His first haircut

Not sure what to think.

Almost there. 

Done! 

A post about the boy

So since Alex is now getting close to sitting up on his own, I decided the other night to switch him to the other side of the baby bath tub (the side where he can sit upright versus at an angle staring at the showerhead). Wow, what a difference that view made for him. He spent probably 75% of the time leaning forward trying to grab the surface of the water. He also became very busy shifting between grabbing the water and grabbing the dolphins on the toy suctioned to the bath next to him. He got so into this grabbing stuff, splashing the water up onto his face, that I couldn't tell if he was enjoying himself or freaking himself out. He never laughed, but he also never cried. He just kept at it with this weird intense focus. Next bathtime should be interesting.

Also tooth #5 came in, and #6 is not far behind. The two top middle ones, so we won't have a hillbilly baby for much longer.

Anger

Those of you with kids probably already learned this lesson. Those of you without will be one step ahead.

As parents of a small child, we are continually trying to teach Grace how to recognize and express her emotions, if anything to prevent screaming meltdown tantrums. Last night I was assisting Grace on the post-dinner/pre-bath potty time. Upon finishing, I praised her enormous poops (yes, that's what you do with a 3-year old) and proceeded to flush them away. Now realize that this is my child that rarely remembers to flush, and often when I remind her comes back with a "you do it, mommy". But of course last night the minute my fingers depress the handle, I get a "Mommy, I want to flush!". After explaining how sorry I was that I'd already done it, I now have a 3-year old bursting into tears proclaiming over and over "I want to flush". So she decides to get back on the seat right then to do more poops so she can flush it. Her body is not obliging (though she does get a little more pee out), so she continues to sit up there crying about how she is going to flush. Finally I ask her "Grace, why are you crying? Are you angry that Mommy flushed your poops?". Ah, she now has her word to attach to the situation. "Yes, I'm angry with you Mommy." As she sits up there for what seems like forever trying to poop (probably more like 5-10 minutes), we talk about her favorite tv show, about what toys we're going to play with in the bathtub, about what she'll do at Miss Jackie's class the next day. But out of the blue multiple times she keeps popping up with tearing eyes and a "Mommy, I'm still angry with you."

Lesson learned: NEVER flush without first asking.

And so it begins

We've had a couple of kid incidents in the past few days that make us shudder. We went to the zoo last weekend which means we pulled out the double stroller (it's used primarily for walks to the park and all-day outings that would wear Grace out). When Grace decided to stop riding on Jim's shoulders to move to the stroller, Alex suddenly realized that he could sit up all the way in his seat, straining against his "seatbelt", and grab his sister's hair with both hands. "Mommy, make Alex stop grabbing my hair! Mommy, he's still doing it! Mommy, make him stop!"

The other eye-rolling event was during dinner the other night. As Grace was freaking out, throwing a fit because she was being forced to take two bites of a chicken and pasta salad that had pesto on it, she sobbed "I wanna go to Gramma and Grandad's house." I figured it was either (a) because she likes going there or (b) she knew they wouldn't make her eat pasta with something unidentifiable on it.

Also, I pulled out Grace's baby book to confirm that Alex at 6 months weighs as much as Grace did at 12 months (22 lbs). Jeez.

God I love these kids. 

One of Grace's favorite games to play with her little brother. We're not yet sure what he thinks about it. 

Birthday princess

Grace got to wear the birthday crown last Monday all day at school. Even better, Miss Jackie let her wear it home to show Daddy. She was so happy about it - wore it to Tom Thumb, to Blockbuster, and the rest of the day at home.

With her basket full of toys. 

Mother's Day

So for me today is the real Mother's Day. Three years ago today I became a mom. I can't believe it's been three years already. I look at Grace and get amazed that she is a kid now, not a baby any more. You've got to marvel at the elasticity of time - it seems like just yesterday she was tiny, but it is also almost impossible to remember life without her. Once you have a kid you have to admit that when all those other parents said "You can't imagine how great it is until you have children" they were actually right. And who knew I had the ability to feel such a ferocious love for a creature - I'd do anything in my power to protect my two kids. I could actually imagine throwing myself in harm's way to keep them safe - I never felt this way for anything before having these guys.

Jim and I look at Grace and Alex and feel very fortunate. Two beautiful children that brighten and enhance our lives exponentially. As Grace would say, "I love my family".

Happy Birthday Dear Gracie

My big girl.

So it's not quite her birthday yet, but try to explain to a 3-year old that even though we are having her party today her actual birthday is in two more days. So as far as our household goes, Grace turns three today.

What a wonderful day it turned out to be. Despite my stressed snapping at Jim leading up to the party, everything turned out fine. It's fun to see Grace interact with the other kids now that she knows how to play with them (rather than just alongside them). And we are blessed to have such wonderful friends, both the adults for Jim and myself and their kids for Grace (and Alex someday too). I just had to stop at one point and look out at the chaotic sea of kids running around the backyard, with the parents all hanging out on chairs and blankets, and smile at the beauty of it all.

And we managed to get a pretty good 64 Zoo Lane party pulled together. It's a little more of a challenge when your kid wants the theme to be her favorite television show that happens to be a British import only shown on Noggin (the digital cable channel for preschoolers). But I'm lucky to have a talented husband who was able to create great invitations and cake topper (using Albertsons who can scan the picture in and put it on your cake), plus there are lots of zoo/jungle themed party stuff available. And a big thank you goes out to Mom, Dad and Luella for being such a wonderful help before, during and after the party (and especially to Luella for whipping up margaritas afterward to help us recover!).

Sitting with her friends. 

Ice cream and cake are the best. I don't think my child touched any of the other food (fruits, veggies) we had at her party. 

The haul. 

Natalie REALLY wants to help Grace open gifts. 

Mmm...baby cereal and strained peas and a gramma that doubles as a high chair 

Our groovy little cabins in the background. Grace is happy because she just had her peanut butter and jelly; her meal of choice. 

Happy family. No really - it looks like Grace is crying, but she's just shouting "Cheese" at the camera.

Creepy blue light at the dolphin exhibit (everyone had weird purple lips in there) 

Dolphins are cool 

Checking out the fish 

Gotta love that DQ ice cream 

The boy grabs everything. 

At DQ 

Family vacation

We've decided that family vacations are awesome when grandparents are along too. The ratio of four adults to two kids is the way to go. We just had a fun long weekend down at Port Aransas with Mom, Dad and a bunch of Dad's high school buddies. The guys went on a fishing boat Friday morning, so Mom and I took the kids to the beach by ourselves. Luckily Alex slept most of the time we were there (he wasn't too impressed with it all once he woke up). Grace loved it (as usual, though it's been probably 18 months since she's been to the beach).

Saturday we made it to the Texas State Aquarium since the weather was kind of crappy. But the weather cleared up so we made it back to the beach that evening, marking Jim's first time to actually check out the Port A beach. Luckily the incredible amount of seaweed that was on the beach and in the water had been scraped up and/or had floated back out to sea, so he actually got to see it on a good day.

We go back to the beach in about six weeks when we take advantage of the Donwen house in Destin (thanks Bill and Bonnie!). Too bad we can't drag some grandparents along with us for that trip too.

Many pictures to come.