Halloween

You all probably know what a gut-wrenching daily struggle it is for me to work.  Jason's commute is so long that he leaves before Reid gets up and returns home after Reid and I get home, so he can't really help with much in that department.  So it's up to me to get him up, dressed, packed, dropped off, picked up, played with, etc. etc.  Couple that with a very demanding minute-by-minute job of being a kindergarten teacher, and I feel like a bad wife, bad parent, and bad teacher many days.  I am just plain exhausted!  But on Halloween, I was feeling especially down about missing all the cuteness going on at Sunshine Kids.  I'm down to a mere 15 days of "paid" maternity leave (contrary to popular belief, teachers get ZERO paid maternity leave days...we can just legally take 12 weeks of leave to care for new babies, so you have to save up your sick leave days) after my stomach bug/food poisoning day, a half day for Reid's first day of preschool, and two and a half days when he had bronchitis and then pneumonia.  So, I can't afford to take off any more time to see his cute activities going on.  And on this particular morning, he asked me (twice!), "Mommy, can you come to my school today?"  It absolutely broke my heart into a million pieces.  I bawled three times before I even made it to school, and then teared up a few more times throughout the day when people asked if I was okay.  I know the pregnancy hormones probably didn't help, but it just kills me to think of all the things I miss (such as just seeing his teachers in the mornings...I never get to hear the cute things about them unless they write it on his daily report).  I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom, but it looks like that will never happen.  God has His reasons.  I just pray the desire will go away if that's not what I'm supposed to do.  My adorable little football player didn't wear the helmet long...just long enough for me to take a picture of him with old T, his favorite "friend" (lovey).

Thank goodness his sweet teacher Ms. LaLinda (the head teacher of the Monkeys class) included two precious pics in their weekly emailed newsletter!  And yes, that is my child...the only one with his foot up in the air, lol.  So I missed the costume parade, the carnival, and everything else that day, but at least I got to see how cute they all were.

   

Reid once again surprised me that morning and wanted to be the football player.  I figured he'd want to be Buzz Lightyear that evening to trick-or-treat, but he insisted upon staying in his football player gear.

I had tons of school paperwork to catch up on, and Daddy was able to get off a few minutes early, so that allowed me to run to the gym before the evening's festivities.  Reid came home with some adorable projects and treats from the day, including a sparkly paper plate Christian jack-o-lantern, complete with Ichthus mouth and cross nose. It had been a full day, but this kid was willing to eat dinner way early (dinners lately have lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour long, but this one was pretty quick) for Daddy so they could begin trick-or-treating to get "candies," as Reid calls them.  Helping Daddy bring in all the pumpkins so everyone would know we weren't passing out candy this year...

"Cheese!"

 

"Enough with the pictures, Daddy...let's go!"

It was only 5:45 when I got home from the gym and changed...but Jason and Reid were long gone.  I had to walk all the way down Rancho De La Osa to catch up!  Daddy had dressed up for work that day, too, so here's my handsome duo, Reid going "noodle" on us...

"Mommy, I want to go to MORE houses!"

Reid really got into it and understood much more this year.  He didn't pay attention to too many other kids' costumes, except for the "Mad Birds" (Angry Birds) we passed.  He's never played the game, but desperately wanted Angry Birds Cheez-Its at the store a few weeks ago for his snack.  It cracks me up that he insists they are "Mad Birds" each and every time.  One house we visited must've been out trick-or-treating themselves, but left a nice spread outside with everything from decorative pencils to candy to pumpkin bubbles.  So cute!

Reid very carefully chose one piece of candy at any place that would allow him to pick.  It was interesting to watch him decide.  Rule of thumb...if there are M&M's, that's what you should get.

Starting to get tired...the tell tale circles under the eyes always give him away.

We finally made it back to our street just as it was getting really dark.  We made one last stop to see our Mr. Adam (our neighbor) was doing, and to count all the pumpkins at his house.

"What?!  No more trick-or-treating?"

"Pleeeease?  Just one more house?"

 

"Oh, I can actually eat some candy at home??  Let's go!"

We had so much fun as a family!  I am very anti-Halloween, seeing as how it represents all sorts of dark, evil things.  And I was amazed at the bizarre, weird, creepy outfits some people allow their kids to dress up in (or dress as, themselves!).  But when you look at it from the kid side...innocent dressing up and eating delicious treats, it's really pretty fun.  It makes me look forward to creating family traditions for all the upcoming holidays since Reid "gets it" this year.  I love seeing this kid grow up, and it makes Jason and me feel a bit like kids again, too.  We are blessed!

