Family
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Family Photos on South Padre
During our trip to South Padre over Thanksgiving I took some photos of my brother’s family and my parents. The wind wasn’t the best and neither was the weather, but the overcast day actually made it fairly decent for the quick photo session. Grayson, my nephew, wasn’t in the best of moods, but eventually he was coaxed into smiling and even laughing! It was fun to photograph people, something I don’t do very often. Forest doesn’t want his photo taken that much these days so I have to sneak it in, usually with my phone. My SIL Stephanie took the last photo of my parents, brother, and me. Look at…
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Thanksgiving on SPI
Having lived in Texas most of my life, minus the 8 years I lived in Florida, I’ve seen a good chunk of the state. There were corners I still hadn’t been to, and even places within regions I have been to that I haven’t seen. Forest asked a few weekends ago if it was possible to see every place on Earth, and he meant as if you could walk across every inch of Earth. We had to break it to him that it just wasn’t feasible to accomplish but I do admire his question and thought process! I knocked the panhandle out early when I was 3, flying for the…
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8 is Great!
The baby burrito pictured here turned 8 today! 8!! He had a friend from school come over to celebrate with pizza and cake and they opened a few presents together. He’s been very excited about this all week and I’m glad his friend was able to come over and celebrate the day with him. Forest is super into Pokémon right now so he was ecstatic to get some new cards and other Pokémon adjacent items. We’re hoping to continue the celebrations this weekend with a trip to the water park if the weather cooperates tomorrow. Well, this is a short post because someone wants to play Pokémon, so, see ya!
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Pool Day
Several summers ago we attempted to make it a summer routine by heading to our local city swimming pool. Forest was 3 or 4 at at the time and we had barely tested the waters with one swimming lesson in the backyard pool of someone who gave lessons. It wasn’t a match at the time because Forest hadn’t spent a ton of time in pools or waters like that, so the community pool was the easiest place to initiate more of a relationship to water and pools like this in the summer. I still kick myself for not getting around to doing swimming lessons when he was a baby and…
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Bubbles on the Front Porch
Forest turned 7 a few weeks ago. Another year with this kiddo and I can’t believe he’s been hanging out with us for seven years now. The baby years seem so distant and yet when I conjure up the memories they are right there—the fluffy cloth diapers, the crawling toddler, the endless hours I spent sustaining the life of that kid with my body…oh boy! And now he’s 7 and in love with Minecraft, YouTube gamers who play Minecraft, and dragons. And cats. Oh, and hamsters. He’s been less interested in outdoor activities and even going to the studio in the last few months so I think we’re in a…
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Forest’s First Week of School
We kicked off the year with Forest finally going back to be with his peers at school. He had been home with us since late March 2020. While he had spent most of his life going to daycare 5 days a week and making friends and learning there, the 9+ months at home made him cozy and it was a bit hard to get him motivated to go to school at first. We spent the month leading up to it talking school up and getting him excited but he was still rather ‘meh’ at first. Even to the point of crying that Wednesday before we left the house, which of…
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Christmas 2020
Our Christmas was quiet this year. Christmas Day is always quiet and then the day after we typically pack up and head to DFW and spent the next 5-6 days visiting 3 different groups of families. This year none of that was happening. We did a modified Christmas with one group via Zoom and I called my parents on Christmas Day and had Forest open his presents from them while they could watch. It was a bit somber and sad to think about missing out on holiday goodies and hugs and time with the family but I know it was for the best. Since seeing reports of record travel at…
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Over the Rainbow Bridge | Leo
Our sweet Leo has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. His estimated birthday was May 2004 as he came to us in July 2004 at our West Kendall apartment in Miami. It was the middle of the night and Chris and I were awoken by what sounded like a baby bird chirping. It chirped and chirped, annoying me enough to get out of bed and walk around to the back porch to see what was going on. I could never find anything but the next morning Chris woke me up because he had found the culprit—or rather, Samson had found the culprit! It was a scraggly kitten at the back sliding door,…
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These Are The Days
Back in March when the pandemic got going here Forest and I would have lunch in his treehouse. It was cooler then and much more doable. We’d eat lunch inside and then move to the back balcony to have a treat in our “treat spot” while we watched the turtles on the downed log in the pond. I honestly thought by May that we’d have transitioned him back to daycare and Chris and I would both be in the office full time. Oh, how naive we were! We haven’t had lunch in the treehouse in months, mostly because we’ve moved onto other things we do at lunch but it also…
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Forest Friday | Was he really that small? Edition
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a Forest Friday here. And seeing as the kid is nearly 5.5 and heading for 6 very quickly, I’ve been reminiscing over his baby and toddler days a lot the last few months. He’s hurtling for the bigger little kid era, ditching the preschool years and tendencies slowly but surely. All of this is good, of course, he’s acting age appropriate, but I’m still a bit wistful for the baby and toddler era in many ways…of course in other ways I’m thankful we’re past those—nursing, diapers, whining without saying what he wants—oh wait, scratch that last one, that still goes on! There’s…
