Christmas in KY pt. 1

We have completed the first leg of our two leg Christmas journey. These aren't my photos- I stole them from Facebook- once I have my own I will post a few additional photos.

We had a nice restful stay at my dad's place. We were able to just relax and come and go as we please. On Christmas Eve we went to Central Park and looked at all the Christmas decorations- I have those pictures on my camera. It was a lot of fun. Jack ran around everywhere and had a great time. The only drawback was that it was so so windy- one of the wooden reindeer fell over and broke his leg. On Christmas Day we went to the movies, as we usually do when we are at my dad's, and Pete stayed behind to watch the two grandkids (Jack and Khloe). It gave him plenty of experience in dealing with an infant while managing Jack. I heard that it went well, he even got everyone to the Chinese restaurant for dinner that night. Thanks Pete. For Christmas Jack got some awesome toys!! He got some John Deere tractors, John Deere hat, John Deere tool belt, and a Home Depot tool truck that is pretty awesome. He was so so excited to get all of these new tractors and trucks! Oh, and on Christmas we heard the best homily ever, the Lithuanian priest at my dad's church apparently enjoys the Twilight series, he based his homily on New Moon. Pete does a wonderful impression of this- just ask sometime.






While we were there my niece was baptized. She looked very pretty and precious in her baptismal gown. She was so good and barely even cried when the water was poured on her head. Below are a few pictures of us after the baptism. I am glad that we were all able to be a part of her special day. Also, godfather Will did great too!

Our Christmas and other happenings

We've already celebrated our intimate little family Christmas. We thought it was pretty much a perfect day! It snowed all day- even though none of it stuck. We opened presents, played with them, had eggs and bacon, and then Jack and I took a nap while Pete went to study. When he got home we got to play with more toys and ordered Chinese food- the perfect Christmas meal!





I got a new water pitcher from Bybee Pottery. When we lived in Louisville this pottery store was right down the street from us, sadly when we moved here my water pitcher broke. I was so happy to get a new one. I also got a Garmin- now I can't stop singing the Give a Give a Garmin song. Pete got cribbage and a brand new cell phone. I think he was very surprised and pleased with the new cell phone! Jack got a few different things but the only presents he really seems to care about are the two matchbox cars that were in his stocking!!! Hahaha! I suppose that is how it goes. Since stockings were first it took a lot of effort to get him to even unwrap the presents under the tree.

In other news from around here: we finally know what is going on with our car. There was more damage done to it then we originally thought. They pretty much have to rebuild the whole back end of the car. It will be ready for us to pick up the beginning of January. We still think that we will buy a new car while we are in KY. We found one online that is what we are looking for and about $2,000 cheaper in KY-so we will at least check it out and see if the dealer still has it.

In Jack news it should be noted that the only music he will listen to is Billy Joel especially- It's Still Rock and Roll to Me. So family be prepared to have Billy Joel going on while we visit.

Just when I was trying to be stress free...

My goal for the rest of my pregnancy was to be as positive and stress free as possible. I knew I was dragging people down with all my complaining, but then that day there was an incident that has brought some stress back into our lives. However, I hope I am handling it well and putting it in perspective because it could have been far worse than it was and we were/are the least affected by it.

Pete went to study and parked our car on the street across from the coffee shop. After a bit there was all this commotion outside. It turns out that two young teenage boys stole a car from a bar parking lot and went for a joy ride. The cops began to pursue them and the boys began to disobey all traffic laws in order to flee from the police. This caused them to t-bone a couple's car at an intersection. The couple ended up hitting a cement pole of some sort and both were critically injured. The car the boys were in then began to flip and came to rest upside down on the trunk of our car. They were treated with minor injuries and are now in custody. Here is the news story- car wreck.

So obviously, we came out way ahead in the situation because Pete wasn't in the car and it was just the car. Still it is frustrating because now our car is not only wrecked( to what degree we don't know) but it is also in police custody since it is part of a crime scene. We haven't been told yet when we will get it back ( it could be 2 weeks- 6months)so at the moment we are carless. However, we are very lucky that we are surrounded by so many kind people. There is a couple in the math department with two cars, so they loaned us one of their cars for the week to get stuff done. How amazingly generous of them! It has been helpful because we needed groceries, to do laundry, finish a few Christmas things up, go to appts., and get a new car seat for Jack. What a wonderful blessing to have them offer. Then we had another great family offer a car seat for a few days. This has been another wonderful gift because to run all these errands with no car seat would be impossible. So thank you Tate family for the car seat!!

We have a voucher for a free car seat from the Transportation Department, but after calling numerous times and getting in touch with no one, I finally called the number for the state wide program. Turns out the number on the voucher is the wrong number. So luckily, we figured it out and tomorrow Jack gets a new car seat.

We have plans over Christmas to visit family and again so many people have been so generous to us. The Allen's offered us the use of their car for the whole trip- which is unbelievably kind but something we just didn't feel comfortable doing. My sister offered to drive here and pick us up and my other sister offered to drive us halfway to our next destination which is so so kind as well. However, I think we will be going with the renting a car option that my wonderful in-laws offered. It is truly great to see so much kindness.

