Fall

I know it seems odd to have a post entitled "Fall" after pictures with Santa, trimming the tree, and snow, but I wanted some pictures and I didn't have my camera with me until I took it for snow pictures and then I got some pictures.

I am from Wisconsin, and I think just about everyone loves fall for the amazing colors it brings out. There is just something about fall that I have always missed since I moved away from the Midwest. This year Travis has anticipated the fall and the leaves changing colors and so I have been on the lookout for colorful leaves all season. I don't know if I have just missed it all the years I have lived here or if this year is just that much more vibrant, but this year has had the best colors! I think I have appreciated it more because it requires effort to find the color. It isn't widespread in most places, but the splashes of color that I've seen are brilliant! I think they might even be deeper and truer than I have seen in a long time. (And we went leaf-peeping in Maine when I was pregnant with Justin!) It's not the whole tree, but just portions. Just a branch or maybe just the ends of the limbs. I just cannot help but smile when I see something like this:




I know I am not a photographer, but you can see that the tips of the trees are painted with the brightest color red. It's like God is using the tree as a paintbrush and he dipped it in crimson. The inside is green, but the tips are flaming red!

Or what about this:



This is one of my favorite summer plants, a crepe myrtle. And I hope you can see at the base of each branch is golden yellow and as you move out the color morphs into burnt orange (sorry, Randy) and then it transforms into a scarlet color before you reach the tips, that are green! I have been watching and admiring this gorgeous tree for the past month and now with the freeze all the leaves have fallen off. So I am so glad I was able to capture a glimpse of its splendor.

I spend a lot of time driving around, and it has been fun searching for these bits of color. It's been a reason to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The familiar routes are a treat now as I watch to see how the colors have been creeping and shifting. The leaves are definitely falling now, and we are into our version of "winter". But I won't forget this fall.

Global Warming, Schlobal Warming

It snowed in Houston today. For the second year in a row. And from what I understand, this is the earliest it has snowed in Houston. Ever. We haven't had any accumulation at our house, but we have heard, and seen pictures, of places further south than us that have a beautiful wet blanket of snow in their yard. Since there will be no sledding, no snow angels, and no snowball fights, we are left with catching snowflakes on our tongues and taking pictures, so that we did:

And then for some reason, Travis had to check and see if it was snowing in his flower bed (where he digs and plays). Surprisingly enough, it was! So he had to play for a little bit and dig his hole a bit bigger. Too fun!

Catching Up - The Wedding

I know it took me forever to get these, but I can explain: The photographer was a friend of Jerry's who they flew down from Seattle. So he just gave them a disk with all the pictures on it, which was then passed on to me. All 673 pictures! Not even kidding! How can I pick just a few?! This is obviously just a sample. If there is something else anyone wants to see, I can see what I can find. It just may take a while...

This was the rehearsal dinner and I just LOVE this picture because it makes Travis' eyes look so very blue. Can you believe he was eating cake??? I know, shock!

Justin all dressed up for the wedding. He looked so handsome and grown up! And yet, still my baby.

This is Jerry with his brother, Jeff, on the left, and my brother, Jon, on the right. You should see some of the others....

Like this one! That would be Jerry checking his "hair" with Jon as his reflection. I can't help but laugh!

My pretty sister at the church. She looked so lovely!

Jerry with the boys. This was the best one. At least I don't feel so bad in my attempts at pictures when a pro couldn't do much better. Jerry looks great though!

Our whole family: my mom, brother, the newlyweds, and us!

The wedding was very small, so this was everyone who was there. The woman in the dark dress with the white shirt over it to the left of Mireille and Jerry is their friend who introduced them. I am so glad she came!

Another corny one!

And then on to the reception. This is Justin and the cake!


Here is where Travis first started to "fly" with Jerry. Before he started "flying with style". You can see how high he gets!

And one of the sweet couple in front of the Water Wall here in Houston.

Trimming the Tree

We put up our Christmas tree this past weekend. Travis was so excited to help! I told him that we wanted to keep the fragile ornaments (he called them jewelry!) up from the bottom so Justin couldn't reach them. He took it to heart and stood on the hearth and put all the ornaments he hung in the same 1 foot by 2 foot section! It was so funny! I told him we needed to spread them out and he said, "But then Justin will get them!" So we jut let him go and we adjusted things a bit later.

Justin liked the jingle bell snowman, and when Travis decided it was time to hang it up Justin reached for it and grabbed it back!

