Happy Turkey Day!

First off...



Hope everyone had lots of turkey and stuffed their bellies until they hurt!!

On to the crazy lives in the Brown household. Jack is feeling a little better...still stuffy and coughing a little bit, but much better than he was before. He doesn't let much get him down.

Mark has been able to spend a lot more time with Jack lately, which I think they are both enjoying. I've been busy with both my jobs and haven't had a lot of time to even sit down and Mark has been getting a lot of his work done at school so he doesn't have to bring it home. As sad as I am that I can't spend more time with Jack, I know it's important that he spend time with Mark. Jack has been quite the mommy's boy since he was born and I want to make sure he's comfortable with different people, especially his daddy.

Uncle Justin came home for the week, so Jack's got to spend some time with him. Every time he sees him, Jack seems scared or not too sure about him, but he quickly changes and gets more comfortable with him.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We decided this year to stay at home and have Thanksgiving at our house. Last year we went to four different places with a five month old and it just ended horribly. Jack was pretty miserable. This year, Mark and I spent the day cleaning the house and getting dinner prepared. It was actually pretty fun. We had my family, Mark's family and Cliff's daughters along with their boyfriends in our house. I thought for sure the house was too small for that many people, but it wasn't and things went very well.

Today we set up our Christmas tree. Mark and I always set it up the day after Thanksgiving...we just love Christmas. Jack was a little stinker and got into everything he shouldn't have been into, but who can blame him? As soon as he saw all the lights on the tree he got really excited. We have a red star on the top of our tree and he kept calling it an "apple". At least he's recognizing colors and knows that apples are red!

So as busy as we all are, I have still found time to take a few pictures of Jack and some things we've been up to lately when we have a moment.

Jack holding his towel after a bath...
Making faces for the camera...
Rocking out on the guitar!

Have a great weekend!!

Sick, sick baby =(

My poor, poor baby is sick. Of course it's probably my fault too, so I feel even more terrible about it. He's been out of sorts for a few days, but just in the past two he has started coughing really hard, wheezing and his nose is running like a faucet. Last night, the first night this has EVER happened, he ended up sleeping in bed with us. He just couldn't get comfortable in his own bed and kept crying and coughing and it was a vicious cycle of the two. So I got up, went and got him, and per Mark's request, put him in between us. Needless to say Mark and I slept horribly, but Jack slept better and that's all that matters. He's been getting his nebulizer treatments and Grammy is coming over tomorrow to keep an eye on him so he doesn't get the other boys he goes to daycare with sick. I hate to see him so miserable...it breaks my heart. =(

We did have a nice weekend before he got really sick. Mark was gone Friday and Saturday to a Leadership conference, so Jack and I got in a lot of bonding time (not that my kid needs to bond with me anymore). We went over to Mammy and Papa's house for dinner on Friday night and took a trip to Target with Mammy and auntie Kim. Jack got some Christmas presents and we picked up his pictures from Sears while we were in the mall. It was a very busy night, all ending with Jack watching about 10 minutes of The Wizard of Oz and getting a little scared of the lion. I decided to turn it off, read him a book and then put him to bed.

He then spent some time with Mammy on Saturday while I went to work and then we went up to Lyon Mountain to visit with Mark's family. Mark's aunt Missy was up from Florida for a few days so we wanted to go visit with her and baby Hunter. Unfortunately because Jack was not feeling well, he couldn't go meet his new cousin. I know I'll have another chance to take a picture of the two of them together soon. While we were there, Jessica got the cutest video of Jack with Aunt Pam and Aunt Missy playing ring-around the rosie. Jack's new thing is to pull on people's clothes (or hair in this case) to get them to sit up or lay down. Thanks, Gramps for teaching him this!

Here is Jack, Aunt Pam (left) and Aunt Missy (right) and Jack pulling on their hair to get them to sit back up and play again. What a kid!



So on Sunday we headed back up the mountain so Mark could visit with everyone. Jack was getting pretty ill by later in the evening so we called it a night pretty early. It was still nice getting to visit with everyone when it is not a holiday or someone's birthday. I did manage to get one picture of baby Hunter while we were there...little guy wouldn't not wake up while I was there though. Oh well, maybe next time =)


Well, hopefully my next post will have better news about my baby feeling better. Wish Grammy luck tomorrow...she's going to need it watching this poor little guy!

Randomness

I know this is Jack's blog....but I feel the need to write a little off topic tonight. Hope no one minds.

I had some free time today because I had two families cancel visits and I didn't want to go get Jack while he was napping, so I came home to try to get some housework done. I've been exhausted lately, so I plopped down in front of my computer and couldn't get away. I don't know how it happened, but I stumbled across some web pages that started to make me think....this is both a good and a bad thing.

Why are there so many children out there who lose their lives to such random, tragic events? Whether it be a babysitter shaking them, drowning in a pool or a rare disease that has no cure. All of it makes me want to cry...I mean really cry, like sobbing to the point where I lose my breath. How is it possible that things like that can happen to a child that has not gotten the chance to experience life? It's just not fair.

Maybe it's the weather, or all of these stories being brought to my attention at once or maybe it's because I'm finally breaking free of these postpartum blues that I've been struggling with for so long, but all I wanted to do tonight was cuddle with Jack and never put him down. My heart aches for these parents who can't do that with their children anymore. I treasure every hug or kiss that Jack spontaneously gives me and I can't imagine my life without them. It makes me so mad that for so long I wanted nothing to do with him and watched each day go by as if I were living in fast forward. I have a hard time remembering much of what happened in his first year and I hate myself for that.

I also thank God every day that I still have my son with me and I'm still able to hug and kiss him goodnight. I can't get back that first year, but I can cherish every second I have with him now. In that aspect, I am lucky beyond words.

My point? Hug your child every day and let them know that you love them. Being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever had to go through, but it is truly the best and most rewarding job of my life. I'm starting to think that someone finally hit the play button for me and I can begin to enjoy life again.

I love you, my little monkey.

Alphabet Movie Meme

My friend Keith over at Kano's Kogitation tagged me to do an alphabet movie meme. This is my first attempt at anything relating to movies, so bare with me. As you all probably know, I watch a lot of kids movies, comedies and girlie movies so there won't be much variety, I'm sure. Below are the rules and then my movie picks for each letter of the alphabet.

The Rules

1. Pick one film (your favorite film) to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

Aladdin

Butterfly Effect, The

Center Stage

Drumline

Erin Brockovich

Father of the Bride

Ghost

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Ice Age

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Knocked Up

Little Mermaid, The

Mulan

Never Been Kissed

O (the movie with Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phifer)

Pretty Woman

Quicksand (cheated on this one....had to look up a movie!)

Remember the Titans

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The

Titanic

Unbreakable

Village, The

Wizard of Oz, The

X-files, The

You, Me and Dupree

Zoolander

That was pretty fun....difficult, but fun. Since I don't have too many blogs that I read (or vice verse) I can't tag anyone....but if you want to do this feel free!

House Issues....blah

Of course it has been another busy week in the Brown household. Mark's crazy busy with his school schedule and I've been working two nights a week and Saturday mornings at the Studio to help out with Christmas. It's been fun taking pictures again and I thought for sure I'd lose my patience sooner with kids working with them all day and night but it's just the opposite, I love kids even more and it makes me so much happier when I get home to see Jack.

So, as it goes in our house, one thing after another seems to break or get damaged. Of course it has to be something big too when we need it the least. Mark called me Wednesday night as I was on my way home from work to let me know that our hot water heater busted. Yeah. So the next night he and his dad spend about 5 hours putting our new water heater in. Had it not been for one of our old copper pipes bursting and spraying water all over the place they would have been done sooner. Such is our luck. Thank-goodness for Lowe's and their 0% interest and no payments for 12 months.

Jack of course enjoyed the large box that the water heater came in...


I also had to babysit the night we put the water heater in. His name is Rusty and he is 4 months old....

He's Grammy's cat and just got fixed that day. Grammy had meetings to go to and had me babysit him until she got done. He was pretty groggy for a while and about 30 minutes before he got picked up he started walking around and drank a little bit. Of course Newton was very curious of him, hissed at him once and then cornered the poor cat in our office. I had to search all over the house for them and finally heard the meowing of Rusty and went to his rescue. I have a strong feeling Newton wouldn't do well if we added another cat to our household.

We've also been able to hang out with Kasey, Keith and Erika, Mammy and Papa and we're heading over to Grammy's tomorrow night for dinner. Jack also got a chance to meet a little guy named Alek at play group yesterday. His parents were in the same Hypnobirthing class as Mark and I and he was born about 10 days after Jack. Kate got some cute pictures of them playing that I stole from her blog (hope that's okay, Kate!)

I hope that I can get over to the gym one of these days again and play with all of them. Kate and her husband Randy have been through a lot and are fabulous parents to that handsome little boy. Head over to their blog; One Day at a Time to read their story.

Also, Mark's cousin Tori gave birth on Tuesday to baby Hunter!! I can remember being in the hospital and just wanting to rest, so we decided to wait and visit her and the baby. Jack and I will be heading up there hopefully on Saturday after work to visit with Aunt Missy (who is coming up from Florida!) and of course to meet baby Hunter. Daddy is going away this weekend to a conference so he'll have to meet baby Hunter at a later time. Congrats Tori and Jesse!! Let us know if you need anything!!

So I think that about covers it for the week. I got tagged by Keith at Kano's Kogitation to do an Alphabet Movie Meme. I'll hopefully be able to tackle that tomorrow night and we'll see how that goes!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Halloween Weekend

What a nice weekend! It helps that one of our favorite holidays was on Friday, but it still would have been a nice weekend even if it wasn't Halloween. On Friday we had Keith, Erika and Kasey over for dinner and some Trick-or-Treating around the park. The boys did great walking around the park, but they did get a little tired of walking and wanted to be carried around from house to house. I don't blame them, we were out for about an hour, which is a lot of walking for two little ones. Every time we got to a house both boys would sign "please" and then either say "thank-you" or blow kisses to the person giving them candy. It was so cute. They made out pretty good too in the candy department but that may be because they were both grabbing candy out of people's candy bowls...crazy kiddos. Here is the candy that Jack got for the night...


We came back to the house after our walk, took some pictures in everyone in their costumes, watched some Diego, played drums and then the boys went to bed. Now I forgot to mention that all of us adults were dressed up also. Keith was JD from Scrubs, Erika was a cowgirl, I threw a witch costume together last minute and Mark was a woman. He was the funniest looking woman we have ever seen, and what was even funnier was people thought he really was a woman when we were Trick-or-Treating. They realized once he opened his mouth that he was a man. You should have seen the looks on some people's faces...priceless. Anyway, here are some pictures from our night.

The whole clan minus myself...
The Kane family...The Brown family...Kasey and Jack playing the drums...
Kasey hamming it up for the camera....
As for the rest of our weekend, it was very relaxing and we got to spend time with Mammy and Papa and auntie Kim who we haven't seen in a while. I had to work Saturday morning (which is actually going well) so Mark got to spend some quality time with Jack before his nap. They went to Lowe's and then finished up with a wall Mark was building to go around our fuel tank (the winds in Cumberland Head are awful and our pipes froze last year...we don't want that to happen again!) So Jack helped his daddy hammer the wall together, measure and pick up his tools. He had so much fun that I don't even think he missed me at all!

So after work we went to have pizza with my parents and then played some Wii. It was a great night and very relaxing. Jack even stayed up until 9:30...way past his bed time but it worked out great because he slept in this morning and the time change didn't even affect him. I hope I remember to put him to bed later next year! Today he went to lunch with Grammy while mommy and daddy finished up some work and then we all went and did a little grocery shopping. My little man slept for about 30 minutes total today so he passed right out when it was bed time. Poor baby.

It was just a wonderful weekend. Not too much going on, but just enough to keep Jack busy. I'll leave you with a picture of him helping his daddy....he is getting so big =(