Pump It Up

I almost forgot to post a few pics from Sophie's Wizard of Oz/Pump Up the Fun birthday party. I didn't get to take to many pics because I was busy jumping around myself. The place is so cool. I wish some money would drop out of the sky because my friend Katie and I would open one up in Charleston in-a-heart-beat. The only downside is the occasional big kid stepping on a little kid. 

Bad picture alert but mine and Steven's posse cracks me up. Gracie's "smile" cracks me up even more.

Someone not wanting to leave the fun.

Ego

Right after I snapped this photo I grabbed a towel, swooped her out of the tub, wrapped her up and said, "you look like a little baby."

And she says to me, "that's right, I'm baby Jesus." 

If you are gonna be a baby I guess pretending to be the most famous baby in the history of the world is the way to go. 

Roller Derby

Aunt Amy and Uncle Sean forgot to include an insurance policy with their birthday gift to Sophie B! But I think dressing her up like Steve Urkle is enough protection.

She loooooves her new skates. I can remember the first time I ever went roller skating. I was in second grade and the school had a big evening 'get-together' at a skating rink in Huntington. I can remember loving it the second I laced up my brown and orange skates. And I can also remember my second grade teacher's little girl, who was in first grade, breaking her arm. Put quite a damper on the evening. 

She's got a lot of practicing ahead of her. Her legs have the consistency of Jello! But a least when she falls down she gets right back up. Normally I hold her hand, but I had to let go to snap a few pics. 

And here's what happened. 

Thank you Aunt Amy, Uncle Sean, Tyler, Sami & Madi! Soph got some super cool birthday presents this year and she's busy "writing" (I use that term loosely, as her idea of "writing" is coloring as hard as you can with a pen), her thank-yous. 

Prime time interview

Lyndsay interviewed her three year old the other day and I thought it was a hoot. So I sat Sophia down for a little Q and A. Of course I had to bribe her with the cat. And I found myself translating everything that came out of her mouth! You'll hear in this video that Reggie has a new name and you get to see her put him in a head lock. So here's Sophie B. in all her 3 year old glory. 

Bliss

She's been walking on cloud 9 for over a week now. This has been most evident in the morning. Normally, Little Bit acts like a 16 year old when we try to wake her up in the morning. Since Reggie arrived on the scene the girl has done a complete 180. All I have to do is lay Reggie beside her cranky butt and her entire attitude changes in the matter of seconds. Instead of, "I WANNA GO BACK TO NITE NITE," it's "well good morning, Weggie, my sweet sweet little kitty." You should see the girls arms and chest, actually her entire body! She's scratched up from head to toe and she loves that cat so much that she hasn't complained one single time. Yeah, she's got it bad. 

Oscar the Boxer has totally surprised us. He hasn't tried to eat Reggie one single time so that's a plus! Now if he can just survive being carried, lifted, toted, hugged, kissed, and petted by Little Bit. 

Young at Heart

I sometimes think that my kid could sell ice to Eskimos. When she asked her great-grandpa, Papaw Choo-Choo, if he wanted to get in her princess tent, he initially said that he was too big and wouldn't fit. All it took was a look and a "pleeeese Papaw Choo-Choo," and my 82 year old grandpa climbed right in. He's quite smitten. Of course as he was climbing out, as this picture shows, and was eye level with Sophie B. she says to him, "You don't have any hair!!" The girl calls them like she sees them.

Every second that Little Bit spends with each of her 3 great-grandparents I try to etch in my mind. I was lucky enough to have 4 of my great-grandparents up into my twenties. I remember all of the crazy stories they told me about growing up in the early 1900's. Great grandparents are the real people who walked to school up hill, both ways. 

And do you like the jelly shoes with socks look? Aunt Paula let her pick out that ensemble as I was off picking up Reggie. 

A Year In Review

Most of the pics in this montage have been on the old blog. But since I rarely print photos I thought it would be nice to make a DVD instead. You've had one busy year Little Bit. God only knows what the next year is going to bring!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

3 Years Ago

Dear Sophia,

Three years ago on the eve of your birthday your daddy and I were counting down the hours until you would arrive. We were a ball of nerves. Excited, anxious, scared. I even hyperventilated that night. How was there any way for us to prepare for the gift were were about to receive. You. Three years ago  we were handed our world. And today, three years later you remain our world. Only now, you are 3 and a ball of fire. 

Today was your birthday party. This was the first time that you realized that your birthday was about you. There was no denying it as you stood in front of all your guests and asked "Are we going to sing Happy Birthday to me now?" You beamed with joy as we serenaded you. And since singing it this afternoon, we've sang it 3 more times. Over kill? Maybe but you're only three once. 

Giving you a kitten for your birthday will go down in the your history book. To see the awe and joy on your face as you  scooped it up, looked at me, and said, "is it mine?" melted my heart into a pool of mush. You love him with everything you have. And we my dear Little Bit, love you with everything that we have.

Meet Reggie "Bush"

Or Reggie James, or just kitty. He really doesn't have a name that sticks yet. But he's bushy so Reggie Bush came to mind and Sophie says "Reggie" like "weggie." Cutest thing ever. We brought Reggie home last night while Sophie was staying with GiGi so we could introduce him to Oscar. Everyone assumed that Oscar would try to eat him, but so far so good. Basically he just stares at it 24/7. I'm positive that Oscar the  Boxer didn't slept a wink last night because he was too concerned about the cat.

Sophie B. got to meet him this morning and just as I suspected, totally flipped her wig. And she hasn't let poor Reggie out of her sight since they met. If he makes it through one day of her dragging him around then I think we'll be good to go. Luckily, Reggie is use to three year olds because my friend who gave him to us also has a three year old.

So welcome to the family kitty! Right now we are waiting for Grammy, PapPap and Zachary because tomorrow is party time! Sophie's birthday party is going down at this place called "Pump up the Fun." Stay tuned for pictures and even more pictures of Reggie "Bush." 

Only Little Bit

While sitting on one of her teacher's laps today at school, my precious Little Bit looks her teacher dead in the eye, pats her chest, puts her hands on her hips and says "huh, you have big boobies like my mommy." Of course her teachers thought it was hilarious. I guess it is what it is.

Getting There

Slowly but surely our new house is becoming a home. 95% of the boxes have been unpacked. However, that doesn't mean that everything is organized. In fact, it's far from it. Our office looks like like a bomb went off. My closet looks like hurricane ripped it apart (I blame some of that on Little Bit because she likes to play in it). And I'm also quite certain that one day I am going to come home to find that lady bugs have moved our house off of its foundation. We have MILLIONS of lady bugs. Apparently we left the ants at our old house and now have lady bugs for pets.

But as I said we are getting there. The first thing on our list was to get our kitchen and living room put together. The kitchen was easy. All it took was to decide which cabinet to put what. The living room, however, was missing something vital, at least vital in Steven's eyes. A TV. For years we've watched a 20 inch TV (Jesus, how first world of a complaint is that)! So for years we held off on buying a new TV because we new that our old house wouldn't be our forever house. But not no more folks. We are now in HD. 

And do you see that little head peeking out over the top of the couch, yeah, it doesn't get any better than 52 inches of Dora. So our living room is mostly put together. I can't exactly figure out how to organize our built in shelves. We really don't have a lot of cool "stuff." So I might have to recruit my friend Katie's mom to help me out because she does interior design. And we still need to find the perfect chair. I'm pretty sure that no one wants to watch TV while sitting in a kitchen chair! 

To Vincent In the Philippines

Thank -you for being the one Verizon employee out of the 50 who I have spoken with over the past month to know what in he hell you were talking about. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for getting my Internet hooked up. Outsourcing isn't so bad after all. To those who think that out sourcing takes away American jobs, the Americans I have spoken with who work at Verizon are idiots and should have their job taken away.  Anyway.

Miss. Gracie Beth turned three a few weeks ago and as I mentioned in an earlier post, her b-day party was at McDonald's. I think McDonald's could wrap up dog turds in their Happy Meals and kids would still think it's a 5 star restaurant. Sophie was in heaven. I was not in heaven. And neither was Stephanie and neither were the other moms at the party. You see Gracie's birthday party coincided with the first of the month. The Walmarts shares a parking lot with the McDonald's. So are you following me here? Yep, food stamp time. Food stamp time brings out the best class of folks to the McDonald's especially after spending all day spending the stamps at the Walmarts. 

So we spent most of the party yelling at 12 year old boys to watch out for the little 3 year olds they were stomping on. I mean seriously, at 12 you still want to play on the jungle gym at McDonald's? Even more shocking, the sign on the jungle gym said "For Ages 2-12." Again, 12? Aren't 12 year olds  busy texting and trying out cigarettes these days? But, I have to say that when the little ones weren't getting mowed over, they were having a blast! 

Check out the cake! Reminds me of the 80s! 

 

I want my DSL!

Still no internet. I was suppose to get it on Friday but I came home and listened to a pre-recorded message from Verizon telling me that my new installation date would be next Tuesday. I think "installation" is stretching it, considering all they have to do is flip a switch! But we do have TV. Thank god for the little things. The house is still a living disaster. That's why I haven't going on a walking tour with my camera. 

I did check out the graveyard. It's old. Old old. One woman was born in 1800 and died in 1874. Sadly, there's quite a few little kids buried there. One little girl, who died at 1, had the same last name as Sophie's friend Gracie. Creepy. It doesn't seem like anyone is taking care of it, which is sad. Tombstones are knocked over and briers are everywhere. 

And Little Bit is now the Little Mermaid. This actually suits me just fine as it was my favorite Disney movie. I'm sure that it our awesome neighbors listened closely, they could hear Sophie B. and me belting out "Part of that World" as though we were stars on Broadway. But unlike them, we really are awesome!