Hotty Toddy!!!!

This weekend Brian and I headed over to Oxford, Mississippi for the weekend and of course a football game. Christian has never been to an Ole Miss game, so we packed up and headed out. We stayed with Stefano, who is Brian's best friend from college. Usually his place is party central, but because our little one was tagging along it was going to be a calm weekend. On Friday we had planned to leave around 12:00, but Christian had a different plan. He takes naps in the afternoon and we thought with a three hour drive it would be nice for him to be sleeping most of the time. He gets bored very easy and having him sit in a car seat for hours on end is not a smart idea! The night before, Christian had a nightmare and was up from 12:30 to 4:30 a.m. So obviously he was very tired and decided that a four hour nap was needed. We finally got out of the house around 2:30 with a child who was wide awake and getting bored quickly by the minute! Three hours and three baby Einstein videos later we pulled into Oxford! For those people who do not know Stefano, he is an excellent cook! He was in the process of making some home made Jambalaya when we arrived. We popped some bottles of wine and champagne (my favorite) and started enjoying are night! Christian was glad to be out of his car seat and crawling and walking around! Yes, I said walking!!! He finally decided on Thursday to try vertical mobility! It was great and he is so proud of himself as well his parents! He is still crawling, but more walking everyday and getting the balance down perfectly! It is the cutest thing to see such a small person walking around. I video recorded the first steps, but unfortunately I am having alot of difficulty downloading video to the blog! Do not give up on me because I am still determined to figure out the problem.

Now that I went off on that little tangent.....I will continue to tell you all about our weekend! Friday night was very low key and we just hung out at Stef's house and ate, drank and caught up on old times. Stefano's girlfriend Tony was there with her little boy Riley and I believe he is five years old. He was a fabulous entertainer for Christian and they it if off great. Christian is so fascinated with older children and he loves playing with them. The weather was chilly that evening so we built a fire in Stefano's fire pit on

his deck and sat around and continued visiting. Christian had never seen fire and he was very intrigued by the different colors of the fire, but more intrigued with banging on the benches with a spoon he had found. It amazes me everyday that they are so fascinated by the smallest things. With being up the night before with Christian and the adult beverages I had been consuming....sleepiness was setting in! We gave Christian a bath and I took up to bed. I of course fell asleep with him because I was exhausted! Brian went with the boys to set up the tailgate in the grove and kept visiting with his friends.

Saturday morning came very quickly and because Christian slept so good the day before he was up at 6:30a.m. ready for a fun filled day of football! If everybody in the house was still asleep it did not take long for Christian to change that! Christian is a very vocal child and he loves screaming at the top of his lungs...so soon everyone was waking from their slumber! Tony cooked us muffins for breakfast and we got everything ready to take to the tailgate! Ole Miss is not like all the other SEC schools, they take tailgating to a new level! The game was at 11:30 so we had to get there early to hang out and visit with everyone. At 9:30 in the morning the drinks were flowing and I must say that nothing is better than a mimosa in the morning. Christian was even double fisted with milk and water!Obviously I do not drink too much because I have to be very aware of myself and my child. All it takes is a second and something could happen, especially now that he is everywhere! When the time rolled around Brian was ready to take Christian off to the game. However, he found him sound asleep on my shoulder. I guess Christian did not find the tailgating as stimulating as his daddy thought he would that morning. Brian headed off to the game with hopes that he would take Christian in the game for another quarter later that afternoon. One of my close friends, Farron stayed at the tailgate with me and some other girls that I have met through her in the past. Christian slept for an hour and recharged himself for later tailgating. When Christian woke up he was very excited to see all the people and everything hustling around the grove. The one thing that caught his eye and he became obsessed with was a goat! Someone had a pet goat that they brought to the game and Christian made it his mission to befriend this little goat named Lani! We had to be careful petting the goat because she did not like being touched on her face. Christian is so sweet with animals because of our dogs. He knows how to be gentle when touching animals. We stayed with the goat for awhile and then I had to drag him back to the tailgate. He hates to be confined or better yet told NO!!! I do not think I sat down that afternoon until Brian came back from the game! Christian made some new friends at the tailgate and I think stole the show. I made him some pants for this game too and a t-shirt to match. He looked adorable, but I think I like him better in orange and blue! We had now been at the grove for over 8 hours and I was groved out! I was ready to head back to the house for some more relaxing and hanging out with friends! Christian was exhausted so he got an immediate bath and went straight to bed once we got home. a few friends came over and visited for awhile and then some people went to bed and some stayed up awhile longer. For a weekend that was supposed to be calm and relaxing how did I come home more tired than ever??? Chasing a child everywhere is hard work and making sure nobody wakes him up being loud is even harder!!!! Christian loved Ole Miss, but I think it will be awhile before he goes back during football season! The days are just to long for him and he definitely needs his naps!
Sunday morning we did not get up until around 8:00am! We stayed and played awhile because we wanted to make sure Christian would sleep on the way home. We timed the ride home just right...he slept for over two hours and when he woke up we were twenty minute from home. He was in a great mood after his nap so when we got home we headed for the pumpkin patch. Our neighborhood does a pumpkin festival every year at the park for the millions of children that live out here. We had a good time and I will post those pictures on the next blog!

