Valentine's Day Party

Mo's day care had a big party for the kids for Valentine's Day. The teachers decorated the room, everyone brought goodies, and I got to go! It was so cute to see all of the kids having such a fun time together. And the teachers did a great job with crowd control. There were 31 names on the list Mo brought home to make up the Valentine's cards. Wow! Everyone brought home a goodie bag with cards from everyone in the class, plus plenty of candy (of course).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mo's Table--1 of 3 full of kids



Hi Mama!



Yummy...Heart Shaped Sugar Cookie



Mo's Big Class



Mo and a friend



Pierce's Birthday Party--Mo had a BLAST!

Many of you know, Gabe & Pierce Martin are Mo's best friends. He can't wait to see them--they live down the road about 1/2 a mile--but with everyone's crazy schedules, Mo only gets to see them about once a month. Well, in January, Pierce turned 8 and had a great party. Mo was SO excited. (Luckily, Heather warned Josh ahead of time about the main attraction of the party: reptiles--specifically snakes. Knowing Josh's legendary dislike of snakes, she kindly gave him the option of not coming. So Josh told Pierce, "Happy Birthday" a day or two early and stayed home doing whatever it is guys do when given some freedom to do what they want without the wife and kid around.)

Mo, on the other hand, could not WAIT to go, and was in the thick of everything from the moment he got there. Fortunately, Pierce and Gabe like Mo as much as he likes them, and they are awesome at including him in everything. Check it out!

The folks at "Pets Gone Wild" brought a wide array of large lizards and snakes, and even a big tarantula. They let the kids touch nearly everything, and while some of the kids were unsure and unwilling to touch, Mo wanted to touch them ALL! Here he touches some big lizard. (Yes, Mo touched the tarantula as well.)

Now he's touching a pretty...Honduras corn snake, I think....not sure. This is one of about 7 or 8 snakes that were there.

Heather got to hold one for awhile during the presentation. Right up her alley!

Gabe takes after his mother--holding a snake is COOL!

Mo wanted to hold the big one--I think it's a Boa Constrictor. It was very long. Mo was fearless.

Look, Mama, I have a SNAKE!!!!

Now we get to the important part of the birthday party--opening presents! Yes, that IS my child helping the birthday boy open his gifts. When I tried to get Mo to come away and let Pierce do it, Pierce said, "It's ok, he can help!" What a generous spirit.

Mo helped open every gift. He was as excited as Pierce about what the presents were. It's ok that they weren't for him. He just wanted to open the presents.

Finally all the presents had been opened. Now Mo is sitting on Pierce's lap surveying the loot!

Then they all had cake and ice cream, and afterwards went outside to run off some of that boundless energy. It was a good day.

Josh & Mo



I'm always taking photos of Mo for no apparent reason--just because. I was playing around with angle shots in January and took a couple of him sitting on the floor looking up at the camera. He easily got bored with that and wanted to lay on the couch. Then I got Mo hiding behind Josh. It's not any special occasion--just a random night in January after Mo got ready for bed.



Mo & Grover

Mo on the Couch



Where's Mo?

Do you see Mo?

There he is!























Out of the Crib!

     Last Sunday night Mo was so curious about the impending snow that he couldn't sleep. I put him to bed at 9:00 (already a bit late for him, so I thought he'd go straight into dreamland). At 10:00 he was hollering, "Mama! I'm 'Awake Boy'!" and, "Come get me up!" from his room. Josh and I were in bed already, but not asleep. We were too busy watching the weather and being amused by reports that Carnesville had an inch of snow already even though we had JUST looked outside to nary a flake in sight.
     So I went into Little Man's room and explained that it's Night-Night time and he should be 'Sleeping Boy', not 'Awake Boy'. I gave him another good-night kiss and a snuggle and put him back in his crib. I went back into my room, assuming he'd fuss a minute and then settle down for some serious sleeping. 10 minutes later I heard a small 'thunk'. Then a low fussy cry. Then, "Mama!" as the door handle began to rattle. I was over there in a flash--he sure got my attention this time. Poor Josh--he had just dropped off to sleep himself. (Still no snow at our house at this point, by the way).
     I snatched up Mo and checked him over (no visible bruising or obvious broken bones) and breathed a sigh of relief. But I knew that he'd just climb out again if I put him right back in the crib. So he won that round--he made it into our bed "for a little while," I said. It finally started to snow about 30 minutes later. Luckily it was pretty heavy and coated everything very quickly--plus it swirled nice and thickly. So Mo got his fill and happily went back into his crib and slept until about 8:30 the next morning. We had a talk about how he's not allowed to climb out of his crib, and he didn't repeat the performance. However, Josh and I decided that as soon as possible (which meant not until the snow melted enough to get out) we needed to convert the crib to the toddler bed and put in a little barrier to keep him from rolling out in the middle of the night. 

     Last night we accomplished the task. Here are the photos of Mo in his "Big Boy" bed! And I was so impressed with him! Both last night and today for his nap he didn't get out of bed even one time after I put him down and told him to stay there--he knows he physically can do it, but he didn't do it. Great job, Mo!



Mo and the Lightning McQueen Big Boy Bed



It's a perfect fit!

 

New Lightning McQueen bedding and pajamas



New night light, too! I'm ready to sleep now.



Snow Days In January 2011

We're home for a snow day for the 2nd day in a row, woo hoo!

That's lucky since Josh and I stayed up late watching the Auburn Tigers become NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!! War Eagle to all our Auburn friends!

Here are some photos of Josh and Mo playing in the snow today--building a snowman and sledding down our hill. Our dirt road is frozen enough to make it pretty slippy for even the 4 wheel drive to get down to the paved road. The paved road has about 1/2 inch of ice on it, so we're pretty well snowed in. Luckily we've got power and so we're snug and warm. Hope all of you are, too!

Sledding...

Here comes Daddy!



Oh, there goes Daddy!



Mo's coming down!

Dragging the "sled" back up the hill.



Headed down together! So much fun!




Mo, Daddy & the Snowman




Hey, don't throw that snowman at me!




Mo and the Snowman. Happy Snow Day!