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.