Mr. Money Bags

Garrett's grandma (Lucille) has always included a dollar bill for him in every letter she sends him. And then she'd include one for me too, once we got married. She'd usually include a little note about it being enough to go get a Coke at the store or a treat for Easter, etc. And she'd send us a dollar for all the little holidays. And then once we had kids, they started getting the dollars! And our kids get it double time because Garrett's mom sends a dollar too. So, basically, any time there is a piece of mail that comes from Idaho from Grandma W. or Grandma T., there is a dollar in it for each of the boys. In fact, today we got some mail for the 4th of July from Lucille and low and behold, there were two one-dollar bills in it, one for each boy. When Tyler first started getting dollars, we'd usually have one or two on hand and just take him to the dollar store or the dollar spot at Target to pick something out. But about a year ago, he got to the age where he was always asking for things when we went to the store and of course, they were things that cost anywhere from $5 to $15 and my response was "you better save your dollars then and you can buy that." And so that's exactly what he did.

He saves his dollars and we put them up high in the kitchen so they won't get lost. But on many occasions, he asks to see them because he wants to count them. It has actually been a good little tool for him to learn how to count well. And it's amazing how many dollars he insists are there sometimes!! (If only, right?!) And he now knows there are different kinds of dollars, so he calls these the 'number one dollars', but he points out 'number five dollars', 'number ten dollars', and so on. I surely know who to hit up next time I need to borrow a buck.

So every time he'd get a dollar from either grandma, he'd say "I'm going to buy ______(fill in the blank) with this dollar". And after about 6 months he had enough to buy something big, so in January he got to go to Toys R Us and pick out a Thomas train (of course). It's a good thing he saves his dollars for those because they are not cheap! And so just a couple weeks ago, the time came again that he had enough money saved up to buy another train. So it was time to head out for our adventure. This is a highly anticipated event, for sure! So, with money in hand, we took off to the toy store.
And oh my goodness, it took him forever to decide! There are so many stinking characters in Thomas--they know how to make some money, that's for sure! So he looked...
and looked...
and looked some more. And it seemed like he'd generally find something that cost way more than what he had and say he wanted it. Of course.
But he finally made his choice and we headed to the register with Dennis (I think. It's easy to get confused since there are SO MANY!).
He handed the cashier his big old wad of cash. He handed it to her before she had even rung up the train. He was just as excited to get rid of his money as he was to have the train! And he was also excited because he got some change back too.
And with a receipt and new train in hand, we headed home with a successful trip of spending our dollars behind us. And then we got home and Tyler came to me and said "Mom, I really really like those dollars that have the twenty on them." And my reply was "you'd better talk to your grandmas about that." See, aren't grandparents just the best?! We love them dearly and my boys are so lucky to have such awesome grandmas and grandpas.
So, how do you spend your dollars when you've got a few saved up?

Flying High

A cheap-o styrofoam airplaine that we got as a Mardi Gras throw.

A nice day at the park.

Not a care in the world.

Practicing our piloting skills.

All thrown together equates for cheap family entertainment and high flyin' fun.

9 Months

I know this post is a bit late, but we couldn't get into the doctor until Monday and I wanted to include his stats. :)

So, at nine months we've past that milestone where he's been out longer than he was in and he has also surpassed the 20 lb. mark. I can't believe he's nine months old!!
21 pounds, 5 ounces--56th percentile
27 3/4 inches--25th percentile
head 19 inches--off the chart!

9 months has brought a pretty independent, mobile baby, who can be very very attached to his mommy. He screamed bloody murder and cried inconsolably when a stranger spoke to him at a restaurant last week. I had to resort to taking him outside to calm him down. When he's in a familiar environment, though, he is a happy go lucky kind of kid. He's lost all interest in nursing, and I've pretty much lost mine as well, so we're recently done with that. It's a little sad, but not as much as I though it would be. The timing was right for both of us, I guess! What a silly boy he is! He is totally mobile, except for the crawling FORWARD part... He gets in position, rocks back and forth, and even stands up on his tip toes just ready to go, then he moves back and plops back down on his bottom and sits, or crawls backwards. He can get anywhere crawling backwards and rolling and sitting himself up, and he even attempts to pull himself up onto things, but he just hasn't gone forward yet. It's so funny. He loves getting into things and I know we're just at the beginning of that. Once he does go forward, it's going to be madness, I'm sure! He has two adorable teeth now, the second being much worse than the first to come in. What a happy chump! We sure love having him around.




And now let's talk about this hair. Where do I begin? Sam was born with a small birthmark on the side of his head that was about the size of a dime. Nothing major and I honestly didn't even notice it much and knew that his hair would eventually cover it up, therefore being the perfect spot for a little angel kiss like that. And for the first month, I thought it wasn't going to grow hair out of it at all. It just didn't look like it would. Again, not a big deal since the other hair would cover it eventually anyways. But THEN, it was like one day he woke up and it had all this thick black hair shooting out of it like crazy (when he was about 4-6 weeks old or so). It was wild! And since then, it has grown about 10 times as fast as his other hair. We have made jokes about it (poor Sam!) and said that it was his tribal mark, marking him a member of the Thalgott Tribe, and other things. And it is something that people notice right off the bat when looking at him. And I wasn't sure if it was better to let it grow or cut it, I wasn't sure which would look funnier. So for a while I let it grow, but the last two months or so, it has gotten out of hand, to say the least! It hung clear down past his ear and just looked so funny. And perhaps you've noticed it in pictures, or noticed it in person. And maybe you haven't. So if you haven't noticed it, here are a few to give you an idea of what it looked like:


Pretty silly, huh? So we figured our options on what to do with it were: a) curl it in a ringlet like an Orthodox Jew, b) braid it, c) put beads in it and a feather and start calling him Sammy Spotted Head, d) keep letting it grow, or e) chop it off. Clearly, the only real option was to cut it and I was just hoping that it wouldn't look sillier cut off than it did growing out. And luckily, it does look much better now. Although it's only been a week and a half, it's already growing like crazy--I may have to cut it once a week, who knows! And this is probably the spot where he'll be bald or gray when he's like 20 or something. So here's the finished product:
I must say, he does look SO much better! And I was surprised by how different he looked with just that little minor haircut.

