Updated Pics

I've updated our 365 picture blog. I've actually kept up with it for 20 days! I added a link in the right column so you can click that link to go there from this page in the future.

http://minter365.wordpress.com/

Swim videos

Here are videos from the last 2 days at lessons. And just a warning - these videos are long.

Saturday's lesson. Usually his lesson time is spent crying/whining like he did in the beginning here. But on Saturday Tanya found something that he liked and his whole attitude changed by the end. It was amazing to see how his confidence level went up by the time he was done and he even jumped to Tanya. Sorry for all the loud cheering, we were really excited for him!



Sunday's lesson. He began the lesson happy and didn't ever cry or whine. He started pushing himself off the wall and off Tanya to begin his swim, which he's never done before. The progress he's made in just 2 days is unbelievable. I am so glad I didn't give up on lessons.



The 10 day forecast says sunny every day so I think we'll be finished before Tanya leaves on Thursday. Either Charlie or my mom went with us to lessons the last 3 days. I hope Zane will still do well when it's just the 2 of us.

Charlie asked Tanya what we needed to do to keep his skills up. She said he needs to go to the pool at least once a week. Yikes! Guess we'll be getting a membership to the indoor pool so we can keep practicing over the winter.

ISR

Last summer Zane completed the roll-back-to-float portion of the ISR program in 16 days. He hated it and cried every day, but he could do it.

Over the winter we didn't take him to the pool regularly like we should have and when we did, he refused to float for us.

We knew we wanted him to finish the ISR program and learn the swim-float-swim portion. There are a lot of options out there to teach young children. Most teach them to rely on flotation devices and give them a false sense of security in the water. They associate water with fun, games and splashing but do not develop a respect for the potential hazards of water. Only ISR implements a proven system that is designed to teach children how to save their own life.

Our beloved Fi (instructor last year) was not teaching this year because her full time job's schedule changed. The next closest instructor was in Seabrook.


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Yeah. It took exactly an hour to get there. One way. And we had to be there at 10 am, which is very early for Zane and I. He started classes on July 19th with Miss Tammy. And he's not finished yet. Over 2 months. The weather this summer has been very stormy and we've had countless rain-outs. Add to that the days Zane has been sick over the 2 months. And the fact that he was doing the swim-float part wrong and Miss Tammy couldn't fix it. Luckily we had the opportunity to change instructors when 2 master instructors in the ISR program came to the Houston area from FL and GA to train a new instructor. (instructor instructor instructor)
He's been doing better, they worked the weirdness out of his swim-float, and he actually had a day or 2 that he didn't cry. But this week Zane was very runny with lots of coughing & sneezing. Sounded horrible coughing all night long. It's been cooler outside, mid 80's, and I was really concerned about him getting too cold so I kept him out of lessons Monday through Thursday. I considered just giving up on the whole thing for this year because it's been so frustrating. But he was feeling better Thursday evening so Charlie and I took him to his lesson on Friday. And he did amazing! He's doing it all really well. He needs a little more oomph in his swim, but other than that...Just amazing!!

Here's a little comparison from last year. This is from his 3rd day at lessons in 2009. Fi was trying to determine if he was old enough to do the swim. The test was to get him to grab the bar and pull himself up. But as you can see, he failed miserably. Poor baby even got his head caught in the stairs the one time.



And this is Zane on Saturday with Miss Tanya.


What a difference a year makes, right? Tanya goes back to GA Thursday night so pray that the weather holds out the next 4 days and we get to swim every day.

Project 365

People have been doing Project 365 for years. I decided I should do it to help me keep up with this blog on a more regular basis. If you don't know what it is, it's basically taking and sharing a picture every day of the year.

Time moves so fast, especially with a baby. Now that Zane is 2, it's hard to remember what happened when. This year long photo album will help document all the small things that happen, not just big events like trips, parties and holidays.

It's suggested that you tell your family and friends that you're doing this so you have motivation not to quit. So if I haven't posted in a few days, I may need a reminder ;)

I'm starting from 9/11. It seemed like an appropriate day since one reason to start is people will often say their whole life flashed before their eyes after they experience a traumatic event. Plus on Saturday we visited with Charlotte, Tyler and Judge and got some precious pics of the boys.

I'll be posting the pictures on a different site to keep it separate. And the other site has an app I can use from my phone. I'll post links to the new site on this blog as I update it.

I'm still getting it set up but the new site is http://minter365.wordpress.com/.

New Addition

Don't get too excited, not that kind of addition. We have adopted another dog. Some friends of ours inherited her from their family and she just didn't fit in their home. Her name is Hannah and she's a rat terrier.
We had been thinking about getting Sadie a friend, someone she could play with and keep her company. We found out about this dog and decided to give her a test run. They aren't exactly best buds yet, but Sadie tolerates her. Hannah is very sweet and would love for Sadie to stop being a grump and play with her. She is great with Zane and is quickly learning to stay near me when he's on the move. She's house broken and will sleep on her pillow as long as she's in the same room as us. She loves to snuggle. She waits for permission to get on the furniture, which is new for us because Sadie grew up on our furniture. She's not great at following commands like sit and stay, but we're working on it. Her family said she wasn't scared of anything but brooms, but I've realized she is very afraid of cameras. So this is the only picture I have of her so far. It doesn't do her justice-she's really very cute.

Sadie will just have to get used to her because she's ours now. Poor little girl has been shuffled between at least 3 homes in two years. I hope she likes us because she's not going anywhere.

PRE-Karlee's Birthday Party

Karlee turned 4 at the end of August. Instead of having a party with her friends from daycare in Ft. Worth, she said she wanted Zane, Chloe and Avaya at her party. So they had a party for her at Grandma's house on Sunday. They rented a Princess bouncy and Charlie set it up Friday night before Rob and family got to town. It was really a 4 person job, but he did it all by himself, in the dark. You can tell how sweaty he is in the pictures ;) Of course we had to try it out as soon as he was done. Zane was nervous at first because he couldn't see it and had no idea what we were putting him into. I didn't think any of these pictures would come out because it was so dark, we could barely see while we were jumping.

He's become quite the litte jumper since the last time he was in a full size bouncy. Rob and Karrie got him this jump-o-lene for his birthday. (I can't believe I don't have a picture of him in it)
It's next door at Grandma's house and he spends several hours in it each week.

First Day of School

I can't believe summer is already over. Zane started back to preschool today at our church's program called Wee Place. He'll be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1, same as last year. All 8 kids from last year plus 7 new kids are in his class with only 2 teachers! Last year there were 4 teachers for 8 kids.
Ms. Heather is his teacher this year and Ms. Alisha is her assistant. Ms. Heather was a substitute last year. When Ms. Lindsey was put on bed-rest, Ms. Heather was in Zane's class a lot helping out. He didn't really like her at first but he got used to her by the end of school. When we went to 'Meet the Teacher' last Thursday he walked into his class and gave her a big smile so I think he'll be just fine this year.
I walked him to his class this morning. (After today we pull up to the curb and the staff takes him out of the car and walks him to his class. It's so much easier that way-he is so excited for them to come get him that he doesn't even care that I leave.) He was shy at first because there were so many kids and parents in the room. While I was talking to Ms. Alisha he realized I'd be leaving soon and he started to cry. I pointed out some of his friends around the room. Then I noticed that Kendall was laying face down on the floor next to us crying. Zane sat down next to her and looked at me like 'what is wrong with her?'. He started getting upset again right before I left so I told him he needed to go talk to Kendall some more. He immediately calmed down, walked right over and sat down next to her. And I bolted out the door! ;)
I walked in to pick him up after school and he was sitting in the bye-bye buggy. The buggy's for the 1 year old class so I was really confused, I didn't know if he wasn't following instructions so they strapped him in or what. Ms. Judy, his teacher last year, said that he climbed in all by himself after the younger kids left, for old time's sake. They said he did great and was a very good helper today.

Sitting next to Kendall.
Waving to me as I walked into the church.
He insisted I sit in the buggy with him. Those seats are so skinny - I didn't quite fit! Recently he hasn't let anyone take his picture so I was SHOCKED when he sat still for Ms. Gail to take our picture.

I'm so thankful we were able to get Zane into this program. It has helped him become so much more outgoing; he loves meeting new people, he's at ease with all kids and in most new situations. It was really hard to leave him at school the first 2 months when he cried every day. But like Charlie said, we either do it now or when he starts Kindergarten. It's definitely one of the best decisions we've made.

Sadie and Zane 'Sit Pretty'

Charlie was making Sadie do her trick to get a treat. When he tells her to 'sit pretty' she sits on her booty. Zane watched her do it a few times and decided he wanted a snack too. (the snack was NOT an actual dog treat)



I need to get a better video of Zane's trick. He does his hands now, just like Sadie does her front paws.

Only 5 days

until Zane is the big

Breann's Wedding

This past weekend Charlie's niece Breann got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception was a lot of fun. Family, friends, music and delicious BBQ. Who could ask for more? Oh! And wedding CAKE!


Zane and Deke dancing

Zane danced his heart out at the reception. It was very dark so we weren't able to get a lot of video, but you can tell from the clip below that he had a great time. And this is just one song. We were there for several hours and he danced almost the entire time.

Judge's 1st Birthday

We went to the Kelly's house to celebrate Judge's 1st birthday. I can't believe it's been a year already. He's such a sweet and happy little boy and Zane loves his cousin 'baby Dud'. They rented a jumpy house so we got there a little early to let Zane try it alone. He had a great time jumping while Charlie and I were inside watching him. He wasn't too sure about jumping without us, but when Chloe and Trey got in he ended up having fun.

It had just started to sprinkle when we got there, but it was still fun!

At first Zane was bouncing and walking only on his tip-toes.

I didn't stay in very long ;)

Zane had fun jumping ON Charlie.

Zane acting shy for about 30 seconds.

Charlie gave Zane a crawfish to play with while they were waiting to be cooked.

Fisher checking out the crawfish with Zane.

Trey, Chloe and Kamryn checking them out.

Zane had to take the crawfish with him to sit on Uncle Nathan's new lawn mower.

Birthday boy getting ready for his cake.

Happy Birthday sweet Judge!

Videos to come...

Spring Break

For spring break we met our friends Robert and Christina Reed and their daughter Kiley at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park in St. Martinville, Louisiana. We got there Sunday evening and stayed until Thursday morning. The Reed's friends, Danyelle and Ronnie, stayed with us through Tuesday morning. The cabin was awesome (with the exception of the refrigerator that didn't stay cold). It had a screened enclosed porch, a deck in front of the porch overlooking the lake, a deck behind the cabin on the street side, a ramp that connected the two decks and a pier. The best part was the gate that closed between the decks and the pier so we could basically keep the kiddos fenced in. It's hard to imagine it - but they could feel like they were free while they were safe from the water and road. Until they learned how to open the gate. But even then, there was a barrier so we could relax and let them run. And they RAN. And ran. And ran.
Monday we went to the kid's playground and looked into renting a canoe. Charlie left his contact case and toothbrush at home so we made a trip to town while Zane took a nap in the car.
Monday night Ronnie taught us to play poker after the kids went to bed. In the beginning Charlie was winning big (he has never played before) and Ronnie wasn't doing too well. Ronnie was so serious trying to read Charlie, but Charlie would just do whatever I did. It was hilarious. After hours of playing, Ronnie ended up winning it all.

Charlie with most of the chips & Robert showing off his hand and last 2 chips.


Tuesday we went for a hike. It started as a walk down the street, but we passed a trail entrance so followed it, pushing Zane in his NOT trail stroller. After about half a mile we got to an open area in the woods and took a break. Got Zane out and let him run around. After 20 minutes we started back but let Zane walk. I didn't think it'd last long, but he did so good. This was not a paved trail, lots of tree roots and other things in the path. Zane did an amazing job of stepping over everything carefully and quickly. I was amazed at how fast he walked. He usually has to stop to pick up everything off the ground, but not in the woods. He walked .4 miles by himself!
The rest of the day was cold and wet so we stayed inside most of the day.
Wednesday we rented a canoe and Charlie paddled us around for about 2 hours while we looked at turtles, snakes and alligators all around us. Zane didn't mind putting on his life jacket and he loved being in the canoe. First he cleaned all the sticks and dirt out of the canoe. Then he drug his hand in the water for the next hour and a half.

Robert and Christina fried the few fish they caught on Wednesday night and were sweet to share their catch with us. Charlie says he has never caught anything in fresh water (he gets a little mad about it) and this trip was no different.

Dance Dance Dance

Zane has become a dancing machine lately. And to him, it's a team sport. It started about a month ago. We were at my mom's house watching Sound of Music with her and GG. Anytime they'd start singing on the movie Zane would start dancing. And then he'd look around the room at each person and stare at them until they started dancing too. It was hilarious. After that night, whenever music starts playing he starts dancing and everyone around him has to dance too. And if you refuse to dance? He yells at you a few times, then walks over to you and moves your arms around for you.

Here's a sample of his dancing. Could he be any cuter?

Too Tall Zane

Zane is getting too big too fast!

First, this afternoon he walked into the living room and handed me his box of cookies that he got from the MIDDLE of the kitchen counter top! OMG - when did he get so tall that he can reach that far? The last time we had a check up he was in the 95th percentile of height for his age and I guess he just hasn't stopped growing ;) This is really not good for me at all. I'm so bad when it comes to keeping the counters cleaned off. I need more cabinets to stash stuff in.

