Miguel and I took the boys to Aruba for our summer family vacation. It was fabulous! We spent every day at the pool with our little fishies. Miguel and William have no fear around the water and spent the majority of our pool time going down the water slide. We spent some time at the beach too. I snuck off to the spa for a few hours and Miguel managed to sneak in a couple of scuba dives and a bit of work too. We came home tan, relaxed and ready to conquer the new school year.

So happy to be independent in the water!

Watch out, SHARK!

So happy!

My sweet boy, Miguel

Above: “my feet are touching the sand” freakout

Peanut butter crackers make everything better.

A little post ice cream cone Tiger cheer in the town square. William is ready for LSU football season to start.

The boys and I have been in Baton Rouge terrorizing the locals for a couple of weeks while husband has been busy with work in DC and Dallas. We are heading back to Dallas this weekend provided TS Bonnie doesn’t derail those plans. We have had so much fun in Baton Rouge, and are incredibly sad to go back to Dallas.

Miguel: pedals a tricycle, adores Raising Cane’s, loves going with Sweetie every morning in “Sweetie’s black BMW car in my [car] seat” to Kids Count, and thinks (scratch that, knows) his Uncle Bo and Aunt La La hung the moon just for him.

William: found his dance groove, outgrew his sandals (now in a size 7), hollers “Mom-meeeeeeee” every morning when he wakes up, loves to hide in Sweetie’s window curtains, knows where Nonnie keeps the Andes mints stash, and gives knuckle bumps to everyone.

Dallas summer heat + two boys full of energy = weekly regulars at Pump It Up’s open bounce time

It just so happens our very favorite sitter mentioned she had today open. I thought it would be great to have her watch the boys this afternoon and evening. I am leaving with the boys to go to Baton Rouge this weekend, and had a ton of laundry, house cleaning, and packing to do. The husband had an after work thing to do, so I figured I would go to a movie. As in go to a movie alone. Do you know how long it has been since I went to a movie alone? A very long time.

While we were in Hawaii I read all three of the books by Steig Larsson, so I was positively giddy when I heard they were being made into movies. First up was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which I saw tonight. It had subtitles, and was great. I don’t ever think the movies live up to the books, but the movie was quite enjoyable, and it was fun to see the book characters come to life.

So, tonight, I watched a movie in a theater surrounded by couples and groups of friends, and it was positively wonderful to do something for me. Just me.

I had been planning for a couple of weeks to leave William with our favorite sitter and spend a day with Miguel. Just Miguel and Mommy. I thought it would be fun to ride the Forest Park Train in Fort Worth then go visit the Fort Worth Children's Museum.. I carefully planned our day, checked the train schedule/calendar, printed out directions, and scheduled our sitter for William. Fast forward to this morning, we left on time and had 30 minutes to spare before the first train of the day left the depot. We arrived to a locked gate and a handwritten sign saying “Closed Tuesday.” Seriously!?!? We ended up at the Fort Worth Zoo, and oh. my. gosh. it was so hot then we cooled off with lunch at Kincaids. We had a great time together even if it wasn’t what I had originally planned.

Pouting because it’s hot, the zoo isn’t open, and the train is closed…not a great way to start off the morning

Demanding entrance to the zoo

Checking out the large crocodile sunning himself

Enjoying a cheeseburger, fries, and “orange drink”

Poopy update: Miguel is now officially completely potty trained. He pooped on the potty for the first time Friday night for our sitter, and since then he has mastered the poop on the potty multiple times. Woohoo! As his pooping in the potty reward, he wanted to go to the Galleria to get a Pillow Pet and visit the candy store. He is the proud owner of a Pillow Pet and probably multiple cavities.

Miguel and Daddy Day: Miguel saw Toy Story 3 with Daddy on Monday. He loved the movie and wore the 3D glasses for the whole movie. Yay for the holiday and time with Daddy.

The boys love to hang in the kitchen helper when I’m working in the kitchen. They like to help me make dinner, play with my laptop that lives on the kitchen counter, and get into whatever happens to be lying around on the counters. The problem is there is only one kitchen helper and one laptop, so often there are some “lively discussions” (aka screaming) between the two of them about who gets control. See the below photos from William’s perspective.

Ahhh…Mommy’s laptop.  SCORE!

No, I want it. It’s all MINE!

See, here is my mean face. Back off Miguel, it’s mine.

William 1. Miguel 0.

Hear the angels singing! I. must. have. control.

Oh, wait just a second. You have a snack. I want your snack. Feed me!

See, I’m the baby. I get what I want or I scream.

In other news, Miguel is pretty much completely pee pee potty trained. He won’t even hear of pooping on the potty, and, believe me, I’ve bribed with just about everything I can think of, including the forbidden iphone. It’s a no go. I know he will do it in his own time and won’t go to kindergarten pooping in a diaper, at least that’s what I tell myself. Probably a bit more than you wanted to know, but oh well.

Miguel is starting to show an interest in writing letters and is sight reading so many words. He is a pro at the Memory Game, can rhyme with the best of them, and is in love with Toy Story.

William is hitting his stride with the whole I-am-almost-two-years-old-look-at-me-throw-a-temper-tantrum business. He is fiercely independent and completely goofy. He rarely cuddles unless it was his idea, and is all about being on the move. He is Miguel’s best audience and thinks he can do anything and everything his big brother does.

The boys and I have been busy. Really busy. Every day I try my hardest to keep them entertained and having fun. In all my efforts, I have not been very good at taking photos. I’ve just been too busy running after them or trying to keep them alive to break out the camera. So far, we’ve been visiting the pools/spray grounds a few times a week, bouncing at Pump It Up, checked out the new exhibit at the Dallas Zoo, went to the movies, and played at Chuck E. Cheese. I’ll be back soon with photos…I promise!

I’m never one to shy away from letting the boys make complete and utter messes in the house. They need to be able to experience textures and explore their environment, but that doesn’t always mean I am thrilled with cleaning up the end result.

*Please ignore the fact that the photos are in reverse order. Oops!

Life has been busy in the Wood household, so here’s a quick re-cap for you. I promise to post a few photos soon.

Miguel and I took our first vacation without the boys last week. We went to Hawaii and stayed at the Marriott’s Ko Olina resort. It was pure bliss, quiet, and relaxing…just what we both needed. The boys were spoiled by Sweetie, Papa T, Aunt La La, Uncle Bo, and Nonnie while we were in Hawaii, and I was gone for a few days before they even asked for me.

Miguel and William are keeping me on my toes. Miguel talks a mile a minute, and is growing into such a sweet little boy. In a couple of days, we are going to tackle potty training…wish me luck. William might give me a heart attack with his daredevil ways (inherited from his father). He loves to climb, run, and jump. His favorite activity is to climb on the dining room table and swing the chandelier.

We have a busy summer ahead of us with trips to San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and Aruba planned along with lots swimming, play dates, and as much fun as you can have in 100+ degree heat!

William wanted nothing to do with the stroller and thought he needed to run in the opposite direction of Miguel at all times.

Such a serious face from Miguel

Our visit to the Zoo took a turn for the worse when Miguel tripped and got a bo bo on his knee. He was momentarily cheered up by a Mickey Mouse bandaid, but his mood never really improved. Miguel can not stand the sight of blood, and most certainly takes after his Sweetie and the Bologna side of the family.

William is explaining to me that I better give him the camera or else he is going to put the smack down on me.

And it was at this exact moment, I knew it was time to pack it up and call it a day. 2 unhappy crying hungry boys = 1 stressed Mommy