Cleaning Out the Pictures from My Phone

Just a few pictures from my phone...

Picture day at school - beach theme.  Haddie picked out her own "pretties" for her hair at Bealls - on sale too!

I had to work late, because of the museum ribbon cutting, so Na-Na picked up the kids from school and WORE THEM  OUT!  Thank you Na-Na!  Kids can sleep anywhere. Jerry is demonstrating the seat belt head hammock position.  He is clutching his Happy Meal car - slept with it too!

As he gets older - Jerry has been assigned house hold jobs.  His first job is taking the kitchen compost out to the compost bin outside.  His second job is taking the recycling out to the garage and sorting it - plastic, tin & paper/card board.  This has been a very popular job - even a competition between  Jerry & Haddie.  Once the baskets were full,  we made a trip to the Recycling Center.  Jerry found the huge 4 foot block of squished water bottles very interesting.

They are out of our bed!!!-for MOST of the night.  We set up a bunk bed in their room this weekend and they are sleeping through the night in their room.  First we tried side-by-side in a day bed - because they are used to sleeping with us - but they would wake each other up - they would come to our room about 11pm.  Then we tried toe-to-toe in the day bed - a little better - they would come to our bed about 3am.  After a talk with LJ about why he would wake up and come our bed crying - Toe-to-toe not a good sleeping position for him - got a couple of kicks to the man parts.  So bunk beds!  They didn't come to our bed until 5:30am!!!!  Of course I didn't sleep - worried about him climbing down the ladder - even though I put in two night lights and they have their Cloud B Turtles that project stars every where.

Faith Like Potatoes

Crazy South Texas weather.  There are two phrases regarding our weather down here... one that a local radio dj uses frequently "If you don't like the weather here...wait a minute."  And my Pawpaw's about this being the only place in the world where "you could sink up to your neck in mud and have dust blow in your eyes."

FROM ICE:  We survived the Artic Blast.   The kids and I stayed home-the storm pretty much shut down South Texas - my work & the kid's school closed.  We just stayed inside and kept warm.  We bundled up and ventured out the second day to investigate the crunchy frozen grass and ice covered plants. 

TO SUN:

As soon as it warmed up we were outside playing and planting our garden.

The Jerrys tilled.  LJ thought he was big stuff running his Daddy's tiller.

Then came the fun part of planting.  Big Jerry dug holes to plant potatoes.  The kids had a blast throwing potatoes into the holes.

I believe Daddy was saying "Haddie the hole is right here.  Not in the middle of the garden!"

The release...if you look you can see the shadow of the potato IN THE HOLE as it flew over the holes and into the middle of the garden yet again.  All Daddy could do was laugh as he stepped over the 30+ holes and tip toe through the newly planted green beans to gather potatoes.

Jerry ran out of potatoes first so his sister shared some over her's.

This would be a potato nest.  Daddy seperated them later.
We had a great day working outside all day long planting green beans, lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes peppers, tomatoes and herbs.  This is not the first year the kids have helped with the garden but it is such a hard concept for them to grasp.  To explain that a tiny seed is going to grow and produce.  It reminded me of the movie "Faith Like Potatoes".  Growing faith - unseen until harvest.

Exciting Things Happening at Work!

Project Giddy Up!
Please check out this really cool project that our history/social studies consultant is doing
http://esc2trailride.edublogs.org/
If you know of any teachers - please pass on the link... Janet is interacting via:  blog, tweet, web cam & video to kids & classrooms from a covered wagon on the trail ride.

The Early Scholars Academy (children's interactive museum) is coming along...
http://www.esa.esc2.net/index.htm#construction
It so exciting - I got to go down to the bottom of the ocean in  a big yellow submarine - the windows on the sub are flat screen tv's.  It was funny several of us got a little nausious watching the horizon on the bay go up & down before we "submerged".  We passed dolphins, whales, turtles, coral reef ...Lil' Jerry is never going to get out of it!
We will be opening with exhibits on oceans, Artic, tropical rain forest, amazing me, green house, and zoo.
Still seeking funding for the space, earth science, city, dinosaurs, American frontier, and Pyramids exhibits.  So if you would like a room or exhibit named after you this is your opportunity!

