2009 Family Vacation, Day 1

WARNING: I just re-read this and realized how much it rambles... actually, TJ read it and told me that it rambles, so I re-read it and decided that he was right (don't get used to it, TJ). So, I may try to fix it later, like in a few weeks later, when my brain is not so fried.... in the meantime, sorry for never-ending-blog-post which you may or may not want to read.

We awoke early that Wednesday morning. The sun was not yet up, and the warm, heavy, southern air clung to the darkness as we loaded our luggage into TJ’s truck. Our flight out of Birmingham was to depart at 7:00am, which meant that we needed to leave our house by at least 5:00 in order to overcome the one hour drive to the airport. We tiptoed and scurried around the house, trying our best not to wake up Lexie, our gracious house sitter, who was sleeping soundly in the guest bedroom. TJ scooped Tommy out of his bed as I grabbed his shoes and the final items needed for our journey. We managed to make it out of the door and almost to the truck when we heard the barking. Cracker had worked himself into a complete tizzy, and was incessantly barking, yelping, thrashing, and anything else that he could think of to grab the attention of the owners he was convinced had forgotten him. Mere seconds later, as TJ strapped a still sleepy Tommy into the car seat, I could see Lexie through the kitchen window trying to calm down our worried bulldog. “So much for not waking Lexie up!” I thought to myself.

Soon we were on the road, with the miles melting away. Tommy was awake by this point, absorbing all the excitement and anticipation that fills the start of family vacations. “We going to the air-PORT!?!? We going to see Aunt RAY-chil?!?!” Tommy would half ask and half exclaim. After months of planning it seemed that we had adequately built him up for the trip. This would be a trip of firsts for Tommy, first plane ride, first time so incredibly far from home, first time out of the south, and the first time meeting our friends the Thursby’s. So many new things at once can sometimes be tough on little ones, so I wanted him to be prepared and to know what to expect.

When we finally made it to the airport, there were no immediate parking spaces available on the first couple of levels in the parking deck. By the time we had gone around the circular driveway a couple of times, we were all becoming anxious about the minutes whittling away until our scheduled departure time. We finally found a space in section F-2 where we parked the truck and realized that we had less than an hour until the plane left.

After consulting a map twice, and getting at least one other airport patron lost with us, we finally found our way to the airport terminal through the maze of a parking deck. We got our 3 bags checked with ease and made our way up the escalator towards the security checkpoint. When we rounded the corner, we saw the line.

The Birmingham Airport was a much busier place than either of us had expected, and it appeared that early morning flights were very popular judging by the security line that repeatedly snaked around in all directions. When it was finally our turn, I took Tommy and my purse, and TJ took Tommy’s carry-on bag and my 50 pound camera/laptop/DVD player/video camera/miscellaneous wires/chargers bag.Tommy and I breezed through the line with ease, as TJ struggled to retrieve the backpack that had to go through the scanner three times. TJ shot me an I-told-you-so look that I pretended to ignore as he proceeded to question me again about the need to carry on so many electronics.

The plane was already boarding by the time Tommy and I had made a brief bathroom stop and found our way to the gate. We were in the first boarding group and I found a nice section of three seats next to the wing of the plane. I strapped Tommy into the window seat and I grabbed the middle one as TJ put up the carry on’s and sat in the aisle seat. Soon, we had made it to the runway and I could hear the roar of the jet engines firing up. The force of the airplane as it left the ground, gently nudged us into our seats. I heard a slight chuckle from the seats behind us Tommy flashed a giant grin and shouted “WWWEEEEEEE!!”

The flight was short as Tommy filled the time with a million questions. Before we knew it, we were descending into Baltimore, which was our first and only layover. As the plane approached the runway and we could feel the deceleration and hear the landing gear deploy. Tommy took great delight in this additional action and giggled as he exclaimed “We’re going to CRASH!!” loud enough for the entire plane to hear! Such a loud proclamation prompted an immediate and synchronous “SSHHHHH!” from me and TJ. I then quickly explained to my three year old that we were going to land, not crash, and that we really shouldn’t say such words on an airplane. He nodded in agreement, and went back to giggling once the wheels touched the pavement.

