Brent at 7 months

Brent at 6 months

Brent at 7 months! What a change! He can still sleep mostly anywhere though.

He now sits up very well, although he really likes being on his stomach and up on his hands and knees, trying desperately to crawl, but unfortunately he keeps scooting backwards. He is cutting his first tooth on the bottom front, it is peeking through already. But he is a tough guy and doesn't fuss over it.

He is starting to get fussy when he sees others eat and he doesn't get a piece of it. I believe it was about this time that Caitlyn got her piece of real food to gum on (in Coleman), it was a pork chop. Yeah, we do things different here in Texas! But she loved it!

Brent is such a fun, easy baby! We are blessed in that we can put him down for his naps and walk away, he might play, talk or even fuss around for a while but will finally go to sleep. He wakes the same way. We can go in his room and clean, put away clothes, mess with him directly and he won't wake up. I know a lot of it is his age and boy do I love this age. It is such a fun, incredible time. Tonight we played peek-a-boo in his crib for a long time behind his bedding. He just laughed for the longest time.

Free Enterprise

I'm over my pity party about being tired. And things are looking up cause it's the weekend!!! Yippee!

Only 6 more weeks of school left and that means we are getting to the fun part of school. The time when we get to start doing projects. This past week my social studies group has been researching the 1900-1950's. There are 7 different topics: Mexican Revolution (if you don't know, Texas has fought with Mexico a lot), WW1, Amendment 19 (Women's right to vote), Roaring 20's, Great Depression, The New Deal in 1933 by President Roosevelt, and WW2. Each class was divided into these seven groups and worked in groups of 3. They researched on the computer for 2 days and then put their information in a presentation of their choice. Some chose a poster board, PowerPoint, play, written report, etc. I'm so excited to hear their reports on Monday. They look so good.

All of fourth grade is participating in the annual Free Enterprise program. Students have purchased stock in the CGS company and have become part owners (receiving a stock certificate). CGS stands for Camp Grady Spruce which all their profits will go towards.

Students have written a resume on the computer (at home) which basically helps us determine which department they would like to work in. The five departments are Accounting, Manufacturing, Packaging, Sales and Advertising.

This year (every year they manufacture something different) we are making a Card Making Kit. It is a baggie (decorated extremely cute with jewels and all) with 3 cards and decorations. There is a mother's day card, birthday card and an all occasion card. We are selling the cards for $2.00 a bag.

These cards are very nice, made out of numerous pieces of card stock, scrap booking paper, die cuts, raised stickers to make it 3-D, and they are pretty glam. Totally not my idea because I am not that crafty.

I am in charge of the Sales department. We are decorating our sales table, putting together a schedule of who will sale when (at lunch time), making a tri-fold poster board of examples, practicing counting back change and role-playing how to sale.

The hardest part of the whole process (this and the research projects mentioned above) is being hands off and only being a guide. It is so hard to not just take over and do it. But they can and they are doing such a great job. They are enjoying this awesome learning process and I know they will take away much more from it then from me standing in front of them teaching. I know that has a purpose too, but still.

Tuesday and Wednesday are TAKS. That is our state wide assessment. So thoughts and prayers would be awesome. That is a small snapshot and I know my kiddos will do great but it is a long day of standing and walking around for me. It is a long day of sitting and concentrating for my kids.

Tired

Oh my goodness! Will I ever not be tired again? I would give anything to sleep in until 10 or 11, like the good, old days in high school. Or even 8:30 would be awesome!

Right now, this week, I'm just going through one of those many phases were I feel totally and completey behind in every area. Even to think about going to the grocery store is horrible because I have to restock every item. What little bit of milk we do was left out on the counter this morning. Grrrrr!

I have been promised some alone time this weekend and I can't wait. I plan to use it to run some errands and take a nap! I know that will help.

I better go get some cheese to go with my whine now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pat, pat, pat

I don't want to forget that this is a cue that means I'm ready for my bottle. Brent does this when he is hungry. He will start patting me on the shoulder with his hand, kind of like he used to pat his head on me when he was ready to nurse. It's his little sign for feed me. He pats his head sometimes when he is eating his bottle too, it is so cute. Somehow it all goes together and it is so sweet and precious. It is one of those small, sweet and wonderful things that I know I will probably forget if I don't write it down.

