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.

Lions, Tigers, & Bears...Oh, My!

Another August happening was Reid's first trip to the zoo!  Our first cool front rolled in and Saturday, August 17 was a gorgeous day.  Jason was gone--I didn't want him to miss Reid's first zoo visit, nor did I have the energy to attempt it myself.  Being pregnant and chasing a preschooler has its limits!  I did realize, though, that this would probably be our last chance at taking him, because I'm only getting bigger and my legs hurt from the moment I get up until the moment I'm back in bed, even with my stylin' compression stockings.  The weather was cooler than normal with the front, and our guest speaker that week at church wasn't our favorite, so we played hooky (which is very rare!!) and packed up for the zoo.  Unbeknownst to us, it was the Dallas Zoo's birthday (125th, I think?), so we each got in for $5 versus the normal admission fee, which is a whole lot more!  We also got a ticket for a free train ride or carousel ride.  The carousel is right next to the entrance and Reid RAN right over to it.  Happy boy!

After we'd walked for a little while (and after it warmed up quite a bit...our "cool front" only really lasted a day, so we were still hot, especially me with my stockings) it was time to give our legs a rest and see the "Wilds of Africa" via tram.  Reid was more enamored with the actual tram and big ramp you walk up to get there rather than the animals themselves.

I really thought he'd be into the animals, but he had more fun running along the paths and dodging people.  I wasn't even sure if he noticed the animals half of the time.  We stopped and I made him point to the giraffes so I knew he actually saw something.

More fun than animals?  This little jeep next to the cheetahs.  He waited to drive it, made some new friends, and probably could've stayed there all day if we let him.

We popped into the Savannah Cafe for a little a/c and as an added bonus, the lions were napping in the shade just outside the cafe.  He called one of them Samson, and I can definitely see the resemblance between the big cats and our former house cat.

Outside the Africa exhibit...couldn't resist snapping a pic.  Really?!

Reid enjoyed the rest of the zoo (mainly riding the kiddie train with Daddy while Mommy got a snowcone to cool down), but with no nap, he got too wild and overtired.  We called it a day and dragged ourselves back to the car.  Before we even got back on the freeway, he was out. 

It was a tiring day and we all had to rest on the couch when we got home.  But it was fun!  Days like this remind me that next Spring, our lives will all be changing with the addition of a little one.  It's a bit daunting to think of starting all over...breastfeeding, diapers, more nap times to work around.  We are just at the point where we can go on a day trip w/o half of the house.  And Reid will be in for the shock of his life when our world no longer revolves around him!  But I can't wait to see what a good big brother he will be.  I hope these two guys will be very close and someday be best friends.

The Rest of August

With the craziness of school starting, I realized I left out a whole bunch of stuff we did in August.  I got virtually zero time to myself this summer (not that that's bad, but I had sooo much to do that I couldn't do with a needy three year old), so once Reid was officially potty trained, I signed him up for a little week long summer camp.  I also wanted to make sure he was okay being in a school-ish setting before preschool started.  It was really weird being on the parent side instead of the teacher side!  Here's the little guy with his new school backpack.  It literally pulled him over on the first day because it's nearly as big as he is!

He wasn't too sure on the first day and was hanging on my leg, but when he saw that Curious George was playing on the smartboard, he was all in.  I think most of the kids in his class were four, but aside from not napping (ever!), he did well.  It was pretty funny because the teacher said he ate like a champ!  Another thing I was hoping for (seeing other kids eating a wider variety of food)...but he couldn't really tell me what he ate.  But it was very nice to not pack a lunch or snacks!

 I can't remember if I posted it yet or not, but I got Reid a new comforter set.  He obviously doesn't stay under the covers very well yet, but it's a step toward a big boy bed.  He will probably be getting that big boy bed from Santa come Christmas time!  I think we are going to put him into the guest room and put the baby in his room.  But we have quite some time to figure that out.

One Saturday, we decided to take Reid to the new Disney Planes movie.  I found a cute shirt at Target and couldn't pass it up, so he was all set.

A rare snuggle before we left...

He loved the escalator so much that I think he could've just played on that all day long!  After the movie, he and Jason went up and down several times.  It made for a pretty cute picture.  And can you believe how tall this kid has gotten??

