The Dallas Zoo

Nathan & I went to the Dallas Zoo with a friend from Nashville while Jake was at his Bar study class one day. Again, super-hot, but Nathan loved the giraffes, and learned his neck as a body part thanks to his spotted friends. I thought he would like the snakes, since he loves to hiss like Kaa in The Jungle Book, but they actually scared him. We saw an albino alligator, which I thought was pretty cool, even if Nathan was more interested in the netting that was part of the alligator's exhibit than the alligator itself.

Loving Summer

The top pictures are of Nathan & Dad enjoying time at the park. The park is a daily thing for Nate & Mom, but time outside with Daddy is a real treat!
The bottom pictures are of the Art Festival, which Nathan loved. It was so-oo hot, but our little artist endured the elements for his art, and created beautiful sidewalk chalk creations & helped with a community mural.

July 4th

We had an awesome holiday!! Uncle Ryan was in town for a couple of days on his way to training in San Antonio, so we took him with us to the breakfast & parade. The Lakewood parade in Dallas was pretty weak sauce compared to the parades we know & love in Centerville & Bountiful, but Nathan enjoyed waving the flag and eating the vanilla Tootsie Rolls that were tossed to him. We took Nathan to his first ever movie in the theatre this afternoon--Ice Age 3. It opened with Scrat trying to get a nut, of course, and Nathan thought it was the funniest thing ever. He laughed so loud & hard for about 5 minutes, that I was in tears laughing, and all the people in the surrounding rows were laughing at him, too. We're off to fireworks tonight--we'll let you know what he thinks of that, and pictures to follow!

The Spray Park

We took Nathan to the spray park a few weeks ago, & he loved it! I was worried he would get plowed over by the bigger kids, but he held his own. I'm proud of my little fishy.

Potty love

Nathan has developed an interest in the potty this week. He boldly pronounced "poop" the other day, then ran to the bathroom. We put him on the toilet (in his diaper) and he sat there & smiled. No poop, but we're glad he's getting interested in using the potty. Not so glad, though, when I caught him dipping his hands in the water & licking them another time later in the week. You can wash a boy's hands, but not really his mouth so much. I have a feeling potty-training will be very interesting . . .

Jake's Graduation

What's going on

So, it's been a while. A lot has happened, hence the blog losing importance on the list of priorities. I'll try to remember all the important stuff, and update with pictures next time.
Jake graduated!!! He has a huge, beautiful diploma that will hang in his office in November. Both his parents & sister (Kristie) and my parents came out for the occasion, and we had lots of fun with both families.
We survived (barely) our move. Those of you who follow us on Facebook know that the moving company kept changing the date they would deliver our stuff, and when we got upset about that, they said they would no longer talk to us, that we could talk to their lawyer. So Jake & my dad (thanks Dad, you rock!) flew to the moving company's warehouse in Charlotte & through a lot of drama, got our stuff loaded into a Uhaul & moved to Dallas.
Dallas is awesome! We love our apartment, but not so much that we want to stay. We signed papers earlier this week to start construction on our new home about 20" minutes up the road in Lewisville. It's going to be incredible! More info & pictures to follow . . .
Nathan is so much fun. He's constantly learning new words, and doing things that make us laugh. His favorite movie has switched from Winnie the Pooh to The Jungle Book, and so he now says "Kaa, ssssssss" for the snake, slaps himself in the face until we say "Wake up, Bagheera!" and isn't happy until we turn on "Gungle." When he sees a watermelon at the grocery store, he calls it a "paw-paw" like when Baloo sings "Bear Necessities."
The other day Nathan & I were driving to pick up Daddy from his Bar study course, and Nathan wouldn't stop saying "Da-da-da." I kept saying, "Yes, we're going to get Daddy." Then I realized he was singing along to the Police's "Do-do-do, da-da-da, is all I want to say to you." Too cute!
Nathan is getting too smart for his own good. He points at the words when we read to him, tries to sing along with the alphabet song (mmnopQ!), and answers any number-type question by saying "two." ("Nathan, how many grapes do you want?" "Two!!!") He tries to juggle his pacifiers, which he still lovingly refers to as "baby." I'm realizing each day that he is less of a baby & more of a toddler all the time. He's growing up too fast!