Today I am a complete train wreck.
As I was pulling out of the driveway I saw Reed running down the hill towards me. I knew Randy was way in the back of the house getting Alison dressed so I had to throw it in park and try to get him inside. Words weren’t working and I was in a hurry so I picked him up and carried him inside. Luckily Randy came to the front door at the same time so I could run back to my car and head for work.
As I’m walking in to the office I noticed that there are several black shoes prints all down my front left thigh. Good thing I wore off white pants today, right?
To make things EVEN BETTER I just sat down and my 23 year old male co-worker pointed out that I have something on the back of my black sweater. Upon further examination I realized it is SNOT! A huge long line of Reed’s snot running down the back of my left arm. Awesome.
Can I go back home and start over???
The joys of motherhood.
8 Month check in
Alison you are already 8 month old!
You are still a super smiley and happy baby. The only time you fuss is if you are hungry or I walk out of the room. I love that you are a cuddler and that you are a mommy’s girl. When I hold you you snuggle in and its so easy to hold you that I don’t want to put you down. That’s convenient because you don’t ever want to be put down!
You are still a crappy sleeper. Some nights are good, and some nights are not. Hopefully you will start consistently sleeping through the night one day. One thing is for sure…if Reed had been as terrible of a sleeper as you, you would not have been born so quickly!!
You are a good eater and will eat most anything I feed you. However, you are definitely a woman because you like your foods sweet. Applesauce is your baby crack. Anytime you refuse to eat something we will put a little applesauce in it and all of a sudden you open your mouth wide. Funny girl.
You are crawling like a wild woman, but it isn’t a traditional crawl. I need to get it on video because its hard to describe the way you crawl. But it is funny.
You are wearing size 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes and size 2 diapers.
Your hair is still a little red and GiGi just told me that my great-grandmother’s hair looked like yours. Maybe that is where it comes from. Who knows if it will stick around though 🙂 You also still have those captivating blue eyes like your brother and your daddy’s eyelashes.
You LOVE to watch your brother act silly. He runs and jumps all over the place to make you smile and you pay off every time.
I love that you are so attached to me, but you have captured the heart of all the men in your life too. Your brother, Daddy and Duke are so enamored with you. It makes me happy to see how loved you are.
Love you sweet girl!!!
UTSA Football
When it comes to college athletics, I have fallen deeply in love with Texas A&M University. I give the credit to my wife and in-laws, as they have opened the door to Aggieland for me and shown me what a great institution it is. Since my alma mater, UTSA, did not have a football team, it was easy to change my affiliation to the Aggies. As we all know in Texas, in a football stadium is where affiliations and rivalries are born and live.
This season, UTSA fielded its very first football team, and the city of San Antonio has fallen behind them 100-percent. The amount of support from alumni, sponsors, and even the Chamber of Commerce is unbelievable. They are playing their games in the Alamodome, which is notable for its size and location downtown… the perfect place for a city to show up and embrace a new team (just ask the New Orleans Saints).
The first UTSA football game was played while we were out of town. The school set a goal to break the “first game for a program” attendance record that was held by the South Florida Bulls in 1997 at 49,212. UTSA shattered that record by filling the ‘Dome with 56,743!
Thanks to a phone call from a friend (Adam) with an extra ticket, I got to go to UTSA’s second game. This required that I gear up for game day with a UTSA shirt. Thank goodness the HEB grocery store a full display of shirts since the Academy sporting goods store was sold out! (See what I mean about support?!)
Game day came and I got there early to tailgate with my sister and her friends. I must say that there was a whole lot more tailgaters than I expected. That is one thing I have done a lot of with my family at A&M, and it was good to see that UTSA was doing what it could in the confines of the downtown Alamodome. There were two parking lots of tailgaters: students and alumni/season ticket holders. I’ll let you guess which one was crazier.
Adam and I made our way into the ‘Dome. I have been there for many football games, but NEVER have I sat front row on the 40 yard line! We were even on the UTSA sideline, so watching the entire UTSA football program operate on game day was amazing to see. I must admit that I got a little choked up thinking about my time at UTSA and how big this move is to field a football team. Like it or not, more pride is born from supporting athletics than anything else a university has to offer its students and alumni. I was certainly filled with pride when I watched what MY alma mater was doing on the field and in the stands.
What a great time it is to be a Roadrunner!
-RB
Labor Day Weekend
We descended upon Blanco, Texas for the weekend, along with 5 other families from around the state. Six families, most with multiple children, and ALL of them under 5 years old!
We needed a LARGE place to accommodate such a big group, and I give credit to Summer for finding this place. The property is right on the Blanco River, which under normal circumstances, would have been a great place to hang out. Given our extreme drought conditions, the river had dried up to nothing more than a few large ponds in this area. However, the house, pool, and accommodations more than made up for the lost river time.
To summarize the weekend’s activities, it went something like this:
Wake up, eat breakfast, play, swim in the pool, eat lunch, nap, play, swim in the pool, eat dinner, play, get the kids to bed, relax (Women=chat, Men=watch football), sleep… repeat.
We had a few significant events that made for a great weekend with friends. First and foremost, it was opening weekend for college football. This house had a bonafide “Man Cave” with a projection screen TV, wet bar, bathroom and wine cellar (empty). Every night seemed to provide a great game match-up to get excited about (Fri: Baylor/TCU, Sat: Oregon/LSU, Sunday: SMU/A&M). Second, on Sunday morning, a cool front blew in that gave us a nice change of pace from the 100 degree weather we had been experiencing for months. It was literally a breath of fresh air for everyone to just hang out outside and enjoy. And finally, it was my birthday on Sunday, and this trip allowed me a great place to just spend it with my family and celebrate with friends.
-RB
At the lake with the Shulers
Smart Boy
I feel like I don’t tell very many Reed stories on here…and that is a shame. He is at such a fun age right now. He is a handful, but the thoughts and words that come tumbling out of his mouth amaze and tickle me constantly. Reed can count to 10, he knows his colors and can sing the ABC’s. He also knows most of his shapes. Sometimes I’m amazed at the things he knows simply because I didn’t teach it to him. That makes me sad, but I’m so thankful he goes to such a good school and is learning so much.
I’m going to start adding his funny one-liners to the blog more often. I would hate to forget how cute he is right now. Saturday morning Reed and I got up and did Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. He would watch me, and then look at the tv and say ‘look Mommy, pretty girl!’ When I would get on the floor to do abs his response was ‘Mommy! Get UUP!’ Little punk.
We have already discussed his obsession with pretty girls, but on the way home from HEB we were listening to the radio. An Alabama song came on and he said ‘No Mommy. ‘ So I changed the channel to another station and there was a female singing. His immediate response was ‘Yes Mommy. I like this one’. What a punk. Now he not only likes to look at pretty girls, but now he only wants to listen to pretty girls.
‘Go See the Cow-booyys’
Growing up my mom and I had a standing date to go watch Cowboys training camp every summer. We would get up early in the morning for their 7am practice to watch some football. Then we would grab breakfast and have a girl day (yes, this is Julie).
This tradition started long before training camp was a circus and another avenue to make money. This was back in the day when training camp was from 7-10am at Trinity University. My mom definitely guided me to the love of football I have today.
This year I decided I wanted to start that tradition with Reed. Randy and I took the afternoon off of work and took Reed down to the Alamo Dome for training camp. It wasn’t quite the same experience that I had with my mom…but it was pretty fun. The whole time Reed kept talking about ‘gonna go see the cowboys’. When we sat down he just kept watching so intently. Every now and then he would say something random (which is pretty normal for him). My favorite was when he looked at the blow up Pepsi can and beer can across the fields and screamed at the top of his lungs “BEEERRR!” Proud mom moment.
Teeth!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, Alison has teeth. I literally had no idea they were so close to emerging. Thursday night she was awake from 2-4am, but she never screamed. She was just awake and smiley. Same story on Friday night. Annoying, but not bad. Saturday afternoon we were at our old neighbor’s house swimming with the kids and having drinks and dinner. Ali was sucking on Doreen’s margarita glass (yes, just the glass, not the margarita) so intently that I started to wonder what was going on. Sure enough when I reached my impeccibly clean finger into her mouth I felt not one but two teeth!
