Easter at the Ranch 2013

We once again headed out to my aunt and uncle's ranch for Easter this year, and as always, we had a wonderful time! Great food, good family, beautiful weather, and time to just relax and "be"...you can't beat it.

 Hanging out on the porch.

 Tryin' out the hat.

 Cousin Ash came in and surprised everyone! :)  We LOVED getting to see her!

 P playing with Ash.

 Takin' in the view from the porch.

 Pretty flowers.

 1 of the 174 times we played with bubbles while we were there. :)

 The best Eater egg dying party on record at the ranch.

 Took a short break to see "the grub found in the garden."  Sounded harmless.

I was wrong.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of (sentiments of a woman who handled Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in her science classroom).

 Whit making an egg for P.

 Eggs ready to be dyed using silk ties...it works! :)

 Abby egg by Whit.

 G. Sue - the master at work.

 Aunt Jan and Ashy...

 Eggs in progress.

 Libby making a detailed egg.

 Elmo egg by yours truly.

 

 Blowing the vinegar out of the blown-out silk-dyed eggs.

 See!  It really works!  We used old silk ties that Whit found at a consignment store for $0.50 a pop.

 My silk tie egg.

 Final product.

 Eggs up close 1.

 Eggs up close 2.

 Eggs up close 3.

 

Eggs by G. Sue.

 Love my grammy.

 

 Easter basket 1 for P from Whit and Aunt Ann filled with his current favorites -

Elmo and cows.

 Easter basket 2 for P from Share Share filled with books, including two new favorites:

Peep and Ducky and Counting Cows.

Easter basket 3 from mom and dad...can you sense a theme?

 Papa helping P get some shoes on to go and play.

 Easter brunch.

 Yum!

 We never have enough food out here. :)

 Again, yum.

 Pretty berries.

 Boys around the table.

 P eating Easter breakfast.

The garden:  the scene of P's first Easter egg hunt.

 A "well-hidden" egg.

 Coming in and ready to hunt.

 Since the kid doesn't like sweets, each egg had one bunny cracker in it. :)

 Except for this egg that held an Elmo and an Abby...

 Find an egg.

 Immediately eat the contents while your adoring fans watch.

 Repeat.

 

 Repeat.

Repeat.

 Repeat.

 Get rid of empty eggs, as they have been rendered useless.

 A boy and an egg.

Yum...crackers!

 Checking out his singing, dancing, egg-laying chicken from Gigi and Gramps. :)

 Libby and Auntie Jan looking on.

 P doing some grooving while the chicken sings "Whoomp...there it is." (Speaking of her egg, of course.)

 Share Share helping to reload.

 P taking his turn at reloading.

 Happy boy.

 Strike a pose.

 Throw your hands in the air.

 Cheese.

 Playing with his new Abby and Elmo.

 A good egg hunt follow-up is playing in the dirt.

 Easter 2011..............Easter 2012..............Easter 2013

My how time flies! :)

Hope you had a wonderful Easter.

He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!

The Best Cupcake I've Ever Eaten...

K & B went to the doctor yesterday morning and found out they were having a healthy little...

Now hold your horses!  You're going to have to find out like the rest of us did. :)

 Last night I experienced my first "gender reveal party," and it was awesome! :)

 Inside each of these cupcakes was either blue or pink frosting announcing the gender of sweet Baby L.

 What will it be?

 Baby girl?

 Or baby boy?

 Share Share's stoic guess...girl.

 My guess...girl.

 J says girl, and P (not pictured :)) said girl.  Whenever asked, P would say that the baby was going to be a girl.  How can you argue with that?  Maybe he can sense things...

 Papa (the man with 4 sisters and 2 daughters) thinks it's gonna be another girl...

 B's mom (Lolli) says girl.  B's dad (Pop) says boy...

(Also pictured on the iPad is B's sister and her family who live in Nepal.  How cool is technology!?)

 Group shot.  All pink plates except for B's dad.

 (B's mom is holding her iPhone with B's other sister and her family joining in the festivities from outside of Austin.  So fun!)

 Big bites...

 My mom now knows... :)

 Mom's starting to react...

Dad now knows...

My bite didn't reveal an icing color!!!  I had to pull it apart to find out! :)

 LOVE K and B's reactions in this picture...and of course B's mom's face is priceless!

 B's dad was the ONLY ONE who got it right!

IT'S A BOY!!!

 He's very proud of himself. :)

 So excited!  My parents' sweet neighbors came down to take pictures for us, and I'm so glad they did!

 Excitement.

 K confirming that it's a boy...

 So happy. :)

 There was fist pumping...

 Hugs and dancing...

 Laughing and tears...

 Inappropriate amounts of clapping... :)

 And more hugging...

 This is me telling my dad that now he's going to have to buy 2 fishing poles...

The night before we went to the doctor to find out what we were going to have, my dad said that if it was a boy, he was going to have to go and buy a fishing pole...so when I called him to tell him it was a boy, I told him by saying that he was going to have to go and buy a fishing pole.  I think he was in disbelief after having 4 younger sisters and 2 girls of his own to find out his first grandson was going to be a boy.  Now he's gonna have 2! :)

 The winner with his blue-filled cupcake. :)

 The grandmas were SO excited! :)

 But let's be real about things...we had to stop for a moment and actually enjoy the cupcakes.  I mean, we had to.  In fact, I was so excited that I might have had to eat more than one cupcake.  The number of cupcakes consumed was directly proportional to the amount of excitement felt.  Eating two cupcakes was the least I could do...

 The best cupcake I've ever eaten. :)

 The parents-to-be.

 K showing off the sonogram pics.

Already looking at baby boy nursery stuff...

 Opening baby boy presents...bring on the blue! :)

Here's the beautiful mama proudly holding pictures of her Baby Boy! :)

It was SO WONDERFUL to get to find that out with the grandparents and the aunts and uncles and cousins...it was like Christmas morning. :)  Of course, we are so thankful for a healthy baby, but I must admit, knowing that P is going to have a little boy cousin to run around with just warms my heart!!!  I can't wait for all of the adventures they are going to have together. :)

We love you already, sweet baby boy!  You keep on cookin' in there, and we'll anxiously await your arrival in August.

A New Addition to the Family...

Aunt KiKi and Uncle B are gonna have a baby!!! :)  We're so excited to be an aunt and uncle for the third time, and P is pumped that he's going to have a cousin who lives in the same city...he just doesn't know it yet. :)  Congrats, K & B!  We love y'all and are so excited for you!  You're going to be such wonderful parents, and this baby is going to be SO loved! :)  God is good. :) 

Sorry for the smiley face overload...I'm just really excited. :)

Hide Your Rolls...

After seeing that title written out, I realize it could have a variety of meanings.  Do not worry.  This is not a tirade against people wearing too little clothing too early in the season.  It is, however, a warning to those of you who might be around my child while eating a roll...or carbs of any type for that matter.

 So in this context, I will say it again.  Hide your rolls.

The kid loves rolls.  

Case in point:  the other night (which was when I took this picture) we had pasta for dinner, and we each had a roll.  We have wised up to the fact that if we want to get more than 1/3 of a roll of our own, we need to give the kid his own.  So we do.  P quickly eats his roll first. Mommy eats hers relatively quickly as well since I sit right next to P and my roll would the next one on his hit list.  P finishes his roll and continues on with the rest of his dinner (thankfully he will eat some fruits and veggies, too).  But then, towards the end of our meal, P looks across the table at J, who saved his roll for last, sees him enjoying it, and begins to strongly request that J turn his roll over to him. (You can imagine this scenario however you wish.  I would prefer that you imagine it with my child politely requesting to have a tiny bite of his dad's roll.  Whether or not you believe that's how it actually went is up to you).  I believe my exact words to P were, "Sorry, bubba.  I know you love rolls.  But you chose to eat yours first before all your other food, and Daddy, for whatever reason, decided to save his until the end so we could all watch him eat it."  :) And just so you know - we held our ground and were good parents.  We did not let our child eat another roll.  However, J evened that our by lying to the child that the roll was "all gone" while hiding the remaining portion under the table. :)

So you're hearing it here first...there's a new rule in our house.  When you eat your roll is no longer up to you.  It is absolutely determined by when the child decides to eat his roll.  All rolls will be eaten at the same time by all parties during a meal.  Failure to follow this suggested protocol may result in crying, whining, and pouting - by the adults when the child gets the rest of your uneaten roll.  Consider yourself warned.

PB & J

It's a childhood milestone...the first PB & J.  Because P had an egg allergy early on, I went ahead and avoided peanut butter until he was 2.  When I let him take some bites of my breakfast English muffin with PB after his second birthday, I felt like he got some little red splotches around his mouth, so I continued to avoid peanut butter.  Then the other day my friend suggested that I let P try some almond butter.  I did...and he loved it....and there were no red splotches. :)  Here's some photographic evidence of our first PB (or make that AB) & J experience...

I present to you, the first peanut butter sandwich:

 This is pretty good, mom.

 Hmmmm.....

 Just a little nibble.

 Almost done.

This is awesome!

 Only one more bite.

Speech Update

First of all, let me say THANK YOU for all of the kind e-mails, notes, and comments that I got in response to the "Delayed" post.  I was overwhelmed by everyone's support and love! :) 

Now for the fun part! :)  A report of ALL the words that P is using consistently!!! :)

Again, as of December 20, the only word that P used was "Mama."  No animal sounds, no imitation, no nothing.  My how things have changed! :)  We started weekly therapy sessions with an SST (specialized skills training) therapist on January 18th.  While I do think I'm learning a lot of good stuff about how to encourage language with P, as well as more "effective" ways of playing with him that foster and encourage creativity and problem solving, I also don't think that the therapy was the "magic key" that opened up the flood gates for P.  I really just think that it was "his time" to start talking...and go figure, just like everything else in his life, it was a little behind the curve, but he seems to be trying to make up for lost time. :)

Names: P loves to look at pictures of family members and even better - spend quality time with the real deal!  Recently he has been rattling off names of everyone he knows. :) (Please don't be hurt if your name isn't on here...we're working on adding to the list!)

1) Mama
2) Mommy (which started this weekend while I was out of town!  He sounds so big saying it!!!)
3) Daddy
4) Share Share
5) Papa
6) KiKi
7) B
8) u-dy (from Grandma Judy)
9) Pops
10) GiGi
11) -amps (for Gramps)
12) A-yee (for Ellie the cat)
13) A-kee (for Jakie the cat)
14) Elmo
15) Abby
16) Ernie (when he sees him in a book or on TV)
17) Bert (when he sees him in a book or on TV)
18) Jay - friend from church

Animals and Animal Sounds:  At times it feels like we're a walking zoo. :) P loves to mimic and identify animals.  I don't know if sounds should count as their own word or not...but he sure is good at making them!

19) Cow (his favorite)...Moo
20) Horse...neigh, neigh
21) Duck...quack, quack
22) Pig...(he does this precious snorting sound)
23) Cat...a high-pitched nee-ow
24) Dog...woof, woof
25) Shish (fish)...makes a fish face
26) El-phant...raises his arm and makes a trumpeting sound
27) Bear...roar!
28) Sheep (which was fr-eep for a while)...Baa, baa
29) Mouse...squeak, squeak
30) -affe (giraffe)...sticks out his tongue :)
31) -abbit (rabbit)...quickly breathes in and out of his nose
32) Frog (which currently sounds like another "f" word :/ )...(inconsistent with the sound)
33) Bird...tweet, tweet
34) Monkey...ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh
35) Goat...maa, maa
36) Owl...who, who

Food and Drink:
37) Wah-wah (water)
38) Apple
39) Na-nuh (banana)
40) Buburry (blueberry)
41) Ca-cker (cracker)
42) Peas
43) Cheese

Expressions/ Exclamations:
44) Boom!
45) Oh no!
46) Ow!
47) Whoops!
48) Oops!
49) Hi.
50) Buh-bye (high-pitched)
51) (Ready), set, go!
52) Up
53) Help
54) Peace (Please)
55) Achoo!/ Kerchoo!
56) Ni, ni (night, night)
57) Amen (P insists to pray before every meal :))
58) (One), two, hee! (beginning to count)
59) -ank ooh (thank you)
60) Hot! (like when I'm cooking)
61) Eat
62) Bible (he says this when singing Jesus Loves Me)

Around the house:
63) Shoes
64) Clothes
65) Tunes (music)
66) Ball
67) Phone
68) D.D. (TV)
69) Baby (no, we don't have another baby around the house :), but we do have lots of books with pictures of babies in them!)
70) Hat
71) -aci (paci...and yes, it sounds like he's cursing)
72) -ankie (blankie)
73) Bath
74) Bubbles/ Pop!
75) Headband (he likes me to put on multiple ones)

Transportation:
76) Car
77) Bus
78) Plane
79) Train
80) Bike
81) Truck
82) Boat

Oops, words I forgot, but I don't want to renumber the list :)
83) Fruit
84) Beez, beez (used to request Flight of the Bumble Bees)
85) Beep, beep (used to request Driving in My Car)
86) Cookies (used when we read the book The Cow Loves Cookies)
87) All done.
88) No.
89) -esh! (Yes)
90) Play.
91) -ay dough (play dough)
92) Dunk! (while playing basketball)
93) Shirt
94) Socks
95) Pants
97) Squirrel...chee, chee (according to the book The Cow That Clucked)
98) Snake...sssssssssss

Body Parts:
99) Nose
100) Eyes
101) Ears
102) Hair
103) Toes
104) Mouth 

The great part is, I'm sure I'm forgetting some!  In addition to adding new words almost daily, P is also imitating words and sounds left and right (although he doesn't always get them right, and he sometimes puts the end sound of a word at the beginning - like "pup" for "cup").

We had three goals for P after his first evaluation:

1)  To imitate sounds and simple words and utilize spontaneously in 6/8 opportunities during play activity. - WE TOTALLY DO THIS, NOW! :)

2) To attend and follow 1-2 step directions during an adult-led task for 10  minutes. - He improves on this every week and has grown leaps and bounds from where he was in January.

3) To utilize 25 simple words to express wants/ needs 75% of the time during structured play. - Do you see our list??? :)  Although I don't know that saying the word "elephant" really expresses a want or a need.  "Yogurt" or "carrot" might be more helpful. :)

It looks like we'll meet with a speech pathologist in a couple of weeks to see what our next step should be since he's making so much progress.  He does seem to have a hard time saying some words with "s" in them, and you can see his little tongue kind of turn to the side when he says those words, so that's something we'll need to watch...but overall, we just couldn't be more ecstatic at the progress he has made. :)

We'll keep you updated! :)