December Festivities & 7 Months

Our little guy has become quite creative in his 3 1/2 year old wise age.  He had a "birthday party" for one of his friends and invited all the other friends to come.  They sang happy birthday, had pretend cake, and everything!

"Mater and the Ghost Light!" (or in this case, LED flashlight)  Made this up all by himself, credit to the Disney short on the Cars dvd.  "They're running away from the banshee, Mommy!"

This morning, he realized Halloween was over, Thanksgiving was over, and now Christmas is over.  All he'd wanted from Santa was Snot Rod (a fabulously named character from Cars 1...more in a later post) this year...and he suddenly decided, "Next Christmas, I ask Santa for Flo!" (another Cars car he realized he doesn't have).  Sheesh.

He also has created "families" first of acorns, and then of coins.  On our walk to the park today, he collected three handfuls of acorns (very carefully selected) and informed them, "Come with me!  I take you to your new home."  There are mommy acorns, daddy acorns, baby brother acorns, and then a random menagerie of whatever other family members come to mind.

Jason and I thought Baby #2 would never have a name.  We were throwing a few around one day and Reid suddenly said, "My baby brother's name is Carter!"  So, officially, I guess Reid picked his name.  All we had to do was narrow it down :)

My team threw a baby shower honoring my team leader (Jill, who's due with her first son, Jack, at the end of January) and me just after all the craziness of the ice storm.  Holli made the wonderful, beautiful, delicious cake.  One layer was vanilla and one was chocolate. 

A close up of the first thing I've really gotten to see Carter's name on!

Our kindergarten team

We decided to have one shower so neither of us had to be the very center of attention, and went ahead and did it early just in case baby Jack decides to make his entrance early.  I know my team is quite nervous having two of us pregnant, due within 6 weeks of each other.  Wasn't planned that way...we both had trouble getting pregnant!  But it's been nice having someone else to compare symptoms with and complain about our swollen feet.  It will also be fun for our babies to play together, too!  In the meantime, we just found a long term substitute for Jill...but no one is in sight for me (eek--so please pray!!).  It's a very strange feeling to prepare to leave your class with a stranger for about eight weeks!  Personalities, grades, planning (when half of your team will be gone simultaneously), etc...all a bit disconcerting when you have no idea who will be there in your place.  But, I am thankful for the reason and that my entire summer won't be gone in a flash this time, like after I had Reid.  Just have to remind myself that God's timing is always perfect!

One last shower picture we had to take was with our AP, Kari.  She's pregnant, too, so here we are, all within about six weeks of each other.  In baby bump order, Kari is due mid April, I am (technically) due March 3, and Jill is due January 21.

Bennett Elementary will have lots of baby boys this year!  Soon to arrive...Boston, Carter, and Jack.

 I've hit seven months.  Definitely bigger.  Definitely can't see my feet any longer (I think that happened last month, but my memory's definitely worse!!).  I am still able to do Zumba, but I majorly modify it and I've cut down to twice a week instead of three times a week.  My appetite has never really gotten any bigger...there are a few days here and there where I snack a lot, but nothing like the time when I was pregnant with Reid and ate a normal breakfast, lunch, snack, happy meal, AND dinner...with seconds and probably Blue Bell ice cream for dessert.  Yes, I've already gained pretty much 25ish pounds (depends on the day and water weight, I suppose).  Yes, I still crave dark chocolate (and this month, peppermint bark--good thing it's only out once a year!).  Yes, the holiday sweets will probably do me in.  I made almond/toffee/chocolate bars on Christmas Eve and literally ate 5 of them--I couldn't help it!!  But baby Carter looks good and seems to be doing great, according to his last sonogram, movement, and heart rate.  That's the important part :)  I get bigger jabs now.  Wish I knew if it was elbows, feet, or what body part.  I do know that since he's now head down instead of breech (like two weeks ago), I have to run to the restroom constantly! 

Ice Storm

The much anticipated event has finally arrived.  All week, it was all that anyone talked about.  Our week back from Thanksgiving break was jam-packed with events...my school's staff Christmas party, aerobics, dentist appointment, glucose tolerance test, etc.  I had to go out looking for .  Stonebriar Community Church has even canceled services for Sunday and I've never known that to happen!

