Another good one

"When I am four, I can drink margaritas!"
--John Michael, age 3, on seeing mama carry in two bottles of Kirkland's Best margarita mix.

When the cat's away...

Look at what mama found on the video camera from when daddy was watching the boys! JM drives that thing all the time, but baby Noah? Oh my!

Learning to walk

This has been going on a lot lately around here. He's been taking one or two steps on his own, too (gulp):

From the mouth of JM

Today at lunch a commercial came on and John Michael responded:
"Maybe someday we can get a talking dog, Mama."

Recently, JM had a new cousin born and I was trying to explain, unsuccessfully, where the baby came from. I said that both he and Noah used to be in mama's tummy. JM said, "I must have been very hungry!"

I need to start writing more of this down! This picture of him is from camp last week. He thought he was hot stuff with that yellow war paint on. He is going through a yellow phase now. The green is so 2010.

Speaking of, he was pretending to be a little doggie and he said, "I am a doggie and my name is Yellow-y. My last name is Green-y."

Noah at 1

Dear Noah,
Thank you so much for coming into our lives a year ago. We are so blessed that you are happy and healthy! You have made all of us (even JM) happy.

At one year, you were 19 lb 15 oz, a whopping 10th percentile for weight and 30.5 in long, 75th percentile for height. Yes, you are long and lean. It seems like all you do is snack, so I'm surprised. Dr. T said he wasn't worried and looking around at the H reunion last weekend, I'm not either. There are lots of tall, skinny people in our family! Anyway, you do like to eat, but you are way pickier than your brother. You are still nursing in the morning and at night, but just recently we've cut out the two other feedings. You seem happy to nurse and I'm happy to nurse you, so yeah, we're still nursing.

You still only have your four teeth! When are those other teeth going to come in? Dr. T said the top canines are right there and you've been very grumpy and drooly lately, so I hope soon!

You are quite a talker. You say: mama, dada, bubba, book, ball, duck and cheese. That is a lot of words for a 2nd baby.

You are crawling, cruising and can now stand on your own in the middle of the room. You have started pushing things around to practice walking, but no walking yet. Last night at Nana's, they said you walked a few steps to Uncle Peter, but since Mama and Dada didn't witness it, it was not official.

You are obsessed with books. You love Pat the Bunny and other tactile books that you can interact with. Sometimes, you will be nursing at night before bed, which used to get you all relaxed and sleepy, but now you will stop and look at your bookshelf and say "book!" like you're ready to stop eating and read, already!

It's so much fun to witness your personality. You are so independent and will happily play by yourself. You are so expressive with your feelings. One minute you will be happy as a clam and the next minute, you are screaming at the top of your lungs, if you don't get what you want. You are going through a "mama" and a "dada" phase, meaning if you see us, you want us to be holding you. If Mama is holding you and Dada comes in, you want dada and vice versa. If someone else is holding you and you see us, you start crying, but are happy if you don't see us (stinker). I think it's cute that you want Dada, too. Sometimes babies only want their mamas. I'm not sure if it's all the nursing, but you are a little cuddle bug. The other morning at cousin Shirley's, you woke up at 6am (ehem) and were happy to just lay next to me, snuggled up in our bed for a while. If we had to be up at 6am, at least you were snuggly, my sweet!

You are still sleeping great. Still two naps. Still sleeping about 12 hours at night. God bless you for that, little one! We like sleep around here.

We can't imagine our lives without you, Noah and are so excited to see what you start doing next! Happy 1st birthday!

Love,
Mama

Judy and Daddy love

Oh, my, goodness! We have been busy! We had Mike's family reunion last weekend, Noah's birthday, JM's last week of camp and then we found out that Mike's aunt had passed away unexpectedly, so we had a whirlwind trip to Dallas, then drove to Mike's mom's hometown for the burial, stayed a night at his cousin's house and then came home to Father's Day!

