They don't call it a "Splash Pool" for nothing...
Friday, August 04, 2006
I like water a lot
We bought a really cute splash pool on clearance at Target this week. (Summer clearance here is awesome because hello, you can use this thing like through November at least!) I thought it would be something that the kids could enjoy equally...and it was! They loved it. Here she is checking it out initially. More pics to come...
Friday, July 21, 2006
How big is the world
This photo has been getting a lot of attention on flickr, so I thought I'd post it here. I like it, but I'm really surprised by the reaction because I didn't post it thinking it was anything all that great. Ben says that it's the way the perspective works with the title, that she looks so tiny and the world looks so vast. Anyway, it seems to strike a chord with people, so tell me what YOU think!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Will's swimming lessons
That's him swimming like that! I couldn't beleive how easily he remembered it all from last year.
He's happy to be at swim lessons.
That's him with his face down in the water like that! Wow!
Look at that kick splash! 
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Curiosity
This is my most popular photo on Flickr, and I can see why. I decided to play with it and make one of those motivational posters. I like the way it turned out! View it larger here.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Getting into the swing of things again
The other day he started realizing he hadn't been playing baseball for a while and he missed it. So we all went outside and he and daddy played for a while. Will got to be the pitcher for a while, too. I have some pictures of that on my flickr, which often has updates that I don't always get to post on here right away.
Anyway, he made contact on this one pretty good. This is a setting on my camera I'm just starting to try out. It worked out really cool in this one, though.
Anyway, he made contact on this one pretty good. This is a setting on my camera I'm just starting to try out. It worked out really cool in this one, though.
"Wiggles ROCK!"
Oh, yeah. Another few years of Greg, Anthony, Jeff and Murray. I can't wait.
This is a new development for her, but she is really into them now...*sigh*
This is a new development for her, but she is really into them now...*sigh*
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Geez, dad, if you wanted to see them that badly, you could have just ASKED...
She's looking at me like "a little help here? Just a little? someone?"
Learning to fly
but she ain't got wings...coming down is the hardest thing.
It was a hot day when it started to rain. She wanted very badly to go outside in it -- after all, she is definitely a water baby. Here I have decided the diaper is counterproductive and that it needs to come off. Photo by daddy.
It was a hot day when it started to rain. She wanted very badly to go outside in it -- after all, she is definitely a water baby. Here I have decided the diaper is counterproductive and that it needs to come off. Photo by daddy.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
leafy goodness
We went outside and played in the rain the other day, and Adelaide had a great time. She did find this leaf and wanted to chew it...okay, yeah, I snapped some photos before I took it away. It was too cute!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Discover
And here is Will, in a poster that is very him. I like how this one turned out...I may fiddle with the lighting in the picture a little, but overall, this I think is a neat one.
laila at play
I made this with a really cool application for flickr. I have a badge on here that you can click on to see my newest photos. I update it more religiously than my blog (sorry! but it is a lot easier to upload photos than to write entries!) If you are interested in frequent updates and photos of the kids, I would recommend you bookmark my flickr homepage. Anyway, here is a fun montage of laila.
Friday, June 30, 2006
So funny -- hubris in photography...oxymoron?
This is a hilarious post for anyone who belongs to online photo sharing sites -- it is a satire of some famous photos and comments they "would have gotten" if posted on the internet. Funny, funny because there are so many people who think that just because they have a large piece of glass and plastic they are art experts. *sigh* But it is funny.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
teeth!
All six are showcased in this photo (thanks to my rockin' new camera...) and isn't she just adorable?
Monday, June 19, 2006
Cool...but how random is the lack of south carolina and the virginias?
create your own visited states map
OH.MY.WORD.
Look at Ben's!!! Not only was he an Air Force Brat, he had evil Wisconsin traveling job. Wow. He so wins.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Will's art
I love what Will did with this picture. I adore my son, of course, but wow, I think he is talented and amazing! He took this picture of Adelaide and turned it into this. Pretty cool, huh?
Wow...how wrong can you be? Cable de-monopolization is the future.
So some of you have read that I loathe cable companies and the current "franchising" system (which I prefer to label "government approved monopoly"). So I was understandably excited about the bill moving through the government to dismantle this system and free the lines for open competition in markets.
So here comes this dude, who simply gets it all wrong. He laments that instead of complaints about the cable company being handled by "city hall," everyone will have to go through the FCC. HELLO? Apparently he is so entrenched in the thinking of "red tape" that he has forgotten that money speaks louder than words, tape, or city hall.
He writes: "The major telecommunications bill careening through Congress right now would shift almost all the responsibility for cable complaints from local governments to the Federal Communications Commission. With some 30,000 local governments currently taking and acting on cable complaints, it's not clear how the FCC would suddenly gear up to all of handle them. But I’ll let you guess."
Okay, okay, I know this one! (hand shoots up in the air) If cable companies had to face competition and had some kind of financial incentive to treat customers with respect and to deliver good service, there wouldn't be so many complaints. People would just switch companies! And while I feel certain that if this in enacted, cable companies will suddenly come up with all sorts of schemes to get subscribers to sign contracts (a la cell phone companies -- don't do it!!!) it would nonetheless give people options they don't currently have. So what do you think matters more? The people angry with their local cable company switch to a competitor, or the people angry with the local cable company go to their local government, whose palms are greased with the tax revenues and money of the provider filling their coffers, who then say, "hey, stop that. really. stop. okay, stop when it's convenient for you." Or better yet, they say, "quit complaining."
I, along with many others I know, have converted to satellite service for television. But I still have to go with the worthless, do-nothing, money grubbing, service-impaired local cable company for my high-speed internet service. I would like to point out, however, that when I call my satellite provider with a problem that I talk to a human (who is usually generally pleasant and helpful and whose only advice isn't "unplug the box for thirty seconds...")
So file this under "think for yourself." It is a pretty sad state I suppose when we need government regulation to fix government regulation (see: Louisiana ethanol mandate), but I have a dream. I dream of a world in which I can tell Cox Cable to stick it somewhere very impolite because I'm moving to _______ (fill in the blank...satellite, Time Warner, Comcast, local provider, etc.)
These companies fear the day they will have to compete for dollars. Improving service and options...it frightens them! Entrenchment...it is soooo comfortable...Responding to consumer sentiment and demand...nooooooooooooooooo!!!
Please, "Red Tape Chronicles," get a clue. The market is the best consumer complaint system of all. Just ask aol.
Just when I thought I was having a bad day...
Wow. Just when I think I'm having a bad day, I read this. And I realize that, yeah, sometimes things happen that stink or upset me, but in the scheme of things, at least I didn't ask someone to marry me who said they didn't think they were ready, which then precipitated jumping out of a window naked, running down the street, and being shot at. Really, everyone. It could be worse!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Reason #3271 I don't miss Wisconsin
There are so many reasons I am glad we don't live in Wisconsin anymore. In fact, the population of Wisconsin in the 2000 census was 5,363,675. But let's be fair...not everyone in Wisconsin is bad. So there are probably only, like, 5,363,242 reasons I'm glad we don't live there anymore. I'm calling this guy #3271. I really need a "Wisconsin" tag like Fark.com has a "florida" tag. I like to refer back to them when, say, a hurricane is coming or when I think about Governor Blanco (which is as little as possible) so that I realize that at least the people here in Louisiana are 97% awesome. Considering that the people in Wausau were about 97% awful, rude, and uncaring...I think I can live with a stupid governor until the next election.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Introducing (drumroll....) WILL'S BLOG!!!
Wow, Will is just so fun.
Let me introduce everyone to his really great blog "Terrific Kid." He came up with the title all by himself. So clearly he has no problems with self-esteem...but he is a terrific kid, so that's fine.
Will has been asking me for a blog for a looooong time, ever since he realized I was posting on mine. I should have done it sooner, but better now than never! Will likes to get on Adobe Photoshop and create really cool pictures with neat effects. I certainly don't think it looks like the work of someone who just turned five!
He says he also wants to start posting pictures of his lego creations and scanning in his art that he does here at home. Really he just wants to have a website. For a tech-savvy little guy, I guess that's sort of an awesome thing!
So visit his site and leave a comment. He LOVES reading his comments, and check back because he's one of those bloggers who likes to respond to all of them! He's really proud of his site, and I'm really proud of him. He is, after all, a really Terrific Kid.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Mischief Maker
This is Will's room.
