Christmas 2009

This Christmas made me very happy!

Can you see why?

He did it, finally

...and it only took 17 months to the day for Cole to take his first steps.

Merry Merry...I know why you're buggin'

Because I've been gone for way too long. I have no excuse, except we have been living like gypsies between three states.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house (that's currently off the market, but still for sale if any one's interested). Wade helped with the tree and Cole is enjoying it. As soon as I get him out of the crib in the mornings, he takes my hands (because he's still not walking), and drags me to the living room. He points to the lights to be turned on, and then he just marvels and delights...until he's tired of the wet diaper and realizes he's hungry.

Sadly, that's all I got right now. I know, I thought that becoming a gypsy would mean more exciting stories to blog about too. But really it just involves being in the car a lot. I will leave you with this, though. My husband is so good at so many things, but one of those things is not music. If his life depended on it, he could not muster up one song to sing, pick the Beatles out of a line up, recognize Elvis' lips and hips or even know Johnny wore black. That being said, we were having a lovely evening on the couch watching television. A commercial came on and had a nice little song playing in the background. It was instrumental, I'll give you that, but Wade looks at me with all the seriousness in the world and says, "that's the Doors, right?" Bless his heart. It was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

He's a boy, dang it

Now does this child look like a girl? I don't think so. But, it seems that most everywhere Cole goes, he gets called a "pretty little girl." Of course I'm flattered, but come on people...HE'S A BOY.

All this name calling was fine at first. However, Cole is well over a year old with two haircuts under his belt and loads of blue clothes. Still, all this doesn't sway anyone: from the little old lady at the grocery store to the young couple walking down the street. They all ask, "how old is your little girl, what a beautiful young lady" and on and on (you should see the strange looks I get when they ask 'her' name and I reply with Cole). It's nice and all, but Cole is going to get a complex as soon as he figures out everyone thinks he's a girl.

What's a momma to do? Suggestions (other than cutting his hair again) would be appreciated. Thanks.

Happy Halloween

What's (not) new around here

The first thing that has not happened is that we have not sold our house, in case you were wondering. Seems people are interested, but no one can commit to buy. We had an offer, we accepted the offer, then his financing fell through. Had another offer, but they must have been taking something when they made the offer; we politely refused. We had another person sincerely interested, until she saw the bathroom (FOR THE THIRD TIME), and declared it too small. She may need to look someplace other than Homewood if a big bath is what she's after. Oh, well. The house will sell one day, and we'll be settled one day.
The next thing that has not happened is Cole walking. At 15 months, I'm beginning to think he may be lazy. However, I do realize his laziness makes my life easier. So, for now, I will not complain.

Nap Time

Cole has been giving me fits while taking his morning nap. Of course he's never been a great napper, so these bouts of not sleeping in the morning should come as no surprise. But, I persist in putting him in his bed because he is just too much of a grouch come lunchtime if he doesn't get some rest in the morning. Well, this was the morning I decided to stick to my guns, and not enter his room for the entire "nap" period. When I finally did go to check on him, this is what I found.The little booger. I'm not sure if he got hot, then cold. All I do know is that I couldn't contain my laughter.


Oh, and I couldn't resist the photo below. Right Said Fred singing "I'm Too Sexy" just keeps repeating in my head.

Yes, I'm a model, you know what I mean, and I do my little turn on the catwalk. Yeah on the catwalk, I shake my little tush on the catwalk.

We've been busy

I am so sorry I've been away for this long. I must say that I never knew simply announcing an upcoming move could be so time-consuming. Where have my days gone? Well, one day was spent cleaning Cole's face after his first oreo cookie experience.

Catering to a bunch of men during a weekend of dove hunting will wear a lady out.

Oh, and helping mom cook breakfast for all those men will really wipe one out.

Playing in the sand makes for a fun morning, and an even better afternoon nap.

Sprinklers are much better than a bath just before bedtime, don't you think?

