Labor Day

Today we went over to my assistant coach's house (Kathy) to swim in their neighborhood pool. One of our team mom's, Connie, and her family were there as well. I am in the process of uploading the pictures to photobucket along with last night's concert pictures.

Anyway, we had a ball. I wasn't too sure on how I was going to handle three kids that can't swim in the pool but it turned out great! They have a portion of the pool that is for little fellas and they had a blast in there. We adults even went and sat in the water on the ledge that goes all around the whole area. It was amazingly a bit chilly. The kids though kept going and going until we had to make them get out because of blue lips and uncontrollable shivering. We had lunch and snacks for all so when we made them get out they would come over and snack until they warmed up --- which of course they would then jump back in :-)

Madison though did sit out a lot more than the other girls. I didn't have to tell her to get out of the pool for being cold, she got out on her own cause she couldn't take it. I don't blame her!

Bailey was nearly a little fish! I was so proud of him. He went all around the kiddie area of the pool without needing me right beside him holding on. It's amazing to watch him come out of his shell the way he has in this past month. He was off making friends with other little boys and girls that came to play, putting his face in the water (not a whole lot but some is better than it used to be!!), playing with these water toys miss Kathy had and all sorts of things. Like I said, I just sat in amazement watching him. He was so proud of all these little things he could do .... and so was I.

Morgan Haley made friends with the older girls (9, 10 & 11) and got them to play with her in the kiddie pool area and fly her around like an airplane. The little impskin made miss Kathy believe she was totally quiet, shy, innocent little doll!! She can't imagine miss Moo doing anything that Connie and I have described to her... hehe she'll discover it one day! When the older girls were off doing something or it was adult swim time little miss Moo would try to sneak off and dip her feet in the pool (in the deep end of course). Little sneak!

I think I'm the only one that got any sun today. I'm pink on my arms, chest and face while the kids don't even look like they've been outside ---- and they were in the sun way more than I was!! Connie's Madison has some deep tan lines just from today, while Connie was nearly a lobster!

Josh Gracin

The kids and I went to Stone Mountain Park to see Josh Gracin and others in concert and watch the lasar show yesterday! I packed up some homemade quesadillas, grapes, blueberries, apples, salad, kool-aid and water as well as some little toys, paper, coloring books and crayons for the kids to play with if the concerts bored them. We had to park nearly a mile away so that was fun getting to the lawn! We stopped once so that I could fix the chair Bailey was carrying (they had their own little chairs) and this little girl turns to ask her daddy, "Why do people carry chairs?" At first I thought they must use blankets, but then they were in front of us most of the time and they weren't carrying ANYTHING. So I thought, maybe they aren't going to see the concert or the lasar show YET I saw them on the lawn. I'm guessing they either met someone there or sat on the grass. Anyway, moving on ....

By the time we get to the lawn, the kids are moving extra slow and I'm having to keep them from getting stampeded so we pretty much took the first open spot I found. It was beside some grandparents on a very large blanket. Once I got everyone set up, the grandmother asked me if I'd like to move to the other side of them and let the kids sit on the blanket so that they weren't in the path of the mobs moving around. Sure thing, but the kids sat in their chairs and colored and stuff.

They really enjoyed the concert and clapped and raised their hands and danced. It was so cute. I tried to get Morgan Haley on video dancing but everytime I tried to video her, she changed what she was doing!!

By the time the lasar show started the kids were getting really tired and the grandparents beside us offered to let the kids lay on the blanket. Madison and Bailey obliged. The grandmother lay her sweater on Madison and silly little Bailey got the chair bag I carry my chair in and got inside it. I wish I could have gotten a better picture but hey you can tell he's inside it!!

Once the fireworks started Bailey got out of the bag and climbed in my lap after taking his hearing aids out. Both Morgan Haley and Bailey covered their little ears, curled in a ball and fell asleep in my lap. Madison fell asleep all covered up on the blanket.

So now it's time to pack up and leave. I've got everything all figured out when the grandparents and their family tell me they are going to help me. As it turns out the daughter and son-in-law are parked really close to me. So their son carried my chairs, their daughter carried Morgan Haley, the grandfather carried Bailey (isn't that amazing -and he was really carrying on with this man too), then when we got to the grandparents car, we dropped them off and the son-in-law took Bailey for a ride on his shoulders, which he loved. Their daughter, whose name is also Madison, gave the kids one of her glowing necklaces which were actually three braclets. So they got to take home something from the park after all besides pictures and memories.

We wound up sitting in the parking lot for nearly an hour waiting on the traffic to clear out some. With the price of gas these days, I wasn't about to burn anymore than I had to. The children were all asleep by the time I left the parking lot.

I'm working on getting the pictures uploaded to photobucket... when I get that done I will link to them!

Jacey-bug would be 2

Today should be Jace's 2nd birthday. Can't you imagine him now?? Such a little doll, walking around, talking and really playing with the other kids. By now you'd probably never know he had been such a micro-preemie. I can see him now, with those big brown eyes that melt your heart and those little chubby cheeks that you just have to pinch or kiss to smithereens and chubby little hands and fingers. I can even picture his little feet. Jimmy would have him decked out in some really stylin' clothes and he'd have this little boy hair cut that made him look sooo grown up.

How stinkin' unfair that we'll never see him like that to see if our little visions of him would be true.

I love you Jacey-bug and miss you more than you'll ever know!!

Happy Anniversary, Gabe and Stephanie!

Happy 11th Anniversary!!