I have tried to do a post several nights in a row but something keeps distracting me and for once it isn’t the boys…
Now that the women’s team gymnastics competition is over and Phelps has won 19 medals maybe I can find some time to get back to my blog. Then again there is more swimming, more gymnastics, tennis, track and field, volleyball, etc. I love the Olympics! GO TEAM USA!
I am behind on all the things I want to blog about and once again I’m faced with only a few minutes to do a quick blog. Will update on the past week soon but for now I’ll finish a blog I have been working on for a few weeks.
We laugh that Coe eats all day long, but it is true. Not only does he eat all the time but he obviously LOVES food. He is not a picky eater and will eat almost anything we give him. Tonight for example he ate a bowl of of cut up yellow tomatoes. I started taking pictures of Coe eating a few weeks ago because I never want to forget how happy it makes him!
Eat up Coe!
I had to go to Birmingham for work on Monday. I drove up on Sunday afternoon and took Mac with me. We stayed with G and Deeda Sunday night and Monday morning I got up, went to my mediation and then drove home that night…by myself! I left Mac in Birmingham to spend the week with his grandparents.
I took this picture of him before I left for mediation that morning. He was so busy watering the flowers he just waived goodbye. I had to beg for a hug and kiss good bye!
I have called to check on Mac several times in the past two days, but he is always so busy playing and having fun that he hasn’t had much time to talk to me. G told me that she and Mac were watching tv when a weight watchers commercial came on. The actress said something about how she used to eat and eat all day long. Mac’s comment “That’s just like Copey!”
G reports that bedtime is a little difficult. The following conversation took place last night.
Mac: G I need you to take me home now because I just really love mommy more than you.
G: I know you love mommy the most and that is ok, but I can’t take you home right now because it is a long drive and G would fall asleep.
Mac: It’s ok G. You can sleep and I’ll watch for cars while you drive me home!
Thankfully Mac came to his senses and went to bed sad but without shedding a tear. He woke up happy and ready to play. The report today was a great one and I think G went to bed more exhausted than Mac.
Copeland has been good the past few days, but he wanders around the house a little confused. I know he is looking for Mac. I think he has enjoyed his one on one time with me and Albi, but I can tell he misses his playmate and best friend.
I’m sure if Coe could talk he would say, “Come home soon Mac. I need someone to play ball with!” I have to say I agree. I love giving Copeland undivided attention, but I miss my little red head too!
Not a lot of time for a long post, but wanted to share the exciting news of baby Finley Addison Faulkner’s arrival on 7/20 at 7:24pm. She was 6lbs 11oz and 18.5 inches long. She is perfect in every way! I wondered what I would feel when she was born. I have two nieces already but when I met them they were already 4 and 5. I love Mad and Mal more than they will ever know but I didn’t know them as babies. Love at first sight of my newest niece is the only way to describe it.
Finley is the first baby I have seen being born. Thank you Forrest and Ed for letting me be in the room. It is different being on the “other side” of the delivery and I have to say I loved it. What an amazing experience. Finley Addison I love you to pieces and can’t wait to get home so I can hold you and love on you some more. 
*Lots of computer and work issues interfered with this post actually making it to the blog. By the time I finished the post and uploaded it, I was home from Birmingham and had already gone by to see my precious niece before heading to the office. How does she get cuter and cuter every day?!?!
I always knew I wanted more than one child, but I had no idea how amazing it would be to watch my children grow and interact with one another. Now that Copeland is walking and interacting more directly with Mac, the two have fallen into their stereotypical roles as the older and younger brother.
Mac is always bossing Copeland around and Copeland does a good job of ignoring him. They fight over toys and Mac is constantly tattle telling that Copey is messing up his animals organization. Mac will spend hours lining animals up in various groupings, and if I move even one animal over 2 inches he can tell. You can imagine what a 16mo old little brother can quickly do to the animal organization with one swipe of the hand. I’m sure of the course of this blog I will have many opportunities to share big brother little brother stories, so I won’t try to recap them all today!
I do want to share a few photos though. The first is Mac reading to Copey this past Saturday morning. Coe was walking around with a book and kept hitting my leg with it in an attempt to get me to read. I was right in the middle of doing something so I asked Mac to read to him. Surprisingly he read to Copey and Coe listened. Brotherly love…
About an hour later, we were outside playing on the porch. I came inside to get a glass of water and answer the phone. Two minutes later I walked outside to find Mac had finger painted Coe’s face and hair…brotherly torture!
Lately Coe has taken up hitting anytime we tell him “no” or take something away from him. Mac is his primary target. I constantly hear Mac yelling “Copey hit me” and I’m constantly calling back “Ignore him.” We have told Mac that he can say “No Coe, don’t hit” but he cannot hit back. Mac loves getting to discipline Coe but he does not like when we do it!
Last week Colleen sternly told Coe no after he kept hitting Mac. She took his toy away from him and went and sat him away from Mac. Coe started crying and Mac kept trying to give him toys. Colleen told him he couldn’t do that because Coe was in trouble for not being nice. Mac almost cried and kept telling Colleen Coe didn’t mean to hit him and it was an accident. Then today while at Yaya’s house Coe walked up behind Mac and hit him hard on the back. Yaya got on to Coe and he quickly began crying. Mac immediately came to Coe’s rescue and told Yaya that it was an accident and Coe was just trying to do high five (yea, while Mac had his back to him!?). Mac gave Coe a big hug, kissed his cheek and glared at Yaya as if to say don’t mess with my little brother.
