Crumptons expand

At least one of us will literally be expanding that is. Here he/she is, baby #2! So far, so good at 13 weeks. We have an April 2 due date. We've told Corinne that Mommy has a baby in her belly, but she's clueless. Of course, we'll keep updating as the baby progresses. Isn't it amazing how much they're formed even this early? You can see the hands/arms flailing around the head and the little legs on the other end. Once again, Roman is adamant that we don't find out the sex of the baby. I have to admit the second 'go round that I would like to know. The planner in me wants to have all of the old clothes sorted and organized, etc. But, I guess it can all wait. :-)

Enjoy the weekend!

Well Read?

Ok, my cousin Brooke put this post on her blog (see Celebrate the Everyday!) and I had to rise to the challenge. Evidently, the average adult has only read about 6 titles from the list. I bolded the titles I've read. Mom and Angie will probably bold the whole list! I've read 42. Not a very good number for a librarian. Guess I need to get busy. Happy Reading.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials- Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Also seen the movie)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (Does starting to read it count?)
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce 7
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92.The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Where the wild things are

Last weekend we headed off on a road trip for our friends', Joe and Julia, wedding in Asheville. It was so good to see many friends that we just don't get to hang out with much now that little bit is with us and our social life is very slow. :-) We actually got a babysitter and attended the wedding sans Corinne.

Julia's night

Roman, Justin, and Dave contemplating the 'Electric slide'. Haha

Pal'ing around with Elizabeth

We did take Corinne to the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville during the day. The gardens were gorgeous. I'd been there once years and years ago, but they've made so many improvements and additions that it was a new experience for me. I was mainly looking forward to showing Roman the quilt garden. The link shows what it would look like. We only saw it in its planting stage. Still, other exhibits like the bonsai garden and colorful wildflowers were worth the visit.

I'm not sure what this one was. It reminds me of Mimi's morning glories, but it was as big as the spread of my hand!

Of course, the wildest flower of them all...

Corinne has been learning her colors and is telling us that this 'baba' is red! So far she can recognize the difference between some colors but will only tell you when something is 'lello' or 'red.'
This is just a little note on the side. I dropped Corinne off at daycare Friday morning and as we were entering, a classmate and friend, Katilyn, was entering with her father. The two girls squealed and shrieked to see each other, then ran full speed ahead down to their room. It was the first time I've seen her get so excited about one of her classmates. They had the workers peering out of other rooms to check on the commotion.

Another cute story, induldge me here, from daycare... one of the teachers informed me that Corinne gets quite irritated at the wood chips from the playground that work their way into her shoes. She sat down to take her shoes off and a little boy from her class, Gavin, came over to put his arms around her (he thought she was upset). A few minutes later, the same scenario ensued, yet this time he planted one on her! Her first kiss! The teachers said it was too cute. Roman wanted to know if he needed to have a talk with the little guy.

We're enjoying a cool day about 65 out! It's a welcome change from the muggy, mosquito-hungry heat.

Have a great week.

Mosquitoes, Hurricanes, and Guitar Hero

School has definitely gotten off to a good start. Summer is always fun, but by August the heat and the mosquitoes can ruin anybody's picnic. Besides, the thrill of making muffins with Mama was wearing off.




We started our school year to a new school-wide reading program that culminated last Friday. I don't like to toot my own horn, but I was pleased that our student body and efforts were recognized on the local news.

(The video hasn't been working, so here's the link: http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0808/548702.html)

We had a national young adult author, African drumming groups, a Holocaust survivor, and 2 Vietnam veterans to speak to students who read books of similar topics. Who said reading and books were dead?! :-)

The Bensons graced us this weekend with their crew. Corinne and the kids played so well together. When she wasn't following in Wesley's (older) footsteps, she was taunting Maddox with the latest toy of choice. The real treat was the Wii, Guitar Hero, and the rockstars that came out of the closet.

Trina and the boyz

Roman takes on Wesley

Now we sit and wait to watch the local coverage scare everyone to death about Hurricane Hanna on its way. Not to sound to disrespectful of the media, I realize that we are fortunate to be kept informed and out of harm's way. But after living here for 12 years, we just can't hit the panic button just yet. The groceries are already out of water and the gas pumps are triple deep. It's Tuesday. This storm might hit Friday or Saturday. Needless to say, we do have our evacuation plan in place. We'll hope for the best.

