Pool Sharks

Well, we're on our way to being a family of pool sharks :) We picked up a used pool table off of Craigslist in the fall and every now and again we find the time to play with it. Robert gives the kids lessons and works on his tricks and I try to slop a few balls in every now and again. Here are some pictures I snapped this evening.

Robert showing Teah how to hold her cue.


Then, of course, she wanted to do it herself


Yeah! She actually hit the cue ball ;)


Carter gets some help from Daddy


Robert practicing his "trick" shot. He jumps the cue ball over the 1 and hits the 8 ball. He made it into the pocket in only three tries.


Carter's head shot for when he hits the pro circuit

Crazy Hair

This is Teah after jumping in the bouncer :)

Sweet Dreams

Vegas! The dog, not the city...

The Hilliards have a new family member and I have a new blog subject! Meet Vegas, our rescue dog.

Almost 3 1/2 years ago now, our first ever dog, Scrappy, died of cancer. Carter was only about 5 weeks old, so we weren't in any hurry to replace Scrappy with all of the other demands of our two children. Now that the kids are older and both in school, I decided it was time to start thinking about getting another dog. I started looking before Christmas, but with the holidays and Robert's knee surgery, we put off the decision.We still weren't sure if we were ready, but the kids and I decided to go to a dog adoption this past weekend to just look around and pet some dogs - or so we thought!

Vegas was listed as a Schnauzer mix, although from the looks of his wiry hair, short legs, curly tail, and long snout I'm guessing he is a mutt through and through with a mix of many different breeds. We adopted Vegas from The Animal Rescue Project and they told us what little they knew about his history. He was found in mid-November tied up at a rest area near battle creek. He was found with the tags in the picture, showing that he had a rabies vaccination in Las Vegas, NV in 2007. The Battle Creek animal control facility called the numbers and tried to locate his owners, but they were unsuccessful. After 10 days, The Animal Rescue Project rescued Vegas from the shelter, where if he stayed too long he would have been put down. Vegas was at their shelter for 2 months before we decided to take him home. The shelter estimated him to be about 4 years old.


Robert was working, so I was sure that we wouldn't come home with a dog, but after spending almost an hour in the petting room with Vegas, I fell in love. He passed all of the tests - pulling on ears and tail, taking away rawhide without aggression, not a crazy barker, enjoyed playing with dog toys, got along well with another dog, and he wasn't overly assertive about needing our attention. Also, he was the cutest scraggly mutt I've ever seen, and if you had ever met Scrappy, you know that's just the look I love! So, after getting Robert's OK over the phone, we decided to bring him home!!

After stopping at the pet store for the essentials, we brought him home, set up his food and water, showed him where to do his business, and gave him a bath. Since Vegas was at the shelter and not in a foster home, the rescue wasn't sure if he was house-trained. So, I decided to keep him in our basement until we could figure out exactly where he stood on that front (the carpet down there is much more cleanable than on the main level). When Robert got home the next day Vegas greeted him with doggy enthusiasm and the family was complete :)

In the few days that we've had Vegas I've learned that he is indeed house-trained, he loves to play fetch and will bring the toy back and immediately drop it at your feet for another throw, he enjoys chewing rawhides and nylabones, he's great on car rides (he's ridden along on a few trips to preschool), and he's generally an awesome dog. I can't imagine why his former family would've wanted to give him up, but their loss is definitely our gain! Here's a few pics I've taken of him over the last few days. Have I mentioned that I also have a new photographic subject :) My kids are probably thankful to not be the only ones having to pose anymore!

Makin' Lunch

Carter loves to help me cook and I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of him while we were making mac -n- cheese the other day. How cute is he? :)

Getting Dressed

Carter is 3 1/2 years old now and really becoming very independent. I can't believe how big he is and I just needed to document something that he does all by himself. He's just so cute. So, here he is getting dressed.

