Easter Fun

It was a great Easter season. The weekend was filled with parties and egg hunts. With Justin's birthday party, Travis' Bible class party, the family Easter/birthday party for Randy's brother (his birthday is ON Easter this year!), and Sunday actually being Easter, we lived on a constant sugar high all weekend long. And there is still lots more where that came from!

Our church had our Easter egg hunt in the building because of rain in the morning. The hallways were filled with kids and adults madly trying to snap pictures. Travis picked up the eggs and shook them to see if there might be something worth opening it to obtain. He only liked the ones that made noise because he has become a jelly bean fiend. And Justin enjoyed throwing and/or rolling them. Randy had to work pretty hard to get him to put them in the baskets. In the end they did pretty well. In the beginning there was a 12-egg limit, which was quickly lifted and a free-for-all ensued. "Frenzy" might be a good word! The remnants were sad and we spent some times collecting abandoned eggs and scraping smooshed jelly beans off the carpet. Cleaning people really deserve their pay after something like this!








Last year we were able to get Justin to go to the Easter bunny and I had to hold Travis, but this year both boys screamed like we were torturing them. Thus the parent buffer between the rabbit and the boys.

And we managed one decent family picture in the Easter duds. Some day Justin will look back at all the pictures and ask why we took those pictures of him with his mouth open like that. I am counting on all of you to substantiate my story about my efforts to alter this with little success!

Justin's Birthday Party

We had Justin's birthday party this weekend. It was a lot to do with Easter and several other parties we had to attend, but we couldn't let Justin's day pass without a to-do. I wasn't sure what sort of party to have since Justin doesn't show much interest in any one thing, so the only thing I could think of was balls. He loves to play catch and shoot baskets and all things that roll. (That includes Easter eggs- why put them in the basket when it's more fun to roll them??)

We don't have big parties for the kids anyway, but we cut down even more so we wouldn't overwhelm Justin and we all could enjoy the time. It was just grandparents and the TD family. Just the right amount actually. Justin enjoyed the party I think. He opened his presents, and even tasted a few. They all seemed to meet with his approval!

And then the cake. True to form, Justin ate all his cake and wanted more. He will never turn down cake! I think it runs in the family.

We even got a good picture of the kids. Our kids always have fun together, and Justin is starting to get involved too.

It was a good party and an even better sleep that night! I love wearing kids out when it doesn't involve wearing me out too! Oh, and we took some family pictures this morning too, so those should be coming out soon!

Justin is Two!

Really? Can it be two years already? I guess so!

Of course we had a mommy/Justin day since it was his big birthday. We had to go to the ophthalmologist first thing in the morning, which wasn't the best thing to do, but he made it through like a trooper. She said that his eyes still look the same, which is good. Randy and I have been concerned about a little bit of eye-crossing, which of course he didn't do for her. She said just to watch it and see if one eye was more affected than the other, when he did it, and how often. And then we got released for another year! I love the longer stints between appointments. Justin put on a little show of screaming when his eyes had to be dilated. I laid him back and he screamed while she pried his eyes open to put in the drops and the minute I set him up he stopped crying and smiled at her. Quite the little manipulator!





When we checked out at the doctor's office they were giving away some books that had been donated to the hospital. They were some books about colors and animals. Justin has really enjoyed reading it! When I out him in his seat in the car he reached for it and he actually held it and looked through it while we were driving home. At home he searches for it and plunks down on the floor with it in front of him. He flips through it several times, forwards and backwards and then even upside down. It's a bit of an impressionist painter book, and all sides are somewhat equal!





Justin has learned to master the sit and spin! He goes very...very...slowly, but still, he knows how to pull himself around! And he thinks it is tons of fun! It sits in the corner and sometimes he will try to sit on it there and make it spin. Then he yells when it doesn't quite work.

It was a pretty quiet day actually. Whenever it's mommy/Justin or Travis day I take a nap with whichever one I have. Travis loves it and Justin isn't quite sure yet. But I love being with him the whole day and not trying to cram extra stuff into the time. And we made it through the day with no practical jokes! Happy April Fool's to us and...

Happy Birthday Justin!

March Prayer Request Follow Up/ April Requests

Another month has passed! It's so hard to believe how quickly time goes by! Here's where we stand:

1. Justin's constipation: Improving, but slowly. We have made a few more changes, but we haven't found the "magic" cure yet. We went out to eat for Mommy/Justin day and he screamed off and on for most of the meal. Since it wasn't McDonald's, it was difficult to put up with the stares. He is eating more veggies- he discovered dipping. Anything that can "dip" is okay to be eaten. He loves carrots, and he even dipped his chips in the meat/salsa mixture I created out of the mexican meatloaf we had for dinner. He liked it!


2. We survived the dentist. Justin did fine. He screamed and the dentist was able to look at his teeth. I was worried because Justin's upper teeth appear to overlap and his bottom teeth are very spaced out. The dentist said that the lower teeth are gaping because Justin hangs out his tongue and pushes them out. The upper teeth are pulled together because of thumb-sucking. So competing conditions cause the odd look. He didn't seem too worried yet. Travis was another story. He at least opened his mouth and let the dentist look inside, but that's about it. He sucks his thumb too, and that is more of a problem for him. Randy has bad teeth, large teeth and a small mouth, and Travis has that too. The thumb-sucking isn't helping. We are trying to cut down on that, so that's one of our prayer issues for April.
   

April requests:

1. Travis' thumb-sucking: We are trying to cut down on this so he only sucks at night. So far, not so good. We have a penny system in which he has to sacrifice a penny every time we catch him with any other finger in his mouth, and we will slowly work our way up to getting the thumb out too. We have a book about a little bear who sucked him thumb and how a dragon helped him stop. Travis enjoys the book, so now we have to try the method.


2. The rest of our windows have arrived and this week is the big install. We pray that it only takes the three days it is supposed to take without any lengthy drag-out. Randy is taking the time off of work (and I am going to work) so we really hope it doesn't take too long.


3. Justin is really making lots of progress in pulling himself up. The next step is, well, taking steps. He lifts his leg to climb stairs, so we know he can balance on one foot, but he needs to learn about shifting his weight.

Thank you all. We are so blessed to have people praying for us!

Blue Bell and Bluebonnets

So we made a trek to Benham today to visit the Blue Bell factory. We went with out friends, Mrs. TD and her two kids, who are great friends of our family. We also took one of my friends from work and her two kids. We learned all about the history of Blue Bell and how they make the ice cream and the flavors. The slogan for Blue Bell is "We eat all we can, and sell the rest." And it's true! There is a big freezer in the break room stocked with ice cream and everyone can eat as much as they want. That is my kind of job!

Of course vanilla is the best seller, but Cookies and Cream is #2! The tour concludes with a chance to sample, which we all did! I tasted Candy Jar ice cream, which I loved, considering I am all about the chunks! Justin liked it too...



And Travis had to settle for plain cookies and cream, since it wasn't Olympic Mountain chocolate cookies and cream! He thought it was okay...


And here is most of the gang enjoying their choice of flavors. That is really the best part of the tour- the samples! Justin didn't care much for the movie, and Travis thought some of the machines were cool, but when are we going to get the ice cream?!!



Then we took some pictures with the old ice cream truck. We could NOT get the kids all to look at the same time, so this is the best we could do.

The kids were a tad restless since we rode in the car for an hour and a half and then walked slowly through the factory for the tour, so they were ready to go and explore and run a bit. There was this cute statue of a cow and a little girl leading it on a rope. While the girls were getting their pictures taken at the front of the cow, this was what the boys did. Little TD hung on the tail, Travis milked the cow, and Justin crawled underneath it.


I think Justin has a little bit of cat in him. If there is one thing in the middle of an empty room, he will crawl under it. It is actually pretty funny. I can usually find him pretty quickly if I look under everything!



Then we had a picnic at a great park in Brenham. It is called Fireman's Park, which Travis loved! I didn't get any pictures of Travis because I was too busy watching Justin. He loved the swings and held on and kicked his legs for all he was worth. I had to pry his hands off to reposition them because they were too high up. He didn't want to let go!

And Justin wanted to roam too. He stood up like this (okay, maybe not with the face, but you know what I mean...) for quite some time trying to throw his leg up and climb up. He did really well balancing like that with one leg up too.

And then Justin and Mrs. TD put their heads together for a little talk. They were so cute. We don't get to see our friends near as much as we like, so we enjoyed every minute of the day. We had planned to take pictures in the bluebonnets, since it's the season, but we were tired and the thought we might just try next week nearer to home. It was really windy so every one's hair looked a little crazy. Travis tried to "comb" my hair with his fingers at church tonight, and I think he pulled a chunk out! Justin fell asleep before we got back on the freeway, and Travis not long after, so I know they had fun!

Justin Update

Justin is making so much progress, it is exciting to see. He is learning so much and being so communicative that I am struggling to catch up sometimes! Here's some of the latest:

• He is pulling himself up to standing. I have shown you that. He needs something lower to lean over so he can get up. But every day he is using higher and higher things. He has even managed to pull up on the coffee table, which is way above him. He can get up on his knees and then stand from there. Really good for him!


• He can get up the stairs FAST so we are working on going down the stairs. We tell him to turn around and go down and he does that now very well, but he doesn't understand that he cannot sit backwards when he gets tired on the stairs. He falls backwards when he does this, obviously. He understand the concept so well that he tries to get off our bed going backwards and off the high mats in therapy. He cannot do this yet, but it's the precursor, so we are excited.


• In therapy they are working on side-stepping. That is the "cruising" holding on to furniture that we want to see. He will let Miss Penny move his feet, but he doesn't do it himself yet. They worked on reaching up to pull magnets off a metal file cabinet and he got all the ones on the one door, and he wanted to get the ones on the other door, so he let Miss Penny move his feet for him! Awesome!


• He is really very good at identifying what he wants. He wanted a drink during lunch in Bible class today and he reached out and took the glass and handed it to the person helping him to say, "Give me a drink!"


• He is eating so well by himself. He is using the fork and spoon regularly and chooses a variety of foods on his plate. Last night we had meat, rice and coleslaw and he rotated eating bites of each one, until his plate was clean. It helps to have pieces he can poke, or something stout enough to stay on the fork/spoon. We found that cream sauces are best because they hold those pesky peas in place!


• He is eating veggies much better, thank you! He eats raw broccoli and carrots (I cut big carrots into thin strips that he dips in ranch dressing, like big bro!) and he even nibbles on apples occasionally. And he eats most veggies cooked, except green beans. What's up with that? Neither boys likes green beans and they are one of Randy's favorite veggies!


• He imitates like crazy so we are getting him to make more sounds using that. He said "Ba" for ball and bubbles yesterday. Travis does his noises with his tongue and lips that throw spit and Justin loves it and plays right along. I let them do that by themselves. (You know, like some of the throat sounds and pretending like you are snoring, etc. They are not easy things to type out!)


• Justin is using toys very appropriately. He knows to put the telephone to his ear and to race cars on the floor. He can turn the pages of books and he pretends like he reads them. He brings books for me to read to him too. He can throw a ball far too! He pretends to cook with spoons and bowls (he stirs!) And he has learned what to do with the coolers after Meat Day!
  
  

Justin just crawled right over, grabbed the brush, and started scrubbing! He's seen Travis do it enough and he wanted some of the action!

The Zoo

It was the perfect spring day to head to the zoo. So we did. We went with some friends and spent the morning with the animals. The four-legged kind, just to qualify that! Really, the weather was beautiful, about 70 degrees. For us that means that the animals were moving around rather than lying lethargically in the shade. So we were able to see more animals than usual.

Have you ever seen an ant eater up close? This was amazing! It took us a while to figure out which was the front and which was the back. (Okay, we were far away at first!) This type of ant eater has the biggest bushiest tail you have ever seen. Definitely bristly! It's things like this that convinces me that God has a sense of humor and an amazing imagination. Truly! To come up with something like this, you have to be laughing when you create it.

The theme of the day appears to be "tongues".

So it is mostly my son, but when I looked back at the pictures of the day, I had to laugh. This last one was in the reptile house and it was our last stop. The kids were ready for naps and they were a little silly. And it didn't stop there...

Spring is definitely the best season here in Texas. I want to soak up these beautiful days. We played outside after naps and dug in the dirt. Being outside after being cooped up all winter (okay, I recognize "winter" is relative!) makes spring that much more lovely. The flowers are beginning to bloom, especially the azaleas, which just screams "Spring!" to me. I always loved fall in Wisconsin, but here, it's all about spring. We plan to enjoy it while it lasts!