Karen's Little Weblog-thingy  -

+ 0 - 7 | § ¶It's all about the pretzels

We were going to go to a parade this morning, but it was pouring rain, so we didn't.  It cleared up later, though, so our activity at work, which was geocaching, had perfect weather.  It was Beth's first time going too, so i got to show her and all the guys at the same time.  Beth had fun, so hopefully i can convince her to go with me again sometime.  Some of the boys seemed to really enjoy it.  Some just had fun looking for snakes and frogs and bugs.  Boys and girls are just certainly different, and no scientist is going to convince me otherwise. 

Yesterday i forgot to write about Houston's response to church.  After i picked him up from his room, i asked him if he had fun.  He replied, "I had pretzels!"  I said, "Really?  Pretzels?  Wow!  What else did you do?"  He replied, "I ate pretzels!"  I said, "Did you play with the kids?"  He replied, "I played pretzels!"  And so it went.  Evidentally, the pretzels were really the most exciting part...forget the playdoh, forget the stories and the coloring and the kids to play with...it's all about the pretzels.

+ 0 - 7 | § ¶How to avoid a nap

After church this morning, we went over to my parents' house, as usual.  But since Jackie and her family were there, Houston had fun kids to play with.  So they all jumped on the trampoline for a while.  Kelly and Wyatt are about a year and a half older than Houston, so they're more adept at the whole "knowing how to do things" thing.  So Houston was watching them, and learned some new tricks, like the butt-drop. 

Houston climbed out of his crib today.  Well, actually he climbed out of the crib at Mom and Dad's house.  I was put him down, then went to another room to feed Katrina.  A few minutes later, i heard him saying, "Oh my goodness!  Oh my goodness!" and then the door closed.  I thought my sister had gone into that room to get something, and hadn't realized that Houston was in the room.  But then moments later, i heard Houston say, "I woke up!" downstairs.  He announced to my mom that he was all done sleeping.  They all thought i let him out, so they let him stay downstairs.  So he got to stay up for a couple of hours, until Juanito put him down at 3:00.

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶Learning

This morning i worked for four hours (i split a shift with Beth), and when i got home, Juanito and Houston were playing with play-doh.  My parents got him (Houston, not Juanito) a cute little play-doh set with aliens that have the play-doh come out of their mouths and hair and ears and stuff.  I had it out for Houston to play with for a month or so, but all he'd do is throw the pieces.  So i put it away.  In the month or so since then, he has gotten just enough older that he can actually play with it now, and has fun stuffing the play-doh inside and squishing it out.  It amazes me how fast he learns...two months ago, he couldn't figure out how to do it.  Wow.  Then again, two months ago Katrina could only sleep, eat, and poop.  Now she's totally interacting, smiling, laughing, eating her hands, and holding toys.  Incredible.  I wish i could learn that quickly!

After Houston took his nap, we went geocaching with Jackie, Kelly, and Wyatt.  We very nearly got rained out, but it cleared up for us just as we left for the park.  The cache was at Hager Park, which is not far from my parents' house, but i hadn't been there yet with Houston.  It's a huge playground, all wood, and very involved.  The kids all enjoyed it.

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Sleepover

Last night Houston, Katrina, and i slept over at my parents' house, along with Jill and Chellie.  We had a fun time...we watched a movie, ate ice cream, and played, "What Were You Thinking."  Jill brought over some blueberry muffins she'd made, so this morning Houston happily munched down two and a half of them (along with a banana, some oatmeal, and some cereal.  He just loads up at breakfast).  Meanwhile, Katrina just got tons of attention from everyone, so she was happy.  After playing outside for a while, Houston got a much-needed haircut from Mom.  Houston wasn't terrribly thrilled about the whole experience.

+ 4 - 4 | § ¶Sculptures and ice cream

I'm writing my post really early today, because Houston, Katrina, and i are going to sleep over at my parents' house.  Seems odd to be writing it while the sun's still out!

This morning we went to Meijer Gardens again.  This time we were exclusively outside, though.  They have a sculpture path, and we walked through that.  They had some sculptures that i really liked, some Juanito really liked, some that were lame, and some that were just odd.  But it was a beautiful day to be outside, and it was fun to look around.  My favorite part of the gardens was the waterfall, which is in a little secluded area.  And there are all different kinds of fish, which thrills Houston.  Juanito managed to find cool insects to look at.  And Houston found rocks to climb on and jump off.  Katrina just slept most of the time.

