Mockingbird Songs

First two weeks of summer vacation = Pure Awesomeness

2011-05-27T12:09:00.006-05:00

Summer haircut!

Swimming in Grandmom's pool!
Claire started off not even wanting to jump in from the side, but got braver and braver, until she was jumping in from the diving board (wearing the baby floatie that Anna didn't care for)!

Redoing the girls' room so it's finally ready for two girls! Claire is doing great in her new bed, but we're still "transitioning" Anna. I'll probably post more pics of this major reorganization project when I'm done.

Having an Oreo. What a stinker! This isn't really specific to summer, but I thought it was a funny pic.

Enjoying riding together!

Reading some books--again, not a summer-specific pic, just cute! That blankie on her lap is her fave. Today, she took it to the hair salon with us--that was a mistake! Afghans are like velcro so it's got sister's hair stuck all over it.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

2011-05-08T16:31:00.008-05:00

I'm sure all parents have this feeling of wondering how in the world your child is at this age. It's so hard to quantify how Claire has changed this year, but here is a snapshot of who she is at age FOUR!

Favorites:

Activities: drawing and coloring (loves to draw stick people, color in coloring books, and paint on her art easel), packing up purses/backpacks for trips (mostly make-believe!), riding bikes (again, she's always telling me where we're going and what we're doing as we ride/walk from place to place), dancing to music on her CD player, work or fish with Daddy
Books: Magic Treehouse series! She got the first one from Mamaw a while back and the next three for her birthday, and we've read two and a half in about a week.
Foods: fried potatoes, waffles, strawberries, fried squash, mac and cheese...this sounds like she just mostly loves junk food, but she eats almost everything we put in front of her, at home, other people's houses, or at restaurants.

ABCs/123s: Can write her own name and probably half of the alphabet, can count to 12
Big Sis: Very affectionate and helpful with Anna (little sis is usually not a fan of this)

Claire is a good girl most of the time, with a tendency to be bossy and ask LOTS of questions. She's becoming more assertive with what she wants to wear--usually dresses or skirts whenever possible! (Mom says this is exactly how I was in my early elementary years!) She plays really well with other kids and is always up for going and doing. At least once a day, she asks, "Where are we going to-morning?" (This can mean this afternoon or or tomorrow--just "next.") She's very excited to start pre-K in the fall--when I was telling her I might come get her after lunch until she's ready to stay the whole day, she said, "Or I think you could just let me stay for recess and snacks." What happened to my baby? Oh yeah, her name is Anna now. Thank you, Lord!

We had Claire's party yesterday, and I think it was a lot of fun, although it was kind of a blur! It was a Candyland party, so we had a giant game of Candyland, with the kids drawing cards and moving around the board we taped to the floor with colored cardstock. I traced and painted cardboard standups of all NINE Candyland characters, with a corresponding candy/treat to go with each one. The kids each got a personalized candy bag they decorated as they arrived, and then we lined up to play Candyland. They drew cards, went around the board, and gathered candy as they passed each character.

Katelyn, Claire, and Dawson on the board. You can see Lolly in the background.

Going along the board...

Izzy walks by Princess Frostine.

Claire made it to King Kandy first!

It was very disorganized, with eight kids playing at once, ranging in age from 2 1/2 (Isabel knew most of the colors, but had trouble staying on her square until her turn!) to nine (Rylee wanted us to know that she was only playing for the candy). But I think they must have liked it, because a bunch of them went back to the beginning to play again, or just ran around the board for fun when they were done. Claire had an appropriate birthday girl game, drawing her favorite character of Princess Frostine and finishing first. (And NO Jay, I did NOT rig it!)

Then we made candy necklaces, ate pizza, and cut into the Candyland cake that Claire and I made together.

Candy necklaces

Birthday Girl! (Self-selected outfit!)

Claire and my joint masterpiece!

I was so thankful for my sister and her boyfriend James' help with setup, and with all the moms and guests who helped pick up afterward.

Easter Fun!

2011-04-24T15:39:00.005-05:00

We had our first egg hunt last Wednesday evening at church (resurrection eggs, egg hunt, and hot dogs before Bible class). As I've said before, the girls and I have been having for-fun hunts in our yard for a few weeks, so even little Anna knew what to do.

Our next stop on the Easter fun train was the Thursday School Easter egg hunt (straight from Anna's dr. appt). Pictured above are Claire's cousin Katelyn and her friend (sometimes boyfriend), Zeek before the hunt. I also mentioned on fb that it POURED during the 10 minutes the kids were hunting. I had my camera and Anna, so I scurried under a tree while Claire kept on hunting.

Then Friday Claire got to go watch Hop with Grandmom and Tyler while I worked on a writing assignment. Got 'er done!

And Saturday was the big Pannell get-together at my mom's house. Almost all the kids, from Claire to Kyle, even went swimming, despite the 65-degree temps! We hid a ton of eggs, with an area for the six toddlers and preschoolers, and a huge area for the six big kids. It was perfect; everyone got a bunch of eggs. But that night storms started rolling in, so after we ate pizza, everyone gathered around the TV to watch the radar.

Yum! Anna opened this egg and handed the candy to daddy, so of course he had to give it to her! She had so much candy yesterday!

We ended up staying the night at Mom's to avoid driving in bad weather or worrying about tornados when we got home. But that meant that when we woke up Sunday we had to drive down to Durant, do baths and Easter finery, and even a visit from the Easter bunny, and then drive back to Coleman for church. Only 10 minutes late--that was doing pretty good I think! I'm glad we got to come; it was an excellent service and we got to see some great people we don't get to very often, and then enjoy some more family time at lunch at Nana's.

....and now it's back to the grind!

But first, a pic of Anna's funny face! She loves to entertain people with this...when she feels like it. We can rarely get her to do it on demand, and this is the first time I've captured it on camera. She was doing it over and over at Nana's during lunch today.

Anna at 15 months

2011-04-21T17:26:00.001-05:00

Weight: 18.1 lbs
Height: 28 1/2 inches
Relative size: Fifth percentile (!)

Personality: Determined messmaker--not easily distracted, and loves to climb, crawl or squeeze into small and strange places, does not like to sit still, very affectionate, but usually not to sister.
Words: mama, dada, mmm for cow, da-da for dog, and bye! (not too verbal, but she definitely lets us know what she wants--has a very adamant head nod and a good pointer finger)
Favorite toys: cell phones (toy or real), lift-the-flap books, play computer. (Not too big on toys, really)
Favorite activities: pulling everything out of a toy box, bookshelf, Claire's play kitchen, or my cabinets (a few of the baby latches don't work too well, and/or I give up and open one for her), hauling items around the house. Also likes to pretend to cook in Claire's play kitchen (throws items in a bowl, stirs them), draw (prefers markers), and play outside
Favorite times of day: morning after breakfast, afternoon after naptime, when daddy gets home
Nicknames: Little Anne, Anne Banan. We call her Anna Jae a lot--but for me, it usually ends up being when I'm telling her no.
Little Sister personality: Claire loves to try to pick Anna up, hold her, and love on her, but Anna has very little patience for this. Although Anna loves to watch and play with Claire, the only times she really touches her are to do this soft head-bump Claire sometimes initiates, or to "get sister," when she kind of grins and smacks Claire repeatedly. They usually play really well together in Claire's room, although this pretty much consists of Anna making her favorite messes while Claire does other things.

Feeling like summer!

2011-04-04T16:12:00.004-05:00

Yay for warm temps! All of my pics of the girls for the past couple months have been like, them in pajamas, making messes in the house--finally some sunny outdoor shots!

This past weekend, we played in the sprinkler and went to Fort Washita. Weekends are so sweet when you turn in a ton of work on Friday and then say forget it! for the weekend. That's what I did, and oh, did it feel good. I'm reading a really good Christian novel right now called The Shape of Mercy, so I got in a couple hours of paperback couch time after our exhausting morning at Fort Washita--delish!

I got a thrilling assignment from The Christian Chronicle a few weeks ago--a roundup feature on fiction authors in the Church of Christ. It has been so inspiring to talk with a bunch of authors of all different kinds of books about how they write and how their life experiences have shaped their fiction, and how God has guided their career and strengthened their faith through writing. Anyway, writing this article led me to some really good books, which naturally, led me to a few more (Thank you, Amazon recommendations!), so those book orders were part of my birthday gifts!

....and here's one of my aforementioned pajama shots, because Anna was not a huge fan of the sprinkler! This little girl, like my almost-four-year-old, loves to write! There's this basket of scrap paper, notebooks, and pens behind Claire's little armchair that Anna loves to dig in, find a pen and paper, and take some notes! It is so sweet for this writer-mama to see!

I did have an ultrasound today, but the results were not official, so I will not announce them yet. However, you can probably guess that there was lack of evidence for a boy, so the doc said it was probably a girl. But the official ultrasound is in a month, so I will not plan anything until then!

Boy or Girl?

2011-03-21T22:38:00.002-05:00

Cravings: Potatoes! And meat! And I must have something between 10 and 11 p.m. every night. Like I am literally HUNGRY at that time.
Sick: Well, I spoke a little too soon in my first trimester, because now that I'm into my second, I've now had a couple bouts with something that was too short-lived to be a stomach bug. This is all new to me, people; I never had any kind of sickness with my first two pregnancies.
Belly: Same as before, straight out and freakishly large. I don't think it's carrying particularly higher or lower than previous pregnancies.
Fatigue: doing pretty good on this level, actually. I think it's because I pretty much don't have the option to take naps or lay around at this point in my life--two kids, one part-time job, and a stream of writing assignments keep me pretty busy, in addition to all the cooking/cleaning stuff
Claire: Says "We don't need another girl; we already have three!" (She counts me and Jay.) I keep trying to tell her we'll be thankful for whatever God gives us. :)

But I bet we find out in two weeks at my next appt. My doc has this new ultrasound machine that he's crazy about playing with, and it does have a really good picture, so I bet if the baby cooperates, we'll find out!

Blizzard 2011

2011-02-06T22:56:00.003-06:00

Oh, were you thinking I would have pictures of this? Nope, just thoughts. The girls and I were stuck inside for four days last week, which seemed like FOREVER! Friday (or was it Thursday? It's all a blur now) we finally got a nice, soft snow and the temperatures weren't so frigid, so we ventured outside for the first time. Jay was out everyday for at least a few hours except for Tuesday, since he has four-wheel drive. So here's what us girls did:

Cleaned house (well, that was just me)
Watched movies: Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses, Prince Caspian, and Despicable Me, and Jay and I watched 50 First Dates and Shallow Hal.
Made a huge breakfast everyday (Jay participated in these too, of course): pumpkin pancakes and biscuits and gravy were the best ones.
Made too many sweets: peanut butter cookies, peach cobbler, and quite a bit of hot cocoa.
Made paper snowflakes (had to watch a youtube video to refresh myself)
Graded papers (also just me)
Played Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Cranium Cariboo with Claire
Dragged Anna around in the wagon in the snow; made a snow fort with Claire (well, she just kind of approved of each bucketful of packed snow).

Basically, we tried not to go crazy living inside the same 1500 square feet for about 100 hours. Thank goodness we had power and plenty of food the whole time.

Monday things

2011-01-31T17:48:00.003-06:00

Mom's 50th B-day party!! It was a driving force of my week last week, but I couldn't mention it, because of course it was a SURPRISE! All of her siblings made it, plus her church friends, in-laws, and even an old friend from high school she hasn't seen in quite a while. Amanda did a GREAT job with decorations, including a timeline banner of Mom's life. And the memory book I put together with pics and memories from family, children, and friends made her tear up and laugh out loud and just smile in pleasant reflection so mission accomplished.

But then Anna got sick Saturday night! :( So I stayed home from church Sunday with her. I guess it was just a quick little stomach bug though, b/c she only threw up twice Saturday night and then was just sluggish on Sunday.

I have a bunch of papers to grade (And guess what, students? Asking me about them doesn't make me go any faster!).

Jay and I are supposed to stay a night at the Choctaw Resort Hotel this week for an Oklahoma Today article, but I'm really worried about how Anna will do since she's not weaned yet! I'm afraid if she woke up in the early morning, no one but me could get her back to sleep! Oh well, Papaw gets up early with their new puppy every morning anyway! ;)

Claire quotes:
Me: "Where could the remote be?" Claire: "It's a mystery!"
Me: "You have to pick up your Pollys first." Claire: "Okay, but it'll be a long journey!"
Claire: "Here, drink this potion." (I shrink and start meowing.) Claire: "No, it didn't turn you into a cat; it turned you into a giraffe!"
We were playing "Name that Tune" for the first time, where I would hum a song and she would guess what it was. She kept calling it "Huma" instead of humming for some reason. I think she was thinking about the High School Musical 2 song "Huma Huma." Obscure reference, I know. But she would say, "Okay your turn to huma!"

Anna at ONE YEAR!

2011-01-24T22:33:00.005-06:00

Holy cow, I think time starts going doubly fast when you have two kids! Here's a snapshot of our baby girl right now (I'll add her current weight and height after we go to her one-year doc appt Thursday):

Weight: 17.13 lbs (wearing mostly 12 month clothes)
Height: 27 1/4 inches
Percentile: Fifth for height and weight!! Yikes! She hasn't gained any weight in the past two months! BUT the doctor said not to worry about it, b/c she's developing fine in all other respects. I don't get it; the girl eats ALL THE TIME! But Claire dipped in her weight when I weaned her, so once Anna warms up to milk from a cup, we're hoping she starts fattening up a little.
Clothing size: 12 months
Shoe size: 3
Diaper size: 3 (guess we'll be in this one until potty-training--Claire was)
Sleeps: 12-13 hours at night, but I think she is cutting out her morning nap! Yikes! Afternoon nap is about 2hrs.
Eats: EVERYTHING! I'm weaning her, so she's nursing just two times in a 24-hour period. She loves any table food. Some plain ol' baby foods, she'll throw on the floor in protest, but give her anything that we're eating, and she will eat it up! (recently, we've tried beans and rice at a Mexican restaurant, chili and cornbread, baked beans, cinnamon rolls, turkey bacon, the list goes on!)
Mobility: favors walking, and has for the past month or so. She only crawls if she's super-frustrated with her shoes. LOVES to climb: stepstools, stairs, in the empty dishwasher, and on top of Claire's little chairs. When she gets up high, she stands and does her little knee-bouncing dance.
Talking: she mostly still just says "dada!" She also sort of says "dog," but it seems like she calls Claire and I both "da" and Jay "dada."
Other skills: clapping, washing her hands (rubs her hands together when I tell Claire to wash her hands or when we put on lotion or hand sanitizer), aforementioned knee-bouncy dance when she's excited or hears music
Likes: Seeing daddy come in the door, her bunny-lovey, watching Sister dance or run or act silly, taking baths with Sister, looking at lift-the-flap or touch-and-feel books, making MESSES!

Laaaaaaaa! (Angelic chorus)

2010-12-30T22:11:00.008-06:00

Okay, so this morning, we were AWASH in Christmas gifts: they were littering our living room, strewn across our kitchen table, piled in our garage, and still waiting in my trunk. This afternoon, the floor is clear! I SEE CARPET! And I got Claire's closet organized for the first time basically since she was born. This took a large Rubbermaid tower of drawers (why was the only color at Wal-Mart a hideous orange?), two packs of plastic snap boxes (these were very cool and sturdy and even had label slots), a heap of cardboard recycling and one bag of trash.

Here is her closet (and there's even some clothes in it!):

As I said on facebook, it is not a pottery barn organization job; it's a hand-me-down and Wal-Mart one that took creativity and resourcefulness, and I am quite proud of it! On the left-hand door, you will notice an afghan filled with bows and below that, hooks holding purses. The biggest purse is holding an assortment of small toys. One drawer in the orange monstrosity is holding nothing but markers, crayons, colored pencils, and coloring books, both of which she got several new for Christmas. Claire's kid fishing tackle box was put to good use there.

Doll bed moved to a more useful location, so that new dolls will be tended to more regularly.

New CD player on its own shelf with the kid CDs I dug up around the house. New dolly corner with stroller, bag (dolls ride inside when Claire is on the go), and basket of dolly supplies. New playhut and tunnel folded behind dolly stuff. New rocking horse for Anna, and several new sets on the bottom shelf of the bookcase. Fancy Nancy in the foreground has been a tea party regular since last Christmas.

Our living room!! Ready to relax in, without having to kick anything out of your way!

Anna's new b-ball goal (okay, so maybe you would have to kick it), Elmo (he won't stay there long, but believe me, the Tickle Me X-Treme Elmo is good family entertainment, at least for now) and some sad-looking Christmas decorations.

The toy section: a computer for each girl (but I'm sure Anna will still go for Claire's), a Sing-a-Ma-Jig, Mrs. Potato Head, and a home for Claire's puzzles, which had to move out of the game cabinet to make room for Uno Moo.

And this is my beautiful kid bookshelf, formerly a very messy kid book basket on the floor. There's a side for Claire books and a side for Anna's. Laaaaaaaaa! (This is the angels' favorite part!). The basket in the middle is holding one of Claire's fave presents, a Strawberry Shortcake remote control car.

Bit of a break in the madness

2010-12-07T17:04:00.008-06:00

Thanksgiving recap: First, Claire's Thursday School Thanksgiving program:

Those kind ladies prepare a big Thanksgiving dinner for us and the kids sing a couple songs.

On to Thanksgiving week: We left Wednesday about 1 p.m. for Kansas...and didn't get very far. We had to stop in Mead (about ten minutes from our house) to check on the house Jay is working on, and then we had to stop at the Burger Shoppe (ten more minutes down the road) for lunch, where we ran into Preston and had to talk for a while. After eating our fill of chicken strips, beans, and sweet tea, we were finally on the road! Six hours later, we made it to Don and Archie's house in time for dinner!

We headed over to Jay's cousin Tracy's house, where she, along with husband Kourt and sons Drew and Dylan, are kind enough to host us for the weekend. The next day, we had Thanksgiving lunch (and dinner) at Don and Archie's house--pic of all grandkids present for lunch below. (Drew and Dylan are at their other grandma's house for lunch, and aren't in it. We were also missing one family for the whole weekend, Jay's cousin Keith, his wife Jen, and their kids Logan and Quinn moved to Singapore over the summer for Keith's job.)

Abby Rose and Anna Jae!

We're missing four cousins in this pic:

Claire and Katelyn ride the buckin' bronc called Uncle Ron.

Aside from eating and watching our kids, much of Thursday is spent planning our Friday shopping and riding four-wheelers. (I think there are seven or eight four-wheelers total, and lots of trails.)

Claire got to spend the night at Grandma Winnie's Thursday night with her cousins Carson and Kerrigan so that I wouldn't have to wake her up when I left to go shopping. Anna Jae tagged along with us and was really good, having bites of yogurt and pears in her carseat in between stores. We have lunch together Friday, and then the afternoon is spent hunting, napping, or four-wheeling. Friday night is always steak night, with some of the best steak I eat all year, along with baked potatoes, Kansas corn, homemade bread, and salad.

While we were in Kansas, Anna had several milestones: she started walking really well (so at about 10 months), she had her first tooth come through, and she started clapping and waving.

Usually the Paul Mauck contingent is gone by Saturday morning, but we actually stayed through Saturday lunch this year so Jay could get in one more morning hunting. Alas, no deer to report of!

I'm now in finals week, and I'm in a lull between grading final essays (DONE-hurray!) and grading final portfolios (due Thursday) and calculating final grades (due Monday). After that, I'll be in full-on Christmas mode.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2010-10-28T16:15:00.005-05:00

Halloween! We decorated pumpkins the other day at our house, and an attempt to get pictures of both girls with the pumpkins went something like this...

Uh-oh, Anna's not having it! Let's try the table; maybe that will be fun for her...

Tyler steadies Anna, but Claire's getting tired of this...Let's see a pretty smile with teeth, Claire!

Okay, not bad, but how about Anna...

Anna's inner monologue: Seriously? You guys think this is what I look like?

And this one, from the next day at Mom's house, was just too funny...Tyler cannot STAND to be left out of any photo op...

First 5K, Coleman Octoberfest

2010-10-11T22:17:00.004-05:00

A bit belated, but here's my report on my first 5K. When I first thought about running this thing, I thought it seemed a little extreme to call preparing to run 3.2 miles "training." I mean, how hard could that be? Well, if I was 17, I'm sure it wouldn't be that tough, but this mom of two definitely had to train to be able to actually run this race! My workout buddy and I switched from P90 to running in her church gym during the super-hot weather, and then we ran outside the last four or five runs before the race, letting our hubbies watch the kids in the evenings. I never thought I would actually enjoy running, but I actually did enjoy the couple runs where we beat a personal record. The day of the race, the energy was so exhilarating! It was better than a competition-type energy, because that always includes a note of anxiety, at least for me. This was just camaraderie, anticipation, excitement. There were high school track runners and college guys, but also middle-aged professionals and young kids. There weren't many people in their 20s, Ashley and I noticed, and started to get our hopes up to take home medals! Sure enough, our wish came true: when the announcer finally called the winners for the 20-29-year-old women, I was second and Ashley first! There was no third place, so that means Ashley and I were indeed the only two runners in that category! Ha, we were proud nonetheless: we got our best-ever time and had a great time being outside in God's creation, pushing the bodies He made to do their best!

Anna demolished a peach and had a great time! She gets SO intrigued and excited if you give her an entire piece of fruit--we've tried both peaches and pears, and she lays waste to them!

We went to Coleman's second annual town festival last weekend, and were happy to see Uncle Matt, Aunt Michelle, and Holly, Jenny, and Mattie there. Amanda also came down and brought her boyfriend James, and we got to see several other aunts, uncles, cousins, and other old friends and family members. Of course, I never think to get big-picture photos of floats or the event; I just glance up at my girls and go, "Oh that's a good picture!" and then go on talking and looking around.

Amanda holds Anna, Jenny holds Claire, and Mattie, geared up for Ranger baseball. Jenny did a great job babysitting Claire--taking her to the bounce house and following her around.

Claire enjoys the view from Uncle Matt's shoulders.

Mom and Ty prepped and rode in the 4-H float; Claire just hopped up there before the parade.

Labor Day, Milestones

2010-09-13T22:08:00.008-05:00

Okay, I know I'm a little behind, but here are some pics anyway of our Labor Day weekend! Some of my faithful readers might have already seen these on fb, as my photog-SIL posted a bunch of great ones there. We had a great time riding four-wheelers, wading in Blue River, and having a weenie roast at my Uncle Gary's beautiful ranch.

This pic below is hilarious I think; it's six people on a four-wheeler: Paul, Diane, Claire, Kerrigan, me, and Anna! We had 11 people on three four-wheelers, although four of the people were six and under. And I can now say that I have nursed a baby while on the back of a moving four-wheeler (not in this picture). As my BIL Kyle said, Anna was getting a milkshake!! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Carson helps the girls get to the rock. The water was rushing pretty quickly in spots.

I'm smiling, but my bottom is in for a world of hurt in just a second!!

Anna loved it!! But she did wish she could get down and crawl around. She's getting to be quite the wiggleworm, making church tough at times! I must also mention that her hair is very reddish in sunlight, but more of a golden red inside. We get tons of comments on her being a redhead. We'll see!

Anna loves getting to gum on a whole piece of fruit!! This is Diane feeding her a peach. Right now, AJ will eat chunks of very soft fruit, puffs, rice rusks, and teething biscuits. She has yet to warm up to any veggies very much, although she'll occasionally take a few bites of sweet potato or carrots.

Also, in the milestone department, Anna is now cruising! Big Sis helped her on this one, I think, as Claire has been pushing her on her walker for a couple weeks now. Now, Anna moves right along on it, or along the couch or bathtub. She is thrilled with herself.

MAMA!

2010-09-03T13:01:00.002-05:00

At seven and a half months, Anna is saying Mama! She makes the sound "mom" a lot while she's focusing on getting somewhere, but sometimes when she's actually trying to get to ME, she says "Mama!" It's so sweet.

And Claire is saying all kinds of crazy stuff! Today, we were driving, and she said, "I saw one cow, Mom." (She has recently switched to calling Jay and me Dad and Mom instead of Daddy and Mommy.) I said, "Just one cow all by itself?" and she said, "Yes. I guess his other cows must have gone up to heaven!"

A note for Mama

2010-08-19T22:07:00.004-05:00

Claire is big into writing notes, in which she scribbles ciphers onto a piece of notebook paper, and then tells me what she's written. The other day, I could have burst with pride when she showed me a note she'd written to mommy that said "Claire will obey, be patient, not tell lies, and not throw fits." I had not given her a list like this or a lecture or anything! But we've really been working on her behavior these past couple weeks; I'm reading a book called Training Up a Child: Following God's Plan, and it is so refreshingly old-school. I get so used to reading all this psycho-babble about child-rearing that it is so nice to hear a lady say that a woman has to be a good helpmeet to her husband to be a good mother. It's so true! I've gotten a major attitude adjustment, and I hope it sticks: I'm trying to fix Jay's lunches for him before he leaves, show interest in his jobs, get the house cleaned up for when he comes home, and in general let him do his job of being the leader around here!

But anyway, this book has a very old-school take on discipline and chores, too: the author says nothing will sweeten an attitude faster than a good old-fashioned spanking--with a rod! She actually recommends going to a tree and getting a thin, flexible branch, since that's what the Bible says parents should use on a child! We're still sticking with the hand for now. We're working on making "obeying Mama" a very important thing, or else she can expect a march to another room and a spanking she will remember. We've also started doing a chore chart and allowance for Claire (a nickel per chore per day), and it's amazing how willing she is to be a good helper, even with things that aren't on her chore chart! With this focus on being a helper and obeying Mama, she's also become much more willing to leave when I say it's time to go, which has always been a point of difficulty for her. I've been trying to do a better job of communicating to her the plan for when we go somewhere ("I'm going to feed Anna, and then we're leaving Mamaw's house."), and then she'll repeat it back to me, just as proud as can be. It's seems like if I find the right balance of respect and firmness to address her with, she really responds to it, like she feels like she's part of the team, and is willing to do her job or face the consequences.

Claire also brought a note to me the other day that she said was a letter to Santa that said, "I love you, Santa." I said, "That's nice that you didn't ask for anything; you just told him you love him." Then she said, "And I drew two mean ghosts." ???

As for Anna: she's seven months old, still a totally breastfed baby, and loves to watch her big sis, pull herself up and shout for joy, and grab stuff. It's great to have two different stages of kids! I love that Anna requires no complicated explanations, but I also love that Claire likes to have things explained. Life is good.

First day of school!

2010-08-17T14:54:00.002-05:00

We're enjoying our first school day here at the Mauck house. I love my schedule: my first class is at 9:30, so I have to leave by 8:50 to get the girls to Calera and back to SE with a few minutes to park and hike through parking lots and upstairs to my office, where I prep for a couple minutes. Then I have two sections of Comp 1 back-to-back, BOTH in a smart classroom this year, which I'm super-psyched about. That way I don't have to make so many copies of handouts or activities; I just pull them up on the computer and let everyone look on the projector screen. I'm back to P&D's house by 12:30. On Thursdays, I'll take Anna to their house and then take Claire to Thursday School before I go on to the college, so I have to leave a tad earlier.

The girls both had a great time with Mamaw and Papaw this morning: Diane pretends they're having school, and they do arts and crafts, recess, and storytime before lunch. Anna ate a rice rusk with some carrots and then took a nap, and was still asleep when I got back!

In other news, I've started running with a friend; we were doing a workout video three mornings a week at her house, but got bored with that and decided to run instead. While it's so hot, we're running at the church gym, but hopefully by the time it cools off, we'll both have secured jogging strollers and can run at the park. We're planning on doing a 5k in Caddo in October.

Speaking of Caddo, I have five former Caddo students in my classes this year! I suppose that's a compliment that they chose to come back for more!

Anna's pulling up!

2010-07-31T22:16:00.003-05:00

Wow, Anna's balance has gotten much better in the past few days! Watching our baby grow and change is a daily blessing. At six months and 12 days, she's pulling up to standing really confidently, and does it every chance she gets! The other day, she crawled from the living room to where I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes, and pulled herself up on my legs! In the past couple days, she's gotten really close to "cruising," moving her hands from one thing to another to keep balance, and maybe moving her feet a little, but not really taking a step.

She's still adamantly refusing food of any kind. For the past two weeks, I've been giving her cereal, applesauce, or bananas (progressively), and she does one of three things: 1) clamps her mouth shut when she sees the spoon coming, 2) allows a bite, but then shudders and gags and sticks out her tongue until the offending food is on her chin or bib, or 3) allows a bite, but immediately zerbets it back it out, spraying her and me both. Fun! She must take the bottle or food before I go back to school in a little over two weeks, b/c I'll be gone for about five hours at a time this semester. I'm trying to be positive and relaxed about her food experience, so she doesn't start to hate it, but I feel like I need to be diligent, too!

Hey, if you haven't already, go check out the brand-new site I've been writing for like crazy for the past few weeks, Katharos NOW. It's for Christian teen girls, run by a friend of mine, Lauren Bookout, and is funded by the church where her husband Travis is the preacher. Once again, my lack of paid writing assignments means that I have time to pursue my Christian writing pursuits. God is good.

Scooting and Hopping

2010-07-28T16:44:00.003-05:00

Here's how my girls are movin' and shakin' this summer. Anna is scooting all over the place. I've even been putting her in knotty legs or pants, as she gets onto the tile floor and her legs get so cold! A baby blanket is now futile; she goes all over. Her favorite destination is Claire's little chair, which she pulls herself up to standing and pushes the chair a few steps before she falls down.

And Claire and I have been hopscotching it up. She hasn't mastered the one-foot jump yet, but I think it's pretty cute how she's figured out a way around that.

Summer

2010-07-20T15:37:00.003-05:00

Wow, six months has definitely brought mobility for our little Anne! She is army-crawling like crazy, sitting up on her own, and can even pull herself up to sitting and standing! She makes right for Claire's little chair usually, because she likes to try to pull herself up on it and grab the stuffed animal or doll that's sitting there. She has also started squawking to demand things or just express happiness or excitement. We've definitely reached the stage where we sometimes have to take her out of church just because she's wiggling like crazy to get down, or because she's making too much noise--not fussy noise, just noise! And she is way more of a mama's girl than I remember Claire being. If she can't see me or hear my voice, she can get frantic, unless she's intent on a toy. If someone else is holding her and she sees me, she often starts making this pathetic little whimper for me. We have yet to get her to take a bottle, but I haven't tried since the intense, unsuccessful, extremely frustrating sessions leading up to Wicked. Instead, I'm focusing on getting her to take cereal mixed with breast milk. We've done it for about the last week, and it's hit and miss: sometimes she spits most of it out and begins the "you're torturing me" back-arching and leg-kicking after just a few spoonfuls.

The top picture is of Claire and her friend Kadence at VBS at our church last week. It was a "Joseph journey in Egypt" theme, so the kids made jeweled collars and beaded headbands, and the adults wore those too, along with linen togas and belts. We also had a make-up booth every night, so the kids could get eyeliner and eyeshadow done (the boys got scratch marks or a play shave). Kadence and Claire are both wearing make-up in that pic. Claire is doing VBS again this week at 7th and Beech! It's the same church where she goes to Thursday School, so thankfully I can leave her there and come home and get a few things done!

Recent Claire quotes:
While playing with the cowboy and horse in her Lincoln Logs, in a deep voice I assume belongs to the horse: "Ow! You hurt me! I'm going to the hospital!"

"What kind of sno-cone do you want?" (She's making them out of Play-Doh) Me: "Silver fox." C: "We don't have that; we have raspberry yummy-goody cake."

Maucks on Texoma 2010

2010-07-12T15:02:00.006-05:00

My seventh year spending a week on Lake Texoma with the Maucks is over, and it was a fun time full of great food, family time, and swimming and fishing. Traditions include Friday night steak dinner, Saturday fish fry, early-morning fishing trips, and outdoor worship on Sunday morning. A newer tradition for the kids is jumping/wrestling on the water trampoline anchored in the inlet.

This year actually brought us cooler temperatures than we're accustomed to, and rain, too. It worked out fine though: we had a couple rainy afternoons in the camper, and dinners under the pavilion instead of open air, but other than that, we enjoyed the coolness the rain brought us. However, I know a couple boats were caught out in a couple rainstorms while fishing, and the rain wasn't entirely welcome to them.

Unfortunately, I have no boat pics to share this year: it's not exactly the best place for a baby! I ended up staying in the camper to let Anna get her nap when others went out tubing or fishing. Claire tubed for the first time--but neither Jay nor I were on the boat to see her, sadly! She rode with her beloved cousin Abby, and enjoyed it immensely, from all accounts. But here are some pics of the other ways the kids have a great time. Of course, there are no mommy pics, as is usually the case with me.

The kids love riding their bikes on the road! Claire and Kerrigan have matching Barbie Big Wheels, and Katelyn is borrowing Kerrigan's in these pics.

Count on Mamaw to whip out giant coloring pages and markers for the kids!

A flock of geese were crossing by, and Kyle and some of the kids fed them some old bread.
Abby, Kerrigan, and Claire play with one of the kids' favorite toys at the lake: a kid fishing rode with a rubber fish attached to the end. They would cast this thing over and over, and reel it in through the dead leaves!

Fish fry!! Notice Jay's cousin Tracy at the end of the table holding a sleeping Anna! She will never go to sleep like that on my shoulder--no paci or anything!

Love this pic of Claire hitching a ride on a cooler full of fish! She wasn't on the boat; just saw Daddy carrying this up the hill, along with cousin-in-law John, and ran and hopped on!

While both our neighbors have pools...

2010-06-22T21:55:00.003-05:00

...this is what we do for fun on hot summer days. This isn't until 6:30, but it was still 98 degrees outside!! We barely even venture out of doors during the day anymore! While poor Jay is working outside for the majority of 12-hour work days! One of the guys who works for him got sick from working too hard in the heat today. Poor Juan!

Anyway, this evening, Anna and I sat in the shade and blew bubbles for Claire while she went crazy. She was out like a light at 9 p.m., did not get out of bed a single time after I put her down--we'll have to start doing this every night! We had a really fun summer day today: Tyler came and stayed at our house for a couple hours while Mom and Grant went to a funeral, and we made Play-Doh and played games. Then this afternoon we did the letter E; Claire is learning how to write her letters this summer, and we're doing a big alphabet wall project. I'll post a pic when it's finished!

This is Anna doing her new funny sound, zerbets! She makes very few noises except laughing and crying, and now these spitting noises! It's funny. She's also becoming very mobile, scooting all over the place, and is very close to sitting up on her own!

Mom and I went and saw Wicked the musical in Dallas Sunday night, and unfortunately had to take Anna with us! She is adamantly refusing the bottle! We've tried everything; it is so frustrating! The really frustrating thing is that Diane got her to drink about 4 oz from a bottle back during the school year ONE TIME, but we haven't been able to get her to drink anything since! Anyway, the musical was awesome, but Mom and I had to take turns watching it in the lobby on the screen, b/c Anna would not go to sleep inside; it was too loud--even louder than Iron Man 2!

Celebrating Six Years!

2010-06-13T14:12:00.005-05:00

Last night, Jay and I went out for our six-year anniversary to the steakhouse in the Choctaw Casino--it is so fancy and delicious! Great fun to get dressed up and then go to a great restaurant only 10 minutes from our house! My mom came to our house and kept the girls--we love Grandmom! By the way, see any resemblance between Jay and his namesake girl? Their baby pics look very much alike, and people have told us a lot that Anna favors her daddy.

Of course, I had to do something celebrating our relationship, even though six isn't really much of a milestone, and I wanted to prove to Jay that I'm not all about material gifts, so I wrote a poem! Don't think this was any kind of exercise in rhythm, scansion, or even rhyme--I wrote it as a spinoff of the poem that Jay wrote me to propose, back in 2002! Except this time, I made it a metaphor between the challenges and rewards of fishing and hunting, and the challenges and rewards of marriage (or I tried to anyway)! I clipped out phrases from Jay's Bassmasters and Outdoor Oklahoma magazines, and cut out pics, and made it a collage. It was so fun, and it was funny to compare the ways we were romantic as a dating couple to how it is as a married couple with two young kids.

Here are the words (the bolded ones are the ones I clipped from magazines):

June 12, 2010, with the Bassmaster who reeled me in
A night we've been flippin' and pitchin' since last night after we tucked the girls in.

Many times I've asked God why this crankbait comes in so late,
Then he blesses me with an unplanned family swim or a yummy breakfast date.

It can be tough, getting to church on time, or connecting at the dinner table,
But if we work as a team, we can tackle anything, I know we are able.

My favorite times are the ones we share together,
A Day on the Lake with my hubby is as good as a Collectible Bass Lure.

I made it through so many deer seasons and spring spawns,
I'll make it through many more, even though I hate when you're gone.

A lot has changed since you wrote me that sweet poem that changed my world,
You've bought tons of New Lures, but stuck with the same girl.

You're my Biggest Bass, the best lure in my Tacklebox,
Eight years after you saw that girl in red, I hope you can still say I knock of your socks!

My Oklahoma hunter takes aim at projects all over southern Oklahoma,
You work hard, and I get to take care of our beautiful girls and manage our home-a.

Fishing and huntin' are always a challenge--try different Lures and Reels, trees or arrows,
Our marriage is a challenge, too, but it's worth the trophy moments we share like pros.

