1st Homework assignment

Darren had is first homework assignment last night. We had to get this gingerbread man ready for his first day of school. Everything was Darren's idea, we just helped him achieve his vision. It was very important to Darren that Mr. Gingerbread had "three buttons, three Mama, three buttons." So I gathered up a bunch of buttons and stickers of buttons, and he choose the three he wanted. That's how it went for the whole project. I think he turned out pretty good! But of course I would think that. This morning all the kids had their little men (or women!) out, and it was just adorable. It was neat how different they all were.

Friday is the day they are supposed to wear a t-shirt that supports their high school's football team, but Darren got his game jersey at practice yesterday, so he wore it instead. He looked so cute, I took a picture while he was brushing his teeth, I'm a multi-tasker! He has his first game tomorrow, Go Brazos Valley!

Mr. Gingerbread is ready for school!

Go Brazos Valley!

Kamryn's 1st Shots

Today was Kamryn's first round of shots. When I first picked her up, she was in her usual good mood, smiling and cooing. Poor baby, she had no idea what was about to happen to her.

This is Dr. Arlene Meyer. She is Darren's pediatrician also. We love Dr. Meyer! It took me three or four pediatricians before I found her.
Kamryn weighs 13 pounds, and is 24 and 1/4 inches long. Her weight was pretty average, but she is above the 95th percentile in her height. The nurse was new and didn't know what she was doing, so originally, she told us Kamryn was 37 inches long. I just looked at her, waiting for her to realize what she had just said, but she never did. I told Zach, "Oh yeah, Kamryn's 9 inches shorter than Darren." HA! Dr. Meyer did a double take at the chart and then remeasured her of course.
This is Kamryn when she is hungry.

Luckily, one of the vaccines, was a sweet tasting medicine she got to eat. Just a little appetizer before lunch.

This was right after her shots obviously. I was mad at Zach for taking this picture. Just like her Mama, she gets all red in the face when she's upset. This is only the second time we have ever seen her real tears. The first time was when she got her foot stuck in my belt buckle. Both times, her tears didn't last that long. She's a tough little princess.

All better! Daddy's little angel.

What a mess!

This morning started out as all other mornings have since I've started getting two kids ready for school in the morning. Me, frantically running around the house glancing at the clock every thirty seconds to see if God has answered my prayers and time has stopped for a few minutes so I can catch up with the rest of the world. Realizing that the earth is still turning on it's axis, my frenzy continues until the next 30 seconds. The rest of my family has learned to ignore my panic and goes about their business as usual. Which for my boys means eating breakfast and watching cartoons in the living room. Only this morning, there is a loud bang in the mix. The next thing I know Zach is in the doorway to the bedroom asking for the camera and telling me, "You gotta see this! But keep in mind, it is all my fault."

Hmm. You know how when you drive by an accident you can't help but look, even though you really hope you don't see what you're looking for? That's exactly how I felt as I walked into the living room.

Darren looks like he just lost a food fight. He is covered in fruity pebbles and milk. His chair, the floor, the coffee table...milk is dripping from it all. Double click on the picture for a better view of what I'm talking about. Had I had the time, I would have killed them both. Lucky for them, Kamryn needed a bottle.

Zach explained what happened, something about a poke in the ribs while Darren was stretching, but all I could think was how bad that milk is going to smell when I get home from work...

1st Day of Kindergarten

Mrs. Davenport & Darren
He's very proud of the GI Joe backpack...

Yesterday, was Darren's first day of Kindergarten. We couldn't believe it was finally here. Our DareBear, a Bowen Bobcat Kindergartner!
Of course, preparations started last week, with school supply shopping, parent orientation, and meet the teacher night. Shopping for school supplies was a nightmare. I won't go into too much detail but between the crowds at Super Wal-Mart and having to search at least 10 different stores for "primary pencils (fat size)" and still never finding them, it was definitely not the highlight of the week for Zach and I. We tried our best to make sure Darren enjoyed himself though. His favorite things were his GI Joe back pack that lights up as he walks, his transformers lunch box, and a spiral notebook that wasn't on the school supply list but had a dragon on the front.

Darren also loved meet the teacher night. For months we have been driving by his "big school", or playing on the playground outside, but he had never been inside until last week. He got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Davenport. Of the four Kindergarten teachers, she is the one with the most experience. Mrs. Davenport has been teaching since Zach and I were babies. The other three teachers combined experience doesn't even add up to her years of service. We were relieved that Darren was placed in her capable hands, we just hope he doesn't force her to use all her years of experience to whip him into shape. Darren was so busy exploring the classroom he didn't want to leave that night, but Zach assured him he would have plenty of time to check it out later.

Sunday night I was packing lunch and making bottles, Zach was labeling school supplies, Darren was decorating his school box with X-men stickers, and Kamryn was pissed at the world. She was just as tired as the rest of us. When everything was finally ready for the morning, and Kamryn was asleep in her crib we sat down to read the book Mrs. Davenport had given us, "The Night Before Kindergarten". It was a cute book, a spin off of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". At the end of the book, all the parents are crying and the kids say "It's OK Mom and Dad, Kindergarten is cool." This started a conversation later that ended with Darren asking me not to cry. A tough request.

Monday morning, Darren was so nervous he wouldn't eat breakfast. Usually, he eats breakfast at home when he wakes up, and then again at Daycare. He also was a chatter box, a nervous habit that he gets from his Daddy. Which worked out fine because I go mute and chew on my fingernails when I get nervous, and I was definitely nervous. I was so nervous I locked Darren in the truck when we were in the school parking lot. A quick fix, but not something he was particularly happy about. He held my hand all the way to his classroom, and lately he hasn't been wanting to do that. We got all his stuff put away in his cubby, and then he sat down in front of his name tag and told everyone at the table "Hi." I am proud to say that I didn't cry, at least not until I got to the truck. His first day went great, he learned how to say boy and girl in sign language. His only complaint was that he couldn't swing during recess because his class, "had to stay on the purple slides because Mrs. Davenport is the boss and she said." So I think since he already figured out who is boss, the rest of the year should be a breeze, right?

Ice Cream Drill

Darren (black jersey)

Football is still going great. Darren improves every practice, which is fun to watch. Actually, all the kids are showing improvement. This is most evident to me by the way us parents are acting. No longer are we on the field hovering over the kids, trying to help out the coaches. We are all relaxed in our chairs on the sidelines watching, and cheering. This week, the coaches have split the kids into two groups. The group Darren is in, is "the line" Zach tells me. The other group is everybody else, and I honestly couldn't tell you what they do, other than they run around a lot.

As of right now, Darren is the Left Guard. He stands to the left of the center, and his job is to protect the quarterback. Below I have a video of him during some blocking drills, he's the one in the black jersey.

Last week, Darren was a tackling fool at the house with Zach, even jarring him once, but at practice he was always a little timid and said he didn't want to hurt anyone. We tried explaining that they have on pads too and you couldn't hurt them, and I tried explaining he needed to hit them, before they hit him. Nothing worked. Well, yesterday on the way to practice Darren tells me, "Mama, Daddy said if I hit the other kids really hard today, he'll give me ice cream!" So I give Zach, "the look". He laughs and says, "What!? In high school we used to call it the ice cream drill." So as I'm sure you can guess, Darren did really well during the ice cream drill, and he got an Oreo blizzard on the way home.

Kamryn has been such a happy baby for about two weeks now, and everyone who comments on her when we are out and about says she is just "so alert". It is really great in the mornings when we go to get her from her crib, she smiles so big when she sees you. For me it is better than that first Dr. Pepper in the morning! I'm still trying to capture her smiling on camera, so far it has been like trying to capture a picture of big foot. I'll keep trying though.

Tackling

I don't have any pictures from football practice last night, at least not of Darren. While the kids were doing their warm-ups last night, the coaches were busy checking over all their equipment, making sure they were all wearing everything properly and everything fit. At first I thought, well that's nice, they realize a lot of these parents might not know how to do that. And I was right, about half the kids needed adjusting. But ohhhh nnooo. They had bigger more important reasons. Today, the kids were going to tackle. Yes, TACKLE! Not the tackle dummy, like yesterday, but each other.

Zach realized it way before me, he recognized the drill. They split the kids in half and faced the two lines toward each other. Zach is getting excited and I hear him, "they're going to tackle, they're going to tackle." As all of this is soaking in, I realize Darren has positioned himself at the front of one of the lines, and I hear Zach, the excitement fading, "Oh, I hope he gets to hit first, and not get hit." Then the coach raises up the ball and says something and Darren shoots his arm up in the air, the coach smiles and hands him the ball. Zach - "Ohhh Darren."
The little eager beaver had just volunteered himself to get hit first! So I look at the kid across from him that is about to tackle my baby... He is huge! One of the kids returning from last years team that, by the way, won the league Superbowl last year. Zach's excitement has now turned to panic, "the first hit is SO important!" and he (along with all the other dads) is up and on his way to the field. Anyway, the inevitable happens, "down, set, hut" and Darren is on his back under the giant kid. He hops up, chunks the ball back to the coach, and gets in the next line rubbing his butt, but otherwise unscathed. Exhale. Thank GOD! When it was his turn to tackle, he was a little timid, but at least he wasn't afraid to initiate contact like some of the other boys. On a side note, I'm no longer mad at Zach for buying that chin strap for Darren's helmet on his way home from work. In fact, I'm happy he didn't "wait patiently for the league to issue him one."

After practice, Darren is filthy and he has a scratch on one of his forearms, but the biggest smile on his face. Turns out he still loves football, and he's proud of the scratch on his arm. When we got home, Zach put on his helmet and the two of them practiced tackling and getting tackled in the living room. I only wish they had done this before practice, for my sake at least.

This football thing, is wearing this mother out, but I realize my baby is a lot tougher than I give him credit for. And despite all the worry lines on my face, I'm truly enjoying the smiles that are permanently plastered on both my boys faces.

So no pictures of Darren as I was too busy worrying and cringing, but pictures of Kamryn on the sidelines before practice, and later sacked out in her bassinet. She wore herself out cheer leading I suppose.

First Day of Football Practice

Darren in line during tackling drills

So Darren's first football practice was awesome! The entire family had fun. At first, I think Zach and I were nervous. Darren was pumped and ready to go, he was excited just to finally be in full pads. Once we got there we immediately starting having a good time though.

First thing is stretching. Imagine, if you will, five and six year olds in full pads trying to do jumping jacks and high knees.

There are 16 players on his team, and five coaches. Three of the coaches are players dads and the other two are younger guys who we were told were Aggies. The Aggies run the practice and the dad's help out. We really like the Aggies. They are very energetic and up beat with the kids, but at the same time are very serious about what they are doing. The kids respond well to them, and everyone looks like they are having fun. Darren told us after practice that if they are caught doing a drill during practice without the mouth piece in or chin strap buckled they have to do 5 push-ups. As a mother, I respect that.

At the end of practice they lined all the kids up and had them run a little bit. Darren prides himself on being a fast runner, so I think he was surprised when he wasn't the first one across the line. But his reaction to his first taste of defeat couldn't have made us prouder. He hustled back to the line, and got in three-point stance ready to go again. Each time they ran, he wasn't the first across the line, but he was always the first back to the line ready to go again. Zach said it best, "You just can't teach that 'Don't Quit' attitude!"

After practice he was still very pumped, "That was awesome!" Which I'm glad he's having such a good time because they practice 3 days a week, and have a game every Saturday for 8 weeks.

Football Fitting

Darren got fitted for his football pads yesterday evening! First he had to sit through a parent meeting , which for him, was excruciating. All he could say was, "when are we going to get my uniform?". Fitting him was a challenge because he could barely stand still he was so excited, but Mr. Ham was a patient and understanding man. I was nervous and worried, I thought the pads should be bigger. Kamryn snacked on a bottle in between cat naps, nothing bothers her. And Zach, well... I thought he might just explode with pride. For those of you who have witnessed him after the birth of our kids, that smile, that ear to ear grin, it was back yesterday. Darren wore his pads back to the truck and "tackled" every tree, metal pillar, and whatever else we passed, and Zach was giving him pointers every step of the way. They practiced his "game face" and he even dove into the sand volleyball court, the boy is convinced he is invincible in his pads. His first practice is tonight, wish us luck!

Big Brother

The big news of late for The Thomas Family is that we have a new addition. Kamryn June joined the family on June 10th this year, and there is really no way to explain how much joy she has brought to our whole family unless you have experienced it yourself. We will admit we were worried about how Darren would react. He was our only child for five years when Zach and I decided to throw him this curve ball. But I must say we couldn't be more proud of him. He is the best big brother. He is very protective and loving with his sister. Her first week at the daycare was last week, and Darren checked on her at lunch time every day.

On the way to daycare the first day, Darren was very nervous and had lots of questions. There was the question I always get from him when we are leaving the house, "Mama, did you pack her bottles?" and of course I had. (I'm not sure why he always asks about the bottles, because I have never left the house without at least one extra bottle in the diaper bag, but he will ask almost every time.) He also had lots of other questions like where she will sleep, and did I think she would cry. In her classroom, he sat by her in her car seat while I talked with her teacher. After kisses bye, we were walking to his class and he asks, "Mama, do they have a bed for her?" Poor guy, he was so worried about where she was going to nap! I have been taking Darren to this daycare for two years now and I know most everyone there very well, so I was very comfortable leaving Kamryn that first day, I didn't even cry. And other than the fact that they were amazed at how many dirty diapers our princess was capable of, everything went great. We will see how week two goes.

Darren has his first day of kindergarten in two weeks, I probably will cry that day. Zach and I are already proud members of the PTO at Bowen Elementary. He also has his first football practice and first football game soon, Daddy may cry that day...HA! But with all these firsts coming up, and us still getting used to life as a family of four, I anticipate life getting crazy, albeit in a very wonderful way. If I lose touch for weeks at a time, forgive me, and check in on The Thomas Family here whenever you like. I will try to keep it updated.