Greyson (Month Six) in Pictures!

Greyson is seven months old now and continues to grow by leaps and bounds! He is sitting up 'mostly' unassisted now!

He really, really wants to get a hold of Mommy's cell phone...probably so he can talk to his Mimi!

He still enjoys being outside...even though the weather has turned cooler.

He can't take his eyes off those cats! They are very distracting when you are trying to get a good picture!

He is learning more and more how to sit up straight in his high chair, and learning to pick up finger foods and navigating them to his mouth!

Greyson has experienced his first illness...croup! Poor baby!!!

He has certain toys that he loves...I think maybe this sock monkey might be one of them!

Greyson (Month Five) In Pictures

Greyson is now six months old! Happy six month birthday to my sweet grandson! Here are some hi-lites of month 5!!!!

Bath time has become one of his favorite play times!

He has learned to sit in his high chair which makes meal times easier and more fun!

His personality continues to blossom!

Sitting up is a skill he is still mastering.

Crawling is probably next on the agenda!

Everything goes straight to the mouth...including fingers!

His favorite playmates...the cats, Buffy and Sam!

A variety of foods have been added to his diet.

Buffy is becoming more and more tolerant.

Can be a bit fussy at times. . . . but the happy times make up for it!

Still takes quite a few naps during the course of the day.

Potty Mouth

I admit it;  I am a curser. I have been since I was about 16 years old, when my brother, Bobby, ticked me off one day and I chased him all over our front yard calling him all kinds of names and screaming "I'll kill you, dammit!"

I am not proud of this fact.

My worse cursing moments occur during fits of road or drive-thru rage. Ask my daughters. They were traumatized as children when someone cut me off or couldn't speak English at the drive-thru speaker. (I can still hear Jess' little toddler voice saying "uh-oh" when the drive-thru operator repeated back my order wrong.)

It hasn't helped matters that I married a man who may be a direct descendant of a Yankee Catholic sailor. When we met, my curse word vocabulary increased.

My oldest daughter, Amber, may have inherited the forked tongue, as I have heard her let out a string of epitaphs during a fit of rage (sometimes directed at me, sometimes a bad driver or bad boyfriend) that would shame some men. Some say I should be proud she took 'something' after me.

Now my youngest daughter, Jess, is quite the opposite. Her mouth does not utter such indiscretions. At least not in my presence. I am not saying she is an angel by any stretch of the imagination...but she has control of her emotions, and therefore her tongue, I suppose.

Except for one time:

We had traveled two and half , maybe three hours, from Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a nice little family vacation. We were booked in a hotel near the aquarium and also planned to see Lookout Mountain, Rock City and Ruby Falls. After the drive, we were pulling into the parking deck at the hotel, and Jessica , age three at the time, decided she was ready to come out of the booster seat that had held her hostage for hours. She unbuckled her seat belt and slid out of the booster seat while our car was still moving. I turned to her, finger pointing and wagging, and eyebrows knitted, and said 'Jessica Chapple, you get back in that car seat and don't you come out until this car is parked and not moving.' She hopped her chubby little self back in the car seat and started buckling herself back in, then yelled 'You damn Mama!' in the sternest voice her little self could muster.

I was so shocked to hear these words come out of her mouth, I was speechless! But only momentarily. I looked at Chuck and saw the shocked look on his face, then one of us giggled. Then I could Amber in the back seat giggling. We tried real hard not to laugh (as not to encourage this behavior), but it was so difficult!

I haven't heard Jess truly 'curse' since that day. Oh, she uses 'substitute' words like freaking, but not the hardcore stuff. If she did, I would be just as shocked today as I was the day she was three years old!

Me, Chuck, Amber and Jess while vacationing in Chattanooga, TN. We took the riverboat ride up the river and back. Great fun! Can you imagine bad words coming out of either of these sweet girls' mouths???

Greyson (Month Four) - In pictures!

Greyson is now 5 months old!

His fourth month was filled with more growing and learning!

Some of the hi-lites....

Learning to eat Big Boy food - from a jar!!!!
Mommy let him try several fruits and vegetables and he loves to eat!

Beginning to try to reach for things laying just ahead. Pre-cursor to crawling?

Able to keep his concentration on things a bit longer.

Really enjoys bath time now!

Sits in his excer-saucer and plays with the toys.

Still taking several naps each day.



Learning to hold and use a sippy-cup!




Greyson continues to be a joy!
He's very social and loves attention. Mommy says he loves to
get attention at the grocery store and at church.
He still loves to see Daddy come home at the end of each work day.
He enjoys being outside and is growing more and more attached to his 'kitties'.


(p.s. does anyone know how to rotate pics within a blog once they are inserted? I tried rotating them during the 'choose photo' part, no option...and no option given after they are inserted either. They are in upright position in my computer file.)



How the Best Memories are Made

Some of my best memories are the ones made while vacationing with my daughters. They include:

1.  Me, making a flying leap in the pitch black dark from my bed to the girls bed....heart pounding and about to pee my pants . . . .after Amber let out a blood curdling scream. All after going on a ghost walk in Savannah. "Mom, did you just whisper 'Monk' in my ear?' 'No.' AAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

2.  Me, screaming bloody murder and climbing a very steep hill very fast after a long, exhausting hike...after Jess picked up a monstrous looking millipede on the end of a stick and came after me with it.

3.  Jess and I giggling and laughing out loud and getting yelled at by a very groggy Amber....after the resident rooster of the camp grounds crowed until all he could do was croak!

4.  Laying in bed, frozen stiff and scared half to death...after Amber asked me 'Did you hear that? It sounds like footsteps in the hall.', while staying at the cabin in Cleveland, Georgia. I answered 'It's just Jess going to the bathroom or something'. And Jess answering from the other room, 'No, I am in bed and I'm not moving'.

5.  Thinking how I want to strangle Amber...after a long exhausting day of hiking on Cumberland Island and dealing with 'bungee-jumping' worms, fighting lizards, and it's 1:00a.m. and all I want to do is sleep, and I hear Amber asking her tent-mate, 'If you could be any magical creature in the world, what would you be? I would be a unicorn!'.

6.  Me and Jess plotting to conceal the cat-sized cockroaches at the 1800's hotel we stayed at in St. Mary's from Amber....watching them almost float across the tops of the curtains, they 'skittered' so fast (and yet they made a clicking noise like they had on tiny high-heel shoes)...and finally telling her about them the next day when we checked out. If we had told her that night, there would have been NO SLEEP FOR ANYONE!

Ahhhhhh...the memories!

Welcome to Blogging, My Daughter!

FINALLY! My oldest daughter has joined the world of blogging! I asked her to start a blog back when she and Chris lived in Pine Mountain, Georgia. They were always hiking and taking the most gorgeous pictures on the hiking trails, parks and Callaway Gardens, that I wanted her to share their experiences on a blog. But she 'never had time'.  At that time she was not a mommy and not employed. Why in the world, I thought, does she not have time.

Now that she is a full time mommy (which means she is also full time employed, though not at an office), she has miraculously found the time to write a blog. Hmmm.

Her blog entries are short and witty. Not long, detailed, and drawn out like mine. Her blog, so far, does not contain clip art or pictures. Unlike mine. 

She named it Monk Monk to Mommy. You have to read her first entry to understand why. I always knew she could write. I always knew she had a great sense of humor. I've really enjoyed reading it so far. 

I've added a link to her blog in the column to the right of the blogs I read regularly if you want to give her a try! I think you'll like her!

Spring..Around the House

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year...especially around my house and at the park. So many fresh smells, vibrant colors, and fun things to find. Spring is a time of renewal for the earth and our souls. These are a few of my finds...

Close up of Snowgoose Cherry blossums.

The Snowgoose Cherry Tree looks nice with all her white blooms!





Some type of Lily I beleive...right before they bloomed out a gorgeous white.

After it bloomed...

I call this the Duck-Billed Tree, for obvious reasons.

Another shot of the Snowgoose...when she was all budded out.

Not sure what this fuzzy stuff is...mold?

Pink stuff at the park.

Early spring...before the leaves put out.

Buzzards (a.k.a. Vultures) in a pasture near my mom's house.

Sweet tiny blue flowers at the park.