Worth Living

I adore my children as every mother should. I think because I was so young when I had Emma and my life was so chaotic then, I didn't enjoy as many of life's little moments with her. It makes me a little sad. But I try not to dwell. I also think it makes me cherish the moments I have with Elliot a lot more. Elliot and I fell asleep in the recliner by the fire a while back and Emma took these pictures of us. What a sweet and wonderful girl, my Emma is! Thank you Emma for preserving this moment for me and Elliot!









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Location:The Compound

Too Much Pink?

NEVER!!!! ;o)

Cameron's Dad, Richard, bought Elliot a little pink Radio Flyer tricycle for her birthday. We were hoping to get the red one in the event that we have another child and it is a boy, we would be able to pass it down. But alas, we have a pink one and the odds seem to be on getting another girl anyway, so I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

Anyway, since Elliot's birthday is in November and most of the days have been cold since then we've mostly just been letting her ride it in the house. [thank goodness for wood floors! ;) ] but with the nice weather over the last two weeks we've moved or daily life outdoors and that includes the pink trike too!

You don't really think about all of the pink one little girl has until you see her on her pink trike in a pink dress, pink bow abandoned somewhere in the yard, as well as the pink flip flops left on the trampoline. One might ask, "Too much pink?" And our response will forever be "NEVER!!!"

Momma's Always Right!

Last Sunday we had dinner with all of our wonderful family at my sister Sarah's house. It was great to see everyone and have a chance to share a meal and enjoy each others company.

It had been warm most of last week, unseasonably warm for February, and on Sunday evening the weather was great again. But it's STILL February! Emma had been chattering all week about swimming at Aunt Sarah's house. Sarah and I both told her many times that while the days may feel warm, the pool would still be like ice. Never mind the fact that we were there for dinner, making it evening, and thus cooler anyway.

There are some things that children just need to learn on their own, and I believe this falls into that category, Sarah kindly found a swimsuit for Emma, and Emma was ready to dive in!

Location:Arlington, Texas

Bored, Bored or Both

Cameron has been modifying one of his little 50 cc motorcycles. Don't ask me what he's doing to it exactly, because to be quite honest, I only half listen. [and only completely don't care! ;o)] A few weeks ago he sent the engine block to some guy, so he could have it bored. Which I do know means he made part of the block larger, but it's purpose beyond that, I have not a clue. Anyway, on Thursday we received the block back in the mail and Cameron was inspecting the work, at the table, after dinner.

Elliot was immediately interested and went over to watch her Daddy. Unprovoked and out of the blue, she tells Cameron, "It's so pretty!" Her voice was so sincere and excited, you knew she was speaking honestly and from her little confused heart! ;o)

As I watched Elliot interacting with her Daddy, I could see the joy in his face. His heart was melting for this little girl that seems to share his love for all things wheeled, motored, and dangerous!

Here's a picture of the two of them with the "pretty" engine block.



I'm sure I mentioned before that I have a feeling we will be making many, many ER visits with our youngest girl! ;o)

Lord help me!!!

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I Flipped It!

I have been known to drive our Ranger a bit erratically. I guess today I took it a little too far!


It seemed like it all happened in slow motion. Yes, with both of my children in the Ranger I turned it over onto it's side taking a corner a wee bit too fast! ;o)


Emma was a bit traumatized by it all! Of course, the Ranger did tip onto her side, so I'm sure it was infinitely more frightening for her than it was for Elliot or me.

I remained surprisingly calm throughout the whole ordeal. The worst part for me was trying to get Emma to keep her arm and leg in the vehicle as we were tipping onto the side. This was the part that seemed to be in slow-mo. I was yelling at her, "Keep your arms and legs inside, keep your arms and legs inside!!!" Repeatedly!! It was like she was trying to catch us or keep us held up or something. Funny, but scary at the same time!

The good news is no one was hurt and we were able to put the Ranger upright and continue enjoying this beautiful day that God made for us! At a much slower pace, of course! ...until next time! ;o)



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Location:Weatherford,United States

Dancing Queen

I've been meaning to post this little video of Elliot dancing for awhile. It's obviously a little older, seeing as she is still wearing her short purple cast, and we have been cast and walking boot free for almost a month now.

Children are so precious, and Elliot has so much joy for everything she does in life. I often find myself wishing I could recapture just a moment of that innocent affection for life that all children have!
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Fireside at Kim's

We have the best neighbors! I've always wondered if I would find a friend that I felt comfortable enough to just invite myself over and hang out over there in all my morning glory. [which sometimes is all day glory! ;)]

I'm happy to report that I have! My kids raid the fridge and we stay for dinner, no shoes required, house slippers are perfectly acceptable. The other day Kim and I actually just sat around reading together. How cool is that!?!?

Here's a picture of Elliot eating all of their cheese balls in the rocking chair by their beautiful stone fireplace.




Life is good. God is good. And I am so very blessed!!!

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Fancy Shoes on Snow Days

We've had several pretty cold days here in Texas. I guess all of the being cooped up is making us a bit creative, and maybe a little crazy! Last Wednesday we had our fifth snow day, and missed yet another day of school.

It was then that Elliot decided she couldn't take one more day, with her booted feet, and decided we would all wear our fancy shoes for the day!

Good thing we had a nice big fire going, so our toes could stay nice and toasty! :o)



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Pouty Face

I'm not sure where she picked this up from, but Elliot has started to stick out her bottom lip and say, "pleeeaaase" when she does not receive the answer she wants.


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Language

Please forgive any heinous typos that might make it into this post as I'm not feeling so hot again, but do feel like sharing something that has been on my mid lately.

I have been very interested in Elliot language.  She watches Dora a lot, and is able to speak several words in Spanish.  I think I posted the other day on my FB page that she often says "abres" which I believe is the command conjugation for that word.  I took French in high school and college, so my Spanish isn't that great.  She also counts and says other words in Spanish.  I don't really understand her completely, but I don't always understand her English either.

Today I was noticing that she often leaves her verb out of a sentence. Saying something like "I hungry." It made me realize that while it is not perfect English, I understand what she is tyring to say, and I will get her some food as a result of her broken sentence.

I would really love to fluently understand another language.  But I think the way they always tried to teach you in a language class is to advanced.  They need kindergarten for language, where you learn how to say words, spell words, and the meaning of a word, but you don't get into all the complicated business of forming complete, grammatically correct sentences.

For awhile now, I've been thinking about labeling different things in the house, like lamps, tables, doors. . . whatever I can, and just learn the vocabulary of the language.  If I learned the word lamp, la lámpara, and that was all I knew, theoretically, if I wanted to "turn on" la lámpara, and if I were to repeat la lámpara over and over to a Spanish speaker they might eventually figure out that I wanted to turn the lamp on. 


It's basic speech.  First you learn words, and then you learn small sentence, and then you learn all of the grammar of the language.  It's that simple.  I think individuals would develop language much more successfully if they learned a new language in this manner.


I'm sure someone else has already come up with all of this insight, but I've not come across any education material that makes it so easy.  Not that I've really looked, but I really want to look into that Muzzy Language course stuff.  I keep thinking that it might be a good place to start.  Knowing a second language is essential in a place were so many people speak multiple languages.  


If you have any suggestions or would like to further expand on my topic I'd love to discuss it further! 

Kleenex with Lotion

I've been pretty sick for the last two weeks.  Emma had some cough-y, congested thing, and she gave it to Elliot, and Elliot gave it to me.  It stinks!  Cameron thinks it's some flu something or other because he is the only one of us who got a flu shot this year and he hasn't been sick at all.  Emma had gotten better for a few days, but then she started coughing again a couple of days ago.  I'm just so tired of all of the tissues all over the house, and all of these nasty, wet coughs. Hopefully, we'll all be feeling much better soon! ;o) oh, and if you don't spend the extra money on the good tissues with lotion, I would highly recommend it.  It is the only thing that has protected our poor schnozes from this evil illness!  I carry some around with me everywhere I go. Trust me on this one!!!

We Like John Deere!

Have I mentioned that we're Deere people?  We have a few John Deere things layin' around here and there.  We have quite a bit of their apparel and tons of toys and play tractors.  Of course we have the big kid tractors too! ;o)

Here are some shots of Elliot in her John Deere gear and playing with her gator.

Build-A-Bear

Or a Panda and a Monkey! ;o)


Elliot was afraid of the stuffing machine and looked at the nice operator lady like she was Cra-zay, when she was telling her to do all kinds of silly stuff with her little bear heart.


She did enjoy "washing" her new stuffed friend.


Daddy helped her a little.


Emma got new stuffed friend too.
She's much better at participating than Elliot is. Emma has always really enjoyed Build-A-Bear though.





