Kevin’s House and Panera

Last night neither Evan nor Noah slept well for some reason. Noah was up a few times. Evan woke up crying at one point. I’m not sure why. He said he needed a diaper change, but it was just a wet diaper. I didn’t sleep well.

This morning, I thought it would be good to get out of the house. I thought maybe we would go to the mall. The weather still isn’t great. It was supposed to rain on and off all day.

I called Yenis and we originally planned to meet at the mall, but then we started talking and both of us decided the mall might not be a good idea because of the whole Swine Flu scare. She invited us to come over and play.

Yenis has a nice covered back patio. Even though it was humid and a little wet, we were still able to play on the patio. Evan, Noah, and Kevin played well at first. Then, for some reason Evan and Kevin started getting cranky and not playing to well together. We had fed them snacks, but thought maybe they were still hungry. Evan threw a fit when it was time to leave Kevin’s house to get lunch. Evan said, “I don’t want to go to dinner.” He gets lunch and dinner confused some times. We managed to get everyone out of the house and we went to Panera for lunch. The weather had cleared up some and we were able to sit outside. All 3 kids did well. Evan and Kevin played for a while after lunch.

We came home for naps around 2:00. It has just gotten quiet upstairs and Lizzy started barking. It woke or disturbed Evan from almost sleeping. Evan never ended up napping. Noah slept well though.

Blanca came at 4:00. I tutored one student and got home at 6:00.

We had grilled chicken with carrots and celery for a side.

Noah got real cranky, but as soon as Morry cut up watermelon and put in on his tray he calmed down. Both boys ate a ton of watermelon. Morry couldn’t cut it fast enough.

We just gave the boys baths and put them to bed. So far, so good. Let’s hope for a better night tonight.

The Zoo

Last night it was very windy and Lizzy woke us up around 3am. She was whining and shaking. Something was really scaring her. She acted like this last time it was really windy out. There is a tree that was scraping the window when the wind blew and we believe it was making a noise that she didn’t like.

This morning we were woken by the dog next door. The barking was better for a while, but suddenly he has started barking more.

The weather was very nice today. I wanted to do something outside with Evan and Noah. I asked Evan where he wanted to go. I gave him a few choices and he chose the zoo.

At the zoo we bought a bag of animal food for $1. They have a few different cages where you can feed and/or go in with the animals. We stopped first at the goats and sheep. Evan fed some of them and we went in the fence with the goats. Noah liked petting the goat.

Then, we rode the train. They have a little 15 minute train ride that goes around the outside of the zoo. You don’t see many animals, but lots of nice scenery. Evan and Noah loved the train. There was a mom and two little girls sitting behind us and Noah kept turning around to smile at them.

Next, Evan said he wanted to see the pigs. We watched the pigs for a while and then went to other parts of the zoo. Evan found the monkeys most interesting. We sat there for a while. Evan also liked the parrot (or some kind of talking bird). He thought it was very funny when the parrot would say, “hello” or meow like a cat. After we saw all the animals we went back to the area where you can feed them. Evan fed the deer for a long time.

Evan was very well behaved the whole time at the zoo. When it was time to leave, he didn’t even throw a fit.

We came home for lunch and naps. Noah napped, but Evan didn’t.

I had a student come to the house from 5:00-6:30 and then we ate dinner.

Evan and Noah are playing with Morry now. We’ll put them to bed in a little bit.

Dentist

This morning both boys woke up early for some reason.

Morry worked from home today since I had a dentist appointment.

In the morning, after breakfast I went for a run with Evan and Noah in the stroller and Lizzy on the leash. I ran 3 miles again. It was tough. While I was running I saw a loose dog. As we got closer I thought it looked like Dingo, our next door neighbor’s barking dog. I couldn’t do anything since I had the boys and Lizzy with me, so I told Morry about it when I got home. We looked in the neighbors yard and Morry even knocked on the fence, but we didn’t see Dingo. Morry drove back to the spot (pretty far from our house) but didn’t see him. There really wasn’t much more we could do.

I had a 12:00 dentist check-up appointment. Morry fed the boys lunch and watched them while I was gone.

When I got home I put Evan and Noah down for a nap and was able to nap a little until I was woken by dog barking. I guess somehow Dingo made it home or he was never really gone in the first place.

Morry had a Capitol City Young Democrats meeting tonight at 6:00, so I got dinner ready while he was gone. When he got home around 7:30 we ate our pasta and soup.

Evan and Noah are in bed now, though Noah is still up. He’s playing with his bear. Noah has this musical teddy bear Aunt Susan got him when he was a little baby. Noah loves that doll and sometimes we’ll hear him playing with it in the middle of the night.

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...

I voted

Today I took the boys to early voting. We only had to wait in line about 5 to 10 minutes. I asked Evan where he wanted to go after. I gave him a choice of the park or bookstore. He chose the bookstore. He loves to go to Barnes and Noble and play with the train table. It’s nice because it gives me a chance to sit down and order a cup of coffee. Noah enjoyed sitting by the trains and playing with the toys.

Neither Evan nor Noah took a nap today. I tried, but for some reason they wouldn’t nap. I finally got Noah to sleep. He was asleep for a few minutes, but then the neighbor’s dog started barking and woke him up.

Evan, Noah, and I played in the front yard this afternoon. Evan rode his bike and we walked down to the end of the cul-de-sac to look at all the Halloween decorations. We walked back and got popsicles to eat outside. Evan loved it, of course. I gave Noah a little of mine. He kept trying to reach for more. He looked so cute with the red popsicle juice all over his lips. Morry came home while we were outside and we played a little longer.

We made pasta tonight. We needed a quick dinner since I was going to tutor. I left the house at 7 and got back a little before 9.

Noah is now 7 months old. Hard to believe.

Evan rides his bike, Noah watches

We didn’t do much today. I took the boys in the front yard so Evan could ride his bike. He hasn’t ridden in a while and I thought since the weather was nice, today was a good day to teach him how to use the pedals. I took some video of Evan riding his tricycle on the sidewalk. He was really starting to understand how to use the pedals, but his steering still needs some work.

Of course the neighbor’s dog was barking this morning. I just put the boys down for a nap and the dumb dog started barking again. I actually took video so you can see/hear how annoying this dog is. It is still barking and now Noah started making noise. I tried yelling at the dog, but it won’t stop barking. I’m tired of it waking the boys up all the time.

Yesterday Evan brought home some of his art. He decorated a bat. Below is a picture. He told Morry he made footballs on the bat. Evan’s getting good at making circles. It looks like he even tried to give the bat some eyes, or maybe that’s just a coincidence of where the circles happen to be?

Evan wouln't let me get a picture of him

Muffins at playgroup

Well, the neighbor’s barking/howling dog woke the boys up again. At least they were able to go back to sleep for a little bit.

We had playgroup this morning. All of the kids had fun. Evan was happy to see they had muffins there. He was asking me on the way there if he could have a muffin. I think he is starting to associate muffins with playgroup.

After playgroup we went to the bank. I had some checks and cash from tutoring to deposit. Evan gets very excited about going to the bank. He knows if we go inside he will get a lollipop. The teller asked him what color he wanted and he said yellow.

Next, we went to the library. We got some books and also some movies about trains.

For lunch Evan had cat grilled cheese and veggies. He ate pretty well. Noah had a big bowl of cereal, half a container of squash, and half of a container of sweet potato.

Neighbor's Barking Dog

We were awoken again by the barking dog next door. He woke us up at 6 something this morning and then woke the boys up with his barking around 8. That dog is so annoying.

Morry worked from home today. He took Evan to school and we all went to pick him up. Evan seemed to have a good day at school. When we got there they were singing the bubble song. We also got the proofs from picture day.

While Evan was at school I went for 2 mile run with Noah and then to the MOMs club meeting. There was supposed to be costume exchange there. I brought Evan’s old lion costume. It’s a size 0-6 months and I’m not even sure if Noah would be able to wear it this year. Only 2 other people brought costumes. One was the exact same lion costume in a size 12-18 months (too big for Noah) and the other was a giraffe costume for 24 months. So, we came back home with our lion costume. I’m not sure what Noah will be for Halloween. We are hoping to maybe find a Woody costume for him since Evan will be Buzz Lightyear.

Blanca came at 3:45 so I could go tutor. I got home at 6 and we had the brisket that Morry made in the crock-pot. We use the crock-pot pretty often. It’s so easy. We just get the stuff ready in the morning or the night before and then let it cook on low all day.

After dinner we took a walk.

Morry got called to be an extra in a movie, but he can’t do it since they only needed him during the week.