New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve!

This morning the Circle C Moms group was meeting at Going Bananas, an indoor play area for kids. Marilyn/Grandmom, Evan, Noah, and I got there around 11am. Going Bananas has lots of those inflatable moon bouncers. Evan wanted nothing to do with them. I’m not sure why. I went with him on a Nemo one and I held his hand and jumped a little, but when I stopped he was ready to get off. He went one time on the slide one. He climbed up the ladder, but whined at the top for a while. I don’t think adults were allowed on that one, so there wasn’t much I could do. Eventually, he slid down and seemed to like it, but didn’t want to go again. They had some play houses and other things that weren’t inflated, so Evan spent most of his time with those. They also had a little baby area that Noah enjoyed. At 12 noon we met the other moms for a New Year’s countdown with party blowers and everything. Since most of the kids wouldn’t be up at midnight, they did a 12:00 noon countdown.

After Going Bananas we picked Morry up at work and ate lunch at Wendy’s.

Morry and I are going out tonight for dinner and Marilyn will babysit the boys. Depending on how the night is going we might try and stop by Mike and Melissa’s party also.

Have a Happy New Year!

Airport

This morning we took a walk again. This time I didn’t take them to the school because it was too hard on me last time to chase Evan around holding Noah and Lizzy. We walked over to the fire station and Evan was very excited that the fire truck was out. We looked at it from a distance for a few minutes.

When we came home I made a smoothie for Evan. That’s about all he would eat for lunch.

Evan and Noah went down for naps around 1:30 and they both slept pretty well.

Marilyn/Grandmom’s plane was scheduled to come in at 7:30pm. We left the house around 7:00 and as we were driving through the entrance to the airport when Marilyn called and said she was at baggage claim and ready. We could have just driven up and picked her up outside, but Evan would have been devastated if we didn’t go in. He was so excited to go to the airport. So, we parked and walked in. As soon as Evan saw Marilyn he ran up to her and jumped in her arms.

We went to Hyde Park for dinner and ran into Myles and Deborah there. We were able to eat pretty quickly and Evan and Noah were good throughout dinner.

They are in bed now. Let’s hope they sleep through the night. Last night Noah got up at 5am and I had to go in his room for a while to get him back to sleep.

Middle of the night crying and morning tantrums

Evan woke up around 1am last night and I had to go calm him down and put a different CD in his player. Then, Noah was crying around 4am. I changed him, and gave him gas drops. We thought maybe his stomach was bothering him. I tried rocking him but he was very active and didn’t want to stay in the chair. I let him crawl around his room a little bit and then I noticed he was acting tired again. I put Noah down in the crib and fell back asleep pretty easily.

This morning Evan and Noah were very difficult. Evan would not get dressed and then didn’t want to come downstairs. I left Evan upstairs while I brought Noah down and got Evan’s breakfast and Noah’s bottle ready. Then, I came back up and carried Evan downstairs while he was crying that he wanted to stay upstairs. While feeding Noah Evan pulled one of the boxes of toys off the shelf and kicked it. I ignored him, but then he kicked it more so I had to stop feeding Noah and put Evan in time out. At this point both boys are crying hard. They calmed down after a little bit.

I took Evan, Noah, and Lizzy on a walk. It had been a while since I had walked. Either the weather was bad or someone was sick. We walked to the elementary school and I let Evan play on the playground for a little bit. He found a ball there but it was deflated and folded over. He still had a good time playing with it anyway. He threw a little bit of a fit when it was time to go, but I told him I had apples for him in the stroller and that made things better.

Evan and Noah didn’t eat much for lunch. Evan ate some veggies and a little bit of mac and cheese.

They both took pretty good naps. They slept until Morry got home.

We made cheesy foldovers and soup for dinner.

After dinner we went to HEB. Right before we left we noticed Noah was wet on his side. We thought Evan poured something on him, but then realized it was a blowout. Luckily he did this before we left and not while we were at HEB.

Evan and Noah are in bed now. It is quiet in Noah’s room, but it sounds like Evan is still up.

Just Another Sunday

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel is folding clothes while I write the blog.

Today was the last day that Grandma/Lynn and Papa/Lenny were visiting. So we went out to breakfast at Satellite Bistro and Bar. They have a Sunday brunch there. Rachel and I both got ice-cream battered french toast. Evan thought that we were getting ice cream on our french toast and was very interested in what we ordered. However, when it came out, it wasn't quite what Evan was picturing so he didn't really eat any of our food.

When we got home, Evan and I got ready for the Steelers game. I got dressed in my game-day gear. Evan asked me to tuck his new Terrible Towel into his pants like I do. Zayde/Jack got the Terrible Towel for Evan.

Evan actually watched more of the game than he normally does. He seemed upset when I told him that they had to take Roethlisberger to the hospital. He said "oh, he's sick."

After the game, I put Noah down for a nap while Rachel put Evan down for a nap. Rachel asked Evan who won. He said "the other guys". Luckily, he was wrong as the Steelers did win, 31-0.

Tonight, we ordered pizza since Rachel and I both didn't feel like cooking. While we were waiting for the food to be delivered, I fed Noah and Rachel helped Evan play Wii baseball. It's really nice that Evan can actually play a little. He preferred pitching as he seemed to understand what to do.

After dinner, Evan and Noah played with the kitchen set that Zayde/Jack got for Noah. Evan was pretended to make cookies and he let Noah "eat" some cookies. He kept telling Noah what to do and showed him how to do things. It was funny to hear the way Evan was speaking to Noah.

Now they are in bed but Noah is making happy noises. Hopefully he goes to sleep soon.

Until next time...

Lynn’s Birthday

Today we took it easy again. Evan was doing much better and acting more himself.

For lunch we had our leftover Rudy’s bbq from last night.

After lunch Evan made sugar cookies with Grandma. He preferred eating the sprinkles to putting them on the cookies.

For dinner we went to Alborz (Persian food) to celebrate Lynn/Mom/Grandma’s birthday. Aunt Susan and Jimmy Spector (Dad’s cousin) met us at Alborz. We had a nice time, except Evan was a litte cranky. Evan and Noah liked watching the belly dancer. There’s a video game at the front of the restaurant and Morry took Evan over there to look at it. Evan wanted to play, but Morry didn’t have any change. When they got back to the table Evan said he wanted to see Grandma. We thought, “Oh, that’s nice.” But what he really wanted was money. He went up to Lynn/Grandma and asked for a quarter. Morry said the quarter maybe gave Evan 25 seconds of game time. At least he was happy.

Tonight we did Hanukkah again. Evan picked out which candles to put in the menorah.

Here are some pictures from Hanukkah and the toys that Evan and Noah got the last few days.

A Virus

Hello, everyone, this is Morry. Rachel asked me to step in and write the blog.

So as Rachel mentioned last night, Evan had a fever before bed. Given that he was 3 days into a 10 day antibiotic, he shouldn't have had a fever. So the doctor wanted to see Evan first thing in the morning. Rachel took him in and he has a virus on top of his sinus infection. Rachel pointed out that Evan has basically been sick non-stop since the end of October. The doctor felt that was pretty normal for a 2-year-old who now goes to pre-school two days a week. She said that next winter should be better once he builds up some immunities. But in the meantime, the poor little guy has to suffer.

I had to work today, and I had to go in as I was interviewing two people. One person I interviewed first thing and the other person I interviewed at the end of the day so I had to be there the whole day.

Rachel said that Evan was acting very sick today. He laid down on the couch and watched TV, something he's never done before. He ended up falling asleep on the couch too - another first. In the afternoon, Lynn/Grandma took Evan upstairs, and he ended up falling asleep on her in the game room.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Noah met me for lunch. We were going to go to Dong Nai, a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant but it was closed, so we ended up at Freebirds which is a burrito place. Noah had a good time there. He was very excited and squealed really loudly over the very loud music being blared. It was really nice to see Rachel and Noah for lunch. It was also the first time we were out to eat without Evan, but with Noah.

