Look Ma, No Training Wheels!

One of the great things about my parent's visit last week was that Grampie taught Noah to ride his bike without training wheels! He was so excited and we have since spent lots of fun evenings and weekends riding around the neighborhood together.

We asked Sam if he wanted to try riding a bike with training wheels but he prefers his big wheel, thank you very much.

Here is the bike rider in action:

Grammie and Grampie

We were lucky enough to have my mom and dad come visit for Spring Break last week. We had a great time with them! Here are some pictures of the boys with Grammie and Grampie.

Dewberry Farm

A couple of weekends ago we went to Dewberry Farm. We had fun in the corn maze, eating snowcones, going through the haunted house (which is a very loose term because it was really just a room full of jack-o-lanterns), playing at the playground, riding rides, bouncing, and of course picking out pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Crazy Boys

Butterflies and Stitches

On Friday, Noah's summer camp took a field trip to the Museum of Natural Science. It is not too far from my work and I was able to take the afternoon off to meet them there. We had a great time looking at the dinosaur skeletons, the butterflies, and other exhibits. Here are some pictures inside the peaceful butterfly area:

Noah's favorite butterfly (because it lookes like a zebra):

We were enjoying a lovely summer afternoon when this happened:

Noah tripped and hit his head on a marble bench. OUCH!! The above picture was taken several hours afterward at the hospital (because, you know, I suddenly became quite preoccupied at the time and even this camera-happy mom was not about to stop for a photo-op). I can not express to you how much blood there was. Head lacerations are like that, I'm told (very bloody, that is). Poor Noah was SUCH a trooper. He cried of course, but he was so brave and relatively very calm about it. I carried him to the museum's first aid station and got an ice pack and bandages. Then we headed to Texas Children's Hospital (fotunately it was very close as the museum district and the medical center are in the exact same area of Houston), where we spent the next five hours.

We did our best to stay occupied as we made our way through triage, registration, the waiting room, and the ER room (which was private and included a TV and a hospital bed, which Noah found very fun). We passed the time looking at pictures, watching Sponge Bob Square Pants, napping, and being silly with the camera.

Noah received wonderful care at TCH and I am SO relieved and extremely grateful that his head injury was not more severe. The thought of what might have happend is so scary. My little guy ended up with two stitches. I showed him my appendectomy scar and told him we could be scar buddies. Here he is all stitched up:

(I'm looking forward to the bill).

Rollin' on the River

After Noah's soccer game Saturday, we spent the rest of the day boating with our good friends Dave, Jamie and Brynlee. I tell them that I'm not friends with them because they have a boat, but that it is a really nice bonus. :) The boys definitely seem to share my love for boating and the water.

Driving out on the boat, the boys kept wanting to go faster so they would say, "Hit it, Dave!"

Once we found a nice spot to anchor, we jumped in the river and swam for awhile. The boys loved it when boats would drive by and give us some waves. They also loved jumping off the back of the boat.

When we had our fill of swimming we got to ride on the tube (love it).

Riding on the tube tuckered Sam right out:

Noah was ready to keep going:

Jamie and Brynlee taking a turn (isn't the river pretty?):

Noah and Brynlee riding together (Noah giving the thumbs up to go faster):

Noah finally zonked out too.