My husband, the liar!

***This blog is in no way meant to be construed as mean. I love my husband more than anything in this entire world. I consider him the answer to earnestly prayed prayers. I worship the ground he walks on. I think he's the most wonderful human being on the planet. This blog is merely here to show the reader a funny facet of the gem that is the man I married...and maybe give him a little grief while I'm at it. ***

My husband is a very private person. Let me illustrate...

- He didn't introduce me to his parents for 8 months. 

-He doesn't want to hire a housekeeper every other week because he doesn't want people going through his things.

- As a child, he locked his comic books up in a little orange chest ( he still has the little orange chest to this day!) to keep them away from his brothers. 

-He keeps a passcode lock on his phone (I know the code... he's not hiding anything from me). He "says" it's to protect patient information but really it's so that in case his phone gets lost or stolen, no one will read his text messages. (NERD!)

-"I don't know what it is about your generation that makes you want to put all that private information on the internet!"-direct quote from Ben when I told him that I'm writing this particular blog.

Maybe he's private. Maybe he's borderline paranoid. Don't ask me, I'm just the lucky girl that married him! 

(See? See how lucky I am!?!)

Where he is most private, though, is when his patients ask him small-talk questions about his life. He's soooooooo private that he makes up ridiculous, bold-faced lies when confronted with said questions. He readily admits this, too. It's actually hysterical. According to Dr. L.L. Pants-on-fire, I am not a nurse but actually a certified underwater welder and a mason(Brick or Stone or Shriner in training, I don't know, he didn't specify). Also, Lady Gaga was my college roommate. Nevermind the fact that I'm about 5-10 years OLDER than her. It's not important. What's important is that Ben finds it imperative that he shield his patients from the plain ol' dorky/boring truth. Regardless, I love him. 

(Look at how handsome and sweet he is! )

Every new day seems to bring...

a brand new trick for my little magician to perform.

This weekend he began saying "Dadda!" as well as complete, grammatically perfect sentences such as ,"Ah-goo Ah, Dadda! Dadda Dadda ah Dadda." and the succinct ,"Gah! Lalalala, aaah Dadda!"(all the while, gesturing emphatically with his open palms). Seriously, my child is a little baby genius! 

In addition to his oratorical prowess, he also has the ability to teach valuable lessons. Such as on Saturday when we went to a friend's baby shower and he proceeded to warn those baby-hungry party-goers of the dual nature of adorable infants. He attempted to single-handedly clear the table by jerking fiercely on the tablecloth. This is the SECOND baby shower that he's attempted this little trick so if this scenario sounds vaguely familiar, it's because I didn't learn my lesson the first time. The lesson being that while Declan LOVES bathtime and real showers, he HATES baby showers... or at least pink plastic tablecloths. 

This weekend also brought a brand new baby item into our home. Since Declan has been removing his own diaper I felt like it was high time to buy the little prince a thrown of his own. Yes, Declan now has a fancy schmancy little red potty all his own.  And before you roll your eyes, he has actually used it... At least 8 times! No, we aren't exactly pushing hard-core potty training on an 8 1/2 month old infant but it won't hurt anything to start gradually introducing the potty into his day to day life. My mother says he's "training " me instead of vice versa and that is fine. But ya gotta admit, he seems to have a pretty good time on that ol' potty. 

See?

          

In addition to all the talking and the gesturing and the guerilla-style attacks on pink table-cloths and the massively awesome pottying skills... This morning, after he finished nursing, he began... CLAPPING! It made me feel like Miss America! I guess breakfast was extra good because I've never been showered with applause afterwards. Pretty exciting! It's so cute to see him clap his little hands! He is so much fun! I can't wait to see what other tricks he has up his sleeves! He makes me proud to be his mama every single day!

Thanks for reading, dear friends! We love ya'll so much!

love,

The Englands

If you could take a picture of what is in my heart...

It would look like this.

Shenanigans

Baron T.T. Von TeeTeePants (This is what the original nickname, "Mr. Cheekers" has evolved into.... also known as Declan's alter ego, "TeeTee" for short, "TT" for shorter) has been up to his eyeballs in 'nanigans this past week but most especially today. Here is a brief overview.

THIS PAST WEEK
- TT sprouted his first tooth at the beach and shortly thereafter began trying to prove that he's man enough to eat steak by climbing and rolling out of the inflatable bathtub-duck/baby-pool with the gusto of a sailor climbing out of a submarine...
-And giving high-fives.
-We went out to lunch one day at the beach and our son, the one who CLIMBS and ROLLS and STANDS but refuses to crawl, began dancing in his high chair with surprising rhythm to classic rock (the WHO's "Baba O'Reilly" more specifically) It was quite the show he put on.
-He still refuses to crawl... unless you've got the red Monkey rattle from Nana's house, then he'll think it over.

TODAY
-Today the note from daycare read "Declan climbed ONTO the toy shelf and picked out his own toy".
-This afternoon when we got home, I noticed that Declan's diaper was unfastened. This is the third time this week I've noticed this but have, until now, contributed it to slipshod/in-a-hurry diapering skills. I refastened his diaper with great care only to find him pulling the tabs loose and then rolling out of said diaper.
-When Ben got home from work, the mattress on the crib was quickly lowered to the lowest setting.

Here are pictures taken of Declan TT.

After the bath

(note the "reverse superman" pose)

Flossing his tooth

Why the crib mattress was lowered

I am madly in love with two men at the same time...

And they made my Mother's Day wonderful!

(Oh, don't act like you didn't see that one coming!)

I've been basking in their attention all day long and LOVING every second of it!

Back to work tomorrow. 

Happy Mother's day!

As you may or may not know...

The McEnglands are moving in July. We are leaving our beloved east Tennessee home and heading for Lynchburg, VA. Ben has found an amazing job there doing what he loves and working with some truly wonderful people. We will be selling our sweet little water-front home and moving into a fabulous downtown loft hewn from an old tobacco warehouse. It's sure to be a wonderful new adventure...

But I'm still heartbroken. In fact, the decision has been made since February yet it has taken me this long to blog about it. This is a huge, life changing deal and I am just now blogging about it? I'm not exactly sure how to process this big giant change.

This week I have done a LOT of thinking about what's ahead. I've decided to make a little list of things that are exciting about the move in order to boost my spirits. I thought I'd share it with you...

1. Virginia sells wine in the grocery store! Imagine the convenience!
2. Lynchburg is 3 hours from Washington, D.C.. Think of the amazing museums and opportunities to learn and explore that sweet Declan will have? Not to mention dinosaurs!
3. There is an amtrak station there meaning that we can take the train to Washington, D.C., Atlanta, GA, New Orleans, LA and even Buffalo, NY if we wanted. How fun is that?
4. Lynchburg is lush and green and looks like home.
5. Lynchburg is a college town full of adorable coffee shops, interesting restaurants and fabulous old houses.
6. Living downtown will give Stella ample opportunity to walk off those extra puggy pounds.
7. There is an awesome bookstore called "Little Dickens" which is geared towards children and families. This is sure to be an England family favorite.
8. Declan and I are going to take a water babies swim class at the Lynchburg YMCA.
9. This is an opportunity to make new friends and learn a brand new town.
10.  I will be with my beautiful husband and darling son. Really, isn't that the most important of all?

My heart...

Beats fast and hard....

for the beach...

And these two breathtaking men.

I think this may be the most beautiful site I've seen in some time.