Here come the Dukes!

Lake Whitney State Park

2009-09-09T20:17:00.007-05:00

During our vacation we spent a wonderful day at Lake Whitney State Park. They have a nice sandy beach (for a lake beach) and you have to walk a long way into the water before it gets deep. Erin and Garrett had a great time playing in the sand, even though we didn't bother bringing any beach toys. I thought they would spend more time in the water, but apparently the sand is much more interesting than the water. Here are some pictures:

Garrett tried to eat some sand. If you look closely you can see sand on his tongue.

Daddy had to help him get the sand out.

After showering and changing, I took pictures of the kids in these beautiful surroundings. Here are some of my favorites.

We had a lot of fun at this beautiful state park.

I'm back, finally!

2009-09-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

School is back in session, so now I have more time to update my blog. We were very busy the last month of summer, trying to get all our fun in before school starts. We had a great time staying at some cabins at this lodge on Lake Whitney, TX. Erin and Daddy went fishing. This picture was taken from outside our cabin.

They didn't catch any fish, but they had fun trying.

And this is another cute Daddy/Daughter picture from our deck. It was a beautiful view.

We spent a lot of time at the pool.

And enjoyed beautiful views of Lake Whitney, even if it was 12 feet below normal. Lake Whitney is right on the edge of the severe drought situation in Austin and San Antonio. The peer in the picture below should be much closer to level than this sharp drop. They had to close the peer.

But the lake was beautiful anyway. Check out these pictures.

Next time, I'll post pictures from Lake Whitney State Park.

This is why I haven't been blogging

2009-07-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

I realize I haven't been updating my blog as much as I used to. One reason is that we have been spending a lot of time at our community pool(provided by our Home Owner's Association). It's the only thing to do when the temperature is over 100 degrees day after day. Garrett has recently learned to "swim" using his life jacket built in to his swim suit. He can actually get around the pool by kicking his legs. He loves the freedom and I think it's good therapy for his balance and muscle coordination.

Erin can now swim without a life jacket and spends most of her time either trying to swim under water or jumping off the side of the pool. Here are some cool jumping pictures.

Now that you've seen the pictures, which would you rather be doing: spending time at the pool or blogging?.......That's what I thought.

Father's Day Spa Therapy

2009-06-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a little late on the Father's Day post. I've been a little lax in updating my blog in general. It's hard to keep routine in the summer. Between volunteering for Vacation Bible School (which was exhausting) last week, going to the swimming pool almost every day, etc., etc., I just haven't found much time to blog. So, one week after the fact, here is my Father's Day post.

Erin decided it would be a good idea to give Daddy a spa treatment on Father's Day. She thought of all these ideas herself. I have no idea where some of this stuff came from, but here it is.

Father's Day Spa Treatment

Step by Step

By Erin

Step 1: Cool Daddy's head with a nice baby wipe and feed him some grapes.

Step 2: Put toe sponges between Daddy's toes (a therapy we used to do to Garrett to improve coordination).

Step 3: Massage Daddy's hands and feet with nice smelling lotion, then wipe clean with a baby wipe. Notice the stuffed animal in Daddy's arms. Also part of the spa treatment.

Step 5: Give Daddy a nice shoulder massage.

There you have it. If you follow these steps, this spa therapy is guaranteed to give your father much more joy and relaxation than the most expensive treatment at a real spa.

Cheap Summer Fun

2009-06-13T12:48:00.001-05:00

Summer is here and we have been exploring new and exciting (and cheap!) ways to have fun. This activity is about as cheap as it gets and both kids had a lot of fun with it. We made "kites" out of plastic shopping bags. We just tied some fishing line (but I'm sure any string will do) around the handles and ran around the back yard. There was some wind that day, so the kites flew pretty well, but when the wind was calm, the kids made their own wind by running.

Erin pretended her kite was a circus performer and made it do "tricks." She would order it to "Go up," "Fly in a circle," and "Come back." It was quite amusing.

I also invested $9 in a Slip-N-Slide. That's about the most fun you can have in the back yard. Garrett spent most of his time playing in the water that jetted up through the holes.

Erin spent her time slippin' and slidin'.

First day of swim class

2009-06-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

Erin had her first swim class today. She will go once a week almost all summer. She was so excited she has been asking "How many more days until swim class?" for weeks. Here she is waiting for swim class to begin.

And here she is in the water with the instructor.

This is a beginning class. There are two other kids in the class in addition to Erin. The goal of the class is to be able to put your face in the water and swim 10 feet using the freestyle stroke. At the end of the first class, the instructor said that all three kids have already mastered

several of the class goals, so they may learn a few more skills beyond beginners. That would be great.

After the swim class, we went to a nearby bouncy house play area. The kids wore themselves out on all the bouncy houses.

It was a really fun day.

How Quickly they Grow

2009-06-07T20:43:00.000-05:00

In the blink of an eye, the first school year for both kids is over. Here was Erin on the first day of Kindergarten, all excited to start school.

And here is Erin on the last day of school, now able to read and write and has a group of friends all her own (not Mom and Dad's friends' kids).

This was Garrett on his first day of preschool.

Notice how nervous he looks. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but he knew something was different and he wasn't sure if he was going to like it. This is Garrett on the last week of school.

All happy and relaxed and loving life. What a difference a school year makes. And even more new adventures in learning will await them next school year.

Sad Last Day of School

2009-06-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

Most kids are happy to have summer vacation, but not Erin. She loved her Kindergarten friends and teacher. It was a safe, familiar environment and she enjoyed going to school every day. She's a bit apprehensive about going to first grade and has told her Kindergarten teacher that she doesn't want to graduate from Kindergarten.
Wednesday was the last day of school. There was an award ceremony where Erin earned the Reading Olympics Gold Medal, Superstar Math Award, Academic Achievement Award, and a Commended Attendance Award (I think she missed one day). She is very proud of all her awards. She also brought home a memory book that she has been working on all year. It's a collection of pictures from various events throughout the school year that the kids pasted onto construction paper, then the teacher laminated them to preserve them forever. It was a great keepsake. After the award ceremony, Erin said goodbye to all her friends. Here are some pictures from her last day.

Erin and Shannon looking at their memory books.

And here she is with her beloved teacher, Mrs. Wilsie. Notice the necklace and earrings Mrs. Wilsie is wearing. That was Erin's teacher gift to her.

After Erin left school and got home, it took about 30 minutes before it really sank in that Kindergarten was over. Erin started crying and whaling that she missed her friends. We looked at her memory book together so she could remember the good times, but that just made her cry more. We played the DVD the teacher sent home of all the pictures from the school year. Erin just sobbed and sobbed about how she didn't want Kindergarten to end. After some good tears and talking about her classmates, she calmed down and was able to accept that play dates with her friends during the summer would be good enough.

Some kids jump for joy at the last day of school. My Erin bawled her eyes out.

Zoo Field Trip at Last

2009-05-28T20:09:00.000-05:00

Garrett's field trip to the zoo that was cancelled a few weeks ago because of the swine flu was rescheduled for today. I went with him and his classmates and we had a great time. We rode in a big bus and saw lots of cool animals. Here are some highlights.

We got to feed parakeets with bird seed on a stick.

And there were some barnyard animals to pet.

This is how Garrett psychs out a goat:

Garrett: "Look over there!"

Goat: "Where?"

Garrett: "Ha Ha!! Made you look."

Goat: "That's not fuh-uh-uh-uh-uh-ny."

Sometimes, it was hard to tell who was observing whom. This flamingo stared at us almost as long as we stared at him.

Then there was the non-animal fun, like riding on the carousel.

And getting water sprayed on him from a water tank.

And this is one of my favorite Garrett pictures ever. I took it outside the orangutan exhibit. It looks like a fake background, but it's not. There is no glass divider between Garrett and the exhibit. The lighting just makes it look surreal.

I am so glad we got to have our field trip to the zoo. It isn't often that Garrett and I get to do something by ourselves. It was a great Mommy/Son bonding experience.

She had a Field Day

2009-05-27T13:03:00.001-05:00

Erin's school had field day last week. It was a lot of fun watching the kids run around and be physically active, something they don't get enough of these days. Here are some pictures from the games.

A good time was had by all!!

She's Leaving Home, Bye-Bye

2009-05-18T21:05:00.000-05:00

Erin got very angry with me Sunday. I was enjoying a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon when Erin insisted that I take her to the store to spend her birthday money. I was in no mood to change my relaxed Sunday afternoon into an afternoon of shopping, so I told her "No." She through a huge fit, so I sent her to her room. Two minutes into her six minute time out, she comes downstairs with her sleeping bag in its duffel bag and announces that she is moving out of the house. I reminded her that her time out wasn't done and she couldn't move out until she completed her time out. She reluctantly went back upstairs. When the timer went off, I went upstairs to talk things over, only to find her struggling to tie her clothes into a bundle using a large cloth. I helped her tie her bundle, and even tied the bundle onto a toy broom, making a hobo stick. During her time out, she had also taken her sleeping bag out of the duffel bag and packed other things she would need to move out. As Erin was walking downstairs, I told her I wanted one last picture of her before she moved out. Her smile magically appeared when I got the camera out.

When she got downstairs, the conversation went something like this:

Mom: "Where are you moving to."

Erin: "Shannon's house." (her best friend) "Can you drive me there?"

Mom: "No. If you're moving out, you have to get there yourself."

Erin: "Daddy and Garrett are moving with me. Daddy, let's go to Shannon's."

Dad: "Where am I going to sleep at Shannon's?

Erin: "We can take the couch."

Mom: "The couch won't fit in the car."

Dad: "Besides, we won't be able to read your Junie B. Jones book at Shannon's."

Erin: "Okay, I'll stay home until we finish the Junie B. Jones book, then I'll move out."

The next day, I opened Erin's duffel bag to see what she packed to "move out." This is what she had:

She was going to take a bunch of books, stuffed animals, and the music box she got for her birthday, the same one that she cried about from this post.
P.S. Sorry I haven't been posting much. The neighborhood pool just opened and the weather has been nice, so we've been spending a lot of time outside and at the pool.

Homemade Mother's Day Gift

2009-05-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

Homemade Mother's Day gifts are the best kind. Anything made by little hands is always treasured. This is what Erin made for me for Mother's Day at school. It's a flat rock painted to look like a ladybug.

She even made her own wrapping paper.

She was supposed to wait until tomorrow to give this to me, but she was so excited about her gift that she couldn't wait, so she gave it to me today. Together we decided on the perfect place to put the ladybug, under the tree in the front yard. It looks fabulous!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!!

Swine Flu Blown Way Out of Proportion

2009-05-07T16:14:00.000-05:00

Allow me to vent my frustration over the exacerbating hysteria over swine flu. Don't get me wrong, at the beginning I was all in favor of the CDC's recommendations to close schools and cancel activities to prevent a larger outbreak. Read this post I wrote last week about Garrett's field trip being cancelled. I was totally cool with it. And I was also supportive of the CDC's new recommendation to not cancel school since swine flu does not appear to be any more dangerous than the seasonal flu.

