A weekend at CeeCee & Papa's house

My mom (CeeCee) just couldn't wait to get Reese's toes in the dirt. Just what every 6 month old baby girl needs right? I think Mason was exactly 6 months old when he found the dirt pile too, but not the same dirt pile. I think CeeCee needs a nap just as bad as the kids and I do after we leave. Mason is usually her little shadow, starting at 6am, he knows its time to feed the horses. He then has to make all the rounds throughout the day on the horses, tractor, 4 wheeler, playing in the horse trailer, and in Papa's shop. He's a busy little kid. I think the entire 4 day stay he might have watched TV for about 5 or 6 hours. Sad to say that's what he gets in a day when I have him by myself. He loves his movies.













Mason LOVES the horses. I made him special Missy and Cody books last Christmas and he still requests to read them at bedtime. Missy is the brown horse and Cody is the lighter colored horse. Mom received both horses as babies, Missy being an adopted wild mustang from Nevada, and Cody being a wild horse caught in Louisiana. She raised, broke, and trained them all by herself and she rides them in competitive trail riding competitions through Texas and the surrounding states. Missy is at least 18 years old, and is the best horse! We can put any kid on her (as you can see from Reese sitting on her) and she is huge!




Papa was off during our stay so he got lots of grandkid time. Mason even tried wrestling with him once and then just laid on him on the couch for a while. Reese was a happy camper the entire stay so everyone got to see the sweet little baby we see everyday. Mason was not a happy camper when he was this little because of his colic and reflux so family didn't really get to hold him much then. Granny especially loved her time with Reese as she is so small Granny got to hold her a long time. The rest of Granny's great-grandkids are 3,4 and 4.5 so too big for her to pick up and cuddle.


We really enjoyed our visit. Now I know that I can handle the trip by myself so we will be visiting more often. Gary does love the drive down there and just relaxing so he missed us terribly while we were gone.

This visit also introduced sleeping arrangement questions. Before Reese came along, I would sleep with Mason in the guest room while Gary had the big luxury horse trailer all to himself with the queen size bed and TV and everything. Last time we went down it was our first trip with Reese, and Gary did not get the relaxing night to himself as on previous occasions. He got the little toot who was exhausted but didn't want to sleep and only wanted Mommy but Mommy was sleeping with Reese in the guest room. I thought it was hilariouis, but Gary not so much. So this time I prayed that it would go smoothly, and it did. The first night he got to sleep with Mama and CeeCee in the big bed and we gave Reese her own room. The next two nights Mason and I both actually slept in the same room as Reese. They all slept like little angels. Neither one woke the other one during the night, even when she woke to feed. All in all, it was an awesome visit everyway around. Can't wait to do it again. See everyone at Thanksgiving!

Road trip

We survived! Mason, Reese and I headed to see my parents this weekend, all without Gary. It is normally a 5-5.5 hour drive without kids. I left Thursday afternoon with a front seat full of toys and movies and a little potty in the back (which came in handy twice, for Mason that is). It took us 7 hours to get there with 3 stops. A nursing baby and a recently potty trained kiddo made for an interesting trip. No fussing, whining, complaining or crying on Mason's part.

We came back this morning in a whopping 5 hours and 20 minutes. Gary asked if I drove the speed limit, and of course I did. It helped that I got up at 4:15 and loaded up the kids in the pj's and hit the road. They slept for the first 2 hours which made the trip go by faster. Somehow we didn't even stop the rest of the way. Reese slept off and on and Mason just watched his new favorite movie..."the donkey movie", you know, Shrek.

I will have pictures and stories to post tomorrow. I missed out on a nap this afternoon and am catching up on my Thursday night shows on DVR.

Proposed Career Change

I should have been a locksmith, apparently that's where the money is. I accidentally locked my keys in the car today with my cell phone at a gas station.

