Note to Self

Note to Self: book the Royal Restrooms for my next big party.

(They're air conditioned!  Who could say no?)

Like Father, Like Son and The Birds and the Bees

Miles has a new found and intense love for Dave since he's been working so much.  They are on a special date tonight at a baseball game.  Lucky boys.  Anyway, Miles has always loved Dave, of course, but definitely preferred me.  Tables are turning, though, folks.  That boy has been digging his dad.  He gets so excited when Dave gets home from work and wants to "hang out" endlessly.

Like Father like son:

I like those pictures.

Before we move on to the birds and the bees, let this be a warning to you: if you don't like body parts talk, stop reading and move on.

Before we left MN, we went to some parents-talk-to-your-kids-about-sex thing.  The lady presenting had some horrifying statistics like 1 in 4 (or something equally scary) kids gets molested and it's most commonly from someone they know well.

Sorry to ruin your day.

Anyway, the lady kept saying, "talk early, talk often."  

Talking to Miles about sex/body parts/whatever doesn't give me the heebie jeebies at all.  He got me, though.

Miles has been increasingly aware of the changes he experiences in his wiener.  You know, erections-- they happen to men and boys of all ages.  Recently, when we were doing the bed time routine, Dave and I experienced the hugest fit of hilarity.  We sent Miles to go pee one last time and when he stood up he looked down at his pants and said "Woah, my wiener is GIMOROUS (ginormous)" and he just kept going on and on as he tried to navigate the whole experience.  You'd really have had to have been there.  It was really funny.  That's not where he got me.

The other day I was with him in the bathroom while he was peeing and he said, "WOAH, my wiener is getting big."  I said, "Yeah, that happens."  He looked at me and as straight faced, serious and matter of fact as could be said, "Why?"  I responded with something along the lines of "It happens to all boys.  It's normal. It just means your healthy.  It happens to dad too."  He thought about it for a second and said "Yeah but dad's wiener is big ALL the time."  

And I was stumped.  He got me.

I did tell him that he was mistaken and that Dave is just older and you get bigger all over your body when you get older, but that was about the best I could do.  I feel it necessary to clarify, Miles has never seen an erect adult... you know.  To be a child... what a mind blowing experience it must be to grow up.  Blowing enough that I think most of us forget it.  Whew!

Funny thing, those birds and bees...

HOUSTON

So far, I have nothing witty or wild or special to share about Houston.  The whole experience has been nothing like MN.  Nothing like this to report.  I, SHOCKINGLY, like Houston.  Quite a bit.  The heat is ramping up and we'll see how I feel after the summer, but so far, it's been a pleasant surprise all around.  Our place is tubular.  The landlord painted it after we got here which made moving in slightly impossible, but that's all a distant memory these days.

Dave is already working like a freakin' dog and we don't see him much.  We expected that, and I'm used to it, but it's more obvious these days.  Less access to a car, less access to Dave.  As much as I want to get up and get Dave to work at [insert any time between 6 and 7am], I think I actually DON'T want to do that.  So  we wind up stranded most of the time.  We did take him to work one day so we could take advantage of the free zoo afternoon.  

HEY, EVERYBODY: if you ever come to Houston, skip the zoo on the afternoon of the first Tuesday of the month.  It is absolutely, positively NUTS.

It was, quite literally, a miracle that we got a parking spot, after we sat in the traffic just to get to said parking lot.  I was seriously prepping Miles that we weren't going to be going to the zoo after all.  We circled the small-medium sized parking lot along with the other 20-30 cars again and again.  And then it happened.  The miracle.  The parking spot.  

And apparently, this post is turning into a post about the zoo.

It was hot the day we went.  And humid.  I was wearing a skirt with one of those fold down waistband thingies.  You know it-- wet with sweat in the front, wet with sweat in the back.  Aside from the ridiculously sized crowd and the especially comfortable heat and humidity, I thought the Houston Zoo was neat-o.  They had the biggest crazy variety of birds I've ever seen.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but here's a few (OK, five):

The two pictures of birds I have are absolutely no representation of the insane birds you see at the Houston Zoo.

 Don't know what this is.

This, ladies and gents, is a giant stork.  Or something.

