Phillip's got the puke

Now Phillip has Mikey's puke virus. Debbie had it a few days ago. Jackson had it a week or so before Mikey so it's possible that he'll get it again. And so far (cross my fingers), I haven't gotten it yet. But I'm sure I'm next. How's that for positive thinking. Phillip had to go on to work this morning to finish up some end of school stuff. If Phillip has the same reaction to this virus that Debbie did, then he should get to school just in time to puke again. And he should be making frequent trips to the bathroom all day while he's there. I hope that's not how his day is going to go. What a wonderful way to start the summer vacation.

Last day of school

I woke Jackson up this morning with a really stupid "last day of school" dance and song. He was not impressed. Phillip joined me in the shenanigan and he was still not impressed. He's not really much of a morning person. Once he had a few minutes to wake up, he said that when he gets home from school today he wants to play "School's Out" on the Wii.

Mikey is beginning to get really territorial with stuff and he's trying to kick Jackson off the couch. He wants it all to himself. Jackson just pretended to call the police and said, "Police! Hurry! My baby brother is kicking me in the booty!"

It was funnier in person.

Ready for Summer

Phillip and Jackson have about 2 more days of school left. Then I get them both for 2 1/2 months. I'm really ready for them both to be home for a while. We've been away from Jackson more this school year than ever before. He drives me nuts sometimes but I have missed him being at home during the day. And I'm always glad when Phillip has some time off. It's nice to have him around to help me with daily stuff and I just kind of like the guy. We don't have any big plans for the summer other than just hanging out. I don't have any delusions about being able to sleep late or get a tan or get in better shape. There have been summers when I had those kind of plans that never materialized. I plan on just spending some time with my boys. And that's good enough.

Tuesday puke

Mikey puked in his bed this morning.  He didn't cry or in any way let us know that he puked in his bed.  He just proceeded to jump and roll around in it and make a disgusting situation even worse. So when I went in this morning to get him out of his bed I was greeted with the smell of puke and dirty diaper. Gross!! He had to have a bath right of the bat this morning. He threw up a couple more times this morning before he went back to sleep. So I've been washing bedding and trying to de-puke my house. When he wakes up he'll probably puke some more and then I'll have to de-puke all over again.

I wasted about 45 minutes of my life this morning watching some show on Animal Planet about a black bear cub. I don't even have much interest in bears and I had plenty of other things to be doing...like washing puke stuff.

Tonight is supposed to be "date night" but I don't know if the folks are going to want to keep our pukey baby. I wouldn't want to keep a pukey baby even if it was my grandkid.

I'm feeling really unmotivated to get to work on things I need to do. I think it's the puke. Not a good way to start the day.

Pray for the Chapmans

If you haven't read the story, you can read it here. Just so terrible.

Forget what I said about The Texas Burrito Factory being good

I once blogged about The Texas Burrito factory and said they have good food. Well, I lied. It's not that great. Plus the owner (or someone who likes TBF enough to have a huge sticker on the back of his car) likes to rat people out to the cops when they are parked "illegally." Mr. Burrito Factory Man, that was not cool of you. And because of that you can I can never be friends.

Monkey leash pictures (and a couple of other pictures thrown in)

The other day I posted about the monkey leash we have for Mikey. Here are a few pictures so you can see for yourself how humane it is. There are a few more "professional" looking pictures (whatever that means) of Mikey on my photoblog in case you're interested.

Jackson "walking" Mikey. Yes, we have electrical tape on our window. And yes, I know that's really ghetto.

The monkey looks pretty happy to be attached to Mikey's back. What do you think?

Homeboy needs a haircut.

Okay, not quite sure what they're looking at here.

And here's one of Mikey rolling around in the grass while I was trying to take a picture of his "dedication clothes." I think he's practicing for a hurricane or a fire.

And here's one of Jackson because he was getting jealous that I was taking so many pictures of Mikey with his leash.

"Yeeeeeea Boooy!, Flavaaa Flaaaaaaav!!"

Mikey set our DVR to record every episode of The Flavor of Love. I know he did this because no one else in our house would have done it. He must have caught a marathon or something because our DVR recorded about 10 episodes before I realized it. I guess I'll have to sit him down and have a talk with him about respecting women and not seeing them just as objects. I really expected to have a bit more time before this was necessary. I guess Phillip should probably be the one to do it since he can probably relate to his innate male desire to see lots of booty. Until he gets a top hat, this will have to do.



Last week Mikey recorded several episodes of Word World, which is a bit more age appropriate but equally lame.

Phillip if you recorded The Flavor of Love and then let the baby take the fall for it, that's wack.

Oh yeah, by the way, don't do a google image search for "The Flavor of Love." You won't like what you see....or you might. Either way, don't do it. Seriously.

