While Daddy was at work slavin’ away and earnin’ some bacon for us, me, Brennan, and Molly gallivanted our way down to San Antonio to play with Pops and Meems.  Most days we took it easy with an errand here or there, like to Hobby Lobby where Meems helped me put together some family frames.  I’m finally getting some pictures on the walls of our Chunky Monkey.  If you’d stepped into our home a few weeks ago, there would be no proof that we had a child.  Well, except for the toys.  And the highchair.  And the carrot fingerprints on the fridge next to the highchair.  Oh, and the child himself.

Speaking of said child, here he is at Hobby Lobby.  I better not plan on keeping him still in that grocery cart for very long.  It must be moving, and not just moving back and forth, but going somewhere.  Fortunately for me, Hobby Lobby is a big store with many aisles.  One of the aisles had feathery boas that I used to tickle thoroughly annoy Brennan.  At least I had fun, in a very cruel sense of the word.  Also fortunate for me is my Momma’s spatial gifts whereby I could leave her by herself to pick out the frames, matting, and picture orientation.  Bless you, Momma!

Here he is again in the eleventh aisle we perused.  By the way, I don’t normally take random pictures of my boy while running errands like this.  One of Matt’s stipulations in letting his family gallivant for a week was to email him pictures on a daily basis.  Oh, and my brother has also requested I send him random pictures like this throughout the day as well for his “Brennan file”.  I aim to please. 

My Momma was finally able to bring the furniture of Gaga’s she received back to San Antonio, and has started getting their home situated with the new items and unpacking all the boxes we brought from last summer.  We’d reminisce and talk about Gaga; go through the old family pictures and treasured keepsakes we’d found but hadn’t seen in awhile; and worked a bit on getting their home settled.  But who could really get a home settled with four pups and a cutie patootie who wants to climb all over you and practice his standing?  Gallivanting and playing was the order of the day, anyway.

Someone let someone get into the paper towel…and her Tupperware…and let him pull her hair…and play with her makeup brushes, etc., etc., etc…!  They need a sign that says Grandchildren spoiled here.  Oh, wait.  They do.

Daddy works most of the week in Corpus Christi, but he made special exceptions this week and came on Tuesday and Thursday nights to have dinner with us and see Brennan before he went to sleep.  I love my Daddy.  Tuesday night, Brennan kept waking up through the night and I was exhausted and emotional.  I missed getting to say ‘goodbye’ to Daddy before he left for Corpus and was very sad about it.  I called and left a message on his phone.  Although trying not to sound too sad, I told him I loved him and missed giving him a hug goodbye.  Thirty minutes later, who walked in the door but Daddy, who hadn’t quite made it out of town yet and “Couldn’t leave without saying ‘goodbye’ to his little girl”.  I love that man.

That man is who we celebrated last weekend!  I made a carrot cake, which we delved into the night prior to his birthday to make sure we enjoyed as much as we could.  I also love the man who worked hard for his family all week, even did a few ‘honey-do’s’, and drove down for the weekend to be with us.  Matt was thrilled to see his little boy again declaring, “His hair even got thicker!”

Does this cake look like it’s on fire or what!?

This is what Matt and I are going to look like when we’re older.

One of the things we did for Daddy’s birthday was pick out a new T.V. for them.  They had a seventeen year old telly that was super frustrating.  After saving their gift cards to wait for the right moment, they were finally ready to make the big purchase.  We made a special trip to Best Buy to pick it out together.  To make a long story short, the T.V. didn’t end up fitting the cabinet and the exchange was a nightmare.  But finally on Sunday afternoon, Matt was able to install their new T.V.  Thanks, hubby, you helped with that in so many ways!

Obviously, someone was pretty fascinated by it.

For Pops’ birthday, I repainted a watercolor painting I’d done in the 4th grade that had faded.  Talk about a sad reality check at how old I am now…my elementary art projects have faded…badly!  And we helped him with a ticket to Sea World.  Instead of a conventional package this year, we used Brennan and put papers in his pockets that symbolized each gift.  So after church on Saturday night, Pops had to go searching through Brennan’s person to find them.  We were nice and didn’t put them in his diaper.  By the way, kudos to Meems who changed nearly every poopy diaper of his that week and received a nice amount of spit up on her as well. 

We gave Pops a card that you could record a message which Meems and I worked tirelessly on for two days to get a decent recording of Brennan’s babble.  But the cat got his tongue.  For two days.  That, and he got distracted by having the colorful, noisy card in his face at inappropriate moments like a diaper change.  At what was probably the last possible time for us to get anything, Meems unexpectedly got Brennan into a giggle fest and it was perfect!  Pops had giggles on his card! 

I’ve never seen Daddy more enamored than he is with Brennan.  

After Brennan went to bed, we enjoyed a flavorful chicken curry meal over a couple of rounds of Clue.  I’ve already put the order in for my birthday dinner next year to be the same thing.  But with chocolate cream pie.  Two of them.  That worked out to my advantageous really well this past year.

On Sunday, we were stoked because we were taking Brennan to Sea World for the first time!  It’s just one of my most favorite places on earth.  I heart Shamu.  And the dolphins…who need names, don’t you think?

We hit Shamu first.  By all accounts of this picture, you can see how enthusiastic, over-the-top-excited, I was to show Brennan Shamu.  It’s kinda scary.  It was during his naptime and he whimpered a bit at the noise of the crowds, but then other times he watched in amazement.  I think he’ll grow to love it.  He’s just gotta.  I mean, who doesn’t love Shamu!?

Then we took a stroll to the penguin exhibit, particularly for the A/C.  It was sweltering hot (which, by the way, we’re on something like our 42nd day of triple-digit heat!!!!  And we need rain, desperately!)  Anyway, it was cool and dark in there so we sat on one of the benches and let Brennan take a nap.  I caught Meems closing her eyes, too.  So I closed mine as well.  Forget March of the Penguins, penguins are popular for more resourceful things like a dark, air conditioned exhibit!

Our next and last stop of the day was at the dolphin show.  It’s a toss up as to which he liked more:  the dolphins or the people sitting behind us whom he kept turning around to gaze upon.

It was a mighty fine week, thank you, Pops and Meems!  And without disclosing too much information, Daddy has a really big birthday coming up next year.  And well, Daddy, if you think this year was a blast, just wait ‘till next year.  Just you wait!