…like Moby or something. Because this boy is like those weird sci fi legends that always surface in my spam folders with titles like “HALF-BOY HALF-FISH FOUND AT LONG JOHN SILVERS!”

We went and got him a little kiddie pool from Walmart the other day. He LOVES it. And I don’t mind sitting out and getting a tan. Yesterday, he swam all afternoon and then came inside and had to have a snack while watching Barney with Dad and Kody.

It’s like he’s a big boy now!

So, lately, we’ve been having kind of an off week. Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat and yep, it was my long-time nemesis Tonsillitis back for more destruction to my larynx and livelihood. I finally went to the doctor today and got my medication, but I have started the process of finding a doctor to take my tonsils out. But. Apparently tonsil doctors don’t feel the need to work Fridays. Maybe the mass population do not have tonsil problems on Fridays.

Nathan has been getting one of his top teeth in. Finally! I was worried that he might only have two teeth for his whole life. And I think he might be going through another growth spurt because he has been sleeping 13 hours straight at night for the last week. And then taking another two naps during the day – including a 3 hour morning nap on Monday. WOW! Who is this child?

He didn’t wake up until 9:15 this morning, so I just kept him up until after my doctor appointment and hopefully he’ll get a long nap in this afternoon and we’ll just stick with one nap today. I’m wondering if he’s moving himself to just one nap. He’s getting so big I can’t even stand it.

So, I’m sitting here drinking hot tea and praying that the ibuprofen kicks in soon so my throat will stop hurting. What are you guys up to?

This weekend, Nathan got to go in Gammy and Pop’s jacuzzi for a little bit. Their pool is still a little too cold for him, so Pops heated the hot tub up to about bath water temperature and Jon and I got in there with him and let him splash around.

He LOVED it!!

We do not have a child who is afraid of the water. It makes me very happy that he loves the pool so much, but it also scares me to death! Ha! We’ll have to have VERY strict rules about the pool when he gets a little older!

I can’t wait until he can go in the big pool. He looked so adorable in his little swimsuit. He even got to get in yesterday with Pops again and he spent the whole time baby-talking. Probably about how much fun he was having. 😉

Nathan will be eleven months old on the 13th (I’m in total shock!!), and so I’ve been starting to think about his first birthday party. I think we’re going to have a whale swim party. 🙂

You know. To celebrate our little squirt.

🙂

Today, Nathan and I headed over to play at Melanie and Julia’s house. I just love those two. We let the kids play in Julia’s little kiddie pool in the backyard and everything was going just fine.

They’d only each nearly-drowned once, they were splashing, talking, yelling, laughing and having a great time when Nathan slipped and as I grabbed him, we noticed all sorts of little floaties in the water.

Bark? Leaves?

Nope. Poop.

So we whipped the kids out of the water and set them down on the patio. I peeked into Nathan’s diaper and said, “Oh dang. It’s Nathan” right as Melanie said, “Oh shoot! It’s Julia!”

BOTH of them had pooped in the pool. At the SAME time.

We laughed SO hard! Melanie hosed them down and then we carried them upstairs to the tub and Nathan had his first group bath.

So funny! And I love this picture of the two culprits after they were all clean from the bath:

Julia’s expression is totally, “Who me? I did nothing.” Meanwhile, look at my son’s face. 😉

Oh, the adventures we’ve got coming!

So sorry for the long delay in posting! My parents took all of my family to Seattle for my sister’s 21st birthday trip and we just got back Wednesday night. So we’ve been unpacking, doing laundry and catching up on some sleep.

The birthday girl!!! Well, sort of – her birthday isn’t until October, actually, but since everyone had Memorial Day off of work and her team – the Yankees – were playing in Seattle this weekend, it worked out better to go now. 🙂

It was SO FUN. Such a fabulous trip! I’d never been to Seattle and what an amazing city! I think I could definitely live very happily surrounded by so many coffee shops! Cayce and I had something from Starbucks at least once a day – sometimes twice or three times (decaf for me – I was NOT about to nurse Nathan to bed at night after that much caffeine!). It was even sunny the first few days we were there!

Nathan LOVED the ocean! He was so mesmerized by it! Jon found tons of crabs there and obviously, Nathan was pretty fascinated. 🙂

We stayed on a house right on the water and it was so gorgeous – I loved ocean sunsets! I think I took about 500 pictures over the five days we were there. I cannot imagine not having digital cameras – I would be completely broke if I were using the cameras my parents had when I was a little kid!