The sun had finally risen in Baltimore and Tommy was still in his Superman pajama’s. With all the hurrying of getting to the airport, we had not had time to change him into his “Clark Kent” clothes. He was getting a big kick out of the flight attendants and everyone else calling him Superman, so I decided that it was a good idea to just leave pj's on. We had a few minutes to kill at the Baltimore Airport, so I pulled out the new robot toy that I had gotten Tommy for the trip, and we all shared a chocolate muffin from the Starbucks located next to our gate.

It wasn’t long before we were in the air again and headed for Albany, New York. This plane was practically empty and the flight attendants had taken special notice of the small Superman in our company. They graciously brought us coloring books, crayons, a deck of playing cards, a special set of wings for Tommy, and some airplane shaped cookies. We made especially good use of the playing cards which we used to practice numbers, shapes, and colors.

We landed in Albany without incident, quickly found our luggage on the conveyor belt, and made it to the shuttle bus that was from the Thrifty Rental Car agency located just outside the airport grounds. When we reserved the rental car several months prior to our trip, we were promised a "Dodge Charger, or equivalent". What sat before us on that bright, clear, Albany afternoon, was a silver Kia Optimus. Not exactly what I would consider an equivalent to a Dodge Charger. But, the rental car associate was especially friendly and polite, so we just went with it.

As soon as we settled into the rental car, we plugged up the TomTom and entered in the Thursby's address. We only had 200 miles to go. We made a brief detour to grab some lunch at McDonald's while we were in Albany. We knew that we weren't in Alabama anymore when the cashier had a difficult time understanding TJ's southern accent.

The drive up I-87 through the Adirondak Park was beautiful. The leaves were just starting to change from green to bright yellows and reds and the mountains were always peaking over the horizon in the distance. We made a pit stop at a rest area in the park and I took the first of what would be many photos of our vacation.

It seemed that the last leg of our journy would never end. We passed mountains, lakes, farms, and even the occasional wind turbine before we reached the much anticipated town of Malone. It had been over three years since we had last seen our friends, the Thursby's, and I wondered if their oldest son Tristan would still recognize me. Rachel had told me that she had not told Tristan of our visit as a surprise. To this day I do not know how she kept that a secret for so long.

We pulled onto their street, carefully scanning each house number and looking for a car that matched theirs, until we spotted Adam standing outside. He explained to us that Rachel and the boys, Tristan and Conner were inside waiting on us. We walked in their front door, and there stood Tristan, with his hands covering his eyes. Rachel was standing behind him giving

him instructions on keeping his eyes closed. She flashed a giant smile at us as we came through the door. I tried my best to sneak up to Tristan, with Tommy right behind me. When Tristan opened his eyes and saw me right in front of him, he jumped into my arms and gave me one of the biggest hugs that I have ever had. All the years apart vanished in an instant. I kneeled down to get a good look at both Tristan and Conner, who also came up and gave me a big hug. Tommy wondered over to where we were, and Tristan immediately knew all about Tommy. Rachel then said "And who's this?" pointing behind me. "TJ!!!!!" Tristan yelled as he tackled TJ with a hug.

It's amazing how fast we settled into that first night there. It was almost as if we had never been separated by miles, or years apart. We just picked up directly where we left off. And it really did feel like we were at home...

Why we went to New York State....

It had been three long years since we had last seen our friends the Thursby's. When we planned our trip to the far distant land of upper New York State, everyone would ask why we were going on vacation there. As I would explain to them that we were visiting friends, I couldn't help but think back about when we met them.

The year was 2002 and TJ and I were newlyweds and had just moved to Central Florida. I had taken a job working at a utility located there right out of college. It was the first time either of us had lived more than a hour drive away from our family, and we did not know a single person in the Orlando area.

TJ was able to transfer his job as an apartment complex maintenace technincain to a complex right down the road from my new office. This is where he met Rachel, who was also working at the apartment complex as a leasing consultant. Rachel, and her husband, Adam, were the first friends that we made in Florida.

In the almost two years that TJ and I lived in the Sunshine State, we spent many weekends with Adam and Rachel. I'm sure that, at some point, they must have gotten tired of seeing so much of us. I have so many memories of time spent with them. General memories of the good times that we spent sitting on their porch discussing anything and everything, and the specific memories, like when they got their dog, Casey, and going to the hospital when their son, Tristan was born.

Tristan has always had a special place in my heart. The first diaper that I ever changed was Tristan's. He was so small and precious, and I was nervous about not having any sort of clue on how to change a diaper. But, with a little coaching from Rachel, I somehow managed.

The thing that I have always missed the most about living in Florida were the friends that we made there, especially the Thursby's. When we moved back to Alabama and they moved to upstate New York, it became much harder to physically visit them. We had to rely on computers, internet connections, web cameras, and phone lines to keep in touch.

Tommy was born and they had another son too, named Conner, which we had never seen. We investigated flying out to see them several times, but the price of the airline ticket always seemed out of reach for us. One day I saw an article online about Southwest airlines, which flies out of Birmingham, on their special airfare discount. It was a deal which was too good to refuse. I called to tell TJ about it, and he didn't even have to ask about where it was we should go, he simply said, "I'll call Rachel..."

UPDATE: Goals

I suppose that goals are made to be broken. I didn't make the deadline I set for myself to get all my vacation blogging done, but I did make some progress. I'm about 50% done with the DVD and about 33% done with writing all the different posts. I have a tendency to overwrite sometimes, so I think that's part of my problem now. There are so many things that I want to write down, but I just haven't had the time! Keep checking, though! Hopefully I'll be done soon!!

Something Wicked This Way Comes....

I love musicals. There is something about spontaneously bursting into song that has always appealed to me. And the musical Wicked has always seemed like one that I would love. Back around June my sister, Lexie, and I decided that we wanted to go see this play about the friendship between the witches of Oz. And since there was no way we could talk TJ into going with us, we decided that we would make it a girls night out and invite some friends along. Wicked is currently on tour and the closest to us that it was playing was in Nashville, Tennessee. That's about a four hour drive, but who doesn't love a road trip?

I had never been to Nashville, so it was fun just seeing a new city. We stayed in a hotel downtown, just around the corner from the theater. We arrived in Nashville with plenty of time to explore downtown before the show. We saw all the honky tonks and boot stores lined up along Broadway, and all the various "famous" spots that are so often shown on TV.

The play started at 6:30 and we made it through the rain into the theater with a few minutes to spare. The play was wonderful. The actors were outstanding, the sets were magical, the story was touching, and the music was inspiring. For me, the play was really the highlight of the trip. The next morning we took a bus tour of Nashville which took us by music row, the Nashville Parthenon (who knew Nashville had a Parthenon?), the Ryman Auditorium, and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Me, Lexie, Dianne, and Leigh Anne waiting for the play to start

At the Parthenon

At the Ryman, all we need is Minnie Pearl!

There were a few history buffs in our group, so we made a small detour on the way back to Alabama to see some of the civil war battlefields. We stopped at the Carter House which was ground central for the Battle of Franklin. While the museum was a tab bit creepy, with the cast iron casket and photos of disfigured civil war soldiers and all, the rest of the tour was very interesting. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and showed us 1830's era house, complete with bullet holes still in it's side.

Bullet holes were still visible on the side of the house!

We also made a brief stop by the Carton Plantation, which we did not have time to tour. We will have to put that on our list to stop by the next time we are in Nashville!

The route home carried us through Birmingham conveniently in time for supper. We stopped by Chipotle to enjoy the last meal of our trip. It was a great ending to a great trip! I loved the city, loved the play, loved the site-seeing, and especially loved the company!

