Cans and Cannots

Reid is full of surprises.  He amazes us each day with more and more things he can do and say.  He now knows all of his upper and lower case letters, plus his numbers to 10.  He loves playing with the fridge phonics toy, so I'm guessing sounds aren't too far behind.  What a kindergarten teacher's dream ;)  I sure hope his love of reading books continues, too!

The terrorizing Dixie phase has mostly passed, thankfully.  She still keeps an eye (or two!) on him and gave him a swat the other day when he got too close and ignored her growls and hisses.  She's declawed, so of course it didn't hurt him, but the shock factor was hysterical.  Here's a mischievous little grin as he plots his next move...a Dixie hug that she wasn't too fond of.

 Reid is totally obsessed with stickers right now.  He normally HATES them.  Starting in June or so, we'd go to Kroger and they'd always have the cute "I've been Krogering" stickers and the nice checkers would ask if he'd like one.  I tried to put one on him and he flipped out, so we've passed ever since.  But I discovered some sparkly Cars stickers at school  two weeks ago, and he's been bonkers about them.  He likes them SO much that last night (and Saturday at nap time), he just had to go to sleep with his sticker masterpieces.  The crumpliness made quite a racket, but when I went in to take them away, he cried.  Naturally, we had to take a picture.  By the time Jason got the camera, he was giggling.

He still cannot make great food choices.  I have discovered that if I allow him to pick part of his meal, he seems to be more willing to eat it.  But then there are days like this where it backfires! 

It's kind of infuriating because he'll eat a lot more things when he's at Holli's, like strawberries, banana, canned pears and peaches, etc.  So I never really know what to pack him for lunch, nor do I know how much since he eats like a bird at home, yet chows down over there.

Something else he cannot do is blow bubbles.  It's kind of funny, yet kind of sad at the same time.  I keep thinking if I can get him to blow bubbles, maybe I can get him to blow his nose one of these days...  Other kids (girls!) in the nursery at church could do it, and in the midst of allergy season it sure would be helpful!

This weekend was Henry's fifth birthday party.  I was too busy chasing Reid around the rock climbing place to take any pictures, but Aimee posted this cute one on Facebook. When Reid woke up from his nap, I told him we were going to Henry's birthday party.  Immediately, he said, "Cake?" (guess he's made the connection from books we've read?) so I told him we would have a cupcake.  Then entire car ride was then filled with, "Cupcake! Cupcake!"

It's always fun to see what he will come up with next.  It may be the terrible twos, but it's also the terrific twos, and we are so thankful for our little gift from God.

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Ugh.

Oh, where to begin...  The first two weeks of school were insane, of course.  But I could feel all the prayers (thank you!!), especially on that first day!  On top of that, a furry member of our family said goodbye to this world and went on to Kitty Heaven.  It was a horrible decision to make and the vet made me feel awful ("Don't you want to do x-rays? We have medicine that can fix that..." etc.  Yeah...because I want to extend his misery longer than 12 yrs!), but I truly think it was the right thing to do for Samson and for our family.  He was pretty pitiful on his last day, so it was honestly a relief.  It felt like I was at the vet for an eternity--at least three hours--but when I came back to reality with an empty carrier, I looked at the clock in my car and somehow I'd only been inside for 45 minutes.  Talk about emotionally draining!  And then the first thing Reid said when I came home was, "Mommy home!  Samson home!"  Sorry, kiddo, it's the end of an era.

 Since then, Dixie has received the full brunt of Reid's "attention."  We have had a little trouble getting Reid to walk (rather than run full force) toward the cats, to use a quiet voice (he insists on screaming this annoying high-pitched shriek), and to be gentle.  So understandably, Dixie is not Reid's biggest fan.  Samson put up with it pretty well until the last two weeks...  Other than that, Dixie has been extra friendly and demands a lap to sit on anytime Reid is not in sight.

School is finally settling into a groove this week.  It is nice to not have morning duty, lunch duty, recess duty, AND after school duty every. single. day.  And we finally started work stations, so our day is more "normal".  I am overall impressed so far...I have some great kiddos, nice group of parents who volunteer and donate needed items, and have been pleasantly surprised with things that are usually awful...like our first trip to the computer lab on Friday--normally a complete nightmare (think logging kindergarteners in with a six digit username and 'redfish' as the password--twice--just to get to Istation!!) but I was so proud of them!  And my little friend this year with no arms, just born with a "nubbie" (1/3 of her upper arm), has amazed me.  She can write and color with her feet/toes.  I have a feeling we will all learn as much from her as she learns from me :)  I haven't been able to help her nearly enough with 17 other little bodies to help, but I'm hoping for more help one of these days, especially since we've now totally delved into academic stuff and even have progress reports coming out already next week!

On top of all of this, Reid is sick.  Not sure if it's a cold, virus, croup, beginnings of something else...Holli had to call me at school to let me know his temperature was headed up and the coughing was awful.  I have survived on an average of 2-3 hours of sleep for the past 3 nights, so part of me is kind of relieved that we will both be home tomorrow.  Getting sub plans ready so fast was not relieving, though, and I have no idea who my sub will be--always a scary thought in kindergarten.  That's one of the worst parts about teaching.  When you have to be out, it takes waaaay more planning than if you're actually there :(

On Sunday, I wanted to make a cute, special picture to send all the grandparents via email or Facebook, but SOMEone didn't feel like obliging.  This was the best we could do after two hours, and yes...not exactly anywhere near what I had in mind. 

 Reid was awful that afternoon and totally wore us out.  So it's more of a happy belated Grandparent's Day, but I hope you at least enjoy some of the pics.  We love you, Grandma Penny, Papa, Mamere, Grammy, and Grumpy!  Reid prayed for each one of you that night and we are thankful for your love!!

Most of the attempted pictures were blurry from being unintentional action shots, but this one was pretty darn cute.  He kept at that speed for a full two hours.  Jason and I realized that we are very out of shape!

 A rare moment where he actually stood still...

 And then it was off to other fun things like stripping leaves off of the trees...

Or inspecting crab apples...

And Daddy finally convinced him to hold hands while we hiked back to find the stroller.

Is this really our two year old??  I know he was in the 97th percentile in height at his two year checkup, but he looks more like most three year olds!  Growing way too fast, but we are very thankful.

 But a happy note in the past couple of weeks would be our first family visit to Marble Slab.  Reid was soooo excited about the "candies" (he loves M&M's) that he didn't mind the ice cream too much.  And he even enjoyed pieces of my waffle bowl (dipped in chocolate, of course!).  We all had a yummy treat and loved watching Reid run around and look at all the cakes, ice cream, and mix-ins.  Next time, we'll have to try gelato ;)