Updates

Gracie at Oscar Max's Birthday


Gracie eating Daddy's birthday cake


The dress Ellen finally had to let her keep to get her to leave :(

Gracie just read us "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." Maybe not read, but she went through the pages and told us the story. It was really neat. Last night she wrote something that looked very much like her name, so we told her to put it on the refridgerator. Not we have several papers she deemed were important enough to put on the refridgerator. She's so funny about some things.

I had planned for us to go to the game on Friday. She had gone to Maw-maw's and didn't want to go. I was pretty upset about that. It's not often that there are special things that we can go to together, but she can stay at Maw-maw's anytime. It probably won't come up again this year. Next week we're going to Arlington to see Scott's parents and to go to the Aggie v Arkansas game up there. It should be fun.

It's Sunday and I have a fever. I think I'm going to try to stay in bed most of today. We'll see how that goes. Scott volunteered to take Sunday School duty for me. It's sad that the prospect of spending all day in bed makes me so happy. Even if I have to feel bad while I'm here. I'll try some Tamiflu and see how I feel tomorrow.

I think I've been a little depressed lately. It seems like there isn't going to be another baby this year. I'm disappointed about that. I don't know if Gracie will be it for us or not. I do know that God's plans are not my plans and if He plans for us to have a baby, we will, planned or not. I just hate surprises. I'm looking forward to next summer, planning for the LWML convention in Austin; other things I didn't think (want) to plan because I thought I'd be having a baby. So we're just enjoying Gracie, trying to raise her the best way we can. I'm thinking of looking into baby ballet for her this year or next year. It's hard to tell at her age what she'll be interested in in the future. Will she be a dancer in drill team? A band nerd? A soccer player? Volleyball, Softball? I can't wait to find out. We'll start looking into things for her to do, give her some new experiences.

Running with Gracie

We've tried that a few times. She's really excited to go usually. She likes to run; I need to run, so we start off. It's fun for a while, chasing each other up and down the street. She likes to stop occassionally and pick up rocks and dawdle. We're going to keep at it because exercise is good. I got us a new yoga DVD that we're going to start one of these days. She'll like it - all of the bends and stretches.

We went to the Pecan Festival the other night. It was fun. We rode some rides - teacups, carosel - nothing exciting. I saw a lot of students there. Most of them even waved or said hi.

The school year is off to a good start. There are a lot of kids gone because of the flu/swine flu. We're going to see the Aggies play Arkansas at the new Cowboy stadium Oct. 3. I think it will be fun. Something different for us, certainly.

We had our Zone event yesterday. I was elected Christian Growth Chairman, which means I'm going to be planning the events for the next 2 years. I don't know why I was led to do this, but I will do it to the best of my ability. Trinity will be the next one, so that will be easier.

Gracie really seems to be enjoying school. She wants my camera to take pictures with. I let her have it and she went through a set of batteries. She likes taking pictures. Her potty training is pretty solid. She likes spending time with Maw-Maw. I still plan to take her to the rest of the games this year.

adventures in exercise

Well, our first excursion around the block didn't go so well. Gracie won't ride her tricycle on the side of the road. We went at 5, which was rush hour in our small neighborhood. We had finally gotten back on our street when Scott had to run ahead for the bathroom. Gracie wanted to run after him, only she also runs in the middle of the street. I'm hoping eventually we'll all be able to go bike riding together, but we might have to move for that to happen.

Otherwise it's been a good start to the year. My fish are funny. Earnest and sweet. We've had a good time the past few days. Tomorrow is the pep rally and football game.

Body Awareness

Amanda said G's going to be going through a stage of body awareness. And she is, which makes for some oddly uncomfortable moments.
G - I closed by booty so you can't spank me.

++++++

Me: (seeing G laying on the floor sucking in her stomach and releasing it) What are you doing?
G: Giving myself boobs.
Me: Baby, those aren't boobs, those are ribs. Come her let me show you.
She (as Thomasina the cat) crawled over and I went over her chest and ribs and belly again.
She insists that her heel isn't part of her foot.
G: These are my boobs. (pointing to her chest)
Me: Baby, you don't have boobs yet. You'll have them when you're older. Right now that's called your chest. We don't say boobs in front of people; we call it our chest.
G: (knowing that she can do a lot of things, like get into a hot tub when she's older) I'll have boobs when I can get in the hot tub.
Me: Yes, baby, you'll probably have boobs then.
G: (pointing at her nipple) This is my boob.
Me: (knowing if I tell her it's her nipple that will be her new favorite word) No, baby, that's just part of your chest.
G: It's a mole!
Me: No, baby, it's just part of your chest.
G: It's a mole!

+++

She calls bras "boob holders." We saw some small cup bras at Wal-mart and she said they were "baby boob holders." What a hoot!

Funny Baby

Gracie totally cracks me up. She comes up with the most random stuff. Right now she's a baby owl flying back to her tree. We still play Mama Duck and Baby Duck.
Yesterday she wanted to do the Yoga DVD. She tried really hard to convince me to do it too, but I was pretty content to watch her. She got a bath mat to be her Yoga mat, then worked some of the moves and breathing. Funny stuff.
It's fun to see what she comes up with to play. We can hear her bedroom door open and close loudly. When we hear it open, we just wait for her newest clothing combination. Yesterday she found her snowman tights from last winter and wore them to bed with a lime green t-shirt. You pick your battles, ya know?
She loves the Shrek song "All-star" and can almost sing the entire first verse. All the time.
Yesterday I was sitting on the couch and heard her rummaging around in the kitchen. She had gum she had found.
Me: Where did you find that gum?
G: In the gum holder/
Me: Where is the gum holder?
G: Above the ABC stairs (aka the baker's rack)

We had a major sprite fight yesterday. I had to pry the bottle out of her hands then listen to her cry that it wasn't good in a cup and that she would be careful with the bottle. I decided to let her have special drinks - sprite or Capri Sun- when she's eating something, but water all the other times. She doesn't drink enough water.
She's doing better with potty training as long as we make her go.

Last vacation

Scott had last week off, so we took 2 days and went back to Galveston. We were delayed a bit because G refused to pick up puzzle pieces she dropped on the floor. So we had to wait until she was more compliant with our requests. We got to Galveston late and went swimming in the hotel's pool instead of the beach. It was a pretty crappy pool. We ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The food was so mediocre, but we enjoyed watching the volcano erupt outside. G was scared of the animals inside, which is the first time I've ever seen her afraid of anything. We walked on the beach afterward and G got soaked, forgetting she wasn't wearing her swim suit.

Wednesday we went to Schlitterbahn and had a blast. We decided G was big enough to ride the rapids in the kiddie seat, so we went through 3 times. She kept asking to go back, wanting to ride the "rabbits." We made fun of her for awhile, but she knows it's rapids now. Super cute. She had to wear a life jacket because SB didn't like her using floaties, but she thought it was fine. She also kept asking about the rides, and maybe next year or the year after she'll be big enough to ride, but really, we have the best time just floating on the river. There's the excitement of the waves, looking around at all the tattoos. We stop occassionally for her to play on different play grounds or go back to our table to put sunscreen on or to get a snack.It was a really fun day. We had dinner at Mario's, which was incredible. They have a Wed night buffet that was so good. Seafood soup, lots of different Italian dishes, pizza and delish desserts. We defnintely found our new favorite place to overeat.

Thursday we got moving slowly. We packed everything up, then went to the beach for an hour or so. G had fun. Then we went to lunch at Fisherman's Wharf, which was a little expensive, but we got to sit on the deck and see the Elissa beside us. It was lovely. We rode the ferry home and that was that. Lots of fun for us.

Not much to report

We're just kinda hanging. G's doing much better with potty training. Hopefully she'll be there in a few more weeks. We've been going to the library several times a week. She's branching out into Little Einstein movies.
I heard Scott tell her last night that she couldn't eat like a dog. Daddy doesn't eat like a dog.
I tried to work out with a yoga video yesterday. She wanted to help. She made me stop in the middle of the video (the video continued, we just stopped) to read her a story. Then she spent the rest of the video either climbing on me in the poses or trying to get me closer to the floor to lie down with her. She even went to get pillows and blankets.
She calls herself "mama duck" and me "baby duck." That's been going on for about a month and it comes and goes. It's amazing what she retains and brings back out.
We cleaned up parts of her room yesterday. She liked me playing in there with her. Dressing baby dolls.
Scott's off next week. Hopefully that will give me time to catch up on school stuff before school starts back. And other things.

Arlington

Wednesday was an eventful day. We started out at the park, showing Gracie how to fish. She wasn't very patient, so we fished about 10 minutes. Then we played on the playground for awhile. We wanted to go to the water park, but it was closed on Wednesdays. So we came back to Scott's parents house and blew up her little pool. Then we discovered we didn't bring her bathing suit. She has 12 bathing suits, but we didn't bring any of them. Maw-maw brought one back from the store, so she played in the pool for awhile.

We had her a birthday party tonight. Maw-maw's friend came over and put Clifford on her cake, so she had a Clifford cake after all. She received an assortment of toy tools including a drill and chain saw and tool kit. Also a lot of dress up cosumes and accessories from Aunt Katie.



She's been having a lovely time playing dress up. And dressing everyone else up. She had a wonderful birthday!

