Ikea with Nolan and Court

I dropped Evan off at school around 9am. I packed his lunch because I wasn’t sure if he’d be at school the whole time or if we’d meet up with Sherah and family.

When I got home I talked to Sherah and we made plans to meet at Ikea around 11:30. They have kid’s activities and super cheap lunches there all week for Spring Break.

I picked Evan up from school at 10:45. We arrived at Ikea around 11:20. Aunt Susan, Sherah, JW, Noah, and Court had just gotten there too. When we walked in they were handing out green balloons and I put one of Evan’s wrist. He was having a great time playing with it and hitting it. We started walking through the store. It was just a few minutes later and all of the sudden, Evan’s balloon popped. He seemed very surprised. I wasn’t sure if he was going to cry. But, he was ok. We all just kind of laughed about it. I think Evan still wasn’t quite sure what happened. Evan was doing very well walking and staying by the stroller. We stopped in the kid’s section and all of the boys had a great time playing. There was a train set, neat kinds of chairs, tents, a see-saw, … We spent a lot of time in that area.

Then, we went over to the restaurant. We sat down at a big table and I gave Evan his school lunch I had made for him while I fed Noah some applesauce. They were selling kid’s meals for $.49. I bought 3 meals (for Noah, Evan, and I to share) and a soft drink. The whole thing cost less than $4. I ended up eating most of the food. I ordered meals with meat balls, plain pasta, vegetables, and macaroni and cheese. Evan ate some, but Noah mostly threw it on the floor.

After lunch Evan wanted his face painted so we went to stand it line. The line was really long and there was only one person painting faces, so I asked Evan if he would rather go to the park. Of course, he said yes.

We made our way though the rest of the store (which takes forever – they make you walk through the whole store to leave). I bought a few things, so we checked out and went to the park/playground across the parking lot from Ikea.

As we were leaving I thought I recognized Yenis’s car.in the parking lot. I called her and that was their car and they were in Ikea. Yenis told me Kevin said he saw Evan, but Yenis tried to tell Kevin it must have been someone that just looked like Evan.

At the playground the kids had a fun. It was pretty hot and getting close to nap time, so we didn’t stay that long.

On the way home we hit traffic – unusual for that time. Near Mopac and William Cannon they had both directions of Mopac closed and everyone had to get off the highway by driving through the grass. It was a mess. I later found out it was because of fallen power lines.

We didn’t get home until 3:00pm and they boys took great naps. They were exhausted.

For dinner we had already cooked roasted chicken that we just had to heat up in the oven. We had pasta as a side.

After dinner we went to Target.

The boys went to bed late tonight. We just put them to bed around 9:30.

Lots of things on a nice day

Today was a busy day. We did a lot today.

This morning we met Liz, my Spanish teacher friend from West Ridge Middle School. We met her for brunch/lunch at Panera’s. It was a little cold when we first got there so we sat inside. Evan and Noah were very well behaved. Noah ate almost the whole time. I got a blueberry muffin for Evan. It was pretty big. He ate half of it and Noah ate the rest. Noah also ate some of Liz’s bagel, applesauce, and fruit. After we ate we went out to the restaurant’s patio. Evan and Noah enjoyed running and crawling around the patio. It gave Liz and I a little bit of a chance to talk.

After Panera’s we met Alissa, Ben, and Molly at the Circle C Park. When we first got there we saw a man walking a dog that looked sort of like Lizzy. I’m pretty sure Noah said “Lizzy” when we saw the dog. We were there a long time. The weather was great and the kids were playing well and having a good time. We stayed at the park until about 2:00. When we got home both boys were exhausted and took good naps.

Morry met a friend for dinner. One of his friends since elementary school is in town for the South by Southwest festival. Morry went straight from work to meet his friend.

Evan, Noah, and I ate dinner at home. I made mac and cheese for Evan. Noah didn’t eat much. He ended up throwing a lot of his food on the floor.

I needed to go to HEB today. We were out of milk for Evan and we needed some other things. By the time we were able to leave the house it was about 8:00. Evan and Noah were very good at HEB. I let Evan walk next to me and he did very well.

When we got home about 9:00 Morry was home and he helped unload the car and put the groceries away. Then, we put the boys to bed.

The Day That Wasn't

Hello Everyone, this is Morry. Rachel is talking on the phone so she asked me to write the blog.

This morning, Noah got up around 8am, but played very well in his crib for another hour. I got up at 9am and got the boys dressed and brought them downstairs. Evan asked to watch Wall-E so I put that on for him. Both boys were very well behaved until Rachel came downstairs around 11am.

When Rachel got down, we went to Old Navy and Petco. We had some stuff to return to Old Navy. At Petco, we needed to get food for Lizzy. We thought I'd just run in and pick up the food. However, Evan really wanted to come in. Noah and I went and got the food while Rachel and Evan looked at the fish. Then we went over to the section where there were ferrets and mice and hamsters. Evan and Noah just loved watching the animals play. Noah was really smiling.

We got home and made lunch for everyone and then put the boys down for naps.

Today we thought that two things were going to happen. I found out a childhood friend is in town for South by Southwest so I thought we'd be getting lunch or doing something this afternoon. We also thought that Sherah, JW, Nolan, Court and Aunt Susan were going to come down for an early dinner and we'd pick up barbecue.

My friend ended up having a late night and didn't get lunch until the middle of the afternoon. Sherah and JW were very tired and since it's not a short trip down here ended up staying up in Round Rock. I'm going to go to dinner with my friend tomorrow and we'll try to catch up with Sherah and JW later.

Evan didn't end up napping. I was talking on the phone to my mom and I just heard really loud bangs. When I went up there, he had put on his cars boots on and was jumping up and down, purposely trying to make a loud sound. We ended up reading some books together and then played GeoTrax. While he was playing with GeoTrax, I put on the TV and Young Frankenstein was on (one of the greatest movies of all time). Evan actually was watching a bunch of it. I'm not sure how much he understood.

For dinner I made Benihana-style fried rice but mixed in ground beef.

We gave the boys baths tonight but both boys were very cranky in the baths. They are now in bed.

Until next time...

Jungle Java

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel is finishing up putting the boys to bed. Well really it's Evan that she's trying to put to bed. He's being really picky, asking for a certain song to be played. Then he asked to have his humidifier put on. He really knows how to drag out bedtime if he wants to.

This morning, I was awakened to our neighbors having their lawn mowed and leaves blown - at 8am. Yes, 8am on a Saturday. If that happens again, we are going there are going to be some problems. On either side of us we seem to have neighbors that have no regard for our sleep.

Everyone else got up at 9am. We got the boys ready and then we went up to Round Rock to meet Aunt Susan, Sherah, JW, Nolan and Court at a place called Jungle Java. It's an indoor playground, basically. It has these things to climb and tunnels and slides. It's really meant for kids Evan's age. I'd say the ideal age is about 3 to 6. They offer free wireless and fancy coffee for the adults which is why it's called Jungle Java. There was also a little section for kids Noah's age to crawl around. Both boys really enjoyed themselves. Evan was crawling around, swinging on things, going down the slide. He insisted on having help climbing though, even though I know he can do it. We took some good pictures with our new camera. We got lunch there, but I think that was a mistake because Evan was too preoccupied with playing. We ate our lunch and he was running around. During that, I guess he tried to climb up somewhere and got himself in a position that he was too scared to go up or down. So he just sat there crying. I felt awful that he was "stuck". JW found him and then I climbed with him everywhere and he was happy. A 5-year-old little girl named Avery attached herself to Evan and me and wanted the two of us to play with her the whole time. It was nice.

Both boys were cranky when we left because they were worn out from playing. We got home and put them down for naps. Noah actually slept on the way home. We kept Evan awake because if he fell asleep in the car, we wouldn't be able to transfer him.

For dinner, we went to Texas Land and Cattle. We ordered shrimp for Evan. That's what he insisted he wanted. We didn't know, but the shrimp was fried again. He insisted we take off the "bread". He did eat all of his shrimp, some of Rachel's french fries, and applesauce. The whole time he was incredibly well-behaved. Noah was somewhat well-behaved. If he had food he wanted, he was happy.

On the way home, Evan told Noah it was "dark". Then he called Noah, "Dark Vader".

Now the boys are in bed. I bet they sleep pretty well. It was a big day.

Until next time...

Long Oil Change

It was another rainy and cold day. We stayed inside this morning. Yenis, her mom, and Kevin came over for about 30 minutes to play until it was time for us to leave.

