This week… (and doctor’s appointment)

It’s been a crazy week. Lee Ann came into town on Tuesday. That night, Kellen started to feel bad. Wednesday morning, he woke up with a fever of 103. Thursday, it was up to 104.5. The doctor on Wednesday told him it was probably just a virus, gave him a prescription for cough syrup, and drew blood for tests. When they called back with results on Thursday, they said they’re assuming everyone with his symptoms has the flu, but they’re only prescribing Tamiflu for people who have to be hospitalized. He told them–again–that he’s having a baby in a couple of weeks and he really has to get better, so they finally called in the Tamiflu. He’s doing much better today, but now he’s missed three days of work! I called my doctor today to see how I can avoid getting the flu, and what if the baby comes before Kellen’s all better, and they want me to start Tamiflu immediately, just in case. It’ll make the virus that much easier and quicker for me if I do get it, and you better believe I’m doing my best not to.

Anyway, I had to take care of a lot I wasn’t planning on or feeling up to (like renewing the overdue registration on the truck, for which I waited in a crowded line for over an hour and my feet swelled up and it was ridiculously stressful) because Kellen couldn’t or shouldn’t do it, as sick as he was. Thank goodness for mothers-in-law, because Nunu was a big help whenever she wasn’t working. She, of course, entertained Jacey Dae, took us shopping for baby stuff, finished painting Rylan’s room, made the peach cobbler I was supposed to bring to preschool on Thursday, and covered her son up when he was violently shivering in the early hours of Wednesday morning when the fever started to hit and I was still asleep. Even with her help, I still spent a lot of the week stressed out and crying, because that’s how I handle stress when I’m pregnant. Fun.

On Wednesday afternoon, I had what was supposed to be my last ultrasound. It was one of the coolest ones I’ve ever had, because Rylan was moving around a lot. He was practicing gripping, and I felt the movements as I watched him open and close his fingers and flex his hands. He stuck his tongue out at us!

It was really cute. It’s kind of hard to see when it’s not in motion and you don’t know what you’re looking at… that slope from the far right toward the left is his forehead and eye, then it slopes up for his nose, then it’s all distorted where his mouth was open, then the protrusion just to the left of center there is his tongue. The little bump under it is his bottom lip.

Fortunately and unfortunately, we couldn’t get a good view of his face. I wish we could have, especially for Lee Ann’s sake, because I think this is the first ultrasound she’s seen since the early 1980′s, and I’m pretty sure it’s amazing how much clearer everything is now. But the reason we couldn’t see his face well is that his head was too low, so I’ll take preparing for birth as a good reason for it!

After the ultrasound, I had my doctor’s appointment. She mentioned, as the ultrasound tech had, that the baby was low, but I wasn’t showing signs of impending labor. I asked if we could have an induction date, because I was 37 weeks pregnant (less one day) and she had told me we could induce between 38 and 39 weeks. She checked her calendar and–guess what–we have a date! I’ll go into the hospital on Sunday night, March 6, and they’ll induce overnight. He’ll come on Monday the 7th (or, if my body’s really not ready yet and it takes multiple applications of the medication, Tuesday the 8th). I have my baby’s probably birthday! Of course, he could choose to come at any point now, and I have another doctor’s appointment next Tuesday to make sure that date still looks good. I’ll get checked again, and they’ll go ahead and do another ultrasound, just to be sure of his size. Right now, he’s on the small side–5 pounds 11 ounces, which puts him in the 19th percentile. But Jacey wasn’t huge either; it was the big head she got from her daddy that made things hard for me!

With Kellen being sick and nothing big being accomplished this week for the baby (the room is painted now, but it’s still full of a bunch of furniture crowded in the middle of the room, and the crib still isn’t repaired or painted at all), I’m really feeling like the house won’t be the way I want it when Rylan comes home. Everything won’t be cleaned, and he might not even have a room to come home to. But I am so excited! Nine days from today I’ll go to the hospital to have my labor started. Nine days! It’s so soon! Stress or not, this pregnancy has flown, and I can’t believe it’s almost over.

I can’t wait to meet my little boy!

Christmas, part 3 (presents!)

Cousin Andrew had to go to work (he works at the Humane Society, and it turns out the puppies and kitties even need to eat on Christmas Day), so it was a few hours of playing with the new toys before we finally got to eat the cinnamon rolls and open presents. And we were ready. And Kellen, Jacey, and I stayed in our pj’s until then, because you just don’t get dressed before you open presents on Christmas morning.

