Helping Mama Clean

I had to get the vacuum out the other day to clean up a snack mess in the den, and then yesterday I let Andrew play with my measuring cups and some cornmeal in the kitchen. I mistakenly thought the activity would keep him occupied for a few minutes, but he was quickly on his way to something else, leaving a big mess behind.

So I got out the vacuum again. And Andrew would not leave it alone! He likes to push all the buttons and he kept grabbing the hose. He was so sad when I put it away, and then I remembered that I had a new vacuum toy that I'd stashed away for a rainy day.



It even makes the little whirrring noise like the real thing.

He was pushing it around the kitchen when I heard him dump Fenway's food out on the floor. Andrew's gotten really good about leaving Fenway's bowls alone so I was surprised he was messing with it.

I went over and Andrew was trying to vacuum up the food with his toy vacuum cleaner! It was one of the cutest things I've seen him do. He was a little annoyed that the food was still there so I helped him put it back in the bowl and he seemed to think that worked just as well.

So now he has a vacuum and a little broom. I think I'm going to put him to work!

No Fear

So apparently I should spend more time blogging and less time watching silly summer TV. But this season of Top Chef has been so fun! And have y'all seen that new show that comes on afterward, Work of Art? It is awesome!

We've been staying busy (mostly) inside this week. But we did meet some friends at a little petting zoo on Tuesday. We went early so we'd avoid the hottest part of the day, but it was still pretty toasty. We had a good time anyway.

We got to feed the goats and quack with the ducks.



And Andrew took his first hay ride!







But mostly he just played with goats. There was a baby goat who could fit his head through the fence and Andrew thought that was hysterical. He kept grabbing his little baby horns. No fear in that kid :) ....it worries me just a little.



Andrew is learning about hot and cold. He puts his hands on his arms and says "Brrrr" for cold and waves his hand in front of his mouth and says "ha" for hot.

But sometimes he gets them mixed up. So when he gets in to the 100 degree car or the warm bathtub he'll say "Brrrr" and squeeze his arms.

It cracks me up every time.

He's also more obsessed than ever with Yo Gabba Gabba. Anytime he sees a TV remote he says "Gabba Gabba?". It's a little more garbled than that - he's still not much of a clear talker, but it's very obvious what he's asking for.

And the climbing - oh the climbing! I'm pretty sure the climbing is what I'll remember most out of these months. I just hope he gets a little more cautious soon. I found him walking on my kitchen bar the other day. On top of the bar!

We pray for safety every day. :)

It's Hot, Hot, Hot

Most months out of the year I am thrilled to live in Dallas.  July is not one of those months.  It is just so hot here, and we're stuck in this weird hot and humid weather pattern.  Usually in July it's just hot, but this year it's like we've moved to Houston.

So Andrew and I haven't gotten outside to play very much recently.  I should get us out of the house first thing in the morning, but I really like to get up and shower before Andrew's out of bed, and once I've showered there's no way I'm going to go spend time outside because then I'd need to shower again.  Way to sacrifice for my child, huh?



Here he says, "Hey Mom, I really want to go play in the water hose! Why haven't you bought me a kiddie pool yet?? I don't think it's that hot and miserable outside!".





Hope y'all are staying cool-ish!

Whew...

These short weeks are totally throwing me off. We didn't get home from Vegas until late Monday last week and then this week we were out at the lake for the 4th and got home late in the day again.

So I've been busy trying to get caught up on laundry, grocery shopping and even some work, too.

Have I talked about Andrew's great climbing skills yet? My child is nuts! His new trick is to push our kitchen table chairs over to the bar stool, climb up on to the bar stool and then up on to the bar to play with everything by or in the kitchen sink. That sounds super safe, doesn't it?

So I swear I spend half my day putting Andrew back down on the floor. It makes it a little hard to get stuff done. But he's so adorable it's totally worth it.

I also decided to start a 365 Project on July 1 - so it's really a 182 Project. The idea is to commit to take at least one photo a day. I'm hoping this will help me with my composition and creativity which I think are my two biggest photography weaknesses.

It's hard to be an excellent photographer when you're not very artistic!

So watch my Flickr stream over on my sidebar for my project photos. They'll be labeled with their day.

Here are some darling 4th of July photos because it's been way too long since I posted Andrew pictures:

 I think this one is my absolute fave from the day.  We gave him two flags to play with, but he was not satisfied and grabbed the extras out of the flower beds. 

Hope y'all are having a fun week!

Home!

We're back from our quick trip to Vegas. We had a wonderful time! I loved getting away for a few nights, and even though I really missed Andrew, it was totally worth it. 

This was the awesome view from our room at the Bellagio.

We went to an excellent dinner with Matt and Kelsey Friday night, and then Brian and I stayed up until 3am playing blackjack.  I couldn't believe I could keep my eyes open that long.  We'd really planned to go to bed early, but we were actually winning!

And it was a good thing we enjoyed winning Friday night because that was the only time we won all weekend.

Saturday we rented a cabana at the pool at the hotel and just relaxed all afternoon.  My parents joined us later on Saturday, too.

It is really, really hot in Vegas in June. I knew it would be, but wow. So the Bellagio kept their pool water ice cold and it felt so good. It was a shock when I first got in, but when it's 106 degrees sitting in 70 degree water is perfect!

Sisters!

You'd never guess one of us is 24 weeks pregnant - and no it's NOT ME!

We went to see O Saturday night, which was awesome and had another nice dinner.  None of us won a thing on Saturday night.

We were back in the pool cabana for the day on Sunday.  That is the best way to hang out at the pool!  There was  a TV and food and drink service.  It would be awesome to go in the fall because you could watch football while hanging out at the pool!

We wondered around town a bit and checked out the new Citycenter.  It's very modern.  My dad hated it, but I kind of liked it.  It  made me think of Tomorrow Land at Disney World.


Andrew loves hot air balloons so I had to get a photo of the balloons at the Bellagio.  He would have loved them!

We went over to the Wynn for dinner Sunday.  We ate at SW Steakhouse and it was incredible!  I'd like to stay there next time.

And then that night we gave all our money to the blackjack tables at the Bellagio.  Brian swears he'll never play blackjack there again.  It was sad, but we still had a great trip.

Andrew was just as happy as could be.  Janet thought three nights was probably just the right amount of time for us to be gone for the first time. 

And if you're wondering if you can take a trip while still nursing, the answer is - yes, yes you can.  I pumped twice a day and then when I got home Andrew was perfectly happy to get right back to it.  I had thought he might decide to self-wean while I was gone, but nope.

All in all it was an excellent weekend!