The Prodigal Piglet Returns

After leaving my parent's house a couple of weeks ago, we received a frantic call from my mom. She was so upset because she had just discovered Piglet in her house. Anybody who knows Charlie, knows that this would be a very bad thing since my mom lives 3 hours from us. She offered to met us halfway to bring Charlie and Piglet back together; however, I decided that we could make due until we visited my parent's lake house again. When we got home, we did not discuss Piglet missing and at bedtime Jackson wanted to start the Piglet hunt and Joe and I quickly shushed him.

Joe and I decided that we would have a bedtime pinch hitter: Elmo. Charlie liked Elmo okay and really didn't seem to be bothered by the substitute. He did struggle at night finding just the right spot for Elmo to cuddle and a couple of times I would get Charlie in bed only to find Elmo on the floor by the crib. This never happened with Piglet.

A couple of days ago I received a call from my mom and she said that she was putting Piglet in the mail because every time she walked by him on the kitchen counter it made her sad to think of Charlie without him.

We received a package yesterday and this morning Charlie woke with Piglet in his arms with a smile.

The Race Warrior

Joe participated in the Heal and Crank Duathlon this morning and it turned out to be a bit more exciting than anticipated. I have always said that Joe can take about any sport and turn it into an extreme sporting event and this morning he did not disappoint.

This was his second time to participate in this event so he had known how to train and had very specific goals to achieve. Leading up to the event, he had made sure that I too was aware of those goals. He started the race very strong and was way ahead of schedule, so when he took much longer on the bike part, the portion he trained for the most, I started to get concerned. I started to check my phone to see if the paramedics had called me and then dismissed my concerns and hoped that I had missed his transition. I continued to look for him in the final run portion when I spotted him pushing his bike and was bandaged like a mummy. He told me he was okay and said that he wanted to finish. When he came into the transition area the announcer said "Here comes a Race Warrior" and as he left the area the race coordinator ran the first 50 yards with him. He said he felt like some race celebrity.

After all of the events: crash, paramedics and general pains, he only missed his last year time by 15 minutes. The Race Warrior is now moving around the house somewhat slow and I think that tomorrow, when we are in charge of toddler nursery at church, he will be under the influence of a good dose of Tylenol and Motrin. Let's just hope he doesn't try to repeat this next year to relive the Race Warrior status.

Nic Turns 2

Jackson and Charlie were invited to their friend Nic's second birthday party. The boys were very excited to see their friends, Noah and Nic, and I was glad to be able to visit with Tara. The party was puppy themed and the cake was super cute and delicious.

After cake and presents the boys were determined to go out and enjoy the Alabama summer heat to play bubbles, basketball, and tricycles. Tara and I were so excited to be in the heat when the air conditioning was so inviting.

Anytime we are around new toys I am able to get ideas for upcoming birthdays; I think that a tricycle is on the list for Charlie. Jackson also took the opportunity to check out potential gift ideas and made sure that I knew which ones he liked.

We all had a fantastic time at the party but Charlie just didn't want the party to end!

Toy Story Date

Jackson and I went to see Toy Story 3 today for a Date Day. Jackson and I always get so excited for our "Date Days" mainly because we are able to spend some one on one time with each other. We started our day with a trip to Lowe's and Jackson was excited to be able to pick out some flowers for the house. As you might guess, they were all his favorite color purple. Then we swung by Target and picked up some Toy Story action figures and off to the movie we went. Jackson was excited about the 3D glasses and the popcorn (extra butter). We had a great time during the movie and although I thought that some parts were pretty scary, Jackson really enjoyed it.

After picking up Charlie, Jackson had to share the 3D glasses and action figures with him and tell Joe all about the movie. According to Jackson his favorite parts were when the "giant bad turtle" saved Woody and then Woody got married. Amazingly I missed these parts of the movie and I bet if you go to see Toy Story 3 you will miss them too.

The Morton Method

Like all parents with a child that sleeps, Joe and I felt a glow of superior parenting when we talked to a parent who complained of a child not sleeping. Jackson was the easiest child at nap time and bedtime, all you had to do was lay him down and he was right to sleep. To this day he will still take a 3 hour nap and go to bed by 8pm. As first time parents, we did not understand the rarity of this behavior and chalked it up great parenting.

