Pitter patter

You know when you have heard a song over and over and you think you know what the lyrics are, but when you find out the real lyrics you are like "OH! That makes so much more sense!"

Just me?  Oh, then never mind!

This kind of just happened to me.  I have always loved the Alan Jackson song "Remember When."  It is about a couple looking back at their life and there was one part that I thought said:

"Remember when the sound of little feet wasn't music and we danced from week to week."

When Jason was first walking I would listen to this song and say WHAT?  Why wouldn't little feet be music?  It is so cute to hear them pitter pattering down the hall.  We are experiencing that again with Elizabeth.  Can anyone tell me a cuter sound than hearing a toddler wander down the hall with their bare feet pit patting?  It's adorable! 

You want to know what isn't adorable?  The pit patting of three year old feet at 5 in the morning!  I finally got what I thought Alan was talking about!  When that little head peeks over my side (never his father's side) of the bed.  I ask if it is 6 o'clock yet and he knows he will be brought back to bed. 

While I was getting ready to write this post I looked up the lyrics to be sure I had them correct and realized he is actually saying:

"Remember when the sound of little feet
Was the music we danced to week to week"


Oh well!  Those little feet would still sound way better if I didn't hear them until 6 or maybe even 6:30 in the morning!

Where are we going to get a giant panda?

I hope you all had an enjoyable father's day weekend.  I think we made it fun for Jeff.  We made sure the house was sparkling clean for him when he came home Friday night.  Normally the outdoor chores are Jeff's responsibility so on Saturday morning when the kids got up nice and early (because they haven't learned that weekends are for sleeping in) I took them out back to work on the very fast growing bamboo.  Later that afternoon we went to Daddy's toy store, aka Lowe's, and he got to pick out a new tool.  On Sunday we gave him a card with the kids footprints on it and showed him the video we made for him.

Saturday morning while I was battling with the bamboo, Jason was helping me bag all the pieces and we got to talking about how giant pandas eat mostly bamboo.  This is a factoid he learned from a game on his LeapPad Explorer.  He loves to inform us about the animals he is learning about.  He was talking about how we need to find a giant panda to eat all this bamboo that we were bagging (and there was a LOT!)  I asked him where we would find a panda and after suggesting the bamboo forest where pandas live, or a zoo, he settled on climbing into his Ipad (what he calls his LeapPad) and get one from there.  I adore hearing what he imagines and thinks about!

Baby girl isn't a baby anymore!

Oh my goodness, Elizabeth is getting so big!  She just figured out how to walk and the next thing I knew she is toddling all around the house!  I think she is just adorable wondering here and there, but you can be the judge.

She is also so much better at communication than Jason was at this age.  In the morning as soon as she sees Jeff, even before he has seen her, she starts waving and says "hi" and is always telling us "up."  Her "bye, bye" with a wave will melt your heart.  She will also answer yes or no questions with shaking her head or nodding it and adding a "ya."  I know she will have her own challenges, but it makes me happy that Elizabeth doesn't have a problem communicating.

Elizabeth does know her own mind also.  If you try to walk her somewhere she doesn't want to go, she will stop in her tracks and pull against you.  Yesterday was pretty warm but at 2 in the afternoon a little girl was banging at the back door wanting to go out and play.  She would not be detered, so outside we went.  Elizabeth knows what she wants!

spying on the kids

My kids aren't always kind to each other, but when they are they sure are cute about it!  Please excuse the sound of meat cooking in the background.

Memorial Weekend

The difficult thing about water parks is that you don't bring your camera in fear of it getting wet, or because you don't want to carry another big honking thing around all day when you have sunscreen and towels and snacks for the kids.  So you don't take pictures of your kids having a wonderful time at Schlitterbahn, but believe me they did!  They splashed and played in the water for 2 days straight and loved every second of it.  Jeff's parents were so kind and stayed with Jason and Elizabeth (and their stuff) while the "big kids" went to some of the rides.  Aunt Michelle was wonderful and let us crash at her house.  The best part was that Elizabeth walked to each of her parents a couple of times this weekend.  Soon enough we will be able to say that we have another toddler in the house!  The one bad part was that I burned my shoulders pretty bad, but at least the kiddos stayed all sunscreened up.

On another note, today is Jeff and my 7 year anniversary!  Seven years down and many, many more to go!

You're so vain

Before we had kids Jeff and I discussed self esteem.  My parents did exactly what you are told to do and lavished praise on my brothers and I, but a least a few of us dealt with self esteem issues growing up.  From what I have observed, Jeff's parents, especially his mother, tend to be more honest about the kids achievements and telling them when she knew they hadn't preformed their best.  Jeff has never had an issue with his self esteem.  Who knows it might be a nature vs. nurture debate.

But one thing I do know is that Jason has no issue with his self esteem.  He may even be a little bit vain.  He has been known to go around telling people that he is "quite intelligent."  This morning as I was combing his hair he told me that he feels handsome.  Jason loves to be chased around the couch, but his downfall is that he always stops to check himself out in any reflective surface.  You have to be covert in taking his picture or video because he always wants to see it, even before you have had a chance to take it.  I the video you will notice he isn't actually saying that he wants to sing, he is saying he wants to see.  I intentionally misinterpreted him to get him to do something cute while Elizabeth was being videoed walking with Daddy.  At the end he couldn't be persuaded to sing so we had to stop to show him the video.

What is the cure for vanity?  Should vanity be cured in a 3 year old?  I mean he is right.  He is handsome and smart.  He doesn't exactly go around telling strangers this, just Mom and Dad, so maybe it is okay for now.

opps: After re-watching the video I realized that I edited out the annoying "I want to see, see, see!" from my 3 year old.  I'll leave this video on here until I can find another good one of him being as self focused.

Right hand wrap-up

On April 25th we headed back to Dallas to get Jason's cast off and reveil his new hand.  He was pretty excited and was telling everyone how he would have 5 fingers!  He even did better than expected when they cut off the cast.  If you have ever had a cast cut off after breaking an apendage you know that the saw they use looks pretty intimidating.  Thankfully it is standard procedure to have a towel between the arm and his face to be sure none of the bits fly into his eyes, nose or mouth.  So Jason didn't end up seeing all that much, but we held him down all the same.  Before we knew it the cast was off and we were looking at his new hand.  It was pretty gross looking.  Sorry I didn't take any photos so you will just have to take my word for it, but it was scabby and red and flaking skin.  Generally speaking it looked pretty unpleasant.  After we got it all cleaned up Jason wanted to look at it for a bit but then asked for a bandage to be put on. 


After a couple of days we got it worked out so he would just wear this sleeve over his fingers to allow them to dry out and form scabs.  Eventually he forgot to have us keep putting on what he called his "bandage."  Now most of the time he doesn't mind people looking at his fingers which is good because we are going back to have the doctors take a look at them in a couple of weeks.  At the same appointment we are also going to talk about Elizabeth's hands and the plan for them (somebody hold me, I'm not ready!)

Before

After

Everyone (the doctors, nurses, Jeff and his mom) keep saying how well Jason's fingers look.  I guess I was just overly optimistic when I hoped some of his joints would work in his fingers.  For example when he goes to make a fist the ring and middle finger still point straight out.  The top knuckle of the middle finger does bend, but I hoped for a little more.