A date night to remember

After a very close loss to LSU, we packed up the family in the loaner Acadia & headed to the mall for pics & dinner. It was time to finally do Ryder's 2 year pics, Addi's 9 mo pics & their baby dedication outfits.

I promised Sam that I wouldn't sign him up for anything besides studying, but fate had different plans & he had to pack up the books early this morning to get the truck a/c looked at (again). After watching the Ags lose to LSU I started getting the kids ready for pics & was super excited when Sam decided to go along for the ride. Little did he know that a trip to Picture People is maddening. ;-)

The kids did great, especially with the change of clothes that was involved & the late start. I was really apprehensive about a 5pm shoot but didn't see much opportunity to do this since I'm starting back at work on Monday.

After pictures & a brief shopping jaunt for daddy, we packed up & headed over for dinner. Apparently it is Homecoming so the restaurants were packed with the exception of Mia Bella. They let us in surprisingly & it was amazing! Not the food - though it was amazing too & definitely the best I've had in a LONG time - but what stayed with me is that we had a NICE, QUIET dinner with our kids. Both of them. Well after our normal dinner time. In a fancy restaurant. With messy food. It was a miracle!!! We even enjoyed an appetizer & wine!!!

How often do the stars align for something this awesome?!

Ahh. Home now with kids in bed. Added bonus, they let us take the remainder of our bottle of wine home in a doggy bag (plastic, not paper. We clarified beforehand & the tattooed waiter ensured me that Mia Bella is not "ghetto"). Lol!

What a wonderful evening! Loving my family so much these days. Couldn't be happier to have this special night before going back to work.

New words from a new second home

Oct 16, 2012

The kids started at a new daycare this past week. It was too hard to get to the in home sitter we were using & we, of course, want the best environment for them. They are now in a Montessori school in our neighborhood & based on the smiles they have at pick up & drop off we feel better leaving them there.

However, as good as the first two days seemed to be for our little munchkins, the most impressive thing we saw in Ryder was a whopping 3 new words! That's right. 2 days, 3 words. Pretty impressive, right?! We're pleased overall. The three words might be small but they are mighty, just like the little man himself.

My favorite of the three new words - "hi" complete with a wave & smile. We were tickled to bits watching him go up to strangers (mostly other kids) throughout the weekend & use his new greeting. Even better, it's a real wave! In the fashion of a parade wave vs the baby open & closed fist wave we've been enjoying for so long.

My least favorite seems to be the one he doesn't feel the need to use a lot, thankfully. "Mine" has always struck a nerve with me until I watched Nemo & got a laugh over the sea gulls saying it. But, alas we've reached that phase. He's a kind soul though so I don't think it will be too bad.

Funniest of the three, due to the proper usage, is the dreaded "no."

"Ryder, do you want water?" "No."

"Ryder, do you need to go potty?". "No."

"Ryder, can you read to your sister?" (posed as a distraction from the foreseen use of "mine" as Addi crawled to the books). "No."

Another heart warming language usage of the little man ... tonight he went through the house calling "momma" looking for me. :-)

Weekend adventures in San Antonio

From Sept 21, 2012 This past weekend we packed up & headed to San Antonio. It was our first family hotel trip & we were going to meet my parents who flew in for an extended weekend. On Friday we were able to check in just in time to unpack & head downstairs for the free HH & then hit the River Walk for dinner.
That's where the adventure started! Two tables over from us (almost immediately after the waitress delivered drinks) a lightbulb exploded & the wire caught fire! It was a minor fire but I was ready to high tail it out of there. We decided that after wrangling out little monsters, we were staying. So I had the balloon man make Ry a dinosaur. Score!

It ended up being a dino weekend in SA. We hit the dinosaur exhibit at the Riverwalk mall to give Ry some time to run & enjoy his second favorite thing in the whole wide world - DINOSAURS!!!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Alamo for a family pic to commemorate the kids first trip.

Unfortunately, the trip ended sooner than we planned. My parents volunteered to give Sam and I a date night but we had noticed a slight fever on Addi. After a dose of Tylenol we decided to give it a shot & headed out to see our friends, the Baldwins for a night on the Riverwalk. When we got back, Addi had just woken up & was screaming & had a 103 fever. Yikes! Nice work. Mom of the year, right? Well, that was the end for me. We packed up the next morning & headed back so that we could be at the dr. office first thing. Both kids ended up having raging ear infections. Ugh. Poor Addison - teeth & ears at the same time. Yuck.

9 mo stats for Ms. A

Today (10-16-2012) was Addison's 9 mo check up and shots & she did wonderfully! We had a few wake ups last night - as in both kids started screaming at the same time & we were too tired to sleep train & ended up sleeping with little ones. Needless to say, we overslept a bit & were running late this morning. Although she was tired, teething & hungry she did great & I'm so proud of her. Addison's statsLength: 28" (70%)Weight: 18lb 10oz (50%)Head: 17" (25%)