Pryce's 10 month check-up

Pryce had his 10 month check-up today. Sometimes I'm amazed that he's already 10 months old and at other times it seems like he must be older because it's hard to remember what it was like not having him in our family. He's such a sweet little boy and amazes me with his strength, fearlessness and endless smile. He's already got 2 teeth on the bottom and another 3 on top ... no wonder he plows through his meals like he does! He's completely on a "table-food" diet now and will give any new food a try (if only Everett would follow suit!)

The doctor informed me today that the philosophy of avoiding eggs, milk, nuts, etc. in an infant's diet prior to age 1 or 2 is no longer the recommendation. It was previously believed that withholding these foods early in a baby's diet would lessen the chances of the baby developing an allergy. Not so anymore ... they found this theory to be untrue. Soooo .... our little cutie-pie will be getting to have his first scrambled eggs pretty soon - woo hoo!

Here are his stats from today's visit:

Weight: 20# 1.6oz - 50th %

Height: 28.5 inches - 50th %

Head: 44cm - 10th %

and here's the P-Man posing for our annual Father's day photo shoot

(Sorry for the graininess ... I had to scan and the results weren't so pretty)

And here are more of our Father's Day photos

P.S. - Happy Father's day David, Dad and Ray ... I never did get around to blogging for Father's day (poor David worked ALL weekend) but I hope it goes without saying how lucky I feel to have 3 wonderful "Dads" in my life.

Love you Guys!!!

Play time

Here are some photos I took last week of the boys playing in Everett's room.

New trees

After losing a couple of trees in a severe April storm, we purchased a few replacement trees at Treeland in Gunter. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but the savings and selection made it well worth the trip! The trees were delivered and planted for us on Wednesday. Here's how they look:



We chose a Chinese Pistachio for the backyard to replace the Bradford Pear we lost.



We put three Crape Myrtle "Dynamite" in the front bed that was previously home to a large tree. The bed looks a bit pitiful after being trampled by the guys who cut down what was left of the old tree and then again trampled to plant the new ones ... hopefully we'll get it looking nice again soon.










We also planted a Red Oak in the front.










And here's a view of the whole front yard with the new trees. We are looking forward to watching them grow and mature.

Tub time

Pryce loves his baths!

Future consultant

Pryce helping Daddy work.

First day at new school

The boys started their new school yesterday. The morning "drop off" went incredibly well. I wasn't concerned about Pryce as he's yet to exhibit much separation anxiety. However, there were numerous mornings at E's previous school when he didn't want to go in and put up quite a fight and tears. So I was REALLY pleased when he ran into his class and even gave his new teacher, Miss Kristen, a hug. We spent about an hour visiting the school last Thursday and I think this really helped. We did have a few tears this morning when it was time for me to leave, but his teacher said that didn't last long. Both boys seem really content when I've gone to pick them up. Pryce has two teachers in his class - Miss Meagan and Miss Amy. He has a large area to crawl around and I think he's been getting lots of exercise. I was surprised to hear he ate chicken nuggets and mashed taters for lunch ... I think we'll give up on the baby food soon since it's much easier to give him finger food and let him feed himself (and less of a mess!). I was told he only napped for 15 minutes yesterday ... I guess he was too busy! Of course, he was sound asleep within minutes of getting into the car. Here's a couple pictures of my fellas from yesterday morning.

Pryce speaks!!

David and I had a "date night" on Friday. (Thanks Mom & Dad for babysitting!) Before leaving for a wonderful dinner, we told our boys goodbye. When we told Pryce goodbye, we were quite pleased when he responded ... with a shake of his arm (we interpreted it as a wave) and his first words! "Bah-Bah!" Ok, so maybe they don't sound quite like words, but it seemed he was clearly telling us "bye bye" and he did this twice in response to our farewell.

He has been quite the motor mouth lately. His first babblings were "mama mamma" but he also says "gaga" and every now and then we hear a "dada".

It's hard to keep up with this child. He's a go-getter and changing diapers lately has become a bit of a wrestling match ... with me often working up a sweat!

He's such a happy kid and incredibly resilient ... even to the roughness his big brother has been bestowing upon him lately. If I had a nickel for every time I've said "Everett, GET OFF YOUR BROTHER" the past couple weeks, I'd be a rich Mama!