A Good Excuse to Play Tourist for a Week

On June 2, my mom called me and asked what I had planned from June 12-June 18. Um....nothing! So, that was that and she booked a ticket to come and see us. We were so excited and so glad she made the last minute decision to come. And we only had to wait TEN days for her to get here! That made it really exciting since trips are usually planned much further in advance and it seems like the day will never get here. So we picked her up at the airport on the 12th (much later than planned since she had a crazy day of getting re-routed to get here) and Tyler hugged her and immediately started asking her all the things she wanted to do while she was here. "Do you want to go swimming with me?" "Do you want to go to the aquarium?" "Do you want to get a sno-ball?" "Do you want to play trains with me while you're in Louisiana?" "Do you want to watch a movie with me?" So, he had an agenda planned out that would have no problem filling up the next six days.

So, to summarize her visit, it would actually be easier to list the things we did not do since we pretty much packed it all in. We made several trips to Sal's for sno-balls, we swam and swam and swam, visited the aquarium, went on a plantation tour, went to the Children's Museum, went to the French Quarter, ate lunch at Voo Doo BBQ, ate dinners at Reginelli's and Ye Olde College Inn, went shopping, celebrated Father's Day & Sam's 9 month birthday (by cutting his hair--pictures to come soon!), took walks around the lake, and I'm sure I'm leaving something else out. And I think my mom quite enjoyed just having it be hot. If you live in Idaho or have family there, you know that they've been struggling to get the sunshine to stay there for any length of time.

We had a great time with her here. Sam actually warmed up to her after a day or two (he really really does not like strangers--can't emphasize that enough), and it was so nice that he would go to her! He got quite attached after a few days. And we just love having the excuse to leave the daily grind behind and go do some fun things. It's always fun to play the role as tourist in your own city. And since I've only lived here two years, I still feel like there's a lot I haven't seen and done.

Here are a few picture recaps of a few things we did. I didn't take my camera for everything we did, but had it on hand for a few stops.

1. San Francisco Plantation
I love old plantation homes and when my parents visited last April we visited Oak Alley and thought it would be fun to visit another one this time. So, we picked the San Francisco Plantation. It is a much different looking plantation than the traditional Southern plantation. I guess they say it's because it was built by Germans, so the decorating is a different style. The details were just incredible. There were original paintings on all the ceilings that were just amazing. Everything was very ornate and I always have a hard time imagining living back then, wearing one of those huge dresses, and NOT having air conditioning. Seriously, how did they do it?
I just love all the details of these old homes!

2. The Aquarium
With our faces lit up by the fish tank lights, we checked out some of our favorite attractions. Tyler loves watching a little tiny fish called a jaw fish that digs holes and swims down in them and comes out spitting rocks. It actually is kind of fascinating to watch. It's funny that his favorite thing in the big huge place is a fish that's about the size of my index finger!

We also found Nemo while we were there:

Garrett and Tyler pet the sting rays:
And they also pet the baby shark:
And we checked out just about every other kind of fish imaginable! And I couldn't even tell you the names of a lot of them now. :)

3. After watching all those fish, we attempted to be them.

We spent much of our time at the pool hanging out and beating the heat. Swimming with the two kids is much more enjoyable with another adult, I have to say! I could relax a bit more and even take a picture or two.
Tyler is definitely doing his best to be a fish so far this summer. He is loving the water this year and with his floaties on, he is pretty much invincible (not totally, but almost!). It's nice that he can play so well with them on so I don't have to be quite so worried about him.
And Sam loves this little tube (for about the first hour, anyways). It has been great for keeping him contained as well!

4. The French Quarter

No trip to NOLA would be complete without at least a little visit to the Quarter. It was hot and humid, and we were all sweaty, but we managed to survive for a couple hours one morning!
The St. Louis Cathedral. This is one of the most famous landmarks in town and you can't miss it if you're in the Quarter. The inside is beautiful too. We ran into a nice group of people who offered to take our picture if we took theirs and I hesitantly agreed to hand over my camera. But I thought it would be fun to have a picture of all of us here...well, the results were pretty disastrous when I got looking at the pictures. I'm not sure what the lady was doing...hmmm. Oh well! And after all that, I didn't even get a picture of my mom with the boys. Darn!
For the longest time, Tyler insisted that this cathedral was a temple. I think he is just now believing us that it's not a temple.
One of my favorite things in the Quarter is the fence around the cathedral. Probably a tad strange fascination, I know...but when we moved here, I fell in love with the fleur de lis which you can see just about everywhere you turn and this fence has an old feel to it and a hint of 'fleur de lis', and I just love it!

And no trip to the French Quarter, and I do mean NO trip..., is complete without us stopping at Southern Candymakers. When the sign says "best pralines", they are not lying. They are the BEST, along with their cashew tortues, taffy, peanut butter cups, oh--and the list goes on. Our families always get a box of pralines to take home with them and we use it as an excuse to get a box to take home with us too. hee hee! Hey, I told you we played tourists for a week, right?!
Well, once again, Mom--thank you for coming! We had a ball and hope you come again soon. We miss you!