Little Adventures

Tate and I have had several little adventures lately. We've been trying to get to know people and figuring out this enormous place we live in by exploring a lot. We've had a lot of fun.

Our ward has a play group that meets once a week some place to let the kids play. It's fun to explore new places and get in a little adult conversation as well! We went to a really cool fountain/splash area downtown and Tate had a blast running through all the water spouts with the kiddos. He's slowly getting braver about getting water in his face.He liked to find them when they were really little and just stand in front of them so they splashed on his chest.

Another day we went with a couple of ladies to the Houston Aquarium. It was awesome! Tate was in heaven. Fish are REALLY exciting right now. Sometimes when it's unbearably hot and we are bored we go to the pet store and he just runs back and forth in front of the fish tanks saying, "More fishy! More fishy!" So the aquarium was like a magical land to Tate. I wish I had got some good video of his reactions to all the animals.

It was a really cool aquarium with each room all decked out in a different theme. This first room was the Bayou and had huge tanks with gators, turtles, and wierd fish.

The next room was a pirate treasure theme. Tate was in running back and forth, pointing out all the fish to me and copying what all the other kids were saying and doing.

At the end of all the little exhibits there was this room with tanks full of starfish, stingrays, horseshoe crabs and other animals you could reach in and touch. More fun in theory to Tate than in actual practice. These sting rays were very tame and loved to be touched. I held Tate's hand and tipped him over so he could touch one and then it started swinging its tail and jumping up the side of the little containment area and almost came up to Tate's face. It was just very excited to have a little love and wanted more. Unforunately, it scared the jeepers out of Tate and he was done reaching his hand in the water for the day.

Glenn came with us on a few little adventures as well. On Labor Day we ventured out to a local farmers market. It was huge and so cool.
Rows and rows of vendors selling the most delicious looking produce. I wanted everything!There were many fruits and vegetables that I hadn't seen before. It was really cool and Tate had fun pointing out things he recognized. It was also intimidating listening to all of the spoken Spanish. It's been way too long and I'm so terribly out of practice that I was nervous to speak to anyone. But I guess I was nervous even when I was in practice.

We came home with bags of goodies. Tons of broccoli, strawberries, corn, peppers, onions, tomatos, zucchini, mangos, passion fruit, cilantro, and all this for about $12. It was awesome. We'll definitely be shopping for produce there more often.
On Friday, for Glenn's half day of work, we decided to go on a little zoo trip. Tate and I have spent some rainy afternoons this week looking at pictures and videos on the computer of animals they have at the zoo here. He was fascinated by them and started to ask to see the pictures every time he saw the computer on. We bought a yearly pass to the zoo which was super cheap so we can go all the time. Tate loves animals right now so we might make this a frequent activity. We saw some big Cheetas
a family of elephants, two big ones and a little baby,

sea lions, grizzly bears, lions, tons of monkeys , and a whole slew of other fun creatures. I think his favorite part was the little aquarium they had at the zoo. He did a little happy dance when he walked into the room and saw all the tanks.

Well Done

Last night Tate was in his high chair eating his dinner. Glenn let out a loud burp and Tate immediately prompted him, "Excuse me."
I couldn't help but smile. Glenn just glared at me. That last thing Glenn wants is someone else to bug him about manners and such. I think it's wonderful. Good job, Tate.

He's Back

My little boy is back to himself and I'm so glad! He's been just a joy to be around the past week and we're loving all of the funny things he says and new things he's learning. He has said so many stinkin' funny things lately that I just keep writing them down on random pieces of paper so I don't forget. It's about time I put them down in one place.

- Sometimes Tate parents himself. He remembers what we tell him in different situations and says them to himself.

For example: He looked at me the other morning, said, "No throwing." then threw his food on the ground.

He falls down and says to himself, "I fine. It's okay."

He does something that we asked him to do and he tells himself, "Good boy!"

Other favorites in this vein, "Be nice!", "Don't hit!", "Please stop.", and my personal favorite right now, "Talk about it." (Which comes from me telling him, "Tate, just calm down. Let's talk about it.")

- A couple weeks ago at church Tate started shouting, "LA LA LA!" I clapped my hand over his mouth and told him to be soft in church. He slapped my hand away and shouted at me, "MOM, I singing!"

- Tate loves green beans. At least he does right now. He was feasting on them the other night and asking for "more green beans" over and over from Glenn. Glenn finally said, "Are you serious?" and Tate told him, "I serious!"

- Tate has started pretending anything and everything is food. He brings it to me, tells me what it is, and asks me to try some. Cars, toys, his sippy cup, even a bolt of fabric at the store yesterday become, "chocate", "O juice", "bocci" (broccoli), "roni" (macaroni), "fruh toast" (french toast), cookies, etc. He holds them up to me and says, "Mommy. O juice! Try some! Is soooo good!"

- "Daddy Back", said when he's so glad that Daddy is home, or when we leave the room and he wants to go back to Daddy.

- "Music on!" Said emphatically from the back seat of the car. Followed occasionally by, "Oh, pretty music."

- "Night time", we play night night a lot around here. He declares it to be night time, falls down on the floor and pretends to snore for a few seconds.

- "Galishious!" He tells me how much he likes his food. He's getting more and more picky about what he eats, but when he likes it he says, "Mmmmm. So good. It's so yummy. Galishious" over and over as he eats. He can be very enthusiastic about his food and it's great for my self esteem when he likes dinners I make!

- We're always telling Tate he is so lucky because he has so much. The other day we were at the store and he leaned over in the cart, gave me a big hug and said, "Oh SOOO lucky!"

- Sometimes Tate snuggles in bed with me in the morning while he drinks his milk. The mornings when I need just a few more minutes of lying down to get myself to wake up. The other morning he finished his milk, climbed on top of me, gave me a huge hug and said, "Oh. I love you so much!"

He's my little angel boy. He has little tantrums, but not too too often. For the most part he's so content to play and is very quick to giggle and smile at silly things I do. Sometimes I think weeks like this, where I look back and just think he was such a sweetie, are to prepare me for ornery weeks to come. I hope not. I hope he just stays this way. It's much more fun.

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!