Look ma...no hands!

This confirms it...Anna has officially received a double dose of talent via our genetically perfected gene pool (I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my typing here). She's got those first two bottom teeth now and chewing on a soft sippy cup top is one of her favorite things these days. Today was the first time she demonstrated her super-baby ability to hold the sippy cup in her mouth with only her mouth!

I headed to San Antonio this past weekend to meet up with some girlfriends from our church back in Virginia, most of whom have all since moved to other parts of the country (maybe I'll convince Alicia to get down here someday!). It was so great to see everyone again and I welcomed the break, but boy I sure missed my family!! I think all of us moms long for a break each day, but being away from my kids multiple days was hard, especially looking at all of the other families walking around the Riverwalk. It was great though to eat at Casa Rio, their Mexican food is absolutely fabulous...and that says something coming from a Mexican food junkie such as myself. We also saw the movie "The Proposal", which was fun, but I gotta say for you Office watchers, I will NEVER look at Oscar the same way again!!

My one beef was with all of the left-lane vigilantes driving down I-10. Somehow the "slower traffic keep right" sign was lost on them....especially a really nice white Porsche Carrera driving in the left lane. I never though I would pass a car like that in the right lane with a 4-cylinder Accord :)

1 for 3

Anna has now ventured into the world of the little puffs that dissolve in the mouth, although she's about 1 for 3 in terms of actually getting the things into her mouth at this point. They usually end up stuck all over her face in odd places, or on the floor, much to Haley's delight. Hey, major league baseball players make lots of money with batting averages that low!

I was apprehensive about having a little girl at first after being immersed into the world of clothes covered with cars, dinosaurs, and trucks with Jack for almost two years, but I gotta say that little girl's clothes are WAY more fun to shop for. I couldn't resist a little bathing suit for her for the pool this summer...plus it was on sale, even better!

Web design and cake

Ok, I'm deviating from the motherhood theme today, because, well, it's my blog and I'll deviate if I want to :)

If anyone is looking for someone to build a professional website for a reasonable price that will rank high in search engine results, Bob is your man! He's a great solution for individuals or small businesses that would like a website, but don't have a large budget to create one. He's also spent countless hours researching search engine optimization (SEO), which with the entry of Google on to the scene, has become incredibly complex. It's vital for a business to show up high in search engine results if it really wants to increase sales via the web.

One of Bob's clients, Virginia Franzoy at Virginia's Cakes, has seen tremendous growth in her business because of how well her website ranks in searches for wedding cakes in the Houston area (#1 for wedding+cake+houston). As a side note, her cakes are fabulous...She did our wedding cake, my bridal shower cake, and Bob's 30th birthday cake. If you need a cake for a special occasion, check her out! And to my Woodlands friends, she does deliver up there!

For more information on Bob, you can check out his Spring, Texas web design page.

Oh, and I'll give you one guess who got his grubby little hands on Bob's laptop cake before we got to eat it (notice the smeared "H"). That reinforced two things for me: 1) When your children are quiet, be afraid, be VERY afraid, and 2) The dining room table is no longer a safe place to store anything out of his reach. Oops.

Let the children laugh

This was a huge reminder to me to laugh with my kids while they're young.

Let the children laugh and be glad.

O my dear, they haven't long before the world assaults them. Allow them genuine laughter now. Laugh with them, till tears run down your faces - till a memory of pure delight and precious relationship is established within them, indestructible, personal, and forever.

Soon enough they'll meet faces unreasonably enraged. Soon enough they'll be accused of things they did not do. Soon enough they will suffer guilt at the hands of powerful people who can't accept their own guilt and who must dump it, therefore, on the weak. In that day the children must be strengthened by self-confidence so they can resist the criticism of fools. But self-confidence begins in the experience of childhood.

So give your children (your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, the dear ones, children of your neighbors and your community) - give them golden days, their own pure days, in which they are so clearly and dearly beloved that they believe in love and in their own particular worth when love shall seem in short supply hereafter. Give them laughter.

Observe each child with individual attention to learn what triggers the guileless laugh in each. Is it a story? A game? Certain family traditions? Excursions? Elaborate fantasies? Simple winks? What?

Do that thing.

Because the laughter that is so easy in childhood must echo its encouragement a long, long time. A lifetime.

--Walter Wangerin, Jr

A surprise hitchhiker

A funny thing happened on the way to pick Jack up from MDO a few days ago...well, it's funny now, wasn't so funny then.

Anna was strapped in her seat and I was happily driving along the familiar route with the radio turned up. I was, of course, focused on the road ahead of me when all of the sudden I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye down near the floor on the passenger's side of my van.