Doggerel, I know, but from the heart! I also had us write down six things we love about each other, and two things for both of us to work on to make our relationship better. We wrote them on these little door-hanger things I scrapbooked, and hung them on our closet doors.

Summertime is Sleepover Time!

2010-06-06T16:51:00.005-05:00

We're just finishing up another weekend with another sleepover for Claire! She is loving spending the night with Mamaw and Papaw and with Grandmom and Papa. Her cousins Zach and Abby are down for a few days, so she was thrilled to get to spend some extra time with them and Mamaw and Papaw last night. She also spent the night with Grandmom last week when my cousins Holly, Jenny, and Mattie were in--you may have seen pics of that sleepover on Facebook. She's had at least a sleepover a week for the past three weeks!

The pic above is from yesterday morning; Claire and I had a lazy morning in our pj's, and she wrote her name all by herself for the first time!

My goal this week for Anna is to give her a bottle a day--she's not so into taking them when Mamaw gives them to her, and mine and Jay's six-year anniversary is this weekend, and we don't want to have to rush home b/c Anna won't take her bottle! That little girl is rolling and scooting all over the place--she'll cross the living room in just a few minutes, by doing a combination of lifting her bottom with her feet and shoving her nose into the carpet, and rolling. She's about to start sitting up on her own, too--so fun to watch her grow!

Recent Claire Quotes

2010-06-03T14:04:00.001-05:00

Claire said she was going to tell Daddy she was sorry for...(some long made-up story about daddy leaving Pony outside). My response: "You're going to tell him you're sorry for that?" Claire: "I'm sorry is French for thank you!"

She now has an imaginary friend, Pony, a little girl. She was playing with her friend Sam, and asked me, "Can you open the garage door?" Me: "Why?" C: "Sam and me need to go save Pony!" I told her no one could go outside with them right then, so she'd have to pretend Pony was inside. She said, "No, Pony is outside! I don't know what to do now." Then she looked down at Sam's shoes--Crocs--and said, "I guess I need to put my Crocs on." Reset inside playing!

While we're eating lunch together: Claire: "While you were vacuuming, I said, 'I don't like you.'" Me: "That hurts my feelings, Claire! I like you very much!" Puts her foot on the table, and says, "This toe likes you." Me: "I want all you to like me, not just your smelly toe!" C: "Just this toe!"

Me: "Your teacher Miss Erron is going to have a baby!" Claire (half stricken, half sulky): "I don't want Miss Erron to have a baby!" Me: "Why not?" C: "Because she lives at Thursday School!"

Recent videos

2010-05-24T16:41:00.000-05:00

Claire's Thursday School graduation

2010-05-23T14:35:00.005-05:00

This was actually a couple weeks ago, but better late than never! Claire had a great first year at Thursday School. It's held at the other church of Christ in town, and it's a great introductory school experience: it's three hours long, with a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old class, with only six to eight kids and two teachers in each one. The whole day is divided into 15-minute blocks, with time for a Bible story, arts and crafts, library, snacks, and lunch. The teachers are awesome, and they're all volunteers! This year, she had her first field trip (to the fire station), her first school Christmas party, and first school program. They also had a Halloween carnival, Easter egg hunt, Valentine's card exchange, and Thanksgiving dinner and program.She also bought her first lunch box, as they eat box lunches everyday. Claire's usual lunch was ham and cheese rolls (a slice of ham wrapped around a cheese stick and cut into small pieces), carrots and Ranch (without me prodding her, she would usually only eat one or two of these), whatever fruit we have on hand, and some sort of treat, like marshmallows or mini cookies.

I usually ask Claire what Bible story she learned every time I pick her up, and at the beginning of the year, her answer was always "I don't know..." because I suspect, from what my cousin Kim told me, that she spent most of Bible story time sharing a mat with Kim's daughter Katelyn and being silly. Toward the middle of the year, a Bible story finally registered, and she started to answer, "About Jesus crossing on the river." I'm not sure if this was Jesus walking on water, or Moses crossing the Red Sea, because she would respond positively to details from both stories. She used this confusing answer for several weeks, and toward the end of the year, she finally started to respond with an actual Bible story! She would say "Daniel in the lions' den" or "Jesus making a man feel better." It's so exciting to see my daughter learning the Bible, both at home and in school with other kids.

At the program, all the kids sang a couple songs of course, and they also did a slide show of pictures from the year. Mom, Grant, and Ty got to be there, and they haven't ever seen where Claire goes to school, so it was really neat for them to see what a great program it is and how much Claire enjoys her friends and all the things they do.

Anyway, a tradition they have at the Thursday School graduation is to give each child a chance to say something into the microphone. They tell the kids and parents on the day of the graduation that they will all have a the chance to sing a song or say hi to their parents, or whatever. Some kids clam up, get red, and shake their heads no, some kids grab the mic, jump up and sing a song, and some kids say, "Hi Mommy and Daddy, I love you!" This is where the program gets very unpredictable and amusing, as you can imagine. Case in point with Claire. I had talked to her about what she would say into the microphone that afternoon, and I'd said, "You can sing a song, or say hi to mommy and daddy--what would you like to do?" The first time, she answered "Sing the ABC's," but then every other time I asked her, she said she would say hi to mommy and daddy. So I had her practice, Jay had her practice, and we practiced on the way over in the car. What does she do when Miss Amy hands her the microphone? Starts singing the ABCs, and turning slowly around so that by the time she's on G, she's got her back to the audience, but is still singing, at a level just above a whisper. She sang the whole thing, but I could barely hear her for trying to smother my laughter.

Tornado Scare

2010-05-12T15:49:00.002-05:00

I know my non-Oklahoman relatives will enjoy hearing about our tornado adventures, even though my Oklahoma friends and family have experienced things very similar to this, and find this to be the same old song, so to speak.

The night before last, we had a tornado scare, and Jay was in Ardmore! I was a bit nervous, although looking back, I wasn’t really in freakout mode. We were supposed to go out to the lake to eat steaks and let Claire stay the night with Paul and Diane in their new camper. Diane texted me at about 6 p.m. and said not to come, that the weather was getting bad. It was windy and warm, with heavy gray clouds, but I wasn’t scared, just annoyed that I would have to cook dinner on a night when I thought I was going to get off the hook!

So I started cooking dinner and turned on the local news, which was in straight-weather mode, no commercials, no shows. I could hear things about tornadoes being sighted in the Ardmore area, but I wasn’t paying too close attention. Then I started seeing that it was coming through Madill heading straight east, and I started wondering if I should figure out where to take the girls. I called the neighbors who have a cellar, but they said it was too wet and they weren’t going to go in there. I kept trying to call Paul’s and Diane’s cell phones throughout this, trying to get their opinion, but couldn’t get them. I was talking to Jay on and off, and he was at a home that had a big cellar, thankfully. Then the sirens went off! Mom called and said she, Ty, and Manda were coming back from a school field trip, and Grandad had told them not to come to Coleman, the storm was coming toward them. Mom said she may come to our house instead of going home. Just as the storms passed through Madill and were heading into Kingston, Jay and I decided I should go to his parents’, even though I still hadn’t gotten ahold of them to make sure they were there instead of at the lake. I got Anna into her carseat, and then Mom, Manda, and Ty knocked on our door!

I let them in, and waffled around some more about whether or not to go, if they should come with us, or what. Then the sirens went off again! We all watched the weather for a second, and determined that I should go to Paul and Diane’s, and they would go to Coleman. By now it was about 7:30, and I pulled dinner out of the oven, but no time to eat! I had to take cover! It was time for us to eat and time for Anna to nurse, but we had to go! So with Anna screaming, rain pelting, and wind blowing, I set off on the 12-minute drive to Paul and Diane’s. It was raining really hard, but I was driving on a little back road, so I had to go slow enough that I didn’t feel like it was dangerous driving. The rain suddenly slowed down to just a few splattering drops, and the wind died down. I heard a dull whining roar. I thought I must be hearing the sirens again, but I rolled down the window, and it wasn’t the sirens. I think it was the storm going over, and I was still 10 minutes from shelter! I knew that at the time, but I didn’t really let myself believe it, so I didn’t freak out. After only a minute or so, the rain picked back up and that sound went away. Anna was still screaming though.

Claire finished her chocolate milk and tried to get me to take her cup, like she usually does, but I said, “Not right now Claire, I’ve got to focus on driving.” I explained to her that it was really stormy, and we had to get to Mamaw and Papaw’s house fast so we could get in the cellar in case a tornado came. She enjoys going in Mamaw and Papaw’s new cellar whether it’s stormy or not, and I explained to her that a tornado is really strong winds that come down from the sky and can pick up cows! I don’t know if this really impressed her as much as I thought it should.

Anyway, we finally made it to Mamaw and Papaw’s driveway. Anna was still screaming in case you’re wondering. As I drove up, I saw two extra vehicles and three people I didn’t immediately recognize staring up at the sky. The people who had been camping with Paul and Diane had come back to their house with them; they were three couples from our church. Paul helped me get the girls in the house, and I immediately sat down with Anna and started nursing her under her tent. Things were so crazy with most people coming in to check the TV, or out to check the sky, that I figured nobody would mind if I nursed Anna in the middle of it all. Then I heard the news lady say that people of Durant should take cover. We were in Calera, so we didn’t think this applied to us. Then the Calera storm sirens went off, and Diane heard another channel say that a tornado had just been seen by a Love’s gas station that was only a couple miles from us. So Diane leaped into motion, shouting toward the back porch where a couple more people were sitting, “We better go to the cellar!” I heard Ruth from our church trill, “Steeeee-ven!!”, one of the people who was standing in the yard with his head tilted back at a 90 degree angle. Anna, Claire, Diane, Ruth, Dee Davis, her dog Bonnie, and I were all in the cellar, and it felt pretty cozy, but there were still five people above, watching the sky! I finished feeding Anna in one of the camping chairs, and we sat down there with the door open, waiting. It still wasn't raining hard--just hard, spattering drops, and the wind had died down again. We chatted about nothing in particular for about 15 minutes, until a couple of the sky-watchers came over and told us the danger had passed; the storm had moved over to the east. We were all starving, and dinner was pretty much ready in the house, so we climbed out and the ladies set about pulling baked potatoes from the oven, cutting up a prime rib, pulling out paper plates and plastic silverware, etc.

We ate dinner at about 8:15, and then went back to watching the storm coverage. I got word from my sister that they had made it back to Coleman, thank goodness. Then we heard on the news that a tornado had touched down three miles south of Coleman! I got a text from the other Kim that she had seen on the news that the Sundowner arena, which she knew was owned by my uncle, had been hit! (They later amended that title, saying that Kyle from their Facebook page had said that the arena is no longer the Sundowner arena. Yup, that was my brother, on fb during the storm!) When Amanda and the rest of my Coleman family emerged from the cellar a little later, we texted back and forth about what we knew about the arena, while I talked and texted with Jay, who was driving back from Ardmore--he’d been meeting with a family in their home about building a house for their parents, and thankfully, that home had a big cellar. They’d been down to the cellar two different times, and the storms had finally subsided enough between here and there for him to head back.

The arena was wrecked, but all my family made it back home safe and sound, thank the Lord!

Claire at 3

2010-05-07T22:16:00.004-05:00

What can I say? This girl lights up my life! Here's a snapshot of my first daughter at age three (minus the negatives, because, hey, it's her birthday!):

She loves to "help" mommy. If I'm not in the same room, she has to come see what I'm doing and usually says, "I wanna help you."
She still loves to read. Favorites right now are Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Hiccup the Hero (I Can Read adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon), Pinkalicious and Purplelicious, and her toddler Bibles. She's off Fancy Nancy and Berenstein Bears for now, but she's had some intense phases of both.
She loves baby sister. She uses this funny baby talk that's this really silly, exaggerated voice, where she basically repeats, "Hi Anna boo-boo! Hi Anna jee-jee!" and other variations of that. Anytime I bring Anna in from a nap, she has to talk to her and "pet" her. She likes to hold her hand while we're driving, but also has a great talent for tuning Anna out when she's screaming in her carseat.
She loves Disney princess anything. It's becoming very predictable. Anything Disney princess we see, we have to stop and look at it.
She loves for me to tell her stories. Often when we're driving, at bedtime, and at naptime, I tell her a made-up story. She supplies the names of the people involved (always herself, and usually her cousins Katelyn and Kerrigan, but sometimes other friends and relatives she's lately played with), and a little about the premise, and I launch into something. I have a couple standbys that are combinations of fairy tales and movies she likes.
She plays really well with all kids that I've seen. The toughest thing is usually trying to get her to leave.
She only takes naps two or three times a week now. We've moved her bedtime up by 30 minutes or so (I try for earlier, but she rarely goes to sleep before 9 p.m.).
She can be bossy to people she's very comfortable with (often me, Mamaw, and my sister Amanda). But if older kids boss her around, she is totally fine with it.
She says she enjoys the scary parts in movies (like Harry Potter, the witch parts in princess movies), and she likes to play pretend, but there's a certain deep voice I use for giants, monsters, etc., that genuinely scares her, and she immediately changes my role, or asks "Are you a giant?" like she suspects I've changed.
She loves her outside-time in the evenings with Daddy: working in the shop, mowing the yard, and hitting golf balls are their favorites.
She enjoys playing Wal-Mart. She says, "You be the lady," and then she asks me questions about where things are in the store, or how much something costs. Then she brings me stuff, and I have to "peep it" and then tell her how much she owes.
She plays in her kitchen almost every night while I cook dinner.
She enjoys Bible class on Wednesday nights and Thursday School very much, although often when I ask her what she learned in Bible class, she tells me "About Jesus crossing on the river." Recently, though, she has actually remembered the Bible story a couple times, and told me a little about it.

Well, I could go on, but I guess I'll stop! I love watching her grow and learn, and I pray Jay and I can help her become the woman God wants her to be.

Claire quotes

2010-05-05T23:34:00.000-05:00

Jay drew a bow and arrow on the Magna Doodle tonight, and Claire said, "I'd like to get a bow and arrow someday!" I said, "What would you do with it?" Claire "Go like this and shoot things." Jay: "You going to shoot a deer?" Claire: "I'm going to shoot a deer. And eat it for dinner."

Me (bemoaning my fourth trimester): "None of my clothes FIT me!" Claire: "You'll just have to wear Daddy's clothes!"

Me: "How about this shirt, Claire?"
Claire: "No, it doesn't match my panties!"

Mother's Day is coming up, so I explained to Claire that we got presents for Mamaw, because she is Daddy's mommy. Claire's response: "No, he's our daddy, we get to keep him!"

Getting close to summer!

2010-04-30T23:02:00.004-05:00

I have two weeks of school left!! I will be so glad when I've got my grades turned in and can start chilling with my girls! Even though my mom won't have a pool until (maybe) later this summer, like we've been used to, I'm still so excited about summer. I'm going to start working out with a friend, write everyday, and play with my girls!

Anna is just starting to fill out and look like she has some physical capability besides lying there and looking adorable. She just started pushing herself up on her elbows really good today and she is still flipping over really fast and then fussing about it, as she's not a fan of tummy time (although she sleeps really good on her belly). She's also found her hands, and loves shoving them both in her mouth at once, as you can see in that second pic with Uncle Ty. We love living so close to both sets of grandparents; Mom and Ty usually drop by our house one weeknight every week, whenever they're in town.

Claire's croup is almost totally gone; she still has a couple nasty coughing fits a day. Once she starts, it's tough for her to stop, unless she sits still and drinks something. We go back for a re-check Monday, and her 3-year-old immunizations.

Claire is already transitioning to no naps at all, unless she feels bad or had a super late night. I've figured out that if we can get her in bed by 8:30, and she can sleep until 8 or so, she can do fine without a nap.

Excited for a chill Saturday tomorrow! (You know you're busy when you're excited to chill.)

Well-child checkups: 1 for 2!

2010-04-26T15:43:00.003-05:00

I've had Claire and Anna's three-year and two-month well-child checkups scheduled for today for over a month now, and I was so glad that I did after Claire's terrible night coughing last night! I might have stayed at home and saw how she was doing today, but I'm glad I had to go to the doctor, because turns out, Claire was not a well child at all! She's had a drainage-type cough on and off for the past couple weeks , but it took a turn for the worse this weekend. The doc gave her a breathing treatment, an oral steroid, prescription cough syrup, and an antibiotic! Now the challenge is to keep her away from Anna for the next day or so! On the way home from the doctor, Claire said her frequent refrain, "Anna likes it when I hold her hand." Aaaaggghhhh!!! Although my instinct was to snap, "Drop that hand right now, little missy!!", I tried to calmly explain to her that she does not need to touch Anna much for the next couple days, since we just found out she's sick, and we don't want Anna to get sick, too.

Poor Anna also had to get three shots and an oral immunization!! She screamed for about one minute until her face was a violent shade of magenta, and then calmed down pretty quickly. She was otherwise calm for the entire hour-and-a-half visit, thank goodness. Claire has to go back in a week, and she'll have her immunization, then.

Here are the girls' stats:

Claire, 3 years:
Height: Hit the three feet mark! She's 36 1/2" tall.
Weight: 29.6 lbs

Anna, 3 months:
Height: 23.4"
Weight: 12.2 lbs (that's almost 4 1/2 lbs gained since she was born--small, but healthy!)

Happy 3 months Anna (one day late)!

2010-04-20T16:32:00.003-05:00

Our new baby girl Anna Jae is three months old!! And yesterday, she rolled over for the first time, from her back to her belly! Go Anna! Now every time I lay her down on a blanket, she flips over, and then starts fussing. Guess she doesn't like the feeling of having her arm caught underneath her and her nose smashed into the floor.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to plan Claire's third birthday party, which is only two and a half weeks away! By trying to plan I mean that I have GREAT ideas, and have bought the paper to make the invitations. That is it. Getting on the ball is really on the top of my list of things to do.

I did two phone interviews today, my first time to do any since Anna came along. One went well, and the other, not so well. During the first one, with an aeronatics engineer (so I was having a hard enough time understanding anything he said), Anna started fussing on the floor, so I picked her up and propped her up to sitting between my legs while I held my phone between my shoulder and cheek and typed with both hands. And no, Anna cannot sit on her own yet. So she wobbled around while I listened, typed and asked questions for all I was worth, until the inevitable happened: she wobbled forward into the table and bonked her little head on it. I had warned my interview subject that I had two little ones home with me today (I usually tell them that, and say it like it's a special occasion, even though it's really everyday), but he just kept right on talking while Anna wailed. Didn't get many quotes during those moments. Also during that interview, Claire was trying to get herself dressed, and kept asking me for help in a stage whisper (I had told her to be quiet while I was talking on the phone.) During the next interview, I was sure to clarify that I actually meant no talking, not just to be quiet. This time though, Anna wasn't quiet, but it wasn't with crying, thankfully. She laid in my lap and cooed loudly the entire time, but the investing consultant never commented on it.

