Ben

Ben is really staring to look like his Dad. I really noticed it in this picture today while I was going through them. Wow I can hardly believe it. Sorry I did not have a good picture of Bernie to compare. Maybe later.

Post wedding reception

In April a family friend got married and since he is currently stationed on Hawaii, and his new wife is from Hawaii they had the ceremony there. Now never mind that we were not invited, we have all gotten past that, but we were invited to the surprise reception here in Texas. Matt’s mom went all out for the Texas style Bar-B-Q for her new daughter-in-law. The newlywed’s acted surprised just for mom, since someone (Ben) spilled the beans. Apparently when I told him it was a surprise he tuned that out, oh well they did a good job at showing the surprise and made his mom very happy.

So there was Bar-B-Q, cake and remembering of old times. Or in his case just a few years ago times, since he’s not that old to be able to have old times. But life in the military does change ones perspective, so for now, we can give him at least one extra year of wisdom. Any more would be just too much, but I won’t go into that here.

I let Isabelle have her way with the camera and take some pictures of the guests, and I was very happy to see that I did not get a whole lot of knees in the shots. I did take over when it was time for cake and toasting, because we really did not want to have overly sharp or high angled shots, of people standing up, since she is just about too everyone tummy.

I think everyone had fun and we wish the happy couple a long and happy marriage.

YMCA Soccer

Another season of soccer has started, and the best thing about it is that Isabelle and Barrett are on the same team. I figure for a few years anyway, we will have that opportunity every once in a while. As usual it was pretty funny to watch the kids and see them “play.” They were very cute. No crying from either of our kids, but Bear did get bored and stopped wanting to play. I hope that changes, but who knows. I think this time they have too many people on the team and the rotation is not a quick as it can be. We still have some kinks to work out.

Isabelle is always very excited to get the ball and seemed pleased with the amount of ball time she had. She did demonstrate a new quality this past game, anyone who fell down on her team she would help them get back up. It was so cute, I wish I was a little bit faster and had gotten a chance to take a picture of her doing this, but alas I was challenged.

Bear was just Bear, he had his fun, going after the ball and kicking it. I know that he will have more fun once he figures it all out. He just needs to have a break away moment and he’ll be off. Or at least that is what I figure.


Most of the kids seemed to have fun and hopefully will return next week. Only time will tell on that one. So until then, I leave you with these messages from our sponsers.

Happiness

Now the items that I have picked for this weeks you capture are a little different and very much go for my state of mind at the time. First up is a beautiful squash flower from out garden. It just looks so happy in the early, gray morning that I could hardly pass up the opportunity to snap a quick photo.

This second picture is of my new washer. Yes that's right there is happiness in a washer. Our old one decided that it no longer wanted to work properly and rinse the clothes. I have a sneaking supscion that the laundry that was washed last weekend went unrinsed. Yikes. Now I mush also qualify this with the point of I did not really like my old washer and am very happy to have a new one. This makes washing diapers so much easier.

And third, I know we are supposed to get new pictures but I just had to include this one of Cooper from May. He just looks so happy you just want to squeze those cheeks and give this kid hugs and kisses all day long. I do often find myself doing just that.


So happy picutre taking, I hope you have fun.

Box Baby

Now I will be the first person to say that when my kids cry I do not usually run right for them and "baby" them, to find out what is wrong or what happened. I let the big kids come to me, usually and Cooper well I do get him, but rarely do I hurry.

So today while I was quickly checking e-mail or something (posting about Bear) on the computer Cooper crawls over and is trying to explore the wires. Well I tried to make it harder for him to get back to the wires by placing boxes (empty) and my scrapbooking bag in front of said boxes to deter the kid. Well that was just not enough to stop this one from checking things out. But instead of getting the wires, thankfully, he ends up stuck in the box.

What have I done? How do I get out of here?

That's right he had climbed in and gotten himself stuck. Now I obviously was not very far away from him so there was really no need to run, (read justification for not doing so) but upon seeing his condition I laughed first and then picked up my camera. Who could pass this moment up without a few quick pictures for his book.

There's Mom she'll get me out

What am I going to do with this kid. He is already getting into everything. Do you think he will grow out of this phase before he turns one or two? Will I have more of this to look forward to? I guess it is just he curious nature, but really he might give me a good run for my money, more so than Bear.

