Cute Purse!

We got home Thursday afternoon from a mini-trip to San Antonio. We're trying to give Sunny and Mirsad the best "Texas experience" we can. Of course they wanted to go to Dallas and see South Fork Ranch (especially since our first born is named JR) but since Dallas is a 4 hour drive, we just don't have the time. Instead we decided to show them what Tex-Mex is all about, and drove up to San Antonio. We did all the touristy things: The River Walk, boat ride down the river, ate Mexican food, listened to mariachis and of course went to The Alamo. Mirsad wanted to have his picture made with the police at The Alamo since they were all wearing cowboy hats. He wasn't sure if they would be okay with him taking a picture of them, but Jason was quick to set him straight. Jason told him, "Mirsad, they obviously know you're not a Texan. You're walking around in your tight shirt and man purse...you don't even have to open your mouth for them to know you're European." So here's the picture of Mirsad with The Alamo police...man purse and all. And I've also included some more pictures of us being great San Antonio tourists.

Is That MY Baby?

Kyle and Reed have added two new members to their fan club. We first discovered Reed was a ladies man when we went to see Gary and Anita. Their youngest daughter, Madison, loved Reed and would tell me that he was her favorite. Then when we went to San Antonio with Jay and Sheryl, their oldest daughter, Allison, also would tell me that Reed was her favorite. Now it seems he has another girlfriend. Melissa says that "the little one" is her baby. Uma, being the little sister, had to take the leftovers, but has taken on Kyle full force. Every time she sees me holding one of the babies she asks me, "Is that MY baby?" Today she was saying, "This is MY baby. Not Melissa's baby!" The girls beg to hold them and want to pet them all the time. Baby boys, hope you're enjoying this! And for some reason, Melissa and Uma aren't holding their babies in the pictures. Melissa is holding Kyle and Uma is holding Reed.

Rollin' With The Homies

Houston isn't known for its world renown site-seeing, but I do have to say that Space Center Houston/NASA is actually pretty good. We went today and not only did the kids LOVE it, we adults had a good time too. But the real "party" was the drive home. I was the driver so Sunny sat shot-gun so we could chat. That left Mirsad sitting next to the twins with JR, Uma, and Melissa behind him. I don't think he's ever worked so hard in his life. Mirsad spent the whole drive home (which took us about an hour and half since we were in rush hour traffic) trying to keep the back of the car happy. He fed the babies a bottle, fed them food (which they screamed through since his feeding skills aren't as fast as mine), tried to comfort Uma who would cry because he was feeding the babies, had his eardrums burst from JR screeching in his ear, and thoroughly enjoyed JR and Melissa's game of counting to 100 over and over again. Being moms, Sunny and I were able to tune the whole thing out and quite enjoyed our front seat conversations. I've never seen somebody as happy as Mirsad was when we pulled in our driveway!

A Bit of China in Houston

Our Bosnian/German friends from Beijing, Sunny and Mirsad, arrived yesterday to spend the week with us. Their daughter, Melissa, and JR were BFFs. Melissa talked WAY before JR ever did and she would always call for him in her Chinese/Bosnian accent "JAY-RRRRR". When JR finally started talking he called Melissa, "Mei-Mei (May-May)" then was finally able to say "Miss-A" by the time we moved. JR has been so excited about Melissa coming to see him. He's been counting down the days and even told us, "I'm Melissa's girlfriend." Jason was quick to correct him on that one. When he woke up yesterday we heard him over the baby monitor say, "It's Sunday! Melissa comes today!" It's so great to have them here, and even though it's been 2 years since we've seen them, we picked right up like we had seen them yesterday. It's funny to hear Melissa speak perfect English without any accent. And she has been speaking English the whole time they have been in the U.S. She told Sunny, "Mom! Speak English. We are in America!" JR was a little taken aback by Melissa's little sister, Uma. When we left Beijing Uma had just turned a year old, now at 3, JR wasn't quite sure what to think of her not being a baby anymore...As you will see by the video.

