A Spur Branch Christmas

This morning we woke up just in time to hear the sleigh bells ringing as Santa and his reindeer sped away from our Katy abode. We all ran out to see what Santa had brought and we were pleasantly surprised by our holiday bounty. Above is a pic we snapped in our Christmas PJs before our Navidad Nap.

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We also got some pictures taken at a studio for Christmas, so you can see those pics here:
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/721666/

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Christmas Lights in Houston

This year, we wanted to find a really good display of Christmas lights now that Jackson and Emily are both old enough to truly enjoy them. After a short search on the web, it sounded like the Prestonwood Forest Drive display was going to the best and closest option. This spread of luminescent joy has received mention by numerous media organizations including The Sun Group, The Houston Chronicle, and The Travel Channel.

Saturday night, we packed up the kids and headed out for the lightshow. To get there, most of you reading this would take 249 north from the beltway past 1960. Exit the first exit after 1960, pass the light at Schroeder road, then hang a right on Prestonwood Forest Drive.



The main street cuts right through the neighborhood with numerous cul-de-sacs off to either side with dazzling light displays. The most impressive part of the display is how widespread the decorations are without any official mandate from the homeownership association or anything like that. None of the individual houses in the neighborhood are going to knock your stockings off, but the sheer magnitude of the displays make it worth the trip.

Each street follows a common theme, and it is obvious that there is a high degree of coordination between the houses on the street. One street has all Disney characters, one has a Snoopy theme, another lets you drive through Frosty themed displays that will make it impossible for the car to keep from singing along. The residents of one street put up properly timed lyrical cue boards for the whole "Frosty" song.

This display goes through the end of the year (and is up every year), so swing by if you want to see some great Christmas lights. We thought it was well worth the trip, if for no other reason than to see the kids' reaction to the spectacular light show.

Drummer Boy

If it wasn't apparent from recent posts, time is flying by and the kids are growing up at an alarming rate. Daddy just got back from a 1 month trip to Mumbai, India for work and it is amazing how much the kids have grown in that short period of time. Emily it fully conversing now, and seems to understand just about everything you say no matter how complex the subject matter or words. Jackson is continuing to amaze all of his teachers with his ability to read and make sense of the world around him.

Last night we attended Jackson's first big performance at his school. He was a little drummer boy in an amazing show that had the crowd smiling and aaaahhhhing at how adorable all of these little tykes looked in their holiday gear. Front and center, Jackson was on cue with all of the drum beats, song lyrics, and other gestures and antics of the performance. Pictures were not very easy to take at the event, but we were able to get this one back in the star's dressing room. We will be getting a DVD of the entire show if you'd like to see Jackson in action.


Afterward we had a celebratory trip to the Toll House mecca of sweets in La Centerra here in Katy. There were some carolers signing out by a gigantic Christmas tree they had setup in the main esplanade. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Daddy's Home

My little munchkins were there to greet me at the airport after returning from a work trip to India. I can not imagine a better welcoming that the kids with Mom and Mamo there to pick me up and welcome me back to the comfort of the great US of A!

Halloween Pics

Woody and Jessi tore up the neighborhood this year:
http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=745311193893069831/l=324945109/g=7741791/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

They're Growing Up Too Fast

We hear it all the time. Whether it is in reference to your own kids or other people's they always seem to be "growing up too fast". We'll call this GUTF for short. As the Texas Bateman clan is now at a healthy count of 4, I am beginning to think that our kids are GUTF. At the transitional age of 1 1/2, Emily is definitely of the GUTF persuasion.

But how do you know? What are the indicators that your child is GUTF? I think it is much less an age to milestone correlation and more of a melancholy passing of each milestone for the last time. It is the little things like screwing on the top of a sippy cup or peeling a banana. Those little things that your children have watched you do a hundred times, but they still rely on you to do it. Most of the little things are the ones that let us know our children are GUTF. I am certainly proud of Jackson for his outstanding reading capabilities at 3 1/2, but I would not say he is growing up too fast because of that. Instead it would be the numerous things for which he now responds "I'll do it myself." Nothing digs GUTF in deeper that the realization that your child is now an independent functioning being.

So what, on this Saturday morning, made me reflect on this unfortunate truth? Pajamas. From the time of birth, your children rely on you to get 'em into their clothes. As an infant they certainly don't get the whole arm-in-the-armhole thing. In fact, there is generally quite a bit of resistance in the form of tight arms with bent elbows. As time goes on, the child grows up just a little bit and realizes that it is probably an OK thing to have a shirt on. Following from this is the correlation that Dad guiding your hand through this hole in the fabric makes the shirt sit right on your body. A few misguided limbs help to set in this reality by the strange sensation of an incorrectly donned garment. But the final, and most disturbing realization is when the child realizes that they need only to confidently extend their arm through that window of fibers in order to begin to take control of their destiny.

