Millie - 11 Months

I can't believe that Millie is almost a year old. The time has flown. The past week has been pretty exciting with Miss Millie. Things are really clicking with her and it is so fun to see her start to communicate and show some personality. We have been teaching her some basic sign language, like we did with Carter, and she has started doing it this week. She can sign 'more' and 'all finished'. You can not imagine how much whining is eliminated with just these two signs. They were a lifesaver with Carter. We're also working on 'eat', 'help', 'please', and 'thank you'. That's about as far as I take it but like I said those are a huge help. In the pictures she is showing me what a 'big girl' she is. She will also lay her head on a pillow when you say it's night-night. She sits on her bottom and spins in circles to be able to see everything, still no movement forward. She has finally started being a little cuddly. She likes to give lots of lovin, in the form of hugs or some big slobbery 'sugars'. We are planning a farm animal birthday party and I think the funnest part of planning a party for a little girl is getting a cute outfit for the event. We'll see next month how it all comes together.

The pitiful picture of Carter is how he was acting when I was taking these pictures. He did not want his picture taken and when I tried to get one this is how he acted. I asked if he wanted me to put this picture on the computer or take another one and he said this one. We have days were he is all 2. I'm thinking that with boys it might be 3 that is more of a challenge. A couple of mom's have told me that, and I think we're starting to see it. Carter promoted to big boy sunday school and big church this week. It's a few weeks before his birthday, but it was promotion Sunday and since he's potty trained they were ready for him. Pretty crazy! I now only have one child in the nursery.

Notice in the background of a couple of these pics our new fence. We had it put up this week and I love it. There is a new retirement community going up behind us and I was tired of looking at the mess. It's sad when you get old and a privacy fence is an exciting purchase!!

Corn on the Cob

We had a couple from church over Saturday night and I actually cooked supper. They have a little girl Natalie, she is about 6 months younger than Carter. Natalie is bilingual and it amazes me that she can understand and speak English and Spanish. It will be such an asset as she gets older. Hopefully Carter can pick up some spanish from the Crocketts because I can't teach him much more than the numbers and colors. Anyway we had corn on the cob for supper and about an hour after we'd finished eating Carter decided he wanted some more. And he was nice enough to share with Natalie. Keep in mind that they had not had a whole lot to do with each other all evening. Amazing what some good 'ol corn on the cob can do. I have to add that this corn was some that I put up myself. My first attempt at shucking, cleaning, blanching, and freezing corn (without my mom's help) must have been a success. If your curious how Natalie is so smart...her mom is from Argentina and her dad was an MK from there. Isn't she adorable!!

Swimming 'Blessins'

Carter just finished 2 weeks of Mommy and Me swimming lessons or blessin's as he called them. I think he hated it and loved it all at the same time. We had to endure the 45 minute lesson so he could ride the slides for the last 15 minutes. He knew no fear when it came to the slides but during the lesson you would think he was mortified of the water. I'm glad he'll be old enough for regular lessons next summer and I will not have to participate. I think it was the classic case of being worse because mom was there.Millie did not participate this year. She does not even like for her toes to touch the water. It's all a little too much for her. The picture of her is from Carter's last day, she has not been in the water...she is that wet from sweat. She is her father's child and it is sooooo sad. I'm hoping she outgrows the sweatiness. :)

Nana's Farm Pictures

Nana had a little photo session at her house last week. She wanted to get some pictures of them in the hayfield before cutting time. And of course Carter had to wear his 'farm' clothes. Mom took all of these by herself, which is NOT easy. Don't worry the black things on Millie's head are not bugs, just grass seeds.

These last few of Millie and Chris were taken by Carter.

POTTY TRAINING

We got back from the beach on June 24th and that was the last day Carter wore a diaper...because we left them all at the beach. We had talked up the big event for weeks before we left and he was completely on board. But then you would ask him if he would 'teetee' on the potty and he would say NO! But starting Monday the 25th we started wearing only big boy underwear. Let's just say that the carpet cleaner became our best friend!! For a whole week we bribed and begged and sat the potty in front of the TV and he would occasionally go on it but mostly in the floor. But last Sunday the 15th was his last accident. Up to that point he would go on the potty if you asked him to, but he would never tell you. Then all of a sudden last week he would just say he had to go and he wanted to do it on the big potty. So no more diapers, no more baby potty, no more messes in the floor... a 'potty trained' little boy. VERY EXCITING!! We had moments of frustration, but overall it was a pretty easy transition. Of course we barely left the house for the first 2 weeks, but it was well worth it!! I have to say when I was planning to start the whole process I really didn't think it would be a success. I just figured we had to start now and maybe we would be close by his third birthday. Carter suprised me and I am VERY proud of my big boy!!!

THE SALEBARN

Growing up my dad had cows and I had one that was 'mine'. Whenever she had a calf to sell then I got the money and it went straight to the bank. That little cash fund was my spending money all thru college. The Panama City trips... paid for by the cows, Christmas outings...the cows. Thanks to good investments in the early '90s I still have a little cow money left that I can use for whatever I want to. So when Carter was born I asked my parents if he could have a cow of his own. His and Millie's first Christmas present from Nana and Pop was a calf that was born closest to their birthday. Carter's is a cute easily identifiable cow that he calls Bess. Bess's first calf was ready for sale this summer. Carter got to go with Nana and Pop to the salebarn and watch the whole process unfold. And then he got his first cowcheck in the mail. Nana wants to keep a file of a picture of each kiddo with each cowcheck. This is Carter's first picture, he is very proud.

Millie - 10 Months

Here is my little future pharmacist. UAMS sent me the little T-shirt, pretty cute. They asked me to send a pic in so I thought I would try it out. Carter has one too, but he didn't want to wear the pig shirt. Poor guy, we've been working on our address, city, state, etc. he thinks Arkansas is a football team not a geographical location. I can not convince him we live in Arkansas. We're not even a Razorback obsessed home, Ouachita has provided a paycheck for quite awhile now so we are pretty dedicated to the Tigers. I guess we can thank the local news and Pappaw for the confusion.

Millie is growing like crazy, but she is still not very in the gross moter skills. It's to the point that I have to just laugh. She can kick her legs like she's running a marathon when she's lying down, but when you try to put some weight on them she just draws them up. I'll have to put a picture of that on here. Pretty funny. If you lock her knees and prop her against you she will stay there for a few seconds. Very advanced!:) As I was getting ready to post these I noticed how serious Millie looked in all her pics. These were taken late at night and I guess it wasn't on her top 10 list of things to be doing.