After leaving alast family's house today for work, I was heading to my last appointment of the day at 2:30, and I was actually on time. So I missed my exit and did a u-turn to get back on my intended route and stopped to get gas, less than a mile from the family's house. I decided to clean out my car while waiting on the gas to finish pumping. Apparently, my booty is bigger than I thought because I brushed the driver's side door with it on my way to the trash can. I heard the click and thought, oh no I didn't. Yep, I did. My keys and cell phone were in plain sight in the front seat.

Why doesn't a gas station have a phone book? They were not very helpful at all. I had to rely on complete strangers and their cell phones at the gas pumps to make many phone calls to my kid's family, my husband, my in-laws, and several locksmiths. I met a few characters and some nice guys during my 2.5 hour wait. I even helped one man secure a garage door repairman for some business, as they were both trying to get my door unlocked at the same time. Another very nice man, who worked very nearby, checked in on me THREE times while he was running errands. I did remember to call his work and ask them to relay the message that a locksmith finally came and to thank him again for me. I also got to use one of those new fancy iphones. I kept worrying though that there would be traces of my make-up and sweat on his screen. YUCK!

The entire time I kept thinking what an inconvenience for the family that was waiting on me. But, then I thanked God that I didn't have the kids with me and that it wasn't a hot day. There was actually a very nice breeze.

Of all things to worry about, I was afraid my 6 ounces of "liquid gold" in the front seat would get too hot in the little freezer pack and I would have to dump it when I got home. No worries afterall, it was cool as a cucumber.

So all that being said, I waited 2.5 hours for a locksmith that was supposed to be there in 30-45 minutes. It took him less than 60 seconds to unlock my door, and I had to pay him $85 for the initial call and labor. I'm in the wrong field.

Thanks to all the total strangers that let me use their phones or tried to jimmy my door open.

Baby in the mirror

We have a developmental checklist that we follow and work and one of the questions states "Does your baby recognize herself in the mirror yet?" I would have to say no to that one for now. Reese seems to think there is another baby in front of her and tries to attack her/lick her/I don't know do what to her exactly, but she is having a good time.

Spaghetti slurper

Sounds crazy, but I have been trying to teach Mason how to slurp his spaghetti for several months now, and he finally got it. I remember my grandpa teaching me how to slurp spaghetti when I was little. That is one of my fondest memories of him. Silly, I know. Here's the expert now.

By all means...

Normally, I would get a little annoyed by someone pulling this on me, but I have turned over a new leaf.

I took Reese to the pediatrician yesterday and had an usually long wait in the waiting room, along with several other moms and dads waiting to be seen. We started talking and found out the lady I was talking to was to be seen right after us. We made a lot of small talk, which included the fact that no matter what time of day I brought Reese to the pediatrician, it always fell during nap and feeding time. So even suggested I ask the front office staff if I could borrow a room to nurse her in. How thoughtful! So we get called back and she "jokingly" says don't take too long talking 'cause we're right behind you and I have to pick up my daughter from school.

So we go back, see the nurse, I feed her, and then wait for our turn to see the doctor. I'm told we're next by the nurse as he leaves. Yeah! Then I hear the NP coming towards our room in the hall, and then I hear the nurse stop her and say "I know you're not going to like this, but this lady (from waiting room) has asked if you could see her next instead of your next in line (me), she is in a hurry and just needs to have her son checked for an ear infection, that's all." So I automatically think, by all means, if you think you are in that much of a hurry, go ahead.

So our NP, who we absolutely love, comes in and apologizes immediately and then tells me what just happened, not knowing that I had already heard it through the thin walls. Turns out, she wasn't going to comply with the lady's request at first, but then figured she could spend more time with me if she did. The lady also asked to go ahead and have her son's flu shot administered if she had time. Then told the NP that she had plenty of time because she called someone else to pick her daughter up from school while in the waiting room.

Worked out great for us. I just thought it was awfully ironic considering the lady knew exactly who was in front of her and what we were there for and that we too were not having a fun time waiting. But, by all means, if there is someone who feels that they are in that big of a hurry, it is no skin off my back. Like I said earlier, normally this would infuriate me, but not so much anymore.

Do not argue or complain. (Phil. 2:12)

Sidenote:
A friend called and left a message on my cell while we were in the waiting room. I then texted her and this is how our text messaging went:

Me: At pedi, will call u when done. Thanks!
Her: Lucky you! Must be nice.
Me: Nope, pediatrician, not pedicure. LOL
Her: Oh, HaHa! Forgot abbreviations change after you have kids.
Me: You're so right!

She is 22 years old with no kids. We had a good laugh.

Poor babies

At 4:30, Gary took Mason on a run to the park in the jogging stroller. That's something he tries to do on a weekly basis. He said shortly after they started the run Mason fell asleep. When he got to the park he tried to wake him, but Mason was out. So when they got home I transferred Mason to the couch almost dropping him once, but it didn't wake him. Nor did taking his socks and shoes off, nor taking his shorts and underwear off, nor putting his pull-up on. All this while sleeping on his belly, so it made it a bit tricky. He didn't wake up when I brought him upstairs to his bed either. He slept until 6 the next morning. Almost 13.5 hours of sleep. It turns out he didn't feel to well as we have a cold playing tag here at hte house.

Reese started getting sick Thursday afternoon. This is one of her few happy times on Friday. Poor girl! She seems to have gotten the worst of it. I thought I would slide by without getting sick too, but no such luck. Mommies don't have time to be sick. Although, Gary did entertain the kids today while I took a much needed 2 hour nap. Thanks Gary!

P Incident

Disclaimer: I am not a bad parent. Nobody is at fault here. It is a disgusting story.



Mason had is first pee accident at school on Thursday while resting around noon. They changed his clothes and he went about his day. Grandpa picked him up from school at 2pm. I came home from work around 5:30. Several times in the evening he kept getting his shorts caught on his shoes while trying to potty so I asked him more than once if he wanted to take his shoes off to which he replied, no. At 7:30 I decided he needed all his nails trimmed, fingers first then toes. So I take off his left sock and shoe to find that his pee accident included his sock and shoe, but it was missed during the changing of clothes. He had been wearing a pee soaked sock and shoe for about 7-8 hours! Yuck! You can only imagine the smell, but his poor little foot looked like it belonged on a cadaver. (How do I know what a cadaver foot looks like? PT school requires cadaveric dissection in gross anatomy lab.) His poor foot hurt once the air got to it and it started drying out. Since I have never had my foot in any liquid for 7-8 hours I had no idea what would happen to it (i.e. blisters, gangrene, just kidding). I made him stay up until it returned to a somewhat normal appearance. Poor kid didn't want to walk on it. So here is the disgusting picture to show I am not making this stuff up.



I promised it returned back to normal.

Dinosaurs

I shared some very much needed special "Just Me & My Mama" time (he has a book of the same name) with Mason on Wednesday. We went to the animatronic dinosaur exhibit at the Heard Musuem in McKinney. We took him last year but he was still a bit scared of it. This time there was only one that scared him, and to be honest, it scared me a little too.




In this picture, he had been running down the trail full speed with his head down so he didn't see the dinosaur until it roared. It was hilarious to see him try to stop as fast as he could to see what was ahead. This was as close to it as he got without holding my hand. This wasn't the one that scared us. That culprit seemed to have eyes that would follow us and gave me the heebie-jeebies, as we were the only people out in the woods at 9am.






This other picture was of a "plant eater". That's why he is closer to it. I tried to make it somwhat educational by playing Name that Diet, plant or meat, based on their teeth. He did pretty well.

"I want to show you something"

So it might have been a mistake to give Mason a cupcake before bedtime last night. Let's see if I can make this story short...

I put Reese down at 6:30 and Mason at 7:30. He stayed up until 8:30 when I went up there to find that he had been very busy reading his books as evidenced by his stack of books in and around his recliner.

