Evan Walking

As promised, a video of Evan walking:

Evan Walking from Jana Lozado on Vimeo.

I took this video a few days before our vacation and then Evan decided that crawling was faster than walking. Fortunately, his walking skills have improved and he now walks all the time, or at least until his brother pushes him over!

The "soundtrack" for the video is completely coincidental. Ryan will be playing his bass for our church's Motown concert and we just happened to be listening to his playlist at the time. Also, if you notice, Mr. Jealous, aka Liam, couldn't stand the amount of attention Evan was getting and just had to imitate the "Frankenstein" walk. Silly boy.

(This was my first time to use Vimeo and I'm not exactly thrilled with the results. If you play it a second time, it flows a bit better, but I'll still be looking around for another video hosting site...any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.)

Vacation Pictures (Just a Few, I Promise!)

A few (belated) pictures of our vacation to Tyler.

Sydney posing with a manger scene made of pots at Marshall Pottery in.....wait for it.....Marshall, Texas:



(Someday I want to have something like this in our yard at Christmas)


The kids at the famous Rose Garden in Tyler:






Liam driving a fire truck at Tyler's Discovery Science Place:




Sydney feeding a bird at Tyler's Caldwell Zoo:




The gang eating a picnic lunch near the lake at Tyler State Park:




All in all, a very fun trip.

Stay tuned for a video of Evan WALKING!!!

What I Learned on my Summer Vacation

We're back! Did you miss us? Did you know we were gone?

We just got back from our week's vacation in the big town of Tyler, Texas. Well, actually, we were about 30 miles north of Tyler in Holly Lake at a great resort. We swam, played putt-putt, fished, hiked and drove a lot. The nearest grocery store was about 15 miles away and the nearest store with adult beverages was a good 45 miles away. I had no idea that so much of East Texas never got over Prohibition.

We also went the entire week without internet access or cell phone service. (OK, that's a lie. Tyler had cell phone service, but we were out in the sticks most of the time where cell towers are few and far between.) Talk about taking a break from society....

But that break gave us oodles of family time and lots of opportunities to learn. For example, we learned:

* Resorts could make a fortune if they would offer child-proofed condos for a small extra fee.

* If your unit smells like cigarette smoke, everything you take into the unit will smell like it, too. Luckily an ozone air filter machine, a bottle of Febreeze spray and a new air conditioning filter work wonders.

* We'd be a family of vegetarians if we had to rely on my archery skills for hunting meat.

* If you're going to look for the cemetery that your grandparents are buried in, you probably need better directions than, "Turn left when the road goes from four lanes to two lanes and you're in a valley between two hills." We eventually found it, but not before we drove within two miles of the Louisiana border in search of it.

* Crayons can melt in the cup holders of a mini-van. Thank you Applebee's for the free crayons.

* Your two year old can get very jealous when he sees his little brother occupying the umbrella stroller that used to be his. ("That's mine!! Move, Evan!")

* The daughter who freaked out about swimming in a lake with fish in it can turn into the world's cutest fishermanperson a mere eight hours later.

* Hanging out with friends from high school can be a total blast. (Hi Frances!)

* East Texas has more Sonics and Dairy Queens than any other kind of restaurant. On a related note, I'm beginning to understand America's obesity epidemic.

* Three children can share a bedroom without killing each other. At least for one week.

* The phenomenon of finding ourselves to be the only Caucasians at public parks is not limited to the greater Houston area. This was confirmed by our friends who spend quite a bit of time at the state parks here in Texas.

* A 95 degree day is downright cool compared to a string of 105 degree days.

* Family vacations are loads of fun, but coming home is fun, too.

Overall, we had a great time. Maybe next year we can check out the resort with the huge indoor water park. It's in East Texas, too, but I feel like we've got the area mastered and we now know that we really can survive without internet access or cell phones. But it's nice to have those back, too. :)

Crazy Boy

Before we had the big ultrasound that told us Liam was a boy, I was secretly hoping we were having another girl. I didn't know anything about raising boys since I grew up with a sister. And since Ryan and I grew up in the same neighborhood, I saw firsthand what his house was like with five boys: noisy, messy, chaotic. The messy and chaotic didn't bother me as much as the noise level. I've been to rock concerts that weren't as loud as his house. (Don't get me wrong - his house was a LOT of fun and I'm guessing that the noise was just a natural byproduct of all that fun.)

Despite my earlier preference, once Liam was born, I swore that I wouldn't have traded him for a million baby girls. He became my sweet boy and I still love getting kisses from him, especially when his pointy little nose pokes me on the cheek.

Now that we have two boys, I'm getting a bit worried. Our house is no longer quiet. And it sure isn't as nice and tidy as it used to be. And the level of chaos has my nerves completely frazzled by 5 pm. Yesterday, in the twelve hours he was awake, Liam managed to:

- Pull a bag of cherries off of the display table at the grocery store. The bag was not sealed shut. We now own a bag of really dirty cherries.

- Find the keys to the china cabinet, climb on a dining room chair and attempt to open the doors the protect my very old and breakable china collection. "Key, Nonny!" he declared. He was so proud of himself for that discovery.

- Climb on the side of Evan's crib and flip the light switch a million times. Evan's room looked like a disco. And, oh yeah, Evan was in there, too. He was pulling all of the wipes out of the box of diaper wipes.

- Unlock, open and run out of the front door to chase the garbage truck. Luckily, we have the alarm set to beep when a door is opened so I heard him before he got too far.

- Open Evan's door despite the "child-proof" door knob cover and wake up his brother from his nap. Evan was not happy.

- Find a black pen and practice writing his ABC's on the white couch. Granted, he found a tiny scrap of paper to place between the pen and the couch, but I almost had a heart attack when I saw him (and didn't see the tiny scrap of paper).

All of this was in addition to his usual routine of hair pulling, brother pushing, toy stealing, crying, tattling and whining. And let's not forget the jumping on the bed and jumping off of the couch.

And that was just Liam. No wonder I'm exhausted by the time evening comes.

I'm getting pretty scared about what the future holds as Evan gets bigger and starts playing with Liam more. I have a feeling that my house is going to be the messy, noisy and chaotic one of the neighborhood. But, I guess if it's also a fun house, I'll be okay with it. I'll just need to learn to overlook or live with the mess.

And I'll need a great set of ear plugs. But then I won't be able to hear the beep when the front door opens. What to do, what to do.......

The Big Hair Cut

Last Wednesday, Sydney made her second big decision regarding her hair. The first decision she made (last August) was to grow out her bangs and then I foolishly told her that once her bangs were as long as her chin, she could cut her hair short. Well, her hair grows fast.

Before:




During:




After:




She looks so much more grown up now. Sniff, sniff.

But I am very proud of her. She made her decision and did not waver one bit, not even when the beautician pulled out the big scissors and began cutting off her 12 inch long pony tail. Her hair will be donated to Locks of Love so that another child can benefit from those long, wavy tresses.

Of course, now that she's had a taste of making some decisions regarding her looks, she's now asking for earrings. What's next? A tattoo?

I am so not ready for her to grow up.