Saturday Surprise

Guess who I saw today?!

My nephew Justin, all dressed to impress, fresh from his visit and pictures with Santa Claus. Our porch visit was short but much enjoyed. I really needed that.

Good to see my sister too, of course! 

The day was dreary and rainy. But y'all made my day bright! 

And that's a good thing! 

Justin's School Projects. Oh Joy!

 So my nephew Justin started Pre-K this fall. 

It seems like he was just born yesterday. 

Time sure is flying. He is a big boy now. 

And he loves school. 

And he loves doing projects. 

This project was his first, where he made a poster about all the great things he did over the summer. 

I heard he read every sentence. Trips me out that he can read. 

The next project involved counting by 5s. 

 

He did such a good job. Go Justin!

The next project involved coloring the picture of a turkey that no one will eat. Justin's favorite superhero is Spiderman, so he dressed his turkey up as Spiderman.

"I like you turkey," I said. 

"Auntie, my Spiderman turkey has a booty."

*crickets*

I frowned. "Uh what?"

"My Spiderman turkey has a booty!"

"That's just the crease in the turkey's pants, Lee," my sister explained. 

Uh, Okay. LOL... 

That was funny as all get out. 

And we all know turkeys have bootys, so he is on to something. 

I am so very proud of him. He is so smart. I can't wait to discuss his future projects. 

Wordless Wednesday: Nephew Justin and His Lawnmower

Wordless Wednesday: Justin in His Easter Outfit

A Scoot Booty Birthday #2

So, for the past few months, there has been much talk about getting a electric car for my nephew Justin.

Now I purchased a rechargeable toy car from a coworker. I bought it for $60 bucks. I looked it up and it retails for $250. What a steal!!

It took a couple of months to get it to my house. It wouldn't fit in my car, so I had to borrow my mother's jeep and throw it in the back.

It JUST did fit in the back of the jeep. I would've had to rent a truck. Sigh.

Anyway, I stored it in my garage until his birthday this past weekend.

"I'm just gonna just put it in the front yard. We ain't gonna say anything, just like him walk up on it," I told my sister.

And that's what I did.

They drove up and parked on the street. The only problem was that he was asleep in the car. So it took him a minute to figure it out.

But to see him walk up on it was hilarious.

He didn't know what to think. He just stared at it. And I could tell he was still sleepy.

"It's hot as hell out here!," I hollered as I wiped sweat from my forehead. I placed one of my tank tops on the seat because the vinyl was too hot for him to sit on. He got in the car, and got out.

"Okay," I said, a bit dejected. "It's hot out here, and I ain't fooling with you. Kentucky, help me get this car up on the porch."

We took it up on the porch. It was at this time that Justin showed heightened interest.

"Come on, bruh," I said. "Let's go in the house."

He reluctantly got out of the car and walked in the house. Time we closed the door, he dropped to his knees and started crying.

"Lawd!" I hollered.

"Kentucky, help me move this coffee table. We're bringing this car in the house. I'm not trying to be hot while he sit in that car."

You have to realize... it was 97 degrees in the ATL. I was not down for the tropical heat. NO WAY.

With a little struggle, we brought the car in the house. (Man it was heavy!)

And Justin's interest was multiplied.

His feet don't reach the pedals, so he can't make it go. All he could do was sit in it.

We took time to have some Chantilly birthday cake, though!

We had cake, pizza, chicken wings, and soda. Just a junk food kind of birthday.

After that, the shenanigans began.


For 3 HOURS straight, this boy jumped in the car, jumped out of the car, walked around the car, and did it all over again. 3 HOURS!

That's all he did. I was laying on the sofa thinking this boy keep slamming these car doors. I can't even take a nap on this sofa.

And I was also thinking Lawd have mercy, I hope those doors don't fall off.

He gave it a serious workout. Then he went and got his toy trucks and parked them under the car.

I'm not sure what that was about.

My sister said that he even pushed the car. I think all that walking around the car was him trying to figure out how to make it move.

But he had a good time!

And yes, he slept good that night. My sister said he slept some twelve hours. All of that jumping in and out of the car wore him completely out.

So that was Justin's birthday. Actually, it was my sister's birthday. His birthday was on Monday, and his grandparents were having a little party for him.

But I bet Scoot Booty will always remember his mini- party at Auntie LadyLee's house, won't he?

LOL!!!

Happy Birthday #2, Justin

Today's my nephew Justin, aka Scoot Booty's birthday!

GLORY!!!!

It feels like he was born just yesterday.

Then we celebrated his first birthday!

Now he's TWO!!

***Happy Birthday Justin***

Scoot Booty Stories

So, SOMEONE is turning 2 next week.

Scoot Booty!

My nephew Justin!

(Sister Callie Jo doesn't know how to feel about all this. She wants to play with him, but DARNIT, he's a bit too rough with her. Mitch just disappears. Sigh).

Anyway, I kept him for a few hours on Saturday. I did a few chores, as per my usual routine on Saturdays mornings. I also lit a few fragrance candles. I had to remind myself to blow them out before he came over. Didn't want him to be playing and knock them over.

Of course I forgot to blow them out. He was sitting on the floor playing with his toys, and I was sitting on the couch. That's when I thought Oh I forgot to blow out the candles.

I blew them out. And he saw me. He jumped up from the couch and stood next to me, blowing hard on the candles, blowing smoke.

Hence the hilarity of this picture. (And he was driving me crazy with the pants sagging off his booty).

  If you peer over his right shoulder, you will see the candles.

I said, "Um, the candles are out, bruh!"

He continued blowing the candles, well the smoke around, and then he yelled "Happy Birthday!!"

And he kept yelling it!

I was bewildered.