With Charlie that glow started to fade. Charlie has always been a challenge when it came to any kind of sleep. Joe and I have tried the classic methods, Ferber and Baby Wise, with no success and found ourselves going back to the previous complaining parents and asking for advice on how to solve this problem.


About two weeks ago, Joe came up with a method of his own. I walked by Charlie's room while Joe was putting him to bed and saw a peculiar thing: Joe lying on the floor next to the crib holding Charlie's hand. Joe later explained he had tried "something new" with Charlie and it had worked! After lying Charlie down awake, Charlie stuck his hand outside of the crib. Joe said that he just reached up and held it. Although Charlie turned and twisted in the bed, his hand stayed firmly in Joe's. This method took about half the normal time to get him to sleep.

I must admit that I was very skeptical of this working; I have witnessed the resistance to sleep this child has exhibited, but I have tried it for the last week and it has worked like a charm.





I know that the "Morton Method" will not be published in the parenting books but it works for us. I must admit something about that little hand reaching out for mine warms my heart.

Father's Day Weekend

We started our weekend with a trip to the Indian Creek Greenway. The Greenway is about 6 miles round trip and links in with Research Park (the site of next weekend's Duathlon for Joe). Joe wanted to do a trial run of the course, so the boys and I went for a walk with the double stroller. About 45 minutes into our walk, the boys and I found ourselves under a tree. A summer rainstorm surprised us about 2 miles from our car. When we met up with Joe, we all looked pretty rough. Of course it was a very isolated storm because Joe missed it. Once we got back to the car, the boys wanted to play in the park which was also dry. We got some pretty funny looks in the park due to our wet appearance.

Sunday morning we treated Joe to blueberry pancakes. He was very excited about the blueberries because they were his fresh from his garden. Joe really liked the bike rack that the boys gave him and immediately went to the garage to put it on the Camry. I think he believes it makes the Camry look more trendy (good luck with that).

After church and naps, we, in true Father's Day fashion, put Joe to work in the yard while the boys and I played in the sprinklers. The boys enjoyed some frozen popsicles and then decided to declare war on me with the sprinklers.

Overall, we had a great family weekend. Joe and I missed not being able to spend Father's Day with our own dads but I was glad that the boys were able to enjoy the weekend with their father.

Tallassee High School Reunion

This past weekend Joe and I attended my 15 year high school reunion. I was unable to attend the 10 year reunion, so I was excited to see all my old friends and catch up. My parents kept Jackson and Charlie, so Joe and I enjoyed two kid free nights. We stayed at the Renaissance in Montgomery and it was a beautiful hotel. We met up with our friends Tori and Bryan at the rooftop pool. Tori and I enjoyed the pool while Bryan and Joe watched the World Cup. Neither Tori nor I knew our husbands were such big soccer fans until this weekend. (Personally I think that should be disclosed before the vows.)

The reunion was held at the Down the Street Cafe in Montgomery and we had a pretty high turnout. While catching up, I realized that some people had changed a great deal while others remained exactly the same (kind of scary considering most of us now are parents). The music was mainly from the 90s and even though there was a dance floor it didn't really get any use until the Electric Slide and then it was a hot spot. Joe and I even two stepped for the first time.

Sunday we headed home to get the boys from my parents and got to meet the two new additions to the Ingram household, Mork and Mindy. My mom said that Jackson and Charlie really enjoyed the cats and were really good with them. From the small amount of time I got to witness the interaction, I think that Mork and Mindy were glad to see the Morton boys head back home.

When I look at the pictures from the evening it amazes me how fast time has passed. I know that some of my former classmates I won't see again until the 20 year reunion and some I will be on the phone with tomorrow. I would never want to go back to my high school days, but I would not trade the experiences had or the lessons learned for anything. Most importantly, I am thankful to the small town of Tallassee for what were and still remain my 3 best friends.

Hilton Head

After Charleston, we made the short trip to Hilton Head. This was our first trip to the island and we were excited to stay at the Sea Pines Resort. The resort had over 15 miles of running/biking trails, a beach club, swimming pools, harbor, and numerous restaurants and shops.

