The last day of MDO was Friday, December 18th, so A will have been out of school for three weeks before he goes back on Tuesday. I'm hoping it will be a smooth transition back into our normal routine - Mommy loves her Day's Out!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Christmas with classmates
Before Christmas break, Alex's teachers had a little party for his MDO class. We have a great room mother who coordinated everything and arranged to have parents bring treats and games. It is always fun to see Alex in his school environment with his classmates. The kids all had snacks, then broke off to play (that's Alex and his friend Olivia playing with the Little People Nativity Set), and then we attempted to get a group picture of the whole class, which is always a challenge when a dozen two year olds are involved. Alex, however, sat right down and crossed his legs like his teacher instructed, and when the teachers sang songs to get the kids to calm down, Alex slapped his hands onto his legs and sang along.
The last day of MDO was Friday, December 18th, so A will have been out of school for three weeks before he goes back on Tuesday. I'm hoping it will be a smooth transition back into our normal routine - Mommy loves her Day's Out!
The last day of MDO was Friday, December 18th, so A will have been out of school for three weeks before he goes back on Tuesday. I'm hoping it will be a smooth transition back into our normal routine - Mommy loves her Day's Out!
One for the Enquirer
I have yet to take any pictures of my gargantuan 4-month pregnant belly, but suffice it to say that the day I found out I was pregnant, none of my pants fit anymore. The ol' body goes down the tubes a lot quicker the second time around.
That said, it has been hard to hide our little secret around people who see us all the time, so a lot of our church friends and MOPS friends and work friends are already in the loop. And Alex, observant child that he is, has looked at me on several occasions and lovingly uttered the words, "Mommy, your belly's gettin' BIG". So we've discussed with him the whole concept of mommy having a baby in her belly, the idea of him having a little brother or sister and us having a new baby around the house. He loves to look at pictures of me when I was pregnant with him and talk about how he was in my belly when he was a baby.
People have asked whether he "gets it", and I'd have to say the answer is somewhere between "sort of" and "not really". For example, when he eats a big lunch and his stomach pooches out, I'll ask him, "Alex, what's in your belly?" to which he replies, "A baby!". I then explain to him that the only way he has a baby in his stomach is if he ate one.
He does concede to the fact that Mommy also has a baby in her belly, and he will sometimes talk to the baby or sing to it - he has already determined that the baby's favorite song is "Baa Baa Black Sheep". If he thinks the baby might be thirsty, he will lift my shirt and try to give the baby a drink from his sippy cup by holding it up to my belly button. The other night, I was tickling him and asked him where his belly button was. He pointed it out, and I asked him if he knew why he had a belly button, thinking he would say no, then I would explain that that's how he ate when he was inside my belly, etc., etc. Instead, he looked at me and said, "That's where my baby comes out!"
So I think it's safe to say that it will take some adjusting when a screaming newborn takes over our home. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic for any of us, not that we can do much about it anyway. We are in the process of reorganizing our house to accommodate an additional human, a process that will include lots of arguing, a bank-breaking trip to IKEA, and some serious room shuffling that includes - GASP - turning Alex's playroom into the office. Not to fear - he will move to the big room that now comprises our guest room/office, and we have big plans to deck it out in full-fledged train-themed fabulousness, just to butter him up a bit before the bottom drops out.
That said, it has been hard to hide our little secret around people who see us all the time, so a lot of our church friends and MOPS friends and work friends are already in the loop. And Alex, observant child that he is, has looked at me on several occasions and lovingly uttered the words, "Mommy, your belly's gettin' BIG". So we've discussed with him the whole concept of mommy having a baby in her belly, the idea of him having a little brother or sister and us having a new baby around the house. He loves to look at pictures of me when I was pregnant with him and talk about how he was in my belly when he was a baby.
People have asked whether he "gets it", and I'd have to say the answer is somewhere between "sort of" and "not really". For example, when he eats a big lunch and his stomach pooches out, I'll ask him, "Alex, what's in your belly?" to which he replies, "A baby!". I then explain to him that the only way he has a baby in his stomach is if he ate one.
He does concede to the fact that Mommy also has a baby in her belly, and he will sometimes talk to the baby or sing to it - he has already determined that the baby's favorite song is "Baa Baa Black Sheep". If he thinks the baby might be thirsty, he will lift my shirt and try to give the baby a drink from his sippy cup by holding it up to my belly button. The other night, I was tickling him and asked him where his belly button was. He pointed it out, and I asked him if he knew why he had a belly button, thinking he would say no, then I would explain that that's how he ate when he was inside my belly, etc., etc. Instead, he looked at me and said, "That's where my baby comes out!"
