Memorable moment from Katrina.

I won't spend too much time thinking back to the event that was and is Katrina, but there is one story that needs to be added to this blog. What better time than at the anniversary of the event.

Storm hits, we confirm our house is damaged. We need a transtitional place for nine people to live including my parents and grandparents. We end up in a three bedroom, semi-furnished apartment in Baton Rouge. My sister has a number of friends in the area from her time at LSU and their generosity was amazing. Carloads of toys and games, a TV and VCR, plates, kitchen equipment, etc.

So, here's Justin, living somewhere else, being showered with the old toys of other kids, developing some understanding that his stuff is gone or messed up.

One night in the midst of it all, sitting on the potty, he asks his mom, "Are we broke?" Jennifer proceeds to explain that our house is broke and some stuff was messed up. He stops her.

"No, are WE broke. Do we not have any money?"

A sombering reality from the perception of three year old. But, good thing he and Kate were there. They helped keep everyone similing and as positive as possible.

First day of school...

Today was the first day of school. Pictures will follow.

Justin got up early, ate breakfast and was decked out in his uniform and new tennis. Kate was a an early participant in the festivities as she ate most of his pancakes.

Things were going swimmingly.

Loaded the car....drove to campus....tears started flowing.

Flashes of zoo camp...he didn't want to go.

We brought him to the cafeteria to his table...dealt with the transition tears and left. Justin is officially a full-time school boy. His teacher later emailed Jennifer and said he was doing fine. No more tears.

Interestingly enough, Kate has had a wonderful day as the only child in the house. We think she senses she's the main attraction during the day. Watch out!

Chef Justin

Justin kinda likes watching cooking shows. Especially if they are cooking an animal. Anyway, we have toyed with him doing a cooking segment on video for a few months. Well, the opportunity presented itself.

Chef Justin was assisting him mom with Jambalaya for a party tomorrow night.

The hat was my creation. A white baseball cap turned backwards with cardstock attached to the hat with binder clips. good stuff.

Rella

Kate thinks Cinderella is cool. So she was in the Disney store, saw this t-shirt and would not leave without it. as a matter of fact, she wore it out of the store. Off the rack, on your back.

Sunday in the sprinkler

Last Sunday Justin was "hot" outside and decided he needed to take his shirt off. Coincidentally, the sprinkler was running. Next thing you know we have two kids in swimsuits thinking they are at Waterworld.

Fruit Twistables

Saturday morning. Justin is awake and laying in our bed watching Nogin. I am still 3/4 asleep next to him. Jennifer is getting dressed.

Justin gets out of the bed to check the pantry for new stuff. I went to Wal-Mart last night and he was asleep when I got home.

He comes back to the bed and hands me an individually wrapped Kellogg's Fruit Streamer. I open it for him and a few minutes pass when he gets up to tell his mother, "Daddy got the wrong thing. I wanted the twizzler type."

Immediately I defend myself with, "They didn't have any. I looked for them."

He walks back toward the bed and says:

"If they become available again, do you think you can buy them for me?"

Sure, Justin, when they become available again, I will buy them.

Papa Roy's Birthday

Tuesday was Papa Roy's birthday, but he was in beautiful Pineville, Louisiana for work. So, we went over last night for dinner, cake and presents.

Kate decided that she wanted cake and wanted to use her own fork. So she sat on the table, and didn't dig into a slice...she was eating from the whole cake. Giving her a piece didn't work. Trying to get her in a chair wasn't going to happen either. Just one of those Kate moments.

We were fortunate to get her distracted and on to something else after three or four ridiculous forksful of cream cheese icing. This had to be a special occassion.

Then, Mary Beth came up with a great idea of how to Kate clean. This is one of her funniest pictures, yet.

Speaking of Football....

Two weeks ago, Justin tried to throw a big football and it wouldn't fit in his hand. So, I bought him something much smaller. Although he wasn't initially impressed with his "gift" (I think he thinks any 'gift' he gets has to involve an animal), we have done quite a bit of throwing, tackling and fumble recovering in the house.

Sunday night, Jennifer went off with some friends for dinner and Kate had fallen asleep. Justin was sitting at the computer and I asked him if I could put on the first football game of the season. He said sure. A minute or so passed and he said, "Speaking of football, you think we can throw and tackle for a little bit?"

First, nice us of the phrase "speaking of..." Second, cool moment as a dad.

EDITORS NOTE: Noticed something looking at these pictures. Justin is wearing a Tiny Tumblers t-shirt. First, posing for the Heisman with the Tumbler "t" is ridiculous. Second, Justin has never attended Tiny Tumbers. That is a hand-me-down sleep shirt from his idol and lead candidate for Justin's Cousin of the Year, Collin D'Angelo. Collin won the award in 2003, 2004 & 2005. He is also nominated by Kate.

Giraffe Cupcakes

A long time ago, Jennifer found a recipe for giraffe cupcakes. Last week, she included the ingredients on the grocery list. As usual, it was like $20 worth of stuff for one recipe. Anyway, when Kate took a nap on Monday (because an activity like this is impossible while she is awake) they started their baking.

Three hours later......

Pretty good result. Justin was VERY proud (and excited even though the picture looks otherwise; this was moments before bed) of these as he made sure to give some away to relatives when they came by.

Another amazing observation by Justin...

On Monday, Jennifer's friend from Mount Carmel, Natalie, came over with her daughter to visit. Celia is 15 days older than Kate and they had an excellent time playing together. One of the first kids Kate's age she has gotten to interact with and she did really well.

Jennifer was commenting to Natalie that Celia was so smart. (She speaks very well and uses sign language.) Justin said, "Yeah, she's smart and she has more teeth than Kate."

Now, if you know our kids, they have a TON of teeth at an early age. Kate is only waiting on two teeth right now. She has the rest and knows how to bite people like mom and dad when they correct her.

Anyway, Jennifer asks Justin what he is talking about. He said, "Look, Celia has a tooth in the middle on the top where Kate is missing a tooth."

Jennifer had to inform him that she had her teeth and that was a gap.

In telling that story yesterday Angie looked at Kate's teeth (she is a dental hygentist) and saw that Kate has this huge piece of skin/gums that will need to be "cut out" before her real teeth come in to close the gap. Yikes! The mere thought of an older Kate having this wedge cut out of her mouth WITHOUT being under some form of something is kinda scary. I am attributing it to the wedge she slept on for reflux. Not sure why...but that has been a convenient reason for everything else that doesn't line up with Kate.

If it were up to Justin, he would just fill it in with another tooth.

Not sure what this meant...

Both a business and social issue lesson from / for Justin today.

Jennifer, Justin and Kate drive by the movie theatre to see if there was anything for Justin to see at the show. He is waiting on the debut of Barnyard...but its not there yet. Anyway, Jennifer tells him all they have for him is Cars (which he saw months ago). He then proceeded with this rampage:

"Cars! Cars? What's wrong with these people. Don't they realize everybody has seen Cars already. (that is the business lesson...as long as people are paying money to see it, keep it in the theatre, right?). They need to get a new movie in here. Unless they are waiting to give all of those 'hola' people a chance to see it. (Here's the social issue. Is he that aware to recognize the increase in the Latino population in the area? And where has he ever heard of them as 'hola' people? Or is this some sort of coincidence?

ESPN World Series of Darts, Legos & Crap

Interesting moment last night. Justin is away at Aunt Jodi's swimming in the pool and we finished dinner. Jennifer and I are laying on the floor. Kate is running around, playing. On ESPN, Sportscenter ends and the World Series of Darts comes on TV. Neither Jen nor I felt like getting up to get the remote. So, the "dart throwers" make their entrance and start throwing darts. We watch a pretty good part of the first game when Jennifer gets hit in the face with a large Lego thrown by Kate. She proceeds to follow that toss with two more...and the throwing motion was EXACTLY like what she was seeing on TV.

Unrelated note:

Justin has toys, including some of the aforementioned legos, in the den. His mother encourages him to clean up and he proceeds to complain and offer excuses as to why he cannot. A few minutes pass and she "reminds" him again. This time, halfway through her reminder, the phone rings....she cuts her "instructions" short and answers the phone in a much kinder tone. Justin responds with:

"I not cleaning this stuff up. You are nice on the phone with them and ugly to me. You called my stuff 'crap' and crap is not a nice word and I am tired."

NOT so great quotes

Sunday afternoon, Kate has been napping for close to three hours in the middle of the day. With Justin standing close by, I ask Jennifer, "What's up with Kate."

Justin responds with, "Maybe she's muerto."

Muerto is spanish for dead. I often use this when refering to animals on TV that are about to get pounced on or Jeff and Caryn's cat, T.O. (yes, named after the Cowboy's wide receiver) that was presumably murdered by cayotes.

Again, one of those difficumt moments as a parent when you have to refocus they young fellow's energy and use of the language....while laughing out loud because what he said is funny and ridiculous.

For all of those concerned, Kate woke up shortly thereafter.

Swimming....

Jennifer took Justin and Kate to the Woods' house on friday to swim in their new pool. Here are a couple of pics from the day.

Kate in her floaties.

Justin on the slide.

Justin and his classmate, Dominic, who was there to swim, too.