No more magic mullethawk

If you hear taps playing in the background . . . it is because a little piece of me has died. Yes folks, Eli has finally had his first haircut. We had a good run, but it had to end some time.

I really was not ready for Eli to get a haircut and was fine with his unruly bangs (or "fronts hairs" as my friend calls them) but Eli's school was having class photos and Kelvey really wanted him to look a little more cleaned up. We tried to find a local barber shop that works well with kids but we couldn't find one that was open after delaying our search for so long. Thus, we ended up taking him to (*sigh*) Great Clips. The lady who stepped up to the task of cutting Eli's hair was very friendly, but a little too boisterous. She immediately freaked Eli out, and he did not want to even sit in the chair. She adapted well, though, and calmly wet Eli's hair with her hands while he was in the comfort of Kelvey's arms. Then, the bitch did something that made my vision blur and my knees buckle. As she raised her scissors for the first cut, she made a bee-line for Eli's bangs. I tried to say, "Wait! Not too much off the bangs!" but the shock of the train wreck unfolding before my eyes had left me breathless. With two quick snips, Eli's bangs had been shorn down to the middle of his forehead. Ugh. It felt more like she was using those scissors to stab me in the heart than to cut hair.

But what was done was done and no complaining could change what happened. Eli got comfortable enough to sit in the chair and seemed enthralled with watching things unfold in the mirror. Then he saw the spray bottle sitting right in front of him. If you don't know already, Eli LOVES to play with spray bottles. He especially loves to spray himself in the face with them (it is easier for him to pull the trigger with his thumbs than his index fingers so he always holds it backwards). So once he started spraying himself, he was completely oblivious to what the lady behind him was doing. Wish I had someone spraying me in the face to take my mind off of what was happening.

In the end, Eli came out looking a little more clean cut, but also a little older and a little pudgier (isn't the first rule of cutting hair: no short hair cuts for people with round faces?). He also tried his first lollipop without the wrapper still on it, so I would say it was a successful adventure. At least for Eli. When we got home, I cried. Really. To me, Eli's bangs were part of what defined him. Without them he looked like a completely different kid.

I didn't mind the duck tail being cut in the back, but it would have been funny to keep it growing.

Check out our flickr page to see before and after pictures.

The Cutest Werewolf Ever

Just when you think Eli couldn't get any cuter, a full moon rises on Halloween night and Eli morphs into the most adorable little puppy to ever roam the neighborhood in search of candy. Just look at those cute floppy ears! We actually chose the dog costume for Eli because he is pretty darn good at barking like a dog and loves to imitate his brother and sister (our dogs, Roxy and Bosley) whenever they wrestle and play. We also considered getting him a cow costume because he is pretty good at mooing too, but the puppy costume was soooo much cuter.

I knew it was going to be a great Halloween night as soon as I took out Eli's costume because he began eagerly pointing at it before he even finished his dinner. Kelvey and I were initially worried that he would not want to wear the costume because the first time we tried it on he seemed uncomfortable and did not want to wear the hat at all. Thankfully he was in the Halloween spirit, and he keep the costume on the entire night. He even swished his head side to side while walking between houses so that he little ears would flop back and forth! He did need some encouragement to walk up to the houses and get some candy, but this was his first time trick or treating, and we did not have much chance to practice with him beforehand. He got the hang of it pretty quick and was soon plucking out pieces of candy and putting them in his bucket on his own.

After a trip around the block, we headed back home and, in true little kid fashion, Eli dove into his bucket to partake in the booty he had collected. Our elderly neighbors were nice enough to put together little packets of animal crackers and other healthy snacks especially for Eli so we did not mind him stuffing his face before bedtime.

Be sure to check out Eli's flickr page for more pictures!

Ketchup Time: Our little Mountain Goat

Eli is EVERYWHERE these days. Running from room to room, opening cabinets, pulling things off the shelves, tackling the dogs . . . he's EVERYWHERE. There was a brief period of time when he was old enough to walk around on his own and find things to entertain himself, but he was too slow to get far from us and too short to get himself into any real trouble. Those days are long gone and, oh, how I miss them. Nowadays he's a few inches taller and a few steps quicker, and that, my friend, has danger written all over it. Well . . . at least Kelvey and I see the danger. Eli is having a ball exploring the word beyond a foot and half off the ground. One second he's playing with puzzles on the living room floor and the next second he's climbing on the dining room table chairs and working his way onto the table top just so he can finger paint with all the salt he poured out.

