PHOTOS
It’s been so long since my last post that I don’t know where to start so let’s start where I left off a few weeks ago with the photo shoot. Jay and Nathan were generous enough to give us the entire CD of photos taken that day – 127 pictures!! Some are good, some are not so good (crying baby) and some are great! I’ve posted a few of my favorites here. You can also check out their website at
http://jaywitkowski.com/ where Teri and I are the featured photos on the homepage! Wow I feel like a celebrity.

MAYME’S VISIT
My Mother aka Mayme just left this morning after a weeklong visit. We were so glad to have her since I made a distressing phone call to her a last week begging her to come and help me. She was of course all too happy to come. She held her grandson and I held on to her. I truly believe that nothing and no one can prepare you for motherhood - in particular I’m referring to the sleep deprivation and the shockwaves that sends through the rest of your daily life. Here’s a good example, twice now I’ve stood at the fridge to get water, holding my cup up to the dispenser without ever pressing the button to make water come out. Only after a minute or so do I realize that nothing is happening! Therefore it’s nice for people like Mayme and Aunt Irene to lend a helping hand so that Teri and I can regroup and recharge a bit.
In truth, Mayme came to Dallas for two other reasons besides saving me. She had a cousin family reunion on Saturday and then needed to go to Llano to attend to the building of her new house. The cousin reunion was thrown on Saturday by Wally and Susan Windom who have a beautiful house and swimming pool. This is my Grandmother’s side of the family - she had 4 sisters and 1 brother who then had their kids who then had us. The year I was born there were 6 other children born too: Brandon, Clint, Kayla, Shea, Stephanie, and Clay. It was really fun to see everyone and I got to show Vin off a bit.

THE ROAD TRIP
On Sunday Vin, Mayme and I loaded up for the 3 ½ hour trip to Llano. (Notice here that Teri did not go and got to have a whole Sunday to hang out at the pool and swim.) Now, the 3 ½ hour trip turned into about 4 ½ or 5 hours by the time we changed diapers and stopped to shop along the way.
The Llano house is coming right along. The frame is up, the roof is almost complete, and the windows are in. It’s amazing how fast a house can go up! Llano is a really neat town with cute shops and restaurants with lakes and rivers nearby. The house sits on some acreage with trees and rocks for the kids to play on. They are also building a “bunk house” for extra room and of course Terry, or Buttsy as he’s known in Llano, will have a barn. All around they’re doing a great job on the house designs and we can’t wait to go and visit!

WHAT WE LEARNED
Vin is a trooper for sure! He did pretty good on the way down there but hours on end in a car seat is not easy for any baby plus it was over 100 degrees. He had a melt down on Sunday night but then fared pretty well on Monday on the ride back. This trip was kind of a test run to see how we would do considering we had a Savannah trip planned for my sister’s baby shower in two weeks. Notice the “had” in the last sentence. Here is why we are no longer going to Savannah:
· There is no rocking chair or swing in a hotel room
· Carting a breast pump on the plane
· Washing breast pump parts and bottles in a hotel sink (gross!)
· Hot Savannah weather
· Public meltdown’s at restaurants etc.
· The flight itself
· And last but not least…The physical and mental health of Vin and his Mommies.
Perhaps in the future we can take a trip but not this one – no way no how!

UPDATE ON VIN AT 2 ½ MONTHS
He is growing like a weed! He had a Dr. visit last Monday and weighed 11 lbs 15.5 ozs. Then we went back on Wednesday and he weight 12 lbs. 4 ozs. That’s 4 ½ ounces in two days! What a cute little chub he is! We’ve learned that he hates tummy time and therefore has a flat head and while his Dr. once remarked that he had a perfectly proportioned body, I don’t think that’s true anymore. He has a BIG head – thank God he was a little early! He’s becoming more and more alert everyday and can recognize people and voices in a room. Vin is also discovering his own hands and is almost, just almost ,finding his thumb to suck.

We had a very big and eventful weekend starting on Saturday when Teri purchased us an above ground pool. We loved Patty and Terry's so much during our visit that we had to get on ourselves. Since it's almost the end of the season it was tricky to find one in stock but she pressed on and found one in stock. I didn't help set it up but apparently it was pretty easy. James was amazed that you could fit an 18 foot pool into one box! You can see by the picture that he started to enjoy it from the very beginning!

Truthfully he'll probably get to use it more than Teri & I combined. For the money, the easy set up and the relaxation it provides we're sorry we didn't buy one years ago.

Sunday we went to our professional photo shoot. This was a baby gift from our friends Jay & Nathan who own a production company . Check them out at http://www.jaywitkowski.com/commercial.html

They rented a studio space in Deep Ellum with exposed bricks, wood floors and lots of natural light. Then they divided the shoot into two segments, first the natural shots of Teri,Vin and I (and a few James too) which will be black and whites and secondly they created a stylized shot. This is where it got fun... They brought in vintage beauty shop chairs and blow dryers along with an art director and a hair/make-up woman to get up dolled up.
I started encouraging Teri from the night before to branch out and accept the hair and makeup they were offering.
Ok that's just too funny - let's take a closer look!
You can see by her face that she's not used to wearing makeup but the hair was the best. They styled it in a modified pompadour created with some serious backcombing. Again you can see how thrilled she was.
And let's take a closer look at that via video

We'll show the final pictures when we get them!

All Shook Up

Check out Vin dancing to

Elvis' All Shook Up

We successfully completed our first road trip, and a 6 hour road trip at that! We left early on Thursday morning in an attempt to beat the Dallas holiday traffic and arrived in Amarillo around 2:00 to see my Grandmother Taylor and Aunt Jan. This was their first time to see him and he is the first boy grandchild so far among 4 girls. This is the exact opposite of the previous generation, where I was the only girl among 4 boys.

We had a nice lunch and visit then we were off to Canyon to visit Leslie and Gaye. Of course on the way we stopped by the Eskimo Hut to get liquor snowcones. How great is that - drive through cocktails! There used to be a place like this in Denton and I'd always get a cherry vodka slush for the rush hour drive home. Anyway... we were on to Canyon and then had another 2 hour drive to Spearman. Poor little Vin was cooped up in his car seat the whole time but fared pretty well. Teri got pulled over for speeding but Vin was so cute he got us out of the ticket.

Once in Spearman we had a very relaxing time. Patty and Terry are the ultimate hosts. They had us stocked up on beer and made homemade caramel chocolate brownies, we had steak, shrimp, ribs, homemade vanilla ice cream, bowls of cherry's, and grapes all served on red, white and blue plates with 4th of July napkins. Decorative napkins are the one thing Patty will always have.

We spent our days in the pool and buying fireworks and shooting them off at night. Here's a picture of our loot.



One morning Mom and I drank coffee and watch old 8 mm videos she had transferred to DVD's. They were from 1974 - 1982 and were so great to see. In them were footage of my favorite dog Checkers along with footage of my Dad and Grandad who have passed away.

I totally could have stayed another couple of days. Everyone was so helpful with Vin and Teri and I got caught up on some sleep. That alone was worth the drive!

The Cutest Boy in the World!

Preparing for our first trip

Tomorrow we are leaving for Amarillo and Spearman to see my family. We will first go see my Grandmother Taylor and my Aunt Jan in Amarillo then on to see Leslie and Gaye in Canyon then finally to Spearman to my Mom's. Mat, Jaime and Tara are coming later tomorrow night and then we'll commence with our "Old Fashioned 4th of July". In Spearman they practically sell the fireworks in town. When we were kids my Grandad would take us and literally buy 100's of dollars worth of fireworks. It was a blast! A few years ago Teri had her first experience with buying and lighting fireworks, she's a city kid and once her Mom made her bury her fireworks in the backyard rather than shooting them off.
Our weekend plans include fireworks, homemade ice cream, water balloons, watermelon, steaks, ribs, beer, sunshine and swimming pools. I'll be posting pictures next week of all the festivities.
In the meantime I must get to packing.

Brinker Officer Cookout

Friday Vin had his first outdoor recreational outing to the Brinker Officer Cookout. The Cookout is where the entire home office gathers on the front lawn for burgers, beverages, and volleyball. We had a nice time but Vin and I both got too hot and ended up sick. Poor Teri had to call our neighbor Audrea for help since we were both throwing up and she didn't know which way to turn. Nevertheless we had a great time at the cookout.