Planet trio...

Just fyi for any of you who enjoy astronomy at all...for the next 12 days you can see a trio of planets on the horizon just after sunset. Tomorrow night (Sept 1st) Venus, Mercury and Mars will be in a right triangle formation close to the sun on the horizon approx. 15-30 minutes after sunset. Following so close to the sun may make it difficult to see, but give it a shot. Happy Labor Day Weekend!

The video below is a bit of fun. Fender thought he was all alone...so he decided to do something he wasn't supposed to. I saw a whole new side to our sweet baby boy when he called out for "momma, momma" just to make sure I wasn't around so he wouldn't get in trouble! We don't use the changing station much anymore. Guess Fender thinks we should.

 



 

 

Finger puppets...

Again, we've had a lazy sort of weekend at the house with time on our hands and camera nearby so here are a couple of memorable moments in pictures.

Showing off Batman some more...
 

Under the deck to find a ball...
 

Sea creature finger puppets are a blast...

 
 

Videos just because...

We've just been having way too much time on our hands with the video option nearby. And since I know those last four videos were show stoppers...hold your breath for these. I promise they won't let you down...okay...so maybe only I find these fun because I am his mother...but I'm sharing them anyway. :) Hope you enjoy.

First video...he has a good left arm and gets up stairs with ease now.


Second...for some laughs...when left alone with Daddy you never know what you are going to get...today I got "Momma come look. Hangers." So I went to look and apparently my boys decided they just had to hang hangers from the ceiling fan down to the floor. Oh yes. I just have to say, and I don't think I'm alone here, so I might just say...as a female...when left alone with a little boy and hangers...the thought to string them all together and attach them to the ceiling fan (for so many reasons) would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER have even crossed my mind. But apparently it is just the sort of thing a toddler gets dizzy about.


Third and Fourth are a bit of animal recognition with one of his books that Daddy recorded. He knows all the animals and his favorite are the water creatures, but as is usually the case, it is difficult to capture his best moments on camera and film. But for those of you who live far away I'll post these so you can get the basic feel for Fender reading. (Thanks to our friends Kale and Erin for the idea from their blog.)

Legos...

Playing with legos...
 
 

Okay...I know I am supposed to be resting my eye, but when I feel better and am inspired to do something, good luck keeping me down. So after a couple of years of looking at this...
 

I got sick of it and started tearing it out so now it looks like this...yea. I call that progress, mild progress. :)
 

As for my eye...the past two days I've woken up without the pain and pressure. Super yea!! My eye still doesn't function properly and I can't see out of it, but I'm told that should come with time if the steroids kick in and do their job. They have three more weeks and a day to do their job...but who's counting? ;) Glasses...ugh....I bought the ugly ones you see a couple of years ago because I rarely ever have to wear them and never planned to leave the house in them. They aren't even my current prescription, but the vision in my good eye hadn't changed so doc said these will work fine. I miss good eye sight and invisible contacts!!

August videos...

Boys howling like dogs...


22 months and finally jumping with both feet off the ground...

...post note...not technically completely out of diapers yet...and probably won't be till near 3 years old, but he does spend most of his time in nice cotton training undies now but naps and sleeps in diapers.

Watching "Dark Mall" demands a helmet...


Fun old school toys from Grandmama...this video is a little longer than the rest.

The trouble with August...

Well hey everyone. Some of you may know we had fun fun fun plans to spend this past weekend taking a quick trip with my mom down to Houston to see Fender's Uncle Bobby play Real Salt Lake Saturday (Houston won 4-3) what an exciting match! And that was to be followed up with a fun-filed Sunday at the beach in Galveston and everyone returning home on Monday. Short, quick, and sweet.

Instead, I was diagnosed with a rare, and potentially serious eye condition called uveitis, specifically scleritis. I was in a good deal of pain and couldn't make the trip. On top of that, YiaYia had another chemo treatment last week and although she is doing well now, she had a rough couple of days so mom decided all our time would be better spent visiting and resting with each other at home so she came to Dallas to be with all of us.

Back to my eye...weird and crazy stuff. We're waiting blood results and praying the condition isn't due to many of the associated diseases. We should know more after a week. In the meantime, the only way to relieve the pain and pressure (which is not helped at all by Alleve, Advil, Excedrin etc) is with high dose of corticosteroids to suppress the immune system which is apparently attacking my eye in it's spare time. I'm not blind in that eye, but I can't use it due to a glossy film that has covered much of it and floaters that jump about at whim now.

But enough of all of that...on to why we have this blog...our boy Fender. He had a good weekend. In addition to playing pirate, saying "argh" every time I wore my eye patch, he enjoyed time with Granmama, Aunt Lala, and all the dogs again and got a little hair cut. Here are a couple of pics...and again...a couple of videos are coming soon. I promise.

YiaYia walks on the wild side and Godfather in the news...

You just never know what that YiaYia will do next. :) Having a bit of hair back now after a couple of chemo treatments, YiaYia put some spice back into life with a terrific pink doo. Fender loves it! Or...maybe he just loves his YiaYia...hard to tell. :)
 
 

And how lucky can a boy get...his Godfather is now an Eagle Scout! Truly someone to look up to. What an amazing young man...smart, dedicated, reliable, honest, hard-working, truly kind to everyone, great smile, personality, and always fun to be around. Congratulations Garrett! We're all so proud of you!
 
 

Batman and bigfoot...

Fender is now officially 22 months old. Close to 34 inches tall and around 31 lbs. This past month he learned a couple of practical skills like how to drink well from a regular cup by himself without spilling. And how to pull his shorts and/or diaper up and down. The pull-up diapers are harder than they should be, in my opinion, so today I went out and bought "training pants" which are basically boys underwear with a slightly thicker padding to prevent major leaks when accidents occur. Several reasons behind this purchase...first, if left to run around without bottoms on, he will go potty on his own every time. And since he can pull shorts off far easier than diapers, these training pants should be just the 'tween we need. (Just made that word up... short for "in between".) Hey, Stephen Colbert has nothing on me. :)

Okay...enough digressing...on the bad side of things to learn...he now likes to watch TV. Yep. We didn't quite make the 2 year mark I was hoping for. In particular he either wants to "watch Bopman" which is "Batman" "ET" or "Elmo." On occasion he'll throw in a "Meercat" because we watch that on Saturday mornings. Well, we were getting tired of hearing "watch Bopman" repeated incessantly and having finally grown tired of re-watching Batman Begins 3 times in one week, I made a little purchase at the store, which seems to have quelled most of the TV requests.

Fender didn't know what to think of his new Batman doll at first. As usual, he watched him and studied him from afar without expression waiting to form his opinion. He seemed a bit unsure in the beginning, but after Batman sat down and played "hammer ball" with us, he became his new best friend. Now we pretty much do everything with Batman...just yesterday morning, for instance, we had to "wake up bopman" to have breakfast with us. Then Fender took him for a ride on his scooter and then decided Batman wanted to watch Elmo with him after that. In the evening, Batman played the piano, flew through the air, bounced on balls, and ate some grapes that Fender secured on his own from the fridge, before we finally laid him quietly down for "night night." Wow. What a super fun age!

 
 
 

And when he's not flying around with batman...he walks around in Daddy's shoes...
 

Another summer update...

It is frelling hot outside!! We had at least three days in a row where the temp was 104 degrees and temps have stayed above 102 for the past week! Youch! There's just no other word for it. Despite the temps, Fender did get to go outside and swim one day. Pics below.

I also want to mention a couple of really precious things Fender has done recently. For the past 5 weeks, I've woken up every morning to "Momma, Rock a baby." Which means when I peer my head into his room, Fender is standing there with his blanket waiting for me to grab him up and take him to the chair and rock him until he is ready to get up and play for the day. It is so incredibly sweet and wonderful. (I'd prefer he maybe slept in until 7:00 or 7:30 before getting me up, but 6:30 it is...) Some mornings if he is pretty well awake already, we open the blinds and watch the birds and squirrels running around on the tree tops while we rock and sing his "rock a bye" songs. It is funny when he wants you to sing a certain song...he will sing a couple of the parts he knows like..."up above the" which means he wants to hear "twinkle twinkle little star" of course. And "rock a baby (on tree top)" and Frere Jacques which he sounds out something very similar.