I hope Mac will always be protective of his little brother and I wonder how long it will be for the tables to turn. Albi keeps telling me that in the teenager years with Mac’s mouth, temper and average stature his younger (and likely much bigger brother) will be protecting Mac! Only time will tell. In the meantime I like seeing this softer side of Mac!
Most of Vacation (part 1 of 2) was pictures of the boys and all the fun they had at the lake. For the record, Albi and I had a great time as well! Albi rode everything there was to ride behind the boat. His strength and endurance was tested by our extremely athletic nieces!
According to my sister in law, Heather, who has known Albi since high school, he used to be a master tuber. Thankfully Albi recognized that he is not quite as young as he was in his high school and college days, and he didn’t try his patented old school moves on the tube! He was still able to wakeboard but admitted that his legs felt like jelly after a few minutes.
Since I tell stories about everyone else on the blog, I guess it is only fair if I tell of my own mishaps as well. After everyone else on the boat rode the lulu tube, Shaw asked if I wanted to try. Albi announced to the boat that he didn’t really think tubing was my thing. Was that a challenge? Albi said no, but I took it as such and I jumped right in to ride the lulu. For those who have never been on a lulu (I would imagine that is most people reading this blog!) it is a small oval tube that attaches to the boat rope by some type of rotating ball device to the bottom of the tube. If you can get it going the tube will spin 360 degrees. If you lose control the tube will get up on its side and spin. My first try was successful and quite fun. I spun quite a few times and managed to hang on for dear life. I finally flew off but decided I would do one more ride. My second ride was apparently quite entertaining for the boat. I spun and I spun and I spun and then the lulu ended up on its side and I continued to spin until I flew off the tube, through the air and landed face first back in the water. I thought I had knocked out all the teeth on my right side but I came up teeth in tact, a bit of a headache and the wind slightly knocked out of me. I did not ride another tube that day.
Later that night I was washing my face and noticed that I had a blue bruise developing along the right side of my nose. By the morning I had a good bruise above my right eye to match the one now going down my face. I think Albi was more impressed with my tubing skills and toughness after he saw the bruises on my face! (It has now been 12 days since my lulu experience and today is the first day I do not have a noticeable bruise on my face.) Albi did not manage to get any pics of me on the lulu that were in focus and by choice I did not take any pictures of my battle wounds!
Albi and I rode the regular tube together the following day. The water was al ittle rougher. As much fun as the tube was, I learned that bracing my legs in front of me and under Albi was not good for him when we hit a wave and my legs flew up. Sorry Albi!
Poppy (M&M’s other grandfather) built a huge campfire so we could roast marshmallows. Mac like the idea of roasting but ate about two bits of his smores and was finished. Copeland on the other hand would have eaten marshmallows all night if I had let him
Being on/in the water all day made for hungry boys throughout the day and tired boys at the end of the day. Mac was so excited that Aunt Heather had “blue” cereal! He has asked me several times since the trip if I can please buy him colored cereal…maybe next time we are on vacation.
The last morning before we left I decided to see if I could still get up on skis. I hadn’t done it since probably high school, but after two failed attempts I did it! It was fun but definitely required more strength than I remembered. I’m convinced that if I hadn’t been doing the insanity workouts for the past two months I would not have had the arm strength to get up or the quad endurance to stay up!
I have wonderful nieces and great in-laws. Thanks M&M for being so helpful with the boys and thanks Shaw and Heather for opening your lake house up to us. We can’t wait to come back next year!
After a long week at a trial out of town where I averaged 4 hours of sleep per night I got home last Thursday night exhausted and in much need of a break! I begrudgingly went to work on Friday in an attempt to get through the pile of mail that had accumulated over 4 days of being gone and to review and sign the 800 letters my staff had generated for me. I planned to leave at 3 to go home and pack but instead walked out at 6 satisfied that I had gotten through enough of the piles on my desk to leave for vacation and not walk back into the office for a week!
Thankfully mom was keeping the boys that day so she volunteered to bathe and feed them and then bring them home in time to go to bed. I therefore rushed home from the office to pack us all up so we could leave early the next morning to head to Birmingham.
Goal Accomplished…We were in Birmingham by lunch time on Saturday. We spent the afternoon swimming with G and Deeda in their pool and just playing at their house. Deeda and Albi played golf in the scorching heat and G and I got last minute stuff ready for the trip to the lake.
(popsicle brain freeze!)
The boys slept great that night which is not always the case when they are not in their own beds. We all woke up rested and ready to get back in the car to drive 2 more hours to the lake. We arrived well before lunch, changed into swimsuits, covered everyone in sunscreen and began the “lake experience!”
I have a million pictures from the vacation and will try to just post some of my favorites but let me first say Mac was extremely brave and was willing to jump off the dock diving board, ride the jet skis, and get pulled behind the boat on the poparazzi, the lulu, the screamer and the tube. I saw him do a full 360 in the air after flying off the lulu and my sister in law said sheer panic crossed my face. Mac popped right up out of the water at least 20 feet away from where Albi fell with a huge smile on his face saying “Uncle Shaw let’s go again and this time go a little faster!”
I think Copeland had as good of a time at the lake as the rest of us. He loved wearing his floatie and swimming in the lake, but riding the boat appeared to be his all time favorite. He would hang his head off the side like he was a dog and let the wind blow in his face. On the last day he even got to go on a short ride on the jet ski! (Don’t worry mom we didn’t go to fast and both Madeline and I were holding his life jacket tight!)
A few more pictures and stories to come but for now I better get back to work. the downfall of being out of the office for a week is the massive amount of catch up work I now have to do! This will be a late night working but a week off with the boys is well worth it. Plus a late productive night tonight will make my Monday at the office much better…I hope!
