Deep Breath In

A friendly hug outside Whole Foods

To say the least, I was conflicted about starting this last week.  Isaac underwent 10 sessions of brainwave optimization.  That in itself was exciting.  The office where we got the treatments done was clear on the other side of town.  The treatments were each 2 hours long and we were doing 2 a day with a 2 hour break in between.  Those were the things I wasn't looking forward to.  Deep breath in.

I was looking forward to Isaac getting the treatments and excited about the possibilities it held for him.  I wasn't looking forward to a 40 minute drive each morning, waiting in a waiting room for 4 hours total with my other two kids, and then driving back 40 minutes to get home.  But we (I) pulled it all together, gritted our (my) teeth, and "happily" went along with it.  Deep breath in.

In our van

Now, I won't drag it out.  I'll let you know right now that after the first 2 hours in the waiting room, I was politely told that my kids were too loud for this office's reception area and that I would have to find some place else to wait.  A really deep breath in.  Now, I won't deny that my kids made noise while we were there.  They're kids.  Duh.  But I will defend them and say that they were well behaved and getting along and making the best of being in a waiting area that definitely wasn't made with a single child in mind.  So where did we go from here?  Our van.  Yep, we spent 4 hours each day waiting in our car for Isaac to get his treatments.  Deep breath in...

On the flip-side, Isaac did really great.  He had a good time and behaved himself just fine while having the treatments done.  It's too soon to tell how well it will work for his bowels, but we can already tell a difference in his concentration, speech, and sleeping behaviors.  And chances are that we will see some results in the next 1 to 6 weeks.  

What do you think it is?

All things considered, it was a good week.  Our lunch breaks were spent at the dinosaur museum and Whole Foods.  We got to dig for dinosaurs and learn about malacology.  We played at the park and watched movies on the laptop.  We survived.  Deep breath out.

But the end of the story involved a broken water pump, smoke coming out of the hood of our van, a tow truck, a constable, and eventually a rented car.  Deep breath in...and hold...

Nursery Rhymes

We have really been impressed with Isaac lately.  His speech is getting clearer and his sentences are making so much sense.  We credit a lot of this to the little day school that he attends 3 time a week.  They have been working on recognizing letters and writing them.  They have recently started in on working with numbers.  Throughout the year they have been singing as well.  Turns out that Isaac really loves singing.  His choir teacher has noticed lately that he's "come out of his shell" and really started to belt out the notes.    To say the least, we're proud parents.

This past week Isaac's class has been working on the letter N and nursery rhymes.  I don't know about you, but I like nursery rhymes.  My favorite has to be "There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.  And when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid."  I guess it reminds me of someone I know.  Yesterday Isaac's class worked on "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon."  Well, I'll just show you what he learned.



He's something else, to say the least.  Thanks for watching and thanks for keeping up with us!  Feel free to tell us what your favorite nursery rhyme is!

The Terrific Twos

Merriam-Webster defines terrific as 1 a : very bad : frightful

That about sums up how I feel about my kids turning 2.  Every time it's been like a light switch.  As soon as they turn two, the tantrums start (or reach a culmination) and the flexing of the "independence muscle" begins.

This weekend, Annie turned two.  Yippee.  Let the good times roll.  Along with my eyes.

Now, terrific is also defined as 2 : extraordinary.

Now that sums up my general experience of being a mother to 3 terrific kids.  The past 5.5 years have been a blast.  We've had a lot of fun and we still have most of our hair (Well, I have all of mine.  Troy on the other hand...).  And we aren't done.  Not by a long shot.  Thinking about how extraordinary it is go through life this way puts a smile on my face.  Sometimes a crooked smile, but a smile nonetheless.

I think Merriam Webster saved the best definition for last.  3 : unusually fine : magnificent.

That perfectly sums up the last two years with my baby girl.  When I had my first boy, I was over the moon.  I didn't really want a girl.  Too much screaming over boy bands and too much drama.  I wanted a boy.  Seemed like they were low maintenance.  Then when we had our second boy, we were thrilled because we wanted brothers.  Life was good and I was still thinking that it wasn't necessary to have a girl.  But regardless of our wants or plans, we were blessed with our third child and it was a girl.  Yippee.  But what I didn't realize was how magnificent it would be to raise a little girl.  She's so much fun and so cute that I almost can't stand it.  Unusually fine, indeed.

