July 4 … Everything’s peachy!

Uncle Tad and Aunt Nicole and cousins Eli and Max and Lucie drove over from New Orleans to spend the Fourth of July with us. They got here after Thomas had gone to bed, so he got to be surprised when all these new people kept coming in during breakfast. He also got to have a Chilton County peach, because Mama’s friends who are peach farmers in Alabama have a stand at the farmers market in New Orleans and Uncle Tad went over on Tuesday morning and picked some up to bring out to Texas. Mmmm, Chilton County peaches.

Then the cousins started getting up and Thomas was very excited. Here he is with Lucie, who at 16 months is the Queen Of All She Surveys, and Thomas was more than pleased to be her courtier.

William got a very determined grasp on his little flag.

 

And then there were brotherly bubbles to round out the afternoon.

 

July 3 … That’s my hat

We spent a lot of time today getting ready for our family from New Orleans to come see us. Thomas helped Mama vacuum in the room where the boys were going to sleep, and William rested up so he could be his most charming self.

July 2 … Nashville Skyline

A lot of Thomas’ pictures wind up putting Mama in mind of Bob Dylan album covers. William agrees.

July 1 … Big brother bubbles

 

Thomas has figured out how to blow bubbles…sometimes…and yet it is still a delightful surprise every time he manages it. “Bubble!” He even blows them for William.

June 30 … Fire truck!

 

 

Our neighborhood got together and paid for a fire road, and to celebrate, the local fire department brought a big fire truck to the party. Thomas was a little leery of it, because it was just kind of BIG, but loved the sirens and the shine on the front bumper.

Earlier in the day, his friend Jonah came up and there was much running around and good-time having. Jonah’s mama Julie is pretty good with the sidewalk chalk.

And William hung out and watched, being his usual mellow little self, and Thomas made things blurry by being his usual boy-in-motion little self.

June 29 … Daddy’s boyz

Occasionally Daddy finds himself with a lapful of boys. This morning was one of those times.

William loves to hear his daddy’s voice.And Thomas loves to abscond with Daddy’s caps. Here he’s a blur of a boy, dancing his Daddy-hatted head off as Radiohead performs Idioteque (known hereabouts as “The Beepy Song”).

 

June 28 … Going bananas

Cooking has progressed from stirring the hummingbird nectar to mushing some bananas and using the cinnamon mill and stirring in the KitchenAid. The mill-grinding is the best part.

When we were all done, we had some dairy-free banana cookies! It was a big experiment and not likely to be repeated. Dry. Remarkably dry, for a recipe with four very ripe bananas in it.

William actually was enjoying sitting with us on the couch, a lot more than it looks like. Thomas was showing off for him, playing the guitar like Stevie Ray.

 

June 27 … William, wowed

He’s becoming more and more interested in things around him, and this time he’s actually shifting his attention from his bouncer to the ceiling fan above him.

 

June 26 … Hanging out

William is becoming ever more aware of his brother and all the rest of his surroundings, but particularly his brother.

Meanwhile, while Thomas started to learn about cooking (we began with hummingbird food, one part sugar to four parts water, heat and stir to dissolve the sugar), William deigned to nap in the Moby Wrap. This doesn’t happen as often as Mama or the makers of Moby Wrap might like.

 

June 25 … Museum morning

One quick photo from Nanny Caitlin, which may actually belong to a different day but here it is. Thomas had a very good time at the Austin Children’s Museum with Caitlin, despite looking too tall for the toddler area.