Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Stand Off





 When we went to Salem in June for my cousins graduation party we spent two days with my sister and her kids. I   learned two very important things about kids on that trip.

1.     All boys are rotten antagonists

2.     All girls are whiny drama queens

We took the kids outside to play in the backyard and Terrance had shown me her new princess bicycle she had gotten (I think for her birthday) and then they went to play on the swing set. The bicycle was quickly forgotten...that was until Gun when to go sit on it and Terrance noticed him. There was an immediate high piched screech and a standoff ensued. Gun stared at Terrance and all her theatrics provoking then when he could so finally I got up and just took the bike and put it away so neither of them could play on it. You would have thought that I ended both of their worlds. For the next five minutes (yeah, apparently that is all the time it takes to get over the end of the world) they both screamed and cried sand finally lost interest and started playing on the swings again. WOW! What a learning experience that was. 



Gunnar at 31 months


When I watch you while your sleeping it is in some ways hard to believe that you are only 31 months and in other ways hard to believe that you are already 31months. I sometimes catch myself getting frustrated with you because I expect you to act older then you are...I sometimes loose sight of the fact that you are still only 2 1/2. 
You are so independent that if I try to help you put your clothes on you get mad because you want to do it yourself. You want to pour your own glass of water, get into bed by yourself, wash your hands by yourself, cut up your food by yourself, and even mop the floor by yourself. While at the same time if you drop you cup while on the couch you want me to get it for you, you can't go too far without your red blanket, and baby Elmo is still a regular at bed time. You want to wear you Buzz Lightyear rain boots everywhere (even if it is 100 degrees outside) and can't go a day with out strawberries. Needless to say we always have a large supply of them in our fridge. You have recently learned to pee in the toilet (which I am very proud and happy for...except now my bathroom smells like pee, oh-well...it beats changing diapers) but outside is your favorite place to go. And not an hour goes by when you are not being the "bad red power ranger" running around kicking and screaming HI-AAA!  I often serve as your punching bag unless your father is home in which case I am happy to be put on the back burner for a while. You can say your ABC's, know your colors, can count to 20 and even know what the numbers look like. I am amazed every day at what you have learned and what you are able to do. 
You have the best and worst of both Adam and I. You are as stubborn as I am, and have the Tamez temper to follow. But you are smarter than I ever have been and stronger then your father. You are our wonder and our greatest achievement and we love you very much. 

Lets see if my thumb is green or black!

For my entire life I have been convinced that I have been cursed with a black thumb. It is particularly bad when both your mother and grandmother could just about grow anything (like a pineapple or an avocado in Ontario Oregon). I have literally not been able to grow anything for as long as I can remember. Well, actually last year I had some limited success with growing tomatoes and peppers, and I have also been able to keep a house plant barely alive for the last couple years. A major accomplishment given my track record. For that reason alone I have tended to shy away from having a lot of plants around because it means their certain death but lately I have had this weird itch to have some greenery around and I completely and utterly detest fake plants. So I have decided it is time to have a yard (for Gunnars sake if nothing else) and to plant some flowers and a garden. Here is the results after the first three weeks...I already have one plant facing eminent death. A house plant that I accidentally scorched when I watered it with hot water instead of cold water...ok, ok, ok, scalding water. Ooops.


My yard is doing great! The grass is coming up with some weeds but we can always weed and feed it. And as you can see, my garden is up and running. I have four tomato plants, four bell pepper plants, one jalapeno plant, some cantaloupe, honeydew, butternut squash, yellow squash, and pumpkins of course. We will see how we do in the next few months. Hopefully my luck is even better then it was last year.