Easy Sunday

Sunday was a much more laid back day. PHEW. That morning, Aiden played around the house while I attempted to coral the dog and cat hair that has taken over my house. I'm pretty sure everyone is shedding their winter coats. It's horrific.

After Aiden's nap, Travis headed out to play disk golf with some buddies, while Aiden and I went to visit the Ramby's. I thought it was strange that Travis didn't come with us, but that evening I found out that he thought Chris was still gone on a training trip.

Chris watched Aiden for me while Alexa, Skylar and I ran to Walmart to purchase some outdoor goodies for their backyard and to pick up a pizza. When we got back, we walked over to their neighbor's house to check out all the Bluebonnets in her backyard.

I just started some Bluebonnet seeds a week ago. They are just now poking their heads out of the soil. I know it is really late in the season to be starting seeds of just about anything, but I figured it was worth a shot. If they grow big enough to drop seeds, then next year we should have more flowers at the correct time of year. We'll see!

The Grand Kids Festival

This past Saturday Zach and his mom, Merri, got Luke out of the house and met Aiden and I at a kids festival in downtown Galveston. Travis was working and Linsey stayed home with Kenley. Of course, the first thing we noticed when we walked in were the pony rides. I always feel so bad for those ponies, but I knew Aiden would really enjoy it. Merri treated us to the rides and Luke rode the pony right in front of Aiden's.

As the pony trotted along, Aiden slowly tilted to one side or the other, then I would center him back on the saddle. There were a couple moments when Aiden whimpered. I don't know if the ride was painful, or if he was afraid of falling off, but then the moment would pass and he was thoroughly interested in riding this animal. Of course, when it came time to get off, Aiden started crying. I was having flashbacks to the Houston Rodeo Carnival.

It was only $5 to get in, but Zach and I were laughing that everything that interested the boys the most were the free things. They loved the petting zoo, although it wasn't as neat as the one at the Rodeo. These guys were coralled separately and you had to feed the animals through the fence. That meant you couldn't reach some of the animals, some were usually being fed by another child already and the rest were full. Aiden still enjoyed it. I think enjoying facing fears was the theme of the afternoon. Neither of the boys wanted to get very close to the Nesquik rabbit, but they both were interested from afar. After growing accustomed to the large strange bunny, they were willing to give him a high five. Then Luke kept going back for more staring from a distance.

They had various simple things for the small kids to enjoy: a sandbox to play in, banging pans (see below, Zach is touching base with Linsey)...

... and of course the bubble station was right next to the sandbox. Aiden kept touching the bubble wand to his mouth, so he was a sticky mess by the end of this exhibit. At least he had fun!

After walking around and collecting free hacky-sacks from another exhibit, we settled down for a moment to eat corn dogs and watch some extreme bikers. Then we headed to the Strand to cash in on a buy-one-sundae-get-one-free coupon for the Nestle store. I have not been in there since they opened, so I was pleased to see they offer a sundae with a fresh baked cookie (you choose the flavor) at the bottom. Ugh, makes my mouth water just thinking about it again!

Again, it was Merri's treat. It pays to have grandparents in tow. ;) We shared our sundaes with the boys, and sadly Merri dropped her cone on the ground the second she stepped out the door. At least she had a fresh baked cookie to turn to!

Aiden ran all the way from the festival to the Nestle store and back. Needless to say, he was rosy-cheeked and worn out by the time I plopped him in his car seat for the ride home. A little girl stopped us just before we got in the car and offered her flower balloon to Aiden. It was so sweet! I was ecstatic to have something to entertain him with the crankiness quickly approaching.

When we got home, I let Aiden play in the water outside while I watered the plants. Then we went inside to give him a bath. We still have the windows open, so it was a little warm in the house. I let Aiden run around in a diaper while I went through the goodie bag from the festival. I wish I knew how to load videos from my camera onto the computer. I got the funniest video of Aiden playing with the Easter Bunny Nano Bug. It's a little robot bug that moves by vibrating. It looks (and acts) like a colorful cockroach wearing bunny ears. Aiden jumped out of the way every time it came near him and more than once he attempted to smash it with the egg it came in. Oh man did I laugh.

Brand New Human

Kenley Malia Yeager

March 30, 2011

4:25 pm

6 lbs, 10 oz

19"

Linsey went in for her weekly OBGYN check up last Wednesday to find out she was already dilated to 4 centimeters. Her doctor told her to head over to the hospital for the delivery and to ask for the epidural as soon as she got there since this one was going to go quickly! She stopped at work on her way to tie up some loose ends, then headed to the hospital with Zach.

While she was at work, one of the girls (Michelle) handed her some lab bench diapers to sit on for the drive in case her water broke. I laughed so hard when she told me that. That is the lab equivalent to what the hospital put under me when they broke my water when I had Aiden.

I believe Linsey told me she got to the hospital around noon. She pushed about three times over the space of 15 minutes and out came Kenley! She spent two nights in the hospital, then Aiden and I went to meet the new addition to the family that afternoon.

I cannot believe how tiny she is. It's so funny how when you have a baby, you look at him and think, 'Wow, that came out of me?! He's huge!' But then once he grows into a monster toddler, you look at newborns like they are impossibly small. I mean, look at her in that swing!

Her middle name, Malia - pronounced like Maria, is a Hawaiian name meaning "calm and peaceful". It was Zach and Linsey's way to pay homage to her conception while they were on a child-free vacation.

Linsey's mom is staying with them for a week to help them transition at home with a new baby and a growing toddler. Zach's mom comes by frequently to help out with Luke. When we got to the Yeager's house on Friday, Luke was watching videos on YouTube with Linsey's mom. Aiden quickly joined in the fun.

We had a nice little visit. Linsey said she feels soooo much better than she did after she had Luke. She said all-in-all, it was a better experience than with Luke. The recovery is going quicker, Kenley is much more easy going than Luke was. I suppose those are both great things since they have to take care of Luke on top of this huge change. I can only hope that my next one will be easier than the last!

Only 7 more weeks!

I especially love that the first thing they do after they wake up is check the roof of the building.

Aiden, sans nap

Our photo booth shots from Gatti Town:

We were laughing so hard during all these photos. I think we were all delirious by this point. Sara was on the verge of a panic attack, so it must have been going around.

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Aiden just keeps making leaps and bounds. He learns new stuff everyday, stuff I don't even realize until he surprises me. For instance, when he takes a bath, he points at our loofahs and says "Daddy" (points to Travis' loofah) and "Mommy" (points to my loofah). He's so observant!

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Lately he's been using "K", as in okay, instead of 'yes'. Sometimes it works:

"Aiden? Do you want to go outside?"

"K."

Sometimes it doesn't work:

"Aiden? Do you like your macaroni and cheese?"

"K."

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For the past couple of weeks, Aiden has been saying "Ohreally. Ohreally. Ohreally." He doesn't say it like a question and I could never figure out what he was talking about. But then when he got up Saturday morning at Sara and JR's, I was picking him up out of his travel crib. He started saying it again, and it got more frantic, the farther from his crib he got. I put him back in his crib and said, "Show me Ohreally." He picks up Mr. Lion and says, "Ohreally." Like, DUH Mom.

I was sooooooo excited to have finally figured that one out! For the most part, I know all of Aiden's vocabulary. Occasionally he'll use a new word, but I can quickly figure out what he means, based on what we're doing. But he has been saying "Ohreally" all over the place lately, like in the car or when we're playing outside. These are not places where he's allowed to have Mr. Lion on a regular basis. We try to save him for bedtime only. Although he has been getting him and bringing him out to the living room after daycare lately. I guess he loves his Ohreally. And his soft blanket, and this new bear with a flower mane from Alexa... He likes soft stuff!

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Aiden calls Callaway 'Wally'. Except he says it with a British accent, so it sounds like 'Wah-lay'.

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Final story, with this post anyway... One night last week, Travis had a handful of Mardis Gras beads in his hands and he asked Aiden which one was the green one. Aiden pulled out the green beads. Then Travis asked which one is the red one. Aiden pulled out the red beads. This could have been shear coincidence. That said, he does know the difference between a red light and a green light. So maybe it wasn't a coincidence? I guess we need to repeat the experiment to see if we get similar results.

;)

Bluebonnets

The Texas State Flower is the bluebonnet. During the drive to Logan's T-ball game, we noticed the highways were lined with these bluebonnets. I was hoping there would be a field of them near Logan's game so we could go take some pictures. Lucky for me, there was! I've wanted to do this since I found out how prevalent this flower was, years ago. But up until this past weekend, I hadn't come across a field when I had time to do so.

We walked out to the field before Logan's game started and took a few photos. Aiden was so interested in the flowers, that it was hard to catch him smiling away from the ground. I think we caught a couple good ones though.

Aiden doesn't really say "I love you" yet, but hugs like these let us know that he does.

The rest of the weekend

Aiden screamed for the first 10 minutes on the drive home from Gatti Town. The last part of our drive was scream-free, since he fell asleep. In the car! Isn't it amazing?

We let Aiden sleep right up until it was time to leave for dinner. We attempted to go to a BBQ place that they said was amazing, called Salt Lick. Turns out, that place is hoppin' on a Saturday night. There was a two hour wait. Just looking at that parking lot, I cannot believe that the wait was only two hours. There was a constant steady stream of cars pulling into what seemed an endless parking lot. It was so thick with cars that cops were directing traffic.

The restaurant looked really cute. It's in the middle of nowhere, so the surrounding area is beautiful and green. They had a band playing and it's BYOB. If we didn't have cranky kids in tow, we probably would have stuck around for the wait.

Since we DID have cranky children (and by this point, cranky Nikki), we headed back towards Sara and JR's house. We tried another BBQ place (our mouths were watering for BBQ after the aroma from Salt Lick reached our cars), but they were packed for Crawfish Night. We finally found a place a couple blocks away that looked like a giant warehouse. There was only one table of people when we walked in the doors. I've decided that these hole-in-the-wall places can be the most gratifying.

We pushed a bunch of tables together so we were seated like you did in the cafeteria in grade school. The food was awesome, and this was another BYOB place, so we popped open a bottle of wine and the guys cracked open a beer.

I INHALED my chipped beef sandwich. After trying Travis' brisket, I was bummed I hadn't gotten that. I didn't grow up around brisket, so I always forget it exists. Aiden happily ate away on the other side of Travis, over by Logan and his cousin Isaiah. We went outside when a train went by, since Aiden's current obsession appears to be trains and large trucks.

After dinner, we all went back to Sara and JR's for a game of Apples to Apples. We had 11 people playing. I'm pretty sure that's a record for largest group for me to play with. We still had a great time.

Travis, Carol (JR's mom), JR, Wheldon and Casey (Sara's parents)

Kyle (Vanessa's date), Vanessa (Sara's sister), Isabella, Sara and Brittany (JR's sister)

The only person not shown is Sara's other sister Randi Beth because she left the party early. The next morning, they made us breakfast and we hung around drinking coffee. Aiden got up at his normal 7 o'clock, so I was pretty exhausted by this point. We stayed up late every night, got up early and had full and active days. I was WORN out. This was the first time that it was just Logan, Landry and Aiden, so it was cute to watch them interact. Aiden followed Logan around, examining all his big boy toys. Landry and Aiden played with some foam letters together and then we let them run around outside for a bit. Of course, Aiden's ears seem to be tuned in for trains these days, so he loved it when a train went by somewhere in the distance.

For his birthday, Logan got a new bicycle with training wheels. Aiden really loved this bike, but he was entirely too small for it, so we had to help him on and off.

We had the car loaded and were on the road at 11 that morning. We had seen a Steak 'n Shake the previous day. That restaurant was all over the place when we lived in Illinois, but we have never seen one in Texas. Since it was lunch time, we decided to make the short detour north to eat there. It was interesting to see the slightly different menu, although the staples were still there. They offered a Guacamole Burger and a Chipotle Burger. Both of which are not available in Illinois. Travis got the Chipotle Burger and I got the Frisco Melt. We had enough food to just share with Aiden.

Of course, we both got shakes for the road. It was amazing. I was STUFFED. Actually, writing about this is making me hungry. Travis drove halfway home, while Aiden slept. I drove the last half, after Aiden woke up. Aiden was ready to be out of that car, so the last 30 minutes were pretty stressful for me.

It was good to be home after such a busy weekend. But it was worth it!