Papa & Mamere's Visit

The week after Grandma Penny was here, Papa and Mamere came to visit.  I worked really hard both work weeks to make sure my report cards were completed and proofread (think college finals!), then to insure that my parent conference documents were all in order before conference day.  Normally, I would work on these things over the weekends before they were due.  So it was nice to have family time and a break before I met with all 20 families that next Monday!  The night the Frenches came in happened to be Stonebriar Community Church's Fall Festival.  We'd been looking forward to when Reid was old enough to enjoy it, and we had hoped this would be the year.  He surprised us by picking the football player costume over Buzz Lightyear (from "Toy Story," one of his favorite movies).  Reid was very talkative and opinionated about where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do at the festival.  He loved fishing for a prize, which made me chuckle because that is the only activity I very distinctly remember from Fall Festivals at our church when I was a kid. 

He surprisingly didn't want to eat the candy right away, but Mommy was starving (I'd had a stomach bug or food poisoning that Wednesday, so I think my body was making up for a day without eating!) so I got a bag of popcorn.  From previous experiences, I know how much this kid loves his popcorn, so I got him his own bag, too.  Jackpot!

He loooved the huge bouncy slides that were set up outside, so we actually started off there.  He didn't want to leave, but as the sun went down and it got chillier and chillier, we finally convinced him to go inside.

His favorite activity of the night?  The giant orange balloon sword.  The line had been quite long, and we were thankful for our patient boy (the popcorn probably helped, too).  I was surprised at his choices...he picked orange over green, his favorite color, and he picked a sword over all the cute animals they had listed.  Who knows what goes through this kid's mind.

We played a couple more games and gathered some more candy before heading back to the car.  Reid was very happy with his sword and he and Papa played with it all the way home.

 

He was even happier when Mamere helped him walk on all the curbs.  He loves to balance, but we love that he insists on holding hands when he does this...because it's about the only time you can ever get him to hold hands. 

 

The next day, we met up with Uncle Steve, Taunt, and H3 at Henry's football game.  Our family took a time out for nap time while Papa and Mamere watched Hayden's game and babysat the boys so Steven and Aimee could meet with their builder.  Then we all met up at Cantina Laredo for a yummy Mexican food dinner.  As usual, I forgot to take pics, but Aimee snapped this cute one of the youngest two.  Happy boys!  All the other adults were happy with their yummy margaritas, and I was happy with my yummy mango tres leches cake.  Even though Reid had "chippies" and hot sauce, all of his corn dog, and all of his French fries, I think he would've eaten all of the cake if I'd have let him ;)

 

Grandma Penny's Visit

Reid's school had an Open House a few weeks ago.   I was absolutely blown away by the amazing artwork and creative projects they did!!  We have been so happy with him there, and I am so thankful for their Kids Klub extended day program, and for the friend who drops him off in the mornings...otherwise, he wouldn't be able to go with my school hours. We're already praying for God to provide someone to bring him next year.  At Open House, we got to see his classroom, meet a few of the kiddos in his class, and say hi to his wonderful teachers, Ms. LaLinda and Ms. Shannon.  Reid acted shy and goofy (as you can see in the picture), but I think he had fun being at school "after hours."

Jason had gotten Reid a Cars pinata for his birthday at the Mexican meat market that we like.  Unfortunately, we could not figure out how to open it up to fill it with trinkets and treats.  But he and Jason had fun one day smacking it with a baseball bat.  It was hilarious...and oddly enough, Reid knew exactly what to do!  It won't let me upload the cute video, of course, but at least we got a picture.

Grandma Penny (or "Grandma Jellybean," as the grandkids have dubbed her, since she always comes with jellybeans) came to visit, so we had lots of get togethers with Uncle Steve, Taunt, and H3 (Hayden, Henry, and Harrison, the French cousins).  Reid wasn't feeling his best, so I made sure he and I were home for nap times, but you wouldn't be able to tell from the pics!  We had everyone over one night to grill fajitas.  It was fun and laid back.  Reid and Harrison really became buddies, which was cute because they are the closest in age.

Henry didn't want to smile, so out came the funny face.  But Reid was actually smiling, and Harrison is nearly always smiling.  They enjoyed the "kids' table" outside.  No one ate very much because playing was way more fun.

We never remember to have someone take our family picture, so we took advantage of an extra set of hands.

Reid took a little while to warm up to Grandma (as he does with everyone!), but he loved her and instantly began asking, "Where's Grandma Penny??" as SOON as she left.  We loved our time to catch up with her and are so thankful she is willing to use precious vacation time each year to come see us in Texas.  We miss you already, Grandma Jellybean!