 This was also my most successful viewing experience of elephants.  It was the closest I've ever been and they did all kinds of fun stuff while we watched.

Maybe I'll wait until... October to go back to the zoo.  November?  Whenever it's cooler.  And we'll just swim all summer long until we turn into fish!  Hooray for Houston.

Shucks

This move to Houston seemed to be a bit harder on our stuff than any of our other billion moves...

Case in Point:

 Son of a...

In other news, Miles keeps me happy and laughing.

Today he was going on about wanting to do an art project.  We've always kept his crayons in a ziploc bag in a drawer in our computer desk and they've been in his room since we've been here.  He was telling me, "Yeah but I don't know where my crayons are (opens the drawer and pulls out the only ziploc bag he sees) because look:  FLIPPER PIPS."

That's a good one.

The Last of Minnesota Stuff: GRADUATION

FYI, this post is long.  Very, very long.  Lots and lots of pictures.  Nobody from either my or Dave's family were able to make it out to his graduation and I know his parents (and others, but especially his parents) would have really loved to be there.  So, I'm just trying to make them feel like they were.

Before graduation there was a luncheon at the football stadium club level something or other.  It was tubular.

Dave's class picture on the jumbo-tron.

 Miles and I hung out in the chairs overlooking the stadium while they did more adult-ish type things like a couple speeches and handing out some awards, etc.  I was really glad they were there to give him something to do.

The word on the street was that parking would be hard to come by so we decided to take the free University bus that went from where we lived to the school.  That meant we were going to have to fill up a couple to a few hours between the luncheon and graduation, but we went for it.   We walked around campus a little bit and went to the bookstore.  It was super.

Miles looks pretty stoked to be hanging out with that Minnesota golden gopher.

GRADUATION

Since we were on foot, I got to walk with Dave to the spot he had to report and button his buttons and wipe his nose and hang out before he went in.  'Twas also super.

The Before:

 No experience is complete without one...

 Miles wasn't all that into smiling at first...

 There we go.

After we parted ways I went into the arena and got settled.  That also means I took Miles in the stroller up the escalator, had the wheels get caught at the top dumping Miles forward, smashing my shins like nobody's business into the back of the stroller, having the person behind help me get unstuck and wheeling away with no tears or injuries aside from my smashed shins and the time I grabbed at Miles' face when I was trying to get a grip on something to lift the front of the stroller.  Needless to say, I was sweating.  Anyway, we parked the stroller, I loaded up with my big camera bag, my purse, Dave's suit coat and Miles in tow and we went allllll the way down alllllll the stairs.  I unloaded and sat down hoping to stop sweating SOON.  Ten seconds later, Miles told me he had to pee.  So I loaded everything back up and up, up, up the stairs we went!  Luckily a friend of mine was near the bathroom so I didn't have to take all my stuff in.  Whew!

They had this quartet playing until the commencement started.  It was quite lovely to have some entertainment while we waited for it to start.

Filing in:

 Located us.

 Getting in line for his turn.

 Up next.

The walk:

So the grads are supposed to file back out and meet their families at a different location, but Dave decide to break the rules.  It went something like this:

Saying hi to Miles...

Breaking out of the walk...

 Waiting for Miles to go ever so clumsily down the 5 or so stairs...

Getting his boy:

 Miles was really excited to see Dave and I'm sure he felt so special that he got to go down and see him.  It was a cute/special/memorable little moment.  I like Dave.  And Miles.

The After:

 HALLELUJAH.

Pretty sky.

 Look at those grubby, dirty little fingers from all the walking around Dinkytown/touching everything in sight.  Also loving the blue mouth form the sucker he ate during graduation.  So very well kept looking.

This is where and when Dave talked to his parents in Argentina, and where we waited for a bus that never came.  Since it never came, we had to walk all back through Dinkytown and catch a city bus.  We didn't get home until 9pm or something, so there was no celebratory dinner, but it was still a great and memorable day.  Dave has mentioned many a time in his first two weeks of work how GREAT it feels to just have to think about work and not work AND school.

Dave, you sexy Master of Healthcare Administration-- so proud of you for your accomplishment.  Especially proud of you for working the whole time and supporting us and balancing all those aspects of your life.  You da bomb.

SAYONARA SCHOOL!