+ 1 - 6 | § ¶Today

I don't even know what to say about today....  It was certainly NOT one of Houston's best.  For about two hours, he whiney-cried about every little thing...i cannot even describe how annoyed i was.  Finally i started using my brain and decided to just get OUT of the house!  So we went to the grocery store and then to the park.  Almost the minute we were away from the house, Houston calmed down and cheered up.  He had a blast playing on the playground.  He developed his own little routine:  Up the ladder that scares me to death, over the bridge and back, down the slide, and behind the wall with the circles.  After a while, he decided to try some other things, and was running around and fell and hit his chin on the cement curb that goes around the play area.  He didn't hurt his chin, but he bit his lip, resulting in this.  That stopped him for about 2 minutes, the amount of time it took me to get to the car with him and wipe his face off.  As soon as his face was wiped off, he smiled and ran off.  That child is definately tougher than i am.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Six dollars

Best $6.00 i ever spent:  camel ride at the zoo.  Tonight i was asking Houston what he did today, and the first thing he said was, "Ride a camel!"  Yeah.  That was over two weeks ago.  The second thing he remembered was that while he was taking a walk with Juanito, Graham made him fall.  Since he had two hands full of pinecones, which he apparently didn't want to drop, he landed on his wrists.  So he got a little scrape on his right wrist.  I put a little bandaid with Boo from Monster's Inc. on the owie and asked him who was on his bandaid, and he looked at it and said, "Beth."  And i have to admit, it does look a bit like Beth.

Speaking of  Beth, she came over for a while today to hang out with us.  Katrina had fun just staring and staring at her.  Keren and Mark both came over for a little while too, so we had kind of a mini-Tuesday night.  Woohoo!

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Duck pond

Juanito and i did the children-switch at work today, so i went early so that we could walk around the duck pond.  Houston was completely entertained by the swan especially, but also really liked the ducks that were outside the fence, and kept trying to catch them.  And he really liked that the path went up and down so he could run down the hills.  Mind you, they're extremely small hills...more like dips in the sidewalk, but they made him happy.

Houston recently started saying, "Neyah," meaning, "Yeah."  I'm not sure where he picked that up, by that's the only way he'll say yes now.  It was a little confusing at first, but not that i'm used to it, it's just kind of bizarre.

We were playing with Houston's monsters this morning, and i was trying to show him fun ways to play with things without throwing them.  So i was putting the monsters together and making them talk to each other.  Houston picked up on the idea, and pretty soon nearly all of his monsters were on time outs on the Uh-oh chair.  He'd grab a monster, say, "UH OH!" and put it on the chair, wait a minute, grab the next, and repeat the process.  It was really cute.

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Happy day

We got that picture taken about a month ago already, but we just picked it up today. 

Katrina was in such a wonderful mood today.  She was content and happy and smiley when she was awake.  She took a couple of long naps, which she rarely does.  And she only ate 4 times today.  She had been going through a huge growth spurt, i think, and today she's no longer growing, so she happy and resting up from all the growing she's been doing the past several days.  In fact, now that i think about it, she didn't cry at all today.  What a sweet little baby.

Houston was really sweet and happy for most of the day today too.  He woke up late-ish, played with monsters, ate breakfast, and kind of toddled around until we left for my parents' house.  He took a good long nap, and then woke up cheerful and raring to go.  We went to 6:00 church, and afterwards hung around talking to Beth and Keren, and Houston had fun running all over the place.

+ 7 - 2 | § ¶Losing things

This morning, Houston woke up, came downstairs, and saw the footbath (which i had not yet put away), and immediately ran to it and said, "I want that."  So he happily had a footbath for a good 45 minutes while he ate breakfast.  It's hilarious how much he really enjoys that.  At about 10:45, i remembered that i needed to bring back a movie that was due at noon, so i grabbed the kids (Houston without shoes, no diaper bag), meaning to be gone only about 5 minutes.  But once we were in the car, Houston started begging, "Go Grandma's house?  See Grandpa?  Go Grandpa's house?  See Grandma??" so i figured, "Ok.  I don't have anything else planned."  So we jetted over to the parents' house and visited with them for an hour or so.  Then back here for Houston's nap time. 

While Houston was sleeping, Beth and her niece came over to use our bathroom.  I meant to say yesterday that she came over and hung out with me for a couple of hours.  We had a girl's night, sort of, but we also watched the Muppet Show, which isn't very girly.  It was fun though.  (Thanks Beth!)

+ 3 - 4 | § ¶U2

For weeks now, i've been waiting for it to rain like crazy during the day, so i can take Houston out to play in the rain.  And every time it rains, it's either for only a few minutes or it's when he's sleeping.  Today it downpoured like crazy...and i was with Katrina at Meijer getting her pictures taken.  And by the time i got home, Juanito had put Houston down for a nap.  ERG!  One of these days....

Incidentally, Katrina was so good with getting her pictures taken.  She just smiled all adorably for the first couple, and then she got sick of it.  So then i did the old, "Whee" thing with the arms over her head, and she totally smiled again.  I think that that is her big joke.  For Houston, it was when we shook our heads at him.  Maybe when she gets older, she'll start throwing her arms in the air and saying, "Whee!"  Houston did that...well, he started shaking his head like crazy, and for him that was the funniest joke in the world.

+ 6 - 3 | § ¶Thunderstorms

Early this morning there was a loud thunderstorm that came through Grand Rapids.  Loud enough that it woke me up, and i almost always sleep right through thunderstorms.  Graham freaked out with the first rumble, as always, and insisted on sleeping by my head.  For some reason, it's always me he turns to for comfort when he hears thunder, and i guess my head offers more comfort than my feet for some reason.  Houston, however, slept right through the whole storm.  Not only that, he slept more than an hour longer than he has the past few days!  Either he's a thunder-lover like me, or the sun wasn't bright enough to wake him.  He finally woke up when the storm was winding down.

This afternoon Houston, Katrina, and i were all feeling kind of "eh."  Not crabby exactly, but just kind of blah.  Houston really wanted to just stay in his diaper, and i was fine with staying in today, so we had a hang-around-the-house day for the first time in ages.  This evening, Houston was really sweet...he kept coming over to me to give me hugs.  He'd be playing with his monsters and stop to give me a hug.  Then he was watching Toy Story, and every 5-10 minutes he'd run over to hug me.  I think he just wanted to touch base every few minutes -- "i can play by myself, but i still want you nearby" kind of thing.  What a honey.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶i love you

Ever since Houston started talking, i've been waiting and waiting for those three little words.  Today, we were at Mom and Dad's house, and i was busy making a salad for dinner, and as i'm getting dishes out of the dishwasher, Houston spontaniously says, "I love you," and hugs my legs.  AWWWWW!  And just to make sure i understood, he said it again a few minutes later.  Yeah!  What a sweetheart. 

Houston had a really good day today.  He woke up around 8:00, and snuggled for a while with Juanito on the couch.  He had fun jumping on the trampoline.  He played baseball and tetherball with me.  He sat at and kicked around the table and chairs i made for him and Katrina (what's with this i-need-to-kick-and-throw-because-i'm-a-boy thing?).  And (this is my second favorite thing he did today), while i was feeding Katrina, he went into the kitchen, climbed on a chair, found a banana, peeled it, and ate it.  I didn't know he knew how to peel a banana!  He was just in a really good mood.  He even took a semi-long bath and barely cried when i washed his hair. 

Katrina was really good today too.  She was awake a lot, but was really content while she was awake.  Very smiley and happy.  I love it when both kids are in good moods on the same day!

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Laughter

Today Katrina laughed for the first time.  And just to make sure that we knew that it was a laugh, she did it a couple of times.  We were just finishing eating dinner, and i was playing with Katrina on my lap, and she totally laughed.  Juanito asked, "Was that a laugh?"  And a few seconds later, she did it again.  What was so funny that warranted her first laugh?  I was putting her hands over her head and saying, "Wheee!"  Go figure.  It was the most adorable little laugh though.  Kind of an expansion of the "Heeee" noise that she's been doing for a while now.

We spent a long time at a couple of different parks today.  The first one we went to was about a mile north of our house, but we'd never been there before.  And we probably won't be going back.  Houston enjoyed it, because he got to climb a lot, but i was a wreck, because everything was cement.  I was convinced that he was going to jump and crack his skull open.  There were hardly any toys there, but Houston found tons of ways to amuse himself.  Little kids are amazing that way.  The reason we had gone there was because there was a huge expanse of green on the map, but we couldn't find it.  As we were leaving, there was a guy closing the gates next door, and i asked him if it was a golf course.  His response was, "Yeah.  A country club for stuffy old rich people."  I think they should make him the spokesman.

+ 3 - 4 | § ¶Big guy bed

Houston has moved to a "big guy bed," which has played out differently from what i originally imagined.  For starters, he loves to be able to run and jump into bed by himself, and he lays right down, so getting him to stay in bed has not been a problem at all.  I put a bunch of toys and books in his room (there's a gate on his door, so he can't get out of his room without our knowledge), and we were hoping that when he woke up in the morning, he would play for a while before making us wake up.  Not much luck there.  He generally wakes up, runs to the gate, and calls, "Downstairs.  Downstairs.  Mama.  Get up.  Daddy.  Downstairs...."  This morning, i was thrilled because he actually woke up and played for about 15-20 minutes before calling for me.  Of course, he made a huge mess, but i don't care.  Another new experience with this is that he falls out of bed nearly every night.  We have a painted hardwood floor in there, so the first several nights i would be downstairs and hear "THUNK" and i'd run upstairs and put him back into bed, only to hear "THUNK" again an hour later.  So now i generally just leave him there until i go to bed, and sometimes he'll wake up and get back into bed himself.  And when he doesn't, he seems perfectly comfortable on the floor.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Dedication

Today was Katrina's dedication.  After growing up in a Christian Reformed church, i am used to baptizing infants, but i kind of made my peace with the dedication thing when Houston was a baby.  However, i do still use the traditional baptism gown.  Houston wore the same gown (NOT dress) that my Grandma Martinus made and most of us wore.  For Katrina, i asked my mom to make a gown with the same pattern so that i will have one to pass down to my children.  She did a beautiful job on the dress.  Katrina didn't cooperate very well when i was trying to take pictures...she kept trying to roll over, but i did get one of the gown.  The dedication service was very nice.  Katrina was perfect.  Houston was a little distracting at times, but did pretty well most of the time.  Mom, Chellie, and Juanito sang the "Cradle Song" by Sandi Patti, which is the same song we had at Houston's (but with Jill instead of Mom), but i just love that song, so....

+ 3 - 4 | § ¶Unfair

So i went to work this morning at 9:00.  When i got home at 4:15, Juanito was sleeping on the couch.  He slowly woke up and groggily said, "Hi Karen..."  I noticed Katrina sleeping in her pack-n-play, and asked when Houston had gone down for a nap.  The answer?  12:15!!!!!!  What?  And Katrina had been sleeping for 2 hours.  How is it that I am home nearly every single day, and first time Juanito has them during the day Houston sleeps for 4 hours and Katrina sleeps for 2 at the same time, allowing Juanito to have a 2-hour nap?  That is just unbelievably unfair.  Sigh.

Jill and Todd invited us over to their house for dinner tonight.  It was our first cookout of the year.  Houston was immediately captivated by the fire and wanted to be near it, so i brought him over and told him to sit in a chair.  He climbed in and as soon as he was seated, the chair fell over backwards (in slow motion), dumping him onto the grass on his back.  He wasn't hurt, but he didn't want to go by the fire anymore for a while.  Jill made yummy fruit drinks for us all, which Houston totally enjoyed.  We sat by the fire for a while until it just got too cold, especially for Katrina, who finally started crying when she was taken out of the warm house.  So we went inside for a little while before realizing that it was 10:00, time for little Houston to be in bed.  Thanks, Jill and Todd, for a fun night!

