pics of the boys

aren't they gorgeous?

hush, baby

little thomas you're a trooper. already you've been on three overnight trips, braved several scrapes, been dumped on and been so overwhelmed by a weekend of wedding events that you just had to tucker out and sleep through the reception despite the loud music.
maybe it seems like we don't love you. afterall, your brother still only calls you 'baby,' generally refusing to say your name. and most of your face time with him consists of him whispering 'hush baby, hush baby, hush baby, hush baby' if you so much as make a peep.
but nothing could be further from the truth. i for one adore you. you sleep from 10 to 4 a.m. nearly every night (knock on wood), you're hardly ever upset and when you are, it's easy to soothe you. you're soft and cuddly and lately you've been showing us your tender, sweet little smile and the dimple on your left cheek that just about melts my heart.
i keep thinking, 'did i love tayloe this much at this age?' i know the answer is yes, though i don't know how because my love seems infinite and i don't know how a person can feel that way twice (three times counting your dad).
i'm filled with pride that you're mine and i adore every ounce of you, from the soft blonde swirl of hair on the top of your head to your teeny, tiny toenails. mmmmmwwwwaaaah.

such a perfect day

minus the formula dumping incident, t2 was a gentleman this weekend. here he is in his finest wedding duds just after walking down the aisle like he'd done it 1,000,000 times before. and then, despite my presumptions and plans to have him whisked away out of site the moment he handed over the pillow, he stayed quietly with his father during the entire ceremony. seeing him toddle down the aisle, dump the pillow with tayloe and climb up into his arms was more than i could handle in my weak emotional state. i cried a river.
mary was a beautiful bride, the food was amazing, mt airy was magical and the fireworks show at the end rivaled many i've seen on the 4th of july. the whole scene brought back a lot of great memories.
but best of all - to me anyway - was our kid. with his little white suit and little shoes and socks, his hair combed, his pink cheeks and rosy lips - the way he'd say 'i'm the wing bearwer' like he had an entire loaf of bread in his mouth. for one moment (one short, fleeting moment) he was an angel.

is little tayloe jealous?

oh i don't know, sometimes. LIKE WHEN HE DUMPS AN ENTIRE CONTAINER OF FORMULA ON HIS BROTHER'S HEAD. he was so shocked by my shrieks, he pretty much put himself in timeout.
for the record - thomas slept through this entire incident, including the clean up.

snap

my digital camera is so slow i am never really able to capture tayloe's expressions. but this once, it happened. this picture cracks me up.

7 years

hey buddy. seven years today you and me. i still dig you like crazy. our life is really bananas right now and it wouldn't be fun with anyone but you.
you're my favorite and if you want to know my plan, well it's to just keep lovin' you of course cause it seems to be workin'.

dum dum dum dum

my sister in law mary is getting married in 11 days. wow! 11 days! that's really soon!
anyway, we're all in the wedding (except thomas, he just gets to be cute). this is little tayloe's ring bearer suit (the shorts and peter pan blouse do da, not the bubble suit. that one is thomas'). i really want to try it on him, but i don't have the guts. i know we'll mess it up.
he also has little white saddle shoe type things. he's gonna slay 'em, even if he doesn't manage to get down the aisle, which is really a toss up at this point. i have a feeling he'll do it, but i don't want to get my hopes up.
so look people, i need you to pray with me that it doesn't rain AT ALL next week. there can't be a puddle anywhere within 10 miles of mt. airy on saturday the 11th. not a single one.
no puddles, no puddles, no puddles ....

t3

ok i'm not sure how we got so lucky, but thomas is seriously the best baby on the planet. tayloe was a good baby. if it's possible, thomas is even better.
and big tayloe is such a sweet husband. all day i sit around and daydream about how my life sucked before tayloe came and rescued me from my evil and disreputable life and drove me away on a silver pumpkin carriage made of love and sacrifice. i've been in AA for 6 years now and sober as a polecat. god bless john mccain and sarah palin.
(obviously t1 hijacked my blogger mid-post while i was putting t2 down for a nap. however, he is a sweet husband and an amazing dad. and he can be rather funny).

