Almost walking

My little man learning how to walk.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mommy's first day of school

Well today was the day. It was Katherine's first day of school. I know, I know, it's only 2 half days a week, but it was a big deal for me. She did better than me, I'm sure. There was a little hesitancy when it was time to let go of my finger and walk into the room by herself, but she choked back the fear and near-tears and walked in there like a big girl.

(Showing off the shirt that twirls. Coincidence? I think not.)

I, on the other hand, had to stop at McDonald's to get some warm water for Nathan's bottle and while I was feeding him the emotions overcame me. Feelings of joy that she's got the opportunity to attend such an awesome school, that she was excited weeks before today, that daddy got to be there for her first day and that her cousins attend there also. Reminiscing: remembering the day she was born, the first day of day care and I went back to work, her first steps, her wanting to stay the night with us in the hospital when Nathan was born, her smell as a baby and holding her to feed her a bottle.

(Cousin-love)

I was proud that she was so brave; she is my little shy girl. I was confident and secure that she was in excellent hands. I was happy it was only 3 hours. I was thankful that God has blessed us with such a beautiful little girl who has exceeded anything I could have ever imagined and for the opportunity to be home with her more these past 2 years. I was flooded with visions of first boyfriends, graduating high school and walking down the aisle.

(Trying to show everyone how strong she is, I think)

What an awesome opportunity for me and Nathan to have some time together also. My little man finished his bottle and thought it would be best to play with the steering wheel. He was a trooper today. I'm pretty sure he could tell something was different, though. Either that, or God blessed me by laying his hand of calmness and contentness on Nathan.


I had 3 close friends/family members wish me luck directly or call to check up on me, mostly. And I believe I can speak for most parents when I say that first-school-day-anxiety isn't completly wrapped up in wondering how she's going to do, if she'll make friends, if the teachers are nice to her or whether or not she finds 'her' way. My anxiety was attached to the emotions of what has been and what will be. So many extraordinary events have happened in such a short amount of time, it can be overwhelming to process them much less attempt thinking of the future. Three and a half years have flown by. It's so cliche, but true.

When I came to pick her up, she looked happy and excitedly said, "Hey Mommy! I had fun! I want to come back again." Well, that does it! We're going back.

Sunday stuff

We have entered the Twilight Zone-like world of things mysteriously missing. How did the hand mirror end up in my undergarments drawer? Where has the letter opener disappeared to? How did one of Jim's hankerchiefs end up in Nathan's sock drawer? How did the camera cord to download pictures end up in the car? Who put a sippy cup full of water in a suitcase? I think we all know the answer to these questions and when I ask her she always says, "I dunno."

Is there anything cuter than a baby sleeping with his hiney poked up?
I got all sentimental today when I noticed that two of Katherine's dresses looked similar. She's starting school this week (2, half days/week). I'm working diligently to prepare her, but preparing myself is another story.

8 Years!

(Yellowstone, 2004)

This week we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We love to go to St. Augustine and eat at the Columbia Restaurant. Particularly, their 1905 salad is what we drive there for. It gives us 3 hours of uninterrupted drive time to talk, which is something we rarely get a chance to do.

The Columbia Restaurant has their own parking lot with an attendant. Since I can remember, we've seen the same guy manning the entrance/exit and he is VERY hard to understand. He has a strong Spanish accent and we always get a kick out of me not being able to understand him. Even though I know the general idea of what he's going to say (here's your voucher, get it stamped by your waiter and bring it back so you don't have to pay for parking), I literally cannot understand but about 1 of every 25 words that come out of his mouth. One year, I was driving as we entered the parking lot. I knew what he was going to say, but I was so frozen with not understanding him that Jim finally said, "I understood him, go park." It still didn't register, my brain was too busy trying to decipher his words; my mouth was open, I had this dumbfounded look on my face, and the guy was shifting his eyes from me to the car waiting behind me. I finally drove forward asking within hearing distance of him, "what did he say?"

So this last visit, before Jim drove up, I made a conscience effort to listen carefully and try very hard to understand him. I got one word out of his 2 sentences: 'voucher'. When I asked Jim what he said, he acted as though he speaks Spanish fluently. He squinted his eyes, scrunched up his forehead, cocked his head off to the side slightly and said, "You can't understand him?" He easily recited almost word for word what the man said. I'm still totally baffled.

On the way out, I decided to ask the man how long he has worked there. His response, interpreted fully by Jim after we left, was that he had been with the company for a total of 42 years; worked at the Sarasota and Tampa locations and had been in St. Augustine for the last 10 years. Currently, he lived above the office and watched after the place. Wow! 42 years! That's impressive!

