We're going dark...

Okay--just a note to anyone trying to get in touch with us for the next few days. We're not ignoring you--just in the process of moving. I'm not sure when we'll have internet access (so that means my phone is down too). If you need to get a hold of us, call Dan's cell. Love you all, wish us luck!

Time slips by....

I am ashamed to say that I didn't even blog Truman's first birthday. Before I do anything else I must do a Baby Tru update:

Our Trubador began walking several weeks before his first birthday. He's quite proficient by this point and he's a rock star on the stairs. He's way smaller than H-man was at a year, so it's funny to see me keep trying to put these clothes on him that I know Harrison was wearing at his age and they don't fit at all. Sigh. Just trying to make him grow up too fast I guess.

Tru is great at giving love and kisses--he's not great at feeding himself yet, though he throws a tantrum until he gets his own fork and spoon and makes a grand mess. The Trumantor is a climber and is built like a monkey. He's already getting up on just about anything he wants to. Refer to picture above if you don't believe me. I think he honestly believes that he can go make himself a grilled cheese sandwich whenever he has a fancy and it's just Mom holding him back.

It's been totally hilarious watching his teeth come in. They've been pretty late and just within the last few weeks he's finally started getting some upper teeth (he's had two bottom ones for a few months now). The first one to break through up top was a side one and the front one next to it has just popped out too, so he's very lopsided in that department. It makes his ginormous open-mouth grins that much better.

Verbally--we've got mama, dada, nana (this is his most passionate and frequent word--he honestly loves bananas more than he loves me I think), car, and all done (it sounds a little more primative than that). He's an emotional boy and is wonderful at conveying his happiness, fury, and broken-heartedness.

Overall--he just wants to be in the action. He likes to stay busy and get in trouble with H-man as much as possible.


*******

Harrison Update:


I decided to just throw one pirate themed birthday party for both boys this year because I'm lazy. Due to the fact that Truman napped through most of it and it catered to older tots, I completely admit that Tru got shafted. But it was a fantastic party nonetheless. Here are the highlights--

• cool facial hair was drawn on most of the party goers to get them in the mood
• we had a scavenger hunt that involved everyone getting their own pirate bandannas, spotting scopes, eye patches, earrings, swords, and then of course they used the treasure map to find goodies in the treasure chest.
• the kids "walked the plank" off our deck and played an "X marks the Spot" game.

It was fun and good to see so many of our friends because we'll be moving to Atlanta in a little over a week and I'm glad we got to do something like that allowed us to use our huge backyard before we move to our little patch-of-grass townhouse.

An actual conversation...

This is an actual conversation I just found myself having.

Noises from kitchen: What the . . . ? Eww! Tru . . . Oh my, oh my . . . Jen!

Me: (reluctantly) What?

(action moves to kitchen)

Dan: It's everywhere.

Me: What is it?

Dan: Puke.

Me: All of it?

Pause

Me: Maybe deep-fried pickles are a little too intense for an eleven-month old.

Something to ponder.

Honey DON"T

I've made a decision. I really don't like honeydew melon. Poetic name, yes. It makes me feel like a hater, but honestly, it's a filler food that just takes mouth space away from the good stuff like watermelon and muskmelon. I purchased one this week and never again. Buyer's regret.

Road Trip Part Two

Just a hottie husband and a 70s baby out for a stroll.

Yeah--this picture was taken in July...in the afternoon...in a hot tub...it was fun (obviously).

All of the sudden Harrison is some man-child that has no problem hopping on a horse and riding into the sunset. Luckily, the horse preferred to do the circle thing. It was so fun seeing Kent and Kate's place. The boys fell in love with "Baby Afton" and couldn't wait to meet back up with her in Iowa.

After a week in Utah, we mosied over to Manchester where ALL the Griffith siblings converged together with all the offspring that we're aware of. It was a tight fit, but I'm really proud of Mom for taking it all in stride and not breaking down and kicking us all out of her once calm, pristine home. I'll do some more pics of our summer midwest experience in a few days.

The truth via email

I think most people would agree that other areas of one's social life can become a little neglected when one marries. It happens. Add other lifestyle changes like moving seven times, graduating from college, and having two kids and all the sudden an old friend who you just added to your list of friends while signing up for facebook sends you this:

Thanks, Becca. Makes a girl feel good.

Road Trip Part One

I'll be the first to admit that I belong to a family of extremists. It's just the way we are. So when we decide to take a summer road trip--we're not going to do it half way. Gas prices at an all time high? Thousands of miles to cover? Puh-lease, these are mere speed bumps on our hard-core adventure. So off we went from Nashville to Salt Lake to Manchester. The first leg was to celebrate the union of Lauren marrying up to fabulous Carolyn and it only took a mere 27 hours of non-stop driving excitement. All the Gilberts got to be together and it was fabulous. We also got to stay with Kent and Kate and baby Afton.


The cousins that could pass for twins if you kind of squint and aren't too close.


One of my favorite views from my seat in the car.


Brad and Clay hopped in to ride with us whenever they could and they added an extra fun element to our home on wheels.


Harrison loved the hike we went on.


Riding the caboose with Dad at the This is the Place Park. That's sweet Lizzie with Uncle Abe up ahead.

A Smattering of Summer Fun

I hadn't dumped my camera for a while, and I had a few treasures when I finally did. Enjoy!

Glimpses of me

Most anyone will agree that I am pretty much surrounded by Dan in triplicate. I get it from strangers and family/friends alike. Truman is a little copy of Harrison who is a little copy of Dan. I consider myself fortunate and enjoy my little men being so much like their daddy. But I've got to say that I take great pleasure when I suddenly see something so unmistakably ME in them. It happened twice today. First, Harrison and I were partaking of some cake our sweet neighbor brought by (um, Dan, if you're reading this, you'll just have to take my word for it that they were incredibly small peices and didn't taste that great anyway...) and H-man stopped eating to point out the frosting and tell me he liked that part in particular. I guess I'd never taken the time to really discuss frosting with him before or how I can eat disturbing amounts of it. This is coming from the girl who is still known to snack on brown sugar when in a jam. Too sugary? Puh-lease, don't be a wuss. Anyway, it just gave me comfort to know that Harrison seems to have my sugar threshold. Some could look at it as cause for alarm, but I'm not worried; the kid eats veggies with the best of them.

The second little glimpse-of-me I got today was when we were coloring. We've got a big 48 color box of Crayolas and we like to wind down with them while Tru is napping and we're waiting for Daddy to get home. We'd been chatting and coloring for probably about half an hour when he started doodling with the plain green crayon. After a few scribbles he pronounced it was his favorite color. Maybe that doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but anyone who knows me that well, or has ever bothered to ask me what my favorite color is has heard me say that I love that green you get when you take the classic green Crayola and scribble as hard as you can. It's vibrant and beautiful. It just made me sentimental that Harrison saw beauty in the same thing I do.

Psst! I've got a secret!

Okay, you may have attributed my silence on the web all to busy mom stuff. But I've got to tell you what is taking up all my spare minutes right now. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a cheapo about a lot of things. Why did none of you introduce me to the art of the coupon? Seriously, looking back I think I was an obvious candidate. Think what could have been clipped and saved if I'd started on this obsessive road years ago. I've been doing it for a couple of months now I think, and it's hilarious how giddy I can get about it all. For instance, take the picture below. On this particular Saturday morning, Dan and I made a couple of stops (Target and Kroger, and got everything pictured for $30 and change. If you were to look closely, you'd see that there are 32 items there, and some are bigger ticket items, like 4 jars of peanut butter, cheese, 3 lbs of beef, bags of apples, etc. It's absolutely fascinating to see what you can get for ultra cheap and free. We've got Pepperidge Farm Goldfish coming out our ears because we hit a big sale where we could get them for $.50 each, and then we had COUPONS, so they were FREE! I've taken the goal of trying for a percentage savings of greater than 50% everytime I shop. With a little planning I usually hit around 57%, but on my trip to Publix two days ago I hit a new record of just over 70%! See what I mean? I'm totally obsessed. And don't get me started on what you can get for free if you're willing to jump some rebate hoops. I don't think I'll have to buy toothpaste or toothbrushes for a long time. Anyway, I thought I'd hang out a little dirty laundry today so you know what I'm really up to.

It was bound to happen...

Here's what we have to show from our first little urgent care trip with Harrison. Luckily we didn't even need stiches--just some super glue for skin. All-in-all, it was pretty pleasant for what it could have been. The gash is a result of a fall off of his Big John tractor that he thought would be fun to ride downhill.


We visited the fire station with a friend, Camden, last week. Fire men are so nice. They showed us all around, gave us hats and badges, let us sit in the truck, and took pictures with us. It was either a stroke of luck or a sign of my lax parenting that Harrison is sporting yellow rain boots that look appropriate with his hat. They were not donned especially for the occasion.

Truman is crawling everywhere and is obviously happy about it. The kid cracks me up.

Rocky's been having to pay the price for Tru's early mobility.

We're really loving the weather and enjoying Tennessee in the spring. So fantastic!

All part of the plan

The real reason I wait so long between posts is that then I have exciting impressive news to report when I come back. Such as:

--We're potty trained. For real, I think. All I can really say about it is that Harrison has proven to me how very intelligent he is, and it was really easy once he was ready.
--Tru is army crawling and sittying up! In that order. The sitting up "for real" just happened a couple of days ago, after he was 7 months old, but that kid has been doing an impressive army crawl for a while now. I've had to get the baby gate back out, but that's a fair trade because I caught him spit-shining my floor today. I train 'em early.
--Truman is also eating a ton. His favorites to date are unmashed banana, peas, raw ground pear, and um, whole french fries. I know, the mom I used to be just shuddered, but the new hey-I'm-doing-good-to-remember-both-their-names mom that I am now thinks it makes eating out SO much easier.

Here are a few of my favorites that have popped out of H-man's mouth lately:

"The sun is happy today!" (Spoken on our first sunny warm day after a cold snap.)
"My hand is lonely." (Said when he wants Dan or I to hold his hand in the car.)
"You're the best mommy EVER!" (I swear, I don't know where that one came from, but it wasn't coached. I'll also admit that I was a total sucker for it, and he says it a lot now, just to butter me up. I'll take what I can get.)
"I fall in my pee, Mommy." (Okay, maybe that one's not as cute as the others, but if you had the mental image of what he looked like when he was saying it like I do, then you'd be laughing pretty hard.)

Anyway, we're filling our days with parks and picnics, walks and sunshine. Life is good.

The Great Communicator

No, Ronald Reagan is not the topic of conversation today. I'm giving that title to Harrison for now. Not that Tru doesn't qualify. It's amazing how infants can quite clearly express emotions at impressive decibel levels. But I'm referring to the adult that is living in my little H-man's body. He snuck in a while ago and is getting quite bold and not even trying to disguise himself anymore. Did he think I wouldn't notice? Like a two-and-a-half (almost) year-old is really going to stroll by you in the kitchen and pause just long enough to amiably mention, "Pretty cold outside, Mom." Or, "Shhh, Baby Trumanator, Mommy here," as he distractedly peruses the contents of my shopping cart. And what about the time I ran upstairs to grab my wallet, came back down without it being in my hand (hey--moms have a lot on their minds) and he just cocked his head to one side and said with just a touch of, dare I say, pity in his eyes, "Wallet?"

Who ARE you? Of course, he'll be quick to tell you if you ask, "Me Air-sin, Mom, me Air-sin." But I'm not so sure.

I've got the bug

Something about the change of seasons brings out the poet in me. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to write it, but I keep having bits of prose and stanzas of delicious morsels that I read a long time ago pop in my head as I drink in the sunshine and breeze on my skin. I'm going to bless you with a little Thorough for anyone who is also feeling similarly inspired. Love that guy:

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,
The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;
Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high
Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven."

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, recreating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten. There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year's life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors -- why the judge does not dismis his case -- why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

Amen, Henry David, Amen.

Okay, Grandpa...

I've received a few gentle nudges from people mentioning that blogging seems to have taken a back seat to other things in my life lately (it's more like it's hanging on by its fingernails from the back bumper...). I've taken these in stride, but when my sweet Grandpa Griffith starts talking to my husband about how I'm being outblogged by Kate and Kent (and we all know that Kate's doing all the work) then I've just got to do SOMETHING.

I've got cute kids. I'm not afraid to show them. I'm not reluctant to tell you things like how Harrison has started designating certain things as "special" and I just love it. For some reason, it always sounds really sweet when he uses that word. "What are you playing with, Harrison?" "This guy." Pause. "He's special, Mom. He's special." (By the way, in that particular conversation we were discussing an evil-looking, sombrero-wearing, hat-popping dude from his McD's Kids' Meal.)

