Preliminary Hearing

Well, Noah got tubes as planned this week. The procedure usually takes 10-15 minutes, but since Noah is an "extra" kinda guy, his lasted about 45 minutes. Apparently they had to pull a lot of goo out of his left ear. The added anesthesia and prodding led to a very unhappy boy for the remainder of the day. But by the next morning...very early the next morning...Noah was back in full force.

On Friday, Andrew hit the stage again. This time to celebrate grandparents. He did better than the Thanksgiving program, where he froze up and attempted to melt into the floor. This time he actually sang the words to the song, but he did forgo hand motions.

Luckily, this weekend provided plentiful sunshine and tolerable temps for outside activities. It would have been nice to get a few more degrees, but it is January after all. After spending most of last weekend inside, Andrew was ready to get outdoors. He originally said he wanted to go to the Zoo and the Botanic Gardens, but I told him he could only do one that day. He thought for a minute, and then said he wanted a hot dog, so we better go to the Zoo. So Andrew got his hot dog at the Cat House Cafe, and then we set off to explore the Zoo.

Once Andrew and I got home, we found out Agnes had been on Pinterest again. Although Pinteresting ideas can sometimes lead to odd crafts projects, we were pleased to discover that this one involved making ice cream in plastic baggies. So we ate ice cream and went out to eat at Las Delicias. In that order...cause Andrew got to pick.

Since we had the good fortune of having two sunny days this weekend, we went to the non hot dog having Botanic Gardens on Sunday. Even in the middle of winter, we always enjoy ourselves at the Gardens.

Noah is also getting more mobile. He starting to crawl, if you want to call it that. It's more of a weird crab walk thing. Also he is still getting around with his walker and pulling up on anything that doesn't fall over on him.

One of the greatest things about having Noah around, is he teaches you about pace. You really learn to take your time and live in the moment. Whenever you start to get ahead of yourself, and start focusing too much on the future or where you think you should be going, Noah pulls you back to the present. He lingers there, happy, content.  

House Guest

This weekend we got to play host to Brody Bear. Who is Brody Bear, you may ask? He is the stuffed bear from Andrew's Pre-K class, that goes home with one of children each Friday. I've actually been feeling sick this week, and was not prepared to have to entertain a stuffed bear. I was tempted to write in the journal that gets sent with Brody, that he spent the weekend hibernating like other bears this time of year. However, I didn't want Andrew to get the reputation that he didn't know how to show a stuffed animal a good time. So, Agnes dropped us off in front of the FedEx Forum, and Andrew, Brody and I took in a Memphis Tiger game. Although Andrew enjoyed the basketball portion of the game, I think he was most enamored with the jumbo hot dog and ketchup dispenser.

Andrew has a birthday coming up, and we were convincing him that he should have a pirate themed birthday. This involved everyone with a head small enough, to model pirate paraphernalia.

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Sunday morning, Andrew decided he was getting a little scruffy and needed to shave with me. Don't worry, my mother made him his own shaving kit without a blade. The shaving cream, though, is real.

After naps on Sunday, we went to the Children's Museum. Noah got to go this time, and there is an area for smaller children. The only problem is he wanted to lick every thing in sight. Building blocks, lick..toy kitchen, lick...other children, lick. He did, however dominate on the basketball goal with a little help from dad.

 

  

We closed out the weekend with a game Andrew calls car chase. He takes off running, and Agnes or I pursue him while pushing Noah in the car he got for Christmas.

Next week should be exciting, Noah is getting ear tubes. Apparently he has the worlds smallest ear canals. Now, I will leave you with a few pictures that don't have any particular context.

Perfect Nothingness

As much as I love the action packed pace of the holiday season, it was nice to have a completely unscripted weekend. The two days were filled with abundant lounging and excessive pajama wearing. We tried to start the weekend off with a bang by taking the boys to Memphis Pizza Cafe. The secret to taking younger children out to eat is to call and order ahead of time. We used this tactic a while ago with Central BBQ and it worked out well. Unfortunately it seemed like everyone had the same idea to go out and eat pizza that night. When we arrived at the restaurant, all the tables were occupied and there was already a small crowd milling about, waiting for a seat to open. Sadly, we had to settle with taking our brilliantly pre-ordered pizzas back to the house.

One of the advantages to having an unplanned weekend, is that you can catch up on all the various things that have been neglected around the house. In my case, that would be the evil leaves blanketing the front yard. At least I had help...kinda.

 

 

Andrew wasn't the only one to help out. Noah came out later and, after much coaxing, gently placed a total of three leaves into the bag.

Since we had worked so hard and the sunny blue skies fooled us into believing if was a few degrees warmer than the actual temperature, we headed to the park to celebrate our weekend of spontaneity.

 

The rest of the weekend was made up of the various moments that, at the time, seem small and insignificant, but in the clarity of the rear view mirror, reveal themselves to be the moments that we reflect upon with the most affection.Whether it be the simple pleasures of having ice cream with your oldest boy, or playing the same tickle game over and over, just to hear your youngest son's infectious laugh, these are the memorable times that make me want to plan to have more unplanned weekends.