On Thursday, we teachers were glued to weather.com (whose radar is apparently not compatible with Macs...grrr) and sure enough, the parents began coming to pull their kids out early around 2:15ish.  I had my dentist appointment at 3:15 that day and wasn't sure if it'd be a good idea or not...but sure didn't want to reschedule or wait another six months since it takes so long to find an appointment after 3pm so I don't have to take a half day off of work.  When I left school at about 3pm, I had to scrape 1/4" of ice off my windshield and it was sleeting.  The roads were all fine, so I opted to continue.  I called Jason to let him know how the weather was up north, and he decided to leave a little early in order to hopefully avoid some of the freeway madness on his long commute home.  Turns out he had zero problems, and it just rained on him.  He got Reid from Kids Klub at preschool so that I could run to the store for a few more things just in case we were stuck inside.  I'd been to the store the night before, after our staff party, but there were still a few more things I'd thought of that we might need.  After waiting 30 minutes to check out, the checker announced that Collin county was supposed to be bypassed by the precipitation. Ugh.  Much ado about nothing?  It was still just freezing rain by the time I finally arrived home at 5pm.  We heard some sleet later that evening, then I got the phone call that school would be canceled on Friday.  Hooray for an ice day, but boo that we'll have to make it up in May!!  So then we just wondered how Jason's commute would be--his work hotline stated that "The work day begins at 7:30" but then had some lame statement to basically say that if you don't feel safe, don't come.  Really?!  It did sleet throughout the night as we awoke often, and he finally got word that they, too, had an ice day.  Woo hoo!  So I awoke to the wonderful smell of Jason's egg sandwiches and we got to go get Reid up as a couple. We were surprised that it took Reid a little while to discover why it was so bright outside.  He didn't notice until we asked him what the white stuff was outside after we'd eaten breakfast.  Immediately, he wanted to play in the "snow."  It was kind of a struggle to find super warm clothing to fit him, but we made do (such as the doubled up socks, wrapped in plastic grocery sacks, stuffed into too small rain boots).  Off into our Winter Wonderland...

From afar, it looks like snow, but it's all sleet and ice.  Not nearly as much fun to play in, but beautiful nonetheless.  It was beautiful and surreal.

Reid didn't seem to mind and was all game for venturing out into the 24 degree freeze.

We mainly stayed in the backyard, especially since I'm a little off balance these days, but on Friday there was decent traction on the driveway and along the sidewalk.  Saturday, not so much--very slick.  Everything was very quiet and beautiful.

We were pretty amazed at how thick the ice was in several places!

                                                                        Our little explorer

All the houses had long icicles.  I had Jason get a nice long one to stick in the big garage freezer so cousins Ben and Alex can see it when they come after Christmas.

More beauty...amazing what God thinks of!

Reid panicked a bit when he realized his pumpkin he'd "planted" was buried under the ice, so he and Jason dug it out.  Oddly enough, a few minutes later, he chunked it aside to play with something else. 

I didn't bother putting on makeup, but you can have a general idea of how bundled up we were!

Even the street signs had icicles...

Reid loved hitting the ice off of this crape myrtle.

Back in our own backyard, Jason posed by our ice laden river birch.  We're hoping it makes it and doesn't snap at the trunk...

Happy boy!

After awhile, Mommy's hands were frozen (even with nice, thick, waterproof gloves) and this little guy looked all petered out.  So inside we went for some hot cocoa with marshmallows and spray whipped cream.  Yum!  Someone also requested candy canes :)

We're so thankful for the fun family time the ice storm allowed us to have.  As an added bonus, we're sure hoping this freeze kills off some of the awful bugs we've had the last two years...  And Reid has enjoyed staying in his pj's all day long. 

Pictures

I am just too cheap to pay $500 for a photo session.  I'm pretty sure I'll probably have to get over it once kiddo #2 comes along and someone is trying to take a picture involving two kids and their (very!) short attention span, but for now, we take advantage of any third party.  My mom did a great job with our family pics a couple of years ago, so we asked her to repeat the favor this year.  They have a great pond/park in their neighborhood, too.  It makes the perfect backdrop and the trees filter sunlight for great lighting.  In our typical "luck", the trees turned a gorgeous yellow just after we left.  Figures.  Oh, well. 

We rummaged through all three of our closets before leaving.  Mine wardrobe was quite limited...what I chose actually wasn't maternity so we could all somewhat coordinate, so it required lots of tugging and pulling, plus my high heeled boots because they were the only thing I had that matched and was dressy enough--I paid the price for wearing those later with calf cramps! We did manage to coordinate our sweaters, thankfully.  Reid's was the cutest.  I told Mom to just point and shoot...take as many as she could and hopefully we'd get something useful!  So several hundred images later, here's what we got.

This one was pretty sweet.  You can't really tell I'm pregnant, but it's a cute candid.

But the vast majority turned out somewhat like this one.  Jason looked great, I looked decent, and Reid... well...looked distracted.  Sticks, anyone?

This one was really good...great lighting, everyone's looking at the camera, no one has weird body angles, but then Reid grabbed my necklace.   Sigh.

Or this one.  Is he wanting to eat his baby brother?  I had just asked for a kiss...

Mr. Grumpy Gus got really tired of the camera.

Or had a boogie hanging out...

