the mom who didn't get the memo

so let me start by saying there is no picture to this post mostly because of my shear embarrassment. brady and i are still both getting used to this school thing, apparently i need to find where they keep the announcements of what is going on the next week. as we drove to school this morning i was thinking how sad it was that brady did not attend on fridays because i figured the kids would be dressing up that day. oh to my surprise when we got there. i took brady to his room only to discover that he was the only child without his costume on. my heart broke. i know he is only 16 months and does not know the difference, but i felt pretty bad. i went back at 12:30 for the trick or treat parade and pumpkin hunting in the patch. he had a great time doing both and we just said he was a football player since he had his football outfit on today......... needless to say the teacher did tell me that it is portrait week next week, you can bet i won't miss that! at least i learned this tough lesson now and not when he was six years old and would have been traumatized when he was the only kid not dressed up. sorry little man, mommy will do her best to make sure this does not happen again.

why you shouldn't carve your pumpkins too early......

Mr. cute spider was looking cool and then it looks like the bug killer may have gotten to him.

Obama, If I was old enough to vote, I would vote for you!

Go Bama! That is what we say every time we see you on TV. We stop to watch all of your commercials and especially stop to watch you when you are speaking. Brady is only 16 months old, but if we was old enough to vote, I am pretty sure you would have his.

first day of school

with all of his items properly labeled and all the things on the school list checked off, i think we might be ready to venture out the door. my anxiety about today has been mounting for sometime. like any parent wondering if i have made a good choice in schools, is now the time to do this. on top of all of this brady has been having a lot of mommy separation issues lately and i really don't want to damage him for life by forcing him into this too soon, so i can have a few hours to myself to you know get some stuff done. i want him to be social and experience new things and new friends but if you know me i am a control freak and wonder if anyone can do as good of a job as me, not that i do that great of a job........... after all i am still learning and will be for the rest of his life on how to be a good parent.

i digress.....

we loaded in the car and headed off. all the time i was wondering how angry brady was going to be at his mommy in the next fifteen minutes. we checked in and i gently removed his coat, but before i could finish he was on his way to hang at a table full of toys with the other kids. i walked over to the table kissed him on the head and said goodbye. i cried all the way down the hall and out to my car. i cried, brady did not. i rushed home to start all of my chores for fear that i would not be able to finish all of them before the school called and said to come get him early, we have been having that issue at my MOPS group lately....... i got all of my chores done though and i have to say that the silence of the house well it was quite weird, not sure that i liked it too much, but i am sure over time i will get used to it.

when i went to get him, miss carly his teacher said he did well for his first day, cried a couple of times but when she redirected his attention he was better. he also cried every time miss carly tried to leave the room. he got to sing songs and do an art project and play on the new playground and most of all he made some new friends. he survived so i survived. we will try it again next wednesday, hopefully it goes as well as this wednesday....... oh my little man is growing up, what is a mommy to do?

hangin at the pumpkin patch

pumpkins, ponies, hay stacks, a really cool log cabin and lets not forget the red wagon. what is the facination with kids and little houses anyway? we visited the famous farm pumpkin patch on bowles with grandma and grandpa smith. i was so happy that they got to partake in such a fun little adventure with brady while they were here. given they live so far away these moments are treasured. brady was not a big fan of the pony, while he found it interesting he sure was cautious and kept his distance. i wonder if he was thinking what a big dog that is??? the log cabin was by far his favorite area. we played there for several minutes, peekabo through the shutters in and out the door, close the door, close the shutters, open the door, open the shutters...... i could go on and on. finally we took a ride in an old red radio flyer wago to pick out our pumpkin and then we left. oh what fun we had at the pumpkin patch!

breaking all the rules, well because you can.........

there are very few times we get to break the rules.......and well not get in trouble.......that is until well grandma and grandpa leave and then reality sets back in. as much reality as you can get when you are sixteen months old. brady knows that mommy and daddy's cell phones and lap tops are off limits. yesterday i looked over and saw grandma letting brady play with her laptop and shortly there after she allowed brady to play with her cell phone. i warned her that we don't let brady play with those things but was told that is what grandma's are for......... i remember when i was a child and how much fun i had when i went to my grandparents house. ice cream at ten o clock at night was okay and watching soap operas was okay too, except for when i was warned to close my eyes and not peek...... this week having grandma and grandpa in town has brought me back to childhood and reminded me it is okay to break the rules every now and then and be a kid. sometimes i am too strict with brady. i need to remember to loosen up and let him explore things in life. objects are just objects and can be replaced, but memories and experiences well that is what shapes a person and we should all be allowed to stumble now and then or do something we are not supposed to because that is how we learn. so...... thank you grandma and grandpa smith for grounding me this week..... you have undoubtedly helped me to be a better parent to our little peanut.

how do you eat your oreo's?

how do you eat your Oreo? it is funny how everyone develops their own special way of doing things. sometimes you wonder where they even learn some of the things they learn or if they were just born with their special little quirks. everyone has their own special ways of eating Oreo cookies. brady showed us his the other night, he just separated the cookie and licked all of the frosting out first and then proceeded to eat the actual cookie. i sure did not teach him this and neither did his daddy. funny how little cute things just happen. cheers!

the tac-ter

what constitutes a favorite toy? maybe the factor that we never put it down, except to eat and go to bed. it is the first toy we look for in the morning and one of the only toys we really put up a fight for if asked to hand it over. we roll it here, we roll it there, we roll it everywhere. we don't like people to ride in it. if someone puts the farmer in he is promptly removed. brady is the only person to drive the tractor. if the front bin is up in the air we very precisely move it to the down position touching the floor. we sure do love our tractor. heaven help us if we ever lose that thing. i was trying to remember the other day if i had a favorite toy that i could not part ways with and aside from my cabbage patch dolls i can't really think of any. i guess i will have to ask around my family and see if they remember anything......... until then we will keep plowing at the smith house with our very special green tac-ter.

telling HOPS all about it!

it is no secret that the hour of four o clock in my household, well lets just say is my least favorite. the dog begins her begging period, which i must say is quite annoying. our dog lives for food and well even after we feed her, she still thinks she is starving. brady needs my undivided attention at this time every day. i need to start thinking about dinner, prepping it and cooking it, because brady needs to eat no later than five thirty..... undoubtedly the phone rings....... i usually will tell HOPS about 5 times from four to five to go lay down, or hit the road, or sit. brady always follows suit with "hops and then a bunch of gibberish i have yet to figure out", he does all of this with such a serious look on his face and pointing all four of his fingers at the dog, we haven't quite figured out how to just point the one. in the midst of the chaos, i must say that this moment always does and always will make me laugh. it is an everyday reminder that i must start watching everything i do and say because my little sponge is absorbing everything i do.

sharing your favorite season

It is no secret that fall is one of my favorite seasons. The smell of the leaves, the crisp air, pulling on those snugly favorite sweaters for the first time. This year Brady is old enough to share in some of the magic of the season. We have gone out and picked up some leaves, waved them in the air, crunched them in our hands and of course even tasted a couple. We all know everything must enter the mouth to get the full affect these days...... As I watch him I wonder what season he will pick as his favorite when he gets older and what he must be thinking as he experiences these things for the first time. I often wish I could go back to the magical first experiences of something so simple as a season.