for aunt dixie.

pratt woke monday night around 1130 with a high fever. high, high fever. the kind of fever that makes holding them painful. he was just crying and crying. which totally means something is wrong.

he's gotten better all thanks to motrin and pedialyte pops. and playing outside in the 74 degree weather in nothing but a diaper.

we haven't left the house since monday though. and well, i'm sort of in need of an intervention. because i'm starting to get cabin fever. anyway. pratt is getting better. he is still taking 4 hour naps, and is still pretty clingy, but he's on the mend for sure.

so, yesterday we cleaned out his closet. loaded up clothes that no longer fit. put up his spring clothes. took down the winter clothes. loaded up at least 10 pair of shoes that HE CAN NO LONGER WEAR.

where has my baby gone?

we came across something. a hat from aunt dixie. it hasn't fit him until just now.

and i don't know if it was the color. or because he already realizes the wonderfulness of finding a special treat in some drawer tucked away...but he loved it. and i promise i didn't tell him to point at the cap. it was just like he knew to or something. i don't know.

but dixie, this is for you. and uncle rick. we love you both. go cardinals!



happy thursday!

our big weekend.

friday night pratt spent the night with his nana and papa randy. he got to play with landon and jimmy while he was there! from what i heard, they had a wonderful time and loved playing with each other. it's quite an understatement to say that clint and i really enjoy a date night every once in a while. so nancy, thank you again for keeping pratt. i know you love it...and so do we. we're so lucky to have you and randy so close.

saturday we loaded up and headed to hot springs. our sweet friend emily turned 21 years old a few days ago. she celebrated her birthday this past weekend in the spa city.

her first surprise was a race at oaklawn named after her!! woot woot! pratt and i weren't able to make it to the race, but clint did. and mom and dad did too. from what i heard, she got to give the trophy to the winning horse!!

we arrived around 330 to pick up cookie and ashton at the races. pratt got to spend some time visiting with his girlfriend ashton before everyone else got back from the races. i don't know what was going on, but the kid ate more in that 4 hour period of time than he's eaten in the last 6 months of his life.

maybe it's a growth spurt. i don't know. i just know that he has never eaten like he did yesterday. let's see. guacamole. corn dip. pistachios. cheese and crackers. olives. grapes. brownie. muffin. m&ms. and hershey chocolate eggs.

after everyone returned from the races (and pratt for a split second thought jonathan was his daddy :), we ate at our favorite hot springs mexican restaurant, jose's. it's on highway 7. if you've never eaten there before, it's worth a shot. we love it.

and pratt continued eating. cheese dip. chips. chicken. birthday cake.

emily had a wonderful birthday dinner and an even better happy birthday song from everyone at jose's. i think her favorite part was the sombrero they put on her! she looked so cute in it!! we all enjoyed birthday cake and then we headed back home. amazingly pratt didn't fall asleep in the car. i'm not sure how he didn't.

even more amazingly, he didn't puke after eating all that food. oh, jonathan and ashton, don't forget that as soon as you two have baby, clint and i are coming to get that sweet thing. and we're going to feed him/her as much bday cake as he/she can stomach. uh huh. sure are.

happy birthday emily! thank you for letting us share your special weekend with you and your sweet, sweet family. we love you so much. and we're so blessed to have you in our lives.

thirty years in the making.

a few weeks ago, i woke up and could do something that i haven't ever been able to do.



yes. touch my nose with my tongue.

now. you may be thinking, what in the world? tell me that she didn't try this every day and finally realize she could do it....

yes. yes, folks. that's what i did. every few days i would try it. just randomly. you know. while waiting for my coffee to brew. or while shaving my legs in the shower. or maybe while completely naked going number 2 on the john.

whatever. whenever.

i tried it all the time.

and i finally mastered it.

now. i'm not sure if it's because i've stretched my tongue out, or if it's because my nose....like everything else on this old body....is headed south.

man. it's probably because of the gravity thing. that's the pits.

anyway. i did it. and put it on facebook. it was a hit. well, sort of. several people said i looked like a serial killer. kristin said "that's hot" which i took as a compliment.