Second, his bottom canine teeth are coming in finally. He's still missing 2 teeth on each side of the top and bottom, not counting his 2 & 3 year molars. We're looking forward to the day when we don't have to deal with the fever and moodiness of teething. These canine have been a piece of cake compared to his molars that came in last, he's been normal except for last night.


New bottom teeth poking through. (Yes, that's banana all over his face.)

Lastly, Zane has realized where his favorite stuff is stored. He knows where the raisins, bananas and milk are and takes us to their area, points and says his word for them. He's also saying more words and repeating more of what we say before he gets frustrated, screams at us and runs away. He 'saying' all done, please & thank you recently.

Grrrowl

From the time Zane could crawl, when something didn't go his way - we told him no, took something from him, didn't let him have what he wanted - he'd growl at us instead of whining or crying like normal kids. It was hilarious. After a while Charlie got tired of it. He said he'd rather hear whining instead of the growling. He eventually got his wish. Sometime after Zane's 1st birthday he stopped growling and started the normal whining that every other 1 year old does. This week, for some odd reason, Zane started growling again. Not just at us, but at other kids. Chloe played with Zane this weekend and I couldn't count the number of times she reached for something and he'd growl at her. But he mixes it up now, some growling some whining, so Charlie should be happy with that. I hope I can get it on video one day, but it happens so fast.

Open house

Tonight Zane's preschool had an open house to visit with current teachers, register for next year and meet next years teacher. School has been so good for him and he loves his teachers and class so much (now). We walked into his class and he saw 3 of his teachers and smiled from ear to ear. He played for a while in his room, then we went to meet his teacher for next year. She was very nice but the exact OPPOSITE of his teachers now. All 4 of his teachers are mild and soft spoken. The new teacher is very hyper and loud. Zane ran out of her room after 2 minutes of her talking to him. So, next year should be interesting. Hopefully it won't take him too long to adjust.
After running away from the 2s teacher, he realized he had the ark room to himself and went wild.


All alone in the ark


Made Daddy go inside and sit with him


She told Zane 'don't knock it down please'. But he did.



Race cars


Asking Ms. Ginger to turn on the monkey



Playing peekaboo with the ape & Daddy

Tastes like...

With all the rain we've been getting, we now have crawdad holes popping up all over our yard. Zane started noticing them and today spent his time outside tearing down as many as possible. After demolishing a few, he moved onto a new one. He sat down next to it, stuck a stick down the hole and...



It didn't even phase him when Charlie was manhandling his tongue. He was just happy to be outside playing in the mud.

Eventful Valentine's Day

This morning Charlie got up early and went grocery shopping alone-one of my awesome Valentine's presents! When he got back from the store I had Zane ready to go play outside. It was another sunny day and a lot of the standing water in the yard was gone, so Charlie took Zane out in the front yard (our backyard is still a lake). Lately Zane runs straight for the fire hydrant, he likes to give it hugs then see what stuff he can balance on top of it. Apparently today when he was running over to it, he tripped and hurt his ankle. We didn't even realize he was hurt for a few minutes but watched him keep standing up and falling right back down.

We took the camera outside to try to catch a fire hydrant hug, but got this sad video instead. This is when we realized he was hurt.


We took him inside and he kept falling down and started screaming crying. We decided to take him to the urgent care in our area to have them look at it. There was no way we were going to be able to keep him off it and if anything was broken we didn't want to take the chance that him walking on it would make it worse. But after about 30 minutes at urgent care he was able to put some weight on it. He figured out that if he walked stiff legged it wouldn't hurt as much.



They did some x-rays but didn't see anything broken. (Tomorrow the local radiologist will review the x-ray as well to double check) They explained that some times it's hard to see breaks in a baby's bones so if he's still favoring it in 7 days bring him back.

While we were waiting, Zane decided that the coke machine was a trash can. He'd pretend to blow his nose and then put the tissue in the machine's hole.


Two weeks ago Zane started grabbing us by the hand and taking us where he wanted, usually a certain spot in his room to play. It's so cute and we love that he's finally starting to be so interactive with us now. Before he always preferred to play alone, but now he's letting us know that he wants us to play with him and precisely where we are supposed to play. He can be pretty bossy if you don't do exactly what he wants.


He took a short nap after we got home, but woke up ready to go back outside. We took him over to the swing to keep him happy and off his foot. He hasn't been on it in a while so whenever Charlie would swing him fast (like he used to love) he would get this crazy look on his face like he was scared, but I guess he just forgot what it felt like.


This picture cracks me up. Everyone says Zane looks exactly like me. But in this picture I think he looks just like his Grandma Minter.

Avaya's birthday and swimming

Today we went to Avaya's 8th birthday party at their house. It was a beautiful, sunny day after the solid week of rain we've had. The kids and Zane played outside the entire time.


Zane played with the neighbor's dogs almost the entire time even though they kept barking at him.

Afterward we went to the Angleton rec center to swim. We haven't taken Zane to the pool since September so we were curious about his ability to float since it's been so long since we've practiced. It wasn't good. The first few times he just sank to the bottom like a marshmellow man. The next couple of times he would kick and turn to his stomach instead of his back. The last time he was finally trying to get to his back, but couldn't make it. He was very upset and COLD so we went to the baby pool area and let him calm down and walk around. After a while he was standing in the water alone (instead of sitting on us) watching all the kids around him and even laughing a little. After an hour we decided we'd better get him out and warmed up. When we got home he was stumbling around, couldn't climb up onto the couch and was constantly falling over. Guess all his muscles are jello-y from shivering so long.
We are planning to take him back to Fi this summer to learn to actually swim. We have to start taking him to the pool every week to get him back to floating and hopefully one day he'll actually like the water.


Climbing the stairs to the water slide.
He did NOT like the slide.


Sooooo coooooold


Charlie tried to spike his hair. Didn't work.


Watching Charlie blow bubbles.


Zane trying to 'blow bubbles'.





We walked from one part of the pool to the other and Zane did not want to get back in.

Up

We got home from school today and, as usual, Zane was upset when I brought him in the house. He was exhausted after school so I let him wind down before he took a nap. He was throwing the ball for Sadie and came back into the living room, grabbed my hand, walked me to his crib and said 'UP!'. I put him in bed, he grabbed his blanket and rolled over. Man, talk about tired.

He did the same thing last night too. After his bath, he was doing his normal wind down then all of a sudden grabbed my hand, took me to his bed and said 'UP!'.

Unless he's teething, we don't have a problem getting him into bed - the kid loves to sleep (definitely mine and Charlie's child). Most nights he'll sleep more than 12 hours if we let him. But he is teething now, which usually means I put him in bed and he moans/cries for 10-20 minutes before passing out.

Maybe asking to go to bed will become a routine? Yeah, probably not. But I'll take it when I can get it. So much easier.

new blog layout

Whenever I'd look for a new blog background I never understood what the difference was between a 2 and 3 column blog. The design was wider, but my wording never moved. I've been frustrated that my blog was so skinny - too much wasted space. I found this awesome website with directions on how to make your columns wider or add a 3rd column.

http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/01/creating-three-column-or-wide-two.html

If you only want a wider 2 column blog, you have to follow the directions at the top first about widening the 'outer wrapper'. I skipped to the bottom and couldn't figure out why everything was squished. (Make sure you back up your original template before you start changing it. I had to revert several times and was glad I had the backup.)

Now if I could just USE my blog on a regular basis. Maybe the new layout will be more encouraging?

BEST DAD EVER

I'm so blessed to have married such a great guy. Not only is he an awesome husband, he's an outstanding dad. But, I've always known he would be.

When Charlie and I first started dating, way back in '94, we'd talk on the phone all night. One night he was telling me about his niece that was visiting at his parent's house (Lori was 3 back then, Canasta night at the Minter house) and he was entertaining her while the other adults played cards. He was a 19 yr old guy and we'd only been on 2 dates. And he's singing songs, being silly and laughing with a 3 year old (granted, she probably busted into his room and wouldn't leave so he just made the best of the situation, but still). I remember thinking, this guy loves kids and will be a great dad.

Fast forward 16 years to today. Charlie's been asleep for a few hours and I just realized that a package he's been waiting for came in today. He had a late meeting at work tonight (I'll be glad when that project actually starts so the planning can stop) so was running a couple hours late. He walked in the door, past his package, straight to the living room to play with me, Sadie and his best buddy for a solid hour. Then he had to eat dinner and get ready for bed (4-10s suck, especially when the 10s turn to 12s). We're so blessed that after waking up at 4am, driving to Houston, dealing with the stress of work and unplanned meetings for 10-12 hours, driving 1.5 hours home through Houston traffic, Charlie still walks in the door happy, excited to play with Zane and not thinking about anything but his boy for the little bit time they have to spend together.