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 ;)

Randomness

I was trying out the different settings on our nice Canon and look what I found...a vampire bunny!  Hee hee...  Didn't know rabbits' eyes glowed red!

Reid continues to amaze us on a daily basis.  He has been totally obsessed with numbers for the past month.  He could recognize most of them by mid-summer, but then I got him a book called Baseball 1-2-3 and now he's hooked!  We let him pick three books to read each night before bed (time permitting), but it's been that same book three times for quite awhile.  He notices numbers on phones, shouts them out in the car (I never realized how many numbers are all over the dashboard in a car!), sees them all over my classroom at school, and points to them everywhere in the grocery store.  Cracks us up.  He also notices things I never thought he'd connect, not that I don't have faith in his smarts, but I just didn't know a two year old could make those connections.  For instance, in May we'd just started talking about happy and sad.  A day later, a baby was crying and he quipped, "Baby sad!  Baby sad!"  More recently, he knows that if Daddy's car is home, that means Daddy is home.  If Mommy gets out the can with the orange top, "Bad kitty, Samson!" a kitty had an accident.  Other Reid logic:

- If I sit on the potty, I get candy whether I go or not. (Thankfully, this is only one time per day ;)
- If we go down this aisle at Wal-Mart, I'll see cars.
- If Mommy doesn't turn left here, we aren't going home.
- If I go to time out, I get a hug and/or kiss after Mommy/Daddy talks to me.
- The dairy section at the store is always cold (but I'll touch it every time, just to check).

Get the picture?  He also cracks us up on a daily basis.  This day, he was putting on my shoes, unassisted, then running around and cracking us all up because he wouldn't get very far before falling very dramatically, laughing all the way.  Notice that they're also on the wrong feet:

And then he'd do a little victory dance if they stayed on awhile...

He also enjoys picking out his own clothes.  To ensure everything matches and it's something I actually want him to wear, I have his outfits paired ahead of time, and he only gets two choices.  If I let him choose, he would wear his new digger shirt every single day. Although he's becoming very independent on lots of things, he also vies for our attention on others.  He suddenly wanted to be fed by us again beginning two months ago.  I have to admit that I don't mind when it comes to applesauce and yogurt, but I want him to be able to feed himself...  And we go through stages of fits like this one.  I taped it because I realized we typically have photos/videos of all happy things, but it will be entertaining to remember times like these, too... Or maybe it'll just be blackmail for his engagement party someday...

Our friend Jamey came up and we actually got a sitter, Holli's daughter Bailey.  Holli is so wonderful she will even bring Bailey over and pick her up at the end of the night.  It also was a great photo op if you don't count the drool running down Reid's chin and his outfit that he very proudly picked out himself.  I needed a photo for the display case at school, but decided to go with an older one from last Fall, thanks to Mr. Wiggleworm.

We adults enjoyed some delicious sushi at Naan, then a nice bottle of pinot at Cru.  I really need to download a better camera app so the pictures turn out better...but you get the idea.  Good times!

August

On the way back from Laura's, Reid and I stopped at Grammy and Grumpy's for a quick break on the way back to Dallas.  SOMEone had screamed for half of the trip from Katy because he "accidentally" threw a car on the floor and mommy couldn't reach it.  On the way to change his diaper, he conveniently found a little sombrero and "Weid! Weid!" on the computer.  Too bad you can't see the ginormous grin he had...

He also remembered exactly where the piano was, and this time I got to video it.  Kind of dark, but you get the picture.  And no, I don't believe this kid has a chance in the music industry!

Back at home, Reid has been totally enjoying his two new cars from Aunt Lala's house.  Reid carried them around the entire time we were there, so she let us swipe 'em when Ben and Alex weren't looking since they don't really play with them anymore. Tragedy of all tragedies, the talking Lightening McQueen car (his favorite!) has disappeared...pretty sure he hid it in our house somewhere right before the trip.  But thankfully, he hasn't seemed to notice with the new ones here.  One McQueen I bought as a backup, and the other was very sweetly given to Reid when we visited my former student, Neil, and his family before they moved to China--they very generously passed along many wonderful books and toys for him to enjoy and for me to use at school.  When he learned how much Reid liked Lightening, he went right up to his room and brought down one to give him.  Needless to say, they've been inseperable.  

It's actually gotten to be a problem sometimes because Reid just has to take them upstairs at night, then downstairs again in the morning.  No big deal until he's tripping, dropping, and worrying about them all the way up/down the staircase...which means he refuses to hold on to the rail, my hand, or the wall.  Eek!  He does manage pretty well, but I'd rather hold them ("NO, Mommy!") while he safely clambers up.  It is pretty stinkin' cute, though!