By the time we were ready to open presents, I think Dada was more excited than anyone there. He kept sending Jacey Dae to ask Nunu for presents. “Nunu, baba behbeh!” she’d say, meaning, “Nunu, open presents!” And Nunu had no idea it was her daddy prompting her to go ask, over and over again, when we could start.

Then, finally, it was time. Jacey passed out probably 80% of the massive pile of presents all by herself, even to Cousin Andrew, who was scary because he had facial hair, and Casey, Aunt Annette’s son, who she’d just met that morning. She did such a good job, and she loved it! It was very possibly her favorite part of the whole day.

Although, just like her daddy, she enjoyed opening the presents, too.

I love that Dada is at least as absorbed in his present opening as his two-year-old daughter. He’s such a little boy on Christmas!

Jacey had quite a few presents. She’d open one, throw the paper on the floor, comment on what it was, and drop it in the pile of paper, the grab the next one.

She made a mess.

She got some new clothes, books, games, puzzles, a tutu, a sock monkey (just like the ones on Mama’s pj’s!), and I don’t even remember what all else. In her stocking from nunu, she had, among other things, big girl panties and a bunch of headbands.

She’s loving the headbands. In fact, still, weeks after Christmas, every day when she gets dressed, we go through who gave her her panties, shirt, headband… every piece of her outfit, because she got so much good stuff on Christmas that she still likes to talk about it all. “Bih-bih pa-pies Nunu, duh Deh-deh Dah, beh-bah Mimi, doh Nunu,” she’ll tell me– “Big girl panties from Nunu, shirt from Santa Claus,  headband from Mimi, and socks from Nunu.” (She rarely thinks Mama bought her anything. And, really, most of her wardrobe does come from Nunu and Mimi!)

Later in the day, the kids went out to play with Papaw and Uncle Jared. Here’s Jacey’s cold weather ensemble:

That would be hat from Santa Claus, jacket from Mama (not new), shirt from Santa Claus, pants from Nunu, tutu from Nunu, socks from Nunu, and boots from Mimi (also not new), in case you were wondering. Quite the outfit, no?

When the played outside, it was the funniest thing in the world–Papaw would throw a ball on the roof and it would roll off and bounce in the yard. Funniest thing ever. Over and over again.

The rest of the day was spent Skyping with Mimi, Gramps, and Aunt Chelle (and Cousin Alyssa for a little bit), playing with the new toys, coloring and playing in the cardboard playhouse you can color that Nunu got for Haden and Jacey together, napping, snacking, eating way too much at meal times, playing a big game of Cranium way past Jacey’s bedtime… it was a good day.

Jacey loved the playhouse. We colored it and she played inside it, and then she got Haden’s ball and threw it on the roof and let it roll off, over and over again, just like Papaw had. It was too cute.

That night, we went to Grandonna’s house to stay, and Jacey had one more present to open, from Uncle Bill, Aunt Holly, and the cousins on that side of the family. It was a laptop! And, oh my goodness, you should have heard the screams when we made her stop playing with it so she could go to bed. But, boy, did she sleep well that night! No climbing in bed with Mama on Christmas night. She was one tired little girl.

And that was her first real Christmas, the first Christmas she could anticipate and participate. It was so much fun. It was magical to see Christmas through my two-year-old’s eyes. And Christmas will always be like this now, with her knowing what to expect–it makes me excited already for Christmas next year, with a big three-year-old and a little nine-month-old.

2011, here we come!

Christmas, part 2

Christmas night, Jacey slept on her new princess bed (an air mattress with attached Disney Princess sleeping bag that we had given her when we opened presents at Mimi and Gramps’ on Wednesday) in the guest room at Squeak and Annette’s house, where Dada and I were sleeping in our own individual twin beds. Well, when Jacey woke up crying in the middle of the night, I knew there was no way we were getting her back to sleep on her air mattress with us in the room, so I told her to come get in bed with me. And so I spent most of Christmas Eve night sharing a twin-sized bed with my two children. Wooh.

And then she woke up for good at 5:45. AM. Really, before that, because I had been laying very still and hoping she would go back to sleep for a while before I finally asked Kellen what time it was. Finally, we gave up on getting any more sleep, so we were up before 6 am on Christmas Day. Which makes Kellen happy, but I was the kind of kid who either got woken up by her parents or, later, set alarms to get up! I was never one of those up-before-dawn kids on Christmas. I guess Jacey got her daddy’s genes on this one.

