I Sing a Little Prayer

All my kids have been singers as toddlers, but Max takes the cake. When he's on a roll, you can't hear yourself think.

Today, as I was cleaning him up from lunch, he tried to stand up to get out of his high chair. He failed because his leg was stuck under the tray. He promptly turned his face towards the sky and sang, "Jesus take the wheel because my leg is stuck in this chair and I can't get it out."

He was in tune with the song and perfectly hilarious.

Good, but a little hard to chew

"Have we been to Lily's Bakery?" Aiden asked today.

"Dawson has."

"I remember that,” Dawson said.

"Oh, that's right," Aiden thought. "We were in school and Bama brought us home those yummy brownies. And she had those things...rocks?"

"Rocks?" I pondered. "I'm not sure what you're thinking about but I'm pretty sure they don't serve rocks."

"You know mama. She let us taste them too."

"Oh!" I remembered. "She had scones. That's what you tasted."

"I get it," Mackenzie piped in. "Scones...stones...rocks! He was close."

Sweeter Memories

Everyone we met at the pool commented on what an amazingly happy little guy Max is. "Is he like that all the time?" they would ask me. "Yes, as a matter of fact he is," was always my response.
We loved spending time with family. I loved watching Mackenzie play with my niece. She is going to be a great babysitter.
Love, love, love this picture. I look at it and wonder how I captured this moment in time. And then I look at it again and wonder how I am blessed enough to have these great kids.
We took the kids on the traditional fishing trip and, on par with tradition, there was a total of one fish caught between the lot of them.
We did catch a few turtles and an amazing looking dragonfly.
And then we caught sight of this guy. We thought it was kind of fun until the ranger came up and told us he was a nuisance who had eaten some dogs. Then he added, "They can't differentiate between animals and small children."
"Um...guys...let's back away from the shore line okay."
Fish or no fish, time with Papa is always priceless.
This is what our crew looked like each day as we waited for the Harbor Town Trolley to take us to the beach. You can't beat it. Wet, sandy mess in someone else's vehicle is my idea of a great beach ride. Open air trolley with no car seats was Max's idea of one of the most fun things about the beach.
My brother-in-law found a good way to keep my guys together and in one place for a few moments at least.
Waves as high as my head made for some way cool boogie boarding. And I was a TOTAL kid on that board. Smile plastered to my face, squeals of glee escaping my salty lips, a bathing suit full of sand from the ride all the way to the shore, and then an ungraceful roll to standing while turning to head back for more shouting, "That is SO MUCH FUN!"
Of course there was lots of castle building, but the one that got the most comments from strangers was this one which successfully had a river running through it. Very cool.
The day Max got his finger smashed ended with the traditional family meal out. When the hour got late, Nelson opted to bring the little guy home to get some rest...only our condo was locked so they crashed at the other one. When we got back this is what I found. Max was passed out, injured hand still straight and extended. But, oh my gosh, how cute can he be? The big guy is pretty okay too.
This is it. A picture of what it's all about. A moment of sweetness frozen in time. Sun kissed cheeks sprinkled with freshly sprouted freckles, big blue eyes sparkling with joy, bodies smashed together while they still like each other a lot, one hand bound in week three of the splint and another held stiff in pain. My life, my kids and I am totally loving both.

Smashing Memories

We're back from the beach and trying to adjust to real life (think scrounging the freezer and cabinets for dinner and coming up with Hamburger Helper). It was a great week full of swimming, sunning, visiting, playing and riding some seriously big waves, which by the way, I have decided is my favorite beach pass time.

Par for the course for the Parris family this summer, we had one medical mishap when little Max's finger was accidently smashed in a door. We've had some fingers smashed before but this one was by far the worst. After an hour or so he was still in pretty intense pain so I took him in to an urgent care facility. X-rays showed no break and the doctor said he'll probably lose his nail but other than that we're okay.

But my Max, sweet little Max, nearly broke my heart. I held it together through the initial shock of seeing the injury, the hour and a half of non-stop crying, and the discussions of whether or not to take him in but when my mom (the nurse who I call for EVERYTHING) returned my call, I had to hand the phone to Nelson because I couldn't speak.

I think what happened is that I maintained strength as long as I had to be the strong one but when I heard my mom's voice it just brought me back to that place where she could make everything okay and she was the one that had to be strong...not me. In all of my parenting experiences to date, the hardest by far is seeing my children in pain and not being able to make it better. I'm sure that these minor incidences, although frequent lately, will not be the worse I will experience as a parent. That knowledge doesn't make it any easier.

After an hour of tears I finally asked Max, if drinking something might make his finger feel better. He agreed and took a few swigs of his milk. He finished drinking, put down his cup and cried, "My finger not feel better." Pitiful. When we loaded up to head to the doctor's and he asked where we were going, I told him we were going to see the doctor so he could make his finger feel better. As I was buckling him in on the way back home, he looked at me with crocodile tears and let me know, "My finger still not feel better Mama." I was total mush.

Amazingly enough, from the time I left the house to the time we returned totaled 2 hours. We got back and hit the pool, which helped him forget for a little while. However, watching my sweet baby hold that little hand, fingers spread, against his chest all day, I did not forget. And once again I was reminded that I can’t protect my children from everything. I can’t make every injury feel better. However, I know God can and that is what keeps me going.

Crazy Days of Summer

I'm not sure what has happened to me this summer. Blogging has taken a back burner to life. It's kind of bumming me out. I feel like these "best days of our lives" are going unnoted. However, at the end of the day I'm beginning to realize that life goes better for all of us if I get a little more sleep. I know it's taken me awhile to see this truth.

In the meantime we've had our share of physical woes, vacation bible schools, swim lessons, art camp, family reunion and the like. This is the first week we haven't "had anything to do". Instead there were 5 birthday parties to attend (one was for me and one for Aiden who...YIKES...turns 7 on Sunday). And now we're packing up to go to the beach with Nelson's family.

Interestingly enough, Wednesday Max decided to potty train. Yes, I mean what I said, he decided. One day he lost his diaper, sat on the toilet and went potty. We celebrated like crazy and so it began. I'm thrilled at his pretty immediate success. However, when getting ready for birthday parties and packing and shopping for the beach, sitting by the toilet every 20 minutes or so is not conducive to productivity.

Be it what it may, we are seizing the opportunity and going for it anyway. It should make for a very interesting week at the beach (do you think he's too big to pass for the Coppertone baby? Think nothing on but a shirt).

Anyway, life is going on whether I blog about it or not. I'm not giving up; this is too valuable for my little family (especially since I have abandoned baby books and other things because I keep it all here). I'm just having a busy summer.

August should be a little slower...please God.

The Things I Do For Free Food

Did any of you do this today? We celebrated Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A with gusto. Max, of course, was the cutest cow of all.


Here are some girl cows...


and some boy cows....


and a whole herd.


But, Max, oh Max, he loved the biggest cow of all. Fun times, free Chick-Fil-A and family...good day:).

For Your Listening Enjoyment

I know he belongs to me, but I still think it's pretty impressive that he can sing this. Our favorite part is the W. I bet you're nodding your head by the end.


This is the second time I caught this on tape. Much less prodding needed than the last time.


I must preface this one by saying this is the only version of the song he knows. It comes from a CD we love called Zany Songs. This particular song comes from one of the tracks titled "The Window" and is a nursery rhyme polka. He is singing, "Mary had a little lamb. She threw it out the window." The motions at the end are all his.

It's Been Too Long...

Since I've posted but I wanted to let you know I am still alive, although over the last week or two it's been debatable at times. I wanted to show you a small picture of why I've been off the air for two weeks.

We started with my staph infection, followed by Mackenzie's swimmer's ear, and Max's fever. We arrived at the family reunion and the next day Mackenzie got dehydrated on top of catching Max's fever. Two days into the reunion, my back went out. I got through that and developed an all over body rash which was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic I was taking. That equaled non-stop itching for 5 days. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. It...was...horrible. The first day I woke up not itching, I had 4 fever blisters on my lip. That day I took Dawson in because he too had a staph infection only his had to be sliced opened and drained...with no anesthesia. The next day Aiden fell off some monkey bars and fractured his wrist which translated into a 3 hour ER trip and getting to bed at 3 AM. We follow up with the orthopedic doctor tomorrow.

I have more to say about all of this but I think I’m still recovering so it will have to wait for another day.