"At the Zoo"

Will had an ENT appointment on Friday, so we decided to spend the night in Little Rock that night. We wanted to do some shopping and take the kids to the LR Zoo. We picked Will up from school a little early and hit the road. We got to our appointment and only had to wait in the "big" waiting room for a few minutes before they called us back to the ENT waiting room, where they immediately took us back to a room (this NEVER happends). Will got a good check-up. Both of the T-tubes were in place and working properly. One ear had a little drainage but Dr. Bower told us that it was nothing that a few days of drops wouldn't clear up. Then he asked us about Will's sleeping . . . . we were like, "ummm, he doesn't". We'd talked with him about this before and have tried to talk to his pediatrician about it (although he had been little help). We give Will Melatonin, which makes him fall asleep and sleep for a few hours, but then he wakes up and is very restless for the rest of the night. None of us get much sleep. Mitch and I have been taking turns getting up with him (and sleeping the rest of the night with him) for months now, but it is not getting any better. We have tried the "Super Nanny" tecnique to get him to go back to sleep after getting up, but that was a disaster. Anyway, we decided it was time for him to have a sleep study and see if we can get some answers to this issue. Apparently kids with Down syndrome have a higher incidence of sleep apnea, so Dr. Bower wants to investigate further. We scheduled it for Oct. 16th, after we take family pictures with my mom, Guy and Julie.

After leaving ACH we went to the mall for a little while. We went to the hotel to let the kids recoup and then we went to Outback for supper. Ainsley was a little testy, but we had great food and shared a dessert.

The next morning we took the kids to the zoo. Ainsley had been talking about the zoo ever since we mentioned it to them earlier in the week. She wanted to go right then, and could not understand that it would be a few days. Over and over she said "I wanna go at the zoo" (and she is still saying it). The admission to the zoo was free that day since there was a LR Razorback game that night - who knew? (the school takes over the zoo parking and makes people pay to park, thus the free admission, but we found a spot on the street). There were very few people there and it was overcast most of the time, so it was not too hot. The kids enjoyed all the animals - monkeys, zebras, elephants, rhinos, lions, a jaguuar (named Sidney), a giant tortoise, giraffes, a bear, an otter, a penguin, an owl, flamingos, and lots of others.

We left the zoo and went to our favorite LR dive, The Purple Cow, with the best turkey burgers around! We did even more shopping and finally headed home late that afternoon. The kids were worn out but did pretty well. Will is still talking about the animals we saw, and Ainsley is still wanting to go "at the zoo".

Family, Football, School and a Holiday

On the weekend of August 13 - 15th, Guy, Julie and Shepherd came to visit. The 13th was the anniversary of my dad's death last year, so it was nice for everyone to be together. Last year we knew that Julie was having a boy, but they had not decided on a name yet. Shepherd has a lot of Julie's family in him, but there are many times that he reminds us of my dad. We went to eat at Applebee's on Saturday night and then went to try the new ice cream craze in town - Twisted Cow. It is soft serve ice cream that you serve yourself. I got chocolate and peanut butter ice cream with Reese's pb cups on top. Surprise, surprise (I like anything pb and chocolate). We spent the weekend hanging out, letting the kids play, looking at pictures, eating, etc.










My dad would love these three little monkeys!

The next Thursday, school started for Will. He would be starting kindergarten this year, but we decided last year to let him do an extra year of pre-school. So, he is in one of the 4 year old rooms at our church's pre-school. His teacher's name is Lindsey Colvin. Her husband's great-grandfather and Mitch's great-grandfather were brothers. Will thinks it's cool that she has the same name as he does, and she told me one day that he calls her "Lindsey Colvin" or "Mrs. Lindsey Colvin". He is in his third full week now, and we've had a few rough days, but his behavior has been better recently. Last week she started giving him baseball cards at the end of the day if he had a good day, and he got one every day last week and so far this week. They have a color chart for behavior - they start out on blue, move to green (warning), then yellow (time out) and then red (office or phone call home). Here is Will on his first day of school.


