Kaelan: Version 7.5

 

She has made it to 7 1/2 years of age!   This is  a huge feat!   Seriously, I remember a few days over the last 7 years that I  may have muttered a phrase I heard my own mother mumble a few times. 

I can not wait until you have your own child.  If you MAKE it to be old enough to have your own child!

Kaelan is maturing and turning into a sweet old soul.   The level of drama can still climb and escalate quickly (she is MY daughter, after all) but overall, she has a kind and calm disposition.

She continues to excel in school (have I mentioned she recently passed an 8th grade reading test??) and loves both her new home and school.   She just started a new soccer season with a group of older girls.  The level of competiveness just skyrocketed!    Our new neighbors have a girl close in age to Kaelan, and the two have become thick as thieves.   Hallie, that’s her name, has played on a team for  a few years, and her mom and I thought it would be super for the girls to play together this season.  There are 15 girls on the team, and Kaelan is the only new member.   Kaelan is by far the youngest, and after the first practice and game, we felt like maybe we may have thrown her to the wolves, but she is improving already and wants to stick it out.  This could be the death of me.

Kaelan will soon start piano lessons.  She has been asking about guitar.  Electric guitar.   I am down with her trying whatever, but I did tell her I was not going to go out and buy her the pink guitar she requested until I knew this was something she was going to stick with.  Hence, she decided to stay with the piano.

Art is still her passion.  We actually just found out some of her work will be published in Highlights magazine.   We will keep you posted. 

Who best to tell us more about this amazing little gal than Kaelan herself?

As I have done in year’s past, I sat down to ask Kaelan a few questions about her life right now.   These will be classic someday, I just know it!  I also added a few questions about myself and daddy just to hear her thoughts in that realm.

Favorites:

Cereal? 

Out of sweet ones you will actually let me try…..probably Lucky Charms.      

Vegetable?

Corn on the cob.  I like it better on the cob.

Drink?

Probably that Bubbly Magic Potion drink from Magic Time Machine.

Toy?

Spyro from my Skylanders collection. 

TV show?

WildKratts! on PBS

Book?

Chronicles of Narnia and my favorite is The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, of course.  (of course)

Restaurant?

Chuy’s, Rosa’s, Rainforest Café, and Firehouse Subs.

Holiday?

Christmas. Because it is about giving and it is Jesus’ birthday. 

Animal?

Cheetah, because it is very fast and the lines under its eyes protect it from the sun. (Hello!  Wouldn’t that make it your favorite, too?)

Color?
Rainbow, gold and silver.   (I think that covers all of them.)

Activity?
Art.  Pretty much anything that involves art or drawing.

Song?

Gangnam Style and Dynomite (NO!!  Really??  I wouldn’t know that from the 85, 985 times you played it in the car today!)

Movie?

Chronicles of Narnia.  The WHOLE series.

Sport?

Soccer.  You know that.

Best friend?

You know that, too.   Darian.    Also, Hallie, Bryce, and Lathan.

 

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Right away, half of it would go to buy things for people in need.  I would go to where Rose Ann (our sponsor child of 4 years) and buy her family a new house and help their farm.  I would also get water and medicine to the kids in that country where the earthquake was.  Where was that place?  We just watched a movie about it?  (Haiti)  Yeah.  That place.  I would go there and help them.  

Then, I would take the other half and build my dream house on top of a rainbow.  There would be 35 stories.   Hundreds of rooms with themes.  A huge waterslide.   It would be really awesome.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

Probably to Africa to give away things and water.   Maine is another place.  I just always see how high it is on the map and I want to see what it feels like to be one of the highest points in our country.   Arizona.  I would like to go there again and see family. Also, Kansas to see if there is a Dorothy (she recently read “The Wizard of Oz”) museum or something like that. 

What are your wishes for the next year?

I really want to catch that St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun.    Do you think there is only one?

I also want to touch an actual whale.   Last year we got to see one up close, but I want to touch one this year. I also want to swim with and touch some fish.

Hold a wild blue jay (not a captive one) on my arm and feed it acorns from my hand.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

First, an artist. 

Second, an animal rescuer.

Third, probably a geologist or earth scientist of some kind.

What is your happiest memory from the last year?

Seeing blue whales up close.   Opening presents on Christmas, especially my fish tank and flying shark.

Starting in a new school and getting to explore in my backyard.

 

Now, tell us a little about your mom and dad…….

 

What makes you proud of your mom/dad?

Everything you guys do. 

For mom, it is that she is so nice to me, and she is the best kisser.  

For dad it is his awesome back scratching skills.

How old/tall is your mom/dad?

Mom is about 5’5” and she is 37.  (Great.  I am short and old.)

Dad is 6’ tall and he is 41. 

What does your mom/dad do when you are not around?

What do you do?   Mom, probably lays around and is sad and misses me.  She probably watches television or something.

Dad plays and entertains Seth, and then he goes off and plays football games on the Xbox.

What is your mom/dad really good at?

Mom is really good at cleaning and cuddling.  She is also good with crafts.

Dad is really good at football, mostly on the Xbox because his ankle is all messed up.   Cooking pancakes.  Playing tickle monster and remote control truck chase.

If your mom/dad were a cartoon character, who would they be?

Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I have Seth nailed….he is, without a doubt, the Tasmanian Devil!   (laughs)



 

 

 

 

 


 

The Birthday Wish (part II)

 

The birthday wish (in all its parts) came about like this.

We were walking through the toy store a few weeks before Seth’s birthday trying to come up with a few ideas for gifts.

With Christmas just a few weeks behind us, it was hard to come up with a gadget or toy that he did not already get over the holidays.

We pointed out several cool toys, but none seemed to peak his interest.

Finally, I just asked.

“Seth, what do you want for your big boy number two birthday?”

He looked straight at me and answered.

“Ummmm…trains, water parks and hotels.”

Huh?

From that day forward, anytime you asked what he wanted, you go the same answer.

TRAINS.  WATER PARKS.   HOTELS.

I told you in the previous post of how we came through on the train wish.  We also gave a little bit of the hotel portion.  

The Boy loves staying in hotels.   Not a trait he inherited from me, but he always takes great delight in travel, only because it means HOTELS!

We stayed at a really hip new place in the Domain this last time in Austin, and the kids just loved the modern feel.  

For the record, Doug and I hated it.   Internet connections in the shower and reversible wall so you don’t have to walk all the way back to the bed to retrieve your belongings on the shelf while in the sink area??  Really? Please.

Back to the wishes.

I had little to no desire to head back to Great Wolf Lodge after having recently been there, but fulfilling the water park wish in February was going to be challenging if I did not find an indoor park.

Luckily, there is just such a place in a little town about an hour from here!

I was spared going to GWL  AND I was able to book us a hotel room right near the property.

WATER PARK.  HOTEL.       CHECK!

It was the perfect place for the kids.  Just enough big stuff for Kaelan, and small rides catered to Seth’s age.  He wore himself out, so I took him back to his beloved hotel for a nap, while dad and Kaelan kept on playing.  

It was hilarious to watch daddy and Seth under this huge water bucket.   Seth would squeal and holler with anticipation waiting for the water to drop, and then scream with joy as it fell.

Wait for it.  Wait for it….

 

WHAM!!

Again!  Again!

That night, we went to a special little joint in Clinton , OK and had a birthday dinner. After we, along with the staff of Montana Mike’s,  sang happy birthday to him, we asked Seth if he got what he wanted for his big day.

“Yes!  Yes!”, he said nodding his head wildly.

“Tomorrow toy story (store)?”, he asked with a smile.

That stinker knows how to work us over.

#2 Train Home **Revised (with video!)**

 

We are lucky in that our move to OKC did not take us too far away from our family and friends back in Austin.   We made a trip back to the ATX in January to celebrate some family birthdays and a late Christmas with Doug’s sister and her family.   It was so good to see all of the old gang!

Seth’s birthday was just a few weeks away, so we decided  to have a little gathering and fulfill part one of his three part birthday wish.  TRAINS! 

We will get to the other two parts in a later post.