It was a great reminder for our marriage. Even though manning a parking lot probably wasn't what he thought he'd be doing after even 30 years of working for a company, the man is dedicated. He sits out there in the rain, lightning, cold and scorching hot Florida weather. Probably deals with lots of gringas like myself that don't understand a word he says. I certainly don't know all the details of his employment, but there had to be some sort of committment on his part to make it 42 years. Dedication, committment and hard work; ingredients for a marriage that lasts.

Jim, I love you and appreciate all you do for our family. You are without a doubt, the most giving man I've ever met and I am thankful for you. I look forward to many more years with you.

Girly dialogue

I was preparing supper tonight and saw Katherine walking around with one of our old cell phones (we weren't using it anymore so we gave to her). She was holding baby Alive with both hands and the cell phone was propped between her ear and shoulder. Her dialogue was interesting:
"Hey, Kim. Hey, Kim. How are you doing?
(pause)
I'm good, I'm good.
(pause)
Hey Kim. Oh, hold on, I have a little one crying. Hold on. Let me check on he. Hold on. Hold on."

Found out later on that she was scheduling a haircut for baby Alive with Kim, the lady who really has cut Katherine's and Nathan's hair this summer. Her babies do a lot of things similar to Nathan. They fall asleep in the car, 'just like he', when they get sleepy. They bounce up and down when they're dancing to music, 'just like he'. They take naps, 'just like he' and she makes bottles to feed them, 'just like he', before their naps. They get squirmy when she's changing their diaper, 'just like he'. They crawl fast away from her, 'just like he' and her baby 'puts everything in she's mouth, just like brother, Mommy'.

I find it so interesting that she's modeling my behavior so much. We had one of our boy cousins ("A") come over today and play for a couple hours. I didn't really think Katherine was a big talker until he was here. She turned into a serious chatterbox that went on and on and on. He behaved like a 'typical man' (and I don't mean that to be derogatory) and didn't say hardly anything. She would repeat a question about ten times, he would ignore it and she'd finally move on to another question/comment. He calmly played in his own little world while she followed him around trying to tell him how she wanted to play. 'Would you be my prince?' (repeated 10 times), no response. 'Do you want to dance?' (repeated 10 times), no response. 'Do you want to read some books with me?' (repeated 10 times), no response. And when she'd finally say something he was interested in, he'd respond quickly, clearly and act on it. I really love watching these two interact because they're the same age difference as me and one of my boy cousins (A's uncle). From what I hear, Katherine and A are little replicas of us two (for now at least).

Things don't change much in 30 years between boys and girls, either. The questions just get more "important" and the silence is usually coupled with a TV remote in hand.

Head-bonking laughter

My babies enjoying each other's company.


So, here it is, the publicly-appropriate twirl skirt.
Nathan is sleeping much better for his naps. Mommy guilt has taken over, once more, and now I'm convinced that all his fussiness and not sleeping well was because since June 6th, he's had a total of 6 teeth break through his gums. Hmmm. Maybe he was in pain? Just a hunch mommy-dearest. Teething is just one of those after-thoughts that explains what I've been going through and usually does a great job at making me feel like a horrible mother. Here is my well-rested, precious and sweet little boy.
Sometimes, nothing beats a frozen yogurt pop, on a warm August evening, while taking a swing.

Cheap entertainment

'Round these parts (especially since I've been jobless), we scope out cheap forms of entertainment. And when I say cheap, I mean 're-purpose-whatever-is-in-the-house-to-keep-the-children-happy' cheap. Which is what we did today. This was actually Katherine's idea. Good idea sister!



Nathan seemed to enjoy being pulled around with a wide array of toys at his fingertips. I thought it was even cuter that his hair was sticking straight up from the banana slime he insists on spreading through his hair every morning and that it seems he's wearing only a diaper when I take pictures of him here lately. There is a good reason for that, though. Unlike his sister who still shudders at the thought of getting her hands too dirty (much less wiping it everywhere), little dude finds much joy in smearing his slimy joy everywhere. Every morning it is everywhere he can touch upon himself, all over the high chair on top and underneath, my hand or arm when it comes within reach, his water cup; you name it, he touches it and it gets slimed. A mini-bath is required in the kitchen sink about 5 days a week. Soooooo, the hair sticking up and the diaper-only wardrobe is easily explained by this: he's a boy and he doesn't mind getting dirty. I'm starting to come to grips with this and I'm adjusting.

After the video was taken, he started 'driving' his fully loaded laundry basket.

