"I love Rhett more than frogs!"
It was supposed to be a compliment, I am assuming, because he said it with "love" in his voice. However, the comparison is confusing because Grant does not like frogs in any way, shape or form. So the literal meaning of his "love" statement is not very loving, is it? ha ha
It's late. Really late, and Grant should be in bed asleep right now. And actually, he WAS in bed. I put him to bed at 8:00 p.m. and laid there with him for two hours just praying he would fall asleep as he was in a FOUL mood today and I was doing all I could to protect tomorrow's mood. I should've known it would all go wrong as most of my plans that involve Grant do: The child was still wide awake after those two hours, and since I had not yet had dinner and was starving, I let him get back up while I ate. No, this is not normal for him, but today was not normal. The main problem is that he fell asleep on the way home from Tomball this evening as I loaded up the boys and went to see my x co-teaching partner, Angie's, new baby. You don't have to know much about kids to know that a nap at 6:00 p.m. is NOT good for bedtime - thus the reason why he did not sleep at 8:00 p.m. and why he is STILL not asleep.
Moving on to my story - so I'm sitting at the computer going over emails and blogs that I follow when he comes up to me and says in his guilty voice that he gets from his Aunt Jessica, "Is it bad to eat a lot of sugar?"
My immediate thought: WHY is he asking me this at 11:00 p.m. when he is supposed to be on the couch watching "Curious George"?
My immediate gut feeling: CRAP!
You guessed it - he got the bag of sugar from the pantry and according to him, he ate three spoonfuls of it. (Who knows. It could have been MUCH more than that. He probably lied to protect his own hide.)
So, I'm off to put him to bed for the second time tonight - with three spoonfuls of sugar going through his system.
Why me? All I wanted to do was put him in bed early tonight so that tomorrow would be a better day, eat a No Pudge Brownie and watch an old black and white movie. And thus the saga of my life with Grant continues... I love the boy, but he's gonna cause me to go gray waaaaaaaaaay too soon! That's okay. Someday when he's a successful lawyer or doctor, or even president, he WILL be buying me a five carat diamond ring as a thanks-for-putting-up-with-me-and-not-selling-me-to-Gypsies gift. And folks, I sure have earned it! ;)
These are the parts of the hooded towels. There are not put together yet, but you get the idea.
Closer view of what will be the hood parts of the towels.
I made this pillow for a special two-year-old little girl, Ingrid, in Texas Children's Hospital here in Houston. 
She is awaiting a bone marrow transplant, but until that day comes, she continues to be a very sick little girl as she struggles to deal with her disease. My special friend, Alicia, who is one of Ingrid's nurses, (I mean - one can only imagine what Alicia has seen. She rarely discusses work and her patients: It is too painful for her to go back over her day, and she tends to change the subject quickly. But, every now and then she opens up and gives you a small and heartbreaking glimpse into her job. She has seen lots of children and babies die. She has seen insurmountable suffering. She has seen parents struggling for answers as their hearts were breaking over their dying children. May the Lord bless her as she tends to these special patients.) asked that our small group's summer Bible study to pray for Baby Ingrid (you know it has to be extra bad for Alicia to talk about it, so I awaited anxiously to find out this little girl's story). Ingrid is so ill as she lies in her hospital bed. She has extreme diarrhea, which has given her the worst diaper rash Alicia has "ever seen" - and that's saying a lot because you know she's seen a lot. Ingrid is too ill to play or sit up for that matter. To quote Alicia, "She has zero quality of life right now!" After hearing Alicia talk, I felt the Lord pulling at my heart. I wanted to do something for this poor baby girl - SOMETHING. But what?? After further exploration, Alicia told me that Ingrid is a big fan of Dora, which led to a lightning bolt of ideas racing through my brain. I thought about making her a Dora blanket or shirt, but Alicia said that both would probably be ruined due to the diarrhea, so that idea was out. Then I decided that perhaps something that could stay at the top of her bed would be best, hence the idea of the Dora pillow was born. Alicia also shared that Ingrid's room has a T.V., but it can only play VHS and the hospital does not have any VHS copies of Dora. They have DVDs, but no VHS. No prob! Amazon has LOTS of Dora VHS to choose from, and Grant and I had a good time going through the list as we placed the videos we thought she might like the most in our virtual shopping cart. Since she can't play and basically lies around feeling horrible all day, we are hoping the Dora tapes will help her pass the time... The most recent update I received was about two days. Alicia told me Ingrid has been moved to the ICU, but that we could still bring the pillow and the tapes. All that's holding me back is the tapes haven't arrived yet. HURRY UP, UPS! As soon as they do, we are off to the hospital with goodies in tow.
