wildlife in the pelican state

This was a day for the kids, though all the adults had a grand time as well. We went to a local wildlife park. We've been to a couple of these before and the kids always love them (our kids adore animals). This one was neat because we rode around in a open wagon pulled by a tractor (instead of driving through in our own vehicle). This was an advantage for the kids because they had a lot more access to the animals than they usually do. Gwendolyn was very serious about the feeding of the animals and determined to get a giraffe to eat from her hand. Linus was eager and interested, but intimidated by the larger beasts. Casper loved being allowed to throw food out the window. The day ended with long and much needed naps for Todd, Linus and Casper and a late night of game playing for the adults.

new orleans

A fun (but cold and rainy) day in the city. Thanks to my cousin Michael, we had a VIP tour of the National WWII Museum. A really fascinating museum and a very interesting tour, this was enjoyed by all (except perhaps Linus, who likes to bellow his complaints in places that echo. A toy airplane from the gift shop set him right). We lunched at Mother's and then toured the city a little before finishing the day with a trip to a shrimp boat for 50 pounds of fresh shrimp.

thanksgiving in the pelican state

We headed to my Aunt Janie's home in Louisiana for the Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving is a little blurry for me because during the drive on Wednesday night, I started throwing up in the van (and continued throwing up through the night. Gwendolyn joined in the fun, too). I stayed in bed most of Thursday but the kids had a fun day, running around outside and fishing in my aunt's pond, playing with cousins and watching Wall-E. I roused myself for late afternoon family pictures and ate a single dinner roll for my Thanksgiving dinner.

flying objects

Earlier today, Linus, Gwendolyn and I were playing Uno Attack and Casper really wanted to push that little button. So later, we let him play and he loved it. The beeping button was pretty great, but he thought it was hilarious when all the cards would shoot out at him.

When Gwendolyn plays with Casper, she often bounces him on her lap and sings a song she made up, "Baby rocket ship goes, 'pssssh!'" Casper loves it and today I caught him singing that little song to himself: "Baaay-beeee (unintelligible jabbering) psssssh!" I was amazed. Smart, adorable kid.

hanging around

As we are driving home from the grocery store:
Gwennie: When I grow up, I’m going to marry Thomas and have some babies and live with you so you can help me out.
Mama: Well, by that time, you will probably want a home of your own to live in.
Gwennie: No, I’ll want to live with you so you can help me out. The thing is, I’m afraid about driving.
Mama: Well, you’ll be less afraid when you get older.
Gwennie: I’m worried that I won’t be able to find my house. (pause) Maybe I’ll carry around a piece of paper with my address on it!

paper airplane

(I apologize for the blurry photo, but Linus is trying to sabotage me -- he will not stand still or even look at me when I have a camera in my hand!)

peek!

self portraits

I love the way the morning light brings out the gray in my hair.

fall foliage

This is Fall in Texas -- green leaves on the trees, brown leaves on the ground.

boys and their love of trucks

Casper has always been a big talker and has always been very animated. These days, every time we play in the back yard or I walk by the kitchen window while holding him, he starts to shriek, "Truck! Truck!" and point at all the construction trucks building that damn condo complex. Nothing excites him more than those diggers.

new tricks

Linus, asking about the rental car Todd recently picked up for a business trip: Did the Universe let him keep it for one day?

Linus, mad at Todd: I’m saying something rude about you!

Linus: I miss Granny. Why does she have to live in Dallas instead of here?
Gwennie: Maybe the next time she moves, she can move here.
Linus: Maybe she can move next door to us!
Gwennie: Yeah! When our neighbors sell their house, Granny and Grandad can buy it.

Linus likes to come into our room in the middle of the night and sleep on a pallet I have on the floor for children who like to play musical beds. Tonight, he sneaked in there before Todd and I went to bed and shut and locked the bedroom door behind him, locking himself and Casper in the room. It took Todd and me a good 20 minutes to get the door open.

It's official

Casper is a walker. Just the past day or two it started to be nearly full-time walking. When he falls down, he stands back up and tries again, instead of just resorting to crawling. He's so proud of himself and so cute to watch.

sweet angel girl

I had such a good day with Gwendolyn yesterday. Kids go through phases when all is balance, and then they have stages when all is turmoil and chaos. Gwendolyn is in a very good place right now and I'm enjoying her so much. She helped me make banana bread. While I was on the phone, she surprised me by folding a load of laundry that was waiting for me (and she did a pretty good job). In the afternoon, we got out her spool knitting (which has frustrated her in the past) and she caught right on and excitedly "knit" for nearly an hour. She "babysat" Casper while I rolled the trash can to the street and to make him happy, filled up the tractor he was holding with Cheerios. Also, isn't she beautiful?

vintage glasses

The kids modeled some vintage glasses today and even though I snapped a good half a dozen shots, Linus looked like a complete nerd in every single photo.
They also dressed themselves today.

in the driver's seat

trying to figure it all out

There is a lot of talk in this house about someone the children call “Baby Sister”, even though I’m not pregnant and don’t plan to be anytime soon and Todd and I don’t discuss possible future children with our current children. Still. At church yesterday a baby girl was blessed and Linus was very interested in the baby. He kept asking me (in his quiet bellow) how we would get baby sister, when we would get baby sister, how she would get to our house, and finally, when they were going to bring her over to our pew. It dawned on me that Linus thought the baby getting blessed in church was Baby Sister. I explained that the sweet baby we saw in church was someone else’s baby sister, not his. He’s obviously still confused because last night he asked if Baby Sister would be arriving tomorrow.

Linus: Do you know why people come down from heaven? Because Heavenly Father has all the parts: heads, feet, legs, arms. . . .

fall-ish

Today we found the one tree in town which is starting to change color. And we wore short sleeves. This is Autumn in Texas.

three is hard

Today, Linus climbed on the fridge to retrieve (and eat most of) his remaining Halloween candy. He then opened his bedroom window, took off the screen and ran around the front yard until I found him and dragged him back inside. At bedtime, he got up every 3 minutes for two straight hours, until he finally fell asleep. An hour later, he woke up crying because somehow, in his sleep, he hit his head hard enough to make it bleed. He makes us so tired.

ambitions

We've been talking a lot about presidents here in our house lately and today Gwendolyn grew thoughtful.
Gwendolyn: Can a girl be President?
Mama: We've never had a female president in this country, but absolutely, yes, a woman can be president.
Gwendolyn, after thinking for a moment: I'm going to be President one day.
Mama: Well, I'd vote for you!
Gwendolyn: So would Daddy. And Granny and Grandad. And Grandma and Grandpa Sam. (And then she listed every other relative she could think of before turning to Linus.) Would you vote for me, Linus?
Linus: I'm going to be busy working at Bear World.

Gwendolyn: [opening a book studiously] I’m going to be the looker-upper.
Linus: Well, I’m going to be the looker-at-booker.
Gwendolyn: No, I’m going to be the looker.
Linus: Then I’ll be the checker-outer.

the fuzz

Gwennie was recently telling her cousin all about fuzz balls (the little pieces of fabric she plucks off her lovie and then rolls into balls). She warned, "Don’t put fuzz balls in your ear or they might get stuck in your brain and then you won’t be able to think about anything but fuzz balls."

