Dyer Days: June 2008

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Day to Day

Yesterday was one of those days--those days that you just cherish being a mom and cherish where your child is in life. I don't think that there have been very many statements of "Wow, I love this age" throughout the last six months...but still they are there. There was nothing extraordinary, just a day of being with a little person, doing day to day life and loving every second of it.

Yesterday we had to go running several errands first thing (well, first thing in our house means after breakfast and 30 minutes of a movie.) I expected this to be somewhat of a battle--I mean we had been out of town for the weekend and we didn't have just a ton of playtime before bed on Sunday night...who could expect their child to want to leave all of their toys behind yet again. Logan handled leaving like a champ. He often goes to bed at night with this statement, "Mommy, where are we going tomorrow." For those of you that know Logan, you know that he is my "prepare me" child. He needs a schedule and routine and if there's going to be a variation, he will be great...so long as you've given him some warning. Now that we know that, parenting a toddler is soooo much easier!!! We ran our errands and because he was amazingly good, we got to go on the beloved carousel ride at the mall. Its so funny to me that just as important as the carousel ride is the watching the ice skaters afterward, but again its part of the "routine" if there is such a thing for a child that goes to the mall 4 times a year. There's really nothing to report, other than it was a wonderful day filled with the absolute joy of being a 3 year old--and being in the presence of a 3 year old. Its always amazing how important the simple things in life are and how just the conversations and day to day life can seem so surreal and so joyous when you realize that this little person is still the miracle that grew inside of you and is daily such a tremendous gift.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

What's in a Name

I picked out a name for a girl when I was 16 years old...when Logan was a boy, we really didn't have any issues with a name--Logan is Jarrod's middle name and Rhodes is Jarrod's grandmother's name. We had 5 grandmothers--3 of which have boy names, so we had a lot to choose from and Jarrod's Nanny is just extra special. She commented to me throughout college that she was the only one of her sisters with a boy's name (her name is Rhodes Arthur). She always reminded me of my Grandma Brown, who I loved DEARLY, but her middle name was Wayne (and that was way out of the possibilities list), so it was doubly special for Logan to have Nanny's name. The name I loved for a girl was Ashlyn Grace. Since then, I've run across a million Ashlyn's and the reason I liked it was because it was different. Well, since there were 3 in our age of classes that I teach at school this year, its especially out. We cannot for the life of us come up with an agreeable name...so I need some opinions:
Jarrod's favorite is: Emma Hope (we'd most likely call her Emma Hope, not just Emma)
My favorite is: Ellyse Hope (call her Elly when she's younger)
Logan's favorite is: Kamryn Hope

Another possibility is: Lindsay Hope (Lindsay is my middle name, so it would follow Logan's nicely)

Jarrod and I both like Caroline Hope but I can't see us with a Caroline for some reason. Seems too proper or something--I don't know. Well, Jarrod campaigned with my parents, my siblings and my cousins this past weekend on the Emma Hope name and it is growing on me. I have a few issues with this name...mainly its soooo common and popular right now. I think that the reason it may be growing on me is that I don't have any friends with an Emma, there are no Emma's at church, and I don't know of any coming into our age of classes at school next year, so it doesn't seem as "in my face" right now. Plus, it really is a beautiful, English name...just a little too popular overall.

Give me some help here so we can start calling this baby something other than "sister."

Three Musketeers

After a weekend of fun with the most of our family, Matthew, my brother Chris, and my sister Emily headed off to Costa Rica for the week. Becky and I felt sorry for ourselves, so we decided to spend the week together at my house. Ryan couldn't come because of work, so we missed having him here, but we had a lot of fun watching our kids make "cousin memories." Shane and Jessica entertained Logan and we went on several adventures throughout the week.

The first day we went to the Fort Worth Nature Reserve and had a picnic while watching for non-existent bison (this was not a hit with us adults--the kids thought it was great)

and then that night Jarrod had a work meeting, so we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and play

Wednesday we went to the Fort Worth Zoo and the kids had a great time.

Thursday we went to see the summer Thursday kids movie "The Bee Movie". This was Logan's first movie and he did REALLY well until the end when he got scared that the pilots were going to kill the bee...we had to wait for Aunt Bec Bec and Jessica and Shane in the lobby.

On Friday, my parents came in and Gumpy and Jarrod took Logan and Shane to see Shane's first professional baseball game. All he could talk about all week was getting a foam finger. I mean, we seriously talked about this no less than 5 times a day. Gumpy was great and made sure that he got one and that both boys got a bat. They LOVED the game--Logan was very glad to have Shane along!!! Gumpy also scored high "smart" points by buying all you can eat tickets. Shane ate 2 hotdogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, a DP and a Diet DP...and he's only 8. I'm not sure what anyone else ate, but needless to say the all you can eat was worth it. We had a girl's night with Jessica and went shopping, to eat a girlie dinner at Panera Bread and then home to watch 27 Dresses. It was fun, but I don't think it was nearly as big of a hit as the baseball game! Logan went to sleep with the hugest grin on his face.

Bec Bec and the kids left yesterday morning so they could rest at home today before getting back to their normal routine tomorrow. Mom and David stayed all day and then we went to meet my traveling siblings for dinner. They had wonderful stories and sounds like they made a lot of terrific memories. I can't wait to see the pictures!

It was a great week, but we've been resting after church today...my feet are still swollen...I'm a little afraid of what the rest of the summer will bring.

Uncle Matthew Graduates

My little brother, the youngest of all 7 of us, graduated from high school last Saturday afternoon. Its hard to believe that I have a sibling that is just now getting ready for college, but for any of you who have known me long, you know just how special this guy is to me. I ALWAYS wanted a baby sibling--I thought that I would have preferred a sister, but God in His infinite wisdom gave me a baby brother when I was twelve years old. I loved taking care of him, I loved feeding him, I loved watching him sleep when he was little, I loved watching soccer games, little league games, football games, picking him up from daycare or school...really anything that he did. He was always "the special one" of us all. We're all so proud of him and love him so much!

Now, after having kids in the house for 36 years, my parents will finally have us all out. Most of us will still trickle in now and again, but for the first time in my parents 19 years of marriage, they'll live alone. You might think that's sad, but I think they're going to have a major party over it!

Unfortunately, I was so hot and the swelling in my feet was so bad by the end of Matthew's graduation ceremony, that I'll have to confiscate pictures from my siblings of the actual ceremony and afterwards, but here is one of Logan and Matthew right after we got home. And one of me with my sweet sisters...all showing up at the house Saturday morning in green...what great taste we have!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, we finally did it--we took Logan to the boat for Memorial Day weekend. It was a BLAST! He absolutely, positively loved it. We were pleasantly surprised that Auntie and Uncle Andrew came too! Logan loved driving the boat with Pops, he loved riding the Jet Ski, but would only ride with Pops (racing Daddy and Auntie), he loved just being at the boat. There was no problem with getting him to wear his life jacket if he went off of the boat and I was so thankful! God blessed me with SUCH a sense of peace and when we left, Logan asked "Mommy, when can we go back to the boat for a long, long, long time?" He found out that we're going with our college friends next weekend and he asked today on the way home from church, "Mommy, when can I go back to the boat?"