Thoughts of a 3 year old

Tessa has started using the term "bad guys" with her definition hinging on what she sees in Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty. She knows that good and bad guys fight and she knows that someone (usually the bad guy) gets killed as a result of the fight. She knows that "kill" applies to mosquitoes and she also knows that people can be killed, a subject I felt compelled to introduce to her after she snuck off away from Mommy on a second nerve wracking occasion. She crossed a main street in our neighborhood by herself before I could catch up to her, and walked alone the equivalent of about two blocks. I explained during her time out (after getting no reaction to other attempts to explain the severity of her action) that cars can't see her because she is little and if a car hit her she would get squished like a bug and be killed and sleep and not wake up. Her lip trembled as she repeated back to me what she understood and I feared I'd gone too far, but I truly didn't know how else to get such a serious point across. She seems to understand these concepts as well as a three year old can.

Tonight as Tessa was going to bed she got her nightly phone call to Daddy. His radio was pretty active in the background and she asked what it was. He explained that he was pretty busy helping his friends (code for anybody in a uniform) look for the bad guys. She repeated back to him "bad guys?" and then her chin began to quiver and she asked "are the bad guys going to kill Daddy and then he won't..." and her voice trailed off as she thought of how to say what she was thinking. Daddy reassured her that he was safe and I told her that Daddy has LOTS of friends that are all going to keep each other safe. She seemed to be calm after that and moved on to saying goodnight and talking about dreams. It made my throat catch to see her get so sad and worry about Daddy. It reminded me that even though he has a blast doing his job it is dangerous. In the three years he's been in there have been two "friends" murdered, and others who died on duty in accidents. I have trouble imagining the wives of those men trying to explain to their young children why their daddy's won't be coming home. It's good to be reminded that every day is precious.

While she is still learning complex ideas, she showed me the other night that concrete ideas are no problem at all. As usual she was up and down, wandering around the house and continually moving during dinnertime. After many reprimands and warnings I told her "stay in your seat until you finish your dinner". Without missing a beat she picked up her chair, holding it tightly to her bottom, and walked away from the table. Yes, I laughed.

Winner of the Best Dad contest

Shortly before Father's Day I met my sister and her family at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. There is one conveniently located in between us so it may become a tradition. They were asking the kids to enter their dads in the "Best Dad" contest so I "helped" Phoebe nominate her Daddy. It went something like this, "My Dad is the best because even though he works a long day and gets home at 3 in the morning he always let's me get in his bed when I wake up scared or lonely". Her entry won him a free dinner and she got a free kid's meal too. They love the "peanut" restaurant, and we love it because it's loud and messy, even before we get there!

National Night Out

A friend of mine wrangled me into Neighborhood Watch and made me a block captain. I helped plan the National Night Out, where neighborhoods are encouraged to meet their local law enforcement agencies and get to know each other in an effort to be more aware of the community happenings. It had a great turnout and even the thunder storm that rolled in didn't dampen the party. Everyone just hung out right up until the rain came pouring down! Phoebe did not enjoy the sirens that were occasionally on for the kids to try out but Tessa loved it. A week later she is still talking about meeting Daddy's friends at the park and McGruff the crime dog.

Tessa got a whistle from the SPD.

The most visible agency in our neck of the woods.

McGruff meeting some kids. The officer under the awning ("Big Al") was so cool, I hope he's the next one to pull me over.
We want one of these to keep at our house all the time.

A little girl driving a big truck. Reminds me of my aunt Dana (a Mira Mesa Fire Captain).

Make-a-Wish

At Phoebe's most recent genetics appointment I inquired to the doctor about the Make-a-Wish foundation and if he felt it was appropriate to apply for Phoebe. The charity originally fulfilled wishes of terminally ill children but has expanded their scope to include children with life threatening diseases. He felt that Phoebe's general diagnosis being unkown as well as her suspected seizures and cerebral palsy made it appropriate to apply for her. He signed the papers and his office sent them in and we immediately got a phone call to go over our info. We just received an official welcome packet and notification that they are going to grant Phoebe a wish! It's going to be a challenge to think of the perfect thing that she wants since she is nonverbal. Horses, roller coasters and traveling are the ideas we are exploring.

