Oh Maggie

Shhhhhhhhhh!

Your guess is as good as mine as to why she really really likes to shush people right now. Its mostly sweet/funny. It's also understandable - #3 trying to create a space where she can get a word in edgewise.

Trampoline time

The new cheese face - she is a HAM.

iphone selfies w/ Daddy

We did a little experiment a few weeks ago where we skipped her nap. It backfired. She would fall asleep somewhere (preferably car or back of Kyle's bike on our really rough/bumpy neighborhood roads) at around 4:30 or 5:00. And let me tell you that even 20-30 minutes of sleep at that time of day made bedtime even harder than 1-2 hours in the early afternoon. No good. So, we're back to a normal napping schedule, but we limit her to 1 hour and it has seemed to help. That and no more daylight savings time.

We still love Pip and Posey, but these have been her two favorite books for the past 4-6 weeks - we keep re-checking them out from the library. I finally turned them in last week and Maggie handled it surprisingly well, saying "We see them again, sometime". Both are super sweet and I think we both have every word memorized, plus her commentary. We pretty much read them daily before her nap - she'd lay on me (in my closet, where her tent it - its quite a picture) - this is the type of parenting moment I want to remember!

More hamming it up for the camera - the big smile head tilt look is so in right now.

If you pay attention you can tell if Marisela (our wonderful babysitter) has been around. If she hasn't, Maggie's hair is either just down or in a pony-tale. If "Sella" has been around she has elaborate twists and braids. This is what they look like after a full day of playing.

And some trike riding. I can't tell whether she prefers the trike or her glider bike right now - they both get used a lot.

Yelling: Outta my way!

WPDS official school photo for 2014-15

More moments from life w/ Maggie:

• I'm sure I've mentioned this before but she's obsessed w/ my iPhone - and surprisingly she's the only kiddo in our family who really cares about it (which is good)! She's also the best at navigating it. Her favorite thing to do with it right now (other than watch videos of herself and the other kids on it) is to put it in camera mode and walk around taking pictures or sometimes must pretending to take them. She says: Say cheese eh-body! (pretend snap) Ooooh, good one! 
• For her 2nd birthday some friends gave her a little wooden Melissa/Doug puzzle set w/ 3 bears that you can dress in different clothes. It sat on our toy shelf for a while but for the past 4 months or so she has been obsessed with it. They are her bears. As in, where my bears go? Hang(d) on momma, got to get my bears! We allow her to have books in bed at night (in an attempt to keep her in bed when she's not quite tired) and her bears somehow made the cut-off too. What's amazing to me is that it has a lot of pieces and even though she carries it all over the house at multiple points during the day she has managed to keep up with them all - I think she actually cares. Her favorite is putting all 3 bears into their jammies before bedtime. 
• When something is not okay (she, ahem, poops in her undies; or spills milk - don't cry) she sticks her hand out (stop-in-the-name-of-love style) and says Isss okay, Is OKAY!!!
• When something happens that she doesn't like (e.g. spills milk) she says Not again!!! (I especially find this funny because its usually the first time - at least in a while, maybe ever.)
• Apparently I like to smell her when she gets out of the bath because the other day she saw me right after a shower and she said Oooooh momma...momma all keen? I'onna smell you!!! (sniffs my wet hair) Ooooh, smells good! All keen!!! I could repeat that every day and be happy. 
• Very into familial titles - likes to talk about my sister, my brother. This is Owen, he's my brother. This is Rebecca, she my sister. Also knows Kyle and I's real first names. So funny to hear her use them. (Ask my mom - I went through a phase at about 3? where I called my parents Stan and Becky.)
• You probably know this but each of the kiddos have "their song" - a hymn Kyle and I picked for them when they were born. But in practice Maggie's song is the first stanza of each of the three - makes sense - since she has heard us sing O and R's songs probably just as much as hers. So, for Maggie her song is "Fountain-Dodabud-Bision." (Come thou Fount of Every Blessing = Fountain, Before the Throne of God Above = Dodabud, Be Thou My Vision = Bision). I asked her the other day who these songs were all about. Her response: Uhhhh, Micky?  
• Even when something is exactly like she says things like Um, its kinda like purple...It's kinda like apple. 
• When she's doing something she isn't supposed to and I ask her about it she says: Its noffing momma, it's noffing. 

Miss Geanine

I don't have many pictures because its just part of real life, but I'd like you to meet Geanine! We have had the pleasure of having her in our guest room since September. She was an intern w/ our church for 2 years and is currently support raising so she can move to Atlanta to work for a nonprofit that works with people coming out of the sex trafficking industry. We'd love to keep her through the holidays but she might be gone before then. She is such a good sport in terms of putting up with our family! And is she absolutely wonderful with our kids!

