Whose Child is This?

Today my daughter spent the morning doing torque experiments with different household items and reading a math book "for fun." Not even sure what else to say about that. Laiken, apparently, is a little bit of a geek... :-)

Love and Marriage

My boys have marriage on their minds. Nolan announced during dinner last night that he was going to ask his girlfriend, Evah-luv, if she wanted to get married. His "girlfriend" is also 3 and is in Nolan's preschool class. Nolan is in LOVE with her. He talks about her constantly, he thinks about her, and he can't wait to see her when he gets to school. I have never had a child this enamored at this age with a friend of the opposite sex, so I find it mostly amusing and just a little worrisome.

Carson told us that he has to get married by the time he is 23 because if he waits any later, "all the good choices will be gone." Now, I don't know what a "good choice" consists of in the mind of an 8-year old boy, but I'm guessing it has something to do with how much time his wife will spend playing Wii or watching sporting events.

On the heels of all this marriage talk and following the recent Red Ribbon Week, this is the rest of the conversation that occurred last night:

Carson: What happens if you marry someone who does drugs?
Laiken: (rolling her eyes) Why would you do that?
Me: That's what we mean when we talk about making good choices. It would definitely be a better choice not to marry someone who does drugs.
Carson: Well, what if she started doing drugs after you get married? I would be OUT of there if that happened.
Me: Well, God would want you to at least try to help your wife get better if you could.
Laiken: Yeah, because you are only supposed to get married once.
Carson: Well, I would give her 2 weeks and then I would be gone.

Note to Carson's future wife: God may love you unconditionally, but apparently Carson won't.

If you see my daughter...

please tell her to clean her room.

Halloween

I know that I am biased, but I think that Nolan is the cutest Batman ever. He was really into trick or treating this year which made it so much fun. Carson wasn't going to dress up this year, but then decided he was going as the Scream character (he, of course, hasn't seen the movie--he just wanted a scary costume). Laiken wanted to wear one of my old costumes to dress up as a twirler. We took the kids all over the neighborhood and then headed over to the Tokarz's for an unbelievable Halloween party complete with a haunted house, hayride, and cook-out. That family really knows how to celebrate Halloween!

Student Council Inductions and a Blue Ribbon Day

Last week, Laiken and Carson were inducted into their positions on Student Council. Carson ran for and was elected as his Class Representative. Laiken was elected Student Council President. As a bonus, both of the kids were chosen as Blue Ribbon students at the monthly awards ceremony. Happy day!

Great Wolf

We played hooky on the day of 9-week conferences at school and instead took the kids to Great Wolf. Laiken and Carson both took friends this time and we took Nolan for the first time. So MUCH fun! The place was practically empty. I only had one moment of feeling like I was a bad parent for not going to the conferences, but it passed pretty quickly.

He's A Boy....

and proud of it. Here is a self-portrait that Nolan recently drew. Notice that apparently his arms aren't that important, but another body part was... I'm not sure what the frown is about--I'm sure a therapist could have a field day with this one.

Key West

One of the reasons that I am so behind was because Farrel and I took off to Key West for a week and I have been playing catch-up ever since. Farrel had a class on the island and I tagged along. My wonderful parents were troopers and took care of the kids for the week. We have left the kids with my parents before, but never during the school year. So, many thanks to my mom and dad for getting everyone where they were supposed to be, helping with homework, doing bedtime routine, and making sure everyone stayed clean and fed. Since I knew everything was taken care of at home, Farrel and I were able to have a great, relaxing week. Well, Farrel had to go to class during the day, so I probably had a better time than he did. Most of my week was spent just like this:

Nights were spent trying local restaurants, taking a sunset cruise, watching street performers, and taking in the craziness of the festival that was going on.

All was great until we had to load onto the 9-seater plane on the first leg of the trip back home. I was fairly certain I was going to die on this thing:

Fall Sports

I swore that I would not get behind again, but that just seems to be the norm for me here lately. Most of the last 8 weeks have been spent on the ball fields-soccer and baseball. If we were not at practice, we were at a game.

Carson played rec baseball and soccer. The baseball season was not great and we limped through with a team of very young players. Although it was a 7-8 year old league, we actually ended up with some 6 year olds and Carson and one other boy were the only 8 year olds.

It.was.a.long.road.to.the.last.game... Carson played really well, though. Playing primarily shortstop, he made lots of outs and really has a knowledge of the game that allows him to see the big picture. It must be all of those hours of ESPN paying off. He does LOVE the sports.

Unlike the baseball season, his soccer season was great! His team got second place in their division. They learned to run different plays and realized the importance of passing the ball up the field. Carson is so excited about continuing with this team next season.

Laiken started playing academy soccer with FC Dallas this fall. I don't love the drive to Pizza Hut Park for the practices, but Laiken loves the team and is really challenged by the workout. We have had a great time watching her skills continue to increase. Her team won and tied about as many as they lost, so all in all, it was a good first season. We start indoor this weekend, so I am looking forward to the climate controlled comfort as we watch the upcoming games.

Here is Nolan spending his time getting ready for when he can be on the field, too.

M.I.A.

That is how I have felt for the last few weeks. Between getting back from our vacation, celebrating Laiken's birthday, school starting, and my promotion at work that is requiring more hours, I have had no free time. I finally got a grasp on a few things this week and am starting to get caught up. We are all settled back into our school routines; soccer and baseball games have started; and each day runs according to the color-coded calendar on the wall--so we are officially out of summer mode. :-(

Back To School

As usual, the summer ended too quickly and we were all forced back into a routine of schedules, appointments, and obligations. We were kind of ready for the transition back, but as always, more than a little reluctant to give up our free time together.

The kids all got great teachers again this year and have lots of friends in their classes. We are so excited about everything that they will be doing and learning. I'm not sure how it happened but I now have a fifth grader. I clearly remember almost not being able to leave the building on the first day of Kindergarten, so I am not certain how so much time has passed between then and now. Neither she nor Carson needed me to walk them in this year, but of course I did anyway and I got my first day of school pictures. I am thinking that Laiken will ban me from walking her into middle school next year and I will deal with that when the time comes. I was doing fine on this first day of school until she announced as we walked through the doors, "Well, this is the last time I will walk through these doors on the first day of school." And, then the air left my lungs.

A few days later, as Nolan was off for his first day of preschool, I realized that in a few years I will be a 38 year old Kindergarten mom. I will be doing a field trip to the zoo when I am 38....sigh....

Birthday--Part 2

While Carson has always been a fan of smaller birthday celebrations with a few close friends, Laiken loves the big parties. This year, we planned a joint party with one of her oldest friends, Kaitlin, who turned 10 about a week after Laiken did. Laiken and Kaitlin were in the same Kindergarten class and have been close ever since. It was great that they got to celebrate this special birthday together.

The girls then (age 5):

The girls now (age 10):
We rented out the Thunderbird Skate Center for the night, invited all the friends we could, and watched as our daughters celebrated their final birthdays as elementary school students. It was a really memorable night.

Laiken Turns Double Digits

Laiken's birthday this year was long-awaited because she finally turned 10. I remember when I turned 10 and I can recall thinking that was such a great milestone because my age was finally a double digit number. Apparently, the appeal is the same today because Laiken was very excited to see her big day finally arrive.

On her birthday, we met Grandma, Papaw, and Joe for bowling and then lunch at Brio. It was Nolan's first attempt at bowling and there were times that his ball was rolling so slowly that it would stop on the lane. We laughed as he discovered the hand dryer and then used Joe's towel to try to clean the floors.

After lunch, we came back to the house for cake and gifts. Laiken got some new American Girl stuff for her doll and as she opened the gifts, the dichotomy became obvious. She is balancing between wanting to be all grown up and wanting to still play with her dolls. Laiken is such a great daughter and a wonderful person. She is headstrong and independent and has a love for life and for people. She has so much self-confidence and self-awareness. I remember holding her in the hospital after she was born and thinking that nothing could be more perfect. She's not perfect, of course, but I still have that same feeling of awe when I hear her talk or see her smile. As much as I don't want her to grow up, I am excited about getting to know each layer of the person she is becoming.

Gulf Shores Vacation

We set out on our drive to Gulf Shores on August 7, and went as far as Baton Rouge before stopping to spend the night. You can easily make the drive to Gulf Shores without stopping, but after we had Nolan, we started breaking it up a little bit to make the trip easier on him. So, it's about 8 hours to Baton Rouge from Dallas and our kids are such great travelers that we only had to stop one time for a lunch/bathroom break. The joke is that I am more likely to need to stop than the kids are!

We spent Thursday night in Baton Rouge visiting an open-air mall and having dinner. The cooler weather there was a nice surprise from what we had been enduring at home and the kids were so happy to be out of the car (so was I!)

On Friday, we ate breakfast, filled the car up, and left to finish the drive. We were about two miles from the Louisiana/Mississippi border when Farrel asked if we should stop at the Stennis Space Center and tour it. He thought it would be a nice surprise for Laiken. Well, most of you who know me know that I don't do a lot of spontaneous events. Since the NASA welcome center is located right on the Mississippi border, I had about 5 minutes to decide and I did something very uncharacteristic and just went with it. I'm so glad we did. We have made that drive so many times and have never taken the time to stop. The people at the visitor center were so nice and gave us refreshments before loading us on a bus to take us into the space center. Stennis is where all of the engines are tested for the NASA program. If you visit at just the right time, you can sit on bleachers and watch as an engine goes through a test. We did not get to see an actual test, but we did get to tour the facilities and see some other cool things. There are 10 NASA sites in the U.S. and Laiken is determined that now we need to visit the other 8. I'm not thinking that I'm going to be planning my vacations around NASA sites... well, maybe to Florida....

Riding the bus to Stennis:

Posing by a real rocket engine:

Laiken pretending to walk on Mars:

We got settled into our condo on late Friday afternoon and the rest of the week is a sandy, sunny blur of water, more water, lazy days, and fun evenings out. Here is a sampling of how we spent our week--

Plenty of pool and beach time:

Waiting to ride the ferris wheel at The Wharf (At this point, Nolan was not so sure that he was going to ride--notice the look on his face!)

And here he is, a few minutes later, very happy to be riding!

Eating at the marina that same night:



After long days in the sun and water, the kids would wind down with a movie and popcorn. You will notice that there are three twin bed across this one room. We had booked a condo that had a kids' bedroom with two twin beds and a little bonus room with a twin bed in it for Laiken so that she wouldn't have to room with the boys. Well, the first night, we spent part of our time moving her bed into the boys' room so that they could all be together. I was a little aggravated, but also a little happy that she was realizing that things did tend to be more fun when they were all together.


Carson and Laiken begged us to let them go parasailing. We finally consented, thinking that they wouldn't really do it. Of course, they did it. Farrel and I only let them go up the minimum height of 400 feet and they were able to go tandem, which for some crazy reason made us feel a little better. Carson said next year he is going all the way up--800 feet. He has no fear and I'm not sure that's a good thing. They loved it and couldn't quit talking about the view!

Mid-week, after a fabulous dinner at Lambert's (seriously, if you are ever in the area, you have to go), we made our visit to The Track. Nolan was old enough to ride the go-carts this year and we convinced him to go, despite his aversion to loud noises.

He acted like he liked riding the go-carts, but I think he preferred the little kid rides much better.

Carson was a trooper and volunteered to ride the little train with Nolan so he wouldn't have to ride by himself.

I don't love miniature golf, and usually, I will let that be an activity that counts as a Daddy/kid event; but, I went this time and we laughed so hard watching Nolan that I was so glad I didn't miss it!

We spent several nights at the water's edge catching the crabs. We caught some of the big Blue ones, but Nolan loved getting the little Ghost crabs. They brought these up to the room before taking them back down to release them.

And the trip ended with the obligatory visit to the souvenir shop. I'm not sure how many years we have to travel to the same place before we can skip buying souvenirs, but we went again this year and I just cringed at the boys' purchases. A side note to this story--

Before I was a mom, I had this list of things that would not happen when I was a mother. One of the mandates was about toys. I had decided (pre-children, remember) that my kids would not have gender-biased toys. My girls would have fire trucks and my boys would have dolls and, naturally, because I presented them with a spectrum of playthings, they would love all their toys equally and not be tainted by society's perceptions of their abilities, likes, and dislikes based on nothing more than their genders. Furthermore, there would be no toys of violent nature in our home. Now this included, but was not limited to, guns, knives, arrows, and violent video games. I think that Carson was about 2 when he first put his index finger out and made a shooting sound at me. I was shocked, horrified, and scared. "Where would he get that?? Why would he want to shoot me? We don't shoot at people! He shouldn't even know what a gun is!" I spent a lot of time wondering where I had gone wrong and my parents and Farrel laughed at me, happy that Carson was going to be normal despite my best efforts (in their minds) to seriously mess him up. He did have a doll that he liked for a little while; but, mostly, he liked his "boy toys." So, back to vacation...

Carson bought himself his first toy gun at the souvenir shop when he was about 3. He used money given to him by his grandparents. Laiken was 5 that year and could not resist a pretty pink gun that came in a holster that just fit around her tiny little hips and so she purchased that one for herself. (Don't miss the irony here--my daughter bought a toy that was not in any way gender biased, but bought it in pink--apparently, I was 1/2 successful in my madness.) That is the only time Laiken has wanted a gun, but Carson has bought one for himself every year we have gone to that souvenir store. Like some weird rite of passage, Nolan was ecstatic to use his money this year to buy himself a gun. It just warms a mother's heart....

It was a fabulous week and, as usual, we were not ready to come home. The kids said we need to stay two weeks next year. Twist my arm!