Just Like the Thundercats

so annie has these little pens that she has rediscovered and she likes to use them to draw her many circles...the problem is, the lids on the pens are the kind that click down and she has a hard time pulling the lid off, so she tries to twist them off thus loosening the little thingy that holds the actual ink tube in place. am i making sense? anyway, i said to her "don't twist them honey, or they'll come loose".

she stopped, looked at her pens then looked at me and said "just like the thundercats!"

it took me a minute to wonder what in the sam hill she was even talking about...but then i just burst out laughing and said "yep, you're absolutely right, just like the thundercats".

because if you know the theme song to the thundercats, you know that "thundercats are on the move, thundercats are loose!"

just like annie's pens.

Bracing for the Big Haircut

sigh. i think it's time.

today i had a doctor's appointment (and no, i'm not dying, contrary to what i believed to be true) and niki took jasper with her to yoga. she said as they were leaving a woman was following behind them and said "it's business in the front and a party in the back!"

you know what that means. it's officially a mullet. even in the crazy humidity with the crazy curls bouncing up all tight and cute...it's still a mullet.

i can feel my heart rate going up as i think about cutting it off. it's funny. i couldn't wait to cut annie's hair the first time and give her the cute bob, but with jasper i'm just dying about it.

get ready folks, these curls are about to be history. sniff sniff. jasper says "say what?":

he's sad about it, too:

Jumping Beans

last weekend was the "international fair" at annie's school. the international fair featuring such internationally acclaimed locations as TEXAS...and HAWAII. it just makes me laugh that of the 5 international locales represented, two of them are domestic. as it were.

but alas, that is neither here nor there. the point is, we had a wonderful time at the international fair eating, playing games and, in particular, watching the kids jump and play on the inflatables. i think both annie and jasper would prefer it if our home was one of those inflatable jumping things. we almost couldn't convince them to come home with us, they were having so much fun.

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 41

dear annie,

i found out today that you are one of the smartest kids in your class at school. i'm not at all surprised, because i always suspected as much, but it made me proud to hear miss susie say it. apparently - and i didn't know this until today - it is a big deal that you draw eyes, noses and mouths on things. you have gotten to be a master at drawing circles and now that has been extended to include eyes, noses and mouths on things that have eyes, noses and mouths. very advanced, kiddo. you are a 3 year old functioning at a 4 year old level. hee hee. that's huge. i wonder how you'll do at standardized testing? surely they should be able to tell now, what with this amazing face-drawing ability you have.

i am proud though. i laugh because it's all so silly, but i am just glad that you like school so much and you are excelling and growing so much. you have grown so much and in every way this year. i'm astounded.

so your daddy and i often have to remind you not to pick the flowers because you will mosey over to the neighbor's and pick their flowers, you will pick flowers at the park, at restaurants, etc. you loooove to pick flowers and give them to me. "it's for you, mommy", you'll say. and then, how can i possible say "thank you, but don't pick the flowers". i might as well say "i hate your gift, you horrible child". so anyway, we try to always talk about how important it is to leave the flowers alone for the bees and butterflies to eat. then today, on your way home from school, you said "mommy, the butterflies don't eat the flowers. they only sip on the flowers." once again, i stand corrected by my 3 year old.

you have started swimming lessons this month and you love it. you love it so much you want your bathing suit on no less than one hour prior to the time we have to leave. you just run around the house saying "NOW it's time to go to swimming lessons?!" this weekend we went swimming at aunt niki's house and you were actually practicing your back float, it was so cool to watch. you were talking yourself through the steps and i could see your brain working and putting it all together until suddenly you were moving! so cool.

you are something, sweetie-girl. i love you and your every-growing feet.

love, mommy

Bend it Like Jasper

Hostile Takeover

today's blog is being brought to you by the letter J. that is, my little bro the rocket-scientist (he loves it when i do that), Jay. he and his wifey sarah were here this past weekend visiting from california. the stay was far too brief, but we packed a lot of good times and as he will attest, good eats, into the weekend. and now, without further ado...i give you jay's weekend recap.