When I got home, I went into Evan's room to get him up from his nap. He was awake and acting somewhat normal. His eyes were glassy and he still felt warm, but his mood was normal. When he came downstairs, Lenny/Papa made him a smoothie which he was very excited about. I think it was a magic smoothie because instantly Evan was back to his normal silly self. Evan got a GeoTrax plane for Hanukkah/Hanukah/Chanukah and he was very excited to play with it. He also wanted to play with Noah's train gift. For dinner, Evan ate a ton of macaroni and cheese, as well as tomatoes and pickles. It was really good to see him eating so well. He had barely eaten in two days.

After dinner, we gave the boys baths. Evan still had a fever but it was much lower. Now both boys are sleeping. Hopefully it's a good night.

Until next time...

The Sickness Continues…

We just took it easy today. We did a little more cleaning and ate lunch and then put the boys down for a nap.

My parents, Lynn and Lenny, got here around 3:00. At that point Noah was asleep but Evan was still awake. We heard Evan though his monitor say, “I want Grandma.” He must have heard them come in. My mom went up there to get him. It took them a while to come back downstairs. He was showing her all of his toys. We noticed Evan had a little red mark on his chin. We weren’t sure whether he hurt himself or if it was a rash.

We played outside in the backyard for a little bit and then got ready for dinner.

There weren’t many places open for dinner so we went to Veranda. We hadn’t been there before. It was just ok. Evan was really cranky at dinner. He hardly ate and complained a lot.

On the way home we looked at Christmas lights in the neighborhood. One house near us goes all out. There wasn’t a single part of their yard without lights. They even open up the backyard for people to walk through and see more lights and moving/dancing figures. They had all kinds of random things decorated with lights.

When we got home Evan was really acting like he didn’t feel well. We took his temperature and it was 102.2 and we noticed another rash under his mouth. We called the doctor and have an appointment for him in the morning.

Cleaning the house

Morry had off work today. This morning Morry let me sleep in. Noah was up many times during the night. He was whining a lot. Most of the times we just ignored him and he went back to sleep after a while.

This morning I was busy cleaning. Our house really needed to be cleaned. I took a break and we had lunch together. We had leftover corned beef from last night. During lunch Rita, Blanca’s mom, came over to give Evan and Noah gifts from Blanca. Evan got a Buzz Lightyear doll, Thomas books, and a toy radio for the fridge. Noah got some cute t-shirts.

After lunch we ran over to Barnes and Noble. I needed to get a gift there. We were worried it was going to be super crowded, but it wasn’t too bad. We let Evan play at the train table for a little bit, but we had to get home for naps. It was getting late in the afternoon.

While the boys were napping I did more cleaning and got stuff ready for tonight. We had Yenis, Steve, and Kevin over. They picked up pizza on the way here. I made a salad and meringue cookies. They came over around 6:30. We had a nice time. The first part of the evening was great, but then Evan started getting really cranky. He did not want to share his toys. He was being a pain. He was purposely getting hurt to get our attention. I don’t know why he was acting like that. He had a good nap.

Both boys are in bed now and it seems quiet. I hope they sleep well tonight. We could really use a good night’s sleep.

Lots of Crying

Evan and Noah were very fussy today. This morning was tough. Evan was in a terrible mood. He fought everything and threw tantrums. Evan opened the fridge and wanted yogurt while I was feeding Noah, but I couldn’t help him and he got upset. Then, he wanted lunchables, but I told him I already packed his lunch and he could have that another time. He got upset about that too. We were an hour late to school. It took me forever to get out the door with them. Noah was crying and Evan wouldn’t cooperate. He didn’t want to put his shoes on. Then, I couldn’t get him to come to the car. I had to put Noah in the car first, and then come back in and carry Evan, kicking and screaming, into the car. Evan screamed the whole way to school. Then, I couldn’t even get him out of the car. I had to carry Noah in his carrier and pull Evan out of the car with all of his school stuff (lunch box, jacket, water bottle). I managed to get to the door of the school, but you have to punch a code in for the door to open. I had to put Evan down to enter the code, but then he wouldn’t come through the door. There was no way to hold the door open, carry Noah, Evan’s stuff, and get Evan through the door. I was in the process of dragging Evan through the door, when Natasha (one of Evan’s teachers) was coming out of the classroom. Evan’s class is right next to the outside door. I asked her for help and she carried Evan into the room.

Then, I took Noah with me to run a couple of errands. Everything was super crowded.

My plan was to come home and get dinner in the crock-pot started and clean up the house. Noah was so fussy. He screamed every time I put him down. I had to let him scream for a few minutes while I got the corned beef ready for the crock-pot. I was not able to get any cleaning done. The most I could do was get a few loads of laundry going, but nothing is folded yet. I fed Noah, but he didn’t eat that much. I was barely able to eat lunch. I just made a sandwich with leftover ham from last night. Then, it was time to pick up Evan.

They said Evan did well in school today. He was just quiet for a little bit, but then once they played the Polar Express CD he was up and dancing. Wendy said she read a Hanukkah book to Evan. She asked how many candles we have used so far and he said, "two". I told her he says "two" for everything no matter what you ask him.

Morry and I talked about going to the Trail of Lights tonight, but decided against it. With the boys being sick and so cranky today it was not a good idea. We’ll have to wait until next year to go.

More Antibiotics

I took Evan and Noah to the doctor today. Both have had runny noses and coughs since last week. We were worried about Noah since he had pneumonia before and we wanted to make sure he didn’t have it again. With Evan, we wanted to make sure he didn’t have a sinus infection again.

We had to wait a while to see the doctor, but both Evan and Noah did well in the waiting room. First they weighed the boys. Evan weighed 35 lbs and Noah was 23 lbs. The doctor examined Noah first. She listed to his chest and thought it sounded fine. Then she looked in his ear and right away said, “He’s got an ear infection.” She checked Noah’s other ear and that ear also had an infection. So, Noah has a double ear infection. She said she didn’t want to do a chest x-ray unless absolutely necessary, but she doubted he had pneumonia. She said if he did happen to have a light case the antibiotics from the ear infection would clear it up.

Then, the doctor checked Evan. She believes he still has the same sinus infection that never went away from before. So, Evan is on antibiotics too.

I’m so ready for us all to be healthy again. We have been sick since the end of October. It has been one thing after another.

We didn’t do much today besides the trip to the doctor.

Evan and Noah took good naps and woke up right before Morry got home. For dinner we had ham and also chicken noodle soup. We got a pre-cooked and sliced ham from HEB that just needed to be heat up. Evan ate a ton. He loved it.

For Hanukkah tonight Evan got his Toy Story present from us. We gave him Toy Story figures and a Toy Story shirt. Noah got a piano like toy from us. Evan and Noah liked their gifts from Mike and Jen. Evan got a soft Wall-E doll and Noah got a soft Cars doll.

First Night of Hanukah

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Not sure why, but Rachel asked me to write the blog this evening. Oh, and I have no idea the spelling of Hanukah. Is it Hannukah? Or Hanukah? or Chanukah? Does anyone really know?

This morning started out by Noah getting up. Since I got up with the boys yesterday, Rachel got up this morning and let me sleep in. That was nice getting some extra sleep.

When I got up, we went to HEB. We needed to get some stuff for the week, plus a salad to bring to Matt and Alissa's for (C)han(n)ukah tonight. We got Evan an apple while we walked around the store. Noah kept trying to get the apple. I'm not sure what Noah wanted to do with the apple, but he was intent on taking it from Evan. Evan, as predicted, was not really very happy about that.

