Summer Fun - Weekend Seven!

Friday morning found us at swim lessons!  We meandered home and played for a couple of hours and had some lunch.   And I must mention that Tate loves his Playstix that my parents gave him for his birthday.  It's the only toy save this train puzzle that his Aunt Lindsey gave him that he plays with constantly.  And I mean constantly.  He loves those Playstix.  He still loves his trains and train table and will play on there for hours by himself, but he pulls those out 3-4 times a day, begging me to come help him put them together to make the uh, err TRAIN (always first) then the truck, then the house etc.  Me...I'm no engineer.  I honestly cannot stand building these things.  I get frustrated, annoyed when I get it 'wrong' and find no joy in doing with the exception of the great happiness I find in watching him have so very much fun.  I do have to admit I love the feeling of accomplishment when we finish making one of the pieces, but getting to that point...eh.  But he loves the entire process.  Such. A. Boy. :)

I took him over to Gymnastics Camp and I headed off to have a very nice 90 minute massage with the fantastic Jane.  I picked Tate up and we came home.  He played trains.  Then we did Playstix. :)

Our long lazy morning at home started at 5:25 and included 'Misty Island Rescue' for Tate so I could sleep until 7!!  Then he played trains and bothered our cat while I did laundry and cleaned up a bit.  He lazed about on the couch at one point for about 20 minutes and read his 'Thomas the Tank Engine Story Collection' (a very lovely book)to Vincent, our cat and his stuffed animals.  The entire book!  So very cute!

We eventually ventured out to ride our favorite train in the 95 degree heat!  It was lovely though...breezy in the shade. 

Surprisingly he fell asleep in the car on our way home from the train and napped about 30 minutes.  He must have been exhausted!  We grocery shopped after his nap and returned home!

And we just hung out the rest of the day.  Playing, reading (me), trainning (him), gaming (us)...it was a lovely day.  

Then as I was making dinner, Tate pulled out the aforementioned puzzle and started working on it.  We had done it together last weekend and just took it apart Friday night.  To my utter astonishment and pride he did this entire 100 piece puzzle...ALL BY HIMSELF.  He did ask me to help him initially while I had my hands full in dinner preparations.  I told him I would be right there, and when I walked over he was busily working on it by himself, and doing well.  I quietly went back to the kitchen.  He called for me 2-3 more times, but I kept making excuses.  Within 10-15 minutes he called me bursting with pride "MOMMY!!  TA-DA!!!

I was/am so very proud of him.  100 pieces all by himself!! Since Saturday he has taken it apart and done it again and again and again.

Sunday morning I had every intention of going to church.  I so want to share my faith with Tate;  it's so very important to me and such an integral part of my life.  Surprising I know seeing how un-often we go to church, but God is on my mind all the time. When I'm sad, I turn to Him.  When I'm happy, I thank Him.  When I'm blessed, I give Him thanks.  When I'm lost, I ask Him for help.  I want Tate to grow up to love God and His Son as much as I do and to become a strong man of strong Christian faith...that's so very important to me.  I suppose if I had a church home that I felt completely connected with I would make more of an effort.  I do love my church..the priests and the services. It's the congregation that's not my cup of tea.  I go to one of the richest churches in the city in the richest neighborhood in the city.  The money in and of itself is not the problem I don't think..it's just the attitude of the parishoners.  Ugh.  It just doesn't feel like a church home...nothing like the church I grew up with, which was Southern Baptist with an amazing youth group.  I was at church on Sundays and Wednesdays seemingly like clockwork as a teenager.  We had lock-ins, retreats, youth bible studies, you name it, and I loved it.  Loved it.  I want that for Tate.  I know my present church has these things; maybe if I got Tate involved in the Sunday school activities it would be different as I got to know more people.  We shall see...

In any event, we hung out at home.  Had another pajama day.  Our next 3 weekends are completely booked and busy, so this was a nice respite.  One of his birthday gifts from me was a Thomas CD.  He loves it.  We play it in the car, in the house...everywhere.  But what is so very humorous is that when we play it inside on our Blu-Ray, he sticks it in, turns it on and sits down on the double chair and listens to it.  Every so often he'll look at the tv screen which is just a listing of the tracks.  He treats it like a video.  He doesn't seem to get that he can play with his toys or anything while the music is playing.  He sits down and quietly enjoys his music.  When the CD ends, he gets up, ejects it from the Blu-Ray, puts it in the case, turns off both the Blu-Ray and tv and goes about his business.

So very adorable.  Man I love this kid!

(He is 'reading' while listening this time,

but mostly just holding the Thomas book

 in his hands while the music plays :) )

We made a quick grocery store run again and then ended our quiet weekend at Uncle Bryan's for some pool time and dinner with just a few of the tribe.  Tate swam and swam for about an hour.  It was so nice.  For the first hour it was just me, Tate, Bryan and Mike.  Just 4 more joined us later on.  Good food..yummy fajitas Bryan grilled, I got queso from Chuys'.  Fantastic margaritas...Bryan just got a vita-mix...forget making baby food...those were the smoothest, tastiest margaritas I've ever had!!!  Lots of fun.  We left around 730 after I got Tate into him pjs and brushed his teeth.  I figured he would fall asleep on the way home and I would just put him straight to bed.

Worked like a charm!  Little man was asleep by 750 and I transferred him to bed around 8 with no fuss!  Well some fuss because I was exhausted after carrying a 36.5 pound child up three flights of stairs!  (I've got to start working out...I was out of breath for 10 minutes...not good)  But totally worth it for the fun end to a lovely weekend.