The little bugger is quicker than a jackalope and nimbler than a mountain goat! Luckily we have been quick enough to catch him in the act and he has yet to feel the bitter sting of his face meeting the cold linoleum. So far the worst predicament he has gotten himself into is getting stuck in his toy truck:

Catch Up Time: Word Up!

It's been a while since the last blog post but even though I've been slacking on my communication, Eli has been beefing up his. He is now saying Mama, Daddy, Doggie, Uh Oh, Tree, Bubbles, and Eye (even though he can point to his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, arms, legs, feet, toes, belly, and belly button when you ask him to).

While we are very impressed with his ever increasing vocabulary, the thing we love to hear him say the most is "Hi". Imagine a bunch of ladies huddled up at the office sharing gossip about the hussy in accounting, but suddenly the hussy happens to walk by and the lead gossip girl turns around and says, "Oh Hiiiii Susie!" in a high-pitched and obviously fake exchange of pleasantries. That's what Eli sounds like when he says "Hi", but similar only in tone. He says his with such enthusiasm and sincerity that it makes us feel like we are really something special in his life and he is not just parroting a sound. As soon as he sees us enter his room in the morning he greets us with a smile and spouts off a barrage of "Hi! Hi! Hiiiiiii!". We get the same greeting when we pick him up from school, when I come home from work, and when Kelvey comes home from a week of travel.

His primary form of communication, though, is sign language because the signs make it easier for him to get across more complex thoughts like "I'm hungry", "I want that", and "More please". He's had a mastery of Food, More, Milk, and All Done for a while, but now he is starting to do Water, Doggie, Duck/Bird and Please. Eli's teachers at his montessori school deserve most of the credit for helping him learn the signs so we thank them for making our lives easier. Eli still has his fits of frustration when he wants something and we helplessly respond, "What do you want? Your water? The phone? Is it the phone? Do you want your stamper? How about a phone? Ooh, look a phone! Just take the phone."

Enough already!

I need to find a cryogenic freezer to put Eli in for a while because Eli needs to cool the f--- out with all the cuteness. I mean, there I am just minding my own business and doing the crossword puzzle when Eli comes up and sits next to me with last week's crossword and a pen and pretends to write the answers. How cute is that?! I'll tell you how cute it is: It's so cute it makes me want to never have another kid again because I am sure Eli absorbed every single drop of of our cuteness genes and our next kid is bound to be pure evil.

If that wasn't enough, Eli is now comforting US as we try to put him to bed. Since he's too big to cradle in our arms and rock to sleep, we now just hold him against our chests with his head on our shoulders as we rub or pat his back. One night as I was holding him and patting his back, he began patting my arm and rubbing it in a similar way. It was so cute I didn't want to put him down, but I eventually broke the evil trance he had on me and put him in his crib. Maybe that was his genius plan all along: if he's cute enough, we won't want to put him down, and he can sleep comfortably in our arms all night long. Well not this time buddy. Let some other chump like Grandma or Nana fall for that.

That's not even the worst of it! Dig this: a few weeks ago Eli and I were hanging out in the living room while Kelvey was sleeping in, and Eli goes ahead and pulls the ultimate bonding moment on me without warning. He was doing his usual morning routine of pressing as many buttons as he could find, but when I sat down to play with him he walked up to me and gave me a big hug. I picked him up and sat him in my lap in the easy chair and together we watched the Disney channel in utter silence. This moment of silence was highly unusual for Eli because he is usually making his way around the house as soon as he gets up. So there we were, watching TV together with him slouched in my lap and just enjoying the peaceful morning. I give him a little hug and rub his belly a few times just to let him know how much I love him, but when I stop rubbing his belly he gently grasps my hand and moves it back and forth over his belly indicating that he wants me to rub it some more. I oblige and when I stop again, there is a slight pause and then he grabs my hand again without taking his eyes off the TV. It was one of those moments that you never want to end. It still makes me a little misty eyed just thinking about it.

