Punkin's decorating pumpkins

DJ gave me an afternoon yesterday to do some shopping, and I came home to THIS!!! This little pumpkins hold many memories from last weekend when our very dear friends, the Birchfields, came from California to spend a couple days with us. We went to visit the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound and brought home 3 VERY tired kids! But it was a lot of fun...

So DJ and Danny decided it was time to decorate them, and this is what they came up with. Danny is in "heaven" when he has a sticker in his hand, so needless to say this was right up his alley. Daddy even taught him a new word..."mustache." Oh yeah, and the Spanish word for pumpkin...whatever it is!

What a fun time of life!

Distractions

I don't know why it is that we moms continually get disappointed by how many distractions are child creates in our lives...and yet when then get all fussy, it takes all the creativity we can muster in order to find something to distract them with! Danny can be especially difficult in his car seat after a long tiring day...especially when there is NO WAY he will ever allow himself to fall asleep in that nice comfy seat! The photo above is a true sign of a mother's desperation in trying to find a distraction...who would ever keep their child occupied with a map? Anyhow, the letters proved helpful and Danny was delighted to find the same familiar letters written on each page...thank you MAPSCO!!

Danny's Funnies

Wow. What a couple of weeks this has been! With all the flurry of trying to relocate, Danny has been quite the trooper in being drug along into MANY potential homes, staying with new faces while we hunt by ourselves, and just being flexible in naps, bedtime, etc. Even though he mostly just LOVES all the above, it also makes him tired...and both of us short-tempered. So today I'm taking a minute to re-visit some funny moments over the past couple days.

When you don't know what else to do with Danny, you give him a book. Lately, he's re-attached to his "Numbers" book. Really, all it is on each pages in a single numeral, with the correct number of a given item on that page. He has mastered MOST of the numbers, and can also name the item. SO...yesterday he was in his car seat "reading" this book and I hear him saying in his small little voice... "six-teen, seven-teen, eight-teen........I smart." I looked back at him in the rear-view mirror just to see if he was looking for a reaction from me and he wasn't--I guess he was just building up his own self-esteem!!

And this morning while we were eating breakfast (just he and I)...he did something and I don't even know what...but then he said, "Danny funny." I looked to see if he wanted the reaction and there is no doubt that he did!!! You can believe I gave it to him and we laughed our heads off that he actually tried to do something that he thought was funny!

Stinker.

One step closer

We made it! Well...at least we made it to a point that we were REALLY dreading...we have signed a contract on the house! After 10 days of listing, 16 showings and 4 offers, it has been a blur of a week (and certainly an emotional roller coaster!) but we've done it! When this offer came in, it felt like a perfect fit for us and it really did feel like a gift to us! So now the next step is to find our rental and then work more towards paring down. (I certainly dread the paring-down part!)

For the most part, Danny has been a real trooper through all of this. He slept right through half of those showings, and even kept sleeping after I'd open the door and let the potential buyers walk in his room! (I'm so grateful he was able to do that.) Don't get me wrong, though...he had some "stinker" days when he was horribly obstinate and really tested my patience. Of course, maybe it's because my patience was pretty short this week and I really couldn't muster the energy to much more than the bare minimum in caring for him. It's amazing to think a child actually can feel the pressure around them...and I'm sorry he has to survive all this moving chaos as well. I DO hope that transitioning to another location isn't too traumatic for him. Maybe if there are some "flowlers" to "waller" then he'll adapt just fine??

I'm tired, yet anxious to move onto the next step. Our buyer seems to be a good one, so we're hoping the steps required for closing will be smooth.

"Waller Flowlers"

This is Danny's morning montra...and afternoon montra...and evening montra. Seems that his favorite thing to do these days is water the flowers. Well, that and anything else that requires him to wear his sandals. If sandals are involved, then he's definitely in!!

