Day at the Dallas Zoo

I have been wanting to take our kids to the Zoo for MONTHS!!! This summer it was just too hot, and I knew it would be fun to wait for a day when Dad could come with us.....well the day happened this last Thursday and it was wonderful!!

Here we are waiting to pay our admission to go in. We brought the double-wide (Texas talk) stroller to allow Sam and Kaitlyn to take breaks from all the walking. Sam took the first turn to ride.

We saw so many animals. We did see some large Crocodiles, nothing too exciting because they were asleep on the beach but man were they huge! Sam as you can see was a little intimidated by this statue, but a cute photo-op nonetheless.

And some African Penguins who didn't need the cold temperatures to survive. They were quite active and you could watch them from the glass swim under water too. Isn't this a cute shot of Kaitlyn making friends with the penguin?

We made our kids walk a lot. It was part of the plan to wear them out so we were insured a quiet and peaceful ride home. I love watching Stephen be a dad, he so excellent at it. He adores his children and they think he's their hero!

This is a photo of Kaitlyn taken at the zoo, just a few months after Sam was born. And here we are just 2 years later...my how things change

So we saw the Elephant (ele-fanant), some Rhinos, the Tiger (Ti-grrrrrr), Gorilla, monkeys (the "oooh-ooh-ee-ee's"), Flamingos (Flaming-goes), Llamas (like Llama Llama Red Pajama), lots and lots of birds.

The weather was almost perfect. We got there early before the heat of the day, there were lots of shady places to walk too.

Then we had a picnic lunch

And Kaitlyn climed on this spider web rope contraption.

And then we went home. It was a wonderful day and a marvelous memory for our family.

Lindsey's Favorite Things

Lindsey is pulling up to standing more and more, she prefers to be standing where at all possible and I'm sure one of these days she'll take her first steps.

But in that standing position, she loves to pull all of the board books off the shelf in the playroom. I don't know why I even bother picking them up, she'll just do it again at the first chance she gets. I tried to snap a picture, but she always quickly crawls over to me.

Her other favorite thing is taking baths. Whenever she hears the water start running, she crawls into the bathroom as fast as she can and pulls herself up to stand on the edge. She used to sit at the edge and clap but now that she can pull herself up....Once into the tub she is so happy. She loves to splash and chew on all the bath toys. When we lean her back to wash her hair, she crosses her legs locking them tight and does a mermaid splash that's GINORMOUS over and over again! She always gets everything soaking wet. But she loves the bath and we love her!

For those of you wondering about her bruise....she's following in her big brother's footsteps, kind of! As you'll remember from a previous post, Stephen and Sam love playing wheelbarrow. Sam saw Lindsey crawling a few days ago and thought she'd like to play too, he picked her up and her head found a sharp corner of crown moulding...we'll be more careful to explain to Sam what games are good for Lindsey and what games are good for Sam.

It doesn't matter if you lose a battle here and there, only that you win the War!

Ohhhh, do I remember the shock this phase was for me when Kaitlyn and I battled numerous times a day as she fought for more independance at every single part of her daily routine....it still doesn't make it any easier to help Sam grow through this.

For one, he is at least 10 times more stubborn than Kaitlyn ever was. I have learned to pick my battles and I've become accustomed to how long it takes sometimes to "break" his will when things are just non-negotiable. So here is how today has gone:

At breakfast he didn't want to finish his milk, and on his own got up to put the remaining 2 swallows in the fridge to save for later. But it was 2 swallows!! And it's always a concern of mine that my children stay hydrated since it's still warm outside, so I insisted he finish it. Battle #1 of the morning. It took probably 10 mintues but he realized I meant business and so he drank.

Then it was off to get him dressed. He has 2 favorite shirts. A Yellow Soccer Ball Shirt (that I rescued when his bloody head injury threatened it's destruction--thanks Leigh Ann!!) which he would wear DAILY if I would let him. As it is, he wears it at least twice a week. And the other shirt is a Blue T-shirt with lots of trucks on it. He also likes this one okay. But if both of these are dirty, it often takes a lot of coaxing to encourage him to wear something else.

This morning neither shirt was clean and he was insitant on wearing "big" or long pants. As I laid out every option he had, he reached into his drawers and pulled out some pajama long pants. I explained that those were pajamas and that he was going to be going to play with friends today, was he sure that this was what he wanted to wear. He assured me that it was and I gave him this one. Hey wouldn't you like to go around in your comfy pajamas? So if you see a woman in Allen, Texas with a very cute 2 year old still in his pajamas, you may just think I didn't take the time to dress my child this morning, I in fact did...it's just what he decided to wear today.

Enjoying Autumn

Early Autumn in North Texas is gorgeous. I haven't posted anything in a couple weeks because we've been enjoying the wonderful weather outside!! We've re-discovered a park near our home that has these ponds with ducks and awesome playground equiptment

I was really, really impressed with Kaitlyn on this. She's normally a bit hesitant to try new things but she wanted to try and climb this BIG ROCK. And I was nervous too that she would fall off it and get hurt. But instead of redirecting her to another activity (which was my instinct) and very consciously decided to bite my tongue and let her try something new that she initiated. And wouldn't you know, up she went!

Here she is high and proud! Her face said it all, she was BEAMING!!, and she kept going up and down all afternoon. Getting more and more confident everytime! Now she asks me everyday if we can go to the park with the BIG ROCK!!

Lindsey has discovered that she loves the swing. She'll sit there and wave at me and just smile as she swings back and forth. Sam even has tried to push her a bit but gets the rhythm off a bit. His favorite thing is counting the ducks swimming in the water and looking at them. He suprised me this week by noticing one smaller duck off by itself and he counted it, holding up one finger saying "one duck" and then running as fast as he could after the duck chasing it. It was funny!

So here's to enjoying one of the most beautiful times of the year!

That's gonna leave a mark!

Guess what we did last night? Took our first injury related trip to the ER with one of our kids. Frankly, with as active my kids are, especially Sam, I'm shocked it took this long to happen.

I still don't quite know what happened. The rocking chair rocked all the way back and all the way forward. Sam was on the ground on his knees in front of the rocking chair, I think he tried to use it to brace himself and it gave out. Then Lindsey somehow ended up in a large plastic bowl from IKEA and she was crying too. My instinct was to tend to Lindsey first. Once I realized she was okay, I looked to Sam who was holding his head and BLOOD was EVERYWHERE!!! It splatterd on the carpet, covered his clothing and mine. I couldn't tell where the blood was comming from it was running down his face, pooling in his ear, covering his FAVORITE YELLOW SOCCER BALL SHIRT (I'm still working on the stain but I think it's a casualty to the accident--if anyone see's one somewhere let me know!). But it's a headwound right? They bleed.

I scooped him up and headed to the bathroom, laid him on the counter and began to apply pressure while trying to think of who to call to help me as Kaitlyn was hovering and Lindsey was playing on the floor, which had drops of blood all over it. I had to leave a few times to grab a phone, and phone numbers. Kaitlyn was my fabulous little helper "gophering" for this and that and when she couldn't she'd take over applying pressure. I heard her sweet little voice reassuring Sam. "It's okay Sam, you're big sister's here, everything is going to be alright. I'm here to take care of you, it's okay buddy." Gosh, I love that girl!

We got the bleeding to stop. My neighbor came over to just offer another set of hands while I transfered him to the couch and put on a movie for him. I finally got Stephen and he left work a little early to come home and help me take him to the ER, my parents live close and they swooped down to feed my other 2 dinner and get them to bed.

Off to the ER. I HATE the red tape and forms and waiting. It's the same as any hospital and if I were president I'd change the system. We waited, and Sam played with cars and read books and was fine as can be, until the procedure:

They tucked his arms into a pillowcase then strapped him into a papoose board. (Stephen commented that we should invest in one of those boards, we've never seen Sam be that still!!) That was alarming to him. But what really freaked him out was the large, bald, black nurse that held his head while the stiching was being done. He kept saying, "I just want my mom to hold my head!" Poor little guy. But they pre-numbed the area before the shot of numbing stuff. HE GOT 3 STICHES, some clifford and hot wheels stickers and a daffy duck bandaid. It took a couple of hours but home we came. He'll have a nice shiner but he'll recover, and hopefully since he's young it won't scar. So look out for rocking chairs and large green bowls from IKEA, they can leave a mark!

