Neck! Neeeeeck!

Wow. When did my baby get old enough to manipulate me? Somehow he went from barely saying anything to knowing just the right thing to say in no time at all.

Griffin has learned that just one little word yelled at the perfect volume elicits quite a response from people. Now, anytime I'm trying to stop him from doing something he wants to do (say, for instance, writhing on the floor of HEB), he simply needs to yell the word "NEEEECK!!!" at a blood curdling volume. It is especially powerful when paired with rubbing one's neck and making gagging sounds. It makes mom immediately stop whatever manhandling she's attempting to do, and it makes all adults in a 20 yard radius whirl around to witness what sounds like child abuse in action.

Similarly, he has also decided that anytime something bad happens, he should blame it on his brother. For example, yesterday he tripped and fell against the coffee table. Poor Rhys wasn't even in the room, and Griffin still shrieked, "RHYS!" at the top of his lungs. Thankfully, good-natured Rhys just laughs about it.

The Kitten Formerly Known as Aria

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

After much deliberation and much anguish, we have finally settled (resettled?) on a name for the kitty. For some reason, Aria never stuck, even though we all liked it. We waded through baby name book after baby name book, and finally came up with *the* name.

Drumroll please.....
...introducing...
Kyra Skye!

Of course, as typical in our family, her given name is rarely used. She already has a million nicknames, including KiKi, Kyra-boo, and most frequently: Kitty Face. It's a wonder that we even bother to put so much thought into names!

Kyra Kitty has just the best little personality. She's just so mellow and cheerful. (Yes, a cat can be cheerful!) Our biggest challenge has been keeping Griffin from driving her crazy. He loves to carry her around (and thankfully has finally learned to pick her up properly; before we would discover him holding her by the neck. Eeek.), and loves to put her in strange places. He often takes her on the "bus", which, in his mind is the bathroom cabinets. Kyra is amazingly good natured about all of this and really doesn't seem to mind!

We don't know Kyra's history, but we suspect that she might have been weaned a little prematurely. She has adopted a black and tan stuffed dog as her own Mama, and when she sees it, she goes running for it. She immediately collapses on top of it, kneads her paws, and begins to "nurse" on the stuffed dog. Oh, and she purrs so loud that you can hear it across the room. The first time that Griffin saw Kyra "nursing" her stuffed Mama dog, he came running for me. "Mama! Mama!" he yelled excitedly. "Kitty nursing...happy," he said with a sigh. Fine, fine. I had been working towards weaning him. Who taught Griffin the art of the guilt trip?

Cartwheel-a-thon

Cartwheel-a-thon
Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Last weekened, Avery did Capital's annual Cartwheel-a-thon. She collected pledges to raise money for this year's meets. They hold the Cartwheel-a-thon at the mall, and it's always fun for the girls to have a crowd watching as they cartwheel into oblivion. Avery managed to do 189 cartwheels in five minutes. Not too shabby!

Water fun

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

On Wednesday, we had our monthy Nature Club outing. This time, we drove to San Marcos to go tubing down the dams at Rio Vista Park. It was fun. Scary, but fun. The water was surprisingly swift, so the moms there made a chain at the bottom to catch the kids before they went whooshing on down the river to God-knows-where. After a few hours of this, we were ready to go and find a less stressful activity. So, we hopped in the car with our friends, and drove off in search of new adventure.

Now, when our friends invited us to carpool with them, it was with the plans to play at the river, then go eat lunch at a little restaurant on the square in San Marcos. When I was invited, I joked that when she was thinking of who would be up for this last-minute restaurant trip, she must have considered which of her friends spends money with reckless abandon. And, immediately, I popped in her head. Well, I didn't let her down. Instead of eating out and heading home, we found ourselves pulling into none other than...Schlitterbahn!

After quick calls to our hubbys from the parking lot with instructions not to hold dinner, we began water adventure #2. We only had about 4 1/2 hours at the park before they closed, so we dashed from ride to ride in attempt to do as many as possible. The kids had the "best time EVER" and can't wait to go back. And, to tell you the truth, Mom can't wait either!

Art at Friday Group

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

This semester, our Friday co-op has been focusing on art. We have been reading art books, looking at art, playing art games, and, of course, making art. Last co-op's project was constructing this Mona Lisa. Each child got their own square to decorate however they wanted. When all together, it made for a really neat project!

Then last week we met some of our co-op friends at the Russell Collection art gallery on 6th street. They have a Salvador Dali exhibition going on right now. The kids, for the most part, were impressed with the pieces they saw, and there was only quiet giggling at the nudes. The children were also impressed by the price tags on the pieces. "Oooh, that one's $9,000!" "Well, look at this one! It's $14,000!" Griffin was less impressed with the art and indifferent to the prices. This fact was made especially clear when he slammed into a pillar holding a $12,000 glass sculpture as he threw a temper tantrum by the front door.

However thrilling the art gallery was, according to the kids, the two highlights of the day were: the snow cone stand that we went to after the gallery and, not to be forgotten anytime soon, the man riding his bike down 6th Street wearing a thong (and only a thong).

I got a job!

For the first time in almost 9 years, I'm a working girl! The nonprofit that I've been volunteering with for the past year hired me on! I'm only going to work 1 to 2 half days a week, and Bill will be home to stay with the kiddies. It's just perfect for me; it's nice to have something to do by myself, and it will be very nice to have a little extra spending money.

Meet Aria Iris

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Avery finally got her new kitty. We adopted her from the animal shelter, and she is just so sweet. Avery is loving her role as "mama" and took great care in selecting the perfect name for her new kitten. We're all having a great time with a kitten in our house -- it's been ten years since our cats were babies! Rhys is anxious to turn 8 now, since that's when he plans to get his very own kitten.