Bookstores

This morning Noah had an appointment with the therapist.

After that we went to Half Price Books to get activity books for the kids for our road trip.

Then, we went to the Barnes and Noble for my tutoring.  Noah sat at the table with us while I tutored for an hour and a half.  He did word searches from one of the activity books we picked up at Half Price Books and he drew some pictures.  He was very well behaved.  After tutoring, I let him pick out a snack from Starbucks in the bookstore.  He chose coffee cake.  Noah played at the trains for a little bit and then we went to Petco to get food for Lizzy.

We were home for just a few minutes and then we rode the bike to get Evan.

Tomorrow is Evan's last day of school.

Later this afternoon someone came by to fix the crack in my windshield.

For dinner we had leftover Salt Lick from last night.

We taught the boys how to answer the phone when it rings.  We figured they should know how to do that.  We practiced calling from our cell phone and then asked Zayde to call too.  The boys like that.

The boys cleaned up tonight and now they are in bed.

Bookstore

This morning Evan, Noah, and I went to the vet to drop of Lizzy’s stool sample. Then, I took the boys to Barnes and Noble. I was trying to think of something to do while we were out. I thought they’d enjoy the bookstore. It was too hot to go to the park. Evan and Noah enjoyed playing with the trains.

We came back home and ate lunch. Then, I put Evan and Noah down for naps. They both took really long naps. I put them down around 1:30-2. Noah slept until 4:30 and Evan until 5:30.

For dinner we had hamburgers and salad.

After dinner Morry played with Evan and Noah and I started cleaning the pantry. I got 2 shelves cleaned and organized.

We just gave Evan and Noah baths and put them to bed.

Errands

After I dropped off Evan at school, Noah and I went to run some errands. We went to Michaels to return something. Right next door is Barnes and Noble. I decided to go to the bookstore for a little bit to let Noah play with the trains. That is the first time I have taken Noah there without Evan. I think Noah enjoyed playing trains without Evan bossing him around.

We went to Ulta and then came home. I cleaned up a little, but besides that I couldn’t get much done. Noah was being very clingy and demanding.

We ate lunch and then picked up Evan.

When we got home I put Evan and Noah down for naps. Noah napped, but Evan did not.

Blanca came at 3:00. I tutored and came home a little after 5:00.

We had pasta for dinner. Evan ate really well.

After dinner Morry took the boys outside in the backyard. Morry and Evan played baseball and Morry was very impressed with how well Evan hit the ball.

We gave the boys baths and now they are in bed.

Bookstore and Birthday Party

This morning Evan got up around 9:00. I got up with him and got him dressed. I tried to let Morry sleep, but Lizzy ended up waking him up.

We just hung around the house this morning. I went for a run with Lizzy.

For lunch we went to Natural Planet, a restaurant near our house for lunch. The food was good, but the service wasn’t so great. It took forever to get our food and then it took a long time to pay the bill. Something was wrong with their computer system and they weren’t able to print receipts.

After lunch we went to Barnes and Noble for a little. Evan and Noah enjoyed playing with the train set.

Then, we drove to Barry and Lisa’s house for Lincoln’s first birthday. They have a little rat terrier. Evan spent most of the time outside with the dog and playing on their swing set. Barry and Lisa have a doggie door and Noah discovered how to climb through it. We had a hard time keeping him away from the door. We were inside and he kept wanting to go outside through the doggie door.

After the party we decided to come back home instead of going out to dinner. Neither of the boys had naps since the party was during their nap times. Aunt Susan met us at our house. We called in a order for pizza and dad/Lenny/Papa went to pick it up.

It has been a long day. We are all pretty tired. Hope we all can sleep well tonight.

Bookstore and Bike

Morry worked from home today.

Morry went in Evan’s room when he woke up for the morning and Evan told him he had pee pee in his bed. His diaper had leaked so Morry took the sheets off the bed.

I thought maybe I would take Evan and Noah to the park today, but it was pretty cold today. It was in the 40s so I took them to Barnes and Noble. I asked Evan where he wanted to go today and he said he wanted to go to the bookstore. That was fine with me. Evan and Noah play with the trains while I can sit down and have some coffee. Evan and Noah had a good time. Noah stood for a long time at the train table. A few other kids came over and played. Evan did well sharing the trains. When it was time to go Evan didn’t want to leave. We were looking at some Cars books and he wanted to keep reading them. I couldn’t pick him up since I had Noah in one arm and a gift I was buying for a birthday party in another. Somehow I eventually got Evan to follow me to the checkout counter. Evan wanted to hold the keys to the car, so I let him hold them and press the button to unlock the car. When it was time to get in the car I needed the keys back and Evan threw a fit. He would not get up from the sidewalk. Normally I would just pick him up, but my arms were full. I had to quickly get Noah in the car and then grab Evan. I told him I would take his Geo Trax away when we got home, but he didn’t seem to care. As soon as we got home I packed up all his GeoTrax and put them away for a while. He made me so mad. I told Evan we can’t go out to fun places if he acts like that.

At home I got lunch ready, but Evan didn’t want to sit down. I managed to pick him up and strap him into his seat while he was throwing another fit. His screaming just kept getting louder and louder. I was feeding Noah and all the sudden Evan pulled off his shoe and threw it. He threw it right at Noah’s full cereal bowl and the wet cereal went everywhere. It was all over my clothes, on the floor, on the blinds behind me. It was a mess. Morry came out of the room where he was working to see what was going on. He took Evan up to his room. Evan told Morry he wanted to nap so Morry put clean sheets on the bed and Evan ended up napping.

I had a check up with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor at 2:15pm. That’s why Morry worked from home today. The boys napped pretty much the whole time I was gone.

After naps we went outside so Evan could ride his bike. Morry had Noah in the backpack and we walked around the block. Evan did very well on his bike. He rode the whole way. He’s getting better at pedaling and steering.

Tonight for dinner we went to Abuelo's and then went to the mall afterward. I needed to get the clasp for my watch fixed. When we walked into the mall Evan said he wanted Chick-Fil-A even though we had just eaten dinner. We asked him if he was really going to eat the chicken and he said yes. So, we bought 4 nuggets on the way back to the car. Once we were in the car we gave him the box of nuggets and he ate them all very quickly.

Evan and Noah are in bed now. It seems quiet up there.

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.

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...

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.