Summer Arrives

it was 80 degrees at 6:30 this morning. the high is 90-ish, but adding in the 50% humidity puts us at about 103 degrees. wow. coming from the midwest, i am certainly no stranger to humidity but - i have to say - i can feel that it is a different story down here. the time i spent in austin was over before the summer came, so i didn't really get to experience the texas heat. but this, this is starting to feel like what i would imagine the rain forests of south america to feel like: stifling, heavy, sticky. it's like the extreme cold where when you go outside and try to take a deep breath, you can't. in the cold it makes you cough, in the humidity it feels like you're choking on the air, it's so thick with moisture. we've been going on our morning walks at 8am, but i still come home completely soaking wet. and i'm not even that much of a sweater. phew. here we go!

in an effort to stay cool, we have been spending nearly every afternoon at the pool since it opened last weekend. it is here that annie has discovered the beauty of relaxing in the water.

no matter how hard i tried, she would not let me help her practice floating, or paddling, or any of it. then, all of the sudden i look over and there she is floating on her back and smiling like a fool. here's another picture of the happy floater. jasper loves sitting in the water, too, but he feels very strongly about his no-hat-no-sunglasses rule. it's great because we can all be in the water at once and it's so much cooler that way. annie is really getting the hang of her water wings now, and she's even getting so bold as to venture into the 2-foot water range. i find it very entertaining because - again - if i swim across the line and beckon her to come to me, she won't do it. she'll say "go this way, mommy" and she'll stay in the safe zone where her feet touch. but then i'll be sitting on the edge and she'll motor her way over to the line and all of the sudden her feet aren't touching anymore and she starts giggling and then kind of nervous-giggling and saying "paddle! paddle!" as if just saying it will propel her forward. my plan is to get us into swimming lessons soon so that she can practice holding her breath and that kind of stuff.

just in case you want to see annie in action at the pool, here is a video of that very thing.

and, if you are so inclined, here's a link to another video - jasper makes an appearance at the tail end.

so, life is good in the land of Big Awl (that's Oil, ya'll). i best be signin' off now, i'm fixin' to do some yard work before it gets so hot the hens lay hard-boiled eggs.

love from the lone star state,

gina

The Pool is Open

well, we may not be blogging much these days. the pool just opened and annie is a junkie already. we walked over to the pool yesterday at about 4:30 and she swam and swam and swam and swam and would've swum until she fell asleep, had i not brought her home for dinner. she loved it. she woke up this morning saying "swim in the 'wimming pool?". and i have to say, when it's 90 degrees and just as humid at 5:00pm, you can bet we're going to be spending an awful lot of time up there this summer. there really isn't any other option for outdoor activities if they don't involve water. it's just too hot.

that being said, we have to go check on getting jasper a little floaty something-or-other, because he's going to need to be in the water with us. this sitting-in-the-stroller stuff is just not going to do.

I Don't Feel Like Writing Today

Flying Lessons or, I Promise I'm not a Druggie

we're back. we had the most wonderful time in south dakota. both jay and cory were home for the weekend so it was like a little mcmahon family reunion. we don't all get to see other that often any more now that we are all about 1600 miles away from eachother. makes for a fun - though too-quick - time. the main reason we were home was for sarah's bridal shower. here's a picture of me with my sister-in-law jess, and our soon-to-be-sister-in-law sarah. also known as jay's bride. also knows as lil' cookie. did i mention we had a great time this weekend? so much fun. oh and when is the last time you played the game Balderdash? because it's awesome.

anyway. so the flight to sioux falls was hectic but good. i know you all are dying to hear the stories of woe, but actually, the woe didn't happen until the trip home. i'll get to that in a minute. our trip started crazy because i forgot to double-check my ticket the night before we flew out so we got to the airport and were taking our time because we had plenty of it as far as i was concerned. it was 7:45 when i stepped up to the counter to check in and for some reason the screen wouldn't let me check in so the agent comes over and goes "it's because you're too late" and i was like "huh? but it leaves at 8:50" and he said "it leaves at 7:50" and it was 7:47 as he's telling me this. i could've cried. i almost did. i might have produced a tear because i was so mad at myself. addison helped a lot by throwing his arms up in despair because he had a tee-time that morning...so now i've ruined everyone's day. anyway, $50 later we were on the 1pm flight so we got back in the truck and headed home. the great thing about it was we got to have a nice breakfast with bergan, who was up to keep addison company for the weekend.

we finally get to the airport on time and addison has to leave me at security so now i'm on my own. here's where it gets hectic. i should have taken a picture of what i looked like. i had jasper on my front in the bjorn carrier, i had a backpack on my back, i had annie in the awesome-life-saving stroller/carseat contraption that niki let us use...i'm trying to get my shoes off without dumping jasper on the ground and - oops - i don't have my liquids in a ziplock. ok there aren't any. now i've got 2 bottles of tylenol, some orajel, some chapstick and lipgloss in my hand...trying to get annie out of the stroller since we have to put that through x-ray, only annie has decided she won't do it. she won't. oh, i have to take her shoes off, too? really? can anyone help me? NO?! HELLO ALL YOU A-HOLES SITTING ON YOUR LAZY A-HOLES (i'm sorry grandma, but i was very angry) - I AM BY MYSELF WITH 2 SMALL CHILDREN, MY HANDS FULL OF BANNED LIQUIDS, AND I'M BAREFOOT ON THE GRODY AIRPORT FLOOR...PLEASE HELP ME. and dude. no one would help. annie was sitting on the floor because she wouldn't walk and i'm trying to collapse the stroller to send it through x-ray and there were literally 6 security people there doing nothing because thank god there was no line...and not one of them made a move to help me out. then one of them goes "come here little girl" to annie to get her to go through the gate thing. helpful. thank you. calling her "little girl" and talking to her in your scary/creepy voice is reaaaaaaaaally helpful. thank you.

anyway. once we got on the plane we were all set. the kids were great and i have no complaints and - more importantly - neither did anyone else. our ride to sioux falls was great too, because we sat by Nola - the most wonderful, saintly, jet-lagged woman on the planet. she is this grandmother in her late-60s who just got done touring china with her husband. not only did she have interesting stories, but she had annie on her lap, she had jasper on her lap, she let annie beat her face and pull on her glasses and climb all over her with her diaper full of the stinkiest poo ever. she read dora stories, she held my water for me. she was unbelievable. she even carried the carseat/stroller off the plane for me when we got to sioux falls. just when you think everyone is lame and rude and unhelpful, you find out there are still some amazing and kind people in this world.

the trip home was another story. yes, i had addison with me, but i was suffering from something. at first i thought a hangover but i really don't think that's possible. perhaps a touch of the food poisoning. i don't know. maybe that was my mom's way of trying to get me to stay longer. "ah ha! i'll kill her. that'll work." seriously though, i was so nauseous. the car ride to the airport was torture. i had a plastic bag with me and i was 800 degrees and i was tingly and shaky and i thought i was going to pass out at any second. we made it to the airport and while addison checked bags i ran to the bathroom three different times. then again when we got to our gate. then when we got on the plane i had to leave annie while i went to the bathroom. luckily, we were in the last row right by the bathroom and the flight attendant was standing right there when i said "my daughter is right there and i'm not feeling well - thank you!" and then i was off. when i sat down again, the flight attendant brought me the coldest ginger ale on the planet and gave me a big plastic bag and apologized and said it was going to be bumpy. great. actually though, it wasn't bad and once we were in the air i felt better. i think i felt so bad that i was thinking the plane could go ahead and crash because at least then i wouldn't feel like this anymore. i just drank my ginger ale while annie read her books. it was the weirdest thing. i felt better once we got to minneapolis but i still couldn't eat. i felt fine on the flight home so go figure. the kids were amazing. i hate to brag and all, but the gentleman who was sitting by me on the way to houston said after we landed "either you have the best babies in the world, or you are the best mom in the world". thank. you. very. much. because sometimes i wonder.

oh and i think the security people who check the checked luggage think i'm a heroin dealer. i had a ziplock bag - full of extra formula powder - stuffed into one of our suitcases and when we got home it was gone and there was a sticker on our bags that said "security cleared" - which i assume means "we went through your crap, and after we took the drugs out we cleared the bag". too funny. thank god i always buy the generic brand, because the real stuff is like $25!

i've been rambling on and on. the cousins had so much fun playing together it was so good to get them together again. here are a couple of pictures of their theatrics.

it all went way too fast, but it was so much fun. that's all for now. annie is taking everything out of every drawer right now, so i need to run.

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 8

dear jasper,

here you are at 8 months and boy, have you changed a lot. again. are you growing in light-year time or something? sheesh.

the biggest thing to happen to you this month is you finally sprouted your first tooth! yay! it took a while, it took some chewing and a little baby orajel now and then, but it came through. number 2 is already on its way. it's about time too, because your 6 month old cousin has 4 teeth already. she is really showing you up. speaking of abbie, you two really had fun playing together this past weekend when you met for the first time.

let's see, what else have you done? you have mastered sitting up at this point, and the only time you fall backwards is when you start getting really excited and bouncing up and down and then you launch yourself backwards. it's pretty funny, actually. it surprises you every time, but you generally aren't upset by it. you're more upset that you aren't sitting anymore and you don't yet know how to get yourself into the sitting position on your own. it's so close, buddy. you're almost there. like the crawling. you will prop yourself way up on your arms and get one like almost up under you and then you will push yourself...backwards. that's the new thing. you use your hands and move backwards like heck, if i can't figure out this crawling forward thing, i'll just move backwards. but then you'll get mad again.


one of my favorite new things you are doing is clapping. all the time. anywhere. clapping. and sometimes you have to concentrate so hard to get those two hands to come together, that your face gets very, very serious and it couldn't be funnier. sometimes you miss altogether and that is even better because you nearly knock yourself over from the force. the problem is, i can't capture it on video yet, because you will not perform on command.


you babble nonstop and giggle at your sister a lot. you love it when she sings the "Thundercats" theme song to you. you think she is incredibly funny. it's great for the car because she just talks and sings and entertains you. particularly if you are crabby, she will try to cheer you up and say "hi buddy!" "it's ok, japper" and then she'll go "thundercats...HOOOOO!" and you'll just lose it giggling.


you are now officially a tummy sleeper, too. not only that, but you often sleep with your face directly down in the mattress. you know that's not allowed, right? usually you figure out that it doesn't make for the best air flow and you'll turn to one side, but sometimes i have to help you. or i just do because if i see you face down like that i can't NOT change your position. that's a scary one for us mommies. anyway, it looks like you might be as flexible as your sister because you are often found in this postion in your crib, or in this instance, when you get tired of sitting up. sometimes at nap time you will talk yourself to sleep. you just roll around in your crib and go "Ba ba ba ba ba, na na na na na!"
like it's REALLY important what you are saying.

you still don't love food, though i did get you to down some peaches the other day. by "down" i mean 6 bites. all in good time, little man. as long as you keep getting bigger, i'm not going to force the issue.

annie is tickling you right now and you are lauging so hard. you both are. these are the moments that make being a mommy wonderful. i better go before something bad happens.

love you honey,
mommy

Back to Our Roots

wish me luck. tomorrow i am taking 2 kids by myself on an airplane to south dakota to visit mama and papa. annie has assured me she will be a good girl - and i almost believe her, if for no other reason than she knows what is waiting for her when she deplanes in sioux foo. i have enough dvds, dora snacks and books to keep us occupied for days. hopefully, it will only be a few hours. i'm not sure how japper is going to handle his first flight. you know, annie was awesome the first time she flew, so jasper will probably be the opposite. don't think i'm not giving him tylenol before we board.

