Day 1: Babysitting Baby Mikey

Baby Mikey's been playing for the last few hours non stop. He kept laughing at me when I was eating cereal this morning.

Man, all I have to do is smile at him, and he cracks up. He has this funny little chuckle too. It almost sounds fake, but it's not. He opens his mouth up really wide and laughs: ah haha...ha....hahaha.

He was so fascinated by the birds earlier when Jaime was cleaning her bird cage. We have lovebirds. He was just staring up at them. Once in a while he'd point at one of them.

Mikey loves the big window we have in the front. He's always climbing up on this wood coffee table to stare out the window and point to the trees saying, "tee". I think that's his favorite word. o.O

Finally he got tired, and we put him to bed. We put him down in the playpen in Mom and Dad's room at around 11:50.

He did NOT want to take his nap; I can tell you that. He screamed and cried for about a minute and then whined for the last 9 minutes before finally falling asleep. He was tired though, so it didn't take too long. =)

-Courtney-

Babysitting Baby Mikey

Baby Mikey is here for babysitting. Actually he has been for a few hours, but I've been sleeping in. =P

This is our first time babysitting him at our house. We kids babysat him a few times at his house when Mom and our cousin Becki were cleaning.

-Courtney-

Babysitting Mikey

We should be babysitting my cousin's little baby, Mikey. He's about 1 and a half now, I believe. He's so cute. Blond hair, blue eyes, ADORABLE!! So, in about 2 weeks, we should be babysitting him. =)


-Courtney-

Driving

Hey guys! Guess what? A few days ago Dad took me down to my old elementary school (Highland Springs Elementary School) to try some driving. It was awesome! I got to drive the Cavalier around the school parking lot.

Had to get used to the turning, but it wasn't too difficult. Drove about 10 mph most times. Started going up to 20 for a short while.

Once when I turned, I turned to sharply and ran the back wheels up the curb. =/

Dad told me to try to park at one point, so I attempted to turn into the parking space, however, I ended up ON the line instead of BETWEEN the 2 lines. Woops!

So, yeah, that was my first driving experience....well...except for the little go-carts I've ridden in when I was younger, but those don't count!

-Courtney-

Family Reunion

We went to the family reunion yesterday. It was pretty cool. Got to see the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We went for a picnic in the park.

After we'd finished eating, we went over to the merry-go-round for a bit. Jaime, Will, and I spun all the kids around. Went a little too fast for Trevor (he's our 6 year old cousin); he kept falling off. Silly kid thought he could hang over the edge and not start to fall off. Luckily he only really fell off when we slowed down. I had to pull him up one time.

After that, we all headed down by the water. There was this little wall that you had to climb down (it was slanted). Aunt Becky was freaking out about Rodney (he's about 12 now). Even when he was just on the rocks below, she was freaking out, telling him he was "going to fall". Lol. Funny thing was, she didn't seem to pay too much attention to Taylor (6), and I hear she's the clumbsiest of them all!

Pretty soon, we headed back to the house and went swimming in there pool. Taylor (6) wouldn't go in the water though because she didn't "want to be splashed". Will thought it was actually because she didn't want to wear her floaties. He might be right about that one.

Still, we wore our floaties when we were that little. That reminds me of the time we were there many years ago when I put on like four (heavy duty) tubies (I was like 6 or 7), and then leapt into the pool expecting to go under a bit and then shoot up. What happened was the bottom tubie went under about and inch, and I just sort of floated there, deflated by my failed experiment. Haha. =)

Trevor (5) was so funny at the pool. He walked up to the water and looked into it like he was scared, then, all of a sudden, just jumped on in. Then he burst out of the water waving his arms around yelling, "I'm swimming!! I'm SWIMMING!!". Haha. He's a little drama king if you can catch my meaning.

After drying off, we kids decided to go over to the neighbors' house to jump on their trampoline. Our grandfather said it was alright, so we went. It was pretty fun. No net though, so we had to be careful.

Pretty soon it was time to leave. The drive there and the drive back, I can tell you, were horribly loooooong. And the traffic! Well, it's over now. Tired....

-Courtney-

Family Picnic

We went to the family picnic yesterday. It was really fun. Let me just start from the beginning.....

First, on Friday, we had to prepare everything for the picnic. Me and Mom went to the store to get some things for the picnic and just as we were about to check out the groceries, we remembered munchies for the ride. We had to get out of line, find some good snacks, and find another line. Later that day, we kids had to clean out the truck. That evening, after eating dinner and doing the dishes, me and Mom cleaned a little bit around the house. Then a little while later we went to bed...

On Saturday, we had to get up at six-thirty!!! Ughhh...early. We ate a five minute breakfast of lucky charms, then we had to pack things and get things ready to go. When we started driving, I was really excited. But after about an hour and forty-five minutes, I was ready to stop driving. I ate some whales (a snack like gold fish only cheaper) but those made me really thirsty. I drank a caprisun and soon had to use the bathroom. After a while, we found a gas station and used the bathroom and bought a few gummy worms and a little pack of oreos.

I won't tell you everything else about the trip. There was traffic, we kids got bored, and finally we arrived at our grandparents house. We grabbed the food and headed over to the park right across the street, after, of course, some greetings and hugs. The food was delicious. I ate only a roast beef sandwich, though, because after eating in the car practically all the way there I wasn't overly hungry.

After eating, I went with my cousins Taylor (8 yrs old) and Rebekah (11 yrs old) over to the playground nearby. We decided to play on the swings for a little while, then went over to the merry-go-round. We were soon joined by Courtney who was racing James (7 I think) to where we were. Afterward Will and Rodney (12 I think) and Trevor (6 yrs old) came on over. (We also have one more close cousin named Tyler but he didn't come.) After a while of that, we all got tired and hot and headed back to the adults. After a little while (which seemed like forever to me because I really wanted to go swimming), we went down to the river to look at the water. After walking around a little, we decided to pack up and go back to the house. Us kids all got a ride in the back of the pickup truck. Me and Court got the best seat on a cooler at the very back. It was cool.

When we got to the house, we all got our swim suits on and swam in the pool. It was really fun. It wasn't deep enough to dive, but, even if it had been, I don't think I would have anyway. But we jumped in and made a whirlpool and stuff. Taylor didn't want to swim and Rebekah got out after a little while. We made the whirlpool after Rebekah had gotten out and Rodney, Courtney, Will, and I kept pulling Trevor off the ladder. It was hard for him to hold on with the whirlpool so it was fun dragging him back into the water.

After we all were out of the pool, we got chocolate and vanilla icecream cones. YUMMY!!! We ate dinner there so we wouldn't be too hungry on the ride home, and after that we left. The ride home was practically unbearable for me. I was really tired. I was kind of grumpy too. I said something a little bit mean when Courtney said something that annoyed me. But after a long time of driving through traffic, we stopped at a gas station. Dad pumped the gas while me, Mom, Court, and Will went over to the Mcdonald's next door to get some hot fudge sundays. Yum!! Icecream twice in one day!

And after a couple more hours, we arrived home. We were happy to see Annie and that she hadn't used the bathroom in the house. YAY! We unpacked some of the stuff and soon went to bed. And after waking up at 6:45 in the morning and coming home at almost eleven I slept like a log!

Forgot To Mention....

I forgot to mention on the last post about when I walked into my room to find Spanky (of all the birds!) out of his cage.

I looked at him on top of his cage, then I looked down, and I see the little door for his water bowl stuck open. He must have just climbed out for some unknown reason.

See, it is strange to see him outside of his cage because he is the scaredest of them all! He is such a little chicken, and yet, he was the one to come out!

It has been a wEirD day. Phew!

-Courtney-