Saturday, November 17, 2007

Boys and their Toys....is it Christmas already????


We already know that I am in trouble with the boys in my life because my oldest one Brian loves having toys. Anything from golf carts to expensive vehicles he has to have the latest and the greatest! Although, there has been some restraint on his part lately. However, I can not say the same when it comes to our son Christian! Brian could not wait for this Christmas because he wanted to buy Christian an electric riding toy! He went out a few weekends ago and bought him one at Toys R Us. It was a daddy field trip because he took Christian and they tried all the different electric riders out in the store! I am suprised they did not come home with a Ferrari or a Hummer of some kind for Christian to ride around on. Anyhow, I told Brian to put it up with some of Christian's other gifts for Christmas. Well......that lasted all of maybe a week before Brian wanted Christian to test it out AGAIN in our driveway. I told him no, that Christian needed to wait for Christmas and he did not need this toy now, but I lost that battle. Brian diappeared one afternoon and when he came out from hiding he had the rider all put together! Which is a shock in itself that he put it together correctly and there were no extra parts left over! When Christian woke up it was like Christmas morning a month early!
We recently had a retractable fence installed in our driveway because it is very, very steep. We were scared that Christian would eventually end up in the lake across the street if we did not protect him some how from the driveway! This fence had been installed two days before our November Christmas celebration with Christian's new toy! This is only a look into the future and I now know Brian is never going to be able to contain himself. I am going to have to hide all the presents from him, even the kids!!! So back to the story..... Christian wakes up from his nap and Brian is so excited to give him this new toy. This new toy which by the way, he plans on only letting Christian test drive??? Yeah right that will happen! Everybody knows you can not give a toddler a toy, especially one he loves, and then take it back?? Christian fell in love right away...a riding toy that he just pushed a small button and off he went? Wow! His face lit up like our Christmas tree, the one that this toy was supposed to end up under!!!! Needless to say, it took awhile to understand that he had to hold the button down to ride contiously. He was a little jerky at first and I just knew he was going to fly off the back of that toy! However, he knows how to hold on pretty good! I was thrilled to find out that are fabulous fence was well worth it too because he drove right into it and there was not even a budge!!! Christian and Brian stayed outside for quite awhile playing with his new toy. I think Brian would have even tried to ride the toy...if he was only a little shorter he could have!!!! HA HA!!! Anyway, that toy has not been put away and it is just added to the ridiculous amount of toys our son has to play with! The electric rider is definately his favorite toy and I must admit I was wrong about it!!! I never thought at his age that he would be into something like that mainly because I did not think he would be able to figure it out! I guess he gets his smarts from is mommy!!! The rider is a hit!!! I only hope that Brian can contain himself a little better until Christmas or Christian will not have anything to open!!!!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Halloween Eve and Halloween

I have been informed by loved ones that I have not updated the blog since the 15th and I am sorry for that. However, since the last blog Christian is a source to be reckon with....he is walking like a champ! I can not sit down for one minute now! So let me think of what has been going on to tell you all about him??? Halloween has been alot more exciting this year since he is more active. We have a pumpkin festival at the park in our neighborhood and we went to that a couple weeks back! Christian loves the pumpkins and enjoys beating on them like a drum. I took some cute pictures of him, but in this stage of the game it is hard to keep him still enough to get some good shots! A little bribery is needed to even get him to sit still and look in my direction! He helped pick out our pumpkins and played around the park, but he was still to young to really enjoy the face painting and games. We took our pumpkins home and waited awhile before we carved them.

Brian is on the road a lot and was hunting in South Dakota the week before Halloween. Christian's Nene (aka Debbie Banta) came into town to visit with her grandchildren. Debbie stayed with us for two days and then at Julie's for two days. While she was here somehow I miraculously forgot to take any pictures??? We did have fun and took Christian to the zoo! Birmingham's zoo is not the best in the world and we mostly saw animals sleeping if we could see them at all! The most important thing though was that Debbie got to spend time with Christian!

Brian came home late Sunday and than left on Monday morning again! He was returning Halloween night to trick or treat! I was going to wait for Brian to get home to carve the pumpkins, but because I wanted to make sure that at least one pumpkin got carved....I did one myself Tuesday night! My sister came over and assisted Christian and I because it is hard to carve a pumpkin with a toddler crawling up your leg!!!!! I have never carved a pumpkin alone and I have to say, that it turned out very well. Christian was very interested in the pumpkin, he hit it, looked in it and tried to eat it! After all of that, he could of cared less! Christian is in this stage where he is obsessed with balloons (boons as he calls them) and every trip to the store he gets one. Publix gives them away free at the grocery, which is very helpful in occupying him for a few minutes while I shop! Well the eve before Halloween we were not so lucky and were unable to find someone to give us a balloon. I had to break down and buy one since he would not stop screaming....boon, boon, boon every isle we went down! We picked this huge pumpkin balloon that had eyes that lit up and he thought it was the best thing since milk! I need to just remember balloons for Christmas this year and he would be happy! Anyhow, after are shopping adventure we went home to carve our pumpkin! In the middle of carving we had to stop and give someone dinner and a bath. Grumpiness was setting in and I knew if I wanted any pictures we would have to feed the beast! I had bought some Halloween p.j.'s at the gap that were black with a skeleton on them that glowed in the dark. Christian was wearing them on Halloween eve and they were adorable! He wore them all day on Halloween too....needless to say they were very dirty by that afternoon! Black did not hide his dirtiness either! We took some pictures on the porch with the decorations and then off to bed
he went dreaming of candy for the next night! Brian got home on Halloween around 3:00 and we carved the other pumpkin with Christian. We were planning on taking him to the homes of close friends to trick or treat around 5:30. Brian got Christian dressed in his Monkey outfit and we took some pictures and then we left for the night! Christian's best friend Elijah and his brother recently were exposed to chicken pox so we have been keeping our distance from them for awhile, but tonight we went by for some photo ops. We want pictures to show them when they are older how cute they are together as buddies. Everybody drives around in our neighborhood on golf carts and on Halloween all the parents pack up coolers of their favorite beverage and follow their kids around while they trick or treat! It is great and unbelievable how many children live in our neighborhood! When we got to Elijah's home they were all outside with some other neighbors. John and his brother Matthew belong to a friend named Allison. We lined them all up from biggest to smallest and took some pictures. Elijah is the dinosaur and so his older brother Preston. After visiting with some other friends we made our way to our good friends Sam and Jana's house to continue the celebration. Christian helped by giving out and eating the candy with the older trick or treaters! It was a great night and Christian I think was wired from all the chocolate he kept snagging from the basket! His second Halloween was a success and we all had a blast!