End of Summer

I started this post last week, the day before school was going to begin. I was officially back for two weeks before that, and I was trying to distract myself from the reality that summer break was officially over.  It's been so hectic with carting everyone to the sitter, re-setting up my classroom, etc. that I realized I never posted the rest of our summer break pics!

We finally got to visit Houston in a mad dash.  It's really hard to do a solo trip with two little ones!  I had to work around Carter's eating schedule and Reid's and my breakfast and lunch schedule.  Reid doesn't really nap anymore and Carter's napping wasn't extremely great at that point, so I guess that was helpful...one less thing to worry about.  I packed up the car the night before and we headed to Aunt Lala's in Katy. It took forEVER to get there!!  But once there, Reid was in heaven with the boys' toys and playing with cousins. 

We also got to meet Casey, the newest member of their family.  I really thought even Reid would like her because she's pretty much scared of everyone and (aside from sniffing) steers clear.  But Reid screamed like a little girl every time he saw her.  Carter thought she was pretty cute, I think!

Reid had never been to Chuck E. Cheese before, so we had to make our first trip.  The hardest part was getting the boys to sit down and actually eat lunch before we started.  Laura knew all the tricks and even knew to go online for coupons and vouchers to get free tokens.  Right after we'd gotten there, Chuck E. Cheese made an appearance and invited the kids to dance with him.  I couldn't get Reid enthused and he hung out by Carter's stroller.  I did get him to grab a couple of tickets at the end when Chuck E. made it "rain". 

Reid loved the games and lights, but really just wanted to play on their (free) playground.  Go figure.  He did get to do his first racing game with Ben, compliments of Aunt Lala's foot on the gas pedal since he wasn't tall enough to reach yet.  We also got a cute Official Chuck E. Cheese Police badge with his pic, and a group black and white photo print out.  I was sure Reid would be disappointed at the end when Ben and Alex cashed in their tickets for prizes and he didn't have anything, so Laura and I ended up figuring out which games you could get the most tickets for your tokens and we had a blast ourselves!  In true Reid fashion, however, all he really cared about on the prizes was one package of Smarties candy.  I pretty much picked out the rest of his prizes and he really never cared much about the others.

 
It was so hot and humid that the only way we could stand being outside was at the pool or splashpad.  Carter obviously can't play in it yet, but he didn't seem to mind the heat. 

And a few minutes later, OUT!  And I was worried about him not getting his 5:30 catnap...

Reid has always loved "Aunt Lala's pool" so of course we had to go there.  Our last day there was the only day we could fit it in.  We packed lunches for the big boys, but the baby decided to nap there just before we were going to leave...so darn--we had to stay another hour!  Ben was so sweet with Carter and loved getting him to smile. 

I grossly misjudged our timing (basically on the entire trip) and we hit a little bit of afternoon traffic on the Beltway even though it was early.  But we made it to Grammy and Grumpy's house, and Aunt Kristen popped in after work.  I hope we didn't scare her with the craziness and overtiredness of two boys doing dinner/bath/bed.  Obviously, Reid had a lot of trouble falling asleep...HA. (this was at 10-something)

We made the obligatory trip to the duck pond the next day.  Reid had fun feeding the ducks and fish with Grumpy, then he and I floated a few leaf boats down the fountain.

Carter, being a man of the times, was more intrigued with Grumpy's iPad.  Go figure.

Papa was also sweet enough to come over and visit (saving me the madness of attempting to schedule another trip based around nap/feeding/diaper times).  Carter couldn't get enough of the silly faces he made and was all giggles. Just wish we could've seem Mamare this time, but she had to work.  I think next summer, our trip will have to be longer...we didn't have enough time anywhere we went!!  But I didn't want to be gone over a weekend and leave Jason all alone.

My friend Lacy was in limbo all summer, wondering if or if not they'd be moving to New York.  So Reid, Carter, and I made the most of playdates...just in case.  We tried to do at least one a week, usually something free and outdoors.  But two weeks in a row, it was pouring.  The first week they were kind enough to come over (much appreciated, considering I was trying to work around Carter's morning nap and feedings), but the second week we decided to take the kids out.  So we went to an indoor trampoline park.  Laughingly, they were more entertained by the "hurricane machine" and claw machine (no winners, but they had fun putting in the quarters).  Lacy and I were cracking up.

And here's a typical shot of one of our playdates: Reid won't listen, Violet cutely wants to help me with Carter, and Lacy and I just laugh at (I mean, with!!) our kids and compare notes on the cute and annoying things they both do (whew...so that must be normal if they're both doing this, right??).