Since my past attempts to surgically replace my hand with our camera have been unsuccessful, I can only show you the random acts of cuteness we are able to capture. Without further Apu (that's a Simpson's reference by the way), here is Eli trying to put on my shoes:

Big City Boy

Kelvey has been traveling a lot for work this summer so instead of being apart from Eli for 2 weeks during back-to-back trips, Eli and I packed our things and joined her in New York. Eli and I still had to entertain ourselves during the day while Kelvey toiled away at work, so we strapped on our skinny jeans and off we went to take in as much glitz, glamour and evils of the Big Apple as we could. The first day was bright and beautiful so we decided to spend most of our time in Central Park. We hit a lot of the playgrounds and played in the little water fountains but didn't get to see some of the more famous sights because even the park was a little overwhelming for Eli to take in with the large number of kids that were out enjoying the day as well.

The rest of the trip was pretty rainy so we decided to spend a day indoors at the famous FAO Schwarz toy store. On the way, we passed through Times Square so I could show Eli all the flashing lights. Because Eli was at stroller height, he was more interested in what was passing by him below on the street than everything that was way above him. I actually felt bad walking around the city with him in a stroller because he spent most of the time with his ears covered and I was constantly worried about him being at the same level of all the cars' mufflers. We probably should have taken a taxi more but I thought to myself, "Meh, as long as he doesn't have a seizure or start coughing up black stuff he's probably fine". Anyways, Eli's favorite part of FAO Schwarz was hugging all the enormous stuffed animals but I loved seeing him play on the famous floor piano. He didn't know what to do at first and just stood by me watching all the other kids run back and forth, but there was a small window when Eli was the only kid on the piano and I was able to get him to run across it. He didn't really notice that the keys were making noises and lighting up beneath him, but then again he wasn't heavy enough to light up all the keys he stepped on:

We also went to the Toys R US in Times Square and Eli was enthralled with the giant animatronic T-Rex in the Jurassic Park section. Did you know they have a full size Ferris Wheel in the center of the store?! Crazy. We were able to spend a little more time with Kelvey on our last day and explored the city some more together, but I think we were all worn out by then. Thankfully Eli slept the entire flight back to Austin and we didn't have to end the trip with a fussy baby on the plane.

By the way, I love this picture of him in Times Square because he looks like one of those cliche poses of a dashing young model fresh off the bus and full of moxie, just trying to make it in the big city.

Sweeps Week

When I was a little kid I remember telling my mom I wanted to be a sack boy at the local grocery store because it seemed like an easy enough job and I could just talk to people all day long like the teenagers I saw doing it. Well it looks like Eli is following in his dad's high aspirations for employment because he has already started his training to become a master of the custodial arts. He has been taking hold of our little broom every chance he gets and will walk around the house trying to sweep up the entire floor. He even grabbed a broom at the restaurant we went to this past weekend and tried to bring it to the table to show everyone. He's pretty coordinated and, hopefully, with a little more practice he can start earning his keep by doing some proper chores because his mooching off of us is starting to get annoying. We've already started a college fund to send him to the most prestigious janitor school in Texas. After that all he will need is some crazy sideburns and a hula girl tattooed on his forearm, then he can start sprinkling sawdust on the puke of any school he wants.

A day in the life of Eli

Now that Eli has become more "little boy" than "baby", he is not as dependent on Kelvey and I for entertainment. He can go where ever he wants and can pick up things up, manipulate them, and take them where he wants. We still need to keep him from trying to play with the stove or walking around with our laptops or pushing the lock button on our car keys which makes the car horn honk repeatedly which causes the dogs to bark like crazy thinking someone is outside our house . . . but it is actually really cool to see him become more inquisitive and creative in his play on his own. This video sums up a day in the life of Eli as he finds new ways to play with things (like pulling clothes off of furniture or climbing through a fallen chair) and rediscovers the simple joys of other things (like how comfortable it is to lay on his belly):

By the way, the chair fell faster than I could react. I'm not really a bad parent . . . honest. I waited to see if he would cry but he didn't so I didn't bother interrupting his playing.

Eli turns 1!

Believe it or not . . . Eli is now a year old! It is hard to believe that a year has past already, but when I look at our little man I can't help but notice how much he's grown and how he's not a little baby anymore. I've always heard people joke that it goes by too fast . . . but they're right. I forget how tiny he used to be and how he would just gaze at us for hours because he couldn't do much else and was just absorbing everything. It's been tough trying to live moment to moment as Eli reaches new stages of growth and development and become a whole new kid every few weeks. On the other hand, each new step he takes makes him so much cooler and me so much more proud of him. Right now, I'm happy that he can ask me for a hug, cling to me when I hold him, and freak out over how tasty a cupcake can be. By the way, I'm not shoving the cupcake in his face in the picture. He loved his first taste of sugary cupcake so much that he grabbed my hand and buried his face into it with gusto. He had a death grip on my hand and would not let go as he chomped away! It was the best part of the whole party. More pictures of Eli's first birthday party and cupcake extravaganza can be seen on our flickr page. Also, here's a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Eli on his real birthday:

Countdown to 1

It has been a whirlwind of a month as Eli makes a mad dash to reach as many milestones as he can before he turns a year old at the end of the month!  Normally I would break things up into separate entries, but for now I am going to throw it all at you like a robber throwing hot coffee at your face to make a quick gettaway:

1.)  Eli finally has a tooth coming in!  It's a little tough to see in the photo, but rest assured there is a tooth coming in on the bottom left of Eli's mouth (his left, not stage left).  It may not look like much of a tooth right now, but you can definitely feel it when he bites down on your shoulder or finger.

2.)  Now that he has a tooth coming in, Eli has been taking his mealtimes to the next level by chomping down on a variety of crunchy foods. Quesadillas, cheese sandwiches, Cheerios, crackers, french toast and pancakes . . . the kid can't get enough of 'em.  He likes the solid foods better because he is able to feed the little pieces to himself at his own pace and, I assume, they feel good rubbing against his gums.  We still feed him pureed fruits and vegetables to give him a balanced diet, but lately he has been begging to try feeding himself these sides as well.  We haven't given him full reign of the spoon domain because his coordination is not quite perfected, but he is getting better.

3.)  And finally . . . the moment you've all been waiting for . . . Eli has taken his first steps!  He has been cruising around the coffee table, couches, and dog crate for awhile but a few weeks ago our nanny said she saw him take a few steps on his own.  Kelvey was next to witness him taking a few steps on 3 different occasions but I never got there quick enough to see it for myself and the times that I did see Eli try to walk it just looked like he was falling forward or taking a lounging dive into the dogs.  Since we were convinced that Eli was ready to take the plunge into support-free walking, Kelvey and I took every opportunity to coax Eli into walking towards us and eventually our efforts paid off.  We can now say with confidence that Eli is starting to walk!  Next step: DANCING!

Eli Takes a Stand

Eli has been doing a pretty good job of scooting around the house while holding onto things, but every now and then he gets so distracted by something he picked up off the coffee table that he doesn't always realize that he is standing without any support. Today I was able to trick Eli into standing on his own and was surprised to see how long he actually did it for! I called Kelvey over to video tape it as I tried to get him to do it again:

Hopefully he will be walking by the next post, but for now I am happy enough to see his new parlor trick.

Fun in the Sun

Let me start by saying this: Last year's summer SUCKED. We sweated and cursed our way through a drought filled summer and a total of 68 days of 100+ degree weather. The sweltering heat made for a very uncomfortable summer with little opportunity to go outside, especially with a newborn Eli. Thankfully El Nino has provided us an amazing start to this year's summer (keep in mind this is Texas and our Summers start earlier than the rest of you) and the weather has been breezy and beautiful! This makes for very happy days with our own little nino.

We had a good start to the summer a few weeks ago when we took a trip to Pease Park to join the annual celebration of Eyeore's Birthday, a tradition that started in the 70's when a few hippies decided to skip class and play in the park. FYI, the party hasn't changed much in that a good 75% of the party population is made up of hippies or people engaging in typical hippie activities (if you know what I mean *nudge*nudge*). Anyways, it was a rather lovely day of enjoying the outdoors, people watching, and dancing to pulsing beats of the drum circle:

Last weekend was even better. We woke up, poked our heads outside and said to each other, "It's a perfect day for trip to the ol' watering hole". So we got Eli into his Lil' Swimmer swimming diapers and headed to the neighborhood pool. Eli hasn't been swimming since Aug. 2009 so we figured we may have to carefully reintroduce him to the water again so he didn't freak out and ruin our chances of coming back to the pool again. We slowly dipped his toes in and lowered him in little by little until he was up to his chest in water. It helped that Eli was mesmerized by all the other kids splashing around at the pool. Eli was most comfortable lounging on me like a floaty or bobbing around in Kelvey's arms, but he really loved being pulled through the water while we made motorboat sounds. When it got a little toasty in the sun, we moved to our shady spot under a tree and let Eli explore a little. When we got home we were a little scared that Eli got sunburned, but it turned out he was just a little flushed from the heat, a trait he gets from his mom. Hopefully he won't end up looking like George Hamilton by the end of summer.

Let The Fun BEGIN!

It is officially on like Donkey Kong! After months of crawling all over the dogs, poking them in the eye and chewing on their ears, Eli has realized that the best way to get the dogs to play with him is do something they like. He has always enjoyed watching the dogs wrestle and play tug-of-war, but he has been barred from joining the melee because of the high probability of him getting fish-hooked by a sharp tooth. Well tooth and claw be damn! Eli has been grabbing the dogs tug-of-war ropes and marching right up to them with an offering to play. The dogs were a little confused at first but Bosley (our goofy lab mix) was the first to take him up on his offer. Kelvey and I cringe a little every time the dogs lunge in to take hold of the rope, but Eli thinks it is the greatest thing in the world. He squeals with delight as they begin to pull, but within a few seconds the dogs have yanked the rope out of Eli's hand and he is left lying on the floor laughing his head off. He pops right up, though, and charges at the dogs to grab a hold of the rope for another round. The dogs better watch out though. Once he packs on a few more pounds of muscle from all the chin-ups he's doing, he will be the reigning King of Thunderdome (aka the living room).

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I have to say that I had a wonderful day with Eli and Kelvey today! We started the day with some delicious brunch and then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on the front yard. Eli started out in his exerscaucer while Kelvey and I pulled weeds, but Eli eventually got bored and want to join in the fun. We took him out and he immediately went to where Kelvey was working and started yanking at the grass and weeds too. I guess he had seen me plucking weeds from the yard enough times that he knew exactly what to do. Once he discovered the loose soil aftermath of Kelvey's work, though, his attention turned to getting dirty. It was heartwarming to see him investigating the dirt by running his fingers through it, grabbing fistfuls of it, and crawling all around, not caring about how dirty he was getting. Kelvey and I didn't care either. It was a cute scene, but something about it really struck a chord deep inside me. I think it was seeing him "in the moment", not having a care in the world, and me feeling the same way, knowing that he was completely safe in what he was doing and being able to be in the moment with him. I wish I had been able to take some pictures but we were dirty and sometimes it is best just stay focused on the experience than trying to capture it.

After we got all cleaned up, we took a moment to relax for a little bit in the living room. With Eli there are no relaxing moments as long as he is awake so he spent the time cruising around the coffee table playing with everything he could reach. When he grabbed my phone, I was surprised to see him mimic another one of our everyday motions. He picked up the phone, looked at it for a second, and then held it by his ear as if he was talking on it. It was weird to see him do something so grown up. As we watched him, Kelvey told me that she had also seen him pick up one of my Sunday crossword puzzles and hold a pen to it like he was writing. Makes me wonder what other mannerisms he is picking up from us.

Happy Hobbit Holes

When I was a little kid, I absolutely LOVED playing in my pop-up play tunnel. I'm pretty sure it was an Aquaman themed play tunnel. I loved Aquaman. I even had the green underoos with the matching orange shirt. But I digress. I wish I still had that tunnel so that Eli and I could waste away the day crawling in and out of it, enacting what ever crazy adventures we can think up. I'm sure Eli would thoroughly enjoy it because he has been tunneling through everything he finds as he crawls around and explores the entire house. Some of his favorite spots are under the buffet in the dining room and the end tables in the living room. He'll climb onto the bottom shelf and just park himself there for while as he plays with whatever toy he brought with him or what ever he finds in the general vicinity. Sometimes he looks like a funny little hobbit as he peers out from under the tabletop and smiles as if to say, "Are you still there? Because I'm still here".

Eli's number one spot in the entire house has got to be the dog crate. He will spend hours opening and closing the door, flipping the latches, climbing on the sides, and crawling in and out of it. Sometimes he will crawl right in with the dogs and just chill with them. The dogs love him and he loves the dogs so they do not mind the invasion of personal space too much. The dogs let Eli in their crate, and Eli lets them lick the inside of his mouth. It's a win-win situation.