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶Mud

Today was one of those days that could not end soon enough.  Houston woke up at about 6:45, and was crabby from the get-go.  We went over to Mom's house to help (sort of) make a gown for Katrina's dedication Sunday, and that made him happy for most of the morning and early afternoon.  Mom's street was having garage sales, so i ran around to them quick and found some good finds, including, for one dollar, this whole set of books that are kind of the internet before there was the internet for and about kids.  While we were cutting out the gown, we realized that we didn't have enough material, so i had to run the store for more.  I took Rick with me, and we stopped at Galyan's and got a GPS unit (Rick gets 30% off), so now i can go GPSing without having to borrow Mark's!  While i was at the store, Houston took a short nap on Mom's couch, but woke up as soon as i got home.  So with a short night and a short nap, he was just Mr. Whine for a couple of hours.

+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Threes

Today is May 13.  It is Katrina's three-month birthday.  

It is also the third anniversary of the death of one of our best friends, Tim Wetzel.  Some memories of Tymm:  I first met Tymm when his unit called for backup for a restraint.  We didn't talk much that time.  I started talking to him more later when one of the kids from his unit moved to mine, and he would come down to talk to him.  But i really got to know Tymm through Young Life.  He was a leader, as was Juanito, and Tymm's twin Aaron, and their friend Phil.  We started going out for pizza most Thursday nights after Young Life, and pretty soon we started hanging out more often.  Then someone (I think it was Tymm) came up with the idea to go to Chicago, where we had a blast, and then to Cedar Point,.  We spent New Year's eve with Tymm and Aaron and a bunch of their friends for the year 2000, where Tymm and i spent large amounts of time mocking the people who were playing on the computers.  Shortly thereafter, Tymm got hooked into computers as well, changed his name from "Tim" to "Tymm" (well, not legally, but for the computer and for with friends), and got totally into playing games with other people.  So Tymm and Travis and Mark started coming over Tuesday nights to play computers...which grew into "Tuesday Nights," where loads of people would come over to play computers or real games or watch movies or just hang out until early hours of the morning.  Some of my favorite memories are from playing games with Tymm.  In March of 2001, we drove down with him to his Grandparents' place in Florida for a week, which was incredibly fun.  Tymm got me into VOL (Vigilantes of Love - made up primarily of Bill Mallonee), his favorite group.  He also liked John Denver, which made me happy.  He also showed us the cool walkway downtown, which he only walked in the middle of the night.  He would talk to me for hours on the phone in the middle of the night.  He was cool and goofy and fun.   He was just an all-around awesome friend.

+ 5 - 3 | § ¶Sand Castles

Every night, just before bedtime, i talk to Houston about what we did that day.  And it's always so interesting to hear what he remembers, and what was the most exciting and important parts in his mind.  Today we went to Meijer Gardens and saw all sorts of interesting things, and on the way home we asked him, "Did you like the Gardens?" and his response was, "Run down the hill!"  The best part was not the butterflies or the huge horse or the beautiful flowers...it was the hill.  Tonight when i asked him about what we did today, his answer was "Ride a camel!"  Apparently the concept of time has not yet been grasped.

Houston and I made pseudo-orange julius' today (he got to throw in the ice cubes), and i thought it was kind of icky, but Houston loved it.  Every once in a while he'd stop mid-play and say "Orange Julius!" and run off to take a drink.

+ 7 - 0 | § ¶Geocaching and ice cream

Today was a fun and busy day.  This morning was mostly relaxing...Houston and i "fished" for a while.  I made a fishing pole with a magnet and some fish with paperclips on them, and let Houston try to catch the fish.  He tried it the right way for about two fish and then decided that it would be easier if he was sitting on the floor, holding the string rather than the pole.  My initial reaction was, "Hey!  That's cheating!"  but then i figured that he WAS using some good problem-solving skills.  Eventually he was lying down in front of the fish, trying to catch them that way, which was conciderably harder than sitting on the couch.  But...whatever.

Katrina woke up in a wonderful mood.  I could hear her upstairs making her happy noises, so i went up to get her, and she was just lying there smiling away.  So i brought her down and laid her on the floor for a few minutes.  So immediately Houston was drawn to her.  And the first thing he did was jump over her!  That was immediately vetoed by me, so then he spent the next few minutes running around her in circles.  When he tired of that, he sat down and started saying, "Hi Katrina" over and over like usual, but then he switched it up a bit and said, "Hi Sunshine!"  I was just going, "Awwwwww!"

