Oktoberfest

Yesterday was the beginning of Oktoberfest and the only day with free admission, so of course we went to celebrate our Germanity. It has been rainy and chilly for the past week, so we all got our sweaters out for the occasion.

G's my sweet little giraffe.

We had to sample the traditional cuisine. Johnny is enjoying two sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes and a roll.

I am enjoying a bratwurst burger on a pretzel bun. I'm pretty sure the Lays are imported as well.G wanted to help Daddy eat, and enjoy some himself. Not yet, little guy, but we'll hit solid foods soon.

No Oktoberfest would be complete without a polka band. We were serenaded while we ate. It reminded us of our Germany trip 10 years ago. Good times . . .
G showing off his sitting skills. There's a bunch of water fountains behind him that it's too dark to see, unfortunately. We could see them of course, but the camera had problems.I mentioned the rain, well here's what the festival did to my shoes. My legs were pretty muddy as well. Plus, someone spilled their beer on Johnny and G's pants. So how do you end a lovely festival day and clean up?
With a bubble bath, of course. I didn't realize that the jets would quadruplize the bubbles, or I wouldn't have put so much in. Needless to say, Johnny's ears were squeaky clean when he was done. And we only threw bubbles at each other a few times. So I'd say our Germanity was definitely improved.

New Workout

G's been upset with so many people calling him chubby recently that he's started a new workout. I happened to be able to film some of it. And the velociraptor noise referred to in the video is a really high pitched squeal that is sometimes quite long and quite close to my ear that G makes when he's happy and excited.

First Catch

Now that Johnny got G a soccer ball finally, he decided that it was high time to start the father-son bonding. So he played catch. And I filmed it.

G's first baseball game

We got some good tickets to the Texas Rangers baseball game last week and made a family outing of it. We went with some people from Johnny's office and their dates, who swooned over G's cuteness and flirting skills. That boy is going to be a heart breaker, I swear. We had lots of fun even though we left after the 7th inning (bedtime, you know). And when we left the Rangers were winning. It was $1 hotdog night, too, so we tried those. That was a mistake. I could only muster 50 cents worth. Good thing we stopped for dinner before hand.

However, despite the heat and the fact that G got scared every time we got a run and everyone started cheering, (including me cause I like watching live baseball,) I think we'd go again. Especially if a certain baseball-loving in-law was visiting (hint, hint).

Here are the pics:We were in right field, but we moved closer so we could see the jumbo-tron. Still in homerun territory, though (not that anything came our way, but still).

G, not a baseball hat, I know, but a hat none the less.A tired, overstimulated boy leaving the game.

New Tricks

G is not rolling over much these days, that was so a few weeks ago. He's on to bigger and better things, take a look:

Road trip!

We took a road trip two weeks ago to Indiana for my friends wedding reception. Doesn't she look gorgeous? I was so happy to finally meet her husband. I'm also happy that I really like him cause you know how that is, good friend marries someone you don't like then you don't see each other any more. This time living in different states will be the excuse, most likely.

We stayed with Johnny's sister in Kentucky and had so much fun with her and her two girls. Aren't they gorgeous too?
And yes, the smaller one is pretty much the same size as G.

G didn't do as well this road trip since he couldn't just sleep the whole time, but he did do well sleeping once we got to stop for the night. We just had many more tears while driving since he didn't want to be stuck in his car seat where he couldn't move around.We discovered that G has been in more states than his is months old--Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. What a traveler!

Crossing the Mississippi River

Entering Tennessee: the Volunteer State

Playing with the cousins

Do I have to stay in this car seat again?

We also got to play our new favorite game--point out the oddly named cities you pass. Here's what we found:

Arkansas likes to almost steal other names. They have Arkadelphia and Okolona. There's also a town called Friendship that is in the middle of nowhere where we stopped for gas and Johnny heard someone in the gas station asking a woman what brought her into town. Which means there are more remote places than the one-exit town of Friendship.

We also saw Bucksnort and Goodlettsville Tennessee. Good times.

I also realized that Utah is a desert, and that cutting down trees might not be the sin I thought it was.

Meeting G

When people in the grocery store, at church, or at any social function, meet G for the first time a three part conversation ensues. The exchange always goes like this:

Part 1-
Person A: Gushing exclamation about extreme cuteness of baby G.
Me: "Thank you" or some variation.

Part 2-
Person A: Oohh, how old is he?
Me: States current age, rounded to the nearest month.

Part 3-
Person A: Wow! He's really big!
Me: Yeah, sometimes a joke about eating.

I know all the constant gushing about how cute his is should make my mom feathers get all poofy with pride, but instead they only get a little ruffled since I know what's coming next. Yeah, I know he's in the 97% for height and weight. Yeah, my 16 month old niece is almost the same height and weight as him. I know he's big. But really, what do you say to that? It's a little hard to have to hear how huge your child is all the time. I guess I should just be grateful that they always start with his cuteness. That means it's his most striking feature, right? Well, here's a picture, you can figure it out for yourself.