Kutesy Kisses is now on Facebook!

So, for those of you who are holding me accountable for my "unemployment plan," you should be very proud. Not only have I managed to finish 3 paintings for the Shakerag Arts and Crafts Festival, I have also set up a Business Page for Kutesy Kisses on Facebook. You might notice the new Fan Reel to the left of the blog, if you are on Facebook, check it out. It has all of the pieces that I have done for other folks plus pricing and other information. Keep me in mind as the holidays approach!

Jack's Visit with Grandad

My dad, David, came up to visit over the weekend, it was great to see him and I know that he really enjoyed seeing Jack. With Pete working most of the weekends now, it had been almost two months since the last time we were able to get to Mississippi to visit. It took Jack a little time to warm back up to dad, spending most of the first few hours just staring at him, almost like he was studying him, but once he warmed up it was all smiles and giggles from there.

During most of his visit we were sprawled out on the play mat and as I mentioned before, Jack is very close to crawling, so most of the evening was spent working on his technique. He is able to get on his hands and knees now and scoot his little knees towards his hands but he hasn't quite gotten the movement of the hands yet, which leaves him doing this cute little move that Pete and I call the "Humpty Dance." This move consists of what looks like Jack revving up to crawl, but never actually crawling. Anyway, Jack was just adamant that he would spend all of his time doing that while Grandad was here and Grandad even attempted to teach Jack to crawl before he left, but Jack wasn't quite ready. Soon though, and it's all down hill from there!

Am I Becoming a Housewife???

In some sort of distorted way, now that Jack is in a little nap routine, I feel proud when I am able to clean, do the dishes, and finish up the laundry. These are the things that give me a since of accomplishment now, not bringing a large Soccer group to play and visit in Peachtree City, or sending out a great E-Blast to promote a weekend event here, but changing diapers, doing laundry, etc. Ironic how only the third week into my unemployment, my to-do lists have changed drastically already. So, I have started to ask myself..."Am I becoming a housewife?"

In addition to spending time with Jack, I also get to spend time after school with Clayton and Ben. They are both usually fairly easy in the afternoons, BUT last week was a little different. Jack and I met Clayton at the bus stop and as I was making him a peanut butter sandwich (with every inch of crust cut off, or he refuses to eat it) he had to take a break to go the bathroom. After just a few minutes, I hear "Sissy," "Yes baby," I answered. Quickly, he responded "I clogged up the toilet!" All I could think was "Shit!!" literally. There I am standing with a half made peanut butter sandwich, Jack crying in the front room because I had put him down long enough to get Clayton situated, and now I have to unclog the toilet. Hmm...now I'm facing a dilemma, which comes first...the shitty toilet about to overflow, the crying baby in the front room, or finishing the peanut butter sandwich??? After just a few seconds of deliberation, I put down the knife caked with peanut butter, put my eyes on Jack really quick to be sure he was okay and ran off to the shitty toilet. As I'm plunging and plunging and as long as it was taking me to unclog this toilet, the only question I could ask was "could this possibly be the biggest turd known to man, lodged sideways?" Best of all, while I am working on the toilet, Clayton is standing in the hallway with his pants down around his ankles and butt exposed for anyone who had the misfortune to approach our front door during this madness, and finally, after a few minutes of struggling to get everything situated, I couldn't help but laugh a little to myself, and ask, "was this some sort of crazy housewife initiation?"

Jack and Mom Time!

Since I have been home again with Jack, we have been having so much fun together, mostly spending time on our play mat (aka a blanket with EVERY single one of his toys spread out). The play mat helps him spread out and move all over. He is so close and I am so scared of what new dynamic crawling will bring and mean for our household, but it makes me very proud to see him growing up.

Grace was laying at the end of our play mat and I think that really got Jack moving. You'll see in the video below how Jack is trying to crawl towards Grace but at the end, I think he just gave up and got smart...he started pulling Grace towards him, it cracked me up!

P.S. Will someone please tell me how I am supposed to lay my child down for a nap when he is sreaming at me through his bumper...I know it looks like a smile...but it's a full blown scream.

Movie Night at "The Avenues"

We packed up our picnic lunch and ice chests and Ben popped the popcorn and we were off on the golf cart headed to movie night at The Avenues. It was rather warm, so Jack passed out almost immediately, but we tried to stay cool in the shade. We got there early enough to get a spot on front row and threw our blanket out to mark it BUT we had some time to kill so we played in the bubbles, threw the ball around, and listened to the steel drums. The movie started a little later than I thought, but Jack hung in there and was quite the trooper. He just rolled all over our quilt and played with Uncle Best Friend (Clayton) and Uncle Ben Wild Rice (Ben). They are so good with him. Every time Clayton sees him, he just pats his head and says, "Hi Jack" and when I'm not looking, Ben will just creep up behind me and quietly smile at Jack.

We had so much fun that I was looking forward to doing it again, but when I looked...it was the last one of the summer, bummer! Guess we'll just have to wait until next year.

Jumping Jackaroo!

Jack is getting so big now that he is moving away from his swing and play mat. Now that he is strong enough to hold his head up, he definitely doesn't want to be laying down any more than he has to. He is so close to being ready to crawl , just a little bit stronger and we will be eating his dust.

This is a Baby Einstein Jumper and he LOVES it! It didn't come with very many toys but we had enough to add on. That was a minor detail though, his favorite part is being able to stand and bounce.

Jack's remote...

I believe that Jack is in full swing of his teething and all of you moms know exactly what that means...everything in the mouth, and I mean EVERYTHING! So, despite the 15 stuffed animals, numerous baby toys and all those liquid things that you're supposed to put in the refrigerator, of course Jack only likes the television remote. And we're not talking just a normal remote, it's the remote to our new 46 inch flat screen TV so there is no way Pete is letting little Jack chew on that sucker, lol. So, in efforts to "pull a fast one" on Jack, Pete pulled out an old remote that is similar. This way, he can slobber ALL over it, BUT I have a feeling that he doesn't like it quite as much. Don't worry though, nobody has to know about what happens while dad is at work. :)

P.S. Look closely at Jack's shirt, the puddle at the bottom of the remote is proof to exactly how much slobber we're talking.