As long as he is not chewing on the power cords like a little rabbit, we are happy to let him be a free-range baby.

PS: If I can get my mom to dig out the picture of me in my aquaman underoos and socks crawling through my play tunnel, I will post it.

Cliffhanger

A while back, Kelvey and I watched a show on TLC called "The World's Strongest Toddler" and were pretty amazed. It's about a kid that has been diagnosed with Myostatin Related Muscle Hypertrophy, a condition that gives him greater muscle mass and incredible strength. He is faster than the average kid and was reportedly able to do pull ups by age 2. I don't know how or when it could have happened, but I am pretty sure that Eli and this kid crossed paths at some point, words were exchanged, and some one was slapped in the face with a glove symbolizing a gentleman's duel because Eli is determined to prove that this "world's strongest toddler" is nothing but a punk.

As you can see by the picture Eli has been working on his arm strength and is now able to hang on me without support. He also has developed enough leg strength and dexterity to climb up me. I couldn't find any info on whether this ability is normal for kids his age, but we may need to get him a little baby harness and climbing gear for rock climbing at the Barton Creek Greenbelt soon.

Put your gun fingers in the air!

Eli may not be able to talk yet, but he has developed a pretty efficient way of letting you what he thinks is cool and interesting . . . which is just about everything he sees. A few weeks ago he started pointing at stuff and looking at us to see if we see the same things he does. When we confirm that the object is, in fact, awesome, he will try to reach out and grab it. If it is something he is not allowed to play with, then he will just repeatedly point at it and look at us until he or we get bored and move on to the next coolest thing in the room.

Eli's favorite thing to point at is the ceiling fan. The ceiling fans have been off the entire winter season so he had completely forgot about them until our first warm day of the year when the nanny turned on the one in his bedroom. He initially freaked out at seeing them and would cling onto us in fear and confusion, but he quickly remembered that he used to love watching the hypnotic spin of the ceiling fan blades when he was a wee baby and he cannot take his eyes off of them again. Now when ever he enters a room, the first thing he does is point at the ceiling smile. Then again, maybe he's just trying to say, "Big ups to my boy Biggie, R.I.P.!"

Giggle Box!

Now that Eli is much more mobile these days, he is beginning to explore the world around him as much as he can. He crawls, climbs, and pulls into a standing position as much as he can to reach great new heights and take in new views of the world. Fortunately for him, all of the window sills in our house are at the perfect height for him to grab onto, pull himself up and peer out the window. Lately, he has been more amazed by the window glass than the splendid wonders of the great outdoors. I have no Idea why he loves to bang on the glass so much but the joy he gets out of it is beautiful:

Zombie Baby Returns!

Yes, Zombie Baby has returned and this time he has a taste for soft poly-cotton shirts. Eli has recently learned how to bite and has been chomping down hard on our shoulders every time we pick him up. He still doesn't have any teeth yet so most of his bites just feel like soft pinches, but every now and then he will get in a good one. When he bites us, he likes to pull on our shirts with his gums until the shirt snaps back out of his mouth. We are pretty sure all of this means he is teething so we are preparing ourselves for extreme fussiness and sleepless nights. Hopefully, Eli will get through it pretty easily like he has with just about everything else.

Old Man River

This past Sunday was such a beautiful break from all the cold weather and rain that we decided to take a family trip to Walnut Creek and enjoy the sunshine. Ever since Eli was born, I have been anxiously awaiting the day that he would be old enough to take a trek down the river with me and share the bliss of the great outdoors. Unfortunately, Eli is still a little too young to go splashing around in the water with me and the dogs, but he seemed content in sitting with his mama on the river bank watching the dogs and I playing fetch and chasing each other around. Kelvey tried to get Eli to dip his feet in the water a little but I guess it was a little too cold for him because he wouldn't keep them in for very long and kept trying to lift his legs up. I'm happy to see that he is willing to at least give it a try. Hopefully by summer time, when he is a year old, he will be comfortable enough to hit up Barton Springs for a brisk swim in the 68ºwater. By the way, for those of you that are jealous of our beautiful weather, here is what our fine town looked like 2 days later:

That's right. Over 2 inches of snow fell in central Texas. Crazy.