Happy Easter!

I think this next picture is just priceless. The look on Kellen's face as he's looking at his sister just absolutely melts my heart. And I was uploading the pictures this afternoon onto the computer and Kellen saw them and remarked, 'I like looking at my Tatum.' Man, I love how much he adores her!



We actually did Easter baskets after we got home from church and had naps...the kids had fun with them...

Kellen's basket....

Tatum's basket...

John 20

He is alive!

He's not young anymore...

but he's having a hard time remembering it!

Matt and Kellen were trimming some more limbs this afternoon, and Daddy decided to show off by jumping from the ladder to the limb. Well, he forgot that he wasn't 20 anymore.

He attempted to Tarzan leap from the tree. Somewhere between leaving the ladder, grabbing the tree and hitting the ground, his shoulder came out of socket. Well, let me get more specific...his shoulder came out of socket when he grabbed the tree limb, which assisted the crash to the ground quite a bit.

OUCH!

(Now, for those of you who don't know, this isn't the first time this has happened to Matt. Luckily for us (or unluckily for him) it's happened so often that he's able to put it back in himself, which meant we didn't have to go to the ER to have them put it back in place for us.)

Poor guy...he had to put it back into socket with minimal wincing and verbal complaints, because both the kids were outside watching his 'show' and were intensely concerned about him. Tatum kissed his shoulder and wanted to get him 'bo bo ice' to make him better, and Kellen was just all over upset and couldn't bear to watch him at all. Of course, Kellen was over it immediately as soon as Daddy said he was ok, and exclaimed,

"When you flew through the air that was SUPER AWESOME!"

Boys!

It was just a quick errand!

I went to pick up Tatum at school today...wasn't gone too long, and came home to find this. I REALLY wasn't even gone that long. Really.

Um...what is it about boys and destruction? He was supposed to do some small trimming. I think we need the same dictionary.

Of course, once Tatum saw her Daddy up in the tree, she wanted to go up there, too...

Spring Break, Part 1

Yes, I know it's been almost a month, but hey...at least I'm trying, right?


So after I got off of work during spring break, we went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's (well, Tatum and I joined the males of the family, who were already there). On Thursday, we HAD planned to go to the zoo, but considering they had every entrance blocked off becuause it was so busy (we must not have timed it well and arrived too late), we switched gears and reversed our initial plan.


Downtown Aquarium it was.


And the kids had a BLAST! It was Tatum's first time there, but Kellen had been there a few times. He acted like he didn't remember it when we were discussing it, but I think he remembered it once we arrived there.




This particular exhibit was fairly close to the eels, which Tatum absolutely did NOT like. It was interesting to see her intense reaction to certain things, both at the aquarium and at the zoo (stay tuned for Spring Break, Part 2). I wonder what causes a child, with no prior history with an animal, to have an intense reaction to it - one way or another, really?


At any rate, she wanted NOTHING at all to do with the eels. And made it well known to anyone within ear shot.



Petting the sting rays at the discovery zone. For some reason, Kellen was a little nervous this time. Tatum was excited about seeing them, but wasn't sure about actually petting them. She wanted to get her hands in the water, but was wary about actually touching them.







We timed it just right to be able to watch the tiger show, which was really the changing out of the tigers...They took one back, cleaned up the area, brought out some 'entertainment' in the way of some food for the next one, then brought the next one out. During the cleaning portion, one of the workers did an educational bit on the tigers, their interaction, etc. It was really interesting. Kellen and Tatum were enthralled. While the first tiger was still inside, Tatum and I were next to the glass, but she's pretty quick at backpedaling, and did so when the tiger got up and ran past the glass. Bless her heart, that frightened her and she wanted to be NO WHERE near that glass! Yet, she was still fascinated and wanted to get close again once the tiger was a little further away.




We also took the train ride to see the sharks...I am just in utter amazement of those creatures! None of the pictures turned out, so you don't get any of those...sorry!




And luckily for us, the weather was WONDERFUL for the splash pad. I had packed the swimsuits and towels already in preparation for the day, so we were adequately prepared.

Kellen loves the splash pad. Tatum, on the other hand, has to be convinced to play...she does NOT like to get splashed in the face without warning and well, it's a splash pad. Needless to say, she was slightly less enthusiastic in her playing than her brother, but she still enjoyed herself!

And as we were walking out, we decided to get a picture here on the bench. Kellen decided he was going to be monkey-man and started climbing on the shark, and I'm sure it wasn't the first time that had happened, so I just let him go. You can see the exhaustion on both of their faces!

My helper...

What a blessing it is to have such a wonderful helper. Two of them (some days) truth be told.

Both kids have been fed for the night, and we're just hanging out here at the house tonight...a rarity it seems, lately. No t-ball practice, no school activity, and we were home by 5:30ish, which meant dinner was over by 6. Again...all rarities as of late.

Back to my point.

I was putting a load of laundry in to wash, and apparently Tatum heard me. All I hear is a little girl running toward me shouting, "I help ou, Mommy! I help ou!"

Have I mentioned how much this girl L-O-V-E-S to help with laundry? As in, L-O-V-E-S it. Has thrown a fit because we didn't understand she was asking to help me with it one weekend. Really.

So I put the towels in a pile on the floor, in front of the washing machine, and sure enough, she was diligent in putting them into the washing machine. Yes, this was an added step in my process, but SO WHAT!! This gave her such joy! And as soon as we were through with that pile, she wanted to move on to other clothes...so cute! Then, she ran into the house and proceeded to tell her big brother that, "I help Mommy!!"

She was so proud.

So I asked if she wanted to help me some more, and got out the small hand vac...and she played with that for about 5 minutes...just beaming with pride that she was cleaning the carpet. No, it's not perfect, but that's not the point.

And wow....what does that say about how far I've come in kicking some of my perfectionism with that statement? Does that mean that I'm getting to the point that I'll let the kids do something if it's less than perfect or not done just the way that I would do it? Hmmm....

God MUST be moving here, folks!

Sweet words...

You have to know things will be great when your morning consists of a sweet girl and the words, "Kiss, Mommy!" followed by, "Cheek, other cheek."

Then, "Nose, eye, other eye, other eye." [I feel I must insert here that I don't actually have three eyes...she just kept going back and forth]

"Ear, Mommy."

"Other ear."

Awww....all is right with the world when things like this occur to start off your day.

Tatum's birthday & birthday party

Here are some pictures of Tatum on her actual birthday...She looked ADORABLE all dressed up that day! (Trust me, she did...the pictures may not have turned out all that great, but it was totally the photographer, not the model!)

The rest of the pictures are from her (VERY windy) birthday party, which we held nearby at the park. She had LOADS of fun playing on the playground, feeding the ducks, eating cupcakes, and of course, opening her presents. Which reminds me, I need to write thank-you notes. Ug!! Where has my mind gone??

Part of the fun was actually flying a kite...Winnie the Pooh, of course! It was certainly windy enough! Daddy and Mike worked on it, and for a little while, they even let the birthday girl play along. Except that her playing along was simply chasing after the kite as Daddy pulled it away from her! Tatum actually thought that was quite fun...Then decided she had had enough, and wanted to help with the real kite flying.




Here she is opening some of her presents...jewelry, dolls, a puppy, but the crowning jewel, perhaps, was the Aggie chair with the cup/water holder. Once she sat in it, she insisted on a water bottle, put it in the appropriate holder, and was pretty well set!



And here is the birthday girl with Daddy and Mommy shortly after diving into her cupcake...I wonder who she takes after with her affinity for all things chocolate??

Here is big brother very much enjoying the cupcake, icing and as many sprinkles that he could possibly fit onto the icing...and even some that didn't fit!

Catching up

I'm woefully behind in my blogging, so I'll see if I can TRY to catch up a little at a time. I've just downloaded several hundred pictures from my camera, so that should tell you how behind I am in that respect as well. Granted, we DID just get through with spring break and had a glorious time with many adventures captured on film (can you even say that now if it isn't really "film" anymore??), but you get my drift...Rather than get overwhelmed by catching up all at one time (yeah right!), I'll attempt to do a little bit...

Get ready!

Happy Birthday my (not so) baby girl!

I had another early morning with the kids today. For some reason, Tatum isn't making it through the night without some help (either putting her back in bed or settling her back down in ours) and Kellen seems to gravitate toward Mommy and Daddy's bed at some point in time in the middle of the night as well. So I woke up to Kellen sleeping next to me and Tatum hollering for 'Mommy!' I brought her back to bed with me, while Matt snoozed oh-so-nicely on the couch, so as to be sure his tossing and turning didn't disturb my sleep. Several hours later, when it was actually time to wake up, I got out of my shower to see Tatum still asleep, but Kellen starting to rouse and snuggle with her. He laid next to her, gave her a hug and kiss, then stroked her hand, which prompted her to grab onto his thumb - in her sleep, mind you - and hold his hand. So he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and just laid down next to her again. It was SO PRECIOUS! So precious, in fact, that I went and woke Matt up and made him come to look!

I then proceeded to tell Tatum "Happy birthday!" She got really excited and started saying, 'Happy birthday party!', so we tried to explain that today was her birthday and we would have her party later. All morning she walked around saying, "Happy birthday to me!" She's VERY excited about her upcoming party. But then again, this is the girl that will sit and have tea parties for hours, so...

I just still can't believe she's two. I'm in awe that two WHOLE years have actually passed since she was born. She's brought so much joy, laughter, love and SPUNK into our lives - I can hardly remember our lives without her!

Here are some of the current things that Tatum loves:

Shoes
Socks [Note: neither of these top two stay on for longer than perhaps 5 minutes in the car, but they MUST be put on prior to going someplace]
Having her toenails painted ("pretty toes")
Bows in her hair (although they don't stay there for long - most of the time)
Having her hair fixed (Pig tails, ponytail, top spout - there's another name for that...)
Pink and purple just about anything
Winnie the Pooh
Her lovey (the yellow one...that's why we have 3 identical ones)
Her blanket (a specific one - pink with minkey on one side and silky on the other)
Her paci's (although she knows that they're for night-night only, which includes naps)
Jackets with pockets
The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss)
Brushing her teeth (yup...she loves it!)
Baths (she loves the bath, but dislikes the act of actually getting clean, including washing her hair)
Going to the park to feed the ducks
Coloring (both with actual crayons and with sidewalk chalk)
Dancing to just about anything with a beat
Her brother
Her big girl undies
Having tea parties

These are obviously in no certain order, but I wanted to jot them down so that I could remember what she likes RIGHT NOW. Even if she's almost as stubborn as her mommy, she's such a tremendous joy.

Happy birthday, my sweet monkey!

The meaning...

God's moving, but I seem to be left searching for the 'Why?' in the movement at the moment. There have been so many things this week that I've been dealing with that I simply don't know where to start, so I won't. I'm not going to rehash it all. Suffice it to say, God's been testing how broad my shoulders are and my ability to lean solely on Him. If my faith exhibited through my life this week were a class, I'm not sure that I would be passing at this point in time.

I attended a funeral for a colleague this afternoon that was a wonderful celebration of a life lived to the fullest. It was beautiful. I know that Dr. Edwards is in a better place, and is no longer in pain. His life and servant leadership is a model to emulate, and I left wondering if I'll ever "get it" and "get there" and wondered what people would say of my life and witness if something were to happen to me. These things really make you think. Especially in light of the various things I had to deal with this week.

Did I exhibit Christ's love through the various conflicts I dealt with this week? When I consciously thought about it, I tried, but how successful was I? And why should I have to consciously think about it? Shouldn't it be an outpouring of me and my innermost self without the conscious thought?

On other fronts....
Tatum busted both of her lips this afternoon on the concrete as she fell off of the swing while she and Kellen were outside playing. Matt was watching them while I was attempting to take a nap to ward off the migraine that has now taken residence upon my brain. Moments into the attempted nap, I hear Tatum's screams and Kellen runs into my room to inform me of the incident.

"Did you get your DADDY?!?" I asked, probably louder than I intended or needed.

"Yes, but her lips are bleeding."

So I rushed out to the living room to check on things. Looking back, I'm not quite sure why I did this, since the most appropriate person to check on her was doing so, but anyway...Matt asked if she wanted to snuggle with Mommy, and she did. So Tatum and I snuggled with a rag on her lips for a while to stop the bleeding. Kellen was so sweet during the whole thing. He was terribly upset that Tatum was hurt, and ran to get whatever we needed...her lovey, her blanket, a hug, a kiss, held her hand, whatever. He was the embodiment of the caring big brother and it was just precious.

Poor thing, though...both lips are quite swollen. We don't think there was any damage to her teeth, and when she brushed them tonight she didn't grimace or wince like she was in pain. When it was 'my turn' I brushed and tried to check to see if anything was loose, and nothing appeared to be.

And to back things up a little further, we had a WONDERFUL time today at Kellen's school carnival. They had all kinds of games set up and both he and Tatum had fun playing games. There were a few that Tatum was able to play, so we tried to let her play some as well so she didn't get too bored. She also got her face painted (a purple butterfly on one side and an orange flower on the other side). She was adorable during the painting...she kept perfectly still during the entire thing. She just LOVES getting her face painted!

There was an obstacle course that Kellen ran and at the time he ran it, he was the 4th fastest grade K student. They're keeping tally of the top 5 students in each grade level on a board throughout the day, and the fastest in each grade receives a prize. We were so proud of him! You could tell that when he started to run the course that he was nervous, and he really wanted us to cheer for him, which of course we did. Even Tatum got in on it, cheering her big brother along!

Matt and I got reminded of how much Kellen likes moon bounces and other bounce-type pieces, so we ended the carnival experience with a few of those games. And by the time we made it back to the house, both kids were fast asleep in their carseats, evidence that they both had a BLAST!

Spring fever

"Spring fever" is what Kellen's teacher coined as the cause for his misbehaving ways today. Darn! He had been doing so well at school! Apparently he had a lot of trouble today listening and following directions. At least enough trouble to warrant an email to me with a request to reinforce those items at home. Got it! Consider reinforcement of said behaviors done...

I feel like I've gotten a mark against me in the "bad parent" column seeing as how he misbehaved the day after I let the he and Tatum have a movie night because they both had such good days yesterday. On a school night at that! Shame on me. But I enjoyed watching Aladdin, too!

Today was picture day for Kellen...Matt and I discussed, at length, whether or not to cut his hair for the pictures, and ultimately decided against doing so. Kellen is becoming increasingly 'attached' to his hair, so much so that he'll put his hands over his head to 'protect' his hair if we discuss him actually getting a haircut. As of now, neither Matt nor I mind this, but I wonder how long that will last...Matt typically likes to give him HIS type of hair cut come late spring/early summer, and keep it that way throughout the summer time. I'm not sure if Kellen will be up for that one this summer...It might be interesting...

In another front, Tatum will be two in a week. Whoa. Where did the time go? On the one hand, I can't believe she's going to be two! On the other, I can barely remember my life - our family - without her. If you've ever met her, you'll understand that on a couple of levels, especially considering she has such a strong personality (can't imagine where she might get one of those).

She's still doing GREAT on the potty front...She's had maybe 4 accidents in the last 3 weeks or so, one at school and the others either on our way home or with me. Hmm...what does that say? I wonder if I'm not asking enough? I had a conference yesterday and today and took her with me this morning to get some coffee before I dropped her off. While we were waiting on it, I asked her if she needed to go and she said "yes," so we did. And she did. I'm working on this with her, but I'm still not really sure that I'm ready for her to actually GO to the potty. Even considering the fact that I cloth diaper, it's still a LOT easier for her to just go in her diaper and have me change her when the diaper is full and/or I get a chance, rather than when she has to go RIGHT THEN.

Mommy's got to get with it!

What streaks...

The kids are doing pretty well over here...Kellen is actually GOING to the potty (YAY for medicine that works consistently!), Tatum is NOT having accidents consistently, and on the sleep front, she's going to bed like a champ once more. Now, the next hurdle to overcome is getting BOTH (yes, I typed BOTH) kids to sleep all night in their OWN beds, and to sleep all night without having to be taken to the potty, or put back in bed at any point in time prior to 6 AM. Heck....I would even bump that back to 5:30 right now and be pretty much ok with it...

It is a little sad to take one kid back to bed only to see another asleep on the floor next to the gate containing her in her room. Awww...

But kids in bed is one habit that I do NOT want to start (on a rare occasion, ok, but every night crawling in bed with us, nope). Sadly, Matt doesn't necessarily agree with me. Either that or he's buying Kellen's sob story virtually EVERY night...or Kellen's really sneaky...Dunno.

I have some work stuff going on right now that's pretty stressful...Some university-wide student vs advisor articles that have run in the Batt that I get to deal with visa via my office this year with the advising organization on campus. Pray for guidance as I meet with some committees and navigate these political waters. I need my brain-to-mouth filter firmly in place and most of all, need the Lord to provide the correct and appropriate words to say.

The secret?

I didn't want to post for fear it might ruin it, but I believe we have found the secret to Tatum staying in her bed until she falls asleep. We haven't quite made it to the sleeping all night long in her bed until the regular morning (per the rest of the world, or at least the rest of the household, is concerned), but it's progress!

Friday night was the discovery night. I began the nighttime ritual the same as usual, with me catching her getting out of bed, then walking her back to bed, tucking her back in, and telling her 'night night'. One time I even stayed outside of her door and counted on my hand to five. Sure enough, by the time I had gotten to five fingers, she was at the door opening it up. The next time I put her back into bed, she actually told me, 'door open', so I thought I would give it a try.