I never intended to actually use this much water and coddle my flowers so much during this 100 degree weather, but what else does one do when trying to sell a house during a slow market? We planted, we mulched, and now we water...and every day is close to 100 degrees. YUCK. But at least it's fun for Danny. And it's a productive thing we can do together. And for that I am grateful.

As for selling our house... the sign went up today. This is a milestone for us physically (will have have to paint these cracks again??) and emotionally for me. I have truly enjoyed this house and am sad to leave it. It has served us well and we hope it will be a blessing to the next inhabitant as well. AND we hope they appreciate all the repairs we have done in the last month!!

Today is the 4th and we plan on swimming at a neighbor's house. Danny is so in love with the water, so it should be a fun outing for all of us. We saw some fireworks last night, and now Danny is sleeping in past 9:30 which is a blessing so I can get some things done around here! I doubt any of us can handle being out again tonight...our age is showing!

Happy 4th!

It's not what you think it is...

I decided to post this picture because I needed to remind myself of a good day. Not that today was so terrible...but it was rather exhausting and I feel like I didn't get even 1 minute to myself until just now. Granted, Danny has been sick in the past, but this is a totally differnt experience for me..you see, he's had a fever of 103-105 all day, and yet he thinks he can live life as if he's perfectly healthy. When he's had a fever in the past, he will sleep the day away and I may even forget that I have a child (well, not really.) But today, he was whiny, wanted to hold my hand, sit on my lap, or whatever else you can think of that any mother would LOVE for her child to do...just not for 24 hours straight! And yet when he falls asleep on my lap at the end of the day, how can I help but not love him? He is my precious son, and after an investment like today he has become all the more important in my life. Now...I'm off to get some rest.

24 months and one day old

Alas, yesterday our baby turned 2! These pictures capture a couple of moments from his "letters" party we had on Saturday. One friend deemed DJ as the "author of the mundane" because of how well he excuted the games that were just perfect for a two-year-old like ours. First, we patted out playdough and used the letter cookie cutters on it. Then we moved to "plopping" which consisted of throwing foam letters in and out of the baby pool...then transpired into running about 20 ft. to DJ who was holding a container of about 500 checkers. The kids then took handfuls and ran to the pool where they tossed them in. Danny was especially amused by all this "plopping" with his best friends...the only thing that beat it was when they were allowed to pull them out and put them back in the container!

You will also get a kick out of the unplanned "jacuzzi" that happened when they were cleaning up from the finger paints (notice Danny's blood-stained hands?) You will see a jacuzzi picture above...and eventually one more crawled in! They thought it was hilarious to be so close together and splash about.

The funniest part for all of us was how Danny chose to devour his cake! While I tried to capture the moment on film, I had a friend hold his hands back so he wouldn't touch it. Instead, Danny leaned over to touch his lips to it! It was the most bizarre thing, but he was in heaven when he came in contact with such sweetness! After hearing his comments on it later, we've come to realize that he thought it was ice-cream...which is why lip contact was so important to him!

We had a blast throwing this party. It was a lot of work, but our sidewalk was well-drawn on, and then our fence got "painted" with water...not to mention the beautiful grass we now have since we ran the sprinkler!! The letter cut-outs of cheese, meat, and bread were a hit with the kids and others marveled at the big "O-shaped" adult sandwich ring. Audrey made the best cupcakes/icing in the world(!) and the colored cake batter made it extra fun. Danny, of course, was on overload with all these cool letters and good friends around him, but it was all worth it to celebrate his little 2-yr-long life.

Our son is so precious to us and we were blessed to have grandparents travel to join us for the weekend, and have Danny's friends come and spend a couple hours with us. He may not remember this even a month from now, but it means so much to us.

Pic-ure

This photo is the kind of stuff that happens when you have a slow camera and a 2-yr-old...Danny wanted his "pic-ure" taken SOOOO very badly, and then when I finally aimed the camera at us, I ended up with 4 pictures that looked like this! Believe it or not, he actually smiled for the camera and he was awake...just not by the time the camera responded. Sigh...

