A really bad cajun St. Nick

This is not my Christmas post, that is coming. This is a post I meant to put up during Christmas. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we had beautiful weather. Jonathan had gone to spend the night at the camp and the kids and I were on our own, so Holt Harper Ann and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked downtown where they had advertised a Santa Clause. Well, it was very funny when we got down there because the worst fake Santa I have ever seen was there. Holt was quite sceptical, but humored me and took his picture with the guy. I think he was Cajun, but I am not too sure. I also made the kids take our Christmas card photos that day and they were as cute as could be.

Another quick note about this day. I also had to go downtown to pick up a baby present for my friend Lauranne who was having a baby shower. Jonathan wasn't going to be able to watch the kids so I was going to go by and drop the gift off. We went and got the present and on the way out there Holt asked if he was going to be able to help blow out the candles. I told him it wasn't' a birthday party, but a shower. He looked off and then our conversation followed:

Holt - Are there going to be presents
Me - Yes
Holt - Are there going to be lots of people
Me - Yes
Holt - Is there going to be cake?
Me - Yes
Holt - Well it sure sounds like a birthday party to me

What a smarty pants - ha.

It was quite warm and bright that day

Showing off his balancing abilities - balancing along the concrete barier sure adds time to a walk

Was I lying?

If I could just catch them both smiling at the same time

We worked hard for this one.

Brave Hunter makem cookies...

UPDATED 1/26/09

This post is way overdue, but the pictures and memories were too cute not to share. Holt's class invited all the parent's for a Thanksgiving lunch. It was absolutely adorable to see all the kids with their Indian costumes on and answering to their Indian names. My mom has always told Holt his Indian name is "little feet as cold as ice" because he has always had cold feet he likes to put on your back in the morning. Anyway, he forwent the traditional name and requested brave hunter - a fine name if I may say so. We had to go up and help him make his t-shirt the night before the lunch and Jonathan got there before I did, which meant he got to do most of the decorating. I think he did a fine job. Anyway, the Friday after the luncheon was the start of our first Holiday baking session. Holt helped me make tons of cookies, candies and sweets over the holidays, and here is where it all began. Hope you enjoy my little Indian brave.

Licking the sugar and butter mix before we added the eggs. I am surprised I had any left.

"Pretty good Mama"

The cutest little indians ever

Brave Hunter showing off his war cry

Brave Hunter and his squas

The food was really good. All we had to do was bring cranberry sauce.

UPDATE:

As I went back to re-read this post, I realized that there were a few memories I left out and wanted to share (the original post was thrown together hastily).

T-shirt night: We are so blessed to have jobs that are flexible enough that we can participate in Holt’s school events. And, Jonathan is great about volunteering when I can’t make it. Well, we had our calendars marked for Indian shirt night, but were still in the dark about exactly what was involved. The note that was sent home was pretty vague, but said it started at 5:15. That morning at work, I got a text from Holt’s teacher that any parents who wanted to go ahead and come at 5 could. I talked to Jonathan and we agreed that he would get there at 5 and I would be along as soon as I picked up Harper Ann. I left work a little early so that I could get to Holt’s school by 5. I was running a few minutes late (it’s my signature) and in the 2 minutes I was out of my car picking up Harper Ann I had 3 missed calls and 2 text messages from Jonathan. I was worried, understandably, and called immediately. When Jonathan answered he was whispering.

“Where are you?” he asked sounding a little panicked.
“I am almost there. What’s wrong?”
“Just hurry.”
“Is everything okay?”
“No, Sayward (notice the use of my name for emphasis) it’s not okay. Apparently they expect us to design our kid’s shirt for them.” Voice level rising then falling.
“Well, it’ll be okay, just get him started and I’ll be there in just a minute”
“There’s puff paint, Sayward (*) PUFF PAINT. And I’m the only dad here. Just get here.”

By the time I got to school, the shirt was almost fully decorated. Like I said initially, the two of them did a fine job. I just thought I would share some of my joy at Jonathan’s expense with y’all.

On baking cookies: Like I said Holt really did help me from start to finish with the cookies that afternoon. The whole experience was fun, but this little exchange makes me laugh when I think about the endeavor. Holt, all by himself, got the sticks of butter out of the fridge and placed them in the microwave. I told him how many seconds to punch in and he followed directions wonderfully. He then carried the softened butter over to the mixing bowl and measured out the vanilla (I helped with this part) and he counted out the cups of brown and white sugar. Then I let him mix the butter, flavors and sugars with the blender. The next step was to add the eggs, and I told Holt once the eggs were added I couldn’t let him taste the dough, but if he wanted to a taste before I added them then he could have a pinch off the beaters. I thought he would jump at the chance, but he looked really skeptical and kind of shook his head. Well, I couldn’t let this be, so I tried everything to convince him to try just one little bite. Finally, after minutes of begging my kid to please ingest creamed butter and sugar, like his life would be forever lacking if he passed up this opportunity, he took an ant-sized nibble. Well, it was akin to the opening of pandoras box, there was no going back. In the time it took me to get the eggs out of the refrigerator and into the bowl the whole egg to batter ratio was disrupted. The closer I got to the bowl the bigger the bites got, as he knew, once the eggs were added, there would be no more of this sugary treat. I think the cookies themselves, were a bit of a disappointment, because, as we all know, the batter/dough/precooked goo is the best part.

More of Holt's old toys

Another toy Holt used a lot was his exersaucer. I would put him in there on the front porch when we were in Oxford and study for my classes and read him my notes from class while he would spin and chew on all the little do-dads. Now it comes in mighty handy when it is time to cook supper. Harper Ann loves to watch people and Holt will dance around and sing to her while I get supper ready and when Jonathan cleans the kitchen. Again, I think she just enjoys the little bit of independence this toy affords her.

Well, we have started solid foods. About a month and a half ago we got the go ahead to start rice cereal. We have now moved onto our fruits and veggies, just in time for food season aka the Holidays! In case you couldn't tell Harper Ann is a fan of food. Peaches are the only thing so far that she didn't just love, and by that I mean that she grimaced with every bite, but ate them nonetheless.

Really Daddy?

num num num mmmmmm

Hand-me-down toys

When Holt was a baby he absolutely loved being in his Johnny jump-up. I would put him in the doorway between our little hall and the living room in our house in Oxford and we would dance to Elvis songs and he would bounce and giggle. Now, Harper Ann is big enough for the Johnny Jump-up and she loves it like Holt did. I think she likes being able to move around without help and be a little more independent. It makes me so happy to see her so happy, but it puts a lump in my throat when I think about Holt bouncing around, and how big he is now. Being a Mama is such a blessing, by my goodness time speeds by faster than I can keep up.

She is jumping around now. At first she would just spin around.

Her personality is growing right along with her pants size

Holt and Harper Ann are becoming quite the pair. They are quite fond of each other, and now that Harper Ann is laughing and smiling, no one makes her do so like Holt, and Holt loves hammin it up to make her giggle.

Who knows

This is a common sight around our house

I have no idea what he is saying to her most of the time, but she loves it. Harper Ann loves Holt.

She loves her feet.

I am so glad that they have each other

The Nemo's

So, last December, Holt went through a three month sleeping regression. He had, since about 8 weeks old, put himself to sleep, slept in his own bed in his own room, and slept through the whole night. There have been a few times, like when we moved from Oxford to Cleveland and when he gets sick, when he gets out of rhythm and we would stay in his room with him until he went to sleep, but this one took the cake. Finally after three months of laying with him in his bed until he went to sleep and getting up in the middle of the night to put him back in his bed, we got him to start going to sleep on his own and staying asleep. As a reward we got him some fish. I took Holt to Walmart to pick out his new pets. I asked the oh so helpful Walmart associate working in the fish dept. to make sure we got the most ordinary, plain run-of-the-mill goldfish there were, because I was sure they wouldn't last very long. It was my understanding that goldfish have a short shelf life. Anyhow, we ended up with two very distinct looking fish, go figure. Holt then named them, Nemo 1 and Nemo 3. What I have learned in the past 8 months is 1. I seriously underestimated the nastiness of fish and 2. Goldfish have surprisingly long lives

Rammer Jammer

Pretty much all my life I have been an Alabama fan. I cheer for them in all sports, but football is by far the most important. There is nothing like SEC football in the fall. I get giddy when September rolls around and I can officially start the countdown. I plan on indoctrinating Holt and Harper Ann appropriately, in hopes that they will love the game and Alabama as much as I do. I am aware that there are many obnoxious Alabama fans out there (although all fanbases have there rotten eggs) so I plan on making sure Holt turns out to be one of the fans you like to be around.

Holt has watched many a football game with me and cheers for Alabama pretty much anytime any football is on television, including NFL etc. This season he has gotten into it much more, following plays a little, trying to understand offense and defense (i.e. good tackles and bad). Jonathan and I decided that Holt was old enough for his first SEC game. Alabama played Mississippi State a few weekends ago and we found some tickets on e-bay, called Bacon and Lisa and planned our tailgating. The game was the ESPN night game and was packed. We got to Starkville around 1:30 in time for plenty of tailgating. Holt had a blast eating, drinking (capri sun of course), ringing cowbells against my wishes, exploring the campus especially the kids area.

During the game I was able to walk Holt down next to the field in the Fourth quarter and he met Big Al and got to give him a hug. He loved being so close to the players and mascots. Holt's favorite player is Terrence Cody and everytime he would catch a glimpse of one of the big players he would say there's mount cody. It was funny when Jonathan told Holt a few weeks before the game that we were going to the game, because he immediately asked if he was going to get to see Mount Cody. Later when Jonathan said, "do you know who we are going to see?" Expecting Holt to say Bacon or Lisa or Robert he didn't miss a beat by saying Mount Cody of course. All in all we had a great time and Holt had a blast. He passed out before we were out of the parking lot, that is always a sign of a good day.

We made the sign in the bookstore. Jonathan didn't appreciate it.

Holt was so proud

The one picture we let Holt take turned our pretty good.

The kids area was great and Holt took full advantage of all the inflatables.

Bacon is a bad influence on Jonathan.

Some more of our favorite people, Bacon and Lisa.

Gotta love the the giant foam finger.

Harper Ann was with us in spirit In front of the Alabama equipment truck