I'll post some new pics of Pryce this week ... I realize Everett has been hogging the blog space lately.

The boys start their new school tomorrow. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly. It will be REALLY nice to have them at the same place ... ONE drop off and ONE pick up ... should save me lots of time and fuss!

Swimming Pool?

Who needs a swimming pool to cool off when really anything filled with water will do just fine!

Giddy up horsie

On Friday afternoon, Everett and I were looking at the Lone Star Park website to see if we might like to go there on Memorial Day. Everett got pretty excited about the horses. Later, Leslie called and we decided to meet her at Mariano's for dinner. However, since we'd just talked about going to see the horsies, E thought that was where we were going. I thought we might be in trouble since he seemed to have his mind set on seeing horsies ... luckily for us, there were a few horsies at Mariano's. After eating, big sis took him to ride the horsies. He really enjoyed himself and even shouted out a few "ye-hawwws".

He was quite disappointed when the ride came to an end.

But happy that sis had one more quarter!

Key lime pie

We discovered on Mother's Day that Everett REALLY likes key lime pie ... in fact, he even licked his bowl which left some whipped cream on his nose. He then asked for seconds ... and thirds!

Brotherly Love

Here's a demonstration of Everett trying to get Pryce to lay down and take a nap on the kitchen floor. Not sure why he thought this was important, but he was pretty upset when little brother wouldn't cooperate.

Visit at Lake

Here are some more pictures from our visit to the Rankins' Mother's day weekend.
Everett sure enjoyed fishing with Daddy. He especially liked the plastic worms they used for bait. (So much, in fact, that he took his nap with one Saturday afternoon!)

Notice E's worm!

Won't be long before Pryce is fishing too!

Messy Eater

For those of you who doubted me when I told you that Pryce is the messiest eating baby ever, here's the proof. He blows rasberries while you try to feed him which results in very little going in and quite a bit going out (and all over Mommy!) I sure hope he figures out the right way to eat soon. As a friend has already pointed out ... this could be a problem when he starts dating!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We're Alive!

Yay ... We survived the nasty virus that knocked out most of my family for a full week and even pulled off a successful fundraiser for the Collin County Children's Advocacy Center at our home on May 3rd. Big sigh of relief! It's been over a week and we are still recovering. Hopefully by next week the garage will be back in order so I can park in there and maybe I'll even be caught up on the work and household tasks that had to be put on hold while we focused on the Mudbug Fest and getting our children well. (You'll notice I am blogging now instead of doing above said work and chores, but hey, I'm also having my lunch while I type so I am multi-tasking!)

We had almost 200 people show up this year for the event! The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. Once again, Southern Drive, treated us to an acoustical jam for all to enjoy while eating the 350 lbs of crawfish David cooked! You can see all the pictures on our photo site. Thanks to everyone who helped us put on the event and came out to support such a worthy cause!

Here's a picture of me and David at our Mudbug Fest holding the Proclamation we received from Plano's mayor, Pat Evans, which recognized us and officially proclaimed May 3rd, 2008 as "Mudbug Fest" in Plano and encouraged everyone to join in the effort to bring awareness and assistance to our children who have experienced child abuse.

Gone Fishin'

Happy Mother's Day!
I'll have to catch up on blogging next week, but wanted to take just a minute to share a picture I took of two of my "boys" at the Rankins this weekend. How sweet is this? It's enough to make my heart melt! (click on the pic to enlarge and get a good look at the sweet expression on E's face ... priceless!)
More pictures and updates to follow soon ....

Stupid Stomach Virus

Oh stomach virus ... how I hate thee ... let me count the ways ....
1. You've been an uninvited guest in my home since last Thursday .. it's time to go!
2. My boys are just babies ... pick on someone else!
3. We are hosting our annual fundraiser at our home this Saturday ... we don't have time for you this week!!! Arrrrgggg ... you really, really need to go!

** A BIG thanks to Les and Kevin (on Sunday) and Molly and GiGi (on Monday) for your help with the kids while I tried to shuffle one or the other child to the doctor, do laundry, clean up nasty, sick-kid-stuff (I'll spare my blog readers of those details). Not sure I'd have ever managed without your help ... gracias, gracias, gracias!!!