So I told him to go back to bed and he did. Then around 2am, over his monitor, we heard the unmistakable sound of him pushing the buttons in his Tonka construction book. So Gary went up and put him back to bed. Repeat the previous scene again at 3am. Then at 3:30 we heard it once again. So instead of Gary going upstairs, I suggested he just put Mason's monitor on my side of the bed and I would turn it down so that I would only hear him call out for us. Instead, around 4:30 we hear him knock on our bedroom door and open it. (Mind you, he has a child doorknob protector on the inside of his door so he can't get out.) He immediately says in his excited boyish voice " I want to show you something...Baby Reese." So I look over on her video monitor to see that she is wide awake on her hands and knees.

Apparently, when he escaped from his room he decided to check on his little sister. Which most likely woke her up, and then he had to come tell us about it. So at 4:30 in the morning, both kids were wide awake and happy. Neither one made a peep over the monitors. It took me 20 minutes of rocking her to get her to sleep and Mason went back to sleep by himself. I personally thought it was hilarious, but Gary didn't think so during the wee hours of the morning.

Love it, love it, love it!

I love the way Reese has a special "I Love My Mommy" smile that is reserved only for me.



I love Spring cleaning! It reminds me of when I was growing up. My mom would open up all the windows to let the breeze in, turn up the stereo, and clean the house. I remember the smell of Pine-Sol mopped floors and Murphy's Oil Soap dusted furniture.



I love to cut Mason's hair! I'm not good at it, poor thing, but I can't wait each time until it gets long enough to cut. I will not do that with Reese, I promise.



I love reality TV! My absolute favorites are So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol, and Amazing Race. I guess it's because I can't sing, dance, or travel much.


I love that Mason still wants me to do everything instead of Daddy! I hope he never outgrows it.


I love my job and the families I serve. Not too many people can say that!


I love it when Reese kicks her little legs when she wakes up on her belly in her crib or when I am holding her.


I love that my mom still treats me like a child sometimes...everyone needs their mom no matter how old you are ( I know that's not correct grammar or whatever, sorry).


I love shoes! No explination needed.


I love to make Gary guess how much I bought something on sale for, only to have Gary guess too little and then steal my thunder. He is not a fan of this game.


I love that Gary is so laid back that he has what I call a "Gary speed", even though the actual speed he moves drives me CRAZY!


I love mountain vacations and hope we get to finally take a vacation next year.


What do you love?

Today...

I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT teach my potty training son to empty the little potty when he's done so that I don't have to...

I DID NOT wear my workout clothes all day with the best of intentions to actually work out, only to go to the store and buy the makings for cupcakes instead...

I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT use bonding time with my son as an excuse to make said cupcakes...

I DID NOT pick my sound asleep daughter up out of her crib only to take a nap with her in the recliner...

I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT turn the baby monitor off when my daughter started crying at 2am only to wake up 30 minutes later to find that see was then sound asleep...

I DID NOT steal this idea from another blog...


I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT partake in a 30 minute nap on the very cushy couch in the darkened nursing mother's room with Reese at church today while listening to the pastor give his message...

What did you not do today?

Pictures From Hurricane Ike...not on TV

Here are 2 links you can check out pictures of the massive flooding in Orange and Bridge City. It's one thing to see it on the news as a place you've never been, but to have grown up there and then see the devestation is something else. Like I said before, my parents sustained minimal damage. In fact, they have already made repairs and set up their generators. Now they just have to wait for power to be restored where the live and work. My mom works in the town of Orange, in City Hall to be exact, and one of the pictures with the tall red brick building is where she works. Parts of Orange were under 9.3 feet of water!

www.orangepd.com

http://kogt.smugmug.com/gallery/5953607_Nn2hu#371134406_jLgnE

Hurricane Ike Update

Thanks for everyone's prayers...my family fared pretty well through the storm. This time around my parents only lost 2 trees, a huge oak and a smaller pine that helped break its fall. Somehow the huge oak tree fell at an odd angle and "slapped" the front corner of the house. My mom said that was around 4am and there was no major structural damage done.

