Look out Big Tex

Well daddy's gone and done it now! He got a big bad job in Houston, so we are moving to Texas. I understand the whole moving bit about as much as I understood the big brother gig, but I guess I'll just roll with it. As you can imagine, daddy is heartbroken to be moving back to his home state (I think he JUST stopped comparing everything in Louisiana to Texas...oh wait, he still does that...). Mommy's excited, too, but we are all sad about leaving friends & family behind in Baton Rouge. So that just means they will have to give in to the pressure and move to TX, too. :o) The good thing is that we already know several families in Houston and San Antonio (daddy's hometown); we are looking forward to spending more time with them.

We took a house hunting trip this past weekend. That was a lot of fun...about 20 hours of car time for me and my compadres. I think mom and dad were considering tranquilizers or heavy drinking by the time we got back to BR. I really don't know why they kept telling me not to make so much noise--Elliot didn't even wake up until I finally went to sleep (1/2 hour before we got home); I needed a rest after 9 1/2 hours of chattering and no nap. Anyway, we've almost got a place to live, just a few more details to iron out.

As for other stuff going on around here. Elliot is smiling and cooing, but that's about it. Oh wait, he's losing his hair, too. We're pretty sure he'll eventually be blonde and blue just like me. He slept through the night last night, but mom's pretty skeptical about that being a consistent thing yet; we'll keep you posted. He's also fattening up nicely-- hmm, sounds like I plan to eat him. I don't. In fact I'm really getting used to having him around. I make sure to let mommy know when he's awake, and I do my part to make sure he's awake most of the time by playing noisily nearby. I'm two years old now and don't you forget it!

I am enjoying playing with all the stuff mommy finds while she's packing; it's like Christmas every day! It's also nice to be able to spend lots of time outside again. The weather has been delightful, but that reminds me that we are praying hard for a yard with lots of shade in Houston. We have lots here and I'm afraid I'm quite spoiled by that! --Not to mention I'm rather fair skinned, so shade is a necessity!! Other than that I'm talking a lot these days. I've been using sentences for a while, but I'm starting answer questions better and I'm remembering so much from day to day and even week to week. That's fun when mommy wants to talk about how our great trip to the zoo last week, but not so much when I keep bugging her for more candy long after it's gone. I really like to talk things over after the fact, so if we go to visit someone and have lots of fun I'll make sure we discuss that on the way home. It's pretty cool that I can let mom & dad know which things I enjoyed the most. Much of the time it sounds something like this: Nana n' Poppa n' Zane n' Jael n playin' n' toys n' have fun n' ____ (fill in the blank w/ something specific we ate or played with). Pretty much just a string of names and phrases but they know what I mean. :o)

Well, anyway, you'll hear from me soon about how all this Texas business shakes out. Hope all of you are well!

Gavin