Emma named her new Panda Emperor MingTin.


And Elliot named her new monkey Two. (She names everything Two.) (with a little help from Daddy.)


Emma & Emperor MingTin
With Two photo bombing her picture. Thanks Daddy!


Elliot & Two


He's a pretty cute little monkey.

As a side note: the mall was INSANE today. There were kids EVERYWHERE!

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Jumping on the Bed

When I was a kid I was NOT allowed to jump on the bed. I got in trouble many, many times for jumping on my bed, but nothing stopped me. I was fearless, or a brat - one of the two! ;o) It was the best thing you could do inside on a bad weather day. And to make matters worse I was one of the unfortunate children who did not have a trampoline in my yard, so jumping on the bed was the next best thing.

I specifically recall a time when my neighbor, Erin and I got a spanking because we were jumping on the bed. I think the reason I remember that punishment so vividly is because Erin's dad came by our house at the exact same time we were getting our butts busted and wanted to know what was going on. My dad told him we were jumping on the bed and that he had told us many times to stop and we did not, so he gave us a spanking. Amazingly, her dad was okay with it and told his daughter to behave and listen to my parents. As a side note, I cannot think of too many people I would allow to spank my kids. That seems like something that should be reserved for parents. Just sayin'. . .

Also, I remember thinking my parents had bought me a trampoline one summer while I was on my yearly trip to my Grandma's house. They had called me and told me they had a surprise for me when I got home. I kept bugging them for clues, and the only thing they would tell me was that it was big. I just knew it was a trampoline. So, the entire three hour drive home from my Grandma's I was so excited, and certain I was coming home to the best surprise ever. We finally pull up to the house and my big surprise. . . new sidewalks!!! My parents had new sidewalks poured, and they thought I would love it because I could roller skate on them. Let me just say, that almost 20 years later I'm still pissed I didn't get a trampoline!!! Hahahahahaha!!!

Anyway....

I'm not sure if it's because I was not allowed to or if I just don't agree with the "it damages the furniture" argument, but I have always let my kids jump on the bed. There is so much joy in them when their bouncing around on the mattress screaming and giggling. It just seems wrong to squash that pure, innocent happiness, ya know?!?

We also have had a trampoline since Emma was about 5, and we actually just replaced it with a new one this year, because the old one was worn out. It seems like since we've had a trampoline the kids jump on the bed way less. So, if you are one of those parents who is on the don't-jump-on-the-bed bandwagon, you should consider getting a trampoline to keep the kiddies off the beds.

Happy Jumping Everyone!!!


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Houszzze

I have a little video of Elliot, I made a few days ago of her dancing to her little piano she received for Christmas, that I plan to post soon, but as I was taking the video I remembered taking a similar video of Emma when she was around two years old.  When we bought our first digital camera for $700 way back in December 2000, I was still pretty weary of it, thinking that nothing could replace film.  (Boy was I wrong!!!) We had the capability to make short movies and we did every once in awhile, but for the most part we stuck to our 35mm for stills and would forgo videos all together. I'm glad we did catch a few things Emma did on video, and this little dancing and singing bit is one of them.  For some reason, she really loved "She's A Brick House," by The Commodores.  I know the music in the background is playing very loudly, but you can hear Emma singing "houszzze" a little bit off beat and rhythm, but being a cute as a button!

Snapkins

While we were eating dinner tonight I asked Emma if she would go and get everyone a "snapkin." She responded politely, with a "yes ma'am" and got up from the table to get the "snapkins." I'm sure many of you have already figured out that "snapkins" is our way of saying napkins. Emma came up with the mispronunciation when she was a toddler, learning to talk, and Cameron and I both thought it was so cute that we have continued to call them that ever since.

I think Emma enjoys us remembering her younger days with the usage of some of her mispronounced words. I can still see her big brown eyes under her straight, blonde bangs at the dinner table asking for another "snapkin.". In the future, I can see Cameron and I being old and grey, enjoying our grandchildren and teaching them to use their "snapkins" instead of their sleeve. And their mom or dad will be saying something like, "don't teach my children gibberish, use real words so they know how to say it correctly." (Something I remember saying to my own mom many, many times.) And, Cameron and I, in our older, wiser place in life, will just smile and nod, and make sure the little angels know about the proper use of a "snapkin."


