Furry, four-legged babies

Dixie and Samson, our four-legged "fur babies," are often our entertainment at home. Dixie is a smart, sneaky thing who will stop at no lengths to get a piece of Samson's food (the higher fat kind that we have to keep in the pantry in hopes that only he has access to eat it...but she finds ways to sneak in a bite here or there) or to have some people food on occasion. Her absolute favorite nights are when Jason grills...well...ANYthing. She loves tuna steak, ribeyes, chicken, virtually anytime the grilling utensils come out, she's a meowing machine! Samson could care less about people food...unless he hears the whipped cream cannister come out of the fridge. He'll eat his AND his sister's portions. It's gotten so bad lately that he knows once dinner time is over, if anyone opens the fridge/freezer, it's dessert time, for the whole family. (Jason lovingly refers to Reid as his "little tub of ice cream" sometimes. I didn't think it was really that bad until I saw that we did indeed have four different kinds of ice cream in our freezer...and none of them lasted that long!)

So in honor of our kitties, the pictures today will highlight Easter at the French household. We went to church, had a bite out to eat, did the usual grocery shopping, then decided it's probably about time to figure out the stroller and car seat situation. I was so bummed when I got an email from Babies R Us a few months back saying that our stroller/car seat combo were being discontinued. (not a part of any of the recalls) We'd looked at tons, and this one was lightweight, semi unique, and pretty colors/pattern. I lamented this information to my sister, and we had a special package delivered the next week. Who says the older sister takes care of the younger one? ;) Anyhow, I digress...today Jason pulled all the parts out of the box and we sat down to assemble it. Unbeknownst to us, Dixie apparently has skills:

If that video post worked, I will attempt to capture Reid's antics on a video. He doesn't perform on demand, but hopefully I could catch him on a day like today. After all that action, we were tired and being that it was a nice, cloudy Sunday afternoon, a nap seemed the perfect activity for all of us. (except for Reid, who has been rolling, kicking, and generally moving most of the day--love it!!) We ended up sleeping quite soundly, and I woke up to this hilarious vision, which looked like Jason gave birth to a furry 15 pounder:

We often wonder how the cats will adjust to a squirmy little screaming human invading "their" house... I didn't realize they'd never really been around kids until my roommate's nephews (toddler and 4ish) came over one day when I was in my third or fourth year of teaching. Dixie immediately hissed, ran away, and hid under the bed. Samson was scared at first, but then came out to investigate. They also haven't been around too many babies. The first time Samson ever heard one was when we lived in Spring and friends brought their newborn over to watch an LSU football game. The baby was in her car seat on top of the kitchen table--Samson bolted into the room, up onto the table (a big no-no for the cats) and stuck his nose in to see what the crying mini human was upset about. It was pretty cute! Dixie, being the calico with the attitude, wanted nothing to do with the baby. It will be interesting to see how they adjust...and what baby things they 'claim' for themselves. We thought the car seat was going to double as a cat bed for awhile there today...

The trickster in utero

I know you're supposed to have a supressed immune system when you're pregnant, but this is getting pretty ridiculous. I have now been sick for nearly a month...we're talking full-fledged alternatingly stuffy/runny nose, ringing ears, trouble breathing, and now I've developed a nasty cough. I just finished (another) round of antibiotics on Thursday and am hoping/praying I can fully recover and somehow stay well, despite this being "the worst allergy season in over a decade." My cough does seem a little better today, but my throat is horribly sore...like someone's shoving golf balls in either side, and my ears are killing me as well. But it could always be worse ;) I'm just so thankful for the good reason I can't take most of the medicine I normally would!!!

