I wanted to write in detail about last weekend’s wonderful mini vacation to Blacksburg to see the Hokies play in their spring game, but yesterday afternoon I was flattened by a stunning case of food poisoning. So instead, I’m throwing pictures at you until I am myself again (my current energy level is less than or equal to that of a weak kitten).
Enjoy!
Time to announce the winners of tickets to see Donald Miller chat it up at Northminster Church.
A total of 45 people entered, and I could only pick two winners. Or, I should say, Random.org could only pick two winners. I thought about putting everyone’s name in a hat but that would involve lots of writing. What good is technology if it doesn’t let you be exceedingly lazy?
On to the winners!
The first winners is…
Number 7! According the Survey Monkey (again with the technology) number 7 is Kate Creehan! Yay Kate!
And the next winner is…
Number 33, Hope Newberry!
Congratualtions, winners! I’ll be contacting you via email momentarily to give you details and make sure you’re still able to go.
Thanks to Northminster Church for letting me do this. It was fun.
JR,
I almost forgot to write this month’s letter. I’d like to say it’s because I can’t believe you’re already this old, but it’s more likely that I’m tired. Because, dude!, you run me ragged these days. But being your mama is still very, very fun.
You had your first “real” Easter this month. You were around for Easter last year, but at only 5 months old, you weren’t really into it. This year you got an Easter party at school, Easter baskets from us and Grandma, AND you got to decorate Easter cookies with Mamaw and Papaw. You didn’t know what all the fuss was about, but you seemed to have a good time.
School is still going well. You’re in a new class with a new teacher who, I’ll be honest, I don’t like as much as your old teacher, but that’s just because your old teacher is a hard act to follow. You seem to be doing well and the assistant teachers love, love, love you. Napping still doesn’t really happen at school, but you’re never really in a bad mood in the evening, so I’m not sweating it too much. Plus, you sleep wonderfully on the days you’re home with me.
Speaking of those days, can we talk about how wonderful they are? Fridays are our date days. I try not to do any work at all and just focus on you. You seem so happy and calm on those days — it seems that we both need that time together so much. We don’t really do anything special (usually errands or just take walks) but it’s nice to have time to just soak you up without any distractions.
Your vocabulary is continuing to grow. There have even been a couple times when you’ve put two words together. Both have involved your Dada. Once you looked outside to see him sitting on the porch and said “Hi, Dada!” Another time we were at church and you were getting restless. I got up to take you outside and you were NOT happy about leaving him behind, causing you to howl “MY DADA.” It was very sweet. And loud.
Eating is still not particularly interesting to you. It seems like if you know we REALLY want you to eat something we put in front of you, you will definitely NOT eat it. It’s frustrating, but normal. I’m trying to not make an issue of it. I usually fail, but I’m doing my best. That will be a common theme in our parent-child relationship, you’ll soon learn.
You have two new and very exciting skills: helping to clean up your toys and blowing your nose! The first one helps keep the living room clean and the second one keeps us from having to use the nasal aspirator which you hate. So, good things all around.
Wherever we go, everyone points out what a happy little boy you are. And it’s true. If you get upset, it’s usually over pretty quick, and you love being out and about, visiting with people. You always seem SO happy to see everyone, even if you don’t know them, greeting them with a big smile and sometimes a squeal. Funny, you often get that in return, too. But how could you not? I mean, look at that face!
It makes proud to see how happy you are — I feel like it shows that we’re doing this right and giving you what you need. And that’s all we want in this whole, wide world.
Thanks for being our super-sweet, super-fun little bud. You’re really good at it.
Love,
Mama
About a week ago I got quite the lovely email from a gentleman name Kyle over at Northminster Church (3121 Moss Side Avenue) here in Richmond. After saying some very kind words about this here blog, he asked me to do him a favor. And what can I say? Flattery works on me. I AM ONLY HUMAN.*
Apparently Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years) is coming to Northminster on Wednesday, April 28 at 7pm to chat it up a bit. I’ve been given two pairs of tickets to hand over to two lucky winners! If you’re interested in going, you can enter to win them here. The contest closes at noon on Tuesday, April 20.
UPDATED: Should you want to buy tickets, they are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. You can buy them in advance on the Northminster website.
*Please know, I am not being paid at all to do this giveaway. And I’m not just doing this because they asked; I think there are some of you out there who would really, really enjoy what Mr. Miller has to say.
People, that is.
They’ve both been in my life for almost 15 years. They are both smart, handsome, funny, and great.
(I stole this picture from Justin.)
Babies on the way (not mine, but I’m going to be pretty big fans of these two)
Band of Brothers (specifically Ron Livingston)
What about you guys? It’s happy-share-time!
JR is a big boy. Even though he’s moving back towards the 70/60th percentile, he’s still just a big ol’ chunk of baby. So, I’ve gotten fairly used to people making comments when we go out. We usually get things like…
“Those cheeks are killing me!”
“Look at those thighs!”
“How old did you say he was?”
Today was different.
I took JR into Great Clips (shut up, it’s cheap and he’s 1) to get a haircut.
When we walked back to the stylist’s chair she looked at JR, looked at me, looked back at JR, and looked back at me, obviously focusing on my hip-area.
As if that weren’t awkward enough, she then said, “So, did you have a C-section or an episiotomy?”
(!!!!)
“Um, a C-section.”
“I wish I had done that when I had my son. When I had him, they gave me an episiotomy that was about four inches long.”
I just blinked a lot and then asked her to not cut his bangs too short.