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Location:Weatherford,United States

Everybody ♥s Chicken

Unbelievably, our chickens have been great pets. Elliot loves them and catches and holds them often.


Emma is also very fond of the chickens and enjoys carrying them around. I kinda like them too! ;o)


The best part is that they provide us with food! The eggs are yummy and plentiful! Everyone should have chickens.

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Location:Fort Worth Hwy,Hudson Oaks,United States

Legos Are Fun!

All kids love legos! Especially this one!



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Super to the Resuce

Elliot runs around the house yelling, "Super to the rescue," multiple times a day. For a while, I've thought she was talking about a made-up super hero, her sister created for her, Super Hiney. One day, Elliot was dressed up in Emma's old Snow White costume cape and a diaper, (and yes, that's all she was wearing) and Emma told her she was Super Hiney. It's funny because Elliot runs around the house also yelling, "SUPER HINEY," at the top of her lungs.

Elliot dressed as Super Hiney! 

So, as I was saying, I thought she was making a reference to Super Hiney, but then I was humming one of the incessant children's TV show songs that are always stuck in my head, and I realized that it was from a cartoon. After quizzing Emma a bit, because I seriously think that kid knows everything, I sang the song to her, thinking the whole time it was Wonder Pets, and she was like, "No Mom," in her pre-teen Moms-know-nothing voice, "that's Rescue Pack, form Go Diego, Go." I still really don't have any idea of where it comes into play with the show, but I sure can sing the tune for you. I really try not to watch the cartoons, but I cannot block out their noise.

It all makes sense now. Elliot will run to do something and yell, "Super to the rescue," and I'm guessing, in her little three year old imagination, she is going to help someone/something out. It's kinda cute that she wants to be a helper and she is still young. I definitely think that she has learned some important lessons from a few of the shows she watches. However, I stand my ground, on my opinion, that Olivia only teaches kids how to be a brat and smart off, but I guess all cannot be perfect! ;o)

I love my little Super Hiney! And my pre-teen, that will be rolling her eyes at me any day now!

Dinosaurs In Your Ears

I know that I have missed documenting so many of the great, and hysterical things that Emma did and said as a small child; it hurts my heart to think, somethings are, more than likely, forgotten forever. I could go on and on about how regretful I am that I did not take more care in making sure I recorded Emma's firsts or documented a funny story, but in all honesty, I was young. I was doing the best I could in a not-so-good situation (though it was no where close to as bad as a lot of peoples).

I was 21 when I had Emma, and I knew then, I was TOO young to have a child. I remember thinking to myself many, many times, "I don't know how 15 or 16 year olds do this." It's hard. It was hard when I had Elliot when I was 29, but at least then I had a plan, a partner and security in my life. So again, as I mentioned, I do feel bad for not documenting more of Emma's life, but I hope that she will forgive me, and understand that working almost full-time, taking a full load of classes every semester, so I could complete my degree in English, and being a single-mom, was a lot for me, and while I wasn't perfect (obviously) I did the best I could.

I'm hoping that as I remember different things that Emma did or said I can jot them down here, and there will be at least a few of her memories captured in words. Emma is a great kid! God truly blessed me with her. She was the PERFECT baby. She never cried, required little attention, and was content to just be in the room with me when I studied, all those years ago. Had Elliot been the child I had, I'm afraid I would have dropped out of school, because she was and is a handful!

Enough blabbering about the past... and on with the story! ;o)

Emma and I were standing in line at Target last week and she told me her ears hurt. I immediately asked, "Do you have dinosaurs in them again?" She laughed and replied that she did not. You see, when Emma was a little girl (toddler age), she had the NASTIEST waxy build-up in her ears. I remember sitting on the couch one day and looking over at her and seeing something in her ear. I asked her to come closer, so I could look. I was thinking that she had placed something into her ear canal. When she came closer I realized it was just ear wax, but it was, seriously, the biggest ball of earwax I had ever seen!!! I showed Cameron when he came home from work later that day, and he dubbed her earwax balls "dinosaurs." (because they were SOOO big!!!) After the discovery of her abnormal earwax production, we regularly checked her ears for "dinosaurs." She thought it was funny and was willing to allow me to cleanse her ears with earwax remover because she thought it was a game. I'm happy to report that Emma has not had any "dinosaurs" in her ears for many years now, but when were waiting to checkout in Target last week, the memory made me miss my little Emma and her "dinosaurs." She's not so little anymore. (tear...)