"Jason, I think this was the best time we have had at an amusment park, and I only went on two rides."

That is what I said to Jason as we left the park on Saturday, at 6 pm. Maybe it was that D was old enough to go on the kiddie rides and we had such a short drive there. Don't get me wrong there were way too many people, long lines, and muggy heat. Since Jason and I printed out the names of all the rides that D was tall enough to go on we made it a priority to go on them. The magic number is 42". Since he was 41 1/2 with his crocs, we put him in sneakers and a hat. We measured him again and he came right a 42. I was hoping that they would do it like Sea World does and just give you a wrist band if you are tall enough. The first ride that he went on the attendant came out with his ruler. I told him that he slouches when he gets measured so I needed to hold his head up. I grabbed under his neck and pulled him up. He got in. This worked on the rest of the rides, except the last one that Jason was going on with him. He said he tried, but it was an adult ride and I am sure they are aware of all the tricks.
Notice how he is so much shorter then everyone else. Really was 1/2inch going to make that much difference. There was a log flume ride. They have two, but there was only one open, so there was a l....o...n...g line. Jason thinks we were in there for 50 minutes. I was a little annoyed at the time, but D and I spent some good quality time together. We didn't have anything to distract us, we sang songs, I tickled him and told him stories. Jason too spent quality time with J. I was a little worried leaving him alone with him, but he did well, he was even asleep when we finished with our 3 minute ride.
They had all these great trees around that provided a lot of shade. J and I would find some while D rode on his rides.


The water park was a lot of fun, again too many people, no chairs but we made do. D and J both enjoyed the kiddie pool. D kept going down the slide over and over again. We finally got sick of that, we all went over to lazy river. We got one of the figure 8 floats and all Sat on it. There was a waterfall that we didn't see coming. Had we not all been on the float, we could have diverted ourselves. nope, of course we got right under it. J and I even got the worst of it. He didn't even cry. He is a water baby.

After we let D experience the artificial waves, we finally made our way out of the park. Since we had only eaten pumpkin seeds and licorice since breakfast, I talked Jason into taking us to a favorite restaurant of mine. I convinced him since there isn't one in Little Rock. We made it home at 8:30. Everyone had a great time. Definitely funner then our Memphis trip. J was trying to take a few steps today. He still has a ways to go, but this is one milestone he will beat D on. I'm the mom, I am allowed to compare. We are supposed to close on our house this Thursday, I will let you know what happens.

Jump Zone isn't just for kids

Hello all,
I said that I would be back with Pictures and stories of Hot Springs, but I had to report about our fun trip to Jump Zone. It said North Little Rock on the Internet. I really should have known better. The NLR I know is 15 minutes away. This place that they said was in NLR was literally 45 minutes away. I would have called it West Little Rock, which I know is going to take 40 minutes to get too. Good thing I left early. I had to leave early because our GPS wouldn't recognize the address I typed in. I was just about to print out the directions from their website when the computer died. Luckily I got the exit and the street that I needed to turn on. Well of course once I got up there I forgot it. I found a street that I was pretty sure about. I started down it and it was looking pretty scarce. I called Angie but she was still aways out, she didn't realize it was that far away either. I finally called the place and from what I describe to them they told me I just needed to keep going and it was around the corner. I am glad they were so busy when I got there so they wouldn't remember me calling. D had a great time..

I have always wanted to take him to something like this. I didn't feel so bad when I realized that he was barely old enough to do it now. Alice had a hard time. I would have been nice if they had a toddler area. I am going to have to deal with it with J soon. He was happy just to suck on his foot.
D was was a little intimated by one that you had to squeeze threw, but he eventually got over it.

I kept trying to get pictures of him sliding down the float. I finally remembered that I had a sports function on my camera. They came out better after that. It was how I was able to get that awesome picture of Ang. dunking the ball.
If I go there again I will try to go from noon to 2. That is when everyone started leaving for lunch and Nap time. I talked Angie to going with me to my favorite restaurant. (Mimi's cafe) It was yummy, but COLD. I have to remember to bring in my jacket to restaurants in the summer. After that I checked out some posh antique stores in "ritzy" WLR, Of course D had to touch everything. We finally got home about 3 pm Jason came in the door a few minutes after. Even though I was dead tired, we all loaded up and hit the gym. I wished I would have known that family room was so nice a long time ago. The last time I went in there they hadn't remodeled it yet. I hope Dyess has a room that nice. Well I better get to bed. If Jason feels better we will head out to Hot Springs tomorrow. Take care.

J is in the clear!

Wahhoo!!!! I am not cursed. I just figured that since D was highly allergic to milk, eggs, and peanuts, that J would hold the same fate. I talk to the base ped. and she didn't have the answers to my questions about it. She gave me a referral to see the closest allergist. When I called them they said that I couldn't get in till July 10. I asked her if there was anything else I could do. She told me I could go to the I-30 Little Rock location. Since LR isn't that big, especially staying on the I-30, I thought it would be ok. Well I don't how they called it LR it was over 40 minutes away. It was well worth the drive.
I still wasn't sure if he was going to do testing on him. When we arrived we were the only ones waiting. Sometimes that isn't the best sign. All my worries were erased when I met the allergist. He was Eastern Indianan, but I could understand him very well. I was very impressed with him. I told him how his brother had those food allergies and he said we could easily test him. They had a little tool that pricked his skin all at the same time. It was great. I wished they had that for D. I remember holding him on my lap while he screamed every time they pricked him. Since J is such a squirmy baby it was not that easy holding him for 15 minutes, without touching his back. I thought it was a good thing when I looked at it and it certainly didn't look like D's had. The look on the Dr.s face said it all. He came in with a huge smile on his face saying it looked real good. All clear! Not even peanuts Wahoo!!!! Can I say that again? Wahoo! As soon as D grows out of his milk allergy, I can start cooking for real. I felt a little neurotic when he said that only 10% of siblings have the same allergies. Stupid me for not using the Internet for good! Oh well at least now I know. I can't wait to give him mac and cheese, goldfish crackers and real cheese. Good thing D will be in school next year. He was very supportive. He was so excited for him! He has such a big heart, I just wished he would stop pushing him around. We are still trying to go to Hot springs. I will let you all know.

