Words, words, words
Tivon's vocabulary is growing by the minute. He talks about his friends, "Isis" for Wilson, "Yuh" for Olivia and "Buby" for Ruby. He loves "woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo" and "broom, broom, broom, broom, broom". His manners are impeccable with "pwace" for please and "doo doo" for thank you. He "wuvs oma and dada" and likes to talk to "papaw" and "ana". He often repeats a word over and over and over again until someone acknowledges/confirms what he is saying. So my vocabulary now exists of "yes, a train" and "yes, we played with Wilson today" and "yes that's a picture of Nana". Part of me thinks this is adorable and treasures this phase of learning and then part of me thinks I might go insane from listening to the broken record.

Today I was explaining to Karen (our friend and babysitter) about his nap time ritual. I said, "Now he may want to read a couple of books." She said, "Does it matter which ones?" I replied, "Well, he'll probably ask for a specific one. This one is 'hop, hop'; this book is 'broom, broom'; this book is 'oops' and this book is 'arf, arf'. He has names for almost all of his books."

Hmmm, I thought, it might be time to create a dictionary entitled, "The world according to Tivon."

Mid Week Vacation

So Josh has been working crazy hours lately. When I say crazy, I mean "a la NYC" crazy. He goes in at 7 and comes home at 7 but then after Tivon's bath, he works from home until 2 ish. So all this equates to little quality time with ti ti and me. Sooo, I was pleasantly surprised when Josh decided to work from home this morning. He got up early to get a jump start before Tivon was awake. Then Tivon and I played in the neighborhood with Wilson while Tivon wore his Santa Claus pajamas and darth vader slippers--missed that photo opportunity! He may forever be known as "Darth Claus" now.

Finally Josh decided an early lunch was in order. Where else to take a lunch break but Deep Eddy pool? The pool is in the background--like the infamous Barton Springs, Deep Eddy is a spring filled pool--no nasty chlorine. Tivon is saying "geese" in the picture.

The first time we took Tivon to the pool he screamed and wouldn't get in so this time I came armed with toys: balls, duck, cars, and squid. This worked like a charm. It was hard to get him out of the pool. He likes to drop things in the drainage ditch and watch it float.

And what is a lunch break without lunch? We stopped at a local taco joint that is operated out of an airstream trailer. Tivon LOVED the spicy queso on homemade chips. This boy loves him some spicy--definitely doesn't have Indiana taste buds. :) Our little outing felt like a vacation!

Preempting Battles

Ok, I may be naive to even think that this might work but it won't hurt. I can only imagine what it will be like when I ask Tivon to get dressed and he runs naked screaming, "Noooooooo!" So what if his clothes are fun? We'll see how it goes. We bought the shirts at a consignment shop and I got the fleece when it was on a HUGE sale. I'm thinking of doing an adult version. Any takers?

Growth Spurt

Ti seems to be growing and growing and growing. I guess that's how this whole thing works. This is so anti-motherhood but here it goes: even though he is growing at an alarming rate, I am not nostalgic for yesterday, or last year, or even 5 minutes ago. I'd like to think it's my concerted effort to "stay in the moment". But maybe it's just that kids get more and more fun. I love seeing him learn and relate to his world in new ways. Maybe nostalgia is coming but for now, I like it right now. And now. And now.

A new twist on an old adage: Tivon tries walking in someone else's socks for awhile.

Busy Weekend--Long Winded Version

We started the weekend with a concert at the elementary school amphitheater Friday night. The whole neighborhood was out and about. Tivon felt right at home--crazy to think that this would be the school he would attend if we stay here in a few short years.

Saturday we rode our bikes (my NEW bike, isn't it pretty?) to Town Lake Sprinkler park--many of you have heard what a favorite this has become. On Saturdays, Josh takes ti and meets our neighbor there. Lots of fun to be had. This last Saturday, I tagged along because the Biscuit Brothers were playing a concert. For those of you who don't know the biscuit brothers, well, you're missing out. I worked with and became good friends with one of the "brothers" and now they have a tv show on PBS and do concerts all over. We have one of their dvd's and fortunately, tivon is hooked. Josh insisted that Tivon dress appropriately in his overalls.Next was the petting zoo. Ti loved petting the animals: goats, sheep, ducks, pigs, rabbits. So much fun. Then it was home for our nap. (Josh and I sure do like the instituted nap time in the middle of the day!)

That night we went to Lara and Bert's for a fabulous Cinco de Mayo soiree. We started to put tivon to bed there but he got really frightened. So we stayed until he was ready to go home. Well that ended up being after 11! (For the record, I was more ready to go home than Tivon was.)

Sunday attended a new church Austin City Life and really connected with quite a few people. Then that afternoon was the big annual block party. I guess it should really be a street party because it's just one side of a block, semantics. Anyway, we had a blast. Tivon loved hanging with the neighborhood gang--over 20 kids on the one street of a block. Enjoy the pics.

Yes, there was a bouncey castle, that is not our neighbor's house. Tivon and his good friend Wilson played for hours together.

Josh snapping every moment (the monster in the background is Wilson's mom Julie):

And here's the happiest boy on the block.

THE DOG HOUSE

We have a little actor on our hands.

I feel like this should be a photo in a Dr. Seus book. GO, Dog, Go.

Voracious Reader

This is a pretty common sight these days. Tivon is obsessed with books. I mean, we can "read" through 25 books in one seating easily. He also asks for specific books which of course, I only understand part of the time. We have books about horses, ducks, dogs, monkeys, and cars. All of these I can usually guess but there are so many that I can't. BTW, we picked up that chair on the side of the road and purchased new cushions for it. We were pretty psyched.

Update on the Attempted Weight Loss Program
So I've lost 4 pounds. That includes the 2 pounds I gained in the beginning of this project. So really I've only lost 2 but 4 sounds better and is much closer to 5 which sounds great. :)

I've been pretty discouraged until today. While I was running (struggling of course), a woman with a long cute braid passed me and looked back. I thought, "yes, please judge me, be annoyed that I'm so slow, give me a mean look." Then the cute braid said, "You're doing an awesome job!" I was in shock. Was it because I looked so pathetic that I needed encouragement? I don't know, but I'm going to choose to believe that it's because I was doing an awesome job.