Our Goin Life

If you are anywhere in the north Texas area than you know that the world was covered in ice this morning. When Andrew and I got up the first thing we did was bundle up and go outside to see. Check in our picasa site for a few pics of Andrew admiring the ice sculptures built by nature.

Start here. And click the right arrow to see more. There’s only a few, we weren’t out for long, it was COLD! But after some coffee and breakfast and a good round of tennis we did go back out and do some more exploring. We went all the way to our apartment park and had a blast kicking ice off the structures. I didn’t take pics that time though. Should have, of course, it was beautiful out there! Like a living ice sculpture.

Here is the video of us playing tennis though:

Well, the ice is almost all melted and that’s probably the only freeze we’ll get here in the north Dallas area so let’s hope it killed all the ants and fleas! Hope you all enjoyed your day as much as we have. Now back to The Wiggles, the saddest part, me and Andy may like it more than Andrew does! They are so fun!

This awful weather has kept us inside and watching Wiggles all day! At least it feels like that after about the 100th time of doing the RompompaStomp… I worry when my rambunctious 2 year old doesn’t have the space to run off all of his energy. SO tonight when it was clearly late and bedtime and we’d done everything up to brushing teeth and getting dressed in PJs when he started jumping from the rocking chair to the couch and back again, I figured I’d let him go a bit and get some things ready. Besides Paul T needed me.

So whilst jumping, I was bouncing Paul T and Daddy was working on the computer, Andrew stops jumping turns and looks at me and says, “An-roo happy.” I said, “you’re happy Baby?” And he goes back to jumping right after giving me a quick “Uh-huh.” My heart melted! I touched Andy’s back to see if he’d heard and he nodded and grinned. I said, I think I might cry! What a joy it is as a parent to hear from your child that they are happy. I figured after that I couldn’t stop his fun just yet!

Well, this was not the end of it. He stops again to tell me that Paul T is happy! Back to jumping. Then another stop, “Mommy happy, Daddy happy.” Then an announcement of, “Big Jump!” As he sailed from the couch to the chair and back again.

He wasn’t done yet though. He then lets us know how everyone is doing, “An-roo happy, Paul T happy, Mommy happy, Daddy happy. *big pause* Everybody happy!”

Indeed you are correct Mr Andrew! He got to jump and roll all over the couch for about 15 more minutes and fell asleep quite easily when I read to him.

It is so fun being a mother of 2! Our 2 boys are so alike and so different I really enjoying noticing all the little things that are unique to them.

They both have a hard time relaxing to go to sleep. Too busy.

Andrew had WAY more hair than Paul T. But strangers often comment on Paul T and how beautiful he is, and the same was true when Andrew was a baby. People still comment on how handsome he is!

They both seemed to start teething at the same time though Paul T seems to handle it a bit better. He still gets cranky of course but so far we aren’t losing sleep. We’ll see how it progresses, Andrew got one tooth a month starting about 4-5 months until he had them all except his 2 year molars. Now he has one of those and is working on another. He handles the pain much better now but he knows to ask for a popsicle when it hurts!

Paul is grabbing at toys in his exersaucer already. Andrew took much longer to even notice toys. I would often try to show him things and he had no interest in anything but faces! Paul also likes being read to which Andrew did not like until more recently. In fact he is just getting into letting someone actually *read* him a story. He used to just like to flip the pages or play with flaps in books. But books have always been a top favorites of his. We’re heading to the library today even!

Andrew used to be instantly calmed by Andy’s “Hey Song” and Paul T is not. BUT, Paul likes music of any kind much more than Andrew did. Paul prefers it when we blast the radio on hard rock in the van than Daddy singing Hey’s. Or he prefers singing an actual song to just the monotone sound of the Hey’s. Though at times the Hey’s do still relax him it isn’t as instant and consistent as it was with Andrew.

They both like to be held but I think Andrew is a bit more ‘clingy’ not meant to be taken derogatorily, I love it! He very much needs to be held and cuddled when he needs it. Otherwise he is extremely independent and would rather do things alone than be helped. But he does often want one of us nearby.

They both love the bouncy chair but Andrew loved it even more than Paul T. With Andrew we called it his pacifier! Paul T is often content to ride around in my wrap on my chest.

When we are out and about I have to put Paul T to sleep before I can get him to nurse now. He used to would nurse no matter what but now he is so distracted and into all that is going on around us that he will only nurse after falling asleep. At home he prefers to be in our rocking chair or the bed and will not usually latch on anywhere else. Andrew was an anywhere any time kid unless he was over tired, but then a round of Hey’s from Daddy would get him latched on! Andrew would still be an anywhere any time kid if I let him I think! He rarely chooses anything over ‘baboops’ when given the choice.

Andrew had a lot more bowel issues (sorry!) But it is true. He always had a hard time pooping in the mornings and would get so fussy about it. I had to help him by pumping his legs for months. Now Paul T had bad colic but that ended about 6 weeks old and now he poops really well and in the toilet! In fact he will hold it until we get home so he can go on the potty, he does not like to poop on himself or in other toilets and will only do so in emergencies. I wish I had known more about elimination communication when Andrew was a baby because I think it might have helped him and me! Not to mention our cloth diapers would have been in better shape by now!

And of course there is the eyes thing. Both of these boys have the same shape and color of eyes they got directly from their daddy! But Andrew had a fatter face while Paul T has more rolls on his arms and legs. Neither of them were super fat babies but they are a bit chunky and big for their age. We often get comments about how tall Paul is!

Here’s a couple of videos from the other night showing how strong Paul is and how Andrew and I love playing together:

And i tried to catch Paul chatting but he got cranky as soon as I started the cam of course!

Have a good day!

We have a budding photographer on our hands!  Andrew loves taking the camera and taking pictures of what he sees and likes.  It’s been funny for a while and Andy and I have enjoyed looking at the world from his point of view.  I’ve even put some pics he’s taken of Paul T up on our picasa site.  But I decided it was time to showcase his talents on his own so I made a new folder on our picasa albums for Andrew’s pics.  I generalized it because we also let his friends take pictures and someday I am sure Paul T will play with the camera too.  Here’s the link in case you hadn’t noticed it there already and it will be updated as regularly as the most recent month because he takes pics almost every time I do!

Kids View

This beautiful photo was taken and artistically altered by Debbie Stegman.  Her and my mother attend the same church.  They have been acquaintances for a while but became closer recently through a Bible study class they attend together.  Debbie is a budding photographer.  She came to our home and set up a lot of equipment all very pro and took shots of us all.  Tonight she is bringing us the CD with all the photos but you can see some of them on our picasa site in the December folder.  After we get them all I may make a new folder for them.  I will make another post about it if I do.

I love this art design.  It reminds me of Harry Potter!

So if you live in the north Dallas and Denton area be on the lookout for a new up and coming portrait photographer!  When she gets a website going, probably and hopefully with Andy’s assitance, we will post a link to that also.

Welcome one and all to our new blog!  There’s a few enhancements here and some things that might take a bit to get used to but hold on tight and we’ll get you fixed right up and on the ball.  First of all, you’ll notice the new website address is a bit easier to remember.  No more thegoinchronicles.blogspot.com, simply ourgoinlife.com will do!  It’s about time we made this step after writing and updating for what.. 2 years now?

Other changes include a new About Us section which just talks a bit about us and what this blog is all about.  There are also some new tabs to the left of each post, one showing the date, and the lower tab showing how many comments each post has.  That’s right!  You can comment on our posts quite easily and we highly encourage you to do so, especially on the posts with Paul T and Andrew in them as they are simply adorable.

You’ll also notice the archives going all the way back to February 2006 on the right over there —> as well as a Categories section that we will be updating with new categories of posts including videos, pictures, etc.  This will allow you to click on say the “Pictures” category and see nothing but posts we’ve made starting today that will be only posts with pictures in them.

At the bottom of the list on the right, you’ll see a Fave Links section and if anyone that reads would like to share their websites or ones they enjoy witht he rest of the family and friends that read, drop us a line here and I will get it added for sure.  Right now, it’s just got our link to our website decelopment business there and it sure looks lonely.

Ok, friends and family, we love you all and thank you for staying tuned, staying in touch, and we hope to see you soon!

Well well, another Sunday and today is a very nice one! The weather lately has been very cold but today it seems to have warmed up a bit to a balmy 65 or so. We’re about to head to the square for a bit but I wanted to make a post talking about the past week and what we’ve found enjoyable in our lives.

Paul is really starting to roll around now, as a matter of fact I just now while typing this noticed him trying to roll under my chair. He seems surprised he pulled it off! He’s so funny and he has this ring of hair around the back of his head that didn’t get rubbed off or fell out with the rest and I tell Lea I can get the clippers to trim it to match the rest, but I don’t think she’s up for that.

Andrew is just as crazy as always but we’re so proud of him for being potty trained for the most part nowadays. He’s doing very well for a 2 year old, wearing but underwear and pants during the day and a diaper at night in case he wets the bed. He’s doing very well in many aspects and we’re working one on one with him on the places he could use assistance in his growth.

We got our van back out of the shop and it was something relatively minor. We also found a reputable mechanic we can trust here in Denton which is good. They did a great job at a very fair price over at Tommy’s Auto Shop so if you’re looking for someone good, check them out. The van runs like a champ now which is good as we find ourselves driving quite a bit with the kids. Thank you for all of your kind words and positive thoughts with that.

Business wise, we’ve updated our website for the business with some of our most recent clients and we have about 4 new ones to add now and we’re working on wrapping up about 4 more. We’re in a good place with our business as it’s not only something we enjoy doing, but it keeps us close to each other and happens to pay well enough to allow us to live with a focus on each other. The recession in the current economy hasn’t affected us that much really as we’ve had plenty of clients that have recently started their own small businesses which is great. We keep our pricing very affordable for our clients so if you ever need a small business website..

As far as family goes, we’ve had Lea’s mother Sarah over this past week which was very nice. She brought food for us to enjoy with her and it was just a good, positive experience like always. She’s very peaceful and continues to be a guiding light for us in many areas in life. Andrew also loves her very much so they get some good time together.

We also got to see our cousin Lori who came over with our other cousin Matt. We cooked a whole chicken and got to enjoy that and their company. We have a few things in common including tinkering with electronics and computers and we enjoyed watching a few videos on how to build antennas and such.

If you’ve seen the past post with videos from Lea, you’d also notice we got to spend time with my Dad recently which has been long overdue. He’s someone that I never spent much time and energy being close to and it’s good that we are getting the opportunity now. Our transportation was a hindrance before as he lives about 20 miles out on a gravel road, but our minivan can handle it now. We plan on going camping on his farm very soon as I think it’s important for Andrew and Paul to get a taste of the outdoors and natural settings and Lea and I will enjoy the environments as well. I will also be helping my Dad with some farm hand areas if he’ll have me like building fences, armadillo hunting, working cattle and more. I used to do this when I stayed with him in the past and it taught me alot about many subjects. Hunting armadillo may sound like something cruel, but the fact is they run wild in the fields and dig holes in them big enough for a horse or other livestock to get their hoofs stuck in. Which isn’t a problem if they are just moseying around, but you can imagine the damage that can be inflicted on a 2000lb cow running through a field and suddenly gets his leg caught in such a hole. It can break it quite easily and you can also probably imagine what would happen if you’re on a horse running through a field and this occurs. It’s just dangerous all around to have those holes being dug and one thing you need to manage.

As for friends, we’ve recently seen our friends Ken and Angie, Samika and Patrick, and even met some new ones through our parenting groups. It’s always great to be around them and enjoy their presence and we can’t wait to meet more and spend time with them. We’re also making new acquaintances through our new church we attend. We just got back from church a bit ago and today’s “sermon” revolved around Martin Luther King and how he relates to our new President Obama who will be taking office in what.. 2 days? We live in exciting times for sure and it will be interesting to see how things go with fresh faces and outlooks in the White House.

Ok, I’ve probably rambled on long enough, I think I can hear the “wrap it up” music like they play at the award shows on TV so I will wish you all the best and if you’ve read this far, I give it to you. Much love always,

- Andy, Lea, Paul, and Andrew

This is Lea but it will show up as Andy writing because I have to be logged in as him to do the videos now.

We went to visit Andy’s dad, Paul, one day this past week. It has finally occurred to us that this will be a visit we need to make much more often for the sake of our son. He adores it out there. Andrew has so much safe space to run and play. He has dubbed Paul Pa Pa because he couldn’t say Grandpa the last time we saw him and Pa Pa is very happy with this I think! Andrew does his usual, grabbing him by the hand to coax him to come play and calls for his Pa Pa from another room. Andrew also has a thing about going potty when he is with another family member where he prefers them to help him over me or Daddy so Pa Pa got the honors of helping get pants down and wiping a bottom when the time came! Poor Pa Pa! lol He handled it well, and we thought it was super cute. **Side story – Andrew did the same thing to cousin Lori when she came over for dinner a couple of nights ago! Poor Lori!

The visit was far too short for Andrew’s tastes. He would have rather us stayed a week I think! Paul T did OK out there too. He was able to nap in his bouncy and in the wrap next to mommy. He can’t always sleep well when we are out and about. i think he is sensitive to stress and distraction and though there was some distraction, there is a lot of peace on the farm. It made me long to live in the country! We’ll have to see about that, I am not quite organized enough i think! lol

Pa Pa took Andrew out for a ride in the tractor. We have a few videos but you can’t get a good enough look at Andrew’s face. Let me assure you it was an ear to ear grin!

Here’s one of general running around and playing outside. You can see Paul T asleep in the wrap, he missed most of the visit!