Wait I thougt you were going to get me out

Sleeping Danger

There is much danger sleeping with a three year old. Now I just want to say that I do not actually invite this three year old to sleep with me he just shows up, uninvited and climbs into bed. How rude! Now if I was a diligent parent I would get up when he comes down and take him back to bed. But I'm not, I actually do not remember when he even came down last night, I just remember the pain. Yes that's right the pain. I'm sure that I was either kicked, elbowed or hit no less than fifteen (15) times last night. I have now decided that I am going to try no matter what to get rid of my bed hog and put him back in his room, or at least on the floor. I went to bed at a decent hour and would have gotten great sleep but no because of a wiggly, kicking, hitting three year old, I am tired. Not fun!

Strange things growing

With all the rain that has come down over the past week, things have been growing. And I do not just mean in the garden. We have this one spot in our yard where mushrooms grow, the kids think they are great, Mommy does not. Today I decided I should take a picture of these mushrooms because they were so big. I could hardly believe it! You could almost put a little fairy underneath the mushroom.

So then I thought I should take a few pictures of the garden. We planted our fall garden in two spots. Most of the greens are in the garden bed, while the tomato plants are in five (5) gallon buckets in the back yard. We planted everything from plants except for the spinach, which is finally coming up. Ben was worried that we had some bad seeds but at last we have I think about eight (8) plants. I’m pretty excited because we really like spinach and so do the kids.

We also have lettuce, Swiss chard, greens and Broccoli and winter squash. Although I think the bunny has been eating my broccoli, I’ll have to have Ben put an end to that and move the bunny to a new home. Our Cherry tomato plant is going wild, but we have tons of flowers and some fruit already growing on it, so hopefully we will have lots of cherry tomatoes in the fall. I can hardly wait to see what happens and how much we yield from our fall garden.

I also hope to break up some garlic and pop it in the ground but we’ll have to wait and see. Some time in the New Year we will plant onion sets and probably a new set of lettuce, spinach and big tomatoes. One day we’ll have this down with wonderful crops.

Macro Shots without the lens

Well this weeks You Capture is Macro. Now I don't have a macro lens, but would love to get one, some of the best flower shots I think are done with a macro lens, they can just capture the beauty and detail of the item so well. But I did do my best with this picture and I think it looks pretty good, but I took it so I guess I would like it. I hope you enjoy.

Modern Art

Yesterday, the kids and I headed over to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, also known as The Modern. I know Forth Worth and modern art do not seem like two words that would go together. But alas they do. On Wednesday's they have a free day for the entire museum and they have also started a program called Wonderful Wednesday's for kids to attend. Wonderful Wednesday's is a program that starts at 4pm and includes an art project, held the second Wednesday of the month. This is why we went. I'm all for museum day when it is designed to be kid friendly. Couple of weeks ago we went to the Amon Carter for a kid and stroller friendly visit. Anyway, our journey took us through the works of William Kentridge and the Five Themes. He produced some movies of him creating art that were interesting. The stills he had were different. Do you read my meaning.

I feel that, modern art provides the artist and viewer a chance to explore their world outside of the standard box that society puts on people and open the world to something less than perfect. I had to remember this while Bear was tracing his project, that it did not have to be perfect, it can represent anything he wanted. I feel that artist who decide to create modern art can sometimes take this point a little to far. There are just some pieces I do not understand, and probably never will. They truly are in the eye of the beholder.

I think that it would take more time than what we had to visit the Modern to truly be able to contemplate the meaning or purpose of some pieces, but you can not always do that with three small children. Plus I'm not sure Ben would want to explore modern art, but who knows. I will say this one piece I really enjoyed was a ladder that was suspended from the ceiling and when you look up at it from the bottom it looks like it could go on forever, the perspective was fantastic, and I did like that is was not a straight ladder but wiggly. I wish I had brought my camera to take a picture of that one, but I'm not sure I would have been able to do it justice.

Until another day, when I have more time for contemplation, the Modern will just have to wait. But I'm certain that not all of the artist are in a stable frame of mind while creating their works. Just a little trippy. Oh yea, Isabelle really enjoyed this museum and I asked if it was because of the art or project and she said project, go figure.

Something New

For this week You Capture, I have decided to post pictures of the fireworks and the sun rise. I was going to post pictures of the kids at the beach but felt people had probably seen enough of that. I do hope you enjoy. If I had more skills I would have combinded these shots to make a much more amazing fireworks display, maybe later.

