Last Outing of the Break

This past Sunday we made plans to meet the Yeager's at the park.  I really wanted to get Aiden out of the house and I was feeling a little guilty that he hadn't had much of a chance to play with friends over my break.  I think he appreciated the afternoon out with Luke, even if it was a bit chilly (for Texas).

Aiden is getting more and more bold these days.  I still prefer a spotter for certain feats.

I'm super bummed that I can't get these photos to stay rotated after loading.  Sorry for the crick in your neck!

Zach and Luke (Aiden is learning adult's names now)

Static Head

Luke in a tube

Linsey and Kenley - feeding time!

After feeding the non-existent turtles in the pond (I'm pretty sure they were staying warm at the bottom of the water), we decided to go out for dinner.  We just happened to be near a Cracker Barrel, which I haven't been to in years.  Decades maybe.  I know it was while I was still in high school, could have been before that.  The only time I've ever been was with my friend's family for breakfast after I stayed the night at her house.  I'm pretty sure the last time I stayed the night at her house was Freshman year of high school.  I'd never been for dinner.  Of course, I had to reminisce with breakfast for dinner.  I'm a little ashamed to say I ate half of my plate and half of Aiden's.  Those grits really hit the spot!  Aiden's favorite meal is breakfast, so we ordered pancakes and bacon for him.  He went to town.

Man, that place is awesome.  I need to remember that place next time someone asks where I want to go to eat.

Holiday Parties, Part I

Fabulous weekend.  The end.

No not really the end, silly!  I like to talk!  Or type.  So here's the rest.

We made plans to go to two Christmas parties this weekend.  The one on Saturday was a child-friendly party.  They have an entire room dedicated to toys, so of course the kids took over that room.  We arrived before most of the group did, so here's a photo of the room before chaos struck:



Left to right: Blair, Matthew, Juliet, Aiden and Skylar

I have started to notice that Aiden does really well with kids of all ages.  He seems to adjust his play level to his playmate's needs.  If he's looking at a baby, his voice gets soft and higher pitched and he gets down on their level to check them out.  But if it's an older boy that he has to run to keep up with, he pumps up the volume and the energy.  The one thing he's not good at, all around, is sharing.  He has the toddler mentality.  The rules: everything is his.  Doesn't matter who is taking it from him, he will get upset.  I found myself explaining to Aiden several times that night, babies are too little to know better.  I showed him how to give the little ones a toy to distract them from what he's playing with.  I'm not sure if that's the right way to go about it, but both parties seemed okay with it. 

Here is an example of Aiden learning to share a house with Skylar:

Everyone brought some food.  It was all awesome.  I ate horribly this weekend.  I need to reel that in a little bit because my goal this pregnancy is to NOT gain 41 pounds.  I don't know if that will be possible, but I'm going to give it a try.  Honestly, I didn't have much trouble losing the weight last time.  Well, the last 5-10 pounds didn't come off until after I quit breastfeeding, but I will keep that in the back of my head this time.  I just want to remain as healthy as possible.  I do have to say one of the annoying parts of being gigantic, was my inability to use stairs.  It would be nice if I didn't have an asthma attack every time I need to go up a few stairs.

ANYHOO.  In addition to the food we all brought, we also brought a gift for the kids' gift exchange.  I was so excited about this part.  Chrissy (pictured below) numbered the gifts, then each child drew a number that corresponded to the gift they would receive.  She obveriously has a magic brain because she knew EVERY child's birth date.  She let the kids draw starting with the youngest and going up from there.

Aiden had a rough time understanding that he didn't get to choose which present he got to open.  He wanted one that belonged to another child, so we had a minor breakdown at that moment.  But as soon as I got him back to our spot on the carpet and he got to open the present, he was better.  He got a variety of card games aimed at kids 3 and up.  He's almost to three and I've thought about buying him some card games, so I think it worked out wonderfully.



Plaid



Aiden LOVES puzzles.  There is a card game in the set called Matching.  I haven't read how you are actually supposed to play the game, but I shuffle the deck and hand it to Aiden.  Then he finds the three-card sets and puts them together.  It's a little like a puzzle, only a little more difficult.  He seems to enjoy it.  If anything, he just likes shuffling through the cards and looking at them.  I taught him how to pick up a bunch of cards at once and straighten them, so he really likes doing that now.  He gets a little frustrated when it comes to fitting the cards back in the box, but we're working on that.

After all the kids opened their gifts, they walked around and played with each other's presents.  It was so cute.  There was a really neat underwater puzzle set that required the use of a magnetic fishing pole to take the pieces out of the board.  Might be getting that for our little man...

Josephine

I know three people who have had babies in the past month.  This is the first one I've actually gotten to see in person!

Meet Josephine, the second daughter to Allison and Jerry:

Aiden and Elise ran back and forth from her bedroom to the play room.

I'd have to say the thing I appreciated the most was receiving meals from friends while I was on maternity leave.  I was so tired and it took me forever to heal from the delivery.  I didn't have the energy to prepare a proper meal every night, so it was heave to have food delivered to my door, or an invite to the neighbor's for dinner.  I've tried to reciprocate to all my friends with fresh babies.  Allison and Jerry received a Tortilla Casserole that I hope will feed them for at least a few days.  Allison seemed to appreciate the adult company as well. It was nice to catch up on her baby story!

Fantastic Three

Sunday was just as fantastic.  We had originally made plans to go to the beach with my new co-worker, but it started raining.  RAINING!!  We are months overdue for some rain, so it didn't bother me in the slightest.  Instead, we went over to my co-workers house and let the kids run rampant.  Travis got called out on a job before we left the house, so he wasn't able to go with us.  After a couple hours of play, we headed home.  Aiden and I ate sandwiches on the ride home so all he had to do was climb in bed when we arrived.

Travis pulled up immediately after us.  I was exhausted.  Aiden has been getting up once a night for as long as I can remember.  It's probably only been a couple weeks, but it feels like forever.  So after Aiden fell asleep, I passed out as well.  Travis watched football in the living room all by his lonesome.  But I know he enjoyed a few hours to himself. 

I woke up to my alarm an hour and a half later and hopped in the shower.  I could have slept the rest of the day away.  It was dark in my room because of the rain.  PERFECT napping weather.  Aiden woke up soon after I got out of the shower. 

We decided to go to Marble Slab for ice cream.  We got Aiden a cup of vanilla mixed with M&M's and assorted sprinkles.  He almost ate the whole thing.  Thankfully he was full about the time it turned into a bowl of ice cream soup.  Travis and I had waffle cone bowls.  I tried a combination of mocha ice cream mixed with graham crackers.  It was awesome and I'd like to go back right now and have more.  RIGHT NOW.

It was still raining when we got home.  Still raining?  So weird.  I let Aiden run around the yard and play in the rain.  He loved it.  I folded laundry in the garage and then attempted to do a little gardening.  Yes, in the rain.  We have a bunch of tomato plants that have not survived the drought and I figured it was time to pull them up.  I had pulled up the second plant by the roots and was banging the dirt off when I felt a bunch of stings on my hand.  I looked down to realize what I thought was dirt was actually fire ants.  There was a nest of fire ants in the roots of the plant and I had pissed them off.

I ran inside to wash my hands as quick as I could.  I don't know if the venom sits on the outside of the skin at all, but I figured it couldn't hurt.  Turns out I only got bit three times on my left hand.  Twice on my pinky and once on my ring finger.  Thankfully it hasn't swollen out of control like I've done in the past.  But it's still bad enough that I can't wear my wedding rings.

For dinner we had BBQ stuffed baked potatoes - one of my favorite Texas meals.  It is so much better with real BBQ, not the kind in a tub from the grocery store.  Either way, it hit the spot!

See?  Fantastic Sunday.

Tangled

A couple weekends ago, we went over to the Yeager's for dinner. We celebrated Zach's birthday with some yummy chocolate cake. Aiden was so excited about all of Luke's toys that he absolutely refused to eat dinner. Because of the heat, they have brought all Luke's giant backyard toys into the house: a trampoline, a play house, plus all his regular toys (chair, table, etc). Aiden's not one to turn down sweets and because it was a special occasion (he never gets desserts), we let him have a small slice of cake.

After we ate, the baby sitter showed up to watch Kenley while the rest of us, plus Scott, went to watch a movie in the park. This month's showing was the Disney movie Tangled. Luke wasn't very interested in the show and Aiden wanted to be wherever Luke was, so the boys ended up playing on the playground the entire time instead of watching the show. We had a lot of fun, but I still want to see the rest of that movie!

I think the guys were grateful that they weren't forced to sit through an entire Disney film.

I got bit by a fire ant that night, so I took a Benadryl before bed. Travis got up with Aiden in the morning so I could sleep off my Benadryl coma. Sadly, he found Aiden covered in the chocolate cake he must have vomited at some point during the night. Apparently sugar on an empty stomach, topped with running around in the heat equates to an upset toddler tummy.

Vulture Park

After a week long of freezing temperatures and a couple days of freezing rain, I was ready to get OUTSIDE. I don't know how I ever survived up north - stuck inside for months on end. Yuck!

So! When I saw it was supposed to be 65 degrees on Sunday, I quickly made plans with the Ramby's to meet at a playground. The Yeager's had recommended it to us, saying that it was great for toddlers. Aiden has problems playing at the playgrounds near our house because he's not tall enough to get up the first step by himself. The park we went to on Sunday was wonderful!

