Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Story

This is not a Wyatt story. Its not a Katie story. Its not even a Ben story. But its a cute one!

I'm sure you probably cannot read this newspaper article so I'll re-tell it and do my best not to completely plagiarize the original article ...

Once upon a time when my mom was just 4 years old, she was outside playing in her neighbor's yard and found a small bird that had fallen from its nest. Naturally, she went and found a shoebox to put the bird in for safe keeping while trying to figure out a way to get this bird back into its nest. She eventually convinced her father (my grandfather) that he needed to climb up into the tree and put the bird back in its home. My grandfather worked for the city electric company and climbed power poles for a living, so scaling a tree wasn't really a big deal to him. Grandaddy climbed up in the elm tree and Mom was of course right under the tree watching to make sure the bird was safely returned to the nest. Grandaddy was about 14 feet up in the tree a limb he was standing on snapped and he came tumbling down. Because Mom was standing right underneath the tree, he landed on top of her leg and of course broke it. As soon as he realized what had happened, he picked up my mom and headed to put her in the car to take her to the hospital. When he picked her up he realized that he had also broken his arm in the fall so he couldn't even drive her to the hospital! Luckily, my Grandmother was right there and able to drive both of them to get casts put on!

This story was printed in the local newspaper a few days after it happened. It comes to mind now because that same newspaper does a Memory Lane segment from time to time and re-prints articles from way back in the day. This particular article was re-printed this past summer and I just came across it earlier today. (I already knew the story but it was fun to hear it again)

Now at the risk of being too cheesy (If you know me you know that i just don't "do" feelings or emotions. Unless that emotion is pissed off. Well, nevermind.) I just have to point out how typical this is of my mom AND my grandfather -- Mom is a fixer by nature. She goes to any and every extreme to make sure others are taken care of. She isn't out rescuing birds these days but she certainly over-extends herself for family and friends. Some people are talkers and some are doers. Grandaddy is a doer - he has always been very active and loves undertaking little 'projects' .... always has been very active and looks for little 'projects' to undertake. Anyway, this story may be of little interest to anyone else but I think its fun to hear old family stories!

** I just realized that this article tells the year and my Mom's age at the time. So basically I've just announced to the tens of people who read my blog how old she is. Sorry, Mom! You're hip and with it and don't really care about these old traditions such as "never tell your age", right?!?

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day Weekend

Some of the highlights from our Labor Day weekend ....

We visited with GrandMeme and GrandPapa! Ellie and Wyatt had such a great time at their house and my grandparents enjoyed spending a little time with both kiddos.
We took several Kubota rides. This is one of Ellie's favorite things at the lake and Wyatt usually gets to ride along too!
Wyatt rode the fake deer with Ellie. Ellie usually asks her Papa for a ride on the 'bota' and one day they discovered these fake deer in a neighbor's yard. For a while she would just ask to get out and pet the deer and now she's started asking to ride them. Luckily the neighbors are nice and don't mind Dad taking Ellie up to the deer several times a day. (Or maybe they don't notice) I was riding with them and decided that if Ellie was going to ride the deer, Wyatt was going to do it too!
Wyatt doesn't look too impressed, does he? ha!

Ben did go on a little fishing excursion on Saturday morning but due to the cool front the fish were not biting. As Bill Dance splained' to us, when fish sense a cold front coming in they eat a lot the day prior then once it hits they quit biting for a few days. So, no fish for Benny this weekend ... sad panda :(

Wyatt had his very first boat ride this weekend!!! This isn't a great picture, but we did have to document the occasion. He was asleep in the boat when we decided to go, slept the whole time while I was putting his life jacket on and slept for the whole ride. So I guess he enjoyed it!
When we got back to the dock, Wyatt woke up and Mom took this which is one of my most favorite pictures of him ever. (Although I will admit that I have A LOT of "most favorite pictures" of Wyatt)

Ellie doesn't understand why sometimes she can't get Wyatt's attention by calling his name so she resorts to grabbing his face and trying to turn it toward her! I'm pretty sure that is what she is attempting to do in this picture.

Wyatt and I enjoying a little boat nap. The weather was so great -- in the shade it was almost cool so lying in the boat under the shade of the dock was a perfect napping spot!

We worked hard to get a picture of both kiddos smiling. I think we took about 31,217 pictures before getting this one which isn't perfect but it works!

I'll leave you with one last picture of the little monkey. He's usually very generous with his smiles but I was having a hard time getting one out of him during this photo session. Its like the kid knows when I want him to perform!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Big Boy!!!

Not much to say today, but I just wanted to share these pictures of my baby acting like a big boy!!

Wyatt is doing so much better with tummy time - he's holding his head up higher and for longer periods of time. Quite a change from the days of him just laying down and sucking on his hand! He can roll over but doesn't always care to. I've found he rolls better when he isn't on his play mat and is just on a regular blanket on the floor with a few toys there to motivate him.
He is starting to slide down too far in his bouncer seat, so I can't really trust him in there anymore unless someone is sitting right next to him to make sure he doesn't fall out. Soooo, I decided it was high time to put his highchair together. We've put him in it a few times and he does okay in it. I think it will get better though once we introduce solids in a month or so!!