Seth has a real love for trains (I am certain I have mentioned once or a million times).   When we lived in Austin, we took a train ride on the Cedar Rock Railroad nearly every week after church.   As soon as he heard we were headed to Austin for a few days, the first thing he asked to do was go ride “his” train.   We took that wish and ran with it, and booked the train for a few rides for just our group.  

Over 50 of our dear friends and family members came out and spent the afternoon with us. 

 

       

Seth with many of our old ‘hood friends.  

 

Seth and Patton talking politics, no doubt.

 

 

Seth and Sister.  

Seth and Sara

Loaded up for the first trip around the park.

The weather was dreamy.   Back in OKC, where there is actually a winter, most of the train tracks were closed due to ice and snow, so it worked out perfectly to come back to Austin around this time and let Seth get his train high.

It was just like old times.   My kids in the dirt with a bunch of their good buddies.

  

Even the Three Amigos were reunited!

On top of hearing Seth call out, “All aboard!” all afternoon, my favorite part of the day was after we sang happy birthday.   In a mess of miscommunication, we all forgot to bring a match or lighter for the candles.  Seth was really stoked about blowing out his candles, and had practiced blowing out fire at our birthday dinner the night before at a Japanese steakhouse.

No worries, though.  Dad had train whistles placed on the cupcakes and instead of blowing out an unlit candle, he told Seth to blow and held up the whistle to his  mouth.

The result was  sweet little “TOOT” from the whistle and a HUGE smile of surprise of Seth’s face. 

 

 

 

happy birthday boy 2

 

It was a fabulous day.   A fabulous visit to Austin.

We went to a lot of our favorite spots in the ATX on that visit, and even drove past our old house.  I totally thought that I would get to pining and long to be back there, but just the opposite happened. 

I kind of longed to get back home.

Home, as in our home in OKC.   I love Austin.  I loved being there and living there and making all the great friends and memories there, but my heart has attached itself to a new place. 

My home is where family is.  Where we are thriving.   Where we are all together under one roof.   Where we are building a new set of great memories and friends.

I look forward to future visits to Austin to see the people I love there, but you just can’t beat coming back home.

Doug jokes that home for me is where my favorite pillow Jed (yes, I named my pillow) and my wonderful bed is. As long as I have them, I can call anywhere home.

True, I love Jed and Bed, but the minute we got back to Edmond and carried our sleeping beauties up to their rooms, I took that deep calming “home” breath.  

In and out.

I knew it would come.

Then, I jumped into my bed and hugged Jed with tight arms.

Ahhh…Home.

Wise Little Creatures

When I came across these pictures the other day, I got a little teary.

There is so much more said here than just a story about a couple of kids and their parents spending the afternoon feeding geese by the lake.   That might have been what I saw through the lens when I shot these pictures, but the story has changed somewhat now that I am looking at the photos.

Now, I see a little of the lessons my kids teach me.   Enjoy life.   Take in God’s wonders and appreciate them.  Have a heart for kindness to ALL creatures.

That’s deep.  I know.   You probably just see a couple of kids feeding geese by the lake.

I wish you could actually see them in action, though. 

They beg me once a week to take them, and these two can make the act of feeding ducks and geese a loaf of bread last for hours.

They soak up the sun.  They make sure each and every bird gets a pinch of bread (and extra for the ones who look hurt).   They laugh.  They run.  They sit in the mud and dead grass and don’t care about the laundry and stains of the future.    They meet new kids on the playground, and in a matter of moments become BFF.  They live and love each moment.

These are good lessons.  

I strive to be more like my kids. 

