Choo Choo

A package came in the mail yesterday. It was a surprise from Nanna and it was BIG. I had to wait for Glenn to get home because I couldn't carry Tate and the package up the stairs at the same time. Tate was pretty excited when he found out what it was.

He found the little box with cars and trains and started pushing them around immediately.

He called the table a castle and wanted to climb around in it while Daddy was building it. Then when he figured out what it really looked like he could hardly wait to get in there.
Little Man stood there intently playing with his trains for quite a while. He was so focused he couldn't even answer any of my questions or talk to me. He just wanted to keep pushing his trains through the bridge over and over.

This set is amazing. It's just the right height for Tate and it has a bridge, a big hill, an airport, a farm with animals, an airplane, helicopter, tractor, trains, trucks, an ambulance, a firetruck and tons and tons of other little pieces. It's going to be very well loved and played with for a very long time.

First thing in the morning Tate wants a drink of milk. It's an urgent need most every morning. Not this morning. Tate woke up and as soon as he saw me he said, "Train! Train set! Train! Train!" He couldn't wait to get out and play with it. He didn't remember that he wanted his morning cup of milk for about half an hour.

It took a while but we finally got Tate to listen to us long enough to say thank you! So THANK YOU NANNA! Or as Tate says, "Nake you!"

Control

So maybe I like control. I've been doing a really good job, for me, adjusting to our move here. It's three weeks later and today I'm starting to break down a little bit. This is hard. I've been positive. I've made the best. I've been outgoing, and today I'm tired.
It's a number of things really. My sweet Tate has turned into a food and tantrum throwing mess the last few days. I hope that he's getting new teeth. I hope that he's feeling under the weather because those things will pass whereas if this is a personality shift I'm in trouble. I'm trying to cut the kid a break because I did just take him away from everyone and everything he's familiar with, and he does still have so so many sweet moments. I'm just not used to him being so picky and whiney all the time.
I think it all boils down to this: I can't control my life right now. I can't control where we're going to live in 6 or 12 or 18 months. I can't control how many close friends I have here. I can be outgoing and try to put myself out there. (It kind of feels like I'm dating again. Who will be a good match for me? Can I have your phone number? Where are you from? How many kids are in your family? Wanna have dinner sometime?) But ultimately, it just takes time to make real connections and real friendships with people. I can't control what Tate will eat or how many times he spits things out down his clothes and onto the floor right after his bath, though I do try.

Through all of this, I've found that I enjoy my exercise so much more. That's why I'm committing to training for a half marathon. I'm recording it, I'm committing. I've been training for about three weeks with the attitude of, "I'll try it and see how hard it is. I don't know if I really want to run 13 miles. Who wants to do that? I just won't tell anyone in case I decide not to." I want to do it. Not because I like running. I don't. I really like the feeling when I'm done but honestly, I have a hard time pushing myself very hard or very far. It's all a mental game and it's hard. But I like being able to exercise and it's the easiest way to exercise with Tate because I just push him in our jogging stroller. I've been running for over a year and my body can take it. It's starting to get easier. I want to be able to push myself that hard. I want to be able to tell my son that he can run and be in good shape because I can do it. I don't love to run, but lately, in my out of control state, I'm really enjoying the feeling of pushing my body harder and farther. I tell it not to stop and it won't. I tell myself to ignore that little voice telling me how bored I am and how I'm tired and would like to just stop, and then I just ignore it.
So now I'm committed. I'm going to run the Galveston Seawall half marathon on November 20th and as of today, with my run of the day complete, I'm feeling optimistic.

I know the adjustment will continue to get easier. It really hasn't been too bad. Today has just been rough and thus the venting.

Fun at the Beach

Glenn gets off work at noon every Friday which means we get wonderfully long weekends! This last Saturday we decided to check out the beach so Glenn did some research on good beaches and we drove down to Galveston.

We got in our suits and as soon as Tate saw the water he just took off. He ran right into the water, walked around, dug up handfuls of mud, splashed and didn't want to come out. Then he played with his new beach toys (purchased on super sale at Walmart. One time that I was grateful for the ridiculously early season changes at retail stores.) He played with his new shovel and dump truck and sand molds for hours. He was in heaven. It was so fun to sit in the sand by him and watch him enjoy himself. Every once in a while he would look at his hands then look up at us and say, "Muddy. Muddy." There were "she shells", birdies, lots and lots of dirt, other kids to play with, people flying kites, and these crazy things called waves that would knock him over in the water. It was a day full of discovery.

Silly boy was so busy playing that he wouldn't even stop to eat lunch or take a drink.

On our way home we drove over a bridge and we told him to look out the window at the ocean. He looked out the window and exclaimed, "Huge, huge water!" What a great day!

Birthday Celebration

Glenn's birthday celebration started with Tate and I bringing a cake to his work on Thursday. It was nice to see where he works and meet some of the people he'll be working with. Mostly, we wanted to embarrass Glenn and let everyone know it was his birthday. What's a birthday without a little embarrassment?

Then Friday he worked a half day and then we took off for Dallas. Glenn found out that the Red Sox were playing the Rangers, so of course he wanted to go see them play for his birthday. It was a longer drive than we thought, but it was bearable. Our good friends the Jenkins live just outside of Dallas and were nice enough to ask us to stay with them. We were running a little late and then Tate threw up all over the place so we called Sterling and he drove down to meet us at a gas station and he and Glenn ended up going to the game while I took Tate back to their house to clean up the mess. It was so so great to see them again and especially nice to have a place to do laundry and clean up the car and car seat. It worked out perfectly that Glenn still had someone to go to the game with when Tate was feeling icky.

