Anthony and I played in my room most of the day.  Part of the time Barbara took a nap and when she woke up and found that Anthony and I were still playing she gave me a sticker for playing quietly.    I earned four stickers today.  I don't remember what the other three were for.... Oh, I now remember one time I quickly ran to get Mommy's TV remote for Barbara.  Barbara's remote doesn't work so she uses Mommy's.  It works out fine, because Mommy and I rarely watch TV except lately we have been watching bowl games.


Later in the afternoon Mommy and I went over to Daddy's house to watch football bowl games and to set off fireworks.

Bradley on New Year's Eve.
2016 was a great year for my family.  Baby Bradley was born December 5th.  Chris asked Briget to marry him December 8th.  Papa retired December 7th.  Grandma and Papa are building their retirement home and will move in February 2017.  Mimz got the problem with a leak in her foundation resolved and got some new flooring in December.  Mimz, Barbara, and Grandma went on a cruise in February.  In November GGF had a stent put in his heart, which gave him more strength to do the yard work he so enjoys.  And I played soccer, football, baseball, Iron Sports, and swim team!   I became a better reader and my handwriting improved.  And probably there were a few other highlights that I can't think of at the moment.   This isn't a family thing, but the other good news is Hillary Clinton is not going to be President.

I said no to everything Barbara listed for me to eat for breakfast.  Finally she said "Cinnamon Toast Crunch" and I said YES!  Normally I eat Fiber One but I talked her into buying me the Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I agreed to eat Fiber One every other time I have cereal.  I like it, but I love the other.

I brought my new Fire over to my house.  I showed her the things I play on it, like Bejeweled, and I read part of a comic book.   Then we played with our six juggling balls.  We made up all kinds of rules to play different games with them.

At 9:30am I went to see if Anthony or Alyssa could play.  They didn't answer the door and their dad's truck was gone so they must be at camp.  Cole won't be back until January 4th, so he will miss a couple of days of school.  I went back to play with Barbara until Cain knocked on the door.  He is in sixth grade.  He is nice and quiet, like Anthony.  He lives about ten houses away from me.  We played football, then we rode our bikes.  We came in for lunch and then watched a recorded football game on Barbara's iPad.

I had a bad attitude, when I wasn't going to get my way.  I had a ten minute time-out.  Magically after the ten minutes were over, my attitude was better.  

Mommy was putting on make-up and I was in the bathroom talking to her.  She looked up and this is where she found me.  She had Barbara come take my picture.  I love climbing.  lol

I had expressed an interest in the Rubik's Cube.  Barbara found her 30-year-old cube and the instructions she used to learn to work it.  She spent a couple of hours this evening reading the 14 pages of instructions and solving the cube.  She says she keep practicing and hopes to finish it in an hour the next time and get down to being able to work in in 5 to 10 minutes every time, which is what she did 30 years ago.  Her fastest time was 2 minutes, but that was a one time thing.  Some people can work it in 20 seconds or always in less than a minute.  Barbara will teach me to work it after she has it memorized.

Mimz and I had a quiet morning so I could keep trying to get over the cough I've had for several days and so I could rest before going to the skating rink for three hours this afternoon.

Mimz and I have been learning to use the Kindle Fire she bought me for Chritmas.  I read a book on it.  I learned out to play Bedazzled.  I'm starting to get the hang of using my Fire.

Mimz made plans for us to go skating this afternoon from 1 to 4.  Landry and Becket couldn't come and Knox ended up not being able to come...

...but Eli and Jacob made it.  They both are just now getting the hang of skating.  I'm really super fast for a little kid.  I wore my in-line skates that Mimz gave me for Christmas last year.  Maritza bought us a pizza so we had some fuel to help us skate for three hours.

After work Mommy came over to Mimz and she and Daddy took care of me while Mimz ran an errand.  Daddy took me home to spend the night at his house.  I was asleep before 8:30pm.  

Barbara drove me to the lake so I cold go fishing with Papa.  It was spitting rain, so Papa decided against getting out the boat.  We fished dear the pavillion so that if it really started raining, we could get under cover and keep on fishing.  Papa caught a 20-inch bass.  I caught a channel catfish about the same size.  We kept both of them so we could take them to the new house and release them into Emerald Lake to make more fish in that lake.  It really is just a 30 acre pond, but on Google maps it is called Emerald Lake.

I ate lunch before Barbara and I headed back home.  I played with friends until Mimz was ready to meet us at Sprouts.  Mimz showed Barbara my new Kindle Fire.  Barbara wants to get me one because I want to use her iPad all the time.  Barbara will get more details and have Grandma order it for her because she has free shipping.

 

I was in bed on time but I stayed awake watching the Cowboy football game.  I fell asleep about 10pm.  The first thing I asked this morning was did the Cowboy's win.  The answer was "yes, easily."

I stared coughing a couple of hours before I woke up, so I had to take more of that cough medicine I don't like.  I took it with my breakfast of raisin toast and milk.  I'm told ten seconds of not tasting good is worth it to have hours of feeling good.

After breakfast Barbara and I watched an old Dallas Cowboy's game on TV while we played football in Mommy room.  We did this until 10am.  Then I left to find friends to play with.  I played all day with Anthony, Alyssa, Cain, and Tyler.  Not everyone all day, but different ones at different times.  We kicked a football through my goal for awhile, but most of the day we spent riding bikes.  It was a beautiful day and we played outside all day.

A funny thing:  Barbara didn't sleep well last night, so she was really sleepy in the afternoon.  She takes babysitting me seriously and she either watches me play outside or she checks on me often.  She didn't think she should get in her bed and take a nap while babysitting, so she decided she could lay on the sofa in the garage and nap.  She could hear the kids playing in the front yard and figured if we got really noisy she would wake up.  GGM was asleep in the house.  GGF was asleep on the glider in the garage.  Funny all of my babysitters were asleep.  They woke up a few minutes before Grandma and Papa arrived.  Barbara was glad she was not sleeping when they arrived.  Though that would have been good for a laugh.


I came in before 6pm starving.  I had lots of mac and cheese, and part of a fried egg sandwich, lemonade, and one of my special strawberry banana drinks.  I also had an ice cream cone.  I asked Barbara to buy chocolate chip ice cream next time.  She might, but no promises.

Anna Kate brushing her teeth.  I love my cousins!  I have three actual first cousins: Morgan, Anna Kate, and now Bradley.  And I have many other "cousins" of different degrees.

I spent the day at the lake with Mommy, Bridget and Chris, and Papa and Grandma.  We went to see the new house.  Bridget and Chris had not seen it.

Mommy and I arrived home around 5pm, I think.   Cole is in Colorado all this week and Anthony and Alyssa will be at camp, I think.  Barbara and GGM will have to play with me alot.

Mommy st up my football goal and Barbara and GGM watched me kick a football at the goal over and over and over.  I missed some and I made some.  I would have let them have a trun kicking but they preferred to chase the balls. 

In the house Barbara and I played with 6 juggling balls for an hours waiting for the Cowboys game to start.  During the game, I kept on playing football in Mommy's room.  Barbara would throw the ball to me and I catch it and dive onto the sofa like I was tackled.  I did this a few dozen times.  I don't tire of playing.

I'm supposed to read every day this holiday break.  So far I think I have only read one time.  And I need to write some thank you notes.  And I need to work on a religion badge for Cub Scouts.  A goal of ours is for us to get these things done before I go back to school on January 3rd.

Merry Christmas!  And Peace on Earth!

 Picture of me still sleeping at Mimz' on Christmas morning.  I still love Monk Monk.

I was awake very early (maybe 5am).  Mommy, Daddy, and Mimz got to see me when I saw what Santa Claus brought me... a trampoline for Mimz' backyard, a Simon game, football,and a dart board.

Daddy lifed me up so I could get a better look at my new trampoline!  Knox has one so I know a few tricks. 

I opened a present from Mimz, a Kindle Fire.  And my dad gave me a droid helicopter.  I'm going to have many many hours of fun with my presents.

