Gig 'Em Aggies!

We are in the midst of football season! One of the best things about living in College Station is Texas Aggie football season. On the Thursday before a home game, there is already excitement in the air and people coming in for the game and getting ready to tailgate on campus. Everyone is wearing maroon all weekend and there is just something in the air to make the day exciting, even if you are not going to the game in Kyle Field. We haven't been to a game for a couple of years now that we have children and tickets are so expensive! But, we love wearing our maroon, hosting people in town for the game, and cheering on the Aggies from our living room couch. And, when it gets cooler, we plan to take the kids on campus to tailgate for at least one game this year. Also, while Aggie football is always exciting, it's especially exciting again this year while we cheer for Johnny Football and our aggie team as we hope they compete very well for our 2nd year in the SEC. The 3rd game of this season was against Alabama, who is ranked number 1 right now. Last year, when they were also ranked number 1, the Aggies beat them on their field for the upset of the year!

That particular weekend, GG was in town to watch Atticus, so Vic and I went on a rare date for burgers but watched part of the game and kept up with the score. We made it home in time to see them win! Then, a couple thousand people met on campus to welcome the Aggie Football team home at about 10:30 that night. Since Vic and I could go, we went to campus and cheered them on as they unloaded from the busses. It was so exciting and fun and the Aggie spirit was alive! So, the Alabama game has been highly anticipated since last year. It was an exciting game even though the Ags ran out of time and lost the game by a touchdown. But, it makes us look very forward to the rest of the season! Also, this weekend, we had Whitney and her friend Patrick in town from DC, as they had tickets to the big game. It was a great weekend! See some pictures below:

 

Kid updates

Couple quick updates:

1. Grace started cutting her first tooth a couple of days ago!

2. Grace pulled herself up on me while I was laying on the floor last night. She has been scrambling to grab onto us while we sit on the floor. She had to work at it and I had to balance her, but she did it!

3. We had Grace's 6 month pictures taken at Portrait Innovations today. I wish I had Mary available to take all of my pictures! But, since I don't, Portrait Innovations is quick and easy and gets the job done. Here are a couple of sweet ones!

4. When Whitney came this weekend, she brought Atticus the Disney movie "Robin Hood". He loves it and I have a lot of memories watching it when I was little; such a great idea Whitney!

5. One of the things we have been working on with Atticus is sharing. Sharing is such a hard thing to learn when you have 2 1/2 years under your belt of never having to share. But, with vacations and playdates and Grace wanting to play now, it is important. Most of the time Atticus tells me "Attis no share!". But, this morning, Atticus yells to me from the other room. I come in and he is saying "Mommy Yook!" and pointing at Grace who is covered with his blanket. "Attis share Attis banket!" and was so proud that he shared his blanket with Grace. I praised him and gave him a big hug and then he had to follow it with a kiss, of course. Baby steps.

6. Potty training - no, I still am not working on it. But, many people say that they will do it when they are ready. And while that is not my excuse for waiting - I am just putting it off because it's hard! ha! But, recently, he has been coming to tell me when he has pooped. I think this is a step in the right direction and a hint that I should begin sooner than later....

Conversations

Here are a few of our conversations in the last few days:

Me: "Atticus, you are a mess" as I clean him up after making cookies. He had sugar and salt and flour everywhere on him and the counter since he has to taste test as many ingredients as possible!
Atticus: "Attis hot mess!" Clearly, I've used this phrase before.

Atticus: "Mommy?"
Me: "Whatty?"
Atticus: "Mommy say what not whatty. Mommy?"
Me: "Hmm?"
Atticus: "Mommy say what not whatty hmm. Mommy?"
Me: "What Atticus?" Guess I should give in!

He tends to just tell me what everyone is doing and ends with "everybody busy!" or always tells me when he is "veddy go!" (ready to go).

We were at the children's museum recently playing in the HEB section. He was getting fruits and vegetables for his basket.

Atticus: "Mommy, what's dat?"
Me: "That's an eggplant."
Atticus: "Attis buy eggpant for daddy."

