Finally - got my OLD camera working again

As many of you have noticed AND COMMENTED, I have been doing a TERRIBLE job of updating this blog. Well, I promise to start doing better because I finally got my old camera working so I'll have it with me all the time (like I used to!). It was going to costs me at least $75 to send off my old digital Kodak because I dropped it and the battery closer thing broke off - so it wouldn't hold batteries anymore. Well, this morning I decided to get out a tiny screwdriver and take matters into my own hands. Granted, I dropped the camera almost a year ago (July), but what the hell - I finally fixed it and it didn't cost me a penny!

Ah Dude

Too cute for words - Jen kept Neil a week or so ago while I went to a meeting and he had a TERRIBLE diaper. When she was changing him she said, "Oh Dude" because it was awful and Neil thought that was hilarious! So, here it is a week or so later and he's still saying it. I think this picture says it perfectly, but I included a video as well!

Neil's vocabulary

Mulk = milk

Beyes = bread and bird (not sure how that happened)

Gaulk = golf

DD = DG (Ashley's mom)

MiMi = Mary Robin (Ashley's sister)

Nanna = Nanny (Rodney's mom)

Guck = duck

Boon = balloon

Munie = movie

Peese = please

Buball goal = basketball goal

Feesh = fish

Boo = blue

Ball, juice, up, down, baby, bug, book, egg, light, boat and moon.  And the most special word of all - LYLA!  I can't think of anything else, but I am sure he says more than that right now!

Talking, talking, talking

Neil is definitely a talker - just like his mama.  He has begun to repeat things that we say, which is terribly scary.  Guess we are going to have to really watch the potty mouth now!  Neil's best words come from the books that we read over and over and over again.  Right now, he points to and says, "moon, choo-choo, juice, milk, ball, bug, down, up, dog, cat, amen (at the end of his prayers!), DG (my mom), nanna (Rodney's mom) and a few other things that I can't think of at the moment.  But, he's doing SO well and really starting to enunciate things.  I can't get enough of him right now - he's SO much fun to hang out with.  And he knows all his body parts - he can say nose, eye and mouth, and point to (but not say) hair, tongue, teeth, ears, belly button, knee, arm, hands, leg, foot, shoes, toes and fingers.  Such a smart boy - so proud!

Lindsay, Rusty, Jen, Neil and I went to eat breakfast this morning at Three Little Birds - if you haven't been there, it's one of my favorite places.  SO GOOD!  The weather in Charleston is beautiful and I'm so proud of the people that ran (and walked) the Cooper River Bridge this morning.  Lindsay and I vowed to do it next year.  I honestly haven't done it before because I've heard it's such a nightmare getting over there in the morning - not really a good excuse I guess.  So, next year - I'll do it next year :)

Neil is doing so well with his health and his sleeping patterns.  He has been sick a time or two, but I do feel that keeping him at home has been good for him so far.  Rodney and I are working out a pretty good schedule now too - both of us are home one day per week with him and Rodney's mom is keeping him the other two days.  We alternate on Friday's, depending on what is going on that week.  I can't believe this beautiful day today - after breakfast, Neil and I went to Wal-Mart and bought him a little tikes basketball goal.  He's napping right now and I'm about to put it together.  I will try and capture his face when he plays with it for the first time.  The kid is COMPLETELY obsessed with basketball - just balls in general, but he really loves basketball.  We have a standard size basketball goal in the driveway and Neil will literally stand below the goal and try and throw the ball as high as he can.  So sad - so I couldn't help myself - I had to go and get him his own goal that he can actually reach.  It will be fun!  And he LOVES to be outside.  I'm telling you - he is SO much fun right now.  I just love this age.

Caroline and Emily are in town to walk the bridge, so hopefully we are going to have a big ole group of people going out on the town tonight.  I can't drink, but I can definitely eat!  

I hate that I don't have pictures to post - I actually do, but I don't have a way to get them from my camera to the computer.  I'll be sure to do it at work this week so we can share the new videos and pictures ;)

Neil's 1st spaghetti dinner

Neil, Rodney and I had a really nice family day today.  We had a great morning cleaning and organizing some things around the house then went to lunch for Jody's birthday at California Dreaming.  I had something I've never eaten there before - and that is really saying something!  If you've never had their BBQ chicken nachos, you MUST order them next time you're there.  So good - seriously!  Now every time I do to eat there it's going to be a toss up between the BBQ chicken nachos and the creamed spinach nachos.  Ugh, decisions!

After lunch we all had a great nap.  Thank goodness for Saturday (and Sunday) naps - I think they really help me make it through the week!  Rodney made spaghetti for dinner tonight.  Instead of feeding Neil the spaghetti with a fork, we decided to just let him go at it.  As you can see, he LOVED it.

So Rodney and I traded off watching Neil tonight.  I went out first for Lindsay's birthday dinner downtown, then came home to keep Neil while Rodney went out with a fun group for Jesse's birthday.  So much for doing things together!  At least we both had a good time :)

Merry Christmas (a little late)

So where have we been over the last two months?  I've had my head in or around the toilet for the most part - yep, still sick!  I'm now 20 weeks pregnant with a little GIRL.  Can you believe it?  How am I so lucky to have God bless me with a little boy and now a little girl - I'm still in awe and shock from finding out on Thursday.  

I promised some friends that I would be better about updating the blog.  I know I've been terrible about it, but one POOR excuse is that it's been so cold and we don't have heat in the office where my computer is - so it hasn't been convenient to go up there and update the blog.  So, I'm using Rodney's computer while Rodney sleeps and Neil sits beside me watching the baby crack movies (Baby Einstein) and playing with a balloon.  He is completely obsessed with anything that is remotely similar to a ball and has been since day one.

Christmas morning was a blast.  Neil LOVED his wagon and his climbing castle (thanks to Santa's little helpers).  We were crafty and a did re-gift some toys that Neil already played with - heck, he doesn't know any better and we saved some money!  He just loved having all the toys on display for him to jump into.  So cute and so much fun.

A few days before Christmas, Rodney and I took Neil to go see Santa (and the Christmas lights) at the James Island County Park.  Santa and his photographer helper were the best I've ever seen!  We rode the train around the park to see the lights and had a great little family night.  If you've never done the train before, I honestly do suggest it - especially if you have kids. 

Oh yeah - Happy Valentine's Day!  My plan was to make today SO special for Neil - get a card and small gift...yeah, none of that happened.  Maybe next year!  Next Valentine's we'll have a 2 year old and a 7 month old - crazy to think about.

Some of you all know that Neil stayed sick in day care, so we decided to take him out for a while.  He didn't go back after Christmas "break."  I can honestly tell a huge difference in his health already.  We've started him on a multi-vitamin with iron and I think that has helped tremendously too.  Nancy, Rodney's mom, keeps Neil twice a week and we hired a Nanny to keep him two other days and I was keeping him every Friday.  That worked for a few weeks until our Nanny found another job last week.  So - if anyone has a good suggestion for a Nanny, please let me know.  There are a few good leads I've gotten from Craig's list, but I really want someone that is going to be reliable and is interested in staying on for at least a year or more.  

Well, we are going to explore downtown Charleston today with the million other people for the 

Southeastern Wildlife Expo - should be fun!

Happy 1st Birthday (party) Neil

Long weekend! We had a fantastic time with Neil at his 1st birthday party on Saturday. Thank you so much to everyone that came and made his day extra special. For those of you that weren't there, we missed you! And, I promise I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

He did pretty well opening presents - those that weren't opened by the other children that were there - so cute! After he opened his presents he literally PASSED OUT. I was holding him, he laid his head on my chest and was OUT. I've never seen the kid pass out like that -he was completely exhausted. I let him sleep about 30 minutes, then we woke him up to do cake and ice cream. It wasn't a good situation with the cake - he HATED it. Definitely didn't like everyone staring at him and shouting happy birthday. My friend Carissa said it best when she said something to the effect that it must be completely frightening to be a 1 year old and have a flaming cake placed in front of you and everyone shouting at you for no apparent reason.

Rodney and I went for our 1st baby appointment for little hancock #2 - everything was great. We saw a heartbeat - yes, only 1! I don't know why, but I had more than one person ask if we are having twins. NO - there is only 1 baby in my belly. The doc set the due date for July 3rd - it's going to be a HOT summer.