So I think it's safe to say that it will take some adjusting when a screaming newborn takes over our home. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic for any of us, not that we can do much about it anyway. We are in the process of reorganizing our house to accommodate an additional human, a process that will include lots of arguing, a bank-breaking trip to IKEA, and some serious room shuffling that includes - GASP - turning Alex's playroom into the office. Not to fear - he will move to the big room that now comprises our guest room/office, and we have big plans to deck it out in full-fledged train-themed fabulousness, just to butter him up a bit before the bottom drops out.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Cravings
On a Sunday night a few months ago, we decided to go out to dinner. I suggested we go to Buffalo Wild Wings, to which Timothy responded with a baffled look and a concerned "Are you feeling okay?" It's not that me having a jones for buffalo wings is that unusual, but rather, the fact that my craving for wings was strong enough that I would be willing to suffer through a meal at Buffalo Wild Wings to get them. To put it mildly, I hate Buffalo Wild Wings, with a loathing that only rivals my disdain for Crocs and drivers who don't enter the intersection while waiting to turn left on green. Wretched service, overpriced and underflavored food, and an ambiance that lacks the slightest bit of character don't exactly light my fire. Nonetheless, it was the quickest and easiest fix for my wing craving, so that's where went.
And yes, it was as bad as I expected it to be. However, the experience did second a notion I had been having over the previous couple of weeks - I needed to take a pregnancy test.
Which I did. And it was positive. So there you have it! We are pregnant with Evans baby #2! And pregnancy cravings are the only reason I would willingly eat at Buffalo Wild Wings!
While this announcement might come as a surprise to some of you, our families have actually known about our news since I was 6 weeks along, which was...almost 11 weeks ago. I am 17 weeks today, due on June 12, 2010, and the main reason we haven't "officially" let the cat out of the bag is because I miscarried last March at 11 weeks, so we just wanted to ride things out for a while until we felt comfortable letting the world know what was going on. (And just for the record, I neglected to mention the miscarriage on the blog only because the subject seems to make other people uncomfortable, not because I am uncomfortable talking about it. We are totally at peace with it, and I don't have a problem discussing my experience at all.)
That said, everything has gone smoothly so far, and we have our "big" sonogram on Friday, January 8, when we will hopefully be learning the sex of baby #2. I considered waiting until the following week to announce the pregnancy and the sex in the same post, but I was afraid that would blow some minds, and I'd rather not be liable for that.
As you may have noticed, I have been a total slacker about blogging, and that's because A) raising a "spirited" two-year old while pregnant is exhausting, and if the choice is to sleep or to blog, sleep will always come out on top, and B) I am in week 17 and the nausea has yet to yield, so I rarely feel like doing anything productive these days (unless you consider sleeping to be "productive"). However, now that the cat is out of the bag, I am really going to make an effort to keep my people in the know, especially because this poor baby has gotten less fetus-time on the blog in four months than Alex got in the first week. On that note, I'll share a couple of sonogram pics from two previous appointments, just to try to redeem myself a little.
And yes, it was as bad as I expected it to be. However, the experience did second a notion I had been having over the previous couple of weeks - I needed to take a pregnancy test.
Which I did. And it was positive. So there you have it! We are pregnant with Evans baby #2! And pregnancy cravings are the only reason I would willingly eat at Buffalo Wild Wings!
While this announcement might come as a surprise to some of you, our families have actually known about our news since I was 6 weeks along, which was...almost 11 weeks ago. I am 17 weeks today, due on June 12, 2010, and the main reason we haven't "officially" let the cat out of the bag is because I miscarried last March at 11 weeks, so we just wanted to ride things out for a while until we felt comfortable letting the world know what was going on. (And just for the record, I neglected to mention the miscarriage on the blog only because the subject seems to make other people uncomfortable, not because I am uncomfortable talking about it. We are totally at peace with it, and I don't have a problem discussing my experience at all.)
That said, everything has gone smoothly so far, and we have our "big" sonogram on Friday, January 8, when we will hopefully be learning the sex of baby #2. I considered waiting until the following week to announce the pregnancy and the sex in the same post, but I was afraid that would blow some minds, and I'd rather not be liable for that.
As you may have noticed, I have been a total slacker about blogging, and that's because A) raising a "spirited" two-year old while pregnant is exhausting, and if the choice is to sleep or to blog, sleep will always come out on top, and B) I am in week 17 and the nausea has yet to yield, so I rarely feel like doing anything productive these days (unless you consider sleeping to be "productive"). However, now that the cat is out of the bag, I am really going to make an effort to keep my people in the know, especially because this poor baby has gotten less fetus-time on the blog in four months than Alex got in the first week. On that note, I'll share a couple of sonogram pics from two previous appointments, just to try to redeem myself a little.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
All the other Santa Clauses are just imitating...
This year we decided to bite the bullet and take Alex to see the "real" Santa Claus, or as close as one gets without boarding the Polar Express to the North Pole. Northpark Center here in Dallas is known for having one of the best Santas in the country, which is awesome if it weren't for the thousands of other people with kids who want to have a chat with one of the best Santas in the country.
The process for seeing our Santa can be somewhat grueling, so we tried to go into the situation prepared. We knew that they started giving out numbered tickets at 9am and that Santa would start seeing people at 11:30, so we planned on getting there at 9, getting our ticket, and killing time until 11:30. We were running a little late, and when we got there at 9:20, we were handed Lucky Number 119. YES, 119. As in ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN. What didn't occur to us was that, although tickets were handed out at 9,insane people were lined up as early as 6:30am to get their tickets at nine so they could get back in line at 11:30 to see Santa. So there ya have it.
Turns out, being Number 119 was not as terrible as we first thought. The ticket man told us to come back around 4pm, but he explained that if you come back after your number has been called, he immediately places you at the end of the "short line", a line that is never more than fifteen to twenty minutes from Santa. Heh heh, early birds, guess nobody ever told ya that rule, eh?
So we figured we'd come back after naptime, get in line, and wait our twenty minutes to see Santa. But before we left, there was one other place we wanted to take Alex that day, and that was to the incredible model train exhibit that Northpark features around Christmas time. That was another thing we considered doing last year, but we decided the line was too long and figured Alex wouldn't enjoy it enough to justify the wait. This year, however, we knew it would be well worth the wait considering that our child is more than a little train-obsessed. And it was awesome. Even Tim and I were awed by how much went into each little scene - tooting trains and mechanical people and complicated roadways and train tracks. Needless to say, Alex loved it.
After lunch and a nap, we headed back to the mall to see Santa. We really didn't know how Alex would react to him this year. This is the first year that Alex has started to "get" the concept of Christmas - we've been getting into the spirit by watching Christmas movies like The Polar Express and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, reading Christmas stories like 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (which Alex can quote at some parts) and Olive the Other Reindeer, listening to Christmas music, and talking about how Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday (which took a lot of discussion because Alex was convinced that Christmas was his birthday) and that Santa was part of that celebration. So Alex had heard a lot about Santa and had seen him in books and movies, but it was a totally different thing to be meeting him face-to-face.
From a distance, he looked on in awed reverence, and that was pretty much how he reacted when we were at the front of the line and ushered him towards Santa's lap. He didn't run away screaming, but he didn't exactly launch himself at Santa either. This Santa had been around the block a time or two (hence the "Best Santa in the Country" title) and calmly coaxed Alex to sit down and chat about what he wants for Christmas. Alex told Santa that he wanted choo-choo trains, puzzles, and books, and Santa took note of his requests. They chatted for a few more minutes as the photographer attempted to get a good picture of Alex looking at the camera and not at Santa's face. Those attempts were unsuccessful; however, I really love the picture that we ended up picking, with Alex listening intently to Santa during their little chat.
Santa sent Alex away with a parting gift - a sort of preview of things to come, I suppose - and Alex came home with crayons and a picture frame that he could color himself. He was very excited about his Santa experience, and now he is even more excited for Santa to come visit Grammy's house on Christmas eve. Christmas with a two year old is so much fun!
The process for seeing our Santa can be somewhat grueling, so we tried to go into the situation prepared. We knew that they started giving out numbered tickets at 9am and that Santa would start seeing people at 11:30, so we planned on getting there at 9, getting our ticket, and killing time until 11:30. We were running a little late, and when we got there at 9:20, we were handed Lucky Number 119. YES, 119. As in ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN. What didn't occur to us was that, although tickets were handed out at 9,
Turns out, being Number 119 was not as terrible as we first thought. The ticket man told us to come back around 4pm, but he explained that if you come back after your number has been called, he immediately places you at the end of the "short line", a line that is never more than fifteen to twenty minutes from Santa. Heh heh, early birds, guess nobody ever told ya that rule, eh?
So we figured we'd come back after naptime, get in line, and wait our twenty minutes to see Santa. But before we left, there was one other place we wanted to take Alex that day, and that was to the incredible model train exhibit that Northpark features around Christmas time. That was another thing we considered doing last year, but we decided the line was too long and figured Alex wouldn't enjoy it enough to justify the wait. This year, however, we knew it would be well worth the wait considering that our child is more than a little train-obsessed. And it was awesome. Even Tim and I were awed by how much went into each little scene - tooting trains and mechanical people and complicated roadways and train tracks. Needless to say, Alex loved it.
After lunch and a nap, we headed back to the mall to see Santa. We really didn't know how Alex would react to him this year. This is the first year that Alex has started to "get" the concept of Christmas - we've been getting into the spirit by watching Christmas movies like The Polar Express and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, reading Christmas stories like 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (which Alex can quote at some parts) and Olive the Other Reindeer, listening to Christmas music, and talking about how Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday (which took a lot of discussion because Alex was convinced that Christmas was his birthday) and that Santa was part of that celebration. So Alex had heard a lot about Santa and had seen him in books and movies, but it was a totally different thing to be meeting him face-to-face.From a distance, he looked on in awed reverence, and that was pretty much how he reacted when we were at the front of the line and ushered him towards Santa's lap. He didn't run away screaming, but he didn't exactly launch himself at Santa either. This Santa had been around the block a time or two (hence the "Best Santa in the Country" title) and calmly coaxed Alex to sit down and chat about what he wants for Christmas. Alex told Santa that he wanted choo-choo trains, puzzles, and books, and Santa took note of his requests. They chatted for a few more minutes as the photographer attempted to get a good picture of Alex looking at the camera and not at Santa's face. Those attempts were unsuccessful; however, I really love the picture that we ended up picking, with Alex listening intently to Santa during their little chat.
Santa sent Alex away with a parting gift - a sort of preview of things to come, I suppose - and Alex came home with crayons and a picture frame that he could color himself. He was very excited about his Santa experience, and now he is even more excited for Santa to come visit Grammy's house on Christmas eve. Christmas with a two year old is so much fun!Christmas Cards & Poor Planning
I decided it would be a good idea to design my own Christmas card this year, which was great in theory...until I looked over our list to see how many cards we'd need to send out. I quickly realized that designing my own card was neither cost nor time-efficient, seeing as how I'd have to take them to Kinko's to be printed for $.50 a card, I'd have to pay for the cardstock to print them on, the envelopes to send them in, and the postage to mail them with, not to mention the fact that I'd have to trim each card by hand, which comes to five cuts per page times...a whole heck of a lot of pages....Long story short, I scrapped the idea and went with an old standby from Walgreen's, which many of you have received or will receive in your mailbox, hopefully before Christmas day.
That said, just for my own peace of mind, I decided to share what would have been our card this year, had I an unlimited supply of time, money, and Exacto blades.
We had snow - yes, snow - in Dallas a few weeks ago, and I bundled A up so he could go out and enjoy what might be his only chance to play in snow this year. Of course I went with camera in tow, thinking maybe I could get a Christmas card worthy photo out of the deal. Aside from his goofy outfit (from the waist down, in particular, which fortunately got cropped out of the Walgreen's card), those three were my favorites.
Below are the ones that didn't make the cut, but I think they're all priceless in their own special way.
That said, just for my own peace of mind, I decided to share what would have been our card this year, had I an unlimited supply of time, money, and Exacto blades.
We had snow - yes, snow - in Dallas a few weeks ago, and I bundled A up so he could go out and enjoy what might be his only chance to play in snow this year. Of course I went with camera in tow, thinking maybe I could get a Christmas card worthy photo out of the deal. Aside from his goofy outfit (from the waist down, in particular, which fortunately got cropped out of the Walgreen's card), those three were my favorites.Below are the ones that didn't make the cut, but I think they're all priceless in their own special way.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Neiman's Christmas Parade '09
One of our new pre-Christmas traditions is to attend the Neiman Marcus Christmas Parade downtown. Like last year, we reserved bleacher seats right on the parade route and bundled up for what would be a freezing cold morning. We came armed with a giant thermos full of hot chocolate (a new Stanley thermos which, by the way, kept our cocoa scalding hot for about five hours, hot for about three hours more, and finally cooled to room temperature about three hours after that) and some of the other families brought Krispy Kremes. His Highness Alexander required to be handfed his doughnuts so as not to muss his new mittens.
We saw a lot of the same floats as last year along with some new ones, but it was like seeing it from a whole new perspective now that Alex is a year older and can appreciate what's going on. He really enjoyed getting to see the characters he recognized from TV, and he liked to "drum" along when the marching bands came by.
There were a lot of moments when he sat in stunned silence as he watched the floats pass in front of us, and we were sort of surprised that he wasn't more vocal when he got excited about things. However, when we were heading back to the van when the parade was over, out of the blue he exclaimed, "I'm so happy!" and grinned from ear to ear. The parade was officially a success. We can't wait to see how he reacts next year!
We saw a lot of the same floats as last year along with some new ones, but it was like seeing it from a whole new perspective now that Alex is a year older and can appreciate what's going on. He really enjoyed getting to see the characters he recognized from TV, and he liked to "drum" along when the marching bands came by.
There were a lot of moments when he sat in stunned silence as he watched the floats pass in front of us, and we were sort of surprised that he wasn't more vocal when he got excited about things. However, when we were heading back to the van when the parade was over, out of the blue he exclaimed, "I'm so happy!" and grinned from ear to ear. The parade was officially a success. We can't wait to see how he reacts next year!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
determined to be the stinky kid in class
This morning, when I was trying to get Alex bathed and ready for school, he announced, "I won't take a bath ever, ever, EVER again." Yes, we are in that phase.
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