March 27 - Super Mom, Nanny B & The 5 Star Resort

Last week I traveled to Florida by myself with the kids. Yes, just call me 'Super Mom' from here on out. Rambunctious 2.5 yr old? Check. 5 month old baby? Check. Carseat/Stroller? Check. Carry on bags? Check. 15 frozen ounces of breastmilk? Check. Exhausted Mommy due to infant who doesn't sleep? Check. Okay...it honestly wasn't too bad. I checked in online but still had to check a bag (which was over 50lb and they charged me $50..oh well) and had to prove Luke was under age 2 by showing his birth certificate (no joke, Southwest actually checks this even though it is obvious he is under age 2). J.D. went into the airport with me and helped with the kids until I had to get in the security line. It did take awhile for our crew to get through security (luckily the airport wasn't busy) but we didn't have any major issues. Our flight was 100% full and we were lucky to have a girl who used to nanny sit in our row. Once we were airborne, Julia watched a Strawberry Shortcake DVD quietly and I snuggled with Luke. It was pretty uneventful. While we were landing, Julia became VERY excited about seeing Grammie and let out a high pitch squeal (ear piercing) but luckily she only did it once. Grammie and Uncle Chad met us at the airport and it was fab seeing them. After picking up the rental car, I had a quick lunch at the Yamo's and then headed to Gainesville with Luke.

It was great being in the office again surrounded by people. While I undoubtedly get more work done at home (I pretty much sit in meetings all day when I'm in the office), these quarterly trips always invigorate me. However, this trip was bittersweet because this was my first time away from Luke. My girlfriend Suzanne watched him on Wednesday and Thursday, while another friend, Karen, watched him Friday and my old neighbor Hannah (who we stayed with while we were in town) watched him Saturday.

On the first day (Wednesday) I called Suzanne mid-afternoon to see how he was doing and she said he was

refusing the bottle. I freaked out..but it tuns out right after we spoke, he passed out for 20min and woke up with a new tooth!

Then, he drank his bottle with no issues. All the ladies loved him to pieces (Suzanne said he's the best baby she's ever seen) and he had a great time. He also made a new furry friend, Bailey. Bailey is Amelia's old buddy, the pooch next door (Hannah and Mark's furry baby). Bailey (or Nanny B as Hannah nicknamed her) LOVED Luke. Check out Hannah's blog (Bailey & Co link on the right) for her take of our time there and some adorable pictures. I also go to spend some time with Jill and meet her new baby (Arthur, 7 months) for the first time. He is a mini-Jill and absolutely adorable. He is a super happy, smiley baby and wouldn't you know-neither Jill nor I had a camera to get a picture of our little men together. Darn.

Okay...now to my little Julia Bean. She had an absolutely amazing time at Grammie's. I'm now officially calling Grammie's house

"The 5 Star Resort" because she has such a great time every time she is there. They did so many fun things! They went to the beach (she loved the shells, walking with Grammie and Uncle Chad and building sand castles), the zoo (she told everyone she swings like the monkey's at gymnastics; she also wanted to feed the giraffes with Uncle Greg but was too scared when they came up to her, so he fed them), the aquarium (she really loved a mermaid statue!), the park and shopping (she is just like Grammie and loves shoes!). Uncle Chad also set up a baby pool for Julia on the back patio which she loved.

She had so much fun playing with Grammie, Uncle Chad, Uncle Greg, Aunt Nicole and of course, K.C. the cat (she carried him around everywhere...and even tried to put him in his litter pan a few times). Grammie also sewed her some adorable outfits!

Oh-this is fun. So we flew back last Monday on the 6:55am flight out of Tampa. It was an early morning to say the least. The first flight out on Monday is usually very busy and if I didn't have the kids, I would have missed the flight (I was able to bypass the ridiculously long security line because I had the kids). As we were boarding the plane I walked pass a girl in the airport that I knew-my old friend Teri. Teri was a diver at NYU when I dived at Emory and we met at a meet many moons ago. We used to be very close friends (even though we've only seen each other a handful of times in our lives) but we haven't talked much the last few years. She ended up being on the same flight and sat next to us. It was fabulous catching up and talking to her. She also works in the medical device industry so we were able to catch up on personal matters and "talk shop." Small world!

Special thanks to everyone who helped last week with the kids-Grammie, Uncle Chad, Uncle Greg, Aunt Nicole, Hannah, Mark, Nanny B, Suzanne, Karen, Teri (she helped on the plane with Luke).

Here some more adorable pictures of the bean. Enjoy!

Water Fun

Watering the Plants

Pool Fun

Julia Loves K.C.

She takes him everywhere!

No Joke-she even carries him outside!

This is one chill cat..who allows a 2.5 yr old to carry them around like that!

Another great photo of Julia & Grammie at the beach

I'll be posting again in a few days-we had another fun filled weekend here so there are a lot more photos to share. Hope you all had a great weekend!

March 22 - Best Weekend Ever

Happy Tuesday! A few weeks ago we had the B-E-S-T weekend ever. Seriously-the best ever. Our weekend fun-fest began Saturday morning with gymnastics (fun as usual). After Julia's nap, we went to her first ever soccer practice. She was so adorable in her little shin guards running around the indoor field. The session is 8 weeks and the coach is great. She worked with Julia to show her some introductory skills and Julia had a good time with the other kids. But the most fabulous part of soccer are the bouncy houses. Yes, you read that correctly, the bouncy houses. At the end of the practice 2 bouncy houses were filled with air and Julia asked me when she could bounce. I told her they were probably for a birthday party but another mother told me they were actually for the kids after practice. So, Julia's Saturday activities are now composed of:

*gymnastics - 1H

*soccer - 1H

*bouncing - about 1H

With all this activity I hoped she would sleep in Sunday..no such luck.

Okay-back to the B-E-S-T weekend ever. So Saturday, she had her first soccer practice and Sunday we went to the Houston Rodeo with the Root's.

It was amazing! There was a petting zoo, pony rides (she LOVED the pony ride and went on 3 times), bunny's, cows, carnival rides (which she is now tall enough to ride) and much more. All the kids had an amazing time and we really lucked out with perfect weather. Sunny and mid-70s. We'll be back next year!

After the rodeo, Julia went to a tea party at her friend Iris' house. They both got dressed up and drank "tea" (apple juice) out of little tea cups and had little desserts. It was so cute! After they polished off the "tea" they played outside. It was hilarious watching Julia run around the cul-de-sac in her fancy dress. Adorable! 2.5 is such a fun age!!

Welcome to the Houston Rodeo - J.D. and I were impressed with how friendly the entire staff was - Customer Service is definitely a priority for them!

Julia's Favorite - the pony ride!

Mommy's Favorite - the carnival rides!

Luke - he decided he wanted out of the stroller

Julia & Daddy with the Howdy "H" (she was adamant about seeing it and then was a tad afraid of it)

Julia's First Tea Party

March 5 - Purple Robots

Good morning. It's a grey, dreary, rainy Saturday morning here in Houston and perfect blog posting weather. Let's get started...I had a poll last week about what is the most challenging: meal planning, cleaning, lack of sleep or yard work. Without a doubt, meal planning is the hardest for me (I fully admit J.D. does all the yard work though, so it is possible that could take the cake if I actually had to mow). I survived primarily on pizza throughout college (who doesn't love a Totinos Party Pizza?) and when I lived alone in Austin, I had a rotating dinner menu comprised of grilled cheese, oatmeal, cereal or eggs. Obviously, that menu doesn't cut it for my hubby and tot so over the last year I made a valiant effort to create well balanced meals..but I failed miserably! I would always sit down to make the dinner menu and after writing down 'spaghetti' I went blank. A few months ago I stumbled upon this website (www.makedinnereasy.com) and it has been AMAZING. There are 5 meals posted weekly and best of all-an organized shopping list (broken out by dairy, produce, food in the aisle, etc). They have all been GREAT. A lot of them are things I never would have thought of (lasagna with cottage cheese..sounds gross but it was fab, braised short ribs, linguine in clam sauce, Italian soup) and they are all delicious. So, if any of you need some help in the kitchen, I highly recommend www.makedinnereasy.com.

