Kevin's New Toy

Yes, another one. This time it's a Jeep to tow behind his other new toy (the RV) to take up to his other (yes, again) new toy, the deer lease. Kevin got it in his head a few months ago that we HAD to have one. It became an obsession to find the perfect one. (Is this sounding familiar *cough*RV*cough*?) He even managed to brainwash our friends Kevin and Sandy into believing that they HAD to have a deer lease as well (my Kevin is very, very schneaky.) I have to admit, I wasn't fully on board at first for a few reasons: 1) As I've mentioned before, I don't do toxic critters. And Texas + land + no civilization just screams "please bite/poison/eat me for dinner." 2) To go along with the toxic critters, Texas also has psycho critters, such as wild hogs. Another "please eat me for dinner" scenario. 3) It's 2 hours away, and as the person that has to sit in back with Junior when he decides that he's been in his car seat long enough, well, that should be pretty self explanatory. But I have to admit, it is nice to have some property to escape to on the weekends. Kevin dragged us up there last weekend took Greyden and me up last weekend so that he could show it off and test out his new toy on the trails.  

Here she is. I've named her Jethro, even though it's a girl. Fitting, huh? 



And here she is rigged up behind the, er....rig:

We actually had a pretty good time. We didn't stay all night, just a few hours, but it was long enough to get Tater good and worn out so that he'd sleep for the entire 2 hour ride home (yes, this was the backseat passenger's idea). I have to say the kid LOVED riding in the Jeep. He also loved pretending to drive it. I have no idea where he learns this stuff.

  

Here are some pictures of the property and the trails.



One of the 5 deer blinds the previous tenants left behind for us. (With the way Kevin was going on, you'd think it were Christmas.)

Tater and I in our "Deer Lease Hats." Daddy was not overly impressed with us. We decided that he's just jealous that he doesn't have one.

The lease borders an Exotic Wildlife Refuge. At least that's what I'm told. We didn't see any exotic beasts, besides this massive pine cone. The story is that when Kevin and Kevin were here to check out the property, they claim they saw a zebra. They actually took a picture (ironically from far enough away that it could easily be a cow) that they think is "proof." I think they were just making it up so that the wives would agree to let them get their lease. I mean, who wouldn't want to camp next to a zebra?

Tater and I in front of the refuge fence. If you look closely you can see a herd of zebra in the backgr....wait.....no.......no you can't.

The one wildflower that we saw on the entire lease. Yes, the only one.

Some of the local wildlife of the non-exotic variety. (Oh that's right, I don't have any pictures to post of the exotic variety either, do I Kevin?)  This rabbit was by far the largest one I have ever seen. It had to be about 40 pounds and I'm pretty sure it could have taken both Harley and Bella down. (Okay, a 10 pound bunny could probably take Harley down, but still.)

An Indigo Bunting. Kevin didn't get why this was so cool. He also kept calling it a Bluebird, if that tells you anything about what I'm working with here.

The rig parked in our camping spot. Please note the firepit in the foreground and then note that we will be moving it, preferably before the boys start drinking and thinking that it's a great night to have a bonfire.  

On the ride home. No, not on the actual ride. We were parked at a gas station waiting on Daddy to fill 'er up.

We just happen to be off to the deer lease tomorrow for our first overnight excursion, with Kevin, Sandy, and their new toy hauler camper in tow. I'm hoping that we don't get eaten by any psycho Texas wildlife, but if we do and you don't see another post from me, I can guarantee that it wasn't the zebra that ate us.

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to me! And I have to say that my first "official" Mother's Day was absolutely perfect! I got to sleep in an extra hour and a half (no thanks to Tater, who was up and ready to celebrate Mother's Day at 6:15 that morning). I did get up at that time to feed him, but when Kevin told me that it was my one chance to sleep in (to which I thought, excuse me? what do you mean "one chance?" but like I said, it was 6:15 and WAY too early to question things) so back to bed I went. I didn't even think I'd fall asleep until Kevin came it at 8:45 to tell me that breakfast was done. I had apparently been out like a light.

In addition to a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, and potatoes, I got the sweetest cards from both of my boys and an awesome DSLR camera! I'm in love. I can't wait to get past the intimidation bust it out and start learning. Kevin was convinced that I already knew what I was getting, but to be honest, I had no clue. I seriously thought it was going to be a Keurig coffee maker, after my brief obsession over them when my sister got one for Christmas (and for the record, I still wouldn't turn one down). Of course after I had opened my gift and told him that I had thought I was getting a coffee maker, his response was "Huh. Well THAT would have been cheaper." Nice, honey. :-)

I could probably preface the next paragraph with "you're not going to believe this" but I won't, since you most definitely will believe it. For lunch we went out to..........dum, dum, dum............Buffalo Wild Wings! Because that's how we celebrate all holidays, from St. Patrick's Day to anniversaries to Thursdays in the Hockenberry household. We got there around 1:30 and it was dead in there. Apparently most moms aren't jonesing to go to BWW for Mother's Day. How odd. After our lunch out we went home and just hung out. It was a beautiful day so we put Tater in his exersaucer and sat in the backyard all afternoon. It was honestly the perfect day for a homebody like myself.

