Ba-cation: Day 2

Today, we were off to the Ft. Worth Zoo. The anticipation in the car nearly killed us before we even got there. We tried to take our minds off of the waiting by playing hand games. Look who can now not only hook his horns, but can also communicate love!

Practice finally paid off for Owie!

Our first stop is my favorite part of the whole zoo. I could watch the chimps all day! O got quite a kick out of it!

There was a baby chimp that kept begging food off of the others. Reminded me of a tiny Boy (Noah) I know in our house! So cute!

O was fascinated with the meercats. "He is looking at me, Mommy!"

We we just in time to watch the otters be fed. Pretty exciting!



At one point, O got really excited! "Look at that pretty flower, Mommy! It's so big and pretty!" I could not figure out what he was referring to. Finally he ran over to this windmill, and started going on and on about the "flower." Pretty funny, Owen! It does look like a flower spinning in the wind. I love his perspective!

Noah finally conked off for a much-needed snooze. Boy, did we get some funny (and a few disapproving) looks for letting our kid sleep like this. He does look grossly uncomfortable, but I know that if Noah is not happy, he will let it be known. I wasn't about to disturb my sleeping beauty!

My men measure their wingspan

Big Boy!

O bonds with a baby elephant

"Is that goat's name Noah, Mommy?" queries O.

"I don't know, Honey. Why?"

"He has a tail on his chin like Noah."

WHAT?

I finally figured it out. Noah, as in Noah's ark in all of our Bible picture books, has a big, hairy beard resembling the facial hair on this mountain goat. He often also confuses Biblical Noah with Santa Clause. I guess the beard throws him off!

Feeding the birds with Daddy

So what was O's favorite part of the zoo? The zebras.

I was a little dumb-founded by this answer. The zebras didn't even acknowledge our presence in any way. We had seen otters fed, mountain lions scuffle, eagles fly, elephants toss dirt on their backs, giraffes eat leaves off a tree...but the zebras? They never even glanced our way. I asked O why the zebras ranked so high on his list. His answer: "Their stripes and their tails." Hmmm. Well, I'm glad he enjoyed them

We had so much fun! Tomorrow: rest day from our vacation. We need to stay home and recoup!

Ba-cation: Day 1

Jeremy had a week of vacation to burn before the end of the year. A great problem to have, right? We had talked about trying to venture out of town with the boys, but we finally opted to have a "home vacation" and just do fun things around the DFW area. Everyone can sleep in their own beds and stay on a loose schedule while we make some great memories!

We jump-started our vacation with a trip to the nearby Chuck E. Cheese. (Mommy forgot her camera, a fact I am still saddened by!) Jeremy and I were blasted into the past, both of us having fond memories of the place. Being O's first visit, he was completely enamored with all the lights and sounds and games and tokens. What fun we had watching him explore! With 40 tokens in our pocket and countless rides and games, we let the fun begin! O's favorites: a ride that lifted him high up in a chair and a game where you feed a dog big green balls. An added bonus: We won enough tickets to let O select two toys from the "store"! He chose not one, but two teeny-tiny footballs, small enough to play with in the house!

Stuffed full of yummy pizza (even Noah got to nosh on the crusts!), we set out on our next big adventure. We rode the Dart Rail Blue Line to Mockingbird Station, after picking up Gigi (and her camera) on the way!

Questions Owen pondered on his very first train ride:

"Why does the 'crain' go fast, Mommy?"

"Where does this 'crain' go?"

"Why does the 'crain' go fast?

"Are we going in a tunnel?"

"But why does the 'crain' go fast?"

I don't think I ever gave a satisfactory answer concerning the speed of the 'crain.'

At Mockingbird Station, we ventured to a place I had heard rave reviews about: Pokey O's. What a concept! You choose your cookies; you choose your ice cream; you put them together and what have you got? The world's best ice cream sandwich, unique to you! Fabulous! We let O select exactly what he wanted. ..maybe not the best idea. He did manage to consume his entire snikerdoodle with mint chocolate chip ("I do like green!) ice cream sandwich. Although the flavor combo was questionable, he had a grand ol' messy time entering the wonderful world of the ice cream sandwich.

Afterwards, we burned off a tad of that sugar goofing around while waiting for our train back home.

What a wonderful day!

Preppy

My little Preps before church

I love this picture of Owie! He looks so grown up!

Laughing together

Kisses for Nosy-Posy

The Boys make their get-away

Gettin' Some Brother Love

Spontaneous hugs for Noah

These Boys are up to something!

An inside joke

Owen shares his beloved sticks

Noah Feeds...Himself

One thing the Boys and I love to do on a regular basis is feed ducks. The last few times we have headed to the duck pond, I have noticed something. Noah knows exactly what is going on. He will, from time to time, pinch a tiny bit of bread off of my piece and drop it on the grass. The ducks, of course, rush right over to gobble it up. He laughs and laughs. The little smarty has learned through observation just how ducks are fed! The last time we fed the ducks, I let him hold a whole piece of bread by himself. Was he excited, bouncing up and down in his stroller with glee! He started off great, throwing bits of bread to the ducks. After awhile, I took out Nosy's paci, hoping to get a good duck-feeding picture. Noah took one look at the bread in his hand, glanced over at the hovering ducks, and stuffed a huge piece of bread in his mouth! I am sorry to say that we left some ducks unfed and hungry, but Noah was feeling contentedly full.

