April 2012

April has been a month of traveling for our family! 

Charlie spent a good portion of the first two weeks of April working on projects in Colorado, Louisiana and Texas.  He was able to be home for Easter though, which was great!  We had our neighbors and international friends over to dye eggs and had our now traditional egg pageant and war.  With no Aunt Inez eggs this year, we weren’t sure who had laid the toughest shells, but Allison claimed victory with a fierce looking egg we think was one of Aunt Dooney’s.  Bruce didn’t dye any eggs this year, but he had fun playing with the plastic eggs and his Easter basket.  Charlie also let him suck on a chocolate bunny’s ears for a little bit which he thoroughly enjoyed.

teaching Bruce how to play

The Farmer's Market opened this month and we were able to get some seedlings and plant the rest of our garden towards the middle of the month.  In addition to the lettuce, cabbage, spinach, radishes, beets, and potatoes, we now have an assortment of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, corn, squash, zucchini, and peas planted.  We ran out of time to plant the green beans and Korean melons, but hopefully when we plant the okra this coming week we can throw those in too and hope for the best!  We’ve had wonderful “growing” weather this spring, and if it keeps it up this summer, we’re in for a great garden this year I think.  We’ve already enjoyed many dinner salads with the greens growing so far!  Bruce really likes to “weed” with me these days – anything if it means being outdoors.  It’s been so sunny lately though, that I’ve started building him an old-school “fort” with the dining room chairs and blankets.  He seems to enjoy it, and I'm happy for him to be in the shade, so every one wins. 

It may not look like much now, but it's a start!

Corn and peas aren’t the only thing popping up in rows around our house – Bruce has sprouted two teeth as well!  He’s handled it like a champ, but good thing Uncle Willie stayed with us and left behind his homeopathic healing elixir.  Bruce spends a lot of time running his tongue over his teeth - I think trying to figure out what in the world they could be, and where did they come from?  He’s biting on everything, loves to scrape his teeth on anything that will make an interesting sound, and thinks it’s funny to “air chomp” with a silly grin on his face.

"stuck" under Grandma Pat's ottoman

Other news on the baby front:  

Bruce rides my hip like a little jockey, complete with spurring my flanks as if telling me I’m not going fast enough.  He still isn’t crawling yet, but can scoot backwards until he gets stuck somewhere, and pushes up sideways liking he’s going to get into a sitting position any day now.  He gets up on his hands and knees regularly these days, and sleeps in a little ball every night with his knees tucked up under him and his rump in the air, which is insanely cute.  He’s eating his baby food well, but has been having a bit of a problem with digestion for awhile now, so we’ll have to go in to the doctor this week to see what, if anything, is going on.  He already thinks he should be feeding himself though and often tries to grab the spoon from my hand.  Sometimes when he has a spoon of his own, he holds it up to me as if he wants to feed me.  I oblige, and take a Peter Pan mouthful of imaginary deliciousness.  His affection towards stuffed animals has grown, and it’s squeals and giggles now every time he spies one.  Among his favorites are a fuzzy-tailed chicken and a new Hereford bull Charlie got him.  He continues to be crazy about details and is always investigating the ins and outs of anything he can get his hands on.  He loves to squeeze his toys so hard he turns red - I like to think he's trying to turn them into diamonds.  He enjoys anything that rolls or spins, especially the wheels on toy vehicles.  Bruce has given up on trying to master the traditional milestones quickly, and has opted to develop his monkey feet skills instead.  No one can maneuver things with their feet like this baby!  Bruce loves to play various forms of peek-a-boo, and his all-time favorite game is when he and Charlie play "chase mama."  He has had a touch of stranger anxiety lately – but that may be because of all the large groups of people we’ve been around this month.  They may be family, but they’re still pretty strange! 

We drove down to Louisiana on the 16^th for Charlie’s grandmother’s funeral.  It’s always sad to lose a loved one, but we were able to have a nice family reunion, which I’m sure would make Grandma Scottie proud.  We stayed a couple of days, and then Charlie’s mom joined us for the drive back to Oklahoma.

Lovin' on Granny K!

napping with Aunt Claire

Matthew playing on Bruce's head

Bruce eating Matthew's sock

Cousins!

The next day, Charlie went up to the office for a bit, I did some laundry, and then we loaded up again and drove to Kansas for a Kolarik family reunion.  There was a good turn out, and we had a nice weenie-roast and picnic on Bluff Creek.  Charlie’s brother Willie came back to Norman with us afterwards on Sunday and we spent the evening playing the Atari, which always provides good laughs.

Bruce with Aunt Ann

Kolarik Cousins

We all enjoyed a couple of nights in our own beds, and then on Friday it was time to head down to Texas for my sister-in-law Leah’s baby shower.  Several of the ladies from my hometown church drove out to help celebrate.  It was great to catch up with them and hear fun stories from generations of motherhood.  We can’t wait for Baby Jocelyn to arrive this summer!

It was the first time for us to stay at my mom and Rick’s new house in Horseshoe Bay, and we had a wonderful visit.  They had put up a little swing for Bruce in one of the trees in their yard, which Bruce thought was great fun.  Paul and Courtney came down with Leah for the weekend and we had a fun time exploring the oriental gardens and picking wild flowers on the side of the road.  Poor Charlie loves me so much that he was even willing to lop off some of the blooming prickly pear cactus paddles that I wanted.     

my niece Courtney climbing a rock to scale a wall
in flip flops - a girl after my own heart!

Paul and Courtney in the Oriental Gardens

Tickling the ivories with Grandma Pat

We drove back to Oklahoma today, with interesting Texas Country music radio stations helping us pass the time with ridiculous songs of love and loss and wild living.  Bruce has been such a good sport about it all.  He’s tolerated the long car rides better than we could expect or ask for, but I think we’ll all be happy to have life settle back in our normal routine for a while.  It might have been a coincidence, but Bruce did kiss the carpet when we got home.  My sentiments exactly. 

Loved seeing everyone, but it's great to be home!  

Bruce in the car seat after a road trip segment where I was
driving alone with him and had to keep tossing toys
back to him when he started to fuss...