How Old Are You?

the answer is "party". all week long we'd been working with jasper on the concept of the birthday: of turning two, of holding up two fingers, of having a party, of presents, of cake, etc. now, jasper is no dummy but he plays one on tv...or, rather, he just picked his favorite birthday-related-concept and chose that to be his A-#1 focus. so, ask jasper how old he is and it goes a little something like this:

"jasper how old are you?"

"party!"

"but how old are you?"

"party!"

"yes, you're going to have a party, but how old are you?"

"two." like, duh, everyone already knows that. but NOT everyone knows about my PARTY!!! woo hoo!

and here we thought our little attention-phobic son would not be loving the whole party thing. he gets crabby when everyone is looking at him or when all the focus turns to him. you can actually see his heart beating through his chest. BUT. all of the sudden, party day arrives and he is totally game. he was loving the whole presents-thing, he was loving the whole people-here-to-play-with-me thing, and he was even loving the whole sing-to-me-and-watch-me-blow-out-candles thing. it was very surprising. he even ate some frosting off the cupcake. no cake, just frosting, but hey, i'll take what i can get. it was very adventurous, jasper.

the cousins were here, aunt niki and uncle larry were here and even mama lola and papa jack were here for the party, so hey, we had a better turn out than we thought!

here's proof that you weren't freaked out:

and...

as usual, the birthday boy raked in some serious loot - from matchbox cars to a big red wagon. there were balls, books, alphabet magnets, scooby and thomas videos, a john deere gator, spiderman phone, alphabet letters, a huge box of fruit snacks and more! and he doesn't even know about the best part yet, the part that is going to have him saying "wow" more than he said it all day on his birthday (every time we opened a present)...the thomas choo-choo set. we have the table already and the train/tracks are on their way. so far, the table is cool enough - it's perfect for matchbox cars and the gator to tool around on, but once jasper sees choo-choo trains, i think his head might explode from excitement. i can't wait. not for his head to explode...but...you get my point.

all in all a very fun birthday. annie is next and boy does she let us know that little tidbit every hour upon the hour. phew. and if you ask her what she wants for her birthday it will take her all day to point out alll the things in alll the catalogues and then when you say "wow, i guess you want everything, huh?" she'll correct you and say "no, just these couple girl things".

oh. right.

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 24

hello buddy,

you are 2! 2!! i can't believe we made it. seriously. all your weird eating hangups made me feel like you were going to be 1 forever. but now i think we can start fresh and pretty soon you'll be eating burgers like the rest of us. you ate the frosting off of your cupcake, for crying out loud, that's a pretty good start, i'd say.

baby boy, you have grown and changed immensely in just the past couple of weeks. you are talking so much more and understanding so much more and we can actually communicate with you on a more "human" level now, it's so great. yesterday you even said words. on the phone. i was talking to papa and i held the phone to your ear and you said "papa!" and then you said "bye bye". i think you made papa's day. i'm not positive, but i'm pretty sure.

it's just amazing how much can happen in a few weeks. in a few short months.

holy cow, big man, you are growing so fast! which is amazing since you eat like a little bird. but i don't need to dwell on that today because today is your birthday the day after your birthday!

anyway, i just wanted to tell you (again) how much i love you, how proud you make me and how much joy you bring to my life every day. i can't wait to see what this next year brings, because based on how your little personality is unfolding it is going to be full of humor, goofiness, patience-testing and...potty training. that's next, big boy. brace yourself.

i love you, buckaroo. or, as you would say, "i yuvyou",

love, mommy

Fashion Forward?

maybe she knows something we don't know. maybe these socks were supposed to be worn like this. all i know is, no amount of arguing with annie on my part, could convince her that these anklets were meant to be worn around her ankles. when i went to pick her up from school yesterday, the socks were back up around her knees as if i, her mother, am just the biggest idiot on the planet who sent her to school wearing her socks around her ankles. silly me. this, obviously, looks much more stylish.

oh, and she did wear pants to school.

A Tale of Two Jaspers

here is jasper on any given day. happy, jovial, goofy, fun-loving...

here is jasper when he doesn't like the food that's in front of him, the chair he's sitting in, the view from said chair, etc. hateful, bitter, sad, depressed, angry...

and here is where jasper ends up when he throws a food-related fit.

time out.

lather, rinse, repeat.

