Attack of the Killer Mosquitos

We went to Odessa this weekend for Cousin Brooke's 3rd birthday. James affectionately refers to this city as Slowdeatha or The Land of Dirt. For those of you who've missed the opportunity to visit Odessa, I'll let you know it's not beautiful, but our family's there, and they are fun so we make the sacrifice. Who am I kidding? I live in Dallas. Beautiful scenery is obviously not on my list of priorities for living.

Anyway, I think I will add The Land of Mosquitos to James's list of nicknames for Slowdeatha...er, I mean Odessa. My sister-in-law warned me to spray with Off anytime I went outside - she even had a bottle conveniently located right outside the back door - but for some reason, the first night we were there, I felt the need to only protect my arms from these teeny little blood suckers. The next morning I awoke to EIGHT mosquito bites from the calves down.

Hunter had several moments of full-on tantrum throwing throughout the weekend. Although I never saw a bite on him, I'm going to attribute the fit throwing to the mosquitos.

Here are his nine favorite moments from the weekend. (I've tried to think of one more, but I don't feel like wasting anymore time on that, so you'll have to live with 9. I know it's random. Hopefully y'all can control your OCD enough so this doesn't drive you crazy. I can relate if you're having difficulty, though. It's driving me a little crazy.)

1. Long walks - We went on walks around the neighborhood every single day. Hunter would direct the way, and James and I would follow. He also took walks with Poppy...

Uncle Bob and Cousin Brooke...
and himself... 2. The wagon - Y'all know Hunter loves the wagon. So obviously it was one of the first things he went up to when we went outside. Since Hunter kept trying to climb in the wagon, Poppy took him and Brooke on a ride around the backyard. Excuse the fit-throwing. Apparently the wagon's not as much fun when you have to share it.
3. Feeding the ducks...or should I say pigeons - Our intent was to feed the ducks, but this is what we got anytime we pulled out a piece of bread...Those nasty little birds can sense when you're about to throw, and I quickly grew afraid of being attacked, so James took over.

4. Pool time -
5. New toys - James will curse me for writing this, but Hunter's favorite toy of Brooke's was her Cinderella tea set. Everyday, he'd take all of the plates and cups out and pretend to drink from the cups and then carry the plates around for a while. I told James we could buy a gender neutral tea set, but he claims that tea sets are inherently girly and no matter what the color, our son will NOT own one. At least he can always go to the cuz's house for tea parties... 6. Fit throwing - As I mentioned, we had many tantrum-filled moments. These two occured at Miss B's birthday party. Hunter made a great first impression for all of Brooke's friends.I wish I could say that once I took him away from Poppy and Daddy, the crying stopped, but that would be lying. And I try to avoid lying whenever possible.


7. Sliding - This could actually go in the pool section, but like I said I was trying to stretch the list to be 10 items long.

8. Pony rides - Cousin Brooke had a pony for all of the kids to ride at her birthday party. (This is really cute, because James and Melanie had a pony at their 3rd birthday party, too.) Although Brooke was ecstatic about this, Hunter was not impressed. We pretty much forced him on.


9. Good food - We ate and ate and ate this weekend. I don't think Hunter had one vegetable over the last 5 days. Here's Brooke, Daddy and Hunter at the birthday party...
We had a really great time with the fam. Hunter can't wait to see Miss B again!