But thankfully there were a few gems mixed in with the laughably bad ones, which I deleted before I even downloaded them from the camera.  In retrospect, should've saved a few for blackmail opportunities ;)

"Are we done, Mommy??"

This one was our winner.  I ordered our Christmas cards last night and the vote was unanimous.  Doesn't he look like a little magazine model?  Watch out, GQ.  :)

Thank you, Grammy and Grumpy, for your patience and willingness to be our photographer and distracter/entertainer once again.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially as we anticipate the arrival of the newest little French!  We're also thankful I was not too big to travel down to see family in Houston over the break.  (But the car trip did take longer because I require tinkle breaks at least once an hour!)  Before we left, we tried to see what Reid had celebrated and eaten at his Thanksgiving feast at school.  We are grateful for the little paper updates each day, because Reid doesn't tell us much on his own.  The report said that he loved all the Thanksgiving foods at their feast and even asked for seconds on the turkey. 

I was excited to see the Frenches' new house, which was just beautiful and in such a nice neighborhood.  Jason had dropped by to see it when he went down to see some friends a couple of months earlier.  Reid was more excited to see Papa, Mamere, and Aunt Kristen, whom he'd been talking about all week since we'd told him of our trip.   After he'd introduced Papa to each and every Cars car (I'd told Reid to pick what toys he wanted to take, and he very carefully selected every single Cars car he owns) and informed him that Santa is bringing him Snotrod (the only hot rod he doesn't yet have from Cars...and don't you love the name?  He announces everywhere that, "Santa's bringing Snotrod!!"  Nice.) he convinced Papa to read him the books he'd brought. 

Reid loved Papa and Mamere's new bath tub.  Daddy had to bathe him because I couldn't lean over into the tub with my big belly in the way, lol.   Reid also loved the "nap mat" we created out of a camping mat, sleeping bag, and blanket.  I thought there was no way he'd sleep on it, but he conked out each time and it was perfect for him!

Everyone filled up on Mamere's yummy plucky cake the next morning.  I think I might've been the most excited...it's like the monkey bread my mom used to make when we were kids and I haven't eaten it in forever.  Reid ate an entire breakfast first, then basically had a portion and a half of the plucky cake.  But I can't say anything.  Pretty sure I ate more than anyone else!  Baby boy needed some, right?  We enjoyed the traditional Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and Reid enjoyed "hiding" in the pillows with Daddy and Aunt Kristen.  He reminds me of my childhood cat, Callie, who thought that if her head was hidden, so was the rest of her. 

He also loved tackling Aunt Kristen and steamrolling her.  She didn't seem to mind the "massage" ;)

This time, Mamere was requested to read books to him.  I did manage to snap a cute picture before carefully being instructed to leave by a little certain someone.  Mamere patiently read his books over and over, then dug out some of her own Christmas books.  Reid ate it right up!

We headed over to the Shepherds' on Thanksgiving Day...but Reid had a terrible coughing fit along the way.  I had Jason pull over because Reid had spit up a tiny bit with all the phlegm.  I asked him if he was going to throw up (which happens when he gets these coughing fits) and he said no...then promptly barfed all over his cute turkey shirt and the carseat.  Let's just say I regretted the recent change to chunky peanut butter.  So we scrambled to clean up Reid, the carseat, and me before making it to my folks' house, where I still had to finish making the stuffing and green bean casserole.  Thankfully, my mom had chopped and prepared all the ingredients beforehand (thanks, Mom!!) because I was still a little gaggy from the car incident.  She and Jason sweetly finished cleaning up the car/carseat while I cooked.  We enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner with Francis, one of their very sweet neighbors who was even so thoughtful that she brought Reid some gourmet cookies.  Two of the three cookies made it home...one someone ended up in my tummy, and boy was it good!!

Reid was quite enamored with the toys Grammy and Grumpy had set out, especially this little remote controlled digger.  It was almost as much fun as The Cat's Meow, Abby's new cat toy that Reid may have enjoyed as much as she did!  He insisted on wearing Daddy's socks that morning, for some reason. 

Grammy made breakfast squares for a yummy breakfast treat.  Not sure if Jason or Reid was more excited...and I definitely ate my share, too.  Grammy sent some home with us and Reid has asked for them every day.  We got Grammy and Grumpy to help us out with a photo shoot (or an attempt at one...best you can do with a three year old who just wants to play!) at the park, then I got to head down to The Woodlands to see a sweet student from my first year of teaching, Carly.  We've kept in touch for 15 years and it was wonderful to see her and catch up.  Grumpy and Jason watched the LSU game, then took Reid outside for a trike ride at halftime.  He also collected an entire bucket of acorns.

