Brooks demonstrates his enthusiasm for seeing Polly today by matching his socks to her dress:

I spent a few minutes trying to adjust the color/light to make it look like his legs aren't glowing but let's face it, he's my child. Neon pale he'll be.

Brooks and I had quite the adventurous shopping excursion this afternoon. I have been wanting a new stroller for some time and finally set out to get one today. We've been using a hand-me-down stroller frame for the infant carrier which has been, and continues to be as long as he still fits, fabulous for getting around. It's not so good for the outdoor walking on uneven sidewalks and paths, however, and since such walks are my easiest way to get exercise, I needed an upgrade. We didn't register for a stroller since I had read that it made sense to wait until there was an actual child to take along for test rides. Good thing, that advice.....

So we got to the store and I started chatting with the saleswoman who must have sensed my love of bargains since she soon started showing me some floor models that were on sale. One of these seemed to have everything that I had been looking for and was a great price: needless to say, I was getting VERY excited! So after some comparison shopping amongst the models, I was pretty much sold and started practicing all the various things one can do with this stroller. I had earlier put Brooks in it but, with the saleswoman watching, put him back in to make sure I knew how to adjust everything, etc. Well....turns out those people with the growth chart aren't kidding around. She pointed out how close to the top of the stroller his head was AND ACTUALLY WENT TO GET ANOTHER SALESPERSON to come observe the gigantic baby that calls me mom. She was like, "I've been doing this for a lot of years and I've never seen a baby with such a long torso so close to the top of the stroller." It was insane!

Soon after, a third employee joined the party and I put B back in the stroller under consideration to get the salesguy's take. My conversation with him revealed that there had been a point of confusion with my main reason for this stroller (outdoor walking) and, in fact, the floor model stroller with the great price was not only too short for "Little" B but also really not the best option for what I wanted. Long story short(er), we ended up getting the stroller I went in thinking I would get--Phil & Ted Sport...oh yeah, Lindsey!--and they put the whole thing together for me and pumped air in the tires! Alas, I didn't get my major bargain but I did get the knowledge that my baby can attract crowds with his freakishly long torso!

We hung out with some other baby types yesterday and, while there were 2 sweet girls there, B enjoyed his time with the boys!

Jack, Brooks (oldest man by a few weeks), and Amedeo:
Little man Colin (only 9 weeks old!) and Brooks:

Brooks was making some indecipherable groaning/moaning noises a little before 7 this morning but I was in desperate need of some more sleep after a night of tossing and turning in the heat. (Yes, I'm married to an AC-phobe.) So I picked him up out of his crib and brought him back to the bed, which I've only ever done occasionally for snuggles on weekend mornings with both his parents.

I put him on his side facing me, also on my side, and he immediately quieted down. He had a good grasp of my chin and was exploring it mightily with his little hands. In hopes of modeling the desired behavior, I closed my eyes but remained focused on what the little guy was doing. I'd open my eyes every now and then and see him still looking intently at me. If I smiled, he would smile, so I knew he was perfectly alert. Back to closed-eyes I would go, hoping he would get the clue. After a few minutes, I looked again and he still had open eyes but now there was some thumb-sucking. A few minutes later, the eyes were drooping....drooping...closed. I rejoiced in the fact that he appears to be following in the generational pattern of familial conflict-avoidance and going with the flow! How blessed we are to have a child who--at least at this point--doesn't think, "Oh wait! She wants to sleep! I am going to now scream at the top of my lungs!"

Of course, by the time all this ensued, I was no longer sleepy and could only think about my stomach growling and how I might miss the recycling truck but there was no way I was going to interrupt this precious communal sleepy time!

(I got the recycling out in time, Seth....don't worry!)

Our friends, Karen and Ian, traversed the Potomac to come hang out with us Saturday night and it was so great to see them. After some fun with Brooks and a huge feast of takeout sushi, we embarked on a very competitive game of Monopoly. Kudos to Seth for raking it all in and boos to K&I who set up all kinds of married-people alliances to keep from shelling out large rent payments!

And in other news, Stumpy, our 2-footed turtle, has returned home from Seth's classroom to spend the summer on our back deck. He and Brooks finally made each other's acquaintance for what I'm sure will be a long and fruitful friendship. (Biology fact: box turtles can live 80+ years.)

B's 4-month appointment was today since we were out of town last week. The kid is officially still off the charts in height, which should surprise exactly no one since we're forever getting comments like, "he looks like such a little boy" [as opposed to a baby, not like they're surprised he doesn't look like a little girl or something!] Anyway, at the ripe old age of 4 months, he is 27.25 inches long and weighs just shy of 16 lbs.

As perfect as our Texas adventure was, Brooks was very excited to go home and see his daddy...and, thankfully, this resulted in an easy return flight. We stopped to pick up some food on the way home from the airport and I ran in to get it while Seth and B "played" in the car. The couple in line ahead of me kinda looked at me funny and then the wife said, "I saw you at the airport" so we started chatting. She went on to gush (seriously) about how "adoringly" Seth had looked at "his baby" and how she just thought that was the sweetest thing. It was a very random conversation but certainly not a bad one to have with a stranger!!

In true Seth fashion, all windows were left open this week and I came home to find Brooks's room at 59 degrees. Thank goodness we still have the little heater in there so we could quickly make it a little warmer!! B crashed immediately and seems to be happy to be back in his old stomping grounds!

Brooks and I were so lucky to be visited by two friends yesterday during our last full day in Texas. Since Linds was out of town over the weekend and couldn't come to the party on Saturday, she came over for some more hugs.

And she was joined by Fran, who also was out of town this weekend, and whom I've known since preschool. (She's lucky that I'm not at home with old pictures and my scanner or there would totally be an early 1980s shot posted here!)

We also made the rounds to visit a couple of other family friends who hadn't been able to come on Saturday and B continued to be such a trooper through all the stops. I am not ashamed to admit that we ate at Luby's last night for the second time this week....got to get the little boy acclimated early! Unfortunately, the fun must all end this afternoon as he and I load up and take off for the north. Below is a pic of Brooks asking, "Whaddya mean we have to leave?"

We got to have fun visits with several Central Texas folks this weekend as well! Saturday morning, Brooks and I met Seth's high school friend (but long now MY friend!), Carrie, and her son, Jack, who is 2 weeks older than Brooks. It was great to have an opportunity to catch up and compare notes.

Then Seth's dad, stepmom, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, and a niece drove up to spend the night in Dallas. We met them for dinner Saturday evening and then had breakfast and some exciting playground time Sunday morning. We are so thankful to all of them for making the long trek to see Brooks!

Best attempt to get a picture of Grand Big Daddy "PawPaw" with the 4 grandkids:

PawPaw and Brooks at the bottom of the twisty slide:

My cousin Paula hosted a wonderful "Sip & See" party yesterday so that all the fashionable ladies of the Dallas metroplex could meet Mr. Brooks! It was such a fun time and, most importantly, the guest of honor smiled through it all. He was passed around from party-goer to party-goer (of which there were approximately 20) and didn't mind at all. It was so special to get to introduce him to so many of our dear friends. Many, many thanks to Paula for the fabulous occasion, and also for taking the 2 priceless pics of Brooks below.

Ready to shine at the party:

A slightly blurry pic of the best hostess ever and her thankful cousin:

The spread:

My Baylor roommate, Rachel, and her mother, Norma:

The other Baylor girls (Rosemond, Heather, Barrett):

All tuckered out after the fete:

We took Brooks on his first longish car ride Thursday and he did fabulously! As you can see from this picture, he's very excited to go visit family in Tyler and Longview:

Brooks and I went to visit Lindsay yesterday so we got to "meet" Lil Safran! Linds looks fabulous, of course, and got in some good mother-practice with the Brookster. Her golden doodle, Dakota, also got in some practice--of the "I'm not going to be the center of attention come November" variety. Brooks has never gotten this up close and personal with a doggie before but he seemed to take all of Dakota's loving in stride!

Brooks was a champ for his afternoon of flying--thank goodness! He didn't make a single peep during the flight to Atlanta, although there was a screaming child in front of us who didn't stop until we landed and he fell asleep (of course). Since the plane was going on to Dallas, we didn't get off in Atlanta and I felt like all the passengers were looking askance at Brooksie as they were deplaning. Uh, no, peeps-- the shrillster is the sleeping kid in the row ahead!

Well, we're about to make history here with Brooks's first airplane trip. Sheils and I are accompanying him to Dallas and we're connecting through Atlanta. Thankfully, the two flights are both on the same plane so we don't have to worry about sprinting through the Atlanta airport! Should be an adventure. And I'm TOTALLY taking my computer with me so I can keep everyone updated on our Texan activities!

The craziest thing happened yesterday that had such a wonderful result. Seth got to school to discover that the power had gone out at some point during the night, and that the backup generator had also given out. They couldn't release the kids until the buses were done with elementary and middle school routes, but everyone got to go home around 10 AM. So Seth had an unexpected bonus day to spend with Brooks before we so rudely take Little B away for a week. It was cold, rainy, and yucky so we all stayed in pajamas/sweats and ate grilled cheese and tomato soup to keep warm!

Sheils arrived yesterday from Dallas amidst some yucky rain. We picked up some lunch and took it over to Auntie Chisty's to eat and play. Brooks was doing some serious giggling but alas, we have no proof! Grammie won't let me post any of the pics I took of her and Brooks yesterday but hopefully we'll get an acceptable one at some point this weekend! Since she ix-nayed the current pics, I'm going to post an oldie-but-goodie instead. Happy (almost) Mother's Day!

Our "New Moms Group" (which is a free outreach run by a foundation in the county) has just clicked so well! We now get together at someone's house on Tuesdays and then have our regular weekly sessions with the facilitator on Thursdays. We only have one session left (which we'll miss since we're headed to Big D next week!) and it's been a great experience. Today we met at the Central Library to have storytime and music with the head Children's Librarian and also to learn about all the books, toys, and media items they have to check out. As the child of a librarian, I am all about public library systems and totally was telling everyone today how cool it is to go to the library! :-) Speaking of books, if you're currently into reading to/with children, be sure to check out my friend Karen's new book review site.

ANYWAY-- this post is not about the library but rather about that other cool place: the mall! Nine of us headed to the mall food court after our session, armed with babies and strollers, and proceeded to take over as you can see from this pic: (we had already lost Brenna and Emily 2 is taking the picture)



After we ate and gossiped, six of us then walked through the mall and all ended up in Gymboree. There was another shopper in there who remarked to her friend, "All these babies make me nervous" which we thought was an odd thing to say in a baby store. Did she think being around babies would make her pregnant or something?!

I love my New Moms Group and I'm sad to miss all the gatherings while we're gone. Someone needs to make sure that other babies are getting their heads rubbed since Brooksie won't be there to do it!

Thanks to Molly's willingness to share, Brooks now has the use of a fun Exersaucer. I've been forgetting to put him in it since it's been living downstairs where I rarely spend time these days. It's funny to me to think of how I spent so many weeks early in B's life on the lower floor (where the TV is) watching daytime television like nobody's business, and now I can't remember the last time I watched Ellen, The View, or even the news. As soon as my new laptop arrived awhile ago, I set it up on the coffee table upstairs and that's been my new fave place for us to hang...

Anyway, back to the Brookster. So even though he's super long and generally looks bigger than many other babies around his age, he absolutely has scrawny legs. I really think each of his legs weighs significantly less than those of his friends. When we try to hold him up to get him to put pressure on them, they just crumble back into frog-leg position! I figured it would be helpful for him to get used to being in an upright position, and maybe his legs can get stronger since they touch the bottom of the Saucer. In any case, he seems to be having fun getting his new toy figured out:

Anne arrived from Seattle in good time and immediately settled in to bond with the Brookster, who was way more excited than this expression suggests:

In honor of Anne's arrival from Seattle tomorrow for a weekend visit, here is one of my favorite pics of us, circa 1996:

I put Brooks in his first Baylor shirt yesterday, largely because Lindsay gave it to him and I'm just so excited about her news which makes me all nostalgic for the good ol' Baylor days, etc, etc. Anyway, I thought he looked super cute in his little ensemble and frankly, I didn't think his dad looked so bad himself...

Speaking of the days of yore, I had some fun explaining things to dear Maryland friend Christy who this weekend looked through photos from my years at Baylor. (Linds and Rach, she had the audacity to giggle aloud at a pic of me in my COOL red Nikes!) She also said something like, "And this is when you were 12?" at one of the pics from Pigskin '98 when I was a "bread girl" in that yellow gingham dress. Sorority life really does result in a lot of strange outfits, I realize now!!

Since I'm obsessed with presenting pictures in chronological order, it results in a reassuringly familiar pattern of activities....yes, there are the 3 roomies in the kitchen on my 20th birthday; okay, now we're at 21 with the requisite Wild Vines (Emily in 2008: "BLECH"!); here's 22 with the cake my roomies made, and so on. If only we were all still there and I could once again do the following things:

1) Shamefully use my freedom-from-required-courses to design a schedule solely around what times of day I wanted to hang out and gossip with people in the SUB.
2) Eat at Ninfa's (obviously).
3) Walk the bear trail in that golden time right before the sun sets.
4) Harass Ro until she does the Gladewater Honeybear drill team salute.
5) Go to Sonic for fresh strawberry-lime slushes. (You don't know how good these are until you live somewhere where there are no Sonics.)

I think it's time for a reunion!