Wrestling with daddy will make a little one go down for the count.

Cousins are fun. They will play with you until you're pooped out.

And who knew packing could be so tiresome.

And petting a fish, well, that doesn't really make you tired. But, you get a better idea of all we've been up to.

Home Renovation Reveal

I'm sure you've all been on pins and needles waiting for me to reveal the final photo from our home renovation. Thanks to my uber-talented friend, Caroline, she came up with the color scheme for the house. And I love it! The front door is just so bright and fun without being overwhelming, I think. Doesn't it just make you want to buy this house?

Going Home

You like the new paint colors on our house? If you do, you can buy it because it's for sale. Wade, Cole and I are leaving Homewood to return to my hometown. We are excited about being closer to family. But, we are so sad to leave our neighborhood.

Wade and I always thought we'd move from Birmingham to Carrollton one day, so when the opportunity came up, we should not have been surprised. But we were. We have always enjoyed living in Birmingham, but since Cole was born, we began experiencing what our neighborhood offered and we fell in love. In the last few months, we've taken advantage of living close the zoo, walking to nearby parks and restaurants, standing in the street and getting to know our neighbors. It's been idyllic! I'm sure going to miss this place. Homewood has been beyond wonderful. For as much as I complained about our house, I began to adore it after the spiffy new paint job. I must admit I'm going to miss this little place we call home.

The decision to leave did not come lightly, but it seemed to come quickly. The company Wade worked for was in trouble and filed bankruptcy. During the early period, Wade began talking with a company in my hometown about a possible job. Needless to say, those talks heated up when it looked like Wade's company was going to be split into two entities and one division was going to be bought by an outside company, while the other division (the one he worked in) would just dissolve. In addition to talking with the hometown business, Wade landed an offer from the purchasing company, which he did not entertain for very long. Then, he was blessed enough to receive another offer for a job with a brand new company working with some of his previous coworkers. It's nice to be needed, but it was also an overload of decisions for us. Wade spent a week pondering what move to make, and almost flipped a coin to determine if we should stay or go. Finally, his mind was made up and we took the leap.

We are excited about this new chapter in our lives. But, it is also very hard and sad to say goodbye. Homewood has turned into our home. This is where Wade and I began our married life and brought our son home. As we rode into Carrollton on Sunday bringing a load of stuff to put into storage, we were driving along a country road and I saw what I needed to see...a front yard full of cars all gathered at an old home place for a family reunion. I know there are family reunions in Birmingham, but we don't have any family here to attend those reunions. Moving to Carrollton will be a good thing. We are moving there for all those intangibles of living close to family.

If you notice, I have not even mentioned our circle of friends. I'm not ready to dwell on that part of our move. We have an amazing group of people that we will cherish and hopefully still see on occasion!

Sunflowers Make me Happy

We went to Carrollton earlier this week for an unexpected visit. Don't you just love those kinds of jaunts! When you take an unplanned trip, you get to do different things like pose in a giant field of sunflowers. Sunflowers are happy flowers and they make me happy. My camera lens fogging up does not make me happy.

My NaNa also makes me happy. NaNa sharing her love of flowers with Cole makes me even more happy. Cole rocking in a chair in the sunflower field until he flips backwards does not make me happy...or him.

Cole eating a full-fledge meal makes me very happy. This is the first time I have ever been able to put something other than just a carbohydrate onto his plate and have him eat it. He enjoys the lima beans, and this makes me especially happy. His big boy haircut does not make me happy.

I hope you find something to make you happy. If you're having trouble, I suggest an irresistible child placed in a field of sunflowers.

Full Disclosure

A lot of the blogs I read call for complete transparency. Well, here goes my attempt.

I live in a tiny house. Sometimes in this tiny house the toilet doesn't get flushed for fear of waking the barely napping baby. And yesterday was just one of those sorts of days.

