Blessings and Burdens

One Sunday morning, I flipped on the tv in the basement so that we could try to watch basketball while we played tennis down there.  I found no basketball at 8:30am, just Joel Osteen.  He intrigues me, him and his gigantic church, his flashy, sly smile.  I've caught Pastor Joel before.  He's got some messages I can relate to without being to preachy.  His sermon that Sunday was about blessings and burdens.  He argued that we pray for things, like a bigger house, and along with those bigger things, come burdens, like cleaning all those rooms.  Or with a raise comes higher taxes or more travel time away from family.  He caught me.  This is exactly where I am right now in my life with Mike's promotion and trying to find a new house in TX.  Tennis would have to wait a minute; I was hooked.

I thought about the things he said in his sermon.  The most glaring example of blessings and burdens come from my kids.

Ryan is so independent already.  This is a blessing because he plays by himself and brushes his own teeth, but  the flip side is that he climbs chairs and jumps off of them unannounced and that he wanders out into the road after a ball instead of being cautious.

Got himself into and out of this garbage can

Mosied on up to this random kid curbside at the airport minutes after we arrived at DFW

Thomas is in a state of independence.  Right before Mike left to drive to Texas with his belongings, we caught Thomas trying to microwave pizza in an aluminum foil wrapper.  Overall, Thomas' independence is a little less dangerous than Ryan's though.  He is adamant about doing things his way (wonder where he got that?).

Scooting is a favorite past time

Styled his hair to match cousin Elizabeth

We are all very excited about the adventures that Texas has for us.   In our less than a week here, we've enjoyed the warmer (hot) weather, the scooter-friendly apartment complex we're staying in, some delivered to your door pizza and frequenting a nice little park just down the block.

Playing outside of our temporary digs at the apartment

Dad's new office

Note the TX flag in the background

Monday Pizza at the Gate

Getting pizza with Nana Honey

 The burden, however, it means leaving good friends like our neighbor Bob.

An outstanding neighbor and his buddies

We are blessed in many ways, so it's only natural that there will be many burdens along the way.  May our burdens always be as minor as they are now....and let us be blessed on my househunting trip today!

Vacation

February was vacation month for 3/4 of our family.  Mike's new job kept him traveling quite a lot, so the boys and I packed up and headed to his parents' house in Florida.  Here's what we left:

View out the front window

So we got our man Ryan a haircut, took Thomas out of preschool for three weeks and by no small miracle, made it to our plane despite what felt like the longest car ride to the airport ever, arriving 20 minutes prior to our scheduled departure.  We gratefully headed south to Nana Honey and Papa Bear's house. 

Before

After

Thank God for Pop Chips and good snacks

Sleeping handsome buy on my right

Wakeful handsome boy on my left!

Our cool little dudes were pretty amped up to get the party started.

Thomas couldn't wait to get in the pool and hone his swimming skills.  His preschool teacher was kind enough to let us bring a "backpack" (floatie) that they use in his swim lessons with us.  We are so proud to announce that two weeks into the trip and sore from the strap rash that tons of swimming had given him, he swam and jumped with NO FLOATATION DEVICE!!!

Swimming one day with Nana Wuff

Thomas was also pretty excited at the constant distraction that multiple adults provided.  Family friend Lisa from Sweden, who once took care of Mike when he was a boy, was also visiting and she was such a fun, yet calming influence on our boys, especially Thomas.  She took the boys to a couple of playgrounds, spearheaded ordinary and extraordinary adventures, went swimming, spun tales, provided horseback rides on her back, dug holes and planted landscapes, danced, subsidized the Mardi Gras beads collection and let Thomas help with the cooking.

Dancing to some music at the Mardi Gras festival at The Villages

A little lemon in the coconut is a surprisingly good treat!

Cheers!

Our man Ryan loved getting out and about and playing almost as many sports as Thomas did.  We already knew he has great hand-eye coordination and enjoys tennis and golf, but we learned that he was strangely adept at shuffleboard considering how long the pole is given his respective height.

Truth be told, he was probably most excited to not have to transport Thomas to and from preschool and accompany me on endless errands!  Instead, he could eat, sleep and play (mostly) on his own schedule.

Feeding the Bear

All of  this fun, required lots of eating and drinking.  So we made sure to replenish all of the time!

Trying gator bites at lunchtime

Sharing a drink at tennis

Thomas' new favorite glass

Thanks to all the helpers, everyone got to experience a wonderful vacation.  Nana Honey got to spoil two of her favorite people, who kept her in stitches most of the time with their antics; Mama got to head off to play pickleball or walk or go to the store alone; Papa Bear got lots of chances to take pictures and videos; Thomas could usually find at least one of us to play with him or go along with what he wanted to do; Ryan had a lot of people to take him out in the golf cart for rides.  And I hear that Lisa is actually going back to the McCollums' house in a few weeks, likely to have her much earned vacation after watching after our kids for two whole weeks!

18 months

Ryan had his 18 month well visit checkup last month.  Here are some points from Ryan's 18th anniversary of his birth.

1. He is still a beast, weighing in at 29 pounds and stretching to 33 inches.  Although he weighs a lot, he is slimming down, but remains solid and tall.

A dust busting, hardhard-toting beast

2. He is a very normal second child, one who emulates his brother's every move.  Most recently, wearing beads at a Fat Tuesday celebration in The Villages.

3. He is doing well in the "speaking" category.  With a good sense of context and some long-term exposure, one can figure out some of the more common ones he uses:
Bay or bee: baby
Ma: mom
Da: dad
Bra: Brother (Thomas)
Nah: Nana
Bay-uh: Bear, as in Papa Bear
Pa: Papa, as in Papa Wuff
Neee:  horse (who says neeee)
Wuff or now, more frequently, daw: dog
Shree: tree
Bah: blanket (which Ryan loves)
Bah: bye
baw: ball (which he LOVES)

4. He's isn't that sick. Even though it seems that between getting the last round of teeth, battling ear infections, catching a cold and most recently, getting RSV (a respiratory virus), the doctor assured me that even with three ear infections and a couple of colds in the last two months, Ryan is sick less than most other children, who get between 9-11 colds per year.  The RSV, which Thomas also got, landed us in the Land of Nebulizer.  Fortunately, both boys only used it for a few days, but were really good sports about using it.

Sweet older brother supervising and making sure Ryan is ok.

Having his own turn a couple of days later.

5. He is starting to branch out a little more and eat more than just milk, puffs, yogurt, pretzels, and ice cream.

6. He is acutely aware of what a plane is.  Thomas is easier to bring on a plane than most adults.  Ryan is not as easy, but at least, there is minimal crying and he naps for 30 mins on most flights.

7. He is not really a fan of being out in the "no" (snow).  It's "Brrrr" (cold).

8. He likes to put hats on, especially ones that aren't his own.

9. Ryan finally got a short haircut like his brother.  We'd always kept it long, but in light of our three week trip to Nana Honey's house, I felt bold and asked his stylist to cut it shorter.

10. He is still a messy little fella.

Frozen blueberries goatee

11.  Almost exactly 18 months after Ryan was born, he was blessed with a "bay" or a "beee" depending upon which form of baby he is favoring that day.  Aunt Erica had a baby girl, who Ryan and Thomas want to Face Time every. Single.  Day.   Yeah!!