After we ate breakfast Mommy took me to the lake to spend Christmas day with Mommy's family. This included: Grandma, Papa, GGM, GGF, Barbara, Tim, Bridget and Chris B, Andy, Kristan, Anna Kate, Bradley, and Kristan's parents, Sandy and Mike, and Kristan's brother Bart.  Chris' mom had been in the hospital resently and didn't think she should come this year.

I opened the front door slowly looking around to see if Santa had been here... and he had!  He left me a football goal, a football and a Magic Show kit...

...plus things in my stocking.

By the time we arrived, Grandma, Papa, Bridget, and Chris had opened their gifts and cleaned up the mess and stacked their new things out of the way.  They all watched Mommy and me open our gifts.
I am such a fortunate boy.

 Here are some pictures of me with some of my gifts:  Bath balm.... I love bath balm!

 A boy scout pocket knife, but the knife is not sharp and mostly it is a bunch of tools, like a screwdrivr and a saw, etc.

I played Pie Face at Knox'.  It was fun.  Can't wait to play it with my friends.

 The big books that I can almost read by myself.

A checkers game.  I ought to have GGF teach me to play checkers.  When he was a boy, on Saturday mornings he would head to the gas station in town and play all the old men there for 10 cents a game.  He could beat anybody in Bluejacket, Oklahoma.

 My own personalized toiletry bag.

A flag football game.

 These are most of the clothes I received from Grammie, Bubba, and Lisa's family.

Andy, Kristan, Bridget, and Chris all bought me an electric scooter.  I'll keep it at Papa's house because he has a safe place for me to ride it off the street.

I have been wanting a Rubik's Cube.  Barbara got out her 30 year old one and said she would relearn how to work it and then she would teach me.

Barbara remembered just enough to show Chris B how to work one side.  GGF watched while Chris worked on the Rubik's Cube.

It was shortly after noon when Andy's family arrived.  It was quite an effort to get them all here with all the baby and toddler things,and their presents.

 I think there were 16 adults and me (not counting Anna Kate and Bradley) there for Christmas dinner.

We sat at two tables.  From 12 to 2 there was a lot of work being done on our Chritmas dinner.  I mostly played outside kicking the football.  Many family members came outside to watch me for a while.  Maddox' came over and played with me too.  Maddox also got a trampoline from Santa also!

Great Grandfather walked around watching what everyone was doing.  We ate dinner at 2pm.

 Andy took care of Bradley during the meal.   

 Andy and GGM watched the two babies while everyone else pitched in with the clean up and that made quick work of that.

Papa deboned the turkeys.
 Most of that time I was outside kicking footballs.  Daddy arrived and he watched me kick.

Finally it was time for Andy's family to open their packages.  Anna Kate got a lot of clothes.
It was funny, she would open a package with clothes in it, pull them out one at a time, oohing and ahing, and toss them over her shoulder and pull out the next item and toss it over her shoulder.   

Mommy and I gave her some clothes and a Disney Princess book that she loved.  She must have spend 15 minutes just looking at the pictures in that book.  A funny thing:  Bridget bought Anna Kate and Bradley OU shirts.  Kristan said, "Oh Bridget, you shouldn't have.  You really shouldn't have!"   I understood that she was kidding, like she didn't want her kids wearing OU shirts.  lol

 Anna Kate admiring ornaments.

She enjoys iPhonea and iPads.  She has her own tablet.

Laying on coffee table watching iPhone.  The book is the Disney Princess book Mommy and I gave her.

 New baby doll and headphones.

Everyone went outside play a Plastic Wrap Ball game.  It was so much fun.  Two boxes of Saran Wrap had been used to wrap up all kinds of items, like a deck of cards, Altoids, dental floss, little flash lights, hand warmers, gum, candy, and lots more things, plus some $5 Walmart gift cards, and in the very center a $20 Walmart card.  One person would work on unwrapping the ball and got to keep anything that fell out while he was unwrapping.  Anther person was rolling the dice for the number six.  As soon as he rolled a six, he got to unwrap and the next person was rolling the dice.  Everybody won sevral things.  Everyone gave me the candy they won.  In the end, I was the last winner who got the $20 Walmart gift card!  I was just lucky.  They didn't let me win, I really was the person who got to the center prize. I don't know if anyone took a picture of the Plastic Wrap ball of not.