Here is Pa Pa helping Andrew to pet one of their horses. Andrew had much more confidence around the horse with Pa Pa holding him.

Lorna, Ner is what Andrew calls her, also took Andrew and I out to feed the horses later. i didn’t get any video of that but Andrew wasn’t as confident but thought it was very cool.

We think that next time we need to stay over night. Andrew did not want to leave when we left! He slept all the way home and then woke up when we got here and couldn’t get to sleep for hours. he wasn’t wound up and running around, he was relaxing and kind of processing it all. It was a lot to take in. We had gone for a ride around the farm in the big truck to see all the cows and crops and the shooting range. They have some fascinating old, super old cemeteries out there that when the weather is better I want to spend a few hours checking out. They have some great spots for camping and someday this spring we will take the boys and a tent and camp out! Maybe even get some of the other Goin cousins to join us, we’ve been talking about a family camp out for years!

Pa Pa and Ner were doing well also. They have lost some crops on the farm due to lack of rain and that is a major bummer but they are looking at getting some more cattle to make up the difference. Ner is a teacher and things are as usual for her. Pa Pa’s railroad job is going OK but they are over working him – 11 days on and 4 days off instead of the usual 8 on 7 off. It will make timing visits difficult if they don’t go back to the 8 and 7 that’s for sure! He has a lot of work to do around their land, but Andy has volunteered to help with some things, like fence building when the time comes.

It was such a wonderful day! And like I said it really makes me want to consider getting a small plot of land and moving out of the city again! I lack the organization for that at this time. But I feel it is calling us. Andy feels it too. Andrew was totally in his element out there and if we don’t go too far we can still be close to our new church and new friends we have here in town. This year a goal of ours is to start looking at what we need to do and get in line for a house situation and that is one of the options. So we shall see!

Hope this finds you all well and happy this beautiful Sunday. Get out there and enjoy some weather today people!!

OK, it’s never a boring day around here! The van is officially fixed and well but in the interim we had to vehicle and were stuck here all day. It’s so funny how staying home all day is fun until you HAVE to do it. We did get out and take a looong walk that wore Andrew out to the point he was asleep by 6pm that night. But I took a few videos of our ordinary day at home. Hope you enjoy!

Breakfast:

Daddy playing with Paul T, usually Paul gets to laughing so hard but of course he didn’t for the camera! I’ll catch it someday…

Just a small example of the fun we have around here!

Hope you have such wonderful ‘boring’ days as we do!

Nothing major to discuss, but there are a few interesting things I wanted to talk about and thought maybe I could do this once a week. A sort of “Sunday Ramblings” type of thing!

First off, the church we attend. The church we attend is called a Unitarian Universalist church and is different than a non-denominational church in the sense that denominations refer to branches of Christianity and this church not only encompasses Christianity, but any religion out there. Pagans, Buddhists, Christians, Mormons, Muslims, Scientologists even, they are all welcome to join on Sundays and share with the learning experience within. It’s less about preaching one way to live and more about embracing life itself and enjoying the variety life has to offer. Each week has a different “topic” of sorts and it’s essentially what most have come to know as a “sermon”. Last week, the 1st Sunday of 2009, they discussed what went right in 2008 for everyone and had each of the members that attended pondering their lives from 2008 and what they enjoyed. Everyone can come up with things that went wrong and to varying degrees, but nonetheless there still had to be *something* positive. Our 2008 was full of positive times ranging from becoming closer to family and friends to having a baby, moving, a successful year for our business, health, and much more.

This week (today) was a special event as we had a member of the Asian segment of the church give a talk about why there are so few non-whites that join the UU church. The majority of UU members at any given UU church in America are white by a ratio of 25 to 1. Our congregation has around 50-60 members attending each week and sure enough, there’s not but around 5 or so non-white members. His conclusion to the question revolved around the fact that most white people follow a more mainstream line of thought and are members of a more mainstream church. In turn, given the fact that white people are the most prominent and most successful people in America, it only makes sense that that is what people would want to emulate down to the church they attend and beliefs they carry. This isn’t meant to put white people on a pedestal at all, it’s just based on the facts. Sure, we’re about to have a black president, but after how many white ones? And how many Hispanic ones? Or Indian or Asian ones?

It was very interesting overall and this is the type of thing that is discussed or could be discussed. There’s songs that we sing, there are times of reflection where we share the most positive or negative things that have happened to us in the past week, but there is no focus on preaching one way of thought or any strict belief system. Like I said earlier, it’s just focused on enjoying life and knowing that while we may have our own thoughts on what we were before we were born and what happens to us when we pass and all of the in-between, we very well could be wrong. Not alot of folks like to entertain that idea, and especially not in most mainstream congregations. It’s not about being righteous. It’s about being grateful that we can live even one more day and respecting others while constantly learning from them with our open minds and souls.

Another thing that goes on (and this is the funny, less mundane part, I promise) is there is a time when the children are asked to come to the front and sit on a rug while they are told a story much like at other churches. This is tough for Andrew as he is used to having us around at all times, or at least within eye sight but for the past two times we’ve been, he’s been a big boy and gone ahead on up there without us. Today, he hopped off mommies lap and went on up and sat by a friend of ours from the church and I could see just around a pole at him. I noticed he was looking back into the congregation as if he was looking for something. Then he’d look down at his book or at the speaker. Then back towards the rows of faces for a bit; eyes seeking. Then back down or forward. Then he twisted his body slightly and looked again into the unfamiliar. And more twisting. And more until his body was all the way around, facing the rows and searching for us with his eyes. No panic shown, just nonchalantly gazing, seeing if he could see us but I know inside he *was* panicking in his own way. I was waiting for him to call out “Mommy?” over the story being told, but just as this thought passed, his eyes caught mine. Then Lea’s and we were already smiling so big at him and his discomfort of not being able to have us in his sight. It made us feel so special honestly in a way and he slowly started smiling back then turning to look at the reader. Then back at us, locking on this time, no searching. Then he starts to kinda.. Crawl on his knees, inching his way back around 10 rows to us. He was so brave for going up and he put up with his braveness for all he could stand. He had to be back on mommies lap now and he was back up not even 3 minutes after the story had begun. A couple of minutes later, it was over and then time for the children to head to the back for play time while the adults listened to the boring sermon (in their minds – I remember being a kid) and tithed and whatnot. He went back to play on his own and while Lea did check on him once or twice, he seemed VERY into his playing and she was able to enjoy the guest speaker. It was a great Sunday.

In a bid of sad news, our van has started acting up. It’s nothing major, perhaps just normal wear and tear on a valve, or a filter, maybe a plug, who knows. No check engine light or anything, just some sputtering and sluggishness on takeoff which leads my unprofessional and uneducated mind to think it’s probably out of window washer fluid. In all seriousness, we think it may be a clogged PCV valve which I’ve read could cause such things in our model of minivan. We’re taking it in tomorrow to have it looked at.

Other minor goings ons:

– We got a new chair thanks to the ever wonderful Mema Tressie. Our old, beloved chair that has served us so well is on it’s last legs and near unable to rock our children to sleep anymore and she immediately donated one of hers to us and it is even more comfortable than our old one. We LOVE it. Thank you so much Mema, you’ve saved our nights of lost sleep and we love you!

– PAUL T! He is *SO* funny! He’s starting to giggle and laugh now and he and I have this thing we do, especially when I wake up and come say good morning to him where I lightly pat his chest and belly, then hold his arm and give him gootchies on his sides. He loves it and starts to just laugh and laugh at me and it’s so funny to see. He’s really starting to come into his own and recognize us. He’s also started to begin rolling around so no doubt, he’ll be asking for the car keys soon.

– Ken and Angie came over for hot dogs and wine tonight and we once again enjoyed their company. Their kids are too sweet and they had a blast playing the Wii while we had a blast listening to Ken talk about the great sci-fi shows we’ve missed out on. He’s a really interesting guy that knows alot about many topics and I never get tired of listening to him no matter the subject. I don’t know if I show it based on my repeated “Uh-huh!”’s or “Oh, wows!” but it’s always so very interesting. Angie was also very entertaining for us and recommended a local mechanic for our minivan.

– I got in touch with an old friend in the past few days named Derek that I lived with for a couple of years. He’s a good guy with a good heart and it’s great to hear from him and hopefully we’ll get to catch up with what’s been going on since we last talked around 9 years ago since Lea and I met. It was happenstance that he and I parted ways when Lea and I met and it will be interesting to hear what he’s been up to. I was in a VERY different place back then in life so it is also a shock for him to see me married with two (wonderful) children now.

– We may have a new client or two I’m trying to get an OK from as far as beginning work on websites for them and that will be great. It’s sometimes scary owning your own business as there is that whole feast or famine thing you have to deal with. We’re in no famine right now by any means, but it’s always at the back of your mind. You’d think I’d be over it after being self-employed for almost 6 years, but eh. I don’t know if that will ever go away.

Ok, I think that’s about it, I hope I didn’t put you to sleep. Either way, thank you for reading, and if it did bore you to sleep think of it this way: If you ever need a free, legal way of getting to sleep, you can always come back or check in next week.

Love you all and I wish you the best in your lives,

-Andy Goin