South Congress on a Saturday

On Saturday boredness hit me and I needed to get out of the house. Ryan had a great idea to go downtown and so we packed up the dog and the baby and left. Our only plans were to get some pizza at Home Slice and maybe a cupcake. The rest we left open. Here's how it went.

We parked and walked over to Home Slice. Seeing that it was a Saturday night, it was kinda busy. But we were still able to get a seat outside. Then we walked up the street to Hey Cupcake, which by the way, has THE best cupcakes ever! They are even more awesome because they operate out of a shiny silver trailer with a big cupcake on top.


I let Cannon have a couple bites of my chocolate cupcake. He liked it, but he was really interested in watching the guy play his guitar.



Austin is super dog friendly, so it was nice to take Blue along for the ride. And she was able to meet some nice friends along the way.

We got back in our car and drove over to Congress bridge. We decided to go see the bats (at dusk, millions of bat fly out from under the bridge!). Ryan and I have both seen the bats, but it has been several years.



We walked around for a bit.


Then we walked part of Lady Bird Lake (it will always be Town Lake to me!) since we had about an hour until the bats would make their debut.



And we walked some more.


Then we saw a goose. It honked and Cannon laughed.




We made our way to Auditorium Shore, which has a designated off leash area for dogs.



Blue caught her ball and her frisbee. Cannon likes to throw Blue her toys too.



Then we made it back to the bridge to see the bats. It's usually pretty packed with people hanging out on the grass or lined up on the bridge. We waited and waited and waited and NO bats! We waited until 9:30 and they never came out! We later learned that this happens sometimes. So we spoiled Cannon's bedtime for nothing, but we still had a fun night!

Random Ramblings

Cannon is becoming more and more busy each day. Last Wednesday he took seven steps when we were at Ryan's school! It was really special that both of us (as well as a few students) were able to witness his first steps! He has done that a couple more times, but he is taking his time (which is so his personality).

He has also become a destructor of things and personal objects. His morning ritual used to go something like this: wake up, eat, throw food to Blue, play, turn on xbox, change settings on DVD player, throw all DVD's on floor, turn off xbox, turn on xbox, etc, etc, etc. By the way, he does know how to turn on the xbox by way of the console and the controller.

He is really trying to communicate a lot. He can sign (without prompts), "dog," "milk," and "all done." He used to do "more," but has stopped for some reason. He has his regular words he can say, but he is also trying to say new ones like, "hi," "kick," and "cat." He also pays close attention to the things Ryan and I do and he will mimic, like brush his hair, use the tv remote, clean with a cloth, and put memory sticks in the computer, etc. It's fun to see the new things he learns everyday.

In other news, Cannon's milk intolerance has departed, making room for ice cream, yogurt, and cheesy tortillas. This makes meal times much easier since now he can really have anything that we eat



unraveling and eating the toilet paper



Next stop, the magazines.



He ate an article I was saving.

Blue Goes to the Vet

Blue had her annual check-up at the vet on Monday and this was her first one as an "adult." She was immediately nervous when we were in the car, because we were driving somewhere different. She knows our regular routes like to the store, my dad's, and Ryan's parents. She wouldn't even go in the door and I had to drag her by her leash! She was so scared in the exam room and she hid behind me. When the vet had to look in her ears, Blue had to be looking right at me or she wouldn't hold still. Blue came out with a clean bill of health except that she has to lose weight! She weighed in at 22lbs and the vet wants her to lose 1-1 1/2 lbs. So that means she is no longer our vacuum cleaner after Cannon eats, which is really punishment for me (especially if you've seen how Cannon eats!).

On Saturday we took Cannon and Blue to Bark Park, a park for dogs. It was really the cutest thing ever and all the dogs were super friendly and nice. Blue was very shy at first and it took her awhile to get used to so many big dogs. When we first got there, about four or five dogs immediately came up to greet us. It was like they were welcoming us! Blue did warm up, but she was very defensive anytime a dog got near Cannon's stroller. We weren't sure if she wanted to protect Cannon or her treats that were in the bottom. But we had a great time and Cannon LOVED petting all the dogs. We will definitely go back soon and next time we'll take pictures!