Anyway--here are a few select moments from our world in the last little while:

Harrison was highly anticipating Grandpa Griffith (my dad, not MY Grandpa Griffith, who was mentioned at the beginning of this blog) and Grandma TT's visit so that he could eat a can a sardines with Grandpa. I thought I'd start him out easy, so I provided the packed-in-mustard variety and held my breath to see if he'd enjoy sardine time with my dad like I had. It was a success. He took it down without blinking. Look out, Uncle Kent--here comes a major eater.

Truman really only has eyes for Harrison if his big brother is around at all. Complete and total adoration. And H-man loves him back just as hard.

When big brother is asleep, then I can get a little lovin' from Mr. Truman-dous himself and that's when we have moments like this:

When we started gearing up for Valentine's Day, I discovered that Harrison loves getting crafty. We've started going to our library for story time mainly because afterward we get to make some rockin' crafts. He loves gluing, cutting, stickering, markering, etc. And he associates all of this with Valentine's Day, and continues to daily plead for me to make valentines with him well after the holiday is over. Luckily, he's got a mom who's a sucker for messy projects that involve pipe cleaners and yarn. Good stuff.

We did it!

After a lot of hard work (see above) and hard play (see below), we have made a cool upgrade to Harrison's bedroom. Over Christmas I was looking at a magazine and saw a built-in bed that caught my eye because of all the storage that came with it. WELL, I just happen to be married to Mr. If-I-Don't-Know-How-To-Do-It-Right-Now-Then-I'll-Figure-It-Out-Pretty-Fast (Actually his name is Dan Gilbert) and he said to just give the word and he'd make it for me. Sigh. It is a charmed life I lead.
Anyway, I couldn't get a picture to truly do it justice. HUGE drawers underneath the bed, floor to ceiling bookshelves, and a beautiful built-in armoire. Now when y'all try to picture what I do with the boys all day, you can think of us all cuddled up there with a pile of books having a reading party. (I'd rather you picture that than some of the other not as sweet things we do every day.)

Thinking of you, Dot

My grandma, Dorothy Jean Patton, passed away this morning, and I can't help but feel the world is a little less of a nice place to be because of it. I know it's human nature to remember only the best of someone after they are gone, but I promise you that I esteem Grandma Dot as one of the best good women of the world.

One of my earliest memories of Grandma happened while she was taking care of my sister and me. We must have been just horribly rotten and given her quite a time because she got frustrated and told us that she was going to come down and swat us on our bottoms. We'd never been threatened with violence from her before, and we took this challenge seriously. I can just picture Michelle and I intensely discussing the problem before coming up with a solution. We scurried into the bathroom, stuffed as much toilet paper as our pants would hold into our underwear, and then went to face our punishments. We thought we'd outsmarted her for sure. And down she came (I can only imagine what she thought when she saw our bulging behinds). I turned around and bent over, only to be shocked and almost disappointed at the little tap she planted on my rear. It was certainly like no spanking I'd received before. And that's when I learned something wonderful about grandmas in general, and mine in particular. They love us.

As a grown woman, I've had the chance to learn lots of other things about Miss Dorothy Jean. She believed in people like I've never seen anyone else do. As she attended all sorts of plays, concerts, and performances by her grandchildren she would tell us all so earnestly that we should go professional in whatever endeavor it happened to be. She wasn't just saying it to be nice; she really saw talent in us and wanted us to shoot for the moon. She always made me feel like I could do anything, with a wholehearted support I haven't encountered many other places. She loved my husband's malts and if I wasn't in love with him before she met him, you can bet she would have convinced me to be. I think she had a special soft spot for him--they were kind of kindred spirits in a lot of ways.

Grandma loved to blare her all-Elvis radio channel and I think she only turned it off when she was watching Fox News. I love that she loved Greta. Grandma could take in stride Harrison's "No way, Dot! No way!" first thing in the morning and still be ready and willing to bribe him with M&M's all the live long day. She watched an entire season of 24 in a three-day period with Dan and me. It'd be verging on midnight and us youngin's would be ready to turn in after three episodes in a row, but she'd have that gleam in her eye and say, "Are you ready for one more?"