**crickets**

O_o

"You can talk?" I hollered.

"Happy Birthday!!!! Happy Birthday!!"

This went on for another 5 minutes, as he took time to blow on the candles again.

I'm just shocked to pieces that he can talk!

Then he was standing around cheesing hard, like he's waiting on some cake or something.

"I have no cake, man. I have apple slices."

My sister said when she took my mother to lunch for her birthday back in April, the waitresses and workers came to the table singing Happy Birthday. So she guesses he remembered it, because he went crazy during the singing and presenting of the candle lit slice of cake. LOL

Well I didn't have cake. And I think he'd had enough of the apple slices. Earlier he'd been eating oatmeal and sliced apples.

That's the reason why his shirt was off. When he eats, he dirties up a shirt something awful! That's the price you pay when you're trying to learn to feed yourself.

(And by the way, someone said I could put a candle in a slice of white bread, and that would have been good enough for him).

But that's okay. I'm just SHOCKED that Scoot Booty can TALK.

He can count to 20. He knows his ABCs and his sounds. And he can recognize numbers and letters. I had some 10 pound dumbbells on the stairs, and he pointed to the numbers on the sides and hollered "10!"

Yes, the Scoot Booty is coming along!
I still have to cover up my furniture when he comes over. Because the drooling... LAWD!!

I just can't wait to be able to have a full blown conversation with him.

That's when the real Scoot Booty Stories will really begin!

Milk and Cookies and Scoot Booty

Little Right-Handed Man

My sister gave Justin some chalk and let him do a little scribbling...

Friday Food-for-Thought: Of Cheeks and Handclaps

Happy Black History Month!

It is the first day of black history month!

Am I going to give you a black history nugget every day this month?

NO.

That is what facebook, the twitters and the Instagram is for. And I plan to enjoy ALL OF IT.

Today I just have a food-for-thought.

I bought some of that lindors candy a couple months ago, but I didn't eat it all. I have 2 pieces left, and I have just kept them, and I hold them in my hand from time to time.

Why do I do that? Because it reminds me of something.

They are about the size of two typical cotton balls.

But...

They are the size of my nephew Justin's butt cheeks when he was born. He was only 3 pounds, and his butt cheeks could literally fit in the palm of my hand.

I would hold him in the NIC unit and say, "Look at you with your little booty. Your little scoot booty!!"

And that's what I call him to this day.

"Scoot Boooooty!!!!"

(And I plan to embarrass him something awful for the rest of his life. I see myself at a high school graduation yelling "SCOOT BOOTY!!!!!!"

LOL.

Fast forward 17 months. Scoot Booty's butt cheeks no longer fit in the palm of my hand. He looks like a little boy now.

And I notice something about him lately: whenever he does something that he himself thinks is amazing, he yells "YAAAAYY!!" and he claps his hands.

I noticed he does this when someone is cheering him on, or when he's just alone.

I remember him trying to negotiate the stairs at my house, knowing good and well he was not suppose to be on the stairs.

"Boy, get off them stairs!" I hollered.

He looked at me, because he knew he was wrong. And he wants to walk back down the stairs like a big boy. Granted he was only trying to get down one stair. But I watched as he grabbed the rail, thought about grabbing the wall or a nearby box, then thought better of it. He decided to grab the rail and step down carefully.

And when he did, he clapped and yelled "YAAAAAAY!"

"Dude," I said. "What the world are you all happy about? You weren't even suppose to be on the stairs."

He looked at me sideways and went on to focus on something else.

Yesterday when I was in the lab, I set up a sample sequence on an instrument and got it to run like I like. It is an instrument I have been fighting with for a couple of weeks, and it has been just a matter of me being patient and learning something new. (It is too complicated to describe here). It was late, and I was all alone by myself. When I finished, I hollered "Yaaaay!" and I clapped my hands.

Hmmm... I learned something interesting from Scoot-Booty:

Always take time to celebrate yourself.

Even if no one is cheering you on.

Even when no one is looking.

Especially when no one is looking.

It is a good habit to have. It makes the heart glad.

For I am sure we have goals and other things in life we want to accomplish that we don't tell anyone of. You know how people can crush your dreams and thoughts.

So I am learning to celebrate myself, if only for a moment.

I am making sure to take a moment to clap for myself.

Even if no one is around to clap for me.

I am making sure I take time to do this on purpose.

You do the same.

And again, Happy Black History Month.

Just a little something for your Friday. Some mini- food for thought.

Have a great weekend!!!

A Special Visitor

So a special visitor stopped by my house on Sunday afternoon.

And he donned some interesting shoes.

"Dude, your shoes don't match," I said.
Of course he didn't pay attention to me. He took them off continued laughing and playing.

My special visitor was my nephew Justin. And my sister said his shoes, his mismatched shoes, are the new style.

I'm good with that. I was just happy to see him. With so much going on right now, it's rare to see him these days.

But he is growing up! He is growing up so fast.

And he loves to pose for pictures.

(And as you can see, he loves to drool, too).

And he has the best coats.

Kentucky found it at the Thrift store. She probably paid $5 for it. That's a deal.

Justin is always snazzy. On the cheap!

It was good to see him. He has all the energy in the world. I remember looking at him wondering "Does he take naps?"

I guess he does. But not really when he's with me. I can only wish I had his level of energy.

But it was so good to see him.

Even if I am worn out from chasing him to and fro.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: A Good Christmas

My nephew Justin is at that strange age where he may or may not know that it was Christmas. But he knew he had a lot of new toys.

And he played so hard that he fell asleep, right there on the floor, in the midst of his toys.

Then he had to get sharp so he could go visit his grandparents.

That's what I call a good Christmas.