Happy Birthday, Fredia

Today is my Aunt Fredia's birthday. (The card's in the mail, along with the picture above, I promise. . . ) Fredia reads the blog, so hopefully, my belated card will be forgiven.

Fredia has a special place in my heart. Matthew and I spent a lot of time with her. In the early 80s when my parents bought a VCR, Friday nights would find her and Sidney at our house to watch a movie. Sometimes, our family would go to her house. I can remember falling asleep at her house, being awakened by the cool night air as Daddy carried me to the car for the drive home, and closing my eyes to quickly fall back to sleep. When my parents needed a break from parenthood for a few hours, Matthew and I loved to spend time at her house. We'd pick strawberries, play in the branch, and sweet talk her into buying us candy bars. I always loved looking at Reader's Digest at her house to try the vocabulary quiz and to read the anecdotes submitted by readers. And, did I mention she makes the best blueberry cheesecake?

In thinking about Fredia, as I prepared to write this, I came to realize what makes her so special. She always makes me feel like I am her favorite niece. And, if you ask any of the other nieces and nephews, I know they feel the same. We are each Fredia's favorite. She loves us all.

Happy Birthday, Fredia.

The Performer

Gavin's teachers at daycare informed us a few weeks ago that he was twirling a washcloth while laying on the floor. He would twirl it on one hand then switch it to the other and twirl it again. The other babies were amazed, and just sat there and stared at our little performer.

He has done this several times around us, and we finally got some good footage of one of Gavin's showstopping performances. He was cheering on his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during the game this time.

Gavin 7 Month Pictures

Today marked Gavin's seven month-day. He spent the morning napping at school, then accompanied Mama and Dad to pick out his professional six month pictures. The afternoon was spent hanging out with Dad. After dinner, we went on a walk using Gavin's MacLaren stroller for the very first time since he's now sitting up pretty well.

We can't believe where the time has gone and how much Gavin has changed. In the last two weeks, he's started sitting up independently. Last Sunday, we felt the tip of a little tooth, which still hasn't broken through the skin. Gavin is laughing more now and babbling a lot. He's mastered the "da" and "ba" sounds. Occasionally, we get a "ga" sound. There's also an "ahh" sound. Still working on the "ma"; I know it takes longer for that one.

G is quite proficient at rolling around now. He can even roll around on the bed now--a feat he wouldn't try just a few weeks ago--so we can't just lay him on our bed and walk away to take care of something. He is very adept at holding objects and moving them from hand to hand. G loves waving his hands in the air, sometimes bending them at the wrist while holding a toy. He found his feet a few weeks ago, but still hasn't put his foot to his mouth, though he hasn't been super-interested in his feet lately. He loves jumping in the Jumperoo that Dean has loaned him. Sometimes he gets in the exersaucer and starts bouncing, so we transfer him to the Jumperoo.

Nutrition-wise, he's eating rice cereal and vegetables twice a day. He likes green peas and green beans, as well as squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. He isn't a big fan of bananas. We look forward to continue to introduce foods to him. We've given him a sippy cup with water to play with; he did try to put it in his mouth to chew on it.

We've started a new bedtime ritual. After his bath, he gets his pjs on; we read a story and say prayers. He gets rocked for just a few minutes and then laid down while he's still awake. He rolls around for a few minutes, but eventually settles down and falls asleep.

We continue to be amazed at our little guy. He is such a blessing.

Before

We have already completed the renovations for the two upstairs bathrooms. They turned out really well in our opinion. The master bath was next on the list. This one is going to be done in a few stages because the money isn't flowing around here like it once was when we did the other two renovations.

First stage is wallpaper removal and repainting the walls. Along with the walls, I will replace the light fixtures, towel bars, and mirrors. We should be able to texture the walls and paint this weekend. The wallpaper has already been removed in this picture.

The second stage will be new countertops, sinks and faucets. Thankfully we bought the new faucets on clearance last year, so we won't have to shell out a ton of money for faucets this time.

And finally the third stage will be to replace the hideous blue tile and also the carpet in our adjoining closets. We thought breifly about replacing the glass block on the shower, but that project might have to wait a year or two.

105,121, $50, & $9

(This is not where we were at....only a picture that I found)

By the numbers:

150,121 fans at the inaugural Cowboys / Giants game at Cowboys Stadium - which incidentally is the most to ever view a NFL game in person.

$50!!! to park my truck in a Ranger's parking lot that was about a mile from the stadium. I am almost positive that they only charge $20-30 to park in the same lot for Ranger's games.

$9 (Actually it was $8 plus a dollar tip) for a 16oz bottle of Miller Lite or MGD - yuck. Needless to say, I bought one Diet Dr. Pepper ($6) and nothing else. Many fans (and some who looked like they couldn't afford it) had no problems putting down their money for many, many beers. But you could get a popcorn bucket (gallon size) for $10, or nachos for $8.50. What a deal!

Some background information: My friend Scott called me on Saturday and told me that he had an extra ticket to the Cowboys vs Giants game. This was the first regular season game in the new Cowboys Stadium, so it was kind of a big deal. The tickets that our group had were the "party pass" tickets. These were standing room only tickets....So, we ended up jockeying for position along one of the railings and stood for two hours waiting for the game to start. We were in the second row of people from the railings and could see the field pretty well.

We ended up leaving at the start of the fourth quarter because we were tired and we both had to get to work the next morning. The Boys ended up losing to a last minute field goal...but the truth is they played pretty horribly all night long.

My eyes are burning a bit this morning, and my calves are sore from standing on my tip toes from trying to see the field. But we had a good time all things considered. It is still amazing to me the prices the people will pay to see a football game. My $50 parking fee (split two ways), $6 Coke, and $34 ticket were REALLY cheap compared to most of the fans that were at the game last night. I guess if you have to pay the mortgage for a billion dollar stadium, you have to gouge the fans for every dollar you can get out of them.

Go Jackets!!!!

Our family has been kind enough to supply our little yellow jacket with Georgia Tech gear. As you can expect, we can't exactly buy too many Georgia Tech items here in Texas. Gavin has been dressing up on gamedays when he goes to daycare. I'm sure the the other babies at daycare are impressed with his dedication to his future alma mater.

Unfortunatly GT got killed by Miami on Thursday, but Gavin says that he is still optimistic for the rest of the season. Evidently he sees something in the offensive line play that I don't....

Da Da?

Gavin has been doing lots of new things lately. Sitting up on his own, sticking his tounge out at us, and possibly even talking.
Gavin was having his lunch upstairs when I walked in the room and started talking to Miranda. He always wants to know what is going on when he is eating, so he turned his head to see who was in the room. Upon seeing me, he smiled then let out a "Da Da" without any other sounds. Miranda and I were both shocked for a few seconds and then tried to get him to do it again without any cooperation from G. So we aren't 100% sure that he knows that I am Dad, but what else should we expect from such a brilliant little man? We are of course working on Ma Ma too. But for some reason he likes making the D sounds more than the M sounds at this point.

Here are a couple pictures that we took today of G sticking out his tongue.

Baby in a Box

Last night was Open House at the school. Gavin stayed with me for a while until Dave could come pick him up. While I had a blanket and a toy for him, this file box provided some fun for a while. After he grew tired of this, he sat on my lap and flirted with the moms who were asking me to print schedules for their students so they could meet the teachers.

Gavin's core strength has improved a lot in the last week. Just last Thursday or Friday, his teacher Miss Kim was commenting that she'd been working with him on his sitting up. We were laughing at the fact that he eventually slumps to one side or the other. In the last few days, he's gotten much better at leaning forward to support himself. Tonight he was doing a really good job sitting up, until Mason walked by. Then Gavin followed him with his eyes and his entire body. My boy's growin' up.

Babies, Babies, and More Babies

Note: I started this post 2 weeks ago. I've waited thinking I'll get pictures. But one must ask in order to receive, so here's the post minus two baby pictures.

Love was in the air about 40 weeks ago. And, our friends have the babies to prove it. This mini-baby boom started on August 12th and concluded on the 27th.


First there was Lily on Wednesday, August 12th.































Next, Branlyn Nicole arrived on Thursday, August 13th, weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.




















Mindy's twins, Callen and Luke, also arrived on the 13th.






There was a brief break, then . . .

Tenli Isabella on Monday, August 24th.




Robert William on Wednesday, August 26th.
















Madelyn Jewell debuted on Thursday, August 27th.

Whew. I'm tired for them. A wonderful journey is just beginning. The ride gets easier by six months, I promise. Hang in there. We love you all.

Tough Day for G

Gavin had a rough day today. We had his 6 month doctor appointment yesterday, and he got three shots - one of which was a flu shot. In the past, after shots he runs a fever for most of the day and then is fine usually before he goes to bed.

This time it didn't work out that way. He was really restless last night. I think that he woke up 3-4 times during the night. Then this morning he was very stuffy and running a fever. This has continued all day long. He hasn't been a happy camper to say the least. Mama seems to be the only one who can sooth him when he is feeling bad. Dad functions as a baby holder during the times when he is feeling better. There has been a lot of baby holding going on around here today.

Mama went to Wal Mart today to pick up a few supplies. While she was there she picked up a few new toys for Gavin. He passed some time this afternoon (while he was feeling good) playing with his new blocks and plastic animals. There were a few smiles thoughout the day today, but not nearly as many as we are used to from Gavin.
He's asleep right now. We shall see for how long. Oh yea, the air conditioner decided to die today too....thankfully it has been raining all day so it is still cool and only a little humid. Hopefully the rain keeps things cool till Monday when I can call someone to look at the AC.