It's a very strange feeling to know it's not just you and your child alone in the car anymore, so I quickly tried to decide whether I should pull over or not. Luckily a red light just up the road allowed me a brief scan of the floor to see what the culprit was: a large frog had somehow gotten into the van with us. Of course the light then turned green, so I had to quickly throw it back in gear and get on down the road. I figured, "Ok, the frog is over there, I've just got a few miles to go, I can make it up to the church and try to get him out in a more hospitable place". Now I like frogs, but I still had this creepy feeling just waiting for the little guy to come rub up against my leg before I could get him out.

I made it up to the church, pulled over, and threw open all of the van doors to try and shoo the frog into a nice, wooded area. And of course, he (or she?) was nowhere to be found. I looked under the seats, between the seats, in the kids' toy bin...nothing. Anna was looking at me quizzically wondering why the van had stopped, but she had not been lifted out of the car seat yet. I decided to just run up, get Jack, and maybe the frog would come out his hiding place.

After returning to car with Jack, I quickly scoured the van again for the frog with no luck. I was really NOT looking forward to driving home with the thought of a frog getting up under my feet at any moment, but I couldn't find him. Arrggg. Reluctantly I closed the van doors and mentally tried to prepare myself not to react in jerky way if the frog did decide to pay my side of the van a visit mid-trip.

I had almost made it home, but got caught at the last stoplight before our subdivision to make a left-turn (I was the first person in line). It was then that the frog decided he wanted to make friends and suddenly jumped up onto my foot/leg, which was on the brake. Yeah, that whole "Kate, don't react in a sudden manner" thing went totally out the window as I pulled my foot off the brake and began to role into the intersection while my light was still red. I accidentally hit the gas pedal and rolled a bit further before I found the brake again just in time. Little froggy guy was good and scared by then because he was long gone back somewhere in the van by the time I got home. Luckily I didn't hit anyone, or get hit!

After I got my heart rate back under control and the kids out of the van, I went back one more time to hunt him down. It was hot, and I really didn't want a dead frog in my car. It turns out he had hopped into the very back part of our van and was hanging out in the collapsed stroller, which I believe is probably how he made it into the car in the first place. By this time Bob was home, and he valiantly got the frog out of the car for me and safely into the grass.

I now check my stroller everytime I put it back in the van for any hitchhikers :)

Pictures: A mom's favorite gift

Life has just been really busy since mid March...I regret I haven't been able to blog more!!

I think my most favorite gift as a mom has become pictures of friends and family (although a spectacular weather photo ranks up there as well). I especially love seeing shots of my kids that reveal their budding personalities. A picture IS worth a thousand words, and more importantly a thousand smiles to me throughout the week. And you guys know, when you're having a tough week with the kids, you NEED those brief reminders of the times when your children aren't acting squirrely...can you tell I have a two-year-old?

Whoever developed the Woodlands area sure knew how to create beautiful parks! After about a month or so of trying to get together because of nap schedules and uncooperative Houston weather, my friend Amy Chappelle and I were finally able to meet up so she could snap some shots of the kids for me. I think she would consider herself beginner, but boy did she get some great shots of Jack and Anna with her snazzy new camera! Some of the best photos I've ever had taken were snapped by friends just starting to expand their photography skills. My friend Will King back up in Virginia took some beautiful photos of me in my wedding dress. Ok, that came out wrong...I say that as a testament to Will's photography skills, NOT my beauty quotient. He was creative with the shots he took and a master at Photoshop. With those two things working together, anybody can look good! :)

Anyway, thanks again Amy for a lovely day and some wonderful shots of the kids! And thank you Erin for watching her kids so she could snap uninterrupted!!

Seeing the light.

I think I'm finally beginning to emerge from the baby haze of sleepless nights now that Anna is five months old! That light at the end of the infant-stage tunnel is growing brighter!

Some good friends of ours are pregnant with their first child and I'm so very excited for them, and also so very glad it's them and NOT me! I can't believe how much things have changed over the last two years and all that we've learned with Jack and now Anna. I remember some of those early days seeming like they would never end with a crying child that wouldn't take a nap (so that I could!), but looking back now it has also seemed to pass pretty quickly at the same time.
The drool meter has gone up with Anna, so I think she's about to starting cutting some teeth. Since I'm still nursing, I would be more than happy though if she would just remain toothless until she's 12 months :) She's grabbing for everything now and even managed to get a fistful of the spaghetti off my plate the other day at lunch. The only downside to it is when she gets a fistful of my hair and hangs on for dear life...I struggle to pry those little fingers out of my curls. Did I mention I'm rethinking the idea of growing out my hair?

Jack is full of boundless energy and it really is a joy to watch him grow up. The discipline is hard at times, but for the most part we've been blessed with a sweet boy that only requires a disapproving glance from mom or dad to change his actions. I have my suspicions though that Anna will not be quite so reserved, we'll see!