Bad Blogger? November 8, 2010

Given how well I’ve kept the blog updated lately makes me feel like a pretty bad blogger.  However, when I think about it, I kind of wonder if the frequency with which I blog lately is actually normal?  Who has time to blog every day or every week anyway?  It’s no coincidence how the more mobile and attention-needy Brooks has become, the less attention the blog receives.  Oh well!  I do wish I kept it more up to date if for no other reason than to have a good record of new happenings with B, but again, oh well!  I will not even attempt to catch up on all that has happened in the last two months.  Instead, what’s happening right now…

I know in the past I’ve made several comments about my eagerness for Brooks to speak and it’s finally happened!!  I am amazed at how much he is learning and how quickly.  I mean technically he’s been in speech therapy since conception, so I knew it would happen, but I was sure hoping it would be sooner rather than later.  Some of his first words were mama, dada, ball, Max, bye bye, night night, uh-oh and more.  He also signs milk and eat so those count too!  (And yes, I wrote all of these down.)  It was like all of a sudden a few weeks ago he could say all of these words, and since then he’s learning more and more everyday.  He imitates so readily when asked to say a new word which I find fascinating since I spend months working with some of my three year old students to do the same thing. 

Physically he’s on the go all the time, pretty much running, though still a toddler run.  He LOVES to go outside (oush) and will come take your finger and pull you to the door until you take him out.  This new game has also required us really learning what no means and has made for some pretty unpleasant tantrums.  He’s got two top molars and two more bottoms about to pop any day now.  He’s taking a Kindermusik class that has been so much fun (for both of us!)  He’s always seemed to love music and he loves to move his little body to the beat!  He still loves balls, but is also into books and anything new to him.  Since it’s Fall and he loves outside, one of his latest obsessions is acorns.  He picks them up as soon as he sees them and seems to have them stashed all around the house and he’ll carry them around all day.  It’s pretty cute.  Also along the lines of outside, he loves rides in his wagon that he got for his birthday!  Matt and I are continually amazed by what a cool little kid we are blessed with!!

 Enjoying Sweet Berry Farm a little more than last year.

 

Sporting the Bamm-Bamm Rubble look for Halloween!

Putting some moves on Pebbles (aka Kenley from his daycare class!) 

 

The Flintstones and the Rubbles!! 

 

At a loss… September 7, 2010

For a clever blog title, that is.

As I sit here writing, Marble Falls is reaping the benefits of Tropical Storm Hermine.  It has literally rained non-stop today which I suppose is good for the land, but not as much for my mental state…having just  celebrated Labor Day the end of summer is already all too apparent.  Hopefully this gloomy, rainy week will lead to some nice fall weather.   However, Hermine does bring with him a 2 hour delay for work tomorrow so I will not complain too much!  We are still trying to settle back into our school year routine, though it has been a lot harder for me this year than in the past.  Brooks moved up to a new class in daycare, he’s a Tiny Tot now!  Here he is on the first day of his new class with his puppy-this is his best friend…

He has a great new teacher, Ms. Samantha, but he LOVED Ms. Elizabeth in the baby class and she and Lajuana have taken care of him since month two.  And if losing them wasn’t hard enough, he tends to be somewhat of a momma’s boy so the transition has been a little rough…not terrible, but not super smooth.  I’m sure this has a lot to do with the difficulty I’m having settling back into the working-mom groove, but we’re slowly but surely getting there. 

That’s been most of our excitement for the last month.  Brooks has pretty much mastered walking these days and has little problem stopping and bending over to pick up toys or (multiple) balls.  However, with his quest to master walking, came battle wounds which this momma could have lived without.  First we had the busted eye:

Then the busted, fat lip:

There have been plenty more, but these are the two that drew the most blood and tears from baby and mom.  Brooks continues to develop in so many ways in addition to walking that have been fascinating to watch.  He identifies lots of objects-balls, shoes, etc.  He waves with regularity-its a very cute wave!  He’s recently begun to give sweet, open-mouth, slobbery kisses.  His favorite toys right now are any kind of balls and he LOVES throwing them.  He loves throwing so much that he’s begun to throw everything he can get his hands on which we haven’t quite figured out how to break yet.  Here he is last Saturday night while we were cheering on both the Rangers and the Baylor Bears simultaneously:

Brooks recently gave Matt a hand baby-proofing the cabinets.  So far he seems satisfied with the two that were left un-proofed for him…we did stock this one with some fun stuff, he didn’t just get an empty cabinet!

