A Boy and His Toys

Seth got home earlier than usual yesterday and entertained Brooks downstairs while I got ready for a "book and dessert party" I was hosting last night. I checked on them at one point and found B plopped right in the middle of all the stuff that had been stacked together to clear the floor for vacuuming:

I'm just now noticing the box of markers. Hmmmm. Not sure how that made its way to the play area!!

The Power to Silence

Kathy and Joel came over for dinner last night and they worked their magic on the B-man. I was busy scurrying around the kitchen like a wild woman but I could tell from my place at the stove that something weird was going on in the living room. Apparently Brooks was simply transfixed by Kathy especially, and was just sitting there staring at her in wonder. Of course, some of the silence also might have been due to this:

Yay for fake aunties and uncles!

Baths, Birthday Boy, and Bargains!

The weekend is not even half over and already there's been SO much excitement!!

Bath time is a whole new world for the B-man now that he can just crawl around the big tub:

Since B cleaned up last night in the tub, he was allowed entry into Ethan's first birthday party. The man of honor demonstrates the proper way to wear a birthday hat:

Brooks had to try it, too:

And even Miss Molly got in on the fun:

We returned home to discover that Seth's team won its game 21-7 against a pretty tough opponent so hooray for that! I daresay even BIGGER hoorays are in order, however, for the bounty B and I scored at a consignment sale that a moms group from a neighboring town held this morning:

Just to be clear, we snagged a push mower, an upright sports activity center with bat&ball, electronic basketball hoop, and some sort of football thingy, a piano-ish electronic toy, a large set of wooden alphabet blocks, a Little People bus, a boat with mega blocks, 2 winter sweaters, a quilted corduroy coat, pair of sweatpants, pair of khakis still with tags, and 2 long-sleeved onesies. Brace yourself, friends, because I--the direct descendant of Sheils the amazing sales-shopper--scored all of this for only $35 total!!!!

(Drew-TOTALLY got this posted before your 3 pm deadline!!!)

Works of Art

No, we haven't drifted off to sleep while smiling.... we're showing off our Mary Kay "facial pampering"!!


Soft-focus (fine, blurry!) to show off our fresh faces:

Brooks felt left out so I tried to put some color on him:

Apparently he prefers to be au natural. Now if only he could find the missing cheerio:

B asserting his good looks (and winning personality) after the humiliation finally ended:

Sigh.

What do you think? Time to graduate to the real tub?

PS-- This double-post better quiet the person out there who always nags me. You know who you are (cough, boss lady, cough)!

Of Barns and Bakeries

Now that B is crawling everywhere and prefers climbing up on any object (or person) rather than "playing" with his stuff, it was time to shake things up a bit. We had received a fun IKEA barnyard set when he was born and it's been living on the closet shelf waiting to be put together. Yesterday was the day:

Of course, he only looked at everything since the poor animals are too small to be climbed upon so we'll have to keep working on barnyard appreciation...

After he refused to take a nap because standing up in the crib and gnawing on the rail is far too much fun, we met Brenna/Amedeo and Marilou/Jean-Marie (not pictured) at a bakery for late morning treats:

The place is locally owned and very kid-friendly with bins of toys in the back room:

After that, Kathy came and met Brooks and me since she works just down the street, and we spent her lunch break checking out some nearby shops. Didn't get out the camera since I was toting around B in the sling and trying to keep him from drooling all the way through it, but we had a fabulous time!

Take a Look; It's in a Book

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful public library system with a lot of programming for children. Brooks called around and found some friends to come with us yesterday to "Play Partners", a short program for babies and toddlers that includes stories, songs, and general play time.

B can't stop checking out the other kiddies while the librarian starts the storytelling with her velcro stick-people:

Andreas, Brooks, and Jack demonstrate the art of shaking (er, chewing on) the noisemaker:

Not sure where B's shaker thing went but he's certainly eyeing Andreas's:

Ball pits are FUN!

Back to Work!

While B works hard on his newsletter for the infant set, I, too, have been given an opportunity to stay connected and earn a few sheckles. My former employer has rehired me on a part-time basis to help support a reading intervention program that is implemented in several local states. Basically, the full-time implementation managers do not have the time to analyze weekly online reports that the teachers submit, so they've hired me to keep up with those, and I'll also be doing some assorted spreadsheet projects that everyone but me seems to loathe! I'm thrilled because it's work that can be done solely from my couch with my laptop AND it can be done at any hour of the day/night. The one part that's really going to be tricky to manage, however, is dealing with the person to whom I have to report:

I know...it's going to be ROUGH!