But, of course, we couldn’t leave the bedroom to find out what Santa brought until Nunu, Papaw, and Grandonna came over from Grandonna’s house. So Dada went for milk while I took Jacey potty, and we hung out in our room for a little while until they came over. Thank goodness Nunu was making homemade cinnamon rolls, so she’d planned on coming over early, anyway! While we waited, Dada went out to the living room to get Skype working so maybe Mimi and Gramps could share the morning with us, and Jacey and I sat in the bedroom. She played with the Disney Princess storybook (a felt storyboard book with felt princesses so you can make your own scenes on every page) Aunt Chelle had gotten her, and I videoed her answering the same questions she’d already answered over and over again. “What’s today?” “Meh-meh!” “Who came and left presents last night?” “Deh-deh Dah!” “Where did he leave them?” “Meh-meh dee!” Because the way she said all that stuff is just too cute to not have on video in future years.

And then Nunu and Papaw and Grandonna got there. Squeak and Annette were up; Cousin Andrew and Uncle Jared were waking up on the sectional in the living room. And we got to go see what Santa Claus had left!

Jacey was thrilled to go find the presents from Santa Claus. Until she came around the corner and saw how big an audience she had.

At that, it took some pushing and prodding to get her to come on into the living room and go over and see what Santa actually bought. And then she was confused, because Santa didn’t wrap his presents, and the only presents she knew up to this point had been wrapped.

But she figured it out. She brought me the first present she picked up–maybe a little puzzle that has three pieces to make up an animal (head, body, and feet) and six separate animals so you can trade out the body parts and make it look all silly–and then was done. So it took more prodding to get her to check out the games and the books and the robe and pj’s and shirt and stuff in her stocking.

No big surprise–her favorite part was the books. First off? Curious George, of course!

She plopped down in her chair (once we pointed out that it was, in fact, a chair, and not just a shelf for all these new things to sit on) and we read through her new books while Cousin Haden woke up and found what Santa had brought him–a bike!

And then the new robe went on, and we kept reading the new books.

Okay, LOVE that picture. What a great way to spend Christmas morning.

Santa brought Jacey Dae lots of headbands in her stocking, and guess what? Headbands aren’t just fun for little girls!

And check out how awesomely cool Jacey Dae looked!

What is that, four headbands plus the new sunglasses? Mega awesome.

And I’ll have to blog about the actual present-opening in another post. See? Christmas really was never-ending for us this year!

Christmas, part 1

A “quick” chronicle of our everlasting Christmas this year:

We started on Wednesday with presents at my parents’ house. I have no pictures of that day, except for Jacey opening her big present:

A play kitchen! She had one already, a hand-me-down from Kellen’s cousin, but that one stays at my parents’ house. This one, from Mimi and Gramps, will stay at our house. Jacey wasted no time jumping right into playing with it as soon as it was open.

Little Boy got some clothes and also a video monitor! I’m excited about that. With Jacey, we had an audio one, but when we were sleep training, we so wished we could see her to know if the little noises were because she was awake, or if she was talking in her sleep, and if she was awake, was something wrong or was she just playing?

Even Patch and Shelly had a present, the biggest one under the tree (since the kitchen was too big to fit under the tree!)–a carpet cleaner! I’m thrilled about that one. No more lugging my mom’s back and forth between our houses when my carpets get too gross to look at!

After presents were done, we had a ham dinner together (mmm au gratin potatoes made with real cream instead of milk… I stuffed myself so painfully full…) and then Kellen and Jacey and I headed to Bonham.

Thursday we spent hanging out with the family up there, including Jared and Haden. That night, we opened presents with Granny and Pawpaw.

Friday, which was Christmas Eve, we headed to Little Rock to stay at Kellen’s aunt and uncle’s house and celebrate with them and Grandonna, Kellen’s mom’s mom. Two minivans were packed full of everything two two-year-olds and five adults would need for the weekend, along with presents galore. When we got there, the gifts didn’t fit so much under the tree as all along the wall the tree sat against. There were plenty of packages there! We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner, and I, who don’t usually like bbq, ate a sandwich and a half, because it was just that good.

Later, Nunu, Papaw, Aunt Annette, Cousin Jen, and Jacey (with the help of Kellen and myself) participated in the new Christmas tradition of decorating sugar cookies.

Jacey had a blast. She was just as happy decorating as eating.

She picked the color, and I helped her apply the icing. The sprinkles, of course, she could do all by herself.

When Kellen helped her, though, he was not allowed to touch the knife as she put the icing on the cookie. She had done one with help, thank you very much, and now she was entirely capable of doing it all by herself.

Aren’t they so cute together? Definitely father and daughter. I love how their skin matches.

After decorating three cookies, Jacey finally decided she was ready to try one. But, of course, she was worried about the mess she would make if she touched it, so…

When this proved less than effective, she let me show her how to hold the cookie by the sides.

I think she preferred the icing to the cookie itself.

As it turned out, the cookies, which had been prepared early and frozen before being transported to Little Rock, were broken in lots of little pieces and very brittle and not incredibly tasty, so the decorating was it for the older members of the family. I think Jacey’s was the only cookie that actually got eaten.

After cookies, it was time to get ready for bed–which, of course meant Christmas Eve presents.

Oh, my, what a surprise, pajamas!

As Kellen, Jared, and I opened our pj’s, Jacey got impatient. She knew we had said we would open presents, then get ready for bed, then talk to Mimi and Gramps, then she would go to sleep and Santa Claus would come leave presents, so she was begging for bed. And we were just too slow.

So the pj’s started going on before the clothes even started coming off! (Those are my sock monkey pj’s and slippers from Nunu in the background.)

Once we were ready for bed, we got on Skype with Mimi, Gramps, Aunt Chelle, and Uncle David, Aunt Tami, Tassia, Nick, and Lizzy, who were all together on Christmas Eve. Gramps continued a Christmas tradition begun before I can remember of reading The Night Before Christmas and The Texan Night Before Christmas, although this was the first time he’s ever read it to us online.

Jacey loved having Gramps read her a book, and I was almost in tears at the poignancy of sharing this tradition with my daughter. (PS- check out my awesome pajama pants under my sock monkey night shirt. Pretty, no? The shirt my mom had gotten me for my Christmas Eve pj’s didn’t fit, and the night shirt was too chilly to wear without pants! Kellen’s family laughed at me. But then, so did I.

So that’s Wednesday through Friday. And I’ve got too much to say about Christmas itself for this post, so I’ll add more later!

 

Happy birthday to me

Well, I’m officially old. Until tomorrow.

See, my birthday was Friday. Kellen’s is Monday. Being that he’s a year older than me, I always get to call him old. He tries to claim that I can’t call him old for the three days that we’re the same age, but I have decided that, rather than concede that he’s not old, I’ll just be old for those three days, too.

(Incidentally, I’m 26. Not so old, I know, but he will ALWAYS be older than me!)

My birthday started at midnight. (Of course.) We stayed up past midnight on the 16th–I don’t even remember why anymore, we’ve been so busy lately–so Kellen gave me my birthday present before we went to bed. He got me some very pretty earrings. The next morning, he woke me up with his customary good-morning-good-bye kiss before he goes to work, saying, “Happy birthday!” After that, Jacey chose to sleep in until 9:45, so I got to sleep in until 9:00 and then have some quiet time before she got up! What a nice start to the day. Gramps called around the time Jacey was waking up and offered to bring over breakfast, so I got kolaches for breakfast, too!

Late in the morning, with nothing much to do, I decided we’d make use of the zoo membership Mimi and Gramps bought in October and head to the zoo. So I packed up a lunch, lugged the wagon into the back of the van (that’s fun to do while pregnant, let me tell you), finally got Jacey dressed in her Christmas shirt, Christmas socks, and Christmas bow, and got us into the car. It took forever to get ready for such a big trip all by myself! I didn’t tell her where we were going, either, so it would be a surprise–which meant Jacey had absolutely no urgency about getting ready to go. I was a little stressed by the time we left.

I was shocked at how much traffic was on the roads in the middle of the day. I hate 610.

We eventually made it to the zoo, though, and we had a great time! Just Mama and Jacey. We watched some big antelope-gazelle-like things eat lunch, and Jacey would have stayed there all day, watching the zoo keeper hand-feeding them lettuce and carrots. But what she was most excited about, since they were put away when we were last there, was the giraffes. They were out in force this time, and thank goodness! She showed them to her little stuffed animal, Gerry Giraffe, then promptly got distracted because the giraffes are right next to the carousel.

We rode the carousel, played in the children’s zoo, and got to explore the new African Forest which just opened. It’s very Disney-esque, with a story throughout the new exhibits and hidden creatures to find along the pathway. The chimpanzee exhibit is so big we could hardly see the chimps; they were all at the back behind the trees. They seemed happy, though.

By the time we were done with the African Forest, it was so very far past naptime. So we headed home, and I didn’t mind the traffic so much (even though it was rush hour–bad planning there, Mama!) because Jacey slept through all of it and I got some nice peace and quiet.