The Secret Life of Hadley McQueen

A few months ago, I blogged about Lil’Jerry and promised one about Hadley. Here it is…

Most of you know her as the very quiet and shy little girl. Don’t let those bashful long eye lashes fool you – she is one outgoing, vocal, little “Haddie Monster”! She usually growls when you call her that too. I believe she is well aware she has the men in her life wrapped around her tiny finger.

She is a Mama’s girl – she is a Daddy’s girl. Well it depends on who is asking. If Daddy asks her if she is Daddy’s girl, she’ll tell him “NO, I Mama’s girl!” And if I ask – she’s Daddy’s girl. She is the master of contradiction as humor – and she finds herself very funny.

Her favorite color is blue – every color is blue. Her favorite food is “Tah-toes” or tacos – anything wrapped in a tortilla. For more of Haddie style humor, she will come to me, go nose to nose and say, “ tah-toe?”. She expects an over dramatized NO! She laughs and goes nose to nose again “tah-toe?” This repeated over and over. Some times she’ll mix it up and throw in an “I cream?” Unfortunately, that is one thing she can’t have anymore as she is recently been diagnosed as lactose intolerant and no citrus. Upsets her tummy very much. She loves to eat and is a total carb-addict. Pasta, rice & potatoes top her list of favorites. But, she will eat just about everything – after she finishes her carbs. The only thing I know she won’t eat is cooked spinach. She loves spinach salad - has to eat the croutons first…

She loves to sing and make up her own songs. Her favorite song is “Happy Birthday to Meme”. We have to sing it frequently – especially when we play tea party-every cup cake must be sung to. She loves to talk to Meme on the phone and have girl’s night out with Meme & Mama -eat “sketti” at Olive Garden. She sits in her high chair, eating a bread stick, telling strangers “Hi”, and dabbing her face with a cloth napkin.

She is a girly-girl. She loves to have her nails painted- called “pretties”. She likes to have a bow or barrette in her hair –also called “pretties”. The other day she wanted a bow for her hair. So, she grabbed my hand and said “Mon Mama”. Haddie drug me to their room and pointed to the bows and said “pretties” and then touched her head. I took down a bow that I thought went with her white, blue & orange gold fish dress. “No Mama.” So took down another bow. “No Mama -I hold you.” So I picked her up and she picked out a green & red polka dot Christmas bow that she wanted. She loves twirly skirts, dresses and tutu’s-all called “pre-dresses”. When we went shopping with Bridgette for her wedding dress at David’s Bridal, I showed her a blue dress. She snatched it up and hugged it tight – yelling “my pre-dress”. It was definitely a parenting UH-OH moment. The long cornflower blue dress with crinoline petticoats was NOT going to leave her arms. Although the color made her eyes look even blue-er and her hair even redder – it was $65. I had wrestle it from her – big crocodile tears and screams of “My Pre-dress!” Meme said that if Pappy had been there – he would have bought it. It is well known that Pappy is one of the men under the bashful-cuddler’s spell. He’ll write her a check – what ever she wants.

She is a girly-girl…WHO KICKS BUTT. She may be wearing a pretty dress – but she is not afraid of getting it dirty. Any thing her older brother does – she can do too. Don’t cross her bossy directions – or you get a “NO, NO, NO, NO!” finger shaken at you. It is not uncommon for her brother to be tackled at full speed and pinned to the ground until he cries. She likes taunting him – especially with her contradictory humor. She’ll say yes to his no – until he cries. One time she made him cry by telling him “shoo fly” over & over again. I have been giving the kids a 5 minute warning before something happens. Well when the 5 minutes is up – Haddie holds up 5 fingers and tells me 5 minutes. I can just imagine her someday running the High Heel Mile Race in New York someday.

While Jerry is my morning person – Haddie is not. She is slow to wake and would prefer to sleep in. Haddie can be quite grumpy until she has her morning waffle. She is a night person – staying up late being happy, playful & very silly. When she gets tired she loves to be cuddled like an infant and through her ba-ba (pacifier) she will say – “I baby.” Yes, she still has a pacifier – but only to go to sleep. She MUST twirl your hair or her own to go to sleep.

She is very good at following directions and is helpful finding things. She loves to “I help-n-me” fold towels, wipe everything clean, gather laundry and assist with dishes. She is an expert helper with a dust pan. She wants to help-n-me with everything.