We got to the house at 2:30AM – our flight was about 5+ hours late. We had a VERY cranky boy in that airport! I felt so bad for the people around us. We walked and walked and walked our airport. Thankfully, he and I both slept for most of the flight, so it wasn’t too bad. And Nathan slept until 9:30 the next morning – thank God! We were zonked!

Saturday, we hung around Seattle, saw the first Starbucks and fought our way through the very crowded Pike Place Market (SO COOL).

The girls in front of the original Starbucks!!

Pops and Nathan at the Market. 🙂 Nathan loved all the street acts!

Everyone else went to a Mariners and Yankees game that night while Jon, Nathan and I stayed home, had a quiet dinner on the porch watching the ocean, and then took a walk along the beach.

Sweet baby on the beach. 🙂

Have I mentioned I love this little face?

He’s gotten very into sharing. And blowing kisses. And poking. 🙂

The three of us on the beach Saturday night. Nathan wasn’t too interested in the camera.

Gammy and Nathan Sunday morning on the porch!

We went to the Seattle Aquarium and Nathan got to touch all kinds of slimy sea creatures (yuck) and watch the fish, which he LOVED. And we saw the cutest sea otters! I think Cayce and I were about to adopt one.

He was obviously very afraid of the sea anemones.

Ha! Not!

He loved watching the fish!!

After we got Nathan in bed, we roasted marshmallows on the porch. No one really got into singing campfire songs, but Mom and I tried. Ha!

All of us – minus Jon taking the picture – around the fire pit. And Bryant got creative:

The boys really got into skipping rocks this week. I found out that I do not have whatever muscle is needed in order to flick the rocks.

We ended with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory for Cayce’s birthday dinner. SO. YUMMY.

Me and the un-birthday girl! 🙂

It was such a fabulous trip! I think I’m going through Seattle withdrawal today. The Market there had the most beautiful flowers and the most delicious pastries and the original Starbucks was right across the street. There were all these great little places to eat and walk and the most gorgeous views of the ocean.

The donuts in the Market. HUGE.

My favorite part of the Market (minus the original Starbucks) – the flowers!! They were SO beautiful and so inexpensive! I wished we weren’t flying home – I would have bought at least one, if not more!

Such a wonderful trip! Thank you so much, Mom and Dad!

I pray we never forget the sacrifice that so many have given so that we can live and worship Christ freely in this country! May God bless the soldiers and their families both this weekend and all through the year.

We’ve had a busy week and we’ve got an even busier weekend coming up! So, I have much to do, but I did want to write a quick blog before things got TOO crazy. 🙂

Nathan has ALWAYS loved Kody! He thinks Kody is about the coolest thing ever and pretty much exists for his personal entertainment.

And lately (this could be due to Nathan eating table foods that can now be dropped down to him), Kody has decided that Nathan is not as bad as he originally seemed. I caught them doing this the other day:

And I just thought it was the cutest thing! Someone loves his puppy.

Hugs are much better than Nathan sharing his paci with Kody (don’t even ask).

Our friends Clint and Leigh Ann will be gone most of the summer doing a training in Colorado, so Nathan had to go see his friend Hayley one last time before they left. I think Nathan was more thrilled with her than she was with him. Ha! He might have to get used to it!! 🙂 We’ll miss you guys!

Last, Nathan and I went to the zoo yesterday with Melanie, Julia L., Jamie, Joel and Julia P. I am horrible about taking my camera with me to the zoo, but we got this one of the two of us while we were on the train. This might have been the only 1/2 second that Nathan wasn’t bouncing off the bench with excitement. And I’m pretty certain that the man behind us was not part of the exhibits.

Overall, we had a great time at the zoo – no pun intended! Ha!

I’m SO happy that it’s Memorial Weekend! Jon’s last day of school is today – yay for the summer! Hard to believe that at this point last year, I was hugely pregnant and we were just counting down the days until July! What do you guys have planned for this weekend?

So sorry for the long absence, guys. I’ve sat down four times to write a blog and Blogger wouldn’t let me login.

Quite frustrating.

And now it’s late. So I’m going to summarize what I was going to say in bullet points:

1. Interesting day today. About lunch time, I let Kody outside (which, no, isn’t very interesting), looked out a few minutes later and saw him playing with what at first looked like a piece of bark. On a closer look, though, I saw it was a MOUSE.

