My Kids, the LARPers

The other day, I overheard this interesting exchange between L and M.


M to L:  Let's play Star Wars, you be Qui Gon and I'll be Darth Maul.  I'll use the lightsaber, you can use your unicorn.

...grunting and swiping that results in L crying...

M to L:  Ok, Ok,  You can be Darth Maul now.  I'll be Obi Wan.

L to M:  NO!  I'll be Darth Vader.  You be Obi Wan.

...grunting and swiping that results in M stalking off angrily...

Alas, no pictures of the kids in battle.  This is from 12/2010.

What's in a Name?

The other day, L and M decided to offer up some suggestions for the baby's name.  If we go with any of these choices, it looks like we'll end up with a flower child or a nerd.

L's Suggestions:  Rainbow, Unicorn, Purple, Polka Dot, or Baby.

M's Suggestions:  Skywalker, Yoda, Chewie, Jedi, or Darth Maul.

Darth Maul Chalmers. 

I'm no expert

The other day, someone asked me why I was posting all this personal stuff on the blog.  I am not all that great at thinking on my feet, so I mumbled some response about sharing our story with other people.  That individual made a good point though, since we are dealing with some heavy issues and by posting them on the blog, I went ahead and made them public news...well, "public" for my blog anyway.  I suppose we could keep our experiences a secret, but the way that I am looking at it, for now at least, is if I can offer a tiny tidbit of information to someone else who may be wrapping their head around antibodies, for example, then I suppose it is worth it.  Not that I am saying, of course, that my measly little posts should be the go-to sources for information concerning any of my topics.  From antibodies to ligers, there is probably someone out there who knows more than me.  So please seek the advice of your doctor (or your local liger expert).

My liger expert.

Triple Whammy!

Come September, we'll be outnumbered.  That's right, Steve and I are expecting another little bundle of joy!  Both M and L were born in the horse capital of the world, Lexington, Kentucky.  With two wildcats running amok down here, perhaps a longhorn will help control the chaos.

Standard hospital picture of M, taken on his second day on the planet - 8/4/05.

Similar picture of L, taken 7/17/07.  (She's a yellow bean here, because she had jaundice.)

Adventures in Cowtown

Yesterday M was home from school, but L still had nature school, so it ended up being a special M Day.  On days like these, I like to try new things that might otherwise be somewhat difficult when there's an ornery three-year-old in tow.  So, we got up early and headed over to Fort Worth to check out the going's on of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.  The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is the nation's oldest, continuously running livestock show and rodeo.  I believe the first stock show took place in 1896 and in 1918 they hosted the very first indoor rodeo.

Quick Disclaimer:  I grew up over on the "Dallas side" of the Metroplex, so when we moved to Colleyville in 2008, I wasn't too familiar with Fort Worth.  By now, we're quite at home on "this side" of the Metroplex and enjoy going to the Fort Worth Zoo, the Colonial Golf Tournament, and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  Yesterday's trip to the Stock Show was my first and I'm glad I could enjoy it with M.  Here's what we did.

Our first stop was the Watt Arena to watch a few rounds of the Longhorn Cattle Show.  We caught the Texas Longhorn Breeders of Tomorrow - Youth Division, which meant that the people showing the cattle were kids.  One little girl was in third grade, at most.  Seriously, the cow was taller than she was.  I'd like to say that M was impressed by the little girl's achievement, but when you can witness cows going potty making fresh cow pies, then nothing can really compete with that.  One poor boy had trouble with his heifer - she laid down on her side and refused to get up.  The boy, the wranglers, and even the judge worked for a good 20 minutes before they were able to get her out of the judging area.  I'm pretty sure we had that cow for lunch.  After the excitement of cowpies and lazy cows, we moseyed through the barns and took a gander at all the animals.

M would NOT stand next to the Longhorn.  He wasn't afraid of being poked or speared, rather he feared falling into the ginormous cow pie.

Do you think a five-year-old can resist crowing like a rooster when he's surrounded by cages of crowing roosters?

Goats are crazy.

After we sized up the animal barns, we hit the carnival and midway.  The Stock Show was very much NOT crowded, so we were pretty much the only ones in the carnival and midway section - which meant that the carnies and the barkers had only us to do carnie stuff at and bark at.  In spite of that, M had a blast because he never had to wait for a single ride.

What do you call a non-Dumbo elephant ride?  Kind of creepy. 

And there's nothing wrong with the name "The Dragon Wagon," either.  Right? 

Thankfully the petting zoo and pony ride area were a bit more populated.  I discovered that M is generous, if somewhat naive, when it comes to feeding animals in the petting zoo.  We spent nearly 20 minutes and two cones of pellets feeding the four fat goats that hung out by the entrance.  Those goats totally owned him.

I'm fairly certain M alone gave those goats their RDA of livestock pellet and cone.

Knock Knock.  Who's there?  Alpaca.  Alpaca who?  Alpaca the feed if you pack the cones.

M riding "Brownie," while The World's Most Enthusiastic Pony Ride Helper helps.

There's my guy.

Yesterday was immensely fun and we are definitely going back next year with a certain ornery little girl who will love the goats.

Lions, Tigers, and Ligers, Oh My!

Yesterday we visited Tiger World in Rockwell, NC.  In addition to seeing a variety of tigers, a slew of lions, and even some Syrian Brown Bears, we had a chance to see two ligers!  I doubt it needs any explaining, but a liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress and, you know, it's bred for its skills in magic.  The liger, Lil' Wayne, was pretty much Lauren's favorite animal there.  She even paced with it for a while.

Lil' Wayne was totally sizing us up. 

Two tasty morsels looking like delicacies in front of Lil' Wayne. 

Lauren, the Liger Whisperer.

The pacing lasted several minutes.  Other zoo visitors captured it on film too.

A heartfelt farewell.

Thanks for the fun, Tiger World!

The Animal Kingdom, Unleashed - North Carolina Style

During our stay in North Carolina, we visited the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville with Mimi, Grandad, and Aunt J.  You'd have thought we'd have learned our lesson from our trip to Glen Rose.  We did to some extent.  For example, we opted NOT to ride around the animal area in a personal vehicle, so thankfully there was no need to worry about feral ostriches pecking their way into the car.  Lazy 5 was a new experience, however, since we travelled through the animal's territory en plein air in a horse-drawn wagon.  So as it turned out, we didn't have to worry about feral ostriches pecking the car so much as we had to worry about feral emus pecking our skulls.

Mmmmmmm.  Fresh Meat.

We loaded into the wagon, received instructions from the driver, and laid claim to our feed buckets.  There was actually a bit of strategy to feeding the animals.  Most animals we could feed from our hands. The emus, ostriches, and giraffes ate directly from the buckets.  We had to drop handfuls of food into the waiting mouths of the yaks and buffalos.  Sadly, we were not allowed to feed the zebra, the ankole-watusi, and the brahman (zebu cattle). 

Feed buckets.

I think this is a Nilgai trying to make friends with Matthew.

Look!  Steve is touching a wild animal!  I think it's an Eland or maybe a Scimitar Horned Oryx.

Here Lauren is demonstrating how to feed a buffalo (bison?).  Basically the beasts just circled the wagon with their mouths hanging open, waiting for you to lob some pellets in.  My life would be so much easier if I could take Steve and the kids outside, get up on a platform, and throw food down into their open mouths.

Excellent buffalo (bison?) feeders.

The animals even ate the fallen pellets.  Lauren took this opportunity to give a llama some love.

After hitting the petting zoo, we took a moment to take a family picture.  This is the first picture since April where the four of us are together!

Glittery Goodness

Since my previous post was a bit heavy, what with the looming threat of mold and collapsed ceilings, I decided to do a fun one today.  What could be more fun than glitter and glue?  (Actually, glitter, glue, and UNICORNS would be more fun.)  In any case, M has been asking to play with glitter and glue for a while now, and given that things have been a little out of whack around here, I decided to cave and let them have a go at the glitter and glue craft.

Not pictured: -The Jewels.

The kids had a fun time using the glue - experimenting with how hard or soft to squeeze the bottle to get the desired shape.  As much as I wanted to micromanage their artistic expression, I held off and let them make whatever shapes or designs they wanted.

M started strong with an 'M' and a ladybug.

L is more abstract.

Once we had gotten used to the glue, I unleashed the glitter.  I had to step in several times to make sure the kids didn't just open the entire container of glitter.  I must have said, "sprinkle, not dump" at least two dozen times...to no avail.  I also brought out some jewels for the kids to glue to their papers as well.  They got a kick out of the jewels too.  L took a break from dumping mounds of glitter to sort the jewels by shape.  M, of course, had to get involved by sorting those jewels by color, which essentially undid all of L's sorting work.  It was tense for a moment, but the allure of gluing jewels and sprinkling glitter won out.

The ladybug turned into a glue puddle once M realized that puddles were way more fun, and messy, to create.

She was very meticulous when it came to the jewel application.

M, with glue and glitter on his hands.

The kids had a blast, but they were pretty quick to beat it out of the kitchen when it was time to clean up the glitter.  There's still glitter in the kitchen and even in other parts of the house, for some reason.  I suppose it could be worse (see pictures in "Oh What a Week It's Been").  Perhaps if I wish hard enough, when the recovery company comes to cut out Matthew's ceiling, they'll find piles of glitter, jewels, and perhaps even unicorns in the attic, rather than icky clumps of wet insulation.