and by the way, we do in fact, on occasion brush the child's hair!

The Princess pulled another tooth last night. This is her third lost tooth, and she pulled each and every one all by herself.

She lost her first tooth on her 6th birthday. She was at my bff, Pajama Mama's house. Pajama Mama had graciously offered to let my girls play at her house while I went to get my hair "did". For those who don't know, Pajama Mama and I have been best friends, for most of the last 29 years. There were a few unfortunate years when we weren't super close, but thank God and instant messaging, we are closer than ever now. She lives in our home town. Three hours away from me; however, we are in constant contact and I try to get to her house whenever I'm in town visiting my family. Anyway, on this particular day, I was getting my hair "did" (because it's about half the price there, and I get all the good gossip.....picture Truvy's in Steel Magnolias), and my girls were at her house. Half way through my dye job, Pajama Mama called the hairdresser and asked to talk to me. She was apologizing profusely because the Princess had lost her tooth.

At her house.

On her birthday.

And I missed it.

Pajama Mama, of course, made a big deal about it, celebrated the loss of the tooth, and took pictures. Personally, I love the fact that the Princess lost her tooth there. Most of my memories from 5th grade 'til now include Pajama Mama in some way. We went through puberty, first dates, big hair, 80's fashion, high school graduation, and freshman year at college together. We celebrated each other's weddings and the birth of all six of our children. We've supported each other through squabbles with husbands, irrational, hard headed children and miscarriages. It's only fitting that my children have memories that include her too.

The second lost tooth came a few months later when she came to me in her best princess attire. Bloody fingers. Bloody mouth. Tooth in hand.

I really didn't even know this last one was all that loose, but last night, she decided it needed to come out. First she came to me and said, "Look at my hands." They were covered with blood. When I asked her what happened, she told me she was trying to pull her tooth. She then proceeded to sit beside me and yank and pull and wiggle. By the way, the very thought of pulling a tooth gives me the willies. I told her she was giving me the heebie jeebies and was going to make me cry because once that top tooth came out, she would look so grown up. After about half an hour, I thought she had given up. Then she said, "I'm so happy." I looked over, and there she sat holding her tooth in her hand, mouth full of blood, grinning a sweet little snaggle toothed grin at me and saying, "You can go ahead and cry now."

And I did.

The Beach, The Zoo, The Slide, Oh My

My younger sister and her two year old, K, came to visit over the weekend. We live three hours apart and don't get to spend a lot of time together, so it was nice to have a little visit with them. They arrived late Friday night, and K was quite distraught because "her baby" was already in bed. Once he woke up Saturday morning, she was delighted to get to see him. The jury's still out on exactly how delighted he was. From the look on his face, I would say he seemed less than thrilled.

Once we were all up and moving, we packed a lunch and headed to the beach (the Little Man stayed home with his Daddy). We found a spot beside a tide pool where the girls could play in the water without fear of waves washing them away. They immediately set out to see if they could catch a fish.

Imagine our surprise when they actually caught some!

We ended the day with five fish in a baggy to take home with us. Somehow one escaped into the back seat of my sister's car, but it was 'rescued' and returned to the baggy. Needless to say, the very next morning, all five fish were floating and were given a proper down the toilet burial.

The girls did talk their aunt into taking them into the waves for a bit.

Sweetpea was the only one brave enough to venture off on her own. Once the other three were knocked over by a wave and suffered minor injuries, they decided the tide pool was more their speed.

Sunday morning, we got up, packed another lunch and headed out to the zoo. We have an awesome zoo here, and we are zoo members, so we go there quite often. The Little Man joined us on this trip, and it was H-O-T HOT. The highlights of the day were the shaved ice, the kids' splash zone and the Discovery Center where I sat to feed the Little Man in the air conditioned coolness while the older kids played in the splash zone.

Obviously K and Little Man were beyond impressed with the zoo experience.

Back at home, the three girls spent quite a bit of time on our water slide in the back yard. We were hoping it would wear them out and get them to bed early. Sadly, it seemed to do the opposite.

They were up 'til all hours playing Phase 10 with us and eating Tootsie Pops. Sweetpea managed to end up with this:

Tell me that doesn't look like an elephant! We discussed selling it on Ebay, but she decided to just eat it instead.

It was great to catch up with my sister and K, who kept us laughing the whole time. Yes, she still calls me "Baby's Mama" and refers to Sweetpea and Princess E as "my girls". Apparently she tells people back home that she has two sisters and a baby. K can be a handful because, well, she's two, but she can also be super sweet. Especially when she's looking at my Little Man and saying things like, "AWWWWW look at him's face."

Welcome to My Crazy (Part 1)

First off, I totally theived my title from BooMama.

I seem to store quotes from favorite tv shows away in the back of my mind and pull them out when I'm in a situation where they fit (and I'm not even listing that as part of my crazy). As one of my personal heroes, Julia Sugarbaker once said, "This is the South. And we're proud of our crazy people. We don't hide them up in the attic. We bring 'em right down to the living room and show 'em off. ....... no one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family. They just ask what side they're on." I'm pretty sure both sides of my family are riddled with their fair share of crazy. I'm not going to out anyone else's crazy quite yet, but I will drag a little of mine out to the living room and show it off.

I'll begin with my need to have all the tops to the Little Man's bottles match the bottle on which they are placed. I usually end up making bottles late at night, when I really want to go to bed. One would think I could just reach in, grab a top, pop it on the bottle and be done with it. NOOOOO! I have to stand and dig around in the bowl where we store the bottles, nipples, bottle tops, and various other things my girls throw in there when they empty the dishwasher, until I find the matching pieces. Now, my bff, Pajama Mama staged a late night intervention via IM in an attempt to release me from my madness. She talked me into intentionally unmatching the bottles and tops in an effort to prove to me that the kid really doesn't care if his bottles match. He really will continue to eat and not perish from starvation or failure to thrive if his bottles don't match. Earth will continue to spin on it's axis, and I will not hyperventilate if the bottles don't match. It lasted one night, the next morning, all the bottles looked like this:

I was able to breathe freely, and all was right with the world once again.

And ain't they purty?

Lets move on to eating peanut M&Ms. Just stick your hand in the bag, grab out a handful of candy, stick it in your mouth and chew, right? NOOOOO! Not me. I get out a few M&Ms, then have to decide which color needs to be eaten first. This is a complicated process. I'm not even sure I can explain it to someone who doesn't have the same affliction, which I have discovered in at least two other members of my immediate family. See! We are riddled with crazy. Take this group of candy as an example:

I would have to begin with either a green, yellow or orange because there are two of each of those colors and only one blue and one red. So, lets say I start with green, then yellow, then orange. Now I only have one of each color..problem solved? NOOOOO! Now because I just ate those colors, I HAVE to eat one of the other colors, lets say red. Then blue because I haven't had a blue yet, then I can eat the other colors, but only in the same order I ate them the first time. Madness I tell you. Also, I have to bite the M&M in half first just to make sure the peanut is in there. Oh happy day when I get a solid chocolate M&M that was supposed to have a peanut in it. I don't have these problems with plain M&Ms for some reason. Needless to say, I will never eat peanut M&Ms in bed in the dark.

This is just the tip of the mountain of my crazy. I won't even get started on making a bed or folding towels. Let's just leave it at this:

For now anyway!

I need to add that I have been driven to insanity by the fact that I can't get blogger to post all of my pictures exactly the same size!

Princess-isms

Oh, my beautiful BLOND baby girl.

We have had a can of Strawberry Mist icing in our cabinet for ages. I honestly don't know how or when it got there. I make my own icing, and wouldn't want Strawberry Mist in the first place. The Princess has been begging to eat that icing. She has suggested all sorts of things she could put the icing on, right down to Doritos. So, I had some time alone with her the other day, and we decided we would bake a cake and use the pink icing. She's a very good kitchen helper.

First she saw the tri-colored rotini in the cabinet and decided that would be a great lunch. I usually cook that in chicken broth and add some carrots and broccoli. I told her we don't have all the ingredients for that, to which she responded, "What? We don't have chicken brock?"

Then I asked her to get the butter out for me. She was standing on her tippy toes, reaching with all her might. Then she apparently combined the two sentences running through her sweet little head, and what came out was, "Can we use the I Can't Reach It's Not Butter?"

And finally, when her daddy called home today and she answered the phone, she said, "I can't hear you, you're talking too loud."

I hate to perpetuate the blond stereotype, but...................

My Baby's Mama

Meet K. She's one of my five nieces (I also have five nephews and one great niece). She's almost three years old and is very funny. She's also one of my favorite photography subjects. I mean, just look at those eyes.

When Little Man was very small, and we were visiting at Mama's, K wanted to hold him. I told her he had to eat first, so she took off to the kitchen to find him some lunch. I told her he couldn't eat that kind of food quite yet. I got a blanket, and very discretely started to nurse him. K came over, ripped off the blanket, and started yelling, "No eat ur mommy!" I have to wonder if that wasn't the beginning of his refusal to nurse.

Now K has laid claim to the Little Man. He is her baby. When we were all together over the 4th, she was constantly asking about the welfare of her baby. "Where is my baby? Is my baby hungry? Why is my baby crying? Is my baby sleeping?" Well, he WAS!!

So the other day, my sister called me. She told K who she was talking to, and K said, "I wanna talk to my baby's mama." Now, that's a label I never really expected to have. Especially from a two year old girl.

K and her mama are coming for a visit this weekend. I can't wait to hear what MY baby's mama says next!

Cheese Please

We begged and we pleaded for them all to say cheese,

But only the eldest were aiming to please.

How many more years do you think it will take

'Til all of the cousins cooperate?