So I'm not a Guitar Hero...

...yet. I played for the first time today and didn't do too swell. My fingers are a little sore... Sally the expert's advice, relax the fingers. Uhh... easier said than done!
So I'm going to go at it again and improve on my skills so that I can impress people whenever the chance to play Guitar Hero should arise. Seeing as it hasn't ever, I could still have a few years to up my skills before I have to show them.
Rock on!

crap. i ruined the pictures on my blog

So I was feeling the need to organize my pictures on photobucket today. Well, since I moved them into more specific folders there instead of keeping them in the massive general folder, they don't show up anymore.
So maybe later this week I will go back and fix them all. *sigh*

how awesome is it that this is my 3rd post in a row?! I'm such a loser!

Drug the boy up!

Today was an eventful day. Alex got his first antibiotics. Hooray for him for making it to 18 months without a serious illness! And all we know about this one is that he has something. He had a high fever on Sunday (104.2 and then 102.4 in the middle of the night) and has been having loose bowel movements multiple times a day. He had a high fever a couple of weeks ago when we were in San Antonio and has been having the loose and frequent BMs since then, so it's been an on going thing.
I hoping that the antibiotics and probiotics clear him up of whatever is going on with him and if they don't then we will go from there.
Thank goodness for having a family Dr. here in Utah that will see us and get us the stuff we need! Thanks Dennis!

The car was still there!

Along with everything inside of it!
So last week as we were running into the airport to catch our flight (oops... we took a little longer to leave in the morning and then Jon said these magical words, "I think our flight is at 6:30 and not 6:45") Jon forgot to lock the car. He realized this as we were sitting on the plane after catching our breath from running down the full length of the terminal. (yes, our gate was the LAST one in the terminal... couldn't have been at the beginning or even middle. DEAD LAST.)
Well ladies and gentlemen, it has been determined that the best car to leave your car unlocked for a week (and I guess then, the best place to go looting for cars?) is the long term parking lot at the airport. Worked out great for us!

Crazy Utah Weather

One of the reasons I hate visiting Utah in April... packing for the unpredictable weather. Lucky for me I leave my coat here (no need for it in Texas) because I'll be needing it today. But yesterday I was very comfortable in my short sleeved shirt.
Yesterday Alex was outside in shorts for a couple of hours for pictures. Today he is layered with a onsie, thermal shirt and sweat pants. It's freaking snowing! I guess it's a good thing I brought his new snow boots.

a few pictures from our last day in San Antonio

this is actually from a day or 2 before the fam all came down. These are the "serious rain boots" we got for Aubrey that Alex wanted to try out.


here are the guys that sang to us for the small price of $6.


Alex and Sally playing


mommy putting an unhappy boy back in the stroller


Some of Alex's favorite people


this was just a cute picture of Diana. She looks so pretty!


Jon and I at El Mercado


Hand carved tilt top table at The Guenther House. Isn't is gorgeous?!


beautiful piano imported from Germany at The Guenther House


me in the parlor of The Guenther House


Me and Jon on the balcony of The Guenther House overlooking the river. It was gorgeous with all of the trees!


Alex checking out the vent thing. He loves walking on stuff like that.


a few cute shots of Alex




Mommy and Alex walking (He LOVES walking around outside and being free!)




More Mommy and Alex




Attack of the hair!



Sally, Tanner, and Diana up in the Tower of The Americas. SO windy! Their shirts were blowing up. I love Sally's hair in this first picture and Tanner's billowy shorts make me laugh.




Being silly at the park


cool park!


The tower


and this last picture is us on the airplane to Utah. Alex is holding one earphone while watching Baby Signing Times. That lasted all of about 3 minutes.

I should have known better

In reference to last night's post and falling asleep. Turns out early in the morning Alex decided to have a diarrheal explosion. It was not pretty. Oddly enough, I was either still slightly awake or I have super mom powers because I heard the bubbling and rumbling and knew it was not going to be good. The poor kid had poop oozing out the back of his diaper. The whole leg and part of the sleeve of his pajamas on the side that he was sleeping on were soaked. Good thing we had a towel in the room cause after I took the diaper off, there was no way it was staying in there.
Okay, I'll stop talking about poop now.
The whole waking up in the middle of the night thing to feed the baby or clean up poop or throw up is just one of those fun aspects that come along with being a parent. I greatly miss being able to sleep soundly through the night.
I think there is nothing worse than having your sleep interrupted in the middle of the night. You have only been asleep for a few hours and probably had just fallen into a good deep sleep. And then you get to go back and restart the whole process and then have to wake up for the day just when you had fallen into a good deep sleep.
I always am so happy when I have a good nights rest. It seems to happen less as I'm constantly kept awake by my super mom powers, hearing every cough and cry and wondering if I should leave it or go check it out/do something about it. And if there are no coughs or cries, I worry about everything being okay. I can only see this problem getting worse as new children are added. Great. I'm so excited.
I hope all of you other mom's out there are able to get good sleep in at least as often as I do!

