Round 2 photos from road trip

Road trip, Day 3

Recap from Day 3 of the road trip.

We left at 7:15 AM.

Stopped in Fairfield to feed the boys and let Gracie play.

Pulled into our driveway at 11:30 AM. Made really good time.

Everyone was soooo happy to be home. It was great to see everyone but there's no place like home.

Back to work today. Steph only has 7 working days left. Well, working at the school that is. I'm going to NYC for a pitch tomorrow and will only be gone 1 day. Neither of us like that. :(

Round 1 photos from road trip

Road trip, Day 2

The boys don't know what to do with everyone. Overstimulation.

We have been pool bums.

Gracie has played with her cousin Amalia non-stop. That has caused some problems around nap and bed time. They had a slumber party last night. It went so-so.

Our bodies are officially on their way to being tan.

It feels like summer has begun.

I miss the summer days of doing nothing but hanging by the pool. Maybe I'll quit my job and become a teacher so I can enjoy summers off. Or maybe I'll go back to school. Yeah, there's an idea. Go back to school despite 3 young children.

I can dream anyway.

Road trip, Day 1

I’m sitting in the backseat of our minivan next to Gracie and her favorite bear, Cula, jamming to Carrie Underwood. I think this is her 2nd album, although I can’t say for sure because I just got into Carrie Underwood. We are dancing because this is good music to dance to. The boys are awake in their car seats right in front of me. The Cearley Express is in full effect.

If you would have told me five years ago that just a short time in the future, I would be riding in a minivan, listening to the winner of a reality-TV talent show who, oh by the way sings country music, sitting in the middle of 3 kids, I would have laughed or rolled my eyes or said ‘yeah right. That won’t be me. I’m not going to be THAT kind of dad.’

I guess the reality is once you’re a dad, there’s only one kind. Full on DAD. It doesn’t matter how many kids you have or what kind of car you own or even what you listen to on the radio. Just by default, you are no longer cool by young peoples’ definition.

However, by parents’ definition, I maintain that we are cool. We’re an old cool. And as far as coolness goes, I have to believe it is like wine. Yes, the older you are, the cooler you are. Because you can choose to have kids and choose to have a minivan and choose to listen to rockin’ country singers. You can choose to have a mortgage payment, 3 college tuition funds, and even though you don’t can’t choose it, you have a gut. Plus, you’ve been cool for all these years.

So, to all those 20-somethings driving down this god-forsaken highway from Dallas to Houston on your way to begin the summer, going to party, party, party, take a look at this. This is a family full of cool. Our ride rocks, our kids rock and as evident by wife, bawling her eyes out as I type due to exhaustion, anticipation and Carrie Underwood lyrics, WE ROCK.

Life is good.

Gracie, baby

Gracie, we miss you. It's not even been 2 days and this house feels lonely without you. Like there's a big hole in it.

Where's the sidewalk chalk and the stories and the coloring and the glass slippers and the Cinderella and Belle and Ariel and 'can I get a tweat?' The running, the hiding. The silly faces and silly words and even the silly ways you try to play mom and dad. Play, play, play. Kick the ball. Dress yourself. Throw water out of the tub even when daddy tells you not to. Where is that little girl that lights this place up?????

Playing in Austin with Nana of course.

You should know that your brothers got 3 shots each today at their 2-month doctor appointment. They didn't like it one bit. If you were there, you would have comforted them when they were crying. You would have seen that even though the shots hurt them, they are still growing into big boys. Baby brother Max weighed 9.13 and Baby brother Nicholas weighed 8.5. They liked the scale just as much as you do. They miss your voice. We miss your voice. "Goo mouwning.*"

*(Good morning)

Hard Rock

Sunday morning - I'm sitting in my room at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, up long before I am supposed to be. This hotel, while very cool, is very annoying. There is always something going on. Pounding music when I went to bed, knocks on the door at all hours of the night, people in the hallway, in the next room(s), vacuuming at the crack of dawn. If you want to get a decent night's sleep and a fraction of peace, the Hard Rock anything is not the place to be.

I felt excited and guilty that I was going to get a full night's rest on this trip. As you can imagine, my body woke up at feeding time(s) out of habit. It was restful, but not as much as I had hoped. Apparently, Max and Steph have been up since 4 AM.

Everything here at the conference went well yesterday and is set up to go really well today. I just came in to train the booth representatives on how to use our technology. We have a booth like no other on the showroom floor. Our technology is head and shoulders above anyone elses. The client's are really happy and knowing these were all our ideas, well that makes me happy to. I leave for the airport this afternoon around 2:30. Back in Dallas at 10. Home just in time for the 1 AM feeding :) Rock on.

Summer fever

So, keeping the blog up to date is a bit challenging right now. Unfortunately, it's just one more thing to do and amid the schedule, the thing that gets pushed down to the bottom of the list every time.

The boys are doing well. Max went to the doctor on Wednesday for this little cyst above his eye. We don't think it's anything to worry about, but we need to go see a specialist or two. He weighs 9.8. Boy is big.

Gracie apparently is a strep carrier??? She was diagnosed with strep throat on Wednesday, but shows no sypmtoms other than a chronic swollen lymph gland. She hates the antibiotics that they put her on despite its wonderful banana flavoring.

I'm traveling to San Diego this weekend for business. It's only an overnight trip so that's good, but it will be the first time I've been gone since the beginning of the year and more importantly, since the boys have been born. My mom is coming in this weekend and will then take Gracie back to Austin next week for some time with Nana and Papa.

Steph has 3 more weeks of school left. I think we've all got summer fever.

Gracie

Gracie has grown so much. Even since I started writing this back in January, it's like she's another person. She just got herself dressed so she could go outside and kick the ball. No urging from us. That's just what she wanted to do so she did it.

We are tired and exhausted and almost feel like we can barely make it through the day and seeing her suddenly as this little girl is hard to deal with. We both just want to spend every waking moment paying attention to her.

Everyone always says, 'they grow up quick.' It seems like it's the standard response to every stage in the first couple of years. And when you're in the moment, you can't really see that because you're right there with them. But it's true. They do grow up quick. You blink and the next thing you know your baby is not a baby anymore.

We love you Gracie.

It's going to be fun

This is going to be fun, that's all I can say. Steph's first day back at work was good. I think it was filled with about 100 different emotions. Her kids and colleagues were soooo happy to see her. Her kids even made her Welcome Back signs and pasted them all over her room. I don't think she was very happy with everything that went on in her classroom(s) while she was gone, but what are you gonna do? In a sense, she welcomed the break with the boys, but at the same time, she really missed them. Plus the general worrying about Gracie and how she adapted to having her baby brother's in her territory. (Gracie did great BTW. :)) Oh, and the feelings of energy and exhaustion and anxiety. Fun, fun stuff, right? Truly, one day at a time. Sigh.