Names

I've been thinking about all the various names that Mills goes by in our house. First I should mention that his actual name is William Mills. I call him that sometimes because I do love it, but most of the time he gets called other nicknames.

Perry calls him "Baby Bills" for now and it's really cute.

Alex calls him "Millsie".

I tend to call him the following:

Baby Mills

Millsie

Millsie boy

Doddle bug

Doddle do

Don't ask how some of those evolved. I think we were so used to saying "Perry" that it seemed natural to add an "ie" to the end of Mills. I know we wont always use these silly names, so I wanted to document it while it's still considered cute :-) 

A New Decade

Well, it's official. I'm 30. I haven't had to say the word out loud yet, so it hasn't really hit me. My birthday was a lot of fun and the celebration actually lasted a couple days. I was very touched by all the wishes I received and appreciate those loved ones who made my birthday extra special.
Alex made me a special surprise breakfast. It was quite a showcase...more details below! He also took me on a fabulous lunch date. I choose to go to Fairfield Grocery. My food was delicious and I apparently ate a good bit because I wasn't even hungry for dinner that night. We rescheduled dinner. Mom still brought me my wonderful gifts on my birthday. Dad and Sheila came by to bring me a birthday gift too. The next day Beth surprised me by dropping in with some special birthday goodies. We went to Superior Grill for dinner that night with mom and the staff sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Perry thought that part was pretty cool. My big present is going to be a new couch and rug for our family room, but I'm still working on getting that done. I'm super excited though!
Now, onto my breakfast.....this is what I woke up to...

 Cheese dream (if you don't know what that is, you're missing out!) with a heart cut out, a heart-shaped hard-boiled egg, blueberries, coffee AND a rose napkin. 

When I decided to eat some of the egg, I began cutting it and saw that the inside looked green. I was immediately grossed out thinking it was mold or something else gross, but quickly noticed that the green was a PIECE OF PAPER WITH A BIRTHDAY MESSAGE on it! OMG! I about died. I'm convinced my husband is the most quirky (but cool) guy ever.

9 months

This post is a bit belated, as Mills tuned 9 month old on July 7th.
Baby Mills,
Your 8th month has been a pretty big one! You hit several milestones within a span of a couple weeks. At the very beginning of the month, your two bottom teeth popped up. The top two are just hanging there waiting to break through now. You mastered the army crawl and are moving around everywhere. The most fun thing has been seeing you and Perry "chase" each other around. It hasn't been all fun and games with Perry though. He's having to adjust to your new mobility and ability to get into "his" things. You dropped your 3rd nap, so on most days, you're taking a morning nap around 9-10:30 and an afternoon nap around 1-3. You're still sleeping great at night (12-13 hours). We've also dropped a feeding and you are nursing 4 times/day and eating 3 meals.
Other things that happened during your 8th month:
You were baptized.
You went swimming for the first time.
You took a trip to Baton Rouge, but very sadly didn't get to meet your future wife, Anna Caroline Donald, because she had the chicken pox.
I hope nothing too big happens this next month. I can't handle all this growing up business! We love you to the moon and back! 
Most of my documentation from this month has been videos of him crawling. I must do better about taking pictures next month. Here is our big 9 month old!

I know I talk about his chunky thighs a lot (because that's about the only thing on him that's chunky). I love how you can see how big they are in this picture! I really love fat baby legs!

Mills' baptism

Mills was baptized on July 8th. It was a special morning of worship as we went before the congregation and vowed to raise Mills as a disciple of Christ. "That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:7 We pray that Mills will come to know Jesus at an early age and that God will use his life for His glory!

Mills wore the same gown that Perry wore. My hope is that it will become a family heirloom gown.

We had a small reception at our house that afternoon after nap time. I loved planning it and thought it turned out perfectly! We served cookies and petite fours and coffee. 

 Alex and I made these cookies. It was my first attempt at piping, and I'm glad Alex was there to help because it was harder than I anticipated.

 Love the table! It's hard to see, but I decorated with several silver baby heirloom pieces. Some very old, some very new.

 Cheetah and Papou

 Mae Mae

 Nana and Papa

Nonnie loves her great-grandson! 

My other grandmother, Grammy, was there too, but left before I remembered to take pictures. Sad!

4th of July

A mid-week break was just what we needed this week. I had gone to Baton Rouge by myself on Monday night to attend the funeral of a dear friend's father on Tuesday. We didn't make any plans for Wednesday, the 4th, because we thought we might start potty training. I decided against that for several reason, so it turned out that we had a completely open day. It was nice to just do what we felt like doing. The morning consisted of resting, running errands and playing. After naps, we went next door to swim. This was actually Mills' first time in the pool! Like most things so far, Mills was happy, content and laid back in the pool. Perry had a lot of fun and was much more comfortable than last time.  

Ready to go

 All packed up

Perry ended up having a VERY late night because he couldn't sleep through all the fireworks. We decided to let him get up and we went outside to watch the neighbors firework show. Perry was so excited to be up, hanging out so late. He didn't go to sleep until after 10pm!

Random Pictures

Life has been a bit more busy lately. I've been slacking on blogging, but I still have pictures and stories of my little guys that are worth sharing.

 Perry found a nice little spot to sit down....on the water meter.

 I let Perry outside to splash around in our big water puddle. He went a little overboard and decided to go "swimming". I found him laying belly down with his face submerged in the dirty puddle. Gross!

 Mills' first time in a swing. He thought it was pretty cool.

 Cute, crazy-haired baby scooting around and teething on everything

 Mills loves his sink baths. Unfortunately our sink isn't this awesome. 

We stopped at Lea's Lunchroom on our way home from Baton Rouge. Perry got to have some of their famous pie.

Alex's Birthday

We celebrated Alex's 28th birthday on June 28! He requested coffee cake and hard-boiled eggs for his birthday breakfast.

My mom always takes us out to eat on our birthday to the place of our choice. Well, Alex chose Chick-Fil-A this year, so that's where we went. Behind that 28-year-old face is really just a child at heart! 

 Mills was just relaxin' in his chair. Love those thighs!

We went to the lake on Sunday with Dad, Sheila, Shelby and Josh to continue the celebration. Alex really wanted a nice, restored typewriter for his birthday this year. It came in the mail today and he is looking forward to playing with it.

I often forget that Alex is two years younger than me because he is such a wise and inspiring person. I'm so blessed to have him and hope he always "keeps me young."

Firetrucks Should Come With a Warning

A neighbor called last week and invited us down to check out her nephew's new firetruck. He bought it for fun and to eventually rent out for birthday parties. Perry was so excited about the firetruck that he started running down the street. He was really enjoying it until the guy cranked it up and starting fiddling with things--it was LOUD and scary! Another neighbor was holding Mills, so I grabbed Perry for a photo op:

One second after this picture was taken, something a CRAZY happened! Water from the firetruck started blasting out of the truck and was pounding me in the back! You can see a black valve in the above picture where the water hose is normally connected and you can see how I'm standing right in front of it. The water pressure and surprise of it all nearly knocked me down. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the way safely. Perry's crocks were blown off by the water and were found about 30 feet away. I was soaking wet...and wearing a lot of white! I'm especiallly glad that no one was hurt and that Perry thought it was fun. We decided to stay a safe distance away for the remainder of our time.