Wanted!

Chicken

He may seem like an innocent, furry children's stuffed animal, but looks can be deceiving. Under that puke-tainted fur lurks an evil mastermind of a duo that has been waking up an unsuspecting toddler each morning this week at 6:50 a.m.

Puso the Computer Player
(a.k.a. Puso)

Puso is Chicken's partner in crime. I suspect Chicken is the brains of the operation, and Puso is the brawn. With his earth-trembling roars he commands his victims to do what he wants. And in this case that is getting out of bed before 7:00 and going downstairs to wake up Mommy and Daddy.

Yes, Coleman has been getting up every morning at about 6:50. This morning I asked him what was waking him up so early. He said, "Chicken and Puso are waking me up! They say, 'It's time to get up!' but I tell them I'm still sleepy but they make me get up." If this keeps up, Chicken and Puso may find themselves banished to the guest bedroom.

Here are some pictures of the silly boys:

Sitting in the wagon with all the stuffed animals reading his Lego magazine.

The old broken coffee table is providing hours of entertainment.

I usually watch The View while working out at the gym, and this morning they had the spokeswoman for Olay's Skin Cancer Takes Friends campaign. During the month of May, you can find a participating dermatologist in your area and get a FREE skin cancer screening. I'm going to try to make an appointment and I hope you will too! Click here for more information.

Here's a bit of trivia from this Seinfeld buff. Marcia Cross is the spokeswoman for Olay's campaign on skin cancer awareness. In season 9 of Seinfeld, she played a dermatologist that Jerry dated. He didn't think a dermatologist was a real doctor, and he called her Pimple Popper, M.D., only to later hear a man tell her that she saved his life when he had skin cancer. Is it odd that I remembered an episode of a sitcom from 10 years ago when I saw her promoting skin cancer awareness?

Happy Half Birthday to Spence!

Spence is 18 months old today. I cannot believe it! It's hard to remember life before him, but it seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby. His favorite word is "ush." It means just about anything he wants it to mean. He can also say dada, mama, nana, ball, duck, dog, clock, dirt, and uh oh. But he'd just assume say "ush" and let you figure out what he wants. He loves books and playing outside. His new hobbies include hitting his brother and wearing just one shoe. Here are a few pictures of the 1/2 birthday boy!

Not Quite Ready for the Spelling Bee

The other day we were in the car and came to a stop sign. Coleman said, "Where's the red light?" I told him there was no red light, just a stop sign. He looked at it and said, "S - t - o - p. That spells stop!" I was really impressed! I asked if they had talked about that in school, but he said no. So I'm not sure when he started spelling out words like that. Obviously he knows what a stop sign is, but I was just surprised that he separated out the letters to spell it, then said that it 'spelled stop.' We've been looking for other words to spell now. In the book "Arthur's Reading Race," Arthur challenges his sister D.W. to read ten words and he will buy her an ice cream cone. She reads the words zoo, taxi, gas, milk, Don't Walk, police, bank, ice, and cream. We've read the book so much that Coleman can "read" all those words to me. Now he's started pointing out words in other books. This afternoon we were playing with the Magna Doodle. I drew a stop sign and he spelled stop and read the word to me. Then I wrote the words boys and girls and he spelled those, referred back to the book we'd been reading, and told me what they were. I thought I'd give him a little challenge, so I wrote the word gas. He looked at it, and said, "G - a - s. Don't Walk!" I just laughed and laughed! I didn't think there was a solid connection between letters and spelling words yet, but he's getting there!

Ladies' Banquet

Sorry men, this post may bore you. Last night was all about the ladies! Our church gym was transformed into a lovely banquet hall and the men of the church waited on us! They did an awesome job! The men from our Sunday School class didn't have to serve since they were the designated babysitters! Brian even volunteered to keep our pastor's two kids along with Coleman and Spence. What a brave soul! He did an excellent job, and the kids had a blast. Thank you sweetheart. The speaker was a wonderful Christian comedian named Jinny Henson who grew up in our church. Thanks to her, I now know that Brian's inability to place an order in the drive-thru at McDonald's is totally normal. Men can't order without an interpreter who speaks nugget! Here is how my table turned out:

Welcome to my tropical getaway!

Here you can see the lights. Next time I'll just go with candles. That way I won't have to cut a hole in my tablecloth to hide the cord and run extension cords covered with duct tape to the nearest outlet!

The ladies at my table chatting before the meal

Notice the wrinkles in the tablecloth? This was my second tablecloth. I put the first one in the dryer to have the wrinkles fall out, but I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! In case you were wondering, 10 minutes is too long to leave a plastic tablecloth in the dryer.

There were about 28 tables in all. I took some pictures of my favorites and want to share them with you. Mom, I thought you might especially like to see these since you've had similar events at your church. It's always great to get new ideas!

Sue, one of our Sunday School class directors, had her table next to mine. She did a picnic theme complete with little plastic ants.

This next table was called Four Seasons. I had to take two pictures to show it all.

Fall and Winter

Spring and Summer

Hollywood Table

Quilter's Table

London Table

Circus Table

Orient Express Table

These last three were very elegant tables. I'm not sure I could have pulled these off!

Memories of a Previous Life

Tomorrow night our church is having a ladies' banquet and I am decorating one of the tables. Each table at the banquet is supposed to have a different theme. So a few weeks ago I went to Party City to scope out what kind of decorations were out there and decide on a theme. I ended up choosing a tropical theme because I thought I could have a lot of fun with it. Monday I realized that the banquet was coming up in just a few days, so I better get it together and buy my decorations! I loaded up the boys and a king-size bag of M&Ms to keep them in line while I was doing my shopping. Child-rearing is so simple if you use the "candy solves all problems" method. They were perfect little chocolate-covered angels while I chose and paid for my items! Many of you know that I enjoy floral arranging. I haven't done it in so long though! But I figured I could manage to put together a centerpiece of tropical flowers without too much trouble. Tropical flowers aren't too hard to find around here, if you know where to look. Luckily I used to work at Rice Epicurean (an upscale supermarket) in the floral department, and I remembered that they always had tropical flowers on hand. Rich folk must like keeping orchids and birds of paradise in their homes I guess. Anyway, upon arriving to the store, I was reminded of the time I spent working there and all the arrangements I made. It really took me back! The florist gave me advice on which flowers to buy to make a beautiful tropical arrangement. I couldn't remember if I had ever given advice to customers on similar issues or not. I'm sure I didn't know half as much as this lady did! I used branches from our Sago palm as filler. I think it turned out alright, and I hope it will look good with the rest of my decorations!

Take Time To...

Smell the flowers!

Pick the flowers! (Well, maybe just one.)

Say hello to a friend!

Summer Shoes!

I've been telling Coleman we would get him some summer shoes soon. That means flip flops! We went to The Children's Place intending to spend $5 on 2 pairs of flip flops, but ended up buying the boys about 16 articles of summer clothing. How fun! (A few hours later I filled up my gas tank for about the same cost. Depressing.) I will admit I love buying clothes, even if they aren't for me. Coleman was walking outside in his new flip flops today and said, "Some little boy might say, 'What's that little boy wearing on his feet?' And his mommy might say, 'They are flip flops.' " That boy cracks me up!


Another boy that cracks me up is Brian. Last night I asked if he'd trim one branch that was hanging down too low. Two hours later it looked like Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Taking Out All the Trees had been filmed in our front yard. I told him he was like a toddler who found the scissors and did a number on his hair! He thought that was pretty funny and wanted me to post a picture. He's going to cut and bundle all the branches and then climb on the roof of the garage and finish off that tree closest to the house later. Please pray for us.


Yesterday we joined a group of friends at an area splash park. These places are great. The kids get to play in the water, and Mommy doesn't even have to put on a swim suit or mess up her 'do! Coleman had a blast, but Spence sat in my lap the entire time. I'm sure he'll warm up to the water soon and start splashing away.

First Astros Game

Monday night Brian took Coleman to his first Astro's game. There's a train at Minute Maid Park that goes when the Astro's hit a home run. Coleman said it went 30 times! I told him that was a really high scoring game! Sounds like they had a fun daddy-son outing. Coleman and Spence are blessed to have such a wonderful daddy!

I'm having such a good time at my first Astro's game!

No Kermit, It IS Easy Being Green!

I used to think Earth Day and all this "going green" stuff was for tree-hugging hippies who, while wearing their Birkenstocks and tye-died tees, slashed the tires on gas-guzzling SUVs and waved their picket signs in protest of everything in cities across America. Now I have to admit, I am trying to become greener! I don't just feel that it is my responsibility to try to ensure my kids' futures, but as a Christian I am accountable to God for how I treat His creation. Of course how I treat people is most important, but I know He wants me to value all His creation. I wanted to find a verse to validate this, so I went to Biblegateway.com. This is the verse of the day, I'm sure since it is Earth Day.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Here are some ideas for being more environmentally friendly. Some of these I already do, and some I plan to start doing.

• Recycle plastic bottles, coke cans, newspapers, junk mail, and other paper products
• Turn off the lights when leaving a room
• Use fluorescent light bulbs
• Stop using plastic shopping bags (I bought reusable shopping bags from Kroger and plan to start using these in place of plastic grocery bags.)
• Use less water when brushing teeth
• Decide what you want from the fridge before opening the door
• Start composting
• Use cloth diapers (YEAH RIGHT!!! That's just not going to happen!)

If you have any good ideas to add, please leave a comment! I know there are lots of easy things to do to be environmentally friendly. Happy Earth Day!

Where Else Can You...

Crawl on a frog?


Pull an elephant's ear?


Watch a tiger take a dip?



Sit in an eagle's nest?


Stand 5 feet away from a half zebra/half giraffe?


