Catching Up

We've had a big couple of months. I'll try to hit the highlights here, and if you're curious about more, you can get in touch with us.

Most of July was occupied with packing the house and making the move back to College Station. This was complicated by me having a root canal and every member of the family getting sick at least twice within a three week period. Poor Peyton spent his three month birthday (July 4) at the doctor for a fever. Brendan also was sick at the time, but we managed to shoot off fireworks in front of the house anyway. Brendan missed most of his last two weeks at school before the move. Thankfully, my mom was able to fly to Arkansas and spend a week with us packing and helping take care of both boys, otherwise, we'd never have made it.

It has been interesting being back in College Station. In a lot of ways it feels like we never left. We love being back. It's taking a while to settle into the house ( I really, really miss my house--which Brendan calls our "regular house"), but we haven't been rushing to settle in too quickly.

Our priority has been on making sure Brendan especially feels good about the move. He has missed being in school and having friends so much. During the weekdays, I've loaded our schedules with lots of activities at places where kids are likely to be. He did a great job at swimming lessons. We've also been rotating through visits to the Children's Museum, the Bounce (inflatable jumpers), parks, the splash pad, feeding the ducks, Chuck E. Cheese, and the mall playground. Thankfully he'll be starting at his new preschool on Monday! It's a montessori, so it's quite different than his last preschool, but at least it's not the militant, kids-can't-talk-to-each-other type of montessori. We think it'll be a good fit. Brendan is excited to have a new Lightning McQueen lunchbox, sheet, and blanket to take with him.

We've also had the opportunity to do some fun stuff since we've been back. We attended a public firefighting display at the TAMU Fire School. Brendan thought it was awesome. We went to an interactive space exhibit at the Bush Museum. Brendan liked a few of the things there, but just isn't ready for museums, even fun ones with interactive things he's interested in, yet. Perhaps most fun is that we've been able to attend several Aggie football practices and scrimmages at Kyle Field. We'll be taking both boys to their first real Aggie football game in a couple of weeks.

And a week ago, I finally graduated. It's so nice to finally be done with the Ph.D. Brendan and Peyton actually did great at the ceremony. I think Brendan was just glad to have his Grandma, Papa, Mimi, and Aunt Karrie in for a visit, though.

So, consider yourself caught up. Now that Brendan is starting back to school, I'll try to keep the blog more regularly updated.

--Dr. Laurie ;)