ROLL TIDE!!!

okay, so i'm sure you never expected to here that out of my mouth since i'm an auburn fan, but i was saying that last night when alabama played georgia.  what a great football game!  here in the duke household, we love us some sec football...particularly if it's auburn or alabama.  i'll admit, i pull for alabama when they're not playing auburn.  i just can't help it.  pete does the same for me...he's been known to go to auburn games and even wear an auburn ball cap.  

we are surrounded by georgia fans, obviously, and they make it known that they pull for the dawgs.  i was so thrilled when alabama kicked their butts last night.  we had to talk a little smack to all of our georgia friends after the big win last night.  and, just for the record, auburn won against tennessee yesterday, but it wasn't even close to the kind of exciting football like georgia and alabama.  

i've posted a couple of pictures of the boys posing in pete's alabama hat.  doodlebug has already been  brainwashed into being a bama fan.  that started at birth.  so peanut will have to pull for mama's team and will have to learn the war eagle battle cry when he starts talking!  he's already decked out in orange and blue as often as possible!

i love this time of year when college football starts back up.  we love to watch a couple good games on saturdays and talk a little smack with all our rivals!  so i'll end this entry by saying...well, what else but....WAR EAGLE...and....ROLL TIDE!!!

Peanut's First Day of Preschool

sorry it's been awhile since i've posted.  it's been a busy week!  peanut started preschool last tuesday.  we decided it would be good for him as far as gaining some independence and just for the social aspect.  he goes two mornings a week for 3 hours.  he is going to the same preschool as doodlebug and on the same days, although doodlebug goes one extra day.  peanut has adjusted really well.  he only cries when they take him out of the car.  his teacher says once he gets inside he's fine and doesn't cry at all.  i'm so happy he seems to be enjoying it.  and amazingly, i can already tell that it's helping.  today at church when i dropped him off at the nursery, he walked right in and didn't look back or shed a tear.  that was a first!

now i have 2 free mornings a week which is nice.  last week i spent the time either getting things done around the house or working.  it is a nice breather for me, i must admit, but i sure do miss those little munchkins while they're gone.

here is a picture from his first day.  please keep in mind, it is nearly impossible to get an 18-month-old to sit still long enough to take a picture so this was the best i could get!

Quiet Play...A Rarity with Boys!

these pictures are from yesterday. this is a rare moment these days...both boys playing quietly. i was cooking dinner, which is usually the loudest time of the day. the boys make laps through the house either on foot or with their ride-on toys. and of course, they are screaming and being loud. sometimes it can drive you insane! i think they do it at this time of day b/c they are tired and all the activity keeps them awake.

i definitely think this blog is appropriately name b/c these two boys are like little monkeys climbing and jumping on everything. i think if they could swing from tree to tree, they would! the other day they had slid the mattress off of doodle's bed and were using it as a trampoline. at least it was on the floor so no real fear of anyone falling several feet and getting hurt. i asked my mom the other day if julie and i were like that as kids. she said we were definitely not as physical and rambunctious as the boys. she said most of the time julie and i were content to play barbies or school or other activities that were much more tame. all this activity is definitely a boy thing!

anyway, back to my story. yesterday, i was busy with dinner and noticed the house was strangely quiet. i walked around the corner and peanut was at the bottom of the stairs playing with his wooden animal bus. he stayed there for a long while just taking the animals in and out of the bus and looking at them. doodlebug was parked at the fireplace playing with his leap frog game...Cars of course. he, too, was content with this activity for quite some time.

i had to snap a few pics b/c one of the things i love to do is watch them when they are not paying attention to me and are engrossed in some activity. they can get so intent on what they're doing and so focused. i find it really endearing to watch them, especially b/c it's so rare. they're such nuts all the time that i treasure the quiet, calm moments.

Peanut's Progress

peanut had his 18-month checkup on tuesday. here are a few stats from his visit...height is 33 3/4 inches (he's in the 86th percentile); weight is 24lbs 8oz (30th percentile); head circumference is 19 1/4 inches. as you can see, peanut is tall and thin with a giant head. seriously, both our boys have giant heads! nana always says they have a "duke" head b/c clearly they got their large heads from pete! everything else checked out fine for peanut including his ears where he had tubes put in earlier this year.

the only concern the doctor has is the fact that peanut is really not talking yet. she said he should be saying about 5-10 words by now and he really only says two. she was also a little concerned b/c the hearing test he had a couple months after his tubes was inconclusive. the audiologist could not get a good reading on his hearing...whether it was normal or there was any loss. so the doctor has recommended we have his hearing tested again and have a speech evaluation done. it could be that she's being overly cautious, but i don't think that's a bad thing. she wasn't comfortable with waiting too long to see if he starts talking. and honestly, i'm not either!

for those who don't know, peanut had chronic ear infections starting about a year ago which prompted the tubes in his ears. we basically were in the doctor's office every week with his ears and he was on some form of antibiotic for about 3-4 months straight. it was very exhausting and worrisome when this was going on. and to add, with chronic ear infections you run the risk of hearing loss. fortunately, once the tubes were put in, he has had no more ear infections. that was a blessing!

of course, i knew this was going to come up when i took peanut to the doctor b/c i knew he should be talking more by now so i wasn't really surprised. but even still, it has bothered me ever since we saw the doctor. i have been praying every day that peanut's hearing is fine and that he's just taking his time with talking. i've had many friends tell me their second child took longer to talk b/c the older one kind of dominated the conversation and attention all the time so hopefully that's just the case with peanut. doodlebug certainly can be a motormouth!

we will go ahead with the tests just to put our mind at ease that everything is fine...particularly with his hearing. i'm curious to see what they do in the speech evaluation. i wonder how they evaluate that in an 18-month-old. i mean, we are always trying to get him to say simple words and we get nothing. so that should be interesting.

another milestone for peanut is coming up next week. after much consideration, we've decided to enroll peanut in a parents' morning out program at the same school doodlebug attends. he will go 2 days a week for 3 hours a day. we both really think he needs this for several reasons. he is very attached to me - very clingy - and does not do well when i leave him at the church nursery or even when i leave home without him. also, peanut does not spend much time with other children his age and i really think he needs more exposure to that. he needs the social interaction. and we're hoping maybe this will help with the talking, as well.

i think the experience will be good for peanut and once he falls into the routine i think he'll like it. it will probably be hard the first day, even the first week, having to watch him get taken out of my car and carried away to his class, but i know he'll be in good hands and will have fun. i'll have to work up to leaving him on his first day, tuesday, b/c going to "school" is another step further away from babyhood...and i still feel like he's a baby even though he's really a toddler now! i guess i have to accept that he's growing up!

so that's the news on our little peanut. i'm sure i'll have more to update later...

Happy 18 Months, Peanut!

september 12th was peanut's 18-month birthday.  we are officially halfway to two!  oh, how i have forgotten how wonderful and frustrating 18 months can be!  peanut is developing a mind of his own and an opinion.  and oh how he loves to reach into drawers and pull out everything he can get a hold of.  i have forgotten how difficult it can be to take an 18-month old on a shopping trip or out to eat.  his main interest is not riding in a shopping cart or sitting in a high chair.  he wants to be on the move and he lets you know when he has reached his time limit of sitting still!  

he still doesn't say much.  i swear today he tried to say cracker so maybe we'll soon be adding another word to his very limited vocab.  i dread the 18-month checkup with the doctor where they ask me, "is he saying 3-5 words or more" and i have to say, "uh, no...he says two".  his appointment is coming up this week so i'm sure i'll have some stats to report on his progress.  we also have the dreaded shots.  i think he gets 3 or 4 this time.  along with his very large vocabulary, peanut has also picked up some new dance moves.  we often have music on in our house and the boys are constantly bustin' a move.  i hope to get some video of them dancing and post it on here soon.

peanut is very much in awe of his big brother.  he studies his every move and tries so hard to be just like him.  unfortunately this does not always bode well for peanut.  his attempts to be like doodlebug sometimes end up with a boo-boo and a crying fit.  i swear these two boys are going to come back as monkeys in their next life with all the climbing they do...on everything!  it drives me nuts!

even at 18 months, peanut is still my baby and will forever be my peanut.  he has such a sweet disposition and is very loving.  he loves to hug your neck and knows just how to get you to pick him up...he's got nana and grammy totally brainwashed on this one!  and even at 18 months peanut will still let me rock him before his nap and at bedtime.  he is such a little cuddlebug.  and let me tell you, rocking a sweet baby (even if he's not really a baby anymore) is very therapeutic.  it is totally relaxing and i highly recommend it. 

so happy birthday my little peanut!  i can't wait to see what's in store for you!

Proud Mama

on thursday i received a very nice e-mail from doodlebug's preschool teacher.  she was responding to a question i had asked her and at the end of her e-mail she said that doodlebug was a sweetie and that he was a good listener and great helper.  she said we had done a very good job with him!  my heart swelled with pride when i read this.  you always want to know how your children behave when you're not around and you hope for the best.  i don't always feel i do the best job with my boys, particularly on those incredibly trying days when i feel like all i do is gripe at them and say, "no" and "don't do that" and "do you need to go to timeout?".  someone once told me that your children are angels away and devils at home.  i definitely think that holds true some of the time.  

i guess i feel that if they are well-behaved when they're away from us then we must be doing something right.  and really, when i sit down and think about my boys as a whole, they really are great kids.  more often than not they behave in public, they are loving and sweet, and most importantly, they are happy.  i mean, we all have our grumpy moments...i'm sure pete would attest that those moments are plentiful for me....and the boys have their share...but i really can't complain.  my boys are precious and i will continue to make it a priority to help lead them down the right path as best as i can.

Con-Artists

yesterday the boys and i hung out with my parents' at their house and finally headed home about 4:30. after a quick stop at the grocery store where the boys became racecar drivers in the two-seater racecar buggy, we headed home. by the way, it cracks me up how the littlest things like riding in the racecar buggy can make two little boys so happy! and let me tell you, it's work trying to steer those things in the store. it took everything i had not to run into anyone or anything! on the way home, of course, doodlebug dozed off in the car. for those of you who don't know, this child does not nap and has not napped since shortly after turning 2. he's got his mama's genes...i don't nap either. but most of the time if we ride in the car in the late afternoon he'll doze off. this is great until we get home and i have to wake up him to get him out of the car. this never goes well. most of the time he gets mad about being woken up and starts crying...and never stops.

well, this happened yesterday. we get home, i pull him out of the car and go inside and he just lays on the kitchen floor and cries for at least 10 minutes. i keep asking him what's wrong and get no response. i finally pick him up and sit on the couch with him trying to calm him down. when he's finally calm he says, "my throat hurts". i didn't understand him the first 3 times he said it. finally, i figured out what he was saying. so i asked him when it started hurting. was it while at nana's house? no. was it hurting in the car? no. was it hurting at the grocery store? no. well, when did it start hurting? just now. i said, well, it's probably b/c you were laying in the floor screaming for 10 minutes when we got home b/c i woke you up. he just looked at me. he said he was hungry so i offered him spaghetti-o's (yes, i know, not the healthiest meal in the world, but he loves them and so did i as a kid...still do!) and he was game. he wolfed down the entire can of spaghetti-o's in about 10 seconds. it was as if i never fed the child today. when he finished, i asked him if his throat was still hurting? he said, no, i'm fine! i'm thinking, what? two seconds ago you were crying and saying your throat hurt. i never knew spaghetti-o's had such healing power! i think i was conned by my 3-year-old, but i can't prove it. oh well.

then, on top of all this drama with doodle, i notice when we got home that casey, our 11 year old black lab/mix, is hobbling around on 3 legs and holding one up as if injured. my first thought is, great...how much is this going to cost us at the vet? then i just felt sorry for her b/c she really was pitiful hobbling around like that with this sad, sullen, Eeyore kind of look on her face. i kept touching her leg and paw to see if i could figure out what she had done (she was home all day by herself inside, how bad could she really have injured herself, right?). she never yelped or anything when i touched her so i thought, well, we'll just keep an eye on her and see how she is tomorrow. she hobbled around all night and i kept thinking, we're going to end up at the vet, aren't we? of course, with all this hobbling around she was getting lots of attention from us...more than usual (usually we're shooing her off b/c she hangs around the dinner table like a vulture waiting for the boys to drop food in the floor...she drives me nuts!!).

well, lo and behold, i get up this morning and come down to let casey out to potty and she comes racing through the house on all four legs to get to the back door. she was miraculously healed! i think i was conned...again...by my old dog.

First Day of School

today was doodlebug's first day of preschool this year. he was very excited to go. he's in the 3-year-old class, 3 days a week this year. pete decided to work from home today so he could take doodle to school. they cruised in style in the camaro with the t-tops out. doodlebug is his daddy's boy...he loves that car!

the first day seemed to go well. you know there's only so much a 3-year-old will tell you when you ask him the 20 questions about his day! i so wish i could secretly follow him around while he's there and see what he's doing. i'm so used to knowing what he does all day that it's hard to not know for those 3 short hours! he did say he made a friend named aden today. in fact, he told me there are 2 aden's in his class. i guess the only downside to the day was he wet his pants during school. of course, it bothered me more than him, but i just had high hopes for the first day. i'm sure things will get better when he gets more into a routine and as his teachers get to him know him better. i'm sure soon enough they'll recognize that look on his face and the potty dance!

doodlebug has the great task of bringing in snack for school tomorrow. this is a big deal in preschool world. he got to carry the snack bucket home today and gets to bring it in filled with yummy snacks for his friends at school tomorrow. he also gets to be the line leader tomorrow all day. i'm sure he'll feel like big stuff.

i'm glad to be settling into a routine with school starting back. i feel like this time of year is like a new year. we have different groups starting up this month at church that we're involved in. ALTA tennis has started back up for me. i play my first match of the season this sunday. it's kind of nice to have all these new things going on b/c we have things to look forward to and plenty to keep us busy. i even purchased several new books the other day and i immediately dove into the first one. i suddenly have this voracious appetite to learn more!

i feel like i have a sense of renewal right now which is refreshing b/c it's easy to get into a rut and feel bogged down by the same old, same old. i hope i can keep up this momentum and keep going in the right direction.

and just a quick mention, my sister left last night for her new home in dubai. we already miss them and hope it won't be too long before we see them again. i'm happy they're finally in the place they've been trying to get to for several months now, but i'm a little sad b/c it seems a world away from here. i hope they can now get settled in and start their new life.

i've posted a few pictures of doodlebug's first day. i look at these pictures and he looks so grown up, but he'll always be my sweet baby boy!

Did you know we now live in Mexico?

doodlebug said a funny thing tonight at dinner. we were out on the deck eating hamburgers and i was asking doodle what is your full name? what is mommy's name, daddy's name, peanut's name? what city do we live in? then i asked him what state do we live in? expecting the answer georgia, to my shock he said mexico. pete and i looked at each other and said what? he said we live in mexico. we just busted out laughing. i told doodle sometimes it feels like we live in mexico (i.e., there are so many spanish-speaking people everywhere these days), but last time i checked we lived in georgia. he kept insisting that we lived in mexico. pete asked him who told him that? pete said it must have been grandaddy or papa who told him that. doodlebug thought for a minute and said it was papa! totally threw papa under the bus!

of course by this point doodlebug was so tickled by the fact that we were laughing about him saying mexico that the conversation got very silly. pete decided we needed to call papa and rat him out. we did and of course papa claims he knows nothing about anything...hmmm, not so sure about that! haha! it was a cute moment! i still have no idea where he got mexico from...guess he's been studying geography in his spare time!

Random Thoughts

first off, hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing Labor Day today. we certainly are at our house. it's nice to have a long weekend before school starts back up for doodlebug this week. tomorrow is meet-the-teacher day where he gets to go in and meet his new teacher and other classmates and see his new classroom. i get to go and scope out the "bad" kids that i hope and pray he doesn't befriend. pete and i attended the parents' open house last thursday night and met his teacher and saw his classroom. there is only one boy from his 2-year-old class from last year in his class this year. he'll have the opportunity to make some new friends which is always good. and of course, i volunteered to be the room mother again. i wasn't sure if i was going to do it this year, but when i saw nobody else signed up, i volunteered to do it. i didn't want to leave the teachers with no help. they work hard for little pay and it just seems like helping them out is the right thing to do. plus, it's one of the privileges of being a stay-at-home mom...you get to be involved in what your child does.

there is apparently one child in doodle's class this year that has some "issues". we overheard his parents talking with the teacher about the various types of therapy he does, etc. i'm not sure what his "issues" are, but my guess would be some form of autism. my initial thought was great, how much will this child hold back the class b/c of all his problems. what a selfish thought on my part. now as I think about that child my thoughts are not selfish but more thankful. thankful that so far both of our boys are healthy and "normal" and have no issues to speak of. you hear so much about autism and behavioral problems with children and i know so many people who are affected by it and i feel bad for them b/c i can't even imagine how heartbreaking it must be to know your child will likely struggle for the rest of his life (depending on how severe his problems are). i'm thankful we don't have those struggles and i pray for those who do.

no pictures to post today. i took the camera to aunt d.d.'s and uncle joe's on saturday, but never got around to taking any pictures. i was too busy running around after peanut. they have a playset in their backyard and peanut decided to climb the ladder and slide down the slide over and over and over. i had to be right there with him to make sure he didn't fall or get hurt. i felt a little anti-social b/c i was off with the boys all night, but at least i got to enjoy watching them have fun. doodlebug was sliding down the fireman pole with no fear...a first for him. it was a fun night and we ate lots of good food. thanks for having us out joe and d.d.!