What Walter Thinks

Next time, just ask for another story...

2013-09-12T22:28:00.001-05:00

Last night as I'm tucking Sydney in bed and kissing her goodnight, she informs me her throat hurts. I ask her to say, "Ahh" and check the back of her throat, tell her I see nothing wrong and listen as she then tells me it hurts because she swallowed the sharp thing. What?! I ask for some details and she leads me into my sewing room. She proceeds to show me how she moved a storage tub in front of my shelves and removed my sewing kit from the top bin. She then shows me a large safety pin and tells me she ate one just like it. "Ate, as in swallowed?" I ask. "Yes, it's in my tummy." She says. Seriously?! I was ready to be done with this day at 5:00PM and now we are headed to the ER for X-rays at 8 o'clock at night. Walter was already dressed for bed, so he tagged along in shorty-short Star Wars PJs paired with camo crocs.

We arrived at the neighborhood ER and were seen almost immediately. She tells a nurse, an X-ray tech and a doctor that she has swallowed a pin, so we're herded off to the X-ray room. I'm given a lead apron so I can help keep her in position while the films are taken. The tech starts out with an abdominal X-ray, and sees nothing so he moves on to a chest X-ray. Sydney is X-rayed a total of 4 times- laying, standing, sideways, forwards...we just stopped short of suspending her by her toes from the ceiling.

The tech tells me he sees absolutely nothing, but the films need to be emailed to Texas Children's to be read by a pediatric radiologist. We're sent back to our room to hang out until that's done. Meanwhile, Dan has left work and met us at the ER. He tells Sydney a scary story about what might happen if there is a sharp object in her gut. Not only does this terrify Walter, but Sydney suddenly changes her story and tells us all about how the pin didn't taste good and she spit it out on the floor. So, between the iffy X-rays and this new story, I'm beginning to think we're here on a wild goose chase. I'm feeling a mixture of relief, disbelief and irritation. With nothing to do but wait on results, Dan and Walter head home. At 10 PM, the doctor informs us that the X-rays were normal- no foreign bodies present and we can head home. I just hope that the next time she wants to stall going to bed, she just asks for a cup of water like a normal kid.

Favorite Books

2013-09-04T15:19:00.003-05:00

On the first day of school, Walter's teacher read them Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes. He came home singing the song. They studied the book all week, and made some crafts to go along with it. By the end of the week, Walter nearly had the book memorized and read it to us at bedtime. For a few days, he watched Pete the Cat clips on YouTube instead of Nerf reviews. For a book to trump Nerf guns, it must be special!

Sydney had library at school today and she got to pick a book to bring home. She picked Ten Little Ladybugs. It's so cute to see what they choose all on their own.

Walter's First Homework Assignment

2013-09-03T15:13:00.000-05:00

Walter was assigned the letter F in the Alphabet Line at school. He had to think of something that started with an F and make a picture to go with it. We came up with frog and I had the idea to watercolor the background and frog. I taught Walter how to get the speckled effect by sprinkling watercolor with rock salt. He thought it was so cool, and did such a good job painting the blue background and green frog. When he took it to school, he even told his teacher how he painted it, but said he left out the part about making a rock salt bomb. That was the first I'd heard about a rock salt bomb. Maybe I need to be on the lookout?

"I Will Not Throw Mud"

2013-08-28T17:22:00.000-05:00

After school, Walter went out to play with a friend. He came back inside absolutely covered head to toe in mud. I put him in the shower first and asked questions later. He reported that they'd found mud (a neighbor is putting in a pool) and played mud dodge ball. That was all the info I was given. I discovered the rest on my own the next time we left the house. They played dodge ball alright, but also threw mud balls at a couple garage doors and the stop sign.

His daddy made him clean everything up. Walter in the hot sun with a bucket of water and a scrub brush seemed like punishment enough, but no...

He and the other culprit take karate together, so we decided they would confess to their karate instructor as well. After a discussion in his office about how destruction of public property is illegal, he assigned Walter 20 sentences to write: I will not throw mud. Walter worked very hard on them and did a good job. He promised he'd never throw mud again.

First Day of School

2013-08-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

So, I took a break from blogging and enjoyed a lazy summer. I thought maybe I was done with the blog forever- the kids were getting older and busier and I had Facebook to post our activities. School started and I realized I had lots to report and post...so the blog is back!

Walter and Sydney started school together on August 26th! Walter started Kindergarten and Sydney started PreK-3. They were excited and ready to go.

The week before school started, the kids both attended Meet the Teacher nights at their schools.

Walter's went very well and he got to pick his seat in class and decorate a name tag for his desk. He also took a paper bag home to add 4 items that best represented him. He would be presenting these items on the first day of school. He chose a Rising Sun Karate sticker, a toy penguin, swim goggles and a Nerf dart for his bag.

Sydney's Meet the Teacher night didn't go as well, but she took it in stride and was ready for school on the first day. At her open house, she got upset that it was time to go and had a fit. In the middle of her fit, she somehow threw a small, toy pony at one of the Pre-K teachers. Who throws a toy at the teacher on their first meeting?! So much for first impressions.

When the first day rolled around, we all woke up at 6:30am. Surprisingly, everyone was up and moving around without much fuss. The kids had a great day, and Walter's favorite part was lunch, where he bought a tray lunch in the cafeteria. It was the highlight of his day. Sydney did really well at drop off, and started to play right away. No tears from either kid, and I'm happy to report no tears for Mommy either! All in all, a very successful first day of school!

PreK-4 End of the Year Party

2013-05-29T14:52:00.002-05:00

I am almost done with preschool so we celebrated with a class party that lasted all day. First we saw a magic show where the magician turned a bird into a rabbit! I even got to pet the rabbit when the show was over.

After that, we played in our classroom and had lunch. After lunch, we went outside and were surprised by a petting zoo.

As usual, my favorite animals in the petting zoo are the chickens.

I also liked the rabbit and guinea pigs.

Sydney seemed to hit it off with the goats.

When we were done with the petting zoo, it was finally time for water balloons. I'd helped Mommy fill 100 water balloons last night and I couldn't wait throw them at my friends. The teachers had other ideas though...

They made us stand in line and hold hands WHILE THEY THREW BALLOONS AT US!!!

After what seemed like forever, we were finally allowed to have our water balloon fight. It went surprisingly quickly, probably because our teachers had used all the balloons on us.

We didn't have to worry when we ran out of balloons because there was plenty of other stuff to do...

We played a relay game where we had to squeeze a sponge on top of our head...

...and had a shaving cream fight...

...and we brought my snow cone machine from home and Mommy made everyone snow cones...and there was popcorn and slushies...

It was a fun day, and for the first time ever I wasn't ready to go home.

Me and Mrs Peterson...

Walter is a Pre-School Graduate!

2013-05-20T14:38:00.002-05:00

Mommy, Daddy and Sydney came to watch my preschool graduation ceremony this morning. We sang a bunch of songs, then collected our diplomas.

Last Soccer Game of the Season

2013-05-18T13:35:00.001-05:00

We played our last game of the season this morning. I'm a little sad to be done with soccer, but I'm hoping Mommy will sign me up for karate now that we don't have soccer practice and games to keep us busy.

Sydney was all ready to cheer me on. Well, truth be told, Sydney just comes for the gatorade and snacks.

We posed for a team picture before we got all sweaty...then it was time for action!

Then the mommies and daddies made us pose for one more picture after the game. We are having a party at Jeffrey's house tonight and we'll get our trophy then. I can't wait!

Sydney's Swim Lessons

2013-05-03T12:21:00.000-05:00

Sydney finished the first phase of swim lessons today. She has gone everyday for the last 2 weeks, and made huge progress. She cried each day for nearly a week, but now she can't wait to go. She loves swim lessons, but her favorite parts are the barbell kicks and when she gets to go down the froggy slide.

Today she graduated from guppy to goldfish, and will start attending lessons just once a week. We purchased some barbells from the school, so she can practice her kicks in our pool too. Too bad we don't have a frog slide, though.

This phase of swim lessons focuses mainly on her learning to float on her back as a way to safely get to the side of the pool if she were to fall in.

She is learning to roll to a back float to catch her breath, then roll to her belly to kick and blow bubbles, then roll to back float again. She will eventually be able to do this the length of the pool.

She is also swimming under water to retrieve dive rings.

Spring Swimming

2013-04-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

The water hit 76 degrees today, so we took advantage of the warmer temperatures. Mommy still wouldn't get in with us, but that didn't stop Sydney and I from having fun.

I entertained Mommy with one crazy dive after another, while Sydney played on the steps.