Sarah and I arrived in Houston on Friday afternoon. Gina and the kids came and picked us up in the truck – my sister truly is a Texan now. The ride home was hilarious. Annie was so adamantly hiding from us with her hands in front of her face that she put herself to sleep. Jasper, while not hiding, regarded us coolly for the ride.

Once we arrived home things loosened up considerably. In fact, after that point I’m not sure that Annie stopped talking/giggling or that Jasper stopped smiling for the rest of the weekend. It’s amazing how a little time changes so much with kids this age. The last time Sarah and I saw Annie and Jasper was at our wedding last September, and the difference is remarkable. Jasper, for one, has changed from just being a chill and happy baby, to being a chill, happy, starting to talk, smiley, giggly, funny little guy. Annie’s personality has just continued to grow, as has her vocabulary. It’s hard to say either of them has gotten cuter since they both started pretty high on that scale, but they haven’t gotten less cute, that is for sure. The pictures we’ve all seen here prove that.

Back at the Johnston pad, Addison met us there and quickly took me for a round of disc golf with Larry. Sarah and Gina chilled at the shack and we made it back soon for dinner – a beautifully grilled salmon. After dinner we ended up hanging out around chatting and drinking over the kitchen sink, which Gina was happy about. It gave her an excuse to buy bar stools or something.

The culinary delights continued Saturday morning (after Annie woke Sarah and I up at 7:30 – waaaay after the sun came up) when Gina made us eggs benedict with the health food hollandaise sauce. YUM. I could have eaten at least fourteen or fifteen of those babies, but I didn’t want to die of a massive coronary in my sister’s new house.

At one point on Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the old turquoise/sea foam green chair that used to be at the Deerfield house, trying to read The Dangerous Book for Boys, when Annie came and informed me, “That’s myyy library book.” Normally, being the good godfather I am, I would gladly surrender the book, but at this particular moment I was trying to read a summary of the strategies used by Napoleon, and I didn’t really want to stop (as an aside, Gina, I hope you weren’t kidding about buying me that book for Christmas). So I responded, “I’m sorry Annie, but this book is for boys. See? It says it right here on the cover, for boys.”
“Yeah,” says Annie, pointing to the word dangerous on the cover, “But right here it says, five girls.” I immediately relinquished the book. The profundity of her argument was more on Napolean’s level than my own. She deserved it.

Saturday night was the big birthday celebration for Niki. I think she’s 28 now? We went to dinner in Houston at Fuad’s. That is F-wah-d-s. I dunno where the name came from, but it felt like we were in a mafia hang out, and it was fantastic. If this wasn’t a family blog I would tell about how the waiter made Niki smash some kind of nutshell and there was a condom inside… like I said: fantastic. Plus we had bananas foster for dessert.

Sarah and I had to leave Sunday, but not before continuing the binge eating. This morning we started with Kolaches, which are a delicious invention involving an unglazed donut stuffed with a hot dog, jalapeño peppers, and cheese. Do I even still have arteries at this point?

Soon enough we were off to the airport. The trip was ridiculously fast, but equally as fun. Annie, Jasper, Gina and Addison – Thanks for the great weekend! We can’t wait to see you again.

Love,
Uncle Jay

Swimming!

the exclamation is there because when annie talks about swimming! it is always with this level of excitement! in her voice as though she just discovered a new dora toy or something.

so we started swimming lessons on monday.

i was a little worried because if you know annie, you know she sometimes has a little bit of the stranger anxiety. she is often game to do anything, until you tell her to go do it with the other kids or go do it with that strange adult over there and then she shuts down.

she had been talking about swimming lessons like it was the greatest thing that was going to happen to her. we remember how much she loves the water. i mean, look at her from last summer. she loves it. as we walked outside to get in the car to go to the first lesson she ran out in the driveway and said, "mommy! it's a lovely day for swimming lessons!"

seriously, she really said that.

we get to the pool and at first she sort of stayed real close because it was a strange place with lots of strange people, but she saw all the kids swimming and she was like "i want to go swimming now!" and i said "we have to wait for your teacher" and she kind of looked at me like "huh?" but she seemed ok with it.

when it came time for her to go with her teacher over to the pool, they call the kids names and then we parents give them over to the teacher for the next half hour. annie marched right up to her teacher, grabbed her hand and never even looked back at me.

for the next half hour she was laughing, giggiling and talking away with her strange teacher and 3 other strange kids. it was amazing. and it was no fluke, because when we went back on wednesday she was even more excited, almost to the point of psychotic.

and don't even get me started on what she thought of the diving board.

Quick Pic

i'm busy preparing for house guests, so no time to post today...but here's a cute picture of the kiddos to get you by til next time.

Mary Had a Little Lamb...At Least She Used To

i keep forgetting to tell this gem of a story from our trip to sd:

so on the saturday night before we left, i think it was, mom and dad decided to take me out to dinner. yay for me! my aunt mary volunteered her babysitting services so we were going to take the kiddies over to aunt mary's house and then have ourselves a nice, relaxing, yummy dinner. with lots of wine. but that is neither here nor there.

as we're in the car driving in to town, my dad is talking to annie and saying silly things like "hey! here we go! we're driving to TEXAS!" and then annie says "no silly papa, we're going to maaaary's house!" and on and on they go. at one point during this tete-a-tete, i interject with "annie, do you think mary has a lamb?" and she gasped, shocked at the realization, and says "yes i do think mary has a lamb!" and then we go on "i wonder if it's little" blah blah blah...

flash forward to when we arrive back at mary's house after our dinner. the kids are all asleep and mary says, "so, as soon as you left annie looked at me and said 'where's mary?'"

mary, confused and crestfallen (not really) said "i'm mary, remember? sorry to disappoint." or something to that effect. then annie says "well, where's your little lamb?" and mary says, "i don't have a little lamb." and annie's all, "you need a little lamb".

because, duh. if you are MARY then you must have a LAMB. it's the only option. it is what it is. it says so right there in the song: mary had a little lamb.

meanwhile, mary is wondering what in the sam hill we all told her on the way to her house.

hee hee. thank you, mary.

At Last, The Zoo!

annie has been asking to go to the zoo almost as long as she's been saying "i'ma play soccer in spring". and so, finally, we woke up yesterday morning, packed up supplies and headed down to the houston zoo.

we saw the baby giraffe, the baby elephant, the baby orangutan (who incidentally was my favorite). i tried to get a picture, but there was too much glare from the glass and reflection of the 6-year old orangutan-hog little girl that wouldn't get out of the way. i'm just saying. anyway, this cute little orangutan was messing with his sleeping daddy, trying to get him to wake up and play with him (hmmm where have i seen that behaviour before?) and the daddy finally wakes up all pissy and angrily shoos his little progeny away and the baby goes running to his mommy and she puts her arm around him and then takes him over to this corner where he's all nestling in to his mommy, alternately nursing and snuggling. seriously. i could have stayed there all day and watched. but then i start to get all sad because these animals are not in their natural habitat and it makes me very nervous and i start to feel like humans are evil monsters and then we move on to the next exhibit where i forget all about it because...

the warthog is pregnant! the warthog keeper is keeping the daddy company while the mommy gets an ultrasound and they just found out she has two piglets! cute! but apparently warthog daddy's are deadbeats, because as soon as they knock up their baby-mamas, they hit the road and get the hell out of dodge...or if that's not an option they just kick the living daylights out of the baby-mama. lovely.

thank goodness we got to see the jaguar, annies favorite. you know, diego has a jaguar at home and annie said if given the choice of any animals in the zoo, she would want a jaguar at her house.

we went back to the children's zoo and oh my goodness did we love it back there. and by we i mean annie and jasper. it was actually very cute and fun but addison and i very quickly realized that while the rest of the zoo was pretty quiet and not too crowded, the children's zoo is where alllll those people from allll those cars in the parking lot were gathering. it was madness. annie was game for almost everything though. she looked to see how the bugs see, she and jasper both looked out the big skyscraper windows, whe went down the slide from the animal house, she brushed the goats in the petting zoo, she hopped on the frog and then pretended she was a frog, she was having a great time. she just didn't want to leave. we had to let her run around in the playground for a while because it was the best. thing. ever. according to annie.

we almost made it out of the children's zoo when annie decided she really needed to see what it was like to see through a praying mantis' eyes. she must have liked it because she hung out there for something like 40 minutes. ok, two minutes, but it felt like forty.

jasper absolutely loved the zoo, too. if you could have heard him every time he saw a live, moving animal, you would have giggled every time like addison and i did. he would gasp, literally gasp in awe of what he was seeing. then he'd point and say something incomprehensible and then just stare with this wide-eyed smile on his face.

we had some lunch, went to the gift shop for a couple of "zoo keepsakes" and then left. i think we made it in and out in 3 1/2 hours and the kids were awesome the whole time. it was a really fun day. we got home and jasper napped while annie did her new "age 5+" puzzle in record time.

we sat on the patio outside and watched daddy mow while we drank apple juice and gin & tonics...mmmmm. good day. after jasper woke up we headed to the butcher to pick up a few filets for dinner and had a yummy steak and salad for dinner.

here is what remained of annie's 6 oz. filet:

the girl loves some steak.

and then, as i was tucking her into bed i said "i had a lot of fun with you today" and she said, "me too, mommy. i was a very good girl."

and she was right.

It's Video Saturday Sunday!

annie playing in the snow....

and jasper getting "flip-flopped" by papa...

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 18

dear jasper,

as i sit here and write this you are walking all over the place. you still look a little like a cowboy who's been riding all the livelong day, but dangit, you're walking! sure as the sun doth shine, my boy! i'm so proud of you. i was really beginning to wonder if i was going to have to take you to physical therapy or something. for some reason, many people out there think that if a child of 17-18 months isn't running yet, there must be something terribly, terribly wrong. it starts to make a mother paranoid, you know? but then, there are just as many people who say "oh he'll walk when he's ready" and things like that, which i'm much more on board with. optimism: that's just the way i roll.

buddy, you are not only walking but you are talking. ok, talking may be a bit of a stretch since there are still only a handful of english words that appear in your vernacular at the moment, but you are saying an awful lot that we underlings don't comprehend. let's see, you've recently added "please" (peas) and "thank you" (ti-to) to your vocabulary, which makes me laugh. you are especially eager to use please and thank you when it involves receiving animal crackers or cookies. see video.

also joining the vocab list is "baby" - emphasis on the BA part. it's funny. you are loving babies right now. yesterday we went to run errands and you had to bring one of annies dolls with you. everywhere. you just hold her and kiss her and say "BAby" over and over. and don't tell daddy, but yesterday at target when we were trolling throught the toy aisles, you pointed at the princess dresses and got very, very excited. my first thought was, hm, maybe we need some more boy-toys in our house. my second thought was, that's ridiculous, he can get excited about princess dresses and dolls if he wants to, he's only 18 months old. and then my third thought was i seem to remember numerous stories about your daddy dressing up like a girl when he was little (and not so little)...so i guess you just take after your dad. uh oh. trouble.

you have officially mastered the stairs and you can come down them now as easily as you go up. i still get a little nervous about you crashing down to the hard tile below, but now that i know you can actually get yourself down, i feel better about it. you really only make me nervous when you and annie decide to play on the stairs - which you both know is against the rules, but you guys are little anarchists, so you don't play by the rules.

you have officially become a member of the posse too. that is, you want to be everywhere your sister is at all times. the other day we went over to your cousins' house and you got your first taste of what a bummer it is to be the youngest and slowest. you were all playing together in the boys' room and then at some point annie, cody and pres all went running back out to the kitchen to tell us something and they left you - slow one - behind and all of the sudden we hear the heart-wrenching crying of a little boy whose heart was just broken because he was ditched. oh honey, it's sad, but it's not the last time that it's going to happen to you so either buck up or get your speed on in a hurry!

i just signed you up for something called "mother's day out" next school year. and buddy, even though it sounds like it's for me and it sounds very selfish of me, it's not. it's for you. yes, i get to have 2 days a week of free time while you and annie are at school, but it's also a chance for you to learn more, play with kids your age, and hopefully learn to be less of a picky eater. i think you're going to love it because if it's any indication, every time we drop annie off at school you just cop a squat in one of the teeny chairs at the teeny table and pretend like you're working on a puzzle and maybe miss susie won't notice that you aren't really in her class. you get so mad at me when i pick you up to leave. so mad. and we won't discuss that it won't be miss susie's class you're going to next year because i'm still sad about her retiring, but no use lingering on it. my point is, you're a big boy. you're ready to get out and experience the world a little bit. i just realized that you have been with me every day of your life since you were born...do you think i'm going to have some separation anxiety? you bet your baby teeth i am.

i love ya, munchkin.

mommy

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 40

dear anniepants,

i noticed something this month. i think (i hope) that the tantrums are beginning to wind down. i don't want to speak too soon, but they are becoming fewer and farther between, which is a good thing because your brother is about to enter tantrum territory. you still have your moments of unabashed ire, but for the most part we can reason you back from the brink before you actually teeter over the edge. it's nice.

it also means you're growing up, which is still and always will be sad for me. it's exciting but sad. you're not a baby anymore. last night when daddy came home from work you said "let's dance, daddy!" and so he picked you up and you danced around the living room with your knees on his chest and this song playing right now (colbie caillat's "realize") was playing on the ipod and i just had this vision of you on your wedding day dancing with daddy and we probably have some gray hair (because hopefully that day is a long ways away)...and i got very sentimental for a moment. sigh. because you're growing that fast.

let's see, what are you in to right now? well, you love love love being outside. the other day we went over to aunt niki's house and you and cody went out to play on his new jungle gym thingy...in the rain. you had also just had a shower and were in your jammies but the temptation to play outiside was just too great. you came in 45 minutes later - naked from the waist down, of course - holding your pants, which were filthy and literally dripping wet.

when we are at home you want to be in the sandbox or watering "flowers" (that is, the patio, the sand, jasper's head, etc.). you love to ride your tricycle up to the mailbox to see if you received any mail...speaking of which, we should get a basket for your trike.

next week you are starting swim lessons and though i think you will love it, i am a bit nervous as to how you're going to respond to me not being in the water with you. it will be interesting. after that, you will be playing summer soccer and then gymnastics. gymnastics might have to wait until fall, i don't know if i can handle all those activities at once.

last week when we were driving up to mama and papa's house, we passed a lake. i pointed the lake out to you and you said "wow!" and then you said "the water is blue from the sky" and i just grinned as i marvelled at your intelligence. i don't know, maybe that's not so special that you - as a 3 year old - picked up on that, but it is very observant. because maybe - scientifically speaking - it's the sky that looks blue because of reflections and molecular scatter and things like that, but it is also very true that the water looks blue because the sky is blue. duh. i'm going to go grab some college applications quick and see who'll take you next year.

i love you, punk. you are my sunshine.


love, mommy

We're Back and We're Walking

we made it back and i am happy to report a.) that we didn't die in the blizzard we drove in on monday and b.) it's official: jasper is walking.

it's been a long time coming, but finally jasper seems to prefer two feet to all fours. problem is, he wants to run to keep up with annie, but he's not yet coordinated enough so he just takes diggers whenever he starts out running, which is pretty much every time. i don't have a very good video of the walking yet, so this one will have to suffice for now. it's not even really about walking so much as it is about him sneezing and then saying "achoo" like it's a big joke.

more on the trip later, i just realized i have to do the kids' updates...i'm so behind!