God I love these kids. 

One of Grace's favorite games to play with her little brother. We're not yet sure what he thinks about it. 

Birthday princess

Grace got to wear the birthday crown last Monday all day at school. Even better, Miss Jackie let her wear it home to show Daddy. She was so happy about it - wore it to Tom Thumb, to Blockbuster, and the rest of the day at home.

With her basket full of toys. 

Mother's Day

So for me today is the real Mother's Day. Three years ago today I became a mom. I can't believe it's been three years already. I look at Grace and get amazed that she is a kid now, not a baby any more. You've got to marvel at the elasticity of time - it seems like just yesterday she was tiny, but it is also almost impossible to remember life without her. Once you have a kid you have to admit that when all those other parents said "You can't imagine how great it is until you have children" they were actually right. And who knew I had the ability to feel such a ferocious love for a creature - I'd do anything in my power to protect my two kids. I could actually imagine throwing myself in harm's way to keep them safe - I never felt this way for anything before having these guys.

Jim and I look at Grace and Alex and feel very fortunate. Two beautiful children that brighten and enhance our lives exponentially. As Grace would say, "I love my family".

Happy Birthday Dear Gracie

My big girl.

So it's not quite her birthday yet, but try to explain to a 3-year old that even though we are having her party today her actual birthday is in two more days. So as far as our household goes, Grace turns three today.

What a wonderful day it turned out to be. Despite my stressed snapping at Jim leading up to the party, everything turned out fine. It's fun to see Grace interact with the other kids now that she knows how to play with them (rather than just alongside them). And we are blessed to have such wonderful friends, both the adults for Jim and myself and their kids for Grace (and Alex someday too). I just had to stop at one point and look out at the chaotic sea of kids running around the backyard, with the parents all hanging out on chairs and blankets, and smile at the beauty of it all.

And we managed to get a pretty good 64 Zoo Lane party pulled together. It's a little more of a challenge when your kid wants the theme to be her favorite television show that happens to be a British import only shown on Noggin (the digital cable channel for preschoolers). But I'm lucky to have a talented husband who was able to create great invitations and cake topper (using Albertsons who can scan the picture in and put it on your cake), plus there are lots of zoo/jungle themed party stuff available. And a big thank you goes out to Mom, Dad and Luella for being such a wonderful help before, during and after the party (and especially to Luella for whipping up margaritas afterward to help us recover!).

Sitting with her friends. 

Ice cream and cake are the best. I don't think my child touched any of the other food (fruits, veggies) we had at her party. 

The haul. 

Natalie REALLY wants to help Grace open gifts. 

Mmm...baby cereal and strained peas and a gramma that doubles as a high chair 

Our groovy little cabins in the background. Grace is happy because she just had her peanut butter and jelly; her meal of choice. 

Happy family. No really - it looks like Grace is crying, but she's just shouting "Cheese" at the camera.

Creepy blue light at the dolphin exhibit (everyone had weird purple lips in there) 

Dolphins are cool 

Checking out the fish 

Gotta love that DQ ice cream 

The boy grabs everything. 

At DQ 

Family vacation

We've decided that family vacations are awesome when grandparents are along too. The ratio of four adults to two kids is the way to go. We just had a fun long weekend down at Port Aransas with Mom, Dad and a bunch of Dad's high school buddies. The guys went on a fishing boat Friday morning, so Mom and I took the kids to the beach by ourselves. Luckily Alex slept most of the time we were there (he wasn't too impressed with it all once he woke up). Grace loved it (as usual, though it's been probably 18 months since she's been to the beach).

Saturday we made it to the Texas State Aquarium since the weather was kind of crappy. But the weather cleared up so we made it back to the beach that evening, marking Jim's first time to actually check out the Port A beach. Luckily the incredible amount of seaweed that was on the beach and in the water had been scraped up and/or had floated back out to sea, so he actually got to see it on a good day.

