from his momma.

i have no fashion sense. if it were up to me, we could wear white linen pants year round. i'm not good with trends or clothes or shopping or putting things together unless i've seen the outfit on someone or on a model at gap/banana/etc.

however. one thing i can do.

rock a necklace.

i'm not a big necklace person in the cold months. but only because they don't go well with my scarf. i don't ever know where to put them. do they go under or over? i dunno. so i just don't do it.

but in the spring/summer...how i love thee. wooden ones. beaded ones. short ones. long ones. layered ones. i could go on and on.

and apparently, this love is genetic.



just call him mr. t.

oh, and yes. he's trying to pick up a bracelet. cause he likes those too.

don't judge, fool.

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

last night you stayed with your nana and papa randy. nana offered to keep you so daddy and i could have a "date night".

what is a date night? well, it looks like this. dad and mom go out to eat. we can eat at fancy restaurants. and eat with two hands. and eat slowly. and digest the food. and take sips of our drink just because. and take lots of sips...just for no good reason sips. not sips that are forcing a gigantic bolus of food down so that we can chase a small child around the restaurant, looking at fish, looking out the windows, etc. this may sound weird, but when you have a baby of your own, you will understand. sometimes on date nights we go to the movies. other times we go to barnes & noble. or maybe even downtown to hear bands play.

but wherever we go, we constantly talk about you. and wonder what you're doing. we know you're always having a good time, as you're an incredibly easy child. it doesn't take much to make you happy. you're simple like that. and i love you for it.

this morning we were in big church and the preacher talked to the kids about something i thought you might enjoy. it was about prayer. and the importance of prayer.

and he said that he often had a hard time remembering everyone he should pray for. and so he was told of a way to remember. and i want to share it with you.

think of your hands. either one. your right or your left.

your thumb. it's closest to you. so pray for the people closest to you. maybe your daddy. and me. and your grandparents. and your aunts and uncles. your great-grandparents. your best friends. etc. when i was little, i'd say my prayers, and every night it started something like this...

now i lay me down to sleep

i pray the lord my soul to keep

if i should die before i wake

i pray the lord, my soul to take

god bless mimi and poppy,
granny and marvin,

mom and dad and spencer

"mimi and poppy, granny and marvin, mom and dad and spencer" would definately have qualified as my "thumb people".

your pointer finger. these are the people who "point" you in the right direction. maybe your teachers at school. your sunday school teachers. our preacher. the people working in the church. all those who help you to teach you the right way. hopefully me and daddy would count as "pointer people" as well.

your tallman finger. these are the tallest people in our world. maybe the people in the highest positions. think of these people as our mayor. and the governor. maybe policemen you know. and the president of the united states. the people that work for/with him/her. pray for the senators and congressmen.

your ring finger. which happens to be your weakest finger. these are people who are weak in spirit or body. maybe those sick. or those dealing with personal crisis. maybe those who have lost their jobs. or those who are struggling with death of loved ones. or divorce. those suffering from mental illness. anyone who you consider weak and broken. they need prayer.

finally, your pinky. the person farthest out. this is yourself. brother bill reminded us that we should always put others before ourselves. i remember in bible school hearing, "god first, others second, me third." so finally, pray for pratt. and don't for a second think that God doesn't hear prayers about ourselves. He does.

also, when you finish praying, remember what you are able to do with your two hands. how you can help others with your two hands. because as my daddy told me long ago, happiness is found in helping others. true happiness. trust me on this. this is one thing i am sure of.

one more thing. prayer isn't something you only do at night when you're about to go to sleep. you can pray at anytime. while you're playing with friends. while you're eating. even while you're in the bathtub. just wherever, whenever.

i love you little man. and i'm so happy to have you home.

thank you to nana and papa randy for taking such good care of you. what a blessed little boy you are.

ps. here are some pictures i took of you last week. we had a playdate with tucker and allie. i'll post more pictures later.

i love you.

mommy.

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

there was an earthquake in haiti last week. by the time you can read this for yourself, i'll be happy to find haiti on dad's globe with you. we can google it. and we can talk about where it is, what the people are like, what they do. etc. one of my favorite things as a child was to get out the encyclopedia and look up countries. and read about the people. what they eat. where they work. everything about them. i hope you feel the same way.

anyway. back to haiti. as you get bigger, you will realize that there are so many things in this world that make little to no sense. things here in america...and things in countries on the other side of the world.

i can't explain why these things happen. i have no idea. all i know is that i trust God to have his Hands in those situations. this place is rough. it hard. and sad. and that is all the more reason to look forward to heaven. a place where we won't struggle with this depression. with this sadness.

a few things to document. last night while i was at bible study, your daddy took care of you. he fed you dinner and he said when yall were done, he put you down to play. you looked up at him and said, "bath?". and so he took you up to give you a bath. when you were done with that, yall came back down to play, and you said, "bottle?".

yes, you still have a night bottle. and i don't care that i was supposed to stop that last month. whatever.

you and i had a wonderful day today. we went to the zoo with stacy and carter. you took a long afternoon nap. and then we did a little grocery shopping and then picked up sushi and fried rice for dinner. you LOVE fried rice.

we love you little man.

