Fun Times with Family

Dave's nephew, Scott, and his wife, Erica, and their kids, Braeden, 5, and Landon, 20 months, came for a long weekend.

On Friday we went to Kiddie Acres, or Creepy Acres as the locals call it, for some little kid fun. Last summer I took Connor and he hated it, but now he got on almost all the rides and keeps asking to go back.



Then on Sat. we went to the Dino Park and the Zoo. Dave had to get in on the fun.

The boys liked the park, but you couldn't really touch most of the dinos so that was a bummer. They really enjoyed the store most of all.


We had such a good time playing. The boys got alone very well. We can't wait to play again in Oct in the Adirondacks!

Evan had his 6 month appt on Mon. He was 20lbs 4 oz (90%) and 27 in (70%) and his head was only in the 60%! He sits alone and loves to watch Super Why with Connor and chew on the letters that Connor is trying to play with.

Connor wanted to help Daddy mow the lawn.

Evan is 6 Months Old!

Evan is soooo excited to be 6 months old today!!! He's discovered his tongue and sticks it out pretty much all the time.

I'm thinking that his eyes are going to be brown and his hair red...just like Mommy!

Connor LOVES to be outside. He's started hiding his dinosaurs in the bushes though so who knows if I'll ever find them all again! He's now addicted to a show called Super Why! (It comes on before Dinosaur Train...which he hasn't watched in afew days since discovering letters.) He is learning about fairytales and learning letters. He can say his ABC's from Q to Z and identify 5 or 6 letters so far. He now carries around letters instead of dinosaurs...it's pretty cool to see him so excited. He's also discovered that the letters have magnets and they stick to the fence so there are usually letters out in the yard too. They definitely keep things hopping around here!

BTW, have I mentioned that I've lost all but 7 lbs of all my pregnancy weight? I've lost 17lbs since Christmas and am closing in on my prepregnancy clothes...they fit but the belly is still a bit stretched out on me! Anyway, I'm taking a break from dieting right now but hope to get back on the wagon soon and lose these last few pounds and start to tone up! Yeah Me!

Also, Dave gave up drinking for Lent. It's been almost a month since he's had anything...he even made it through poker night and guys game night without giving in! He's going to indulge this weekend when his nephew Scott and his family come in, but I'm proud of him for making it this long.

Racing Day

We went to Toys R Us the other day and Connor found exactly what he was looking for! He was sooo happy to get to sit in the front seat and "drive." Dave tried to teach him to say "Escalade please Uncle Paul!"

I made a little reading corner for Connor. He thought it was a great idea.


Evan can sit unsupported for quite a while these days. He's also getting interested in toys. He's becoming a real baby and leaving the infant days behind. His eyes look like they are going brown so that will make two little brown eyed boys. His hair is brown but it definitely has some red highlights so we'll have to wait and see on that one.

The other day while Connor was playing out in the back yard, a little boy came by and challenged him to a race. It was really cute. Connor was just running his little heart out and the kid was beating him, badly, but he didn't care. He was having fun. So the next day any time anyone would walk by the yard he would "race" them. He was hysterical just running alongside the fence while the poor unsuspecting person just continued to walk. He came in the house, very proud of himself, and said, "I racing people!"

Connor has been working on the alphabet this week. He can identify A, C, O and T. He can sing the ABC song, but only from Q to Z. So we're still working on it.

Hair

We decided that we just had to cut Evan's hair. It was getting pretty long in the front. Connor didn't have his first haircut until 17 months...Evan at 5 months! Very different kids!

When I went in to get Connor this morning he said "Clean, clean." I wondered if he'd peed out or something. I noticed his hands were pretty dirty..then I found this gummy bear in his hair. He has been really into these fruit snacks lately. The original ones we found were bunnies so he calls them all bunnies. We have some Nemo and Cars "bunnies" too that he loves and likes to just carry around. Apparently he took one to bed last night. It took a lot of crying and olive oil, but I got it out in about 10 min. with minimal hair loss. Guess we need to start patting him down before putting him in bed.

Cookie "Monster" Fish

So we had high hopes that Cookie Monster Fish (a betta) would get along with other community fish. We read a lot of accounts on the internet that said people had successfully put their bettas in with other fish so we thought we'd give it a try. The boys and I went to Petco yesterday and got 5 neon tetras. Connor was very excited and ran around Petco like it was a playground, but settled right down when I told him he could "hold it" as he says. He did a good job and they all made it home alive!

I floated the bag in the tank to let the water adjust and this was when I got my first glimpse of what was to come....Cookie Monster Fish spent the entire time circling the bag. I put them in and he went after a couple of them but didn't really get too close. So I thought maybe he was just curious....yeah, curious about how they tasted. I didn't have class so I went to Starbucks to do some work. When I got home I could only find 4 of them. Then I found the fifth one stuck to the filter breathing hard. I got Dave and he got him off the filter. He kind of started to swim a little so we just stood there and watched. That's when Cookie Monster swooped in and grabbed him by the tail and started swimming off with him. I, of course, started screaming, "Get him out!" Dave got him and he was dying. We noticed his tail fin had been chewed on, but we weren't sure if Cookie Monster had done that or he was just being opportunistic with a slower fish. We mixed the poor little neon a little vodka drink and sent him on his way.

This morning we got our answer. Two more neons were dead...one with a chewed fin again and one that looked a bit rougher. So we put Cookie Monster Fish in a different bowl and went back to Petco as soon as it opened. We got 5 more neons and a new tank for Cookie Monster Fish. I put Cookie Monster Fish's tank on the fireplace so Connor could see it better, but that also means that he can mess with it constantly. I'm hoping that he gets it out of his system and starts leaving it alone or I'll have to move it. (I think he just broke the light...crap!) One of Connor's little friend's Sawyer was here today and when he went to look at Cookie Monster Fish, Connor pushed him away. (I'm thinking maybe being a bully is a learned behavior from your fish.) There were lots of tears and time-outs while Sawyer was here because Connor was not up for sharing his fish!

Better go save Cookie Monster Fish from Connor!

Update: Apparently Cookie Monster Fish was just being opportunistic. We lost all 5 new neons last night. They are getting sucked into the filter. Maybe the water isn't quite right for them yet or their just too little. I think we'll go with bigger fish next trip.

Lately

Last weekend the boys and I went to Ft. Worth to visit my friend Amanda. We had such a great time playing that we forgot to take pictures. Then on Monday, Aunt Lydia arrived in Dallas for a week long conference. We got to stay with her in her hotel room and got to see cousin Lisa and Charlie for dinner. It was a lot of fun, but lots of work for a lone Mommy!

I got Evan some teething cookies and he LOVED them. He kept crying when it would fall out of his hand. He's not quite coordinated enough to get it in his mouth 100% of the time so when it would fall he'd suck what was left off his fingers. Guess we'll be using more of those.

Connor eating his lunch on a dinosaur plate. He has been living outside with the weather being a bit warmer. It's supposed to rain the next few days and it's not going to be pretty. He may escape out the dog door and go play in the rain anyway.

We decided it was time for a pet fish. This is Cookie Monster Fish. We had a few arguments about the fact that you can't HOLD a fish. Hopefully we can keep Cookie Monster Fish safe from the 2 yr old.

We wanted to get a couple of fish and they recommended that you have 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. So with those little starter tanks you can only really have one fish. So we got a starter 10 gallon tank. We are letting the water get clean and settled and then we'll move Cookie Monster Fish and try to find some friends for him (that he hopefully won't kill). Evan and Connor both are loving the aquarium already and at the store last night they were very into looking at the fish. We'll have to find time to go back to Dallas to the Aquarium some time soon.