Food Fetish

Brooke has a little problem. Okay, maybe a big one. She's obsessed with food. Seriously. She's got some rolls...and I have a feeling they're only going to get bigger.

  

She's now 5 months old. I was deadset on waiting until 6 months to begin feeding her solids [like her pediatrician recommended], but Brooke had other ideas. She kept doing this...

She just stares at the food.  If you don't get the idea, she'll start going huffing and puffing, and squeeling with delight when she sees something she wants, and whines if you try to derail her or just aren't going fast enough.  And it works -- people can't help put break off lil tiny iddy bitty bites of food for her and share. 

Right now, the only official baby food she's had it brown rice. She usually tries to get the entire bowl, as if one spoonful at a time isn't fast enough. She's never crazy about spoon feeding, but she does eat as much as I'll give her.

If I go to get a glass of water, she insists on having some too.  She'll throw her entire body, hands, face, every ounce of her surges with energy towards the glass until she succeeds.  I wasn't expecting it one day and she nearly fell out of my hands. 

It looks a little something like this...but this is the mild version after the 100th or so attempt. 

She prefers the real people food we eat, but she's really not picky.  Everything I put in her mouth, she eats.  She might make a funny face, but she'll eat it.  And when she's done, she'll look at you, and ask, with those big puppydog eyes, "More puh lease?"

So, I need to get the food streamer and food processor out and start making some baby food!!

Summer is officially...over!

For some reason, I pictured our summer being a something like this.  By the pool, just chilling.

Instead, it was a little more hectic and crazy.  Having a newborn and moving took majority of our free time.  But amazingly, we still squeezed in so much fun!  Don't ask me how we did it ALL...I just know now why I've been so exhausted.

Take me out to the ball game -- one last Texas Rangers home game at the ball park

 Overall -- Brooke was generally not impressesed. 

And can't say I blame here.  It was way too noisy! 

Lego Land

Tanner has one obsession in life.  He could easily live without everything...and as long as he had legos, he'd be the happiest boy alive.  And someone to play them with :)  Even when we're playing with him, he asks if we can keep playing with him.  Can you imagine his excitement when we came to Lego Land Fantasy world? 

Our favorite part was the 4D movie adventures.  I think we watched all 3 movies in a row.  But it was a place I could comfortably sit down, feed Brooke, and have no one notice.  I just had to keep Brooke from getting sprayed with water. 

Tanner also liked learning about how legos were made in the Lego factory, seeing miniature towns built with nothing but legos, building cars to race on the tracks, and playing in the Firefighter play area.  And of course, the huge Lego store that they make you walk through at the end of your day. 

As a parent, I hope to never have to go there again.  It's expensive and way too many kids for my liking.   Plus, there really wasn't that much to do.  Tanner was too small to go on any rides by himself and Brooke couldn't ride any of them.  He was a few days shy of his 4th bday and that wouldn't let him go on the one ride he could go by himself.  Quite the quandry.  Finally, we convinced one of the workers agreed to ride with him! 

Dallas Zoo

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
Hope 'bout you, you, you

Oh, we have so many happy memories going to the Dallas Zoo together.  One of these days we'll have to check out the KC Zoo. 

 

Then we moved to Kansas.  In a week, we packed, celebrated Tanner's bday, said goodbye, and unpacked in our home in Kansas.  We learned we never wanted to move again for a long. long. time.  Unless it's back home to Dallas :)

Fourth of July

We moved into our house the day before Fourth of July.  We were exhausted.  But we still celebrated by getting together with family and friends.

Honestly, Tanner is not a fan of fireworks.  They’re loud and they hurt his ears.  For the first time, he liked the smaller ones.  We headed to the country to watch some more fireworks – and the family went all out with treat bags, crafts, popcorn, etc.  We enjoyed the firework display – from inside the house J

 Storytime with Jo Ho

We found a fabulous storytime teacher who acts out each of the stories -- and has the children join her.  Tanner is usually so shy, but the first opportunity, he raised his little hand and got to be a little bunny rabbit it the story.   This storytime hour is now a must!

And it happens to be right next to Tanner's favorite restaurant that has a train deliver the food right to your table.

Pump It Up!

Tanner's preschool had a fundraiser at Pump It Up! bounce house.  One of the many things we loved about Dallas too and made us feel right back at home.

Science City at Union Station

Tanner's favorite place is the Science City children's museum.  This is the coolest museum in Downtown KC.  Luckily, our Dallas membership gets us in for free so we come here a lot.

