My Foray into Blogging (by Mr.T)

What does one do when Mrs. J goes out to dinner? Why take over blog duties of course! And boy do I have a fan club! We are enjoying the new year and Z is even helping out with cleaning the house- a new year's resolution we didn't know he made (as frequently we will find important things in our trash can cleanfully placed there by Z). He is an animal with the vacuum!

Martha eat your heart out!

And here is J and E and Z pretending he is Mr. Potato(e) head. He was told this morning not to eat any Mr. Potato's parts and he proudly defies our mandate.

Well thanks for your viewership whilst Mrs. J is having enchiladas and margaritas and swapping white elephant gifts (the horror!). I'll be back- enjoy those salads and don't forget to tip your wait staff.

My Husband's Polar Plunge

Two Saturday's ago, T went to the annual YMCA polar plunge, where you can jump in their pool. In January. The water was 56 degrees.


T went twice. The first time he sat up in the slides and went down into the water. The second time, he laid down and went so fast that he threw water over the edge of the slide. He said it was
pretty fast.

My Banana Pancakes

This morning we made banana pancakes. E helped me make them while standing on the step stool. Z loves to climb the step stool, so after we were done mixing the pancake mix, we took some pictures of the two kids on the step stool eating some bacon. Clearly Z had to be my child as he likes bacon. However, it's also clear that he is also T's child as Z likes eggs.

Z is really starting to talk now. He can say cheese, uh-oh, fishie, shoes, ma-ma, da-da, hello, bye bye and I think I heard him say sissy the other day, which is what we call E sometimes, and a few other things too. He has learned more signs: more, eat, please, all done, help, kitty, dog, sit down, down, etc. He loves to snuggle. If you are holding him and say "Love Mama" he will lay his head down on you. At school, they have given up the sippy cups and gone to regular cups. While T was picking Z up the other day, T saw Z drinking from a cup. So here is a picture of him with his new skill.

E is doing great at school. The kids do something called directional coloring, where I think the teacher tells the students to color certain parts of the picture with certain color crayons. She is very good at it and impresses me with how well she colors in the lines. I didn't think four year olds could do that as well as she does it. All her teachers love her and comment frequently on what a sweet girl she is.

T is doing well. He doesn't have a lot of call this month which is nice. Today we're going to the polar plunge at the YMCA. T will don his bathing suit and go down the big slide into the pool and it will be freezing. Our pool was about 50 degree the other day, so I can only imagine that the Y's pool is the same temp. This is the third time that T has done the plunge.

Next week I'm taking a SAS training class. SAS is a database management tool. That will be a valuable skill for me to learn.

Sydney is getting around on his three legs. Last night he chewed a bit at his splint, so we'll have to figure out how to keep him from chewing.

My Dog's Broken Leg

Yes, you read that correctly. Sydney broke his leg. T took the kids and the dog to the playground on Tuesday and Sydney was trying to jump up on the playground equipment. We think he got his toe caught and landed badly and broke his leg. Now he has to wear a splint for quite a few weeks. He is actually getting around better than I expected. He is certainly happy to be home.




Here is a shot of Sydney, taken from above him, while he is laying down.


And here is E in her spiderman PJs!

And here is Z who just finished a bowl of....you guessed it....spaghetti!

My Two Kids

Hello everyone,

Here is a photo of the kids that is just so cute. Z is sitting in E's lap and they are just laughing their heads off.

This picture is of E and T. We were about to go out for a walk and E went up to her room to get her headband and put it on herself. Like her hair?

My Family's Visit to the Black Labrador Pub

During the week of Christmas, one day, we were able to go downtown to the Houston Museum of Natural History. They were displaying a number of items from Shanghai and we wanted to see the exhibit.

Afterwards, we went for a late lunch at our favorite pub, the Black Labrador. E and Z shared a plate of chicken fingers and fries (Z ate like a horse!). Then we went outside of the pub where they have a giant chess set. The pictures below are from the chess game....

My Family's Christmas

Here we are after the Children's Service at our Church. Our Church has a live nativity scene each Christmas. The girl in teal is Zo, who had surgery with E's surgeon. So they have a special bond. Zo and her sister L love to take care of E when we're at church. They are lovely girls.


Here is Mommy and Z at the live nativity.

E wore her Spiderman costume to Church on Christmas Eve. The children's' director asked all the kids to dress up as a character from the Christmas Eve story (Shepard's, Mary, Joseph, etc), but she said God loved power rangers too...so kids could wear their Halloween costumes too if they wanted. Here is Sydney who is getting HUGE!

Here we are Christmas eve after we got home from Church, watched Polar Express and got into our jammies. E is putting out some reindeer food that she made at School.

Here is the "before" picture of our tree.

Here is Christmas morning. E is opening a dress from GG.

Here is E playing with a microphone from my mom.

Z with the microphone.

E and I reading a book from GARR.

The "after" photo.

E with her blinking Rudolph nose.

Z eating something he shouldn't be (probably paper).

In the afternoon, we went for a walk in the forest.

Here is T giving Sydney a Christmas chomp on the ham bone.