I vaguely remember Caitlyn doing this, only because Brent is doing this now.

I adore giving Brent his evening bottle (he is only taking 3 a day now) because I can cradle him and he will sometimes fall asleep in my arms if I'm lucky. Tonight he did and I was able to then transfer him to my shoulder and hold him for an extra 30 minutes. With the first child you love it but for me, with the second child you know to treasure special moments!

Okay, now I'm all choked up! Gotta go!!!!!

Her First Fish

Caitlyn finally put her Shrek fishing pole to it's intended use tonight. She caught several fish. She made her first catch while I ran back to the house to grab us all coats. Jeff said it was terribly tough holding Brent, helping Caitlyn reel in a fish, and all that goes along with that. She immediately asked that Jeff put that fishy back in the pond with it's mommy. Brent had his dinner pond-side and we fished with our neighbors who also caught a fish. We had a great time and her dad really enjoyed getting to fish with her for the first time.

In fact Caitlyn already is figuring how to get straight to her daddys heart. Jeff went turkey hunting this weekend and while we were on our way to dinner the other evening she asked me if she could go hunting with daddy and Uncle Les tomorrow. When I told Jeff that he was very happy!

Here are some fishing pictures!

Super Saturday

Just another maniac Saturday!!!!!

What a fun day we had. The morning flew by in a flurry and I honestly cannot remember what we did besides fight over who would get the last piece of toast. Of course, I won because I am bigger!

It was a gorgeous day here, it reached 88 degrees here. We spent time outside in the backyard. Caitlyn colored on the sidewalk and Brent hung out in his "drum set" while I mowed the backyard, which will be a surprise for Jeff.

Then we all took a long nap and when Caitlyn woke up dry again in panties (because Target has run out of pull-ups and we have to save all of ours for night time now) we went to the park. Brent got to swing for the first time. I think he liked it but I'm not sure he was totally sure of the whole situation! He was just checking it all out but he looked adorable in his new summer hat.

We then went out to eat. Just myself and the kids. It was an interestingly, fun time. I ate and fed Brent while Caitlyn sort of ate but curled up as close to me as possible because she was cold. Brent's high chair strap was broken and that was the 2nd high chair I had gotten so I ended up holding him while eating, feeding him with a 3 year old attached. Fun times.

When we got there I was going to take Caitlyn to the bathroom. This is a restroom we frequent often (Chiloso's). So we went through the line and set the things down we could and I turned around and Caitlyn was gone. I realized she was already in the bathroom. When I got in there she was just finishing up and putting her shorts back up. Apparently we got there so often she feels right at home. Luckily it is so much like home and pretty clean too!

We hit up Target before coming home and putting everyone to bed. Don't think I didn't tackle a ton of loads of laundry too. Well at least I have them divided into their own loads lined up, waiting their turn.

As I was cleaning up the fishing line that was strewn all around the toy room and around the kitchen ta-boot! I found two lockets of Caitlyn's hair and a pair of scissors. I have not had a chance to see what kind of damage she did but I didn't notice anything drastic at dinner time and I know she didn't do it when we got home. Anyway back to the fishing line, I had to cut it when she was standing stuck in the line, with it tight around her ankles. I put it up and that won't be a toy anymore. I think we will use it for the real deal, at the pond with dad. Anyway, her tackle box is filled with crayons and she is ready to color on the go. I know her dad will be so proud!

It's my turn to teach (watch) the one year old's in Sunday School tomorrow and then we are going to put a glaze on the master bathroom tomorrow afternoon. Jeff returns tomorrow and I am not doing anything tomorrow night or at least I'm going to dream about it!

So how was your Saturday?

So many thoughts to share

Brent can sit up but chooses not to. He'd rather lay down and scoot around. Is that more normal for boys to be more interested in moving than sitting? He is really into the Gerber Puffs. He can pick them up and get them to his mouth but still has a hard time getting them out of his hand.

