Getting ready for halloween

We bought Matthew a buzz lightyear costume and he loves it. He runs around the house saying "To infinity and beyond!" He likes to put it on during the weekends and wear it while playing. Audrey is going to be a teddy bear for halloween since her nickname is Audrey bear. We went to the park this weekend and took their picture in costumes. I will share as soon as I get it back this week.

Matthew went to a birthday party on Sunday and he enjoyed playing with his friends. He went to the mall with Macie afterwards and enjoyed a pretzel and playing in the children play area. Macie is in a separate class so he doesn't get to play with her as much this year.

Texas State Fair

Funnel Cake

Big Tex

It's that time of year for the Texas State Fair. We went to the fair on Saturday at noon. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea because it was crowded. Last weekend was the UT vs Oklahoma game and then it rained last Sunday so I think everyone waited until this weekend when the weather was nice. It was hot in the sun but cool in the shade with a nice breeze.

We enjoyed hamburgers, fries, fried peanut butter and jelly, ice cream, slushie, and funnel cake. The corn dog line was too long so we passed on that. Andy bought the ice cream and it was pretty funny because everyone had a lick - even Audrey. And he would pass it along to everyone in the same order to have a lick. It was fun.

Tricky sleeping schedules

The work week was relatively uneventful. Both kids are well so that's good. Audrey is 10 months old now. She is cutting teeth on the top. She has 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top left hand side but she is getting 2 more on the right hand side. I give her tylenol at night sometimes and that helps take the edge off. She is getting a rash from all the saliva on her chin. She eats everything that we eat. I made pumpkin pancakes this weekend and she loved them.

I visit her everyday at lunch and she is so excited to see me. She claps and smiles and crawls over to me. I will feed her at lunch and then put her in her crib because she is asleep but as soon as I put her down, she pops her head up and she doesn't want to sleep anymore. The daycare workers says this happens with all babies there. I guess they get to a stage that they don't want to miss out on anything.

Audrey is sleeping all night long and wakes up at 5 or 5:30am ready to eat. Sometimes I can get her to go back to sleep. Over the weekend, she was ready to wake up so I just had to go downstairs with her so she doesn't wake up Matthew. The smallest noise wakes up Matthew and then he is Mr. Grumpy because he woke up too early. It is very tricky trying to get them to nap at the same time. On Sunday, Audrey slept at 10am while Matthew and I went to nursery duty at the church. When we came home at noon, Audrey was ready to play and Matthew was hungry and didn't want to take a nap. Andy finally got him to nap around 4pm on the couch. So then Audrey and I decided to get out of the house so that he could sleep so we went shopping. I was so exhausted Sunday night that I went to bed at 8pm!

Matthew's allergies are bothering him lately. We give him allergy medicine every night but he has a runny nose and he is just so grumpy and obstinate sometimes. Andy has been taking allergy shots and they are working well. Otherwise, we would have 2 grumpy guys in the house.

Matthew had fun this weekend at the neighbor's 4th birthday party. He enjoyed an inflatable slide with water at the bottom and a trampoline. We were planning to go to the fair on Sunday but it rained so we decided to stay home. Andy enjoyed smoking some meats in his smoker so that kept him busy.

Fall is here

Aug 2011 - Audrey 8 months, Matthew 3 yrs old

We survived the 100 degree temperatures and the long-awaited fall is here. The temperatures are in the 70-80's during the day, even 90s on a couple of days. But it is so pleasant compared to the 100 degree temperatures. Matthew likes to quote the nursery rhyme "Wee Willie Winkie" when he gets tired around 8pm and he is usually spot on but lately he says it around 7:30pm because it is getting darker earlier.

Audrey started saying "mama" last week. She wakes up very quietly in the mornings and then she will say "ma-ma". It is so sweet. She started sleeping through the night last week.

Matthew's teacher wrote in this in his notebook this week:

"The funniest thing happened outside. We had just talked about squirrels and how they hide their acorns. I noticed acorns dropping from one of the trees. Way up high there was a little squirrel pulling acorns off the tree and eating parts of them and then dropping the rest. I gathered all the kids under the tree to see the squirrel and then all of a sudden acorns started falling everywhere hitting the kids on their hands and tops of their heads. One of my little friends says 'Ms Andersen look, it's raining acorns!'

The kids are fascinated with the leaves falling from trees. They have also been looking for bugs (not sure why) In french, the kids are learning their colors and in spanish we are learning to count. Friday is technology and they have been doing matching games on the smart screen. Next week we will continue our learning on fall, adding pumpkins, scarecrow, and crows."

Matthew has decided to be buzz lightyear for halloween. He loves toy story. For the grandparents, if you want to get ahead on Christmas shopping, Matthew would love anything Toy story - toys, pajamas (3T), plastic plate set, etc. He would like any Disney classic movies on DVDs. He only has Shrek and Toy Story 1 on DVD.