He HATES it when she stands at it and bangs on the door. He says she eats the stickers off the door.
He's right.
He HATES it when she stands at it and bangs on the door. He says she eats the stickers off the door.
He's right.
Gotta keep those baby nails trimmed...
...because she really likes to grab at faces. She also loves playing with daddy. Look closely and you'll see a BIG smile on her face, and if this had audio, you'd hear that English baby belly laugh that Will made so famous in his infancy. I just love her babyness, her chubby little hands and arms, and her fat little legs, her laughter and her serious faces that look like she's thinking soooooooooo hard about something...
Friday, June 09, 2006
every girl's gotta have a hobby...
well, I have always wanted to be able to sew. I started by altering some baby burp cloths, moved on to pillowcases and small blankets, and recently decided it was time to do something with all the gorgeous fabric I had been accumulating in the hopes that I would do...something...with it. So here is a recent attempt-in-progrss. The roses are going to be a little top, and then the black and pink polka dots are going to (hopefully) be a diaper cover...
Monday, June 05, 2006
Moved by the Spirit?
Ahhh, Will. How I delight in my very...special...child.
Will's newest antecdote began at church on Sunday morning. Will would normally go to kids' praise during the sermon, but we had decided that we wanted him to stay with us and sit through the sermon for a while and see how he did. So we packed a bag with legos, colors, and other quietly amusing items in the hopes that he would learn to sit through a sermon.
It turned out the sermon was about Jesus' parable of the seeds. This, we though, was great because Will is really intrigued by natural science and has recently taken a great interest particularly in seeds and plants. As soon as he heard Eddie, our preacher, begin to talk about seeds and what kind of soil they would flourish in, I saw his ears perk up, and my five-year-old was more intensely focused on the sermon that even most adults might have been. He listened attentively as Eddie talked about where seeds fall, rocky soil, and weeds, and what that all meant. He then began to read from the bible to the congregation. He read from Mark 4, and when he got to verse 9, he placed special emphasis on Jesus' words.
"He who has ears," he began, then paused, smiling at the congregation. "He who has ears? Who has ears?" He paused and then continued. "He who has ears let him hear!"
At that moment, my son, who had become so wrapped up in the sermon that he apparently felt that Eddie was speaking only to him, excitedly informed the entire congregation:
"We ALL have ears!"
Oh, my.
Yes, it was very funny. And I would be lying if I said I was upset with him, because I wasn't. After all, Jesus said that we must become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven, and Will showed us all that day what the enthusiasm of a child can feel like when listening to stories about Jesus. I know that Jesus would have been pleased to hear my son answer Eddie's question so loudly and firmly, so how could I be upset at him? No one else was. It was cute, but it was also really special. And even though afterwards we explained to him that sometimes when a preacher asks a question, he doesn't necessarily want an answer outloud, sometimes he wants us to answer it in our heads, we also told him that he wasn't in trouble and that we were proud he was so interested in what Eddie was saying.
I was worried that he wouldn't learn anything in the auditorium with us, but I think he did. And more importantly, he taught me something: that becoming like a child in Christ is real, and Jesus knew that when he set the example, bidding the children to come unto him. He wanted us all to know and to remember each time we saw a child delight in the wonders of Him that full-hearted faith and undeniable excitement are attainable for us all.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
what a predicament
The intrepid Adelaide English is not afraid to climb any mountain or go headfirst where her curiosity leads here. Here, in her natural habitat, we caught her trying to figure her way out of this curious situation...
heehee yeah, we helped her...after we got some pictures...
heehee yeah, we helped her...after we got some pictures...
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
the graduate
Ms. Dawn (right) and Ms. Jenni (left) will have my eternal love and devotion for the love, patience and learning they have given Will these past few months. They are the special kind of teachers, the ones you can look back on and always know that they changed you for the better. Thanks to them both.
What a day!