is 9am too early for me to have a gin and tonic? people might judge. what the judgers don't know is i hate flying. hate it. as in come-to-terms-with-my-death-every-time-i-board-a-plane-hate-it. but now i have children to worry about. i can't be releasing that kind of paranoid/psychotic energy into the universe when they are there with me; i don't want to pass it on to them. maybe i'll be so caught up in them i'll forget that i'm on a gigantic machine that weighs much too much to stay in the air on it's own and is surely going to fall out of the sky...sure i will. i know my bro jay is totally rolling his eyes at me right now. in his head he's like "of course it's not too heavy..." and then he'll be going on with some perfectly reasonable - and scientifically explanable - reason why airplanes are safer than blah, blah, blah, blah. he's totally making fun of me. but i still hate flying. unless he decides to take me to greece with him and sarah on their honeymoon. then i'll love to fly. only that's weird and creepy and lets forget i said that. god. see? talking about flying makes me act nuts.

sigh. anywho, i'm excited for our trip. it's going to be good to get back home and sit on the front porch with my folks drinking t&t's. mmmm.

i probably won't be blogging while i'm gone. maybe. but maybe not. i know you don't know what to do with yourselves now. deal with it. i'll be back in a little over a week. happy memorial day - can you believe it's that time already?! wow.

peace.

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 30

dear annie,

30 months? can that be right? that means only 6 months until you are 3 years old. no. no way. you just turned 2. well, the good news is, your terrible twos will be over...the bad news is - from what i've heard from other parents - your horrible threes are about to begin. greeeeaaat.

in the past month, you have become more self-sufficient, more independent in spirit, more bilingual, more humorous, more manipulative, sassier, sweeter, more loving, smarter...and so much more. you are completely speaking in full sentences. there are very few things you say that are just small two-word phrases. sometimes i don't understand what you're saying, and i don't yet have the heart to tell you that you are speaking in run-on sentences and that is a great way to lose your audience...but we'll get there. after all, i'm not one to talk, i type-speak with ellipses all the time, and that's annoying too... ... ...

there is a fire in you, my little one. it is like a pilot light: it is always lit, and usually completely harmless, until it's not. until someone (like me or your daddy) decides to throw some gasoline on it and then there is this explosion. EX-PLO-SION. it must be that mixture of the dutch and the irish that created such a fierce little temper. almost daily you drive me to the brink of insanity. i worry that i won't be there for you when you are a teenager because i won't have made it through the toddler years without being relegated to a padded room. often i leave the room because i need to get away from you. often you will then follow me because you are good at what you do and you know how to drive me to the edge. you don't believe in my need for personal space. you will kick me, pinch me, hit me, scream, squirm, defy me at the mere suggestion of a nap or - god forbid - time out. sometimes i feel like i'm on an episode of "Supernanny", only i don't have the advantage of actually having her here to help. it's just me and your dad, trying to do the right thing, yet watching you spin (literally spin) out of control. we put you on the naughty step and you slide off it until you hit your head on the ground and it's our fault? we put you back on the step again and again and again and now it's not even for punishment for lord-knows what you did, it's just to get you to caaaaaaalm down for a second. it's impossible. it feels impossible. you are really good at being two. really good. my hat goes off to you.

you have the theatrics nailed. i wondered what effect your father and i being theater people would have on you...and now i know. oh boy. tantrums aside - because i don't feel like that takes much skill - you are at your best at bed time or nap time. you've started this thing where you are kind of whining and you get out of bed and you don't make eye contact with us you just say "mommy. i yuv you so much." or "mommy. i yuv you, too." it's hysterical. or if it's nap time - which you loathe - you will toss and turn over and over again and then you'll moan "i can't do it. i can't do it mommy. mommy. i yuv you, too." and you will manipulate me like this to see if i will respond. and if i so much as say "i love you, too", you will start smiling and touch my face and go "mommy! mommy! hi, mommy!" and you'll think you've won, that somehow i will decide to forgo naptime because you love me so much. well i'm on to you, munchkin. may the best man win. somehow i think that could mean you. but seriously, you should go on "Survivor" - i think you could win a million for sure.

oh, i make it sound like you are all evil all the time. but it's not true. although yesterday, after you got done watching "Dora and the Superbabies" i called you my superbaby and you said "no. i bad guy." and i was so not surprised. you love the "Thundercats" cartoon. almost as much as Dora. it's one of the funnier things i've ever seen. you know the theme song and honestly, you remind me a lot of your uncle jay when he was little. he used to run around the house and recite "He-Man" with his sword; you run around the house and say "Thundercats! Hooooooooo!" and pretend you have a sword. it's one of my favorite things you do. it makes you such a cool girl that you love Thundercats and swords.

anyway, you are not a bad-guy all the time. it does define a certain part of your personality at the moment, but you are also a really sweet, funny girl. like my mom says, i could drink you up. you are growing so fast, honey. stop it. be my superbaby forever. here you are playing in the swimming pool with daddy:

peanut, you are my sunshine. i wouldn't change a thing about you. even when you're a bad-guy. i love you so much, baby girl.

love, mommy

Sun and Thunder

so yesterday - on mother's day, after addison made my breakfast and played with the kids while i did my blog - we went to target so i could get my new lounge chair. we then went home, put jasper to bed and annie in for quiet time and i took my pasty white butt outside with a bottle of water and a book and i sat in my new chair and lounged. sometimes i read and sometimes i didn't. it was amazingly relaxing. then, about an hour into my layout session i hear the distinctive sound of thunder rumbling and then cracking. what?! i look around. sun here, sun there, no gray clouds anywhere. i take my sunglasses off - maybe my glasses are making the gray look blue - nope. no gray. and then again - big rumble of thunder. i know i'm not crazy. there isn't any construction happening in the 'hood today. it is definitely thunder. it happened a couple of more times and finally i go inside and i'm like "addison? are you hearing this?" but he is too far gone in the golf tournament/sleeping on the couch, so i know the answer before he says "no". so weird. it was perfectly bright and sunny.

but then, about an hour later when the kids woke up, we went over to best buy - to get annie some headphones for her dvd player for our trip back home to sf - the sky opens up and just POURS and thunders and lightnings and everything and still the sun is out. it was like we were on some tropical island or something. i love that!