Spy on a 1700 lb toddler's play time?


And stare in awe at God's marvelous imagination?


So glad we got that zoo membership!

Party Till a Monkey Gets Decapitated!

This afternoon I took Spence to a birthday party at a park. The theme was Curious George, complete with a Curious George pinata!

Enjoying a slice of pizza

The birthday boy taking a swing at the pinata

Spence liked watching the pinata action, but he wanted no part of it!

He did, however, pick up some candy once the pinata was cracked.

Must be traumatic for one and two year olds to see their favorite monkey character decapitated!

Post-Puke Park Play

Somewhere in a suburb of Houston tonight there is a woman describing to her husband the most horrible mother she ever met. The mother watched her son puke up his guts, then told him not to breathe on the other kids, and sent him on his way to play. Yeah, that was me. Sounds pretty bad if I describe it that way. Here's what really happened. When Coleman woke up from his nap, he complained of a sore throat. I asked if he wanted to stay home, or go to the park like I had promised we would do if he took a good rest. He wanted to go to the park. When we got there he acted a little funny, and before we made it across the field to the playground, he stopped and threw up the entire contents of his tummy. Spence had already run over and began playing, and in a minute the other mom came over to see if I needed anything. We started talking, and I explained that Coleman didn't feel warm, so maybe it was something he ate. He had some chocolate milk at ChicFilA, and I didn't even think of looking at the date on it. Hopefully that was the culprit. She added that her kids had had that reaction after drinking some bad milk before too. Coleman insisted that he wanted to go play, and we had driven about 10 minutes to get to this park, so I hated to pull two screaming kids back to the car and try to stuff them in against their will. Especially one that might decide to puke on me. I told him not to get near the other kids and just play with Spence. He jumped and climbed and slid and swung, all with a funny grimace on his face, but never puked again. The other mom and I had a good time chatting, and I don't think she was anxious about her kids catching some bug from my little puker. He was keeping his distance. She even let me hold her 14 month old while she went and got a plastic bag from her car for Coleman to use as a barf bag on the way home if needed. How sweet! The barf bag was not needed, but Coleman did throw up once again at home.

OK, Coleman is sick, this is my chance to shine! Point that camera at me and shoot away!

Here I come! Please don't let me fall.

This is the best smile I can muster.

More pictures of me? This must be a record!

Remember, if you need to puke, open the bag and aim.

My Name Is Gray With Yellow Polka Dots Shirt

As we were pulling into our parking space at the gym, Coleman noticed a woman and her little boy walking across the parking lot. He said, with a very determined voice, "I'm going to play with that white boy." I was a little surprised that he would be identifying someone by his race, so I asked him who he was going to play with. He replied, "That boy in the white shirt." Oh, that's better. The trend of identifying unknown kids by the color of their shirts continued this afternoon at the park. Coleman asked, "Where is Orange Boy?" This time I was not ignorant of his naming method and was able to reply, "He's over there." Probably looking for some more territory to mark. He had already pulled down his pants and peed on the area of the playground where we were. We're going to work on asking kids their names. We also had a little discussion about how it's a good thing not to go potty in your underwear, but at the same time, let Mommy know if we're out and you need to go. I'll find a spot for you to go, even if it's behind a bush. Maybe it's just me, but that seems a little better than under the slide.

This Looks Like a Job for Superman!

Wouldn't it be great if Mommies had super powers? I know I could have used them yesterday. I'm on the committee that is searching for our new Children's Minister and volunteered to call a reference to inquire about a candidate. We had a hard time getting in contact with each other, but finally had a chance to talk on the phone yesterday afternoon. Of course the moment I got on the phone things here started going crazy. Spence has discovered where the Keebler Fudge Stripes are kept in the pantry. He goes to the pantry, points, and cries until he gets one. He started doing this the moment the phone rang. Then Coleman, who was sitting at the computer watching Superman videos on Youtube, kept wanting different videos. He doesn't have the fine motor skills to navigate the mouse and click on the video he wants, so that task falls on me. And not just any video will do. He has to look through the long string of videos and point out the one he thinks he wants to watch. And then once it's started, he feels he has the right to change his mind and make me start a different one. Not one that's ten minutes long. One that's one minute and 52 seconds, so in one minute and 52 seconds, he's yelling for another one again. Under normal circumstances I would not stuff cookie after cookie into my 17 month old's face and give into my 3 year old's demands concerning Youtube videos, but I was just trying to keep them calm and quiet so I could record this lady's answers to my questions so I could present them to our committee. I wish I would have had an extra hand to record the whole scenario. I'm sure it would have been quite comical to watch myself running from the pantry with a Fudge Stripe to the computer to start up a new video, back to my notes to write down her response to my question. After it was all over and things here had settled down I was walking by the computer where Coleman was still watching a Superman video. I overheard Superman say, "This looks like a job for Superman." I was thinking, "Yeah, where were you when you were needed here?"