Summer
This summer was preceded by a bit of anxiety on my part. For the first time, I had to fill our summer calendar (TWELVE WEEKS) with various day camps for Olivia. Starting in January 2019 I began looking and thinking about camps. I had a complicated excel spreadsheet and various group texts/emails trying to coordinate with her friends. I was super nervous about the whole thing (new camps, new places, trying camps without friends, and the dreaded short camp time schedule working with my work and Matt's travel). But I am THRILLED to say that the summer went off basically without a hitch. Olivia was such a trooper. We did all kinds of camps (cooking, science, calligraphy, fashion, American Girl, basketball, cheer, art, gymnastics, drama) all over Houston and she ROCKED them. There were of course nervous moments when we dropped her off some place new, but for the most part she was brave and confident and adapted like a champ! I was so very proud of this girl for stepping out of her comfort zone.
Other than that, she is a little fish in the water and was in the pool as much as possible. She also had a lot of play dates and friend time.
Eric had a good summer too. He transitioned to the next class at school like a champ. He had a few teary mornings but after that he settled into a pretty good routine.
By the end of the summer, he definitely seemed less "baby" and more "toddler" to me. He stopped saying a few of our favorite things -- (1) calling himself Rheric and (2) referring to himself as "my" -- "My don't wanna go to bed." "My no like that." "My love you."
Eric loves stuffed animals so puppies and loveys are constantly in his hands. He still hasn't made any good friends at school that he regularly talks about, but Grady McGuire is his bff by far. These 2 have a love affair that makes Aunt Jennie and I swoon. He still drinks milk from a bottle and that is his main source of nutrients and sustenance throughout the day. (We are working on it -- there is a whole team of doctors/nutritionists involved!).
He still loves reading and cuddling. He wakes up early and wants to "get cozy" which means covered with a blanket, drinking his bottle, and cuddling. We usually watch the iPad until a decent hour and he will ask me "can you hold me?" which means he wants to lay on top of me. I absolutely love it. At night I mostly put him to bed -- he will drink his milk and reach his hand up to my cheek and pull me cheek-to-cheek with him. Then he requests me to sing to him and we still have to be cheek-to-cheek. In the morning when he wakes up he will only call for me -- if Matt comes in, he usually gets furious. But if I go in, he will say "Mommy! I missed you! I was crying for you!" He then can't wait to get in my arms for some love. Good grief this boy has my heart!
I think he's pretty smart and has a good memory, though he's not as vocal about it as Olivia. He won't tell you what he learned in school that day or demonstrate his latest skill like she will. He's more sneaky about it -- one day you're driving him to school and all of sudden he just begins counting in Spanish?! Or you're playing trains and he will tell you a story about how his favorite Montessori work is the "big, medium, and small" lesson with the animals.
Matt's travel really did not slow down during 2019. He had a big deal he was trying to close at his work, which kept him very busy. My work was also pretty consistently hectic preparing for a big arbitration. But, we managed to sneak in a day-date for our anniversary this year (11 years!) and also got a few date nights.
We spent a lot of the summer playing outside, reading, cuddling, eating, and laughing.
We all loved going to Candytopia with my family!
We celebrated Matt for Father's Day
We had a fun routine of going to the lazy river at Westside every Saturday morning and staying for lunch.
SUCH BFFs...
Okay fine, there were several Candytopia visits...
And Yazzie came to town so we met up with her for breakfast one morning.
But, by far, the highlight of our summer was our annual trip to Florida. It was 4 days of no plans, no rules, beautiful weather and relaxing. Matt and I let go of all the "screentime" limits, so the kids had lazy mornings watching movies, while Matt and I drank coffee on the porch. We swam, beached, biked, and ate delicious sea food. Olivia had a good friend from school who was vacationing there too, so the 2 of them played together every afternoon during Eric's naps. It was exactly the break we all needed.
And, just like that, the summer was over and it was back to school...Second Grade in Mrs. Mizell's class. This year I am the "Class Mom" which really only means that I email between the teacher and the parents like 5x a year. Its a VERY low-key job (perfect for me!) but Olivia thinks its the greatest thing EVER (which obvi thrills me to no end!)
We also snuck out of town for a quick Labor Day trip. Matt and Lloyd did a guy's trip to Vegas, while Jennie and I took the kids to Austin
Fall
September was a CRAZY month. Every single weekend was filled with activities and then it just seemed like before we knew it, it was Christmas. September was mostly filled with "Olivia-themed" activities -- her first concert (Jojo Siwa)
And then SEVERAL birthday celebrations. We did a party for her entire grade at the roller skating rink
An American Girl themed slumber party with a smaller group of friends at our house
And then our usual family party as well
School was unfortunately cancelled on her actual birthday due to some heavy flooding in Houston. Luckily, our sweet neighbor has the same birthday as Olivia and they both go to Kinkaid,so we threw together a little neighborhood birthday breakfast for them that morning.
A few days later we got a re-do at school.
Also in September, Olivia and I attended a Mother-Daughter camping weekend at Camp Olympia. Olivia has a bunch of friends who have gone off to sleep-away camp. In prior years, she had absolutely no interest in this. Much to my delight, she is happiest in her own bed with Matt and I in the house with her. But this summer she heard so many fun stories from her friends that I could tell her interest was peaked. However, the thought of sending her off for a week or 2 to new camp basically terrified BOTH of us. So we thought the Mother-Daughter weekend would be the perfect way to try it out. I'm so glad we did it! It was so much fun to get some alone time with my best girl and watch her try out a whole new environment.
And, Eric was in the mix too during our busy September, notably rocking his first ever dentist visit and bonding/cuddling with the birthday girl.
