Archive for Kid Stuff
We were out playing on the patio the other day and I took my eyes off Little D for just a minute and turned around to see this:
He would have climbed the slide before but it’s been too hot to play outside much. I’m just praying we can keep this little monkey out of the emergency room. He’s begun to try and climb the bookcases and loves to stand on his Mickey Mouse train to reach higher spots. This works well for him until Micky Mouse decides to roll out from under him!
Someone else blowing out your birthday candles.
Don’t you wish your legs still worked like this?
I’m feeling a little guilty… I really complain about this kid too much. He’s about to turn 4 and the older he gets the more interesting he is. I love how kids at this age are interested in everything and their questions are progressively more thoughtful (and funny- yesterday, Big J asked what God’s last name was). I love that he’s just as apt to sit down and watch an opera with me for a while as he is to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. So, while I regularly lament all the screaming and other challenges that come with raising him, I know we’re so blessed to have him and looking forward to knowing him better with each year that passes.
I’ve always been more of a pictures person than words person. If someone asks how to get somewhere, I draw a map rather than write out directions. I particularly like blogs that post 1 photo a day, and I thought I might try it myself, since my one of my goals is to improve my photography skills anyway. So here goes…
The gates are on order from Amazon. Meanwhile, what do you think of our improvised containment devices? The giant bean bag I got for free has come in handy in more ways than one! I really thought Big J was busy, and he was, but he never tried to open the toilet lid and never got into cabinets and pulled books off of shelves the way Little D does. Oh… and that dinosaur toy is the BEST. TOY. EVER. Big J has loved it at every age so far.
Big J is a budding theologian. He is receiving special revelation from God daily, particularly on matters where we disagree:
“God says we have to be kind. If you don’t be kind God will bury you.” (not sure where he got the “bury” idea)
“God says we have two options: play games or watch TV.”
And, my personal favorite, falling into the age old trap of making Bible verses we’ve been teaching him mean what HE wants them to mean:
Me: “No, you may not watch TV.” Big J: “But Mom! God says I can do ALL things through Christ.”
We went to a family reunion last weekend that was held on a Texas ranch owned by a family member. We had a great time visiting with family and a seeing the wide variety of animals that have been collected by the owner. Big J was sick, with nose constantly running. See how brown his nose is in the picture? He would run around playing outside, getting dirty, and when his nose would run, he’d just wipe it with his hands. He’d come into the “bunkhouse” where we were hanging out looking like he had stuck his nose in a pile of mud. Yeah, I know- TMI. You didn’t really need to hear about my son’s snot, did you?
There was some cool old stuff sitting around the ranch (click the pics for larger versions):
I love Photoshop. I love being able to take an average picture and turn it into something neat looking just by playing around with it on the computer.
As I mentioned, there was quite a variety of animals, and on Saturday we toured the whole ranch riding in the back of the feeder truck honking for the various herds to come get their dinner. These are Scottish Highlander cattle – I always thought Pretty Cow was rather an oxymoron, but these were really pretty.
Interesting seeing zebras in Middle-O-Nowhere, Texas…
This was one ornery donkey. He chased all the other animals away from the food with his girlfriend in tow. She’s giving us the evil eye.
The turkeys moseyed into the yard during our Sunday morning hymn singing, gobbling away like they heard the music and wanted to sing along. Such odd looking creatures.
We are loving the patio at the new house. In Texas, for the back yard to be useful, you’ve got to have some protection from the sun. Our house has a nice overhang in the back and the house sort of wraps around the patio for lots of shade through the day. It was warm enough today to run through the sprinkler!
Here are my sweet boys. Don’t be fooled by those angelic little faces though. The one on the left can scream so loud that he’s leaving me with permanent hearing damage, and the one on the right is where this blog got it’s title.
Right after I took this picture, I turned my back and he chose that moment to pull up on a planter and take a nice big bite of dirt.
Finally found time to post here! The whole moving thing has totally messed with my blogging time. There are SO MANY things to do as we get the house in order. Lots of fun stuff like painting and digging out from under all the boxes. Lord willing, this is the last time for a LONG time. I keep telling myself that when I’m tempted to complain about going through all our junk. Actually, I don’t mind painting all that much, as the end result is totally worth it, and I love throwing stuff away, so this is the perfect opportunity to get rid of stuff we’ve been carting around with us for the last 8 years. So anyway, I’ve been pretty busy between all of that and trying to keep Little D fed.
This kid has the biggest appetite. I can’t believe how much he packs away into that little tummy of his. It’s a little worrisome actually, since the genes my husband and I have passed down to him are not, um… the skinniest genes ever. Some mealtimes I have to just cut him off- no more food for you! I have nothing left in the kitchen to feed you! He must be doing some serious growing. This is no surprise, since after carrying him for just a little while, my arms feel like they’re going to fall off. Gotta build those “Mommy Muscles” back up- they’ve gone a little flabby since I stopped carrying Big J around.
So, our big splurge after buying the house was a shiny new dining room table. I wanted to make the dining room an office, but Mark convinced me that it was time to be grown ups and have some grown up furniture and I’m glad he did because the table is bee-yoo-tiful. We went shopping at a couple of places and only found one we liked. Furniture is one of those few areas in our marriage in which there is perfect harmony. Actually we would have passed it right by, but then we noticed the sign on the table said it was part of the Cindy Crawford Collection. Well, that does it. I mean the table was designed by Cindy Crawford! We must have it! She is obviously a *model* of taste and class and just having a table in our house from her collection will magically turn us into beautiful, perfect people. Yada, yada, yada… Seriously, why does Cindy Crawford have a furniture line? What does being a super model have to do with furniture? Why does having her name on a “collection” suddenly make it more marketable? That’s just sad people.
This is Little D. He’s now 6 months old and probably the sweetest baby that ever lived (okay, I’m biased). Seriously though, this kid never stops smiling. All you have to do is look at him and he breaks out in a big grin. I’ve been trying to feed him solid foods, and he is having the hardest time because even when I get the food in his mouth, he just sits there and smiles because I’m looking at him and doesn’t even realize there’s anything in his mouth!
He’s sick right now with his first cold. He’s coughing a lot and it has made his voice a bit raw- he has a really manly cry when he can get his voice to work at all. I’m crossing my fingers we don’t end up with an ear infection.