We had fun snacking on snow cones and playing in the pool today, but we're really wanting the warmer weather to stay. This silly, cool spring we're having is really cutting into our time in the water.

Snake Farm and Animal World

2013-04-05T23:24:00.000-05:00

The next day, we got up and headed for New Braunfels to visit the Snake Farm. We started by browsing the rows of snakes, lizards, turtles, gators and crocs.

We all liked the tiny turtles eating their salad!

Then we got to meet Benny the ball python. He's about 15 years old, and a pretty nice dude.

Sydney wanted her turn so she helped me hold him.

Grandma Dona got a turn too. Sydney also got a kiss on the nose from Benny. I have to admit, I'm glad that wasn't me.

After seeing all the animals inside, we moved outside. We saw all kinds of monkeys and birds. They also had mountain lions, wolves, hyenas, lemurs, otters and more. We also visited the petting zoo and fed the greedy animals.

Sydney enjoyed watching the playful otters and one even came over to the glass to say hi. We had a really fun time wandering around, watching the animals.

After our visit, we had barbecue at Coopers, then started the drive home. We all napped in the car (except Daddy, of course) and were back home before we knew it. I had a fun time with my grandparents on our little expedition.

Sea World

2013-04-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

Grandma Dona and Papa John came to visit us. We decided to take a mini vacation to San Antonio and our first stop was Sea World. When we got there, we headed straight for the Shamu show.

Sydney enjoyed watching Shamu leap and splash. It was her first visit to Sea World. It was also Grandma Dona and Papa John's first visit. I think they liked Shamu too.

After that, we walked around and bit and had some lunch. Then Daddy, Grandma Dona and Papa John rode the Great White roller coaster. Unfortunately, I wasn't tall enough yet.

After we saw some penguins and watched the Sea Lion show, we made our way over to the last show of the day. It was awesome. It had beluga whales and dolphins in it, but it also had these crazy guys that did wild dives and leaped from swinging platforms. We need one of those things for our pool.

After watching Azul, I got to ride my first roller coaster. Daddy and I rode the big boat that speeds down a giant hill into water and splashes everybody standing on the bridge. We didn't get that wet, but it was still fun.

It had been a long day and Sydney fell asleep right before we made it to dolphin cove.

We made it just in time for the last feeding of the day. Luckily the dolphins were still hungry.

I got to feed the dophin and pet his rubbery nose.

Papa John enjoyed feeding the dophins, too.

It was a super fun trip to Sea World. We'd never been during the spring. It was still a pretty popular place to visit (as evidenced by the crowds), but the weather was awesome.

Easter Weekend 2013

2013-03-31T20:42:00.000-05:00

We had a very fun Easter weekend. We started Saturday morning with my soccer game (where I ran fast and scored lots of goals!), then dyed some Easter eggs. After that, we got dressed to go to church.

Sydney and I love to go to church and eat pizza! Sydney colored a picture and danced, and I ate pizza and learned about my bible lesson for the day. Sydney's favorite thing about church is playing on the playground afterwards.

When we got up Sunday morning, we found our Easter baskets full of goodies. I got some cool water balloon accessories and Sydney got a bunch of pony stuff.

We also noticed the Easter bunny hid some eggs in the backyard. I'm a really good egg hunter and Mommy had to make me slow down to give Sydney a chance to find some eggs.

Although candy would have been good, I was super excited that my eggs had money in them.

Sydney really liked all her ponies, especially her walking pony.

We also went to the farm to see Nana and Grammy & Paw Paw. Nana hurt her foot and has temporarily moved to assisted living, so we got to check out her new place and play at the farm for a bit. I brought my water balloons and tested out my water balloon slingshot.

We had a very happy Easter, and I hope you did too!

Spring Soccer Season

2013-03-23T14:30:00.002-05:00

Soccer has started again for the spring. I was looking forward to playing, but my favorite thing to do is punt the soccer ball as far and high as I possibly can. Too bad there isn't much opportunity to do that during a game. Guess I'll just have to settle for trying to score a goal.

Oh, wait, there was an opportunity for a punt! ;)

Houston Rodeo 2013

2013-03-07T15:34:00.001-06:00

We went to the rodeo today with two goals: a pony ride and some mutton bustin'. Let's just say: we came, we saw, we conquered.

Sydney got her pony ride first. She got to do it all by herself, and rode a horse named Twinkie.

Next it was time for some MUTTON BUSTIN'...

While I waited to get suited up, Daddy gave me some last minute advice: Holding on tight with my legs was the secret.

Daddy's advice was my secret weapon and I showed that sheep who was boss. That sheep busted out of the pen at full speed but I hung on to score a solid 91. First I slipped sideways, but that sheep couldn't shake me. I told Mommy that first I slipped sideways, then my helmet hit the dirt and I did a somersault backward off the sheep...It was awesome! Even though I didn't stay on the longest, I still won a belt buckle for the wildest ride and taking the sheep down with me.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2013-03-01T08:31:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Dr Seuss' birthday at school by dressing as our favorite Seuss character. Mommy was going to make me a Cat in the Hat hat. However, standing in front of the felt section at Hobby Lobby, Mommy decided to sew me a Seuss hat in my favorite colors...green and black. I was so excited to wear it to school Friday.

February Catch-Up

2013-02-26T15:24:00.002-06:00

Darwin spends a significant portion of his day standing up in his cage, begging for crickets.

My new camo hat came in handy for a little afternoon nap in the car.

Sydney was a natural on the trampoline.

Nerf battle, anyone?

Sydney likes to be tucked into bed with books.

Sydney and I like to color, but Mommy really, really likes to color.

Sydney's favorite thing to do with markers in 'paint' her fingernails.

Go Texan Day

2013-02-22T15:13:00.000-06:00

The rodeo is coming to town, so it was cowboy dress-up day at school today. Sydney saw my outfit and wanted in on the western action, too. In the infamous words of Sydney Dawn, "Wee-Haw, Cowboy!"

Field trip to Houston Museum of Natural Science

2013-02-08T15:10:00.001-06:00

My class went on a field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We've been studying dinosaurs in class so we went to see the real ones.

On our way to the dinosaurs we saw the Foucault Pendulum and had to stop and watch it swing for a while.

Then it was on to the dinosaurs! We saw a stegosaurus...

... and a triceratops. We saw the t-rex, of course, too.

After the dinosaurs, we saw some animal exhibits. We got to touch elephant teeth, giraffe vertebrae and some cheetah fur.

After dinosaurs, animals, gems and seeing a real mummy, we were starving for lunch. We at McDonald's and then took a break to play outside. Sydney was having fun at the museum, but this was her favorite part.

We also went to the planetarium and saw a movie called Cosmic Collisions. We learned that an asteroid 7 miles long hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs. The planetarium was my favorite part.

Winterfest 2013

2013-01-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

Sydney and I have been looking forward to Winterfest, although for very different reasons. I could hardly wait to make it to the paintball gun booth and Sydney was looking forward to a pony ride. The snow was just an added bonus.

The paintball booth was our first stop. Daddy and I quickly shot our way through 100 paint balls. Then if was off to the pony rides.

I'm cool, but not too cool to get a pony ride, too.

We also visited the petting zoo. Daddy bought us animal feed in an ice cream cone, but the greedy goats attacked us and took our cones as soon as we entered. Mommy and Sydney enjoyed playing with the baby goats, but my favorite animal was the silky hen.

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I chose to climb the inflatable mountain instead of playing in snow, so Daddy and I did that while Mommy and Sydney played in the snow.

Sydney was so excited to play in the snow and loved throwing the snowballs Mommy made for her.

She also decided to try making a snow angel, but the snow was a little too packed for that.

Daddy and I tubed down the tall hill. It was awesome!

Sydney really liked tubing down the baby hill and wanted to do it again, but it was time to head home.

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We've been to every Winterfest every year since I was about a year old, and we always have a great time!

Darwinius Maximus

2013-01-09T13:33:00.000-06:00

Darwinius Maximus aka Darwin the bearded dragon is probably around 6 months old now, and has the voracious appetite of a teenager to prove it. We recently had to start feeding him the large crickets because the small crickets just weren't filling him up. Not only is his appetite large, but he has an attitude to back it up. One night, he leapt out of his tank, landed on the cricket box and tried to scratch and dig his way into the box to get to the crickets inside! Mommy let me help with feeding the other night and she snapped a picture of Darwin mid-air as he tried to snatch a cricket from the tongs.

We've also been giving Darwin more baths to help keep him hydrated. He is mostly ambivalent about the whole process, but I enjoy watching him wade around in the warm water.