Little Fish

We spent a lot of time at the pool this summer and Tessa was losing all her reservations about being under water or away from the shallow steps. After a couple of friends recommended her, we decided to call Coach Maggie for some lessons. Tessa already loved jumping off the side into the deep water, but now she is allowed to jump without her floaties, next to Maggie who then directs her toward the wall for safety. She taught her the monkey crawl to get back to the shallow end, or "elbow, elbow, knee, knee" to remember how to climb out. She finally learned to blow bubbles when she goes under water (90% of the time) and kick her legs parallel to the water rather than try to keep them under her (50% of the time - still practicing that one). She learned to float on her back and use "monkey, star, soldier" arm movements to propel herself on her back. Tessa is a little daredevil and has no fear of being in the very deep end with either floaties or mom or dad. Some days she whined about doing her lesson, but once she got started she ended up having fun.

Floating on her back, only her head was supported (in this photo, she's holding hands but usually didn't)

Kicking and blowing bubbles while swimming to the wall.

Blowing bubbles when she goes under.

Dreyer's Neighborhood Ice Cream Party

A friend in the neighborhood won a Dreyer's essay contest on why our neighborhood is so awesome and we got to have an ice cream party! We really do have a great group of people here, all ages, lots of personality types and from all over the country. Having good friends and neighbors makes it a much more enjoyable place to live.

Tombstone, AZ

When Tim's friend, Armando Mariscal, came to visit from Texas, we took him to Tombstone for a sightseeing trip. We walked through Boothill cemetary and meandered through the main street. While the boys saw the shootout show I took the girls on a stagtecoach ride through town. I love Phoebe's smile showing her new big teeth and Tessa's hamming it up for the camera. We met another friend, Gregg De Feo, for dinner at the Longhorn Grill, a local landmark with a giant cow skull on the outside of the building. We were definitely tourists for the day.

Santa Fe Trip

After a couple of days in and around El Paso we headed north for a brief day of sightseeing on our own in Santa Fe. Neither of us had ever been there before and it was surprisingly beautiful. The old town square was picturesque with it's old buildings flanking a park on all sides. We walked around the square taking pictures, people watching and shopping.

Did I mention the shopping? I actually passed on getting anything for myself, but still enjoyed the hand made jewelry and art. I never knew that Turquoise comes in lots of different colors.

This old building actually had a little park in the middle of it. After walking through a door off the main street our eyes were just assaulted with the details of the old building and the bright plants.

After a few hours wandering old town Santa Fe we drove out of town a ways to see Bandelier National Monument. Ancestral Pueblo people built homes and lived here until the 1500s. I was excited to visit this monument as it appears to be one of the only ones that allows you to explore right in and around the structures rather than view them from a distance. In the photo below you get a good view of Frijoles Canyon and you can see some square shapes on the left against the cliffs, which are some of the dwellings.

The volcanic tuff is soft and relatively easy to carve with tools made from harder rock. The people made bricks out of it to form a dwelling and also carved out the cliffside and used vigas (wooden stakes) to support ceilings and had two and three story dwellings along the walls of the canyon. We climbed ladders and into small cave like structures that they lived in.

This room was on the canyon floor and was a public building, not a dwelling.

More cliff dwellings. Because these were smaller and closer together than the others we just climbed through we joked that this was the projects of the pueblo.

Petroglyphs were still visible and paintings were faint but noticeable.

The canyon floor had a creek and was surprisingly lush.

