17 months

Later is better then never...and one of these days I am going to get out of my funk, find the time and keep this thing properly updated. I think a redesign of the site in the next few weeks is what is called for, so if you come on here and just see something that looks pretty boring, know that I am working on a face lift.

This was a busy month. Mommy celebrated her birthday, daddy traveled a few times and Nana spent three weeks (it was supposed to be two and then daddy had another trip to take) with us! There is so much to write about, I hope I remember it all!

The month started with Nana arriving and daddy leaving the girls for almost a week. And what a week it was. We took J to the zoo (while the weather was still nice and we actually went twice while Nana was here, cheap entertainment since we have a yearly pass), she loved seeing the animals. We fed the giraffes, she just wanted to look at them, she wanted nothing to do with trying to feed them and pet them. She however, was all into feeding the fish and probably would have jumped into the pool if we would have let her. She was sticking her hand in the water like it was nothing and her hand was even going inside the koi's mouths!

Spring is not complete in Dallas without a blue bonnet/wildflower picture. I didn't feel like driving an hour to the bonnets so we drove about 20 minutes to near Auntie Rae's house where there was this gorgeous patch of wildflowers. Auntie Rae and Camille met up with us and we tag teamed J in the flowers with both of our cameras. We got quite a few good shots and Camille was a great helper keeping J moving around and entertained. Next year we'll try for the traditional bonnets but honestly I like the color of the wildflowers the best. Nana bought me a packet of wildflower seeds so I am going to try and grow them along our back fence.

The girl's celebrated mommy's birthday with some bubbly and cupcakes, although J decided she loved my strawberry cupcake and ate most of it herself! We had to settle for a share of the lemon, champagne and chocolate (over two night). J has been obsessed with the happy birthday song since and always ends it with "dear mommy". 

When daddy got back, mommy and daddy got away for a few days and had some much needed R&R at the Hyatt down in Hill Country. The idea for the weekend was to relax and drink by the pool and go to the spa. I got to go to the spa both days, however we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked by the pool, Texas weather at the end of April/early May is hit or miss. It is either still cool or unbearably hot, this year it decided to be cool and it was almost early afternoon until it was warm enough for these Floridian's to lay by the pool, let alone get in the chilled water. Oh well, we still relaxed, ate and drank way to much, went outlet mall shopping, checked out a DDD restaurant for breakfast one day and just had a nice weekend being kidless!

Nana and J had a grand ole time while she was here playing outside in the backyard, she's finally able to slide by herself, enjoying wagon rides around the neighborhood and to the park near our house, playing with her "Rella" (short for Cinderella) castle and with her new baby that she got. She learned to feed, burp and bathe the baby and Nana even taught her how to mimic the baby crying (gee thanks!).

We got to spend Mother's Day together this year (daddy was back traveling), last time we got to spend Mother's Day together (it is always closing at work) was when all of the girls got together in Chicago before we moved back. We spent the morning at the zoo, the afternoon playing at home and then had an easy dinner with come bubbly! It was a nice day and the first time I got to spend my day with my mom as a mom.

After three long and great weeks we had to say goodbye to Nana. She has to head home to get some R&R and prepare for the next trip to Jax to visit the other three grandkids, her Nana duties were calling there next. Big shout out to Pop Pop who puts up with all of this from the traveling Nana! He is always the one getting shafted and left behind in Miami to work. We'll get you to Dallas for a visit soon.

What else happened this month? J is even more talkative, she is a junior motor mouth (my nickname as a child) and is definitely my child when it comes to talking! She transitioned to the 18-24 month toddler room at school and is doing very well, even without her Wubbie that is no longer allowed at school, we still need to work on getting rid of it at home! She is already counting to 10 and is by far the smartest one in her class! At first I didn't believe it when I heard her, we were just working on one, two, three at home, guess they were practicing to 10 in her new classroom, I love her new teachers, they are really working and interacting with the kids. What a difference just a few weeks in her new room has made! Her second top tooth is finally cutting through, she's looked like a snaggle tooth for the last month now that her other top tooth is fully in, we now have 3.25 teeth!

Here are a lot of pictures from this month, probably the most I have taken in a while.