Plums and Thinking Chairs

Having always been a kid who loves fruit, Ethan has recently decided that he really likes plums, and he likes them best if you let them eat them whole, like a big boy. He really delights in this, so we took a few pictures. He now thinks all round fruit (that isn't an apple) is a plum. He almost took a big bite out of a tomato that was on the counter one day. He might have liked that in another circumstance, but not if he was expecting a plum!








Ethan loves watching the Blue's Clues videos, and they've become even more of a favorite lately. Previously, he would take "letters" and act out the part of the show where they get the mail. Usually, when they open a letter the children in the video say "HI JOE!" So, that's what Ethan says when he opens a letter too.

Now, he has his own "Handy Dandy Notebook." It is a spiral notebook where he can slide a crayon into the spiral, just like on the show. He carries it all over the house, stopping occasionally to draw "clues," which are usually circles. He has also turned a small chair that we have into his "Thinking Chair," which is where Joe goes to figure out Blue's Clues. He gets that notebook and sets off running, saying "Thinking Chair" the whole way.




He has been sick again this week with the Croup and an ear infection, but he seems to be perking up and spent much of this evening with his notebook and Thinking Chair.

TCU@Texas

So, September is finally here and with it, FOOTBALL! The Frogs won their first game by shutting out Baylor 27-0. So, we headed on down to Austin the weekend of Sept. 8th to see the Frogs take on the Texas Longhorns. This was a big game for us, against a perennial powerhouse and a team we used to play more regularly, but haven't since the breakup of the Southwest Conference.

We arrived Friday night, and saw some other Frog-faithful at our hotel. Saturday morning we went for breakfast at IHOP, where we found that the entire staff was decked out in Longhorn orange--we stuck out a little in our TCU purple, but we didn't mind. We had a fun morning just hanging out and playing at the pool at the hotel.

MeMe and Pop and Uncle Brad and Aunt Nicole and Cousin Avery arrived Saturday afternoon. Avery had a surprise for us--she is going to be a big sister! We are so happy for Brad and Nicole (and grateful that Nicole is feeling better than she did early on, and could make the trip). Nicole's parents also made the trip, so we set the little ones up with the grandparents, and the big kids headed off for the game.

Parking was a little crazy, as expected, but we found our garage and all was well. There were a lot of people (orange and purple) filling every available inch of space with tailgate parties. We attended one with Brad and Nicole where there was a Horned Frog pinata that all the kids were taking a swing at (they were disappointed when it cracked open and only had a few tootsie rolls inside, along with a lot of miniature liquor bottles)! We also saw a plane flying overhead with a Pro-TCU banner (see the pictures, the word that gets cut off is "cartel").

The game atmosphere was really exciting and the Frogs were doing us proud for the first half, and a little more. Unfortunately, our defense tired of being on the field, and after being up 0-10 at the half and tied 10-10 going into the 4th quarter, Texas proved more powerful and beat us 34-13. We were sad by the loss, but we all had a really great time. We headed to PF Chang's for some food and adult beverages to help us cope.

We finished off the weekend with breakfast tacos at Rudy's with some of the Huckabay cousins, and it was great to see everyone.