Round Rock Express and Baby Playdate

My family is lucky for so many countless ways, even though these poor deprived and neglected children don't always recognize their privilege. One great way is that we now live 5 blocks from our favorite Austin cousins. Another is that we have tickets to Sunday home games of our local minor league baseball team. When those 2 elements combine, it leads to big kid time (Gabi, Ethan, Joey) at the baseball game with dads and a baby playdate (Spencer and Shayna) back at the ranch with moms.

June 16, 2019

June 30, 2019

Happy cousins and happy memories!


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the little ones got to work. Spencer and Shayna are just about the cutest cuties together; they even make sweeping adorable.


After they had earned their keep, they earned some yummy dinner. Gotta love baby playdates. (Disclaimer: Yes, Alyssa and I know these little people are no longer "babies.")

Maryland Visits Texas

The Kaye Kompound has been finished in Driftwood for a year now, and Uncle Dennis, Aunt Sharon, and cousin Mark decided they wanted to see what the fuss was all about. They came down from Maryland to visit small Texas towns, Texas hill country, and see a bunch of little family members along the way. Austin drove down to join them for a pool party on Saturday, and plenty of smiles were all around!


Nana thought it would be a good idea to buy water squirters. No one asked the other adults.




After the kiddos went down for nap, it was adult time in the hot tub!

brothers!

sisters!

ladies

gentlemen

Dads took kids home; senior citizens watched bats; and Alyssa and I took Mark out on the town! First we watched a couple hours of improv comedy fun, and then we went out for scrumptious donuts!

Mark spent the night with us in North Austin, so we got some extra play time the next morning.

Mark taught the big kids all about "Pokemon Go."

Team Gilden came over, and we put on bathing suits for some backyard water play.


We had a great visit!

June 2019

The first half of June's blog post is dedicated to the relationships between these 3 kiddos. Raising 3 humans will never be easy, and it's not always picture perfect. BUT raising 3 humans who often get along with each other and enjoy each other (sometimes) make the other moments fade away.

It's said that we shouldn't play with our food, but thanks to refound interest in a kid's cookbook gifted to Gabi over a year ago, we got creative with our snacks.

fruit "ducks"

spider snacks

fruit and yogurt popsicles

We'll keep the sibling love going with that time that all 3 kids were caught with cute clothes AND looking at the camera at the same time!

And then there's these 2 boys...that are just adorable together. And they absolutely LOVE "matching brothers!" (aka wearing matching pajamas that Grandma gifted to us) When I was giving Gabi a bath one night and expressed that I was unavailable for "Mommy's turn" to help them brush their teeth, they each helped each other. (So then I had to make myself available to capture on camera, jeez...)

ready for bed!

These two are just too much...

When we went to the library for {what we thought was} an ordinary visit to drop off and borrow books, we were greeted by a fire truck with its tall tall ladder ALLLL the way "up to the clouds!"

Each boy, of course, needed his own picture with the truck.

A few more moments of sweetness to round out the "Siblings Getting Alonglylike Section."

that time Spencer fed his pretzel sticks to his big sister

How else would you drive home from the pool?

moment of Zen

With the start of June came the start in Ethan's second Pre-K class. He was so excited to start in the Woodpeckers class!

If you can get past the 4.5-year-old whining, Ethan is quite a happy kid:

free spirit

Ethan and sweet Maggie have an impressive amount of pictures together. And I will keep taking them.

When Shayna wasn't feeling well enough to go to school one day and both parents had to work, it was Team Cohen (and Aunt Debbie) to the babysitting rescue!

It's always important to have consent. (Turn the volume up if necessary.)

Spencer's brand-new candle plate was ready, and Spencer was so excited to start using it to light Shabbat candles on Friday nights.


Toddlerhood is such an interesting invention. As a mom, I'm experiencing this now for the 3rd time, and it never ceases to amaze me. Their little brains are developing faster than light in terms of language and physical abilities, yet their emotions seem to somehow change even faster than that. They are quite lucky they're amazingly adorable creatures.

My digital age baby demands to take "peechurs" of himself often. How could you ever say "no" to that smile?

toddler twirl!

And on the other hand-

that time he insisted on walking the whole way home, refusing the stroller

that time he was put in "time out" for not listening and didn't know what to do

that time the alphabet book soothed him to sleep

that time he would NOT take his feet off the table and would NOT come with me to pick up Gabi from camp

that time I walked away from him sitting in the middle of the store to leave, and he just didn't care

Father's Day came and went in June. We had a great day together with yummy food and special big kid time at the Round Rock Express game.

"Father's are the best but not any Dads; Our dad is the best." -Gabi, age 6

And just to make sure Daddy REALLY REALLY felt the love:


And, of course, last but not least - The Gabsters had a great first month of camp! She got to sleep in, went on weekly field trips, and swam like a fish...Summertime looks good on Gabi!