The Accent

While JLS does have some speech issues, he is improving every day. This makes a happier child and a happier mom when we can communicate! There are definitely words that are clear and we have certainly learned JLS's own vocabulary. For instance, his new thing is asking, "That pool, Mommy? That pool?" That actually means, "Is that cool, Mommy?" "Pool" also means "pool," so the context is very important with JLS. It's the hard sounds like G, C, K, X, J that he still struggles with, but those sounds will come in time. Developmentally, he is good to go. He just needs practice.

As he progresses with his words, it is somehow funny to hear him talk. I guess like any new talker, the things that come out of their mouths surprise anyone who hasn't heard them talk much. More than a year ago, I posted that JLS's first word was "Hola!"...a sure sign we are living close to the border. Now, it appears that while JLS was born in Oklahoma, he just might be joining the ranks of being a Texan. When I told him this morning to pick up his toy, he said, "I wee-il, Mommy, I wee-il." "Wee-il" arrived in his vocabulary about a month ago, along with a few more twang-y words created with more syllables than necessary. It doesn't appear that the cute little words are going anywhere any time soon.

The funny part is that "Wee-il" is one of our choice names for Toot #3 (sound the horns!)...We could be hearing a lot more of it ree-il soon!

My Birthday!!

For a month, at least, the boys have been scheming about my "birthday party." JLS insisted from the start that Mommy was going to have a "Barth Bader" party. JBS argued that girls don't like Darth Vader and that mommy wanted a princess party. Yesterday proved to me most entertaining. I awoke to a flood of beautiful pages of artwork from both boys. I dropped JBS to play at a friends house and when I returned Babe and JLS had purchased balloons. When I walked in the door, I heard JLS yelling, "Mommy! It yer birday and we bot ewe balloons!" as he ran to the door. He further explained that the bouquet of pink and metallic balloons with the word "Princess" on them were from Daddy and "Bake." The single red balloon was from him and it was a "Barth Bader" balloon. It was his contribution to the Darth Vader theme he so desperately wanted. (even though Darth was nowhere on the balloon...it was a "non-pink" balloon...)

All day long I received hugs and kisses from the cute little toots telling me it was my birthday.
Then, we headed out for a yummy Mexican dinner.

When we arrived home, Babe had waiting in the freezer, my all-time favorite, a Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. He did so well!
The boys serenaded me with their guitar duets of "Happy Birthday" and then our current listening pleasures...soundtracks from some of our favorite movies, and we opened presents.

It was a fabulous birthday...made special by the little things. Babe remembered the small details and the boys enthusiasm for my birthday was the best part. Having a birthday is so much fun when the boys have a hand in the planning. They certainly love a celebration!

Concert Finale

The boys have both been going to a fabulous Mother's Day Out at one of the local churches this summer. It is only 2 days a week for a few hours, but it is the perfect break Momma needs for rest, doctor's appointments, cleaning projects, and more rest! The boys have loved it, too.

Tomorrow is their last day and yesterday was their "End of Summer Concert." I had no idea what to expect, but was excited, as I am pretty sure this was JLS' first appearance on stage. It was also our first event that both boys were in simultaneously. It turned out to be one of the most precious things I have seen. Unfortunately for me, one was on the far left of the stage and the other was on the far right. So, I spent my time walking back and forth with the camera trying to snap pictures and let them know I was present. Each time I would go to JBS' side, I could see JLS with his pining eyes looking for me as though I left him.

Both boys were so good. For the past 2 weeks I have heard JLS' teacher comment to me about JBS and what a great singer and dancer he was in practice. JBS does love to sing and dance and I think he has pretty good rhythm. I was most impressed with little JLS. The minute the music started, on cue he was doing all the hand signals regardless of the other 3-year-olds not moving. He really knew what he was doing. Every time I would look at him he would smile and giggle, but the minute I put the camera to my face, he would stop smiling. Turkey...

The boys were quite proud of themselves and so was I. My cute little toots.

Ta-dah!

I am thrilled to announce that the new and improved Penelope's Pitstop kicked off this morning! Click on over and check it out. The first Give-Away is a great one from Sweaty Bands for two lucky winners! All you have to do is leave a comment in the comment section.

I hope you enjoy the new layout. I have only praises for Jen at Blue Yonder Design, who deserves full credit for my new site. She is so great to work with and somehow deciphered all the incoherent ideas I had and made a great website for me. If you need a new look or want to start your own blog or website, get in touch with Jen! Not to mention, would love to hear both positive and negative feedback on the site...I want to make it easy to use and understand!

Once you hop over to Penelope's Pitstop, click to follow me on Twitter, Facebook or grab one of my buttons under the Advertise section! Can't wait to hear how you like it!

Summer's End

It is hot. We are in a terrible drought. Mother's Day Out ends this week. We are at Summer's end. This means that the boys, who rarely have a disagreement that requires my attention, are starting to nip at each other. This also means that Mom lets more things "go" than usual...just trying to make it through until school starts. The boys are also very anxious for their "bebe" to arrive. They know that he is coming around the time school starts and they know school supplies are on the shelf. I am very anxious for the bebe to arrive, as well. If you can believe it, so I can get better sleep. I just told Babe last night that I am more prepared for this little toot, I think, than either of the previous toots. Our life is finally stable...really?

It is a beautiful feeling knowing there are few, if any major projects to complete on this house. Our house in Tulsa, which I still love and miss, had so many projects that is was a never ending feeling in fixing up an old house. I am truly nesting in this house and I have had close to a year to settle in before having a baby. Aahhh... On top of that, both boys are potty trained, sleep well, and have great independance....ahhhh!

Today, I took the boys to JLS' speech therapy appointment in full costume. This is one of those things I let "go"...the costume, the guns. I just didn't have it in me to argue and discuss why we don't leave the house in full costume. We love Emily, JLS's speech therapist, and we knew she would understand!

One more day down... 29 to go until school starts and less than 40 days before Toot #3's arrival!

Rock Stars

This post could really qualify for a wordless post with the photos I snapped, but you just have to know how in to "Rock-n-Roll" these boys are. The boys love music as much as their Daddy. Babe can quote any line, from any song, almost any genre and any artist at any time. I like music...a lot, but I can barely remember current music artists, if at all. I just enjoy listening to music. I feel no need to commit the details to memory. Babe particularly likes bringing out the 80's "Hair Bands" and the boys go nuts. If we are all in the car, JBS will say, "Daddy! Let's listen to Rock-n-Roll!" and so the night progresses. Nothing makes Babe happier than to rock out with his 5 and 3-year-old to Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard and Motley Crue. It is quite a sight to see.

Last week, I was doing a review on the new Broadway Musical, "Rock of Ages", CD. It is comprised of all the best 80's Hair Band songs. Before we knew it, the boys had grabbed their guitars and pseudo drum sets and were going to town with a little "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Wanted Dead or Alive." Was this really happening? and Yes, I was laughing along with them singing at the top of their lungs. They don't really know all the words, and I promise, we don't make a habit of this at all for anyone who is appalled.

Here, they are tuning up...

Conferring on the songs...

Really rockin' now... JLS possibly had a solo at this point?

Definitely his guitar solo, as every 80's song has...

And JBS's guitar solo...

This is my future of soon to be three boys. Lots of music, lots of loud music and please, please Lord, help to steer them away from the drums.

The Lake Summed Up

There is just so much to cover with the boys being at the lake for two weeks. Grammy and Big Daddy's lake is so diverse, in that half the fun for the boys doesn't even involve the lake. It is truly a slice of heaven for my boys.

First and foremost, JBS and G2 had each other...

We all also had Great Granny for a few days, which was lots of fun...
They had boat rides...And Big Daddy...
Feeding the deer is always at the top of the list...
At little bit of R & R...although Grammy might not see it that way! Making treasure maps in the woods and discovering "artifacts!"

Playing in the basement (which usually involves watching Matman with JLS...)

Fishing (The Rag included)...

Driving the golf cart... And JBS' highlight was camping in a tent!
By the end of the two weeks, Grammy and BD had accomplished every single task on their "checklist", the boys were sufficiently worn out and when they arrived in my arms, they finally missed me. Life is good.

The Pool

Going back to the never-ending lake update, we move on to the pool. There's just so much to do at the lake!!! Gratefully, the neighborhood where my parent's lake house is has a nice pool. It is perfect for an afternoon dip to cool off and a great place for the kids to go burn off extra energy without taking the boat out. It is even better for little JLS, as we didn't have to fight those silly ear plugs to go swimming in the pool.

A few cute pics from the pool...

There is just something about that Paulie. "Pwal" was one of the first names that JLS could say and he knew it. So, he used "Pwal" excessively...he asked about Paulie on a regular basis. It was so funny. Here, the two are bonding in the water..."Pwaaaal!"

JBS and G2 cuties. What is it about goggles that makes kids so cute?

Here is Go-Go and JLS swimming together. JLS did discover the noodle. The noodle became his safety net in the pool. He can certainly swim, but it sure helped him (and me) when he was tired and still didn't want to miss the action. JLS never misses the action!

And certainly, the post-pool appetite. I love this little snapshot of JLS. He thinks he is so big....sitting at the table with the big boys, no shirt, buzz cut, feasting on 1 of only 5 things that he eats...a granola bar.

He needs to be cute to work through our feeding issues! And they are big ones!

Oh! The Rocks...

I mentioned previously that JBS is now obsessed with rocks since spending a couple weeks with his cousin, G2, at the lake. JBS came home and started collecting my landscape rocks, which was quickly discouraged. He really wanted colored rocks, so we found a teachers store that sold mineral rocks and geodes. That finally made JBS happy...he had colored rocks.

Coincidentally, the same evening, after playing with his rocks all day long, I pulled JBS out of the bathtub and he was covered in hives. Head to toe and they were quickly getting worse. As we re-traced the day, the only thing that was any different in our day was playing with those darn rocks. As it got worse, we started to get a little nervous, as JBS is definitely the allergy child and most of his reactions have some sort of respiratory involvement. Instead of putting him to bed, I took him to the neighborhood ER...just to be safe. Sweet JBS looked up at me from his hospital bed and asked, "Mommy, am I 'lergic to rocks?" One hour prior I would have laughed and said it was impossible. However, the doctor did say that mineral rocks do have a dust on them that can be harmful to people with allergies. The doctor made me feel better for being neurotic and applauded our bringing him in with his history. He gave him a steroid shot and even as we sat there, the hives came over his face. We ended up having to let them "watch" him until almost midnight.

Needless to say, all week long, I would not let him play with his mineral rocks. We want to introduce them slowly and after he had fully recovered from his allergic reaction. Thus, the landscape rocks became the best of the two evils. And since we are at "that" point in the summer where it is almost too hot to go to the pool (for me anyway) and so hot that playing outside is miserable, we are inside pulling out hair coming up with new projects for the toots.

Rock painting. Rock painting made JBS and JLS happy to be playing with rocks. It made me happy that he could play with rocks and allowed me some more time to work around the house. Messy, yes.

Some days you just do what you gotta do!

Nesting

What is it about nesting? Aside from the final product, I believe the nesting bug that I acquire at the end of my pregnancies is by far the best part about being pregnant. Having moved in our house now nine months ago, I had unpacked and organized my brains out up until Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking and house guests. Then, the nausea of pregnancy hit in early January. I still had some hidden closets that had yet to be sorted, disposed of, and/or unpacked. Not any more! In the past 2 months I completely emptied the second guest room and closet (aka the baby room), re-organized and disposed of everything in the official guest room, hired California Closets to add built-ins to my very unorganized and misused space in my utility room (blog to follow that project), re-organized the pantry, sorted and organized both boy's closets, filtered thru the attic boxes and donated all unnecessary things. This past week, I put the finishing touches on the baby's room, washed and hung all clothes, washed all toys/cloth baby items, and completely sorted through the play room giving away a full trash bag of toys to the Goodwill and throwing away a full trash bag of junk. I feel GOOOOOOD!

I still have a few missions to accomplish before Toot #3's arrival. I need to finish organizing the utility...with all my new space, I have empty shelves, if you can believe it! The guest room still has few bins of random baby things that still need to be kept or removed, and I really really want to organize my desk space. I have gone through all files and shredded old papers and tax folders (prior to 7 years ago, of course!) I still have cabinets with little to zero organization. That will be my last big project.

This weekend, I got the bug to start preparing food and freezing it. I have never had that tactic down and it just might be the smartest approach to feeding your family home cooked food on a regular basis. I might be the last person to grasp that idea. I made and froze two chicken spaghetti dishes, homemade chicken broth (courtesy of Hyacinth via Pioneer Woman) and of all things, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, courtesy of Joy the Baker. I now have a stash of yummy cookies ready and waiting in my freezer for the last minute need...for friends, for the boys...for a frozen cookie dough fix!

While I was on this role and my kitchen was a mess, I went ahead and made dinner....Pasta alla Vodka. I think this recipe really is good, but boy did this nesting cook mess it up! It is a very easy recipe to make, but in my speediness, I put the larger amount of Vodka (1 cup) in the dish. When we sat down to eat it, Babe started dying laughing and I started sweating. The vodka clearly hadn't reduced enough and if we had finished that pasta, we would likely have been swinging from the chandelier...kids included. Well, the only kid that actually eats...

Hopefully, the vodka pasta was the only surprise I will receive out of the highly successful weekend...

Nesting. I. LOVE. IT.

Tubing

I was lucky enough to go out on the boat two or three times before the lake got too choppy for a pregnant woman over the 4th of July. Babe took his boat out and we anchored close to each other. This way, the boys could tube and I could be there...without going into pre-term labor on the boat. We are a floating family...and floating we did. It's so relaxing to anchor the boat in a cove and just...float!

We had one primary issue and that was JLS's ears. He had ear tubes placed a year and a half ago and they are still in place! This means ear plugs for the toot in the lake and ocean. Somehow we managed not to get in the lake last summer with him, but that was a losing battle this summer. I bought, what I thought to be great ear plugs. They were bright orange, didn't fit in his ears and kept falling out. He looked like Shrek. He wanted desperately to jump off the swimming deck and go tubing with the big boys. We just didn't want to chance lake water getting in his ears and causing bigger problems. He was devastated. He had to be happy with floating with Big Daddy.

JBS, on the other hand, has no ear issues and while he loves playing in the water, he had no interest in the tube. That's my steady and cautious child. We finally convinced him to get on and we would drive slowly. Within a few minutes with G2, he was imitating all G2's boat signals and trying to tell us to speed up. We clearly didn't get going fast enough for JBS, as "Mr. I don't want to tube" got bored easily on his ride... JBS would be an excellent example of a child that you have to make try everything once. His natural instinct is to say, "No." and every single time he ends up liking whatever it is he has tried...including food.

Big Catch!

One evening, as I was pining over missing the boys, I got a phone call from my mom at the lake. You will never believe what JBS just did. She was serious and quiet at first, so I was only a little alarmed. Then she told me, "JBS came running in the house and said, 'Grammy! Grammy! Get your camera! I just caught a huge fish!'" So, on command, Grammy grabbed her camera and ran to the pond right down from their house. Lo and behold, JBS had snagged a 27 inch catfish out of the pond. It was certainly the granddaddy catfish of the pond.

Grammy had JBS pose for pictures with his big catch. Of course, JBS wanted no part of touching him. And Big Daddy required the "Good Luck Kiss" picture. Mom reported after the initial hub-bub, that was it. JBS was too cool to discuss. He had an air of confidence and assumed skill that was surpassed by no other. No more, "I am so proud of you," "JBS caught a huge fish," no more. He was done with celebration and if there ever was a smile, it was brief. Just. too. cool.

When he came home (and would finally talk to me), I asked right off about his big catfish. His response, "Yep. I caught a fish." No excitement, no bubbling over about catching the biggest fish to ever come out of the pond. No bragging about the moment. At all.

Cold as ice. I guess it might be humbleness coming out, but I just really believe the kid is too cool for school...in his eyes, at least! (and maybe his Momma's eyes...)

Full of IT!

I have to interrupt the lake trip report with a few JLS moments from last night. Otherwise, I will forget...

Last night at the dinner table, JLS was eating and I looked over to find him in his own little world pretending like he was driving. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "I like drive Beg Diddy's boat!" This moment is on the heels of the Target episode yesterday with both boys hanging over (and I mean hanging over like hanging over the back of the boat to check the prop kind of hanging) the back of the monster basket they make me push shouting, "Oh! NO! You check the motor! I'll get the battery!"

Not more than five minutes after his mock boat driving moment, as I asked him to put his dishes in the sink for me, he raised his right hand to his forehead, saluted me, and said, "Yes, ma'am!" At first I felt like a drill Sergeant! When I asked him where he learned that, he told me, "Purch sool" (church school/mother's day out). He's learning something in his "Paul and The Romans" curriculum!

Finally, I asked him to go brush his teeth. Usually, JBS is with him and is great at helping him put his toothpaste on his toothbrush. Last night, JBS was already upstairs getting in bed and JLS was on his own. Within a few minutes, he came to the kitchen, where I was cleaning and asked for some help. I bent down to help him and found toothpaste... all over his shirt, smeared all over the toothpaste tube and zero evidence of toothpaste on his toothbrush. He looked up at me with "those" eyes and said, "Mommy, I havin' a bad day..."

