Hello everyone, this is Morry. This is a special weekday edition of my posts. Rachel is not feeling well. She has a sinus infection, so I'm filling in. I'm like the weekend anchor of a news station who fills in during the week when the main anchor can't do it. Also, I'll be gone this weekend so I probably won't post this weekend. I'm going to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers play the Chargers. It will be only the second time I've gone to Heinz Field. The high on Sunday is supposed to be 39 degrees. Remind me, why did I buy tickets for mid-November?

So this morning, when Rachel went to get Evan, she went in his room and he had his diaper off again. He had put the diaper in the Diaper Champ. Again, we are lucky it was not a poopy diaper.

Rachel was not feeling well so she made a doctor's appointment and she and the boys went to the doctor this morning. That's where the doctor said that Rachel had the sinus infection. After the doctor, they stopped by the library and picked up some books and then to HEB to get Rachel's antibiotics.

Other than that, the Rachel and the boys did not do much.

When I got home, the boys were just getting up from their naps. Rachel made soup for dinner while I fed Noah. Noah has begun this really bad habit of blowing raspberries while you're feeding. So basically he spits all over you. He does it the entire time. He did it to Rachel at lunch and me at dinner. I think I'm going to have to start wearing some shield. We're not sure how to stop him from spitting

Noah got a gift yesterday from Rachel's cousins. They are these soft building blocks of different sizes but the are open in the middle. Basically they are like square rings that you can stack. Evan put one on each arm and told us that it was his swimsuit. I think he was pretending they were floaties. He then told us he wanted to go to the beach to go swimming.

Today is Quin's (Evan and Noah's cousin) birthday. He is 3. So the boys made a Happy Birthday video for him. You can see the video down below. After dinner, we called Quin and Evan and Quin talked very briefly. Evan wished Quin a happy birthday.

Before bed tonight, Evan told us he wanted to sit on his potty. He sat there for about 30 minutes. He told us the pee was stuck. I think he's beginning to want to be potty-trained, but I'm not sure that he's aware of when he has to go pee and when he doesn't. Probably after Thanksgiving, we'll take a weekend and really work with him.

The boys are now in bed. It sounds like it's quiet up there. Hopefully it stays that way.

Until next time...

Another cold

I think I either have another cold, bad allergies, or a sinus infection. I was up a lot of the night coughing and sneezing. I didn’t get much sleep. I finally fell asleep around 3 something and then woke up at 7 something.

I drove Evan to school today because not only was I tired, but they were predicting rain. After dropping Evan off I went to HEB to get a refill on my thyroid medicine. We just got new insurance. I gave them the info I had on the new insurance, but for some reason it wasn’t going through. They had my birthday wrong on something. I called Morry when I got home and after talking to someone at his work they said just to use the old insurance info. and they would figure it all out.

I picked Evan up at school and then went back to HEB to get my medicine. This time I had no problems.

When I was changing Evan before his nap he told me he wanted to go potty. He has yet to actually do anything on the potty, but sometimes he will ask to sit on it. He sat on the potty for a few seconds and I gave him a sticker. I give him a sticker every time he sits on the potty. I put Evan back in bed with just a shirt and diaper on. I didn’t feel like putting his jeans back on if he was just going to be in bed, and I thought he’d be more comfortable without the jeans anyway.

Noah went down for his nap pretty easily but Evan wasn’t napping. I went to Evan’s room again. When I walked in he had his jeans on (not zipped or snapped), his shoes on and velcroed (but on the wrong feet), and his socks on both of his hands like mittens. He told me he wanted to sit on the potty again. So, I got him undressed and this time he sat on the potty for a while. Every time I’d ask him if he was done, he’d say no. Evan is still somewhat confused about how to pee in the potty. He kept telling me it didn’t work or that the pee was stuck. After a while on the potty, and still no pee, I put Evan back in his room and he fell asleep at the door by the gate. At least he took a nap. I was able to nap for a little bit too while the boys were napping.

For dinner we just had soup and leftover pasta and bread from the other night.

Chuck E Cheese

Noah slept until 10:30am this morning. I’m glad. He really needed his sleep.

Ben and Molly had off of school today so we went with them to Chuck E Cheese. It was Evan’s first time there. He had a great time. The first thing we did was a little car ride that just moves up and down. Then, we played ski ball. Evan enjoyed rolling the ball and got it in the lower gutter a few times, but could not get it high enough to get any points. We played basketball and some other games. I thought I would try air hockey with Evan. I wasn’t sure if he would understand, but he did really well. He caught on pretty quickly on how to hit the puck. At the end we went to cash in our tickets for prizes. Evan chose an orange lollypop and I decided to save the rest of the tickets for another time so we can get a better prize.

My tutoring schedule for today was 3:30-5:30 and then 6:45-7:45. Since I had a break in between, Morry, Evan, and Noah met me for dinner at Chick-fil-A. We ordered a kids meal for Evan and he barely touched it. We decided to let him play on the playscape and then eat after playing. Evan loved the playscape and climbed all the way to the top, through the tunnels, and down the slide. That was the first time he has done that on his own. After he was done playing he said he was hungry and ready to eat. He ate well and finished all of his nuggets.

I got home around 8:15 and just put the boys to bed.

Need some sleep

Noah did it again. He was up the majority of the night. I don’t know what is going on. Morry and I both think his stomach is bothering him. We were so tired today.

We took Evan and Noah to see Madagascar 2 today. We went to the 11am show. Noah was a little cranky and slept on Morry some of the time. Evan did well and seemed to like the movie. Before the movie they showed a preview of Wall-E for the DVD and Evan got very excited.

After the movie we tried to put the boys down for a nap, but weren’t too successful. Noah maybe slept a few minutes, and Evan didn’t sleep at all.

While they were trying to nap I ran over to HEB to get some food for dinner. We invited the Podbers over.

I made spaghetti, zucchini, salad, roasted garlic and bread. For dessert I made chocolate chip meringue cookies and rice crispy treats. Evan had a good time playing with Ben and Molly. Noah was cranky for a lot of time. I think he was just over tired.

Well, we had a long day, I hope the boys sleep well tonight.

Longhorn Football

Hello everyone. This is Morry. It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in Austin, TX. In case anyone who's in cold weather is wondering, it is 80 degrees and absolutely no clouds in the sky. This is my 11th November in Austin and I'm still surprised when it's not cold in November.

Today the Texas Longhorns were playing Baylor. Since Baylor is not a football powerhouse and they are not a team that is a rival of Texas, we decided to take the boys to the football game. We have 4 tickets, but we were able to sell one to someone who was trying to get in but wouldn't sit with us. We brought Aunt Susan to the game with us. We were told that as long as the boys were going to sit on our laps, they could get in free.

We had Aunt Susan meet us at Barton Creek Mall, which is about halfway between our house and campus (although it's still pretty far from her house). We got ready, put the boys in the car and left. As we were coming to the first light, we realized that we forgot the tickets. I can't believe we forgot them. We talked about them, but neither Rachel nor I got them. So we had to turn around and go back to get them.

When we got to the mall to pick up Aunt Susan, she was telling us that all the cars parked around her were people who had gotten picked up to go to the game. She said they were all talking. There is also an area where you can get on a bus from the mall to go to the game for $5 round trip.

We were able to find street parking but we had a bit of a walk. I put Noah in the backpack and Evan walked along with us. I think he really enjoyed walking across campus. He wanted to touch and look at everything. As we were walking, we came upon a fountain. If we would let him, Evan would just jump right in. Rachel promised him he could touch the water on the way back to the car, but she didn't want him wet right then. Noah also got excited by the fountain. He was jumping and kicking in the backpack

As we came up to the stadium, the band was marching in. We caught the tail end of it and I think Evan enjoyed it. I actually walked in holding Evan while Noah was in the backpack. I gave one ticket and three of us got in.

Once the game started, Evan told me it was loud. It seemed like he enjoyed looking at the football. We were bad parents though, we forgot sunscreen and hats for the boys. I don't what we were doing this morning, but definitely not planning ahead. That's for sure. About half way through the first quarter, Rachel took Evan to go buy hats for Noah and him. Apparently, they also found a Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks has actually infiltrated a college football stadium. Evan told Rachel that he wanted his own coffee. She got him a fruit drink. It's some strawberry cream drink. They also found hats although they were adult size.

At halftime, the Texas band played big band music, including the song "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy." Evan thought the phrase "boogie-woogie" was very funny.

We left midway through the third quarter as Evan was starting to get antsy. Noah did great (as usual) the whole game. He slept on me for most of the first quarter but I think he enjoyed seeing all the people and the sounds. Neither boy was scared of the cannon they shoot off after each touchdown or during kickoffs.

On the way back to the car, Evan did get to touch the water in the fountain. We also got him a strawberry lemonade which he finished.

Now both boys (and Rachel) are taking naps. Rachel and I were able to, at the last minute, organize a date night. We're going to Louie's 106 and then to a place called the Hideout for improv.

Day of Errands

We didn’t do anything too exciting today. We just ran some errands. The boys slept late and then we went to CVS and the bank.

As we were leaving CVS there was a mom and two little boys (maybe around 4 and 5) coming in. Evan was very excited to see the boys. He said, “Look, there’s a boy!” One of the boys noticed Evan, and Evan was very excited that they acknowledged him.

On the way to the bank Evan asked me if he could have a lollypop at the bank. I said he could and he told me he wanted a strawberry one. At the bank the teller gave Evan the box of lolly pops and let him choose which one he wanted. Evan picked the orange lolly pop. Before I got the wrapper off Evan told me he wanted to bite the lollypop. He ate the lollypop very quickly with just a few bites.

Both Evan and Noah were very good at CVS and the bank. I still have Noah in the infant car seat because it is so much easier to get in and out of the car, but it was pretty hard walking around CVS holding the car seat. I’m not sure how much longer I can do that.

For lunch Evan told me he wanted peanut butter and jelly. He helped spread the peanut butter and jelly on the bread. Evan enjoys doing that. I think it helps encourage him to eat his food as well. He finished the whole sandwich.

Evan and Noah took good naps and woke up around the time Morry got home.

We went to BJ’s for dinner and ran into Kennison, Nem, and their boys. They are the ones that bought our old house and who opened up the baby clothes store. We sat and talked to them for a little bit while we waited for our table. We ordered Evan a kids pizza and he actually ate a few slices of it. A lot of the time, when we order Evan something off a kid’s menu he ends up not touching it or hardly eating any. We have found that he has the greatest chance of eating restaurant food if they have pizza.

Evan and Noah just went to bed and so far, so good.

We have to get up somewhat early tomorrow. We are going to the University of Texas football game in the morning. We have season tickets and we decided this will be a good game to take the boys. They are playing Baylor and it shouldn’t be too rowdy.