There was one downfall. The park was FILLED with black vultures. Ugly things. And LARGE. Birds freak me out a little, so I was feeling anxious when we pulled up to this:

I was relieved to find the playground was on the opposite side of the bayou from these guys. I wasn't sure if one of them would try to make off with our son.

We had a few minutes to run around the playground before the Ramby's arrived. Aiden LOVED exploring this new play set.


We woke up a little late, so we decided to go to McDonald's for breakfast. I had the Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. Uh, it was amazingly delicious. I couldn't believe it. I need to try to make it at home! We also enjoyed some McD's coffee. Not gourmet level stuff, but it hit the spot nonetheless.

Aiden was so excited when he saw Blair running over from the parking lot.

Skylar was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed when they showed up. I am fighting off a cold, so I tried not to touch her or any of her gear. It wasn't until after I had done it that I was scolding myself for trying to help Alexa. I hope they don't catch whatever we have!

We left the park with a bag full of shoes for Aiden and a toddler bed. THANK YOU RAMBY'S!!

PS - Happy birthday Rachel!! =D

Toddlers

For Christmas this year, the Yeager's got us a gift card to the Children's Museum of Houston. It took us a few weekends to find the time to get there together, but we did it finally.

We drove up to their house immediately after naptime on Sunday and then we all piled into their car for the remainder of the drive. The entire museum is very colorful and child-oriented. The first floor is aimed more at older children. It was a MAD HOUSE. Children running and screaming in every direction. We walked straight through the first floor to the elevators where we made our way up to the TotSpot on the second floor.

It was like heaven after the madness of the first floor. I can't believe our boys will be running around with all those kids some day...

Anyhoo, there is an area where you take off your shoes and park the strollers, then you walk through a manned gate to the play area. Everything is on a toddlers level with rounded or padded edges and corners. It was AWESOME.

Going for a drive together - two steering wheels, two horns, two pedals. Enough car to go around!

The boys spent the first 20 minutes at this slide. It has two sets of stairs - one normal and one padded. They went up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide. Over and over and over... well, you get the idea. There was a window in the ground before the slide where you could see through to a tunnel below. The dads had a good time banging from the bottoms at the boys when they were on top.

The second most popular section had a series of windows with a variety of moving parts. On the inside, were dioramas. One window had a shade, another had doors. One had a toilet handle, another a door bell. Both Aiden and Luke kept heading back to this section.


Oh and the "big boys" had a good time too...

We spent two hours playing in the TotSpot. I was wishing we'd gone on Saturday because after all that running around, I'm sure Aiden would have slept in this morning if he had the opportunity. It was so funny to see all the toddlers interacting with each other. They all have their own personalities. That really comes out in free play.

Before we left for the museum, Luke tried to hug Aiden. Aiden would have nothing to do with it. He's like that with Travis and I, but I didn't know he was like that with other kids too. I don't know why, but that kid cannot stand affection. If I try to rub his back while we're reading a book, he leans away from my hand and whines "No!" Ugh, little stinker. Luke is so affectionate, it makes me a little jealous! Well, while we were at the museum, the same little boy hugged Aiden TWICE. Both times, Aiden started screaming "No!" while struggling to get away. He always failed and they ended up on the floor with Aiden crying. What is wrong with this kid?

After the museum, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Considering how busy our day was, I was surprised Aiden did as well as he did at the restaurant. Afterward, while we were waiting for Travis to move the car seat back to our car, Linsey showed me how the nursery wall was coming along.

Zach and Linsey are expecting a baby girl in April, so she has a chance to get girly this time around. They have a fairy theme for the new nursery. The walls are a soft lavendar and they are painting whimsical, white trees on the wall. There are two trees that will bend over the crib once it's in place. Zach's mom is an artist, so she is going to paint fairies playing in the trees. Then Linsey is going to glue little skirts to the fairies so it looks like they are popping out from the wall. So cute!

Aiden's Friends

It has been months since we have spent any time with Kate and her parents. I have been wanting to put together a play date for while now too. So I put two and two together and got a 4-child-1-baby play date!

Each of the parents brought a little snack and I provided drinks and a few child-friendly snacks. It was a really laid back event starting after nap time and ending before bedtime.

Here Kate and Nadya watch on as Luke and Aiden share the farm:

Linsey is 5-months pregnant with a girl, so she took a little time to admire 2-month old Skylar with her mommy, Alexa:


Nadya was reaching through the farm with a monster hand, making Aiden jump back and laugh hysterically. Kate caught on quick:

Alexey showed Luke how to properly use the dump truck:

Chris and Zach take a child-free moment to snack and catch up:

Big boy Blair pulled the train into the kitchen so he could have some space to play:

Every one trickled out as the evening wore on. We hadn't seen the Ramby's since their Florida Thanksgiving trip, so it was great to see them as well. Little Skylar has put on some serious cheek-pinching-chub since the last time we saw her. I almost didn't recognize her!