Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Dance! Dance! Dance!

We crank up the music when we do dishes. After clearing the table Matthew and Melissa got into the swing of things.




Isaac kept trying to grab the camera, so it's a bit shaky in parts.

Mad Scientists


Matthew checked out a book from the school library titled Kitchen Science. He loved it so much that he rechecked it out 5 additional times. I finally told him that if he liked the book that much I'd find a copy for him, so I did.


Here he is filling a balloon with carbon dioxide. After he tied it off, he played with a regular balloon and his carbon dioxide balloon. "Hey! This balloon falls faster! Carbon dioxide must be heavier than air!" The kid is smart.

Happy Birthday Nolan!

While visiting Nolan turned the big 3-0!

The kids were busy making pictures and cards.

Happy Birthday!

The Walthers come to visit

Several weeks ago Jonathan's sister, Telitha, brother-in-law, Nolan, and their crew came to visit. Their boys have gotten so big! We were so glad to have them come all the way to Texas.

Here we are on the train at Brackenridge Park.
We made a stop to see the Japanese Tea gardens. It's been on my "to-see" list and we'll definitely go back once it is in bloom. Still, it was pretty even in February.

Melissa, Mark and Aunt Telitha checking out the Koi. Melissa upon seeing the picture: "I miss Aunt Telitha. I wish we were with her all the time. "

Uncle Nolan, James, Melissa, and Jonathan at the falls.

(Cute cousins)

Check it out! Something caught Isaac's attention.
Uncle Nolan with Mark. Melissa and Matthew loved rough housing and playing games with Uncle Nolan. Uncles are great!
A bigger view of the park.
Melissa found a throne.
Matthew was in school during this trip so I didn't get pictures of him with the cousins.

As usual, I wish I'd taken more pictures.

Isaac Forages

Isaac found an unguarded pot of rice.
Want some?Isaac loooooves rice.
And markers. Yum!

Last but not least...Dessert!
He had a bath.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

A letter to Uncle Brian

Dear Uncle Brain,

I love you. I want to play with you and I want to know which day is your birthday.

I like to play "throw me in the air" game. And tickle me. I want to draw me and Matthew and Uncle Brian. I like to play "where is me?" and "where is you?"

I learned about bugs. Some bugs have wings and some bugs don't. Caterpillars are a type of bug and butterflies and ladybugs and all kinds of bugs. There are all kinds. Worms are a type of bug. Right?

At the primary activity I ate food. We talked about Jesus and prophets and all kinds of good stuff.

Goodbye.

Love,
Melissa

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Peanuts

  • When Rachel blogs, it's something she does to get closer to her friends and her kids. When I blog, it's an achievement: "Pow! I kicked that post's butt!"
  • The Snack Filing Cabinets at work have turned into a Snack Conference Room. How this is supposed to deal with the Snack Shrinkage that introduced the locks on the cabinets, I don't know.
  • Matthew is convinced both Mom and Dad insisting that there's no such thing as "the largest numbers" means either (a) we're playing a joke we're on him or (b) we just don't know.
  • Trading lunch ingredients is verboten at Matthew's school. <3 Nanny state.
  • Me: "Gratuitous Space Battles! Sounds interesting." Rachel: "You're supposed to be working on your church talk."
  • I met a guy at PyCon who likes to take his family to go live in Germany for 6 weeks at a time. Explore during the day, work at his normal job during US business hours (~4 PM to midnight). That's a pretty awesome idea.
  • Speaking of PyCon, in four days I gave one tutorial, one official talk, one open space talk, and participated in one panel presentation
  • Had to sign a liability release to use the company gym. Ahh, red tape.
  • My sister: "how do you get a two year old to take a bath if he doesn't want to?" Me: "you take off his clothes and put him in the tub." I don't think that was the answer she was looking for.
  • Isaac was falling-down tired and cranky, so I took him for a drive. Amazing how slowly the world goes by when you are consciously attempting to stay under the speed limit. (It worked: Isaac fell asleep, and I didn't get a ticket.)
  • It's a little depressing how quickly Matthew has ossified into English-only. Watching one of Isaac's videos showing hippopotomuses playing and a voiceover intoning "los hipopotamos," he asked, "what does that mean?"
  • I believe I am now the only member of my immediate or extended family to have a warrant issued for his arrest. (Citation for no front license plate that I went to court, took care of, and some data entry clerk typed in the wrong resolution. Four months later a warrant was automatically issued. I kid you not.)
  • I was about to get a CD as a birthday present for the sixteen year old son of a friend. But then I thought, "Wait, he probably doesn't know what those are."
  • Me, after watching the princess and the frog: "Melissa! Did you know Mommy is my princess?" Melissa: "No! I'm your princess!"

Saturday, March 06, 2010

But ... cooties!

Matthew had a church activity this morning, and afterwards all the kids were in the primary room for snacks. Matthew wandered over to the blackboard, and, apparently spur-of-the-moment, wrote, "I like you," underlined it, then finished, "Haly" [Halie]. I couldn't read the last part -- it was more of an H scribble L Y -- and asked him who he liked. He told me, and I was about to take a picture of Matthew's first love note when he lost his nerve and erased it before the object of his affections returned.

But Melissa had been paying attention. When Halie appeared, she grabbed her excitedly. "Kiss Matthew! Kiss Matthew!" she told her, bouncing with excitement. Halie declined the invitation, puzzled, and apparently thought no more of it than Melissa was being her usual energetic and occasionally eccentric self.

When we got home, I told Rachel the story. "Already?" she asked. "Well, it's nothing serious," I said. "No," she replied, "but he wouldn't write that about Conner or Christian."

No. No, I might have to take away his man card if he did something like that.

A hungry Isaac is a grumpy Isaac


Photo053
Originally uploaded by jbellis
I took Isaac to wal-mart with me about 6 tonight, and we'd barely gotten started when he began crying and trying to climb out of the cart onto me. He is too big to carry for a whole shopping expedition so I sat him in the cargo area where he continued to cry.

Besides the food Rachel had on my list, I was also getting Good Cereal, because Rachel never buys that. So I was pulling down cereal boxes and when I got to Oatmeal Squares, one of the cereals Isaac likes to eat for breakfast, he started reaching out his hand and going "mmm! mmm!" And when I put a box in the cart he started trying to tear it open with his teeth.

At first I did what I usually do when Isaac gets into something he shouldn't, and took it away. Of course he started crying again, so I did a quick cost/benefit calculation and opened it up for him and gave it back. He sat down with his box of Oatmeal Squares and ate them happily for the next half hour.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Potty- kinda gross

Even though we haven't started potty training Isaac yet, Melissa still provides plenty of fodder for the blog...

I was putting Isaac down for his nap when Telitha tapped on the door. "Melissa needs some help, I think she dropped something in the toilet."

No problem, I've dealt with this sort of thing before.

I get to the bathroom, "Mom! I dropped it! The letters just fell into the potty!" Great. I look in and find not only the scrabble tiles, but she's already done her number, and it wasn't #1.

Sigh.

I search the garage for the gloves, no luck. So I get a trash bag to wrap around my hand and I go fishing. After I retrieve and disinfect EVERYTHING I ask how the tiles ended up in the toilet.

"I was spelling my name and they fell in! It just happened."

Naturally.

I found the 'M', 'E', 'L', 'I', 'S', and 'A' so we are missing a letter 'S' from our scrabble set. *FYI, if we ever invite you to play scrabble, I did use copious amounts of bleach. Kids!

..................................

Last night at the dinner table, Melissa trumpeted quite loudly for such a small person. "Melissa! Was that you?" "No! It wasn't me! It was just my bottom."