Happy Mother's Day

About a year after we moved into our house I decided I wanted a big stately Magnolia tree in our yard. On Mother's Day Tony and the kids got one for me. Quite a ways to go to get to stately, huh? I decided that I would take Anthony and Alex's picture in front of it every year on Mother's Day to chart both the growth of the tree and the kids. I think I actually did this for a few years but I can't find those pictures. Here is their picture the first year. Poor wimpy tree....

Anthony and Alex in 2009 on Mother's Day.

The tree is getting much bigger - and so are they.

While I am showing you this picture with the weeping willow trees in the background I should tell you their story...

I had been wanting a weeping willow tree but am not very good at "starting" them off of clippings from another tree. My brother had gotten a "start" off the weeping willow tree that belonged to my grandmother's parents and was growing on their farm. Naturally, that is the willow tree that I wanted. One day Mammy and I went to get starts off of my brother's tree and we were sneaking to do it. We made Anthony and Alex think that anyway. They thought we were on a secret mission to steal his tree. We parked on the bank of his pond and Mammy showed me where to cut the branches from - we were all sneaky-like. We got in the car and almost made our escape when my brother got home from work. Mammy turned around to the kids in their car seats and said, "Shhhhh!, hide the branches yall have." They were trying not to grin and trying to hide their branches when my brother walked over to the car to say hi. Anthony spilled his guts!! "Uncle John John, we're stealing your trees!!!!" and popped the branches out where he could see them...

Mammy showed me how to plant them - we planted several starts hoping to get one that would live. Well, we got three and they are beautiful.

Growth Hormone Deficiency Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of Alex's growth hormone deficiency story go back a few entries and check it out first.

Okay, so we have etablished that she was 40 kinds of cute as a t.i.n.y. girl but she wouldn't stay t.i.n.y. for long...

Once Dr. Nickel's had established that she was growth hormone deficient we found out about the treatment. Which was a shot. Every. Day. How do you break it to an about-to-turn-four-year-old that she will have to have a shot every day for the next ten years or so? With a PARTY, of course! We planned a "shot party." We had everyone come who may possibly ever need to give her a shot, like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. And they brought presents. We had dinner and had cake and a shot. We had a nurse scheduled to come to our party who would be teaching all possible shot givers how to administer her growth hormone. She explained to us how the pen worked, how to reload it with medication, where to give the shot, and most importantly HOW to give the shot. Brennan and Sy look especially concerned...

The pen LOOKED harmless enough...

There was a brief look on her face of "what was that?", a few tears, and then she was back to playing with her cousins. Since Tony had to do the shot the first night it was my turn to do the shot the next night. I dreaded it ALL DAY LONG. I stalled, bargained, piddled, anything I could think of to get out of it - but I couldn't. It had to be done. I was dreading the tears, I was dreading making her cry every day for the next ten years or so, and I was dreading that betrayed and surprised look on her face again. I was miserable. She, on the other hand, hadn't given it much thought, and took it like the strong willed, tough little girl that she was and was back to doing her own thing before I could dry my tears...

Place Your Orders!

Just a reminder that Anthony is going to be doing some "truck farming" this summer.



He will have corn, tomatoes, and squash for sale.

He is working HIS side of the garden by himself - including running the tiller. He also bought all of his own plants and seed from the money he made from mowing the neighbor's yard. He INVESTED this money, hopefully to see a return in a couple of months.

What a great lesson in Economics...

Happy Easter (a week late)

What a beautiful day we had on Easter this year. It was sunny and warm and we got to spend time with both our families. 

Every year the kids have a scavenger hunt to find their Easter baskets. Of course it is a competition because EVERYTHING IS A COMPETITION and as usual the girls come out the winner. They are sent all over the yard looking for their clues, which are hidden in color coded plastic eggs. 

They are sent to the shed.

and looking around the trees...

and Holly won!!

When Anthony was looking for his last clue he was in the shed looking around the tractor.  He could NOT find this last egg.  He picked up a white garbage bag several times looking under it for his last clue.  What he didn't realize was that his last clue was actually the Easter basket inside this white garbage bag that he was holding.

Another thing they enjoy doing is the egg toss.  Since Momou and Papaw have an abundance of eggs that their chickens supply - we have to have several rounds of egg toss.  When Alex picks out the eggs, though, she gets a very small one for she and Holly and gets a big fat one for Anthony and Sy. 

It's all in the wrist.  And the hips.  And the soft touch on the catch.

Her theory with the small egg worked for a little while but then it hit the table and not even the small egg could withstand a blow like that.  

This was not a successful catch for Anthony either.  The boys started throwing them like baseballs.  I am pretty sure there should have been some bruising the next day. 

I do think Holly looks like Shawn Johnson, who is on Dancing with the Stars this season, but she may need to work some on her form.  And her partner.

Hope you had a happy Easter, too!!

Stone House

Over Spring Break Alex talked Momou into taking them on a hike. They went to a stone house that Momou had been searching for with her hiking buddies. Once they found it they were eager to take the kids to show them. To get to this particular house you park at Sugarlands and walk from there.

Part of it has fallen down but you can still see the mantle, the cook stove, and some of the framing on the windows.

Tom and Charkie went and took their grandkids, too.

Growth Hormone Deficiency, Part 1

The real reason I decided to start a blog is because of this little girl who is no longer a little girl at all. This picture was taken in the Spring of 2000. Right after her well child visit with her pediatrician - her great pediatrician - Dr. Booher. She was all kinds of cute. She was three years old and T.I.N.Y. Not that we were alarmed, though, she doesn't come from a tall family. You can't expect mountains out of mole hills, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and all that. Luckily we had a doctor who didn't write her smallness off quite so quickly. When she went for her three year old well visit he asked us to come back in six months instead of one year to do a followup on her growth. When we came back after this six months she had barely grown any. Most kids grow several inches a year and she was measuring in at less than 1/2 an inch in a year.

He referred us to an endocrinologist, Dr. Nickels, at Children's Hospital. The first thing Dr. Nickels did is order an initial bone age x-ray and a blood test. Her bone age x-ray and blood test indicated that there needed to be further testing done. That further testing was a grueling day for her - and us. This test was a 4 hour stim test. She was given two different stimulants and they tested her blood every 30 minutes for four hours. By the end of the four hours and eight blood draws we were all crazy! (Miraculously she did not cry until the last one - she had finally had enough). What was determined in this test was that she was producing very little growth hormone. Not enough to sustain normal growth. The next test they wanted to do on her was an MRI because this lack of growth hormone production could be caused by a tumor on her pituitary gland or a pituitary gland that was not formed correctly. The MRI showed that her pituitary gland was formed correctly and was producing everything properly EXCEPT FOR GROWTH HORMONE.

Happy 12th Birthday Alex!

On Friday Alex celebrated her birthday with a couple of her favorite friends (never mind that her birthday was almost two months ago) - better late than never, I say... She wanted to wait until the Hannah Montana movie came out and see it with her friends. On Friday we picked up Hope and Lendi and our first stop was for a manicure. The girls picked LOVELY Easter colors (blue and green) with some funky designs on their thumbs. While they were getting their manicures a man came in to get a pedicure and they thought that was CRAZINESS. He had his jeans rolled up to his knees and they were pointing and whispering and snickering. Never had they thought about a man getting a manicure or a pedicure. There must to be something wrong with him.

Aren't those beautiful colors??? They blended right in with the table at El Jimador, where we had lunch, so they had to put a napkin under their hands so their nails would show up.

After manicures and lunch we went to see the Hannah Montana movie. Loved it!! I love a day out with the girls. The only thing better would be if their momma's had gone, too.