More Chocolate?

Thomas was really sleepy and sweet in his rocking chair during this night. Earlier, I had given him some little Hershey squares, and it seems that is all he could think about.

The Children's Museum at Fair Park

Today, Thomas and I killed some time at the Children's Museum at Fair Park. We had never been there, but I was impressed. The parking was free, and the entry was cheap so that was nice. Thomas mostly enjoyed the "Little Urban Farm" area where he could pretend to harvest crops. Harvesting to him means, grabbing plastic oranges and corn from baskets and throwing them into the ground area. This area was really cute. They even had a big fake cow that you could milk. There was an area where kids were riding around on John Deere tricycles. Thomas hasn't taken to riding on things quite yet, but he's going to have a whole new world to explore when he finally does.

We had passed a dinosaur dig room on our way back to the Children's Museum, so we had to go back and visit that area. We spent probably 45 minutes there. First Thomas wanted me to play with him in the sand, but once he got busy enough, I was able to hop out of the big sand pit and take some pictures.

On our way home, I took a video of a Thomas, "I'm really sleepy and don't know how to handle it" tantrum. ;-)

Birth Control in the Form of a Short Video


Asleep at Last. Momma Goes to her Happy Place

Aunt Niomi, Uncle Arthur, and Grandma Mary Visit

Mike's Aunt Niomi, Uncle Arthur, and Grandma Mary were in town, so Thomas and I headed to Weatherford to visit with them. When we got there, Mike's Dad (PoPo) combed and fixed Thomas's big head of hair, and he looked so cute. Mike's Dad was a barber back in his day (along with being a fireman), so he gives the best haircuts to the grandkids! Thomas won't let anybody cut his hair very easily right now though, so we just have Popo style his wild head of curls instead.

Bryson and Jessica hadn't started school yet, so they were also there. Mike was at work, but he gave us money to all eat at Rosa's for lunch. Thomas was a bit hyper/tired, but we still had a good time anyway. Ms. Lozano, who is a good friend and neighbor of Aunt Niomi, was also there, and I enjoyed visiting with her too. It was a quick, but very nice visit!









I was dying of thirst after we left Grandma's so we stopped by McDonalds. I felt like I should buy something (instead of just getting water), so we had a yummy ice cream cone. Thomas really enjoyed it.


Click here to see pictures.

John Deere Up Close and Personal

I took Thomas to the Ag-Power Inc. store in McKinney so he could see the John Deere tractors up close and personal. First, we went inside the store and he was thrilled about all the John Deere toys! Of course we left with a new one.


Thomas and I walked all around the gravel lot at the store, and I couldn't believe how big some of those tractors were. He wouldn't let me sit him on any of the tractors, but he had lots of fun running around looking at them.


Click here to see pictures from today.

Two Dogs Slept at Your House

David Weber sings a little song to Thomas...

Lowes Vs. Home Depot

I went to see John and Lucia's new little bundle of love, Amelia, but Amelia's older sister, Elizabeth stole the show. Lucia and her parents have been teaching Elizabeth yes and no, and they had been at Lowes recently when she did this....


Amelia Giovanna McCalmont
First Amelia Family Photo (Lucia, John, and Amelia McCalmont). She weighed in at 8.3lbs and 19.5 inches!








Here is Amelia and her proud Grandma Fraboni

Napping at Aunt KK's

KayLynn had a yard sale on Saturday, so we brought some donuts over and hung out. The weather was perfect, cause it was hot, but breezy. She has a lot of shade in her yard too, so that helps. Thomas and I took the stroller down to the little town square and had so much fun shopping. I was good and did not buy the bedazzled sparkly purse that I so fell in love with. I settled for a $1 tube of Avon lotion instead.

Playing in the Old Crib
We gave KK our old crib, and Thomas had fun playing in it. KK would want me to excuse her little mess... This is her really pretty extra bedroom, but we had a mess in there cause of the yard sale. ;-)


Tired Little Snoring Monkey
I was wondering if Thomas would take a nap over at KK's, and I lucked out. The only requirements he had were that his shoes "Go Non!!!", so by all means, I left the shoes on. He slept like a log. I slept for 2 hours with him and he slept another hour and 10 minutes. He was pooped.


Rise and Shine

We Should Always Be Greeted This Way!