After hiking around for a couple of hours (could have spent a couple of days there!) we worked up an appetite and decided to try a place that a couple of different locals had recommended. Tomasita's is in an old train depot building and has apparently been in business forever. The wait was a little long but we were afraid to leave and have to start over somewhere else so we stuck it out. I noticed some other guests whispering with the hostess and getting her camera out of her purse. I had read on the menu that this was a favorite of country music legend Randy Travis and started getting curious. The other guests were seated and I approached the hostess to ask what was going on. I told her my husband was a big fan of Randy Travis and I promised we would not get out our camera and be tourists. She told me that he was there eating right then and told me which booth he was in. I saw his black coat from the back as well as his flippy hair do but that was about it. The guy sitting across from him was huge and had the biggest handlebar mustache I've ever seen. I shared the news with Tim who acted very cool. A few minutes later the hostess ran up to us bursting with excitement and said they were clearing the table behind him right now. I pretended to be as excited as she was and thanked her. When they buzzed our pager we all walked to the table with intentional calm. I took the seat across so that I could see and let Tim sit back to back with him. A few minutes later they started to get ready to leave and I realized I could try to take a picture with the phone and pretend to be texting and try to not look like a crazed fan. My timing was off and I took it right as Randy slid over behind Tim to get to the edge of the booth. You can't even see a sleeve. At this point I was reminded that the camera makes a noise when it takes a picture and I was too nervous to try again. I did get his wife in the background though. You can see her big blonde hair.

Just for reference....Beside the brief fan encounter we did enjoy the restaurant. It was good Mexican food with a New Mexico twist. Note to self if I ever go back: get the sauce on the side again. It's hot!!! And off we went towards home. It was a great weekend overall and the part I most wish I could change is the length of it. A week would have been great but I'll take what I can get. I'm not sure my sister could have taken much more of the girls anyway!

El Paso Trip

Coinciding with our anniversary, Tim was able to get his days off scheduled back to back so we had a long weekend. My brave sister and her husband accepted the challenge (once again!) of having our girls stay with them. We took off Friday afternoon and spent the evening hanging out with a group of Tim's academy friends in El Paso. It was fun to hear stories of the academy as well as the differences in the locations they all work now. Our gracious hosts were Roxanna and "Ponchi" who insisted we stay at their home. Saturday we spent sightseeing in El Paso and Las Cruces. We had dinner in a historic old town called La Mesilla. The restaurant was not only interesting (pretty cool info here - http://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/index.html) but the food was great!

After dinner we went to a hotel in Las Cruces where Ponchi was performing his comedy routine. I was surprised just how funny he was. One of the other guys that night was horrible and the headliner was hilarious so we enjoyed it.

Tim sang karaoke for the first time, with Ponchi, after the comedy was over. I don't think he enjoyed it as much as he thought he would.

Roxana, me and her friend Laura enjoyed the evening.

Back to their house that night to rest up for an emotional day on Sunday. Earlier that week (on our anniversary, actually) one of his classmate's daughter drowned in the family pool. The memorial service took place Sunday and as much as Tim was dreading the emotion we knew we had to be there to show our support since we were already in El Paso. The daughter was just a few months younger than Tessa so it was very difficult not to compare her cute photos in the slide show. It tore at our heart strings to speak to her parents, standing next to her in the casket. That day served as a reminder to value what is most important in life and to be so grateful for the family we have been blessed with.

Hanging out with Heather

After Heather and I returned from our girls' trip, Tim headed back to work and it was our challenge to find fun things to do with the kids in tow. First we hit the Desert Museum. It is part zoo, part botanical garden, part history museum. We saw the mountain lions, the lobos, some prairie dogs, snakes, birds and this cute little squirrel. They made an enclosed habitat for some small critters and they made some underground tunnels with glass or some transparent material. Tessa and this guy had staring contests and he kept high-fiving her when she put her hand to the glass. She loved it.
Part of the man made habitat included a tunnel you could navigate through. Tessa was very nervous the first time but after she braved it through once we had to force her to leave it.
Finishing off with an ice cream cone. Perfect on a hot Arizona spring day.
Happy Phoebe.

On our way home we decided to stop by the Mission San Xavier. They have finished restoring half of it so this was the first time I saw it without scaffolding in front. The chapel inside is still used for Catholic mass by the Tohono O'odahm people whose land this mission is on.

A plaque on an outside wall.