Super Bowl Sunday.- Henry

Despite the fact that the Steelers somehow made it into the Super Bowl, we decided to celebrate the end of football season anyway.

We decided to pass the afternoon playing racing games on the Playstation. I was pretty good.
Mister Paul thought I was pretty good.

Mama lifted her ban on yellow cheese product. Once a year, papa lives like a king.

First on the menu is cheeseburger soup.
This soup is so good, it even has ketchup in it.

And we've even got cheese dip. Add a little salsa and it's going to be a great night.

Go Cardinals!

Saturday at the park- Henry.

Yesterday was so nice, mama said we had to get out of the house, so we headed down the street to the playground.

I got to the park and decided to move some sand around.

We were all surprised to see that June wanted to play in the sand without eating it.

Our friend, Mister Doug, drove up from Fort Bragg to spend the weekend with us. He impressed us with the fact that he drives a motorcycle, and rides in army trucks and helicopters.

I tried to explain the details of excavation to Juner, but she just wanted to knock down my mountain.

Mister Doug appointed himself as chief nose wiper for the weekend. Apparently his standards are so high he doesn't want to get nose kisses from June all the time. The rest of us are used to it.

Papa come home...

...because at about 6:30 pm, mama starts getting grumpy.

Tonight I was helping mama clean out the dishwasher and found a dull cheese spreader. I declared it "my knife" and insisted on cutting all my food. Luckily mama has a special kid knife that she let me use. I cut my hot dog but it was a little wiggly.

When mama helped it was a little easier. Then she let me cut up my pear all by myself.

After supper, we put puzzles together while Juner played with her toys. It was fun except mama got upset every time I screamed and threw my puzzle pieces in the air.

When June got tired of her baby toys, she headed top the best toy in the house- the light sensor night light. She's been warned about a half million times by everyone in the house that it is not a toy. Then she figured out how she could turn the light on by covering up the sensor in the front. She'll usually play with that for about 4 minutes before she goes back to trying to yank it out of the wall.

Bounce U- Juner.

This morning papa left for work very early because he was driving to Georgia to get a guest lecture at a colloquium at the University of Georgia (which is only 4.5 hours away). While papa's gone, we decided to live it up a bit.

Mama took us to a place called Bounce U. It's just a big room with a ton of inflatable slides, obstacle courses, and bounce rooms. (Think Fairview after-prom for kids.) Excuse the pictures. The light was bad, the kids were moving fast, and I kept grabbing the camera.

Henry spent most of the morning trying to get mama to go into the bounce rooms with him. Most of the slides were still a little too big for him to climb on his own. So since mama went in that meant I had to go in too. And I was not so pleased about that. I was tired and my nose was runny and I did not like bouncing or dodging balls that were being thrown by other kids. I think mama thought she would just send Henry in and sit on the sideline with me chatting up the other moms. If we go again, she said she would bring a stroller for me to sit in while she chases Henry.

Finally, Henry figured out that he could go up the big slide without any help, so he climbed it and went down it about 50 times.

We even got a video of him coming down. I can't wait until I'm big enough to slide myself.

Bounce U was such a big hit that Henry took a 3 hour nap and I'm still asleep after 3.5 hours. Mama was going to take a nap too, but she decided to be a little more productive. She said when papa left we'd live it up and eat starchy food all weekend. So she made chocolate cookies with a peanut butter center (like a buckeye cookie!). And we're having beef stroganoff with mushrooms for supper (woo hoo). And to make up for that, she said we can have pizza tomorrow.

She also made this funny wallet out of a orange juice carton.

She saw the pattern for this in FamilyFun magazine, and thought it was so cute that she even went out and bought rich people orange juice in a carton so she could make one.

Now we just have to figure out what we're going to do with a wallet made out of a juice carton! Thanks for the magazine subscription Aunt Elizabeth!

Thursday- Juner.

Today while Henry was at school. Mama and I went to the grocery store. Mama has decided to move on from the normal cans of fruit and has now stepped up to buying the 7 pound can of peaches. It's much cheaper this way and we can go through a can in less than a week between the 4 of us. While mama was unpacking the groceries, I spent some time going through my favorite drawer.

Yes! Elton John is my favorite!

Henry has been worried about me getting to his toys, so mama set him up behind the chair. Then they set up things so I couldn't get through. So far, the play table keeps me occupied enough that I don't whine too much about not getting to Henry's train. Little does Bubba know that when he was still asleep this afternoon, I snuck in and caused a huge train accident.

Tonight we lured Henry into the bathtub with the promise of opening up the new soap paint. He had a good time lathering himself up.

He even painted me a bi until he decided to put makeup on me and painted my eye blue. I was not very happy.

He and mama had a great time mixing colors. By the time mama put the paints away the bathwater was a lovely shade of gray, but there were lots of bubbles.

Mama thinks it's very funny that I refuse to hold a bottle, but I have no problem whatsoever filling up a cup and guzzling as much bathwater as possible before she takes it away.

That's the good stuff.

Mama told Henry that he had 2 minutes to play before it was time to wash up, but he told her he was too busy with his work. Tonight his work involved trickling water into a larger cup in the hopes of collecting all the bubbles.

This afternoon we were very pleased to hear the loudspeaker over at the soccer field across the street. Mama took us over and we were introduced to our very first winter track meet. We're not quite sure the difference between winter and spring track, but we think the races are shorter, as we watch many 55 yard sprints. As a former distance runner, mama tried to explain to Henry the nuances of long distance relays, but he was more interested in the hurdlers and high jumpers. He was worried that the high jumpers were hurting themselves when they fell down on the big blue pillow. He was speechless when he saw the pole vaulters. We thought it was funny how you could immediately tell how good a runner was based on their uniform. The Tabor girls relays wore long tights and slick little tops and easily beat a few boys teams in the 4x800 (they ran boys and girls together-genius). The Tabor boys team, on the other hand, wore long baggy shorts and loose tops and looked oddly like like how we pictured Grandpa Seibert when he ran track (about 6'2" and 130 pounds). They didn't do so well in the race. Mama cheered most for them because she remembers how awful it was to run the 2 mile race at a track meet and not be very good at it. The best runner we saw, though, wore a shorts singlet and he won the 55 meter dash easily by 3 seconds. We were really impressed and think he's probably part of a state winning team.

The track meet was fun but both Henry and I agreed it was not as exciting as a football or soccer game. Plus, they don't open the concession stand at track meets. When we said that, mama got huffy and said that it was because everyone loves the football team and no one recognized the track or cross country team for all the hard work. She then spent the rest of the afternoon grumbling about football players and how we'll learn when we realize we've inherited her athletic prowess and get cut from the volleyball team in 7th grade.

Pancake night- Henro.

Tonight, we decided to take it easy and make eggs and pancakes for supper (plus mama fell asleep during WordGirl, so she needed something quick).

I pulled out my apron and helped whip up the batter. Mama was very pleased she decided to drop the $1.40 on real pancake batter instead of trying to make her own pancakes from scratch. They turned out much better and extra fluffier. I take after my mother and had to sample the batter before we cooked the pancakes.

Then it was my job to time the eggs. Mama said I had to watch my timer very carefully so she knew when to flip them.

Since we took down the Christmas decorations, we were able to put up our new lamp. Like Grandpa Seibert, mama likes to see her food and thinks the new lamp really lights up the room. There's so much light that a few cars decided to park on the table runner.

11 months old-mama.

Today June is 11 months old.

She's recently come down with another cold, which although not as severe as the last, has left us all with the lasting impression of snot on our shoulders.

A couple notable accomplishments to note: I noticed today that June has mastered the "pincer," or can pick up things with her forefinger and thumb instead of shoveling food into her mouth as fast as she can. She's also enjoys putting things in and taking things out of boxes. It keeps her occupied for a good time and is especially useful when I'm trying to get supper ready and June is soooo hungry right now.

Finally, June can crawl and climb very quickly. We've had to become vigilant with the baby gates to prevent any accidents, because once June takes off, you got to move fast to stop her. Tonight we practiced sliding back down the stairs. Not as fun as crawling up.

And a few things that June doesn't do. First, she won't grow any teeth. June had 2 teeth when she was 5 and a half months old. And she still only has 2 teeth. She also refuses to walk with her walker. She won't even stand behind it. So we're going to have to get the cattle prod out and turn it up high if she's going to walk before her birthday.

On the subject of birthdays, Henry decided yesterday that since he shared a birthday with Natalie and Oliver, he would also like to share a birthday with June. How generous. When I told him that June already shares a birthday with Uncle Jim, he was not so pleased.

North Carolina Transportation Museum-Henry.

Yesterday when I woke up, mama and papa had a big surprise! We were going to visit the train museum!

We packed our lunch and loaded up the van to head to Spencer, the home of the North Carolina Transportation Museum. The first item on the agenda- ride an old passenger train.

Mama and Juner were very exited for the big train ride. Maybe it's because scenes from the movie Leatherheads were filmed on this train. George Clooney and Jim from the Office? That's enough to make anyone smile.

Of course we think June is beautiful, but we're also aware that kids go trough awkward stages (mama's started at 7 and hasn't let up yet). We tried to figure out what was going on with June and we realized her hair is pretty much a disaster. But in an effort to encourage certain feminine aspects, mama and papa decided to let it grow for a while. So now they pull it back with hair clips. Mama thinks these are kind of fussy, but they get the job done.

We boarded the train and were pleased to see that we weren't the only kids dressed in costume. Juner wore my old conductor overalls and mama told me I could only ride the train if I wore my conductor hat.

As werode the train through the grounds, mama and Juner were very interested to hear about the historic buildings. Some were always here, others were purchased and moved to the site.

I was happy looking out the window at the little town of Spencer.

Soon, June got tired of paying attention and decided to play with papa for a while.

Mama waited until after she got this shot to remind me to keep my mouth off of things.

The town of Spencer was lucky enough to become a repair hub for the railroad because it lays exactly halfway between Atlanta and Washington DC.

Mama's favorite part of the whole complex was the motto on the workshop. An admirable logo for anyone, she says. She wants to get this picture blown up and hang it by the front door.

Another remarkable landmark is the largest operating roundtable in the United States. It turns train engines so that they can park in any of the 37 stalls in the Round house. It's like a big parking garage for trains.

We got to ride the turntable then head into the Round House. About 10 of the bays are still used to restore trains. The rest of the building houses some great exhibits. We didn't get see all of them in detail because by that time we were all overdue for naps.

But we did make it a point to spend time at this great model train exhibit. It's got everything, including a tunnel and a bridge.

We had a great time and papa says we can come back again.