A Childs Confidence

For most of Devon's life she has been a bit timid, shy, and at times afraid to try something that seems risky. The last couple of weeks she has been riding her bike without training wheels. Something we have tried a few other times in the past but we ended up putting the training wheels back on because she was too scared.

This time though was quite different, because she fell often and this usually leads to a sense of "I can't do it." However, it didn't stop her this time. If anything, it made her more determined to succeed, which was also something new for us to see. The only other thing she has persisted at has been reading (remember the 90 books this summer?).

Actually, now that I think about it, this has been Devon's summer of confidence. She showed zero fear about being in the big pool, putting her head under water, and learning to swim (with arm floaties). She has conquered riding a two-wheeler. And yesterday when we were exploring the UT campus, she decided she was going to climb high into a tree. And this was an awesome tree, it had a very long branch that reached the ground. She took her shoes off and I showed her how to hug the branch with her legs. After this, she was skooting her way up the tree, until she got to a point where a couldn't reach her any more.

So far, one of my favorite things about being a parent has been showing my kids the things I love; dinosaurs, nature walks, hiking, biking, reading, classic childrens novels, showing acts of kindness to strangers (which can ONLY be taught by modeling, saying be kind to strangers doesn't do the act justice. Do you know how many women I have helped push their cars off the street into parking lots? I've lost count.) and having them soak it up like the little sponges they are.

Seeing Devon suddenly become this confident, adventure seeking kid is bringing more joy than I could have ever imagined. This seems to be just a peek at the person she will become some day, and that is pretty amazing.

Motorcycle Lesson #1

Well, I'm not sure why Chris woke up this morning wanting to teach me about the motorcylce and how to ride it, but he did. Maybe it's because I went ahead and agreed for him to buy his dream mountain bike yesterday.

So we went out to the little parking lot by our neighborhood pool and first he was just showing me how to sit on the bike and then set it down and get off.

Then two trucks came into the parking. Repair men working on the gate and security cameras. Uhg. I wasn't really wanting an audience. But I continued. Next I got to turn the bike on. Ooooooo. That was fun.

Eventually I worked up to putting the bike in first gear and walkng it around the parking lot. Then I started riding with my feet in the air and making figure eights in the parking lot. My audience was impressed and cheered me on. Finally I got the guts to ride with my feet on the steps. At this point, Chris called his parents. He was getting a bit nervous (about the safety of his bike.)

Then Chris told me I was ready for 2nd gear. Inside I was shaking my head no vigorously! But I went ahead. I soon realized the small parking lot was not ideal for learning how to change gears.

I put on my really big, big girl pants and rode out into the neighborhood. After the first circle, I rode back to Chris and was very giggly. Then I went back on the street and practiced changing gears more. This is when I made it up to 35! Woah! It was pretty intense.

Then I rode back to our house and gave Chris a heart attack by riding staight into the garage. Apparently he thought I was going to crash into a wall or the car. Silly husband.

Today was pretty awesome. I believe we will practice more tomorrow, which means hello 3rd gear.

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I Heart Photography

If you haven't noticed already with the massive amount of pictures I take of my kids, I love taking pictures. The two main things I love to photograph are my kids and the outdoors. Now I don't love it in a " I want to do this as a career way," just as a hobby.

I will admit that I prefer to take pictures of the kids outside because using sunlight makes the best pictures, in my opinion. Using a flash is definitely not easy for me. I feel like there is more opportunity for blurring pictures when I take them indoors. And thus, my amateurness comes out. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I've never taken a photography class or even read a book about it (shocking!). I've just tried lots of things and stuck with what works whether I understand why it works or not.

This Tuesday I'm going to see a friend's band play and I am definitely going to climb out of my comfort zone and experiment with my camera at the show. For whatever reason, I get shy about using my camera in front of friends because I have a digital SLR (low grade of course) and people automatically assume that someone with a "fancy camera" knows what they are doing. Silly huh?

Looking at some pictures I took at the park this past week there were a few that I impressed myself with, but understand I am easily impressed......

Looking at this picture I think, "Good job Michelle, that was a really good angle and there is not a big shadow on his face. And good timing with his expression." But then I also keep in mind that my kids are very photogenic and sometimes I feel like that is cheating.

Once again my little Matthew is too adorable and made taking this picture very easy. But I'll pat myself on the back for good timing because he isn't still for long.

This one I took using a technique I stole from someone who I consider to be the bestest photographer I will ever know. I wasn't even looking through the camera. I just angled it below her with her looking down on it and literally got lucky. I mean the odds of me aiming the camera to have Devon centered are phenomenal. This will probably never happen to me again. Bummer.

Now, speaking of the bestest photographer I will ever know, Suzanne Countryman. Let's look at the greatness she creates. Prepare to be stricken with awe.

Isn't that the shizel?

Victory Over the Evil Wasps

So I noticed about a week ago that wasps were forming a nest in the middle of my tomato bushes. No Bueno!! I have two silly fears, flying, stinging insects and arachnids (scorpions and spiders). Although, I am becoming more accepting of spiders because they eat bugs that would eat my veggie plants, but not in the house.

I've been thinking and thinking about how to get rid of the wasps without spraying poison on my tomato plants. During all this thinking I was secretly hoping Chris would "take care of them" with a stick or something, but that never happened. So today I put on my big girl pants. And a heavy jacket. And Chris's motorcycle helmet. And his motorcycle gloves. (You can stop laughing now.) I went out to the tomato plants with our tree clippers (I'm sure there's a better name for those), which extend pretty long, and I started cutting the branch the nest was on. The I trimmed the branch to where I could pull the nest quickly and without hurting the rest of the plants.

This whole process took about 10 minutes because I would snip a branch and jump back because the wasps got upset. Then I would snip again and jump back, sometimes swinging the clippers for protection. I'm grateful Chris was really into the book he was reading or else I know he would have taken pictures or recorded video on his phone. Sorry guys.

Finally, everything was trimmed and ready to be pulled out. Even with all my "gear" on I wouldn't move the nest. I was still too hesitant. So I started knocking the plants and shooed away the wasps. Then I moved the nest and destroyed it. One came back and was looking for it, but I was able to coerce it to fly away from the plants so I could spray it with wasp spray.

So this is the story of my victorious defeat of the evil wasps. Hooray!

Summer Reading

Summer is here and while we are having lots of fun in the sun, we are also keeping up our school skills. Devon likes to write in a journal everyday practicing writing, spelling and grammar. And of course we read everyday.

This summer we are taking advantage of two different reading incentive programs. The first is Half Priced Books Feed Your Brain program. All we do is keep a log of how much time Devon spends reading. If Devon reads for at least 15 minutes a day, five days a week, then she gets a $3 gift card from the store. She gets to do this every week until the middle of July.

The second program is from the Austin Library. This one is a bit different than what my library did when I was a kid. When I was a kid you read a book then you took a short quiz on the book and if you passed then you got credit for reading the book and you got different things for reading different amounts of books. The Austin program says, the kid gets to make a goal of how many books they think they can read during the summer. When they reach their goal, they bring the log back to the library and they get to pick out a new book to keep.

When I asked Devon how many books she wanted to read this summer, I suggested 30. Apparently that wasn't good enough. She said she wants to read 90! So I wrote down 90 books on her log. I know she can do it, I just think it is funny that she chose that amount. The librarian was really impressed. Now reading 90 beginning reader books is different than reading 90 novels, but we'll cross that road when we get there.

Matthew also gets to participate in the program because if I make a goal to read him a certain amount of books and meet the goal, then he gets to pick out a book too.

The First of Many

Trips to the pool that is!


Devon has been begging, and begging, and begging to go to the pool for the last couple of weeks and today we finally made a trip. I'm a big wuss and I won't take the kids to the pool without Chris. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Devon can't swim yet. So I don't feel like I could keep Devon and Matthew from drowning at the same time. And the second reason is that people like to drive from who knows where to use our pool. I don't like that. It's a community pool. Meaning the people who live in our neighborhood pay a home owners association fee to get the key to use our pool. When strangers drive out here and hop the fence or beg people who already hopped the fence to let them in it irritates the fire out of me. I don't trust strangers around my kids. Call me over protective, I don't care.

Devon is finally tall enough to stand in the big pool at the shallow end (3ft). So today she got used to hopping in the water and then I taught her how to doggy paddle and kick. She hasn't combined the two together yet, but I bet it won't be long until she does and then maybe I would be comfortable taking them to the pool in the mornings on the days Chris works. We'll see.

I Mean It This Time

Yowzers!! Has it really been seven months since my last blog? Well, that seems like a long enough sabbatical to me.

Of course, it is the news irritating me that prompted this revival. I'm sure you heard about the new study that has come out linking levels of pesticide in children's urine with ADHD. And if you know me well, then you expected this blog.

First of all, I am by no means any kind of expert on ADHD. I don't know a lick about behavioral psychology. But I did take two statistics classes in college and there is where some of my disgruntledness (I'm sure I made that word up) is coming from.

With that said, the first thing I want to know is who funded this study. There have been instances where industries or organizations have had a special interest in research improving their status in the world. So that is always the first thing I ponder.

Also, I think it is very misleading for this connection to be made when even the news clearly states according to the study that this was not a 100% of the time situation. Knowing that in research this is rare, I still think that if these results were so grand why not give us some numbers? In my ethical bubble, I don't believe it is appropriate to point your finger at a particular variable and say "You are the reason for this!", when there are obviously more pieces to the puzzle.

In my eyes, there are various contributing factors in ADHD. Some may be genetic, which is way beyond my lingo. But mostly I believe it is not just something ingested (but obviously it can factor in, I'm not countering that), but the parental (or lack of) environment that kids are sometimes brought up in. Being raised in front of the tv screen seems like a big one to me.

My logic says, "hmmm this wasn't a big deal fifty years ago, what has changed?" Yes, our diet has changed, not just in the way our food is grown but also the way it is made available (which is the nicest way I can say processed). We are less physically active, and the way we spend our time has changed quite a bit too.

Now I am slowly on my way to being a health nut, emphasis on the slowly. So I completely agree that pesticides (AND processed foods) are a significant factor to many disorders and even diseases. All this is to say, ADHD is complex just like any other disorder. Rarely is there one factor to point your finger at. Always look at research critically. Just because they are doctors and specialists doesn't mean you don't get to think for yourself about these issues. And that is my mean beef with this.