We met Morry at Lambs to get my oil changed. When it’s time for oil changes, we normally meet Morry and go to lunch while we wait for the car. This time we went over to Chick-Fil-A and ate a quick lunch. At Chick-Fil-A Evan asked for ice cream. We told him if he was good the rest of the day we’d get ice cream after dinner.

Morry had to be back at work for a meeting. We got back to Lambs after about an hour and the car still hadn’t been serviced. Since Morry had to go to work, I just sat at Lambs with the boys. They told us it would be about another 30 minutes. Well, an hour later my car was finally ready. That was the worst hour ever. Since it was rainy we couldn’t even go outside. They just have a small area with chairs to sit on inside. Evan was very well behaved, but Noah was horrible. He screamed and cried almost the whole time. I tried everything – food, juice, pacifier, diaper change (on the floor since there was no changing station). I don’t know what took so long. I’m sure the crying was driving other people nuts as well. They shouldn’t have made us wait so long. When the car was finally ready I asked if something was wrong with the car because it took so long. They said the car was fine and that it was in the middle of the line and they were waiting on another car to finish, or something like that. When I finally got the boys in the car Noah fell asleep right away. We didn’t get home until about 2:45.

I put Evan and Noah down for naps and they both slept well.

For dinner we went to Hula Hut. Rainy days are the best times to go there. Sometimes you can end up waiting an hour or 2 on a nice day. Since it’s on the lake and most people go for the view, you don’t have to wait long on a rainy day. We got seated right away. Evan and Noah were very good at the restaurant. Both boys ate a ton. We ordered a fried shrimp kids meal for Evan. At first he wouldn’t eat the shrimp. I think he didn’t really realize it was shrimp, even though we told him. As soon as we took the breading off, he ate it up. Evan ate chips, cheese, tortillas, the shrimp, rice, and fruit. Noah had baby food, cheese, a leftover biscuit from last night, chips, and fruit.

After dinner we decided to go to TCBY for ice cream/yogurt since Evan was really good today. When we got there, the store was closed, for good. We felt bad since we told Evan he could have ice cream so we tried to think of other places we could go. We ended up a Wendy’s to get Frosties. In the car Evan kept saying he wanted cherry ice cream or cherries in his ice cream. At Wendy’s we asked if there was a way they could put a cherry on Evan’s kid’s frosty. The guy was very nice and put 2 cherries on top of Evan’s frosty. He was very excited and Evan thanked the guy. It was cute. We spent a long time at Wendy’s, but Evan did end up eating all of his Frosty. Noah ate a lot too. Noah would do the “more” sign before he even swallowed all the ice cream in his mouth.

We got home somewhat late and just put the boys to bed. I hope they sleep since they ate all that ice cream.

Errands and Cleaning

It was another rainy and cold day.

After I dropped Evan off at school I took Noah to Target and Old Navy. I got a coupon today for 30% off at Old Navy. I was just there the other day. Since it wasn’t too far out of my way, I took the clothes back, returned them, and then bought them again for the 30% off. I also got a few other things.

Noah took a nap when we got home. I had to wake him up to feed him lunch.

At school Evan gave me a fake roll and a tub of empty cream cheese he had been playing with. I put Noah on the floor so I could sign out Evan. Noah started playing with the cream cheese container and was very upset when I had to take it away when it was time to go.

We got home a few minutes later Blanca came over to help me out. I had a lot of stuff to do around the house so I asked her to come today. She stayed until about 2:45 and then I put Evan and Noah down for naps. I don’t think Noah ended up sleeping. For about 45min to an hour he was playing in his room, but then he started crying hysterically. As soon as I picked him up he was fine. I couldn’t get anything done after that. Whenever I would put him down he’d start crying again. The only way he would stop crying completely was if he had my full attention.

We had stuffed chicken for dinner. I got it ready while Blanca was here. I sautéed chopped carrots and celery, and rolled it up in the chicken breasts. We have made it a few times. This time I used the food processor to chop up the vegetables and it was so much easier.

After dinner Evan played with his GeoTrax for a little bit. Evan was being cranky and fought going upstairs. He lost his book privilege tonight.

Evan and Noah are in bed now and it sounds quiet up there.