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?

My First Ladybug!

I forgot to mention that at MOPS last Thursday, our craft for this week was to make our name tags that we'll wear all year. Going along with the "Fresh Air" theme, we had little picket fences, wrote our names on a cloud and the flowers growing in front of the fence were to represent our children. Buttons were provided for the flowers on green pipe-cleaner stems. I found a handsome square green button with a D on it for David and everyone said, "Oh, you have to add the baby!" So I found a little ladybug button to represent her. Turned out really cute.


But THIS >>>> is technically the first ladybug that Mom made just for her. It's a pillow the size of a dinner plate with ribbon-tag legs. I'm quite proud of how it turned out.

Oh, something else I wanted to share - the other day at MDO, a child asked for more animal crackers. I said, "What's the magic word?" He looked at me blankly for a minute, then I saw a light go off inside & he added "please." Later in the day a different child asked for more & I said the same thing, again without thinking. This child replied, "Abra cadabra?"

Cheap Entertainment

Silly Face Glasses from Dollar Tree: $1.00

The look on David's face
when he saw himself in the mirror:
Priceless.

.

Suddenly this week....

"NOSE"

First of all, sorry for the lack of pictures this week... we've been a little busy.



How did this happen? Suddenly this week, David has changed so much. I don't know how to express how proud of him I am.

First of all we started Mother's Day Out on Tuesday & Thursday. He was so tired on Wednesday, I wondered how he was going to handle twice in one week. But as always, he amazed me. My classroom was directly across the hall from David's, so every time I walked past the door, I'd look that way. I saw him playing happily, contently eating his snack and later lunch, and later playing at a table with another little boy. They were laughing together and banging wooden toy food on the wooden table. (Side note: As I heard the "tap, tap, tap, tap..." on the table, I had a feeling it was David.) I know he saw me at least once, but he didn't throw a fit to get to me.

After MDO was over & David was with me while I cleaned my room, his teacher came over & started bragging on how much fun he was today. She said he showed great personality and had them laughing all day, he played well and ate well. I wish I could remember word for word everything she said to me and frame it. She went on & on. I was so proud that I almost started crying.

He was asleep in the car before we got home and had a good nap. When he woke up, we had a snack together as I contemplated whether or not to try taking him to the MOPS meeting tonight. It was our first MOPS meeting of the fall, so I was excited about going, but didn't want to push it after such a busy week. He seemed happy, so we went to McDonald's (I wasn't sure if they were serving supper this year because the time changed) and shared a cheeseburger and french fries. Still happy, we went on to MOPS. I explained the teacher about his week & if he got tired & started having a hard time they could come get me.

One more time today, David amazed me. MOPS was over & I walked back to his classroom. He was happily playing and didn't run at me like he was ready to be picked up. He kept playing, brought me the school bus he was playing with and was just as happy as he could be. His teacher said he played happily all evening and ate a lot of the meal they served, too - pizza and cookies. When he finally let go of the bus, I quickly grabbed his hand & said it was time to go. He started telling everyone "Bye Bye" and continued to do so throughout the building, charming all the other moms and teachers that we passed.

The good mood continued all the way home, a few minutes in the back yard talking to Dad, bath time, milk time, brushing teeth and all the way to bed. How did he grow up so much this week? I felt like I couldn't hold him, kiss him, tell him I love him and am proud of him enough. I feel like if I close my eyes for too long, we'll be helping him move into a dorm!

Whew... This has indeed been an emotional week for Mom & Dad!

One Name Down...

Since this blog is currently named, "What's he up to now?" I thought I should start off today's post with a David story. The speech therapist came today and was floored by his speech while she was here! Yeah, David! (I always knew he was a genius!)

Among a plethora of other things, here are a few of the things he did/said today:

• He said 6 and pointed to it on a book with absolutely no prompting. Dad was there & I ran back into tea room & said, "he didn't just do that, did he?"
• He then repeated 5 and on his own said 4.
• Looking through a book of farm animals, he made the correct sound for each animal including both a "bock bock" and a rooster crow for the chicken.
• He put a pile of little books into a box saying "IN" with each one he put in.
• He repeated individual letters and pointed out the correct letter: B, C, D, E, and T
• Later he said the run 4, 5, 6.
• He asked for water to drink. I gave him water out of the fridge & he shivered saying, "Cold!"

I could go on, but you get the point. Genius, I tell you!!!

Now, "What's she up to?"
Family has been notified by email, so I can make the formal announcement that we have decided to name the baby Elizabeth. At today's OB appointment, her heartbeat was 130. Dr said I measured the right size and sonogram agrees with a January 12 due date. The sonogram technician had said January 7, so I'm just going to go with early January. My dr doesn't exactly elicit my full trust. I go back in 4 more weeks, then after that we start the every 2 weeks.

Obviously I need to start thinking if I'm going to leave this blog titled, "What's he up to now?" or if I'll be changing it. That name doesn't stress me, though. You may log on occasionally and see different names at the top until I've decided what I'm going to do. Or you may not notice a thing.

Here we go!

Can you tell that Dad doesn't use the camera much? : ) I think David was actually smiling in this one, but it's hard to tell.

This is David & Mom headed out for our first day of school. (aka Mother's Day Out)

David was really happy in the car going to "sool". And Mom handled everything pretty well, too. I think I was too busy to get emotional! Dad met us there to escort David to his class. I already had a kid in my class, so I couldn't leave to walk David down the hall, which I was a little sad about. But the 3 boys in the class I subbed for today kept me busy.

I had 3 boys who were all 2 1/2- to 3-years old. One completely potty trained, two in diapers. The first "incident" of MDO went to my class... The biggest boy pushed the smallest boy out of a chair, then said he didn't do it but later apologized for doing it. Video footage was shockingly deliberate. I was looking the other way when it happened. A huge forehead knot developed, but the boy continued to play with the others after a bit.

And I stayed emotionally stable until I got home and read the email that Dad wrote about how he broke down after taking David to his class!!! Now I'm really glad I stayed in my class! (but seriously, how sweet is that???)

Here are a couple more pictures from the morning, but honestly, I like the one with my head cut off best:

Aunt Sissy - Can you see his shirt? It's that one you sent, green covered in BUGS! Which also happens to be one of David's new words! He really likes the shirt! (Short sleeves can't go in the fall sale anyway : )

David's class was full - 12 2-year-olds! Can you imagine?!?! They were by far the loudest class in the building. Two little boys had never been left with anyone & were having a really hard day. David did amazingly well with all the commotion. I was so proud!

Since I didn't have any Tuesday kids in my class, I substituted in another class for a teacher who's mom was in surgery today. I'll meet my class of 4-year-olds for the first time on Thursday. If I still don't have any Tuesday kids next week, they may put me in David's class to help out with all those 2-year-olds.

All Tied Up!

While he had lots of fun unrolling my string, I don't think David liked the predicament he ended up in! Does that look read, "Mom, put down the camera and untie me," to you?

At least the day ended happy! If this picture doesn't make you chuckle, then I think something is wrong with you!

I just thought this was pretty. I think I might enter it in the fair next year. This is my hibiscus bloom after this morning's rain.

Happy September!!!

Can you believe it's September already?!?

Here's another adorable picture of an adorable boy!

This is a test... I just wonder who all's reading this... anybody want to know the name we decided?