After the Christmas season we will just buy a new car so that we have reliable transportation since Big Baby will be making his appearance in a couple months. We were planning on buying a new car anyway, but this just makes it more needed.

Even though Jack was not part of this crash and did not see it or the car he has been somewhat traumatized. When he learned that we didn't have a car and that he didn't have a car seat he was very confused. Pete then decided to re-enact it with his matchbox cars. Jack has been obsessed with doing the same thing ever since then. He either does it with the matchbox cars as well or he uses the green push car and his John Deere. The first night we had the borrowed car Pete had to go some place, and Jack just completely broke down. He cried and cried and told Pete not to take the car. He told him that he could walk or take the bus but not to take the car. I had no idea it would bother him so much. He ended up sleeping in our room that night because any time he was alone he would just cry.

This is Jack's take on the situation now that it has all calmed down some:
Hello people: our trunk is bumped and my car seat got in a wreck. We are borrowing a jeep.

I think that about sums it up.

Taking time to de-stress

I have looked back over the last month and realized I have been stressed and pretty negative in my outlook. It is time to snap out of it and enjoy the Christmas season. I need to take a lesson from Matthew 11:28-30- "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Jack and I have gone to the library and discovered a few new favorites- at least for now:
Cows Can't Fly by David Milgrim
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Red Light, Green Light by Margaret Wise Brown
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

Today we have been watching these children's Christmas movies since it is very cold-
A WowieBOZowee Christmas
The Very First Noel
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Frosty the Snowman

We made slow-cooking some habanero chili and are about to make some peanut butter cookies and perhaps hot chocolate.

Jack is in love with our Christmas tree. The first thing he does every morning is plug it in and as soon as we get home he plugs it in. At night he just stares at it and says that it is awesome.

Last weekend I was able to have a few friends over to watch a movie and this weekend Pete and I get to go out together, so we are excited about that. I hope I don't feel too rushed since a friend is watching Jack while we are gone( it was very nice of him to agree to do it.) We don't often have people watch Jack, so it always stresses me out a little because I feel like we should hurry back. However, I am looking forward to our night out.

family pictures and random stuff

We had family pictures taken and here are a few we like.
















In other news:
I met with the diabetic people and got my monitor and very own set of "pee sticks". I had some sort of reaction to my shot last week, so we will see if it happens again or if it was one time deal. I am in my third trimester, and feeling pretty good overall.

Pete was awarded a research grant by the faculty. This means that they are going to pay him to do research next semester, and no teaching, grading, or office hours will be involved! It is not through his adviser, which means, someone at school thinks he is pretty smart- I tend to agree. Plus on a completely selfish note- it will be great to have him accessible for doctor's appts. and the actual birth of Big Baby.

Jack is Jack-- still making up words, singing songs, hiding in 'caves', reading books, exploring, and emulating daddy more and more everyday. We are having a pretty good time right now.

All things Jack

Some stuff that Jack is doing/liking these days

I haven't had much energy lately so we've been reading a lot more. Here are some of the books we have been borrowing from the library:
- The Island of the Skog
-Make Way for Ducklings
-A Pocket for Corduroy
-If You Give a Pig a Party ---and other Laura Numeroff books
-Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Pickles Over Pittsburgh

There are others-- currently we have 10+ books checked out-- but these are the ones we have been reading over and over.

Playing games takes a little more energy but we play Memory and Hi Ho Cherry-O

He loves to do puzzles and is enjoying 24 piece puzzles. I bought him a 48 piece puzzle for Christmas--we will see how it goes.

We bought him Brain Quest for Threes and he loves them and the mouse Molly.

He loves to listen and sing to Raffi

He loves going on drives. They can't be errands or trips to places he is familiar with, they have to be aimless driving around and turning the wrong way drives.

He loves exploring and hiking with Pete.

We have been teaching him to spell and how to sound out words- he is doing a great job. He can spell words like: up, stop, go, park, dark, dog, mom, dad, bath, and a few others. He can almost always tell you what a word starts with unless he is being silly then he tells you the wrong thing on purpose.

That is another he loves to do right now: spell words wrong, count wrong, sing songs wrong, tell you the wrong color, and etc-- I think he must be bored with our games.

He likes making caves out of blankets and cushions.

When frustrated he tells you what he wants to do before he does it-
- I want to scream
-I want to hit you
- I want to throw a ball at you
He does these things but has started to sort of temper these urges, and now if you really get his attention you can distract him. Yesterday he wanted to throw a ball at me, but I was able to get him to throw it up in the air to see if he could hit the ceiling.

He can also be really really sweet. He will randomly say I love you. When he is having a good time he will say thank you for doing whatever activity we are doing. If he can tell I am tired or don't feel well he will automatically get me a coke or bottle of water. If I complain of an 'owie" he wants to kiss it right away to make it better. He loves to just hang out with us and sit by us. He remembers things he has done recently with Pete and will randomly say: I had a good time when we went to the Squirrel Park ( a park in town with a lot of squirrels) or That was nice when Daddy went to Home Depot.

He has been sleeping in his room through the night. We still lock the door for the most part but he isn't banging or crying to come out anymore. He usually stays in there until around 7:15-7:30am before making noise to come out. For the past few days I have been unlocking it before I go to bed just so we can get out of the locking the door phase and it has gone really well with him not leaving his room in the morning until around 7:15. He sleeps on the floor in his sleeping bag and refuses to sleep in his bed. He has become a fan of the night light, and I think all of this has helped him.

I think he will have some issues with Big Baby, but hopefully it won't be too bad. He wanted to read a book the other day and when I suggested he read it to Big Baby he told me that Big Baby doesn't like books, and that I should read it only to him. He found our umbrella stroller and wanted me to push him around in it like a baby. I got out our baby toys and now Jack loves to play with them-so I am a bit worried. We have a few more months but it is something we will definitely have to be aware of.

We got family pictures taken last weekend-- I am excited to see them. I hope they turned out well ( Jack actually smiling). They were taken at a local park and most were us exploring because that is all Jack wanted to do. I will post some when we get them in a couple weeks.

The 2- year- old strikes again

I realized I hadn't been letting you in on how life with a 2-yr-old is going. I really can't believe I have been so selfish. So here you go.

-He figured out if we are in public and we pick him up or grab his arm, he can yell: You're hurting me!!! and people will stare and we will become embarrassed.

-When he gets mad he looks at me and goes: I want to hit you. Then he does.

-Today after I got my shot he loudly asked me, in front of the nurse, where are the stickers? When she said he could have one, he misunderstood and thought suckers would be involved. Once receiving sticker and being made to say thank you- he threw it, yelled: I want a sucker! and ran into the office of one of the doctors. She was in there- I was mortified.

-The winner happened tonight. We decided to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. We rarely eat at places that don't have a drive-thru, and now I remember why. He started sliding straws, wipes, and etc. into the booth behind us ( there were people in the booth). He threw the same things in the air just to see where they would land. After much scolding and moving these things out of the way he began to get irritated. The food finally arrived, and we thought things would calm down- no. He took a fry and tossed it at the table closest to us- hitting a man in the face. We left.

Oh the joys of parenthood. Below is a picture showing how cute and sweet he appears to the normal everyday passerby.

Also..

A few days before Halloween I had my 20 week ultra-sound. She tried quite hard to do some more 3-D ultrasound pictures, but the cord was floating right in front of Big Baby's face and there was also an arm resting on the forehead, they ended up not being any good. :(

She switched back to regular ultrasound pictures and got a few good shots. We got confirmation that Big Baby is in fact a boy!! Very exciting. 1. We were hoping for a boy- after all our adventures don't ask me why I wanted to add to the trouble- but I did. 2. Since Jack and Big Baby will more than likely share the same birthday month we don't have to buy any new clothes- score!





Here is a picture or two of me. I am starting to get bigger and even since these pictures were taken I have gotten bigger and gained 5.5 lbs. Oh my! According to the ultrasound I am due March 7th-ish. Pete is really hoping Big Baby is born after Jack's birthday- it will be cutting it close, but it may happen.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween plans changed a bit at the last moment. We were going to hang out here in town, but Pappy ended up in the hospital so we headed to KY for Halloween.

Pappy was home in time to celebrate Halloween. Pumpkin carving started the day.




Then Jack got dressed for the evening, as you can tell he was a pirate. Daddy was in charge of going up to the houses with Jack. I was in charge of pictures.




Once home we got to dig into the candy!


The next day Jack got to play in the leaves- for a little bit.

crafty???

Jack's walls are pretty bare. So I have decided to slowly but surely add some decoration to his room. We are starting out with these letters- which he helped to paint- then we are getting a bulletin board that will be covered in fabric. After that who knows, but we will figure something out.



Once we painted the letters I felt sort of crafty. I am not crafty or in any way artsy, but thought hey why not try small things and see how it goes. We cut out felt bats, spiders, and ghosts, added pipe cleaner smiles, and googly eyes. We also printed out some Halloween pictures, added ribbon, and hung them from the ceiling fan.


Realizing, that through doing these activities we have had far fewer outbursts, I had to come up with more so we made roll-out sugar cookies. Jack helped pour the ingredients into the mixer, helped roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, icing them, and eat them!


We had fun painting our small pumpkins last week, I thought why not do a couple more to keep inside. Jack picked out his pumpkin- his is the one that started out with white on it. He painted his pumpkin almost all by himself. I only helped in a couple of spots. His ended up being the one with the pipe cleaner hair.

a compact fall break

We had big plans for fall break, I was so excited, but a week before we were set to go Pete remembered he had a math conference that weekend!!! The conference was here, so no big plans to travel to far away cities were made. Needing something to do and somewhere to go we headed off to KY for a quick two night stay. We arrived in time to celebrate Danny's b-day. Then the next morning it was off to the Newport Aquarium. We had a great time.




Jack's obsession with lawnmowers continues. He is pretty particular and requires all lawnmowers be cleaned before ridden.




We also went to visit some farm animals ( they were extra stinky!) and Jack helped Granny carve a pumpkin.




Once home we painted a few pumpkins. This was Jack's first time using paint and he did a great job!