Pictures

I posted new pictures if you scroll down to the bottom of the postings. I don't know how to move the pictures up near the first day of school paragraph and I don't have time to figure it out right now!
Another great day of school for Kate and Will! I was so domestic this morning when I only had Hudson at home! I put a roast in the crock pot and cut up vegetables, tidied up the house, made the beds. It was so quiet and no one argued with me or talked back or ran around like a wild Indian. I think I can get used to it just being Huddy and me all morning! But I am always excited to see Kate and Will when I pick them up. I'm ready for the bedlam to resume.

School days still

I couldn't figure out how to edit the other posting so I'll just do a new one. 2 things I don't want to forget that Will used to say when he was 2 1/2: On the way to take Kate to preschool every day, there was a house that had some kind of crown looking thing on the garage that had 3 points on it. Will used to say every time, "There's the baseball garage," on the way to and from preschool. He thought the crown thing was a baseball glove. Then we would go to the gym after dropping Kate off, so every time we passed a physical therapy place that a big hand on it, Will would say, "There's the baseball hand." So we can trace his obsession with baseball at least back to the age of 2 1/2.

School days

Yesterday was Kate's first day of 1st grade and Will's first day of preschool. Kate walked right into her class and didn't look back. She was so excited to go back today and had another good day so I think we're off to a great start. The first thing she said yesterday when I picked her up was, "My teacher called me 'Kate' all day!" That made her day. Luke said someone should tell Kate's teacher from last year what Kate said yesterday and maybe that would help that teacher understand that it means a lot to kids (and people of all ages) if you call them by the name they're familiar with. Anyway, that's in the past and we can go forward with an excellent teacher for this year.

Will went right into his class too and didn't get upset at all when we left, which was a big surprise because we thought he might cause a scene. His teacher said he had a good day too, so we're proud of his first positive feedback of the year! He has also invented his own way to add which cracks me up every time he does it. Who would've thought that someone who shares my genes (which can barely add in the conventional way) would come up with his own way to add! I can't help but laugh. But we shouldn't be surprised because Will never ceases to amaze us.

Hudson is adjusting to life with just Mommy during the morning. He seemed confused at first as to where everyone was but then he settled in to playing with all of Will's baseball paraphernalia and not having to worry about anyone taking anything away from him. I'm excited to do a music class with just the 2 of us that starts in 2 weeks.

Busy

We've had so much going on the last few weeks! Michael and Kathryn's wedding was the first event. It was wonderful, especially since all of us were in it except Hudson. Kate and Will did such a good job of standing at the front for the service and were so cute walking in! Of course, Luke and I looked marvelous! The whole weekend was so much fun!

Then I left Sun. morning for Cabo with my family. It was so relaxing and fun! It's always nice to be pampered and not to have to do anything. And I mean nothing! I had no one to take care of but myself. I didn't have to cook, wash clothes, tidy anything. It was quite a switch from my usual routine. We were right on the water so the view was beautiful. The villa was fancy schmancy where we stayed. The food was unbelievable! Homemade breakfast and fresh squeezed oj made every morning in our own kitchen for us. Then homemade salsa (or pico de gallo) and guacamole for an afternoon snack. It was heaven. The day at the city beach was so fun and I even got a henna tattoo from the people walking around selling stuff all day. They finally wore me down! Hudson's been trying to scratch and rub it off my arm ever since I got home! It's so funny, he knows it doesn't belong there! It's the Rays logo, of course.

So now life is back to normal. Hopefully the tattoo will be wearing off soon because I'm tired of wearing long sleeved shirts in Aug.! It seemed like such a fun idea to get it while I was on vacation but when I got back to reality, it seemed a litte impulsive. Luke keeps saying I look so tough. But I keep catching a glimpse of it and thinking it's a bug, and swatting my arm so hard, that Luke says I may look tough but I'm not tough enough to have a tattoo since I keep scaring myself so bad!

Quick quotes

I was sitting at the computer right when they said these things so I was able to capture them.

Kate- "This is my worst day ever, connected to my other worst days!" (because she didn't get her way.)

Will- "Am I bleeding on my chin?" (then, to put it in simpler terms for my benefit, he followed that up with, "Is there anything red on my chin?")

Will's sense of empowerment

This morning we were taking Kate to VBS and on the way home, Will was talking about when he was sick when he was first born. To backtrack, he's just recently noticed his scars he has from his surgery, lung procedure, etc., so we've been talking a lot about that recently. So this morning we were talking about heaven and how Jesus will have the scars on His hands and feet from the cross, and Will said, "I'm so glad I have my scars from when I was so sick because since I was sick, that meant you didn't have to be sick, Mommy!" It was so cute that he thought he was protecting me from being sick by his being sick!

