Playing Ketchup

Ha Ha Ha ... I crack me up ...

1. Julia and I met several friends at the UT Gardens for Books and Blooms. It was Julia's first story time with someone other than Mom or Dad reading. She did pretty well for the first half of the first book, but then she and Mekenzie became more interested in trading their mom's keys back and forth. We walked around the gardens afterward and it was a bit of a challenge pushing the stroller, but we enjoyed seeing all the plants. Then Laura and Mekenzie had to leave and Julia and I ate a picnic lunch with our friends Jana and her two girls Jane and Clare.

After the story time

2. Friday evening I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat for dinner. So once Dave got home we decided to head to IHOP since it seemed to have quite a few different options. Kids eat free from 4-9 pm so we got Julia her first kid's meal! She inhaled about half of the funny face pancake we picked out for her (a buttermilk pancake with a banana smile, strawberry eyes and a whipped cream nose). She ate all the banana slices as well.

3. Saturday night Christopher and Jamie went with us to Boo! At The Zoo. Information on the event was a little sketchy so no one really knew what to expect. It was a bit disappointing. WAY more people were there than I expected and so we ended up spending most of our time in the Boo! Trail standing in line. Some of the animals were out, but by the time we got to the event, the sun was going down so we couldn't see much. We enjoyed spending time with Christopher and Jamie, and they were awesome at distracting Julia (she started out grumpy, not a good sign!), but next time maybe we'll just all get together to watch the football game or eat dinner. At least until the kids are old enough to understand what's going on. The upside is that Julia got to wear her Halloween costume! (She also enjoyed seeing all the people, but would become VERY vocal in her frustration when they wouldn't respond to her noises of greeting. Spoiled baby, maybe?)

Scary spider!

Not so scary spider

Trying to distract a tired baby

4. Today we're headed to a birthday party for our friends' four-year-old boy. We also have started discussing Julia's first birthday party. It'll be December 22 from 2-4 pm. If you know us and want to come by, go ahead. Don't expect a circus. We're simple folk. :) We'll send out official invites, but this way you can get it on your calendar early. The time is flying by and we can't believe Our Girl will be a year old soon!

5. Julia and I leave Nov. 1 for Hattiesburg, MS to visit my parents and celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday. We'll be gone for a week leaving Dave and Echo all on their lonesome. I don't feel so sorry for Echo, but go ahead and invite Dave out for fun stuff to keep his mind off his girls. Although not TOO much fun stuff as he has a To Do List several pages long for while we're gone!

PS-I'm feeling much better after my bout with illness. I got sick the next evening again about an hour after eating dinner. We're still not sure what caused it, but limiting my intake of dairy seems to have really helped. So, I suppose I'll stick with that for a bit. It's hard since milk and cheese and yogurt are a BIG part of my diet.