Pictures

I finally took Brantley for his annual pictures. This is probably the last time I will do this since he will start having school pictures. All of the pictures were so good, I couldn't decide what to get so I ended up with way too many pictures. And, since I bought so many pictures I got the whole session on a CD. I put them on the gallery website to share. Let me know your favorites and if I have them I'll send them. The printed ones have been cropped, centered, etc.

Hummingbird

Something interesting happened today. A hummingbird got trapped in our garage. They are so pretty, but apparently pretty stupid. We left the door open thinking it would fly out and it didn't. Then, we put a feeder in there hoping it would eat and it wouldn't go near it. So, what do you do but get on the internet to find out what to do. I actually found a website that had the specific question, "Help, I have a hummingbird trapped in my garage." Apparently, they are attracted to the red handle on the chain release that hangs down when the garage is open. They fly in and get disoriented and immediately fly straight up. Our garage has a really high ceiling so the poor thing just kept flying back and forth. The article on hummingbird.org said that they do not like to fly in the dark so close the garage door and when they fly over a clear space on the floor, turn off the light. They are supposed to land on the floor, but this little guy wouldn't do it. It would grab onto the wall and perch, or perch on parts of the gargage door mechanisms. I had my hands on it a couple times but I was too afraid that I might hurt it. I was amazed how tiny they really are. And, this one wasn't very colorful. Apparently, it is a black chinned hummingbird. At one point it landed on the bar that the chain from the opener runs through. I got on the ladder and set the feeder right next to it and it wouldn't get on it and eat. I tried to nudge it but it just cried. Not it's normal chirp, but literally a cry. I think the poor thing was about to starve. I gave up after about a hour of trying. I can't believe it didn't die. Finally, I opened the door and hung the feeder on the red handle. I figured, that's what attracted it in there, maybe it would find the feeder that way. After I went inside, I got another idea. I went in the back yard and got the hanger for the off insect repellent lantern and took it around to the garage. I was going to try to put the feeder on it and put it just outside the garage. As I was trying to get the lantern off, the hummingbird landed on the feeder. I just stood there but I didn't want to scare it. Finally, I moved away and went in the house through the back door. I peaked through the door to the garage and watched as the bird landed on the feeder again and finally flew out! YES!!! I closed the garage and put the feeder outside. Hopefully she will find it. I'm sure she's starving.

I got in trouble...

One thing I know is that you have to pick your battles. So, there are things that I am really strict about, and others that I'm not. One thing I'm really strict about is being buckled up the the car. Brantley knows that he gets in the car, gets buckled up, and stays buckled up until the car is parked and no longer moving. Well, you know I have this habit of unbuckling while I'm parking in the garage - it's the multi-tasker in me. Today, I unbuckled while parking and Brantley called me on it. He said "Mommy (in a stern 5 year old voice), you took your seat belt off before we were parked." What do you say to that. "Yes, Brantley, you are right. It won't happen again." :)

Brantley Collage

We are putting together a scrapbook for my boss who was promoted and is moving away from us. Each of us has one square to do with as we please. I figure she doesn't want to look at a picture of my ugly mug, and I'm definitely not creative enough to write a poem or do anything other than tape pictures to the square. So, I did a collage of Brantley baseball pictures. She's a baseball fan and she likes hearing stories about Brantley. So, here is my Brantley collage. Pretty cute I think.

Quotable Quotes

Various phone conversations: "A real power ranger came to my party. Yeah. He was awesome."

While watching Little People with mommy: "Mommy, let's talk about kindergarten."

On the morning of his actual birthday: "Are you sure I'm 5 today. Let me look at my hands. Nope, my fingers aren't long enough. Are you sure I'm 5."

At dinner today: "Mommy, will I have to do homework when I'm in kindergarten. I like homework. I can't wait to do homework."

After dinner: "I'm doing my homework. See, these are check marks."

The room is still clean!

Power Ranger Birthday Party!!

Today was the day of the big birthday party. We invited the whole class but only half came so it was very manageable. I think a lot of the kids are on vacation right now. Here are pictures from the party. (You don't have to sign in to view them.) Brantley was very apprehensive at first, but by the end, he loved the power ranger and gave him a big hug. We had pizza and cupcakes and then Brantley opened his presents. Talk about craziness. I tried really hard to keep track of everything, and I think I did okay. Here he is wearing one of his presents.

Candid Shots

Check out what I caught Brantley reading.

The 4th of July

I'm a little behind because I've been out of commission for the past couple days. Monday night we went to a cookout up the street. We had such a good time. We didn't get home until 11:00. Brantley passed out when we got home. He would have slept later Tuesday morning, but the Roomba started it's business at 8:00 and woke him up. We didn't do much on Tuesday. We hung out with Lawson's parents and then watched fireworks in the neighborhood - after a nice 2 hour nap! I managed to hurt my back lifting Brantley into his booster seat for dinner. Lawson had to help me sit down in the grass so we could watch fireworks. Notice how Brantley has his fingers in his ears. He won't take them out when fireworks are going on. What a weirdo.

Keeping a clean room....

So, Grandma hands me a bag today and says Brantley has to earn this. I say Ok, what does he have to do? He has to keep his room clean for a week and he can have it. By the way, Roger says the new Superman movie is good and we should take Brantley. We might have to do that in the next few weeks.













So here is a picture of his room today, after I picked it up. It was trashed at the party today.

The Family Birthday Party

Well, today was the family birthday party. Each year we get the family together for Brantley's birthday. This year we are having 2 parties: the family party and a party with his school friends. So we all got together today for BBQ and birthday cake. I know we should grill hamburgers or something, but BBQ is just so easy. You've never seen a child so excited before. Brantley could hardly contain himself. He loves having all the family around, but he wouldn't be a kid if he wasn't excited about presents. So here he is before he blew out the candles on his cake. It's hard to believe he's going to be 5 years old. And here he is opening presents. Some of the words out of his mouth were Awesome, Cool, Finally, and my personal favorite - This rocks. Happy Birthday Brantley!