Little Fish and 20 months old…

So after two sessions of swimming lessons and a few motivational talks (aka butt chewings) from Mommy and Daddy, we FINALLY have ourselves a swimmer!  Dayton was slow to take to the water, but it was like everyone kept telling me – when he got it, he GOT it.  And, now he loves it.  Every chance he gets to go swimming, he is ready to go and practices so hard to get better.  I’m loving it.  He did have Miss Stacey and Co. fooled through the majority of his lessons and he wasn’t trying as well as he could.  So, Mommy and Daddy had a huge talk with him about what it meant to “try hard” and everything is working out :)

Here are some pictures from last summer when getting his head in the water was a big deal:

And here are some pictures from this year :)

And I must say, that just since Thursday (his last day of classes), he’s taken what he’s learned and come so much farther!  He is jumping off the side and swimming to the other side, getting dive sticks off the bottom, and swimming underwater like a little fish!

Here is his #1 fan watching Big Brother swim.  She was also the #1 sucker thief at swim lessons.  This was her “breakfast” that morning – a chocolate granola bar and a dum-dum.  Way to go Mommy:

 

And in the World of Mallory, she turned 20 months yesterday – isn’t that crazy???!!!???!!!  I can’t believe in four short months she’ll be two years old.  Don’t think we aren’t planning that big bash yet either.  Oh yes, it will be a fun one!  To try to capture everything she is doing in this blog would be quite difficult so I’ll touch on a few highlights:

-Her vocabulary is crazy good!  She speaks in sentences regularly and half the time I don’t know where she gets the things that come out of her mouth!

-She loves to sing – Tonight! Tonight!, ABC’s (Mallory style), Row Your Boat are a few of her favorites

-She likes to read to me :)

-She knows how to “pray”

-She loves to color and loves to build with blocks.

-She has started to be a girly-girl and likes to play with her baby dolls

-Her favorite things to watch on tv are definently Dora and Caillou

-She loves to be in the water but hates any kind of restraints – floaties, float, life jacket, grown-ups, etc.

-She has crazy hair!  It’s impossible to fix and we’ve pretty much resorted to pigtails on a daily basis.  Who knew one could dress up pigtails, but we have tried ;)

-She does use the potty on occasion but we are by no means potty trained or anywhere near it at this point

-Her favorite foods are fruit, french fries, macaroni and cheese and spaghetti-o’s.  She doesn’t like to eat anything that falls apart on her while she’s eating it – sandwiches, hamburgers, etc.

-Gets along great with her Big Brother most of the time, but will resort to biting if things don’t go her way…

Mallory cracks me up and gives me belly laughs on a daily basis – I can’t imagine our family with out her.

 

Who Says…

You can’t go back (in time).  Like before we had kids, and worries, and things that always had to get done, and back to the times where I could drink more than a couple of glasses of wine without being hung over; before the time of stretch marks and child-birth scars – Okay, so maybe you can’t go back in all aspects of time, but I’ll take what I can get!

Last week, Brandon and I were away from our kiddos for five nights by ourselves.  It was no luxurious get away where we were whisked away on a private jet, but it was equally exhilarating! Some of you may gasp at the thought of me saying this BUT I’ll say it anyways – It was FABULOUS to be away from the kiddos for a few nights.  I missed them tremendously but it was good time spent for all of us.  I think it’s healthy for the kids, too.  We left the kids at my parents on Tuesday evening because we left early Wednesday morning for San Antonio.  Brandon had a bank conference at the JW Marriott Hill Country so I tagged along.  He had to make an 11:00 meeting so it was an early morning for us.   We had a wonderful time Wed-Fri.  I enjoyed my alone time soaking up the sun and embarking in some “retail” therapy.  Brandon works with the most fabulous group of people, so it is always so great to get together with them and visit and laugh and enjoy each others company.  I didn’t take any pictures on our trip there – shame on me.  

Pic of the resort:

I’m sure this is what me and Brandon looked going down the tube slides – if you haven’t been here, you should go – it’s wonderful!  I really want to take the kids back!!!

They also have a beautiful lazy river that was so refreshing!

On Friday, we were excited to head on up to Cedar Park to stay with Cassie and Scott.  All four of us with NO kids, wow!  That is a rare occasion!  We stopped by and visited Clint and Megan, picked up some Hey Cupcake (remember who you’re talking to!) and headed up North.

After some visiting and a few drinks, we headed to S. Congress to a great place called Perla’s Oyster Bar. 

The food and drinks were great and the company was even better!  We were lucky to have Scott as our DD since he was running a 5K the next morning (over-achiever) but it was very nice of him to cart us around :)  After leaving Perla’s we headed to Maria Maria – Carlos Santana’s bar.

It was a great salsa-y atmosphere.  After that, Cass and I danced the night away at QUA – so fun!

We were up bright and early the next morning for Scotty’s race – which Brandon and I didn’t make because we were a little tardy – but Scotty did awesome – 5th overall.  Way to go!  We grabbed some breakfast at Chik-Fil-A which was super yummy and headed to San Marcos/New Braunfels. 

The boys played some golf at The Bandit

and the girls did none other than hit up the outlet mall. 

