It's a Rogers Life

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Arden at 8 months

My sweet little Arden is 8 months old now. Here's what she's been up to lately:

Her two favorite toys in the house are this piano that Huston got from his Great-Granny and Papaw and the "Elmo's Restaurant" play kitchen that Huston got for Christmas one year. The piano is a recent discovery, and she gets practically giddy with excitement when she crawls over and starts banging the keys and singing along with her high-pitched squeals. Other than these two things, no other toy can really hold her interest for long. She'd much rather be crawling around, pulling up on things, looking for scraps of paper or crumbs on the floor to eat, trying to crawl into toilets or rummage through garbage cans, or otherwise get into mischief. She is a little explorer.

Arden is eating Gerber puffs and cheerios, along with baby food. She gets pretty mad when I feed her baby food, though, and tries to grab the spoon out of my hand with every bite I give her. This makes for some incredibly messy meal times. It's obvious she'd much rather be feeding herself, but so far she hasn't liked the bananas and avocados I've offered her. I'll have to get more creative with the food choices soon. She started formula at her 11 o'clock feeding (in preparation for me returning to teaching this fall - a post for another day) and has taken to it beautifully. I am so grateful that she has not refused the bottle or formula.

She continues to think her big brother is awesome, and no one can amuse her more than he can. By far the sweetest sound I have ever heard is the two of them playing in the back seat of the car. Huston will do something silly and she will crack up with the most adorable laugh, and then Huston will laugh and do it again. It is precious and wonderful.

Arden loves splashing in the bathtub with Huston, playing in Huston's room, roaming around and exploring, playing peek-a-boo, snuggling stuffed animals (like her stuffed lamb and the stuffed monkeys and big dog in Huston's room), and grabbing her daddy's nose so he'll make a funny sound. She hates having scraps of paper and other forbidden things taken away from her, and will sometimes throw herself backwards onto the floor with her maddest scream when you take some such thing away from her. She uses her pacifier at naptime and bedtime, but doesn't love it like Huston loved his. She still only has her two lower front teeth and she still has the beginnings of some curls in her hair. In general she is an incredibly easy going baby and not hard to keep happy - just hard to keep out of trouble. :)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Fourth of July, Part 2

I never thought it would take this long to complete the second part of this post! Our computer got infected with a nasty virus and we had to get a new one. I'm still learning my way around this new mac, and I'm missing my windows live writer. I can't do photo albums anymore, which makes it kind of tedious to post a lot of pictures. So here are just a few from our Fourth of July.

We ate dinner at Palio's in Mansfield, followed by ice cream at Braum's, followed by some fireworks viewed from a random field (with lots of bugs) with our dear friends, the Browns and Masons. One of Huston's favorite parts of the evening was getting to pee in the grass. After Clarke took him, he came back and announced to everyone, "Did you pee in the grass!" Arden stayed awake and seemed to enjoy the fireworks - she occasionally babbled things at them. Huston liked the fireworks too, but wanted to make sure they weren't going to "get him." He kept saying things like "They're not going to get you. They're not going to come get your head."

Happy Fourth! (just a month or so late)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Fourth of July Weekend, Part I

Our fourth of July weekend started with an impromptu trip to the zoo on Saturday. Clarke thought the overcast weather would mean smaller crowds and a more pleasant experience for us, and he was right. Aside from a few “toddler moments” we had a great time, even if Huston was more interested in playing with the doors, telephones (inside the MOLA), and souvenir machines than in seeing the animals.

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This is Clarke, talking to the birds. He’s a bird-talker. I don’t know if you knew that about him.

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Huston playing with the souvenir machine.

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Running through the waters misters to cool off. Not really sure why he’s covering his ears.

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The obligatory “asleep on the way home” shot. Huston briefly woke up to tell us, “Is it too sunny. You close your eyes for it’s too sunny.” He wanted to make sure we didn’t think he had fallen asleep.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Kids Kamp Fun

While I volunteered at our church’s Kids Kamp this week, Huston go to attend the Kids Kamp for preschoolers. He was not too excited the first few days, but by the end of the week he was having a blast and didn’t cry at all when I dropped him off on Friday. I have always been so sad that he never wants to talk about what he does in his Sunday school or Wee Care class. He gets so mad when I try to ask him questions and once told me angrily, “We don’t talk it ‘bout nursery.”

Well, this week Huston has finally decided to share some of his experiences, and I am just eating it up! I can’t get enough of him sharing little tidbits about his days at Kids Kamp, but I’m trying not to seem to eager or pushy for fear that he’ll get mad at me!

Mostly it has been silly little things, like “Do you have wipes at Kids Kamp, too, Mommy. Did your teacher take that little girl to the potty and she used wipes.” He also told me, “You didn’t like that puppet. Did they let you go in the other room for you didn’t like that puppet.” He told me, “Did you get a cookie at Kids Kamp, Mommy,” and “Did you eat cheese and bread at Kids Kamp, Mommy.” (Snacks are always important!)

My favorite thing by far that he’s told me, though, happened just this morning. He got my Bible down and in his “talking to himself” voice, started saying “This is the Bible. It how true words. It how true words.” They teach the kids that the Bible is God’s true word, so he must have just heard “it how true words,” instead of “it has true words.”

He then proceeded to line up his four empty deodorants beside the Bible and he told me “Are you gonna tell God about the deodorants.” Then he patted his Bible and said, “This is the Bible. It has true words. It has true words about the deodorants.”