He's Got My....Squeal

Reed is our youngest (by a minute) and smallest (by at least a pound) twin, but he's also the toughest. You've seen his pacifier stealing trick, his wrestling moves, and he's also been known to take the toy Kyle is playing with and then beat him with it. But Reed has now started showing his softer side for his brother. Seems he doesn't care about Kyle's well-being if he's doing the hurting, but if Kyle accidentally hurts himself, Reed screams louder than Kyle. We've seen it a couple of times now and it's sweet, funny, and ear piercing all at the same time. Reed is able to pull up and stand on his own, but Kyle is still getting the hang of it. He can sometimes get himself propped up to stand or kneel, but inevitably he looses his balance and usually pulls something down on top of him. Kyle usually gives the standard baby cry that says, "That was scary, but I'm okay. If you'll come pick me up and give me a kiss, all will be right with the world." Reed's cry,(about Kyle's falls) on the other hand, is a squeal I've given many times myself that says, "Oh my goodness! He's hurt! We must run to the hospital and have X-rays! CPS is going to come to the house! Will my baby ever be the same again?!" Just last night Kyle and Reed were standing at their Elmo play center when Kyle toppled over. I think Kyle might have let out a little whimper, but Reed started squealing at the top of his lungs. Jason and I had to run over and comfort Reed that his brother was okay. Jason looked at me and said, "Well, he's certainly got your flair for the dramatics. He hollers out just like you." How sweet, he's got my....squeal.

Has JR Met Me?

I'm a little worried about my eldest child. I've either pulled the wool over his eyes better than I could have ever imagined or he doesn't know me at all. Today he asked me:
JR: Mommy, Can we open a restaurant in our house?
Me: Um...JR, Who would do the cooking?
JR: You would.
(Yes, you may burst out laughing. I almost did.)
Me (with a straight face): You want me to cook?
(At this point I'm thinking, Wow! That lunch of Chef Boyardee raviolis and Doritos must have been awesome.)
JR: Well, I could help you. (Okay, so he has tasted my cooking.)
Me: What would we serve?
JR: All the foods in the whole wide world.
Me: I don't know how to cook all the foods in the whole wide world. (Understatement of my life.)
JR: Daddy can. Can't Daddy cook everything?
Me: Pretty much, but Daddy has a job.
JR: Daddy can cook when he gets home. And we have a cooking book (he goes and gets my cookbook that has about 10 recipes in it). We could put tables downstairs and upstairs.
Me: But if we have a restaurant at our house we won't be able to go out to eat.
JR: When we want to go out to eat we'll just put out a sign that says 'closed'.
Me (Seeing that he's really set on this crazy restaurant idea): JR, I don't think we can have a restaurant in our house.
JR: Okay, so we can put the tables in the backyard. Everybody can eat there.
Me (Seeing that he's really set on this crazy restaurant idea): Well, you'll have to ask your daddy when he gets home.

So You Think You Can Dance

Things are finally getting back to normal around here after the hurricane, so Monday was our first day back at Tiny Tots since the inappropriate laughter incident. I was so busy “marching for Jesus” last time that I didn’t notice that one of the other songs was actually a rendition of a classic party tune. Those of you who don’t know me may not know about my ability to boogie-down at a moments notice. Luckily, I have a group of sorority sister friends that also have a fondness for “breaking into routine”. And when I say, ‘break into routine’, I mean it. Check out this picture from my wedding…And yes, it was my wedding. Jason was just the last piece of the puzzle ;-)

That’s a shot of our I Will Survive number, but we have others. Including one to the tune we were singing at Tiny Tots. I wouldn’t have thought much about it if I had been someplace like Gymboree, but sitting there in the Baptist church I almost had another case of inappropriate laughter. We were sitting on the floor bouncing our babies on our legs (I had one baby on my legs, my other baby was crawling around the room “visiting” with everybody else) when we started to sing:
Ride, Baby, Ride
Ride that pony, Ride
All of a sudden I realized what the real song was; I had visions of my girlfriends and I hitting the dance floor to perform our stylized routine to....
All you want to do is ride around Sally
Ride, Sally, Ride.I couldn’t believe it! I had just marched for Jesus and now I’m teaching my kids a song to the tune of Mustang Sally. Tiny Tots really is the best entertainment in town...We Baptists rock!