These are all our family ornaments. Randy and I have had the snowmen for awhile, and my Dad got the boys angels last year. The teddy bear cross stitch I made the first Christmas Randy and I were dating (1996) and it says our names and the year. The font on the year is a little different and my roommate at the time thought it looked like it said "Iggy" and the first time she saw it she said," Who is Iggy?" So now we call it our "Iggy ornament"!

This is Travis' masterpiece: The small area that he deemed safe for all the fragile ornaments.

And I did not get a picture of the finished work! (The one we took turned out blurry.) I just have one little complaint: I got 4 mosquito bites when I was putting up the outside lights. It was the end of November for goodness sake!

Picture with Santa

Today was the day for our visit with Santa. I wanted to go to the mall before it got too crazy, and it worked! We got right in and Travis told Santa that he wanted trucks and helicopters for Christmas. He was a bit disappointed when Santa didn't bring it right out for him. Justin wasn't even too bothered being passed off to a stranger. It must be the suit.

Justin Update

This is some of what Justin has been doing lately:

• Randy taught him how to "bonk" his head and "thump" his belly. He does this very well, and not always at the best times! Sometimes he bonks his head while he is holding a toy, and when we try to stop him from hitting himself, he starts to belly laugh. He thinks it is so funny when we tell him not to hit himself!
• Now that he has mastered "bonking" and "thumping" his own body parts, he are trying to get him to bonk and thump us, so that he learn more about body parts. We are also trying to work on "honking" his nose. This has the double advantage of working on finger isolation for poking things, which we are working on in OT. (We try to pop bubbles with one finger.) This weekend he seems to be understanding a little more. And Travis is being such a good teacher!
• Justin has starting trying to pull himself up on the edge of tables, and particularly the edge of the bathtub (we have a shower door on the bathtub- that's actually the first place Travis pulled himself up too!) He started by sitting with one leg tucked in and pulling himself up that way, but now he is able to move his legs around and almost get himself onto his knees (in tall kneeling, our PT calls it).
• Justin is able to eat just about whatever we eat, but he won't pick pieces up off his tray. I have stopped fixing him his own plate at mealtime. I just add more to my plate and we share, since he wants whatever I have anyway. He ate 2 pieces of pizza the other night at a birthday party. And then he wanted cake too! He even likes drinking from my glass, and you know how kids like to leave floaties! I just started buying limes to squeeze into my water and then I don't notice quite as much...
• Nap time is a big struggle. He needs 2 naps, but the timing is really messed up. I am considering moving therapy times, but the times we have work really well. Napping has always been one of our kids' biggest struggles. We do like snuggling with them to get them to sleep though! We are big snugglers!
• Our speech therapist told us to start listening for Justin to name things, even if it's not the right name. Just to see if he is intentional with his babbling. That got me so excited to think that we might be at that point! He is definitely asking for things, especially while we eat. (I KNOW when he wants my drink!)
• And speaking of speech therapists, our usual therapist has another job that takes her out of town one week out of the month during the school year. So we have a "temp" once a month. She is the therapist who did Justin's evaluation. I was feeling a little disappointed at having the break in continuity, but I really like Miss Yvonne, and she happened to mention this last month that maybe I was noticing a little different focus between her and Miss Char. Miss Yvonne emphasizes more communication (she does more signing and interaction) and Miss Char works more on sounds and articulation (she does more imitation and exaggerated mouth sounds). So then I realized how blessed we are to be getting some of both!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving today. We spent the day with Randy's family. His brother and his wife came down from Dallas along with their daughter, cousin Lauren. We ate a yummy lunch and then the kids took a WAY too short nap before dessert time.

Justin enjoyed his dessert, from the corner of the chair! Randy could not get it in fast enough, and Justin complained every time he took a bite himself.

Dale loves being a kid and he loves playing with his grandkids! Randy taught Justin to "bonk" his head, and he likes showing everyone what he can do.




Travis and Aunt Kristi listened to the police band radio and all the emergency calls. I am serious! He listened and Uncle Craig (a police officer) would interpret the calls. Travis was bouncing all over the couch, soaking up every second of it!

Travis really likes playing with Aunt Kristi. He didn't want to eat dinner because he couldn't play with Aunt Kristi. When he went to bed tonight he told ne how much he was going to miss Aunt Kristi and he wanted to know when she would come back.




No, we don't have a daughter, but when we mentioned pictures, cousin Lauren came and joined us. You can tell Travis really enjoyed the photo shoot!



And this was the best we could do with all the kids.


This is what the kids really wanted to do...

Escape!