car, I did'nt understand because the car was not really Gold, it was actually kind of purple and really small...... I was really hot and tired so I yelled alot on the way home, I figured if it worked for Daddy while he was working on the car...maybe it would work for me....it worked! Daddy gave me some Cinnamon Gold Fish and juice. I slept the rest of the way home. Mommy came home I was glad to see her, I'll bet she is sad she missed my fun trip with Daddy.

Then the week got even worse....Daddy went straight to work the next day.....he was still mad at the car from the day before and said he wished it would go live with someone else. On Tuesday I had my first day of all day school, I am such a big boy now..It made Mommy sad....I did'nt like all day school much, even though I only do that once a week. I missed my mommy and wanted to stay home and play. I did get a cool monkey backpack though.

Then Daddy got really sick. He was in the big bed for the whole day and nightime. Mommy had to do everything for him. He even went to the Dr., I think he got a shot...I hate those. Then Mommy got really sick. They both stayed home with me for two whole days.They were not much fun though. When he felt better a day later Daddy had to go all the way to that Huntsville place and give back the car he borrowed...he said they wanted more gold because he did'nt bring it back like he promised because he was sick.Daddy says you should always keep your promises...I think Daddy was mad again...he mumbled to himself alot that day. He came home in our old car again, so I guess it works now. ....Daddy said it was a long trip, and he said they played the "stick up" game again. I don't think he likes that game..He said he got the "stick" part again when he got our car back....I was glad he was home...

Then today (friday) Mommy got really really sick again and I went to work with Daddy. He got me some more Teddy Grahams and we ate them at his room where works. He was on the phone alot and was reading some books that did'nt have pictures...he looked like he was not having fun, I watched movies, but got bored so I yelled some so he would play with me....when he stopped playing with me I would pull some papers and stuff off his desk onto the floor. I think that is funny...I don't think daddy likes it when I do that, but I can't tell...he says stuff to himself, sometimes his head gets red, then he laughs at me. He thinks I am funny.

Well, mommy is still in a really long nap time in the big bed, so I am doing this for her. She has been there all day and night, I hope she feels better soon. Daddy does'nt give her Teddy Grahams, she eats little square crackers and Sprite and that's all. I miss playing with her and hugging her. She does'nt want me to get sick though. I had lots of fun this week, I wonder what we will do next week that will be even more fun???

Never say Never!

One thing that this past year of motherhood has taught me is to never say never! As in..."I will NEVER let my child have a cheesy elmo anything. He will play with cool learning toys from vtech and lamaze". Well that all went to He** in a handbasket when Anderson decided he LOVED Elmo. I don't mean he likes him a little bit... He completely lights up at the sight of him whether it be on tv, a toy or furniture. Elmo is his new buddy! When your child has that kind of reaction to something all "rules" go out the window. We now have a Elmo chair that giggles and shakes when you sit in it, as well as an Elmo toothbrush and several Elmo books, DVD's and random other toys. Again...never say never!

I also remember a few years ago when my aunt's boys were small and she bought them a
ball pit. Never...I thought...would I surrender my living room to such a huge toy! Well, if you saw Anderson's birthday party pics...you know that we caved on that one too! Never say Never!!

I also thought I would be able to put a couple of wicker baskets of toys in the living room for storage. I would never devote an entire room to one child's play toys...what a waste of space! Ha!! A few weeks ago we bit the bullet and turned a guest room upstairs into...you guessed it...a playroom. Out went the bedroom suit and in came a comfy couch and a ton of toys...And yes all of those toys are for one child! Never say Never!!

Anderson's One Year Portraits have arrived!

We took Anderson to get his one year old pictures made a few weeks ago and were so pleased at how they turned out! It was really hard to pick just one for his portrait to go in our dining room, but we managed to do it. It is the one pictured above. He just has the sweetest expression on his face! Our good friend Crosby Thomley met us at the Chancellor's Mansion early one morning to get these shots. Anderson did not seem to want to cooperate, which made me a little concerned that we wouldn't get any good pictures to choose from.
However, Crosby worked his magic and got some great shots including one of Anderson looking at him over his shoulder with a look of "Hey dude...stop chasing me with that camera. Can't you see I'm busy playing... aka... climbing an iron bench so that I can scare my parents to death and possibly bust my head open! I think that shot turned out to be everyone's favorite!!