Travelin'

So we sent Jon's family home on Thursday afternoon and we took off for Utah on Saturday morning.
We have been up since 5 am and on the plane ride wasn't the best one, even with Jon being there. I'm not saying that Jon wasn't helpful. He was extremely helpful. If I would have had to deal with Alex for all 3 hours, I may have gotten off that first flight in tears.
I know some of you probably have flown with an 18 month old and I'll quickly tell you that it was MUCH easier flying with him before he could walk. Today I got poked in the eye by a handful of crayons, ate 2 soggy animal crackers, was told no 1000 times, was kicked, heard a lot of whining, enjoyed flashes of light as the window shade was opened and closed (and crying when he couldn't get it open), and had my arms wiggled out of too many times to count. I also got to try to figure out how to keep a little boy from from screaming, but still making sure he wasn't doing annoying things (like kicking seats or running up and down the aisle or opening and closing the window shade or slamming the pull down tray up and down or putting the arm rests loudly up and down (including trying to keep him from pushing down the ones from the seat in front of us).
All of my tricks that I thought would work lasted 5 minutes each. Baby Signing times, One Fish Two Fish (and many other books), Elmo magnets, cars, cookies, and the binkie and blankie I thought for sure would get us through 3 hours. It didn't. We read part of one book and then he was just sick of all books. We would eat one cookie and then it was no to anymore cookies.
I drugged him toward the end of our first flight and he actually slept for about 1/2 hr. through the second one. AMAZING! But when he woke up he kicked the tray that was down and spilled my cup of ice. Good thing it was just ice. Bad thing was he wasn't going to sleep after that (even though I could tell he wasn't ready to wake up yet).
Needless to say, after an early morning and long trip on the airplane, I really should be in bed right now.
So off I am because nothing sounds better to me than collapsing into bed and falling into a deep sleep. We'll see about the deep thing... Alex is bunked in our room tonight.

I bet you'll laugh

This video was posted on Mormon Mommy Wars today and I about died laughing while watching it. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Getting geared up for Utah!

I've had two great chats today and am so excited to go to Utah!
After talking to my dad, I found out that everyone on his side of the fam is going to be in town the Saturday that we get in. My aunt that lives in Georgia who I haven't seen in, like ten years (?) is going to be there! I'm pretty excited that we happened to all coordinate so well.

I'm also excited to see my cousin's and one of my friend's new babies. Yay for babies!

More excitement coming from possibly getting to see some other friends' new house (when are you guys moving in? Have I mentioned that I'm going to call you tomorrow? ;-)

I'm super excited for crafty days with some of my favorite girls. On the agenda: apron making! And of course fabric shopping for said apron. Who wouldn't be excited for that?

And now a possibility of playing Halo late into the night? Even better... getting together with GIRLS to play? It just makes me smile as I imagine myself running around in circles and doing the one thing I do well... sniping. Maybe one of these days I'll get the rocket skillz down.

I think I'm going to be excited for playing the Wii with Mathis and Mel and down in the O-town as well. Jon and I love playing tanks (so fun to have a shooter and a driver- so total of 4 players) and duck hunting. It's usually me trying my best to catch up to Jon's accelerated learning curve. I also love wii golf. I think I could play that for hours!

PS. It's pouring rain here. I love it. You haven't experienced real rain until you've experienced a good Texas storm. You know what I mean Dad.

If you want to hang out with me during my 2.5 weeks in Utah, please let me know!

San Antonio!

