March 2013

The trees are in bloom

Hints toward a season change

March's tease for Spring

 

One of the big activities for this month included a family vacation to Disney World!  We knew Bruce was really too young for that kind of trip, but we wanted to join the extended family for the adventure and we got great deals on everything, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  In a nutshell, the vacation was filled with a lot of wonderful memories, along with its share of near-nightmares - everything that makes a family vacation a great family vacation.

Our flight leaving OKC was an hour late, and we only had a 45 minute lay-over in Houston... so our trip didn't start off too well.  I was praying for a miracle - that we'd still somehow make our connecting flight - but as we were landing, our flight to Orlando was taking off (A handy "app" told us that, so at least we didn't have to run like crazies through the airport).  I didn't get the miracle I was hoping for, but the one I got instead was still pretty great.  I was pacing the terminal with a screaming lunch-less, nap-less toddler, who didn't understand why I wouldn't let him drive the airport tram cart, while Charlie was trying to negotiate something with the United representative.  The best he could do was getting us on standby later that evening with a confirmed flight the next morning.  I was freaking out on the inside, and trying to keep cool on the outside.  We had lunch, and then Charlie remembered he had two guest passes to the United club lounge that he'd be saving for a rainy day.  So we got to relax in the posh environs of the rich and famous, with all the free drinks and snacks we could want.  Bruce got to nap in my arms in a super-comfy chair, and Charlie got the lounge reps to work their fancy magic and get us confirmed on a flight to Orlando that night.  A couple of Whiskey cokes (Charlie), a mountain of Milano cookies (me) and a wonderful nap (Bruce) later, we were all in much better spirits.  We didn't make it to our hotel room until after midnight, but we were in our hotel room, in Orlando, so all was well in the world.

Momo's ready to go!

Bruce enjoying the flight

finally getting to "drive" the tram

We spent three days park hopping between the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot with my mom and Rick, brother and his wife, ALL FOUR of their kids, and a lot of my brother's in-laws.  Even with me being pregnant, and Bruce being so little, we were still able to enjoy to so much of what the parks had to offer.

Our favorite day was a drizzly Tuesday morning.  I have to admit, leaving the hotel I had a pretty rotten attitude.  I HATE drizzly rainy days.  And there wasn't supposed to be any rain.  But, my attitude quickly turned around when we realized that the rain was keeping everyone away!  We were able to ride six rides at the Magic Kingdom, and have lunch, in under three hours!

 

playing a "pumba" (drum)

Bruce was mesmerized by a lot of the rides, especially "It's a Small World," but I think he loved the Animal Kingdom best of all.  That kid really loves animals.

looking at the "shish"

more fish!

not an official attraction, but caught Bruce's eye!

Although traveling with a large group made it difficult to spend a lot of time with everyone, it was still really sweet to make some memories with everyone.  Especially my nieces and nephew, because I don't see them nearly enough.  Hopefully we'll have a lot more extended family vacations in the future!

 

The hardest part of the trip, was that Bruce decided to quit eating a couple of days in.  I think it was a combination of "travel tummy" along with being too distracted eating in public for every meal.  We tried not to worry, knowing he would eat if he really needed to, but it was still sad to see him go through several different "bathroom complications" as a result of his meal rebellion.  

The airplane ride home was a lot harder for Bruce, but we made it.  We all made it.  Vacationing is awesome, but it's always so nice to be home.  And we got home just in time to put Bruce to bed, and all was well in the world again.

