Constructing a Life

Constructingalife.com

2009-09-22T17:24:00.002-05:00

Introducing www.constructingalife.com. It will be the new space for this blog in the future. The new site is still somewhat under construction, but all posts have been migrated to the new site.

Thanks!

Colors

2009-09-14T09:58:00.007-05:00

Sean went out of town this weekend to New Mexico for his birthday to go golfing. That left Stephen and I this weekend on a rainy, wet weekend. We had fun coloring with crayons, eating, and trying to take rain walks. We found that crayons are a lot less messy than markers, and they have a cool built in sharpener in the back of the box of 64. He says pretty much a new word everyday now. He likes "off" to take off his clothes, "Mo" for "Elmo", "up" to get mommy up.

And he's out like a light

2009-09-10T03:26:00.002-05:00

The rare times when I can just sit and watch him sleep when I can actually see him in the light, I think to myself that he is so angelic. All sins are forgiven and he is so peaceful. There's no 2 year old devilish ways, no "no", just being. The past couple of days, he's been napping in his stroller while I take a walk with the dogs after being tired out at school, but unable to sleep. It's only in the low 90's here :), so it is "cool" enough to take a walk in the afternoon without getting too hot. It's good for all of us, good for the dogs to be getting out, good for Stephen, and good exercise for me.

Dallas Aquarium

2009-09-07T16:34:00.002-05:00

Sean, Stephen, and I had a great time at the Dallas Aquarium today. It was packed, but Stephen loved to see all of the animals. I think it was more accessible than the zoo, because the animals are mostly small animals and he could walk around a lot. We got him a rubber snake at the end because at the wedding in Atlanta he loved playing with a rubber snake.

What a week

2009-09-07T08:44:00.002-05:00

Stephen hated school. It's official. He had a tough week last week. He didn't nap and cried and whined all day, saying, "ma ma", but apparently he did learn some artistic skills, as he has created his first marker masterpiece for mommy this weekend. After school he was plastered on mommy until an early bedtime, and woke up a bunch during the night, apparently scared that we had left him forever. This weekend he has a runny nose, but finally (and thank goodness for 3 day weekend), we have all three of us caught up on sleep and feel a little better. I know in my heart that it really is the best thing for him, as it gives him opportunities for socializing, art, and other things that he may not get at home (although I need to add to my child art supplies, which should be fun) There were bright sides to school, apparently they have an 18 year old high school student as an intern one day of week, and Stephen had an instant report with him and was just his buddy the whole time he was there. It is just going to take a while before he really feels as comfortable as he did with Juana or with us.

We had a nice time with Nancy and Frank this weekend, who came up for Kaitlyn's soccer game on Friday night, which they won. Stephen didn't make it to the game, but he did to the tailgate. We also had a really nice time at the SMU boulevarding, essentially their tailgating for their football game on Saturday. Stephen really enjoyed the parade with a band.

Stephen is REALLY enjoying playing football. He has several footballs that I've developed a game with him to play. He goes back to pass, he can tackle, kick an extra point, and do a touchdown dance (essentially 2 fist pumps). He says "ball" every time we pass the Highland Park football stadium or the SMU stadium or see anyone in the park play pee wee football or etc.

We are off to the Arboretum and/or the Aquarium today for a little family time.

Not Sick Anymore

2009-09-01T15:22:00.002-05:00

So, Stephen didn't go to preschool because he hasn't been feeling very well, but following a doctor's appointment, where she pronounced nothing was seriously wrong, he is better. We think it might have been some kind of stomach bug where Stephen didn't really want to eat much for the past week and has been uncharacteristically lethargic. Not even his favorite Yo Baby Yogurt, which is when we know that something is really wrong, when he won't eat his yogurt. We think he is going to be well enough to go to preschool tomorrow...Here he is napping on our bed, which he rarely does.

Big changes coming

2009-08-20T17:18:00.004-05:00

On August 31st, Stephen is going to preschool at Carlisle School just on Lovers Lane near our house. It is a Montessori school and they have uniforms...right now he just has to wear a blue shirt with the school name on it and blue shorts. He will go every day and we will let go our wonderful nanny Juana, who has been such a help to us in the last couple of months. We think it will be good for him, very good for him, but we are bracing for the transition period.

Wedding in Atlanta, toddler style

2009-08-16T21:20:00.003-05:00

This weekend was a friend of mine, Betsy's, wedding in Atlanta. I went on Thursday of last week, while Sean took Stephen on Friday. We were all in the wedding. I was a bridesmaid, Sean the officiant, and Stephen "junior ring bearer". On Saturday, we tried to go to Stone Mountain, where I had never been, but we went to a barn type of place where they had activities for kids about 5 years old and it scared Stephen. So then we headed over to the free playground, where he had fun for a while. We went to lunch at Sean's friend's house over near Turner Field, which was nice, although Stephen bit Rybolt, who is only 2 months younger. Fortunately the parents were really cool, didn't freak out, and we are still friends. Stephen then took a 10 minute nap in the car on the way back to the hotel. :) During the ceremony, he didn't really like the heat and just melted. I ducked out after walking down the aisle and held him inside while Sean did the ceremony. As I walked back down the aisle, I handed him to Sean, where he was fine. At the reception, he was a ROCK STAR. He danced and danced and danced until 11pm. Then he fell asleep on Sean's shoulders and Sean and I got to dance with Stephen asleep on Sean, which was actually very nice. We stayed up until 12 and then walked back to the hotel. He proceeded to be pretty much a rock star on the plane the next day when Sean got upgraded and poor mom was in coach. We traded him back and forth; he liked the cookie from 1st class. We were too busy to make a lot of pictures, but hey, that's what the official photographer is for. She showed me some good shots she got of Stephen, so I'm looking forward to seeing those prints. Stephen had a fan club in my friends who were very impressed by his dancing. During a lot of the evening he was imitating a five year old boy who was breakdancing and having a lot of fun too. All in all a good trip, although tiring at times, but fun.

To the book store

2009-08-12T12:18:00.002-05:00

The other day, I took Stephen for his first trip to the book store, and boy did he LOVE going. A whole store just for books. I told him we were looking for books we didn't have, and he did a good job of choosing some classics, like some Dr. Seuss books, while I reached up high and got, "Where the Sidewalk Ends", one of my FAVORITES (partly because his name was Shel I'll admit). He also reached up for a Grover stuffed animal, so we got it.

We're off to Atlanta for a friend's wedding this weekend with Stephen. We're looking forward to seeing Emory and seeing some old friends as well.

Sunday Night at the Park with Friends

2009-08-10T20:30:00.005-05:00

Sunday night, Sean, Stephen and I met our friends, the Smaardyk/Bell's and the Gray's for swimming, park, and cook out. The kids had a lot of fun. We picked up some random kid whose parents were somewhere else in the park...

Eating at the Table

2009-08-10T19:05:00.003-05:00

Stephen likes to eat at the table sometimes with his own plate. Tonight he had dinner of hot dog, chips, broccoli, a couple peanuts, and then a little later, watermelon which he loves. He has started to use his fork sometimes, but not always.

Tricycle

2009-08-07T09:07:00.003-05:00

Sean got Stephen a tricycle. He's been a little frustrated because he doesn't exactly know how to do the pedals yet, but he really likes being on it...

I'm an aunt and other milestones

2009-08-02T20:48:00.003-05:00

I'm so pleased to announce I'm an aunt to Violet Kirkpatrick Smith, born Saturday August 1, 2009 at 5:55am. I'm so proud of my sister for giving birth naturally and gracefully. I'm so excited to see her and take pictures of her being so beautiful.