When we started playing the Plastic Wrap ball game, Anna Kate was present.  She had a huge meltdown when she could not have the dice.  Sandy had to take her away and play with her, otherwise the game would have been at a standstill.  So cute and funny!  Poor little thing!

It was almost to get dark, so Barbara and my great-grandparents left.  A few minutes later Andy's entire family left.

Soon after that Daddy and I went to Lacy's home to share some more time with Mimz and Aunt Kathy's family.
     

It's Christmas Eve Day and I am so excited.
Mimz noticed that all of her presents had been turned over.  She guessed that her little grandson was checking the name tags.  Lol.

We went to the doughnut shop for breakfast and I had my favorite kalachi. 

Mommy took me home where I played outside with friends

 Here I am ready for church.

We took this picture for my dad.

Most of  my family went to St. Edwards for the 4pm Christmas Eve mass.  These were my family members who were there: Mimz, Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, Papa, Uncle Tim, Bridget, Chris, Andy, Anna Kate, and Mike, Kristan's dad.  Kristan and her mom stayed home with baby Bradley.

All of the little kids went up to the front to sing a song.  I took Anna Kate up there.  While all the children were sitting on the steps, Anna Kate stood up and did her thing.  Oh, so cute.  In this picture she is to the left of the priest.  My hand is on her dress, making sure she doesn't fall.  I walked her back to our family.

I went back to Daddy's home, so I could spend Chritmas morning at Mimz home.  I have not been at her house for Chritmas morning since I was too little to understand Santa Claus.

Anna Kate's family went back to their home, to await the arrival of Santa Claus.

I was awake at 6:30am.  I had been sweating and my nose was running.  Mommy was asleep but Barbara was awake.  She seems to always be awake.  She is the last person to go to sleep and is the second person awake.  GGF is the first person awake.  Anyway, my nose was running.  I took my medicine (with milk) and got in Barbara's bed to watch an old Cowboy's football game.

My nose just kept on running.  I didn't have a fever.  We went to the lake.  I helped Papa do some work outside, then we threw around a football.

Grandma helped me get her shower ready for me to take a shower.  I had to get all cleaned up so I oculd go to a University of Houston basketball game with my dad. 

I liked that big shower!

All cleaned up and waiting for time to leave to meet my dad.

 Daddy and I got to the game in time to watch the players warm up.  We had floor seats!  That made us up close and personal for sure! 

 Oh, what fun.  The University of Houston was ahead by ten points but they blew that lead and lost by a single point.  I told Mimz that I can wear that same shirt to a Rocket's game because it just says Houston on it.

I do like numbers.  I am a stickler about not rounding off numbers especially when it comes to time.  Mommy says it is 8:10 when it really is 8:12.  I want the exact time.  I'm still wearing the watch Mimz gave me for Christmas last year.  I have been very good about taking care of it and keeping track of it.  I even like to sleep with it on.  I want to know what time it is when I wake up.

I might get undressed and head for the shower, then realize I still have on my watch.  I always remember to put it back on after my shower.  Sometimes I take showers, sometimes I take baths.  It depends on how much time I want to spend.  I like bubble baths and playing with bath toys.  But I can be in and out of the shower is just a few minutes when I'm in a hurry.

I slept from 7:30pm last night until 4:30am this morning.  I woke up coughing and complaining about my right eye hurting.  Mimz gave me some Mucinex and eye drops.  I dont' like the taste of the Mucinex so Mimz gave me some milk to watch it down.  I watched the iPad for a bit and was asleep again by 4.  At 8am I was still asleep.  That Mucinex really helps with the cough, sore throat, and congestion.    The good news is that I don't have  a fever.

By 8:30am I was eating breakfast and watching The Polar Express movie that Mimz had recorded.  My eye is better and I'm feeling good.  Medicine and eye drops are working.

