Fun little coincidence!

The boys and I made an impromptu trip to the Galleria today.....we had a fun time! I love our little trips to the city. Today we saw the ice skating rink and the giant Christmas tree. Grant wanted to go out onto the ice, so I explained to him that it was a giant ice cube, and it's very hard to walk on it. Then, while we were searching for the Disney store (it has recently moved), we found a ride-on train over at Santa's North Pole. Grant was so excited, so we paid $6 and had a blast during our three-minute ride. He said, "this is really cool!" a few times and asked Drew if he thought it was cool too. They both stuck their heads out the window and had such fun. As we were leaving the area, Grant looked up at me and excitedly said, "it's Christmastime!"

We found the Disney store, where Grant looked at lots of Cars and Handy Manny toys, and Drew had fun bouncing balls all over the place.

The only negative about going into town is that the boys take their naps in the car....by the time we get home, they wake up and they will not go back to sleep (even if they only slept for 30 minutes). So to kill some time and hopefully allow them to sleep a little longer, a lot of times I'll just drive around town for a while before heading home. Today I was driving on Montrose, and I noticed a street called "Drew" as I passed it. I had my camera and thought I'd turn around to take a picture of it. So I turned at the next street and made my way back towards Drew St. I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed that the intersecting street with Drew St. was called Grant St! What are the chances that I would have ever found this intersection?! Crazy!!

Three!

November 18, 2006:


First birthday:


Second birthday:

My big boy is three today! Wow! Three seems way too old for my little guy.......who, by the way, is still quite addicted to his pacifier and still isn't potty trained! Like most moms of little kids, I hear multiple times per week (at stores, at church, at the park) from older moms saying that it goes by so fast, telling me to enjoy every moment when they're little, etc. Of course I know this is true, but I think part of me still believes that this toddler/preschooler age is never going to end. I just can't picture my kids as 8 and 9 year olds! And in a lot of ways, I don't want to!! We definitely have our challenges right now....anyone who knows me knows this! But the boys are so sweet and fun right now too, and lately I've been noticing the days just slipping by so quickly. So I feel like I'm starting to get a sense of the brevity of my kids' childhood.....and I know that before I know it, I'll be one of those older moms!

This morning Grant came downstairs and noticed his wrapped presents sitting next to the fireplace. This is definitely the first year he's grasped the concept (he was too little even last Christmas). We picked up donut holes on the way to school for his class to eat for their snack (I tried making chocolate chip cookies last night but they ended up way too flimsy for 3-year-olds. So we will have to eat them ourselves!). Then Drew and I had a good time at Sam's while Grant was at school. I finally became a Sam's member! Drew had a blast looking at toys and frozen foods. We found a really cool car for Grant for Christmas (and bought a couple extras for gifts). Then on our way back to pick Grant up, we were 20 minutes late because Bay Area Blvd was down to ONE lane at a fairly large intersection (for construction). At lunchtime!! And no police officer directing traffic. This infuriates me because the traffic is backed up for a mile (just in one direction), and the lights are timed just as they normally are. Then about a mile from this huge backup, I see a cop sitting in his car waiting to pull people over for speeding!

Anyway, after picking Grant up and apologizing profusely to his teachers, we got into the car, and what does Grant notice? The new cars sitting in the back of the van! I knew I should have hidden them. He asked me to get them out when we got home, but I rushed the boys inside and he didn't ask about it again. He tends to remember things like that, so hopefully he'll forget about this one.

Off to make Grant's cake.....hopefully before my 45-minute napper Drew wakes up.....

And....we had a great time in Alabama. It's been busy and I haven't had a chance to write about it yet. Hopefully soon....

Leaving.....

Today we're leaving for Steve's wedding in Alabama. Steve (Dean's brother) and Jennifer are getting married on Saturday. We're looking forward to a (hopefully) fun road trip.....I'm hoping that the boys will take good naps in the car and let us drive some long stretches. More when we get back!

Halloween/air show weekend

It was a jam-packed weekend! On Friday Grant had woken from his nap just as the Blue Angels were practicing for the air show this weekend. I love living close to a military airport (we live basically across the street from Ellington field).....we get to hear (and sometimes see) all kinds of planes flying around our house. And the airshow is especially cool. This year the Navy's Blue Angels were the headliners.

So on Friday afternoon, I heard super loud airplanes and knew it must be them. I was standing in the kitchen when it got especially loud. I looked out the kitchen window as two of them flew by, then turned in opposite directions. One of them pretty much flew over our backyard....you could see the blue and gold paint as clear as day. So awesome! Grant wasn't so excited.....he was pretty freaked out by the noise. I tried taking him out in the backyard with me, but he buried his head the whole time and kept saying, "it's pretty loud. I want to get out of here." He felt better after we came inside and I explained that they were good planes, and they keep us safe.

The funny thing is that Drew (usually a very light sleeper) slept through most of it, until the last few minutes of their practice run. That night when Dean got home, I told Grant to tell Daddy the names of the airplanes he saw. He said, "I saw the Blue Rangers." But he remembered all weekend that they were "good airplanes that keep us safe" (although it didn't make him any more excited to listen to them).

Saturday:
It didn't really feel like Halloween, because of the air show and college football on TV. Saturday is a weird day for Halloween, I think. But Grant was excited about going trick-or-treating (he was too little to understand last year). We had a good time! We walked just down our street and back, but that was plenty for the boys. When we still had a few houses to go, Grant decided he just wanted to sit in his wagon and start eating his candy.

The pirate and the scarecrow:






Trick-or-treating:


At our neighbor/babysitter Elizabeth's house. Grant picked out his candy, and Drew decided he needed some too!




After trick-or-treating, we went to our church for a while. Grant's friend Graham was a pirate too....we didn't plan it!


Grant was surprisingly very good at sharing his candy. He kept handing pieces to all three of us that night.


Unfortunately, yesterday I had a disastrous experience at the bank with both boys (Grant almost set off the fire alarm, among other things), so we promptly came home and Grant watched as I threw his candy bag in the trash. Then he got about ten whacks with the paddle. I'm so tired of this stuff.....they both act horribly in stores, but at least Drew is still a little young to know better. Grant definitely knows better.

That place where everyone takes their kids in October

It's been almost two weeks ago now since the boys and I went to the pumpkin patch. We had a nice cool Monday morning and decided to go. Last year Drew was so little, so pumpkin patches weren't tops on my priority list. I remember driving past the (very picked over) field a few days before Halloween last year and being mad at myself for not going sooner. So this year we went with plenty of time to spare.....and I think this particular church must have just gotten a new shipment of them.....there was hardly any room to walk or sit!

The boys had fun....Grant was being his outdoor self and running and jumping all over the place. He had fun collecting all of the small pumpkins in the wheelbarrow, and of course he wanted to play chase (meaning we chase him). He'd notice an especially large one and say, "look at this big pumpkin!" And he had fun jumping off the hay bales.

Drew was my photogenic one this year.....he's always loved being outside, but I think even more so now that he can walk. He was giddy just walking around exploring the place. Especially at the beginning, he was interested in the pumpkins, trying to move them and even trying to taste them. And I was able to make funny noises to get him to smile for the camera. It's actually very difficult taking a good smiling picture of Grant right now. In the first picture, I had asked him to stand next to Drew. He knows what this means.....he walks over, looks at the camera and says "cheese!" about three times before running off. But his "cheese" face never ends up being a very good smile!

I don't know what it is, but pumpkin pictures are just so darn cute. It probably has a lot to do with all the colors.....the green of the trees and grass and the bright orange of the pumpkins.....it just makes for a great background. For me, I have to take some pictures and then step back and just enjoy watching the boys for a while. My tendency is to take pictures every second because the place just lends itself to great photos!