Picture Day

I've been wanting to get some professional pictures of the kids.  Unfortunately, I was a bit spoiled by the friends I made who were taking up professional photography and offered me reduced rates.  Sticker shock for big city photographers encouraged me to give it a go myself.

After an hour and a half and about 150 pics taken, here are half of the keepers.  (There were a total of 12 keepers--yes, 12 out of 150.)

Tell you what...those photographers work hard for the money, so hard for ya honey!  I know I earned the few smiles I got!  And I won't have the benefit of all the mad editing skillz to make them look any better than they are right now.  But, I captured this moment and we all left happy (thanks to Grandma's help). That's huge--HUGE, I tell ya.

Related

The girls and I were scrolling down memory lane recently and I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison.

Can you tell we love our booster seat?  Three first birthdays, three different houses, three very different kids.  Can you tell they're related?  

First Haircut

He was overdue.  Just like C on her first birthday, Z was a mop-top cutie.

I summoned up my courage and decided to tackle the first cut myself.  After a good nap to recover from his birthday party, I put him in his chair to contain at least two limbs and gave him a snack, hoping it would occupy the other two.

That worked for half of his head.  Then he started grabbing for the scissors, flailing and arching his back, and generally protesting in every possible way.  I was really hoping to get it all done at once so we only had one mess to clean up, but we called it "part one" success.

I tried again at bath time, thinking I could finish up in a dry bathtub while he played with a trickle of water.  Even better, he climbed up the step stool to C's sink and played with the water there.  (And figured out how to turn the faucets on.)  His head was bent down so I could even out his neck line and he was fully captivated by the water, so I could trim up the remaining stranglers.

Ta da...

 Isn't he handsome?

Such a silly cutie!

We call this move, "using the force."  He likes to do this at mealtimes and giggles when we copy him.  He's using the force here to get mommy to put down her camera and hand over the food.  I think his Jedi skills improved with the haircut.

Birthday Boy

This little birthday boy had a great party, especially considering he was one week into missing his morning nap.  We started with cake; that always helps.

 He wasn't quite sure how to attack the cake, but it didn't take him long to figure it out.

Then we moved on to presents.  Hooray for trucks, tractors, cars, and planes!

Happy 1st Birthday, Z!  You keep us on our toes, keep us guessing, and keep us smiling.

Nature Center

I promised pics from our field trip to the Science and Nature Center.  Here they are (not quite two months late).

A's "giraffe" shell that she admired in the hands-on exploration room

C showing off the rock that caught her fancy.  Yes, this was the pose she chose.

Climbing on the concrete lilypads

Following big sis

My little paleontologists

Their favorite part of the day - throwing pebbles in the pond

At the Beach

We took a rare family vacation together last month to the beach.  Having littles so close together is tough on the vacation schedule, so we were overdue.  A had been begging to go to the beach, just knowing she was missing out on some marvelous adventure.  We were happy to oblige, though I knew deep down she would not be as enamored once she actually got there.

We left on a Thursday in a light rain, drove through a tornado, camped out in a Dairy Queen with no electricity for an hour, avoided some flooded roads, and finally arrived at bedtime.  Our friends who were meeting us there had an even more grueling trip.

Friday morning, J took the girls down to the beach to explore while Z took his morning nap.  I wasn't there to witness the drama, but J was thoroughly convinced the girls got all my genes when it comes to the beach and none of his.  Later that morning, I walked down with Z and got to participate in the fun.  There was no convincing the girls to get anywhere near the water.  We both tried carrying them to the waves, only to be climbed like trees.  A said it was too dark, too loud, and she was scared she would be washed out to sea.  C was speechless and just followed her big sister's example.  We hung out on the playground that afternoon.

Saturday morning, we went back to the beach to watch some sea turtles that had been rehabilitated be released back into the ocean.  A asked me on the way if we would see Diego.  (I think my kids watch way too much tv.)  I told her there would be animal rescuers there, but I wasn't sure what they would look like.  Just so you know...

Then we went to the Texas State Aquarium and saw all types of sea creatures up close.  We especially went for the dolphins.

That's A trying to reach the dolphin.  The aquarium had a fantastic splash pad that was probably the highlight of our trip for the kids.  They've asked several times if we could go back to the beach, but that line of questioning always ends with a splash pad.

On Sunday, we braved another trip down to the waves.  After all, that's why we went!  We didn't ask the girls to go in the water and they never got wet.  But they had a much better time, building sand castles with dad, racing friends down the beach, flying a kite.  It was a much better experience to remember.

You can always pick our family out of a crowd at an outdoor event....we're the ones with the hats.

J got to see if he remembered how to boogie board.  I didn't get to watch much because I was trying to keep Z from eating sand and crawling into the ocean.  I'm so grateful to my friend for capturing all the photos of us!

Z was pretty much fearless about the water.  I couldn't keep him from going toward it.  Once the waves hit his fingers, he would slow down because it was so cold.  But I think he may have got the lion's share of beach genes.  Or he just doesn't know better yet.

Sunday night was our last night in town, so we went to the souvenir shop and bought some requisite shells (which definitely did not come from a Texas beach).  And we took the requisite campy tourist photos.  The shark was another highlight for my girls.

No, I'm not dropping Z.  But yes, he is a wiggly little guy.

Our weather was much better on the return trip and we were all so glad to be home again.  Vacations are wonderful to expose you to new things, see life through a different lens, and make you grateful for the familiar.

My Goal This Week

Friends, this will be a long week at our house.  After a particularly stilted night of sleep on Friday, I drew my line in the sand and told Z he would get no more morning naps.  That was Saturday morning.  Today is Monday.  Did I mention it's going to be a looong week?

I'm hopeful that cutting his morning nap will help his afternoon nap grow to a reasonable length.  And the logic continues from there that a good afternoon nap will help him stay up a little later in the evening so that he sleeps through the night without occasional fussing and sleeps past 5am (yes, please!).

So this is a transition week for us.  I'm doing a lot of playing on the floor with him, breaking out a lot of things to play with that I would normally have saved for a few more months.  He's played with the bucket of dry noodles and tried the dishpan of water this morning.  His attention span is a healthy two minutes for these activities that I hope will distract him for ten.  And I'm trying to figure out how to still get things done without the usual 45-minute break I get during his morning nap.

I'm going to keep my eye on the prize and hope we're in a new routine in time for his birthday party this weekend, but I may be a glutton for punishment.

What are you doing this week?