We're Blooming!

Thanks to the rain a few weeks ago and the cooler temperatures, the yard has sprung to life! And Mom is loving it!

This is a moonvine that we planted to grow up the new arbor in the back yard. Two evenings ago, the first blooms opened & they were beautiful!


The butterfly garden is popping with white, orange, red, and blue! I hope to catch the eye of the migrating monarchs soon. I've seen a few singles floating through so far. The hummingbirds and bees are also visiting these lantana and lavender.


My first planting of sunflowers in the spring didn't take for some reason. Perhaps it was the lack of rain. I planted a second round and this is the second one to bloom. The other one was only half this size, though.

These two hanging baskets are the same type of plant, but apparently there's color variation between plants because one is red with yellow streaks and the other is yellow with red streaks. I've hung them on the arbor flanking the back door. I don't remember the name of the plant, but the name for this color is Tequila Sunrise.


And plants aren't the only thing blooming... This is my first official tummy shot of this pregnancy. She is definitely riding higher than David did! This is 25 weeks. I checked the scrapbook to see that our first profile photo with David was at 28 weeks.

David saw my camera sitting beside the computer and said, "Picture!" So I took his picture!

At lunch today I asked him to eat one green bean. He repeated "one" then carried it further with ME REPEATING HIM all the way to 6 before he got distracted by a piece of chicken! My baby counted to 6 on his own!

ABC 123 & Here We Go!

This evening at the fire station, David was correctly identifying the letters on the license plates of the fire trucks. He also spotted the number 8 in the car. I had to hunt for it, but found it. Then he started saying, "8...9...10"

A Girly Post

John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." After this weekend, I'd like to add, "Greater love has no one than this, that she gives her pregnant friend a 1.5 hour head-to-toe massage!" If you've ever been pregnant - or if you're just female, I think you'll understand how few words there are to express my gratitude to Taya!

Taya and her beautiful family were here Friday-Sunday... not nearly long enough! Unfortunately, I was so busy visiting and having fun that I didn't get many candid shots of the kids together, but David and Sarina had sooooo much fun playing together!!! It was soooo cute! Then, of course, there were those times when they were being so cute together, but by the time either of us got the camera turned on, someone was screaming or running the opposite direction! Sarina is OVERFLOWING with Taya-style energy! Taya & Matt both asked how I got David to sit and stay sitting to eat lunch! hehehe...

David and Lavery seemed to be fascinated with each other as well! Lavery would grin, giggle and reach out to him. One time Taya was sitting in the rocking chair with Lavery & David was beside her, almost in her lap. Lavery was reaching out patting David. And David did just fine with Lavery playing with his baby toys, sometimes playing right along with her and talking to her. We toured the fire station Saturday while Dad was on duty. He bunked out, making Sarina cry, but she was fine as soon as he took the air mask off. The kids enjoyed the trucks, the open space to run in the engine bay, and the fireman who gave them popsicles!

Here's Taya's family before heading back home on Sunday. David was very upset when they got into the car and pulled out of the driveway without him. He had such a ball with them!

Quick Update

Sarina & Lavery arrived today with their mom & dad for a visit! We'll try to post some pictures of the kids together tomorrow!

Coat, Lunch & the Lovebug

To everyone who reads this blog and knows us personally - You're gonna be amazed by David the next time you spend time with him.

OK, so Mom's been planning ahead, thinking about winter and the fact that David will need a winter coat. He's been on this Elmo kick lately, and admittedly, I'm going along with it. I can not tell you how thrilled I was to win this coat on eBay at a good price!

It's a 3T, so it's a little long in the arms, but I'm hoping it will last all winter. He was excited to see it and enjoyed prancing around in it for a few minutes. In case you can't tell, it's letterman jacket style with an "E" and Elmo playing basketball on the left chest. And of course, he looks adorable in it!

Today was MDO. This morning, I was running late and still had to drop some cash off at the fire station for Dad, so I decided to grab a couple of HEB lunchables when I stopped to cash a check rather than making sandwiches. I got us both turkey with cheddar cheese, which came with crackers and 2 little chocolate chip cookies. When I picked David up, his note said he ate pretzels for snack and for lunch, he ate the cookies first then finished off the rest. : ) If I hadn't been telling my class they needed to eat their sandwiches first, I'd probably have eaten my cookies first, too. Then his teacher wrote on the comments part of the note, "He is so amazing. I enjoy him very much." Awww....

FYI - I have been awakened several nights now by the rattle, rattle of the doorknob covers!


This is my new "logo" for Elizabeth! I found it on a long-sleeved onesie at Target, which I got in Newborn size. It wasn't where it was supposed to be, (I guess someone had decided not to buy it & just stuck it somewhere) so I don't know what other sizes they had. Maybe I should go back and get one in every size... hehe...

(Dad - don't worry, I won't...)

Rattle, Rattle

5:57 a.m. - rattle, rattle, rattle... He was trying to turn the door knob with no success! Yeah! (for now) He cried back to sleep after I told him to lay down, it was still nite-nite.

7:45 a.m. - Mom gets up & peeks in. He's asleep in his bed. I stretch & hear him start moving around after a bit. Then I hear a sound I don't recognize. When I went to check on him, the rascal was up on top of the changing table!

Since then, I have had to get him out of a box that was being packed to be shipped off (he was trying to reach the light switch), and off of standing on Dad's CD boxes. I hate to ask what's next...

