bringing in fall

Coming to you from the tail-end of a fabulous holiday weekend!

James' parents left Thursday morning, but not before we took Hadley "out to eat" for the first time at the Spaghetti Warehouse. (Yes, Memphians, we have one here. Same concept but not sure if it's the same owners???) It was yum. Knox threw up all over the table. That's beginning to become a signature move for him...

Thursday I hung low with the babes while James was at work, and Friday was Hadley's TWO WEEK birthday...


[Oh I love that face!!!]

I can't believe it's already been that long, and at the same time it's seems like a lifetime ago when we were just a family of 3. She's still a sweetie pie - eats and sleeps, and occasionally she'll give us a smile. (Although I know it's not a "social" smile, I'm still obsessed with it!) However I've found I'm having to be much stricter on my diet than I was with Knox... There were a few nights last week were she was up for 3-4 hours just screaming in pain. And although it's frustrating when you're tired and just want sleep, it mostly just broke my heart because I knew she was truly hurting and only time could fix it :(


[I swear - she already looks so much different/older!]

So anyway - not even the least bit of spice for me and, besides an occassional morning cup of coffee, no caffeine. Thankfully she was MUCH better last night. We go back to the doctor for our 2 week Well Baby Wednesday so it will be interesting to see how how big she is now. (And just for my own memory because I've yet to order her baby book - her umbilical stump fell off last Wednesday; so she was 11 days old... She's now bikini ready! ;)



I mentioned previously that, like her brother, she she was born with fabulous head control and strength. (I think I may test her out in the Bumbo soon. With some extra support, of course.) So she's been enjoying about an hour of tummy time a day in her play gym. However, we're having to do it during Knox's nap time, because as you can see above, I think he's enjoying it MORE!

Court let out early for the holiday weekend on Friday, so James got home that afternoon and got to spend some time with us for the first time in a while. He also got the chance to cut our grass. Good thing we've had a dry spell otherwise it would have been 8 inches long by then!



We did have a little rain last week though, which brought a MUCH waited for gust of fall weather. Our days have been mid-70s to mid-90s ever since! We took advantage Friday night and got the babes out for a walk after dinner. (While we listened to the sound of the local high school game. The ginormous stadium is loacted just a mile a way. I LOVE FALL!) Knox just didn't understand why his Sissy couldn't ride in the wagon with him...



[And just because I was recently going through some of Knox's baby pictures...



...Some things never change! ;) ]

He still just LOVES his Hadley. Sometimes a little *too* much... I've had to closely monitor hugs because he'll squeeze the stew out of her, saying "Awwww... She's cute!" And in one day last week, he was "rocking" her cradle, got a little too enthusiastic and rocked it right on it's side! Thankfully she was double swaddled and landed in between the bumper and mattress. Of course this was the same day I walked in to the room and found him leaning on the seat of her portable swing, just enough to change the incline to the "upright" positions. I hollared "KNOX!" to which he replied "Shhhhh Momma, Hadley's sleeping..." Looks like we'll be using the safety straps from now on because she was doubled-over forward, and I'm still not sure how she didn't fall out! Oh me... Baby Girl's gonna be a tough little one whether she likes it or not!


[I caught a smile! And she's finally starting to fit in to a few of her 0-3 month things. Fun!]

My Dad and his 'crew' (my sister, step mother, and step brothers) drove in LATE Friday night to visit for the weekend. I'm SO glad they made it too! Saturday we all drove down to the new science/history museum which also happens to have a state-of-the-art childrens exhibit...


[Poppy and Knox. He's actually loving dinosaurs these days.]

Worked out well, because for the price of all 8 of us we were able to just get a membership for our family instead and have the rest as our guests! We will for sure be back soon because we were there for 2 hours and didn't even skim the surface on the exhibits...


[Knox and my sister.]

We caught the planetarium show and I actually think that was Knox's favorite. We had quite the time keeping him quiet though! I think he was throwing the poor girl narrating off her groove. He'd repeat the last word of everything she said and then follow it with Whoooaaaa, Cooool!!! Haha! Although I felt bad because I'm sure it was irritating to a lot of people, most people just thought it was hilarious and I couldn't help myself from laughing too. It just sounded so funny coming from that little 2-year-old voice :)


[Digging for bones.]

Afterwards we headed to our favorite hole-in-the-wall fajita and margarita place and then home to watch some college FOOTBALL! ...Gah what a day full of blow-outs though. Our "Texas team" - the Longhorns - stomped Rice, and then both James' and my alma mater - The University of Memphis - suffered a brutal loss to Mississippi State. (Which isn't suprising... Basketball is more our sport!) Even the SEC games... Blow-outs! But whatever - it's college football time and that's all that matters! We all watched Eclipse that night. LOVED it. (Yes, we have a copy. No it's no illegal...)



Sunday we had another fun day as we tackled the Aquarium. I'd never been and it was actually fantastic! Which, at $20 a head, it should be, right??? Knox got a huge kick out of seeing all the animals and FISHIES!


[Somebody is going to MISS his Poppy!]

We also toured downtown a little and then headed home to grill out burgers and play outside. Again - LOVING the weather!!!

They all left this morning, bringing an end to our nearly 3 week stretch of visitors. James and I joke that it's time to start back at the top of the list... Call up my Mom and be like Ok, your turn! When can we expect you??? Ha! No but really, it's probably a good thing that we're getting back to old (but also NEW) schedule. Before Knox gets TOO spoiled and I totally forget how to cook ;)

So it's just me and the babes today. James went downtown to work (yes, on Labor Day). He's got some prep work to finish up for his current case. Meanwhile I'll be spending the day getting us all ready for the first week of our "Fall Schedule" :) Cleaning, laundry, sewing, etc. I may even attempt a Target run with the two after nap time. We'll see how crazy I get ;)


[Oh get used to it, Miss Hadley. Your Mommy is GLUED to her camera!]

Tomorrow is Knox's first day of MDO (yes there will be PICTURES) and I'm looking forward to getting out and running errands with Hadley and having some time to finish up a few little projects that have been put on the back-burner. I'm sure I'll update again soon! Especially since our newborn portraits should be ready this week. Fingers crossed for some precious shots!!!