+ 5 - 3 | § ¶Hokey Poop

This morning while changing Houston's diaper, i said, "Hokey Pete!"  This was a new expression, so of course Houston had to repeat it, "Hokey peep!  Hokey peep!  Hokey poop!  Hokey poop!"  That'll teach me to use new expressions while changing diapers.  I'm sure that "hokey poop" makes sense to him.  Meanwhile, the race towards potty training is moving at a snail's pace.  He's just not real interested.  Today he asked to use the potty three times, though!  Woohoo!  That's some progress anyhow.

Houston is really getting the hang of using the phone.  He talked on the phone to me for a few minutes, and was just chatting up a storm, "Scary fish.  Daddy fish.  Finding Nemo."  Etc.  Not the normal grown-up type of conversation, but he understands that you're supposed to talk anyhow. 

Katrina was really cute today.  She was smiley and content.  Juanito says she slept for 3-4 hours while he was home with the kids.  I think she liked being at home where it's fairly quiet and calm.  Speaking of which...

+ 4 - 4 | § ¶Hi Mom!

Happy Mother's Day!  This morning Pastor Rob did a sermon on mothers, and Katrina and i (and three other moms & babies) got to sit up on stage during the sermon as props.  Katrina's first big gig.  She was perfect.  Not a peep.  Awake and smiley the whole time.  She discovered her tongue today, so she spent a good portion of the sermon sticking her tongue out, licking her collar, looking around, and then sticking her tongue out again.  She was making me laugh.  All day long she kept playing with her tongue.  If i stuck my tongue back out at her, she thought that was great fun.  If i touched her tongue with my finger, that was exciting.  If anything came close to her mouth, she was trying to lick it. 

Houston had a banner day too.  He climbed out of the crib for the first time ever.  We were at my parents' house and i put him down for a nap, and about 15 minutes later he came walking down the stairs.  I'm not really sure how he got out, but he certainly managed.  He had another fun day of playing with lots of kids.  This morning he played with Elanor and Amaryah again.  Then after church, we went over to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Duane's house (along with the rest of my family, Alma's family, and my Grandparents).  We don't really know anyone with kids Houston's age or thereabouts, so he doesn't often get to play with other children.  So i'm really quite impressed with how well he plays with other kids.  He shares quite well and totally watches them to see how he should be acting and playing, and then joins in.  It's fun to watch him learning social interactions.

+ 3 - 4 | § ¶Sandbox

Houston had a fun-filled day of playing with lots of kids today.  Last night, Sam and Shelbi, and their two daughters, Elanor and Amaryah came to stay at our house for a couple of nights.  They got here after Houston had gone to sleep, though, so they were just suddenly here when he woke up.  So they all played together this morning; fun games like Cootie and drumming and "Hey, give me my cup back."  Then my dad came over with a sandbox he built for us (THANKS, Dad!!!), so all the kids played in that for a while.  Houston had fun knocking down the sandcastles i made and Amaryah liked eating the sand.  I had an "I'm a terrible mother" moment when i suddenly realized that we had all been playing outside while Katrina was sleeping inside, and i had forgotten that she was in the house.  (Bad Mommy!)

+ 8 - 0 | § ¶Lions and tigers and bears

We went to the zoo today.  And by "we" i mean Juanito, Houston, Katrina, Jill, Chellie, Kelly, Wyatt, Jackie, Cheyanne, Mom, and me.  I could have just put a group picture, but that wouldn't have been as much fun.  Anyhow...Houston had a great time for the first couple of hours.  He loved the fish, and could have spent a really long time looking at them.  Actually, we did spend a really long time looking at them.  We should go to an aquarium with him sometime.  I think he was more interested in the fish and the octopus than he was in any other part of the zoo.  He also really enjoyed the petting zoo, where he mostly just wanted to chase chickens around.  He did pet the goat and a sheep, but he wasn't overly interested.  I thought that would be his favorite thing to do.  We took a break after an hour and a half or so to go eat lunch (possibly Houston's other favorite part).  Katrina ate...she'd been mostly sleeping and being all quiet so far...and Houston happily ate his good food until he realized that there were M&M's around.  Then he ate only as much as he needed to to get those "numinums."  (Incidentally, his word for M&M's is the same as his word for vitamins, so he's always careful to say, "Mommy's icky numinums" when talking about vitamins.) 

The second half of the day at the zoo was not quite as calm and happy as the first half.  Katrina was fussy for a little while.  Houston, who was just exhausted after two days with no nap, got really crabby for a while, and didn't really want to look at any of the animals, until he saw Jackie and Kelly and Wyatt ride the camel.  Then he suddenly decided that he really wanted to do that, cheered right up, and asked, "Ride camel?" about 20 times.  So he and i rode the camel too.  He just loved it.  That was the first thing he remembered when we talked about the zoo tonight.  That cheered him up for about 15 minutes, but then he was just finished.  He didn't want to look at the snakes or lizards or the komodo dragon or even the gorillas.

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶Tulips

Holland's tulip festival is this week, and today was the kid's parade.  So, figuring that a "good mom" should expose her kids to lots of fun activities like that, i thought, "Hey!  I'll take my kids!"  I don't think i completely thought through the whole thing....  So i got directions from my dad (another less-than-wise decision) and invited all my sisters to go along.  The parade was at 2:00, so at 1:00 we headed towards Holland.  Jackie and Jill went to meet Chellie at a Russ', and we planned to meet on the corner of River and 8th.  My Dad has the philosophy that to get somewhere, you should take as many backstreets as possible.  He also likes to give directions like, "I don't know the name of the street, but you'll know it when you see it."  So i got lost nearly immediately.  Remarkably, i kind of meandered my way to River, which is the street that i was supposed to park near.  We parked in a spot that only a little car could have pulled off, i put Katrina's seat into the stroller, grabbed Houston's hand, and walked quickly with him running beside me.  When we were about 2 blocks from 8th street, i heard the first drums.  So i threw Houston up on the handle of the stroller and booked it towards the parade.    While I held Houston so he could see, Katrina slept through the whole parade, drums and all.  The parade was quite cute.  Some bands, lots of little kids; they mixed it up so that the kids watching wouldn't get bored.  It was a much better parade to take Houston to than the big one on Saturday would have been!  Also, all around Holland, they have these big painted metal tulips that are kind of fun to see.  Eventually Jill came and found me, but Chellie and Jackie and her kids were about 7-8 blocks away, and were just watching the parade from there.  I had a picnic basket for lunch in my car, so i ran back to my car and got the basket, and then Jill, Houston, Katrina, and i walked down toward the others.

+ 3 - 4 | § ¶Frogs and cousins

This afternoon, we went to the barn sale (although it doesn't officially open until tomorrow) with Mom to drop off some stuff and buy a bunch more.  Although most of the stuff we brought was dorky, unused stuff, and the stuff we bought is cute kids' clothes and toys and some trays and stuff like that that will hopefully actually be used.  And if not, it'll probably show up at the barn sale again next year, and we'll just be contributing to the church fund.  Apparently the barn at Fairway Church is some sort of weird vortex where time does not exist, because before i realized that we'd been there very long, nearly 2 hours had disappeared.  So by the time we got back to Mom and Dad's house, Jackie and her kids were already there, and Houston started playing with them, and he never did get a nap today.  Which basically means that by about 7:00, he was completely wild and unable to control himself. 

My cousin Helene and her kids are up visiting her parents (Uncle Duane and Aunt Kathy).  So they came over and visited with all of us for a while too.  It was really fun for me to see her again...she was always one of my favorite cousins...and it was really fun for Houston and the other kids too.  There a whole slew of kids to play with today...Houston, Kelly, Wyatt, Ben, and Brady.  So they jumped on the trampoline, played on swingsets, and generally had a good time.  Ben and Brady brought a little bug box with a tiny frog in it with them.  Houston was looking at it intently from all angles, trying to figure out what the box was about, when suddenly the frog jumped.  Houson jumped, threw the box, and wouldn't have anything to do with touching the frog after that.  Which is ok, because i think the frog was dead anyhow...probably from being thrown around and played with by little boys.

