The Cravy Family

The other day we were out driving around, doing something or other with the kids and we see a newer style Volkswagen Beetle. Natty spots it and says, “Look at that squished car!” If you’ve seen it, you know that is a fairly accurate description. Upon hearing this, Andi tells her that the new Bug is her absolute favorite car, which is a true statement. Ever since we have been together, Andi has wanted one, a lime green colored one. Natty hears this from her momma and she proceeds to ask me “When are you going to buy momma and me a squished car? It’s our favorite!” “Someday, baby, someday” is my reply. I mean, what else can I say?

So, the day goes on and bedtime comes around. Natty is snuggling up next to me as she is falling asleep, as she often does (one of my favorite parts of being her daddy). OUt of nowhere, she mumbles to me, “Daddy, when will you buy momma and me a squished car? It’s our favorite,” and then she drifts off to sleep and dream of squished cars.

Well, it looks like we are still fighting the battle with Micah. He has been having difficulty with constipation and passing stool over the last few weeks. This has lead to dramatic and obviously painful screaming moments which have not been pleasant for any of us. The doctor has finally figured out that his rectal canal has a point where it narrows and this is causing it to be difficult for Micah to poop, essentially. They have scheduled him for a short procedure in the morning in which the doctor will put him under anasthesia and investigate the narrowing. The hope is that it is just at one point which he will address while in there. If it is a narrowing of the whole canal, then we will have to assess our opitons which probably includes an invasive surgical procedure. Please pray with us that it will be something that can be fixed quickly and easily in this procedure in the morning. This will be the fourth time that Micah will be put under anasthesia in his short life and we so dearly hope for it to be the last.

UPDATE

The procedure went well and we were able to take our boy home about 4.5 hours after we got there at 5:30 AM. Thankfully, the stricture that was the problem was only in one small place and the doctor was able to break the scar tissue fairly cleanly. Micah will go back on daily dilations (which we all hate) but that should help to keep this from happening again. We go back for a checkup next Tuesday to monitor the progress.

I’ve been meaning to write for a while. After many conversations with Natty, I have come to realized that there are some words that will never be the same. So here are a few that I can think of at the top of my head.

1. Hold me will forever be: Hold you
2. Milk will always be: Nilk
3. D.V.D. will always be: DVDV
4. Chocolate will always be: Chocky
5. Algae eater will always be: Allergy eater
6. Gloves will always be:Gwubbs
7. Thunder will always be: Punder

I have added a new photo gallery that is accessible via the graphic on the right. Click on the graphic and you will be taken to the gallery where I have created a couple of galleries of new photos of the kiddos. Check it out and this is where new galleries will be added.

My Dad, Richard B. Cravy, Jr. is my hero. I think he has always been my hero, first as a child and now even more as an adult. As I am treated to a fantastic Father’s Day with my wife and two kids, my thoughts naturally go to him. He is, as is his usual schedule, preaching three hours away in Odessa, TX before returning home tonight. His dedication to the church is just one of the reasons why he is my hero.

Some dads teach their sons how to fix a car or how to fish or some other super “manly” things. My dad knows how to do all that kind of stuff but he knew that those weren’t my interests. Instead, he taught me other things, like how to treat a woman with respect because of the example that he is for me with my mom. He taught me how to say “I love you” because he was not too “manly” to do that himself. My children will always know how I feel about them because of my Dad. He has also taught me to give to others, unconditionally, even when it costs him dearly. As I work with him every day, I see him do this without fail.
Most of all, he has taught me to be a good father, because more than anything, that is what my Dad is. So, even though those things aren’t what the world continues “manly,” they have made me into the man that I am.

I love you Dad, Happy Father’s Day.

Our beautiful, brilliant, now 4-year old daughter always makes us laugh. Here is such an instance. We pulled into Fazoli’s to get some fast food Italian before going to visit Granny in the hospital and Natty asked if we were eating at Potatobees. We said “Potatobees?” She said “Yes, I saw a potato in the window.” For those who don’t know, Fazoli’s logo is a tomato. We told her that it was a tomato, not a potato. And she remarked cooly, “That’s what I said, Potatobees.” I guess the old saying is right, you say tomato, I say potato, or Applebees or whatever

Andi and I were amazed last night as we watched our soon to be 1-year old figure out how to accomplish a task. Lately, MIcah has been fascinated with the extension cord that is plugged in and controls all the power to my computer and TV. He now walks straight to it, navigating any number of obstacles, weight machines and toys to get to it. He will then look over his shoulder at me and then unplug the cord, rendering all of my electronics dead. Needless to say, this is a bit frustrating as I am usually busy doing something like this, writing a blog post or doing some highly important research on the Internet (yeah right) when the power goes out. 