When we got home, I was desperate for a bathroom. The baby likes my bladder a little too much! So I had Kellen come out and sit with the still-sleeping Jacey in the van while I literally ran inside. He decided to let her sleep a little longer, so I stayed inside to wrap some presents, and, after a few minutes, heard them come inside. “Can you come here?” he asked. “She’s really sleepy… she’s a little out of it.” Not sure why that meant he needed me, I went to meet them in the entryway….

and ran into Sarah and Ryan, two of our good friends who moved to San Antonio 6 months ago and who we haven’t seen since they left!

I was so surprised. And so excited! I’ve really been missing them, and really wanted to go to SA to see them, but the last few months have been so stinkin’ busy we haven’t been able to go. Oh–this was, by the way, the second time in a week and a half that Kellen completely surprised me. More about that in a later post.

We all headed out to dinner with my parents at Red Lobster, then we went to our friend Natalie’s new house for a game night with our group of friends from church. Nobody but Kellen and my parents knew that Sarah and Ryan were coming into town, so they surprised everyone else, too. We had cake and played Apples to Apples (and even though I said the game wouldn’t be over til the birthday girl won, Sarah trounced all of us) and then headed home. Once Jacey was asleep, the adults stayed up until 2 am talking and catching up. I am far too old and/or pregnant to stay up so late now, but it was so good to talk to old friends again! And at least everybody (even Jacey) slept in the next morning, so we still got some sleep.

And that was my birthday! 26. When I think about the number, I realize how young I am to have two kids (even if one is still inside me) and a house and the life that I have, and I know I’m blessed. I never wanted to live my life differently–never desired a time when I could live in a bustling city or work at a real career or be in a fancy apartment all by myself. I know the choices Kellen and I have made have led us to this point in our lives long before other people get here–this point where our lives belong to our children, and we have very little flexibility because of it, and we never seem to have quite enough money. But I wouldn’t trade this life I have at 26 for any other life. I’m excited for the years to come–but I’m so happy with where I am right now, this year.

And that, I think, makes it happy birthday, indeed.

Finding trees

We took a hay ride back to the Christmas trees.

Jacey Dae and I sat up on the hay while the rest of the family sat on the trailer in front of us. It was really, really cold–until a nice stranger came and sat behind us and blocked the wind! Jacey loved the ride back to the trees, watching birds and looking for trees and seeing the sights of a farm.

Wasn’t the weather beautiful? It was really windy, and really cold, but nice and clear and sunny.

When we got back to the Christmas trees on the back part of the farm, Jacey was definitely intrigued.

While Aunt Chelle looked for a tree, Mimi and Gramps and I spent lots of time running Jacey up and down the aisles of the trees, trying to let me get one shot of her, all by herself, in between a bunch of trees.

It didn’t really work. But I got lots of good action shots of her looking for her grandparents, hair all crazy, or face in shadow, or otherwise crazy.

I had to sneak up on her to get that one!

When Mimi and Gramps finally picked their tree, Aunt Chelle cut most of the way through it, then Dada got down to help her finish it off. And this was very confusing. What on earth are they doing under that tree?!

By the time we were done cutting both trees down, naptime had definitely been skipped. And Jacey was feeling it. So here’s the fabulous, Christmasy family picture we managed:

Sunglasses, shadows, semi-smiles… it’s the best of the lot. Trust me. (Look! It’s another shot where you can tell just how much Jacey’s skin tone matches her daddy’s rather than mine!)

So we took a tired girl back up to the front of the farm to play a little bit more before we picked up the trees to head home. We stopped at the pond for the ducks and geese.

Then we made our way over to the goats. Jacey immediately sat back in her stroller and pulled up the sunshade to protect herself from them, but was still interested. Eventually, she decided to feed them!

But, after the first goat licked her hand, she would reach up as high as she could and toss the food in on the goats hands. To protect her hands from their scary tongues, you see.

She forgot to protect her coat.

By the end of our time with the goats, though, she did voluntarily let one lick her hand! What a brave girl.

We left Dewberry and, of course, Jacey slept on the way home. After a mid-afternoon meal at Red Robin, we went over to the theater for our showing of Tangled. It was really full, so Nunu and Papaw couldn’t sit with the rest of us, and Kellen and I were doing some quick Black Friday weekend shopping at Penny’s across the street so we missed the almost-fight where some guy cussed out a lady who was saving a bunch of seats (seriously? Cussing in a theater before a kid’s movie?!), and Jacey kept begging to go pee pee and then refusing to sit on the potty, so it maybe wasn’t the most relaxing movie I’ve ever been to. But it was still a good little movie, and Jacey loved it, and overall the entire day was a lot of fun.

And now it’s officially the Christmas season! Hooray!

