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

Water Park Fun

A few times this summer we have taken the kids to an aquatic park in Arkadelphia. This is where I went to college (although the water park was not there in those days) and it is about 1 1/2 hours from home. I'd heard about it from a friend of mine the summer before but never got a chance to go until this year. Mitch was able to take a few random Fridays off for vacation days, and he went with me. I'm not brave enough to take both kids by myself! It is not a huge park but it's cheap to get in and the kids loved it. They have a zero-level entry area with sprayers that Ainsley especially loved sitting on or stepping on. There is a "frog slide" that Will spent most of his time on; it is cute - there are steps in the back and then the kids slide down the tongue part. There are buckets that fill up and then dump out onto whoever is under them; there is a giant umbrella/waterfall that they liked going under. There are some big animals that are anchored to the bottom but float around at the surface that the kids can climb on. There is a deep end with a couple of slides and a diving board. Our kids were not big enough to go down those slides, and they wouldn't let us go down with them. There is enough to do that our kids were plenty entertained for several hours. One Friday we met up with a family - the Brawners - that we met while Will was at ACH having heart surgery. Their daughter Abby is a few months older than Will, has Down syndrome, and had heart surgery at the same time. They have an older daughter, Maddy, as well. We have kept in touch with them since that time, and decided it would be fun to go to the water park together. After playing at the park, we all went to eat at Cracker Barrel and visited. It was a lot of fun. It's always good to see how much the kids have grown and how far Will and Abby have come since those scary surgery days!

Will's swimming lessons

For the past month, Will has taken about 8 swimming lessons from a family friend, Mary Pat Cook. She has taught lots of kids for many years and she doesn't teach on a regular basis anymore, but she made an exception for Will. She is an Early Childhood Educator and has experience with children with special needs, so I thought she'd be a good fit for Will. She also doesn't cut Will any slack when he tries to direct or bargain or stall, so that was a good thing too. He had some good lessons and others where he wasn't as into it, but overall he learned some basics of swimming. He learned to put his face in and to put his hands straight out in front of him and kick. She would make him swim to the bottom of the pool (in the shallow end) and pick up diving sticks. She had him tread water ("ride a bicycle") while holding on to a "noodle". She had him lay on his back to learn to float. He resisted this some, but got the idea of it. They even practiced doing strokes with his arms ("throwing baseballs") while kicking. He didn't quite get the coordination of that but he could swim a few strokes. For his last lesson, the whole family came to watch - G.G, Grammy, Papaw, Ainsley, Mama and Daddy. Overall, he built up his endurance for kicking, learned to put his face in the water (and open his eyes), got a little more comfortable floating on his back, and could swim a few feet by kicking while his arms were straight out or by using strokes. He had a great time! Hopefully a few more summers of lessons will put it all together and he'll be a swimmer! And here are a couple of videos.

Random

Here are some pictures from random things and random days we've had this summer. Early in the summer, Mitch took Daisy to the doggie spa and she came home shaved!! We had always thought Daisy was a little on the large side, but maybe she's not so big after all!


I snapped a few pictures of Ainsley's hair. She didn't have hair for the longest time, but now it gets longer and thicker all the time. I love the curls in the back and I hope she always keeps them!

We recently started putting her hair in pigtails. This was our first attempt at them. Mama needs some major practice!! She was proud of them, but she was being defiant about us taking her picture, so this is the best one we could get.

Here she is one day right after she woke up. Her hair is a mess in the morning! I found her wearing this hat of Will's and playing with the refrigerator letters in the kitchen.

One rainy afternoon, Will wanted to got outside, so I let him get his umbrella, put on his boots and splash around in the puddles. He wanted to be outside by himself, so I stayed in the kitchen and watched him through the windows. He had a great time exploring and playing in the rain.



At Hope Landing, Will gets to be in the pool for all of his therapies one day a week. In PT, they work on strengthening his legs against the resistance of the water by jumping in the water, walking on his tip toes, putting weights on his legs; and they work on balance by sitting on the kick board and moving around in the water. Here he is with Mrs. Casey.


I didn't get any pictures of OT, but they work on things like: strengthening his arms in the water with wrist weights, strengthen his hands by having him squeeze various sponges, and practicing writing with water proof crayons.
Speech works on a variety of language and articulation goals. Here is Will counting and jumping to Mrs. Suzanne.

And here is Will being silly after therapy. He found a cowboy hat and struck a pose. Note the ironic "feed me" shirt.