Single Mom Weekend

This past weekend was Ryan's first away trip for this fall. He was in San Antonio for a research conference where he presented the research he'd been working on the past year. He starts his ortho interviews next week for 3 more trips away from home. If any of you will be in similar situations, here's some ideas of what kept us busy over the weekend. (And no, I don't know why all this is underlined, it couldn't get it to go away).

We started the day off letting Grant run around in Mommy's fuzzy blue socks. These have now become known as the "cookie-monster" socks and Grant still asks to wear them.

We played many, many games of hide and go seek. Grant loves this game and it was more interesting because he started trying new hiding spaces, as opposed to his usual two that he rotates between. Hiding in the closet on Mommy's shoes was a favorite spot this game.

We ate cheap pizza and it was good! I think Gumby's Pizza is only in business because it is relatively good pizza for a low price. They employ some of the grumpiest workers ever!

We played with a lot of cars, trucks and tractors. Let's not forget helicopters too!

We went to the library where I picked out a couple of movies I knew Ryan would never want to see. Legally Blonde was as to be expected but the dancing movie was actually pretty good. It wasn't at all what I was expecting it to be.

Other non-pictured activities include:
Going to the children's museum and playing all morning.
Visiting the local toy store to let Grant play with the train table (one day I do plan on buying something from there).
Going to the mall and seeing the fire-department puppet show only to leave early because the puppets were scaring Grant.
Watching Elmo, reading lots of books, and playing outside when it wasn't too cold.
Making it through all three meetings at church with the help of some friends.

I was scared it would be a very long, tiring weekend with Ryan gone, but it actually went pretty quickly and Grant and I had fun. However, we were very excited to have Ryan back Sunday afternoon!!

Fat Tummy

As requested by some of the college roomies, here is a baby bump picture. I am now 22 weeks and feeling pretty good. The nausea is gone (although certain foods still leave a weird taste in my mouth), and I have more energy than earlier on in the pregnancy. I feel like I'm getting a lot bigger pretty quickly, much more quickly than I did with Grant. So we'll see what I look like at 40 weeks, that should be interesting.

Hanging Out

The weather has been absolutely wonderful lately. I wouldn't say it feels quite like fall right now, more like a cooler summer day. We've tried to venture out as much as possible to enjoy the cooler temperatures and the sun. Unfortunately we haven't been able to travel as a family as much as we would like since Ryan is at school all day and it seems like I've been working most Saturdays recently. That's why we don't have any cool pictures of outside adventures yet. But don't worry, they're coming.

I don't know about the rest of you with youngsters, but brushing teeth at night almost seems like an act of torture in our house (in the eyes of Grant). So instead of listening to blood-curling screams every night as we try brush Grant's teeth, we decided to use the TV to get Grant's mind occupied on something else. Now right before bed, we plop him on the couch in front of a Disney show and let him brush for a bit. Then when he's good and mesmerized, we can get a hold of the brush and give him a good cleaning. All without any signs of complaint. Now, I know this is probably not the best method, but I don't mind him watching a minute or two of TV right before bed in order to forgo the screaming and kicking. Now he will actually ask for "teeth" throughout the day when he wants his toothbrush for a little mid-day brushing.

On a different note, here's a little Halloween preview for any who are interested.

Holding your own fruit

One of Grant's greatest joys in this life is being able to hold and eat his own piece of fruit. This event rarely occurs for a number of reasons: a.) his slobber and fruit juice get all over the place and make a big mess, b.) he breaks off a piece that is small enough to fit in his mouth, but big enough to choke on, and proceeds choking, or c.) he starts eating thing like seeds and stems, which are not really meant for little boys to eat.

Sometimes we are nice parents and let him hold and enjoy his own piece of fruit. Unfortunately for Grant, his joy is often short-lived, because eventually he gets to the core and the fruit must be confiscated. At least he enjoys it while he has it.