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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Progress on the Yard

I should have taken BEFORE pictures but I had a stupid so you'll just have to imagine the back yard FULL of thigh high weeds and the front yard completely barren except for the occasional weed... I've been busy lately.

This is the start of my bed of roses. That bush in the rear was practically dead by the front door when we bought the house. I transplanted it last year and got it to bloom for the first time. This year its looking even better. And the miniature rose in front is new this month.


I want to have rose bushes going all the way down that brick wall. The row of stones marks the lines of the lawn I'm hoping to seed by the end of the week.

I love that tree. Its a Texas Mountain Laurel and has the most wonderful smelling big clumps of purple flowers!


We have on going fantasies that the side of the yard there might one day be the home of a swing set or something equally exciting.


And over here I'd love to put in some raised veggie garden beds.


Managed to get this all cleaned out. I hate looking out the window at bare fence tho. Someday I hope to grow some sort of pretty flowering vines up the fence opposite the windows. :)


You get a second shot here b/c the 1st one didn't show the bricks well. Those edge bricks used to be like falling off w/ and inch or two of weeds between them and the rest of the patio. I fixed it!


The Front yard. I just planted all the cacti/succulents yesterday!


I love my little Palo Verde trees! They're a thornless hybrid which is a big plus. I hate HATE hate the grey rock tho. Someday I have fantasies of replacing it w/ something prettier. I think a nice sandy colored gravel would look good. I'd also love to run a sand stone path from the side walk to the porch...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

To Fly With A Baby

I had a Facebook friend ask the world for advice on flying w/ her 13 month old. And I discovered I had quite a lot of advice to give, so I thought I'd expand it a  bit and make a blog post out of it for posterity.

I've flown with Caleb a dozen times now. I take a backpack (my laptop, meds, jewelry, and a book for me, lipgloss, a change of clothes for me AND him and my wallet) and a diaper bag and my full size stroller. I check the car seat in w/ my bags and take the stroller with me to the gate and then gate check it when I board. You'll need to get a gate check tag from the gate people when you get down there.

If you wanna bring any milk/water/formula/baby food through security the phrase you need to get past TSA is "Nursery Water" for water or "its for the baby". Fair warning they are liable to want to open ALL of it and check it so make sure you have ziplock bags b/c one time they made me open sealed baby food jars and then they came open in my diaper bag and I was NOT a happy person.

Also they will want you to take off the kids shoes when they make you take yours off to go through the scanners. And it will save time if you put all the food stuff you can in one or two gallon sized ziplocks so when you put the diaper bag in a bin to go through the scanners, pull that bag out and put it in the side of the same bin and they're less liable to FREAK on you than if they find it on the scanners.

I recommend like one or two FAVORITE toys and then get some new stuff. Books he hasn't seen before or coloring books, I swear by my mini magnadoodle thing I got for 5 bucks at walmart. You NEED to keep him sucking on the way up and the way down. I've done pacifiers, my fingers, sippy cups, crackers, ANYTHING. Otherwise the kid will SCREAM. A sweet treat he doesn't usually get can save you.

I also like to do a diaper change just before we board. Time it for about 40 mins before take off and you should be good. Diaper changes ON the plane are NO fun.

Also I tend to let the kid run around as much as he wants while we're sitting waiting at the gate because once we're on the plane I'm going to NEED him to sit still so I like him to get the wiggles out while he can. Otherwise just try your hardest to be calm and happy and super affectionate and that will help him to keep it cool. They need to wiggle so bouncing, rocking, letting him stand up on your lap and sing songs in public even will help keep him happy.

I know this is LONG but I always have people compliment me on how good he was during the flight and its taken me a bit to figure ALL of this out so I thought I'd share.

One final anecdote - there is ALWAYS one kid in the back of the plane who screams their little lungs out the whole damn flight. One time I had this person RIGHT behind me so I was able to hear what was going on. By the end of it I desperately wanted to smack her mother. The little girl was 2 and her Mom was completely unreasonable in her expectations for the child. Her expectations were appropriate for say a 5 year old, but telling a 2 year old not to fidget and to sit perfectly still in her car seat is not a reasonable expectation.

Yes she does have to stay in her car seat during take off and landing, but otherwise if she can sit in Mom's lap or climb over to Dad's lap and stand up and take a look around the plane she's gonna be happy, and most importantly QUIET than if you try to keep her strapped in that seat, with NOTHING to do for 3 hours and tell her she's not even allowed to kick her feet. The Mom kept complaining to the Dad, "OMG Shes just being SO unreasonable!" And I was thinking "Of COURSE she's unreasonable, she's TWO. Its your job to help her get the wiggles out in a safe, appropriate way.

The plane is something new and different and exciting. They're going to want to cling to you and get a look around and heck they're gonna want to explore this new place, and while that last one isn't so much doable you can at least let them stand up and take a peek.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Caleb at 21 Months

He's growing so fast and he's so smart it takes my breath away.

Caleb is developing socially. He loves other little kids and is developing absolutely adorable little friendships with the other little kids in nursery at church. They are all excited to see each other and give each other hugs to say hello. I'm told he plays well with others and is a delight to have in class.

He's also inventing his own words for things. In spite of all my attempts to teach him the words "More", "food", "drink", "bite", "milk" etc, he has decided that the correct word for any and all of the above is "Guhk". If he wants a bite, if he wants a drink, if he likes it and wants more the correct way to ask is "Guhk!". Good to know.

And while Caleb LOVES to play with other people (grown ups, kids or animals) he will happily play by himself for extended periods of time. He sings little songs and laughs and talks. He likes to crawl up in the rocking chair and rock himself while he reads books to himself.

He loves to watch his cartoons in the morning while he drinks his morning sippy. We watch PBS Kids and his favorites are "Super Why!", "Dinosaur Train", "Sid the Science Kid" and "Word World". He's fascinated and loves to sing along and try to help out and participate in the shows. Its friggin adorable to watch.

Mr. Caleb is also learning his letters. He can point out and clearly say A, I, O, T, G, N, D. He LOVES kitties and puppies and will happily point to pictures or videos or the actual animals and he'll shout "Meow!" or "Woof!" or "Kitty!" or "Goggie!" as is appropriate.

Caleb is an adventuresome eater with a wide palate. He hasn't met a fruit he doesn't like and he'll eat most veggies. It can be a challenge sometimes to get him to eat meat but he's a serious cheese eater. And he's definitely got his fathers sweet tooth. So its a good thing he doesn't get them often because once he does identify something as sweet there is no rest until he either gets it or it mysteriously disappears. Scarcity is our friend is this case.

Mr. KB is so super affectionate. He'll come running to throw his arms around me. He gives kisses and cuddles and hugs. He'll blow kisses from across the room and he loves to cuddle and read books or sing songs. He is truly a delightful child and I am so honored and grateful to be his Mom. He is my sunshine boy and he couldn't get more wonderful.