I guess I write one post per year.

I am the world's worst blogger. I almost forget I even have one.

The update:

Brock is now 5! He's in Kindergarten at Duffield Primary School and loving it so far. He has come a long way already - just today I got to DROP HIM OFF instead of walking him in. He's a little timid at times. Hard to believe, and it usually lasts about 2 minutes.



What else is he into? Well, not much really. I was going to sign him up for soccer but of course I missed the deadline. I have no clue how to find out about such things in advance. Oh well. He's a great big brother to Eli...making him laugh at the most random things.

He's also into Selena Gomez at the present time. He sees her on Disney and gets all embarrassed. He made the mistake of saying she was pretty so I really ride him about being sweet on her:)

Eli is now 17 months old (15 months adjusted). He's still doing well, hardly ever sick. He's progressing slowly with PT/OT. He army crawls and can sit up with a little help (he can SIT, but can't sit up). We went to a physiatrist a couple of weeks ago and she was seriously amazed at how well he is doing considering his diagnosis in the NICU (Level 2/3 (possibly mild 4) brain bleeds with resulting PVL). She recommended ankle orthotics and said he'd be walking sometime soon (HOPING, PRAYING!)


He says so many words I can't even count. He'll repeat anything. He points at his ears and says "EYE" and points at his ears when you ask "where's your ears, eyes, nose". He says "HO?!" whenever a phone rings - at home, in a restaurant, on tv. Hilarious!

He's a total daddy's boy, and answers any question you ask with a "Yeah!"



Ok, that's your yearly update. Maybe I'll try harder.

I was just thinking it had been a while...

But a year?? Brock was 3 in that last post.

He turns 4 on Thursday! FOUR!

Let's see..this year has been full of ups and downs. I think I should start blogging again.

What have we been up to?

Well, Brock is an almost 4 year old. He's full of creativity, drama, and he is hilarious. He makes me laugh every day with his little "Brock-isms". He can be a little stubborn at times, but that's just who he is.

For instance:

- "Come inside my party machine" - the purple blanket/tent

- the whole difference between girl parts and boy parts. We won't go into details but it was hysterical...I was crying!

- "Mama, you're ruining my sleep life" - when I woke him up too early one morning.

He has changed daycares to First Broad Street Methodist and he LOVES it. He stayed home with me while I was on maternity leave, but he missed it the whole time. I'm boring, I guess.

He loves swimming, playing outsideside (we're working on it, now that he's four he needs to learn to say outside), trains, trains, trains. And more trains. It is an obsession really.

My biggest change this year was a complicated pregnancy, preterm labor, a NICU stay of 54 days, resulting in the sweetest baby on earth. Mr. Eli is thriving right now, and we're so happy he's home and doing well.

Then (3 lbs, 3.4 oz!)

Now (12 lbs 12 oz!):

He hates tummy time, in fact I have him on his tummy right now. He decided to sleep instead of practicing holding his head up. He was almost 11 weeks early, so he's just now 2 months adjusted. He will soon have an Early Intervention evaluation to see what therapy he will need as a result of his brain bleeds and PVL. What a rough start to life.

Luckily he rolls with the punches. He is so happy, smiling and cooing all the time. He never even cries when he wakes up in the morning, just lays there looking around :) He sleeps ALL NIGHT. Such a difference from Brock. He started sleeping thru the night while I was on bedrest in the hospital!

I'm on a weight loss/get in shape mission. I've started doing P90X with Morgan - on day 54 now. I haven't lost much weight, but I have definitely toned up. I have about 20 lbs to lose, so Weight Watchers/exercise is the key. Having a NICU baby should have meant I would lose the baby weight quicker, but we ate out wayyyy too much during that time. And naptime = go get donuts time for me and Morgan. I guess we stress-eat.

I'll try to keep this up to date now. I start back to work August 16 so we'll see how that works out.

This is what I call "PURE JOY"

Brock got a new four wheeler for his birthday. I have to say, it rocks. It goes up and down hills in the grass, even when it has just rained. I think it is safe to see he could catch flies that day!

Howdy Strangers.

Well, let's see. It is June. Time flies when you are working, let me tell you. The days used to drag by, not that I didn't like staying home...but now months have gone by in what seems like weeks.

Brock is still loving SKEWL (as he calls it). Apparently he is an angel there and saves up all his temper tantrums for home. YAY! Remember when I used to worry about him not talking? Yeah, those were the days. He'll talk your ear off now!

Brock's favorite things these days:

1. His TRICLE BICLE. That's a tricycle his Nana and Poppa bought him for his 2nd birthday. He rides around the kitchen table, over and over and over. The walls are taking a beating, but what am I going to do? We have a gravel driveway:)

2. Thomas and his friends. ALL OF THEM. We went to see Thomas Live in B'ham with Gran Gran and Grand Dad. It was cute.

3. Cars. Lightnin Queen. LOL! He has two little cars from the movie and the other day I caught him putting Lightning McQueen in timeout because he crashed into Ramone.

4. Throwing temper tantrums.

5. McDonald's chicken nuggets. He's about to turn into one!

6. Chick Fil A milkshakes:)

What Brock is up to These Days.

So, in January I made the leap and decided to go back to work. I was a little worried about Brock going to daycare. My mother-in-law was going to watch him on Monday and Tuesday and he would go to daycare the rest of the week.

He went exactly ONE week to daycare before getting sick. We took him to the doctor and he had walking pneumonia and RSV. The doctor said no school for 2 weeks. I called the school to tell them and they said "did you know we are shutting down on Feb 27th?" No, I didn't, thanks for letting me pay a registration fee and sign up though. Well, I didn't send him back there since they were shutting down. My mother-in-law kept him the rest of the month and he started at Victory Baptist on March 1.

He is really getting used to it. At first it was hard, listening to him say sleepily "I wanna go see Nana!" and telling him, sorry buddy, you are going to school today. But now he loves it. He talks about his teachers all the time (Mrs. Shanna, Mrs. Trina, Mrs. Jessie, Mrs. Tabby, Mrs. Lock (Morelock, the director)). He names them over and over. Don't get me wrong, he still prefers nana's house, but I'm happy that he likes it there. He talks about "the kids" too. LOL! Like he's the only grown-up one or something.

We just got back from Alabama for Easter. Brock can't or won't say "Grand Dad" so he was calling him "Wudder" (Fuller). At Easter we got him to say "GrandWudder" LOL!! So cute! He got up the next Monday to tell me "I wanna go see Wudder!!" - usually he says Nana or Gran Gran. He had so much fun playing with the girls. We went to my parents' new house and they ran around testing out the echo quality of the concrete floors.

Let's see...what all is Brock doing lately.

• He can count to 12!
• He can recognize a lot of letters and sings the ABC song (with some artistic liberties)
• He can name every Thomas train ever invented by sight.
• He can hit the ball off the tee.
• He is eating more lately. He'll say "I'm hungy mama, I need...uh....somepin!"
• His favorite foods are ham sandwiches, baloney, chips, and cookies. Oh, and NUMINUMS (m&m's). I have a health food nut on my hands.
• He loves his DB Payer (portable dvd player) and watches Thomas movies, ice age, and COO COOs (Blues Clues) over and over and over and over.
• He loves lining things up. His cars, his magnets (AB's - he calls them), his blocks, whatever he is playing with.
• He is totally potty trained except for night time. He's getting there though. He's been PT for a while:) ROCKSTAR!
• He loves moving the couch pillows. He gets all of them and makes a huge pile to jump on.
• He hates taking a bass (bath) until he is actually in it. Then he doesn't want to get out.
• He loves hiding in the tent and scary daddy.
• He is getting very bossy.
• He weighs 30 lbs!
• He loves pinking. This means painting. I don't know why he calls it that!
• He talks on the phone to Cole alot. By this, I mean he pretends and has a big long conversation. Too cute!
• He loves Max, Buddy, and Mogs! He is a dog-lover!
• He says "I love me Mommy!" - that means I love you. In the mornings when I drop him at Nana's house he will yell "I love me too!" when I tell him I love him.
• He gives the best hugs and kisses:)
• He still cries at night. AND he always wants me to rub his back. THANKS, Gran Gran for starting this habit.

I guess this is all for now. I'll try to post more often.

She likes me, she REALLY likes me!!!

My cousin Danni obviously felt sorry for my poor pitiful blog and gave me an award.

So here I am, graciously accepting this award on behalf of the little people.

The rules are: name 5 addictions and then award this to 5 other blogs.




My addictions:

1) DIET PEPSI - ahhh, the bubbles, the carbonation, the lovely caffeine...the first sip in the morning that makes your eyes water and your heart fill up with love.
2) CAM - who knew that trying to lose weight would make me an internet addict. I found a message board that I love and now have several very close friends that reside in my computer. Hopefully we are all going to meet up this year. They all have kiddos Brock's age (+/- a month)
3) SWEETS - hence the need to go to a weight loss website. In particular, Brach's double dipped peanut clusters. YUM.
4) FACEBOOK - myspace, you suck. Facebook RULES! I have gotten back in contact with a zillion old friends on here. I love it.
5) OLD FASHIONED OATMEAL - sounds weird huh? I feel out of sorts now if I don't have this for breakfast. Now if I can get the other two meals figured out I will be able to get off the weight loss website.

My 5 Blog Awards go to:
1) Scary Mommy (http://www.scarymommy.com/)- hilarious, great pictures, always entertaining.
2) 50 Fingers & 50 Toes (http://watleymomoffive.blogspot.com/) - my cousin's new blog - it has really cute stories and pictures of my sweet cousins (er...nieces and nephews?? LOL)
3) Three Times the Giggles (http://threetimesthegiggles.blogspot.com/) - a fellow Cammer's blog about her identical triplets. They are SOOOO freaking cute you have to check it out.
4) Bring the Rain (http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/) - the most precious story of a baby girl named Audrey Caroline. Bring a tissue and a heart ready to hear about God and his miracles. Great Christian music too.
5) Cakewrecks (http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/) - when you need a good laugh. I never thought a cake could be so funny:)

Alrightly, off to get Brock "MOH MOHK" - (translation - More Milk). Learn to speak Brockanese, people.
2)

Christmas Recap

We had a nice Christmas this year. Brock got lots of toys so he was THRILLED. We had "Fake Christmas" here and real Christmas in AL this year.

Here he is at Mamaw Berry's house playing with Emily's "Hannah Montana" headset. I think he might get one next year if he is a good girl.