Hook'em

Congrats to Collin, he has officially graduated from Law School. Kelly threw Collin a huge surprise party to celebrate. It was great seeing old friends and cruising on Lake Austin.

Here they come, super surprised and excited to see everyone

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Annie and her favorite little man, I just love the goofy faces!

Zonked!

Letting Davis cry himself to sleep is one of the hardest things we've had to do as parents. When we first decided he was ready (which was a while back) it was a tough week of adjustments and ear plugs, but well worth it in the end. Hooray, bedtime made easy and peaceful. You would think this one week of torture would be enough, but no, you are wrong. Anytime our schedule is tweaked, either by a late dinner, a vacation, or if Davis gets sick, we have to start all over again. Last week we had a rough couple of days with fever and ear infections. Most nights Davis just lay in my arms. Now that he's feeling better, it's back to the routine. Luckily it doesn't take an entire week, but those one or two nights where you have to let him cry are tough. We checked on Davis after one of those crying nights and this is how we found him. Breaks my heart to see his little hands on the rails as if saying, "Get me outta here!" But hilarious and precious at the same time.

Blondie!

Is my child's hair getting lighter? I always thought I was destined to have brown-eyed, dark headed children with some strong Italian genes. Davis' big blue eyes and light brown / blonde hair are proving my predictions wrong!

On Your Left!

This past weekend was our first triathlon of the season and boy was it MUCH TOUGHER than I remember. Maybe it's because I haven't been riding my bike, or because I had only been swimming twice, or because I hate to run? Excuses, I know. It was an absolute blast!!! I love that we have a whole group involved: my mom, my sister, my aunt, my cousin, my best friend...and the list goes on! I came home Sunday completely exhausted and it wasn't just from the race. Let me start at the beginning...

Friday night I put Davis to sleep around 7pm. Forrest was at a crawfish boil with his cousins celebrating graduations. I was sad to miss it, but kind of excited to stay home and rest on the couch with a good movie. Davis has been sleeping 12 hours, sometimes 13, solid at night. It's wonderful. I knew something was wrong when I started to hear him stir around 8pm. And he didn't stop. It sounded like he was just talking to himself so I let him be and thought he would eventually fall back asleep. After a while, I was curious what he was up to, so I checked him. He was burning up. Poor little man had a high fever and started throwing up. After a bath, some medicine, and pedialyte, I held him and rocked him for the rest of the night. Saturday we kept Davis on a liquid diet, no solid foods. He seemed much better and I was excited to get a good night's sleep before the triathlon. Wrong. Because we skipped out on some of his solid food that day, Davis woke up hungry twice that night. Then I was up at 5am for the race.

The race was a short sprint. 300 meter swim, 11 mile bike, and 2 mile run. The swim in this particular race is not my favorite. The lake is so narrow which makes it impossible not to kick others or be kicked yourself. Every time I went up for air someone's arm was making a splash. So instead of inhaling fresh air, I was gulping lovely lake water. Ann Marie even had her goggles kicked off her face! She and I somehow managed to stay together through the entire swim, getting out of the water at the exact same time. Then it was onto the bike. Ann Marie and I also managed to stay together throughout the bike ride. I have a hybrid, not a bad bike, but not the best. I kept hearing the swishing of fast roadbikes with an "on your left" from the woman passing me. After the bike Ann Marie was a couple minutes behind me, but I knew she would soon be running next to me. Along the run, because it loops, I saw Jaki, Renee, and Kelly! Ann Marie and I crossed the finish line together. I'm anxious to see pictures because I'm pretty sure I was so focused and ready to pass out after the hour and thirteen minutes that I didn't even hear the people cheering us on along the sidelines. After the race I even asked Forrest, "where were you?" He and Davis were right there at the finish and I didn't even notice. I just wanted water, a massage, and a nap! Because Forrest was taking care of Davis, he didn't get a chance to take many pictures. Hopefully I'll get more from the rest of the crew.

So proud of my mom, she placed second in her age group and she beat me!

And the icing on the cake...I fell asleep on our leather sofa and awoke to find my race number from my arm on the couch. Uh oh! Anyone know how to get permanent marker off leather? Otherwise there will forever be a 5 and a 3 on our couch.

Hey Mom! I can't see!

Happy Mother's Day (long over-due to all those moms out there)! For Mother's Day Davis gave me a bike trailer and picked himself out a helmet, which as you can see, we are still trying to figure out!

Alfred's Cousin

For those who knew Alfred, you are so lucky. He was our rooster. Junior year at A&M, Forrest and I rescued a cute little yellow chick. We built him a coop, bought him some food, and named him Alfred. It was the end of the school year and I left for Paris for the summer. Forrest decided to watch Alfred over the summer. Alfred was the life of the party until he grew into his boisterous rooster self. Forrest's roommates were quickly thinking of ways to get rid of the him. I think they were tired of the 5am wake up calls. Luckily, fall semester was starting and I was back in town to resue Alfred. I'm not sure why I didn't think my roommates would mind a rooster. We enjoyed his company for a couple weeks, feeding him cheerios on the back patio and letting him roam free in our yard. It didn't take long for my sweet roommates to find an alternate home for Alfred, so we boxed him up with love and sent him to a beautiful farm where he could roam free and meet friends. I like to think Alfred is still enjoying a fruitful life on the farm, but let's get real, he's probably 6 feet under. Rest in peace Alfred. This past weekend, we were thrilled to see a similar creature running through our yard and more than one! It was a family of ducks! There was a mommy, a daddy, and 10 baby ducks. They just kept running around the yard, our driveway, and under fences into our neighbor's yards. I called wildlife animal control to see if we needed to help them or let them explore on their own. I found out they are black bellied ducks and they usually have their families near trees and once the babies are strong enough, migrate to water. So precious! They told me to let them enjoy my backyard and to keep my dog away.

What a beautiful night...

Courtney Sue got married!

Some Kind of Kitchen Miracle

Before...

After...

Chicken Goodness

I tried out a new combo the other day, Chicken + Eggplant + Potato.

Davis was a big fan and a big mess!

Dewberry

May 1st was the Thompson annual Dewberry Festival out at Nockenut Farm. The farm is near Seguin and is basically where an old 1800's town used to thrive, called Nockenut. Ghost town now due to the fact that the railroad bypassed it and headed to San Antonio. We head to Nockenut many times throughout the year and in May we go for the Dewberry Festival. Sadly, there were no dewberries (similar to blackberries) to pick this year, but we played some horseshoes and did a scavenger hunt.

Duke taking a rest after playing with the other dogs and running free!

Nana and Davis

Pop teaching Davis how to cook a pork chop...a good one that is!

Me with my cousin-in-law, Trey. Him and his wife are expecting TWINS!

Time for birthday cake!

Off to Play

The Wave from Christina Thompson on Vimeo.

Wedding...

I seem to be behind on blogging. A couple weekends ago, my high school friend Christina got married. April 17th to be exact. Forrest's cousin Ginny got married the same weekend so we had to divide and conquer. I got stuck with the baby. And when I say stuck, I don't mean it in a bad way. I loved having Davis with me all weekend, but a single mom running around from one wedding festivity to the next is difficult. Did I mention I was in the wedding? Did I mention my parents were out of town? Thank goodness for relatives. Aunt Dede and Uncle Mike to the rescue again!!!!

Brunch time with the girls!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Getting Ready

The Bride!

On the Dance Floor!

Splish Splash

I've got a new bath!

I loved our old tub and he actually still fits in it nicely, but he started to pull himself over the edges. This one doesn't really provide him with an edge to pull on. He loves bath time and can't get enough of it! We had a hard time even getting him to look up for one picture.

Go Baby Go!

Dancing Davis!

Untitled from Christina Thompson on Vimeo.