No Vacancy

After spending all of Christmas, New Year's, and a long week vacationing in Mexico with just about all of my family... we totally missed seeing & being with our other half of the family and felt bad about not doing so since we saw each other last during Thanksgiving! So with spring break creeping up, we sent out the invitations... begged, pleaded and twisted arms for the Etheridge/Hightower family to come stay with us for the week here at the prestigious "Etheridge Resort." But when begging and pleading didn't work, we finally had to resort to bribes & threats... and made sure they knew holding and playing with Allen Jess would be at stake! 

Lucky for us, that ended up working and we somehow managed to get Mandi & the Boyz to drive 13 hours down from Colorado... and Mojo & Dado to fly 5 hours across the United States. Gee, they sure must love us... er, uh... I mean our son!

It was mid afternoon when the Hightowers finally made it to our house in sunny Southern California, and somehow Uncle Jason miraculously managed to be the first to get some love from Allen Jess!  I guess Mandi felt bad and let him have first dibs since he was stuck behind the wheel with a 5, an 8, and a 36 year-old for the entirety of their trip!

Mandi, Jason, and the boys had spent all morning in the car trying to get here as fast as they could... so it went without saying that they were starving once they got here, and the boys weren't waiting for anyone!

It was a beautiful sunny day out...
and we all needed sun protection.

Naturally, the afternoon went by in slow motion as we anxiously awaited the arrival of Mojo & Dado later on that evening. Okay, so maybe just the grownups waited anxiously. The little ones were too busy playing in and around the pool and having too much fun to worry about much of anything else! So while the little kids enjoyed the water and the weather, the big kids enjoyed watching Mandi feed Allen Jess his lunch.

"No seriously... does this thing come off?" 

It was definitely heartwarming so see John Hampton give his baby cousin tender love and care... making sure Allen Jess was happy and didn't cry during the few seconds from which he unselfishly decided to put his precious playtime on pause.

Aunt Moo was smart and made sure she got her quality time in with Allen before Mojo arrived and had to share! And when he fell asleep in her lap, it was apparent that our conversation and company just wasn't stimulating enough for her... as she decided to put her nose into a half eaten book.

"You see those two boys playing by the pool? Here's some advice... give the tall one chocolate and he'll love you forever! And give the shorter one anything purple and he'll be your best friend!" 

There sure was lots of love to go around...

amongst these three handsome cousins!

Mojo and Dado finally arrived later that night, but to those that really mattered, they didn't make their grand appearance until the following morning... where Allen was first in line for some sweet nibblins from Mojo!

But Allen wasn't the only little boy excited about seeing their Mojo and Dado! Sammy woke up excited as could be knowing they were finally there and that he got the both of them all to himself for a little playtime!

And Sammy clearly took advantage of Dado's new knee!

I on the other hand, was thrilled with all the extra attention Allen got all of a sudden... as I relished in the fact that I actually got to sit back, relax and drink my coffee while someone else fed him his breakfast for a change!

The boys LOVE when Mojo visits... as she always brings her iPad and Nintendo DS for them to get their sticky little hands on, play, learn, and get their electronic fix in! And as always, she arrives bearing new games and apps for each one to play with... so as much as we all hate it when their little faces are buried & glued to the screens, we sometimes can't help but enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts! 

It wouldn't have been an Etheridge/Hightower family vacation if we had stayed indoors! So after a massive pancake, bacon, sausage and egg breakfast, we headed outside for some much anticipated family fun time, where it was all about being with each other, laying low, and having a good time!

New Evidence

Ever since Allen Jess was born, the argument has always been... just who exactly does that cute baby boy look like? We've gotten a completely mixed bag of answers... with a few saying me, several saying someone in my family, a handful saying Jei, a couple saying Jei's family, and the rest going  with the safest answer, a mix between the both of us. Well, if you had asked me, I really didn't see me or my family in him all that much... excluding his big bushy eyebrows and the trademark Etheridge forehead. But with no good (or bad for that matter) baby pictures of Jeilene, it was hard to say that he looked like Jei or anyone else from her family. And even from looking at my baby pictures... for me, I just didn't see much of Allen at all.   

And then out of nowhere... right before we were set to leave for our vacation down south, Momma Soch handed us a pile of old photographs. During her last trip back home in Mexico, she had apparently found a few old pictures of Jeilene back when cassette & VHS tapes were still popular! As soon as I realized what they were, my jaw hit the floor! I was completely flabbergasted!!! I had never seen Jei as a little/baby girl before... but that wasn't why I was so amazed. It was as if I was looking at Allen Jess's twin sister! I was stunned at how much of Allen I saw in Jeilene when she was little. By my reaction... you would've thought I had won the lottery. But I was just so happy and kind of relieved to finally know who Allen looks like... and where/whom he got his cuteness from! Maybe from an outsider's perspective (not seeing him everyday) you may not see it... but if you ask me, I totally see Allen Jess in Jeilene... or Jeilene in Allen Jess.

So what do you think?

Me... Jeilene... or a combination of us both?

Go to your Room!

Talk about being a "newbie!" I had spent countless hours and precious time painting walls, ceilings, cribs, furniture, and even picture frames... spanning over about a month and a half, in preparation of Allen Jess's big arrival in August & September of last year. Little did I know, it was going to be five months after he was born until Allen even saw what his room looked like! So although I rushed to get it done nice and early for no real reason but for it to look good for company, I was certainly glad that I didn't have to worry about it once we became full fledged parental units!

So getting back to me (us!) being Newbies and all... we had no idea that Allen was going sleep in our room for five straight months while completely ignoring his adorable baby-blue room... that his father had worked tirelessly to construct! At first we kind of thought it was just bad parenting, but then after a while it made perfect sense. Why get up and walk all the way to his room seventeen times a night when you can just roll over and check on him, feed him, and put his binky back in right there next to your bed? Of course when I say 'you', I mean Jeilene. She's an absolute angel and lets me sleep throughout the night... so naturally, she is the one that has to get up all the time. Needless to say, there were no complaints coming from my end about how long he stayed in our room! But after getting back home from vacationing in Mexico City... we agreed it was time, five months to be exact, that Allen Jess finally move out of our room... and into his own room!

Of course by then, everything was ready...

all the room needed was a cute little baby boy!

 

Allen's bookcase was neatly decorated with the usual: 

pictures, toys, stuffed animals... and of course lots of books!

 

Not surprisingly, the bookcase wasn't the only thing

in his room carefully organized and neatly placed!

Allen's entire wardrobe... full of gifted, newly purchased, and hand-me-down outfits, were all sorted by age and neatly hung in his massive closet! (Yes, I am truly anal-retentive... but I swear I had nothing to do with this!)

And whatever couldn't fit on hangers ended up in plastic drawers...

which of course were organized, sorted and dummy-proofed!

Jei & I initially wanted a monkey themed room with a big painted mural of a tree with a bunch of monkeys hanging off it on several of the walls...

But with neither of us being muralists or having the least bit of artistic talent, and finding out how much something like that was going to cost... just to have Allen not like it and wanting soccer balls and race cars instead two years down the line, we decided to save our money and go with the much cheaper look of framed pictures... which I think we actually liked better anyway.

Having just enough room to pay tribute to the two men from which Allen Jess got his name was certainly by no mistake! (Makes you wonder... do celebrities do the same thing - Camera, Seven, Puma, Blue, Denim, Sailor, Moroccan, Coco, Homer, Banjo, Free, Alcamy, Peaches, Egypt, Saffron, Apple, etc... etc...!!!)

With the big move over to his own room, we weren't really sure how he was going to adjust. Sure, it looked pretty and cozy... but how exactly was Allen going to feel about it? That was the question! It actually took some time before he felt comfortable sleeping in his crib... so after that Hellish adjustment period, Allen settled in and soon learned to love his comfy bed... but not before a little bedtime story! 

Once it's time for bed, Allen Jess and Mommy like to read a bedtime story together. And after a long hard day of playing with Mommy & Daddy, stuffing your face with food and reading books... nothing beats getting a good night's sleep in your own bed!

And a good night's rest is so very important in this house... cause Mommy only likes waking up to happy - smiley babies in the morning!