Our days at home have been really nice, too - Bruce has been a fun little buddy to spend time with.  We still struggle with mundaneness at times though - trying to make our moments matter and not feel like we're living out the movie 50 First Dates.  For the most part I think we're finding a good balance between sharing adventures looking for ladybugs in the backyard, and snuggling on the couch with the iPad.  Growing another baby has definitely taken its toll on me this month, and I've certainly become a lot more lax on the iPad viewing time.  But this is just a season, right?  And I do think he's learning quite a bit from those silly Baby Einstein videos, because our little guy is SUCH a talker now!  I couldn't list his words even if I wanted too.  So I'm trying not to to be too hard on myself.

silliness at Target



playing at the park




dirt work

Along with talking more, Bruce is becoming so much more affectionate, which I can never get enough of.  He's great with giving away hugs and kisses, and even invents new ways of kissing.  Lately it's been "pig snort" kisses, which involve him grabbing your hand, pressing the back of it against his nose and mouth, and giving a great gusto of a snort, followed by a heart-melting giggle.  He knows when he's being funny, and loves to "play jokes" with you to see you smile.  He also loves to give high fives and fist bumps now - I have no idea who taught him how to fist bump, but it's super cute and I can't take credit for it.  

a tolerant Mr. Pants

Speaking of growing another baby - I'm 14-ish weeks along now, and everything is still progressing well.  I had a week or so of crazy (all-day) morning sickness, but other than that, I've been feeling pretty good, except for being exhausted all the time, of course.  I had an extra ultrasound this past week to check on things because they had noticed a small hemorrhage at my previous ultrasound, but everything looked great this time around, and it was fun to get another peak at the baby.  I go in on Tuesday for my regular check up, and they should schedule the gender ultrasound at that time.  (I mean, I guess the ultrasound is for a lot of other things too, but we only care about the gender, right?)  So maybe by my next update I'll be able to share that news as well.

Charlie has still been traveling quite a bit, and working really hard.  It was nice for him to be able to take some vacation time this month, but I think he's more than made up for it in the weeks since we've been home.  He leaves tomorrow for another trip to China for ten days, so Bruce and I will by flying solo for a while.  We have a few things on the calendar though, including a family wedding in Dallas next weekend, so I'm hoping the time will pass by quickly.

And what about Easter?  We celebrated by having our next door neighbors over to dye eggs with us.  All five of our chickens are in an egg-laying season right now, so we had 76 eggs to color!  (I had closer to 100 saved up, but had to throw several of them away because they were cracked a little.)  It's funny because we still tease my mom about the Easter over 20 years ago when she waited too long to buy the eggs, and was stuck buying brown eggs - but I found myself a little sad this year because all of our chickens lay white eggs now, and the past few years I've really enjoyed dying the brown eggs.  They give such a rich, deep, earthy background to the colors.  But we enjoyed our white eggs nonetheless.  Bruce even dyed a few himself, and enjoyed scribbling on them with crayons after they were colored.  We finished off the night with our annual egg war, and Molli was the champion this year!  We made a little Easter basket for Bruce to wake up to this morning, but didn't go overboard.  Since Bruce gets up before the sun, and Charlie doesn't, we didn't hide eggs for him until his nap today so we all could be a part of that.  Bruce needed a little help finding a few of the eggs, but for the most part, he got the gist of the game.  I'm sure the Reese Pieces inside of the eggs were a little bit of a motivator also.

Easter grass... the best part!

 

sorting eggs

 

not happy about having to put the eggs away...

 

But what about Easter.  It seems fitting that since I'm posting this update on the holiday itself, I should share a little bit of what's been on my heart.  This year I've been a little mixed-emotioned about the day, the season.  I love The Plan.  I'm thankful for a Creator God who pursues his people.  I'm incredibly thankful that Jesus came and conquered death to bring restoration.  As yes, I believe that He will come again and make all things new.  But I've been walking alongside two friends in this season, faced with crazy challenge, and finding it hard to trust The Plan, and see goodness.  It focuses my thoughts Heavenward more intensely,  believing that Heaven is for the now, and longing for miracles, but struggling to find enough faith for them.  So that's my prayer for this coming season, for myself and all who want to claim it as well, for an increased measure of faith, for amazing encounters with Jesus, to be impacted by the power of God, and to feel the assurance of His presence and nearness.

Happy Easter!

February 2013

February was

Itsy bitsy spiders and

Happy beating hearts

Between work trips and recovering from a nasty cold, Charlie got a lot accomplished with the bathroom renovation this month.  With Bruce's help of course, he got all the old floor tiles ripped up, the old bathtub cut out, and most of the plumbing for the new bathtub installed.  We've selected all the new tiles for the floor and tub surround (I think, almost) and are almost ready to install the new tub, new drywall, and get going on the tiling project.  Hopefully next month we'll have some finished photos to show off, but for now, here are some cute in-progress shots!

Bruce got his own tool set for this project!

just like daddy

Bruce is a completely different little boy this month!  He now will play with toys by himself, and enjoys playing with toys by himself - for a little while anyway.  He's invented lots of ways to interact with his different trucks and tractors and animals and various odds and ends from around the house.  One of his favorite things to do is park all of the animals and vehicles in the pig stall of his barn.  He gets a little frustrated when the big tractors don't fit, but finally is satisfied to shove them through the horse stall gate instead.  He also likes to make sure all of the animals and people get plenty to eat and drink, sharing his snacks with them and letting them lap up milk from his sippy straw.  He can make the best sound effects now, too.  Well, it's the same sound effect every time - like the last squirt out of a ketchup bottle - but he uses it in all sorts of situations which really animates his play times!  He's grown really fond of three stuffed animals in particular this month - Reveille (a singing/dancing A&M dog doll that ran out of batteries a long time ago), a monkey, and a Raggedy Andy doll.  He lovingly calls them his "oof" "mo-mo" and "Anny."  He totes them around the house, props them up on his rocking moose, gives them rides on his Batmobile, bathes them regularly, and remembers where they are at all times.

Communication with Bruce has grown by leaps and bounds, too!  Not only does he understand just about everything we say to him, but he's actually talking now!  It all really got going one cold, rainy day leaving Walmart.  I told Bruce, "It's nasty outside!" as we made a dash for the van.  He then gave his best attempt at "nasty" and the whole ride home it was back and forth between him and I saying "nasty."  And we've only added to the list from there.  For those of you who really care, I've included a Bruce-to-English translation chart below.  For those of you who don't really care that much, suffice it to say that he surprises us everyday with new words.  He will mimic a lot of words we say, but he initiates a lot on his own too.  He's been shaking his head "no" for awhile now, but will now nod "yes" too, which really helps us understand what he's wanting.  It's been such a fun added dynamic to our time with Bruce - I can't wait for more!

These are words he initiates, although imperfectly, on almost a daily basis:

Anny	Andy
bah	Ball, boy
baf	bath
behbow	elbow
Broof	Bruce
bubba	bubble
buh	book
caw	car
cawk	clock
coe-cuh	crocus
Dada	Daddy
doe	door
dut	dirt
eee	egg
foo	food
fuhvul	shovel
go	go
guh	girl
kicat	kitty cat
kiket	cricket
Mama	Mama
Mo-mo	monkey
moe	more
muh-muh	milk
nana	banana
no-no	no
Oof	dog
Papa	Papa (or any old man)
paw	paw (or hand)
peppa	pepper
pip	chip
see	sit
shoo-shoo	shoulder
shush	shoes
sish	fish
tahtar	guitar
tash	trash
tay	tail
teh	“T”
too	two
touch	touch
tractuh	tractor

Another fun, random thing about Bruce that's developed this month, is his fascination with the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" song.  We go to the library every week for story time, and they always begin the time together by singing that song.  I didn't realize that he really paid attention that closely, but the other day, one of his toys that plays a lot of nursery rhyme songs played the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and Bruce immediately put his fingers together, making his "spider" and got the biggest grin on his face.  That's the only song he wants that toy to sing now, so we have to push the button a thousand times to pass up all the others until it cycles around again.  We also found a lot of youtube versions to indulge him a little more, including this gem of ridiculousness that we've ashamedly viewed probably close to fifty times:  Itsy-Bitsy Spider

"spider fingers"

Probably the most exciting news we have to share this month though, is that we're expecting a baby this fall!  We're two months in so far, and everything is going well.  We had our first ultrasound last week and got the due date of September 27th.  Bruce was seemingly unimpressed, but we were excited to see the baby and hear the heartbeat!

I'm sure there were a thousand other things that happened this month, but I think we'll keep it somewhat short and sweet this time around.  We're looking forward March and the coming of Spring!

 

A windy walk on campus

Bruce's pet crickets

 

museum bug exhibit



January 2013

A fresh year begins

Every new January
Memories await

January has been an interesting month for us.  So much and yet so little has happened, and it's crazy to think that the month is over now!  I'll apologize ahead of time for the lack of and quality of photos.  I'd like to blame it on the fact that a friend borrowed our good camera, or that Charlie was gone for a lot of the month and it's hard to take pictures of Bruce single-handedly.  But to be honest, it really was just a lazy picture taking month.

We, meaning Charlie, spent a lot of time at the beginning of the month working on house renovations.  He finished installing the two ceiling fans and recessed lighting in the living room and our bedroom, and exhaust fans in both bathrooms.  Seemingly small additions, but a lot of grueling attic work involved.  We've also bought the new bathtub, and are almost done hemming and hawing about tile decisions for the bathroom.  I think.  Installing all of that will be on Charlie's to-do list for February!

Charlie and I celebrated our NINTH wedding anniversary this year on the 3rd.  Unfortunately, I caught a stomach bug and was miserable company for him.  The good news was that Charlie was a rock star with Bruce the next day while I was still recovering - brought him to work and took him out to lunch - so I could stay in bed half the day.  The bad news was that we had to cancel our Ring Dunk/Cotton Bowl Party.  We still watched the game, but were a pretty pitiful pair.  So many touchdowns, but so little energy for "kissing your date."

I remembered "Free First Monday" at the natural history museum this month and took Bruce there to meet up with a couple of our friends.  It had been four months since the first time we took him there, and it was so great to see his reaction this time!  I left the stroller in the car and thought I'd just let him lead the way - he was awestruck!  And the museum is so  great with lots of hands on things to touch - he was in heaven!  And then he found the stairs, and our museum visit was essentially over.  We spent the rest of the afternoon going up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs.  And then he found the girl scout troop trying to take a group photo by the mastodon, and Bruce thought it was hilarious to photo bomb them.  He especially liked laying down next to the girls posing on the floor underneath the mastodon's raised hoof.  All in all, it was a great afternoon at the museum, and hopefully I'll remember next month on the free day so we can go back.

The next weekend, there was a grand opening for the casino/equestrian event arena Charlie helped design in Mulvane, Kansas.  We drove up there and Charlie's mom watched Bruce at the hotel while Charlie and I went to the reception.  Afterwards, I went up to put Bruce to bed and stay with him while Yvonne, Bill and Charlie went out for dinner and to win big at the casino.  Charlie came to spell me when he was down ten dollars, and I met up with Yvonne to have my go at the penny slots.  I found a great machine ten minutes before I needed to get up to bed - won 30 dollars - and then forced myself to go upstairs to bed.  I told Charlie about the machine and where to find it, and the next morning he won another 30 dollars, doubling our money!  We've never left a casino with less money than we started with, but this was definitely our biggest win!

Bruce's first merry-go-round ride

We drove back home just in time to get the house cleaned up before my mom and Rick came for a quick visit.  We didn't have any huge activities on the agenda during their stay, (other than a breakfast at Ozzy's Diner, of course) but we had a great time shopping, hanging around the house catching up, and playing with Bruce.  They packed up and headed back to Texas a few days later, and then Charlie left the next day to go to San Antonio for a few days for a work convention.

Normally, I would have been a little bummed to spend a few days taking care of Bruce by myself, especially over a weekend, but this time it was perfect timing.  I had a church leadership event Friday night and all day Saturday that I had to look forward to!  That meant that Bruce spent Friday night and all day Saturday with a babysitter.  That's a big deal for us.  A first, in fact.  We don't have many opportunities to get out, and babysitters are expensive these days!  Friday night was nothing because he was already in bed by the time the babysitter got here, but Saturday - whew!  Eight hours away from each other!  Bruce had a great day though, and was all smiles when I came home that afternoon.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the "break," but I definitely missed him too.  The church meeting was really encouraging too, and I'm looking forward to this coming semester for our House Church.  

Charlie came home on Sunday and then left again on Thursday for China!  He comes home tonight, after being gone for eight days.  Definitely the longest business trip since Bruce has come along.  It was exciting for him to get to go on the trip, but he didn't really get to leave the hotel or conference center much, so it's not like it was a vacation.  Hardly.  I can remember before Bruce, Charlie's business trips were almost like a vacation for me - I didn't have to cook, I could watch what I wanted to on television, could go out with girlfriends - life has sure changed!  I really admire single parents because I can barely survive a week of it!

this is when my battery died at the park...
 right as we got to the cool tunnel...

To help pass some of the time while Charlie was gone, Bruce and I went up to my inlaws' house for the weekend.  It was pretty cold, so we didn't get outside much, but Bruce did manage to get one tractor ride in with Grandpa and Granny K to feed cows.

To help pass the time when we're not in Stillwater, or at a fun, fancy casino, or shopping with grandparents, or at a museum, we've found a lot of fun activities to keep us busy around the house.  Mainly, I raided my arts and crafts supply closet and came up with a lot of random things that Bruce amuses himself with.  He has a shoebox of pinto, lima and coffee beans that he loves dumping in and out of kitchen pots and jars.  He loves putting them all in a pile on the floor, and then raking them out like a bull getting ready to charge.  Or he'll lay down and put his face on the pile of beans - this boy still loves feeling things with his face.  Is that normal?  And he thinks it's really great when you pour out a big jar of beans over his head like rain.  I have to admit I like it too.  Think pressure-massage waterfall.

Then there's a box of assorted sea shells we brought back from Florida this summer.  Bruce's favorites are the lightning welks, naturally.  He also has a shoebox filled with "craft" rocks, mermaid stones, and a few chunky turquoise and wooden beads.  These for some reason he thinks need to be arranged and rearranged in an old egg carton.  He's also gotten into markers, watercolors, and colored chalk this month, along with a growing obsession for stickers.  Bruce loves playing with my tub of colored pencils too, but more just like Pick Up Sticks, because he can't press hard enough yet to make satisfying marks with them.  At any given moment, these items are strewn about the living room, and all over the house if I'm honest, but the mess is definitely worth it to see him engaged in an activity for more than 30 seconds at a time!  He'll still raid his toy boxes from time to time too, but playing with these "real" things seems to be a lot more interesting to him.

Bruce's first watercolor

He loves hiding and playing "run away," especially running away with some object that I'm supposed to come and snatch back from him.  This game is particularly funny with socks or my grocery list.  I don't know why.  Bruce still has the best laugh!

As far as developmental milestones, I don't know exactly how he "measures up" to others his age, but he's definitely moving forward, which is what we care about.  He's an expert walker, and things that used to trip him up aren't a problem anymore.  He can walk on tip-toes, walk backwards, walk in circles, can even run a bit, and has the most adorable "triangle walk" around.

Bruce hand selecting the chicken food

feeding the chickens

Bruce is talking a lot more these days too.  Still mostly gibberish, but a few real words, or really great mimics, come out from time to time.  Our most impressive party trick though (when Bruce feels like playing along) is that he can now mmmoo like a cow, ssss like a snake, oof like a dog, ah ah ah for a monkey, and is getting pretty good and frumping (?) like a horse.  It's really cute.

checking for eggs

carefully putting them in the carton!

For months now Bruce has been blowing kisses for us, but just this last week...brace yourself...he's started giving us REAL KISSES!!!  They're few and far between, and always more readily given away to his lovies, but still.  Man.  Melts my heart.  He clicks his tongue to make the smack and lays it on ya like a pro.

Charlie's been gone for nearly half the month on work trips, but we're looking forward to things slowing down a bit travel-wise.  He's got some projects in Oklahoma City on the schedule that should keep him around more this coming month.  Yahoo!  Looking forward to lots of family time!  We've had a great start to 2013 though, so I can't complain!