Bongo and Big Guy

My Dad and my husband have both decided to start their own blogs. This amuses me to no end, but due to their extreme opinions (on opposite ends of the spectrum), I have tried to distance myself from their blogs as much as possible. However, they have been 'discovered' by my blogging buddies, and I can disown them no longer. 

World, meet Bongo Tomfoolery and Big Guy. 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in these blogs in no way represent the thoughts or opinions of "To the Moon and Back." 

And oh yes, my sister Nancy has started a blog as well. She is a teacher and tried to tell me that "blogging actually improves your reading and writing skills." Uh huh. Sure. Whatever. If posting pictures of yourself dancing in a giant sombrero is educational, then I wish you had been my second grade teacher. 

We are petitioning my Mom, sister Brooke and grandmother Mama June to join the bloggin' family. Please sign my comments section to join our petition. 

 

Tate Attacks

I am learning how to make movies on my Mac.  Tonight's lesson is adding background music. 

With apologies to Mr. Spielberg and in honor of Kim and her love of Shark Week:

A Party and More Tate Words

We attended Graelyn's first birthday party/luau, and it was a great opportunity to meet the blogging buddies. I hope we can do it again soon. Everybody was as fun and cute in person as they are online, and from what I understand about Internet dating, that is not always the case.

I didn't get very many good pictures, but I did manage to get some new "Tate Words"..... 

Getting Tate decked out in his luau duds (thank you Mama Mia) gives us our first Tate word of the evening: 

AGITATE

"Are you serious?" 

Then, once we got to the party, the 10+ children under the age of 6 gave Tate pause and gave us our next Tate word of the evening: 

MEDITATE

"Ohm"

9 Months

Tate is 9 months old today. He had his checkup, and his stats are:

Height: 29 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs, 6 oz (50th percentile)
Head: 18.5 in (90th percentile, or, as my Dad, whose own noggin size is legendary, likes to say: "You can't park a Cadillac in a garage built for a Volkswagen.")

We had a scare when they pricked his finger for a routine anemia test...his blood would not clot. So our pediatrician ordered more bloodwork and tests, and we were there for several hours. Luckily, his platelet counts came back normal, which means it is not any of the more serious conditions that could cause problems with clotting. We are now waiting for more information from the other tests, but we are very relieved that the platelet counts were good. It was a rough day for Tate and for us, but there are a lot more children with far more serious concerns, so we are grateful.

Other notes about Tate at 9 months...he is now:

• Pulling himself up to his feet
• Very good and very fast at crawling
• Starting to cruise around the furniture
• Saying Da-Da
• Eating table foods

And, his most important milestone achievement at nine months:

He has been to Vaught-Hemingway stadium. 

We are so proud.

Questions for Rebekah!

 I have this new ring of blogger friends who all have one friend in common, Angie Lindbloom.  To understand all the links among the group, read this post on Sarah's blog, "That's What She Said," which, incidentally, is the best name for a blog.

So Sarah started a fun game where we take turns asking each other questions. It's now my turn to ask Rebekah questions. So Rebekah -- here you go! 

1. How did you meet Chris? 

2. What did you do before you became a mom? 

3. If you had a whole day to yourself without the kids, what would you do? 

4. I now know that you have graphic design skills -- what do you like to design? 

5. Do you have a police record? 

6. Tell us how you first met Angie

7. Do you have any pets? 

8. What is your favorite thing to wear? 

9. Where do your kids get their red hair? 

10. What is your favorite food? 

11. What is your favorite holiday? 

12. What are your hobbies? 

13. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? 

14. What's your favorite movie? 

15. Worst habit? 

16. Favorite children's book? 

17. If you have a fourth child, what will you name him/her? 

18. How far apart in age are you and Sarah? 

Mississippi

We had a great visit to Mississippi this weekend. We spent Friday in Oxford visiting Rob's mom, "Nanny-sippi" and the rest of the weekend in Jackson with Rob's Dad, "Poppy" and Linda.

The highlight for Tate (and us) was the food...Linda is an amazing cook, and Tate gobbled up everything from fresh bananas and avocado to spaghetti, roasted sweet potato, corn, black-eyed peas, and oatmeal. I've never seen him eat like he did this weekend. He's in for a rude awakening tomorrow....I can just hear him with his teacher tomorrow morning: "excuse me, but I hope that jar you are about to open contains steel cut Irish oatmeal, because you know that is all I will eat now." (Note to Rob: Don't even try that line with me.)

We also got to meet Mr. Michael Wright Wallace who was born on Monday to our friends Lauren and Jeremy! He is absolutely beautiful.

A few pictures from the trip:

Checking out the famous Square Books in Oxford with Nanny-sippi

Nanny-sippi points out the "Robertson Boys" post on the fence at Avent Park.

BeBe the cat weighs the same as Tate, which did not stop Tate from chasing BeBe all weekend. Here, a rare moment where BeBe is letting Tate pet him while Poppy and Linda supervise. (Note the awesome Tate-sized chair painted by Linda.)

Dancing with Poppy

Hanging with the guys.

Road Trip Lessons

We just returned from Mississippi. I will be posting pictures later tonight, but since we're fresh (I use that term loosely) off the road, I thought I'd share some lessons we learned about road-tripping...

1. Whoever said "Getting there is half the fun" never made a road trip with a teething 9-month old who just learned to crawl and therefore does not like being stuck in a carseat in a compact sedan whose owners thought that because it had four doors it would be a perfect family car when, in reality, if you put a stroller in the trunk you're done. 

2. The city of Monroe, La needs to have its diaper changed. If you drive through there and suddenly think you need to stop and change your child's diaper, just keep on driving. It's not your kid. It's Monroe. 

3. All pickup truck drivers are buttheads*. And if you are reading this blog and drive a pickup truck, then I'm sorry....Sorry that you are a butthead. 

*Harsher language was used in the car today, but this is a family blog. 

Tate Words III

A little walk down memory lane for the latest edition of "Tate Words." My apologies in advance to people who find sonograms creepy. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: I AM NOT EXPECTING AGAIN. THIS PICTURE IS TATE! 

GESTATE

Note that Tate is shaking his little fist at the camera...even in utero, he had a 'tude. 

Tate Words II

My sister and her husband decided to answer the call for "Tate Words" with their own -- shall we say "interesting" -- entry. If you grew up in Grapevine, you would know that the Mayor for the last 20-something years is "William D. Tate." Thus, Nancy and Todd's contribution to my quest for Tate words is: 

MAYOR TATE

What I like the best about this is Todd's fabulous PhotoShop work. I mean, who would know that this is just Mayor Tate's head superimposed on Tate's body? Beautiful work, Todd. Beautiful. 

In other news, all of this talk about "Naked Aunt Nancy" (see comments on previous posts) has me almost believing that my sister is truly a nudist. To set the record straight: my baby sister is actually a very sweet, married second grade teacher who just likes wearing cute tops without sleeves. So please, stop calling and trying to book her for your upcoming bachelor parties. 

My Sisters

Much has been said about "Naked Aunt Nancy" in the comments section of the previous two posts. Luckily, as the youngest of three girls, she is accustomed to the teasing. When she was a baby, we called her "Stunt Baby"...when she got a little older, we just called her "NB" which was short for "Nancy Beth." I also must mention that she got glasses when she was three years old. 

So one day, when she was probably four, she asked me, her oldest sister whom she trusted, "Jenny, what does NB stand for?"  I looked down at her very seriously and said "well Nancy, it stands for Nerd Bucket."  She just said "OK," nodded her head, pushed her glasses up on her nose and walked off.  And so it stuck. She will always be Nerd Bucket or just "The Bucket" to me. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Nerd Bucket in her glasses, as I believe she has confiscated them all and buried them somewhere in Montana. But in reality, she was actually really cute in them. Anyway...since you asked...a picture of us from childhood (pre Nerd Bucket days), From L to R: Nancy Beth, Brooke and Jenny. 

I haven't written much about Brooke-- mainly because she tends to keep her clothes on at family functions (which is odd for the middle child).  But because we are only 20 months apart, she was my partner in crime for terrorizing poor Nerd Bucket when we were younger.  So Brooke -- where are you girl? I need my comrade for all this online terrorizing of NB!  It's the 21st century version of chasing her with the vacuum cleaner.

And here is the most recent picture of us, also taken at Christmas. Thankfully, my Mom stopped dressing us alike last year. 

And, since I swore my blog would always be about Tate and not pretend that people want to read about me, here are pictures of Tate with his aunts.

"Tate" Words

When we were in the hospital after Tate was born, Rob started a game of thinking of words with "Tate" in them: GraviTATE, agiTATE, muTATE...you get the picture. (hey, it can get boring in the hospital after a while, OK?). So now I am going to put all of those words to use by featuring one every time I have an appropriate picture. 

So, here is my first entry: 

LEVITATE

Damage Control

Following his statement on Friday that "for the first time in my life, I'm proud of my country," and the revelation that pictures have surfaced on the Internet of Tate celebrating a Mexican holiday, Tate is now in full "damage control" mode. To combat the perception that he is not patriotic, his PR handler has released these pictures to the public.

The holiday weekend started with lunch on Thursday with Great Aunt Kathy, who claims she was a "great Aunt" before she became a "Great Aunt." We agree.

Mama Mia and Mama June (not pictured) also joined us. No, that is not hair coming out of Tate's ear. He has a monkey on his back. No, not like that. An actual stuffed monkey. Oh, nevermind.

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Todd (not pictured) were there, too. This picture was taken minutes before the unfortunate flag incident in the ladies' restroom of Cheddar's.

After the aforementioned "incident," Tate was forced to go incognito with his own Secret Service agent.

The Dean family came over to swim on the Fourth of July. How cute is Henry?!?

Um, don't answer that question now! Where's Tate's Secret Service agent when he needs him?!? (Just kidding, Henry is cute as a button, and he probably learned how to make faces like this from his Mom...)

This would be what we in the PR world call a "planned photo op."

Reenacting Iwo Jima. Or the moon landing. Or something patriotic.

Tate clapped for the first time on the Fourth of July. Here, he applauds the removal of that girly sunhat.

"Whoa. Don't move, Big Guy. I just heard a loud boom, and it didn't come from my diaper."

"Oh! Fireworks!" (Tate seemed to like them.)

We had a nice time at the Medinas' pool party on Saturday...

...except that they had Rock Band, which Rob and the 8-year-olds played over and over. Tate was Rob's biggest (and only) fan. Bless his heart, he still thinks his Dad is cool.

Happy Fourth of July

For the first time in his life, Tate is proud of his country. To prove it, he will be wearing a flag for the next four days. And if the Star Spangled Banner is played, he will hold his hand over his heart, we promise. This is all to make up for what he did to desecrate the flag yesterday while I was changing his diaper. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what he did because Rob is afraid that 40 years from now Tate will be running for President and FOX News will find this blog and tell the world that Tate hates America. It's not true -- Tate loves America! See...

Separated at birth II

I have decided to make "Separated at Birth" a regular feature of the blog. Thanks to postdodson (aka my parents) for sending in this week's entry! 

Tate and Spanky say "That'd be swell!" 

Crawling

Time to babyproof...