So, Happy Birthday, baby cakes.  You bring me more joy than you could possible know.  You are one of the most terrific kiddos and we all love you lots!

The Official Ruling

It has been a great weekend.  We managed to make some good headway on the clutter in our home.  It had gotten pretty bad after we came back from vacation with tons of new things.  We also got to watch the boys perform as farm animals in the church's annual Epiphany Pageant.  And we spent some time at a new park.   The weather has been incredible.  Incredibly warm and incredibly humid.  But it's a great reason to get outside and get some wood chips in your shoes.

Now that the weekend has passed, we have our sights set on the week to come.

One exciting thing to look forward to is the BCS Championship game between LSU and Alabama.  I know that many people don't care.  They either don't care about college ball or they don't like the BCS system.   Some people don't like the idea of watching a rematch between the teams.  Me?  I'm excited.  I love college football.  I love LSU football.  And I'm going to watch this game and whoop and holler as if it were the first time in history that these teams played each other.   My kids will probably tell me to quiet down.  My husband will probably hang his head in shame when he sees my victory dance for the millionth time.  And if not for that, he will definitely hang his head in shame when I point and laugh at all the crying Bama fans as the Tigers hand their you-know-whats back to them.  Yeah, I'm excited.  But as excited as I am, it pales in comparison to another event that is officially starting.  Homeschooling.

We've made the switch.  We've taken the plunge.  And there's no going back.  Well, not this school year, anyway.  Long story short, we weren't 100% happy with the school district we are in.  The class was overcrowded.  He spent too much time waiting around.  He came home acting like a zombie who didn't want to talk about school and didn't want to do homework.  So we're changing all that.  And so far, the results have been good.  The first day I asked him to tell me what he would like to learn as far as math and science go.  He's interested in multiplication and learning about space.  After doing a lesson on the Sun, he was so talkative that Troy and I were just shocked that we were looking at the same boy who, for 78 days, wouldn't tell us anything about what he learned at school.  And after a couple of days of multiplication, he wants to move on to division.  A new boy, I tell you.

We are still looking for a curriculum to get and follow to help make things more manageable for me.  It's a lot of work putting all that stuff together!  But it's loads of fun.  And it's great spending so much time with him again.  He's a really helpful boy and a lot of fun to be with.  It's an exciting time in the TX Becker household.  

Geaux Tigers!
Geaux Orry!

Exciting times, that's for sure...

Resolutions

I asked Orry what his resolutions would be this year.  He asked what a resolution was.  Trying to keep it simple, I said that it was a goal that you would like to achieve or something that you would like to change about yourself or something that you think you can do better throughout the year.  Orry's resolution for the year is make everyone happy.  A lofty aspiration, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.  He went on to say that he would like to make kids happy.  Maybe even have a parade that kids would enjoy and throw beads.  Sounds familiar...

I asked Isaac what his resolution was going to be.  I wasn't expecting much, to be honest.  From what I can gather, it has something to do with dinosaurs.  I'm imagining that he would like to visit more dinosaur museums and maybe go on a real dino dig.  Maybe that's just my resolution for him...

I asked Annie what her resolution was.  I got nothing.  Well, that's not true.  I got a goofy grin.

I asked Troy what he resolved to do this year.  He mentioned trying to get his kids' names right every time.  We both have a hard time calling each kid by his or her right name.  Just the other day, Troy called Annie "Telcia".  He would also like to eat less meat and dairy.  And there's more excercise and better communication with his siblings.

I asked myself what my resolutions would be for the year.  Here's what I've got.  I'm going to send out birthday cards and do my best to get them to people on time.  I'm going to make sure that Troy and I celebrate Valentine's Day and our anniversary with something special because we typically tend to not do anything on those days.  The big one for me is that I'm going to try to not buy new clothes this whole year.  Shoes, underwear, and socks are not included, but everything else is fair game.  Thrift stores and consignment, here we come!

I'm sure there will be more as we go through the year trying to be the best we can be.  And that's okay with me.  I'm really excited about having another great year.  Have you made a resolution this year?  Well, go on, let's hear it!

For the Love of Dinosaurs

Our vacation was awesomely wonderful!  But like all good things, it had to come to an end.  So on the 30th of December, we rolled out super early and headed back home.  

About halfway between Twin Falls, ID and Albuquerque, NM there is a little place called Price, UT.  In Price, there is a dinosaur museum.  For us, it seemed to be the perfect place to stop and let the little ones stretch their legs and get out their wiggles.  And it was.   

The kids were in their jammies, but we didn't care.

We got to dig in a cool sand pit.  I found a nickel.

There was archaeology, as well as paleontology.  (Orry said his favorite part was "the killer man".)

And there were some dinosaurs that we had never seen before.  Like the Gastonia (shown above) and the Chasmosaurus (shown below).

We completed the first leg of the return journey and made it to Albuquerque by 11pm that same day.  We stayed up late, playing with the cousins.  In the morning, we played some more before heading out of town.  Now, with the remaining 14 hours to Houston, we decided to take it slower and go the distance over the course of 2 days.  The 31st was a pretty good driving day.  We made it to a hotel in Childress, TX by 9pm and spent the last few hours of the year watching movies and resting up.  We had a great night in a comfortable, quiet room.  Little did we know that we would need that good rest and comfort to help us get through the first 7 hours of our journey home.  In the end, our 7 hour leg took us 12 hours...

When Isaac woke up that morning, he wasn't feeling that hot.  He complained of belly ache and nausea.  Sometimes these symptoms are common with people with UC, so we chalked it up to that.  Once he felt okay enough to travel, we headed out.  It was 9:30am.  Before leaving, we decided to stop in Glen Rose, TX, home of Dinosaur Valley State Park and Dinosaur World.  It would extend our trip by an hour, but we thought it was worth the effort.  But a couple of hours into our trip we started to hit some "road bumps".  

First off, Isaac threw up a couple of times after eating some of those yummy clementine oranges.  So we nixed the oranges and kept on truckin'.  Then Orry had to go.  I mean, he really had to GO.  Now, if you've ever had the pleasure of traveling through Texas, you would know that sometimes rest areas and towns are hard to come by.  So it was with this part of our trip.  We ended up pulling over twice to let him go.  He felt better, so we moved along, but all the stopping was starting to wear on our nerves.  Then it happened.  Annie was crying about having to poop.  And so began Poopapalooza.  Annie couldn't hold it.  A mess was made.  Lucky for us, we were one mile from an exit at this point.  We pulled into a Burger King and I had the honor of taking her to the bathroom to clean her up.  15 minutes later, she's clean and we go out to the car to find out that Orry had to go again.  So we waited, all the time wondering what could have made our kids feel so lousy.  Then it happened again.  That distinct cry from Annie signaling that another mess was made.  Yep, round two.  So as Orry comes out the bathroom, Annie and I go back in.  20 minutes later, we're back on the road, worse for the wear.  

Now that would be fine if that was the end of it.  But it wasn't.  Three miles down the road, Annie had to go again.  Hello, CVS.  Meet Annie.  We ran to the bathroom, this time she was going to make it in time.  Yes.  No.  She didn't have to go.  False alarm?  I don't know.  Sometimes with babies you just don't know.  So we walked around the store for two minutes.  In hindsight it was two minutes too long and there was another accident and more crying.  Now, here's a side note.  When they tell you that bathroom floors are dirty, they are right.  They are dirty because of people like Annie and me.  Poop was everywhere.  It was the worst yet.  It took about 40 minutes to get it all cleaned up and for Annie to sit long enough to rule out there being any more trouble.  I wised up, finally.  I got some diapers (which we didn't need to use, thank goodness)  and we hit the road.  

We had planned on getting to Dinosaur World around 1pm.  We arrived at 4:15.  The park closed at 5.  Dinosaur World is a mile circuit of "life sized" dinosaurs.  We ran.  Literally.

Half of our pictures look like this because of the running.

Was it worth it?

I'll let you be the judge of that.  

But, with 100% certainty, I can say that it's so good to be home.  

Over the River...

I hope you enjoy our Christmas in pictures as much as we enjoyed our Christmas.

We made it home safe and sound, but not without a few stories to tell.  More later, my friends.