Summer fun!!

We've really been loving the pool. The cubs love the play ledge with the gushers, but are still uncertain about getting into the actual pool. However, they love riding in the floaties, so I captured a few photos to share. We have been looking into swimming lessons, but most of the 3 year old classes are taught with no parental guardian in the pool and I don't think the cubs are quite ready for that yet. The other classes I have found are "Mommy and Me" type classes, which require one adult per every child, and those won't work for us either since I obviously can't clone myself. Perhaps private lessons are the way to go.

They certainly take after their mom...they love floating in the rafts. Here's proof:

Splishing and splashing

The cubs had their first pool experience after the Soccer Tots debacle. They were quite hesitant at first, but once they got used to it, it was hard to get them out. They stayed on the play ledge, played in the gushers, and had a blast trying to splash water at their daddy.
Zach in the gusher.:

Emily and Kristi, just checking it out.:

Ok, this might be fun.:

Trying to splash Daddy.:

I think Zach got him!:

We could get used to this!:


Kristi was here to join us for the March of Dimes walk. Unfortunately, even though the weather was beautiful on this Friday afternoon, it poured most of the night and into Saturday morning. Although the walk still went on as planned, we opted not to go due to the weather and the walk conditions. Parts of the walk were not paved, making for a muddy mess, and I was planning on taking the wagon (too bad it didn't have 4-wheel drive). So the cubs and I spent the day with Kristi, doing a little shopping and eating lunch at Cheddars. We appreciate all the donations made on our behalf, and we look forward to walking next year (as long as the weather cooperates).

First one in....

On April 3rd (the one year anniversary of the house purchase), Steve decided he would be the first one in the pool. The water was a crisp, refreshing 68 degrees. WAY too cold for the rest of us.

Jumping in....

Splash!

So much to share in too little time.

It's naptime for the cubs, so I'm going to take this short opportunity to do a little blog catch-up. The last few weeks have been very busy at Cub Central. After I made the trip back home with the cubs (and without Dad), my parents made the trip out here. All in the name of cubsitting. We had fun plans to go to a hockey game with one of Steve's friends and Grandma and Grandpa Bear "volunteered" to cubsit. I pretty much volunteered them, but they didn't tell me no...so hockey plans were on. It was a Thursday night game against the Philadelpia Flyers. Brian's family cheered for the Stars, but Brian (the birthday boy) is a die-hard Flyers fan. UGH. How nice was it for our team to wish Brian a happy birthday by allowing his team to win?? Happy birthday, Brian! ...and thanks to my Mom and Dad for coming out here so Steve and I could partake in some adult interaction.

The next week I took the cubs on a tour of one of the local firestations. Not sure we were quite ready for that. Zach couldn't stand still and was extrememly fussy. Emily did a better job, but only because I let her hold my camera the entire time. She took some very fine photos of the firehouse floor. Not sure if this is her calling, but she hasn't put the camera down since.

The weekend (Mar. 20/21) weather was rainy and cold. Steve had the weekend off, for once, and the weather kept us cooped up inside. CRUMMY. The next weekend (Mar. 27/28), the cubs and I got the stomach bug. All three of us were tossing our cookies. It was AWFUL!!! And of course, Steve was off for that too. Steve was off two weekends in a row?? Completely unheard of....and we spent it cooped up inside...SICK!. With the exception of a brief outing we took on Saturday. Emily came down with the bug early (4:30 am early) on Friday morning. By Saturday morning she seemed to be feeling better, so we all went to the town Easter Egg Hunt. The cubs really did well and the weather was great. It was later that afternoon that Zach and I came down with the yuckies. So we did manage to do one fun thing the two weekends Steve was off.

This past weekend (Apr. 3/4) was gorgeous. The weather was spectacular and we spent lots of time outside. Steve even took the very first dive into the pool on April 3 (which is also the one year anniversary of our closing on this house). The air temp was 82, but the water temp was only 67...WAY too cold for me. I will wait for summer, thank you very much.

The cubs and I have now come down with a virus. I swear it is always something. I wonder if Steve is off this weekend. Probably so, since everyone else is sick. Bah humbug!

Rough waters

These pictures were taken on February 21st...another wonderful attribute of our weird winter weather. Whitecaps in the pool. Should have bought a surfboard.

Record breaking snow

As I mentioned before, this has been a very unusual winter for us. It started snowing around 5am last Thursday (Feb 11th) and didn't stop until Friday mid-morning. It ended up being a record breaking snowfall at DFW airport. By midnight Thursday, 11.2" of snow was recorded, smashing the previous 7.8" one-day total recorded in both 1917 and 1964. By Friday, the 24-hour record was also broken with a recorded 12.5", breaking the previous 1964 record of 12.1". This has also been the second snowiest season with 15.7" of accumulation so far, and we're not too far off from breaking that record of 17.6" from 1977/78. CRAZY WEATHER!

This snowfall was the beautiful snow that we RARELY see here in Texas. Big, fluffy flakes! Perfect snowman/snowball fight snow! Our snow is usually very icy, and the ice crystals do not allow for perfect packing. This was perfect snow. My only complaint was that it knocked out our power overnight. We had lost power for a few hours earlier Thursday evening, but at 10:40 it was knocked out for good and not restored until Friday morning. By that time, the temperature in the house was a nice, frigid 63 downstairs and 59 upstairs. The cubs managed to stay warm and snug in their beds and slept through most of it. Steve and I were working on "PLAN B", since it was getting too cold to stay here when our power was finally restored. We had many friends offer us a place to stay (we do have wonderful friends!!!!), but since Emily was sick (with fever) and they all had small kiddos as well (and we didn't want to spread the germies), we were planning on having to "hotel it" Friday night. Fortunately, it didn't come to that point. CRAZY WEATHER!

Pool progress

It took approximately 72 hours to fill and now we finally have our pool. Too bad it is still WAY too cold to enjoy it.

Catching up on the pool progress

Here is a picture taken on 12/9 (I'm a little LOT behind). The rebar for the decking was installed and the aggregate was poured the following Saturday. We are now ready for the plaster but have been delayed because of the weather.

Pool progress

I can't believe how fast the pool construction is progressing. The gunite, coping, and rock waterfall were put in right before Thanksgiving. They are now working on the decking.

View from where the diving board will be.

Standing in the deep end.

Rock waterfall construction.

I love the tile we chose. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Pool progress

The pool installation is in full swing. They broke ground bright and early Tuesday morning and worked until the very last light of the day. Then they were back at 7:30am on Wednesday morning. Lots of progress has been made in two days. If all goes well, the gunite should be in tomorrow, but we're keeping an eye on the weather...rain predicted...never fails!

The before picture:


Breaking ground:

Little supervising cubs:

The end result of day 1:

By the end of day 2:

The deep end:

Our view from the patio. That's a LOT of rebar.

Another day older and deeper in debt

Last night we signed the contract for the (redesigned) pool. Another commitment for our pocketbook, but I think it will pay off. We are looking forward to spending a lot of time in the pool next summer when it will be way too hot to do anything else. Too bad I missed all the swimwear clearances! We will also have to start looking into swimming lessons...good thing we have expert swimmers in the family, now all we have to do is get Uncle Craig and Auntie Leslie out here from the East coast to teach the cubbies! HINT!!

The next step is to submit the plans to our HOA. They have 30 days to approve them so we'll see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

Another week with a sick cub. Quarantine needed.

We had more drama on Grandpa Bear's birthday. We spent the evening with the pool designer because our original pool design did not fit in our backyard. BOO to the regulations that require our fence to be pushed in 10 feet from our property line. Who does that?? Anyway, that's another soapbox issue.

We ended up putting Emily to bed a little early because she was fussy and tired. I figured it was because she skipped her nap earlier that day. Other than that she seemed perfectly fine. Two hours later she was whimpering like a puppy so Steve went to check on her and she was burning up with a fever of 106! We did all the right things: started meds, stripped her down, lukewarm bath, cold compress and we could only get her temp down to 103. Then her temp started going back up and she was very lethargic, so we called the oncall Doctor. Before he returned our call, she started throwing up (which is VERY rare for Em). The Doctor starts yapping about brain damage with fevers over 105 and I thought I was going to lose it. He told us to take her to Cooks, where (two hours later) they diagnosed her w/ a (yet another) viral infection. Negative for flu. Unfortunately there is nothing we can give her to treat this other than alternating Tylenol and Motrin to keep her comfortable and give her plenty of fluids. We should be old pros at this. One Doctor's office visit, two urgent care visits, and one ER visit in the last month and every time we come home with the same diagnosis. Will we ever get over this mess???

Anyway, knock on wood, both cubs seem to be doing fine now. There was no preschool on Monday since it was Columbus Day, and I was anxious to get back to our routine. Speech therapy on Tuesday went great. Zach does the chicken dance now which Steve and I find hilarious. He is so cute!! Donuts with Dad day at Preschool was yesterday but unfortunately Dad couldn't go, so I was Dad proxy. Unfortunately the cubs left their good behavior at home....I guess it's their job to embarrass me in front of all the other parents. Zach dumped over a cup of water and neither of the cubs were interested in sitting during story time. I wish I could have superglued their little bottoms to the floor. I guess that's the behavior I can expect from two two-year-olds. Maybe I should start looking into etiquette school too. Good thing they are cute!!

