Making Our Mark

Uncle Steve came over today and fixed the mud glorious mud in the driveway. That's what Harper calls it. I just say HALLELUJAH!

We commemorated the event by making our own mark. We used the train cookie cutter, then I wrote H's initials, the date, his hand prints and foot prints, then he used the train cookie cutter and wrote an H all by himself.

Can I just say how nice it will be to not drive over this everyday? BLISS! (I'm easily pleased.)

When Steven was leaving, we yelled 'We love you, Uncle Steve!' I asked H, 'Do you love your Uncle Steve?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Me, too. He's a pretty good guy.' Harper said, 'He's the best guy.' Isn't that sweet?

Headbanger's Ball

It's official. I'm an idiot.

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself. I was a little stressed when we were locked out of the house.

Anyway... three things have been pointed out to me.
1. Harper could have opened the back door. He's done it before.
B. Harper could have gotten the key from the living room, where it fell to the floor when my lawn boy dropped it through the mailbox.
III. Maybe there were just the two... but isn't that enough?

In future, I'll not send kids from the block into my house through the doggie door. Where was this logic when I was panicking at 5:15p yesterday?

Adventures in Homecoming

Today we got home from work/school and we were locked out of the house. The kid who mows my yard had come by my office and picked up my house key so he could give the yard one final cut for the season. When he left, he shut the garage door, then locked the door from the utility room to the garage. He exited the front door, and per my instruction, put the key through the mailbox (which drops into the living room). I didn't need the key. I could get in through the garage.

Er, I could until he locked the door in the utility room.

We get out of the car, arms full, go to open the door and it's locked. I can see the deadbolt from this side of the door. I called him, not really sure why. For a minute I thought he could come back and let me in, then I remembered he put the key through the mailbox.

Mimi is in Sapulpa with the only other key to the house. So I made a very difficult and scary decision. I put on a serious, you have a mission face, and turned to Harper.

Mommy: I need you to do something for Mommy. It's very very important.
H: Okay Mommy
M: I need you to crawl through the doggie door and unlock this door.
Then I demonstrate what I need him to do.
H: Okay Mommy. I can do it!
M: Don't go anywhere else. Just go to this door. Mommy will not be able to come in after you, so it's very important that you do what I say.
H: Okay Mommy.

Then, with all the anxiety you can imagine, I watched my baby crawl through the doggie door into the house. I ran to the garage to talk him through it. H knew exactly what he needed to do. I could feel the lock jiggling. He just couldn't turn it.

H: I can't get it Mommy.
M: It's okay, baby. Just come back through the doggie door.
H: I'm going to the front door!
M: (panic)

Harper runs to the front door. He's trying so hard to turn that lock and he just can't get it to turn. Bless his heart. He was so brave.

H: I can't get it Mommy. I'm coming out.

He runs to the doggie door and crawls out.

We went to the neighbor's house. They have a little boy who could fit through and unlock the door. He's about seven, so I'm fairly confident about it. Unfortunately, he's at football practice.

Fortunately, there are plenty of kids on the block now. Surely someone will be home. We went across and down the street a couple of houses to Noah's. Noah's mom answers the door. We've never met. I apologize for this and ask if I can borrow her son. Noah puts on his shoes and runs to the house. He's grown a lot over the Summer, so I'm a little concerned he won't fit through the door. He gets down on his knees, and inches his way in, unlocks the door and saves the day.

I'll be sending him a thank you. Maybe five bucks? I don't know what to do in this situation. I've never had this happen before. You can guarantee I'll be making a spare key this weekend and giving it to one of my neighbors.

I keep telling Harper how proud I am of him. It was a very important job and he was so brave to run through the house by himself. Believe me, it isn't far from my mind that something could have gone wrong. I'm just so so so so thankful it didn't. We were inside, safe and sound, within about 15 minutes of realizing we were locked out. Now I just hope word doesn't spread amongst the kids in the neighborhood that you can get into my house through the doggie door. Any suggestions on a deterrent? Keep in mind, my dog still needs to come and go during the day while I'm at work.

Sunday Funday

Harper is really just the most fun little boy I know. He didn't say or do anything in particular today. He was just good, and fun, and his super silly self.

We went to Target after his nap, so I could get some groceries. Since I'm looking for a new job, we figured I should get some work clothes. (I wear jeans and shorts now. Not business appropriate.) Harper was very patient, and entertaining, while he waited on me.

I guess this is his impression of Ariel

Come on already, Mom!

He was so good while waiting, that we went to the Thomas section to check out the trains. We have most of them already, but there was a Harold that has a mail bag that Kenzie has and H wanted, so we got it. While we were there, he spotted a set that he wants. Fortunately, it doesn't match our tracks. But I think it might match Daddy's. So I took a picture of H and emailed it to Jody, so he'd know which one it is, if he decides to get it. Isn't H cute? He's all about the thumbs up lately.

We might have accidentally picked up a Halloween costume for Mona while we were there. We really wanted the skunk costume, but they were out. So she'll have to live with being a rooster.

What do you think? Does she look like she hates me?

Happy Birthday Mimi!

Today is Mimi's birthday! And after all the rain and the cold that we had last week, Mimi is one lucky chick... it was a gorgeous day! Much nicer than I anticipated.

H and I got up and did our usual... donuts at the bakery. Then we went home, I put together a sopapilla cheesecake (thanks for that recipe Leah!) and we headed to Uncle Steve's to meet up with friends and family to celebrate.

Mostly, the day was spent chasing Harper, Kenzie and Conner around. They played on the swingset, they fed fish in the pond, they petted puppies, they made pretend food and served it at Kenzie's picnic table. They wrestled, they ran, they laughed and entertained. And at the end of the day, Harper slept the whole way home and went straight to bed after brushing his teeth.

Aunt Becky pushing H

A succession of photos:

H pushing Kenzie

Trying harder to push Kenzie

Mimi helping H push Kenzie

Cutie patootie, Kenzie Ann

H serving a waffle sandwich with a Coke

Chef Conner

H, out like a light, on the drive home


I will pause from praising my little one for a minute to say thanks to my mom. You do so much for all of us. We love you tremendously. The grandkids are hopelessly in love with you and I know Steven and I are the luckiest kids to have you.

We love you, Mimi!

Spooktacular Carnival

We went to Harper's school carnival tonight. There were a TON of people there! Harper was super excited to FINALLY get to wear his Thomas costume.

There were games in each room. I didn't get pictures of everything, just because there really were so many people there. I didn't want to be in everyone's way trying to get pictures of every little thing. The first room we went into Harper got to fish for candy. I think this was the first time he ever used a fishing rod.

The next room was supposed to be like bobbing for apples. But all you did was pick a plastic pumpkin that was floating in a tub of water, turn it over, and if it had dots, you got two bags of candy. No dots you got one. Then we went into a room with a ring toss. I wish I'd gotten a pick of that, because H was so cute taking aim. You'll just have to use your imagination.

In his room, they had a combination of golf/croquet and an orange and black velcro dart board that you threw an orange ball at and tried to make it stick. As you can see, he was successful.


We did a cake walk, but didn't win. And in the last room, he kicked a football through a goal to get candy. The games were fun and easy, and with all of them (except the cake walk), you got candy either way.

He had so much fun and was SO good. I let him have some M&M's on the way home and I indulged in a Kit-Kat. Now he's excited to finally have some Halloween candy of his own, and he's geared up and ready for the 31st!

Peer Love

When I went to pick up H from school today, I tried to hide so he wouldn't see me. I like to watch him interacting with the other kids. As soon as he sees me, he quits playing, runs to me full speed and yells 'MOMMY!' Which I admit... I love.

I was only there for about a minute when he ran to me. All the kids he was playing with followed him. Zachary always hovers around me when I'm there. Lily, Victoria, Mariah and Gavin were all in tow as well.

I put H's hoodie on him and zipped it up. Lily went over and put the hoodie over his head. Then she gave him a great big hug and said, 'See you tomorrow, Harper!' Then Mariah hugged him. Then Gavin hugged him. Then Zachary inched in and hugged him. Finally, Victoria hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He hugged each of them back and waved goodbye. Then he looked at me, beaming, and said 'I had a really good day, Mommy.'

Doesn't that just melt your heart?

Will the Real Captian Hook Please Step Forward

Yesterday, H and I went to Target to get a couple of grocery items. I was meandering down the aisle with glassware and at the end of the aisle were several types of beer glasses. Coors, Budweiser, Michelob, Guinness, and for some reason, Captain Morgan. When Harper saw the Captain Morgan glasses he said, 'Wook! Wook Mommy! It's Peter Pan stuff!'

