Ready for School!

I guess Tristan is ready to go back to school because here's what he told me this morning, completely out of the blue!

"Mommy, I want to go to school"
"I like school"
"I want to see my friends"

It was so sweet to hear come out of his little mouth but also made me want to cry a little bit. His speech and vocabularly are growing daily to where we are having actual conversations and that makes me realize just how much he is growing up and then the fact that he says "my friends" just gets me (don't know why, just does!).

A snapshot of my growing boy from a few weeks ago

My Digital Handiwork

Just wanted to post my latest Photoshop creation. I made this invitation for my friend's son's birthday party; she is doing an under the sea theme but accenting with polka dots so I went with that and ran. She printed the invite on a pearlized paper and it turned out super cute! I think I am learning more and more as I play around in Photoshop, but would definitely love to take a class one day in the future...

Invite Front (blacked out their address for safety!)

Invite Back

15 Month Check Up

I took Parker in for his 15 month well child check up and all is good in "Parker-land"! He was so good at his appointment and didn't even really cry when he got his shots...I told the nurse that his big brother has probably inflicted more pain on him (by accident most of the time) than any shot could ever do!

He's on track developmentally. He knows his name, can take his shoes off (which he does all the time!), can say a few words (more, up, go, mama, dada), starting to learn his body parts, follows simple directions (can throw his cup in the sink after he's done with it, picks up a toy if directed to), walks and runs, jumps (can get both feet off the ground on the trampoline and almos there ont he floor), and so much more. Seems like these days, he does whatever Tristan does...sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes not!

My only concern that I mentioned to the doctor was that he eats ALL THE TIME. His appointment was at 9 this morning so he had 8 ounces of milk when he woke up at 7:30 and a whole bowl of oatmeal plus some corn pops before we left. While at the doctor's office he polished off at least 1/3rd a sleeve of Ritz crackers and a ton of Cheerios, all before we left at 10 a.m. I told his doctor that I thought maybe he had a tape worm, and I wasn't kidding! He eats so much but isn't overweight by any means, just normal sized (or at least in my mind he is). But apparently he is growing like a weed and his body is just trying to keep up with his growth and all his nonstop activity!

Here's my big boy's official stats and a picture I snapped the other day (sorry about all the flash in the picture).

Height: almost 34 inches (99th percentile)
Weight: 28 pounds, 1 ounce (89th percentile)
Head: 19 inches (79th percentile)

I Might Need To Cut Back...

This might be evidence enough that I need to cut back on my intake of Diet Dr Pepper!!!!

Just Two Random Pictures...

No story or anything really interesting, just these two cute pictures from one of our trips to Fiesta Texas. Enjoy!

Tristan loves his characters!!!

Parker crashed out after a hard day!

Zoo School

I signed Tristan up for 2 "zoo school" sessions this summer at the San Antonio Zoo where he learned about "the giants at the zoo" and "spotted cats". Each session was held on a Friday for about an hour and consisted of a story about that week's topic, a quick craft, an animal interaction and a visit to some of the animals within the zoo.

The first week the kids learned about some of the bigger animals at the zoo, including the giant tortoises and made a little art project by gluing on some cutouts onto paper and then they got to touch one of the giant tortoise shell and pet a live turtle. The second week they made spotted masks using finger paint (oh so much fun with a 2 year old while trying to also contain a 1 year old who doesn't want to sit in his stroller!) and get to meet and pet a ferrett. Each time after the craft and animal interaction we got to venture out into the zoo and check out some of the animals. Unfortunately, it is still BLAZING HOT here so walking around the zoo is not at the top of my "fun things to so" list, but Tristan didn't seem to mind the heat, and poor Parker was confined to his stroller where he was at least shaded, but not the least bit excited about it.

The first week we were there, the zoo had a challenge going on for the kids where they would stop at different stations and do some sort of activity related to the animal the station was near and then receive a token. Once they got five tokens, the kids got to trade in the tokens for a prize...Tristan picked a jump rope for his price and LOVES it. The second week we decided to hit up the indoor kid play area after "school" and Parker was able to roam around and Mommy was able to take in a little bit of much needed A/C!

Originally I was going to sign up for more sessions, but am really glad I only did 2 since going to the zoo with my two "monkeys" when it feels like you are in a desert is a lot of work! Here's a few pics I snapped in between telling Tristan to listen to the teacher and keeping Parker from becoming a yummy little snack for some animal!

Tristan (brown shirt) and his buddy Kaeson checking out the turtle and giant shell

Tristan touching the fake turtle eggs in the kid area

Posing for a picture

Tristan and Kaeson

Sporting Kaeson's hat...a must wear in this heat when you are fair skinned like my babies!