Weekly update

We are getting back into our routine...finally. Zach has done great going to preschool...I even got a goodbye kiss when I dropped him off in his classroom on Wednesday. Therapy is going just as well, he now takes the hand of his Clinician and off they go, leaving me behind to follow. What a difference!!

When I picked the cubs up from preschool on Monday, the director told me that they were having a picture make-up day. Woo hoo. I was thrilled that Emily would be getting another chance to replace the stick figure I was going to have to put in her scrapbook. I dressed her up on Tuesday, went to school, and was thrilled that the photographer was able to get a cute picture of her. Unfortunately the cubs wouldn't sit together well and I gave up as soon as the fussing started, so no sibling pictures, but at least I will have an individual picture for each of them. SUCCESS.

I am still working with Emily on the potty training. She is doing pretty well. Tonight she finally indicated "poo" to me BEFORE she actually did it. Usually she cues me after she's already gone, so this was huge. Hopefully she will keep up the forward progress. It is difficult though, since we are gone every morning during the week. I think I am going to start working with Zach. I'm not expecting anything yet, but maybe the little man will surprise me.

Zach has been doing very well with his eating with the exception of the week he was sick. This is also huge progress. He has been trying some new foods...fish, broccoli, scrambled eggs, and hashbrown potatoes. He even ate some cheese toasty and tried a few bites of roast beef. AWESOME!!! He still LOVES Taco Bueno refried beans. Today I gave him some burrito at lunch and I took him out of his booster seat when I thought he was finished. Silly me! I was amazed when he looked at me and crawled right back in his booster seat. I offered him the remaining small bites of the burrito and he ate it!! WOW!! He absolutely despises ketchup. I put a small drop on a hashbrown potato and he immediately spit it out and started screaming. SCREAMING!!!! Emily, on the other hand, can't eat things without it. She would not touch her fish until I put ketchup on it (which was a little gross to me...baked fish with ketchup, but if she'll eat it then I won't complain, and I'll keep offering it to her). She won't eat her fish sticks, french fries, scrambled eggs, or chicken nuggets without ketchup. It is so funny watching her with nuggets. She takes one bite out of each one...as if she is checking to see if they are all alike...and then she will go back and start over. Silly cub.

Steve and I have met with a pool contractor. What should be easy has started becoming difficult thanks to all the HOA/City regulations, but we are not giving up. I have financing lined up, now all we have to do is get the pool we want to fit in our yard. We'll know more next week. Until then....

The calm before the storm

Things here still continue to drag on pretty slowly. I think we are trying to appreciate the down time before school starts. T minus 15 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes and 36 seconds, not that I'm counting or anything. I am pretty excited to have six hours per week to myself. I am also very excited that the cubs will be receiving direction from someone other than myself. They really need the socialization and structure that preschool will provide. I am a little worried that I will receive that phone call on the first day asking me to come pick up my wild cubs. Please, please, please don't get expelled from preschool, my little ones!!

Emily and Zach are doing well. They are getting over the cold/allergies that brought us to a halt a week and a half ago. They are getting bigger everyday...and more stubborn. Emily is displaying the redhead temper and Zach must have a little red in there too, because he can throw a fit with the best of them. The cubs are officially in the "terrible twos". Double the fun, right? They both babble but I still have trouble making out anything. People tell me they are saying words, but apparently I need a translator. Hopefully preschool and speech therapy will move the talking along. I've been trying to work on potty training with Emily but not having much success. It would be easier if 1) we were home more and 2) she could tell me when she needed to go. UGH!

We are working on decorating. We've been in the house since April and I finally ordered curtain rods. They should be here tomorrow. It will probably take us another five months to get them installed.

We are tossing around the idea of getting an inground pool. Since we are planning on living here a long time, we thought it would be fun for the cubs. Doesn't every kid want a pool? Plus, with the cryptospiridium issues at the local pools, this would be a much safer alternative. Who knew there would be so many options to consider? Diving vs. play, slides vs. waterfalls, saltwater vs. chlorinated, on and on and on. Then we have to deal with our HOA. It shouldn't be too much of a problem since it seems like everyone here is getting one put in, but leave it to us to have an "issue". We are planning on having several companies out for estimates and if we don't pass out from the price tag, we may have a pool for next summer.

Steve has been trying to get in some golf on Wednesdays. I still have my Nights out with the girls. I went out with the girls from THC last Thursday to Buttons ("food and music for the soul"). I always enjoy good food and good company (and good wine).

I've been pretty lazy on the picture taking. It's just been a boring couple of weeks around here, but look for tons of pictures next month. We will be very busy here at Cub Central!