Pony Tails

It must be noted that Jennifer did not have much hair until she was three, almost four. Now she has a head full. Mia is a chip off the old block, except Jennifer had dark hair and Mia's is light. Mia's hair is getting thicker, and a little longer, but still, not much. Being the impatient GG that I am, I put what she does have (mostly in the back) into a pony tail, and I took these photos.

Update on Potty Training and other unnessary thoughts

We currently have no interest in wearing panties any longer. We have no interest in going on the potty. It seems we like to tee tee in our diaper and wear our poop. I often wonder what makes toddlers tick. Likes and dislikes change daily.

For the first 18 + months of her life, if Mia had an interest in any animated movie, it was "HAPPY FEET". Over and over again she would request that...........up until this past week or so. She is expanding her viewing requests to include "101 Dalmatians", referred by her as "doggie movie", and then last night she really enjoyed "The Fox and the Hound". I know, I know...........TV is just a glorified babysitter. But honestly, my kids would watch Disney's animated "Robin Hood" up to six times in one day......over and over and over again. They seem to have turned out pretty smart and as emotionally stable as one could expect from my kids. It is not like she is watching Jerry Springer!

Which brings me to my last thought of the night. How cool is it that your name becomes a thing.........I mean "Disney"....he was Walt Disney, and now his last name is all you have to know.......it is more of a "thing". A "Disney" movie....what if it were a "Dauphin" movie, or "McCay", or "Klentzman", or "Schmid" or "Schoepf"....see, it just lacks something.......but a "Disney" movie, now that does have a certain ring to it...........anyway, I think it is way cool.

Toddler Language

So those of you with little ones in your life know that sometimes when we are always around those little ones, only we know what they are saying. I mean, it is as clear as crystal to us, especially when spoken in context of the situation. Mia's dad came by tonight to see her, and she was talking to him and kept saying something that I had no clue as to what it was. And I think I am pretty good with Mia talk. Well, her dad was talking to her like he understood, and so, we asked him, what is she saying........she was saying "round bale"! For heavens sake........round bale! It is important here to know that her father is a hay farmer. It is all about the context clues! He teaches her about round and square bales of hay..........for heavens sake, who knew!

Kissing Cousins

Mia and her cousin Kendall were innocently taking a moonlight ride in the John Deer gator, when, someone ( I have yet to hear a name), called out, "Kendall, give Mia a kiss". As the pictures show, we have a loss of innocence.



Looking at the Moon



And he GRABS her................


And lays one on her


WAIT !! I think she LIKES it!



Sharing memories of that special moment


Riding off into the Sunset (wait, I mean moonlight)

We Miss Aunt Catherine

Quiet Country Living

So for those of you who know, earlier this year, our quiet peaceful country living was lost forever. A bar, a "biker" and "redneck" bar opened right next door. They seem to have no respect for those of us who were living quietly before they opened next to us, the infamous "Harley's and Horses" bar. I wanted to include this video I took from my front porch, just in case you ever wondered " how is it living next to a bar ?".


ENOUGH SAID

Mia's Mommie is Engaged

So Mia was instructed by Rex to "run give that to your mommie". Mia is the first official "ring bearer" ! I think it was special to include Mia, because she is a part of the new family. That is a ring box she hands to Jennifer, just in case it is not clear.

Potty training and panties

So the really big news is potty training. We were not in a hurry, and really neither is Mia, it just so happens that she got the hang of it really quick. We can not decide for sure if she is blaming my dog for her poop, or just stating that she poops like the dog.....but she sees it in her potty and says "meg". She actually wore panties out the other day and went all morning without one single accident! She still sleeps in a diaper and still wears them around the house some(typical female, she is fickle about the whole thing right now), and we do not fight her daily decision. She prefers to be naked, and her mom keeps telling her that she can not just run around naked. Needless to say, when she and I are home alone, I let her. Jennifer told me I had to quit letting her do that, because she is getting mixed messages. I will say, being naked makes going to the potty easier! I think we expected the potty training to happen after she turned 2, which will not be until December. How nice to have it done before that!

Cindy made me clean my room. !!...(whine)

Here is my attempt at explaining one of my very special friendships. Cindy is a friend who offered to spend her day helping me complete a task that is, well, awful. (like cleaning my room). She spent her day seeing my dust, and grime and junk and never once said "oh my gosh, what were you thinking!". I actually feel comfortable enough to let her see the worst of my worst. ( I am still not sure what some of the things we found started out being!) She listened to me whine about having to clean my room.(numerous times) Not only did she moderate my overwhelming task, but gave me some great suggestions for making my limited space more functional. I kept wanting to leave to go either buy something(supposedly to make organization easier) or eat something. Cindy made me stay on task. You would think as a functioning adult I could do this on my own. My bedroom/office is(was) evidence that this is not the case. I had been putting off cleaning my room since I moved in my home in 1998. "Thank you Cindy" seems a little insufficient.