today i got my blinds ordered for the house. feels good to get that done and now we just need a grill and then we are putting the kabosh on the spending for a while since that blasted house in minnesota is going to be ours forever it seems.

annie is the devil incarnate today. i don't know what got into her, but someone lit a fire under her ass and it's burning looooooooooong. i don't know what she's even doing right now, but it's away from me and that's a good thing. so much for mother's-day-sappy-love-stories-about-my-kids. annie is doing her best to test me today so i'm finding we just need to be separated for a while. i did hear her up in her playroom a while ago - coloring a picture for my folks and saying "i'm just so happy to see you!" that was pretty funny stuff.

here is jasper fighting the sleep bug - it's so sweet:

Mother's Day

i was just sitting down enjoying CBS Sunday Morning when out of the corner of my eye i saw this shadow, followed by a CRASH into our window. i looked out into the beautiful, blue sunday morning to see a little bird laying on the ground, breathing heavy because he or she had just flown right into a huge piece of glass. i'm staring at it, holding jasper, thinking "please, little birdie. get up. get up. get. up. because i was about to cry, because of course i'm weird and i'm all thinking about how sad his mommy would be. because it's mother's day. and i'm weird like that. he must have layed there 5 minutes and then he up and flew away like no big whoop. then i started thinking things like "i wonder if he has a headache" and "i wonder if he's embarrassed" or "i wonder if his family was watching him and they're all laughing" - as if that is the kind of thing that happens all the time to birds, like annie walking into walls. because if it was me that walked into a pane of glass, you can COUNT on the fact that my folks would have been laughing at me. and if my grandma mcmahon would have seen me, she would have literally fallen off her rocker. and if annie did it, i would have collapsed in laughter - as i do every time addison trips and falls running up the stairs.

this morning i let annie into bed with us and she was so good - she just read her book quietly for about 45 minutes and then addison got up to get jasper and fix us some pancakes and bacon. mmmm. i got to sleep in a little and annie brought me a card she colored for me, it was just the sweetest. yesterday was my present: niki and i went to Urban Retreat Spa and had both a massage and a seaweed body wrap. oh my goodness it was so relaxing and wonderful. so much so that by about 5pm yesterday afternoon, i fell asleep on niki's sofa while jasper tore apart a magazine beside me. it was a great 2 hours. you just feel like you're walking on air afterwards, not to mention how insanely soft my skin is. yummy.

i feel the need to say a few things on the subject of motherhood, given today is mother's day and i am missing my own mommy and i am a mommy and i have so many friends who are wonderful mommies, and i am only now - 2 1/2 years into it - beginning to understand it...

this experience - being a mom - is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. you know, before you are one, you can kinda-sorta get it but you can't really grasp the concept until you are one. even then, there is so much mystery and so much emotion that it is still hard to wrap your brain (what's left of it) around it. i thought i was an emotional human before i became a mom. now i'm just a basket case. i almost can't watch the news without crying. forget oprah. forget any movie involving kids. i think the heartstrings of all mothers are somehow connected, because you can suddenly feel for a woman you don't even know, but because she too is a mother, you feel connected. you have something in common and you know for that reason you have something to talk about.

there is happiness like you never knew. one smile and you're a goner. every time annie sneaks out of her bed at night and we try to be stern, but how can you when she grabs your face and says "mommy i yuv you, too". or when jasper out of nowhere just giggles out loud and you look at him and he's looking at you like you are the funniest person he's ever met. or when annie falls down and scrapes her knee a bit and doesn't cry (because she is one tough ninja) but instead she takes a deep breath and looks up and goes "i fall down" all serious-like and i say "are you ok?" and she exhales while saying "yessss..." and then she gets up, brushes her hands off, and continues on her way. that is funny. these little people. these little human beings that you created and you are watching them slowly turn into YOU, into their daddys, into their grandparents...into dora. the other day i said "annie can you count in spanish?" and she goes "uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, 'iete, ocho, nnnvmneee..., diez!" and for the most part she said every single one absolutely the right way. seven and nine are a little tricky, but man, girl can count in spanish now!

there is unbelieveable sadness, too. i had a nephew, charlie, who was born march 6, 2001 and died a too-short 2 months later. what was unbearable sadness to me at the time - before i became a mother - really hit me like a ton of bricks only after annie was born. how could a mother lose her child? it's not fair. it's not the natural order of things. it's heartbreaking, every mother's worst fear, and yet, my sister-in-law has - as far as i'm concerned - come through it all swinging. she has a beautiful, healthy son who has a wonderful daddy and a really cool older brother that will always be looking out for him. i am truly amazed by nicki. happy mother's day, honey. i love you so much.

i promise i'm not trying to be a downer, but i have to write this because if we're going to talk about great mothers, we have to talk about the sad times too. mostly because, as a newer member of the mom club, i just can't fathom the pain and i am truly amazed by the capacity to heal, to move on, to be ok. i have two aunts who have lost children as well. i will never understand why, but i tell ya what: god must be pretty particular about who he invites to heaven because you couldn't find better, sweeter, smarter, happier, more wonderful people than my cousins lauren and matthew...not to mention charlie. maybe it's selfish of me to even bring this up on my blog of all things, i hope i'm not offending anyone. like i said, i couldn't ever really understand until i became a mother, so it's still so new and freshly poignant to me. enough said. but i'd like to shout out a special happy mother's day to my aunts patty and mary, as well.

you read all of those emails that get forwarded to you about mothers and they all really ring true and some of them make you laugh, some make you cry, but most of all they make you swell with happiness that you are a member of the mom club. i think of all the emails i have read, my own mom summed it up the best:

"...you won't have time every day, but just drink them up every once in a while and tell yourself, 'i will never forget this moment'...it's the every day stuff that is the best. enjoy the journey."

happy mother's day, mama. thank you for being such an inspiration, role model and friend. and thank you for molding me into the woman and mother i have become. i could not be more lucky than to have a mother like you. i love you.

Tastes Like Chicken

because it IS chicken. this post is dedicated to nicki. we thought of you when we had some Chick-fil-A for lunch today, because we know you love you some Chick-fil-A...or if you're from down here, you say "Chickflay". it's different, you know. anyway, Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A, na na na na naaaaaaa naaaaaaaa! are you jealous oh sister-in-law of mine? mmmmmmmmm....

hee hee. i see you shooting me through the monitor.

hey, who's this big boy? it can't be jasper...

Cousin Charlie

please visit hanksdream.blogspot.com today and take a moment to count all the blessings that have been bestowed upon you.

cheers CharBear! we'll love you always.

xoxo, auntie gina

Terminator IV - Exile in Nudeville

this picture makes me laugh so hard. i know she's carrying her plastic golf bag, but doesn't it look like she's walking through the jungle, whipping out her AK47 or something? i don't even know what an AK47 looks like, but i'm imagining whatever it is that linda hamilton has in Terminator 2 that she looks all badass when she pulls it from her back and cocks it and shoots it with one hand...you know the part. cocks it? why does that NOT sound right? probably because it's not. that's a term from my 6-year-old-cops-and-robbers vocabulary. that is neither here nor there, because what i really want you to be focusing on right now is annie's stance: legs strong, her arms and back look all ripped....it's hysterical, right? it's cracking me up.

just another day in paradise down here. it's beautiful again this morning: 75, sunny, no wind, a girl can really get used to this every day. until july when i want to die because it's 115 degrees with 99% humidity...

i took the kids for a picnic in McDade Park this afternoon - it was so nice out and i needed to get my butt moving for once. everyone had a good time - see here, here, here and here. then we came home and i said the "n" word (that's nap, people) - and annie turned into veruca, but 1 hour later she was asleep. this is the 3rd day in a row of naps...i think i might be onto something here. the bonus is, if i lay with her, i get a little 20 minute snoozer myself. love that.

This is Why You Spray for Bugs in Texas

help me please. i almost died of cardiac arrest just now when i went into the garage and saw this beast. believe me, the picture does not do it justice. this is a big spider. i never saw a spider this large in minnesota...ever. i had to poke him with a box first to make sure he was dead before i could get my finger close enough to provide you with some perspective on his size. i realize it still doesn't look all that intimidating, but please give me the benefit of the doubt here. oh, and by the way, his legs are tucked under his body in that picture...they are twice that size. *shiver* i will not claim to like spiders. i can't like them, as annie would say. however, i am usually relatively calm when i come across one and usually have no problem brushing it away or killing it if it's in my house. this one, however, was too big. i wouldn't have been able to kill it as i would have been too consumed about the sound it would make or the goo it would ooze or maybe, just maybe, that it would shoot it's fangs up through my flip flops and i'd die or be paralyzed from the poison. like i said, i'm totally calm around spiders.

anyway, thank god for pest control. i haven't seen a bug anywhere in this house yet. (knock on wood)

annie is honing her manipulation skills daily. it's fun to watch because i can actually see the wheels in her head spin, stop, spin a different direction, reverse, spin again, and on and on until she finds a way that will work sufficiently to her advantage. last night after we put her to bed she came out of her room a couple of minutes later, i put her back, told her to stay in bed and go to sleep and left. a couple of minutes passed before i heard the door open and close again. (sidenote: what she doesn't realize is that she sells herself out every time because she's so obsessive compulsive she HAS to shut all doors behind her, and yet, that is the sound that gives her away) so i put her back in bed but she's saying "mommy. mOmmy. mommy." and i say "what honey?" and she replies "mommy." with her head down all cute-like. she's getting a little cold so i am feeling sorry for her a bit but i know she's using the nose thing to throw me off my game, so we blow the nose and back to bed. a couple of minutes later she's out again. head down. no eye contact, just shuffling her feet lazily across the carpet while she runs her head along the wall like she thinks she's invisible. before i can even say anything to her she says, "mommy." i pick her up and put her in her bed and say "goodnight annie, i love you" and she says "mommy. mommy." and i say "what, sweetheart? it's time for bed" and she says...

"i love you sooo much"

she's gooooood, she's real good.

here's a look at our little manipulator in her new sandbox:

i was watching that the other day and suddenly she looked so much older to me. then, i looked at my old videos and saw this one from right about the time she turned 2...what a difference 5 months makes! not to mention how much different her voice is since her surgery. crazy.


it's amazing to me. it's also amazing that i would almost consider that tantrum cute. what a difference 5 months

and to be fair, here is a cute video of jasper being entertained by his daddy. i have some more good videos to share, but they are still on niki's computer so i have to transfer them all to disk first...hopefully i'll get that done soon. for now, enjoy this.

it's not even that exciting, he's just cute.

i'll leave with one other picture of the kiddies on this particular day when i was camera happy. they just were so happy, i had to. have a great wednesday, everyone! who's going home on american idol tonight???

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 7

dear jasper,

holy cow. how can you be 7 months old already?! i know, i know, stop it mommy...but seriously, it scares me how this all happens so quickly and you'll be walking in like 5 more months and that is so freaky to me. i feel like you were just born. so much has happened in the 7 months you've been alive that i feel like even though i've been with you every day of your life, i am missing things.

you have a smile that could bring peace to the middle east, i swear. you smile so huge and it just lights up your whole face, as well as anyone who happens to catch your twinkling, smiling eyes. more people have referred to you as beautiful - as opposed to handsome - than i can count, and i have to say buddy, i'm fine with it. you are beautiful. you will be handsome soon enough, little one.

you have reached a number of milestones or whathaveyou this month: you roll to get places, you sit up all by yourself, you act like you are trying to crawl but the coordination is not quite there yet, you ate a real banana and pretended to hate it, you sleep on your tummy sometimes at night, you hold your bottle all by yourself and actually prefer it that way, and much more.

you think your sister is the funniest person on the planet. she does too. you're a great audience because you laugh and laugh at her and then she says "i so funny!" it's pretty sweet to see your relationship with annie blossoming into something truly loving. you two have your own thing going. if i leave the room i will hear you both giggling so hard like you are in on some grand inside joke.