Here she is all dressed up for the Halloween party (recognize my apron and garden gnome hat?).

Letting Rebecca harass her.

Funniest story of having her with us: She does NOT like Pet Monster. Once Rebecca figured that out it was game on. Pet Monster ended up (mysteriously!!!) on Geanine's bed - just sitting up in the dark waiting to surprise her when she came home one evening and flipped on the light! Eeeeeek!

Bridges Halloween Party

Got to have two Halloween's this year - Thursday night we hosted Bridges International's Halloween Party.

 Getting ready...

Probably around 60 students and volunteers/staff.

Hearing about the history/culture in America of Halloween

Waldo's view

The winners of the costume contest: The Spice Girls (Pumpkin Pie and Basil)

Let the pumpkin carivng begin!

Waldo helping our crew (who got to stay up waaaaay past bedtime).

Some of the pumpkins

Seriously a fun night. The kids love it and its fun to interact with these students - many of them for their first American Halloween!

Owen + Drone + Soccer Finale

For Owen's birthday Bee got him a subscription to "Pley" - a Netflix-like subscription service for legos. You pick them, they send them, you build them, then send them back. Repeat. 

Here is his first creation - something from Star Wars.

He enjoys getting the mail and getting to pick lego sets that are too expensive for him to buy, but I'm not sure he's doing enough of them to justify the monthly fee. We'll see how it goes and when the gift subscription runs out we'll see...

Here he is with friends flying his little drone helicopter. Its like watching a bunch of cats chase the red light from a laser pointer!

Helping me keep Maggie from inviting herself to Rebecca's tea party in the yard. He was having fun right before I took this picture.

Finally brought my camera to a soccer game. The season ended last Saturday and I think we were both bummed! It was fun seeing his team really start to work together and I know Owen was really enjoying it. He says he likes defense the best.

Some words of affirmation from Coach Friesen and a medal (I wish it was gold. Next time it should be gold.)

• Owen has lost 3 nice nalgene water bottles this school year. He now has the honor of carrying a cheap plastic one (probably laden w/ all sorts of chemicals) that Carlos brought home in a swag bag from a music festival. It was branded with a vodka company's name - which I covered with duck tape so it is now appropriate for a kiddo. 
• He talks like me. To Rebecca who was in the middle of doing something potentially dangerous: Let's see how THAT works out for you...
• No surprise, into specifics: There were about a hundred. No, more like 105.

My Man

Just a little ode to Kyle - who got up at 3am this morning (in the rain) to get brisket and ribs in the smoker. Its a big game day in college football and we're having people over tonight to eat smoked meat a la Kyle and watch football. I asked him if it was worth it (the 3am wake-up call) and he said definitely. Incidentally - he has done a "big smoke" maybe 4-5 times and we have had a "big rain" 2-3 of those times. He's basically the TX Rainmaker. 

Kyle didn't take his quasi-annual backpacking trip this fall but instead went on Mezger Men (uncles, cousins, Dad = Grandpa Robert) fishing trip in Colorado. Picture taking was not a high priority but here is one of him with a catch.

 

And here he is shop-vacing behind our washer after a pretty sizeable flood in the laundry/mud room. A sink got left on accidentally (I'm happy to report I didn't do it) - all is well but it was a little adventure. So glad we have concrete floors!

Even though the flood was not my doing, I did back our minivan into the garage door. People have told me everyone does that. But I have yet to meet all of these people. The door was open and my muscle memory took over and I closed it thinking I was opening it (though I don't actually remember doing it) and when I backed up it was on its way down. Could have been much worse. It didn't break my back windshield (where it hit) and the garage door repair guy was able to fix it up easily, cheapily and with pretty much no visible damage. Whew!

*This football watching, smoker-manning, rainy Saturday has meant I have been able to catch up on the blog...see new posts below on Owen's birthday and some general kid updates. Enjoy!

Its basically a drone, right?

Ever since Owen's birthday (or was it Christmas?) last year he has wanted a remote control helicopter. He actually got a small cheap one that he had tons of fun but it wasn't tough enough to withstand the flying and crashing and manhandling by he and his siblings. But like any smart kid, he upped his ask. This time he wanted a (tough) remote control helicopter with a camera on it so he could take aerial photos. I'm honestly not sure if this was his idea or Kyle's but I know there were father-supervised youtube videos so your guess is as good as mine.  

This photo is from Kyle's phone but the rest are from the helicopter.

testing, testing...

blastoff! (notice who the first pilot is)

Spy photo of Kyle's car,

and our driveway,

and our porch...with tiny running Owen.

Funny: we had a random conversation w/ some neighbors at a picnic about drones vs. remote-controlled things and what the difference is and it devolved into a conversation about a homeowners right to shoot down (sort of joking?) a drone or remote-controlled thingy with a camera if it was on their property "spying" on them... so if you hear shots fired near our house, you know what has happened.

The Actual 7th Birthday, and Other Things Owen

Owen's party was on a Sunday a few days before his actual birthday. Here are some highlights from the big day. 

So apparently we eat breakfast in the dark. It is super early. Donut + candle. Done and done.

Aaaaand more donuts. Its sort of a thing to bring a treat to lunch for the birthday child's classmates and these kiddos today - they get creative! One day I was eating lunch w/ O just for fun and a mom brought mini root beer floats which was really funny because half the kids (including O) had never had root beer (or anything floated) and their reactions were all over the map. 

Anyways, Owen specifically requested donut hole kabobs. I made these for a brunchy thing not too long ago and he saw them and sort of flipped out. Because anything you can eat on a stick is just that much more awesome, Mom. I need to test this statement by putting broccoli on a stick. I will market this and make millions. 

Anyways, he wasn't alone in his appreciation. The kids sort of flipped out. I was basically Mom of the Year. If you are a mom, please steal this idea (that I stole from the internet) and become Mom of the Year too.

 You're the best mom ever, Mom. Thanks buddy. :) (his smile said that to my imagination)

Class photo.

He got to stand on a chair and they sang to him. Super fun times. Being a kid on your birthday is pretty much the best. Being a mom of a kid on their birthday is second best. Especially because this sweet boy will still hold my hand walking to the cafeteria and give me a kiss when I go.

*A funny lunchtime story. There aren't as many ways for parents to be involved in first grade as kinder (though there are still a lot) and one of them is to be a lunchtime helper. I signed up for the recommended number of these throughout the year and when I saw one on my calendar on a day that Kyle was off or home early I told Kyle he should do it - it would be easy and fun and the kids love it when dads come (as much as they love us moms, the dads coming is a real treat). He easily agreed. What I forgot to tell him was this wasn't just going to have lunch w/ the class as a helper, but taking the class to lunch by himself so Mrs. Boyd could have a lunch break to eat by herself in the classroom and catch up on things (they do this once a week). Well, you would have thought by the report I got back that I sent him unarmed and unclothed into a pack of wolves that he had to lead through a corn maze or something equally daunting/crazy. I had to walk them from their room to the cafeteria ALL BY MYSELF! Sweet Kyle. ;)

Okay, just a few more Owen-things:

He and I had a little "date" to the Regents Fall Family Festival. (I told him it was a date since it was just he and I going - Kyle had to work so I go the girls to stay w/ Bee. He told me its not a date because its called the Fall Family Festival and next year he wants us all to go.) Anyways, its a fun night at school early in the fall preceding the first football game. Last year we went (again, just he and I) and ended up with a little tag-along-friend W who couldn't find his parents (his house backs up to school property and he was out a-wanderin'). So we had a good laugh on our way there about whether we'd be alone or have another adventure. And like last year it rained on us, again. At one point we all took cover in the gym and waited out the storm. It worked and we got to finish the evening and make it to the game.

O w/ his good friend D. They're sprting the "D-do" - hair spiked up with your own sweat (or a little rainwater in this case, but mostly sweat; and sometimes a little spit if you're not that sweaty). It's ALL the rage. Seriously precious friendship.

Here we are with Owen's other bestie H and his little brother S. We actually stayed until almost 10pm but due to some delays that was only the end of the 3rd quarter and we had to call it quits. Regents pulled it out in the end after an exciting 4th quarter. Go Knights!

It's kind of a shame that I'm not really motivated to take a bunch of action shots during soccer these days because these boys are actually learning to PLAY! I mean, they aren't just a huddled mass kicking each others' shins and occasionally a ball! There is dribbling and passing and scoring!

It's mostly the same team from last year - all first grade boys from his school. Games are short and sweet on Saturday morning (10 or noon - something to do, but not too early!) and they actually have practice - which at first I was like NO. But the two dad coaches were super thoughtful in how they approached it - they gather all the boys after school one day a week, help them get changed into soccer clothes and practice on an empty field at school - so we just pick them up an hour late. Hurray.

Anyways, just some group shots before a game. Serious ballers. Silly ballers.

Random:

• Owen doesn't like to spend his money. No surprise there. 
• Owen seemingly talks ALL the time. And he actually REQUIRES your attention. I can't fake it. He knows. 
• He asks me on a regular basis who is coming over for dinner. He likes it when we have guests and plans. And at the same time he complains that he doesn't have enough free time to just play.  I feel you bro.