Favorite Things Friday...Video Style

I've only got one favorite thing this week and you're going to have to watch the video to see what my favorite thing is!






Check out Tiffany's blog to see more of Favorite Things Friday.

Vote For Owen~Updated

~ For some reason Owen's picture has been removed from the site. Adrienne has put a call in to the station and they said they are going to fix it soon.


My friend Adrienne needs your vote so she can win a photo shoot. Go to this site and scroll down for Owen and vote for him since he is one adorable little guy!

We're Movin' On Up

Remember the theme song from the TV show, The Jefferson's? Sure you do! Sing it with me...



"Well we're movin' on up (movin' on up)
To the east side (to the east side)
To a deluxe apartment in the sky...



We are finally moved into our new home in Abu Dhabi and it's a D-LUXE apartment in the sky! We'll seventh floor but it's the top floor in our high rise and for those of you that know me, you know I do not like heights, the rest of you...see exhibit A line 1. Living on the seventh floor will be a challenge for me, but one I'm willing to tackle.



Randy spent the past weekend moving all our UAE belongings into our new place and getting things set up as best he could. We have been looking for a new place since October and thought we found a place two different times but they never worked out. The real estate market in Abu Dhabi is EXTREMELY competitive and it is very difficult to find a place. We got very, VERY lucky finding this place and as they say in real estate...location, location, location.



Our first home in Abu Dhabi was a charming lil' seven bedroom, nine bath villa in the heart of a desireable neighborhood but there weren't any westerners. The neighbors were all Emirates and even though they were friendly, I couldn't go over to an Emirate woman's house and just hang out with her and her children during the day. The neighborhood did not have any parks within walking distance and we only have one car in Abu Dhabi so I was pretty much stuck all day long in the villa. To say I was bored was an understatement.



Our new "flat" as it's called, is in one of the most sought after neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi. It's a much more manageable 3 bedroom, 2 bath, living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen, with a study and maid's quarters. The rooms are really big and there is TONS of cabinet and storage space which is not common for homes in Abu Dhabi. Directly across the street is a HUGE children's park with many different areas for the kids to play. Across the other street is the Corniche, which was recently remodeled and runs for several miles along the Persian gulf and has walking and biking lanes, sugary-sand beaches, playground equipment and most importantly Baskin and Robins!!! The Corniche is a very popular area and there is always something going on. This past weekend they had boat races on the water in front of our flat. Within a half mile (and easily in walking distance) is a major mall with an indoor amusement park, grocery store, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Chili's, and a huge food court with everything from Papa John's pizza to Hardees. On the bottom floor of our building is a large grocery store, a Pizza Hut (blech), and a Starbucks. But the best thing is, there will be a lot more westerners for us to make friends with and I can actually have a social life in UAE.


The view from our balcony looking at the Persian gulf. Our balcony is HUGE and I can't wait to sit outside and eat breakfast or curl up on a lounge chair and read a book. Wait, who am I kidding, I have a two year old...there won't be any lounging in a chair for several more years!


This the the view from our office window and our kitchen window. Our kitchen is on the first floor of our flat and our office is directly above the kitchen on the second floor of our flat. Look how close the beach is!! I've already bought Artem 5 new bathing suits with matching rash guard shirts from Gymboree in anticipation of going to the beach on a regular basis.



This is the children's park across the street. It has several different play areas for kids and most of the equipment is small for the toddlers to use.


There is still lots to do in our new place. The previous occupants loved extremely bright colors and it's quite a kaleidoscope with the living room in deep red, the hallways in mustard yellow, Artem's room in grass green, our master bedroom in periwinkle blue and our bathroom's in pink. Randy has contacted some painters to come out on Friday and paint the place in one nice neutral color. I'm going to post some pictures of the rooms, they aren't put together, but I want you to see the lovely colors the place came in.


This is our living room, gotta love the blood red. The washing machine is not staying there and the tan paint in the background is a trial run of a paint color Randy was considering.





From blood red to mustard yellow. This is the upstairs landing for the second floor.





Master bedroom in a rather loud hue of blue.



Golf anyone? That's what I think of when I see the grass green of Artem's room. The bed to the right will be sold, since Artem isn't ready for anything that big.



I should be in Abu Dhabi the end of February and I will get right to work on decorating and organizing the new place. Oh gee, (placing back of hand against forehead) I'll have to go shopping for the new place. What a burden!! I will post "after" pictures once I get there and get the place fixed up.