When we first arrived we began our alligator watch. I think that Joe had the most sitings with 7 but we all had our fair share. We were the classic tourists and when we would see an alligator we would all pile out of the car to go stare at it. Most of the time the alligator would just ignore you or turn and swim away. One alligator decided that he didn't like being the object of our attention and turned toward me and chomped and growled. I was carrying Jackson at the time, I jumped 3 feet and started screaming. Jackson thought my reaction was hilarious and for the rest of the trip he would make the "alligator chomping" sound behind me to see if I would jump!

The beaches in Hilton Head were stunning. Growing up, I always traveled to the Gulf to visit the beach and considered myself a bit of a sand/beach snob. I have always thought that there were no beaches that could compare to the beauty of our beaches; however, Hilton Head proved me wrong. The beaches had soft white sand and was compacted enough close to the ocean that you could easily ride a bike or run with no difficulty.We even saw couples with strollers out on the beach. The boys enjoyed searching for sea shells and even saw a crab running around. Charlie enjoyed watching the pelicans diving for fish and Jackson thought that the beach was an excellent place to try out his new water gun. Jackson and Charlie enjoyed the coastal breezes to fly their kite; Jackson did a much better job of holding on to his kite than Charlie. Most of Charlie's kite flying resulted in me running down the beach trying to catch the handle of the kite. Jackson also liked supervising me building sand castles and eating chips. When we later asked him what his favorite part of the beach he said "eating chips". Guess maybe we should keep chips at the house more.

The resort also had a stable where you could take riding lessons and feed the horses. Charlie loved the horses especially a brown and white stallion that was boarded at the stable. The horse was the biggest horse I had ever seen. The stable was also home to a petting zoo. The zoo had numerous animals: deer, turtles, billy goats, and pygmy goats. The pygmy goats tried to eat Charlie's shirt several times but he was unfazed.

Our favorite place to eat while in Hilton Head was a place named Marley's. Marley's was just outside the resort and had a great atmosphere for kids and good food, but our favorite part was the outside entertainer that was there nightly. Jackson and Charlie both love music; Jackson loves to sit and listen, Charlie loves to cut a rug! The entertainer performed based off request mainly and so Joe got a list of songs. Jackson was so excited that Beach Boys were on the list of possible requests. Joe gave him a couple of dollars and Jackson went and requested Beach Boys "Fun, Fun, Fun". While he played Jackson kept saying, "He is singing to me."

Overall the Hilton Head trip was a huge success. We had a fantastic time and although we left extremely relaxed; we were a little sad not to have a couple more days to enjoy.

Charleston Day 2

On our second day in Charleston we decided that we could not go to Charleston and not visit at least one plantation. We did a little research on the most kid friendly (Charlie proof, if possible) plantation that we could find. We decided on Magnolia Plantation. It had a combination of outdoor scenery (there is no way that Charlie can go inside a plantation) and child attractions.

Magnolia offers a Nature Train and a Nature Boat ride; we chose the train because with our daredevil, the boat sounded like Charlie could turn into gator food. The train was fun for the first 20 minutes of the 45 minute excursion. We learned that the plantation grew 70% of the rice in the world prior to the Civil War and that Swamp Thing was filmed there. After the first 20 minutes, Charlie decided that without any gator sitings he needed to jump, pull, and scream to make sure everyone had a good time (guess he wasn't that impressed by the Swamp Thing filming site).

After the Nature Train, we strolled through the gardens. The garden is the oldest established public garden in the United States and is absolutely beautiful. The garden had several statues, scenic bridges and was home of the first alligator that we saw on our trip. Joe was very excited to see that a prairie plant, the Purple Cone Flower, was represented and had a show and tell moment.

The petting zoo was not quite as aromatic as the gardens; however, it was the highlight of the trip for the boys. The main attractions were: a huge pig (Joe said I obviously had not seen many pigs to call this one huge), tame deer, turkeys, goats, and a reptile hut (no petting).

In the afternoon we let the boys go to one of the many fountains in town and cool off. After a little encouragement from Joe, the boys really enjoyed running through the fountain and using the fountain to spray their hair back. Neither of the boys wanted to leave, but after over an hour we called it a night. Needless to say, we did not have any trouble getting the boys to go to sleep that night.