Only an hour in the life of JLS...can't you imagine the rest of the day? Constant entertainment, for sure!

Shooting Lessons

One of the highlights of the boys' stay at Big Daddy's Boy Scout Camp was getting to shoot a gun. You heard me right. Shooting lessons for JBS and JLS. You know, I grew up with a hunter and outdoorsman as a dad and guns have never bothered me, when used in the appropriate environment. I was taught early to shoot a gun and I am certain my boys will learn to be hunters with both Babe and Big Daddy around, so they need to learn and be safe, too. Nothing makes me laugh more than watching G2, JBS and JLS sit there and listen to the same lessons on shooting a gun from Big Daddy that I had as a little girl. I have heard it all....a thousand times! I know I have many friends who often worry about safety when their husbands are in charge. I can speak for both Babe and Big Daddy and I have never worried once for their safety. Both Dads in my life are big on safety and it is refreshing as a worry-wart mom to know the boys are always watched like hawks. Knowing shooting lessons were on the books, JBS and I began talking about gun safety before he ever left for Oklahoma. I promised him Big Daddy would never let him touch a gun until he could recite basic gun safety...and he took it to heart.

G2, being the oldest of the boys has had a few of Big Daddy's shooting lessons before. JBS and JLS had their first experience on this trip. While JBS is 100% boy and prides himself on being tough and cool, JBS doesn't always have the easiest time following directions. He couldn't quite figure out how to look down the barrel of the BB gun to aim, but he's working on it. First lesson for the toot. Next visit, he will get better.

I am certain little JLS must have been listening closely as JBS and I discussed gun safety over and again, as when I was getting ready to zip my bag the morning we left, I discovered JLS had packed his plastic rifle in my bag when I wasn't looking. This actually proved to be a great idea, as I left the gun for JLS to use when the "big boys" were having target practice with a real gun.

As you can imagine, that plastic gun was not a plausible option for JLS once he saw JBS and G2 shooting a real gun...with real sounds. As I received the pictures of their stay from Grammy, I cracked up as I saw 3 pictures in a row of JLS practicing with his plastic gun and then, all of a sudden, with Big Daddy's long and real BB gun in hand. I can just hear JLS saying to Dad, "Beg Diddy, I don't lak dat gun. I use yur gun." There is no pulling the wool over JLS' eyes...ever!

The boys loved it, every minute of it. Mom said that when JBS reflected on the day he said, "Next year I will be bigger. Then I will be good."

Sweet boy. Even though G2 is two years older, he really wants to do everything as good as him! Just give JBS two more years. A sharp-shooter he will be!

Rock Day!

Prior to our arrival at the lake, my sister's family had just returned from a family vacation with her in-laws to Colorado. While there, G2 found some wonderful rocks and started a rock collection. He was so proud of his rock collection that he brought it to the lake to show everyone. He had some beautiful colored rocks, small rocks, and big rocks. This clearly made an impression on JBS, as he ran to the woods at the lake and immediately began grabbing every rock he found. JLS's response was to run to the side of the road with a plastic cup and scoop gravel. To each his own.

Since returning from Grammy and Big Daddy's, JBS has been obsessed with getting rocks. So much so, that he nearly emptied a 2 foot section of my landscaped sidewalk of rocks. When he finally came to terms that the "paid for" rocks were off limits, he moved on to wanting to go to a rock shop to buy rocks and a rock carrier (whatever that may be). Obsessed to the point that I cannot hear another plea to go to a rock shop again! After a little bit of investigation into the Houston area, I have discovered rock shops are limited, if not non-existent. It's not like we are living next to rock quarries like we were when living in Tulsa, at the foothills of the Ozarks. I finally found some pretty rocks for purchase at the local teacher's store. I promised JBS that we would go search out some pretty rocks this morning.

As the sun was just coming in my windows, I heard JBS at my bedside whispering, "Mom! You didn't forget it was rock day did you?" Seriously, how could I have forgotten? We loaded up and headed to the teacher supply store and paid too much for a set of rocks and a box of geodes that, when broken, we found very little evidence of crystals. A bit discouraging for me, but the store employee also suggested we hit the children's science museum here in The Woodlands for some better rocks. Until we make it to the mall, it was worth the money appeasing the rock man and not having to waddle through the mall with the two toots in tow.

So, thanks to G2, we are now rock obsessed. Just another excuse for dirt to enter my house...