First Day of 2nd Grade

Monday was the first day of 2nd grade for the twins. They are still in the Dual Language Program at South Knoll.... they get half of their instruction in Spanish and half in English. They have two teachers... Spanish: Mrs. Luna, and English: Mrs. Gallagher. They are super excited to start school again and see all their friends. But, I think Cal's a little worried that it's going to get harder. This morning he got a little weepy and said, "But I just want to stay home and be with you." Sweet boy.

David woke up ready to go to school that morning and was so so so sad that he had to stay home.... until he was back home alone with ALL the Legos, Wii, computer, and Sonic toys all to himself!!! 

We are super blessed that our cousins are still at South Knoll with us! Chloe went on to 5th grade at a different school. But, Phoebe is in 3rd grade and Isaiah started Kinder. It won't be long until David and Jude start Kinder.... sniff sniff. 

Here's to a wonderful and blessed school year!!

David... Age 3

David turned 3 on May 14th. Like his brother, Calloway, 3 is proving to be more challenging than those Terrible Twos! David is such a boy... he loves anything rough and tough.... dirty and gross.  But, I find a little Patti in him too.... he likes things clean and neat (well, to his standards at least).

He loves Spiderman, Superman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario and Legos!  His favorite show right now is Peppa Pig. His favorite movie is Toy Story 3 and Ninjago.

I have a hard time getting this boy to eat... but, his favorite snacks are goldfish, fruit snacks (he's picky about what characters), and he loves apples and bananas. He can drink a gallon of chocolate milk a day.

Because of his older brother and his friends, David is terrified of the dark, Zombies, Ghosts and Vampires. I've done my best to explain that they aren't real... and every once in a while, you can hear David say, "They aren't real... Jesus will protect me."  He begs to go to Chuck E Cheese, but once there, he screams and cried because he's afraid of Chuck E Cheese. He'll even tell himself (in between sobs), "I'm not scared... it's just a costume." Because of all the drama, he is attached to my arms. I can't complain too much... it won't last forever. But, it's hard when I need to get dinner ready.

He's so smart... and so loving. He adores Cal and Patti... but, he also loves to fight and argue with them as well. They are good about playing the Wii together... David's favorite Wii game is Super Smash Brothers Brawl (sounds like such a wholesome sweet game huh?). It's crazy how good at it he is... he'll even beat Daniel (fair and square).

The boy loves to sing Eye of the Tiger... it's so stinkin' cute!

Here are some of his favorite phrases:

"Mommy, I want to cuddo (cuddle) wif you."

"It's not wet, it's drive."

"Where's Caddoway?"

"MOMMY!?"

"Can I want waffles?"

"Can I want chocolate milk?"

"My tummy's choking me." (I think this means he's burping?)

"But.... but.... but..... "

(When he prays... ) "Thank you for God... Mommy. Thank you for God... Daddy. Thank you for God... "

(Eye of the Tiger) "I have the tiger... "

"Mommy, my Wii-mote needs batteries."

There's no way it's already July! Oh my. Well, Cal and Patti finished 1st grade... they had a wonderful year. David is so happy to have them back home all day! I noticed that I skipped David's birthday in May... poor third child. So, he turned 3 May 14th. I'll try to blog later this week about what a little character this boy is. Be prepared... he's a mess!

After school was out, we took a trip to South Padre. It ended up being a terrible trip, but I won't go into all that. Daniel and I had both gotten sick, but I really wanted to try and get a few good pictures on the beach. Despite my grumpiness behind the camera, I was able to get a few genuine smiles out of the kids. 

Outside one of our favorite restaurants in Port Isabel....

After we got home, I tried again to get some more pictures of the kids... another failed attempt. As soon as we got to the park, we were swarmed by mosquitos. It was downhill from there. The kids scratched and complained the whole time... I got attacked as well... so I was sympathetic and we went home. I did get a couple cute ones though.

Happy Monday!

Happy birthday to Patti and Calloway!

I said that I'd never do this... never ever show my belly pictures to anyone (much less blog them). But, I just can't help it. My sweet babies just turned 7 today! And, this momma can't help but try to remember the feeling of them moving around in my belly... trying to guess who was who. What an amazing miracle. So, I went through all my old pictures this morning... and I found these. Whoa! That's it... just whoa. Don't have much else to say about this picture (I think I still had 7 weeks to go in that second picture... it was taken March 3, 2005).



I remember this picture like it was yesterday. It had been a long 12 hours... labor just didn't progress, I started running a fever, Cal's heart rate was dropping, and then I had to have an emergency c-section. When the doctor came in to give me the "we might have to do a c-section speech", I quickly stopped her and told her, "I don't care what you have to do... take them out through my mouth if you have to... just get them out!!!" Once I heard both their cries.... pure peace.



They were one in this picture... I would do anything for three minutes with them like this again (just three though)!

And here we are today... precious babies. I love them so.

Patti is still as sweet as always... maybe even sweeter. I see a little more boldness in her step these days. But, she's still tender and loving. She cried this morning because she didn't want to go to 2nd grade... she still doesn't like change. She's an angel.

Calloway is just precious. Oh that boy... he just has to smile at me and I'd buy him the world. He's growing up though... bittersweet. He's too cool to hug and kiss me in front of his friends, but the first to crawl in my lap when he sees it vacant. He's a love.

I'm still here...

I can't believe that I haven't blogged since Halloween. A dear friend of mine, Lee Cole, passed away on Christmas Eve. You may have seen some of her comments here on my blog. She loved reading this and would always be on my case to blog more often.... in fact, she'd leave me comments or email me and tell me that my blogging "sucked." Ha... there was nothing subtle about Lee. It has just been so hard starting up again knowing she wouldn't be reading this. I miss her so much.

I have a lot of catching up to do... November through March. Yikes. You know what, I think I'm just going to just start in April. There's lots going on over the next couple of months... I'll be plenty busy just keeping up with what's going on now :)

Cal has started up baseball again... he's in the Junior Minors (machine pitch) and is on the Iron Pigs (he wasn't too excited about his team name). He's really good, but he lacks that competitive edge... which drives Daddy nutso. David is obsessed with baseball... he has to wear Cal's old jersey and hat to every practice and he takes his "baseball team glove" and ball with him too! I think he named his team the Sonic Mickey Mouse Baseball Team... I love it!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun Halloween we've had, but I am SO glad it's over. Whew. Next year, I need to remember to plan early.

The kids got to dress up as their favorite book character for school. Cal was Skippyjon Jones... a Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua. Patti was, of course, Fancy Nancy. I had so much fun getting their costumes together. Thanks to my sweet friend, Angela, who at the last minute made a fabulous Skippyjon cape and helped me make those fabulous ears. Oh, and about those ears.... Cal hated them. Wouldn't wear them. Little stinker said that they looked like bunny ears (okay, maybe they kind of did). David had to get his Superman cape on and be a part of the party too.

Later that day, Patti was feeling this whole dress-up thing and decided to get the face paint out. She painted Cal's face (I had to bribe him with 50 cents to participate.... correction, happily participate). Sorry, didn't get any pictures of Cal. Then, David begged to have his face painted. Patti quickly obliged.

And then, Patti really wanted to have her face painted. I jokingly volunteered David to paint it... they both agreed that was a tremendous idea!

And finally, Halloween! I just wasn't in the "Halloween" mode this year. I took Patti to Target and we picked out her costume and Cal's costume. She was a little Senorita and Cal was an Ice Wolf Ninja. David's costume was dug out of the dress-up clothes the day of. I have to admit, they were pretty stinkin' cute!