NEW CAMERA!

Gene and I have been saving our pennies for a new camera. 

Santa (s) brought us just enough this year (to the dollar).

Many people told us to shop online, but we got a better deal and much better 

service at our local camera store, Lawrence Photo & Video.

This is my first picture right out of the box, and it beats any I took with my old el'cheapos.

It would break your heart to know how many Christmas pictures I had to delete this year.

 My favorite part of all of this was the car was bouncing over some major highway construction, and these still came out sharp as a tack!

I caught Ross cracking up, and not five seconds later when the moment was over!

Look at these precious faces!!  I love it!

When I got home, I got arrogant and tried the "creative" modes to get the lights to shine.

Not so hot.  I have a lot to learn.

Here's the same shot with the auto mode.  Faces look better but not as warm.  I will learn!

The bummer of how clear this thing shoots - all of the snot & blemishes show.

Time to learn PhotoShop!

Ross is SEVEN!

Holy cow.  

When did my first born son turn SEVEN?  

It is a crazy moment in time when I realize how fast this whole parenting gig flies by.  

We celebrated at Chuck-E-Cheese with his classmates but wanted to make his birthday morning extra special. 

 When you are seven, this is easily accomplished with pancakes that spell your name + whipped cream + sprinkles.  

 Root beer floats with candles in them also help.  

 Here is a peek at my blonde hair.  Save your comments, I am totally grey now so unless you want to donate weekly coloring services with Paulette Tilden, you will have to look at pictures of the brown when you miss it.  

 Blurry picture, which is why I'm saving for a new camera!  I'm half-way there, providing no one breaks an arm or wrecks a car before I earn the other half.  

Root beer floats in the morning are a big deal around here!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Ross! 

Pumpkin Baby

Ross's 2nd Grade class field trip to the Pickin' Patch

Buzz & Woody

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Coach Gene is back.

After both of our little darlings decided to turn in their soccer cleats for breakdancing / martial arts / more free time... Coach Gene is back on a different field.  It's the baseball diamond this time, and since he played High School baseball he is a little more comfortable than back in the good old days when the kids were three and he borrowed a "How to Coach Soccer DVD" from Lindsay Paulsell.  

Ross struck out in the Spring season until we realized his batting helmet was so big it was spinning all the way around and covering up his eyeballs.  You kind of need eye balls in this game.  We were perplexed because this kid was hitting pitches and refusing to play tee ball at three years old.  Because he could hit a pitch.  Strike one.  Strike two.  Strike three.  Over & over & over while I prayed to the good Lord from behind the fence. 

These prayers included, "Please don't let this change how he feels about how he can hit.  He is GOOD at hitting, remove performance anxiety, don't let him get down on himself, don't let the other kids show disapointment in him"... etc.  Except I really only had 1.5 seconds to pray because I was chasing this kid, 

Luke giving Stella a suck of his lollipop.  

         (  Insert this song into your head )

Notice his tongue sticking out.  I wish you could hear his little voice say, "Hi Stella!"  

All I get to do at these ballgames is chase this booger around.  The lollipops help.  I have seriously considered a babysitter so I can watch Ross play.  But then I would miss him, and have more time to pray.  

Here is Ross in the "ready" position.  HA.  

One of my favorite parts of these games are when the boys change innings.  They seriously SLIDE into the dugout.  Whenever there is running, there is sliding.  When you are crossing home plate at age six, the cool thing to do is to SLIDE, even if the ball is in left field.  

Gene's Dad was his coach when Gene was this age, all the way up through sideline coaching in High School. The other night, he suggested to "Coach Gene" to have the boys use a lighter bat.  He noticed a little detail about how they were swinging and thought it might be worth a try.  You learn these things when you raise two sons and spend every summer weekend on the baseball field for 10 + years.  

After that suggestion, EVERY SINGLE PLAYER got a hit.  The entire game.  It was a miracle.  Gene has had two parents from opposing teams approach him after games to fish around about the kids being 6 and under, because surely, our boys are on steroids. 

I wouldn't know because I am too busy cleaning lollipop drool off of anything Luke has touched.  

Another cool part is that a lot of these kids are GDA students, so if they continue they might get to play together all the way through.   Three more games left in our first season with a team who let him on without making him hit off the tee.

The first time Ross scored a run he said, "Mom... when I was sliding into home plate... you should'a been me!" 

