Starting to feel like fall

After I dropped Evan off at school, Noah and I went to Target and then 24 Hour Fitness for the Latin Dance aerobics class. I’m still not a member of the gym, but since Yenis is, she is able to get me in as her guest. This time Noah did well in the childcare and I was able to finish the class.

I got gas today for $2.66/gal (regular). I’m so glad the gas prices are dropping. It only cost $46 to fill up today compared to $70 I was paying before.

Morry worked from home today since I had a doctor’s appointment (post-op check-up with the ENT) in the afternoon (during the boys naps). Morry picked Evan up at school. When Morry got there, he called out to Evan, but Evan didn’t hear Morry call him. He was too busy playing. Eventually, he realized Morry was there and was super excited. It’s a real treat for Evan when Morry picks him up from school.

The weather was nice today. It cooled down a lot. We took a walk after dinner and we had to wear pants and sweatshirts.

Gelato

We met Kevin and Yenis.. Alissa also came with us. We went to a place called Teo, a coffee and gelato shop. We got there around 11 and they still didn’t have the gelato out for the day. I guess it was still early? They had a few to choose from. I got Evan a cookies and cream, and I had half cookies and cream and half pumpkin. It was good and Evan finished all of his. We sat outside. It was a little humid, but still nice.

After we ate we walked around the shopping center. It was a cute little area with lots of small unique shops. We went in a toys store that sells man-made wood toys. There’s even a window where you can watch them make the toys. Kevin and Evan had a great time. They had various musical instruments, trains, rocking horses, … Noah seemed to like looking at all the stuff too.

On the way home we stopped at Big Lots. Evan enjoyed walking around the store. He kept picking random items off the shelf that he wanted to bring home with us. I did buy Evan a couple of toothbrushes. They had comic strip character toothbrushes, so I bought him a Hulk and Spiderman toothbrush.

Blanca came to babysit at 4:45 since I had students to tutor. She stayed until Morry got home. I got home around 8 and we ordered Chinese food for dinner. It was just ok. They gave us egg rolls instead of spring rolls, which neither one of us ate.

Evan answered the phone

When we got to Evan’s school today, Wendy (the teacher) was reading a book to a few kids. Evan ran in and said, “Hi Wendy!” He was so happy to be there.

After I dropped Evan off at school, I took Noah with me to HEB, Kohls, Babies R Us, and Hobby Lobby to return a few things. It was a lot of in and out of the car and having that infant car seat made things easier even though it weighs a tons. It’s so easy just to pop the car seat in and out and make quick trips. It will be harder when we move him to a regular car seat.

I did some cleaning up around the house, fed Noah, ate a quick lunch and then it was already time to pick up Evan.

At home, I was changing Noah in the office downstairs and Evan was in there with me. The phone rang and I thought it would probably be Morry so I asked Evan to pick up the phone (he’s never answered the phone before). He picked it up and I told him to say hello and that I was busy and I’d be there in a minute. I think he managed to say hello, but he wasn’t saying anything else. I asked Evan who it was and he told me it was Kevin’s mommy. I finished changing Noah and sure enough it was Yenis, Kevin’s mom. :)

I tutored for 2 hours this afternoon and Blanca babysat.

Downtown and the Capitol

So, we were supposed to go to Little Buckaroo Ranch today with the MOMs group. I was getting ready this morning, but hadn’t yet looked out side. I got a call from the president of the group telling me the trip had been canceled due to rain. Sure enough, I looked outside and it was raining. We weren’t supposed to get rain until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Alissa, Ben, and Molly had planned on coming with us but now that it was cancelled we had a hard time trying to figure out what do instead. Both Alissa and I did some searching online. We were trying to find free or cheap things to do with the kids. We decided to go to the IMAX theater for an 11am show. I had a hard time getting out of the house in time. I got both kids dressed and got all the stuff together we would need for the day then had to wipe Lizzy completely off after she came in from the rain. She and Simon (the dog behind us – not the next door dog) had been playing and she was covered with mud. By the time we got to the ticket counter at the museum where the IMAX is it was 11:20. They wouldn’t even let us in since the movie starts right on time. There are no previews.

When we came out of the museum there was a ‘Dillo bus stopped outside. I thought the dillo buses were free and I stepped up onto the bus to ask the driver about the route and how much it cost. The driver said it was 50 cents and it wasn’t really a route we wanted to go. While I was on the bus talking to the driver Evan walked up the steps of the bus, went right to a seat and sat down. He seemed disappointed when I told him weren’t riding the bus.

We decided to walk a few blocks down to the Capitol building. They offer free tours, but each tour is 45 minutes and we thought that might be too long for the kids. So, we just walked around on our own around the Capitol. We brought our lunches and ate in the cafeteria there.

After lunch we walked to the grassy area in front of the Capitol and let the kids play a little while I fed Noah on a bench.

Then, we went to the visitor’s center where they had a few kid friendly exhibits. We stayed there only a few minutes because we needed to get back to the meter which had a 3 hour limit.

When we got home Evan was so tired I put him right to bed, and he stayed in his bed his whole 3 hour nap. Noah took a good, long nap as well.

Lazy Sunday

This is Morry again. I guess we're establishing some kind of pattern that I do one post a week - either on Saturday or Sunday. It seems I have gotten more mentions this week in the blog, so that's good.

Rachel and I tend to take turns on the weekends in dealing with the boys. One morning, Rachel will get up when the boys get up and let me sleep. Then I'll get up with the boys the other morning. That's how it worked this weekend. The good news is that the string of being woken up by the neighbor's dog has been broken.