Mike's aunt was only 69 and hadn't been ill. She was the sweetest lady and though she's not my family by blood, I cried at the beautiful eulogy given by her daughter. Judy was the most unselfish person. She was known for her cooking and was even famous for bringing your favorite meals every day to you if you were sick in the hospital. Can you imagine someone bringing you fried chicken as opposed to hospital food? God bless her. I hope she's getting some TLC up in heaven. It was an emotional weekend. In her memory, we did nothing but eat and drink with Mike's family. It was sad, but fun.

We swung home yesterday just long enough to take a quick snooze and get in an HEB run, then were off to my mom's for dinner. Today, we went nowhere other than church and it has been great! Both of my boys slept in this morning until 9am!!! That's right, I said 9! This is a H family record. And, a Happy Fathers Day to you, Michael. They are usually 7am men, but the past few days have been waking in their foreign beds in the 6am hour. They must have been happy to be back in their little beds!

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful DaDa! We love you and appreciate so much all that you do for us! We would be lost without you!

Unhappy campers

Working parents, I applaud you.
I've discovered that the process of getting everyone out the door and into the car in order to meet a deadline makes me insane. And, insanely tired.
Those of you who have to get your child to daycare and yourself to work on time every day, and especially with toddlers, are my heroes!
In a moment of nostalgia for my beloved Catholic Youth Camp, I signed JM up for a day camp here that sounded like a lot of fun. They do swimming, horses, arts and crafts, camp cheers and popsicles. He's at an age where he really likes to be around other kids, so I thought it would be a win-win. Something that I didn't think nearly enough about was the fact that it's from 9-3 everyday with NO NAP built in. Since JM is about 50/50 on the naps these days, as it is, I figured we'd try it and see how it went. He loves it, but he is exhausted. Though the nice long break is nice during the day, I will be relieved when camp is over. Tomorrow is his last day.

I swear that JM can clue into the fact that I am stressed trying to get him somewhere on time, and hence gives me such a hard time getting out the door. This morning from the second he woke up, I could tell it was going to be one of those days. Michael went to get him and he was like "I want Mama!" From there, he decided he was in charge. He wasn't going to wear clothes today. He wanted to be naked. Trying to work with him, I said, put on some underwear and watch a show for a little while, then we'll get your clothes on. That worked, until it was time to get clothes on and he wouldn't do it. A major battle ensued. We were late for camp. I know that ultimately it's not that important to be on time for something as little as camp, but when he gets in one of his moods, there really is no way around it (that I've found). It would probably be best to just stay home! I saw this during preschool during the year, but being extra tired from camp is making it worse!

Parents of toddlers, how on earth do you stay sane when you're trying to be somewhere on time and your kids are giving you a run for your money to get out the door? I might be staying home the rest of the summer, I swear! Having "JM away time" is nice, but getting him there and back every day is killing me. I feel so blessed that he gets to go to camp, but honestly I don't feel I'm built for all this running around that's part of our American society. Thinking about all day soccer tournaments and swim teams and ballet makes my head spin. My kids might be recluses and we'll all just stay home in our little bubble!

If it weren't a social faux pas, I might consider having a drink right now. It's 9:39, for the record. Ughhhhh!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Party Number 2



A year ago today, I went into labor, had my water broken, got an epidural, started watching a movie and before I could blink, sweet little Noah was born! Okay, so there was probably more pain and drama than I can remember, but those are the highlights. Noah came into the world so smoothly and has brought so much joy to our lives. I am so thankful that he's healthy and we are his parents!

We had two celebrations. A party with his cousins at the reunion. Our immediate family has one birthday on the 12th, two on the 13th and one on the 14th of June. How crazy is that? Tonight we went to Hula Hut with my family. Noah loves those Thai BBQ fajitas. Look at his face in those pictures from Hula Hut! Get all up in that cupcake, Noah! It's your birthday!

We love you, precious baby!

Reunion

I have two cousins. Two total on both sides, that is.
Michael has a lot. Maybe 50?
The past few years the H side has had a reunion. We went two years ago, but it was at a place where the cabins were spread out and it was hard to socialize. Last year, we were waiting for Noah to arrive, so missed it. This year, the reunion was at the beautiful (seriously, y'all) beautiful Canyon Lake in the Hill Country near New Braunfels. It was a great location where we were all close together, but in one big building overlooking the lake. Since all the rooms opened to a large patio area, we were able to put our babies to bed in our room and go hang out with all the cousins at night (being only 100 feet away and making a Madeleine McCann-style abduction difficult). So fun!

Sometimes emotions run high in families, and Michael's family is no exception, but I will say that they like to drink, God bless them. I had a blast. And, Canyon Lake is such a nice lake! Gorgeous white sandy beaches and blue green water. I felt like we were in Mexico! We took the boat and JM was squealing with glee he was having so much fun with his cousins. His parents were enjoying themselves, too.

And, thanks to the generous babysitting of my in-laws, I got to go tubing! I've lived in Austin for 9 years and have been invited on numerous trips to float the river. None have happened for one reason or other. I've been pregnant. It's been rainy. We were out of town. Anyway, we went down the Comal with 30 or so random H's. We saw a girl in a thong serenading the crowded river who I'm quite sure makes her living by dancing on a pole. We saw adults passing around a large container of Hawaiian Punch-type drink. We saw more cigarette and cigar smoking than I've witnessed in years. I lost my sunglasses and fell out of my tube. I was feeling no pain. Though our trip ran VERY long toward the end and we RAN.OUT.of.BEER (doh!) and we missed the reunion family picture (doh!), it was a blast!

We are all exhausted. John Michael actually asked to go to bed tonight at 7. Noah ran out of gas around 7:15. Tomorrow is Noah's 1st birthday. Will write more on that later, as I need to cheer on the Mavs!

Book

I know that y'all think of me as being a perfect parent. I mean, on this blog, I can totally edit out all the wrongs of parenting so that it appears everything is sunshine and rainbows. Forgetting that someone is in time-out? Totally never happens. Losing my cool? Nope. Well, I will remedy this situation immediately by admitting that this morning, I was being a totally distracted parent. Both my boys were playing in Noah's room and I was on Amazon, trying to buy Noah a birthday present. So when sweet baby Noah was saying things to me, I was saying sorts of not-listeningy things like "yeah?" "uh huh" "really?" and trying to concentrate and block them both out so I could get the damn purchase over with, already. It wasn't until Noah actually hit me with a book from his bookshelf and said the word again that I realized that he was saying "book!" I looked down and he was holding a book and smiling, like "Geez, woman, what do I have to do to get your attention? I want to read this book! Do I have to hit you with it? Yes, that's right, I said book!!!""

He loves books, all of a sudden. Especially "Pat the Bunny" and this other one with baby animals you can "pet" with fur in it. Book! He wanted a book! Add that to his growing list of words.... Mama, dada, baba, hi, cheese and book. :)

Kiddie Acres

God bless Karen T. of our playgroup.
The other day I woke up to about 15 fun and different playdate invitations for the summer.
Something to look forward to now that school is out and mama has no break from toddler questioning (so many questions, lately!! so many!)? Very appreciated. We love you, Karen.

I digress. Today we went to Kiddie Acres, which as she put it, is a little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Everything is really old and run-down, but if you can trust in the fact that your child is safe and secure, also a total blast for the 2-3 year-old set. They had little airplanes and car rides, horse rides and a train. There aren't many places you can go where it looks like nothing has changed in 40 years. As a nostalgic person, I appreciate this. As a parent, I'm just glad we got out of there with all our limbs intact.

John Michael LOVED the little ferris wheel and went on it eleventy billion times in a row. Of course, his favorite ride was the highest and most potentially deadly. The other kids seemed to have fun, too. JM and Domenic looked so grown up in their little baseball caps. JM and Isabella rode two rides together. We left before it got too sweltering hot this morning. Great summer day out!

And, just to prove we were there, too.... Blech!