Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Birthdays of 2011

So this post is quite late... but I want to document it anyways.

October 2011 - Leann's birthday happened amidst a 7 week old infant, and brother's wedding and a trip to AZ, a baby shower for much awaited little nephew, Matt's insane work hours, and a baby's blessing.  So needless to say my birthday got a bit overshadowed.  My parents were still very kind and got me a ice cream cake (my favorite), and sang to me.  I enjoyed the moment and just let it pass as I didn't have much time to focus on that.

November 2011 - Matt kept trying to find out what I wanted to do/for my birthday, albeit a little late.  I finally decided what I wanted was a dinner out.  A really nice dinner.  No work, no kids, just us, and some incredibly delicious food that I didn't prepare.  And I wanted nice.... not so nice that the portions are teeny tiny and the food is prettier than me... but nice in that it was quality food with lots of flavor.  I LOVE going out to eat and since quitting work, we don't go out very much, so this is truly a treat for me.
However, this month Matt was getting calls for work at night and on the weekends.  I did not want my evening of relaxation to be ruined by work... so I told him to wait until work wasn't so crazy, so I could enjoy it.

Naturally I put my friend G up to the task of helping me pick a restaurant.  We discussed prices and food amounts and food tastes and such.  Finally landing on a choice of Mainstreet Grill.  She even offered the perfect set up.  Come to her house, feed the baby and then leave, so as to maximize the worry free time allotment when it comes to babies you aren't certain will take a bottle.

So now to picking a day.  We found one, early December...

December 2011 - We got to go on our date.  We dressed up for each other, we dropped off the kids and headed to our little getaway.  And let me tell you, it was HEAVEN!  It may have lasted only 1.5 hours, but it was perfect bliss for me!  The salad, oh the salad with bleu cheese and candied pecans, strawberries, and balsalmic vinegarette, the fried avocado for an appetizer, the steak and veggies prepared to perfection and with delicious seasonings, and then the ice cream sandwich that was seriously pure heaven, trust me this ain't no cheesy ice cream sandwich, we are talking pastries worthy of European origin on top and bottom, delicious cream ice cream rolled in candied nuts, drizzled with chocolate fudge yumminess... oh man, I'm drueling just remembering it.  I felt like my taste buds were doing that little dance from Ratatouille, where Remy is trying to explain flavors to his brother.  My mouth was singing.  I loved it!!!!  My birthday was a success.  (also need to thank my kind brother for helping pay the bill by giving us a gift card after they came to stay with us)

(G's kids love Weston while we were gone!  Can you blame them?  He was very loved that night)

Well, Matt's birthday is also December.  And he loves to celebrate on the day.  So we made plans with friends to bbq and put kids to bed and play games all night.  Matt still wanted to go out to eat... so we started searching.  Found a community magazine and checked out some restaurants in there.  Matt decided he wanted mexican food.  Sounded good to me.  So we found one, and decided to try and head out the night before his birthday.  No luck with babysitters, so we trekked the kids with us this time.  They were champs!  No complaining, just happy eating and smiles!  We enjoyed our dinners... good classic flavors for a good cheap price... I love mexican food!  I mentioned it was his birthday, so when it was time, out came the sombrero and the delicious dessert. 

The dessert was good, but the true entertainment was the hat.   This thing was so huge, the girl in the booth behind Matt, had to duck to not get hit by it.  It was awesome!
(If you look close, you can see her ducking)

 The next day Reid came down with a terrible fever.  Matt and I were still recovering from something as well.  So we cancelled our bbq, and stayed in.  I still made a cake, nothing extravagant as I don't know how to do sick kids and still do everything else, but it was a yummy cake.  (win for the recipe on the back of the Hersey's cocoa powder)  But considering all it was a good cake.  In spite of feeling terrible, Reid love singing Happy Birthday... he loved it so much, we did it again 3 days later for family home evening.... candles and all!  A little ridiculous, but when they are 2 and running fever, why not?


Happy Birthday to us!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Sweetest 2.5 Year Old

- Reid started singing songs with us.  At first, he would just say the last word, but now he knows almost whole songs.  His favorites are: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, John the Baptist, Christian Soldiers, Country Roads, Love is Spoken Here, and the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song.  Truth be told, Country Roads is the cutest.
- Reid is starting to learn about sharing.  According to nursery leaders, he's pretty good most days at sharing.  Other than the Lightning McQueen car, black train and his ride truck, Reid is good at sharing his own toys here at home.- Reid has mostly adjusted to having a brother, but I think one thing  that helped was that her learned how to ask to have mom to himself.  "I need a mommy hug.... No, Weston down... need a mommy hug".  I try to support his need for some mommy attention, but trying not to baby him... it's a tricky balance.
- Reid is starting to learn cause/effect.  So we are trying to teach him consequences.  Reid spilled his drink the other day, so I went through the motions of helping him get a rag and clean it up, and what to do with the rag afterward.  I was pleasantly surprised when the next time he spilled and I told him to go get a rag... he did!
- Reid is starting to like his brother.  When Weston sees him, he always smiles and Reid gets excited that he can make him "happy" or "smiiiiwwing" (smiling).  He will often share a car with Weston, and we've started teaching him about asking for a toy and then trading for another toy.