We all took a walk on this beautiful afternoon down to the pond at the end of our road and did Claire's favorite activity: throwing rocks in while making up an elaborate story about the reasons for what we did. Red Riding Hood had fallen in the pond, and sharks were going to get her if we couldn't throw in enough flowers that transformed magically into a rope when we said the magic word. Then we threw rocks at the shark. Then we decided that wasn't working, so we just started making wishes on the rocks that we threw in.

I wished for good cinnamon rolls, because that's what we're working on right now, making my first-ever batch of homemade cinnamon rolls!! Pioneer Woman, don't steer me wrong (because it's obviously all her fault if they don't turn out good ;). Wish me luck!

Fishing tournament weekend = lots of girl time!

2010-03-27T21:23:00.005-05:00

Yesterday and today were Jay's annual fishing buddy fishing tournament (I'm not allowed to publish where it is!), so we have had lots of quality girl time! Last night, the other Kim Mauck and her daughter Katelyn, who is six months younger than Claire, along with our friend Kara, came over and we ate pizza and caramel corn and watched New Moon. Delicious! Claire and Katelyn pretty much ran around screaming and yanking out Claire's toys and books, so we really couldn't hear a whole lot--good thing the visuals are really about 75% of that movie anyway!!

Today, we spent an entire day at home. We’re trying to rein in spending, so I didn’t want to go do any of that, and Mom and Ty were in OKC all day for a Quiz Bowl championship. So I baked like crazy: biscuits, bread, corn muffins, and double-chocolate cookies. Claire helped with the biscuits only, but she loved that. She has a little rolling pin in her little kitchen, so she went and got that. At first, she was wearing her Easter dress (just trying it on), and so I told her she needed to take that off if she was going to help me bake. She said, “I just be real careful,” so I suggested she wear her apron (I got it for her for Christmas; it has her name on it and “Mom’s little helper”). She willingly took off her dress then--she loves wearing her apron, and forgets it’s on top of her kitchen a lot of the time. I suppose if she wore it everyday, she wouldn’t be so excited about wearing it though! Anyway, she got her rolling pin and apron and helped make the biscuits: she mashed the dry ingredients into the shortening, poured the milk, helped me roll out the dough, and then used the biscuit-cutter to cut the biscuits out. This was all highly gratifying work to her. After we cut out all the biscuits that would fit on the pan, I let her have the remaining lump of dough to keep playing with. Who would have thought a lump of dough could keep her occupied for 30mins? She rolled it out, pressed almonds into it, rolled it some more, decided they were bad nuts and took them out (that’s what she told me), sprinkled flour, sprinkled cinnamon (she was thrilled when I gave her the cinnamon jar and let her have free rein with it), and rolled some more. She said she was making cinnamon pizza. Sounds good to me!

Diane got me a bunch of baking goods for an early b-day present, too, so I was anxious to use them. She gave me her King Arthur Flour catalog, and I picked out a whole bunch of stuff wanted to order. So she did, and then when it came in and I tried to pay her, she said it was a b-day present!! What a great surprise--She's pretty sneaky!!

Late-breaking fishing tournament update: in the eleventh year of the tournament, Jay faced 35 mph winds and had a terrible day, catching only a 21-lb stringer (that's the biggest five fish that he and his partner catch). The winning team, however, caught a 35-POUND STRINGER!! That's an average of SEVEN POUNDS per bass! Those are some BIG bass. Too bad, hubby! He is sporting some very wind-chapped, sun-burnt cheeks tonight, but of course, still has the super-pale eye region. That's his usual fishing tan!

My little Disney billboard

2010-03-21T14:42:00.001-05:00

At this point, Claire is wearing a Princess and the Frog T-shirt, Belle sunglasses, Tinkerbell socks, Cinderella panties, and carrying a princess purse. The tutu and pants are the only neutral items. These princesses are inescapable! It's like if I hold up two shirts, asking Claire to pick which one to wear or buy, and one of them has princesses on it, and one has butterflies, she will pick Belle every time. Same with Dora, and even shows she doesn't watch that often, like Ni Hao, Kai-Lan! That recognition reflex has already kicked in--goes to show how powerful it can be when it comes to advertising, even in adults!

Here's my girls in our new double stroller, a fab gift from the hostesses of our baby shower at church. If only Claire would be in a walking mood more often--pushing both of them is a good workout! Usually after her nap, she needs to chill and play for a little while before she's ready to be very active, and when she's ready to go, it's getting dark and/or time to make dinner. With daylight savings, that's changing though, and we're pushing dinner back in favor of outside time. Our new favorite activity is kicking around a soccer ball, with me holding Anna in my Baby Bjorn.

Aunt Manda

2010-03-21T14:20:00.004-05:00

Claire is four weeks older than Anna in this pic. Hopefully Anna will be able to wear that same little ruffley onesie in a month! Amanda spent a night with us this weekend--good times! Claire was so excited to spend some time with Manda, but she was also very tired from spending the night at Mom's house the night before, and then going shopping with all of us that day and skipping her nap. So we put on The Princess and the Frog at about 7pm, and she was asleep flat on her back on the floor by 7:30 and slept until 8 the next morning! Thankfully, Manda was still there that morning to play with her!

Good times!

2010-02-28T16:53:00.001-06:00

Wow, Anna is changing so much everyday! At six weeks old, she is becoming so much more alert, and has actually started smiling in response to seeing our faces. She is also starting to coo, which is so sweet. She is sleeping 4-5 hours in a row at night, so I usually 'wake up" to feed her twice. Obviously, I'm defining "wake up" very loosely here. Usually the first time I feed her, I've got to be honest, I'm in a very hazy semiconsciousness, and then I wake up a few hours later with her sleeping beside me, wondering when and how much I fed her earlier, and I do a more complete feeding and diaper change. I'm so thankful that removing dairy from my diet seems to have almost totally alleviated her tummy troubles. We rarely have the colicky fits anymore, and they only last 30 minutes or so when we do have them. She's still a bit of a carseat screamer, which can make for some stressful driving. But I might have broken her of that with all the driving we did this weekend!

*Deep breath* Saturday, Claire, Anna, and I went to Coleman to eat lunch at Nana's house, as Uncle Danny, Aunt Neila, and Allie were in from Kansas City. Anna got to meet them and Uncle Mike, who also hadn't seen her yet. Claire got to play with Molly (they enjoyed screaming and running up and down Nana and Grandad's hallway while waving stuffed animals in the air) and Allie (they had crazy hair day, putting their hair in silly styles with Claire's ponytail and clippie bag in the bathroom for probably an hour). That afternoon, Claire got a nice carseat nap while I drove back home and changed clothes, nursed Anna, and then loaded her back up, and Jay and I drove to Sherman. We met our friends Seth and Kara there, and Jay and Seth took Claire to Red Lobster--Jay had a gift card and a major seafood craving, but Kara and I were in a hurry to get back to Durant for a play at Southeastern, so we ate at Chick Fil A. I never have a problem with that place! Then Kara and I hit Target quickly, and drove back to Calera, where we dropped off Anna, and then headed to SE to see Grease the musical. It was so cute! Danny Zuko was a Rob Pattinson lookalike, who was probably a much better dancer and singer than that celeb. White guys dancing slightly awkwardly is much more amusing to me than white guys who can dance perfectly--although I do enjoy that at times, too, as you know from my Dancing with the Stars obsession. While we were watching the play, Jay, Seth, and Claire were fighting the crowds at Chuck E. Cheese. It was finally time for Claire's reward trip there, after having an excellent week with on-time and fit-free naps and bedtimes.

Today after church, Anna and I bebopped out to Coleman again for James and Angel's baby shower. So excited for my cousin James, who is going to have twins McKenna and Kasen in three weeks or less!

Anyway, through all that driving this weekend, Anna did have a couple carseat fits, but also several totally peaceful rides, which is progress.

So obviously, such a newsy post as this indicates procrastination of something much more pressing, so I'd better try to grade some papers before one of my girls wakes up!

Getting into a routine

2010-02-24T14:54:00.007-06:00

Midweek visit with Aunt Manda!

This is one of those perfect "Write your own caption" photos. How about, "Oh no you didn't!!" or "Uncle Kyle, what big lips you have!"

Blue Steele. Or is that Magnum? Either way, it's money, baby.

Starting to be mesmerized with toys.

Well, this entry's title is a little misleading. It seems like with two kids, every day is a totally new challenge! But I can definitely say I'm feeling more relaxed, more rested, more in control this week than I have so far. Anna's tummy is doing much better, and Claire's sleep habits are improving by leaps and bounds this week! No fits or super-late naps (after all the reading and delay tactics she can handle) at all. We are planning a trip to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend to reward her for her big-girl behavior. Now that I've said that, I've probably just jinxed us, and we'll have a mother of a meltdown tonight or tomorrow!

We had a very relaxing weekend, and have so far had a good week, except poor Jay has been down with a cold. He got a Z-pack Monday though, and is doing well enough to go to work, as much work as he can do with all this rain. He's got about 10 houses under contract to start building in the near future, but can't begin b/c it's been too wet.

The girls and I drove out to Wapanucka on Monday to see my little brother Tyler play basketball. My sister Amanda was down for two nights, so she was there, too. Claire LOVES Aunt Manda; here's how much. At Mamaw and Papaw's house, if I tell her Manda is coming over that afternoon, she will jump up and say, "I have to go bye-bye, Manda's coming on her way!" If she will willingly and immediately be ready to leave Mamaw and Papaw's, she must really be excited about something! We are very proud of Tyler, who worked hard during his game--he was playing on a team of only fourth-graders, so they only had six kids, so all the kids played a lot more than they're used to. He shot several times, played defense, and made some good passes (no points tonight though, so he was disappointed!).

After Ty's game, we had dinner and got to go visit Nana, Grandad, Dani, and Molly at Nana and Grandad's house, so that was fun, too. Molly loved patting Anna, and saying "bebe!" And Claire and Molly are both big fans of hide and seek (they will both actually go somewhere by themselves and stay quiet while someone looks for them), so they had a big time playing hide and seek with Manda and Tyler.

Tuesday after I went to class and got the girls home from Mamaw and Papaw's (at about noon), Manda came over to spend the afternoon and night at our house. We really know how to show a hip, intelligent grad student a good time, let me tell ya: holding Anna, playing hide and seek and dollhouse with Claire, and watching a movie with big sis on the couch after everyone else was asleep. We had a great time, and hope Manda can take advantage of her laid-back semester with more midweek trips to our house.

An attempt to get a family picture!

2010-02-14T23:21:00.005-06:00

Anna's screaming and Claire's being a stinker!

Let's try getting Claire to hold Anna...nope, she's not going for that, either.

She does want to love on Baby Sister, but does NOT want to have her picture taken doing it...

Maybe next time! The bad thing is, there are so few times when we are all dressed up at the same time! Last night though, Jay and I got to have a Valentine's Day date! Paul and Diane kindly kept the girls, and Anna slept the entire time while Claire tromped them from the Polly room to the computer to the dress-up box. We went to Johnny Carino's and Starbucks. Yum! Claire spent the night at their house while Jay and I ate a yummy chocolate dessert and watched (500) Days of Summer, which I thought was an original, refreshing, well-acted and well-written film. Jay, however, was not so into it, mostly just because he couldn't separate Summer the character from the movie.

Meanwhile, Claire is still being more needy at bedtime than she was before Christmas. But I just have to cherish these times, when she asks to hold my hand while she goes to sleep, lets me stroke her hair, and then when I tell her I'm going to go, but will come back to check on her before I go to bed, and she says, "I'll just wait on you." I'm sure there will be times in coming years when I just wish she would let me do those things, but she won't let me!

Bathtime!

2010-02-11T21:02:00.006-06:00

Three weeks old!

This is actually Anna's second bath; she got her first one during Claire's storytime, so no pics of it. As you can see, she's not a fan. Once I finished her face and head and got her paci in though, she was a much happier camper.

Claire was a good helper! Her job was to pour the warm water on Anna's belly.

After I got Anna out, Claire got Piglet and gave him a bath. I find Piglet buckled into Anna's carseat, strapped into her swing, or covered up in her Boppy. Claire has definitely become very into diapering and caring for her babies and Piglet since Anna came along.

Claire and Anna lounging on our bed one morning. Claire started picking Anna up yesterday! She's not allowed to do this when she's standing up, but Anna was in her swing, and Claire leaned over to love on her like she does, and I went about what I was doing in the kitchen. Then Claire said, "I picked her up, Mama!" Then I actually saw her doing this later--yikes! She leaned over into the swing, hugged Anna to her, and then stood up, holding her! Last night, Anna was sleeping in her Boppy on our bed, and she started fussing. Claire went in there to comfort her (we hoped that meant just giving her her paci), and when Jay went in there a couple minutes later, Claire was sitting on the edge of our bed, holding Anna on her own. Jay reacted a little too strongly, saying, "Claire, what are you doing? Put her down!" Claire reacted just as strongly, saying, "She had a bad dream!" Haha.

Saying she had a bad dream is Claire's new stalling tactic for going to bed. I'll hear her reading her books continuously, and then little footsteps, and she's in the living room, saying she had a bad dream. She doesn't seem to get that you have to be asleep to have a dream.

Trying to get a beauty shot of our baby doll, but she always seems to grimace when I point the camera at her! At least you can tell she has light hair in this picture. See any resemblance to her namesake daddy? We've gotten that comment more with her than we did with Claire, although I think she really looks a lot like Claire's baby pictures.

I was much more dogged in my photo sessions with Claire--cuter expression! But they look alike, I think!

New blog name?

2010-02-04T18:03:00.000-06:00

Any catchy suggestions for a new blog name? I was trying to think of some play off of To Kill a Mockingbird, or something along the bird theme, b/c I love my template and poem so much. Hmmm....anyway, new blog name to come, and suggestions are welcome!

Anna update!

2010-02-03T13:57:00.004-06:00

Happy B-day, Mama! Claire was significantly past naptime in this pic, so was being a stinker, but I thought it was still a good pic of the rest of us!

Anna got to spend some QT with Nana, Aunt Betty, and G-dad for Grandmom's B-day. She was so alert for Nana here, I had to get a pic!

I braved my first solo trip with both girls today, and do hereby deem it a success. Of course, I didn't have to be at Anna's doctor appointment until 9:30, and it was a very chill waiting room with a TV on Nick Jr. BUT I consider myself quite the conqueror still, since I was up with Anna last night from about 3 to 5:30--feeding and then a major tummy attack. Oh yeah, and I also chose that time to watch the 2-hour LOST premiere, which actually ran about 30 minutes past when Anna fell back asleep! Note to self: If this tummy problems continue (which I obviously hope they don't), keep DVR stocked with shows to watch in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I told Anna and Claire's pediatrician about these attacks, and that Mylicon and Gripe Water do nothing for them, and she gave some prescription drops for stomach pains, and recommended I try cutting out dairy. YIKES!! I've been tracking my diet and when she has these tummy attacks for the past couple days, and I seriously have milk, yogurt, cheese, or ice cream with or after EVERY MEAL!! I will at least try it for three or four days, and earnestly hope (I dare not pray over something so silly) that dairy is not my baby's problem!

Anna is now two weeks old and up to 8lbs 7oz and in otherwise great shape, according to the doc.

In other news, Claire has reverted to her baby sleep habits of needing Jay or me to stay with her until she is asleep or almost. I have been indulging this, knowing she is probably just needing some extra mommy and daddy touch time, but yesterday it was pretty chaotic when Anna had a tummy attack right at Claire's naptime, so Claire was stuck singing to her dollies and reading EVERY BOOK in her bedside book basket (I would say a good 25 books) for an hour plus while I stayed on the other end of the house trying to hold Anna in every position imaginable to give her some degree of comfort. I would have just let Claire get up after that, but by the time I got Anna to sleep, Claire was asleep too, and I felt in dire need of a nap of my own!! Speaking of which, I think I shall retire for some much-needed zzzzs. Any advice on how to get Claire back into her big-girl bedtime routine is welcome.

At home with the girls!

2010-01-24T19:32:00.005-06:00

Anna is five days old today, and we're all doing well. Claire has been home with us since Friday, and so far, being mother of two has been a wonderful thing! Of course, there have been a few times when both girls needed me at once, especially at Claire's naptime, when she's used to having my full attention. Anna mostly just sleeps, waking up to eat, fill her diaper, or put up with whatever torture I have in store for her (changing clothes, sponge bath, medicines). She's had a stuffy nose ever since she was born, and a nurse gave me some saline solution for it, so I've been doing that and the bulb syringe--both very tricky since neither instrument will fit into her tiny nostrils, and since they both usually need to be administered several times in the middle of the night. But so far it seems she will sleep anywhere: swaddled in her bassinet at night, in her swing or Boppy during the day, and of course, curled up in an admiring relative's arms. She is doing well nursing about every three hours, often four at night.

Claire is doing well with Anna, but for a lot of the time we've been at home, I've had someone else at home with me to give her attention, too. Every time she wakes up, it seems like it's a delightful surprise to have a Baby Sister again. She comes right over to her and "pets" and nuzzles her. She likes holding her, but usually only for a short time.

I hate to think that on the day after tomorrow I have to leave her to return to class at SE! But it's just one class, so only an hour and a half to two hours, so hopefully it will be okay. Although I am kind of considering wearing her in my sling or Bjorn!

How Anna made her entrance

2010-01-22T11:49:00.006-06:00

So here's how it all went down: I went to my "officially overdue" doctor appointment on Monday to see if I'd made any progress and schedule an induction for sometime this week, as my doc doesn't let his patients go more than a week overdue. I thought it would be best if I could make it to my SE class on Tuesday, and then be induced, so he told me to come in for a cytotec pill on Tuesday afternoon. Sure enough, Tuesday morning around 2 a.m., contractions started waking me up! Luckily, my body didn't go into freakout mode like with Claire and not allow me to sleep. I dozed during the seven to fifteen minute gaps between, and although they never got regular, they were definitely pretty hard. Of course, I was laying down, which is probably the least efficient way to manage pain.

Claire also woke up twice during this time with a fever! So I gave her alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol to try to bring it down.

In the morning, Jay called Diane to ask her to come over to take Claire to the doctor. As I mentioned in the previous post, Claire had had a gunky eye for a couple days, and now with this fever, we didn't want to take any chances on her getting worse and/or getting baby sister sick. So Diane got there lickety-split, and I took it easy all morning, counting contractions and trying to rest up. After lunch, Jay and I went to the hospital. By the time we got checked in and I got hooked up to everything and finally got checked for progress, I was already at a 5! So the nurses and doc said I didn't need any induction meds; they would just see how I progressed. That was at about 2 p.m. I was really antsy to get up and move around as my contractions got harder, but they were lasting so long that the doc wanted to keep me hooked up to the baby monitor to make sure her heart rate didn't dip too low. So since I had to stay in bed, I went ahead and asked for the epidural, and got it at about 4:30. It was perfect; I could still feel the contractions mildly, and wasn't totally numb in my legs like last time.

