I Love...

...these pictures.

We went to a church tailgate party last night and our friend and photographer, Rachel, took these pictures of the Big Man. He had a big time playing with all the other kiddos and, as you'll see, got a little football game in. The pics have Phil dreaming of football scholarships and College Game Day debuts. I just think he looks like an Auburn frat boy with a sophomore-year beer gut, playing a pick up game at a tailgate party.Don't get me wrong, though.
I still think he's the most adorable Stinker there ever was.

I adore him.

Summer Days, Driftin' Away...

For most of the summer, it's been hot as blue blazes up here in these parts. We've had a few random days lately that have been so nice, though, and one of those days was a pool day at the Tatum house. Phil decided to get in the pool with Luke, so of course I ran to get the camera.

While waiting for the pool to fill up, Luke made it known that he was hungry. (Despite what it looks like, this is Phil trying to take the watering can out of Luke's mouth, not put it in.)


Luckily we had this beauty in the refrigerator just waiting for a perfect summer day like this one. It was seriously THE BEST WATERMELON I have ever had. Ever.


It was so good that Daddy wouldn't even share.


Just kidding. Daddy was just trying to get rid of some of the seeds for the Stinker.


Luke loved it so much that he kept coming back for more.


Love. That. Belly.


Then it was time to play. This pool is a dream come true for Luke.

It has a sliiiiiiii!!!


Even Daddy took a ride down the slide.
Luke was worried it wouldn't hold up and he'd never see his slide again. No worries. The slide survived.


Then Daddy tried for some snuggles.


So cute.


And so yummy.


Oh, how I love my boys!
(But I'm so sad this picture's blurry!!)

It's been a good summer, even if it did go by too quickly. I hope it's been a good one for you, too!

Sweet Ava turns 5!

A few weeks ago, Luke's biggest fan, Ava, turned 5. She had a super fun birthday party at a candy store called the Sweet Treat Boutique. This place is every kid's dream. Not only do they have every kind of commercial candy and chocolate that you could ever imagine, they also have homemade ice cream, cotton candy, snow cones, fudge, and caramel corn, plus little boutique-y gifts and things. This is seriously what heaven must be like.

Anyway, my sister, Anne, was in town so she and I took Luke to Ava's party. I was a little worried because the party started just an hour before Luke's bedtime, so there was no telling how he was going to behave. Thank God Anne was there is all I have to say. You know the saying "like a bull in a china shop"? Well synonymous with that would be the phrase, "like Luke in a candy store." He was ALL OVER THE PLACE and with so many things for him to touch and grab, it was a workout keeping up with him. I have never in my life been so thankful for candy wrappers. Especially lollipop wrappers. Luke must have tried to put half the lollipops in the store in his mouth. Poor Anne got stuck running after the Stinker for a good chunk of time while I gabbed with Ava's parents. She probably lost at least 5 pounds. He had a great time, but didn't really participate in the party at all. Here's a glimpse of Luke at the party:

We arrived a little late (surprise), so the festivities had already started. The kiddos were doing a scavenger hunt through the store. Ava was so excited to see Luke and wanted to hold his hand and drag him around with her as she went.

Ava was in heaven with Luke and all her friends. Luke was totally confused and wondering where the heck he was.

Ava tried explaining what was going on and what Luke was supposed to be doing.


Luke started to get overwhelmed and stressed and suddenly needed to find his thumb and his happy place.


It's hard to tell from the picture, but Luke was actually starting to panic and fuss at this point and was trying to pry his hand out of Ava's death grip.


Running away, he discovered the lone balloon attached to Ava's birthday sign, blowing in the wind outside. He was totally thrilled and told Annie about 147 times, "Boon!!!"


After acknowledging the balloon 147 times, he realized that there were about 1,000 plastic test tubes full of some kind of liquidy sugary goo within reach and oh, how fun it was to take them all out one by one. Lucky Annie.


Once he'd put about 14 different wrapped lollipops in his mouth, Mommy got smart and actually paid for a lollipop for the Stinker to eat, hoping that would keep him from touching every single thing in the store. She should have bought one for each hand.
(You can see his bruise on the left cheek from where he kissed the coffee table. You can't see the one of equal size on his right cheek where he kissed Daddy's nightstand the same day.)


Moving right along, the Stinker Man went on to explore the other side of the store, completely dissing the store owner and his request for a high-five.


The shiny seats grabbed his attention right away, and he was delighted to find that they even spun!


And then he stopped in his tracks....
To behold 3 of the cutest, older girls right there before him!


Deciding to go the nonchalant route, he made his way over to the girls' tables and pretended to play with the chair.


Annie followed him, trying not to get in the way of his mojo, but the Stinker quickly nabbed one of the girls iPhones, forcing them to direct their attention to him. Score!


After several minutes of blatant flirting, he returned the now-sticky iPhone for the chance to spin another chair.


Then, hoping the girls were still watching, he started spinning two at the same time.


Suddenly alarmed, he raced over to the cotton candy stand to point out that they needed to restock. Immediately.


Now that his work on that side of the store was done, he decided to go check in on the party.


While this picture makes Luke look left out and possibly even forgotten, he could have cared less about being outside the party room and had moved on to destroy yet another part of the store before I could even see this image pop up on my camera.


See what I mean. He was on the run....


...But not before I snatched him up and forced him to pose with the birthday girl!

We managed to make it out of there alive, having broken nothing that I am aware of, and having only ingested one Dum-Dum (Luke) and one retro Fla-Vor-Ice (all 3 of us) for old time's sake. Unless, of course, you include the 27 pieces of wrapped candy that Luke put in his mouth. Oh well. I still consider that a success. And Ava had a blast despite Luke's unwillingness to follow her around holding her hand and worshiping the ground she walked on.

Blue Not-So-Suede Shoes...

The Stinker has been all about putting on other people's shoes lately. It took him a while to be able to walk in them, though. With a little help from Phil or me, he could get his feet in the big shoes and stand in them fine, but when he'd go to take his first step, he'd step right out of the shoes and right into a big ol' pile of frustration.
I guess it just took the perfect pair of shoes for him to get the hang of it. And those shoes were my sister's fancy new blue jellies that she showed up in a few weekends ago. Luke thought they were so cool and immediately wanted to put them on.

"I may not be wearing any pants, but I'm sooo gonna wear these blue shoes!"

He first tried slipping them on while standing.
That was a no-go.

He then took a seat and got down to business.


He even tried using both hands.


But he still had to ask for help.

Luckily all his hard work paid off when he was able to walk in his fancy blue shoes for the first time! My sister got it on video. Notice that half way through, he walks out of the shoe, tries to put it back on, and then gets so upset when he can't do it. Thankfully Annie came to the rescue with much needed words of encouragement, and he was able to finish his promenade down the hall.

...And just when I was starting to worry that Luke and his girly shoes might soon be joining Austin and Santino on their road trip, he was right back at it....

...showing the slide who's boss...

...beating up on Daddy...

...wrestling with Doggy...

...and rolling around on the ground making loud, unintelligible noises, while playing with a stolen iPhone and wearing no pants.

That's the Stinker I know.

Hilarious.

My sister took this video on her phone the other day when we were at H&M. That's him saying "glasses" at the end of the video.

"Gaaaaaaaaa!"

I adore him.

Nashville....Indiana.

I obviously haven't blogged in a loooong time. It's partly because I've been recovering. From what, you ask? From Nashville, Indiana a week ago. I helped Phil out and watched all the kiddos at the Globalscope Celebration in Nashville, Indiana from Monday to Friday. With the help of a saint named Amanda, I watched 7 kiddos all day while their parents participated in the meetings and modules. The kids were really good, but the accommodations made things challenging. We were all stuck in one hotel room. There was access to a grassy area right outside our room, but several factors made it more dangerous than ideal and with crazy heat/humidity, the kids didn't last more than 5 minutes anyway. Thankfully, our group were the only ones on our hall, so we could let the kids out to run up and down the hall, play soccer, shoot hoops, and knock around the (plastic) golf balls. Luke had a blast, but was definitely the most challenging of all the kids. He was the youngest of the toddlers and was into EVERYTHING non-stop. His favorite thing to do was run down to the end of the hall where there was an elevator and about 6 steps down to a lower level. Being obsessed and practically OCD about pushing buttons, he quickly learned that he could push the elevator buttons and not only would they light up, but they'd make the big shiny door open up and then he could run into the elevator where there were even more buttons, the lowest of which was a really fun alarm button. Awesome. It was virtually impossible to keep him from pushing the buttons, but I was pretty good at keeping him from going into the open elevator. Unfortunately he would then just run to the stairs, go backwards down the stairs, then run right to the elevator at the bottom of the stairs, push the buttons and run into the elevator. It was the most random, inexplicable, and exhausting thing that there was this lower level and an elevator that literally traveled about 6 feet down from floor R1 to floor B, but it was the best part of Luke's week. So after chasing Luke up and down the hall and stairs and in and out of elevators, all while holding 3 month-old Sawyer, who was sooo tired but would wake up every time I put her down, I decided I would be SuperMom and take him swimming in a big pool for the very first time during the 45 minute break we had between babysitting and dinner. Phil was busy working, so I was on my own with Luke. I ran into our hotel room, put him down, then ran into the bathroom to go potty quickly before getting our suits on. I left the door to the bathroom open, while doing a mental rundown of what, if any, things Luke could destroy or hurt himself on in the room. Deciding that we had safely battened down the hatches, I did my business super fast, and as I was about to wash my hands, I got suspicious of the silence. I walked out of the bathroom right into a sudden shower of....

an ENTIRE box of Cheerios.

He had grabbed the cereal box out of a basket on the dresser, pulled out the bag, and then proceeded to shake it like a Polaroid picture.

After walking across the edible confetti like a proud daredevil running over hot coals, he decided to sit down and revel in his scattered treasure.

When that wasn't enough, he got down on his belly to better commune with the beloved O's.


Making himself comfortable, he grabbed a handful of O's and rolled to his back...

...and then helped himself to a little snack.

Lucky me. I got to clean it all up.
Now that all is said and done, though, I think the pictures might have been worth it.