Prologue - Busy September

To say that the last two weeks in September were busy would be a gross understatement. They were however, my hands-down-favorite two weeks of 2009. It kinda feels like an episode of VH1's Best Week Ever TV show. In short, it was a vacation filled firsts and memories. It is nearly impossible to cover everything that went on in one blog post, and I want to write down everything that we did so that I can remember (because let's face it, I have a terrible memory) all the details of it in the distant future. Therefore, over the next few days I will be uploading several blogs about our vacation. I am also working on a DVD of our trip to NYS to see our friends, so I seem to have a few balls in the air between all of that and work and normal life stuff. My goal is to have it all written by next Sunday. I don't really know when I'll have the DVD done by, but I'm going to try to have it done within the next two weeks. Between the fair, Halloween, and the start of deer season (ugh!), October promises to be busy as well. So it seems that I will have a lot to write about. We'll see how I do.....

Happy Upside Down Birthday Tommy!!!

Today is 09/09/09, which, if you flip upside down is 06/06/06, and hence it is Tommy's upside down birthday! When I informed him of this when he woke up this morning, he looked at me, smiled and said, "Ooooh, I get to go to a birthday party!!" Then I had to tell him that we weren't going to a birthday party and the whole upside down birthday thing kind of went flat... oh well!

Now if I had been more on top of things I would have really made a big deal about this. Not many people can have an upside down birthday, and this will be Tommy's only one. I could have had an upside down party with upside down cake, and played some sort of upside down game, but no, I am just not on the ball right now. But I figured that I ought to do somthing special, so I let Tommy decied what to eat tonight, and he asked for grits and eggs (two things that I can actually make!). I told him that they were upside down grits and eggs, which technically, I guess they could be..... I also thought that we needed something in lieu of cake, so I decieded to try and make apple dumplings. And (believe it or not) they actually came out pretty good.

I am as shocked as you are!

We had ice cream with the apple dumplings. Tommy took two bites of his ice cream and decided that the dumplings were contaminating it and refused to eat anymore. I can't blame him, though, I have a pretty bad track record when it comes to cooking things for the first time. I wouldn't want to be my guinea pig either. TJ seemed to like it though, and offered to take one for the team and eat what Tommy left behind.

It wasn't perfect, but it was something, and I would call Tommy's first and only upside down birthday a success.

My 3 Year Old Has Homework!!

That's right. Homework. Did I mention that he is three? And in Daycare? Geeze! And I think that it's pretty darn hard for a 3-yr. old! Look at what has been sent home for him the last two days:

Handwriting practice? I mean, I would have trouble with handwriting practice!

I guess it's good for him to practice with the letters and all..... but homework? I've tried making it a fun game for him, but I don't know how much longer I can keep that up. We are also supposed to practice saying the three different pledges they say every day in class. He already has the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag down, but I don't even know the other two, so I am having to memorize them too! Great.... now I just realized that I have homework!

We were also instructed to work with his colors every night. But he's pretty much already got those licked. If they add anything else we will be working on homework for an hour when he gets home. Right now, I'm dedicating only about 30 minutes each night to "homework". I guess that's not too bad....

I feel like I need to say here that I really do like his daycare. They all do a great job there, and all seem to love Tommy. Tommy likes going there, which takes a big burden off of me because it makes me feel better about leaving him there everyday. I know that he is taken care of and loved. I guess the whole "homework" thing just kind of took me by surprise. At this rate, he'll be solving differential equations by the third grade! Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but at least you'll be able to read his handwriting!

More Fan Day Fun

Did I mention that there was reportedly 4,500 people at fan day, and they weren't even playing a game? Did I also mention that it was about 98 degrees outside with a humidity of like 125%? It literally felt like the atmosphere would burst into rain at any moment. Come to think of it, it DID BURST INTO RAIN a couple of times. All of this means that the three of us felt like wet, sweaty, heat monger creatures by the time we got to the end of the line to see Coach Chizik. Tommy was able to pull this look off because he's three, and cute. I, on the other hand, looked like I had been in a sauna with all my clothes on. Coach Chizik was located in a nice air-conditioned room and when we walked in the door, there was a photographer lady there beside him. As soon as Tommy started walking towards Coach she started snapping away. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I backed up as much as possible, while still trying to be near Tommy in case he had one of those stranger danger meltdowns. The Coach was very nice and signed everything we pushed in front of him and posed for a few photos of our own. As we were walking away the photographer lady approached us and said that she was with the Birmingham News and wanted to know if she could use the photos she took in the paper. She also wanted to know Tommy's name and age, my name and where we were from. To be honest, I was kind of smitten with the fact that Tommy's photo might appear in the largest paper in the state and happily agreed to her request and answered all her questions. Later, it hit me, if she was taking photos of Tommy, then why did she want to know MY name??

That night when we got home, I checked the Birmingham News website and found one photo of Coach and Tommy, and (yep, you guessed it) one photo that had Tommy, Coach and me in it. No problem, I thought, there is no way they will use that photo of the three of us over that super cute one of Tommy looking up at Coach as he signs a football. And I was right. Morning came, we found a Birmingham News, opened it up, and found the adorable photo of Tommy and Coach (without me, THANK GOD) for all of the state to see.

Feeling quite proud, I drove to work ready to show off to all my co-workers the newspaper with this photo in it:

Super Cute Tommy & Coach Chizik Photo taken by The Birmingham News

On the way to the office, I noticed that my blackberry was all abuzz with emails. Not being one to check emails while driving, I refused to look at them until I got to the office. As soon as I walked in, the first thing that someone said to me was "Good Morning, Have you checked your email? No? Well, you might want to."

I opened my inbox to find about 10 different emails with a reply to the same subject line of "Famous Employee". I opened up the first one that I had received that morning to find nothing but a link to this photo:

Tommy and Coach, with heat monger creature in the background taken by The Birmingham News

Sigh.... Apparently, one of my coworkers in our Birmingham office found this photo online and emailed it to EVERYONE IN THE COMPANY. Needless to say, by the time I got to work, this photo was plastered in every common area in my office building. I'm *still* finding copies of it lying around that I have to throw away.

Mascot Weekend

We were exceptionally busy this weekend. The Biscuits don't have too many home games left this year, so we decided to go watch them on Friday night one last time. Tommy was uber excited to go to the baseball game and see Big Mo again, and HEAVAN FORBID that we walk by good ole Mo with out taking a picture with him (even though we already have PLENTY of photos of Big Mo).

Luckily for Tommy, the Buckmasters Expo was in town and having a VIP night at the Biscuits game. This means that we had a mascot twofor because the Buckmasters mascot Bucky was at the game too!

To be honest, I'm a little confused on Bucky as a mascot. I mean, Buckmasters is a organization for hunters, but their mascot is a large buck wearing a hunter's orange vest???? (Just a warning Bucky, don't trust those hunters, they are NOT concerned about your safety. Trust me on this one.) Tommy got a big kick out of seeing him anyways....

Sunday was Auburn University's Fan Day. I think that most of you that know me can appreciate the fact that I am a college football fan. And like any good college football fan, it is my solemn duty to brainwash my child into the traditions and culture of my team. So for the last three years in a row, Tommy, Sissy and I have made the pilgrimage to Auburn for Fan Day. This year Auburn has a new head coach, so that meant standing in a ridiculously long line to see the new coach.

Of course, the guy that Tommy was really looking forward to seeing was Auburn's mascot Aubie....

My boss' daughter is on the Auburn University Dance Team called Tiger Paws this year. They were at Fan Day signing autographs for the kids too, so we stopped by to say hello. These girls were so incredibly sweet! They took the time to talk to Tommy and really made him feel special. I think that he enjoyed seeing them as much as anything at Fan Day.

And to round out our tour de mascots who should we find, but one of my personal favorites, the Chick-fil-a Cow....

More on AU Fun Day later............

Weekend Stuff

Just another uneventful weekend for the Norris clan. Montgomery has a minor league baseball team called the Montgomery Biscuits. Saturday was Autograph/Fireworks night so we all decided to go see the game. Tommy really likes going to the Biscuits games. They have a great playground with inflatables and he likes watching the fireworks. He even likes the Biscuits mascot, Big Mo.

Note: I have no idea what Big Mo is supposed to be, but the kids seem to like him, as evidenced by the line we had to stand in to get this photo.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated Lexie's birthday, but I've already written about that. Otherwise, my weekend was spent attempting to slay the never dying monster which is the laundry. Pretty boring. But, I needed a boring weekend, and I loved it!

One final thing. Might anyone care to explain this????

I found this little jewel on my camera amongst the bazillion or so other photos on there that I have yet to delete. I mean come on, that's just ridiculous. And amazing. On several different levels. Both socks.... WOW. I have a couple of suspects in mind, however I know of only one that would take photographic documentation of such crimes. (I'm looking at you, Sissy....)

Spidey Shoes

Sooooo, Tommy got new shoes last week. They have spiderman on them. And they light up. Apparently that's all the rage in 3 yr old footwear, because Tommy would have nothing to do with any other shoes in the store once he saw these bad boys. Luckily for me they were on sale at Target for 12 bucks. Unluckily, these particular fancy-scmancy Spidey ligth 'em up shoes are white. (Ok, so maybe not completely white, but a lot of white areas anyways) And you know how I feel about white tennis shoes. What's that? You don't know? Well then, I'll tell you. White tennis shoes, especially in the hands (or feet) of a pre-schooler are a pain in my.... well, let's just say that they're a pain in my foot! Why all the animosity towards children's footwear? Why, oh why, would I be employing reverse discrimination techniques towards my kid's shoes?

I have a theory. Somehow white leather is a attractant for red mud. I almost have it all worked out. It must have something to do with the red mud atoms being negatively charged and the white leather atoms being positively charged to a higher degree....... I could go on, but you get the point. Those shoes get dirty faster than Spider Man can can shoot a web! (Which I've been told is very fast) I've tried all kinds of tricks. I've put them in the washing machine, I've tried scrubbing them, I've even tried some far flung ideas like using baby wipes to try and clean them. But, alas, they just never do look the same. Besides, who in the world has times to scrub tennis shoes everyday anyways??

But, Tommy LOVES them. We've had them for less than a week and twice already he has asked to put them on when he woke up in the morning. Coincidentally, they had a spiderman shirt on sale at Target that very same day. So, Tommy got an entire Spidey ensemble for about $15!

Apparently, we are going through a bit of a superhero phase at our house......

Happy Birthday Sissy!!!

Monday, August 10th is my sister Lexie's (aka Sissy) 26th birthday. We celebrated her birthday today with a sister's day at the movies and a trip to the Nestle Toll House Cookie Store.

Happy Birthday Lex, and thanks for always being the cool Aunt!

I have more stuff to share about this week's events, however that will have to wait until later. For now it's off to bed!

Favorite T-Shirt: Part Deux

Tommy wet his bed last night and we didn’t discover it until this morning when he woke up. It was already 7:00 and we were running late (I know that you are totally shocked) so that put us even more behind because we had to give Tommy a bath. Baby raccoon was a casualty of this bed wetting incident and also needed a bath.

Luckily enough for me, only his tail got wet, so I didn’t have to wash the entire stuffed animal. Only his tail got a bath...

As soon as he got home this afternoon he said “Oh, my Baby Raccoon!!” He did not pass go, he did not collect $200 dollars, and he most certainly did not stop and give his mamma a hug, he went straight for Baby Raccoon, and has not put him down since. Thank goodness his tail was dry by then!

I was able to avoid the Batman shirt dilemma this morning by distracting him with a new Superman shirt....

Which he did not like nearly as much as Batman, but it would do in a pinch. It’s actually the shirt I wanted to buy first. I’ve seen an old picture of a little TJ striking a Superman pose, and I thought that it would be cute to get one of Tommy too. By the time he got home he was telling me about his Superman shirt. I think that it has become his favorite one, right behind Batman, of course.