I do not have before and after pictures. you just have to use your imagination.....

Empathy

Mia has always had an issue with other babies crying, or sad noises in general. Do not mistake her sadness in this video as being sad for going to bed. It is the music that makes her sad, not the topic.

Mia and You Tube

Catherine has a really cool laptop. She can take videos right on the computer. This is a link to a posting on You Tube where Catherine was talking to Mia and Mia was watching herself on the computer.............

Add on to previous post

A while back I talked about Catherine's college choice, Brown University, and how they have this really cool building, that is "Harry Potter like." Brown has virtual tours available on some of its facilities. I am including a link to their virtual tour thingy. What you have to do is go to the website, and begin the tour..........but you do not have to see the whole Brown Campus............the really cool building is called "Sayles Hall". It is on "view 4"............if you open that and click on it, you can move your mouse around and see then entire building, walls with portraits and the high beautiful ceiling and even the really cool organ. A great tour if you have time.

http://www.brown.edu/Students/Bruin_Club/vtour/

Warm Fuzzy's

So my last blog was kind of a downer, and I promised new pictures of Mia. Those of you who are parents, or grandparents, all understand the difficulty in selecting a picture to post. Heck, we all know our kids/grandkids are the cutest, and each picture is the best ever!

This should explain why I have added quite a few.


Catherine put Mia's "hair ?" in piggytails.



Mia loves shoes. Usually one at a time, but when she agrees to wear two, they very seldom are a matching pair!


Playing outside at Memaw's house, it was hot, and a cool drink was called for.


When you are 19 months, and have a mouthfull of water, what better way to make use of it than to spit it out and water the grass!



Remember the movie "Cool Hand Luke".......this is "Cool Head Mia"




Mia has beautiful green eyes, like her mother. I think you could call this her "mischievous" look. That is much more politically correct than saying she was being a "toot" !


Catherine took several really cute pictures on this day with Mia in the play area. It is all about the eyes in this one.

And last but not least, Tata and MiMi. Tata is what Mia calls Catherine and MiMi is what she calls herself. They were playing in the car. Mia loves to drive up the driveway from Memaw and Grand Dads house.

Not so Much Fun

After 48 years, I finally got called to jury duty when I didn't have a nursing baby, or wasn't a full time college student. So, with willing heart I went downtown Houston. That is not true. I willingly went to jury duty, I was not willing to go downtown Houston, but I had no choice. Which lead me to riding the Metro bus for the first time ever in my life. After a full day of questions and such by the judge and both sides of the attorneys, I got picked. Let me say, I was the one and only one who wanted to be there and wanted to be selected for jury duty. We were told the trial could take a full week, it was a criminal case. I saw it as an adventure and a privilege, and I know that if I were accused of doing something wrong, or I was taking someone to court for something they did wrong, I would want someone like me on the jury.......someone who did not mind being there! Enough of my soap box........


Listening to the testimony, hearing the evidence, listening to real live CSI type of policemen, riding metro, visiting with fellow jurors..............all of that was exactly what I thought it would be like.

The case was Aggravated robbery. Which is robbery with a deadly weapon. Punishable 5 to 99 years in prison. It took us less than 30 minutes to deliberate on guilt or innocence. They had finger prints along with the eye witness(the victim in this case).

It took us over 4 hours to deliberate on the punishment, and honestly we could have gone on for days, for we were VERY divided at first. After much discussion and cussin' and debate, we settled on 10 years in prison.

As jury foreman, I was the one who told the judge we had come to a verdict and what it was. I made sure as the sentence was being read, I looked the young man and his family in the eyes. The judge read our verdict out loud, he and his family cried some more, and they lead him off in handcuffs.

We walked back to the jury room and I felt as emotionally drained and as emotionally confused as the day I stood in front of the judge to get my divorce. (It actually took me a while to place where I had felt like that before............I kept thinking "childbirth" and going "nope" in my head, and then "car wreck" and going "nope" again, and then like a punch in the gut............divorce.

The finality of both decisions. The life changes brought on by both decisions. The sadness of the whole affair. These are the common threads. I was on my way to really breaking down and sobbing, like I did after the judge basically said" I now pronounce you NOT man and wife any longer"...............but what saved me was both the defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney coming into the jury room and speaking with us all. We had done a good thing. We had made the right decision. Everything was as it should be. Once again, similar to "THE END" of my marriage.

I learned a whole lot. I once again appreciate my country and my rights as a citizen of this great country. Next time, I just hope its traffic court!



As soon as I catch up on work, I have some new great pictures of Mia.......

Catherine has a Blog

Catherine, being the thoughtful person she is, realized that it would be a great way for people to know what is going on with her while she is far far away at Brown. She has created her own blog. So, if you are interested check her out at:



http://catherineatbrown.blogspot.com

Mia saying "I love you"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nkUWNKR1Fv4

Likes and Dislikes

I find the whole personality development thing very interesting. Not interesting enough to take a class or read a book about it.....just interesting enough to think about it on occasion. Since I do not want to read a book or actually LEARN the specifics, I am only able to go on my own experiences. So here is what I think..............it must be around the 18 month old age that we develop specific likes and dislikes about what we wear. It seems odd that at such a young age, we humans have the cognitive ability to develop specific likes and dislikes about clothing choices. We have all seen the small children out and about, wearing clothes and accessories that in societies eyes, should not be worn either together, or at least out in public. So this is the really cool thing about being 18 months old, we have developed enough of a personality to have VERY specific likes and dislikes regarding our wardrobe, BUT.........we are not yet held within the constraints that society would place on us.


Mia loves these cotton striped stockings. She specifically chose to wear this outfit down to her great grandparents (Memaw and Grand dad). She loves wearing just one shoe (or boot as the case may be). The stocking cap (two sizes too small) was in my opinion, the cherry on top! It is like pink is the theme, but I think the black rain boot indicates that there may be a little "skater" kid just waiting to pop out!

Mirror Twins

We have been thinking about twins a whole lot around my house lately. Some dear friends of ours had twins, and after two months in the NICU they finally both got to come home. Anyone who has ever had a baby, knows the hard work, sleepless nights and joyful love you feel that happens when you bring that new gift home. Now imagine all of it exponentially. I do not believe that all of those emotions just double with twins, I think it must be much more.



Catherine just happened to take this picture this week-end. So, here is the closest thing to twins that we have......mirror twins! Mia playing with Rex.

Mia

Mia's other grandmother, Juda, takes some wonderful pictures. She has shared some of the photos with Jennifer before, but this is the first one I have gotten digitally, and it is so sweet and special. Thank you Juda and thank you Mia.

Star Treks

Today was Catherine's graduation from High School. For a while now, some folks have been asking me if I was going to cry, after all, my "baby" was graduating. And today was no different. I heard, are you sad? are you going to cry? are you nervous ? (She was giving the salutatory speech)...blah, blah, blah, blah. I sat and pondered for several hours ( I went two hours early to save seats for the rest of the family) about my NOT feeling sad at all. I even began to say things to myself like "maybe you are dead inside".....I spoke with another mom, who said she cried the entire year of her youngest child. I am thinking to myself, "wow, you should have seen a psychologist for that depression, or separation anxiety". Then , she says, she was "crying because she was so happy".

OK, so I get that I guess. I know it is done, I have just never experienced that phenomenon myself. I have cried at happy times, BUT, truth be told, I was not crying because I was so happy...............let me try and explain a little better. Each time, right after each of my babies were born I cried. I was happy, beyond words. Happy they were healthy, happy labor was over. But, the crying was because I was exhausted, emotionally and physically, and hormonally imbalanced!

So, back to the issue. I did not cry. I was and am over joyed with the accomplishments of my daughter Catherine. I am a proud parent. I am so excited for her that the limitations that high school puts on her, are now gone, and that the world is now hers to explore and learn from and I hope, contribute to. I am excited for her to keep setting new goals and finding those rewarding. I am excited for her that she can now go beyond what boundaries this conservative mom, and this small town have had to offer. Oh, do not get me wrong. I think this mom and this town will have served her well in her future. She will always love the open spaces and farmland and corn growing as high as an elephants eye, and the stars on a clear night, and she will always love me. But, I want her to learn to love New England in the fall, Rhode Island in the winter, and New York in the spring time.

I want her to grow to be the adult God intended her to be from the beginning of time. I am anxious to get to meet and know that adult. To laugh and learn from that adult. I want her to find someone who loves her, like my mom and dad love each other. (They will be married 60 years this year). I want her to have and see and do and go every where and anywhere she has ever or will ever dream of going and seeing and doing.

I can not cry with regret, cry with sadness, or cry with happiness. I am only emitting vibes of exuberant anticipation.

I want what Spock wants for her........."to live long and prosper".