Have a great week!

Melanie

Relief!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a Relief!!!

Upon Corinne's last doctor visit we once again mentioned our concern for Corinne's constant runny nose and nighttime cough. For the past year (yes, it started last August) the doctor has suggested that it is just a minor cold and an artifact of her being in daycare. Honestly, Mel and I were a bit skeptical. Well it has not stopped with her not attending daycare this summer so the doctor suggested removing items from her crib and trying to isolate the "allergy" (i.e. wool, satin, etc). After Corinne has been sleeping with absolutely nothing in her crib except a blanket (a different one every night) nothing seemed to work. Then a couple of weeks ago we were invited to dinner with our friend 'Berta. She suggested we stop using fabric softener and BAM!!! that was the culprit- no more pics or videos of snot rockets to spoil Corinne's baby pictures

-THANKS 'BERTA!

P.S. 'Berta's from Michigan

Young 2's

Corinne has started back to daycare and Melanie is back at work. To our surprise Corinne has been moved up to another room called "Young 2's". We like to think that our daughter has moved up due to her capacity for learning/maturity/advanced manners, but something tells me it was a logistical choice made by the daycare-you make the call ;)

As I was writing this blog, Melanie called me in a mournful tone. Apparently Corinne cried this morning being dropped off at daycare. I'm sure it won't be the last time-Better you than me, Mel.

Thanks Aunt Angie for the books they are soooooo cute!

Best Friends-Chloe is so patient when Corinne wants to put goggles on her

Four of these bad boys grew in our landscaping this year, no doubt from our compost!

Corinne's favorite pasttime-reading, thanks Pappy

Playmates

My time at home with Corinne this summer is about to come to an end. Honestly, it has been a challenge and an adjustment for me to keep her entertained and socialized as well as occupied while I attempted to get stuff done at home. Going back to daycare will be bittersweet. She is really asserting herself as the 'two's' begin to settle in. Roman and I agree that we're going to have to get tough with her now. We'll have to endure some screaming tantrums. Ah, lovely.

While Corinne seems to have a strong will, she isn't overly obstinate about getting her way. I'm learning the art of letting her think she's getting her way :-)

Corinne's favorite playmates are the dogs. She loves to hug and kiss all over them. They love her mealtimes. I loved watching the two of them playing (and, ahem, sharing) Corinne's snack. Just for a quick translation, Corinne is calling 'Ah-ee, Ah-ee' which is her version of 'Chloe.'
We can no longer enjoy the computer by ourselves now. When she gets really quiet, I get worried. Here's where I found her the other day:

The young navigator

Just chillin'

There is no shortage of books at the house, and she loves to curl up with a book either by herself or with us.

Enjoy the weekend!

Dog Days

Wow! Is it already the end of July? Where did the time go? After traveling around most of June, we settled in to the slow, humid days of July here in Charleston and have been enjoying as many outdoor water actvities as possible. Corinne loves the beach. She's content to eat sand and build castles as well as charge forward into the waves. Splash Zone is another outdoor favorite. I have to say that this one is Mama's favorite! I love taking her down the slides and for a relaxing ride on the lazy river.

Corinne's language skills grow daily. As they say of small children, their little brains are sponges soaking up much more than you might think. She's even beginning an interest in 'potty' talk. She now knows what her diaper is and what goes in it! :-) During the day, she'll approach me tugging at her diaper telling me what's in it. Of course, I rushed out to purchase some training potties hoping to expedite the process. (Sigh) But, no. She wants to carry it around the house and won't sit on it. It'll be slow going, I'm sure, since she is so young. But she didn't learn to walk in a week, either!

We seem to get lucky with our neighbors getting rid of toddler items. This time, a Fisher Price Outdoor Castle playground was left by the road for trash day. Yep. Roman and I could be seen at 10:00pm walking up and down our street carrying huge plastic walls into our yard. It's perfect! Corinne is all about the slide. See for yourself:



Lastly, Roman and I have been discussing the need for a new car for months now and yesterday we finally did it! We are the proud owners of a new Subaru Outback. Yes, we are now a Two-baru family.

Hope everyone is doing well.