She is the mama of many babies – I think we are approaching double digits. She covers them and pats them to sleep, feeds them and cleans them with wipies. They are all naked – she can take the clothes off but still lacks the fine motor skills to put them back on. She loves babies – hearing a baby cry breaks her heart and makes her cry too. The documentary Babies (a wonderful movie) is pure torture –too many crying babies.

She loves to give kisses & hugs. She has a routine of asking for a kiss, hug, head bonk and then an Eskimo kiss. She thinks very highly of her big brother. Since she has moved to her new classroom – Jerry & Haddie have some playground time together. From what I understand they are always together and holding hands. She calls her brother Jerry or Bubba – but most of the time she calls him Sissy. One Saturday, for some reason she started calling me by my first name. I’m very glad that was a short lived fad. 

Haddie loves animals but is very afraid of them. She will scream and shake and try to scale the nearest grownup to get away from them. But…for some reason-she loves the neighbor’s new kitten. It is the ugliest cat ever. It is amazing to watch a girl who is afraid of a cute fuzzy chick to carry around this very homely cat. She calls it “Key”.

Well, I hope these little insights didn’t make her sound like a little terror because she is not. It’s funny all those words that we use to describe young children's behavior in a bad way – assertive, demanding, risk taker, independent, persistent, strong willed- are the same words used to describe some of the most successful leaders and entrepreneurs.   I hope that some day everyone gets to know the little girl that we know.

Fall Fun!!

School fall carnival.   Hold me too Pappy!!

 Jesse the yodeling cowgirl - we tried to teach her to yodel but all we get is a "he-hooo".

 And, if you can't guess who they are - Woody & Jesse from Toy Story.And, yes the one pumpkin is puking...had too much candy or watched the Cowboy's game.

 Trick or treating at Shawnda's new house!

 One of our "pooky punkins" - as Lil' Jerry would say

Growing up together in a pumpkin patch!

2008

2009

 

2010





A Day Out with Thomas

On Friday, we traveled to Burnet to spend the "A Day Out with Thomas".

Actually, we left Thursday evening and traveled to the North side of San Antonio.

Haddie & Jerry got all dressed up in their Thomas gear.  We kept the trip a surprise.  Little Jerry had no idea what we were going to do - just that it was a surprise.  All Haddie knew was that it was way to long to be in a car seat. 

 Story time with Mr. Percible.  Look, I have proof that they love each other - at least for the moment.
Then we took pictures with Thomas - you can kind of see that he was "pulling" about five coach cars.  There were 2 other engines at the other end assisting Thomas.  When it was our turn to go up to Thomas to take a picture - Jerry got a little scared - Thomas was BIG.  "MOM, THOMAS IS GOING TO GET ME!!!"

Then came our turn to ride with Thomas. I don't know if we boarded Annie or Claribell (an original 1925 coach car).  Little Jerry was so excited when the conductor (dressed just like the one in the show) came by to punch  our tickets.  Then came the yell "All aboard - next stop Island of Sodor!"  Even though we were in the third car - Thomas' "PEEP PEEP" steam whistle was very loud.  Off we went on our 2.5 mile ride to Sodor (a push-pull through Burnet).  The ride lulled big Jerry to sleep.

Haddie & Jerry waved hello to everyone we passed in Burnet - I mean Sodor.

Saturday we got up early and went to the zoo.  This was Jerry's second time and Haddie's first time going to the zoo.  Haddie is a total Daddy's girl.  I love this picture!

The most interesting part - for the kids- was the Coati poop.  LJ is still talking about how the Coati came over the glass and pooped and the flies came...so interesting.  As you can see, Haddie had to squat down to see the poop too!

Jerry is going to kill me for this one... I don't even know what to write...

He is brushing a goat!

 We ended our adventure with a Zoo Train ride - which lulled Haddie to sleep.



Early Morning Conversation...

Conversation with my son this morning when we got in the car at 6:40am...


"Mama, do you have your phone?" - I had to look...yep

"Mama, do you have you keys?" - Nope had to go back in and get my work keys.

"Mama - I not safe!" I forgot to buckle him - he had crawled through from the front seat.

What would I do without my 3 year old?  Such a little man.