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!

Making memories

And now, back to the previously-schedule programming of catching up on pre-Christmas posts.

I have been making a conscious effort, ever since I really started to feel pregnant, to make some mommy-and-me memories with Jacey Dae. She’s only going to be an only child this once in her life, and she has no idea, poor baby, of how her life is about to change. Even though she probably won’t remember, when she’s all grown up, that there was a time that she and mommy went to the donut shop for breakfast in their pj’s one time when she was two, I will. I’ll tell her. And I’m hoping that it’ll make her feel really loved in days to come when mommy is always busy with someone new.

So the two of us have gone out for breakfast in our pj’s, and I’ve taken her to one-on-one lunches at Chick-fil-A (WAY easier to do in the summer, when preschool and Ladies Bible Class don’t meet), and we’ve gone on impromptu walks with her baby dolls in a stroller.

(That was on January 5. Apparently, spring has sprung nice and early this year. And, yes, she picked out her own outfit.)

The biggest thing I’ve yet done with just the two of us was my birthday trip to the zoo. I already mentioned this in my birthday post, but here are a few pictures and more details…

The first thing we saw when we got there was a zookeeper feeding some big antelope-like things. Elund? Is that animal? Something like that. Anyway, Jacey was fascinated.

They ate carrots and lettuce and leaves, and it was just hilarious that they ate leaves. And dropped them all over the floor and made a mess, but there was no Patch and Shelly to clean up after them. It’s amazing to me how Jacey’s starting to have real conversations with us!

We got to watch the daddies eat, then the mamas and babies (who were being kept apart for some reason but I can’t remember why), and when they were done she started begging for the giraffes.

So off we went.

We had brought Gerry Giraffe with us, and she showed him the big giraffes. Then, of course, got distracted by the carousel, and the giraffes lost all power over her as she decided she’d much rather go ride the carousel.

We settled down on a quilt in the grass within sight of both the giraffes and the carousel and shared our picnic lunch, and then I let her ride the carousel one time. After that, she insisted on pulling the wagon herself, and what fun that was!

She did not appreciate when I helped her push or pull the wagon over inclines and bridges, but she pulled the wagon around the corner to the children’s zoo all by herself. We looked at the farm animals and she played on the playground there for a good long time, and then I insisted on going through the new African forest exhibit before we went home. Which, okay, wasn’t the best of memories because by this point we’d missed naptime by a long shot, and Jacey was begging to go home every moment that we weren’t actually viewing an animal, but we still made it through the new exhibit before we made our way to the very front of the property and headed home.

Despite all the traffic and the lack of a nap, we had a good time. It’s definitely a memory I’ll keep for a long time, and I plan to do it at least once more before the baby comes. Then, whether or not I can manage a mommy-only trip to the zoo after I have two kids to watch out for… well, we’ll see.

Until then, I have these memories of being a mother to an only child. And they are good.

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.

Too soon for Vegas?

At HEB they have a cool little thing for kids. At check-out, the cashier will give you HEB Buddy Bucks, which is sort of like HEB Monopoly money, and you take it over to this machine and feed it in and push a button to stop a spinner which determines how many points you get. You save all the points on stickers, and eventually you get enough points to “buy” one of several prizes per quarter. This quarter, you can get a snack cup for 75 points, or a ruler-pencil combo for more, or a pack of retractable crayons for 200 points, or the send-off prize of a lunchbox for way more points.

Jacey, of course, doesn’t understand the point of this at all, but she likes to feed the Bucks into the machine and smash the big button and watch the spinner go around and around. She’s done this twice now. Twice. That’s all.

We did it once a couple of months ago, and she got 20 points! The second most you can get at once! (It’s usually more like 1 or 2 points.) Beginners luck, I thought.

Today, the cashier heard her begging me to go play the game, so he was nice and gave us three whole Buddy Bucks. On her first spin, she got 2 points. On her second spin, she got 1 point. This is more like what I expected, I thought.

And then, that third time, she got an instant win! So we got to take the little sticker over to the service desk and pick one of the three smallest prizes to take home with us immediately. Of course, she picked the crayons. (Of course, she dumped them all out in the van on the way home. When I was hungry and getting pregnant-lady mean and having trouble controlling myself. Of course. Ah, the lessons in self control that pregnancy while parenting a toddler brings…)

So what do you think? In 4 tries, she amassed the equivalent of 223 points. Should we take her to Vegas? Never mind that we don’t gamble… and that she’s a little young… just look at that luck!

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!

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!)

Paper faces on parade

I figured it’s so far past Halloween that I wouldn’t even bother blogging about it, and then Kellen got the pictures off the camera and some of them are just too cute to pass up and anyway I know I’ll enjoy looking back later at this, my personal little journal about our life, and see what we did for Jacey’s third Halloween. So here we go, fast forwarded from what I would’ve written a month ago…

First of all, Jacey Dae had to make her costume.

She LOVED sewing with Mimi. And then they had to make the tail, too.

And the stuffing was mistaken for cotton candy. I don’t think it was too yummy, but she kept trying, hoping it would get better. It never did.

