14 Months Old

At almost 14 months old, Southern is quite a handful.

He not only walks, he runs. He loves to play in the backyard and will get out every ball, frisbee, golf club, etc. he owns each day. We try to spend time outside daily. We keep a big deck box on our back porch full of his outdoor toys, and he loves to rummage through it. There is also a box of rocks that he plays with out there. He likes to collect leaves, pick tomatoes off of our tomato plant, and point out birds and planes flying overhead.

As for his eating habits, he wants to try everything. He is a veggie lover. He can scarf down peas, green beans, and lima beans faster than you can serve them to him. He likes bananas and can eat a whole one on his own. He is also a lover of pasta and bread (who isn't?) and can go to town munching on popcorn in front of a good movie. He does not care for oranges just yet. He also doesn't like eggs (unless they are cooked with sausage) or potatoes much.

He loves to give hugs and kisses. He likes to be chased around the house. He loves to go through the kitchen cabinets, and he loves bath night. His favorite toys are his 4-wheeler, dinosaurs, blocks, and stuffed animals. He still never tires of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. He is now able to climb up on the couch in our movie room by himself. And he loves to throw.

He has been sleeping through the night, and for the most part, getting 9-11 hours of sleep each night. He does fight me at nap time some days, but as long as he's sleeping at night, I'm happy!

My 2nd Mother's Day

I spent my second Mother's Day with the two most important people in the world to me - my husband and my son. Dustin and Southern treated me to an afternoon of fun at the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. I loved it. We slept in that Sunday, and then loaded up the car with water and snacks and hit the road. We had lunch at my favorite Chinese place here in New Braunfels. Southern loves their sweet and sour chicken just as much as I do :) After eating, we headed on down I-35.

The gardens were beautiful!
I defiantly would love to go back sometime. Dustin, Southern, and I spent hours strolling around looking at all the pretty flowers and plants. They had a lot of native Texas stuff, and we learned so much!Southern was in his stroller for the most part (we let him crawl around at the end for awhile before getting back in the car) but we made sure he was able to get up close and personal with the plant life.The weather was perfect for the majority of our trip. It was slightly breezy and cloudy, but the sun did make an appearance for a little while. Southern and I donned our sun hats during that part.My favorite stretch of the place was the "East Texas Piney Woods" section. We stayed there longer than any other part. I could have stayed there all day! It was amazing to think that we were still in downtown San Antonio...It was situated around a lake. The views were incredible.And of course Southern got to hang out with some ducks. All in all, it was a perfect afternoon. What a great Mother's Day!

And not only did I have a fun Mother's Day celebration that day, we were blessed in having one the previous day as well! :)

My mom and Josh spent the night with us Friday, and Saturday afternoon we drove over to Gruene for a tea party!

The guys made fun of us for a little while but the food was excellent, and you were able to have iced tea if you wished, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been for them. We were served three courses and had our pick of any tea, cold or hot. Dustin and my mom got iced blueberry tea, I got a pot of decaf raspberry vanilla hot tea, and Josh had plain ol' iced tea. We started off with a plate of sandwiches - chicken salad, tuna salad, cucumber slices with cheese spread, and shrimp with melted provolone along with fresh fruit. Our second course consisted of apricot and walnut scones with three delicacies - raspberry preserves, whipped cream, and lemon curd. Our last course was the deserts course - a chocolate covered strawberry, a lemony-cheesecake-type of pie, and a shortbread cookie. It was all so delicious and definitely an experience to remember.

Another Beach Trip

Dustin, Southern, and I enjoyed another trip to Port A this past weekend. Traveling can get a bit crazy when you add a one-year-old to the mix. I had wanted to leave as soon as Dustin got home from work so I had all of our stuff packed and ready to go. But when Dustin got home from work, he wanted to relax for a little while, change clothes and shower, and then finish packing the rest of his "essentials" - fishing gear, artificial bait, fishing poles, etc. Southern had yet to have a nap for the day since I figured he would just sleep on the way there. And we were getting started later than I had wanted. Needless to say, Southern and I were both a little cranky by that time. To top it all off, somehow during those last few minutes at the house, Southern managed to take off one of his flip flops and hide it somewhere. I searched everywhere while the guys waited in the car but couldn't find it (we still have yet to see it!) so we just headed off without it.

At last, we were on the road! Dustin and Southern napped for a bit while I drove. We had decided to stop to eat supper whenever Southern woke up and started fussing. That put us in Skidmore, TX. Now we knew every town between here and the coast has a Dairy Queen so we figured we'd just stop at one of those. But across the street from the DQ in Skidmore was an old wooden building with a sign for All You Can Eat Catfish on Friday nights. Yum! The Chisolm Trail Cafe was great. We got a trip to the salad bar, soup, a side of potatoes, and all the catfish we could handle. Dustin, Southern, and I were in heaven. We were stuffed when we finally left there. After a little playing around in the gravel parking lot, we got back in the car and continued our drive. We made it to Port A around 10:30 or 11pm. Our late arrival threw off Southern's sleeping schedule (we are still trying to get back) but at least we had made it.

The next day Dustin and Parker had good intentions of working on homework. (They both have finals this week.) Parker got in some good studying time, but Dustin was finding it very hard to concentrate. He finally abandoned the idea of working on vacation and we all loaded up in the car for a visit to the birding center. Dustin and Parker had fun identifying birds with their binoculars while Carly and I took turns carrying Southern around. We saw many birds and even a croc! We then drove around looking at houses and along the beach while Southern napped in the car. We played hearts when we got back to the house. Then we got changed and packed up for the beach. Dustin and Carly rode the waves in a huge double tube while Parker, Southern, and I played in the sand. All that beach fun worked up our appetites so we then headed to a restaurant for supper.

The car windows had all fogged up from the salty air and humidity, and it was very hard to see when Parker drove us into town. We stopped at Moby Dick's and all piled out of the car. We were told there was a 30-min wait but Southern was very hungry and getting cranky so we couldn't wait that long. I decided we should just find another place within walking distance as Southern fights being strapped into his car seat when he gets in one of those moods. So we walked a block down, crossed an intersection, and walked through a parking lot to get to another restaurant. Along the way, we heard a strange guy yelling as he drove by. We didn't pay much attention since a lot of the beach people are strange and just kept walking. When we got to The Seafood and Spaghetti Works, we met up with Parker and learned that he had been the one driving by and yelling! haha. The windows were still so fogged up and he had to drive with his head sticking out of the driver's side window!! We had a surprisingly good supper. The place looked a little questionable inside but the food was wonderful and we got to help ourselves to the soup and salad bar. We hit the pool upon our return and played another game that night.

The next day was spent packing up and cleaning the place. We ate, played another round of cards, and then loaded up the car. We walked around the marina one last time and took a few pictures before getting in the car. We made our way back home through Yoakum and did our usual visits. Our stop at Poppy and DeDe's was quick as she had a fever so we just stayed in the driveway and said hi to Poppy. Then we stopped at Dustin's granny's for a bit. We ate supper with my dad then visited my Hahn grandparents for a little while. Our last stop of the night was at Dustin's uncle's house in Gonzales. Aunt Cain has been taking chemo for the past couple of months and has been too weak to really get out and do anything so we wanted to stop by so she could see Southern. We hung out there for a little while and talked while watching Southern play. One of their cats had just had a litter less than a week old so we got to see the baby kitties. They were so cute and Southern was very gentle with them. We left there at almost 10pm and finally were headed home. Whew! It was a fun but exhausting trip.