Grandma used to come to church with us on General Conference Sundays. There was always a bit of strategery going on because we all wanted to sit by her. Not just when we were little, either. Sitting by Grandma at church meant that you'd be treated to one of those drowsiness-inducing hand massages that she had a special knack for. Heaven-on-Earth. But not to worry, even when you were beat out for the coveted seat, all was not lost. You could always count on a little blue roll of Certs, or a box of Tic Tacs to make its way down to you during the meeting. Not too long ago, I got to go to church with Gram and Michelle and her family. During the service I happened to glance down and saw that the tradition was being continued with Luke. I'm so glad he had the chance to get a Grandma Patton hand massage. Nothing like it.

I know I'm rambling. I had envisioned being able to sit down and write an eloquent, fabulous tribute to one of this blog's most ardent supporters and biggest fans. I'm failing at that, but I do want to at least express this. I love you, Grandma. I'm so glad I've had all the chances I've had to be with you, learn from you, love you, and be loved by you. I'm so happy that you've moved on to a place of greater peace and joy. I'm just sad for the rest of us that have been so spoiled by your attention and affection and are now at a loss. You are missed.

Things on my mind tonight

I'm back, trying to stay afloat in the blogging world. It can be tough, getting back here often enough to keep your readership feeling satiated and not wanting to roam to greener pastures where the text is not only more frequent but much wittier. So here's a sampling of what's running through my mind tonight:

Here's a glimpse of the boys hanging out this past Saturday morning. I don't know why I love these kind of shots so much. I think it's something about the tired "I just woke up" eyes and the sweet little jammies. My favorite pictures of myself as a kid are morning p.j. shots like this and I want to make sure I have good ones for the boys.

Not to change the subject, but Aldi rocks. I'm munching on a delicious orange I purchased from said store today and get this--the whole bag of oranges cost 99 cents. Nice. Once in a while I'm mocked for driving half an hour to get to an Aldi, but people just don't know how much money you can save. Not to mention it's a block away from the day old bread store. That alone is worth the gas to get there.

I was making soup today and found myself with no onions. If I had realized I was out of them when I was at Aldi, I assure you I could have picked some up for a handsome price, but alas, I thought I had just got a bag. So, in the kitchen, without onions. Then I remember--a couple years back I purchased a number 10 can of dehydrated chopped onions for food storage. I dug through my food storage, found it, and now I have a heck of a lot of dried onion to go through. I'm feeling up to the challenge.



I'm becoming more Southern or something. In the last few months I've been catching myself saying "fer" instead of "for" and I'm not joking. Horrifying. I don't know how to stop it because I'm not even cognisant of it until after the fact. Also, my use of "got" has been annoying me. I don't know if I'm using it differently, or if I'm just becoming aware of it. Hmmm.



Oh!! This really belongs at the top of the blog, not here, but I'm on a roll and not gonna stop. Tru rolled over on Monday! That'd be January 7th. Not even four months old. I realize that may not be remarkable to a lot of people, but I'm coming from the vantage point of the mother of Harrison (Baby Lardo). He didn't roll till he was sitting up at six months. You put on one of those sumo wrestling suits and then you'll see why he was a late bloomer in that regard. Anyway, I'll post a pic of Tru doing a little tummy time soon.



Lastly, I wanted you to check out H-man loving on his tool bench he got for Christmas (Santa found it at Goodwill for $6!)

Another little nibble...

Here's a couple more peeks into the Christmas vacation. Don't you love that wistful look on Tru's face when he's being held by Aunt April? I think he's thinking in his head how nice it would be to go home with her.... But he looks pretty happy with Aunt Jamie too. The kid loves his aunts! Almost as much as H-man loves his cousins. I'm finding that I didn't get hardly any pics of Mimi, Walker, and Lizzie. I'll try to search through what other people took, because they're just too cute to not show off.

You eat an elephant one bite at a time

I have so many things I want to report on and several musings I'd like to ramble on with for a while and I'm overwhelmed. I'm starting with just the snow fun Harrison had with his Daddy up in Michigan over Christmas. I knew he loved being outside here in Nashville, but I wasn't sure how he'd take the cold. Please. I should have known by now--the kid loves the outdoors. He took like a fish to water playing with his Alaska cousins Bradley and Clayton. They were his instant idols. Here are a few of the highlights from his snow fun.