Last Friday was the first EHS game of the season. I love football! I have so many memories from childhood of going to EHS games with my family. My dad would roast peanuts before each game, put them in a big brown paper sack, and take them to every game. He would pass the sack around to all his friends sitting around him, and kids would come from literally all over the stadium to get a handful of his peanuts. He was affectionately known as "the peanut man". There was nothing like the smell of those peanuts roasting in our house on a Friday afternoon. The ones you buy at the game cannot compete. Anyway, I love going to high school games and hope to create a similar family tradition with fond memories for my kids. Mitch's dad searched high and low for the kids' purple Wildcat outfits. Many of the stores did not have their full orders in, so all he could find for Will was a shirt that was too big, but we made it work. (My kids are in a stage where they cannot smile, so these pics were the best I could get)



Will's "girl" friend, Alex Grace, came over to sit by Will for the majority of the game. We got tickled at them. She hugged and kissed on him and was right in his face the whole game. He talked to her, but then he was ready to get back to watching the game. At one point he even moved down a row so that he could see the action on the field. It didn't deter Alex Grace though; she stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders!
Will and Alex Grace


Papaw with Will and Alex Grace


I stole this picture from a friend's Facebook page, but here is a picture of the new turf field.


Monday was Memorial Day. Will spent the night with Mitch's parents, which is always a treat for us since he doesn't sleep - it's a chance for us to get a good night's sleep for once. Ainsley slept late and then we took her for a walk in the Arboretum. We came home and filled up the kiddie pool for probably the last time. After naps we went to Mitch's parents house for a delicious dinner of "Maggie" chickens, potatoes, salad, corn on the cob, and pie. It was a nice way to end the long weekend.

Texas Rangers Road Trip

While I'm not the official family blogger, I have been asked to write about the guys trip to see the Texas Rangers vs. the Baltimore Orioles at the Ballpark at Arlington on July 9th. Will has been a big Texas Rangers fan, nurtured along by watching with his Papaw, for the past few years. Earlier in the year we decided that a guys trip with Will, Papaw, and myself would be in order. While the Orioles were not our first choice of teams to see the Rangers play, that just worked out to be the best weekend for everyone's schedules. We headed out the Friday morning and made the trip west on I-40, arriving in The Big D (Dallas not Dubach) about 3:00 PM. We got settled in to the hotel, took a quick nap, and woke up to an nice thunderstorm. It was pouring down rain. We checked the radar an hoped it was a passing shower, but the weather channel showed lots more rain on the way. Never to be called fair weather fans, we hopped on the trolley outside the hotel that took us directly to the ball park. We got there early in hopes of catching batting practice. It was still raining steadily, but not as heavy as before. We scouted out our seats, but found them to be just below the overhang of the upperdeck. Instead of sitting in the rain, we decided to scout out the ballpark. Will really enjoyed all the sights and sounds. We stopped in at the official Rangers gift shop, and Papaw got Will a helmet that he'd been asking for since watching the Rangers at bat on TV. He also got Will a #32 Josh Hamilton t-shirt, a Rangers ball and bat, and a cap! Papaw also got a cap for me and a pink Ian Kinsler shirt for Ainsley. After circling back around to our seats we decided to squat on the very back row that was under the upper deck so we could stay dry. There were not a lot of people in the park due to the weather, so we figured we'd be safe there for a while. The announcement of an official rain delay came as the 7:05 PM start time was approaching. It would be at least an hour, so we took turns getting a bite to eat while saving our prime location seats. We were enjoying seeing all the activity, even if it wasn't an actual game.






Around 8:30 the rain had slowed to a drizzle and they began to take the cover off the infield...now we were getting somewhere. Pretty soon the players began to take the field to warm up. Due to the rain delay they didn't take batting practice, but just the usual field warm up.


Will was excited to see some of his favorites in person: Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Vlad Guerrero, Nellie Cruz to name a few.







At about 9:30 the game finally got underway. It never really stopped totally raining, so we kept our unofficial but dry seats since no one else ever showed up to claim them. It was a fun time, and I think that Papaw and I had as much fun watching Will enjoy his first MLB game as we did watching the game ourselves.







We made it through the 4th inning, but it had been a very long day and at 11:30, it was way past Will's usual bedtime. We caught the trolley again back to our hotel and got a good night's rest. Will got up the next morning and put on his Rangers helmet and demanded we throw him a few pitches in the hotel room. He was still very excited to be there.



We drove around the park to take a few pictures for Will's scrapbook.









In keeping with tradition from when dad and I went to games in the past, we had a fine breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Before heading back to Arkansas we stopped in for a couple of hours at the new Bass Pro Shop in Rockwall. It's on our way back right off of I-40 instead of backtracking to the one in Grapevine. Although the Rockwall store seemed a bit smaller, it had plenty to see and a beautiful view of the lake.



Will napped on the way home and we got back to El Dorado around 5:00 PM. All the ladies were happy to see us, and Will was excited to show them all his new Rangers gear.



He continues to talk about going to see the Rangers, and how he wants to go back. I do believe this may become an annual trip. While the guys weekend was fun, I have a suspicion that little sister might enjoy a trip to see the Rangers play next year too. -MC