We go back to the beach in about six weeks when we take advantage of the Donwen house in Destin (thanks Bill and Bonnie!). Too bad we can't drag some grandparents along with us for that trip too.

Many pictures to come.

Roly poly, roly poly, ro-ly poly poly ma-a-an...

(Title sung to the "Hurdy Gurdy Man" song)

Took Alex to his 6 month doctor appointment today. At 21 3/4 lbs and 28 1/2", he's off the charts for both weight and height. Everything looked good. It's hard when he gets his shots though. Grace was always such a clingy baby that she was already crying just from doctors and nurses touching her by the time the shots came at the end of the appointment. But Alex is such the happy guy that he's still grinning and laughing at the nurse right up until the moment the needle is jabbed into his fat little thigh. Then you see the transformation to the "oh my lord what just happened to me" look, followed by the piercing cry. Poor guy.

He did have quite the milestone day though. In addition to the doctor visit, he finally started rolling around on the floor. I'd been a little concerned because he didn't roll over until a couple weeks ago (it's typically done between 4 and 5 months), and even after that it would take me down on the floor coaxing him to get him to do it again. But this afternoon I put him down on his back on the blanket with his toys, came back in to see him on his stomach, and then came back in to once again find him on his back. Of course now this means he can get to more stuff - my main babyproofing challenge will be getting Grace to put her tiny toys up.

Alex also tried his first vegetable tonight. Strained peas. Yum. I can just imagine what his poops are going to be like tomorrow after that meal. We had the requisite yucky face with the first bite. Then he couldn't eat them fast enough. I can already tell this kid will eat us out of house and home in about 15 years.

Don't assume an explanation is understood

We saw in the paper today that there was an event down at city hall where they were collecting old athletic shoes for recycling (a Nike-sponsored program where the shoes are recycled into running tracks or something like that). Grace was up in the bedroom with me when I was pulling our old shoes out, so I tried to explain to her what I was doing. She knows we have one place downstairs where we put bottle/can recycling and one place for paper recycling. So I was explaining how when we throw something away it goes in a hole in the ground but when we recycle things are used again and it keeps our planet healthy (of course then having to try to explain what Planet Earth is).

We're driving in the car, heading downtown, when Grace suddenly starts to get weepy in the back seat. She is crying about how she can't run in these shoes and then how she needs these shoes to run - all very hard to understand since she is crying while trying to get this out. We finally realize that Grace thought we were going down there to take the very shoes off her feet to recycle them. And that freaked her out because she loves to talk about how her tennis shoes make her run FAST, and she was so sad thinking she'd no longer have them. Jim and I were hiding our laughing while reassuring her that no, her shoes were not going to be given away - just Mommy and Daddy's old ones.

I guess we'll keep working on the recycling lesson, maybe in a little more abstract terms.

Two of my favorite people. 

Alex in his groovy new shirt. 

Rangers 6, Toronto 5

So Grace made it through 5 innings today. I wonder if it would have been better to take her to a night game - even with the wonderful breeze today, the sun beating down on you in the stands can really wear you out. She seemed to have a good time, but of course wasn't actually in her seat for much of the game. She accompanied Jim to go purchase the hotdogs, then went with me to go buy her a hat and pom pom, and then went with me again to find the ice cream. And she did have fun looking through her binoculars (see the photo below - she must like looking at things when they are teeny tiny and far far away).

I doubt we'll take her back again until next year. I'll have to get her a new Rangers shirt though. The one Kim got her a year or so ago still fits, but not for much longer (thanks Kim!). But now Grace has a really cool cap that looks just like Granddads that should fit her for the next few years.

Alex did wonderful with Mom & Dad. So much so that I think we may hit them up to watch both kids so we can go out for a nice dinner by ourselves to celebrate my birthday. Ah, time to enjoy the meal, drink a bottle of wine, and not have to rush through it for fear that either the small one will wake up or the big one will just get bored. I don't even care about doing something like a movie too - I just want the leisurely dinner/dessert/coffee like we used to enjoy in the days of disposable income.

Note the backwards binoculars. 

Grace's favorite mode of transportation. 

Growing up

So out of the blue (to me at least - maybe Jim had more warning leading up to it) Grace came up to me tonight after dinner with the announcement that she wanted to call her cousin Emma. And she wanted to dial the phone. Jim thought she was just using it as a ploy to play with the phone, but she actually did want to call Emma. So she dialed, I got Kathy and then Emma on the phone, and handed it off to Grace. I'm not sure how the conversation went on the other end, but on my end it pretty much consisted of Grace asking what Emma was doing and then saying it was almost time for her (Grace) to go night night. Maybe a little bit more talking in there, but not a whole lot. I guess she just needed a little girl talk before bathtime tonight.

Sunday we take her to her first baseball game of memory (her first actual game was at about 2 months old). Jim is actually playing up the angle that we will have a good time, even though I know he doesn't particularly like going to baseball games. The tickets were free, so if we leave after three innings we're only out the parking fee (plus hotdogs plus ice cream plus souvenier - it will probably still be an expensive three innings).

As for the other kid, Alex FINALLY rolled over (at almost 6 months old he's a little late). Did it at Mom & Dad's yesterday afternoon, then a couple more times that night for Mom and a few times here today. He's very funny because I cheer so much when he rolls over that he just looks up at me from the new vantage point with the biggest smile on his face. Maybe I'll get lucky and capture it with the camera tomorrow.

In case you didn't know...

...you can click on the textamerica picture box to the right and see the other photos I've sent from my phone.

Stroller envy

So it's weird knowing the kid you just had will be your last (barring any unforseen failure of birth control method, god forbid). It's very hard to justify investing in any major baby stuff that will only be used for a few months or even a few years. Keeping this in mind, I've surprised myself with the stroller envy I've discovered I have. Yes, there's the really fancy Bugaboo stroller if you've got money to spare and want to spend $800. But more realistic is the neat new Graco Quattro stroller. I saw one at the park and they just look COOL.

Ah, but I still love my Graco Metrolite (for when I just need to tote just one kid around), but even that has some neat updates that have shown up in the past 3 years. And we do have the ubiquitous ungainly double stroller for when you want to feel like you're steering a semi (though it holds a hell of a lot of stuff in the basket).

What a boring post for anyone out there reading this. Check out the moblog pics to the right to see the kids in the big stroller (though you can't see the pure heft of it in these photos).

f-o-o-l...fool

Kathy sent me this link saying that David doesn't remember these Jiminy Cricket movies at all from elementary school. Jim also looked at me like I was insane when I asked him about them.

Did anybody other than attendees of West Handley Elementary School watch these?

I must admit that I was disappointed to discover that you couldn't download them from the site.

Spring

Here are my irises currently blooming in the backyard. I thought I'd have no blooms this year, but after the last big rain they suddenly all appeared at once. My other patch of irises finally have a few shoots coming up. Unfortunately none look like they are purple. I think my purple ones have just disappeared.

If you look closely to the right of the irises you can see the other flower we currently have blooming profusely in our backyard (the kind that Grace likes to pick up and blow, thereby ensuring an even bigger crop next year).

I'm not an idiot...

but it takes me forever to figure out how to do anything different on this site. Thank god I have my geeky husband nearby. Check out the awesome pictures my new camera phone takes in the textamerica box to the right.

Go in for the close up view and you can see the ever-present drool on my son.

Sniffles

For once I'm the one that caught the kid's cold rather than Jim.

I'll post more when my nose/throat clear up.

Is that Duran Duran I hear?

20 year old picture of me on Cranial Contents...

Thanks Chris!

So my blog has been linked up for the first time to someone else's site. Check out casitadeluxe. If you're lucky you'll catch it on a day where "casitacam" becomes "lupecam", though I know it's not tomorrow morning because much to Jim's joy she will be at our house.

Cutie Pie

Too bad you can't see the pink kitty cat boots she had on with her outfit.