Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with AJ's family this year. It was my first time in Connecticut and we had great food and great company. Hunter did pretty well on the flights although he is becoming harder and harder to travel with in my lap. We had an open seat next to us on both of the flights on our way back and I'm beginning to think it is almost worth it to get him his own seat even though he can fly free until age two.

Hunter loves our shower. He loves to get in it because he knows he's not supposed to. Our hotel in Connecticut only had a shower - no bath tub - so Hunter got to take his first shower last week. Boy oh boy, he really thought he was getting away with something. He LOVED IT!


The week before Thanksgiving was pretty busy also. I'm a first year member of the Junior League this year and we had the Christmas Affair (same as the Holiday Mart for you Indiana folks) from Wednesday to Sunday. I only had to work two shifts but was down there pretty much every day for shopping, Santa pics, etc. Hunter wasn't such a huge fan of Santa this year. He cried when I sat him in his lap but they managed to distract him long enough to get a decent shot. I should have done a better job at talking him up beforehand!


One last pic of Hunter climbing in Maggie's cage and actually shutting the door this time...his face says it all.

W&B Visit

Aunt "Mitty" and Uncle Brian came in town this past weekend to visit. Hunter has had a hard time figuring out how to say Whitney, but it is now a very clear "Mitty", sometimes preceded by "An" for Aunt. I just realized as I am typing this that I didn't get pictures of them with Hunter. Darn it! We had so much going on.

They had an AJ and Kristin-style travel day on Friday, getting in about 6 hours after they were scheduled to, so that day was pretty much a wash. We were planning on going to Chuy's (a must for out-of-town guests) but ended up picking it up and bringing it home because Hunter was asleep by the time they got in. Saturday, Miss Anna stayed with Hunter while we took the Indiana kids down to tailgate Texas style. Granted, the UT football team isn't great this year and the fans aren't as crazy, but we still had a great time. Milestone for me -- it was the longest stretch that he's stayed with a babysitter (other than my mom when we went on vacation). Anna is great though...I know he loved playing with her and we had a great time at the game.

On Sunday we relaxed and AJ cooked a great meal on his Big Green Egg and they left today. It was short trip but was a lot of fun. We loved having them here and can't wait until they come back!!

19 months

I'm in denial again about how old my baby is getting. Closer to two now.....unbelievable. Although, two is his favorite number answer to everything, so maybe that will work out for us. :) (Blue is his favorite color answer, but we're making progress on our colors) He is so much fun right now and I just love being with him.

We've had some unseasonably warm weather this week, so Hunter and I took advantage and went to the Austin Zoo on Tuesday. It's a small zoo - more of an animal sanctuary as the animals that live there are rescues. For example, two of the lions that lived there were old domestic pets that had been given to the zoo. Others were circus animals that lived in small cages. Even though it was small, it was the perfect size for him and allowed us to explore without being overwhelming. He even got to feed some goats and deer until some random brown substance from one of their noses appeared on his arm, so I broke out the antibacterial wipes and then we were done with that... :) All in all, it was fun and he got excited about seeing the monkeys and now knows what a lion says.

Here are some of the other animal sounds he knows:
Monkey
Doggie
Kitty Cat (LOVE when he says meow!)
Sheep
Pig
Cow
Duck
Horsey

He can identify many more animals than that by pointing to pictures in a book, but those are the ones that he knows what they "say".

He's really in to Gymboree now and is becoming quite the climber and more and more adventurous. He's not to the grabby point (yet) and doesn't care when someone takes something away from him. He still loves the balls and bubbles and really likes the rocking horse. At this point in toddlerhood, he's really a very well behaved child and well on the road to developing great manners (saying "thank-you" more and more unprompted, "please" all of the time and "bless you" very frequently). I really couldn't ask for more!

Happy Halloween!

I'm not one that really gets in to Halloween but I was really excited about it this year. It was Hunter's first year trick or treating so we spent a lot of time trying to pump him up by talking about it with him, trying to get him to say "trick or treat" and dressing him up in the CUTEST. COSTUME. EVER. Seriously. :)


He loved going to everyone's house and wasn't timid at all....as a matter of fact, he cried after we left the first three houses because he wanted to go inside their house. We went to a few houses just down the street from us and then came home and recycled all of his candy for our trick or treaters. :)

He also attended his first UT football game on Saturday. We've taken him down to tailgate a couple of times and Hunter and I have just gone home while AJ went in to the game. We decided to see how he'd do going in to the actual game this time. He lasted until halftime, which considering the facts that 1) he napped for about 20 minutes on the way down there and that was his only nap all day, 2) it was an evening game (6:00) and so he was getting close to his bedtime anyway, and 3) he spent a couple of hours tailgating beforehand, he did GREAT. I was very proud of him! He loved watching football and clapping when everyone else clapped. :)

Such a big weekend for a little guy!