Have a merry one!

I’m goin’ on a tree hunt

(All I remember of that rhyme, which I think maybe my teacher would say a line and then we would repeat, with motions? Is “I’m goin’ on a bear hunt” and then we’d go over and under stuff and take stuff with us. But I don’t remember any more specifics. But I think it was a cute little chant!)

Well, after we went downtown for the tree lighting, we had Thanksgiving. It was nice and big, with 22 people at my grandparents’ house. My aunts and uncles and all the cousins, as well as Kellen’s parents and grandparents. We thought we had too much food, but it turned out to be a pretty reasonable amount! I guess it helps that two of the cousins are high school boys.

Thanksgiving night, Kellen headed up to Conn’s for the Black Friday sales at 6:30 in the evening. The store opened at 5 the next morning. And a cold front came through, and Conn’s is north-facing. He has a very good mama who went with him. I stayed home, in bed, warm.

Then, Friday started out as a bit of a fiasco. Aunt Chelle came out so we could all go see Tangled together. We got to the theater to find out it was sold out. So, as Jacey was getting out of her carseat, we got the call saying it was sold out, and we had to put a very disappointed toddler back into her seat, begging for a “Mu-mu!” which of course means movie. And she wasn’t the only child in the theater crying.

Plans changed. We bought tickets for a later showing of the movie, Nunu and Papaw got in the van with us, and we headed to Dewberry Farm to cut down Mimi and Gramps’ and Aunt Chelle’s Christmas trees. (We’re using a fake one this year since we’ll be out of town for Christmas itself and don’t want to come home to an even-deader, needleless tree to clean up.)

After a quick nap on the way there, Jacey cheered up pretty quickly at the farm!

Meanwhile, the pregnant lady was running around trying to find a bathroom that had the lights turned on, and Aunt Chelle and Mimi were searching for hot chocolate. The shorts of two days before were definitely put away once that Thanksgiving front came through!

Papaw got lots of ideas for his farm, and he got some good playtime in with Jacey Dae, too. (Nunu napped in the car the whole time we were there. The price paid for being a good mother to her son!)

After swinging on the whatchamacallit for a while, we headed over to the big pillow jumper things. I took this picture because oh my goodness, look how big my little girl looks!

She’s starting to get so long and lean. Which will make clothes fit her better, but I’m not sure I’m ready for her to lose her baby body!

Although admission to the farm is free during Christmas tree season, some of the activities still cost a couple of dollars. The hoppers are so worth it.

Doesn’t that face say it all?

The best part was, being that the farm is so much less crowded at this time of year (it was RIDICULOUS when we went for pumpkins), Jacey had the entire pillow to herself most of the time she was on it. She jumped, she ran from one end to the the other, she fell down, she did it all again.

Notice the Christmas bow in her hair? She was wearing her Christmas shirt, too, but it was too cold to take off her jacket so I could get a Christmasy picture of her!

It was so funny watching her jump on these big air-filled pillows. She doesn’t seem to understand how to land; her whole body stays completely stiff.

Look how straight her knees are! No wonder she never gets more than three inches off the ground when she jumps.

When we finally convinced her to get off the pillows, she wanted to head for the play horse right outside the fence. Papaw helped her rope a calf…

over and over and over again.

Mimi and Gramps were her stylists, because she got on the horse straight from the pillow, with no shoes on.

Doesn’t she look like a pampered little model?

Anyway, a girl sure can’t ride a horse without her boots on.

There. That’s better.

After that, we headed out to the Christmas trees, but more about that tomorrow. Too many pictures to post at once!

Meh-meh dee!

I don’t know quite when we realized that Jacey Dae has a huge love of Christmas Trees. I don’t remember when she first saw one, or how it came about, but I do know that, by the time I got an email about the Christmas tree lighting that was happening at the Wortham Center downtown the day before Thanksgiving, I already knew Jacey would love it.

So off we went–Jacey, Mimi, Gramps, and me. Poor Dada was still at work. The lighting was going to be done by the Sugar Plum Fairy, and when we got down there, there were lots of characters from The Nutcracker (including the giant mice) out and about in the lobby, posing for pictures and dancing with kids. Well, of course, my little girl wasn’t having any of that, so we headed for the tree. “Meh-meh dee,” she kept begging, as we drank punch and watched the kids dance.

So we finally got over there and got to take some pictures.

