Visiting Mimi & Pap

Since Mike was gone all last week, we went over to Dallas to visit my Mom & Dad (Mimi & Pap) on Wednesday and stayed until Thursday evening. I was pretty worn out by Wednesday nights, especially with bedtime. My timing wasn't just right & so I usually ended up with one crying girl at the time I also had John Michael screaming to be nursed and put to bed. So, I was really looking forward to having a few more hands to help at that time. Plus, we hadn't seen Mom & Dad in a couple of weeks and the girls were really looking forward to the visit.

Once we had about half of the house packed up (the girls each packed a suitcase - and they were both full. I think they might have been a little confused about the length of our stay in Dallas!), we got in the van and headed over. My plan for Clara to take a nap and Gracie to have some quiet time for the hour trip across the metroplex was foiled. Only JM stayed on plan and took a nap on the drive over. So we got to Dallas excited, but not rested.

John Michael loving his first meal at Mimi & Pap's

John Michael decided eating was the first order of business & I was glad to let Mimi feed him! I think he is having pears for this meal. He also enjoyed sweet potato, applesauce and some cereal while we were visiting. He couldn't seem to eat enough last week. He loved having Mimi feed him. She would actually play with him while feeding him, unlike Mike & me who are usually just concerned about getting the food in & then being able to eat ourselves. It was good to see the little guy have so much fun.

John Michael may have been forced to eat pureed fruit, but the rest of us enjoyed a great lunch of Gracie's favorite (that she only gets at Mimi & Pap's) - bagels with cream cheese, lox and capers. Of course, the lox is her favorite part. I had to explain to her after she first had it a few years ago that Mommy couldn't be buying it all the time for lunch & dinner for her!! Then the girls did a little artwork, watched a little tv, and played around the house. Nobody really took a nap (John Michael included). Clara looked wistfully at the pool, but she finally gave it up (the high was in the seventies ... brrrr for the pool).

Then it was on to dinner. A great roast and sweet potatoes (Gigi analyzed the difference between her two pieces of sweet potato - the first was stringy, the second was not). And of course, the Halloween desert. The grownups passed, but as the pictures show below, the girls really enjoyed their treat.

The girls loved the Halloween cupcakes that Mimi bought them for a treat.
But boy are they messy - too bad there were no dogs for cleanup!

Stop that Ball story - okay, Mimi has to tell this one on her own. Use the comment button down below, Mimi & add your story about Clara & her favorite Dallas bedtime story.

After the girls were in bed (thanks to Mimi!), I struggled with JM who seems to not need much sleep. The video below shows his last stretch of wakefulness, playing with Mimi just before 9pm. Just before this, he had a round of "bonkees" (bashing foreheads) with Pap that gave him the giggles (but I missed getting that on film since I was on the phone with Mike).

So that was the first day in Dallas. Since this is getting so long (and I am so slow posting since half the family has a bad cold), I'll wait until a second post to tell about Pap the Masked Monster. Pretty funny - J, S & C, I'm betting you can guess what this story might be!

Right before we left - a happy moment
together for JM & Clara Rose!

Please use the ...

The girls were having a grand ole time in the playroom yesterday. Home from his week long trip, Daddy helped them each build a fort. Gracie's had "carpet" (a blanket) and a chair and a "couch" (a blanket and a stuffed animal). Clara's got built later in the day, even though Gracie's was clearly big enough for both. But she wanted hers to match. Anyway, Mike helped Clara build her fort after I unearthed a comforter to use as the fort cover. Mike's always in charge of construction. If it involves more than draping a blanket over a few chairs, I'm out. These were fancy forts - couches, chairs, even bookcases were used for support & I'm pretty sure there were clothespins involved as well. So, Mike got the second fort "condo" built & we were hanging out with John Michael in the other part of the house. Gracie came scampering back and asked Mike a question. I didn't pay attention to the question, but noticed she was reciting letters as she left the room, so I tuned in to see what she was spelling: "G...R...A...C...I...E...G...R..."Hmmmm. She has known how to spell her name for about a year so this seemed suspicious. I queried Mike about what she had wanted to know. He replied that she wanted to know how to spell "Please Use the Knocker."

So now you know what the kids have to put up with from their Daddy. Mostly it is pretty funny, but I pointed out that he might be confusing her a little about this whole spelling thing as it is all still a little new to her (and we haven't really gotten beyond spelling Gracie, Mama and Clara). I told him that if he wrote out the words she wanted, she would copy it onto her own paper.

Well, tonight I got to see the result of that. Apparently, Gracie talked Daddy into printing the letters with dots so that she could trace over them. But something went wrong in the translation... her fort sign now says "Please Use the Knookr".

