Just a Couple of Pictures

My sweet girl, snuggling her giraffe.

"Come on, David! Just gimme a kiss!"

David and cousin, Lawson, cracking each other up. Lawson's mom and dad (Dan's brother, Mike, and SIL, Sara), were gracious enough to drive down from South Carolina for a play date.

Whatever it is, it's still funny.

Rock On

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had this experience: You're driving along in the car and you've just turned the radio up a few notches because you hear the song you used to sing at the top of your lungs when you were 7. "What a great song," you think, "and they really don't make music like this anym..." You pause. You listen closely. Your face goes pale because you suddenly realize that the lyrics are, well, not exactly 7-year-old appropriate. In fact, they're kind of, um, dirty. If you don't believe me and you're in your early-mid thirties, go back and listen to Prince's "Little Red Corvette." It's not about a car. Or, better yet, revisit Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop." She's not singing about dancing.
You think, "Oh. My. Gosh. I cannot believe my parents let me listen to this filth.

Give your mom a break. It was on the mainstream pop radio station, which should be kid appropriate, but it isn't always and chances are, she was more focused on getting you to your destination safely than to whatever Madonna was screeching about.

I tend to steer away from mainstream pop radio stations, not necessarily because I don't want my kids to hear the music, but because I don't like to listen to lyrics that are trite and have no substance whatsoever that genre of music. It's much the same reason I don't listen to country "music." I'm not partial to songs about my young'uns done did got all growed up and a-leavin' me, and I've often told my husband, who does occasionally tune his radio to one of the 458 country stations here in Birmingham, that if one more person dies in a song on the radio, I will be forced to turn the blasted thing completely off.

That said, I have tried to be much more concsious of what is playing in the car, lest the kids get an earful of something they really don't need to hear. For instance, after hearing that little redneck lovely young woman on American Idol sing a popular country song about a woman who has just loaded her shotgun and has made plans for an evening of smoking cigarettes, getting sloppy drunk, and killing her wayward husband with said shotgun upon his arrival home, my guess is that I will not be tuning in to any country stations with my little ones in tow.

OK, I confess. I don't always change the station when I should. In fact, the other day, I listened to Bel Biv DeVoe on purpose because the hubby had worn a bright green shirt that reminded me of 1992 - the color, not the shirt - and, well, it was funny. (It's drivin' me outta my mind/That's why it's hard for me to find/It's drivin' me outta my head/Miss her, kiss her, love her/That girl is poison. Poison.P-P-P-Poison! Never trust a big butt and a smile...You're welcome.)

Please don't ask me why I have Bel Biv Devoe readily available in my car.

I don't usually listen to the kind of music I prefer, though. I feel that they may be a little too young for '90's Grunge. But, I do listen to stuff from my parents'  and grandparents' generations, just as I always have, as well as some Contemporary Christian and Classical. I'd rather they had those genres as a base upon which to build their musical tastes, anyway.

So, I'd like to know if you have altered your listening choices since having children. Do you listen to stuff that's more kid-friendly, or have you kept it pretty much the same? Why?

7 Months Old!

So, what is our 7-month-old up to these days?

For starters, he smiles like that all the time. He giggles. He says, "DaDa - DaDa - DaDa!" He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth as if he's about to crawl, but nothing has happened yet.

Baby D is such a sweet, sweet boy. He still adores his big sister and laughs at everything she does.

What a blessing to have such a wonderful baby boy in our lives!

A Good Blog to Read

I thought I might share this blog upon which I recently stumbled.

It deals with kids and good manners, and Lord knows, the world would be a much nicer place if people would actually heed the lessons in good manners passed down from their Grannies. It all starts at home, folks.

Here are just a few items I observed while skimming through the blog this morning:

• Chewing with one's mouth open.
• Not saying please and thank you. As the blogger points out, "I mean you are the centre of the world aren’t you, and everyone else is here to please you."
• Interrupting people.

 It's all about the Golden Rule. I guess if you don't really care if someone thinks they're more important than you and that your time and words are worthless, the Golden Rule doesn't really apply to you. As for the rest of us, we're glad that some people are still teaching their children how to respect themselves and other people.

I will tell you that if you are an English teacher, you're going to want to go after this blog with a red pen. But, the content is worth reading.

Enjoy!

Teaching Children Manners

What's New at Head Manor

What's new around here? Well, let's see. It's hot.

