And for this 4th of July- there will be FIREWORKS!

It's hard to believe that a year ago, I was spending my 4th of July anticipating a different kind of "fireworks":  the oh so near birth of Baby B.  This year, we left the baby at home with grandma and grandpa and enjoyed the fireworks show our little town puts on every 4th of July. We met up with my friend, Ms. L, and her family at The Waterway.  I think every person in our town and then some showed up for the event.  We snatched up our perfect viewing spot and parked our butts there for 2 hours for fear someone else would take it. There were events going on in the park nearby and all along the waterway, but we skipped that this year in favor of fireworks and less cranky kids. 

Happy 4th of July!

Walking along the waterway waiting for the show to begin

"The 2 little old ladies"  Pip has found a new friend to hang out with.  They both have very similar temperaments- they can sit together quietly and be okay with life. 

 

I do NOT claim to have any photography skills and honestly, who can take good fireworks pictures with a point and shoot with no tripod?

Run Wild 4th of July 5K

I met my running partner, Ms. L, at Pip's ballet class and started running with her at the beginning of June. Right out of the gate she had me go almost 5 miles in an hour- I knew that I would have to step up and tap into my inner competitor if I wanted to keep up with her.  We run together at 6am, 4 days a week.  We have a great give and take running relationship, so together we've upped our pace to almost 9 minutes and run 4-4.5 miles.  I signed us up for a 4th of July run in the big city. (we're suburbanites now)  The run was a "this is more than my hobby" runner's run.  Basically, the participants were mostly from runner's clubs looking to set PRs and whet their appetite for the marathon in January.  We definitely delivered on race day.

Looking all cute and ready to run.  I've decided that running in a skirt is the way to go.  Good bye chaffing!

There were about 1300 participants.  We positioned ourselves in the middle that way we could get out of the gate faster and pass all the runners who piddle out halfway through the race

We've been spotted in the crowd

Me in all my racing glory.  I'm in the homestretch.

The moment I realized I'd just set myself a new personal record! 28:02

Still celebrating my running time: 28:02.  On the official time sheet, they had me clocked at 28:34, but I it's because there were 2 thresholds to cross and I slowed down once I crossed the first threshold not realizing there was another one.  But that's okay- my goal was to break 30minutes and I succeeded no matter what the "officials" wrote.

Both my friend and I set PRs and finished average for the race- 500+/- out of 1300+/- participants.  Not too shabby!

We celebrated with only the BEST cupcakes on the planet:  Crave.  We were also the only runners in the cupcake shop.

Next on our running calendar:  a 10K.

Fun on The Waterway

I met a fellow mommy at Piper's ballet class who has a little girl about Piper's age.  We immediately hit it off and have been hanging out on an almost daily basis.  A few weekends ago, she texted me about a family event down on The Waterway.  The Waterway is part of our "Town Center".  It's a riverwalk fashioned after San Antonio's famous riverwalk.  They have restaurants, a concert pavillion, a green space for lounging about, and fountains both to admire and to play in.  You can also hop on a trolley or take a water taxi to several other destinations within our "Town Center".  It's a pretty neat little area and we've gone there a couple of times as a family just to walk around.  Every weekend in the summer, though, they have what they call "Nights on The Waterway".  They have a local band and some type of performance artist or an outdoor movie.  It's not too crowded, super fun, and did I mention it's totally FREE! 

"Summer, Summer, Summertime...

Let's just sit back and unwind"

 I love summer.  There's a nostalgic quality that summer has- the vinyl smell of a freshly bought pool, eating juicy watermelon, running through the sprinklers, wafts of coconut tanning lotion in the air, grilling out, and enjoying over 12 hours of daylight. Summer's the best!

One thing that I absolutely love about our new neighborhood is the overabundance of summer activities and 13 wonderful pools.  I wasn't sure if I would be a "pool-side mommy", but the 100 degree temps changed my mind pretty quickly and it's Texas-you practically live in the pool year round.  The pool in our "village" is a mini waterpark. It has slides, a playscape, and a lazy river. It's fantastic. We bought our pool pass and it's already paid for itself twice over. 

