On July 31st, Grayson found a pair of boots of mine, and started walking around the kitchen in them. It was hilarious:
while Jack dressed up in an elephant towel:
I love my boys!
In late July, Christine and I took the boys up to the Arboretum for fun one day.
These photos were the result:
That was a fun day, let me tell you.
Back in July, Christine decided on a Monday that it had just been too long since she’d see Oma, and it was time to go see her.
So, on a Tuesday, she threw the boys in the car, called her Dad and asked him if he wanted to go visit Oma with her… said she’d be in Dallas in a few hours to spend the night, and hit the road.
I stayed in Austin to man the fort.
She got to Dallas, let the boys plan with Nana and Papa, and spent the night. Then that next morning, Frank and her and the boys hit to road to Tulsa.
They spent a day or two with Uncle Ben and Aunt Gayle, and spent a lot of time with Oma, and had a blast.
I’m finally finding some time to focus on englers.org, and specifically to get some photos up that we’ve had just sitting around…
Here’s the first installment of those photos:
Momo came and visited us this summer a couple of times. This gallery has most of those photos from her June/July trip.
The did things like playing in the back yard, made oatmeal cookies (and ate a lot of the dough) and other fun stuff. We rode bikes.
We also headed out to the lake and spent time with Momo, Evan, Shadel and Ella. Ella and Jack just loved playing together, Grayson and I hung out, and Evan cooked a little.
You’ve gotta love these shoes Grayson was caught wearing, and the sunglasses too.
We all swam. Ella jumped in the pool… Grayson floated… and Jack and Ella were cute… then Grayson got tired.
We fished. We swam in the lake. We kayaked. We Jet Skied… All of us. Grayson and Jack.
Check out all the photos from her trip up to Austin here.
Last weekend, Christine asked me to take the kids to the park for the morning, to give her some time to get some things done.
So I did.
I also too the camera with me, and took a bunch of photos.
Towards the end of the trip (right before we ate lunch), Jack and Grayson started getting really dirty. They were throwing dirt at each other and loving it.
I snapped this photo, and I think it’s definitely my favorite photo of Grayson, ever… at least for now…
Just a little dirty…
Grayson and Jack just love eating Popsicles outside in the morning.
Overheard this morning in the kitchen:
The Refrigerator is open.
Grayson: “Goguh!”
Daddy: “You want some yogurt?”
Grayson: “Uh-huh”
Daddy: “Okay, let me get it”
As soon as Daddy touches the yogurt, Grayson says: “Yes” just perfectly.
Daddy: “Can you say ‘yes?'”
Grayson: “Yes”
After getting the yogurt, Grayson says “Mmmmmmm” as he walks away.
So, yes, Grayson can now say “Yes” perfectly.
Since the kids were on vacation this week, Christine and I decided to “get some things done” while they were out of town.
We ended up feeling like we didn’t get much done, but we enjoyed our little mini-vacation from the kids, and loved hearing about how much fun they had on their vacation to Camp Momo.
We did accomplish a few things though:
I got home from work and showed the kids “Daddy’s new car” (realize we still hadn’t decided to buy it yet).
Jack and Grayson came out into the front yard, where Jack proceeded to tell me my old car was “ucky” and he thought it looked like “poop”.
I asked him what he thought of the new car, and he said “it’s cool… it’s a racecar!” (any car with a spoiler is a racecar to him).
I then pulled the key out of my pocket, and said “Watch this!”
Jack’s mouth opened as wide as it could while the top of the convertible automagically retracted into the car, and when it was all done, Jack just stood there and said the best one word a Dad can here from his son: “Cool.” No exclamation.
Just. Stoic. Coolness.
We loaded the kids in the car, and drove off into the sunset… Actually, we drove to a Hawaiian Snow Cone place, and got out and had snow cones (a first for both boys) then we drove around for a while with the top down, before heading to McDonald’s for dinner and some playground time. On the way home, Jack asked us to “make the car change” constantly, and no matter what we did, as soon as it changed, he wanted it to change again.
We took a boat ride with all of the kids, and put them all in a big three-person tube, and pulled them behind the boat (I’m sure Greg’s back is killing him today).
I drove back to the dealership to actually buy the car… it’s official, we own a 2005 Saab 9-3 AERO Convertible, and we’re loving it.
We then took a dip in the pool before dinner, and headed home, with the top down all the way.
The kids LOVE this car as much as we’re loving it, I think. (There’s nothing like two kids in car seats in the back of a convertible in 100 degree weather in Austin, Texas.)
So, that was our week and weekend. While we “didn’t get anything done” I sure feel like we did a lot!