We went to Lemm Elementary school playground.  I found four children playing soccer, and I asked if I could join them.  They said sure.  I had fun.

Barbara and GGF met Mimz at Sprouts.  We drove home and I wanted to run play but first I had to come in and take a dose of medicine.  I don't like the taste, but a glass of milk afterward made it bearable.

I played with Alyssa and two brothers, Colton and Caten or something like that.  One is maybe ten and the other is my age.  Mostly we played football.  Barbara stayed outside with us most of the eveing.  She is not too fond of the way they play.  They don't go to my school.

I came inside and found Mommy trying to hide a present from me.  She was looking for a box to put it in.  I was insisting I wanted it tonight.  Barbara heard me arguing about how Mommy was not giving me enough presents and I didn't want them.... I ended up in my room for 15 minutes.  First time I have been in Time Out in months.  I did this same thing a few days ago.  I better watch my attitude.... Santa Claus will be here in three days.

After 15 minutes in my room, Mommy and I went over to Andy's.  Both Anna Kate and Bradley were awake.  When we walked in,  Anna Kate said, "Hi, Nina," perfectly.   I played with Anna Kate.  Bradley went to bed and cried for a little while.  The adults made plans for the weekend.

Back home, Barbara talked to Jack, while I was listening.  She told him, I was being naughty about wanting more Christmas presents.  I was put in Time Out and afterwards I was sorry for my bad behavior.  Barbara told Jack I would try to do better.

I watched some of the NFL game that was on TV.  I had to take another dose of medicine.  This time I wanted to try to take it without the glass of milk.  I wanted to see how tough I am.  It didn't taste good, but I did it anyway.   Silly boy.  We didn't have any Pringles so we substitued bar-be-qued potato chips for our football snack.

Barbara put in eye drops and I got into bed just a few minutes after my 8:30pm bedtime.  I used the iPad until I fell asleep.

I am 7 and a quarter years old today.  I told Barbara I would be 7 1/2 years old on March 21st.
I woke up with a little runny nose and sore throat.  After eating breakfast, I took a shower, so Barbara could clean my dirty toe nails and clip them.

We also put some cream on a rash on my stomach.  I took some medicine and put on clean pjs and got in Barbara's bed to rest while playing with the iPad.  I was feeling okay, just wanted to rest.

The plan was to meet Mimz at Sprouts at noon.  About 9am I wanted to talk to her, so Barbara gave me her phone.  While talking I asked Mimz if we could meet her now and she said yes if I was willing to go on an errand or two.  So we got me dressed and drove to Sprouts where Mimz was waiting for us.

It was funny, both Mimz and Barbara had loaner cars because their cars were in the shop.  Both hope to get their cars back today.

My right eye started getting red and immflammed so Mimz bought me some new Zaditor eye drops.  The old ones she had had expired.  Most of my medicine seems to expire before I need it again.  We are lucky I don't get sick often.

 I earned two stickers for my behavior during a meeting Mimz had.  She gave me a little instruction on her new lapto and I played quietly all during her meeting. 

 I almost fell asleep in the car and didn't know if I wanted to run around and play today. But in the end I felt well enough to meet for a play date with Eli and Jacob at a new fun play place, Palava on Spring Cypress.  It is much bigger than Chick Fil-a.  It was Lemm Sprit Day there.

 We climbed and played miniature golf.  We played laser tag several times.  I earned a sticker for congradulating Eli for getting the high score on laser tag.

It was a long but fun day for Mimz and me.  It was almost 5pm when we got home.  My rash is going away.  Mimz put more Benadryl cream on it just to keep it medicated.   Before long I started complaining with a stomach ache.  Twice I ran to the bathroom in case I threw up.  I didn't.  A good thing about me is that I rarely throw up.  In my lifetime, except for baby spit-up, I think I have thrown up an average of once a year.   We just cuddled on the sofa watching jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I still didn't have a fever so that is good.

Mimz and I got in bed to watch a Christmas movie.  Five minutes later I was asleep at 7:30pm.