5 Months

I am officially a little more than halfway there!!  Here's the 20 week belly shot...  

Have I mentioned how exhausted I am? ;)  The magic number for nighttime is 8:30.  After that, I turn into a pumpkin...or at least can't move without a LOT of effort.  I had my energy back at 15 weeks when I was pregnant with Reid.  I've pretty much decided I'm just not getting it back this time.  I am (somehow) still doing aerobics twice a week.  People look at you pretty funny when you walk in the gym with a big ol' belly.  It's kind of entertaining.  Despite the working out, which I think is the only reason I'm not having back pains like I did last time, I still have very little self control most days when it comes to dark chocolate.  It's like I NEED it or something!  I'm really not eating too much more than normal...maybe a little more substantial breakfast and a slightly larger snack for my afternoon snack.  I finally gained weight.  A lot!  Up until a few weeks ago, I was only about two pounds more than what I'd started at.  I thought that was kind of weird, considering I've been eating all the way through (some people are so sick they can't eat or barf it all back up) and assumably gaining muscle with my workouts.  But no worries...I suddenly gained about eight pounds in two weeks!  And the only change was that it had been my birthday, so we'd been having red velvet cake...mmm!  My friend/Reid's sitter surprised me the night before my b-day and dropped off this beautiful, delectable cake.

Baby Boy (and no, we do not have any idea on the name!!) is rockin' and rollin' in my belly.  Jason finally got to feel a good kick from the outside a couple of weeks ago.  Since then, he likes to kick Daddy during the blessing before we eat each night :)  Baby has a nice little schedule of sleep/wake times and has now awakened me a few times during the night.  So far (and I may eat my words soon), he's not quite as crazy as Reid was in there.  We went for the "big" sonogram with all the measurements a week and a half ago and got some great pics.  It was worth the drive waaaaay down to my new doctor's Dallas office (thankfully, I see him in the Frisco office  normally).  Right off the bat, we had yet another confirmation of his manhood.

Hi, Mommy & Daddy!

A nice little profile pic--very different from Reid's profile (I think it's the forehead)...

Another perk about our long drive down there was more high tech equipment...and a little surprise...it also did 4D!   So here's our little guy sucking his thumb.  So cute!!

We can't wait to meet him, but hope he'll stay in the "oven" until everything's developed enough to come out.  It's funny, though, because I almost feel like a new parent all over again since it's been about four years since we've been through this.  Thankfully, I wrote down a lot of things in a little pregnancy journal my sis sent me.  I'm writing them down this time, too, in the hopes that this little guy will want to read it someday.

Balloon Festival

Reid loves watching planes, the moon, lots of stuff in the sky.  So we figured he'd enjoy the Celina Balloon Festival.  The "big" one around here is the Plano Balloon Fest, but from what I've heard you have to park a mile or two away and it's soooo crowded.  No thanks...not with little people or a pregger lady.  Our neighbors said something about a Groupon for the Celina one, so I checked it out.  Fortunately, I didn't get the Groupon--someone at work gave me a group of free tickets, so we just had to pay $5 for parking and buy tickets for rides, slides, bouncy houses, and food.  We got there at four that day.  It felt great in the shade, but was pretty darn hot in the sun.  Reid immediately wanted to do a HUGE slide.  I think he may have barely been tall enough, but it still scared me.  We found a big field of bouncy houses/slides, and he was in preschooler heaven.  The only part he hated was waiting in line to get tickets.  We didn't realize how big a few of them were, so Daddy had the privilege of escorting our three year old crazy boy through them.  I think he was more tired than Reid on a few ;)  There was a big tree stump monster thingee that Reid insisted was a "tiki"...

 Thankfully Reid could do this one on his own.

This one nearly killed Daddy, I think...

...so naturally, Reid wanted to do it again!

One of the events was a bunch of trampolines and harnesses.  We saw a kid younger than Reid harnessed up and he did fine, so I figured this was right up his alley.  It kind of surprised me that he was so underwhelmed by it.  I figured it'd be his favorite thing.  Just goes to show that you never know what they'll like.

 By about six o'clock, someone was all tuckered out.  We had slowed things down a bit and hit the midway.  He won a blue stuffed gorilla, which we thought he'd love since he sleeps with nine or ten stuffed "friends" each night, now, but he could've cared less!    There was an a/c company with the fantastic idea of offering free iced washcloths and had cool misting fans around their tent (conveniently set up next to the bathroom).  Reid enjoyed the cold cloth and we parked it on the sidewalk to wait while Daddy ran back to the car to get the umbrella stroller.  All Reid could do was people watch and beg to do the huge slide he'd seen at the beginning.