When we got home, I fixed his dinner and gave him corn for his vegetable. Corn that, just the night before, he begged to have with dinner. Last night? Last night, corn was yucky. I had to beg and barter with him to eat three bites. At first he said, 'Can I eat this bite?' Heck yeah, I say. And hey, why not have a couple more? I said, 'Eat at least three bites and you can have chocolate milk when we read stories.' Which, so you know, isn't really a reward. He has chocolate milk EVERY night when we read stories. But I figure if I say 'Woo hoo! You get to have it!' instead of 'If you don't..., you won't get...', it sometimes works in my favor. SO my clever son says, 'Three bites! OK!' and puts three kernels of corn on his fork. Uh, yeah. Not quite what I meant. He laughed at how funny he was. Which it was. Then when he finished his FOURTH bite of corn, he said, 'Corn is AWfully yummy!'

Stinker.

School Daze

Here are a couple of pics of H at school, and the final product of his official school pictures.

H and his friend, Avery, playing at the train table. A doesn't go to H's school anymore, and Harper is quite upset about it. He talks about him everyday.

H enjoying an orange. He's most likely the last kiddo at the table, since he is the pokiest eater I've ever known.

Charmer pic:

Too cool for school pic:

More Circus Pics

Here are more pics from the circus on Friday.

I love how blue his mouth is here. This was after his first bite of cotton candy.

Macaroni Misunderstanding

I was talking to Mimi today and I remembered something funny H said a while back. He kept saying he wanted macaroni pizza. I knew that Cici's had macaroni pizza, so I figured he'd gotten some with Jody at some point.

H and I went to Cici's back in August and I got a slice of macaroni pizza for him and a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza for me. He curled his lip at his plate and said, 'Mommy, I want your macaroni pizza.'

Macaroni. Pepperoni. Easy mistake.

Running Away with the Circus

Friday night, Jody and I took Harper to the Barnum and Bailey Circus at the new BOK Center downtown. The building is beautiful, but they didn't plan for parking. We had to park about three blocks away. Not a big deal, Jody and I have walked further than that before. We were a little nervous, though. We were a little afraid we'd get back and the car wouldn't be there. No worries, though. It was there when we got back.

H on our way to the show:

We got there an hour early so we could get a decent parking space (ha!). We got inside quickly and walked around in awe for a bit. The place was very clean and bright. There were a lot of stations set up with cotton candy, popcorn, souvenir toys and stuffed animals. For two days, Harper had only asked for cotton candy, so we made sure he ate a good dinner, then we braced ourselves for stuffing him with spun sugar.

When we approached the kiosk to buy cotton candy, I caught sight of a teeny tiny stuffed animal that was $21. TWENTY ONE DOLLARS! This doll was about the size of Happy (the bear). Not a $21 animal. I was relieved that H only wanted the cotton candy. I order. 'That will be $12.' TWELVE DOLLARS?! FOR COTTON CANDY?! Oy. They hand us a huge bag of cotton candy, then she said, 'Oh, it comes with this hat.' Which we thought would be a waste, turns out, Harper loved it. He wore that hat most of the night. It was pretty funny. But everything was like that. If you ordered s'mores, you got a crown. If you ordered popcorn, you got some spinning thing that lights up. The downside was you can't get JUST popcorn or whatever, you had to get the souvenir. However, I decided that it's worth it. The show must cost a fortune to put on, and the tickets to the actual show were inexpensive. So if they want to charge $12 for cotton candy, fine. I didn't plan on getting anything more than that anyway.

We found our seats, but before we got settled in, we saw that people were allowed down on the floor where there were jugglers, an elephant, a man on stilts and a couple of clowns. We made our way down there, but there were a LOT of people and H didn't want to get up on Daddy's shoulders to see the elephant over the tops of people's heads. Too high, I guess. So we went over to the jugglers where there was a place on the floor to sit. We got to hang out for a few minutes, then it was time to find our seats, the show was about to start.

The show was starting and we stood up for the national anthem.




















Harper wore his hat for most of the show.





















During the pre-show, there was a lot going on. Elephants, clowns, motorcycles, dancers. But all H could focus on were three acrobats that were on our side of the arena. Very high up in the air. He sat there, staring at them, obviously nervous. When the pre-show was finally over, the ladder dropped and the acrobats started climbing down. Harper sighed and said, 'Now they can get down.' I couldn't get a picture of them, it wouldn't have turned out. It was too dark.

I think he enjoyed the part with the dogs chasing frisbees the most. He said he was going to teach Mona to do that. I figure I'll need to get another dog. I don't see Mona catching a frisbee anytime soon.