Sometime just before bath time (thank goodness) I hear squeals of utter delight. I hear splashing water. I think 'oh snap.' I come running to find Cole living it up playing in the toilet. The toilet I had not flushed. The toilet that had tee tee in it.

So, how's that for my first attempt at full disclosure? Grossed out I'm sure.

Top 10

I know I've told y'all about how much I love to cook. My love of cooking also comes from watching those enjoy what I've prepared, and I must say I usually hit my mark. Well, that mark was hiding last night when I got ready to start on our meal.

Let me preface the Top 10 list (well, it's really just 7 things)...of what went wrong by telling you how special of a night I had planned for Wade. He's had a hard few weeks at work, and I wanted to do something to make him feel special and at ease on a lovely Friday evening. I cleaned the house top to bottom yesterday, I pulled out 2 fillet mignons, I even had beer mugs icing in the freezer. With all the prep work done, I decided to head over to my friend Caroline's for some much needed company. I wanted to give her a little something for helping with our paint colors for the house, and a chat sounded nice too. Just a quick visit. No need to tell anyone where I was headed or to bring along my cell phone, right. Wrong. Really, really wrong.

Caroline and I visited, and I had a delightful time. Cole watched Caroline's three adorable kids play and took a strong liking to Jack Bailey. Cole was content and I was relishing some adult conversation. After what felt like an hour, I jumped in the car to find it was already 6 pm. My heart sank, I knew what I'd created before glancing at my phone to find 8 missed calls and 2 voice messages from my sweet husband. Cole eats dinner at 5, so when Wade got off work early to surprise us and found no one home he began to worry a bit. When he started to call my phone with no luck, he got a little more worried. Then, when I missed Cole's dinner time by an hour, he panicked and pulled out the phone book to start calling hospitals.

So, my nice, easy, relaxing evening for my dear, sweet husband turned into a nightmare for him.

After all that, I tried to salvage our evening with a delicious dinner.

Then this happened. And I wanted to cry.


1. I burned our steaks. Absolutely, completely turned them into charbroiled hockey pucks.
2. Forgot to add more chicken stock to the orzo, so we had true al dente pasta
3. Let the water boil out of the steamer pot, so the artichoke burned
4. Under cooked the hard boiled eggs for the salad
5. Did not add any salt or pepper to the orzo
6. Made one of Wade's least favorite desserts, by accident...dark chocolate mousse, I mean very dark chocolate
7. Used all the milk making the mousse, so none for breakfast, which Wade has to have

To add insult to injury, Wade smashed his thumb with a hammer at work.

The Haircut

Who knew the first haircut was so traumatic...for mama. I realize it was time for the mop to be tamed, and I'd even told everyone it would be cut after his first birthday. Heck, I even received phone calls the week following Cole's big 0-1 from Big Un and Great Grannie asking if the deed had been done. So, on Saturday Wade and I loaded up and headed to Sweet & Sassy (don't judge...they do girls and boys haircuts. Plus, Cole seemed to enjoy being surrounded by a dozen little girls).

Cole was a trooper and did great...no surprise there. Me: I wanted to cry. I recognize that when Cole is 16 I'll be begging him to get his hair cut, but I just wasn't ready for what I saw; my sweet little baby turning into a little boy right before my very eyes.

Home Improvement: Part UGHHHH

the back of our house

nice, huh?

Remember when I said I didn't like home improvement projects. Let me rephrase. I hate home improvement projects. Living in an old home, there is bound to be an unexpected and unwelcome surprise with any project you tackle. So, it shouldn't come as a shock when we got exactly that this week. My dear husband was under the assumption that we had some minor water damage around our kitchen door, and that we would need to simply have the gutters pinned back up, and some tile removed to make way for a small section of rot in the subfloor to be replaced. Easy as pie. Can't wait. Only, I could have waited. One week and a few hundred dollars later, we have the gutters secured, that piece of subfloor installed and new (non-matching) tile and grout at our back door...not to mention a brand spankin' new support beam for the back of our house. You see, the majority of our house was being held up by what appeared to be a mixture of sawdust and mulch. Yep. The whole thing was rotten to the core. Our wonderful handyman jumped right in and fixed the whole thing, which also included removing and replacing part of the back deck and railings, adding new siding and painting (again), new tile. Oh, not to mention that whole 12-foot support beam.

