My Life in Toddlertown

3.09.2011

Mardi Gras

We got a last minute invite to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and we jumped on it. We took Ward and Ann Park and had an amazing time. I think that we are going to reserve our room for next year as well. And maybe Jeanne and I will ride on Iris. If I can rally. I am not good at rallying. But here are some of the pictures. It rained on Saturday afternoon, but it didn't slow the kids down and it certainly did not limit the amount of loot that my kids came home with. More stuffed animals than I know what to do with!

Throwing poppers is so much fun!

Ward and Tripp in the ladder waiting for the parade to start!

So excited for the beads!

This is so much fun!!!

Toilet sunglesses - what else could a boy want?

A little wet, but look at all of our stuff!

ready to go!

On Sunday the kids got to go with Uncle Martin to the Proteus Den where they keep all the floats. They got to climb on them and Martin gave them some special throws!

The weather was much better on Sunday and we hit one more parade before we had to go home.

Happy Mardi Gras!!!!!!!

Throw me somethin mister!

So fun! Bye bye New Orleans! See you next time!

Ash Wednsday

Today is Ash Wednesday.
The beginning of Lent.
40 days to prepare for the Ressurection.

The traditional way to think about Lent is through praying, fasting and almsgiving. And I think that most adults these days focus only on the fasting - i.e. "giving something up" for the next 40 days. But that is only 1/3 of the formula, and really I think the easiest part. So I am challenging myself to practice a complete Lent for these next 40 days.

I have been struggling trying to explaint Lent to Ward and Ann Park. I knew that they had been talking about it at school, but how do you really explain something like Lent to a 6 and 4 year old? I went to "school mass" this morning with Ward and Ann Park, and the homily was short, but to the point. The priest challenged the kids to be the eyes, hands, and feet of God. What a cool thing to think about, and a good way to help them in their Lenton journey. Do as God would do . . . wouldn't he pray, make sacrifices and give to those less fortunate than us? So that will be our family focus for these next 40 days. What is yours?

Hiatus

I took a much needed hiatus (is that how you spell it?) from the blogging world. I didn't even read that many blogs in the past month, which is really saying something for me. I spent yesterday catching up with all the funny people on the internet that I follow, including some friends of mine (while I was supposed to be working, of course). Then I realized that it had been over a month since I had posted anything here. What have we been doing? Some good, some bad. Here is a quick rundown:

I went to Atlanta and had a great girls weekend (thank you Ted). On Friday night I stayed with a great friend from college and on Saturday and Sunday I hung out with two of my favorite people in the world (girls from law school). I love how with real friends, time spent apart doesn't matter. We picked right up like we had just been together. Oh and Angela and I left our hotel in the middle of the night because of the reeking of something burned to cover up the completely obvious smell of marijuana coming from the room next to us. Whatever it was burned up my eyes - literally, I could not stop crying until we left that place.
Ward and Ann Park got the flu. The day I came home from Atlanta, Ward had 105. Went to doctor and despite the flu mist/shot, they both got it. Ward got Tamiflu and vomited it up for a few hours, which only made the flu worse. Thankfully, Ward was over it in about 4 days but Ann Park had fever for 10 days. And Ted was out of town for a lot of those flu days.
While the kids were recovering, however, we got to go to Grey Rocks for an adult-only weekend for Ted's birthday with two of our favorite couples. I laughed and laughed (and drank a little too much wine). Ted was in rare form. It was a blast.
Then Sam came down with a cold. A bad cold. I think that it might have been worse than the flu. He still has it. We are going on week 4 now. Poor guy.
Then I caught the cold. And Ted. No fun. No sleep either.

BUT then we got some GOOD news. Jeanne and Martin's friends had cancelled on them last minute for Mardi Gras. We hopped on the free place to stay and took Ward and Ann Park. That is a whole other post. For later. Gotta get to work.

2.03.2011

BIG boy!

I can't believe that I am actually writing this, but Sam has slept in his big boy bed for the past two nights! We took the crib out and put some shelves in for all his toys. He is only 20 months!!! The reason we did it so early was because he was getting his foot caught in the railings and screaming about it - he could get it through but couldn't get it back out. He was also attempting to climb out (I could see him on the video monitor) but never quite got that, thank goodness. So I got the rails out from the attic and we gave it a go. And he LOVES it. It is pretty much like a huge crib with tiny little rails but he is so happy. So much more room for him to sit and play which is nice for me too since I don't go get him as soon as he wakes up. And there is so much more room in his bedroom with the crib gone. This morning we put on some of his favorite music and had a dance party! As you can tell, music and dancing are common themes with Sam!!

