Crazy Pookie!

It's the little things.

I heard and saw Pookie stirring on our video monitor, so I went to his room to fetch him from his late afternoon nap. When I arrived at his crib, he was smiling so darn big, playing and cuddling with Scout while the toy played a soft lullaby. I might have cried a little. Okay, okay, I did cry for a minute or two.

Alas, I didn't get a picture of the scene that made me so uncharacteristically emotional. I was too caught up in the moment to capture a shot. But I will say, it's simple moments like this one that mean more than anything else in the world to me. I could never, ever imagine a life without Pookie now that he's here.

Strangers in a strange land.

This weekend, we took Pookie on his first out-of-state road trip. Needing desperately to get out of the city, we all headed north aimlessly, in search of nothing but a bit of bucolic peace. We found it in Oklahoma!

We didn't get out of the car much, but we enjoyed the view of the Arbuckle Mountains from the comfort of our air-conditioned truck. We drove around the Lake of the Arbuckles and cruised down many a curvy, hilly road, slowing down just enough to relish life outside the big city for a short time.

Pookie did so well--just like he did when we went down to South Texas when he was just 3 months old. He napped quite a bit and played quietly with his toys in his car seat, occasionally babbling and calling out to let us know he was hungry.

Seeing how smoothly it went, we'll be taking plenty more trips like this every chance we get!

Torin's first 4th!

For our first Independence Day as a family, we kept things pretty low key. We had lunch at Snuffer's, then we went for a peaceful drive through the East Texas countryside. Even though Pookie wasn't in the best mood today (he's either sick or teething--he has a runny nose), he still managed a few laughs and smiles, one of which we were lucky enough to capture on camera.

Pookie continues to crawl like crazy and pull up to standing. In the past couple of weeks, he has started to babble more. Also, I think he has been waving at me! I hope to post videos of his latest accomplishments very soon.