Reid was so odd and "ignored" both Aunt Kristen and Grammy at each respective house when they requested a hug/kiss.  He is so funny about that...and it's only people he loves that he does it to, so I guess in an odd sort of way, it's a compliment.  Grammy was requested to read stories to him on Friday night.

 "Pete the Cat stepped in WHAT?"

 Then Abby had to join in for the second reading of Reid's current fave, Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes.

Saturday morning dawned warmer and humid, and it was time for our voyage home.  Reid got some pretty acorns from Grumpy, which entertained him for the first hour of the trip. 

It was so fun to see family...just wish we could've seen everyone.  Aunt Lala and family went to Alabama, their Thanksgiving tradition, Uncle Steve and family were in New Orleans, and Grandma Penny is far away in San Diego.  But we were thankful for the fun times we had, and for a safe trip there and back.  Now, if we could just get Reid to join in on the Bucc-ee's game Jason and I love to play...  And yes, I'm thankful for their pristine bathrooms, too ;)

Decorating

I swore I wouldn't be one of "those" people who decorated before Thanksgiving.  It really bugs me how the holiday season starts the day after Halloween (or sooner!) and pretty much skips Thanksgiving.  As one of my little flip devotional calendars says, "I have a love affair going with Thanksgiving.  It seems to blend together all we Americans hold precious and dear--without the sham and plastic mask of commercialism." (Chuck Swindoll)  But a certain little three year old someone asked if we could get a Christmas tree, "Pleeeease, please, please, please!" so I just had to get him to convince Daddy to drag all the boxes down from the attic.  Jason hates having things decorated too early, and usually it really bugs me, too.  But this year we decided that since our very conservative church had semi decorated early, and since Thanksgiving fell a week later than normal, it would be okay.  Reid was elated to "help" Daddy get out the tree.  This was his idea of how our tree should look.

But when he learned that it was just the top portion, he was even more excited!  I emptied all the boxes except for the ornaments and decorated the house.  By then, I was just too tired to fluff and decorate the tree.  Putting on the ornaments and reminiscing about all the photo ornaments and sentimental things (while listening to Christmas music, of course!) is my favorite part and I didn't want to rush it, so I saved it for the next morning. Of course, I also love setting up the little Precious Moments nativity scene and was elated that Reid knew who Baby Jesus was!  We are really trying to instill the real reason for CHRISTmas...but with a three year old and all the commercial stuff, it's not as easy as it sounds.  But I digress...my little helper noticed I was putting on ribbon, so he found a roll of his own ribbon and decided to "help."  Notice his help required the step stool, which he finds any reason to use.

He took his job very seriously, carefully and meticulously arranging his own ribbon.

 Tada!!  Beautiful, huh?  ;)  I wasn't allowed to help him or rearrange his masterpiece.  He also insisted upon helping me with the ornaments, which made me a tad bit nervous since most of them are glass.  But he was very careful and so far, not a single one is broken.  He didn't quite get the part about spacing them out on the tree at first:

 And then when he did, they were pretty much all on the very bottom most branches.  Most of these are my unbreakable ornaments, so I didn't mind.

"Mommy, our tree looks pretty!"

 The day of the A&M-v-LSU game, we had been invited to pretty much downtown Dallas for a game watching party.  I was just plain too tired plus it was in the middle of Reid's nap time, so we convinced Jason to go have fun.  Jason dressed him in a cute football hoodie, but after nap time I couldn't resist changing him into some Aggie gear.  It took a million pictures (my phone's camera is s-l-o-w!) to get a cute one where he was looking at me and had his gig 'em up, but I finally got one ready for the next time the Aggies scored and texted it to Jason.  Some friendly family rivalry, hee hee!  Reid and I had fun eating popcorn and watching the game together, even though A&M didn't score enough points to win.  Luckily for me, Jason and I hadn't made a wager on this game...traditionally, whoever's team loses has to make the winner breakfast in bed or something along those lines.

 Our not-so-little guy has developed quite the imagination and has a creative side.  He's made up his own words for a few things, created nicknames (Jill, who walks him into his preschool class at school, has become "Jilly Willy"...all his idea), and has found unusual uses for everyday objects to be imaginative tools for things other than what they were designed for.  It cracks us up on a daily basis.  I think on my last post I commented on how he decided Mommy needed "friends" to sleep with so he makes sure these cute little critters lined up on my bed each night.  He's been obsessed with the little rubber band bracelets all the kids love right now, so once he decided one was going to be a necklace for friend #4, the rest of my friends needed one, too.  He had six bracelets, so all six friends got a necklace.  Then, he decided he wanted to sleep with Mommy's friend #4 (for some reason, #4 is his favorite, so he always does everything before the other friends), then all six of them.  So lucky me...I now get his friends all lined up on my bed, and he gets these little guys.  Crazy boy.