Morning at the Park

Seeing as how Aiden and I woke up an hour late this morning, we didn't make it to MOPS. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go, but Aiden was a lot more upset than I thought he'd be. Last time we went, he was very unsure about me dropping him off in the MOPPETS program while I went to the MOPS meeting. He cried at first, but stayed there the whole time, and he wasn't crying when I came back to get him. He seemed like he enjoyed himself, but I didn't think he liked it all that much. So this morning when I told him we weren't going to MOPS and he started crying, I was very surprised! So, I did the next best thing! We woke up Jaime, and he and I took Aiden to the park. We were there for a little over an hour, and Aiden had a great time! When we first got there we were the only ones there, but it didn't take long before other families starting showing up with their little ones. It was such a nice day out, I'm surprised there weren't more people there.

Riding in this car is probably Aiden's most favorite thing to do at the park. I don't know what it is about this car, but he usually spends the first 10 or 15 minutes we're there in it, and he will go back to it over and over again. He especially likes it when his Daddy rides in it with him.

Another one of Aiden's favorite things at the park is the swings! He has a swing at his Grandma's house that he loves too. He isn't afraid of being pushed high either! In fact, he prefers it!

Pretty soon it will be time to move Aiden from the baby swings (see previous swing pic) to the big kid swings (like the one shown in this pic above). Aiden is very excited about the new possibilities this opens up for him. He took a test run on one today. Sure enough, he is almost ready! Just gotta show him how to hold onto the swing without letting go. Before I know it he won't even need me to push him on the swings anymore - he'll be pumping his little legs and swinging on his own. That will be a sad day.

I especially love the picture above. If you can't see it well, it is a picture of Aiden and Jaime talking through these tubes. They are actually pretty neat! (Jaime is kind of over in the back corner of the picture, talking into the tube on the other side).

We might now have made it to MOPS, but we still had a great day! I love days like we had today!

Family Night

I don't know about you guys, but there is nothing I love more than spending quality time with Aiden and Jenny. Even more than that, I love being able to share that time with them with Jaime. It's always a great time when the four of us spend it together. Don't get me wrong, date nights that are just Jaime and I are great too, but I'd rather spend time with the kids. I know, that may sound strange, but I have really awesome kids!!

Sunday is usually our day to go to the park, but since it rained last Sunday, we spent the evening at home. Jenny and Aiden had fun fingerpainting....

After fingerpainting we helped Jenny put her puzzle together. Did I mention how smart Jenny is? In case I haven't (although I'm sure I have), she is a very smart 5 year old! She put together this entire puzzle with very little help from Jaime or I. Aiden watched....and chewed on markers....ha!

On more piece!

She did it!

Finger Painting

Yesterday while Jaime and I were out running a few errends, we stopped at the store to pick up a few things. One of the things we picked up....

FINGERPAINT!

Aiden had been running a fever on and off all day, so this was a great activity for him that he could do at home. I have been trying to come up with some activities that he and I could do during the day when Jenny is at school or on the weeks when she is with her mom, and a lot of friends reccomended fingerpaint.

At first he really wasn't too sure what to do with it. He liked to point at the different colors so that I would tell him what color it was. One of my favorite things about Aiden is his desire to always be learning new things, and I think activities like these are only going to help him with that.

Finally, after some help from his Dad, Aiden figured out exactly what we were waiting for him to do.

Things were going great until he realized just how messy his hands were getting. He is not one who likes for their hands to be messy, especially when we won't let him clean them off right away. Ha!

Things got worse once he touched his face and got paint on it too. He was not very happy with us in this picture, as you can see from his facial expression.

This was when he announced to us that he was done with the fingerpainting. Obviously he was upset with the mess he had made all over his hands, face, and body.

After he told us that he was done he went straight to the bath tub and started to take off his diaper. Ha! He was ready for a bath!!

Aiden's masterpiece!

The Gwinnett County Fair

Earlier tonight Jaime and I took the kids to the Gwinnett County Fair. I have been going to the fair for as long as I can remember, and it is nice to be able to take Aiden and Jenny now. Jaime and I have been taking Jenny every year since she was two years old. Last year was Aiden's first year to go, but because he was so small there wasn't much he could ride. This year he was able to ride a lot more, and he had a lot of fun! Of course, Jenny had lots of fun too, but I think she is starting to get to the age where she is starting to get bored with the kiddie rides, but she's still too small for the bigger rides.

