Like I was 13 again

A few months ago my friend Robyn suggested we have a grown-up slumber party. We discussed and decided to do it this past weekend. So Saturday night around 7p, I packed up my backpack and headed over to Robyn's house ... just like I was 13. Except this time I could drive myself there.

She lives in the cutest little cottage and has a wonderful cottage garden. I wish the plants around my house looked like hers - lush and blooming.

After we all got there and got some of the excitement out of the way, we had to decide what exactly we were going to do. First, we went out to eat at Cheddars. I think Melody and Robyn would have passed this important step and just snacked at home. But I was STARVING. Did I say that loud enough? I was starving, really. Withering away. So ... off we went. I was in heaven since Cheddars has a Monte Cristo. That really made me think back to high school when we would go to Bennigan's after each and every Friday night football game. I would order a Monte Cristo and a Death by Chocolate. Great memories. Of course, I am still wearing some of those to this day. I wonder how many calories all of that food had in it?!

Hey Melody, I am proud that you remembered the neck technique. I will tell Tracy that you have it down pat!

After that, we headed back to Robyn's house and stepped into her own personal video store. There were so many movies that we had a hard time picking one. Instead of the chick flick, romantic comedy that you would have expected three girls to choose we opted for something a little more serious - The Changeling. Great movie, by the way. We grabbed our brownies and creme puffs and settled in for the movie.

It was 1:30a by the time the movie ended. Melody, the youngest one of our group I might add, was already having trouble with drowsy eyes. Robyn and I were just getting started though. Since Melody was about half out of it Robyn and I made the executive decision to watch Center Stage. Yet another American classic ballet/love story. One of my favs since I know half of the dialogue and all of the songs. Luckily for me Robyn is way into it as well.

Finally, at 3:30a, it was time to go to bed. We roused Melody and made up the pull out couch. Mello went out like a light. I had to lay there for a while and settle down. Unfortunately for me, Robyn's house has like a thousand windows. No exaggeration. All of them very clean ... so that the sun streams through very early in the AM. About 7:45a I finally gave up trying to sleep and called it a day.

Robyn and Melody roused themselves around 8:30a. We looked, as my mom would say, like the last roses of the summer. There is a reason you stop pulling all-nighters when you hit your 30s. I had momentarily forgotten that though.

So ...here it is Monday night and I'm still recovering. I think it's going to take a while.

Can you imagine?

If she's already saying this at 4.5 can you imagine what kind of driver she's going to be at 16? Lord help us all!

Truett: 2 year stats

So True finally had his two year check up with the pediatrician on Wednesday. Here are the stats:

• Height: 34.5 inches (50%tile)
• Weight: 26.1 lbs (30%tile)

He's gained quite a bit of weight since his 18mo checkup (about 3-4 lbs). He's pretty much perfect, except for his speech. Shawn and I were counting up the number of words that he uses on a regular basis and could only come up with about 25 (which means there are probably at least 35 - 40). Although he's still on the bell curve, the ped was a little concerned as he's been slow to develop in this area. So, she is going to send us for a speech evaluation to see if he needs a little therapy. I'm all for it if it will help little man communicate better. He gets very frustrated when he can't tell us what he wants. Heck ... I know a lot of adults that do that too (um, maybe moi?!).

Anyway, that's the long and short of it. I can't believe he already turned two. The days are flying. I sometimes wish I had a contraption that would slow it down to a reasonable speed. I'll be sure to put inventing something like that on my ever-growing to-do list. Wish me luck.

Water fun

Mallory is our own little Esther Williams. She loves anything and everything to do with the water. Truett on the other hand is slowly being intoxicated by the coolness that summertime water play offers.

We have a blow up pool that Mallory uses during the summer, but the kids (Mallory and neighbors) get in and out of it so much that Shawn often has to let the water out of it to clean it up. But, that didn't seem to stop the two amigos on this day.

Green thumb, after all

I've been known to kill all green things. At one point in my formative years I seem to remember the family joking about it. But, I think I've come a long way in the last few years. I submit this hibiscus into evidence:

I counted 15 blooms on it. 15 y`all! I just adore looking at this plant. The kids do too. Mallory likes to pick flowers for me. Truett is a copy cat. I have finally convinced them to leave this one alone. Especially since they killed the few remaining pansies I had earlier this year. I did like having those pretty purple flowers in the house though. Getting flowers from the kids is like my own badge of mommyhood. I must be doing something right.

Lullabye

Truett is a loving soul. He always wants to make people feel better ... usually by giving kisses. Almost every morning he crawls into our bed and gives me a hug and a kiss. If I am asleep, he often tugs on me, crying "mama" until I wake up and give him what he's after - the coveted kiss. But no matter how he gives it, whether by kiss or hug or a tug of the hand, he seems to want to soothe people.

So this weekend while playing in his room, I looked over and he was soothing himself and the gloworm. Just dancing his little heart out. It was so sweet that I couldn't let the opportunity pass by to record it (of course, using the new iPhone!). I wish I wouldn't have been facing the window so the vid was better, but you get the idea.

Zoo-prise!

Last Sunday, I woke up thinking that we didn't need to waste the day sitting around. So, I corralled us all and we headed over to the Ft. Worth Zoo. This could have been a dicey situation since the weather was supposed to be sunny and 97. But, thankfully, outside of a few snaps between all of us, it turned out okay.

It's about a 45 - 60 min drive to the zoo from our house. We piled in the car about 10:45 and within about 20 mins of leaving Mallory informed us that she wasn't feeling good. What does any good mommy do in this situation? Tell her to close her eyes and go to sleep. One day I will figure out a remedy for car sickness.

Once we got to the zoo, all the "green" was gone and excitement was in the air. Mallory has been to the Dallas Zoo but she was only 2.5 at the time. True has never been. So I am really counting it as a first for both kids. It won't be the last.

They absolutely loved looking at the animals. Here are some of our favs:

All Mallie could think about was seeing the giraffes. True was enamored of the bear. Probably because he was reacting to us while all the other animals were sleeping or too hot to pretend we were even there. See what I mean below? That's a sleeping gorilla.

There aren't many pics of the kids because neither were in a "picture" mood. Hopefully this passes soon. You know I love the camera.

New

New hair.

New glasses.

New me?

No. Needs more improvement.

I'm a thief

We had Mello and Gang over last Saturday night to partake. She took all the pictures and some of them were too good to not steal. So, I am pretending to be Robin Hood ... steal from her and share!

Mini me

I've been curling my hair the last few days .... just for something different. I've fallen into a rut. Mallory seems to think she has too because she asked to curl her hair a few days ago. She is just so darn cute. I love that she wants to be just like Mommy.

Sorry for the dark after picture. It was storming outside and Shawn didn't turn on the light to take the picture. You can get the point though. And, we need to train her hair to curl better. It had all fallen out by morning.

Galveston overview

Our trip to Galveston was a mixed bag for two reasons:

1. Mallory is in LOVE with the beach and water.

2. Truett ABHORS the beach and water.

I think we all had a pretty good time though, even with the hiccups.

Sunday night we spent in the hotel pool. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was beautiful. Swim up bar and all. Hotel Galvez is my new favorite place to stay in Galveston (and not just because it has a bar IN the pool). Beautiful rooms ... great location ... but the food was so-so. We had a Gulf View room ... and you can see what we got (below). Would have been better to get a room on the front side of the hotel (rather than the side) but I could live with this since we were only there for two days.

Sunday night we knew we needed to eat because we are a family that does not miss meals. But, we were so tired and didn't feel like paying $40 for a steak in the hotel restaurant or trying to hunt down a good restaurant outside the hotel. Can you say lazy? So we ordered room service. I find this to be absolute decadence. Bacon cheeseburgers all around! There wasn't a table to eat on in our room, but Truett didn't seem to mind.

I was a little worried about the beaches, but it was obvious that sand had been trucked in they were in beautiful shape. On Monday, we rented an umbrella and two chairs and planned to stay there all day.

Truett spent most of his time lounging in the beach chair. When he did get up, he HAD to have his shoes on. Or he screamed. Really loudly. Lucky for us the beach was almost deserted, otherwise there would have been a lot more people who thought we were subjecting our child to abuse. Mallory ran all day long. From the sand to the water. Up and down the beach. She was just in heaven.

So I said earlier we had planned to stay on the beach all day. But ... as always happens, plans change. Truett needed a diaper change around 11:30a so I walked him across the street to take care of the situation. He fell asleep on the bed. Sweet peace! Finally, around 1ish or so he woke up and we decided to get a late lunch/early dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We went there last year when Michele and I went visited Galveston so I knew the food would be good. The unknown was how the kids would react to the "thunderstorms" and animals that move/make noises. Mallory was scared to death of it last year, but did great this time around. Truett held on to my arm for dear life during the thunderstorms! Food was delish ... and we ordered a volcano for dessert.


And that was the end of Galveston. On the way back to Dallas, we stopped at Buc-ees (yes, it's spelled that way) for a pit stop. It's a huge roadside spectacle in Madisonville. I ordered us some lunch and we picked up about $40 worth of junk food. Maybe we went a little overboard in retrospect. Anyway ... they have all kinds of crazy things around this place, including this family of fluffy bears that were out front. Being the dedicated Baylor Bear that I am I needed the kids to take a pic with my kin-folk. True cooperated, Mallory not so much.

And that about wrapped up our trip. A little too fast and not enough beach! Next time I will make sure we are there for three or more days. But, had to get home to take care of Truett's birthday party. That will be coming up in the blog soon ... very soon.

New toy

My new toy is ordered and will be on its way next week. By June 19 to be exact. Since it has a video function, I splurged and got the 32 gig. I can't wait. Shawn can't either since he gets my hand-me down iPhone.

Overheard: headaches

On the way to school, Thursday morning.



Mallory: Mommy, my head hurts.

Mommy: So does mine.

Mallory: My forehead hurts. So that means my head hurts too.

Mommy: Really? Wow ... good to know.

Holy weather situation

Last night we had some of the famous Tornado Alley thunderstorms. Mallory was beside herself with fear (ummm ... I had a shadow all night). Truett could care less. He was running around like nothing was happening. Even with the tornado sirens going off.

I thought the worst had passed last night, until Mallory crawled into bed with us sometime early this morning. I must have been in deep sleep because she kept telling me it was thundering and lightning when I told her to go back to her bed. Obviously I hadn't heard a thing. Eventually I succumbed and she crawled in bed with us.

But, when the alarm went off @ 6 a.m. the storms were still going strong. So, I decided to hang out at home for a while until they passed. The kids loved it ... a leisurely morning with breakfast at the table instead of in the car. An unusual occurrence in our house.

I dropped the kids off @ 8:30a and then ran into this on the way to work:

I wish I could have caught a pic of all the lightning. I will admit that I was a little freaked out as well! It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to drive 12 miles today. I'm exhausted already and the day hasn't even begun.

Happy Birthday, Truett

Happy 2nd birthday, sweet boy. You are my joy.

Spring cleaning

I've been in a mood to clean things up around here. That's one reason we did the garage sale last weekend. But, I didn't stop there. I put new storage in True's room. Isn't it pretty?! Makes my heart go pitter-patter. Unfortunately, he doesn't care too much about it.


See everything in the expedit? I used to have another bookcase in True's room. Everything you see in the expedit completely filled the other case. And ... there's only a few things in the colored bins.

Ahh ... sweet organization. It just feels better.

Fun in the sun

While the rest of the world works today and tomorrow, we are enjoying a little fun in the sun in Galveston, TX. Not the best beach in the world, but the kids aren't old enough to turn up their noses just yet!



The beaches along the Seawall are in great shape. Apparently they've been hauling in sand. It's pretty evident as the sand is soft ... and pretty darn clean for Galveston. Here's a quick video of Mallory from our first night here (Sunday).

Be back in a few days!