Watch the movie of Jack and Grayson getting down to 50 Cent in the back of the convertible on the way to Lakeway:
This past week, Grayson and Jack went to Bellville for Camp Momo… something we all hope will become an annual event.
On Tuesday, Christine drove them down to Bellville, and dropped them off. Momo took over. And Ella was there too!
We got nightly progress report phone calls, and the boys came home telling us stories about how much fun they had, and asking to call Momo. Grayson called for Momo for a few days every morning when he woke up. All-in-all the boys had a blast, and we can tell.
They did things like play outside…
Play in the water…
And got to climb on and inside an ambulance…
What a great week. And Christine and I had fun this week to with our little mini-vacation. More about that in the next post.
We’re on vacation this week in Lakeway. Here are some photos I took today:
I’ll come back and write more about what we’re actually doing during the day as soon as I can, I promise… needless to say, we’re having a blast, and everyone is exhausted at the end of the day. Lots of swimming, running, playing, and very little napping 😉
This past weekend, while Christine was attending the Landmark Forum, Nana, Michael and I took Jack and Grayson to the Dinosaur Museum in Dallas. We took a train and bus to get there and back (which was quite the experience), and had lunch at the Old Mill Restaurant on the State Fairgrounds too.
What a fun day:
And yes, that’s probably the first movie I’ve made since Christmas… sorry, hope to post more in the future.
This morning, I got tasked with breakfast duty…
So, I looked in the fridge: no eggs, some milk, some pudding…
Then in the freezer: “Hey, look there are some skinless Turkey Sausage Links. Awesome!”
Then in the pantry: A box of Rice Chex with maybe one and a half bowls of cereal, a box of Honey Nut Cheerios with maybe 1/2 a bowl of cereal in it, and a brand new, just opened box of Frosted Mini Wheats.
I was perplexed: “What to fix?” I hate feeding the kids cereal, but that was looking like my only option…
So while the little monsters played in the backyard, I cooked five sausage links in the microwave.
Then I corralled them long enough to sit them at the table (having the movie Cars on helped, to be 100% honest)
So I sat them down.
Jack got a “big bowl” or Rice Chex.
Grayson got a tray full of Honey Nut Cheerios.
Then I brought over the sausage. Grayson chowed down on it. Jack hardly touched it… but it’s gone, so either the dog climbed on the table while I write this, or the kids ate all of it (I can’t touch the stuff… I hate ‘turkey’ anything that should be made with pork or beef).
Then I ate a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats.
As I was finishing up, I realized Grayson was saying “more… more…” with his hands, so I stood up and walked around the table to him.
I tried to feed him my milk-soaked Frosted Mini Wheats. He wasn’t sure about the first one, but…
After he got a taste of the 3000mg of sugar on top of it, he wolfed it down, and started going nuts saying “MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE” really really fast.
So, I shoveled one Frosted Mini Wheat from my bowl to his tray, and I was obviously moving too slow, because at one point he pulled a total John Candy on me (actually, it was a lot more physical, like Chris Farley). He held his arms up horizontal with the floor, and with his fingers pointing all different ways, he pointed violently, but specifically at my bowl of cereal, and let out a very clear “MORE DADDY!!!!”
So, I got three Mini Wheats out of the bowl, and he wolfed them down before I could get the next three out.
And he was funny too. He’d pick one up, determine that it had too much milk, shake it a little, or tap it on his tray until it had just the right about of milk sogging it to the perfect consistency, and then he’d pop it in his mouth, chew precisely 2.3 chews, and then swallow. On each Mini Wheat.
I love being a dad and experiencing these fun little parts of the day. I just hope I don’t forget all of the fun times… and I have the feeling that there are a lot of them to go in this journey we call life.
Grayson has a horrible diaper rash right now.
He started getting it last week, and on Friday his poop turned into diarrhea, and that was all she wrote. Poor kid has the worst chaffing I’ve seen on a bottom, ever. I’m sure Jack had the same thing once or twice when he was a baby, but I don’t remember it (although, I’m sure Christine does).
And the sad thing is, he has had it all weekend, and when it starts bothering him, it really bothers him.
Nana and Papa were down this weekend for a really fun weekend, but night-time wasn’t a joy with poor Grayson waking himself up and then crying for 30 minutes after a diaper change in the middle of the night.
His poops are getting more solid again, so hopefully this diaper rash will clear up this week… hopefully really soon.
Last Wednesday evening, I was out in the front yard with the boys, when I realized that Thursday is trash day.
So, I decided to open the garage and take out the trash. Nothing too difficult, and actually rather mundane.
Well, when I opened the garage door, Grayson followed me in the garage, and just inside we found the trusty Bobby Car that Frank and Mary gave Jack for his first birthday.
I took the two containers of recycling down the hill, each time returning to Grayson trying to get his leg over the Bobby Car enough so that he could ride it. And each time, I told him “Be careful, if you get on that and start going down the drive way, it’s going to hurt when you fall off.” He’d look at me in his all-knowing, all-understanding 18 month old way, and say something in his baby gibberish like “Puckadoaloo”.
My third trip down the drive way was to take all of the cardboard Christine had dutifully bundled up earlier in the week.
When I got to the top of the drive way this last trip, I grabbed the large city provided municipal grey trash bin, and started to guide it down the hill (it’s usually so full and heavy that it’s all I can do to keep it from running me over if I’m in front of it, or from running away from me if it’s in front of me.)
I turned one last time and saw Grayson almost on top of the Bobby Car, so I say “Grayson. No! Be very careful. You’re going to get hurt.”
And I went down the hill, pushed by the trash can. At the bottom, I turned it to position it at the end of the drive way, and as I did…
I heard this roar of plastic wheels on concrete.
And it was getting louder… and Louder… and LOUDER.
I looked between the two cars that were parked at the top, and saw Grayson shooting out from between them. Hands holding on dearly to the yellow steering wheel. Face turning from fascination to total fear, then to full on terror. His feet were kicked up and he was leaning back. His knuckles were white, and his mouth was wide open… either in a silent scream, or a preemptive cry… I couldn’t tell which.
It went so fast, yet at the same time, everything was moving so slow.
I swear he was moving 50 miles-per-hour down that hill.
And I was moving less than half a foot per hour.
I couldn’t move fast enough to get in front of him, and so, as he got to the bottom of the hill…
I think I heard a sonic boom while he crossed over into super-sonic speed, and right at that moment, he lost control.
The Bobby car’s front wheels turned ever so slightly, and he rolled off to his right, as the car went to his left.
But he’d made it down the hill… a good 25 or 30 feet… at I swear, at least 50mph.
I was torn between swelling pride at my son, the next Evel Knieval, and the fear choking my throat that he’d broken an arm, or a leg, or both, and crushed his face when he planted himself squarely into the asphalt that the road is built out of. I was also afraid that some neighbor might have seen the whole thing progress, and was at that moment calling CPS.
At that moment, I became a super-hero, and cover the 10 feet from myself to Grayson in a flash.
The car was laying on it’s side too. Wheels still spinning… the body all dented in and crushed, and what I imagined was gasoline spilling down the drive way, just waiting for a latent spark to set it off and blow us all to high heaven.
Grayson was laying on his side too. Looking up at me with a questioning “why didn’t you catch me Daddy?” look on his face.
I scooped him up into my arms and held him tighter than I’ve ever held him.
He wasn’t crying.
Yet.
After what seemed like a minute (and was probably half a second) he started crying.
At first, just a sob. Then slowly the volume and intensity increased.
I could hear his crying echo off the valley walls from the hills miles to our north.
It was all I could do to not cry with him.
I just held him until he started to sob in between breaths, and then I pushed him back from my chest just a little bit, while I started to inspect him.
First his left left. Left ankle. Left foot. Left arm, left hand, left cheek. Nothing. Wow!
Then his right side. The side he landed on first. His right arm, shoulder, cheek, nose… All fine.
His right leg had a small, barely noticable abrasion on it, and his right ankle had a small (smaller than a dime) strawberry on it.
I sat him on my thigh while I tested his joints. All of them worked, and he wasn’t complaining about them as I made him move them back and forth.
Then I felt his head and there seemed to be no bumps or bruises.
He was pretty much done crying at this point… so I asked him “Do you want to get down and play?”
He said “down” perfectly (a first).
So, I put him down in the grass. He walked over to the big dirt pile, and started looking for rocks.
Episode forgotten. No collateral damage.
Later that night, as we put him to bed, Christine and I found a bump on the side of his head, but here, three days later, it’s gone.
Wednesday, May 7th, will forever go down in history for me as “The Day Grayson Went 50MPH on a Bobby Car and Lived to Tell Us All About It, But Couldn’t Yet Talk.”
What a day that was.
Aren’t kids fun?
Here are some photos of Jack and Grayson on April 30th, just acting silly.
See this hat?
Yes, it’s a turtle. Grayson with a turtle on his head.
And here is Jack with a fish hat…
But it’s not on his head. Silly kid put it around his chest… goofball.
And here they are just being silly together:
