Derek Turns 5!

 Derek is now 5! And going to Kindergarten! And starting to read! 

Derek is loving and snuggly and falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow (or the book he was trying to stay awake to read). He is wildly imaginative and curious and is the family tinkerer, taking things apart and trying to put them back together, and bringing them to mom to superglue when that fails. His teacher couldn't praise him enough for being an example for the rest of the kids and who she could always call on to find the right answer. 

Derek loves all of the toys and all of the playing--he received a garbage truck for his birthday and announced he had been waiting for it for his entire life!--and is a natural at legos, puzzles, and models. He is always down for any new adventure and can find the fun in any activity (even chores!). He loves to be naked, dirty, wet, soapy, slippery, and sandy, and bring all sorts of natural treasures home in his pockets and backpack. He loves donuts, candy, cucumbers, peas, all berries, peppers, cereal, ice cream, and cheese, and would eat fried chicken in all of its forms every day of the week if we would let him. He loves music and singing and can remember lyrics and tunes better than anyone.

Derek is a natural peacemaker and friend-maker, loves to be included and include everyone else, and likes to have a companion for everything (including the bathroom). We love our big five-year-old cheetah/babysaurus/puppy/baby boy!

Rejoice! The Lord is King!

 Belated Easter greetings. 

San Antone

A few weeks ago we did some genuine Texas sightseeing (of which we do far too little) and took a little drive to San Antonio. It combined some of Kenny's favorite things to do while sightseeing--history, old things, and learning--with some of my favorite things to do while sightseeing--food, new experiences, outdoor things, and all of the other fun stuff that normal people like. 

See? Food. 

Highlights included:

Our hotel! 

Which is the oldest hotel west of the Mississippi and is situated on the old Alamo battle grounds, has hosted at least a dozen American presidents, and from where Teddy Roosevelt recruited his rough riders. They also made a mean bread pudding and mango ice cream (both original recipes from way back when!). 

The Alamo! 

Of which the boys' favorite part was the koi that they found in the little stream on the grounds and the custom-made Alamo army men that they bought at the gift shop.

The Riverwalk! 

Where no less than two of our boys tried to jump in and which was the recipient of at least two baskets of tortilla chips thrown by Wes and Derek while we ate dinner one night. 

The San Jacinto Mission:

Where Derek tried to destroy an old wall by chucking a giant rock at it. 

The horse carriage ride!

Enough said. 

I'm assuming family vacations when I was younger also had their fair share of stress, but all I remember is nice, enjoyable, relaxing experiences. Hopefully our boys also have selective memories. 

Big Boy Wessers

 Wes is such a big boy now! So noisy, so adorable, so excited and earnest and happy. 

Wesley loves to play! With "guys" and balls and cars and stuffed animals and whatever else he can find. He loves animals, especially dogs, and discovered a new love of the aquarium on his birthday (and has been asking to go back to the "ishes" and "(sh)arks" every day since). He also loves other "babies",  which includes anyone smaller than Derek, and loves to go up and give them big hugs and kisses whether they like it or not. 

Wes is, if you couldn't tell, very talkative. All day, every day, when it's quiet, when everyone else is talking, when he's watching shows, when he's reading, to strangers and animals and himself. Always talking. Sometimes you can tell he's trying to get an actual point across, sometimes he just seems to be jabbering on as fast as he can (usually ending in a big giggle like he just told a great joke), but he always likes you to respond somehow. He still mostly uses vowels, although some consonants are starting to sneak in ("Ahm" is mostly "mom" now, sadly). Most of his words have at least some similarity to their real counterpart, but a few are just totally out of left field. For example: "ya-ya" (Derek), "nano" (popcorn), “Nun-*tongue click*” (milk), and "I.O." (lightsaber and/or stormtrooper). Some words have multiple meanings (like "bips", which can mean either chips or ships depending on the context) and some have to be accompanied by music to get their  meanings across (like Star Wars songs and tunes to whatever lullaby he wants to hear). 

Speaking of, Wes is a little song bird. He only has to hear a tune once and he can mimic it pretty perfectly right back to you, and he has yet to meet a song he doesn't like. He already has very strong opinions about what songs should be played in the car and regularly asks for specific ones. 

Wes is super active, super smily and giggly and happy, super opinionated and hilarious. He plays well with both Luke and Derek, even though they have completely opposite interests, and is able to charm anybody into practically anything. 

Just look at that face! 

Snowmaggedon

This is a few weeks overdue. But still deserves a posting!

We have survived our second natural disaster in the seven years of being Texans! What are the odds, right? 

So, was it as bad as they say it was? 

Yes, yes it was. But we are fine now.

Low points included: 

Monday, when our power clicked off at 2:30am and...never came back! We think our cell tower was connected or the service was overloaded, because we were in a dead zone. No calls, no texts, no data, no internet and the roads were too frozen to go anywhere as the temperature slowly dropped. Still, we had hot water, a gas stove, and a fireplace that we kept going, so it could have been much worse. 

Tuesday, when we woke up to see that it was 42 degrees on our thermostat (colder in our rooms) and we still had no power! And then watching our water supply slowly diminish to barely a trickle. 

Wednesday, when I braved a trip to the store and found a long line of people waiting to get in (all dressed--no joke--in layers and layers of sweats, pajamas, and robes, like everyone had lost all hope or something) and empty shelves waiting inside. 

The good news is, we had plenty of water stored away and incomplete 72 hours kits sitting on our living room floor with lots of batteries, headlamps, lanterns, and hand warmers (love the hand warmers!). 

The boys also had a fabulous time! No water for showers or washing clothes (plus very few warm clothes) meant that they didn't even have to change their clothes for three days! We also had enough of a trickle that our toilet on the bottom floor would fill up (albeit very slowly) so we didn't have to use the "bucket-dumping" method. Derek got ahold of our hand crank radio and carried it around constantly, blasting any radio station he could find (including the 52 Spanish stations) and the fireplace made for some delicious s'mores, right from the (relative) comfort of our living room! Luke and Derek got to have a sleep over as they huddled together for warmth under eight thick blankets and Wes loved sleeping with his mom and dad. Thankfully, we also know someone who owns hundreds of boardgames, so the boys had plenty of offline entertainment on hand. And once the power finally came back on they thoroughly enjoyed using the "we have to watch shows now because they might turn back off!" excuse. 

And last, but not least, our pipes are miraculously all intact! 

Beautiful, beautiful intact plumbing. 

23 Month Wessers

 Wessers is almost two! And he is certainly embracing his little two-year-old self and bossing everyone around left and right. He has a whole bunch of words now, but very few consonants. Most of his words are all vowels (very accurate vowels!), especially at the beginning, with the exception of important words like "nano" (popcorn), "bipey" (diaper), and "new dues" (new shoes). Everything else kind of sounds like this: "Ahm, Uke, ya-ya, ach ows nano ereo owl?" (Mom, Luke Derek watch shows popcorn cereal bowl?) But we usually get it. 

One of his favorite new things to do is "it ya-ya" (hit Derek) and then say he's sorry. He comes in and gives a nice big hug and kiss and then makes a sad noise, kind of like "awwwww". And then gets a little gleam in his eye and a little smirk on his face and goes right back at it. Biting has also become more commonplace than we prefer. Poor Luke and Ya-ya. 

The poor little guy wants so badly to be like his older brothers! He crashes all of their soccer practices and messes with all of their toys and steals all of their balls and water bottles and food and for the most part the two handle it quite well! It's so fun watching the three of them learn how to get along and be brothers. My favorites (Ken's least favorites) are their noisy dog piles and wrestling matches. 

He'll grow up soon enough!