He very carefully lines them up in places all over the house.  Much to my dismay, they HAD to (all) come with us to the grocery store one day and he screamed half of the time because he couldn't manage to hold them all while he tried to steer the little cart.  I made it a much shorter trip than I'd planned and two of the cars went to time out in Mommy's purse.  Nearly every night, he tucks the cars into the crib bumper and tells them each, "Ni night, car!" just before we say our prayers.  Just tonight, he panicked when he realized the cars were not in bed with him.  I assured him I'd tuck the cars in downstairs...

Other things we did before I went back to work?  Lots of sitting on the potty.  Not because he actually wants to go, but because that's the only place I will read the super annoying Truckery Rhymes book (I'm not being mean...I just got soooo tired of reading it 50 bajillion times a day so we read it exclusively in the downstairs restroom in hopes of enticing him to use the potty) since it's too long for bedtime.  Well, that, and he's figured out he gets two "candies" (pretzel M&M's) for sitting on the potty whether he goes or not.  Smart kid.

Still a super picky eater.  Unless you count "uffins" (Little Debbie blueberry mini muffins, which he would eat at any hour of the day if you'd let him), candy, cookies (although he will only eat chocolate chip), and this Sam's Club zucchini bread.

He also loves the Reid books I made for him.  "Baby Reid!" will keep him entertained for hours, and he loves seeing pictures of himself, Daddy, Mommy, and the cats.

We finally had one more playdate with Violet.  We're sad that she is going to preschool, but Lacy (her mommy) and I are planning on getting them together after school during the year.  They've changed quite a bit since their first playdate, when Reid was about five weeks old...

Aunt Lala's House

I am enjoying my last few days of freedom.  I've pretty much always hated August... It means back to school, crazy schedules, and lots of work, stress, and anxiety.  Thankfully, this summer has seemed somewhat productive and longer than the previous two.  Reid is at a fun (yet trying) age and we have made many enjoyable memories.

Lots of them happened at Aunt Lala's house last week! It was so fun to visit, but the time flew by, just as I knew it would.  He made himself right at home and proceeded to dive into all of Ben and Alex's toy cars and diggers.  Car heaven!!  I just thought he was playing, but Laura noticed he had actually sorted them as he lined them up.  If you can't make it out in the picture, there's a spot for pickup trucks, a spot for diggers, a spot for small regular cars, medium regular cars, large diggers, and the best one, a spot for ??? (anything that didn't seem to fit into a category, like a helicopter)...  Didn't teach him that, and apparently he's been doing that all along at home, but we don't have enough cars for me to have noticed he was categorizing them.  I just thought he was assigning each vehicle a parking spot each day!

Reid had his first trip to the movies!  I can't say he thoroughly enjoyed it, but for a two year old I think he did pretty well.  The theater close to them in Katy has a kids' series during the summer and you can see a movie for *gasp* ONE dollar!!  Laura is always on the lookout for fun things to do and that was the perfect idea for Reid...if he didn't make it through an hour long Winnie the Pooh, it was just a buck. 

Thankfully, I had just introduced him to popcorn the week before.  I've been putting off introducing it since popcorn is a choking hazard, but so far he's carefully chewed it.  Reid loved the popcorn and previews, but when he was out of popcorn he told me, "All done!" and promptly prepared to walk down the stairs to leave.  I pulled out a small package of M&M's, which he devoured, and he did the same thing.  One bag of Teddy Grahams later, I realized that Reid, too, must not be a Pooh fan.  So we called it a day and headed for the lobby, to ogle over "candies! Candies!" in the display case, then drive a pretend tank in the arcade part.  Luckily, the movie only lasted another ten minutes or so and I didn't have too long to entertain him.
 

 I mistakenly thought that Reid would love their neighborhood pool this year since he can walk.  It has a regular pool, a pool with water slides, a great splashpad/pool, and a large baby pool.  I didn't think to get a picture of the whole shabang, but it's a pretty cool place.  As soon as we walked in, he was fixated with the huge water slide (you have to be a certain height and be able to swim w/o floaties) and continuously gravitated toward it.  He immediately went to time out, twice in a row.  Luckily, there were two smaller water slides (but you still can't use floaties) where one adult could help him up the stairs (I was worried about him slipping!) and one could catch him at the bottom of the water slide.  He loved that a few times, then was fixated with the big slide once again.  If he couldn't go on that, he didn't want to play, so we sat and had a l-o-n-g snack break while Ben and Alex played.  Of course, when they were done and dried off, Reid announced, "Pool!" and promptly jumped into the baby pool.  Sheesh.  This kid has amazing timing.