Again, I can't remember some funny recent things so I'll have to start keeping a notepad with me at all times.

Game

We went to our monthly Rays' game Sat. night and Hudson had the best time he's ever had. He hasn't really enjoyed the other games we've gone to, but for some reason, this time he was clapping and loving it! It was so cute. We'll have to take a picture next time we go of all of us. We didn't do it this time because Hudson's shirt was dirty, but normally we're all 5 decked out in Rays gear and looking like true fans.

Of course, Will said so many funny things in the car that I can't remember now. But one thing was that we were talking on the way home about what he and Kate wanted to be when they grow up. I suggested Will could be a missionary and he laughed and said, "Missionaries are girls!" Not sure where he got that idea but I was quick to correct it. There was something else funny that he said when we got home, but it's not fit to print!

I just went and asked the kids what Will had said funny recently and then Will unwittingly reminded me that he keeps saying, "That's hilarious, diva!" Don't know where he picked that up either and I'm sure he doesn't know what it means, but he keeps telling Kate she's a hilarious diva.

Quotes

I got this idea from Luke's aunt Kathy on her blog to have a quote of the week. The first was from Kate. "Mom, you're a disaster!!" To give some background, she was having a major overly dramatic moment and for the record, I did explain to her that she couldn't talk to me like that and it was disrespectful, etc.

From Will to Kate, "Was the Pharoah at your VBS a boy or a girl?" Background- they are going to 2 different VBSes this week because Will isn't old enough to go to the one at our church. But the 2 VBSes are doing the same curriculum, theme, so they've been comparing each other's experiences, and Will was adamant that his Pharoah was a girl with long blond hair. I need to let the pastor know at Will's VBS that children are so literal and maybe the Pharoah needs to wear a costume or wig of some sort to help the little ones get the message. At least it's nothing that would be a hindrance to the message of the gospel, just a new twist on an old (Testament) story!

No quotes from Hudson yet, just the cutest little baby we've seen in a long time (since Will was a baby, to be exact)! He is at such a cute age and has no problem hitting his big brother if Will gets in his grill (which means face, for those of you who aren't street!). He loves to dance and swim. He is fearless in the water, which is nice that he's not afraid, but hard for me trying to keep my eye on all 3 kids in the water when Hudson just jumps in whether I'm ready or not. He loves going under and flings himself off the step over and over. The 2 big ones are good at swimming now so I can keep my attention on Hudson. We have spent an average of 3 hours in the pool every day for the last week or so, which is fun and wears everyone out so it's a win-win!

Will said something hilarious in the pool the other day and I should've come right in and written it down because now I can't remember it. And I even said at the time that I had to put that in the blog and I forgot. A few months ago in the car (I may have put this in an earlier posting, I can't remember) Will said something funny and all of us were laughing so hard and Will said, "Don't put that in the blog!" before anybody even said that we should put that in the blog. He was anticipating his future embarrassment, I guess.

Tidbits

It's been a long time! I guess nothing funny has happened in a while. Hudson is really starting to talk more and says, "beep" all the time (emphasis on the "p" sound) meaning "beach". He loves the beach and wants to go all the time. He also says, "beeball" which means baseball. He seems to be following in Will's footsteps.

Kate was telling a story a few minutes ago and the first sentence made me laugh. She said, "Ages and ages ago, Kelley Larkin was a little girl..." I guess I'm pretty old in Kate's opinion.

Kate got out of school last week so we're enjoying summer and having no schedule in the mornings.

" kelley livd in alaabamu. she had 3 stichis. She had 3 baby's she had 0 broken bones." That was the rest of Kate's story that she typed all by herself. As you may be able to tell, she likes to focus on injuries. So this is her summing up my life in a nutshell!

Graduation

Kate graduated from Kindergarten last night and we are so proud of her! Luke will have to add the pictures later. Over all, she has had a good year, even if it's not the year we envisioned for her and we're really happy with her school and all that she's learned. I have to say that, as afraid as I've been of Kate's teacher this year, she was really nice to me last night at the graduation and said that she appreciated how modestly and age-appropriately I dress Kate and that if she had had a daughter, she would've dressed her just like Kate . I would have liked a compliment about Kate's character more than her appearance but I'll take it, considering the compliments of Kate are few and far between this year!