A fun weekend

We had such a fun time this weekend with one of Stephen's co-workers, Charlotte. She has befriended our family, which we so appreciate, and she invited us to come swim in her community pool and have dinner.

The pool was very nice. It had this little kiddie pool that was only 1 foot deep and it even had a sloping down part on one side that my kids really got excited about. And it was kind of covered which I got really excited about! The weather was really nice, not too hot but not too cold either. There were these fun fountains along the edges of the pool. We all had a blast!

Then after we got dried off we went to this great sandwich shop called McCallisters that is way yummy!! What I really LOVE about this place is that it has kid food that is reasonably priced that my kids will eat. We get the pita cheese pizza (only $2.99) and it feeds both of them. There's nothing fancy to it. But how many of you take your kids to a restaurant, spend $5 a piece on a kids plate that they don't even eat because it's different than what they're used to! So thank you McCallisters for having such a great menu. And for the extra package of Teddy Grahams since I had 2 kids sharing the meal!

And thank you Charlotte for such a wonderful afternoon. Sometimes we feel like our crew is overwhelming (because they are) and so when someone takes us (all of us!) into their lives and hearts it means so much! Let's do it again sometime!!

What we're into now

Ever wonder what life is like for a mom of a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy? It's fun! Always something to monitor, always a big to do, always a funny exclamation, and often a sqabble to referee......Their latest fettish?

PILLOWS & BLANKETS!!!!

Who needs to spend money on expensive gadgets that light up or sing or make your child into a genuis? All they need are a bunch of big squishy pillows and some blankets and they make: cars, tractors, picnic areas, towers, gymnastic arenas, resting places. They do steam rollers, pillow fighters, they burry toys and themselves. It's a great mess, but great fun! So here's to pillows and blankets!

Another pleasantry is that Sam all of a sudden is quite content to color by himself. Maybe he's got some of the artistic genes from my side of the family. I NEVER used to be able to trust him at the table coloring alone and I wouldn't even think of giving that boy markers because he colored everything but the paper. But this last week there were a few instances where he'd ask to color and then sit quietly for up to 45 mintues completely entertained and totally in control of the crayons and (gasp!) MARKERS! Horray for my budding artist!

Remember when you were little and you'd have field day of things like sack races, three legged races and wheelbarrow races? Well we challenge anyone with a 2 year old boy to a wheelbarrow race! (Aaron, Laura? Get Grant ready!!) Sam is totally ripped and really fast at this. Stephen and I get such a kick out of this little guy and his upper body awesomeness!

Pre-school Starts Again

This little cutie started Pre-school again!

Here she is ready to go for her first day. She chose this cat shirt with a funny mouse on the tail. New running shoes and because it was sprinkling that morning she wore this hoodie.



Here she is in her classroom on her first day. The day before she announced that she wanted DAD to take her to her first day of school. (REALLY!?!?!) We were very suprised. We thought for sure she'd change her mind but she didn't. Dad was really good and said he'd stay until she told him she was okay for him to leave. I got a call at 8:32 from Stephen saying she was great and he was on his way to work. I am so grateful for a husband who is there for his kids when it's important to them. This was important to her, and he made it work.

She goes just 3 days a week(MWF), right now from 8:30-12:30. The BIG deal is that she gets to bring her lunch and eat with her friends. This is GREAT preparation for her because our little social butterfly has such a problem focusing on eating and getting her food down her in a timely manner. Yes she's come home from school a couple times already without finishing her food in time. It's great for her to learn this now before kindergarten next year.

I just love the place she attends and the wonderful environment her teachers create! Here's to a great year! Oh, and SAM couldn't be happier! He's so content to not have to compete so much for my attention, he plays so well by himself and it's so good for both of them to get a break from each other.