Our Persisting Memories

This has not been a good week for things around our house. A lot of things have been broken for some reason, within a matter of days! The week isn't even over yet either! Here is the list so far: toilet handle in guest bathroom my precious Neti Pot child lock on TV entertainment center both outlets in master bathroom on/off switch to carpet vacuum I am nervous for my house! Hope nothing else breaks....at least my sense of humor hasn't!

Heather has already explained that Phoebe loves pockets. Phoebe not only loves putting things in her pockets but also having her hands in her pockets as she travels about the house. This backfired on her today. She had some little girl jeans on with pockets that barely fit even her tiny hands. She had to work to get her hands in there. Unfortunately she also had to work for a second to get her hands out of her pockets. Any parent of a toddler knows they fall over periodically as their excitement outpaces their coordination. She tripped with her poor little hands in her little pockets. She couldn't brace herself while falling and kissed the carpet. Poor little dear. I heard a very very sad cry start then I picked her up and comforted her. She wasn't very hurt, just embarrassed at her loss of dignity.

Phoebe has discovered the power of pants and shorts with pockets. She enjoys walking around with her hands in her pockets, looking very cute as she is doing it, or stuffing what she can into them. Phoebe will tend to get confused if she is in pajama pants or other bottoms that have no pockets. She circles herself and pats her legs looking for them saying "pocket?! pockets?!" Just yesterday she was walking around in only a diaper. She took some little magnet animals she had and stuffed them down the front of her diaper. She proudly looks up at her daddy with her big gap toothed grin and says "POCKET!" At least she didn't have a poopy diaper at the time.

It should come as no surprise, with my family, that I am making a post labeled 'Drama Queen'. This time it is about Phoebe. She had her 2 year well check earlier this week and received 2 shots, one in each leg. I am honest and up front with my children about shots, so when she was about to get it I told her it was going to be "a pinch that would hurt, and then be an owie". She only cried for less than a minute and was fine after that--what a trooper! However, the rest of the week has been another story. Her legs still ache, one more so than the other, and so she has reason to complain. She will wake up from a nap with a twisted, sad face saying "owie, owie". I found her squatting on the floor the other day, grabbing her legs rocking back and forth, mumbling in a whiny voice "owiw, owie, owie" over and over again. And then she jumps up all happy and runs off to play! She continues to bring it up at random times in a day and will pat her le...

Phoebe is 2 years old now. She is changing rapidly. Words, sentences, questions, phrases, and the ever present squeal still endlessly flow from her little mouth. Any new word or phrase she experiences will inevitably be repeated until she is satisfied that she can recreate it. Sometimes the process is labored for her but in the end she ends up saying something. She's a joy to be around. It's the exultant squeal of delight from Phoebe that makes me love coming home after a day at work. I'll let Heather post about her Birthday party since her perspective of the day was different than mine (I spent most of my time making BBQ chicken). I just wanted to wish Phoebe a happy birthday. 61034|640

38713|640 We don't have a July 4th tradition. We do whatever we feel like doing any given year. Last year we visited family in Bryan Texas, and I managed to get some good shots of the fireworks (see above). This year they were otherwise occupied (Samuelson family reunion). One of our neighbors had approached us with an idea. Block party. Sounds fun. It would only take a few grills, some shade, and some neighborly spirit to throw one together. He talked to enough people however that it quickly became a rather large party. They closed down our street, put up some bounce houses, water slides, and our neighbor labored for days building a large misting gazebo of sorts. 60855|400 60837|400 60831|400 The kids had a blast and it was nice to get to know our neighbors better. At the same time the day was very very hot. I admittedly spent at least half the time indoors. I also didn't share my grilling skills with the neighbors. My grill was too busy cooking 4 racks of spare ri...

As BJ mentioned in a previous post, we won a weekend night stay at the Westin Stonebriar Resort and breakfast for two. We attended a NICU reunion for Phoebe a week before our vacation and submitted our names for the prize drawings, having no idea what they were. When we got back in town it was my birthday that weekend. We had a stack of mail and I waited until Sunday, my actual birthday, to open it all. In the pile was the gift certificate and a card from one of the nurse managers congratulating us on winning the grand prize from the drawing. What a nice birthday surprise, huh? Plus, our 7 year anniversary was only one week away so it couldn't have come at a better time! We cashed in on our prize this last weekend and we had a blast! The room (standard guest with king size bed) was nicely decorated with plenty of room for us. We checked in and left to walk The Shops at Legacy for a place to eat. We found a small sea food place called Half Shells. They are popular for thei...

The heading of this post is how Sophia pronounces Sorcerer. I don't know where this "sorcerer" stuff came from. She rushed up on me a few weeks ago with no shirt on and just pajama pants and yelled "I'm a swor-sor-rwar!" Of course, it took me a moment to even realize what the heck she said she was. It has since progressed to "sor-sor-roar". It HAS to be pajama pants, and she HAS to have her shirt off to be a sorcerer. She loves to do sorcerer poses if you ask her..... 60933|400 60915|400

We have these tall, 3 tier white stacking bins where we store the girls' toys. A few weeks ago Sophia (and therefore Phoebe) discovered she could climb to the top tier and then reach anything on the nearest counter. This past Sunday she discovered this small space we have in between the wall and the stacking bins. I stored a pop up crawl through tunnel back there. She climbed into the space (and therefore Phoebe did too). We were able to get this sweet pictures of the girls standing on the tunnel and peeking their heads over the edge. This picture is PRE-injury.... 60867|400 60800|400 I had to go to Urgent Care for a foot problem and when I got back Sophia had THIS on her forehead. POST-injury.... 60897|400 BJ said she slipped and smacked her head on the corner of the toy bin. Thankfully it wasn't her eye and was just in between her eyes. And I am also thankful she didn't need stitches. It was small, but deep. She is still swollen but it has scabbed over and is a...

I was attempting to clean up the kitchen after dinner and the girls, like usual, were under foot. I asked BJ if he could take the girls out and play with his RC car to get them out of the way. He couldn't because of a battery issue. So my reply to him was "Aw, BJ, you're breaking my heart." Sophia comes running up to me and says sweetly, but very matter of factly, "Daddy broke your heart. I am going to fix it!" And gives me a kiss on the arm. Love that kid!