Packing

All is quiet, 3 people are in their rooms for nap or room time. It is the best part of the day! 1 hour to regroup, get dressed in some cases, & frantically do everything else. Thanks to E's & Mercy's kind posts, I'll try to say Hi now and then too. We are frantically running around collecting winter gear for our upcoming trip to Oneonta. Yeah!! Seeing all the Tompkins crew & flying this crew on the long jaunt to Albany; all very fun. Molly has kept herself quite busy packing all the carry-ons. She loves planning, packing, organizing & has all the Strawberry Shortcake "fruit snacks" (no food or fruit really in these), pretzels, & goldfish in baggies, equally divided of course between her & C. It is hilarious how many times per day she asks if we can pack now. Love it! I'm also wondering if it's worth a shopping trip to find some quality slippers that they will actually keep on their feet & possibly some cheap snow boots--there's a bit of potential snow in the forecast. We only turned our heat on Sunday for the first time, so I am stretching my mind to remember how cold "25 & snowing" is. I think that's officially cold. Anyway, off to take advantage of these next 50 minutes.

Oh, this random pic is one of a milk break. Do you like the bed head little guy!? We did have haircuts yesterday (all 3!) (yes, I had to hold Lewis the whole time), but I don't have any new pics yet. Later.

And this is the other night involving the Dora kite flying. Right after I took this, Lewis let go & it flew onto the neighbor's roof. It was all twisted up anyway because earlier someone (Molly) had gotten her flip flop twisted in the string. How does this stuff happen!?

Monthly Blog?

So, maybe blogging with three is not going to be a regular event. No surprise to any of you still hanging in there with me. When 8 PM hits (on the nights we're home), and they go down I basically clean up the day's carnage & crash on the couch with no ounce of creativity or even dexterity to write. I know this will pass, so I post here & there. I do like the blog; we still have friends & family far away, and I love you all & want to give you snippets of the everyday. (Even friends nearby we see less regularly it seems!)
A few updates: We decided kind of last minute to travel to upstate NY for Thanksgiving. We are so excited, as all Ryan's family will be in Oneonta for the holiday, and none of them (except Deb) have met Lewis. There are, to say the least, many plans in the works for the week (Fancy Nancy Party, alliterated menu, etc.). Separately, there is a contract on Ryan's parents house, which is great news--if all goes well, they will be headed to TX soon! Not to mention Melanie, Ryan's sister, has several Dallas hospitals knocking down her door. (She just passed her PT exam & is official!! Congrats Mel!) This is all overwhelming & so exciting.
In light of our upcoming trip, we decided to decorate early for Christmas. As you know, we never do anything early, so this feels pretty crazy. Our tree is lit as I write.
Last weekend we made the last BU home game against A&M; they WON! So fun; so fun to see all the ardent supporters so happy. And great to see Molly W. & her boys. If anyone reading this (Kara) is a BU fan, this is a funny post: some A&M blog or something.
Anyway, that's about it. Lewis continues to do really, really great. He is seemingly totally comfortable during the day & NIGHT which is better than great. He loves his sisters, is saying a few words (thank you, dada, gigi, yelling for just about everything else), and is overall so happy. It is just so fun to play around with him & receive his affection--he is such a hugger & a smiler. He walks everywhere & is into everything, especially anything electronic. He & Ryan made a trip to Lowe's the other night, and he just looked around in awe, silent the whole trip. Project boy is lying in wait.
Love, J

First Election Day

(For Lewis that is.) There was an extra element of pride & excitement in my voting yesterday as I had Lewis with me. Remembering Vietnam and how his people never have the chance to vote on anything made me appreciate all the more our democratic system. Where has my cynicism gone!? Between football & this I am due for a visit to the Northeast!

We had some Dr. checkups today. Lewis is still only 19 lbs! He seems so much bigger than when we met him, but only about 1.5 lbs has he gained. It's so cute, though. His legs have a little baby fat on them which is good to see. I guess he'll always be on the small side. Ah, to be Vietnamese must be nice...He also has an ear infection; who knew. And after his 4 vaccinations, he is mighty cranky. Poor guy. I'm headed to hang with him for the few quiet minutes we have around here (nap time/room time). Oh yeah, and I should think about dinner. I keep forgetting that part of the day!

It's Still There

After 11 years in NYC/Philly (with no cable) I would have sworn my love for college football had been buried with really no mourning involved. However, after yesterday's Baylor/Missouri game, I am pretty sure it's not totally dead. It was SO fun to yell like crazy, along with 35,000 others, for the most underdog team in the Big 12. We totally hung in there; I have a hope for some really fun games in the future. It was Baylor homecoming weekend, and the kids had a great time at Pigskin & the parade (candy)! Maybe we'll swing one more game this year; it's great having my parents in Waco where Baylor is. It's kind of weird to go back. There were the Baylor years, which I LOVED, then the NYC years, which I also LOVED. These two places could not be more opposite. Bringing those two parts of me together is often hard. How do they make sense? Still working that out, as I know there are common threads & none of it has been a detour or a waste of time. Indeed, the journey has been great fun.