Both Piper and Brynnie are signed up for swim lessons this summer and they are total water babies, just like their mama. Piper loves to swim around and pretend to be "Nemo".  She'll start reenacting scenes from the movie with other pool goers (and no, they don't know they are in her movie).  It's really funny to watch her start yelling at random pool goers "Swim away, swim away" or "Don't touch the butt (boat)".  Brynnie will splash around, crawl through the water, and mostly escape me.  She keeps me on my toes at the pool. 

 We have a goal to visit all 13 pools this summer.  While we've only visited 3 since getting our passes (it rained all last week or we would've been at the pool everyday), I think we could easily achieve our goal in no time.  Man, I love summer!

11 MONTHS!

Just a year ago at this time, I was working on her baby quilt and anxiously waiting her arrival.  In 1 month, she'll be one.  I'm still wrapping my head around that:  How is it that I have 1 month left in babyhood? 

What is Brynnie up to now:

*Brynnie is a cruiser.  A cell phone placed just out of her reach prompted this milestone- remote controls, cameras, anything Piper has, food, the dog all elicit the same response.  She can stand briefly without assistance too.

*I don't get to read or play as much with Brynn as I did with Piper, but that hasn't stopped Brynn from developing a love affair with books and figuring out how things work. 

*She's a bit like her sister:  independent when it comes to playing and exploring

*LOVES her blanket.  She has a few:  2 white ones knitted by her Oma and a pink, blue, white chevron stripped one that was knitted for me when I was a baby. She loves having the blanket snuggled right up against her face. 

*Plays Peek-A-Boo.  So cute!  She'll put the blanket over her head and when you ask "where's Brynnie?" all you hear is giggling from the blanket.  It's quite possibly the cutest thing ever. 

*Is the messiest eater on the planet!  She has to eat naked.  More food ends up on her face and in her hair than in her belly.  She's sneaky too!  Boo will unabashedly park herself under the highchair at mealtimes because she knows Brynn will throw her some food...on purpose.

*Speaking of food, Brynn LOVES hotdogs and fruit.  HATES veggies.  I put a piece of broccoli in her mouth and she spit it out- wouldn't touch it. 

*Doesn't sign as much as I would like.  She is very vocal and will occasionally sign "milk".  She tries to say "more" and has "mama"  down like a champ.  Other than that, her vocabulary isn't as big as Pip's was at this age, but she knows how to use her voice. 

*Dropped her morning and afternoon nap and now only does 1 long nap from 12/1-5pm.  Her nighttime sleep is from 8-8:30/9am.  So we're getting anywhere between 16-18 hours of sleep. 

*I call her the Brute.  Brynnie is tough as nails and super strong and she knows it. 

 

Do I have something on my face?

If it's really quiet in Brynn's room, it means she's reading a book

Brynnie and Piper love playing together.  Piper has taken a keen interest in "teaching" Brynnie

Touch a Truck

A few weeks after we moved to the burbs, we went to the local park for the annual Touch a Truck event.  Piper loves trucks.  So we thought it would be fantastic for her to get to see real-life trucks up close.   They had firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, monster trucks, tractors, and army trucks.  I had fun.  Bob wanted to be a little boy again.  Piper was overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds.  The only trucks she was willing to visit were the firetruck and the garbage truck and even then she only got within arms reach of it before asking if she could leave.  I've learned that with Pip you have to curb your enthusiasm.  Oh well, next year we promised her that we would get there earlier before any of the kids got there.  She seemed pretty happy about that.

We stood in line FOR-E-VER to go inside the firetruck.  When it finally got to be our turn, she didn't want to go in

My Little Ballerina

What we learned in our first ballet class

I need to begin this post by making 3 very distinct points about me as a parent and as a person:

1.  I will read a syllabus, directions, special instructions for any class or event I attend at least 100 times before I attend said event or class.  I will show up early to the first class.

