Reunion

At the end of February, I had a reunion with my best friends from college and their families. It is such fun to get together with everyone and even more fun to watch everyone's kids grow up...and SO quickly!

We started off our Saturday at the park. It was an absolutely beautiful morning with lots of sunshine, hence J's attractive head-wear in this picture. :) Since P isn't walking, a playground can only be so fun for so long, which is why we brought our trusty back-up...books. :)


Here's sweet P just hanging out...

Here are all the kiddos. :) It's kind of a challenge to get them to all look at the camera at the same time. As you can tell, P was exceptionally excited about taking part in the pictures.

After the park, we went over to my college roomie's parents' house for lunch. They are always so kind to host all of us, as we are quite a group! 10 adults and 10 kids when we're all there!!! Here are Claire and Julia at the kids' table.

Not a great picture on my part, but here are the three older boys, Evan, Hudson, and Paul all enjoying lunch.

All the kiddos, minus P and Baby Cullen enjoying ice cream at the kids' table.

This is the newest addition to the group - Baby Cullen. He belongs to my college roommate, Karen. Pretty cute, huh? :) There are SO many boys in the group - 7 boys to 3 girls!

My sweet friend, Sarah's, daughter, Julia, LOVES babies (she's just like her mama!) :) Miss J couldn't get enough of little Cullen.

Admiring the handsome little man.

Here we all are!!! (minus Amanda :(...we missed you!)

Eve, Karen, Sarah, and me

I can't believe that I met these girls in 1998...which means we're going on 14 years of friendship!!! How is that even possible!?!? As always, it was such a joy to get together with everyone. Looking forward to the next time...

I thank my God every time I remember you.
-Philippians 1:3

We're Going to the ZOO, Zoo, zoo...

We celebrated the very last days of February by going to the Dallas Zoo! My sweet friend from church, Erin, texted me at 7:52 in the morning and said she knew it was last minute but wondered if P and I would want to join her and her daughter Felicity (who is all of 4 weeks older than P) at the zoo, since it was just 5 bucks until the end of the month. Of course I jumped on the opportunity (which, admittedly, is one of the fun things about being a stay-at-home-mom), and by 10:45 that morning, we were at the zoo.

Now, our zoo experience was a little less than exotic. ;) We spent most of our time in the kids' area looking at farm animals, birds, and fish, but we still had a great time!

Here are P and I up inside the habitat of some little rodent-y creatures that I forget the name of at the moment. :) We did get to have a close encounter with several of them through the plexiglas. Pretty fun (or at least I thought so!). :)

Felicity and P sharing a saddle. We like to pretend they are betrothed. :)

P riding solo.


The coolest part of the visit was getting to go inside the bird sanctuary. You could buy popsicle sticks with birdseed on them or a cup of mealworms (yum!) for $1 and go in and feed the birds, who are more than happy to take the food off your hands. I love P's face in this picture.

Sneak attack!


Of course, here I have this bird 8 inches away from my kid's face, and he was more interested in looking at the birds in the trees.

Oh, the science teacher in me was absolutely LOVING this!!! :) It was the first time (of many, I hope) that I was able to share my nerdy love of science with my son. Everyone always told me that being a SAHM would still allow me to be a teacher - just with a much smaller class size. But until this day, I had never really had the opportunity to combine my love for my son with my love for teaching science. It really was a significant moment for me, which sounds really dorky, but is really true.


P's lookin' a little unsure here.

Me looking up in the tree trying to figure out what in the world P is looking at when there are 2 live birds right in front of his nose! :)

Another cool close-encounter with a bird.

Couldn't help but think about adaptations for eating when I compared this bird's beak to the the beak of the cockatiels. :)

P was a little more interested in this guy.


Erin and Felicity feeding the birds.


Erin overcoming her fear of mealworms. :)

Erin was snapping these photos of us...I had no idea he was playing peak-a-boo. Pretty classic.

Checking out the koi.

More fun with the fish.


Miss Fliss checking out the fish.


I love this smile!!! :)

Checking out the penguins.

We had such a fun time, and I'm so thankful that we were able to enjoy it with good friends...and one who even snapped some great pictures of me and my kid - something that doesn't happen very often! :) Thanks, Erin!

February Highlights, Part 3

A few more little things I don't want to forget about the Peanut in February...

He LOVES to be outside. If we could live outside, he would probably give us the "Parents of the Year" Award. He lights up when you ask him if he "wants to go on a run" or "go play outside" or "go get the mail." He giggles with anticipation when we unlock our front door. In the mall, he HATES his stroller, but if we're in the great outdoors, he's pretty content for as long as you need him to be. I love this about him.

If you weren't with this little person all the time, you wouldn't know that this face is what you see right before he utters his favorite (and first) word: boom. He says boom when he throws things, bumps into things, slams doors, slams drawers, and falls down. He uses it quite appropriately. This is not to be confused with boo, which he says when he plays peek-a-boo, and although it sounds quite similar to boom, it is not. :) He also officially says kitty. He has said other words, but as J points out, we're just interested in the ones he uses correctly and frequently. :) If verbal skills are like any other milestone, he will just hold out and then start talking in complete sentences.

I adore this picture. I can't believe this little kid is mine. He's so stinkin' cute in-my-very-humble-and-not-biased-at-all opinion.

Same sentiments as above.

More thoughts...

When P wakes up from a nap and you go to get him out of his crib, he has started hugging you back around your neck. It melts my heart. He continues to give "nice pat, pats" on your back when you hold him/hug him because that's what his daddy has always done when he's held him. So sweet.

At the end of February (so 14 months) was when P started moving laterally around a room as long as he could hold onto something. He made giant strides in the area of "getting around" this month.

I love his translucent hair...and so does everybody else. People ALWAYS comment on it.

Playing with leaves in our backyard.

Those baby blues still get me.

Studying a leaf...maybe he'll love science like his mama. :)

Getting ready to "boom" the leaves.

It's a bird...it's a plane...

More exploring.

The grass is almost as good as the leaves...but not quite.


A good out-take shot. :) Look familiar?


We love you, sweet boy. Do we ever tell you that? ;)

February Highlights, Part 2...

Here are some more pictures of the Peanut from the month of February. :)

Hanging out by the window in our PJs.

Possibly contemplating "booming" some blocks...

I love his little waking-up face.

Cheese.

Crack monkey at the windowsill. Life is good.

Crack monkey and some stackable cups at the window sill...life is really good.


I could just eat this child up.

Laughing at his Daddy.

Being oh-so-kind and sharing his food with me. :)