Grandpa Gerren had come to visit on Friday as well, and he offered to go lay on the floor in her room to assist, but I told him I was going to try something different. I was going to leave the door open slightly and try to catch her being good.

By this point in time it had been longer than a count to five, and she was still laying in bed, so I went into her room (the door had been left slightly open), praised her for staying in bed and going night night, and told her I would be back. I put my stopwatch on, and went back in after 30 seconds and repeated the above statements. 45 seconds. Repeat. 2 minutes. Repeat. 5 minutes. Repeat. When I went back in after 7 minutes, she was asleep.

Whoo hoo!

Saturdays nap went remarkably well, too. Grandpa and I took the kids to the park while Daddy worked on the yard, and we made it back to the house slightly after noon for lunch. It was about 12:45 and Tatum was rubbing her eyes and actually asking for night night...Well, about that time, Daddy was working in the front yard immediately under her window - and he wasn't raking leaves. He was mowing and weed eating. That didn't faze her. We followed the same routine as Friday night, only we started out with the cracked door and she was asleep within 5 minutes, I believe...I went in after 2 minutes to check on her, and she was in that 'almost' phase, the next time in she was completely asleep.

Saturday night followed the same pattern, although it began a half hour earlier because her nap was abruptly cut short by an older brother screaming for mommy inside the house. (Thank you very much). The half hour shift didn't seem to bother her, and it still worked.

Sunday went smoothly as well, and so did tonight. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner!

Now, if we can only get her to STAY in bed after she wakes up in the middle of the night, rather than go back to sleep by the baby gate or worse, scream until a parental figure 'rescues' her...

Any suggestions for that one? I'm open here!

Whew!

I feel like I can *almost* breathe a sigh of relief...this week has been SO HECTIC, both with work activities and with the Tatum sleep adjustment issues. I am just READY for a relaxing weekend...

Lord, PLEASE let this be a relaxing weekend!

To update...the chili went well, and Matt invented his own special chili recipe, even if he didn't intend to do so. He went to the store last night, but didn't quite get my grocery list exactly correct, so the chili wasn't made how I usually make it. But, as is his normal cooking style, he managed to pull it off and it still tasted pretty good with his "help" even if it wasn't my normal chili recipe. In fact, it was one of the only pots of chili there that I could actually EAT without needing a fire extinguisher for my mouth, so I was completely ok with it! It; however, did not win the chili cook off (as opposed to the last time I made chili and entered it in the chili cook off...it DID win). Just saying...

We now have valentines for the parties at both schools that will be taking place tomorrow. Kellen and I spend some time writing out his valentines, inserting the tatoos, and sealing then shut. What exactly is the point of sealing them shut with a sticker anyway? The 'to' and 'from' are on the outside of the card itself? I just don't get that... That, along with the chili cook off and having to go to the store to get said valentines resulted in him going to bed VERY late - I certainly hope that tonight and tomorrow go well for him. He hasn't been sleeping well at night either lately, so I hope that tonight will be different for him (and subsequently for me as well).

Hey, Tatum's visiting Maw Maw and Paw Paw, so I don't have to worry about her. If Kellen has a good night sleep, perhaps that means that I will as well, right? Sound logic, huh?

A girl can dream, can't she?

3 days in a row...

Now I'm detecting a pattern. Here we are at Wednesday, and no accidents for Tater-tot at daycare again today. She's even poo poo'ed on the potty.

Now, I was expecting some problems today, but perhaps they'll show up tomorrow - she snuck a drink of unknown size of Kellen's "special" yogurt drink this morning. There are two problems with that. First, it's a strawberry flavored drink and she can't have 1) fruit and 2) strawberries, specifically, yet and the next BIG problem is that it was Kellen's "special" drink, which means it had a FULL dose of laxative in it. I have NO IDEA how much of the drink she got before I caught her. Will that catch up with her tomorrow? We shall see.

We're almost at Valentine's day and I'm quickly realizing this holiday has snuck up on me. Both of the kids have school parties on Friday afternoon, and we're currently valentine-less in this household. Yikes!

I guess I know what my project for tomorrow will be. After the chili cook off. Oh yes...the undergraduate chili cook off is tomorrow immediately after work. So as I type, the third pound of ground beef is browning on the stove for my chili. Yes, I know it's late. I might not even have the chance to throw it all together until the morning. Because other than the meat, I don't have any of the rest of the ingredients I need to actually MAKE the chili. Another yikes! Oh well, I guess it's ok for only deciding to enter it at all last night!