What’s up with her outfit, you ask? Well, I couldn’t put her in her Christmas shirt because she was going to wear that the day after Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to do laundry on Thanksgiving Day, and anyway it was long-sleeved and too warm. So I put her in the blue and white and sparkly shirt, thinking it looked kind of wintry. And then added the red and white skirt, thinking it would work for Christmas and it also looked like a tutu. And then she picked the orange bow, and I figured I’d already made mer outfit so hopelessly non-matched that it didn’t matter. So she definitely looked like a toddler that day!

But what a cute one she was! (Too bad all these pictures with the tree in the background–and I took a whole bunch–aren’t very good because she only smiled before I remembered to turn off the flash so she wouldn’t be too washed out compared to the rest of the scene!)

Finally, after what felt like forever, Santa Claus led out a parade of fairies and mice and toy soldiers. This is what Jacey thought of it.

Even though she points to and names Santa Claus, and knows he’ll bring her presents on Christmas, she’s not a fan of seeing him in person. She gets very timid.

She liked seeing the lights come on the tree, I think, and certainly didn’t take her eyes off the tree (as long as Santa wasn’t around to distract her!), but her favorite part was probably the last few minutes when she and Gramps looked over the balcony at the escalators going down and the floor below.

She would have done that for hours, I think. But eventually we headed out to play outside in the plaza, then grab some lunch and meet Aunt Chelle for dessert at her apartment, then head home to wait for GG and GPa and Nunu and Papaw to get to town.

And thus began the Christmas season, the day before Thanksgiving!

Zoo Boo

A couple of weeks before Halloween, we went to the Houston Zoo for Zoo Boo. Besides the usual zoo stuff (sometimes with a Halloween twist, like that meerkats exhibit), they have trick-or-treat stations set up throughout the zoo, special Halloween shows, pumpkins to decorate, and lots of decorations.

It was a hot day, so Jacey wore her giraffe pants with the hoodie and tunic to be put on only for pictures at the giraffe exhibit. Little did we know, the giraffes have already been moved to their new home in the new African Forest exhibit, which won’t open until December! This was the best we could do, picture-wise:

We could also look through the chain-link fence, through the big window, into the giraffe house, but the giraffes were in the half of the house that was farthest from us. Of course.

It didn’t make for fabulous pictures, but Jacey still like seeing her favorite animals. And everybody walking past loved her costume! “Oh, look at the cute little giraffe!” was said many a time.

One of the best parts was the little “pumpkin patch.” It was just a fenced-off section with tons of itty-bitty pumpkins in it, and they had paint pens for the kids to decorate with. Jacey didn’t want to leave!

Oh, the concentration.

And, oh, the consternation when we finally made her leave. But she was so proud of that little pumpkin!

It’s still floating around the house somewhere, Christmas decorations notwithstanding. Jacey loves to find it and show it to anybody who will look, saying “Daedee buhbuh!” which means, of course, “Jacey’s pumpkin!”

Another favorite was the carousel. And what did she want to ride, you ask?

What a silly question. The giraffe, of course! She didn’t care that it wouldn’t go up and down like the smaller animals. Just look at her face when it started moving! She was too, too excited. And she hugged the giraffe and pouted miserably when the ride was over. Both times.

But, really, what did she have to pout about? I mean, this is the life:

Of course, she preferred to walk through the zoo riding in the wagon AND holding someone’s hand.

Especially if that someone was Mimi.

Although Dada’s shoulders were fun, too!

Of course, this was zoo BOO, not just zoo, and the best part of the day had to be the sweets. There were Dippin’ Dots–with two spoons, thank you very much, because you get more that way!

And, of course, the candy.

Because green drool just makes a girl happy.

She was willing to share, though!

Zoo Boo was so much fun. There are too many activities to do in this time of year–the pumpkin patch at Dewberry Farms, Zoo Boo, church and friends’ activities, closely followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas activities. But it’s all so worth it! Worth the rushing and the dirty house because I don’t have a free weekend and the resultant stress and the no time to blog or do anything else, worth all of that for the memories–and for that little smile. We’ll definitely be booing at the zoo again next year! I highly recommend it.

And now that Halloween is finished, stay tuned for a baby update and Christmasy posts! (Poor Thanksgiving. I’ll try to fit in a mention of the lost holiday between Halloween and Christmas, too!)

Sure, I can go to Bonham by myself…

When I’m still in my first trimester… with a potty-training toddler in tow…

So ‘way back at the beginning of September–it was Labor Day–I took Jacey Dae up to Bonham to see Nunu and Papaw. It was the first week of the new quarter at church, and Kellen was teaching a class, so he didn’t want to miss that first week. He decided to stay home, but Jacey and I hadn’t been to Bonham since Memorial Day, and Aunt Karen (Kellen’s aunt) was going to be in town from Florida, so we decided that I would take the baby up to visit. Both babies, because, of course, the youngest one, while not yet visible, was definitely making his or her presence felt!

