Texas

First, we met up with the Taylor family in Fort Worth; they drove up to meet us for our first Chuck E Cheese experience.

(L to R: Caleb/20m, Samuel /~5, Jacob/3.5,Colby, 3.5) (Thomas was mainly held and not too interested in exploring that night)

Enough blond boy for you?

The following day, we got to visit their house and nearby park for cousin bonding time. It was precious to see the slew of boys plus a sweet baby Abigail- who, because she was so sweet and gentle, didn't mandate photos in the first 1 hour...which is how long the camera battery lasted. The good news is that Traeci took a bunch of pictures of all the kiddos at a nearby park, Abigail included.

That afternoon, we made our way to Pearland (next to Houston) to visit the rest of the cousin!

Now for the roadtrip part....

Last post ended up being about NC, not our road trip. This will show our first part of the journey from NC to CA!

First, our travels took us to Athens, GA; Emily and Josh's house. Playing with Emily and Josh along with having greek pizzas, a fire in the fireplace, and playing with 1 of their 2 cats (1 is shy) was a GREAT way to begin the journey. Oh, and playing at the coolest playground we've ever visited.

After a brief but wonderful evening/night/morning, we headed-out, drove through some states...

and stayed in Mississippi that night. By the time we arrived to the hotel, Jacob was wiped-out....but Thomas was ready to rock. He had us adults cracking-up for a good 45 minutes before we were all ready to rest. Here's a taste:

The next evening we began our Texas leg with all the cousins (which is enough material for the next post...hopefully completed ASAP so we can resume discussing recent life in our posts!)

Road trip part 1: East of the Continental divide.

Things to love about NC:

Ma and Pa. And leaves!

More leaves!

Lounging, with Emily and Josh.

Lounging, with Grayson and Allie (and daddy, popcorn, and popsicles).

Lounging, with Dana, aka tutu, aka his soul-mate.

Lounging, with Pa in the lounge chair.

Such concentration as the boys color the cardboard rocket ship.

Oh wait.

Christmas Day snuggles

My favorite parts of Christmas morning;

On the road again

Unfortunately, the Pughtet has left the East coast.

Three of us left by car with Ma and Pa for a cross-country adventure and one left by plane for candidacy approval (read: approval to actually become a rostered member of clergy, the end goal of Daniel's schooling) in L.A. followed by fun in Vegas and a drive back with family to Phoenix. We are currently all in Phoenix until Friday then we're Berkeley bound!

Phewwwww.

We have loads of photos to come: the driving with 2 small kids sounds nuts, but we have too many family members across the nation to take several flights and trips....so we've stopped at all these locations to visit! SO many cousins.

Jacob and Thomas have been a dream; not one single moment in all the driving where they were both upset and limited times where even one was upset for more than 1 minute. Truly, they are incredible travelers. More to come very soon!

Sweet Carolina

We have been blessed to spend the holidays here in North Carolina. In our time here we have seen many of our friends and have enjoyed every minute of it. Our boys are growing by leaps and bounds.

Jacob got to meet Santa Clause at the mall. Santa had an awesome Southern accent. Thomas was just as content to sit on the lap of his grandpa.We spent the morning of Christmas Eve with Ashley's roommates from collage.

(from left to right: Andrew, Caroline, and Brady Bost; Lu holding Jacob; Ashley, Thomas and me)


We got Dressed up for Christmas Eve Children's service at White Memorial Presbyterian


Thomas wanted to get his rest before Christmas...

Christmas Day started with a 7am wake-up call with Thomas then Jacob making sure all creatures were stirring.

Thomas was super excited to look at the presents with Uncle Dana.

More to come!

Biggest Little Boy.

Thomas is 1 year old today (though I started this post several days ago...it just takes that long to accomplish things sometimes). Our biggest little boy is really a baby no more.

As Jacob turned a year old,

(JDP at 1yr)

I recall being a bit baffled that parents could be depressed that their children were growing-up, hitting milestones at record speed, and loosing their 'babyness'.

With Thomas, I understand a wee bit more; he's too big to casually toss in the air, he wears 18m+ clothing (as in some clothes Jacob wore when he started preschool last year), and we're a back-break away from permanently retiring him to the stroller-which he is learning to hate- instead of the Moby wrap. Here, as he turns 1, he walks everywhere at the speed of light, points or waves and babbles at things of his choosing (dogs and footballs), and smirks at silly jokes that he shouldn't have understood.

When he's got an opinion, he's quick and loud at sharing (happily and not-so-much); when he's happy to go with the flow, he's just the silliest mellow and cuddly munchkin.

We've learned that physically and personality-wise, our children are distinct thus far. Jacob is a Daniel Pugh mini-me; active, competitive, curious, extremely clever, endearingly mischievous, and startlingly intuitive.

Thomas is a Chell. He loves to be loved and snuggled, has a very silly and unique sense of humor, is sly and muted in his mischief, wants to eat the food you're eating (veggie, fruit, bean, meat, nearly all are okay with him as long as you too were eating it), wants to explore the detail of toy (or not quite a toy) mechanics, and can hone-in on 1 person to explore rather than absorb the emotions of a full room of people.

Thosmos has had a chaotic year medically, but continues to bear with us on his daily breathing treatments and asthmatic issues during germs. He'll be seeing a pulmonary specialist sometime after the holidays as x-rays already indicate lung/air-way structure changes due to his asthma; but considering how well he's done last year, we know it will all get better and better.

Brotherly Love...and other boyish things.

Sorry for blog silence this month.

It's been intense.

Jacob continues to be extremely sensitive in the hand/fingers; fortunately, night screaming has drastically decreased. He gets his cast off on December 8th and though terrified of the cast-cutter (that previously cut him), he is pumped about bathing and playing in the sand at school without a bag on his arm. And, you know, using his formerly dominant left hand/fingers for anything. Including pumping-up a rocket balloon without using his feet.

In other regards, these two boys of ours continue to be hilariously normal siblings.

(Don't worry, Jacob gave it back to Thomas. and pouted about it.)

Thomas is walking all over now and at his most recent respiratory-distress ER trips (happy thanksgiving, HA), he has remained 26#'s of all boy. Though muscle development and height have increased, the Buddha belly remains (and precious cheeks)- and those below are 18month articles of clothing.

But, he still ingests minimal solids. Silly boy prefers nursing, though can occasionally be tempted by Cheerios, pear, chicken, peas, or beans. Unfortunately the dairy allergy persists with full body eczema flare-ups, so no cheese or yogurt for the two of us....we'll try again in a few months.

At our follow-up Dr appt today (there were 2 ER trips due to him not breathing well over the Thanksgiving), we have finally been told that we should see a pulmonary specialist. This is exciting in that we may actually get his asthma under control or at least talk to someone who has more than just guesswork on treatment/prevention.

I see now that this post makes us sound like crazy people with so many health problems.

But.....I have little to offer, other than if you're family and friends you know this isn't the usual case.....well.... Let's just say: come on healthy 2012!

To round-out the boy post: