random sampling from xmas

Christmas Eve with the Shewmake's

Christmas morning at home

old school wooden toys from Aunt Noel are still a hit with a 21 month old

you have to stick your tongue out for complete concentration in this game

shooting the hoop with the new basketball goal from Aunt Lynn

trying out the new tricycle from Grandmamma (maw-maw)

even with all of the presents, he really just enjoyed a good game of "chase"

Here are a couple of shots from Christmas. Ask Turner what Santa says and he'll give you a deep "Ho, ho, ho". (Thanks to David Gaston at the Grill) I've been proud of him the last few days. He really has divided his time up amongst ALL of his presents. I need to get started on taking Christmas decorations down so that I can rearrange a few more things in the house to make room for everything. But considering I've spent Turner's entire nap time just trying to get these photos to load on this site, I doubt I get that accomplished anytime soon!

Visiting Santa at the D'Andreas

december update

I took Turner back to the doctor again Thursday for another round of antibiotics. We just can't keep a sinus infection away for more than a week. I have some pics to put up as soon as Arthur gets them edited for me. We took Santa pics at Downtown Stroll but ours of Turner is him crying and holding out his arms reaching for me. So, we tried again last night with Santa visiting at the D'Andrea's house. He was much more receptive of Santa this time, until you tried to make him sit on his lap. But as long as Santa was walking around showing him the lights, he was fine. He was willing to give him high fives, and finally he went and gave him a kiss on the cheek, but we never were able to get a picture of him smiling on Santa's lap.
We went yesterday morning for brunch in Mobile with some of Arthur's mom's cousins, and then we went to visit a couple of family friends. Everyone complimented Turner on how well behaved he was the entire time.
And in the potty-training dept., we might be making some progress, but I hate to speak too soon. Turner is keeping those pull-ups and big boy underwear pretty dry all the time now, though!!! Yea! Now, if he would just tell me when he needs to go instead of us just carting him off to the potty at certain time intervals, we'd be there.
I think that's the update for now. Christmas Eve will be with my folks, Christmas morn at our house, and Christmas day with Arthur's fam. I can't even begin to name off all the "stuff" T's getting for Christmas this year. And I think he will grasp the concept pretty well this year that he's getting loads of presents. I'll describe the entire experience next week.......

dr visit #2 for this cold season

Turner has congestion and a cough that had progressively been getting worse over our Thanksgiving break. I have a sore throat that started developing about 5 days ago, so I decided we had both better go to the doctor today. And the diagnosis/medicine is the same. Ear infections, sinus infections--it's all the usual during these cold "winter" months. I'm just glad my strep test came back negative. Surprisingly enough, my ears looked worse than Mister T's. So, we're cleared to go back to work/school tomorrow; we'll just have to suffer our way through the next few days until the antibiotics do their jobs. Hopefully we won't be back in the office again next month!

A Funny

We usually go out to eat in Tville after church on Sundays because Turner would be fast asleep by the time we got to GH if we tried to wait. And it never fails that Turner will fall asleep after lunch on the way home to take his afternoon nap. So, today when we heading back to the car after our meal, I said, "Well, now it's time to go night-night." The child laid down on the pavement in the parking lot outside our car and said "night night". Granted, normally when I say that phrase it does mean for him to lay down and go to sleep...I just didn't expect him to take me so literally that he thought he had to sleep on the road! So, I learned my lesson today of what not to say when! :)

My Photo Book Nov 20 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

the stomach virus yet again

Turner's teacher was out Friday. Come to find out, she had the stomach virus after sending one of Turner's classmates home with it Thursday. Lo and behold, guess who gets it Friday night? ME! Arthur was gone Friday night at the Tville game and all day/night Sat at the AU game, so I was left to take care of myself and Turner for the weekend. Luckily, my parents called Sat afternoon and helped out with Turner that evening. I just hope we didn't give it to them--because Sunday night Turner had two poops and threw up once in a 2 hour time period. I got on the phone to find a sub--with no luck, so I don't know what my classes did today. But Turner and I stayed home today so maybe we won't infect anyone else.