Tate had a blast playing with Molly and Calvin. They had a little sand box on their balcony which he thought was the coolest.

Molly showed us her many different smiles she saves especially for the camera.

Then we put the Tate and Calvin to bed and Liz and I stayed up talking for hours. It was so fun.

Glenn and Sterling had a great time at the game. They saw some empty seats in a lower section and continued to move down until they ended up four rows behind the Sox dugout. The game was great. It lasted 11 innings and had something like 9 home runs. Very exciting. It was perfect for Glenn's birthday. Of course, the red sox ended up losing but the guys had a great time.

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast with the Jenkins and then went to a nearby splash pad. This was the first time we'd taken Tate and he was really hesitant at first. He's been such a wimp lately about getting water in his face, but by the end of our play time he was walking around getting squirted and splashed like a champ.

The Jenkins were amazing hosts. Liz even made Glenn a baseball birthday cake.

We had a blast. It was so nice to see the Jenkins family again. It's only been a few months but it was crazy to see how much their kids have grown. And it was so fun to spend time with them and catch up.

Tate had another melt down on the way home. We thought he was going to blow again. We had to stop and get him some milk, even though he just finished some, because he was so so mad.

Here is his little puffy face post freakout.

It was a very fun and eventful weekend!

Bad Luck

Glenn has been an amazing good sport for the past two years and taken the bus to school. It has been at least a 40 minute ride and as much as an hour and a half on bad days with traffic. So a couple of weeks ago he finally got what he deserved. His own new car to drive to work! He'd been test driving for a while, but he always knew what he really wanted. A Honda Accord. It's actually a dark grey but it looks black in this night time picture.He's seriously in love with his new car. It's exactly what he wanted, it's pretty zippy, and it's very nice inside. That's why our latest streak of bad luck unleashing itself on Glenn, and more specifically, on his car, has been so sad.

We decided to have the movers move Glenn's car. It was an option and we figured it would be nice to drive together and only put the miles on one car, etc. As the movers were loading it on the truck the ramp slipped just enough that the car smashed against the side of the truck. They tried to correct it, but what resulted was a huge scratch in the side of the car. Their insurance will take care of it. But it was still pretty sad after not even owning the car for a week!

Then on Glenn's second day of work he caught a huge rock in the middle of the windshield resulting in a rock chip almost as big as a penny.

THEN as we were driving to Dallas this last weekend for Glenn's birthday (more details to come) I was trying to keep Tate happy in the back seat and we were watching little videos of him on my camera and he just errupted. It was so so very much vomit. It was a lot and it was over and over again. He probably threw up 4-5 times in a row and by the time we could pull the car over his car seat was soaked and it had run down the cracks, through the back, and down the sides and all over the car. It was just pouring down into the seat belt slots. So gross. We have no idea what happened because Tate didn't throw up again. We think he must have just been car sick. Glenn was a great sport. We had to adjust our plans a bit but we eventually got it cleaned up. Now his car smells great again.

And finally, to conclude (hopefully) this string of bad luck Glenn got a brand new phone for his birthday on Friday. It was very nice and very high tech and exactly what he wanted. He did research on services that are the best in the places he will be traveling for work this year and found the perfect phone. He played with it all weekend and uploaded apps and all sorts of other things. And then on Monday he took it to work and it got stolen. Ah...good times. Luckily we got insurance on it so they're going to get us another one eventually (it's on back order), after we pay a nice deductible of course.

28

Happy Birthday honey! Today, my man turns 28! I have a feeling it's going to be a great year.

We just wanted to tell you thanks for being such a dedicated, serious minded, hard worker, teaching us all the things in life that really matter, showing us by example how to lighten up, slow down, and enjoy the good things in life,

spending real quality time with us,

sharing so many amazing adventures as a family,

and being an all around fantastic dad and honey!Happy birthday and happy first week at your new job! We're so grateful for all that you do and proud of everything you have accomplished to land yourself such an awesome job. Thanks for taking such great care of us my honey! Have a wonderful day!

Love,

Kim and Tate

New Digs

Here are a few pics of our new place:

View from the entryway. Kitchen directly to the left. Little dining space directly to the right. Master bedroom and bath are to the left after the counter and Tate's room, guest bath, and the third bedroom which we're using as an office/sewing space right now are all to the right past that closet.Nice big family room. The little sun room back there has my piano in a little nook to the left, and Tate's toys in a nook to the right.View of kitchen and front door from the family room. Yes, it's messy and the counters are really cluttered right now. Judge if you must.

Our swimming pool which is just down the stairs from our place. Very nice. Cool fountain, big sloping area meant for lounging in chairs in the water but it's perfect for little man to walk and play around in. The only issue I have with it, and I'm really really hoping it's because something is broken and will be fixed, is that it is warm. I mean like warm bath water warm. Not refreshing in 100 degrees plus humidity. Seriously, something must be broken.

The gym/club house with arcades and pool table is the building to the left. View from the hallway outside our apt. The freeway is on the right and those are some garages. Our garage is literally the very furthest one from us, way down the line there. Hopefully we will be able to change that as others become available because right now we're not parking in it, just using it to store Christmas stuff and winter clothes and such.It's a nice, comfortable and spacious apartment. Anyone wanna visit?