44 Months

Daphne, I mean Sophie,

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? Perhaps you are in Puerto Rico chasing el chupacabra. Running from ghastly ghost pirates (my personal favorite). Or maybe you are hanging out with Sunny and Cheer, the Harlem Globetrotters, Batman & Robin, or Don Knotts. It all blurs together considering that I've watched no less than 3432 episodes in the last month. All I know is that you can't get enough of the Scoob.

The highlight of this past month was of course trick-or-treating. This year we ventured over to Ben's neighborhood since there are only 7 kids in our new neighborhood. Why is it that kids feel the need to run as fast as they can to each house. It's as though you truly believe that they are going to run out of candy before you can reach their doorstep. So run you did, and fall you did. Skinning your knee and causing us to make a quick costume alteration in the middle of the street. But you picked yourself up, dusted yourself off, and quickly ran to the next house. We chuckled when you announced to a few people that you couldn't eat peanuts but not to worry, you would give those snickers bars to your mom and dad. Thanks for thinking about us baby girl!

You are still a kid who loves music. And I hope you are always a music lover. And I hope you always love such a wide variety of music. Nothing makes me laugh more to hear you break out in a song that it's particularly age appropriate. The other day your daddy was dumbfounded when you broke out into a chorus of "Walkin After Midnight." On the way back from the mall the other day you told Gigi, that you "woke up dis morning, smiled at the rising sun." And I often hear you, singing, "a hip hop, a hippie the hippie to the hip hop, you don't stop the rock."

You love all of the kids in the neighborhood. Every.Single.One.Of.Them.Nicholas, Nathanial, Zack, Toby, Tanner. And I love that you love them. I love that you get excited when you see someone outside and run as fast as you can to join them. I love how you go next door, ring the doorbell and ask politely if so and so can come out and play. I love how we literally have to bring you inside kicking and screaming when it's time to go to bed. I'm so happy that we moved here. When I told you that some little girls would be moving in to the house down the street you got so excited and immediately asked if they were going to be your friend and play outside with everyone.

Christmas is right around the corner and you didn't need anyone to tell you that fact. You've asked me countless times if "Chewy" the Elf on the Shelf would be able to find your new house because he needed to report to Santa how good of a girl you were being. And also, that the jeep that you want is pink.

This coming month we'll be heading to Grammy and PapPap's for Thanksgiving. So far you have told me that you are thankful for dinner with your family, Reggie, and Stella. But not spiders or lady bugs. In fact, you "hate their guts." Oh and you are thankful for John Denver and yesterday on the way to school you asked me if he would be able to play his guitar at your school Christmas show. When I explained to you that unfortunately, John Denver is in heaven, and not almost heaven anymore, you said, "oh, well then I guess Michelle's daddy will have to play then." Poor old John Denver. Who needs him when you've got Michelle's daddy. Maybe your daddy could come to school and swing a golf club for the class.

So happy 44 months Little Bit. This time next month we'll be hanging with Mickey Mouse. And big surprise for you is that your friend Allie from school is going to be there too! Same week, and same hotel! What are the chances. Of course I'm not sure why we are spending so much money taking you to Disney World when for $5 there's a perfectly good Snow White in Hurricane. Who knew!

Love Mama

A Wedding Interview

My child must plan on marrying Warren Jeffs and become a child bride since she says she's getting hitched at 14! Please excuse her rat's nest hair do and my obnoxious voice!

In case you are wondering why in the world she says she's getting married in Puerto Rico, Steven and I got married there, five glorious years ago. Five looooong years. Just kidding. So she thinks that's where you go to get married. As for being a cow girl when she grows up, I have NO CLUE where that came from Maybe she'll end up marring a millionaire rancher like the Pioneer Woman!

Tuesday Halloween Edition

1. Out of 12 months, October is probably my favorite because of Halloween. I start thinking about costumes in August. This year, however, Sophie was dead set on being a witch. As I've mentioned before, a witch with a crooked hat and crooked broom. Score on the broom but not on the hat. Regardless, I think she turned out pretty cute!

2. We also carved pumpkins! What I thought would be a fun activity for the kids in the neighborhood turned out to be the moms standing around the table carving pumpkins for them while they ran around like wild Indians playing.

Here's Sophie and Nathanial showing off the pumpkin that his mom carved. HA!

3. Trick-or-treat night really made us miss our old neighborhood. People in our old hood really go all out for Halloween. This year, since we are in a new neighborhood with only a few houses we decided to go trick-or-treating with Ben. The kids had a blast but it just wasn't the same. Gracie joined us too!

4. Since little Owen was a monkey for Halloween, I thought "wouldn't it be great if his dad would dress up as a giant banana?!" So I talked to Joel and asked if he'd wear a big banana if I found one. $5.49 later, this is Joel:

5. However, my plan to point fingers and laugh at Joel back fired when his wife called and said, "lets all dress up!" She had just dressed up for work and told me that she had these "awesome" costumes. Behold:

Yeah, not so awesome! Stephanie and I look like idiots dressed as flower pots while Shannon got to be the cute gardener!

6. So knocking on doors and saying "trick-or-treat" is becoming a thing of the past. It seems like everyone sits out in their driveway now. I know three little kids who got very excited to actually ring a doorbell and wait patiently.

Unfortunately, the old bag who opened the door gave each of them on single Tootsie roll. Wow.

7. Saturday we had an adult/kid Halloween party to hit. I wanted us all to dress up but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything. Then a few days before the party, crikey, it hit me! We could easily be the Irwin Family. A few iron-ons and plastic snakes later Sophie was Bindi Irwin.
8. I was a chubby, brunette, Terri Irwin.

9. And Steven was the legendary, Steve Irwin, may he rest in peace. Had there not been kids we might have went with some blood and a stingray.

10. So that was our Halloween. Sophie has been stuffing herself with candy and passing us all of the peanut filled treats.

Hoop it UP!

My kid desperately wants to hula hoop. Unfortunately, try as she might. Girl friend just can't quite figure it out.

She even tries the hoop around the neck method.

Mama, on the other hand, can hoop with the best of 'em. Actually, GiGi is the BEST hula hooper around. Wonder if we can snag a picture of that at some point!

All she needs is an ark

I'm not even lying when I say that in one day, my crazy child picked up and/or petted no less than 10 different animals. She picked up a cat, a dog, 4 or 5 different goats, 2 chickens, and a rabbit. Petted an alpaca, a sheep, a pig, a mini horse, and a 40 year old turtle. She tried to pet a kangaroo but he wanted no part of it. I bet that I haven't picked up that many animals in my LIFE! Especially a chicken! Who in their right mind feels that a chicken needs picked up? No doubt about it, the kid loves her some animals.

I guess I should explain where all of the animal lugging and petting came from. Sophie's little friend Hannah, from gymnastics, had a fall/birthday party and they had a petting zoo at the party. Who knew that you could even rent something like that around here! But you can, and it was totally AWESOME. At least for Sophie. I made Steven go out to the car and grab a bottle of hand sanitizer! Of course it was pointless because right after she would clean her hands she would head right back in with the animals.

Wednesday Woes

1. This past weekend we hit the corn maze with Sophia for the second year in a row. Last year it was 80 degrees. This year it was a muddy mess. Sure enough Soph slipped on some mud, hit the ground, and yelled "Holy SMOKES, lets just get outta here!"

2. My friend Jenny emailed me at work today to tell me about the deal of all deals at theGreenbrier, $59 rooms! Rooms at that joint are normally $275 a night! But for a few dead weekends in November, December, January, and February they are doing a Tribute to the Virginias . So if you are from West Virginia or Virginia you can get a sweet deal. Jenny opted for a weekend in February but we can't go then because tax season starts rolling in February. So we are going in January sans Sophia B. Carr.

3. I can not even explain the frustration I've had with the Happiest Place on Earth this past week. More than 60 days in advance, almost EVERY character breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is booked up at Disney World. Such crap! What's even crappier is that their reservation system. It doesn't require a credit card or anything to reserve a time. So I'm guessing that turds just jump on the site and book any and everything, "just in case."

4. For the 1st time evah we are going to have some family photos taken. They aren't until February because the photographer was all booked up but that gives me plenty of time to find the perfect clothes and maybe loose some junk in the trunk. It's time. I want to remember how we are right now. Sophie and her crazy 3 year old, going on 4, self is the perfect time. AndRuthie Mae Cooper is the perfect photographer for us! I think we are going to do an urban session downtown.

5. Miss Stella is growing like a weed! 26 pounds already and only getting bigger. She's sleeping through the night which is SWEET. Lord, sounds like I'm talking about a newborn!

6. Oh I forgot this one. It's official, Sophia is OBSESSED with weddings and getting married. She discusses HER wedding all.the.time. Apparently she's having a pink cake that she's going to smash in her husband's face. A white dress with flowers on it. A veil. And candy WITH peanuts so other people can have them. Isn't that thoughtful, ha! She also says that she is going to marry a little boy in her class named Aiden. I don't think Aiden is aware of this. But the best part is that she was overheard chatting with some girls at school while waiting for the bathroom that she was, "falling in love." Can you believe that! I wish we would have never taken her to my cousin's wedding a few months ago! And where did she learn about "falling in love?!"

Ok I think I have to stop there. That just blows my mind. I hope that Steven is starting to save for his daughter's wedding because it sounds like its going to be quite the event!

43 Months

Dear Sophia,

I'm on time this month! That's pretty impressive considering that I've slacked off in the blogging department. This month you've been interested in toilet humor. Seriously. Everyone is a poopy head these days. Or a poop stink, poopy butt, or poop nasty. And yes poop starts with the letter P. As does, pee and puke. I think this all got kick started when your daddy sang you a nice little number that goes something like this, "when you're sliding into first and you feel something burst, diarrhea!" Lovely isn't it?! You see I don't think your daddy realized how much you love singing and how you inherited that trait from yours truly. We can hear a song just a few times at it IS on. No matter the song.

Case in point, one glorious fall day in 1983, when your mama was in kindergarten, I walked in the door singing a song that goes, "there once was a man named Bill, who swallowed a dynamite pill, his chest expired, his arse backfired, and his, "gonads" (edited for grandmas) blew over the hill." You see GiGi, was unaware Pappaw Rocky had sung that little number and that it fell upon my cute little 5 year old ears. So when she came to pick me up from school that day, Mrs. Debbie pulled her aside and said, "do you know what Kimberly sang today?" I'm sure my mother, your Gi, wanted to crawl in a hole and die. Luckily, the word was out about Pappaw Rocky's antics so everyone knew that GiGi was an innocent victim.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm telling you this. Maybe it's because I now find it completely hilarious. Or I'm just preparing myself for you to go to school one day and sing the diarrea song, or worse!

So other than the toilet humor you've been a busy bee this month. We went on a little mini va-cay with Pappaw Rocky. All I'll say about that little trip is that Pappaw Rocky doesn't understand the significance of letting a 3 year old push the button on the elevator. You've spent a weekend with Grammy and PapPap and had a sleep over with Zachary. Before you went on this visit you told me that, "Zachary and Tyler and better not talk, or snore, and keep you up all night or you would, not be a happy camper!" I'm guessing that Zachary isn't a snorer because you ended up having a blast.

We have lots more to look forward to this month, especially Trick or Treat night. And you already know that Christmas is around the corner. I have a feeling that Christmas with an almost 4 year old this year is going to be magical. We can't wait to see how it all goes down.

With love,

the Man from Nantucket, I mean, your mama.