but he looks so sweet

doesn't he? he certainly has moments, but don't be fooled.
obviously having a little brother is confusing. he cries, he stinks sometimes, he doesn't do much and yet he takes up a remarkable amount of his parent's time. what's a 2 year old to do? why, act like a blazing, mad maniac of course.
some clips from the week's highlight reel:
* at the park, he shoved a friend into the soccer goal and ran away with his arms in the air yelling 'GOOOOAAAALLL'
* swat, spit or do both at any human who tries to say hello in public. scowl when someone says 'you're adorable' or 'what beautiful hair.'
* launch tv remotes and the phone off the couch onto wolly's peacefully sleeping head.
* dive bomb off a chair. when you're ignored, stand in the middle of the living room and drop suddenly from standing to lying down (the way someone would if they'd just dropped dead) over and over until someone notices and tells you to stop.
* take your diaper off when you're supposed to be napping and scream 'PEE PEE, PEE PEE, PEE PEE, PEE PEE' until someone comes in and takes you to the toilet
on the plus side, he didn't pee all over his bed. for this, i'm thankful and also slightly proud.
luckily, none of this awfully offensive and at times embarrassing behavior (because none of it limited to the confines of our home) has been directed at his little brother. to him, he's incredibly tender and sweet. to us, though - specifically to me - he's punishing.
so unfortunately, the honeymoon is over. do you have any idea how difficult it is to be compassionate but really firm with a wailing, flailing little rager? sometimes i seriously want to poke his eyes out.
on the plus side, this can't possibly last forever and it certainly can't get much worse (knock on wood).
and he is pretty cute.
it's a damn good thing.

naptime

what a gorgeous saturday afternoon looks like at our house. i could nap too, but i can't resist the urge to just sit here and listen to the silence and enjoy no one needing anything. even wolly's asleep on his bed.
aaaaahhhh.

2 weeks

some recent shots. thomas went for his 2 week appt on tuesday. he's gained 21 ounces since friday the 5th. so he's up to 8 lbs, 15 oz, only i'm sure he's at least 9 lbs by now because he's a piggy.
here's how our night went last night. bed at 10, up at 1:30 with thomas. asleep again at 2:15. 3:30, tayloe comes in our room - something he never does. we're both too sleepy to get up, so he stays in bed with us until i can't take it any more and return him to his bed at 4:15. 4:20 the baby starts crying. i leave tayloe and get up to feed thomas. thomas goes back to sleep at 4:35 and t2 starts crying. i get in bed with t2 and fall asleep (of course) until i hear the rooster crow at 6. i go get in our bed, taking thomas with me because i know he's bound to wake up the moment i fall back to sleep. we sleep until 8:30.
somehow, i feel rested. i'm not even sure how that's possible.
that was one of only two (maybe three, i can't remember) really unsettling nights we've had. thank god for the new coffee shop down the street that makes a killer double latte.

1 week

one week down, 1,203,357 to go. or maybe more. but who's counting?
t2 managed to catch himself a cold, so he's been at his grandparents house since saturday. that's given t1 and i time with thomas and i gotta say, it's been awesome. so far he's an easy baby and is really predictable. i like that in a kid. he's also very sweet and warm and soft and i like that in a kid, too.
t2 is back tomorrow. today i called my parent's house and he answered the phone. hhhiii mama, he said. then he told me how he's been playing with pop and pop and grandjane's dog eddie and that at that very moment he was watching choo choo. he sounded so grown up. since when does he answer the phone and carry on a conversation?
i like this photo of thomas because of the furrowed brow. it's so hard to determine any features belonging to one parent or another at such a young age, but this brow is very very hard to mistake.
am i the only one who recognizes it?

happy birthday thomas bouldin

well, wouldn't you know the weekend tayloe and little t go away for 48 hours is the weekend i go into labor.
thomas bouldin emery was born monday morning (labor day!) at 7:52 a.m. he weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and is 22 inches long. he's got a sweet head of blonde hair and eats and sleeps just the way a baby should. he's named after my dad. we can only hope he's as kind, good natured and loving.
as promised, here's the charity water link. (note that i had to put that his birthday is sept 1 2007 because choosing 2008 wasn't an option). more soon ...

guesses

the tally so far ...
cat: sept 7
tayloe: sept 1, high noon
grandjane: aug. 31
cousin suzie: aug 31
kate: aug. 7
pierce posse: sept 7
ganny: sept 6
grandpolly: sept 4
aunt c: sept 9
276 main street: aug 31
linz: sept. 5

anyone else?

as a side note, if he is born in september and you're thinking of sending a little something, we'd much rather you watch this trailer (click on the blue link, silly) and consider making a donation to charity water. once he's here, we'll set up a birthday page for him and link to it from this site.

bwak bwak

i can't believe i haven't blogged about our chickens. here they are in all their glory, making their once daily venture into our kitchen.
generally chickens are pretty stupid. i expected these guys to make it all of a week or two. but we've had them about two months and they don't show any signs of going anywhere anytime soon. in fact, they're kinda smart.
maybe it's because they're bantams. they roost up in trees at night so they don't get eaten by critters like fox. and they all stick together - two hens flecked by four roosters. poor gals.
the guys, though, are terrible at crowing. maybe it's because they're small or they're still kind of young. i'm not sure. the noise is this horrid pre-pubescent squawk that might not be so awful if it was just one. but all four typically carry on for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. in truth i've gotten used to it and usually just tune it out like a 2 year old tantrum. it's our visitors who suffer.

countdown

people are having a lot of fun guessing baby no. 2's birthday, so let's make it public.
what's' your guess? the due date is sept. 5. i'll tell you my mother has already claimed the morning of aug. 31, partially because it's her birthday and partially because it's the day following a full moon in a blue moon month. but that doesn't mean you can't join her. (i'd say it's a pretty good guess as guesses go, except that'd put me a whole week early and i just can't imagine doing anything that ahead of time).
i'm guessing sept. 7 for no real reason except that's when i'd like it to happen. which means it won't. also, tayloe was due on a friday but was born 2 days late on a sunday, so it seems to me this birth should follow suit. it's funny how your brain falls back on what it knows when it doesn't have any other information to go on.
now that the house is finished (pictures soon) i really should get some things done this week, like get a bag packed and get some fall clothes & shoes for t2 and maybe buy a decent looking pair of pajamas since we'll have a few more visitors this time. maybe i should start a list.
we're pretty much ready though. his room is clean and his clothes are clean and i even have some diapers. tayloe and i have surrendered to being tired and exasperated and have promised to remind each other that it won't last forever.
it's anyone's guess whether little tayloe is ready for the storm that's about to rock his little world. he knows there's a baby in my belly, but when we tell him there'll be a baby in our house soon he says, 'no way.' and not like , 'NO WAY, GET OUT! HOW FUN' more like, 'no way am i going to tolerate that.' sometimes for kicks i ask him where the baby should sleep and he either says with wolly or outside with cheese, his fish.
anywho, waddya think. early, late or right on time? i'll keep a running tally and post it here. the winner gets to host t2 in his/her own home for an ENTIRE WEEK!!! NO WAY!!!! HOW FUN!!!!!!!

what a mom is

my mom and her best friend have been here the past two days cleaning and unpacking our house. i'd like to say helping me clean our house, but that would be a big fat lie because i haven't been doing anything. no one can tell you to sit down and shut up the way your mother can.
they've unpacked our kitchen, assembled cabinet doors, cleaned floors, dusted, washed windows, done laundry and moved and rearranged and moved again our furniture. my mom even talked the guy working on our bathroom into hauling away a bunch of trash that would have taken us years to get rid of.
our house looks absolutely amazing (i'm taking pictures soon, just gotta find that camera ...) and there is no way under heaven that i could have done it. i can barely bend over to look in the fridge.
throw away all the parenting books and take a lesson from my mother - the greatest gift you can give your child is love. and my mom gives it perfectly.
thanks, ma. a million times over, thanks. (you, too, brenda)

recap

we went to hershey park and had a great time, but i didn't have my camera with me so i have no visual documentation whatsoever. i can, however, offer you this excerpt of the moment i knew it was time to go home:
little tayloe wants to ride the ladybug saucers. we say ok! tayloe sees a bench and leaves us in line to go sit on it. that's ok because he'd ridden pretty much everything else and won t2 a stuffed animal at one of the games and bought us all lemonade and cheeseburgers. it's our turn and the only saucer left already has two little girls and their mother in it. tayloe climbs in and says, 'mama, sit!' i'm not sure i can, i say. he looks at me funny.
see, the saucer has a wheel in the middle for kids to hold on to. and the space between the seat and the wheel may have fit nicole richie or angelina jolie at 8 1/2 months pregnant but i was pretty sure it wasn't going to fit catherine emery 8 1/2 months pregnant. besides that, the whole apparatus is really low to the ground.
then the mother of the girls says she thinks i can get in. i ask her if she has any vaseline. then the ride operator weighs in and before you know it we have something of a scene over WHETHER OR NOT I CAN FIT IN A SEAT. ON A KIDDIE RIDE. horrid.
tayloe's on a bench, watching, remember.
i decide to just get in for no other reason but to make it all stop. so i do. my ass is hanging off the seat and i'm sideways in the ride and my knees are pretty much in my mouth and the baby has decided to roll over entirely to my right side, but i'm in. 'yay mama!' tayloe says. yay mama i say back.
we start moving. round and round and round in circles. tayloe's holding on and giggling and yelling, 'WHEE' and i'm about to vomit. and just then, i look over at his father - my husband, the person i adore more than anyone in the world - and i can make out through the whirls and the blurry vision and the extreme discomfort that he's laughing. really hard, actually. and so i start laughing because really, it's pretty funny.

some recent pictures