new tricks.

lately it seems that every single day, pratt does something new.

last night he crawled. a "for real" crawl.

monday we took a trip to see some friends out of town, and i noticed then pratt do something that was so funny to me. i would give him a cereal puff. he would take it, put it in his mouth. but if it got stuck on his lip (which happened frequently because the saliva would make it stick to the puff), he would reach his one hand up, and very carefully, would use his pointer finger to push the cereal puff into this mouth. it was so deliberate. and so funny to me.





he has also figured out if he tips the entire can up, the puffs will fall on his face. he loves it. yes, they spilled everywhere...but i'm that mom that lets my kid do these things. all in the name of figuring things out...ha ha.



yesterday, we played with his nursery rhyme cube for...oh, i dunno...30 minutes. it was a long time for one toy. he discovered the spider on the "itsy bitsy spider" side. it's black and white and when you pull on it, and then let go, it will make a loud noise, vibrate and go back "up the water spout".

well, this morning, he noticed that even when the little flap was over the spider, the spider was still there. still existed. he would lift up the flap and look under. and laugh. i'm quite rusty on my psychology...but i'm pretty sure piaget would call this "object permanence". i could be wrong though... and yes, he was sleepy in that one picture. his two favorite fingers are in his mouth.

he has started taking off the rings on his stacker toy. he can't yet put them on, but lately, he's gotten better at using both hands to take the pieces off.



he has also discovered how to pull up on his toy basket...using his toy car box.

it's just so crazy how much his brain must be changing and growing. i've never given kids the credit they deserve. more specifically, babies. he really gets it. sometimes i'll say something to him, and he will look at me, raise those eyebrows, and i'll think...man, he TOTALLY understood me.

enjoy your days. keep us in your prayers as we travel tomorrow!

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

tonight you crawled. like, for real. you moved your arms forward and then your knees. it was so deliberate. so exaggerated. so, exactly what i would expect from the little person you have become.

this pretty much means that you and i will be seeing each other ALL day long. no more of me running into the restroom, or running into the kitchen to make a sandwich. nope, pretty much i'm done doing anything that isn't related to you moving around on the floor.

i'm excited about that...but i'm also a little heartbroken. i mean, where has the time gone? and how have you grown up sooo very much in only eight short months?

we leave for chicago in a few days. cookie, sugar, debra, you and me. i can't wait! we're going to have so much fun. aunt carol and cookie have all our days planned. we're headed to the aquarium especially for you! you're gonna love it!

just wanted you to know that it was on may 26th around 630 pm, that you figured out how to crawl. really crawl. not the army drag you've been doing for weeks now.

slow down bucko. you're moving too fast for me. love you. love you. love you.

mommy.

aunt christie's graduation!

aunt christie graduated last weekend from high school. i hadn't posted anything because i didn't have a picture of all of us with her. i knew nana had taken some...and didn't want to post anything without it for documentation sake.

christie was sweet enough to email me last night with the picture!

i wanted to make sure and add all these. high school graduation is such a big deal. i remember mine like it was yesterday!

pratt had a wonderful first high school graduation. and i must say, he was a trooper through the entire part. he started getting fussy at the end of it...which was completely understandable. that was around 9 or so. maybe later.

he stayed in his first hotel room. in his pack and play. he loved it. he is such a great a

baby. he slept through the night (i was really worried about this) and woke in the morning only to snuggle in the bed with us and fall back asleep.

here are a few pictures. notice his face in the first one...you can tell it's the end of the night.

congratuations aunt christie! enjoy the next four years of college! they will honestly be some of the BEST years of your life. at least, they were for me!

we love you and we're so very proud of you!

new friends...and a big boy bath.

we've had a busy weekend...and it's not even over yet.

friday we went to the lake to stay with cookie and poptart. bill, denise and elaine came over and brought their granddaughter, kendall who is three. for those of you from my hometown, this is elaine's daughter. she is a doll. she hasn't ever met pratt...and was excited about seeing "the baby".

however, after the introduction, i'm not sure that he wasn't more excited about meeting miss kendall. he just stared at her and smiled. it was so cute. he LOVES other kids. especially little girls. i'm not making this up...he really, really does.

kendall was so sweet with him. she helped me give him a bath. and she was super helpful in putting on his lotion and pajamas. she was able to keep his attention while i tried to put on a diaper. (she deserves a medal for this)

at one point, she brought over her little makeup bag and asked if pratt would like to borrow her makeup. clint wasn't around yet...so kendall and i put a little blush on pratt. (fake blush, poptart. fake blush.) kendall thought it was pretty funny. such a sweet and beautiful little girl.

we got home on saturday night. clint and i watched twilight. which, he secretly loved. i mean, he occasionally mocked edward during the movie...but i know deep down he loved it. and i'm pretty sure he's super excited about the next three!

this morning, we had a little accident with an ill fitting diaper...which meant that a bath was needed. stat. pratt has been trying to sit up in his little reclining bath seat for a while. he always wants to grab at the water stream. so, i decided to just put a towel down and bath him.

he LOVED it. i actually tried to get him out after about ten minutes...but he was not having it. so i put him back in. let's just say that he stayed in there so long that we both had wrinkled fingers when he finally got out.

he would just splash and splash. the water would get him in the face and he'd laugh. he discovered the bubbles after he'd splash and would ever so carefully try to touch them with his pointer finger. so cute!





happy (early) memorial day to everyone! how important it is that we always remember...

just sit right back...

hi everyone.

if you're on lake hamilton this weekend, look for me. i'll be the cool kid driving the big boat.

catch y'all on the flip side.

peace out. love, p.rizzle. (that's what my dad calls me sometimes :)

and God did it.

so it was wednesday night. clint and i were sitting in the living room. waiting. waiting on ryan to announce the winner.

i almost looked away. i almost couldn't look. because i wasn't sure. because i'm debbie downer. because i'm glass half empty.

but i looked. just because i had a little bit of hope. thanks, obama. (that was for my republican friends :)

and when he was announced the winner, i said...and i quote, "clint...you know why he won?!"

he goes, "no, hannah...why?" and let me tell you....he didn't really want to hear my answer. he was not enthusiastic about my answer.

and i said, "because God wanted him to. and God did it."

and he said, "hannah. God has better things to do with his time than worry about american idol."

well...turns out. clint was wrong.

here is a story from my friend mandy's blog.

This guy is the real deal!! And I know everyone has their own little "friend of a friend" Kris stories, but I just had to share this one. A woman that Josh works with knows Kris, and apparently Kris said Adam was an atheist and in the last few weeks Kris really felt like he had been getting through to him. Adam even told Kris before the finale that whether or not he wins, he knew that the reason why he made it this far was so that his life could be touched by Kris.

and here is the video she had on her blog.

enjoy.

top five.

top five favorite male fictional characters.

5. aiden shaw

4. lloyd dobler

3. jim halpert

2. holden caulfield

and most importantly....

1. edward cullen

what sparked this dorky post? well...this did...



if i hold my breath until november 20th...i wonder what will happen.

i guess we'll see...

cobwebs.

every single time i hear the word, "cobwebs", i think of a movie called "drop dead fred". if you haven't seen it, you should. it's pretty funny. i watched it as a kid. spencer and i loved it. there was a pretty inappropriate part regarding cobwebs...and it's always stuck with me. probably because it was inappropriate. isn't that how it happens with kids?

not to get off subject (oh heck, who am i kidding...i LIVE off subject)...but there was this one time my mom recorded "alice in wonderland" for us. yes. you all know the movie/story/book. well, we had satellite. and illegal one if i remember correctly. some type of unscrambler or something.

this of course meant that we got pretty much EVERY channel. the good, the bad and the ugly. well, apparently, when mom had set the recorder, she didn't realize that the channel she was recording from wasn't disney.