In his Sunday school class, the first lesson was the story of creation. So, in the car on the way home, we had this conversation:

Me: "Atticus, who made the clouds?"
Atticus: "Dod!" (God)
Me: "Who made the trees?"
Atticus: "Dod!"
Me: "Who made the cows?"
Atticus: "Dod!"
Me: "Who made the goats?"
Atticus: "Gaba Pop!" (Grandma and Pop)

Recently, Grace has started to pick up Atticus' toys to hold or chew on while we are playing. Each time, to attempt to teach him to share, I tell him that she is allowed to play with his toys too and make him let her keep them. It's all he can do to let her and usually still grabs them away. But, recently, he got smart. As soon as he sees her start to take them and just as I am about to remind him to let her play, he says "Attis get Dace toy!" and goes to bring her all of her toys. It just makes me laugh because he is so sweet and wants to get her things to play with, but does NOT want her to play with his toys. And he knows he will get in trouble if he doesn't share, so he finds another way to keep from sharing with her.

On Sunday morning, both kids were dressed so cute, so I sat them down and said I was going to take a picture. Just as I'm about to start, Atticus looks at Grace and says "Yook at Mommy Dace, say cheese!"

Also, while getting Grace's 6 month portraits done recently, Atticus was playing on my phone. All of a sudden, while I'm focused on getting Grace happy for the pictures, I look up and Atticus is pointing the phone at Grace and saying "say cheese Dace!" and snapping away while the photographer is also taking pictures with her camera. I wish I could have had a picture of that! I'm sure she appreciated it, but surprisingly, he got some good pictures of Grace; especially, since she preferred to look at her brother instead of the photographer!

Sometimes, before bed, we set a timer to let Atticus know he only has a few more minutes to play before bed. It's a timer in the shape of a lemon that winds up. So, we wound it, told him, and set it on the table. A few minutes later, as if he is afraid his time is almost up, he runs to it, picks it up and says "Daddy five more mitts tdipah" (Daddy! Five more minutes on the timer) and attempts to wind it up.

Our Beach Vacation

Our annual Port Aransas vacation was so much fun! Vic looks forward to this trip, as do I, every year to fully relax and see our friends that we do not get to visit with much throughout the rest of the year! This year, 3 of our 4 little families got to pack up and head to Port Aransas for a few days. The Powell Family (Derek, Mandee, Beck & Ben) and The Klatt Family (Joe, Cassie and Wesley). We missed our Huey Family, but hopefully we are all united together again next year! And for my memory, Atticus & Beck are almost 2 1/2, Wesley is almost 3 1/2, Grace is 5 1/2 months and Ben is 9 months during this trip.

After stopping in Orange Grove on Saturday night, August 24th, to celebrate Granny Irene's big 90th birthday party held at the OG Fire Station, we headed to Port A the following day. We stayed with Mandee and Derek in their beach condo while the Klatts stayed in their family condo. Our week consisted of a rainy day of playing in the puddles, a beach day, a boat and beach day, swimming, riding in the beach cart, playing with toys and learning to share, lots of delicious food, a trip to eat at the Pelican Club, pool time, learning hide and seek, long afternoon naps (for the boys who played so hard!), and lot of other memories we cherish. Our trip can be summed up in a few pics below:

Grace: 6 months old!

How has half a year passed since we were given our little Grace? Well, it has and here are some stats!

• Weight is 16 pounds, 3 oz - 53rd percentile.
• Height is 25 1/2 inches - 37th percentile.
• In 6 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
• Can sit up by herself and starting to try to tuck her knees up under her. She rolls around to get where she needs to go.
• Plays with her toys including Sophie, her toy Ipod, the singing bear, other baby toys and now grabbing for Atticus' toys (which he does not like!)
• No longer being swaddled, but does take a paci for naps and bedtime. She puts herself to sleep now with the paci; no more rocking her to sleep! She goes back and forth between waking up once around midnight and then sleeping all night long.
• Takes a morning nap for a 1-2 hours and an afternoon nap for 3 hours. Bedtime around 9 and awake about 7:30 am.
• She blows lots of bubbles and has started squealing.
• No teeth yet.
• Is eating every evening: foods include rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, squash, pears and just tried bananas last night. We had started letting her eat mum-mums but after two times of throwing up a few hours after eating mum-mums, we realized they are not sitting well with her. So, no more mum-mums for now. She wants anything we put into our mouths though and will reach for it! It's hard to see her so grown up sitting in that high chair!
• She is really started to let her personality show through more. I can already see how she will terrorize her little brother by taking his toys. And she knows who her mama and daddy are by their voices alone. She enjoys our evening walks and tends to fall asleep in the stroller during them. She still watches Atticus and he can make her laugh anytime. She has started getting excited when we look in the mirror with her and she can't take her eyes off the fan. She plays in her bed when she wakes up and doesn't cry. She is just a good baby.

 

Home Ownership

Well, things are supposed to strike in threes, right? Earlier in August, we had a water leak that ended up being leaking condensation from the air conditioner. Plumber called; problem fixed. Then, on Saturday night, our A/C stopped blowing cool air. A/C company called; problem fixed. Then, last night, both a part in our toilet went out, as well as our water pressure dropped really low. So, this morning we called a plumber again; problem now fixed.

Sometimes owning a home has a lot of unexpected expenses; expenses that really cut into my shopping habit! Hopefully our house is problem free for awhile.

Bathtime & Bedtime

When Mary & Taylor were in town, Mary (of Mary Verett Photography) took some pictures of just regular activities in our house. This included bath time. She got the absolute sweetest pictures of my two little ones. And, since I am going to decorate the kids bathroom soon (we've been in this house for four years so I guess it's about time), I plan to display some of these on the wall. I can't wait!! And she got some sweet ones of just getting ready for bedtime. Anyways, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Conversations

Atticus is talking more and more every day! Here are some recent conversations:

During our evening walk a couple of nights ago:

Me: "Atticus, what does that sign say?" (pointing to the stop sign)
Atticus: "Yook Bof Vays; Yook cas tucks; coss steet" (Look both ways; look for cars and trucks; cross street)

And I thought it just said "Stop".

Lately, any food we give him, he will tell me:

"Food vi-ey hot. Ne-ne cool off". (Food is really hot; needs to cool off)

When stalling, he will tell me he needs to go see someone:

"Attis see Dace" or "Attis see Daddy".

During our Port Aransas trip, our boys had to do a lot of sharing. Atticus doesn't really like to share yet, and he would intentionally come over to me and say "Attis no shaya!" (Atticus no share). I thought it was funny that he wanted to tell me what he was doing wrong, since he knew it was wrong.

Speaking of telling on himself, yesterday I ran some errands and came home and as soon as I got there, he told me:

"Attis ug-ee Dace. Attis tubble. Attis veed books." And he just smiled and told me again. Apparently, according to Vic, Atticus was ugly to Grace, got into trouble and then got into more trouble when Vic found him reading books while in time-out. Why is he so proud to tell me when he is in trouble?

Sometimes he will just randomly tell me people are busy. "Eh-body bizzee" (everybody busy).

I have been letting him sit on the counter when I cook or prep dinner. So, he constantly says "Attis Cook". However, he seems to think we need to make cookies every time. And he thinks all mixtures are like cookie dough batter so he needs to put his finger in to test them out. This includes brown sugar and salt (both tested today).

He also tells us when he is read to go. He will yell really loud "veddy go!".

We are also learning that he is repeating everything we say. I will constantly use the term "being ugly" when talking about why we shouldn't be bad or mean. So, he now says "ug-ee". Vic called Grace "sweetie" yesterday and Atticus then had to call Grace "seetie". He also, on his own, calls Grace "Dacie" sometimes.

Oh and let us not forget about our prayers. We typically let him say the evening dinner prayer and he will pray for anyone that comes to mind (including everyone at the table) plus things like his fork, his plate, each item of food on his plate, Grace's toys (this one has been on the list a lot lately), his books and all animals. Such a funny boy! And sometimes he actually remembers to say thank you for his food.

And, while Grace has awhile until she begins talking, we have realized she knows our voices and who her mama, daddy, and brother are. She just smiles when she sees her Daddy after he has been at work, or first thing in the morning. She laughs at Atticus all the time and sometimes when she is fussy, I'll tell Atticus to go check on her. The next thing I know, she is silent and he is playing with her and given her the attention she apparently wanted. And, anytime she hears my voice after she hasn't heard it in awhile, she starts getting fussy until I go to her. So, she is definitely the center of this little family of four!