Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Houston

It's been a week since we returned from our trip to Houston, and I'm just getting around to writing about it. We were gone over the weekend (will post about the wedding later), and honestly, I've spent all my computer time this week reading about Stellan. But I realized with our upcoming weekend at the lake with the Sitton family, I better get to blogging or I'd be three weeks behind.

We (me, Aunt Barbara, and all four boys) left for Houston Monday morning. We had a fairly easy drive, and I dropped Barbara off at her mother-in-law's home in Katy. We all trooped in to use the facilities and stretch our legs, but hurried out as soon as possible. I've never seen so many lovely, breakable things in one home in my life (nothing was broken, BTW.)

We arrived in Spring around lunch, and Kristina had things ready for us. We got settled, unpacked, and got the babies down for naps without too much trouble. Her home is stunning, and we had fun exploring everywhere. The kids played, we visited, and that evening Troy (Kristina's patient husband) cooked out. We enjoyed hamburgers outside and got the big boys to bed fairly easily. That first night Reid, Luke and Owen slept on a pallet in Owen's room, but after that they commandeered Owen's bed for themselves and Owen slept downstairs with his mama.

Notice I said the "big boys" went to bed easily. Cole and McKenzie Grace, another story. Cole actually goes down great; as long as he has a pack-n-play, two green blankets and two blue passies, he's good to go. So I put him in McKenzie Grace's room, Kristina put MG to bed downstairs, and we went about our business. About 10 minutes later, I thought I heard her voice through the bathroom she shares with Owen, but ignored it. But I kept hearing something, and went to investigate.

She had snuck out of Kristina's bed, climbed the stairs, gone into her room (shutting the door behind her), pulled a chair over to Cole's pack-n-play, helped him climb out, and they were happily playing with her dolls in the dark. She's not even THREE. And after they were all put back into bed? She did it again. Have I mentioned how much she loves her Coleybear? Only the next morning did I discover that after I had gone to my room, they were a caught a third time. Kristina and I used to joke that it was going to be a perfect arranged marriage between those two, but obviously we're going to have to keep them apart until they are 30. Then they can get married.


On Tuesday, we stayed home and played (Star Wars, trampoline, trains, Star Wars, dinosaurs, trampoline, hotwheels, etc, etc, etc.) After naptime, we took the kids to the pool just down the street, and the outing was uneventful. Except that I let the lifeguard take a picture of all of us, realizing only later that I had allowed someone to document me in a bathing suit. And now I'm going to post it on the internet, just to completely push my own boundries of decency.


On Wednesday, Kristina took Owen, Reid and Luke (along with two other family friends) to the Houston Children's museum. I stayed home with Cole, MG and Gray. How hard could that be? Anyway, the boys LOVED the museum, but didn't get to see near enough of it. A perfect excuse to visit again soon! We did our usual crazy dance with dinner, baths and bedtime, and everyone went to sleep happy.

On Thursday morning, I was aiming to leave at 10:30 in order to drive into Houston to have lunch with Bubba, and Kristina needed to leave at the same time for pediatrician check-ups. We put all the kids in bed and turned a movie on and packed and loaded the car like crazy. Kristina made her deadline, I did not, but we still made it to Bubba's by around 12:30. And the only packing casualty was Luke's silver crocs. Not too bad.


All in all, it was a fabulous trip, and we are so grateful for the Pierce's hospitality. Kristina and I finally got to finish a conversation (something never accomplished when she lived in Austin and took care of the boys for me - somehow we were distracted by 47 children at our feet), and the boys had so much fun with Owen and McKenzie Grace.

A final note on a previous post: my mom commented on Sarah and I needing to have the house clean before we leave town. She claims full responsibility for this personality trait, and explained that is the exact reason she is always late to our house when she comes to visit. Duly noted. She also mentioned that when she was in ACTIVE LABOR, about to have a baby any nanosecond, she took the time to carefully make her bed before leaving for the hospital. Classic.

So, on behalf of the Fite women:
2......4......6.......8.....
Who do we appreciate?
OCD! OCD! OCD!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

International Update

Cole has gone from KGB agent to Latin American soccer fan. Except instead of yelling "Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal", he of course replaces it with "Noooooooooooooooooooo". Without losing any of the passion.

And Stellan is sick. I have a heavy heart.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Well, we're back from Houston, and headed to Waco tomorrow for a wedding. We had a wonderful visit with the Pierce family, although the ride home was pretty rough.

Aunt Barbara was nice enough to get out with the boys about half-way home and let them stretch their legs while I fed Gray in the car. We saw a nice patch of grass, and some police cars in the parking lot, so I figured, "what could be safer than the local police station?" Um, would you qualify the Colorado County JAIL as a good place for a rest stop? Did I mention the INMATES mowing the grass? I think Aunt Barbara deserves a gold star. Or a tranquilizer. Whatever she wants.

And I would like to know ONE PERSON who can drive past a Czech gas station in Central Texas and NOT stop for a kolache. I mean, really. Who can resist the gas pump/bakery combination?

I'll write a bit more about our visit with Kristina and the kids later, but for now, I'll just post a picture of the boys with their maternal great-grandfather, Bubba. We all went to lunch at McDonalds and had a good visit. (Bubba deadpanned "They expect people with children to eat there")



Oh, and Gray continues to do a little better on solid food. He dined on a nice array of leaves and grass while in Houston, and his favorite teether continues to be Crocs. But only completely sanitized crocs. Never dirty crocs out of the shoe basket. That would be disgusting.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

We're back from our weekend in Lakehills/SA. The lake house was nice - didn't put the boat in, as it takes so much time to go over to the state park, but Brad and the boys swam, and they took the canoe out late Saturday. Brad in back, Reid and Luke on the seats, and Cole on the floor in front of Brad. They went all the way up into the cove, dodged some branches, saw some water walkers, and just explored a bit. They came back and swam around Al's dock (the neighbor). Al came down and actually got in the water and visited with Brad. My husband is making new friends up and down Blue Bill Cove.

My dad came up for lunch on Saturday. He stayed for awhile after we ate and played with Gray, and explored around the property with the boys. We cut up a watermelon he brought from Ingram and ate it out on the porch, then he went back to Kerrville. All in all a very nice visit.

We intended to leave around 11am this morning to head to SA, but as usual, the packing/cleaning process took awhile, and we were ALMOST ready when the inevitable happened. The boys were entertaining themselves with a pulley system hanging off the porch railing down to the boat house below. Luke was on the porch, Reid down below, and they were playing so well together (??!!#$), but it was only a matter of time before something came crashing down on top of Reid's head. For example, a huge, rusty hinge from the boat house door. I have to say, we were really impressed with how well Reid handled it. Of course, he couldn't see the blood running down the side of his face and neck and all over his shirt - just the little bit on his hand. I bent him over in the yard and ran the water hose over it, and then held a frozen water bottle on it for about 20 minutes. The cut is only about 1/4 inch, but you know how head wounds bleed.

The only freak-out moment was when he got back into the car after the picnic and rubbed the top of his head on the roof of the car and it opened up again (it had bled a little bit at the park, but each time he just held a napkin on it and then ran off to play again.) In the car, however, he took no less than43 kleenex out of the box and had the whole mess of them up on top of his head. Every 30 seconds he'd take it off and look at the teensy tiny spot of blood on it, wail and put them back on his head. Through the rear view mirror it looked like he had on his fanciest, puffiest hat and was all set for the Derby. I'm quite sure the snickering didn't help the situation, but the rest of us thought it quite humorous.

My reunion picnic was nice. Not very many people there, but everyone had attended the actual reunion the night before, so I got a play by play. I sort of wish I had gone, but it just didn't seem like it was worth the effort (shopping for actual clothing to wear, $100 each for the tickets, figuring out what to do with a baby who nurses every 2-3 hours, etc, etc, etc.) If anything, it made me realize I should keep up with the friends I DO have in San Antonio. Anyway, the boys had a great time playing with the other kids, mainly Eduardo Boone's boys, Diego & Paolo. Toward the end there was some kind of kid-directed sand castle contest and Reid won. Apparently Luke was contest "manager", and was keeping watch from the playscape above the sand pit. He would climb down to tell people what to do, then climb back up to his perch.

And for some final points:
1. Gray has two bottom teeth, for those that didn't know.
2. Cole can say "dirty diaper" clear as a bell (big word for him....) Perhaps next time he can use his new vocabulary to alert me immediately, and we can avoid what happened in the living room tonight.
3. I have to start a vegetable garden. My children are eating me out of house and home. We are up to 6 servings of fruits & veggies a day, but that doesn't fill them up enough. They could eat ALL DAY LONG.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Brad came home for lunch today, so he and Cole got to eat together on the back porch. Reid and Luke weren't home from VBS yet. Of course, when I say Cole "ate" lunch, I mean he took 3 bites of an apple slice and moved the rest of the food around on his plate, and maybe took a good bite, chewed for 5 minutes, and then spit it back out onto his plate. That kid can put away a lumberjack breakfast (2 eggs, 2 waffles, a yogurt smoothie and whatever is left on our plates), but after that, he eats like a field mouse for the rest of the day.
So when Brad returned to work, I brought Cole inside and tried again with his turkey. I was feeding Gray in the highchair, so I wasn't really paying attention, but was so pleased when I looked over and all the turkey was gone. Checked the floor, no turkey. Checked his lap, no turkey. Could it be? Alas, 10 minutes later we had the conversation about "no turkey in our pockets, OK?" To which his reply was "No No Mama", and thus began a wrestling match between me, Cole and his pockets full of turkey. Wow.
And the way he says "No" is so, um, passionate. Not just like a normal 2 year old. More like a 2 year old KGB agent. I fully expect him to start hollering "Nyet Nyet", the way he puts the tilde over his "N"s. Anyway, such is lunch time with Coleybear Hardin.

And I renamed the crabs. I think one was already "Crabby", (the boy, the one with the freakishly large claw), and the girl is now "Patty". Not after my mother. But after my mood while changing the crab water every night at 11:30. Because I've been quite the crabby patty about the whole crab situation. And, obviously, they're named after the much coveted cartoon I refuse to let my children watch. Anyway, Crabby and Patty are starting to grow on me. Patty went to town on those shrimp pellets last night, and I found myself relieved that they had both survived the molting process and were eating again. Apparently, molting can be quite an ordeal and some crabs die from exhaustion after the whole thing is said and done. I totally relate.

OK - taking a break from blogging next week- going to the lake house tomorrow after Brad gets home, my dad is meeting us up there for lunch on Saturday, then we have my 20th high school reunion "family picnic" on Sunday in SA. I'm ditching the pre-party on Friday and the actual reunion on Saturday (it's $110 for one person!!??!!), but I'm supposed to meet my newly betrothed friend Sharon at the picnic. One of those "if you go, I'll go" deals. Then on Monday I'm taking the boys to Houston for a visit with Kristina and her kids. We'll see my grandfather while were in town as well, then home on Thursday. I'll post pictures of both trips next Friday. I'm not sure why I'm reporting all these details, as I have no actual proof that anyone reads this blog. Oh well.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Titles, Labels and Links

I have decided it would take way too much brain function to come up with a pithy title to every post, so I am no longer putting any pressure on myself to do so. Besides, the point of this is to keep friends and family updated on our nitty gritty (heaven knows I can't spend a lot of time on the phone recounting the insanity of the day to multiple listeners), so I'm not going to attempt to be anything but informative. On that note, I WILL try to participate in "Not Me" Mondays (for all you others who have a cult-like obsession with MckMama), and I'll probably have a "TMI Tuesday" or a "Band-aid Roll Call Friday", because certainly I would have a lot to write about under those headings. I will also attempt to link to MckMama or the homemade deoderant chick if I feel so compelled. My HTML is rusty, so that may take a few days/weeks/months.

Today, I will simply recount the happenings of the past 24 hours.

The big boys had their 3rd day of VBS at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian. They love it, and it's much more low-key than the ones at Bethany and LakeHills. They loved those, too, but SHPC is much smaller and not so frenetic. Lisa Medlin continues to bring them home at noon (as she has with sports camp & other VBS), since Cole & Gray are supposedly sleeping at that time. Can you believe she does that? She's purposely signed her kids up for the same things as us so she can bring them home for me. Notice I don't say "carpool" with me. That would indicate that I reciprocate somehow. I don't. It's all her. Just like it was all her when she would sit in my car in the Bannockburn parking lot so I could take Luke into school alone without unloading the babies and the stroller. Slightly helpful, wouldn't you say? How do you repay that?

Anyway, the are enjoying VBS. We swam in the baby pools in the front yard yesterday, and all was well until I sent Reid next door to let the snails from Lovington, NM go in Grand Pink's yard. I went in the house to get Gray out of bed, and heard a blood curdling scream coming from Pink's. I could tell it was Luke, and I could tell it was his "I'm in pain" scream, so I ran outside. Apparently, something had bitten/stung him on his little toe. I grabbed him and put his foot in the pool, thinking the cold water would take the sting away, but he kept screaming. Barbara rushed over and took Gray (I think Cole had wandered into Pink's house sopping wet in a swim diaper) and I ran water over Luke's foot and tried to identify the point of impact on his toe. His whole foot looked like it was starting to swell, but we couldn't tell what it was. I finally made a "bath" of cold water, baking soda and some tree tea oil (I totally made that concoction up) and made him soak his foot for about 30 minutes. The perpetrator is still unknown, but I suspect a scorpion. And after soaking his foot, he was fit as a fiddle and didn't say anything about it for the rest of the night.

So that's the type of thing that I guess could be labeled under "Band-Aid Roll Call" (even though there wasn't an actual band-aid involved.) This next tidbit would certainly be classified as TMI, but if you're interested in all things boy, I guess keep reading.

All my boys at some point have had to go see Dr. Brown for adhesions. Look it up if you need to. So, last week at the lake I noticed Gray was looking a little "stuck together", in addition to having some redness in that area. The adhesion didn't surprise me, although I felt appropriately guilty, but the redness was concerning - not something I had seen on the others. I took him in this morning, and Dr Treybig (Dr. Brown in out until AUGUST - sheesh) pulled the adhesion apart. Yes, I feel bad, and yes, I will be more vigilant. But the redness was from a yeast infection! Who knew? She said it is just so stinkin' hot, and you get so sweaty, that it's really common this time of year. Staying clean is not as important as staying DRY. So, several times a day I get to apply some anti-yeast cream (from a sample tube - thank you pharmaceutical reps, whoever you are) and - are you ready?- use a BLOW DRYER on my baby's nooks and crannies. On the cool setting, I presume. Like I said, TMI, but FYI. You're welcome.

AND....finally....if I had not missed "Not Me Monday" this week, I'm sure it would have included something about dipping Cole's half-eaten mushy banana DIRECTLY into the jar of nutella. Numerous times. Isn't that like, quadruple dipping? What kind of sicko would do that? Not me.

And here's some photos from our visit with the Stovers. I hope they come back soon. We half-way started 163 different conversations, but never completed a single one, and all of a sudden it was almost 9pm. But Casey got to climb his first tree, Sidney spun on the tire swing, and Kellie shared one of her Hard Lemonades with me. And then I passed out without cleaning up the Taco Cabana trash. We are HIGH CLASS at Camp Hardin.


Monday, July 13, 2009

Do I need a special pillow for that?

So everyone knows that Luke is a tough kid, but today was a new one for me.

I was clipping his nails (there are 100 dirty nails I'm responsible for, including mine. Brad thankfully takes care of his own.) and I got to the finger that got a hang nail/infected/smashed under a rock/reinfected/another hang nail. He tells me not to clip on it, and says he needs to "brush it". What? "I need a brush" he says. "YOU KNOW." Um, no, I don't know. "What did the doctor say about it?", he asks. I answer that the doctor said he would probably lose the whole nail. "Yeah" he says (exasperated, I think.) "So I need to brush it so it will be nice and clean so I can get a DOLLAR!" I'm so confused at this point. "A dollar?", I say. And he replies (more exasperated) "You know, mama. From the FINGERNAIL FAIRY."

Of course. Because in Luke Hardin's world, you're probably going to lose just as many toenails and fingernails as you are teeth, so why on earth wouldn't there be a fairy for that?

Thank goodness I have this handy blog now, because I'm certain I would have blocked this conversation out already.

And one of the crabs molted. And no one (not even Reid, who returned home from the reunion this evening) wants to stick their hand in the cup of salt water (versus the cup of fresh water - they need both, you know) to remove the creepy exoskeleton. Lovely.

UPDATE: I've learned from googling that we should leave the skeleton in there so the crab can EAT IT. Even lovelier.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

a Lakehouse vacation

We're home from the lake - arrived last night at 6:30 only to turn around and leave for a going-away party for Brad's coworker Travis. We should have all gone straight to bed, but Travis is leaving for grad school in Arizona (for landscape architecture, no doubt inspired by my husband), and he really wanted Brad to see his yard. He's been working on it since being employed at Brad's office, and it really is a work of art - super modern and funky and fabulous.
So, it was another late night for the Hardin boys, but a good end to our vacation week. We've got all day to recuperate, before our friends the Stovers stop by for dinner (they're in town from Dallas and we haven't seen them in ages.) Sadly, with all of our spur-of-moment vacation plans, I forgot Amy Hollyfield was in Dallas this week to care for her mom, Shirley. I was supposed to drive up and meet her for a few days. That's what you get for not writing things down in your calendar. It will probably be another year before I see her. Gut-wrenching, but I can't change it now.

Now for those still paying attention, here's a whirlwind tour through our week at Medina Lake:

THURS: I started doing laundry and packing clothes. Somehow managed to wash, fold and put away 8 loads and then pack 6 laundry baskets for 6 people for 8 days. And it only took until 2am. And then I stayed up until 3am watching a DVR'd episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Common sense had obviously vacated the premises around 1:30am.

FRI: Continued to pack all other needed things (besides clothes) in the remaining 9 laundry baskets and totes. For those counting, that's 15 baskets and totes. Horrifying. Which is why we had to borrow Aunt Barbara's TRAILER. I also insisted on cleaning the entire house. I (along with my sweet sister) am absolutely passionate about coming home to a clean house. Otherwise, you straggle in, unload all your junk (say, 15 totes and baskets) and it instantly mixes in with all your other house junk. It may take 87 days to sort it all out and get things back to normal. So, with common sense still not being present, I frantically worked to the point of delirium until Brad got home at 3pm. We loaded up and set off by 4:30. Not bad. We made it to the lake house around 7pm, just about the same time as my mom. She was going to spend the weekend with us.

SAT: Having gotten all settled in the night before, we set off for the 4th of July parade in town. I think we went two years ago, as well, and it's a cute little small town parade. Mostly all the VFD trucks from Lake Hills and surrounding areas. And the occasional shirtless teenage boy on an undecorated dirt bike. And some alarmingly young boys in a dune buggy. And all of them throwing candy at the crowd. Lots and lots of candy. Like we filled up the back pack. Luke was in heaven.



We then walked over to the VFW hall and had a BBQ chicken lunch. Aside from the 45 minute wait in line, everyone had fun and we returned to the house for naptime. Brad spent the afternoon working on the boat and suffered heat exhaustion (it was only about 105 degrees out there.) Gray and I went to Helotes to go grocery shopping, and my mom took the other boys swimming. We had our standard lake house fare of Taco Cabana rotisserie chicken, rice and beans for dinner. The neighbor set off an incredible array of fireworks and we all watched from the front porch. The only thing missing was Sarah's friend Kelly Hern - she sang the Star Spangled Banner one 4th of July when they were in school, and I still get a bit misty thinking about it. I need to have her record a version so we can keep it down there and play it each year. If you've heard Kelly sing, you'd totally understand. (and yes, I'm a bit goose-bumpy now, just writing about it.)

SUN: Our second full day, we finally settled into a routine. I slept a little late (Gray did NOT sleep well at night - unfortunate combination of upset tummy from just starting solid food and a little cough from drainage), the boys watched an early morning movie, Brad made breakfast, and then down to the lake for swimming. I stayed inside most of the time, as it was too hot for Gray at the water. I started the massive job of polishing/oiling all the wood paneling downstairs, which I worked on a little bit (or a lot) for the next 5 days. Luke finally got to go fishing, and caught quite a few fish, including a catfish. After I went down and inspected the bounty, everyone got dumped out of the basket and back in the lake to be caught again. The fish, not the children.



MON: Second verse, same as the first. Swimming, fishing, napping, movies.

TUES: We all loaded up and went to San Antonio. I dropped Brad, Reid & Luke off at Sea World (we had our season passes from when we went with Sarah et. al. in April - 14 of us in the pouring rain. Good times.) I took Cole and Gray with me to run a few errands, and spent the day at Aunt Margie's house. Gray napped, Cole did great without one, I got stopped in Balcones for going 40 in a 30, (but mercifully got a warning) and went back to pick up the boys at Sea World at 5pm. Everyone was hot and tired and HAPPY.

WED: Back to the routine during the day. It's starting to feel like a vacation. We finally put the boat in the water (one of my errands on Tues was to get a new marine battery), and we toodled around the lake. I think there was more fishing. That evening we took Reid into Boerne to meet Freda. He was going to the Gilmore family reunion in Ruidoso and they were leaving on Thursday morning with Grand Pink and Aunt Barbara in tow. We miscalculated dinner time and had to stop at "Cheesy Janes" for a burger. Delicious, but not remotely close to the chicken and green veggies I had planned for home. I was still trying to make up for the back pack full of candy from the parade. Oh well.

THURS: We all went out in the boat in the morning. Drove all the way to the dam and went swimming off the boat. Gray didn't get in the water, but had a good time nonetheless. His first boat ride, and he promptly fell asleep in my lap on the way home (like his brothers before him.) I continued to work on the paneling and organized the big book shelves around the TV, and Brad and boys went swimming at the house.






FRI: Brad took Luke back to Sea World, just the two of them. Surprisingly, Luke didn't get a lot of say in the itinerary on Tuesday, so Brad wanted to take him back and let him choose what to do ALL DAY. I think they did the exact same things. Except they made it to the Pirate movie, which I'm pretty sure was Luke's only motivation for returning. I stayed home with the littles (Reid was well on his way to Ruidoso, having spent the previous night in Lovington), and finished up the walls and hanging of paintings and photos. I had picked up a few more of my grandmother's paintings when I was in SA (they've been in a tote at the Fite family office) and had also printed and framed some old family photos before we left. My uncle Eddie has been working on a massive remodel/update of the interior, and the house just needed a bit of tweaking to be fully put back together. It seems a bit homier with the photos, and reminds me of all the countless weekends we spent there as an extended family. For years and years, all 14 of us (grandparents, aunt, uncles, cousins) would spend 3 out of 4 weekends there during the summer. I had no idea at the time (what kid does?) of how blessed we were to have a place like that. Only now, with my boys, do I see how incredible it is.



SAT: My mom came back up Fri night to help us pack and clean, and spend a bit more time with the boys. We intended to start cleaning Fri night, but Brad worked on the boat trailer, and got heat exhaustion (AGAIN), so we laid on the couch and (surprise) watched yet another movie. We tried to get going quickly Sat morning, and sort of had a plan of action, but no matter how quickly you intend to get it done, it just takes a LONG LONG time to pack up those 15 totes and baskets and clean an entire house while trying to keep 3 little boys occupied enough that they're not un-doing all your packing/cleaning. We finally headed out at 4:15 and had an easy drive home. Which brings me full circle to the top of the post.

And now it's Sunday, and I should really stop blogging and start on those 8 loads of dirty dirty lake laundry.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

so....gray doesn't really like avocado.





but, the boys LOOOOOOOVE the tire swing. I mean, really, what else are you supposed to do when it's 106 outside?


jeff came over this morning to help out. perhaps he was alerted by brad that there was a scary, desperate tone to my voice. or perhaps he just wanted to dip his toes into the pool of chaos.

either way, I got everyone fed and down for naps and am renewed for the afternoon.
and the crabs survived another day.
and it rained for the second day in a row.


all of it manna from heaven.
OK - first post on the new blog. I so don't have time for a new project, but the purpose is to keep everyone updated on what's new around here, as well as to preserve the things that are somehow not being recorded in either baby books nor my memory.

So...IN REVIEW...


Reid spent last week in Fredericksburg with Freda (and with Ron for a few days.) He arrived home on Sunday with all sorts of creatures - cicadas, scorpions, a walking stick, a "bug board" (all previously mentioned creatures were alive, the bug board was not.) And, two fiddler crabs for pets.

Cole is talking much more in the past two weeks - probably a new word each day, but still relies heavily on his interesting brand of non-verbal communication. Unfortunatel
y, there are four people in the house who can mostly figure out what he wants, so he doesn't have much incentive to change his ways.

Gray is freaking out his mama. On Wed (Brad's birthday) he just up and crawled across the living room. He's been up on all fours for awhile, but hadn't actually crawled yet. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it. However, THREE days later, I did capture him doing this:



Now, he can't get enough of it - pulls up on everything in the living room. Horrifying. Need I remind everyone he's NOT EVEN 8 MONTHS OLD. And while he's clearly advanced on his gross motor skills, his eating habits are only slowly gaining. He's chomping on cheerios like a champ, but success with actual baby food is still elusive. Oh well, he's at least going three hours between nighttime feeding instead of two hours.



The biggest news (literally) arrived on Friday. We got a new tree from a nursery in houston, and Brad and some of his crew planted it on Saturday. By "crew", I obviously mean not only the work crew, but his little helpers as well. Luke is truly happiest when he's out working with the "guys". And he knows the difference between busy work and the real work - and he wants to get in there with the grown-ups. I think his favorite part is eating lunch on the grass with the crew and washing up with the hose, then getting back to work. And Cole seems to be following in his footsteps.

















After planting the tree and much trimming of the existing trees, they hung a new tire swing. The boys haven't gotten off of it since. An Brad and I haven't stopped admiring the new tree.














On Sunday, we had a birthday party for Grand Pink. Everyone wore pink, all the gifts were pink, the cake was pink, the lemonade was pink, and I think the guest of honor was tickled pink by the whole thing. Did I mention she turned 87!?! The boys helped blow out all those candles....














OK - that's it for today. Or should I say tomorrow. Considering it's 1:03am. Perhaps next week I'll write about my attempt at better time management.