Allow me to rant for a minute. Why would you have a dog and then keep the dog outside? It's ridiculous. There's no point in having a dog if you're not going to spend any time with it. The city of Austin has a law that you can't keep a dog outside unless you have a dog house. There should be a law against keeping your dog outside period. Basically, if you get a dog and keep it outside, then you're making your neighbors deal with your problem. You're so worried about the barking in the house and the damage in the house that you keep the dog outside so that your neighbors have to hear it bark all day. If anyone reads this blog and keeps their dog outside, email me or call me. I'll be happy to give you more of my views directly to you. But first, get a crate and keep the dog inside.

Ok, now back to the regularly scheduled blog. So this morning, I got up with Noah. He got up at 7:15am and I gave him his pacifier. This happened again at 7:45. Finally around 8am I got up and made a bottle for him and fed him. I put him in the swing in our room after that for about 20 minutes or so before he started making noise and Evan got up and he was making noise. So I got the boys dressed and came downstairs. Before we came downstairs, Evan asked me to dance with him to the song "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story.

When we got downstairs, Evan told me he wanted to watch the Steelers game. I told him the Steelers weren't playing this week. So he told me he wanted to watch Toy Story 2 instead. Meanwhile, Noah was on the floor on his mat sitting up, playing with the toys hanging from the mat. He was so happy. Eventually, he fell over and rolled around for awhile. At one point he was struggling to reach his pacifier. I was hoping he'd crawl, so I let him try to get it. He finally got it, put it in his mouth and fell asleep, right there on the floor. He looked so cute.

When Rachel got up, we went to Central Market. Rachel wanted Almond Butter, some coffee, and some fruit. Evan loves going there because he gets fruit samples. He had an apple, watermelon and pineapple. He turned down the Raspberry Apple Cider sample. Rachel said "Good. More for me." It was really good. For those of you who don't know, I love this time of year. I love when it's apple season and the Honey Crisps are out and the good apple cider is out.

When we got home, we had some lunch. We had gotten some candy corn at Central Market and Evan couldn't wait to finish his lunch so he could have some candy corn.

Then we put the boys down for their nap. Evan just got quiet a little while ago - about 1.5 hours after we put him down. But while I was typing this, Noah got up. He's now sitting in my lap, pretending to type - but really just messing up my typing :)

Tonight, Rachel organized an event for the South Austin Jews (a group she set up). We're going to eat the Austin Java Company on Barton Springs. It's unclear how many people will make it.

Before I end this, I have to act like the proud Dad that I am. So last week, we went out to dinner and the Rays vs White Sox playoff game was on in view from our table. Evan said "Look Daddy! The Pirates". I said "No, this is the playoffs so it can't possibly be the Pirates." (If you had told me, when I was devastated in 1992 when the Pirates lost in the bottom of the 9th to the Braves in game 7 of the NLCS, that I'd have a son who could recognize baseball and the Pirates still wouldn't have had a winning season in the interim, I think I would have cried harder than I actually did) Then during the Texas-OU game, he told me he'd rather watch the Steelers. Boy, have I taught this kid well. And finally, in a non-related sports moment, Evan read his first word out-of-context. We read to him every night, so for the books he sees enough, he starts to memorize what some of the words say. But in this case, we were reading a book and he pointed out the word "cat" and told us what it was. He really shows an interest in reading. He must take after his Aunt Rachel and Aunt Fran in that way.

Until next time...

Shopping

I yelled out our window at the barking dog this morning at 7:45am. I hope our neighbors heard us.

We did a lot of shopping this morning. We really needed to find some nice clothes for Evan and Noah for our Chicago trip in a couple of weeks.

The people that bought our old house just opened up a baby/toddler clothing store in our neighborhood so we went over there first. The store was very nice and they had some really cute, but expensive clothes there. We bought 2 long sleeved shirts for the boys and a bath toy for Evan. Just those few things cost us $60.

Then, we went over to Sports Authority. I had some running shoes to return. I got better ones a while ago at the San Marcos outlet and I needed to return the other ones. Next door was Marshall’s so we went in there and got a few cute clothes for Evan. We got Evan a sweater for $12, jeans for $12, and a shirt for $4. A few stores down from Marshall’s is Carter’s so we went in there as well. We got a ton of stuff at Carter’s. They had a whole clearance sections with shorts and t-shirts for $1.59 each. We bought many shorts, t-shirts, and a few other nice things for Noah there, as well as socks for both boys. We spent only $40 for all of that. What a deal!

When Evan was supposed to be napping we heard him yell through the monitor, “Daddy, where are you, Daddy?”

For dinner we went to Logan’s. It’s a good place for Evan. There’s a lot of food there he will eat. He loves the peanuts and the bread rolls. I think what he likes most about the peanuts is being able to throw the shells on the floor. I’ll put a video on Youtube of Evan eating/throwing peanuts at the restaurant. Look at the bottom of the page for it.

On our way home Evan told us he was cold. Since it wasn’t cold in the car I asked Evan if he was ok, if he was sick. He said, with a smile on his face, “Yes, I’m sick. I need Sprite.” He remembered that last time he was sick we let him drink Sprite. Anyway, I don’t think he is sick. He was acting fine tonight.

When we got home Morry and I decided to put the lion costume on Noah. It was Evan’s costume 2 years ago. We wanted to make sure it fit just in case we couldn’t find another costume for him. He looked really cute in it. Below are a few pictures.

Evan roaring at Noah

I was trying to keep Evan still so I could get a picture of him holding the Halloween card we got from Mike and Jen