(I know you want one...caramel, wedding cake, over the moon, chocolate high, strawberry and curious george, anyone? Yum! Yum! Yum! Thank you Dreamcakes.)

The other reason I hate home renovation projects is because you get stuck at home. Cole and I were cooped up in our tiny house for almost two weeks. To add insult to injury, the renovations were completed yesterday, but we were trapped inside the house. Why? The torrential down pour for one and the fact that our front door had been painted just prior to the rain. It seems when you paint something with that much water in the atmosphere, it takes a really long time to dry. Like 5 hours, and even then it's still sorta tacky to the touch. So, we couldn't do anything because I didn't relish the idea of leaving my front door wide open while we merely went to indulge in some cupcakes from Dreamcakes.

Almost forgot. We had a place in our living room ceiling that just needed a quick touch-up. Boy were we wrong there too. Once the hole was cut in the ceiling, drops of water pelted me and the handyman. A call to the air conditioner man, and all's well now. Oh, and the hole's closed up.

Today, Cole and I finally got out of the house. We've never had such a ball at the grocery store. Pathetic, I know. But we'll take what we can get after all this.

Amazing Amanda

It's so nice to be connected. I have a friend that also happens to be a great photographer. I like to call her Amazing Amanda because she's that cool. Above is just one of the beautiful photographs she took at Cole's party. Please visit her site to see a sweet slideshow she put together showcasing Cole's big day. When you see the video, you'll be calling her amazing too.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Our baby boy is ONE! Can you believe it? Neither can I. This year has flown by. I can say that only because I'm caught up with my sleep now. Cole has been such a wonderful gift to our lives.

To celebrate this milestone, we hosted a birthday party for Cole in the park. Lots of family and friends joined us, and some drove from out of town to wish Cole a very happy birthday. In true Douthit style, Cole loved his cake. My friend Amanda came out to take pictures. That explains why I have so few photos from the day.

Thanks to everyone that came to celebrate with us. We are blessed in so many ways.

Home Improvement

Don't you just love home improvement projects? Well, I don't. Probably because I don't like to spend money, and I especially don't like spending any more money on our 'starter' home that we've been in for almost 6 six years. That would explain why we are just now painting over the faded blue on our house. I had my gracious and talented friend pick out colors, and her choices were fabulous. Too bad the paint store didn't think so. They made me pick out new colors from their line. You can see my first attempt around the window. Not a good one. So, another trip to the paint store and another 5 samples later, I got the choices on the post. Much better. I had Wade pick his favorite combination, then I had another stylish friend give her opinion. I won't share the final choices until the house is done.

Cole was a big help pointing to his favorite colors. Please excuse the weeds in the monkey grass. Those are gone now.

Hard to Handle

There she is in all her glory. My dad's dream finally come true: A boat. A rather intimidating boat. I was witness the day she made her way into the slip. We cheered, took pictures and made video. It was an exciting day seeing my dad's big wish unfold. But, like the old saying, "what's that dog gonna do with the car when he catches it?" That is my dad's dilemma. Bless him, for it took 9 days to get up the courage (and enough experienced boating friends to feel sorry for him) before the boat moved from the dock. And, on that faithful day, daddy put a ding in his beautiful boat.

For now, I think he'll be happy swabbing the decks, tying knots and dreaming of that big blue marlin he's sure to catch on his boat.

Without a Hitch

For the 45 readers that follow my blog, you'll be glad to know that last night's dinner was a success. Our friends and my finicky husband enjoyed the meal I prepared. They also appreciated that I left out one key ingredient: rosemary. I omitted the rosemary because my husband just doused my rosemary bushes with toxic chemicals to try to save us all from the 3,768,421,092 mosquitoes living in the rosemary bushes.

