Passing it along

I'm just going to pass along some GRR-EAT parenting advice that I got from some of my friends that have kids older than mine.

-Explaining to her little boy (about the age of 5) who was trying to boss a friend around "Son, why don't let his mommy be his mommy and you just be his friend."

-Her daughter, because she had gotten bored with the current activity, wanted to play a game on her i-rene while still playing a friend's house. The mommy very kindly said "there's a time and place for playing those games, sweetie, and when we are with friends we don't want to be distracted with a game. We need to have our faces up and our body language saying, 'I'm here and available to play or talk'".

-On tattle telling: "you may tell on your brother ONLY if the thing he is doing will get him hurt, because that would be considered helping him. You may not tell on him if you are only wanting to get him into trouble."

I went off on a tangent

Um, I think I need to admit/point out something about my previous post. I started off with "etiquette goals" that I was going to try hard to do myself and then it was brought very kindly to my attention that #4 and #5 are more of a rant because they had nothing to do with me and more to do with things that recently ticked me off. #5 especially because as ya'll know well, I'm not on that social network anymore. I told this very handsome, wise, giving and loving man who showed me....Touche! :-)

I'm still going to leave them on there as I was being slightly sarcastic and I like to entertain that side of me from time to time.

So as I said before, I don't dislike people who love their i-rene's more than human contact. I see how ya are, and while I won't fb ya, I'll just text, call or email you my wit while you sit across the table from me.

I'll start with me....

So it's always easy to point out things about others that annoy you. I will start by saying that this little "smart phone etiquette list" stemmed from that, BUT I have caught myself on several occasions breaking a few of my own "rules". So I'll maybe change it to "smart phone etiquette goals" and then try like heck to not fail any of them on the list in front of any of you reading this.....least I boast. Plus we know that non of you nice people reading this even come close to not having etiquette issues......not you, just people you know. **Italicized to show sarcasm***

First off, I guinually like my i-rene, I mean heck she's even got a name. I have my grocery list on there, a couple of apps that will take me directly to some podcasts that I thouroughly enjoy listening to while I clean the house (if my boys aren't in the mood to help me out, which I prefer because it a) goes faster and b) with out the short one it actually doesn't start working in the opposite direction of acutally getting the house "clean". C will be a slob for sure...I'm just sayin.) as well as some other great features that I can't seem to bring to mind, hence why i-rene is called the "smart" one (get it? she's a smart-phone). BUT I'll have you know that while she may remember a million things for me, Dr's appts, phone #'s, grocery lists, get me directions to the nearest Chick-fil-A (shout out!), making it painless to dial up an episode of The Wiggles on youtuve to keep the lil one from screaming his head off when we have to wait a milli-sec more that he thinks we should (um, I'm the one in charge, he just hasn't gotten the memo yet) ......therefore making her only slightly more intellegent than me. I will have you know that she is not the boss of me! There I said it in cyerber-blog world and dang it I mean it! **Italicized to show sarcasm***

So ya'll know what I mean by the true convienence that is these crazy phones. Too convienent? Perhaps. After a few run-ins, about 14 months of obersavations of interaction between them and the down-cline of normal human interaction, I have mentally been running a list in my head of things I will try very hard to not do.

Have you lost interest by now? Did you get a text on your smart phone and now she's got your attention? Probably. She'll do that.

The sad part is that the things I'm listing below are probably done more out of habit that people even realize. Their phone has taken control of their manners and making everyone else that is around them feel as if they are second-fiddle to whatever type of communication with someone who isn't standing right there.....human contact, it's a lost art. I tell my friends here in A that suggest that I join FB (this is only if I don't feel the discretion to tell them about my recent recovery from it) that I have a new slogan for FB "keeping you connected to everyone and anyone so you can become disconnected from those sitting right next to you."

OK here it is:

#1 When I am having a conversation with someone who is sitting right in front of me, or directly in my line of sight, if i-rene rings I will not pick it up. WHY, you ask? Well for one, there is this beautiful feature called caller-id along with a backup plan called voice mail. T-rav is the ONLY one I give full exclusion from this because the man married me and deserves my 1st attention over anyone else, which is why he has his own special ring tone so I know it's him just by hearing the phone ring. In the crazy trenches that I am currently living in, to have a conversation with someone who wears a size bigger than a 4T and wants to talk about something other than going Daddy Dear Hunting usually means that it was a huge effort to get to this moment and by golly I'm going to give it to ya, cause I like ya! **Side note: T-rav says that the person standing in front of you needs to know that they are important too and not disposable to the next call on your phone, business or not***

#2 If my phone did ring and I did get a message I WILL NOT check it in front of you with out telling you 1st who it is and why I feel the need to check it right then.

