Texas!

Flying with Madeline isn't going to be cheap (i.e. free) anymore, so we made one last trek to Houston last week. It was a family-focused trip and I didn't see anyone outside our family.  There were a few things that didn't go as planned, but we all made the most of it and the extra bonus time we got to spend together was well worth it.

Something I've learned about Madeline recently is that she doesn't like other kids. If we go to another person's house and they have a child her age or less, she immediately gets overly concerned, starts crying, and won't leave my side. I give her cuddle time and time to warm up to the new environment, but it takes some serious distraction for her to warm up to another person she can see eye-to-eye with.  Surprisingly, she doesn't like for kids to come to our house either.  It's the same scenario.  I don't know why she reacts this way. She attends a Mother's Morning Out program at a church and has kid classmates.  She attends the nursery at church and is around other kids. She's been to plenty of houses where there are kids and has done fine. Granted, she is an observer rather than a participant usually, but she wouldn't cry and get upset at another child until recently.

So it was no surprise to me when my sister's family came over that she immediately clammed up and clung to me when she saw Ethan.  What was a surprise was how she got out of her shell. Jason told Kristina that she should take Ethan to see my parent's cat who was chilling on a bed and when Madeline saw that Ethan and Kristina were going to play with a cat without her, she jumped down and wanted to see the cat, too.  After that?!?  The pictures speak for themselves.

Here is Ethan sitting on Madeline's lap. Hilarious.

 Holding hands, hugging, arms around each other and playing. You would think the two were best buds and had always been. I was just grateful that Madeline opened up. However, every time she saw Ethan the rest of the trip, it was a repeat of the clinging and crying.  Who knows why.

We did a lot more while we were in Texas, but those pictures are hidden on my sister's camera. Let's just suffice it to say that we had a great time, ate way too much and spent much-needed time with family.