Congratulations Brian!!!

The time has come for Brian to say goodbye to the Atlanta Athletic Club and move on to a higher position within the golf course profession. He interviewed at Reynolds Plantation, a golf course south of Atlanta and Country Club of the South, which is right up the street from where we live. After what seemed like an eternity, he accepted the position at the Country Club of the South as the first assistant. This is a well-deserved promotion and we are so proud of him! Congratulations!!!

In response...

Perhaps my last posting raised a few eyebrows, and I must admit, that was the point. It did get me thinking about the safety of my own offspring when it comes to matters of his own innocence. There is a fine line between innocent nudity and pornography, and as an artist it is important to know the difference. Artists such as Sally Mann would be questioned more about her art in these times than she was when she photographed her small children nude in the early to mid-1990s.

You can go to this website to view all of the registered sex offenders in your area. You can search by zip code.

American Conservatism...

America never ceases to amaze me when it comes to its conservatism. This especially rings true when it comes to the viewing of the human body in its most natural form: nude. While searching for books illustrated by Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things are, this wonderful illustration of a young boy riding in a bread-dough airplane came up. This illustration is obviously not the controversial image to which this blog refers; but in the book, the young boy is awakened in the middle of the night and begins to float. While floating, his pajamas fall off and he remains nude for the vast majority of the story. When this book was first published in the 1970s, after the sexual revolution, librarians were painting diapers and drawing shorts on the boy in the book because some found a nude child to be obscene. According to Wikipedia, this book later went on to become #25 on the list of the most 100 most controversial books list because of the nudity. Now, I don't have a problem with people finding a nude child in a children's book as offensive. However, anyone with children know that most children enjoy the freedom of being clothes-free at any given moment in time. As a country that claims to have moved past the Victorian era view of the human form, I find that few Americans embrace how beautiful and innocent a child, in his most natural state, can be.

Watermelon!

Sing along to the tune of Frère Jacques!

Watermelon, watermelon
How it drips, how it drips
Up and down my elbow, up and down my elbow
Spit out the pits, spit out the pits!


Yes, I know I need to post a video of this along with "Where is Thumbkin".

Not the Dogwood Festival...

The freezing cold and the rain kept us from enjoying the Dogwood Festival a couple of weeks ago, but this weekend we enjoyed "Barefoot in the Park" in downtown Duluth. There was an artist's market, fun for kids and the local dance studios performed.

An entire tent was dedicated to children's activities. There was also a children's art show, which showcased some young local talent. Mason enjoyed making his very own fish print from a rubber mold and paint. He also got an airbrushed tattoo (but only after mom did it first). We enjoyed watching excerpts from the ballet version of "Cinderella" and a traditional Chinese dance performance!

Easter fun...

The Easter fun began on Friday night with egg coloring! I don't recall ever doing this activity with Mason, but he seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly! Of course, anything involving getting our hands dirty or temporarily dyed pink or blue is always kid approved. I think Brian even had a good time!



Sunday started off with a bang when Mason found the first of his many surprises left by the Easter Bunny (those of you that know me well must be surprised by my mentioning of the fictional bunny; but the media and other children seem to have won that battle.) After digging through the many eggs filled with tooth-rotting treats, we headed off to our favorite Chinese buffet – a Sunday afternoon ritual at our house. Don't worry mom, I did cook Easter dinner.




It was rather chilly on Sunday, but the inclimate weather did work to my advantage when it came to hiding the hard-boiled eggs outside for the hunt. I may have passed on hiding those had it not been cool. Mason is pretty good at finding things and finding Easter eggs is no exception.

Unfortunately, it was a little too cool to fly the lizard kite that was given to him. Hopefully it will warm up for next weekend! Tune in next week for photos from the Dogwood festival!

Swingin' in the Rain...

Mason's Easter present arrived a few days early and since I am no good at keeping surprises, we hung the swing the day it came in the mail!

Brian and I debated on whether to get a tire swing or the disc swing and since the only thing Mason wanted to do with the disc swing was throw it around, I am sure that he was correct in thinking about a tire swing. It was difficult for Mason to stay upright, but I'm sure with a little practice he will get the hang of it! He and I did manage to have some fun swinging together!

Praying for Rain!

Those of you that suffer from seasonal allergies are well aware that checking the pollen count, along with the weather, will give you somewhat of an idea as to how your day is going to go. The South, Atlanta especially, has been hit with the worst allergy season most have seen in years. A pollen count of between 60 and 120 particles of pollen per cubic meter is considered to be extremely high. The South has been hit with a pollen count of over 5,000 particles per cubic meter for the last couple of weeks. Dear, God...please send rain! Pray for us allergy sufferers as we are spending more and more on medications that make us sleepy!

What a back yard!

As most of you know, Brian and I rent a townhouse in Norcross and we love the space that we have; but one of the major issues that needed to be tackled was the yard! The back yard is in a low-lying area that is heavily shaded throughout the day, so growing grass really isn't an option. When we moved into the house last year, our entire back yard was filled with white rock. Now, being the parents of a very energetic 4 year old, a white rock filled back yard was not very practical or usable.

I am thankful that I have a husband that knows what to do with a yard that you can't really do anything with. Although I would prefer grass over anything, mulch was the next-best thing! It was so pleasing to see Mason outside with his dump truck scooping up the mulch and moving it across the yard.

There are also three retaining walls leading down to the newly mulched area which will be the perfect place for a vegetable garden. Brian is excited to plant his jalapeño and habañero plants soon! I am looking forward to fresh green beans and herbs. Mason is a big helper when it comes to watering the plants!

Just a friendly game!

Although this weekend was not the first time the croquet set has come out of the closet, it was the first time Mason was old enough to understand the concept of using the mallet for something other than hitting the ground or other people. He did quite well for the first time playing. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad Brian didn't have to work and was able to spend it with us!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Mason's birthday bash started off with cupcakes and a happy birthday song from his classmates at Kids R Kids. After Brian got home from work, it was present opening time! Mason had a great time opening the gifts and an even better time playing with his new stickers and toys. Thank you to Grandmas and Grandpas for helping us celebrate this very special event!

I had to giggle!

I was mindlessly surfing through my friend's list of blogs on his own blog and was delightfully reminded of something that Mason had said to me during our trip to Kansas at Christmas. As we were nearing the end of a dreadfully long car ride from Kansas City to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Larned, Mason awoke from a nap with the following, "Okay mom, here are your choices when we get to Grandma and Grandpa's; you can hold me or you can hold me." Trying not to laugh at his very serious request, I assured him that I would hold him when we got there, despite the fact that he would be so excited to see the grandparents that he would forget that I even existed, let alone need to hold him.

From the mind of Fernando...

Holy Cow this blog is GREEN!

Get ready! St. Patrick's day is near!

Just look at that face!

Yes, it's true. Our little boy isn't so little anymore! Mason will be four on the 26th and boy does time fly! Don't worry everyone, prints are on the way!

Also, today is Brian's 30th birthday, but he wouldn't let me take him to get his picture taken. I did manage to get this one, though. Yes, folks, that is a delicious Cold Stone ice cream cake....Oooo...Ahhh!!! I didn't put 30 candles on it because I didn't want it to melt AND I didn't want to burn the place down.

Happy birthday!!!

It's been a while...

We have a couple of birthdays to celebrate this month! Tune in next week...same bat time, same bat channel!

Oh! And Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today, January 4, 2007 is our second wedding anniversary. We have made it two years without killing one another! Cheers to many more!

What a busy Holiday Season!

Brian, Mason and I started our journey to Kansas in a most unusual fashion this time around! Instead of driving in rush-hour traffic in Atlanta, Brian had the brilliant idea of taking the MARTA (for all of you non-Atlantans, that is an acronym for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority – whew!) Boy do I miss the public transportation of Chicago!

