Random Acts of Art

Here are a few pictures of
Fletcher's handiworks:

Balancing robots (a gift from Amy for his birthday).
See! We told you he would play with them eventually!

This is a caterpillar. Just so ya know.
Except, Fletcher pronounces it "calepitter."

Long-lost truck.
We lose toys in the house,
then find them again much later
under the bed, stove, wherever.
Actually, sometimes I put toys away in a closet
and bring them out on "difficult" days.
It's like they're brand new all over again.

"Coin" Crop Circles:
The best description I can give for these works of art.
I don't know what inspired him to create these.
Unfortunately, our change jar was stolen
(see next blog post) so he can't
create these anymore.

End of Summer...

Hi, all!
As summer comes to a close, we're looking forward to cooler weather,
lower electric bills, and OF COURSE the birth of our baby girl!
We're due around October 17th.

Here in Austin, we haven't had a summer this hot
since the 1950's. And we're in a drought.
And of course, this is the summer that Sara was pregnant.
Yay.

Some events this summer:

- Fletcher has been partially potty-trained.
We had a potty party for him in July and he now
only wears diapers at night.
Still no poop in the potty, despite our tempting
promises of new toys once he does.

- Sara's job came to an end the middle of July.
The furniture store closed, with a plan of relocating
eventually. In the meantime, it's good practice for
the stay-at-home-mom thing. Bleh.

- Our apartment was broken into the end of July.
Two laptops, an external hard-drive, some jewelry,
and our change jar will never be seen again.
Two words: RENTERS' INSURANCE!!
It came in very handy.
Once again, our pictures are gone-
because they were on the external hard-drive.

Here are a few pictures from other events of the summer:

At "Willie's Place," a truck stop in Carl's Corner, TX.
First truck stop to offer the biodiesel fuel marketed by Willie Nelson.
These bull-frogs are supposed to be dancing...
Fletcher was not a fan.
He's crying in this picture.

Cousin Amber (Mary's baby) & Fletcher.
She's the best baby ever.
Sara & Fletcher went to Dallas
for Mary's birthday in July.

One of the only pictures where they're both looking at
the camera, and Amber's not pulling Fletcher's
ears/hair/cheeks.
She likes to interact.

We recently had a visit from Wes' brother, Adam,
and family (Yoko & Fisher).
They came for a week in August.
Fletcher & Fisher pictured in their matching UT shirts.

Trying to get Fletcher to look at the camera.
We were visiting the State Capitol building.
It's air-conditioned!

The "Splash Museum" at Zilker Park.
Again- air conditioned!
They have simulated limestone caves & interactive exhibits of
how our natural aquifers are formed & maintained.

Ride on the "Zilker Zephyr" train.

The "Fountain Park" a few miles from our house-
it's the best one in Austin.
Nice shade, chlorinated water, very interactive.
Here in central Texas, we are participating in strict water rationing.
However, the rules don't apply to recreational water parks. Yay!

I realized...

...that we had better start being more organized with this blog thing.

Some of you may not know that we are producing a new baby, due in October;
a sister for Fletcher.
Dilemma: do we let her share Fletcher's blog?

As for not posting more regularly, our computer crashed right after New Year's and we lost all pictures, music, files, etc. It was a blow, to say the least.

So, even though we still need to catch up, I do have pictures from
Fletcher's birthday party in March.
My friend Dawn took some of these and has them on her blog
(she's much more prompt with her blog).

Train cake! (again) This time we opted not to make it ourselves...

You think licking the candles is yummy-
try licking a Thomas toy that has icing all over the bottom of it!

Cake & ice cream on the balcony with friends., including cousin Aris.
We had four other children at his party this year, the most we've ever had.
Usually it's just our friends...

Yummma!

We're still here...

though I can understand why you might think differently.

Sorry we've posted so infrequently.

Fletcher is healthy and growing like a champ, as you'll see below.

Sara is still working at Zanzibar, and at trying to stay sane.

I'm going on two years at my job, and it's okay. Fletcher and being addicted to basketball and obscure music pretty much take up all my time.

Enjoy the pictures.

Our shaggy dude, enjoying his rice milk. He calls the rice milk "blue milk" and the soy milk "red milk" due to the colors of their respective cartons.

He was pretty proud of this "train". He started playing more imaginatively around this time, having little "conversations" betwixt various vehicles that revolved mainly around crashing and/or resisting crashing.

Eating a purple gumball. Once he sucks off all the nutritious dyes and sweeteners, he hands the soggy, misshapen hunk to one of us. How nice.

