Say "Cheeeeeese!"

"Say cheese" is the common phrase you hear adults blurt out to kids in order to get them to smile at the camera, or at the very least to look in that direction. Tyson, being so accustomed to hearing that phrase, will automatically give you a big smile when you say "cheese", regardless of whether there's a camera or not. It's quite Pavlovian. I wonder at times if he could even control himself, i.e. to not smile if he heard the word "cheese". Just to be on the safe side, I tell the two older boys not to overdo it because knowing them, they would never stop making him smile.

This week in pictures

Andrew gets a (much needed) haircut

Cruisin' & drinkin'

One more month until he turns one! Oh how time flies. I must soak up all of his baby-ness before it's too late. Sigh. All of our kids were different in someway when they were babies but when compared to Tyson, he is the odd-ball out.

Happy birthday to my dad

This weekend my dad turned... hmmm I'm not too sure actually. He has a real birth date and then he has a not-so-real one. Apparently his parents decided to change his birth year, making him younger, all to avoid being enlisted in the Vietnam military. (It didn't work since he ended up in the military anyways.)  I think that's the story or something like that. I'm sure something was lost in translation with my poor Vietnamese communication skills. But the bottom line is, he's old.

I'm no longer 21

Slowly but surely, I'm getting older and my body is just not the same as it was ten years ago. Duh right? And yes I know, I'm still "young" but I only hear that from older people. This past weekend definitely showed my true age. (The picture on the left is of one of my newly sprouted grey hairs.)

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July landed on the fourth day of the week, also known as the worst day for any holiday. It's in the middle of the freakin' week! Are you supposed to take Tuesday off or Thursday? Or take Thursday and Friday off and have a super extended weekend? For me, it was just one random day off. Nothing special. And with that, we really didn't do anything special for the Fourth.

Tyson goes out to eat a lot

Or maybe Lynn and I go out to eat a lot. But when compared with the other two boys when they were babies, we never/rarely went out to eat. Jacob was crazy difficult. He would not last long before crying to get out of his seat. A typical night out would consist of Lynn sacrificing herself to hold a fussy baby Jacob as I would inhale my food so that I could relieve her. If I'm paying $10-20 for my food, I want to savor it and not eat as if I'm in a contest with Kobayashi. With Andrew, he wasn't a difficult baby but Jacob was still young and hard to manage. Now that the two boys are older and self-sufficient, we tend to go out to eat more often since Tyson is the calmest baby in the world in regards to eating out.

Hot damn

Summer is in full swing and this heat is killer. Have you ever heard of people getting the winter blues, well I get the summer blues. Actually, the emotion I feel is more hatred than sadness. The unbearable heat makes me grumpy. I get hot easily. I sweat. I feel sticky and dirty. I need a shower. But it's only noon. Dammit.

Draw something... stoopid

So the other day while we were all at the dinner table, I had my phone out and was playing Draw Something. I was playing with my cousin Jon and it was my turn to draw. Jacob read all three of my word choices and one of them caught his intention. (We'll get to that word later.) Of that one word, he said it was super easy and that he wanted to draw it. Easy is a relative term my son.

My Father's Day

Usually for any kind of holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas), we spread it out. Even for Mother's Day we did something on Saturday and Sunday but not for Father's Day... we crammed it in all on one day. Why? Because Saturday was spent at a neighbor's kid's birthday party in the afternoon and eating a cheap $3 pizza buffet at night. Note: A buffet that cheap and at that location (Missouri City) will attract a clientele I would rather avoid.

Paleontology Hall

The Houston Museum of Natural Science recently opened the new Paleontology Hall a couple of weeks ago and since the boys are such dinosaur fanatics, we had to go.

My little hillbilly

Tyson crawls?

Jacob graduates kindergarten

Another year, another graduation. This should be the last time Jacob dons a cap and gown, well until his high school graduation. I can't be doing this every year. But I guess kindergarten is kind of a big deal. He's so big now...