Unfortunately, just 10 miles south in Orange where my mom works, a levee was breached and there is massive flooding throughout the town. Downtown Orange has 6-8 feet of water inundating all the businesses and homes. I have seen a few pictures and cannot believe the amount of water in places never imagined. So they did not receive as much structural damage as 3 years earlier with Hurricane Rita, but nobody imagined this much water would be in their city. Crazy!

A weekend of baby proofing

Reese made her first cell phone call today. I put her in sitting in the middle of our large rug in the living room and then was cleaning up around the house. A few minutes later I hear on my speakerphone "Please enter your password". Reese had crawled over to my cell phone and happened to push the button to check my voicemails. So even though she didn't actually call someone, I still consider it her first phonecall. So we are doing our official baby-proofing this weekend.

Prayers please

Please just say a prayer for all our family and friends along the Texas coast. They are hunkered down in Deweyville and Orange. Although they are a good 95 and 105 miles from the coast, they will still receive dangerous winds and heavy rain. My sister is in Kingsville and she literally lives on a bay so they will move inland a few miles to escape the surge. Thanks for the prayers in advance. Lyn

Random funny business

Two posts in one night...only because Reese went to bed at 6:45 and Mason 7:30. That's 2 nights in a row.

We have decided not to force an afternoon nap for Mason anymore. Yesterday he chose not to take one so I put him down at 7:30. We immediately heard him playing up in his room and about 30 minutes later Gary went up to put him back to bed. Instead, he found Mason asleep on the floor up against his door, and from the red marks on his forehead and chest from his arm pillows, he had been that way a while already. He never made a sound. This is the kid that at 3 years old had never slept anywhere other than a bed, a crib, a carseat, or on someone. He had never, ever fallen asleep playing, on the floor, on the couch, while eating...nothing. So we were shocked!

We are always trying to teach Mason to be polite, respectful and courteous to everyone, including the dogs. So sometimes we use the dogs as examples for him. Last night we were getting him ready for bed and Jack jumped on the bed with Gary and laid down. Miles then jumped on the bed and Jack snapped at him. Gary firmly told Jack "No, that was ugly Jack!". To make a point about being polite, I said "Jack, you need to tell Miles you're sorry." Mason looked at me and said "Mommy, Jack can't talk...he's a dog." Gary and I did our best to contain our laughter.

I picked him up from MDO yesterday and told him it was raining outside. To which he responded very loudly "Oh my got!". Apparently I say "Oh my gosh" alot.

Today we were driving down the road and I was trying to hype up going to the library before we got there. He interrupted me and in a very cute voice said "Mommy, calm down".

Twinkies

I just commented on a friend's blog about how extremely special it is to have a twin...so I thought I would share with everyone (all about 10 of you) a little bit more about her.

Ann and I are fraternal twins but look almost exactly alike, at least when all the baby weight is gone. She was born 6 minutes ahead of me, which believe it or not makes a difference throughout life. We bickered and fought a lot when we were in high school and even the first year or two in college. Afterall, we had a lot to fight about. We shared a car in high school and in college, we dormed together our freshmen year and then shared an apartment until we graduated. But now, we are extremely close even though we live about 7 hours away from each other.

She is a high school English teacher and a coach (she has dabbled in volleyball, basketball, track, and softball), but varsity basketball is now her favorite to coach and she really enjoys the group of girls she has now. She is married to a football coach so the beginning of the school year is very stressful in their house. She has a 4.5 year old son who is the best nephew in the world. Every summer, after being able to talk to her several times a day while she is out of school, I then have to go through withdrawals when school starts back all of a sudden and she is "no longer at my beck and call", as she says.

Someday I hope to be able to live within an hour of her. That would be awesome! Our husbands are great in that they understand whenever we get to visit each other, they step back and let us do whatever we want most of the time. Gary knows that when Ann is in town, he gets to see me when we have exhausted all of our shopping and catching up. Thanks Gary!

