Audubon Zoo

Audubon Zoo- New Orleans

We went to a beautiful zoo during Thanksgiving break!! I sure loved it. The animals had a lot more space than other zoo's we've been too. There was more shade and great scenery for pictures. There was fun things for the kids too!

Climbing the big tree

Daddy trying to learn tricks from the elephant.

Gramsie and Adelyn

Saints Fans

I have always loved the priest Fr. Paul at Our Lady of Grace in La Coste, TX. He has a way with making people feel like he's speaking directly to them during homilies and he has an incredible sense of humor as well.

The next day after arriving home to San Antonio from Thanksgiving break, I decided to attend Mass at Our Lady of Grace. I had really enjoyed our trip to Louisiana. One special thing we did was watch the Cowboys/Saints game on Thanksgiving day at my Uncle's house. Most of us there were quite into it. Only Scott and my sister n law Kathryn were wearing cowboys shirts or cheering for them. The Saints won that game and it was close. Well, at Mass that Sunday Fr. Paul announced that there were no bulletins because after his favorite team, the Cowboys had lost on Thanksgiving he told the staff to go home on Friday and have the rest of the day off. Hehe.

Well this past weekend my parents and my brother and sister n law visited so we could celebrate an early Christmas. On Sunday we got up and went to the 10:30 AM Mass which is the more upbeat and lively one. Berch asked me if it was okay to wear his Saints shirt and if Ithought Fr. Paul would "approve" :) I told him I wasn't so sure about that. We meant to leave with enough time to get there a few minutes early and get seats. I like to sit close so Zachary can see. We left late though and arrived just after it had started. I figured there was no way we were getting seats together let alone up front. The usher, however, directed us all the way up to the front on the right side. There were two seats in front for Berch and Kathryn and enough room behind them for the rest of us.

We proceeded with the Mass. When we arrived at the homily we all sat down to listen. Now, Fr. likes to walk around while he talks and pass by each person in the front row on each side just so he can look at everyone in the church. He was discussing being accepting of all people and how it didn't matter what religion someone was. He said it isn't necessary to argue about who is right or better, but remember that all people are created equal. But then all of the sudden he stopped in front of Berch and exclaimed "but sometimes there are those who test our limits!". He then proceeded to take him by the hand and lead him up to the front of the church. The congregation began laughing as they looked up and saw my brother in his Saints shirt. But what really iced the cake was when Fr. Paul lifted up his purple vestment, unzipped the white one and revealed his Cowboys shirt. The congregation was roaring at this sight. I looked around and saw Mom, Dad, Scott and Kathryn laughing hysterically in their seats. I myself laughed so hard my cheeks hurt.

I love Fr. Paul. He has a way of making you feel as if he's speaking directly to you and he presents his homilies so that you can apply them directly to your own situations with ease. He is very sincere when he speaks to you so that you may feel he knows you personally. On top of all of that, he's hilarious. He has really impacted me and is a good model of how I want to be to people I am close to and also those I don't know well or at all.

That afternoon the Cowboys played and won. The Saints however, lost the game they played in. So I suppose Fr. Paul had the last laugh.

Zachary has been saying so many funny and clever things that I'm starting to forget all of them and I've got to wright them down.

Last week we went to my parent's house while Scott was gone on a trip for work. The first night we were there Zachary let my mom put him to bed. He was having a very serious conversation with her and asking her lots of questions.

"So why was Pa-pa's job in Dubai?" was one of them and they went into the elaborate conversation about why we moved there and us living there for some time.

Later when I had gone to kiss him goodnight he said, "Is Aunt Liz's house far away?"

I was a little surprised and wondered what had made him think of Aunt Liz. "Yes" I told him., "She lives in Louisiana close to Ma-ma and Pa-pa.

I found out later about this conversation he had which made the puzzle fit together. He looked at the large poster on the wall of different trains.

"Where did you get that, Gramsie?"

"I'm borrowing it from Aunt Liz".

"I don't like all of the trains on there. I just want a poster with one train".

"Oh okay well we can return it to Aunt Liz".

He started to close his eyes.

"You can borrow the Tahoe" he told her very seriously.

This morning he told me:

"I still want to be an astronaut"

"That's great" i told him. If that's what you want to do then you can do it"

"Well, I need to practice my floating" he said.

I smiled to myself.

"Okay".

"Why can't we change gravity?" he asked.

I was so proud of him for wondering that and I tried to explain it as simply as I could.

"It's part of the earth"

New Things in November and December

Adelyn has been crawling since the second week of November I think. She has been army crawling using both arms at the same time. Two days ago she started alternating her arms. Her hair is growing too! It looks spiky right now. She is still a very busy one!! She lost some weight when she had an ear infection a few weeks ago. She's been eating better since, but sometimes I think she'd just rather be doing something else than eating. Distracting her with her water bottle has gotten her to eat more after thinking that she was done. :)

Zachary has grown taller and I can tell his little mind is developing. I see him acting out events in life through his play. He packs up our entire toy area of the gameroom for his adventures or his moving day. I can tell he's thinking hard about how things work.

The other day our freezer broke and of course the fridge runs off of the freezer. So Scott spent some time working on it and I did the night time routine by myself. When he was going to bed I asked him to pick a song like we always do but he said, "our refridgerater broke". I said "yes it did, can you pick a song?" But he wasn't finished. "My refrigerator isn't broken". I said, "No it isn't. Can you pick a song now?" But then he said, "my refrigerator isn't broken, well, because, it's made of plastic". I laughed. "You are right" I told him. "That is very good thinking".

And he has moments when he makes me melt. I woke up one morning this week to Adelyn crying a little on the monitor. A few seconds later I heard, "It's okay Adelyn. You don't have to cry. I have bad dreams sometimes but they're not real. They are just pretend". And he went on for another minute. I could hear her crying cease and I listened to the sweet sounds she made while he talked to her.

There are so many great moments of parenting young children.

Early Halloween at the Library

We had a special story time the Wednesday before Halloween. We got to dress up in our costumes for story time. I was a stegasaurus dinosaur. It was the same costume that Mommy, Paran, and two of our cousins wore. Adelyn was a ladybug and Mommy let me pick her costume at the store. I got to see my friend Aurelia at the library. She was Ariel the mermaid. I was glad we got to celebrate halloween together before my trip to Louisiana.

Tubing at the Lake

A couple of weeks ago we went to the lake to see Daddy's family and have some fun. It was hard to swim in the water because there was all of these hydrillas growing. There were a lot this summer but now it's even worse. Mommy and Daddy took me paddle boating but a few times we had to peddle backwards to get some of thoses silly hydrillas off.

Best of all though, we could take the boat out and I got to go tubing. I went all by myself for the first time. Life at the lake is great!

Adelyn's New Developments

I am 7 and 1/2 months and I can drink from a sippy cup now!!!! I know Mommy is really excited about that. I've been playing around with them since I was about 6 months. I finally figured it out on the car ride home from Louisiana. I bet Mommy is going to try to go back to her ASL classes now that Daddy can maybe put me to bed with a sippy cup. It might just be fun to give her a hard time anyway :)

I am also very close to crawling. I've been trying to scoot and wiggle myself along using my head, arms, and tummy but I can't seem to go anywhere. They've been telling me something about my legs but I haven't figured out what they want me to do yet.

One of my favorite activities to do is look at a baby in the mirror. It looks like it has a mommy who holding her just like mine!! I love to play with her. It's really fun.

Yesterday Zachary and I were doing a puzzle. A very large and more advanced puzzle. In the middle of it he had to stop and check on his pretend cookies at his kitchen.

I guess that's one way to take a break. Had to get the cerebrospinal fluid going.

Doing the Washing

I can't keep from smiling right now :) I just noticed that my little independent three year old was in the process of getting dressed. I then saw him take his pajamas and bring them in the laundry room. I thought, oh how cute, he's putting them in the washer. I then saw him take all of the clothes out of his dirty clothes basket sitting outside the laundry room and bring those in also. I looked back from where I'm sitting on the couch and realized that the dryer door was open and he was putting all of his clothes in the dryer. "Mommy I put all of the laundry in the washing machine" he just told me. "I put ALL of it in. I put ALL of it in" he told me twice.

Another favorite Mommy moment.

Adelyn's First Swim

I wish I would have had the camera out for this. Adelyn officially went "swimming" in our neighborhood pool out 3 weekends ago (middle of August). I put on Zachary's old swimming shirt. We waded around the shallow end. It was a great day. Not too hot and the water felt like bath water. She seemed to love it a lot. Zachary goofed off with his silly daddy :) and he was excited that Adelyn got to come in the pool. Zachary even tried out floaties and was successful! He felt safe enough to let go of Scott and he swam around the pool. He did a lot of his regular jumping and is still comfortable going under the water when doing so. Hopefully next summer will be easier since Adelyn can go in the water now!

Adelyn's Baptism

This is a late posting, but here it is finally! I was baptized on July 11, 2010 by Fr. Paul Cleary at Our Lady of Grace in La Coste, Tx which is not too far from the house. This is not Mommy's usual church but Fr. Paul is a very special person too us. This day I became part of my family's church community. This was chosen for me, but when I get old enough I will decide if I want to continue being a member of this faith and become confirmed if I choose to. Aunt Kitty is my godmother and Uncle Brian is my godfather.

I got to wear a pretty white dress. It was really long but I think people liked it a lot because I got a lot of pictures taken of me. We had guests from our family on Mommy and Daddy's sides as well as some special friends. We grilled after the ceremony and there was a special cake made in honor of me (but I couldn't have any). It was a great weekend with my families all together. Mommy even got her wish to have board game night, the night before.

Mommy's Sad Face

One of my closest friends moved away the other day. That would be the second one this summer. After they drove away from my house the other day and were on their way, I was of course feeling pretty down. Zachary and I have been talking about the moving day to prepare him for it. During those times I would tell him that I'm sad that they are leaving. Zachary would say that he didn't want them to move also. A few minutes after they left he said, "you're sad Mommy".

I was curious if he thought this because I looked sad or he remembered our discussions. So I said, "how do you know that I'm sad?"
"because Aurelia's not moving".
"Oh....well yes you are right about that but how do you know that I'm sad?"
He repeated himself and obviously he wasn't understanding the question so I said,
"Did you see my sad face?"
He said, "yes but you can just put on some make up".

Well, someday he will learn that there's not much we can physically do to hide sadness...but that sure was cute.

"Not until we get home...we have to pay for that!"

Zachary and Adelyn both accompany me on our weekly grocery store trips. Zachary holds my shopping list and we both look at it to pick out our groceries. Sometimes I let him get a few special things like gummy bears or oatmeal bars or something fun and he gets to hold them. Sometimes he just likes to hold some of the items that we regularly buy, but I always tell him, "Okay don't eat it yet, just hold it. We have to pay for it first".

Today Zachary and I were playing grocery store and stuffed animals. We were finding all kinds of cool things to buy! After selecting a rotary phone, a mop, a mailbox, a few blocks and some railroad tracks we were on our way to pay at the keyboard that Scott brought Zachary from the junk box at work. I was allowed to hold the mop. Before we got there Zachary looked at me and said "Okay, don't mop yet. We have to pay for it first". Darn! We know how much we all have that urge to start mopping before we even get to the checkout line". :)

Look at Us!

We are having a great time being a brother and a sister! It gets more fun everyday! Look at all of the things we are doing together!




Giving Adelyn a stroller ride in the backyard!


Teaching Adelyn how to sit at the table and eat!


Showing Adelyn toys and eating the toys Zachary shares!


"Mommy, I want to read her a book!"


Sitting together! Isn't this a Mommy and Daddy's dream picture?

My New Chair!

My Great Aunt Jan gave me this really cool chair! It's pink and I can sit in it all by myself! It was kind of hard when I first got it, but now I can hold my head real still and I can watch all of the things going on around me, like the train set and Zachary with all of his adventures! It won't be long before I can sit up on my own!! Thanks for the Bumbo chair Aunt Jan. You really are a "great" aunt.

4th of July

Happy Birthday America!

We enjoyed a fun forth of July with family and friends. We had a great day with Scott's brother Kevin who came to visit for the weekend while taking a break from his summer job in Houston. I know Zachary enjoyed his company. Who wouldn't with an uncle who does science experiments with you and makes peanut butter play doah?! We also got to spend time at the Sebastian's house. It was the perfect day for Zachary's newest present from his Pop2...a slip n slide!!

Below you can see how thoroughly he and his friends enjoyed this fabulous water invention.

The 2nd Edition of The "No Milk, No Soy" diet

"Excuse me, would you mind telling me what you cook your food in?", "can I get that without cheese?", and "do you know if your salad dressing contains any soy or milk?" are now common phrases I use whenever we go out to eat now. I grill the waiters/waitresses (no pun intended), to find out every detail I can about what goes into their dishes.

Both of my children have had me on this "no milk, no soy" diet while nursing. We didn't discover Zachary's until he was 4 months old and it seemed that starting solid foods too early had all of a sudden triggered this issue with irregular composition of bowel movements. We discovered Adelyn's allergy when she was 3 weeks. They both were very grunty upon the time we discovered it, but as time went on and we had it under control with this diet, the grunting went away.

The actual allergy is to the PROTEIN in milk and possibly soy, not the lactose. I've heard that maybe it's the way my body processes the protein and I've heard that maybe both of my kids just have this allergy. It's actually a really good thing for me. I am forced to eat healthy. It's so much easier to do knowing that what I eat affects the comfort and health of my children. Pretty much every dessert out there has milk and/or soy in it so I can't eat much of that! Talk about a drop in calories.

So I thought I would post this to share info with all of the other moms who are experiencing this new diet for the health of their children. Even since Zachary was a baby I've discovered more things I can eat. My friend and I have decided that food companies are beginning to make a lot more products that are "natural" and not made with the soy and/or milk.

Although I do feel like I cook the same things over and over again, there are quite a few meals that I am able to eat. Here are a few meals and foods that are safe to eat.

• Tacos- hard shell, ground beef, refried beans (some brands, check labels), guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, other veggies, and own spices (not packets).
  
• Sloppy joes- meat, red wine vinegar, onions, brown sugar, ketchup (no worchestershire)
• Chili- use your own spices, not packett.
  
• Chicken stew/meat stew- Chicken, potatoes, carrots, onion tops, add flour to make it thicker (no cream of mushroom soup).
• Red Beans and Rice with Sausage- Onion, olive oil, sausage, dark red kidney beans, bay leaf, Tony Chacherie.
  
• Meats marrinated in red wine or balsamic vinegar and spices
• Steamed or roasted vegetables- can use olive oil, etc
• Bruchetta- Tomatoes, basil, garlic powder, choppped, mixed- put on chibata bread
• Eggs
• Pork chops or meats cooked in whole grain bread crumbs
  
• Tyson's NATURAL chicken nuggets
• Chick Fil A chicken STRIPS, not the nuggets. (nuggets dipped in non fat dry milk, but the strips are not).
  
• Salad with oil and vinegar
• Spaghetti with regular tomatoe sauce. Add your own spices
• Hamburgers made from pure ground beef
• Bar S Hotdogs
  

Bread/cereals

• Chibata bread- found at HEB in the bakery- square loaf
• Rudy's Organic Bread- some HEBs, definitely central markets
• Home made bread- (will post recipe)
• Some grits- check labels
• Malt o Meal
• Some raisin brand, Total, Life (regular flavor), some Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Oatmeal Squares, Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, Rice Chex.
  