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 45

dear annie,

i'm a little late with your update, but we had a hurricane to contend with so i should get a grace period for that...right?

i can't remember what it was the other day that we asked you but your response was "no, i'm good". you're good? like, "no, man, it's coo'. i'm all good, yo". it was really funny but also alarming. alarming in that, you are quickly becoming a kid. not a toddler. a kid. with your own ideas (all of which are the right idea), your own slang, your own fashion sense (striped leggings and butterfly shirt, anyone?). it just happened.

i was again looking through baby pictures of you and jasper the other day and it of course ended with me crying, "where did my babies go!?"
and look:

that's what you looked like when we moved to texas. so little. only a few months older than jasper is right now. and look what he looked like then. a baby. an infant.

i know. get over it, mom. at some point i'm going to have to come to terms with the fact that you aren't going to grow smaller or stop growing altogether. otherwise, when it's time for you to leave for college i'm going to be saying things like "don't forget to go potty!" and "drink your milk!" and make you stand up against the wall in your dorm room so i can make a height-mark. weird, i know. but watch me, i'll do it.

so yes, you continue to grow and mature in so many ways. after what felt like months of reminding you to use your manners, now - for the most part - you will say "may i please have some chocolate milk" or "may i please watch a show?" instead of the former "CHOCOLATE MILK!" and "SHOOOOWWWW!" it's so nice. and then sometimes you even surprise yourself and you'll ask so nice and then a minute later you'll say "mommy i use my good manners!". love it.

more and more you are becoming a little performer. you love to listen to music LOUD and dance around the living room and kitchen. or in the car. or in your room. we even got you "on stage" the other day. you were at a birthday party at the children's museum and you got up on the stage and sang "twinkle, twinkle little star". that is, until some other people came and then you ran away, embarrassed.

tee hee. makes me laugh, my little-big-kid.

i love you forever, i'll like you for always, as long as i'm living, my baby you'll be.

love, mommy

We Have POWER!!!

AND we're home. sigh. what a week we had! life at the refugee camp was tough going (not), but we made out unscathed (except for a few extra pounds around the belly)...

addison left ft. worth early this morning only to get within 20 minutes of home and found out our power was back on. so, he turned around and headed back to get the rest of us. lola and i and the kids picked up ferris from doggie-refugee-camp and then headed south so we could meet addison along the way and save him a couple hours of drive time. we rolled in around 3:30 and assessed the damage, which you can see here, here and here. lots and lots of debris and obviously a couple of trees down, but miraculously - with the exception of two boards in our fence - there was no damage to our house, fence or the neighbors houses. phew.

thanks to jack, our fridge was a cinch to clean out, so now all we need to do is re-stock. we're in good shape. it feels good to be home and back to "normal" (whatever that is). hee hee.

thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers - they worked! and thanks again to the jack-and-lola-refugee-camp for the hospitality, food, drink and entertainment!

Refugee Camp: Day 4

day four activities included: trip to the park to let the kids run where we met a couple of fellow-refugees; trip to mcdonalds for lunch for the kids (and the grownups, who are we kidding) and playland; trip to target for allergy medicine (yours truly) and sweatshirts (kiddos)...believe it or not it actually feels like fall in texas!

day four food intake included (but not limited to): blueberry pancakes and sausage, mcd's, buffalo wings and tater tots with cheese. mmmmmm...

jack has been down to survey the damage and he brought us back some pictures, which you'd have thought he came home with a million dollars as excited as niki and i got. some day you all will get to see what it all looks like by the house but for now trust me when i say there is a lot of debris - and by debris i mean whole trees - in the road and in our yard. fortunately, the trees fell away from our house...what is it with us and falling trees in our yard? anyway, some folks in our 'hood did not fare so well, so we are very, very lucky.

that's all the news from lake wobegon for now, will report back tomorrow when i get back from my trip home...going to go check out what's what and get some fall clothes for the kids in preparation for our trip north.

love to all!