Miss MO

Miss Ellie was invited by our dear friend (a former Miss MO & producer of current productions) to WRITE and ASK two final questions to a Top 5 Finalist in this year's Miss Missouri pageant.

Although excited for her opportunity, my brain immediately went into question mode:
Will this make her want to do pageants?
Will she turn into a toddlers & tiaras diva woman?
Will this give her a warped sense of beauty & self-worth?
Will she freak out and forget her question?

Overriding the answers to any of these questions was the desire to let her tip toe a little bit outside of her comfort zone. I wanted her to taste the confidence which only comes from standing in front of thousands of people with a spot light in your face and busting through those butterflies in your gut. At age 8! Who gets to do that? So I said yes.

Never tell your 8 year old daughter that she gets to do something like this while you're putting her to bed. Duh. I had to peel her off of the ceiling. Thankfully, pillows were close to muffle the screams.

A bunch of folks were following my "live tweets" (do I sound famous? I was "live tweeting"!) so I won't repeat myself. You can scroll through my facebook page if you want to see the play-by-play. We had friends all the way up to Chicago watching her live on the webcast. But my friend Sharice has a fancy new camera and got these great shots of Elle up onstage with her fancy new zoom lens.



Here she is with Miss Branson, Sydney Friar, and Miss America 2008 who was the MC.



My little journalist!

Her first question was, "If you had an entire day to spend with your best friend, what would you do together?"
Second question, "What do you want to do to the world when you grow up?"
That's the high dollar private school tuition paying off right there.



Sydney was a delight and I was very impressed to learn that she had organized a Bible study during the evenings the week of the pageant for all of the contestants and one of the girls became a believer the night before. I think this requires much more bravery than walking the catwalk in a bikini! She is a beautiful girl on the inside and out.

The girls were freaking out when the final two contestants ended up being Miss Springfield and Miss Branson.


And I have to share this one because this is just the ultimate cliche pageant picture! Sharice, I need a fancy camera!

And Sydney won!

Ellie looked at me and said, "MOM! MY QUESTION SAVED HER!" It was too cute.

A highlight of the night was a presentation done during the production for the Children's Miracle Network. We were tremendously blessed by that organization when Ross was a baby. All of the fears I had about my daughter being exposed to this culture were replaced by a deep respect for the influence and opportunities these girls have. Let me just say, this was the MISS AMERICA organization, not the Miss USA. We watched that one the other night on accident and I wasn't sure if I should coordinate family baptisms or go ahead and order a stripper pole for the kids to play on. The Miss America girls seemed (we shall see in January when the National competition happens) a lot more wholesome.

(p.s. I am feeling the need to clarify why I keep flip-flopping between "Ellie" and "Elle". Her legal name is Elle, pronounced L, like the letter L, like the magazine, Greek for "shining light" and "God's promise". We called her Ellie as a baby and she likes it better. In a strange turn of irony, I think Elle has become the nickname, short for Ellie. Or for when I want to sound more serious. Just FYI. I do it all the time. I am not referring to two different children. We will all just have to get over it. I know it makes you detail oriented people crazy and for that I am sorry. But I will keep doing it. Ellie - Elle - same kid.)

Here is my beautiful girl, who did not forget her question, who did not fall off the stage, who got up there and ROCKED it like her Momma knew she would, who looked into the eyes of those she was speaking to, who said please and thank you, who acted genuinely sweet to the ladies she spoke to - even though her feet were shaking (she said Sydney's hands were sweaty, so they were both scared together), who smiled through her fear and gained an extra notch of inner confidence...

Congratulations, Sydney!

Hello

This is why I haven't blogged for a while:



Hello. The fifteen month old has his wheels under him. He has a strange fascination with lip gloss, lip stick, nail polish, and anything else he wants to learn how to "open" such as Gatorade. We stopped counting at 55 words (which no one will believe, thankful for my Masters in Gifted Ed so I understand it is normal for people to call me a liar) which include:

1. Momma
2. Dada
3. Ellie
4. Maverick and/or Mav
5. Ripley
6. Hot dog
7. water
8. apple
9. get down
10. up
11. more
12. juice
13. bye-bye
14. hi
15. no
16. yes
17. dog
18. Pop
19. Juju
20. Adda (for Addison)
21. Mimi
22. Gigi
23. cracker
24. Jesus
25. bird
26. hot
27. ugh-oh
28. poop
29. yeah
30. go
31. ball
32. thank you
33. bite
34. baby
35. bubba (for Ross)
36. Bella
37. bottle (ba-ba)
38. night-night
39. peek-a-boo (or peet-a-boo)
40. bear
41. all-done
42. butt
43. mine
44. Ming Ming (his Wonder pet bird)
45. monkey
46. this
47. shoes
48. Jade (Ellie's American Girl Doll)
49. there ya go!
50. Gotcha (during hide & go seek)
51. chocolate
52. Gade-a (for Gatorade)
53. Moo (does that count as a word?)
54. Happy Bir-day to you

55. Itty-Bitty

56. Ross - that was a hard one!

And then we stopped counting.

Okay, people, if you've read this far you probably hate me for bragging on my sweet babe. The truth is, the only reason I tracked this is because I know the challenges gifted kids face and I was a little alarmed by how early this was happening. Normal vocabulary for a child this age is three to six words. No one ever believed me when my big kids knew their colors and I didn't have the info I do now. Now I know that tracking is important because facts mean more than my opinion.

It was an honor for me to help three families this week who are struggling with the issues that come with raising a child who is intellectually different from normal. Sensory issues, perfectionism, dealing with boredom, responsible acceleration, alienation, parent exhaustion from endless mind-blowing questions, emotional sensitivities, asynchronous development, under trained teachers, I could go on. The point is, I have found great joy this week in implementing what I've learned to bring relief and a plan to some kids who might otherwise be in a behavior-disorder class very soon. Pray for these sweet babies!

I know it is not popular or politically correct to admit publicly that your kid has a freakishly abnormal brain. Maybe that's why I ended up with a Masters degree in Gifted Education, for some covert under-cover validation that I was not a crazy person when the Parent's as Teachers lady called me a liar. The people I consulted with this week all wanted to stay under the radar, confidential and strictly cloaked in anonymity. I used to take this approach. Now, I speak up because other Moms need to know what I know. Come and get me if you need me.

The Pukie Strep Holidays of 2010

Normal Christmas festivities were canceled this year when Luke started running a fever on December 23 - we took him in that morning and again on Christmas Eve for confirmation that the quarantine must begin. 4 parties in 48 hours is the normal way we roll on the Lord's Birthday - and I was absolutely SO HAPPY to stay home. It was the first Christmas we have celebrated home alone as a family ever in the history Gene and Jackie Love (13 years if you count the first Christmas Gene and I spent together... ask me another time about how he met the family at Uncle Mike's Christmas).

Ellie was sad on Christmas Eve and asked me to dress up for a fancy dinner. As every party animal knows, you only have to apply red lipstick and fancy earrings to look like you've made an effort, so on they went. Notice I left my comfy-I'm-home-in-my-own-living-room-celebrating-Christmas white socks on.

The poor baby is not having any fanciness.

I did dance around long enough to get this precious picture:

Look at them one year ago:
And now:

And then - melt...
And here's one from 2008 just for fun:I thought they were humongous and all grown up here. I also just realized I have far fewer pictures of them together from 2008 because we were buzzing around to all four parties in 48 hours. Hummm.

Back to 2010 - One more highlight from Christmas Eve was Santa calling. Our friend Mark Rhoades knows Santa REALLY well. He pulled some strings and had Santa call us even though he was sick, too!They were freaking out. Santa said "Thank you for coming to visit me at Bass Pro!" and told them exactly what they asked for, and that he would do his best to bring those things. He was so genuinely fabulous that Ross woke up the next morning and said, "Where's my scooter?"

Santa came!


Here are some Christmas morning pics - total bliss:
Here are tired Mommy & Daddy who had been up with Cranky Baby all night long:
I still like this version better than Cranky Daddy & Cranky Mommy dragging tired baby all over Springfield to the four parties. Are you noticing a theme here? I am so sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone. It was just really, really, really nice to stay home in our jammies on Christmas morning.


Spoiled rotten children!

We played our Wii for about 48 hours and then Ellie went down. She threw up for more than a day, and we all (even the doctor) thought she had the same thing Luke had earlier. We hunkered down and again celebrated the chance to be home together as a family. Here is how we spent New Year's Eve:

Just kidding. I just realized I haven't uploaded those pictures yet. Forgive me, today is the first day since December 23 someone has not had a fever in my house. Stay tuned!