'Twas the Night Before Christmas

...and I need to catch up with stories and photos...

Happy Holidays everyone! Normally, I’m Mr. Scrooge when it comes to Christmastime. However, I’ve come to the realization that having kids means getting an attitude adjustment. A strong statement indeed!

Shana and the kids went to Claremore one Friday several weeks ago to hang out with Grandma. The trip gave me the occasion to wrap the gifts we had purchased to date and stuff them under our faux tree. When Shana and the kids came home Saturday night, Samara saw the presents and proceeded to take them out from under the tree and stack them elsewhere! Kids will be kids! Surprisingly, she hasn’t asked or tried to open any of the gifts…waiting until Christmas, I suppose.

Samara and her princess outfits. She’s hit a phase where she’ll come home from “school” and strip down to her underwear (in a 60-62F house) and put on tights and a princess dress. One day, Shepard had a doctor’s appointment and I took her with us. Before we left the house, she stuffed one of her backpacks with “stuff” and brought it with her. I didn’t mind…not really a big deal. We get to the doctor’s office and are called into one of the smaller waiting rooms. You know, the rooms they put you in to make you feel like they’re paying attention to you, but make you wait another 30 minutes. Well, we get into the smaller “waiting” room and Samara proceeds to strip down, pull her princess clothes out, and morph into Princess Samara…all within about 2 minutes. No big deal…since I figured we’d be there another hour!!

I periodically ask Samara what she wants for Christmas. One day, she replied with her normal rhetoric. After several moments, she said she wanted a “weedeater”. I replied ,“Like the one mommy and daddy mows the yard with?” “Yeah!” “Ok.” Several more moments pass, “A pink one!” Sorry kid, you’ll have to be satisfied with the “My Parents Are Poor” t-shirt.

Shepard has been sitting up since before Thanksgiving…at about 7 months. Comparing the two wee ones (because what parent doesn’t), Samara was sitting up at around 5 months. Now the pressure is on Shep to start walking before Samara’s pedestrian 14 months of age!

Shep is kind of crawling now. The kind of crawling where the child gets on all fours and pushes himself backwards. He also does a head bobble when he’s lying down…almost looks like he’s trying to scratch the back of his head. At other times, when he’s sitting up, he’ll start to tilt his head and look sideways at things…then rotate between right-side-up and sideways. What a discovery!

Let me tell you, Shepard is an eater! When the kid gets hungry, he lets everyone know! I mean, the kid gets royally pissed! Sometimes, when you set him in his high chair and walk by with a jar of baby food, he starts crying like he just lost an arm. Typically, we feed him 2 different foods…say liquid beef/carrots and a fruit/yogurt blend (or something like that). If he doesn’t like one of the options when you stick it in his mouth, he’ll cry until you stuff the other option into his mouth. When this happens, we alternate spoonfuls…so crying…happy…crying…happy…etc.

I picked up the kids from “school” one day and once home, proceeded to find something to cook for dinner. Shep was sitting on the floor of the living room and Samara went to her room to play…with a pair of scissors, apparently!! Not a horror story, honestly! After about 5-10 minutes in her room, she comes running out holding up a piece of paper yelling, “Look daddy, a pentagon!!!” The child had cut a piece of paper into the shape of a pentagon! It was almost perfect. Shana is saving it in order to frame it just in case this is as smart as she gets…

Shep in the tub. Samara can get him to laugh at a moment's notice!

Waterfalls near Guthrie! We went here while doing fieldwork on the Garber-Wellington Aquifer.

Samara and our Christmas tree.

Number 1 draft pick.

Photos of the kids taken around Thanksgiving...

Our Halloween costumes...

Samara accidentally put her coat on upside down. She was running away from me because she was embarrassed...

Samara and Shep...sitting on daddy.

Shepard in his crib...

Samara likes to help out...

Samara and Batman at a Will's (our neighbor's child) birthday party.

My new nephew, Chuck, who was born on October 12th.

Shana and Shep in the pasture behind my parent's house.

John, Tori, Samara, and the watchdog...

The kids in the pasture in October...

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

It was our 6th anniversary in September (Wow, 6 years!!!), so we decided to take the kids down to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Oklahoma. Both of the kids had a blast!!!

Shana and Shepard near the east entrance to the Refuge.

Samara at the east entrance; Mt. Scott is in the background.

Samara overlooking a field near the visitor's center.

Samara, Shana, and Shep on the trail to "Little Baldy". We told Samara we were going to go climb the mountain, which motivated her to do the 1-1.5 mile round trip hike!! She loved it!

Samara off the beaten path...

S^3 on the climb up Little Baldy.

Samara posing on top of Little Baldy...

Samara and Daddy...

Climbing down!! On the way down, Shepard was laughing as he was getting jostled around on Shana's back! It was pretty entertaining!

Some rocks (granite to be exact) on top of Mt. Scott; a wind farm is visible in the distance.

Quanah Parker Lake in infrared viewed from Little Baldy.

An abandoned guest house in infrared...

Quanah Parker Lake in color as viewed from Little Baldy.

The view from Mt. Scott looking east-southeast.

We were eating our picnic lunch and I thought the leave/sky contrast from this oak tree would look great in infrared.

Blended Green Beans

Shep is evolving; the kid loves to smile all the time and enjoys people talking to him. Shepard is also a thumb sucker, which is the complete opposite from Samara! He's been sleeping well at night until recently...he's gotten into the habit of falling asleep at about 8 pm, which translates into uneasiness during parts of the night.

Shep doesn't cry very much; only when he's hungry or tired. Speaking of hungry, he's started eating food. He's not particularly fond of blended green beans but has been really munching everything else. I suppose munching isn't appropriate at this point...maybe drinking or slurping is the proper term...

One day last week, Shepard's teachers said that he bounced himself to sleep in one of the bouncy seats. Shep's teachers actually argue and fight about who gets to hold him etc. One day we picked him up and one of the teachers complained that the other wouldn't let her hold Shep all afternoon! I'm still convinced that all teachers are trained to say those things...

We finally got a bed for Samara! Before Shep was born, the crib had been converted to a daybed and that was Samara's bed. After Shep was born, the bed transformed back into a crib and Samara slept with us. Well, it took us awhile, to say the least, to acquire a bed (my old bed as a child/teen). Samara loves it and is so proud of sleeping by herself. Although on one of the 1st few nights, Samara claimed that something was under her bed. One of my favorite movie scenes is in Major Payne, when the Major pulls his sidearm out and fills the closet full of bullets and tells the kid "if he's in there, he ain't happy"...I really wanted to do that...

Samara started asking about 6 months or so ago at dusk, "Is it getting dark?" "Yes" would be our response. And of course came the "Why?' question. Perfect time to teach your child about celestial mechanics! After showing videos of the Earth rotating on youtube, she now knows that the Earth spins.

Samara had "Show and Share Day" at school. The night before, she gathered some things and put them in two backpacks...small little children's bags. Anyway, Shana and I didn't bother to check what she put in them. When we got to school after work, we noticed that she had on a different pair of shoes. So, I opened both bags up and found....5 pairs of shoes stuffed into the bags in addition to a doll and a book. I better nip this one in the bud!! No fetishes here...


We've had some check-ups with the Doctor:

Shepard (4-month on 6/29/09)
Height: 23.5 inches
Weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz.

Shepard (6-month on 8/21/09)
Height: 25 inches
Weight: 16 lbs.

Samara (3-year)
Height: 36.5 inches
Weight: 32 lbs.

Samara loves blueberries! Actually, she loves most fruits and vegetables. I picked some banana peppers one day, she asked if they were spicy...I replied "no, not really"...and ever since she eats banana peppers. Once, she ate 3 before dinner...talk about an afternoon snack!

Samara, cousin Tori, Aunt Shannon, and our neighbor Peyton during Samara's birthday party.

Samara's birthday cake. You might ask, "why is there a square missing?" Well, that would be Samara grabbing a fist full while it was in the fridge the night before her party...

The party...

Big sister and Little brother...

Samara at A Taste of Edmond in June...

Shana and Shep at a Taste of Edmond...

Thought you might like this shot of Natural Falls State Park that I took on the 4th of July weekend.

The battle...

Samara and Tori's cuz Josephine snoozing after the 4th celebration...

Shepard at the zoo on the train....

Samara enjoyed playing at the zoo...

Samara enjoyed the train...

Samara and Uncle Mike on the Illinois River...

Shana shot this one while Samara was running around in an open field near our house...great lighting...the shadow draws your eyes away from the subject...or is the shadow the subject?

These photos were shot on different days. The top one illustrates Samara's cheesey smile...the one she had when she was 9-months old...check posts from 2007. The bottom one is a bit more mysterious...kind of hard to imagine what she is thinking...probably "what the h#@$ does daddy want now..."

Rough day...

One of Shep's 1st meals...probably oatmeal or rice cereal...

The bridge over Grand Lake...

Samara "Wind in her hair" during a boat trip on Grand Lake for Oma and Crazy Grandpa's 40-year anniversary.

Shana and Shep with Uncle Mike in the background...