Thanksgiving

What a perfect Turkey.

A Walk

Timmy can walk pretty far. He wore out on the way home and rode on Daddy's shoulders. I didn't think we'd go very far and left Lexa with Mom and Sara. Oops.

Checking out some Spanish moss

Becoming a mom was a big adjustment for me when Timmy was born. My whole life and purpose in life changed. I went from being an independent person to a completely not independent mom. I remember reading all the baby books and taking notes. Everything was so extremely important, and I had to know what was right. I was a crazy person. I was actually surprised to find out how much more difficult taking care of a baby was than taking care of a dog. I couldn't have imagined how much my life would change and how much I would love him. Now anytime I see a movie or read something with a child in it in danger or hurt I get so much more emotional about it and see it from a completely different perspective as a mom. I also have a new appreciation and understanding for my own mom, she having done all of this before. Now I love hearing her talk about her experiences when my sister and I were babies and toddlers. I have been much more laid back with my second baby. I don't worry about how long ago Lexa nursed or what time she napped, ect.

It's still been so hard at times. I was scared when my mom left after Lexa was born. Patrick started work, and I was alone with both of them to take care of. Some days I find I keep looking at the clock when it's getting closer to when Patrick gets home, hoping he won't try to get on the computer or take a shower or anything. I've been doing it though. It's really hard when they both need me at the same time, having to chase Timmy around while holding a baby, not being able to carry both of them when Timmy's not cooperating, times when they're both crying. Timmy's seems to have gotten used to Lexa now. He understands that he has to wait for what he wants until Lexa is finished nursing.

I also get bored playing cars and blocks all the time. If they actually sleep at the same time I'm usually sitting there completely worn out or even more often running for a book or the computer because I really need to spend some time doing something interesting. I tried getting back up at night after they're both asleep to pick up the house, exercise, take a bath, and read a little, but it gets so late and then I'm so tired, so I don't know if that will work.

I've noticed the last couple of weeks I've been getting more and more stressed out or something because sometimes Timmy's screaming or doing something he shouldn't and I just really feel like starting to scream myself. I've never felt like that before with him. He tore the tape out of our VHS wedding video and I actually did scream. Timmy cried and told me to put the tape back in, and I told him it was broken, and I was sorry that I yelled. It usually doesn't seem to matter to Timmy whether I yell and get completely angry or tell him to stop with no emotion at all. I need to just stay calm. Patrick said I have no joy anymore. That's really said. I've started to try to have fun and just be silly and goofy with him and with Timmy more often.

I felt so much better and more like myself today. Maybe it's because nobody's sick for the moment, Timmy's ear infection is better, I'm looking forward to spending some time at my parents' house over Thanksgiving, which I expect to be more relaxing, I won't have to worry about cleaning or meals, and I've just had several breaks, Patrick took Timmy to the A&M game on Saturday, I went to mom's club craft night that night, Timmy and Patrick went to the store and the park Sunday morning, and I went to book club with just Lexa last night.

I just thought I should write down some of the hard stuff as well as the wonderful stuff during this time in our lives.

Kids These Days

Baby WOW

Moms club had yoga at our meeting today. I took Lexa and laid her on the yoga mat with me, and she was uncharacteristically loud the whole time in the quiet room, making happy baby noises. I was worried she was bothering everyone, but they all said it was so sweet and nice to hear her and remember those little baby sounds.

Mega Block Shoes

Dancing to music with earphones on

Playing in Fall Flowers

Well, I'm going to try to catch up with these blogs, one at a time. Why is it that when you have so much to write about, there's just no time to write it.

I just love these pictures of Timmy in the pink flowers.

Tractors and Dump Trucks

On Friday, the kids and I went with the Moms club to Dewberry Farm. As soon as we got there Timmy started chasing butterflies in a flower patch filled with pretty red, yellow, and orange flowers, almost as tall as he is. I had my camera with me, ready to take lots of pictures of all the cute photo opportunities we were sure to have, I grabbed it, only to discover that the battery is dead!
We had a great day there. Here are some photos of Timmy that you can imagine in your head: Timmy going on a hayride in a covered wagon pulled by a red tractor, Timmy walking around a big pumpkin patch where the pumpkins were growing in the field, Timmy riding on a little Timmy-size tractor with pedals, Timmy sitting on a big, antique John Deere tractor, Timmy watching a chicken puppet show (I had a hard time pulling him away from this to do any of the other fun stuff there, don't know why this was so interesting), Timmy feeding a goat (they had this walkway where the goats would walk high in the air. Timmy thought it was funny.), Timmy being chased by a goose as big as he is (I picked him up and carried him far away from it), Timmy looking at a horse and her colt, chickens and chicks(his favorite), piglets, and donkeys in the barn, Timmy climbing into a big wooden fort, sliding down slides, crawling through tunnels, climbing to the top of a pile of hay bales, and playing on a big inflated bouncy thing which I cannot describe (Timmy hasn't learned how to jump yet, so he was enjoying running across it.) The last thing we did there was to walk through a HUGE maze in a corn field. I think I could have gotten lost in there. I let Timmy pick the direction each time we came to a fork in the path, and, fortunately, he just led us in a small circle and then back out the entrance.

A few weeks ago we went on another outing with the Mom's Club, this time to the city landfill. Everyone I've told this to, has said something like, "Hmm...Okay.." It was a little bit stinky, but we went on a bus tour of it, and, Timmy, with his great interest in vehicles, really enjoyed watching the garbage trucks, bulldozers, and dump trucks dumping trash.

Timmy Stuff

Getting into some scotch tape.

"Solving mysteries." He likes looking at things and making them bigger with his magnifying glass.


Playing daddy. He put on Patrick's hat, watch, ring, shoes and socks, then sat down at Patrick's spot at the kitchen table and said he wanted some big meat with spaghetti on top.

Then, finally, asleep in the chair.

He was sick last week and was crying that he had a strawberry in his nose and a bug in his ear. (a stuffy nose and an ear infection.) Poor little guy.

The other day he grabbed a whisk off the kitchen counter and said, "Let's make chocolate soup." I like the way he thinks. Sounds good to me. :)

Sometimes he'll find a piece of hair on the floor and put it back on my head.

He's started to say please sometimes when he really wants something, without even being prompted to at all.

I wore the same jeans a few days this week and when I went to wash them, I found the pockets full of things I had taken away from Timmy. There were some nails, a safety pin, a button, some trash from the playground...

Happy Girl

We finally got a picture of Lexa's great smile while Patrick's mom was holding her. She makes a loud little "EH" noise when she is amused sometimes.

She had her 4 month check up yesterday and didn't like it. Timmy was with us and kept telling me, "Lexa is crying, Mommy. Pick her up." She's healthy and doing well. She's still off the doctor's charts for size. She's an inch and half taller than 4 month old Timmy was. I think she's tall like her Granny.

Lexa likes to cross her feet. She does this a lot. Such a cute little lady.

(Timmy keeps taking off his clothes, so every time the he does something I want to take a picture of, I end up with pictures of him in just his diaper. I dressed him three times today, then just gave up. He's been trying to get away with taking his diaper off too, Grrr! Yesterday he got it off and was running around the house naked, squealing with joy and saying "Whoa!")

Baby Lexa

Our little baby girl is growing so fast. It seems to be going by even faster the second time around. She's four months old now. She's getting more and more fun. She is such a joy. A happy baby. She doesn't like being put down lately. I try to lay her on her back on her play mat and she rolls onto her tummy in no time, then starts to fuss. She doesn't like riding in the car either, cries most of the time if she's awake in the car. She smiles and coos the rest of the time, watching everything, touching and grabbing things more now. She loves it when Mommy talks to her. She loves watching Timmy too. She smiles so sweetly at him while he's driving me crazy, messing with her for the hundredth time. I love cuddling with her. I snuggle as often as I can since I know that all too soon she will be way to active to have time to just snuggle with me. She has really found her voice again lately... she likes to talk to us. She is such a joy. My heart swells with joy when I look at her. So cute, so cuddly chubby, so precious, what a sweetheart.

Gotcha!

Lexa loves to be held up over my head like she's flying. She always gets a huge, joyful grin on her face. I tried to take a picture of her happily flying today. This is what I got instead. HA.

Sweet Timmy

At bedtime sometimes Timmy hugs me, kisses me, pats me on the head, then lays down, takes my arms and wraps them around him.

He likes to pick wildflowers in the backyard (wild onions right now) and give them to me, saying "Here's some nice flowers for Mommy" .

Every morning he wakes me up saying, "Mommy, the sun is shining. It's time to wake up", in a happy, sweet voice.

Sometimes he holds my face between his hands and says "I love you" or "Mommy loves you."

The other day he said, "I don't like our white house. Let's go to our brown house." It was when we wasn't feeling well, and I was trying to clean the kitchen. Later that day, while I was changing his diaper, he asked me to put Lexa back in my belly button. Poor little Timmy.

Today we were dogs, from Clifford, the Big Red Dog. I was T-bone, Timmy was Clifford, Lexa was Cleo, and Patrick, who was at work, was KC, the paraplegic dog. Later we were the cars from the Cars movie. I was Mater, Timmy was Lightning McQueen, Lexa was Sally, and Patrick was Ramone, which Timmy pronounces 'mone.

Timmy has just discovered his throat. Yesterday he told us there's a crack in his mouth. While he was eating today, he explained to me that the food was going down his throat.

He did great at playgroup today, sharing his cars with a bunch of kids, and sharing the other toys too, mostly when the kids weren't interested in them. He tries to stuff toys into their hands that they don't really want. He still tends to grab the ones they do want more often, but he's getting so much better and understands taking turns, sometimes even instigating the turn taking. The other kids were enjoying playing with him today because he was telling them what to imagine - that he was a dog next to a house and they were fishing.

More Costumes

Timmy loves to dress up in costumes. The kids went to playgroup last week in costumes. Timmy wore his dragon costume from Halloween last year. He had lots of fun being the dragon and roaring while chasing the other kids around.

Baby bear. What a cutie!

Lexa already had a monkey costume, but I couldn't resist the bear costume when I saw it. It's the one I wanted to get for Timmy for his Halloween costume when he was a baby, but Patrick had already gotten him the Yoda costume.

Cowboy Timmy at home.

Happy Halloween

Mom and Sara came to celebrate Halloween with us. We all dressed up.

As a crazy old lady we met put it, The Great Naturalist and her Chimp

Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

A Candy Corn and a Devil with a Blue Dress On

In the afternoon Timmy and I went to a carnival. Timmy played a toss the bean bag through the hole on the scarecrow game, but Timmy decided to just walk up to the scarecrow and drop the bean bags through the hole. It was cute. We ate snow cones and I stood in line to take a picture of Timmy sitting on a hay bale surrounded by pumpkins, but right when we got to the front of the line, they announced over the loud speaker that they were giving away the pumpkins and children swarmed over us from all around and started picking up and carrying away the pumpkins. In less than a minute there were no more pumpkins. Here's a picture of Timmy as a kid removes the pumpkin from behind him.

In the evening we all went to a Halloween carnival with kiddie games, bouncy castles, and a trunk or treat (tricking or treating from car to decorated car in a parking lot). Timmy tentatively went into a scuby doo bouncy castle, only to have it immediately start to collapse because the hose fell out or something. Now I'm sure he won't be willing to go into another one for quite awhile. He kept saying that "it will crush you." He loved seeing all the other kids in their costumes and seeing his daddy as the man in the yellow hat. After the carnival we came home and mom made caramel apples. Sara made us grave yard dip (7 layer dip) and mummy dogs (pigs in a blanket) which we drank with vampire blood (punch). Timmy wanted to eat all of his candy. We had to hide it.

Timmy painted a pumpkin and I carved Thomas the train onto one. After that we played a couple of Halloween games, read a book to Timmy that granddad had picked out, Mater and the Ghost Light, and Timmy watched Micky Mouse clubhouse Trick or Treating. Now Timmy has started pretending that he is Pluto.