+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Tuesday night

Houston really loves being outside.  He's going to just love summer.  Besides the heat rash that he will undoubtedly get, i mean.  Juanito grilled some venison that Brooke's dad gave him, and Houston went out to play while Juanito was grilling.  He just loves the freedom to run around and be wild and throw things and not get in trouble for it.  Incidentally, the venison was really good.  If it wasn't for the whole "you have to kill a deer" thing, i would eat venison a lot more often.

Back a couple of years ago, we used to have a ton of people come over every Tuesday night.  We would all work until 10:30, and then afterwords, everyone would come to our house to hang out until 2:00 in the morning (or thereabouts).  But then Travis and Brooke moved to St. Louis, and Mark had a baby, and other people just petered out.  So for the past year or so, we've not really had "Tuesday Night" per se.  Tonight we had a mini-revival of Tuesday Night.  Beth and Mark and Keren and Russ and Pete and Pete's fiance Amy all came over.  We played "What Were You Thinking," which is just one of the most fun games ever.  And we talked and Juanito made pretzels and we generally just had fun.  But now it's 2:30 am, and i have to go to bed.

+ 4 - 3 | § ¶Flashback

This morning my sister Jill came over for a while and helped watch the kids while i went through some of my stuff and found stuff to donate to the barn sale.  The barn sale is this enormous garage sale - type thing that my parents' church has every year, where you can find anything from clothes to couches to speaker systems.  And i think we have bought each of those things in previous years.  We always get to go a few days early, before the masses arrive, so we can find cute stuff before it's been thrown around and picked over.  Anyhow...Thanks Jill!!!

This afternoon i went through a box with some of my stories and drawings from grade school.  Two observations:  1.  I am a terrible (TERRIBLE) artist!  2.  In junior high, i was very obsessed with people dying.  Almost every one of my stories i wrote in those 2-3 years had someone dying in it.  As i recall, that's also when i read a lot of books about dying, like "A Summer to Die," and some other book about a girl whose brother gets killed in a freak lawnmowing accident.  In fact, Karen Dreyer and i used to go to the library card catalogue and look up "Death" and try to find books that way.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶Generations

Another day spent with family.  We took four generation pictures with Grandma and Grandpa Addink.  I think it's fairly amazing that i'm able to take four generation pictures with both sets of my grandparents.  We played cards and talked and had birthday cake for me and just hung out.  It was fun.  I think we're going to not go over to my parents' house for a few days now.  Well, until Wednesday anyhow.  It's been a busy few weeks reletive-wise.

At dinner, Houston got jello all over his clothes, so i changed him into the extra T-shirt i had brought, and put him down for a nap.  When he woke up, his shirt was completely wet.  I said, "Oh no.  Your shirt's all wet.  What are we gonna do?"  Houston's reponse was, "Gonna do?  Play a game!!"  He was very excited about his idea too.  It made me laugh.  He's getting very good at communicating.  He was downstairs and suddenly jumped up, said, "Pancakes!" and came upstairs to get pancakes.  He finished eating and went back downstairs.  An hour or two later, he came back upstairs and asked, "Bread?", got a piece of bread, and went back downstairs.  Later he came to me and said, "Fell down there.  I hurt!"  Aw.  What a cutie.

+ 2 - 4 | § ¶Happy Birthday to me

Today is my birthday, and Juanito told me i could do whatever i wanted this morning.  To prove what a dork i am, i chose to go upstairs and organize my clothes, something that i just never get time to do otherwise.  Loser.  Juanito gave me his present this morning too. He made me a really cute, soft pillow.

This afternoon, Juanito had made plans for us to go see "Mean Girls" with Beth and Keren.  Beth and Keren were really cute and silly with giving me presents.  When we got to the mall, they got me a blizzard and put cute little candles on it for me to blow out.  Then they kept giving little gifts to random people to give me...the guy who took the tickets, the waitress who seated us at our table.  After the movie, we went to Max and Erma's and got yummy hamburgers.  Keren and Beth then gave me more presents that were wrapped really fun.  The main present from them is a membership to Meijer Gardens!  Woohoo!  I'm all excited.  The kids' section is opening up in June, too, so it will be fun to go to that.  And now Juanito and i can go together.  Or i can take other friends with me.  Yeah!