Busy, Busy...

Where to start... In the last two weeks, Alastair has been a man on the go. He has been to the zoo twice, the children's museum, the beach, Pump it Up (inflatable kids zone), "walked" for breast cancer, and played with his cousins. Of course, we still have the normal activities like playgroup, story time at the library, and swimming at the gym. No wonder Alastair needs two naps a day! All this when Daddy was out of town for a full week. As Kim says, I take the "stay at home" out of "stay at home mom."

My new favorite pic: the boys at the beach

Alastair and Daddy check out a giraffe.

Here is Alastair checking out one the wall mounted activities in the Children Museum "Tot Spot." This place is really cool and would be fantastic for older kids, although he really enjoyed crawling up and down a fun ramp/thing for the little people and opening and closing a real Alastair-sized door, complete with doorbell and knocker.

Saturday the 6th, some of my MOMS club friends our kids/hubbies participated in the Susan B. Komen race for the cure breast cancer walk. This was really a neat experience. It was amazing to see how many people turned out in the rain to participate and it was an emotional experience watching the survivors and their families making their way through "Survivor Alley" at the completion of the walk. Alastair was "walking" for both of his great grandmothers: in support of G.G. Tucker, and in memory of (mine, probably, since he did not get to meet her) G. Nana O'Byrne. Our little group raised over $800 for breast cancer research. A feel good morning all around, worth getting up at 6:30 and we even got a nice 3 mile walk out of it.

Starting the walk... If you look for into the distance, there are thousands of people up there ahead of us. Really awe inspiring.

Our little group. There were too many people around to find all the girls we registered with, so it turned out to be very fortunate that we rode together.

Alastair and his "going on adventures" friend, Ella. (Audrey and Brian, notice I did not say "girlfriend.") Holding hands on the way home after the walk. Note the flushed cheeks and sweaty heads. It was MUGGY.

And our big excitement this weekend: a visit from "Uncle" Stuart and his kids, Cheyanne and Ethan. The last time we saw these guys, Cheyanne was three months old and Ethan wasn't walking on his own yet. These little guys were a ton of fun and I think we kept them busy. We had a nice lunch at Lupe's (hey, its a Houston landmark! And I promise Stuart suggested it) and then we did our best to tire out the kids. To their credit, they did their best to tire out Boudreaux. We played at the park (as it turns out, I can still do cartwheels, although my monkey bar technique needs work) and they threw the ball for Boudreaux until he was too tired to continue. Back at the house, Alastair took a nap (crashed is a more apt description) and the kids gave Boudreaux a bath. We were really impressed by how well behaved Stuart's kids were and even I was a little scared when he gave them the daddy look of death. They are definitely solid little citizens and perhaps Kim and I should start working on our evil looks now...

We are well into October now and Alastair has an appointment tomorrow to have his picture taken in his Halloween costume. I fell in love with a bubble chick costume at the Children's Place, but I have exercised restraint, since he will probably never forgive me for dressing him like that and taking formal pictures to prove it. Although, now that I think about it, they might make for good leverage later in life... His costume is a bit more little boyish, and even, dare I say, regal. More pics to follow, as we have about 5 Halloween parties in the next two weeks or so.