Another pasta encounter

More family visits

April has been a crazy month for hosting family! Ryan and Nicole drove down for Easter weekend to visit, but also to apartment search (for Nicole) and job search (Ryan). We got to have a wonderful Easter brunch at Chris and Stefani's house with Theresa and Amanda too. Then Mrs. Lawler and Brendan came for a week and we had a very nice visit! The night before they left, my mom arrived in town. She had so much fun visiting with her kids and taking care of Michael -- it was so great to have her here. Ryan came back that Friday for follow-up interviews which were, happily, successful (congratulations!). Mr. Lawler came Saturday a couple of days ahead of a work conference he was presenting at Monday and Tuesday. Finally, Stefani kindly watched Michael yesterday after my mom had to make it back to Florida for an obligation. After all of these visitors, last night felt extremely quiet at our house! But Michael has just loved seeing and playing with all these family members. He has been very happy and giving lots of hugs.

I was very grateful for my mom's help on rearranging our second bedroom to be a safer, better place for Michael to play -- and also eventually to sleep in. She shifted some shelves around, got canvas baskets, and arranged some of the books and stuffed animals (including Michael's new favorite, Cookie Monster, which Mrs. Lawler got him at story time :). At this point we are planning for the new baby to probably sleep in our room for the first four months again, but having been given the advice by more experienced parents than us, it seems like it will be important to start helping Michael transition to his new room a bit earlier than that. He can now climb up on couches and he's tackling the day bed as well. Hopefully in the next month or two he might be able to start at least taking naps in there. Of course, yesterday he started being able to open doors on his own, too, so we'll have to keep an eye on him...

Trying again

We went to the spring event at Nash Farms in Grapevine a few days after the petting zoo didn't go over as well as hoped. This one turned out perfect. Michael liked the little-sized goats and sheep much better and had fun running around with Theresa, Brendan, and Mrs. Lawler, and of course Mike and me :). I am posting a few pictures but the rest of them are here. It really was a wonderful morning!

Petting zoo

Elizabeth is visiting her mother for two weeks, so we are very fortunate to have the assistance of Michael's grandmothers (and Uncle Brendan :) while she is away! Mrs. Lawler and Brendan drove in late Monday and will be here until Tuesday, when my mom is coming in. Michael is loving the time with the Lawler side of the family (and this is after an Easter visit from Ryan and Nicole). On Wednesday they took a little trip to a nearby petting zoo at a working farm, getting there before all the elementary school kids arrived for their field trip. Since the Dallas zoo is 25 miles away and the Fort Worth zoo is 50 miles away, I was hoping this might be a fun little close by option that Michael would like. Unfortunately, Mrs. Lawler reports that he was a little intimidated by the goats and wary of the other animals, but it was still worth at least one visit! Maybe when he's older he'll like it more. In the meantime, Michael is definitely having fun with his grandma and uncle (goats notwithstanding :). They went to story time at Barnes & Noble this morning.

TEAM COCO