I just love Rodeo time in Houston -- the whole city is abuzz with cowboy boots, western shirts and country music. We started things off with Go Texan Day at school.
And this past weekend, we headed up to enjoy the fun for ourselves!
Got our denim on and we are ready to go!
Eric had no idea what he was getting into, but he was SUPER excited to find out!
We checked out the petting zoo and all the animals at AgVenture.
Treated ourselves to some Rodeo food
Rode the rides, played some carnival games, and got our face painted...
I've noticed this year that Matt's constant travel has been much harder on Olivia. I think now that Eric requires more attention, she probably craves the 1 on 1 parent time she gets when both of us are around. She really misses Matt when he's gone, so he made a point to take her to a play on Sunday while he was in town. I just love her huge smile in this pic!
And, while they enjoyed the play, Eric asked me "Rheric mama pitchure?" so we got these sweet little shots!
And, these 2 kiddos continue their love affair as well. With Matt traveling so much, our morning routine usually includes dropping Olivia off at Kinkaid before Eric and I head downtown for school/work. And, Eric usually cries when we drop her off at school and asks for her the whole way downtown. As soon as they see each other he usually want to do whatever she is doing, and she usually takes the opportunity to capitalize on my weakness to his cuteness and get away with being rotten - extra screentime ("but Eric wants to cuddle with me on the couch") or sneaking candy ("but Eric asked for 'nandy' -- look at his face!")
The other day they put on a "show" for us. My sisters and I would CONSTANTLY put on shows for our parents, so it was a pretty cute throwback.
Eric thinks Olivia is pretty much the funniest.
And the feeling of love are pretty mutual. A few weeks ago Matt was gone and Eric fell and hit his head. It was a pretty bad fall and probably his first real one. He got a pretty big knot on his head. Olivia was just as upset as Eric was. She was super worried and really wanted me to take him to the emergency room. We called Dr. Aunt Yazzie who confirmed mamma's diagnosis of ice/cuddles but mentioned something about not putting him to bed for a while. Olivia doted on him all afternoon, yelled at me when I tried to put him to bed for the night worried about what Yasmin warned against (it took a long time to convince her that Yazzie would be okay with us putting him to bed 4 hours after the fall!), insisted on putting him to bed herself, and then made me check on him throughout the night to make sure he would be okay.
It was really sad because as soon as he fell and then again that night she mentioned wishing she could turn back time to be in the room when he fell to try and stop it. Recently, she again brought up that if she could turn back time she would try to stop Eric from falling that day. We have repeatedly told her that she (1) can't protect him from always getting hurt and (2) its not her job and (3) it was 100% not her fault. But I know first-hand that big sister protective nature is strong! Love these 2 babes!
Olivia also foils all my efforts to get Eric off the bottle and drinking milk out of a cup. The other day all the bottles were honestly dirty and in the dishwasher so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out the cup. When Eric tried to call my bluff and look in the cabinet, he saw with his own eyes no more bottles. So I heated up his milk and showed him how I poured it into a cup. HE LOST IT!! The tears. The crying. But before I could try to calm him down and try the cup, Big Sister got one out of the dishwasher herself
And, we have been trying to do more independent reading with Olivia. She LOVES to be read to and she will read to us for homework every night but reading alone hasn't really been her thing. We tried out a few different books but recently discovered the Junie B. Jones series about a silly little 1st grader who is sort of rotten (just like another little 1st grader I know!). She really seems to enjoy these books so we instituted "Family Book Club" every Saturday and Sunday and mandated independent reading time for 30 minutes. It was Matt's idea and I've got to say I LOVE it. It forces me to read when I think I would otherwise work or do chores around the house. And Eric is fairly good at reading on his own so he usually hangs in for a bit and when he gets bored, Matt or I will take him into another room to read with him.
March (and my birthday) snuck up on us again this year!
We started the celebration a few days early because Matt was traveling on my actual birthday. He and the kids surprised me with a cookie cake and presents one night before he left town. They did good - new jacket, hat and bath bomb!
On my actual birthday, Olivia was off school because it was Parent-Teacher Conference Day. Our conference was scheduled for early that morning, so our sitter arrived and I started my birthday with a big cup of coffee gushing with Olivia's teacher over what a dream she is. Matt and I were joking that there is no better adult birthday present than having someone else being forced to talk about how amazing your child is for 20 minutes!
After that, Olivia and I took poor Eric to school while we celebrated my birthday enjoying a beautiful Houston day shopping, enjoying a delicious cheese plate lunch, and generally pampering ourselves. I think its safe to say Olivia really enjoyed my birthday ;)
On Saturday we did brunch with my parents. Unfortunately we didn't get a group pic, but my dad did snap this one showing hard proof of my obsession with baby E.
This little guy is similarly smitten with Mamma. His favorite thing to do is "Milk Rock!" which means I want my mamma to rock me with some milk. He is just the cutest little guy that we are all still so obsessed with. And he just loves the attention. I have been telling him lately that he's almost 2 and getting big. He will make a sad face and say "No! Rheric yittle! Rheric baby! Mamma's baby." And...how can I argue with that?!
One story for the memory book: Eric's eating (or lack thereof) is really off the charts. I'm not sure how one can survive on such little food and am anxiously awaiting his 2 year well-visit to see how his growth/weight is. We have tried ALL the tricks/tactics to get him to eat. None of them work.
Our latest idea was the other night when I noticed that he was pretty obsessed with the chairs we all sit in at dinner (as opposed to his high chair). So I asked him if he wanted to sit next to Olivia in a white chair. He got SO happy and immediately said yes. You could tell he was pretty thrilled to be at the big table. We were having tacos that night for dinner which of course Eric was refusing to eat. So Matt told him he should try it because he might like it. And, just like that, in unison, Olivia, Matt and I spontaneously and harmoniously started singing the Daniel Tiger song about trying new foods because they might taste good. ERIC LOVED IT. You would have thought he was at a rock concert --- eyes bright, huge smile, big clap at the end, followed by wildly signing and yelling "More! More!" After about 10 rounds of singing (with, to be clear, absolutely NO trying of the food) we called it quits. In a desperate attempt to get us to continue singing, he picked up a single strand of shredded cheddar cheese from his taco and put it in his mouth. Again, we immediately broke into song. And as the first words came from our mouth, that little stinker opened his own mouth and spat out that piece of cheese!
After brunch, Mimi and Grandpa joined us for Olivia's last basketball game. She scored 2 goals and got a medal. It was a great way to end a wonderful season!
That night, however, was the BEST. My wonderful husband got us tickets to MICHELLE OBAMA. It was such an uplifting night that filled me with hope and made me wanna be a better mamma, wife and person!