When we got home, Evan insisted on helping unload the groceries. He was very good at it actually. He got out the coffee, and he knew exactly where it went. He really is perceptive. I definitely was not like that when I was his age.

Rachel made breakfast while Evan and I went upstairs to get ready for the Steelers game. Noah stayed with Rachel, but he soon got very cranky, so I came downstairs to get him. We ate breakfast upstairs during the game. Noah and Evan spent much of the game with me. We put them down for naps around the 3rd quarter.

When the boys got up from their nap we went over to Matt and Alissa's. Shortly after we arrived, we lit the candles on the Menorah. They had a special Menorah just for Evan. He and I lit his Menorah.

After that we opened presents. Evan got a Wall-E DVD and Noah got a UT blanket from us. Matt and Alissa got cookies and chocolates for both boys and a Cars car carrier (which also shoots the cars out) and Cars tattoos. Evan was very excited about the car carrier. They got Noah some blocks.

We had a nice dinner and after dinner we had some Polar Express cookies that Alissa made. Again, Evan was very happy with that.

Ben, Evan and Molly went upstairs to play and Evan played with the GeoTrax, of course.

After that, we came home and we let Evan open his gift from Zayde which was his own Terrible Towel and Steelers uniform. Evan went to sleep with his Steelers helmet (although not on). When he work his uniform, he said that he was Roethlisberger.

It was a good day all around (aside from the Steelers loss). Until next time...

P.S. I did the spell check and Blogger says that the spelling is Hanukkah. Another variation! What is up with that?

The North Pole Flyer

Hello everyone, this is Morry. I get the opportunity to tell all of you about our trip on the Austin Steam Train.

Back in June someone told Rachel about this real steam train in Austin. Over Christmas, they decorate it and do their version of the Polar Express. Since Evan loves trains and he loves the Polar Express, we thought we'd do this. We were told you had to buy tickets back then. In fact, when we went to buy tickets, there were only two tickets left in the climate-controlled section of the train. Evan has been looking forward to this ever since.

When I got Evan this morning after he got up, the first thing he said was he wanted to go on the steam train. I got him dressed and Noah, Evan and I went downstairs. Evan watched Air Bud again. He seems to really enjoy that movie.

On the way to the steam train, we had to stop by my eye doctor's office. My new contacts and glasses had come in. They had a fish tank and a bowl of lollipops. Evan was really happy about that.

As soon as we pulled into the train station, Evan got so excited. I dropped Rachel off so she could get our tickets from will call and parked. Where I parked, we could see the train. Evan just couldn't contain himself. He started to kick his feet and yell that he wanted to go on the steam train. I got them out of the car and Rachel had the tickets. She handed a ticket to Evan and Evan took off running for the train. I don't know that I have ever seen him run that fast.

We boarded the train and immediately Noah got excited. He started to squeal really loudly. Everyone in our car started to laugh. Noah was jumping in Rachel's lap and then continued to squeal every so often.

Once the train started, they came by and gave everyone hot chocolate. We got one for Evan, one for Rachel, and one for me. Evan had a few sips of his and then didn't want his anymore. Rachel gave Noah a sip and he spit it out. Somehow I ended up drinking all the cups of hot chocolate.

After that, we walked one car over where the concessions were. This was a car that was not climate controlled and they had the windows open. There was a little step so the kids could stand or kneel on it and look out the windows. Both boys stared out the window for a long time. We stood Noah up so he was holding on to the window sill and looking out. He just loved it. Every time the train sounded its horn, Evan got really excited too. Then Evan noticed they were selling souvenirs so he played with the souvenir trains some.

We sat down for a bit and "Mrs. Claus" was handing out cookies. They were sugar cookies. She gave one to Evan and one to Noah. Evan ate all of his. Rachel broke pieces off of Noah's and let him have his first cookie. Noah did not let a crumb drop from his mouth. Rachel broke off a piece for me and Evan turned around (he was on my lap) and took a bite big enough to almost finish my piece. That little sneak.

We ended up looking out the window in the concession car a bit more. Shortly thereafter the train ride finished. It was 2 hours in all.

We stopped at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner on the way home. They have peanuts there and Evan enjoyed throwing shells on the floor. At one point he threw a shell so far it hit the guy sitting at the table next to us. We had to apologize.

Noah, meanwhile, did not stop eating from the time we sat down until we left. We actually had to stop him from eating. He had two jars of baby food, cheese, bread, green beans, chicken, eggs and oranges. No wonder the kid was 22 pounds at 8 months old.

We're back home and the boys are now sleeping. Both boys are quiet. They didn't nap so hopefully they'll sleep well tonight.

Until next time...

Playgroup at our house

This morning we had playgroup at our house. I was busy this morning getting last minute stuff made and put out on the table. The playgroup went well. One of the moms is pregnant and due December 27 so we had a little shower for her as well. The kids played well together. Noah started crying at one point. I knew he wasn’t hungry since I just fed him. I though he was probably tired. I was standing up holding him and a few minutes later he fell asleep on me. I ended up sitting down for a little while so he could get a nap in. Evan ate a ton of cookies. There were leftover cookies from cookie decorating at school yesterday so I put them out on the table. Every time I turned around Evan was getting another cookie. Normally I wouldn’t let him eat so many, but on playgroup days I tend to be a little more relaxed.

We ordered an entertainment center to hold our new TV and it was scheduled to be delivered today between 12:30 and 4:30. I put Noah down for a nap a little before 3, but Evan was still up playing while I cleaned up from playgroup. At about 3:00 the men from Lacks came to deliver and set it up. Evan was very interested in the big truck. I took him outside to look at it. While we were outside Evan looked into the upstairs window and saw Lizzy. He thought it was funny that Lizzy was looking out the window at the truck and he wanted to go upstairs too and look out the window.

It was about 3:30 by the time I took Evan to his room for a nap. He never slept. It got quiet at times, but I don’t think he was sleeping.

For dinner we went to Suzy’s (Chinese). Both Evan and Noah ate a bunch of edamame.

We just gave the boys a bath and put them to bed. I hope they sleep well tonight since we have a big day tomorrow. The train ride is at 3:00, so most likely they will not get naps tomorrow.

Holiday Parties

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel's straightening up and getting ready for hosting a playgroup/baby shower tomorrow at the house, so I'm filling in.

Today was a really dreary day. In fact it was really foggy. The fog driving into work today was one of the thicker fogs I have seen in my 10 years in Austin. And it really never dissipated all day long.

Last night, Noah woke up at 11pm, 3pm and maybe 5 something. It was a few times. We ended up just having to let him cry it out each time. We'd go in there and calm him down but the moment we'd put him back in the crib he'd start crying. He has a bit of a cold so we raised his mattress and put a humidifier on in his room, but I guess it wasn't helping.

Meanwhile, Evan has a cold too and he's coughing a lot. It's not a "juicy" cough, just a normal cough and he was up several times in the night coughing. So he didn't get much sleep. When Rachel went in his room to get him up this morning, she had a hard time waking him. I guess he was just so exhausted. Both Rachel and I were worried about him. But his teacher said he acted completely fine today and she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. In fact, she seemed surprised we even asked the question.

Today at school was Evan's holiday party. The parents were invited to come to the party. The kids were supposed to decorate sugar cookies with frosting and jimmies (sprinkles for those of you not from the Northeast). As soon as Evan sat down, he stated eating the cookie. He didn't even want to wait to put the frosting on it. He was just so excited to get the cookie. I showed him how to spread the frosting on and then put the jimmies on top. We had fun and made a layer of frosting, then a layer of jimmies, then another layer of frosting and another layer of jimmies. He finished it quickly and asked for another cookie. It was funny to watch this whole scene because all the girls in the class were very diligent about spreading the frosting on the cookies while the boys just dove right in to eat the cookies.

When I got home from work, Evan was still napping but Noah was up. I was glad that Evan got some sleep. While Rachel was tutoring, I put on the movie Air Bud for Evan. It's about a dog who plays basketball. The dog hits the ball with his nose and it goes in the basket. Evan thought this was great and said he was going to teach Lizzy how to play basketball.

When Rachel got home, she got ready for my office holiday party. Evan asked if he could go. I said no, it was only for grown ups. Then he asked me if we were going to Costa Rica. I said no, we'd be home tonight. He then said "I want to go to Costa Rica." I promised him we'd take him sometime.

The babysitter said that both Evan and Noah went to bed with no problems. In fact, Evan stayed in bed. We have not heard Noah make any noise since we got home so that's good on both fronts.

Oh, and I won a CD at the holiday party by being the first to answer how to say Merry Christmas in Portuguese. (Our party was at a Brazilian restaurant) I didn't know how before the night but the waiters said it to us during the evening. So that was cool.

Until next time...

Lunch with Morry

Noah, Evan, and I met Morry at his office and then went to lunch. Evan was very excited about going to Daddy’s work. When we walked in the lobby he asked, “Where’s Daddy.” I told him we had to go in the elevator and up to Daddy’s office. Morry took us around the office to meet a few people and Evan was very shy.

For lunch we went to Cheddar's. Evan sat in the booth next to me. He made it very hard to eat my lunch. He was bouncing around, touching me, wanting strawberries from my strawberry lemonade. Noah did pretty well in his high chair. He ate some baby food and some of my green beans and grapes we brought from home.

We dropped Morry off at work and went to Barnes and Noble. We needed to buy a book for the book exchange at Evan’s school tomorrow. It had to be a book under $5 that was gender neutral and not holiday themed. It was tough finding a book that meet all those criteria while trying to hold Noah and watch Evan. I saw the “Grover, Monster at the end of the Book” book. It was $4.95, so I got it.

I had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. Blanca wasn’t able to babysit so Morry worked from home in the afternoon. Evan and Noah napped most of the time I was gone. Noah got up once and Morry had to calm him down and get him back to sleep.

On the way home from the doctor I stopped at HEB to get sugar cookies for Evan’s class tomorrow. They are decorating cookies and I said I’d bring the cookies.

For dinner we had pizza, roasted garlic, and bread.

After dinner Matt came over to help Morry move our entertainment center and TV upstairs.

Evan and Noah are still awake right now. Hopefully, they fall asleep soon.

Wow, it’s cold!

So, here it is, our one cold week of the year. Typically we get about one cold week out of the year and the rest of the winter is pretty nice. Today it didn’t even get out of the 30s. Evan brought his heavy coat and mittens to school today.

For some reason Evan didn’t want to go to school this morning. When I was getting him dressed he told me he didn’t want to go and then at school he didn’t want to get out of the car. We talked about all the fun stuff he does at school and his friends there, but he kept saying he did not want to go. I told him I would stay and play with him for a little bit and that seemed to make him happier. I maybe stayed for about 15 minutes and he showed me the toys in his classroom. I tried to leave a couple of time and he wanted me to play more. Wendy got him to sit down and start painting. He seemed happy so I used that time to slip out the door. Evan seemed fine and happy when I picked him up.

I put Evan and Noah down for a nap around 2:00. Noah slept, but Evan did not. Blanca came at 3:00 and when Evan heard Blanca came in he asked for her through the monitor. When I left to tutor Blanca and Evan where playing upstairs. I wasn’t thinking and when I left I set the house alarm by accident. On my way to tutoring I got a call from the alarm company saying the house alarm went off. They asked if everything was ok. At that moment I realized what I must have done. Luckily Blanca knows the alarm code since she takes care of our house and pets when we are gone. I called her to make sure everything was ok and to apologize.

I came home around 8:00 and put Evan and Noah to bed. Evan threw a fit again about going to bed. He’s asleep now, but I’m sure he’s at his gate. We’ll have to put him back in bed when we go upstairs.

75th post

Hello everyone, this is Morry. As I clicked to create a new post, I realized this is the 75th post. I'm suprised that we (mostly Rachel) have been doing this for so long.

This morning, I woke and then went to work at my normal time. Traffic has been lighter the last week or so as UT finished classes on the 2nd of December. Next week will be particularly light as the Austin school district has off as well.

Rachel and Noah, however, were awakened by the dog behind us. I know this seems like a broken record but it keeps happening. It's unbelievable that as soon as we got one dog to stop another one starts. Rachel did call and leave a message with the owner of the dog.

Rachel need to run a couple errands this morning. First she went to Wal-mart. They completely redid the Wal-mart near us and added a grocery store to it. So Rachel went there. The shopping carts were not big enough to hold both boys in the front part, so she bribed Evan to sit in the big part of the cart by giving him M&Ms. By the end of the trip through Wal-mart, he had chocolate all over his face. Also his nose has been running so the chocolate was a bit mixed with snot.

Next they went to Kohl's. When Rachel asked Evan if he had chocolate all over his face, he said no, he had boogers. She cleaned him up and they returned one of the things we bought this weekend.

The boys took decent naps and both boys were sleeping when I got home around 5:15 or 5:20. I made tacos and mexican rice. I fry the dried rice and mix it with chili powder, salt, garlic power and paprika. Then I steam the rice. It's pretty good.

We gave the boys baths tonight. Noah seems to be sleeping now but Evan is still up. He's been giving us a hard time going to bed recently. It may have started when we stayed in the same room as him in Dallas. I think he got used to us being around. Now he keeps asking to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. He's not allowed to do that, so he throws a fit.

Until next time...

Tutoring, Birthday party, and Football

This morning the boys woke up around 9:00. I tutored from 10-12. This coming week is the last week of school before the holidays. The students have finals and tests this week and some needed extra help.

When I got home we make lunch. Morry made fried matzoh and I had an egg salad sandwich. Evan ate some leftover pasta and Noah ate his usual cereal. Noah got real cranky and fell asleep in his high chair. We moved him to his crib after lunch.

Allen, a kid in Evan’s class, had his birthday party today. It started at 3:00. Usually Evan naps around 2-4. We were trying to decide whether to put him down for an early nap or just skip nap altogether. By the time we finished lunch it was 1:30. I would have had to wake him up at 3:00. Sometimes when you wake Evan up from a nap he’s so cranky it’s almost better if he didn’t fall asleep in the first place. We decided to skip Evan’s nap.

Evan had a good time at Allen’s party. The weather was very nice and most of the party was outside. Evan played in the sand box. He played soccer and football and played on the playscape. When it was time for cake all the kids, including Evan, sat very nicely at the kid’s table. Evan chose the white cake over chocolate. He ate his whole piece and had some of my icing I left on my plate.

We came home and Morry and Noah were watching the Steelers game upstairs. Evan and I played outside in the backyard for a while Morry watched football.

For dinner we made grilled chicken and couscous. Evan ate the couscous and a ton of applesauce, but not much else.

Evan and Noah are in bed now. It sounds like Noah is asleep, but Evan is still up.

Spent Too Much

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel read a statistic today that said that when people bring their kids shopping, they spend 40% more. Well that seemed to be very true for us today. We went shopping for Hanukkah for the boys and had some other errands to run and we spent way too much. We will be accepting donations for anyone that wants to help.

So the day today began late. Both boys pretty much slept until 10am. I was awakened at 8:15 by one of our lovely neighborhood outside dogs. We talked to our next door neighbors about the dog in the video that Rachel posted, and to their credit they seemed to have really reduced if not eliminated the barking. I'm not sure how but it seems to be quiet. However, the dog behind us, the one who used to spend time in our backyard has decided to try to make up for the lack of barking. Everyone who reads the blog knows my feeling on keeping dogs outside, so I'll spare everyone another rant.

We needed to run to go furniture shopping today because my mom, very generously, got us a flat screen LCD TV for Hanukkah. Now we need a TV stand or entertainment center to put the TV on (yes, I did end the sentence with a preposition). On our way to Lack's (a furniture store), we stopped at Kohl's to see about getting Noah some toys. Evan had a great time looking at the toys. He stopped to look at every single GeoTrax thing they had. He'd bring the box to me and say "Look Daddy, look at this GeoTrax. I want it. I want to bring it to my home." We did end up getting a couple good gifts for Noah.

Next we went to PetCo to get food for Lizzy. While we were there, I picked up litter for Mottel and a Hanukkah present for Lizzy. Every year we get her a rawhide bone in the shape of a candy cane. It's so big I can actually use it as a cane to leave the store.

Finally, we made it to Lack's. We had seen an entertainment center that we liked and I had called about it previously. In person, it looked to be exactly what we needed. So we ended up buying it.

We came home, had lunch and put the boys down for a nap.

After the naps, we went to a new burger joint for dinner called Willy O's. They have shakes there so after dinner we got shakes. Rachel poured some of her shake into a little cup for Evan. He used a spoon and ate it all himself. Rachel poured more in there and he ate that, but he also spooned some out and fed Noah. It was really funny to see Evan feeding Noah. I think Evan really enjoys taking care of Noah.

To top off our day of spending, we went to HEB. We hadn't had a real shopping trip since returning from our vacation, so we had to buy a lot of food. Rachel cuts coupons and the trip is always made longer by her organizing the coupons for what we purchased. Sometimes she has multiple coupons for the same item, so she tries to figure out which one is the better deal. It adds about 10 minutes to any shopping trip. However, to her credit, she did save us over $25 in coupons. I guess that's worth the extra 10 minutes.

Finally, Rachel wanted me to relate this one store. The night the boys and I went to McDonald's, on the way home, Evan asked for music. I had my iPod in the car so I turned it on and Nine Inch Nails was playing. It was their most recent album. Anyway, Nine Inch Nails, for those of you that don't know is Industrial, hard, electronic music. Evan paused after it started and said "This is fast. This is fast. Put on another kind of music." So I laughed and put on another song for him that he'd like better. He then said "That was fast. I didn't like that music." So Evan does not like my Nine Inch Nails. Last night when Rachel asked him about it, he said that it was too loud and said it "sounded like this" and started hitting his legs with his hands. I guess he likes more mellow music.

Until next time...

Playgroup day

Today we went to playgroup. It’s been a while since we’ve gone. Playgroup was at Marissa’s house (in Evan’s class at school). Their house is pretty close so we walked. Well, I walked and the boys rode in the stroller. It was a nice time. Evan ate a ton of muffins. They had a plate of small muffins out and every time I turned around Evan was eating another one. Last time we were at Marissa’s house Evan played with one of her toy trains. He remembered and asked me where it was. I told him to ask Marissa and she said it was upstairs. Bodar, Marissa’s mom, must have heard and she offered to get it and bring it down for Evan. Both Evan and Noah enjoyed playing with the train. I put Noah down on the floor with the other kids and toys and he seemed to want to be near Evan and playing with whatever Evan was playing with.

After playgroup we went home and ate lunch. During lunch Evan said he wanted a Popsicle. After lunch we went in the backyard and I let Evan eat a Popsicle. He offered some to me and Noah. With the first few bites Noah took he made a really funny face. It must have been sour. It made Evan and I laugh and Evan wanted to give Noah more so he would make that face again.

Evan and Noah took good naps. Evan slept until about 6:30.

We went to dinner at Serranos. When we walked in the door there was a sign posted that said if you bought at $25 gift card you got an extra $5 for free. So, while we were waiting for our table I went up to the bar and bought a gift card for us to use at dinner. I wondered why more people didn’t do that. It was like getting a $5 coupon.

After dinner we went to Best Buy and then Target. At Best Buy we looked at washer/dryers. We are going to need new ones soon. Ours now are more than 10 years old. Both take forever to wash/dry. It looks like the best ones are LG and Samsung. Morry and I are trying to decide what to get each other for our Hanukkah present. It would be nice to get washer/dryers, but they are pretty expensive and not such a fun/exciting Hanukkah gift. I never thought I’d be asking for a washer/dryer for Hanukkah. We are trying to decide between that, a nice SLR camera, maybe a blue ray disc player? We’ll see.

Well, it’s late. It sounds like the boys are sleeping now. I hope they let us sleep in a little tomorrow morning.

Oh, one more thing. Evan got a kid's digital camera for Hanukkah from Marilyn. He loves it and really understands how to take pictures. He's doing well taking pictures on his own. Here are a few pictures Evan took all by himself.

Back to School

It was Evan’s first day back at school after Thanksgiving. It had been a while since he was at school. For some reason he was really cranky this morning. I had to wake him up to get ready for school and he was very slow moving and whiny. It took forever to get him dressed and in the car. We were late to school. When we got to school he didn’t want to get out of the car for some reason. The only way I got him out was to tell him he could press the buttons for the door. The door at school has a keypad next to it that you have to press before you can come in. I let Evan press the keys. I told him what numbers to press and pointed to them, but he pressed them on his own.

After dropping Evan off, Noah and I ran some errands. On of the stops was Kohls. I got a lot of Hanukkah gifts for the boys and was able to use two coupons. I had one for $5 off and another for 20% they total.

Noah and I came home and I did laundry and cleaned the house. Then, we ate lunch and picked up Evan.

Wendy said she brought in the Polar Express CD and Evan loved dancing to the music. He was pretending to make hot chocolate during the hot chocolate song.

Noah slept for just a little bit and Evan did not nap at all. Blanca came at 4:00 and I tutored from 4:30-6:00.

Morry made pasta for dinner and it was ready when I got home.

We put the boys to bed early, around 8:00 since both were a little cranky.

Austin Snow

Well, we actually got a light dusting of snow last night. When the boys woke up around 9am I took them outside to play in the snow. At that time it was already melting, but they still had fun with what was left of it. Below are a few pictures. Evan was very excited about the snow. He said it was like Polar Express. I showed him how to make a snowball. Then, I tried to make a very small snowman. I had the 2 lower balls on top of each other and was making the top ball for the face when Evan kicked the lower two balls. I don’t think he realized what I was trying to do. He just thought they were snowballs to play with. Noah enjoyed watching Evan run around.

Evan seemed in a better mood today. He ate a better lunch today. He had mac and cheese, black eyed peas, corn, and fruit.

Noah ate his cereal mix at lunch but then was very fussy. I put him down for a nap at 12:30 and he slept for a little bit. I tried to put Evan down for a nap but he would’t sleep. Around 4:00 we walked over to the Circle C Mom’s club Christmas party. Evan had a good time playing the toys and running around with the other kids. Noah seemed to enjoy himself too. We walked back around 5:15. Evan walked the whole way home. It was maybe a 10 minute walk. Morry had just gotten home when we walked in the door.

Morry made chicken and rice for dinner. I was able to eat a little of it. I’m still not back to normal. I’m just trying to take it easy and eat small amounts.

The boys are in bed now and all is quiet.

At Barry and Lisa Kincart's house the other night.
Evan, Noah, and Lincoln

Getting Better

Today was a better day. Evan had no fever today, but I still kept him home from school. He was acting much better today. He still didn’t eat much at lunch, but at least he ate a little.

Noah needed a haircut so I decided to trim his hair myself. I took the boys in the backyard and while I was cutting Noah’s hair Evan told me he wanted a haircut too. Evan was happy, but moving around a lot. It was difficult. I told him if he stood still and was good he could have a lollypop after his haircut. That kept him still.

We still have some candy from Halloween so I gave him one of the dumb-dumbs from his trick-or-treating. It was blue and he couldn’t wait to look in the mirror and see his blue tongue.

I put Evan and Noah down for a nap around 2:30 and Blanca came at 3:00. She said Noah slept until about 5:00 and Evan was still sleeping when Morry got home. Morry got him up around 6:00.

Since I was out tutoring Morry took the boys to McDonalds for dinner. He was going to take them to Chick-Fil-A, but when they drove by McDonalds on the way Evan was insisting on eating there. He’s only eaten at McDonalds 2 other times. Morry asked if he was sure that was where he wanted to go and he said yes. Morry said Evan ate very well. In fact, he ate his whole meal – all four chicken nuggets, apples, and cookies.

I got home around 8:00. We let the boys play a little before putting them to bed. They are in bed now. Noah is sleeping, but Evan is playing with his school bus.

A cold front blew in today. It was in the 70s when I left for tutoring and now it’s 37 degrees and raining and sleeting. Brrr!

Sick again

I’ve been sick for over a month now. I finally got rid of the sinus infection and then last night I got a stomach bug. I was up most of the night. This morning when Morry was leaving for work we heard Evan start crying hysterically. We went in his room and he had thrown up all over his sheets and 2 blankets (blue and Steelers blanket). Poor guy. We felt so bad for him. It was tough since I already wasn’t feeling good and then I had to clean it all up.

Luckily, that was the only time Evan got sick today. He was just real cranky and clingy today. He didn’t eat much. All he would eat for lunch was crackers. At dinner he had some toast, apples, and a waffle. Before bed he had a 101.8 temperature so he’s not going to school tomorrow.

It was a hard day. My stomach still doesn’t feel great.

I don’t know why we keep getting sick so much.

Noah was fine today. He didn’t eat as much as usual, but he still ate and seemed happy. I wonder if he had a stomach bug the other night when he kept having blowouts?

I just hope Noah or Morry doesn’t get this like Evan and I did.

On a better note, I was able to upload pictures from Thanksgiving and Costa Rica. Here’s the link http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelkbelkin/Thanksgivingandcostarica#

Evan and Noah are asleep now. Let’s hope for a better night than last night.

First Sunday Home

This is Morry again. Rachel's not feeling well so I'm stepping in, once again.

So last night at Barry and Lisa's, Noah was not feeling too well. He had three blow-outs. A blow-out is when a baby goes #2 and it comes up the back of the diaper. We think it was probably from the antibiotics he has been on for his pneumonia. Because of that, he didn't eat much last night.

This morning, he got up around 7:15 and Rachel decided to feed him since we figured he must be hungry. However, he had pooped and it was so bad that she needed to give him a bath. Poor little guy. She was able to feed him after that and put him back down to sleep. He ended up sleeping until 11:30am.

Once Rachel was up, she decided she'd leave us, the boys, alone today and tutor. She left the house around 10am and did not return until about 6pm. I guess she did make a lot of money.

I spent the day pitching the baseball to Evan. That's what he really wanted to do. At one point he hit 6 straight balls and then went 11 of 15. I keep having to remind myself that he's only 2 and a half. What's more amazing to me, as I may have said earlier, is not that he can hit the ball so well, it's how much he wants to play baseball. I promise you, I have not coaxed him into doing any of this.

I made spaghetti for Evan and me for lunch. Evan would get a ton of spaghetti on his fork and then half of it would fall into his lap where Lizzy would eat it. So I guess that I made the spaghetti for Evan, Lizzy and me.

Noah did have some lunch so that was good. He seemed to be in a good mood most of the day.

After their naps, the boys watched the Steelers game with me. The Steelers came back to win in the last 7 minutes. Unbelievable ending. It was eerily similar to the last time the Steelers and Cowboys played in October of 2004. We were actually at that game. In both games, the Steelers overcame 10-point 4th quarter deficits and a turnover by the Cowboys led to the winning points.

Anyway, so then we had dinner. We ordered pizza from Mangieri's. We ordered a kid's size black olive pizza for Evan. He ate the whole thing and then had a piece of Rachel's pizza.

Now the boys are in bed, although I can hear Evan making noise.

Until next time...

Thanksgiving vacation recap

Hello everyone, this is Morry. I've been tapped to do our Thanksgiving recap. As some of you may notice, we haven't made any posts since the Monday before Thanksgiving. Well that's because we spent Thanksgiving in Dallas. Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Rachel and I left for Costa Rica for 5 days. We just returned to Austin this afternooon.

So, as it will be too much, I will give just a quick recap of some of the highlights of the last 11 days.

• On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Rachel and I put Evan and Noah down for bed. We came back into the room about 30 minutes late, only to spot Evan sitting on the bed where Rachel and I were going to sleep. On Evan's face there were streaks of red. It turns out, he had gotten into Rachel's lipstick and put lipstick all over his face.


• Noah enjoyed eating Turkey on Thanksgiving. I'm not sure there is much that Noah doesn't enjoy eating.


• Rachel had to go to an urgent care facility on the day after Thanksgiving because of a sinus infection. They gave her a stronger antibiotic than she had taken before.


• Three hours before we were to leave for our trip, Noah was diagnosed with early stage pneumonia. He had an awful cough and it sounded like it was in his chest. So I took Noah to the same urgent care place that Rachel had been the day before. They did an x-ray on Noah and diagnosed him. The doctor assured me that all would be fine and there was no reason to cancel our trip.


• Rachel and I had a great time in Costa Rica, even despite the fact it rained at least a few hours each day. We went jet-skiing, hiking through the rain forest (although it's not truly a rain forest, it's a humid forest or something like that) and saw two different kinds of monkeys, two kinds of sloths, a variety of birds, lizards, iguanas, some rabbit/rat thing, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't really remember. We each got a regular massage and a foot massage at the spa at the resort. And best of all, we just relaxed. It was a nice time.


• Meanwhile Evan and Noah did their best to tire out their grandparents. Evan enjoyed trying to entertain Noah when they were supposed to be sleeping, since they were sleeping in the same room. Evan even climbed into the crib with Noah at one point.


• And Evan also got to see some Polar Express display they had at the Willow Bend mall in Dallas. Evan had a great time and Noah enjoyed watching Evan have a great time.

We captured most of this in pictures, but it's too late to be putting up the pictures now. Keep checking back and we'll have them up at some point.

Also, tonight, we went to Barry and Lisa's for dinner. We saw Lincoln who has gotten so big. Barry and Lisa made a great meal and we all had a wonderful time. Evan seemed to have the most fun as he played with the dog Sunny the whole time.

Until next time...

Evan’s acting like a 2 year-old

Today was a long day.

I took Evan and Noah to the doctor at 10:15am this morning. They have both had runny noses for a long time and I wanted to get them checked out before Thanksgiving. Getting out of the house was not fun. First, Lizzy would not come in the house. The old guy with the walker was walking his dogs (who Lizzy hates) along our fence. I had to wait forever for him to pass before Lizzy would come inside. Then, Evan insisted on bringing his helicopter with us, but it wasn’t downstairs and we were in a hurry. He threw a fit. I already had Noah in the car seat and was carrying the seat. Evan got so mad he threw the helicopter pilot into the kitchen and I dragged him to the car. He was screaming that he wanted the guy (helicopter pilot). Then, we get to the doctor’s office and there’s not where to park. We had to park way on the other side of the shopping center. We ended up getting there about 10 minutes. I went to check in. Since our insurance changed they made me use the phone in the waiting room to call the records line of Austin Regional Clinic to give them my new info. I had to stand up using the phone near the check in desk, while holding Noah, and trying to watch Evan. They put me on hold forever. Noah and Evan kept trying to pull at the phone cord.

It turns out Noah just has a cold, but Evan has a sinus infection. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for Evan and recommended Mucinex for kids. They weighed the boys and Noah weighs 22 lbs and Evan is 35 lbs.

I got gas on the way home ($1.64/gal). It took forever getting into and out of the gas station because of traffic.

At home Evan was very cranky. I fed the boys and then put them down for naps. I was hungry but also had a lot to do, so I just made a bowl of cereal. I sat down at the computer to eat my cereal and check email. I ate a few bites of cereal and then realized there were bugs in the cereal. At that point I wanted move to Austrailia like in the Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day


So much for lunch. Right after I poured the cereal down the sink I hear Evan turn off the monitor in his room. I went up there to check on him and I find 2 of his drawers open, clothes on the floor, and Evan’s sitting on top of his changing table putting his shoes on. He climbed up there on his own. After that he didn’t want to get back in bed. He threw another fit. I was absolutely exhausted and needed a nap badly. He said he wanted to lay in bed with me so I said he could as long as he really napped. The kid would not be quiet. He was singing and making sound effects and talking about who knows what. It was hard to be mad at him because he was so cute. Finally, I gave up on the nap and just brought Evan downstairs with me. Evan was drawing on this little Aqua Doodle. He drew a big circle. He was very proud of it. I asked if he could make 2 eyes, and he did. Then, I asked for a nose and a mouth. Evan made his first real drawing all by himself. Below is a picture.

When Morry got home we heated up leftovers for dinner and then I tutored from 7-10.

Evan's face drawing

How I found him when he was supposed to be napping.

The Short Version

Hello everyone, this is Morry again. Rachel is doing some stuff around the house so I'm filling in for a second day in a row.

While I was very proud of my post yesterday, my mom commented on the length of the post, calling it "18 pages" long. So I will be more brief today.

Here's a recap:

We were awaken by the neighbor's dog.
We did some stuff.
Evan and Noah were cute.
We had dinner.
And now it's night time and the boys are in bed.

If that's enough for you, have a nice day/evening (whatever time of day you are reading this). If you do want to find out more details, read on.

So yes, we were awakened by the dog at 7:13 am. Evan and I both were up. Rachel seemed to go back to sleep only to be awakened at 8:07 am by the dog.

We needed to get some stuff, so we went over to Half-Price Books. Evan really enjoyed running around the store. For some reason, Noah was cranky. Rachel was holding him and I was in another part of the store and I heard him crying. Evan was with me. While we were looking at the books, an ambulance went by. Evan announced, loud enough for the entire store to hear, that there was an ambulance.

We came home and both Rachel and I tried to trim Lizzy. For some reason she really didn't want it and kept barking and growling at us. That's very unusual. She seems fine though, otherwise.

We had some lunch and then put the boys down for an early nap. Then we went over to confront the neighbors. We have been keeping a log over the last four weeks of the times the dog barks. We make a special note for when we were awakened. Someone in the house was woken up on 14 of the 28 days. There were 19 times in that 28 days that we were awakened. So we made a copy of this, highlighted all the times we were awakened. I also printed some articles about why it's bad to keep your dog outside and we went over. Our neighbor was very apologetic and said he'd do something about. I think the fact that the entire sheet was almost entirely highlighted was pretty alarming to him. We'll see if that helps.

Rachel then went out for coffee during the naps with Alissa. When the boys got up, I brought them downstairs and made some dinner.

After dinner, we gave the boys baths. When I was dressing Evan he became very agitated because he looked at his thumb and it was wrinkly. He kept wanting me to wash his thumb. I said if I wash it, it will make it worse. He insisted so we washed his thumb. Of course, that didn't help. Finally we got his mind off of it by reading him a book. The good news, his thumb did return to normal.

Well that's it for now. Until next time...

What Evan Wants

Hi everyone, this is Morry for my weekly post. It's been a while since I last posted since I was gone last weekend. As I'm sure of some of you waited with anticipation for my post, the wait is now over.

So this morning, Rachel went to tutor the old guy for his GREs. They met at the LBJ library on UT's campus. She left the house at 8:15am. So I was with the boys this morning. When Evan and Noah woke up, Evan told me he wanted to go to the bookstore today. I told him we'd go when Mommy came home. Then he said he wanted to watch the Polar Express. So we watched that. I got breakfast ready for both boys while we watched. After the Polar Express was over, Evan insisted on watching the GeoTrax DVD. That DVD is so bad, I've debated over whether to pretend that we "lost" the DVD. Evan wants to watch it over and over and over again.

When Rachel got home, we made lunch and then, of course, we did what Evan wanted. We went to Starbucks. After seeing the Polar Express in the morning, Evan was really talking about hot chocolate. So I told him I'd get hot chocolate at Barnes & Noble and we could share it. So as soon as we got to the book store, he ran over to the Starbucks inside. While we were waiting in line, I noticed all the cookies and cakes in the case. My eyes locked on these sugar cookies they had with red crystals on them. Then, suddenly, Evan said, those cookies look good. He was looking at the same cookies. He was in front of me, so there's no way he saw what I had been looking at. I said, "yeah, I was looking at those too." I told him that we'd get one to share. He said "No, I want my own." We did not give in though. He and I shared the cookie. It was a good one. Evan and I obviously share the same taste in desserts.

Evan played with the trains at Barnes and Noble for awhile. We let Noah crawl around in that area for a bit. Then Noah and I walked around the store together. Noah wanted to grab all the books as I walked by, if I was close enough.

When we got home, we put the boys down for a nap. Evan must have been very tired as he never got out of bed.

Last night, Evan told us he wanted to go to Logan's for dinner, but we couldn't go there. Logan's is a steakhouse where you get peanuts and you throw the shells on the floor. So since we do what Evan wants, we took him to Logan's tonight. He was very excited to go. He kept talking about throwing the shells on the floor the entire ride. As soon as we sat down I opened up a peanut for him, gave him the shells and the peanut itself. He took the shells and threw them half way across the room. He definitely likes Logan's.

We brought cheese cubes for Evan for dinner but Rachel thought Noah might like them. Up until now, the only food that he's fed himself really has been the puffs. So Rachel cut up the cheese cubes into much smaller cubes. Noah had a blast feeding himself. It kept him occupied all night.

After dinner we ran some errands at Southpark Meadows. That's a massive shopping center which used to be a concert venue. We went to Sports Authority, Marshall's and Circuit City. You can get good deals at Marshall's, but man is that place a pigsty. (Note: I looked up the spelling of pigsty. I would have thought it was two words. Weird.) Every time I go there, I feel like I need a bath when I get out. I have bad memories of Marshall's and TJ Maxx from when I was a kid and my mom would drag me along. I also really hate TJ Maxx because they took over where the toy store was when I was 5 or 6. As a kid, it's a no-brainer. If you have a choice of going to TJ Maxx or a toy store, the toy store would win in a heartbeat.

Some other random stories that aren't from today: Evan really enjoyed watching the Steelers game with me the other night. When the game started, he climbed up on the couch and sat right down next to me. Every time Ben Roethlisberger was on tv, Evan would say "There's Roethlisberger!" When they weren't showing him, Evan would ask where he was or point to the player they were showing and tell me, "That's not Roethlisberger." Evan also wanted to play football during the game. He'd throw his little football to me, then I'd throw it back. He'd run around the couch and down the hall and dive onto the floor and yell "touchdown!" Then he'd leave the ball on the floor, run all the way back to me, give me a high-five, run all the way back to get the ball and then back to me where he'd start the process over. And finally, when Rachel got Evan up yesterday morning, he told Rachel that "Roethlisberger wears Number 7." (Yes, I am beaming with pride)

Meanwhile, Noah is really enjoying his crawling. That kid will not stay in one place. He's all over. It looks like he's trying to get up on his knees too.

Until next time...

Kevin’s house

This morning we went over to Yenis and Kevin’s house. We had a nice time and Evan and Kevin played well together. We ate lunch over there. Yenis and I made mac and cheese for the boys and had tortellini for us. We had planned to walk to the park near them, but it was cold outside. It was in the 50s today.

We stayed at their house until around 1:30 and then went to the bank. I had some checks and cash from tutoring to deposit. Evan was very excited about going to the bank. He asked the teller for a lollypop and told her he wanted a green one.

By the time we got home and I put Evan and Noah down for a nap it was 3:00. Evan didn’t fall asleep until probably 4:00. He was just playing in his room until then. He even turned his CD player on at one point.

Evan and Noah slept until about the time Morry got home. Then, we went to a new restaurant that opened near us. It’s called Natural Planet. We liked it and would go back there. Morry got a hamburger and I got a pasta with veggies. We were also able to order edamame for Evan.

At home I was finishing folding laundry and Evan was running around with his clean truck sheets. I put the pillowcase over his head and thought that was really funny. Then, he wouldn’t let me take it off. He was running around pretending like he couldn’t see and was running into things. Then I took the sheet and hung it from the dining room half wall to the couch to make a little tent. Evan loved that too.

Lots of stuff

Today was a busy day. I started out the day at the doctor’s. I went to his office yesterday (when Blanca was here taking care of the boys) and right as I was about to see him he got called to deliver a baby so they asked if I could come back today. This morning after I dropped Evan off at school I took Noah with me to the doctor. I had to go to the lab to get my blood drawn (thyroid check) and had to wait forever. It was really annoying.

Then, I went to Ana’s house. She was having a skin care demonstration for products she sells. It was for all her Spanish speaking friends, but she invited me since I understand Spanish. One of the other women had her daughter with her. This girl was almost 2 and she loved Noah. She kept coming up to him and blowing raspberries. Noah started doing it back to her. Everyone thought that was pretty funny that he imitated her.

After that Noah and I went home for a little bit so I could take care of the laundry and get the next load started. Then, it was time to pick up Evan.

When I walked in Evan ran up to me and was very excited to see me. In his folder were hand print painted turkeys that they made the other day. It was very cute. I asked Evan if he made it and he said yes very proudly. Then he told me he wanted to put it on the fridge.

In the car I asked Evan if he had a good day and then if he was excited to see me. He said ,"Yes, I ran to Mommy. That made Mommy very happy."

I really needed to go to HEB, but I didn’t want to push Evan if he was too tired. I asked Evan if he wanted to go home or to HEB and he said HEB. Evan and Noah were very good there and I was able to get what I needed. I also saved $14 with coupons.

By the time we got home it was nap time. Evan and Noah went to sleep really easily and Evan actually stayed in his bed during his nap.

For diner we made cheesy foldovers http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Cheesy-Foldover-16578

Now Morry and the boys are upstairs watching the Steelers game.

Evan did it!

Manuela came over around 9:30am. I tutored one student from 10-11:30 and another from 12-1. I got home around 1:30. Manuela said everything went well and Noah was already taking a nap. She said he was very tired and she put him down around 12:45.

Blanca came at 3:15 and I tutored one student for 2 hours.

On the way home I picked up Freebirds (burritos like Chipotle).

Noah is in a stage of always wanting attention or being held. After dinner he was crying while we were trying to clean up. I got on the floor and played with him and he was as happy as can be. When it was time for me to get back to cleaning up, Noah starting screaming again.

We gave Evan and Noah a bath tonight. After the bath, while I was feeding Noah, Morry had Evan sit on his potty. After just a few minutes Evan looked up at Morry and said, “I made pee pee.” Yea! We were all very excited. He’s still not close to being potty trained, but at least this is one step closer.

Evan speaks Spanish!

I walked Evan to school today. Then, I walked back home and it was time to turn around and come right back to school for Evan’s parent-teacher conference. Morry worked from home today, so we went together with Noah to meet Wendy. It was fun hearing about Evan and how he is doing at school. Wendy said he’s doing great and meeting all the developmental milestones. It really seems like she takes the time to get to know the kids. She said the only thing Evan needs to work on is cleaning up, especially after lunch. She said after lunch he just wants to run off and play.

Morry picked Evan up at school. When he got home I noticed there were stamps on his arm and I asked where he got them. He said Ms. Aranza gave them to him during Spanish. I asked what he learned in Spanish class and he said “ojos (eyes)”. I was so impressed. I asked where his ojos were and he pointed to his eye. I asked Evan what else he learned and he pointed to his nose and then said “nariz.”

Blanca came at 2:00. I had an appointment for a mammogram. My doctor and I figured it was a good idea to get a baseline test since there is a history of cancer in the family. After the mammogram I had some time to kill before tutoring so I went over to Marshall’s. I went there to look for shoes for Evan, but didn’t find any wides in his size. They had some great deals and I bought a few things for me.

I got home at 8. We just put the boys to bed.


I just wanted to add…. When we were getting Evan ready for bed tonight, he was at his sink drinking some water and he spilled it on his pajama top. I brought him in his room to get another top. He wanted the truck pajamas, so I put the top on. He wanted the bottoms of the truck pajamas too, but I refused since the pajama pants he had on where fine and dry. Well, when Morry went upstairs to put Evan back to bed Evan said, “I put these on.” Morry looked down and saw Evan had taken off his other pajama pants, got his truck pajama pants out of his drawer, and put them on by himself.

Morry’s Back

Last night Noah woke up at 4am for some reason. I couldn’t find his pacifier in his room and had to run downstairs to get another. By that time Noah was screaming. I had to rock him a while to get him calmed down.

This morning Manuela (Ana’s nanny from Mexico) came over to take care of the boys so I could tutor. I would have had Blanca come, but Blanca has classes in the morning. I tutored from 10-12. I met one of my students at the library to help him study for the math part of the GRE. Manuela said the boys did well. Manuela pretty much only speaks Spanish, but can understand a little English. It was good practice for me.

When I got home I took Evan and Noah in the front yard. Evan played on his motorized car for a little bit, but then wanted to ride his bike. He’s really getting good at riding his tricycle. He was peddling and steering on his own. While we were outside we saw Blanca and Rita. Evan was showing off for Blanca.

Evan and Noah took great naps today. They each slept about 3 hours!

We made pasta for dinner tonight and then took a short walk

Whew!

Man, it’s tough taking care of the boys alone.

This morning I took them to Ruta Maya (a coffee shop) for a kid’s show. Noah loved watching and listening to the lady play guitar. Evan loved the last song about bubbles because she had a bubble machine blowing bubbles for all the kids.

After Ruta Maya we went to HEB.

Then, we came home, ate lunch, and went to Kevin’s 3rd birthday party.

The weather was great and they had most of the party outside. Evan painted and was easily the messiest kid there. See pictures below. They even had baby toys and a mat for the few babies that were there. Since the boys didn’t have a nap it was sort of tough by the end of the party. Noah fell asleep in my arms and Evan was acting pretty tired.

At the party Evan was playing with Kevin’s Diego Doll and I found it interesting that Evan was being very gentle with the doll and holding it like a baby.

I had planned on giving Evan a bath or shower when we got home and then just making pasta for dinner. Alissa called and asked if we would like to go out to dinner with her and Molly and then she could help me bathe the boys.

We went to Chipotle. The kids were good, but Evan didn’t each much. At home Alissa helped me give Noah and Evan a bath. She was a big help. It would have been very hard for me to do that on my own.

Today is Nolan’s birthday so I had Evan and Noah send a video greeting to him. I posted it to YouTube, so you should be able to see the video at the bottom of this page.