She's older too?

Sydney is 5 years old now. I know what you are saying…”What?!” “ How can that be?” “Didn’t she just come home from the hospital?” Oh…that’s what I was saying!

Everyone keeps telling me at work to enjoy my kids while they are this young. This is the age where their mom and dad are the center of their universe. I am trying to heed their advise. We are soaking it in. [Although I will note that I am sure my children will never grow tired of Mommy and Daddy giving them hugs and kisses as everyone says they will.]

We carpool every morning to work/daycare. In the 20 minute drive I am positive that Sydney says the word “Mom” at least 143 times. Sometimes the conversation will go like this:

Sydney: “Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom”
Me: “What?!”
Sydney: “So how is your day today?”
Me: “Fine, thank you.”
Sydney: “So what did you do today?”
Me: “Sydney, you know what I’ve done. I got ready for work and got you guys ready for school.”

Sydney: “Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom”
Me: “Yes?!”
Sydney: “I love you!”
Me: [heart melting] “I love you too!”

Did you notice how many times Steve spoke up in that conversation? Yep, I don’t know how he does it.

Better yet, Sydney has taught Halas to play the “mom, mom” game. He is like a little echo :)

Sydney will start Kindergarten in the fall. I am not ready!

His first Birthday!

Yep, Halas is 1 year old already. We got to celebrate his birthday up in Illinois with family. Here are a couple of pictures of our Baby Bear to hold you over while I work up a longer blog update…

Fall already

I can’t believe that it is fall already! It has been busy here in Alabama but I’m not really sure what we have been doing.

Sydney just came home from a vacation in Illinois. My mom came down to Alabama and visited with us for a few days and took her up there. It sounds like she was very spoiled while she was there. She got to visit both sides of her family, went to the Chili Supper at my mom’s house, played in the bouncy house, and got to wish the triplets a Happy 2 year Birthday! The Wise family brought her back home and they stayed with the kids while Steve and I went to the Bears game in Atlanta. Sydney is now in the Grandparents de-programming process. She has not heard the word “no” in a while and does not seem to understand its meaning anymore.


Halas is happy to have his sister back home! He crawls all over the place and can stand and cruise along the furniture. Most of the time he is heading to where ever his sister is playing. He had his 9 month check up and is 24.5 pounds and 30 inches tall.

I have been very busy at work getting ready for the launch of Ares I-X. This is the first test flight that NASA has launched since the 1981 launch of the Shuttle. Ares I-X is much taller than the shuttle (almost twice as tall). It is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, October 27th at 7:00 a.m. central and I am so excited!

- Ang

She swims, he raps

It was very warm and sunny this weekend. Here is a picture of the kids playing on the swing set.


Sydney had her first swim lesson this week. She had a lot of fun and didn't want to get out of the pool. She was a little disappointed that they didn't teach her more but I assured her that she would get to do more each week.

Here is a picture of her jumping in.


And on the kick board...

And while we knew that Sydney loves to swim, we learned that Halas loves to rap. Steve and I were watching the movie "Notorious" and whenever a rap song came on (which was frequently) he would start jumping and squealing. Of course, every time we tried to get some video of his excitement, he would stop. Here is a quick clip...

Our little engineer

Today is "Take Our Children to Work Day." Sydney came in with me this morning. I took her over to get all of the NASA goodies and to meet the NASA robot. She wasn't too sure about the robot. He wanted to shake her hand but settled for her blowing him a kiss.

She stopped by my office and then headed over to check out her dad's digs. Then she went back to school "to have some fun."

Growing like a weed

Both Halas and Sydney went to the doctor last week for a checkup and shots.

Sydney got 4 shots that day, two in one arm, one in the other arm, and one in the leg. I could not believe how brave she was! She gave Steve a big bear hug and took every shot without crying at all. We were so proud of her that she got to go to her favorite restaurant that night. It is a Mexican place that gives ice cream and balloons at the end of every meal.

She is growing right on track too. At 4 years old she is 3' 5.5" tall (77th percentile) and 38 lbs. (67th percentile). There is an old wives tale that if you take your child's height when they were 2 years old and double it, that will be their height when they are an adult. If that holds true, Sydney was 35.3" at 2 years old so she should be about 5'10".

Halas got 3 shots and one oral vaccination. He cried when he got the shots but stopped as soon as they put the drops in his mouth. The nurse was very impressed with their pain tolerance.



Halas is getting to be a very big boy. He is 26.5" (95th percentile) and 17 lbs. (87th percentile). He is one of the happiest babies that I have ever seen! He is now "talking" more. He just started eating baby cereal. The most success I have getting him to eat is when I put him up on the counter and Sydney in front of him (I bribe her with applesauce). He loves to watch her and will ignore the part where I am shoveling food in his mouth.



This morning I had breakfast with Sydney at her school. It was Muffins for Mom day. Halas even got me a Mother's Day gift. When I dropped him off at daycare today there was a flower pot with his hand print on it and 3 "flowers" that had different pictures of him on each flower. It was very cute. Sydney got me some bath stuff and made me a card where she used her fingerprints to make the petals on a flower. The gifts are so sweet and are on proud display in my office. Later this afternoon they are having a Mother's Day party in Sydney’s class.

This weekend is Sydney's last gymnastics class for the semester and the following week is her gymnastics finale where she will put on a show of what she has learned and get a medal.

The weather down here has been very rainy but I got Sydney's blow up pool out last week. She will start swim lessons in June. We are going to take a break from gymnastics for the summer at least. One activity at a time is enough for me.

- Ang

Rock-n-Rolla

Halas mastered rolling over from his belly to his back a couple of weeks ago. Last week he was able to get from his back to his belly. Won't be long until he is chasing Ruger around the house. He is doing great in daycare too. They call him their Eating Machine and is charming all the women with his big smile.

Here is a picture of Sydney getting ready to go to gymnastics this weekend. Last week she went on a field trip to see a high school production of Cinderella and had a great time.

Not much more to report but I thought people might enjoy a couple of pictures.

- Ang