With my paycheck still being docked until September 15th, we've tried to cut back on various things here and there.  Reid's haircuts end up being about $19 with tip (even though I only go on "toddle waddle Wednesdays" when there's a discount), so I'd gotten electric clippers a couple of years ago.  But he moves around like a mad man and I've been too afraid to attempt it.  Jason bravely took on the task.  I was a bit worried at first, but he did a fabulous job...and it was free!!  Clippers paid for--in one use!

And this little guy just wants to fly...and fly...and fly...and...well, you get the picture.  

I'm very thankful for our summer break.  It was a crazy one this year, but I wouldn't change it for the world.  I love getting to spend time with my two little guys, and I'm sure Jason loves the "way less stressed" version of me. There's just something wonderful about the season--so laid back and free.  I'm sad the dog days of summer are here and school's back in session.  But I'm hoping for a good school year and I suppose it will be nice to have some routine back eventually...or at least I'd like to convince myself ;)

5 Months

So five months was a couple of weeks ago...  But I did remember to get pics!  This little guy can't be still long enough for an unblurry picture these days.  This was about as good as it gets this month.  Oddly enough, this one is actually from my phone.  I'm really trying to get a pic each month with his legs spread out so you can compare and see how long he's gotten.

But he has other ideas!  It's much more fun to pump those arms and legs around, slide down in the chair, kick up a leg...you get the picture.

 

 

Carter is loving tummy time, now.  He just can't get enough.  And I just can't seem to get enough laundry done each day with all the spit up everywhere!  Poor guy...  I honestly don't see how he's gaining weight, but he is a little chunky monkey, so I try to not worry about it.

 He loves tummy time so much that he fussed in his high chair (which conveniently scoots up nicely to the big table) and didn't want to be held, so I decided he could watch big bro eating like this (closely supervised, of course).  Reid loved it, too!

 

His absolute favorite thing right now is doing the airplane.  He'll literally practice doing this over and over (and spitting up over and over, lol) for an hour.  This kid better have a strong back one day!  He's also doing mini push-ups and can scoot around 360 degrees to see what's going on.  I have a feeling he won't be waiting to crawl at 11 months, like Reid.  He hasn't been up on all fours yet, but we're getting close...  If I leave him for a minute, I sometimes come back and he's somehow inched off of the blanket (to spit up, of course)...so the scooting has begun.

At the end of July, I attempted to surprise Jason (my surprises always crash and burn) with a date night.  We happily used our Pappa's gift card to enjoy some lobster and other delectable goodies, then had a refreshing beverage at a neat little bistro with live music. 

The next day, I dropped Reid off at Bible school, dropped Carter off at Holli's, and loaded up the car for a much needed girls' trip!  Laura, Lindy, Stephanie, and I enjoyed some great girl time, shopped, ate, and floated the river to relive some of our college days and catch up on each others' lives.  Jason was Superdad and held down the fort at home for the weekend...his first with both boys, brave man!  I returned relaxed, refreshed, and feeling more like myself.  Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.  It was a fun time, but it was also wonderful to get home to my sweet family.  

 

Summertime

We have had a busy, busy summer...doing what?  I'm not quite sure!!  There's rarely a spare moment, but most days I can't account for anything but housework, grocery shopping, feeding Carter, and maybe squeezing in a walk/letting Reid play at the park before it's too hot.  But tucked in there a couple times a week, we've enjoyed play dates with friends.  Several Mondays, we've gone to a friend's pool with our playgroup friends.  Not too relaxing when toting along a 4 month old, but I want Reid to be able to play with his friends, too.  Another sweet friend we've played with is sweet thing, Violet.  You might remember her as Reid's very first play date ever!  They are best buds and we are devastated that they might be moving soon :(  But for now, we're just enjoying their company!  Lacy (Violet's mommy, my school's Art teacher) and I decided to return to the spash pad they'd played in when they were little. 

 

She is a wonderful photographer, too, and took some great pics of the kids.  As much as I'd love to claim these as mine, the next four were taken by her.  She's going to give me the low down on my 'fancy' camera the next time we play!

It was actually cloudy and quite chilly that day, oddly enough.  When the kids ran up shivering, we decided to re-dress and head to another park to play since the weather was unseasonably cool.
 

Carter even cooperated most of the day.  He loved Violet, who kept getting him to smile.  

We were excited to have Daddy home for an extra day for the Fourth of July.  We didn't do much, but it was great to have an extra family day!  On a whim, I snapped a few patriotic pics of Carter, and this one ended up being one of my favorite ones of him yet.

 

 We had a MUCH anticipated visit from Aunt Lala, Ben, and Alex this month, too!  They were supposed to come on a Monday, but poor Alex woke up throwing up.  I'm not sure if Laura and I or the boys were more disappointed!  Reid kept asking me questions every five minutes such as, "Is Alex still throwing up?  Can they come anyway?  Why is he sick?  Is he okay?"  Fortunately, it must've been a short-lived stomach bug and he was good to go the next morning, so they could still come.  Ben was so sweet meeting his new cousin for the first time.  He was very patient and concerned any time Carter would cry, but so careful and sweet...

...even when Carter decided he was hungry and got a little cranky, Ben didn't lose his cool!

Alex enjoying meeting Carter, too, but when Carter wasn't too interactive, he decided the Bumbo was more fun.  It cracks me up because Reid has been doing the same thing...but who knew an almost first grader could still fit?  :)  Reid has also had just as much fun with all the baby toys lately.  Probably more than Carter!

What trip is complete without the traditional bathtub pic??  We didn't figure Carter was quite old enough yet, and with these growing boys and their long legs, there sure wasn't room for a baby tub!

We had a fun time playing at the pool, a neat park, splash pad, and some quiet time at home.

 One hot afternoon, we went to Kid Mania which is a cool indoor playground.  The kids had a blast!

They tired out of playing in the nets and tunnels and were begging to play in the money pit (I mean...*arcade*).  Laura appeased them by a trip to the photo booth.  It was hilarious to listen and watch!

 

We deliberated on sleeping arrangements and decided all the big boys could sleep in Reid's "new" room.  The first night, it didn't work so well at first.  Too much fun ;)  The second night, we split them up after a crazy book reading time (Reid was a maniac and playing the whole time, as you can see) and they were so tired that they all went right to sleep.

We did have to get a picture of all the Shepherd side cousins together.  No one was really wanting to cooperate at first...

But we finally got a good one of everyone!

Another cute one...  Alex held Carter just long enough for a pic, then quipped something to the effect of, "Can you take him now so he won't spit up on me?"  After the boys had seen how much and how often Carter spits up, I was honestly surprised they let us pose them with him at all, but they were good sports!

We had so much fun!!  It's always hard to say goodbye, but how wonderful to know we'll be traveling south that first week of August to see them again :)  Yay!

4 Months

Happy four months (last week) to our ever-growing boy!  It's getting a little trickier to take pictures of him.  He loved kicking his leg up on the side of his chair and I kept giggling, which probably didn't help.

He also likes trying to pick things up with his toes.  Hmm...guess he gets that from me.  I never realized I did that until Jason pointed it out a few years ago!  His tiny little toes can pinch pretty hard, too.

After a couple dozen pics, I finally got a winner!

He finally loves tummy time, thank goodness!  His little neck keeps getting stronger and stronger, and he has begun to roll from belly to back. 

"What??  You mean...I'm supposed to sleep at night?!"

No, he's (still) not sleeping through the night.  I think he's made it 11 hours two different nights, but it seems like since we've switched formula to a new Similac Sensitive, he hasn't cared much about eating.  So rather than eating the 30 ounces he's supposed to, he's only getting about 20 ounces.  But the pediatrician said to quit feeding him in the middle of the night (which I'd been doing two to three times a night) so he'd get used to eating all his calories during the day.  I did...but he's still not sleeping worth a darn.  He was eating plenty before we switched...just gassy.  I can't blame him for not wanting to eat this kind...it smells like dry cat food!  (going down and coming back up!)  Yuck.  :(  I decided to switch formula yet again and try the Gerber, but a gentle "for gassy, fussy babies."  Today is day one, so fingers crossed that he'll eat more and sleep better!!  I am one tired mommy.

Reid has been dying to go to the pool again since he took swim lessons, so when the pediatrician gave us the green light for Carter, I bravely took both boys by myself the next day because I (stubbornly) didn't want to wait until the weekend.  I'd forgotten how l-o-n-g it takes to get a baby ready for the pool!  Baby sunscreen, disposable swim diaper (that's way too big, so I also did a cloth swim diaper over it), swimsuit, SPF swim top, hat, grungy pool stroller, baby float, Reid's puddle jumper since I wouldn't be right by him 24/7, diving rings, snacks, drinks, towels, etc. etc. etc.  I was just about to give up!  Reid was in charge of one thing...his new goggles.  And did he remember to bring them?  No.  And he was mad at me.  Really?!  After all that, Carter didn't really care too much for the water, so he and I basically sat on the edge.  Not exactly a great first trip to the pool, but everyone survived. 

I'm trying to get us out of the house at least once a day (possibly for my own personal sanity), so we've been out and about doing lots of free things.  I hadn't taken Reid to Towne Lake Park, or "the ducky pond" as Reid refers to it, in quite some time.  Both boys woke up early one morning and it was actually kind of cool and overcast at that point, so it was the perfect day.  We ate a picnic breakfast where Reid was fascinated with a squirrel who came right up to us and ate his Bel-Vita crumbs (hope those don't hurt squirrels!).  Then we took a lap around the big lake in hopes that a cranky Carter would nap so we could feed the ducks without him screaming.  Didn't really work.  We did eventually get to feed the ducks and geese.

Our afternoons are the hardest stretch.  Reid hates "rest time" and has given up naps.  I told him he has to stay in his room and do something quiet.  Even though he has a million toys and books, he would rather cry and scream once he's been in there for a little while.  Um, no.  We're trying to put a quick stop to that.  And Carter still won't nap more than 45 minutes at a time most days, so I really get no break to do the stuff around the house that requires me to be kid free for a few minutes.  We finally had to break down and get someone to spray the yard for mosquitoes, which has helped a lot, so we can actually go outside in the mornings and afternoons now.  Until then, I kind of felt like we were prisoners in our own house some days.  Reid is still loving all his new birthday toys, thankfully, and this cool marble run has kept us entertained.  He can't really build it himself (and wants it EXACTLY like the one on the box) yet, but loves running the marbles down the slides, especially with an audience.  As an added bonus, the marbles themselves have been very entertaining.  He counts them, sorts them, lines them up, adds and subtracts with them, and so on.

 Another great toy has been these magnetic builders.  At first, he only wanted to make the things on the box, but we finally convinced him you can build ANYthing, not just the stuff on the box!  That opened up all kinds of possibilities, especially if you add some cars to the mix. 

We are thankful to have these summer months to play and get used to our new family dynamic.  I'm figuring out that it's hard to balance time between two kids who are very different ages (one who will remember and one who will not, but needs a lot more help!).  I often feel torn or guilty on who to help with what, first. But there are those wonderful moments where Reid surprises me and will go give Carter baby toys, sing him the "ABC" song to make him stop crying while Mommy is packing the car for the pool, or beg to take a bath with him each night.  Thankfully, he loves his little bro and is looking forward to when he can play "with big boy toys."

Our FOUR Year Old!!

Crazy how time flies...but Reid is FOUR!  He decided to come down with strep throat for his fourth birthday.  Boo!!  With all the craziness of my going back to work, having a 3 month old, and this very active guy's birthday on the last week of school, we didn't do a party this year.  He didn't seem to care one bit, thankfully, but I still felt kind of bad...  With his being sick, though, it's a good thing I suppose.  I guess this poor guy's birthday will always be that last week of work for me (translation:  CRAZY), so I'm going to have to get better about planning in the next few years!  Hopefully this year was the craziest one with Carter being so young, an entire week of training for me the week after the students were out of school (including my workday that Friday...so I had to stay after school several days and pack up my classroom), and getting ready to take the ESL certification test this week (yikes--please pray...this is the first standardized test I've had to take in 15 or 16 years!!).  But I digress...birthday boy was already starting to feel better after a quick trip to the pediatrician's office and some good antibiotics.  He didn't eat much, but wanted his piece of cake!

 

 

He got so many really neat gifts this year!  I love that all of them can grow with him.  He enjoyed playing t-ball and catch with his new wiffle balls and bat.

And we surprised him last week with a new big boy bed and room...which he immediately loved!!  I figured he'd be a little scared and want to get out of bed or want us to stay in there with him, but he slept like a champ and thoroughly enjoyed it.

In fact, he was so excited that it was quite hard to capture a non-blurry picture of him!

Oddly enough, I think what he was the most excited about was the cheesy little tent (I thought it'd be bigger) that was a last minute addition.  We told him he could only play with it during the daytime, so he was a good boy and crawled out and into bed.

When I got him up the next morning, the very first thing out of his mouth was, "It's daytime!  Can I play in my new tent???"  He brought it downstairs and insisted Carter play inside with him, which was very sweet.  I think the "newness" of Carter is wearing off sometimes because there are lots of things I just can't do with both kids at the same time...such as swimming.  I'm going to have to figure that out because it's not fair for Reid to not swim all summer just because Carter can't go in the water yet. 

 

I was in charge of both boys on Thursday evening after they'd both boycotted naps all day.  I swear they know when Jason has stuff going on and save it for me, lol!!   I knew Reid was getting to the no nap point, but I'm not sure what's been going on with Carter.  We had to change his formula last week because it was suddenly giving him tons of gas.  I'm not sure if that was the culprit, but all of a sudden his sleep has been all over the place.  He won't nap more than 30 minutes at a time and has been fussy randomly.  I think he's finally evening out, but it's been exhausting!  I was trying to multitask, so I decided to have them do a tandem bath.  Reid thought it was hilarious and kept sprinkling water on Carter.

Then he decided to try out the baby tub once I had Carter out.  I *think* he's a wee bit big for it.  He disagreed.

It seems like time has flown by since Reid has been a part of our family.  I'm so thankful for our crazy boy and pray that I'll be just the mommy God designed me to be for him.  I certainly can't imagine life without him and his silly antics each day.  Happy birthday, Reid!