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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

How cool is this kid?

We purchased these sunglasses for Little Man about a month ago, but didn't really like wearing them. Now he wants to walk around with them all afternoon.

He is just too cute for his own good. :)



Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Just a thought

Not that I really want to start a rival with anyone out there, but I was just thinking while I was trying to run errands at 9:30 at night, load the dish washer, tidy up the house so we have a fresh start in the morning, finish the laundry, and make sure Little Man and hubby have at least clean underwear tomorrow (oh, wait Little Man doesn't wear underwear yet-Whew). That's a lot to do while thinking.


Why is it when a woman gets sick they are still able to cook, clean, take care of the house, do the errands, and if you are like me, still able to take care of a child?


When a man gets sick.... he's totally debilitated?


Granted in my circumstance, hubby also gets migraines to go along with everything else either not functioning properly or has an enormous about of mucous running out of his nose while Little Man is desperately trying to get daddy to "Up!" Poor guy.


This also leads to another thought.


I am totally screwed if he ever gets deployed. I'm sure I may be able to put on a good I-can-do-everything-by-myself show, but I really can't. I'd probably have a nervous break down after about a week or two and just have to move back in with my parents (all the way out in CA now). Not to mention, I'm sure I would inadvertently make his life a living hell (not that living in Iraq wouldn't be considered hell already) while separated overseas because he'd be so damn worried about me and Little Man. Or I would just make him miserable for going to active duty. Details smetails.


Anyways, just a thought.

Kids are Amazing

Little Man A has only been attending Gymboree classes for 2 weeks now and what a difference I've seen in his abilities since then. Not only is he now able to climb a ladder, crawl under things without thinking he can stand up in the middle and where he is becoming totally aware (ok maybe not totally because he bonked his head on the dining room table yesterday) of his surroundings, he can now climb into our oversized chair like a champ. Thankfully, he still has yet to attempt to crawl the bookshelves, which is a very good thing considering they are not attached to the wall.

It just totally baffles me how they can become so versatile, independent, and just plain able to do things on their own within such a short period of time. I'm still trying to finish his first year album and looking back at his 10 month photos, where he just learned how to stand on his own and began cruising around, seems like it was just last week.

Now at 18 months, 34.5 inches, and almost 27 pounds, he's taking on the world with such bound and determination. Sometimes it's scary, like when he doesn't wait for me to start walking down our incline of a backyard, but other times I just watch him with awe and wonder, "When did he learn how to do that??"

Kids are just amazing.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Art Class at Gymboree

Yesterday, Little Man had his very first art class at Gymboree. I was a little skeptical about the class at first. I mean seriously, what are they going to do to keep 4-10 children between the ages of 16-22 months occupied for 45 minutes that involves art.

Turns out, like all activities for this age group, they were broken into 4 or 5 activities that lasted only 10 minutes long. Our first activity was to play with Play-doh. At first Little Man didn't want anything to do with it. I mean, it's not like pudding where it can splatter and smoosh easily. You really have to work with Play-doh. Once we threw in a few toys, like cookie cutters and rollers, and a little gadget that turned it into spaghetti-like strings, he was all into it. Of course, he did the inevitable trying to eat it, but for the most part he was pretty good.

Then came the actual art project - a flower growth chart. We were given too long pieces of paper stapled together in the middle and two green pieces of cardstock cut out like leaves. First we glued the green leaves over the staples .... he got his first taste of Elmer's glue. Then we were given green paint to color the stem of the soon to be flower. At first he just wanted to play with the paint, then he started using the paint brush instead, but fingers were still more fun. If I had actually thought about it, I would have gotten his hand print on the stem or leaves.

Once we got our fingers, arms, and face cleaned up from paint and glue, it was story and snack time. Each child was given a small dixie cup of goldfish crackers and a small cup of water. As we sat around in a circle, Little Man was just mesmerized by the instructor in the front of the room reading a short story titled, "It's Spring". Unlike some of the children though, Little Man sat on my lap totally content.

