Annabelle turns 3

The birthday party here in Asheville was somewhat spoiled when Adam came home sick on Saturday. After that happened, we decided it would be best if the Pittman family stayed away to hinder the spread of germs. The party went on as planned, minus the dressing up and dancing Annabelle had planned to do with Lucie. She took the news fairly well because I reassured her we would do something later with Lanie, Lucie and Kiah to celebrate yet again. Yes, this is going to be the most drawn-out birthday in history. The good news is that it won't have to be anything elaborate, maybe just some cupcakes at the park one afternoon.

Here is a glimpse of what a typical illness running through our house looks like for my children.

Annabelle: a little more whiny, sluggish, and weepy. She has only thrown up once in her life so far and usually sleeps a lot when feverish.

Adam: quiet and sweet, sleeps and rarely complains. Pitiful to see, but easy to look after.....takes medicine like a champ.

Caleb: Any sort of minor fever makes Caleb nauseous. When Caleb is nauseous, he climbs up on the toilet seat in the fetal position and gags and spits and moans and heaves for hours on end. I feel helpless because all I can do is sit there beside him and tell him how sorry I am and how much I love him. It is distressful. Rather than sleeping more like the other two sick kids, Caleb is up the entire night moaning and groaning. Here are a couple of comical things he said last night during all of this:
"Moma, I know how I got sick. It is cause I pick my nose too much."
(I tell him that all of the time----stop picking your nose, you are going to get sick)
"I think I'm gonna diiiiiieee. This is awful. This is worse than getting a haircut."

However, he is now sleeping soundly on the couch and hopefully this sickness will just be another bit of our history by morning.

I certainly never thought I would be "that mom" with the little girl wearing all of the weird dress-up clothes or nightgown out and about in public. However, once again, eat your words.......or thoughts...... Annabelle ends up going to the gym, grocery store, and park in some weird get-ups more often than I would like mostly because....... well, it isn't that big of a deal to me. I fight the battles on Sunday mornings or when it actually matters. Otherwise you may see her in something like this:
My dreams of dressing her like my little baby doll have been spoiled by her ridiculously strong will in her opinion of her daily attire. I will have to get a better picture than that sometime, but if you look closely, you will see that is a dance costume skirt. I have to draw the line and at least insist that she wears bloomers under it.

Well, that and I think I am just lazy.


The boys went on their first cub scout outing on Saturday to some huge water hole down on the Tennessee line. Grandaddy took them because Seth was out of town. Caleb told me all about it...the hike, the danger of snakes and bears (paranoid little guy), the swimming hole, the 20 foot rock that some of them jumped off, the coldness of the water, how good it felt to put his socks on after swimming, who all jumped, which dad did a backflip off the rock, and that when they stopped at a gas station on the way home, Adam barfed in the parking lot. Yep, poor little Adam was sick and too puny to swim. Dad said one of the older kids even tried to get Adam to ride a piggy-back on the way out of the woods because he could tell he wasn't feeling well. He felt better that evening but is in the bed now as I type. Hopefully this won't be a long drawn out sickness that we all have to pass around.

Today is Annabelle's 3rd birthday, by the way. We had a party down in Georgia a couple of weekends ago with the Harrisons and another one last night at Mimi and Grandaddy's house. She told me repeatedly that she would like a purple pocketbook, jewelry and glittery makeup for her presents. As you can guess, her favorite pastime is dressing up and changing clothes over and over again. I have to get the pictures from Angie next time we take a trip down.