Living in Munchkinland

On Saturday we cleaned the house and cooked a lunch and then packed up the car to drive up to Lake Travis. We were going to spend the night with my sister and her family! The kids were so excited to have a sleep over with their cousin. Michael and I were looking forward to spending quality time with our family at the lake. We had a great time playing and chatting on the patio. After a while, we took a boat ride over their club and had dinner at a great open air restaurant. Near the restaurant was a pirate ship the kids could play on and they had a wood-burning pizza oven. Yum. We had wine and pizzas and cookies and enjoyed the evening thoroughly. Then we boated back and put the kids to bed super late. I loved our evening so much. When we woke up in the morning, the Easter bunny had come and left Easter eggs outside. The boys and their cousin had an egg hunt and then collapsed on the couch and played video games while we all collapsed on the porch with our books and some mim...

We had a great Easter weekend. The kids had Friday and Monday off for Easter weekend. On Friday we dyed easter eggs, baked carrot cupcakes, watched Tangled and went for a swim. That evening a new sitter came over and Michael and I headed over to my parents' house for a night of karaoke. My parents recently bought a karaoke machine and we had a little stock-the-karaoke party with a few friends to break it in. We had a great time. We had booze and snack and everybody sang. It was so fun because all of our friends can really sing! It was a wonderful night and one that I hope we will repeat again soon and often.

We found out about eight years ago. They think my dad started showing symptoms in his early fifties. Mom and Dad gathered the family and we all sat in their living room and were given the news. My dad's mom had also had Alzheimer's and we had intimate knowledge of the disease. My dad has early-onset disease, though so his is different. Michael and I decided to go ahead and have babies right away so that they would get a chance to know their grandfather. It still wasn't truly real though. You see, my dad is brilliant. Truly brilliant. Back when my mom was getting her masters in counseling, she gave him an IQ test and he tested as a genius. His vocabulary was unbelievable. He used to tuck me in at night and wish me sweet adventures in the realms of Morpheus. This extensive vocabulary and brilliance in general help him function through alzheimers. When he loses a word, he has plenty others in reserve. He didn't study for the bar after law school. He was supposed...

We had another ranch fire this weekend. My mom called us as we were leaving a birthday party in New Braunfels to tell us we had a fire on the ranch. We rushed home, but by the time we got there, the firemen had it under control. Luckily, this fire was much smaller than the last one we had almost three years ago. We are in a drought and had really strong winds on Saturday. Five different fire departments arrived and fought the blaze. Sunday morning as we fished down at the pond, our ranch hand pulled up to tell us the fire had started burning again. We had a few minutes of worry, but the fire department came out again and put it out again. Davis was the most worried, but after he ran home as fast as he could and grabbed his lovie and Sam's baby, he seemed to calm down. Pray for us to get some rain okay? We can't be having fires like this all the time. It's hard on the cows, the nerves and my babies.

I am not a picky eater. I love food and I love trying new foods. You never know what amazing taste might be around the corner unless you try something new. It's exciting and fun and a big part of my life. My biggest pet peeve in the world is someone who refuses to try a new food. So you'll understand that I faced a battle when I had children. When I had babies I made sure to give them all the savory foods first instead of sweets so I wouldn't unbalance their palate. I offered a wide range of foods and very rarely allowed empty, processed carbs on their plates. I'll admit it here, I'm a food nazi. I wanted only healthy things to go in their bodies and I wanted them to learn to like lots of different foods. But I still catered to them. They got whole grain, baked chicken nuggets and carrot sticks and apple slices, but it was still a separate meal than the one I prepared for the grown-ups and it was suited to their little kid taste buds. I was still cookin...

I have always loved my mother's hands. When I was little they were so familiar to me. The way they felt, the way the looked. I would look down at my own chubby pink fingers and be amazed at how different mine were from hers. My mothers hands were worn a bit. They were lean. I could see the veins on the backs of her hands. They were tan. They were strong. I loved it when she took my hand into hers or stroked my cheek and hair. I always felt so safe and secure. The other day I looked down at my own hands and saw my mother's hands. The mental picture I always carried around in my head of her hands now matches what I see in front of me. I have grown into her hands. I love this. It makes any irritation about the aging of my body, the angst over the sagging skin and age marks and wrinkles, all of it- disappear. I have my mother's hands. I only hope that my hands give my children as much comfort and safety as my mother's gave to me.

Here are a few pictures of the Davis celebrating his birthday on the actual day. There wasn't a rock band that day, but it was still fun. I also wanted to report on my sweet boy. We are really enjoying him these days. He has endless questions about the world around him, especially in the car. (Isn't that the best time to talk to kids? I try to be patient and answer them.) He loves anything "classic". He loves steam trains and classic cars and old fighter planes from WW1 and WW2. Davis takes gymnastics and rides his bike and roller skates around the house and swims like a fish. He is a boy who loves to move and is good at it. Davis has a strong work ethic and a long attention span. He loves to be read to for as long as you are willing. He is a good student at school and gets along well with others. Davis is outgoing and super-social. He's sensitive to what is going on around him and is very aware. He and Sam are still best friends, but he has a great group...

Thursday was Davis' real birthday. My first born turned six. They celebrated his day at school and he came home with a birthday corsage. I made cupcakes and he opened his presents from us and Mom and Dad and Uncle Larry came over and had cupcakes with him. He was very pleased. On Saturday we threw him a party. I meant it to be small. I was going to have the bouncy house we won in the silent auction at the CASA event and let him invite five friends. But then Michael's new daddy band, the "Pappy Hour", offered to play the party and things began to grow and grow. The birthday had a Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme and everyone dressed up as pirates. I downloaded invitations off of the disney website and mailed them in blue and green envelopes. Then I went online and bought a bunch of gold doubloons, fake jewels, and pirate tattoos. We held the party on our back patio. The weather was a bit drizzly in the morning and I was nervous, but the sun came out and it...