Child Safety & Protection Festival

This weekend our neighborhood HOA sponsored its annual Child Safety & Protection Festival. Daddy and Joey went on Saturday morning and after taking care of business (aka getting his fingerprints taken), Joey was able to partake in all the fun activities the festival had to offer...

Don't make me cuff you...

Joey enjoying the petting zoo with goats, bunnies, geese and ducks (I'm sure that smelled great).

Joey and his friend Hannah. He's wondering to himself, "Why won't she share that yummy popsicle with me? And why won't my daddy buy a popsicle for me?"

Texas Tailgater

Joey attended his first UT tailgate this past weekend. We sold our game tickets but when we heard that the tailgating crowd would be a modest size due to Rice being the opponent (no offense to daddy), we thought this would be a good opportunity for Joey to be introduced to the tradition of Texas football tailgating. The loud music and crazy (er, inebriated) people were a little much for him at first, but once he got over the shock of the new surroundings he actually had a great time. Hook 'em!

Joey and daddy representing for Shotgun 30.

Munching on some grilled chicken.

Okay, now let's try the jambalaya!

Hmmm...have I overlooked any other food?

In front of the historic Scholz Garden on the walk back to the car.

Owen Magu

It's been awhile since I've posted any news on Baby Magu #2. Since our last update, we've decided on Owen Christopher for the name. Owen has no sentimental signifigance - it's just a name that both Brian and I like. The origin of the name is Celtic and it means 'young warrior'. Christopher is Brian's dad's middle name and the name that he goes by so we thought that would be a nice shout-out to Da (that's what the grandkids call him).

Because the umbilical cord issue that was diagnosed earlier in the pregnancy can sometimes cause a baby to not grow at a normal rate and also can cause problems in the development of some vital organs, we've been doing ultrasounds each month to closely monitor baby Owen. We are happy to report that Owen is right on track with his measurements and according to the doctor, he has a 'beautiful brain' and 'pretty kidneys'. As of this week (week 30), Owen weighs about 3 lbs., 6 ozs.

Owen would not let us see his face at this week's appointment (he was face down with both arms blocking his face), but at last month's appointment, the ultrasound tech was able to get a pretty good glimpse of his face in 3D. Already a cutie like his big bro!

p.s. For those of you who really know Brian, I know you're thinking that we're naming our child after his man-crush. Believe me, I have my suspicions too but I haven't been able to get him to admit to it so we'll just leave it at that.

p.p.s. Not to be outdone, here's a picture of me with the cute Wilson brother. I guess if we have a third boy we'll name him Luke???

Chop Joey

Dumb luck or extremely advanced motor skills? You be the judge...

School update - Week 2

Joey is starting to enjoy school a bit more this week...well, at least he's not crying as much as before! Here's a quick recap:

Monday
Four days away from school must have wiped out his memory of the prior week because he was still pretty happy on the car ride and even did a great job of walking into the school on his own. It was once we walked through the doors when he immediately turned to me and wanted to be held. The drop-off was predictably miserable as the big tears started rolling down his face as soon as we put him in his chair. I called the school twice that day to check in on him. The first time was around 10:00 and the teacher said his crying had turned into a slight whimpering. My second call was around lunchtime and this time the teacher told me it was two thumbs up and that he was quietly enjoying his food.

The comment card in his backpack for that day read:
Lunch...I ate everything
Disposition...Inquisitive
I liked...Barney books
Additional comments...Joey had a better day

Wednesday
By this day Joey recognized the school as soon as we turned into the parking lot. He was a bit hesitant about getting out of the car and demanded to be carried into the school. The drop-off was awful as he started crying as soon as the teacher poked her head out the door to say hello. Again it was huge teardrops, an angry red face and the crazy rolling R thing in the back of his throat (like he's speaking Spanish) that Joey does when he's really mad. I did not call to check in on him but at pick-up the teacher said that he stopped crying shortly after drop-off and that playing outside and playing with trucks in the room kept him busy all day.

The comment card in his backpack for that day read:
Lunch...I ate everything
Disposition...Inquisitive (still wondering what they mean by that)
I liked...outside
Additional comments...Had a good day

So we will just keep on keepin' on until that blissful day when Joey gleefully rushes into his classroom in such a hurry that he forgets to give mommy a goodbye kiss. I'm just thankful that we got Joey into school now so that he hopefully gets into a good routine before his little brother arrives (will post update on baby #2 later this week).

W-O-R-S-T mommy ever!

As if this week hasn't been traumatic enough for Joey with school starting, yesterday mommy put the cherry on top by accidentally locking Joey in the car in a shopping center parking lot. Before you freak out, you should know that Joey is completely fine (physically - who knows about his mental state???) and that luckily I had the car running with the A/C on full blast so the heat wasn't an issue either. Long story short, we'd just had lunch with our friends Kelly and her son Cristian, we said our goodbyes and I buckled Joey into his carseat. I had the car keys in hand and Joey managed to click on one of the buttons - apparently it was the lock button. I shut Joey's door and from the front passenger seat (the door was open b/c I'd put the diaper bag in that seat), started the ignition and turned on the A/C to cool off the car. I then closed that door and went around to the driver side door, pulled on the handle and realized I had locked myself out. At which time I went into full-on panic mode. Thankfully Kelly and Cristian were still getting settled into their car so I quickly waved them over to help. Kelly called 311 (my cell phone was in the diaper bag which was in the car) and they dispatched a fire truck to come unlock the car. I have to give props to emergency services - they sent over a full-on fire truck with the sirens blaring and when they pulled to a stop in front of Texadelphia, out jumped at least 5 firefighters. It was a little embarrassing, but also comforting to know that this type of help is readily available to dumb mommies like me. Anyways, they quickly unlocked the car door and I was able to give Joey a big I'm sorry hug before getting into the car (one of the firemen made some comment about holding the driver side door open for me just in case...ha ha ha) and driving home. Joey was a complete trooper while trapped inside the car. It was funny to him for the first 5 minutes when Kelly, Cristian and I were smiling and making faces at him from the outside. But for the last 5-10 minutes, I think he started wondering why we were all standing outside and he was inside the car alone. Even though Joey probably never knew what the heck was going on, I would like to issue a public apology to my baby and promise that this will never, ever happen again to him (and hopefully never to his little bro either). Plus if mommy's guilt builds up too much over the weekend, he might find a huge new train set waiting for him at home after school on Monday...

School update - Day 2

One of the moms in our playgroup warned me that the second day of school would probably be worse than the first day and she was definitely right on. This morning's drop-off started out okay. Joey had his backpack on and walked himself into the building and into the classroom. He sat down in his little chair and started eating Fruit Loops and Goldfish with no problem so mommy got a kiss goodbye and walked out. By the time I got to the outside window to peek in, though, he was already crying and screaming but I figured it couldn't last long. When I went to pick him up this afternoon, the teacher said that he cried all day with the exception of lunchtime where he nibbled on his food. He started crying again after lunch so she rocked him to sleep from 12:00 until he woke up crying again at 12:45. Now we're home and of course Joey's perfectly fine and normal. We finished his lunch when we got home and now he's in his crib - I might be pushing my luck but I'd love if he would take even a short little nap even though he's already gotten some shut eye today. No more school this week so we'll have to wait until next Monday to see if things get even worse before they get better!

Wedding weekend in SA

We spent this past weekend in San Antonio for a family wedding. We had a busy itinerary with lots of family activities planned around the wedding but we also made time to spend some downtime walking along the Riverwalk by our hotel. Click here to see all of our pictures from this weekend - below are some highlights...

Joey and daddy watching the ducks along the Riverwalk.

Joey is very excited to see the barge floating down the river!

Joey and his cousin Charlotte playing peek-a-boo.

Joey and Mima

Joey and the little ladies (aka his cousins)

Lounging in the sun - almost conked out...


Joey in the car - completely zonked from a busy weekend!

Update - we survived our first day!

Well, I don't know who missed Joey more while he was at school today - mommy or his great grandma. Neither one of us knew what to do with ourselves so we both just moped around the house doing absolutely nothing. We were in the car by 12:20 (which is way too early) heading to Joey's school. When I got to the classroom, I peeked through the cut-out in the door and saw that one of the teachers, Ms. Maureen, was holding Joey in the rocking chair. When 1:00 finally came around, she brought Joey to me and I could see that he had some tears on his face. She said that he did great all the way through lunch but after that he was really tired and started crying. It makes sense because at home Joey always goes down for his nap between 12:00 and 12:30 so we'll have to work on pushing that back just a bit. But both teachers said that Joey did not cry at all when I dropped him off (don't quite know how to feel about that) and that he was great overall. I just looked in his lunchbox and every single morsel of food is gone so he obviously had no issue with his appetite. It's now 1:30 and Joey is already sound asleep in his crib having survived his first day of school. Yay for my big boy!

First day of school!

My little big boy started his first day of Mother's Day Out this morning. He'll be going every Monday and Wednesday from 9:00a.m. - 1:00p.m. We spent this past weekend in San Antonio (pictures of that to come later) where Joey did not sleep very well so as luck would have it, he chose this morning to sleep in. I finally had to wake him up at 8:00 and even then he was still groggy and not wanting to get out of bed. Our getting ready routine was a bit rushed as a result, but I did manage to take a couple of pictures before we left the house.

The drop-off at the school went pretty well. When we got there, Joey went and sat in his little seat to enjoy a morning a snack of Fruit Loops and Goldfish. Mommy got a kiss goodbye and then was banished from the room. Joey was not crying when I walked out and when I peeked through the window a minute later, he was still okay. I can't wait to hear the details from the teachers this afternoon. Mommy did shed a few tears walking back towards the car, but I think I'm better now. Who knows...I may just end up spending my free time today sitting at the computer looking back at all of Joey's baby pictures.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a restful Labor Day weekend hanging out at the pool in the mornings and then at home in the afternoons. We did manage to stir up a little rain one evening and Joey had a chance to play around in the drizzle. Looking back on our weekend photos, it seems that Joey spent quite a bit of time without a shirt on...pretty classy.

Adorable little footprints in the rain

Naked baby enjoying a Thomas video on the computer

Half naked baby enjoying some quiet reading time

Joey and his grandpa Charlie checking out a fish pond