Posing For Baba

IMG_4914, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

For the first time...Frankie refered to the kids in his class as his friends, unprompted and genuinely....flushed an object down the toilet that should not have been flushed down the toilet...and ate a deviled egg (yes, he liked it...I tried not to throw up).

The weather has been beautiful and we're still in that wonderful no-mosquito time of year. It won't last much longer. Austin is terribly buggy by May.

Happy Spring to all.

In Motion

IMG_4912, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

They just don't sit when you want to take pictures of them, huh?

Why Does This Cat Look So Angry?

IMG_4906, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

It's Probably Because Of Stuff Like This

IMG_4909, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Don't worry. No cats were/are (physically) harmed. A tail is occasionally used a nose tickler. I can't speak for Malcolm's mental state.

Hey!

IMG_4833, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

There's STUFF in these eggs!

Jackpot!

IMG_4839, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Like Goldilocks before her, Ava discovers a house in the "woods" filled with delicious treats.

This Better Be A Jellybean

IMG_4835, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Because I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE with this toys in the eggs BS. Seriously.

Easter Egg Hunt!

IMG_4832, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Frankie and Ava had a nice little Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. And when I say "little", I mean, they hunted for about fifty eggs hidden by Krista "The Easter Bunny" Schreiber. Only a few contained precious jelly bean cargo...most were filled with toy rings, playdoh and, of course, balls. Hopefully, the day before, no one spotted a very determined mother picking through the completely destroyed dollar bin area at Target desperately trying to find a type of ball purchased a few weeks earlier, then coming up with two empty bags and proceeding to locate its missing contents...and yes, ultimately, success was mine! Ha! Chocolate and carrot bunny cakes were eaten happily & fruit and cheese somewhat less happily, while the adults sipped bloody marys and chowed on kolaches and fritata. Good times were had by all.

Happy Valentine's Day!

IMG_1385, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Frankie and his classmates enjoyed chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting. You've probably noticed that they ate the frosting first. That's just human nature.

Frankie's Reading List

Frankie has always been an avid reader. Rather, an avid listener, though he does have several favorite books memorized by now. His tastes range from the classics (Beatrix Potter and Eric Carle) to what may be the adult equivalent of beach reading (a series of sports related books that I bought at Walgreens). He tends towards books about bunnies, sports and cats, with the occasional dog or hippo thrown in. Recently, his favorites have included Color Kittens (Margaret Wise Brown) which I purchased for the sweet, colorful retro illustrations, The Richard Scary-illustrated I Am A Bunny, Eric Carle’s Little Cloud (though we often have to just look at the page where Little Cloud turns into a bunny) & The Very Busy Spider, Beatrix Potter’s Tom Kitten, Owen and Mzee (a really cute story of a true-life friendship between a 130-year old turtle and a baby hippo), one of Dave’s old books Harry and The Lady Next Door and several about butterflies (he’s particularly fascinated by the concept that the butterfly eats nectar with a straw-like tongue).

I didn’t remember much about Beatrix Potter books, particularly the style in which they were written until we began reading them to Frankie. The language is quite adult and somewhat antiquated (with words like affronted and repose) and the story lines can be realistic and violent (there is more tail-loss than you’d expect in a kids book)…but they are very funny. Other bunny-related choices include Bunny’s Noisy Book & Runaway Bunny (again, Margaret Wise Brown…the woman knows her bunnies), Bunny’s Breakfast (from the 30’s or 40’s) and Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late (by Mo Willems…the pigeon has a bunny stuffed animal).

It’s wonderful to see him so interested in a pastime that we enjoy so much ourselves, and we hope he’ll continue to be a bookworm. And it's entirely possible he reads to extend his bedtime later & later. I would guess it's a little of both.

Balls And Bunnies

IMG_1718, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Are still two of Frankie's two main interests.

Leaf Pile!

IMG_1644, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

I love this picture of Frankie playing in the leaves that Maw Maw JoJo took in St. Louis.

Christmas 2007

You'll have to read from the bottom up, folks! Sorry. I am too lazy to rearrange everything now. There will be a few more pictures to come as my mom takes much better pictures than I do. Also, our camera sucks. Excuses, excuses...

Frankie had yet another Christmas last weekend with the Breshears clan...I'll wait for them to send me pictures. Did you hear that, guys?

Trains at MOBOT

IMG_4704, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Frankie Enjoys Trains At MOBOT

IMG_4716, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Trains at MOBOT

IMG_4702, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Model Trains at MOBOT

IMG_4695, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Frankie, MawMaw JoJo, Dave and I headed to the Botanical Gardens to see this train exhibit. It was very crowded and Frankie wasn't so sure of it at first...but when we found a good viewing spot away from the tumult, he became more interested. The exhibit combined live plants with some very complex modeling, as you can see from the pictures.

Butterfly House, Again

IMG_4651, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Butterfly House

IMG_4659, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

One morning, we headed to the Butterfly House at Faust Park, in the St. Louis burbs. Frankie really enjoyed the bug displays and the butterfly house (a sort of gigantic greehouse) itself was just incredible. I don't think any of us were prepared for the thousands of vibrant butterflies swarming around. It really was, as Frankie might exclaim, "neat!"

Present Time! Present Time!

IMG_4633, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Here's one of MawMaw JoJo's presents - a Playmobil airplane. I love how life-like Playmobil designs are...the plane has a tiny bathroom inside, with a tiny toilet, tiny toilet seat (that can be lifted) and a tiny roll of toilet paper. As you can imagine, Frankie finds it highly amusing to make various figurines go to the bathroom. I also find this funny.

A Delightful Pose For The Camera

IMG_4623, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Christmas Morning

IMG_4617, originally uploaded by silverzephyr.

Here's Frankie opening his stocking filled with "Santa" presents. We talked about Santa a little bit and made sure we left him some cookies before going to sleep, but the idea of a dude who brings presents was a hazy concept for Frankie at best. Santa brought Frankie a bag of balloons, playdoh, M n' M's, a Playmobil soccer ball figure with a tiny ball (lost, of course, and probably for the best) and glue sticks (the boy likes glue, what can Santa do?) We were able to spend Christmas day at MawMaw JoJo's house in St. Louis. We drove from Austin to Oklahoma City in one day, saw Great Grandma Ellen and Uncle George and spent the night, then headed to St Louis the next day. Before the trip, I felt immense dread at the prospect of 16 hours in the car with Frankie over a two day period. I figured it would be as close to hell as I had been to date. Shockingly, it wasn't. Frankie was great, except that he wouldn't sleep at all. We stopped frequently, sang quite a bit and I re-enacted a one act play involving monsters walking down a dark alley and getting scared by bunnies...over and over and over again.