Friday at the pep rally, the teachers did a skit/dance/cheer routine?? that was pretty hilarious if I say so myself. Arthur showed up and got some pics of us that maybe I'll put on here. Unfortunately, it didn't help us make to state.

too much of a good thing

I know I shouldn't share everything about Turner' s life on here, but sometimes you just can't help it. Sunday night Turner was constipated. Poor thing, you could tell he was hurting. So, I made Arthur go buy some prune juice. Turner slurped it down so I gave him some more. Well, it went into action before he went to bed that night and was still going strong the next morning. His teacher at school even had to do laundry with all of his spare clothes it was working so well! So, I can attest to the fact that it works, but it definitely doesn't take much of it to do a good job.

These pics are from TBC's fall festival Sunday, trick or treating in our GH neighborhood Sat night, and Pioneer Day during the day on Sat. The little man definitely enjoyed his weekend!

Pioneer Day

We strolled on down to Pioneer Day today in downtown Grove Hill. Sadly enough, in my 10 years here, I don't think I've ever gone before. We didn't get a chance to really stop and listen and learn with a 20 month old. Turner did get to make an Indian headband and got a football painted on his hand (he wouldn't let them do it on his face) while I made him a wooden bead necklace. He was fascinated by the animal skulls and petted a few animals at the "zoo". Instead of stenciling or doing leaf rubs like the other children, he used the markers to color his own abstract picture. The question everyone asked was "What happened to his nose?" Yesterday at school when he was wearing his costume, we said the tiger attacked. But today we just admitted that the toy car at daycare dumped him out on the pavement. He must have enjoyed himself because he was so worn out on the ride home that he couldn't keep his eyes open. This evening, we'll don the costume again for the actual night of trick or treating. That boy has already gotten so much candy and junk as it is though. He's never seen so many lollipops in so short a time period. Thanks go out to those that have given him fruit snacks and things a little healthier. Arthur took pics of Turner this morning, but I haven't looked at them yet. I'm sure there's something we can post later of him checking out his first Pioneer Day.

pics of halloween and gap

Here are some pics of T in his costume--some were taken at home and some were at CPS. There are also some pics of him that we used for a GAP casting call. They wanted pics of kids in blue jeans so that they can choose their new models for GAP kids. Wouldn't it be nice if Turner brought in some income for us? If he were to win a contract, you probably wouldn't have to read about it on here. You'd hear me screaming from whatever part of the US you're in.

CPS Fall Festival

I love Grove Hill. Not to speak ill of other Clarke County cities, of course, but Grove Hill loves them some Turner in some contests. We can spend tons of money, time and effort on entering Turner in competitions elsewhere and we walk away without even an honorable mention, while everyone who sees what we've done says "Wow. That should have won something." But we can do something simple locally and not have any expectations and hear "The winner is...Turner!!" I never realized how disliked the newspaperman is in a place, but that has to be part of the reason his child gets passed over all the time. I say all this to announce that Turner won the costume contest at the CPS Fall Festival this evening in the daycare category. And there were so many other cute kids and costumes that I really didn't think he had a chance. But somehow he won over the judges carting around his stuffed elephant in his zoo keeper costume and hat. He was definitely a cutie in my book. Arthur got a couple of good shots of him tonight that maybe we'll get posted soon. I'm definitely ready to say "Forget entering Turner in anything outside of Grove Hill." If Grove Hill loves my baby, then let's put all of our focus and energy into pleasing the people of this town!!! :) Thanks CPS for doing a great job with the festival tonight.

glow in the dark pep rally

We had a glow in the dark pep rally at CPS Thursday for Homecoming (since a no burn policy wouldn't allow a bonfire). We took Turner and I was surprised at how well he did. He really liked those glowsticks! Also, instead of carving a pumpkin, we bought foam face stickers and let Turner put them on a pumpkin, so there's a pic of him doing that. He seemed to enjoy that as well. I should have pics of him in his Halloween costume soon. He'll be wearing it several times in the next week. We have a fall festival at Horeb and Ghostwalk tonight, plus the fall festival at CPS Tuesday, plus Halloween parties at school Friday, not to mention Trick or Treating next Sat.

here we go again

Turner got kicked out of daycare again today for a fever. After Arthur got diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday, I figured we'd better head back on to the dr. After spending an obscene amount of money on x-rays and bloodwork, there wasn't anything to be concerned about. Ears, nose, throat, chest, white blood cells, temperature--everything looked normal. We got another antibiotic to cover every infection that the augmentin might have missed. I don't know what's going on with my child, but my employer is getting aggravated about calling in subs every other day it seems for me. But what's a mom to do?

no surprise

Is anyone surprised to hear that Turner has an ear infection? It seems we're starting out this fall season exactly like we did last year's. He's back on the strongest antibiotic he can get and some cough syrup. Hopefully, we'll clear it up and not have it again in 2 weeks time. Let's hope we can make it through this winter without needing tubes in the ears.

Mustache man

Arthur got a mustache out of one of those vending machines one day at the Chinese restaurant. It wasn't the right style for the ideas we had, but the pics will still make you laugh. We were going for Tom Selleck--Magnum PI in the Hawaiian shirt and a Mexican with the sombrero and the oversized baja hoodie that is swallowing him whole. Turner didn't like wearing the mustache so we didn't get too many shots. But I thought you might like a laugh---

Little man's running a fever right now. He got sent home from school today and I'm waiting for him to wake up from his nap so that we can go to the doctor. I'll post an update once I get a diagnosis.

hello darling, nice to see you, it's been a long time!

Sorry it's been so long. This pic is of Turner at his first Thomasville High football game. Arthur's got some funny shots of Turner wearing a moustache, but I don't know when he'll ever get around to editing them. Hopefully, by the end of the month, we'll have some of Mr. T in his Halloween costume. He's going to be a zoo keeper this year. We're starting off this fall season just like last year: lots of snotty noses, coughs, and random fevers. Hopefully ear and sinus infections will not be the norm again this year. My migraines have gone from once a year to once a month. I'm going to start documenting them to see if I can figure out what is triggering them so often now, so that maybe I can find a solution for preventing them. That's all the new stuff I can think of right now to share. I just knew I needed to get something on here, since it's been almost a month now since my last post. I can't promise that it will get better, but I'll see what I can do!

18 month wellness visit

Went to see Dr. S. yesterday. Almost 34 lbs and almost 36 inches. Way off the growth chart this time. Dr. S said he thought that since he had finally slowed down at the 15 month visit that he would start plateauing more, but NOPE! He's higher than ever on the chart. He said he was in the range of a 3 year old. He asked about vocabulary, which you know concerns me, so I said "How many words should he have by now?" The dr.'s response was 10 words, so I said, "We're ok then, I counted between 50-75 the other day." We've battled chest congestion this past week, but the doc didn't find any ear infections or cause for concerns or need for medicine. And we've been making progress again in the potty training dept. All thanks to prizes and special stickers. We'll go broke buying cheap gifts from the dollar store every time we use the potty at school or go more than 4-5 times in a day at home. But if they're working, then I guess they're saving us money on pull-ups in the long run. Hopefully I won't be writing blogs this week about another sickness we've contracted.....

august pics

driving the RV at wales west

of course dad taught me how to use a camera! lol


we had the train all to ourselves that day
picking muscadines at home






taking his own picture, or so he thinks
at the bottom of the "waterfall" at wales west
playing at the "beach" at wales west
wishing he could paddle boat at wales west
playing hat dress up and wearing the cowboy hat the wrong way