Two first and one last!

Wade had two "firsts" yesterday!! We had a busy day, we hosted playgroup at our house and had a great time. Wade was worn out from playing outside and slept 3 hours and 20 min. He usually sleeps 2-2 1/2 hours a day so that was a much longer nap than usually. I was actually ready for him to get up so we could go work out. When Josh got home we ate some dinner and got ready for..... Wade's 1st haircut!! I have been debating this issue for some time now. He had the cutest little curls that I just loved, however they were getting out of control and it was starting to look more like a mullet or two rat tails! So with Ashley's wedding coming up in two weeks I decided it was time. So we took him to the girl who does my hair. I am always scared to go to those kid places or to someone I don't know because who knows how it would turn out. Well Megan did a great job and only charged us $10 because she only had to cut the back. Poor guy he still has much less hair on top!  Here are a few pictures of our playgroup and Wade before the big hair cut.

Well at first we sat Wade down and tried to put the gown type thing over him but forget it. He was not having that. Then all of a sudden Megan gets something (his other first)... a lollipop. Well that child thought he was in heaven. He did not move he sat there all by him self and enjoyed the sucker. He kept calling it a ball and would say "yummy" he was so cute. He had sucker all over him. Wearing a white shirt was not the best choice for the evening. It was pink when we left. He did so good and she cut all those cute curls off. I forgot to save a curl (bad mom I know.) My mom quickly reminded me when we got to her house to show off his new haircut. So I quickly got back in the car and went back to the salon (thankfully its really close) and asked for a piece of hair for his baby book. Well of course she had just swept the floor. Lucky for us his blonde hair is so blond it was easy to pick out of the pile of hair. Yes I was that mom who dug through somebody else's  hair to find a lock of my child's for his book. I was sad I didn't get a curl but I was not about to keep digging for a curl. It was enough work just getting a little piece.

Wade never gets sugar. Well he eats fruit and we do give him yogurt and granola bars but that is it. He has never had candy, soda or anything like that. I can count on one hand the number of times he has had ice cream or a cookie. So you guessed it.... a 3 hr and 20 min nap and sugar= one wild child. I had made blueberry muffins for playgroup and he ate two muffins and also had a popsicle during playgroup. So when he cried going to sleep and woke up at 1am crying I knew why. I even asked him if his tummy hurt and he said "yes." So that is the last sucker he gets for a long time! I felt so bad because I never should have let him eat all that. So today I have made sure he has eaten really healthy so hopefully his tummy will feel better. Josh is headed to the beach for Zach's bachelor party so we are having a girls weekend with my mom and sister and staying at mom's all weekend. I wish I didn't have to work but have to say I am thankful for such a great job!! Here are some of the other pictures from last night (yes we took way too many!)

Here is the finished product!! I think it looks so cute. She did a great job. Wade was such a big boy and he did great too. The next picture explains why this will be Wade's last sucker for a long time. He was on a sugar high!! But I am so glad he really enjoyed that lollipop.

Busy Busy...

Wow I can't believe September is coming to an end. We have been way too busy so I know this hasn't helped with it flying by. Where to start. Our playgroup started last week. I decided to try to start a playgroup and with the help of one of my best friends Andrea it was a success. We have 7 girls and 10 kids and two of the mom's are pregnant!! Of course I head up a playgroup and my child is sick and cannot come. My mom luckily kept him so I could go visit for an hour. We meet once a week for two hours and rotate houses. We also are going to have a girls dinner night every other month or so. This week it is at our house and hopefully Wade will stay well. I didn't take many pictures but here is one I did get. Hopefully next week I can get a few more of the kids playing!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Wade last week. When he was sick I was trying to get some fluids in him so I tried a popsicle... well he didn't keep it down but he loved it and has wanted them since. My friend Courtney told me she gives her little boy a popsicle at bath time. What a great idea.  Here is Wade eating his during his bath one night last week. It was so nice not having to worry about it getting all over the floor or his clothes!! Sunday was such a nice day we decided to have a popsicle outside before heading to the park. We went to Greenville Saturday to do lots of yard work and clean the carpets. My parents kept Wade overnight and I know he was much happier staying here. Josh and I actually had a great time. We did lots of work outside, went out to eat at Basil's (one of our favorite's) and even splurged and got some dessert. I have not been eating any sweets for awhile now so this was a special treat. We finally most of the work done at 11pm and got on our lovely air mattress and watched "Back up Plan." What I saw of it was really cute but I fell asleep. We headed back Sunday after getting to see the Nicholson's for a few minutes. We miss them so much!! Our house is still for sale but we are also trying to rent it out now (through a rental company!!) if anyone knows anyone looking in the Greenville area. We will be so glad when we only have one house to take care of. It is keeping us busy.

