Someone is 7 months old already

Our baby is another month old. This is such a fun time for William. He loves to play, he can sit up (with the occasional flop over!), he recognizes the people that are around him most and he has started saying his first word. Do I even have to say what that might be?? You guessed it...it's "Da Da". I'm only the one that is ALWAYS with him, feeding, bathing, teaching, washing clothes, cleaning messy faces, changing diapers, rocking, singing, carrying him around (he weighs 22 pounds) and all of the other mommy stuff I do. Of course he would say Da Da. It is just the thing babies do. Whenever daddy walks through the door William squeals with excitement, laughing and smiling. He opens his arms and leans towards his dad waiting to be picked up. I tried to capture some video footage of the boy saying Da Da but naturally the minute he sees the camera, he stops.

A funny thing about the boy too is that he likes to be called Willie. His sisters started that one and now we all call him that, ha! Any time he gets fussy we start counting and reciting the alphabet. He LOVES it and responds as if he can say it himself! I really think it is because we did it while he was in the womb. His sister Chardie speaks Spanish to him and he gets such a kick out of it! Hey, it's never too early to learn or to teach! Here are a couple more photos of our big boy

State Fair fun and some mishaps

Hello friends. Remember my post yesterday about getting to be a kid for a day? Well I don't think kids ever feel like this! This morning has been a very trying one. I woke up to aches and pains in my back, legs and arms. I feel like I was lifting heavy weights without stretching first combined with a hangover! I could barely wake up. I managed to get the coffee made. I grabbed my favorite mug, added my sugar and then poured the steaming hot coffee in. I then proceeded to add the creamer. As I began to gently pour, I realize I was adding baby formula, not coffee creamer. UGH! This meant repeating the steps again and wasting a perfectly good cup of Joe. I am still not awake~! Well, we had a blast at the South Carolina State Fair. All of the usual stuff you see every year but there is nothing like eating certain foods unless you are physically at the Fair. One thing that was very noticeable this year was it was not nearly as crowded as in the past. You could walk up to any ride and sometimes be the only one riding. The food lines were very short and the game vendors begged for your business. Some even offered a free game just to have something to do! These were all true signs that our economy is really bad right now for everyone.

It was a very hot day (near 90 degrees) but at least William behaved very well. I really thought he would have been disgusted after the first two hours but he really seemed to have enjoyed the sights and sounds. Look at this happy boy! I tried to upload a slide show but could not get the html thingy right so here is a link to it instead. There are captions for each photo. I hope you enjoy our photos!

Winner of BLYA Contest

Congratulations to the winner of the Business Leaders Youth Alliance traffic contest. Chryss S. She made the only comment for the contest, but her comment really captures what Dwayne is trying to do.

Ismail, I am glad that you have come up with something for our youth. Being a single mother, I am always seeking different avenues for my children to explore to aide them in being productive citizens/youth in our community. I am just so glad that this program will not only reach the youth, jobs skills, but also teach them how to utilize what they have learned in everyday life. Ismail, you the man!!!! Thank you again for a program that will open may opportunities for our youth!!!!

I get to be a kid today

Today is going to be a fun day. I am taking the girls out of school early and the hubby and father-in-law aka "ATM" are taking half days. We are heading out to the State Fair to enjoy some family time and a whole lot of fun! Since the boys don't do rides, they will be security and I am sure each time you look at them they will have a corn dog, turkey leg, elephant ear or funnel cake in their face! Of course I will be in true mom fashion by packing up drinks, snacks and hand sanitizer. There is NO WAY anyone will be spending 3-4 bucks for a soda. If the kids want a sausage dog because the smell of it is calling them I will shove a granola bar in their mouth and tell them to play pretend! No, I'm kidding. I won't be that cheap!

Today will be my day to behave like a kid and just enjoy life with my family. I will post some photos tomorrow. I hope you all have a great day!

Don'tcha hate it when.... Wednesday

Don'tcha hate it when...

• you are getting ready to cook or bake something and you realize you are all out of something important like flour, sugar or rice.
• you catch yourself singing songs in the car off of Noggin/Nick Jr (preschool songs mind you). Can't get enough of those Blue's Clues.
• you are ready to take a sip of your nicely chilled, been waiting to drink you all day wine or cocktail and you suddenly hear baby cries or whines. Beverage gets warm :(
• you accidentally spill perfectly good adult beverage. What a waste!
• one of your family members did not cover their food when they used the microwave and tried to do the quick wipe up instead of a full clean, and think I would not notice those nasty streaks.

Well that about does it for me, it's now your turn to gripe. You know you want to. Hit us up in the comments :)

cell phone charges- Warning

The other day I called up Verizon Wireless to inquire about megabyte charges. I have a cousin that recently racked up a $70 charge from browsing ringtones. You would think it was free to do this in hopes that you will buy something right? Wrong. It used to be free and now anytime you browse or look up anything you accumulate megabyte charges at $1.99 per megabyte. I had the customer service rep tell me if we had any of those charges and she said from all 4 lines we had a total of $10. The rep explained that I could avoid megabyte charges if I got the Vcast unlimited package at $15 per phone (times 4 phones?? Uh, NO!) I was really lucky that I got this particular rep because she encouraged me to get a free block added to all lines and did not push me into getting the Vcast package. Had my cousin not mentioned this whole thing I could have racked up a HUGE bill! We never thought about it when the kids would ask to browse ringtones because we thought it was free. If you are a Verizon customer please be aware of this and call customer service to get a block if you don't have the need for unlimited browsing. My rep said that she has received dozens of calls from people that accumulated almost $1000.00 in charges! I guess mine could have been worse. You live and you learn.