Will and Hudson started swimming lessons yesterday that go for 4 days in a row, then the long weekend off, then 4 more days in a row. Today was cancelled because of the weather but yesterday went well. Will had forgotten everything he learned last summer but hopefully it'll come back soon. Then he watched Huddy and me take the mommy and baby class. Hudson did great, has no fear, and liked the water, even going under. He wants me to just let him go and I'm tempted to do it since he's so stubborn and fights me the whole time. I was hoping to get the results back from some lab work he had done but we haven't heard anything today. He's had stomach problems and lost some weight over the last month and 1/2 and we'd like to know what's causing it and treat it.

Today when I picked Will up from mothers' morning out, the teacher said that he was very athletic, which was nice, but then she followed it up with, "but he ran into the wall in the gym because he was racing with the other kids and didn't want to slow down before hitting the wall because then he might lose the race." This sounds a lot like a story about Nona when she was a little girl so I guess I know where he got his competitive edge. It couldn't be from Papa too or any of Luke's side of the family, I'm sure!

Recent pictures of the kids

Kate won an award for a painting she did in her art class at school so we are so proud of her! I'll see if I know how to put a picture of it on here.

We were driving around this morning and Will was talking nonstop and I had tuned him out and was thinking about something else, but he said something in a serious tone so it caught my attention and he was saying, "Mom, you're supposed to be laughing." Apparently he had been telling me something funny that I hadn't heard and he was letting me know that was my cue to laugh. It was pretty cute!

Also, we were coming home from church Sun., and Will had done something really funny that I can't remember now (I'll have to see if Luke remembers) and we were all laughing, and then all of a sudden Will says, "Mom, don't put that in the blog!" So that made us laugh harder. I guess I should respect Will's privacy even if I do remember what he did since he asked me not to put it in here!

A lot has happened in the last week. Will was better the next day, Hudson got sick again with the stomach flu Sun., right when Nona got here, I got it Tues., Nona got it Wed. night when she got back to Birmingham, and it looks like Luke has come down with it today. Several funny things have happened but I can't remember any of them now except that Kate just told Will that it's a 2 to 1 ratio. She gets 2 turns, he gets 1. Will's probably wishing Kate never went to kindergarten.

Also, Nona took Will and Hudson to McDonald's for breakfast Wed. morning when I was sick. They were gone for quite a while and when they got home, Nona told me that they ended up going to 2 different McDonald'ses. When I asked why, she said that at the first one, there was a cup on the steps leading up to the slide and Will wouldn't go past it because he was afraid a bad guy had left it there. So they had to leave and go to another McDonald's so Will could play where no bad guy had left a cup. Only a grandmother would do that!

Everywhere we go lately Will asks me if he can make friends with someone. In the waiting room at the dr's office, waiting to pick up Kate at school, wherever other kids are, Will wants to go up and make friends with someone. I know one day that will be a good quality, but right now it's downright awkward. He must be starting his networking early for when he becomes a public servant. I just hope he's not going to be a community organizer!

I have some really good pictures to post as soon as I find the plug to charge the camera. Hopefully I can do that this weekend. We're 0 for 2 on taking a family picture with the photographer. He cancelled Wed., the day we had rescheduled our session. So one of these days, we'll get a family picture on here of all 5 of us.

Kate's better now and Will's sick so the hits just keep on coming... Will has a fever and is not vomiting so that's good, except I hope it's not the swine flu! A couple cute things...
Hudson is obsessed with baths. Every afternoon after nap time, he comes up to me and starts saying, "Baa, baa", over and over until I put him in the tub. He won't stop unless I give in and let him take a bath. He's so loud and demanding but it's cute.

I just glanced at Kate's artwork she's working on and she was writing, "Olivia is my BFF". I got tickled that she already knows what BFF is.

Will, as I said, has been sick today so he's been even more lovey dovey with me than usual. He just came up and said, "Friends are friends forever" and gave me a big hug. (No, we have not been listening to Michael W. Smith, although I do love that song!) Then he said, "I think I'm going to cry because of how nice I am to you." It was so heartfelt and that made it funnier that he wasn't even putting on a show, he's just touched by his own kindness!

Spoke too soon

Now Kate's sick so things have gotten crazy again. She's so pitiful but hopefully her sickness won't last almost a week like Hudson's.

Will had a program at our Bible study we go to on Wednesdays. It was this morning so Luke took him since Kate's sick. Maybe we can figure out how to put a clip of his performance on here, if it was anything like Fri. night's performance!

Also, on a lighter note, he told me that he pee peed in the hole in his foam bowling pin. So he's continuing to broaden his horizons in the bathroom.

All is good

Just wanted to report that Huddy is finally over the stomach bug after almost a full week of it! He's playing contentedly with the big kids and keeps coming over to me to take bites of guacamole. (He must be feeling better!) Kate is so cute right now in a blue leotard with the pink tights on the outside of the leotard, instead of under it, and she tied a long green bead necklace onto a wand and is pulling it behind her around the house on the floor like it's a snake. Will is stuffing his face with goldfish, watching Kate and Hudson. For the moment, all is calm and happy! Now I'm going to pass the baton to Luke when he comes home in a few minutes and go out for coffee with some friends.

Picture

I added a new picture of Will you can see if you scroll down past the postings. On a different note, we're so glad Mimi and Papa are back home, as I'm sure I need their help more than Lisa does! Lisa seems to have everything under control as a new mother, whereas I can't say the same for myself as an "experienced" mother of 6 years!

Will and Hudson

Not too much has happened over the weekend. Hudson was sick all weekend so we didn't do much. He seems to feel better today so we went to the gym and on the way, I kept saying I didn't want Hudson to fall asleep because it was too early for nap time. Then Will said, "I'll just keep talking to Hudson a lot so he won't fall asleep!" I got tickled because I thought Hudson wouldn't be able to tell the difference since when does Will NOT talk a lot??!

Errands with Dad

Will got to run errands with Luke after his t-ball game this morning and Kate had to stay home because of disobeying at the game. so they were at the pool store and the owners of the pool store had brought their 2 granddaughters to work today who were about 4 and 5. Apparently the owners and the little girls all had the same shirt on that said the name of the pool store. So Will went up to the little girls and said, "Do you work here? because you have those shirts on!" And he was confrontational and intense like he can be with other kids. Then, he got home and pee peed in a little silver bucket that he had gotten Easter goodies in from Pop Pop. So now we're up to 4 different ways to pee pee.
Also, I had forgotten that he says this a lot, but he said he didn't want some kids to play tennis near him anymore when he goes to tennis on Mondays. I asked him why and he said that they always give him a stomach ache when they play near him. Every now and then he'll say that someone gave him a stomach ache when they did something he didn't like.

A few minutes ago, we found an old cell phone we don't use anymore and Kate and Will have been playing with it. I was in the kitchen and Kate was in the living room pretending to talk on the phone. I heard her saying, "The kids are so rowdy. I just don't know what to do with them, Grandfather. You need to come home and help me!" My sentiments exactly!

"The Music Man"

Where to begin... Luke's cousin, Maddie, asked if Kate and Will could be in some scenes of her high school's musical, The Music Man. So I took them to practice last night before the show started. If you know anything about "The Music Man" and anything about Will, you know that this would be right up his alley. There were about 20 kids in the play, along with Kate and Will, and let me just tell you, by the end, the audience didn't remember there were any other kids in it except Will. He was dancing, clapping, marching, acting out that he was playing instruments, the whole 9 yards, while "76 Trombones" was playing. I was literally doubled over with tears streaming down my face it was so funny. He had thrown his inhibitions to the wind. He was actually doing everything the director had practiced with them but just with so much gusto that you couldn't look at anyone else but him (plus he's just so cute, that was a factor too, I'm sure!). So many people came up to us after the show and made such a fuss over him, asking to shake his hand, etc. At the end, all the kids came out to take a bow and Kate and Will weren't with them, so I thought that Will must be grumpy and didn't want to come back out. Oh no. They came out almost at the end of the bows, a little before the main characters, and the audience started clapping so loud. It was so funny. I must admit I was very proud of Kate and Will and how well they did in their theatrical debut! I told Luke when I got home (he stayed home with Hudson since Hudson's still sick) that of all the times we've video taped the kids and it was so boring and uneventful but still nice to have the memories, this was THE time to have the video camera and, of course, I didn't. I'll see if Maddie's school videotaped it and maybe I can get a copy.

Will/bathroom

Will has been experimenting in the bathroom lately. We've caught him pee peeing in a cup, in a small wooden box that's lined with felt and used for spare change, and in the garbage can beside the potty. So we've had a talk about that and how we don't do that. So I thought we were past this stage. But today I walked in the kids' bathroom and Will's tennis racquet was on the toilet seat and he proudly announced he had gone potty through his racquet. I just wanted to document the many ways for little boys to use the bathroom that I wasn't aware of. I'm sure I have a lot more I'm going to learn from Will, and Hudson too in a few years.

One more thing

Will was looking at a book that had Mary and Joseph and Jesus in it at the inn when He was born. Will was talking incessantly as usual and going on and on about each page of the book, and then he said, "I know what a manger is. It's a house made of twigs..." So, just wanted to record that because it's pretty funny how Will thinks he's got everything figured out.

I'm realizing that this blog seems like it's only about Will, but I think that's because, as Kate always reminds me when I tell her she's not allowed to watch Hannah Montana and High School Musical, "Mom, I'm 6 years old!" But you have to see her haughty condescending expression and the eye roll to get the full effect.... Enough for today. It's time to serve Luke's birthday dinner on the Chinese stuff.

Today is Luke's birthday and Hudson got sick in the night and threw up again this morning so we're off to a rocky start to the day. Kate and Will were busy making cards for Luke this morning, and after Luke left to take Kate to school, Will and I started setting the dining table for a special dinner for tonight. I had told Will the other day that we would use the special china and silver to celebrate Daddy's birthday. So this morning, when I started setting the table, Will kept talking about the Chinese stuff and how it's so breakable, and that Daddy's going to love the Chinese stuff on the table. It was cute.

We were all dressed up in our white shirts and jeans last night for the family picture for church and hurried to get to Phillippi mansion and the photographer didn't even show up. So we'll just take a family picture at home to submit for the church directory because we're in no hurry to go through all the elaborate dressing, curling Kate's hair, keeping everyone's clothes perfect, etc., any time soon. The funny thing was that we decided to go out to eat after the picture didn't happen because a restaurant was supporting Kate's school last night by donating 10% of every check to the school. So when we walked in, there were a couple families we knew from Kate's class and one of the moms asked if we had just taken a family picture. I guess we were pretty obvious since we were in matching outfits and all had perfect hair. At least she figured it out and didn't think we always dress like that to go out to eat.

Kate and Will always look forward to Mondays because they go to tennis in the afternoon, but we almost didn't make it today. Kate must not go to the bathroom at school the whole day because she comes home having to go so badly, so today she didn't make it in time and had an accident. Will had locked Kate's room door so Hudson wouldn't go in there and I tried for 20 min. and could not unlock the door. So we couldn't get in her room to get her tennis skirt and clean underwear and I was so frustrated with the whole scenario. But I finally remembered we had some clean clothes in the dryer (no clean underwear though) so she put on some pants and we hurried out the door, because I needed a break and it punishes all of us when we don't go to tennis! The sad thing was that the lady who taught my class at the gym this morning was there too and I got totally busted for not showering the whole day since the class was at 9 am and I was still in my work out clothes at 4 pm. Oh, well.

Another funny/interesting comment is that when we left the gym this morning, I forgot Hudson's diaper bag inside the gym and we had parked so far away and I had already buckled Huddy in his car seat before I realized it, so I drove up to the front door of the gym, locked the car, and ran in leaving Will and Huddy in the car. I was back in 2 seconds and Will said, "I know why you locked the door when you left us in the car just now.... because you didn't want the squirrels to get us." It was one of those funny odd moments where you don't know where that idea came from but I didn't want to tell him the real reason I locked the car doors because he would get all scared and worried in the future, so I went with the squirrel theory. Those dangerous suburban squirrels!

We were a few minutes early to church this morning which is a rarity. I wanted to take a picture of the kids because Kate and Will were coordinating and Huddy looked so cute in one of Will's old outfits that was maybe worn once, but there wasn't time. So we were going to take a picture after church but we went to breakfast with our good friends, the Russells, and Hudson fell asleep on the way home, so no picture. We're having a family picture of all 5 of us taken Wed. for our church directory so that will have to be good enough, although I dread the actual taking of it and getting everyone to sit still, etc. I've noticed with each of my 3 kids that the terrible 2's starts earlier and earlier. With Hudson, it's starting, even though he's just 16 mo. He pushes and hits us when we're trying to pick him up or give him something he doesn't want. Or if we're taking something from him he shouldn't have, he swats at us and throws himself back. I don't remember Kate and Will throwing fits quite this early but maybe I've just blocked it out from my memory.

Typical Saturday

We have had a typical Sat. for us: Will's t-ball game first thing in the morning, running errands after, home for lunch and "rest" time for the 2 big kids (as opposed to "nap" time, which is only for Hudson), followed by rowdy play time with Luke where everybody gets all wound up and wild. Hudson is so cute thinking he's just as big as the other 2 and trying to keep up with them.