Standing for truth, justice, and the American way…..

So I started this blog in January, and here it is the very end of July, and not even one update. Great job, huh? Well, I’m not crafty enough for scrapbooking, and I don’t keep a journal (at least not consistently) so I’m going give this whole blog thing another try. Now that my Mom is internetting, I figure she, and a few other family members and friends might like to look at it every once in a while. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks, I’ll be up to a whopping five followers!

If you’re reading this, then you probably already know that I have a (now) 3-year old son named Tommy. I am a full time working mom and have been married to TJ for almost seven years now. We also have an English Bulldog named Cracker. I’m going to try to use this blog as a journal, or record, of what life is like for my clan and me. I’ll try to update it a few times a week (no promises).

So, I suppose that I shall start with this weekend. Not too eventful, just another weekend at home. I had a coupon for Old Navy, so I bought Tommy and myself some clothes. (Actually, I bought Tommy a bunch of clothes and got myself two shirts, which were on sale, and immediately felt guilty about it.) One of the shirts that I got Tommy had a picture of Batman on it. As soon as he saw it, I heard a loud “BATMAAANNN!!!” screech, and I knew two things immediately:1^st that this was going to soon be his favorite shirt, and 2^nd that this could mean trouble. He asked to put it on instantly, I told him that he had to wait, he then proceeded to ask me four-thousand times (ok, maybe only like 7 times, but who’s counting) before he went to bed if he could wear the Batman shirt. The INSTANT this child opened his sleepy eyes this morning at 7:00 am, the very first thing he said was, “Can I wear Batman now?” So, ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: Tommy and his Batman shirt.

I just love how toddlers immediately fall in love with certain things. They can get so much joy from a simple object like a toy or t-shirt. I dread telling him in the morning that he cannot wear his Batman shirt to school because it’s dirty. I may try getting him to put it in the washing machine, we’ll see if that works with three-year old logic.

TJ’s mom and dad (aka, Nana and Peapaw) came for a visit today. We did the usual lunch at the Café, and a trip to the Bass Pro Shop. While strolling towards the women’s clothes section in Bass Pro Shop, we happened upon a toy display which contained a myriad of assorted woodland creatures, of the stuffed animal toy variety. They had every stuffed animal that I could think of, rabbits, foxes, horses, dogs, bobcats, deer (this is the bass pro shop, after all), even the old standard teddy bear.

On the very top shelf, lay a small raccoon toy. Tommy pointed to it and said “Baby raccoon!” There I was, somehow impressed that my 3-year-old can identify a raccoon, and without thinking, I retrieved the toy from the top shelf handed it to my son. If I had been in my right mind, I would have known that this was a mistake. This boy carried that raccoon throughout the store with a tenacity of a mamma raccoon protecting her own baby. Every time one of us tried to even look at the raccoon Tommy would respond with “No, Mamma, this is TOMMY’s baby raccoon! Can we take it to Tommy’s house now?” (Note to self: Perhaps I’ve used the ole sneak-it-back-on-the-self-while-the-boy-is-not-looking trick one too many times.) Fortunately for Tommy, such pleading was exceptionally adorable today and far too much for Nana (or myself) to bear. Thanks to Nana and Peapaw, Tommy is the very proud owner of a brand new baby raccoon.
So far, he has taken a nap, ate a snack, watched WALL-E, and overall been completely attached to this stuffed animal. I suppose that, the baby raccoon is as good a purchase as we’ve ever made at the Bass Pro Shop. Tommy sure is enjoying it!

Tommy hasn't put that raccoon down yet!

As for Cracker, he just doesn't know what to think of all this.....

More to come later..... maybe.

Okay, so I have a MySpace page AND a Facebook page, but for some reason I feel the need to start this blog. Just in case I didn't already have enough about myself on the internet.....

My name is Courtney and I live in Central Alabama. I am married and have a two year old son who is shown in the photo here. I have a full time job, so these posts might be few and far between, but I'm willing to give it a try.

More to come later (maybe)....