We've been having a great time in San Antonio! Well, except for the lack of naps. Hopefully Alex will be glad to have his routine back soon.
So let's see... what have we done? We came down to San Antonio on Sunday night. We stopped at the temple. The grounds were closed, but it was cool to see at night. As we headed down the freeway, we found that it was closed, so we got to drive downtown on a lovely very skinny 3 laned road (each way) with poor quality paving most of the way. It was similar to State Street in SLC, but much thinner. Oh, and we also got to drive next to a nice old cadilac with some big vibrating speakers in their trunk. It's a little weird to see those cars and hear the metal on them vibrating.
Anyway...
A few hours after going to bed on Sunday, Alex woke up and we brought him into our bed (which, by the way we were upgraded to Sleep Number beds. How are they? Eh. They are just full sized, so maybe having a queen size and 2 controls would be different. As is, Jon sinks in and then I have a firm slight slope/rise. I think I would have liked to have just had the regular old queen beds.). A few hours later he woke up crying and he was so hot! Probably the hottest I have ever felt him. I am SO glad that I grabbed the motrin at the last minute. He was so hot that even though the Motrin did bring his fever down, he still felt hot. Jon and I didn't get a lot of sleep.
In the morning everyone left to go see The Alamo IMAX and get some lunch. We dosed Alex up again and took a much needed nap. Then we walked downtown and went on a riverboat ride and then went to see The Alamo. We then ate dinner at an Italian place on the river. Alex had a fever most of the day and was pretty lethargic. He slept again while we were at The Alamo. Thank goodness for reclining strollers! I can tell you though that a canopy extender for the stoller is definitely on the need list. I was going to get one last summer, but then never did. Alex HATES having the sun in his face, but he won't keep his hat on and if we hang his blanket over the edge, he pulls it off. We even tried using the sling and he pulled that off too. Luckily, if he's tired enough, we can get away with the hat coming down over his eyes a little. Sadly, it only works if he's tired.
So yesterday was fun and today we went to the San Antonio Zoo. They had so many cool animals that I had never seen before. I also really enjoyed all of the green everywhere. It was such a difference from the Hogle Zoo. All of the habitats looked very natural. Alex's favorite thing was the alligators and the fish. They have this little cave type area with glass wall areas that you can see into the water and see all of the fish. They had some awesome bright colored fish that Alex got such a kick out of. He would sit on the little ledge and I'm sure it looked to him like the fish were just swimming right there next to me. i'll have to post some video (as long as it's not like a ten minute video or something) and/or some pictures.
All of us, I'm sure, ended up with some good tans. Thank goodness this mommy did remember to bring the sunscreen.
And for dinner today we ate at this yummy italian place, The Spaghetti Warehouse. We were very impressed with the food and the prices. It was very similar to The Spaghetti Factory in feel/decor (complete with old trolley car).
Tomorrow we are going to an art museum to see some Van Gough and Picasso! I am SO excited!!! I think that someone else will have to be in charge of entertaining The Boy so that I can enjoy my art moment. I still get so mad at myself for being a dumb highschooler and staying for all of a 1/2 hr. to an hour at the freaking Metropolitan in NYC!!!! I can't believe that I missed out on that and am praying that I get the chance to go back some day.
We are also going to El Mercado and probably going to see some historic mansions. Do you even have to wonder if I'm excited about seeing old homes? Yes I totally am. I think I'm more excited about that than anything. After our day here, we are sending some people to the Spurs game and the rest will be going with me and Alex back up to Austin. Of course, we will be stopping in San Marcos to check out the outlets for a bit... and hopefully getting home at a decent bedtime for Alex.
Thursday is an hang out at home and go swimming day before we take the fam to the airport to say goodbye.
And because we couldn't get enough of them, we're heading out to Utah on Saturday. Jon is going for a week for work, so I figured I may as well go so that the 2.5 weeks that I will be there won't be as long to be separated.
So, just like the last few days, I'm only going to be blogging every few days instead of every day because I just have so much going on and am gone all day.
I'll try to get pictures and stuff posted on Thursday or Friday!

Having so much FUN!