A real helicopter to fly...

Simulator to land a rocket ship

Ready..set...build!

The museum is connect to the Kansas Railway Experience -- real life trains for the kids to explore! 

And tons of miniture trains to watch.

Royals Fan -- NOT!

One of Anthony's patient's gave us these amazing tickets to a Royals game. They happened to be 2 rows up from home plate and include all the food and drinks your heart could desire -- dangerous! But better yet, the game was against the Texas Rangers!  Anthony was stocked!!

A few weeks later, we went to another baseball game with the entire family with other My Dentist co-workers.

But most days, we like to be completely ri-donk-u-lous and make up our own sort of fun.

Beep, beep...here comes Brooke

 Tanner show casing his taller-than-Brooke statue

And just having fun. 

Apparently, some days we had a little too much fun.

And now, before I know it, summer is already over.  Just when Tanner was actually LOVING the pool.  And just when I was beginning to discover all the fun things to do here in KS. 

But I'm ready for Fall.  For cooler weather.  Decorating my home for Halloween.  For making homemade pumpkin desserts.  And I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

 

Beginning of School

Tanner was just as stocked about the second day as the first.  But this time, there was no fear nor hesitation!  He couldn't wait to start the day!

I gave him one simple task before he headed to school -- to learn the name of one friend.  As soon as he finished school, he came running to tell me, "Guess what?  I have a new friend named Beniniah!"  That's quite a name!
 
In my last post, I forgot to mention a few of the fun activities we did getting ready for school. 

One of my personal favorite books, "The Kissing Hand" tells the a little racoon's fears before the first day of school.  The mom kisses the little boys hand and tells him his hand will carry the kiss whereever he goes so he'll always know of his mother's love. 

We traced Tanner's hand in the sign language sign for "I LOVE  YOU!".  Tanner then cut out a heart and put it in the middle.  Simple but cute!

We also read another book, "Splat the Cat" and made a cute cat puppet using materials from around the house.  Afterwards, it was hard to tell if it was a cat or a mouse...

First Day of Pre-K

Tanner started Pre-K today.  Hallelujah!  I know, I should be sad.  But I'm not.  This has been much anticipated day ALL summer long. 

Having two children makes me feel so outnumbered! These days Brooke requires SO much attention and when I finally get her down for a nap, I'm playing catch-up with Tanner. You know it's a good day if I get 10 minutes to myself to shower. I still make long to-do lists, but get frustrated that I seem to get nothing done. But then I remember they're only this little for so long -- and begin being thankful for these memories we're building together. I guarantee Tanner doesn't care if I cleaned the toilet bowl or scrubbed the kitchen floors -- but I hope he'll remember all the times I played Firefigher Legos. He's an addict :)

Tanner was excited too, but a little hesitant at the same time. 

Tanner was so excited about his new backback -- he didn't even take it off in the car.  But he was so tired he fell asleep on the way over -- geesh!

When I picked him up, Tanner asked if he could stay longer tomorrow.  Success!!  We celebrated the first day of school by going to get frozen yogurt.  Yummy!!  Tanner told me all about the class pet -- a guinea pig named Apple.  But you can't put your fingers near his mouth or he'll think it's a carrot and eat it!  He said he made lots of new friends, but couldn't remember their names.  Maybe tomorrow...

I'm a little OCD about preschools.  After having a few bad experiences, I'm kinda a nazi about it.  Last year, we had an amazing year at Ridgewood Park Preschool -- but Tanner was in a class with 4 of his bestest friends and Ms Kennedy was a godsend.

When I searched in KS, majority of the schools were full.  And if they weren't, there was a good reason why not.  But alas, I found the perfect preschool, and honestly, couldn't have designed one better myself. 

St. Paul's Preschool incorporates montessori based ideas for hands-on, tactile learning experience utilizing all the senses -- which means no workpapers!  The beautiful, modern school on tons of acreage allowing the children to do artwork in the shaded woods, observe fish and frogs near the pond, etc.  The children study master artist and create their own art piece following that artist's style -- and showcase at an annual Art Fair.  They incorporate music and movements, and have special "Jesus and Me" class sessions where they play with different toys designed to teach biblical stories.  I knew instantly walking into the school this was the one for us.  And if I had any doubts, it went away when I saw their first fieldtrip was to a Fire Station.  I have a feeling Tanner is going to LOVE school this year!!