Getting into push up position at one of the stations

Knox and Tristan taking a breather inside the kiddie area

Aawwww, hugs

Okay, so maybe Tristan wasn't "hugging" Knox, but at least they are both smiling, right?

Parker got to get out of the stroller and do some of his own exploring in the indoor kiddie area, he was so happy!

Such a character that kid is!

I feel like I haven't posted much about Parker lately, leaving the impression there's not much going on with him, which couldn't be more opposite from the truth!!! This kid is a CHARACTER...he's always into something, seriosuly he is like a tornado that just leaves a path of destruction everywhere he goes!

I don't know if it's that I just don't remember Tristan being this crazy or if Parker is really just one crazy little baby, but I'm leaning towards the latter. He has absolutely no fear or reservations, he just goes where he wants when he wants, asserts his opinion using his extremely high pitched squeals and well developed lungs, eats any and everything in sight, climbs in and on everything, teases everyone around him by tapping or hitting them and running away, forever loves to be chased, shows off the cutest smile usually when he is doing something he shouldn't be doing...all personality this kid!

So funny that when Parker was first born, we thought that he was going to be our mellow, laid back baby and Tristan was our wild man. Nope, instead we just ended up with two degrees of wild, wild (Tristan) and wilder (Parker). Here's where you can feel sorry for me as the mother of these two maniacs!

Parker's will be 15 months in about a week and is doing more and more each day. I just want to take a minute to write down a few fun things he does right now, and then I'll let you get to a few pictures of my little guy showing off his personality!

• Goes to his highchair when hungry or when asked if he's hungry
• Brings food out of the pantry when he's hungry
• Says "more" (or some version of it) when he runs out of food on his tray
• Says "yum, yum" when eating something he likes (are you noticing a pattern with the eating...this kid is always eating, I guess he needs the energy for all his daily activity)
• Eats with a fork pretty darn well for not even 15 months...can poke food and eats easily off the fork
• LOVES his "lovies"..anything soft or silky is a favorite for Parker
• Likes all of Tristan's toys
• Tries so hard to jump...he doesn't quite have it where both feet get off the ground at the same time but is really close!
• Still loves his cars and now really likes to scoot around on the ride-ons, usually following Tristan around the house
• Will suck his thumb or fingers if he can't get ahold of a pacifier and needs that soothing
• Likes to "play" basketball
• LOVES music and dances too (I guess I am going to have 2 musically inclined children, who knew??)

Well, I am sure there are more and I am going to update this post as I think of them (really for my own journaling), but that is it for now...on to a couple of pictures!

Stabbing his food with his fork

The face of determination

Mmmnnn, he got it

One of his favorite past times, he takes a bite and then turns to me with his fork hanging out of his mouth and laughs!

Really showing it off!

So silly

He's so vain

One of Tristan's favorite things to do is watch himself on TV or my video camera! I can't even video him anymore without flipping the screen around so he can see himself as I record...naturally, he looks right into the screen, instead of in the viewfinder, so most of the video of him is taken from the side and extremely close up, but at least it's some video of him!

Lately, instead of requesting certain TV shows or movies to watch he wants to sit at the computer and watch videos of himself...it is absolutely hilarious because he laughs at himself, points himself out on screen and says the same words he's saying in the video. I really need to record him watching himself!

A Fallen Hero

A friend of mine posted this video on his Facebook account and after watching it, I immediately posted it on my Facebook and wanted to post it here on my blog as well in order to reach as many people as possible. This video from last Sunday shows the return of a local fallen hero as he is brought home to New Braunfels to be laid to rest. It is quite touching and a reminder of all the men and women who fight for our country every day, and that we are just so lucky to live in this great country where people give their lives fighting for what they believe in. Thank you to Lance Corporal Brandon Lara, you are a true hero.

Pictures at the park in 100+ degree heat!

Back in the latter part of June I had some pictures taken of me in the kids at our local park for Parker's 1 year pictures. I never actually got around to doing any other 1 year pictures (besides the cake pictures) around his actual birthday and since he was already 13 months by then I figured I had better hop on the ball! Naturally, since we were going to be doing pictures I had the photographer take some shots of just Tristan and some of me with the boys as well.

The only down side to the photo shoot was that it was so incredibly hot outside, and we even did the pictures at 6 p.m. Oh well, it was a long hour and Parker was not the least bit cooperative...no big toothy smiles, just wanted his mommy the whole time or to be running around free, but she managed to get a couple of good shots. As for Tristan, he served up his big "cheese" smile when he wasn't too preoccupied by all the ducks at the park. Luckily, I got all the pictures on a Cd so I could pick and choose my favorites and print them myself. Here's a good sampling!