My (quirky) Little Guy

John Michael is such a sunny little guy, but he does have his moments.

First, the fun stuff.
He's thinking about crawling and definitely creeping. He keeps getting up on his knees only to go headfirst into the floor. Got to get those hands up, too little guy! I tried to get the girls to demonstrate crawling to him but they seem to have forgotten what crawling is.
He's very interested in everything around him (good except for those times when you are trying to get food in him). We went to storytime at the library last Friday and he was on the floor on his belly looking around. Then he actually turned his head toward the book and it kept his attention. He even put his head down and almost fell asleep ... but of course, there was too much going on for that. But he did fall asleep while I was carrying him just before we left the library. That's the first time he has done that in several months. It was very sweet!

Now, on to the quirky stuff.
Over the last few weeks, John Michael has started to pound his right fist upward and into things. This is okay when you are holding him in your lap (your upper arm gets pummeled), but the quirky part of this habit is that he also does it when he is nursing. When he is nursing so his right arm is free, he starts this and ends up whacking himself in the head. Does that stop him?? No, he just keeps right on hitting his little head. I made Mike come and watch it the other day - we were both just watching him & laughing. I can hold his arm and that will make him stop but once I let go, he usually starts again. Needless to say, it's not really conducive to the whole nursing to sleep thing that we've been doing in the past!

The newest habit - this was just tonight that he started this and it was right before I got him to sleep for the night. He had his mouth closed and started making all sorts of goofy mouth noises. Okay, it's hard to explain. If he keeps it up, I'll have to get a video of it. Maybe we can get a video of the head whacking, too. I'm sure that's just the kind of thing he'll want to see when he is a teenager!

Wizard of Oz

For those of you who might not have heard, we have a family Halloween costume theme planned - the Wizard of Oz. JM has a cute lion suit (hopefully it won'tbe too warm), Gracie will be Dorothy, Clara is super cute in her wicked witch outfit, Mike's the tin man, and I'm dressing as the scarecrow. Okay, this will only happen if I manage to get all the costumes ready (the kids are mostly done), even with Mike out of town all week!

So once we had the plan for the Halloween costumes (I picked two of them up at the big kid's consignment sale that I love - JBF!), I started thinking it would be a good idea for the girls to actually watch The Wizard of Oz. But I remembered it as being a pretty scary movie and Mike concurred. I also talked to my friend, Laura, whose daughter (Beth) is also going to dress as Dorothy this year. Laura also thought the movie would be too scary for Beth (who is 4.5), but then she found out that Beth had seen it on Grandma's house and loved it.

So I still wasn't sold on the idea of the girls watching the Wizard of Oz, but I thought I might let them try it. I tried to have the library get us the Muppet's Wizard of Oz but it didn't look like that was going to happen before Halloween. We went to the library on Friday morning and there on the shelf was the original Wizard of Oz. I decided it must be fate & we checked it out. Gracie woke up with a fever on Saturday, so it was a great time to try it out. Also, Clara was out with Daddy at the store & we were worried about her and the tornado scene (she inherited her mommy's weather scaredy cat genes).

Well... apparently our generation was scared to death by the Wizard of Oz, but it is entrancing & not scary to our kids! Gracie loved it and Clara came home from the store, sat down on the couch & pretty much didn't move until it was over. Then she watched it two more times later that day (okay, so that's an awfully lot of tv for one day, but I was off enjoying a day of scrapbooking and Mike was managing all three!).

So, Beauty and the Beast ... scary! Finding Nemo ... scary! Monsters, Inc. ... scary! But Wizard of Oz with its monkeys, munchkins, wicked witches, and the great oz is just dandy.

A Day Out With Thomas

Uncle Jamie, Alex, Clara, Daddy, John Michael & Gracie

What a day at Thomas the Train! Gracie woke up that morning & declared that her wish had come true, "this is the happiest day of my life!" Wow! And we hadn't even left the house yet!!

But they did have a blast. Alex, Clara, & Gracie were smiley all day! We got to Rusk around 1:30 (the Wrabls had about as long as a drive up from Houston as we did from Burleson, so it worked out to be a great location) and left around 6:30. It made for a long day, but everyone had lots of fun. I imagine we will hear lots of begging to go again next year.

Pumpkin Patch

Clara, John Michael & I got to spend Wednesday morning at Country Critters, or "Crunchy" Critters if Clara tells the tale! Clara & Gracie had gone last year and had a good time, so Clara got to go this year while Gracie got to have an extra long day at school & go to "stay & play" (which she loves!) Clara keeps referring to it as our "field trip" because Gracie had a field trip with her class to a different pumpkin patch a few weeks ago.

On our "field trip" we got to do lots of fun things - pet goats and sheep, ride a "train" (cars pulled behind a lawn mower, have a hay ride (no hay - good for me - just a large wagon pulled by a John Deere tractor), play in several bounce houses, get a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, go through a maze and listen to a Halloween story while enjoying cookies and juice. And all the while, John Michael stayed awake. Okay, he did try to sleep, but it was rather windy and there was just sooo much going on!

For some reason, the kids thought the maze was just a blast. I think they spent longer going in and out of there then they did in the bounce houses. They would all run in together and then be so proud when they came out the other end. And if someone got lost, they would run back and get them.

Clara says her favorite part was the pumpkin patch. She loved picking her pumpkin and then really loved holding JM for pictures. I think she would have taken pictures all afternoon! But alas, the cold front was moving in. We actually saw it coming up the hill toward the farm, bringing a big cloud of white dust from the drilling pad site that was just down the road. The temperature must have dropped about 20 degress once the wind blew through. A friend and I were standing near our cars (with our kids) when we saw a big cloud. We screamed to the kids to get in the car and just all made it in before the white cloud & cold overtook us.

It was a fun day! With Gracie at school, it is fun to have a chance to be out with just Clara. She is a much calmer, more cautious little girl (who actually gets in less trouble and listens better) when she doesn't have her big sister around. It's amazing to see how grown-up she can be on her own!

A Day at the Museums with Alex!

Since nothing too exciting happened today (John Michael ate more avocado & loved it, Gracie fell of the tike bike & hurt herself, and Clara walked thru really slick, yucky mud in her new white tennis shoes), I thought I would write about a day from about a month ago!

About the only good thing about Hurricane Ike was that it gave us a chance to see Aunt Julia & Cousin Alex (Uncle Jamie had headed back to check on the house & start cleanup in the yard)! Alex had his tonsils out the Tuesday before Ike hit, which made their stay in Dallas not so fun and also kept us from visiting as much as we would have liked. He wasn't supposed to get too riled up & if you have never seen Alex & Clara together, well ... it certainly wouldn't have fit with the doctor's orders.

We decided to get together and go to the Kimball museum to see the impressionist exhibit and then if all went well, go to the Modern (right across the street) for lunch. The girls have some touch & feel art books and lots of the pictures in the exhibit are in their books so I thought it would be neat for them to see the real thing. I think Gracie really enjoyed it & I am hoping to take Clara back sometime while Gracie is in school and let her look again. It was a lot to take in & John Michael wasn't the super happy baby he usually is so that was kind of tough.

Anyhow, we saw the exhibit and then went out to the sculpture/rock garden which I'm sure the kids thought was lots more fun. They played a few rounds of hide and seek and then we moved on to lunch at the Modern. It was definitely time for some food - the kiddos started fighting about who would be the "line leader" we convinced them they should take turns, but thank goodness it wasn't a long walk. The best thing about lunch was the outdoor seating. There is a large grassy area with "trees" in the distance. They are actually large sculptures, so the kiddos got to explore some more art while we were waiting for our lunch.

The oddest thing about our museum exhibit was several reactions we had to our children's behavior. Now of course, Julia & I are a bit prejudiced since they are our children, but I think overall we have very well behaved children. And when they are not well behaved, we attend to it and remove them from the situation, or try and resolve the problem. Well, apparently at the Kimball a docent gave Julia a hard time about John Michael trying out his voice. (He likes to kind of sing/shriek). Mind you, there were many other babies at the exhibit & John Michael wasn't being that loud. She ended up leaving the exhibit area & when we asked two other museum employees if there was a problem with children, both assured us there was not & looked perplexed as to why there would be a problem. The second odd thing happened at the Modern Museum. The three big kids (Alex, Clara and Gracie) were sitting on a bench which was super wide (4 feet?). Clara decided to lie down on the bench & had her feet on it. I was just getting ready to tell her to sit up when a docent came over. She didn't actually say anything to me, but nodded her head when I told Clara that we didn't need to have our feet on a place that people sit. Then she proceeded to stand about 2 feet away from the bench & watch the kids. Never mind that at the next bench a much older girl (8 - 10 year old) was lying all over a bench & being loud. Who knows why our kids seemed to be targeted that day, but it certainly didn't make you feel to welcomed. And overall, they were all very good at the museums!

Anyhow, we had a grand time looking at the art. But the best time of all was had at the Modern playing in the outdoor sculpture. Check out the video below, it will give you a taste of what they did for probably 20 minutes or so!