nope. it was the spice channel. if you're familiar with this...shame on you. :) just kidding.

so, fast forward to when she replays it for us.

i remember it like it was yesterday. me and spencer. we were young. i'd say 9 and 6 maybe. sitting on the big oriental rug in the living room. right smack dab in front of the tv.

all of a sudden, alice wasn't wearing any clothes. and the chesire cat was doing weird things. to alice.

you get the picture.

i remember thinking, "what.in.the.world.?!". and of course, spencer...being spencer. said something like, "uh..mom. what is this about!?".

my mother doesn't run. she can't. i take after her.

but that day...my mom ran like the house was on fire. she ran screaming in from the kitchen. waving her arms like a crazy person. screaming for us to "look away! look away!".

of course this only made us want to watch more. this peaked our interest.

i'll never forget it. it's pretty funny now...looking back on it.

anyway...cobwebs. my head is full of them. so here is what is on my mind. sorry for this rather boring post...but ten years from now, i'll look back and wonder what we were doing.

i love where we live. yes, it's far out. but it's smack dab in the country. from our front porch, you can see mountains. but not a single other house. it's wonderful. we finally have back porch furniture and i sit out there every day and read. it's heaven on earth. pratt could spend his entire day outside.

i worry about pratt now more than ever. i guess because he's moving around so well. i found him with a piece of bark in his mouth yesterday. this DID NOT help my neuroses. i've decided to vaccum every single day. i mean, what other choice do i have? and the rainbow forces me to WANT to do it every day because of the crap i get out of my one and only rug in this house. i keep telling myself that i love ace and yoda, but all the hair makes it hard to remember sometimes. i'm just hoping that pratt will grow up with a love for animals. and this will make it all worthwhile someday.

i've somewhat cured my own adhd. i didn't really ever have it. but i sort of did. i would walk away from something in the middle of it. without finishing. i've gotten better about this. i've had to. because i now understand that moms don't have more time. it's just that we are able to do more in that time. i just got this. 8 months later...i'm on it. i'm a slow learner.

pratt is apparently following the 42 day challenge as well. he is super skinny. and won't gain weight. i weigh him daily. he's growing like a weed, and i'd like to believe that is where the food is going. it's making him taller. but not wider.

for the first time since i had him, i have more than 2 pair of pants that fit me! yay hannah! thanks to my sister and mom for my mothers day gift...and clint for allowing me to spend whatever i need on new clothes. i'm up to five (and this is a HUGE number for me) pairs of pants that fit comfortably....and that i love to wear. i have others...but these are my favorites. i hate spending money on myself. but i've realized that having clothes that fit me...well, it's priceless. it really is. but if any of you are still wanting to turn me into clinton and stacy...bring it on. i'll happily wear mom jeans just to get them to my house!

i've been eating lots of fruit lately. with poppy seed dressing. reminds me of my childhood. i'm going to make chicken salad today. and maybe some muffins or something. i'm getting excited about summer. and what it means to us.

we joined a church. and have started attending a sunday school class. it's all really new. and makes me miss maumelle even more. but i know it will get better. growing up is hard to do.

oh, pratt has now eaten (and liked) cucumbers and strawberries. he'll only eat a few bites of each...but it's better than nothing. it's like you have to get him at exactly the right time. or he's totally not interested. i don't understand it. all in time, i guess.

off to get ready. i think we will head to the park today. it's so pretty outside. a week of pretty. we've needed it.

love to you all.

pratt's first...

trip to see baby parker. of course, i forgot my camera. but sarah and zane were there. and sarah is good about her camera. she got a picture of pratt and zane. sorry about being a "grabber" zane. we're working on manners!



and...his first snowcone. banana to be exact. we got worried because he liked it so much. i'm pretty sure he probably already has a cavity. we'll do shaved ice only next time. nothing says "summertime" like snowcones.