Here are a few more of our favorites...

Jennifer's Wedding is coming up soon!!

My middle sister Jennifer is getting married in about 6 weeks and the festivities are now upon us! We had a great around the house shower for Jennifer and her fiance Jeff in Homewood Saturday night.
This was their first party and they were very excited to get to see family and friends back in Alabama after moving to Tampa over a year ago.

Unfortunately my great aunt, Juanita, passed away and her funeral was on Wednesday. Both of my sisters came in for the funeral... Marcie from Nashville and Jennifer from Tampa. They along with my mom decided that little man needed to spend some time with them since everyone was staying at mom's house. Anderson has spent the night with mom a handful of times, but never for more than one night. Since I had agreed to help out my friend Casey by hosting a Castles and Crown's children's clothing show at my house on Thursday afternoon, we decided that if it was going to work we would have to do two nights. I was thankful for the break, but I missed him so much that I thought I might just go get him Thursday night! He had a blast with both of his doting aunts and his Gigi! Jennifer even rocked him to sleep one night! A habit that it took several nights of crying it out to break a few months ago!! Thanks Aunt Jenn!! Anyway, he had a great time and they enjoyed seeing him and I got to have a great show at my house without a baby underfoot. Jeff and I even snuck in dinner at Depalma's Thursday night!


Saturday was the party for Jenn and Jeff...yes it is weird that we both will be married to Jeff's...what is even more weird is that they are both attorneys! Nothing like a few lawyers in the family! HA! Anyway, we had a mexican theme and the food was catered from one of our favorites...Moe's!!
Yum Yum! They got to visit with some friends from college and law school and even some oldie but goodie friends from high school! The wedding will be here before we know it!!

Caroline Sanders Degraffenried is here!

My old friend Jennifer and her husband Ryan welcomed their second little princess into the world Tuesday afternoon. Caroline Sanders was born at 2:05 and weighed about 6 and a half pounds. She looks more like her mommy that Stella Grace did at this point, but who knows how quickly that could change! Jennifer was in good spirits when I visited Wednesday afternoon, and the new bambino is just beautiful!!

Giulianna...superstar!!

We've always known how beautiful Anderson's little girlfriend Giulianna is, but our secret is out!! Jennifer took her to a studio in Birmingham to have mother/daughter portraits made a few weeks ago. Needless to say the pictures were gorgeous...how could they not be?? For those of you who don't know our very good friends Matt and Jennifer, let's just say they are a Tuscaloosa version of Barbie and Ken! Sickening, I know!! :-)

Well the photographer, Amanda Traywick, called Jennifer last week to tell her she wanted to use one of the shots for her studio's full page ad in the August edition of Birmingham Parents magazine...the picture is below! Giulianna will be giving autographs soon...I'm pushing to be her agent!! HA!

Don't look if you have a weak stomach!!

It has certainly been an interesting few days at our house. They say bad things come in threes, so when Jeff had a wreck last week and Anderson came down with a horrible stomach bug we should have known something else was going to happen! Well we didn't have to wait long! Anderson LOVES telephones. Jeff found an old landline wall phone in a closet and decided to cut the cords off of it to keep Anderson from strangling himself...can you see where I am going with this?? He grabbed a box cutter and cut the cords along with two of his fingers. I heard him say pretty forcefully "Lindsey you need to come and get the baby". I could tell by his voice that something was wrong. When I rounded the corner I nearly tossed my cookies....there was Jeff holding a very bloody towel.

Jeff was a medic in the army and actually was a pre-med major before deciding to go to law school instead, so he was completely calm. After looking it over though, even he had to admit a trip to the ER was in order. Luckily, I was able to call our trusted neighbor Moira to come and look after Anderson so I could drive Jeff to the hospital. It was Anderson's bedtime and we knew that the ER would not be a quick trip, so I wanted him to stay at home. Moira saved the day and ran right over and off we went. We arrived at the ER around 8:00...after several stitches and a tetnus shot we FINALLY got to go home...at 11:30!!! Jeff has a very high tolerance for pain, so he hardly winced as the cleaned his wound and tried to put him back together again.

Here is a pic of his hand...pretty yucky!! He will most likely lose a chunck of meat and flesh on his forefinger. It was sliced so deep that it is barely hanging on...ICK!!!