Today was Will's last day of preschool. It was pretty momentous for me, but it seemed like he was just kind of like, "well, okay. Now for kindergarten." I will miss his teachers because they have done a fantastic job with him. We're enrolling Adelaide at the "Mother's Day Out" at Crosspoint next year because it is such an awesome program. I can't imagine anywhere else that a child would come home explaining Picasso's blue period and how "Mr. Vivaldi" wrote music about the seasons (noting that he recognized it from Baby Einstein videos) and still just have fun. It was great and I am so glad we found it.
Will has made great strides in maturity level over the last month. I have noticed it, Ben has noticed it, and his teachers REALLY noticed it. He got a happy face every day at school during May, which was really great for him. As a reward, we took him to a "Build-a-bear" knockoff called Wacky Bear in the Mall of Louisiana. He'd been asking for AGES to do that, so this was his big reward for doing so incredibly well over the last few weeks. I was ready to just feel like I was getting totally ripped off, but it was actually a fun experience. Ben took Adelaide so that I could pay total attention to Will, and we had a good time. He picked out his bear, and then the worker at the store stuffed it--but he let Will help. Will pressed the pedal that activated the stuffing mechanism, then he let will put the blinking "heart" inside the bear (The worker placed it so it was in the right place.) We got to name him (as creative as Will is, you'd think he'd have been more inventive than "Wacky"...but whatever...) and make a "birth certificate." Then Will picked out clothes for the bear. We got out of there for under $30, so I felt pretty good about the experience.
After that, Will was very serious about doting on Wacky. He carried him around like we carry Adelaide (do you think I'll need to make a "bear sling" for Wacky?) and was very contientious about where he put him. In fact, when Ben was taking Will to potty before we left to come home, I offered to hold Wacky while they went to the facilities. Will was actually skeptical -- he was like, "Mommy, take good care of him!" As I'm walking Adelaide in the stroller over to the Aveda store to browse, I answer him with, "Will, I can take care of a baby, I think I can take care of your bear." I then turn back the way I'm headed and promptly walk the stroller directly into a glass wall. Luckily, Will didn't see that or he probably would have done his bathroom business right there, he was being so OCD about the bear. It was cute, though. (Oh, and the baby -- and the glass wall -- are no worse for the wear.) He's sleeping with him now.
What a juxtiposition -- my big boy, maturing, leaving preschool behind, snuggled up with a teddy bear in bed. I love it, though. I am glad that my child is learning to mature, make good decisions, and be a helper, but that he is none to ready to leave childhood behind. I really do cherish these moments. The way God has blessed our family this year is incredible, and when I see my firstborn hold out his arms for me to hug him and tuck him into his Buzz Lightyear sheets, I feel it so acutely -- that love, that happiness, that true contentment that is permeating my life right now. I embrace it.
007 as a preschooler
I'm sure this is what 007 looked like at HIS preschool class parties. Will is, after all, a super spy.
Will Van Gogh1
Will learned about major artists this year in Pre-K, and they did projects in the style of some of the masters' classic works. This is mine and Ben's favorite one of the Van Gogh's. It is so good, and the texture (which you can't tell on the scan) is just great.
Will Picasso face
Will learned about major artists this year in Pre-K, and they did projects in the style of some of the masters' classic works.
Will Van Gogh irises1
Will learned about major artists this year in Pre-K, and they did projects in the style of some of the masters' classic works.
Will Van Gogh starry night1
Will learned about major artists this year in Pre-K, and they did projects in the style of some of the masters' classic works.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Adelaide's cover shot
Here she is...Miss Baton Rouge baaaaby
Haha, well, it isn't the greatest because I had to scan it in. I just ran by tonight to grab a couple. But I had to share!
Haha, well, it isn't the greatest because I had to scan it in. I just ran by tonight to grab a couple. But I had to share!
she hated the hat
I mean hated. fought. like I was strapping a bonnet full of bees on her head. But she forgot about it long enough to laugh at what her brother was doing.
Monday, May 08, 2006
hands at the window
so I'm in the kitchen cutting up zucchini for dinner when I hear banging. Not surprisingly, this doesn't really cause me very much pause. But then I hear Adelaide doing her "crazy belly laugh" thing. I look over and this is what I see! I literally dropped the vegetables on the countertop and RAN for my camera. It was adorable.
my boy in the window
I love this photo of him. He just looks so happy, in a real way, not a wild crazy way.
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