On the Road Again....

Since I last blogged, I've hosted a bridal shower, partied all night at a bachelorette party, and took the kids on vacation to San Antonio and Houston. While I don't have any pictures of the first 2 events - I was way too busy during the shower to take any pictures and, well, I don't think I want to share any pictures of the bachelorette party!!! - you'll have to settle for some standard family pics around the house and on vacation.

However, before I get to any of that, I have to announce that little Nolan is crawling! What started out a week ago as rocking back and forth on his hands and knees has now progressed to full-fledged crawling and pulling up on furniture. Fortunately, we had JUST lowered the crib mattress before all this started. I just can't believe that he's mobile. I don't think Bailey crawled until she was about 8 months. Does anyone have any tips on how to keep Bailey's stuff out of his mouth?? Before, I could just move the marbles or whatever deathly element Bailey left out on the floor, but now it's a little more difficult.

While I don't have a shot of him crawling (which, in reality, would really just look like him sitting still on his hands and knees, right?), here is his favorite new pose. It's how he gets stuck when he's been crawling and can't quite get himself back to a regular seated position. I call it the herkie....



Why herkie, you ask? Because it looks just like this:


And, yes, the balloon is his new obsession. While it's not the best item for a 7 month-old to play with, it's the only item I could dangle in front of him that he cared enough to try to crawl FOR. So, after all that work learning to crawl, I hate to take away his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

As I mentioned, we took a short trip down to San Antonio to see our friends. We stayed the first couple of nights in a hotel room and then with friends the last night. I don't think Bailey liked the "itty bitty bed" she slept in there. She was quite confused about why it was so little! We found her in the morning with the bed stripped of all the blankets and everything - I think she needed to stretch out as much as possible! She later said, "I miss my bed. It's big."

She did, however, love the hotel, as did little Nolan. Here are a few pics of both Nolan's first time in the big pool and some shots in the room.

He LOVES the water! Jason wore himself out juggling 2 kids who both wanted to swim around. I didn't know we were going to have any down time, so didn't bring my suit. I ended up throwing caution to the wind and going in a tank top and gym shorts. Lesson learned for the next trip - always bring a suit just in case.

Poor kid didn't really know the difference. I think this pic is funny because that was one of those big water bottles.

I guess you really can't tell but I was trying to capture Bailey's efforts to do her own hair. She doesn't like me to blow-dry it, so we always just let it air-dry. But, in this picture, she had put on both a head band, a rubber band (in the back) and a bow on top of the head band. She thought she looked pretty special. I somehow managed to convince her to choose just one accessory for the day.

Here are some pictures of all the kids. The clan is growing!! These are the children of Jason's childhood through h.s. friends Sergio, David, and Corey. His other friend Danny doesn't yet have any little ones, but we're all praying they have the success they desperately want soon!

I didn't get any pics of the fireworks display at Sea World, but here's a pic of the girls watching it. Truthfully, the one in good ole' Bethany, America is better!

This is Bailey trying to teach little Colin how to go potty like a big kid. She, for some reason, took it upon herself to try to potty train both Colin and Maddie, who are both about 2 1/2. What's funny about this (and probably not intentional on her part) is that this is exactly how Bailey became fully potty trained. Last year on our trip to SA, she was ALMOST there and we convinced Jackie (Maddie's older sister who is now 6) to take Bailey to the potty with her every time she went. Surprisingly, the day after our trip she said that pull-ups were no longer necessary.








Then we went over to Houston to spend a couple of days with Jason's brother's family. I don't have any good pictures from this leg of the trip. Bailey did get to pet a sting ray (gross) and we drove to the Boardwalk at Kemah. Next time, we'll actually make it to the beach.

And, here's an exhausted Bailey on the way home. This is preferable to the 150 "Are we there, yet?s" we heard on the way to S.A.

And, here's Nolan enjoying his big boy status at good ole' Cracker Barrel.

Well, that's all folks! We're looking forward to my brother's wedding on the 25th! Cross your fingers that Bailey's flower girl debut goes smoothly!

7 Months Already?

This post will be a random update on a variety of things since it's been a month since I posted - wow, time sure flies. We've had a lot going on!

Bailey had her first sleepover and her first swimming lessons. She did well at the sleepover with her cousin Lauren (as did Lauren) - they actually went to sleep, which was completely unexpected! As for the swimming lessons, Bailey looks terrified the whole time. After every lesson, she says she had fun but she doesn't need to come back the next week because, "they just teached me to swim." She thinks three lessons means she now knows how to swim. That's akin to her telling me she already knows how to swim because she swims every night in her bathtub.

Nolan has really found his voice, babbling and yelling "Na, na, na, na, na, na, na" and "Da, da, da, da, da, da, da!" It's so funny to watch him because you don't know if he's happy or unhappy...until he breaks out in his trademark grin. I just can't believe he's getting so big. He's also made the jump from just learning to sit on his own to getting up on his hands and knees and trying to crawl. He's gone a few steps (do you call them steps??) forward and several feet backward. He also wants to hold on to our hands and walk around the house. Uggh, I remember we did that with Bailey for months and we thought our backs weren't going to survive. And to think we have always said how calm he is!!! I may have to eat those words.

Finally, he's finally doing a little better with his baby food. He doesn't eat more than 3 or 4 bites at a sitting, but he's been through a variety of vegetables and I just gave him his first fruit.

Unfortunately, he gagged and shivered at the first taste of banana and refused to open his mouth for a second bite. Here's the face I got.

Oh, but have I written about how he LOVES sno-cones?? Bailey has a sno-cone maker, so that has become our typical after-dinner dessert. He goes CRAZY grabbing for our cups. So, Jason gave him a little taste and I now know what someone addicted to crack might act like. Only in this case, I'm talking about a tiny baby. So, ya know, pretty much the same thing.

Here are a few other pictures from a recent family get-together and then some random pictures from the last month.

Ring around the Nolan! (Bailey and her cousin Lauren)

He's kicking his legs furiously!

Nolan loves, loves, loves the water! But, he also loves, loves, loves the grass!
Ice cream with 2nd cousins from D.C. What's better than friends and sugar?

Fun with baby strollers....which turned into fighting about baby strollers!

Have you noticed that it's hard to get a picture of him lately without something shoved in his mouth? But, still no teeth!

My pretty, pretty girl!


And, on a sad note, our long-time pet Scout passed away recently. Jason and I picked out this little tiny Springer Spaniel puppy 8 years ago, and he's been a part of our family ever since. While some of you may know about his health challenges over the past year, I didn't expect this to happen. He has certainly not been on my priority list since having children, and the side effects of his medicine caused some irritating behavior, but he WAS a trusted companion and he will be sorely missed. Goodbye, sweet Scout.

The Dancing Queen (or Princess at the Very Least)!

I am going to take a momentary pause in the Nolan-centric posts to focus on little Bailey. As I mentioned at the end of the last post, Bailey danced in her first recital. I was so nervous, but she really surprised me...in a good way! While 3 and 4-year-olds aren't typically the most coordinated, I think she did as well as any of the little girls. As I've told a number of people, the funniest part of watching pre-school dances is their complete inability to nonchalantly find their place on the stage. From the moment I saw the top of Bailey's head emerge from the wing, I could tell she was completely preoccupied with finding her "star." Now, for some kids, this search took literally the whole dance....once they found their place, the dance was pretty much over. For others, the star quest led to some spats between dancers who each thought they were on the right star...it was just the same one and they quickly realized it was a first come, first served kind of deal.


They wouldn't let us take pictures during the actual dances, which was okay in the long run because I wouldn't have been able to get any good shots what with the streaming tears clouding my vision and all. What is with me these days? It's like I can't handle all of these new little life things that Bailey is going through...and it's just going to get worse (for me, not for her) as time goes by. But, I digress...


Jason got good video. Again, someday I'll learn how to post video here. The setup to the pictures is that the pre-school show was called, "Once Upon A Time..." and all of the classes were Disney Princesses. Now, I have to say that, when we learned our class was going to be Mulan, we were less than thrilled. Bailey hadn't even seen the movie. I tried to get her to watch it, but the minute Mulan cut off her hair and pretended to be a boy, Bailey was out. That kind of behavior is not at ALL princess-like for a 3-year-old. But, I think we ended up with the better deal. Our costume was so cute and very different from the other ones. While still cute, the Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties kind of looked like the generic Halloween costumes you can buy at Wal-Mart.


Anyway, they entered the stage with their hands in a Chinese prayer pose in front of them, walking on their tiptoes to their place. Soooo cute. Here are the pictures. I realized at the end of the night that I didn't get a good picture of her with her shoes and tutu on...but she'd already messed up her hair and her makeup was all rubbed off. But, by golly, I have the picture!!! We'll go chronologically, however....here we go with the pictures I took when we were getting ready to leave for the recital.

Backstage after the recital....it was truly an operation to keep 100 pre-schoolers occupied and prepared for their next dance without their parents to assist them with shoe changes and whatnot.

She was so proud of the ribbon she got from her teacher at the end of the recital!

Cousin Anna and family came to see Bailey's big debut.

Not the best form but, hey, she's only 3!

Fun, Fun, Fun in the Sun!

Here's my little guy at ALMOST 6 months!!

This week, Nolan got sent home from Mother's Day Out on Friday because he had diarrhea. (I always think it's funny that bodily functions are so easily discussed when we're talking about a baby but, somewhere along the way, we stop being so easygoing about those kinds of things!) He continued to have it a few times a day throughout the weekend, but he otherwise seemed fine. While we're not sure since nothing has materialized, we THINK he might be getting a tooth. In addition to the aforementioned side effect, he's been a little cranky off and on and will all of a sudden start fussing and shove his hand in his mouth. He has these little episodes and then he's fine again after a minute or so. Like I said, we don't yet see an actual tooth, but I suspect that will change this next week. I looked in Bailey's scrapbook and she got her first one right at 6 months, so it's definitely in the realm of possibility.

In spite of the semi-sickness, we had a good holiday weekend. On Saturday, we went out to Tinker for the air show.

We had a good time and, when we were tired, headed for the exit. As we were walking, I wondered, "What is that long line for?"

Oh, it's the line to the exit that will then get you on a bus that will then take you to your car, you say?? OMG!!! And, I'm not kidding, this picture only shows 1/3 of the actual line. Fortunately, the kids didn't freak out too much - it could have been worse. When we first got in line, Bailey wanted to be held and said she wanted to go to sleep.....I thought we were in for some major trouble at that point. But, she soon decided it was more fun to talk to the kid in line behind us. Nolan DID fall asleep in my arms and I held him in a weird position so I could put my hat over his face (no sunburns for my kids!!) for about 30 minutes. I thought my arms were going to fall off. I finally just had to resign myself to the fact that he was going to have to wake up because I had to move my arms. Anyway, we were in line for about an hour. While it was something interesting to do, I doubt it will be first on my list next year.

On Sunday, we took the day off from church (don['t tell anyone!), ate donuts for breakfast (which we haven't done in ages) and then took the kids to the park to play at the Sprayground.

Even Nolan got in on the water action.

Monday was more water fun, as we hung out at Jeanne and Phil's where they had the swimming pool set up for Bailey. Once again, we decided to see if Nolan wanted to engage in the water activities. It's funny, when they first bought this pool a couple of summers ago, it seemed SOOO big. Now, it seems quite small.

When Jas first put Nolan in the pool, he wasn't too sure about it....

But he got used to it pretty quickly and enjoyed doing the same water tricks as Bailey!

Bailey was so proud of Nolan this weekend. One morning, she came running into the bedroom where I was folding clothes, saying "Nolan can TALK!!!" When I asked her what she meant, she took me in there where he was babbling, "mamamamama." She thinks he can talk now so she keeps trying to get him to say random words like "bubblegum." Here are some cute pics of the kids together. I think Bailey has inherited my "cheesy smile = squinty eyes" syndrome. Actually, now that I look back at the pic above with Nolan and me, perhaps BOTH kids have it! Smile.

Big news! We're gearing up for Bailey's big dance recital this weekend! I'm a little nervous because I don't know what she's going to do. Every time I ask her to show me portions of the dance, she claims she doesn't know it....OR she prances around doing something that I KNOW is not really in her dance. Anyway, the recital could go a number of ways. Here are the options - any forecasting?


a. She'll dance....just not in any way, shape, or form the way she's supposed to dance.

b. She'll surprise us and do the moves along with the teacher (who will be on stage with them).

c. She'll smile and play with her skirt the whole time like she's just happy to be there.

d. She'll stand there solemnly and pick her nose....and afterward tell everyone excitedly how pretty she danced.

e. She'll cry for mommy and refuse to go on stage, thus causing us to be out not only the $5 per ticket we paid to get in, but the $40 per month dance class tuition.


Regardless of how it all turns out, she'll look cute!! Her costume is so precious. Check back for pics!