I've been delayed...

Well, my mother-in-law tagged me which means that I have to now post seven things you may not know about me. I've been delayed in posting this for two reasons (1) I've been REALLY busy with the aforementioned teaching and VBS'ing (2) I'm pretty sure there's nothing that you don't already know. :) But I am going to give my best shot, because I promised Michael I would tag him and he's nagging me about it! hahaha! Just kidding, he did take some playful pot shots at me though!

1. When I grow up I want to be a Certified Nurse Midwife/Fitness Expert or at the least a REALLY good doula. I really REALLY believe in the power of a woman in her body and in her spirit. A bumper sticker that I saw in my midwives' office sums it up pretty well for me: "Women of earth, take back your birth." I truly believe God created us to be strong and courageous and he programmed our bodies to do what HE created it to do. In my old age (hehe), I am becoming less and less judgemental and more and more determined to make myself fully educated on this topic so that I can educate others. It inspires me! :)
2. I TRULY enjoy taking long road trips with my children. Don't get me wrong, there are some hairy points in every trip, but I love that I get to show them their world.
3. Home to me is where my family is. I live three doors down from my parents and I live in the same house as the other "Michael Wilsons." In the four years that we have lived in this house, I have painted (count it with me now...) ONE wall. I have hung some pictures and curtains (where necessary), but I look around and see how (relatively) quickly we could leave here and go to some other home and I would be perfectly happy...'cause I am with my home when I am with Michael, Samantha and Jack.
4. I have AWFUL washing machine karma. I've been the owner of a washer and dryer set for 4 years (exactly four years ago this month we moved in here! cool!) and I've already had to completely replace one washer. The BRAND SPANKING NEW ONE that we bought in February is already crapping out on me! And here's the nuttiest part...it's the exact same problem (the timer isn't advancing) as the other machine. Truthfully, we are wondering if there is something in the electrical outlet that is shorting it out or something.
5. In high school, I was the manager and statistician of the varsity volleyball team. I really wanted to play and the P.E. coach talked me into trying out for the team, but when I went it was OBVIOUS to me and her that I wasn't even close to being able to compete with these girls so she asked me if I would be their manager. My parents were cool with it, so I said yes. It was a REALLY awesome time for me as I had just broken up with a long term boyfriend and had virtually NO other friends. I felt extremely out of place, but the girls were sweet and accepted me as much as I put myself out there. I got to letter two years in a row because I was the manager.
6. I was born in Westin, West Virginia and my mom says that I was the only good thing to come out of W. Virginia...she's a southeast Texas girl through and through. :)
7. I LOVE to do "projects." The first project I really remember having a major part in was rebuilding what would soon be my first vehicle: a wrecked (by my older brother) Chevy S-10 pickup truck. Craig wrecked it the winter of 1992 (I think) and it sat in my parents drive way until the spring when Dad decided that he and I should fix it up for my first car. It was a stick shift and I was SUPER cool 'cause I could drive it pretty well! :)

Whew! I can't believe I actually came up with seven...hopefully some of them are a suprise to some of you???

Now comes the fun part: Michael and Bob you're IT!

Doctors

What a day! What a day! Samantha has pretty yucky allergies...like she'll claw off her feet when they get fired up. Well, we ran out of the Rx hydro cortisone cream so off we went to the Allergy Doc today to get a refill (we hadn't been in 15 months so they wouldn't call one in for us). He wasn't really thrilled to see us in that her allergies aren't getting any better and when they don't grow out of them it generally turns to asthma and starts internalizing and affecting the pulmonary system...not news the mommy wanted to hear. We're going for a blood test this afternoon so that we can start monitoring the levels of her allergies for future reference.

We came home with Zyrtec twice a day (an adult dose), two different creams (one for her face and one for her body) and one more over the counter, general body cream. Yikes!