Friday Favorites

It's Friday and that means it's time for Friday Favorites. Stop by my good pal Tiffany's blog to see where it all started.

1. I love, love, love flip flops and this week the weather has been really nice here in Central TX and we've been able to run around in our flip flops. My friend Melinda introduced me to the flip flops at Children's Place this past summer and I decided to buy a pair for Artem to see how he liked them. He liked them so well that he now has 8 pairs and wore one pair so much that he had a blow out. ("I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top"...little Jimmy Buffet there) We sat down for dinner tonight and I noticed that Artem's flip flops were a little "off". I don't know how he stands to wear them like this.

2. I love Artem's eyes. They are so pretty and I love how long his eyelashes are. The shape of his eyes look like Randy's and his eye lashes are long like mine; it's a good combination of mama and daddy.

3. My new camera strap is da bomb!! By the way, it's hard to take a picture of your camera strap once it's already on the camera. My buddy Tiffany sent this to me and I think it makes me look like a pro-fess-ional! Thanks Tiff, I love it!

4. I just love (insert heavy sarcasm here) practicing photography with a two year old hanging on me. I'm working on my Project 365 and trying to figure out depth of field and Artem was less than helpful when I was working on my shots.

Take One: Sorry mama, didn't mean to stand right in front of you.

Take two: Streak of arm in the picture.

Take 3: Streak of boy in the picture.

And that was a wrap, I quit for the day.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

* I did not get caught red-handed by the lady in the car next to me while I was doing my "kickin'est" air band performance to Pink's "Rock Star" while waiting for the light to turn green. I did not do the all-time-best air drum solo in the history of air drum solo's before noticing the lady was staring at me. And I most certainly DID NOT want to turn to her and give her the "rock-n-roll-forever-baby" hand sign and stick my tongue out at her like I was Billy Idol. That would be wayyyy over the top.

* I did not lip sync my way through the morning church service songs yesterday because as luck would have it, I got stuck between two women that I'm sure were former Broadway opera stars, while I'm the girl that was asked by her children's choir director to lip sync the words to the church musical because I couldn't hold a note to save my life.

* I did not cheer so loud, throw my hands up into the air, and wildly clap while my son was peeing on the big boy potty and encourage him to clap and cheer thus releasing his grasp of the toilet and causing him to fall into the toilet butt first with nothing but toes sticking up in the air, eyes as big as saucers, and a bum in cold water. No way, not me.

* I did not just type three of the longest run-on sentences in the history of my blog that would cause my college English professors to revoke all the A's I ever earned in their classes.

That's about it for me this week. Short and sweet because I was darn near perfect this past week!

Maybe Next Time

I've taken some flack over how much time I spend with Artem and how he doesn't spend time away from me in the care of a baby sitter. From the time Artem came home with us in April through to December, Artem had only been in the care of a baby sitter and away from me for 10 hours, total. And when I say baby sitter, I mean two of my closest friends and grandparents, they were by no means strangers. I'm not telling you this because I'm looking for the "Hardest Working Mother" award; it's just the way it worked out.

I never intended on spending 24/7 with Artem but after we came home from Russia, Randy was with us here in the states for a little under a month and then had to go back to UAE. We had planned on Artem and me joining him as soon as possible but the earliest we could get over there was the last week of September which left me by myself with Artem for 4 months. During that time I was focusing on building a healthy attachment to Artem so I didn't leave him except for a hair appointment or dentist visit, otherwise he went with me everywhere. It was tiring at times to never have a break, but I knew my number one priority was Artem and there would be time later for lunches with girlfriends and trips to get a pedicure.

By the time Artem and I got to UAE, we missed Randy so much and wanted to build on lost time, that the three of us were together all the time, except when Randy was working. Randy and I never left Artem in the care of someone else so we could have time alone; our priority was Artem and the attachment process.