Pressure Cooker

I love to cook! I would say that cooking is my favorite hobby. Tonight Wade's good friend, Hall, and his wife, Meg, are coming to stay with us. Normally, having dinner for good friends is a breeze. The catch with this set of friends is that Hall owns restaurants in South Carolina. So, the pressure is own to make something he'll enjoy, but will also kind of impress him (if I'm being perfectly honest).

Tonight's menu:

Assortment of cheese & crackers, crudites and hummus with pita chips to start
Lamb meat balls served over orzo as the main dish, along with roasted asparagus
Warm brownies with ice cream for dessert (Meg is pregnant, so I'm sure she'll appreciate a decadent dessert).

Wish me luck!

What a Loser

I see you out there. Holding your thumb and index finger to your head in the shape of a big L for loser. And that big L is for me. Seems I didn't know I was such a loser. Apparently, I have either no friends or just no friends that read my blog. I'm hoping it's that my friends are too busy with kids, husbands, work, dogs, having a life, cleaning, laundry, picking their toes or just watching Southern Belles: Louisville (if you haven't seen this show, I highly recommend it. It's a 30-year-old's version of The Hills set in the south...fantastic combination) because if not, then I am truly a loser. This is no mere speculation; this is the cold hard truth. The fact of the matter is that I have only had 41 people look at my (apparently pitiful) little blog since I started back in January. I know I promised you that the blog would not be that great or updated that often, but I at least thought y'all would glance occasionally. Know that I've had my second humbling experience for the day, I'm off to drown my sorrows in a glass of wine.

Sigh...looks like the wine will have to wait since I hear my little guy already waking from his nap.

Oh, the other humbling experience, you ask? Going to the mall and realizing how completely out of touch I am with fashion. Hey, at least I still care that I'm no longer stylishly cool, right? That has to count for something. And none of this fashion-talk has anything to do with the picture above. After all, that was a pretty hip sweater in 1986, and not just because Dr. Huxtable wore it.

Cooling Off

It's been hot the last few days. If it's hot outside, then it's hot inside because our tiny house has virtually no insulation.

So we head outside to beat the heat. Cole figured out the best way to cool off is with a water hose.

It may not look like it, but he loves it. He rushes to the hose every time we go out back.

Happy Summer!

Baby Boy

My dear, sweet baby boy. You are now 11-months old. That means just four short weeks before you are no longer a baby. I can't tell you how wonderful things have been since you arrived. The lack of sleep took some getting use to, but everything else has come naturally. You are such a sweet, happy, relaxed boy. You talk and laugh all the time. You have so many different laughs...squeals of delight when your daddy pulls into the driveway, giggle fits when we tickle your back and deep grunts when you see something new. All of them feel me with joy. I have to say this is the happiest time in my life. Your daddy is the most amazing father, which makes him an even better husband. We're lucky to have him. I am so blessed and grateful for my family. Thanks to you for joining us.

Love,

Mama

Rednecks

Being from the south, I'm use to seeing rednecks. In fact, I'm even accustom to hanging around rednecks. What I'm not accustom to are the rednecks from other parts of the country. Just last weekend I was driving from the beach to south Georgia, when I needed to make a stop. So, in the middle of some tiny town on some back country highway, Cole and I pulled into what seemed to be the most reputable restroom (and only one) in sight. Once I made my way back outside of the gas station, I noticed him...the redneck. He was standing outside of the gas station in all his glory. He had on basketball shorts and nothing else. He was holding an Old Milwaukee beer, while shaking his mullet free and rubbing his ginormous beer gut, all the while yelling across the parking lot to some other folks about getting home to Indianapolis. I so wanted to pull out my camera to take a picture because I know you don't believe me, but I promise it's true. The picture of my little redneck baby from yesterday will have to do.