Reid was so intent on eating the popcorn that I couldn't get a picture of him looking at the phone.   He is very possessive of his popcorn, too!  Next time, I may just get one for Jason and me, and Reid can have his own little bag.  He ate so much this time that I was kind of afraid he might get sick, but I swear he growled when I tried to take it away!!

Mimicking the words of the new children's classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...  If you take a toddler to the mall, he'll probably want to go up the escalator.  If you take him up the escalator, he'll probably want to watch a movie.  While you are watching the movie, he'll want some popcorn.  Eating popcorn will remind him that you're at the mall, so he'll want to ride the carousel.  And if he rides the carousel, chances are, he'll want to play on the escalator.

I also wanted to make a family trip to the Frisco Aquatics Center so Jason could see how much fun Reid had.  Here's a picture from the distance...there's a huge water tower that dumps a ton of water (500 gallons?  1,000??) every few minutes, so I didn't dare get too close.  Just like last time, the first thing he wanted to do was the giant waterslide, but you have to be about four feet tall and be able to swim independently.  So we opted for this kid area and took a few trips to the lazy river (or the "crazy river", as Reid dubbed it), ate a picnic lunch, and had a snow cone.

It was really nice to have a good, fun family day (even though we were all exhausted!).  When we are in the midst of the school year, things are super crazy with everything that has to be juggled.  I live for the weekends and holidays, when we can enjoy what life is really about! 

1st Day of Preschool

Reid's long-awaited first day of preschool finally arrived Tuesday, 9/3/13.  Jason and I had gone to Parent Night/Meet the Teacher the previous Thursday...and I'll have to say...I was a little nervous!  Not just cutesy playing and painting, but true pre-SCHOOL!  We loved his teacher and aide, who both seem very sweet.  It's amazing what all you have to buy to get a 3 year old ready for school, but (now that the back-ordered nap mat finally arrived) I think we're finally set. 

Reid was more than a little excited and had been asking all week, "When I go to school, Mommy?"  When Holli was driving Megan (her 5th grader) to Bennett on the first day of public school, Reid said, "There's Mommy's school, and there's Reid's school!"  So he knew exactly where it was!  I had to take a half day off of work, which wasn't easy to do on the second week of school.  MISD snottily reminded me numerous times (including having my principal counsel me about it) that 'since I decided to take a personal day on a day following a holiday, I would be docked in pay,' and I even got a not so nice e-mail that morning informing me that my next paycheck would reflect this dock in pay.  THANKS...think I got it!!  Sheesh.  It was well worth it, to see my own little boy off to his first day of school.  I got a friend to take a couple of pics, but Reid looked out to lunch in all of them.  

"Cheese!"  Reid's first cubby!  By his second day of school, they'd taped pictures that we provided next to his name so he'd know what cubby was his.  So cute!  He has ten other three year olds in his class...one just turned four--we already got an invitation to his party!

We are so very fortunate that Reid has a spot at Sunshine Kids (especially a Tues/Thurs spot...the Mon/Wed people kind of get the short end of the stick since so many Mondays are holidays!).  Their schedule is so cute and amazing..he went to Chapel on his second day at school!  He's already brought home some of the cutest art projects, we've completed two homework projects, and he has a scripture memory verse.  I am so thankful!!  All that, and it makes my heart feel good that he's in the building just behind my school.  With my luck, my planning time and lunch break will never coincide with his parties, etc., but a girl can hope, right?? :)

We ended up having our first (and only!) rain of the month that Saturday.  Reid went to the gym with me since they have a great kids area to play in, and Jason went to the grocery store.  When we got back, the "wet stuff" was falling out of the sky!  Reid wanted a "brella" to play with, so we pulled out his rain gear.

No little "brella" for this kid.  He wanted Mommy's big one!  "I a big boy, Mommy!"  I'll have to admit...he did look pretty darn cute.

I know I haven't been good about updating the blog and I'm really trying to get better.  I feel pulled in a million directions lately...don't particularly feel like a good wife, good mom, or good teacher.  I'm just plain tired and have been going to bed at about 8:30 or 9 every night (7:45pm after the first day of school!!).  My belly hurts after the long days, and my legs hurt beginning first thing in the morning, even with my stylin' maternity compression stockings.  But above all, we are blessed that we both have jobs, that we have a healthy three year old, and that we are expecting another healthy child.  God is good!