Beach Bums
4It’s been 2 years since our feet last hit the ocean, so last week was a special treat as we finally got to relax in the sun & sand!
This was our first trip to Padre Island and we really enjoyed the Texas coast’s warm water. In the past, we’ve usually visited San Diego and the chilly Pacific beaches, so this was a nice change. We met up with our Brady friends and Liam got some expert skimboarding lessons. Although he never truly mastered staying on the board, he put his whole heart into it and never gave up trying. He would definitely be a surfer dude if we lived near a beach!
We arrived just in time for Hurricane/Tropical Storm Don warnings. We knew something was up when news crews starting setting up equipment on the beach—the Weather Channel crew was setup right on the same area of beach where we had been playing all day! We were told to gas up our vehicles and be ready to evacuate the island. It was projected to hit exactly at our location but fortunately it fizzled out before it got there and all we got was a little wind and no rain. We have much stronger winds on an almost daily basis in West Texas.
We pretty much did absolutely nothing but sit on the beach all day and swim in the pool in the evenings and as a bonus, we saw some dolphins playing in the water. I call that a PERFECT vacation!
The Tooth Fairy is Headed Our Way
3One of Liam’s bottom front teeth has been loose for a few weeks now. I decided yesterday that I better get to the craft store and figure out something cool for him to put the tooth in for the Tooth Fairy. I found this Melissa & Doug Wooden Treasure Chest and we went to work on painting & decorating it this morning and we were both pleased with the finished product:
We finished it just in the nick of time! Not 2 hours later, Liam came in the room holding his tooth. I’m not 100% convinced it was coincidence that it “fell” out as soon as the box was finished, but either way, the Tooth Fairy will be paying us a visit tonight for the first time!
June Recap
3Wow, I just noticed that it’s been over a month since our last blog post. With our Facebook status updates, this blog sometimes gets forgotten so let me fill you in on what all has been going on in our world!
As noted in the last post, Liam played T-Ball for the YMCA and for the most part, he enjoyed it. The temps during June were over 100° most days so it was a bit miserable for the kids (and the adults). Each Saturday, we usually had two back-to-back games and by the time the second game started, Liam was ready to be done. One of the coaches dunked the kids’ caps in ice water during the breaks to keep them cooled off. It was fun but at the same time, we were all kinda happy to see the season end. It should definitely be moved to a winter sport in this area! It didn’t end without an injury though—during one of the games, Liam was charging for the ball and collided with the kid who was running to third base and somehow the kid’s check bone hit Liam in the corner of his eye. There was blood & tears but after we got the bleeding stopped and an ice pack on it, he was ready to go back in a finish the game.
June was also a month of sadness for us. My Mom passed away suddenly, but very peacefully on June 8th. It has been bittersweet losing her. She had been in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s for the past couple of years and she would’ve never wanted to live like that, but on the other hand, you’re never ready to lose your parent. Every Sunday we’d go visit her and even though she no longer knew any of us, Mom lit up everytime Liam was around. Losing his “G-Ma” has been particularly tough for him. He has a lot of questions about death and worries about getting old. Telling him that she had died and breaking his heart was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I’m so very grateful for all of the support we received from family & friends during this difficult time. For those of you that may recall, I also lost my brother about the same time last year so June has not been a good month for us the past couple of years.
The one good thing about all the extreme heat that we’ve been having is that it has made for some really nice days in the pool. Liam is getting so good at swimming that I think he will have it mastered by the end of summer. I still make him wear a life jacket for jumping off the diving board and swimming in the deep end but he has been doing a lot of practice without it in the shallow end. He’s just a little fish in water and if there was any doubt about how much he loves it, I think this picture says it all:
So that should about cover it for getting our blog up to date. As we say here in Texas, stay cool & hydrated!
T-Ball
4We live in the sports haven of Texas. For those of you that have seen the movie or TV show Friday Night Lights, that was our school and the city where we live. Rob & I catch a lot of grief from our friends for not being sports fanatics. It’s been a great concern to many of them that our child be raised proper and put into sports at an early age so that he will one day achieve greatness by being chosen to play the ultimate of all sports, football. I say whatever to that!
I’m lucky to have a husband that isn’t all about sports. We are of the same mindset in that we want Liam to find his own way and will encourage him to try anything that interests him. So far, he has taken swim lessons and gymnastics classes. This month we enrolled him in the YMCA T-Ball program. The YMCA program is non-competitive and they don’t even keep score at the games. All the kids get to play and it’s just about learning some basics and having fun. Sitting out in the heat for practice isn’t my favorite things to do, but it was all worth it yesterday seeing him play in his first T-Ball game.
It’s hilarious to watch because the kids are clueless on what to do. Once they finally hit the ball, they usually forget to drop the bat and they have no idea where first base is. I was actually quite amazed at how well they did at their first game compared to their practices. I guess something just sort of clicks when they play another team.
Getting ready for the big game
It's a hit!
