Michael's First Date

My Goddaughter's birthday was January 18th... she's already 5! I remember when Mere got off of the plane with her in Nashville... she was so little and I was only 20 weeks pregnant with Michael. Now they are both so grown up and they love each other! Michael calls Juliana "my girl."

So, we took Juliana on a birthday date this weekend. In conversation beforehand, Michael said that he needed to bring Juliana flowers. As we were heading to the store to get the flowers, he told me he wanted to get her roses! When I asked what color, he said red. My little Casanova picked red roses for "his girl" for their first date! It was so stinking cute! Here are a few pictures from their date.

Above: Michael heading to the door to pick up Juliana.

Michael ringing the doorbell, Juliana is peeking out the window.

Juliana loves her first flowers! Michael is totally impresssed with himself, can you tell?

Juliana got to get some makeup from our friend Courtney at the Prescriptives counter while we were out.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Juliana... I love you!

~Aunt Brookie

Baby Belly Laughs

Chris is laughing at me (no surprise there) making "big eyes" at him. No matter who you are, what you have going on in your life, or what kind of mood you are in... you WILL smile and laugh when you watch this!

Hope you have lots of belly laughs today!

Love you all,

Brooke

Brownies and Brownie Balls

Todd loves sweets... Michael loves Daddy and wants to emulate him in every way - so Michael loves sweets with Daddy. Michael and Todd made brownies the other night. Little man is all about helping in the kitchen lately! Chris kept trying to climb on the step-stool with Michael, but there wasn't room... I snapped the picture just after he gave up.

The new key to getting Michael to sit and eat a good dinner? Brownies. Will Chris eat brownies off of a plate? No way. Will he eat them if you roll them into little brown balls? Sure! (I won't mention what those little brown brownie balls look like...)

Remember Me??

I know that I've been slacking on the blogs lately... Ok, I've been downright lazy about it! Well, now that I'm in the groove at school, I promise to update more often.

Meredith and I took Michael and Juliana to Disney on Ice on Friday evening. Michael LOVED it! I can't wait to take him to the theater for the first time to see Toy Story! He wants to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween!

Michael-isms:
Michael has picked up the phrase, "It's not fair!" However, he doesn't quite get it right... When he's upset that he isn't getting his way, he says, "You're fair, Mommy!" or "That's fair!" Of course, I always agree with him (while giggling to myself)!

Chris-isms:
Yes, it's Chris's first Chris-ism. Chris loves to scream at the top of his lungs just to scream at the top of his lungs. Not because he's upset or scared or startled, but because he wants to scream. Todd and I usually tell him quietly, "Chris, shhh." At the dinner table tonight, Chris was screaming again (captive audience, ya know) and, before Todd or I could stop him, he stopped and "shhh'd" himself! It was quite funny seeing him scream then shush, then scream, then shush. Silly boy!

Silly Faces

Michael has been making this silly face for a while:

Tonight, he taught Chris how to do it:

My oldest child is going to be the class clown, isn't he?

From the Mouths of Babes...

I just tucked Michael in his big boy bed. We did our usual routine: bath, pj's, story, sleep. Here's our little conversation:

Mommy: "Good night, my love."
Michael: "I'm a wub?"
Mommy: "Well, I love you, so I call you 'my love.'"
Michael: "No, Mommy. I'm not a wub. I'm Michael Ryan Barnes."

Daddy's Boy

Anyone who has seen Michael and Todd can tell that Michael adores his Daddy.  He absolutely adores Todd and misses him when he's gone. The other day, I had Michael and Chris in the car and we were running errands. Todd came by the house to grab a tool and we passed him on the road. Michael recognized Todd's work van and said, "My daddy's home! Now I can be happy!"  Bless his heart... I love that he worships his dad so much, but I couldn't help but be a little stung by the comment... I hope I make him happy, too.  Nevertheless, I must remember that he is only 3 and didn't mean anything by it but that he loves his daddy. 

He "made my feelings happy" today when I picked him up from day camp.  He came running through the crowd of kids, arms outstretched, smiling from ear to ear, yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!"