It's really, really hot. It's 90 degrees in May. For my international friends, that's 32.2C. I'm going to get this out of my system now so I don't have to drive you nuts with my repeated declarations of how evil summer is. Here we go: I hate summer. I hate being hot. Sweat is the most deplorable bodily fluid; no human should smell like a barnyard animal. I hate the way my face breaks out, the way everyone stinks to high heaven, the way I have to worry about my children having a heat stroke on the way to the car, the way the humidity makes my hair look like a fern, and the way I have to wear clothes that show more skin than I'm comfortable showing, just so I won't die.
Redeeming qualities of summer: Tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and peaches. There. I feel better.

Look how red her hot, sweaty face is! (But, isn't she beautiful?)

"Hey, what's in this stuff? Anything that will cool it off out here?"

OK. I'm done. For now. The hotter it gets, the more angry and bitter I become.

In other news, I learned that I have astigmatism and now have to wear glasses. So, when you see future photos of a bespectacled me, you won't be surprised. Also, we have a visitor! Aunt Meredith finished up her exams and made the trek to Birmingham to hang out with us. That's her holding Baby D in the picture above.

So, I guess that's all we have going on as of now. I'll update with something more profound another time, like when I don't need to fold three loads of laundry and plan dinner. :)

Spreading the Word

We haven't had a whole lot to report this week. No one's eye has been injured, no one cut their thumbs on a jelly jar, and we haven't had any doctor appointments. Dan and I are fine, the kids are wonderful and beautiful, as always.
Since I didn't have a real update for you, I thought I'd share some wisdom and goings-on from other bloggers that I found interesting or useful.
I'll start with the fun stuff.

Going to the beach and need a good book? Itching for a little escape during nap time? Or, are you just someone who feels naked without a book to read? I've been there. But, now, I can go to Leatherbound Reviews and find exactly what I need. Yes, that's right, folks. Named by my husband and beautifully written by my fabulous friend, Jakki, Leatherbound Reviews is the perfect blog to visit for all your book review needs. From Jane Austen fan fiction, to chick-lit, to mysteries, Leatherbound Reviews tells me what I need to know. Don't make the costly, time-consuming mistake of buying a book only to find that you despise all the characters and the plot is a big, fat cliche. Go to Leatherbound Reviews first! (Insert cheesy winking nerd giving a thumbs-up.)
I'm thinking of abandoning any future teaching pursuits to write infomercials. What do you think?

The next one is, I feel, an important read for all moms of little girls because, well, there are always going to be mean girls and we need to know what to tell our daughters when they encounter one - and they will because the mean girls are not picky about whom they torment. They don't all look like Regina George or Heather Chandler. They're not always the most popular girls in school. And, they don't always get over it. Sometimes, 35-year-old women girls still have enough of that adolescent insecurity to need to judge other women's weight, or style of dress, or house, or job, or the way they parent their children. And, if we equip our daughters with the strongest tools they can use to deal with the mean girls now, they will be confident enough to be who they are without needing the approval of the mean women  girls later.
http://thegypsymama.com/2012/04/what-i-want-my-daughter-to-know-about-the-mean-girls/

And, lastly, this is just a blog I read a lot because she brings up some interesting parenting topics and she's an entertaining writer. I didn't enjoy the post about Madonna all that much, but the ones about the Mommy Wars (yes, please stop!) and helicopter parents got my attention. Sweet Pea and Baby D, I promise that when your middle school boyfriend/girlfriend breaks up with you, I will not call their parents to demand an explanation. I'm pretty sure you're not going to spend the rest of your life with someone you liked when you were 11.
www.confessionsofameanmommy.com

I'll let you know if anything fun happens around here. Until then. happy reading!

6 Month Check Up

I can hear you now. "What the heck is that?" you ask. That is Baby D's growth chart. Our very healthy (however, fond of spitting up) little charmer is in the 70th percentile for weight. That's the bottom of the chart. As far as his length (or height), well, you can see for yourself. That dot should be somewhere within the curved lines on the graph.

Not our kid! Oh, no. The boy is following in his statuesque sister's footsteps and is measuring off the charts.

He's still smiling, giggling, gurgling, blowing spit bubbles, and thoroughly enjoying his active play time.

Praise God for two healthy, towering kiddos!

*Both my children will be taller than I am before they go to kindergarten...*