This morning, Emily gracefully slid both arms through the short yellow sleeves of some of her favorite Dora pajamas. If it wasn't for my help getting her head through the neck to get started, Emily could run the whole operation herself. She is truly GUTF.

Luckily, she already had on some pink long sleeved Dora pajamas on underneath, so there are lessons left to be shared and Mom and Dad are still needed for something :)

Gettin' ready for Halloween

Here at the Bateman household, we are getting ready for another fun Halloween. Emily will be old enough this time to really enjoy it, especially since the kids both have related costumes. After numerous discussions, Jackson decided to be Woody from Toy Story (2), and thus Emily will be his sidekick Jessi. We've got their costumes ready to go, but we'll save the pics until the holiday.


Click on the picture for our most recent SnapFish album. This one is 41 pics ranging from September to October.

We have also uploaded a few videos to Google:
Emily eating cereal all by herself

Jackson sliding at Dewberry Farm

We hope everyone is having a great fall and getting a break from the summer heat!

Emily Eatin' Cereal

Gooooooooaallllll!

Jackson is now a proud member of the Thundercats 3 year olds soccer team. His first game was last weekend. Here are some
pics from the action

Why Can't Emily Sleep In!?!

So it is 8:30am on Saturday morning and Emily and I have been kickin' it for about 2 hours now. She has a habit of waking up at around 6 or 6:30am on the weekends, and that means either Angel or I is up entertaining her for a couple of hours before the world starts their day. Usually it is Angel, but since I am proud of my pre-dawn accomplishment I thought I would blog about it.

No pictures today, just anecdotes and stories. I realize that in the furvor to post the latest and best pictures, I have neglected to include some important details about our growing family. Like the fact that Emily endearingly refers to Jackson as "Bubba". Like the fact that Jackson is reading much better than just being able to identify a Bank of America logo. Like the fact that Emily and Jackson are not at the same day care anymore.

Let's start with Emily. As I have mentioned before, she is very much enamored with Jackson and wants to be just like him. She will copy just about everything he does whether it is laughing, climbing on the furniture, pouting, asking for milk, or hugging and kissing Mama. Of course, none of this should imply that Emily is on board with all of Mom and Dad's decisions. When we change her diaper or give her a bath, for example, it is hit or miss whether or not she is going to decide to let it happen. She is very independent and has strong convictions if she isn't in the mood for something. This strong personality seems to translate into her day care class as we have been told that she is a natural leader for the other kids. They all look up to her and help clean up whenever she is on board, etc. She loves brushing her teeth, and gives the best hugs, kisses, and especially nosies.

Jackson calls out "I just need to get my shirt, OK. I'll be right back" as he darts off to get ready to go to the store. Today is a big day because we are going to the store to get T-Shirts. We need to have just the right colors to iron on our matching Yo Gabba Gabba iron ons. Jackson has a great imagination, and has tagged each of the family members as one of the cast of YGG. Even though I wanted to be Muno, that is the dancing alien persona that Jackson has claimed. He informed us that Emily is Foofa, the bright-eyed flower picking one. Mom is Toodee, and Dad is Plex. Since there are 5 YGG cast members (excluding DJ lance), and only 4 Texas Batemans, we asked who should be Brobee? "Um.... Grandpa Orren", Jackson replies with a look of satisfaction on his face like he just completed organizing the last colorful square of a rubik's cube.

            

So, we are finishing up breakfast now, and are about to head out for some errands. "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

The Chronicles of August

August has been an exciting month at the Bateman household. Jackson has started pre-school and is continuing to learn about the world around him at an alarming pace. His class has a pet bunny named Sam that he loves to watch eat celery (yes, a real bunny in their classroom!) Emily is now a communicating member of the family now that she has same basic words down as well as the ability to sign to help us understand what she wants. Milk, water, grapes, chicken, and several other useful signs help us to keep her from getting frustrated as her speech capabilities develop. Jackson is now reading, and loves to find new challenging words to conquer. Last night we walked out of the store to hear Jackson call out, "Hey look, Bank of America!" seeing the establishment on the other side of the parking lot. Not only has he mastered several of the games that he found on the computer, but we also investigated a cool project out of MIT called scratch that actually lets kids create their own animations and video games!

So Angel went to the parents meeting for Jackson's first soccer team, and somehow got roped into being the coach. I guess it makes sense seeing as how we live right near the practice field, Angel played varsity soccer in high school, and she knows a thing or two about working with kids :)

August has been a busy month for Dad with work picking up speed, travel sprinkled in, and the possibility of an international assignment soon. On top of that, I presented at my first conference, the Houston TechFest on August 25th. All of this preparation on top of a hectic work schedule and school starting back up for the kids has made us remember how easy we had it during the summer :)

Tonight we went to Dunn Bros. coffee here in Katy to watch our neighbor Hank rock out with a mix of original and cover music. It was hilarious to see Emily and Jackson jamming to the music. They had us rolling in laughter and seemed to be having a pretty darn good time themselves. Unfortunately, we didn't bring the camera along... next time.

So speaking of pictures, we've got a great snapfish album up. you can check it out here:

August 2007 Pics SnapFish Album

We also had a visit from Nana in August. She was amazed to see how much Emily had grown up since only a few months ago. The girls at Emily's day care tell us she is a natural born leader that helps to keep the class on task when it comes to cleaning up, etc. Despite her independent and strong-willed nature, Emily still loves and looks up to her big brother. She can be found imitating everything he does, including climbing up on the furniture even when mommy and daddy say no!


You'll notice in some of the pictures we had a great trip to the Houston Children's museum a few weeks ago. That place is pretty amazing and has lots of
interactive things for the kids to do. I think Jackson got a bigger kick out of most of the exhibits that Emily did, but she sure liked the pulley chair that Jackson and daddy pulled her up on. Jackson really liked fishing for the plastic duckies in a man-made concrete river outside in the "backyard" of the museum.

Rainy Summer in Texas

 
It seems like there hasn't been a single weekend this entire summer that we didn't get rained on. That has put a damper on our plans to take a camping trip this summer, but we have been practicing in the house! Here is a picture of Jackson and Emily chillin' out in the tent (which was pitched in our living room). Maybe when it cools off in September or October we can take the kids on their first camping expedition.

Summer 2007 Pics

Well, it has been a busy summer, so once again I have caught myself slacking on the pictures. Check out this album for some photos of the kids around the house, at friends birthday parties, and Daddy and Jackson at the Astros game when Graig Biggio chalked up his 3000th hit!



Also, please leave a comment on this blog if you have any opinions on putting pictures in SnapFish, Tabblo, or Google.

The First Double-Birthday Weekend

This memorial day weekend was especially exciting for the Texas Batemans. Since Jackson and Emily both have the exact same Birthday (May 23rd), their birthday parties will probably never be too far apart. But rather than take the safe approach of spreading the parties out across multiple weekends, we decided to jump in with both feet and have the Memorial Day Weekend Birthday Extravaganza!

Having both parties in one weekend has pros and cons, but one of the logistical benefits is that this allows traveling grandparents to focus their plans around a single weekend. This is especially helpful for Nana and Grandpa Orren who made the trip in from Salt Lake City to join in on the fun. As the various family members began arriving Friday, we spent the day making final preparations for Jackson's party which kicked off the weekend on Saturday.

Jackson

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The rain's attempt to dampen the spirits of party goers was a futile one as we had the comfort of an indoor inflatable wonderland. Monkey Bizness is a sheltered interactive amusement mecca that was safe from the drizzling mess of a morning. Jackson and crew pretended to listen to a brief safety discussion by the staff and then the birthday boy led the charge into the main room of the bouncy kingdom.

Despite the zeal of a warehouse full of 3 year olds, the outing stayed safe and nobody was hurt. The smiles continued as Angel's brother Jake re-appeared after a Peter Parker-like conversion into a convincing rendition of SpiderMan. The kids were a bit timid at first, but soon Jake was giving piggy back rides and was definitely the life of the party.

See all of the action in our snapfish album:

Jackson's 3rd Birthday Party SnapFish Album

After the party it was back to the Bateman casa for a little recuperation. The kids took their naps and the adults began gearing up for game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Finals between the Jazz and The Spurs. Since my parents were in town, it brought the total number of Jazz fans in Houston up to 3, but we were still clearly outnumbered by all of Angel's family in from San Antonio including Mamo, Pampo, Uncle Jake, Grandpa Roger and Grandma Lulu. Of course, Jackson and Emily have already been corrupted, so they were wearing their Duncan and Ginobili jerseys. Alas, the Spurs support emanating from Katy could not breach the 1500 mile distance to the Energy Solutions Center in Salt Lake City. The Jazz handed the Spurs a disappointing 26 point loss. Although it may be the final high point of the season for the Jazz, it was a nice victory.

Emily

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Sunday belonged to Emily as it was her turn to be in the spotlight. This was to be a day of showing off her bi-pedal prowess and refining her gift un-wrapping skills. And of course, what 1st birthday would be complete without the beloved bout with that first piece of cake. All of the family pitched in to get the house and yard in tip-top shape before the afternoon soirée.

Emily had friends of varying ages in attendance, and the various toys were getting a good workout. Be sure to check out the SnapFish album below to see the amazing job Angel and Mamo did with the decorations and party gifts. Emily was cheerful as usual and had a great time opening all of her presents. She was even thoughtful enough to give some early thank you cards in the form of a big loving hug. Those really lucky hug recipients also got the gentle back-patting that comes along with Emily's most sincere hugs.


See more pictures of Emily's Birthday Party by clicking the link below:

Emily's 1st Birthday Party SnapFish Album

Leyla's 4th Birthday Party

I made a tabblo of pictures from Leyla's 4th Birthday Party on Cinco de Mayo:

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/invitation/642090/997fc8bcfde391b06374a2c96a0373bf

Where to Start?

OK, so I have had what hopes to be my largest lapse in activity on this blog. I can't say that I don't have adequate excuses that would surely draw an empathetic shoulder from you, but I'll spare you the details. Needless to say, it is time to once again start giving our amazing kids the proper historical accounts of their early years on this earth.


Emily

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So Emily is now 9 months old and this morning she started saying "Hi" to us. It was pretty adorable. Nana (Jolene) was in town from Utah and she was able to join in on the fun of watching Emily gleefully venture into the realm of speech. Emily was clearly amused with her ability to make everyone burst into laughter with a single syllable. Her cute little earrings accentuate her beautiful little face and the seven teeth she now has.


She has also developed some pretty darn good balance in her quest for that elusive first step. She has been able to stand up by herself without the aide of a table or any other stationary object. While standing, she isn't quite sure what to do with herself, but some claps to celebrate her accomplishments are always sure to draw smiles from even the most unemotional observers. If that doesn't get ya, then her touching vocalization of "mama", "dada", or "no, no, no" surely will.


We have started signing with Emily and she is picking up on the concept. She can sign for milk and usually does so to indicate when she is done eating. Since we have kept a pretty consistent schedule, she knows that it is food first -- then that white bottle she gets when she puts out her hand and motions as if she was milking a cow. Emily also has signs for more and ball under her belt. With repsect to food, Emily is pretty much eating anything we are. We'll still reserve her a nice portion of perfectly cubed pears or some Gerber oatmeal for breakfast, but she can chow down on just about anything that doesn't require an adult to think about Zantac.

 

Jackson

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Little man has sure progressed a long way since our last post. He is now reading, and not just consonant-vowel-consonant words like dog and cat. A few weeks ago Angel was getting some of her teaching supplies out of the attic (or more accurately I was getting), when she decided to show him a large colorfully ornamented "February" sign from her previous Kindergarten class at Pattison Elementary. "fuh".... "eh".... "buh"... ... FEBRUARY! It couldn't have taken the little genius more than 10 seconds to figure it out!


In addition to very concrete and measurable milestones, Jackson's understanding of the world around him has also progressed in amazing ways. He understands how to form sentences in multiple tenses, use proper pronouns, and has a great knack for connecting with people and sensing emotions in others. He has now tried sushi (thanks, Sushi Hana!), has an imaginary friend named Tiny, and is beginning to understand the days of the week and how to tell time.

 

Angel

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I can't miss this opportunity to congratulate my lovely wife Angel. She has recently taken her pricipal certifcation test after yet further surpassing me in graduate credentialship. She just interviewed with her school, Williams Elementary for a assitant principal position, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.


In addition to making professional strides, Angel has really done some amazing things at home in keeping the Bateman family on track. As mentioned earlier in this post, we have had some hurdles that have made life difficult in the past few months. I recently finished up an out-of-town project in Dallas that kept me away from home most of January. Angel held down the fort while she was juggling all of her own professional obligations. I still have no idea how she did it (I was only in Houston 5 days in January!), but I will always appreciate and be indebted to her for her ability to keep this family on track during what have been very, very, very difficult times.

 

Scott

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I recently grew a beard and my daughter still loved me. Eventually Angel and Jackson were OK with it, too :)


Click on the picture of Angel and I to get the skinny on our recent trip to Orlando:

Well, that is all for this post. I realize it is not enough to make-up for the past few months, especially since they included the holidays, however here are a few links to some pictures that may help to fill in some of the gaps:

Holidays 2006 SnapFish Album

Springtime 2007 SnapFish Album