aunt carol even said it looked like my mimi. which totally made my day. mimi was my mom's (and aunt carols) mom. i remember little about her. well, i remember what my mom has told me about her. but i remember her smile most of all. this sweet smile. and apparently, i looked like her when i did it. which is awesome. because i've never been told i look like the "robinson" side of the family. only the "pratt" side. sweet.

so. i put it on fbook. and totally forgot about it. well, my parents preacher (buddy) who is a friend of mine on fbook, apparently thought it was so funny that he took it to my dad to see. yes. he walked over to my dad's office from the church with the picture.

if you know my dad, you can imagine his reaction.

you see, he's been asking me for years to get off facebook. he hates it. worse than clint hates it. which is a whole lot. well, to "teach me a lesson", my dad did something with the picture....yep. sure did.

pratt was sick last week, right? well, one day last week, pratt receives this letter from my dad. please note the stamp...



that's right. he had stamps made with the tongue picture.

and he was even kind enough to put a few extras in for pratt and clint.



aww, dad. you're so sweet. ha. hahahaha.

in the letter he wrote something like, "your mom took this picture of herself. i don't know why. when i figure it out, i'll let you know. but i don't think we will ever figure things like that out. things like her."

uh, hello...kettle. it's the pot. you're black.

dad, pretty sure ALL my weirdness comes from you. and your side of the family. well, maybe not all of it. but for sure like 85% of it...

happy weekend!

'round here.

i've gotten behind. i don't know how. i think because i take a million pictures and then never sit down to sift through them, clean them up and then put them on here.

so for that reason, i'm catching up today. i hate these posts. where everything including the kitchen sink is tossed in. but i won't ever get caught up unless i just give in.

pratt changes so much day to day and i don't want to forget about what he's doing.

he has learned the last two letters of his name. all thanks to nana and the name puzzle she got him for valentines day. you can say, "p r a..." and he will go, "tt!" in the sweetest voice ever. and then he just smiles and smiles. and is so proud of himself.







he loves to stack things. his sippy cup. measuring cups. boxes. whatever. he wants to stack them. he won't knock anything down, really. well, the blocks, but he's not a very destructive little boy yet. he's very precise. very careful. slow to move. that kind of thing.

he is eating with his left hand. using a fork and a spoon. he's really good with the spoon as long as the consistency of the food is such that it will stay in the spoon even when dumped over. like yogurt. he's the master of yogurt. oikos yogurt. the BEST yogurt ever. even i like it. and i DO NOT normally like yogurt.

oh, and he has this tendancy to not use his hands. i don't know where he got this from. well, this is how i sometimes eat popcorn. you know, "no hands!". but not all the time. i dunno.

dad got a new smoker and this past weekend, we enjoyed playing outside in the wonderful warm weather. dad seasoned the smoker while pratt and i played on the trailer.

pratt has become quite the little helper around the house. he knows when he needs to get the dustpan out for me. and he knows how to shut drawers now. having your fingers smashed by the drawers around here is NO fun. so he's figured out to ball his hands into fists before trying to shut it. so funny. i didn't tell him this. this was ALL on his own.

he still loves wearing beads. these days, mardi gras beads are his favorite.

he has re-discovered the baby swing. and he loves it. he gets in it, turns it on and sings, "bae bee, bae bee." it's pretty funny.



he digs trying to unscrew and screw caps on bottles. in the pantry. in the bathtub. wherever, really.

he still loves snuggling up close to his daddy. he twists his hair when he gets tired. and he's started asking for kisses. he did it to me yesterday in walmart. we were just walking down an aisle. him in the buggy. me pushing. and he leaned up and made a kiss face. i leaned down and kissed him and he said, "more." so i did it again. and then he said, "tae to", which means "thank you." i cried. what's new.

last night he started putting his hand up to his daddy's mouth so dad would kiss it. so, so sweet. a little angel baby.

that's all for now. have great thursdays!

bubbles.

so. pratt takes baths. duh, right.

well, during the bath, he loves bubbles. he has started asking for them as soon as he is heading up the stairs to the tub.

the bathtub is the only place (to my knowledge) that he has seen/talked about/heard about bubbles.

last night, that ALL changed.

it was around 630. we were playing with flashcards. the ones sugar got him for christmas. he loves them. and here was the card we have looked at a million times.



me: "pratt, what is this?"

pratt: "fish. bubbles."