War Eagle!

A year has gone by since Christian had been to his first Auburn football game! Luckily enough he did not sleep through this game or the tailgate. In fact we actually took him into the football game for the first half just so he could see what all the excitement was about! Christian is such a people watcher and he got a big kick out of all the strange people screaming, hollering and shaking their shakers! The day started off really early because the kickoff was at 11:30am and anybody who has a child knows that you are never on schedule when you take them with you! The day before I had made him some pants to wear to the game. They are orange and blue checkered and looked very cute on him if I do say so myself! Thanks to my friend Corey who helped me learn how to sew! Here his daddy was getting him dressed to leave. We got out of the door by 8:00am, but then we had to get gas and stop by Reed's house to pick up the T.V. and satellite, tables and cooler. I am not so sure how we got nominated to do this chore, but I guess it is because we have the big vehicle. Christian was great on the way down to Auburn and even got in the spirit of the game by waving an Auburn flag in the back seat. I tried to teach him War Eagle, but he was not quite grasping the words! We got to Auburn and of course traffic was terrible and we did not get parked until about 10:45. We unloaded the car and off to the game we went! Now, I been told by many mothers that the volume in a football game is dangerous to a young child's ears and some even recommend that you do not take them into the game. However, you can buy ear plugs for young children and it provides protection against the noise. I had gotten some plugs and thinking positively.....my child would keep these things in his ears! Wow...he actually kept them in his ears for all of thirty minutes before he started taking them out and chewing on them! Oh well, I did not think it was too terribly loud in the stadium and it did not seem to bother him! The sky had been overcast all day until the second quarter and than the sun came out with all its strength. I believe it got into the 90's! I pulled out the sunscreen and lathered Christian up...he gets burned so easy! We planned on leaving at half time, but it was so hot that I took Christian out into the breezeway of the stadium. He was getting really antsy and wanted to be down and moving. Unfortunately, he is not walking and I would not put him down on the nasty stadium floor! Halftime rolled around and Auburn was shutting out Vandy so we left and went back to set up the tailgate!

Now anybody who knows my husband also knows that he is a little technologically challenged! He was the one sent back to the tailgate to set up the satellite??? Hope nobody wanted to watch any other games when they returned from the Auburn's game!!!! We got everything unloaded and Brian and John Hall attempted to set the satellite up. They were not having much luck and then Reed showed up and tried as well, but to no avail. Christian even thought that he could be of some assistance, but he could not get past playing with the cords. His Uncle Reed took some down time to have a little fun with Christian and pose for some pictures. After awhile the frustration with the satellite began to build among these men and I thought there was going to be some bloodshed if it did not start working soon. While the boys argued over how to make the satellite work, I played and watched over Christian. Brad Stephenson had brought his son Chance, who is six years old and also has a little brother. He is so sweet with Christian and was trying to get him walking on his own! He is such a good little babysitter and was watching Christian as closely as I had been. Finally the satellite was working and with all the testosterone floating around I decided to take Christian for a stroll around Auburn!

Anyone who is familiar with Auburn knows that there are alot of fun places to go around town and there is a great tradition that goes with winning a game! After a stop at the bookstore to buy some Auburn memorabilia for Christian we headed for a place called Toomer's Corner! Toomer's corner is a four way stop in Auburn that has huge trees and beautiful Samford Hall in the background. The tradition is that after a big win all the students go to the corner and roll it with toilet paper! The whole corner is shut down and there is toilet paper on everything....it looks like a winter wonderland and it is so much fun!!! Christian took a cat nap while we were shopping and then woke up just in time to enjoy the rolling that was taking place! We took some cute pictures and headed back to the tailgate. It was about 4:30 and I think everybody was ready to head back home. We packed up and headed home. I expected my little one to conk out on the way home because he had been up since 7:00 and maybe napped for about 30 minutes earlier, but no way! What a trooper, he definitely has his daddy's ability to stay up all day and night. Awake, but very grumpy we drove home with some screaming most of the way home. Bedtime came very quickly once we got home. Christian had a very long, fun filled day in Auburn, Alabama. Next week we head to Oxford for his first Ole Miss game ever. Now the fun begins between Brian and I to find out will it be Auburn or Ole Miss he likes the best! Stay tuned for next weeks blog........