Post-Xmas in OKC

The boys had a blast playing with their cousin Russell in OKC after Xmas. Griff wore his Santa suit in the airport and was the hit of Southwest Airlines. There was more than a foot of snow on the ground by the time we got there so the kids were psyched about the snow. They watched movies, had snowball fights, had slumber parties in floor of the bar area of the house (yes, you read that right), and in the pop up deer feeder tent uncle Russ got for Xmas. We had a fun visit from our long lost cousin Toby and his wife Tina & little girl Ashlyn who had never met her cousins. But the best thing we did was go snow-tubing in the baseball stadium. Russell and Cal both did great and Cal even went down the "big boy" hill he was technically too short for. He took a while to warm up to it and watched with Gramma, Bippy & Griff (who never warmed up to it) the first few times we went down. After that, he was good to go. It was a great visit and some great memories were made.

Well....we knew it would happen but, we didn't think it would be this fast. Cal turned 4 this year and he seems like such a big boy already. We let him choose the type of party & theme - gymnastics at the West Austin Youth Assoc and Star Wars. He has never even seen the movie all the way through but a few glimpses here and there was enough. He's hooked. So we invited a million kids and a blast - buckets full of party favors, pizza, Star Wars cake, juice boxes and this year's "Special Guest" was a Stormtrooper. I always thought they'd be taller. Seriously. It was awesome and they all loved it - especially Cal who said to mommy as soon as the Trooper left - "it wasn't a Trooper, it was just daddy." The thrill is gone, I guess. He loves gymnastics even though we haven't taken official lessons in a year - he is still flipping and flopping and climbing everywhere so we are starting again this fall through a group that comes to their school. So I will probably max out our blog capacity with all the photos we took, but it was a super fun party.
We are super proud of our budding genius and planning to start him on time next year for Kindergarten unless an actual teacher tells us he's not ready. He is quite the creative storyteller (and I don't mean liar - we frequently catch him telling Griffin bedtime stories at night that are quite complicated with multiple plot twists). He is obsessed with Super Heroes and can tell you about some mom & dad have never even heard of. We think BFF Brady is partly responsible for this since he started going it before we had ever discussed them at home in any form. He loves to read books, run fast, jump high, and build build BUILD things. He can entertain himself for hours with a set of legos or a bunch of sticks & grass. He has a fantastic vocabulary and is also a very empathetic child - a fantastic big brother who loves to help Griffin and take care of him (and kick him in the head as soon as he stops crying from whatever the last thing was). He is eating ton right now but squarely in the bottom quartile of weight for his age. We're thrilled that his height is in the 50th at just over 40 inches! He loves to learn and to share things he has learned with us. He's very talkative with us but pretty shy around strangers or people he doesn't know that well. He still plans to marry Charlotte Pounds (one of his friends at school). He played soccer all summer in another league and really did well. He's little but fast and we're thinking that's enough for a college scholarship - no? Well, it's potential, anyway. His favorite food is Chik-fil-A nuggets (God bless him!) but his taste buds are waking up and he recently decided he likes shrimp and macadamia nuts. I could go on, but those are the basics. He loves to read stories from the Children's Bible at night (really!) and lives for story time in the bed - he is very specific about the kind of story he wants and who should be in it (usually 6-7 Super Heros, a racecar and a firetruck and all his friends from school). It actually tests mommy's creativity to try to fulfill these requests. He's very orderly and great at cleaning up - we're thinking there's an engineer in there somewhere dying to get out. Time will tell. For now we have a 4 year old big brother who can put on his own clothes, brush his teeth, get his own Yogurt Tube out of the fridge and is fully potty trained (at least by day). We'll worry about night later - he has made it 2x when mom & dad took him for a late night potty on their way to bed. So we'll keep trying. We can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.

GENERAL CUTENESS

Be honest....are these not the cutest cowboys you've ever seen? We cannot resist Cowboy Bob - a real cowboy who brings a pony to the school ever year and sells outrageously overpriced photos we gladly purchase after seeing the pics. Seriously, people, this is genuinely good stuff. We wore our own hat this year (because Bob's kinda sucks, to be honest) and mom dressed us in jeans, boots and a starched oxford. Bob supplies the rest and the result is the magic you see before you. I heart Cowboy Bob.

This summer saw some major landmarks - Griffin had decided he was done with the crib shortly after his 2nd birthday (as compared to Cal who was in his until well after 3). Just another way these boys are night and day different. After a few months of searching Craig's List for a new, bigger, crappier molded plastic racecar bed that costs $350 new and probably $5 for them to manufacture....mom found a Nascar twin size bed for Cal, Griffin got Cal's old equally overpriced Lightning McQueen bed (also a Craig's List purchase - which he was THRILLED about), and mom finished decorating the former master bedroom with the Transportation themed wall mural and hand painted accent walls with matching Pottery Barn lampshades and window valances (thank you, EBAY!) and the boys officially moved in together. Mom will now admit it was a huge experiment that could have gone horribly awry but....it didn't. They love being roomies and do surprisingly well sleeping in the same room at night. Naps don't go quite as smoothly so we frequently split up for those. They also share the big closet and bathroom attached to that room but everyone has their own sink & the potty is close so all is right with the world. Both are still sleeping in diapers but...we can dream.

After we moved them in together, mom redecorated & painted Cal's old room with a Toy Story theme (ALL the rage since #3 came out this summer) and turned it into a playroom. Again, a huge hit. Daddy applied the Fatheads mom found on Ebay (!) and the whole thing was done for a relative bargain with a fresh professional paint job. They are really happy with all their new space and play together for quite a while before the battles break out. They are truly best friends and rarely go anywhere without each other these days. We're hoping the roommate situation will facilitate that for years to come. We envision many happy days in the playroom and later years of studying at desks that will fit nicely in there.

JULY 4, 2010

We had a busy 4th this year. Mommy & daddy went to Iowa for cousin Allyn & Mike's wedding. On the way there, we met Gramma & Bippy in Dallas with the boys who then drove on together to their cousin Russell's lakehouse for the weekend. While we didn't witness it personally, rumor has it some good times were had. Except that Griffin came down with what we later learned was the flu. Lots of high fever & general crankiness (sp?). Cal & Russell spent a lot of time playing in the rain (= mud) and they got some boat time in on the lake as well. We all met up again in Dallas on the actual 4th and ended up watching fireworks at a country club in Southlake we did not belong to. Strange but true. The boys could not have been less interested in the fireworks - our view wasn't great so the fireworks didn't seem that big since we were a little farther away than we would have liked. So the result was that they literally ran circles around the adults in the grass while the adults watched the fireworks. So much for good intentions.

The next day we went to the Fort Worth Zoo (awesome!) before we left town. It is an amazing facility although Griff was struggling pretty bad with fever by the time we left and it was 102 degrees - I did not win mom of the year this day. Keep in mind we did not yet know it was the flu and just thought it was a cold and possibly ear infection. We were treating with Tylenol/Advil which was not making a dent. We did get some great pics of Cal with some cool animals very close to him. And Griff was an absolute trooper given how sick we now know he was - check out that photo on daddy's back - happy baby.