The good news: "God protects the children" the doctor said. That was in reference to her reaction to nuts; he said that the life threatening responses don't normally start until around twelve--until then they normally throw it up and break out in hives. Another good thing is that since Jack decided to get intasesseption twice and stay overnight at TCH we've met our deductible for the year so the entire rest of the year is covered for all of us...Rx and Doctors! YAHOOO!

Michael also got good and bad news yesterday on his eyes. His right eye is still very dry and made no progress this last month, so they (the doctor who did the lasik surgery) referred him to the dry-eye specialist in Houston. Lucky for us our health insurance will cover it so we are definitely going to take them up on this new treatment plan.

Finally on the doctor front, Jack's "puncture wound" bill came in and the Doctor's visit alone was $126!!! That was ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SIX DOLLARS for 5 minutes and half of that time was spent filling out paperwork. It took literally 1 minute to put the Dermabond on and I think it took one and a half minutes for the nurses and I to blow his head dry. Dude...that's a lot of money for $126...so I called them today to see if they'll reduce it. I have my fingers crossed.

Well, that's been my day...how's yours?? :)

Where's Redwifey?

Well, a lot of places actually! Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged...it's been a bit more nutty than usual. In late April, I agreed to teach the two year old class at the Mother's Day Out where Samantha and Jack attend. My friend, the Director, was in a bit of a pinch and made a desperate call asking me to finish the school year out for her. She's pulled me out of a few pinches so I immediately said yes. Yesterday was the last day of school, and I was glad for that.

The trick is that before I agreed to teach in May, I agreed to teach in the summer program. It's only three hours a day instead of five like the normal school year. This works out a lot better for me because I can come home and catch a few minutes of Mommy-time while the kids are resting. All of this works out to mean little to no Mommy time this summer, but Michael's taken care of that already!

I got the BEST Mother's day present I've ever gotten: a four day trip by myself to my best friends house in Arkansas!!! I'm saving it for the end of June (I think) after VBS is over. Which leads me to my next topic: VBS.

I am currently heavily involved in our new church's VBS planning (as in I got the curriculum for them from our old church and now I'm helping them implement it) and in our old church: they have a puppet show at the end and I'm the puppet. Last year I was a fish puppet and this year I'll be a camel. Oh yeah, I found out yesterday, that I'll be in the two year old class with Jack at our old church. Ohhhhh doggy!

I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, but at least I have a wonderful husband that has agreed that our Maria (my house cleaner and my sanity saviour) can come weekly and not bi-weekly. Thank you Michael!!!!!

Oh yeah! We also had Michael's family two weekends in a row. It was GREAT to have both of them (Grandparents and Parents) in our home. We don't have a ton of room in our home, but we squooshed everyone around and no one slept on the floor so I think it was doable for the weekend?

This past Monday, I took the kids to get their teeth cleaned...there was plenty of crying and pinning Jack down, but we got the job done...and afterward they were beggggging to go swim at the Y. So, in my best flexible-let's-have-fun-Mom voice I said, "SURE!" and I can tell you that we will definitely be doing that again. It was SSOO fun, and Samantha had the best spirit when we had to leave. I was super-duper proud of her.

Well, we're back in the pool today for swim class, so I've gotta get ready and packed. Later taters!!

More on Jack's sleeping

Jack's sleeping has definitely improved. I am not sure if he was feeling bad before we left for our LR trip, but he sure sleeping HORRIBLY! But since he's gotten over this virus we are MUCH improved. He generally is still waking up in the morning a little early, but we have a system now: I go in (and if he's not poopy) I cover him back up and sit in the recliner that's in there and we both go back to sleep. Sometimes he asks: "Mommy, can you help me?" and holds his blanket up for me to cover him. It is the sweetest sweetest thing!

One hospital story that I haven't shared, that has shaped my thinking some is that he fell asleep in his hospital bed all by himself FOUR different times during the night that we were there. I wasn't touching him and wasn't very close to the crib. I was in the chair next to him, and he could see me, but we were certainly separate.

