Weekend Festivities!

Dinner at Barnaby's Sunday evening

Sunday morning found us at church to sing songs according to Tate.  He actually really seems to enjoy being at church and just watches and listens intently.  Only caveat is that he wants me to hold him while we are standing which is over half the service.  But I'm building up those pesky arm muscles!!

Brought our baby along
for our shopping excursion

We ran to Whole Foods for a little grocery shopping then home for lunch and a little play time.  Then came my whole 'nap in the car' plan which as described the other day ended up resulting in a not so good carseat to stroller transfer.  But we've moved on.  We shopped for about 1 1/2 hours in the fabulous early summer Houston weather.  We made the 30 minute drive home with ease and ran to the grocery store to grab some things for Aunt Lindsey who had been New Orleans for the weekend.  By this point I was absolutely exhausted, but I wanted a hamburger, so we were off to Barnaby's for dinner after stopping at home to drop off the groceries.  We sat outside on the patio and Tate enjoyed several of their french fries and a couple of chicken nuggets from home!  My hamburger was delicious as well :)

AND we still had one more day together on the horizon!

Saturday morning I had grand plans!!  We were going to be backing out of the driveway at 9am on the road to the ro-de-o!!  Yee! Haw!!

Up at 6 (yay!), 2 loads of laundry in the works, Tate playing happily after breakfast and I was in a festive mood.  I ran upstairs to the 3rd floor around 8:30 (which overlooks the second floor which is like a 2 story loft) to get the last laundered load into the dryer.  I could see Tate on the second floor playing with his trains.  Vincent came up the stairs with me and made a beeline for the laundry room as soon as I opened the door.

Now, the dryer vent thingie is not very secure...that silver thingie isn't clamped down as well as it should be.  This is why I'm getting a new washer and dryer with part of my tax return. Also there is not a screen preventing animals of the aviary species from nesting in my vent system...a couple of times I've had to push out nests...blech.

Anyway, Vincent ran straight behind the dryer and started going nutso and dislodged the silver vent thingie (what is the word for that?).  Then....

Two birds flew into my house!!!!!!!

I was screaming and stomping my feet with my hands covering my head!   The birds were hysterically  flying about and Vincent made tracks faster than I've ever seen that cat move.

Meanwhile, Tate was downstairs looking up in awe and laughing.

Which quickly gave way to crying as he saw me hopping about like a crazed person.  In my not so proud mommy moment I yelled at him to run upstairs to Mommy as I flitted about with my hands on my head. 

Really Jennifer?  Really?  "Run to Mommy?"

I finally (ok like within 30 seconds, but it felt like 30 minutes) gathered my wits enough to realize I needed to go get my 2 year old myself and ran down the stairs.  By then the birds were going bat-shit crazy trying desperately to escape my house.  The windows on the second floor of the 2 story living room have no blinds or anything, so that was their 'exit' in their minds.  The banging of their heads against the windows was just horrible.  Then they would swoop down and try to get out the window in the stairwell which also has no blinds.  But I can't reach the windows on the second floor of the living room and the window in the stairwell doesn't open.

Great.  Just Great.

Oh and did I mention the bird poop?   ICK!!!!

My neighbors who live behind us could see us losing our minds, and I went on the balcony with Tate after opening both those doors in the hopes the birds would fly down and out.  Tate was just a talking!!  It's the first time I've really seen him just start talking to other people he doesn't know well.  He was going on and on about the birds in the house, that we had 2 birds and that Vincent let them in :)

Talking with my neighbors we realized it was going to be very difficult to try to get the birds to fly DOWN and out the door.  And my broom of course would not reach them.  I googled animal control and removal and got a hold of 2 different services each of whom acted like I was an overwrought female, even asking me what kind of birds they were.  Ummm I don't know...birds with wings!!!  Ugh.  Both gave me a 3-4 hour wait for their arrival.  

Did I mention the bird poop?

My next door neighbor was my next target.  Have I mentioned how much I love my favorite neighbors R and his wife K?  They really and truly are my favorite neighbors.  They were the first visitors Tate had outside of family when he was born.  We moved into our respective homes within a couple of weeks of each other back in 2003.  They came over to help in the bird removal project.

Meanwhile Tate is just laughing and running amok with his new pets screeching "No birds in the house!"  "Can I have some potato chips Mommy?" because kids know when you'll do absolutely anything in your frenzied, hysterical state. 

"Eat the whole damn bag!  Rot out your teeth!  Want some sugar on top little boy?"

R and K joined our team, and armed with a broom and a sheet we got Frick and Frack out of my house. 

But not the bird poop!  :(

But I opted to deal with that later!  My little cowpoke and I were off to the rodeo, albeit an hour later than planned.

And you know this put a crimp in my nap plans for him.  But I soldiered on!

It was a bit more crowded than I would have liked, but we still had fun.  Tate rode a pony again, and several of the carnival rides.  We moseyed back to the car after lunch...chicken nuggets from home for him, yummy roasted corn on a stick for me and lemonade slushes for both of us...Good Stuff!  

His pony was Trigger!

 

Wheeeeee!

 As we were driving out of the parking lot Tate opted to start reading a book as opposed to closing his eyes and taking a nap.  I then told him if he put his book down and took a nap we could go to the zoo and ride the train.

Waiting patiently in line for the train!

Guess where we spent the afternoon?!

Tate immediately put his book down, curled up in his carseat and closed his gorgeous eyes.   I drove on home and let him sleep while I gathered new snacks for him.  Got some gas and headed off to the zoo.  I didn't realize that being the last weekend of Spring Break would have every Houstonian in the city at the zoo.  It was crazy crowded.  The weather was gorgeous.  It was St. Patrick's Day and everyone was in a festive mood.  Since it took so long to park Tate got a good 90 minute nap under his belt. 

As always the train was a huge hit, and Tate didn't even mind standing in line.  On our way back through the zoo, we had a ride on the carousel then made our way home.

Just a perfect Saturday..bird poop and all! (and it's all cleaned up now!)