MIkey pictures

When we got Mikey he was two days old. He was fresh from the hospital. But I couldn't post any face pictures of him back then so I'm going to post a few here and there from when he was a baby. This will interest about 5 of you reading but it's my blog so get over it. I have a couple of videos I plan on posting eventually. But anyway, here are a few of Mikey before he became such a big boy. Yes, I'm a recovered pop up flash user. That was so 10 months ago! These are absolutely in no particular order because I want to go to bed.

Mikey wisdom

1. See closed doors (or baby gates) not as boundaries, but as challenges to be overcome.

2. Patience is for those who have nothing better to do but wait.

3. Talking is overrated.

4. If you fall, get back up and do the same stupid thing again and again and again until you get it right.

5. Selective hearing is a sign of an advanced brain.

6. You don't have to have a reason to laugh or dance or cry (or scream or throw stuff).

7. Exercise regularly.

8. Do everything in your power to fee yourself from any kind of bondage.

9. Don't conform to social norms like wearing shoes in public or using an "indoor voice."

10. Be your own boss.

11. Use your looks to your advantage.

12. Don't let others get in the way of what you want.

13. Be persistent. Just because you can't do something today doesn't mean you can't do it tomorrow.

The monkey back pack leash (or harness, if you prefer)

Our son Mikey is 16 months old and sometimes we put a leash on him.  Call it a leash or call is a harness, but when we go to the Mall with him, it is our only salvation. He's not crazy about it and he sometimes screams and throws himself on the floor when he has to wear it but it's better than staying at home. We've gotten a few looks and some snide remarks.  Phillip encountered a thread on some gear page (what do child leashes have to do with guitar gear?) about putting a leash on your kid.  Many of the people (probably not parents) think it's just horrible and inhumane and lazy parenting or whatever.  And people are entitled to their own (wrong) opinions and certainly have the right to express them.  But I get a little bit worked up when people judge me as a parent. Especially when they are not parents and are rather clueless about how to parent, particularly how to parent my child.

We don't walk Mikey around the block with it while he relieves himself in people's yards. It's not a muzzle. It's just a plush monkey back pack and the monkey's 4 foot long tail is the leash.


So just because I feel some need to explain myself, here are a few reasons why we use a leash/harness with Mikey.

1. He will sit in his stroller for about 10 minutes without throwing a violent screaming fit.  And if for a moment I stop pushing the stroller, he starts the fit before the 10 minutes is up.  And the fit doesn't stop if I just leave him in there. Tried that. It just escalates to the point where everyone and their mother is staring. If I end up taking him out of the stroller and carrying him, then I have a 25 lb. baby on my arm and a big stroller to push at the same time.

2. He refuses to hold our hand even for a moment.  To force him to hold my hand, I would have to hold his hand so tight it would probably leave bruises and/or pull his shoulder out of socket.

3. He likes freedom.  The leash allows us to give him more freedom than the stroller or hand holding allows.  He has more freedom but not the freedom to run wild.  The same people who think the leash is horrible also think unruly kids running around climbing in the clothes racks are horrible.  You can't win.

4. He needs to learn to stay with us in public and the leash is a good training device for that. Mikey is extremely strong willed and we are trying to teach him now that his will must be in line with ours. And in spite of his need for freedom, our will is that he stay close enough to his family to be safe from objects he can pull over on his head and the ever present "stranger" who might want to kidnap him.

5. And last but not least, a toddler with a monkey strapped to his back is just cute.

There was a time that I thought a harness for a child was probably not necessary. There was a time when upon seeing a screaming toddler or preschooler in the store I would have thought, "What is wrong with that mother???" There was a time when I thought my child's "good behavior" was a direct result of my "good parenting." Now I have my beautiful, temperamental, little strong willed child and I realize how wrong I was. Hopefully by the time he starts kindergarten he will have graduated out of the monkey leash.

I didn't know Christians hate boobs.

Okay, you have to read this.  It's just hilarious!  Andrea sent this link to me earlier.  Just read it. Go.  Now.

Christians in California want you to....

Stuff Christians Like Blog

This is a pretty funny and clever blog and certainly worth checking out. I haven't spent too much time there so I'm not entirely sure what this guy's "story" is. Anyway, if you've got some time, go check it out. But be prepared to stay a while. It's hard to break away from.

Stuff Christians Like

All About Jackson

You're about to see lots of pictures of Jackson. And a few of me and Phillip. Wednesday was Jackson's 6th birthday, Thursday was his beach field trip, and Friday & Saturday were his birthday celebration days. Lets get started, shall we?

Jackson's birthday cake. I'm pretty sure I missed my calling as a cake maker/decorator. 

Look how lopsided it is!

These next few are from Jackson's beach field trip. The kids painted real and fake fish and stamped them on shirts. Most of the kids wanted to use the real fish and crabs but not my kid. That's gross!

Jackson had fun swimming at the hotel. The bottom swimming picture was taken from our hotel room. Jackson really liked the whole hotel experience. He kept calling it our apartment. He was the official elevator button pusher.