Next activity was a sand and water table that was instead filled with colored aquarium gravel, dinosaur toys, and shovels and small cups. All the kids were fascinated with the toys, especially when the instructor added some oey-goey tactile toys left over from Halloween. I was amazed by the adults though... some of them were literally right on top of their child while they were playing. Mainly because there wasn't enough room, I stayed back some and watched from a distance. Little Man would stop occasionally, look up to make sure I was still there, and sometimes come over to get a reassuring pat on the head.

The last portion of the class was finishing our flower growth chart. We were given a paper plate to put at the top and 4 large pre-cut petals in different colors to glue to the plate. Of course by this time, all the kids were more interested in going out to the open floor area where they could run and jump and play. Again the first thing Little Man went for was the basketball hoop (I see one for Christmas in our future).

I'm sure this is only the first of many, many, many more art projects to come through our front door, but here is Little Man's first official art project:

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Look-alike Meter

I saw this on another website and thought it would be really neat to see exactly who Little Man looks like. Although his father's not entirely convinced that Little Man is his, I assure him every day that he is. The first one that I tried I couldn't find a good picture of myself (am I really not in any pictures?) and I only found hubby's military photo. With this one, all three pics are fairly decent. I'm sure the results would change again depending on the photos.

So, here you have it. Little Man A looks more like me, but only by 6%.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Monday, June 9, 2008

Gymboree - A fun place to be!

Friday we started classes at our local Gymboree. And let me tell you... that is the best place! EVER!! I could elaborate more, but I'm really not very good with words, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

We started off previewing a Level 4 (age group 16-22 months) Gymboree class which is designed to stimulate all the senses with music and play... and of course have fun by getting all your energy out by 10:30am. In this class, taught by the skinniest, nicest girl I've ever met (who by the way has a child of her own), we - excuse me - Little Man A learned about high and low. First, he climbed up the side of jungle gym (holding on to me for dear life - he's not a climber, yet), then walked across this wavy platform, then dropped some balls down the slide.


Then, walked across the wavy, wobbly bridge (okay, some of them just crawled, but that's okay)...

We played with bubbles, with a large parachute, and the best thing Little Man has ever seen...


A basketball hoop!

Then, we had some good ole fun just running around crazy.

He was having so much fun walking around with a little Gymbo luggage, he threw a fit getting his shoes back on.


I know he had a great time and I can't wait to take him back this week!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Rules to Enter Texas

I had this forwarded by a friend who knows we love all things Texas... and we pretty much want to make it back there one day. This is fairly self explanatory.

Rules to Enter Texas:

Applies to each person as they enter Texas.
Learn & remember: East Coast and California-types pay particular attention!

1. Pull your stupid droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

3. They are cattle & oil wells. That's what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-20 and I-10 go east and west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.

4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 cotton strippers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

7. Yeah, we eat catfish & crawfish. You really want sushi & caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.

8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held on the closest Saturday to the first of November.

9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and Picante Sauce. Oh, yeah.... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat... It AIN'T REAL CHILI!! Chili was born and bred in San Antonio .... and real chili never met a tomato!

12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

13. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards - it spooks the fish.

15. Colleges? Try Texas , Texas A&M or Texas Tech. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come for the holidays.

16. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, than any other state, so "Don't Mess with Texas ." If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

17. Always remember what our great governor Sam Houston once said: " Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States can't make it without Texas."

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Adventures in Dish washing

Last month I was in desperate need of something new to do with Little Man A as our days had become boring and mundane again. One of my friends offered the idea of letting him play with the dishes in the sink. Of course, not the breakable ones nor the silver ware. So we tried it...





And now he loves it so much, he asks to do dishes on a daily basis. Sometimes even twice daily!

I also wanted to mention a great big THANK YOU to my wonderful aunt Wenderina and lovely Nana who purchased a gift certificate to Gymboree for me and Little Man A. We are starting tomorrow and I can not wait! We'll be posting pics from those excursions as well, I'm sure!