Although carrying our baggage to the station was cumbersome, it was well worth the effort to sit back and let someone else do the driving to the airport. The other advantage to riding the train was the $3 a day we saved on parking! What a smart husband I have!

After getting to the airport safe and sound and traffic-stress free, we walked to the Delta kiosk to check in and to my surprise Al Roker, the weatherman for the Today Show, was standing directly in front of us! Oddly enough, he was the first celebrity that I have spotted while out and about in Atlanta.

Getting through airport security is no small potatoes these days and it went surprisingly quickly considering what time of year we were flying. As we were waiting to board our flight, an announcement came over the loud speakers that our flight was overbooked by 15 people. WOW! Since we weren't in a time crunch, Brian and I decided to volunteer to take a bump from our flight and take the $400 per ticket in airline vouchers and run! We were also put up in a hotel that was close to the airport and got free breakfast courtesy of Delta.

We finally arrived in Kansas City at about 1:00 p.m. on December 23. Thankfully my mother lives close to the airport and she was anxiously awaiting to give us all endless hugs and kisses like all moms do. The following day, she prepared a wonderful standing rib roast dinner with all the trimmings. Yum! After we were sufficiently miserable from overeating, Michael, Sam and Mason, opened their gifts. Michael and Sam scored mp3 players and Mason got a Leapster! Toys for kids these days are so cool.

Relaxing with my mom was great, but it was time to head on to the Fleske home in Larned, KS. Larned, for those of you who are Kansas geography challenged, is almost 5 hours from Kansas City. Mason was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa that he was about to jump out of his skin! He did manage to take a short nap on the way, though.

Now, Christmas at the Fleske household is not just a one-day ordeal. There are many many relatives to visit in a short amount of time and so Brian's Aunt Karen hosts Christmas dinner for anyone who can make it. Even after over 30 inches of snow, Brad and Kristen managed to make it in from Denver, and they brought their little boy, Logan, of whom we had not met yet.

On the 26th, Mark, Elizabeth and their three daughters joined us at Bill and Janet's. They have Madison, 4, and Brooklyn and Jordan, both 2. Luckily, Mason and Madison are best buddies when they are together. They all had a lot of fun unwrapping their packages. I was very proud of Bill and Janet for finding "flat" things that would be able to make the trip back to Georgia.



After celebrating Grandpa Steffen's 80th birthday and Christmas at the Steffen house, it was back to Kansas City to catch a flight out on the 31st. Mason does well at following directions, especially when mom and dad's hands are full of baggage, and followed us through the airport incident-free. He even took a nap on the flight home! What an ending to a wonderful holiday visit! Happy 2007!!!

Santa Claus and our family are coming to town!

Tomorrow is the big day! Our first visit home that wasn't work-related since we moved to Atlanta! Mason is really looking forward to Christmas, but I think he is looking forward to seeing everyone back home even more.

In other news, Mason had his first Christmas program on Tuesday night. I have posted the section of the program that he is in on the right. It was wonderful seeing all of the children having such a good time!

See you all soon!

Fright night highlights

Mason had the pleasure of trick-or-treating at my office on Halloween. Consumer Source had a big Halloween bash and candy was everywhere! I was sure that Mason didn't need to go trick-or-treating any more after all of the booty he got at my office, but my co-workers insisted that it's the experience rather than the candy that drives a child on Halloween. I have my doubts about this theory, but we went out anyway.
After dinner Brian, Mason and I ventured to Perimeter Mall to scare up some more candy. He did really well at saying "trick or treat" as well as "thank you" after he got what he wanted. He was a perfect angel at the office and at the mall. The reward? Candy of course!
We got plenty of trick-or-treaters at home as well. We had kids knocking on our door until 9:30. I was sure that my scary Jack-o-Lantern would scare them away, but it just seemed to attract more! I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!