Golf

I remember the first time we took Hogan out to play golf. He was about 2 moths old, tiny, red, and scrunched up. I think he slept through all nine holes bundled up in his infant carrier. Now, just a little more than a year later, he's all over the course, swinging his club, running down fairways, and grabbing everyone's ball off the putting green so that he can throw it in the hole.

Saturday Treat

Papa G. had a layover at the airport on his way back home, so we all had dinner last night. Hogan was surprised when Papa got in the backseat of the car with him, but quickly got over his surprise and asked Papa about Nana. I think Hogan thinks that the two are inseparable. If you've got a Papa, then there must be a Nana close by.

During dinner, Hogan charmed us all with his kisses and giggles, interspersing his charm with dismayed remarks about having to sit in his highchair.

When it came time to say our good-byes to Papa at the airport Hogan shouted his "Bye Bye Papa" only after Papa had left the car. A little delayed, but definitely well-meaning! Seeing Papa was the perfect perk to our rather ordinary day.

Splish! Splash! Storytime

The public library has teamed up with the water park in town to have a Splish! Splash! Storytime every Friday morning. Hogan tolerated the story and song time while eyeing the water with anticipation. Once storytime was over all the kids who had been waiting with varying degrees of patience scrambled to the water. Last week Hogan held back a little, watching and studying. This week he played with abandon and explored everything.

Make Up

Hogan and I put on our make up together before going to the store. He even taught me a trick or two about getting a nice even application!

Zoo

Hogan's on the loose!


















Waving good-bye to the duck


















Studying the macaws

Looking down on the giraffes

Bye Da!

There's nothing sweeter than seeing Hogan send his daddy off to work with a kiss.

Uncle

We loved seeing Uncle Gunckel this past weekend. Hogan had to get reacquainted, but now he knows that Uncle can make a bumble bee buzzing sound and has some interesting moles on his face.

Ring Around the Rosies

Hogan loves playing Ring Around the Rosies. He really likes when other people fall down.

Monkey

The mother in me is so torn when I have moments like these. Do I sternly reprimand him for climbing on his crib or do I reinforce the behavior by cheering him on so I can get some good photographs? Obviously, I went with the latter. I couldn't help it! He surprises me daily with his physical abilities and it makes me wonder how long he's been practicing this maneuver behind closed doors. Be on the look out for pictures of him actually making it into his crib in the next few weeks!

Night Night ducks

The closest park to us has a duck pond. These ducks must get fed a lot because they hang out on the sidewalk right beside the pond and do not seemed the slightest bit ruffled when people approach, even when one of them is an 18-month old walking ball of curiosity. The first day that Hogan and I visited the ducks, I didn't have my camera and we didn't bring food. These ducks kept their heads nestled into their feathers and wouldn't even look at us. Hogan watched the sleeping ducks, looked at me, and said, "Night? Night?" The next time we went to the park we brought food. We're no dummies. As soon as we threw the first morsel the "sleeping" ducks awakened and waddled over to the food. However, the ducks did not keep the personal space rule, and I was afraid to move too far from Hogan. I was pretty sure that given the chance Hogan would try to "touch it". I was also pretty sure that given the chance this Godfather of a duck was going to snatch Hogan's cracker right out of his hand.

In the Car

While we did visit many interesting places from Texas to North Carolina and then back again, I have to dedicate the last travel photos to inside the car. We learned a lot about one another on these long 13 hour days in the car. We learned that each of us had a breaking point. On our 2nd day of travel on the way to North Carolina Troy said that he had lost his will to drive back. He told Hogan and I that we needed to start thinking of building a life in North Carolina because he didn't think he could drive all the way back to Texas.

My breaking point was when Hogan went for 10 straight hours without taking a nap. I didn't think I could pull out one more entertaining trick without crying. Even though he was being so good in the back seat it took a constant changing of activities every 10-15 minutes to keep him satisfied. This is a grueling pace!

Hogan hit his breaking point about every two hours. I would start rummaging through my box of things and handing him different things and when every single answer was an emphatic, "No!" we knew we needed to stop and take a break.


















Overall, it was a fun trip and we'll definitely do it again. We think that if we can make it through four 13-hour days in the car, we can really do anything and go anywhere. Road trip anyone???

Puppy Love!

It was love at first sight. Hogan saw this life-size puppy in the toy store and immediately bent down and gave it hug. Of course, Nana thought he needed it. Throughout our week in North Carolina Hogan rode his puppy, pushed it down the stairs, and crawled all over it. The only problem is we have no room in our packed car for Hogan's new (and only) pet. This might have been Nana's plan all along. Now we'll have to make a trip to come pick up our new pet dog!