Yep 5 straight weeks of that...so it was quite a surprise this morning when instead of "rock a baby" he said, "watch Elmo." Uh....wha???? And he was ready to go too...down he went, straight to the living room and repeated his request over and over (because certainly I hadn't heard him the first 20 times on the way or else Elmo would already have been on when he got there.) Thankfully Tivo records Sesame Street just for these occasions and Elmo was on lickity split while I made breakfast. I guess this is how Saturday morning cartoons begin. I don't think we've ever turned on the TV before breakfast until today.

Another neat thing was he decided he was finished watching Elmo when he was hungry because he walked himself into the kitchen, straight to his chair, climbed up and said "breakfast". But the oatmeal apparently wasn't tasty enough because after a couple of bites he wanted a "pop-tart." It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was asking for, but once it was in front of him, he ate it all. Yea for cinnamon whole-grain pop-tarts!

Okay and saving the best for last...when we were getting ready for bath time last night, I sneezed, and without missing a beat...Fender said, "Bless you, Momma!" Oh...can't he stay that sweet always?
 
 
 
 

More recent camera phone pics...

Yesterday: Fender "Rock a baby" at YiaYia's.
 

Driving mom's truck:
 

Walking to dinner with Memaw and Aunt Lala:
 

Just playing in the carseat:
 

Camera phone pics

Cleaning out my phone I found a few fun pics.
March 2007: 5 months
 

October 2007: 1 year
 

November 2007: 13 months
 

April 2008: 1 1/2 years
 

Summer is just plain hot...

Well summer is in full swing now. The days are near 100 degrees every day and the heat index typically surpasses that. Which makes it difficult to play outside without water. We keep the water hose, small pool, and friend's with pools close at hand. Mostly we're in "survive the summer" mode. Or at least I am. The heat doesn't seem to phase Fen at all. Even when we tell him it is hot and we need to go inside and his cheeks are flush red and his hairline is dripping with sweat...doesn't matter...the play must go on at this age and parents just have to suck it up and remember they were young too once and who wants to be cooped up inside all the time. Not to mention, rubbing your legs and belly all over with mud helps keep you cool. :) (No pictures of that mess, but I'm sure there will be more opportunities.)

Things to do inside on a hot-hot summer day
...take pictures with the camera and look at them over and over...yea digital!
 
 

...playing with puzzles is fun too.
 
 

...messy fruit Popsicle with Memaw is another great way to endure the summer heat!

Blog to book and works of art...

Artwork of our 21 month old. No circles in this one because it is paint, but he can draw circles and spirals now, which started at about 19 months.

Okay, as Fender's second birthday draws near, it reminds me that it is almost time to make another book. I don't think I mentioned his first book before. It was just sort of an experiment the first time, but as it turned out much better than I expected, I am looking forward to doing the next one. I also thought a couple of you other moms keeping blogs might be interested as well.

I found a site last year called blurb.com (last year it was the only one in existence that did this sort of thing, but it may not be now). There is a free software download and then in a matter of seconds (maybe a couple of minutes) you can download all your blog posts from blogger.com into a book format. You have to tell it if you want to start from the first post or last post and a couple of other "set-up" type things, and then you are done. You can tweak anything you want and spell check everything. Once you are happy with it, you upload it back to the website (free) and then you order your book ($$$). :) Ours was actually $50 because of the number of pages (132 I think). But if you want more after that, they are cheaper and you can also be entrepreneurial and set your own price and sell your book online to anyone and everyone.

Anyway, in case any of you are interested in what the product looks like...here are some pictures of some layout choices for Fender's Journey: Year ONE. I designed the cover, inside layouts, colors, wording, and all the content, is mine of course, directly from the blog. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Enjoy. :)