Friends and Family

We've been blessed enough in the last month or two to have lots of visits with family and friends. Above, Paxton and Chris visit with Chris' mom, Isabel. Paxton calls her "Ya-Ya" and although he only sees her a few times a year, it definitely doesn't take long for him to warm up to her. She's like a kid herself, and Paxton loves that. She taught him all sorts of silly things during this visit. Paxton now reaches out to our noses and says, "honk, honk!". He can act like an ape, or put his hands together to say "amen" all after three short days with his Ya-Ya. The nice thing about having her here was that Paxton got all the focused attention he knows he so richly deserves. I no longer can drive any distance with Paxton without constantly interacting with him. He gets bored and, thus, crabby. Like his mommy, he turns to food for comfort, begging me to give him "more? mooooore? mooooooooooore" cookies. When I draw the line, he screams bloody murder. Gone are the days of enjoying an interesting book on cd on my drives while he snoozes. Now I have to turn off the cd and sing songs from his Music Together class, or quiz him on his ASL. I am a woman who needs to frequently zone out recharge. That's why television is a much-anticipated evening treat, as is reading a good book before bed, or even just washing dishes. Isabel is "on" from the moment she wakes up to the moment she goes to bed. She and Paxton are a great match.

While Bob and Isabel, and Chris' brothers, Craig and Keith, were here, we drove to Leander to visit some more family. Isabel's sister, Mary, has a son (Tony) who lives there. He is married to a lovely girl, Mary (yes, another Mary), and they have three gorgeous kiddos, Courtney, McKenna and Luke. The drive was long, but it was worth it to visit with everyone. Chris really has an exceptional family. I think I still need to see a diagram to figure out who everyone is, but I enjoy any time we spend with them. While we were at their house, Tony put on a video of Courtney scoring a goal in her soccer game. Here she and Paxton check out the replay.

This is how playdates with Paxton and his friends look. They are just starting to occassionally interact with each other, but for the most part, they're happy to pursue their own interests. In this shot, Henry plays with a toy, Paxton spins the wheels of a furniture dolly and Tatum checks out what I'm doing with the camera. Although they still only parallel play at this stage, Paxton has started to show more interest in his little friends. He often "talks about" Harper (Bip-po) and Henry (Henny). Being a typical little boy, he doesn't like to bring up the beautiful and friendly, Tatum--yet.

My friend, Serena, rode her Harley from CA to Texas to visit us, among others. I hadn't seen her since just after I found out I was expecting. She came for our high school reunion. This was the first time she met Paxton. It was an interesting switch from previous visits, when I was more than happy to socialize with Serena at the local watering holes. This time, I dragged her to Paxton's music class, and talked her into an early, toddler-friendly dinner before she went to a camping spot with some mutual friends. We're on different paths these days, but I'm glad we still have a friendship.

We had a fun little party when Serena was visiting, hosting some old friends of Chris, my friends Carmen, Phil and Harper, and my cousin Megan and her boyfriend. Here, Megan and Paxton read one of his favorite books. It's a pop-up book about a caterpillar who is unhappy until he finally spins a cocoon (cu-cu) and becomes a butterfly (BYE!). Megan swooped in to steal a kiss before Paxton had a chance to think twice.