Mike's Mom is a life savor for me, because she keeps Thomas 2 days (and nights) for me! She has clothes/toys/bedding and everything, so all I take is Thomas. Mike is out of town a bunch with his fishing, so he's not really able to give me many breaks, but his wonderful Mother makes up for it! She just loves Thomas so much, and he loves his Grandma and Popo too! I get butterflies every time I go pick him up! This is a little video of him running out to greet me when I got there that morning. Love my baby boy. Thanks, Grandma and PoPo for giving me sanity... even if the sanity is only temporary!



Thomas Gets Some John Deere Shirts from Grandma
Mike's Mom is so sweet. She is always getting new toys and clothes for her grandkids. She had gone to Cracker Barrel and couldn't pass up some of the cutest John Deere t-shirts. Thomas was excited to put on his new shirt.


Jumping on the Bed at Grandma's


Isn't It Funny How We Have to Learn to Jump
The boy's got skills...


Pop Goes Curious George

Walkin' the Doggies

I'm keeping little Maggie while Mike and David fish in Mexico, so I thought I'd take a video of her, so David could see that I'm taking good care of his little red head.

Sleepy Swings and Cholesterol Reducing Gravel

I Love When This Happens
Sometimes when it's close to Thomas's nap time, I cheat a bit and put him on the nice comfy swing. There's something about the shady 100 degree heat that mellows him out and closes those little eyes.



Tractors and Gravel
Thomas plays with his John Deere trucks and tractors for hours, and he always requests that I put on his John Deere DVDs. This all equals free time for Mom! I set him up at this table so I could work on my laptop next to him. As he was watching a tractor dump gravel into a dump truck on his video, he looked at me and said, "Need gravel." Of course I couldn't tell him no, so I went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of flaxseed. It worked like a charm and was easy (and fun) to vacuum up. ;-) My only tip for using flaxseed as gravel is to mix it with a bit of baby powder to keep it from sticking to clammy little toddler hands.

Lukenbach was My Favorite!

(Fredericksburg) Saturday morning, we woke up and it was nice and overcast. We drove the little car with the bikes on top a few miles down the road. We parked in a library parking lot near Main St. Thomas was so happy to put his helmet on and get on the bike. We noticed that there were signs saying no bikes were allowed on the sidewalks, so we stayed on the street. We saw all the cute little shops and then turned off the main drag into a neighborhood. There were some cool bed and breakfasts and fixed up old houses. Thomas hadn't slept very well the night before, so he looked really relaxed over on Mike's bike. We ended up back on the shopping street and I saw the "Spunky Monkey" toy store, so I had to go check it out. I ran in really quickly to check out the Curious George section and I got Thomas a lift the flap book and a Curious George jack in the box. On our way back to the car, we passed the nice town square area that had a big sandy park. Thomas said, "Get Down", so we stopped and let him play. Then we headed back to the RV, and Thomas and I had a nap. I never miss a good nap. ;-)

The best part of the day was when we headed to Lukenbach! I have always wanted to go there, and it's not far from Fredericksburg. I knew there wasn't much to it, but I still wanted to go check it out. We turned onto the one road and it was just beautiful! There were tons of big oak trees and the little Post Office that you see in all the pictures sits over to the left. On the other side of the street is the dance hall and a sort of concession area. We got there about 6:00 and a band was going to play at 8. Not too many people were there. There were several motorcycles parked near the dance hall and it looked like mostly tourist types checking out the Post Office. There are some picnic tables next to the Post Office and several roosters running around. Thomas even tried unsuccessfully to catch one. Mike was getting a little annoyed by all my picture taking, but I don't think he realized how amazed I was at how beautiful it was there! It really looks like a movie set. Even the people hanging out there looked like carefully chosen extras in an old Western. A security guy took a really cool picture of all of us sitting on the bench at the Post Office. I could tell he had taken that picture many times before because of how carefully he framed it. ;-) Thomas played with his truck in the rocks on the side of the road, and we just sort of hung out there for about an hour. The band was warming up, the locusts were chirping (do locusts chirp?), the roosters were cockadoodling, and the sun was setting. I was ready to pitch a tent and stay the night. I hope to go there again sometime. I'd love to see someone like Pat Green play there. Something else to look forward to...