Random Recents

Yes, I already posted today, but I feel so behind in the blogging world. School has resumed and it is shaping up to be a very busy school year. Not that it isn't always, but this class while full of wonderful and unique kids will definately be more challenging than last year. I have an aide starting tomorrow, so that sould help. Plus I can't sleep tonight due to the yummy caramel frappacino from Starbucks that I downed. :)

Holden REALLY loves his construction/emergency vehicles book! Who has time to get dressed?

Holden and the Cunningham boys enjoying the end of summer. Couldn't get the front of them in time, but thought this was so cute of their little blonde heads.

He loves his chocolate chip cookies!

Taking time to smell the flowers.

On the carousel at the mall with Memaw.

First time holding new cousin Kyle!

Playing at the Discovery Museum after visiting the Sweet Corn Festival and becoming a puppy dog.

"Brushing" Grammy's teeth! Love her expression!

Enjoying the fair with Memaw.

Holden and cousin Chelsey

Final St. Louis post: The Magic House

We completed our St. Louis trip with a day at the Magic House. My brother, Eric, and I loved this place as kids. It is unbelievable how much it has expanded since then! This was a great place for Holden. It had things geared just for his age on up. Us adults had just as much fun as him, as you will see in the pictures. :) We could have spent several days there. A return trip is definitely in our future!

The fairy tale section was so cute!

Where else can you climb Jack's beanstalk and slide down the end?

Or ride Cinderella's coach?

Or create a medieval feast?

Holden loved this chalk wall!

But when we hit the construction zone, forget it! This boy was gone. In pure little boy bliss.

He also took time to stand with Daddy at the presidential podium...

And we think the Oval Office fits him!

He even participated in a little White House karaoke...

before moving on to bigger and better things like air vents, giant twisty slides, a little car mechanics, fishing, and bubbles!

I found it to be quite the hair-raising experience...

...and Papa loved cooling off by the waterfall before we left.

We had a great trip! Can't wait to see what next summer holds in store...with Baby #2 in tow!

(I begin my ninth week tomorrow. My weekly book says: "From this point on, you should find yourself gaining weight regularly." (Gee, thanks for the warning! Duh!) It also says: "The baby officially changes from being an embryo to a fetus this week. While you can't feel it yet, when touched from the outside of the uterus, the baby responds by moving." (How cool!) "The baby's body parts are all formed, and while still too small for the naked eye to detect, the sex is determined. All organs are accounted for." Lastly: "Your little one is now about as long as a paper clip and weighs the same as four paperclips." I think it is such a miracle to picture something so tiny, yet so perfectly formed.

A 3-D experience

My final St. Louis post is coming soon, but I had to post this picture of Holden from tonight.
Tami and I took him to a 5:30 showing of "G-Force," otherwise known as "the guinea pig movie."
We didn't know it was 3-D until we got there. Needless to say...the glasses were just a tad big on my little guy...
Hilarious! He LOVED the movie and cried on the way home, wanting to go again. I was so proud he lasted through the whole thing! He did get scared (and by that, I mean FREAKED OUT) during parts that included a snake and a fly, mostly I think because they were 3-D and looked like they were coming to get us! But he got over it and when we convinced him to uncover his eyes, he resumed his devouring of the popcorn/movie viewing. He also burped extremely loudly towards the end and was in hysterics laughing about it. Boys! The movie was really cute! Definately one adults can enjoy too. Another first checked off his list. Hopefully next time the glasses will fit better. (He called them "his goggles.") :)

St. Louis post #3 City Museum

I'm slowly but surely making my way through our St. Louis posts! On our second day there, we headed to the City Museum. It was an extremely HOT, humid day, so we thought spending some time indoors sounded like a good idea. If you haven't been to this museum, I highly recommend it. Holden is still on the young side for it, but he still loved his time there and we look forward to doing much more with him there when he is bigger.

The ball pit was a big hit. Look how little he looks!

Holden was thrilled with this room. It reminded me of a skate-board park or something, but you just climbed up and slid down the hills with your body. There were all these little secret tunnels to crawl through, and he was the perfect size for them. He had no fear, and Jay had a blast with him. Grammy, Papa, and I had fun watching.

Some random shots from our visit. We were busy!

LOVE this shot of Holden and Papa!

Couldn't pass up my favorite cop standing under the donuts sign! Hee hee!

Umm...I am sure his buddies would have lots of comments for this photo that probably aren't G-rated, so we'll just leave it at that!

After napping at the hotel, we headed to the Landings area for a yummy dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. I LOVE that place! My parents had never been there, and I knew they'd enjoy the atmosphere. Jay is not a big fan because he always has to wait when we are there, and apparently he had a bad experience with the spaghetti. Of course it took forever for each course to come (they were busy!) so he enjoyed making comments to me throughout the meal about it. Too bad, I thought the food was worth the wait! :) I love that you get bread, a salad, an entree, and spumoni ice cream all in one meal. Holden was a bit of a pill at dinner (he has his Daddy's patience!) but did enjoy the balloonist, who made him a bunny at his request. There is an elevator at the restaurant and poor Papa went up and down it about 500 times with Holden during courses.

We capped off the evening at the hotel pool. Holden's latest joy in life is jumping in off the side, climbing back out, jumping in, climbing out, jumping in...I am sure you get the drill. It is hilarious because he HATES getting his head wet so he has to make sure Daddy will catch him, and reminds us about a million times, "Holden not go under, okay?" Thank goodness for those water wings.

St. Louis trip (post 2)

Back to St. Louis! I had to take a breather between posts to share our fun Wiggles pics and our exciting news! :) If only I was better at just narrowing down a few of the best trip pics. The problem is, I end up thinking they're all the best! So there will probably be 5 St. Louis posts before I am done. At least I can't be accused of not documenting Holden's little life.

For those of you that asked, Baby Hobson is due April 5th. I went a month early with Holden and my Dr. says it is likely that will happen again, so I plan to have a bag packed this time around much earlier!!! ;) We are thrilled and also already wondering how in the world we will do it with two?? And how we can love another as much as our precious little boy?? But I know that we will on both accounts.

These shots are all from the evening after the zoo. We just had a leisurely time eating take out that Jay picked up from a Q'doba, followed by a walk around the downtown area. Holden loved the fountains again this year, esp. throwing pennies in.

My parents, Holden and me

Jay commented that we don't have any recent pics of just the two of us (really three though; hee hee!) so he had my mom take this one.

We took a carriage ride and the driver was really cool and offered to let Holden help him drive! Holden thought he was SO COOL sitting up there holding the reins! He was quiet as a mouse but kept smiling. It's all he talked about the rest of the weekend, leading Daddy to take him on a second carriage ride in his pajamas one night at 9:30pm! (Grammy and I had fun watching from up in our hotel window.)

Ummm...what can I say, my husband really likes animals?! Ha!

Gettin' in on some more fountain action.

Some views from our room...I love downtown St. Louis.

My little peeping Tom.

Heading back to the school year this morning...meetings all day Mon./Tues. and the kiddos on Wed. I am really going to miss my little buddy! How does summer go soooo quickly? Sigh.

Holden's big news

Holden has some big news to share! Click on the video to hear all about it. (Yes, he is laying on the floor; after about 20 attempts to get him to sit up the whole time I gave up. This is him at age 2!) :)

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car...

If you have a young child, I am sure I don't have to tell you who these guys are...!!!

Yes, we had the pleasure of meeting the Wiggles tonight! Jay's mom ("Memaw") won tickets to the show on WBNQ, and it included a meet and greet! We have been immersed in all things Wiggles since Holden was around the age of 1. I kept trying to explain to him that he got to actually see them, but I think he was probably just picturing watching a movie of them or something. His little eyes were like saucers when they came out! We met Jeff, Anthony, Sam, and Captain Feathersword before the show. Murray apparently was having wardrobe malfunctions, so he wasn't available, but Holden didn't even notice he was missing. I have to admit, I was a little starstruck myself!

The guys were just so genuinely NICE. We were so impressed with how they took the time to personally greet and speak with each child, learn their names, and give them "wiggly fingers" and high fives. They even had some "wiggly dancers" on hand that took every one's cameras when it was their turn, and took several great pictures for us for free. They didn't rush at all, and at one point Anthony even said, "Oh, take that one again, the flash didn't go off." Just some really cool guys. (Jay might argue with the "cool" part, but you know what I mean! Ha!) The dancers commented on Holden's name. Apparently there is a car made in Australia called "the Holden." :) I just loved listening to their accents!

Holden was the very first child to meet them. Afterwards, we watched them greet the 10 or so other kids that were at the meet and greet. Can you tell by his face he is just awestruck? He just sat and stared at them!

While waiting to go into the meet and greet, Holden befriended a really sweet 6 year old boy named Trevor. Afterwards, we headed to make a few purchases at the vendors. The boys ended up with matching shirts. (Memaw also bought Holden the backpack that he was obsessed with! Holden and his backpacks.) Trevor's mom and I got a few pictures of them together. Holden even taught Trevor how to give "pounds." :)

We had ample time to find our seats before the crowds and grab some food while we waited for the show. Holden was very interested in the big stage and insisted on wearing his new backpack for awhile. We saw some familiar faces...the Cunninghams were only a few rows back from us! (Colin did NOT want his picture taken at this time. Personally I think they should make a Christmas card out of it. Ha! I did see him dancing with a delighted smile on his face during the show.)

And then...the show began! We were up pretty high, so some of these individual shots are pretty blurry, but you get the idea.

I was thrilled when they drove out in the signature big red car! As you can see, Jeff is sleeping. Holden was just delighted to yell, "Wake up, Jeff!" with the crowd.

They really put on a great show. They sang some of their new songs, but also did a lot of the crowd pleasers that everyone knows. The show was very interactive and allowed for kids to stand up, dance, do hand motions, and yell things to the cast. Perfect for little kids.

I thought it was neat that each member made a point of coming out into the audience. Murray was in our section and he got pretty close! They also took time to read signs people had made in the audience and comment on them.

I love these shots Tami took of Holden and me. We both had so much fun dancing and singing along to the music!

Here a few grainy video clips I took of two of our favorites: "The Big Red Car" song, and "Fruit Salad." I dare you not to sing along!