Angels Singing

Christmas

My little angels. Even a choir director would be hard-pressed to get this kind of coordination from a 4 and 2 year old!

Jackson "Phelps" Nobles

From Swim Lessons

Trick or Treat

Halloween is probably Grant's favorite holiday. Not that a two year old understand the concept of holiday; everyday in Grant's life is a holiday come to think of it. Anyway...while Jackson understands and looks forward to the gifts that Christmas and his birthday bring, Grant, my little piglet, looks forward to the candy that flows freely in my chock-ful-o-kids suburban neighborhood. It starts the first of October when on schedule, every house in the neighborhood (including ours) decks itself out with Halloween decorations. The house transforms with cute witches and pumpkins, smiling ghost lights and a cartoon version of Frankenstein. No scary things on this side of the cul-de-sac. Anyway, the inside of the house gets a bit of a make-over too, including a bowl full of Halloween colored M&Ms that the kids dig into pretty freely. Now before anyone thinks my children are candy junkies, WEIRDLY enough, neither of them ever take more than 2 M&Ms at a time, maybe 3 times a day. In the days leading up to the big event, neighbors "boo" each other with anonomous gift bags filled with treats. Two days before Halloween we all meet in the middle of the cul-de-sac for a pumpkin carving party. There the kids eat pumpkin shaped PB&Js and mummy wrapped hotdogs, cupcakes and cookies, and the adults have my neighbor Kimberlee's awesome chili. One of the neighbors even brought a pumpkin shaped Heineken keg. Cool.

This year is the first year that Grant picked out his own costume. Months before Halloween he tried on the Nemo costume that Jack wore his 3rd Halloween and alth0ugh he loved it, he said "No mommy, I be a dinosaur for halloween." Jacks of course new exactly what he was going to be, a skeleton. What Grant actually got was called a "Dragonosaurus" and it's a size too small, but it's the closest I could get. Halloween night, Grant ran around practicing his dino roar. It was awesome. As Jackson politely (most of the time) trick-or-treated, Grant just roared at people answering their doors, then yelled trick-or-treat while stuffing his little hand into the candy bowl. As he ran from house to house he left candy wrappers and three-licked lollipops in his wake that Heath and I scrambled to clean up. Every house's candy especially the lollipops had to be tasted before moving on.

They both had quite a haul. Jackson couldn't even carry his home, it was too heavy. The evening wound down with mommy going through the candy for any no-nos like chewing gum, choking hazards, etc. and then they picked 2 treats to eat before bed (it was Jackson's only candy of the night...Grant however had already eaten half his stash). Luckily, no one threw up and the night was a wonderful success. They already have their costumes picked out for next year!

Last days of Summer

We spent the last weekend of the summer, appropriately, at the beach. Some very nice friends loaned us their beach house for the weekend in Galveston. Jenn and Michael Tickle stayed with us and it was such a great weekend! The weather was beautiful and we got none of the predicted thunderstorms. Jenn's sister Lisa came down on Saturday with their mom and Lisa's two boys, Owen and Gray. Owen and Jackson are the same age and became very fast friends. The two of them had a blast in the water on the boogie boards. What a difference a year makes when you're 4! Last year Jackson wouldn't go near the water without holding on to an adult for dear life. This year he was such a big boy, swimming in the waves, looking at all the fish and searching for seashells.

Grant had a great time too, he and Michael were inseparable. Michael held him up as the waves crashed into him and pulled him around on the boogie board. Grant also had a great time filling up a toy dump truck with sand. We spent almost the whole time down on the beach. Grant's got a nice little tan, but of course Jackson just has his sweet pink cheeks!

Summer Vacation

We just spent the last 10 days in Colorado. Colorado is HEAVEN in August. The weather was absolutely incredible, at least 25 degrees cooler and no humidity. The boys had so much fun with their friend Mia and their new cousin Lucy. We played outside every day, which is unthinkable in the current 100 degree, 85 percent humidity of Houston. We went to Garden of the Gods, the Olympic Training Center (on opening day of the Summer 08 games no less!), Manitou Springs and Royal Gorge.

The second nicest thing about Colorado is the city parks. They are gorgeous. Every 5 miles or so is a new looking park with tons of slides, swings, etc. The one in Boulder even had a co-op garden attached to it that the boys had a blast looking at and running through.

It was a great vacation, but as Jackson said after our full 12 hours of travelling home, "it's good to be back home."

When Daddy's in Charge

Last weekend I went on a family "women's retreat." We went down to Heath's grandmother's house in San Leon on the bay. This is one of the things that Heath did to kill time while I was gone.

Grant's First Boat Trip

The first time Jackson went on a boat, it was during our family's "escape" from Hurricane Rita. I was 6 months pregnant with Grant and Jackson was about a year and 1/2 old. We lived in the Heights at the time, and although there was little fear that we would get water in the house, there was a great chance that we would not have electricity. The thought of being cooped up in my house during the hottest month of the year without air-conditioning was too much to bear, so thanks to the highway savyness of Heath, we made it to Wimberley in just under 6 hours. Luckily our good friends, Keely and Kale and their daughter Chloe had also left for nearby Marble Falls. Our flight from the hurricane ended in a 4 day vacation at their lake house on a boat. Not too bad.

Grant's first boat trip was this weekend. My little daredevil is not quite so brave when on unfamiliar territory. He's a reckless little devil around the house, but put him on a tiny rollercoaster, or an innertube in the middle of the lake and he's not having any of it. He did enjoy the boat ride though. He was pretty cool in his Thomas the TankEngine shades too. Jackson had a blast. He loved the boat, loved swimming in the lake, and especially loved riding in the tube with his friends, Thomas, Sarah and Rachel.

Heath and I had a great time too. I successfully rode the kneeboard after one failed attempt where I was basically dragged along behind the boat bouncing over each and every wave. Second try I was able to get up on the board where I lasted about 3 minutes before my arms just gave out. Guess I'll have to start doing some serious weight lifting to get in shape for next time. After much cajoling, Heath finally agreed to give the kneeboard a try as well. Since Sarah and Rachel (who are 12 and 9) were doing it, and his wife had done it, his pride prevailed and he got in the water. He did great, got up at once and had a good time. Attempted to do a 360 and managed about a 90 before he fell off.

Hill Country Fun

We made it through the weekend trip to Wimberley, everyone came home in one piece. Not such an easy task when you are dealing with two adventurous little boys and about 1000 acres of hill country to roam. These are pictures of them doing what they were told for a change, which was to "stay on the porch unless you are with mommy or daddy." That was the reiterated theme
throughout the weekend since we were warned that rattlesnakes had been spotted in the area.

It was a beautiful weekend. Days were cool and sunny and nights were perfect for a fire. We had a bit of an adventure on Saturday riding the Austin Steam Train. We bought our tickets several months ago and had figured an hour drive time to the train station from Wimberley. Slight miscalulation. We arrived at the train station after a little over 2 hours of driving. Just in time to see the train pull out of the station. Since we were sure we missed the train we left all of our loot in the car to wave goodbye to the train. Heath called to see if we could catch the train on the way home from Burnet and the conductor stopped the train and hailed us on. We made a run for it, caught the train and settled in for the two hour ride to Burnet. This was great because we didn't even want to think about what we were going to tell Jackson if we didn't get on that train. One small problem however, we have a non-potty trained baby on board and NO diaperbag. No carefully packed cooler, no camera fully loaded with batteries, and most importantly, no entertainment for two small boys aboard a rather boring 2 hour train ride through the Texas hill country.

On the upside, Grant learned to poop in a potty. And a potty on a moving train at that! Luckily, when we got to Burnet there was an HEB grocery store across the street from the train station. We stocked up on supplies and walked back onto Main Street and tried to figure out what we were going to do for the next two hours until the train departed. It was rough. Back on board the train we were waiting to get clearance for departure for the station. Small problem, Jackson has giardia which isn't pleasant to his intestines. He's got to go. Now. Train potties are locked while in train stations. No toilets until the train is out of the station and onto the main lines. (That should tell you something rather gross about where the contents of the potties go!) Anyway, luckily he held out and the two of them fell asleep for most of the two hour train ride home. Of course, as soon as we pull into the station in Austin, Jackson announces that it was the best time he's ever had and can we please go again tomorrow!

Sunday was nice as we got to see Heath's family in Austin. His cousin Elaine graduated from UT and her parents were there along with her three sisters, and assorted other aunts, uncles and cousins. The live all over, Ohio, California, North Caroline and San Antonio so it was good to see them all again. Elaine has been a favorite of Jackson's for some time now and he was so happy to see her.

The weather was so beautiful and the boys were having such a good time with Heath that we stayed an extra day, which was wonderful until the rattlesnake sighting off the front porch. Luckily Heath was able to rid it of its head and no damage was done. We packed up and headed out for home soon after.

Easter was a great. Actually, the whole spring break week which ended with Easter was great. I'm exhausted now and Grant actually threw up last night from eating to many chocolate eggs, but we all had such a good time. Both Grant and Jackson really got into the egg hunt, we actually had 3 separate hunts this weekend, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. By Sunday, Grant really had the egg hunt down. At first, he would just get one egg, open it, and eat the contents. By Sunday he collected all his eggs first, then sat down to enjoy them.

Mutton Busting

Ok, when I said that we were "all in" on the cowboy thing, I didn't even know what I was talking about. NOW we are all in. I know you'll want to see this before you finish reading, so I'll go ahead and tell you, scroll forward to the 4:15 second point. Jackson was the second rider. He participated in "mutton busting" at the rodeo yesterday. It was by far the most hysterical thing I've ever seen. It started out by us watching the 11:00 showing. Jackson leaned over to his grandpa and said, "I can do that, I want to ride." Heath dutifully signed him up, sure that he was wasting $10. They got in line. Silence ensued. Heath: "Jackson, are you sure you want to do this?" Jackson, nodding. Heath: "Ok buddy, let's do this." Jackson, pumping his fist down: "YEAH!" And then suddenly, my baby boy was fitted with a helmet and padded vest and placed on a huge "wild" mutton. Connie was jockeying for position to take a picture, I maintained that there was NO way he was going to get out that chute. Imagine my surprise when he shot out of the chute and just held on for dear life and lasted 4.75 seconds. He came in 3rd place, behind a couple of 6 year olds. As you can see from the video, most kids don't make it out of the chute; he stayed on longer than most other kids! We obviously felt the need to buy the video...and the T-shirt. The shirt is great, it says "Mutton Busting...toughest sport on wool." Jackson wasn't even all that impressed with himself afterwards, he just looked at me after he got off and said, "mommy, can I have popcorn now?" However, later on in the car he told us that he was a "real cowboy now." Grant thought he wanted to mutton bust. Grant screamed bloody murder when we placed him on a camel. Maybe next year. I'm sure for the next several springs we'll be out at the Livestock Fair and the boys will be vying for the World Championship of Mutton Busters!

Big Dolphin

It's official, Jackson is a swimmer! He passed his final float test last Thursday. He's been in training for this day for 5 months now. Last August he wouldn't even put his face underwater. Now, thanks to the wonderful Houston Swim Club teachers, he is considered "water-safe." What that means is that if he were ever to accidently fall into a body of water, he would know to immediately flip over onto his back, put his hands behind his head and float until either help came or he could get out of the water. He also is able to swim the width of an olympic sized pool. I am so incredibly proud of him, but what's even more important is how proud HE is of himself. He didn't think he could do this, and he is now so puffed up with pride that we constantly hear about how he's "the best swimmer ever"! He now dives off the side, slides down the big slide, and is learning to freestyle swim.

Little Cowboys

My babies are growing up to be cowboys. Unlike the song, I'm pretty happy with the cowboy profession though. In my opinion, in today's world, having your boys dream of being cowboys is a good thing. Cowboys are good guys, cowboys are down home, salt of the earth type guys. Besides, I'm a GRITS and every good GRITS needs a cowboy. (If you don't know what GRITS are, just google it.)
This is the time of year we do a lot of cowboying-up. It's rodeo time here in Houston and we are all in. From the kick off at the BBQ cook-off through "Go Texan Day" and "Cowboys/Cowgirls for Christ Day" at school all the way through the actual rodeo itself. No one is too old or young to participate. Grant at 2 walks around in his hat saying "I cowboy mommy." My friend Angie's daughter who is only 4 recently looked at herself all dressed up in her best pink cowgirl outfit and announced to no one but the mirror, "now that's what a real cowgirl looks like!" Angie is from Minnesota, so she just shakes her head. Jackson has announced that he wants to do the mutton busting contest next year after seeing a 3 year old enter in the contest this year. Mutton busting is hysterical. It's where a little kid basically bronco rides a sheep.
So today we went to the Livestock Show. Saw the cows, got mauled at the petting zoo, rode ponies, watched chickens in various stages of the hatching process, bought Grant his very first palm cowboy hat, ate popcorn, caramel apples, hot dogs and funnel cakes and basically had a wonderful day.

Birthday Nirvana

Birthday parties are a right of passage. Of course for the person having them, but also for the parents throwing them. Every year I struggle between the desire to have an incredible birthday party for the boys and the desire to not spend what amounts to a small wedding on a small person's birthday party. My own mother is of the belief that spending a fortune on a birthday party is ridiculous. I don't disagree, but I do seem to remember having at least 4 birthday parties every year. One for friends, one for family, one at school, and heaven knows who came to the fourth. I think that's about the equivalent of one largish bash. No matter how you slice it, parties are expensive. Oh, I get very self righteous about the whole thing...something along the lines of "I am NOT going to feed (or provide alcoholic beverages to) umpteen adults that I really don't know." I have parties at times that are specifically not designated food times, around 3:00 pm. My intent is always to just have cake and ice cream, but being my mother's daughter, the desire to be "the hostess with the mostest" always wins out and I end up making that last minute trip to the grocery store for brie, crackers, fruit trays, etc. Heath was adamantly opposed to feeding the masses as well. I caught him sneaking in several cases of beer about an hour before the party. We have the same sickness. The desire to please others is sometimes overwhelming.

Of course the boys had an absolute blast. We had a bouncy moonwalk thingamajig that we still haven't pulled Jackson out of. Grant just loves the company. Put him in a room with 20 other children and he's the life of the party. Having an older brother makes you pretty tough, and he can definitely hold his own. As for the party activities, we had all kinds of "organized fun." The moonwalk, a pirate treasure dig, walking the plank, tug of war; however the kids pretty much held their own and just went crazy. It was great. I think next year I'll forgo the backyard bash and maybe take a couple of Jackson's friends out for a movie and pizza or something. I'm getting to old for the stress of constantly watching the January weather up until the day of the party. I say this now, but it's just 300 and some odd days until the next party, I'm sure I'll forget the stress by then and be chomping at the birthday party bit. For now, I think I'll just go sort through the enormous pile of birthday presents and be happy my children have so many wonderful friends.

Little Birthday Pirate

Jackson's birthday was great. He started off the day being so completely happy and incredulous that he was four years old. He measured himself on his height chart on the wall and concluded that he must not be four years old because he hadn't grown since the night before. When I insisted that he was four, he said that his legs must not know that it was his birthday yet.

I asked Jackson what he wanted for his birthday dinner, expecting Mac 'N Cheese, pizza, fish sticks, or something. He wanted a bowl of Special K cereal. I started to argue, then realized that Special K was a pretty easy order! Once we were at the store buying cookies to take to school the next day he saw a very large pizza and decided upon that instead.

This year is all about pirates. Grant has even really gotten into the pirate thing. He's been able to say "What do you do with a scurvy pirate" for about 5 months. It comes out something like "what you do scurby piwate" and in a very raspy voice. The other thing they're obsessed with is "make him walk the plank." At Grant's age Jackson was obsessed with Elmo and Little Einsteins. Grant is just into everything Jackson wants, which makes them the best of friends, and also the worst of enemies! I'm constantly playing referee. We're having a joint (Captains Jackson and Grant) pirate birthday party this weekend, complete with 25 little swashbucklers. Heavens knows what I'm going to do if it rains!

Snow Day!

Today was snow day at Epiphany Lutheran School. Once a year the school hires a company to blast in shaved ice all over the playground and we get to pretend that snow falls in Houston, Texas. Actually, I forgot about snow day until the school sent home a flier earlier this week. Up until then, I had been arguing with Jackson (who after watching the Backyardigans "Snow Queen" episode is obsessed with snow) about whether snow falls in Houston. He insists that it does. He has, as I have previously mentioned, an elephant memory and remembers snow day from last year. I on the other hand, can't remember what to buy at the store without my list.

Anyway, snow day this year was quite the success. I was VERY worried. As anyone who has small children has learned the hard way, you DO NOT mention fun activities until 30 seconds before they happen, and only then when you are ABSOLUTELY sure that nothing will change in the next 30 seconds to prevent it from happening. Well, we've had rain for the last 2 days solid. It's been rather miserable. Unfortunately this week at school the entire discussion in the classroom centered around snow day. Teachers have a different attitude about bringing up fun events. They get to be the bearer of good tidings. They get them all excited and then they get to leave their little charges at 2:00, and only have them 2 days a week. I've been hearing about snow day from the moment school let out at 2:00 on Monday afternoon, until this morning at 6:00 am when Jackson came running into my room to remind me that it was snow day. Thank you Mrs. Druckhammer. I immediately sent Heath to the window to check the weather...NO RAIN! Yeah!

Snow day was also great because I had a perfectly behaved 4 year old all the way up until 9:30 am this morning. The moment he even thought about fighting with his brother, or whining about what he had for breakfast, 3 little words shut him up. "No Snow Day." He was terrified of not being able to go. So, as you can see, we went to snow day and had a blast. Grant wasn't too sure about the snow at first, but he came around. Jackson wanted us to build igloos. I'm not sure where that came from, his classmate Layla and he wanted to build igloos and live in them until Friday. We convinced him that miniature snow men were a better option. He had a blast and after about an hour and a half, he was freezing and ready to go. It was a good day for blown-in snow, it was only 40 degrees out and looked as if it might actually snow. We came home and had hot chocolate, Jackson loved it until he realized that hot chocolate is just hot...chocolate milk. He likes white milk better. Grant was perfectly happy with his chocolate milk.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Second Time Around

Whoever said things are easier the second time around didn't have a second child. Anecdotal evidence at least backs up my theory that second children are significantly more work than their first born siblings. Whether or not this theory holds true for numbers three and beyond I have no idea, nor do I intend to ever find out. At least first-hand. Grant is far from the quiet, reserved child that can sit and look at a book alone for an hour. If Grant's quiet for more than 5 minutes, disaster has struck.

The ONE area that Grant is really surprising me is on the whole potty-training issue. In his never ending quest to do everything that Jackson does, Grant is more than eager to sit on the potty. Jackson wanted nothing to do with the potty chair. As he explained to Melissa (my sister) about a month AFTER his 3rd birthday, "it's okay if I poop in my pants, my Mommy will change me." Anyone who knows me knows that potty training is the one area that I absolutely refuse to delve into wholeheartedly. I put all my faith in the fact that there's not a normal kid alive who's gone down the aisle at graduation with diapers on and I'm a firm believer in the powerful influence that other children have over the habits of my kids. Two months after Jackson announced that I was more than willing to wipe up poop, Thomas, the 5 year old down the street, informed him that only babies wore diapers. And that was that. The dirtiest four-letter-word in a 3 year old's vocabulary is "BABY."

Grant isn't anywhere near the stage that I'd let him run around commando, but it is a start. He's not quite two yet and makes it to the potty once every couple of days. I'll count my blessings.

A New Use for Outgrown Shoes

My sweet sister decided that I should create this blog. Having just started one herself upon learning of her pregnancy several months ago, of course she came to the conclusion that I should do this too. It's been several months, most I've spent not even giving a blog a second thought, and now I have a quiet moment and I guess I want to record some of the infinitely humorous things the small people in my life say with relative frequency. Those small people of course being the chief reason that I haven't even attempted a blog in the last 4 months.

So...here goes.

Tonight, on the way home from Jackson's best friend Chloe's house Jackson announced that we needed another baby. Actually, he announced that "Grant's going to be 2 years old in February so you need to grow another baby in your tummy mommy." To say that I was taken aback is an understatement. I don't even know where to begin on what surprised me more, that my not even four-year old knew that his brother is going to be 2 in February, or that babies grow in tummies, or for that matter why in the world he would want another one.

When I pushed for answers the following is what came to light. Apparently, in Jackson's opinion, mommies have babies when their current babies become 2 years old. Two years is, in Jackson's opinion, not a baby anymore, and there always has to be a baby. To give him credit, Jackson was 2 years and 3 weeks old when Grant was born. I'd say he doesn't remember that event, but then again he remembers the exact butterfly costume that Chloe wore on Halloween when he was just 18 months old. When I asked why we needed another baby he said quite matter-of-factly that someone needed to be around to wear Grant's shoes when he outgrows them. OK.

Finally, I asked him why in the world he'd want another baby when he's not always so fond of the baby brother he has. His answer was that this time God was going to give him a girl who wouldn't play with his stuff. I asked what would happen if she did play with his stuff. He said he'd put up the baby gate so she couldn't get out of the living room.

I relayed all of this to Heath, he said he'd rather just give the outgrown shoes to Goodwill.

So, in addition to the wonderful musings of my nearly four-year old, we have the death-defying antics of an almost two-year old. I've attached the most recent picture, where all the current wounds are evident. Wednesday, the child fell off the top of the playground in the backyard, smacking the ladder with his cheek on the way down. Thursday he fell in the driveway on his nose. It was 35 degrees out and he was dressed like the Pillsbury Doughboy and couldn't put his hands down to catch himself. Today, Saturday he careened head-first into the fireplace hearth and has a knot on the top of his head. Thank goodness for bags of frozen peas!