Catching UP

Below are some pictures from our trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Stewart in Florida and some highlights from this weekend:

• Dave took the boys for a long walk for some "daddy" time.
• We attended a fun Fall Festival at a church near our house Saturday night. Wesley was a brown bear who doesn't like his hood and Daniel was a train engineer.
• We went to the Titans game today courtesy of GS&P and some clients who backed out at the last minute. It was Daniel's first NFL game and he loved it.
• We hosted our community group costume party tonight and had chili and a group picture with no tears this year. Daniel was Spiderman tonight.

October- Florida and Home

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The "crack" berry has come to live at our house. More specifically, on Dave's belt. So far it's been most useful in looking up Spiderman pictures to show Daniel.

I guess this means I'll be able to get info to Dave a little faster when he is locked in meetings. "Send help- I'm buried in dirty diapers". Or Dave can stay hip and update on his Facebook page. He's already checked it.

Still working on those Florida pictures.... it's been a crazy week with Dave working late every night. We've had lots of people over too and several morning playdates. Last night after some friends left, Daniel asked, "Who's coming next?" The party never ends over here.

Today at Bible study Daniel learned about Joesph and his relationship with his father Jacob. We were re-capping today and I told Daniel he was my son. "No", he said, "I'm daddy's son". He can't handle complex relationship issues yet. It will probably blow his mind when we tell him that we're married.

Shhhh!

It's 7:45 am and two little boys are still asleep. Wow.... It's a new record for Wesley who has only slept past 7:00 maybe 5 times. I think I might be in the wrong house....

Coming soon... pictures from Florida...

Now (Not Yet) Boarding

I promised some of you a recap of our flights yesterday since Southwest is not pre-boarding families any more. Well, they are boarding them after "A" group and before "B" group if you call that pre-boarding. You can still board with "A" if you get an "A" boarding pass online and wait in line with everyone else. Which is what we did yesterday. We did get quite a few comments from others while we stood in the "A" line for about 30 minutes. A lot of people were not aware of the change and looked at us like we were crazy. The people who were aware of the change offered their sympathies.

The only reason we were in the "A" line yesterday is because we had to make a 25 minute connection to our 2nd flight (which turned out to be more like 5 minutes). Otherwise we would have followed the new boarding policy, because I don't think it will be that bad. Families who did board between "A" and "B" did find seats together, they just needed to go about 1/2 way back on the plane. If you are traveling with a lap infant, technically you are not allowed to check in online but I did anyway in hopes they would honor my "A" pass even though they had to cancel it to add Wesley to the ticket. Since Dave had an "A", they let us all get on together.

I completely understand Southwest's rationale that families with kids do tend to hold up their best customers (business people) when it comes time to depart the plane. And we don't take carseats on planes, but those who do will be severely inconvienced by dragging it down the aisle. When we leave, now my stroller will be waiting for us when we get to the jetway instead of me waiting on it. And I think it's funny that lady with a crying baby can now choose to sit by someone who would have been able to avoid her before under the old boarding system. It's not going to stop me from flying Southwest, although it is a painful adjustment if you are used to being first on the plane or you suffer anxiety over whether or not you might have to sit apart from your toddler on the plane (most people will move to create seats for you rather then have to babysit your toddler).

The other thing- last trip I got in "trouble" at security for not "declaring" my baby food as it went through the x-ray machine so this time I announced items rather loudly - "This bag contains applesauce and other baby food!!" and the guy looked at me like I was NUTS. It is kind of funny. I did manage to sneak through a small plastic knife to cut Wesley's cheese and banana. What else am I supposed to do, cut it with my teeth?

We'll see how it goes on the trip home.... and so far we only have one more airline trip planned for this year. Then maybe we'll take another long break from the air and stick to the road which presents different yet more simple challenges....

More Freedom for Wesley (Me)!

Late last week, Wesley finally started getting some food into his mouth (along with most of his hand). This has changed the dynamics of feeding - now I can let him happily shove Cheerios and Kix in his mouth while I make dinner, fold clothes, clean the kitchen, etc. Last night we ate out at Logans and it was a pleasant experience because he could people watch and eat pieces of a dinner roll. It's a little harder to get him to feed himself vegetables, cheese and fruit pieces but we are working on that.

Wesley is also walking around about 50% of the time and is so proud of himself. I spent several days last week unsuccessfully looking for our size 5 shoes (I found size 4 and 6) in our clothes bins. I finally gave up and bought some very nice Stride Rites and Nikes at the thrift store (which are far better than what we had before). Then last night I found all of the size 5's. Now Wesley has quite the shoe collection. Don't even get me started about how many clothes he has. I am a little bit of a clothes horse for the boys, but I realize it stems from some of my childhood clothes issues- that is a whole 'nother blog I don't have time for right now.

On another note, Wesley is now taking a bottle 100% of the time so I have been freed from another responsibility and we are all happy about it (yes, even Daniel because now I can pay more attention to him). I'm having a little nursing bra burning party over here later on....

Daniel wore his $1 yard sale Spiderman costume every day last week but today it's in the laundry so maybe we can take a break! This is the same boy who was scared of another boy dressed like Spiderman at Chick Fil A two months ago. It remains to be seen if he is ready to be Spiderman at Halloween. We have an alternate non-threatening costume ready just in case.

Today I must go do all the laundry, make a meal for someone, get Daniel's hair cut, start packing for a trip, go to the bank, clip coupons, try to take a shower. You know, the usual.

The Pumpkin Farm

We made it to the Pumpkin Farm yesterday. We got tired of waiting for the temperature to drop below 90, so we gave up and sweated it out. It was a lot of fun, here some pictures (click on the picture to see the whole album) to prove it:

A Hot Fall

Yesterday was also the neighborhood yard sale, which is always lots of fun. Daniel and Wesley netted a few new toys, including a "cool" fire truck that shoots balls. Dave and I also had an impromptu dinner date last night thanks to Grammy and PaPa. Today Dave is at the Titans game (enjoying the heat I'm sure) and I am trying to get ready for our community group tonight. We are reading "For Women Only" and "For Men Only" by Shaunti Feldman, which addresses issues that help you understand the opposite sex better, based on survey results. Dave is quite surprised the men's book is so small.

This week is Moms Together so I am preparing to feed the 170 hungry women (don't worry, I have lots of help). And I did find my "to do" list book so now I actually have to do those things I had written down. Rats.

Maybe next week it will cool off so we don't feel like we live in Arizona or Florida!! This morning I wore flip flops to church, realized it was October, then looked around and I didn't see any women who were not wearing flip flops! Happy Fall!!

Boo and Run

We've been hit with the "Boo Treats" by our next door neighbors. I know it was them because one of them was babysitting for us Sunday night and told me they were about to start the festivities. If you don't know what this is, you leave an anonymous basket of halloween goodies on your neighbor's doorstep with a note telling them they must pay it forward. Daniel was very excited and loved the cookies. Now I just have to deem who is worthy of our treats- you can probably guess it won't be the deer killers behind us, Isis the coupon police at Publix, or the used car lot next door. Yes, there are plenty of other neighbors I do like.

Wesley is taking 2-3 steps on his own when he's in a good mood. Which is not often since he has decided he only wants to take 45 minute afternoon naps. This does not make me very happy, since that gives me 30 minutes of quiet time each day to accomplish 2-3 hours worth of work. But I am happy he is going to be an early walker and perhaps he can wander around and disrupt things instead of crawling and whining whenever he realizes he is alone in a room.

I am enjoying the quiet right now since they are both at Mother's Day Out and I have cleaned the kitchen floor thoroughly for the first time in months (usually they both like to skate on the wet floor and it leaves these lovely streaks...). I'm not a super clean freak, but I really prefer to scrub my floor on my hands and knees once in a while so I can get a close look and see the shine. Sweet Dave says about my cleaning: "I don't really notice when things aren't clean, but I can tell when you have cleaned and it looks nice".

We hope to head to the pumpkin farm this weekend so we'll post some new pictures soon!

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