Anyway, I would have posted a recent picture of us together if I had one, but I don't...plus it really wouldn't do us justice with this extra baby weight...by the way, how long can I keep claiming "baby weight"?

More funny videos

First of all, I think we have established Reese's bedtime now so both kids are in bed between 7:30 and 8pm. That's why I have time to do this. I was just perusing through some of our old videos to download on the computer and thought I would share a few.

Giggles & bubbles

As usual, either the dogs or Mason can get the most belly laughs out of Reese. Bathtime seems to be the best chance to get a giggle. I apologize for the naked baby for those who might be offended, but I am certainly not technology savvy enough to censor it out. Besides...it's a baby!

Potty training update

I know everyone is waiting with such anticipation to hear how potty training is going at our house so here goes. We officially have a "big boy tinkler"! He started back to Mother's Day Out on Tuesday and went back again today. No accidents either day, nor at home since about Saturday. In fact, today he got up from "resting" on the floor (he doesn't nap at school), walked to the bathroom in his class, did his business, and returned to his resting place...all by himself and without any reminder. WHAT?! Is that my child?

At home it's quite entertaining to watch him try to hold his shirt up under his chin while inching down his shorts and whitey-tightys and his shirt keep falling down. All while trying to watch his movie or TV show. That's right, he's in the living room. He started the potty training process with his little potty sitting in front of the TV (the red potty booty after sitting on the potty all day was hilarious). We have gradually moved it farther away and now he only sits on it when he has to go, no more hanging out for hours on end (parden the pun). We tried to move it to the bathroom, but he literally picks it up and carries back to the living room when he needs to go.

I could go on and on about this subject but I think I will stop the excitement for tonight. I will also spare you the potty pictures.

Gustov update

My family was spared this time around...they only received a small amount of rain and steady wind of about 20-25 mph. No damage to report, unless you consider my grandmother stayed with my parents from Friday evening until Tuesday morning...just kidding, they all survived. Thanks for everyone's prayers for their safety.

Hurricanes: Past and Present

Almost 3 years ago, Hurricane Rita tore through my hometown causing extensive damage to where I grew up. Rita, you may ask...that's right, not Katrina, but the area was overshadowed by major cities that were evacuated that didn't even get hit, and of course the devastation of Katrina. As I type this, my parents are hunkered down again waiting for the wrath of Gustov. It made landfall slightly more east of Rita, but it is still making it's presence known.

Hurricane Rita hit around 1am during the middle of the night. Mason was only 3 weeks old so I was up already. Thank goodness, because my parents lost all power and ability to monitor the fast approaching fury. Somehow, my mom's cell phone (Verizon wireless) maintained a complete signal the entire time. So I would call them or they would call me when it got a bit hairy, and I would check the radars and news channels to update them. One time when I was talking to my mom, I heard a very large, loud crashing sound. I asked my mom what that was and she very calmly said, "That's the big oak tree at the corner coming through the roof." Yikes!

When it was all said and done, there was a lot of damage. In about 1.5 acres of property, they lost 53 oak and pine trees. We later learned that tornados went through during the storm which caused some damage. Large trees were uprooted, snapped, and twisted landing on the house, the carport, fences, and the workshop where my parents started out during the storm. I was just looking at the pictures from before and after Hurricane Rita, so thought I would share them. Hopefully, there won't be anything significant to report this time tomorrow after Gustov.

Even after 3 years, it's still crazy to see the difference in the skyline above the trees. As I said 53 trees were lost. That changes everything. It is hard to find shade anywhere now, 3 years later.

Barn area before

Barn area after

carport before

carport after: yep, my dad's truck didn't fare well

horse stall before

horse stall after

oak tree in backyard uprooted

back of house after

Dad's workshop before

Dad's workshop after, which is where they started out, but later went in the house after the big tree crashed through the roof