Sunday highs and lows.

Sunday while Jason golfed, Hardin and I drove out to a little caboose in downtown Auburn.  I've been wanting to take him forever, but wanted to wait for him to be old enough to handle the commotion of a real train as it is near a very busy track.  I'm glad we waited, because although we prepped for it on the way there, it still caught him a little off guard.  Then he was in total awe (picture above).

The rest of the time he ran wild and I tried to snap a few pictures.  I think I spent more time online watching a youtube video on how to change a crazy camera setting than actually taking pictures, but we both had fun. 

After about 15 minutes he was ready for a real park.  We took our picnic lunch to Little Mulberry and laid in the sun while we dined on cold chicken, dry cheese and bananas.  Then Hardin played HARD for a solid hour.  He was so busy trying to keep up with the big kids I was exhausted from chasing him. 

Long naps followed while we both tried to find the hour we lost.  When daddy came home we cooked a disgusting gluten free dinner.  While the meals were disappointing, the company and weather were not!

Plant the seeds.

I have a feeling the sweet little seeds we are planting through reading will be much more productive than our Dollar Tree herb garden, but mama needs to do something other than read every now and again.  The kid would sit around and let us read all day to him if we would.  And it feels like we do sometimes.

We both try our hardest not to ever let on that we are sick of reading the same book for the 90th time, that week, and hopefully we are succeeding.  Fortunately, Hardin discovers a few "new" books to be obsessed with every couple of weeks or so.  Unfortunately, the subject matter never really gains too much parental interest.

We are always shocked by how quickly he can memorize a book.  After the first reading, he's got the rhymes down, and after the second he generally has the main words and illustrations down pat.  He "reads" along and gives books his own name.  Sometimes they are accurate, like The Wocket in My Pocket.  Others would send a stranger on a wild goose chase.  The ABC book (Dr. Seuss' Alphabet book) vs. the letters book (ABCs of golf).  The Bear Book is not a book at all, it's an old insert from a leap pad that he loves.  The Firetruck Book (a foam transportation book that has one tiny mention of a Firetruck) vs. the Fireman book (the book that talks about Fireman Joe).  Bless Me (Good Night, God Bless), Night Night book (Good Night Moon), etc.  It's hard to keep them all straight. 

Hardin liked the idea of planting our herb garden but it didn't last long.  The pouring and watering were great, but the dirty hands were not his thing.  If anything actually grows out of that Dollar Tree box I'll be VERY surprised. 

A bit of relief.

A couple of weeks ago, when I came home from work mom asked me if Hardin had been talking about snakes or lizards.  I told her no and asked why. 

She said when he woke up from his after school nap he asked her Gigi did you see that scaaaaarrryy lizard?  Did you see his tongue?  Did you touch him, Gigi? Did you see him?  Hardin did.

He mumbled some more about lizards and snakes, and it just rubbed my southern Christian mother the wrong way.  She was worried that he was having nightmares, or crazy thoughts. 

Well, I literally laughed out loud today when I opened up the February pictures posted to his little class web site.  Evidently they had a few guest in the class room that really made an impression on our boy.

I can't lie, I was a little relieved as well.  I also can't help but laugh at Mr. Ants-in-his-pants.  I know it took every ounce of self control he could muster to stand still, much less sit. 

A Fantastic Find

I took Friday off work to hang out with Hardin since my mom was out of town.  He was getting a little stir crazy due to the cold keeping us in all week, so I googled kids museums in our county and came across a place I had only been for work events.  The Environmental & Heritage Center right next to my office.  It claimed to have a kids hands on area in the museum and a peanuts exhibit for the month.  I figured we'd give it a whirl, at the very least he could run up and down some new halls.

We were overwhelmed in a great way when we discovered the hands on water room.  I was impressed and excited to find every little thing to play with, so I know Hardin had a ball! The Peanuts exhibit was cute and had an area to plant seeds and pull up veggies.  It was also less than 10 bucks for both of us and we had the place to ourselves, a real bonus.  I'm sure this will be a regular for us now,   Jason's excited to take him somewhere new on cold daddy day care days. 

We also tried a new kids hair place near my office while we were in the area.  She cut more than I wanted, but overall it was a success. 

A couple of all time favorites.

My heart was so happy when I transferred my pictures from my camera to the computer.  Mixed in with the dozens of over and under exposed messes, were these two gems. 

First, this sweet full-body-eyes-closed-cousin-loving hug.  My word this boy loves his cousin, and holds him on such a pedestal.

And this one.  Yesterday we went to a surprise birthday party for Austin (Olivia's dad), at Ali's parent's house.  Honi (Ali's mom) put a toy headlamp on Hardin.  He was all about it!  He ran circles around her house like he was really something special.  He is.  And this face makes me smile.

I was just about to post this, when I received an email from Ali with the picture below.  What a stinking little touch-me-not.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Today we went to the MUCH anticipated circus.  I bought the tickets on January 18th, and told Hardin.  He had just seen the Bubble Guppies circus episode so he knew exactly what I was talking about.  I kid you not, he has asked if we are going to the circus at least 90% of the days since then.

And today was the day.  He was SOOOOOOO excited.  It's hard for me to put into words how excited he gets.  Think jumping up and down squealing excitement.  I wish I would have taken a video of him this morning when I said Yes baby, we are going to the circus TODAY!  Whoa the commotion that followed. 

We went an hour early for the pre-show and that was such a treat.  We were able to stand front row around the elephant ring while she dunked a basketball and painted a picture.  I think that stood out the most, because when I picked him up from his nap (at 5pm), he quickly asked Mommy, did you see that elephant shoot hoops?  Did you see her paint the picture?  She was SO BIG mommy, did you see her?

He also really liked the horses, lions, tigers, tiny puppy, and motorcycles.  He could not have cared less about the trapeze, strong man stuff, clowns or the crowd.  I loved the elephants. 

The show was about 30 minutes too long for a two year old but we all thoroughly enjoyed.  Well, except Lillian, who was terrified of the lions and tigers.  Sweet girl. 

I used the show to test the low light capabilities of my new camera.  I have an overwhelming amount to learn, but I'm loving it.  I've promised myself to shoot in manual as much as possible, try and post pictures straight out of the camera more, and to take pictures of things other than Hardin. 

Over the past two years I've been compiling a group of photographs taken at our favorite places to make a snapsfish book for H.  The game ranch, zoo, beaches, cows and horses in our old back yard, church festival petting zoos, etc.  I think with today and last weekend's dinosaur shots I have enough to make a really cool picture book for him.  He loves to re-live things.  That's a nice way of saying talk about things until they can't be talked about anymore, and then some, so I think he's going to love it!

Justin's crew came over afterwards to spend the night, and the boys made a quick stop by the kilt store on the way home.  Justin walked in modeling his costume for an upcoming golf outing. 

We cooked a yummy steak dinner, the kids ran 90 to nothing, and now we're all about to hit the sack.  Aside from finding every last one of Hardin's bath toys in the toilet, it was a great day!