Daddy's surprise

When Jarrod called yesterday at 5pm and said "Uh, we may have a problem", I should have known what was coming. . . .

He had picked up a couple of puppies that someone had dumped off in the middle of nowhere near the substation he was working at. He said that he saw them and got in his truck and drove away. . .but he only made it down the road a few minutes before he had to go back and get them. . .awwwww. . . He put them in a box in the front seat of his truck and they laid down and went to sleep. When he brought them home I was anxious to see what Stratton would think.

[Stratton liked them, Taki not so much!]

[puppy #1]

[puppy #2]

[this puppy tried to pull S's sock off!]

[S was fascinated with the puppy's tail]

I have no idea what we are going to do with these puppies! Jarrod has been wanting a dog for a few years, and you know how much I love animals. . . but, I am worried that we aren't home enough to keep a dog. Then we would have to find someone to come and take care of them everyday if we ever went anywhere. It's a big responsibility! Stratton was so good with them and they seemed to not really care that he grabbed them or pulled their tails! Ha! I guess I wouldn't mind keeping one, but two?! Then again I hate to separate them. It might be nice having a couple dogs around in the yard, they could be our guard dogs!  Puppy #1 is very friendly and rambunctious, he likes to chew on Stratton, especially his socks. Puppy #2 is a little more subdued and low key, but he actually growled at Taki which was funny! They both seem to well very gentle and temperamental, for puppies anyway! I mean they are puppies and I will be surprised if they haven't chewed the fence down by the time I get home!  Jarrod ran to the store last night to get some dog food and came back with dog food, little bones and a dog bed. . . .hmmm, you think he's being a softy, or has plans to keep them? In that case there goes my plans to landscape the back yard! Pray for me, we may be a family of six now!!

My special Mondays

Since I went back to work last September, I haven't been working most Mondays. It's been so nice to be at home at least one day with my little guy. We don't get to spend much time together, it seems. By the time we all get home at night it's supper time, then bath and bedtime, and the weekends are always so full of places to be and things to do that we don't ever get to just spend time at home! So, I have thoroughly enjoyed spending this "extra" time with him. Our usual Monday's are full of a whole lot of nothing. I will do some laundry, and sometimes we will get out and run errands, but for the most part we just hang out at the house and play and take naps!  We had planned on starting him in daycare in April. Kayce is due at the end of May and I know she gets tired of toting him around. Plus, they are in the middle of building a house and she is very busy keeping up with Cooper, too! I had intended on just sending him a couple days of the week, at least through the summer months. But a couple of weeks ago I was informed that I needed to come back to work five days a week, which really bummed me out. I really like my job and the people I work with, but I am disappointed that I will be losing my special day with Stratton (not to mention the cost of full time daycare!). So, yesterday was my last day at home with him, he will start going to the Valley View Childcare Center next Monday. We had a great day. After Jarrod left about 6:45 Stratton wasn't going back to sleep in his crib so I went and got him and we snuggled in our bed until he fell asleep. He woke up about 9:30 and I fed him breakfast then we played and he took another nap. The rest of the day was pretty laid back, he ate lunch and took another short nap. He is still a little fussier than normal, I think it's all those teeth coming in! Then Jarrod got home a little after 6pm with a surprise (more on that later) and we spent the rest of the evening outside, it was so nice!! We even ate supper on the patio!

Here are a few pictures from meal time. I let him get a little messy!

[on the menu: peas and apples & blueberries]

[look at all those teeth!!]

[Yummy! Our little guy likes to eat!]

Here are a few other I took yesterday morning. I was trying to keep him happy and busy while I was stripping the sheets off the bed. . .

Stratton's First Easter

As usual Easter Sunday was windy and cloudy and not a good day for hunting eggs and playing outside. We went to church at Hickory Ridge and then had lunch with my parents, grandparents and aunt and uncle. I wasn't feeling good (stomach issues again) so our visit was short, but I think Stratton had a good 1st Easter. The Easter bunny brought him a basket full of [age appropriate] goodies; a stuffed "chocolate bunny", a new sippy cup, some pj's, a book, some cd's, a plaid Polo romper, new Puma sneakers, and a few other little things! . . . .he liked the Easter football the best (of course). My mom also got him a basket that had a couple of summer outfits and a bath toy and these funny rabbit ears! He also really likes playing with basket and plastic eggs. I think we might have to keep those out for awhile.

[little bunny with a carrot]

[our 1st Easter as a family]

[Sporting the cute shirt I made him]

 

 

Picture gallery is finally up!

[one of my favorites]

Our pictures have been posted in an on-line gallery! Go to the D'Lifeful web site and enter our password "Staggs". Click on "Spring Session" to see the newest ones. Due to the fact that our session was about half the time we scheduled due to the dreary, cloudy day, traffic and losing the light, She didn't get a a whole lot of good shots, (there is one in particular that I am not a fan of, where Jarrod looks really mad) but she did capture some really good ones, especially of Stratton! She was kind enough to give me a photo credit since the day turned out to be less than perfect for outside photography! We have another session scheduled in late June, I am hopeful that the weather will be better by then!