Locked In

If you missed David's escape, read the previous post. After Life Group tonight, Mom went to Wal-Mart for door knob covers.

While I almost didn't get out of his room, David just spun the cover on the knob. Maybe we'll be safe for a few more nights... until he figures out how they work! For now, the fact that they spin will hopefully occupy him and make enough racket on the baby monitor to wake me up, should he try to escape again.

I don't like to think of him as a prisoner, but I hate to think of the dangerous things he could get into by himself, in the dark, with me asleep. He's big enough to pull out chairs & climb, turn knobs and open drawers. Who knows how long before he figures out how to unlock the front door!

He spun the cover for a little bit and then was quickly distracted, touching and saying the letter Z, followed by X. (with no prompting, he just noticed them & said them!)

More changes...

In the car this afternoon, I noticed David quietly put his little hands together, close his eyes, and start to babble something I couldn't understand. He concluded with "Amen. All done. Nite nite." and leaned his head over to the side, pretending to be asleep. Apparently he felt the need to talk to God! : ) When he was done I asked him if he was praying. Again he put his hands together, closed his eyes, and started talking. This time I heard the word "ball" and "car" involved! This is the first time he has prayed or pretended to pray all on his own. He's so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But last night... (notice in this picture Tabi is keeping an eye on him!)

Dad was on duty last night and got home a little after 7am this morning, where he found me sound asleep in bed, the door to David's room shut as usual, but he found David in the office! The little rascal had escaped during the night & shut himself out of his room - out of earshot of the monitor. We have no idea when he left his room. But I guarantee that before I go to sleep tonight I will be going by Wal-Mart for safety door knob covers!!! He'd pulled a chair out of the table & had gotten his Tylenol (luckily the child lid was on good) & the TV remote down and had played with the vitamin/supplement bottles that were on Dad's desk (all also sealed). That's all I could tell that he'd done, but I just kept thinking of the things that he *could* have done. I was pretty scared by it. But God was watching out for him.

In case you can't tell, from left to right in this photo: 2 yellow stuffed cats, Tabi, and my tummy.

A few nights ago Elizabeth literally kicked Tabi out of bed! Seriously!

When you lay on your side, the crook between your tummy and legs is what I call "the pocket" that the cats like to sleep in. Puddin' liked it, Tort likes it, and now Tabi likes it. Well, when you're pregnant, the pocket is full, so the cats just lean up onto the tummy. Tabi nestled herself in and started purring loudly. I can only assume that it became quite loud inside the womb because Elizabeth started kicking like crazy! And she kicked until Tabi got up!

How is MDO going?

I thought I'd give y'all an update on how MDO is going for both of us. First of all, David is doing really well in his class. His teacher thinks he's hilarious with a great personality! I was in there one day and saw for myself that my little boy is charming, good at independent & creative play (which is good for his teacher when she's got 4 little girls hanging off of her and another little boy screaming-crying), obedient and well behaved. He does interact some with his classmates and his favorite centers in the room seem to be the kitchen area and the bucket of animals. For some reason he is enamored with the wooden eggs. He eats his lunch and snack well, sitting at the table. All in all, he's doing great & I'm very proud of him. He does continue to occasionally scream when the room gets really loud, but the only time I've seen him actually get upset was when it was time for us to go home!

My class is still only 3 - 4-year-old boys on Thursday, but one parent said they're going to start coming on Tuesdays in October and the Preschool Minister is pulling his kids from another church's program to come to ours which will give me another boy on both days, too. They will probably start in October, too. That will give me 2 boys on Tuesday and 4 on Thursday. But I don't think I could ask for better boys. We have fun and except for the occasional one of them says "underpants" or "poo poo head" and they all think it's funny & start repeating it, they're pretty well behaved. I've heard comments from parents saying that they go home talking about how much fun they had and one boy told me today, "This is the best church ever!" His family is not a member of our church.

Today the lesson was "God Made Animals" and for our craft we made spiders from an egg carton & pipe cleaners. The spiders were a total hit with the boys and they even took them out on the playground! I reinforced, "God made bugs" and told them to make sure to tell their moms that. One boy took almost 2 hours to eat his lunch because he was talking the whole time. While he was still eating, another boy rolled his eyes as we sang a song and the other boy joyfully did the hand motions (sign language) with me.

Until my Tuesday kids come, I'm a floater on Tuesdays. The first Tuesday, I subbed in the 2.5-3 class. Last Tuesday I helped in David's class. David did just fine with me in there and was very good with the crying boy who attached himself to me. In fact, when I stepped out to go to the bathroom, it was the other boy who cried & screamed for Mommy, not David! Next Tuesday I'll help in 3-4 class. It will be nice to have my own Tuesday class.

"R"

Yesterday afternoon, David found something to play with under the dining table. No, it wasn't old food or anything. I thought he said "car" but I couldn't think of any cars that were over there, so I went to see what he found.

I could tell that he had an alphabet magnet in his hand, so I asked him to show me what letter he had. It was the letter R. He hadn't said car, he said "R"!

Well, I was impressed. Just to see, I took him over to his ABC puzzle & asked him where R was. Sure enough, he said R & pointed to the right one. We've been working on recognizing D, but I'm not sure if he can yet.

Pretty much his first letters to recognize fall into this familiar group:

R S T L N E

Anybody else recognize that line up that you see every evening at about 6:50 for the Bonus Round?