For the next few hours, I just visited with the people who were anxiously awaiting Baby Sister and read my book--gotta love the epidural! Claire came up at about 6, and was not too happy to see Mommy lying in bed all hooked up to stuff. She was much happier to play with visitors in the waiting room.

By 7:30, I had gotten to a 10, and it was time to push! Twenty-five minutes later, she was here! It was awesome! My nurse would coach me along through a contraction--three big pushes per--and then I would talk and laugh with Mom and the nurses (Jay was entirely too nervous to say much). That's pretty much all there is to tell! It was a very smooth process; thank you all so much for your prayers for that very thing! We got to go home the next night after Anna had hit the 24-hour mark, thank goodness. I barely slept at all while we were there. I was a little nervous about being comfortable at home without nurses waiting on me, but it was so much nicer sleeping in a quiet house in my own bed. After Jay got over the trauma of the birth, he was an excellent helper at the hospital and at home. :)

Claire just hit the 24-hour mark on her antibiotics, so Diane brought her home today, thank goodness. I'm so glad to have both my girls at home, and now I'm ready to get us into a good two-kid routine!

Welcome home, Anna! Get well soon, Claire!

2010-01-21T14:21:00.003-06:00

We're so happy to be home with a healthy baby girl and healthy mommy! Such huge blessings, it almost feels more like a miracle! We're getting ready to take Anna Jae up to the hospital to retake the jaundice and hearing tests. Not worried about it, but it has to be done.

And Claire is still not home with us, we're sad to say. On Tuesday when I was going into labor, Diane took Claire to her pediatrician for a gunky eye she'd had for a couple days, PLUS she'd been feverish in the night (while I was also starting my contractions!). Turns out, it was conjunctivitis in her eye, a viral infection that is contagious! So she got eyedrops and an antibiotic for the fever, and didn't get to meet Anna Tuesday night, instead going home with Paul and Diane after they came back to the delivery room and met Anna briefly.

Claire's eye was almost totally better Wednesday, when she got to meet Anna (and was absolutely delighted!), and the fever was gone, but then it came back Wednesday afternoon when she was home with Mamaw and Papaw. Diane just started the antibiotic this morning, as we didn't think we needed it on Tuesday or Wednesday. So Claire might not get to come home until tomorrow morning when she's been on her antibiotic for 24 hours.

On the positive side, Anna had a great first night at home. She did need some saline solution in her nose and some tummy drops, but she just woke up to nurse twice (she's a marathon nurser though!), and we both slept until 10:30!! So I feel like I've recovered all the sleep I lost in our noisy hospital room.

Full birth story to come!

January Birthdays (still waiting on a few!)

2010-01-14T20:36:00.004-06:00

I am officially 40wks today, and still no baby sister! However, I haven't given up hope yet! There's still three more hours of due date for me to go into labor! In the meantime, here's some pics of our slew of January birthdays! So far, we've celebrated Amanda's (shopping in Frisco), Baby Izzy's (one-year-old party at Nana and Grandad's), Jay's (dinner at Paul and Diane's, b-day breakfast, and lunch at my mom's), my dad's (dinner at his house), and we still have two more! Baby Sister's of course, and my mom's is January 31! Jay's brother Brian's is also the day after tomorrow! The previous pics are from Isabel's party, which is actually in December, but the party fell on Amanda's birthday, January 3.

Last weekend, Amanda stayed a night with us and accompanied us for a doctor appointment, pedicures, and haircuts for Claire and me! Claire was very still and solemn for both of these first experiences for her. It was a fun girls day! I could show you a picture of me all slouched up in my pedicure chair, but really, who wants to see that?

I subjected 23 students to me and my big belly today, as I made it to my first day of class at SE. I got a burst of shocked laughter when I told them that today was my due date, and several grateful grins when I said that we would probably not be meeting for class very regularly for the next couple weeks. We will still have online work to do, though!

Christmas 2009!

2010-01-04T12:22:00.006-06:00

Still no baby news, so I thought I would go ahead and post our Christmas pics. I just did a video of the Christmas morning at our house, so no pics of that. We had Christmas Eve plans at Dad's house, but moved that to Sunday because of the snowstorm. So Claire and I stayed in, baked about a thousand cookies for Santa, and wrapped presents. Christmas morning we woke up to a couple inches of snow and icy roads, so we did our family Christmas and had breakfast, and then loaded up my car to head to Coleman for Christmas with my brothers, sister, mom and Grant. That was a no-go! At 9:30, our road was a sheet of ice. We turned around and came back to the house, loaded up Jay's 4WD truck, and tried again. Once we got off the side roads and onto the highways, the roads were much better, but it still took us about 45 minutes to make the 30 minute drive to Coleman. No big deal, but I think the fam was pretty hungry for my French toast casserole by the time we got there! So the previous pictures are of Christmas morning at my mom's house (Nana and Grandad's old house). Claire and I stayed in our pajamas all day and we played new video games and board games, went for a walk in the snow, drank hot cocoa, and ate soup. Perfect, relaxing day with family!

I wish we would have thought to get a group picture at every house we went to. That should be a must!

That evening, we went to Paul and Diane's house, even though Jay's brothers couldn't make it down because of the crazy blizzard in Edmond. So we went ahead and exchanged gifts with them and ate some ribs.

Saturday was the big Pannell get-together, and I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that yet, as my old camera doesn't work inside well at all. So I will have to wait until I get copies from Mom and Sister. But that was a big day of family and games. Dirty Santa with 20 some-odd people was interesting as always, with the added hilarity this year of typed and printed handouts of the official rules. We have had arguments in the past within this competitive family that slowed down our game! Uncle Matt kept us all laughing with his constant consulting of the rules for every possible infraction. I ended up with an OU Snuggie and Jay got a car detailing kit, which Mom asked if I would be using. Ha! We'll see how long that thing stays in the box. The Snuggie, as you can see below, has already gotten good use! This is on New Years Eve night, when we watched the DVR'd OU bowl game at home.

Saturday night, we went back to Paul and Diane's straight from Coleman to eat some pancakes and open gifts with Jay's brothers and their families. It's so fun with so many kids, and such a good range, from 2 to 13. No pictures from this either, because again, I hadn't gotten my good camera from Dad yet!

Sunday after church, we went down to Pottboro to have Christmas at Dad's house. Finally, I got my good camera, but it didn't get charged until after my siblings and Grandma had already left! But here are a few pics from his house anyway. We had a fun day playing on Dad's new Wii, playing Nertz (Amanda and I, despite the fact that our team had the most combined experience with the game, finished dead last one game, and next to last the other! I think we've both lost our touch :(, and Jay and Claire even capped off the 40-degree night with a dip in the hot tub!!

After Pottsboro, we drove back to P&D's house, as Kyle and Audrey were still down, to play some golf (cards) and let Claire play. This makes three days in a row that Claire's only nap had been in the car in between Christmas celebrations, poor girl! We also chose this fabulous time to take away her pacis for naptime and bedtime--Santa took them from her stocking to give to other boys and girls who are smaller and need them more! It's still taking a little too long to get her down for naps and bedtimes, but it's getting better bit by bit. One more pic of Sunday night, when the two girls were playing dress-up with Mamaw!

It was a wonderful weekend, and it took about a week to recover from it all! By Thursday afterward, my Christmas stuff was all still up and baby gifts were still piled up in the laundry room in gift sacks! I was totally stressed, but on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Jay and I finally got a bunch of stuff done--gifts sorted, clothes washed, Christmas stuff down, bassinet up, hospital bag packed, name list narrowed. Whew! So now, I just have a couple more baby things to check off my list before I feel ready to relax and wait! Of course, it won't be total relaxation; I still have two story deadlines this week and my SE class starting next Thursday! We'll see when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance in the midst of all that!

Done with school!

2009-12-13T22:38:00.007-06:00

More pictures taken by my photography-inclined brother!

Claire pretends to hang an ornament showing our dearly departed Shadow. Just a sidenote on that loss: This has made me realize how perceptive Claire is (and I'm sure most children are) of my feelings. Several times in the last week, when I sigh, sniffle, or am just quiet for a little while, she'll say, "Are you sad, Mama? Sad about Shadow?" And I'll say something along the lines of, "No, I wasn't thinking about Shadow, but it does make me sad to think about him." And she'll say, "Shadow was a good boy." That's what I told her in the couple days after he died, when I was still crying sometimes, that it was okay to be sad, because Shadow was a good boy and we will miss him.

Claire hanging her stocking: we're going to try putting her pacis in here on Christmas Eve, so that Santa can take them to younger kids who need pacis ;), and she can get treats in her stocking. She still gets her paci at naptime and bedtime, and that's it, but she definitely wants it at those times! She has mentioned Santa taking her pacis and leaving stuff in her stocking two different times out of the blue since we talked about it, as though it is part of the plan, so we'll see how it goes! (I know it's kind of a weenie approach; I should just say NO and take it away, no bribery or silly stuff, but I'll try that if the Santa thing doesn't work!)

Loving on Mama's belly! She sometimes lays her head on my belly and says, "Love you, Baby Sister." She did this once at my suggestion, and I guess she could tell I was so pleased with it that she has done it quite a few times of her own volition now.

So I posted my final grades on Friday, and that makes me DONE with school until next year at least! I still feel a a bit of stress over getting my curriculum for next semester ready, considering I want to arrange the first couple weeks of my semester so that I can do part or all online work. I'm teaching one section of Comp 1 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:30, so that's a nice, light schedule, but it's anyone's guess how those first couple weeks will go, depending on when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance and how long it takes me to recover.

We had a great weekend, with Jay and I taking a semi-successful date night on Friday while Claire spent the night with Grandmom and Papa in Coleman. Saturday, Claire and I did a bit of Christmas shopping with Mom and Tyler while Jay went hunting. Then we went over to Paul and Diane's house to wish Paul a happy birthday and eat a quick bite before going to watch the SE men's basketball team get slaughtered. They're actually much better this year than last, but they were playing an undefeated, nationally ranked team. Came home and watched the Heisman ceremony after putting Claire down--disappointed Colt didn't get it! Jay's gotten quite a few comments this year that he looks a lot like Colt McCoy--I see that they both have round cheeks, green/blue eyes, and blond hair, but the resemblance stops there in my opinion. Jay is definitely way better looking! (And that's a compliment to Jay, as he is always accusing me of thinking every college athlete is cute :)

Today we had a baby shower in between church services! Our church family is so good to have a shower for us for our second child, and our TWELVE hostesses got us a Sit and Stand stroller so that Claire can ride along with baby sister. It's also compatible with the baby carseat we have.

This week, I've got a story to work on, Christmas cards to get out, a bit of Christmas shopping to finish up, and a smaller baby shower on Saturday! I'm putting off getting everything set up for Baby Sister until at least next week, so let's hope she waits that long to join us! Everyone keeps giving me that knowing grin and asking or telling me about how "READY" I am to have this baby--apparently misery is written all over my face and posture. Anyway, I am so NOT ready!! Not only would Baby Sister have no place to sleep (bassinet not assembled yet), no clothes to wear (they're all in the attic or in gift bags with tags attached), and no diapers (am going to go with washable ones this time), but I still don't feel mentally prepared for being a mother of TWO!! One is suddenly seeming entirely too easy, and I'm already feeling bittersweet about saying good-bye to these days of picking up and going wherever with my one laid-back daughter. I'm worried that when I finally get all my baby girl stuff down and organized, I'll realize there actually are more things I need that I didn't tell anyone before my showers and I still have shopping to do!! Anyway, to answer everyone's "I bet you are SO READY," I would like to say I am most certainly NOT, mentally or physically. Give me just a couple more weeks of lugging around this basketball-belly, Baby Sister!

Last two hardcore weeks

2009-11-30T23:55:00.003-06:00

I have no idea what I'm doing still awake after taking a Benadryl, but here I am. Perhaps it's the post-shopping high I'm still on from checking so many names off my list after some Cyber Monday shopping! What I really should have been doing is grading papers, as that deadline is a bit closer than my deadline for Christmas shopping! But for a die-hard online shopper like myself, Cyber Monday is not to be missed!

We had an excellent Thanksgiving in Kansas, filled with the usual great food, wild Black Friday shopping, four-wheeling (eight in use this year!), Nertz, and kid chaos! We now have FIVE two-year-olds, all born in 2007, so you can imagine what it's like with all them, plus the five older ones, in one basement together on the eve of bedtime! That was my last hoo-rah before Baby Girl Mauck arrives in January, and I came home with a sore back from that six-hour drive, and an upper respiratory infection! My OB put me on an antibiotic today, and put me on a schedule of OTC meds, too, so hopefully I'll kick this thing quickly! It's tough enough sleeping with this basketball on my front (one of the things it was lovingly compared to last week, as well as a prosthetic movie belly), without having to add in coughing and congestion!

The Pannell family will start looking more like that next year at this time, when we will have five new babies all born within a year, too! So exciting! It looks like it will be three boys and two girls, if all ultrasound predictions prove correct!

As always, I have grading AND a story deadline this week! They never seem to stagger just right; it's been both at once all semester! But I'm so thankful to have a great combination of part-time jobs that keeps me busy and fulfilled, but still home with my girl most of the time! Once I get my final grades turned in in two weeks, I'll be in full-on Christmas and baby prep mode, but one thing at a time!

Chill Family Weekend

2009-11-15T13:51:00.003-06:00

I have officially taught my last session of Comp 1 this semester! No, the semester is not over yet. But this week and next Monday before the break, I'm just meeting with students individually for their final papers and presentations, and then the week in between the break and finals week, the students will be doing their presentations. That's a little bit of pressure off, but I still have the dark cloud of final grading looming over my head!! One more month until it's all over, and then another month until my due date!

After last weekend's hustle and bustle, it was so nice to take it easy this weekend. Friday night, Jay worked until dark and then came home to our first ever Family Movie Night! Even though Jay fell asleep within 20 minutes of Monsters Versus Aliens, it was still a great night. Claire and I fixed chili and cornbread, and then hot cocoa and popcorn. We made a pallet in the floor and watched it "all togever," as Claire said with delight. I considered taking Claire to see that movie in the theater, and I'm glad we didn't end up doing that--it was neat in parts, but definitely slow in others. I was glad we could pause it for bathroom breaks and talk and read during the Presidential conferences.

Saturday, Claire and I hit the library and a couple stores in downtown Durant before lunch. Claire and I both scored big--both shop owners just loved Claire, and gave her free candy, and I actually got two people marked off my Christmas list!

I savor these casual shopping trips--Claire is such a good shopper, even in a gift shop like The Hollow Tree with quite a few breakables and racks of jewelry and such. She loves to pick things up and say, "Oh, that's cool" or "That's cute." Anyway, I know these days are numbered, as when Baby Sister comes, shopping will be a bit more trouble, although I'm sure still doable while she's still content in her carseat/stroller.

Jay came home to "work on some floor plans" after a morning of work in Calera and golf with a college buddy, which meant he ate lunch, watched football, and then headed to the office and made phone calls until Claire and I got home from an afternoon of more shopping! This time, we were on a mission for winter clothes for Claire, which we found along with Mom and Ty. Mom and Grant celebrated their SECOND ANNIVERSARY on Saturday--I cannot believe it's been two years already!!--so Grant met us in Sherman to take Mom on a date, and we took Ty back home with us. That night, we went to our church Harvest Dinner. While Claire napped yesterday, I made a strawberry pretzel salad and a caramel pecan pie for the dinner--both were great! I will try to post them on the sadly neglected cooking blog.

Here's a video of Claire "reading" her toddler Bible--she'd only heard these three stories once a few minutes before when I read them to her, and then I came back in the living room to find her re-reading them. I was really pleased to hear her say, "Look at the birds people! God doesn't feed them!" from Jesus' awesome "Consider the lilies" passage. She loves to "read" her books and is getting to where she loves for Jay and I to tell her stories about her and her friends. These are usually adaptations of her favorite books and movies--usually either Goldie (a spin on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or The Three Little Pigs, with her and her friends' names substituted for the character names.

I've got to write this down before I forget it. A couple nights ago, Claire woke up a little while after I'd put her to bed saying she needed to go pee-pee. This is almost always either a stalling tactic or a signal that she's just woken up for some reason and wants me to put her back in bed. So after a fairly unproductive sit on the potty, we went back to her room, and Claire said, "I saw something in my room just now." This is a new thing; I can't remember her telling me she was scared of something or even telling me a story about something happening like that. So I looked around and said, "There's not anything in your room right now. Did it scare you?" She said, "Yeah. Sometimes, in my room, I see something over there," and pointed to her dresser. So I did my best to explain to her that she doesn't need to be afraid and that sometimes things look different in the dark and that can feel a little scary. I just thought that was so sad and sweet that her imagination is starting to sort of backfire on her, and that this has apparently happened before, but she is just now telling me about it.

Proud moments for the Mauck family!

2009-11-09T11:42:00.007-06:00

We welcomed our hunting hubby/daddy home Friday night from his WEEK-LONG trip to western Kansas. Claire and I spent the week in Coleman at Nana and Grandad's old house/Mom, Grant, and Ty's temporary house while Jay was gone. I really don't mind staying by myself that much, but last week I had a story assignment to travel and write for, and a slew of papers to grade, so I really needed some built-in evening babysitting help. I ended up coming back to Durant everyday to feed our animals and run errands, even when I didn't have to be at school. Claire stayed with Nana and Grandad two mornings while I went to school, and really enjoyed playing with their toys (that trash bucket full of toys has served many grandkids, and now great-grandkids!) and spending time with them, along with Aunt Betty of course. I liked getting to watch Dancing with the Stars and Project Runway with fellow fans who aren't two and a half (Love dancing with Claire, but adult conversation is nice occasionally, too!).

Jay spent the week waking up at the crack of dawn, hunting until lunch, coming back for lunch and a bit of a rest, and then heading back out at 2 or 3 and staying out until dark. NO cell phone signal meant we didn't get to talk for THREE DAYS, probably the longest ever in our relationship. Maybe it was just pregnancy hormones, but I probably could have just sat down and cried a couple times if I had thought too hard about that. Jay did get a Kansas buck, a 200-pounder we will use for meat and mount for our wall. We have a nice upper corner of our cathedral ceiling in the living room where a deer is barely visible unless it is pointed out. I still am not a huge fan of feeling a dead animal's glassy eyes staring down on me.

Saturday morning, Jay got back behind the wheel, this time with his wife and daughter in tow, to head to Edmond for Jay's induction into the Oklahoma Christian Athletic Hall of Fame. Paul, Diane, and Ike Miller, a family friend from our church who has taught Jay to golf, and has watched him play basketball since he was in elementary school, followed fairly close behind us.

