Story of Toys

CHAPTER 1
This is a story of a little girl who shall remain nameless and how she lost the privilege to play with her toys. I don't have a pic attached to this blog because this is a fictional tale of course ;)

There once was a little girl who was about to turn three, she was generally known for being a good girl and loved her mommy, daddy and brother very much. She liked her friends and usually shared her toys and books with no problems at all. This little girl would play all day long and would always help clean up her toys. However, things started to slowly change in this young lady, she was creeping closer to the age of three and grew wise in her own eyes. She began to disobey and became defiant at times with her normal daily routine. Her parents let things slide here and there not realizing the terrible mistake they were making. After talking to her and giving her time-outs, it was clear the little girl needed stricter guidelines and less freedoms in her world. One morning she awoke only to find all her toys were GONE! Yes boys and girls; every single toy was missing. Her mom and dad decided to take away all her toys until she could prove that she was a big girl that obeyed and respected the house rules. The only things that were left behind were her baby doll Fred because every baby needs his/her mommy and books that she could quietly read. So far it has been 2 days and the little girl has shown great improvement in her attitude, stay tuned for chapter 2 of this story.

First bath together

Giving the kiddos their first bath together! Mr. Man has sort of gotten too big to bathe in the kitchen sink so we moved bath time to the tub. Crew enjoyed having more water around and splashed Irina in the face, which is why she has her face covered here. I think its funny how he is wider than his sister.

Crew-ness

how many spare tires do you count here?

everyone needs a booty shot of their baby

Crew is just over 5mths and such a joy to be around, he makes me smile no matter what type of day I've had. I have been debating introducing solids soon but decided to wait another couple of months so he is still exclusively breast feeding. I mean look at him...does he look like he's skipped a meal? It took about 4mths to completely get over all the nursing issues but I can now say that I'm loving it again. He looks up at me, smiles, and then reaches for my face and it just melts my heart (yes, it's my fave phrase when talking about my kids, sue me). He is sleeping about 9-10hrs at night now and is staying awake longer during the day, he loves his big sis and laughs at her when she talks to him. I can not believe how fast he is growing, he is in 12mth clothes now, he recently found his feet, and has starting to sort of sit up (he still topples over), and the baby talk has started also. I just love him to pieces and will continue to love each little milestone of my sweet baby boy.

Hand-me-down = Re-using= Eco Friendly

The pics above of are irina sporting her "new" aggie sweat shirt that the Howells shared with us. Jenny and Jonathan Howell are friends of ours, they both went to A&M and have a daughter and son. They passed on some awesome aggie gear and we are so thankful to them, it is also a great way to be eco-friendly. We also have a daughter and a son, so its pretty obvious that they will not have hand-me-down clothes. However, we have TONS of gender neutral aggie shirts that crew will be able to wear. In fact, crew has already outgrown some of his A&M clothes and we passed those onto our fellow future aggie: baby Patton Pomeroy (born last week!) I love seeing kids wear their daddys alma matter.

Siblings

irina with her brother
both with their "cheese" faces

irina is wearing one of her brothers shirts..

I love taking photos of my kiddos side by side. Some of you might hear me say that they look like twins, I think Irina looked like Crew when she was his age. In present time although they resemble each other a great deal, they're not twins. They also have such different personalities, I mean 100% different. Irina was a great baby, very active and vocal; you could also describe her as "hyper baby". In utero, she kicked my organs and ribs all day long, she was even born wide awake looking around and screaming. Even before she was mobile, she would sit in your lap and move non-stop, her arms were flapping like wings and her legs bouncing like springs. She was always "talking", grunting, ooo-ing and was really never a quiet baby. Crew, also a great baby has such a unique demeanor, even in my tummy he moved only mostly in the evenings and only for short periods of time. Seconds after he was born his eyes remained closed and lay still and quiet on my chest. He has gone to countless movies with me because he is so quiet, every one in the theatre comments on what a good baby he is. Crew doesn't mind being held by new people, he will sit still in your lap and not make a peep. I love each of their special traits and enjoy their unique spirits.

Christmas Tree III

Finally Irina can correctly say "Christmas Tree"!

Saving Up!

Irina and her "te-he" (tia) at Unity One CU

straight from her Unity One piggy bank

waiting for her lolipop

The other day we fit the last handful of change into Irinas piggy pank, it was stuffed full. For a family that "never carries cash" we collected a ton of change. Irina and her daddy sorted the money, rolled it and i took her to the CU to deposit the coins. I used to work at Unity One CU (N. Tarrant branch) and my silings still work at the other two branches. My brother Roy works in collections at the campus branch and my sister Priscilla works at the north side branch. Since roy works in the back office we decided to see my sister and the full CU effect. She was more excited about the dum-dum after the deposit. btw her grand total was $57.84!

Cotton Bowl 2010 TEXAS A&M vs LSU

My family!

Tonight we had a little get together at our house to watch the Aggies play in the Cotton Bowl! We have been so excited with the season the Ags had this year and are proud they made it this far. Our neighbors Christal, Eric and Aiyla came over and so did Craigs good friend John, we all had a great time watching the Ags play!

Goodbye Irina?

Some days I feel as though I say my kids names 100 times, whether it is during giving instructions or playing hide and seek- they hear their names nonstop. So the other day out of nowhere Irina told me to not call her Irina anymore, she said her name is Evie and that's what she wants to be called. I just looked at her with a confused look on my face, "who calls you Evie"? I asked her. "My daddy calls me Evie and his name is Daddy and Craig, he has two names.. too" (fun fact, she ends most sentences with the word "too" after a short pause even though it is totally out of place). Most people don't know but her full name is Evelyn Irina Odom, but we've always just called her Irina. However, since the day she was born Craig has called her Evie when it is just the two of them. He made it clear that Evie is his nickname for her and that no one else can call her that. He's a nerdy daddy like that and I haven't thought much about that agreement in 3 years. Well, apparently my daughter likes Evie better than Irina and wants that to be her "big kid" name. I knew that she would one day look at her name on paper and decide to go by Evelyn, Evie, Ev or even Lyn, but I thought it would be in high school or something. She doesn't look like an Evelyn to me, or an Evie...she looks like Irina. At this point we are all (family and friends) going to continue calling her Irina and if she consistently says she wants to be called Evie we will change for her. It is kind of weird to think of this whole thing since she has been Irina for her whole little life. Irina or Evelyn...it doesn't change the way I see her or love her, Ill always call her my favorite baby girl.