He continues to love finding new things to explore and play with.  We’ve found him in some fun new spots lately:

He says ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ frequently, but we still haven’t heard any other discernible words.  I’m eagerly waiting!  Matt is very anxious to take Brooks to his first football game.  He was supposed to go last week but was running fever with an ear infection.  He’s got his Mustangs jersey ready, so maybe if Hermine continues on his travels we’ll all get out and watch the Stangs beat Burnet this Friday!

Beach Baby August 8, 2010

To end our summer this little Homeyer trio loaded down our Ford Edge and I do mean LOADED down and headed off to Galveston for a little fun in the sun.  Matt and I have been on three beach vacations since we’ve been married (luckily I was able to convince him how awesome it is to lay on a beach and relax/read) but this trip was a little different.  There was not a ton of reading done and the relaxing was done in small spurts and usually not at the same time for both of us.  Turns out a beach vacation with a one year old requires a little more energy than one with no kids or even with a chocolate lab.  (by the way we were VERY sad not to be able to take Max with us this time, but with all the baby gear, we were not able to fit him in the car-not fair, I know…next time we’ll make it work!)  Anyway, despite it being a little different from what we were used to, we had a great time! 

The trip, however, got off to a little bit of a rocky start.  We went through some serious rain on the way as well as some major traffic in Houston topped off by a baby who was SOOO ready to be out of his car seat.  This got a little tense at times.  But, we finally made it to our condo.  We decided to try to do an economical vacay and cook most of our meals(another reason the car was so full-ice chest and groceries) so when we got to Galveston we went to do some grocery shopping (it was raining anyway so we couldn’t hit the beach yet).  Matt really likes these carbonated apple juice drinks that come in glass bottles and since we were on vacation he picked up a few.  Well, when we got back to the condo to unload, the bag containing these drinks fell off the counter shattering two of them.  I soon realized that I had 4 or 5 little shards of glass in my legs and was bleeding.  I quickly passed Brooks off to Matt and went to the bathroom to try to stop the bleeding.  Matt then had to try to clean up the mess while holding a squirmy 25 pounder!  As you can imagine, this was also a little tense.  But, the bleeding finally stopped, the mess was finally cleaned up(after another trip to the store to buy a mop) and we finally settled in. 

Tuesday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and headed to the water! Brooks LOVED the beach!  He crawled and walked all over the place, found shells, put shells in and out and in and out and in and out of his toy truck, and ate a little bit of sand!  I was so happy that he shared my love for the beach! 

 

Wednesday Matt had to come back to Marble Falls to perform a funeral so he rented a car and made a quick turn around trip.  While he was gone, Brooks and I went on a good run along the seawall, checked out the pool at the condo and even braved the beach on our own.  It was a good day, but it definitely made me appreciate Matt…family vacations are not near as fun when the whole family is not present!

We checked out of our condo Thursday afternoon but were going to stay one more night.  We pricelined a room and for a pretty sweet price got to stay at the Tremont House, which is a historic hotel on the strand in Galveston!  We had a few hours to kill between checkout and check in time so we headed to the aquarium at Moody Gardens.  It was pretty impressive.  They had lots of neat fish, sharks, rays as well as great exhibits with seals and penguins. 

It was also a good place for Brooks to stretch out and practice some walking in a nice air-conditioned building. 

 We also stopped in the old-fashioned ice cream and candy shop on the strand.  We didn’t get pictures there but had a yummy chocolate malt and hot fudge sunday! 

Along with our room at the Tremont House came privileges at the Galvez pool.  The Galvez is another historic hotel but on the beach side of the island.  Both of these hotels are so beautiful and the Galvez pool was super nice and relaxing.  Thursday afternoon we enjoyed the pool and that night we ate out for the first time (since Monday!!  We were proud of our thriftiness!) at The Spot which had awesome burgers and fried pickles!  The next morning we slept in a little, ate breakfast at the hotel and loaded up the car.  But before we left town we went and enjoyed the nice pool for a few more hours. 

(This was one of the few good pictures we got of Brooks in the pool..unfortunately my foot thought it needed to be a part of the picture too…)

It was proving to be the perfect ending to our trip until…Brooks pooped in his swim diaper!  Luckily we were already out of the pool, but cleaning him up and changing him was a definite two person job and he was not in the mood to have his diaper changed either.  But we did it, got dry clothes on, stopped off at Gaidos for some seafood and headed home.  It was a great week!

Birthday Week Celebrations August 2, 2010

Last Saturday evening brought the conclusion of our celebration of Brooks’ birthday.  In our house, we have a tendency to celebrate birthday week instead of just the birthday and celebrate we did!  When Brooks woke up on his actual birthday,Thursday, he seemed to sense that there was something special about the day.  He was all smiles and laughs.  We stuck some shoes on him and headed outside to check out his new Little Tikes Hide and Slide Climber.  He’s on the go all the time and seems to have an innate desire to climb so this seemed like an appropriate gift!

After we played for a while we came in to have some birthday blueberry muffins which were a big hit!

After breakfast, Brooks and I headed into Austin to spend some time at the Austin Children’s Museum where my mom met us.  We had a great time.  It was a tiny bit overwhelming for Brooks because it was pretty crowded while we were there so there was LOTS of noise, but he seemed to enjoy himself on his birthday!

We went to lunch near the museum with my mom and then Brooks insisted that we stop at Target before we head back to Marble Falls!  That night Matt grilled some yummy pork chops and we fixed some baked potatoes and green beans for a tasty bday dinner.  Afterward we headed over to Fresh ‘n’ Fruiti Frozen Yogurt for a birthday dessert.  Brooks thouroughly enjoyed both courses of his birthday meal!

While Matt and I still lived in Hubbard, I took a cake decorating class so that one day I could make birthday cakes for my kids.  I also have spent a few hours watching various cake shows picking up some tips and inspiration here and there.  As a result, I started thinking about and planning Brooks’ cake for his birthday party a month or two ago and started experimenting with some fondant a few weeks ago.  I spent a lot of time, more so than was actually necessary, mostly because I haven’t actually made a decorated cake since we moved to Marble Falls. I was a bit out of practice and there was a lot of trial and error.  But I must say I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  I realize it’s no Charm City Cake, but I’m proud of it nonetheless!

We had burgers for lunch and this must have worn out the birthday boy because he had to stop for a nap before the cake and present portion of the party.  Brooks was not too sure what to think about a large group of people singing to him or the candles…

And he was not too sure what to do with his smash cake in the beginning…

But he eventually dove in and…

I’m pretty sure he LOVED it!!

After a post-cake bath, we finally ripped into the presents.  Brooks got some nice toys and new clothes and even his own cell phone!

He also got a cool new wagon that he and his cousin Samantha had to try out in the backyard.

I think that the celebration week was a hit and that Brooks was made to feel special like anyone should on their first birthday!  We’ve had a great year watching this little boy grow and learn.  We are so proud of him and look forward to lots more birthday weeks in the years to come!

Happy First Birthday, Brooks!! July 22, 2010

It’s hard to believe our baby is one year old!!  We  have been blessed with such a special little boy and we are so proud to be his parents!  Here is a trip down memory lane.  What a year this has been!!!

Day One: July 22, 2009

Month One

Month Two

Month Three

Month Four

Month Five

Month Six

Month Seven

Month Eight

Month Nine

Month Ten

Month Eleven

Month Twelve: July 22, 2010

Happy Birthday, Brooks Matthew!!!  We love you so much!!

Way Behind… July 21, 2010

I guess I just thought I would be blogging lots more frequently this summer with all my free time but I was wrong!  We have been really busy, but I’ve also wondered if I use blogging as an excuse not to do other things during the working part of my year…who knows?  I don’t even know if I’ll be able to sufficiently update on all that’s gone on in the last month and half but I’ll try to fit as much as I can in a nutshell!

We all participated in Vacation Bible School which was a hit this year.  Brooks and his buddy Reed kept the nursery busy.  We took a trip to Rockport with Matt’s family and had a great time relaxing, swimming, reading, eating, fishing(Matt) and eating some more!  It was here that Brooks conquered and then fell in love with stair climbing where he had lots of encouragement from Matt’s cousin, Kayce Jo.

He also went to the beach for the first time, though it took him a while to actually wake up and enjoy it…which he eventually did.

We’ve enjoyed a little frozen yogurt this summer to help beat the heat…

We’ve gone to a few Round Rock Express baseball games where Brooks got a free glove.  Matt was sure enough to go ahead and get him a lefty one so we’ll see how that works out!

Brooks has also gotten a little better acquainted with Max.  Max is really enjoying that Brooks is mobile and can interact with him now!  He’s been a great encourager as Brooks has practiced walking up and down our hallway by making sure his ears are sufficiently licked to get him from one end of the hall to the other.

We’ve even spent a couple of afternoons like this when it’s been a little cooler. 

In July Brooks spent his first extended trip away from Matt and I while we went to Eagle Pass on a trip with our church.  I was only brave enough to stay away for two nights and was very ready to see my baby.  He stayed with his GJ and B-Bob(Matt’s parents) and seemed to have a great time and adjust much better to being away from me than I did being away from him!  We’ve spent a lot of time hanging at home and it’s been fascinating to watch this little guy learn and develop.  He’s begun taking steps and can walk across the living room if he’s really focused.  He can follow some simple directions and he’s definitely got a little temper bottled up inside him!  He’s not yet saying any real words but he’s babbling all the time (not that this SLP is counting or anything!)  And as you can see he’s into everything!

He’s really enjoying trying all sorts of new things to eat.  This was the aftermath of blueberry pancakes…

And we’ve even found the time to hang out with some buds (Reed and Samuel) every now and then!

All in all we’re having a pretty fantastic time together this summer.  It’s drawing to a close waaaay too fast as I have to go back to work in two short weeks.  But those weeks should be pretty exciting as we’ve got a FIRST BIRTHDAY to celebrate and a family trip to Galveston coming up.  Stay tuned for reports on those adventures!

Okay, so I realize that this was a really large nutshell but now you’re all caught up!

Summertime, Summertime, SumSumSummertime! June 5, 2010

Summer is in full swing in the Homeyer house and we are loving every minute of it!  Well, Matt may be having a little bit harder time since he is still required to work during the summer months, but I always argue that life is just a little easier for him when I don’t have to go to work.  This is due partly to my better mood and partly to my having more time at home to cook him daily gourmet meals!

Brooks and I have enjoyed being a little lazy in the mornings.  We hang out in PJ’s for a while until Brooks decides to shed his.  He is very mobile these days and as he crawls and cruises around his pants get tangled in his feet so that eventually, this happens:

We’ve visited with various friends.  Wednesday I actually did have to go in to work for a little while for some end of year meetings, so Brooks stayed with a family down the street.  They have a little boy who is just a few weeks older than Brooks and while I was working this is what they were doing!  If this doesn’t say summer I don’t know what does!

Yesterday Brooks and I went to the pool with Courtney and Weiss Stanley and he loved it.  There was so much for him to look at, he could splash freely and flirt with the cute little girls in bikinis (I think that’s cute for now!)  I’ll let you judge for yourself, but who wouldn’t want to flirt with this?

We’ve got big plans for the rest of the summer and I’m so grateful to be able to have this time at home with my little man.  We are so blessed!

Lost: Redemption Through Community May 28, 2010

I wrote the following for Fellowship’s newsletter this week…I thought I would share.

Sunday night was the series finale of the TV series, Lost. I understand that Kelley and I may be the only people in Fellowship that watch Lost (I find this utterly baffling!), but it was such a poignant cultural experience I thought I would share a bit about it today (there is a spiritual application to this, keep reading!).

Lost features a cast of broken characters who find themselves victims of a plane crash (possibly contrived) on a mysterious island in the pacific that seems to possess sentient characteristics.

Each central character is a broken individual.  Jack is a fallen spinal surgeon who inadvertently caused the downward spiral of his spinal surgeon father who quickly drank himself to death.  Kate killed the man who was abusing her mother and is a fugitive.  Sawyer is a self-loathing con-man seeking vengeance on the man who conned his own parents and caused their murder-suicide.  Hurley is a lottery winner whose money and life seem to be cursed.  The list goes on.

Each of them are broken.  Each of them are essentially alone in the world, isolated from community through the breaks of life or self-imposed punishment.

Lost is known for being a very complicated show with intentional multiple levels of meaning in the plot and development of the characters.  One of the great questions surrounding the show is whether the title (Lost) referred to the island or to the souls of the characters themselves.

This question was answered in the finale (in my opinion).  More than the odd qualities of the island, the show was about the lost(ness) and the redemption of the characters.  Broken individuals came together as a group and as they learned the sordid histories of one another, both intentionally and inadvertently, they began to be the instruments of one another’s healing and path to fullness of life.

Some understood this more than others.  There were great discussions of good/evil, science/faith, and other great philosophical issues throughout the course of the show as they struggled with their own brokenness and the possibilities of fullness of life and redemption.