ps. kris allen was just voted american idol. I AM SOOOOOO pumped! i'm shaking all over. just wanted to document this. way to go sweet kris allen!

a few pictures.

while i know these are pretty random pictures, i think one day pratt will appreciate them. one of my favorite things to do is go through old pictures. not the posed pictures from my childhood. but the random ones. the ones where everyone looks "real".

so here are some "real" pictures.

a little bit of yoga. maybe some downward facing dog? and next, he'll grab those weights and do some curls. take that tony horton.



a pitiful, sad face.



watching "intervention". one of our favorites. even though the entire time we watch it, dad says, "i can't take it anymore...this is so depresssing." pratt and i love it!



chewing dad's finger off. he literally chomped down on it last night. like an alligator. like, leaned over and bit clint's finger. hard.



life in pictures. there is really nothing better.

enjoy your days.

my little man.

i think nana gave pratt this polo a while back. if memory serves, she gave it to him at christmas.

it's blue and white striped. and has little buttons to hold his collar down. very much a "big boy" shirt. because the weather was cool this weekend, we put it on him.

and when i got done crying (because he looked like such a big kid or just because i'm craaaa.zae.)...we took some pictures. i mean, seriously. is he the cutest kid or what?

i know, i know...i'm his mom. of course, i think that. :)

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

when you turn 45 and get married...remember what i'm about to tell you. or maybe you should use this when you're 40 and looking (for the first time) for the right girl.

the other night, your daddy and i were in the bed. we were just laying really close together talking. i was asking "girl questions". i love these. i know your daddy hates them. but i love them. (you'll understand one day what these are. things like, "tell me your favorite thing about me." etc.)

i asked dad if he ever wondered about being married to me. if he ever wished he were married to someone different. he said, "no, of course not."

and then he went on to say, "i think that pratt is proof that me and you are supposed to be together. that we were meant for each other."

i kept repeating his exact words over and over again in my head. i didn't want to ruin the moment and grab a pen and piece of paper from the nightstand...so i just kept saying it over and over and over again. hoping that i wouldn't forget.

it was perfect. exactly why i was asking those silly "girl questions" in the first place.

as you get older, and you get mad at us. for not letting you take the car out at night. or not letting you have a cell phone when you're 10. please remember that we love you.

and that we are always doing the best we can. i can promise you that. i can promise that we will always try to do what's right for you.

we may fail.

no...we will fail.

but we will always make every single decision about you..concerning you...with love. lots and lots of love.

xoxo, mom.

eight whole months.

my baby turned eight months old yesterday. eight months. that's over 200 days.

i have no idea where the days have gone. oh, to turn back time. i'd even relive those hard, difficult, dark three months. just to keep him little. small. needy. not quite so independent.

i'm still making his foods. i buy organic when i can. applesauce and prunes come from gerber. other than that, he likes cauliflower, edamame, aparagus, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash. and even pineapple and watermelon. but he's only chewed on it. oh, and gerber yogurt bites. yum.o. the veggie of the week is spinach. we're going to see how he likes it.

he is taking between 6 and 8 ounces every 3 to 4 hours. he sleeps from 8 to 7. approximately. some nights are different. he still takes an afternoon nap between 3 and 5. it's just easier that way. otherwise, he is wayyyy too fussy at dinner.

he can help us, help him, get ready. he pulls his arms out of the sleeves and can put them in the sleeves. but he has to feel like helping. sometimes (most times) he would just rather try to roll over on his belly as opposed to having his diaper changed. but he still loves to have lotion rubbed on him. he squeals and closes his eyes and grits his teeth with excitement. it's pretty cute.

he loves to sit in his highchair and watch us eat dinner. he loves to eat necklaces. loves to read books early in the morning. loves to watch the very lonely firefly finally find his other firefly friends as they all light up. loves to play patty cake. his favorite part is when you "throw them in the pan". he laughs hysterically.