Stephen has been just going through a growth spurt. He now says, "aqua", "no", "mil" for milk, and "pa da" for diaper. He is eating like a tree, wanting meat and protein. He's swimming underwater (voluntarily going under water, kicking, and moving forward for a bit), climbing the playground equipment with growing ease, and LOVING sports. all kinds of sports. It started with golf and has now grown to include baseball and soccer. We got this ABC book of baseball from Summer, his aunt, and he has grown to LOVE baseball. In fact, this morning he went to the playground that has a baseball diamond, and he went on the pitcher's mound and proceeded to "bat" from there, which means he uses his little wooden bat to bat a tennis ball like a golf ball. He does have his sports mixed up, but at least he has dedication.

Busy Weekend of Fun in Houston

2009-07-27T10:26:00.004-05:00

This weekend, Sean, Stephen, and I went down to Houston. Sean helped the family buy a car, we went swimming, and to a baseball game on Saturday night, Stephen's first. He liked the game, but the far away seats didn't keep him involved in the action. It was a horrible game against the Mets, ending up 10-3, but it was fun none-the-less. Stephen almost got hit with a foul ball. Frank tried to shield Stephen, who was on Grandma's lap, and the ball bounced off Frank's hand. I tried to get the ball, but the woman in front of us got to it and wouldn't give it up. I think for his next game we'll go to a minor league game where we can get closer to the field and he can keep up with the action. He loved running down the ramp and walking to the car, and was able to stay for the whole game, which was fun.

One more golf picture from Top Golf

2009-07-20T11:54:00.004-05:00

Sean wants me to show that Stephen has a great follow through...

Top Golf

2009-07-19T20:45:00.002-05:00

Last night and today, Sean, Stephen, and I went to Top Golf. Last night, we went with some friends. Stephen had such a good time that we decided to go back today. This picture is last night, after he came home and before he went to bed. He was so tired, but so happy that he had played golf with dad....more pictures to come.

Official First Word

2009-07-19T11:48:00.003-05:00

Stephen has started saying, "no" with quite an vengeance. Its the first word he has really used to convey his wishes. While it is quite cute now, I think it might get old in only a couple of days.

Return of the Video

2009-07-13T07:05:00.002-05:00

Curls

2009-07-09T15:38:00.002-05:00

He now has curls on top of his head.

Family Time

2009-07-09T08:44:00.002-05:00

I like that time in the morning from about 6 to 7am when we are all in one bed snuggling and sleeping. It's a very nice way to wake up.

On the verge of greatness

2009-07-07T20:51:00.010-05:00

I've taken so many pictures, I'm behind in processing them (making them better, editing them) by photoshop. This past week, Stephen and I met Sean in San Francisco to visit my aunt and family. We had a good time going to the Marin County Fair and just hanging out and visiting. Mom got scared by a living statue at the fair, and Stephen had fun with blocks. He turned into Mr. Hyde at various points during the trip. We've gotten to the point where time outs don't seem to work, so I'm trying new methods of dealing with this. Mostly just saying, "stop, there are other ways of showing mommy that you are frustrated, like drumming," and then we go off into one of his favorite books, Hum Drum Hum Drum. He's teething, getting his two year molars, and really taking it hard. We are glad that these are his last teeth for a while. Tonight he said, "ahhh" and let me look in. He's got his bottom two but waiting for the top two to bust through. While Sean's mom is here while Kaitlyn is being a counselor at SMU soccer camp, Sean and I are going on a date night tomorrow because this last little bit with Stephen has been rough. We know better days are to come though. We are beginning to hear some language. We think he may have said, "aqua", "ball", and "momma", and probably, "no". In the past two days he has waved "bye-bye" and understood when people left, which is a huge improvement. A couple of weeks ago, Stephen was being a brat, and Sean asked me what was wrong, I said, "oh, he's just on the verge of something great" Hopefully, it will come soon.

While Sean is away

2009-06-27T15:33:00.002-05:00

we go to the park. Sean is in Oregon with my dad and brother having a good time playing golf. Stephen and I are having fun in the 100 degree heat here. We're about to go to the pool to cool off, but I took this shot this morning at the park. I just got new shoes for him on Friday...he's growing.

Milestones

2009-06-24T10:35:00.003-05:00

Because this blog is a record of Stephen's milestones, and I haven't done that recently, this post will highlight what Stephen can do now at 20 months.

He does:

-sleep in a bed (and climbs out of a crib, so we are taking that down)

-climb out of a pool by himself

-walk in water up to his neck

-put face in water voluntarily

-hit a golf ball with a club pretty hard

-kick a soccer ball

-throw ball for dog

-eat relatively well (not supper, not a bird, trying to go beyond yogurt everyday); eats a variety of foods including salsa, guacamole, hummus, tamales, soup, steak, sandwiches.

-drinks out of a cup with help holding really well

-given up bottle

-understand most things we tell him in Spanish and English, including, "your ball is on the other side of the couch", knows most body parts, knows who Obama and Tiger Woods are, knows most of his animals

-can scribble with crayon/pen on paper

-dance

-can sit at the table to eat (occasionally) with limited time frame for sitting.

Still working on:

-aggression for everyone/everything including dogs, people, everything

-talking, any words would be nice

-testing whether or not we actually mean, "no" (I suspect we will be working on this for years)

Weekend of Water and Soccer

2009-06-22T13:29:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Sean's parents came up to watch Kaitlyn play soccer for another competitive team, Challenge. We also had fun going to the pool with Nancy. Stephen though has changed from cute little Charlie Brown to Dennis the Menace sometimes...determined to get his way and to make mischief.

Homemade Pizza

2009-06-15T10:13:00.003-05:00

Sean and I love to cook together and one of our favorites is homemade pizza. Last's night's homemade pizza was just about the best I'd ever made so I thought I'd share my recipe. It takes a while, so it really is best on a Sunday, but it is not labor intensive, nor expensive to do.

Dough: (makes 2 12 inch pizza crusts)

1 c. whole wheat flour

2 c. all purpose flour

1 T. vegetable oil

2 T. honey

1 package yeast

1 1/4 c. warm water

1 1/2 t. sugar

pinch salt

Proof yeast with water and sugar for at least 5-10 minutes or until the appropriate amount of bubbles form. While waiting for the yeast, get together all the other ingredients. Then mix in yeast, water, sugar mixture and mix in mixer with dough hook until it forms a ball. Then place in oiled bowl, cover, and place in dark warm place until risen double. (about an hour to an hour and a half). Then split into 2 and place into low bowls or on cookie sheet to rise another 1/2 hour or until use.

Tomato Sauce

1 small onion or half a large onion cut into small pieces

2 or more garlic cloves (depending on your like of garlic) chopped fine

2 T. olive oil

1/2 t. to 1 t. or to taste chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I like to get a can of these and then put it in the food processor to chop it up and then I save it in the refrigerator for use such as this.)

1/4 of a bottle of red wine

1 can chicken broth

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 T. oregano

salt/pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent, careful not to burn the garlic. Add tomatoes, broth, and wine. Bring up to a boil and then simmer for a couple of hours on stove, checking every so often. If the sauce is getting too thick, you can add water or more broth. Add chipotle peppers, oregano and salt and pepper at the last moment.

To make the pizza, we heated preheated the oven with 2 pizza stones in it at 425. Then we rolled/stretched the dough onto the pizza stone and cooked for 5 minutes. We then added the toppings, which were onions, peppers already cooked, and pepperoni. Place back into the oven and cook for approximately 14 more minutes, checking at 12 minutes for doneness. After it cooked, we added fresh basil that we grew in our herb garden.

Water Fun

2009-06-14T20:33:00.007-05:00

It is SO HOT here in Dallas. It is in the mid-90's and now summer. This week was great. I went to Phoenix for a conference and went to the Diamond Backs/Giants game for my birthday on Wednesday, which was fun. When I came back, Stephen had learned that he could get out of his aerobed for kids that he's been sleeping on instead of a crib, open the door, and come into our room during the middle of the night. On Saturday we went to the pool and had a lot of fun now that I bought a shirt for Stephen to wear in the water to keep him warm. He swam and swam and swam. Then we went to the house of Sean's co-worker for me to go horseback riding. They live out in the country and his wife gives horseback riding lessons. I got to trot on the horse, which is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. It was a wonderful way to spend a birthday week. Today, we didn't get to the pool, but instead beat the heat in our driveway with a hose and a baby pool that Sean's mom bought last summer. This summer, he just wanted to take the water from the pool in a bucket and pour it out on him or on the driveway. At the end, I gave him the hose and he just loved it.

Cool Thursday

2009-06-05T15:39:00.001-05:00

Yesterday evening, Sean, Stephen and I joined our friends Mark, Maurie and Gunnar Gray at the Dallas Arboretum for Cool Thursdays, a concert series. We heard a polka band and had a great time. Stephen and Gunnar both danced the night away and I got some great photos

I know I'm cute

2009-06-04T09:38:00.001-05:00

From 19 months

Homegrown Tomatoes

2009-06-02T13:28:00.006-05:00

My tomatoes are almost ripe. In fact, after the rain fell this morning, one of them, not shown here, fell off, so I'll taste them and see if they are good. This is my first attempt at tomatoes. I'm also growing basil, mint, dill, rosemary, hot peppers, thyme, and sage, all in pots. Update: homegrown tomatoes are really good and really sweet. I may have to try homegrown lettuce in pots.

Rings on Fingers, Rings on Thumbs

2009-05-31T18:24:00.003-05:00

Stephen's Chair

2009-05-31T08:25:00.002-05:00

I've been looking for a chair for Stephen for a while and found a cheap one at CVS...He really likes it.

Library of Congress on Flickr

2009-05-29T13:24:00.002-05:00

I was browsing on Flickr and saw that the Library of Congress has uploaded many historical photos to Flickr, making them available to the public to download and use on the web, while retaining the original copyrighted material. I'm not sure exactly how they legally do this, but I think that it is a GREAT thing to make these wonderful photos public. They have about 1,600 from the Depression that they have just uploaded and also include this portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
[Abraham Lincoln, candidate for U.S. president. Half-length portrait, seated, facing front] (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Stephen and Emmy: BFF's in the making

2009-05-26T22:25:00.004-05:00

Tears, Graduations, Illness, and Dogs

2009-05-25T22:03:00.008-05:00

Last week, we joined Sean's family in Austin for a week of celebrating Kelly's graduation from University of Texas Graduate School. It was a trying week, as Stephen was really sick as a result of getting a cold from Sean. Through the tears, tantrums, and sleeplessness, we did manage to celebrate in style. We had a lot of good food, good conversations, and fun. On our way back into town, Sean picked up Emmy, our dog.

National Arthritis Foundation Walk

2009-05-13T09:36:00.003-05:00

While at the YMCA working out this week, I found a link to the National Arthritis Foundation Walk here in Dallas this weekend, and I am walking. They have a 1 and 3 mile walk and I think I will do the 3 mile one. Please consider donating to the National Arthritis Foundation Walk in honor of me on my personal website. I couldn't have done this walk 3 months ago. I want others with arthritis to be able to feel the same as I do now with new energy after 30 years of just dealing with it.

Photography

2009-05-12T20:10:00.004-05:00

I'm really getting into using this camera. It takes great pictures. I've got to look for a class at somewhere like SMU to learn more about digital photography, but I'm liking even the shots that I take out in the front yard. Here, Stephen is looking at a plane going by while we're out in the front before dinner time, hitting golf balls, and later trying on dad's sunglasses

Trip to Virginia

2009-05-11T12:32:00.003-05:00

This weekend, we enjoyed some time with my family at our home in Virginia. We had a fabulous time with good food of course. Stephen had fun at Tot Time at our local Nature Center down the street from my parent's house. He really enjoyed touching the snake, but I think the craft part was a little old for him. He wanted to rip the paper snake apart, not glue it down to the paper. He did really well on the plane ride up, but had a meltdown on the plane back to Dallas probably due to having so much fun this weekend. Fortunately, we found he really enjoys looking out the window in the plane at take off and landing and seeing what's happening. These pictures could really be in a Brooks Brothers catalog, although they don't do baby clothing for his age.

Busy

2009-05-07T03:52:00.003-05:00

Sometimes Stephen is just busy doing something. Lately he moves pillows around the couch, on to the floor, and back on to the couch. He's been having fun just realizing how to climb up on the couch so its a good activity for him.

First Saturday at Nasher Sculpture Garden

2009-05-02T13:13:00.002-05:00

Stephen and I went to the Nasher today for First Saturdays where they have free admission. We took advantage of small crowds due to hysteria about swine flu and the fact that it was almost raining to have some fun. The guards ruined mommy's fun by stating we couldn't do as we pleased (I think they didn't have enough to do because they started making up rules) I got some great shots of Stephen with my new camera that I got as an early Mother's Day/Birthday present from Sean and Stephen. I love it.

Swimming

2009-04-28T17:24:00.002-05:00

So, Stephen's been taking swimming lessons at the Y, but what it really is is time to go swimming. Well, last week, Stephen was really quite fussy and we ended up having to leave early. After some talking with my mother in law and friend Amy who have taught kids to swim, apparently, I need to just let him go swim and let him go under and try to swim by himself. Well, today I did. While he can't keep his head above water because he isn't that strong yet, he can kick and move his arms enough to keep about 1-2 inches below the water, which I thought was great. It really tired him out, so we didn't do it for too long, and it was definitely a new feeling for him, but wow, my kid can swim. It is kind of unnerving for me, but I think I learned to let go a little. He can get out of the pool himself and jump in himself too. Obviously no picture of this because I'm the one in the water with him. :)

Rainy Day at Northpark

2009-04-28T15:05:00.006-05:00

Our nanny asked for this Monday and Tuesday off to go to Mexico for her grandchildren's baptism, so I've kept Stephen for these two days. It has been really a lot of fun. It was raining really hard with tornado warnings and such on Monday morning and unsuitable to go to the park later on in the morning, so we spent some time at Northpark mall hanging out with the turtles and ducks they have there in a pond. At first Stephen was shy, but then as he warmed up, he got really quite bold, and started to clean windows of the stores and then try to shut their doors. He walked about half way to the car and stopped to play in a puddle in the parking lot. I couldn't quite get a picture of him stomping, but did of him stooping down into the water.

2009-04-25T14:35:00.003-05:00

I love this image for some reason. I think I really like how the light was shining on the balcony. Stephen's doing fine. This week we're working on giving up the bottle finally, got a little cold, but basically doing well. He has learned to hit the golf ball with the golf club and kick a soccer ball. We're having fun and looking forward to some travel in May and this summer.

Spring Cleaning a Life

2009-04-18T21:22:00.005-05:00

Stephen and I decided to clean out our downstairs office today during a rainy morning and I tackled the filing cabinet, holding all our papers for the past 5 years and some from previous times. Going through the papers makes me realize all that we have gone through/has happened in the past five years. Among the finds:

buying 4 different cars
the not buying of 2 different cars (one had had a major accident that was not disclosed, and one was a smoker car. Both of these we found out within 2 days of "buying" and we brought back to seller and didn't buy)
1 car accident
1 back surgery and 1 birth
warranties from appliances and the roof from the original 4144 Emerson that was torn down
2 tenant leases from old house
1 letter from neighbor about fence that was originally on his property when we closed on the original Emerson house. Subsequent certified letters back and forth.
A very cute letter received from a high school friend's father who has recently past away regarding a RSVP for our wedding.
1 identity theft where a person stole my name and address to create a fraudulent Pay Pal account. Documents include the police report I had to file and send to credit agency that was hounding me for unpaid amounts.

Stephen enjoyed playing with old golf clubs that are to go to Kaitlyn's boyfriend next weekend while I went through all the papers. Stephen actually loves to clean. He's learned now to take his diaper to the diaper pail after he gets off the changing table. He also takes a rag and wipes off the table too. He is way more messy than clean, but we're sure to encourage this clean side of him.

Easter

2009-04-13T13:41:00.002-05:00

We had a very nice Easter weekend with Sean's family in Houston, where Stephen got to hunt some easter eggs that were filled with goldfish and some candy. He didn't really like to give up the eggs and was a little perplexed at what to do when he already had one in each hand and he found a third on the ground. It was cute and short and good fun. We then all watched the Masters final round, which was very exciting, and then drove home later in the evening.

This one is for Grandpa....Dreaming of the Masters, or Future Golfer

2009-04-09T21:28:00.002-05:00

Stephen took one of Sean's golf clubs to bed with him tonight. He was tired out from a day of swimming lessons, playing at the park and watching the Masters with his dad. We've been taking Stephen around town since I've felt better. He went to the Nasher Museum First Saturdays, where they have free admission, last Saturday in the morning, went to the Farmer's Market to taste some good food, and then to Kaitlyn's SMU soccer game in the afternoon. He had a GRAND ole time with the coach's sons who are 4 and 2 years old. It was a little hard to keep him off the field, but perhaps we can work on that this fall. This weekend, we are going to Houston to have an easter egg hunt and spend Easter with Sean's family. His swimming lesson today was great. He learned how to jump into the pool from standing up, get out of the pool, and he's getting closer to learning how to blow bubbles. He's really likes swimming and all the older people at the YMCA taking water aerobics LOVE him. I've signed him up for gymnastics lessons in June at the Y as well, two days a week in the late afternoons. As you can see, he now sleeps with a pillow--on the floor for naps and in the crib for night time. He pretty much always takes something to bed with him, but he varies on what it is. Most of the time, it is some kind of ball, his sparkle ball, or the Astros soft baseball and soft soccer ball are his favorites. What a boy...balls and sticks are really his favorites right now.

Love's Recovery

2009-04-03T08:50:00.002-05:00

(Title comes from an Indigo Girls song of the same name)

I've been thinking this week and talking with Sean about my recovery. I'm becoming a better mom, wife, and probably person as I recover. Things are really getting easier day by day. I'm able to walk a mile, go to the grocery store, and not get extremely exhausted by the end of the day. I'm back to making dinner and Sean's lunch. I seem to have more patience with Stephen then pre-surgery. The recovery on the whole has been easier than life pre-surgery. Granted, the first two or three weeks were tough, but since then it really has been getting much easier. I've started doing more and more difficult exercises and stretches and next week, I'm going back to the gym.

I'm so glad I had this done now. I'm so excited about my life post surgery, about all the things I can/will be able to do soon. My hip doesn't have to be the excuse not to do things any more. The next challenge will be soon, when our dog, Emmy, comes back home and will be just a bundle of (trained) energy. I'm confident though that I will be able to handle it.

Guest Blogger: Lilli Smith

2009-04-01T17:30:00.001-05:00

KidsOnShoulders
Originally uploaded by shelbitha

Lilli here, Shel's sister and guest blogger. I went to Dallas last weekend to “take care” of Shel, but she didn’t need it! She is really doing great! It’s really pretty amazing how well she can get around in a little over a month. She’s not doing any marathons yet, but is off the cane in the house and she seems to handle the stairs very well – even carrying Stephen! At first I was a little worried as she woke up continuously vomiting for a couple hours on Saturday morning due to what she suspected was some old narcotics, but by lunch it was out of her system and she was up for going out for Tex Mex that night with our cousins. Her physical theraphy exercises seem to be helping and she says that she still sees pretty drastic daily improvements in her mobility.

Stephen is still a total little charmer with a smile that just melts me. I mentioned something about kisses and all of a sudden I had little tiny fish lips on my cheek. According to Shel and Sean, it was a kiss! He’s missing the smacking follow through, but he’s still the sweetest little kisser ever! Stephen just loves to read books and he’s developing a longer and longer attention span – in fact he likes to read the same books over and over and over. Besides reading, we had lots of conversations about “da”. Apparently “da” is everywhere in Dallas! And it means so much – cat, dog, duck, dad and garbage truck to name a few! He is quite expressive and excited with his “da!”s. He’s a boy after my own heart always wanting to be outside and we had some quality park time in the warm Texas sunshine. I left early Monday morning to go back to cold rainy Boston --it was a short trip, but hopefully somewhat helpful. I’m so happy that you’re on the mend Shel!

Bionic Woman

2009-03-25T17:28:00.001-05:00

sc00c6958a
Originally uploaded by shelbitha

Today, I had my first post op appointment. After waiting an hour, which Sean just loved, we saw the doctor and it is all systems go. I am not supposed to use the cane while walking in the house, but I am supposed to walk a lot and with the cane on longer walks. I look good and will do some more physical therapy, but in a couple of weeks on my own to walk more and do more exercises that I have. I can now drive and I;m not house bound!

Stephen is just fine. He clapped with me today while singing "When you are happy and you know it, clap your hands". We think he said golf this past weekend, while watching some of the golf tournament on T.V. much to the delight of his daddy and grand dad.

Stephen is not alone

2009-03-21T09:04:00.003-05:00

The Associated Press reported recently that more babies were born in 2007 in the US than any other year in history. I hope this will not harm Stephen's chances at going to the college of his choice. Sean and I were both born during years of lower birth rates.

Sorry about video troubles on the previous post. I suspect it is due to the apple format of the video. I will try to change it soon. I'm still learning some things new to the mac after having a PC for more than 15 years. I did, however, set up my VPN and work email address in less than an hour with no help from my IT department, because they didn't know it could be done.

Stephen Dances and Mommy Walks

2009-03-20T17:11:00.002-05:00

Stephen dances pretty well, as you can see in this video. I'm doing better and better by the day really. Today I took probably about a quarter of a mile walk and feel pretty good. I feel a little tired, but nothing out of the ordinary. I'm back to about 100% of pre-surgery which is nice. I walk with the cane, but I try to not walk with the cane for very short distances around the house. I'm working on my posture, since I've been walking the wrong way for about 28 years now. I'm ready to not be house bound anymore, but am loving the nice weather that we are having allowing me to get outside to escape the house.

We just got a new imac, as my computer was in the process of dying a slow death, getting slower and non responsive sometimes. I love it.

Just the three of us

2009-03-11T13:47:00.000-05:00

My mom left us on Monday afternoon, after 10 days of wonderful care giving of both Stephen and I. While I really appreciated her coming and taking care of us, it is nice to have a couple of days before my mother in law gets here to just be the three of us. There's an hour or so in the morning and about an hour and a half in the afternoon, where I don't have child care available to me, and Stephen and I have really enjoyed our time together. As I take on more mommy duties, he's gradually liking me more, which feels good. One key to Stephen's happiness in the afternoons is keeping the balcony door open, giving him some kind of big stick, and turning on some music for him to dance to occasionally. That, and we have some Sesame Street DVR'd for some cuddle time with mommy in the mornings, which is kinda nice (even though it is TV, it is Sesame Street, which I enjoy too, and it is only for like 20 minutes). I'm getting stronger and more able to handle him and he is adjusting to the fact he must come over to the couch to be picked up. We had mommy races in the living room too, where he chased mommy using her walker. It was a close race.

Now to a funnier story: I think it may be time to get Stephen introduced to a kid toilet. On Monday night, Sean was putting him to bed and really had to go to the bathroom. He brought Stephen into the bathroom and showed him what he was doing. Well, Stephen had his diaper off at that point and got on the ground and proceed to pee on the bath mat in the bathroom. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. Boys.

Hip update

2009-03-06T16:20:00.000-06:00

So I haven't blogged in more than a week!, but I have been busy. My hip surgery went well last Wednesday and I've been home from the hospital a week from tomorrow. I can now get up and down stairs, take a shower, get the mail, and generally be pretty happy. I can't put on my own pants, or go up and down stairs without someone watching me, or take care of Stephen on my own right now, but those things will slowly begin to change. I'm off of narcotics during the day which feels so good, as the narcotics were making me dizzy and loopy. Stephen I think had a hard time adjusting to the fact that mommy couldn't pick him up unless she is sitting down, but he is preferring daddy to mommy at most points too right now, so I guess that helps in this recovery period. I have my ups and downs emotionally, but for the most part I feel like Benjamin Button (although I haven't seen the movie) I feel younger every day. I think last week in the hospital I felt about oh 85 years old, and today I probably feel about 65. It is really emotionally difficult for me to be dependent on people for putting on my pants and taking care of my kid, and I do have crying spells, but am trying to think of the long run where I know I will be better. The pain from the surgery is different than the pain before the surgery. The pain now is more muscular in nature, more like I worked out too much or something. The pain before was more from the bone itself. Sean, my mother, and my father have been with me since last Tuesday and I don't know what I would have done without all their support here. I'm not sure I can adequately thank them for being with me during this. I think my motivation to do things on my own makes me do my exercises and try to get to the point of being normal. Normality is my goal. On the good side, I think my posture is getting a lot better.

Teeth and Hips

2009-02-22T18:10:00.002-06:00

When we thought he couldn't get any more teeth, Stephen is getting another tooth, his 13th. (his cuspids) He's very dentally advanced. :) And on another note, I'm going into surgery on Wednesday, February 25th at the Carrell Clinic. We're excited to get this done and over with.

At the Beach

2009-02-17T11:12:00.000-06:00

Here's Stephen at the Beach in Florida with his putter that he carried around with him the entire weekend. He had so much fun in the sand as you can see.

Future Olympian

2009-02-15T09:25:00.004-06:00

We are in Florida visiting my family here. I'll have more pictures when we return, but here's a preview of how much fun we are having with Stephen. We've gone to the beach, pool, playground, and Stephen loves his plastic golf clubs.

Best of Bath Time

2009-02-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

We tried to extend bed time a little last night, so we took a long bath and got some really great shots of him being himself and playing.

On the Farm

2009-02-03T21:56:00.002-06:00

Cousin Kate just alerted me, in the comments to my post, "Granola" to the fact that the Kirkpatricks were just way ahead of the game and already had what would have been called an organic farm in Lewisville, Texas in the '70's. How awesome. I just read today in the Freakonomics blog that dairy cows who are named produce more milk...Uncle Harry would be proud that his naming every living thing was actually beneficial to the farm. Unfortunately I can't find my excellent memory book of him to provide examples of the newsletters he produced for the farm. I would have liked to think that the cows were very happy with Uncle Harry, except I think there was one that jumped in the pool? I'm not sure he was happy, but he was sure "free range"

Granola Muffin Recipe

2009-02-03T13:11:00.004-06:00

(adapted, but not copied from Alton Brown of the Food Network)

2 c. rolled oats

1/4 c. wheat germ

1/3 c. finely chopped nuts of choice (I used about 1/3 c. each of walnuts and pecans)

1/3 c. total of finely chopped dried fruit (I chose prunes, apricots, and cranberries because that's what I do have on hand and I feed these to Stephen regularly)

1 T. butter

1/3 c. honey

1/4. cup packed brown sugar

2 T. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Put oats, wheat germ, and nuts on sheet pan and toast for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. While that's going on, heat the butter, honey, brown sugar, and maple syrup in a pan on medium heat until the sugar and the butter are dissolved and the sauce comes together, then turn off heat. When toasting is done, turn oven down to 300. Mix all the ingredients together. Immediately spoon out in non stick muffin pans, but don't press down too much if at all. The more you press down the crunchier (and less chewy) the resulting granola muffin will be. Cook in the 300 degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool in muffin tin and then pry out with fork. Store in zip lock bag. My result was wonderful. I just had one for lunch. Made 8 muffins, but may make more or less depending on how much you compress the granola

Granola

2009-02-02T20:09:00.000-06:00

I'm in the middle of reading Omnivore's Delimma, which Sean read and then gave to me. It really is a wonderful book, but it made me realize how much high frutose corn syrup was in the stuff I was feeding Stephen, mainly granola bars. Granola bars are a great convenience food for us. This evening I made granola bars, although shaped by a muffin pan so as to make them much easier to get out. They were really quite easy and turned out quite well. I could add what I wanted to them, so I added dried fruit so as to up the nutritional value. We'll see if he'll eat them. I will. As a whole, Sean and I eat very healthy...I cook most of our meals and I make Sean lunch etc. We eat whole grains and the like, but we didn't acknowledge how much artificial stuff is in the stuff we do eat, like artificial sweetners. Sean is also on a kick to try to buy a side of beef from a Texas cattleman who grass feeds cattle--more natural as well as economical.

The trouble with trouble is that it is so fun

2009-01-28T11:24:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't been blogging as much as before and I promise to return to blogging more. :) The problem is Stephen moves so much it is impossible to get pictures of him anymore. (although I'm still holding out for a digital SLR later in the year that will hopefully solve some of this problem) He's so into everything that he doesn't really want to take a nap much :( , but that's ok. He does sleep at night perfectly and then wakes up and cuddles with us, which is very nice. We've cut his milk with water, and we've found that this helps his digestive system and he's hungrier for more foods. He eats everything and still loves tamales. I'm preparing now for my hip replacement at the end of February, which means I'm cleaning out my desk, putting a chair up in our bedroom, and generally getting things in order. Sean and I have both been working out more, which has made us both feel great. I have been doing the elliptical, bike and weight lifting at the gym and Sean's been running around the neighborhood more. Stephen participates when we walk with him around the high school, which he just LOVES to do and it gets him tires him out, which is hard to do.

Busted Lip

2009-01-19T09:56:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday, Stephen went running outside after Sean and fell on the brick sidewalk. He busted his lip, but he's ok. :)

Reading at Breakfast

2009-01-13T13:13:00.000-06:00

Stephen has decided that it is fun to read at breakfast along with mommy and daddy, who read the newspaper every morning. Here he is reading Business Week.

Feeding Himself

2009-01-12T11:54:00.000-06:00

This weekend, we experimented and Stephen was able to feed himself just a little by spoon. After this photo was taken, we moved him to the highchair, where he fed himself more. I highly recommend the series of childrearing books by Louise Ames Bates. The book on one year olds always makes me feel better after reading it. This weekend's highlight (paraphrased): if you think he is frustrating you so much, just think that he must be frustrated that he has so much to say and doesn't have the words with which to express himself. Chimps and children have much in common until 18 months of age. He had his 15 month appointment this morning. He is about the same weight and height as last appointment, but he is walking and they said not to really care that he hasn't gained weight since he is so mobile and burning so many calories. The next challenge: get rid of the bottle. ug.

More Photos from Christmas

2009-01-05T13:18:00.000-06:00

Walking in the Airport

2009-01-05T12:26:00.003-06:00

We are finally back from our two weeks in Houston and Miami celebrating Christmas with family. While Stephen loved every minute of it, I think he is ready to be back home. While he is still waking in the middle of the night because he is a little sick, he slept until about 7:15 this morning and went down easily last night. When we were in the airport traveling from Houston to Miami the day after Christmas, there was almost no one in the airport and Stephen LOVED walking from the security checkpoint to the gate and then when he got there, he wanted to walk some more...

Reading

2008-12-15T12:32:00.003-06:00

Again, I find myself not reading as much due to being a mommy. However, I have been reading LOTS of children's books to Stephen. One of the things that Stephen loves is to walk around with books. He'll pick up a book and then bring it to you to read to him. I now know almost all of our books by heart. One of his favorites is Fish Out of Water, which is like 60 (although small) pages long. And he wants to read it over and over. Sometimes, after the first or second reading, I'll say, "Why don't you read it to me?" and we look at the pictures together. I'm going to add these children's books to my reading list because I have read them so many times that I think it counts as more books.

On the move

2008-12-15T11:07:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted in a while since it is really hard to get a picture of Stephen when he is so mobile. Here's two of recent pictures. He had an ear infection last week, which was hard on all of us, but he is now better and eating more than ever. He ate a whole tamale on Saturday and just loves clementine oranges, pineapples, and of course, bread. I think he's looking forward to Christmas and seeing all the family. He likes walking around everywhere. Sean and I even taught him to put the clothes in the hamper, although he likes taking them out too. His favorite activity is walking around with something in his hand, anything really, from shoes, to blankets, to clothes to anything.

Also, I haven't posted because I've been spending time doing my wedding album as a present for Sean for Christmas. I was so impressed with the book from Blurb that Lilli gave to Stephen that I did my whole wedding album on it and I think it is going to turn out really well.

Stephen walks the line

2008-12-04T14:46:00.001-06:00

Stephen is holding a fork in this because it was just after dinner, and we got it out of his hands right after this video.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T20:14:00.002-06:00

We just returned from a nice Thanksgiving in Houston with Sean's family. While there, Stephen decided that he would rather walk than crawl, so that was really exciting. He also really got the hang of Thanksgiving---he ate a lot and watched football, although he wasn't all that thrilled with sitting and eating at a table, why would you, if you had just gotten the hang of being bipedal. I'll post a video soon; if I can catch him. :) Unfortunately, he's also decided that he'd rather walk than sleep at night alone, so Sean and I have had some sleepless nights, but hopefully he'll calm down enough to sleep in a while just like he had been doing.

Dental Update

2008-11-18T19:23:00.001-06:00

Stephen is getting his molars in addition to the eight teeth that he already has. That explains some of the eating habits of late (wanting pureed food more than before)

And he looks like his mom

2008-11-18T15:27:00.006-06:00

People ask us who does he look more like. We never knew what to say, so we usually said, "both". Well, the evidence is in and the verdict is that he looks like his mom...see for yourself...ok so maybe I'm biased.

Stephen

Shelby

Sean

More from the Joint Center for Housing Studies

2008-11-13T12:23:00.004-06:00

Quickly, this is from a paper entitled, "Eliminating Credit Barriers To Increase Homeownership: How Far Can We Go?" written by Stuart S. Rosenthal in August of 2001:

On balance, therefore, evidence suggests that there is room for further relaxation of borrowing constraints to expand access to homeownership. However, such efforts are likely to be more fruitful if attention is given to mortgage products that alleviate borrowing constraints in the early years of the mortgage [ie. option ARM] and if mortgage product innovation is coupled with policies designed to enhance the social and financial stability of families

Joint Center for Housing Studies

2008-11-13T10:55:00.003-06:00

In doing some random Googling, I came across the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. It is a collaboration between the Graduate School of Design (yaay---my sister Lilli graduated from the GSD), The Kennedy School of Government, and it looks like Economic and Sociology Departments within the broader Harvard University. It was really interesting to go around the site, although very time consuming and very academic, but they have some very interesting publications written before the housing crisis writing about the implications of relaxing credit for mortgages, the role of the FHA in increasing home ownership and many many others. In the background section of one paper, written by Albert Monroe in 2001, he described the start of the Great Depression and the FHA: [startling in light of the current crisis]

The banking crisis in the early 1930s forced lenders to call in the mortgages as they came due, and since all lenders were affected by the banking crisis, refinancing was not available and many borrowers were forced to default. Other borrowers became unemployed and could not make their mortgage payments, so lenders foreclosed on their homes. The situation was exacerbated as the weak economy caused property values to fall, moving borrowers into negative equity situations and giving them an incentive to default. In short, by 1934, many banks had numerous bad home loans on their books (loans for which the collateral—the home—was worth less than the value of the loan). Their lack of assets and their recent experience made them unwilling to extend new home loans.
Policy makers hoped that the FHA, by insuring mortgages, would jumpstart the market for home loans, thereby increasing housing starts and employment in the construction industry. The FHA revolutionized the mortgage market, not only by getting banks to start lending again, but also by changing (and standardizing) mortgage instruments and underwriting procedures. In particular, the FHA (Section 203b) insured 100 percent of qualified loans in case of default. At first, the FHA would qualify 20-year fully amortizable loans with an 80 percent LTV. Later, the FHA began to qualify 30-year loans with LTVs higher than 95 percent. The FHA’s 100 percent insurance was very important because at that time there did not exist reinsurance markets in which banks could reduce their home loan risk.

Pictures from Stephen's Birthday Photo Shoot

2008-11-10T09:16:00.005-06:00

These are from his photo shoot on his birthday...

Feeling very patriotic this week

2008-11-05T09:22:00.006-06:00

The American democratic process is something that the world envies. We have a peaceful, inclusive, transparent, and relatively quick process in which we all come together to let our views be known. Our regime change comes from us, as a people. I am so encouraged by the shear numbers of people who came out to vote, to be counted, and to be heard. 8 million people in Texas and 9 million people in California came out to vote. Virginia turn out was over 75%.

Stephen as Charlie Brown

2008-10-31T21:40:00.002-05:00

I took Stephen around Sean's office this afternoon to show him off. We also went to dinner this evening at a local Mexican restaurant. He was getting a little fussy, so they had a open air part where Stephen LOVED to watch the cars on the road. He kept saying "ga". I think he really liked seeing all the trucks on the road. Everyone got that he was Charlie Brown and thought it was so funny. He was the hit of the office and the restaurant. No trick or treating this year....no sugar for this already crazy baby. Thanks to Grandma Eidson for his wonderful shirt. She actually made another one for him and I think she plans to make even more in bigger sizes for him as he grows. Stephen got in the mood the other night when "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie" was on T.V.

Stephen likes his book from Aunt Lilli

2008-10-30T21:37:00.002-05:00

This evening, Stephen kept going to the end table and picked up his book from Aunt Lilli and kept reading it and reading it, for at least 15 minutes. :) Not only can he do collateralized debt obligations (one of the pages in the book), he can read at 1 year.

So Mad at Dish Network

2008-10-29T20:40:00.002-05:00

I called Dish Network this evening to ask about a charge on my bill, and perhaps have it taken off if it didn't need to be there. According to them, they have changed their "internal security measures" to not allow the spouse to talk about the account without the spouse's verbal consent. They did not notify their customers of this change by mail, email, or phone, but it took into account on August 1st of this year, apparently because the number of divorces and custody battles or some crap like that. There's no bit of information that I can give to them that proves that I am Sean's spouse and am authorized on the account, they won't take it. I am so livid to the point where I said that I may cancel the account, but they said that the account holder would have to do that. It makes me so livid because there's nothing that has changed in Sean's and my status between now and then, but that I was an authorized person on the account, and now I'm not. Being that I'm the person responsible for calling and doing all of this in our relationship, I should have the account in my name, but this was all done years ago. What happened to treating spouses as if they were married and made decisions together? Has the divorce rate made this an untrue assumption that makes it harder for married people to speak on their spouse's behalf?

