Dalhart

I know, I know - for the three people that follow this blog - I'm way, way, way behind.  I don't even really have a great excuse, so I'll just try to catch up as best I can.  :)

We took a trip at the end of May/beginning of June to Dalhart. Here are pic highlights from our trip!   I have some pretty cute nephews and kiddos!

We had a "girls' weekend" in Dalhart, where my sister-in-law lives now.  All the Zens cousins were there, and the kids had a lot of fun.  Daniel was, literally, ready to move to Dalhart.  They had a gorgeous park within walking distance from their house and they had another really neat park that we went to one day.  We enjoyed a lot of time in Henry's sandbox too.  I'm not sure that Daniel really left that box for most of that weekend.  Good thing my sister-in-law had a really nice shaded backyard!  There was also a doll stroller for Katie to push Robin (her doll) around in.  She loved that.  She also really loved the slide at the playground and would go down and then immediately do the sign for "again."  Daniel and Bryson got along well most of the time.  Catherine and Henry didn't pay much attention to anyone.  :)  

The trip definitely had a few bumps in it with Catherine waking up a lot at night (and then, in turn, waking up everyone else sleeping in the room) and the long, long, long road from Abilene to Dalhart.  I think it took us about 5.75 hours.  There was one point that I thought I should just pull over and re-settle our family in Plainview, TX.

Trash Man

I guess I've never posted anything about Daniel's obsession with picking up trash.  If you've seen him within the last six months, you already know this, but if not, you should know that his obsession is so strong that my brother nicknamed him Eco Dan.

The kid picks up trash almost everyday. He has (literally) picked up at least 6 huge trash bags full from around our neighborhood.  A neighbor paid him a dollar the other day for his good work.  He picks up trash when we go to the park.  He picks up trash with the babysitter.  He picks up trash when he goes on bike rides.

He wants to be a "city pick up trasher" when he grows up.  When we're driving, his most frequent question is, "Why do so many people litter?"  He has grand visions of creating a flyer soon to hand out to all the neighbors telling them not to litter.

The funny thing is that if you ask him, he'll tell you that he doesn't actually enjoy picking up trash, but that it's his job.

Growing Tall by Eating Veggies

At dinner tonight:
Daniel: Mommy, how old are you?
Me: 31.
Daniel: How old is Grandma Fox?
Me: 94.
Daniel: Whoa! How tall is she?
(He still thinks age and height are equated.)
Me: Not very tall.
Daniel: She must not like broccoli!

Soccer Champ

Daniel finished his last game of soccer this Saturday.  He played really well and made so much progress this year!  When we started out, he was pretty terrible - almost embarrassingly bad.  The ball would land right in front of his feet, and he wouldn't do anything!  It's not that he was so terrible in terms of athletics, but he just didn't focus on the game at all.  He was busy trying to socialize or pick up trash on the field.   Over the course of the season though, he's really gotten pretty good!  He wasn't afraid to get in there and steal the ball from the other team, and he didn't cry when he got knocked down several times.  He even scored 5 goals for the season and his team went 8-0.  He really enjoyed playing and I think he'll want to do it again next season. I loved seeing him do something new and watching him progress over the season.

Future Comedian

Not long ago David taught Daniel a joke:
Why can't you hear a pterodactyl pee?
Because the "p" is silent!

Daniel has a new take on it:
Why can't you hear play doh pee?
Because the "h" is silent!

Catherine's 15 Month Update

Catherine turned 15 months old on April 9th.  She had a check-up last week and weighed in at 19 lbs., 13 oz. (8.69%ile) and measured 30.5" in length (52.36%ile).  She's grown a lot!  She's a sweet girl that likes to be silly.  She does goofy things like picking up things (blocks, clothes, etc.) with her mouth and bringing them to people.  She loves to be tickled and enjoys any physical kind of play.  She likes books now, but she's particular about which ones she'll read.  She still won't sit still for very long periods of time and is typically running around the house, creating one mess after another.  She loves to be outside and could spend quite a bit of time picking up the pebbles in front of our house and loading them into almost anything.  She wants to do everything that Daniel does and throws fits when she can't do things like ride his bike.  She's a little fussy with her eating, but she definitely enjoys eating and can put some food away!  Her favorite foods are bananas, cuties, peanut butter, oatmeal, green beans (with butter), broccoli (with cheese), carrots, and Asian food.  She really dislikes beans (of all kinds) and many other random veggies I try to get her to eat.  She doesn't say too many words yet, but she communicates fairly well with grunts, screams, gestures, and pointing.  She understands a lot of words and will follow directions fairly well.  She can also make quite a few animal sounds.  Her most recent additions are squirrel and snake.  :)  She's a tough girl and seems to always have some sort of bruise or cut on her face because she takes quite a few tumbles in her many adventures. 

A cardiology update: She saw her cardiologist on March 21st.  They did another echocardiogram and her VSD has not closed.  The doctor said that it's "close to moderate" in size and he doesn't see it trending toward closing.  He predicts that it won't close on its own and that we'll have to do some sort of surgery to close it.  Like my pediatrician reminded me though, "he's not God."  So....we'll see....for right now, we're just waiting.  She won't go back to the cardiologist until next March. 

I Smell Lies and Candy

So the Tuesday following Easter, Daniel was in his room doing his chores (making his bed, folding his pjs, etc.). He was in there quite awhile, but I'm busy, and I didn't make much of it..... He came out awhile later and was acting a little strange, just giggling and goofy. He got close to me, and I realized that he smelled like peanut butter. Our conversation went like this: Me: Why do you smell like peanut butter? Daniel: I don't know! Me: What did you eat with peanut butter? Daniel (with a sad look on his face): Candy. Me: One of the Reese's candies? Daniel: Yes. Me: That whole big Reese's egg in the yellow wrapper or a little tiny one? Daniel: The whole big egg. Me: Is that all you ate? Daniel: Yes. Me: Are you sure? Daniel: Yes. Me (sighing): OK, Daniel. You're not going to get any more sweets today because you've already eaten one. You know you're supposed to ask before you have sweets. Daniel: OK. Not five minutes later, we're in his room doing something, and I see, sticking out from under his bed, candy wrappers. Lots of candy wrappers. As in 8 candy wrappers. That child ate 3 Snickers, 4 Reese's peanut butter cups, 1 Reese's peanut butter egg, and a marshmallow bunny. When questioned, he promised that that was the whole stash. Then I proceeded to look on the other side of the bed, and I found two more Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers. That brings the grand total to ten pieces of candy in one day, as well as two big fat lies.