'The Girls' were Back in Town!

That's right! Our twin friends, Mara and Luisana were in town last weekend from El Paso. Their parents were in town for some business, which meant we got the twins all to ourselves during the day. Jackson was beside himself with excitement at the thought of even seeing the twins for a few minutes, let alone ALL weekend long!

We picked them up at their hotel Saturday afternoon and started off at the Children's Museum... 

By the way you'll see very few pictures of our sweet James boy in these shots. The twins aren't the biggest fans of him, and he quite frankly doesn't care anyways....

That night Jack stayed home with our bear cub (James) and we thought it a fun idea to show the girls (and Jackson) the famous Congress bridge bats! 

They had surprisingly heard of them all their own and actually asked me to take them so I happily obliged even though it was WAY past Jackson's bedtime. I guess you only live once and for one night I didn't have to be such a stickler. 

Y'all, we even took a rickshaw there! I was terrified to be doing this with kids, in traffic, in Austin but happy to say we survived! 

Jackson was in his pjs because like I said, it was past his bedtime and you'd better believe we drove home QUICK after the bat debacle....

....and what a debacle it was. We waited for one whole hour for the bats to show and they barely started waking up around 8:15. By that time the girls and Jackson were exhausted and over it. All three of them asked to go back to the hotel so we did just that and called it a night...

The following morning we woke up, picked up the girls, headed to breakfast, shopping and then lounged by the hotel pool the remainder of the afternoon. 

 Jackson was SO overexcited he passed out in the girls' room as they were taking a shower and didn't even wake up when there were about 6 people in the room talking over him. It was pretty crazy!

 From the hotel/nap time we headed to a park, played until dinner time and then went home to meet up with James (the annoying one, as the girls would say).

 The girls even got to spend the night! (for a few hours anyways) They didn't like the idea at first but pretty much had to as their parents were busy. They aren't the biggest fans of staying at other people's houses or sharing clothes/sheets so I had to promise them I'd change Jackson's sheets with fresh ones and leave all the lights on when they slept. It was hilarious. Jack said they sounded just like me. I for one didn't blame them and had no problem cleaning (the already clean room) up prior to their sleep.

 Fun times were definitely had by all and the girls cannot wait to see Jackson again in El Paso. Jackson of course has asked for them daily since their departure and is counting down the days when he gets to see and play with them again. As for our James, well he just doesn't give a damn, he's just happy being James--and that's why we love him :).

Dental Downer

We had a pretty eventful day today, James had his 15 month well check AND his first-ever dentist appointment....

I did not do this on purpose and would  have in fact changed things around, but both events were months in the making and so we decided to just get things over with in one day. Poor guy. He was a serious trooper enduring shots, performing under pressure and teeth cleaning. 

I didn't think he would mind the dentist office as much as he did because he LOVES having his teeth brushed and is constantly carrying around a toothbrush just for fun. Turns out I was dead wrong, poor James was SCREAMING, and I'm fairly certain scared every other kid in that office. 

I even had Jackson go first so that James wouldn't mind as much, but it didn't help. Jackson was so sweet though (as usual) and picked a dinosaur for himself and told James to hold a teddy to 'make him feel good'. 

 Unfortunately that teddy didn't help much either though...

 Once the cleaning was done however, James was back to his old self and the dental assistant ran out and got both boys a balloon and goody bag each for their troubles. He was clearly a happy camper...

Out in the lobby, Jackson and James decided to practice their good hygiene on themselves...

 and each other...geez....

 And I'm very proud to say that both boys have excellent teeth and NO cavities! We're pretty adamant about showers and teeth brushing around here so I'm happy it's all paying off. Great job today Jamesie, despite the tears we couldn't be more proud of you and your brother :).

Dramatic Defiance

If you've hung out with Jackson for more than 5 minutes you know and understand that he is one epic child. EVERYTHING is a big deal and if in fact acting happens to be his calling in life, he'll definitely be one of the elite 'EGOT' (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winners. I have no doubt...Well maybe not Tony, he can't really hold a pitch to save his life but I digress.

As of late, our sweet cub has been wanting to drop his nap more and more every day. This is a common occurrence in kids his age and the only problem is that every single time he fights me, he ends up falling asleep minutes later anyways. Sometimes for 20 minutes, sometimes for 2 hours. Here is the latest (of many) winning roles:



We're thankful James is still ALL about nap times and isn't defying us quite yet. While not as dramatic as his older brother, James will have something up his sleeve. He always does.....ugh.....

Back to School!!!

Now that it's officially September and Summer is officially over, the boys started back up at school. That's right I said boyS! James started his very first year at Tarrytown Methodist this year and we were all (him included) VERY excited.

Our decision to put James in 'school' two days a week was a VERY difficult one because I still feel like he needs his momma all day/every day and I quite frankly wasn't ready to let him go. The director at Tarrytown assured me everything would be just wonderful and if I wasn't feeling it, I could always pull him out. This made me feel a whole lot better and so we are trying James out on a temporary basis.

I thought he would do just wonderfully because James is a real go-with-the-flow type of guy and we've left him in the toddler class before during mass time, always happy. Turns out I was a tad bit wrong though. Apparently James is really good for periods of time but then he gets sad and cries out for momma and dada. His teachers told me this and it broke my heart :(. When I picked him up he was being carried and was saying, 'mama, mama, mama'.

It was the saddest thing I've ever seen because James really isn't sentimental and is quite independent. Once in my arms, James was his usual happy self and really only wanted his momma. Poor sweet babe.  Jackson was especially sweet to his brother today and said (in Spanish), "James, what's wrong? Don't be sad, your teachers are there to protect you and everything will be ok".

Which leads us to Jackson. Jackson has been ready and willing to get back into school the moment he got out. He thrives there and absolutely LOVES it. Thank GOD. He is so happy to get ready in the mornings and talks and talks about everything he did during the day when I pick him up.

We're hoping James' thoughts on school change and that he too can thrive there. It's such a great place and people love him and love the fact that he is Jackson Zinda's little brother. I mean, there's nowhere to go but up right? Come on Jamsie!