Meeting Antanas Kavaliauskas- A&M Basketball Player

Grant and I went into downtown last week to see my friend Kelly, who was in Houston for a few days. I arrived at the restaurant a little early and saw a table full of REALLY tall guys....I actually didn't notice until they stood up to come get their food at the counter. One had an A&M basketball shirt on, and I thought that it must be Kavaliauskas! Another one of them walked close enough to me for me to ask, and he said that yes, it was. This guy had on an orange shirt, and it turns out he was a player for Illinois. There were about four of them altogether, and they were apparently meeting with their agents to discuss the upcoming NBA draft.

Anyway, once Kelly came, we ordered our food, then went over to his table together to ask if we could take a picture with him. He was a really nice guy....we didn't say too much to him, because both of us were SO nervous! I don't know why!! But here's a picture we took with him, and another one of Grant and Kelly.

Peas!!!

Grant had his first vegetables on Thursday, and he actually enjoyed them a lot! I had heard that it's best to start babies on veggies first, instead of the sweet fruits. That way, they don't reject the veggies because they don't taste as good as the fruit. Since Dean is quite a picky eater, I thought it was a good idea, in case Grant takes after him in that way!

Anyway, we gave them to him on Thursday night, and he really enjoyed them! He's doing so much better now at swallowing his food, and he swallowed the peas right up without even making a face or recognizing that it was something really different! I mentioned that to Dean, who, by the way, does NOT like peas, and he replied, "that's because his taste buds aren't developed yet!"

Grant managed to stay pretty clean during the process (Dean was holding his hands). But at the end, I picked him up out of his Bumbo chair, and he spit up all over my shirt.....then proceeded to stick his face in it! It got all over his hair, so we promptly took him to the bathtub! Here are a couple of pictures.

Our Anniversary

Monday was our 2nd Anniversary....hard to believe we've been married that long already! We had a good time; the three of us went over to Kemah for dinner. Since Grant loves being outside, I thought he would enjoy walking around the boardwalk and watching the birds and the water. He's been there twice before, but the last time was when he was only 6 or 7 weeks old (so he obviously had no idea what was going on around him!). But he really wasn't too interested....we went into the Aquarium restaurant and he looked at the fish a little bit, but he just mostly sucked on the Baby Bjorn the whole time!
But we had a good time at dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, then we came home and ate our little cake. We weren't able to have the top of our wedding cake for our first anniversary (it went bad in my parents' freezer when their electricity went off, shortly after our wedding). So we figured we'd make a tradition of ordering a cake top from a bakery every year. Here are some pictures we took that night.

Robert Dean Gill 1921-2007

Dean's papaw died yesterday afternoon. He's been suffering with emphysema and lung cancer for a while, and went into the hospital last weekend. It was so sad to hear the news, yet in the short time I knew him it was obvious that he lived a full, rich life. We took Grant to visit just a few weeks ago, and I'm so thankful that he was able to meet his great-grandpa (even though he won't remember!). While we were there, he kept talking about how much he loves his little grandkids, and at first he was wary of holding Grant because he was afraid he would drop him! But he eventually did hold him, and Grant was just enthralled as Papaw sang to him for a while. When Dean and I visited them about a year ago, I remember talking to him about his days as a young boy, and some of the things he and his brothers did that got them into trouble! He told us about growing up during the Depression, and about his time he spent in the service during the war. Just a few weeks ago when we were about to leave their house, he told us a few times how much he appreciated us coming up there, and how much it meant to him. I feel privileged to have gotten to know him just in these past few years that Dean and I have been together. Here is a picture of him two years ago at our wedding, and another one of him with Grant (which I may have already posted).

Alabama Gear

Here's a picture of Grant's Alabama cap we got for him while we were in Alabama. On Saturday, we all went to the mall for the afternoon....Dean wore his new Bear Bryant themed Alabama cap (the black and white checkered look, similar to Bryant's old hats), and Grant wore his cap too. We went into a hat store so that I could get an A&M cap, and one of the guys working there asked Dean where he got his. We told him, and the guy responded that he had just been to Alabama to help open a new store. He said there were hundreds of that same cap there, and he said, "I figured that only in Alabama could they sell so many of such an ugly hat!" Dean was a little bit offended! We both think it's pretty sharp looking, but apparently some people don't think so!