Children's Museum

Where's Waldo-I mean Lydia, Gloria, Elizabeth?



Monday mornings at the Austin Children's Museum is just for age 3 and under. We went as a family this morning and had a wonderful time. Gloria enjoyed crawling and playing with balls. Lydia loved running from thing to thing-the cow, the train, the dark room, the kitchen, story time, coloring, the fish, the potty, music makers, upstairs, blocks, the blocks shooting up a pipe. Gloria also took her morning nap on Elizabeth in the carrier.

Big sister is watching...

Happy Father's Day!

We worked VBS this week and all had a great time, Lydia and Caleb and a friend took a canoe out after the last day.

Getting the girls ready for church

Bath time! I love this because you can see their farmer's tans.

Fun/interesting things around our house:
Lydia is in the 90% for height. Sometimes she seems like a giant around her friends.
Gloria has started crying when we leave her in childcare (not for long and hopefully it won't be a long stage). Still no teeth but she is eating finger foods (puffs, Cheerios, cheese) and yesterday we gave her her first french fry.
The other day Lydia said she wanted to get married and I asked her who her favorite boy friend is and she said Daddy, I told her that she couldn't marry Daddy because he was married to me but she said NO, I'm going to marry Daddy (people talk about this and I can't believe it actually happened!) So Happy Fathers Day!

Beach comparison!

Caleb's 30!

Caleb's 30th Birthday dinner at Trout Street on the water.
Last year on this day we were in Cancun Mexico and since we are Aggies and we've been at the beach two years in a row so its now officially a tradition and we must do it forever!

Family Fun in Port A

The Birding Center
Shark Attack and our little cottage.

Before and After. We tried to stop her (paci, holding her, on a mat, but all to no avail so we just let her have a great time).

The beach!

Waves!
Covering up toes in the sand!

Notice their matching Butterfly/Ladybug swimsuits.

Port A!

We returned to Port Aransas (where we lived from May 06-May 07) for a family vacation. Overall it was great!
We arrived and checked into our hotel (six little cottages owned by someone we went to church with-King Fish Courts), which had a fun little playground. Then we got chicken at IGA and had a picnic on the beach. It was a Saturday and was so crowded.
Sunday was Caleb's birthday so we dropped him and his kayak off to go fishing. The girls went back to the cottage for breakfast, nap and playing and then got ready for church. Lydia and Gloria had fun in the nursery while Elizabeth got to see lots of old friends. Then back to the cottages for lunch. SuperMom of two (I felt like it) got the girls ready, strapped Gloria on, had Lydia in the stroller and walked to the beach. We played for a while before heading back for a nap (Gloria only of course). We picked Caleb up and went out to eat a fancy restaurant (Trout Street). Did the touristy shark picture. Then we saw a new UTMSI baby and his parents. Then to the birding center. And back to bed.
Monday morning after breakfast we all headed to the beach. Then Caleb and Lydia went fishing, while Gloria napped and Elizabeth cleaned everything up. Got Subway for lunch and ate at the park overlooking the ship channel. We saw turtles and sea gulls and right at the end a few dolphins. Then we headed back to Austin.

High/Funny Points-
Lydia was WONDERFUL in the car (especially considering one of my most tramatic times as a parents was this same drive when she was a baby)
Caleb caught two red fish.
Lydia liking walking through the tourist shop's shark's belly-like Jonah.
Running into the waves.
Building sand castles.
A full moon. Awesome weather-cool breeze and warm sun.
Seeing red ibis and spoonbills and other fun birds at the birding center. Our cottages also had some exotic birds.
Gloria's toes wiggling out of the sand two seconds after we covered them.
Gloria tans (we think she gets it from Grandpa Boyd as he is the only with any color) and the little baby fat creases in her ankles stayed white while the rest of her got brown.
When Caleb asked if Lydia caught any fish, she said-No Daddy, I didn't have a fishing pole. She also asked about the ocean-Who filled up this water?

Low points-A few times I wondered why we do this to ourselves in the name of fun :)
Gloria not doing so hot in the car (she is a great napper so we hoped to get two hours of sleep time in the car but both ways she only napped for 30 mins)
Mesquito bites
Sunburns (Caleb's face and E's back, the girls are good)
Gloria ingesting pounds of sand!
Sisters having a hard time sleeping in a new place and Gloria deciding to start the day around 6 each morning!
We both gained 3 lbs! (which reminds me of a high point being we ate a whole package of mint oreos in a two days!)
Lydia standing naked in the middle of the cottage crying I WANT TO GO HOME!
And here we are, we survived our first family vacation and had a great time (more pictures to follow)!

Potty Power

Warning: if you don't want to know the ins and outs of Harris potty training don't bother reading this post!
This is what we do almost every morning-both girls sit on the potty. Gloria was almost always doing a poopoo first thing in the morning, so I started putting her on the potty when Lydia would sit too. Now most of the time, she goes in the potty. Lydia always says, "Good job Gloria." Now we need to get Lydia to poopoo on the potty. It's been several weeks since she has had a peepee accident but everyday, I put her in a diaper for rest time and after a while she will knock on the door and say, "Mommy, I have a poopo." and then I change it. We just can't get her to go in the potty. I am thinking it will just take time. We are just happy she is interested in using it at all after she regressed for about six months after Gloria was born.
So this my life now, we spend lots of time in the bathroom (as you can see it has a Texas theme)!