What a sweet girl, she didn’t even scream and cry with her first teeth. Let’s hope all of her teeth come in this easily.
7 Months!
I feel like a broken record, but this first year of Ali’s life is flying by. I can not believe this little girl is already 7 months old!
Let’s get all the details out of the way first:
Height & weight – no idea!! Praise the Lord we haven’t been to the doctor for a sick visit in months! (Of course she woke up yesterday with a snotty nose and feeling a little warm)
That brings me to teeth. She doesn’t have any yet, but I’m not surprised. Reed was a late teether too.
She is on the move. If there is something she wants, she can get to it. She hasn’t crawled yet, but she rolls like a maniac and can scoot herself to whatever she wants to play with.
Size – Ali is wearing size 2 diapers and either size 6 month or 9 month clothes. She can fit in 6 month, she can also still squeeze into a few 3 month onesies but she’s getting too long for her 6 month jammies.
Food – She is still nursing, but now she’s getting one formula bottle a day. It hurts my pride, but it’s better for me. She is OBSESSED with sweet potatoes. I think she would eat a whole cup if I kept feeding it to her. I’m still making her food and it seems easier this time around. I thought it would be harder, but I just puree whatever I’m feeding Reed. She likes everything I have ever fed her which is a change from Reed. He was a picky little eater at her age. She eats: melon, peaches, bananas, prunes, applesauce, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and oatmeal. I think this month we are supposed to start meats so that should be fun.
Sleep – she takes 2 or 3 wimpy naps at school everyday. Then when she gets home she will eat and take another nap. Sometimes she sleeps all the way until her nighttime snack (around 9) and goes right back to bed. On good days she wakes up at 6:30 or 7 for her morning meal, but most of the time its more like 5:30.
Her hair is starting to grow back in. She has just gotten the first little curls in the back. LOVE it!!
She really has such a sweet temperament. She isn’t too excited when I put her down on her changing pad to change her diaper, but I’m not sure if that is because she doesn’t want to be put down or because she doesn’t want her diaper changed. One huge bonus is that she is in a HUGE mommy phase. As soon as she sees me she lights up. When I put her down or walk in the other room she reacts immediately. I would be lying if I said I didn’t love this!!
I rave about her sweet personality all the time, but she is seriously the sweetest child ever. (Maybe she just seems like a breath of fresh air compared to her bossy and serious older brother).
Poop
I guess this story is further evidence that I grew up with 3 sisters and there was only pink and barbies around. No sign of boy stuff in sight. Therefore, I am clueless about little boys and how weird they can be.
The poop obsession started over Memorial Day weekend when Reed and Kate discovered deer poop. Every morning they would take a walk and search for deer, but more importantly they would search for deer poop. All weekend we heard talk of deer poop and I thought it would end when we got home. Of I was wrong. This boy is still obsessed with poop. I just don’t get it! My parents still have 2 golden retrievers so every time we go over there (at least once every weekend this summer for pool time) Reed wants to go look at the poop. Seriously. He takes my hand and says ‘mommy, I wanna see the pooooop!’. then we walk to the back of the yard and inspect all the poop. He points his fat little finger at every pile and declares that yes its true. That is poop.
It is ironic that he loves to look at all kinds of poop, but will.not. go poop in the potty. What a funny little boy.
***I wrote and posted this entry yesterday. Last night do you know what Mr. Reed decided to do? He told us he needed to go poop…and we ran to the potty and he POOPED! He was so excited about it. He ran around the house screaming that he ‘went poop in the potty’! Then he wanted to call ‘BB’ (my little sister Diana Beth) to tell her that he ‘went poop in the potty’. I emphasize those words because he just kept repeating them. He was so proud. Then he wanted to wear his ‘panties’. Randy quickly corrected him that he wears ‘undies’. Of course 15 minutes later he peed in his undies. At least we had one success!