Lastly, I made these shirts for a brother and sister that attend our church. 
It hit me that I never bought a baby gift for the little girl, Ella, so I decided to make coordinating shirts that she and her big brother could wear to try to make up for my slight oversight...
Do you get it?? Their names are the exhaust coming out the back of the vehicles... And of course there are three Swaravski crystals in the middle of Ella's wheels. A girl needs a little bling, ya know?
We have had such a fun summer thus far. I'm really thankful for that because I was very worried that the summer would be dull and drag on forever as time seems to do when you are home all day - every day - with kids. But for the most part, this summer has had one fun day after another. Today we went on a playdate to Chick-fil-A with one of Grant's favorite church friend, Hanna. (He kept calling her Gabby. I hope that didn't hurt Hanna's feelings.) Grant and Hanna played like crazy monkeys, and both my boys ate like hungry pigs. In all, they ate 18 nuggets. Count them: 18! And they aren't even in high school yet!
And this picture is mainly for Uncle Garrett:
I told ya Rhett loves his BaBa BeeBee! He came to Chick-fil-A with us!
My friend, Heather!! Can you believe it?? Out of what was surely at least a hundred entries, Sharon (the girl who designed my blog) pulled Heather's name! How fun! And to make matters even cuter, Heather has chosen to give the prize to our friend, Rachel. I can't WAIT to see what Rachel and Sharon come up with!! And to think, it all began with Jane's cutie-pa-tootie blog...
Congrats, Heather and Rachel! And thanks for introducing us to Sharon, Jane!!
My friend, Andrea, suggested that we take the kids to the Children's Museum (click on the blue link and watch the video) here in Houston. GREAT thinking, Andrea! The kids get to play happily indoors while we get stay out of the heat? You get a high-five for that idea.
As expected, the kids (along with Andrea and myself) had a GREAT time despite the hoards of people that were there. One would think that if technology can replace a human heart and make cars run off of cow poop, they would be able to figure out how to make strollers move well in masses of people. But alas, since that has yet to occur in the science world, Andrea and I did our best at maneuvering our buggies. Andrea gets an extra pat on the back though because she was pushing one of those more cumbersome double strollers. She gets a second pat on the back because she just happened to load her car with two strollers - one of which I ended up borrowing since I left the house without packing our stroller. But moving on - - - folks, the Children's Museum was incredible! I mean, I had high expectations, but I never imagined that it would be sooooooooooooo awesome and 100% hands-on. Let's just say that if you are looking at moving to Houston, the Children's Museum is a PERFECT reason to do so - really!! It was so big and so full of activities that there was NO way we could see and do all of it. We tried to hit some of the big attractions/exhibits, but I digress... Let's get on to the pictures for the grandparents, shall we?
***Warning: Although I am sure it will come as a surprise, Grant would not pose for any pictures. Maybe I can get Andrea to teach my kids how to pose for pictures... her kids seem to have it down.
We tried to lift ourselves using a pully system. Go, Gabby!
Grant would've spent every moment in this one spot if time had allowed it. And I really enjoyed watching these kids who were absolute strangers to one another come together and make the aqueduct work. As you can see, there were many parts and many doors, but with patience that allowed time for the different "steps" of the aqueducts to fill up (that had to be timed with the big tub of water being dumped above them) and a loud count of, "One! Two! Three!" the doors were opened and the water flowed!
