Last night our family ended up at Damon’s office, sitting in the back, watching TV. The channel(s) were ESPN, ESPN2, and CSS. Those are just some of the ingredients for one thing: football season is back.
LSU play Mississippi State for their season opener. It was broadcast on ESPN, which we don’t have, so we were at the office for a little while watching the game.
But before that, Damon and Fuller were at an actual football game where Fuller was able to see the players in action, feel the roar of the crowd when touchdowns were scored, and dance around with the sounds of the pep band. Damon took Fuller to see the UTC Mocs play their season opener.
D and Fuller didn’t stay for the whole game because Fuller wasn’t that interested in sitting in his seat (they stayed near the end zone for most of the game) and Damon wanted to get back to the office to watch the LSU vs. Mississippi State game.
I’m really glad that Damon wants to support the local team and taking Fuller to see real football is a great way to introduce him to the game.
And the bonus is I got to go get my pedicure!
**Sidenote to my SIL, Vicki: in those hand me downs from Nick there was a blue and yellow Nike outfit. It is the exact colors of the UTC Mocs, so it is perfect for wearing to games! Thanks!**
I am so glad that the temperatures have cooled down a bit. It isn’t as suffocating to go outside and I think the risk of melting into a pile of goo has decreased significantly.
Soon I will start the project of painting the front porch. The treated wood has cured and I need to get that going so our porch doesn’t look so odd. But I am excited because the porch will look awesome when we start decorating for various holidays, especially Christmas.
We might do something special this year, especially with lights. We have been wanting to try LED Christmas lights since they use less energy (4 watts per string, 70 LEDs per string) and will never need to be replaced. They are safer too because they are room temp, not hot like current Christmas lights in use. In our imaginations we see lots of garland draped along the fence line, wrapped in LED lights.
Before we know it, Christmas will be here. I hope it doesn’t heat up again so I can get our porch ready.
Fuller’s personality really has been blossoming lately. Things I want to remember:
He has been a copycat for a while now, but he recently took it a step further and actually remembers things he copied from a few days ago. For instance, a while back I was calling for Damon and Fuller repeated, “Dah-MON! Dah-MON!” and then we all giggled at the little boy calling his Daddy by his first name.
And then the other day when Damon wasn’t replying to “Daddy!” Fuller switched tactics and started calling for “Dah-MON! Dah-MON!” We decided to ignore Fuller when he calls for Damon, responding only when Fuller says “Daddy.” (We almost have “Yes, Sir,” “No, Sir” down as well.) (”Yes, Ma’m” sounds like “Yes, Man.”)
Yesterday I took him over to Luke’s house to play. Fuller was strapped in his car seat, in the back. He suddenly started giving me directions, “That way, Mommy! That way!” “Faster! Quick, quick!” He said it with such urgency and an air of knowing exactly what he was doing. Except, I couldn’t go faster since we were stopped (silly red lights keeping him from his friend).
We are still making our way through potty training… he gets it, yet he doesn’t get it. And that might only make sense if you watch enough Sesame Street. I’m waiting for the day he gets it and does it. That will be glorious.
Since Sunday I have been itching to make playdough, since I saw it on this weeks edition of Kids Craft Weekly. Add to that a primal need to use my new kitchenaid mixer and I was off and running.
The playdough is this blah color because we didn’t have any food coloring. I did add it to our pantry today, so this evening I made some light blue playdough.
Fuller loves playing with the dough. He squishes it, cuts it up with cookie cutters, and makes balls to stack and smash. Fuller played with it for about three hours yesterday and the first thing he did this morning was play with it some more. He even postponed breakfast for an hour to play with the dough.
I hope the enthusiasm sticks and he gets into playing with it while I make dinner in the evenings. And maybe we can get some ornaments out of it for Christmas gifts.
Sponsored by Wamu.com where you can get a personal checking account.
Fuller’s birthday is coming up. In fact, his birthday weekend is the same weekend that we will be traveling in October, again, back to Lake Martin!
We aren’t big on putting together birthday parties that he won’t really remember, but we are big on cake (or cupcakes) and spoiling him a little with a present or two.
Damon keeps bringing up something he thinks is the “perfect” gift for Fuller’s birthday. No, not Powell furniture (that would be for my birthday, if I wasn’t going to Vegas). Damon thinks Fuller would really get into having either one or both of the Animusic DVDs.
The PBS stations show clips of Animusic on Sunday mornings, and sometimes you can catch the entire DVD during fundraising time. When Fuller sees it, he loves watching and dancing to the music. I think some of the animation is a bit freaky, especially the pogo stick ones. But it is something Fuller would like. So you know, grandparents, aunties, take note.
This Friday we are leaving for a Lake Martin weekend. Labor Day will give us some extra time to spend with my in-laws and sister, Austina, who will be driving down from her new Georgia home.
So much traveling will be done in the coming months, you might think this is going to become a travel blog! I have been talking with my friends about our Vegas trip and we are still working out exactly where we will be staying. So far the front runner is Imperial Palace Las Vegas.
Last night on the Colleen Weenie Show (warning: some language), Colleen talked about our different choices and how her husband has stayed there. It might be a “bit” of a dive, but the price is right and kept clean. Or we might end up somewhere else.
I am hoping to spend $300 or less on hotel accommodations, but I know where ever we all stay, we will be having a great time because we will be together!
I guess I kind of took the weekend off from blogging. Thanks to D for providing those fun videos. The first one, from Saturday, was done while I was off at My Family Dinners prepping meals for the next month.
I was more comfortable this time, because I knew what was up, learned from my mistakes (read directions carefully!), and was fine asking questions when I wasn’t sure. Saturday night we had the Best Ever Grilling Burgers and Sunday we had the Chicken Florentine in a puff pastry. It was better than eating at a Maine bed and breakfast. I told Damon I wanted to eat all the chicken-filled puff pastry, it was so good. But that doesn’t really work well with Weight Watchers, so I refrained.
If you are not in the Chattanooga area and wanted to find a meal prep place in your home town, then you can check out the Easy Meal Prep Directory, a URL that Bevelle gave me on Saturday. (Or, if you are really nice, Rebecca might send you some of her freezer meal secrets, when she recovers from her tonsil removal.)
Today, Fuller’s friend Luke came over for a play-date. Alli and I were thinking of what to do and I suggested taking them outside to “play tackle.” So we dressed them both in appropriate gear - shorts, mesh jerseys, and sneakers (sans pads and helmets, though), and setup the backyard for pit drills.
It took them boys awhile to get used to actually tackling each other. But, with Alli and my help, they eventually got the hang of it. Here’s the video:
Well, next week, football season kicks off. I can hardly wait. Lately, I’ve been repeatedly asking Fuller if he wants to go outside and “play tackle.” Usually he says “no”, but today, he said “OK, Daddy.”
Here’s a video of him running a pit drill, or “Oklahoma”, as it’s also known, against the tackling dummy I made for Fuller last year.
Well, as you can see, he’s no Tray Blackmon (and when you consider Tray’s off-field behavior, that’s a good thing), but 16 years from now, he should be ready for prime time (minus the under-age drinking, of course).
Yesterday the Chattanooga temperature topped off at 105. I am scared to go outside due to the melting factor.
Yes we have air conditioning, but we don’t want to run up a huge bill, so we try to take extra measures by pulling down all the shades. And this gives our house the look and feel of a dark, cool cave.
When I worked, I remember how chilly the building would be and the sweater I kept at my desk for days when it was just too cold. Some of my coworkers sat at their office desks with personal heaters or blankets to keep the chill away.
It is different being at home fulltime and the temperature is just one small thing to remind me of that. I prefer the cool darkness of our cave, because it is here that I get to play with Fuller and take care of our house. It is where I belong and feel comfortable. And it reminds me that this was a good choice.