That really proved to me that he knew how to go to sleep on his own, but something was definitely bothering him at home. I think the ceiling fan blowing on him might have been making him stuffy and sleeping with his mouth open, thus slobbering allllllll over his bed and waking up in a pool of wet: YUCK! I wouldn't like that either.

The other thing that has kept him in his own bed is that in Little Rock, when he was waking and crying 3-4 times a night, we put him in our king sized bed and he continued to cry. So that meant to me that something else was wrong and I just hadn't put my finger on it. Especially since we don't have a king bed at home, we certainly don't have room in our bed. ;)

All of those different things have led me to these conclusions:

1. When Jack is well, he sleeps well. When he doesn't sleep well, I should pay more attention and know that he something is probably up with him.
2. When Jack wakes up too early in the morning, I can still make it possible for us both to get what we need by sleeping in the recliner. This also helps Samantha get the sleep she needs as we aren't up and around before 7ish. He is progressively getting closer to 7 anyway, so it is working.
3. Surely he won't be sleeping this poorly in High School, so we just have a few more years left. :)

Anyway, tonight we had a GREAT evening; we went to the park and had a picnic supper with ice cream to follow. It was super.

Later Taters!

On motherhood

It is an interesting beast; it's so amazing how in one day you can go through sooo many different emotions (worry, intense worry, angry on their behalf, pain, relief, joy, exhaustion) about the same people. It's quite the roller coaster...until you decide to get off. Every once in a while, I just jump off the coaster for my own sanity's sake...the stability of being in the middle emotionally is a blessing and it comes only by choice. Thankfully the crisis for our family seems to be subsiding, although Michael is revving things up at work so that will bring a whole new bucket of worms to sort through. But Jack's not running fever any more, he just didn't get there soon enough to go to school today...I'm hoping for Thursday.

FEVER
Fever is not a problem...it's a good thing. It indicates that your baby is fighting some bug or illness which is good: that's what we want. After a discussion with my pediatrician yesterday, I've boiled fever down to this: how does my baby feel when the fever comes down? If he's still lethargic and complaining of pain then we should see the doc, otherwise it's best to let the body do it's thang.

WOUNDS
I am brand new to the world of wound care. It seems as though if the sides of the wound are "approximate" (this apparently is the technical term for whether or not the skin is touching) and it stops bleeding then no sutures are necessary (maybe?). But if they are not approximate then sutures or Dermabond are needed.

We needed Dermabond yesterday for the first time: Jack fell of our bed and konked his melon on the corner of Michael's nightstand. I think the thing that got Jack most mad was that the wash rag fell over his face while I was stopping the blood.

SLEEP
Here's the ultimate question: why does my kid wake up and not go back to sleep? Dr. Ferber talks a lot about sleep associations and as MUCH as I try not to let Jack fall asleep on me I think he's still doing it and this maybe why he's having trouble. He's taking CRAZY short naps after having a hard night the night before. I also know that sleep begets sleep, so I've been trying to help him finish his nap so that the nights aren't so hard, but I think I maybe just throwing fuel on the fire.

For a while, I think I am going to try modify our routine and see if I can't help him fall asleep in his bed and not on me (or Michael).

Old routine: Lamp on for books, Light off for songs and rocking, then he used to say "I Ready" and we'd lay him down, but I think he's just falling asleep while rocking.

New routine: Lamp on for books, and songs. Little to no rocking. Hugs and kisses, then laying him in bed.

It really isn't that different, but if I can make a little change and get a big result I am all for that! :)

READING
"Mommy, what does that sign say?" I am hearing this more and more. I am pretty sure that in a month she'll pick up a simple book and starting reading (not memorizing books like she's done for four years) to herself. It's amazing to watch her work!!

Gotta run!

Jamie

Whew...it's been so long, I almost forgot my login!

Just kidding! Sorry it's taken sooo long to write an update.

