Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

June 2012

One weekend, Nana made the trip from Houston to Dallas and Fort Worth to get her grandkid fix. Nana retired from her teaching job at the end of the school year (congrats, Nana!). Nana and Papa were in the process of building a house in Fort Worth, but until they had the opportunity to see the grandkids on a regular basis, Nana made the trip from Houston as often as she could!

 

While she was here, we headed to Dr. Pepper Ballpark to watch our local AA baseball team, the Frisco Roughriders. The stadium is really great for a AA ballpark and not too expensive - a really fun evening family outing.

 

In June in Texas, the heat is already scorching and we learned our lesson very quickly. Yes, I can be cheap at times, and I went for the cheaper tickets, which were, of course on the side of the stadium that isn't protected by the shade until the sun sets. We quickly moved into some open seats on the shaded side of the stadium, but made note that next time, the extra few dollars would be well worth it!

 

As we walked into the stadium, the man checking bags slipped a baseball into my backpack as a souvenir of Olivia's first trip to the ballpark. Of course, that ball quickly became Jack's ball and he proudly carried it around all night. Here's our little buy with his treasure - and some pretty cool shades!

Daddy carried Little Miss Olivia around for most of the game - I don't think she watched too much baseball :)

Here are Nana and Jack cooling off with some drinks. Poor little guy fell and hurt his wrist earlier in the day, so Daddy bandaged it up with an Ace bandage.

Finally, I love this one of my little man and I - shoes off after playing on the playground!

We're hoping to be able to catch a few more games in the future - it was a really fun evening!

Jack's First Trip to the Dentist

June 2012

 

One of my first outings with 2 kids by myself was to take Jack to his first dentist appointment.  I was really nervous that he would get scared, or Livi would implode, or both.  Luckily for everyone, the first dentist appointment went really well.  We went to a pediatric dentist, so Nemo was playing on a TV up above his head, and he got to choose a stuffed animal to hold while they cleaned his teeth.  Here he is before - what a happy guy!

Here is the teeth cleaning.  Jack is holding Nemo, while he is trying to watch Nemo on TV.  At least he's happy and isn't screaming his head off.

Dr. Davis examined Jack's teeth and proclaimed him cavity free, so he got to hold the giant toothbrush and have his picture taken for the no cavity wall.  Mom snapped one, too:

So we had a great first visit to the dentist.  If only the second (and third, fourth and fifth) could have been as pleasant...but that is a story for later...

 

Finally, these pictures don't really fit in this post at all, but I found them on my phone and wanted to be sure I posted them somewhere.  The first one is one of the first photos we took of Livi and Jack.  I love how proud he is to be holding her all by himself:

And finally, this is what I found one day when I went to pick Jack up from daycare - my cute little chef!



One Month Old!

June 2012

 

So Olivia just turned 10 months old, and once again, work has gotten in the way of my blogging, but I promised myself that I would keep the blog going, in order.  I'm sure that future me will look back and appreciate it, so now that busy season is over once again, I'll try to catch up a little bit.

 

We were so fortunate that Tommy got a whole month off work for paternity leave, but as Olivia's first month check up rolled around, Mommy was on her own.  Here we are headed to her one month check up.  Summer was upon us, so we had already removed the infant insert from the car seat.  It has only been 9 months, but looking at this picture today, I can't believe how tiny she looks.  She still seems so little to me now, its hard to believe she has grown so much!



And for comparison, here she is coming home from the hospital:

Dr. Le checked her out and proclaimed that she was in excellent health.  Here are her one-month stats:

Height: 22 inches (75th percentile

Weight 9 pounds, 3.5 ounces (50th percentile)

Head: 14 1/2 inches (50th percentile)

 

At one month, Olivia wasn't quite sleepimg through the night, but she was close.  At just 6 weeks old, Olivia blessed her Mommy and Daddy by sleeping a full 6-7 hours.  At that time, we just thought we had an amazing sleeper.  We didn't realize then that our full nights of sleep would come to an end around the time Mommy went back to work, but we definitely enjoyed it while we could!

 

We are trying our hardest to take as many pictures of Olivia as we did when Jack was born, but I now understand why parents always have so many fewer photos of the second child.  I still regret just a little that I didn't get any professional newborn photos taken of Olivia.  Tommy and I did our best to hold a few "photo shoots" while Jack was at school, but I have no doubt that Allison, our phographer would have had much better luck.  Still, with such a cute subject, there are bound to be a few good photos.  I can't believe how big her eyes are in this one:

Little sleepyhead:

Just like her brother, she studies everything with such focus, and has since she was just a couple days old.

These are were taken a couple of weeks later, when Tommy was already back to work. Here, it is painfully obvious that I am not a professional photographer.  Here she is in her first tutu, which I tried to lay artistically around her, but it just looks like she is sitting in a big circle.  The look on her face says it all - "Mommy, what the heck are you doing to me?!?"

No clothes, a little better, and a smile (sort of):

Tommy thinks this one is ridiculous, but I like it.  I got a few pieces of my Grandma Rose's jewelry out of my jewelry cabinet and thought I would see how it looked on her first great granddaughter.  Yes, it may be silly, but my intentions were good, and I think she looks adorable!

And, lest we forget, we still have a crazy 2 1/2 year-old running around.  He was attached to his sister from the moment he saw her and has been the best older brother I could have hoped for.  He's so sweet with her, I can totally see him teaching her to throw a baseball or kick a soccer ball a few years from now, sticking up for her if ever any other kids pick on her, and being at least as tough as Daddy on any would-be suitors who take an interest in his little "seester."

Here are some pictures of big brother Jack having some fun of his own on the slip and slide in the backyard:

I couldn't resist this one.  Even for the slip and slide, go get the swim diapers.  Oops!