#3 If I get a text message while you are in my presence I will not reply to it. I MAY glance at it because for some reason I think that people still use text messages to say simple things like "be there in 5" "running late".....you know, quick to the point, not coversations. IF I do happen to feel as if I need to reply back in front of you I will tell you exactly what is going on and what I'm typing word for word. In my overly opinionated brain I feel as if texting in front of someone who has carved time out of their day to spend it face to face with you is like saying "you're not important enough to give you my attention back so I'll just have this private conversation right here in front of you", c'mon folks, admit it...it's rude!

#4 I know email is not a quick as texting or FB and becoming a thing of the past, but still don't sit starring at your emails while I'm visiting you at your house. I'm sorry, but remember you invited me over. Am I bothering you?

#5 Don't keep your face glued to Facebook checking status updates and/or commenting on them while, again, I'm at your house upon your invitation. Maybe you should've invited those folks on FB instead. Oh, wait that's right, you haven't talked to most of them since jr high, but suddenly their lives seem to be so riveting to you now. Forget the person who's standing in front of you trying to make an honest investment in our friendship. Oh and please don't do it while at my house.....again, face to face communication....it's an art that you can still attain.

Your blood is boiling at this point right? It should be!! because I truly believe that the more advanced we get in technology the further away from "love your neighbor as yourself" we continue to be. How can we really know our neighbors or even our friends (dare I say the people who live in our house?) when we are too busy making them feel like they're competing with ol i-rene.

This truly has come from a place of love, I promise. I will never ever point out any of this to anyone if I see it going down because there are just times when the phone needs to be answered. I do have grace and I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt.....but if I know this to be a regular thing with you, I'll just be a smart A and either send you a text or call you while you engrossed in your i-rene 5 ft from where I'm standing trying to tell you about my latest fantastic trip to H-E-B. I like to think of myself as a good sport too!

I have a confession...I take a lot of pics these days

J just chillaxin on the couch after a hard day of playin with a new bro. Love the way this kid relaxes

This is how the K fam rolls....C chowing down his fried catfish at the Annual Daughters of the Confederacy Reunion just down the road from us back in June. It was a ho-down like I've never experienced before. People come from miles away with their RV's to camp out for 10 days during the "reunion". They have something going on every night, course we didn't hear about it till the last night they were there, but is was educational to say the least.....as T-rav said "the stars and bars were flying high". I will admit that the people there where above and beyond friendly. 

J on his 1st carnival ride at the....well we'll just call it the "reunion" 

J on another one with a friend. He put his arm on her and said "don't be scared, I'm right here." I personally think he was being just considerate like he is with his brother, but his daddy said "na, he's just super sauve". Whatever!

A saturday afternoon trying to keep the older one quiet while the little one sleeps. Making shapes out of marshmallows and spaghetti noodles

Course the over achiever had to take it one step further

The boys went out one afternoon to run some errands while I took a nap....glorious! Later that night I discovered what daddy had bought them at the store 

Strawberry cheesecake ice cream and multi-colored cones to eat it in

C's face is hilarious! The boy likes the ice cream

These next series of pics are from me just holding the shutter down and getting what happens in stills. It's comical

Here's C doing his ice cream dance.....rhythm is not his gift

oh, hay mom....I, uh, didn't see ya standing there

Oh, you have the camera. I love taking pictures!

 walking towards me saying "cheese!"

K, now let me see (he learned that from J)

T-rav was teaching them to say "cheers" to their ice cream 

My big boy, seriously is he really this big now? 

And see it's not always roses at the K casa. Case in point. C throwing a fit because he dropped his ice cream cone after cheers-ing. So he runs about 10 ft from where the cone is and throws himself down on the ground.

Looks over to see J saving the day as usual

Looking at T-rav with anger because he was making fun of him

And J bringing it back to him cleaned off and ready to eat. I fear he will always let J solve his problems and I try to discourage J from giving in or rescuing him when he throws those fits

and all is well with the world again. what a stinker!

He was saying "aaaa" which means take a bite brother! One good thing is that he loves to share his food with J

J getting a better grip so the bite will be bigger.....I know how this works!

still same bite, but I think some tugging was going on

and now trying to get mommy to take a bite. He can't figure out why I use that word "no" for ice cream. Cause I don't like it, kid! J will tell me "you have to try it mom, just one small bite" because that's what I tell him when he tells me he doesn't like something

J after he told me to "try it, just one small bite" The look of satisfaction because I had to practice what I preached to him.

J, buddy how did you get so big? Glad I got him to hold still for a picture

Then I asked him "J, what do the Wild Kratts do at the beginning of their show?" to which he jumped into this position and said "WHAT IF?" I guess you'd have to see the show to get it

Playing with brother

Yes, this gigantic bear went home with us, but NO I did not pay for it. Papa had sent some $$ down with Gramie and since we didn't really "need" anything mommy was weak and fell for that smile...AGAIN! Seriously, look how happy he was. And this thing was less than $30. C loves on it everyday and J kicks it's @$$ every night....hours of entertainment.

We took the boys to Padre/Corpus a few weeks ago. While I don't have any pics of them on the beach because I was too busy chasing fear-less around (C) I did get some of when we went to see the Aquarium. This is from the bridge (name, uh, I don't know) but I do know that the boat pictured is the USS Lexington used in WWII and is now a floating museum in the bay. We didn't get to go on it because it's not C friendly...too many tunnels and ladders, but we plan on doing an annual trip to the coast to go fishing so maybe next time.

At the aquarium....who doesn't love trained water jumping porpus'? The announcer told us all three of their names, but T-rav said that J re-named all of them "bumper".

Or flying flippers?

How bout this little dude? He was waving to us

J was interested in our friend's daughters food...what's new? That kid says "eat" more than "mommy"

She's only 18 months older than him and completely a girl. She's making sure he's not eating pieces to big for him

Down in the middle of the screen is J with T-rav

C watching the dolphins jump. What? Not impressive enough for you? You've seen cooler things in your 15 months of life?

J reaching out to pet the stingray....gross if you ask me

J and his friend getting some stingray love

After that little adventure, C was beat so we decided to drive the long way around the bay, through port Aransas to let him sleep and decide where we would stay next year. Here's us coming up on to the ferry. J was so excited that our truck got to go boating for a few minutes.

The ferry literally takes 3 mins to get across so there was only enough time to hop out, run to the side to see out and then get back in the truck. There are about 7 ferries running across this port and some of them had semi's on them. Well of course they do, how do the stores across the bay get stocked.....why I thought that was crazy, I don't know

J saying "cheese" like he's in pain. I think he feels like getting his picture taken is painful. I pity his future bride already.....imagine what their wedding pics will look like...gasp! So in the background you can see the other ferries getting loaded up

C totally un-impressed

Back at our condo. The pool was in the middle in this atrium that had a retractable roof....hmm, it was pretty tho

The front door to our condo

The next morning while we were getting packed up kept the boys distracted from helping us by watching a veggie tale. I sat C on the bed and walked away only to come back a few moments later to this

Be still my heart

 So when we got back we were still in vacation mode so we showered up, swung through crack-fil-A (seriously what do they put in that stuff?) drive-thru and took daddy to our new hot spot to beat the heat. Course it was early evening so their was hardly anyone there as compared to some of the summer madness I've experienced all in the name of bounce houses. Let the pictures amaze you....yes, yes I have found a gem in this weird city.

C in the toddler only ball pit

C on the toddler only bounce house...notice in the back 2 other rather larger bounce houses and that's not even 1/2 of this place!!!

C loves this little elf thing....every time we go here (really I've only taken them once before this time and then last week to a birthday party....so 3 total) but every time we are here C stops to say hello

and then a kiss or two. what can I say, the boy's a lover

Daddy I think was having more fun than the boys. J was running every where showing him the cool spots

J at the top of one of the slides

 and down....is he excited? I can't tell

daddy and C. If you look closely C's face looks terrified, but I assure you he was far from it. Actually was a little demanding on going down the slides again and again.

There goes J....seriously is this place for real?

And yet even more in the background. We traded off all night with the boys cause truthfully the little one  is buzz-kill. There's just some of those he couldn't master and I wasn't going to let the 3 year beat me up to the top....oh wait I mean I wanted to bond with J and spend some quality time doing large motor skills

The next weekend was our anniversary and I awoke to these and a cup of hot coffee. 12 years ago we tied the knot and despite our issues (yes, we have them just like everyone else) we are closer now than ever. We have gone through a lot of changes the past few years....all by choice, yes, but still they brought with them lots of challenges and through it we continue to grow closer. I love that man!

J will be a negotiator of some sort. Since mommy's not a fan of cake, my birthday (which was the day before the anniversary....32, say what? what?) was a huge disappointment for J because he didn't get any cake. So when we told him the next day that it was our wedding anniversary and then asked him if he knew what that meant, he said no. So daddy says "well 12 years ago mommy and daddy promised each other and God that we would only love each other" to which J replied "so does that mean I get something for our anniversary?" I laughed and said why would you get something and he quickly said in a no-nonsense way "because you celebrate with cake and with your family." Alrighty then. So that afternoon we headed up to the store and let him pick out our cake. He picked at "popstickle cake"



I think C likes anniversaries too

 J telling us that he'll invite us to come eat popstickle cake with him and his wife one day. Ah sweet son, but I think I'll pass.....awkward!

After bath, before bed. J was showing C how he spells on an app I downloaded for quiet time

C lost interest

And now for all the grandma's, gramie's, Meme's, aunts and who ever else reads this thing may your hearts stop..........

I give you C and J in July 2011

and C and J in July 2010

I concur.....the days are long but the years are truly very short