To combat this, we bought a contraption that screws into the wall and is supposed to secure the cords so that they can’t be unplugged. It has a cover that goes on and conceals the entire outlet. Micah discovered this new obstacle last night while we were all in there doing something or other. He realized that he couldn’t get to the cord so he grabbed his foam baseball bat and began to hit the outlet. He was using the tools available to him to try and solve the problem. It was quite amazing to watch God’s creation work through the situation with logic and reasoning at 1-year old. 

Today was supposed to be a great day… supposed to be! The kids and I were supposed to go to the park but one was flooded and the other was too muddy! Natty wanted to go to the park so when we didn’t get out of the car, she was really upset. So I came up with a plan to take them to the mall to let them play in the play area. We start walking beside it and Natty says to me, “I don’t like the playground, its so boring!” We have played on that playground numerous times and now she decides she doesn’t like it. I then walk past it and try and take her to the Lights Out Golf…only to find out they weren’t open! At this point, Natty is just in a foul mood! We continue to walk around and on the other side of the mall, there was a carousel! I put Natty and Micah on it and let them ride several times. Natty tells me “Mom, thank you, that made my day.” So now I’m thinking great, maybe things are looking up, but no, we go back to the Lights Out Golf and they still aren’t open! I decide its time to leave the mall. Only to have Natty get so upset again because it wasn’t open and she didn’t get to have fun. I tell her it is time go to lunch. So we are in the car and she pouts the whole time about not having any fun that day. Aaron and I take her and Micah to Chick-Fil-A and we eat and we give her time to play. She goes into the play area only to stand in the corner. She comes out and says there are too many kids and too many little ones! So we leave. We get home to rest after a day of disappointment. Aaron had planned for me to get my nails done for Mothers Day. I decided to take Natty with me so that we could have some girl time. She loved it! She was so good about getting her nails done and sitting so still for them to dry. The nail salon has new drying machines that use UV light and automatically turn off. The UV light was red and purple. At first she didn’t know what it was. I explained to her that it helped dry the nails. She says I don’t think I want to use that. She then sees it turned on and asks what’s the light. I tell her its like Superman’s x-ray vision and it help dry the nail polish. She looks at me with eyes wide open and says “really? Wow!” It was time for me to dry and Natty had been waiting on me to finish. I sit down and she asks “what about me?” I let her stand next to me and put her feet under the dryer and she is just amazed at how the thing is so warm and can dry nail polish so fast. We leave and she is just so happy as she looks at her nails and is careful not to touch anything! We get in the car and she realizes that we didn’t do anything else while we were at the mall. She then starts to through a fit. She still wanted to check the golf place. We were now in a bit of a hurry, Natty had a school program to attend this night. We get home and she just so upset that she didn’t get to do anything! We get her ready and she is disappointed that Paw Paw isn’t going to pick her up. We go to her program and she is amazing! She sang so well! We had so much fun watching her perform and having fun with all her classmates! After the program we went out to eat with the grandparents and she is just delirious. Natty has been wanting to stay the night with her grandparents for about a month and she was not going to let Maw Maw say no tonight! She had such a full day of disappointments that she knew exactly what to say to Maw Maw to get her way. Maw Maw said yes and she was so happy! Aaron and I agreed it was exactly what she needed to end her full day.

Sorry that it has been awhile since we have updated the site. Tons going on and we just haven’t taken the time to post anything. Here is a funny picture of Micah at my office. He has figured out that if he doesn’t have enough hands to hold all the stuff that he wants to, he can just shove one extra thing into his mouth and viola, more stuff! In this case, he has a flashlight in one hand, one of PawPaw’s pens in the other and a light bulb is in his mouth.

Andi just returned from a Mother’s Day trip with her mom and sister. They went to Ruidoso, New Mexico and stayed at a cabin up in the mountains. The kids joined her and they had a great time. Natty even got to see some animals that she had never seen before, like deer, woodpeckers and honey birds (hummingbirds). Natty is wrapping up her first year of preschool this next week. She has really enjoyed her time in school and she constantly amazes us with her intelligence. She will be turning 4 on May 21st and we are throwing her a superhero party. She will be Wonder Woman for the party and we will post up a pictures of her in the costume (so awesome).

Such was the quote from our precocious 3 year old, Natty, in response to being told what to do by her mom. Natty has been expressing her independence more and more lately, normally in little, frustrating ways such as not listening to us when we tell her to do something. Andi was telling her to do something (who can remember such details anyways) and Natty was fed up with it. She tells Andi, “I need some air!” and she heads out the front door and sits on the porch stairs. Andi had to pull herself together and stop laughing long enough to order her back in the house and tell Nat that its not okay to just go out in the front yard without an adult. Andi and I both agree, aren’t they supposed to be older than three before they start acting like teenagers?