But I found out the hard way today that there is a new policy in place at Garrett's school (and district), because of the swine flu hysteria, that requires any child that has been sick for any reason to have a doctor's note to come back to school. Garrett spiked a fever yesterday of 102. He had been having diarrhea for the past 24 hours but that is now over. So this morning, I called the school and reported Garrett sick. No problem, right? I just have to wait until he is fever free for 24 hours (and diarrhea free, which he seems to be now), and he'd be back at school. But nooooooo!! The school nurse called me this morning and informed me that Garrett needs a doctor's note to come back. The doctor has to certify that he doesn't have swine flu. Last time I checked, swine flu included respiratory symptoms, which Garrett does not have. In fact, I called the nurse at Garrett's pediatrician yesterday just to make sure his symptoms did not sound like swine flu. She assured me that just a fever does not swine flu make.

Now, I had no intention of taking Garrett to the doctor for just a fever and a slight case of diarrhea. A little Tylenol and a bland diet and he should be good as new in a couple days. But common sense has completely taken a back seat to hysteria, and now I have to drag a sick kid half way across town and possibly expose him to swine flu at the doctor's office, just to prove that he doesn't have swine flu. It makes no sense at all.

This picture is a good metaphor for what I think of the swine flu hysteria now.

Swine flu is a real entity that is so full of hot air that is has been blown completely out of proportion.

I'll let you know how the doctor's appointment goes tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Wordless Wednesday - My little monkey

2009-05-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

Bubble Art

2009-05-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

We really enjoy making bubble paintings at our house. It's a very simple and fun craft to make as long as the kids are old enough to understand that you blow OUT with the straw, not suck IN. You'll see what I mean in a minute. All you need is water based paint, dish soap, straws, small bowls and paper (card stock works well too). Pour some paint into a small bowl, add some water and some dish soap. You can add more or less water depending on how bright you want the paint. Just make sure there's enough water and soap to make bubbles. Stir paint/water/soap mixture well, then insert straw and start blowing bubbles until you have a big mound of bubbles coming out the top, something like this.

Make sure you have newspaper or something to protect the table so you don't have a mess.

Once you get a big mound of bubbles, lay the paper on the bubbles. The bubble pattern will transfer onto the paper. Some of the smaller bubbles will stick to the paper, and that's okay. They will pop and leave a slightly darker color spot. Repeat this process until you have covered the entire paper. You can use several different colors on one paper. The end product will look something like this.

The colors didn't turn out very bright in this picture, but it looks better in real life. Once these creations dry, you can cut out shapes and glue them onto construction paper, or use them in all kinds of paper crafts (scrapbooking, card making, etc.). They're a lot of fun to make, especially the blowing bubbles part.

Here is my expert bubble artist at work.

Notice the newspaper protecting the table top.

Let me stress again the importance of blowing OUT, not sucking IN. I did this craft at church with a group of 3-5 year olds. One little boy didn't listen to the instructions. When he got his paint/water/soap mixture, he promptly took a big drink and got a big mouthful of soapy water. The poor kid probably cried for ten minutes and refused to complete his project.

No Zoo because of Swine Flu

2009-04-30T13:11:00.000-05:00

Don't worry. Non of us has swine flu, nor do we know anybody that has it. But our school system is taking steps to prevent a swine flu outbreak because there have been confirmed cases of swine flu in the Fort Worth school district.

Garrett was supposed to take a field trip with his preschool classmates to the Fort Worth Zoo tomorrow, and I was going to chaperon. We found out today that this and all field trips in the school district are cancelled until further notice. I am very disappointed about this because I was looking forward to taking pictures of all the kiddos looking at the animals at the zoo with their looks of wonder and amazement. Since Garrett can't really tell me much about what he does at school, this would have been a good time to see how he interacts with them. I suspect Ava is his favorite because that's who he talks about the most. Our conversations go like this:

Me: "Did you play with your friends at school today?"
Garrett nods his head.
Me: "Who did you play with?"
Garrett: "Ava."
Me: "Who else?"
Garrett: "Lana."
Me: "Who else?"
Garrett: "Adam." (Adam hasn't gone to his school since before Christmas.)

As you can see, Garrett is less than forthcoming (by not forthcoming I mean "not able") when it comes to telling me about what he does at school, so I was looking forward to seeing him in action. I have gone to his classroom a few times, but my presence there is more disrupting than helpful, so I don't go often.

Although I am disappointed about not going to the zoo tomorrow, I agree with the school district's decision. As I said above, Fort Worth school district has one confirmed case and 3 or 4 suspected cases, so they shut down the entire school district until May 8 at the earliest. The dividing line between our school district and Fort Worth school district is less than 5 miles away, so that's pretty close to home. There have also been several confirmed cases in Dallas and a few other surrounding cities. I would rather everyone stay home for a week or so than have Dallas/Fort Worth look like Mexico City does now, a ghost town. Even though we haven't seen a lot of cases yet, the swine flu has brought one of the largest cities in the world to its knees, and that's nothing to sneeze at (pun intended). People here are concerned about a major flu outbreak. There is a large Mexican/American population and a lot of travel back and forth to Mexico, so chances are good that we will see more cases.

I went to several drug stores today to get surgical masks for me and Garrett. He has a doctor's appointment tomorrow with the neurologist. Even though the neurologist won't be treating sick patients, per se, his office is in the professional building with a catwalk to Children's Hospital. That sounds like a high risk place to me, so I thought I'd get some surgical masks. But, of course, they were sold out everywhere. A worker at Walgreen's told me that even painter's masks at Home Depot or Lowe's were sold out. I'll call the Dr.'s office tomorrow and see if they recommend we come or not. I've already lined up child care for Erin and would really like to get this appointment over with. Garrett only goes once a year to make sure he is progressing in his development and not falling farther behind.

Our plans for this weekend are to stay home and avoid contact with other people until the swine flu scare is over. It may seem like fear mongering to some people, but what would you say if we didn't take precautions and it turned out to be a major pandemic with thousands dying. It's not worth the risk.

Wordless Wednesday - The artist intently studies his subject

2009-04-29T08:55:00.000-05:00

Join Wordless Wednesday or see other entries at 5 minutes for mom, mom of 3 girls, and the not so blog blog, and the mud bug

Discipline at the Duke's

2009-04-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

Discipline has been a struggle lately with Erin. At 6 years old, for whatever reason, she has decided that she doesn't want to mind anymore. She thinks she can do anything she wants and nobody can stop her. Until just recently, her main punishment for misbehaving was being sent to her room, and that worked well enough. But not anymore. I had to come up with a new plan, what I call "Erin's Behavior Management Plan" or EBMP. I can't take credit for inventing this system. It's a combination of Supernanny techniques and things I learned as a substitute teacher.

Here's how it works. I took a poster board and divided Erin's behaviors into 3 categories: Required, Points, and Demerits. Required are things she has to do in order to get her reward. Points are good behaviors. Demerits are bad behaviors. The poster board looks like this:

I got some play jewels at the store and assigned the "star" for Required tasks, the "circle" for Points and the "square" for Demerits. Every time she completes a required task, she gets a star put into a glass jar. A circle goes in for each good act (Point), and a square goes in for each demerit. Twice a day we count up her stars, circles and squares. If she gets all three stars, and five NET circles (net = circles minus squares), she gets her reward: TV time, computer time or Leapster time. If she doesn't get five net circles or all three stars, she doesn't get to do those things.

We've been using this technique for about two days now and it seems to be working. There is less yelling on my part and less arguing on Erin's part. Erin is at least trying to monitor her behavior, i.e. not yelling as much or disobeying as much. I think this system has done a couple things. First, it has taken the personal confrontation out of discipline. Instead of her acting up and my getting after her, which became a "me vs. you" mentality, my reaction has become a very simple "You're getting a square for that" response and we move on. Secondly, since I give her circles for all her good behavior, I am focusing much more on the good things she does and encouraging her to do more good things, like saying "You'll get a circle if you help me with this task." She is much more cooperative and is very motivated to earn circles. I'm not saying that this method has instantaneously turned my little darling into the perfect angel, but I think it has helped. And I expect I will have to tweak it from time to time so that she doesn't learn how to "game the system" or just do the minimum to get by.

Do you have any discipline techniques that work well for your family?

Roller Girl

2009-04-24T13:15:00.000-05:00

Erin got a pair of roller skates for her birthday (thank you, Darla!!), something she'd been asking for. Roller skating looks a lot easier than it is. I remember learning to roller skate at the local roller rink when I was about her age. My learning process consisted of hanging on to the hand rail and pulling myself along the perimeter of the rink. If I lost my balance, I would just hang on to the hand rail. Erin is learning on our back patio, which has no hand rails, so Mommy and Daddy are her substitute hand rails. Her she is right after she got her skates on.

And Daddy helping her take her first tentative steps.....

Now Erin tries it on her own.....

But takes her first of many spills.....

Before she finally got the hang of it.

Honestly, she didn't get the hang of it. She still doesn't have the hang of it. I just like happy endings. And this picture makes it look like she's really skating.

Wordless Wednesday - Who are you?

2009-04-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

Join Wordless Wednesday at Mom of Three Girls and 5 minutes for mom

Party at the Park, Erin's 6th birthday party

2009-04-21T21:29:00.000-05:00

I decided to save a little money this year and have Erin's 6th birthday party at a local park instead of renting a bounce house room or Chuck E. Cheese. I rented the pavilion, then went to Party City and spent a small fortune on paper plates, table covers, etc. So much for saving lots of money. Invitations went out and we were all very excited, until the weather forecast predicted rain on party day. The rain came right on schedule on Friday and lingered all day. Since the rain was supposed to continue into Saturday, I ran to WalMart and got a bunch of games we could play under the pavilion: Pin the Tale on the Donkey, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, etc. But the weathermen were wrong (no! really!!) and it didn't rain on Saturday. Granted, it was cloudy and muggy during most of the party, and there was a little mud in the park, but overall the party went off as planned. The kids played at the park, blew bubbles on the basketball court.They painted sun catchers.

Notice the pinata in the background, hanging from the tree. We had pinata issues.

They ate pizza.

The cake was "Littlest Pet Shop." They were out of Hannah Montana, which was the theme of her party.

And Erin blew out 6 candles. I can't believe she's 6! Time really flies.The pinata was a bit of a fiasco. There is a plastic loop that comes out of the top of the pinata. You string the pinata up through that loop, which I did. Erin was the first to hit the pinata, and after two whacks, the whole pinata, intact, falls to the ground. The plastic loop could not support the weight of the pinata, so I just tore the pinata open with my hands and scattered the candy all over the ground. The kids still had fun grabbing the candy.

Then Jared, Gary's nephew was nice enough to climb the tree to cut the rope down.

After a lot of fun, food, cake and candy, it was time to go home. Erin decided to open her presents at home so that she would have more time to play with her friends. I thought that was a great idea!!

By the end of the party, the sky had cleared and the sun was shinning brightly. It turned out to be a really fun party. Happy 6th birthday, Erin!!

Easter Wrap-up Post

2009-04-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

Things have been pretty hectic around here this week. Erin's birthday party is tomorrow (Sat.), and I am getting everything prepared for that. It will be at a pavilion at a park near here and it's supposed to rain, so I am getting some games that we can play under the pavilion and trying to plan for the worst. I just wanted to post about our Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny came bright and early and left some candy and gifts.

