"Poopy Girl"

For as long as any of us can remember, Madison has always loved to come to MiMi and E's house. She can see our house from her house, and before she could even talk, she would stand at the door, point, and cry. She's a frequent visitor, and averages at least two visits per day. Her mother says that's the only way to have any peace in their house.

Several months ago, we began to notice a phenomenon with Madison. It never fails, not long after she comes over to our house, she will poop in her diaper/pants. It usually doesn't take more than fifteen minutes for it to happen, and sometimes it happens more than once. I guess she gets so excited that she just has "to go".

We used to keep a supply of diapers and wipes on hand for the occasion, but now that Maddie's in the process of being potty trained, we don't keep anything here anymore, in an effort to encourage her to use her potty. Poor Madison, she gets over here sometimes, only to have to go right back home to change her clothes. Luckily it's just a hop and a skip to her house.

Well, it's nice to be loved...and I look at it this way, as long as Maddie visits regularly, she shouldn't become constipated! Tonight, as she was leaving to go home after pooping in her pants, she looks at my husband whom she calls "E", and says, "I miss you." I quickly said "you didn't tell me that.", to which she answered, "I miss you, too. We love you, too, our little "Poopy Girl".

Caden Finds His Voice

Baby Caden has discovered that he can make noise. After many weeks of being silent, he now makes his presence known when he comes over to visit. Usually he is so quiet, I don't even know he is here. He never cries unless he is tired or hungry, he's what I refer to as the "perfect baby".

A few weeks ago, he began to make a few sounds. Now he is making lots of sounds! In fact, he was rarely quiet this week! The neatest thing that he's learned is to make sounds while his mother pats his mouth--you know like the sounds we made when we used to pretend to be Indians. I guess it won't be long until I hear him babbling his first words... he turned 7 months old this week.

He's Got Something That I Don't Have...

Grandaughter Madison is reaching that age...you know that age when little girls and boys discover that they are made a little different. My hubby mentioned that she has been into the bathroom a couple of times and tried to look at him while he was using the bathroom...then my youngest son mentioned that she had tried to take a peek at him, too.

The other night we had a family get-together at our house. Madison kept telling baby Caden's mama that Cade needed his diaper changed. Madison told her that over and over. Finally, when Christina went to change Caden's diaper, here came Madison like a little magnet...watching and taking in everything! It was pretty funny. She's not old enough to verbalize what she's thinking, but you can tell that she's defnately thinking...

Three Things You Don't Know About Me Blog Hop

I gave birth to three children, a daughter, followed by two sons. My daughter weighed 8 pounds even. My first son weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces. My final son, Brad Michael, caused me 21 hours of labor and a very difficult delivery. He weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 9 ounces! He was the largest baby ever delivered by my doctor--and it was natural childbirth! I retired from giving birth after that! Note: The picture above was made when Brad was 1 day old, notice how big he is in my arms--wearing a size 0-3 mos!

My husband and I designed and built this house. He did most of the work himself. It originally began as a single wide mobile home with additions, but eventually we removed the mobile home--one piece at a time. We lived in this house for over 30 years and raised all three of our children here. One interesting note: We live in southeastern Georgia, and this picture was made in 1989, the only year that it ever snowed at Christmas! Santa is standing on the front porch.

Two years ago our original house, pictured above, was in desperate need of repair. The wooden floor had been deteriorating and was in need of replacement. The roof also needed replacing. My husband and I weighed our options and decided to build a new, smaller house on our property next door. Again, we designed and built this house ourselves. It took about two years to finish this house. It was a labor of love and we are proud of our hard work. One more interesting note: After my husband and I moved out of our original house(pictured above), my daughter and her husband decided to renovate it and move in. We find it interesting that our daughter is raising her daughter in the same house that she was raised in.

Not Me, Monday

Happy Not Me, Monday folks. This is my first ever attempt to do two Not Me, Mondays. I have two blogsites. It is so much fun, and so uplifting, I am doing it twice...After finishing reading this post, hop on over to Mckmama's site http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ and join in her blog carnival--it's a rip roaring good time, I guarantee it!

No, I didn't go to Wal-mart the other day to buy my favorite brand of deodorant--only to discover they no longer have it...do you know how long it took me to find a FAVORITE brand of deodorant?(Dry Idea) Do you know what an awful feeling it is to NOT be able to find your deodorant in JULY?

No, I did not turn on my computer this morning to publish my Monday posts only to find it wouldn't pull windows up...can you say PANIC ATTACK?

No, my grown son didn't ask if anyone else had a "sweaty butt" yesterday while the family was all sitting around outside...and No, I didn't answer his question, not me!

No, I didn't get up this morning, put on an outfit that fit last week, only to discover it sat in a drawer and got smaller...how DOES that happen??? I couldn't possible GROWING, not me!

No, I certainly didn't get a virus on my computer from a tattoo application when I don't even care for tattoos, no offense anyone, but my facebook profile was naked...or so the advertisement kept telling me...do you know how embarrassing it was when my grown, computer savy son discovered that his mother had gotten a virus from a tattoo...and shared that news with everyone?

Well, that's about it for this week...I feel better now... Wow, I may do this again next week! Have a good week everyone.

"Queen Maddie" Just Said "Noooo!"

"Queen Maddie eating ice cream on her throne"

My daughter and I do a lot of carpooling. Neither of us work at the moment, so we "pinch pennies" in any way that we can. Usually we take turns driving.

On Wednesday of this week, we planned a trip to the grocery store. The store that we shop at has Wednesday Only specials. Before we could go on our grocery buying trip, I had an appointment early in the morning to get my haircut. I told my daughter I'd be back shortly after 10.

It was one of those days...the beautician was running a little late, then she got a couple of phone calls. Needless to say, I wasn't finished by 10. When I finally got back to my daughter's house, my grandaughter, Maddie, was beside herself! Brandy said that Maddie had been ready and waiting forever--"to go off in MiMi's car!" Poor little thing, she had her head down on the arm of the couch like she had just given up on me.

We loaded up--not in MiMi's car this time, but in Brandy's minivan. Madison has a large, plush carseat on the third seat of their van, and when she sits in that seat she looks somewhat like a queen. "Queen Maddie" got in her seat and off we went to the grocery store. Now, I don't know where Maddie thought we were going, but when we turned into the parking lot of the grocery store, she let out a very loud and pitiful "Noooo!" like we were about to take her to slaughter!

I looked at Brandy and she looked at me and we laughed at the same time.

We talked to Madison a bit and she wasn't having any part of the grocery store thing. We decided that we would take her to the local dollar store and let her "shop" a little bit. Before we actually got to the dollar store, we changed our minds and headed for Wal-mart which is 20 or so miles on down the road. We decided to forget about the Wednesday specials...Wal-mart sounded like more fun! Maddie was immediatley satisfied when we kept driving.

By the time we got to the town where Wal-mart is located, it was lunchtime. We decided to eat before shopping and went to the Pizza Inn. Again, Maddie looked up and said, "Noooo!". We explained to her that we were going to eat (which she likes to do) and then go shopping. She was okay with that. Next we went on with our shopping and she was happy. We actually shopped at three different stores and she never complained--until we got back home. When we made the turn off the highway onto the dirt lane that leads to Maddie's house, she again yelled, "Noooo! Me no want to go to mama's house!" We laughed again and were impressed with how opinionated that our little Maddie is becoming. What a girl!

Movin' On...

I think that Caden is beginning to enjoy coming to MiMi's house almost as much as I enjoy having him come. He always flashes that sweet smile when he comes in the door, but last week I noticed something more.

His head was turning and his eyes were searching the room for his favorite toy, the musical light-up stage. Cade knows where I keep it and he was looking in that direction. He really enjoys looking at himself in the mirror and banging on the little musical instruments, so we usually play with that toy first. He really likes the lights and music, wonder if he will be a future performer?

This week I sadly put away the baby swing and a floor toy that is activated by kicking, but I replaced them with an activity seat called the Intellitainer. Caden seems pretty impressed with the new toy--trying out all of the activities. Between my daughter and myself, there is no shortage of baby toys--I think we have at least one of almost everything!

It's just a little sad how quickly Cade is passing through the baby phases. All too soon, our "little man" will be too big for the activity seat and movin' on to bigger and better things...