My big boy!

Look closely at this picture...


Can you believe it? Joey can write his own name all by himself! I am so proud of my little man. I really haven't even worked with him on it - he just figured it out one day. He did it the first time the other day at the barn on the white board - he was just coloring on the board and I wasn't paying attention and he said 'mommy - I wrote my name!' and I looked and he did! But unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. But he did it again yesterday while we were playing with side walk chalk. He did a better job at the barn, but hey - side walk chalk is hard to write with! Yes, the J is a sideways, and the E has a few too many lines and the Y isn't quite connected, but hey - he's 3! And he has the main idea of L to R writing and the forming of letters. He has even gotten frustrated lately because he'll want to read a book, but (in his words) 'I don't know the words!' I can tell he really wants to read! I'm so proud of him. This is probably normal for a 3 - almost 4 year old, but I'm still proud of him. He's my little man! Oh - and underneith the JOEY in the picture is a 1 and an X. He's really gotten into writing those recently, too. He thinks it's funny to write 1s becaues 'they are easy' he says. he he he

And they're off - video

This is a video of Savanna crawling her new and creative crawl. Please forgive me - I'm NOT a good video taker, and this is just the video setting on my digital camera, and Joey kept distracting Savanna. He knew something cool was happening and he wanted to be a part of it! LOL! At the end you can even hear him say 'mommy - say 'come here Joey'' - how dare Savanna get all the attention when he can 'come here' much better than she can! he he - I'm just sad I didn't get him in the video at all - except his legs. Maybe I'll get some cool videos of him soon!

And They're Off!!

Savanna officially started crawling today! So cute! I know she's been super close for a while but today she finally figured it out. It's cute though, because it's not really hands and knees crawling - it's hands, right knee, and left foot. She does hand, hand, right knee, and pushes off with her left foot, hand, hand, right knee, and left foot. In just a matter of 2 hours, she got super efficient with it! I don't know if she'll figure out to do hands and knees, but I hope she doesn't because I love this cute creative crawling! Of course I think I would love anything she would do!

This does mean now that while I'm babysitting, instead of having 2 toddlers and 2 infants, like I used to, now I have 2 3 almost 4 year-olds and 2 mobile babies. Don't know if this will be easier or harder! But it'll be fun. I love watching these guys grow up!

Ferberizing

Alright, so Savanna has been HORRIBLE during the night for about the past 2 weeks - waking up crying 5, 6, 7 times at night. Quite a few nights I just gave up and brought her in our bed because I was just tooooo tired to rock her or deal with it - but I hate having kids in my bed because it makes me too nervous to sleep well, plus it can become a habit super fast. I thought it was just a stage she was going through and she would go back to sleeping well again soon.

She really still has yet to 'sleep through the night', but at least before she would only wake up once or twice at night - eat -and go right back to sleep. I could handle that - but I could not handle the constant waking up and fussing. So Friday I said enough is enough. I spent the whole day researching different 'sleep training' methods - mainly the extinction method and the ferber method. I decided on the ferber method (letting them cry for 5 minutes - going in - comforting them quickly, and leaving for 10 minutes, going back in, then leaving for 15 minutes and so on - only rule is - you cannot pick up baby and the visits have to be quick and short) I remember doing this with Joey and it only took 2 nights before he slept through the night without a problem.

I was all gung ho and went over the 'plan' with Kris. I went upstairs to lay Savanna down. I fed her and put her down and said good night and left the room - knowing it was going to be a long night - I hate hearing her cry. I left the room and came down stairs and watched a TV show with Kris. At the end, I realized I hadn't heard a peep out of her. I went and checked on her and she was out cold. YAY! But I knew it was only a matter of an hour or so before she would be waking up and fussing. We went to bed and I woke up this morning at 4 to realize she STILL has yet to wake up - of course I had to check on her to make sure she was still breathing - which she was - so I went back to bed. then at 6:30 she woke up pleasently - I woke up to happy coos on the monitor. Can you believe it???

I guess she over heard me talking about the ferber method and knew I was serious! ha ha! That is the first time since she was born she slept for 10 hours straight! I was in heaven!!! We'll see tonight if it was just a fluke or if she really has given up her fussy night ways!! If not, ferber method, here we come!

Joey Chatter

Thought I'd liven things up with some Joey Chatter...

This one occurred when I was explaining that Great Grandpa had passed away...

S: Great Grandpa died. He went to live with Jesus.
J: Why did he go to live with Jesus?
S: He was really sick, but he's not sick any more because he went to live with Jesus and He made him all better.
J: He was sick? Did he go see a doctor?
S: Yes, but he had to go live with Jesus to get all better.
J: Oh - so when I get sick I go live with Jesus?

(needless to say... he didn't understand at all what was going on)

When we went to the viewing and we went up to see great-grandpa in the casket:

S: Joey - do you want to see great-grandpa?
J: Mommy! Shhhhh! Great-grandpa is sleeping!!

I found this kind of humorous!
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This one happened when we were reading a book about firefighters and it mentioned if you see a fire 'call 911 or tell an adult'

J: Are you an adult, Mommy?
S: Yes I am (though I'm not real sure when it happened....)
J: Is Daddy an adult?
S: Yes - and so is Grammy and Grandpa and all the grown-ups.
J: Am I an adult?
S: No silly - you're only 3 - you're still a kid.
J: So you are 9?!?

Ha ha - 9 years old is an adult to him!

More info

If you are interested in more info about my Grandfather and his life, check out my sister Amanda's blog. She was there with him last night when he passed and she has some neat pictures of him on there.

Goodbye Grandpa

Sadly, my Grandpa, James Lester Slack, died tonight after fighting a battle of very aggressive leukemia for the past 3 months. He was an amazing man and lived a long and honest life. He served amazingly in the Navy as a young man. He was on the USS Anderson during WWII. He was a great husband to my grandmother for over 60 years, was a father to 3 children, a grandfather to 7 children, a great-grandfather to 11 children, and great-great grandfather to one.

I have wonderful memories of him from my years growing up. I know often I would get to go stay the night at his house and I remember how he and Grandma would spoil me rotten. I remember his sense of humor, but also his sense of humility. I remember the great love he had for his family, and his pets alike. He was a very strong man, but very soft hearted. He will be greatly missed.

The funeral will be later this week, and I will post more about this amazing man then, but for now, here are the pictures I have of him with my children. Unfortunately these are the only ones I have on my camera of him. But I am glad I got these. These were taken shortly after Savanna was born. (yes.. the date stamp is wrong on my camera...) He was nervous when we took these pictures, because this was the first time he had held a baby since his stroke 4 years ago - He was so proud to be able to hold Savanna - and she just cooed and smiled at him. I am sad my children will not remember him as I did, but I hope they always know their great-grandfather was amazing.

For now, please pray for my grandmother, whom I am sure is greiving for her groom of 60+ years... I can't imagine how hard must be for her. He was always her rock.

Grandpa Slack, Joey, Grandma Slack, and Savanna (this is the grandmother whose maiden name is Austin, where Savanna recieved her middle name from. It's funny, but my grandma refuses to call her Savanna - to her she is Austin. I love it. :-) )

Grandpa loving on baby Savanna

Baby Savanna smiling at her Great-Grandfather!

Goodbye, Grandpa Slack. I will miss you. Thank you for teaching me the value of Family and for just being you. You have done so much for me and I will forever be indebted to you.