I am not a stuffed animal person... I know this is random but it explains the next picture! I really never have been. I am a little bit OCD about clutter and cannot stand things to sit around. So to me they just sit and collect dust. Here and there Wade has gotten a few either from his grandparents or Josh. He has this blue tub container in his room that holds them all. Well all of a sudden last week he started asking for them when he goes "night night" He is so sweet....he names them all until we put them in the bed. He says there names in a certain order...Scout, Duck, Elmo, more Elmo (he has two), and doggy. He loves it when we put them in the bed with him. Don't worry at night when he is sleeping I take them out before I go to bed. He loves his bunny the best and loves to cuddle with it. Here he is last night with all of his buddies

Another reason this month has been busy is that Wade started school. His first day he did great but his second day he cried when I dropped him off and I had to pick him up 20 min early. They said he really had a great day but after snack that was it and he was done. I am hoping it keeps getting better and better from here on out. I noticed he had his paci when I picked him up so I knew he was pretty upset. We don't give it to him at all during the day but I still send it to school for emergencies. I guess he needed it. I love his school so much already. His teacher sends us an email on Tuesday's telling us what they did on Monday and she started a snapfish picture website and uploads pictures each week. I really hope he learns to love it too.

A few first's

When I decided to start a blog I wanted to do it for two reasons... one being that we have family that lives out of town and I thought it would be a great way to let them see what is happening with us. The other reason was to make this a keepsake/baby book type thing. I am so not into scrap booking so this is our scrapbook. I ordered my first blog book a few months ago and let me tell you I love it. It is priceless. So some of my post may seem silly, for example this one where I talk about all the things Wade is doing but it is our way of looking back at different ages in his little life.

Well today was our first day without the paci in the car. Wade has only been getting it during naps or in the car/stroller. He has gotten more and more attached these last few months. Now I see why the older they get the harder it gets to get rid of it. In the morning he likes to keep it in his mouth while we change his diaper and clothes. Well the little rascal has learned that paci will fall out when I pull the shirts over his head. So he will now take it out to hold it while I take his shirt off then sticks it back in his mouth and he takes it out again when I put the new shirt on. He doesn't want to take a chance of our beloved paci falling on the floor. Then he has to tell it "night night" and throw it back in the bed. Well yesterday he was the only one in his class who had a paci so I decided that was it. Of course my mom says "he is still little and needs it" this is one time we will have to agree to disagree!! So we will see how it goes. He did ask for it in the car a couple of times today but the stroller is going to be our biggest challenge. He really likes to have it when we walk in the mornings. Now we will still take it on road trips and I am going to have it the weekend of Ashley's wedding because we may need our wild boy to be quiet some!! I am really hoping by 20-22 months we can get rid of it all together.

About two weeks ago I thought Wade was color blind because everything was pink... once again I was reminded by my wonderful mom that he was still too little to be learning his colors. So we kept working on them but just here and there. Well today he proved me wrong again!! He is not color blind. Today in the car we were parked beside a red car and sure enough he looked over and said "red car." He knows that stop signs are red so I guess he put two and two together. Then he shocked me. He said "two red" and sure enough a red truck had pulled up behind the red car. He learned two from his beloved paci's. He always asks for two at night! I love how much he is learning but I am a little sad I don't have a baby anymore! The last few weeks he has started putting three words together and today he said... "more biskit (biscuit) pease" I was so proud of those sweet manners. However when we got home and he wanted more to eat so I put him in his high chair and then he decided he did not want to eat and threw all of the biscuit on the floor. Oh it makes me so mad. He does this all the time even in public. Any discipline ideas on how to stop your 17 month old from throwing food. I have tried saying "no" in a mean voice and even pinching his little hand gently. What does Wade do...smiles and laughs. Any advice on that welcome!!

First day of school!

Well today was Wade's first day of school. I was really worried about taking him and just knew he would cry. It has taken 4.5 months of going to the gym almost every day to get him to go in without crying. The last few weeks he has gotten over the tears and has started walking right in. So I just knew that school would be the same way since he is not used to going there. Well my big boy proved me wrong!! We got up this morning and started talking about school. I would say "Wade is going to school today...yeah" and he would say "school." Well then I would get really excited and sing a little song to get him pumped up. Well after I made up a song about going to school he looked at me and said "beach." This boy does not forget a thing. Last week we sang a song "going to the beach" over and over again and since I am not one for singing or making up stuff that is the same way the school song went. Well he remembered but I had to break the news to him that we were not going to the beach. So we took a few pictures and got all ready to go this morning. We went a few minutes early so we could walk around and talk about it some more. He of course ran towards the playground first. We headed inside at 9am and they had a little baby gate up at the door. He went to the door and was so excited when he saw all the toys and they even have a little blow up climbing toy with a slide. He completely surprised me and gave me a kiss and walked right in with his teachers. They said he did great today. They went outside twice, had music and snack and just played. They said that at 1130am he was done and went to sit by the door and look for me. He whined a little bit and we picked him up at 1145am. I just love everyone I have met at his preschool and can't wait for next week. I came home and relaxed and cleaned the house. It was a great break for both of us! Here are his first day of school pictures.

p.s. My mom always took a first day of school picture of us beside our car. Well it always cracks me up to look at those because my dad owned a used car dealership when we were growing up so my mom had a different car all the time. I don't think we have two pictures by the same car. I just love my little Mazda but it is so small so I would not be too sad if next year Wade is standing beside a different car!!

Pirate Weekend- Part 2

Friday night Josh and I put Wade to bed and then started cleaning the house. We got it pretty much all cleaned but the carpets look really bad and we did not have time to rent a carpet cleaner so we will have to go back next weekend to do that. The back yard looked really bad too so we have quite a bit of yard work to do!! I think we may leave Wade with my parents over night because it is so much easier and faster to get it all done with just the two of us. We left our house and headed to go tailgate around 10am. Wade had a blast. He was in heaven looking at all the pirate things. He would just point and smile and say "pirate." He even played a little bit of cornhole when we went to see Josh's college roommate. We went back to Scales Field house where the cheerleaders tailgate and Wade got to play with the girls some and eat some. I am so thankful that I used to coach cheerleading and that we are still friends with Susie and Nickie because it sure did make life so much easier to be able to go back and forth between the stadium and the field house. Especially when we needed to change a diaper or let Wade run around. We could have not asked for better weather... it was perfect. It was cloudy and there was a great breeze.

Wade did great at the game. We were so proud of him. He was amazed by the band, Peedy and all the noise. He just sat and stared with a big smile on his face. He even said "Go Pirates" a few times. He loved seeing Peedy on the field but did not want him to get near him!! My favorite part of the game was when everyone would clap and Wade would look around and get so proud and start clapping. (he had no clue why we were clapping but he loved it.) He usually goes down for his nap around 1230p but didn't even make it awake that long. He was asleep at 1225 and slept for 45 min. I don't know how he slept through all the noise. When he woke up he was so excited and sat right up and started clapping again. We took him inside for half time and let him run around a bit. He made it through the 3rd quarter and we left at the beginning of the 4th. He started to want to get down and play on the steps so it was time to go. We were shocked he did so well for so long; we didn't mind leaving early since we were winning by quite a few touchdowns!! Josh was so proud of Wade... I even had a few mom's around us ask who was teaching this little boy about girls so soon. Of course I just pointed to his dad. Wade would look down at Katelyn and Bayleigh who were sitting in front of us and just smile so big and wave. He loved it when they came up to play with him. He would just hug them and smile and even gave them a few kisses. Everyone around us was dying laughing including Josh. I almost died when he walked up to Nickie's mother in law who was in front of us and kissed her right on the lips. I think he was seeing all the attention he was getting when he would do this so he kept trying to do it. We are going to have to have a long talk with him when he gets a little older about all this kissing and hugging. Josh and I may make it to one more game but I think we may leave Wade at home so we can spend the night and hang out with friends after the game. We can't wait to take him to another game next year!

Pirate Weekend part 1

Here is Wade helping me make the bed and pack for Greenville. What a life!

He was so excited in the car ride on the way to Greenville. We kept telling him we were going to see the Pirates play!!

Wade went to his first Pirates game on Saturday. We headed into Greenville Friday afternoon and stopped by Freeboot Friday downtown. We hung out with our good friends Nickie and Brooks. Wade walked around and said "pirate" a thousand times. He has lots of things here that have pirates on them like blankets, shirts, and books etc. He was amazed at all the pirate things and would get so excited. After Freeboot we headed to our other good friends house, Susie and Kevin to see them and their girls. I coached at ECU with Nickie and Susie and Susie's girls were our bridesmaids in our wedding. It amazes me that 3 years later they don't look like little girls anymore. Bayleigh is in middle school and Katelyn is in elementary. Wade has only met the girls once when he was a baby. However you should have seen him...you would have thought they were best friends. He ran into their house and went straight back into the girls rooms and started playing with them. The girls were so cute and so good with him and he LOVED them. He wanted to follow them around and hug them all the time. I have never seen him like that before! He couldn't say their names but when he didn't see them he would just say "girls." It was so funny. Of course Josh had a comment about not remembering their names and just calling them "girls." Here are some pictures from Friday night and of Wade and the girls tailgating!

Pirate Football

We are so excited to be heading to Greenville today!! I hate to admit I didn't even watch the last game because I was out on the beach while Wade napped. What a game to miss. We are hoping they play like that tomorrow. This will be Wade's first Pirate football game and we are so excited. We may only make it 5 minutes because we have entered the stage where he does not like to sit still!! Hopefully he will be so excited by the people and music etc that he will watch some. I did not get to go to a game last year because he was too little so I am ready. I wish we did not have the issue with cleaning up our old house and doing yard work because that is going to take up some of our time but its ok. Hopefully it will rent or sale soon. We have now decided to rent out our house again (this time through a rental property) so if anyone knows anyone in the Greenville area looking please let me know! We are going to keep it as an investment property for a few more years. I can't wait to post some pictures of Wade "tailgating" in his little jersey. It is his from last year so this will be the last time he wears it because it looks a little small even though it is size 18 months.


Wade changes so much every day and I am amazed at what he says and understands these days. It is like he turned 17 months and now he is a big boy. (kind of makes me sad too) He has mastered "Go Pirates" and "Purple" "Gold". Today in the car he said "stop sign red" and "blue shoes" and it shocked me. I also asked him if he wanted some grapes for lunch and he looked at me and paused and then said "bue berries."  It is so nice that he now knows what he wants (most of the time.) We have been working  on his colors and he is doing pretty good. Most things are "pink" still which Josh just loves!!! I am not sure where he even learned that from? He is also recognizing things. He will say: "Mommy's shoes" or "Daddy's car." He still talks about his balloon in the sky and now talks about the "mean dog" that barked at him at the beach. He will say "mean dog" and then pause and will act like he is barking. It cracks me up every time he says it. I told Josh this is why I don't think I can wait 4 years to have another one because he is getting so much easier and I don't think I would want to go back to the baby stage after waiting that long. However I am not quite ready to start trying for number 2 yet!!! I guess I will know when I am ready but I do not have "baby fever" at all yet. Maybe one day! Now if I could just get Wade to help pick up toys we would be doing well. He understands so much but when I ask him to help clean up he just looks at me like I am speaking a different language. I think he learned this from Josh!!! Actually I have to brag about Josh... I came home last night from walking and he had cleaned the house. I was one happy momma.

Beach- Day 3

Well our last day at the beach came way too fast, but it was a great one. We had a lazy morning and around 10am Josh and I headed to the outlets for some shopping and Wade went to play on the beach with Nana and Poppy. We were so thankful they did not mind watching him because I knew he would enjoy the beach much more than riding in the stroller while we shopped. They had some HUGE sales and Wade got a ton of clothes for fall for such a great price. I just love the Carter's and Osh Kosh outlet. Josh and I had a blast doing some shopping and getting a snack. Wade usually does great going with us but sometimes it is so nice for just Josh and I to go. We got back and Wade was having a blast on the beach. We came in for lunch and a nap and to tell Josh's parents bye. Wade took another great 3 hr nap and Josh and I both took a nap too! What a great Labor Day! After packing up and getting ready to head back home we took Wade back to the outlets  because they have a new Disney Store and Wade loves Mickey Mouse these days and we knew he would love it. We were right he just loved it so much and ran right to the big stuffed animals. We let him walk around and play some before grabbing a quick bite to eat and heading home. We didn't leave until 645p because we were having so much fun. We love leaving at that time because Wade watched Bee Movie for an hour and then slept. We are so proud of how good he was all weekend and during our car trips. He has talked about the beach once today and I am so glad we are going back in early October so he can enjoy one more weekend before it gets too cold. We can't wait to take him back again. Thanks to Josh's parents for letting us come and stay and for taking us out for some great meals! I didn't take any pictures of our last day but here are a few of my black and white favorites.