All weekends should be three days!

You can do so much fun stuff during a three-day, off-work weekend!  After a fun birthday party on Saturday, Grandma came to babysit and I got to go hang out with Charlie at the Doughman banquet in Durham.  Drank some beers, ate some tots, had a couple Loco-Pops...perfect!

After a leisurely brunch on Sunday, we headed out to show Arlo his future campus.  ;)  (If he wants, of course.)  We visited the Belltower...

the fountain in front of the building where I used to pay my tuition bill...

Arlo got a little wet and Daddy did his hair. 

The Old Well.  Even on a fairly deserted HOT Sunday afternoon when school is out, we couldn't manage to get a picture without strangers behind us. We cringed when we saw them drinking the water.  Eww.

We had planned to eat at Pepper's but it was closed, so we headed back to the car and drove to Armadillo Grill.  Of course, Arlo fell asleep as soon as we got in the car, so Charlie ran in and got take-out and we headed home. 

Today, Charlie had to go in to work for a bit, but was able to come home for a visit with Sue, Brian, and Hunter.  I only took a few pictures but these two are my favorite because Arlo's holding Hunter's hand!  Hard to believe he was the one laying on the playmat just a few months ago and now he is holding and grabbing things, playing with toys, sitting, and VERY close to crawling.  Gee whiz, time flies!

After the Austins headed out and Arlo took a nap, we went to Tutti Frutti for frozen yogurt.  It was packed so I didn't get my camera out.  I had planned to give him a bite if he wanted it, but he didn't pay one bit of attention to our yogurt!  He was more interested in the other people and his own toys.  I didn't mind...I enjoyed my red velvet/birthday cake frozen yogurt with berries on top and didn't really want to share anyways.

When we got home and waited the requisite 30 minutes after eating, we got suited up for our first big swim! 

In the pool we go!

Not surprisingly, Arlo was a big fan!

We're looking forward to getting some use out of this over the HOT summer ahead! 

Happy Memorial Day!

Love, Katie

I love birthday parties!

Arlo's best gal pal, Gigi, had her first birthday party on Saturday!  While the parents drank beer and ate delicious shrimp tacos (yum!), Gigi let Arlo play with her awesome toys in her awesome backyard.  He loves these big pop-beads and had one in his mouth for most of the party.  :)

Isn't the birthday girl adorable in her party dress?

Caroline has a super cool bubble blower machine that was a big hit

The bubbles were tempting, but not tempting enough for Arlo to drop the chew toy.

Fingers in the mouth, too!  I wonder if he is about to add to his tooth collection.

Family photo (we don't have too many of these - thanks, Ryann, for taking this one for us!).

What a fun party! 

Happy birthday to little G!  We're all so glad you were born.  :)

Love, Katie

Easily amused...

Who knew basketballs were so hilarious?

Love, Katie

Crawling practice

Arlo's been practicing the crawling stance lately.  We're thinking we better hurry up and get this place baby-proofed!  We haven't seen forward movement YET, but he's now able to pull his knees up underneath himself and is doing the rocking back and forth thing (hence the blurry pictures). 

Oh boy, are we in for it when this little wiggle worm starts crawling!!

Love, Katie

Good Boy

We are SO fortunate that we have not one, but TWO doggies who are willing to put up with this type of abuse.  In fact, I think they LOVE it.  It hurts me a little to admit it, but I think Arlo laughs and smiles more when the dogs come into the room than when I do.  :( 

But there's nothing sweeter than a little boy and his dog(s), so I'm thankful they're pals.

Love, Katie 

Eeek!

Eeek!  Just realized I haven't posted since the beginning of the month!  Mommy's been a slacker and let my blog-updating duties slide.  Confession: I've been feeling a little (a lot) sorry for myself being a full-time working mother.  I struggle with the working mom thing pretty much every day...but especially on weekends when I miss out on time with family and friends.  But I know it's a reality for many moms these days and it can be done and we're (I'm) trying to handle it the best I can.  Working mom friends out there...advice? 

In the meantime...my littles shnookums is growing up so fast!  He's been sitting well for about a month now.  Still the occasional topple - usually when he reaches too far or tries to turn to see something directly behind him - but he's pretty much a pro! 

He's starting to get chattier - mostly blowing strawberries at whatever he happens to be playing with.  (This has drastically increased the drool on the shirt factor...if that's even possible - he has EIGHT teeth now!)

He smiles at funny things, noisy things, smelly things, doggie things and sometimes at nothing at all.  He's such a happy kid...just don't make him wait for his bottle or you'll see his dark side.  :)

He loves his veggies!  And has gotten so much neater at mealtime.  Except when he tries to grab the spoon and feed himself, which is often.  He sits in his big-boy highchair and loves to gaze out the windows between bites.

First taste of carrots.  Despite this unsure look he gave me at first, he loves them!

 

I'm so distracting with my giant black camera, but I gotta get the good shots!

Next up: sweet potatoes.  And beets.  That should be interesting. 

Love, Katie

Strawberries? Yes, please. Green beans? No, thank you.

We had our first family strawberry-picking trip this evening at a little family farm right around the corner from us. 

Arlo didn't actually eat any berries (not yet!) but he was very interested!

I smile like this when I look at a bucket full of bright red berries, too!

His fingers were pink from the juice. Still are.

Green beans on the other hand.  NOT a fan. 

I thought he was choking, so I asked Charlie to put the beans back into the blender and puree them further.  We tried again and realized this is what "dislike" looks like on our little boy's face.  He makes a gagging sound and lets the green beans fall out of his mouth.  Very dramatic.

We couldn't help but giggle just a little. 

Love, Katie

Mountain Man

This past weekend we went up to Linville for a relaxing family vacation.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time! 

Arlo chewed on his toy.

Roscoe chewed on his, too.

("Hey, wouldja throw the darn thing?")

We hung out on the front porch in our jammies.  

And Arlo had his very first ride on daddy's shoulders.  Loved it!

He had some snuggles with GranDeda.

Then he had some lunch. 

After lunch, he played with Grandaddy.

Practiced walking (!!!).

Sheesh.

Made silly faces.

And had another ride with daddy.

It had been too long since we'd had a weekend in Linville.  We enjoyed every second and can't wait to get back up there again!  Arlo is going to have so much fun...we look forward to many years of swimming, fishing, canoeing, hiking,  gem mining, golf cart riding, pajama lounging, marshmallow roasting, grandparent bonding, and staying up way past his bedtime. 

Love, Katie