you were a rockstar this month, japper. you had to go to the doctor to get shots and then he surprised you with the bad penis-pull thing but you rallied through that too...you had bronchitis, an eye infection and an ear infection and you hardly let me know you were sick. you're all better now, thank goodness, but you were a tough cookie.

every day i want to squeeze the pumpkin juice out of you. i love you so much, buddy.

love,

your mommy

Life at the New House

here we are sitting by our front door at the new house. it's kind of a blurry picture, but out of all the ones we took it was the best one of jasper and annie - where both of them are smiling and even looking at the camera. not the best picture of moi, but these are things i will sacrifice for my children.

i am so out of the blogging habit at this point, that i apologize in advance for just how boring i can be...

life is beginning to get back to some semblance of normalcy for us. annie has resumed her potty training like a champ and at this point it's pretty much my fault if she doesn't get it. after all, there are errands to run and the last thing i want to do is make the mistake of taking her to the grocery store in her big-girl-panties and, well, you get the picture. annie loves her new house, though. she was so excited to be in this big place that was virtually empty that she could call hers. when i was unpacking, i took her up to her playroom and opened one of her 75,000 boxes and she looked inside it and goes "(gasp!) my stuff!!" i was sure she'd be busy for house reacquainting herself with her belongings, but no, the novelty wore off after about a half hour. then we were back to "dowah". (that's dora) i am trying to wean both annie and myself from the thing that is dora, but it's hard. it's such a great way for me to get some stuff done around the house, and she is learning from it, so how can it be that bad? i'm sure 4 out of 5 pediatricians would be ok with using the tv to parent, right?

she is sleeping in her new twin bed pretty well though she still wakes up and comes down to our room at some point. i invested in a Tinkerbell sleeping bag for her, though, so she is no longer welcome in our bed with us. sorry, there just isn't that kind of room. we love her, but addison and i are both tired of sleeping with the featherweight boxing champion of the world.

as for jasper, i'm due to get caught up and write his monthly letter, which will follow this post, but i will say that the kid is growing unbelieveably fast. right now he's sitting beside me giggling and blowing raspberries. i should go get the camera, but he is fading pretty fast as it is almost naptime so i'm sure i'm best to wait until later. anyway, he's so big. he's 17 pounds and he's got roly poly thighs now and he just looks big. he's babbling all the time and sitting up for real. he feeds himself his bottle but still won't eat baby food...though i did get him to eat a real banana one day...it's ok though, i don't mind if he wants to stay a baby forever.

ok, i'm off for now. need to get jasper down, shower taken, annie accounted for, etc. it's good to be back, i'll chat at you all again later.

Jasper is Asking Nicely that Everyone Just Leave Him Alone

the poor little dude has had a heckuva week. it started last week with a trip to urgent care to see what was going on with his extreme eye boogers and coughing. we left with some ointment for the conjunctivitis in his eyes but got the a-ok on his cough that it was just a cough and nothing more...

...next day fever is 103...

...5 days later we're at the new pediatrician (Dr. "Mac" - who i love) and the cough has gotten worse and now jasper has 18 different kinds of "-itises": conjunctivitis, bronchitis, ear infectionitis, penitis (i made that up kind of - more on that later). anyway, little dude is sick but you would never know it because other than the crazy coughing fits he's as happy-go-lucky as usual. this is the part where i feel like the worst mom ever - thinking he's all fine and any day now this cough will go away...but at least knowing he was going to the doc for his checkup anyway so i should get some points for that.

so here's the rundown - he's got bronchitis so he's on 3 different meds to help that - one of which is liquid albuterol. we're hoping that works because if it doesn't help his wheezing by monday we have to start nebulizer treatments and i have a feeling jasper will not love that idea. he's also got an ear infection in his left ear so he's on antibiotics for that, antibiotics for his eye infection and i'm like my own private walgreen's over here. poor thing. and that's not even the worst part. the worst part is what dr. mac did to his little weiner. now, let me preface by saying i love this new doc - he's funny, smart, spastic, non-judgmental and great with kids and honestly if it were anyone else i might not have been able to go through with it, but he had a way and i trust him completely. that being said, if you are a man, you may not want to read the following because i - as a woman - felt my stomach go all weak and wobbly...

ok so in the process of examining jasper - and i know this is too much information for many of you, but i need to have it saved so jasper can read it one day and...hate me, i guess. anyway, i guess there is a lot of fat down yonder and that causes the skin to fall back forward and, in essence, sort of negating the effects of the circumcision...so dr. mac says "i'm going to need to pull the skin back, and it's going to hurt" and i was already tearing up and cringing and he then says "i don't want you to watch" and i was like "no problem". all i had to do was watch my baby's face and listen to his scream - his silent scream - to know how much that must have hurt him. oh so sad. no one ever told me about this stuff. i don't have a wiener, i don't KNOW these things. well, now i do. i'm sorry, jasper, we will never have to do that again, i promise.

that, and we still had 3 shots to get. i told you it was a bad day for jasper. like it was the 1800's or something and he just had to tough it out. no stick to bite on, no whiskey shot, just tough it out, laddie.

and for those of you who are still reading after that gross-out fest, here are the stats:

head: 35% and very average - not at all like annie's XXL head.

height: off the charts. i know, i laughed too. jasper is so tall (28 inches) that he is literally at the top edge of the top of the curve. it's hilarious because if you know us, you know we are not giants. maybe jasper will actually hit 6 feet! hee hee. he'll probably top out at age 14 or something.

weight: 15% but fear not. he's still gaining. he's just so tall (giggle) that he is growing faster in length than in weight. don't worry, i am feeding my child. maybe he's lucky and got some crazy metabolism like his papa...

as for annie, she's been outside playing in the pool already today - starting at about 10am. she got a new bathing suit - that SHE picked out. addison and i are letting the bikini thing slide as long as we're at home, but once we're in public and once she's 3, her 2-piece days are over. HA!