In other news, Luke cut a tooth this morning! I "hope" he'll sleep better now it's out but I'm doubtful. Julia has been doing great. We've had a lot of play dates recently with our neighbor Iris and her best friend from school, Emma (and her sister Sarah). We also had her friend Jordan over last night and the girls had a great time. She moved up into a new class at school this week and now has show and tell. How fun is that? Every Friday they have a specific letter and need to bring in something that starts with that letter (that isn't a toy). Yesterday it was the letter "E" so she brought in her Elmo blanket. I'm not sure she totally understands the concept of show and tell but I'm pretty psyched about it! Her imagination continues to grow every day. Last night she told J.D. she was making him a purple robot. So cute! During bath time, she also feeds us imaginary food and makes up songs. Every day is an adventure with her!

Here are some more adorable pics of my dimpled munchkins!

Julia reading to Luke

Julia playing with her sand water table

Another cute one of Baby Luke

Have a great weekend everyone!

Feb 25 - Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Greetings Julia Bean and Master Luke fans. I titled this post "Rolling, Rolling, Rolling" because both of our dimpled munchkins have been on the move recently. At our last gymnastics class, Julia caught the eye of the development team coach. She was on the rings shouting "Push me higher Mommy!" and he asked me how old she was. Alex (the girl that teaches her class) then told him how she has been jumping off the 5' platform in the main gym into the pit when she was just over 1.5yr old. He observed her for the rest of the class and told me he was impressed with her motor skills and will be evaluating her for the development team "soon." I didn't get clarification on what "soon" means but it was exciting, yet somewhat scary. I don't know what age the club team starts but I would guess age 5. Who knows if she will want to continue to do gymnastics as she gets older (it's important to us to introduce her to different sports, like swimming and soccer) but right now, she loves it. Her friend Emma was at the house this weekend and the girls were doing backward somersaults off the couch...they taught themselves how to do it.

In Luke news, he is rolling all over the place these days! He can really get his legs up underneath him and sometimes it looks like he might start crawling. He also plays with is feet constantly and likes his hands in his mouth. His 4mon check up was last week and he is doing great: 13lb 5oz (10-20th percentile), 25.5

' (75th). He coos all the time and is overall, a pretty happy baby.

He still isn't a great sleeper, but it's slowly getting better. We started feeding him rice cereal last week (he loves it mixed with breast milk). Since he eats about every 2Hduring the day, I haven't been able to pump. The pediatrician recommended we give him one formula bottle at night so I could pump, but our little man was none too pleased with the bottle or formula (I wish I snapped a photo of his "what the heck are you trying to feed me?" face). Luckily, there was 1 night last week where he had 8H between feedings and I was able to pump. He successfully drank a bottle with breast milk, yeah! It's progress!!

Let's see, what else is new. We went to the Houston zoo last weekend and got an annual family membership. We're pretty excited to go back-Julia is still obsessed with the elephants and loved the merry-go-round. Oh-potty/toilet training update. She has been about 100% trained for a few months now. She wears pull-ups at night and for naps only. Yeah!!! We've tried underwear during nap time a few times and it's hit or miss.

Amelia also had the mass on her leg removed last week and great news-it is benign. Poor thing has to wear a plastic cone (the "cone of shame" many call it) for 10 days (so she doesn't pop the stitches open). I speak for everyone in our family when I say we look forward to the day that thing comes off. It is loud (when scraped against doors)

and the plastic hurts if she walks into us.

Happy Friday everyone-enjoy your weekend! Here are some more adorable photos of the kids. I must say, I have the cutest kids in the world. :)

First Meal

Amelia and the Cone

Julia - She insisted on wearing a dress to the park

I forgot to mention it's been gorgeous here-sunny and 70 with no humidity. A tad warm for February but perfect park weather!!

February 12 - Strawberry Cake

"I want to watch Strawberry Cake!"-Julia, first thing in the morning and when I pick her up from school. She is obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake (who she calls Strawberry Cake) recently. Cousin Victoria sent her a Strawberry Shortcake Valentine's card and she was beyond excited. Thanks V! I'm sure this is a phase (a few weeks ago she was all about 'Olivia' the pig) but I'm enjoying her enthusiasm since I used to be a fan of Strawberry back in the 80s. Yikes..the 80s...that seems so long ago.

So-yesterday was the celebration of the 4th anniversary of my 29th birthday (yes, you read that correctly) and it was a great day. Julia sang 'Happy Birthday Mommy' first thing in the morning and we opened presents right after breakfast. Julia picked out the Disney princess wrapping paper and helped me open the gifts.

The kids got me a cookbook (about cooking with kids) and J.D. got me a Coach purse. Once again babe-home run on the presents, thanks a million!!

We went to dinner last night with the Hargrave family (Brian and I share the same

birthday) at a nice restaurant which was a lot of fun and very tasty. Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes and for making my day special. Perhaps the best gift of all was Luke sleeping until 2:30am last night..thanks little man!

J.D. and Julia are baking a birthday cake for tonight and I'm sure it will be tasty!

Here are some cute family photos. Enjoy!

Mommy & Luke

Mommy & Julia

Daddy & Luke [he had to be held the entire dinner...that's our boy!]

February 4 - Snow Day

Greetings Julia Bean and Master Luke fans! (side note-Julia is our little bean, Luke so far has been Master Luke, Little Man, Little Dude or BabyLuke). We tried calling him Baby Bean for awhile but it just never really suited him). Anyway...we're officially having our first Houston snow day. I would gladly post a photo of the beautiful white wonder but alas, there isn't any. Yes, you read that correctly. We're having a snow day with no snow. You may be wondering, what does that mean? Well-due to the "chance" of snow (70% of 1-3" last night) school was closed early at 5pm yesterday and ALL local schools closed today. I think most of the city is shut down right now, no joke. J.D. went to the grocery store last night and people were stocking up on water and supplies. I just have to laugh. I realize we don't have snow plows, salt trucks, etc. down here like the north but the sun is so bright everything melts super fast anyhow. There is a light coating of ice on the cars but the sun is quickly taking care of that. I was hoping for some snow to play in with Julia and Amelia, so hopefully we'll get some before spring arrives.

In other news, Luke can now roll completely over and travels quite quickly around the floor. He also discovered his feet last night! So cute!! In Julia news, her imagination is really in full force. She sees rocket ships in the bathroom and loves to have conversations on the phone (one sided of course) with her friends from school. She also wants me to set up a playdate with Olivia (pig from 'Olivia' on nickjr) and Sid the Science Kid! She's been saying the funniest things lately too:

"Open your ears!" (when she is saying something and she doesn't think we're paying attention)

"No talking while eating" (she tells J.D. and I this when we are talking over dinner)

"I love you" (this has been really spontaneous lately and I LOVE it)

"I don't like Amelia but I love Ruby" (Ruby is my girlfriend Sarah's dog)

"I want to go on an airplane" (she knows we have to travel on airplanes to visit family)

Have a great Friday everyone!

January 22 - Curious George & The Pig

You know my daughter who doesn't really like tv that much or sweets? She's a thing of the past it seems. Over the last few weeks Julia has taken quite an interest in cartoons (as well as football, no joke). We definitely limit her tv time and she has a few new favorite shows. She is all about 'Curious George' (mommy-Curious George is making a messy!) and just this week 'the pig' (which is 'Olivia'). She can actually follow the story lines now and has commentary whiles she is watching. It is very cute.

Julia is still an avid reader (there are probably 10 books on her bed at all times) and her current favorites are the Pinkalicious books, Tinka (dog books) and Frosty the Snowman. I'm not joking when I say I've probably sang 'Frosty' a couple hundred times over the last month. Grandpa got her the book for her first Christmas and I'm glad she is enjoying it.

In other fun news, Julia best friend, Emma, had her 3rd birthday party at The Jumping Jungle last weekend. The Jumping Jungle is a bouncy house place where each party has it's own room with about 4 inflatable bouncy things. It was a ton of fun! There were a lot of kids and everyone had a great time. Julia already told us she wants her 3rd birthday party there.

Luke is doing great-he's been rolling over the last few days and is just a smiley little man. He is doing much better sleeping in his crib and doesn't need to be held so much. He's still super snugly too!

OH-GREAT news. Amelia has lost 5 lbs!!!! Woo hoo!! She's been overweight for awhile (she's technically still a little larger than most female labs but she's big boned). However, she does have a wart thing on her back leg that we are getting removed and biopsied so keep your fingers crossed that it is just a benign growth.

As for me, I am absolutely invigorated by the cold weather we've been experiencing, while my warm blooded hubby continues to look forward to spring. I'm also psyched because I have a book club meeting tonight-I'm looking forward to meeting new women in town and this will be my first night "out" since I had Luke. Granted, he'll be going with me, but I'll still be out of the house after 6pm. Exciting!

Well-time to get ready for gymnastics with my little bean. Have a fabulous Saturday everyone!

January 13 - Brr..It's Cold In Here

"Brr..It's Cold In Here! There must be some Toros in the atmosphere!" Fans of the movie 'Bring It On' are probably familiar with that cheer..okay, I'll wager most of you haven't seen this classic movie about high school cheerleaders and their choreography woes..but it's pure campy fun (you can catch it on TNT or TBS almost any given week). Anyhoo-it is chilly here in sunny Houston, at least by our standards. It is 30 right now! Amelia and I are LOVING it, Julia seems to like the cooler weather (so far she hasn't fought putting on her hat and mittens the last few days) while J.D., my warm blooded hubby is anxiously awaiting the return of spring/summer. I know the northeast is being hit by a big storm right now and hopefully you are all staying warm...and planning to take advantage of the powder by planning some ski adventures! Well-this is my first post of 2011 so let me wish you all a very Happy New Year! A few people have asked what kind of party we went to. Well...we have a newborn and a toddler so our celebration was pretty tame . To be honest-J.D. passed out on the couch around 9:30pm and I forgot it was New Years eve until I was walking the dog and thought "wow, a lot of people are having parties tonight." It wasn't until some fireworks went off that I remembered...pathetic, i know! So far, 2011 has been good to us. Julia is back at gymnastics on the weekends and enjoying every minute of it. She LOVES school and doesn't want to come home most days. It is a struggle to get her to stop playing and get in the car. J.D. and I had a parent/teacher conference the other day and she is doing great. Amazingly-she has never been in time-out there and plays with everyone. Occasionally she chit chats with her best buddy Lincoln during circle time and they have to be separated, but she always listens to the teacher. Developmentally, she is on target for her age and she's a "pleasure to have in class." Yay! In Luke news, our little man is becoming more independent. He will lay on his activity mat for about 20min and occasionally enjoys the swing. Sleeping is still a challenge but he does sleep in his crib for a few hours every night now-which is a huge improvement over a month ago. He loves to put his hands in his mouth (I think he might be teething) and has "found" his hands. He coos and makes noises all the time, it is adorable! He is also super smiley. Oh-fun, fun. Jill (one of my best friends from Gainesville) came to visit last weekend. It was a quick trip but it was fabulous seeing her and hanging out. We had a great time! As I type this I realize we didn't get any photos...darn it! Jill-if you are reading this, you'll just have to come out again to visit! :)

Here are some more fun photos - enjoy!

Just Call Her Tink

Our Little Super Hero!