mommy.

mr. rayper.

so. i cannot stop laughing as i post this.

clint had several pine trees he wanted cut down in our backyard. and by several, i mean 30.

enter "mr. rayper. mule tree logger". at least, that's what his truck says.





these are the trees that the man and his two mules loaded off our land. he cuts them and takes them home for free. apparently, he then takes them to fordyce or something and gets money for the trees. i don't know. all i know is that i have convinced myself that mr. rayper and his mules checked every single tree for little birdies. and if they found any baby or momma birds, he transplanted them to another tree. safely. he and the mules. (in my mind i've named the mules fancy and jack.)

well, while mr. rayper chops the trees down (think...he bends down, squats down by the tree, begins cutting...and then out of nowhere, the man throws one of his arms out in the direction as to where the tree will land. but keep in mind that he is the ONLY one out there. i guess it's habit.) anyway, all this time, fancy and jack are just tied to a tree. standing around. slapping their big tongues up against that big metal rod in their mouth. you know, the bar that goes across to keep the harness on.

i'm pretty sure i'm not using any technical country boy terms here...but come on. i'm from camden. i know about rims and rap music. cool stuff like that. i, unlike my husband, don't know about horses or cows or if mules are only girls or boys. you know, like apparently bulls are always boys. something like that. anyway (somewhere my husband just had a heart attack), i don't know about the smell of hay or how to milk a cow or run a trot line. sue me.

this morning before pratt and i left for moms n more, we had a little talk with mr. rayper. and let me tell ya, pratt LOVED the man. he let him hold him and everything. it was probably fancy and jack that pratt really loved. but mr. rayper has left here today thinking that pratt loved him. and that's just peachy with me.

he was a sweet old man. and if you need any trees cut at your house, give mr. rayper a call. he's a hard worker. seriously. i mean, according to him, there is only "one other boy outta heber springs" who uses mules to cut and drag timber.

he told me to get a picture of pratt and him and the mules so that when pratt gets older he can brag to his friends about what he saw. so cute.

life only gets better out here in the country. i'm serious. slow and better.

oh. on a totally different note. look at my baby's hair. so curly. just like his daddy's. i LOVE it. i know i should cut it, but i can't bring myself to.



okay. happy tuesday.

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

there are a few things on my mind that i've needed to get down on here, but i keep forgetting. they are things that probably aren't considered "milestones"...but i think you'll appreciate them none the less. what you will learn as you get older, is that it's the small things that matter. so i hope you find happiness in these few, random things.

last night, for the first time, you ran to the back door as soon as you heard your daddy come in. we were in the kitchen. i was attempting to cook dinner AND please you. it's not easy. i hope i make it look easy...but i doubt i do. as soon as you heard the door open, you shrieked and then took off for him. all i could hear was the pitter patter of your feet. a wonderful sound.

there are a few people who you really recognize. and you get really excited when you see them. two of those people are your two grandmothers. cookie took you to itty bitty city saturday. and as soon as she opened the door to the car, you smiled and reached for her. yesterday, nana kept you so i could help your daddy up at his office. as soon as you saw her, you shrieked and reached for her too. and then you immediately looked at me and said, "bye bye!".

you are content to play in your room for hours. you follow me around. if i go into your closet to hang clothes, you come in there and play. if i'm changing your bed sheet, you stand and watch me and try to help me with the animals.

you are a wonderful helper. you follow directions exceptionally well. last night you had rolled out all the aluminum foil in my baggy drawer. i asked for dad to come help me with you as i was cooking, and when he walked in, he said, "okay, pratt...put the foil down." and as slowly as you could you bent down to the ground and put it on the floor. and then you just smiled at him. i think it caught him totally off guard. because of your sweet reaction, he made you a foil hat. i guess you two plan on talking to the aliens sometime soon.

you love the dogs. ace and scout. and yoda too. but you'd rather pull her hair than pet her. when the dogs are in their crate, you walk over to it, bend down and in your softest, sweetest voice say, "hi dogs." it's one of the cutest things i've ever seen.

you love to walk up the stairs. you take one step for each stair. and you try to count with me. there are 15 stairs. we count them out loud every single time we go up. when we come down the stairs, you stand and wait on me. you wait right by the top. and i'll sit down and you'll lean into me, wrap your arms around my neck and then i pick you up. the entire time we are walking down the stairs, you giggle and hug me. sometimes i make up reasons to go upstairs. i do. i really do.

i love you more than i ever thought possible. so many things make sense to me now. things my parents always said would make sense....they were right.

i'm so glad you're mine.

mommy.

typical.

so while i try to mince garlic, grate orange peel, chop scallions and cook beef in a wok (for the best orange beef you will ever put in your mouth/that isn't from pf changs)...pratt thought it'd be cool to roll out all the aluminum foil he could find.

pratt rolls the foil across the kitchen. mom screams for help from dad. dad comes in to save the day.

upon saving the day, dad decides to let pratt play with "a small piece" of said foil.

and so while i continue to try to cook dinner for these animals...this is what they do.



and you know what?

i wouldn't change a single thing.

become a fan of fulks family dentistry on facebook!

click here to become a fan of clint's on facebook!!!