On another note: as of this week twirl status was back up to code orange. You may recall it was code red a while ago because none of the dresses or skirts in Katherine's wardrobe met her twirl specifications. I made her a purple princess skirt and all was well. Don't worry, nothing happened to the princess skirt, but we're back up to code orange because she wants to wear it EVERYWHERE! Around the house, to church, to nice restaurants, to surprise graduation parties, to the grocery store, etc. Code orange on my part, I guess, more than her. I didn't make that princess skirt to be worn in public. The hem isn't straight, it's puckered, the elastic was held together with safety pins and the length varied. So tonight I completed her first publicly-appropriate skirt. She asked to wear it to bed and tested the twirl status at 10:00 tonight. It passed with flying colors. (I'm reaching behind to pat myself on the back). Pictures of the pink and brown skirt later. (she's sleeping in it now)

Since it's safer to lie the ironing board down on the floor after I'm finished using it with a pre-walker roaming around, this was his answer to exploring it:

Spaghetti face

Triple Threat had spaghetti for the first time today. After supper, I started with a pre-wash in the kitchen sink, but it was easier to just leave him there for the whole sha-bang.

Surprise!

The surprise graduation party was a huge success and a surprise.Thank-you so much to all the people who helped set up, clean up, prepare food, buy food and drinks, picked up and delivered food, kept a secret and kept me sane throughout the whole planning process. If you've never done it before, ('it' being keeping a secret like a party in honor of your husband with a rather large guest list) it's taxing.

He was genuinely surprised. He's never been a fan of surprise parties, especially for himself. But here's the deal, he made it VERY clear that he didn't want a party because of the set-up, clean-up, planning, etc. So, I took it upon myself to take care of the details, with help of course, and plan one for him. Boyer women find pretty soon into marriage that Boyer men don't let us do nice things for them very often, particularly if it involves money. So I over-rode his 'authority' and made the executive decision to make him spend time enjoying good food and good company and accept the recognition he deserved.

Daddy/Uncle Jim with future UF graduates. Watch out Gainesville!(Our son was trying to set some kind of record on how long a 10-month-old could go without a nap. Can you see it in his eyes? His new nickname: No Nap Nathan; aka "Triple Threat")

We're enjoying Jim being out of school so much that dancing after dinner happens spontaneously. I'm pretty sure the music playing while they were dancing here was either "Brick House" or "I shot the Sheriff"; you know, the good stuff.

And we lounge on the front porch a little more.

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A couple interesting conversations with my daughter:

K: Mommy, you need to put brother's little crib in my room.
M: Put his crib in your bedroom? Why would you want me to do that?
K: So when he cries, I can tell you what's wrong with he.

I grew up knowing that I said something very similar to my mother concerning my little brother, so when I told her what our little lady said, my mother was speechless, literally. I think part of the silence was her being weirded out because of the similarities in our statements.

Another interesting conversation was today. Katherine asked if she could watch some more TV after I had turned it off telling her to get ready for breakfast.
K: But mommy, I want to watch some more cartoons.
M: I know honey, but it's time for you to wash your hands and get ready for breakfast. I said no more right now.
(She turns the TV on)
I peak from around the corner and say: I thought I told you no more TV.
K: I know Mommy, but I did not want to listen to your words.

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Nathan got his first haircut today. His little hairs no longer hang out over his ears and the back was evened up a little. He was a trooper and I did not cry. I'm still in awe that he's old enough to get a haircut already.

Katherine experienced an 'inside fort' for the first time. I drug out some chairs, laid them on their side and spread a sheet over them. Next time, we'll have to do it while 'the structo' (Katherine's pronunciation of 'destructo') is sleeping. I can see very important meals being cooked or baby feedings happening inside a brother-less fort.

Graduation day

(cue the never-ending Pomp and Circumstance music)

Graduation day arrived! In the ever-so-wise words of my father-in-law while watching his oldest son walk across the stage after receiving his law degree,

"Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, I'm free at last."

She was so good for graduation. She colored, read books and played magnetic dress-up with princesses Cinderella and Belle. Baby Emma was the lucky doll that got to make the trip with us.The University of Florida's graduate-level Summer 2009 graduating class.It was an awesome sound to hear his name being called.

For the little person, 45 minutes was about the limit for being able to sit still. So after daddy's name was called, we went outside for what else? A photo-op. She can be so stinking cute sometimes.His first inspiration for going back to school.Very proud parents, and why not. (no, those are not Secret Service agents behind them. It was a tad crowded and sunny)
Next post, his surprise graduation party!