What We've Been Up To...

You know you haven't posted in awhile when you start getting requests... :)  And I've had 2 in the past 24 hours.  So, without further ado, here's what we've been up to - as seen through the lens of my iPhone.

 We've started going out to dinner on Friday nights as a family from time to time...Mexican, of course.  Turns out P loves chips and that they can occupy him for a good amount of time. :)  Before we had P, we would get Mexican food almost every Friday (don't judge).  It's nice that we're reaching a stage where we can venture out again without a full picnic dinner packed for P.

 

  The Nut got his first haircut on August 15th.  I was fairly nervous and definitely didn't want to lose all those precious baby curls...so it's probably more accurate to say we got a "tiny trim" as opposed to a "haircut."

   He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing - playing with my phone and eating a snack for the whole 7 minutes it lasted. 

 He wanted nothing to do with the cape or the hair dryer - both elicited crying...

  So he just ate some goldfish...

 And maybe a few strands of his golden locks, but he didn't seem to care. :) 

 We went to the Rangers game with K and B to celebrate my 32nd birthday, and even though they lost, we had a great time!

 P is absolutely obsessed with puzzles right now and is insanely good at them.  Grammy Share and Grandpa Ron brought this one back from their trip to La Jolla, CA.  Nothing like puzzles in the bathtub!

 Check out his super-cute shoes. :)  I had gone to Dillards a few weeks ago to find some new shoes that P could wear to church.  They had a precious pair of Sperry top-siders...that cost $45!!!  There was NO WAY I was going to pay that for a pair of shoes that would last the kid a few months.  Then I went home and remembered that probably 8 months ago I had purchased a pair of GAP loafers from a consignment store for probably $6.50 or so...

 And lo and behold - they fit!  Score one for mom - cute shoes for 85% less.  Not too shabby.

 Recently, we've been able to eat dinner together as a family most nights, which is great.  P almost always finishes eating before us, and so we pluck him out of his high chair, and he plays in the kitchen while we finish up.  Recently, he's been enjoying emptying out all of the baskets of toys and books.  We don't know if he's looking for something in particular, or if he just enjoys taking everything out.  Either way, the kitchen becomes an obstacle course after dinner!

 P got a pretty good boo boo at the church nursery while he was playing outside on a little playground...but he didn't cry, so no one even realized it happened.  Thankfully, it never seemed to bother him. :)

 I took advantage of a Facebook deal from Einstein's Brothers Bagels and combined that with a coupon we got in the mail, and P and I enjoyed a breakfast date for about $2.  It was my first pumpkin treat of the season - pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese...P seemed kind of indifferent to the bagel - and DEFINITELY wanted nothing to do with the cream cheese.

 We spent Labor Day out at the ranch.  Here's P with his cousin Whitney.  Hopefully there will be a full post dedicated to Labor Day - complete with stolen pictures from Aunt Ann, since I didn't take ONE! (Well, that's a lie, as I took this one...but that's it!) :)

 

 This picture has a funny story to go along with it - probably about a month ago, we went to church, and J left the service a little early to go and pick up Peanut so we could visit a little after the service without feeling like we had abandoned our child.  Pretty soon after the service ended, J appeared with P.  When I saw them, J motioned something to me, and I thought he was indicating that our child's belly was sticking out from his shirt (which it was).  So, I motioned back for him to pull the shirt down.  J then pointed at P's pants...or lack there of.  My child was in the exact outfit you see above - polo shirt, Converse tennis shoes, and a diaper.  No pants.  

Don't worry.  We did put pants on the kid before we went to church, because we're classy like that.  The message that was conveyed to J by the teacher in the room was that P's pants were in his bag, but that "it wasn't his fault." ???  We had no idea what that meant.  And when we got home, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the pants that were in his bag.  But whatever the case, J got to do a "holy walk of shame" through the halls of the church with our pant-less child. :)

Recently, P and I had a lunch date to Potbelly, and I don't know what he enjoyed more - the turkey sandwich or the guitar player. :)

 About two weeks ago, a cool front came through and we enjoyed some seasonally cooler temps.  We went for a walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed watching all the cars driving home from work.  We also picked up an acorn and carried it with us the entire time.  I can't wait for those cooler temps to come back...it's been in the 90's here the past few weeks...and HUMID!  Yuck!

 Here is P looking at his new favorite book, made by yours truly.  He LOVES looking at pictures of family members and having you name the person that he points to, so I made a book on Shutterfly with all of his family members and their names.  HE LOVES IT.

Here's a picture of one of the pages.  Did I mention that he loves it? :)

 I also made another book on Shutterfly - it's an ABC book (using a template they already have created) where you can put in your own pictures of meaningful people, places, and things for different letters.  I love the way it turned out, and he loves this one, too.

 I made a third Shutterfly book of pictures from my cousin's wedding (finally!), and I love the way it turned out, too (the page above on the right with all the small pictures shows all of our family members shooting skeet!) :)  So these three books are what I've been working on during nap time (among other things!)

So there you have it...that's what we've been up to for the past month or so. Consider yourself informed. :)

And one more makes three...

What a fun month this has been for reconnecting!  Last weekend J, P, and I went out to DFW (to the Grand Hyatt in the International Terminal to be exact) to spend some time with a very dear friend, Matt, and his family while they had a 5 hour layover.  Matt and I went to college together, were first year R.A.'s together, and then worked together for a year as Res. Life Coordinators for first year college students at our Alma mater.  He was an usher at our wedding, and I did a reading in his.  He is truly one of my favorite people in the entire world, and now when I get to see him, I get to see his wonderful family, too!

Here we all are...thanks, J, for taking the picture.  Matt's precious girls are 2.5 years and 5 months.  I kind of wanted to steal them, but don't tell their parents.  As you can see, P loves being held for pictures.  Sigh.  One bonus is that I tend to have a flexed bicep in most pictures where I am holding P, as I am desperately trying to restrain my child while wearing a cheery grin. :)

 Here's Miss J...is she not ridiculously cute!?!?  And she was so sweet to P - sharing toys, giving him high-fives, sharing her teddy grahams.  My child, on the other had, had several epic meltdowns and refused to share.  Nothing like making a great first impression, P.  Need a lesson in humbleness? - Have a kid. :)

 

Here are the kids playing puzzles, or maybe I should say J playing puzzles and P desperately trying to take control of the situation.

Even though it was a short visit, it was a great one.  It was the first time I got to meet their newest little one, and it was the first time they got to meet P.  You know you really like someone when you jump at the opportunity to go and hang out with them and your non-sharing 20 month old at the airport. :)  It was wonderful to see you (MK)^2 and (JK)^2...next time I hope it's for longer and doesn't have to involve corralling toddlers in an airport terminal. :)

Another visit with an old friend...

I am blessed.  I have had some pretty great friends in my life, and there are so many of them that I still keep in touch with, even though our paths don't get to cross regularly...whether that be because of busy schedules or because they live on the other side of the planet!

I got to see a dear friend from high school who I only get to see once a year because he lives on the other side of the planet...in Israel!  Eric, better known as Sammy, has been a buddy of mine since my high school band days.  We shared a love for music that might have gone beyond your "typical" band kid :), and we connected over that.  Eric and his dad (an incredibly accomplished professional jazz pianist) invited me to go to the Van Cliburn Piano Competition at Bass Hall in Fort Worth one year, and they also took me to hear UNT's "One O'Clock Lab Band" (an incredible jazz ensemble at the university).  I have such fond memories of both of those evenings, as it is a real treat to spend time around people who are such insane appreciators of all types of music! :)

Sammy is one of those people who has a gift for staying in touch, and I am SO thankful that he does!  In fact, he has spent time with the Peanut on three different occasions - kind of impressive considering the kid's only 20 months old and that Eric lives 7,000 miles away!

Here's a picture of the first time he met Parker in Feb. 2011 when P was just 6 weeks old!

 And here we are yesterday...P is throwing a fit fussing because Eric's mom is using my phone to take the picture, and P wants to play with my phone.  Lovely. :)

(As a fun side note, Eric's mom works with the newborns at the hospital where I delivered P, so she met P right after he was born!)

As it tends to go, visiting with a 20 month old doesn't allow for the most relaxing of conversations, but Sammy's an uncle, so he's a pro and rolls with the punches. :)

Again, I am so thankful that I have a loyal friend in someone like Sammy, and I pray that everyone can experience that kind of friendship in their life.  As Eric put in his e-mail, "The Hebrew is כן יהי רצון- ken yehi ratzon - may it be His will." Amen to that.

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend..."

My birthday celebration started early this year with a visit from my high school best friend, Justine.  Now, if you're doing your math, you'll realize that this means that we've known each other for (gulp) 17 years, although I think we would both tell you that we didn't really become good friends until our junior year and then joined at the hip our senior year...either way, we've been buds for a LONG time, and since it's been more or less since high school that we've lived in the same place for any significant amount of time, any chance to spend some time together is such a gift!

Justine pointed out that we probably hadn't been in the same place to celebrate my birthday since high school, so she thought we should live it up...I decided not to fight this idea, and thus ensued a wonderfully girly, relaxing, and maybe even semi-fancy birthday celebration.

Here we are post b-day celebration.

  We started off in the "semi-fancy" category going to eat at Seasons 52, which was really awesome. (It is earning its "semi-fancy" label because we had a choice of white or black napkins...kind of fancy for lunch - I'm just sayin.').  We split an eggplant flat bread and both got arugula salads with watermelon, grilled golden beets (a fave of Justine's...true confession - I'd never even heard of them, let alone tasted one...but they were good!), goat cheese, jicama, and toasted pistachios.  For dessert they have these "mini indulgences."  I busted out the camera phone to capture our choices - rocky road and pecan pie.  Both delicious. (Second confession - I could have eaten more than one...or maybe more than 2, but I showed some restraint.)

After lunch we took advantage of a Groupon and enjoyed massages and then pedicures and manicures.  Very girly.  Very fun.  Very relaxing.

 

After our relaxing afternoon, we came back to the house where Peanut showed Justine some of his tricks.  He helped her with the stacking rings...

And let her read him the Healthy Monster Triathlon book (a ridiculously funny find in the Target Dollar bin that helps me to explain to my child what his daddy is training for via Elmo and Telly!).

Our fun didn't end there.  I was also able to go and visit with her family the next day and meet their 2 new kittens!!! (shout out to Cleo and Theo!) and then enjoy some Starbucks and great conversation into the wee hours of the morning later that night, where we didn't solve all of the world's problems, but we sure tried! :)

(p.s. - Check out my cool girl nail color! - OPI's You Don't Know Jacques!)

It was SUCH fun to get to spend some quality time with one of my favorite people in the entire world. :)  I am reminded what a blessing it is to have a friend that even though you don't see often, when you do, you just hop right back on into things like a day hasn't even gone by.  Thanks for being that kind of friend, Justine...and thanks for such a wonderful b-day celebration! :)