Back to Kindermusik!

Today was our first day back to Kindermusik. Weston was excited to see his instructor Mary Chris; I think he has a crush on her. During the lesson, Weston kept trying to get Mary Chris to notice him. He must have quietly said her name "Chris" several times thinking she would hear him. If she moved somewhere in the room, he would move to be closer to her. I thought is was sooo funny. Weston behaved very well in class today, but he didn't want to participate. He prefers to watch everyone sing and dance.

He was also excited to see his friend Emma (he still calls her Elmo). After class they chased each other around the room a bit. He gave her a hug in the parking lot too.

Story Time

Weston tried to get as close to Mary Chris as he could. He's sitting right in front!

Here is Emma/Elmo.

Visting Honey and Papaw

This weekend we went to visit Nathan's parents in North Carolina. Weston's great aunts and uncles were also visiting from Florida and Tennessee so he was able to meet them for the first time. I don't think Nathan and I have seen them since our wedding! Here are some of the highlights of our trip:


Nathan bought Weston a fire truck from the Dollar Store and we gave it to him at a rest area. He really liked it, so we were forced to listen to him say "fire truck" the rest of the trip. He must have said it over a thousand times.


We stayed at a hotel in Waynesville. On Sunday morning, Nathan and Weston went for a walk to get some coffee. A lot of the guests had their doors open at the hotel. On the way back, Weston spotted a little boy, a girl, and their grandma inside one of the rooms. He ran right inside! Nathan had his hands full with coffee, so he wasn't able to grab him. Weston chased the little boy right into the bathroom where his mom was taking a shower! Nathan heard the mom yell, "Matthew, get out of here!" Nathan finally got Weston out of the room by bribing him with a honey bun.

Weston playing soccer in Papaw and Honey's yard. He showed off for all of his aunts and uncles.

Weston and Honey

We went to an apple orchard to get apples but they were not ready to be picked. Weston tried to take a few anyway.

Weston getting into the potatoes.

Aunt Susan reading Weston a book.

Papaw bought Weston a tractor and he held it most of the ride home. He had his fire truck in one hand and the tractor in the other.

Weston was really grouchy on the ride home. He was really tired so he started throwing fits over the slightest thing. We thought it was funny when he threw a fit because he couldn't smell his feet!

Cousins Off to School!

Nolan and Brandon are back in school this week. Weston loves his cousins so much! He is going to miss getting to play with them during the week. I just had to post these photos that were taken of them on their first day of school. Nolan is in 3rd grade and Brandon is in kindergarten. So far, Nolan said that he would rather be home schooled and Brandon said that he loves it! Good luck with the new school year! We love you!

More Trains!

We were going to give Weston a train set for his birthday, but I decided to give it to him early. He asks me several times a day to go to Papa and Nana's house to play trains. They have three train sets at their house and he loves them. Nathan suggested that we go ahead and give it to him while he is still interested in trains. He probably won't touch them next month! He is getting good at putting the tracks together. The set that we bought is supposed to make a figure 8, but he loves to sit in the middle of the track so we changed the design to fit him. He has been pretty happy with his new train set but I think he still prefers to play with Papa. He even puts Thomas under his underarm (I am not sure why he uses his underarm) and says he is giving him a hug. The other night he wouldn't turn Thomas loose at bedtime, so he went to sleep with his train.

This Weston telling himself, "great job!"

Weston has learned to say "Thomas." He doesn't realize it is his middle name yet!

Red Hair

You would be amazed at how often strangers stop us to comment on the color of Weston's hair. People will go into great detail about their experiences with red hair. One lady even stopped me to tell me that she had one redheaded child (the rest had black) and gave me suggestions about which styling products to use on Weston. You would also be surprised by how many jokes strangers make about Nathan being the actual father! I never realized his hair would spark so much conversation. Here are just a few of the comments we hear regularly:

• My son/daughter/mother/grandson/husband has red hair too!
• I have been trying for years to get my hair that color from a bottle.
  
• Look at that red hair!
  
• Where did he get the red hair from?
• With his red hair, he would blend in with our family .
• My personal favorite: What color hair does the mailman have?
• Does red hair run in your family?
  

The day Weston was born, his hair appeared blonde to me. The next day, we had him near the hospital window and I noticed a red tint. I remember asking Nathan, "Is his hair red?" For the rest of the day, I kept looking at his hair in different lighting. I wasn't even sure if it were possible for us to have a redheaded baby. We were confused. After bringing him home, we had determined that his hair was definitely a strawberry blonde. We just thought that his strawberry-blonde baby hair was going fall out and then turn black. We didn't know of any close relatives (except for a cousin on Nathan's side) that had red hair so there was no way Weston could have red hair. His hair did fall out, but it came back a beautiful shade of red. That's when we decided to figure out where his red hair came from.
Apparently, Nathan's great grandmother (on his dad's side) had red hair. We didn't know this until several months later. I still haven't met anyone on my side of the family that has red hair, but I found out that there are a few distant relatives that do. I just haven't met them.

After all the talk, I became curious and decided to research red hair. I found a few things on the internet that I will share with you.

• Approximately 1% to 2% of the human population has red hair.

• Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16.
  

• Red hair is the rarest natural hair color in humans.

• Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads, as 13 percent of the population has red hair and approximately 40 percent carries the recessive redhead gene.

• Ireland has the second highest percentage; as many as 10 percent of the Irish population have ginger, auburn (red-brown) or strawberry blond hair.

• In the United States, anywhere from two to six percent of the population is estimated to have red hair.
  

• Even if both parents do not have red hair themselves, both can be carriers for the gene and have a redheaded child.

• Red-heads' hair maintains its natural color longer than any other hair color.

• A little known fact about natural red hair is that it never turns gray. As a person ages, their red hair will turn to a sandy-blonde color. It will then ultimately turn white.

• Adult blondes have approximately 140,000 hairs; brunettes have 110,000, and red heads only grow about 90,000 hairs on their heads.