Easter Bunny

 

Stratton meets the Easter Bunny!

I don't think he was impressed!! He wouldn't smile for anything!

Our little vampire. . .

I know that last pic is blurry, but you can see his 4 most visible teeth. He has his lower fronts, and top I's and this weekend one of his bottom I's popped out and both the top fronts are also just starting to come through! I will be glad when he gets the top two. When he smiles he looks like a vampire. It's so funny. I think by this time next month he will have at least seven teeth! He's going to be ready for a steak before long!! He has been fussy a lot lately but who can blame him! It must be hard cutting all those teeth at the same time!

In other Stratton news, he is no longer a "sit still and play with a toy quietly" baby. Nope, he is now an official loud and rambunctious boy. He will not sit still unless he is asleep! He wants everything within his reach and when he cannot have it, he gets mad. [Ex. at church on the back of the pew there are: songbooks, pencils, guests/member stickers, guest/comment cards. . .all things he cannot play with and all things that he wants. So, the battle begins. It usually ends with us having to remove all these unattainable objects where he cannot see them!].  He loves to "sing" in the car. We have noticed that as soon as you start the car up he starts jabbering and singing, loudly. It's pretty funny. He also gets loud in restaurants and church. Pretty much where ever there are people that are not paying attention to HIM. haha! He is also on the brink of crawling. . .I am not getting overly excited because I know the game changes once they start crawling. I will be happy to see him learning something new and seeing the change, but not ready for the rest of it!

Bye, Bye March

March is almost over!? It doesn't seem possible! It just seems like Christmas was yesterday and here it is almost Easter! But it hasn't felt much like spring since we haven't had but a few nice warm days so far. I am looking forward to the warmer temps and sunnier days! I have got to get Stratton to the mall this week to have his picture taken with the Easter bunny. .  .just another thing on my "to-do" list that hasn't been marked off this month!

This past weekend went by WAY too fast, as they always do. Saturday morning I got up early, I didn't intend to but I had a cold and couldn't sleep! While I was eating breakfast, I got a text from Amber (about 7:30am) that said they were headed to the hospital! I sent her a quick message back and told her to keep up posted!! After Jarrod got up and we got around we headed to Searcy to pick Stratton up, and on our way there we got a phone call from my mom saying that Nanny had fallen and they were headed to the emergency room. We went ahead and went to Searcy and visited with Jarrod's mom for a bit before heading back home. I never got another phone call or message from Amber, so when we got home to unload the car before going to the hospital I checked my facebook and to my surprise Amber had given birth to "Klaire" at 9:30 am!! I was shocked!! Man, that was fast!!  It was about 4:30 or so by the time we got to the hospital. Turns out, Nanny had broken her ankle and by the time we got there they were doing surgery. So we decided to run downstairs and check on Amber and John and the new baby! When we got there John had little Klaire laid up on his chest, she was fast asleep! So, Sweet!! I can't get over how little she is, and yet Stratton was a pound less than she was when he was born and I can't remember him being that small! I got to admit, I got the baby bug.  . . but it didn't last long! ha!! Nanny came through surgery just fine. She is still in the hospital and we aren't sure when or if she will get to come home. I assume they will move her to Health South Rehabilitation, soon. But who knows? Sunday was a pretty laid back day, we went to church and I still wasn't feeling good so after church we came home and after a quick bite of lunch I took a long nap! I got up about 3:30 and we got around and went by the hospital to check on Nanny before church at 6pm. After church we went to Firehouse with some friends and Stratton was a mess!! He was "talking" so loud!!

Several weeks ago mom and I had talked about going to Memphis to go to SteinMart, we SO miss our SteinMart that closed last year!! We had decided to go on Monday, since it would be one of my last weeks off (more on that later. . .) and my mom was off. We ended up leaving late, no surprise with a baby, and didn't leave till almost eleven. We got to Memphis, ate at Bahama Breeze and after a little bit of hunting found SteinMart. I got a couple of dresses, two shirts and a new pair of sandals! I haven't bought that much stuff for my self at one time in a LONG time!! I was surprised that they didn't have any baby clothes!! Mom was bummed that she didn't get to buy Stratton anything! haha! I was glad that she was with us to help with Stratton. He normally loves the stroller, but he wasn't a fan of it as much yesterday. We were home by 5pm, so it wasn't that long of a day but still a trip to Memphis with a baby is tiring! 

When we got back Jarrod had the 4 wheeler out washing it up. So since it was out, he decided to take Stratton for a quick ride down the street. He said that if they had rode much longer Stratton would have fallen asleep! They stopped and visited with some neighbors before making it back safely (whew, not that I was worried. . haha: )