Refugee Camp: Day 3

good morning. it is day 3 at the mcdaniel refugee camp and i'm happy to report that we are all fairing well. there is no shortage of food and electricity is in abundance. in fact, you may not recognize us when we leave the camp, due to the reality that we may very well be 100 pounds heavier. the menu at the refugee camp is nothing less than 5-star: fried chicken and mashed potatoes, fresh fruit, biscuits and gravy, steaks, salad, eggs benedict with cheesy hash browns, wings, burgers, brats...and that doesn't even include the great happy hour specials like all-you-can-drink gin and tonics, wine and beer.

for a bunch of refugees, we're doing pretty well.

as for news on the homefront, we have recieved word from friends that our homes are fine. we will have a lot of branches to clean up, but there is no damage to our houses. sigh. relief. we may very well be without power for three weeks or more, according to our electric company. apparently 99% of the customer base is without power and the damage sustained to the grid was major. so, we are unsure when we will be getting back home for good. we'll probably hang out here until the weekend and then go from there. depending on addison's commitments to work we may have a trip up north in our near future.

i will keep you abreast of the situation as i get more information.

for now, that's all the news from mcdaniel refugee camp. 10-4.

Ike Update: We're OK

hi all,

i'm sure ya'll are wondering how we are fairing down here in hurricane country. i just wanted to update to let you know we are fine. we made the decision yesterday morning to come up to ft. worth to addison's mom's house, so we are all here safe and sound and we are even seeing some hefty wind gusting this far north of the action.

we have lots of friends who stayed in conroe and we have been in touch with all and we know that they are all ok as well. power is currently out and i guess lots of trees and fences are down, but so far everyone is ok. we are not sure how our house is - we have plenty of big trees to worry about, but hopefully if they fell, they didn't fall on our house. good thoughts.

as i get more information, i will keep you posted. they say it could be weeks before full power is restored, so i'm not sure what that means. who knows if conroe will be back up sooner since we are further out, i don't know. we'll probably at least be in ft. worth another couple of days.

love to you all,
gina and family

The Last Days of Summer

there's a hurricane a'comin' but you'd never know it by the weather the past few days. sunny, hot, the skies that deep blue that you see when fall is right around the corner...it's been gorgeous.

apparently that's all about to change as we face our first hurricane threat as texans. ike is about to bear down on the texas coast and we're looking at some fairly insanely strong winds and heavy monsoonish rains in the next couple of days. fortunately for us, we have family up north in ft. worth, so we'll likely be hitting the road and taking a little vacation north for the weekend. i do and i don't really want to see what 100 mph winds look like. i've never seen it. i would probably cry. then again, it could be cool. then again, i don't have a basement so i would for sure be crying. also i have these little humans that i have to think about, and i don't want them to see 100 mph winds.

i've never experienced a hurricane before and i have realized i am very ignorant about this specific force of nature. tornadoes i know about. hurricanes? not so much. i'm learning about storm surge, contraflow, being on the "wrong side" of the storm, etc. there's a lot more to it than just some strong winds and rain.

so, here's hoping this hurricane doesn't ramp up any more than it has, that the damage will be slight and that all the people and homes in the path will be safe.

meanwhile, happy birthday to my hubby today! gotta go so annie and i can get started on his cake!

It's Not Me, It's the Floor

in the continuing saga of annie's inability to admit that even her feet can be smelly...i bring you this conversation:

a: mommy, the floor is stinky.

m: what?

a: the floor is stinky.

m: the floor is stinky? why are you smelling the floor?

a: i'm not smelling the floor, i'm smelling my feet.

m: ohhhhh. your feet are stinky.

a: no mommy, i said, the floor is stinky.

and so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows.

School Days

my babies are officially no longer babies. they both started "school" today: annie back at st. james and jasper is over at sacred heart for "mother's day out". don't they look so big?! wow.

this not only means jasper will be getting more of the age-appropriate stimulation and learning he needs, but it means that 2 days of every week i will be totally. free. free to go out to lunch, free to go grocery shopping without kids fighting over who gets to hold the box of fruit snacks, free to paint my family room (finally)...free. i'm so excited. as the kids get older and the schedules begin to become busier and busier with sports and birthday parties, i am realizing how needed it is going to be for me to get some stuff done while they're away learning, playing and being social. it's a hard thing to accomplish when they're under my feet all day.

call it "outsourcing my job" (ahem, addison), i don't care. i don't think there is a mother out there who will argue that it's not a good idea to socialize your kids. even home-schoolers take their broods elsewhere for socialization. anyway, i'm happy, the kids are happy, addison is working by candlelight right now so he might not be as happy as us, but that is neither here nor there. by the way, did you know people will steal the copper wires from a building to pawn it for cash!? so weird.

happy back-to-school everyone!

We Have No Idea Where She Gets It

the dramatics, that is. no idea. really. none at all.

what we do know is, girl can't resist singing. once the music gets inside her soul she just has to let it out. let it out, peanut! let it out!