Bathtime

Well, I've been so focused lately on improving my professional photography skills that I have neglected taking pictures of our everyday life. So, it's time to get back to the blog with some bathtime pictures. For some reason I love pictures of the little ones in the bath. So, this afternoon Carter was having a ball in our jacuzzi tub and I decided to snap a few pictures of him. He didn't have any of his bath toys, just a few cups and he stayed in there playing for over 30 minutes! He loves the bubbles that the jacuzzi makes after I wash his hair. It's hilarious when he decides to put some on his chin and say, "Ho Ho Ho"!

Carter's Second Day

Well, today was an emotionally exhausting morning all around. When I mentioned going to preschool this morning Carter immediately told me that he didn't want to go and that he didn't like preschool. That was not what I was hoping for! I tried everything I could think of to convince the kid to go, but he would not budge. When we pulled into the parking lot he didn't want to go in and I got him through the door without crying, but as soon as we sat down to put his slippers on he just started screaming. Mary came over and "took over" and I said a quick goodbye and walked out - a heart-wrenching thing to do! Of course I was crying as well having to leave him like that. I overreacted to the situation and started thinking that I would have to take him out of school because it was never going to work - I guess those were my emotions in overdrive. I was worried that he would be upset on and off for the entire two hours and was fully expecting Mary to tell me as much. Thankfully, it was not as bad as I thought it would be and was probably harder on me than him! It did take them 30 minutes to get him to calm down, but after that he had fun with his "work" and played on the playground. His teachers agreed that he's not so good with groups, so they are staying aware of that and trying to help him through those situations. THANKFULLY, one of his assistant teachers is wonderful and sits with him when he is upset and they have bonded well. Also, it sounds like he has become friends with a little boy named JJ who was also a little sad at drop-off time today. Oh, and Carter and JJ have the same red crocs, so they must be friends :) Mary suggested that I bring Carter in 15 minutes early tomorrow so he can get settled in without the other children around. When I mentioned to Carter that we were going to go early tomorrow so that he could sit at his favorite place and get out his favorite work he gave his standard reply that he DID NOT want to go. When I asked him if he wanted to go with Teah and have her show him some work he actually said yes, so I think that I'll bring her along as well. So, I have higher hopes for tomorrow and today didn't turn out near as bad as my imagination made it out to be!

Carter's First Day

This week is Carter's orientation week for his first year of preschool at the Montessori School. Orientation week kicked off yesterday with a 45 minutes individual meeting with his teacher, Mary. Today, tomorrow, and Friday the new students are in the classroom from 9am until 11am (normal hours are 9am to noon). For those not familiar with Montessori, the classrooms have multiple ages and the primary classrooms consist of ages 3, 4, and 5 (two years of preschool and kindergarten). Teah was in Mary's classroom last year as a 4 year old and will continue to be in her classroom, with Carter, as a 5 year old this year. Since this week is for new students only, Carter has been on his own without his sister.

I was a little nervous going into this week with Carter because he has always been pretty attached to me as well as not really being a fan of being in large groups of children. Anything over 5 or 6 kids has been a challenge for him in the past when we attended gymnastics class, library story time, etc. Thankfully, Carter is familiar with Mary and the classroom since Teah was there all last year, so that's at least a good start. His meeting with Mary yesterday went well. I stayed for a few minutes while Mary started giving Carter lessons on the "work" of his choice and then I left the classroom to go to the office for 15 minutes or so. Carter did a great job and seemed excited for today. He told me that his favorite lesson was the "tong work" where he uses a child-sized set of tongs to move small wooden animals from one bowl to another.

This morning I made his favorite breakfast before preschool - french toast. I even used cinnamon bread instead of regular bread to make it extra special :) Robert is on vacation this week, so I have been able to fully concentrate on Carter and his transition. Drop-off went well this morning. I stayed in the coat room while Carter put his slippers on and went off into the classroom to start doing some of the great work he learned about yesterday. While he was in the classroom I was thankful to have the distraction of the parent's coffee with Pam (the director of the school). I picked him up on the playground at 11am. I found him happily playing on the jungle gym and the minute he saw me he started crying and hid under the structure. I think this is just his way of dealing with the change, because he said he didn't want to stay and play, but that he didn't want to leave either. Mary told me that Carter had a few difficult periods in the classroom during transition times. When it was time for meeting he cried and was taken into the quiet room where one of the teachers helped him to feel better so that he could rejoin the class. He also had a crying episode on the playground when he was trying to play in the little house that was full of other children.

So, his first day wasn't as bad as it could've been, but wasn't great either. I really think that his insecure feelings when it comes to transition times will get significantly better when Teah is in the classroom with him. I told her today (with Carter out of earshot) that Carter had a tough time at meeting today and asked her if she could help him out next week. I suggested that maybe he could sit next to her during meeting and she told me matter-of-factly that Nathan and Maddie sat next to each other last year and they are brother and sister. So, we have two more Teah-free days to get through and then I'm hoping things will start looking up.

As for my transition, I was less emotional than I thought I would be, but I think it will really hit me next week when I drop both of my babies off! I snapped a few pictures yesterday and today and wanted to share - here is the link to the album: Carter's First Week

Kid Questions

The kids ask the funniest questions sometimes, so I've decided to start posting some of them. Today, Teah asked me:

Mom, why is it called your pinky if it isn't pink?

hmmmm....

Also, today was Carter's 3rd birthday and we finally decided that it was time to take his bottles away (I know - it's about time). When I was giving him his cup this evening he asked me:

Mom, when will I turn 2 again?

He did go to sleep without any problems at all with his new big boy cup.

Ribbit

I couldn't resist Carter in his froggy towel after his bath:

A New Uno

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago we lost one of our little mousy pets to what I hope was old age and not some type of poor caring for on our part. I told the kids that Uno the mouse had gotten old and died and they seemed to accept it pretty well. It seemed like a problem, though, that now we had mice named Dos and Tres. Without the introductory mouse the names seemed off. Teah suggested that we change Dos' name to Uno and Tres' name to Dos. Carter was the one who suggested replacing Uno the mouse with a new mousy friend. We waited until after vacation and finally made it to the pet store today to get a replacement Uno, also being called Uno numero dos, Uno 1.1, and The New Uno. For those of you who are freaked out by rodents, I apologize for the close-up, but I of course think that she's the cutest little mouse. She's much smaller than any of the three we originally bought, so hopefully we actually ended up with a baby mouse to start off with this time.

The New Uno

Uno checking out Teah

Atlanta - Day 1

Today was our first full day in Atlanta after taking two days to drive down and arriving at our rental condo late last night. Robert will be taking his Anesthesia oral board exam tomorrow (wish him luck!) and then we'll spend the rest of the week vacationing as a family. With Robert in his hotel room studying most of the day today, the kids and I hit Lenox Square Mall and Piedmont Park. We stayed at the mall just long enough for me to stop at Sephora (woohoo!) and grab lunch at the food court. Once again we used vrbo.com and found a rental condo instead of going for a hotel room. The condo is 4 blocks from Piedmont park with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, plus kitchen, living room, and small sun room - not as spacious as the house in Tampa, but soooo much nicer than an itty bitty hotel room for the 4 of us. After a short rest at the condo, we took advantage of the location and walked to Piedmont Park. I used to take Scrappy to the dog park at Piedmont when we lived in Atlanta and the park was generally just always a beautiful place to go. The kids were brave enough to venture into the dog park (a fenced in area where the dogs can run off-leash and play) and try to pet some of the dogs. I also discovered that Piedmont Park has a playground for kids - funny that I never saw it when we lived here before, but since we moved away when Teah was only 6 months old, I never had the need to pay attention! I brought my new baby, Canon t1i :), to the park with us and took some pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, the upload speed of the internet at the condo is too slow, but I will for sure be posting pics when we get home. Robert took time off of studying for dinner and we ate at Everybody's Pizza with one of our great friends, Sarah. Overall, a great day.

