Movin' and a Shakin'

So James has decided to start crawling. He officially started on Valentine's Day, but it has officially taken me this long to capture it.

The bear cub has been crawling backwards for quite some time before this, so I'm glad we can finally move forward in life (literally). A day or two after crawling he also learned to pull up. I am now constantly finding him standing up against something complaining because he doesn't want to plop down on his butt. As if I wasn't busy enough I now have to stop what I'm doing and save this boy multiple times a day. It's made for some fun times over here!

Field Trip!

On Valentine's Day I was asked to be a teacher at Jackson's school because one his teachers was going to be out for the day. I of course hesitated, thought for a minute of an excuse, couldn't think of one and then agreed to do it. Story of my life. 

It isn't because I'm not capable, it's simply because I'm not patient. The 2 ounces of patience I have in this world belong solely to my boys. So I'm always worried to be around other people's children. 

Turns out my worries were for nothing though. These kids are used to being told what to do and follow directions relatively well. Good thing to because it just so happened to be Jackson's very first school field trip! 

The kids were set to go to the Post Office that morning and were so excited to send off Valentine's that they had previously made. They geared up by having snacks first...

They washed their hands, went to the bathroom, each one asked forty-six questions and then we headed out the door!

Thankfully a lot of the mom's volunteered to show up during the time of the field trip so it just so happened that every child had a mom...phew. I was SO worried about crossing the street with other people's kids!

AND thankfully I got to hold my own kid. Jackson LOVED having me as a teacher and has asked me to be his teacher every day since.

Once there the kids were of course over zealous with stuffing their mail down the postal shoot.

And then they started getting a little crazy around people's private boxes. I had to tell them that, "tampering with other people's mail is a federal offense". They looked at me like I was an alien...

I took this as an opportunity to take a class photo. I'd say it came out pretty good...

From left to right: Joshua, Luke, Jackson cat, Maeve, Clayton and James Fox. What a cute bunch huh?

I'd say the kids had a ball and the moms and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the journey as well. As for myself, I don't think teaching is in my near future but it was fun to pretend....for a day.

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

I know what you are thinking. Jackson is not (yet) a Tennessee Williams fan. He is simply yelling at the neighbor's dog across the street and had been doing so for a good ten minutes before I decided to pull out the camera. He's such a ham....

Valentine's Par-tay!

Last week we were in El Paso for a few days and to convince Jackson it was time to go back to Austin because Dada missed us, we had to tell him we were going to have a really awesome Valentine's Day party at home. No seriously, the kid wasn't going to get on a plane without a reason to go home. Apparently Dada was not good enough ;).

When we got back home we made sure to prep for V day with a few Valentine's of our own for Jackson's classmates. They received dino tattoos and some goodies from our cub...

 What a generous cat our boy huh?!  After a fun, festive Valentine's celebration at school we came home to a lovely surprise from Dada! 

Turns out Dada had gotten the boys an edible arrangement, balloons and teddy bears (one for each of the boys but James didn't want to let his go...he's a fan of bears if you recall ;)). 

 Jackson on the other hand did not want to let the edible arrangement go...

No joke--I had 2 strawberries and a piece of pineapple and James wasn't interested. It was gone by the time Jack got home that night...

Later in the day I gave the boys my gifts to them. I swear they were more excited about them even though it doesn't look like it...

...these cubs---they are something else...

They got some random goodies and matching Valentine's pjs. I am their mom after all so I'll leave the 'cool' gift giving to their dad. 

 ...besides, they liked most of their gifts...

 and I loved seeing them in matching Valentine's pj's :) too sweet!  

 After bed time Jack and I celebrated our own Valentine's with take-out Indian food and season 2 of House of Cards. It was in a word, spectacular. MY kind of night. Hope y'all had a good one! xoxo...

Newest friend!

Last weekend my dear friend Kate came into town with her absolutely preciously perfect girl, Noelle. We've been dying to meet her since her debut and were ecstatic she came over to our house! 

 James was particularly happy because his current friends are Jackson's buddies so he says he'd like his own gang of amigos.

 Maybe he was a bit tooooo excited though, as he was having a ball yanking on poor sweet Noelle. So much so that Kate and I had to intervene...

 

James is a few months older than Noelle and he says he'd like to be her BFF. Good thing Noelle's mom and I get along ;). 

 Unfortunately Jackson cub didn't get a chance to meet the newest girl and see her parents. He had been talking about it all week long but he was out on a date with Gigi and Abuelo (who also happened to be in town).

When he got back he was soooo sad he missed our Chi town friends and begged us to take him to Chicago "to the Field Museum, to see Tia Kate! Momma Please!!". It was pretty sad! We promised a trip to Chi was most definitely in order, but maybe when the temperatures are in double digits again....

 As for Noelle, you are perfect. Truly. We love you sweet girl and your parents aren't too bad either ;).

8 Months!!!

Teeth!

On Jackson's birthday our poor James woke up in a bad mood and feverish. This was so unlike him as he is usually sooooo happy all the time and (knock on wood) had never ever had a fever. We could not determine what on earth was going on with him but made sure he was always comfortable and had everything he needed.

Well, two days later we found out what was ailing him. He had cut his first tooth! I honestly thought it wasn't ever going to happen because here he is almost 8 months old and barely cutting teeth. Better late than never though and as it turns out a week after his first tooth showed up, his second bottom tooth came in.

At this point this kid isn't catching any breaks and I'm afraid he may be cutting even more as I write this post. He's been awfully fussy lately. I'm happy the boy is finally getting some teeth but hoping they'll slow down a bit at this point. Our James needs some time to catch his breath!