Am I really THAT busy?

I just realized today how many things have gone on since my last post in late November, and yet I've managed to be silent for a month. Guess I've really been THAT busy (welcome to life with a 10-month-old)! The good news is that I have some vacation time during these next few weeks, so I'll have plenty of time to post about things going on in Andersonville. Stay tuned!!

A fabulous weekend!

Justin and I have always loved our weekends. They are our time to spend together. But, when Brady was born, they took on a new meaning. This weekend was probably one of the most fun we've had.

Saturday morning, we had an appointment for Brady to participate in a study being conducted by Duke University's psychology department. They're trying to understand better how babies learn to process language. When we arrived, they explained in more detail how the study works. They are sitting babies at 3, 6 and 9 months of age in front of a TV screen that plays an image for them to watch (sitting on mommy or daddies lap, that is). On the left- and right-hand side of the TV, behind curtains, there are speakers. In alternating patterns, they played words in English and Japanese to see how/if the baby reacted to the different sounds (the parent puts on head phones and listen to other music, so they don't subconciously encourage the child to listen to another noise). The researcher watched Brady through a camera in another room and filmed him, observing carefully his movements. Brady was interested for about 5 minutes of the 10-minute test. Then he was interested in everything else! It was pretty funny to watch him. Maybe even funnier was watching Justin try to keep a straight face! Anyway, we successfully finished and Brady got a certificate, a picture of us in the lab and a crisp $5 bill. That's going in the college fund!

When we were done, it was off to watch the Florida-South Carolina football game. This game is always bittersweet. Yes, Urban Meyer has proven himself, and we really do love him now. But, he'll never be Steve Spurrier. The 'ol ball coach's return to the Swamp is always bittersweet. However, we're OK with it when it is a 56-6 BLOWOUT! I won't harp on the details, but I feel like we're on our way to Miami. It's hard to look past our next few games... maybe not the Citadel, but for sure Florida State and then Bama in the SEC Championship... but it just feels like it is our season! OK, no jinx.

Next! On Sunday, we were off to the NC Zoo in Asheboro! It was Brady's first trip to a zoo - and mine! How much fun. We had a blast! While we only made it to the North America side of the zoo (we'll go back for the Africa visit soon!), we saw bears, snakes, spiders, otters, gators, ocelots, cougars, turtles and more! While we couldn't get pictures, Brady's favorite exhibit was the spotted skunk. He was laughing up a storm at the little guy, who was running around like a madman in his man-made environment. It was awesome! Brady stayed awake during our entire visit, and when he hit his carseat, it took him all of 15 minutes before he fell asleep.

Check out our pics!

One amazing weekend!

Chomp, chomp, chomp...

Yes, the Gators play South Carolina this weekend. We're stoked. Spurrier's homecoming games are always fun. And, we're having an awesome year, so hopefully a big win will make it all the more fun. In fact, I found this image and it made me laugh! Oh how I miss poor Spurrier and his visor tosses.

But, it isn't these chompers consuming my thoughts today. Nope, it's Brady's pearly whites. I just can't get over his emerging grill! He's got six teeth poking through, and it seems like there may be another tooth or two on their way through the gums soon. Can't believe he's not even nine months old and his darn mouth is full of teeth!

And, with teeth come fun food! Brady's favorite snack is goldfish! Quite honestly, I forgot they even existed, but the daycare ladies are fabulous! Now, Brady starts kicking and talking to us the minute he sees the bag. And, he's using his teeth to chomp them up. It's so cute! You can totally hear them crunching. It's quite reassuring since we found out the ugly way that he wasn't actually chewing the cheerios. I'll let you figure out the rest.

Thanking MY engineer!

My amazing husband Justin just got his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's top-ranked Kenan-Flagler Business School, but he'll always be a nerd... er... engineer at heart. I love it, as he and most of his engineering buddies have some pretty endearing qualities.

One of my favorite examples of this came as we were putting our house in Dallas on the market just before moving to North Carolina. The previous owner had done a pretty shotty wiring job on our patio lighting, and long story short, it ended up shorting out some of our other lighting. Rather than hire an electrician, Justin and one of his electrical engineering buddies decided it would be a better idea to do it themselves. Well, I quickly learned that electrical engineers are not electricians. After a few wiring diagrams (bad sign #1) and more lighting shorts (bad sign #2), I had enough legitimate gripes that we hired an electrician (who I was able to joke with about the situation!).

Anyway, maybe it is things like this that make me so fond of TI's new "Thank an engineer" campaign (see www.ti.com/thankanengineer). TI basically created a campaign that ponders what life would be like without engineers, who are behind the technologies we all use on a daily basis without thinking twice. From washing machines to cell phones to calculators, engineers at companies like TI are making things better, faster, smaller, cheaper.

Take a look at what life might be like if it weren't for engineers. And, if you have ideas for other videos, enter them in the TI contest. You can win a Flip video camera!

A silly obsession?

OK. I never thought I would say this, but I'm OBSESSED... with vampires! No, really. I am. Weird coming from me, isn't it? So all the rage these days in our office is the Twilight series. I kept hearing all the gals dishing about it, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking, "These girls are so weird. Why would anyone in their right mind read a book about teenage love and vampires." Well, lo and behold, Justin decided to start watching the HBO series, True Blood. The first episode turned my stomach, so I decided not to watch it. But, between his liking for the show and all the office chatter about Twilight, I decided to give the book a whirl. I was sucked in by page 27 (thanks, ELSA!). I haven't read any books in a long time that have evoked so many emotions - love, hate, fear, sadness, passion, depression. It leaves you yearning to turn the next page! The books are fairly long, but they are quick reads. I read the first two in a week, and started the third on Saturday. I'm not so sure that it makes my hubby happy, so I'm trying to read sparingly, but it's so hard to not sit in a chair with a cup of coffee and read straight through!

In the meantime, I've started watching True Blood as well. Wow. I love it. The dynamics between the characters - Sookie, Bill and Sam in particular - is amazing! It's a little more graphic than the Twilight series, but it's amazing the parallels in the two series (BTW... so glad HBO came up with something "dark" to replace Six Feet Under, which I miss SO much.)

Yesterday, I gave a whirl at explaining to Justin just why I'm so obsessed. The character dynamics are incredibly interesting/powerful. Like I said earlier, the experiences they encounter evoke a ton of of emotions. I also find the idea of sub-cultures incredibly interesting... and creepy! But, for now, it's my OBSESSION! :)

Picture perfect weekend

North Carolina in the fall is probably one of the prettiest places to be. It is beautiful. The trees are amazing - red, yellow, orange and some green - and the weather is perfect. We were supposed to take a trip to Charleston, SC, to visith with friends who were coming in to meet with their wedding planner, but Brady's ear problems kept us close to home. So, we decided to spend as much time outside as possible.

Today's ventures took as to Jordan Lake, which is just outside of Chapel Hill. It was much busier than we expected for this time of year, but it was beautiful. I'll load more pictures onto Picasa soon, but in the meantime, enjoy some of these!

One rough night

Last night was nuts. Justin and I felt like we had a one-month-old instead of an eight-month-old. That's what crummy ear infections do to kids. They make them wake up screaming every couple of hours during the night. It's awful. There isn't anything you can do but put a few drops in their ears and hope it relieves the pain. Anyway, I think tubes - the last resort - are not too far away. Nothing else is working, and it's awful to think he's that uncomfortable. They say this time of year is the worst for ears, and if last night was any kind of indicator, I think we can validate that theory. We had a cold front come through, and we think the change in pressure set it off. At least the 103.7 fever is gone.

In other news, we're still on the high of Florida's victory last night. If we can pull off wins for the rest of the season - including a Bama beating in the ATL - it's off to the Orange Bowl we gone.

Our inspiration...

We've been keeping track of our life using Picasa, Facebook and YouTube, but Andersonville on Blogspot just rounds things out. I tried creating a Web site on the Mac, but well, I really need something a tad simpler than that for the time being.

So, we'll kick off this blog with a note on our inspiration. Uncle Corey, thanks!! Justin, Brady and I had a blast keeping up with Aunt Sarah's pregnancy these last nine months, but almost more importantly, we almost felt like we were there when Sarah had her baby thanks to your amazing play-by-play postings! We can't wait to see you guys and meet Mr. Coen-Bud, but until then, blogs away! :-) And, who knows, maybe we can get Uncle T-Daddy and Aunt Linds blogging too. What a great way to stay connected!

It has been a typical Sunday in the Anderson household today. Brady woke us up at 6:30 a.m. to play. We went back to sleep and forgot to set our alarms, so we were about an hour late getting Brady to the doctor for his final shot in a series of antibiotic treatments he started on Thursday. We watched Gameday. We played with Brady. I bought some shishkabobs. We fed Brady. We cleaned house while watching football games. We changed Brady's diaper. Justin grilled. We fed Brady. We bathed Brady. We watched the Gator game (and flipped back and forth to see the Texas Tech game...) and tried to teach Brady to say, "Go Gators!" We read Brady a book and put him to bed. And, Justin and I just finished watching Vandy eat dirt as Florida dished out a 42-14 win at Dudley Field in Nashville.

So what was different today? Brady started cruising! Yes, folks, he's now able to pull himself up and walk while holding on to other objects. We just can't believe it! He's still not truly crawling, and he's getting ready to walk. Unbelievable. There goes any and all remaining sanity - out the window! Anyway, he slowly, yet methodically, moves from one piece of furniture to the next. He won't let go with both hands until he's got a hold of something else. He's not quite sure what to do when he falls, but we try to laugh when it happens to let him know it's OK. He's slowly learning that falling isn't all that bad, especially when he's surrounded by pillows (and mommy and daddy!).

And, now that he's finally starting to feel better, he's also Chatty Cathy. What a riot! We were trying to get him to say "Go Gators," but it came out more like a growl of "da da da." OK. Close enough. Maybe we'll get there tomorrow. In the meantime, check out our YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/g8rdaddy) for the latest three videos, including Brady pulling himself up, "walking" and saying "Go Gators!" You can also check out this exclusive video, which has not been published elsewhere. It shows the unpredictability of babies when they learn to walk!