HO HO......I Don't Think SO!!!!

I know you always hear that there is an age that most children hate sitting on Santa's lap at Christmas! The hilarious stories of children crying, screaming and running away from Santa because they are scared to death of this big huge man with lots of facial hair! Well, I found this to be true with Christian last weekend. My church was having a breakfast with Santa last Saturday and I thought this would be fun to do with Christian. Brian was off on a skiing adventure with friends, so my mother and sister went with us! It started off great because they had balloons, which are Christian's absolute favorite! There was music, kids dressed as elves and donuts and juice for them to eat and drink! All the children running around and the hustle and bustle of music and people was very entertaining for Christian. He was mesmerized by everything and was having a blast until.......the arrival of Santa! I have never laughed so hard in my life, I am lucky I did not have to go to the bathroom because I would of wet my pants! Santa comes walking in the door and Christian is looking and watching him very closely! As Santa approaches us, we were standing in the aisle, Christian went crazy. Crazy in a funny way! He is truly a monkey because he climbed up my leg so fast I almost fell over! He freaked out! He was crying and screaming and holding on to me for dear life! I just laughed and apologized to Santa! I was not expecting him to react this way. If anyone knows our child then they know that he is not that scared of anything. Well, Santa made his way down the aisle and Christian calmed down and ate his donut and played. He did not know that he would have to sit on that scary man's lap in about thirty minutes. I thought to myself....this is going to be interesting and mommy might be sitting on Santa's lap too! When are number was called we made our way up to Santa. My mother had taken Christian up to watch other children sit on Santa's lap. She thought maybe this would lessen the anxiety of what was about to happen. Christian was all smiles until we stepped up to Santa! He literally tried to climb over my shoulder and run as far away as possible! Who was this crazy man with the white beard my mother is trying to give me too??? He again freaked out crying and screaming! Santa with his quick thinking pulled me on his lap and let the guy take our picture! Christian would not stop screaming and every time he looked at Santa the screaming just got louder! They tried bribery with a candy cane, but that lasted maybe a second. Every time he looked back and saw Santa he would loose it! After much laughter from me and crying from him I told them to just take the damn picture! It would be a great momento for his second Christmas and his frightening experience with Santa! It took him awhile to calm down after that, but he eventually was back to normal and had forgotten about the big man with lots of facial hair! We stayed and played a little longer and he ran around happy as could be....unless he ran into Santa!!! He ran into Santa a few more times and screamed and ran to me, but all and all we had a fun time! Hopefully, next year he will feel a little different about Santa! I have some great photos, so I will never forget and I will never let him forget about his experience with Santa!

Boys and their Toys....is it Christmas already????

We already know that I am in trouble with the boys in my life because my oldest one Brian loves having toys. Anything from golf carts to expensive vehicles he has to have the latest and the greatest! Although, there has been some restraint on his part lately. However, I can not say the same when it comes to our son Christian! Brian could not wait for this Christmas because he wanted to buy Christian an electric riding toy! He went out a few weekends ago and bought him one at Toys R Us. It was a daddy field trip because he took Christian and they tried all the different electric riders out in the store! I am suprised they did not come home with a Ferrari or a Hummer of some kind for Christian to ride around on. Anyhow, I told Brian to put it up with some of Christian's other gifts for Christmas. Well......that lasted all of maybe a week before Brian wanted Christian to test it out AGAIN in our driveway. I told him no, that Christian needed to wait for Christmas and he did not need this toy now, but I lost that battle. Brian diappeared one afternoon and when he came out from hiding he had the rider all put together! Which is a shock in itself that he put it together correctly and there were no extra parts left over! When Christian woke up it was like Christmas morning a month early!
We recently had a retractable fence installed in our driveway because it is very, very steep. We were scared that Christian would eventually end up in the lake across the street if we did not protect him some how from the driveway! This fence had been installed two days before our November Christmas celebration with Christian's new toy! This is only a look into the future and I now know Brian is never going to be able to contain himself. I am going to have to hide all the presents from him, even the kids!!! So back to the story..... Christian wakes up from his nap and Brian is so excited to give him this new toy. This new toy which by the way, he plans on only letting Christian test drive??? Yeah right that will happen! Everybody knows you can not give a toddler a toy, especially one he loves, and then take it back?? Christian fell in love right away...a riding toy that he just pushed a small button and off he went? Wow! His face lit up like our Christmas tree, the one that this toy was supposed to end up under!!!! Needless to say, it took awhile to understand that he had to hold the button down to ride contiously. He was a little jerky at first and I just knew he was going to fly off the back of that toy! However, he knows how to hold on pretty good! I was thrilled to find out that are fabulous fence was well worth it too because he drove right into it and there was not even a budge!!! Christian and Brian stayed outside for quite awhile playing with his new toy. I think Brian would have even tried to ride the toy...if he was only a little shorter he could have!!!! HA HA!!! Anyway, that toy has not been put away and it is just added to the ridiculous amount of toys our son has to play with! The electric rider is definately his favorite toy and I must admit I was wrong about it!!! I never thought at his age that he would be into something like that mainly because I did not think he would be able to figure it out! I guess he gets his smarts from is mommy!!! The rider is a hit!!! I only hope that Brian can contain himself a little better until Christmas or Christian will not have anything to open!!!!

Halloween Eve and Halloween

I have been informed by loved ones that I have not updated the blog since the 15th and I am sorry for that. However, since the last blog Christian is a source to be reckon with....he is walking like a champ! I can not sit down for one minute now! So let me think of what has been going on to tell you all about him??? Halloween has been alot more exciting this year since he is more active. We have a pumpkin festival at the park in our neighborhood and we went to that a couple weeks back! Christian loves the pumpkins and enjoys beating on them like a drum. I took some cute pictures of him, but in this stage of the game it is hard to keep him still enough to get some good shots! A little bribery is needed to even get him to sit still and look in my direction! He helped pick out our pumpkins and played around the park, but he was still to young to really enjoy the face painting and games. We took our pumpkins home and waited awhile before we carved them.

Brian is on the road a lot and was hunting in South Dakota the week before Halloween. Christian's Nene (aka Debbie Banta) came into town to visit with her grandchildren. Debbie stayed with us for two days and then at Julie's for two days. While she was here somehow I miraculously forgot to take any pictures??? We did have fun and took Christian to the zoo! Birmingham's zoo is not the best in the world and we mostly saw animals sleeping if we could see them at all! The most important thing though was that Debbie got to spend time with Christian!

Brian came home late Sunday and than left on Monday morning again! He was returning Halloween night to trick or treat! I was going to wait for Brian to get home to carve the pumpkins, but because I wanted to make sure that at least one pumpkin got carved....I did one myself Tuesday night! My sister came over and assisted Christian and I because it is hard to carve a pumpkin with a toddler crawling up your leg!!!!! I have never carved a pumpkin alone and I have to say, that it turned out very well. Christian was very interested in the pumpkin, he hit it, looked in it and tried to eat it! After all of that, he could of cared less! Christian is in this stage where he is obsessed with balloons (boons as he calls them) and every trip to the store he gets one. Publix gives them away free at the grocery, which is very helpful in occupying him for a few minutes while I shop! Well the eve before Halloween we were not so lucky and were unable to find someone to give us a balloon. I had to break down and buy one since he would not stop screaming....boon, boon, boon every isle we went down! We picked this huge pumpkin balloon that had eyes that lit up and he thought it was the best thing since milk! I need to just remember balloons for Christmas this year and he would be happy! Anyhow, after are shopping adventure we went home to carve our pumpkin! In the middle of carving we had to stop and give someone dinner and a bath. Grumpiness was setting in and I knew if I wanted any pictures we would have to feed the beast! I had bought some Halloween p.j.'s at the gap that were black with a skeleton on them that glowed in the dark. Christian was wearing them on Halloween eve and they were adorable! He wore them all day on Halloween too....needless to say they were very dirty by that afternoon! Black did not hide his dirtiness either! We took some pictures on the porch with the decorations and then off to bed

he went dreaming of candy for the next night! Brian got home on Halloween around 3:00 and we carved the other pumpkin with Christian. We were planning on taking him to the homes of close friends to trick or treat around 5:30. Brian got Christian dressed in his Monkey outfit and we took some pictures and then we left for the night! Christian's best friend Elijah and his brother recently were exposed to chicken pox so we have been keeping our distance from them for awhile, but tonight we went by for some photo ops. We want pictures to show them when they are older how cute they are together as buddies. Everybody drives around in our neighborhood on golf carts and on Halloween all the parents pack up coolers of their favorite beverage and follow their kids around while they trick or treat! It is great and unbelievable how many children live in our neighborhood! When we got to Elijah's home they were all outside with some other neighbors. John and his brother Matthew belong to a friend named Allison. We lined them all up from biggest to smallest and took some pictures. Elijah is the dinosaur and so his older brother Preston. After visiting with some other friends we made our way to our good friends Sam and Jana's house to continue the celebration. Christian helped by giving out and eating the candy with the older trick or treaters! It was a great night and Christian I think was wired from all the chocolate he kept snagging from the basket! His second Halloween was a success and we all had a blast!

Hotty Toddy!!!!

This weekend Brian and I headed over to Oxford, Mississippi for the weekend and of course a football game. Christian has never been to an Ole Miss game, so we packed up and headed out. We stayed with Stefano, who is Brian's best friend from college. Usually his place is party central, but because our little one was tagging along it was going to be a calm weekend. On Friday we had planned to leave around 12:00, but Christian had a different plan. He takes naps in the afternoon and we thought with a three hour drive it would be nice for him to be sleeping most of the time. He gets bored very easy and having him sit in a car seat for hours on end is not a smart idea! The night before, Christian had a nightmare and was up from 12:30 to 4:30 a.m. So obviously he was very tired and decided that a four hour nap was needed. We finally got out of the house around 2:30 with a child who was wide awake and getting bored quickly by the minute! Three hours and three baby Einstein videos later we pulled into Oxford! For those people who do not know Stefano, he is an excellent cook! He was in the process of making some home made Jambalaya when we arrived. We popped some bottles of wine and champagne (my favorite) and started enjoying are night! Christian was glad to be out of his car seat and crawling and walking around! Yes, I said walking!!! He finally decided on Thursday to try vertical mobility! It was great and he is so proud of himself as well his parents! He is still crawling, but more walking everyday and getting the balance down perfectly! It is the cutest thing to see such a small person walking around. I video recorded the first steps, but unfortunately I am having alot of difficulty downloading video to the blog! Do not give up on me because I am still determined to figure out the problem.

Now that I went off on that little tangent.....I will continue to tell you all about our weekend! Friday night was very low key and we just hung out at Stef's house and ate, drank and caught up on old times. Stefano's girlfriend Tony was there with her little boy Riley and I believe he is five years old. He was a fabulous entertainer for Christian and they it if off great. Christian is so fascinated with older children and he loves playing with them. The weather was chilly that evening so we built a fire in Stefano's fire pit on

his deck and sat around and continued visiting. Christian had never seen fire and he was very intrigued by the different colors of the fire, but more intrigued with banging on the benches with a spoon he had found. It amazes me everyday that they are so fascinated by the smallest things. With being up the night before with Christian and the adult beverages I had been consuming....sleepiness was setting in! We gave Christian a bath and I took up to bed. I of course fell asleep with him because I was exhausted! Brian went with the boys to set up the tailgate in the grove and kept visiting with his friends.

Saturday morning came very quickly and because Christian slept so good the day before he was up at 6:30a.m. ready for a fun filled day of football! If everybody in the house was still asleep it did not take long for Christian to change that! Christian is a very vocal child and he loves screaming at the top of his lungs...so soon everyone was waking from their slumber! Tony cooked us muffins for breakfast and we got everything ready to take to the tailgate! Ole Miss is not like all the other SEC schools, they take tailgating to a new level! The game was at 11:30 so we had to get there early to hang out and visit with everyone. At 9:30 in the morning the drinks were flowing and I must say that nothing is better than a mimosa in the morning. Christian was even double fisted with milk and water!Obviously I do not drink too much because I have to be very aware of myself and my child. All it takes is a second and something could happen, especially now that he is everywhere! When the time rolled around Brian was ready to take Christian off to the game. However, he found him sound asleep on my shoulder. I guess Christian did not find the tailgating as stimulating as his daddy thought he would that morning. Brian headed off to the game with hopes that he would take Christian in the game for another quarter later that afternoon. One of my close friends, Farron stayed at the tailgate with me and some other girls that I have met through her in the past. Christian slept for an hour and recharged himself for later tailgating. When Christian woke up he was very excited to see all the people and everything hustling around the grove. The one thing that caught his eye and he became obsessed with was a goat! Someone had a pet goat that they brought to the game and Christian made it his mission to befriend this little goat named Lani! We had to be careful petting the goat because she did not like being touched on her face. Christian is so sweet with animals because of our dogs. He knows how to be gentle when touching animals. We stayed with the goat for awhile and then I had to drag him back to the tailgate. He hates to be confined or better yet told NO!!! I do not think I sat down that afternoon until Brian came back from the game! Christian made some new friends at the tailgate and I think stole the show. I made him some pants for this game too and a t-shirt to match. He looked adorable, but I think I like him better in orange and blue! We had now been at the grove for over 8 hours and I was groved out! I was ready to head back to the house for some more relaxing and hanging out with friends! Christian was exhausted so he got an immediate bath and went straight to bed once we got home. a few friends came over and visited for awhile and then some people went to bed and some stayed up awhile longer. For a weekend that was supposed to be calm and relaxing how did I come home more tired than ever??? Chasing a child everywhere is hard work and making sure nobody wakes him up being loud is even harder!!!! Christian loved Ole Miss, but I think it will be awhile before he goes back during football season! The days are just to long for him and he definitely needs his naps!
Sunday morning we did not get up until around 8:00am! We stayed and played awhile because we wanted to make sure Christian would sleep on the way home. We timed the ride home just right...he slept for over two hours and when he woke up we were twenty minute from home. He was in a great mood after his nap so when we got home we headed for the pumpkin patch. Our neighborhood does a pumpkin festival every year at the park for the millions of children that live out here. We had a good time and I will post those pictures on the next blog!

War Eagle!

A year has gone by since Christian had been to his first Auburn football game! Luckily enough he did not sleep through this game or the tailgate. In fact we actually took him into the football game for the first half just so he could see what all the excitement was about! Christian is such a people watcher and he got a big kick out of all the strange people screaming, hollering and shaking their shakers! The day started off really early because the kickoff was at 11:30am and anybody who has a child knows that you are never on schedule when you take them with you! The day before I had made him some pants to wear to the game. They are orange and blue checkered and looked very cute on him if I do say so myself! Thanks to my friend Corey who helped me learn how to sew! Here his daddy was getting him dressed to leave. We got out of the door by 8:00am, but then we had to get gas and stop by Reed's house to pick up the T.V. and satellite, tables and cooler. I am not so sure how we got nominated to do this chore, but I guess it is because we have the big vehicle. Christian was great on the way down to Auburn and even got in the spirit of the game by waving an Auburn flag in the back seat. I tried to teach him War Eagle, but he was not quite grasping the words! We got to Auburn and of course traffic was terrible and we did not get parked until about 10:45. We unloaded the car and off to the game we went! Now, I been told by many mothers that the volume in a football game is dangerous to a young child's ears and some even recommend that you do not take them into the game. However, you can buy ear plugs for young children and it provides protection against the noise. I had gotten some plugs and thinking positively.....my child would keep these things in his ears! Wow...he actually kept them in his ears for all of thirty minutes before he started taking them out and chewing on them! Oh well, I did not think it was too terribly loud in the stadium and it did not seem to bother him! The sky had been overcast all day until the second quarter and than the sun came out with all its strength. I believe it got into the 90's! I pulled out the sunscreen and lathered Christian up...he gets burned so easy! We planned on leaving at half time, but it was so hot that I took Christian out into the breezeway of the stadium. He was getting really antsy and wanted to be down and moving. Unfortunately, he is not walking and I would not put him down on the nasty stadium floor! Halftime rolled around and Auburn was shutting out Vandy so we left and went back to set up the tailgate!

Now anybody who knows my husband also knows that he is a little technologically challenged! He was the one sent back to the tailgate to set up the satellite??? Hope nobody wanted to watch any other games when they returned from the Auburn's game!!!! We got everything unloaded and Brian and John Hall attempted to set the satellite up. They were not having much luck and then Reed showed up and tried as well, but to no avail. Christian even thought that he could be of some assistance, but he could not get past playing with the cords. His Uncle Reed took some down time to have a little fun with Christian and pose for some pictures. After awhile the frustration with the satellite began to build among these men and I thought there was going to be some bloodshed if it did not start working soon. While the boys argued over how to make the satellite work, I played and watched over Christian. Brad Stephenson had brought his son Chance, who is six years old and also has a little brother. He is so sweet with Christian and was trying to get him walking on his own! He is such a good little babysitter and was watching Christian as closely as I had been. Finally the satellite was working and with all the testosterone floating around I decided to take Christian for a stroll around Auburn!

Anyone who is familiar with Auburn knows that there are alot of fun places to go around town and there is a great tradition that goes with winning a game! After a stop at the bookstore to buy some Auburn memorabilia for Christian we headed for a place called Toomer's Corner! Toomer's corner is a four way stop in Auburn that has huge trees and beautiful Samford Hall in the background. The tradition is that after a big win all the students go to the corner and roll it with toilet paper! The whole corner is shut down and there is toilet paper on everything....it looks like a winter wonderland and it is so much fun!!! Christian took a cat nap while we were shopping and then woke up just in time to enjoy the rolling that was taking place! We took some cute pictures and headed back to the tailgate. It was about 4:30 and I think everybody was ready to head back home. We packed up and headed home. I expected my little one to conk out on the way home because he had been up since 7:00 and maybe napped for about 30 minutes earlier, but no way! What a trooper, he definitely has his daddy's ability to stay up all day and night. Awake, but very grumpy we drove home with some screaming most of the way home. Bedtime came very quickly once we got home. Christian had a very long, fun filled day in Auburn, Alabama. Next week we head to Oxford for his first Ole Miss game ever. Now the fun begins between Brian and I to find out will it be Auburn or Ole Miss he likes the best! Stay tuned for next weeks blog........

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Sunday afternoon we had a surprise visit from Julie and little Bennett! Steve was off in Jacksonville for the football game, so they decided to drop in and say hello! We all hung out for awhile and got to see how much Bennett is growing! She still looks just like her daddy...sorry Julie I know you hate that, but I hear it everyday too with Christian! However, she does have Julie's big blue eyes and I believe they are going to stay that way. Christian was very interested in his cousin and wanted to play with her! He has not learned all his manners yet so he does not know how to keep his hands to himself! People do not particularly like fingers in their nose, mouth and eyes! I like to think that he was teaching her one of his favorite tunes, but just got stuck on the eyes and ears and mouth and nose section of the song! Brian was holding both of them in his lap and he kept poking her in the nose, eyes and ears! We tried to get him to give her a kiss, but he only kisses mommy right now! I am ever so lucky because I know that will not last forever! I have got to stock up on the kisses while I can!

Later after Christian had lunch Julie, Bennett, Christian and I all went through the houses on the Parade of Homes in our neighborhood. It is always fun to see how other homes are decorated and get some ideas for your own!

First Haircut and First Bribe

I know that I am not the best at updating my blog on a regular basis, but I spend most of my time chasing after Christian! A few days before his 1st birthday Christian went in the barber shop for a little trim. His hair had gotten quite long and was hanging over his ears and past his neck! I did not want him to have a mullet... so he went in for the cut! Christian enjoyed going for the ride like always and when we got there he flirted with all the women and of course went for a few spins in the chair! They put a cartoon drape on him and cut all his adorable hair off! I certainly saved some locks for his baby book! He did really good until they had to trim the back. We could not get him to look down so we bribed him with his very first lollipop! He loved it and we were able to trim the back very easily! After his haircut he looked like a little man! I can not believe how he has grown! I think it is time for another!!!!!

Birthday Boy Pictures

Alright, so I might not be the best mom to roam the earth! Christian has not had another party to make up for his 1st birthday! Life is so hectic and it is hard to get things together especially occaisons that have come and gone! Labor day weekend at my moms house we did have cupcakes, which my sister made for Christian and we sang him Happy Birthday! There were even candles however, I did not have my camera! Christian was still a little shy about digging in to the cupcakes, but I have no doubt that that will not be an issue next year! I am going to post some pictures of his Birthday Party where you can see how cute his cake was and all his presents! Christian was not feeling well that day, but he sure was a trooper! He was not so sure about the cake eating, but he did stick his fingers in it and almost his mouth! He had his own separate cake that was a monkey, just like him!

The cake that the guest ate was just as cute as Christian's! Angels in Crestline does a great job for any child's birthday! I highly recommend them to all mother's! The cakes also taste fabulous, which makes it even better! Unfortunately, I threw the leftovers away because mom does not need her behind growing any bigger than it already is!!

Christian got some great gifts and a few of his favorites are; the chair that mommy and daddy got him to sit in. He likes to climb in the chair and just hang out! It is adorable! He also loves the learning table from his Nene and Poppy and the big red wagon from Grandma and Grandpa! When he was sick, this wagon was one of the only things that would make him smile! Hence, the picture of him sleeping in it! We would pull him around and he would smile, which was few and far between during that week!

While Christian was sleeping some of the children played the Nintendo Wii upstairs and some played with all his new toys! I think everyone had a good time that afternoon! We were so glad that all of are family and friends came out to celebrate such a monumental occasion! When Christian woke up that afternoon he played with some of his toys, but became obsessed with this monkey balloon I bought for the party! I think a good time was had by all! I never new a birthday party could be so much work! Whoever invented the idea to give away gifts to all children that come to the party, must have had a lot of time on their hands! I think that was the most time consuming thing on the birthday to do list! However, everybody has called to tell me how much they loved the gifts! Christian gave all his friends C.D.'s that had eighteen nursery rhymes on them, new and old! I was afraid that some of the older kids would not like them, but they loved them too! I was so glad I did it! The front of the C.D. had Christian's picture and a sticker telling them thank you for coming to my birthday party! He also gave away cookies that had monkey's on them and his name! My sister had these made as a gift to him! Heather's neighbor is a caterer and she made them! They were delicious!

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It was a great birthday and I only hope that next year Christian will enjoy it more than ever! Happy Birthday to our little monkey, we are so glad you are feeling better! We love you!