Labor Day Beach

Over Labor Day weekend, this year we chose not to labor and instead relax by the beach. Now some of you know that I grew up in California, so the beach in Texas is very different than those we went to as kids. Oh well, the kids had so much fun playing at the beach and swimming it made it worth the trip. Let me tell you, Texas is big. I knew this already but seriously when traveling with three small children you really want to get to where you are going in a timely fashion. Once we got the directions all worked out, on our way down, we finally arrived, only a couple of hours later than our originally intended time.

All of the kids loved the beach. I have three water loving children who can hardly wait to go again. Barrett and Isabelle did really well on the car ride down and were very patient with us about not having all of the correct information. But once we arrived, we quickly changed our clothes and were off to the water. The first day was a day of exploration and fun.

Since this is a beach in Texas, you can walk out from shore I would say, three or four hundred yards before not being able to touch. Plus there is no worry that a giant wave is going to crash on your head, since the waves are not even two feet high. The waves off the gulf are perfect for the kids to ride in on bogie boards, if you give them a little push. And of course we must not forget that the ocean is salty. I do not think I will have to salt my food for about a week.

One of the best parts was the adult fun. My cousin has a kayak that we all took turns on, that was so much fun. I really enjoyed that. Ben had so much fun that he dumped himself out a couple of times and he even dumped out Bear. Bear did is usual Bear thing and was quite happy with his fun time in the kayak and wanted to go again.

Isabelle was really entranced with finding shells and discovering ocean life. We found a mollusk that would come out of its shell and “crawl” around in Isabelle’s bucket that was pretty cool. Plus the little sand crabs that burrow into the sand after the water has receded were very entertaining.

Over all we had a great weekend and I finally got some fireworks pictures. So much fun!

Park Fun

Cooper is a kid on the move and Isabelle loves to help him out. She is such a great big sister. The kids wanted to play at the park today so before lunch we made our way over to the little neighborhood park and played for a little bit. Cooper did not want to sit still in the sling, but crawl around and do what the big kids were doing. It was too cute, and he had so much fun. Isa and Bear had a blast too, and did not want to leave, but their hungry tummy’s had another idea.

Old Signs

This week I thought I would get my shots in fast. After driving around for a little while I found a few old signs but nothing really to write home about. Here are two that made the cut.

Off to Preschool

The first day of school has finally arrived. Both big kids, Isabelle and Barrett, are going to school three days per week from 9-2:30p. Cooper says he's ready to go, but I think I'll keep him at home a little longer. Whatever am I going to do with myself? Cooper, I think will be lost with out his playmates. But somehow we will make it on our own. Just to show you how cute they look going to school and how much crap they have to take with them I of course took some pictures, imagine that. Each day they have to take to school and bring home, a school bag, lunch box and nap mat. Since I do not believe in carrying my children’s items for them they have to be able to carry everything themselves. Day one so far so good, we’ll see how coming home works out.

Just an update on Cooper he is doing great. We have been doing as the dentist instructed and his teeth seem less wiggly. We did go to the office to have him checked out and the dentist said that everything looks good so far, we just have to wait and see if they grab hold back in the gums. But if one happens to be dangling we should just pull it. We will check back with the dentist in a week to see how he is doing.

The teeth accident

This morning has been full of all sorts of craziness. Cooper was playing with one of those pre-walker toys that the kids can stand behind and push around. He really thinks he wants to walk, but does not get very far before he has to go down to his knees and scoot back closer.

Well he was, as babies are known to do, chewing on the steering wheel on front and it has three little triangles. Well one triangle is a little bit bigger than the others and Cooper got a little bit stuck. I heard him cry, I was folding laundry, and walked in to help him out. I was less than two steps away and he got free, which upset him. I proceeded to pick him up and do the usually, he just shake it off. Then I saw the blood.

Which if your kid has ever had a mouth injury before there is a lot of blood, so I check the outside of his mouth quickly, grabbed a wipe and then I noticed that his teeth were all most flat out from his gums. Not a pretty sight and for such young teeth very scary. This is when I started to get worried, I pushed his teeth back as much as I dared and then started to make phone calls.

And of course since I have a crummy phone I had to charge it because it did not have a charge. I called Penny first and left her a message to see if she would come sit with the older two if I had to go anywhere with Cooper. Then I called Ben, he had to work, and told him what happened and to get advise as to who I should call next the Dentist or head to the Emergency room. Well we settled on the Dentist. I had to wait through the entire message before getting the emergency number and then I called that line. I had to leave a message which was ok because I had some more phone calls to make. I was supposed to work in the nursery at church today and since it was about 8:30a I called for a replacement. Fortunately I know one person, Angie, pretty well and she helped me out. Thanks so much I’m not sure I would have made it at the nursery for two hours with Cooper at home with Ben or Penny. I am so grateful.

