Saturday, November 14, 2009

Family Update

I had to put up some of these cute pictures of Peter and Austin playing at the park.




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Peter's new interests include choo choo trains and airplanes. We are near railroad tracks, so every time he hears a train whistle he instantly freezes and with a lot of excitement and wide eyes whispers, "choo, choo." We are also near a small airport, so every time he hears or sees a plane he says, "anue." How he came up with that for airplane, I have no idea.

Some unfortunate interests include throwing EVERYTHING into the garbage can and pulling EVERYTHING out of drawers and off the counter tops. We believe that half of Mr. Potato-Head's parts are probably in a landfill by now, and some of our shoes almost followed suit. He has also figured out how to scoot chairs/boxes around to reach into drawers and on top of the counters. My plastic wrap is continually under attach, and he also managed to grab the butter off the counter the other day. He proceeded to place it into his little pan so he could cook a tennis ball. I often find his little pan (filled with toys) on the stove top. He has also started trying to turn the knobs. Someday I will appreciate his determination and resourcefulness, but for now all I can do is laugh AFTER the fact.
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Scott and I have been doing some yard work lately (in November!). Gotta love the fabulous Houston winters. I am so proud of my pruning and weeded flowerbeds. The only bad thing about all of this is that we discovered poison oak in the process. I hope the itching stops soon!!!

We have also managed to damage our van a lot lately. We have had it for three months and listen to the list of damages we have done by ourselves:

1) I ran over a piece of metal and completely flattened an almost new tire. It could not be patched, so we bought a new tire.
2) We left the door opened all night and ran down the battery. Thankfully it charged and works now.
3) I forgot to pull the van into the garage one night and Scott ran into the van and scraped a large section of paint off both vehicles. In his defense, he was in a hurry and our driveway is a tight squeeze.
4) Peter pushed the garage door button in the Geo while the van was in the garage with the trunk opened. The garage door did not stop. More paint gone and a slight bend in the trunk.

Wow, this list does not inspire confidence in our intelligence does it. Hopefully we are reaching the end of our van abuse. On the bright side, these are all small accidents. I am so thankful they were not worse. I just had to document this so we could look back and laugh some day.
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Oh (so I don't leave Rigby out :), three more months until we get to meet our little baby boy!!! I cannot wait to see all three of my boys together.

The Children's Museum

This last Friday was one of Scott's days off, so we decided to go to the Children's Museum in Houston. It has been recently remodeled, and we were all very impressed--especially Peter. The kid thought he was in heaven. There were plenty of buttons to push, levers to pull, knobs to turn, etc. What was even better was that Mommy and Daddy did not get mad, and they even encouraged him! He tired himself out so much that when we headed home at 2:30 pm, he could not finish chewing his PB & J sandwich without falling asleep (he had not eaten since 9 am!). To get him to finish chewing and swallow, I had to feed him a cookie which instantly brought him back to life. When we got home, he even tried to refuse taking a nap by playing in his crib for at least 30 minutes before falling asleep. Where does his energy supply come from?

Oh, by the way, he even started pulling plug covers off the outlets at the museum. Honestly, we travel 25 miles, pay $7 per person and parking, and one of the main attractions is still no different than at home--THE OUTLETS! We have tried every kind of outlet cover and all types of punishments for this, but the kid still has an amazing skill and an incurable curiosity for plugging things into outlets. Ahhhhhh! It is a good thing he has such beautiful blue eyes and a contagious smile that melt my heart.

One of Peter's favorite activities--pushing buttons
(or "bu bu(s)" as he calls them).

This is why my house is always such a disaster.
Here is our little destroyer at work:

Our encouragement during this video is probably not going to help the disaster situation at home.
Oh well, it was sure fun to watch.

I love this picture! If you cannot tell, it is a mock police car for the "Kidtropolis Police Department." I guess Peter was arrested for plug cover thievery. They also have a mock grocery store, veterinary, art studio, restaurant, bank, ATM machine, etc.

This next play area is called "The Tot Spot." While we were there, most of the kids could sit for a couple of minutes and play with one thing. Peter just ran from one thing to the next. I am beginning to think that he has been blessed with way too much energy or he has ADHD--probably both. I felt a little better after I saw one other kid that was just a little bit worse than Peter. I still would not trade my cute little energetic boy for a calmer one though. My exercise plan is always in place thanks to him.