Quote of the Day

"I'm not cranky because I'm tired. I'm cranky because you say no to ALL of the things that I want."

~Teah, 5 years old

Conversations with Carter

Carter is getting to be so big and has really started to be quite the conversationalist. So, I'm going to start a new type of blog entry called, "Conversations with Carter". This post is a video of a conversation I had with the little guy. I had no idea where it would lead, but it ended up being hilarious!

Smile!

This morning as I got into the van after dropping Teah off at preschool Carter said, "Mommy, smile!". I smiled and asked him why I was smiling and he replied, "Because I love you". He can turn on the charm when he wants to :)

Teah's Gymnastics Class

I took a few pictures of Teah in her gymnastics class back in November and am just now getting around to posting them. She has been taking Gymnastics at Kids Gym in Portage now for 3 months and she has a great time (as you can see in the pictures).

Quote of the Day

"This bowl isn't big enough to fit on my head anymore. When I was 4 I could fit it on my head."

~Teah, who just turned 5 years old

Teah's 5th Birthday!

Teah turned 5 on December 21st and had 4 separate celebrations. Teah celebrated with her preschool on the 17th (the last day of school before their holiday party since her birthday was over break). The Montessori birthday tradition is called "Walk Around the Sun" and is a beautiful way to celebrate a child's years on this earth. All of the children sit in a circle with a candle in the middle. Around the candle they place 12 different cards for each month of the year. The birthday child holds a globe and stands next to the month of their birthday. At Teah's school they have you bring in a newborn picture of the child as well as a picture for each of their years (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The candle is lit and then the teacher walks around and shows the students the newborn picture. Then all of the students recite the months of the year as the birthday students walks around "the sun". When they get back to their birthday month they stop and the teacher shows a picture of when they were 1 year old and then the months and walking again. This continues until their age. Then they sing happy birthday and the birthday students blows out the candle and everyone claps. Teah was really excited for her turn to walk around the sun and I was able to sit in the classroom and watch. Teah even decided she wanted to wear her princess dress for the occasion, which was big, since she rarely wants to wear a dress. Here is a video of the beginning of the celebration. I ran out of space on my card on my camera, so unfortunately I didn't tape the whole thing.

The weekend brought more birthday celebrations. On Saturday we drove to Flint and celebration Teah's birthday with Robert's parents, his grandmother, and his Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Dennis and their children Emily and Sarah. Emily and Sarah are Robert's cousins, but they are 4 and 7 years old, so they are very much like first cousins to Teah. We also celebrated Christmas with them and they had a great time! I forgot to bring my camera, but hopefully I will be able to get ahold of the pictures Teresa took and post them soon. On Sunday we had a small family celebration at our house with my parents, my sister Annette, her daughter and granddaughter, and a few friends of theirs. Teah has a piece of pretend cake that she plays with in her pretend kitchen and she told me that she wanted her birthday cake to look just like it except that it should have little Einsteins on the top. She also told me that she wanted a surprise party. So, I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and filling and my mother did an excellent job piping on the pink frosting to make the cake look just like its plastic counterpart. Before bringing out the cake and lighting the candles we had Teah go down into the basement. We got out the cake, like the candles, and hid around the corner of the kitchen. We told her to come back up and jumped out and said, "Surprise"! It was exactly what she wanted :) Teah has been wanting pet mice for a long time, so I bought her 3 for her birthday (sorry Robert and Leslie!). She has named them Uno, Dos, and Tres. We returned the original cage shown in the video to get a bigger one which is shown in the pictures. Finally, on Monday, which was Teah's actual birthday, we had Teah's best neighbor friends come over and finish off the cake. That night when I was tucking her into bed she told me, "Mom, I don't feel any different". :) Here are some pictures and video from our Sunday celebration:

Two Year Old Manners

Teaching a two year old manners :) I took this video in mid-November, but just found it again on our old camera. Enjoy!