Still Our Little Pumpkin

We went to the Tarrytown Methodist Church pumpkin patch today. Got a little nostalgic looking at the pictures we took there in 2009 when Spencer was just a year old. What a difference two years makes!

First Trip to the Dentist

We took Spencer for his first dental check-up this morning. We chose a pediatric dentist that I had heard some good things about on the Attachment Parenting forum I follow. The ladies at the office were very sweet and Spencer felt comfortable at record speed. It didn't hurt that Daddy had recently walked by the office on his way to see our accountant, so he knew there was a train table inside. That was good motivation for Spencer this morning!

The dental hygienist looked at his teeth, counted all 20 of them, brushed/polished them, showed us how to floss and applied a thin layer of fluoride foam. She gave us a score of 1 on their scale of 0-18 (the lower the better), and said Spencer has been doing a good job brushing. Then Dr. Thiel came out and did a quick look-see and we were on our way. Spencer got a goody bag with a new toothbrush and toothpaste, plus he got to pick out a couple of toys from the toy bins. All in all, a very positive first dental experience. We are proud of Spencer for being brave!

Weekend in Galveston

We went to Galveston last weekend for Shelby and Eric's wedding. We headed out after lunch on Friday and Spencer slept almost the whole way there. That set us up for an awesome evening because he was rested and ready to go. We met Geep, Pop and Aunt Carol at the hotel before going out to dinner with a big group of family. At the hotel, Spencer asked me if maybe someone could ride with us to the restaurant and we had this cute little exchange:

Me: "I bet Aunt Carol would like to ride in the backseat with you."
Spencer: "Yeah! Or maybe Uncle Dan?"
Me: "Oh, Uncle Dan didn't get to come this time. He is in New York."
Spencer: "Well THAT'S disappointing!"

We met up with all of the Bullocks, Glenn, Margie, Katie and Willie for a big group dinner at Rudy & Paco. We just assumed this was going to be a casual Mexican food restaurant or something, but it's actually a really fancy place - definitely the fanciest place Spencer has ever been. He was in a spectacular mood and really enjoyed himself. He sat across from us next to Geep and was just a little gentleman the whole evening. The waitstaff was very accommodating to him, which helped too.

The next day, we played on the beach for a little while, then spent several hours at the hotel pool where a bunch of people were staying. Super fun!

Dave and I made a major tactical error by not taking Spencer for a drive that afternoon so he could nap. The poor little guy was tired before the wedding even started, but he held it together for the ceremony. By the time we got to the reception, he was done. We thought that the music would give him a little pick-me-up, but the poor kid just wanted to go to sleep. I took him back to the hotel and we shared his leftovers from the night before and were both asleep by 9:00.

The three of us went to Moody Gardens before heading back to Austin. I gotta admit, I'm a little lukewarm on that place. I mean, it's cool and all, but it's expensive! I think it's better suited for ages 4-5 and up. Spencer enjoyed the aquarium, but the rain forest required too much searching for things and he sort of zoomed right through it. We'll probably try it again when he's older.

 And our little traveler was asleep before we'd barely made it out of Galveston. Awesome weekend! Congratulations to Shelby and Eric!

Catch-Up

This is a quick catch-up blog. I found some pictures on my phone that I forgot to download, so thought I'd share them here real quick. I probably need one more blog after this one to really be caught up (I have some good videos...), but one thing at a time.

I had to go to DC for a several days in late September. Daddy and Spencer did a lot of fun things while I was gone. For example, they built a car out of a cardboard box and went to the Austin Zoo.


Paw-Paw came to town for Spencer's party a day early. We went to see the peacocks at Mayfield Park. Snapped a great picture while we were there:


Our friend Susan came over to play with Spencer last Sunday while Dave and I went to a movie for our anniversary. They had a great time playing golf, building stuff with legos, playing games, watching Richard Scarry videos and having stare-down competitions with Henry. When I was putting Spencer to bed that night he asked if Susan was coming back tomorrow.


There are a few new pictures in the September and October photo albums, FYI. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Tennis, Anyone?

A little footage of Spencer's first outing to the tennis court. The sweatbands are killing me!

(My videos never work on mobile devices...)

Spencer Turns 3

We had a great time celebrating Spencer's 3rd birthday today. First, we had Day 3 of preschool. It was not an easy drop-off again (this time Daddy took him), but the teachers said he had a really good day. We made pumpkin muffins this morning to share with his classmates and they did some sort of birthday ritual where they lit three candles and talked about how the earth has circled the sun three times since he was born. When we arrived, he was sitting on a little bench with two girls his age and they were singing a song with the teacher. It was pretty darn cute.

We told Spencer that we had a surprise planned for him after school. He kept guessing all sorts of things on the way there. When we arrived at Westgate Lanes and he realized we were going bowling, he giggled and acted very excited. He has mentioned a few times lately that he wants to try bowling, so we figured this would be a fun memory. It was no surprise that he took a few minutes to warm up to the idea, but once he did he had a blast.

 

 

   

After bowling, we came home and much to Spencer's delight he had two more birthday presents waiting for him. We gave him a bright green scooter and a pop-up book. Daddy can't wait to take him to the park tomorrow to practice on the scooter.

We went to Red's Porch for dinner, then got back in time to take our traditional self-portrait at 6:28 PM to commemorate the time of his birth. Happy birthday, Spencer. You are a gift to us!

Big News: Pre-School

We had always planned to wait until next year to enroll Spencer in some sort of school. But a couple of months ago, he started talking about school. A lot. "When can I go to school?" or "When I go to school, I'm going to ________." He seemed so excited about starting school that in September we started looking around to see what our options were. We've had our hearts set on Nature's Way in Zilker Park, but you have to be three by September 1 to enroll there - that's part of the  reason we just figured we'd wait until next year and hope he would be at the top of the waiting list. But it became clear that our boy was ready now (even if Mommy wasn't!).

A good friend of ours has always spoken highly of a Montessori school very close to our house. I contacted them, and they actually still had openings for the fall. The facility is not much to write home about, but we felt an immediate connection with the women who run the school - they are very kind and loving. And our friend's recommendation held a lot of weight with us.

 
So, we took a big step and Spencer started school this week. He will go three mornings until 1:00 PM. The first morning went pretty well. For some reason he didn't want Daddy to go with us - I think Spencer sensed this was something "big" and maybe he felt a little uncomfortable? Anyway, drop-off was just fine, but he did get upset a few times throughout the morning. I told him that we would pick him up after lunch, which was a mistake... I should've been saying we'd be back at 1:00. Because right when lunch was over, he expected us to be there. At dinner that night I asked him what he did at school and he said, "I cried and I played." I guess that sums it up!

I had a feeling Day 2 would be a more difficult drop-off and it was. He was very upset when I left. It took every ounce of strength I could muster to walk away. But I knew he was in good hands. When I asked him later what the teacher did when he cried, he said, "She hugged me." He only cried one other time that morning, and it was just for a few minutes. Anxious to see what Day 3 holds!

Dino-Mite 3rd Birthday Party

Spencer's 3rd birthday party was Sunday at Rollingwood Park. His little friends Sarah, Beckett, Piper, Ella and Luke joined us, as well as lots of family and "big" friends.

The kids had a blast digging in the fossil pit and playing the Triceratops ring toss and T-Rex bean bag toss games that Daddy made. He even made bean bags that looked like t-bone steaks to feed the T-Rex!

Spencer had a Brachiosaurus cake. We were proud of our little creation. I'm sort of sentimental about making birthday cakes for Spencer. Luckily Dave has the creative skills that I am lacking to bring something complicated like a dino cake to fruition! We all had fun decorating it, and Spencer insisted on including an extra strategically placed chocolate dot... By the time we were ready to cut the cake, the frosting had started sliding off the dino a little - it was "only" in the low 90s but I guess that was a little warm for frosting.

I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of Spencer's friends and family. He received so many neat, thoughtful gifts. Luckily, he had plenty of help opening them! Ella's mommy wrote about the party on her blog and she included a funny little video about the gifts that you just have to watch. Click here for the video.

We had such a nice afternoon celebrating our sweet boy. The celebration will continue tomorrow on his actual birthday. We have some surprises in store for him. Stay tuned...