We finally waited in line for foot long corn dogs and fresh squeezed lemonade...took forever.  I think Reid could've eaten an entire corn dog himself, but we weren't about to wait in the line again!  Unfortunately, it was too windy for the balloon launch, so we waited around for awhile while they attempted one.  But this little guy was hyped up and overtired, so we had to head back to the car.  I tried to get a picture to show how tired his eyes looked, but he kept cheesing it up with poses like this:

It was a fun experience and I hope we can make the balloon festival an annual thing.  I know Reid was still a little young to fully enjoy everything, and he didn't even get to see the balloon launch or balloon glow, but I'm pretty sure he had a blast.

4 Months

 

Still playing catch up...  It's a few weeks overdue now, but here's my four month belly shot.  I am craving ice cream, frozen mini Twix bars, and red velvet cake.  I have crazy dreams--last night, the grandparents had Reid in the hospital waiting area while Jason and I "decided" we'd have the baby that day.  In my dream, I wondered how I'd gotten to the last trimester already (wishful thinking, lol).  The baby came out, and suddenly we realized it was a girl...and she was already the size of a two year old.  Crazy--I told you!!  But better than the dreams where someone was after me and/or trying to murder me!!  I sleep really well most nights, aside from getting up to tinkle several times (thought I was past that!  Jason and I finally switched sides of the bed so I don't trip over everything on the way), and if I don't go to bed by 8:30 or 9, I am utterly exhausted the next day.  Heck, even if I do go to bed that early, I'm still utterly exhausted the next day!!  Right now, it's worse than the first trimester.  Hoping to get that "burst of energy" everyone talks about.  With Reid, I got it at about 15 weeks.  With this one, I'm not sure I'm going to get it.  Period.  Baby is moving a lot now--I have been able to feel him since about 15 weeks, but anytime I try to feel him from the outside (so Daddy can feel him one of these days), he quits immediately.  Aside from the veins/legs, I'm feeling pretty good.  I've had to cut way back on what I can do in aerobics (zero jumping or high impact) because it hurts my legs.  This picture actually does it justice, sadly...looks a lot worse in person.  I've gone up to using 15-20 or 20-30 mmhg compression.  Let me tell you...those puppies are NOT easy to put on!!  I'm kind of wondering how old people get them on at all.  Or how I'll possibly be able to when I'm really big.  These things aren't cheap, either.  The higher the compression, the more $$ you spend.  So the new ones I just got ran me about $75 a pair. 

 I gave up yoga because it just feels weird and my body doesn't want to move certain ways, so I pulled out my prenatal yoga video Laura sent me from Australia when she found out I was pregnant with Reid.  It's not quite the same this time, attempting to do yoga while your three year old fires a constant barrage of questions and tries to climb on you in the middle of poses, but I'm trying.  At least the stretching feels good, even if it's not exactly relaxing, lol!

In other goings-on, a friend texted me that Target was having a huge kids' shoes clearance.  Reid's sandals were just about to bite the dust and I really haven't wanted to pay another $30 for a pair he'll only wear a few months, so I'd been waiting for something like this.  We were headed to Frisco to join Steven/Aimee/cousins at Macaroni Grill to celebrate Aunt Kristen being in town.  I was mad I didn't think to take pictures (story of my life) there or at Henry's football game we'd been to earlier.  The important thing was that we got to see her and catch up :)  But back to Target...  Sad to say, my son picked these shoes out immediately!!  I thought maybe he was picking out a pair for me, but he said, "No Mommy.  For me!"  Um, no.  Let's look some more...  I feebly attempted to explain why these were girl shoes, but Reid didn't buy it.  He kept putting them back in the little basket.  We're going to have to work on that...

We've actually had a few nice days where we could *gasp* play outside!!  Reid has enjoyed his "playground" and sandbox in the backyard.  We found a nice little green caterpillar and he loved playing with it.  Unfortunately, he accidentally loved it a little too much and squished it.  Luckily, I found this cute little leopard gecko a few minutes later.  Reid wasn't too impressed, so we let him go later that day.  Still, it was neat to find a cool critter in our own backyard.  I'm very glad Reid likes being out in nature, too.  Just wish the mosquitoes would take it easy on him.  Jason sprayed his legs and arms with Off, but they went to town on his face.  The poor guy even got bites on his fingers and ears!!  But this is also the kid who is the reason Sunshine Kids had to close their playground the other day.  The fire ants found him quite tasty and he got a good eight or nine bites :(

Something else he has enjoyed on these nice days is his new bubble bucket I found on clearance.  These things are great...you can tip them over and they don't spill!  Plus, it has three wands so everyone can blow bubbles at once.  Reid has tried to blow his own bubbles for about a year and a half, and he finally got it! 

