Catching Up Before Summer Chaos!

Well, I'll put out the bad news first. My garden pretty much failed. I went to Dallas for a few days and came home to dead plants. I was so bummed! It even rained while we were gone. Turns out my soil is to blame. So I got a few tomato plants from a good neighbor and bought some more carrot seeds and I'm going in for round two. I mean it was truly wishful thinking to believe I would be a master gardener my first try.

Apparently all those good minerals and such that are in veggies come from the soil and if your soil is laking (like mine) then you have to add it in. So a couple of trips to Bloomers (my favorite little nursery) later I have 13-13-13 and copperas. Apparently these will make a big difference. Let's hope.

Devon graduated from Pre-K!! She still has three days of school yet, but it's in the bag. She got to sport her sassy new hair cut (home hair cut) at the completion ceremony. She is so proud. I'm a tad annoyed that this last week consisted of movies and movies. Oh well. The teachers earned a break. The kid can read! And she practices everyday for me AND Matthew. It's adorable. I hope they stay best friends for ever.

Matthew went to his 15 month well check and tipped the scales at 20lbs 9 oz, which puts him in the 5th percentile. I don't know why, the boy can eat! He's still not into vocabulary but has found every other way to communicate his needs. This includes bringing me my shoes when he wants to go outside and pointing at the toaster when he wants a waffle. Although today while I was giving them a bath I could have sworn he was saying Devon. It sounded like "DeDon" but in a way that sounded like "DaDa". So who knows.

In a few weeks I'm going to go on a ride out with Chris, on a Friday night too. Eeek! I went on a ride out once before, but it was about a month before Chris graduated from the academy, so it was with a different officer. I was introduced to East Austin and more specifically, East Riverside. Yow-za! That was a night to remember. But I'm excited to go out with Chris. I get to see him use his serious face. ;)

We've got a month left of this schedule switching crap. But there are a few things I'll miss about Chris's current schedule, him not having to sleep all day, having him awake enough to enjoy all three of his days off because he's not overtired. But I do look forward to having him home so I can cook real meals again. Oh yes, yes. But now that we are starting to get used to this evening stuff, it's going to take a while again to get used to nights. Thanks Chief Ace!! That was a brilliant idea. Not!!

Mexican Pizza

Since Chris is working evenings and I am solo to prepare dinner and watching the kiddos, so dinner has been dumbed down a bit. I know once a week I make pizza with pre-made pizza crust. They are little personal sized crusts, that come in a three pack. I dig them. At least for now until I can make my own again.

But having a small cheese pizza every week has already started getting old, but I love how simple it is and Devon gets to make her own. She only eats half though, but I just put the other two pieces in her lunch for the next day. So it works out well. No wasting food. I decided to try to make a "mexican style" pizza. I love black beans and have been itching to use my cilantro from the back yard, so that's what I did. I played with the idea of using salsa instead of marinara sauce, but then I thought it would drown out the fresh cilantro taste. So wa-la! Here is my idea.

Marinara sauce with black beans, and fresh, yummy cilantro. I'm am totally digging the fact that I can just walk out to the back yard and Wham! here's some yummy cilantro and soon other veggies. It's incredible.

And then I put a mexican four cheese blend on top. It was pretty tasty and Matthew even ate a piece, but his didn't have cilantro on it. The third pizza I made was half black bean and mexican cheese and half mozzarella. Next time I will definitely add more cilantro, man I love that stuff, and maybe diced bell pepper and jalapeno. Very yummy stuff.

My Growing Garden

So last week I was pathetically sick and couldn't tend to the gardens. This made me nervous, but we got some kick butt rain. Yesterday I went out back to assess the damage and everything is doing great!! One of my tomato plants has tripled in size! Nine out of ten of the cucumber seeds I planted took. All my carrots are popping up. And my basil and cilantro that I thought was done for has started coming back with new growth. Plants are so cool.

I'm very excited! This might actually be a productive garden. I was having honest doubts that everything would just shrivel up and die. I'm not expecting a plethora of veggies, but things are looking good so far.

Here are some side by side comparisons.

I planted these tomato plants on April 8th. I got them from a cute nursery in Elgin called Bloomers. I'm not sure if you can tell, but in the upper left empty space I planted a small row of carrot seeds and also in the lower right hand empty space. I've heard carrots are really easy to grow so their a good confidence plant for me, which is why I planted two packs worth between my three garden beds.

Here is the same box on April 19th. Lots of progress huh!! Check out the one tomato plant in the lower left hand corner. That is the one that I said was three times as big as it was 11 days ago. WOOT! Also notice in the upper left hand corner a small row of what looks like grass. That is the carrot seeds taking off. They are also off to a good start in the lower right hand corner. Yep. I'm good. It just makes me giddy, to look at them.

I know this isn't the best picture because I took it in the morning while there is still shade. On the left side I planted four bell pepper plants. About six inches to the right of them I plants another row of carrots. Then to the left of them I planted two rows of cucumber plants, five seeds in each row.

Here is the same box 11 days later. At first I was a little bummed that the bell peppers weren't taking off like the tomato plants, but then I read online that bell pepper plants are slow to get going. So now I don't feel so bad. But they did grow a bit. You can also see the long row of carrots. I'm going to have to learn how to can with all the carrots we might get out of this. And then to the left of the carrots are the two rows of cucumber plants. Nine out of the ten seeds took. Pretty exciting huh? For Christmas you just might get a jar of homemade pickles from us if things go well.

Now to my bad box. I call it that because it was the first one I planted and obviously didn't fill it enough with soil, so I'm not expecting much from this one. As you can see in the picture all the plants look pretty and green. These were planted on March 25th. Starting in the left corner of the top row we have two bell pepper plants, one sweet pepper and basil. Starting from the left of the bottom row I have a bush of cilantro, two rows of carrots planted, and then another bush of cilantro.

Now you can see things have gone downhill and it hasn't even been a month yet. The basil in the top right corner I thought was dead, but the big rains revitalized it back. There are new green leaves growing on top of the yellow ones. The same goes for the two bushes of cilantro. The carrot seeds seemed to have taken as well. I'm just worried that the soil in the box isn't deep enough for them to mature correctly. Brilliant me didn't till the dirt under it. I like to call this the looser box. But I have definitely learned a lot from this box. All three of them couldn't be perfect. At least not on my first try.

So yeah in a couple of months, come on over and get ya some veggies. :) I can't wait until I get to take Devon and Matthew back there to go pick a cucumber and eat it right there, because there will be no chemicals on my plants, so they can get away with not washing them off.

So what do you think?

Long Days

Now that Chris's hours have changed from 9pm-7am, to 4pm-2am, mine have too. Chris used to wake up around 4:00 in the afternoon and shower then come downstairs and be with the kids while I cook dinner. We would all get to eat together and clean up and head out for an evening walk. Well, now he's up between 10am and 11am, and gets to see Devon as she is getting home from school. He leaves now about 2:45pm. So there really isn't mealtime opportunity because Devon eats at school and Chris eats when he gets hungry.

After one week of this schedule I realized cooking the dinners I used to is pretty much not going to happen because Matthew isn't quite big enough to stay happy by himself that long. So I've been making lots of pasta, and almost homemade pizza. I get credit for putting on my own sauce, cheese and toppings right? This also makes my days seem much longer. I'm definitely more worn out by the time the kids are asleep at 8pm.

I have had one bit of salvation though. My good friend Bridget who lives just around the corner. We hang out most nights walking around the neighborhood, in each others front yards or at our houses, whatever we are in the mood for. It's really been nice having company in the evening. And I really adore her kids. Devon and her three year old are best friends, and on days when we don't catch them after dinner Devon is really bummed.

Chris seems happier with these hours because he's not flip flopping his sleep hours, and that makes me much happier too. But like I said these days seem awfully long now. Let's just look at today.
Wake up at 6:30am
Feed both and dress kids
Get Devon to school on time
Go to the grocery store
Put all the groceries away
Unload dishwasher
Sweep kitchen floor
Clean out litter box
Sweep the cat room
Play and read to Matthew
Bring Matthew to bus stop and get Devon
Feed Matthew lunch
Help Devon with homework
Put Matthew down for a nap
Punish Devon for swinging Xander around
Put Matthew back down for his nap because he never really fell asleep
Put Devon down for quiet time
Watch Twilight with a few interruptions (this is rare)
Let repair man in to fix laundry machine
Kiss Chris goodbye
Do two and a half loads of laundry
Water vegetable plants
Play with kids outside
Make almost homemade pizzas for dinner
Clean kitchen
Reload dishwasher
Take kids for walk
Come home and play a little longer
Bathe both kids
Put Matthew to sleep
Put Devon to sleep
Fold third load of laundry
8:15pm plop into glider and blog

Now I go read until I fall asleep, which should be soon.

It's Over and It Wasn't a Big Deal

So if I can remember correctly I've written three or four whinny, dramatic blogs about the devastation of the idea of weaning or trying to wean or the word weaning. I've made a big hoopla about it and now it's over. Hooray!

Was is torture? Did I have to listen to Matthew screaming in his crib feeling rejected? No and no. I do think it has altered my hormonal state a bit. I seem a bit testy and easily peeved at the opposite gender. I'm not sure why, but I made this observation last night. My neighbor is weaning her boy also, he's only three days older than Matthew, so it's good to have someone to relate to. And yesterday she seemed to be in the same mood as me, so this lead me to believe there is something going on inside us besides lack of milk production.

I finally got inspired to start weaning because when Matthew would latch on a few days ago, he just seemed to be there, not really into the whole drinking thing. Then he chomped down and I said that's it for him. He made it a little over thirteen months, he's fine. So at nighttime and nap time I just bring a cup of milk upstairs with me and we still sit in "our spot" and sometimes he drinks, sometimes he doesn't. Then I take him in his room, kiss him, say "night night" and lay him on his belly. Then I would pat his back until he fell asleep. So for about five minutes or so. But now I don't pat him all the way to sleep, just for a couple of minutes to get him sleepy and he can fall asleep on his own. It's been working great and he doesn't even cry. I'm so lucky to have two kids that have been easy to put to sleep. Yeah me! I did it!

Big Boy Talkin'

Well, Matthew is definitely not holding back in his quest to be big. I always think that he tries to "make up" for being so small. His doctor even told me after he was born that we may need to consider his gestational age, meaning how old he would be if he had been born three weeks later, when looking at milestones. So since then I have been subconsciously not expecting him to do things on time, much less early. Well, I'm done with that. He has been doing great in terms of development, and always has been. So now I'm ready to start bragging about my boy.

The past couple of months he has been using many words and phrases, but not on command. He says "all done" but not always in context, he says "bite" and one of my favorites is when he says "yes" because I have never met a toddler who said yes before no. No holds so much more power. This morning I asked Matthew, "Are you ready to go bye bye?" when it was time to take Devon to school and he said "yes" and started walking toward the door. It was awesome.

Let's see, he also says "dada" and "mama." And Mama is finally being used more frequently. Today he started saying "cat" but if he is saying it in an excited state, like when he's chasing the cat he says, "tat tat tat!" It's adorable. And he started trying to click his tongue to call Xander to him like we do. So cute!

So that's all I can think of. Time to feed him snack number two. And it's only 9:40am!

My Body, The Traitor

So lately I have had a sneaking suspicion that something is not right with my body. I won't get too technical but to sum it up I believe I have all the symptoms of being lactose intolerant. And never have I realized just how much dairy I take in daily, until I tried to cut it out of my diet.

