Recharged

It is amazing how one date night can totally make up for lots of nights of cleaning, laundry, exhaustion, etc. I have been looking forward to tonight since Monday night when we decided it was time for a date night. I must say it didn't disappoint. Usually our date night consists of running out for a quick bite to eat. We never linger anywhere very long, knowing we have a little man to get home to, even if he is asleep. Tonight was different. Due to some changing circumstances with John's job (long story, another post), John had his third interview with Mercedes on Tuesday. He had two phone interviews the week before. This is an opportunity he is pretty excited about and after making a list of pros/cons, the only con we can come up with is the commute. It isn't really even the commute, just the fact that he would have to be at work at 6am. So...he wanted to test drive it with me to see what I thought about the drive, etc and he wanted to show me the plant. Since this is the first time John has been excited about anything remotely related to work in a while, I suggested we make a date out of it! I have been dying to go to my favorite Italian restaurant in Tuscaloosa, DePalmas for a very long time. So on Monday night we decided we would do a drive by Mercedes and then keep going a little further and eat. On the way home, I told John we should try to do an "out of town" date every few months. We had such a great time! Mainly because we didn't just eat and run. We had a 45 minute drive filled with conversation, then we had to wait about an hour to eat, which got us to talking about college and courtship. It is weird to think that I was a freshman in college 8 years ago. Going back to Tuscaloosa brought back so many memories and I felt like an old person as we drove around, going "OOOhhh, that wasn't there....hey look....The Loft....Starbucks....Panera." Dinner was amazing. If you are ever in the area, I HIGHLY recommend it. Well worth the wait. We cracked up when we looked at the time and realized it was 7:30pm and we still hadn't been seated yet! We hadn't really noticed it was so late. I can't remember the last time we ate so late, but I know it was well before Will was born! It is funny how going back to my college town after not being in a while made me feel old. There were lots of college kids on dates, all dressed to go out, and I hadn't even had a chance to change out of the clothes I wore to school today. On the way home we drove around campus, my old sorority house and telling funny stories about our college days. We topped the night off with TCBY drive through before jumping on the interstate. We blasted music and sang on the way home. I joked with John and told him I felt like we were young again :) John leaves in the morning with some guys from our Sunday School class back in Auburn, headed to Tennessee for the game. I was so thrilled we got to spend some quality time together. Date nights sure are different now...we come home and the first thing we do is go and check on Will. What a precious sight!

What Will I Do???!!!!???

I leave for 4-H camp in the morning. 5th grade goes every year. Last year was so much fun and I am sure this year will not disappoint, however last year little man came with me (I was 5.5 months pregnant). What will I do not being able to see this precious face for the next 2.5 days??? I am hoping that I just stay super busy at camp and time flies. Tonight I tried to rock him to sleep. I just wanted to hold on a little bit longer-I leave bright and early in the morning. He was not having it-the kid hates to be rocked...he much prefers to just be laid in his crib. I on the other hand would love, just for tonight, to rock him for hours. He went to bed in his big boy pajamas and I couldn't help thinking how incredibly fast the past 8 months have gone by. I hope he doesn't change too much in the next 2 days. I told John if he says a word or starts to crawl, he is to act like it never happened :) Here's hoping that he doesn't give his daddy fits while I am gone and that he misses me just a little bit!

Introducing Baby Emma!

Will has a new cousin! John's cousins, Jimmy and Mary, gave birth to this little cutie on Tuesday. She is SO tiny and precious and adorable and sweet! Can you tell that I love her already??!! They came home from the hospital on Friday and we took Will over today to see them. She is so snuggly. Funny how Will was just like that 8 months ago, but time flies and you certainly forget just how tiny they were!

Emma Catherine Velotas

After holding her at the hospital, and knowing John's other cousin has a girl on the way, I told John that I had baby fever!! He laughed (not a funny laugh, but a you just almost gave me a heart attack laugh) and then proceeded to tell me that he thought that free basing acid and cocaine at the same time sounded like a better idea. I guess that was his way of telling me he had not quite caught the baby fever again :)We sure do look cute as a family of 4! We might just have to steal her for the night (and then be promptly reminded of why we are not quite ready for another one).

Babble

I have decided that I think it would be absolutely perfect to only work 4 days a week...

Today I got to stay home with Will! My mom has the whole week off to vacation with my dad in San Francisco. John's mom is keeping Will the rest of the week, but today I had to stay home. I LOVED it!!! I still am not sure if I am "stay at home mom" material, but I could definitely use one more day to the weekend. We lounged around this morning. Then, while Will napped, I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, put away laundry that had been folded for a few days (or ten), and got myself ready. We met John at Newk's for lunch which was a very special treat! We tried to do that once a week over the summer and it definitely spoiled all of us now that I am back to work and we can't do that anymore. After lunch, Will and I hit up some of the local consignment shops and then came home just in time for it to rain and enjoy the perfect napping weather.

The reason for the blog post title...

