Bella singing with Mickey

Bella singing with Mickey
Originally uploaded by themillermix

Our 4th

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Independence Day!

Bella loves to pet Brayden's face

Bella loves to pet Brayden's face
Originally uploaded by themillermix.

Bella loves Shannon and Bill's new baby, Brayden. Whenever she sees him, she has to pet his face and give him a hundred gentle kisses. So sweet!

Javi's home

Celebrity

It's a sad day in the celebrity circle. First, Farrah Fawcett lost her long battle with cancer with Ryan O'Neil by her side. Then Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, slipped into a coma, and died.

I feel horrible for Farrah and Ryan. I know they had their faults (as Tatum will attest), but it seemed like a true love story and a reconnection of souls between them. I prayed for Farrah's suffering to end, and I suppose God answered that prayer (which came from millions of us). I hope she is in a better place and that the sun is always shining on her.

I don't feel so horrible for Michael Jackson. He changed the music world and paved huge inroads for black musicians back when Thriller and Off The Wall came out. But then there was Neverland Ranch and child molestation charges and the video testimony... and it was never the same after.

I do feel horrible for his three children who have been raised in the weird shadow of this bizarre music legend. I hope that they are given the space and privacy to mourn their father and that they are able to carve out the lives they want for themselves. I hope their mother has been able to establish the loving bond with them that they'll need to get through this personal tragedy. I will always mourn for the children who lose their parents too young.

(Rest in peace all those who lost their lives today, especially those who did so while protecting our freedom abroad.)

Bella's big day!

Today was a momentous day in the life of our 2 year old.

For starters, she wore big girl panties to school and only had 1 accident ... that's for the whole day! Then, we went straight from daycare to get her hair cut and then to dinner -- and my Bell kept her panties dry. Bless the heavens for creating the travel potty seat as it saved some cute Dora panties tonight!

Also, my baby refused to pee before getting in the bath, but about half way through jumped up and said "I go poop, Mama!" I plopped her on her Dora ring and she sho' nough she did it. Could it really be this easy?! She's still in a diaper at naps and overnight, but I'm going full speed ahead with training.

The other big adventure? The hair cut! This isn't Bella's first cut. She had a rush job about a year ago ... and it was nothing compared to today's 10 minute ordeal that required two packs of gummies and three suckers to get Bella to sit quietly.

We cut two inches off the back, an inch from her bangs, and put in layers. I think it's adorable, but Billy wanted to go with the blunt cut bangs. I did wind up trimming them myself with kitchen scissors (such a Mom) just to stop watching him stare at them.

After all day of daycare and then the big hair cut, Ms. Bella then sat nicely in her seat at Ham's for a nice kids' night dinner. She loves going there because of the train, but today she was beside herself and squealed at it several times (despite nasty looks by a few patrons). Then she saw Bob the Builder and it was on. They high fived and hugged before we convinced Bella to let the other kids have a turn.

Then when the woman who puts on the characters came out in her clown garb, Bella pranced over and got her first facepainting. Actually, it was a ladybug on her hand, but Bella sat very still and never once freaked out. She then showed everyone in the restaurant her new 'yadybud." She also happily put on the balloon hat the clown lady made her.

My big girl had a big night and handled it all like a pro. I'm so proud of her!

Off To Camp: The Extended Edition*

*Thanks to Katie for all the Smilebox posts ... I've finally converted. :)

Camp Blues

My baby boy left for camp this morning! I began having second (and third and fourth) thoughts about the whole sleepaway camp thing yesterday. Would Javi be able to carry his bags? Would he forget his towels in the bathhouse? Would he get enough to eat (because he has a habit of talking during his meals)? Would he make any friends? Would he be the only one without a buddy there?

Talking to Grandma on the way to the meeting point.