2. I am horrendously afraid/grossed out/disgusted/horrified/on the verge of breakdowns with anything that involves mice. So I called Jon, who thankfully is on his last week of school, and he was able to run home on his lunch break to get it for me. Nathan and I waited in the car for him because NO WAY was I staying in the house close to the rodents.

3. Because of this, we will now be moving shortly. Which is a shame, because I still haven’t decorated my living room completely.

4. I think it’s sad that we’ve lived here almost three years and I still haven’t decorated my living room.

5. If you haven’t seen Ramona and Beezus, you need to watch it. It is one of my new top three favorite movies. I have teared up with happy tears almost every time I’ve watched it. Go buy it. Don’t even bother renting it. You’ll be glad you did.

6. Don’t forget that Easter Carats is available on Kindle. And to answer a few questions: No, it won’t be releasing in book form, it’s only going to be released on Kindle. Also, you can download a free Kindle app to your computer – you don’t need a Kindle in order to read it. 🙂 Thanks so much to those of you who have read it and told me your feedback – I love hearing it!

7. I know that it is customary to hear a mouse story and respond with a disgusting one of your own, but PLEASE, for all that is good and barely sane in this world, DO NOT leave your gross mouse stories in the comments! I will not sleep tonight as it is.

8. Aren’t these the cutest pictures of Nathan? He was driving Gammy and Pops’ Corvette this weekend. Didn’t make it out of the garage, though. 😉

Y’all have a rodent-free night.

Sara F!! 🙂

I’ve sent you an email! Thanks so much for entering, everyone! Here’s the link to Easter Carats. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

You can now download Easter Carats!!

Go here to buy it on Kindle! Yay!!!!

Would anyone like to win a copy? 🙂 Leave your name and email address (if you want to avoid getting spam, leave your address like this: erynnmangum @ gmail.com) in the comments and I’ll draw a winner tomorrow (Saturday) at noon!

Don’t forget, I posted yesterday how to download a free Kindle app straight to your computer if you don’t own a Kindle. Or you can get the free app in the App Store!

I love book releases. 🙂

I mentioned this a little bit ago, but coming to a Kindle near you TOMORROW is:

Easter Carats! (Yay!)

I’ll be posting as soon as it’s up on Kindle. I’ve been trying to make the most of nap times and decided that since September is so far away for Sketchy Behavior‘s release, we could at least have some lighthearted summer time reading!! 🙂

Don’t have a Kindle? No worries. You can download an app to read Kindle books on your Mac here and on your PC here. Also, if you have an iPhone, iPad or one of the new iPods, you can download an app for them here. I’d really encourage you to get the app – there are TONS of fabulous Christian fiction books that will occasionally be on sale (sometimes as low as free!) on Kindle.

I hope y’all enjoy Easter Carats!! 🙂 I haven’t written just a sweet romance in a long time. I have to say – I loved getting to know Emilie and Blake’s story!

I discovered today during a moment of weakness involving graham crackers, a grouchy needing-a-nap baby and me just trying to eat a bowl of cereal in peace that my son loves watching Barney and Friends.

Crap.

Those songs have been playing in my head all day. Actually, it was kind of cute. Nathan danced, laughed (sometimes at the right places!) and clapped his hands when all the entirely too cheerful and starchly dressed kids on the video did. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t take a video of him watching Barney.

But that seems like a hundred and twelve degrees of FIRST TIME MOMITIS, so I might have to lie and pretend that no such videos exist in this house. 🙂

Y’all have a great afternoon!!

Nathan and I have just been hanging out at home today. I’ve been working on writing and he’s been doing his normal play time with his toys.

And he has a new favorite:

Juice! (When you consider how much actual juice I put in there, is really just apple flavored water. Ha!)

I realized today is the first day where we have been home ALL DAY since I don’t even remember when. Which is probably why both of us where just kind of sitting there looking at each other for a little bit today like, “What do we do now?”

But then a tickle fight started and we got a little distracted.

This could explain why my carpet has stains all over it now.

He still has a little bit of a problem getting it to all stay in his mouth. Evidenced by his collar. 🙂

I’m so excited about my upcoming Kindle release! 🙂 But it’s got me thinking – what are things you look for when you are picking out a new book to read? Cover art? A friend’s recommendation? What plays into your decision?