Batter up

I had Nico all to myself today, and I put on the Rangers game for us to watch for a few min. He decided he wanted to play baseball instead of watching the game. I asked him if he was gonna hit like the Ranger players. He replied, "but we're missing a Ranger. We're missing daddy Ranger."  Aww.

 

And yes, he has upgraded to now wearing batting gloves! Ha!



 

 

 



San Antonio Fiesta!

We have been fortunate to get to hang with the Myers 2 times within a month's time! David and I went down last month for Todd's birthday bash at Top Golf!

 

And this month, we had another trip down there for San Antonio's FIESTA festival! David's buddy, Dan, along with his family met us up there too. We smuggled our own beer in diaper bags and found a parking spot to people watch, let the kids run around, listen to Zydeco music, and eventually walked around looking at arts and crafts. It was a really fun time!

 

 

 

  

 

There was a kids' section there with various crafts and face painting too.

All about Spiderman these days. He definitely thought that David wouldn't recognize him after this.

Nico and Ansley became closer buds on this trip. They held hands to the car before asking us if they could ride in the same car!

We thought they might fall asleep from their exhausting day of fun, but instead, they were cracking up at each other the whole time!

After the festival, we went over to Steph and Greg's for their annual crawfish boil!  The kids helped prep the crawfish and were fascinated over all of them.

 

 

 

It's so nice to go on little daytrips like this on a regular basis! David loves being closer to his BFF! Gotta love the Myers'.

3.5 year old Nico: A Day in the Life

Nico is totally living the dream. Here's a breakdown of a day in the life of Nico!

Nico is a scheduled oriented guy already! We trained him well, ha! He wakes up any time between 6:30 and 7:30 and is the most energetic person I have ever been around in the morning. The second his feet hit the floor, he's ready to go do "fun TINGS." He starts his day with Ninja Turtles, Mickey, or a movie and usually likes to watch about an hour of tv before he thinks about breakfast. He usually ends the day with a movie/show as well, since EVERY night to him is movie night.

Tues and Thurs are school days, so he is usually anxious on those mornings STILL after nearly a year of going! Within 5 min of being dropped off, he's perfectly back to normal though. David claims that he is like him with the nervous stomach and anxiety issues. Just grrrrreat! It's funny to me though because shortly after he gets there, it's play time/recess time. What is there to be anxious about?! Other than school days, the only other scheduled activity is swimming lessons at the YMCA once a a week.

That leaves just 2 other weekdays to fill up, which consist of morning walks/powerwheels jeep rides around the trail in the neighborhood, going to the "JUMPS" every week or 2, occasional Chuck-E-Cheese trips every few weeks, meeting up with neighborhood friends at the park, playing in the backyard or "PAYROOM," and running errands with David! It's rare that he actually stays in the house for a full day! Most of us agree that we want to come back in our next lives as Nico!!!

He naps around 1-1:30 and is good for an hour and a half or 2 hours. I usually get home from work around the time he is waking up or shortly thereafter, so it's nice to feel that I'm not missing out on TOO much of the fun! Dinner is around 6, and the bedtime routine starts about 8:30.

For meals, he eats about anything. His favs are pancakes, cheesy eggs, cheese and crackers, PB&J, most fruits, edamame, and mac n cheese.

He is all about monsters, superheroes, and Ninja Turtles these days. He often wants me to chase him and pretend that I'm the monster.

 

He's still ALL boy and enjoys playing in the mud/sprinklers and wants to be outdoors most of the time. There aren't many days that go by that he wouldn't be found riding in his jeep, playing baseball or other sports, or going to the park.

 

Racing down our street. Gotta beat daddy!

He's very persistent and stubborn. Not necessarily bad qualities overall, but in a near-naptime 3 year old boy, it's particularly a dangerous combination. He is not used to NOT getting his way, so he often will immediately tell us "you're mean," or "I don't like you" if we tell him no. Tough love, but he's gotta learn. There will be enough entitled children in his generation, and he won't be one of them! Time outs usually do the trick if he's not listening. Or threats regarding taking away some of his fun activities.

He's often talking our ears off, trying to run super fast, or laughing. I absolutely adore his little wrinkled nose when he laughs! He has me cracking up often with things he says, since he talks like such an adult. He often busts out with funny expressions, dances, and fight moves. He has such a good imagination and uses it to often make up exaggerated stories. An example that comes to mind is when we were talking about sharks, and he told us that he fought a shark once, and it bit his leg off, and then he punched it in the eye. And he says it all with such a serious face.

 I always have said that he has such a big heart and is so genuine. He is often telling us that he loves us, and that will never get old. We were recently kneeled down, hiding in the dark corner of his room with a blanket on our heads during a game of hide-and-seek against David, and Nico whispered, "Mama.....I love you so much."

My other fav times are the ones when he is tired and wants to cuddle up extra close with his blanket (and ofcourse thumb in his mouth.)

 

Our times with Nico are the BEST!

Nico and his buddies

With the weather getting nicer, we get in patio drinking/outdoor mode and often find things to do not just during the weekends, but the weekdays too. It's almost become a new hobby to find new outdoor patios that also have playgrounds. We definitely got through most of the list for central and south Austin in just a short amount of time. It actually might have possibly been a little overboard, and we jokingly adopted a "YOLO" (you only live once) motto to justify this increase in fun.

At least once a week, we try to hang out with some of the neighborhood friends and do lower key things like meet at the park or have a backyard cookout. We have a good group of 3-4 families that all have kids around Nico's age that he likes to play with. And bonus, we love the parents too. Here are a handful of the fun things we have been up to with our closest Austin friends!

We introduced Heather to her first crab boil. It was pouring, so the party stayed in the garage! It may have been more fun with us all being contained?!

 

His best buddy, Derek, had his birthday party at the zoo in March. Nico plays the best with him of anybody else. They love to ride their power wheels in the neighborhood or just play at eachother's houses.

 

 

 

 It's always fun hangin with the Ansley and Landon down the street! We have gone over there for a few cookouts lately.

Celebrating Chris' birthday (and a good excuse to all get together again!)

 

 

He's getting to the age where the birthday party invites have started rollin in. He had a blast with his school friends at Wyatt's party. He speaks often of his playground races with Colt (driver of jeep below) and how he has to wear his light up shoes so that he can catch him.

 

He hung out a lot with Jake, who goes to his school and also lives in our neighborhood. We have been running into them a lot more lately and were invited to a rib cook-off at their house with a handful of other families. (David's Jack Allen inspired ones were totally the best!)

Heather and I took Greyson, Griffin, and Nico to the Thinkery Children's Museum for a few hours one Sunday, then to the adjacent park, and then to Torchy's Tacos! Mom points should be awarded for letting them paint...

 

 After a few trips to our new fav spot down on south 1st, Freddie's Place, we drug Heather and Chris with us. This place has an outdoor atmosphere with live music, a kids area with a playground, and the best happy hour in town!

 

  

 Thankful to live in a great community and have these friendships!

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

There was a lot going on at the end of this week and into the weekend- Ryan and Jessica came in to town, the Sturgill Simpson concert, and Easter!

Nico's school sent us the picture collage below from their Easter Egg hunt and a butterfly release on Thursday. As much as he gets nervous about going in the morning, he really enjoys it there. Can't say enough good things about his teacher!

We all met at Abel's on Thursday, since it was a nice spot for David and I to then leave for the concert!

Sturgill Simpson was amazing. One of the best concerts we have seen in a while. I'm not sure that anyone we knew had even heard of the guy, so it was cool to experience something new and unknown together like this!

On Friday, we met Ryan and my parents at County Line BBQ for lunch. Jessica and him came down to Austin for a wedding, so their time to see us was limited to an hour here and there. The view and the food there were both great. We had never been before.

On Easter morning, Nico was pretty pumped to find that the Easter Bunny stopped by. He was especially pumped about finding candy at 7 am.

We went over to my parents for brunch and my mom experimented with some new recipes. We continue to jokingly give her a hard time, ever since the Christmas mimosas, that she's trying to impress Jessica. 

And a few days after Easter, we did our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt at Derek's house.

It was another great weekend in the books with family and friends time and doing some new things!