 - Reid has really starting understanding and responding to our requests.  He understands that we want something, or when we explain why he can't have what he wants. His comprehension has expounded.
- We have constantly worked on colors, but had no luck, until he started asking for me to draw Thomas (with a blue crayon), or James (with a red crayon), or Percy (with a green crayon).  Success!  Our child is not colorblind!  So, we worked on it for just a bit, and then BAM! he knew all of his colors all of the sudden.  Pink and purple still need a little help (but well, we don't use them much, they are girl colors), and orange and yellow are a little confusing, but he's getting better.
- One of my favorites is that like every 2 year old, Reid whines.  But we have talked about being happy and saying things in a happy and nice voice.  He gets this cheesy closed mouth smile and tries to show mommy that he can be happy, so he can get what he wants.  I love the face... I can't help by smile myself.
- Ever since about a week after Christmas (when Reid got really sick), he takes Lightning McQueen to bed with him.  This was such a surprise, cuz Reid does not like stuffed animals, so I thought he would never want a toy in bed with him.  Well, Lightning McQueen has won the cherished place of bedtime with Reid.
- Reid goes through phases of bringing his blankets out of bed.  We started with him leaving his bed blankets on mommy's bed, and slowly moved it to his bed.  But occasionally he still likes to bring them to mommy's bed.  But it is comical now, because with the colder weather we have added a full twin size blanket on his bed and watching him drag it to our room makes me smile.  But then I ask him to put them back on his bed and he does it right away.

Reid shows his love unconditionally for mommy and daddy.  He is my friend and buddy right now.  He is behaving so well and rarely gets in trouble.  If he does, its to the corner and before his 2 minutes are up, he's in the corner apologizing or saying what he should have done differently.  I know this won't last forever, so I am enjoying every moment I can.  We made it through the months of adjusting to moving and then adjusting to a baby brother, and now we are just enjoying being us... at home.... and he's the sweetest boy.  I want to never forget these precious moments.

(Reid helping Daddy play "robots"
a.k.a. Daddy doing his robotics hobby by tearing 
apart our broken DVD player for parts) 

Monday, January 23, 2012

Play Trains / Christmas

We had a great Christmas!  My Christmas started a little early around 5am when Weston woke up to eat, but like the champ that he is, he went straight back to sleep.  Then just before 7am a little toddler came in.  Matt and I did our best to be excited to get up.  Reid still didn't quite get what Christmas morning was all about. Well, it didn't take long, he was so sweet to wait his turn while Mom and Dad took turns opening presents.  He was happy to play with the toys he had already gotten in between each new present.
 
Our extended family was so generous with our gifts... we even spoiled ourselves a bit with a new Blu-Ray player and the entire Harry Potter collection on Blu-Ray.  But the main event was the train set!  Santa (with the help of my sister) gave Reid a basic figure 8 train track set.  Little did we know Grandma was also in cahoots with Santa and she gave Reid a Thomas and a James train!  He was so happy.  He played with the trains ALL day on Christmas.  We even tried to watch the new Cars movie and Reid lost interest in about 10 minutes and went back to the trains!  He's a boy in every aspect.  The most common phrase in our house that week was "Play Trains?"

 

Weston woke up when we were close to ending, and we opened up his presents as well.  Then we took some time to enjoy our breakfast casserole that I made the night before and then headed upstairs to get ready for church.  There was some protesting when it was time to get ready for church and to leave for church... but he got through it.  Church was great and it was fun to see all our friends dressed up so spiffy for the Christmas day.

When we got home he played a little and then it was nap time for all.  Except Weston didn't get that memo and didn't let mommy get her Christmas afternoon nap.  But alas, all is still well.

Then we had a yummy dinner of pork roast, cheesy potatoes, salad, and strawberry jello.  Shortly after we finished dinner, our friends came over to wish us a good Christmas and leave us some "brownies from a jar".

Such a fun holiday.  We did miss seeing our families, I did call my parents and talk to my brother and sister, and Matt's family skyped with us the night before.  However, staying home and taking it easy allowed us to rest and reflect on Christ and why we celebrate Christmas. 

(our small hand-me-down tree with all the presents)
 (Matt gave a beautiful the Christmas story lesson on Christmas Eve)
 (the after math)



It was a wonderful day!