october visitors, part one...

hello. seven thousand years ago, when it was still october, we had a lot of visitors. three weekends in a row of visitors!! we had a great time with everyone (whether our behavior seemed to indicated that the whole time or not...) and we have been so busy before (cleaning) and after (recovering!) that we're just now getting around to a blog update. here's the first of a few that will come (hopefully) soon.

the first picture above is of me and beamee at a pumpkin patch we visited while she and grampee were here. that place was a lot of fun!

we rode rides and played around on their stuff. this is an awesome swing thing that we really want daddy to build for the backyard. don't you agree? :)

this next picture is a funny one because you can see beamee (fallen over) and mom (bohiny view, sorry mom!) inside a rolling tunnel thing. and then if you look at the end of the tunnel, you will notice me and luke, looking on in amazement and wonder at what on earth those two are doing. they were a big fan of this thing. luke and i, on the other hand, were not. go figure!

luke loved all the animals there, and spent a lot of time watching the goats. aunt mandy would have liked this part!!

and i got to ride a horse (okay, a pony) for the first time ever! this was a really neat experience...

i really enjoyed it but i honestly wondered out loud to mom (during my ride, no less) why there weren't buckles or seat belts for these things. she wondered out loud what kind of kid asks for a seat belt on a horse! safety first, mom!

after the ride, i wanted to look at my horse for a long time. look at those eyelashes!

cute picture of luke and daddy watching me ride...

there were ducks and geese in a pond and we had a lot of fun watching and playing with them. they even honked at us!

we had a great visit with them and then just a couple days ago this funny thing happened. momma was playing Mount Vernon Bells at the piano, and there was a picture of George Washington (partially covered by a sticker from when she took lessons 90 million years ago).

luke was listening and looking at her music book. he climbed up the piano bench and then up onto the piano (that silly boy!) and pointed right at George's face and excitedly said, "Grampee!" isn't that the funniest thing ever?!? of course he says it more like "bempee" but momma knew exactly what he was saying and almost fell on the floor laughing. so, we miss you grampee and beamee. can't wait to see you again soon. :)

okay, stay tuned next time for pictures from our other visitor visits, and other happenings around here. bye! :)

september catch-up...

hi there! how's it blowin'?

i've really been into being a superhero lately (again). i still don't really get what a superhero is because i don't watch any shows about them, but momma dubbed me "nearly-naked man" and my special talent is... well, that's still to be determined, but i know that i won't need any special outfit to accomplish it - just my cape and some clean underwear. i do get bloody noses a lot and i now see that the kleenex hanging out of my nose does take away from my superhero-ness a bit, doesn't it? i'll have to remember that next time.

moving on...

luke is just growing up so fast and really thinks he's such a big boy now! here he is the other day at the table. he had been waiting patiently in his chair until lunch was ready, but then realized he could just barely reach the bowl of grapes, which he inched over to himself and started munching on - hilarious!

and we've been hearing a lot of comments lately about how luke has slimmed down quite a bit. momma is not yet ready to part with her chubby baby and wanted to show everyone that this really isn't true after all. well, he maybe has slimmed down some, but there's still plenty of chub left to get some lovin' on... (sorry luke - i know this will be embarrassing to you when you're older. we'll have to take this post down when you're a tween.)

a few weeks ago we went to hang out with our cousins and friends from the houston area and had a great time driving around their power wheels tractors. we are definitely going to need a couple of these at our house!!!

i drove around the single passenger one most of the time, but our friend, dean, drove luke around in the double! check out how we all had our texans shirts on that day - cute! and they had the greatest backyard ever!

i also have been going to a gym once a week for tumbling, which for me means jumping around on their bouncy floors, jumping around on their trampolines, swinging on their bars, and occasionally following my teacher's instructions, if i'm interested in what she's asking me to do. i love it!! this is not really a good picture at all, but momma wanted to put one of the gym on here so lauren could see it and remember her awesome gymnastics days and be excited that i'm going to a neat gym too!

the other day we went to target and had a special treat of eating junior mints in the (ridiculously huge children's) cart while momma shopped. this picture doesn't do it justice, but luke started eating his toes in conjunction with the junior mints and that made for a very hilarious (and chocolaty!) situation. but really, what can ya do?

we also had the recent pleasure of visiting the houston zoo on one of daddy's fridays off - yes! we had a great time. actually, it was more like this. luke had a super awesome time watching the animals and could have stayed at each exhibit all day. i loved seeing all the animals, but only for approximately 15 seconds each. i spent the rest of the day pushing around our empty double stroller and asking about snacks. we didn't get great pictures because momma was loving the animal-watching too, but here are a couple...

after the zoo, we did an awesome bonus activity - we rode the train right next door at hermann park, and let me tell you - this, i loved!! i could have stayed on this train all day. it had a real, working crossbar, bridges, a whistle, a conductor - it was perfect! it made my day.

momma even bought me this awesome conductor's hat and wooden whistle, and then the next day we found these overalls at target - meant to be!!! i love my outfit and now split my time between being a superhero and being a train conductor. it's busy being me, but somebody's gotta do it...

in conclusion, momma didn't get to plant her vegetable garden like she had wanted to this fall, but it turns out that we do have some beans plants growing right next to the back patio. i had been playing with dried pinto beans in a "sensory box" this summer, and there was a spillage incident a few weeks ago that resulted in us being farmers. by the time this post will go live, i regret to report that the plants have already died, but they did last a couple weeks and it was fun to watch them grow.

that's all for now. OH - except to update that luke is doing much better now! we're not sure exactly what was going on with him, but he no longer looks like an alien and has mostly stopped scratching, so things are getting back to normal around here. see you back here (relatively) soon with some pictures from our october so far. bye!! :)

help...

grampee, is there a test for this?