Phone Dump

Time for a phone dump, I'd say!  No particular order and often no particular reason.

 No explanation needed.

 Field trip to the Children's Museum. 

  Got to ride on the bus this time!  Party!

 There was a "Try Hockey for Free" day at a rink in Sugarland.  That's Miles in the net and Dave shooting on him.

 Dancing.  To Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, according to our receiver.

 Posing like Steven Stamkos.  Imaginary hockey stick and all.

 Reading in bed.

Miles got mildly attacked by a medium, husky looking dog walking to the mailbox in our complex.  I was super irritated at the owner for not having the dog on a leash.  It was somewhere between kind of  and pretty traumatic.  Miles was already pretty uncomfortable around dogs, so the attack really didn't help him get any more comfortable.  Any time he sees a dog now, even if it's a little yappy thing, he side steps away.  We were pretty unsure if Miles needed to be seen for the scratch/bite he got on his elbow.  It didn't seem to break the skin but was raised and had a little tiny blood blister.  Having Dave be in healthcare came in super duper handy.  We pretty much walked in to the ER and had a little sidebar conversation with a doc and all agreed that Miles was good to go.  Thank you, Dave, for saving us HOURS of waiting around for nothing.  Tell you what, it's all about who you know!

 Eye exam/dilation.  Poor kid is pretty blind.  And he's 6.  Yikes.

 Museum of Fine Arts.  I dig it.  Miles did well.

 Torychy's.  So good.

 The last time Miles and I had to wait for Dave to count tithing after church.  He's a gospel doctrine teacher nowadays.  And while we are mentioning callings, I had been in Activity Days for a long time (like 2.5 years), but just got put in Young Women's as an Adviser.  Party on, Wayne!

 Settlers.

 Did I ever tell you that Miles got his tongue tied-ness snipped last summer?  Slowly, but surely, he's learning to use that disgusting muscle.  This is me, trying to show him how you can lick/clean your teeth.

 Building Legos in Dave's office.

We see rad cars in Houston all the time.

 Dave thought I looked outrageously ridiculous so he took a picture.  See if I care.  (I don't.)

 Sweet wings, buddy.

 Kite day at school.

 A night at the observatory at Brazos Bend.  We saw the moon, Jupiter, and Orion's Nebula.  It was cool.  Miles was excited about it because he checked out space/planet books all school year and had been asking me when he could look through a telescope.  Delivered.  You're welcome.

 Pool.

 Easter Sunday.

Scarlet Fever

Miles got scarlet fever over his Spring Break.  Nice timing!  Man, it was awful.  I knew he was for sure, hands down sick when he fell asleep on the couch:

Since he NEVER naps and avoids sleep like it's a disease (or a bee.  He really hates bees and, in paranoia, thinks anything that flies is a bee.  I chalk that up to the time he got attacked by bees and scored like 5 stings at once when he was 4 or 5.), I knew we were dealing with something real.  He had a bad sore throat, fever, diarrhea, a rash on his neck/face, wouldn't eat and threw up Tylenol.  I made him this "sick bed" on the couch and he fell asleep.  I kid you not, he woke up 10 minutes later with an immediate, "Huh?"  In typical Miles fashion, he didn't really know he'd been asleep.  I told him that he in fact had slept and asked him how long he thought he was asleep?  Two hours, he thought.  If only.

We aren't a super rush-to-the-doctor kind of family, but I remembered a mom from Miles' kindergarten class telling me how her son had scarlet fever and that it was basically strep throat with a rash.  So I immediately made him an appointment and sure enough, it was scarlet fever.  I was really glad that mom had shared that information with me or else I never would have even imagined it!

Since scarlet fever is so contagious, the Doc had us keep him isolated for 3.5ish days and I was constantly disinfecting everything.  It was pretty miserable since he's not a big TV kid and we don't have a ton of space, but we all lived to tell the tale!  The first thing Miles wanted to do once he was out of his isolation period was give us hugs, which he did.  He's a good kid.

Accepting the Parking Lot + A Bike Ride

Miles rarely gets to ride his bike.  You know, the one we got him for his 4th birthday?  For one, it's in a corner, trapped behind our dining table in the multi purpose room and just not very accessible.  I really don't have anywhere else to put it.  Well, I lie, I guess I could put it in the bathroom.  For dos, there really isn't a good place for him to ride it where we live.  However, this Spring, before it got too hot, I finally said "forget it," accepted my less than ideal circumstances (first world problems, I know), set up a camping chair in a vacant parking space and had him ride around in our parking lot.  It really wasn't the safest situation because there are not very many kids in our complex so drivers aren't really on the look out and are coming and going often.  But he stayed safe and he was happy.  Training wheels and all.

Concentrate.

In typical Miles fashion, he pretended he was in some kind of skills competition and had a certain "track" he followed.  As long as he didn't get too close to the speed bumps or parked cars, it was good with me.  I had the most awesome videos of him riding his bike and talking about his victory in the skills competition, but we seem to have lost them.  So sad about it.

Happy as a clam.

I wish I knew what this little series of photos was in response to:

Pretty awesome.

In the meantime, we all long to move on to a more family friendly environment and lifestyle.  Even Miles tells me, "I want to move" or "I want to live in a neighborhood with a yard."  I hear ya, buddy.  Someday.

Black History

Oh boy.  Miles participated in a "Black History Program" with his 1st grade class.  They had to memorize their parts which were, in my opinion, WAY TOO LONG.  But, whatever, I don't teach 1st grade. 

I totally cut parts out of his part to help him memorize it.  Gotta do what you gotta do.  He did great and while all the preparation and nagging from his teacher drove me bonkers, I think it was a good little experience for him.

Check him out and make sure you watch him at the end of his part.  It's a little hard to see since it's not too clear of a picture, but it's priceless:

Memorize It from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Avs Come to Dallas

We did it again.  We went to Dallas to see the Avs play the Stars.  We surprised Miles and pulled him out of school early.  We were dressed in our jerseys so he would immediately know what was up.  He was totally stoked!

 We went early, to watch the warm up, per the usual, and wound up right by one of the Avs' players, Matt Duchene while he did his little pre-game water drinking ritual.  You have to really be a fan to know he does it before every game.  I thought Miles would be totally beside himself being that close to a real live hockey player and one of the better ones on his favorite team, but he played it pretty cool.

Anyway, it was a great, exciting game.  The Avs won in a shoot out and Miles was super happy to get to be at a game that went to a shoot out.

Then we turned around and came back to Houston!  Miles slept about the first 3 hours and then was unbelievably restless and dramatic with discomfort.  I so wish I had it on video.  It was equally painful and hilarious to watch.  And he literally thought he hadn't slept.  He's so weird about sleep/never wanting it to be a part of his life.  He goes to bed great, but wakes up early whether he goes to bed at 7pm or midnight and would rather die than take a nap.

Anyway, go Avs!

CO + Hasta la vista Mom & Pops

Dave's parents are on another mission!  Old news!  They left in January and are in Chile this time around!  A few days after we got back from our Coeur d'Alene Christmas we headed to Denver to see them one last time before they left.

Sadly, these are the only pictures we have from the trip:

Cousins.

Grandma Great waving from her window.

And Greg:

Greg from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Love the Lawson family!