We continue to be amazed at the verbal development of this little guy...last night he "read" 2 simple books to us, saying the color and item on each page. He also happened to know quite a few words to "Amazing Grace" as I found out last night. Still no tones to go with those words (poor fella might end up like his Grandpa R??)but he knew words like "wretch" and "found." Cute.

We went for a walk last night (and for those who have not "walked" with Danny before...this often ends up into a 2 mi. walk!) and learned the difference between a van and an SUV. Oh, the excitement of learning what an SUV is! He was thrilled at the moment he could touch one and say "S-U-V" but what cracked me up the most is how every 3 min he would turn around, point and say "S-U-V" like it really did register in his mind. He turned around and pointed to the same SUV for about 2 blocks. Yes, in TX you really can see the same SUV that far away!

Gotta' run...I hear the pitter-patter of feet headed my way...and someone saying "mic-us"...the cd player must have stopped...

"Big Hole"

"Big Hole..." that was Danny's words of the day yesterday. It was a big day for our house--we are getting the foundation fixed. I'm not really sure how all this works, but in the end we are looking for a report from a structural engineer that says our house is not about to crack in half! So yesterday 3 guys came out and dug 9 holes against the house, each was about a 2' cube. Then they took this big "drill/auger" and created 2 holes in each cube that is about 16' deep. THEN they put rebar supports in each hole and started dumping in concrete until the holes were filled and about 12" covered the tops (so now the cubes are about half full). All this will now set until next week when they will come out and lift our house up that precious 1/2" so that it sits more level and hopefully someone is more likely to buy it. UGH. All this to sell the house. I hope the landscaping survives...I dread the clean-up and minor repairs that are going to result from all this.

Making up for lost time

One of Danny's favorite foods is soup...in particular...tomato soup. Strange, I know...but it IS rather convenient when I don't know what else to have. So last night DJ was gone so Danny and I had tomato soup and grilled cheese...and LOTS of it! I'm going to attempt to upload two short videos...one is so you can enjoy seeing the "battle wounds" of a heavy eater like himself and also hear him asking for more soup (after refilling his bowl twice already!). The other is to show what a good influence I am on him...once he learned how to dip his sandwich in his soup, there was no turning back! Enjoy!

Memorable Day

As you know, yesterday was Memorial Day. And we decided to take a family outing. Danny is feeling much better these days, and to celebrate that we didn't have to give him any more antibiotics, we planned an outing to Dallas to enjoy a picnic, kids games, a free symphony concert and the unexpected fireworks. It was fun to say the least and Danny was just beside himself with all the dogs, balloons, art projects, and open space. It was a trip well-worth the effort.

If you ask Danny what he remembers about the night, he'll just say "loud." At least that's all he said on the 35 min. drive home..."loud. loud. loud." I guess the fireworks were loud. We thought the colors would oooh and ahhh him, but alas all our child cares about was the volume level. Not surprising though after his only interest during the whole symphony concert was the "loud" soprano singing "God Bless America." Other than that, not much on the stage interested him...his green and blue balloons held a lot more excitement.

The good stuff

Okay, let's be honest...the purpose of this blog is to make it easier to share photos, so let's see if that's actually true. I'm hoping that you will see a picture of our silly child wearing his new-found "hat." This is a familiar picture for some of you, but I thought the rest of you might enjoy it as well. At the time I took this picture, I was just recovering from being quite mad at Danny about SOMETHING. Funny part is, I can't even remember anymore what it was...but as soon as this shirt got stuck on his big-ole' head it was all forgiven and we were laughing our heads off! I'm glad you can join in this little bit 'o fun with us...

It's about time

I know, I know...everyone's doing it, and we are FINALLY jumping on the band wagon! You'd think that with a husband and "technologically saavy" as mine that I would've done this a LONG time ago, but lest you blame him for my inadequacies...let's set the record straight! Here I go at posting my first blog! Let's see how much fun we can have with this dial-up connection...