Dallas

We survived the flight down to Dallas. Mechanical problems delayed us a couple of hours and I sweat the AC was down in the American terminal so I was sweating bullets as I tried to keep up with an increasingly tired 18-month-old as we waited and waited. The DVD player was a big hit. He couldn't quite figure out the headphones and didn't like them on his ears at all, but he did watch the screen for 15 minutes or so at a time. This is convincing me I need to find Jack's Big Music House on DVD since I think he'd really like that better than what we had to watch. By the time we finally arrived in Dallas and got back to my sister's, we were both exhausted. Andy has never been interested really in sleeping in the bed with me, but it has seemed the only thing that has worked the last couple of nights. It's nice for me since I never do it. I'm rationalizing that we're on vacation so we're not getting into a bad habit since we can go back to our old routine once we get home.

The rally has been good fun and nice to show off Andy and Megan to old friends. Tonight we're going to Old City Park, which should be interesting for the kids. It's been fun to be a tourist though. Having grown up here, I can't say I'd ever been to the Ft. Worth Stockyards or to the Mesquite Rodeo. Certainly when the kids get older, I can see taking them around to those places. In a couple of years, I could see him really loving the cattle drive and cowboys.

Megan and Andy have been great together. It's a strange phenomenon that it is actually less work to have two kids playing together rather than one that I have to entertain. So far, the biggest hit has been hide and seek. Andy loves to hide behind curtains and Megan has been having fun finding it. The shrieks of laughter are just great. I caught a little bit of it on video that I'll have to upload onto YouTube. It's good stuff. The other big hit has been the play kitchen. Both kids have just loved putting the plastic plates and dishes in and around. Some of the food is kinda freaky though. The french fry is a little too rubbery and feels a little real. Ooogy. They also both love the baby stroller. Megan loves the dolly aspect of the carriage, but Andy just loves to push it around. It's funny watching the differences between the two kids. He's definitely more interested in bigger, mechanical stuff and how it fits together (and the noise it makes) where she's more interested in the little pieces and putting them in her bag to carry around. I must say, watching a 20-month-old carrying a purse is really cute.