Halloween Festivities

Carving the pumpkin...





Coloring...


With my jack-o-lantern...


Trying on the costume


We're taking Jake to the church Fall Festival soon. More pics later!

Dino-roar

Last week we took Jake to a dinosaur exhibit at the botanical gardens here. It was really cool, and we thought it would be a good way to get him ready to wear his dinosaur costume for Halloween. We saw lots of dinos and Jake liked them all but he especially liked all of the other kids that were there. Later that night, Mike put the dreaded costume on him and Jake loved it! He ran around yelling "ROAR!" I think Halloween might be a success after all.

Three and Counting

Mike and I had our three year wedding anniversary last Thursday. What is the traditional three year anniversary gift anyway? Paper? Rocks? Scissors? I have no clue, so I got him a backscratcher. That's what he's been wanting for months. He got me some purple tulip bulbs that we're going to plant soon. He had to work on Thursday, but he had a three day weekend off from work so we decided to celebrate over the weekend. Mike arranged for a babysitter to come over for a few hours Sunday morning and he and I ran out of here and headed to the lake for a couple hours of kayaking. Okay, I actually only kayaked for about 45 minutes and Mike did all the work by himself the rest of the time while I basked in the sun eating grapes and he waved a palm frond over my head. That is one of my favorite ways to spend a day. I'm a nature girl and miss living and working on the ocean. It's hard to see much in the way of nature living in suburbia. I mean we see neighborhood dogs and cats, our backyard squirrels and the occasional 'possum, but that's about it. So anyway, while we were kayaking we spotted some snowy and great egrets, cormorants, swans, lots of turtles and a cute little snake. I was in heaven and it's always so much fun to get away with Mike by ourselves for a little while. We wrapped up the afternoon with a stop at a local barbeque joint where we ate ourselves into a food coma. I seriously ate so much that the pants I was wearing the day before no longer fit me. But it was good, and that's a price I'm willing to pay to celebrate wedded bliss. Because what says we're in this together better than gaining five pounds at the same time? So, Happy 3 Michael! You're the best.

Pretty in Pink

We're in serious trouble here. One of the reasons that Mike and I were both sort of hoping to have another boy is that we already have all of the clothes and toys that any little boy could ever need. While shopping for Jake's Halloween costume the other day I was exposed to a store full of little girl clothes. Oh my! They are so much cuter than boy clothes! And there are so many to choose from. I could spend our entire savings on Emma's wardrobe. Not good. I'm thinking a self imposed ban on shopping is the only way to go here. Because I really don't think a closet full of cute clothes is going to aid in our retirement plan in a few years.

Thoughtless Thursday

Jake loves this car that Amy and Jack gave him.

Jurassic Park meets Sesame Street

We solved the Halloween costume dilemma around here by going to a Carter's outlet store and scoring big on a cute dinosaur costume on sale by 60%. Gotta love that. Jake got to choose between the dinosaur and a cow. Originally he picked the cow, but after I explained the merits of the dinosaur to him he changed his mind. When we got home, we put it on him and he was running around looking so proud. And then we showed him what he looked like in the mirror. Big mistake. He started screaming, saying NO! NO! and trying to rip the thing off of his body. So, we're going to have to have a little costume wearing 101 class around here before the big day. Here's some pics of the costume without the little boy inside.

What a way to make a living

Let me just start off by saying that I do enjoy my part time job. It's nice to get out of the house a couple days each week, I work with a good friend, and I like the idea of giving other moms a break from the insanity of raising kids for a few hours.

Now, let's just talk about yesterday for a moment. Three of our sweet little babies had been out sick last week so that coupled with a holiday on Monday meant they hadn't seen us in about a week and a half. Which in baby time is like forever. Needless to say, that when they came back, they were not so happy. And neither, really, were any of the other babies yesterday. Even our one little happy guy was a little cranky. There were many tears.

They cried when we were inside.
They cried when we were outside.
They cried when we held them.
They cried when we smelled them.
They cried when we put them down.
They cried when we spun them around.

There was just a lot of crying. We had extra help too, thank the Lord. It took about four or five adults to handle the situation. I don't blame the babies because I know it's hard to be little. But let's just say that we were having a bad day. And then the one thing happened that I've been trying to avoid this entire pregnancy. And I'm talking about the vomit. Mine, not theirs.

Basically, there are a few smells that I just cannot take right now. We've discussed water and eggs, but now I should mention that baby spit up also makes me gag. And we have a few babies who spit up. So there I was feeding a little boy, and I put him on my knee to burp him when I just felt warm liquid all over my knee. And then I smelled it. I looked down to see my pants covered from the knee down, a puddle on the floor, and spit up in this little guy's shoes.

I told Leslie that I thought I was going to throw up from the smell. Now, she's heard me say this countless times before so she wasn't taking me seriously. And I swear I saw a little smile on her face. Which quickly changed to surprise and maybe horror when she heard me start gagging and saw my body involuntarily convulsing in the rocker. So she calmly told me to go to the bathroom.

I put baby upchuck down, ran in there, hugged the toilet and dry heaved my lungs out. I'm not a puker so I managed to keep my lunch down but I swear it took everything I had to make sure nothing came up. I just kept thinking to myself, "if you throw up it's going to be salad and chili and that is just wrong." So after much convulsing and some sore abdominals later I was able to return to work. I was glad that I hadn't actually thrown up. It was strictly mind over matter. The force is strong within me. However, I went the rest of the day with that awful taste in my mouth.

Let me just repeat that I love the babies and my job, but I really don't like the spit up smell and the gagging it causes. I'm in the process of trying to forget that yesterday ever happened. I'm thinking lots of prayer, meditation and maybe a trip to a hypnotist should do the trick.

Sometimes you just need a time out

The last few weeks we have noticed that our usually very sweet little boy has turned a little bit on the not so sweet side. I noticed it first with how he treats our dog and cat. If he's particularly frustrated with something he will oftentimes march straight over to Brady and either hit him or grab a handful of fur and pull. Poor puppy. Thank goodness he is so sweet natured. If Zoe our cat has the misfortune of being spotted by Jake in one of his moods she will get a little kick in her side. We love our animals and have been trying to teach him that it's never okay to hurt them (even when we catch them eating our baked goods) but the learning curve here seems to be pretty steep.

So anyhow, I've been wondering when this behavior would spill over into his mother's day out program with the other kids. Mike and I had been doing time out with him by putting him in his crib for a minute if he refused to listen to us. Recently, we decided going up and down the stairs to the crib was really stupid so one morning after he pulled enough fur out of Brady to make a small coat, I told him in no uncertain terms to go to the corner for time out. I figured I was going to have to take him there and stand right in front of him to get him to stay in place. Much to my surprise he marched right over to the corner, stuck his nose in it, and stayed there until I told him to get out! Then I told him to tell Brady sorry which he did immediately while patting him on the head. At first I just sat there thinking "my kid is a genius." And then I thought, wait a minute. We've never put him in time out in a corner before. How did he know what to do? The thought dawned on me that perhaps his teachers at school had a little something to do with this new found behavior.

So the next school day I had a little talk with his teachers to see if he was a trouble maker in class who regularly visited the time out corner. Mysteriously, they assured me that he is an angel and that they don't even do time outs! So, I'm back to the "my kid is a genius" thing. And an angel to boot!

You know that saying "pride cometh before the fall"? Or something like that. Well, last Wednesday when I picked him up from class, this little mama fell pretty hard. His teacher told me that he had been pretty aggressive all day long and that he had to go to time out for hitting some kid upside the head. Although I've been expecting this to happen just from what we're witnessing at home, I have to say I was so disappointed. And a little embarrassed. She did tell me it was pretty freaky how when they decided to tell him to go to time out he marched himself straight over to the corner and put his nose in it until they told him to come out. She told me what a good job we must be doing with time outs at home! Each day they give us a little report card with details of our child's day. Sure enough, at the bottom of Jake's sheet it said "VERY aggressive today" with a little asterisk by the words. Oh my. We have some work to do. I will say that another mama picking up her boy right after I got Jake got the same bad news that I had gotten. As I was walking away, I heard her saying "he was very aggressive today?!" I know this is bad, but I felt just a little bit better that Jake wasn't the only one who had a hard day. I know how he feels though. I have to admit that sometimes at work when we have five or six babies crying at the same time I would like to put myself in the corner and bury my nose there for a few minutes. Just for a little break.

The Great Pumpkin

Yesterday we took Jake to a nearby pumpkin patch where he got to go on a hayride, pet some farm animals, paint his own pumpkin and eat homemade strawberry ice cream. It was a great day with perfect weather and Jake really likes pumpkins!

Thoughtless Thursday

Shalloween

Amy sent me an email today with a link to a website where very creative mamas have posted pictures of Halloween costumes they made for their kids. I'm talking about constructing things from cardboard boxes and making really elaborate get-ups.

I'm remembering back to last Halloween when I decided Jake was too young to dress up so I did nothing until about 6pm that night when I had a change of heart and decided he HAD to dress up for his first Halloween. So, I stuck a Hawaiian shirt on him and tried to get him to wear a purple flower lei around his neck. That lasted about five seconds. Then we decided to just go sit out in the driveway and look at the other neighborhood kids who were dressed up in cool costumes and I made a vow to myself and my son that night that he would never be ashamed of his Halloween wear again.

So that brings us to this year. I don't want to go buy one of those cheap little plastic costumes with the awful masks that go with them. Because for one thing, Jake would never keep a mask on. And secondly, I want him to look cute. However, I'm also not really creative at this kind of thing and I can't think of anything to make for him to wear. Any ideas? Please keep in mind that I DO NOT SEW. I could probably handle cutting out some fabric or maybe painting something but I don't want to go overboard. Jake's MeMaw has also graciously offerred to buy him a costume but I have yet to see anything I like that doesn't cost $40. I refuse to spend that much on a costume even if it's not my money. I know there are other pressing matters in the world right now what with the election coming up and the crashing of our economic market but HELP! I cannot let him down another year. I would like a simple, cute (not scary) costume idea that even an idiot could put together.

It's a girl!

We had our appointment today for the amniocentesis. When we got there, the first thing they did was an ultrasound to measure the baby's head and nose and other "soft markers" that could give them clues as to whether or not there was a concern about Down Syndrome. Everything looked really good and the doctor told us there was a 99% chance of this baby being born "perfectly healthy". So, we opted not to have the amnio after all. Although another outcome would not have made us love her any less, it is a relief to know we can go through the rest of the pregnancy not wondering or worrying. We were also both very relieved not to have to take any chances with her by having the amnio done. They got a good shot of all her parts and are certain this is a little girl. One of each! We can't wait to welcome Emma Mae into our family the second week of March. Her due date is March 19th, but we'll schedule a c-section sometime the week before.

This and That

Here's what's on my mind in no particular order.

1.) Tomorrow morning we go in for an amniocentesis. I'm a little nervous about this test because it involves a big needle and there is a slight risk to the baby. So please send up prayers that nothing happens to the baby. We'll also get an ultrasound at the same time to determine the sex. Let's hope baby is not being modest so we can get a good shot!

2.) Texas beat OU on Saturday 45 to 35!. Even though all the football announcers were saying that they couldn't win. My favorite comment by these experts came during halftime when one of them actually said that OU would win the football game if they could just outscore Texas. Really. Because until that moment I hadn't realized that in order to win a game you actually had to OUTSCORE your opponent. Secret's out. Hook 'em Horns.

3.) I know I graduated from Texas A&M, but I am a Longhorn at heart.

4.) Due to a contract dispute between our local cable company and the network that broadcasts NBC, we have been unable to watch anything on NBC for a week now. Because it is gone from our cable lineup. Yep. They got rid of a major network television station. I think this is ridiculous especially since I'm not seeing a discount on our cable bill and I plan to picket or something as soon as I have the energy to march in a line all day long. Yes, we can watch our shows online but it is just not the same and I am an unhappy customer right now.

5.) Is there anything cuter than putting your little boy to bed at night and then hear him up in his crib singing and laughing and clapping to himself? I think not!

Baby Bump-Week 17

Drum Roll Please...

I know everyone's dying to find out what we named our new pets. For a few days we had been calling them Rocky and Rambo. However, after we woke up today and found one of them shedding his skin all over the place we changed their names to Itchy and Scratchy. Apparently they're going to be shedding a few times a year until they are full grown so I think the names are appropriate. I still really liked Lenny and Squiggy but Mike has no clue who those guys are. Mike really liked Pinky and The Brain but I have no idea who those guys are. So we settled on names from The Simpsons that really cross all generations. Thanks for the idea Mel!

Thoughtless Thursday