Coiffed

This little weirdo sat perfectly. still. 

Like statuesque. 

At least we know his hair will always be perfect!

17 Months

Baby D has grown again! And so quickly!

Derek is so hilarious, even when he's screaming and throwing tantrums. He likes to walk funny and make funny noises with his mouth and dance funny and loves to do things to make Luke laugh. He also has a very high opinion of his own sense of humor! And will keep laughing even as he gouges and pinches your face or pulls your hair or whacks you with a stick. 

As far as we can tell, Derek understands pretty much everything we say (and has even started to selectively ignore us!) and desperately wants to communicate back. So since his vocabulary is limited, he will repeat the words he does know over and over and over, and his favorite word to repeat is Mama! Hooray. Between he and Luke I probably get to hear my name a couple hundred times a day. As Kenny says, I'm just so loved!

Baby D's favorite things are balls, sticks, rocks, popcorn, grapes, blueberries, dogs, animals of any kind, sugar, books, and laughing. Often at everyone else.

First Day of School (Again!)

Who's got two thumbs, awesome yellow shoes (he picked the color--do you have any idea how hard it was to find yellow sneakers?), and loves school?

This guy. 

16 Months

Derek is so hilarious! You forget how much you enjoy the different stages. 

Derek is a baby of very strong emotions. Things are wonderful and fun and hilarious and happy and then suddenly they are terrible and scary and uncomfortable and the worst. Derek's you-won't-give-me-what-I-want cry is the same as his just-got-hurt cry, so it's hard to tell what's happening sometimes. He loves having people around and will delightedly yell your name when he sees you as if you were his most favorite person in the world. He can also cry big, sad, pitiful tears and then stop immediately if he finds something that interests him. He loves to have his picture taken and will cheese it up whenever he can.

Derek is also a terrific dancer. Music feeds his little baby soul and he will dance regardless of what's playing. He has a few different types of dance moves--the traditional toddler bending of the knees, a barely perceptible little side-to-side wiggle, the belly bounce, and a nice shoulder shimmy. 

And best of all, Luke and Derek have such a great time making each other giggle. Derek has the most adorable, contagious little laugh that makes strangers stop and smile. We are so blessed to have such a delightful little soul in our family!

So Old and Responsible Pt. 2

And I turned 30! 

Surprise!

So Old and Responsible

So we bought a house! 

Not it. Pictures of the new house to come!

Surprise! 

Harvey Was Here

Nothing relieves stress like pounding down some sheetrock.

In a few inches of standing water. 

And by water I mean sewage. 

But really, I should have been a construction worker. 

I Survived a Hurricane

We are all okay, and parts of Houston are starting to look like normal again. 

Hurricane Harvey was a beast! While the pictures shown on TV were certainly some of the worst, they were not exaggerated. You would not believe the amount of rain that was dumped on us in four days' time.



We were some of the extremely lucky ones, whose homes did not flood and whose power did not go out and who were prepared with plenty of food and water. For a few days we were stuck inside while it poured rain and the roads in front and back of us looked like rivers, but on the whole we felt fairly isolated from the devastation. Like I said, we were lucky. And blessed.

Here are some things I have learned from this experience (so far).

#1: I am so grateful for our modern day prophet who has advised us to have enough food and water for a year. Not that we do, unfortunately, but we at least had enough water to last us a month or two. And water around here was scarce. As in, Costco sold out three truckloads of water in 45 minutes scarce. As in, people were buying sparkling water and vitamin water and gatorade instead. As in, there were reports of people waiting outside of stores and stealing water out of people's carts when they came out of grocery stores. So there was some comfort, walking around the stores, in knowing that I didn't need to fight people for it. 

#2: Hysteria is contagious! (not so surprising) I felt like we were fairly well prepared, but when you walk down a grocery store aisle and find a measly two cans of refried beans there, you can't help but think "man, I better buy these!" 

#3: Our food supplies are extremely tenuous. Whole aisles in the grocery stores emptied in less than a day. When grocery stores finally did open up again on Tuesday, people's options consisted of Lucky Charms and chocolate milk. Which brings me to...

#4: You would be surprised what people consider a staple! In every store I went to the chip aisle was the most decimated. When I dropped by Costco to grab a few extra cans of food I thought maybe I was overreacting because it seemed like most of the canned food was still there. You want to know what was totally gone? Pirate's Booty. 

#5: You never think that it will happen to you. It was raining and the water was rising and I don't think the reality that our house could flood ever really sunk in. Some of our friends were not as lucky as we were and did have to evacuate their homes as they flooded, but even with the pictures and all of the news and their experiences, it's still a difficult reality to imagine. Until it happens, I guess. 

In any event, Houston is going to need all the help it can get. Whole neighborhoods are going to need major reconstruction, hundreds of families are still displaced, and milk and eggs are still being limited per purchase (not to mention gas is a bit scarce for comfort).



Nothing ties you to a place like a natural disaster of historical proportions. 

#Houstonstrong