In the end, as the protagonist of the show, Jack Shepherd, sacrifices himself so some of his friends may leave the island and so that the world can continue in existence.  As he lay dying,  he sees in a type of vision his deceased father and many of his friends (who we come to realize are also deceased) and they appear as they might have been were it not for their great character flaws in life.

Jack struggles to understand all of this and his father tells him, “That’s why all of you are here.  Nobody does it alone, Jack.  You needed all of them, and they needed you.”

After viewing this I thought about Sunday morning in worship and Sunday afternoon at the Edwards’ house where 60 or so kids, youth, and families gathered for a day of being together on the lake.  I thought about preaching on the coming of the Holy Spirit to God’s people and how God’s spirit marks us as belonging to God and binds us together as a family of faith, brothers and sisters in Christ.

I thought about the individuals who make up Fellowship.   All broken individuals.  Some with serious scars well-healed over time.   Many with wounds just now beginning to heal.  Many of us with fresh wounds wide open and bleeding that still seriously hurt.  But, all of us broken.

We are not so different from the characters of Lost.  We have been gathered together, in the name of Christ, to walk with one another, provide community for one another, and to help each other walk the path of redemption and fullness of life in the Spirit.

The words of Jack’s dad have echoed in my ears since Sunday night: That’s why all of you are here.  Nobody does it alone.  You need all of them and they need you.

That sentence applies to all of us.  We are the gathered body of Christ brought together to walk with one another, limp with one another, and skip with one another.  Christ has given us each other.  Redemption through community.  Thanks be to God.

Just for the blog, some further good stuff I’ve read about the Lost Finale:

Unanswered Questions

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

Best Explanation of Events

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1TbvuS/techland.com/2010/05/27/j-j-abrams-employee-explains-lost-14-minute-epilogue-to-appear-on-dvd//r:f

On the Importance of Mystery

http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

More noteworthy firsts… May 16, 2010

We’ve been busy the past few weekends.  We’re so lucky that Brooks is such an easy-going baby.  We drag him all over the place and he takes it all in stride.  Weekend before last we decided the last minute to head up to Arlington and take Brooks to his first Rangers game.  He loved the ballpark because there was so much for him to see.  He was clapping here because he could hardly contain his excitement!

Of course trips to the ballpark are not complete for us without seeing our good friends the Vittases.  Melissa and I discussed how she and I attended our first game together in 2003 for her 21st birthday.  There have been many more between then and now!  You have never met more serious Rangers fans than Mel and John and we love getting to catch up with them at the games!

Checking the place out with Daddy!

Here is Brooks at breakfast the next morning contemplating how great the ballpark and the Rangers were, maybe thinking about one day when he’ll play there.

Sunday after we got back, I got to celebrate my first official Mother’s Day!  Brooks made me a sweet flower-pot with his hand prints on it while he was at school and then also gave me a white rose-bush to plant in our backyard.  I’m so proud to be his mommy and loved getting to celebrate it on a special day!

This weekend we returned to Waco again to celebrate Matt’s sister, Mallory, who graduated from Truett Seminary.  Mallory completed a dual master’s program and now has her Master’s in Social Work as well as her Master’s in Divinity.  We are so proud of Mallory and all of her accomplishments.  She is one of the most compassionate people you will ever meet and just might pull off world peace one day.  We didn’t get any pictures of the weekend unfortunately, but enjoyed spending time with the family and celebrating all of Mallory’s hard work! 

I’ll leave you with a mischievous little smile caught on camera that makes me laugh and makes me nervous for what this little guy will have up his sleeve the next 18 years!

Tickly Foot Monster May 12, 2010

 

Brooks has developed a very endearing habit (insert sarcasm – shouldn’t there by a universal sarcasm emoticon? ) of waking up, standing up in his bed, and screaming at various points throughout the night.  We think part of the reason is that he loves to stand up and hasn’t quite come to understand that it is ok to lay down and go to sleep.  Another part of the reason could be that he was diagnosed with a double ear infection. 

After he went to the doctor Kelley had a meeting and I came home and stayed with him for a couple hours.  Somewhere during that time he came to be fascinated by my foot and very stylish grey sock.  He laughed and laughed at it, especially when it came alive and started tickling him. 

I’m not sure if this was good parenting or not (tickling your child with you sock you have worn all day), but I found it terribly cute to hear him laugh and laugh.  I apologize if feet gross you out.  The feet, not to mention the stylish grey socks, are worth enduring to hear this precious sound!  Enjoy!