Auburn-Clemson game

For my birthday, I got a weekend away.  I flew down to Atlanta Friday morning and a bunch of us drove to Auburn that afternoon.  (But not before having lunch with Bayless, who was not going to Auburn because she flew to L.A. to see her husband, who is the drummer for Skid Row, play at the Verizon Amphitheater!).

Luckily, Kim's husband Rick scored us a free sweet 4 bedroom condo/townhome!  His company owns the place and during the week, some of the workers who are working on projects in Auburn stay there.  But they leave on the weekend, so we got a free place to stay.  

Friday evening, we all went to Amsterdam's for dinner and a mini ZTA reunion (our sorority).  

My big sis Hope is in the pink almost off screen next to Ayala.  Then there's (and I'm only giving maiden names here!) Melissa Ayala, Kirstin Myers, Kara McLaughlin, Stacie Wright, Katie Allen, Michelle Motley, and Tyler Martin. 

While we were there, Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler, and Erin Andrews came in and sat in a corner booth.  GameDay was live from Auburn on Saturday, so they were in town.  We love them because they always have great things to say about Auburn.  Plus Erin Andrews is a ZTA! 

Saturday we got up early to get to the tailgate.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get the TV to work, but we did have satellite radio and listened to some of the earlier games while eating burgers, brats, potato salad, brownies, veggies and dip, and cookies. 

Oh let's not forget my old pal, Maker's Mark, who made an appearance.  Ayala and I started drinking beer, but it was just making us sleepy.  Thankfully Maker's Mark (aka: brown liquor) was there to save the day!  I don't think you can see it very well in the picture below, but the normally red seal wax on the top of the bottle is actually orange and blue when you buy it in Auburn!

Katie (Allen Gust, blonde, long hair in the first picture above, next to Stacie) told me to meet her at the athletic center at 3:30 to get my ticket.  Her husband works for Auburn and scored me a nice, free ticket!  Hooray! Missy and I hit the bookstore before we were going to meet Katie.  I picked up some cute things for the kids- look for future pictures/posts about how cute my kids look in Auburn gear! Anyway, due to lack of cell phone signal (because you know, Auburn becomes the 3rd largest city in Alabama on Saturday's in the fall), I couldn't get ahold of her.  So Missy and I watched Tiger Walk and hung out with the Garner's (Kristen's parents!) before heading back to the tailgate.

The game was a good one.  Katie's seats were really awesome.  Hope and I sat on the 30-35 yard line, about 45 rows up.  It was so good to spend some time with my Big Sis too!  I hadn't seen her since 2008, and even then, it was brief.  Thank goodness for Facebook!  Speaking of that, if it weren't for Facebook, I wouldn't have know to wear blue.  You can see all of the Auburn fans wearing navy, because the Clemson fans are wearing orange.

The picture above is kick off.  War Eagle, hey!  And the picture below is probably my favorite picture of the weekend. We were down 17-3 at halftime, then took a 24-17 lead in the second half, only to have Clemson come back again (on dumb Auburn mistakes), and take it into overtime.  In overtime, we scored first (3 pointer) but then there was a false start by Clemson as their kicker MADE the field goal.  So they brought it back.  And guess what? He missed it!   I love a good Auburn win, especially for my birthday! 

Amused Baby

I just love this little guy.



More gymnastics

Just another shot of Natalie doing her gymnastics!  She just has no fear in her class.  Here she is getting ready to hang from the rings!  She just trots right on up and goes at it!

Picnic in the Park

Todd, the kids and I went to Boston Public Garden for Labor Day.  We brought along a picnic lunch and strolled around on a beautiful late summer day.

Natalie was a big hit, scoring lots of smiles with her angel wings on.  I mean, really, isn't she the cutest??? 

We also rode on the famous swan boats.  I had never been on them, and neither had the kids, so we took a little family cruise on the pond at the Boston Public Garden.  The sun was in our eyes, which is why Natalie has the sourpuss face on.  She was really good and had fun on the boat!

But I didn't have Grant facing the camera, so here is the big guy with his Mama on the boat.  Right after this picture, Grant grabbed my earring out of my ear and tried to fling it, but thankfully Todd caught his hand and took it away from him.  And thankfully I wear the kind of earrings that can pop right out when a baby grabs at them!

After our swan boat adventures, we went under a shady tree and had a picnic.  Of course, we forgot Natalie's lunch, so she had to eat some of ours.  G enjoyed a jar of green beans under the trees.  We didn't take any pictures of the picnic- it was a little chaotic!

The swans (the real ones - hey, they don't call them swan boats for nothing!) and the ducks were so comfortable around people, you could walk right up to them.  Here, Natalie had little interest in the birds, but was very excited about stirring a big stick in the pond.  Do you ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a 3-year-old?????  Fascinating stuff! 

Sippy cup

We keep trying to give Grant a sippy cup and this is pretty much all Ole Blue Eyes does with it:  not much.  But he looks cute doing nothing!!!

Sorry this next picture is blurry... this time, he kept trying to bend over to drink it.  He doesn't quite understand gravity yet!  But he did enjoy chewing on the rubbery spout!

Natalie's Gymstars I class

Natalie really enjoyed the brief, 10 week summer gymnastics class she took.  She was in the Tiny Tumblers class, but now she has moved up to the "big girl class" (as she calls it), also known as Gymstars I.  It's a little more organized now.  First, they sit in a circle and do songs and stretching and dancing. 

You can see here, she is doing a pretty good job of paying attention.  However, in the next picture, she is running around while all of the other kids are quietly seated.  Such is the attention span of a 3-year-old!

This picture is so awesome.  The only thing in focus is Natalie.  Pretty wild.  After the group sing-a-long, they go and break into smaller groups and do smaller obstacle courses.  Below, she is waiting in line to start one of the courses.

In the next shot, my little daredevil is climbing the ladder (with the help of one of her teachers, Mr. Gary). 

And lastly, here she is jumping on little squeaky pads.  Yes, that is her new leotard.  She was very excited to wear it and didn't want to take it off when she got home.  She said she wanted to wear it all day!

Big boy can stand by himself at a table

Sniff sniff... where is my little baby going????

Grant is standing alone at a table now.  We have to put him there- he can't pull himself up yet, but he can stand there for quite a long time, and doesn't even have to hold on with both hands!  He is showing us this in the picture above.  See the green train mom?

And I love the picture below, mostly because Natalie took it!  Notice how cautious mommy still has a hand behind his bum!  Just in case!

Also, Grant has finally decided that rolling over from back to belly would be a fun idea.  Most babies do this around 4 months.  Grant?  Almost 10 months!  (He started doing this on August 24th).  Both of my kids are proof that every kid moves at their own pace. 

Mesh Bag Baby Safe Feeder

Big G went absolutely bonkers for the mesh bag baby safe feeder that we got him.  It's a great little contraption.  It has a hard plastic handle that screws into another plastic piece that holds a mesh bag.  You drop in some food (doesn't matter what- chicken, bananas, peaches, broccoli, whatever!) and baby gnaws on the mesh bag and gets out all of the yummy goodness without the fear of choking.  The other night, I filled it with slices of a plum, and he couldn't get enough of it.  I was worried at first, because when we gave Natalie the same device, she had no interest and only wanted to gnaw on the hard plastic handle.  One time, she ate 3 grapes in it, and despite giving it to her a handful of other times, she had no interest.  But G actually cried when I took it away from him!

Natalie's 3 year stats

Well, there's not much to report that's new here (no real changes since we self measured her in June!).  Natalie had her 3 year checkup last Thursday and she is 38" tall and weighs 32 lbs.  This puts her in the 55th percentile for weight and 60th percentile for height.  She is 5% higher in height, which is the first time in her life that has ever been the case!  It was usually the reverse- slightly higher percentile for weight than height. 

She also had to have blood taken for the 3-year-old lead test.  In Massachusetts, kids have to be tested at 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years for lead.  I'm assuming she passed because no one called us on Monday!  Dr. Meisheid and I also discussed her potential peanut allergy... so they took a little extra blood and tested that.  Well, they called on Friday and told us she is NOT allergic to peanuts!  Hooray!  What a huge relief!

Natalie only cried during the blood work and was very good when Dr. Meisheid was poking and prodding her (despite being uncomfortable that she was only in her undies and socks!).  So after the appointment, I took her to Dairy Queen for some celebratory chocolate ice cream! 

Natalie's first day of preschool

Natalie started preschool this morning and is in the Teddy Bears class at FACE preschool in Natick.  Sniff sniff.  Her backpack made her look so tiny as she walked into the school.  Both Todd and I went and she played in the classroom for a few minutes before we decided to leave.  There was only 1 other little boy there at 7:30.  Don't these parents work??? Even after dropping her off at 7:30, I still didn't get to work until 8:45 and I was on the express train! One of her teachers said that some of the kids wouldn't be starting until next Tuesday (after Labor Day).  Natalie was most looking forward to playing on the playground and seeing her best friend Gaby.  Gaby is actually in the Chipmunks class, but I'm sure Natalie will see her at some point during the day. 

Natalie's first day of preschool is complete!  And she had a great time!  Here she is in the living room before we left with her backpack on:

And here's Grant and Natalie on the front porch before we left for school and daycare:

She was very cute in the morning.  As we were walking toward the school in the parking lot, Daddy took her hand which she held for a few moments before she said, "Daddy, I don't need to hold your hand because I'm a big girl!"

Once we got there, Natalie found out where her hook for her backpack is:

She had a great day and the teacher had nothing but good things to report about her.  She ate Cherrios with milk for breakfast, and for lunch, they had brunch!  She told us they had waffles and cucumbers for lunch, but I can't quite figure that out!  Some kids didn't nap, but Natalie definitely did.  In fact, they only napped for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, which is definitely NOT long enough for her.  Natalie normally naps for 3 hours.  So to cut that to less than half, she is definitely going to be a little grumpy in the evenings until she adjusts (oh please, let her adjust! This evening was not fun...) 

Above is Natalie with one of the teachers, Doreen.  She was getting ready to wave at us out the window, which she thought was pretty funny.  Natalie was also very good about using the potty and asked her teachers whenever she had to go.  She also stayed dry during her nap, which is sometimes hit or miss at home, but like I mentioned, she usually sleeps for 3 hours at home! She did see her friend Gaby, but I'm not sure for how long.  She also made a new friend when playing in the sandbox outside.  She couldn't remember her name but she said she had black hair like mine.  (HA HA, my hair is brown).  She also got to make a crown that she colored and put stickers on.  Of course, she was the only kid who had to have an "extender" because her head is so big! HA!  Overall it was a great first day!