A Simple Deck of Cards

Christmas was an awesome time for the Tuckers. We got a nice little present named Brandon on December 3 and that has kept us busy and extremely happy at the same time! Bethany and I went to Alabama for Christmas with the Tucker family, while Stephanie stayed home with Brandon.

Bethany and I had a lot of fun in Alabama, especially Bethany. She was excited about seeing her cousins from Eufaula, and the extended family too! They played outside for hours and had a blast! I only wish I still had that kind of energy! Anyway, Bethany got lots of toys for Christmas and she got to legally miss a nap on the day we were there as there was no way she was going to go to sleep in the middle of all that excitement!

When she finally did go to bed that night, all the play of the day continued on into her dreams and she talked in her sleep to her cousins until about 1 AM. To me, that’s a fun filled day that just kept staying fun.

Back home now, everyone has pretty much recovered from the holidays, and the cold weather has settled in. That gave Stephanie and Bethany a pretty miserable cold for a little over a week, and Bethany ended up with an ear infection. Stephanie tried a home remedy mixture (I think) of Garlic and Olive Oil, which reduced the pain and discomfort pretty dramatically, but this infection wasn’t going away, so we had to succumb to Amoxicillin to get the rest of it taken care of. Bethany doesn’t seem to mind – it’s her pink medicine that tastes like bubble gum!

Well, since they’re now getting over it, it’s now Brandon’s turn. at 6 weeks, he has fallen victim to his first cold. He’s been staying up and crying most of the day yesterday, but was so exhausted by the end of the day, he basically collapsed into bed when he got swaddled. The poor guy just coughs when he’s laying down. and seems most comfortable when laying on his stomach (I only do that when he’s laying on my chest though). We put a wedge in his bed under the sheet to elevate him a little when he’s sleeping, and that seems to help a little. We’re hoping he’s almost through this first bout and kicks it out of his system.

I wonder if I’m next? I haven’t had any issues and am now the only one in the family that hasn’t had a problem….

We’ll see…

But for now, everyone is doing pretty well – Brandon seems to be on the mend, is talking up a storm now (coos a lot!) and has been seen to crack a smile every now & then….he’s growing up fast!

Here is a picture of my new cool kid, Brandon. he was born December 3 at 11:47 PM weighing in at 9 pounds!

Two weeks ago we visited Brian’s parents in Birmingham.

Bethany is growing by leaps and bounds. Let me describe some of what she does.

She is joining me in singing more and more. It started out with her saying, “E-i, e-i, o,” during Old McDonald had a Farm. I also sing the B-I-B-L-E song to her and will point out the letters that spell Bible on the front of her board book Bible that we read. She joins in the song now and will sing, “B-I-B, yes.” In case you don’t know, the song begins with “Oh, the B-I-B-L-E, yes, that’s the book for me….” I have a new CD with classic children’s Bible songs, and it has that one. She’ll sometimes chime in as I described. She’ll also join in on parts of the ABC song. We’ve been singing that song to her since she was just a few months old.

On that same CD is the song, If You’re Saved and You Know It, Say Amen. A couple of weeks ago, I was putting her pajamas on and that song came on. I wasn’t paying much attention but then suddenly realized Bethany kept saying, “Amen.” She was saying amen during the appropriate places in the song. She has since done the same thing. So she knows the word “amen” from saying it at the end of prayers especially meal prayers. It just seems so precious that she’s chiming in with the song, while I realize the context of the words of the song.

She talks up a storm and repeats just about any word. I lost count of her vocabulary many months ago. She is beginning to put more than one word together. Not long ago she was saying, “Paw Paw come” over and over. We called Paw Paw and she repeated it to him. He asked her what she wanted him to do. After a very long pause, she said, “play.” She also knows the power of the word, “please,” and uses it correctly. I’ve been working with her to say “help” when she needs help. She’s doing this more often, too, which is very helpful to me instead of listening to whining though that is becoming more frequent these days.

Her thinking processes are also developing. Last week she was playing in her room while I was just sitting to the side watching. She suddenly said, “Daddy come, Daddy come.” Then she paused and said, “work.” She was absolutely correct. Daddy was at work. I was amazed at her thinking process. None of it was triggered by me either.

She’s also beginning to parrot books. There are several Dr. Suess/Al Perkins/LeSieg paired down board books that we have. These are winners. The Ear Book. The Foot Book. The Eye Book. The Nose Book. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. Sometimes I hear her just repeating phrases from the books like “tick tock, tick tock,” which is what our ears hear when they hear a clock. You get the idea. She sometimes will say the words that I’m about to read while we are reading together. Reading continues to be her favorite activity.

Well that is enough for now. I’m going to try to start posting regularly. Ask me about it if I don’t.

Unfortunately, I have to turn this feature off.  While I love reading the comments posted by family members, it’s the spammers that get me.  While I’ve had two family members post loving comments, I’ve had 10 times that in spam posts from people I don’t know. 

While I screen and approve each and every post that comes in, it’s better to not have to deal with it at all than to screen everything.  Spammers make me sick!

When you try and do something nice to encourage family involvement in our lives, such as putting this blog up, it’s those that I don’t’ know, nor do I even care about that ruin a good thing.  So, for all of you spammers out there wanting to sell me your Uggs, and whatever else you try to get me to click on, you can go get back under the rock you came out from under as far as I’m concerned, because you will no longer be able to try and infiltrate this site with your garbage!

While I try to keep the bedrooms doors shut, Bethany will take advantage of any opportunity to climb up the chair and get at my desk.

This past Saturday Bethany enjoyed her first visit to the pumpkin patch. She saw a sheep, a calf, a kid, a piglet, a chicken, and a turkey. She took a hayride and crawled around the pumpkin patch. We got so many cute pictures!