Boy meets Baby.

I'm not sure if any of these are from the actual first time Payne saw Genevieve (Thanks Narcotics!), but I thought they were cute.


I think this was right before Payne yelled "baby eyes!" and was narrowly prevented from poking one of the baby's brand new eyeballs. Poor thing.



On day two he was much more comfortable with the whole hospital idea. He set up this little nest himself, in order to watch some cartoons.





I love it!

He was telling us about "baby seepin' " and calling her "Ev-ee" or "Gen-veev".

Oh, and he has sort of fixated on the fact that she was dirty the first time he saw her. Oops. On the way back to our house with my parents today he kept asking "Baby sidder all clean?" Baby sidder get baff?" Then he busted into the house and yelled "Baby sidder here! Her home!". I love the enthusiasm and I hope it continues for, oh, the next 16 years or so. What do you think my odds are on that one coming through?

Introducing Genevieve Katherine.

She was born on Friday July 29th, at 7:59 a.m., and is 6 pounds 4 ounces of sheer determination to remain in someone's arms 24/7.

Payne first saw her when she was still a little gooey because she hadn't gone to the nursery for a bath yet. Therefore, the first words he ever said to his baby sister were "She a mess!". Heh.

"Why thank you!"

"I have always wanted my very own seat in the car. I'm loving how much easier it is to look out the window! The damask cover really is a nice touch too. I knew you really cared about me, I just knew it. I just had to wait seven years for you to give me such a nice token of appreciatio...."

"Wait. What? This isn't for me? Oh God, you made another one? And it's going to ride in here? And I'm only in the car because you're taking me to a dogsitter while you go get the new one? Is it going to "pet" me like the other one does? You're going to get it tomorrow?!"

"Screw this. Put down the window. I'll just tuck, roll, and take my chances in the wild."

Things my kid just insisted be tucked into bed with him:

A stuffed pig

A stuffed dog

A stuffed racehorse

A toy power drill

A Lego brand car

A little person "tourist"

and the Piece de Resistance, a large plastic train tunnel.

Creative fashion.

The other day Payne woke up and summoned me as usual. When I opened the door to his room I was greeted with "My put on my pants!". I guess his clothes from the day before were left out, and I guess he's pretty determined, since he managed to get the neck of a t-shirt over his butt (snort).

The beach.

I was determined to get to the beach this summer. Payne hadn't been to a beach since he was 8 months old, and he HATED it at the time. Once he figured out the sand wasn't edible he was all "eff this" and spent the rest of our week long Florida vacation chillin' in the condo.

I really wanted to give it another go before we had Nugget, and some of our friends graciously agreed to make the short trip to Galveston with us today. For once we actually took a ton of photos!

Gotta love the ensemble. I think the hot pink flip flops are truly inspired. The adventurous pose is because I went to the beach exactly 5 days before giving birth. Oh yes I did.

I had to record the lovely memory of my entire family owning the same pair of flip flops in various colors.

Mr. J.P. enjoying the sand. He is a beach PRO and sobbed when we left.

Payne not crying! Hurrah! Things are already looking up from his last trip.

Thank God for husbands. Jason, Dan, and Preston spent a ton of time watching the kids so the womenfolk could complete a conversation in the shade.

This photo says "My hat is from Wal-Mart and set me back five bucks".

Payne fell in love with the sand. He dug and made puddles and buried seaweed to his little heart's content.

My adorable hubs.

More of the women lounging while the men, like, parented and stuff.

Ah, nothing like an ice cold....water.

Preston, Jenny, and baby Madison brought Aggie beach gear. I was jealous.

Quite literally the only picture we got all day where he was facing the camera. He was too busy for paparazzi.

Yeah. That hat is mine. My kid's noggin is so huge he can wear adult women's hats.

Aimee getting Connor to nap. I was seriously impressed!

Enjoying watching my boy have a blast.

No blog post is complete without a photo taken at arm's length.

T-minus 5 days until we say goodbye to the belly!

38 weeks pregnant. Whoa.

I asked Dan to take a few snapshots of me tonight, moon face and all, because I know I'll probably be happy to have them in a few years. Plus, Nugget can look at them when she's 15 and go "Wow Mom, you were HUGE!" just like I did to my own Mother. Heh heh.





I'm going to have this baby one week from today. Like, this time next Friday I'll have a 10 hour old baby girl. Ho-lee Crap. I think the second kid is a little more mind blowing, because you actually have a true grasp on what it is that you're doing. I am so fascinated by and in love with my son (obviously, considering I have a whole blog about him), and he is such an individual. I mean, how cool is it that we can make new people? We just decide to make an individual from scratch. I don't care how often it happens; it's a miracle every time.

The may-ow.

Tonight I snuck out the door and relished the two minute walk to the mailbox by myself, as taking Payne to the mailbox becomes a 20 minute ordeal.

He watches Dan or I when we go outside by standing on the office window seat and peering through the blinds. I'm sure this looks a leeeetle eerie from the an outsider's point of view. Heh.

Well, when I got back Payne ran to greet me at the door and queried "Mommeee! You got dah may-ow, wit dah bihws?"

Dan and I looked at each other and burst into laughter. He freaking knows that bills come in the mail?!

I said "Yes! I got the bills in the mail." to which our little household pattern sponge replied "Yay! You got dah bihws!"

If only I could be so enthusiastic about owing people money...

Go Seep.

A new game Payne really enjoys is to "Go seep in Daddy's bed". He requires an assistant for this game.

He climbs into bed and then yells "corn!" (come on) at his assistant. Once the fellow player gets into bed he arranges the pillows for both parties, instructs all to "wie down" and then covers himself and his helper in a blanket. As he stares at the ceiling, he never fails to turn to the prisoner, er, helper next to him and instruct them to "turn on fan!". After the ceiling fan is turned to an acceptable speed all are re-tucked and Payne mutters "I go seep. Nigh nigh."

Things are quiet for approximately 20 seconds before the game starts over again...or the bed is converted into a trampoline.

I discovered yesterday that pictures of the "Go Seep" game are NOT to be tolerated.

Two and a half and he already thinks I'm stupid.

After Payne woke up from his nap today he started knocking on the inside of his bedroom door and yelling "Heh-whoooooa!" like normal.

I yell back "You up buddy?"

Him: "Yeah! I in my room!" (good to know)

I go open the door, he greets me, points behind him, and says "Dis my bed."

I had no idea son. Thank you.

Random Aside: My all time favorite "Payne waking up" event was when we had a house guest that was staying in the room next to Payne. He got up in the morning and Payne heard him moving around, so Payne yelled to him "Hi! Mommy? I hear you! It's me, Payne!". HA.

It's official.

There is nothing cool left about me.


I just bought this:

(low whistle)

Check out that sweet ride. It's so....grey, and get an eyeful of those cup holders!

So yeah, because of my absolute need to escape the confines of my home each and every single day, I decided to get a stroller that I can use to cart around Nugget and Payne simultaneously. Believe it or not, this is actually one of the more compact options (for under $200 anyway). The seat for Payne is a little bench seat in the back, so it doesn't take up as much room as a full second stroller seat. However, it's still huge. I'm going to have to get used to navigating with this thing, considering I've accidentally slammed my poor child into way too many corners and edges of clothes racks even with his current little umbrella stroller.

I have dubbed it the Land Yacht .

I've got to admit, I'm a little bit excited about it, simply because it means that my wee brood and myself will be able to continue our urban explorations. I'm relieved I can still count on zoning out on a bench while my son plays with the latest overpriced marketing tool.

The one below is a sort of projected series of advertisements that are interactive. Payne can stomp on the mat and move stuff around etc. He loooves it.

My Mom hilariously and very accurately compared it to entertaining a cat with a laser pointer...

(Evil Cackle)

The cute blondie is J.P., Payne's current best bud (he calls him "Pay P."). They're only 7 months apart and I very sincerely hope that they're still friends at the age of 18, so I can bring out this photo and embarrass the crap out of them.

Toddler Revenge.

Yesterday Payne and I had a battle over his nap. He was of the opinion that he didn't need one and I was of the opinion that I didn't care whether he needed on or not; I needed two hours of peace anyway.

After a few stern visits to his room and various re-tuckings into bed, all went quiet. Victory! I was quite pleased with myself.

When I went to retrieve him I opened his door to find this:



Sooooo I guess Payne translated "nap" to mean "gut bedroom in complete stealth mode".

Truer words have never been spoken.

Today, as we approached the mall, I asked Payne "Is that where you go play?".

He very excitedly responded: "Yeah! And Mommy go potty!"

(sigh)

I think I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore. BUT, when one is pregnant one can (between bathroom stops) buy things like this at the mall...



So there's that. However, one can buy cute baby clothes after the baby is born too, and perhaps manage to blog about something other than peeing a lot.

Sorry guys.

Massive, massive Mommy fail day.

Let's hope my child survives the night.

This morning I took him to IHOP. While dicing up pancakes I lost a square. It fell under the table and I didn't bother to retrieve it. As we left the restaurant Payne got slightly ahead of me, plucked the 30 minute old pancake bit off of the floor, and before I could even yip, popped it into his mouth. I went something like "Uuuuugh! Nooooo!" (can we think about what might stick to a syrupy piece of pancake laying on the area people generally rest their feet for a minute?) and a table of women in front of us burst into laughter.

Strike One.

Then we ended up at Pei Wei for dinner after church. As we left THERE Payne ran ahead of me again. We spotted the rogue pea simultaneously. It lay ominously on the tile walkway out of the restaurant. We had no way of knowing how far it had traveled, or for how long it had languished unattended in it's current location. I yelped "Leave it! It's dirty!". Payne swooped, grabbed, and popped it into his mouth. I yelled "Auuuuugh! No no! That's gross!". Then I realized a woman near the door was shooting me a dirty look, so I sort of barked "Sorry!" and when she continued to look at my like I was crazy I added a stilted "...for yelling." and then bolted out of the door.

Strike Two.

I promise my kid ate something that wasn't peppered with e-coli today:

Cake and ice cream, at his cousin's birthday party.

Go me! Heh heh.

Payne takes "howping" to a whole new level...

So, in light of Nuggette's fondness for digging her heels into my ribs and pressing her head into my bladder in a leisurely stretch, I have to cut into Payne's playground fun quite frequently for bathroom breaks. I try to sort of coax him away by asking if he can "Help Mommy go potty".

He takes this job very seriously.

He will get behind me and push my rear in the direction of the bathroom, saying "D'is way Mommy!". Once we're inside he takes my hand and guides me with great concern while spouting "Here Mommy. I howp you!" into a stall. He locks the door (his favorite part). Then he will back me up to the toilet and try to pull my pants down for me, saying "Pants Mommy, der you go!". He also brings it upon himself to pre-measure and tear off my allotment of toilet paper. After that I'm reminded to flush, and assisted with closing the door (his second favorite part). He never forgets to remind me to wash my hands, and is very diligent in obtaining paper towels for hand drying, perhaps over diligent when towel retrieval involves an automatic paper dispenser...

I genuinely believe that he thinks I couldn't do it without him. It's hilariously sweet!