Once Was Lost, But Now Is Found

A short story:

O found some great sticks. Do you know just how much fun a small boy can have with a simple stick? Quite a bit! It is a bat; it is a microphone; it is a baton; it is a flag; it is a shovel. You get the idea! On the walk back to the car, Owen requested that I carry his sticks. Now I know from experience how the rest of this story usually goes. We can never part with the sticks. We bring the beloved sticks home. They live with us, in our house, in our bed sometimes, until finally Mommy has an opportunity to trash the sticks. I do not care much for this scenario. And so, the first chance I got, I must admit I chunked the sticks. O, unaware, dawdled along behind me. I then heard a squeal of delight! "Mommy! I found my sticks!!" Oh my. The sticks had been returned to us. And so, after witnessing Owen's extreme pleasure at re-finding the sticks, they traveled home with us, to be loved on until bed time, when I could once again chunk the sticks.

The sticks are discovered...the first time

This stick makes a great microphone. Fave song these days: Old McDonald Had a Farm.

Picture taken just after the squeal of delight. The sticks are found again! It is our lucky day.

He is so thrilled. How could I deny this face anything?

My Beautiful Big Boy

Owen has grown up significantly over the past few weeks. The silent on-looker no longer, he has found his voice and is not afraid to use it! How wonderful it is to watch my son participating more, speaking up in the group when he knows the answer to a question, playing with other kids even if he does not know them well. He is coming out of his shell, and the world is getting to glimpse the amazing personality that his family always knew was there but so few people got to experience. I am so proud of the big boy my toddler is developing in to!

Where is that smile, O?

There it is!

Concentrating

So grown up!

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Noah got to sample his first teeny, tiny taste of ice cream last week. I could hardly wait to see his reaction. Being a Boy that loves all items even roughly resembling food, I knew he'd be over-joyed by the delicious, cold yumminess of ice cream.

His reaction was rather bland. He definitely enjoyed it, but I did not sense the excitement that I thought would accompany the taste testing.

The spoon, however...Now that's fun stuff!

After three licks of ice cream, Noah proceeded to vomit all over the floor at Ben and Jerry's. I guess we'll wait awhile before reintroducing ice cream.

Anxiety

Owen summed up Noah's separation issues so well the other day. "No-nos lost you, Mommy. He missed you."

Good Stewards

Owie and I have been learning some good lessons about stewardship. Often, O wants to play, but Mommy must spend some time dedicated to cleaning the house.

"But why?" whines The O.

"Because God blessed us with this wonderful house to live in and so many great things to use while we are here. Hasn't God been so good to us?"

"Oh, yes!" exclaims Owen.

"Then we must be good stewards of what He has trusted us with. That is why we keep our house clean. It makes God happy when we take good care of the things He has blessed us with. Do you want to help me?"

"OKAY!"

And so we scrub the floor together, among other things. It is much more fun to do chores as a team! O is quite the little helper. Sometimes I do have to take a deep breath and overlook the growing puddles of water spreading across the tile. It is completely worth it to go back and re-scrub the floor later just to have this special learning time with my sweet Son. I am never sure just how much of the lesson he actually absorbs, but he does bring up stewardship at random times. At least he is getting acquainted with the vocabulary and grasping the concept of taking good care of the things God gives us.

The skull cap is actually O's "helmet," worn in case the urge to toss the football becomes overwhelming.

Costumes Revisited

I know I have already posted a plethora of pictures of my kiddos in their costumes, but they are just so darn cute! And so indulge me as I bore you once again. These are the last, I promise! Costumes are washed and put away, not to be seen again until next Fall.

At the Speed of Light

This is Owie lately. I have never witnessed such boundless, limitless energy. The Boy could run all day...and he does! It exhausts me just watching him!

8x2

On Jeremy's side of the Fam, there are eight grandchildren between the ages of 4 1/2 years and 8 months. It is so much fun, not to mention pretty chaotic, to get all these crazy, fun-lovin' kids together. We always attempt to get the big group shot, you know the one where at least everyone is looking in the general direction of the camera and there is no vomit, snot, or blood visible. We had two such occasions last week!

The Arboretum

Visiting Mimi and Gongi on Halloween

We LOVE our cousins!!

Sweet Nothings

I have 5,000 pictures I need to post, so many that I am overwhelmed. So rather than attempting to dive in tonight, I just want to share this precious story.

After Owen had been in bed for about half an hour tonight, he started crying that he needed to get up to potty. This is a frequently used bedtime stalling tactic, but because I don't want to be changing wet sheets in the middle of the night, I usually give in. He was being especially squirrely, probably a combo of too much sugar after supper and not enough wind-down time before bed. He could tell I was getting annoyed with his antics. When I asked if I could give him one last hug before tucking him in, he answered, "Yes, you 'made'."

Then, while so sweetly rubbing my back, he whispered in my ear, "You are my sunshine, Mommy."