On the way to lunch today Will was just babbling away, not making any sense, but definitely loving to hear his own voice. He does this often in the car. John has really been working with him to say Da-Da. I figure this is probably easier than Mama and instead of confusing him and working to try to get him to say all different words, I would just work on Da-Da as well. I am such a good sport, I know! So while driving to lunch I would say Da-Da which would be followed by Will saying "balalalaba waaaaaa palalalba." I would say Da-Da again, only to hear "hahahalalalal bababababab waaaaaaa." And then I started to laugh. I was reminded of the Friends episode - "The One Where Joey Speaks French." He is auditioning for a part that he needs to be able to speak French. Phoebe agrees to help him learn. She says a french phrase and then he is supposed to repeat it, except he always just says jibberish, but he is really proud of himself because he thinks he is saying the same thing. To him, it sounds the same. This is kind of how I see it with Will. He is just a blabbering away, thinking he is saying exactly what we want him to.

If you have never seen the Joey clip, it is worth checking out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jNVo9Orh2Y

EIGHT!

Will is 8 months old today...I say this every month, but it is so hard to believe!! He is just as cute as ever (even in those questionable orange and blue colors that have appeared in his wardrobe a lot now that football is here)!

-Will still just has those 2 teeth in the middle on bottom. We are wondering when more are going to appear.

-He squinches his nose when he smiles or laughs and it will melt your heart in 2 seconds. It is absolutely adorable!!

-He babbles all the time, but has yet to say a word.

-He is still VERY ticklish on the sides of his ribs and giggles so hard that it takes his breath away.

-We are sure he weighs at least 22 lbs now...we need to weigh him to confirm this, but he is a chunk! He wears mostly 12 months clothes-only a few of his 9month things fit him.

-He has started to shriek and scream...John says it sounds like a terydactyl. It is so high pitched and once he starts it is hard to get him to stop. We think he just likes to hear his own voice. See the picture below. So animated!

We went to Botannical Gardens today to have his picture taken. It will be a few weeks before they are ready to preview but I can't wait to see how he did. He was so good, just more interested in the grass and the pine straw than smiling for the camera. John and I looked like 2 crazy people making animal sounds and screaming his name right behind the photographer trying to get him to look :)

Here is some of that orange and blue I was talking about. Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Mary got him some super cool kicks. He looks so grown up in these pictures...this is why I rarely put him in shorts!

Game Day

We had such a fun day in Auburn on Saturday. So much fun that it took the rest of the weekend to catch up on rest!! We left around 9am and met up with some friends for lunch. Then we headed to campus. Will was such a trooper. We were out in the heat from about 12:30 until almost 6. He only got cranky once when it was way past his nap and finally he just crashed in his stroller. Taking a baby to tailgate is a very interesting experience. You can't just sit for very long. Will liked to be moving. I also had to figure out the logistics of how I would pump in the afternoon while we were there. I ended up in the referee dressing room in the coliseum. LONG STORY :) But it was nice and air conditioned and Will got to finish his nap in there and then we fed him before going back into the heat for Tiger Walk. We were so excited to introduce him to his very first Tiger Walk but he didn't exactly share our sentiments. As soon as the crowd started cheering, Will's little lip puckered out and he started to cry. I had to walk him back to the curb right by our tailgate before he would calm down. I guess it was a lot to take in all at once! Of course we got in a lot of play time with Kate, which also called for another photo session. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Those two are too cute for words. Now that Kate is sitting up and they are both a bit older, they are very aware of each other. We could not keep Will's hands out of Kate's hair...the bow didn't stay in for long. It is hard work trying to get babies to look at the camera at the same time. I probably have 20 pictures where either Will or Kate or both are mid-blink or looking another direction or look intoxicated. But they were adorable in their Auburn gear!

I made this outfit for Will after I made the first one. He looked precious in it!

Will's Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Mary bought him this awesome Bo Jackson jersey romper, so we changed him into it once we got on campus!

John's cousin, Peter, is an Auburn Cheerleader this year. At this point, Will was way overdue for a nap and was way over having his picture taken, but I was so glad we got to see Peter and get his picture taken. Maybe we can swing a group shot with all the cheerleaders and Aubie at some point this season!

Right after we left Peter, Will was OUT!

John getting Will pumped up for Tiger Walk-there is no telling what he is talking to him about...

Will and Kate in their preferred mode of transportation (please look at Kate's feet crossed-adorable!!)

Kate's face is priceless...she is looking at Shealy like "Help! What is he doing!?"

This is the best I could do at a shot with both of them looking

Tired of the Mamarazzi!

Just look at those chunky thighs!!!

Keeping With Tradition

In keeping with tradition, I am posting this video on here like I have done for the past few years the day before the first Auburn game of the season. It is by far the most talked about thing that I have ever posted on this blog. I cannot tell you how many people have seen this hysterical footage of John at Tiger Walk in the Swamp. All year long we run into people that are friends of friends of friends and they talk about John and this video. We like to think of it as his 15 minutes of fame. It for sure cracks me up each and every time I watch it. We are headed to Auburn on Saturday to kick off the first game of the season. I cannot wait to see some of our old friends and John cannot wait to give Will the experience of his first Tiger Walk!