Weekend in Corpus

I hate to have to admit it, but until last weekend we had not been down to Corpus Christi since the baby was born. Luckily, Nana and Honey have been able to stop by Houston several times and we also get to see some of the extended family at the yearly reunion. This year Ray's grandmother, Nanny Cox, did not make it to the reunion for health reasons and that was the fire we needed to pack up and go. Truitt was a real trooper on the ride down- we left late on Friday, after his dinner and bath. We put him in some comfy pajamas and packed him in to the car. He fell asleep right about his normal bedtime. The 4 in-coming molars didn't let him sleep peacefully, but he was calm and we made it to Nana's without incident.

It was perfect timing because just the day before we left, he looked at a picture of Ray's dad and said "Honey." It was like he knew where we were headed and he had Honey on the mind. Another road-tripper that was pleased to see Honey was Cookie. Rather than pawn her off on poor Wendy once again, we decided she might like to come with us. She loved Nana's yard and all the love and walks she got from Honey. I swear I thought they were going to try and keep her!

On Saturday afternoon we were able to have a nice visit with Nanny Cox at Ray's Aunt Darlene's house. Nanny was in good spirits and so happy to see us. It was a really nice visit for all of us, as long overdue visits usually are.

Ray and Nanny; Turtle shows Nanny the love

The weather was perfect and Darlene has a nice back yard, so we decided to visit outside. Well, who comes along the the cutest, friendliest little cat. Of course Truitt loves cats, so he was all about it. The two of them definitely had some fun together. The cat was so sweet and gentle for an outside cat. One time Truitt was being particularly troublesome and the cat swatted him. Everyone jumped up but Tru was fine- the kitty didn't put out his claws. What a sweetie! If I didn't have two bad, miserable cats already, I would have cat napped that one for sure!

Here are some really cute snap shots of Truitt and the cat. Ray got super lucky with our craptastic camera and was able to get a great "Gotcha!" picture at the end!

After cat chasing, Truitt's next fave thing has to be jumping. He is pretty fearless and will jump from quite a height if the opportunity presents itself. Luckily, he is a Turtle with cat-like agility b/c he does land on his feet the majority of the time. While visiting with Nanny, Truitt decided to get Nana in on the action.

Ready, Nana? Let's JUMP!

Last, I just had to post this one other picture. It's almost a private joke b/c you can't really tell what's happening, but at least Mama, Dada and Nana will get a kick out of it. Basically, Truitt thought he could possibly move this post. He was hugging it and pulling on it and grunting like he was really trying to get it to budge. We had to wonder what put that in his head, but it was so cute and so funny... What a silly boy!

For anyone who just might be wondering what Truitt is up to these days developmentally, we are in full language explosion mode. He says a new word daily, sometimes 2 or 3. It's hard to follow what he is saying sometimes b/c I may have no idea that he is now capable of saying "pillow" or "sandwich" like he did today.

One of his fave games to play in the car is for me to say words he knows and him to repeat them to me. It's pretty fun for both of us since I can get him to say all the words I think are so cute, like "turtle," "thank you," and "bus." His pronunciation is sooo adorable sometimes. He also like to repeat letters- we used to only do the vowels but if he is in the mood he will repeat the whole alphabet. He doesn't get every letter right, but he has shocked me with wonderful pronunciation of tough ones like "w" and "z." I think you'll agree that he is very smart indeed!

Other than that, he is hell on wheels. Full on tantrums are not unheard of. Running away from me at the speed of light and my big, ole pregnant self not able to chase him. That's fun. He is very opinionated (where would he get that???) and you can really see that toddler struggle between the desire for independence and the need to stay close.

I have had to force myself to let him feed himself every meal, regardless of how much faster or cleaner it would be if I fed him. He is a whizz with a spoon but the subtler points of fork-working are still escaping him. He tries to eat everything off the side of the fork, like you might a spoon, rather than putting the tines in his mouth from the front. Still, he eats more than he spills and never goes hungry, so onward he goes...

That's all the news that's fit to print for tonight.