Walker Lake Fun

The entire Walker family (minus brother Jim) went to the lake this weekend and had a great time. Here are some pics:

This is our sister-in-law Joy, Jason's brother Rob & Jason's brother Craig:
There are 8 Walker grandkids. This is Luke, Bailey, Grant & Hugh:
Cousins Emme & Bailey:
Hugh in the cool boat Mama Jane got:
All the Walker grandkids eating Blow Pops, that's my dad holding Eli:
Daddy showing Eli how to eat his first Blow Pop:
Yes, he loved it:

If Babies Could Talk

1. I have my blankie, you have your caffeine. Enough said.

2. Don't be jealous, but I think I'm in love with the ceiling fan.

3. I know where the remote control is, but it'll cost you.

4. To you, it's just an empty egg carton; to me it's a PlayStation 2.

5. Actually, I don't mind sitting in a bathtub that I've peed in.

6. Bang a screwdriver slowly and steadily into your gums. That's what teething feels
like.

7. Two words I'd rather not hear from you: rectal thermometer.

8. There's no point in teaching me to say "mama" or "dada." My first word is going to
 be "hat."

9. I've told you five times what a cow says. If you can't remember, I'm not telling
you again.

10. There is no question that I can cry longer than you can listen.

11. I'm not just wildly throwing my food. I'm exploring the laws of gravity and
estimating mass.

12. If you wanted a good sleeper, you should have gotten a cat.

13. Who is that baby in the mirror you keep asking me about?

14. If my bottom is so darn cute, why is someone always trying to cover it up?

15. Who are you two to tell me how important it is to sleep alone?

16. What you secretly believe is true: I am much smarter than other babies.

Oldies But Goodies

This is Grant on his 4th birthday. One of my all time favorite pics. He is talking to his Mama Jane on Jason's cell phone:
Hugh swinging at the Hayneville church:
Hugh is having his first bottle Coke, we were at Chris's hotdogs in downtown Montgomery:
Ahhh, the rental house where we lived our first year of marriage. The boys still ask why we moved from there because they could ride their bikes in a circle through the house. How about that washer/dryer hookup in the kitchen!
Again, the rental house:
I think Huey must have been mean to Grant here:
I think this was our first family picture, taken in early 2004:

Morning Ramblings

What a nice morning it has been. Eli spent the night with his Montgomery grandparents last night, so I was able to get up at leisure (yes, that was 6:30 thanks to a wonderful night's sleep), watch some TODAY Show, and enjoy a cup of coffee while checking my email and the news.
Eli has been having teething pain the last two weeks, so he's been unusually whiny and clingy -- two things I am not used to and don't do well with. He is usually so sweet, I feel terrible for him when he's like this because it is obvious he's in pain. I've given him Ora-gel, Tylenol, and these homeopathic pellets that dissolve and sooth. I think he's through the worst of it.
So, back to my day. I will be baby free and plan to spend my day working around the house. There's not a room in my house that is not messy and dirty (yes, there's a difference). So, today is a cleaning and organizing day. We have plenty of room in our house to fit six people and a dog + all of our stuff, the challenge is just to keep it organized and purged -- that's my job (is this why I went to grad school?). Last night I did 5 loads of laundry, Jason did 2 loads and there are still a couple more to go. It piles up fast, huh? It's also amazing (or sad) how getting my laundry done is my proudest accomplishment of the week. My goals used to be much loftier, but now it's just laundry.
I am at 28 weeks with my pregnancy and feel just great. So far I have been blessed with another easy pregnancy (once I got past that miserable first trimester). Okay, so it hurts to roll over in bed at night, and sometimes when I stand after sitting my hip catches and I have to hobble until it gets back right, but who's complaining? It's been great.
Still no name for BGW. I just believe it will comes to us...and I hope it happens soon!
And, finally, a huge congratulations to our dear friends Nate & Tiffany who had a beautiful, perfect baby boy, Ryan William, on Monday, June 23.

A Whole New World

Eli is now in his forward facing car seat! Our trip to Florida this weekend was his first time to ride in it and boy did he love it. He laughed and played the entire 3.5 hour drive down. He felt like a part of the family, watching dvds with the big boys, talking to Daddy as he drove, and as you see in the picture, kicking back with some milk. Hooray for the new seat.