Caitlyn got a new Shrek fishing pole. Can't imagine who would have gotten her that? Birdies have now been spotted at her feeder on a regular basis as well. She went into the Bird Oasis at the zoo with her dad the other day and got pecked by one of the birds. She started talking about that occasion while watching the birds at the feeder last night. What a memory she is developing! Isn't she gifted!

One of the students in my rotations decided to write his own newspaper. One of his columns was about all three of his teachers. In that article I was voted as the "Pop" teacher because I sing and he added I sing very well. I might add the kids love it that I sing all the time. I love it that I can have fun with this group of kids and still teach.

We were talking about inventions and their effects. Our activity was to find an invention in the magazine and how it has effected our lives, hopefully for the better. As I was grading them today, one of students had cut out a picture of a credit card. One of his bullets said, it holds all your money. Man, I hope he is referring to a debit card. Just shows that we need to enforce real world economics class in a big way. I won't even tell you what the rest of his bullets said but it referred to the commercials, scary!!!! Their papers were cute and creative in thought, even his!

20/15

So it's been a week and I went today for another checkup. And I have 20/15 vision. That is better than 20/20. I'm so happy. I still have to do drops for the next 4 weeks, but they are less frequent. Well I still have to do some every 30-60 minutes, but.... that's for dryness and well worth it.

I don't have to wear goggles or night guards (which secretly I had already given myself permission to stop wearly). I know I'm bad. I can touch my eyes and wear makeup again! Yeah for me and the outside world. My mom used to say, put on makeup cause I have to look at you!!! Go mom!

It is like a whole new world out there. I'll never forget the first time I got contacts in 7th grade and I realized that the trees in the ditch behind our house had individual leaves on them. Now, I knew this but I never saw this! It's little things like that I am noticing all the time. It is so cool.

I posted twice today so read on down!

I'm not Stephanie

Caitlyn became very interested several weeks ago with people's name. What's your name mommy? What's daddy's name? What's papa's name? Mimi's? Brents? etc, etc. So I would tell her. She was pleased with that and of course I have answered the questions repeatedly, sometimes within the same sitting. I have even turned it back on her. What's dad's name?

Well now, she has turned it on us. If we don't answer on the 2nd call, she will call us by our first name. So we are constantly saying, I'm not Stephanie (Jeff) I'm mommy (daddy).

She is a hoot!!!! Luckily her saving grace is that she sounds so darn adorable.

Haircut

We had several inches cut off Caitlyn's hair. We took her to a salon geared towards children. She had her cut cut in a Barbie jeep and watched a Barbie video. When they finished they painted her nails. It was even reasonably priced!

We are hopeful that the shorter length will help with tangles in the morning! We already have to brush it before bedtime to prevent tangles as well. She has thick hair like me but hers is much more fine.

Today I have not felt 100%, so I spent alot of time in bed. After I got Brent changed, fed, entertained and down for a nap this morning I laid down. Caitlyn was cool with that, PTL! She entertained herself by reading books in bed with me, eating breakfast in bed with me, watching tv in bed with, etc.

Finally she had had enough so went out to play with the dogs. She still had her nightgown on and decided pretty quickly that it was too cold so she headed back in for more layers.

She put on a winter coat, got her winter hat out of the closet and put it on, pants she wore yesterday with her gown and tennis shoes. She had a blast and looked adorable. I wish I had a picture.

She was so helpful this morning and luckily dad was home by 12 o'clock to take over. I'm feeling much better so I took her (me) to Chick Fil A for dinner and a milk shake!

Newspaper and Coffee

Our 4th grade newspaper turned out awesome. It was 6 pages total, 3 pages back to back. It was large, 18 x 9 inch paper and really looked like a newspaper. We had breakfast goodies galore and most important we had coffee. Our room was set up like a cafe. We moved our desks together and covered our desks with colored butcher paper. We had about 7 tables total, so there was plenty of room for students and parents to hang out and read the newspaper.