 

Merry (cough, cough) Christmas

I know that I sing the praises of my hometown each year, but golly,  it really does hold the heart to Christmas for me.
I adore going home and being around my family and familiar places.   I love the anticipation that I see building in Kaelan’s small mind as she counts the days until we are back in Cloudcroft.   And snow.   How can you go wrong with Christmas snow?
This year it was nearly the death of us being there.  Seriously. 
The week before we left for the mountains, I developed another form of the deadly plague (possibly the flu stuff before it became a national craze) and though I did everything I could to fight it, including seeing a doctor literally on our way out of town, the nasty stuff followed me all the way to the Lincoln National Forest.
Ugh.   My biggest worry prior to leaving was my ear.   If you recall, I had the worst ear infection ever a few years ago.  Yes, I am referring to the one that blew out my ear drum during Seth’s delivery and made me beg for an epidural needle to be stabbed into my ear.  Labor pain? Bad, but  tolerable.  Ear drum explosion pain while in labor?  They say you forget the pain later.  Uh, not so much.  I am still not convinced I did not actually birth Seth through my ear canal, but that is another story.
Anyhow, the doctor loaded me up on meds and told me to take it easy while making the elevation change.  
He didn’t tell me I might experience the feeling of impending death a few days later.  The crud hit me hard once we got to 10, 000 feet.   I felt like I couldn’t breathe and the sinus pain was so intense, I thought I would pass out every time I stood up. 
But that wasn’t the worst part.  
While I was in the doctor’s office, I heard the faintest little cough from Seth.   I immediately panicked.  Please, please, please don’t let that be a cough.  He seemed perfectly fine, but it comes quick with that one.   The doctor laughed me off when I expressed concern and he even looked Seth over.  MY doctor and MY appointment.  Nice guy, but I still blame him for nearly dying four days later.
Well, it was an “oh no” kind of cough.  The day we got there, the cough came more frequently, and by that evening we were doing breathing treatments and debating a trip to the ER for both Seth AND me. Ugh.  Ugh. Ugh.
So, Christmas 2013 went down something like this.
Sandra sick.  Seth sick.  Doug (early stages) sick.   Kaelan well.
Snow storm hits.   Snowed in.   Have to warn family to stay away (most of them could not  do that, bless their hearts).  
Sandra really sick.  Seth really sick.   Doug  sick.  Kaelan well and bored.
I hated missing so many of the things I loved.   One morning, I could not take it and I suited up heavily  and headed out to sled with my nieces, nephews and Kaelan.   We had a super time, but I paid dearly later with chest pains and coughing.

Thank the Lord, by the end of the week, Seth and I started to improve!  I started seeing a little less of this…

…and a little more of this.

I did a lot of pouting because when I looked out the window, this mountain kept taunting me about the skiing I was missing out on.


But on Christmas morning, the scenery was much more beautiful.  I got to look at these shining little faces light up over and over and it was better than the finest fresh powder that the sweetest of slopes could ever offer.



Once again, we had just our little family of four together early in the morning and then we had the whole family gathering later in the day.   The kids loved their gifts from Santa and each other.  Kaelan and Seth had a special book made for daddy.  Seth got Kaelan a new squinkee tower of some kind (aka stuff to get stuck in my vacuum), and Kaelan gave Seth Bulls eye and Buzz to add to his collection.

Santa was also a sucker and gave into Kaelan’s big wish for a fish.  
Let’s just say “Santa”  better enjoy cleaning fish poo, because mama was not 100% sold on this gift.  Now I have to keep to kids, a cat, AND a fish alive.  Ugh.
I got my wish, too!   The sun came out, and TA-DUH!!!!  


We were well enough to enjoy the mountains.



And despite getting a late start, WE DID ENJOY IT!
Except for ice skating…..I don’t think Seth enjoyed that entirely.

On a totally random note, we did some shopping while there, and during one outing my little artist stopped to admire some art in a gallery.  She walked around and pointed out a few of her favorites and when I took a closer look at one she liked, I was just as shocked as she was to see my mom’s name on  it.  I wasn’t shocked that my mom is an artist, I knew about that, just shocked it was hanging there and I did not know about it or recognize it. 
Kaelan is so inspired by her “Noni’s “ art.  This really impressed her.

Minus the loads of pictures I would have liked to have taken if I could have been a little less high on medication, this pretty much sums up our Christmas vacation this year.  
It may not have been my favorite, but being trapped in a snowy mountain cabin with three of your favorite people is not a bad place to be. 
Besides, it gives you a good excuse to wear your Star Wars slippers all day long. 
And what a gift that is!