 Back at the house, Reid wanted to try out all the fun things in their garage...the bike, trike, battery-operated jeeps, and a little ride on thingee.  I gave in and let him ride the trike for a few minutes (notice how he wouldn't use the pedals and screeched at me when I tried to help him out).  He didn't seem to mind the heat and humidity, but I sure did!  

 The next day we skipped the pool and played in our backyard.  Laura set up the sprinkler under the trampoline for the midday fun.  Again, I thought Reid would love it, but he jumped for a second and was "All done!"  Alex wetting his hair in this bucket was waaay more fun, apparently.

The older kids had fun jumping and I got to meet a few of the neighborhood kids.  Reid did enjoy attempting to drink out of the sprinkler, which was entertaining to us adults.

The next morning, we got going a little earlier so the kids could play outside without melting.  All three of the boys were excited about Ben's jeep.

First, Reid rode with Ben.  Ben, of course, had to make sure he was buckled in.  Such a good little rule follower and sweet big cousin to watch out for Reid!  He was a very safe driver and mainly stuck to variations of the same circle around the park.  Ben is very observant, too, and noticed that Reid liked when he went over the little hill, so he made sure to do that with each pass.

 But Alex decided that he wanted to drive his jeep, too, so he and Laura went back to the house to retrieve it.  As soon as they were back, Reid decided he wanted to ride with Alex, who is a little more adventurous in his driving.  Two little daredevils...   They rode all around the park, not going on the same path twice.  Just about when we mommies were going to melt, Alex's jeep battery slowed down, signaling the need to go home.

We drove to this cool splash area later.  You can't really see everything from the picture, but it had a ship theme and tons of areas to play in.  We had it all to ourselves! 

 Reid, of course, was not interested in playing.  He hung around Laura and me, slowly enjoying some pita chips and the ducks.  One duck noticed his chip and snatched it out of Reid's hand, which he thought was hilarious (but it scared me! Still not sure if it actually bit him, but didn't leave a mark...).  Right out of the car, he was saying, "Kak, kak, kak!" (quack, quack, quack) and thought they were hilarious.  He even named two, Poop and Green.  I'm sure you can gather where Poop duck got his name, and Green duck had green feathers. 

Laura gave Ben her old cell phone from Australia since it didn't work here in the States.  Ben thought it was the greatest thing ever!   It had a few songs on it, which became the soundtrack for the week, but oddly enough he and Alex loved the cell phone rings even more.  Laura and I got a kick out of it because it was the original Nokia ringtone that provided so much entertainment.  We dubbed it the Nokia Dance, but by the time I ran to get my camera, the best dancing was already over.  At least you get the idea...

We had so much fun with Aunt Lala and the cousins!   Time flew by and I wish we didn't live so far apart, but I'm sure thankful they aren't half a world apart any longer.  And just so they didn't forget about him, Reid left a little parting parking spot for one of the cars...

More July Fun

Reid is getting pickier and pickier (is that possible??) about what he eats.  We have tried different utensils, including buying a Cars fork and spoon.  I have tried cooking things different ways, including searching for deceptively delicious recipes that hide fruits and/or veggies like the zucchini tots recipe I just made from Pinterest (they sucked).  We have tried different bowls, seats, I could go on and on...  But this kid is just a picky (and getting pickier) eater.  Most "meals," he eats like a bird.  Ask him what he wants to eat, and he will only mention two things...cookies or candies.  Ha.

 We have lucked out with some rain showers recently.  Some of them have been pretty severe, like the one this past week that blew down half of the fences and some trees in our neighborhood.  Others have just been a nice, steady rain.  Sure fire way to bring rain?  Get your car washed.  But the day I did that, the storm did have a gorgeous rainbow, the first I've seen since we've lived in Dallas.

My sister and her boys came to visit last week and we all had lots of fun.  I was bummed to miss a half day with them thanks to the first staff development of the summer (boo!!) and some tummy issues.  But we all had fun.  Ben loved brushing the cats and playing with them, especially Samson who is used to be abused by Reid.

Reid does love to give the cats treats.  This isn't the best filmed video since I was trying to get out treats and film, but you get the picture.

 Reid wanted to sit with the boys again at their table.  He didn't really eat, but sure enjoyed sitting with them!

 We packed in lots of fun...playing in the yard, going to pools, parks, and the safari park, and picnics in the backyard.  I forgot to bring my camera on most of the outings, but at home we had to have some "cheese" time, of course! 

 Everyone do a sad face...

 And now a happy face!

Reid has also been really, really pushing it lately.  He is in time out two or three times a day some days (like below), then not at all other days.  Sometimes he enjoys doing things all by himself, then the next day he wants you to do it for him.  Too bad we can't see into the minds of toddlers...