Gracie Bday

We had planned to have Gracie's party on Sunday afternoon because of Mimi's vacation. Since Nana was in the hospital, we weren't planning on many people being there, which turned out to be the case. There were kids for Gracie to play with and that's all that counts.
My parents got her this swingset that she loves. She calls it a treehouse and tells everyone her paw-paw built it for her and she helped.

She got a baby jaguar from Hillary that she snatched up right away. We got her some Dora stuff. I've been telling her that she'll get babies for her bday, but she didn't. Hopefully maw-maw Wilson's party will have some babies. She got some great clothes and some books.


Now it's time to pack up for Arlington. We'll be gone a week. Should be fun!

Week update

Last week started out pretty quiet. Scott was still sick. Amanda and Todd were in Florida, which meant mom was at their house babysitting dogs. Tuesday G and I went to Tale of Despereaux at the movies and she was bad. She would't sit in her chair. It was disruptive and we left early. We met mom and played around in Bmt. That night we went to play Bunco at a church with their ladies. I had a lot of fun. Wednesday we went to see a show at the PN library. Scott was off, so we had a nice day. Thursday we went to see the mobile dairy at the Ned library. They had a cow in a trailer and he had a generator that milked it. It was pretty neat. Of course I didn't have my camera to take any pictures. We went to the park so she could feed the ducks - another no camera opportunity.
I noticed my door was closed and went to open it. I heard a voice telling me not to come in, but I did and this is what I found. I'm not sure how she got in there, but her "baby wanted her to be in there with her." What a hoot.
Nana was put in the hospital Saturday, which has us all worried. Dad spent Saturday night up there in uncomfortable conditions, but she should be coming home Monday.

Sicken Sunday

Scott has the cold I had at the beginning of the week. Instead of just being inconvenient and tiring, like it was for me, he's incapacitated. G was going around this morning with a paper towel roll as a microphone making up songs about Daddy's sniffles and snot rags. Hilarious. We went to Walmart and the grocery store for party supplies. All we're missing now are sno-cone cups and Madagascar stuff for the cake. I'm going to start making that in a few days. Scott and I cleaned out our room, which made the day super productive - and dusty. Gracie caught on to our system of putting her old stuff away for the "next baby" and she's insisting that she's the next baby and she wants her stuff back. She was indicating today that she wanted to put night-nights on Blue Fish. I may dig some stuff out so that BF can be the best-dressed Seuss on the block. Now she's in there "doctoring" Scott.

Family reunion

Saturday we had a family reunion at Mary's house. Family like extended family I hadn't seen in several years. We used to all travel to Arkansas during the summers to gather together, but we haven't done that since my great grandmother was too ill to go. The eldest generation is having trouble getting around and the newest generation are all toddlers - such is the circle of life. There was a tent and a blow up bouncy, along with the other swing set and trampoline. Scott and I got on the trampoline before the kids came out to play and it was fun. Of course, being old, we didn't stay on it too long. Gracie came to me later and wanted me to jump with her, which suprised me. She usually wants to play with daddy or paw-paw. It was nice to see people. Nice to just hang, even though it was so, so hot. Gracie came home and tried to insist on finding too-small night-nights, which she couldn't, so she ended up naked for most of the afternoon. At some point she wanted to wash the paint of her clothes, so she was rubbing hand soap from the sink all over her face, then rubbing her eyes, which was a disaster. I didn't realize what she was up to until I saw her start rubbing her eyes. Poor baby, and of course, she doesn't listen when you tell her how to make it better, i.e., sticking her head under the running water faucet. I don't know where she gets her hard head from.

I can't sleep. I think I'm going to take some ibuprophen and try to go to bed. I have a lot to do this week to get ready for G's party. Bake a cake, shop for food; wrap presents, etc. Her party is Sunday afternoon and Monday evening we're hosting our ladies' meeting, which means we prepare a meal and do the devotion. Since I was delegate to the convention, I'll be the program as well. And my house is a mess. I need to keep up with it better. It gets out of hand and I get bursts of needing-to-do-something-about-it-ness, but they don't last nearly long enough.
I did finally realize that no overtime = no money, so we won't be going to San Antonio this year. I'm disappointed. I had a great trip planned. Maybe in a few years.

This week II

Again, nothing much special went on this week. Gracie continues to not be potty trained, though she goes sometimes. We had lunch with mom and Mimi on Tuesday, then went to watch the Chipmunks movie at the library. That was a pretty good day. Wednesday we went to see Chicken Dog at the library. Scott went with us. Gracie met a friend and they switched babies to play with. The other girl wanted to take home green baby because it matched her shirt. Chicken Dog was a good little variety show with dogs. Thursday Scott took her to the library show and let me stay home. I did some laundry and some sewing - kind of hung out. I had a cold during the first part of the week so I wasn't feeling too well. Scott has it now and he's not feeling well now. Gracie spent Thursday night with Maw-maw and paw-paw and I got her back on Friday. I went to an old friend's garage sale on my way there and got some casual pants, books and my bribe - some kids sized bracelets.
Tuesday Nalini Singh's new book - Branded by Fire - came out and I read it in one day. It was good - a good continuation of the series. I have a whole stack of books to read, but I can't settle myself down enough to read them.

This week

There hasn't been much going on this week. Gracie and her mid life crisis. She wants to be a tiny baby. She is trying to get us to put her in old clothes and put her baby bed back up. She promised she would be a big girl in July. Her deadline is here. She's excited about her Madagascar birthday party. We've been swimming at Mom and Dad's, seen Amanda and Hillary. She's spent one night with Mom. Otherwise it's been Gracie and me. All the time. All mommy all the time.

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday and Sunday at the convention were fun. We ate at a great place for lunch Saturday, the Rock Bottom Brewery. They had great beer samples. Of course, I enjoyed the dark ones the best. But they were all good. Obviously.


I also got a chance to take pictures with some of my mentor ladies who were there. Not all of them were there, and these aren't all of them that were there, but here are some people who have made a difference in how I walk.





The trip back was very smooth and I got home and in bed about 4:00 a.m. Monday morning. Both Scott and Gracie were happy to see me, and I them.

Friday

Friday in Portland was the official start of the convention. We had business and speakers, etc. I got up early with Nancy and Laurenda to go to a Bible study put on by Concordia, really to promote their new Bible study book, but the girl was really good and the study was uplifting.
Friday during lunch there were small interest sessions. I went to the financial one from Thrivent. It was good. Spend less, save more type of stuff.
We went to Stanford's for dinner, which was a short walk. We were aiming for the mall food court, but this was right there and we'd heard good things. I had a lavendar martini, which was delicious, and a chicken club sandwich. Kelly and I skipped the evening's entertainment, but met up with people at Denny's for dessert, yummy carmel apple cobbler.

Thursday

In Portland 6-25
Portland is 2 hours behind hometime, which was good and bad. The illusion of sleeping late was nice after the illusion of not staying up until really late. Thursday my peeps went on a day-long tour. I couldn't go because of my delegate duties, but I had most of the day to myself. I rode the maxrail downtown to the Made in Oregon store. I bought some souvenirs there, then went walking around.


But I didn't walk around a lot. Portland is a great town, but it isn't good, even during the day, to walk around alone. Of course, there really wasn't that much I needed to see. I went by Finnegan's, a toy store, then walked down to Pioneer Courthouse Square, called Portland's sitting room. They have concerts there. It's a neat place.
I had my PB sandwich and chips sitting on the square, watching the people.

The best part about having that almost whole day to myself was that I got to see the exhibit hall at my leisure. I got to rummage through Concordia's wares, make the neat beaded cross at one station and just see what I could see. I was lucky; my friends who had to go later didn't have time to see everything because there were so many people and the exhibits didn't stay open very long, considering.
We had delegate orientation to learn how to use the voting machines and I'm always amazed at what people thing is important enough to be addressed at the last minute. Stupid stuff. At the actual voting, one woman actually stood at a microphone and wanted to separate out the mission grants into US and foreign. Like it didn't take months and months to get it all set up the way it was. Crazy.
We had our District caucus, which was everyone from Texas who was there. Fun to see everyone. We had dinner at Muchas Gracias, a Mexican place Laurenda found online. It was a good walk, but delicious. We got some tortillas to go for breakfast with the apple butter I got at Made in Oregon.
The worship service was that night and it was really good. It's great to worship and be a part of such a huge body of (mostly) women of faith. The proclaimer was good. There is a mission to the Makah Indiand of Neah Bay in that District and there were some drummers and dancers that participated in the worship. It was very nice. The vicar there who is about to be ordained spoke on Sunday and he said they have increased their male membership by 50%, which is astounding in any church. Another speaker had put some statistics that when a father takes a child alone to church, that child is 50% more likely to remain in church, but with mothers alone, it's only 15%. 2 Parents bringing as a family is 72%, which isn't surprising, but adding in a father ups the ante quite a bit. And our churches are losing men. There aren't enough pastors or men to be elders, but still most representation is male. President Kieschnick told the group he wanted 50% of the delegates to the District Synodical conventions to be women. I think women could if they wanted to, but who would want to? The LWML conventions are much more civil, from what I've heard.

After the worship, we went to Red Robin for drinks and more fellowship. Then we trudged back to our motel to crash.