I'll just go ahead and brag on my talented hubby for just a minute. During Jay's three years at OC, he broke the career scoring record (even with a knee injury that cut a year out of his career!), and led the OC men's basketball team to one of its best seasons ever. He was NAIA Player of the Year his junior year (again, even after his season-ending injury), and is the OC record-holder for most 3-pointers in a game and season.

Too bad I never got to see any of those things! I was just telling Jay it's ironic that so many people know him because of watching him play basketball, and I am probably the person who knows him better than anyone else, and have never seen him play! I probably saw him play in high school, but I was four years younger, and didn't play close enough attention to really remember.

Anyway, Jay dropped Claire and I off in Norman after we ate lunch with Amanda, so that Claire could get a nap and be rested for our long afternoon and evening. Don't know how much good that did, as this little one was a LIVE WIRE during the basketball games and the banquet. Jay got to watch the women's game, seeing a girl from our church who graduated from Durant High School last year, score 11 points for OC! I wish I could have seen that; hopefully we'll get to watch them again this year. Amanda and I came on a bit later, and slid into our seats just in time to see Jay's slideshow go up on the big screens. Whew!

After the slideshow, with an announcer voice-over that told all about Jay's accomplishments, the OC Athletic Director Curtis Janz went out to center-court with Jay and held up the banner of him that will be hung up in the gym. He got a standing O!

Girl-cousins at the game! It was so hot in there, no matter what skinny old Amanda says.

For the banquet that night, the program was really neat. Also being honored with Jay were Stan and Betty Green, the longtime OC Sports Information Director and his wife, who was a longtime athletic department secretary. After they got up with several pages of notes for their speech, Jay and I exchanged nervous grins--of course, Jay had only written down a few words on his iPhone by way of notes. For Jay's part of the program, they of course read a bunch of his most impressive awards and records, and then showed the slideshow from the basketball game, and some game footage from the OC/OKCU game where Jay turned it around in the last few minutes with some three-pointers.

Then four people got up and gave testmonials of all Jay had done for OC. His freshman-year roommate, Clint Vaughn, who also played baseball at OC, talked about how Jay was not a big man on campus, even though he could have been. He was kind to everyone and humble, despite his ball-hogging on the court--hehee, couldn't resist!

Then the national championship winning OC golf coach, Kelsey Cline, who didn't know Jay personally, but was a fan of his, talked about the fan base Jay and his team built up for the basketball team, and how he still tells people today that Jay is the best college point guard ever. (Lots of tossing around of the word "best" tonight.)

Then Jay's former teammate, Rob Seat, got up to really warm up the crowd. He got them laughing so much that by the time Coach Hayes and Jay got up to give their talks, we already had big smiles on our faces. Since Rob is also 5'8", he cracked a joke about how he and Jay were one of the most intimidating 1-2 combos many players had ever seen. He also made a real crowd-pleasing joke about Coach Janz' hair, which of course, is a favorite subject for any OC basketball fan.

Coach Hayes also talked about Jay, of course, and it almost brought tears to my eyes when he described watching Jay get injured at the OBU game. I can't imagine what a heartbreaker that was for the Maucks, Jay's team, and all the OC fans, when they were so close to conference play in an undefeated season. Many people will make comments about Jay's talents using the phrasing "pound for pound" or "inch for inch," qualifying his abilities by saying that for a player his size, he's the best. But Coach Hayes said there is no pound for pound or inch for inch. He was simply the best point guard and best shooter he's ever seen. *tear*

Then Jay got up to give his talk, which of course, was mostly off the top of his head, but totally heartfelt. He said that OC is a family, and you don't realize what a support system you have until you leave. He also talked about how difficult it was to transition to not being an Eagle anymore, how that at the first Southeastern huddle he was a part of, he actually shouted "Eagles!" at the end when everyone else said "Savages!" He told a couple stories about people not believing that he was a basketball player when he was trying to charge his books to his athletic scholarship in the bookstore (the worker actually called to verify it), or at the pre-game dinner for basketball players.

Here's the Paul Mauck family who was present: oldest brother Brian, his wife Jennifer and their kids Zach and Abby, middle brother Kyle (his wife Audrey was at a church retreat, and his kids Carson and Kerrigan were home with Mimi), and Paul and Diane. Hopefully the OC staff got one of Jay looking at the camera; Amanda, my faithful photographer, was a little rushed. Other Maucks who were present were Jay's cousin Tracy, an OC alum who opens her home up to us every Thanksgiving, and who was in for a reunion of her college track team, and Jay's uncle Don, Paul's brother and another OC alum (most of them are!), who was in for a class reunion.

The proud family!

And one of the sisters! Look closely; there are actually TWO sets of sisters in this one! So exciting! I was glad Amanda got to be here for this, both to share this neat time with her, and so that she could help with Claire, who really needed to do some running around during this two-hour-plus banquet.

Even though I didn't ever get to see Jay in his basketball glory days, I am still so proud of him, not just for his God-given and hard-practiced physical abilities, but for his good heart and friendly smile. Those are what bring so many people to his team, not just for Calera, or OC, or later, for Southeastern, but through all of those experiences where he excelled, the light that Jay projects has always been for Christ.

Trunk or Treat

2009-10-31T23:33:00.003-05:00

Tonight, we went to the Trunk or Treat and Carnival at 7th and Beech Church of Christ, which was a lot of fun. Here's Claire and Katelyn, who was an adorable butterfly.

I could not choose between these two pictures; both too cute!

She shoots, she SCORES! Aralyn (in the Cinderella dress to the left) and Jay were both coaching her along.

Bounce house, always a highlight. Claire discovered she could go down on her belly, and did that probably 20 times. Kate Albright, to the right on the slide, is in Claire's Thursday School class, and was Bob the Tomato.

Pumpkin Patch!

2009-10-31T22:44:00.008-05:00

Holidays are when you really realize how much FUN it is to have a child! It's suddenly totally okay to be unabashedly thrilled over kids' Halloween costumes, getting free candy, playing cheesy carnival games, and going to an awesome place like a pumpkin patch!

Claire got to wear her Halloween costume four times this year, and we lost a crucial piece to it each time, so that by the end, she was fairly unrecognizable as Abby Cadabby. Her poof pigtails and wand both *poof* disappeared, so we had ourselves one very cute fairy or butterfly.

Since my last post, we've been to the Coleman Halloween Carnival--a total madhouse, definitely no photo ops there--Baker's Acres pumpkin patch in Tishomingo, and the 7th and Beech Trunk or Treat and Carnival (another post on that to come).

Mom, Tyler, Dani Rose, Molly, and Aunt Donola went with us this morning to the pumpkin patch, and it was surprisingly almost empty! We had every attraction almost completely to ourselves, including a private hayride! It was amazing! And this place had so much to do, as you will soon see.

Claire and Molly on the hayride.

This train cracks me up: it was plastic feed barrels with holes cut in the side, welded to wheels and a frame, and attached to a four-wheeler! The seats were 2 x 4 that the kids straddled, so ouch-ee-momma for the mommas who had to ride, like Dani!

Hay slide! Tyler is so good about helping Claire get along, and doing it as many times as she wants. Oh the perks of having older siblings, which we will very soon know!

Huge barrel full of corn, with lots of scoops and buckets to play with? Wow, what an easy, fun thing for little ones, right? Totally, until they get up, and fish HANDFULS of corn out of their underwear. Not surprising for Tyler, but Claire just sat down for a few minutes at the end! We had them throw their bobo corn onto the ground of course, but think of how many kids didn't!

Feeding the donkeys! There were buckets of feed for each set of animals just sitting in the middle of the barn with cups, so we could get as much corn or pellets or whatever as we wanted. The goats enjoyed this a little too much, of course. Enjoyed meaning butted each other out of the way to shove their noses into our cups. There were also bunnies, chickens, calves, and pigs. Seriously, I would have no chance to coo over these adorable--and if not adorable, then funny--animals if it weren't for Claire!

Tyler got into these duck races a little too much. You pump the water down this sawed-off PVC pipe so that a rubber ducky shoots down the stream and into a tub at the other end. Mom showed that we are definitely related when she bent over to pick up a duck and her sunglasses fell off her head and into the tank. Ha! So something I would do.

Neat little race track with pedal go-karts. Ty and Claire were not ready to stop, but for Mom's sake, we promised caramel apples and they hopped right off.

YUM!!

Fall Fun

2009-10-29T14:55:00.003-05:00

We're in the midst of a bustle of Halloween activity--what a difference a year makes! This year, Claire actually understands the concept of Trick-or-Treating, and is excited about it. We went to our church's Fall Festival last Saturday night, where we got to do a hayride, draw pumpkin faces, and do a costume parade. Claire's favorite part of the evening, though? "Playing Ring Around the Rosy with Kim and Katelyn." This lasted like five minutes, and then Claire and Katelyn took up their favorite activity, racing back and forth from and screaming.

That is incidentally the same way that Claire dances when we watch Dancing with the Stars. This past week, half the couples danced the jitterbug, which of course has super-fun music, so she and I would boogie hard for about two minutes, and then wait for the next dance. As soon as the music would stop, Claire would say, "Another dance, Mama?" She still likes to comment on the girls' crazy outfits, saying "Oh, that one's funny" (her usual comment for Karina's ridiculous feathered outfits), "That girl's nekkid!" (a usual refrain on weeks with a Latin dance) or "That dress is pretty." (We're big fans of the ballroom gowns--Claire sometimes calls them princess dresses.)

Today was the Thursday School Fall Carnival, and Claire LOVED it! They had a bunch of little booths set up in the gym, all easy preschooler games, as well as a Bounce House, and pony rides outside! Wowee zowee, was she in hog heaven! She does so well with taking turns and when something is over, saying, "That was so fun!" or "Now I ride the pony!" or whatever else is next. Of course, the good thing about this type of event is that her bucket is full of candy when it's over, so she's perfectly happy to leave!

This weekend, we've got a [last-minute!] trip to the Pumpkin Patch, the Coleman Halloween Carnival, and a church Trunk or Treat. We might go to the trick or treat at the college this evening, too, we'll see. It's in the newest dorm--At least then Claire would get the experience of actually knocking on doors for candy!

Fat girl acting skinny

2009-10-23T23:01:00.002-05:00

...and finding that skinny I ain't! I'm officially in the uncute stage of pregnancy. Say what you will about a glow, being "all baby," or looking "so cute," I don't feel any of it!! The third trimester last time was when all of a sudden, everyone thought I was due any day, and the idea that I was still a month or two from my due date was simply ludicrous. At 28 out of 40 weeks, I'm already getting this reaction. Getting up and getting comfortable are already becoming difficult. Lifting Claire is a challenge, and hiking from my car to my third-floor office three days a week almost kills me.

So suffice it to say, I'm not one of those crazy girls who loves being pregnant, but I've certainly been blessed to have an almost-completely complication-free pregnancy, with no morning sickness or strange cravings. I guess I'm more like one of those vain girls who gets tired of having a body that doesn't feel like her own.

On our schedule for this weekend: one of my little brother Tyler's basketball games (third and fourth-grade ball, always a show), a birthday party for a dear family friend, and our church's fall festival for the kiddos. Not sure where Claire's nap is going to go in all those Saturday afternoon/evening activities. Jay, meanwhile, is all in a tizzy because muzzle-loading season starts tomorrow, so I've been busily washing all his hunting clothes (which have been crammed into a camo duffel--UNWASHED--since LAST hunting season) in scent-block detergent.

Next week, we've got my 28wks dr. appt, a birthday tea party, Thursday School Fall Festival, and of course, Halloween. Claire's going to be Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, but it's a homemade version, so really, she'll just like a super-cute fairy in a blue-and-pink tutu, wings, and a *poof* wand! (Abby's trademark phrase and hairdo: Poof!)

Somewhere in between all that and prepping for my classes, I've also got an Oklahoma Today deadline looming--another Dining Guide, in which I call 20-25 restaurants and get really hungry. Seventeen interviews down already, but still got the writing to do next week!!

Naming Baby Sister

2009-10-14T22:17:00.002-05:00

We have obviously been talking over baby girl names a lot lately: not enough to satisfy me, and too much for Jay's taste. I like to run names past Claire, not that she will actually have any hand in choosing the name, but it's funny to see what her reactions are. So far, her suggestions have been Marabelle (the doll name of one of Claire's favorite book characters, Fancy Nancy), Annie (she's a fan of the movie musical), and Moto. I don't know where she got that last name; she named a robotic dog that, and then started using that name for lots of things, including baby sister.

Life is good!

2009-10-11T23:27:00.002-05:00

We had a great weekend of family and couple time! Jay and I have not been doing a very good job of making time for just us, so this couples retreat could not have come at a better time. Date nights have fallen by the wayside in the past few months!! We only got to go to the retreat on Friday night, but it was still so great to just be around adults talking about strengthening our marriages for a couple hours. The drive to and from Pettijohn gave us some good talk time, too. My favorite thought from the night was that Ephesians 5:33 can provide us with a good guide for our feelings toward each other: "...each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." If the husband doesn't love his wife as himself, the wife has a difficult time respecting him, and if wives don't respect their husbands, men can't love them as they should. I feel like for me anyway, the love part is intuitive, but the respect takes a little more work. So it's important to remember that a husband really needs to have respect from his wife to be able to love us the way we want to be loved.

Mom, Grant, Amanda, and Tyler kept Claire for us Friday night, and we went ahead and let her spend the night with them, since we were going out for the Coleman Centennial Saturday morning. That was only her second night without both of us in her life, and her first night at Mom's house without us! So needless to say, Claire stayed up verrry late and ate lots of sweets! We arrived Saturday morning before nine to find her sitting on the Highway 48 Church of Christ parade float with a Tootsie Pop in her mouth! The parade had a total of three floats, a handful of antique tractors, ten or so kids riding decorated bikes, a bunch of local fire trucks, a dozen or so horseback riders, and a swooping helicopter! The Community Center was all decked out with Coleman history displays, yearbook photos, and a slide show, so that was pretty cool. Between my mom's and dad's families, and people at mom's church, it seemed like we knew people in almost every graduating class! Mom's grandpa was in the second-ever graduating class from Coleman, and his sister I believe, was in the first. Mom's grandmom had the coolest graduating picture, a full-body group shot of her and three other girls wearing these super-cute flapper dresses with pearls, patent shoes, and wavy hair.

It was great to see so much of our family and schoolmates, even though it was SO much colder than I thought it was going to be! I don't mind cold weather if I'm dressed appropriately, and I definitely felt in need of another layer! It makes it even worse when I know Claire isn't dressed any warmer than me! We ended up eating an early lunch at the community center and then going back to Mom's house for an early nap. Jay pulled on a hat and another layer and then took our car to go fishing with his cousin while I stayed to hang out with the fam and watch the OU game. Go Sooners! It's kinda sad when we have to be so excited about a win over Baylor, but it was good for the old Sooner morale to see Sammy B back and in fine form.

We've spent today just being lazy. I was a "feeder" at church this morning--four women share the fellowship meal after church every Sunday, and I was in charge of veggies and salad this week. So after making corn casserole, cooking frozen green beans, and putting together broccoli slaw and a tossed salad, and then helping serve, clean up the church kitchen, and then coming home to clean up my kitchen, I was pretty tired! So of course, I didn't start getting stuff ready for school tomorrow until 10:30 tonight!

Here's to a week of love and respect!!

Good times

2009-09-24T23:41:00.003-05:00

Hey guys, sorry I've been such a lazy blogger. Since my grading and story-writing frenzy died down, I've felt a little restless, and have been spending my computer time searching for new jobs! So far, I'm really excited about pursuing writing some lesson plans for readwritethink.org, the resource website for the National Council for Teachers of English, and possibly doing some freelance public relations work. That last one is really still hypothetical; I've talked to several local people, but no one wants to spend extra money on PR right now. So hmmmm....if it's God's will, I'll find some jobs, and if not, okay! This week I had the ephiphany that I've not gotten several full-time positions in the past couple years that I really thought would be absolutely perfect for me, but God had a better plan for me! I know if I would have gotten any of those jobs, I would be totally committed and wrapped up in them still, and feeling torn about having Claire in child care and all that. This time a year and a half ago, I actually said to Jay that what would be absolutely ideal for me, professionally, would be if I could teach a couple classes at the college and do freelance writing, and that's it. And look where my wishful thinking got me!! I really feel like I gave that to God and He has rewarded me so richly with this great balance of work and family.

We've been just cruising along lately, taking it easy mostly: watching football games and hanging out with family on weekends, and doing our normal weekly routine. Jay is going nutso about hunting season coming up--having to do all these various trips and duties associated with preparing for the big day of bow season opening! Last Friday night, I asked him if he had to work on Saturday, and he said he did, and I made the mistake of not asking him what he would be doing specifically. Turns out working was brush-hogging on my uncle's ranch to clear sight paths. Lovely. I needed to go shopping for Claire's fall play clothes, anyway.

I've also been pretty wrapped up this week with the premiere of Dancing with the Stars, of course! Ah, the sequins and spray tans are back!! How I've missed them. I could really do without the three-night extravaganzas though. I can't keep doing this.

I guess I better document this little incident which other people seem to think is hilarious, but I still think was nothing but annoying. Maybe in the future, I'll be able to appreciate it. I met Claire and Diane at McDonald's the other day after class, and I was hanging out with Claire for a little while after she finished dipping her apple slices in ketchup (repeatedly!) to play on the playground.

I've only ever played with her at the Chick Fil-A playground, and turns out, its climbing steps are quite a bit shorter than the ones at McD's. Claire could get up them with some extra effort, but getting down was the problem. You see where I'm going here.

I encouraged her to go up to the car at the top, so yes, I know, this whole thing was really my fault. Hence, its annoyingness. Anyway, Claire made it to the car at the top and was quite pleased with steering it toward the on-ramp directly ahead of her. When it was time to go, she crawled back through the tunnel with no argument, but then as she eased herself over the edge of the first step, she apparently realized her legs weren't quite long enough to reach the next step while she held onto the window above.

She started calling, "Help me, Mama!" I calmly assured her she could do it (as she had done on the lower steps that didn't have that window to cling to). She apparently thought I couldn't hear her well enough though, because she only yelled louder, combinations of "I can't do it, Mama" (one of her new favorite saying--how do I deal with that one?) and "I need help!" and "Help me, Mama!" Finally, I eased through the kid-size tunnel and sat on the first step. Tried calling from there, thinking my closer proximity would ease her nerves. Nope. Managed to get my feet under me, stooping very awkwardly in my swingy maternity skirt, lean forward to the next step, and then twist my protruding belly around to sit on it.

Again tried to talk her down; she just kept yelling. I repeated this horribly awkward process, hoping no one is looking through that bubble window at my grunting twists and turns. When I finally reached the point where I could see her feet, they were dangling no more than TWO INCHES above the next step!! When I saw this, my pleas became as frantic as Claire's: "Claire, just drop down; you're almost touching! Let go, you'll be on the next step!" I tried yanking on her ankles a bit, but she was not letting go! One more step--Stoop, twist, grunt, and sit again. Wrest Claire's fingers from the holes in that stupid window, and hoist her down each and every step while she cries.

When we finally got back in the car, what was her first comment? "That was fun, Mama."

School days...

2009-09-04T13:57:00.003-05:00

Claire and I are settling fairly well into our school routine: Mondays and Wednesdays, she goes to Mamaw's and Papaw's house while I teach classes and do office stuff from 8 to 11. Thursdays, she goes to Thursday School at 7th and Beech from 9 to 12. And Friday, she stays with my good ol' cousin-in-law, Kim, and her daughter, Claire's buddy, Katelyn, for a couple hours while I go to school. I usually spend naptime either doing stuff for my writing or doing stuff for my class, and then when Claire wakes up, we usually do some house cleaning or errand-running.

Thursday School has been awesome the past two weeks; I've had Oklahoma Today deadlines both weeks, and have used that time to pound out a story. Claire seems to really enjoy school--the first week was a little rough, only because she didn't want to leave! She just about threw a fit to stay and play with Play-doh. Also that first time, Katelyn got upset when her mom started telling the day's Bible story, and couldn't hold Katelyn, and that made Claire start crying, too! But since she now understands about me coming to get her after lunch and some Play-doh time, she's fine with it and says bye to all her teachers and friends just fine.

Yesterday, I asked Claire what her Bible story was about that day, and I asked, "Was it about God?" She said, "No, Jesus!" and then I asked, "What did Jesus do?" and she said "Crossed the river." I asked her if he walked on water, and she said "uh-huh." So in any event, Claire remembered learning that Jesus at some point crossed a river.

Claire is also becoming quite bossy, and sometimes about weird things. Like if I lay my head down on Jay's shoulder in the car, she almost always says, "Don't lay your head down on Daddy, Mommy!" and sometimes she adds, "Sleep in bed!"

She's also becoming an avid drawer of things, usually cows and deer and fish. Hmmm, is she a country girl or what? But her shapes are actually starting to look somewhat like the animals they're supposed to--a cow is a big humped circle with sticks coming out of the bottom and back, and a deer has additional sticks coming out of its head. A fish is again, a humped circle, with a few other shapes drawn around where the fins would go.

Speaking of fish, Finding Nemo is definitely her movie of the moment. She loves the sea turtles, and will say, "Did you see me? Did you see me?" like Squirt, or "Gimme some fin" like Crush. Also, the other day, she asked for something, and I said, "No problem," and she said, "Like Dory!" And if I say something like "Ah!" she'll sometimes pipe up with some "Hoo hah, Hoo haha"s! It's pretty funny.

Here are some other highlights from the past couple weeks:

Saw Mamma Mia in Dallas with Kim and her mom and sister. So fun! Probably one of the most enjoyable musicals I've seen.
Went to Norman last weekend to do some interviews and exploring for two Oklahoma Today stories. Claire and I spent the night with Amanda and got to go to Edmond to see my niece Abby in a musical production of Annie. We went to the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History Saturday morning. Claire loved pushing all the buttons on the interactive exhibits and playing in the kids' Discovery Room. We even got to see some lizards get their daily dose of crickets doused in powdered vitamins!
As I posted on FB and texted almost everybody in my phone (including one person who didn't know who I was--whoops, old number!), we found out we're having a girl, and are thrilled. It's going to be neat to have two girls two and a half years apart, almost just like my sister and I. We are actually just 21 months apart. I had my five months' appointment this week, and everything is going well.
I've starting to feel the baby's movements in the past couple weeks, which is amazing. Jay's even felt it a couple times.
I wish I could think of something exciting to report about Jay, but he's just staying busy, as always. The other day I asked him, "Don't you feel like you're so overworked since you've been working most Saturdays this summer?" And he said, "No--Haven't really thought about it." He said if you're working for somebody else, getting up at the crack and working on weekends is a pain, but when you're working for yourself, it's just what has to be done, no bad feelings. Or something like that.
Oh! I thought of something about Jay--He is building my Nana and Grandad's house in Coleman, right next to their old house. So that's really exciting; they've been in their house now for like 40 years or something (Aunts and uncles, correct me in the comments!), and it's going to be so nice for them to have a new, sturdy brick house where the family can all gather a little more easily.
But we'll still have to suffer through a few OU games in the old house though!

Speaking of which, BOOMER SOONER!

ABC's and weekend with Aunt Manda

2009-08-18T14:15:00.006-05:00

Forgive my banging around in the kitchen during this!! This is the best ABC video I've seen of Claire yet, and she skips Y and Z! Usually when I grab my camera, she forgets about performing. Amanda must inspire that in her!

My sister Amanda and her dog Lucy spent a night with us last weekend, which Claire and I both thoroughly enjoyed! We jumped on the trampoline, went to the park and did some shopping at Bliss Boutique. I was right; that store is so Amanda. Her one repeating comment was only a tad offensive to my beloved hometown: "This is so not like a Durant store." We also watched girly movies (Ella Enchanted when Claire was awake; Confessions of Shopaholic after she went to sleep--Hugh Dancy-a-thon!! That's okay with me!). Lucy kept wanting to explore our house, so Claire kept having to tell her, "Come back here, Ucy!"

I also started school yesterday. I'm teaching two sections of Comp 1 at 8 and 9 a.m. YIKES! That's a shock to the system after Claire and I have been waking up in the 7:30-8 range most of the summer! Plus, Claire and I both had terrible nights' sleep Sunday night, so we both had long naps on Monday afternoon. But my classes went well. I'm apparently a pretty long-winded teacher, as I kept both my classes for at least 40 minutes, whereas my office mates both made it back within 25 minutes. Last semester, my schedule was opposite those of my office mates, so we communicated only through Post-Its, but this semester, we teach on the same days, their classes right after mine. They're both girls close to my age and have or are about to have young children. So that's fun.

Claire starts Thursday School at 7th and Beech Church of Christ on Thursday--her first Mother's Day Out program!! Her cousin Katelyn goes to the program, too, and Katelyn's mom Kim is a volunteer, so that makes me feel so much better about it!! It's from 9 to 12:15, I think. There's a parent meeting tonight. She's picked out a lunch box and Dora yogurts for her lunch (why she gravitates toward Dora products, I don't know; she barely watches the show). I think we'll make cookies tomorrow for her lunch, too.

Big ultrasound in T-minus 30 minutes!!

Trampoline!

2009-08-14T09:27:00.002-05:00

We got a trampoline a few weeks ago, and Claire loves it. We didn't go for the net around the outside, so she's already flipped off of it once. That was only because Tyler was here and she was acting like a nut; she was so excited. She just put her head down on the blue mat and flipped right off onto the ground! But then she wanted to get back on after she cried for a minute.

Taking a break!

Huck likes to "jump" with Claire. Every time she gets on, he hops up and hangs out with her.

Beach pics (finally!)

2009-08-10T12:36:00.004-05:00

Well, we had a great trip, but I've been in get-ready-for-school mode since we got back! Sorry for the delay; it's probably not so exciting to hear about at this point, but just for posterity's sake, here goes...

We were on the beach three days and one evening, and had a great time boogie-boarding, snorkeling, and playing in the sand. We went with our friends from church, Seth and Kara, and Jay's cousin Matt, his wife, Kim (also Kim Mauck!), and their little girl Katelyn, who is six months younger than Claire. Outside of our immediate families, these are some of Claire's (and our) favorite people to hang out with, so Claire had lots of playmates. We drove the 15ish hours (with the all the stops we ended up making!) in our two loaded-down SUVs.

We all shared a three-bedroom house that was in a private neighborhood near a public beach, so we walked a few blocks every morning to the beach. After three or so hours at the beach, we would walk back, eat lunch, shower, and then have a nice rest time, where the girls took naps, and some of us did, too. The guys went and played golf one afternoon, while the girls went shopping.

Claire and Daddy play in the sand.

Daddy buried Claire in the sand between our beach chairs.

Our first night at the beach, we were in our clothes b/c we were about to eat dinner, and Claire got soaked by a wave that caught us by surprise. We had to strip her down and let it dry for the rest of the time!

Kim entertains the girls during our SECOND dinner at Dewey Destin Harborside!
Daddy and Claire lounging. Our last day, we drove to another public beach that paid snorkeling trips boat to, so we could snorkel. There was a super-calm inlet (pictured above), where all the snorkelers were, one empty one, and one super-wavy one, so we got a little bit of both. Jay, Kim and I had what felt like a near-death experience when we got caught in a current in what I dubbed Jellyfish Cove (the empty one--probably for good reason)! It's all fun and games snorkeling until you realize you're out of breath, caught in a current, surrounded by fish, and right next to a rocky jetty!! We had to climb up on the rocky jetty and pick our way along there until we got to water where we could touch. BUT by then, I had cut my toe on a rock, and was bleeding!! Matt, the fishery biologist, assured me that a shark would NOT come into that little cove and get me, so I hopped back in and walked back to shore on shaky legs. Good times...

Claire and Katelyn had a great time one night at a fun park we went to that had a little kiddie ride area and a putt-putt course. We had a hard-core couples tournament--Jay would probably not like it if I told how Team JK did.

Great times on Lake Texoma!

2009-07-20T08:27:00.006-05:00

Whew, what a great weekend! Every year, the Maucks have a big family get-together for a week on Lake Texoma. Lots of fishing, swimming, great food, and visiting! All the little kids loved it--there was a street in between the Maucks' campsites, and they kept it busy with bikes, trikes, and Big Wheels. We also kept a bunch of dump trucks in a pile of rocks and dirt over to the side. Between that and the giant water trampoline that the guys anchored in the middle of the our little inlet, the kids had a great time.

At our lake church service Sunday, we had 39 people present (and four had to leave early--missed ya, Gail, John, Raegen, and Lauren!). It's always so awesome to worship with family you don't see very often in God's creation!

Of course, I only get pictures of the cute kids, and not any of Jay and I, the adults, or the fish!

PaPaw with his youngest two granddaughters.

Claire coloring with her third cousin, Logan.

Claire and Katelyn enjoying an evening boat ride.

Claire, Katelyn, and Katelyn's first cousin (Claire's third), Dylan.

Claire, Kerrigan, and Katelyn play with the trucks!

Carson gives Claire a hand on the trike! She can reach the pedals on this one, but she still can't figure out how to push.

Our little stinker

2009-07-13T23:56:00.004-05:00

A sampling of some of Claire's new habits:

Wiping kisses off (with a big mischevious grin!)
Saying "I go pee-pee," watching me leap into action, and then saying (again, with a mischievous grin), "No!"
Banging her fork on the table, saying "I play drum!" When I tell her to eat, she replies, "I just playing."
Feigning deafness when I tell her to come here. (She must have caught that one from her daddy;)
Other, far less endearing responses to various orders and requests--some that come dangerously close to fit-throwing. If she crumples on the floor or starts crying to get her way, I usually just have to start the good ol' 1-2-3 count in that ominous-mommy tone, and she says, "I do it!" after 1.

New baby update!

2009-07-11T09:28:00.005-05:00

Well, I'm sorry readers, for so far not mentioning the biggest news of our lives! I put it on Facebook, as I'm sure all of you saw, but I haven't talked about it on the blog, as Lissa pointed out to me today!

Just to give everyone the full story, I'm 13 weeks pregnant, with a due date of January 14. Jay's birthday is January 10, and Lissa is due January 16, so this little one could share a b-day!! As far as my well-being, we waited until 12 weeks to tell everyone, except our parents, because I did have some bleeding at 5 weeks and a couple early ultrasounds that showed a spot that was almost as big as the baby. But at my 8wks ultrasound, my doctor said there was nothing to worry about anymore, since there's been no bleeding and the spot was no longer there. Praise God! That first trimester was so nerve-wracking for me, but the whole pregnancy process really just shows how amazing God made our female bodies!

I haven't felt sick really at all. Maybe once or twice I felt so fatigued and nauseous that I had to lay down for a couple hours, but that's all. Not even much heartburn. Although I must say, my belly is popping out so much that I already am feeling the sleep discomforts of the third trimester! Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I certainly don't remember feeling like my belly was in the way so early last time! I'll try to pose for a belly pic soon, but Jay has been so busy lately that I'm already out of my cute pregnancy clothes by the time he gets home.

Claire is really excited, when she's reminded of the baby anyway. If I mention my belly, as in "Don't lean on my belly Claire; be easy!" or "Oh, my belly is full," she'll say "Baby in there!" and then usually, "I hold it?" She's learned my response by now and says, "Get a little bigger."

Next week is the Maucks on Lake Texoma; so excited!

Potty trained girl!

2009-07-11T09:14:00.005-05:00

Well, we're pretty much there! After three days of mostly staying home and changing a bunch of panties, our little girl is going potty like a big girl! Yesterday, she just had two little dribbling accidents, and one was my fault b/c she told me she needed to go, but I didn't believe her, b/c she'd just been like 30 minutes before! The other time, she told me she needed to go, but she tried to put on her flip-flops before running in there! This morning, we were both "working" on the computer--me on the laptop and her on her Baby Einstein computer, and she told me she needed to go, but said, "I need to work on 'puter," so she ran in to the bathroom with it, and then continued to punch buttons while she pee-peed!

We've had several triumphs of potty-training, and several majorly frustrating moments--she told me she needed to go while riding in the car Thursday, and waited until we stopped, got her and her potty out and then went on the potty, her panties staying dry the whole time! But then this morning when she got out of bed, she totally wet down her pajama pants as she was walking to our bedroom. Last night in the middle of the night though, she woke up and said, "I need to go pee-pee" and went in the potty and then went back to bed. So we're definitely still working on it, but I'm very proud of her!

Great summer weekend!

2009-06-28T21:45:00.002-05:00

Well, since I turned in my two stories last Wednesday, Claire and I can go back to summertime relaxing! Tbey were both for Oklahoma Today: I had one on an Ardmore restaurant, and one that was a collective of TWENTY-FIVE restaurants across Oklahoma. So I got a great meal for the first one, and a ton of phone calls and no free food for the second one! But as I posted on FB, maybe it's better that way--I had to describe so many dishes in detail, it was kind of like tasting them all without actually eating them! I can definitely say that I want to try a few in person though, including the Fancy Mac & Cheese at Iron Starr BBQ in OKC, the fried chicken at Eischen's in Okarche, and the pasta at Pete's Place in Krebs (I've been there before, but it's been a long time, and writing about it made me want to go back!).

Last week, we enjoyed a visit from Holly, Jenny, and Mattie while their parents went on their yearly anniversary trip. We went swimming, but the water in Mom's pool is like a bathtub, and the sun was beating down so hard it wasn't even enjoyable until like 6 p.m. But we still had some good old Keep Away on the Diving Board fun (a Shipman/Pannell family original!). Claire has gotten to where she really enjoys going underwater! She likes to jump to me, and I let her kind of fall underwater for a second before I pull her up. Might look like torture, but she wants to do it again and again! She also loves sliding down the slide at Mom's house--with Mommy of course.

Holly spent the night with us Thursday night, and we stayed up way too late watching movies. Claire really enjoyed watching movies with Holly when she woke up the next morning, too! That always makes her so happy to see that someone who was at our house the night before is still there the next morning. Tyler stayed at our house for two nights the week before last while Mom and Grant were in Alaska, and she thought that was so neat--Ty and Jay together read Claire her books both nights.

Friday night, we went out to Madill to the Edmonds/Green family reunion we've been crashing for a few years now. The man who Jay always fishes with on that private lake has a ton of his wife's family down for a week every summer, and we usually go out one night. We went fishing off their dock this time, and kept catching these little perch that Claire loved to throw back in the water. Jay would try to get her to hold them by the mouth like a "real" fisherman, but she just liked to grab them around the body and throw them in. Then we went on a nighttime boat ride with some of the fam on this little pontoon that they call "The Love Boat."

Friday, Claire and I went to the library and farmer's market, and then in the afternoon when Jay got home, we went to Sherman to eat and do the last of my VBS shopping. I'm in charge of the outdoor games this year, as I was last year, and it starts tomorrow! Our church just revived our VBS last year, so it's fairly small, just three nights and for three-year-olds to third-graders, but one- and two-year-olds whose moms are teaching in the VBS stay in the nursery the whole time. So Claire and I will be busy this week, at least until Thursday.

We had a great service tonight as part of our Summer Singing Series, where Layne Heitz did a combination song service and lesson, talking about the purposes of different kinds of songs--encouragement to ourselves and one another, evangelism, and of course, praising God in different ways. He talked about two of the Greek words for worship: Proskuneo, to blow a kiss to in reverence, so a very personal, emotional kind of worship, or Latreuo, to serve or offer gifts, so the "bringing a sacrifice of praise" kind of worship.

After church, we went fishing at my Uncle Gary's pond. They weren't biting tonight though. I think I actually caught one, and then Jay had three jump off as he was reeling them in, and that happened to me twice. We actually bought Claire a junior fishing rod Saturday, and she was happy to reel it in a few times, but then since we weren't catching any like we had Friday, she just started wandering between Jay and I, finding stuff to pick up and throw in the water.

Here's to a great week of VBS, and this weekend, America's birthday and a big day of family and fun!

Not feeling too good!

2009-06-18T23:30:00.003-05:00

I think Claire must be cutting a molar; she's been running around a 101 temp since last night. I started asking her if she felt hot or sick throughout the day just to gauge how she felt, so now she's started saying it. "I hot, Mama. I sick." It's so sad! This evening, I was trying to do a quick phone interview while she sat on the floor reading a book. We had talked about her being quiet before I made the call. ("Mommy's needs to make a phone call; what do you need to do?" Claire: "I be ki-et.") But during the call, she climbs up on the couch next to me and sits with her head on my shoulder. No harm done so far. Then she starts to cough a little. Then she turns her head and coughs right into my ear, and right into the phone. Then she says, again, right into the phone: "I cough, Mama. I need med-cine." The lady I was interviewing at this fancy restaurant goes, "Uh-oh, I heard that!" Oh, the perils of being a work-at-home mom!

Here's hoping Claire's little tooth comes through so she can go back to normal. Tonight we ran over to Matt and Kim's house to drop off stuff for their garage sale, and I told Claire several times that we wouldn't get to stay long because we didn't want to get Katelyn sick, like Claire. So she was so good when we left after only a little bit--just frowning and quietly saying, "I sick, Mama. Don't get Tatie sick." But on the way home, she started saying, "I see Tatie in morning." I don't know where she got that! But we're going to try to go hang out during the garage sale if Claire feels up to it.

Five years of marriage today!

2009-06-12T12:57:00.002-05:00

Five fun memories from Jay and my marriage (all numbered one b/c Blogger is weird):

Playing two-on-two volleyball on our honeymoon with a couple from Coleman, OK. (They had the same wedding day AND the same honeymoon package in Puerta Vallarta!) Jay and I usually make it a point to NOT play on the same team in sports or games, because we have different competitive spirits, shall we say. We're both competitive, but in sports, Jay thinks I'm not trying hard enough when I do badly, and I think the same of him in games. But in the past five years, we've learned to compete together, I think. This year, we actually played a game of Nertz as partners without getting mad and won a series of volleyball matches as a team.

My first Thanksgiving with the Maucks in Kansas: Jay shot a deer, but was the last one in the deerwoods, and this was at about oh, noon, when we're CARVING THE TURKEY! So his dad, cousin, and uncle wolfed down some food, drove out to meet him, and processed the deer so that Jay got back to his darling wife after I had been hanging with his family--some of whom I was meeting for the first time--for about six hours. We drove home with a deer head and an ice chest full of meat, along with all our Black Friday purchases of couse. Tight squeeze.

Jay and I got our first dog, a full-grown stray yellow lab that we named Beau. He was well-trained in fetch, sit, and come, so we wondered at first why he was a stray. Then he jumped our fence, repeatedly, and we figured it out. One neighbor told us he put him in his six-foot fence while he tried to get a hold of us, only for Beau to jump it. Someone else told us they saw him push the fence latch up with his nose. That dog knew come, but he did not know stay. So we gave him to another couple who loved him, but had to keep him in their house to keep him at home.

Going fishing with Jay the first few times: He comes to the understanding that I will NOT participate in his usual four-hour fishing excursions unless I get a padded seat and a book. To him, if you can't go for at least four hours, it's not worth going. To me, if I have to sit on a metal seat for four hours with no entertainment besides casting and reeling, I'd rather jump in the lake. Jay gives me the "pity reel," when he gets a fish on, doesn't tell me, and then asks me to hold his rod for a second, watching my delight when I realize I caught a fish.

And of course, the birth of our first child, Claire! That same year, Jay and Preston bought a restaurant and I began my short stint as a high school teacher, so it was so busy! But Claire was the uniting blessing through it all: she never fails to make us laugh and smile and work together.

Fun times with cousins!

2009-06-11T23:05:00.004-05:00

Audrey, Kerrigan, and Carson came down this week to hang out for a few days, and the kids had a great time playing together. Katelyn came over and got in on the action, too.

I don't know why playing in the dirt pile was so much fun on such a breezy day. They were rubbing dirt out of their eyes half the time.

Riding four-wheelers is always a must-do at Mamaw and Papaw's. This is actually a kid-size four-wheeler that you don't have to shift. Don't think it's made for three passengers--except in the case of expert driver Papaws!

Fun in the slip-n-slide--wearing their clothes! They had their swimsuits on earlier, but Mamaw turned it on when they weren't in them, and Kerrigan went over and started drinking the water squirting up. The other girls followed suit, and then Carson, and finally Obi, the new puppy! They were all soaking wet by the time it was all said and done.

Kerrigan was the most serious about getting drinks!

Summertime, and the living's easy...

2009-06-06T10:56:00.005-05:00

YUM!

Don't just laugh Tyler, save her! Claire was acting really silly this day, kept jumping up and down on the steps, going under, and then coming up laughing! That's why Tyler was just laughing at her.

It's Saturday, and OF COURSE Claire wakes up earlier than she has all week: 7:15! I know for many moms, this is actually late, but Claire usually wakes up around 7:45-8:00. And OF COURSE I decided to stay up late reading because she had gone to sleep fairly late, around 9:30. No such luck with the whole sleeping-in-on-Saturday thing. Oh well! Every day is a blessing, so might as well get up and enjoy it, right? So far today, we've read our new library books (I already finished mine!), watched cartoons, taken a joint shower, and baked cookies. Claire already knows it's her job to stir, unwrap the butter, and of course, lick a beater and spoon (I still reserve the right to one beater!).

Jay rolled out of bed pretty soon after Claire came in our room, and got a phone call from Nana, asking if he was at the job site yet! Ha! It's so funny to me that he got that call. Last night, Jay arranged for Nana and Grandad to come look at his homes in Calera to get some ideas for the kind of home they want Jay and Grant to build for them. So at 7:20, Nana called to tell him they were already in Durant! I guess they were excited to get going on the house! We're all excited about Nana and Grandad's new house; we hope to start on it this summer!

So Claire and I have had a great summer week, with shopping, a play date at the park, a trip to the library and farmers market, and an afternoon at Mom's pool! It doesn't get much better than that! Play time's over for me for a while though; this week I also got two story assignments, both due in two weeks! Actually, it really won't affect our schedule that much. I usually just make phone calls and write in the afternoons during Claire's nap and post-nap milk and TV, and then get a babysitter whenever I have to make a trip and also just before my deadline. I love my part-time job! I just sometimes wish it was a little more regular. It seems like when it rains, it pours! I'm sort of trying right now to find some sort of monthly paid writing assignment.

Anyway, we're both looking forward to this afternoon, when Claire will go four-wheeling and fishing with Daddy, and I'm going to go see Up with Mom and Ty (and maybe a few other fam members, not sure yet). Hope you're having a GREAT summer, too!

Claire's favorite things to say right now, some stinker and some adorable:

"No! By self!"
"Happy birthday to Kerrigan!"
"HIJKLMNOP" (She usually sings this and Kerrigan's birthday song together! Have tried to get this on video several times, and she has yet to cooperate, although she has been singing this on and off all day for a week!)
"What you doing, Mama?"
"What's that?"
"Don't want to...[anything I want her to do]"
And of course, the perennial two-year-old favorite: "MINE!"

Fun Edmond weekend!

2009-06-01T14:29:00.004-05:00

I love weekend getaways! We should plan them more often, as we usually just wait until we have some specific event to go somewhere for, and then sometimes make a weekend of it.

This weekend, it was Kerrigan's second birthday party! But we managed to squeeze in a bunch of other activities around it! On the way to Edmond, we ate in Norman with my sister, and then went over to Jay's fishing buddy Eric's house, as they have a new baby boy, in addition to their 3-year-old and 6-year-old boys. We finally made it to Kyle and Audrey's around 9:30, and Claire was still wide awake! Eric's boys had her revved up with plenty of swinging, sliding, golf, and soccer.

The next morning, Jay and Kyle went golfing with some friends, while Claire and I went to the zoo with Amanda. Sadly, I didn't have my camera all weekend, so I don't have any pics of that. Luckily, Audrey got plenty of good ones at the party later, though, and some of those are below. Anyway, we had fun at the zoo, despite the heat, which kept many of the animals hidden and/or motionless. Claire could have watched those stationary alligators for a lot longer than Amanda and I wanted to! Actually, the bears were fairly active, since they have a pool to swim in. We saw a baby black bear taking a dip, and one grizzly kept pacing back and forth, coming within inches of us, on the other side of his glass wall! And the new dinosaur exhibit was really cool. Life-size, animatronic dinosaurs, where the kids can actually push buttons to make them roar and move different body parts! Claire was a little scared at first, but she got into it pretty quick.

The party was fun, and Claire loved playing outside with her cousins! With a swing set, a trampoline, a slip 'n' slide, and a kiddie pool, Claire, Kerrigan, Carson, Zack, and Abby went from one thing to the next!

We even got to go fishing in Kyle and Audrey's pond, where the fish are practically tame! They're fed and fished almost daily, so they appear totally comfortable with getting caught for a short time--literally, we would drop a line in the water and just watch 10-15 perch swimming around the worm, trying to grab it without getting hooked, and then within five to ten seconds, we'd have one on! It's the perfect fishing experience for kids! Jay even caught Big Boy, one of the big catfish Paul put out there a while back.

After we left Kyle and Audrey's we had to fuel up, and we love stopping in at Pops, the new Route 66 attraction just down the road from their house. Even though it's always crazy-busy on Saturdays with motorcyclists and families, we can't resist that huge drink selection! I got a vanilla cream soda, Claire got a banana milk, and Jay got a Dr. Pepper icee. We could have gone crazier, but we have learned in the past that sometimes it's best to play it safe!

Fun weekend!

2009-05-25T22:11:00.004-05:00

Last week was my first week out of school, and Memorial Day was a perfect ending for it! By Wednesday, I had all my chores and errands done, and I was like, hmmm, what now? Diane gave me a half day to write, and that was awesome! Three hours of writing is a beautiful thing. It makes me think if I wrote full-time, I could crank out a book in like six months!

Friday evening, Mom and Grant had a cookout, so we headed out there for some of Grant's signature burgers and some swimming and volleyball. It was fun hanging out with some of Grant's family (his two kids, son-in-law, and granddaughter, and his parents) and his friends. The volleyball bug has officially bitten my brother Kyle now, though--he's already planning another v-ball showdown for tomorrow night! For anyone who has never seen my brother play v-ball, it's like watching a weird mix of Speedy Gonzalez and Fred Flintstone--he is all over the place: diving, jumping, doing his little tiptoe serve, and constantly sacrificing the body.

Saturday, Claire and I had a delightful morning hanging out on the back porch in our swimsuits: me laying out reading my latest library book, The Book Thief , and Claire alternately playing in her "pinkle" (sprinkler), reading her own books, and messing with Shadow and Huck. That afternoon, we took the recycling over to Big Lots, where we found people sitting out selling puppies! We pretended to be very interested buyers of baby chihuahas, chi-weenies, weenie dogs, and a yorkie. (The fallback excuse: "We have to talk to Daddy about this first.") So cute! We had a laid-back dinner at Paul and Diane's that night.

Sunday, we went to church as usual, and after that, a lunch of beans and cornbread and fried potatoes (delicious and nutritious ;), and Claire's nap, we headed out to Madill to an old Mauck familiy friend's lake house for another nutritious meal. We threw everything we could get our hands on in the deep fryer: potatoes, onion rings, breaded crappie, hush puppies, and even some chicken fried chicken!! We also ate some fresh cantaloupe, watermelon, and strawberries, just to get some vitamins in there! Then we got to go fishing on this beautiful lake--surrounded by God's glory at sunset. It was awesome. Claire loved touching Daddy's fish and "helping" him throw them back in the water.

Today, I did my usual Monday house-cleaning, in fast-forward, because at three, Mom, Ty, Aunt Betty, and Uncle Mike picked me up to go watch a movie! Jay worked from home most of the day and then when we left, he took Claire out to Uncle Gary's for some four-wheeling and fishing. She caught her first fish! Night at the Museum 2 was spotty in humor and excitement, but it had its moments. The Twizzlers were excellent, as always. Ty and I committed the ultimate movie faux pas of discussing what candy we got for Mom at the dollar store RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE MOVIE CONCESSION STAND WORKER! Gah! Remove foot from mouth.

I hope all you lovely readers had a relaxing weekend!

Playmates!

2009-05-20T17:46:00.004-05:00

I found these pics today from Claire's birthday/Mother's day weekend, and thought they were so cute! Claire had so much fun with her cousins, Carson and Kerrigan. She and Kerrigan would run after each other and then fall down together. Audrey said she heard Kerrigan saying, "Where's my friend? Where's my friend?" when she was looking for Claire!

Plus they found these chairs that they were thrilled to carry around and sit in in different places.

And here's some pics of Claire playing with her second cousin, Katelyn. She hung out with us for a little while today while her mom got her hair cut. It's so handy having a playmate and fellow stay-at-home mom right down the street! Kim and I are just starting to take advantage of it.

When Kim first got here, Claire was still asleep (having thrown a wall-eyed fit before bed and going to sleep later than usual), so Katelyn and I were playing in the living room. I went in the next room to switch the laundry to the dryer. Listening for Katelyn's activity, I did NOT hear little feet pad into the next room; I heard a metallic clang and then a chorus of "What's that what's that what's that?" Katelyn had gone into Claire's room and was playing with her tea set! Claire woke up a little bumfuzzled, but was quickly running around and laughing with Katelyn. When Kim pulled up, Claire said, "Tatie, Kim, watch Dancing with the Stars?" HA! I had to tell her that sadly, DWTS is over for a few months!

Claire's birthday party

2009-05-12T23:05:00.007-05:00

Sunday was Claire's "main event" birthday party, with a smaller one at Dad's house the previous Tuesday, and one with just Jay, Claire and I, and a test ladybug cake on her actual birthday. But Sunday was the big blowout I had been planning for! Of course, I got NO pictures of my ladybug cake, handmade buggy Happy Birthday poster, or "stick the dot on the ladybug" game. NOPE! Once we started cutting cake, I was in full-on hostess mode and forgot all about posterity! Thank goodness for Audrey, my shutterbug sister-in-law! These are all courtesy her fancy camera!

It was so neat having both sides of the family and our friends, many of which we only ever see separately, in different towns, come together to celebrate Claire turning two! We had guests from Kingston, Calera, Coleman, Edmond, and Durant, of course, all at Paul and Diane's house in Calera! There were seven kids under the age of five, so they had lots of fun playing together. I did a ladybug theme, and even made the cake myself, thank you very much! All the kids got ladybug antenna, most of which were worn for about five seconds. I also attempted to lead the kids through some ladybug-themed games and activities, like the aforementioned stick the dot on the ladybug, ladybug musical leaves, and bug stickers.

However, this was definitely a learning experience in toddler party planning! For example, two-year-olds don't know how to stand in line and wait their turn! Or follow directions longer than two words! Basically, the kids had more fun playing with Paul and Diane's dogs and jumping on their new cellar than enacting my fantasies of a two-year-old ladybug birthday party!

Read all about ME!

2009-04-29T13:33:00.004-05:00

Audrey tagged me, and much as I hate to do these things, I'm in uber-procrastination mode, so here goes...

8 things I'm looking forward to:

Heaven (just left this one on there from Audrey's!)
Movies coming out! Harry Potter 6, Whip It!, New Moon
Having another baby (BUT no news to tell you on that front, people! Not quite there yet!)
Summer--swimming with Claire, laying out by the pool and reading, etc.!
Beach vacation with friends
Claire's birthday party
Claire being potty-trained
Basically everything. I love my life. I can't think of anything I dread. Maybe grading my final papers for Comp 2. Whoops, sorry to end this one on a bad note. Did I mention I love my life?

8 things i did yesterday:

Taught Comp 2 (Document design Power Point)
Wrote a 700-word story on a very cool Tulsa museum exhibit for Oklahoma Today
Watched Dancing with the Stars results show--Can't believe Ty has more fans than Julianne (and her boyfriend, whatever his name is ;)
Ate shortbread cookies dipped in coffee coffee after dinner (Mine and Claire's new favorite dessert!)
Put Claire's mattress in her room, and put her dolly bed beside it. Stayed with her for 45 minutes until she fell asleep, went back at 5:30 this morning when she started crying, and again at 6:30! And then let her come in bed with me when she came in at like 7:30! You gotta start somewhere, right?
Got on Facebook (when I ran into dead ends on my story!)
Told Jay it was okay if he went fishing
Fixed him dinner at 9:00 when he hadn't eaten all day!! (I think I would be dead.)

8 things I wish i could do: (I tried not to put anything on here that I should be doing, but just don't. Hello! I can turn those wishes into reality!)

1. Play roller derby!
2. Go to a Hollywood movie premiere
3. Get my scuba diving license (SE offers courses every year, but they've been on Wednesday nights for a whole semester every time I've checked!)
4. See Dancing with the Stars live
5. Become an author! (This is not just a wish though; I'm working toward it!)
6. Go snow-skiiing whenever I want
7. See Jay play basketball in high school or college (and have a time travel machine to do it)
8. Use that time travel machine to go to the prom with Zac Efron (now Zac Efron, not year-2000 Zac Efron. I think he would be like 11.)

8 shows i enjoy:
1. Ugly Betty
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. The Office
4. LOST
5. Property Virgins
6. John and Kate Plus 8 (Mostly so I can critique their parenting style and marriage!)
7. The Academy Awards
8. Survivor (some seasons; not this one)

Whoa, I'd kind of like to make another list now! But I can't think of a good one besides your basic fave movies, books, etc. So anyway, I better do something productive.

Whoever wants to do it, do it!

First sno-cone!

2009-04-24T14:30:00.004-05:00

It's been so nice out this week that Claire and I got our first sno-cones of the season! Needless to say, Claire loved it. She got tutti-frutti, and she ate/drank almost her entire cup (with the top down, no less)! It was the smallest, $1 size, but still! She peer-pressured me into eating almost all of mine, and I had a bit of a tummy ache afterward. I've been trying to keep her food dye consumption at a minimum since reading all this crazy stuff about Red 40 and dyes in general, but I had to make an exception for a sno cone on that beautiful day!

Come on, summer!

2009-04-19T16:40:00.004-05:00

I read a really interesting article last week on the New York Times opinion page about how America can and should raise our collective IQ, and what parents and teachers can do to help. Did you know our collective IQ has risen substantially in the past century? Interesting fact: Half our country's population in 1917 would be considered retarded by today's standards.

Anyway, this article also says that children form a lot of their IQ before age six. This got me thinking that I need to start doing some more structured learning activities with Claire. She'll start going to "Thursday School" one morning a week at the other Church of Christ in the fall, so she needs to be able to sit and focus on an activity, anyway. So I ordered a book from Amazon and checked a few out of the library about Montessori activities for kids aged 2-6. That's our plan for this summer. As you can see, Claire is already getting ready! (She really wanted to "read" this book for some reason; when I told her it was "Mommy's book," she actually ran in the other room with it, like she needed to hide from me to read it!)

Another Claire note: She's started saying "What's that?" and "Who's that?" The questions are starting!

Easter weekend!

2009-04-12T22:16:00.011-05:00

We had a great weekend with my family eating, playing, and worshiping together! Whenever our family gets together, I always wish it could go on longer! We did our big lunch and egg hunt in Coleman on Saturday, which worked out perfectly, weather-wise. It was almost 80 degrees and sunny, and Claire actually got little sunburned on her arms (bad mother award, I know!).

Here's Grant giving Claire a head start on locating eggs. (Hey, the other hunters were seven, nine, eleven, and fourteen!)

And she's off!

The first three or four eggs she put in her basket, she would shout, "Yay!" after each one.

Jay and Kyle

Grandmom and Claire with the Ring Pop she loved!

With Amanda, one of Claire's faves she doesn't get to see often enough!

Egg toss! We played through two dozen (raw!) eggs with four or five pairs. Fun!

And Claire's first visit from the Easter bunny was really fun! After she got all her stuff out, she said, "Happy birthday!" And I said, "No, Happy Easter!" and she said, "Thank you, Easter bunny!"