I'm so in love with this little cowboy

the unicorn, the cowboy, the firefighter

We had a great time trick-or-treating at the dorms on campus tonight.
I want to remember:
1. That one woman exclaimed, "That unicorn is so cute, she gets extra candy!" and how very pleased Gwendolyn was at that comment.
2. That Linus announced, "I'm not showing anyone my red hair tonight because firemen always wear hats!"
3. That Casper really got into things and while his brother and sister knocked on a door, he would walk up to it and attempt to push it open.
4. That we gave Casper an entire lollipop and how upset he got when Todd took the half-eaten stick away.
5. That Gwendolyn got a packet of butter in her candy bag (good thing we checked all the loot).

not the favorite

Today we drove Granny to Austin and left her there with Auntie Tiffany. While we were all enjoying lunch together, Linus turned to me and said, "Mama, you're not my favorite. Auntie Tiffany and Granny are my favorite."

not walking, but close

So I mistakenly predicted that Casper would be walking by the end of September, and here it is the end of October and he's still mostly a crawler. He took his first steps back in early September and though he's taken a few steps every day since then, he really prefers to crawl. Though he seems to be the most athletic of the three kids, he was terrified of falling as a baby, so I think there may be some fear associated with the walking thing. Granny has been staying with us and has been encouraging Casper to walk; he's started taking her advice. Today especially, we've noticed some visible confidence in his little stride, and we've seen him begin to take more steps. This gradual mastery of a new skill is new to me. Gwennie and Linus both took their first steps (between 13 and 14 months) and gave up crawling on the spot. Maybe Casper will be exclusively walking by Christmas . . .

autumn at the farm

A group from the city had reserved a nearby farm for a seasonal celebration, so Todd took the day off of work and joined us at the farm. It was a cold, windy day, so the highlight for many of us was the campfire. Other highlights were the outside toys and swings, playing with friends, picking ripe persimmons, the hayride, and bringing home some pumpkins.

Hay maze

Autumn's been slow in coming to our corner of Texas, but we've been able to celebrate our favorite season with a few activities, if not through the enjoyment of crisp weather and changing foliage. Today we visited our local farmers' market, where some anonymous farmers had set up a great hay maze. The children enjoyed finding their way through the mildly scary maze, and Casper was particularly enthralled with the Casper-sized pumpkins. Since our family has something of a history with giant gourds of all kinds, we thought a photo series was called for:

(This is a shout out to Accardos everywhere.)

star gazing

This morning we went to the country with Granny to visit some dear family friends, the Hoyts. Gwendolyn and Linus were intrigued by Sister Hoyt's fully reclining deck chair, which she uses when star gazing. After the kids tromped around the yard for a while and found a small trailer, Gwennie announced, "When we spend the night here, we'll use this to look at the stars." Comfy.

the fabulous roslyn ruff

It just so happened that while I was in Dallas, I was able to connect with the beautiful and amazingly talented Roslyn Ruff! Roz is my dear, dear friend from grad school and is currently in the Dallas Theatre Center's production of The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson. Roslyn and I had dinner on Monday night and though we haven't seen each other in over 7 years, it felt like no time had passed. We sat and chatted for three straight hours (and gorged ourselves for at least two).

On Tuesday evening I went to the opening night of the production and spent some time with Roslyn after the production, meeting her friends, talking, marveling at the fact that we were wearing the exact same outfit, and dragging out our good-byes. While not wanting to write a review here, let me say that I loved the play. I felt it was well written, well staged, well acted, poignant, culturally relevant, and that Roslyn's performance moved me to tears. If you live within a 500 mile radius of Dallas, get yourself a ticket. The best night of theatre I've had in a long time.

Roslyn, I'm back home now and I miss you already. Todd sends his love.

day at the arboretum

This morning we joined my dear friend Christina and her sweet son Rees on a trip to the Dallas Arboretum to enjoy their annual pumpkin festival. Gwendolyn and Linus enjoyed the pumpkin house and hay bale maze, a picnic on the lawn and watching the monarch butterflies. Casper was in love with Rees and belly-laughed the entire time they played in the rocks together. Unfortunately, no one was very patient with Mama trying to put them through another seasonal photo op. And I was thrilled to be spending time with one of my oldest friends -- Christina and I have been friends since junior high and now she lives just a few miles from my parents' house! Lucky me.