Getting up there went pretty well. We stopped at Buc-ee’s to go potty and get snacks, and then I think we made it all the way to the north side of Dallas before we stopped for dinner. There were a lot of movies, and, towards the end, a lot of whining for Nunu, but we finally made it!

Late Friday night, Mr. Jeff and Ms. Cindy, friends of Nunu and Papaw’s from Katy, got there, too.

Saturday, Papaw and Mr. Jeff took off in beautiful weather for an extended motorcycle ride. Ms. Cindy, Nunu, Jacey, and I headed to the nearest town with a Hobby Lobby to do some shopping. And that’s when the trouble started.

I thought Jacey was just tired, and I was certainly tired and not feeling my best thanks to baby number two. A certain little girl whined so much that I was about pulling my hair out, and she got to wear a dress that Nunu wasn’t even sure she was going to buy right out of the store, because she refused to take it off after we tried it on her. And sometimes, when they’re just that tired, it’s just not worth the fight.

Jacey didn’t really nap as long as she should have, and she was overly exhausted by bedtime. Cindy heard her crying as I was sitting out in the living room before my bedtime, so I went back to comfort her. And she was screaming. And crying. And so very upset.

I slowly got her calmed down, then put her back in her bed and went to get her a cup of milk. It calms her down still to suck on something, and I figured her teeth wouldn’t rot right out of her head from one night of going to sleep with milk, right?

And still she woke up right after I came to bed, and I brought her to bed with me, and she slowly calmed down. I noticed she felt warm then, and felt guilty for leaving her to put herself to sleep earlier in the night because maybe she was sick.

Then, laying on her back next to me, right as she calmed down, the crying started again–and then the vomit came. Curdled milk throw-up. All over Jacey Dae, her pajamas, her hair, the bed. Everywhere but me because she was laying with her feet towards me!

I’ve heard so many experienced parents talk about racing for sick kids in the middle of the night because it’s easier to clean up the kid than the mess they make. Well, poor Nunu. She never had a chance. I had to wake her up in the middle of the night to go clean up our bed, and Jacey was far too upset to be held by anybody but Mama.

Of course, that meant that, all night long, I was up with her. Sitting on the couch, watching Nick Jr. on tv, trying to soothe her to sleep despite a very high fever. Surrounded by towels in case she threw up again. (She never did. I think the fever was just so high that it curdled the bedtime milk before she could digest it so it had to come up.)

About two in the morning, Nunu and Papaw made an emergency trip to Walmart for Children’s Tylenol and Motrin, along with some Popsicles Jacey could suck on after the medicine. She enjoyed the taste of the treats, for sure, but she was so hot that they were too cold for her and she’d only get a lick or two before she quit.

Sunday morning, the fever finally dropped long enough for Jacey and me to go to bed–maybe around 6 am? We slept for a few hours while the rest of the family was at church, then woke up as the fever spiked again to take more medicine and watch more Nick Jr. GG, GPa, and Aunt Karen came over for lunch, and then we spent the rest of the day with a pretty miserable, very clingy little girl. And a pregnant mama. Who was tired and sick WITHOUT staying up all night, and hormonal on top of it all.

Later, when everybody had to go to church again–the new youth minister’s housewarming/baby shower was that night, so nobody could stay home with me!–I broke down sobbing, because I was going to be all alone and I felt like I just. couldn’t. do it anymore.

But, of course, I’m a mama, and I had to.

Overnight, after a last dose of Motrin, Jacey’s fever finally broke for good. When I got her up Monday morning, her bed and clothes were soaked through with sweat, which I took as a sign that she had finally sweated the fever out. And she seemed fine all Monday. Well, very clingy and tired, but completely un-sick.

After “lunch,” which, for me, was cheesy potatoes (my favorite of Nunu’s dishes!) pulled half-cooked by the spoonful out of the oven while Jacey whined and demonstrated just how sleepy she was, we headed home.

I was about 20 minutes away when I realized I left the potty behind.

Of course. The one thing I can’t wait until next time to get back.

Eventually, we made it home. It was most definitely not the best trip ever. I was less than proud of the parenting I did in the midst of my combined pregnancy- and sick-child-induced exhaustion.

I am glad we went–I’m glad for every opportunity Jacey has to see her non-Katy grandparents! But I don’t think I could say I’m looking forward to my next solo trip to Bonham.

I’m just not cut out to be a single mama!