I have started everyday that I can remember with a bowl of cereal, recently I switched to coffee mugs to better control my portions, and this requires milk. No biggie. I just switched to soy milk, which I occasionally drank in college because I thought it was yummy. So nothing new there. But now I must buy three types of milk every grocery trip. We have whole milk for Matthew, skim for Devon and now light soy for me. Cha-ching!

Going on we look at lunch. I usually just make a sandwich or eat left overs from the night before. Well, they make soy cheese, which I tried the shredded version in my enchiladas last week and I didn't taste a difference, but then again they were drowned in green chili sauce. I'm a little nervous about sliced soy cheese. There's not much to a sandwich to hide the taste if it's weird. So I could just not put cheese on my sandwiches. Well, that just stinks.

Dinner. This one is tougher because it effects the whole family. How do I make my beloved lasagna? Cheese ravioli? I love cheese the most out of all the dairy options. I just recently fell in love with feta. It's amazing, but I sprinkled a little on my salad tonight, hoping feta would maybe be an exception and right now my tummy is telling me "No. It's not an exception!" So I am sad, and in pain.

So now, I am definitely mad at my body. What brought on this sudden change? Why are you punishing me? *pouting*

The Mind of a Five Year Old

So today as we, Devon, Matthew and I, were walking back from checking the mail Devon noticed that her shadow was almost as big as mine. This triggered her to tell me this and then she added that when she is as big as me she will be a grown up too. So I saw this as a fun opportunity to ask some questions to peek inside her mind. So here was our conversation.

Devon: "When I'm as big as you I'll be an adult too."
Me: "Oh yeah. What will you do then?"
Devon: "I'll do lots of things."
Me: "Like what?"
Devon: "I'm going to take care of kids and be a good mommy like you."
Me: "And how many kids are you going to have?"
Devon: "Eighteen."
Me: "Wow! That's a lot. How will you take care of them all?"
Devon: (thinks for a minute) "I think I'll just have two like you then."

It seems simple, but I got a real kick out of it. Especially because when she answered "Eighteen" is was in the most nonchalant way possible. Like everyone has eighteen kids. I thought it was hilarious.

She's a hoot. Today I was listening to her while she was playing with her toys and they were searching for the last golden ticket, in a barn. I thought this was hilarious because a little over a week ago we finished reading "Charlotte's Web" for one of her bedtime stories. And now, if you could tell, we are reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." She was combining the two stories together. Very amusing.

Finally! I'm a Gardener!

For a few years now I have yearned to have my own little vegetable garden. While we were looking for a house, having a good look at the back yard was vital not just to see if there would be ample space for the kiddos to play, but also a good place for a vegetable garden. Now I am clueless about gardening, especially vegetable gardening. So anytime I meet someone who does, I cling to them like a magnet hoping to absorb their knowledge.

A neighbor around the corner from us has a HUGE backyard easily two or three times the size of ours and he has been growing vegetables for a couple of years. And luckily he was very willing to share all his experiences with me and our community one Saturday afternoon. While I was in his backyard I took viscous notes and created a sketch in my head about how to create a vegetable garden in our yard.

When I finally got the idea on paper, Chris had a few issues with some aspects, so we made some changes and compromises. Basically we decided to create three raised beds at the very back of our yard and then leave the rest open to create an area with a bench swing. For now, we are just focusing on the raised beds.

So today I went to Home Depot all by myself (yes I WAS intimidated) and got all the materials we would need to create the garden. Well, almost all of them. I got enough wood to make three raised beds, but only enough topsoil, compost and transplants for two of the beds. I was afraid of spending too much money. Well, silly me didn't do the math in my head very well, because I ended up not even using all of the $100 gift card we got. So maybe tomorrow I'll go back and get the stuff for the other bed.

