Happy Valentine's Day...

from my two favorite little Valentines!

Brothers

I'm not gonna lie, we're in the midst of some serious sharing issues around here.  It seems like every day lately, I've been breaking up squabbles, interfering to make sure that Shannon gets his fair share of the toys.  We've been attempting to teach Landry that before he can take something from Shannon, he must give him something else in exchange.  But, what can I say, that logic only goes so far in a two-year-old's mind when his little brother has the exact car that Landry wants to play with. 

But, just when I start to wonder if they will ever play well together, we have moments like this where they are the best of friends.

And moments like this that make my heart melt...

While They Were Sleeping...

I remembered having a picture of Landry sleeping in this striped outfit (bottom) and wanted to attempt to re-create it with Shannon (top).  Shannon's older in his picture, though, because we had already dropped down his crib, which makes sense because Shannon was in the 15th percentile for height at 12 months, and Landry was typically in the 50th percentile.  In general, Landry outgrew his clothes first in length, and Shannon's been outgrowing them because they become too tight! 

Christmas Morning Snapshots

Here are Landry and Shannon on Christmas morning.  Landry's standing by his train table, which was his big present from us this year.  Brian built the train table, and I assembled the track.  Yes, come to find out, I enjoyed the challenge of laying train track!  I'm not sure if I could ever make the pieces fit this well again, though, so until Landry is big enough to assemble the track himself, we have the track nailed down.

And, here's Shannon opening his stocking.  This Christmas was all-about balls for him.  So much fun to watch his innocence.  He was just as interested in the wrapping paper as he was the actual presents and just as eager to put presents back into the stocking as he was to take them out.



Polar Express Train

In an attempt to start some new family Christmas traditions, we took a family trip to ride the Polar Express train in Palestine, Texas.  I figured that it would be the perfect outing for us, given Landry's love for trains. And, maybe it will still be the perfect outing for us one day, but not this year!

Here we are posing in front of the train before the ride began...Notice everyone looks reasonably happy here, but if you know Shannon well, you can tell that he's not feeling well in this picture. (He would probably have been at home if the tickets had been refundable.)

Here we are on the train, waiting for the ride to begin....again, all appearing reasonably happy but Shannon looking just a little bit off.  

Once the train ride began, things quickly deteriorated.  Landry did not like the interactive aspect of the train ride - the fact that the train crew wanted passenger participation, wanted to dance with the kids, etc.  By the time we reached the North Pole, he was close to tears.  Once the other passengers started shouting for Santa, Landry was in full-blown meltdown mode face-down on the seat.   Lest we forget about Shannon, right after we left the North Pole, Shannon got sick and threw up all over himself, me, and the train floor.  Brian spent half of the return trip cleaning up the train floor with paper towels.   I had packed clothing changes for the boys, but not one for me.  Needless to say, it made for a long car ride home!  But, it was a good reminder for me that "bigger is not always better" and things don't need to be elaborate to be fun.  I'm 100% certain that Landry would have had as much fun driving around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.  It was such a bad outing for us that I think we need a year off before we attempt it again, but stay tuned until 2014 to see if we give it a second try!



Our First Christmas Program

Shortly after the Christmas season began, Landry had his preschool Christmas program.  We had a great time watching him perform the songs and hand motions that he's learned in school.  His class performed a song called "Chatter with the Angels" and "I Want to See Jesus Lifted High."  Here's Landry at home, all dressed-up and slightly nervous before the program. 

And, yes, those are in fact, light-up tennis shoes that he's wearing.  Probably stretching the limits of the "Sunday best" dress code that the preschool requested!  He had been such a fan of his light-up shoes that I figured any other shoes would barely get worn and, against my better judgement, thought that we could get by with just one pair of shoes in this size.  I had a change of heart about a week before the program when I saw the requested dress code and ordered a pair of dress shoes for him online. At the time this shot was taken, his dress shoes were probably in a UPS sorting facility somewhere in Houston because they arrived the very next day.  Ugh!

While This Blog Has Been Sleeping...

....life has not slowed down for us!  The past two months have been full of birthdays, Christmas, and major milestones.  I'll attempt to get all caught up in a series of brief posts before I forget everything that's happened!

I last posted the day before Shannon's first birthday.  We had his party the following weekend.  Because he's so attached to his stuffed blue puppy, I used a blue puppy theme.  Here's a picture of the dining room decorated for the party.

I made posters out of his weekly photos and hung them on the wall...

And, here's a shot of the birthday boy while he opened his presents.