Snow in San Antonio, TX!

We had snow in San Antonio, TX! It happened the night of February 3 and on February 4 we woke up to find snow! I had a music therapy client who once told me that San Antonio had not had snow since 1985. Houston didn't even get snow that night.

Zachary had been asking to see snow since last summer. We made plans to go to Amarillo in January thinking we had a chance of seeing snow. Well it was quite warm when we went. In fact the warmest day they had seen in winter. And then it snowed the day after we left. But who would have thought that we wouldn't have seen snow in Amarillo and that next week we would see snow in San Antonio! He got his dream.

New developments

Adelyn is doing so many new and cute things. I hope I haven't forgotten them all since it's been so long since I've written about them.

First, her hair is no longer only spikes. At the bottom it's now touching her neck and it's the same color as mine. She's not looking as much like a baby, but instead a tiny little tot. I like to look at her face when she is observing something or someone and watch those little eyes taking it all in.

Today I discovered that she knew to put some little balls into a train that takes them in and shoots them out. I have never seen her put anything in something like that. She also figured out to push the yellow button when I told her to. That one isn't mastered yet but she does it sometimes.

Last week I showed her how to play her little xylophone. She's got the concept of using the mallet! She bangs it on the xylophone, but usually it's the whole thing and not just the tip. So cute to see a young developing musician.

Something we've been doing for about a month or more is her story box. At night we always read them stories. She's always been everywhere when we've tried to read them but she has been learning about staying in one spot over these couple of months. The box helps a lot. We put a lot of her books in the box and sing the "Story Time" song. It's the same one we sing at the library story time. She knows that she gets to come over to the box, take books out and open them. She even has a favorite which she picks every time, The Itsy Bitsy Spider. This particular book has very colorful and large pictures.

It's hard to believe our sweet baby is almost a year old already and learning so fast. She's such a joy to have with us. Both of our children are. I love seeing them grow up and play together!

Swinging at North Shore Park

Here I am at Northshore Park in the Woodlands, TX.

I love to swing! Who doesn't?

I got to swing while my big brother played in the sand.

My New Favorite Toy that Appeared During Advent

I loved this new beautiful, green, and branchy thing in our house that appeared during advent. The word I've heard around it is "Christmas tree". The things with that tempting shiny paper underneath looked fun too, which I later found out had some new clothes and toys in them! I guess Mommy caught me exploring these new things here.

My mischief gave big brother a chance to do some chatting on the phone.

1st Gymnastics Recital

I had a gymnastics recital on December 4, 2010! We showed our parents the skills we have been working on in class with Coach Sam. She is a lot of fun and sometimes we get Popsicles at the end. I had my performance with my friends Aurelia and Taylor. There were other classes there too. Here are some pictures and videos!

The Beginning of the recital- The Hokey Pokey!

Balance Beam

I'm not in that front row, I'm way in the back doing my skills. Look for me.

Aurelia and I with our Medals

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.