Weekend Moments

It's tough when your dad is a soon-to-be-dentist and you have a loose tooth. In Nick's defense, the dern tooth hung on by a microfiber for months it seemed like. But, it came out...on its own in good time. Nick tried to persuade Nathan to let him perform services, and I know it took restraint. I'm sure he could've gone in there with precision accuracy and lobbed it out before I could blink, but thankfully he heeded to Nathan's concerns and my mother tigerness that was going to pounce if he stepped too far away from the "daddy" line and into the "dentist" territory! :) He's a good dad, and let it take its course.

Nathan was blabbering to Michael. I was in the livingroom. They were playing back in Nathan's room and he was in the middle of giving Michael specific, strategic directions for something. In mid-sentence I hear this "AHHH"--not "there's a bug" urgency in the pitch, and it wasn't directed at his brother either. He later said that just seeing the tooth on the ground is what spooked him first. The duty had been done. His first tooth had just popped out in the middle of his talkin'! There was no tugging, floss/door drama, extraction pliers, nothing.

It happened to coincide with Pawpaw Dean's birthday, too! Happy Birthday Dad! My mom wrapped up grandson presents for my dad and the boys' faces were confused-elated to see the surprises inside!

Last night, to Nick's COMPLETE shock and surprise, the tooth fairy had fluttered in sometime before morningtime! How does she keep track of all those kids with all of those teeth??? She must be incredible! Don't you love the FLAME tooth fairy pillow? It's so dainty and frilly and fairy-ish. Ugh.

This Weekend

A COOOOL and wet weekend it has been. We spent two great days with all of the grandparents this weekend. Saturday, we zipped on over to the Houston Zoo with Barbara and Odis. It was almost too cold. Maybe I should not have worn sandals and short sleeves. We had such a nice morning visiting the animals and walking around together. Burgers and cookies topped off the field trip. Yum!
Today, we woke up early and drove to Columbus. It started raining about the time we were on the beltway flyover, and despite my hopes that it would cease, it continued. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Nathan got car sick at the breakfast stop. And, I wasn't so thrilled to be amongst the target shooting practice. However, the bonfire was warm, the jackets slicked off the rain for the most part, and we enjoyed a nice picnic. After toes got damp and too cold enough to stand, we packed up and came home. The boys sure did enjoy the 4-wheeling, fishing, throwing stuff into the fire, and playing in the mud.
This old mama is tired. A fun, busy weekend of family togetherness and it was fun. I hope the coolness sticks around a bit longer!

Some Recent Photos

Cobb Caterpillar Conservatory

A species of sulpur butterfly is sowing its oats all over my candlestick plant. I'm not sad about the caterpillars' slow destruction of my beautiful candlestick flowers and leaves because the plant served as the dating locale for their parents in the last several months. Ever since this plant was not much more than a stick in the ground with a few cute leafy stems, there have been two little buttercup yellow butterflies skittering about. It has been a frequent dance routine. In the mornings, we'd see the flittering. They'd land for a blink of a sip of nectar, then go about their fluttering.

Somewhere in the dancing steps, somebody deposited eggs that have now grown into yellow butterflies. I am not familiar with these as much as I have become with the monarchs since just across the yard, there lies a milkweed heaven that a few months ago was bustling with monarch caterpillars.

My first glimpse this morning was from the bedroom window. The caterpillar's contrast against the leaves caught my eye from clear inside the house. Upon closer observation, other siblings were there too, more camouflaged. I looked up candlestick plant caterpillars and there is strong resemblance, although slight differences between my little sulphur offspring and the model online. The others were from up north. I was happy to connect the caterpillars with the butterflies that had so daintily (is that a word?) flitted around the plant before.

Reading over my caterpillar commentary, I'm now wondering if I am a complete dork. Do I have a million other things I should be doing right now? SURE! Did my Saturday morning come to a screeching standstill because of a caterpillar? Yep. But, do you see the caterpillar INSIDE the candlestick flower? So cool.

Some thoughts...

1. I get to pick up the boys on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Although it makes the commute longer, I love being there to pick up my own children.
2. My three new classes worth of children are going to be fun. We have a neat group of kiddos. It should make for an enjoyable year.
3. Friday night was funny. I called a "family out to dinner" night because we had been too busy during the week to do ANYTHING. Once we vetoed fast food and some other places with Friday night wait times, Nathan emotionally pulled for Luby's. How original. On the way, we weighed some other more-tempting locales, but NO, NO, NO, we HAAAAD to go to Luby's. We get to Luby's, go through the line, sit down in a whirlwind from getting the RIGHT milks, a share-able dessert, choosing a table, getting TO the table, greeting the hypervigilant waitress (I still wish they had the cart ladies instead of waitresses) who is trying to empty my tray (I appreciate the help, but I don't want Michael to really see that Nathan got chocolate milk while he chose the blue carton because of quite possible, if not inevitable meltdown. Plus, I can empty my own tray.) Anyway, we sit down with a humph and no sooner than I unroll my napkin to withdraw my utensils do the boys start in with I'm not really hungry and the I just don't want to eat...ANYTHING business. Somehow we managed to live through it. There were a few moments of peace, and those felt good. Thankfully my mom came over Saturday and we escaped for a date.

My Baby is THREE!

While fast asleep in pleasantdreamland , Michael completed his third year of life and began his fourth. I'm so excited to see him grow and change, but so sad to see him grow and change. I love my Michael.

Back in the Saddle

I reported back to school yesterday. For the next many days we are jam-packed with meetings and trainings and updates of trainings. I'd much rather be working in my classroom or teaching.
Coming back to school, I am reminded of the scheduling craziness, testing lovefest, and the little blips of nonsense that seem to pop up here and there. I do love my job. I love the people I work for and work with, and the children who fill my days with eagerness, excitement, and...well, challenges! I got so much accomplished yesterday while working in my room, and I am anxious to get back to that. I am working my way back to getting up at 5AM. Yesterday it was 6:00, today it was 6:15; ok, so I am working away from the normal time, but I'll get there. Now, I must insert time for lunches, getting children readied, and gathering all of our paraphernalia that comes along with us. The first day last year (was it last year?), I got everything except Michael's shoes. And for the next week or two (0r two months) I'd forget something or another pretty often. Tomorrow we meet Nathan's teacher...that's exciting!