Rainy Day Masterpieces

2013-01-08T13:14:00.000-06:00

My favorite thing to do is play outside, but the weather has been cold and wet so Mommy let Sydney and I watercolor to keep us entertained. I had so much fun even though I was trapped inside!

Sydney also loved painting, and only spilled her water cup three times.

I had fun thinking of things to paint. Mommy was especially impressed with my coconut tree. I set out to paint a plain old palm tree, but decided to add coconuts to give it some extra pizzazz.

Here are our masterpieces. Sydney painted the abstract blob in the bottom left corner. I painted a coconut tree, a giant flower with me and Mommy's name next to it, a rainbow, and a bow and arrow- complete with cams (it's aimed at Mommy's rainbow target). Evidently Mommy likes to paint too because she kept trying to steal our paint brushes to take a turn.

In Memory of Big Al

2013-01-04T14:54:00.000-06:00

Mommy is sad today. She was using Sydney's nap time (her sacred quiet time, where I'm supposed to be quiet and make myself scarce) to surf the internet. She was looking at old posts on the Houston Zoo's blog when she discovered Big Al passed away over the summer. We were just at the zoo and didn't see him, so he's been on her mind lately. You see, we go way back with Big Al, or at least way back to 2008.

It was the fall of 2008 and I was still an only child, an only child who enjoyed weekly trips to the zoo. We did this thing called Wild Wheels where you'd tour the zoo with an educator then get to touch a different animal each week. It was fabulous and I loved touching the animals- except the reptiles. Who would have ever thought I'd have a pet Bearded Dragon some day. Anyway, after class we'd also stop by the petting zoo to say hi to the goats. There was one goat in particular who was our favorite- Big Al. He was the only large goat in the petting zoo and I loved his long, floppy ears. Mommy and I faithfully attended Wild Wheels for about 2 years before a little sister and preschool got in the way. Rest in Peace, Big Al and thanks for the memories, Dude!

http://www.houstonzooblogs.org/zoo/2012/06/the-childrens-zoo-says-goodbye-to-a-beloved-animal/

New Year's Eve

2013-01-01T08:57:00.000-06:00

We celebrated New Year's Eve with our neighbors on the cul-de-sac. We started the evening outside, but the rain started and drove us into the garage. We were still able to pop some firecrackers, so I was happy. Playing in the rain was awesome too!

Mommy held a Lemur, and I'm green with envy

2012-12-29T09:34:00.000-06:00

Mommy had a lemur ride on her shoulder, and I'm insanely jealous. I'm sure you're asking how Mommy ended up with a Lemur (one named Zippy, no less) on her shoulder. Well, here's the story:

It started with Darwin. He normally eats his weight in crickets each day, but we'd noticed his appetite decreasing. Mommy and Daddy kept an eye on him, but when he started having runny poops they decided he needed medical intervention. Of course, this was the morning of Christmas Eve. There are only two exotic animal vets near us, and the closest one was not answering their phone that day. So, it was off to vet clinic 30 miles away.

When we got there, the vet examined Darwin. They tried to run a test for parasites, but since Darwin had not been eating there wasn't enough poo for the test. So the Vet rehydrated Darwin with an injection of fluids, force fed him some cricket mash and gave him an antibiotic injection. He then sent us home with instructions to return in 4 to 5 days.

The treatment worked! Within a day, Darwin returned to his usual voracious self. He even shed his skin for the second time this month. When we returned to the vet for the follow-up, Darwin received a second dose of antibiotic and was deemed healthy. He even provided a nice sample for the parasite test- which was negative. So what was wrong with him to start? The vet thinks dehydration. We have added a larger water dish with a heat pad under the tank to boost the humidity. Darwin is also supposed to receive baths every now and then. I'm looking forward to that!

So, you now know Darwin's long story, but what about this Lemur?!? Well, Zippy lives at the vet clinic and wanders where ever he pleases. He even drinks from the toilet.

When we went back for the follow up visit, Zippy was visiting with us (or maybe Sydney and I were ~~chasing~~ following him around the office) and he hopped up on a shelf by Mommy. Mommy just held her hand out to Zippy, thinking she was going to try to pet him since he was so close. Zippy must have taken this as an invitation to hop onto her shoulder. So there he was, and Mommy even managed to take their picture.