Taking his job at first base serious
I’m not sure if baseball will be his “thing” in the future but for now he seems to like it and has made a friend or two which is always good.
Ikea Pilgrimage
2Ever since the dust settled on our move, Dede & I have been wanting a few pieces of furniture to round out our home office and replace some old mismatched stuff from our old house. So, we embarked on what’s quickly becoming one of our favorite road trips (from Odessa to Austin, via Brady) on Easter weekend to do some shopping at our favorite store—Ikea:
We shopped, quite literally, until some of us dropped:
We arrived at Ikea Round Rock near Austin with detailed shopping list in hand, having measured very carefully to ensure that everything we wanted would fit into the always deceptively-cavernous Element. As was the case with our Ikea Frisco trip nearly 5 years ago, we had the car loaded to the gills! (I even removed one of the back seats entirely to free up some extra cargo space!)
Of course, since nearly everything at Ikea is flat-packed, the adventure has only just begun once you get your haul home! With cordless drill, mallet, glue, and a deep breath, I started assembling stuff…
Here’s a glimpse of the first pieces put into service—our new Malm nightstands, which are hung on the wall with a pair of 18″ Hangman Picture Hanging System brackets, a.k.a. French Cleats (Thanks for that tip, Ryan!):
Watch for more photos of the Ikea furnishings as they come together and are in place!
Pre-K Graduation
0Liam had his end of school program and Pre-K graduation last night.
We finally got to see all the kids perform several songs that we had heard Liam singing around the house for the past few months. I can’t even imagine the amount of time and patience that their music teacher Ms. Kim must have been through to get a group of 5 year olds ready to sing together and stay put on stage.
The kids did an awesome job and after the program they got to walk across the stage as their name was called and receive their graduation certificates.
It’s hard to believe that my baby boy will be going to real school in August.
Mother’s Day 2011
4I had a wonderful Mother’s Day today. It started with a dozen roses from my wonderful husband and Liam gave me a Starbucks Doodle It Tumbler that he wrote “Liam Loves Mom” on. Liam also wrote the same message on his dry erase board for me to see. I love that he’s learning to write and spell but I hate that he’s growing up so fast.
The Pre-K school also had a Mother’s Day Tea on Friday. Liam & I had lunch with all the other kids and their Moms. We were all given a set of aprons for the Moms and the kids with their handprints on them. I think the idea is for us to cook together in the kitchen but they obviously don’t know our family very well or they’d know this would be a more suitable Father’s Day gift. 
Rob thinks it’s funny because I don’t want the aprons to get dirty because I’m afraid the paint will wash off so I’m just going to store them away.
We also went to see G-Ma this afternoon at the nursing home and wish her a happy Mother’s Day. She was feeling a little down when we got there but perked right up when she saw Liam. He sang her a couple of songs and the whole place was perked up by the time we left. One lady was even doing a little dancing.
I hope all the Moms out there had a wonderful day with your kiddos. I sure did!
Liam’s 5th Birthday
1Liam celebrated his 5th birthday on April 28th. He wasn’t really into having a big birthday party this year. They had one for him at his Pre-K with all his friends from school so we just had a small celebration at home. I got him a pirate themed cake and decorations since he is all into the Disney show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
For his birthday gift, he finally got a bike and he was one happy little boy!
Easter 2011
0Liam had his first Easter egg hunt of the season on April 16th at the hospital’s annual Easter egg hunt. Liam did quite well, his bucket was overflowing with treat-filled eggs.
Next, his Pre-K class had their egg hunt on April 21st at the park across the street from their building. It was lots of fun to see the kids clear the grounds in less than 5 minutes. I noticed that one inventive little guy, finding no more eggs, starting filling his bucket with pine cones instead.
We were out of town for Easter weekend. We went to Round Rock for shopping at our favorite Ikea store (more on the Ikea purchases in a separate post). Liam is such a good traveler and we are so fortunate that is he is completely content just riding in the car patiently for 6 hours. He took a few books and things to play with but mostly he just likes to ride, look out the window, ask questions, catnap, talk, and sing along the way. He was very excited about going to Ikea because he loves the Småland play area where he can dive into the giant ball pit.
After we filled the car with Ikea boxes, we headed home on Easter Sunday. We stopped off to see our friends in Brady and Liam got one last egg hunt in.
I hope you all had a Happy Easter!
Spring Break 2011
3Since my job is now part of the education system, I had last week off for Spring Break—yay!
We went to Washington DC & Virginia to visit our friends Chris, Teresa & Anna who we met in Moscow back in 2008. Although we hadn’t seen them since we left Russia, we’ve kept in close touch with them through the years and they graciously invited us to come stay in their beautiful home for a few days.
Liam studied the presidents in his pre-school last month and was looking forward to seeing Abe Lincoln’s statue. He and Anna had a great time playing together and we really enjoyed our time there!
Click here to view photos from our trip.
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