When I get home, not only am I eager to brag about getting everything on my own, but I also loaded it all in the car (also known as the box, scion xb) by myself. Well, we also needed to seed the backyard, hopefully for the last time, so we can have a full lawn. If you've ever had the joyful experience of seeding a lawn then you know first you have to rake the soil to loosen it so the seeds can do their magic. It took me an hour and a half to do 80% of the back yard and then thankfully Chris took over for me. I'm such a wimp. Chris spreads the seeds out and then we get to work nailing the beds together. That was more complicated than I think it should have been. We definitely need a new drill with more power .Arrrhhh arrrrh arhhh (that was supposed to be the Tim Allen grunt from the tv show Home Improvement.)

We get the soil in the beds and I plant my little plants literally minutes before it starts to rain. It actually rained on me while I was trying to put all the trash and tools up. So now I my vegetable garden. Even if I only get two tomatoes and a cucumber I will be excited. But hopefully there will be more than that. Here are a few pics I took right after finishing. They aren't the best quality, but I was rushing because it was starting to sprinkle and I didn't want my camera getting ruined.

So here is a picture of the three beds, I know the one on the far right looks crooked, but it's just the ground isn't level. I'll fix it later. I also need to fill in the dirt around the edges of the others. But since it was about to rain on me This was all I could get done. Pretty impressive huh?

Here is the middle bed. It has six cucumber plants and two sweet pepper plants.

This is the bed on the far left. It has three bell pepper plants, a cluster of basil, two cilantro and two rows of carrots in the middle I planted from seeds. I can't wait to see if I did that right. Grow plants grow!! I want some veggies! I have to wait about 50 days for the carrots, I think I'll mark that on my calender. I need to look the others I can just pick as they look ready. I'm so excited!!!

Oh and to top things off, a couple hours after we were done and the rain was trickling away I noticed a huge rainbow over out backyard. If that isn't a sign of good luck, I don't know what is.

Gone Fishing

Last week was spring break, so we packed up the car and headed out to East Texas to visit Chris's parents. There house seems to be the place we go to the most when looking for a mini vacation. They live on Lake San Rayburn, and I do mean on the lake. There back yard consists of the lake. It's sweet. So we generally go fishing every time.

This time they took us to a different part of the lake to fish off some docs that always seem to have something bitting. So we get some worms and fish with these awesome little kid poles. We catch some brim and perch not really intending to keep anything, just having fun.

Well, Devon was getting pretty bored because she wasn't having any luck catching anything. Mainly because she wouldn't stay still enough. So Chris has a good idea to put a bobber on her line to give her a better mission of watching it bob instead of feeling for nibbles. Well, it worked. She caught a nice little sun perch, I think that's what they said it was. She was so excited when she realized she had actually caught something. She was eagerly reeling it in, seeming so proud.

But then when the fish was actually out of the water, she freaked out. She screamed and dropped the pole and wouldn't go near the fish. It was hilarious. It was a nice touch to the weekend because when we first got there she freaked out whenever a bug came near her. Even flies caused a ruckus. After a day and a half she was finally finding the courage to say "shoo fly" to most bugs without having a panic attack.

I think having to stay indoors all winter made her loose her since of adventure. We are planning to go on many more expeditions around the Austin/San Antonio area to rekindle her admiration of nature. Although that probably won't get us good stores like catching a fish and running away.

Good Times

Well, things have definitely been changing in the Cato house. Matthew has been officially walking more than crawling for about a week now. The trick was figuring out how to get back up by himself when he would fall. Now he has the hugest grin on his face as he toddles around the house. I love it. Now he is also able to explore outside more, because instead of freaking out when he falls in the grass he can just pop back up.

Devon showed me a neat trick. Apparently she can wear Matthew's jacket, which is size 9-12 months. I almost considered starting her on a all pizza diet, but then I was able to come back down the earth and remember the doctor said she was fine. But still, it's a small concern in the back of my mind. Who knew that I (former cabbage patch kid) would have to worry about having a slim kid. This must be from Chris's genes.

Well, Matthew is 13 months old now and we figure with a wet diaper he should be 20 lbs now. So we switched him over to a bigger car seat where he can finally face forward and sit up. At first he wasn't a big fan of it. He doesn't fall asleep as easily now because he isn't tilted back. And his first test drive in it was a five hour trip to East Texas. Great planning on my part, but he has adjusted and seems to enjoy it. The only thing is he looks so very tiny in the big car seat. I can only see the top of his head in my special little review mirror! But he's growing, and pretty soon that won't be an issue.

Chris and I have finally come to an agreement on how to landscape the backyard. All this after a couple of days of lobbying and compromise, and not to mention a few arguments. I can't really explain it too well, so you'll just have to check back for a garden update. We're hoping to get it all together next weekend, which is really next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, his current days off. Luckily, we got a $100 gift card for Home Depot from our credit card rewards, so that will help out indeed! Because landscaping and gardening can be pricey. Especially if you want it to look decent. Who knew?

Four Years and Twenty Pounds Apart

Yikes, it's been a while since I've been in the blogging world. What with Matthew turning one, Devon having the flu and then the chaos of having two birthday parties in one day, it's been pretty crazy around here. Oh, and let's not forget the reordering of the house after the chaos. I feel like I just now have returned back to normal.

We'll start with Matthew. He turned one and got a rad little hotrod for his birthday. He loves it! At first he would just climb in and out, in and out for long stretches of time, but now he has gotten over the novelty of it and can be pushed in it without trying to hop out like a stunt devil. Also, I made him an awesome dinosaur cake that was delicious! It was banana cake with chocolate frosting, all made with love from scratch.

Shortly after Matthew's birthday Devon starts to get cold/allergy symptoms, but then on the day of her well check appointment she runs a 102 F fever and has to miss school for the first time all year. There goes that perfect attendance record. At the doctors, they test her for strep and the flu and she comes back positive for both. This is on Tuesday, her birthday party is supposed to be on Saturday. Uh-Oh. Luckily, she went to the doctors at the height of the illness and started to recover quickly. Then on Thursday the doctors office calls me and says that the 48 hour culture of her strep test came back negative, so apparently she didn't have strep, just the flu. So one less dose of meds for her, hooray!

Now Matthew's well check was at the same time as Devon's. Seemed like a good idea at the time to just get them both out of the way at the same time, but it also meant it was a very loooooooong appointment. I think next year they will have separate appointments. Poor little Matthew weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz, so he still has to use the baby car seat, backwards. He's not a big fan of that. Devon weighed in at 40 lbs, which means she's only gained one pound in a year. Now I know why she seems so lanky, it's because she is. But then again she was sick and her appetite goes away when she's sick. So maybe she's really 41 or 42 now.

So, Saturday comes and so does the families. We have cake and presents for Matthew at 2:00 and then somehow time fast forwards in warp speed and it's time to dash to the children's museum for Devon's party. The museum is downtown and we are in Manor. Shouldn't have to worry about traffic because it is a Saturday right? Wrong. Highway 290 was backed up and I was hyperventilating. Then there was construction all around the museum, which wasn't there during our last trip. So Devon was 15 minutes late to her own birthday party. And for those who know me, then you know I was loosing it. I absolutely HATE being late, especially to my daughters only 5th birthday party. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who reminded me the party doesn't exist without the birthday girl. Great man I tell ya, great man. Devon had a blast at the party. Unfortunately, none of her school friends she invited came, but that just left more free passes to the museum for us.

Car Boy

Well, it looks to me like on the eve of Matthew's birthday, that he is a car boy. It's funny, when little boys are between one and two or even three they are generally intensely interested in one or tow categories of toys. Some boys love trucks, some love trains, dinosaurs, blocks, balls .....the list goes on. As for now, Matthew is actually divided between books and cars. He even makes the "Brrrrrrr" sound when he pushes cars on the floor. I love it. It's adorable.

I remember my nephew Scotty being a car/train boy when he was little. He had the Thomas train table and everything, and not to mention a few hundred hot wheels. You know when I think about it, we really haven't bought any "boy" toys for Matthew. The cars he plays with are Devon's. We're mean parents we don't really buy toys very often, the grandparents do that enough. I guess it's our way of trying to teach gratefulness. As we tell Devon (thanks to Madam Blueberry) "a thankful heart is a happy heart."

I was really hoping to have a partner to share my passion for dinosaurs, but I'm not giving up hope. Devon does enjoy dinosaurs, but she isn't that into them. Matthew actually destroyed her only dinosaur non-fiction book, which was my fault for not paying attention to the ripping sounds coming from the back seat a couple of weeks ago. That's ok, it just a good excuse to go to Half Priced Books. ;) And maybe when Matthew is older we can memorize all the different types of dinosaurs together. Hey, it could happen.

Who Knew

So I'm going to be taking a class at my church which is a book study on The Confessions by Saint Augustine. I'm very excited not just because of the class, or the fact that Clifton, my pastor, is teaching it, but because once a week I get to act like an adult for an hour and a half. Ahhhhh, it's going to be great. I'm also hoping that it will help me kick the last lump of postpartum junk that seems to be lingering.

Last night, like the big dork I am, I began reading the Preface and a chapter that goes over his chronology. And to my amazement, even though he was sainted by the Catholic church, he did not lead an entirely "pure" life. This made me realize I know very, very little about this whole sainthood thing. Perhaps this class will help to educate me, even if I'm not Catholic, I still consider Catholicism a part of my christian ancestry, just like Judaism. I mean shortly after Jesus was risen, most Christians were thrown into this Catholic category.

Leaving that tangent aside, I am really enthralled by St. Augustine. The life he lived is very inspiring. Most of his life was a spiritual quest, and even when he realized his past was not ideal to his new life he just stopped, and accepted his new life without guilt. It makes me realize that right now in my life there are many temptations that I give into, and I know there are better ways to go about doing things.

The difference between me and Augustine is that once he knew there was a better way, he took on the right way and left the old behind. I know I shouldn't over eat, and that sometimes "showing" Devon how to be patient when punishing her would be more effective that yelling, and oh boy there is so much more, but the point is I can't rid my life of these bad habits until I accept the right way and persevere through temptation to go down the easy road. Yes, snacking at night might temporarily make me feel better but in the long road it only hurts me. I can say no, but it is so much easier to keep doing things the old way.

So it looks to me like this little book study might teach me more about myself, than Augustine. Fascinating! Something tells me Clifton knew this aspect of the class when he decided to teach. He's sneaky like that.

A Few Firsts

The last few weeks have been very eventful for both Devon and Matthews development.

The other day, Devon and I were on the couch and we were reading one of her new library books. It was one we hadn't read yet and I was letting her say the sight words we have been working on. Well, as we are reading about the Backyardigans surfing, I turn the page and Devon just reads the entire sentence! "I can jump." I about pooped my pants. She recognizes "I" and "can" but we haven't done "jump" yet. It was such a big moment. I dropped the book and hugged her! She looked at me like I was nuts. In less than a month, she will be FIVE! Yowsers! At some point I need to fully accept she is growing up.

Now for little Matthew, he has been saying "bu" (pronounced "bu" as in book) for a few weeks now, but I wasn't ready to claim it as a first word yet. But I'm going to stop being modest now because he is clearly trying to say book. When ever he sees a book whether it's a board book, one of Devon's books or even one of mine, he points to it and says, "bu". Mama and Dada mean nothing to him, he's all about the books. Actually, he rarely says "mama" anymore. We're going to have to work on that. ;)

Also, Mr. Big Boy took his first steps the other day. I believe it was super bowl sunday. He took three steps from me to Chris and it was so exciting! He has been standing on his own for a couple of weeks now, but just hasn't wanted to walk yet. I'm ok with that, he's fast enough when he crawls I'm not ready for running. Today he was once again standing on his own and I came up to him with my arms opened wide, trying to entice him to walk towards me and he took four steps! He was so proud of himself and of course my heart was just melting. I'm going to have to get the video camera out so we can document this.