When Wobbles Turn Into Holes

Sunday, September 12, 2010.  For weeks and weeks, Noah had a couple of loose teeth.  The initial wobbles gradually morphed into bends which slowly became twists and turns.  By the end, those darn teeth were doing moves that would make Olympic gymnasts jealous.  Finally, during the wee hours of Sunday morning, while Beeju and his wobbly teeth slept soundly, tooth #1 bit the dust.  When he first woke up, he didn't even notice.  Watching his stunned reaction when it finally hit him was priceless.  So we went into his room and searched through his sheets until we found the missing mouth jewelry.

That boy couldn't stop smiling all day long.  And when the Tooth Fairy came the next night, it was like Christmas morning here.  So much fun for Pops!

Since that time, tooth #2 has also fallen out - this time at Chick-fil-a.  Here's to lots and lots of toothless grins for years to come!

Wobble, Wobble...

...Bend....Twist....Turn....

The proud owner of a hole in his mouth.

Sunny Side Up, Please

Wednesday, September 8, 2010.  The first graders at Noah's school started their year by putting on a Nursery Rhyme Parade.  They each had to dress up as a character from the Nursery Rhyme of their choice.  Because of Noah's affinity for a certain song he learned at the end of kindergarten, he naturally went for Humpty Dumpty (I tried to post the cute video of him and his class singing it, but the file was too big, and I don't know how to edit it down).  It wasn't easy executing on the Mr. Egg idea, but we had a great time working on it together.

We basically just took a big box, cut off the top and bottom, rounded the top and bottom to make an egg shape, drew a face, gave him some striped shorts and then added a brick wall at the bottom.  Although, it dawned on both of us the morning after that it looked more like an egg sitting inside the top of a chimney than an egg on a wall.  Details, details.  I also maybe should've put on suspender-like straps so that he could wear it on his shoulders instead of making arm holes for him to carry it.  But it all worked out in the end.  And I think my little Round Mound of Rebound thoroughly enjoyed being the best dang Humpty Dumpty that school had ever seen.

Smiling Dumpty

Monster Dumpty

Oh-No-I'm-Falling-Off-The-Wall Dumpty

Beaming Dumpty (in the parade)

Celebrating Freedom at Surfside

Tuesday, July 6, 2010.  Since both Amy and I had our July 4th holidays at work on Monday, I let her have the boys that day while I worked (Mondays are always mine with the boys), and then I took Tuesday off and spent it with the boys.  The best part of taking Tuesday off was that Surfside Beach was almost entirely empty when me and the boys went.  It was so nice to be there and have it not be crowded.

The painful lesson I learned: my arms aren't long enough to put sunscreen on my own back.  After all afternoon in the sun, I came home with a super red 6x10 rectangular window of burnage on the upper half of my back.  It hurt too much to laugh when it was red...but now that it's nice and tan, it cracks me up to see in the mirror.  Next time, I'll have to bribe one of the boys to give me a hand.

Cowboy Sam ready to roll.

With a little coaching from big brother, he realized that boots might not be the best way to do the beach.

Nut flinging dirt in his own face.  Such a Nutty.

The toeheads making their trek to the waves.

Standing triumphantly with the volcano we made.

First Baseball Game

Thursday, June 24, 2010.  Today, Noah's summer program field trip was to Minute Maid Park downtown to watch the Astros' afternoon game.  Naturally, I could not possibly miss my boy's first ever baseball game.  Just couldn't do it.  So I met up with Beeju's group before the game and then spent the day with him.  I didn't take a ton of pics...just enough to capture the day for posterity.  After all, a boy's first baseball game is a big deal.  He's now well on his way to being a man.  Next step: learning to chew/spit sunflower seeds.  We're working on it.

Proud Papa moment

For the first hour or so, he wouldn't let me get up. Every time I tried, he kept waving me back. He's almost never "clingy," but I kinda like it when he is.  So cute.  (Could've done without that blasted Cowboys hat in this pic.)

An even prouder Papa moment...seeing his boy air punching Astros players.  Atta boy!  Go Pirates!

Getting ready to race that giant mechanical baseball player behind him. Beeju smoked the dude.

This is a key place to have on your map if you're going to an Astros game with a youngun'.  Not a bad play area.  And it gives them a chance to stretch the legs and burn off some energy.  Another pic below.

You can't take a 5 year old to a ballgame and not have cotton candy.  What started as a gigantic mound o' sugar...

...quickly turned into an itsy bitsy corn-on-the-cob sized snack.

Washing it all down with a cold one.  Game #1: success!  Hopefully next time we'll get to see the Pirates.

The Birthday Mouse

Monday, July 12, 2010. Today was Sam's 4th annual birthday extravaganza (warning: post may contain peanuts). I took the day off from work so that we could party hardy and truly make it an extravaganza and not just a regular ole ganza. Here's the downlow on how we got down.

1) Let Nut sleep in. He's not a morning Nut, and I often have to wake him up for school. (Whereas Beeju begs to let him set his alarm earlier and earlier so he can do his routine...work out, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, etc, etc.) So letting Peanut sleep in on his birthday only seemed right.

2) Breakfast from Shipley Donuts on a special Toy Story tablecloth. The Toy Story "zealots" always make Sammy laugh, and I'd go to any length to hear that sound.

3) Houston Zoo. A day at the Houston Zoo in July means sweating off the donut breakfast we had (plus some), but that's not such a bad thing, is it? And we still had a blast despite the heat. Today's visit was also unique, because the boys got to meet and pet several animals that we haven't seen before, including a python, a pancake tortoise (aptly named "IHOP") and a baby alligator (all 3 shown below).

4) Lunch at our favorite place - Jamba Juice. There's just nothing like an Orange Dream Machine after a morning in the sun. Or an afternoon in the sun. Or a day inside at work. Or a wintry Chicago day shoveling snow. Ok, basically I'm not picky...just give me my ODM. And the boys were cut from the same cloth, so it works out well.

5) Back home to catch our breath and watch Cars, a longtime favorite movie of Mr. Nut.

6) Dinner at Chick-fil-a. We were surprised to walk in and find Spiderman waiting for us in the lobby. The boys have never even seen a Spiderman movie or cartoon, but they were still super excited. Spiderman was kind enough to take pictures and talk to "Phineas" and "Jerry" to their little hearts' content. And on the way out, he let the birthday mouse climb up on his shoulder for a pic (see below). After she got off work, Amy joined us here for the rest of the evening.

7) Birthday cupcakes at Cupcake Cafe. If you live in the area and haven't tried it, put it on your list. Good stuff.

8) Presents and games at Chuck E. Cheese. This was the culmination of the extravaganza. It was really fun to have a birthday party with just the four of us - without the normal worry and stress of putting on a larger party. We gave Jerry various options, including ones with friends and stuff at the pool, etc. But he opted for the family trip to CEC. He should be a party planner, because we had a great time.

It was definitely one rockin' birthday celebration. I wouldn't trade anything about the day. I was in heaven getting to spend the day with my boys. And I'm so glad I got to spend the time with my little Birthday Mouse. Can't wait for him to turn 5 so we can do it all again. Happy birthday, Peanut! For some people, variety is the spice of life. You, my young Jerry, are all the spice I'll ever need. You make my life so rich and wonderful and amazing. I love you!

There's just something that gets me when I see a pic of one of my boys looking at the other. It's usually Peanut looking at his big brother. I love it so much.

Doing their monkey impersonations.

Aside from the cute pic of the boys with Spiderman, I love this shot because it's so Nutty...he loves to grab a handful of straws every time we go to Chick-fil-a for some reason. He doesn't do it at McDonald's or elsewhere. It just seems to be his CFA routine. I love those little details about each individual boy.

This pic and the one below just scream "grandpa" to me. His faces just crack me up.

Classic Nut.

Hugs from Beeju and a thank you from Nut after Jerry opened Noah's present.

Where we spent the majority of our night.

Hoop, there it is.

Outta This World!

Friday, July 23, 2010. For Noah's last day of his summer program, he got to go on a field trip to Space Center Houston, and I got to go with him. We had a great time exploring and playing and learning. It was fun enough that I upgraded my one-day ticket to a one-year pass so that we can go back with Peanut soon. We also didn't get to see all of the Space Center, because we were limited on time, etc. Below are some of our adventures from the day.

Rock climbing activity where you had to race up and down and back and forth to touch the glowing space rocks as they randomly lit up in order to score points. Beeju "rocked" this one.

Just a portion of the gigantic space play area. Parents are welcome to go inside, which of course I did. What they don't tell you is how tight some of the quarters are and how flexible you need to be to make some of the turns and bends. Fortunately, I made it out alive...and had a blast inside.

Phineas and I battling at the entrance of the "Star Wars: Clone Wars" exhibit. I loved how Noah had his classmates pre-conditioned to refer to him as Phineas and me as Ferb (the main characters of his favorite show, for those of you not up on Disney shows).

Having lunch with Alex, James, Blake and John. Whose idea was it to have lunch outside for an hour in the middle of July in Houston?

Pops and his boy.

Taking a break from walking by relaxing in one of the movie theaters.

Noah was convinced that every astronaut that we saw there had been an actual astronaut who had died and then been put on display. That would be awesome.

Touching a moon rock.

The first Beeju in space.

Playing with the wind tunnel.

Manning the control center.

Noah and his friend, George. I love how it doesn't really matter to him where the rabbit ears go in a picture...just so long as they have them.