Cooking for Babies

Grant helped make green beans for Hayes.

Fort Richardson

One of our neighbor's sons outgrew their fort, so she offered it to us.  We picked it up, cleaned it up, and set it up while Grant was at preschool, so he came home to a great surprise:

Even Hayes loves it.  Seconds after this picture was taken, he was going down the slide:

After a busy afternoon of playing in the fort, Grant decided to "clean the trees":

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Hmmm...

Think it might be time to lower the crib?

Feeding the Ducks

Grant really wanted to feed some ducks on Monday.  (Technically, he wanted to feed "Papaw's ducks" which I assumed meant the ducks at the pond next to Aunt Alex & Uncle Steve's house.) Since we didn't have time to fly to Dallas for the afternoon, we loaded up and went to the Duke Gardens where there are ducks galore:

But the real highlight of the trip for Grant was this big, bread-stealing catfish (notice Grant's reflection; it's somewhat of a miracle he didn't fall into the pond):

And the highlight of the trip for me was the giant heron that I suspect wanted to eat our catfish friend because he kept creeping closer to us, but had no interest in the bread we tossed his way:

By the time the heron reached this point, the catfish was no longer making an appearance, so Grant was ready to go:

And for the record, we were also considered part of the Duke Gardens wildlife, because one tourist asked to have his photo taken with us and our big blue eyes.  Grant's comment afterwards: "That was funny, Momma."

Eight Months for Hayes

 

Hayes vs. the Scale

Finally, something that keeps Hayes entertained for more than 30 seconds!!

Grant's Pictures

Grant took over 20 pictures during his foray into photography, but here are my favorites.  Not too shabby for the first time behind the camera!

Little Photographer

I haven't uploaded Grant's pictures yet, but he had a great time being behind the camera for once:

Papaw Tree

I realized I forgot to take 'after' pictures of the Papaw Tree, so here it is sitting happily in its new home:

Zoo

Kyle had Columbus Day off, so we took the boys to the zoo.  Grant found the hat I'd packed for Hayes and insisted on wearing it for the first part of the drive (which was an hour and a half, so he had plenty of time to lose interest in it).

Hayes' little bald head got a turn with the hat:

At the zoo playground:

All the boys:

Watching the lemurs:

Posing with the North Carolina Red Elephants (aka regular elephants covered in red dirt):

Mr. T would have loved meeting his extended family:

The highlight of our trip was that baby chimp you might be able to see in the background:

Planting the Papaw Tree

Our friends bought us a tree in memory of my dad.  It's a gingko that we call our Papaw Tree.  After watching Kyle dig the hole...

 

Grant decided to help: