Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Little Rock Air Show








One of the few redeeming qualities of our current location is that there was an Airshow this weekend and the US Navy Blue Angels were in town. I’ve always loved watching them perform and would drag whoever I could up to Beaufort, SC when we were in GA. We took the boys, of course and they had an absolute ball. (We must apologize to Nick for his unfortunate sunburn – still not sure how it got as bad as it did…)

The US Army Golden Knights kicked off the show. Later, Jake got to meet each one of them and Matt & I were SO impressed with their PR skills. Even though he’s at LEAST 16 years from any sort of military service, they each squatted down to be at Jake’s level, talked to him about his Cookie Monster Sweatshirt, or the planes and even asked him to say parachute, which he did, while they each signed his picture. Matt & I were attired in our UT shirts, so the Golden Knights (including a FEMALE!) had no idea that Matt was active duty, much less a Major. Save for the Blue Angels, that might have been the highlight of my day.

Jake got to go into all kinds of airplanes (stairs made it tough to take Nick in all of them) and he got to sit in a Huey. He was horribly disappointed when he couldn’t RIDE in the airplanes. He had a great time watching the Blue Angels (after a quick snooze) and could even point out their tail numbers for us.

It was a long day – but the sky was beautiful. (If you’re interested, I have about 100 pics of the clear blue sky trying to catch the Blue Angels with my camera). We had a great time – and had a pseudo picnic under the wing of a C130.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Nap time or Art time?




So, I went to pick Jake up from school on Friday (Nick, too, of course). They were outside playing. As I looked at him through the door, I noticed something on his face. The closer I got, the more it became clear that it was marker in a "U" shape right above his nose. That's wierd, I thought. One of his teachers came up to me as soon as she saw me and explained that Jake decided to use a permanent marker and have arts and crafts time instead of nap time. he colored his arms, his jeans, his face - as well as the floor, his cot, etc. He's something!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

What a day...

Jake has gratefully been doing better at daycare - running to play in the morning instead of crying and clinging (history says this will happen until he gets sick again - then the clingy starts over...). His wonderful teacher has been working with him on potty training. About 1/2 the time, he's had an (as in ONE) accident all day - for clarity's sake - that's one accident at school (home = another story entirely). Pretty good, I'd say. Today, she says it's time to start sending him to school in his undies - no more pull-ups. My insides say NOOOOOOO - not all those messes!

I buck up and decide today is the day - we're keeping the undies going. I set the timer for 30 mins to remind us both. At 15 mins - he wets himself. We get changed and before the timer that I didn't reset can go off, he goes again. I'll spare the details - suffice it to say, I had enough clothes to run another load of laundry - and had to because we'd used up ALL the undies at home. All in less than TWO hours...

in between the every 15 min mopping (luckily, we were in the kitchen the whole time or I might be writing from the nut house...) Nick is teething and having a hard time. I managed to get a dose of tylenol in that poor guy, some cherrios and a bottle. Then the glass repair guy came to fix my windshield...

We were all glad to see Daddy get home. We sat down to dinner, quite late due to our distractions. Matt corrected Jake with something at the table. Jake proceeded to tell Daddy "NO Daddy!" Matt said, "don't tell Daddy NO" not the first time Jake has heard that. I thought to myself - we're gonna hear that again some day.

Sure enough, I moved on to get the tired sore Nick ready for bed. As I'm sitting in the living room putting Nick down with a bottle, I heard Matt tell Jake no for something and then that sweet little voice said "Don't tell me NO, Daddy" - I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. Thankfully Jake couldn't see me...

How fast they learn!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Pumpkin Patch Fun
















Today we got to go the "local" pumpkin patch. We got to go on a tractor hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where Jake & Nick picked out some really nice pumpkins. Jake got to ride a horse for the first time and play on all kinds of slides. It was a great day out and it was a lot of fun!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Nick





Nick is as cute is ever...and his personality is coming out so is his TEMPER. He doesn't think much of it when you take something he has (and is not supposed to). He's also not amused when Jake takes toys that Nick had. Here are some shots of our happy Nick.


Handy Manny







Jake is a Handy Manny Freak. Thanks to the DVR, we can watch it almost endlessly all day long - although, Mom has recently started engaging the kids and turning of the TV more often.




Nana saved the day recently when Jake's shoes started getting too small and we couldn't find new Elmo shoes. She found Handy Manny shoes AND Handy Manny boots! It made Jake's Day! Nana & Bapaw also sent other goodies - which Jake claimed as "MINE". Poor Nick! :)

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Just some randoms...









I know it's been a while since I updated. Hope you enjoy some random shots from the last couple of weeks. Note Jake's haircut - we got it cut last weekend and he was such a big boy sitting in the chair by himself. As usual, he was a hit with the ladies who fought over who would cut his hair - he was sitting so still unless he lost his hands in the drape!

Brotherly Playtime









Sometimes, just sometimes, Jake & Nick can play together and have a good time without Jake taking Nick down by the throat or Nick stealing Jake's paci or cup or toy. And those times are FABULOUS!

The Trike Saga




So, Jake loves his trike. He just doesn't have enough height to pedal - he needs just a littttle bit more. So, Mommy & Daddy made a trek to Walmart in search of inspiration for pedal heighteners. After all, where else can you go with SO many choices? Someone should really invent such a thing. Matt & I wandered through the toy section, the hardware section, housewares...and I found paint rollers. I hear you laughing - but how perfect!? Matt got 2 pairs - to balance the pedals. How to attach them, you ask? Why duct tape, of course. What with color choices and all! Jake chose black. You can see Daddy & Jake rigging the trike...Jake did a lot of supervising.


As it turns out...still not quite enough. His feet kept falling off the pedals. So, we tried zip ties - no luck. So we tried elastic (good thing Mom took up sewing...). Nothing worked...he really just needs to get the theory of pedaling and then he'll be good to go!