Later that morning, we went to Smithfield United Methodist. They always have a beautiful, moving and LOUD Easter Service. The choir was accompanied by the Hand Bell Choir, a four piece brass band, timpani drums and the organ. It was a joyful celebration of Jesus' Resurrection. I always get a lump in my throat when the congregation sings "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" accompanied by all those instruments. Our celebration could probably be heard for miles.

Wordless Wednesday - Getting Dizzy

2009-04-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

Easter Weekend 2009

2009-04-14T20:33:00.000-05:00

We had a very busy and meaningful Easter weekend. Good Friday evening was spent at church with a beautiful and appropriately somber musical presentation by the choir, accompanied by violins, an oboe and the organ. It told the story of Jesus' crucifixion through songs and Bible passages. It was a very moving event. The Hand Bell Choir played a wonderful arrangement of "Were You There?" as we accompanied a flute soloist. I will post video on the Alliance United Methodist Hand Bell Choir blog soon.

We spent Saturday morning at a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt organized by Smithfield United Methodist Church. Both kids got plenty of Easter eggs.

I couldn't get any pictures of Garrett gathering Easter eggs because I was too busy chasing him around the field. He was not interested in hunting for eggs at all! He saw the big open field and just wanted to run. Even thought the field was big, it was not fenced in and Garrett could easily run into the street if I let him get too far away from me. So I spent my Easter egg hunting time chasing Garrett and trying to convince him that picking up plastic eggs out of the grass was more fun that running in an open field. He remained unconvinced and consequently only gathered a couple eggs. Oh well. The Easter Bunny brought plenty more on Easter morning.

There was a bounce house there that both kids thoroughly enjoyed.

But sometimes, examining the floor of the bounce house is more fun than actually bouncing.

Both kids got to see the Easter Bunny. Erin had no problem sitting on his lap and posing for pictures.

Garrett was a little shy of the Easter Bunny, but showed him the boo-boo he got at the playground.

By the end of the morning we were pretty tired, but had a great time. Here is Erin relaxing after lunch at McDonald's.

Thank you to the United Methodist Women of Smithfield United Methodist Church for putting on such a fun Easter egg hunt. We had a blast!

Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T23:34:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone had a happy Easter. I just want to post a couple quick pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits. We had a very fun and meaningful Easter weekend. I will post more details later, but here are kiddos in their new Easter outfits. Thank you Mamaw (Gary's mom) for the adorable outfits.

The Totes are here!

2009-04-08T20:11:00.000-05:00

I was the lucky winner of a giveaway at Hoosier Homemade. My prize came in the mail today. It is these two adorable cloth totes that my daughter is modeling. Liz, at Hoosier Homemade, makes these totes and sells them on Etsy. Click here for a link to her Etsy site.

And here's a close up shot.

Erin immediately went for the pink cupcake one, but definitely saw possibilities in the "bug" one as well. Being the bag lady that she is, she found the perfect furry friend to put in each tote.

Notice the coordinating lining inside each bag. These totes are expertly handcrafted and the perfect size for a child to carry around. They make a great gift bag. Look for them to reappear on Easter Sunday right next to the kid's Easter baskets. (I had to confiscate them from my daughter so that I can fill them with goodies for Easter). And don't forget to visit Liz at Hoosier Homemade to look at all her totes.

Thank you, Liz, for the adorable totes. Erin and I love them!

Wednesday's Walk...Easter 2005

2009-04-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

If you want to participate in Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane, click on the button above to visit Lynette Kraft's blog. You can link your memory post there or view others who have posted their favorite memories.

Since it's almost Easter, I'm doing Easter memories. Last week I wrote about Easter 2004 when Erin was about 1 year old. Click here to read it if you haven't seen it yet. See how she's changed from a one year old to a two year old.

Erin had her first Easter Egg hunt at church in 2005 and she just loved it, even though a lot of the kids were older and could find the eggs faster.

And here's all the candy she could fit into her little hands from the Easter egg hunt. She was very proud of herself.And of course, the Easter Bunny came to leave her things in her Easter basket on Easter morning.
This year, she was old enough to open the plastic eggs by herself.

Here she is again carrying as much candy as she can. Seems to be a common theme. She must have been going through a "How much stuff can I carry at one time?" phase.

Erin's Birthday a.k.a. The Dreaded Music Box

2009-04-04T21:02:00.000-05:00

Before I get to Erin's actual birthday, let me put things into context. This will help you understand what comes later. Erin went to a friend's birthday party Friday night. It was a mock sleepover that ended at 9:30, so Erin was up past her bedtime even for a weekend. Here she is in her jammies, carrying her pillow and stuffed animal to the mock sleepover.

She had a great time but was grumpy the next day due to lack of sleep. She got to open a couple presents today, since it's her actual birthday. The rest have to wait until her birthday party in a couple weeks. She was all smiles in anticipation of opening presents.

Inside bag number one: Five "Junie B. Jones" books. Big smiles!!

Now, what could be in bag number two? Could it be a doll? A stuffed animal? Jewelry? Make-up? Drum roll please..........

A music box. This was not something Erin had considered and her reaction showed it.

A little more background: Erin has been playing with one of my music boxes for several weeks and loves it. She has been asking Daddy for a music box for a week, so this music box didn't come from nowhere. She said she wanted one. Anyway, after she had a few minutes to settle down and think about things, she decided to give the music box another chance.

Now, the inside of the music box looks like this, with gum and a toy cell phone:

Erin has always been a big fan of boxes and purses, places for her to store and carry around her treasures. The actual definition of "treasure" is still up in the air, but right now gum and a toy cell phone have the privilege of residing in the music box until she finds new treasures.

Happy sixth birthday, Erin!!

The Botanical Gardens........Again!

2009-04-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

I love taking my kids places and giving them the opportunity to appreciate things they don't see or experience every day. That's one reason I took them to the Botanical Gardens a couple weeks ago. Read about it here. But when I take the kids, especially when I'm by myself, I don't get to appreciate some aspects of a particular place, like peace, serenity, taking pictures, not having to worry about a certain 3 year old jumping into a fountain. So a couple days ago when I had to run an errand down by the Botanical Gardens (while the kids were at school), I decided to take advantage and visit the Botanical Gardens all by myself.

It was about 8:30 in the morning and the Gardens were mostly empty except for the gardeners putting in new spring flowers. I had the most relaxing time and got some neat pictures.

The tulips were in full bloom.

And the pink roses were beautiful. They still had dew on the leaves.

The forest was very peaceful and I could hear birds singing everywhere. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of one.

The ducks must have been wild, because they didn't come up and beg for food like the ducks at the park. I had a hard time getting a good picture of them.

It was a wonderful little escape from my hectic life.

Easter 2004

2009-04-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

If you would like to participate in Wednesday's walk down memory lane or read other posts about memories, click on the button above.

Easter 2004 was such a joy. Erin was only one year old, so she willingly wore whatever I put on her. Her mamaw bought her this beautiful Easter dress.

She couldn't quite walk yet, so Daddy had to hold her hand to model the dress. She loved the ribbons that dangled down the front of the dress.

She even learned to use the remote on that day. (Ha! She still can't use the remote. I won't teach her).

The Easter Bunny must have come while we were at church, because when we got home, there was an Easter basket for Erin. She didn't like the "grass" and couldn't figure out how to open the plastic eggs.

But she loved the little pink bunny that she got in her Easter basket.

And this is one of my favorite Erin/Mommy pictures ever.

Nature's fury and beauty

2009-03-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

We got an unexpected thunderstorm last night a little after 10:00 pm. On the 6:00 o'clock news, the weatherman said that there might be some rain (no storms) well to the east of us around 2:00 am. So he was wrong on every count. I didn't even realize a storm was coming until I took the dog out for a walk around 10:00 and saw the western horizon light up with lightening. Since I didn't hear any thunder, I figured it was safe to walk the dog, and then stand outside and take some pictures of the lightening. Here are the best shots I got.

We also got golf ball size hail. Some areas not too far away got baseball size hail.

Erin asked if I caught these hail stones as they were falling from the sky. No, I'm not that brave, or dumb. I collected them off the ground after the storm passed. Although standing in an electrical storm to take pictures probably isn't much smarter.

I got this picture this morning as I was taking Erin to school. It's the last of the storm clouds moving out and the sun starting to break through.

Both kids were asleep when the hail storm hit. Garrett woke up screaming at the first sound of hail hitting the roof (it was LOUD). Erin slept through the whole thing. She is deathly afraid of thunder and will wake up to even distant thunder, but this storm didn't have very loud thunder, so she slept right through it.

Two toys, tons of fun

2009-03-29T20:28:00.001-05:00

We had a pretty low key weekend, just the way I like it. Next weekend we will have two birthday parties and an Easter egg hunt, but this weekend we just hung out at home and played. My kids have about a million toys, but only play with a few of them. And that's fine with me. I think it promotes creativity to let them make up their own games. "Boredom is the mother of invention." Isn't that how the saying goes? Ha!! So we had a Monster Truck Jam at my house this weekend. A dump truck loaded down with at least 30 pounds was slammed into every surface imaginable.

And then we tried to think of as many games as possible to play with a Hannah Montana bean bag. I started out taking cute pictures.

Then I decided to get some action shots of Erin jumping on the bean bag. I've put them in order. If you scroll down really fast, it will look like she's moving in stop motion. Meet me at the bottom and let me know if it looks like she's really moving. Start scrolling................NOW!

Did it look like stop-motion? No? Just a bunch of blurry pictures of a kid flying through the air, huh? Well, we had a lot of fun making this little sequence. Disclaimer: No children or bean bags were hurt during the taking of these pictures.

But we weren't quite done with the bean bag, yet. We used it as the circle center to play "Duck, Duck, Goose." I couldn't take pictures and play at the same time, so when we were done, I made Erin pretend to play Duck, Duck, Goose so that I could take some pictures. At first it's not obvious.......

.....that she is not diggin' this picture taking thing any more.

(Check out Garrett doing a back bend behind the bean bag)

Everything I need to know, I learned on a Blog

2009-03-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

If you scroll down to the previous post, you'll see some ideas that I got from blogs and actually tried them out. Well, here's another great idea that was a BIG hit with my family. They are called "Poke Cupcakes." Basically you make cupcakes, poke holes in them and pour jello in the holes. I got the idea from Liz at Hoosier Homemade. Click here for the recipe. Here's how mine turned out.

I think I need to pour more jello in next time, but you can still taste that extra punch of flavor that the jello adds. My cupcakes are not as elaborately decorated as Liz's, and I chalk that up to my helper. When you have an almost 6 year old that wants to help, you have to choose your cupcake decorations carefully. Erin really enjoyed poking the cupcakes with a fork, and then sprinkling them with colored crystals (not to mention eating some frosting and crystals, and sampling the finished product). I made 24 of these yesterday afternoon and I think there may be 10 left, so 14 cupcakes in less than 24 hours. That's a new record.

I am also very excited to be the winner of the giveaway at Hoosier Homemade; a tote bag!! Click here to see the totes she makes. She sells them on Etsy. When the prize arrives, I will post pictures. I can't wait. Thank You, Liz!

Ultimate Blog Party, 2009

2009-03-25T20:58:00.000-05:00

I had a great time at the Ultimate Blog Party and made lots of new bloggy friends. I had no idea there would be so many participants, but enjoyed seeing all the different types of blogs there are in cyberspace. I was looking for blogs much like my own, talking about family and daily life. But I wanted to add some international blogs so that I could get some insight into how families around the world live their lives. I also found a couple American families that live life very differently than I do, so I'm following them as well.

One of the first blogs I found was Brandy at http://american-mom-in-germany.blogspot.com/. Her husband got a job in Germany, so she and her two kids plus hubby all moved to Germany. Her party post was about recycling crayons. Click here to read the post. We did that project, and this is the result:

Notice the color variation in slightly different hues of the same color. And we just decided to mix red and white to see what would happen. My daughter and I had a lot of fun peeling off all those paper wrappers from the crayons, just one of those nice "spend time together just because" moments. We talked and laughed while we peeled and broke the crayons into pieces. Erin was very proud of her creations.

And coloring with "cupcake" crayons is way more fun than the stick shaped crayons, as evidenced in this picture.

Another wonderful blog I found was Mum-me athttp://ouraussiehalf-dozen.blogspot.com/. This family lives in Australia and I love reading all about her children's activities and their summer vacation to the beach (remember the seasons are reversed in Australia). Mum-me posted a great recipe for Carmel Slice that I had to try. Click here for the recipe. It turned out great as you can see from this picture.

I have also enjoyed reading The Norwegian Mom at http://myworld.mirielsverden.com/. Her toddler already knows how to ski!! Can you believe that?

Andrea from Mum's the Word at http://mumsandmore.blogspot.com/ is a lot of fun to read. She lives in Liverpool, England with her husband and kids. I can hear her British accent even through her blog, with words like "rubbish" and "binbags."

Of the American blogs that I found, my two favorites are Life on a Southern Farm and Our Simple Life. GAMamma from Life on a Southern Farm posts pictures of her farm animals and the hen houses they built, the chickens they are incubating, etc. It's some great insight into the farming lifestyle. Julia at Our Simple Life talks about and posts pictures of all the rural beauty in California, wild flowers, birds and bird houses, planting trees.

I met many other bloggers in cyberspace, some I liked, some not so much. The ones I chose to follow are on my sidebar. Feel free to visit them . They may become your bloggy friends, too.

Growing up too fast

2009-03-24T21:06:00.001-05:00

Garrett has decided that he's too big for the booster chair at the kitchen table. I loved keeping him in the booster chair because until recently, he couldn't get out by himself, so if I needed to keep him safe, I could put him in the booster chair and have him play with blocks or something. But he rebelled and, as of this past weekend, has refused to sit in the booster chair. I guess he looked around and decided that nobody else was sitting in a funny looking thing on their kitchen chair, so why should he? So here's my big man sitting like a big boy at the kitchen table. The only bad thing is that the table is about even with his chin, but if he doesn't mind, I don't either. I'm just not quite ready for my baby to grow up.

On a different note, some things are more fascinating than words can describe. This tractor was mowing the empty lots around our house, and Garrett watched every move it made.

In the picture below, he's probably thinking, "When I grow up, I want to drive one of those!!"

Routines and Ruts

2009-03-23T12:56:00.001-05:00

I think most kids are routine oriented. Consistency is very secure and comforting. When you are trying to figure out the world, too many surprises can overwhelm a young mind. I have always been a big proponent of a daily routine, and I, myself, am very routine oriented, too. But Garrett takes routine to a whole new level. Things have to be almost exactly the same everyday, or he gets upset. For example, Good Night Moon has to be read to him every nap time and every night or he starts screaming "Goonite Moooooooon!!!" We can read other books, too, but we have to read Good Night Moon.

When he gets home from school at 11:15, he has to listen to the CD with "Hokey Pokey" on it. I'm figuring out that one activity has to lead to another. I used to think that eating lunch triggered the CD, but now I see that coming home from school is the trigger. We were on Spring Break all last week and no Hokey Pokey music was required during lunch. What blissful peace and quiet I enjoyed during lunch. Today was the first day back to school, and when Garrett came home, the first thing out of his mouth was "Hokey Pokey."

Garrett's playtime is also very predictable. He has a limited number of toys that he plays with regularly, and he plays with each toy the exact same way each time. For example, this dump truck:

I bought that dump truck for Garrett on his second birthday, a year and a half ago. He loves to push the dump truck and feel the clicking sound the wheels make.

He has been playing with the truck the exact same way for a year and a half. Talk about a great value in a toy. How many toys do your kids play with from a year and a half ago?

Actually, Garrett likes any toy that he can push. I think it has to do with his Sensory Integration Disorder. Pushing something gives him a better sense of where his body is in space. Here he is pushing a toy vacuum cleaner. Too bad he can't push the real thing!

And here he is pushing a toy lawnmower. I'm sure Daddy would love for him to push the real thing, too.

This past Christmas, Erin got a Hannah Montana guitar from her cousin. She played with it for a few weeks and then moved on. Well, Garrett got a hold of that guitar and made it his very own. The guitar has buttons on the front that play Hannah Montana songs when you push them. And Garrett loves toys where you push a button and music comes out. But this guitar also has an On/Off switch on the back. If the switch is in the off position, the buttons won't work. This concept is completely amazing to Garrett. Here is Garrett pushing some buttons on the guitar.

When Garrett's playing this game, the conversation goes something like this:

Garrett pushes buttons, "Working."

Garrett turns guitar over and turns the switch to off.

Garrett turns guitar back over, pushes buttons (no music comes out), "Broken."

Mommy, "The guitar is broken, go throw it in the trash."

Garrett quickly turns guitar back over and sets switch to On, "Working!!!"

Mommy, "You fixed it."

Turn guitar back over and set to Off.

And the game continues like this for up to 15 minutes, over and over again.

His sister's Hannah Montana "MP3" player (What can I say? This Christmas was dubbed the Hannah Montana Christmas) has a similar on and off button that enables/disables the other buttons. Garrett is holding it in his hands.

The toy is "broken" and suddenly "fixed" or "working" with the click of one On/Off switch.

This is over 50% of his playtime. He has a few other games, but they're pretty similar to these I have described. I guess this is Garrett's way of feeling secure in the world, knowing that some things are very predictable, when the big bad world can be so unpredictable for a little guy.

Books, revisited

2009-03-21T20:43:00.000-05:00

We moved into this house last summer and I am 99% unpacked. We got the last few carloads of boxes out of storage in January and here they sit in my not yet furnished formal dining room, behind Garrett.

During Spring Break, Erin wanted to unpack boxes to see what kind of treasures we might uncover. We found lots of treasures like Mommy and Daddy's photo albums from our wedding and honeymoon in Santa Fe, NM and baby pictures of Erin and Garrett. But the most exciting treasure uncovered was a box of books that was "between kids" last spring when they were boxed up, books too young for Erin, but too sophisticated for Garrett. Well, Garrett is a year older now and more able to appreciate these books. And Erin hasn't seen them for a year, so they are like new books to her. (I linked the books I could find to Amazon.com if you want to buy them. I'm not receiving money for endorsing any of these books).

Some of our favorite rediscovered books are "What Makes a Rainbow" by Betty Schwartz, about a little bunny that discovers the colors of the rainbow by asking all his friends. As you turn each page, a color ribbon is added to the rainbow until it is complete at the end of the story.

The "Thank You God for..." series. Each books thanks God for family, friends, the animals, and the world we live in. They are very colorful and very simple for 1-2 year olds. You can tell that the edges are well worn on this book. It has been read a thousand times. (I couldn't find them new on Amazon.com. They must be out of print).

Here is Garrett reading one of the "Thank You God" books.

Another favorite is Jamberry. A boy and a bear rhyme their way through all the berries. I still have most of this book memorized, "One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry."

And Erin just loves this once hardcover collection of every fairy tale, nursery rhyme, fable, ever written. She's showing the story "Beauty and the Beast," one of her favorites.

Who knew that we would unpack a box of old books and spend an entire morning exploring and rediscovering them. Just goes to show you that if you can't buy new, stick it in a box for a year and it magically becomes new again.

Spring Staycation Part 2, The Botanical Gardens

2009-03-19T21:10:00.000-05:00

If you're visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party '09, welcome to my blog. I am a stay at home mom of two beautiful children ages 6 (almost) and 3 1/2. I love posting pictures of the places we visit or the funny things my kids do. There's never a dull moment in this house and you're invited to stick around and enjoy the fun.

Where I left off from Spring Staycation Part 1. (Staycation is when you stay home instead of going somewhere on vacation.) The kids and I took our train ride on the Forest Park Mini Train, but getting there was a major hassle because the entire city was trying to get to the Fort Worth Zoo for half price day (because everyone else is taking Staycations this year for Spring Break). So off we go to the Botanical Gardens. The flowers were really fabulous, but the kids thought the fountains were fascinating.

This was the first thing the kids ran to when we get to the Botanical Gardens.

And Garrett couldn't resist getting a little spray action from the gardener.

The tulips were in full bloom.

And I just loved this fountain.

Unfortunately, Garrett loved it even more, and kept trying to put his hands in the water. I think he would have jumped in if I wasn't holding his hand (or the collar of his shirt). In fact, I had a death grip on his hand while I was taking this picture. Some things are just too much for Garrett to resist.

And here is a beautiful flowering tree. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I've seen it in people's yards around here, so it's not some rare, exotic tree you find only at a botanical garden.

We only stayed about 30 minutes at the Botanical Gardens because we were starving. My restaurant plans had to be nixed because traffic was too heavy to get to any of them, and the Botanical Gardens restaurant was packed. All the Fort Worth Zoo people that were stuck in traffic decided to take a detour to the Botanical Gardens to let the traffic die down. So we just left, besides, I was tired of pulling both kids in the wagon. My arms were getting tired. But the kids really enjoyed the day. Erin's favorite part was riding the train. When I asked Garrett what his favorite part was, he smiled really big and said "Wagon!" If I had known that, we could have stayed at home and ridden the wagon through the neighborhood.

The Ultimate Blog Party

2009-03-19T20:43:00.000-05:00

Click on the link below to join the blog party. You will be able to find other bloggy friends and they will be able to find you. Click on the link to learn more. See you at the blog party!

Spring Staycation Part 1

2009-03-19T09:16:00.000-05:00

We didn't go out of town for Spring Break which is why I'm calling it our "Staycation." The plans for our staycation on Wed. were pretty straightforward. We were going into Fort Worth to ride a mini train, called the Forest Park Train and then go to the Botanical Gardens which are right across the street. It is important to note that the Fort Worth Zoo is about a mile down the road from our destinations, and Wednesday is half price day. Those details will be important later in the story. We load up and get on the road for our 30 minute drive to the train station at about 10:30 am. As soon as I got on the highway, a traffic jam. I waited it out 15 minutes then decided to bail and take back roads. The 30 minute drive just turned into 45 minutes. We get to within a mile of our destination and this was the view for the next 20 minutes.

After listening to "Are we there yet" and "Can't you drive any faster?" for 20 minutes, I had to take drastic action. You can't make it out in the picture, but there is a No Left Turn sign up ahead. Yep, you guessed it! I maneuvered into the left lane and took an illegal left turn to get out of traffic and get to the train station. Now, the way I figure it, that No Left Turn sign is designed to keep traffic flowing, but traffic wasn't flowing anyway, so I obeyed the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). The traffic jam was caused by everyone trying to get into half price day at the zoo. Almost all the school districts in the area are on Spring Break this week.

We finally get to the train depot, and the kids board the train.

It was a really cool open air train that goes about 20 miles per hour.

Parts of the track follow the Trinity River. We saw all kinds of interesting things on our train ride. These are turtles sunning themsleves on partially submerged tree branches.

And some water fowl, I don't think they are ducks. They look like some kind of crane.

This is the Fort Worth skyline.

And the beautiful Forest Park. It was a great train ride. The traffic woes were long forgotten by the time we finished the train ride.

Part 2 of our Staycation, the Botanical Gardens, coming soon.......

Fredericksburg TX Vacation 2004

2009-03-17T21:04:00.000-05:00

In July, 2004, my husband and 18 month old Erin and I went to a beautiful town in the hill country of Texas called Fredericksburg. It was founded by Germans a long time ago and still retains a lot of German charm. The boyhood home of Lyndon B. Johnson is near there, as is Luckenbach, TX, made famous by that country song back in the '70's. We stayed in a small cabin about 8 miles from Fredericksburg and had the most relaxing time. There are three cabins on like 20 acres of wooded land surrouonded by farms and a deer preserve across the road.

This is Gary and Erin enjoying the peace and quiet on the front porch of our cabin.

That little stool where Erin is resting her sippy cup brings back a lot of memories. At 18 months, Erin was saying 1-2 word phrases, but she could babble up a storm. During our entire weekend stay, she would climb up on that stool, point her finger in the air and and wave her hands emphatically, all while babbling incoherently for several minutes. Gary and I had no idea what she said, but she sure was adamant about whatever it was. We dubbed that stool the "soap box" and would say "There goes Erin getting up on her soap box again!" every time she got up there. I wish I had had a Babble-to-English dictionary so that I could translate her impassioned speeches.

This front porch looked out onto a cow pasture. An absolutely gorgeous view. You can't see them in the picture, but there were cows in this pasture.

Gary has this unusual talent where he can bellow just like a cow. When the cows were near the fence, Gary would bellow and all the cows would look up and take notice. I wonder if Gary's bellow sounded like a bull.

This is a wider view of the cabin and front porch.

And this is the inside of the cabin.

As I mentioned earlier, there was (is) a deer preserve on the other side of the road. The cabin operator had automatic deer feeders on the property that activated at dawn and dusk. I think the deer could hear the noise of the feeders and knew it was time to go get some free food. It was a great photo opportunity.

The picture below shows a mama deer and her two fawns. So cute!

Getting to know you and Handbells

2009-03-17T13:18:00.000-05:00

Wow! I want to thank Lynette Kraft for featuring me this week in her Getting to Know You segment. I've had lots of new traffic and many nice comments. If you want to learn more about Getting to Know you, click here. I hope ya'll come back and see me again, and I'll be out there visiting you, too.

If you like Hand Bell music, check out AUMCBells.blogspot.com. I am a member of this bell choir and help maintain the blog. See if you can recognize me in the videos.

Daddy's Girl

2009-03-16T13:17:00.000-05:00

When I was around 5 or 6, I was a big time Daddy's girl. I remember telling my dad that I wanted to go to K-Mart and buy a wedding ring. We bought everything at K-Mart, so why not a wedding ring? Erin is just like me in this regard. She is also a very big Daddy's girl. Daddy is perfect in every way and Erin would spend every waking moment with him if she could.

I think the Daddy-daughter bonding started when Erin was about one day old while we were still in the hospital. She was a bit fussy, and I couldn't get her quiet. Daddy asked if he could try to calm her down. He laid her on his chest and she went right to sleep.

From that point on, the bond has just gotten stronger. Laying down on Daddy to go to sleep worked really well, even after we got home from the hospital.

And here, they both look so happy to be together.

Daddy is just better than Mommy at some things, like Driver's Education.

Or consoling an angry toddler whose mama insists she wear the hood of her costume just for the pictures.

And as you can see from this picture, Daddy loves his daughter just as much as she loves him.

A Man on a Mission

2009-03-14T10:12:00.000-05:00

We obviously keep the house way too dark on cloudy mornings. So Garrett, resourceful little guy that he is, took it upon himself to turn on every light he could get to. He's a little bit vertically challenged, so he employed the help of a step stool. The most important light to turn on was the family room. He also flipped the switch to the ceiling fan to make sure it was in proper working order.

Now it's off to the formal dining room to turn the light on there.

Mission accomplished.Now it's off to another part of the house to turn on even more lights. You can just see the wheels turning in his head as he's doing this. He's learning how to turn lights on and off, which is an important cause and effect skill. He's also learning to use a step stool to reach high places. He's been using a step stool for a long time, but he's just now realizing that he can carry it around wherever he wants. Before, if no step stool was present, the item was out of reach and he would either ask (or yell) for me to get it, or he would give up and move on. I don't think he's quite figured out how to use the stool to get things on the kitchen counter or get into the bathroom drawers, but it won't be long 'till he does.

Over the River.....

2009-03-13T10:46:00.000-05:00

....and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go. I have very fond memories of visiting my grandparent's house. The one I remember most was the house on Silver Lake in Northern Indiana, where I'm from. I hope my kids have equally fond memories of visiting their grandparents, "Mamaw" and "Paw." Here they are in their backyard in the summer of 2003. Erin was just a baby.

Mamaw and Paw live out in the country, and by country I mean boondocks. It's a two hour drive from Fort Worth on the highway, and then another 30 minutes on county roads, back roads, and dirt roads to get to their house. Their closest neighbor is Uncle Donald (Paw's brother). He owns a goat farm about a quarter mile away from Mamaw and Paw's house.

Since they live so far out, there are a lot of interesting things to do that you don't get a chance to do in the city. Picking flowers in the spring is loads of fun at Mamaw and Paw's. Here is two year old Erin picking flowers for MaMaw.

The wildflowers are so beautiful in Texas in the spring. Wildflower season is right around the corner. April is the best month for bluebonnets.

Riding the John Deere is another treat, especially when Daddy lets you drive. Erin was about 1 in this picture.

The views are incredible. It seems like you can see forever.

And the sunsets are spectacular.

Yeah, there's nothing quite like going to your grandparent's house when you're a kid. It's the most beautiful place on earth.

Rain, Rain, Go Away! (NOT!!)

2009-03-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

The sun did not shine.....

It was too wet to play......

So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.......

Thank you Dr. Seuss for that lovely introduction to the rain, but I, for one, am not bemoaning the rain at all. Yeah, we may be stuck inside, and the kids may be driving me crazy because they can't get out and play, but we here in North Texas have been flirting with a drought for awhile now. We are just finishing up the driest winter on record. If it doesn't rain in the winter and spring around here, the ground gets parched and cracks. But even worse than that, the summer tends to be exceedingly hot when the ground is dry. Our summers are already bad enough, with 4 plus months of 95-105 degree temperatures every single day. If you get up at 6:00 am to walk the dog, it's already 85 degrees. But in drought years, the temperature is more like 100-110 day after day after day, with the low temperature more like 88.

So it has rained almost non stop for the last two days, and it's supposed to rain for the next two as well. Not only that, it's a cold rain. We'll be lucky to get to 40 degrees today. But I say bring it on!!

We'll make the best of it. Like play in the rain and hope like heck that somebody doesn't get their eye poked out with an umbrella wire.

And check out my little Morten Salt girl. "When it rains, it pours."

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

2009-03-11T13:06:00.000-05:00

Lynette Kraft has lots of great ideas for blogging. Check her out by either clicking on the "Wednesday's Walk" button on my side bar or by clicking the link to her blog, also on my side bar. Wednesday's walk is where you blog about a memory you have and want to share with others.

Take a look at these four beautiful women and darling child in the picture below.

You may be asking yourself: Who are these lovely ladies? Why are they at the beach? They are not walking, so how can this be a walk down memory lane? I will answer all these questions and more by the end of the story.

These lovely ladies are, from left to right: Mary Beth (me), Carol B., Carol D., Bianca (Jari's child) and Jari S. All four of us, along with 20 other students, spent our Junior year of college in Lima, Peru through the Study Abroad Program of Indiana University. We were in Lima from July 1983 to July 1984. Now don't start counting the years to see how old we are! This picture was taken in 1997 at Carol D.'s parent's beach house near St. Augustine Fl. We spent the New Year's holiday there as a mini-reunion of the Lima class of 83-84. Unfortunately, only the four of us could make it. Others had been invited, but for one reason or another were not able to come. But we four had a great time ringing in 1997 and remembering all the fun times from Lima, adventures to other South American countries during our stay, and just having a great time.

Back in 1997, I was still single. I hadn't even met my husband at that time. I worked in the IT department of a paging company called PageMart. Do people even carry pagers anymore? It was a totally different time in my life with very different priorities than now. The other person in the picture that I still keep in touch with, Carol D., (she sent me the photo) was living in California and single in 1997. She is now married, has a child and lives in Sweden. A lot can happen in 12 years.

This was a walk to remember within a walk to remember. I was looking back at a picture from 1997, thinking of how we all were back then. And the whole purpose of getting together in 1997 was to look back to 1983-4.

Profoundly Seth give-way

2009-03-09T21:44:00.000-05:00

The blog Profoundly Seth is giving away some very cool prizes to raise money for some great causes. Click "Profound Pictures"button on the right to check it out.

Garrett's Story Part 4 (Tickle Time)

2009-03-09T13:16:00.000-05:00

All kids love to be tickled, but for Garrett tickling is almost a requirement. He really craves tickling when he is sitting quietly in my lap, especially when I want to watch something important, like Oprah, or the news. I used to think that it was just him manipulating me to get some attention when I was least likely to give it, but now I think that he really does need it. Just a deep fingernail massage into a bony area sometimes does the trick. Like if I dig my fingernails into his scalp and move the skin around under my nails, he really enjoys that. Or a couple fingernails into the ribs and moving the skin around there is good, too. It's the kind of stimulation that sends chills down my spine, but Garrett is a sensory seeker, so for him, more is better. But you can never beat a good old fashioned tickle session. Here's Daddy tickling Garrett.

And here's Daddy tickling both Erin and Garrett.

When Garrett thinks he's going to be tickled or gets excited in any way, he draws his arms up to his neck and shrugs his shoulders. He kind of contracts in, very much like a young baby does when he stretches or gets tickled. This is another one of Garrett's quirks (like gagging himself) that nobody can explain.

A lesser version of the full arm/shoulder contraction is the fingers behind the ears contraction. When Garrett is just a little excited he will put his index fingers behind his ear lobes and push into his neck. Again, some kind of pleasurable sensation that only he can explain.

Pee Pee on the Potty!!!

2009-03-07T21:16:00.000-06:00

Garrett went pee pee on the potty for the first time today, not once but twice. The first time was just a dribble. I took off his diaper and sat him on the potty seat (that goes over the regular toilet seat) and told him to put his pee pee in the potty. He thought about it for a minute then pushed out a few dribbles. I haven't started potty training in earnest yet, just getting him used to the potty seat. But he may be more ready than I thought. He's been interested in watching all the rest of the family pee in the potty for a while, so I thought I'd give it a shot. He did great, but I'm not fooling myself. A few dribbles in the potty does not constitute a potty trained kid. Here he is showing me where his pee pee went.

I let him go without a diaper just to let him get used to being diaperless. When I was ready to put a diaper on him, I said, "Let's put your diaper on." To which he replied, "No, playin' wee wee." And he was "playin' wee wee" the whole time the diaper was off.

And then at bath time, I took off his clothes and put him on the potty seat, and then turned on the bath water. That caused a lot of pee pee to go into the potty. Of course, Garrett had to stick his hand in the urine stream to see what that felt like, something he tries to do when Daddy goes pee pee. But I didn't mind because Garrett got right into the bath, pee pee hand and all. Hopefully all will go just as well tomorrow on the potty training front.

Garrett's Story Part 3 (Sensory Perception)

2009-03-07T16:18:00.001-06:00

Garrett was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder when he was one year old. See Garrett's Story Part 1 and Garrett's Story Part 2 for background). He is a sensory seeker, which means that he needs more stimulation in certain senses to feel "normal." This causes him to engage in behaviors that I haven't noticed in other children.

Sense of Touch

He has always craved more sensation in his sense of touch, even when he was a baby. I remember when he was an infant, maybe 6 months old or so, if anyone was holding him he would feel around the top of your hand until he felt a vein or tendon. He would then push that tendon back and forth as hard as he could so that he could feel it moving under his finger. It could get quite painful because he would sometimes dig his fingernail into the tendon to get more sensation. Believe me, his fingernails got a regular clipping at that age. As he got older and got more coordination in his hands, he "graduated" to pinching a piece of skin from the back of my hand with his thumb and middle finger and scratching it with his index finger. He would often scratch an area raw and it would leave a scab. He would then look for a scab to pinch and scratch open. The backs of my hands would be covered in little scabs, some not healing for a month or so because he would scratch the scab off. Both of these behaviors were most common when he was tired or stressed. The pinching and digging in my hand seemed to relax him. There seemed to be nothing I could do to stop him. Moving my hands out of the way or covering them would only make him mad, and he would go to any lengths to get at my skin. He hasn't done this in several months now and I hope he's grown out of it, but I've learned from some of his other unusual behaviors that, just when it looks like he's outgrown a behavior, it comes back with a vengeance. I'm not really sure why.

I have learned through his OT and books to give Garrett extra sensory stimulation for his hands. We play with play dough, shaving cream (see previous post), sand, water, and whether I like it or not, food.

Gagging Himself

From the time Garrett was able to get his fingers down his throat, maybe at 10 or 11 months, he has stimulated his gag reflex, sometimes to the point of throwing up. I remember Erin went through a phase like this when she was 8 or 9 months old, but once she caused herself to throw up one time, she decided this game wasn't fun or pleasant, and quit doing it. Garrett, on the other hand, got some kind of enjoyment or sense of satisfaction out of this and continues to gag himself even now. He used to gag himself more when he was hungry, thirsty, or craving a pacifier, but sometimes the gagging seemed completely random. And it never failed when we were getting ready to go somewhere, everybody was bathed and smelling good, Garrett would gag himself and get vomit all down his shirt, and smell like puke. Then I'd have to change his clothes and give him a sponge bath to get the smell off. Now, he seems to be able to get a gagging sensation by just pushing the back of his tongue toward the back of his throat, but he still puts his fingers down his throat occasionally, although he hasn't caused himself to throw up in a long time. This is one behavior I can't wait to go away completely.

I don't like creating posts without pictures, so I've just chosen a couple random pictures of Garrett from when he was a baby. I don't have any pictures of him gagging himself or picking the scabs on my hands. Sorry. Both of these pictures were taken around Christmas 2005 when Garrett was about 3 months old.

I just love this picture of Garrett and Daddy asleep together. They look like two peas in a pod.

Blowin' in the Wind

2009-03-07T12:59:00.000-06:00

Spring in Texas can be beautiful with flowering trees, wild flowers, mild temperatures and everything turning green. But the wind is also at its height in the Spring. For the last week, we have had 20-30 mile per hour sustained winds with gusts of close to 40 mph. You feel like the wind is beating you up when you go outside. And forget about your hair. No matter what kind of hairspray or mousse you put in it, it will just get blown around.

But if you're a kid, the wind can be a lot of fun.

Even the biggest head scarf won't keep your hair in place in this wind.

So you may as well just let the wind blow things around. You can't control it, so just go with it.

FYI, the lovely t-shirt that Erin is wearing in these pictures was made and sent to her by her Grandma Collins.

Spring is Springing in Texas

2009-03-05T20:21:00.000-06:00

I hate to say "Spring has sprung" because we have had winter weather here as late as the second week in March. Case in point, we had four inches of snow on March 14 or so just last year. Here is Garrett enjoying the snow.

Notice how giant the snow flakes are. Texas snow is generally pretty wimpy, but this snow storm produced giant snow flakes, and four inches of snow is a lot for us. Of course, it warmed up the next day and melted away, but it sure was fun while it lasted. These pictures were taken in the front yard of the old house.

But this was a very mild winter with very little rain, so my guess is that spring is here to stay. The trees are flowering beautifully. Here is a Bradford Pear tree. They produce tons of beautiful white flowers and look like giant white snowballs when in full flower.

And this is a Redbud. Why they call it a Redbud, I have no idea. The flowers are definitely purple, not red. But it's a beautiful tree when it flowers.

And this is some flowering weed that I found in the fields around my house. I have no idea what it's called, and I'm sure it's a very undesirable weed, but I thought the flowers were pretty.

The area where these pictures were taken has been developed quite heavily in the last 5-10 years. Prior to that it was pasture land for grazing cattle or growing hay. Even though the land is mostly developed, you still see pockets of farm land. Check out this longhorn (the horns have been cut back).

First of all, he was nice enough to stop eating and pose for some pictures when he saw me coming with my camera. But if you look at this picture, it looks like it was taken out in the middle of nowhere, with not a house for miles around. In fact, this cow, and several of his friends live just a mile or so down the road from my house, surrounded by housing developments.

I hope Spring is here to stay and I can't wait until April, when all the wild flowers come out. The Bluebonnet fields are spectacular. I will be sure to share them with you when the flowers start blooming.

Garrett's Story Part 2 (Learning to walk)

2009-03-03T20:54:00.000-06:00

This is a continuation of Garrett's Story Part 1. See here if you haven't read part one yet.
At 13 months, Garrett started Occupational Therapy (OT) and Physical Therapy through ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). The OT and PT came to our house once a month, checked on Garrett's progress, and gave me exercises or activities to do with him daily to help him improve. His OT, Irene, was especially helpful. She diagnosed him with Sensory Integration Disorder, which is a catch all term for kids who don't process the input from their senses correctly. Click on this link for a more complete description of Sensory Integration Disorder. http://www.kid-power.org/sid.html

Garrett is a sensory seeker, who seeks additional stimulation like swinging, tickling, getting dizzy. His vestibular system was especially underdeveloped. The vestibular system is in the inner ear and controls balance, but also regulates how much pressure your muscles should apply to the ground to walk, where your body parts are in space, even some behavioral aspects like impulse control and reasoning. The therapy for stimulating Garrett's vestibular system was spinning him around in a laundry basket that was sitting on a lazy susan. Once he was good and dizzy (your eyes shift back and forth when you are dizzy), I would have him follow an object with his eyes from side to side, up and down, and far and near. Almost immediately after beginning this therapy, I began to notice a big difference in the way Garrett interacted with the world. Before, he was content to sit and watch everything happen. After just a few spin sessions, he started trying to reach for things, attempting to crawl, just generally more of a go-getter; trying to do things instead of just watching. In addition to the spinning, he did a lot of swinging at the park and I would throw him up in the air or spin him around, anything to get his inner ear moving around in space to help develop his sense of balance.

By 18 months he was crawling, and he was a power crawler. People used to comment on how fast that boy could crawl on all fours. He was trying to keep up with his older sister on all fours, while she was on two legs. By 21 months he was taking his first steps. Learning to walk was a very slow process for him and he continued to fall frequently for almost a full year after taking his first steps. At almost 3 and a half, he can now walk without falling and run well, but there are other coordination milestones he is behind in, like climbing stairs with alternating feet. I can see a difference in him when we go to McDonald's Playplace. Other kids his age have mastered a lot of the climbing skills required to play at McDonald's, where Garrett still struggles.

Here is Garrett at 23 months, fighting to keep his balance.

But he loses the fight and falls.

He used to love (and still does) pushing thing, especially if they are pretty heavy. I think holding on to something to push helps him keep his balance and the pushing increases his awareness of his body in space. Here he is pushing his sister, Erin. Of course, Erin loved being pushed.

He also used to love this rocking horse. More vestibular stimulation with the rocking motion. Ride 'em, Cowboy!!! Yeeee Haaaaa.

Getting to know you

2009-03-02T21:15:00.000-06:00

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/impickles/1153957_32934331-1.jpg"/>

Click on the link above and list your top 5 blogs. Lynnette Kraft is hosting a "Getting to know you" forum where you can learn about other people's blogs and get some additional readers on your own blog. Just follow the directions and happy blogging. I am going to post my top five blogs there.

Garrett's story Part 1

2009-03-01T13:36:00.000-06:00

I want to tell Garrett's story from birth to present for a couple reasons. First, he isn't getting much blog time. Secondly, since he has some special needs, his story may help others in a similar situation. Garrett has developmental delays which are not too severe, but worrisome enough to wonder if he will lead a completely independent life as an adult.

Garrett was born on Sept. 16, 2005. He weighed 7 lb. 11 oz. and was 18 inches long. He was conceived in the normal way, no fertility treatment, and was born after 38 weeks of a mostly uneventful pregnancy. Here he is right after birth.

His APGAR scores were normal, and we were thrilled to finally hold our beautiful baby boy after waiting 38 weeks. He was beautiful. Here he is after they cleaned him up a little. The scratches on his face are from his long fingernails in the womb. One of the first things I did after he was born was to cut his fingernails.

The only things we found unusual right after he was born was that he shivered a lot. I kept calling the nurse to tell her that he was cold, but she would take his temperature and say he wasn't cold, that the shivering was from an immature nervous system. I didn't think anything of it at the time since he seemed otherwise normal. The other unusual thing he did was suck a lot. As soon as I put him to my breast for the first time, he sucked for an hour and a half. Every time he would breast feed, he would suck for over an hour. The hospital discourages pacifiers because they want the baby to use that sucking to eat, but after one day I begged for a pacifier because Garrett was making me so sore with all that sucking. A stark contrast to his sister who would suck 10 or 15 minutes, max, and then go to sleep. She still eats like a bird.

We brought Garrett home after 2 days and we all adjusted to having a newborn in the house again. Here are Erin and Garrett. Garrett was a week or two old.

He still shivered sometimes, but that diminished over time. He also twitched a lot when he slept, so much so that it would wake him up. So I swaddled him for every nap and at night. It helped a lot. When he was about 4 months old, I tried to put him down without swaddling and he would wake up every time. I continued to swaddle him until he was at least 6 or 7 months old. He also wasn't rolling over at 4 or 5 months like his sister. He rolled over for the first time just days before his 6 month doctor's appointment. I spoke to the doctor about him not rolling over and she said to just wait and see. Some kids are just more laid back than others and don't hit all their milestones at exactly the same time. So we watched and waited.

Garrett wasn't able to sit up unassisted until he was about a year old, consequently he spent a lot of time in the johnny-jump-up and excersaucer so that he could look at the world from an upright position.

We noticed that he liked to spin himself around in the johnny-jump-up and make himself dizzy, but we really didn't know what to make of that. He also liked to roll around on the floor and make himself dizzy that way, too.

Finally, by the summer of 2006, when Garrett was about 10 months old, he was able to sit unassisted. It was a big milestone!!

Notice how the dark brown hair has given way to soft golden locks.

At his 12 month appointment, the pediatrician decided that it was time for Garrett to get some extra help with his development. She referred him to ECI, a government agency that provides services like Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy to children under three years old who qualify (to qualify, you must be at least 3 months behind on several milestones). Garrett qualified for PT and OT. The ECI website in Texas is http://www.dars.state.tx.us/ecis/

The pediatrician also referred him to a neurologist to see if there was something going on in his brain that was causing him to miss his milestones.

To be continued..................

Best Friends

2009-02-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

Erin's best friend, Shannon, spent the afternoon at our house yesterday. They had a lot of fun. It's always interesting to see how a new child adds a whole new dimension to the same old toys. Take, for example, Erin's "Creation Station." It is a box filled with construction paper, stickers, crayons, markers, tissue paper and old wrapping paper. Erin generally goes for the construction paper and crayons and draws, or she might get out the stickers and create a picture with stickers and drawings. Here is a pretty typical example of her work.

Well, Shannon sees the contents of the Creation Station, hones in on the tissue paper, and decides to design her own dress. A little tape and a lot of imagination, and wa-la, a beautiful princess dress. Notice the lovely dragonfly detail on the skirt.Erin, of course, couldn't be left behind. She created a dress of her own. Notice the three flower detail around the waist. Each girl has her own signature style.

And here they are together, ready to walk down the red carpet and answer the question, "Who are you wearing."
I made them each a tissue paper flower to go with their dresses.

And I love this picture of the two of them drawing together in a journal. You can tell by the look on their faces that they are having a good time.

Playing with Shaving Cream

2009-02-24T20:56:00.000-06:00

Playing with shaving cream is one of our favorite indoor activities. The kids feel like they're making a mess, but clean up is really easy because it's just soap. They actually smell better after playing with shaving cream than before. But there are some DO's and DON'Ts to shaving cream.

#1. DO take off your shirt before you start or you'll get shaving cream all over your sleeves.

#2. DON'T pick your nose if you have shaving cream on your hands or your nose will look like this.

#3. DO draw pretty pictures and words in your shaving cream.

#4. DON'T clap your hands or you'll get shaving cream everywhere, even in your hair.

#5. DO provide a Popsicle stick or other scraping device so that little hands don't become giant blobs of shaving cream.

And when you're all done playing, you might end up with a creation like this:

Playing nicely together??

2009-02-23T08:45:00.000-06:00

Here is a rare glimpse of Erin and Garrett playing nicely together. I don't want to give the impression that they fight all the time, they don't. But they don't play together all that much either. They usually do their own thing, mainly because of their age difference and difference in abilities and interests. But they look so cute when they do get together and play. In this clip, Erin is singing a lullaby that she made up herself, trying to get Garrett to go to sleep. I think he rebelled against his nap that day and was kind of tired, so Erin decided she was going to put him to sleep.

Our Little Snagle-tooth

2009-02-19T13:10:00.001-06:00

Erin lost her first tooth a couple days ago. Several of her classmates have already been losing teeth, so she wanted to lose some, too. She was very excited the day after the Valentine's dance that her lower right tooth was loose. About a day later, her lower left tooth started wiggling, too. Yesterday, while watching TV and nobody was around, she pulled the lower right tooth by herself. She proudly ran upstairs and showed me her tooth and the hole in her smile. I quickly took a picture.

She couldn't wait for the Tooth Fairy to come that night and started asking a million questions about what the Tooth Fairy looks like and why she has to wait until Erin is asleep to take the tooth, etc., etc....

She had a hard time falling asleep, so she decided to draw a couple pictures for the Tooth Fairy, which she put under her pillow next to the tooth so the Tooth Fairy would find them. If you're not an expert at interpreting 5 year old drawings, this one depicts the Tooth Fairy with long hair, wings, and a wand. She is flying over Erin's bed (the oval) with Erin laying down and her pillow at the foot of the bed. (Some of this is speculation. I couldn't ask her about these pictures because she never showed them to me. They are only for the Tooth Fairy)

This next picture is the Tooth Fairy with some hearts, I guess to show the Tooth Fairy how much Erin loves her, or maybe because she loves drawing hearts.

Of course, the Tooth Fairy came and left her a gold dollar coin. Here is the tooth she lost. It's the little white speck next to the sucker. I put a sucker in the picture to give an idea of scale.

Valentine's Dance

2009-02-18T13:23:00.001-06:00

Last Friday, the day before Valentine's Day was a very busy day. Not only did Erin have her class party, but there was also a school dance that night. Erin's best friend, Shannon, came with us as did Garrett and Daddy. We all had a great time. The girls decided to dress up in pretty dresses for the dance.

When they got there, they met up with other friends and classmates. Megan, in the burgundy dress, is another one of Erin's best friends.
The girls danced the night away (with a lot of running up and down the gym floor just for fun).

After all that dancing and running, it was definitely time for a ring pop break.

In fact, ring pops all around!!

Garrett says "Hey, I want a ring pop, too."

And finally, things are winding down and everyone is getting tired. Here is Garrett near the end of the dance just watching and hanging out. I love how this picture turned out because the colors are so vibrant.

Erin's Valentine's Day Party

2009-02-14T20:29:00.001-06:00

Erin had a great time at her school Valentine's party. She decorated a box at home for her classmates to put Valentines in. She decided to give out Hannah Montana Valentines to her classmates. Here she is before school with her Valentines and box.

When she got to school, she put her box on the floor with all the other kids' boxes. Here is how some other kids decorated their boxes.

During the party, the kids ate cupcakes and drank juice. They also made crafts and passed out their Valentines.

But the highlight of the whole party was taking out all the Valentines from their boxes and seeing what they got. This is Erin and her best friend Shannon looking at their Valentines.

And here is Erin proudly displaying one of her Valentines.

Erin is a Daisy

2009-02-12T20:42:00.001-06:00

Erin just started Girl Scouts last week and she loves it. Daisies is for K-1st grade. Brownies is for 2nd and 3rd grades, so Erin is a Daisy. She just got her uniform today and I haven't even had time to iron on the Daisy patch yet. It's just a vest that she puts over a white shirt.
They went on their first field trip tonight to the Fire Station. Erin learned all about the fire truck and the equipment the firemen carry on the truck.

They also learned about the equipment a fire fighter wears when he goes into a burning building. Here is a fireman wearing and insulated suit and oxygen mask.

After all that learning, they got to explore the inside of the fire truck. That was the highlight of the tour for most of the girls. Here are Erin and Shannon "driving" the fire truck.

Hide and Seek

2009-02-10T21:34:00.000-06:00

One of the kids' favorite pastimes is playing hide and seek (really more like peek-a-boo on steroids). The layout of the downstairs has a lot of little doors and corners to hide behind and the kids could spend hours playing hide and seek with either Daddy or me. Here is Gary playing hide and seek with the kids in Fall 2008.

Garrett Croons the Classics

2009-02-08T13:02:00.000-06:00

I was finally able to film Garrett in a natural setting, doing what I see him doing everyday. I've had problems in the past getting him to ignore the video camera and just keep on doing whatever. He would either run to the camera to see himself, or just not perform all together. He's in that "I'm not going to perform on command anymore" phase. I semi hid the video camera in a dresser drawer and propped it up just enough to see over the edge, then turned it on. I guess Garrett figured that since I wasn't holding the video camera, it wasn't recording anything. Here is Garrett singing the classic "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

And here he is crooning another classic, "Old McDonald Had a Farm." On a side note, when he first discovered the existence of McDonald's, the restaurant, he would say "McDonald's" but I couldn't understand him. So he would say "E-I-E-I-O" to get his idea across. I wonder if he thinks that the Old McDonald that had a farm also has a restaurant with a really fun play area.

My Life is a 3 Ring Circus

2009-02-07T11:31:00.000-06:00

With two small kids, life can get pretty crazy. Sometimes I feel like I live in a three ring circus, and I have all the characters. First, we have the bearded lady.

Then we have the contortionist (just try to pull your feet up to this position. It's harder than it looks).

Next comes the man of a thousand faces.

The lady who can tame the ferocious beast.

The diabolic feline...

The boy who lives on dirt...

And the Great Karnac the Magnificent, able to answer any question posed by Ed McMahon.

Spotlight on Garrett

2009-02-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

Poor Garrett hasn't been getting much blog time lately. It's not that he's not blogworthy, it's just that Erin does more exciting things because she is older. Plus, it's hard to get Garrett on film or video these days. When I try to get a spontaneous picture or video of him doing something cute, he stops what he's doing, runs to the camera and yells "See, see." He wants to see the picture/video even if I haven't taken it yet. He doesn't understand that first I have to take the picture for him to see it. He just knows that inside that camera are funny pictures of him and his sister. So getting out the camera ruins any spontaneous moment I might be trying to catch, especially since it beeps when I turn it on. At least Erin can pose for a picture, but Garrett hasn't quite gotten the hang of that yet, either. You'll see what I mean in this video clip:

Garrett is a great singer and can sing along with several songs. His favorites are "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Farmer in the Dell" and "Old McDonald." He also likes to sing the ABC's and is very inspired to sing when holding a microphone, but he won't do it for the camera.

He stays very busy at school. Here are some recent project he did. He was pretty reluctant to stand still for the picture, so I had to snap quick before he left the shot. I am very happy with his progress at school. Garrett can say two word sentences consistently and can imitate 3-4 word sentences, quite an improvement from 4 months ago when he started school.

Garrett always loves his bath. Here he is just being cute little Garrett.

