June Videos Part I

Here is Alex on 19 June telling us the sounds for a duck, tiger, dog, and kitty cat. The sounds for bear, lion, and tiger are all the same at our house!

Now that swim lessons are over we are back to Saturday morning gymnastics. This video and the one below are from three days ago. Look how strong Alex is on the rings. He loves to hold on and swing on them. Iron cross is still in the works...ha ha.

I have four more June videos that I'll post this afternoon!

We Miss You Willow!

For those that haven't heard, we had to put Willow to sleep on Wednesday, 3 June, 2009. Long story short: she attacked Rummy 5-6 times over an 8 day period and it turns out she had some pitbull in her. We were told we would spend the rest of our lives devoted to her training since we already had so many incidents. Marc got bit multiple times trying to get Willow off of Rummy's neck. Rummy was admitted to the vet on Monday, 1 June, following the worst attack the day before. She was put on morphine, antibiotics, and pain killers and stayed to recover for a few days. Rummy is doing much better and we miss our little Willow. We just could not risk having her in our house with Alex, because although Willow and Alex were good buddies the K9 Counselors said that a lot of Willow's traits showed dominance to people (me and Marc) but that it could get elevated to hurting us or Alex. It was very very sad (LOTS of tears) to take Willow in but we had to do it. The way I look at it is that she had three happy years of love with us from the time we rescued her--she was soon to be put down then. Rest In Peace our little Wild Child...you are already missed!!

Below are pictures of the weekend we got Willow...Jacksonville, NC, May 2006.

poor little Willow was so skinny(above and below, foreground)

Family Pics October 2006

PCSing...May 2006 (in our Quantico hotel)

our girls...May 2009 (above and below)

Our Wild Child...

Alex gives Willow a Goodbye Kiss on 6/2/2009

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

Well, we had a wonderful eight days in Texas (Alex and I fly home tomorrow-Marc and Rummy will be home from the drive tomorrow morning) as you can see! We spent time in The Woodlands, Huntsville, Bryan, and the farm.

On the way home from the farm today Alex, Grandma Susie and I stopped at Stucee's (HUGE convenient store chain) and they had three life-size (this is one of the two cubs) brown bears. Alex was a little scared at first but it ended with a hug and a kiss to the mommy bear.
Driving Pa-Paw (Grandpa Mike)'s BIG BIG tractor!

Good Morning with Uncle Charlie and Pa-Paw.

We enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch at Paw-Paw and Jo's house in Bryan on Wednesday, 10 June. Tom, Darla, Mallory & Tyler joined us from Victoria and got to meet Callie for the first time!

Darla gave Callie lots of TLC and rocked Callie right to sleep!

Uncle Marc gave Callie lots of sugar! I think he forgot how small new babies are...and Callie's already two months old! She was so bright and alert and gave us lots of smiles!

Mark came over to the farm Wednesday morning and we all got to ride horses for a few hours.

Even Alex got to ride for 15 minutes with Mark. Marc and I felt more comfortable with Mark holding Alex and he got over the tears in about 10 seconds once we all started riding together. It was really fun and Marc got to break in his new boots.

Uncle Charlie stop tickling me!!! Weeeeeee!

Playing on the ranger while it's parked...this happened continually and Alex loved it.

Ranger ride with Grandma Susie, Pa-Paw, and Rummy. This trip was very therapeutic for Rummy and her neck is healing very well. She LOVED riding around with us and running for miles. She even chased some deer and an armadillo!

Fun overload in his swing at Grammy and Papa's house!

Good smile buddy...

reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" with Grammy

big boy dinner in mommy's old high chair, at Grammy's house

yummy Mexican food lunch with Mommy and Grammy. Alex enjoyed chips, guacamole, and a chicken quesadillas! He was very well-behaved and it was very relaxing.

Aunt Morgan came down Sunday night from TAMU to visit Alex. They got to read some books together.

More swinging with Grammy at the helm!

Papa takes a turn pushing Alex!

relaxing on a humid, TX afternoon

big helper to Grandma Susie watering plants during swim time

priceless...

Grandma Susie bought Alex this "Rescue Boat" and it was really neat. He floated around the pool in it multiple days and loved "steering" the boat with the wheel and ringing the bells on the side.

I think those are daddy's glasses.

Getting ready to swim with Pa-Paw.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND FUN

We had a busy Memorial Day! It started with us introducing Alex to his own potty. He was very excited about it. Here he is sitting on it, reading the directions (he must be gifted).

Before we opened it...we asked "Do you want to sit on your potty?" Well, he did...and didn't wait for us to open it.

Sit here? If you say so!

Okay now I'm smiling...this is sortof neat.

Now at bathtime we have potty time beforehand where he sits on his potty and we read 2-3 books. He'll also sit on it if he and daddy sit on the potties together. He did urinate in it once (sitting-thanks to the handy dandy MALE attachment) before bathtime but no repeat yet. We're not pushing it...just letting him sit on it when he wants to.

On Sunday I bought Alex this cute table/chairs on Craig's List and he was so excited. I had it in the garage to clean it...it is now in the computer room by our desk.

BIG smile!

Alex is still OBSESSED with lawn mowers. He will stand at the window and watch our neighbors for hours! Well, this weekend he and I were playing in his pool (at least we did for a while) but when Marc started mowing that was all she wrote. Alex had to have his mower out there too. Then, when Marc was weed-eating Alex thought it was the neatest thing ever and began imitating that, too (with his favorite rolling, distance marker). Here he is weed-eating around the drain.

Two cute yard helpers.

Hard at work...

Whew, weed-eating is hard work!

a stand-off...it was hard work on mommy keeping him far enough away from Marc so that flying debris couldn't hit him!

Alex likes to make a "fort" behind the large couch cushion on the lounge. He piles his toys and plays with them behind the cushion. He's taking a juice break here...

Memorial day hose play. There is a HILARIOUS video to this but it's too big to download. I'm trying to cut it in half and publish both halves together. More to come...

My boys...

Also over Memorial Day weekend we got out the kid's bike seat that our neighbor April gave us (thank you!!!) and Marc put it on my bike. Alex woke up from his nap when we were almost done and was ready to go. Here he is helping (helmet already on).

ready to help pump up the tires...

and weeeeeee here we go. I take him for at least a short ride almost every day now. He LOVES it and says "a bike" over and over again throughout the day and in the garage when he sees them hanging.

wearing mom's shades...

Scooter "ride" that was actually on 4/23/2009..but still cute.