Dallas Blooms 2009

Once upon a time in a land far away, a boy and a girl fell in love.

They stopped to smell the roses (or tulips) along their way.

They frolicked in waterfalls.

They loved a lot.

They laughed often.

They enjoyed the small things.

Especially those two small things.

And hopefully they taught their little ones to enjoy life and stop to smell the roses as well.

I LOVE my sweet family!

BIG weekend with BIG events

Some of you may have enjoyed spring break, vacations, and rest, but not this family.  We worked, played and were quite productive this week.  (we need a vacation soon though!)  I thought I would share with you our biggest accomplishments from the last week.

Avery learned to read...

She is so smart... she just devours her books!

Avery has progressed straight from baby foods to corn dogs.

As you can see she is quite proud of her accomplishments now that she sits completely by herself. It makes it much easier to reach over and steal food, toys, and wreak havoc on her brother.

And the biggest accomplishment of all... after two short weeks in pull ups....drumroll please..... Parker is now wearing big boy underwear!  He is going to HATE me for this post one day, but I can't resist.  I am so proud of my big boy and he is so proud of himself as you can see from his crazy antics below.  

The best part of this is, maybe I can quit buying ridiculous character clothing for him now that he has the power of "UnderRoos" to appease his need for cartoon character branding on his body.

The worst part is definitely dealing with the public bathrooms.  He wants to play with the nastiest things and it is so hard to make the pee-pee land in the potty while holding him precariously on the ledge of the seat.  

Parker's joy probably stems from the fact that I act as though we have just won the lottery every time he goes. (Maybe we did... we just got back $40 a month)  He has begun singing after every pee-pee and poo-poo "I did , I did it! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No diapers anymore!"  I love that every major thing he does has a song attached to it. I can get this kid to do anything through singing.  I am not looking forward to the day that he realizes I am the worst singer on the planet.

I love the Zoolander pose and face he has going on in the last picture.  He is certainly Jared's son!

The Toddler's Creed

So I have noticed that I am obsessed with taking pictures of the kids.  It is as though Jared and I don't exist anymore.  I used to love having pictures of me and Jared together in different places and now we seem to have been banished to the spot behind the lens for eternity!  But how can I resist snapping away at my little cherub cheeked babies!  

I think Parker has gotten over wanting to return Avery to the hospital.  This week he wants to kiss and hug her constantly.  He is not a big fan of sharing his toys, but is otherwise very sweet these days.  

In this picture he is trying to steal her toy...of course he doesn't really want it, but darn it....Avery can't have fun with it.  It really cracks me up.  See the hilarious poem below that pretty much sums up life in our house these days!

 The "Toddler's Creed" appeared in the syndicated weekly newspaper article "Families Today" by T. Berry Brazelton. It is a nice reminder of the stresses we feel with normal behavior of toddlers. Enjoy.

If I want it, it's mine.
If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine.
If I can take it away from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If it's mine, it will never belong to anybody else, no matter what.
If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.
If it looks just like mine, it is mine.

Sometimes I feel the same way.  Those cheeks are mine! Those tiny toes are mine! Those belly laughs are all mine!  I just want to bottle them up at each stage in their life so I can open it and enjoy it later.  I guess this blog will be my bottle :)

Had to include a few pics from this weekend as well.  We went to see some family in Waxahachie this weekend and got some pics of my sweet girlfriend Angie with her newborn, Bailey Rae.  

And Uma ended up getting a picture taken too.  She is like the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot...it is very rare that she is captured on film!

We are still here!

*** Update from Avery's Doctor Visit:

16lb, 12 oz- 50-75%

25 1/2 in- 50 %

Head circumference 75%

100% healthy and adorable

No one told me how hard it would be to keep up with a blog now that I have two kids under the age of three!  I am trying to update more often, but it never seems to happen.  I meant to update last night but got sucked into the three hour Bachelor drama!  Did anyone else think they were watching Jerry Springer?

Everyone has been asking what Avery is up to these days.  She turned six months old on Sunday, and it is absolutely impossible to describe how much faster this six months has been than Parker's first six months!  She is growing up in the blink of an eye.  

So, what is new with her?  She has graduated from the infant seat to a convertible car seat and floppy seat at restaurants. She is sitting up for about 5 minutes at a time without falling over. She is holding her own bottle.  She is drooling so much that her little cheeks are chapped.  She is interacting and actually playing with Parker, which is so cute! She smiles so much that it must make her cheeks hurt.  She is sleeping a little better at night.  Mostly she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of two pesky teeth on bottom that are giving her fits.  We'll see how big she is at her doctor appointment tomorrow.

How is Parker?  He got to see Bob the Builder last weekend, which he loved.  He is starting to realize that Avery is not visiting but here to stay.  He doesn't like her being fussy and the other night he told Jared "I don't like my baby sister anymore.  Can you take her back to the hospital?"  So needless to say he's been getting a little more attention.  Poor guy!

Dada's face at intermission pretty much sums up how the parents all felt at Bob the Builder.

Thankfully Parker has really fun aunts to entertain him lately since Mom and Dad get a little tied up with Avery from time to time.