2.  I am not an "eager beaver" mommy.  I get excited about stuff my kids get to do (which is why I read the instructions/syllabus over and over again) and wish I could do it too.  But I don't get all "Toddlers and Tiaras" mommy on my kids

3.  I do not get embarrassed.  I rarely feel unprepared.

For a year Piper has been asking about ballet.  Unfortunately, everytime I looked up a ballet class, they were always full.  Once we moved to the burbs, I immediately signed her up for a summer ballet class through the Rec center.  Since it's the first dance class she's ever attended, we decided to put her in the younger group 2-3 1/2 year olds.  She's on the older end, but I think it'll help her gain confidence and discipline.

Prior to attending class, I read the special instructions (5 times the morning of the class and at least a 100 times before that) about what to bring to the first class.  It didn't say anything about tutus, leotards, tights, or ballet shoes.  BUT lo and behold, when we pulled up all I saw were pink tutus everywhere and then there was Piper.  I dressed Pip in a sensible outfit that I thought would be suitable for dancing.  She wore leggings and a tank top with a little hoodie over it.

As we walked up to the building, we both walked real slow and I contemplated throwing her back into the car and driving to the mall to get her a brand new dance outfit.  I was embarrassed.  How could I have screwed this up?  My kid is going to be the only kid wearing street clothes to ballet class.  I mean there was a DAD there and he even had his kid in a tutu!

After shaking off the embarrassment (because I do NOT get embarrassed), the ballet class wasn't all that bad.  Piper was the only kid in a hip-hop dance outfit, but she didn't care and neither did I.  She listened and followed directions.  She tried her hardest to do "first position" and just enjoyed dancing.   

Can you spot Pip in the sea of tutus?

Ballet Train

Ballet meets every Wednesday for 6 weeks, you can bet at the next class she will have a leotard and tights (no shoes though, ballet slippers are expensive and I would have to buy 2 pairs just to fit her feet, plus the teacher said it wasn't necessary for the summer class) 

Oh and I will make sure to have my camera next time.  Yes, I even forgot my camera (what is my problem?).  Thankfully, I met another mom who was happy to take a few pics of the class and send them to me.

10 Months!

There aren't a lot of BIG changes or milestones that happen between 10 and 12 months.  Everyday sort of reads like this:  wake up, eat, destroy the house, eat, nap, destroy house again, eat, sleep for 12 hours and repeat.   So I thought I'd do something a little different to commemorate Brynnie turning 10 months old: 

The 10 Faces of Brynnie

"Oh mom, do you really have to take a picture now?" face

 "I promise, pinky swear I did not do anything naughty" face

 "Yeah, I did it.  Whatchu gonna do?" face

 "I love you mommy" face

"Being a baby is soooo hard" face

 "Played too hard, gonna sleep all day" face

"Oh my gosh, this is the BEST ever!" face

"Peek a Boo" face

"Catch me if you can" face

"Ohhhh, can I see that?"  face

Pip's Stage Debut

As if moving wasn't enough to keep us busy, Pip's school had their big fundraiser/Spring performance the next day.  Everyone was incredibly tired, but I knew that it was important for her to be there (and I was pretty excited to see Pip on stage).  Her school's curriculum is derived from the Bible so the performance centered around Bible stories.  Piper's class dressed up as characters from well-known parables.  If you can't tell, she's the wounded traveler from the story of the Good Samaritan.  I wasn't aware of what her costume was going to look like, but I was told by her teacher that it was really cute and she wanted me to be surprised.  When she walked out, she looked like a little wounded bird.  It was pretty cute and like every parent in attendance, I had my camera ready for some fantastic shots and here's what I got:

Listening attentively to the preschool director giving instructions

Looking for her parents among the flashes

Looks like she spotted us!

Big yawn

Bandage and sling off

Aww, this one is the winner!  Look at my kid- isn't she great?

Actually participating and singing along with everyone else!

And the show is over...couldn't have come any sooner.  Pip was nearly undressed from her costume and that little girl in pink next to her flashed her underwear about a 100 times.  Great times at the preschool Spring performance.  I can't wait to see how Pip does in the ballet class I signed her up for. Those should make for some fun pictures!