Uncle Sam reading him some books. Every time anyone mentions Mary, Sam, or even their dog Daisy, Fletcher says "and Sam's truck?", referring to Sam's remote controlled monster truck. A great memory and a one-track mind.

Hair cut #2! This is Jimmy, our new barber. Jake, who performed cut #1, retired from the biz, so I had to find someone new. Luckily, Jimmy's shop is about two blocks from work and he only charges half what Jake did. He does use a "suck-and-cut" though, so it's not totally perfect.

He went from cute, precocious toddler to handsome young lad in one evening.

Ladies, get ready to be killed.

We went down to the coast a few weeks ago, and spent some time at the Texas State Aquarium, among other things. He got to see Sea Turtles, talk to a Parrot, and even touch some Stingrays. There was a Bull Shark in the tank pictured above that frightened me but Fletch didn't seem fazed at all by it.

The underwater theater was a nice spot to watch the dolphin show, especially when we got to watch them poop. Definitely the highlight of any trip.

Trips

The last month has been eventful. Fletcher and I (Weston) flew to California for a week to see my family, while Sara stayed home and worked. Ideally, she would have been able to relax and enjoy the peacefulness of a house without boys, but instead she worked her little tushy off.

Then, after being back from Cali for only a few weeks, word came that my paternal grandfather, "Opa" as we called him, had passed away. So, back to Cali I went. It was a good time, considering. Necessary for closure and reconnecting with extended family - especially cousins. I spent the first night there scanning dozens of old photos onto my parents' computer for use in a slide-show during the memorial service. In the whirlwind of my trip, I forgot to get copies of them. But when I do, I'll put a couple up here.

The cool thing is, he got to see Fletcher, FinWe, and Fisher all together before he died, and that makes me smile.

Other noteworthy events in our lives: Fletcher saying "Yessir" all the time, Sara's work-mate Mark fixing our computer (thanks), new phones!!, discovery of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series, giving up red meat (new for Sara, going on a year for me), and the addition of 12 new pets - Fishies (named Bob, Thomas, Tank, Engine, Lofty, and Betta - with no discernible pattern or logic).

Some pics:

The three "Bo-Bos" (as my Dad would say) with our three boys. Precious.

Nathan and FinWe at Fairmont Park in Riverside. This pose captures Fin's attitude perfectly - he is an independent little devil.

Fletch at the airport, checking out the airplanes - they "sly up to the sky".

Uncle Eric, Fletcher, Neighbor Rosie, Uncle Dawasi, FinWe, and Uncle Pearce.

FinWe was breakfast and Fletcher was lunch. The diner was grandpa.

Adam, Yoko, and Fisher Wataru. They cute.

Fletch didn't like the beach much. Too bright. We forgot his shades.

We even built him a fort, but he still wasn't havin' it. What a baby.

Here he is laying down the law to FinWe on our first morning. Notice Fin's rapt attention.

Fin: "Oh yeah? You give me rules, I drink yer cup. What now?"

First Salon Cut

We have given Fletcher a few trims over the last couple of years,
but realized it was time for a proper cut.
These pictures were taken middle of June.

Sara has been going to Jake since she lived in Austin in high school,
and he cuts Wes' hair now too.
He also cuts Sara's mom & sister's hair.
So who would be more qualified?

A mass of curls.

He sat very quietly in Wes' lap and watched Jake out of
the corner of his eye. It was very cute. No tears!

Jake had a very amused smile on his face the whole time.

The end result. Very short!
But it's already grown out a lot since then- within a month!

Summer Time And The Livin's Easy

Hello, Fletcher Fans!! Sorry about the laziness- we have included pictures from April to June.

Let's see... what's been going on...

Meghan Casey came to visit us the middle of May. Yay and fun.

Abby's wedding was the end of May- so much fun and so amazingly beautiful.
If any of you are on facebook or myspace you can check out Abby's pages for pictures.

I'm sure I've forgotten several noteworthy events.
That's what happens when you only blog every few months!


Abby & Fletch on the yoga ball.

Meghan & Fletch.

Not feeling well and taking a rest.

Belly and crazy hair!

Playing with an assortment of airplanes, firetrucks & ambulances.

That crazy hair was cut soon after.
We will put the pictures of the first haircut on the blog soon.
He looks very dapper now.


We have more to post from July- Fletcher & Wes' trip to California, and Sara & Fletcher's trip to Dallas.
Coming soon!