PS-- Happy birthday, Big D!

Talk About Advanced!

Even though Seth's dad is a Texan through and through, he swears that the cheese enchiladas at a local restaurant here are the best he's ever had. They're made with oaxaca cheese and a verde sauce, and are quite delish. After our requisite dinner there Saturday evening on the final night of Big D's trip, I talked the boys into making a pass through the nearby Tuesday Morning store. We did not leave empty-handed due to PawPaw's generosity...

So yesterday morning, Brooksie first played some tunes on his new xylophone:

And then he set about making words with his new blocks:

(We all kinda realized at the same time that, bargain or not, the foam blocks were made in China and may or may not be death traps. Perhaps we will save the word-making until a later stage when objects are less apt to be chewed upon!)

A little later in the day, "Old Friend Weekend" continued with the chance to visit with my dear friend, Shana. She and I met at "Nerd Camp" in the summer of 1993 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and have kept in touch ever since. (We were pen pals back in the day of actual pen pals-- none of this electronic stuff!) She trekked all the way down to Waco to come to our wedding and I was thrilled to be able to go to hers in New Jersey a few years ago. She was in the area this weekend for a football game and carved out some time to catch up and meet Mr. Brooks:

Putting aside for a moment that my child can already play a musical instrument and spell 3-syllable words, the real ADVANCED "kid" on this day would be DOCTOR Shana! I always knew we'd see great things from the 13-year old curly-haired dancer who humored my affection for pigs all those years ago! Congrats to Shana on recently finishing a PhD in political science at Princeton!!

Go Greek!

After a rousing 40-0 victory yesterday morning, Seth finished up his coaching duties in a rapid manner and was able to meet us for a scrumptious Greek lunch!

While we enjoyed our gyro and souvlaki platters, B couldn't get enough of drinking water from a glass!

Future BFFs

What a treat to see the Brackins today! Karen and I grew up together, were in each other's weddings (3 weeks apart), and continually shock our husbands with how similar we are! (Well, at least my husband. Guess I can't speak for Warren!) Little Judah arrived just about a year before Brooks made his debut so we look forward to a lifetime of friendship for these two. Now, if only we could figure out a way to be neighbors... in the meantime, we are so appreciative for visits like this one, as they traveled from NJ to a wedding in DC.

Judah shows Brooks the best way to get all the animals to pop up:

Mamas and sons:

A Day Where Dreams Came True

Hooray! Grand Big Daddy (AKA PawPaw) has arrived! He immediately got down to the business of teaching Brooks the fundamentals of baseball.

Here, we see a tutorial on line drives:

And here, we have B practicing his walking so he can round the bases more quickly:

Can you see the brand name on the paper towels? Yes, my friends, yesterday was a day even bigger than just Big D's arrival. It was also his FIRST TRIP TO WEGMANS!! We picked him up at the airport and immediately drove to Wegs so he could have all his dreams come true. And thank goodness Fake Auntie Chisty asked us to buy paper towels for her, because this package is so much cheaper than buying a real "walker"! Brooks pushed the towels across the room back and forth several times...3 cheers for utilizing household items to get the job done! (I'd insert a picture here of Seth's homemade baby gate made from cardboard, duct tape, and bungee cords, but we'll keep that one a mystery!)

We Interrupt this Thursday for an Important Birthday Announcement

It has just come to my attention that Sara's birthday was not the only one I should have been celebrating on Tuesday. Dear Uncle T-Dawg, or Tom as most call him, also had a big day. Since Tom is one of the spring chickens in our church friend group, let's pretend he's turning 5 years old (since it feels like that sometimes...JUST KIDDING!) so we can do THE FIVE THINGS WE LIKE ABOUT TOM:

1. He works the chains at football games like no other.
2. He can give a synopsis of any West Wing episode based solely on the title.
3. He takes his Virginia Tech hokie-ness and Baltimore Oriole fandom VERY seriously.
4. He is a fabulous husband to Amy.
5. He is super fun to play games with since he's not competitive at all.

....

Oh, sorry. I'm still keeled over laughing about that last one. HAPPY (LATE) BIRTHDAY, TOM!

