Case of the Monday's

Usually aside from Adam being gone, Monday is usually just another day for us.  So far today, has been the Monday from Hell.  All was fine until Graham put my phone in the toilet.  Yup, I was in the other room, but as soon as I heard it, I knew exactly what it was.  He has officially lost phone game privileges.  Shortly after, he fell in our room and hit something on the edge of out foot board.  I thought it was his mouth, upon further inspection, I was relieved to see he had all his teeth and wasn't even bleeding.  then I saw it.  He hit his head.  It was terrible.  He cried, I cried.  He refused ice, so I gave him Tylenol.He was fine.  His forehead has quite a knot.  Hopefully it will go away soon. 

 

This all happened before 10 Am.  It couldn't get any worse today right?

Productivity

It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have kids!  Having two kids now, I hate when I hear people with one, talk about how hard getting out to the grocery store is.  Or going to dinner.  Or anything really!  With two it's that much harder.  I'm sure people with three kids laugh at us with two!:)  That being said.  With NO kids, you can get a lot done.

This past weekend, we were lucky enough to have the grandparents take the boys, for a whole 24 hours.  They took them on Saturday night.  Adam and I took a couch over to my sisters new apartments, got gussied up and went on a dinner date.  We went to a place called Tillman's Roadhouse in the Bishop Arts district.  For those of you who don't know, Bishop Arts is a block in Oak Cliff that they have really revived.  It took Adam months to convince me to go.  To me, Oak Cliff will always have a bad rep.  But it was delicious, and I'm looking forward to going back.

Sunday morning, we "slept in" until 7:30, laid around, got dressed and left for Sunday Brunch.  Adam had purchased a Groupon for a place in Downtown Mckinney!  It was yummy.  We also finished up our shopping for the boys for Christmas.  Started on the shopping for the kid's foundation kid we adopted, and got our children some winter clothes.  After all that shopping and eating, we came home, napped, watched a football game, and then got ready for dinner to go pick up our kids!  It was nice to come and go and do what we pleased, but we sure missed those little guys.  I'm not sure how we are going to go two full weeks without seeing them in February.  But I'm sure we will manage.

Weekly Menu

I managed to throw together this weeks menu:)  

Sunday: Dinner at Adam's parents

Monday: Spicy sausage pasta from last week

Tuesday: Mexican Quinoa

Wednesday: Spaghetti squash with chicken, peas and broccoli , Rolls

Thursday:  pick up something on the way to Adam's soccer game

Friday:  Pioneer woman's pot roast with baked potato's

Saturday: The boys are spending the night with the grands, so Adam and I are going out!

Sunday Breakfast: brunch in McKinney

Sunday: Dinner with Adam's parents

"Mama, no out"

Big Boy Bed

Helping take the front off

This is pretty long, and boring. It's more for my own documentation. Read at your own risk!


There have been big changes here in the Fenner House. At the ripe old age of almost three years old, Dylan is now in a big boy bed. We hadn't really ever had a reason to switch him. Many people switch the older sibling when the new baby is on the way so they can use the crib. We bought Dylan's bed intending him to use it for a long time, so that wasn't a big deal. Honestly, he wasn't ready. I don't know how people change 18 month olds. Blow my mind.

  I'd been thinking about switching his bed, well just because he is almost three. He never once climbed out of or into his crib. He loved it. I loved it. If I needed a break for a bit, I could put him up there and he couldn't get out! I'll be honest, I am so happy that he is now out of the crib. No more lugging a pack and play, or worrying about where he will sleep.

Graham was ready to sleep!:)

I decided we would do it on a Friday, in case he was up a lot at night, I wouldn't be the only person to deal with him. I talked about it ALL week. How we were making his bed a big boy bed, and how when mama and Daddy put him in there he wasn't allowed to get out. All week I asked him if he was supposed to get out. His response " Mama, No out" I told him I would spank him if he got out, so now if I ask him what happens if he gets out, he will hit his bottom! I find it funny. But at least he gets it.

Loves it!

We bought him a special "big boy" blanket, and we let him help take the crib apart. He was so excited. He watched for Daddy to pull into the driveway and asked him the second he walked into door " Daddy, this off now?" He loved it. We let him play in it, get up and down, jump off of it ( which we stopped pretty quickly.) Graham loved it. Everyone was so happy.

"Mama, No out"

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Friday night. We got him ready for bed, told him we would read him a book in bed, but as soon as we put him in there, he laid down, told us " no out" blew us kisses and that was that. Adam and I walked out and thought to ourselves," It can't be that easy right?" But it was. We didn't hear a peep from him the rest of the night. I woke up at about 1 AM, and he wasn't in bed. I went upstairs to check on him, and he was sprawled out in the middle of his floor wrapped in his blanket, snoring. I stood there for a second thinking a few things. 1) I wished that I could take a picture without waking him up. 2) should I leave him or move him back? I had decided to leave him and started to close his creaky door when he woke up. I moved him back to the bed, and he whined for a little bit saying he wanted to get out. I rubbed his head and he went back to sleep by the time I got back down stairs. He slept the rest of the night in his bed and woke up normally.

Saturday, he basically begged Adam to go take a nap, and he was just as easy at bedtime. So far, this has been so easy, and our first born has surprised us yet again. I really hope that Graham is this easy with life. Though, with the amount of tantrums I already get, I'm guessing he won't be.

Hospitality and Halloween

The last weekend in October was a super busy one in this house.  First and for most, we had our friend David in town from NYC.  We met David while at Penn, he and Adam quickly became good friends and have remained in contact since.  He came for the weekend, and probably got more than he bargained for.  We had a few things on our list to show him while he was in town.  It was his first trip to Texas, so we wanted to take him to a few of our favorite places.  We started off at Top Golf, went to Bob's Steak and Chop house for dinner, then hit up a few bars( not that we have bar favorites, but we took him to some anyway) Also on our list for that weekend was Rudy's BBQ and our favorite Mexican place, Casa Milagro.

During this weekend, we also had Caleb's First birthday party, Trunk or Treat, a Halloween party at our neighbors ( that was all one day) and then of course Hurricane Sandy.  David tried to escape Texas a day early to miss the storm, but because of a faulty air conditioner in the plane, he got stuck.  His original flight was supposed to be Monday, but he didn't leave until Wednesday morning.  Needless to say, I think he was ready to leave and get away from two little tiny tots that roam this house.



Saturday night after all of the kiddo things, we borrowed last second costumes and headed over to our neighbors with Becca and Garet.  Every year they have a costume and adults only party.  It's a good time.  They go all out, and are a little crazy with Halloween in general.  But hey, getting some drinks and getting away from the kiddo's for a bit is always a good time.  We had a great weekend, and I was very happy to see our friend.  I hope that he isn't scared off by our children, and we can plan a visit again for next year.  Maybe neutral ground though!

Weekly Menu

I actually made a menu this week!:)

Saturday: Buffalo Chicken Garbage bread

Sunday: Hamburgers at Adam's parents house

Monday: On our own- Adam soccer Game

Tuesday: Meatloaf, mashed sweet potato's and Broccoli

Wednesday: Fried Tilapia sandwiches and chips

Thursday: Spicy Sausage pasta and side salads

Friday: Dijon Pork Tenderloin, Quinoa, and side salads

I'm hoping to maintain going shopping on the weekends, so that I don't have to 10 times during the week.  I always forget something when I go with the boys!:)

'tude

 

So much attitude in this one picture.  I'm pretty sure this is going to be in his wedding.  Somewhere.

Cha-Cha- Changes

In May of 2007 Adam graduated from A&M with a degree in Environmental Science.  We got married, and moved to Philadelphia for him to receive a Masters of Architecture.  Then, the market crashed.  We moved back, and finding a job seemed impossible.  He stayed at home with Dylan and I for the first seven months of Dylan's life.  Then he got a temporary job, that turned into a permanent one.  Sadly, this was not a job in architecture, but in mechanical estimating.  He went on several interviews over the next several months, but nothing happened.  Last year, he went on an interview and a few days later was told to expect an offer.  This company went as far as to have the head  principal call him on a Sunday evening and say they were writing the offer and to expect it Monday.  I believe over a week went by before Adam had to call them and they then told him that they were going to be unable to hire anyone at this time.  Shitty right?

A few months later he interviewed at a few more places, and got nothing.  He would follow up, but still, no one was hiring.  A couple of weeks ago, he sent another follow up email, but this time, they actually needed someone so they wanted him to come in for a second interview.  They told him in the meeting, that they had given themselves one month to interview, so they would let him know as soon as they did.  Less than a week later, he got a call saying that he would be receiving an offer.  Here is where I got a little nervous.  We are going to be going to Australia for two full weeks in the middle of February.  Not many places want to hire someone who will be gone for such a long time so quickly. 

Adam told them about the trip before excepting their offer.  They had no problem, since he had told them so far in advance.  So, if you read all of this, you got it.  Adam is officially on his way to becoming an architect.  He isn't technically one now, and he gets frustrated when people call him one.  He has a seven part, $1500.00 test to take before he can call himself an architect. 
I am so incredibly proud of him for trying so hard and getting so many interviews.  I am a little sad that this will probably mean less time with him.  Architects are known for long days.  I guess the boys and I will just be having lunch in Uptown a lot.:)

pumpkin painting

I think it's a pretty popular thing to let toddlers do.  Carving is still a bit to old for them, so I know lots of pumpkin painters this year.  Last week, to kill some time while Graham was napping, I pulled out Dylan's finger paints, painting shirt ( which he loves) and some pumpkins we had picked up at his school's patch.  First, he wanted to just paint paper.  He was very clean about it.  I was impressed. I guess school has taught him that.  I can't say that I have ever painted with Dylan, because well, it's a mess.  After he painted about 15 sheets of paper, I pulled out the pumpkin. 


He wanted to use his hands, but every two seconds would say " Wash hands mama, mess"  Dylan is in no way particular about getting messy.  He just likes to wash his hands.  I think they do it a lot at school.  It's a good habit he found. 

When he was all done, he was being so silly.  Acting mad that I wouldn't wash his hands just yet.  I knew that as soon as I did, he would want to paint again.  So I made him sit there for a few minuets to make sure he was done.  This boy is full of attitude.  You can't help but love him when he gives this face.  He does it because he knows it's funny.  Silly boy.