We had been looking forward to our 28 week sonogram (it had been 8 weeks since we'd had one this time) and I was dying to see our little guy moving around on the screen. It didn't exactly go as planned...the sono lady kept going back to something (I had trouble identifying anything on the screen this time) and wasn't saying much--a bad sign. Turns out little Reid had this monster bulge on his belly (not sure what view this is from, but the belly is the big round thing on the left, and the bulge is the big thing at the top right):
For reasons that can only be attributed to immediate prayer and a supernatural calming, I didn't panic. (And Jason always takes things in stride...I should learn from him!) Amazingly, I didn't panic or cry--but was very thankful when my dr's office scheduled us to see the perinatologist at 4:45 later that day. (And great timing--Jason had a busy day at the office, and I'd already had to take a half day off due to the dr appt/sono since the sono lady only works 9-2) The way it was explained, it sounded like something similar to a hernia, which would require surgery after delivery. Or possibly a tumor...either way, it broke my heart to even think about that on our little baby. Thankfully, everything was fine and the 'belly bulge' had disappeared. The perinatologist said since babies are so "squished" in the womb, they sometimes have a leg pressed up against their belly, which can form the bulge. So no happy sono pictures this time, but we did get the first DVD of our little guy, the trickster :) And it sure is good to know that so many people will pray for you in such a short amount of time!! Thank you for the prayers!

This morning, Jason's boss, Mike, treated us to some delicious dim sum at a little place next to our Asian grocery we go to sometimes. It was so much fun to pick your little baskets of goodies off of the carts as they roll by. Couldn't tell you what the name of anything was, but it was delicious! We went to the grocery afterward to stock up on Hello Panda cookies (Laura got me hooked while we were in Singapore the first time), sesame cake/cracker thingees, mango puree, etc. And of course, I had to wander down the shopping center to Bali Smoothie for a mango smoothie "with bubble" (these little chewy glutinous rice balls). Mmm...

Belly shot from today (yes, I strayed from the usual tank top and stretchy pants--it's just too much trouble to change these days...)

Snow...on the first day of Spring!

Everyone knows how strange Texas weather is...the old Texas adage says it well, "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes!" March 20, the first official day of Spring, began pretty chilly--the temperature started off in the high 30's. As we drove from Frisco to our nephew Hayden's 5th birthday party at a bounce house place in Prosper, we watched the temperature slowly drop. Lucky for us (sarcasm intended), the bounce house place had no heat. The kids had no problem with the temperature because they were all bouncing on the slides, running, danceing, and jumping in bounce houses, but the adults were a bit chillier. I never took off my coat, wore my lined gloves and scarf the entire time, and sat myself in front of a tiny space heater until we were herded to the other room for cupcakes. We all trekked to the front room for game time--fun things like air hockey, mini helicopters to ride in, skee ball, etc. I couldn't help but think of my Chuck E. Cheese days, when my sister and I had the stuffed animal claw machine down to a science. Who knew two little kids could figure out the science behind getting 25 cent stuffed animals! We soon headed back to Frisco to catch up with Bruce and Tari (in-laws) and open up some more presents with family. The highlight of Tari's day was finding ice scrapers at CVS. They were considered "out of season", so the girl had to get them from the back room, but they had them which is all that mattered. As I discovered when we lived in Houston, NOBODY carries them, yet you really do need them now and then to scrape off ice before you can go anywhere! (The only one I found in two years of searching was a gargantuous 2 1/2 foot thing with a scraper on one end and a sweeper on the other. Little did I know how handy it would come in this year in Dallas!) We began to get snow pellets as Jason and I headed back to McKinney that evening.

We had a normal, laid back evening and ordered Thai food while we watched a movie, then before bedtime Jason discovered we suddenly had two inches of snow! It was beautiful, blanketing everything in a soft, shimmering white glow...a quiet hush covering the usual outside noises. Since that's all that was predicted, we figured it'd melt by the morning, especially with it being the first day of Spring and all. Sunday found me feeling absolutely miserable--no fever, but sure felt like it. I turned my alarm off and crawled back into bed for some more rest as I hadn't slept well in weeks. When we got up, I realized there were about FIVE inches of snow (maybe more!) blanketing the outdoor world! We found out later than church had apparently been cancelled due to the weather, so we didn't feel so bad about taking a day to recoup. It was a good day to sleep--and I did, until about 3pm.

A view of the back porch (keep in mind, this is after 11am, since I felt so icky):



The neighbor's house (note the depth of the snow right at the bottom, next to our driveway)...




Icicles on the neighbor's house (would've shot our house, but it's two story...plus I didn't have to leave the covered porch this way!)

Babymoon-Day 3

This morning, I awoke with a horrible sore throat, ear pain, and blowing yucky stuff from my nose....lovely. I just saw the doctor on Wednesday (I'd been miserable last week, especially at the beginning of the week) and he said, "Welcome to pregnancy." I'm thinking I have sinusitis again, but am giving it one more day before I call (again!) to see if this is normal... It didn't keep us from enjoying the morning, though! Reid had the hiccups on the way to the Dallas World Aquarium. The breakfast of champions (McDonald's) cured that. I have wanted to go to the DWA for some time, but when we found out that it's about $20 per adult, we opted out. But since this was vacation and I figured there'd be lots of places to sit and observe the fish, it was the perfect way to end our Babymoon. The exhibits were beautifully done.

This is the first big room, which actually made us feel like we were back in Singapore at the Jurong Bird Park. One bird decided to make friends with Jason, flying over to sit on his shoulder right after we took his picture! The giant room was set up very uniquely in layers--canopy, ground, then underground, where you could see the manatees and giant catfish that were in the deceptively deep pool in the picture below.

I got to feed a blueberry to this toucan (notice my ever-growing neck folds...guess I'll have a double chin soon!)

We saw tons of animals, but this little monkey with the moustache was our favorite. We probably watched him for a good 10 minutes, hopping around and entertaining us. He even seemed to pose for us.

It was so neat to have the birds flying around you, watch the fish and monkies, and hear the call of some exotic bird as the waterfall spilled behind us.

The aquarium is actually more like a miniature zoo than just the fish tanks we were expecting...having everything from tiny pygmy monkies to sloths and a jaguar to the beautiful fish one would expect. These jellyfish were transfixing:

And the penguins were adorable! I was kind of shocked at the lack of places to sit...I figured lots of grandparents, etc. would visit the aquarium and regular people would want to sit and watch certain areas, but I really only found two places to sit the entire time we were there! The penguin feeding was 15 minutes away (and I really wanted to see it), but I just couldn't be on my feet any longer. That's a new problem that seems to have risen this weekend...

We did see a few of the sharks eat, but it was way too crowded to stand in the plexiglass tunnel to watch. This guy was nearby and almost seemed to pause and pose for Jason to take its picture.

And finally the Caribbean flamingoes were as entertaining as they were beautiful. But my legs had had enough--these varicose veins have really bothered me this weekend. Thank goodness for my compression stockings (ugly as sin, but they really help my legs feel better!)

Babymoon-Day 2

Day two of our babymoon found us sleeping in. Our hotel was lovely, but the atrium echoed EVERYthing up to our room. They make the a/c fans nice and quiet...which is great if you're a heavy sleeper, but we planned on that being our "noisemaker" to drown out everything else. Plus, having the drunk guys staying next door stagger in shouting and cursing at 3am didn't help matters. And that "spring ahead" time change...let's just say "ugh!"

So we lounged around in bed for awhile before heading over to Coal Vines for a delicious brunch. Again, had the camera but forgot to take pics before we dove in. Our Benedict pizza was yummy, the gourmet salads even yummier. We enjoyed our leisurely stay on the patio before heading over to the farmer's market to spend a couple hours wandering around to see what the farmers were peddling. Of course, there were little food stands and we had to try the elote' (roasted corn with mayo, sour cream, hot sauce, salt/pepper, lime, and parmesan cheese) followed by a snow cone to wash it down. Mmm...

We found a Japanese maple tree on sale for an amazing $50--perfect buy for our babymoon! We'd already discussed planting a tree in honor of Baby Boy, and we love Japanese maples, so this was perfect. We had them hold it until today, then wrangled it into the car for the trip home (short stop at Discount Tires when Jason discovered a large nail in the tire this morning!)

Belly shot of me before we went to dinner...I really think I had a growth spurt this weekend! (Could it be all the delicious food?!)


Both of us in front of the hotel during the LONG wait for our car from the valet (note to self...valets do not tend to have steady hands for picture taking). We ate at Taverna, a great little Italian place. Again, I was soooo excited about the food that we dove right in w/o remembering to take a pic :( Our focaccia with onion, toasted pine nuts, baby arugula, drizzled with olive oil and freshly ground pepper was FABulous! I enjoyed the lobster risotto and Jason had the tuna steak with balsamic glaze, and of course, the pregnant lady needed another creme brulee. Good thing I don't know how to make those or we'd have it every night!!

The "green building" of the Dallas skyline (don't know why, but I've always loved seeing that building)...

Babymoon-Day 1

With Spring Break here (finally!!), Jason and I decided we'd take a "babymoon" (like a honeymoon, but before the baby arrives) as all the books I'm reading and every new parent I know has advised. My parents had generously offered to let us use a week of their timeshare, but I guess everyone trades theirs in for this particular week (assumably must be lots of families also taking full advantage of Spring Break). We tried for anything near the hill country, outskirts of Dallas, or around Hot Springs, Arkansas...but to no avail. So we opted instead for a "staycation" rather than a full-blown vacation for several reasons...price, proximity to hospitals (just in case), and let's face it...I can't go long w/o a pee break these days!

Jason booked the Hyatt downtown for a few days, which was a great location--close to lots we could do. We started off at the Dallas Arboretum on Saturday afternoon. The weather was absolutely gorgeous...chilly with the wind off of the lake, but nice and warm in the sunshine. Many things were already in full bloom (which wasn't good for the allergies...why does that always happen at the prettiest times of the year?) and we enjoyed each moment.

After the arboretum, we had a little time to kill and drove around to see some of the madness of the St. Patty's Day parade over in the Lower Greenville area (funny!). We checked into our hotel amidst the hubub of all the runners of a big 1/2 marathon going on Sunday morning. After enjoying a leisurely nap, snack, and shower, we dressed and attempted to find The Grape, our venue for that evening's dinner. I say attempted b/c it was mass chaos--Greenville was still closed down from the St. Patty's Day festivities...I'd have to say it was the most beer bottles, trash, and general nastiness I've seen this side of New Orleans. We had to find a back way to the restaurant but made it just in time for our reservations. I'm soooo mad I didn't take pictures of the food (what kind of foodie AM I??) because its presentation was just as delightful as it was delicious. We shared flammekeuchen, an Alsacian pizza-type dish we haven't had since our trip to Germany. Each of us had a delicious salad, then I enjoyed the grilled salmon atop a parmesan risotto with spicy baked pita wedges while Jason opted for a barbeque type pork butt with spicy jalapeno slaw. To top it all off, we ordered the creme brulee, of course! Everything was absolutely delicious!! Here we are, outside The Grape restaurant/wine bar:

Feet?

I noticed for the first time, as I looked down in the shower the other day, that I can no longer see my feet! It's kind of funny...I know they're there, but I have to move in order to see 'em now. Which does make me realize I really need to be holding onto rails when going up/down the stairs (Jason is always very sweet to remind me of this) and I need to be aware of where our "special" cat (this is truly said with love--he is truly...um...unique?) Samson is at all times because he tends to be a sucker for punishment and is always underfoot. Since I have to wear the oh-so-lovely compresion stockings everyday, it's gotten to be quite interesting attempting to put those on. And I realized today that I have NO close-toed shoes (that don't have 3" heels) to wear with them. Is it bad to cut out the toes on one pair so I can wear flip flops every day like I normally do from spring to fall??

Jason lovingly refers to Baby Boy as "our little tub of ice cream." Most of you know that my sweet tooth all but disappeared after coming back from Germany years ago with some kind of stomach parasite (which you think you'd get from a 3rd world country, not there!). That summer, I lost like 10 lbs and couldn't stand sweets any longer. During my first trimester, I tended to want dill pickles every single day (plus the only other things that sounded non-pukey were any kind of potatoes and most carbs). This trimester, I'd have to say ice cream tops the list (but cupcakes, cookies, chocolate, and other sweet goodies can be equally as tempting!). We have a variety in the freezer (gotta buy it when it's on sale, right?) b/c you never know what might sound the best. but my number one choice is Blue Bell homemade vanilla, but my other latest fave (aside from homemade vanilla on top of an ooey-gooey piece of brownie or chocolate cake, which we had to have twice last week!) is the Kroger brand ice cream, cherry burgundy flavor. Mmmm...on that note, I'm off to the kitchen ;)