he is his fathers child in that he would prefer to spend all day outside. or at least in a place he's never been. he loves the bright lights of a grocery store. loves to watch people in restaurants.

he is getting much better about letting us rock him to sleep. or just lay with him to sleep. he still sucks on his two middle fingers when he's a. hungry or b. tired.

he naps every two hours. approximately.

he will be crawling within a few weeks, i think. he's up on his hands and knees. rocking back and forth. he just can't seem to figure out how he's supposed to move once he gets there. he sits up all by himself remarkably well.

he mumbles, "mamamama", "dada" and "kit" (as in kitty). but i'm not silly enough to think he knows what he is saying. it's all just mocking what we do. and those are the things we most frequently say to him. well, except for the "kit" part. he pretty much called the cat out the other day. and he recognized the one in "the very lonely firefly".

however...i must say this. i think we underestimate what kids know and what they understand. just because he can't communicate with words doesn't mean that he doesn't understand. i didn't realize that until recently. i guess it takes having your own child to realize that. it's sad, really. i mean, i know he has so much to say...and yet, he just can't get it out with words. i guess that's all the more reason to continue signing to him.

he still sleeps to lullabies. and wakes with a smile on his face. he loves to be held while you make his bottle.

he likes to help get his arms out of the carseat. not so much help put them in it. if he could, he would burn his carseat. he hates it that much.

he LOVES water. and spends his entire bathtime, trying to grab the stream of running water. i tried to explain the difference between solids and liquids to him the other night...but i'm not convinced he understood. we're going to teach him to swim this summer at the lake. the condo has a pool. so we'll try there.

he loves his daddy. and begins to squeal with delight when he sees him.

my most favorite thing he is doing right now is this. when you hold him in your lap, periodically, he will bend his little head back, with those big eyes of his...and look right directly into your eyes. and he'll smile. then he will bend his head forward again. ten seconds will pass, and he'll do it again. bend back and look at you.

tears come to my eyes every single time he does it.

he is 30 inches long which is off the chart. weird, yes. bizarre, yes. is it possible that we got the wrong kid at the hospital? yes. i mean, we're not tall. and i don't know where this is coming from. one day it just has to catch up with him. he almost weights 18 pounds. skinny little fella.

he is the light of my life. and as poptart said, he is perfect. and i'm never allowed to complain about him.

well, poptart. just wait until he's a few years older. and bad. and throwing things. objects...and fits. then you can tell me that he's perfect :)

here are his eight month pictures.





and here are a few pictures i got outside.

this is his "i'm an 85 year old man and i'm fake laughing" face.



just checking things out in the backyard.

these crocs taste like blueberries, mom.

his first time to eat dirt and pinestraw. total boy. total.total.boy.

waking a sleeping baby.

last night, clint had a friend over. our friend from maumelle, derek, drove out to see us. the initial plan was going fishing or gigging. but because the water is up so high, that was not really possible. well, i don't think it was. but i'm not really sure what they did. i guess they were just "boys" out on the river. i know they had fun. i can't wait for the day that clint and pratt can just go out in the boat.

well, by the time they got back...around 8, pratt was fast asleep. we had dinner. watched sweet kris allen soar to the finals on ai, and then derek headed home.

around 930, clint said, "i think i'm gonna wake up pratt. is that okay?"

had this question been asked of me seven months ago...when sleep was worth more than chocolate around here...i would have screamed like jack does on "will and grace". that high pitched...can't make sense of what you're saying...fast talk...scream.

but because pratt is such a good sleeper, i said, "sure."

clint said, "you don't think it will mess up his schedule?"

i'm telling you...i wanted to make out with him in the kitchen. i mean, it was like all i worked so hard for...he got it. he appreciated it. all the reading. all the worry. all of it.

so, we woke him up.

and let me just say this. he is TOTALLY clint's child. he never smiled. he was in a daze the entire 20 minutes we attempted to talk/play/love on him. he was not having it.

so once clint got comfy on the couch, pratt fell fast asleep. again.

randoms.

pratt turned eight months old today. i never got a picture of him in his chair. i'll take it tomorrow and post his eight month stats.

for now...here are a few random pictures.

one. pratt loves blueberries. and tonight, he enjoyed ice cold blueberries.

i just bought fresh blueberries. rinsed them off. and then pureed them. then put them in a pan over low/medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes. supposedly, this helps with the digestion of the berry itself.

it makes a blueberry syrup. and this summer, with as hot as it is going to be...i thought a take on a blueberry popsicle/shaved ice would be great. so it's sort of blueberry shaved ice. and he loves it.

two. pratt recently discovered the shadow of his spoon. it was hilarious. he would see it, and bend his little head down to try to eat from the shadow. instead of the real thing. this is the best picture i could get. we're out of dvds for the recorder. i need to get more and record it. it's so funny. i'm kind of worried what this means about him?! i mean, who notices...and then tries to eat from spoon shadows!?



three. he LOVES to play in his food. his new thing is to grab the spoon as soon as it enters his mouth. which of course means that he gets food all over his tray. and then he plays in it. boys. i HATE the feel of food between my fingers.



he is getting so big. okay, i'm off to cook dinner and watch kris allen on american idol!

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

today i signed you up for preschool.

yes, that's right. you will be eight months old tomorrow, and i'm already signing you up for school. you're going to be on a wait list at our church's preschool. apparently, preschool is popular. who knew?

i just want to warn you now that i WILL be the crazy mom on your first day of kindergarten. i will probably cry the entire day before....cry when i take you...and then cry as you walk away from me.

so please accept this letter as an apology. an apology for the many times i will embarass you.

but it's just what parents do.

when i was in the eighth grade, my dad took me to school. first let me say, there was never a dull moment growing up with poptart. in the eighth grade, you'll realize that appearance matters...at least, you'll be convinced that it does. and having parents do funny things in front of your friends...well, it's funny to everyone except you.

my dad pulled up at the school to drop me off and was going backwards. yes. like, driving his car backwards. in reverse. looking back through the back window. i will never forget it. i was on the floorboard in the backseat. so, so incredibly embarassed.

of course, i look back on it now...and wish he had done it every single day of my life.

school wasn't the only place. he drove me and a girlfriend of mine to sonic...you guessed it, backwards. and all the older, cool boys were there. AND to top it all off, we parked on the nerdy side. yes. i'm surprised i lived through it.

all this to say, i'm sorry for my behavior on your first day of kindergarten. it's just because i love you so much. and don't want you to grow up.

sleep tight little monkey.

be still, and know i am God.

i'm not your normal or average ouachita baptist university graduate.

what do i mean by that?

well...i'm not baptist. and i before my freshman year there, i wouldn't have ever considered myself "religious". when i arrived, i was told by more than a few that i wasn't going to heaven. i hadn't been "dunked"...and supposedly, that's what it took to make it to heaven.

i had never stood with my hands in the air singing praise music. i had actually never accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. i prayed like garth brooks does in "unanswered prayers". you know, "and if He'd only grant me...this wish i wished back then, i'd never ask for anything again."

that was me. and that was the extent of my religious experience.

and then i got to ouachita.

outwardly, i don't think i changed all that much. i mean, looking at me, i'm not sure you would have known that anything was really different. i didn't have the ichthys on my car. my friend whit always says those shouldn't be put on cars...just in case you do end up flipping someone off. i always thought that was so funny.

my clothes didn't change. i didn't outwardly carry my bible around. i didn't lead any student ministries. in fact, i never felt "godly" enough to do that. never good enough. never clean enough. never forgiven enough.

but my heart was different. so, so different.

it was a slow process. i think it was because my friends. my girlfriends. my oc bailey girlfriends. they were mostly responsible for getting me there. for showing me the path. for helping me when i was too weak. for allowing me to lean on them. for them guiding me.

