Father's Day Photo Shoot

Today the stars aligned -- the boys wore unstained, matching clothes, they were simultaneously in a good mood, and we had a few minutes before we needed to be eating/going somewhere/taking a nap. So we seized the opportunity and took some family pictures!

While not all of them turned out well...

...and some turned out strangely...

and sometimes we didn't all make it in the picture before the automatic timer went off...

we did manage to get a couple of pictures that I am very happy with!

Happy Father's Day!

Memorial Day

Over Memorial Day weekend we road a ferry and a trolley at Waterway Square. Ian had seen a trolley in a book and when I told him we were going to ride one that day he couldn't contain his excitement. He has never retrieved his 'sandal shoes' so quickly and his smile didn't fade all day. On the way over there, he kept saying "Joseph excited! And Ian excited!"

We rode the boat first and though Ian loved it (see how he was pointing at and dragging me toward the boat?) he didn't forget that a trolley had also been promised.


We got off the boat to eat a picnic by the fountains. It was a gorgeous, dry, breezy day.
When we finished eating, there were no trolleys passing by. So we began walking the trolley route on our way back to the car, hoping we could ride one the rest of the way back. When we finally saw one we were less than a block from our car. But since Ian was so excited to ride it, we crossed a street and backtracked to get on it, then rode it all around town before it dropped us back at our car. And it was totally worth it. We sat in the back and Ian waved and blew kisses to all the cars behind us!

It was such a fun family day!

This picture was taken a week ago. I put Joseph down for a nap and a few minutes later I noticed Ian had also disappeared. I found him in Joseph's room -- evidently Joseph had been fussing so Ian took Joseph a car to play with. Joseph also thought his was a great idea.
Recently Ian climbed over the side of the pack n play and fell to the floor. Joseph laughed really hard, even though Ian landed on top of him. Now Ian always says he wants to wake up Joseph and "get in his bed and laugh". When Ian tried to recreate it, he landed on his face and got a bloody nose.

The boys are becoming better friends. Though Ian doesn't like it when "Joseph looking at you!" and doesn't enjoy sharing his toys, my heart melts when I see the boys playing along side each other and occasionally interacting for a fleeting moment before Ian remembers his role as Chief Tormentor. I love being the mother of these boys!

Great Mama & Great Grandpa!

My grandparents began a cross-country trip back in December when they came down to Houston for Joseph's baby blessing. They continued on toward Virginia with many stops to kiss and visit grandkids along the way. In the middle of April they began their trip home -more than four months since they left their home in Arizona!- and on their way home they passed through Houston once more! We were delighted to have them visit and it was fun to think back on how Joseph was just a newborn last time they were here.

We had some fun adventures downtown during heavy rain, when water on the feeder roads rose to the height of the freeway. We were on a mission to get some cowboy boots for my grandpa, and since we felt it nearly cost our lives to get down there, I decided to get some boots for Scott and I too. If you are ever in Houston and need to look the part, pick up some boots at Texas Junk Company. They have literally hundreds to choose from. In each size.

That night we attended a western themed church party and ate some of the best brisket I have ever had.

Ian played under the table while Great Grandpa fixed the clock.

Bye Bye Binkie

After my mom left the boys and I all took a few days to mourn. For Ian, this manifested itself in his unwillingness to nap. He would cry for an entire two hours at each nap time and not sleep at all. This from a kid who has happily laid down for his regularly scheduled naptimes every day for the last 2 years. It was bizarre. And so frustrating.

And during his two hours of crying he would soak his shirt with tears, and chew on his binkie. And on day two of this, he chewed the tip right off. When I went to get him up, he explained to me that "Ian sad because" his binkie had "Bonked" and had "Broken. Down."

For the last year Ian has insisted on one particular binkie, and accepted no substitutes. Even the right brand and nipple type in new patterns and colors made the binkie invalid. And since MAM apparently discontinued The Binkie we were left with no other option. 'Try the Internet,' you say. 'The Internet has everything.' Alas, even the Internet failed us this time. And fearing that the day would come that we would be without any more binkies, I have for months stopped the mother of every child I have seen with this binkie, and after following every lead, I have come up empty handed.

And so when I saw that The Last Binkie on Earth had a hole in it, I know we were in for some wailing and gnashing of teeth. Since Ian had bit the hole himself, he didn't question it or show any resentment -- he just accepted that his binkie no longer did what it used to do. Seeing this, I decided to allow Ian to decide if he wanted to keep it around or not. So that night I clipped his "broken down" binkie to his shirt as always, and watched as Ian pitifully held the binkie to his mouth as he tried to fall asleep.

We've taken the "broken down" binkie to the zoo, the doctors office, to playgroup, each time with it clipped to his shirt as usual, but lacking all the usual comfort it once provided. He still asks for it at nap time.

Don't get the impression that this was an easy transition -- Ian continued to cry for two hours during each naptime and for more than an hour at bedtime. And he would wake several times a night crying when he couldn't reinsert his binkie and fall back to sleep. He simply couldn't do it without the binkie. If I could have gotten a hold of a new binkie I would have thankfully abandoned our Bye Bye Binkie plan. We even took a trip to the store in hopes of persuading Ian to accept one of the new binkies MAM created. No go.

And the worst part of it all was that Joseph began sleeping through the night the EXACT day that Ian stopped. I cannot describe my dissapointment and desperation at this occurance. Now while Joseph slept peacefully, I listened to Ian scream and pulled my hair out.

On day 8 Ian finally fell asleep at naptime. After silently rejoicing, I spend my few moments of calm and quietude cleaning up around the house. And during this effort I emptied a diaper bag and found The True Last Binkie on Earth -- we had one more the whole time. Had this binkie turned up a day sooner, there would be no post about all of this -- I would have certainly given him the binkie and postponed this fight for another day. But since he was then taking his very first nap, I place the binkie on a high shelf and knew that Ian's days with a binkie were officially over.