September 2013

This kiddo has been one sick puppy.  He's had a cough forever, it seems.  Had bronchitis back in August and has only been cough free for maybe a few days here and there.  I figured he caught a mild cold/virus right when preschool started (new germs, etc.).  But he began running a low grade fever this weekend, so we took him to Acute Kids on Sunday.  Pneumonia!!!  :(  I scrambled Monday to leave sub plans before Jason went to work...Tuesday was iffy, he seemed fine Wednesday, but then had 102.3 last night!!  Back to Acute Kids last night.  They said his lungs do sound slightly better, but changed the antibiotic just in case.  Today, I scrambled again to go leave sub plans this morning (soooo stressful!!).  He's been very cranky and cries or screams at me at the drop of a hat.  It's not exactly the time for me to be missing school...I am down to 17 days of maternity leave (what I'd saved up for Baby #2--no, teachers do NOT get ANY paid maternity leave!!!!) now, missing assessment time for upcoming report cards, missed two trainings after school...I could go on and on.  I hate that I'm worried about that when I should be worrying about him getting better!  And I am one exhausted momma.

Reid has been a nutball since school has started.  I suppose it's a combination of things.  He knows things are different because Mommy has a baby in her belly (and I think he's a little confused...he calls Grant, who also goes to our sitter and will be one in January, "baby brother").  I'm back at work full time.  Reid is at preschool twice a week and will not nap, so he's totally overtired.  We are attempting to put him to bed early during the week, but he's the master of dragging dinner out forEVER and I don't want to skip reading books every night because I think that's very important.  So our afternoon/evenings are kind of nutty.  And when this kid gets tired, he winds up, not down!! 

We finally got some much needed rain a few weeks ago and Reid wanted to go outside to play in it.  It was almost bath time anyway, so I asked him if he wanted to take his shirt off so it didn't get wet.  That, of course, let him to take off his shorts so they didn't get wet.  And the undies automatically came of after that.  Who can argue with preschool logic, lol?  We let him run around in the nude and enjoy the rain.

The rain was getting him wet (imagine that!) so I offered him an umbrella.  One corner was broken, but I figured it'd get destroyed by the end of this play session anyways.

This kid had more fun running around in the rain than you could imagine.  We realized it was getting pretty buggy, so bath time it was.  It was then that we realized just how buggy it had really been...poor Reid suddenly had mosquito bites everywhere (including his crotch!) even though we hadn't been outdoors that long.

Our evening schedule needs some tweaking, but I'm not sure how that's going to happen.  Somewhere after school, when I pick him up from preschool or Holli's house, we have to have playtime, exercise, dinner, bath, pack lunches, read books, and put him down for bedtime.   Then we adults still need to shower and eat...and only then do I get to get off my feet, finally.  I've tried combining Reid's dinner with ours, but it's usually a disaster, plus he will NOT eat what we do.  But the biggest problem is trying to get dinner ready in time for him to eat.  He needs to eat at 6:00 since he dawdles on forever, but we usually don't get home until 5:30...and by the time I unpack the car and lunch boxes, we wash hands, then play for a few minutes, it's already 6!  He decided to pack his own lunch for school one day after I'd gotten out his lunch box.  Pretty cute and he was trying to be independent/helpful, but I'm thinking this carb-filled "lunch" didn't quite cut it.
Not too bad for a three year old, though!

His new favorite face isn't the cutest thing on the face of the Earth.  Hopefully, he doesn't do this at preschool.  Or, maybe that's where he learned it...

 

We had a nice cool front blow through a couple of weeks ago and my gym was closed for renovations the whole weekend, so it was the perfect day for a family hike.  Reid loves going to this park to hike (although it was too wet to hit the off concrete trails after the previous day's rain) and as an added bonus, it has a great playground at the end of our hike.

The lookout has a great view of Plano.  It actually looks like Fall in the pictures, but I think the trees just really need water!

Our little Energizer bunny kept going...and going...and going.  Daddy continued the walk with him, and I went on ahead to find the ladies room before meeting them at the playground. 

Afterward, someone requested his favorite lunch...  (the only thing he actually requests, besides dessert/treats)  Sonic for "cheeseburger and tots, but Mommy wants onion rings!"  This kiddo cracks me up.