Info about Robert the Contractor

Here is a picture of Bob the Builder with Muck.
John has a plastic toy of Muck that he loves to dig with in the yard.



Here is a link to an informative page about Bob and his gang.
Click on the characters and you can find out about them. You can navigate from this page to the home page for games, activities, and other fun stuff.


Here are the lyrics to the show's theme song, which we usually sing at least twice at bedtime:
Scoop, Muck and Dizzy and Roley, too.
Lofty and Wendy join the crew.
Pilchard and Bird, Travis and Spud,
Playing together like good friends should.
Bob the Builder!
Can he fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes he can!
Time to get busy, such a lot to do.
Building and fixing till it's good as new.
Bob and the gang have so much fun,
Working together they get the job done.
Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes we can!


Here's the jazzed-up, full version of the theme song. These guys are the ones who sing on the TV show, but they don't sound as British in the U.S. version


Here's Bob the Builder, Mambo no. 5.
Very cool.

Miss Carmen

We all love Miss Carmen, John's morning teacher in the Ones' Room at school. Last month she was promoted to assistant director of the school, and today she told us that she will become co-director, along with Melissa, another teacher, because the current director is leaving to have a baby. We are very excited for Miss Carmen, but due to this and other shuffling she won't be John's teacher anymore. She will be moving to the Threes for the summer and then the Fours in the fall. However, that means that John might have her again in a couple years! His new teacher will be Miss Katie, who seems nice.

He will probably stay in the Ones' Room through the summer, so that Whitley his only other ones' classmate won't be alone. Which is fine with Tony and me, since that way he can be in a class of two kids, instead of the Twos' class, which has about 8 kids. He and Whitley sometimes get lumped in with the Twos in the afternoon anyway, so he gets the best of both worlds.

We sing about Miss Carmen sometimes, at John's request. She first appeared in the final lines of the alphabet song "Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with Miss Carmen."
Tonight she showed up in the "Five Bears in a Bed" song:
Five Miss Carmen's in a bed, and the little one said,
"I'm crowded, roll over."
So they all rolled over and Miss Carmen fell out,
Four Miss Carmen's in the bed, and the little one said..."
John liked that one a lot, and requested it as "Sing Miss Carmen Bear."
We sang it several times.

Wallet Found!

Tony had a voicemail this morning from the police station. Officer Smith found the wallet on the boardwalk at Abernathy Park (downtown Clemson), where we were on Saturday morning! The money was even still in it!

We are very relieved! We spent the last two days tearing up the house, interrogating John, and stressing out!

More McKinney Trip pics

This was bowling on our last night there! Lots of fun! I actually scored the highest! (Tony or my dad would have won if they hadn't shared their frames with John and Naomi!)
The first pic is my brother-in-law Mark and my Dad on their "bikes" following us to the bowling alley!

More McKinney Trip pics

These are from the tea party for my Mom's birthday.
Tony and John were gracious and unexpected guests.

Metapost

I have more trip pictures to put up, but until then, here is a link to my youngest sister Jessica's Just Another Blog, which has some pics of our family trip.

She is eight years younger than me, and lives in Clevedon, England, with her very tall husband, Mark, who is even more wry than my family is...

Our trip, part 3

More Zoo pics

Our trip, part 2

The Zoo, part 1

On Monday we took DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to the Dallas Zoo. Scheduling the rail trip was an adventure in itself, and Jessica battled valiantly with the light rail web site. But we finally got on the train, for an hour ride downtown.



When we got to the zoo, we discovered that they had pony rides, but we had to move fast to get in line before the pony stopped for her lunch break. It turned out pretty much like I thought it would, John crying "Daddy, Daddy!" as two equestriennes led him around the pony track. I'm very sad I only got one blurry picture of the whole traumatic event, but here it is:



John later found a pony that was more his style.


He also had fun petting the guinea pig and rabbit. The zookeeper was very impressed how gentle he was. All that practice with Keats paid off. Thanks, Keats!



We liked seeing the animals, and it was nice to have a larger variety than at the Greenville Zoo, but my love for the GZ was cemented, because at John's age, he doesn't need a big zoo!


I think Mimi (my mom) had the best time, because she saw landscaping everywhere that she liked and kept telling my dad "We could do this! Let's do this! This is what I want!" Which means that Pa (my dad) probably had the worst time, since it meant a whole new world of work for him in the future!

Our trip, part 1

We drove to Greenville on Friday afternoon.


We got there on Saturday afternoon, and then on Sunday morning, we hung out at my parents house, while John, cousin Naomi, Aunt Jenny, and Pa played.

We're back home

... in Carolina. More soon. Miss those of you we've left behind and looking forward to seeing those who are here!

The Big M

Here we are in McKinney, Texas, at my mom and dad's house. We are having a very nice time so far.
We were up early on Saturday to make the 6:45 am flight, and the hotel stay in Greenville went better than I expected it would.
The flights went well. I was able to change our seats to the behind the bulkhead on both legs and that made all the difference for me. You can't stow your luggage close, but John could wiggle and squirm all he wanted in the little well at our feet. The trade off was SO worth it. I hope we are as fortunate on the way home!

Middle sister Jenny picked us up on Saturday, and we went to her house. B-in-law Jeff and niece Naomi were out at the free comic book day (an annual Dallas event). John napped, Tony napped, Jenny and I went to the Colony Resale Shop (like Goodwill). Then Naomi napped, then we all went to a local park. Then after cramming all of us in Jenny's Jeep something (small SUV) we came over to Pa and Mimi's to get the Pennas settled and wait for the Horn and Vallentine regiments to arrive home from their cruise. After putting the kids to bed (after their dose of Maisie Mouse and Elmo DVDs), Jeff, Jenny, and I watched soccer, and Tony companionably graded papers. We whiled away the time by making various predictions about when they would arrive and what they would be eating. Tony stunned us with some very astute observations that revealed his knowledge about the family, but Jeff was the overall winner in the arrival time pools, in both the real-time and penalty-time adjusted categories. (Please infer the family whackiness hidden in that last sentence. You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure your family has its own weird rituals/quirky time-wasters that are difficult to explain!)

Jenny and Jeff and Naomi parted shortly after the big arrival, with sleepy kisses blown and farewell waves waved on Naomi's part. Then Mark went to bed, Pa (my dad) and Tony went off to complete the 26-step process to log Tony into Pa's unbreachable wireless network conglomerate, and Jessica and Mom and I covered the normal Horn girl topics involving reflexology, cruising, food, who said what when, household design, and other stimulating essentials.

Anyway, it's now Sunday morning. Pa is off to church, everyone else is asleep, and I've given WAY too much information about the minutiae of our arrival in Texas. Possible scheduled events for the week include a trip to the Dallas Zoo, a date for Tony and Juliet, a combined party for recent family birthdays and events, and bowling.

I'll try to get some cute cousin pics up soon!

FLASHBACK!!!

Tony and I are both suffering PTSD flashbacks to when John was a baby. The steroid he is on is whacking him out! He is MANIC during the day, and inconsolable at night! He is even more constantly in motion than ever, and any time he gets upset, he gets REALLY UPSET. Think Bruce Banner-Incredible Hulk...

Last night, we got him down about 8pm (late because we went out for birthday dinner with our friends), and he woke up at 9:30 and was not going to go back to sleep. We relented at 10:15 and went in there, and he cried for 30 minutes, telling us he wanted Daddy, he wanted to go downstairs, he wanted to watch Bob.
We took him downstairs, and he told Tony he wanted to go over there, then over there, and just cried, cried, cried. We could tell he was worn out (also because he cried through his afternoon nap), but would not or could not relax enough to go to sleep. So we turned out all the lights downstairs, and Tony started making laps through the kitchen and dog den. I laid on the futon watching them go by. That's what started the flashbacks. That seemed to calm John down a little, but he still couldn't really sleep.
Then we asked John if he might sleep in "the big bed" and he said "Yes," we put him and Tony to bed in the big bed. He dropped right off, and I left them to sleep in the guest room (more flashbacks).

When I wake up at 3:45, they are asleep in the big recliner in the dog den, John on Tony's chest (more flashbacks). I go back to bed, Tony sticks it out until 8:15am (he is a valiant man), and wakes me so that he can sleep.

Whew! We will definitely think twice, thrice or even quadice before putting him on a steroid again. Tony and I agreed today that we were very thankful that Nurse Susan had warned us. She said, "If he's hyper, he might be even more hyper. If he's aggressive, he might be even more aggressive." If we hadn't heard that, I know we would have made a trip to the emergency room last night! (even more flashbacks!)

So right now, the little angel is sleeping, he was SOOOO tired. Tony is off to give his last final exam, and I am frantically trying to take care of household tasks and work-work in these precious minutes. I have some qualms about sending him to the Growing Place tomorrow while he is so manic, but unless he's got a fever tomorrow morning, I think we're going to pack him off!!! We are also very thankful he's only on this steroid for 3 days!

Whew.