I think the only ones who enjoyed yesterday more than me were the animals. Ever since Junior came along, the poor things have been put on the back burner. Well, as much of a back burner as Harley will let us. He just doesn't give up and was THRILLED to have us home all day to throw his bone for him. Our cat Phyllis is also more desperate for attention than ever, to the point where she stalks Greyden and waits for us to set him on the floor just so that she can walk by him. He'll grab handfuls of her fur and hold on for dear life. And she lets him do it too. (Poor thing, you can tell she's starved for attention if she's willing to walk around half bald.) When Junior finally lets go (or, more likely, has his fingers pried open by mommy or daddy), she'll immediately turn around and walk by again so that he can pull her fur some more. I wonder if she remembers what real petting feels like. (I'm also starting to wonder if our animals need therapy.)

We're still having fun with the solids. Greyden loves everything he's tried so far: sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, bananas, applesauce, carrots, peaches, and avocado (which comes in incredibly handy when you're dining out at a Mexican restaurant and forgot to bring his food). He has a good time eating, as you can see from his sweet potato / banana dinner this past weekend. He's just like his Mommy and prefers to wear his food, rather than eat it.

 I also gave him his first Mum-mum rice cookie, just to see what he'd do. He DEVOURED it in about 2 minutes flat. There was no learning curve involved.

Of course Mother's Day wouldn't be complete without a shout out to my own amazing mother and best friend, who I am incredibly blessed to have in my life everyday, even though we are 1200 miles apart. She has taught me more than I could have imagined about parenting and life in general, and has talked me off multiple cliffs since becoming a parent myself. And, as luck would have it, I also have a wonderful mother-in-law who is also an amazing woman and who raised the perfect husband for me. Many, many thanks and a Happy Mother's Day to you both!

A Little Older, A Little Wiser

We've reached the halfway point. Greyden turned 1/2 of a year old on Sunday! It's amazing to me how much things have changed in the last 6 months. There is not one thing about our lives that hasn't changed for the better (besides the size of Mommy's ass, but that's a different topic and one that you won't be seeing on here. Mommy's boobies on the other hand? Those will probably get their own post at some point). What's really funny about it is that while I can remember life before Greyden, at the same time it seems like we've always had him (this could just be me hallucinating due to lack of sleep).

 It's amazing how much Greyden is changing too. As I said before, he has figured out the rolling from back to tummy. He also recently mastered the art of rolling from tummy to back which, oddly enough, he mysteriously can't do between the hours of 11pm and 4am. (Those are the "OMG I'M STUCK - WAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" hours.) A couple of weeks ago we also started working on sitting up by ourselves. (Yes I said we. We tend to operate as an entire unit. If you ever see Kevin or I feeding Greyden his vegetables, you'll see us opening and closing our mouths along with him. Not such a big deal until you catch yourself doing it in a restaurant. With random people staring at you. Awkward.) Therefore it should come as no surprise that we work on Greyden's milestones as a family too. For example, take our learning to sit up lesson. We all sit together on the floor of the nursery and sit Greyden up. A few seconds later Greyden tips over and ends up on his side/belly (because Mommy's cat-like reflexes have been dulled by the months of no sleep). Mommy sets Greyden back upright, then tries to shift to help support him and also tips over. Daddy laughs, reaches for his beer, misses, and tips over. Mommy, seeing an opportunity for the Forbidden Fruit of the Perma-Boob, reaches for Daddy's beer, misses (because just looking at a beer is enough to get Mommy drunk these days), and tips over again. Luckily Greyden has managed to teach himself to sit up, despite the horrible teachers he has. 

Of course along with all of the new circus tricks of a 6 month old, there also comes a whole new level of awareness. If you've ever seen the movie "Up" you'll know what I'm talking about when I say "SQUIRREL!" The kid suddenly sees (and is distracted by) everything. About 90% of the time I don't mind. At least we're able to keep him occupied without having to be eye level and 6 inches from his face. But the other 10% of the time is when he is eating. And I use the term "eating" loosely. Remember, the kid is breastfed which means our happy little nursing sessions (which were comprised of him eating and me watching TV for half an hour) are no more. They've turned into "Suck a Little, Look a Little" sessions. And when I say suck a little, I'm talking "nom, nom, nom, thwack!" (this is the sound of my nipple stretching 4 inches before the suction breaks as Junior decides that there is something really, really interesting going on behind him that he has to see rightthissecond.) Then he's back on "nom, nom, nom, SQUIRREL/thwack!" "Nom, nom, nom, SQUIRREL/thwack!" It's about at this point that my nips wave the white flag of surrender. Feeding session OVER. But as always, Junior offers us a silver lining - our feeding sessions have decreased from about 20-30 minutes to only about 10 minutes. Highly beneficial when you're like me and breastfeeding your baby in a bar restaurant.

Greyden's stats: 

Weight: 14 lbs, 14 oz. (12th percentile) 
Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)


Sitting up on his own:

OMG, a squirrel:

"Wait, are you sure there's not a squirrel?":

I don't believe you, there was definitely a squirrel:

The All-American Guy pose. Yes, this will come back to haunt him when he brings home his first girlfriend: