John's Aggie Football Experience

Oh my....I've been so blog-lazy lately. Y'all have probably even stopped coming by!

I am sitting at my computer forcing myself to write something....anything...just so I can catch up here!

John has officially given up his nap time. We were having huge blowouts around the time he hit his "difficult threes" stage a month or so ago. He was not tired at all (even when school started-to my dismay) so we shifted to quiet time instead. This seems to work better but in a matter of a few days we went from daily, predictable 3 hour naps to 1 hour of quiet time. YIKES! It's defnitely been an adjustment for me. All my "free time" is now condensed to one little hour during the day. This doesn't bode well for my blogging/sewing/crafting/furniture painting obsession. Blogging is what gets edged out in the hierarchy here. At least he's been going to bed earlier...BONUS. He actually has gotten a whole lot better attitude-wise so that's another BONUS. But still...ONE HOUR?! :(

So let's talk about John's first Aggie game this season....that happened about 3 weeks ago but it must be documented.

The little man is obsessed with Aggie football. Does that surprise anyone that knows Kyle? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

John was taking it all in as we entered the stadium. I couldn't tell if he was scared or just in awe. He barely said a word the first 15 minutes....he was speechless! And that is hard to do to Loquacious Little John

 Cousin Sadie was in attendance and she was having a BLAST clapping during the Aggie War Hymn

Aaaaaannnnndddd....the most anticipated event of the game was not the game itself but the halftime assembly at the North End of Kyle Field: The Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band!

After a bout of boredom during the 2nd quarter happy John returned. Have I mentioned The Band is his new obsession? Well, it is and here they were in PERSON! Not YouTube, not Baby Aggie video....live and IN PERSON Aggie Band. John was in heaven....

 Had to take this family pic of us at the end of the game looking mighty "shiny", to put it kindly....I promise being on the field after the game was another highlight of the experience for John although he looks like he's going to cry. He was annoyed I made him take a picture

 GIG 'EM!

 GIG 'EM with mom

 GIG 'EM with Cousin Belen

 Although it was 9:30 at night John was super jazzed about running around on the football field after the game. Who's tired? Not me!

 Running with my water-bottle "football"! No one can stop meeeeee!

 And because this picture was so funny....as soon as we got back to our room dear old Sadie was dead asleep...with an emphasis on the dead part. This room was brightly lit but she was out like a candle flame in a hurricane.....gone...arms spread and surrendered!

We left Anna with my parents so Kyle and I could enjoy taking John to his first Aggie game that he could actuallyfully experience. He had been during his first year of life but not since so it was a nice treat to see him experience it. Little Anna will just have to wait a bit for her Aggie experience. She certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the constraints of the stands. Anna is a woman on the move, a woman with a purpose, Ms. Busy Pants don't sit still for no one....More on her in the next post!

1st Day of School 2010

When I signed Anna up for Mother's Day Out in February it was hard to believe that my 11 month old (who wasn't even walking at this point) would be headed to "school" with John in the fall. Now it's September and here they go....
**sniff**sniff**

Not sure how John looks like a 4 year old in this picture?! He is seriously not that big...this is his picture from last year. What a baby! This year he just looks like a really BIG boy to me

And someone is a teeny-weeny bit too excited about school for me...hmmmm

The official report from the teachers is that "John had a great first day!" I had a feeling he would love it when he walked in his new classroom without a second look back and I had to remind him for a kiss good-bye (because I can still do that since he's 3!). Anna had a hard time at drop off but the teachers said she got much better as the day went on. Mrs. Gehman reported that Anna was crying on the playground and since John's class playground time overlapped with Anna's class he went over  to console her and played around where she was and she stopped crying. Sweet brother!
On another note, Anna is modeling one of the dresses I made for her. I went on a dress making frenzy this past week. All of the sudden I realized that Anna didn't really have many casual-type school dresses so I went into overdrive to make a few. I have so much pretty fabric that I really needed to do something with it already!

I finished this little pinafore dress last night. LOVE this dress AND it's reversible AND it is sooo stinkin' easy to make! Here is the back.

The reverse is a pretty red with tiny white polka dots...

Appliques are my new favorite thing so I had to add a big ol' A

So in true Lori fashion I finished the dress the day before and it's long enough to wear with some of her existing bloomers or legging but it does open in the back if she bends over and I wanted her to have some more "coverage", ya know? So I debated....do I make bloomers? Let me be clear: I've never EVER EVER made or attempted to make anything closely resembling bloomers or pants and Anna is asleep so she can't try them on for fit. Do I do this?

At 9 PM the answer is no, at 10 PM I freak out and decide I MUST do this. It's a first day of school outfit. It must be perfect and complete in every way. I grabbed an existing pair of her bloomers as a guide, stared and stared, drew a half-cocked pattern and muddled my way through. 45 minutes later I had this!

I can't believe I'd never attempted bloomers. They're not bad. And after school she wore them around as shorts with a white t-shirt. Look out....Bloomer City

A Time To Play

In between all the stuff going on the past few weeks we've also had time to play and enjoy the last weeks of summer before Mother's Day Out starts....

 

Three Weeks in Bullets

Where have we been the past few weeks? I don't know where to begin so I'll just bullet point it so we can pick up where we are now:

- The past few weeks John has had a case of "THE THREES". An intimidating and abrupt swing in personality change that, after 2 weeks, has died down to a manageable level. For a while I was wondering what happened to my child and what happened to my effectiveness as a parent. After talking to a few other friends with 3 yr olds I discovered I'm not alone in this stage where my little man is asserting his will and independence and testing boundaries. Grrrrrr.....

- We went to Galveston a few weekends ago with 2 families. Shannon's crew graciously hosted our family and Leslie's family. 6 adults and 5 kids had a fun time. So much fun and relaxation that I barely pulled out my camera and only have 2 pictures!

- After Galveston, John got a weird 24 hour virus and was throwing up all night. He couldn't even hold down water. It's been a while since he has been sick so it was hard to see him all messed up. Unfortuantely he managed to hold on to his "angry" temperment even while sick.

- I got sick after John. No vomiting -- just a sore throat and exhaustion but that was enough to knock me out for a bit.

- Anna escaped the illness but she has been teething so life has been a bit whiny and rough for her (and us)

- Kyle's friend Scott stayed with us Labor Day weekend. He arrived on Friday evening and he and John became BFFs in a SERIOUS way.

At one point Scott and John were on the driveway playing with bubbles and John demanded that Kyle go back inside and not interrupt the bromance. On Saturday when Scott and Kyle were leaving for the Aggie game John was BROKEN-hearted and crying inconsolably as they left. You've never seen so many tears. We had to tell John that Kyle was "going to see Granny" so he would not feel left out that he wasn't going to the game "with the guys". In case you didn't know, John LOVES THE AGGIES .

But all was well when they returned and Mr. Scott and John were caught red-handed watching Thomas the Train together. I don't know who was enjoying it more?

- On Labor Day we went to The Woodlands to see some friends, The Howells and The Rayos'. We enjoyed the splash pad on Market Street and eating out with the kids. I haven't spent much time in The Woodlands so it was nice to do something different, visit with friends we don't get to see much, and experience some nice green spaces/fountains/canals before the rain showers started in the afternoon. Thanks for showing us around, guys!