And then I wanted to hibernate for the rest of the winter, but I couldn't. So instead we went to 1 million pumpkin patches, a bunch of Halloween parties, played a lot, and took some time to be Thankful for this wonderful life. First up, the Gannon girls came to Houston for a visit
Eric had his school pumpkin patch
We dressed up as a puppy and Evie (the daughter of the Evil Queen) for Halloween. Eric would request to be a puppy every chance he got!
We went to Zoo Boo with Mimi and Grandpa
We did ArBOOretum with Sadie!
And then Eric had his school Halloween parade and festival
We also went to a Halloween party at the Racquet Club with the Escalona's
We cheered on the Astros
The kids have been SUPER into playdoh recently, so we made some Halloween themed playdoh.
We painted pumpkins this year which I think we all loved way more than carving
And finally the big day came, it was great weather and we enjoyed trick-or-treating with the Escalona girls
We snuck in a quick trip with the McGuires (really I just do it for the matching baby pics!)
We also saw Emily Arrow (one of our favorite kids musicians) who now lives in Houston
Matt planned a date for us to see Ray Lamontagne
We saw some plays, enjoyed a weekend with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Drew, spent some time outside, and did lots more cuddling
And, Olivia tried out for and made the cheerleading team at her gymnastics studio. This is her on the day of the try out. We are still getting used to cheerleading -- it has meant a lot more time practicing for Olivia but she loves it and, in my obviously biased opinion, is so good at it! For her, its great exercise, lessons in team work and hard work, and a time to do something she loves. For me, it has been great to see her enjoy something and build her confidence, but the logistics of extra practices, camps and upcoming competitions have me slightly on edge. Hopefully I can make it all work!
And, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our families. This year we were both the only "kids" with our parents on Thanksgiving. And, while we obvi love our siblings, I don't mind saying that it was pretty nice to have all the attention on us/our kids and be able to totally accommodate their schedules! (Hopefully our siblings don't read this blog!)
And then it was December. We started off with a bang and never really stopped! First up was a Winter Wonderland with Sadie. They danced, wrote letters for Santa and had all kinds of holiday fun
We saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with Brooke
Phillip returned with his Elf Breakfast, Christmas pjs, and Advent Calendars for everyone (Thomas the Train for Eric, Lego Harry Potter for Olivia, German beer for daddy, and chocolate for me!)
We also attended 2 showings of the Christmas lights at Westside - once with Claire and again later with the Escalona family
Santa came to Eric's school (still not a fan)
Kate and I started a new tradition of online holiday shopping together, while drinking mimosas. Probably one of my favorite things I did all month!
We also did our annual carriage ride through River Oaks to look at holiday lights
Olivia and I hosted another Mother-Daughter holiday party for all her friends. This year we kept the party pretty small and easy -- just decorating gingerbread houses + an ornament exchange. We also decorated brown paper bags for a local charity that provides lunches to kids in need around Houston. I was glad to add a touch of charity into the season! It was so much fun to have my family and closes friends (with their daughters) to celebrate the season.
Mimi and Grandpa joined us for Breakfast with Santa and another chance for some gingerbread decorating!
Olivia and I went to see her friend Brooke perform in the Nutcracker
(I know it seems like all activities were geared to Olivia, but I promise Eric was in the mix and having fun too! This particular morning he told me "Hod me mamma! We be best friends forever!")
Both kids had their holiday shows at school. Eric did Christmas Around the World and his class was China.
Olivia had Singing and Sharing of her holiday songs.
Matt and I attended a few holiday parties as well!
We played outside on our new Ninja Line
We decorated cookies for Santa
Olivia and Matt continued their holiday show tradition, seeing Elf this year
And then, it was Christmas Eve! We spent the day watching holiday movies, enjoying the train exhibit at a local church, made our own pizzas for dinner, drank some festive cocktails, went and looked at Christmas lights!
Guess the kiddos were good because Santa definitely came!
On Christmas morning we opened presents and had a lazy day playing with all our new loot.
Olivia and I made a cheese board for lunch
And the Popo and Tutu came over after naptime. We had more presents and a delicious dinner, if I do say so myself -- beef tenderloin, asparagus/brie tarts, and twice baked potatoes (with a skillet cookie and peppermint ice cream for dessert)
And then, we woke up the next morning and headed off to Iowa to visit Yazzie! Mimi and Grandpa came too and we had the best time! We were SUPER delayed on the flight up, but then we all got bumped up to First Class so everyone was very happy! (And both times the pilots called the kids up front to say hi which was SO nice and such a thrill for both of them. Especially because Eric claims he wants to be "an airplane" when he gets big, i.e. a pilot)
When we got there, we played with puppies, visited the local childrens museum, made slime, did hair, did face masks, played outside, went to a trampoline park and just hung out together.
When Yazzie moved away almost 3 years ago, I think we were both nervous about the distance and what that meant for our own relationship + her relationship with the kids. I'm so happy to say that I don't think the distance has made any difference -- my kids were fighting over her the entire trip and I couldn't feel closer to her!
And that basically closed out 2019. We had a very low-key New Year's Eve at home with the kids and no one made it to midnight! 2019 was a good, busy, hard year. We had a pretty major difficulty pop up in March that took us a while to resolve (thank goodness we did!), but really showed me two things. First, how strong our little family unit (esp Matt and I) are and second, that extending some grace to ourselves and our loved ones is just really important. It also really made clear for me that we are stretched WAY too thin -- I've felt for a few years now that we have a lot of balls in the air and that it would be really easy for one to slip. Well, one did. And luckily we fixed it, but it could have been pretty catastrophic. So, our 2020 resolution was to make life easier. To that end, I'm working on outsourcing where I can and finding help where I can.
Happy new year friends!
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