This was their first ride, and they loved it! As you can probably see, I rode behind them because I was afraid Aiden would try to get off of the ride if he didn't like it. They really enjoyed it though, and I could hear them both laughing as we drove along. Aiden wanted to ride this one again and again.

This was the 2nd time they rode it, this time they rode without me.

Aiden was also very excited to ride this one, because he is so interested in trains right now. As soon as he saw it he pointed and started yelling, "Choo-Choo Train!!". They rode this one twice too, the first time with me and the second time they rode without me.

Jenny picked out this ride. She liked it because she said it was a water ride because the alligtors were like little boats floating in the water.



The swings! These were my favorite when I was Jenny's age (if I remember correctly), and I think they were hers too. I was really hoping Aiden would be able to ride these, especially because I know how much he likes to swing, but he was too short. The adults can ride this one too, but even with an adult riding Aiden was still too short.

The car ride was one that they both really liked. The cars went around on a little track, but when they got to the parts of the track that were curved, it went really fast around the curve. The first time they rode this one their car was parked right before the curve started. So, when it went around that first curve really fast Jaime and I thought for sure that Aiden was going to scream the rest of the ride. But he didn't! He ended up really liking it, and they rode this one two or three times.

This was one of the rides that Jenny rode without Aiden because he was too short. I probably wouldn't have let him ride this anyway, because it was something that only kids could ride. I didn't know how comfortable I would have felt knowing he was so high up and could have possibly tried to come off the ride. Jenny wasn't too thrilled with this one though. She was a little scared to get on it, but then when she got off of it she said it was boring. Ha!

Jenny and I rode the ferris wheel together. She said she really wanted to ride it because she had never ridden before. I was a little nervous to let her ride it because I didn't know how she'd react when the ride stopped to let people on and off and we were at the top. Sure enough, when the ride stopped with us at the top she was nervous. I think she would have been alright, but there were two young girls riding with us and they were acting like the ride was broken since it stopped with us at the top. So of course Jenny thought the ride was broken and we were going to be stuck up there forever. I told her that they were just stopping it so someone else could get on and we would start moving again in a few minutes. She was ok after that, and it didn't take long before the ride started moving again.

Overall, we all had a great time! It was a great way to spend the evening as a family, and it created memories that we won't soon forget. Jenny has already asked me when we're going back again - she knows we usually go at least twice. She is such a smart girl, and doesn't forget anything. =) The funny thing is, we were already making plans to either go back tomorrow or Saturday night. We can't wait!



The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes: Chapters 50-71

This post is in response to the book club, Book Beginnings and Bookends, hosted by Erin and Rachel. We just finished up reading The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain. I actually finished the book weeks ago, and I am thrilled to finally be able to share the end of the book with everyone. It was such a great story, and definitely a book I would reccommend to anyone out there who is looking for a good read!

If you haven't already joined our book club, now would be a great time! Soon we will be starting our 2nd book. There is a poll up on the book club blog where you can vote for the book you'd like to read next.





1. At the end we find out Tim was sending Cory money because he thought she could be his daughter since he was having an affair with Genevieve. Did you see this coming?

Somewhat. I definitely figured that it had been Tim sending the money. We basically knew it was him who sent CeeCee the $5,000 in the beginning of the book, so I think it just seemed like it had to be him sending the money now too. However, I didn't see the part about him having an affair with Genevieve and Cory possibly being his coming! I was a little shocked by that part, but really at that point in the story it was hard to be shocked by anything. I think it was a little admirable of him to send money to a child who could have possibly been his, but I don't think that makes up for the situation he helped to put CeeCee in, and now Cory in too.




2. By the end of the story, what were your feelings about Eve? How had they changed since the beginning?
In the beginning of the story I thought CeeCee was a young, slightly immature, and very naive. She also seemed to be fairly brave and strong, especially to have been able to have dealt with the kidnapping and everything that followed it the way that she did. Overall my feelings about her haven't changed too much. In the beginning I felt bad for her because her mother had died and she had been in and out of foster homes. When she got involved with Tim, I continued to feel bad for her because it was obvious to me that he was taking advantage of her. When the truth finally came out, I felt horrible for her because her whole life was put at risk, and she was facing lots of jail time. At the end of the story, I still feel bad for her. I feel like she has spent the majority of her life having to deal with problems. Whether it be the death of her mother, a manipulative boyfriend, or having her whole world turned upside down, she has constantly had something to deal with or to worry about. I feel like she hasn't had a chance to really enjoy life or to enjoy being a mother, and that really devestates me for her.