We picked up Jon's family from the airport on Friday night. Tanner jumped in next to Alex (he won the coveted spot!) and Diana was next to him. They were so excited to see him and were talking to and playing with him. He was pretty quiet and not really sure what to think for a while. But with Tanner next to him, it wasn't too long before he was laughing!
We went up to Rudy's for a late Texas BBQ dinner and everyone was just gathered around the boy. He was passed from person to person and wasn't quite sure how he felt. He was happy to see Mommy and wanted to go back to me asap. Even this morning, he still preferred Mommy or Daddy over anyone else.
Today we went to the state capital, then to El Arroyo for lunch. It was absolutely delicious, especially their queso. Sally pretty much licked the last of it from the bowl. It was that good. You just can't find good queso like that in Utah (if anyone does know somewhere with especially delicious queso, please share so that we can try it and let you know how it compares). Everyone loved their meals and Alex ate like a mad man. He especially loved Grandma sharing her yummy fruit with him.
After lunch we went up the the LBJ museum. Dave LOVED it and we spent a LOT of time there. My favorite moment while there was Dave sitting in the little room that had an old TV like the one he had growing up and news film from that time playing. He sat on the floor against the wall and was totally in the moment. It was very fun to see and really gave me a look into his childhood, which was cool.
Alex FINALLY fell asleep while we were at the LBJ museum. He woke up very suddenly (after sleeping for about an hour) with sheer happiness and excitement when we went in the elevator. He gets excited like that anytime we go in an elevator. What a weirdo.
We also had the fun time of eluding the security guy at LBJ. He came up to us on the 2nd floor ten minutes before they were to close and said that he was closing the floor and that we needed to go. Well we still wanted to see the oval office, so we decided that since there were 10 minutes left, we could run up and see it. Well apparently Mr. Security had already closed that floor as well and came up after us on the elevator and told us that he had already closed that floor and that we needed to go.
Okay Mr. Security... we KNEW that you would be closing at 5 and fully intended to leave at that time. We still had ten minutes and intended to use that time. If you want people out at ten to five, then the closing time should be stated as 4:50.

After a good time at the LBJ, we walked through the UT campus. We stopped over at the music building and my talented piano playing in laws played some lovely Steinways in some very cool little practice rooms. Alex had a FABULOUS time playing the piano with Grandma! He was trying to do all of the things she was doing and was bouncing along and dancing to a couple of the songs she played. It was very cute.

We also walked by the HUGE stadium. From the freeway, everyone thought I was talking about the soccer stadium as the main stadium and said they didn't think it was that big. Even when they realized that wasn't the football stadium and saw the bigger one, they still didn't think it was that big until we were walking by and could see all the many levels of ramps going up (you can see them on the left hand side of where the highest seats are) and just how high up the highest seats were. Ya... it's big.


Currently, there are 85,000 seats (BYU=65,000, UofU=45,0oo). They are in the process of adding 6,400 more seats. The then may fill in the end zone where the Godzilla-tron is (see picture below... it's almost as big as the field is wide!) with MORE seats to bring the final seating count up to 112,000 which would make it the largest stadium in North America. Leave it to Texas (I mean, it's only appropriate.)



Jon and I should really just fork out the dough to go to a game at least once while we're still here. I mean, how could we live in Texas and NOT go to a UT game? Well, I guess if we lived in College Station it would be a slightly different story. ; ) I think though that the chance of seeing Matthew Mcconaugh sways things quite a bit.

Oh! I almost forgot, this is my favorite part of the stadium:


It's not very big, but it says, Texas Our Texas on it and for some reason, I just love that. Maybe I'm really turning into a Texan! For some reason those words and me living here just make be feel like I own part of that or have some kind of loyalty to it. I don't even know if that makes sense...

Back to our day though...
After our stop off at the music building, we walked across campus to see the bell tower. It's really tall and very cool as well! Probably the largest bell tower I've ever seen (307 ft. tall). I think it has to do with that whole Texas mentality thing (you know... everything's bigger in Texas?).
Here's the bell tower:



I was very impressed with the beautiful architecture of The Main building where the tower is. This is the best picture I could find of it, but it is much more stunning in real life.



After all of our walking and being out all day, we had enough energy to barely make it back to the cars and then we headed home to lay around and rest after our long day. We ordered a pizza and watched the Jazz game.
It was a very fun day and another late night for Alex. When I asked him if he was ready to go to sleep he kindly shook his head and said no. I think it was the promise of teeth brushing that finally got him to want to go upstairs to bed. Again the usual comment for Alex: what a weirdo.

And now I am off to bed! Tomorrow after church we are heading down to San Antonio for a few days. I also need to find a substitute for my sunbeam class for the next 3 weeks as I'm going to be in Utah. I have a few people in mind... we'll see what they say!

Those darn Ziploc bags!

Alex just brought me over an open Ziploc bag that I didn't want him to get into, so I zipped it up. I handed it back to him and he thought I had opened it or something. I separated the top part without unzipping it and he tried to snake his little hand in there, just like he would if it were open. He kept trying with such determination because he thought it was open. It was just funny to watch.
And now I must go back to being fed cheerios. Best of all they have gone stale in the 5 hours that they have been out. Yummy!

Pizza!

Tonight I made homemade pizza! It was so yummy! I used part wheat flour and added some Benefiber, so it was good and healthy. There were some improvements that will be made next time around. I'm going to list them so that I don't forget them because we will be having pizza again in the next 2 weeks.
brush olive oil on crust
less sauce
more seasonings in sauce (Jon says to find a better sauce. He says the tomato paste is "low quality" LOL! He used to work at Domino's, so he's a pizza expert!)
more mozzarella cheese

I also made some focaccia bread which turned out fabulously as well. And it was so easy! I used the 2 lb. pizza dough recipe which makes two 12" pizzas and just took some dough out to use for the focaccia. By the way, making dough in a bread maker is FABULOUS! I just put the ingredients in, push the button and it goes to work. I LOVE that I don't have to knead dough. I hate kneading dough, so this is a great great invention for me.
We will be having homemade pizza many more times in the future. It was great!

If you're naughty and you know it, smile at Mom

We have a little bowl with decorative balls in it on our coffee table. Most of the time Alex does a pretty good job at listening and leaving it alone. But when he wants to touch those balls, he is bound and determined to do so. After telling him no and moving him away tonight, he walked over, looked at me as he reached his hand out and smiled. He knew he was being naughty, but was doing it just to get a reaction from me. Isn't that nice?

Alex also had a good time with Caleb today! They actually played together, which doesn't happen a lot with Alex. He mostly likes to just stand and watch and smile. He had fun chasing Caleb around and thought Caleb was so funny playing peek a boo with him (peek a boo is the way to this kid's heart!). It was fun to see him actually playing with another kid! I guess we'll have to start getting out more because he really liked it.

P.S.- Mom

I want to make peanut butter easter eggs with you when I'm in Utah. Do you think everyone is ready for a second dose? I sure miss those things and just didn't get around to making them this year (I know, I'm a slacker).
p.p.s can you also teach me to make or at least get me the recipe for your eclairs? I think I love those just as much as Dad does.

updated my links!

There is now a whole new slew of links for you all to check out down there where it says "Places I Love" and visit a few of them.
I am soon to follow Amanda's example (man, I must be a fan of Amanda lately. I mentioned her twice in a 24 hour period!) and post links to projects/crafty things I want to do! How fun and a great way to keep track of things while also sharing. Great idea Amanda!

In other news, it's 84 degrees upstairs. We are cracking the windows and I have the fan running on high next to me. I love Texas!

And as promised, hair and tree pictures!

This is my crazy boy and his crazy hair. He's saying cheese for the camera. ---->
Isn't he great?

and the one below shows you just how long his hair really is!

See the 4 little sheep legs to the side there? That's Alex's Easter sheep. It just so happens that our favorite animal sound he makes (and his first one he ever did) is BAAA. Well, to Alex, that is not a sheep. It's a BAAA! Alex was having a great time yesterday running behind the couch, dropping his sheep friend over the back which caused much laughter while he ran over to the front of the couch to retrieve the sheep and take it back over to the back of the couch to drop it over again. It must be pretty fun because he did the same thing with his Utes monkey today for a good amount of time.
He was doing a similar thing I think on Friday. He would put the wipes case over the arm of the loveseat, would then run over to get it (while laughing) and then once he got there he would take it and drop it over the edge of the arm onto the floor. He did this for ten minutes at least!
I got a little of the sheep one on video the other night, but not to the full extent, so I'll try again another day. It doesn't look like it will be stopping anytime soon.

And finally, our little trees! You can't see the one to the right very well, but it's right there. I think you can see the stake and maybe a leaf or two. I couldn't be happier about the spots I chose for them and it makes me happy to look out the window and see them out there. Hopefully the future owners of this house will love them and appreciate them as they grow and provide shade. Wow... that sounded cheesy....



Oh! I almost forgot! We ate the last of our easter
eggs today. I gave Alex a whole one and when
he got the yolk into his mouth he decided he didn't like it. So out came a nice pile of soft, crumbly yolk. YUM! I then mixed the other two into egg salad, which Alex LOVES. Here's the proof:

In Honor of HS^6!

I *think* all of us were included in this song, at least to some degree! I'll get working on Alex and you all need to vow to teach your kids the same. Then we can them them all together for a performance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXJqZgLFII

Thinking about composting...

