Thankful

Its been a long weekend.

I haven't felt 100% the past couple of days and Trey had a Happening overnight meeting Friday-Saturday.

By Friday afternoon when I picked Jones up from school, I was in tears. I am sure it was just caught gas (lovely, I know) but I couldn't stand up straight from pain. Between that and my wild man, I was brought to tears.

My sweet mama, though she had 1,000 things to do Friday night to prepare for a dinner party, came over and fed jones, played with him and bathed him. She stayed until he was fast asleep.

So grateful for wonderful family only 30 minutes away.

I have never been able to sleep when treys not home. I know that's pathetic, but its true. I suppose it was a combination of not feeling well, stressful events that have occurred this week and being home alone that kept me up all night. Literally. I finally went to sleep at 5 am.

Jones woke up at 7:00. And he refused his afternoon nap.

Dear me.

When trey came home around 2:00, exhausted from sleeping on the floor at a church in Hattiesburg with high schoolers, he insisted that I go to bed.

He took jones to chick-fil-a to play and eat ice cream, though he was just as drained as me.

Sweet husband. Grateful.

He sent me these pictures of little man loving his treat.

Keeping it Real Friday

I pulled the plug.  I went private.  I even went private before inviting any readers.  Imagine the love I felt when I received emails from concerned (angry?) readers.  Love you, too, Nan.

There are situations and people in our lives that are out of our control and doing something simple, like making my blog private, will calm some of my anxiety.

I know that's pretty broad.

I love blogging and find it very therapeutic.  Hope you all stick it out with me. 

I was going to blog about the current state of our house - and I still will - but my sweet child changed that for me. 

Have you all been praying for me ever since I posted about my wild child? I gotta say, I think it's working.

sweet and innocent

He has been sweet for two days.  Sweeeet.  Busy and wild? Yes, but SWEET. 

Wednesday night after his bath, he said "I read bible, mama" and got his little storybook Bible.  He came back, sat in my lap, opened it up and said "Jesus loves me".

I almost died.

I mean, I almost checked his temperature first, for surely this isn't my child, but I seriously almost died of sweetness.

Then yesterday, after a super rough and emotional afternoon, he was seriously precious.  We dropped him off with my parents at chick-fil-a for a while to play while we went to test drive a car, so maybe I didn't witness his wildness on the play area.  But, only the way home he is adorable.  Kept saying "hold my hand, mama daddy".

So we literally all three held hands riding from Starkville to Columbus.  I am sure we looked special.

When we got home and it was time for his bath, I said "Jones, time to take a shower" (yes, he showers with Trey sometimes) "Go get your bath cloth" and he responded with "OK I will" and then did it, y'all. Seriously. No fights.

I almost cried.


After his bath he sat with me for.....wait for it....THIRTY MINUTES while we watched his favorite show Little Bear.  And he held my hand the whole time.


Trey had to remind me that he had to go to bed.  I rocked him forever.  He played with my hair.  I died again.

Seriously.  He is wild and sometimes drives me bananas, but moments and days like these make me melt.  I am going to make it through age two after all.



And here is one more real thing to keep us going through the weekend:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything." - James: 2-4

Hooray for the weekend, y'all.

Jones' latest trick

Jones is hilarious.  He has started faking being asleep. He thinks it is the greatest thing. 
We were videoing Jones for his Uncle Adam, who he calls Elmo. Hilarious.

this child

They say you just gotta laugh.  Even when you want to cry, find something to just laugh about.

So I am learning to laugh.  And trying not cry. 

Sometimes it is easier to laugh after the fact and after your child is peacefully asleep in his bed and after the mess of the day is cleaned up.

My child is wild.  I know he is two.  I know he is a boy.  But even so, he rivals any other two year old boy I have met.

Or my family have met. Or his teachers have met.

The kid is nonstop. And he is big and strong.

I am thankful we have an active, full of life, excited child. Really, I am. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining. I am not. I love being a mom of a boy.

But, oh dear me he is exhausting.

