Thanksgiving (and more donkeys)

We went to visit Annette and the boys for Thanksgiving. We got there Wednesday morning and ended up staying until the following Tuesday morning. Lots of family time. And many, many trips to see the donkeys. Dax now calls them, "dah-gahs". We got out a bag of carrots the first day and they were Dax's best friends for the rest of the week.

On Thanksgiving day, we got together with Aunt Fay and her family. Since this was the first Thanksgiving without Uncle Joe, everyone decided it would be best to change things up a bit, so we met at Kyle and Joani's house. They just remodeled their kitchen, too. (And, by "just", I mean, "they installed the stove hood the day before.") It was a really nice family time. Who'd have thought that at the end on November we could sit outside and be perfectly comfortable?! Kyle was even wearing shorts! Dax thought his 2nd cousins Thomas and Luke were a lot of fun. The boys were great with Dax, too. So patient - even when Dax tried to join in their big boy games.

Another day, we went to The Woodlands mall to let Dax run around on their playscape. And, we walked right by Santa, with not a single kid in line! So, we got Dax's picture taken with him. Then, Aunt Kay took Dax for a ride on the merry-go-round. He loved it!

I think the most fun of the week, though, was watching Dax bust out his dancing moves. We'll post a video soon.

We hope everyone had a pleasant holiday - we sure enjoyed counting all of God's many blessings.

Feeding the donkeys

Ready to dig in to the Thanksgiving spread

hanging with Luke


having some laughs with Thomas

not completely sure about Santa

enjoying the merry-go-round

Evening with Payton

After the garage sale and the relaxing, Travis, Hollie and Payton came over for a visit. Hollie took some family photos for us while Travis and Payton tried to get Dax to look at the camera. We got a lot of pictures that we absolutely love. You'll be seeing one of them on our Christmas card this year. If we can ever decide which one!

After the photo shoot, we all ventured over to the Domain to see Macy's light their tree and to hear Jordan Sparks sing (she won American Idol last year). After an hour of the crowds, and less-than-impressed kiddos, we decided to bail and beat the traffic. We ended the evening with the kiddos sound asleep and the adults relaxing over dinner and conversation (and some football). All in all, a great day!

Here are some of the pics Hollie took:

Umm, Payton, that "hug" looks more like a "headlock"

Garage Sale & PJs

On Saturday our neighborhood had a garage sale. After a slow start, we actually ended up doing quite well. It is very cathartic to clean out "stuff." Dax greeted everybody and wasn't at all embarrassed that he was still in his footed pjs at 10:00am. Badger and Trinity even hung out in the front yard and watched all the activity. We have two main memories from the sale:

The first is the guy who bought Duane's old wheels/rims but couldn't fit them in his car, so he removed a tv (that he'd bought from one of our neighbors) and left it on the side of the road. When Duane told him he couldn't leave it, the guy just explained, "but it was free". Like that made it perfectly ok to dump it. He agreed to come back to get it "in 10 minutes". Riiiight. A couple hours later, I was, luckily, able to get another shopper to take it.

The second memory was Duane and the basketball game. A neighbor had one of those basketball shoot games like you see at Dave & Busters. It was huge. I told them I hoped they sold it before Duane saw it, or else he'd want to buy it. Well, sure enough, when Duane saw it, he wanted it. He knew better than to buy it, but he had to at least take a few shots. We'll say that holding Dax had him off balance, because when Duane took his first shot, it hit the rim, flew toward the crowd of shoppers, bounced OVER the head of someone bent over a table (thank God!), crashed into a table holding dozens of breakable trinkets, and, miraculously, didn't break a one and landed harmlessly in the grass. He was so embarrassed! I only wish I could have seen his face as it happened!

After all the excitement from the garage sale, we decided to let Dax stay in his pjs for most of the rest of the day. Here he is hanging out, playing IN his toy box.

Day with Grandma

Today, Dax spent the day with Grandma while Mommy & Daddy went to the Aggie game. Payton was at Grandma's too, so he had lots of fun. After Payton left, Grandma took Dax to a grown-up birthday party. Once again, he practiced his politician skills and worked the room. He got pretty good at schnarking bites of cheesecake off random peoples' plates.

It's so nice to have Grandma to look after Dax when we need her. Apparently, though, not all of my family can be trusted. Take a look at what my brother, Travis, did to poor, unsuspecting Dax.

Good times with Payton


a "Texas" hat?! (Well, at least they're winning)

Bath-time fun

We had a fun time in the bath tub tonight. Dax discovered that he likes to swim the backstroke. And that he is NOT modest.

Donkeys & Dishes

This past weekend we visited the Gray's in Houston. Dax LOVES their miniature donkeys. He makes us walk out to see them 20 times a day. Now, when he sees them, he says, "da-da," (yeah, Duane's not too fired up about that) so, we tried to help him say "donkey", by saying it slowly and by enunciating very clearly.
"Donn--keeee"
"dah-dah"
"Donnnn--keeee"
"daahh--daahh"
"donnnnn--keeee"
"daaahhh--daaahhh"
He kept looking at us like we were crazy. You could just tell that the thought running thru his head was, "why are we having this conversation? Clearly, I'm saying the same thing, and just as slowly." It was pretty funny.

Duane and I had 2 "dates" this weekend; we went to the Aggies' and Texans' football games while the Grays watched Dax. They took pictures of him and sent them to our phones, so we could see what he was up to. It was fun to see how he spent his day away from us. He seemed to have lots of little projects: pulling the plastic dishes out of the cupboard, laying the dishes all in a line, stacking the dishes, unstacking the dishes, giving the dishes (one by one) to someone else, etc. We're hoping this OCD phase is truely just a phase, but for now, we're enjoying him entertaining himself. And, we are very thankful that we are able to leave him with others for a little while so we can have some time to ourselves. But, it's amazing how much we miss him after just a few hours!

The dishes

The Lioness Emerges

On Friday I took Dax for another haircut. While he was finishing up, another family with 3 kiddos (ages 5 - 8) came in to the shop. Naturally, Dax was drawn to them. Unfortunately, they were not well behaved or inclined to sharing. When Dax tried to join in their game of catch, they had a fit. I felt so bad explaining to my 16 month old that the bigger kids were playing and he needed to find something else. The lioness in me wanted to shout, "Let him play with your stupid ball - he's a baby! You're old enough to be able to share and be polite!" But, I didn't. I used my "mommy voice" to explain that he's too little to understand waiting (hint, hint - you should share), as I tried to redirect my very focused little one to another toy. And, where was the mother in all this? Oh, she was reading a trash magazine at the front; never even lifted her head. Actually, in retrospect, I regret not being more polite & empathetic to the kids. I don't remember saying "sorry" for Dax interrupting their game. I need to be an example to Dax (and to those kids, as well, apparently) that we need to apologize for perceived injustices, even to brats who aren't nice to my baby. Roar.

Changes

There are 3 changes going on around our house. A couple have mom excited, but one, not so much. The first Change is the Time Change. This has not been good for mom, as Dax's sleeping is all messed up. He's going to bed at night OK, but he wakes up several times during the night crying. And, then he wakes up at 5:00am. We had just started to enjoy him sleeping till 6:15am, then -- wham-0 -- back to 5:00am. We're hoping the transition won't be much longer. Momma's tired.

The other 2 Changes are fun. The first is Diaper Change. Dax has started coming up to me and signing "change" when he has a wet or dirty diaper. He doesn't do it every time, but usually once a day or so, he'll tell me that he wants me to change his diaper. I'm pretty impressed that he's able to recognize and communicate that. I'm hoping this will be a good omen for potty training (since the first step is wanting to be dry). The added bonus is that Dax has become more patient on the changing table, so it's not such a wrestling match.

The other Change is Season's Change. Even though it was 90 degrees yesterday, autumn seems to be right around the corner. The trees are starting to change color and the nights are getting cooler. So, I've decided to put away the shorts for the season and to pull out the jeans and pants (it is November, for crying out loud, so I am boycotting shorts for the rest of the year!). I am looking forward to the weather getting cooler so I can dress Dax in his fall clothes, too. Poor thing has outgrown his summer clothes and I refuse to buy more at this point. So, he's stuck with Euro-style tight shirts and high-water khakis. Let's hope the temperature drops before I have to put Dax in chunky cable sweaters because that's all that fits.

Daddy's Birthday

Monday was Daddy's 44th birthday. To celebrate, we decided a family brunch would be nice. So we headed over to Hoover's for an amazing breakfast. I had eggs benedict with shrimp etouffee sauce - yum! Duane had chicken fried chicken over biscuits smothered in shrimp etouffee sauce. You wouldn't think it was good, but, oh, my gosh, was that tasty! And, we didn't need to eat again for the rest of the day! :)

Celebrating Daddy's birthday

Daddy and Dax at LAST year's birthday

Saturday's Aggie Game - with Grandma!

Last Saturday, Grandma came to the Aggie game with us. It was her first time to Kyle Field and she really enjoyed the game (bonus - the Aggies won!). She didn't get to meet General Joe and Sue, though, since they were out of town. Dax seems to be drinking the Aggie kool-aid, as his latest dance move is stolen from the Aggie fight song (there is a point in the song where everyone stands with feet wide apart, locks arms, and then sways side to side - it is extremely cool to see almost 90,000 people in a stadium all do that at the same time, even if the stands do rock a bit). Well, Dax's new move is to stand with feet wide, and to sway side to side. It's pretty funny. And not at all musical or graceful.

The other funny part was how Halloween trick-or-treating affected Dax. As we were walking past all the tailgaters at the game, he stopped at every one and basically started looking for treats. He even opened up ice chests to make sure he wasn't missing the good stuff. It was so embarrassing, but everyone seemed to understand and they all said they thought it was cute. Hopefully, this will be a short phase.

Yup, he's a "face painter"


"Dancing" to the marching band


Watching the game with Grandma