D. Soccer camp and our first and last trip to Memphis

Hello again,

Time is going by S..L..O..W..L..Y...., but isn't that how it always is when you are anticipating something. I am glad to report that D hasn't drove me nuts, yet! We are actually having a great time. I turn the TV off by 9:30 and we get out of the house or play games inside. J usually takes a long morning nap so we have quality time together. Last week D had soccer camp. He was about 1 1/2 -2 years younger then the rest of the kids in his group, but it didn't affect them. We tried not to advertise that to the other parents since he was there because Aunt A had "great connections". It was a good experience for him. I was scared the first day because he looked so tired, but I was assured when he was crying at the end because he didn't want to leave.
He can't play for a team in Abilene untill he is 5, but we will see if he wants to play at the YMCA this winter. He keeps kicking the ball in the living room and were lucky he hasn't broke anything yet. I can't wait for our big backyard so he can kick as hard as he wants. We skipped out on the make up day on Saturday to head for Elvis and Graceland. It wasn't that bad of the drive. It reminded me of the drive between CC and San A. Graceland was pretty much what I expected. I was a little irritated that you couldn't use flash on your camera in most of the areas. I understand the rule, but they could of used better lighting to help. D liked the airplanes, but he had it by the time we got to the house.
Sight seeing means something totally different when you have little ones. It is more like, Hurry and get your moneys worth. We had a hard time trying to find somewhere to eat. I told Jason to find the nice part of town. He said Memphis didn't really have a nice part of town. We finally made it to Beale street. Jason didn't want to pay for parking(again). We drove around till we saw a man flag us over into a free parking spot, and another sucker was born. We ended up giving him $15 but we got a car wash out of it. Jason was able to watch him while we ate. He felt like it was worth it. The kids doing gymnastics in the street were crazy. D liked the big river boat. He asked me why their was a hotel on the river. Jax has an appointment with an allergist on Wednesday. I don't think he will be able to do testing on him, but the Ped. thought I should have a talk with him. I miss D's Ped at Laughlin that was also an allergist. We are going to try to get to Hot springs this weekend. I am sure we will have tons of pictures and fun stories to report. Thanks for checking in.

Will give this one a try

Hello, family and friends! I wanted to do a baby site for J, but hadn't got to it yet. My friends sent me there blog sites, so I thought I would give it a go. On D's website, I use to do a journal entry with every milestone he reached. I will try to keep up, but this is going to be a busy summer. Since I didn't get J's site started earlier I will try to catch up a little. J M was born on September 21, 2007. It was week after Jason received his pilot wings. It worked out perfectly. The delivery was really quick. In at 7 am and he was out at 10:14 am. he was a little small (5.11.8 pds)(19.25"), but perfectly healthy. He didn't stay that Small for too long. The visiting nurse that the Navy provided, told me she was amazed that he was back to his exact birth weight by a week. Since he was gaining about a pound a week I thought he was going to be huge. I think he was just trying to catch up cause he was still only 12.13 at 5 months. By then he had already smiled, laughed, and turned over. I can't say those months were the easiest. I had nerve damage in my hand that had cause MAJOR problems. That alone would have been enough, but I had to deal with it while Jason was at survival school, a trip to Utah and moving to Little Rock. It has gotten better, but I will have permanent muscle weakness. So we're still here in Little Rock. I try not to knock it too much, because there is a good chance we will be back here some day. I was very lucky to get D into a Mother's day program 3 days a week. He loved his school. We enrolled him into a T-ball class and swimming lessons. He has a little trouble with the water, but it really depends on how cold it is. Weird! J was sitting up by 5 months.
he was starting to "army crawl" a few weeks after that. He is 8 months now and wants to be held or walk with his walker. Well not really, but he really likes to hold everyones attention . It is pretty cute how he walks with that walker. We have lent it out to so many of our friends, I think we counted 7. Another reason for the crankiness, is the little teeth budding. D didn't do this till a year. This has made nursing fun! not. After 6 years of marriage and 7 different homes. Jason and I will be closing on our first home on June 27th. The first time I saw it on the Internet I knew that was the one I wanted. Luckily it wasn't out of our price range and located where we wanted to live. It is landscaped beautifully. Good thing. I wasn't born with the green thumb that my mom had. I will do my best to keep it up. The only thing that I didn't like about it, was that the kitchen had white appliances. Since they are taking the white fridge with them and we want to buy a stainless steal one, we decided to update the kitchen and put stainless steal appliances and paint the cabinets white. For all of you who have seen my china cabinet, Don't worry I will not be doing it alone. Two of the best features in the house are the "man cave" an air conditioned office that was created off the garage, and the screened in back porch. we can't wait to move in. Hopefully Jason will be done on time so we can move in the middle on July. The best birthday present I have ever gotten. Jason goes to the flight line next week. We pray that the weather will stay calm so we don't have to change our plans. Thanks for checking us out. I will let everyone know when I update.