Buddies for 20 years!

     Jeffrey and I went to The Woodlands Wednesday to visit one of my best friends in the world, Jenni. She and her family are such an inspiration and go, go, go a lot! KallieAnn, Jenni, Jeffrey and I met Grayson at the bus stop after school. The kids played and watched Monster U. Jenni made dinner and we enjoyed a bottle of red wine. Jeffrey enjoyed being with the big kids! Kendrick came home in time to eat dinner with us. (He noticed KallieAnn had always been saying ottoman instead of amen after grace! heehee.) I was in bed by 10! My, my how times have changed! We got to go to Grayson's school fun run and cheer for him and have breakfast at Kendrick's Chick-fil-A. They have a busy life compared to ours-the difference in one kid and two? Whew!!! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, generous friend (who also shares her fantastic boy's clothing to help keep Jeffrey dressed!) We had a great trip, a quick catch-up and got to see what life in the S household is like! Love them!

     Jeffrey was fully released from his helmet this morning! We're have to make sure he's moving around during his sleep, or he'll still have to wear it at night. His head is perfect and I'm so glad we did it!

Grayson, 7 Jeffrey, 8 mo. KallieAnn 3

 The boys reading after baths

 Jeffrey's first Cheerios at Chick-fil-A! They have a baby bar! Who knew?

Sweet KallieAnn loved feeding him those Cheerios!

Another Wonderful Weekend!

    

     We had another great weekend. Friday I started my couch to 5K running routine up again and it makes me feel so good all around! Jeffrey and I went to Lainey's apple presentation at her school Friday afternoon. She was spectacular, as always. I could clearly hear every word from her, (which was not the case with the other two presenters!) She loves to speak in front of people and I think this is amazing. Never in my life have I actually enjoyed doing that, (unless I was completely "in character!") She is such a natural. Jeffrey couldn't get enough of her homemade applesauce!

     By the way, we also got to go to Lainey and Bo's school on Wednesday to see both of them in a wonderful art showcase. They each studied a famous artist and replicated a piece of work by that artist. We also went to my school this past week for a couple of hours and had a good visit. I absolutely LOVE and MISS my secretary, Dinah, whom I ate lunch with every day. She saw us coming and met us at the door. She is such an inspiration to me. She is such a patient, positive person through all the circumstances that have come her way. We had a good visit with one of my favorite third grade teachers and it reassured me that I am where I need to be right now. Everyone loved seeing Jeffrey and I could feel their love for me as well. Lots of changes there.

      Saturday morning, we went to the neighborhood park and fed the ducks on the lake and swung on the swings. Brant was walking Lacey. Jeffrey and I were behind them with the stroller for a lot of the walk. At one point when they passed us, Jeffrey yelled, "Da-da!," like he wanted them to come back with us. It was his first VERY clear Da-da! He's said it several times since. Yay! So now, Mama and Dada are his first official words!
     Saturday afternoon, we decided to go eat the best hamburger in Texas, according to Texas Country Reporter. This place is listed as being in Fredericksburg, but it is truly in the middle of nowhere. Their site says they are "inconveniently located between Comfort and Fredericksburg." That was a perfect description. We thought we had surely passed it several times! It's called Alamo Springs Café. It was a nice hill country afternoon getaway.
     Today, we went to church and Jeffrey went to the nursery for the first time. He was so happy and didn't cry at all. I was nervous, but he did so well. I am SO proud of him and he seemed to be proud of himself! After church, Mom came with us to BJs for lunch. I had my first pizza in a long, long time, (because of the no dairy diet.) SOOOO GOOD! I am so thankful for our little family (AND proud to be a Baylor Bear!!!)
    

Alamo Springs Café 

 Sic 'Em, Bears!

Baylor: 63 beat Tech: 34! Go Bears!

 We are debating a haircut. We ALMOST went today!

8 Months Old!

Jeffrey is 8 months old today! He is so much fun and has got a sense of humor already! When we try to get him to "say Dada," he blows raspberries, (it's always been he and Daddy's thing and Jeffrey's been mimicking it since he was pretty new.) It's so funny now because he associates this sound with Daddy ALL the time. When Daddy comes home from work, when saying goodnight, etc, it's raspberries! Another thing is that each time I open a dirty diaper to be changed, he laughs hysterically. We went to the Kiddie Park for a friend's two-year-old birthday party and to Wurstfest on Saturday. Both were great fun and he seemed to have a great time, no fuss!

 First carousel ride at the Kiddie Park

 

 This is the outfit (pjs) I gave Brant when I found out Jeffrey was a boy! (It was different for us than for most-I learned over the phone after the MaterniT21 test because I am of "advanced maternal age!" See: One of those really great days... I went straight to Babies-R-Us and got this and a cute card and a football outfit and a baby Astros jacket!) I didn't think it'd fit him so soon! and he's almost outgrowing it! He's LONG!!!

BUMPS #6

B    M    S
   U     P    #6

• I secretly look forward to Jeffrey waking up in the middle of the night (unless it is more than once or twice!)
• I miss him when he's taking a long nap!
• Jeffrey said "mama" while checking out at the grocery store, (I think!)...and several questionable times since...times that I walk by....then more and more where it makes sense...then at the river as I wrote about in the previous post, so yeah, it's his first word! Beautiful sound!
• He found his shadow on the back of his highchair one night during dinner
• He cleverly itches his head when we take the helmet off for cleaning
• Switching to big boy bath time=very WET mess...he loves to kick and splash water everywhere!
• Anyone at anytime could pants me, no matter what I'm wearing. Even my oldest, tightest jeans are getting too big. This is not a good thing.
• Jeffrey is able to roll over, but instead, he'll pull the whole blanket to get an item closer to him-very clever.
• We are not ready for crawling. He is showing us how incredibly active he will be-all over everything!
• I don't know if we live in an extra friendly place or what, but it's funny to me that in the baby section of the grocery store, there are always one or two moms who strike up a conversation about food, bottles, feeding advice, etc. and we help pick stuff out for one another!

We have had a rough 2 weeks of what could be teething, growing phase, who knows... and Jeffrey has been on a "daytime nursing strike," feeding ALL NIGHT LONG. I have been so exhausted. Our nursing days may be coming to an end, or may just be less. It makes me very sad!

Fall Family River Party!

Our annual river party was this past weekend. The river was as beautiful as it ever has been and the weather was perfect. Doc would have loved it.

While trying to get Jeffrey to smile during this automatic shot, I said, "Say Mama." and HE DID, getting everyone's laughs and cheers. His first crowd pleaser!

 Bo and Gigi skipping rocks

 

 Bo and Brant tending the fire

 siblings

 cousins

 I was concerned about how the night would go, but he was fantastic!!!