Grandma and Grandpa Part 1

Andrew's parents were our very first visitors to our new home, and we were SO excited to have them. I seriously thought about their coming every day leading up to it for weeks and weeks. They were the best house guests, bringing our children's happiness level to complete bliss. It was so great, too, to have Andrew on vacation. It's amazing how much easier meals/bedtime can be with 4 adults in the house!

Welcoming Grandma & Grandpa at the airport: 

 

While they were here, we celebrated James's 2nd birthday. This little guy LOVES to "dip it" so for his birthday dinner/Grandma and Grandpa's welcome meal, we had veggies, apple slices, and mini hot dogs with ranch, nutella, and ketchup. :) 

Andrew gave us all a tour of the hospital. So great to see where he spends so much of his time. We are all so proud of you, and thankful for how hard you work!

 Sunday evening, we walked the temple grounds:

A big part of our time with Grandma and Grandpa was spent on the road as we toured church history sites.

 Reading with Grandpa in the car:

 

Coming up next: On the road to Carthage, Nauvoo, Adam-ondi-ahman, Far West, Independence, and Kansas City.

Halloween

Playing catch up here . . .

We loved our first Halloween in St. Louis, even though there was a torrential downpour the moment we stepped out for trick-or-treating! (Luckily, it let up quickly, though my feet were soaked from the get go.) Our friends the Mechams joined us for chili, trick-or-treating, and a movie. We had a great time. Andrew even talked me into watching a scary movie . . . scary according to Megan's standards. The movie was Contagion (and I really enjoyed it!). But, I digress. The real purpose of this post is to see the kids in costume, right? Without further ado:

 The "roar!" from this little boy was about the cutest thing for Halloween!

 Not sure I can handle her in makeup:

 Daddy came to the rescue with a car when Emma's wet feet could carry her grace no farther:

 The spoils:

Stay tuned . . . up next, Grandma and Grandpa come to visit!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

After taking raw meat from James while he was trying to carry it into his room from the fridge, while holding the door shut on James crying, stomping and pounding refusing to go to sleep, 
Emma: "Daddy, I know being a mommy or a daddy can be hard. Taking care of kids can be hard, and you guys do it a lot! It would be much easier with just a mommy and a daddy." 
Andrew: "Yes, but we love kids, we love taking care of kids."  (Hard to convince her given the circumstances :) )
Emma: "Well, there won't be kids around for very long! I'm turning 5 next year and I won't be a kid anymore."

Emma: "I think I know what I'm getting for Christmas: a dog, a computer, or an iPhone." :) 
Shoot for the stars. :) What she's getting: a book.

James, after trying to guess a string of letters and getting them all wrong: 
"James, what's this?" 
"Letter!" With a big smile. :)

Emma, after Megan made numerous unsuccessful attempts to get James to correctly identify letters on a white board: "All right mom, I'll take it from here." Emma took the white board, pointed to a letter, and said "What's this, James?" James: "A 'B'!" Correct. :( Sister's touch I guess.

Toddler Art at the Library

James is loving all the one-on-one Mommy time while Emma is at preschool. She will look at something on the fridge in a bit of disbelief: "Who did that?"
James is so proud of what he's doing; so grateful for this cute little guy.

Would You??!!!

And now for a segment I'm calling, "Would You??!!!" where I ask real questions searching for honest responses.

Would you leave a note if you bumped into someone's car and left a tiny scratch? Would it depend on how many other scratches the car already had? Would you base your decision on the size of the scratch or the price of a repair? Would you hesitate to leave a note if you thought the car owner would ask you to pay for the repair and you didn't think you could afford it or if you figured it would be a bigger hit to your pocket book than theirs? Would you feel the impact of whatever caused this to your car if you were in it at the time of collision? (See photo) Would you notice such a mark on your own car immediately or would you by chance not notice it for a few days? Would you call the aeration company that used a large machine to aerate your lawn to within a foot of where this is on the car and ask them to check with the employee (who seemed like an upstanding fellow) to see if there is any chance he might have done this and forgotten to notice or mention it to you when he told you the job was complete? Would you suspect a high schooler, or more likely, a preschooler's parent responsible for this in the preschool drop off zone at the local high school? Would you pay what it took to repair it, perhaps $500-$600 as guessed by the dealer to fix it to avoid people viewing your car as a clunker, or you as a careless driver who doesn't mind the dings and scratches that come to what may seem to some a cheaper car, but what is to you luxury and the biggest you could dream of six years out of college with another five to go before you could possibly think otherwise????!!!!!!

Back to School

Emma started up preschool just after Labor Day, and she's loving it! When we first talked to her about it, and informed her that it was going to be a lot larger than the preschool she attended last year, she had a few reservations. However, the day before school started, Emma, James, and I went to an open house where we had a look around, and helped ourselves to some refreshments (lots of donut holes, thank you, James!). After that, she was ready to go!

The official first day, as I dropped her off to begin the school year, she gave me a big hug, said, "I love you, Mommy!" and ran in without turning back. I was a little sad that she didn't look back, but I'm grateful she had a wonderful day. James was excited, too . . . 

until he realized he didn't make the cut:

Poor kid, cried his heart out: "James go preschool, too!!!" Weeks later, he's still saying that every time we drop her off. And, while we're out and about, he'll ask, "Where Emma go?" or "Go find Emma." It's really sweet. 

Just to illustrate how their love runs deep: This week, while Andrew and Emma were talking, they somehow came upon the topic of how Andrew and I decided to marry. Emma had lots of questions and Andrew explained to her that when she's older, she can find someone who she has a lot in common with, someone who she wants to spend her life with, someone she loves. Emma declared, "I already know who I want to marry, Daddy. James! I want to be with him forever!"

Doctors Make the Worst Patients

One element of our weekend included a tour of the Festival of Nations, where people representing dozens and dozens of countries set up bazaars, sell traditional food, dance, etc. in Tower Grove Park. I absolutely love learning about different cultures. We met a woman from Iraq who wrote our names in Arabic, another from Russia, and a third from Japan. We saw dancing, tasted food, saw different traditional crafts, and explored all that the festival had to offer.

My personal favorite was the dancing. I saw Polynesian, Filipino, and West African:



James was thrilled about his name being written in Japanese, and petting the animals at the international petting zoo.

Emma enjoyed getting her hair braided by a beautiful woman from Senegal:

and learning how to make German bobbin lace:

 As for Andrew . . . well, looks like he is allergic to Burma. Yep. The day after the festival, were worried the itchy bumps that began to spread all over his body looked a lot like bed bugs, and he decided that if I woke up this morning with the same symptoms, it had to be so. Lucky for me, that didn't pan out (phew!). After refusing Benadryl cream and a consult from my allergist uncle (who happened to be at my grandma's during a video chat last night), I got a text from Andrew today saying the doctors working with him in the radiology department had him sent down to the ER:

It must have been something in the Burmese food we ate. Sorry, Andrew :( Thankfully, he is on the mend.