One of Jack’s favorite passtimes lately has been listening to music.  He listens to the CD player by his bed as he’s having rest time in the afternoons, he listens to all his favorite Selah songs in the car and he loves to put a CD in the computer and watch the “visualization” that Windows Media Player displays along with the music.  More than once, this has lulled him to sleep.

The big news this month is that Jack is finally a “big boy”! He started wearing underwear yesterday! My friend Sheila’s husband is a police officer and while Jack really likes him he is also rather intimidated by him. Steven extracted a promise from Jack that he would stop wearing diapers and use the potty. So yesterday I reminded Jack of what he had promised, told him it was his “Big Boy Day” and after some convincing, I persuaded him to put on some underwear. We made it a big celebration all day (we even got a Big Boy Day cake), and finally overcame his resistance to using the potty.  We are just at beginning of the process, but I’m so relieved that we’re at least making some progress!

Yesterday went went over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards with Mark’s brother who is in town on business.  This is the first time I’ve ever been there, despite having lived in this area for 14 years when I was younger.  We had a great afternoon shopping and eating, and then we went to the Rodeo in the evening.

There was a cowboy riding his steer around in front of the rodeo arena. He offered Jack a ride, which Jack firmly declined.

The steer proceeded to leave a big pile on the ground that had to be cleaned up. This is, I suppose, just all in a day’s work for this guy, but YUCK!

This is not a good picture, but it was the only one I managed to get of Mark and Jack in their cowboy hats.

I fail to understand why anyone would choose to participate in a rodeo. These guys get thrown around so much, I can only imagine what their backs must feel like when they get older.  I wonder if they look back and think, “why did I do that?”

“I’ve got a secret… Mom doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s just making it up as she goes along.”

When is this boy going to get some hair?!  He still has about what he was born with, except it’s mostly gone from his ears. Yes… he had hair on his ears. I was worried he was going to turn out like this guy, but thankfully no.

David rolled from his tummy to his back last week.  He’s consistently a puddle of drool and constantly chewing on his fist or whatever toy is handy, but no teeth have really come through yet. We’ve had our ups and downs with the sleeping, but these days he’s making it to 6:30am.  He has the sweetest disposition- we’re enjoying every minute with him!

I’m terrible about remembering to do “tummy time”, and with Jack, he would get frustrated immediately trying to lift that big bowling ball head he had. David is more patient, and even with very little time spent on his stomach, he got up on his elbows last night.

Jack has never really been as into cars as much as your average boy… until very recently.  Mark has always been a pack rat apparently, and he still has MANY of his toys from his childhood, among them two sets of tracks. We stopped at Mark’s parents on the way home from Ohio and brought them home with us, and Jack LOVES them, of course.

We also brought home a collection Mark’s dad has been working on for Jack since he was born I guess - a little suitcase full of 100 Hot Wheels cars. 100!

Jack did great on the car rides to and from Ohio, preferring to just sit and listen to music and watch the GPS rather than playing with toys much.  Who knew the GPS would have such entertainment value?

Just this week he has begun to give hints of no longer needing a nap, so we’re working on transitioning to “rest time”.  He’s still getting used to the idea that he doesn’t have to go to sleep if he doesn’t feel like it, but he must stay in his bed, playing with quiet toys or looking at books. Of course he usually ends up falling asleep after all, but not without a fight.

I’m not sure what happened during our time in Ohio, but since we’ve been back, Jack has begun to play on his own more frequently, much to my relief.

We’ve been working on moving from the nursery to “big church” and I really thought the transition would take months, given Jack’s inability to keep quiet for any extended period.  But, after only a couple of Sundays, and a few trips to the bathroom for some discipline, he made it all the way through church last Sunday! It was a bit like wrestling a bear all the way through church, and he whispered to me rather constantly, but he made it without disturbing anyone. We packed a bag of snacks and books to look at, paper to color on, etc. but in the end, the only way he could sit moderately still was if I was holding him.  Otherwise, he would try and stand on his head in his chair, or crawl under the chair in front of him.

I really appreciate the many ways the internet allows me to stay connected to my family so far away.  I’m always looking for new things that will help us feel “present” in each other’s lives, even though we’re not physically present. I love blogs for that reason, but that’s just not enough for me. I want to know the funny thing Emily just said, or what Mom & Dad are up to today. So, I’ve been working on Mom and Laura to start using Twitter. When Twitter first came on the scene I just didn’t get it.  The question it asks is “what are you doing?”, and you have 145 characters to say anything you like.  It’s great for those little things and thoughts you’re not going to send an email, IM or blog about, but that go on throughout your day.  There’s an extension for Firefox that I use, called Twitterfox, that makes it easy to keep up with people you’re following, so you don’t have to go to your Twitter page every time you want to post something or read the latest from others.  Many of my online colleagues use it, and one person has characterized Twitter as the “water cooler” of the internet. Particularly for those who work at home, it’s a nice place to hang out and chat, and keeps you from feeling so isolated.

Some of you reading this are thinking, “that sounds like a completely useless waste of time,” but if there are people you’re close to who live far away, or even people you’re just acquainted with who you’d enjoy keeping up with, it is a wonderful way to stay connected.

Along these same lines, I also have a “tumblelog“, where I’ve started putting in the funny little things Jack says, or new things David is doing.  It’s probably more information than most people want, but it’s great for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who are interested in the day to day little things that you miss when you don’t see them every day.  You can subscribe to tumblelogs in your reader, just like regular blogs.

One of best things about living where we live is the number of playgrounds there are. They are everywhere, and they clearly are an example of taxpayers’ dollars hard at work.  One of the playgrounds is so huge, it literally looks like they went to the manufacturer and said “we’ll take one of everything” - and it’s all hooked together into a giant maze of playground heaven.

Thanks to a nice mom I met at another playground, we recently discovered what has become our favorite destination- the Rocket Ship Playground:

Speaking of things to play with… David has found his feet!

David with his beautiful Aunt

Thank goodness God gives us children to help sanctify us.  Read the second half of this post.

David is a happy boy, with a sweet smile and giggle, and did great on our recent 20 hour drive to Ohio.  I was so relieved, because that’s a long time for anyone in the car.  He’s sleeping well- usually for at least 7 hours at night.  He’s starting to grab and bang on things, and definitely prefers to sit up rather than laying on a blanket.

I’ve been wanting a new camera for a LONG time.  It’s not that I didn’t love my Canon point and shoot, but I’d see pictures taken with a digital SLR, and kept wishing I had one.  I waited until the price came down to under $450 for the Nikon D40 and finally decided it was time to upgrade.  I haven’t had much time to play with it, but here are some pictures I took last week before and during our trip to the park.

Glad to see his cousin

Jack is a boy.  This is obvious, but I really have to keep reminding myself of this fact.  When he’s throwing himself around the living room banging into everything, climbing all over me and Mark until we can’t stand it anymore, banging everything, yelling, dumping a whole bucket of sand over his head, etc. I just have to remember he is a boy.  I am still getting used to the boy thing.  I didn’t have brothers and had no idea what it would be like.

I’m really enjoying him more and more the older he gets.  He says the funniest things, with such sincerity. About Todd of the group Selah, when seen in a video: “He doesn’t have any hair!  Well, he will have to go get some at the store.” I keep making the mistake of thinking that I’m communicating with a reasonable human being though. He acts so reasonable sometimes, it’s deceiving. But, he’s three and still prone to getting really upset about things like me cutting his muffin in half to cool it off.

Still finding anything to do with the potty totally hopeless.  I just have to let it go and stop talking about it until we can find a way to make it important to him.  I’d like to buy something he REALLY wants and putting it in sight but out of reach until he starts to use the potty.

We’re working hard on not using his “bossy voice” at playgrounds and when playing with friends.  It’s a hard lesson to learn, that he cannot control everything and everyone around him.  He gives the sun a terrible scolding when it shines in his eyes while in the car.  “Stop shining me!!!”

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.