Moving on to the Children's Museum pictures...
I got stuck in front of the tv monitor for entirely too long taking weird pictures of myself.

And finally, Pappasito's.....
We got the waiter people to come and sing to Jackson and bring him cake. He was pretty embarrassed. We asked him later if he was going to remember when they sang to him. 

And he said, "I'm going to try not to."

And that's pretty much it for now. We had a busy few days.

Mouse

We have a mouse. Which probably means that we really have mice because they probably live in flocks or herds or whatever. So I'm thinking we need to sell our house. I wonder how much equity we have in this place.

The mouse is cute. I still want it to die a horrible and violent death.

We had a good weekend with Jackson. I'll probably be posting some pictures later.

The morning of May 7th

Today is Jackson's 6th birthday. We're having a little mini family party this evening at our house. Then this weekend we're doing the Jackson birthday weekend thing in Houston.

This morning when Jackson woke up he said, "I can't believe I'm six already. I think I sound a little different...just a little. Do you think so?"

And then a little while later he said he was a little closer to being able to watch PG-13 movies. Got a ways to go, Buddy, but keep looking on the bright side.

We tried to convince Jackson that "they" were canceling May 7th. Phillip told him that the calendar said May 6th and May 6th, part 2. It made Jackson mad.

In other morning news, I heard part of a verse in Philippians on the annoying Christian radio station we wake up to. So, I figured I would read it just for kicks and it ended up being something I really needed to hear today....and yesterday....and the day before that.....and the rest of my life, probably.


Philippians 4:5-10 (New International Version)

5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.


So that's our morning so far.

Sometimes I sing

I enjoy singing. It's one of the things that I can do fairly well. Like everything else, I certainly have my limitations and weaknesses. I flub up entrances on occasion and I'm not great at singing harmony. I go into outer space sometimes and forget words. But I feel that one of the things that I am at heart is a singer. A singer who doesn't sing anymore.

I was about 22 years old the first time I ever sang publicly. Before that, my husband and my own mother didn't even know that I could carry a tune. Once I got that first terrifying experience out of the way, I began to sing occasionally at church. Phillip and I led worship together here and there over the years. And for the most part, it was really fun. I enjoyed partnering with him in that capacity. I'm not sure he really enjoyed it because he was usually playing acoustic guitar instead of electric. We wrote several songs together before Jackson came along. Then the writing pretty much stopped. And slowly over the last several years, for various reasons, the singing has pretty much stopped too. And sometimes I really miss it. I have other things that I do and most of the time I don't really think about it. But occasionally I have this longing to get up in front of people and let my voice be what it is.

But right now it's just kind of this thing that's laying dormant within me. Someday when the timing is right, I will sing again. For now I sing with the radio or to my kids. I sing in corporate worship at church in between sips of coffee. And sometimes I just sing at home when I'm by myself just to make sure I still can.

Elementary School Crossing Guard Fiasco

We live pretty close to Jackson's Elementary School. Our street is just across Plantation Drive and it takes about 6 minutes to walk to and from the school. Anyway, for years the crossing guard has not only helped the kids cross the street safely but he has also directed traffic so parents can drive in and out of the school.... until today apparently. I didn't actually take Jackson to school this morning so I didn't witness this stuff first hand. But apparently there were cars backed up all over the place in and around the school. Without the guy stopping traffic on Plantation, it's pretty much impossible for cars to get in and out of the school. It was such a mess that a couple of the teachers at the school were handing out little slips of paper with the Chief Police's phone number on it so we could call and complain. So I did. Why not? I wasn't even in the mess but I called to gripe anyway. How's that for being a nuisance.

So, I was sent to this one Police Officer who was assigned to handle all of the Elementary School calls. And I guess since I was courteous and respectful (for a change) he just thought he would unload all off the details on me. Who knows, maybe he was telling everyone who called all the details of the situation. He probably spent almost 10 minutes on the phone with me. If he takes that long to explain the situation to every parent who calls today, he's not going to get anything else done. So he said things like, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but....." and "between you and me......" I was thinking, "What?? You don't know me!!" He was telling me things that really should have been confidential between the school, the crossing guard, and the police. It was weird. I hope for his sake, all of his indiscretions don't come back to bite him in the butt. Like what if someone he talked to posted about their conversation on her blog??

So anyway, they're probably going to start making the parents exit the school in another direction and circle around to a traffic light somewhere. And inevitably people will gripe and complain and be totally uncooperative. If I go the route that I'm probably going to have to start going, it will add a few minutes to "our commute." And sure, I would rather not waste those precious few minutes of my life. But, man, I'll get over it. We are so spoiled here in Lake Jackson that we don't think it should take more than five minutes to get anywhere. And if everyone in walking distance from the school would get off their lazy butts (including myself) and just walk to drop off and pick up their kids, that would help out a lot. And we might even collectively shed a few pounds.