December rolled around and we were in Florida with Randy's family for the holidays and I thought it would be the perfect time for us to finally get some alone time after 8 months. We left Artem with Nana and Pops and went shopping for a few hours. In the past when I had to leave Artem for hair or dentist appointments, he's never shown any concern that I was leaving or that I had returned. Quite the opposite, he literally shrugged his shoulders at me and walked off as I stood there waiting for a kiss goodbye and wouldn't even greet me when I returned. By December that had all changed and he cried big crocodile tears when he discovered Randy and I were leaving him. FINALLY! As much as you don't want your child to be upset, we knew this was a good sign on our road to attachment and we had reached a milestone with Artem. We left him crying with Nana and Pops and within a minute of us leaving he was happy and enjoying time with his grandparents. Upon our return that day we were greeted with a happy child that ran to see us and gave us hugs. We did this a few times while we were in Florida, always with the same results; cried when we left, then calmed down after a minute and was happy to see us when we returned. Last weekend I went to my sister in law's baby shower and left Artem in the care of Uncle Bill. Again he cried when I left and then was happy the rest of the time. No meltdowns, no problems. I was starting to feel like it was finally going to be okay for me to have a little time on my own and I might just be able to go for an occasional pedicure. Oh the luxury!!

Randy is back overseas and I am on my own again for another month until we join Randy at our home in Abu Dhabi. I hadn't been to church since Artem came home from Russia and wanted to get back to going but always worried about leaving him in the nursery. I decided this week that I had to get over that, maybe people were right, maybe I am "that" mom that obsesses about leaving my child alone when in all actuality, he would be just fine without me.

I left early for church today so I would have time to help Artem transition into the nursery before I left him. I signed him in, told them it was our first time trying the nursery and they gave me a badge with a number on it and told me that if Artem gets upset they would flash my number on a screen in the sanctuary and that would let me know that I needed to go get him. That made me feel better about leaving him. I barely got to say goodbye to Artem before he saw all the kids and the toys in the nursery and he took off for them. Phew, this will work, he's going to have a good time, he's going to be okay and I can be the "normal" mom that can go to church and leave her child in the nursery.

Church was great and I watched the little screen every 5 seconds to make sure #31 wasn't being flashed on it. No number ever appeared. A short time before service was over I thought I heard Artem calling, "mama, mama" but dismissed it as one of the voices that mothers hear in their heads when their children are not around. I was seated in the back of the room just in case I had to leave early but I knew I was still too far away to hear Artem's classroom.

Church let out and I immediately went to get Artem and noticed right away that he was not in the classroom. I knew instantly that it didn't go well. I wasn't worried that someone had taken him or anything like that, but I knew it wasn't good if he wasn't in the room. I asked the care giver where my son was and she explained that he got really upset that I wasn't there and another care giver had taken him for a walk around the building to try to calm him down. Now I knew I had heard Artem crying for me and it wasn't the voices; this time anyway. A minute later someone opened the door from outside and I can hear Artem in hysterics yelling, "MAMA, MAMA" and my heart just sank. The care giver brought him inside and I went running to him saying, "Mama's here Artem, mama's here." The woman asked if I was his parent and I told her I was. I had Artem in my arms kissing him and patting his head and trying to get him to look at me. He was inconsolable. His face was red and swollen from crying, he had snot running down out of his nose and he was shaking and crying so hard he couldn't get his breath.

I asked the woman, "Why didn't anyone flash my number? I had a number." At this point I was crying and wrenched with guilt for being selfish at leaving Artem so I could have an hour alone in church. She apologized over and over again and said she didn't realize I wanted the number called. What is the point of that procedure if they don't use it?

I couldn't get Artem to calm down. His little chest just heaved and heaved and he pushed me away with both hands yelling, "Our car, our car, all done, all done." I gave them the number back and left as fast as I could to get Artem outside. My tears were flowing and I cried all the way to the car, got Artem buckled in his car seat and sat in the driver's seat and continued to cry some more.

After a few minutes Artem stopped crying and I asked him if he wanted to listen to some music and he said, "Bus", so I turned "Wheels On the Bus" on the CD player and sang with him while the both of us calmed down. After the song was over he looked at me very serious and patted his chest and said, "Mama, Artem" and I told him, "Yes, Artem...mama and Artem...and mama will ALWAYS come back for you, I'll never leave you."

It completely broke my heart to see him like that and see him so scared and upset. I think next week Artem can go into the service with me. I'm not ready to traumatize him like that again anytime soon.

Before church, I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of my handsome little guy. I love how he puts his hands in his pockets. It reminds me of the JC Penny catalog models.

Photography Practice

I found out about a cool project that I'm planning on doing from Alexis. It's called Project 365 and you take a picture everyday for a year in hopes of becoming a better photographer. I haven't "officially" announced my project yet, specifically, I'm the only one that even knows I'm doing it, and even more important, I haven't begun to take any classes or read any books yet on becoming a better photographer and I haven't created a new blog yet to host the pictures, but I am doing this project. Details, details, details.

But you have to start somewhere right? Yesterday was day one and I practiced different settings on my camera and actually turned it off the "auto" setting and practiced some of the other nifty stops along the dial. Artem was my subject matter, did you expect anything different, and he dutifully played along while I pestered him for 15 minutes. I got a few cute pictures of him, but my goal is to stop taking "pictures" and capture "moments". I also want to try new angles and learn to take pictures that draw you in and make you ask, "How did she do that?" Sounds easy, right?

Today the weather was really nice in the afternoon and I lured Artem outside under the pretence of letting him ride his motorcycle when in all actuality, my intent was to practice my photography skills. I went out on a limb and put my camera on "manual" mode...GASP...and got some cute shots of Artem.

I think by the end of my 30 minute practice session Artem had had enough of my camera lens in his face and when I came in to upload the pictures to my computer I came across this picture.


Anyone care to take a shot at naming this one?

It's going to be a long year little buddy!

False Advertising

I'm just going to come right out and say it...I H.A.T.E. to clean the bathroom. I've got this weird bathroom cleaning phobia that no amount of psychiatric medicine can cure and when it comes to keeping the toilet clean, I prefer to do it with the least amount of physical contact between me and the porcelain.



I used to use the bleach drop in tablets; you know, the ones that are so strong you need a chemical suit and gas mask to drop them into the tank. After only 2 years in our then new home, the bleach tablets ate away at the rubber gasket flapper seal (I'm guessing that's not the correct technical term) and I had to replace both of them and admit defeat in that method of toilet sanitation.



A couple years ago, I thought I had the end-all solution to my toilet cleaning woes. I found this handy clip on sanitizer that was shaped and sized like a little, plastic dill pickle, that hung gingerly on the inside rim of the toilet and "cleaned and sanitized" the commode with each flush for 30 days. Pure genius!! Day in and day out I watched the product worked amazingly well, even giving it a little wink of gratitude along the way for all it's hard work, until one morning the little pickle could not hold on any longer and fell victim to a double flush and firmly logged itself into the bend of the pipe and before my very eyes, I watched my silent defender of toilet evil become a VERY big problem in our house. Even with my limited plumbing knowledge, I knew that when the water filled to the top of the bowl and a quiet hush fell upon the bathroom, I was in big trouble and either I was going to be paying through the nose for a plumber, this happened to be Christmas morning, or I was about to challenge Randy with his toughest Man-of-the-House-Do-it-Yourself project yet.



To make a really gross story short, I was absolutely FORBIDDEN to use any type of tablet, clip on, little pickle looking thing, EVER again on any toilet in any of our homes, now and forever, AMEN. (That was the cliff-noted version of what Randy yelled at me that day)



So imagine my delight when I discover that the good folks at SC Johnson came out with a new product that neither clips on nor drops in tablet form in the tank AND it cleans and freshens with a lemon fresh scent with each flush for up to 7 days. It even sticks to the side of the toilet in the shape of a dainty green flower. Fashionable and functional.

Well I'm sorry to say that the marketing department forgot to test one key demographic...a household with a potty training two year old that is obsessed with watching a stream of pee shoot into the water so he can be rewarded by flushing the toilet. (He's easy to please) Artem has gone from one wee, little drop of pee that will only fall to the toilet after he bounces up and down, to a full-on geyser of liquid. And he has to, "pee pee mama" all.day.long! Bless his little heart, he absolutely beams with pride after he sees his accomplishment but my new cleaning friend; mighty green florette, doesn't stand a chance against this toilet flushing madman.

I guess it's back to old school hand-to-hand combat with me and toilet cleaning, or else we need to instruct our financial planner to buy heavily into SC Johnson stock. But until then, potty training is back on, AGAIN, at our house and this time, with a vengeance. Give me strength!

Favorite Things Friday...and it's Friday!

It's Friday and I'm actually getting my Favorite Things Friday done on Friday. Do wonders ever cease?? Never mind the fact that it is past 11:00 p.m. and Saturday is only 1 hour away.