We've been to RoRo and PawPaw's house and to Sea World since I've written. Both were great trips! The kids are really getting used to traveling and I think they are enjoying it as much as I am. We did take Daddy on our Sea World trip (since he booked it, it was the least we could do! :)), and we certainly did it in style. Friday evening we got to eat RIGHT BESIDE the killer whale pools. It was awesome!!!! The have a platform (don't ask me how big, I'm terrible at that) where the KW's (did you know they are really dolphins????) would swim up and "slide out" of the water so we could see them...absolutely amazing. Michael has all the pics on his computer and will post them soon. So, Friday we opened and closed the park and the kids were great...Jack napped in the sling and Samantha just trudged right along. What troopers!

Saturday was another early start, 8 am and we toured the park with a guide and saw and did all kinds of things: fed dolphins, sea lions, and sting rays; petted wallabies, lizard-things, sharks, dolphins, etc, etc, etc. Super fun, but the kids were done before the tour was done so it got a bit icky at the end, but oh well.

The one thing we learned from this trip is that Samantha is a roller-coaster MANIAC! Our tour passes enabled us to go up the exit side to ride rides, so she and I rode the "Texas Splashdown" and I was more scared than she. Although, I will have to say that park of my fear was because of my own stupidity...she climbed in the back of the boat all by herself and I let her stay there. So the whole time she's back there riding (having the time of her life) with no seat belt and I am scared to death that my four year old is going to let go and fly out. Not one of my brighter "Mommy moments" to say the least.

Lastly, here's a link to my newest, favoritest songs: Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten.

We made it!

Just wanted to say I have awesome kids! We (the three of us) left Houston at 4 am and rolled into Grandparents house in KS at 5:30 pm. No stops after lunch except to pee-pee in the grass (she totally freaked, but then realized her choices so we made it through...now she's soooo proud!).

Thanks, Dora and Nemo...you were a BIG help today! :)

Later taters!

Closer...

Well, we aren't totally better, but by the end of the night I could say, I think he is feeling better. Some toast and tortilla for supper and nothing before that...should be interesting to see what time he gets up to eat in the morning! I should WAY go to bed now! :)

Later!

Better so far!

Well, he had a great night's sleep and has kept all of the Pedialyte down that we've given him. Somehow after all that throwing up he did yesterday, he had a pee-pee diaper this morning. Amazing!

He's already back to bed, so I am hoping that he'll have a great day of lots of naps. I think that will really help.

Daddy stayed home today, so he and Samantha are going to have a great Daddy/Daughter day. Yeah for them, but I'm a little jealous! :)

Later taters!

Sick again...

But at least it's something new, right? Now the boy has a stomach virus, but luckily (as the nurse pointed out tonight) he's throwing up and not having diarrhea, which is MUCH harder to control and cure. I have to agree with her, but when he's crying, punching, pulling hair and yelling, "I wunt drink!" it's very hard to resist giving him what he wants.

I think this evening he was just so tired that any movement just sent him into another episode of vomiting, so I just got his jammies on as quick as I could and laid him straight down. He didn't mind at all.

Samantha is in our room on her special blue bed so we'll see if any of us get any sleep tonight. I can still hear Samantha up in our room movin' and a groovin'.

Later taters!

Monday tid bits

This weekend we made a very large and very unexpected purchase...a whirlpool cabrio washing machine. Our still-very-new front loader had a computer relay die and so we would have had to replaced a $450 motor/computer for a $475 washer. The Cabrio was NOT what we were looking for when we went, but it seemed to make sense for the long term. So far we like it!

Jack's new stuff: "Was your name?" "Who's dat?" "Wha she say?" The last two are after I get off the phone with someone. Also, this is completely new to us and I am not sure where he heard this, but the phrase is "I not a BABY!" and he says it with such feeling that you really feel like he's been offended by whatever you did. Sometimes he uses it at appropriate times, like at the supper table if I hand him a bite instead of letting him get it himself, but sometimes he doesn't use it appropriately so I am not sure if he has any clue as to what he's saying.

Samantha is fascinated with helping Mommy fold clothes. Today it was Jack pajama pants that we worked on and she did great after I figured out that she needed to lay it down on the floor so she could see what she was doing. And she's working on getting things on hangers and hanging them in her closet. She's excellent at putting away...so overall she is an awesome laundry helper and now that I have a reliable washer we should put a major damage in the laundry category.

Yesterday I got hit with some sort of stomach bug. It really knocked me on my booty: major body aches and they tingley feeling when your skin just hurts. Today wasn't soo bad although I felt so sore in my torso that you'd have thought I spent the day throwing up. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day that we went to the zoo with our friends from church and had a wonderful time looking at snakes, baby giraffes and elephants, and fish. I didn't overdue it today, but I certainly was grateful for the 2 hour nap the kids took! :)

That's all for tonight! Later taters!

For fear of being flogged with a wet noodle...

...I'm going to blog. Thanks AJ for the kick in the pants!

Traveling
This spring and summer is shaping up to be quite the traveling time for us. The kids and I drove to NW Arkansas for our nephew's two year old birthday. We had an AWESOME time together with Michael's family. Probably the second best thing of the whole trip was spending the night in Dallas at an Embassy Suites...thanks again, Uncle Matt!!! It was an amazing hotel...so much so that we had to take a walk around (9:00 p.m.) and see the fish ponds and "Ooooh" and "Ahhh" appropriately. It was fun!

The kids have spring break March 12-16th so we are planning on driving to KS City to visit RoRo and PawPaw (Michael's folks). The following week we'll go to San Antonio for our first "Just the four of us" trip...we are headed to Sea World and we're going to get to feed the dolphins, have a special pre-open tour, and we're going to eat beside the whales one night for dinner!!

Then our fitness forum is having a summit in April in Little Rock. May will take Michael away from us for a trip to Myrtle Beach to play golf with work buddies. June will leave us at home, and then in July we're going on the Wilson's 29th annual family vacation in Osage Beach, MO.

Wow! That makes me tired just typing all that!! Thank goodness for the DVD players that we bought for the van at christmas!!!

Julian
On the baseball batting cages of Westbury high school, sits gang graffiti. It hasn't been there 1 day, not 1 week, not 1 month, but VERY CLOSE to 2 MONTHS. I have called 311 (Houston's help center), the school directly-TWICE, and have spoken with one of the Houston ISD police officers about when it will be removed. I have spoken to our city council woman's chief of staff. And still it sits.

I was aggravated before, but since the woman at the school told me that "that student's death hasn't been ruled 'gang related'" I have become quite livid about the whole situation. I am certain that Mr. Ruiz would NOT be pleased at the lacidazical manor that this is being handled in. If need be, I believe that I can call Cynthia Cisneros and maybe she could help me get some attention and focus on this.

Our city council representative was supposed to have a meeting today with Principal Coleman and the police at our neighborhood police store front. Hopefully, I'll hear from her chief of staff tomorrow.

Samantha
Wow! This kid is growing leaps and bounds! The thing that has impressed me most is seeing her calculating certain things in her head. For instance, holding her jacket or backpack she calculates which arm needs to go in which hole for it to fight right. Amazing! I know it seems small, but watching her process the reversing process in her mind is fascinating.

And we've made a decision about what to do for her schooling. We're going to leave her where she is for the 07-08 school year and then in January of 08 we'll start the "Magnet" process to get her into the school that she wants. Whew! This is loads off my mind!!

Jack
The best news about Jack is that he's sleeping again! On our trip this past weekend, he and Samantha had such a good time sleeping side-by-side that I decided to give them a try sleeping together at home. It seems to be working like a charm. His ears are also clear (finally) so sharing a room may have nothing to do with his better sleep...but who's going to look a gift horse in the mouth? Not me! :)

His new favorite thing is "Whas dat?" We are really enjoying teaching him about his world!

The Rodeo
Every year the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo are a HYOOOGGGE event, and it starts next weekend. With the way our kids LOOOVE animals, we'll probably end up buying season passes for Samantha and me (Jack's free) and make it a weekly trip.

People come from all over the country doing "trail rides" and land in our backyard (literally, they stay on the baseball fields behind our house) on this evening. Tonight we took a walk after supper to see the horses and all the people. Needless to say, I think the kids will sleep well tonight!

Well, I think I am working on a blister on my left hand from all this typing, so I am signing off for tonight! :)

Later taters!

Jack's new words/sentances/communications

• "I unt to go." Where, you ask? "Show me," he says as he walks off with a parent in tow.
• "Noot naks" = Fruit snacks
• "I unt to hold you."
• "Coo-Coos" = Blues Clues
• "I shoot" and "my turn" all related to "baketball"
• "Tratter ride" "Tratter key" = Tractor ride and tractor key

Can I just tell you that I looooove communication? There's just so much more you can do with a kid that can communicate!

Nite-nite!

Samantha's prayers

Sometimes she says the funniest things and tonight it was this:

"Dear God, thank you for Jack's virus and thank you for medicine that isn't working. Please help it to do something. Amen"

She obviously heard me talking to the doc today, complaining that the decongestant was decongesting anything. She is so observant and very clearly mimics Mommy, some days that is good and some days (today) not so good.

Exercising is really helping me with my mood and confidence. I like to lift heavy stuff...I do it all day with Jack already, but the focused, purposful lifting is rewarding, too.

Later!

Everyone's better! Yeah!

Jack and I are doing much better (except for the little cold he has)!

Today at swimming (we normally swim on Wednesday, but we've added another class for Samantha so that she can finally clear a hurdle she's been struggling with for a while), Jack saw his Wednesday teacher and kept saying: "I unt bow bubble wit Sondra" and at the end: "Bubble wit Sondra Wedday."

As you can see, he is really talking up a storm. Another popular saying is: "I unt da Mommy/Daddy."

Hope all my friends and family in cyberspace are doing well out there. It's getting cold here! FINALLY!!!

"See ya!" <-- Another new Jack sentance.

Jack's fall

Well, today at Sam's Jack decided to take a header out of the shopping cart! never again will he ride in the back of the basket; Samantha NEVER rode back there until she was at least 3, and now Jack will be under the same rules. I immediately took him to the Doctor who looked him over good and said he thought he would be ok. We are supposed to keep watch over him for a good 24 hours waking him every 1-2 hours while asleep. We may not do it that often, but we'll definitely be checking in several times. He didn't lose consciousness or vomit which are all really good signs. Here's pics of his boo-boo...we actually didn't see it until bathtime--neither did the doc.

Picture time

These are from our anniversary on Tuesday:



My work over the past month
These are the new shelves that I put up in our bathroom:



This is the new drawers I put in our upstairs closet. There will be linens in there ASAP!



The following pictures are from the downstairs:
Harry Potter closet




Shelves between two book shelves, they used to be covered with "stuff" that's now located in the Potter closet! Yahoo!


My Sid Dickens tiles; see how odd it looks with the big hole on the right?? :)

I think I've really hurt myself

Yesterday as I was playing "organizing" in my closet, I bent over to put a drawer in (no worries AJ, pics will be coming soon; thanks for the idea) and it was like my SI joint gave way and I collapsed forward. I didn't fall down, because my gut instinct was to stand straight up and so I did. The pain was over a few seconds after I stood up, but the desire to throw up continued for a few minutes. I was able to move all day and most of the evening, but I got really stiff and sore in bed...the ibuprofen didn't seem to do anything. This morning I'm ok if I don't move...not good seeing as my day job requires constat movement. :)

Hopefully over the weekend it'll get better and I can be back in the gym monday morning! I had been soooo good this week to go and exercise!

Later taters!

