Texas Trip Photos

At long last I have whittled down the photos (there were over 400 to start with!) and posted them online. We had a great trip to Texas, despite the heat and humidity! Tyler did pretty well with all the traveling although about halfway through the week he started to get a little fussy so we indulged him with his pacifier, which he has only been allowed to have during naps and bedtime since he turned one. We're pretty sure he was teething (his upper first molars look like they are about to break the gums). Thankfully Tyler napped for about half of the flight on both the outbound and inbound flights and he never had any problems with his ears. A few firsts and developments for Tyler during our trip:

• Tyler started running! The kid hasn't completely mastered walking and still falls quite a bit but that does not stop him from running around.
• I know his daycare reports have mentioned that Tyler dances to music while at school, but until this trip we hadn't really been able to get him to cut a rug.
• Watch out Everest because Tyler has started climbing. Michael's parents have a sofa that is lower to the ground than ours and Tyler figured out how to climb up on it. He was not sure how to get back down. Tyler also found some of my parents' lawn chairs were the ideal height for him to climb up onto. Since we've been back home I haven't seen Tyler try to climb anything, but I'm sure it is just a matter of time.
• Tyler has happily been knocking down towers of blocks and legos for months now, but while at Janina's he started stacking containers into a tower. Of course he knocked the tower down after he ran out of containers to stack!
• We took Tyler to an outdoor fountain for kids at the Kemah Boardwalk. Despite the other toddlers and kids running around in the fountain Tyler was petrified. He tolerated being carried through the fountain for a while but clung on for dear life.
• Apparently Tyler is particular about where he bathes. He loves baths at home but cried and cried when we bathed him at Michael's parents' house and my parents' house. The funny thing was that he peered over the side of the tub from the dry side while the water filled up like he does at home and was perfectly normal until we set him in the tub. He also cried for about the first half of his first bath after we got home, but I finally got him to smile and play like he usually does.
• Tyler was exposed to tons of dogs. He has been near dogs before but mostly ignored them. When we got to Janina's house he cried because all the dogs (5!) started barking at once, but eventually warmed up to the dogs. Tyler also spent time with my parents cocker spaniels Jamie and Allie and Brad and Megan's dalmation Bumblebee. Tyler was not interested in petting the dogs (although he did finally pet Allie and Bumblebee at the end of our trip), but really enjoyed watching the dogs. He even tolerated and giggled at being licked and learned to watch out for the wagging tail on the bigger dogs.
• Tyler tried a number of new foods while in Texas: authentic Texas BBQ brisket and sausage, Tex-Mex, and cactus. We stopped in Lockhart at Black's, which is supposedly the oldest BBQ joint in Texas. Michael was excited that Tyler leans towards the carnivorous side and happily enjoyed brisket. Brad and Megan brought 70 pounds(!) of crawfish from New Orleans for a crawfish boil. Tyler tried crawfish at a restaurant in Portland recently, but this was his first official backyard crawfish boil.
• Sadly Tyler got his first sunburn and mosquito bites! Despite lathering Tyler in sunblock repeatedly he got a tiny bit of mild sunburn on his cheeks. His poor little hands got attacked by mosquitos during the crawfish boil. I guess they were attracted to all the food on his hands. This paired with the teething is likely what made him fussy. I had completely forgotten about mosquitos since we typically visit Texas when the weather is much cooler.

Click on photo below for entire album:

Texas Trip