Doggie. ~By Shepard

My Grandma is awesome. I love her a lot. She came to visit me and played Giddyup Go! with me. And I even am getting pretty good at saying "Gammma." I was sad when she had to go away, but she left her dog TUX to play with me for a week before Thanksgiving. I really love Tux. When he wags his tail, I just laugh and try to catch it but it goes really fast and I can't get a hold of it. Daddy calls him "Batfish," 'cause he looks like a cross between a bat and a catfish but he's a dog. I don't really get that yet.

That's Tux on your left. And me, and Daddy's legs in the background.

Trying to get some kisses.

One of my favorite things to do while Tux was here was get him to give me kisses. Mommy tried to get some pictures of it. I am a very good dogsitter if you need anyone to give you a hand during the holidays I am here to help.

Friends Old and New

Way back in the day, I walked into my new college dorm room at my Winthrop University (where I knew ONE person) and met Marcie Neal. Before the week was out, we were singing together and laughing. A lot! As any good relationship, we um..."sharpened" each other too. We are two strong-minded (read stubborn?) ladies with a lot of good sense. But in the middle of it all was love. And singing. One night, we sang in mock-opera for several hours...just a regular conversation...all sung. Good times.
Fast-forward about ## years later (sheesh--can I really say 18??), and she is a Mama too...and now a Yon to my Jones. With three sweet little ones to my one. They were able to drop by for a visit the day before Thanksgiving. Shepard was pretty excited to have three new playmates all at once! The coolest thing was one of her daughters found a book on Shepard's shelf that was an audio version of "Aladdin." The kids all played with it while they were here. The next day, I read the inscription in the front..."From Marcie Neal, Christmas 1993." We were freshmen. The batteries in that thing still work! And Shepard has been enjoying it since the Yon kids pulled it out for us.

We tried to get pictures, but our wiggly ones were WIGGLY. Shepard hasn't mastered cheesing for the camera quite yet. There are other things he could be doing, I guess. Here are the results...what a sweet little pile o' kids!!!

L-R: Wiggly Shepard (17 mos.), Edy (7), Joshua (11 mos.), Abi (almost 3)

Happy Birthday, Gigi! ~By Shepard

Today my Gigi is ## years old. Oh wait. Mommy said I can't put that. She is old enough to know lots of things and young enough to chase me. I love my Gigi lots. She was in the room when I took my first breath and so she has known me my whole life. I hope she has a great birthday. I'm glad that she's my Gigi. She likes to hold me and make me laugh.

I drew Gigi a picture but Mommy forgot to put it in the mailbox before we left for Thanksgiving. Mommy said that she's sorry. It will get in the mail today. I can't wait to see my Gigi and Pops in a few weeks, 'cause they are going to come up and see me and help out while Mommy sings in a play. They are fun and I love them both. Help me wish my Gigi a happy birthday. Ok, I have to go now because it's almost time for lunch. I like lunch almost as much as Gigi. Almost.

This Beautiful Mess

Sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Here's Shepard enjoying his lasagna and green beans recently. We are thankful for our sweet little guy, who really, really loves lasagna. He is very adamant these days about feeding himself with the spoon. Which is great, except most of the time, he turns it upside down before it makes it to his mouth. But he's smart and hungry. I'm guessing he's going to work that out soon. Thank God it was bath night.

Yuck Yucks...

We've been having lots of fun lately. Learning some animal noises...you never know which animal you're going to get. He's still working on it. Also, we're learning that some items you shouldn't put in your mouth. Instead of saying NO, I have been saying "Yuck yuck." I don't know why. It just happened. My yuck yuck noises were cracking Shepard up the other day as he kept trying to eat the purple crayon. Here's a little glimpse into our Sunday afternoon.

Toddler-hood

On Saturday, we had a major clean-up day. You know, the kind where the washer is spinning, the mirrors all get clean, and dust bunnies quiver in fear? That kind. I'm not 100% sure Shepard was keen on joining in to help CLEAN, but he surely did enjoy the dry swiffer. (try not to get distracted by these super-cute monkey jammers)

 He played with the thing for at least an hour. I finally had to trick him onto the diaper-changing table and leave it in the hallway for Daddy to fetch while the attention was diverted. He tried to swiffer pretty much everything in the house.

Of course, we'd love for him to learn to be helpful! Hopefully, he will model so many of the wonderful things his Daddy does around the house. Like swiffering!
In addition to this fine turn of events, he has been learning lots of new words and sounds. Seemingly something new almost every day. This week, we got "night-night," the RAWR of the lion, "fish," and MEE-MO (his way of saying Nemo when we show him our clownfish), and "cracker." He also does a terribly cute thing whenever he finds a phone or something like a phone. He holds it up to his ear and makes a funny sound like "hemmmmmmm." Not sure who he's emulating there.
This morning, as we left for the day, I pulled out the big golf umbrella to shield us from the rain. You would have thought I have given him his very own traveling circus tent. His little eyes lit up and he smiled and looked at me with that great curious stare, as if to say, "Mommy! What just happened!? Don't ever let it end."

Fall Round-Up

October was especially full. We were able to celebrate birthdays of Grandma, Aunt Jessica, and Pops! We all went to the SC State Fair. Then, we took in a fall festival at the Aw Shucks farm. The really great pictures here were taken by our friend Pranee Loffer at Beauty for Ashes photography. Then, we rounded it all out with Halloween and a sweet puppy costume. Whew!

Looking forward to the holidays, spending more time with our dear family and enjoying Christmas with our little ball of energy.