And the Name is...

Brady!  Baby boy Grodack FINALLY has his first name and as is typical fashion for us naming our children, it's the name I liked from the very beginning.  Yes, this is a name I've liked for quite some time and Duncan liked it too (obviously).  But I'm sure Duncan will tell everyone that I picked the name yet again.  As he told me this evening, "So, 3 for 3, huh?  I just want to state for the record, that I did not pressure, coerce, or whatever you want to call it, Duncan into picking this name.  There were several others that we both agreed on that he could have gone with and I would have been content.  We still aren't settled on the middle name though.  We thought about Alan (Duncan's middle name) but didn't want the initials to be BAG and Brady Duncan just doesn't sound that great.  I tried as hard as I could to get Duncan to pick the middle name tonight but he folded under the pressure and went to bed.  Anyway, hopefully it will be happening soon.  I should just be happy the first is now taken care of.  It's so nice to be able to call this little guy something and Aubree is already telling me she wants to see Brady and comes over to lift up my shirt.  Not too much to see there except a weirdo looking belly button.

So now that that is out of the way, on to other things.  Wednesday was my semimonthly trip to the dentist, or so it seems.  This visit was to get the wire put in behind my bottom teeth that was removed a few weeks ago (due to breaking).  Thankfully it was a quick process.  The girls were at Grandma and Grandpa's so that was a special treat as Calleigh got to do a mid-week swim.

Yesterday we took our first trip of the season to Trotwood Park where they have the splash playground.  Calleigh suggested we take a picnic which is exactly what we did.  The splashing didn't last all that long as Aubree got very antsy.  She kept wanting me to go in which I had not come prepared to do.  So on we moved to the regular playground where Calleigh met up with a couple of kids on the swings.  The other kids were using all the swings and Calleigh kept wanting to get on one so she was pacing around and almost whining about it.  At one point, she walked by and one of the little girls said to me, "Excuse me, but she just stuck her tongue out at me."  I've never known Calleigh to do such a thing and as it turned out, yes, she had been sticking out her tongue, I guess you could say, but she was just licking her top lip.  Phew.  Those kids ended up leaving and a much nicer girl named Abby, who was seven, quickly befriended Calleigh and it was happy times after that.

She's NOT happy that I wasn't going in.

Aubree had been going through this phase of wanting to hold my hand going down the slide but suddenly, the phase was over as of yesterday.

Calleigh talked the ear off of the people sitting behind us.  People make the mistake of saying something to her and then it just snowballs from there with her talking to them about everything under the sun.

This morning we were off to yard sales although it was a bit of a disappointment on that front.  Not too many good ones on the docket for today although we still found a few things. One thing of interest that I did discover is how interesting it that little kids are so non-judgmental of people.  One of our stops brought us to a housing development that I would classify as "rundown."  It was actually a trailer park (not that trailer parks are all rundown because there are many nice ones) and it had definitely seen better days.  I still got out because there were some kids stuff.  The person in charge of the sale turned out to be a guy probably in his 50's who had some teeth missing, had tattoos galore, and just generally looked like he belonged in a very rundown trailer park.  Well, Calleigh didn't miss a beat.  She started talking to that guy like they were dear friends...explaining to him how she was three and she was going to be four and that she wore size five in clothes and that she had a dog named Dewey but used to have a dog named Marlee but she died because she was sick and now Dewey had blood on him so we got him a shirt, etc, etc.  Yup, his appearance didn't phase her in the least.  I wonder at what age they start taking their cues from us adults?

Calleigh had her first swimming lesson today so after the yard sales and a stop at Target (sadly, we couldn't even fill the whole morning with yard sales), it was off to the in-laws pool.  The teacher, Zoe, was a little early so she was waiting for us in the driveway.  I liked her right away and so did Calleigh.  It was actually raining a little bit but since there was no thunder or lightening, it didn't stop them from getting into the pool.  In no time, the two of them were friends chatting away and I got a very good feeling about the whole thing.  I think it's important for Calleigh to bond with her teacher.  Anyway, all seemed to be going very well until about 15 minutes in when Zoe let Calleigh go to try to get to the edge of the pool and I think she panicked for a second. A little water got into her mouth and Calleigh jumped out of the pool crying and came over to me and said she didn't want to do it.  I bribed her with a promise of some jelly beans and after about three minutes, she went back in and all was well again.  Hopefully that was just a one time thing.  After that they worked on blowing bubbles and kicking feet but obviously they'll eventually get to the point where she needs to try and do things on her own.

Late this afternoon, Duncan made his first foray into the couponing world.  It was time for a Publix grocery trip.  Publix has changed a few policies around in which they will only allow one deal per person.  For example, if you have a Publix coupon for $5 off a purchase of $30, it used to be that you could use as many as you were able.  If you spent $60, you could use two coupons.  Well, that's changed so now it's only one per person no matter how much you spend.  Quite frustrating.  This week there were several other coupons like that so I told Duncan, "Time to suit up.  You're a shopper today."  So he had his cart and I had mine.  I put all the stuff I didn't have coupons for in his cart so that he wouldn't have to do much.  In the end, the girls were particularly obnoxious and I told Duncan this is why I prefer to go without them.  But...having him there saved us $20 so we decided it was probably worth it.

I think that's about it.  Oh, I think I may have to get a new laptop.  I was so frustrated this afternoon because my laptop just wouldn't work.  It would come on and all that but when I tried to click on my user name to get to my session, nothing would happen.  I rebooted like five times and nothing.  Well, come to find out (as Duncan figured out for me within 30 seconds of getting home), the little buttons at the bottom of my laptop that work as the mouse are, for some reason, no longer working.  I don't know if I wore them out or what.  The laptop is still usable, of course, but now I have to use the big red button in the middle of the keyboard.  Very annoying.  So, it may be time for something new.  Of course, this would work out well for my coupon printing plans because I keep saying I want more computers to be able to print more coupons.  Plus, I think it's only fair that if Duncan got a new iPad, I should get a new computer too!

Have a Happy Sabbath and a Happy Mother's Day to whom it applies!