1. My favorite thing in the whole world right now is my new Mac lipstick. I am THAT girl with tons of lipsticks-gone-bad scattered in various drawers and purses throughout my house. I can never find the right color and I end up looking like a mortician applied my lipstick. While I was in FL I went shopping with my sister in law, Amy, whose makeup always looks flawless and she took me to the MAC counter at Macy's for a new look. I was a bit skeptical at first when I saw the two employees working the counter. Employee #1 was a guy with shaved arms, severely plucked eyebrows, and a rather thick layer of clear lip gloss. Employee #2 was female and wearing fish net stockings under her micro mini, had 4 discernible colors of hair, and the frostiest blue eye shadow that I've ever seen...it would have brought a tear of pride to Farrah Fawcet's eye. I went with employee #2 and to my relief, the lady knew her makeup and got me set up with some AWESOME new products. She promised me this lipstick would last all day long and it has delivered and then some. If you want some great longgggg wear lipstick go out and buy this product. Ignore the fact that it's 20 bucks for lipstick and splurge. The lipstick I put on this morning on the way out the door at 9:00 is the same lipstick that is still on my lips right now. It's that good, I promise!

2. Two year olds are my favorite thing, today anyway. I love how excited they are to learn new things. Right now Artem's obsession is bones. He points to different parts of his body and my body and asks me, "bones?" and I tell him yes or no depending on the body part. This has been going on for a few days and now he's moved on to our dog Bella and wants to know if she has bones. This morning he lifted up Bella's tail and pointed to the poop chute and asked, "Bones?" and I asked him, "Do you think Bella has a bone on her hiney?" and he replied, "Nooooo....(pause for serious thinking)...POOP!" Gotta love two year olds!

3. I love technology. One of the hardest parts about living overseas is feeling like we are out of the loop on TV shows, sports, and the news. While Randy was home we purchased a Slingbox and he called me tonight and told me it was working. Let me see if I can explain this correctly because it is truly amazing what technology can do nowadays. We have Direct TV in our home here in TX. The Slingbox sits next to our router in the office that brings the internet signal into our home. The Slingbox also has a little device that snaps on our DVR that sends a signal back to the box in the office. Randy logs onto his computer overseas and clicks on the Slingbox icon on his desktop and up pops our Direct TV right on his computer. From his computer in our home overseas, he can operate our DVR here in TX and watch any show he wants to watch. He can watch shows we have recorded, he can record upcoming shows, and he can watch live TV right on his laptop. He can even watch pay per view shows and it's billed to our Direct TV account here in TX. We took one more step and bought an additional piece that sends the signal from his laptop to our TV in the living room over there and Randy was able to lay in bed this morning (his time) and watch our 10:00 p.m. news. Absolutely incredible! I am so excited I could spit. This means I get all my shows like Desperate Housewives, Army Wives, and HGTV and it's all on the same exact schedule it is here in the states. No more watching season 2 of Lost while I'm overseas. It also means I can access all of our XM radio stations that are on Direct TV. This also means we don't have to pay for cable TV over there anymore which thrills me to no end since their programming is out of date and mostly consists of the National Geographic channels, old seasons of "Coach", and the BBC news. Gotta love technology!

I almost forgot, if you guessed that our sugar cookies were trains, you are correct!

First Date Jitters

After a great 5 week stay at our home here in TX, Randy made his way back to our home in Abu Dhabi today. I wanted to do something with Artem that would be a big deal and keep his mind off Randy leaving so I got out new cookie cutters that he hadn't seen yet and made sugar cookies with him. Artem loves to bake and cook and does a great job in the kitchen. I hope to train him well and make his future wife love me even more by making him such a good cook. Hopefully I won't pass along my talent for setting off the smoke detector when dinner is done cooking. Anyone want to take a guess at what our cookies are supposed to be? Clearly I need more practice in the sugar cookie category.

Name that shape:

Artem doesn't care what shape the cookies are, they just taste oh so good.

I've got a date tomorrow, play date that is, and I've got butterflies in my tummy over it all. I love being a SAHM (stay at home mom) but I really miss the interaction I had with my colleagues when I was teaching. I have so many teacher friends and I had a pretty full social calendar. April 19th, that all came to a screeching halt and now I feel a little isolated since my teacher friends are still working and I don't have the daily interactions that I used to have. On top of that, I am a geographically single mom at different times throughout the year and that means it's just me and Artem 24/7 without a break. I knew life would be different after Artem came home but I was not able to predict how much it would impact me to go from career woman to SAHM literally overnight. I love being a mom and I know I am lucky to be able to stay home with Artem especially with the current state of our economy, but sometimes I'm desperately lonely during the day and I want to make some new friends that both Artem and I can enjoy. I took action this week and joined a local play group and tomorrow is our first outing with them. We are going to a music makers class, which is right up Artem's alley, and I've already received several sweet welcoming emails from members of the group. I hope to meet some great ladies that have children that Artem can get along with and have fun playing with them and make some new friends. Now I better get off of blogger and go plan my outfit for tomorrow; it's like the first day of school and I've got to get my pencils sharpened and my backpack ready!