McCall Family Reunion

For those of you who don't know, or who have forgotten, my mother was a McCall before she married a McCaul. Now, before you think we're some kind of Deep South inbreds, let me explain. Mother was Jackie McCall of the Geneva, Alabama McCall's. She married Ron McCaul of the Kalamazoo, Michigan McCaul's (yes, I'm 50% Yankee, don't tell anyone). So, after Mother married, her legal name became Jackie McCall McCaul. Also, Eli is Elijah McCall Walker - named for my mother's side.
So, the McCall's had their family reunion this weekend as we do every June on the Saturday after Father's Day. We have it in a different city each year, depending on which family hosts. This year, it was in Niceville, Florida hosted by the Spence & Apfel families. There are a lot of McCall roots in Niceville.
The photograph on the cake above is of Alex & Emma McCall -- that would be my great, great grandparents. Alex & Emma had a son, Daddy Doc, who had a son Daddy Mac, who had my mother Jackie. Got it?
Below are some pictures of the wonderful time we had:

Daddy making Eli laugh:
Plenty of kids to play with. Here they are having sword fights with cane poles:
Here's Jason playing balloon games with the kids. Is he the Pied Piper or what?
Here's cousin Marcus, a chef. He made the best bread pudding any of us had ever had:

Here I am with Eli & my Great Aunt Carle Dean, from Miami:
There was a fabulous spread of food:
Hugh & Grant really enjoyed playing with all of their cousins:
Here are some really neat cousins we met for the first time today, their grandmother and my great grandfather were brother and sister:
Delene, Ronda & Roxanne - our grandparents were siblings:
Danette, Misty & Kyle of Frostproof, FL:
They had neat centerpieces done with old family pics:
Reggie, Charles, & Sally - children of Regan & Edna. Edna and Daddy Mac were sibs:
Here are our wonderful hosts, working extremely hard:

This morning the boys and I began our Historic Montgomery Tour, which we are going to do this summer. Our first stop was the Rosa Parks Childrens' Museum in downtown Montgomery. As we entered the museum we climbed into a time machine that took us back to the late 1800s. As we traveled up to 1955, we learned about Jim Crow laws, Dred Scott, Harriet Tubman, and of course Rosa Parks. Eli enjoyed the lights and sounds of the robot-driven time machine.
After we left the museum we decided our tour could only handle one more short stop before Eli needed a nap, so we rode down Dexter Avenue to the Alabama state capitol and toured the grounds.
Our Historic Montgomery Tour will continue all summer and include The First White House of the Confederacy, Old Alabama Town, the Governor's Mansion, and the Planetarium. We'll share it all with you!

Lake Day

Jason and I took Eli and Josey to the lake this past weekend. It was Eli's first full day of swimming and boating at the lake and he loved it. Well, he wasn't too crazy about his bulky life jacket, but he loved being in the water.

Eli didn't like his life jacket, he couldn't move at all in it!
But he did like floating like this in the water.
His first ever boat ride.
Here's Eli waving goodbye to the lake house.
Get me outta this thing!


Playing with Josey in the water.Swimming with Daddy.

Big Boy

I just love this picture. Hugh & Grant were putting a puzzle together and Eli just jumped right in to help as if he's a big boy too. He adores his big brothers and wants to do everything they do. In turn, H&G are so great to Eli and enjoy doing things with him.

Doing Their Civic Duty

The Montgomery Advertiser snapped this picture of Darryl & Jesi yesterday while they were voting in the primary election at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

One Year Check Up

Eli had his one year doctor's visit this morning. I'm no germaphobe, but gosh I hate having him in that waiting room with all the sick kids! He weighed in at 20 pounds, which according to the highly scientific calculations puts him at about negative 20 on the Growth Chart. Whoever invented this stupid Growth Chart should be shot. Nothing during Eli's first year of life has brought me more unwarranted angst than that chart. According to the chart he is going to be a scrawny midget. He looks fine to me. I guess time will tell.
Don't mention this at Eli's 18th birthday party or anything, but he's had fluid on his left testicle for a few months now. The doctor feels confident it will go away on it's own, that is our hope because surgery would be the only fix. We'll keep watching and waiting.
He got 3 immunizations today. I've been conservative with his immunizations, I haven't gotten all of them, but we have gotten the majority of the recommended ones. He is not a fan of the shots (who would be). His face turns red, he holds his breath, and then screams when he is on the verge of passing our from shortness of breath. I'm glad it's over. He passed out in the car on the way home and is now sleeping comfortably in his crib.
So, now that Little E is a year old his diet will change radically -- gradually of course. The doc wants him off the bottle asap. I don't do pacifiers, so his bottle has become a sort of pacifier for him so it's going to be a tough wean. I've got some tricks to try. Also, I'm going to segue him onto whole milk and amp up his diet of table foods and try to get off the baby food altogether. Of course when I was driving home I wondered -- do you give them to whole milk cold? Or warm it up? So many questions, so many rules, so few brain cells left. I want to get him in a good routine before BGW arrives in September.
That's it for the doctor until his 15 month visit...in September. I told them the appointment had to be early September! I wonder if we'll be able to get a 2for1 on the copay if I take both kids to the doc at the same time. Hmmmmm.