Pumpkin

Hayes has graduated from oatmeal and rice, and he'd like to celebrate by showing you his pumpkin face:

We got a mighty convoy

During our drive home on Sunday, we must've seen a dozen or more convoys of power company trucks heading north to help people who lost power from Hurricane Irene.  It was pretty awesome to see so many people mobilized to help, and I'm sure Kyle loved having me bust out C.W. McCall each time we saw one, but who doesn't love a good convoy song?!

Fountain Fun

We definitely need more outdoor fountains in NC.  Grant had a great time at this birthday party:

Burke Lake Park

The boys loved their adventures with Ceci and BobBob at Burke Lake Park:

Big enough?

Our home brewers decided it was time to invest in a bigger pot.  Their tamale pot wasn't cutting it anymore, so they got a toddler pot. 

  

 Up to this point, I didn't find these pictures too disturbing...but then we got out the lid...

But wait, I didn't call this a baby pot.  That's right, I called it a toddler pot:

Texas

After hunkering down and not leaving the state for six months, we finally braved travel with the two boys and went to Texas for the weekend.

Though not his first plane ride, this was the first time Grant was really aware of what was happening, so he was very excited when "his" plane parked. 

Hayes wasn't too sure about his first plane ride. 

Forunately he spent most of it like this:

It was hot, so we spent most of the time in Uncle Steve's pool, which both of the boys loved.

We fed tortillas to the ducks:

More pool time:

And breakfast at one of our local favorites, Cafe Brazil:

Are you sleeping?

Grant hasn't fallen asleep anywhere besides a bed or the car since he was about 4 months old, so when he passed out on the couch, being the mamarazzi that I am, I had to document it: 

And here's what his room currently looks like (on a good day):

Half a Year Already?!

So hard to believe that it's been six months since our little man made his big debut.

Finally Finished!

Victory!  After a month of sporadically trying to get Hayes to eat "solids" (in the form of very liquidy rice cereal that he has been spitting out like it's his job), today he finally actually swallowed his food and finished the whole bowl.

Around the House

Grant wanted Daddy to join him in holding Mr. T and sucking two fingers:

Gotta love those big blue eyes:

Like a wildlife photographer, I attempted to stealthily sneak in and photograph Grant while he was sleeping.  Here's what I got.  And I wonder why he tells me not to take his picture.

Finally, a Gallery for Picasso

Every artist needs somewhere to display his work, and Grant's proliferate artwork was creating quite a stack, so after much pinning and pondering, I finally pulled this together.  It's not quite done yet (the string ends are temporarily being held up by those removable sticky hooks while I test this out), but close enough that I'm ready to show it off (plus I had to make sure I snapped a few pictures before Grant gets his hands on the low-hanging stuff).

Here's what it looks like from the artist's perspective: