The latest addition

Thats right! Moe is pregnant with baby Rowles #2. We are due May 24th, which is coincidentally Gianna's second birthday! Moe is doing great, and the baby bump is just beginning to show! We will keep you updated!

Apologies.

Are due for the gap in posts and length of this impending post. Alot has changed in the last month and it's been quite busy.
Thanksgiving- we went to CA to visit the family, it was a bittersweet visit that kinda kept me postless for a little while. "Gre-Grama" (adorable when she says it) was in the hospital most of the week with what at first was pneumonia but later was discovered to be lung cancer and a softball sized tumor on her left lung that was putting pressure on her heart. We went and visited her every day in the hospital. G was the life of the hospital, it's absolutely wonderful the reactions an 18 month kid running through the halls and laughing will illicit in a hospital. Typically we like to get out and about during our stays in CA but this trip was much different. We found out about the cancer on Wed, and had hoped that "Gre-grama" would come home for Thanksgiving dinner, unfortunately she couldn't, but we were fortunate to see her come home on Friday. Everyone was there Sally (my aunt flew in when she found out it was bad),my great aunt Viola and her family Tommy and Betsy. It was wonderful to sit down and talk and laugh even if it's the last time. It's heartbreaking having to say goodbye to your grandma, not knowing if you will see her again, a little easier for her I'm sure (she has some dementia right now which may make things easier for her). G again was absolutely adorable. First time around she got everyone's name down. She had all her aunt's and uncles down the first day we were there, so i wasn't surprised to see her rattle off the new names like it was nothing (Ain't nothin but a G thang Baby?!?!) I have pics and video, moe has most on facebook. One of the cutest moments on the trip was her new favorite friend "Mar-leeee", my sisters dog. Well after a couple of days of being scared of the dogs it was good to see her get to like them, but kinda gross....she learned that you could kiss the dog....and they taught each other....yes each other, that you could kiss on the lips. G would chase Marley around the house saying "Marleeeeee kissss?" and every once in a while she would get Marley to lick her on the lips. Jen tells me that now Marley won't stop till she gets some lip action, and randomly G will ask " Marley kiss?" even though she hasn't seen her for a couple weeks now.

Back on the homefront, G is a riot. She had started to just grunt and whine whenever she was trying to express herself, so we have been teaching her alot of new words to help her get what she wants. We learned Please, Help, Stuck, Thank you all kinds of good words, but she still reverts to the grunting. So we tell her "G, use your words". Well alot of times we throw her a lifeline and tell her what to say, well she's gotten in the habit of repeating the words we say....so now when we tell her to use her words we get "words" in return...with a head bob that says "okay i got it right now give me what i want". Hilarious. Her vocab is growing exponentially, it's crazy. She knows all the shapes, an entire zoo and farm full of animals and a ton of words, well assuming you say them first. My favorite thing we do now is be tigers!
I'm the "poppa tiger" and she's the baby tiger, we get on hands and knees and crawl around growling looking for a momma to pounce on. I also taught her how to be a dog and a cat...and the one i am working on now is the duck we squat down and waddle while we quack. I have more stories I'm sure, but this is getting too long and i need to work.

Oh girl.....

So as I am driving to the store in a semi-frantic pace in the onslaught of rain I'm thinking to myself..
"When you turn 14 and are staring at yourself in the mirror, wondering if you really could be on the cover of Teen magazine....don't hate me?"

And as I am running into the store soaking wet I think again..
"God i hope it's not going to scar....But she's a kid right? They heal really well...I mean like kids are indestructible...right?"

As I am dressing her wound....pinning her down so I can clean it and get a better look
"At least its in her hair line....At least she can cover it up if it does get bad...Am i bad parent? "

Right after she fell from the ottoman I thought...
"That monkey child when will she learn....just the other day she fell from her chair thank god she fell like a professional stuntman and didn't hurt anything, thank goodness she's on the carpet where......."

HOLY CRAP THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE....

It's okay...a little painful for her I'm sure but it wasn't stitch worthy....and she seems to be over it, except when we changed her band-aid this morning...

Cutest thing in the whole world (At least to me it is)

G's vocabulary is pretty extensive at this point, her teachers tell us she is the most vocal and the most talkative one in her class. Last week i went to drop her off a little later than normal and most of the kids were there, well she starts rifling off their names as if she's the one running the class!!! I think we may have a little napoleon complex here, but if your the smartest one in the class wouldn't you?!?

Some of her new words are so nice to hear. She is finally able to start rationally communicating her needs and issues. She became a big fan of Help over the weekend. I may get tired of that one soon but it's great for now. We've been working on PLease and she now uses it in context! Well after some goading she'll use it but she knows she hass to use to get the things she wants. Thank you isn't quite there yet but we're getting there. She also knows her diaper issues!!! I guess that's the first step towards potty training. We'll ask her if she's poopy (she's been really tooty lately), "NOPE" with a head shake and sure enough she's right, come to think of it i don't think she's given us a wrong answer...

She's got some new animal noises...probably the cutest is the pig...she knows two different sounds the typical "oink" and then the nasal snoring sounding one. She loves to call it by name too..."PI(g)" the g is kinda silent. Lately she's been more concerned with identifying the animal by name and not the sound it makes.

But the cutest thing in the whole wide world (and moe has agreed with me here) is when she calls me "Poppa". Yep Moe taught her that and she agrees that it's unbelievably adorable. She calls me Dad, and Daddy, but Poppa is my favorite.
"Seriously, CUTEST thing ever! Especially when she just woke up and she is all snuggly from sleep and she says it. Freaking adorable."-Moe.
I thought we would use Poppa or Pops for grandpa's but it's mine now and i'm not giving it up!!!

Halloweeny

What culminated in an overly energetic G bouncing round the room, was the untimely discovery of Chocolate and Candy. We have seriously tried on a number of occasions to lure her to the dark side of the sweet tooth range of flavors with bits of chocolate here and there....but she would have nothing to do with it. Untill the discovery of the "ORANGE" wrapper.(one of her favorite colors next to "yewlowred" which i guess is orange..) It started with a Reese's stick which is a peanut butter kit-kat and there has been no looking back. She of course loves one of my favorites Dots, which isn't that far from her little gummies she gets. The chocolate discovery was precluded by a round of trick or treating that was uneventful to say the least. She enjoyed being dressed up, but was too shy to go up to the doors. We got her to say "treat" but her stage fright came through and she refused to perform despite our goading. She seemed to enjoy watching the other kids coming to our door, but really could care less for going to other peoples doors...why go to them when they can come to you.....seems to be her mantra as of late, as she knows how to get what she wants. It had all started with an entertaining pumpkin carving session that her rfusing to even look inside the pumpkin. We tried to get her to scoop out the guts and put them in the bowl but she just wanted to put her tinkerbell outfit on... she absolutely loved the wings and refused to wait any longer....why waste time on this thing...when you could be dressed up?!?! Already has the mentality of pretty girl...is that her nature or is it learned?

Words, what are they worth?

If a picture is a worth a 1000 words, what's a word worth? And what would be the value of a video in respect to words? I am of the opinion that some words are priceless, and timeless. That being said can a picture have value if a word is priceless? We have great speeches, and lines from important people that will continue on long after their legacy, but first words are even more important, and even more valuable to the ones who speak them.

G's vocabulary expands on a daily basis and yet it doesn't seem to be enough. This is when it gets tough. She loves to talk, loves learning new words and yet it still is hard for her to communicate, she just doesn't know enough, poor thing. I just wanted to share some of her favorite words and songs...
Colors-she knows almost all the standards ones red, blue, green, orange, yellow,pink, purple, black,
Numbers-she loves 2 4 and five...has problems with 3 and 1 is just boring...who wants just one anyway.
Body parts- only a couple she doesn't know....and that's okay she can wait on those.
More yes and no are standards and she uses them well, hello goodbye blow kisses are all favorites as well.
Songs are by far one of her favorite things to do. Her new favorite is "IF all the raindrops were.." she loves the "ahhh ahh" part. Twinkle twinkle is another of her faves she puts her hands in the air and gives some twinkle fingers. Wheels on the bus has been a staple for a long time and never gets old, she knows all the little hand parts. Hokey Pokey, this one is hilarious she now has it down pat, every part of the dance, and always wants "more". Her "more" is hilarious she puts 1 finger up in front of her mouth and says "more" and moves her hand up and down. Usually she means she just wants another song. We probably need to get some Barney, Raffi/ other children's song cd's cause I'm a little rusty on them and getting a little tired of the ones i know. We'll get a video of the song cycle up soon.

3 days at a time.

Last week was pretty rough for G..even though it was very short. Our 3 day weekend last week was great but for the rest of the week she was having some intestinal issues and teething issues that made her week a little rough. After 3 days at school she got a break when Grandma and Uncle Ryan made the drive down from St. Louis and stayed with her on Friday....giving her another 3 day weekend...srb.(yes i am jealous)
Sidenote...Mom is uber-trusting of Ryan... I don't know many parents that would have let their 15 year old drive 90 miles an hour with them in the passenger seat...but it's good that he learn to speed the right way! i.e. not getting caught)
She had a blast with Ryan and Grandma all weekend. At first she started with the generic "Mat" for uncle ryan (my brother which she also uses for Tim) but i think we managed a "Ry" a couple times this weekend.
I am not sure who had more fun this weekend, G or Ryan. I've never seen a 15 year old who was more interested in playing with baby toys than the Wii...It's true i think i caught him playing with the toys while g was in the other room reading!

Not only did we get some free labor (i wish mom didn't feel obligated to clean something, but i won't turn it down!) but we also got our carpets cleaned, a new dining room table (grandpa's table from the farm...it's beautiful) and we also managed to rearrange some furniture and snazz up three rooms at once! It was amazing how one piece of furniture allowed us to do so much to our house. It was great that they were there friday and saturday, but a shame that we really only got to hang out for friday night and saturday. They left first thing on Sunday, and G waived and blew kisses as they drove away. We have some great videos and pictures that will be up soon.

In the spirit of our new dining room set, we went to Hobby Lobby last night and got some picture frames for our Wine Valley Maps, that go great with our table. I have to pat myself on the back a little here...i matted them too...A little harder than i thought it would be. They don't look professional, but it's hard to tell!

Columbus Day...the perfect day off.

What happened to it? Did anyone realize that yesterday used to be a standard day off? Well some Texas schools (cfbisd) called it Fair Day and gave it to their kids. Fine and Dandy but do the kids realize that we're celebrating the day that Columbus discovered America? DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS ANYMORE?!? I don't care if he did anything objectionable....we still love Thomas Jefferson and he had slaves and bastard children with them! okay okay....enough of that.

So Moe had the day off and I decided we needed a three day weekend as a family. The weekend was phenomenal. Saturday was the annual University of Dallas Rugby Football Club Alumni Game. And we kicked their butts. I scored more times than their whole team. It doesn't help that as a coach I know their weaknesses, but as much as I was on the field I was still trying to coach them while they were trying to tackle me....Yes I was telling them to get lower as I ran them over...it was funny. As captain of the victorious team I get to hold the Macnab Shield for the next year...it's UD's stanley cup if you will, and I also got Man of the Match (MVP). IT helps that even though I am coaching I still run all the drills and run with the team so my fitness level was up there. I think the final score was like 45-5 (in rugby it's 5 points for a try(touchdown) and 2 points for the conversion (kick), we didn't make many kicks but I think almost all of the alumni tried which made the festivities even more fun.

Sunday we went to another furniture store...this time it was Ikea...and again G went nuts.. she really enjoyed the ikea rooms. In the kids section they have a bunch of different room set ups (some really good ideas) but they have little hidden archways/tunnels going from room to room which was a blast. IKEA Is nuts...we were there at opening at 10 am and if we got there any later it would have been useless to go at all. We were still there for a good 2 hours or so which really wore her out.

Monday was the best day of the weekend. Since I didn't figure out if I was going to take it off too far ahead I "called it in" my super D. Love was totally cool with it. SO we got to the zoo at opening and the line was packed with kids. I guess there was a good contingent of schools who had "Fair Day"...I guess the Texas State Fair is Bigger than Columbus...I bet more kids can tell you who won the Red River Shootout than what year Columbus discovered America... I digress.

There were some awesome exhibits. The primate exhibits at The Ft Worth Zoo are phenomenal. They had a toddler Chimp in the indoor exhibit that was so exciting. G stood at the window watching him play with his mom and the ladies for a good 20 mins. They also had 4 baby/toddler lion cubs, and some young giraffes. They were adorable, i could have stayed there all morning watching the lions and primates alone. We got some awesome pics I'll put them on flickr soon, they're on facebook. We brought g's animals and she loved trying to give the animals to the real ones. we almost lost a couple of them but I've got some quick hands...OF all the animals the one she loved the most was .....wait for it...
a horse. Yes...that's right. We had lions, gorillas, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes and birds ( and she loves birds) but she went CRAZY over the horse. She wouldn't stop saying "ORSE" and "NAY". When we told her that some of the animals we're sleeping, like the coyote, she would say "goodnight" and waive, I think she knows when she's being too cute...
I wish i didn't have to work today and we could go do something else really fun like yesterday.. it was the best day off in a long time. I would have to say it was even better than visiting family or going anywhere...it was perfect.

Crazy Baby

So after a pretty low-key Saturday, hanging out with fam, Sunday was our day to get out and do stuff. No we didn't go to the park, or the zoo or the pool or anything like that. We didn't go for a bike ride or a walk. We went shopping...not grocery just errand shopping. First stop was Babies R' Us for our friends John and Sam's baby shower present. It was the start of a crazy afternoon (side note....cowboys kicked off 3 minutes after we got in the car to go to Babies R Us just pointing out the awesome dad/husband I am to skip out on Football Sunday...hehe). She absolutely loved the store she must have picked out like 4 outfits she wanted 3 hats (none of which fit we're trying to find a girls toddler baseball cap she lost her last one that she loved so much) 8 toys 4 accessories....sometimes i think that women are born with the shopping gene...and this one has it bad.
After about 20-30 minutes at babies R us we were off to REI....and it wasn't MY IDEA...she couldn't get enough of this place either. She loved the tents...Anybody looking for a Christmas idea...Kelty Villa 4 or Kelty Trail Dome 4. She just loves to run around look cute/flirt and touch stuff, and REI had plenty of cool stuff to play with.
So after another 20-30 minutes we were headed home and i saw a Sports Authority...I needed some new cleats for rugby so we stopped in. Again she had a blast. Tons of balls to play with cool stuff to touch and most importantly space to run! She started getting a little too crazy so we hurried up and got out of there....on our way to the car we noticed Freeds Furniture next door.... why the heck not.
So we headed over to Freeds. I find it absolutely hilarious how these stores/car dealerships work...they put the Most Expensive Ridiculous stuff up front. We were a little disappointed when we walked in because that's all we saw... 7k for a dining room set FORGET IT! Well we head to the back and start realizing THIS PLACE IS HUGE and the selection in the back is pretty sweet... Gianna had the same exact thoughts I imagine it went something like this...
"WOW this is cool all this space to run all these cool couches and rugs and tables i want to see and touch it all...better hurry before Mom and Dad catch me!!! AHHHH CRAZY BABY"
...seriously she calls herself crazy now. G really enjoyed helping us find furniture....in fact i think she actually may have picked out a couch or two and with all of her insane energy and running around i think we saw a couple of pieces we wouldn't have otherwise. There was some really good furniture there anybody in the Dallas area looking for stuff you should check this place out..(Freeds you can pay me now). She enjoyed herself more at the furniture store than i think she has at any other place we have been two...guess what we're doing next Sunday????? Ikea....or THE Dump or something like that...especially since she loves it so much.
Crazy Baby part 2....
She was pretty stressed out last night when i got home...stressed or anxious or frustrated...something along those lines...Dinner was rough and her bath was not that enjoyable for her...but after her bath....more crazy baby time...we played our usual game of nakey tag....where we try and corral her into her room to put pj's on...except she won...she got out into the living room and started running circles around the couch/chairs/coffee table all the while saying "Crazy" and "Nakey" we couldn't stop her. I have to get this on video...cause for the first couple minutes she runs around with her towel on...and it's the towel with the little hood so it looks like she is "Super Crazy Nakey Baby"...my little girl is pretending to be a super hero already.... Finally after about 5 minutes she disappeared in the back....oops....need to put a diaper on sooner... well as soon as the diaper went on... back to running laps and singing "Crazy". It's like we should have given her a bath first thing when we got home and it would have made everything better.

Dancing Diva

After a pretty low-key week and a mellow Saturday morning /afternoon we ended up a The Carse's beautiful new residence to spend some time hanging out with friends. G tried to be shy at first but ended up being the life of the party. It's not hard when you're the cutest girl in the room and the only one under 25. I feel bad for turning two of her favorite things into party tricks but it's hard not to when it's that freaking adorable....

Wheels on the Bus, I swear if I started singing it to her in her sleep, her arms would start going. This is out of order but on the way home she started drifting off and was kinda asleep and I tried it and her right hand went up and down once I think it's almost a learned/subconscious response. Back to the story... we were sitting around after an awesome dinner(cooked up by a prego Sam), G was being a little afraid of Annie, the Carse's dog, when I busted out the wheels on the bus. Immediately her eyes get bigger than her face, her hands ball up into tight little fists and the arms start going around each other while she lets out a loud "YEAH!", she knows all the moves, the wipers, move on back, babies, mommas, and when you get to the mommas, you better keep going cause she certainly is.

And since we had her going I decided to bust out the hokey pokey, which I hear is her favorite at school and she's one of the few who does it all the way through. She usually has to hold onto something to put her foot in and shake it, and she's kinda "gotten over" that part of it, most of the time she just wants to turn herself around... How often is it that you go to an adult outing and sit around singing children songs...I guess I better get used to it.

As John informs me she was quite the life of the party even after we left, apparently a couple of boys showed up after we left who weren't nearly as cute or well behaved as G. From what John told me the 2 1/2 year old was a menace to society. He apparently broke their barstool when he fell backwards out of it, rammed their glass door face first, threw his sippy cup at someone who had a full margarita (guess where that ended up) and ran circles around the house chasing poor annie. Needless to say G looked to be a perfect angel in light of rest of the evening.

I really need to get some footage of the wheels and hokey but also of her spontaneous dancing, in the car at home and whenever...sometimes it's to music in her head but most times it's just to whatever's on, last night for instance Moe had it on Fox when the King of the Hill theme song came on....what makes this even better, Moe absolutely hates King of the Hill and asks me to turn it as soon as she hears the song...well G danced around the living room for the whole song and as soon as it ended wanted "more".

I really don't know why this pops into my head or when the last time I saw this movie was....and for those of you who know how bad I am at movie quotes it may surprise you....but ...
"Nobody puts baby in a corner"