The truth is, I would pull my hair out if I stayed home with him all day, every day.  I don't love spending 7:15-5:30 M-F away from him, but I also don't think I would be able to stay home all day either.  He wasn't this wild when I stayed home full-time.  When I started work when he was 18 months he was still, relatively, manageable. 

I can see now why we had plans of him going to a mother's morning out program a few times a week if I were able to stay home - for a moment of sanity.

My parents are convinced I need to write down all the crazies this child puts us through. I already do that some here, but I want to do better.

That way, in a couple of years when he is calmer (hopefully????) and we are dealing with another 2 year old, I will know that I have been through it before and survived. And hopefully came out stronger. Or, if nothing else, I will remember where all of my gray hair came from.

Few Jones-ism that I don't want to forget.  And maybe some I do want to forget:

1) He wakes up ready to go.  There is no snuggling. No good morning loving. The minute you pick him up out of his crib, he says "Me walk." and he takes off. Running.  There is usually a 5-10 minute battle to change his diaper.  2 seconds is far too long for him to sit still.

2) He chases Sophie around the house and picks her up.  He throws her, kicks her, and loves on her way too hard.  She pretty much hates her life.

3) He still sits in a high chair to eat.  We have tried regular chair and booster seat.  He will not sit still.  Not even for a minute. We tried every day for a week straight.  I don't think we ate at all.  So for now, even at 34 lbs, he sits in a high chair.  When he finishes his meal, he dumps out all remaining food and milk either on his head or on Sophie, who is always underneath hoping for crumbs. We discipline for this every time with no luck. He throws his food, utensils, everything. Restaurants are nightmares.

4) He has broken two lamps in the past week.

5) Just last night he took off his diaper while I was getting his bath ready, ran to the living room, stood on the couch and tee-teed everywhere. He was very proud of himself.

6) He tells me to STAY anytime he wants to do something himself (which is always. for everything). He is very strong and can physically push me into another room.  Last night he locked me out of the room.

7) He still hits. I am at my wits end on this.  We have tried everything. Ignoring, spanking, time out. Nothing seems to work.  We try to be consistent, but we haven't found what clicks with him. Just the other day he hit me (on the face. hard) so I held both of his arms and told him we never, ever hit anyone.  He head-butted me. As hard as he could.  I am pretty sure I blacked out.

8) He doesn't really play with toys, he just holds them while he runs around. He will play ball, but only if he is moving at all times.  Maybe a future soccer star?

9) We had a church picnic the other night that was moved indoors due to rain.  In a matter of two minutes, my child managed to break away from me and Trey, push little old ladies out of line and grab handfuls of chips of the table. Then he ran to the stage, pushed over the microphone, jumped off the said stage and grabbed a poor kids hat.  All in 2 seconds flat.

10) He is the sweetest thing at bedtime.  Baths are exhausting.  Changing diapers and clothes are exhausting.  And sometimes getting him to his room is exhausting.   But sweet rocking time.  The minute you turn off his lamp and start rocking him, he lays his head down and lets me just rock and sing to him.  It is, very literally, the only time of the day that he is still.  Sometimes I rock him for way too long. Then he curls up in his bed and sleeps all night.  For that, I am very, very grateful.


I love this boy more than anything in this world.  There are times that I want to bottle him up at this age. He is so funny. So loving. But oh so busy, wild, strong - both in will and physically. 

I know he is not the first wild child. And I know he is not the first to go through terrible twos.

Someone give me words of inspiration.  I have heard three is worse.  Dear me, tell me this ain't so.

Old friends

I love old friends.

I especially love old camp friends. Some of my favorite memories were made working in Maine at an all girls camp. Trey and I both worked there several summers. Counselors from around the world became life long friends. Love it.

Jones brought gave everyone popsicles.  We get wild in Mississippi!

One of our favorites, Bret, and his precious wife came to visit this past weekend. We have seen each other once a year since 2005. Bret and his wife are both captains in the army and have spent most of that time overseas. We are so proud of him.

We were so happy to finally meet his wife and welcome them back to America after years away. And we were thrilled to show them around the deep south.

We had the best couple of days doing nothing but catching up and eating.

Love those two.

The Roller Derby Team was in the Cotton District. Too funny.

Wisecups

Dear old friends

Me and the hubs - my parents had Jones for the night so we could enjoy adult time. Thank you!

Keeping it real Friday

Poor baby #2. I can feel it happening already. I blogged throughout my pregnancy with Jones. Every detail. I don't think I have even mentioned this pregnancy expect for announcing.

Poor second child. Imagine my life--- I am the third. I should feel lucky to have a name. (I kid, mama)

I am trying to take pictures every week documenting my growing belly. I have taken three. Not bad.

Pinterest makes me feel like I need to have on cute clothes, a fancy chalkboard with cute writing to document my daily growth.

Not going to happen. Hair up and working out clothes on.

Don't be mistaken. I have not worked out. Unless you call eating and sleeping working out.


Can I get real? This pregnancy is totally different. I feel green. And fat. I never once felt sick with Jones. This go round I finally agreed to taking Zofran.

It's getting better. And not close to being bad. Not compared to some pregnancy nightmares I have heard.

For the first month or so the only thing that made me feel better was plain special k cracker chips. So I ate. And ate. Literally boxes a week. All day I ate those things.

Now I just eat. I eat all of the time.

I am pretty sure i had a bump at 6 weeks. I have gained almost seven pounds. That has to be some kind of record. At this rate, I will be huge by September.

It's also totally different from pregnancy #1 because now I have a full time job and a 2 year old. I didn't work when I was pregnant with Jones. I just kinda slept, cooked, ate and watched HGTV.

I know. That's so annoying. I am annoyed at myself.


Anyway, to document my growth:

7 weeks



8 weeks

10 weeks

Boo on strep

Jones has strep throat. It's just really not fun for anyone involve.


He has had a terrible cough for a couple of weeks now, but no other symptoms so I discarded it as a summer cold.


But over the weekend he started running fever, complained that his tummy hurts, had diarrhea, and his nose started running like crazy.


Sweet baby.


We snuggled a lot and watched way too much Little Bear, his new favorite, on nickjr.

And we got ice cream on the way to the pharmacy. Things are looking up!

Keeping it real Friday: let freedom ring

As of 9:30 this morning, the Skaggs no longer own a home in Hattiesburg.

Sweet freedom, indeed.

I haven't walked in that *@!* home in three years. Yet, month after month we shell out money to own it.

No longer, friends.

Now we will just shell out money to pay off the loan we have in order to pay off the house we sold since, you know, we practically gave them the home.

Minor details. Minor details.

Money stresses the poo out of me. Does it you?

I don't know why. We have had seasons of plenty and seasons of, well, not so plenty. Yet time after time God has shown up and provided for us.

This house is no different. 

God provides. And God will continue to provide. And praise God for providing.

That's me keeping it real.


Have a wonderful, free weekend.

Good grief y'all

Y'all, it's hot down here. Really hot.

I know it's Mississippi and Mississippi has hot summers, but this doesn't lighten that sting of the first heat wave of the season. Triple digits for a week straight. And then you calculate the humidity. Last week the heat index was 123. Um, no thanks.

Getting dressed everyday is pointless, no? Girls, I know you feel me. You shower, blow dry and straighten your hair only to walk outside to a humid sauna.

And don't get me started on the air conditioner situation. Our poor AC works overtime day in and day out, yet we came home to the thermostat set at 65 degrees, but the temperature inside was 82.

I need a snow cone. Tigers blood, please.

It's a good thing I adore this beloved state I live in. I can think of nowhere else I would rather live. But, dear goodness, I am quickly reminded of the joys of spending my college summers in Maine.

In the words of Tina Fey, I want to go to there.

I may just hibernate until fall, which is often a season of our imagination down here in the deep south.

What are your plans for the 4th?

Stay cool, my friends.

And when given the opportunity to eat a piece of frozen peanut butter banana pie, always do so. I may have two pieces tomorrow (one for me and one for the growing baby, of course).

IPhone picture dump

Post-nap summer snack in Mickey PJs

Helping out around the house.

Trying to escape this insane triple digit heat

Watering the plants - he does this almost every night.

My breakfast this morning at work.  Don't judge.