Change 12 things and you'll change your life

Well, I am WELL on my way to changing my life (not that I thought it was bad) after this week. The Container Store puts its elfa storage systems on sale for a while each January and I have been doing serious damage to our bank account there this week! Our "Harry Potter" closet downstairs has had its useless shelves ripped out (I got to do the demolition! woo hoo!) and have replaced them with elfa drawers...MUCH BETTER!!!!! Now we have art supplies drawers, electronic stuff drawers,etc. I love it!

Upstairs has had the following changes:

• We're taking out Jack's changing table and I've installed two acryllic shelves to hold diapers/wipes and toiletries.
• We've removed the bottom shelf in our hall closet so that the filing cabinet slides back and I can get the vaccum and ironing board in too!
• Next for the hall closet is installing a drawer on one of the shelves that will slides out, so that I can store linens and not have to pull all the stuff out to get something in the back.
• I installed a new towel hook in the kids bathroom and need to get one more so it will be balanced.
• I installed a new hook row of hooks to hang baseball caps.
• I bought some hooks for the hats in Samantha's closet.

And I finally hung the Sid Dickens tile that Michael gave me for my birthday (July)! Too bad it left an asymmetrical whole on the wall that's gonna need to be filled! :)

I still have a small list to purchase at the Container Store, but it's small...or maybe medium.

I started exercising again today! Yeah for me! It's gonna take some getting used to for Jack. I gathered that he cried the entire time I was away today--20 minutes. So, we'll just ease back into a routine so that the DOMS aren't too bad for me and the seperation is too bad for him. Samantha loves going to the Y 'cause they have looots of cool dress up dresses.

Kiddos took GREAT naps today so Mommy got some rest too!

Tomorrow, Michael and I celebrate 8 years of marriage. This past year has been the hardest on each of us, but I think our marriage has been better in '06 than any other. Michael, I love you and the family we have created together. I love our life, and everyday I am glad that I chose you. Your humor and smile keep us going when we think we might collapse in tears and your strenght of character is a beauty to behold. Thanks for your loving arms that surround us with grace and mercy and bring us closer to God each day. You're my man and I am so proud of you!

Later taters!

A good team

Michael and I would like to announce that we have finally become a good team! Yahooo! Just kidding! We just had a really good day and it could have turned out equally as bad--and we were the deciding factor.

Jack was up a 6 (* read: Mommy and Jack were up at 6*) this morning and Samantha decided to join him at 7:15. After two minutes of playing with him, she screams from his room, "Mommy! Jack is awake!" Oh dear! That did NOT make Mommy happy as she KNOWs she is not to go in his room in the morning unless she KNOWs Mommy is in there. And then, to wake Mommy up by screaming at her...NOT GOOD! So, we had a rough start and then at breakfast (her favorite place) she just was irritating us, although not on purpose. So, after fussing at her for a minute, I just looked at Michael and said, "We just need to stand down." I used this terminology because it was fresh on my mind (we watched TWO Battle Star Gallactica episodes last night on DVD) and because I knew she didn't know what that meant, so we could back off without loosing face. Michael heard and agreed and from then on we had a GREAT day!

Jack's new words:

• Ba -- Gramps
• PLEEEEEEESSSE -- Please, Mommy may I have some gum?
• Blue balls -- blueberries
• Chair
• Hep -- Help
• Car wet -- This morning as he was trying to get in his "Cozy Coupe" he looked at me and said this. I was amazed!
• Snaak -- Gerber baby fruit snacks
• Caker -- Cracker
• Saw -- the power tool
• Duck
• Play
• Fie-fiss -- Butterfly
• Toothbrush
• Flush -- like flush the potty
• Dink -- Drink
• Hi

That's all I can think of for now. There's nothing really that he can't say...it's just that some things have meaning while others are just repeating the syllables. This is also a stage where he comes to us and takes our hand to show us what he wants! AWESOME!!!

Hope we are able to do something fun outside tomorrow, this crazy "I'm might rain any minute" weather has been tough. Maybe we'll hit their new sand box Santa brought?!!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Later