Sad, Sad Day

Well, our weekend was a low. Late Wednesday night Steve's dad passed away. He had been sick with pancreatic cancer, but he was just in the hospital for diagnostic tests when he passed away, so it was pretty unexpected. Luckily my mom was able to fly in and watch Jace so Steve and I could go to Mississippi to be with his family. If the number of people at a visitation or the flowers sent are a testament to how many people whose lives were touched by Loyd then he touched many. I did not know him very long, but for the time I did, he was always so sweet to me and I know he was a great dad to Steve and a wonderful grandfather to Jace.

Steve's mom mentioned a song that reminded her of Loyd and after I heard it I could not agree more,

"And he bowed his head to Jesus,

And he stood for Uncle Sam,

And he only loved one woman

(He) was always proud of what he had

He said his greatest contribution

Is the ones you leave behind

Raised on the ways and gentle kindness

Of a small town Southern man"

We will miss this him a lot...

Changes all the time

Well, Jace's life has been a changing lately. After just getting him adjusted to his toddler bed we changed things up on him again. He moved from the nursery into a room upstairs- there is so much more space. But like any situation, there were a few small setbacks but we seem to be making progress again. A bit of crying and wandering but the last two nights he has fallen asleep in his bed(knock on wood). When he is not quite tired he gets in his chair and "reads." Here are some pics of how we found him two different nights.

We got a call today that Kylie's furniture is here, so we have to get our butts in gear and get her room painted (well Steve does anyways). Sounds like a Memorial weekend activity.... So there should be pictures soon.

Slow weekend

Well, it was one of those weekends I don't have much to blog about. That is a good thing- we needed a break.

Steve attached a toddler rail to the existing stair rail to aid Jace in the whole stair climbing experience. He is good about climbing up the stairs, but did not like going down backwards. He is kind of getting the hang of using the rail- but like anything it will take lots of practice.

Well after a great start to bed time in the toddler bed there has been ups and downs. There were some nights with lots of crying, and then others with none. The latest trend is that he walks to his bed, after we read a story, climbs in and looks like he is ready to fall asleep. I leave the room and before I get back to the monitor he is up and walking towards the door. He tries to open it a few times, unsuccessfully, and then sits on the floor, and gradually falls asleep there. Then 30 minutes later he is passed out so we pick him up and put him in his bed. Not ideal but at least there is no crying involved. Nap time is a whole other story. He used to nap between 11-12. So we have put him in his bed at noon, and there is no crying, but he is out of bed, reading, and playing. Again not all that bad, but it is not napping. So we let him out and he acted not tired till about 2 PM when he curled up on the floor in the living room and passed out. So we have clued in that that key to nap time from now on is that he will no longer do it unless he is pretty tired- new nap time, around 2PM. This does not coincide with nap time at school, which is at 11:30, so we will see how that works, but he does get up a little earlier during the week. A learning curve for all.

Just some random pics from the weekend....

Crib Jumper- The end of an era

Well, we hit another turning point this weekend. Saturday morning Steve went to get some kolaches because we were going to have a garage sale. We had heard Jace get up but he usually lays there a while talking to his Pooh doll, so I decided to get the dogs fed. Then all of a sudden I am thinking, wow, it seems like Jace's voice is not coming through the monitor and sure enough I turn around and he is walking down the hallway- that little turkey got out of his crib somehow. And then again at nap time he did it again, so we rocked him to sleep (which we never do). But after his nap Steve went in to get him and sure enough there he was with one leg already over sitting at the top. Luckily we already had the toddler bed conversion kit, and though we dreaded making that leap, I was just so afraid he would hurt himself trying to get out of the crib. So he is officially done with cribs- much earlier than we would have ever expected. Saturday night we dreaded bed time, but luckily it was a non event- we just put him down, he stayed there and went to sleep. But this morning I went out and got a video monitor- I am much more paranoid now that if I hear a noise he is getting into something- so far it works well, I love it. Naps are a little more challenging, but we never had a good routine around it like bed time, so I think we need to start it, like they have it at school. I am thinking if they can get 15 kids to sleep on cots all together for 2 hours, we can get him to take a nap in his bed, right? Well, tonight he did well going to bed again (knock on wood) so I would rather have nap challenges than bedtime challenges for now.


This weekend was very busy (for us anyway). We had a room full of stuff to sell, since one of the guest rooms will become Jace's new room in May, so we can convert the nursery to Kylie's room. Most of it sold at the garage sale, except the bed, so for 2 hours that was pretty good. We cut the garage sale off early so we could go to Jace's daycare fundraiser festival before he had to nap. I think he liked it- but it was hard to tell since I think he was a little on the tired side. That evening we ended up at PF Chang's- my favorite. I had packed all kind of things for Jace not knowing how Chinese food would go. But we ordered some kid friendly dishes (not spicy) and lucked out that he took a great liking to Lo Mein noodles.

Some random picss from the weekend....







Monday we got some upsetting news. One of Jace's teachers, Mrs. Maggie, had died in a car accident over the weekend. It turns out her family was in Mexico for a wedding, and everyone in her van died when it appears they tried to out beat a train at a crossing. Her husband was driving, and also in the van were her two small children, her mom and dad and two siblings. Very sad. She took care of Jace when he was an infant- we loved her. She always had a funny story for me everyday about Jace- it usually entailed him spitting up a whole bottle on her, which is a lot to endure when it is not your kid, but she seemed to really like him which made me as a mom feel so much better about taking him to daycare. She was only 27, so sad. Just a reminder to not take things for granted and just slow down- it is not worth it.

When it Rains it Pours

Well, not much excitement this weekend, except for the rain! The weatherman had been saying we would get some, and did we ever. On Saturday morning we all headed out to run some errands, and while it was overcast and a little rainy, it was not that bad. After lunch we headed home for Jace's nap and then it started. For about three hours it just rained sheets. Our street filled up near the end, which made me nervous, but it did not hardly move into the driveway. We watched cars trying to drive by and waiting for them to stall. We were supposed to go out for a nice dinner that night, and the babysitter even called to make sure we were still going. But it quit after a while, and we still made it out for dinner with blue skies even making an appearance. The news reports today said Pearland got 8 inches.

Jace was moving a mile a minute this weekend. I am not sure where all the energy came from. One funny moment was when we were in Carter's shopping this weekend. They have a hop-skotch patter on the floor, and Steve was trying to teach him how to do it. He was trying really hard and beamed with pride when he thought he had gotten it down. It was hilarious to watch.

Easter Games and Baby Names

Happy Easter everyone. Well, after the weatherman scared us all into believing it would be a horrible weather day we ended up with 15 minutes of rain and the rest of the day was blue skies- what a great day.

Jace started his day with opening gifts from the Easter Bunny. The favorite was a toy vacuum- not a masculine toy (as my husband pointed out) but he loves it. The other toy was a Big Wheel- his feet do not even come close to touching the pedals so that one got packed away in the afternoon because mom and dad were already tired of pushing him around on it.

Then there was an egg hunt- after much practice, starting with grandma and grandpa two weeks ago, daycare and then at the neighbors yesterday, he did good, and was so excited to get those two M&Ms in the egg.

Well, I think we have settled on the girl's name..... Kylie Rose. So we no longer have to call her "the girl".

Watch Out for That Ostrich

Today it was nice outside so we ventured out to a wildlife park outside of Alvin, about 30 minutes from us. What an adventure. You drive through the gate, where you pay and buy buckets of food, and even before you get to the parking lot there are various animals to greet you. We were shocked how close they got to the car- especially a giant Ostrich. Steve had the food with him up front, so when it looked like the Ostrich was going to stretch his neck into the car to get the food he started rolling up his window, and meanwhile I am taking pictures so I was caught off guard when the Ostrich was suddenly up close and personal looking right at me for food. We got away without getting pecked, and needless to say we both laughed so hard all the way to the parking lot.



So then you park and they take you on a tram through the rest of the park. We rode in the back of the truck, pulling the tram, and because we were sitting a little higher our encounters were not quite as personal, which was a little disappointing, but then there were times we were glad to be where we were- who knew camels were so friendly (or maybe they just wanted breakfast).



The only animals you did not get too close to was the rhinoceros, lemurs, and giraffe. But besides that we had deer, lamas, camels, buffalo, zebras, emus, etc coming right up to us eating out of the feed buckets. It was pretty neat.