Day 8 (part b) - Back in Houston

We made it back to Houston!! Upon our arrival, Ms. Heather, Cecilia and Declan were all hanging out in their cul de sac. The neighborhood within which Heather lives is a very friendly and child friendly environment. There are a total 9 homes on this small street and a total of 21 children (sorry Heather if my number are off). There are always children playing outside. When we arrived, the streets were full of children. Ms. Heather loaded the boys up into a wagon and took them for a spin in the cul de sac. In this video, you get a small glimpse into what an average day is like in their neighborhood....

What a great place to grow up and raise a family! Ms. Heather also has a swing set that is a place for the children to play. The boys were able to swing for the first time. Here is a little video of them swinging. (Listen for Ms. Heather calmly address the neighborhood children at the end of the video with a "soft" reminder about the rules!)

After playing for a while, we headed inside to get all the boys ready for bed. Here are the boys playing in their Space jammies (appropriate for Houston). In this picture, the boys are playing with Ms. Marsha. Ms. Marsha became a life saver to us later in the trip. SERIOUSLY, she saved Jared's life!! This is the only picture I had of her and I had to include it so I could again thank her for her heroic effort (story to follow in this post).

Daddy was so proud to see Jared trying to play the guitar, he was able to forgive that it was a Hanna Montana guitar....

During the trip, the boys all started drinking their bottles while sitting or even standing up. It looks like they may be ready to start transitioning to sippy cups when we get home.

We put the boys to bed and I enjoyed visiting with Ms. Heather for a while. I sure miss living close to her. However, it's nice to know our friendship is still strong even though we have lived in different states for a few years. In the morning, I woke to find Andrew sleeping in his pack n play like this....

The mattress had come up and he was sleeping on the frame of the pack n play. It's hard to see but he is curled up between the bars of the frame and hanging in the pocket of fabric. He is such a great sleeper, he can sleep through anything.

This is a picture of all of the children eating dinner. The boys were enjoying sitting up at the table in their new big boy seats. Here is where Ms. Marsha's story resumes... The next morning, I was loading the boys into the seats in preparation for breakfast. I had loaded Jared and Andrew into the chairs (these are tall chairs) and I had headed off to grab Wesley. Well, Jared was close enough to the table that he was using his feet to kick back in the chair. He did it a couple times and Ms. Marsha saw what was about to happen and rushed over to catch him as he was kicking the chair completely back! Without her quick reflexes he would have kicked back and the chair would have fallen back onto the hard wood floors. I don't know how many times I can say THANK YOU MS. MARSHA!!!!

After breakfast, we packed up (again) and got ready to hit the road for Houma. We tried to take one more group picture of the boys....

It is now one of my all time favorites (so far)! And, I was able to get it in two attempts.

It's sad to know our trip is almost over but we have had a wonderful time along the way. Ms. Heather, please feel free to visit us in Tallahassee anytime!

Take care,