Hmmm.....

So this is new.

Apparently, removing shorts and socks lightens the body enough to make it up one stair:

Think I can train him to go fetch me snacks when I'm watching TV?

Kitchen Entertainment

First it was the bouncy chair. Then the exersaucer. Now.....tupperware-tossing and can-rolling! I rather miss the days of yore where we could contain him when doing kitchen tasks, but I'll happily keep rearranging my open spaces so that there are items suitable for providing entertainment even for a few minutes!

The fun begins:

It is a far-flung game:

And Brooksie always wins!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT SARA!!!

After trying in vain to construct a Photoshop masterpiece of my sweet sister-in-law with a bowl of queso and a birthday candle (neither of which I had actual pics of!), I have sadly given up. That does not make our birthday wishes for Sara ANY smaller, however!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

In other news.........well, there really isn't much. B is a bit sniffly this morning so I think we'll be spending a day at home instead of gathering with our mom and baby friends. Very sad. Here's what happened when I gave him the bad news:

Birthday Celebration, Aisle H-4

When I was in high school, there was a weekly feature in our local paper spotlighting a teen in the area. At some point, they must have realized their quota of nerdy types was a little low so they came to my house. The article turned out fine but I'm thinking the reporter got behind on deadline and couldn't follow-through on any kind of story arc, because the last line read something like, "Emily is looking forward to the senior class trip to Darien Lake!" My (alleged) supreme interest in the regional amusement park summed up the entire story about my hopes and dreams. Nice.

Along those same lines, I will say for Brooks on this day, his 8-month birthday, that "he is looking forward to a trip to Target!" Because, quite frankly, that's probably what we'll do today. Sure, this past month he started sitting up on his own, kneeling, pulling up to standing, and crawling, but really, he's just excited about going to Target.

Maybe I should put pajamas on the shopping list? Here's what he slept in last night:

Look familiar? This was 5 months ago:

Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? The skinniness certainly helps!

PS-- Happy 8-month birthday to Cady and Jillian, too!

We Love the Running Clock!

After an afternoon spent watching the rain yesterday...

The sun came out this morning and it was time for some FOOTBALL:

A little bit of background for anyone who's unsure of the details: Seth is the head JV coach at a large school that, while admittedly is outside Texas and its football world, does take its football pretty seriously. The varsity team has played in the state championship game 2 of the last 3 years. Seth's JV games are Saturdays at 10 AM and have become quite the autumn weekend tradition. I wasn't really sure how the little guy would do (and it was SO sunny and hot on the aluminum benches this morning!) but he did pretty well:

David and Alison came all the way from DC to support the Warriors:

Some of our church cronies (Tom, Ben, and Eric) worked as the chain gang, posing here after the game with Fake Auntie Chisty:

The Kento Bean boys celebrate a 41-0 victory!! The clock starts running at a 35-point difference-- whew! Thank goodness (says the coach's wife who was sweltering and still can't really ever find the ball on the field...)

Messy. And a Bit Icky. But Lots of Love!

I woke up in the middle of the night Wednesday incredibly congested and, while medicine helped, yesterday was still a bit rough. Fittingly, my darling child decided it would be a great day to start grabbing at his food and the spoon. (Or he's just revolting against veggies which is not cool, either!!)

So this was the morning:

And this, the afternoon:

After I (sorta) got him cleaned up, he entertained himself with the soup cans he pulled off the shelf (Progresso, call me!! I know a model for your next ad campaign):

Apart from a morning walk, I decided I just didn't even want to leave the house. So I embarked on a long course of hand-washing so I could make my first pizza completely from scratch. The yeast I had was "best by" a couple of months ago, but it all worked out to be quite tasty:

Lots of loyal readers played a part in the events described above, so here are some SHOUT-OUTS for the day:

• Jen S. for being my walking partner
• AKH for providing B's second shirt of the day
• Karen I. for providing the tasty prosciutto and provolone I put on the pizza
• Floridians Sylvia and Fred for the pizza stone (loving it for the last 7 years!)
• Polly and Emily2 for separate offers of chicken noodle soup! And Lindsey and Christy for offers to take care of me! And Rosemond for leaving me a "get well" Facebook message!

I feel loved!! And, hopefully, so does the Brookster!!! (Now, if only he would stop grabbing the spoon.....!!!)