1.31.2011

Videos fixed

Okay I think that I fixed the videos. They were automaically marked private for some reason. I think it is because I have You Tube on the highest privacy settings. Let me know if you still can't see them!

1.27.2011

The bird hunter

As I am going through random stuff on the video camera, I found a jewel. A couple of weekends ago, we put new birdseed in our bird feeders and the birds flocked. Ward decided that it was the perfect time to go "bird hunting." Ted apparently went outside to check out what he was doing. Oh and by the way, he was using the toy bow and arrow - the arrow has a suction cup on the end!

Dancin Man

Tonight the kids were in particularly good moods and daddy had a few beers before coming home from work so he too was in a good mood. Ward and Ann Park were listening to their iPods that they got for Christmas and Sam just had to get in to the mix. I think that Ward gave him his to listen to (while he wanted us to watch his new cada from karate) and Sam started dancing. I mean really dancing. It was so funny and I tried to capture it on video. The other kids are trying to get our attention throughout the video so it is a little distracting, but I hope that you get a laugh out of it. His movements are so stiff it just cracks me up. Of course it would be funnier if we could hear the music . . . or maybe not. I love that he is just in his own little world, totally oblivious to what is going on around him!

I don't really have much to say and haven't for the past few weeks. However, today I am really excited because Ted is going to be finishing up with 13 briefs that he (and some others) have due today. He has to go to Texas next week and argue them, but completing them was a huge task (especially since he is the lead person on the case) and they have pretty much been consuming all moments of his time for a while. Even when he is not working on them, I know that he is thinking about them (or at least thinking about the fact that he needs to be working on them!). Texas doesn't have electronic filing, which is a good thing in my perspective because Ted has to get them to local counsel before 5 pm today, instead of having until midnight to get them done.

I am also proud of him. He has handled the whole thing with grace and without much stress. I, on the other hand, would have been a complete basketcase - a total stressball - and would have made my life as well as the lives of those around me pretty miserable. I certainly don't give him enough credit for the way he handles the daily stresses as work and then comes home and is a great dad. Lately, of course, he has gone straight to the computer as soon as the kids are in bed, so I would really like my husband back. But I can't complain. He is the greatest. And I am so lucky.

1.24.2011

Outdoors

As most of you know, our favorite weekend place in the world is Grey Rocks Ranch. We have been going there every free weekend for a while now - definitely since Ted and I were married. The kids love it, but it has especially grown on Ward. He is consumed by all things outdoors - quail hunting, duck hunting, deer hunting, fishing - even just driving around looking for animals is a real treat for him. This love for nature (and the fun sports that surround it) has also made him closer to his daddy and granddaddy. I feel warm inside knowing the memories they are making together and the bonding that is occuring between them during those periods of hunting.

Ward got a bow and arrow for Christmas, but it was really a toy and was quickly broken. Ted decided that he was ready for his first compound bow and arrow and ordered one off the internet, after a failed attempt at buying one from Mark's Outdoors. (Note: never tell a child that you are going to a store to buy them something because when that store doesn't have it the disappointment is awful.) Once it arrived I realized how real it was - he could definitely kill a small, or probably large, animal with that thing. He got a chance to shoot at a deer target at Grey Rocks this weekend and had the time of his life. I think that he has told me at least 15 times that he shot it in the heart! Go Ward!

Ready . . .

Aim . . . .

Fire!!

1.13.2011

Snow day . . . or should I say ice?

On Sunday night and early Monday morning, the ice and some snow hit Birmingham. I was so thankful that we didn't lose power. It made the whole experience so much better. All I could think about was the storm in 1992 when we didn't have power for days and I was so frozen to the core of my body. Thank goodness mom and dad now have a maxed-out generator. I think that I woud have walked to their house if need-be.

But back to 2011. The kids had the best time. It wasn't unbearbly cold, mainly because it wasn't very windy, so the kids could really enjoy what little snow we got. I think that their favorite part by far was sledding. The sleds were trashed (literally) by the end of the day, but were so much fun! The ice was so slick, they could really get going, even with a small incline.