Ode to Nemo

In true fashion, WHS wants to keep up with JBS and JLS in ALL things.  We started swimming lessons once a week in February.  The first three lessons, he screamed his head off.  I had to sit around the corner so he couldn't see me.  His darling instructor was overjoyed I am sure.  WHS, did however, follow instructions, it was just thru tears...exactly how JBS was.

His instructor is the reason WHS loves swimming lessons so much, now.  His instructors' name is Nehemiah.  As you can imagine, most little kids can't say that.  Even cuter, is that it comes out, "Nemo."  Everyone there calls him Nemo.  I feel a tad weird addressing him as such, but he's used to it.  WHS now, LOVES to get there early and he runs to the window to watch Nemo teaching his earlier lesson.  He bangs on the window and waves to Nemo yelling, "Nemo! Nemo!"  Even Nemo laughed that WHS has come a LONG way since day one.  WHS does whatever Nemo wants. We adore Nemo!

As of this week, WHS is swimming!  He is so excited....and we are, too!  He can jump from the side of the pool and turn and swim back to the wall and pull himself out.  He can also swim across the pool to a willing receiver.  As you can imagine, he is the Energizer Bunny.  He jumps over and over and over....and over again.

We are still on high alert with him, of course, but it thrills me to no end that he is well on his way for the first summer with a pool ahead of us.  Yeah WHS!

Potty trained-check.  Swimming-check.  Where did my baby go?

Bad Attitude

WHS is highly verbose.  And when I say highly verbose, I speak in comparison to my two oldest.   JBS didn't speak complete sentences until he was almost 3 1/2.  He failed his first entrance exam into Monte Cassino for 3 year-old preschool because he wouldn't speak.  (For the record, they told me they had never had a child fail the exam so badly and ace it within a few months like JBS did.  I knew.  He was smart all along, he just didn't speak to tell them so.) Right at about 3 years and  3 months, the gates opened and he hasn't stopped since!

Then, there is poor JLS.  Because JBS hadn't spoken until later, I never saw the red flag that JLS couldn't talk clearly because he wasn't hearing due to the fluid in his ears.  He was 2 1/2 when we finally got tubes and started speech therapy.  He is STILL learning to say his words right.

So, WHS.  He is a genius at two years and seven months old in our eyes.  But, he is pretty clever even compared to his peers.

Sometimes, believe it or not, all three of the angelic toots have bad attitudes.  {gasp!}  It's true.  You can sum all of it up, the whining, the grouches, the stubbornness, the arguing, into a "bad attitude."  And that is evidently what I say most often.

We were driving in the car (where most life events seem to take place with us) and WHS said every so clearly, "Mom, JLS has a bad addatoot."  JLS, despite the attitude problem started giggling.  I asked him to repeat what he said.  "JLS has a bad addatoot!"  And so it went.

Just when I thought he was simply repeating something he had just heard, WHS marched to my bed early this morning.  I could hear the boys "discussing" something over the monitor.  When WHS opened his mouth, I giggled my self awake.  "Mom, ookey be a bad addatoot."

That one is here to stay, as with star babies (Go-Go) and JBS's enchi-la-la!

Blue Bell

I remember very vividly moving to Oklahoma from Texas and the sheer disappointment that they did not have Blue Bell ice cream anywhere in town.  My dad and his peaches and cream... I also remember the day that Blue Bell ice cream came to Oklahoma when they built a creamery in Broken Arrow.  We rejoiced!

Blue Bell is a big deal for us.  I was so excited to finally be able to take the boys to Brenham to the original Blue Bell Dairy, where we toured the plant and saw just how Blue Bell ice cream was made, including bomb pops and ice cream sandwiches.  It really was quite fascinating.  The lines and lines of cookies and ice cream blocks for sandwiches and huge vats of ice cream being squeezed into cartons...so much fun to see!  And BOY did we want some ice cream!

Future ice cream scooper...

Future ROWDY ice cream scoopers...

Basking in the joy of ice cream...

After the tour, we went to the Brenham airport to eat at a cute little 50's diner.  The kids loved being so close to the little planes.

My neighbor, Nida, from Chi-ca-go, native to Chicago, never lived outside of Chicago until she finally made it to Texas. She recently told us she had NEVER had a chicken fried steak and had no idea what it was.  While I am not sure this was the best chicken fry around, I had to take a picture of Nida having her first every chicken fried steak! She liked it...

Little squirt always keeping up with the big kids...

Great fun in Brenham...even better was the view of all the bluebonnets as we drove.

Go TEXAN Day!

I am a native Texan, Babe is a native Texan, most of our family members are native Texans, but it wasn't until we moved to Houston that we learned to LOVE Go Texan Day.  This is a BIG deal here and it is celebrated by EVERYONE.  If you can remember, I bought Babe cowboy boots for MY birthday present our first year here.  He scoffed at them until Go Texan Day came around and he actually had something cool to wear to work.  They go ALL. OUT.  We were in Colorado for the actual day, but fear not!  JLS and WHS didn't miss their school's celebration of Go Texan Day.  It always marks the beginning of the Houston Rodeo (another  BIG DEAL!), which lasts for 3 weeks.  So, it is celebrated for almost a month.

I have to include all these pictures, even though they are a bit repetitive.  It just gives you a glimpse of WHS and his ADORATION of JLS and, actually, JLS pretty much adores him, too.

First JLS salutes me...(so JLS.)

Then WHS has to be exactly like JLS...

Cool-hand JLS... :)

"Big Hug"...

JLS telling WHS to look at the camera so mom can get her pictures...

 So precious...sometimes the tail end says the most!

Spring Break in The Woods

I had second thoughts, but my third thoughts are that it is FABULOUS taking the kids out of school to ski two weeks before Spring Break.  We missed the crowds, had great snow, made memories, AND.....we get an entire week at home while everyone else is traveling.  It has been a relatively relaxing week, barring the Tippie Toads work.  But I can't complain about that!

The boys and I have had loads of fun.  Grammy came in town for her FINAL chiropractic appointment.
It is hard to believe she has been coming for a year now.  While she was here, we went to the Houston Rodeo, to Brenham to the Blue Bell Factory, and today we went swimming!

It's in the upper 70's, but we cheated a little.  Babe heated the pool over night, so it is at a lovely 88 degrees.  Even I would get in that pool.  We have had the pool since last Labor Day, but really haven't had a chance to fully enjoy it!  We are so excited for the Spring and for the Summer and all the fun to be had!

While we aren't in full bloom, yet, I am not certain I ever posted a final shot of the pool.  I will post again when all the pretty flowers are out, too.  But this is the gist of it!  We absolutely LOVE it.... Still to come, pool furniture!  Just realized we didn't have any today!

Bad Dreams

In the past, JBS went through a stage of having bad dreams.  We remedied this by praying over our dreams every night before we went to bed.  I also hung an angel on his mirror for a visual reminder that God's angels were watching over him while he slept.  The best part about it, is that it worked!  After several nights of bad dreams, it was a great example to JBS that prayers do work.  To this day, we pray for his dreams every night and if I miss it, he is quick to remind me to pray for his thoughts.

Last night, around 10pm, I heard footsteps in my room.  To my surprise, it was JLS.  JLS is a hard sleeper and never wakes up in the night.  (He is making up for his first 2 1/2 years of NO sleep....) I was still up as he stumbled to my bedside and said, "Mommy, I had dweams."  I asked him if he was having bad dreams and he confirmed it.  He crawled in my bed and snuggled up close.  It was such a sweet time.  I asked him what he dreamed about and he said, "A scawy house."  I asked him if he saw the angel hanging on the mirror in Jake's room (where he sleeps).  He said, "Yes."  I told him about JBS having bad dreams and that we had success praying for his dreams and how JBS loved having his angel in his room to remind him that angels were watching him.  I asked him if I could pray for him and he said, "Yes."  We prayed, we discussed, and he said he felt better.  As he was crawling out of my bed to go back to his room he said, "Mommy, I shook my head really hard to try to make the dweams go away, but they didn't."

I had the cutest image of JLS sitting on the top bunk shaking his head of curls to get the bad dreams out.  And I know he did it...

Globetrotters

I just found a stash of pictures I have failed to post!  In January, we took JBS and JLS to see the Globetrotters.  I am not sure how many generations of Globetrotters have gone since I saw The Globetrotters as a child.  I remember staring dreamy-eyed at them wondering, "How in the world can they do that?"  And those were the same looks and thoughts that went through JBS and JLS' minds and out their mouths.  They loved it.  Nothing is more fun than watching the boys love something.  I get a thrill out of seeing their faces every time.

The best part is that the boys didn't get that the game was rigged.  They really were on the edge of their seats as the "Dark" side and the Globetrotters rallied back and forth.  The minute they would score, JBS and JLS would give each other a high-five and pump their arms, saying, "YES!"  It was a hoot.

This time is was BABE that got schnaukered into buying the expensive treasures.  Kind of like going to the circus.  However, I will admit, that the Globetrotter Jersey that JLS wanted and the Globetrotter basketball that JBS got have been used MUCH more than any sparkly light and circus toy we ever purchased.  We dig basketball.

Good-Bye Snow

We said "Good-Bye" to Colorado way too fast.  The boys had so much fun and we are already planning next  years vacation.  I have been trying in every way possible to impart the expenses we accrue to the boys.  Of course, they don't understand it, but I really want them to understand how Babe and I have to save in order to go on vacations and buy special things.  I want them to know that we work hard to put money aside and skip doing some things so we can do the fun things.  So, I suggested we start saving for next year's trip.  They were SO excited to do so.  We already have a coin jar started to put all our extra coins in.  I had no idea how fun this would be for them.  They LOVE being a part of the saving process.  Music to this mom's ears!

Our Condo

We caravanned south through New Mexico with Mom and Dad.  They headed to Great Granny's house, which we wish we had time to do, but we headed back to Houston to school.  We drove down through the panhandle of Texas through all the little towns I have heard about for years from my parents:  Childress, Clarendon, Quanah, Vernon.  My parents grew up in Quanah, Gigi spent a lot of time in Clarendon and Dad was born in Vernon.  It was like connecting the dots as we drove down the highway through all these little towns

As a little girl, Dad told us many stories about his childhood and they always began  with, "When I was a boy...."  We laugh now about all of Dad's "Boy Stories," but I certainly have them memorized.

As we were driving through Quanah, TX, I told the boys that this was where Grammy and Big Daddy grew up.  They were a little intrigued, but more so when I added that, "When Big Daddy was a boy this is where he fell off a slide and broke both of his arms." (I can tell it like I was there myself! :)) His teacher wasn't very sympathetic, not realizing he had broken his arms.  He was goofing off and she scolded him and off he went...pushing his bike all the way home alone with TWO broken arms!  The boys were enamored and full of questions.  JBS asking questions like, "Why would she do that?"  (IMAGINE the law suits if it happened today!) and "How did he fall off?" "Did someone push him?" "Did he cry?"

Sweet JLS just sat there for awhile, obviously in deep thought.  He finally said after much deliberation, "How did he put his arms back on, Mommy?"

Just another broken Bat Man in JLS' mind.  And we do have MANY superheroes with no arms in this house...