We met up after lunch in New Braunfels to float the Comal.  It was EXTREMELY busy but once we got on the water – wow, so fun!  I felt like I was in college again.  Loved it! 

This is a link explaining how they had to close the Comal on Saturday afternoon because of it being overcrowded.  We got in the water around 3:20, they stopped letting people in line at 3:30 ;)

http://kgnb.am/news/overcrowded-comal-river-closed-emergency-order-saturday

And here are the only “real” pics I have from the weekend.  I still laugh everytime I look at these!:

A shout out to Scotty for this beautiful scenic picture - haha:

Caught red-handed!  Brandon was enjoying the view of purple bikini girl’s a$$ in his face :)

Cassie and I had our tubes tied together so here she is trying to man-handle both of them up the stairs…

I can’t think of this guy’s name but he approached Cassie and I for a drink before the guys strolled up.  Cassie quickly offered him one of our bottles of water.  I’m sure that’s exactly what he was “thirsty” for.  I offered him the rest of the skinnygirl bottle. Scotty walked up shortly after and questioned his man-hood for drinking skinnygirl with us. 

 

Him and Cassie are in some deep conversation – who’s that “third” wheel in the black cap in the background?

After floating, we drove back to North Austin and had a yummy (prob gained 5 lbs there) dinner at Chuy’s. 

After Chuy’s, we rented The Lincoln Lawyer which I guess was a good movie – I fell asleep and so did Scotty but Brandon and Cassie said it was good.  How can anything w/ M.M. not be good to watch?

Sunday we woke up, watched Phil choke (again) at the British Open and then headed back to see our beautiful kiddos.

What a weekend.  It’s taken me all week to recover.  But my Mommy life is so glamorous – I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

American Idol 2027…

Mallory LOVES to sing.  While she has quite a pitch problem, it is her favorite thing to do.  She will not let me video her doing it because she is easily distracted by the site of my iphone in her face, so I got this “footage” while we were in the car at night because it was dark and she couldn’t see the phone.  You can’t see her, but man can you hear her.  That’s Dayton on the verses, by the way.  While it does sound like a screeching cat, it is quite entertaining.  This is her favorite song to “sing”.  I’ll try to get more clips, soon!

 

10 things...

So I've had time to catch up on some trashy magazine reading lately and I came across two lists that I had to share. They were both featured in the March 2011 Redbook on page 26.

As a full time mommy and full time business owner I can relate to both lists and find them equally amusing - enjoy!

10 things never to say to a stay-at-home mom
1. When the kids are older, do you think you'll get a real job?
2. How June Cleaver of you!
3. Oh, so you don't work?
4. Since you have extra time on your hands, could you whip up a few dozen brownies for the bake sale tomorrow?
5. All day with your kids? I can't even imagine.
6. I'm jealous. I wish my husband were rich so I wouldn't have to work either.
7. What do you do all day, anyway?
8. I'm sure you're not the only one who's ever wasted money on a college degree.
9. That explains why your son is so clingy!
10. Weird. I assumed your house would be superclean.

---Candy Kirby of thelaughingstork.com, with help from Twitter followers and friends

10 things never to say to a working mom
1. It must be hard missing all those special moments every day.
2. I suppose it's smart that you're working. You know, in case your husband leaves you some day.
3. I'm surprised you went back to work. Your husband seems so successful.
4. It's cute when they call your nanny "mama."
5. I just love my kids too much to leave them during the day.
6. Did you see Dateline? The one with the hidden camera in the day care?
7. I could never let someone else raise my children. But that's just me!
8. I hated my mom because she was never home after school like everyone else's mom.
9. You must feel so guilty.
10. I wish I were as laid-back as you and could just let the housework go.

--Liz Gumbinner of mom-101.com, with help from her blog readers

Not much…

Not much to report around here.  Just lots of playing and running around – no complaints here.  Lots of stuff going on in the weeks ahead, so  a little down time is always welcomed.  My picture taking lately is lacking tremendously, but I was able to dig up a few to share:

 

Swimming at the country club – she loves her some goggles –so silly!

We are on round two of swimming lessons for the summer, so we’re hoping to see these floaties disappear really soon.  He is making progress, he just, unfortunately, takes after his Mommy and is extremely cautious…

 

I chased them around the house for a few minutes this afternoon trying to get a picture worth sharing – no such luck.  Here is what I got:

This is what I got when I said, “Let Mommy take a picture of y’all.”:

And, here are my best attempts at getting a picture of Mallory’s new Dora bows.  She’s very proud of them, but I couldn’t get a great pic, sorry…

 

That’s all I’ve got for now :)

A Few More from the 4th, Etc.

I got ahold of DeDe’s camera, so here are some pictures that she took from the last few weeks (mainly last weekend):

Swimming at DeDe and PaPa’s:

   Parade:

Our drivers: Brandon, PaPa and Bandit:

Sandie and Co.:

Brock, Issa and Bryn watching the parade

It was Grandpa and Grandma Zabodyns 55th Wedding Anniversary – so great to spend it with them.  How special is that! :)

Her hair has gotten so light this summer – love it!  Wish I had “real” highlights…

We love this thing – even Mommy and Daddy.  Pretty comical: