Favorite Picture Friday

Bo the Wonder Dog snuggling with his red ball at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Happy Birthday Carl!

My big brother-in-law is an old man today.  That's right, he's 33!  There are millions of reasons why I love Carl, but here are just a few:

• He makes my crazy sister slightly less crazy.
• Dutch loves him almost as much as he loves Grandpa Greg.
• Whenever I want to, I can hop down to Texas and stay with them.
• We watch hilarious shows together.
• He has a very similar sense of humor as my husband.
• He and Chris get along great!
• He builds things.  Really beautiful houses, to be exact.
• My niece and nephews are amazing little people, with a lot of the credit going to Carl and Carianne.
• If you don't know him he seems really shy and that makes it that much more funny when he does something hilarious.

Happy birthday Carl!  Hope to see you soon!

A List for Tuesday

Five Things I Miss About Chris When He Is Gone
(in no particular order)

1. There's no one to absorb my crazy, so Dutch and Bo get more of it than they're used to getting.
2. When there's a big bug in the house (like yesterday) I have to work up my courage to smash it myself instead of just yelling for Chris.
3. I don't have anyone to take over when Dutch is driving me crazy (like yesterday).
4. The bed feels very big and empty without my buddy snoring next to me.
5. If something is really funny Chris will laugh so hard his eyes crinkle up.

Can't wait until you're home again!

Grandma and Ba-Ba

Dutch talks a lot, but only a few of the words are recognizable to native English speakers.  Here is a list of the words Dutch says most often:

• Dada
• Mama
• Bo-Bo
• juice
• shoes
• cheese
• oh
• hi (he usually says this word really high-pitched and draws it out to two syllables)

His newest word is Grandma!  He started saying it just a couple of days ago.  Chris asked if he wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and Dutch said, "Grandma?"  Then Chris proceeded to bug him to death until he wouldn't say it anymore.

I also think, but I'm not sure, that he calls Grandpa Greg "Ba-Ba."  I noticed this yesterday when he always seemed to use the word Grandma with the word Ba-Ba.  I'll have to pay more attention and I'll let you know.

Favorite Picture Friday

These pictures are a couple of months old, but they are of Dutch and his Sesame Street doctor bag.  It's an Elmo "bag", Cookie Monster stethoscope, Ernie blood pressure cuff, Bert thermometer, and Big Bird ear-looker-inner (I can't remember the real name).  His favorite by far is the stethoscope.

Silly Dutchie

I don't know if I posted these earlier or not.  Dutch has my headband around his face and my hat on his head and he's rocking on his horse.  For some reason lately he loves to wear my headbands and my hat when he rides his horse.  Apparently a cowboy needs a hat, and if a cowboy hat isn't available, he'll take what he can get.

The Zoo

Today marked Chris's and Dutch's first trip to Hogle Zoo and Dutch's first time really enjoying the zoo.  Chris has Mondays off so I decided we should do something to enjoy the beautiful weather.  We went to the zoo and Dutch would gasp and point every time he saw an animal.  Sometimes he was pointing in the absolute wrong direction, but it was still pretty cute.

We didn't take any pictures because there were hordes of children there all clamoring to play on all the best photo-op places.  Sorry for that.  Just know that he looked adorable in his red plaid shorts and too-big baseball hat.