The name game

2009-02-02T21:23:00.000-06:00

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real... nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.
1. What is your name: MARY BETH
2. A four Letter Word: MAKE
3. A boy's Name: MIKE
4. A girl's Name: MELISSA
5. An occupation: MANAGER
6. A color: MAROON
7. Something you wear:MOCCASINS
8. A food: MACARONI
9. Something found in the bathroom: MAKE UP
10. A place: MARYLAND
11. A reason for being late: MISS THE BUS
12. Something you shout: MAKE THE CATCH!!!
13. A movie title: MADAGASCAR
14. Something you drink: MOONSHINE
15. A musical group:MAMA'S AND PAPA'S
16. An animal: MALLARD
17. A street name: MAIN
18. A type of car: MERCEDES BENZ
19. A song title: MOON SHADOW
20. A verb: MIX

What was the most difficult question for your name?
#16 AND 19.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

2009-02-01T13:43:00.000-06:00

Playing dress up is one of Erin's favorite pastimes. She has lots of dance leotards, poofy skirts and dresses and some excellent twirling skirts. Her favorite twirling skirt is the one MaMaw (Gary's mom) made her. It's pink and sparkly; everything a girl could want.

But sometimes she's more in the mood for the princess look, complete with boa and tiara.

Or maybe the fairy princess look. You have to have wings to be a fairy princess.

Sometimes when she dresses up, it inspires her to dance. Here she is in her Strawberry Shortcake bathing suit and grass skirt doing her Hawaii (pronounced "Hawadi) dance.

I found myself (really)

2009-01-30T13:16:00.000-06:00

I was digging around on the web today, just killing time really (I didn't feel like doing housework) and I found an old picture of myself, in a bikini no less. Here's how it happened. Back in 1987-88 I dated a professional photographer in Mexico City named Hector Velasco. Fast forward to 1992...I was living in Cancun. Hector came to Cancun to take some pictures for a print advertising campaign for the Sheraton Hotel chain. He needed a model for some of his pictures, so he asked me to do some modeling for him. I didn't get paid. On the contrary, I helped him lug up all the cameras, tripods, extension cords, lights, etc. to the hotel room to take the pictures. There are lots of big heavy cases of camera equipment to lug around when you go on a photo shoot with Hector. Anyway, we get all the stuff up to the room and I change into my bathing suit. He takes a bunch of pictures, with and without me in them. Here is one of the pictures he got that day. Click on the following link.

http://www.fotografias.com.mx/gente/gente10.html

He later gave me a positive of a slightly different pose. I have a copy of that picture hanging in my bathroom. It reminds me of how skinny I used to be. Here is the picture I have hanging in my bathroom. It's a picture of a picture, so the quality is compromised.

The "champagne" in the champagne glasses is really watered down beer. With the right amount of water, you get good champagne color and bubbles.
Apparently, Hector is doing pretty well as a professional photographer. If you want to see his entire web site, here is the link:

http://www.fotografias.com.mx/inicio.html

Summer and Winter in one week

2009-01-28T20:32:00.000-06:00

I have heard people comment that they wouldn't want to live in Texas because they wouldn't experience the changing of the seasons that one gets farther north. I beg to differ. We get the changing of the seasons around here, it just changes in one day instead of taking months. Here's what I mean. Last Friday, I took the kids to the park to enjoy what I knew would be the last nice day for awhile. It was about 80 degrees and poor Garrett was roasting in his long sleeve shirt. Erin dressed more seasonably in short sleeves.

Within 12 hours of taking these pictures, a cold front came through and dropped the temperature to about 30 degrees. It stayed pretty cold for the next few days, and then last night we got an ice storm. We got about 1/4 inch of ice and then some sleet on top of that. It was bad enough to shut down schools and a lot of people stayed home from work. Gary worked from home. Here is our front yard this morning.

It may not look like much, but that is a layer of ice with some sleet on top. It crunches really hard when you step on it. I thought this picture of ice in the tree branches was pretty cool.

The kids had a blast playing on the ice for a while. Garrett kept running on the sidewalk and street and would fall every time. Finally, he fell hard and started crying, so I had to take him in to Daddy.

We went from Summer to Winter in less than one week. And the forecast for the weekend.....60's, so we'll call it Spring. If you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait a day or so and it will change.

Christmas at the Duke's

2009-01-25T20:56:00.000-06:00

We had a great Christmas this year. It's always fun when you have little kids that still believe in Santa. Erin is starting to ask a lot of questions about Santa, like how does he know we live in a new house? She was very afraid that Santa would deliver her presents to the wrong house. Also, we don't have a fireplace in the new house, but we had one in the old house, so how would Santa get down the chimney if we didn't have one? It was non-stop questions. I wonder if she will still believe in Santa next year. Here is the food Erin left for Santa, with broccoli for the reindeer. She is always very concerned that Santa get a good snack at our house. Maybe she thinks he will leave more presents if he is well fed. The snack this year was peppermint bark (white and dark chocolate with candy cane pieces) and chocolate milk. It was a lot of fun decorating the new house and Christmas tree. Here is how the outside of the house turned out.

And the Christmas tree...

MaMaw (Gary's mom) loves to sew and do all kinds of crafts, especially for Christmas. Notice the tree skirt. MaMaw made that using strips of material from old table cloths and other leftovers from Christmas projects past.

Every year she makes Christmas shirts for all the women to wear to their annual day after Thanksgiving shopping spree. They usually hit all the door busters that start at 4:00 am. I always manage to find a reason not to participate. Shopping at 4:00 am is not my cup of tea. But here is this year's Christmas shopping shirt.

MaMaw, sewer extraordinaire also made beautiful bath robes for all four of us. Here are Gary and the kids in their Christmas bathrobes.

The kids had just taken a bath when I got this picture. Notice that Garrett's and Daddy's bathrobes match.

Flat Stanley, Flat Sarah Kate

2009-01-23T13:14:00.000-06:00

Erin's cousin, Sarah Kate, sent Erin a Flat Stanley with a letter explaining the concept. Flat Stanley is a book about a boy who gets flattened when a whiteboard falls on him. Since he is flat, he can now travel around in an envelope because the mail is a lot cheaper than an airline ticket. At school, Sarah Kate made a Flat Sarah Kate and sent it to Erin. Erin had to take Flat Sarah Kate somewhere, take pictures, write a letter explaining where she went and then mail the Flat Sarah Kate back to Sarah Kate's school. Erin and I decided to take Flat Sarah Kate to the Fort Worth Stockyards. This is the letter we sent along the with the pictures.

Flat Sarah Kate’s Big Adventure to Fort Worth TX
November 9, 2008
Flat Sarah Kate got mailed to Fort Worth Texas to see her 5 year old cousin, Erin. Erin took Flat Sarah Kate to the Stockyards. You see, 100 years ago, all the cattle in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado came to Fort Worth to be sold. Even today, you can still see a lot of different cowboys in the Stockyards. Flat Sarah Kate saw some real cowboys (picture #1), a tin cowboy (#2), a movie star cowboy, John Wayne (#3), a football Cowboy, Tony Romo (#6), and a little girl cowboy riding a mechanical bull (#7). Finally, Flat Sarah Kate visited some cowboys in jail. Cousin Erin had a lot of fun showing Flat Sarah Kate all the sights of Fort Worth Texas.

We had a lot of fun showing Flat Sarah Kate the sites in Fort Worth.

The Nutcracker

2009-01-22T20:50:00.000-06:00

Erin and I had the privilege of attending The Nutcracker right after Thanksgiving, thanks to a friend at church that was able to get free tickets. We had Saturday afternoon matinee tickets. We enjoyed getting all dressed up for the occasion.

We drove an hour to Dallas and after getting lost, made it to the theater with 15 minutes to spare. We had great seats, lower level, about half way back on the left side. Erin loved the ballet. It lasted about 2 hours and she sat still and paid attention the whole time. When she gets bored, she gets restless and wiggly, so she was definitely not bored. At intermission, we went out the the lobby and walked around. I got this great picture of her in front of a Nutcracker.

It was a great Mother-Daughter day!! And Erin got tons of compliments on her Christmas dress. It's all sparkly, which she loves.

Halloween, a hallowed evening indeed!!

2009-01-21T13:00:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun on Halloween night. Erin dressed up as Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty). Her long brown locks are from a wig I bought at a garage sale that day. I thought it added a nice touch to the costume, but it made her look more like Serena, Samantha's evil sister on Bewitched (for those of you who are old enough to remember that show).

Garrett dressed up as a vampire. I thought he looked very dashing is his black cape.

I had no intention of dressing up, but I found these wigs at a garage sale and one of them inspired me to dress up as a hippy. Judge for yourself if I look like an authentic '60's hippy.

We went trick or treating with some friends in a nearby neighborhood because there are very few houses in our neighborhood. The kids got a ton of candy and we all had a great time. We even got candy from one of Garrett's teachers. It was a howling good time!!!

I was pretty proud of my jack-o-lantern this year. I used an apple correr to cut out the eyes and nose. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

The day after Halloween, Garrett decided he wanted to try on Erin's costume. Garrett is always copying Sissy. So here is Garrett as Aurora.

First day of school

2009-01-20T21:16:00.000-06:00

Both Erin and Garrett started school in 2008. Erin started Kindergarten. She was very excited on her first day. Always the model, here she is posing on the morning of her first day.

When she got to school, she settled right in and never looked back. She loves her teacher, Ms. Wilsie and is always excited to go to school every morning. Our school district only has half day Kindergarten, so Erin attends from 8-11:00 am.

Erin and her class took a field trip to the Stockyards in Fort Worth to ride the Polar Express (or at least a train that was decorated to look like it). Erin had a great time on the trip and even got to meet Santa!

Here she is getting off the train. Her first train trip ever.

Garrett also had his first day of school in 2008. He started Preschool for Special Needs in September right after his 3rd birthday. Garrett is considered developmentally delayed. We noticed a few months after he was born that he wasn't doing the same things as other kids his age. He rolled over at about 7 months, he sat up at about 11 months and he walked at 22 months. At almost 3 1/2 he can put two or three words together and his vocabulary is limited. He has had extra help with his development since he was 1 year old, including physical, occupational and speech therapy. He continues to get all three therapies at school. Here is Garrett on his first day.

He looks a little nervous in the picture. He really didn't understand what "school" was or where he was going. I think he just got a sense that he wasn't going to be with Mama and Garrett loooooovves his Mama!! Now Garrett loves school. There are three other girls in his class, plus his teacher and an aide, so he gets lots of individual attention. He has progressed remarkably since he started school. He can count to 20 (with some help), he can sing the ABC song (with help), he can even make some of the letters with his hand using the Manual Alphabet. His speech is what has improved the most. I don't think he could put two words together when he started school and now it's 2 or 3 words consistently. But despite his limitations, Garrett has a great sense of humor. He makes us laugh all the time. I got to go to his class Christmas party meet the rest of his classmates. Here is Garrett doing a craft.

And giving his friend Mia a big hug. He talks about Mia all the time.

And with his teacher Ms. Hartweg.

Come tour our new house.

2009-01-20T13:19:00.000-06:00

I've decided to start blogging again. It's such a great way to keep everybody posted on the Dukes' comings and goings. Now that I have a video camera, I plan on posting videos of the kids. For my first installment, I will give you a video tour of our new house. We moved in in June of 2008 and absolutely love the extra room. This house has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths in 3098 square feet. Now all I have to do is figure out how to import a video.

Notice Gary's sunny disposition in the video. The house tour continues:

Uploading video takes forever, so I'll be uploading more pictures in the future.