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

That kid is fast!!

Although the video quality is garbage, I thought this was a fun video to share with everyone. This is Jackson putting together his dinosaur floor puzzle.

(Click the arrow in the bottom left hand corner to start the video)

Do You Know The Pumpkin Patch?

Last weekend we took a trip to yet another pumpkin patch to try and get that perfect Halloween photo. You know the one: kids both looking at the camera and smiling. Perfect lighting with no wandering idiots in the background. Of course we did not get that elusive picture, but we did have a good time trying. Check out the pics and a movie clip. Oh yeah, and I am trying out a new photo sharing site called tabblo (thanks to Clay & Kim for this tip!). I have always been a big fan of snapfish, but tabblo appears to be a lot cooler even if the name is goofy. Check them both out and see what you think!

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Click here to see the movie of the pumpkin patch

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Jackson and Emily at the Pumpkin Patch SnapFish Album

Some More Pictures of Emily

Here is the latest round of pictures. No Jackson in this batch, just the baby girl:

Pictures of Emily at 5 Months SnapFish Album

Severe Weather Alert!!!

Man, there is som pretty crazy weather outside right now! We have been seeing all kinds of warnings on the news about different types of weather advisories, but it's like... well what are we supposed to DO?!? I guess we could sleep in the bathroom, but who knows exactly how bad things are? Probably not too bad if I am sitting here blogging, right :)

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So, just to give you an idea, here is what I get when I go to www.weather.com:

So if the big tornado sweeping through the banner wasn't enough to get me concerned (wasn't there for other zip codes), maybe the fact that there were so many severe weather alers that I had to SCROLL TO THE RIGHT!!!! This is ridiculous. Gonna go make sure everyone is OK. Over and out...