Desserts

• Coconut milk ice cream (just look out, it has 7 grams of saturated fat)
• Fruit chillers- found in the canned fruit section. Put them in the freezer.
• Honey
• Angel Food Cake

Other

• Rice Milk
  
• Olive Oil
• Peanut Oil
• Canola Oil
  
• (Not Vegetable oil-made with soybeans)
• Fritos
• Lays Natural Potato Chips
• Popcorn with out butter/cheese (home made cooked in olive oil with lemon pepper is good)
• Nuts and dried fruit. Can make your own trail mix.
• Skippy Natural peanut butter or Peter Pan Peanut butter
  

Foods to avoid

• Ingrediants with soy, soybean oil, caramel color (milk).
• Worchestershire sauce- caramel color
• Bar B Que sauce- check labels
• Rice Dream Ice Cream- contains soy
• Frozen Waffles
• Instant oatmeal
• Tortillas
• Coke and dark colored sodas (caramel color)
• Most bread crumbs except for whole grain.
  

And I wanted to end with a shout out to the Food and Drug Administration. Thank you for requiring labels!!

• JIF peanut butter
  

Random Kindness

We all have one of those days. Or one of those moments. When you are struggling to achieve a task/s and one thing just keeps going wrong or you just plain feel like you are never going to get there.

We all have our moments also when we step in and give random kindness to our family, friends or strangers. And what a wonderful surprise it can be.

Today I took the kids to Wal Mart to do our grocery shopping. I had a good friend join me also with her own two kids (and also of course her new baby on the way! yay!). We've had company at our house off and on for the past two weeks and quite a bit of company the week of the 11th for the baptism. My mom and cousin just left yesterday. The kitchen needed to be restocked so I had a nice hefty list. I didn't realize it's capacity until I got to the store and was shopping with Zachary chattering about this item and that while I was trying to make decisions, and with Adelyn strapped to me in the sling which gave me the idea that my shoulder was going to fall off any second. Zachary, trying hard to help me, threw items into the shopping cart when I would hand them to him. The chicken had a dent in it and the strawberry container flew open all over the bottom of the basket. And what joy it brought me to have to use one hand to support Adelyn and another arm to reach over and down into the basket to slowly clean up the strawberries. And then there was the lady who I'm sure thought she had given ever such detailed and superb assistance when I asked her where the industrial cd cleaner was by saying, "oh that? yeah it's there" and fluttering her arm vaguely towards some isle for about .3 seconds. Though my friend and I walked slowly with puzzled expressions as we glanced here and there we did end up finding a small kit for purchase among other random objects at the end of the isle. So we ended up asking the photo department who told me they don't have one that they do themselves. Thankfully this shopping trip did not require jumbo sized bags of dog food or dirt for the garden. At the end of the trips on the way to the check out and even out to the car turtles have the opportunity to boast about how much more fast they can go comparatively. We each reached our car and I opened the trunk to put stuff in. I handed Zachary his gummy bears, pulled out my keys and began unlocking the car when Zachary INSISTED that he be the one to unlock the car while I'm longing to take Adelyn out of the sling and put her in the car. He's yelling and grabbing them out of my hand and car and I threaten to take the snack in the car. I see a gentleman walk by to his car on the other side of mine and I'm sure he's seen the whole catastrophe while he's quickly putting his stuff into his trunk. I return to my own trunk and begin unloading the groceries. Of course I forgot my large HEB reusable bags that can fit a large amount of items so instead had about 89 plastic bags to reach down and grab, lift and relocate in the trunk. But much to my surprise, the gentlemen who parked next to us was returning his cart and said, "here let me give you a hand" and proceeded to put my groceries in the trunk for me. And returned my cart. Wow, I appreciated that so much. I thanked him a few times and he said it was no problem.

Little things like that sure make a big difference. Circumstances can prevent us from doing some, but there are others that maybe we can when someone else can't.

Overall the shopping trip wasn't terrible and we did enjoy ourselves. We found pretty much everything we wanted, the line was very short, I had good company with my friend and her children and I was delighted to see Zachary pick out his first item that he paid for with his own money. Although he had a hole in the ziplock bag he put it in, I made sure I carried it in my pocket and he got to put it all up on the counter for the lady to take. He had chosen gummy bears and was so proud.

Who is adopted?

Most people are aware that our dog Sandy became our dog unintentionally. Sandy followed me around the entire neighborhood while out running when Zachary was about 11 months old. We tried to find his original home but obviously did not. We even tried to have him adopted, but that was unsuccessful as well. Finally we decided that we could keep a dog and as Zachary understands, we adopted him.

We do seem to be notorious for bringing home dogs or having dogs end up in our yard. Throughout time we found owned dogs in our yard or outside in the front and had them returned. In September though, when I arrived at a client's apartment, my client's provider and several neighbors presented a dog with a hurt leg who had been hanging out for several days without a collar. So I of course could not leave her there and much to my husbands dismay, brought her home. With the help of SNIPSA, we found the dog whom I called Belle, a fabulous home with a loving family with five kids. So when Zachary asked where she was we of course said, "She lives with another family now. They adopted her".

So we have these family members, the Sibley's. They are very much dog people. They have Sabrina who is getting up there in age. They recently found a small puppy, Drue Breeze. And then one new puppy found them. "Tails" they call him. Aunt Amaryllis said, "yeah, he followed Cody home and then adopted Blaise. That dog follows Blaise everywhere". My cousin Blaise stays active with the latest ways to have fun so twas no surprise.

So I put Zachary to bed at my grandparent's house. They live next door to them Sibleys. After we read books, sang songs, and said prayers he asked for Gramsie to come sit with him. So my mom went in there. He told her all kinds of facts.

"Tails was adopted"

He sure was. He had caught on to the term for finding and keeping a dog.

"Sandy was adopted. Belle was adopted. Blaise was adopted".

New Braunfels Children's Museum

Getting practice in so I can be ready for the lake!


Cooking the fish that Meredith and I caught at the campfire. You don't really eat it. It's just pretend.


This was one of my favorite stations at the museum!


The ATM gave me some money! I gave it some money too which confused Daddy and I don't know why.


Checking vitals.


I was pretty good at this one because I help Mommy every week at HEB.


Mommy checked my groceries.


I explored my artistic side.


I think Adelyn had a good time. She stayed awake some and slept some too.

The Children's Museum was a great experience. I did lots of exploring and stimulated both hemispheres of my brain.


Even Mommy and Daddy had a good time!

Time for a Cool Down

I was at the rest stop on the way home from Aunt Michelle's wedding in Dallas. I just couldn't help myself. At the end of May it was already scorching hot. This was SO worth it!

I have two kids now!

At the rest stop on the way to Dallas. I'm amazed that I have two kids now! I'm praying that we are always a close family, despite any differences we have or will have. I love it!

Funny Words From Zachary

• This morning Scott made a comment about wanting to understand why the train puzzle that lights up and makes noise, does so when the puzzle is not complete and we flip light switches at that time. So I said, "howstuffworks.com or wiki how?"

Zachary says, "A wiki cow?"

• Zachary- "I have a beautiful joke!"

Just Lion Around

Adelyn can't build castles yet but Zachary sure likes kissing her head, singing to her, patting her back, pulling her fingers, and just hanging out near her. I'm so excited about watching them interact together over the years.

1st Gum Chewing

I told Zachary for some strange reason every time he asked for gum, that he could have some when he turned 3. I don't know why I picked 3. I guess it still sounded very far off. So of course he remembered. He brought it up all the time. "When I turn 3 I can have gum". Yes yes the time is approaching. So it happened. Zachary turned 3 and as I promised, he got gum. Here is his first attempt. He did pretty well! Much better than I expected!

Happy 3rd Birthday Zachary!

I had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party this year. We had Mickey Mouse decorations and a cake too! All of my friends got Mickey Mouse frisbees as a party favor. I'm really happy I got to spend the day with my family and friends. I told Mommy that I had a great time.



I also brought banana bread muffins to my class at school. Evan wasn't there that day but I got to share them with Sophia, Abby and Oscar. And my teacher Mrs. Angela.