"Lil' Ball"

This is probably another one of those things that isn't very interesting some readers, but I have to document it...Jake's "lil' ball." Lil' ball came to us via a goody bag from a birthday party, and since Jake has moved to his big boy bed, he cannot sleep without lil' ball. I have no idea where this obsession with lil' ball came from, but it is quite annoying.

Remember me talking about the first 2 naps that Jake took in his big boy bed that caused us some trouble? Well, it was all because of that dang lil' ball; Jake kept begging for it, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Finally on day 2 of bad naps in the big boy bed, I started investigating what Jake was talking about. He kept pointing to the garage and saying "car," so I went out there and found a ball (that I swear I had never seen before) in his carseat. As soon as I pulled it out and showed it to him, his face lit up. This was the lil' ball he kept begging for:

To make a long story short, lil' ball has become part of our bedtime routine. We keep it in his sock drawer so we are sure not to lose it, but it has temporarily gone missing a few times but only to be found minutes later. Tyson told me that we need to get a back up lil' ball just in case, so I called my friend who was the giver of lil' ball in the goody bag and inquired where we might find a replacement lil' ball. (FYI, you can get an 8 pack of lil' balls at Dollar General for $1). Anyways, I've been slack and haven't gotten the back-up. We've been incredibly lucky...until today. Lil' ball went missing over the weekend under Daddy's watch; I just knew Jake was going to melt down last night and not be able to sleep without it. (He literally holds the ball the whole time in his right hand and will wake up still clutching that dang ball in his right hand!). Luckily, Jake was extrememly exhausted last night and fell asleep early without even noticing that lil' ball was missing. Long story short, I went to Dollar General today and we now have 7 replacement lil' balls just in case. Jake is sleeping well tonight with lil' ball back in his hands. :)

Silly lil' ball

And because I had the camera in his room, here is the shelf that we put up in Jake's room with all of Daddy's mini-helmets from the schools that he's coached at:

One of our friends from Georgia Southern gave me this idea; she has the full size helmets of all of the schools her husband has coached at, but those are a little pricey. Anyways, I think it's a cool way for us to remember each of the schools (even though I wasn't with Tyson until he was at Georgia), and I hope Jake and Walker will think they are pretty cool, too. Oh, and Jake's favorite helmet?...Georgia Southern. I have no idea why, but he loves it and asks to hold it all the time.

Anyone from Tifton know where I can get a TCHS mini helmet? Let me know if you do, I'd love to get it to finish off the collection! Thanks!