So imagine my concern when we pulled up to our county's meeting point this morning and there were no young kids. Like, none ... at all! The youngest child was almost 11. And here's my 8 year old. He was nervous and scared all morning (and has been very negative about the whole camp thing) ... and I knew when he scanned the crowd and saw none of "his people" that it'd hit him hard. It did. He was jittery and clingy as we gathered round the 4H coordinator and he mapped out the next hour.

We then all got back in our separate cars and caravaned to the county over to meet the bus. Our county only had maybe 10 campers, but the next county had more than 40! They graciously allowed our campers to ride out to the campground with them in a nice, cushy, air-conditioned motor coach. During the ride to the bus, Javi couldn't sit back and got into several mini-battles with Bella due to his inability to just relax.

The whole way we pep-talked him. He promised to try everything, to have a great attitude, to introduce himself to people instead of waiting for someone else to do it. But once we pulled into the 4H center lot where the bus was waiting ... we knew it was gonna be okay. There were tons of 8ish year old boys! I counted at least 4 just standing near us. Javi immediately perked up and was ready to roll.

The family waiting for the sign to load up on the bus.

We had to stand around for about 30 minutes or so, but then everyone started loading up and my child was not going to be left behind. We tracked down Billy and Bella (who were off keeping Bella entertained) and Javi gave quick, cursory hugs to both before pivoting on one heel and making a beeline for the bus. He almost looked like a man heading off for the gallows. I imagine he felt the ol' tug-o-war of excitement and fear in the pit of his stomach.

I made him wait for us to walk to the bus with him and then we hugged and loved on him before letting him board up. He was pretty much done with us at that point, as you can imagine! He waved quickly and then disappeared. We stood around a while longer in case he needed us, but then we made our way back to the car.

Javi gets kisses from Bella before he gets on the bus.

It's been weird ever since. Javi's slept over at friends' houses and at the grandparents' houses multiple times since he was a little boy, but there's something about knowing that he's off at camp doing camp things without someone specifically in charge of helping him. I know he has a counsellor, but it's just not the same as someone's mom or dad. Also, we can't contact him unless it's an emergency, so I'll have to wait until Friday to hear from him.

Going to camp for the first time is as hard on moms as it is kids! I know he'll be okay, though. And he's going to have an amazing time and never forget this experience. I'll be reminding myself of that all week!

Father's Day ... A Day Early

Javi leaves for camp tomorrow, so we decided to celebrate Father's Day a day early. Billy loved the idea because, technically, it gave him two days of "do whatever I want time." That might have been the perfect gift. :)

So, we invited the grandfathers over for a feast of pizza, salad, chips, and cheese ravioli (for the vegetarian). I normally cook something, but I decided that I'd opt for convenience at any price rather than spend most of the day cleaning and cooking ... and then cleaning up after everyone finished up.

We gifted Poppie (Billy's stepfather) with a Carolina teeshirt and a Carolina hooded sweatshirt. (I'm pretty sure that the man owns nothing without either Carolina or Tennessee emblazoned on it.) We gave Grandpa (my dad) an oversized deck of slang flashcards. They were pretty funny (and cheap - I picked them up at a yardsale). Unfortunately, the deck was from 2003, so the slang wasn't as informative as I thought it'd be. Dad's birthday is June 18, so we also gave him a birthday gift, which was a wireless headset for his cell phone.

Billy's folks brought him a fitting Father's Day gift. It's called a fishing rod called an Ugly Stick. Javi thought it was awesome, of course. Then we gave Billy his gift. His real gift is the quad cab or extended cab truck he plans to buy this week, but we couldn't let him sit empty handed on Father's Day.

So we got him a couple Threadless tees and a 7" digital photo frame pre-loaded with a special Father's Day slideshow of special moments between Billy and the kids. He loved it! It will permanently grace his desk at work ... where he can more adequately brag about his awesome children. :)

We ended the night by sitting on the floor labelling and packing up Javi's camp supplies while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. All in all, a much more relaxed holiday than usual.

I hope all the fathers out there (and the mothers who act as fathers) have a fantastic day!