Week 121:Healthy appetite

After a long run of illness it was refreshing for Tate to get back to his rowdy old self again. With my little guy running ninety to nothing Chuck and I decided it would be good to let him run off some of his energy at the indoor playground at the mall. As usual, Tate had a blast climbing up the slide, jumping off of the various animals and running around like a wild man.
After a good play session we headed to Shorty Small's for a quick bite of super. Chuck and I ordered burgers and picked chicken strips for the little guy. Tate has never really been much on hamburgers. So we've order, then we wait, and wait and in a few minutes the little buzzer thingy starts flashing and vibrating signaling Chuck to retrieve our meal.
He comes back and sets everything down and settles in. Meanwhile, Tate looks at his basket of fries and chicken strips and then looks to his right at my basket of fries and cheeseburger. What happened next both shocked and tickled me. The little punk helped himself to my burger, picking up this monstrosity of meat that is nearly as big as his head and takes a bite.
Now Tate's never been much on burgers so for him to snub his beloved chicken strips and tackle my burger was quite a feat in itself. But what really caught me off guard was how he just dive bombed it after spending the past several days picking at his food. I suppose he was finally hungry.

Week 120: Tate's sick

I don't have any cute pictures or sweet stories for this post. This week Tate had his first case of strep throat. Over the weekend he ran a pretty high fever and he was terribly irritable at times. Sunday afternoon Chuck and I decided this warranted a trip to the doctor.
At the clinic it didn't take long for the doctor to discover a red, nasty throat complete with lots of "pus pockets." He even had one in his mouth, yuck!
My little man got some antibiotics and was sent home. After two days at home (and way too many episodes of Scooby Doo), we were all ready for Tate to go back to daycare.
He finished out the week at school before he developed what seemed like a never-ending case of diarrhea, which earned him another day and a half out of school, and caused a rather nasty diaper rash. Thank you so much antibiotics!!!!
Ten days later he's back in good health and ornery as ever.

Week 120: A new addition to the family

I'm proud to announce a new member of the Hardin family. The news of this new addition came about two weeks ago and Tate couldn't be more excited. Me, I'm happy too, but Chuck, well, he's kind of "whatever's clever" about it, but he seems to be warming up to the idea.
Ok already, I'll spill the beans... Tate has a puppy. Ok, well, technically it's not his puppy, but don't tell him that.
Friday before last Tate and I hitched a ride to the lake with Chuck's mom. As we got into Mountain Home we were discussing what we were going to do until the guys joined us later in the evening. There was definitely going to be some dinner and maybe some shopping.
In true woman fashion we changed our minds a couple times before we agreed on a plan. Somehow we ended up in the Wal-Mart parking lot when we spotted this lady sitting under a tree selling puppies. Low and behold the lady had 8-week-old Yorkie pups...exactly what Cora Sue has been wanting for months and months. So we stopped and looked at the puppies. Immediately Tate found a puppy, dubbing it: "my puppy."
Oh, of course, we eewed and awed and it pulled at our heart strings. Eventually I called Tony and told him we had a problem. I explained that Tate had found this sweet little dog. I told him Tate had said "my puppy" and everything. Plus we just didn't know how we were going to get away from there without Tate having a major melt down. To my astonishment (and Cora Sue's) he said go ahead, get it. So we did.
Tate LOVES this little dog! Every time we leave Tony and Cora Sue's house these days he talks about the puppy for several minutes.
"My puppy...puppy dog...Sissy," (he's close, the dog's name is Izzy).
The dog is cute and so sweet. She weighs a pound or two and won't get much bigger than five pounds... the perfect lap dog for Tate's Nana and a perfect playmate for Tate. They run and chase each other and then fall over from exhaustion and take a nap together. Those two are like peas and carrots!!!!

Week 119: Tate in the Box

I had heard that children are almost always more entertained with the box than the toy that came in it.
Tate is no exception - he loves boxes!
The other day I made the trip to Sam's Wholesale Club to purchase a package of pull-ups. I got them home and dispersed them, some in the downstairs bathroom, some more upstairs in the bathroom and the oh so important stash in the car. While I busied myself putting away the diapers Tate discovered the treasure! He found the empty diaper box and began to play with it. Next thing I know he's playing IN it.
He would climb in the box, somehow arranging himself so that all that you could see of him was his smiling face. Then he would pop up.
Of course when he realized I had pulled the camera out he really started hamming it up!
What will this kid think up next?