I ALMOST DIED.

y'all. bubbles. how did he know bubbles!?

idk. my bff rose?

who knows.

who cares.

i had to document. just deal with me being an overbearing, annoying parent. so sorry.

dear pratt.

dear pratt,

this past sunday, a friend of ours sat by us in church. her name is janet. her husband's name is rick. they introduced themselves to us when we first started going to church there about a year ago. over the past few months, we've gotten to know them.

she is one of those people who is so friendly and sweet and always goes out of her way to greet us when she sees us.

it had been a few sundays since i had seen her, and as she sat down sunday morning, i mentioned that to her. said something about how i had missed her. and hoped everything was okay. she turned to me and said, "my father passed away this past week. he had a stroke and didn't live long after that. he had parkinson's disease."

i immediately apologized for her loss. told her i was so sorry. she said, "thank you. my father was an incredible man. he really lived his life. everyone should live their life like my daddy did. he was a great, great man."

tears started welling up in my eyes at that point. for many reasons.

one. because i cry anytime anyone else does.
two. because i cry anytime anyone talks about their parents.
three. because i need to be on medication.

i sat there next to miss janet. trying to keep from crying. wiping away any tear that escaped.

i immediately began to think of funny things. like the episode of everybody loves raymond where debra tries to pick up the turkey with her bare hands, but it's so oily and slippery that it slips out of her hands, onto the floor. and raymond says something ridiculous like "whoopsey daisy!", trying to be funny. and so debra just picks it up off the floor and slams it in the oven. and then slams the oven door shut. so, so funny.

but that didn't work. i couldn't shake it. all i could think about was how much she must be hurting. how she must feel like a part of her is missing. how there will be times when she picks up the phone to call home, fully expecting, fully hoping he answers, yet he never will.

and so i'd start crying all over again.

miss janet got up during a song and lit a candle for her father. and said a prayer. i watched her carefully and when she returned, i could tell she had been crying again. i leaned over and put my arm around her. she turned to me at that point and said, "do you have your father?"

i uttered, "yes, i do." and then started crying again.

you won't get this until you're much older, but parents are the some of the most important people in your life. me and your daddy.

for many reasons. here are a few.

because no matter what you do, we will always love you. no matter how many doors you slam. how many times you storm off to your room. no matter how many times you tell me that i just don't understand, i will always love you.

because we will always take your side. even if we don't act like it. it's because sometimes we have to hide it. for your sake. but deep down, when i get in the bed at night, i'll be on your side.

because we can teach you what worked and didn't work from us. and learning by example is a great way to learn.

because we will be the ones to give you an allowance. and who doesn't like money?

for all those reasons, and many more that you will discover as you grow up...we do love you. and we do want the very best for you.

my friend debbie lost her mother recently. she made a comment to me that i think speaks volumes. she said,

i didn't realize how strong my mom made me by being so supportive and loving.

what an awesome thing to say about a mother. what an incredible mother mrs. alexander must have been.

i feel like i can say the same about my own mother. the other night when you got sick. who did i call? my mom. at midnight. to ask her what to do. because moms ALWAYS know.

i hope that one day you can say that about me.

i hope that one day you can say that you were strong because of me. because of the cheering i did for you. because you knew i always believed in you.

it will be then, that i feel i've done a good job.

done a good job, at the most important job i have...or will ever have.

being your mommy.

i love you pumpkin.

happy sunday.

we have had an eventful weekend. for sure.

thursday i had the stomach bug. and let me say this. if your baby has it, feel sorry for him/her. it is a HORRIBLE bug. i thought i was dying on several occasions. i finally felt better friday.

nana kept pratt friday night and clint and i were able to go the our junior auxilary children's benefit. where i won......A GYM MEMBERSHIP!

WOOT WOOT!

i am so, so excited about this. all i have to pay for is the childcare part of it. woohoo! i have wanted a gym membership for so long. and my sweet husband bid on it for me in the silent auction and we won it. with the help of one very special larry harris.

we had a special birthday party we attended yesterday. and then today we have a chili cookoff at church. tonight. with a children's choir performance. so...we've had and will continue to have a busy weekend.

i'll update more with more later.

here is a picture of my sweet little angel baby.

feeling good in the sunshine yesterday.

playing in the dirt.



happy sunday.