Back to School, Back to School . . .

Tate started at his new "school" (aka: daycare) this week and he was such a trooper. We've been talking about and preparing him for this change all summer. He did so great. He ran right into his new classroom and started playing with the other kids. No tears, no hesitation. His teacher said that a few hours later he paused and said, "I need my mommy. I need to go home." But she just distracted him with some toys and he was fine.

When I got home that night, Tate was so excited to tell me all about his new school, the fun toys, the new teachers, and "the little boy in the green shirt, he was playing with the big truck and I screamed at him."

Thank you, Tater, for being such a big kid and making this day a little bit easier on mommy. I love you!

Take Me Out To A Ball Game

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit last weekend and we headed out to the ballgame. It was HOT! But it was fun. Bees won, 8-3 (I think).

We were treated to fireworks after the game. Tate surprised us and didn't whine or cry at all. In fact, he didn't move a muscle during the whole firework show. Thanks, Grandma, for preventing premature hearing loss.

I love Tori's face in this one! I want to draw a thought bubble coming from her head that says, "What the heck?!"

Sittin' Pretty

Family Pictures

So, obviously, we had some new family pictures done. Tori, normally an extremely happy baby, was super sleepy during the entire photo session and we couldn't squeeze more than two smiles out of her. So we'll be back to do more pictures of her another time. But here are the results of our photo session. (I'm not sure why I really needed to post these. Most of them are displayed somewhere on the blog already.)

Rodeo Weekend

We spent the weekend in Idaho, enjoying the festivities of rodeo weekend: sidewalk sales, cotton candy, parades, the rodeo itself, etc. We had fun, but Tate's favorite part was just riding in the tractor with Grandpa. All this wild and crazy rodeo stuff kind of freaked him out.
Just waiting for the parade to start. Everyone looks pretty happy, right? You just wait.

The sirens started blaring, the tractor engines started roaring, the horses started trotting, and Tate started wailing. Even the flying candy freaked him out. What am I going to do with this kid?

The rodeo wasn't much better. Apparently he wasn't a fan of watching horses buck off innocent cowboys. He was pretty nervous throughout most of it, but he really got into the barrel racing and the mutton busting.

Tori stayed home with Grandma and missed the rodeo. But isn't she cute?

And we also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Yay for us! (The light over our heads kinda looks like we had a bright idea or something, huh? Pretty fitting because the brightest idea I ever had was marrying this guy seven years ago.) Love you, Phillip Lane!

Four Months Old

Hi. I'm Tori. I'm four months old and I'm usually a happy, good natured baby girl. I'm very patient and rarely voice my complaints. And when I do, I do it as quietly as possible. I thought my mom appreciated this about me. But now I'm not so sure. She took me, happy and unsuspecting, to my four-month check up. I played happily with mommy while we waited over thirty minutes for the doctor to come. I smiled and cooed at the nurse when she measured my head and weighed me on the scale. I let the doctor look in my ears and check out every part of me to make sure it was working properly without so much as a whimper. I thought all this good behavior would earn me a sucker or something. But no. All I got were several shots in the leg. Painful ones, too. Well, I just can't take something like that laying down. I screamed good and loud for several long minutes so that everyone would know that I was not okay with that. I mean, look at this face. Do I look happy???

You know me. I can't stay mad for long. :)

Oh. By the way, I'm now 24 1/4 inches long (50%) and 14 lb 3 oz (60%). So right about average. Don't worry though. My doctor knew that every mother knows that her baby is more than just "average" so he used the word "perfect". And that suited mommy just fine.

Life According to Tate

We had a busy weekend, as you can tell by the plethera of pictures. I'll let Tate tell you all about all of our crazy fun.

"The Fishies Place"

"Tate looking at the fishy. I see a fishy and Tate."

"There's Tate and Mommy at the fish place. Tate sad."

"Huh?"

"That's Tate playing the xylophone. He's playing noises. Boom. Boom."

"Tate playing with the blocks. The blocks shake and I turn that on and the blocks shake and fall down. I build a house and it fall down."

"Tate singing songs."

"That's Tate riding the car and drive it. That's the beep, beep."

"Tate putting the ball in and ball going up. I need to go play ball again."

"That's the zoo place. That's the place I go to the zoo."


"That's Tate and that's daddy and the birdies. And the birdies are flying."

"That's Mommy and Tate smiling."

"That's Tori sucking her 'fum'."

"That's the zoo place. Tate smiling by the turtle."

"Tate riding the kangaroo. Tate is sad cuz he don't like the kangaroo. Tate is making the kangaroo sad. I scared the kangaroo and he's sad."

"Whoa. That's the tiger. He's roaring at Tate."

"Mommy and the giraffe. Mommy and Tori and the giraffe. The giraffe is standing on his legs."

"Those are the zebras and Tate and Daddy and the zebras are eating hay."

"That's the lady."

Editor's note: This exhibit is on display in the "Hall of Primates". Yes, that is a human being in there.

"The elephant. That's a big elephant. Wow. It's cool. Or what."

"That's the elephant. It's made out of wood. It peed. Mommy sitting on his nose. He's making sounds. I don't like it. I've got some feelings."

"Dexter monkey. He's on Larry show (Night at the Museum). He's eating his carrots and he's sharing with his brothers monkey."

"That's the birdy place. That's the zoo place. That's the dinosaur place. That's the Rexy place."

"Baby Tori is sleeping."

"I see Rexy. And little Rexies and the big Rexy dinosaur. Roooooaaaar!! I want to make Rexy down the rocks and scare him and get Larry and bite him. Rooooaaaarr! Sniff."

"Tate getting a dinosaur bone. Tate using a paint brush, digging the dinosaur bone."

"Tate and Daddy getting the dirt. Played with plants and little dinosaurs."

"I need to see Bruce (from Finding Nemo). Those are his teeth. He brush his teeth. He's gonna not eat daddy. Stay there. He's gonna hit dad down the ground and bite him and knock him down again."

"Tate playing with the dinosaurs. Little dinosaur says "Rooooaaaaarrr! I'm a dinosaur." That's what he says."