the final step...me accepting Jesus into my heart was because of a girl that i had never met. i had only heard her sing.

i consider her to be one of my best friends now. and she was right where i needed her this morning.

i went for a run. grabbed my ipod. because i hate running. but it's at least semi-tolerable with music.

as i got to the bottom of the hill...and started to climb the next one, the song came on.

i think i'm gonna walk away
you're messing up my life today
this time i refuse to pray
but still you keep calling me

that is EXACTLY how i felt this morning. EXACTLY. like i was too tired to pray. too tired to ask for help. too exhausted to be patient. i didn't want to pray. didn't want to see what He was telling me. didn't want to listen.

yet, i still felt His pull on me. in my ears. in my heart. all.over.

by the time the song was ending, i was at the end of the road. a dead end. the river was rushing in front of me. all muddy. and cold. and wet.

and i heard the words...

you win.

i've been trying to do this on my own.
but right now God, i surrender.

you know what's best.

it's not easy waiting on you.
it's not easy believing you've got this together.
but without faith
it's impossible to please you.

you got me.

had you seen me at this point, you would have thought i was a crazy person.

because it hit me like a ton of bricks.

i DO surrender. it's not easy waiting. it's not easy being patient. it's not easy letting You do this Your way...as opposed to me doing it my way.

i think i'm so used to getting things done around here...that i forget what God has blessed me with...

none of this is mine. it's His. all of it...all of it is His.

pratt is His. i'm just caring for him right now. while we're here.

and so i must wait on Him. i must believe He has it all together. He actually does know what's best. less of me...more of Him. less of my thoughts...more...so much more of His.

and that, my friends...that is heavy. and deep.

i'm going to go try to digest that.

i'm going to go and try to be still.

have wonderful tuesdays.

like 99% of it came off...

my husband is a great gift giver. always has been.

i honestly cannot remember an occasion where i thought, "man...seriously?".

it's never been about the amount spent on a gift. it's the thought. it really is. i mean that.

there was one birthday. when he first got out of dental school. had a new job. a new house. and he had begun paying off student loans. for my birthday that year, he gave me "the secret life of bees". the book. and in the front of it, wrote a sweet note. about how a patient of his told him that she thought i would love it.

i thought it was so sweet that he talked about me to his patients. that was my favorite. and the book was a perfect gift.

so this mothers day was no surprise.

i had been asking for a bible with my "new" name on it. mine still said "hannah pratt". i know it doesn't really matter, but i did mention one day that i wished i had one that said "hannah fulks". apparently, he listens to me.

so saturday night, i noticed he was sort of searching through my desk drawers in the kitchen. i asked him what he was looking for. he said "tape". i asked why. he smiled and said he was wrapping my mothers day present!

wooohoooo!

i was so excited. i knew that he would let me open the gift that night! i knew he wouldn't make me wait until sunday morning! after giving me a hard time about it, he brought my gift downstairs.

it was wrapped perfectly. in black and silver wrapping paper. perfect creases. perfect tape job. perfect. this is no surprise. the man is a perfectionist. BIG TIME.

the card was really sweet. and the gift was the best.

it was a bible. the message and niv, combination. with my new name on it!

he said, "pratt helped me. open it up and see."

and here is what i saw...



when i asked where he bought the paint, he laughed. and that's when i got nervous. he said, "well, i used a marker." and before i could say anything, he said, "but it was nontoxic. and i called jason (our sherwin williams friend) and he said it was okay. that i could just wash it off his foot right after."

i laughed out loud. it was so funny because he was a tad bit nervous about it. and i could tell. i said, "well, did it all come off?"

and he said, "um...yeah...most of it...like 99% of it came off."

i think the next line was, "i mean, he may have to lose a little bit of skin to get the rest of it off."

priceless. sunday morning i looked and it was all off. well, almost all off.

but...yes, i think it's worth it.

thank you clint. and pratt. thank you both. what a wonderful mother's day it was!

kitchen sink bath.

look who enjoyed his first kitchen sink bath courtesy of cookie.

for my own mom.

this morning in church, our pastor told a story.

he said that this week he was visiting an older woman, "a woman 30 years his senior". i would assume that would put the woman in her 80s or 90s. anyway, he said as he walked up to her, she was deep in thought. when he asked her what she was thinking about, she told him, "i was just sitting here thinking of my mom."

he said something about how no matter how old we get, we will always think of our mothers.

i couldn't help but cry. i'm crying now as i type this.

my mother lost her mom a long time ago. i was just a little girl. my sister was a baby.

i remember my mimi. but not nearly as much as i wish i did.

poppy had a heart attack on valentine's day. and mimi died very shortly after of a broken heart.
i have seen the pictures of my mother after both her parents passed away at such young ages. she is extremely thin. too thin. and she looks tired.

for some reason, this mothers day, this is what i've been thinking of all day long.

my mom. and her mom. and how she must miss her so much. every day...but especially on mothers day.

i've thought about how my mom has been so vital in keeping me sane. how she has been the one i call whenever anything is wrong with pratt. how she is the one that always reminds me that clint loves me. and that maybe i'm being overly emotional. and to relax. and yet, at the same time, she's the one that understands. understands that i'm sometimes tired. and sometimes hurt. and she allows me those bad days.

it hurts me to think that my mom missed out on any of that with her mother.

so, mom...or cookie :), if you're reading this...please know that i love you. and that we are so lucky to have you. and i honestly cannot imagine my life without you.

happy mothers day. have fun with pratt. i know he's loving all the attention.

see you soon.

take me out to the ballgame...

hi everyone!

mom and dad took me to the arkansas travelers ballgame last night. it was my first trip to a baseball game. i asked mom if i could blog about what all we did...she said sure. she said it might be a jump start on becoming more like john grisham. i don't know who that is...but she says maybe someday i'll write like him. she is crazy.

anyway, things started off by cookie and poptart picking me and mom up. we met dad after work. here is me and poptart. and dad changing clothes in his truck.



dad was upgrading tickets for everyone. while we waited, cookie took me to see the aquarium. courtesy of the arkansas game and fish. i LOVED it! and i kept grabbing the girl next to me. i didn't know her, but she was cute. blonde hair. mom says i like blonde hair.



there was midget wrestling. my mom is afraid of small people...so she couldn't get too close. cookie said the small people looked like that show on tlc after jon and kate plus eight. this family of mine is crazy.



i was so excited for the game to start! here i am clapping my hands together! go travelers!



i got to wear my new hat from coco. and drink from a big boy water cup. and poptart let me chew on his program. poptart is great. he says one day we will travel around the states going to different ballparks. i can't wait!

oh, also...you may notice i'm wearing a shiny, silver necklace in these pictures. well, it was my mom's. but i love to chew on it. so she let me wear it. dad said it was my "mr. t. starter kit necklace." my dad is funny.

and here is poptart making a silly face. he lets me pull on his nose. it's my most favorite thing to do right now. pull on people's noses. i draw blood sometimes. because mom won't clip my fingernails. she once nearly cut my pointer off...so she's a little gun shy. i'm cool with that.



oh, and here is noah. noah is my new friend. his dad and my dad went to high school together. my dad has the best friends high school. lucky guy. anyway, noah loves my dad. he thinks he is funny. oh, and noah has a sister named hannah. mom says baby hannah was named after her. have i told you that my mom is nuts?



here i am posing for cookie's camera. anytime someone gets a camera out, i will look right at it and smile. i've even started smiling at the monitor in my room. i'm hilarious. and it freaks mom out...so i do it all the time. ha.

here are a few others that mom took. she takes pictures all.the.time. let me tell you...it gets old.

and here is a picture of all three of us. mom forgot to get one while everyone was at the game. so we took one ourselves on the way out. and look, i'm smiling in it too.