We Have News!!

Well, no news that you'll probably be interested, but we do have updates. I was so excited about getting you all up to date, and about posting so many posts so often, and now I've not done anything for two weeks and I feel like you're so out of date again!! So to get you caught up-

Brandon is cutting his 1 year molars and they are giving him such a hard time! When Russell cut teeth, I don't remember him even having a sniffle; not the case for Mr. Brandon. He was sick (vomiting, diarrhea, whiney, the whole 9 yards) off and on for about five days, but has finally started feeling more like himself. I was worried about him getting dehydrated, but we were able to force enough water, Gatorade, and Pedialite for it not to come to that.
He is taking steps, and is now brave enough to take 6 or 7 steps at a time; he had been only taking 2 or 3 steps at a time, but only when no one was really paying attention. Along with walking (or trying to walk) he has found a new favorite toy-my laundry basket! Forget those fancy "walking toys", just give the kid a laundry basket and he's content! But make sure that if there's one around it's empty, because he gets pretty aggravated if he can't flip it over to play with!

Ben has just recently gotten a promotion at work (WOOHOO!!!) and now has his own sales route. That's what he originally wanted when he applied for the job, but they didn't have a route available for him. Well one opened up a couple of weeks ago and Ben was picked to fill the position. We are very excited and hope for good things with this new challenge. Wish him luck!!

And finally (and most exciting for me!), ladies and gentleman, please turn your attention to our very own, brand new KINDERGARTENER!!!!!!! That's right, Russell started Kindergarten on August 10th, and is now a BMES Bear! He had an Awesome first day and LOVES Kindergarten (most days anyway!). I picked him up as a car rider on the first day and he talked non-stop the whole way back to my work (a 30+ minute drive) about all the fun things he got to do. Here's how it went (or close to it anyway)...

Me-"Hey Buddy, did you have a good first day??"
Russell-"Yeah, you know what we did today?"
"What did you do today?"
"We got to play outside, and we went to lunch, and we got to do Art, and you know what else?"
"No, what else?"
"My most favoritest (hey, it's in the dictionary, look it up!) thing today was we got to go on the computers! I colored. And you know who I saw today?"
"No, who'd you see today?" (get ready!)
"I saw Olivia, and Olivia's Daddy. And I saw Lily, and I saw Jacob, and you know who else?"
"No, who else?" (by this point I'm thinking 'Just spit it out!')
"And I saw Mrs. Stephanie (his Pre-K teacher) and Stephanie, the girl from my Pre-K class, and you know who else?"
"And I saw Mrs. Stephanie four times today, and she smiled at me. (rolls his eyes, but has a huge grin on his face!)"

So this is how our conversation went the whole way back to my work. We talked about how he ate a Corndog for lunch, and how it was so hot, and how he liked the brownie I sent for his snack...But the funniest part to me was when he goes, "Shew, it's hot out and I'm tired."!!! Sounds like we both were exhausted from his pretty amazing sounding day! :)
His 2nd day of school I had to drop him off at the daycare and have him ride the school bus to school so I could be to work on time. He looked a little nervous, but he did fine. So fine that when Ben asked him on the 3rd day of school did he want to be a car rider again, Russell said No and that he wanted to ride the school bus! Ben was bummed but it actually all worked out for Ben because Russell was exhausted that 3rd morning and agreed to let Ben take him to school so that he could sleep a few more minutes. :) He's adjusted pretty well to the new routine, as have the rest of us. Some mornings are harder than others, but we have managed to be on time every day so far (knock on wood!). But a new week is ahead, so we'll see what's in store!

Russell has again gotten a new belt in karate (they test each month) and is a Tiger Cub Brown Belt. I think he only has one more belt before Black, and then he will (or should, I think) graduate out of the Tiger Cub class and begin the 'regular' levels of TaeKwonDo. Things are hectic right now between school, football, karate and everything else, but we hope he'll want to keep going with karate; he does very well at it, and it helps him a lot. We'll see I guess.

And finally, speaking of football, Russell had his first football game on August 22. Unfortunately we lost 31-6, but I think he had a good time out there! There was a freelance photographer there who took pictures throughout the game, and has posted them on his website. The web address is http://www.binghamfreelance.com/ and it will be under the 2009 Recpark Football folder. Once there, click on the 8/22 Gilmer vs. Dawson 2 folder and the pictures should pull up. It's hard to identify who is in what pictures, but you'll know Russell by either his #6, or by the gold stripes of his Adidas cleats. :) There are quite a few pictures of him "in action" as well as a still shot that is quite cute, if I may say so. I can't wait until the next game (September 5th) to see what happens with it. We may not win, but it will be entertaining!!