A Walk through New Brockton

We live in this really quiet and wonderfully quaint town in Alabama called New Brockton. I absolutely love it here! The only drawback is that there isn't really any place to shop here so I have to either go on post (a 30 minute drive) or go into the dirty and annoying city of Enterprise (not all parts, just near the Wal-Mart). Besides being out in the middle of nowhere, it is a wonderful place to be with young children. We live in this subdivision called Mayberry (it makes me chuckle every time I tell someone). Our subdivision is right outside of New Brockton and an easy walk into the main street of New Brockton. Every day I go on a three mile walk through the city and every day I see something completely crazy and new. There are some everyday sightings from the pot bellied pig named Tallulah May to the homegrown Joe that always comes out of the woods with a big stick that he keeps with him because of all of the diamond back snakes!

I was lucky enough to have Megan come with me on one of my walks. I handed her my camera and she deigned to take pictures with my Canon!!!!

Sooooooo...without further ado, welcome to my daily walk in a small southern town!

Our first stop is always to bring a treat to the horses. The friendly ones are Rocket and the Young One. Their owner, Dwight, is a sweet southern man who has welcomed us to used his pool, ride the horses, and has given us permission to bring them treats at our leisure. Preston loves this part of our walk and will gladly feed the horses treats. He has learned that apples are their favorite and gets pretty annoyed with me when I only bring the horses carrots!



After the horses, we always get to walk past the old black school. It is a beautiful building that is now used for Sunday school by one of the local churches. This very friendly stray dog is always there and on some days much to Preston's delight, she joins us for the rest of our walks!


The next part of our walk is past the mission house and church. The building used to be some sort of business and the name is still in big letters on the side. They have a weekly auction of donated goods to help and provide for the needy of New Brockton. It's always an adventure to walk past here because you never know what you will see-including the cowboys from the local cattle farms taking a mid-afternoon ride!



Next we pass the police station and the post office. The police station has a broken window that has just been fixed with a piece of plywood!

After there we pass the house with all of the animals. On the front porch there are kittens, birds, a little annoying dog, and as of last week, a rodent of some kind. The house looks a WHOLE lot nicer on film than in person. The people that live there always run inside when ever we pass.

This "animal house" is right next door to the post office. We continue along and turn down one of the residential streets. This is my favorite part of the walk! There are all of these vines that grow over everything and they are just super beautiful!




After we pass the vines we walk up the road to head back. The last thing on our walk is the stinky sewer system that overflows and puts poop water down the road every time it rains! You can see Ashlyn in her favorite place...strapped in the baby carrier close to mommy!!!!!


Finally, our neighborhood. This is always Preston's favorite part because I let him get out of the stroller and he runs/dawdles the rest of the way home!


There are so many other crazy things that happen on these walks. Everything from being invited to house parties by the cousin to the Mayor (he told me that which is the only reason I know) to dodging copperhead snakes! Life in a small town really is small, but it is also never the same two days in a row!

9 Months

Trying to get the kitty. Notice the purse of his mouth...he knows he probably shoudln't be doing this!


After bath he watches his "Your Baby Can Read" video. He always comes out of getting dressed with Daddy with something odd to chew on. This night his hair brush!


Starting to stand up on the swing.

Baby blue eyes! They are so intense. I really can't do them justice. I really need to have Katie (www.howiwonderphotography.com) come and do pictures again!




This post should actually be titled "Bumps, goose eggs, and scrapes"! At 9 months there is no stopping Pres. He is walking from furniture to furniture and loves when you hold his hands so he can walk wherever he wants. We had his 9 month check up today and it was a doozy. He has grown 4 inches since his last visit! He is not a chunker at only 19 lbs, but the doctor assures me that he is just right. He had his first flu shot today. It did not go over well. He is a fighter and a screamer. The poor sweet nurse. She takes it so personally when he cries. She has to give him a hug afterward. My concern was for the next little boy coming in. He heard Pres screaming and tearily told him mom "mommmy-the doctor must be bad, she made the baby cry." Poor thing looked terrified to go into the room as we were coming out.

This new adventure in walking has brought about a scary new chapter for us...lots of boo boos. I have used more bactine this week than I have done in years. He will just let go and try to walk. He then lands hard which ever way he falls. Yesterday it was on the baby gate. He scraped his chin pretty badly on the way down. He's a champ about the wounds though. He happily sits on the counter top while I clean and put medicine on.

We have officially ended the crying at strangers! Whoo-hoo! This is such a blessing. He now gives great big smiles to everyone who talks to him. I think he has finally realized that he likes the attention. For this reason he loves Home Depot and Publix. The sales associates at both of these stores tend to be a bit older and have a BIG thing for babies. They give him all of the cooing a little baby could ever dream of!

Funny things to remember for Pres:

You love to open and close-doors, drawers, lids, toys, books...it's rather annoying, but you love it so!

You call the cats in the cutest way...you smack your lips together and then twist your sweet head from side to side waiting for them to come.

You now will blow kisses and do it at the most random times-you literally melt me at the sweetest times.

You love to play outside as I am weeding. Occasionally you will eat the weeds!

You bang things together- your favorite are golf balls banging on the TV, wall, floor...

You have your first full tooth in and you spend all day running your tongue over it!

I know I am forgetting some things, but that is the beauty of the blog- I can add to it at any time!