Not Me Monday

Not Me Monday from MckMama

*I did NOT lose my temper and yell gently tell Artem in my nicest, nurturing, sweetest mommy voice I could muster up, to stop pushing the number six button on his toy remote control over and over and over again while we were stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. “Six, six, six, si, si, si, s, s, s, six, six, six, six” that my friend’s will drive a nun to drink if she had to listen to it over and over again while stuck on the side of the road with her second blown travel trailer tire in 3 days. The FBI could drastically cut down the wait time for a confession if they employed the “Remote Control Torture” tactic that I endured on I-10 just outside of Lake Charles, LA.

*I did NOT turn a blind eye to Artem brushing the dog’s teeth with his new Diego toothbrush that Santa brought him while Randy and I were trying to get the travel trailer set up at midnight in the pitch black dark of a camp ground after traveling all day on the trip from Haites to get home from FL to TX. I also did NOT praise Artem for brushing his own teeth and staying out of our hair while trying to get said trailer set up after seeing him finish brushing the dog’s teeth and then put the toothbrush in his mouth. That would be gross!

*I do NOT envy all the mommies who were able to take Christmas pictures of their children in adorable little holiday outfits. That would be SO vain of me. It does NOT matter that I bought Artem the cutest little Strasburg smocked outfit for Christmas day and it’s still hanging in his closet with the price tag on it. And it absolutely does NOT matter that my only picture of Artem on his first Christmas with us shows him dressed in a FSU muscle shirt, mesh basketball shorts, and flip flops. Nope, I’m definitely NOT jealous of everyone else’s cute Christmas pictures.

*I am NOT in my jammies well past noon while watching DVR’d episodes of “Real Housewives of Orange County”. And I am certainly NOT chugging glasses of Promised Land chocolate milk and munching on kettle cooked BBQ chips while freezing rain falls outside. No, that would make me look pathetic.



*And finally, I did NOT publish my “Not Me Monday” entry a day late. Woo hoo!!

Favorite Things Friday...Late AGAIN!

Geesh, it's starting to become a pattern for me to be a day late for Favorite Things Friday. I should just change it up to "Sum it up Saturday".

1. One of my favorite things to do is home decorating. I really enjoy finding my "inspiration piece" and working a room around it. Six years ago we built this house and three weeks after moving in, Randy deployed to South Korea for a year (his third tour in Korea) and I spent my free time, which there was plenty, decorating the house. My best buddy Tiffany spent as much time helping me decorate my house as she did her own and back in the pre-kids day, we would stay up till 1:00 a.m. painting my kitchen.

It's time for a new look in the house so I went to Hobby Lobby tonight and found my new inspiration piece and I'm excited to gear up again to decorate. The fabric below is for my kitchen and I'd like to buy a new black round table and do a French Country theme. This is the table I've got my eye on but I'd prefer some Windsor chairs. Unfortunately for me, my partner in crime, uhm...partner in decorating, does not live in my state anymore so I've been furiously emailing her to get ideas. I can't wait to start!

2. Have I mentioned how much I love Artem's sense of style? I turned around for one minute the other night at dinner to get something and when I turned back I found Artem wearing his sunglasses upside down blowing on his hot black beans and rice. Clearly his fashion sense knows no boundaries. He wears his glasses everywhere and it always makes me smile when I see him wearing them.

3. Choo Choo Trains. My father is a train FANATIC and my whole life has involved trains in some capacity. I've been known to roll down my window when I'm stopped by a train just to listen to the sound of the train rumble by on the track and hear the whistle blow. Artem has caught my father's train bug and we took him to the train show today at the Mayborn Museum in Waco. He was so excited to watch the trains and kept saying, "Ho Ho" (the grand kids call my father Ho Ho, like he was telling us that Ho Ho would like to see the trains. My father gave Artem a train and they've been on train rides together in the past. It was really sweet of him to think of my father like that.

The Mayborn Museum was awesome and we had no idea they had so much neat stuff. Do you think Artem was interested in the gigantic whale skull?

How about the huge sea turtle skeleton?

Nope, he wanted to see the "Choo Choos" and got VERY upset with us when we told him we had to go and he couldn't watch the trains anymore.

By the way, the above picture of Artem is NOT one of my favorite things!!