I wonder if the change in security measures has pissed off more people than it has been meant to "protect" and perhaps it wasn't a good business decision because of this. I threaten to leave at least once a year to get better deals and usually get at least $5-20 off my bill at some point, sometimes more. I used to call the cable company and get their deal and then call Dish and go back and forth with who could give me the better deal on the set up that what we wanted. I said that their level of security was equivalent to loans taken out in one spouse's name that the other spouse has to be authorized to speak for that spouse who is on the loan documents. Given that the satellite company is not a mortgage broker and the security level is not even close to that level, it is quite ridiculous.

Ok, enough spouting off. Must eat.

Skeletons

2008-10-28T20:30:00.002-05:00

This picture was taken when Stephen was so tired. I had just finished putting on his really, really cute pj's that glow in the dark. He fell asleep about 5 minutes after. I went to my long awaited appointment with my hip replacement orthopedist yesterday. He said that I really did need a hip replacement, but he wanted me to fail more conservative treatment first (as per logical medical protocol). What that means is that I got a steroid injection into my hip yesterday to give me at least temporary relief. They numb the area before they put the shot in me, but they had to do about four or five numbing shots before they found the right spot. It really really hurt. I don't even like people or the dog touching me on my hip, it is the most tender spot on my body, and to have those shots really hurt. I looked afterwards and they finally shot me right where I have my scar from my surgery in 1980, no wonder why it hurt. Dr. Peters also got me on the calendar to have the hip replacement on February 25th of 2009, his first available time! I will have the surgery, which takes only about an hour(!), at the Carrell Clinic in Dallas, which is just north on 75 from Sean's office, only about 10 minutes from our house. I will stay in the hospital about 3-4 days and then be house-bound for 3 weeks, which is less than I thought. I guess that so many people have hip replacements, that they really have everything down...I have a phsyical therapist that will come to my house for 3-4 times/week post-op, a traveling nurse that will also house visit to make sure I don't get blood clots. Everything that I was trying to plan for just seems to be in the natural routine for them, which is very comforting actually.

I will say though that immediately after the shot yesterday, I did find some relief. For the first time in about a year, I didn't have to help my right leg into the car and I was able to sleep on my right side last night with no pain, which is excellent. I took a walk outside for the first time in about 2 months with Stephen and the dog this evening, and again, it felt really good. The shot is supposed to last about 6 weeks and will hopefully give me enough relief to return to some normal activity level: working out, taking care of Stephen, and just normal life.

Small Birthday party for Stephen and Kaitlyn

2008-10-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we had a small birthday party for Stephen and Aunt Kaitlyn, who turned 19 yesterday. We just had Sean's family and a few friends over. I felt like we had to do some traditional cake introducing! We cooked brisket and ribs and had homemade angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries, which was excellent. Homemade angel food cake is really quite good. Stephen mostly just ate the whipped cream, but he had a good time, and then a bath. He really didn't like the hat on him, so Kaitlyn held it in place for a couple of pictures. :)

Year Update

2008-10-17T08:26:00.002-05:00

Stephen received the cutest book for his birthday from his aunt Lilli. It is a children's book including the favorite pictures from this blog and follows the year including major things that happen in the world. He likes it very much. I just took Stephen to his one year well appointment yesterday and he is 20 pounds 10 ounces (20th percentile), 40th percentile in head circumference, and a whooping 92 percentile (31.5 inches) in height. He is long and lean and perfect. We both got flu shots and I'm feeling the side effects still, although they are better than last night when it just hit me like a freight train.

Stephen walks better than his mom

2008-10-14T16:23:00.000-05:00

We went to one of Sean's co-workers kid's first birthday party on Saturday. I thought there was going to be a bouncey house, but fortunately there wasn't. Stephen did find that he liked to push the birthday boy in his little car there, although he didn't like to go in the car himself. I was surprised at how fast he went. In other news, my hip is really hurting a lot these days. In the last week, it has gotten to the point where just taking care of Stephen while Sean went golfing on Sunday was so exhausting that I took a 1/2 hour nap after. Fortunately, I revived enough to go to another one of Sean's coworkers for dinner and pool, where Stephen had SO MUCH FUN with their seven year old twins. Sean's gone to Florida the rest of this week for business, so I'm single parenting and hopefully Stephen won't run me ragged. It is just hard getting up and down and making sure that everything is child proofed and he is safe. I did install child locks on some of the cabinets so that I don't have to continually tell him that that cabinet is not for babies. While I'm positive that some of my hurting is psychological, our dr. friend Brent also says that once the joint is bone on bone rubbing against each other, the degeneration and pain can increase really quickly.

Politics, Prose, and Blogging

2008-10-13T22:20:00.003-05:00

A recent comment on the Palin posting on this blog has gotten me to think about the appropriateness of a response and the purpose of this blog. While this blog does feature pictures, videos, songs, and stories of my child, husband, and myself, they are not the only things going on...from time to time, not very often, I will post political comments, comments about world events, and other random things. What happens in the world as well as how I feel about it is all a part of constructing a life worth living. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I expect readers to know that I don't intend to offend anyone.

Stephen's Slide Show

2008-10-13T13:32:00.003-05:00

Well, I was able to view it on YouTube, so I'll include it here unless and until YouTube takes it down....

Birthday and Brunch

2008-10-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to upload Stephen's slideshow from 7 months to a year, but one of the songs that I used, Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine, caused Youtube to ask about using copyrighted material. I wikipedied copyright issues and youtube and I found a case that is very similar to mine and I am in the process of challenging Youtube via an online form. I think I'm within the fair use guidelines of the copyright law, since I own the cd from which the song comes, I am not using it for commercial purposes, and I'm creating a slideshow, but we'll see. In the meantime, here's two pictures of Stephen. The first on his birthday during his photo shoot, and the second one this morning during an outing to a restaurant for brunch. He really liked the orange slice we gave him. Sean and I had a good time last night going to dinner and seeing the Stars hockey game, which they unfortunately lost in overtime.

A letter to Stephen on the eve of his first birthday

2008-10-09T12:09:00.003-05:00

Stephen,

This week has been tough for you...you had a stomach bug that made you throw up over me and then when you got over that, you seem to have had trouble with the four teeth that you are getting all at the same time. You are a little bothered by this, but you have seemed to still sleep through the night, except for that bad Friday night when you wouldn't sleep except with your parents, which you haven't done since you were a newborn and wow, you just constantly move in your sleep and wake us up. We know you are just dealing with all the changes that are happening---becoming bipedal takes work and energy and babbling and expressing yourself is difficult when you don't know the words or how to tell us you want something. We are impressed with your obvious love of things: swinging, swimming, and a new one: the vacuum. You are your parents, both good and bad, in a mini-sized package. We look forward to your second year and how you will change...I know you will be running around soon and transitioning to eating by yourself. Your daddy is looking forward to sharing this Christmas with you...we know that you will love the boxes and unwrapping, but that you won't like that there are boxes there for you under the tree you will not be able to have yet. Soon you will not need mommy except when you are tired, bored, sick, need a new diaper, hurt...ok, so you will need mommy a lot. You are very demanding, but most times, I love to be needed. You have made our lives more...more complicated, more busy, more tired, more debt (house project mainly), more beautiful, more enriching, and more amazing. We love you,

Mommy and Daddy

First Steps: Evidence

2008-09-29T10:23:00.002-05:00

Stephen recreated his first VERY wobbly steps on Saturday morning before we had all gotten dressed.

Milestones

2008-09-26T17:09:00.000-05:00

Sean doesn't believe it because Stephen didn't walk for him, but Stephen did take a couple of steps on his own yesterday. We got him a walker and he's walking around now with it. When I first tried for a picture with it, he let go and stood on his own for a couple of seconds.

My entire life is being blogged

2008-09-23T15:04:00.003-05:00

I was looking for outfits for Stephen for his photo shoot, yes you read that right, he is getting a photo shoot for his one year birthday with a friend of a friend. Anyway, I found this infant shirt and thought it was pretty accurate.

This weekend

2008-09-22T14:16:00.002-05:00

We had a fabulous visit with David this weekend, really just spending time with one another and hanging out. We had a great homemade chicken pot pie on Friday night with our friends Sarah and Eric Bell and then had a great steak dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday night, Sean and I went to a co-worker's house to watch the football game and have some burgers. I put Stephen to sleep in a spare bedroom. About 15 minutes later some other person found him on a level below the bedroom. He had woken up, crawled downstairs and just was sitting there crying. He didn't seemed to have hurt himself getting down the stairs. We've been showing him how to go feet first; I guess he went down that way this time. Needless to say, we were very shaken and went home and put him to bed. I think every parent has this moment as "oh my god, my kid is that mobile, I need to be so careful." I've heard stories about kids crawling out of cribs and coming to their parents. I just didn't think we were there yet.

What is old is new again

2008-09-18T10:40:00.004-05:00

Stephen fits into Sean's old jelly's from when he was a kid. His shirt says Mr. Mischief. He looked so cute going to the park again yesterday.

Campaign 08: Soap Opera or Broadway Musical?

2008-09-16T12:51:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous Post Ike weather

2008-09-15T17:07:00.008-05:00

It is below 80 degrees and just gorgeous, so Stephen and I went to the park this afternoon. I think this picture is one of the cutest of him. There were tons of people there at the local park. I got "advice" from a bystander mom saying that I was swinging him too high in the swing, but I said, "thanks" and just left her to think that I was endangering my child, so what, he loves it. I should have shown her how he likes to be hung upside down too...that would have scared her to death.

Stephen in the kitchen

2008-09-15T15:50:00.004-05:00

I took a bunch of these type pictures from this weekend. He likes to take things out of drawers, but hasn't figured out how to put things back in, that is, except himself...

Feeling a little guilty

2008-09-15T09:21:00.003-05:00

I saw the newborn photos of some friends today that they had professionally taken and they look great. I'm feeling a little guilty about thinking of not having Stephen's first birthday party be grand (maybe just a breakfast and a hat) and going out for our 4th anniversary instead (same day and time as Stephen's birth). Sean was telling me of a very grand 1st birthday party including a bouncey house. Also feeling guilty that we haven't had the standard Dallas professional photo shoot for our baby. I thought about opening it up to the readers of the blog using the poll feature. All votes are confidential :)

Random Postings

2008-09-12T12:41:00.004-05:00

I have a bunch of random stuff, so I thought I'd collect it all into one post:

-for the last couple of weeks, Stephen has been coming into our bed and snuggling at 6am to 7am. Its so nice and it allows all of us to get more sleep and reminds me of when I was little. We have discovered that he only likes it for an hour, so coming into bed at 5am does not work and leaves everyone tired.

-Stephen is such a boy, he's started to really like cars. He's moved on from some of the younger toys to cars, trucks, and such. Its amazing that gender specific toys are favored so young.

-I saw a bumber sticker on a car yesterday that said, NObama08

-I think our city thinks that we recycle too much and were tired of seeing our blue bags. (Yes, they actually do care about the asthetics of the alleyways, why I don't know) We used to place our blue recycling bags next to the dumpster out in the alley and they would pick them up. We now have a dumpster in the alley that is exclusively for recyclables. YAAY.

-My in-laws have already made it out of Houston, they had already planned to go to Notre Dame to see Kaitlyn play soccer, but I hope that all the other family and friends in Houston are safe and/or out of there.

-Happy Birthday to my husband today. I love you.

I'm 11 months and I like to move it!

2008-09-11T09:07:00.002-05:00

Future Executive Part 2

2008-09-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend, Stephen helped Grandpa Eidson with some computer work. We enjoyed having Summer, Jon, Nancy, and Frank this weekend. Unfortunately Stephen has a cold at the moment and is a little under the weather, but we had fun none-the-less.

Palin Political Post

2008-09-04T16:27:00.004-05:00

I'm trying not to judge Sarah Palin's personal life (not doing well on that), but it does reflect on her, just like Bill Clinton's personal life reflected on him. I once heard that the definition of integrity was being the same person in the public eye as in private. If the private life is not in good order, or at least in chaos, then it makes everything harder. The good things: She breastfeeds that 5 month old baby and takes him to work with her, although I'm not sure that taking your 5 month old into work with you is the most professional.

My view: She's going to be outclassed...and not because of her personal life.

I looked up her education because I hadn't heard anything about it. She transferred to three smallish colleges before graduating from the University of Idaho in journalism and a MINOR in political science. She was a sports reporter for a while before getting pregnant. She got to be mayor of her small town of 9,000 because she had lived there all her life and was president of the PTA. Note: just shows how all politics is local.

Both my parents come from small towns, and Sean comes from a smallish to mid size city. All three of them are proud of where they came from, as they should be as it made them who they are. They have all three left though because they knew that there was much more out there to see and do.

I don't necessarily care whether or not she can hunt, but I do care about whether or not she has put any thought into Israel and the rest of the Middle East, what she thinks about immigration reform, even what she reads...is she smart? Does she surround herself with smart people who guide her? She made a comment last night that she may not believe in all of the protections of the fourth amendment of search and seizure protections. Why not? It would seem to me that in a wild west state of Alaska, one might be fearful of the government takings, of land, of gun etc.

Constructing a Life

Constructingalife.com

Colors

And he's out like a light

Dallas Aquarium

What a week

Not Sick Anymore

Big changes coming

Wedding in Atlanta, toddler style

To the book store

Sunday Night at the Park with Friends

Eating at the Table

Tricycle

I'm an aunt and other milestones

Busy Weekend of Fun in Houston

One more golf picture from Top Golf

More Top Golf Stories

Top Golf

Official First Word

Return of the Video

Curls

Family Time

On the verge of greatness

While Sean is away

Milestones

Weekend of Water and Soccer

Homemade Pizza

Water Fun

Cool Thursday

I know I'm cute

Homegrown Tomatoes

Rings on Fingers, Rings on Thumbs

Stephen's Chair

Library of Congress on Flickr

Stephen and Emmy: BFF's in the making

Tears, Graduations, Illness, and Dogs

National Arthritis Foundation Walk

Photography

Trip to Virginia

Busy

First Saturday at Nasher Sculpture Garden

Swimming

Rainy Day at Northpark

Spring Cleaning a Life

Easter

This one is for Grandpa....Dreaming of the Masters, or Future Golfer

Love's Recovery

Guest Blogger: Lilli Smith

Bionic Woman

Stephen is not alone

Stephen Dances and Mommy Walks

Just the three of us

Hip update

Teeth and Hips

At the Beach

Future Olympian

Best of Bath Time

On the Farm

Granola Muffin Recipe

Granola

The trouble with trouble is that it is so fun

Busted Lip

Reading at Breakfast

Feeding Himself

More Photos from Christmas

Walking in the Airport

Reading

On the move

Stephen walks the line

Thanksgiving

Dental Update

And he looks like his mom

More from the Joint Center for Housing Studies

Joint Center for Housing Studies

Pictures from Stephen's Birthday Photo Shoot

Feeling very patriotic this week

Stephen as Charlie Brown

Stephen likes his book from Aunt Lilli

So Mad at Dish Network

Skeletons