On Sunday it was Mother's Day. Cannon slept in until 7:30. But it didn't really matter anyway since Ryan got up with him and let me go back to sleep. When I got up Ryan had made us all breakfast with an assortment of goodies! I think it is so cute when he cooks for me. We left for church early because our niece Ally was being blessed at 11:00. We stayed for the blessing and then we went to our church. And afterward we went to Ryan's parents to celebrate Mother's Day and Ryan's dad's birthday too. It was a busy day, but I love it when all the family gets together. Rick and Kristina and the kids were able to come down from College Station. Oh, and when Cannon and Cole saw each other for the first time, Cannon smothered Cole in hugs and wet open mouth kisses! Cole just relished the moment with extreme delight! You could tell that it made him feel so good! Those boys are just so cute together!


Ryan thinks that Blue's nose looks like a bear nose.


Part of Cannon's daily ritual is pulling out all the DVD's, cords, and turning on the Xbox.





Our little Italian boys! Look how tan they are getting! This was supposed to be a picture of them hugging, but it turned into a battle.


Here are our twin girls (cousins), Lyla and Ally.

And here are some more pictures of Cannon for your viewing pleasure.

It's Official!

Last week I did a 3 1/2 day training to become a certified child passenger safety technician! I have wanted to do this for a long time, but the timing was finally right. The training was held in College Station, about two hours from our house. Kristina was generous enough to let us stay with her and she watched Cannon for me! It was really nice because the training was just a few minutes from her home.

The first three days were the actual training which included classroom instruction as well as hands-on stuff. I had a lot of fun at the training and it wasn't too difficult for me, but the training would be pretty intense for someone who didn't have much of a background with using car seats. The fourth day was a car seat check up event from 9-12:30. The event was huge, 193 inspections total! Nationwide, 80% of car seats are misused in some way, but in Texas it's almost 100%! That's not okay! I know it sounds weird that every single thing must be used correctly on a car seat. But improper use of car seats have caused a lot of injuries and death, most of which were preventable. And unfortunately car seats are huge pains to get them in perfectly! That's why this is so important. That's why I took the class so that I could educate and help families and advocate for children who can't do it for themselves.

Keeping those statistics in mind, every car seat that I checked was misused. And only one child arrived correctly in her seat belt. Here are the rest of the stats for the entire check up:

• 193 inspections

• 2 booster seat children arrived correctly restrained and four older children arrived correctly in seat belts

• 134 new child safety seats were distributed

• 80 old/unsafe seats were collected

• 37 children arrived unrestrained or incorrectly restrained in seat belts

I had a fun time and so did Cannon. He learned lots of new things there like how to go down the stairs and how to stack the wooden ring stackers. Unfortunately, Cole learned how to scream from Cannon. Sorry. It seems like Cannon learns something new everyday. He can say: Dada, Momma, dog, duck ("dut"), and boo (when he pulls a blanket off his face). He is fascinated by things he can manipulate with his hands like blocks, cords, doors, lids, and locks. He can stack two, almost three, blocks and he LOVES to put cheerios into small containers or open bottles. This can keep him entertained for quite some time. He is getting pretty good at following simple commands such as: sit down, knock on the door, clap, get the ball, etc. And he can throw a ball overhand! Also, the screams have come back. When he wants something or for some other unknown reason, he will scream at the top of his lungs as high and loud as he can!


Cole and Cannon are best friends! Cole smothered Cannon in hugs and kisses about a thousand times each day! Towards the end, Cannon had enough and tried to push away Cole.


Here is Miss Lyla. She has the brightest face and gives the biggest smiles!


I introduced blueberries to Cannon which have turned out to be one of his favorite foods.