I know... can I get any weirder? Ever since Amanda's post about it months ago, I've been thinking about it and checking it out.
And since I just planted two young little trees which need nutrients, and I also discovered in digging the holes that our soil is quite crappy, I figured that it could only help things out.
I found a great little chart of all the stuff I could put in and was pretty encouraged by that.
The only question I have now is will I still need to pay for a garbage collection service? And if our recycling is included in that, do I now have to load up my recyling and take it somewhere (or drop it off piece by piece into neighbor's on our streets bins? Could I do the same with whatever garbage can't go in the compost?)
So I'll do some more researching and if we decide to go for it I will let you know!

Pics of our planted trees and some shots of how long Alex's hair is to be coming soon!

Why is it...

that throwing stuff away is endless fun for a certain little boy? I've been eating a lot of easter candy as of late (more specifically, nestle carmel eggs- the easter version of carmel treasures, which are my FAVORITE!), and have thus created a steady supply of wrappers. Alex LOVES taking all of my candy wrappers to the trash. I give them one by one so as to prolong the entertainment for as long as possible.
Alex also really enjoys taking his diapers to the trash (he is wearing disposable diapers at night), which I love as well.
We're still working with him on cleaning up spills and toys, but he at least is happy to clean up the shoes that he finds around the house. Although, last Sunday, Jon found his church shoes in the pantry instead of in the shoe basket.
On the shoe note, Alex also will find my shoes or Jon's shoes for us sine it means that we get to go outside. Alex's shoes of choice for me and my black Madden heels... not always the most practical choice, but he does know that they are mama's shoes.

The long and short of it

Alex's hair is REALLY long. But for some reason, I like it! I love the little curls around his ears. Yesterday I actually found a pretty tight little curl in the back and I was SO excited! I think he looks very cute with his long hair. Plus, I'm kind of afraid of doing the first cut. Maybe when we go to Utah this month and my dad comments on how long his hair is every day we can do it. ; )

We're hoping (well, I'M hoping) that we can get our trees in today between/after conference. We'll see...

calling for a YUMMY wheat bread recipe!

So I have my lovely bread machine. But my bread hasn't quite reached that level of deliciousness that I've been shooting for. I need to find a tried and true recipe, so if you have one, send it my way!

Out to make their $5

After reading Mel's post about her fun trip to the blow up play land (like ready set play for my wardie friends here), I was reminded of my last trip there and vowing not to go back until Alex could FULLY enjoy their equipment, which probably wouldn't be until he's AT LEAST 2. We will then have a small window of one years time to use the $5 fee before he turns three and is bumped up to $8.50. At least if I have a baby who can't crawl or walk in that time period, I'll only have to pay for one kid. However, if that baby decides to army crawl at 6 months... five bucks.

So here I was a new mom who needed social interaction. Being able to get out once in a while was SO NICE! All of the moms in the summer fun group had older kids that needed fun things to do, so sitting around at someone's house (or chick-fil-et) for 2 or 3 hours wasn't an option. ;) So I went thinking that no business in their right mind would charge admission for a baby who was not going to go anywhere near anything except their couches. And if they did it certainly would be less than what they charged older kids. NOPE. I was wrong. I got to pay $5 to talk to my friends, hold Alex, nurse Alex on their comfortable seating, entertain Alex with the toys in his diaper bag, and, as a bonus- enjoy their free coffee (which I didn't since I don't drink it), air conditioning, and a lot of noise. I could take a Coke to the library for story time with friends or go to Chick-fil-et (and eat NOTHING... just sit there with friends) and have just as great of a time for a whole lot less than $5.

My favorite thing had to be the reason that was given to me at the place.
When I got there and they told me it was $5, I choked out an "excuse me?" and asked them why they were charging for a baby to sit on my lap. I talked to the main lady there who told me that if they didn't charge admission, there would be nothing to stop moms with babies from coming in just to hang out because they had soft couches and free coffee. Talk about a great laugh! Why would I want to get a group of ladies with babies to all meet up at the local blow up toy place so we could all hang out. Wouldn't inviting women with babies to my home make a whole lot more sense?

Anyway...
Am I wrong for thinking that it's strange to charge for a baby to sit in his mom's lap while she tags along with a playgroup full of older children? Is there something wrong with ME for thinking I shouldn't be charged? Do I just expect too much?

Funny thought... I'm thinking that they decided to include a toddler area (haha... a foam playmat, blocks, and a little mesh blockade/fence around it) just so that they would have an excuse to charge for kids once they started crawling.
Here's a pic of the toddler area:



So of course, I have now started wondering just what places charge for kids under 2.

Austin Children's Museum
Admissions
Adults: $5.50
Children 2 yrs. old & older: $5.50
12-23 months: $3.50 | under 12 months FREE

WOW! I can take my crawling baby to the CHILDREN'S MUSEUM for FREE. And they probably have a foam mat, blocks, and MORE. Although, probably not free coffee. Bummer.

Zoo... Sea World... Disneyland... Aquarium...water parks. All under 2 are free (and all a lot more entertaining for kids under 2 than a foam lined floor and foam blocks).

Clark Planetarium in SLC has exhibits and don't charge an entrance fee for anyone, just for shows (from what I could see).

Granted, at all (minus Clark) of these places you do have to pay an adult admission, which I guess is a trade off for charging babies (?).

I also have to add that everywhere we go out to eat (besides fast food), Alex doesn't even get a kids meal and instead will eat some of mine and some of Jon's food. He's also free at Cici's (pizza buffet) and I swear, last time we were there, he ate/wasted probably as much pizza as I ate (and twice as much of their alfredo sauce). Gattiland (more pizza buffet/arcade) even has a day where if you pay for a kid's meal mom's get to eat free.

I guess my whole point of this post is that I just don't understand how they can charge $5 for a baby! To me, there just seems to be something really wrong with that, especially if you're letting other babies in free with an older sibling. There are probably just as many older kids in there without a younger sibling that it would probably all work out. Haha... I should have waited outside the door for someone with a single child to come in and offered to pay them a buck off of their admission so that my baby could be their temporary younger sibling and get in free. Or signaled out one of my friends with older kids and said that I was bringing their younger sibling later and that he was needing to get in free with them. Or they could just not charge for infants.

At the very least, I feel that lowering the price for kids under 2, and especially only charging a dollar or two for kids under 1 if they feel like they have to charge for them, is very reasonable. I love the pricing scale that Austin Children's Museum has. Totally based on how much a child will actually be participating in, which makes total sense to me.


I guess everyone has to make their five bucks somewhere though, right?

*ps* I'm not bitter enough that people should know me as the cheap-o that doesn't like to pay for her baby to do things, so don't invite her to anything! I just have a problem with having to pay $5 for services (besides air conditioning, comfortable couches, and free coffee) that my child won't even be using.

uuuup ppeee

Translation: up please. Does that count as a sentence?! I guess it would be more just stringing two words together, but even so, it was a first for Alex and it just happened! And it wasn't just a one time thing because he said it again. We'll see if it continues and becomes a regular thing.
OH! Another exciting accomplishment... 2 weeks ago when we were eating at Village Inn, Alex finally figured out how to drink out of a straw!!! That's a big deal!
So there you have it, two exciting new developments on the Alex front!

We have a winner of the name contest!

So when Aubrey (my niece) was learning how to talk, my sister decided that Aubrey was going to learn her name before anyone else's. She was so set on it that it became a contest of sorts.
I'm pretty sure that "Ninee" was first over Brent or Carrie, sadly. It was a total jip because Cindy's name is much easier to say.
Well Cind, I'm sorry... apparently someone has an easier name than you! Make room in the winner's circle!

More Popcorn!

As mentioned in my previous post, we gave Alex popcorn the other night. Usually he is in bed when we make it, so he had not yet experienced the deliciousness that is popcorn.
Anyone who knows my family knows we're all about popcorn. Every year for Christmas, my dad would give each kid a big box of microwave popcorn from Sam's. So we had 4 boxes of the stuff and we'd usually have to buy another box to get us through the year. We LOVE popcorn.
So, given the heredity factor, I'm not at all surprised that Alex loves popcorn as much as his mommy does.
On Monday night when I mentioned making popcorn Alex got VERY excited. So he helped me make it in our whirly pop (we love that thing!) and then we put it in our very cool popcorn bowl.
Here are some pictures of Alex enjoying the goods!

Movie Day!

We got some pretty good movies this month.

This is one of my favorites. It shows what a funny little boy Alex is.



This movie was taken after the first. It's long, but full of laughs. So if you like laughing babies (even though some laughs are totally fake), you should like this one.



Here's Alex doing his laps.




Tomorrow I'll post the videos from egg dying and The Hunt!