Penny had called back and said she would be on her way. I again called the Dentist and had a chance to talk to his wife, because he was away at the grocery store. We chatted and talked about our options and made the decision not to take him to the Emergency Room and she would call her husband to see what we should do. I jumped into the shower, I’m pretty sure I smelled funny, and went as fast as possible. She called back and the Dentist decided that we should try to make sure they teeth could settle back into the gums by hold the front and back gums together. Cooper is not a big fan of this or anyone really touching his mouth at the moment. Completely understandable since I would imagine it hurts.

Well this turned out to be a two person job so I had to wait for Ben to get home to help me. Then I also had to wait for Penny to get here with the Infant Tylenol, since I did not have any; a wonder since I have an infant, but we do not do shots so I have not had a need for any. Once we had him drugged up we pushed his gums together for the first time and he cried a lot but was then ready for bed. Everything so far has been pretty good, he is still nursing well, and sucks his thumb well so no worries there. He ate solids well and seems to be doing ok. I do not feel that his teeth are moving around too much, but I still think I will see about getting him into the Dentist on Monday while the kids are at school. I will try to keep you updated on his little teeth condition, and hopefully it will not be as long as this post.

Pictures of Food

Ok, so here is the long and short of it. My friend Anjie found this great blog, cleverly titled I Should be Folding Laundry, where you are challenged to get out there and use your camera. Now some of you are thinking does Allison really need this challenge and I say yes.

So this week the topic is food. I thought how great would it be to go to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Dallas and take pictures of the fresh produce available. That was my subject, now I wanted to go with Ben just to get is take on what we should buy and then I would take my pictures. This also meant going on Saturday. Well he came home on Thursday and said he had to work all weekend so there went his visit to the Market. I already had plans for Friday so I could not go earlier. Anyway, the kids and I went on Saturday and here is the result of our much awaited trip to the Farmer’s Market. Maybe next weeks pictures will not take so long to get up.

Merit based pay

I have never hidden my feeling regarding the public school system in Texas; in most areas I think it is a joke. And those feelings have led me to consider home schooling my children because I feel that the public school system does a disservice to the students because there is too much pressure on test results.

Standardized testing is a necessary evil of the public school system, and a factor that colleges refer to when accepting incoming freshman students. Now Texas has pushed it one step further by rewarding teachers for improved test scores on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test and other factors.

Ultimately it is up to each district who is involved in the program to award the monies distributed to its teachers. And by the way it sounds; everyone could get a bonus if the test scores improve. So instead of actually improving the education, the students are just learning to memorize information that they will be tested on and can regurgitate the information to help increase the over all scores in the area. That to me does not translate to a better education but teaching students how to take tests and forget what they learned.

In my opinion merit based pay should be based on the teachers’ ability to teach the subject and engage the students. After all I think there are those people who teach just so they can have the summer off, and could really care less about what they are doing and whether or not their students learn anything. That does a horrible disservice to students across the board and later in life.

How much is this “bonus” actually going to change how a teach approaches a subject, if they are only getting a one time bonus of $1,000 or a little bit more? Is that worth it to those teachers who fit the criteria and qualify for the program? What amount would get a teacher to change? After all if a regular employee at company XYZ put in the minimal effort and the company overall did better, would the CEO want to award a bonus to that individual for their lack of effort? I do not think so.

Let’s start to improve out educational system by hiring teachers who care about teaching and having the students learn to further enrich their lives. Teachers who want to see the students succeed and continue on in their education to a college level or beyond. Standard tests do not make the entire student as a whole, and are not always the best gauge at a student’s ability. Many other factors are involved and educators across the board should consider this when planning the education of future generations.

The Crawl

At long last Cooper has gotten off his tummy and is crawling on his hands and knees. No more cleaning mommy's floor with his belly. I am very excited, I think he is too.

Stairs

No he has not started to crawl but he has started to climb the stairs. I think my future looks very "Bear like." And here I was hoping for a calm and easy going baby. Who knows maybe after he has conquered everything he will calm down. So that should give me a break when he is about 85.

My little Jackson Pollock

Yesterday I let the kids paint the morning away. Which is always fun, because they just love it and I get to see the changes they make in their artistic skills. Isabelle made some very interesting pieces which she of course must explain as she paints each step. I really enjoyed her Jackson Pollock interpretation, except that we were painting inside and the flinging of paint went a little far. She even did a partial Frieda Kahlo painting, very interesting.