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 29

dear annie,

at present you are escaping from your bedroom where you are supposed to be napping. you and your cousin are in cahoots to drive niki and i completely bonkers. but it's ok. i know that with every outburst and tantrum what you are really saying is "i love you so much mommy. you are a wonderful mother and i am going to be a dream at age 14 so don't worry about this terrible two stuff".

some day you are going to read all these letters and you're probably going to be bitter and wonder if you were really that bad that i needed to complain about it all the time. the truth is, honey, you aren't. you are 2. and you are a really sweet, loving, funny, goofy 2-year old. you aren't bad. you have moments just like the rest of the 2-year olds on the planet, but for the most part, you are an angel. there i said it. now go ahead and act like the devil like i know you will.

you learn an awful lot from dora. it's kind of ok because you are learning, but then again, i wonder if you will show up to kindergarten someday only capable of producing sentences in the form of quotes from various episodes of dora. for example, the other day we were getting ready to go swimming and as i was getting myself ready you walked up to me and said - in the sweetest little voice: "are you ready to party, mommy?" just like that. all crystal-clear and every consonant enunciated and everything. and i had no IDEA where you would have learned THAT phrase until later i saw you watching dora and she and boots were on their way to a party and that very phrase came out of her mouth. you are actually learning some spanish, too. like in context and everything. you were playing out in the yard the other day and cody ran off ahead of you and you suddenly yell "cody! espera!" (which means "wait" to those of you who aren't two and bilingual). and just about every time you open a door you say "abre the door"...or when you want down from your chair at the dinner table you say "abajo. pleeeeeeeeeeease". it's pretty impressive. but then, i'm your mom and i find you brilliant, so it stands to reason...

next month at this time you will be 2 1/2 years old. you will be in your new house and hopefully you will have started napping and potty-training again. cross our fingers.

i love you my little stinkyface,

mommy

You Give Me Fever

*sigh*

well, we've run the gamut on illnesses in this house for the past week: coughs, colds, tonsillitis, conjunctivitis - we've pretty much nailed the "itis-es". we're all recovering at this point, with the exception of some severe nerve damage i have suffered in my neck...but you don't want me to bore you with MY health issues...

japper had his first fever on saturday and man was it sad. 103.2 at one point. and then an hour later it went all the way down to 102.4...what? it took almost all day for the fever to break - and all day he was whimpering, even when he was sleeping. so sad. finally by monday he smiled again, so other than his pesky cough, he's much better. we will be reporting in to our new pediatrician - Dr. "Mac" (Macpherson) on thursday for his 6 month checkup, so at that point i will be able to deliver all the stats.

i really wish i had something more exciting to report at this point, but i don't. i have begun to dream in paint colors for the new house...fuuuuuuuun!

Doggie WW II

this post is dedicated to ferris, who at present is in his own personal hell - living amongst a bunch of dogs who don't know that he is really a HUMAN being who deserves to be treated with some RESPECT. as a result of this misunderstanding, ferris took his frustrations out on a german soldier shepherd who invaded his territory. it is feared ferris is experiencing some post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, so in an effort to subdue him and to stop the hallucinations that he is a.) human and b.) on the battlefield, he has been given a mild dose of thorazine:

Thorazine is used for the treatment of schizophrenia (severe disruptions in thought and perception). It is also prescribed for the short-term treatment of severe behavioral disorders in children, including explosive hyperactivity and combativeness; and for the hyperenergetic phase of manic-depressive illness (severely exaggerated moods).

...see, that's funny because i don't know if there is such a thing as a mild dose...

anyway, ferris is being put into a thorazine-induced catatonic state. it's not the first time. i act all shocked and dismayed, but no, i'm not. ferris came to us 5 years ago as a broken puppy. we don't know what happened to him, but he was 6 months old and he had crazy scars on one of his ears. then we find out he had already been microchipped, so he had definitely been previously owned. we figure he must have been abused and either ran away from the owner or was ditched and then spent a little time on the streets. either way, he was waaaaaay damaged by the time he was 6 months old and he has never really recovered. he has serious separation anxiety - always has - and i think every time we leave the house he thinks we're never coming back and he'll be on his own again.

oh if only my friend who left the note on my car that day at the zoo were reading this post - she'd REALLY approve of this move! hee hee hee! for the record - this is not cruel, this is for the best. ferris will just hang out with his old-timer buddy and rest. we'll pick him up in 2 weeks and he'll get to come home for good. new yard, new smells, new trees to pee on...

Casa del Johnston!

new house! new house! new house! can you tell i'm excited?! after much searching and deliberation, we found a cute house in a neighborhood we like and we made an offer...then another offer...and then all of the sudden we have a new house. a new, new house, too. like clean new. i'm so happy. i love this house. i will be able to make this house really cute and homey. and we can actually eat in the kitchen. what? you have no idea how much that in itself will change my life. oh happy day! and there is a nice, fenced in back yard for ferris and annie and jasper to play in and love.

speaking of ferris. wow. he was so on my nerves for so long, and now that he's been on doggie-vacation for a few weeks, i really miss him. like i think we may be entering a new phase of our relationship. i think i like him again. i always loved him, but i sorta stopped liking him for a while. *sigh* but now he'll be back, he's had some discipline training, and a whole new yard set-up to make his own. i think he's gonna dig it. not dig...he better not DIG it...but you know what i mean.

so there you have it. that's all for now. in 2 weeks we'll be in our new home. ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Happy Easter!

i'm not sure if i have ever been alive to experience a warm easter. i seem to remember a few in my childhood where i wore my little easter dress without freezing, but that was a long time ago. it seems like every year it's cold, windy, and rainy on easter...and apparently that goes for texas, too. it was cool yesterday (and by cool i mean 50's) and kind of cloudy/rainy all weekend. what gives? i bought annie and japper the cutest little easter duds and they didn't even get to wear them. i'm so annoyed by that. don't worry, i'll dress them up in them soon enough so i can at least see them on. grandma lola arrived with some outfits that she found, which ended up working great since the one for annie had a coat that came with it. i personally think they look like little caroline and jfk jr., don't you agree?

it was our first easter in texas and other than the weather, it was a really nice day. i missed all of my family since traditionally we spend easter in iowa with all my rellies, but i brought a little iowa to texas with the spooner family egg bake and grandma's deviled eggs with cayenne pepper on top instead of paprika (that was in your honor, bob). lola made a delicious ham and potatoes with peas and yummy fruit salad - all of which i ate too much of. the boys all spent the day playing their stupid horse racing game. honestly. i really won't waste space talking about it, but my brother-in-law got this new game and it is like a drug or something for these boys. they are just zombies. i think they played from like 10am on saturday until 3:30am on sunday morning. it's crazy. they still think that us girls are going to get sucked in, but i don't know. boy, will i be eating some crow if that happens. i just don't see it. anyway, that's what the boys did all day.

here are a few more pictures from easter - click here and here and here and here. oh, and then the other day, we went to visit cody's school when he was having his little easter party. annie got to do the egg hunt with his class, which was pretty cute and funny. i have to share this picture because it's too cute...but the story is better. so, annie sees these two eggs under a bush and she runs over there all excited about her find, and she squats down to get her eggs but they are just out of her reach. here's what she looked like just before she reached out for the eggs and did a face plant right into the grass. it was one of the funniest things i've ever seen and i'm only sorry i didn't have the video going.

Water Baby

in case i was worried that annie would be afraid of or not like the water, i think i can put those fears aside. there is an area near here that is called The Woodlands - it's a cute outdoor shopping/restaurant area and in the middle of it all there is this fountain with water that shoots out of the ground intermittently and kids are constantly playing in it. when my mom was here we went to lunch at the tommy bahama restaurant and then we put bathing suits on the kids and let them tackle the fountain. annie was immediately mystified and excited beyond belief. she had us all belly laughing as she ran right in the middle of the chaos, giggling, and stuck her face in the water. then, she'd run over to us and dry her face off, only to say "where cody go?" and run back over to the fountain to find him, give him a hug, and resume playing. there were other kids there too, and i thought for sure she'd freak out, but nooo, she was loving every second. even when the bully-girl would knock her down she'd just get up and keep on truckin'. if there is one thing that could bring annie out of her shell, i think it's water sports. even jasper was having fun in the sun.

check out this video:

it was so much fun. the next day auntie niki bought a couple of new sprinkler thingies so we set those up for annie and she had just as much fun running through those. and she won't stop saying "'wimming pool"...so i bought her a pair of water wings and as soon as we get around to it, i'll get her in the pool. she just loves it, and i'm glad.

many of you have been asking if we've found a house yet and in an effort to not jinx ourselves, i haven't been talking about it much. we have been looking, and we've found a great little neighborhood. we're in the process of doing that whole mortgage preapproval thing and then we're hoping to put a bid in on a house. once that gets going i will divulge more information about it all, but i want to wait and see so i don't speak too soon. it's exciting though and hopefully we'll be getting settled very soon.

it's much cooler today. 72 degrees at 10am. MWAH HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! it was about 90 yesterday and i'm sorry, but i love it. i just looked at the national map and it looks to be in the 20's again up in the midwest. bummer. i miss a lot of things about the midwest, but NOT that. for once on easter, it will be warm enough to not wear a sweater - imagine that!

well, i better get going. jasper will be waking up from his nap soon and annie might have my head if i don't take her outside "NOW!!!!!!"...toodaloo!

Farm Days

i am posting twice today because i still had some reporting to do on our week at mom and dad's farm, and i wanted to get that done before it was no longer timely...so here goes:

the above video is annie and her papa being very silly. in an effort to exhaust the child-who-refuses-to-nap, we had her outside running around, flying kites, etc. anything to ensure that bedtime would be swift and long. annie is not the best runner at this point, so she falls often. my dad was getting a kick out of her tripping and falling all the time and finally he started to throw himself on the ground with her. well, she thought THAT was about the funniest thing she had ever seen, and suddenly it's a game. mom and i just sat there laughing maniacally because it kind of was one the funniest things we'd ever seen. after all that running, a girl needs a break for some water. you can view more of that debacle below, if you are so inclined.

as i said, we were busy being kite fliers, too. it was so much fun. it wasn't the best day for it, but we did get her up there a few times. when was the last time you flew a kite? you should do it again if it's been a while, because there is something very satisfying about flying a kite. there is also something very satisfying about watching a 2 year-old trying to figure out the physics of how it all works. here is a video of that, too:

life on the farm was good. not that life isn't good in general, but there's something about all that space to run, fresh air, nothing to do but eat, drink, put a puzzle or two together, fly some kites, grill some steaks, listen to the pheasants, the coyotes, the horses next door, the quiet. not to mention having your parents around to cook for you and dote on you (but mostly your children) all the time...

and before i sign off, i better even the score and give japper his due diligence on the blog today.

You Mean it's NOT July?

...cause i could have sworn - yesterday when i was laying by the pool getting sunburned, watching annie run through the sprinkler - that it was the middle of the summer. but no, it's just early april in texas. i may very well be wishing i were dead when the real summer heat hits, but for now i sure am loving it. my skin is so white i think it's just reflecting the sun right now. we sat out for about an hour or so and my chest got burned, it's hysterical. we had jasper all geared up for the sun, too. here he is giving you the hang ten. such a stud.

yesterday was my nephew cody's 4th birthday - it's crazy how fast that went even though he's looked like a 4 year old for about 2 years now. he's one of the funniest kids i've ever met. not afraid of anything. he'll be standing in a hill of fire ants and they'll be biting him and he'll just calmly look up and go "i'm getting bit by fire ants!" but he won't move - like he was there first and he's not going to give up the spot just for some stupid fire ants.

as i sign off this post for today, i'll give you another look at the trampoline fun from the other day. i find it very entertaining just watching annie try to figure out how this thing works, i hope you do, too.