Just before the halfway point, Harper said his tummy hurt and I had noticed his eyes getting awfully itchy. I mean, the show didn't start until 7:30, which is bedtime. It was already almost 8:30. He had been a super good boy and we had seen a lot. So we all put on our jackets and by the time we got to the top of the stairs, it was intermission. We just beat the crowd out and we made the long walk to the car.

Harper was really sleepy on the way back to Daddy's. When we got there, I carried him upstairs, with his little head resting on my shoulder. Got him inside, threw the hat on the couch, put on jammies, brushed his teeth and washed his face. He asked for his hat... I'm pretty sure it stayed on the couch overnight. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he slept with it. Daddy made chocolate milk and got settled in the rocking chair. I handed over our boy, gave him lots of kisses and headed home.

Maybe next year we'll make it through an entire show. And we can get there even earlier so we can participate in more of the pre-show.

It was a fun night for all of us. I can't wait to do it again.

*Jody has more pictures. I'll post some of those when I get his copies.

First Field Trip

Harper's class went to the pumpkin patch in South Bixby today. I went with him, because quite honestly, it makes me nervous for him to go on a field trip. Call me paranoid or over protective, I don't care. It ended up being a good thing I went. There were 16 kids and four adults. It was a lot of fun.

They had huge piles of pumpkins for the kids to climb on, a maze in a tent that was pitch black. The kids thought it was kind of scary at first, then they loved it and wanted to go through it again and again. They got to pet some goats and sheep. We went on a hay ride. Then they each picked out a pumpkin to take home.

Funny Boy

When H woke up Sunday morning, he asked, 'Is it Halloween Day, yet?'

When I put him to bed that night, he said, 'The sun is gone.' I said, 'It sure is. It went to bed, too.' He asked, 'Did it go see it's mommy?' I said, 'I'm sure it did.' 'Where does it's mommy live?' I just said, 'The other side of the world.'

That seemed to be acceptable.

The Great Pumpkin

Let me start off by saying, this was the busiest Saturday EVER! Saturday morning, we started our day at the bakery, of course. From there, we headed home to wait for Mimi, Uncle Steve and Kenzie. When Uncle Steve and Kenzie got there, Harper yelled 'KENZIE!' and ran straight for the door. He was SO excited! They played in the backyard for a while, then we headed to the pumpkin patch.

The kids ate in the car on the way there. They were so busy and it felt like the day was going so fast. I didn't want to spend 30 minutes sitting down, trying to get them to eat. Cram as much fun in as possible, that's what I say.
















We took a pic of them before they could get into too much mischief. You can tell they look thrilled. Harper didn't want to ride the ponies, or do the tractor pull or hay ride. He just wanted to go down the slide. Now, this slide is massive. It's at least as tall as three of me. Last year, he climbed half way up, then came back down. This year, he was determined to conquer it.
















First we took Kenzie to the ponies. She made it 3/4 of the way around and wanted off.
















Next we headed to the slide. Fortunately, it was not very busy. It was either because it was lunch/naptime or OU/Texas weekend. Either way, I don't care. The kids could climb on the slide without being trampled. Kenzie did what H did last year. She got half way up, then wanted back down. Eventually, she went down one time, and that's because Steven went up with her and held her on the way down. No worries... for one ticket, you could go down the slide 5 times. H had two tickets, so he got to go down 14 times. This thing is seriously high. And when the kids come down? It's lightning fast. H caught air a couple of times. Man... I admit it... I kinda wanted to go down the slide, too.




















Harper climbed up the haystack.




















And posed by the Great Pumpkin mural.
After the Pumpkin Patch, we went home so the kids could take a nap. They went down well and slept a long time. I actually had to wake Harper up.

We went to Ollie's Station for dinner. They have a train motif that will knock your socks off. They have electric trains three deep running around the restaurant. There are trains running in the middle of the restaurant. There are trains up high. There are trains down low. They have Thomasses and Henrys. Engineer caps and railroad crossing signs. Oh man... for a kid who loves trains as much as he does, Steven was in heaven. Er, Harper. Harper was in heaven. (I have to rib my little brother a bit, because for a 24 year old? Yeah, he's as into Thomas as Harper is. The goober.) Here are the kids watching the trains go around the restaurant.
















The trains were really loud. You can hear them in the video below. H *is* yelling, and I shooshed him, but I did hear the manager come out and ask a waitress to turn down the volume on one of the trains.

Oh, the food, you ask? Was amazing! They have the best home style food I've had in a long time. We'll definitely be going back.

By the time we got home, it was bedtime. H took a shower like a big boy and was ready for bed. He was asleep within seconds of laying down. My sweet angel had a wonderful day.