Jeff brought Caitlyn and Brent also and it was fun to get to show off my little ones. If you haven't seen in earlier posts one of the teachers refers to my husband as "Dr. Hottie" and she noticed him in the building with my adorable son today. I think that is a cute nickname and I'm proud others think he is cute too! He is just as nice!

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, the event went very well. I am so proud of 4th graders! I have no idea how I can put the newspaper on here without spending hours whiting out their names for confidentiality reasons, but just know it turned out awesome.

I can see!

I woke up every hour on the hour last night obviously concerned that I might miss my appointment. I quickly got ready at 3:30 and was out the door minutes later because there really isn't much to do when you can't wear any lotions, scents, makeups, etc. I walk from the garage to my car and am in soaked in that amount of time because it;s is storming like crazy.

Jeff called me about 3:45 and the rain had lightened up where I was but he just wanted to check on me. I hear a sweet little voice in the background. Yes, I get to talk to Caitlyn at 3:45 in the am. She is telling me that is raining and thundering and she's scared, yada, yada. I keep telling her that God is just watering the Earth.

I make it to the office and I'm thinking I'm going to be the first patient at 4:30 and I was for all of 5 minutes. Then multiple cars kept pulling up. There were a ton of patients there. It was CRAZY!

Funniest moment: Doctor is looking at my eyes and writing all over them with markers and I assure you they had put many numbing drops in them first. So he says to me open wide. And I stupidly opened my mouth wide. I know, I'm an idiot. It was 4:45 in the morning though and we weren't allowed to have caffeine. Then I had to try to recompose and stay still. Oh brother!!!

Surgery went well and was relatively quick. On the way out your eyes are taped up and they wheel you out to a waiting room. That is an experience, having no vision for a while. I think it was a total of 30 minutes. During that time we were trying to figure out which waiting room we were in, who was in the room with us, how everyones procedure had gone, etc.

Jeff got there about this time and they showed him in to that waiting room. So I was asking him questions, in fact we all were. He was our only lifeline. He was describing the place. He said it's really nice with pictures of people who have had the procedure before that are celebrities. Then he said, "I don't know why they wasted the money when you all can't even see this stuff!!!!!" So true. So Jeff.

At first things were hazy, but with each other things are getting clearer. Far away was the best at first but slowly words closer up are getting much better too. It is so awesome.

I have to wear goggles anytime I am outside or in the shower for the next week. And believe me I look so cool! I can't wear makeup for a week. Drops continued galore. I can't touch my eyes for the next week, not even to dab them after I put drops in my eyes. But it is every bit worth it.

I would highly suggest that if you have a fear of drops in your eyes that you go through this procedure. You will be cured.

It might be funny, if you weren't the mom

If your child came into the kitchen nonchalantly while you feeding your baby and told you that they were going to paint their nails. You noticed that as they were walking they were also taking their nail polish off with a cotton ball soaked with nail polish remover. Yep, I double checked on that and it had been poured and spilled on top of the bathroom counter top.

If you found your child dragging your alarm clock from your bedroom across the living the room and toward the kitchen. You notice that she has a blanket set up for her bed and a boppy set up for her brother's bed.

You probably wouldn't laugh though if you went to pick her up at the babysitter and got to talking as you do everyday and then started to walk out the door. So you call for your child and she doesn't call. Still doesn't come. Then you both start scouring the house, back yard, front yard and yes ------- you find her in the front yard, across the street, by the fire hydrant. Luckily she lives on a cul-de-sac with very little traffic and another mom happened to be out that knows Caitlyn and was watching her. PTL!

These all happened in one day, actually like one hour. Do you see a little bit of independence going on here?

So now I want to hear your stories, What would be funny, if you weren't the mom?

Drops

I have had the pleasure (NOT) of putting tons of drops in my eyes. My eyes have been dilated and then I got to drive across Dallas in the sun, well, really against the sun (heading east), but that doesn't make the story as good. So any way, I had those big dorky tinted glasses on over my glasses and still it was really hard to see anything. All the lights are blurry and the small print is like looking at real, fine print.

But all that to say, it's a go and I get my surgery Wednesday morning at 4:30 am.

So back to the drops, I get to put drops (antibiotics) in my eyes every two hours, 5 minutes apart, 2 different kinds of drops. That's 4 drops every 2 hours. That's something like 52 drops in one day. Joy!

But, I'm looking at the positive and that is only one more day of broken and crooked glasses!

Birdies Come Here

This is what Caitlyn yells and demands when she is in the back yard these days.

You see, she and her dad bought a bird feeder this weekend and hung it on the tree in the backyard. Sadly, she hasn't seen a bird come to the feeder yet. She has hollered for birds, clapped her hands, kissed at birds, but no luck. But I'm not upset it has kept her occupied and entertained!

Toes

Who needs a paci any more when you've finally found that you have cute, precious toes to suck on? Brent's favorite new thing for the past week or so has been to play with his feet. He will immediately begin to pull at his socks if has them off. He doesn't mind the socks, this is part of the game. This morning he figured out he could reach his fat, little foot all the way to his mouth. Hope it didn't hurt like it did when he bit (gummed) me last night.

Playing Catch Up

Welcome back! Apparently I have been closed for a couple weeks. Sorry if this has caused an inconvenience for anyone. In fact, I'm not even sure if there is anyone still out there. If there is I would really love to here from you because I'm to the point that I'm really ready to give up blogging. Oh yeah, the reason I blog is because I don't scrapbook and to keep a record of my children's lives. It seems I don't follow through on anything.

Okay, I promise this isn't a pity party. I am really going to update you on our lives and maybe start posting blogs again.

Caitlyn is doing great. She is now not only recognizing the letter (capital A) A everywhere we go, she knows the sound it makes and can write it too. It is so fun. She can also write a smiley face and circle. When I catch her with a pencil and a piece of paper she tells me she is doing her "homework". My, my if she only knew what was ahead of her.

Brent is crawling in circles. He is trying so hard to get places and is only moving in circles. I feel his pain. Really I do. He can get across the room when he rolls. He is getting so big. He was 18 lbs a month ago. He will be 7 months next Wed. He is very alert, happy, and engaged in what others are doing. He rarely cries unless he is hungry or tired.

Jeff is going to the races tomorrow at the motor speedway. I believe that is Nascar. He is flying his dad in from Colorado who's a big fan. They are planning to cookout there, so we went to Walmart and bought the store out last night.

I continue to do numerous loads of laundry. Although I did go through Brent's clothes last night and weed out a huge amount of clothes that no longer fit him (which should mean less laundry, right?) I am going to be doing the same with my closet today (sometime?). I just realized I have 9 weeks until my summer vacation that I'll need to be in beach attire. YIKES!

I'm having Lasik eye surgery this Wednesday!!!! So the last 2 weeks have been the looooonnnnngggeesssttttttt weeks of my life. Since I wear gas permeable contacts I have had to go without my contacts to let my cornea reshape to it's original shape. Well my glasses that I wear only at night in the comforts of own home are in quite bad shape. They are broken. One side of my glasses are broken off. So I normally just wear them in bed to watch TV and when I've had to run upstairs and check on the kids I just old my head sideways and it works. It's sad, because it's been this way for years. I know, I'm a procrastinator. Well, when I found out I was going to have to wear the glasses I wasn't going to pay money for two weeks and luckily I just got bangs cut on the right side of my face to cover the tape. Yes, I put tape on my glasses! But last night I got smart and decided to super glue my glasses. So far, so good. Jeff has welded my glasses twice but this last time it wouldn't work. I hope you are getting a good laugh - it is quite hysterical. The stinking part is that I'm seeing people that I normally see once or twice a year in this 2 week time period, go figure. Everyone says I look fine in glasses and you can't really see the tape and yada yada, but I'm so self conscious. I can't wait for Wednesday at 4:30 am.

At school we are making a class newspaper and it has been so much fun. We are having coffee and newspaper next Friday morning at 7:30. It should be interesting to see if I make it there on time. I will see if I can post a small version of the newspaper online without student names. It is turning out so well! I am really enjoying 4th grade.