3. Were you happy with the way President Russel treated Cory?
I felt like he came on a little too strong. Then again, he probably figured Cory would have been a lot like her sister, Vivian. Geneiveve and Vivian are really all he had to compare her to, especially since they were her real family. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm, he just didn't know Cory. He didn't know about all her fears and her insecurities. He had been missing his daughter for 20 years, and now here she was. Of course he felt like he needed to make up for the time he had missed. I felt like it was a little unfair for him to be so frustrated wth Cory, she was only trying to protect the only mother she had ever known. I was amazed though that he didn't push for life in prison for Eve. I thought that to be very admirable, and only showed how much this child (Cory) meant to him - even if he had just met her.








4. If you were in Cory's shoes and had just found out all of this about the woman who raised you and who you believed to be your mother, how would you react? Would you forgive?
I couldn't ever imagine this happening to me. It would all seem so unreal, like a dream. Obviously at first I would be in shock, and probably not want to see or speak to anyone. Once the inital shock wore off though I would have lots of questions. I don't think I would want to meet my biological family right away. They would take some getting used to, that's for sure. Eventually I think I would have to forgive though, especially in this situation. It may have taken a while to get to that point, but biological or not, she would still be the woman who raised me - and that makes her my mother.






5. In your mind, how does this story end? Do they all live happily ever after? Does Cory go on having relationships with her old family and her new family?
I think they lived as happily as they could have. I'm sure at first things were very strange, especially for Cory. I think that Cory had relationships with both families afterwards. I think she would have remained closer to the family who had raised her, but I'm sure she had a relationship with her biological family too.








6. How do you think Cory has changed throughout the story? Have your feelings about her changed?
I think she has come to realize just how much Eve, her mother, really does care about her. I think that she sees now that Eve was only trying to protect her. Whether she went about it the right way or not, her motives were still the same. I think she finally understands why her mother felt the need to protect her so much - she was scared Cory would be taken away from her. Back when Cory had moved out and was living with her boyfriend, I thought she was being a brat. Now, I think more highly of her. Just like CeeCee/Eve, she too had a horrible situation to deal with that matured her and changed her life forever.

Grandparents Day

Grandparents are a special breed,

Of kinfolk, all their own,

They love you and they hug you,

They spoil you to death,

And then, they send you home.

Happy Grandparents Day to Aiden's Grandma and Grandpa, and to Jenny's Ninnie and Bill!!

1st MOPS Meeting

Yesterday, Aiden and I went to our first MOPS meeting. We have never been before, but it is something that I have always wanted to do with him. Originally I was going to go to the MOPS at North Metro Baptist church, but they were already full. Instead, I'm going to the one at Northview Christian church. Let me just say that I couldn't be happier that North Metro was full and that led me to go to Northview! The ladies there were all so nice and I really had a great time. It was a group of about 30 women, so I'm sure it is smaller than the group at North Metro, and I like that.

On an even better note, Aiden really liked it too! Of course when I first dropped him off he was not too happy. The ladies in the nursery assured me that they wouldn't let him cry too long before they would come get me. Honestly, I kept expecting someone to show up at any minute to let me know that I needed to come get Aiden from class. But, guess what? They didn't! When I got there to pick him up, he was having a good time and didn't look like he missed me at all. I do have to say that he was very happy to see me though, which is always a great feeling for me! I am very proud of how well he did, and I'm hoping and praying he'll do this well every time.

Our theme this year is Momology: The Art and Science of Mothering. I am excited about this theme because there is really so much art and science in mothering and most of the time it goes unnoticed. I have been more creative and artsy since becoming a mother than I ever thought I could have. I have to weigh my options, make a guess, do the research, and then put my plan into action every day. By now, I should really have a degree in this stuff! =)

Our next meeting is again in two weeks and I can't wait! I am thrilled to have this oppertunity to meet other moms, and for Aiden to meet kids his own age. In the summer and during holiday breaks from school they have play groups we can go to and they will have the school kids there as well. So when there isn't school going on, Jenny will be able to join us as well. Overall I feel very blessed to be involved with such a great group. =)