Bathtubs and Birthdays

We have so many birthdays on both sides of our family. You can imagine how overwhelming birthday parties can be, especially for grandparents. To make it easier on mamaw we decided to just have 1 party a month (Sunday afternoons) at her house so she can celebrate the grandkids' birthdays. Believe it or not we have a birthday in every month except December. This is also a chance to get the family together once a month for a good meal, some fellowship, horses, go-carts and zip-lines. May is Annalee, Chloe and Jadon's month. This is what goes on on my side of the family. Now with Eric's gang, we have pool parties and ride golf carts and four wheelers. My extended family is huge and I would not have it any other way. Birthday parties are just an excuse that we have to get to be with the people that we love. When I was a child, I always wanted siblings my age, or a nearby friend that was a walk away, or cousins that lived close by. When ever I did get to have a fun filled day with children, if we were swimming, riding bikes, or playing ball, it was remembered for a long while. Those days were far and few for me but my children experience this life style daily. Can you imagine growing up in a household with 6 other playmates and your best friends were your 15 cousins that were a short drive away. That is my children's life and it sounds like a good one to me. They still complain though. Just last night we had a "talkin to" about not being thankful and content. They always want more. More spend the nights, more friends over, more candy, more ice cream, more TV, more, more, more. They sound like me, "I want a bigger house"," I want a camper"," I want to go to Disney"," I want to adopt." None of us can ever have enough HUH?


This week John Mark has started being a terror. An unpredictable terror. He insists on going into my bathroom and squeezing all my toothpaste out on everything, walls, floor and Tuesday it was in his and Judson's hair. Wednesday he dumped my garbage down my toilet. Thursday at 4:30am Eric caught him in the closet having opened up and pulled out all the diapers, all the wipes, all the Q-tips, and all the drawers. He crawled onto the counter and poured coffee grounds into the coffee maker where water is supposed to be poured. He has started taking out every apple and taking a bite out of each one of them. Yesterday he dumped all the bath water onto the floor. The deal is that this is not like him. You know when you can usually predict what they will and won't do. Well this is very unpredictable. You may say "where were you when he was pouring the water out?" Well, normally he would just sit and play so I was dressing Judson. I don't know where I have been during his adventures but who can predict that a 2 year old will get up at 4:30am to destroy his closet. He seems to be better today. Hopefully his exploring phase has passed, or has been "corrected" out of him.