———-

And then, in between costume-making, we went to Dewberry Farms for the pumpkin patch. Gramps was out of town that weekend, but Mimi came along. Jacey Dae, of course, had a blast.

She had trouble finding one she could pick up, since most of the pumpkins in the patch were the big jack-o-lantern pumpkins shipped in from some other state.

She was so excited every time she found a little one! She loved showing them off, and she’d tote one little one around until she found the next one.

At the end of the day, Mama, Dada, Jacey, and the baby in Mama’s belly had pumpkins–the little green one turned out to be Jacey’s. We’ll definitely be going back next year to get more pumpkins. It was hot and crowded, but it was still a good day!

———-

Even more fun than wearing her giraffe costume? Wearing the hoop skirt to Mama’s Renaissance costume.

Maybe a little bit big for a two-year-old.

———-

The first opportunity to wear her costume out and about was to the Fall Festival at church. It was busy and overwhelming, and Jacey didn’t really understand the games and got really shy around all the people. She loved the bounce house, though, and her favorite part turned out to be sitting in the back of Mimi and Gramps’ Jeep at the Candy Car Hop yelling, “Kids! C’mon!” (in Jaceyspeak, of course) and waving her arm toward the Jeep until someone showed up, then giving them a double handful of candy. Didn’t so much care for the trick-or-treating herself, but loved giving the treats out. It points toward good character, I think. I know she’ll love the whole Fellowship next year, when she’s a little bit more used to unusual situations.

Either way, she was the cutest little giraffe there!

(This was the end of the night. She was really hot, but wouldn’t let us take off her costume! And, by the way, that green belly in the background is Baby Boy K! My belly has really started to pop out more than that lately, though.)

———-

The next day, we went to the zoo for Zoo Boo. But that’s going to get a whole post to itself because it was just too much fun.

In the week right before Thanksgiving, we had our costume party at preschool.

I think she had fun!

———-

And, of course, there was also Halloween itself. We went trick-or-treating with some friends, hoping Jacey Dae would see how much fun the bigger kids were having and join in, but…

She ended up in a wagon, and her friend Carter joined her pretty quickly.

They were too cute. Later, Carter’s little sister Emery wanted to be carried by her mama, and then Jacey wanted in Emery’s stroller. After just a little time in the stroller, she decided she was all done. She picked a sucker–her favorite kind of candy–out of her basket, gave me the rest, and was no longer interested in being pushed up to the doors for her candy.

Meanwhile, Emery was thrilled to get in the big kid wagon!

Finally, at the end of the night, all the kids settled down around the table to check out their loot, and Jacey was right there with them.

I think she had a good time, but she’s just not one for new situations. Maybe next year she’ll walk and maybe even say “Trick of treat!”

At least her costume was a hit!

The giggles

Two nights ago, at bedtime, as, as a family, we said our prayer, Jacey Dae yawned. Being that she was sitting in my lap and I had my head bowed low, her mouth was right next to my ear, and her lips closed gently on the top of my ear. That tickled. So I laughed.

And then she giggled, that adorable little two-year-old giggle she has when she’s really tickled about something.

Which made me laugh more. My laugh, of course, was a more grown-up, not-so-cute, almost-soundless intake and outtake of air. But, since she was still sitting in my lap, she felt and heard it all, so she giggled more.

Poor Kellen paused in his prayer, then continued. But it was too late. We had the giggles, and there was no stopping us. So the prayer ended prematurely, because we certainly don’t want to teach a toddler that it’s okay to laugh through a prayer! And we exploded with laughter and explained to Dada that she tickled me with a yawn and I just had the giggles.

The next night, which was last night, then, I said, “Okay, who do you want to pray for?” And the giggles started again, and Jacey opened her mouth wide and aimed for my ear. Too funny! But I held the giggles at bay and kept her still and quiet for the prayer, and then I let her “get” my ear. And then she got Dada’s ear. And we both got her ears. And we all giggled.

What a strange bedtime routine–eating each other’s ears! But I must say, it is nice to go to bedtime, which is usually just sweet and sleepy, with a little bit of raucous giggling, too.

**Stay tuned for the news on whether to think pink or blue! The appointment is today at 4!**

Birthday party, part 4

And, finally, finally, finally, when everybody was done with cupcakes, we let them run free. Finally. You would have thought we’d made them wait a lifetime.

Mamas helped the little bitty ones, and I think everybody had a good time.

It took Jacey a while to jump in with the other kiddos, but eventually she dove in.

Of course, the boys had to be boys…

And they went right to baseball after they had gotten cooled down in the water. And I assume that that is what led to this:

Poor little Tyler! He calmed down pretty quickly, though, and rejoined the kids to have more fun.

Meantime, a big cousin was helping Jacey Dae learn what big kids do with water toys!

And just look at little Travis’s smile. I think he was enjoying himself!

Here’s what Alyssa was trying to teach Jacey:

And still the boys entertained themselves.

Outside time was definitely a hit!

Slowly, as kids tired out, all the guests trickled away until all that was left was Nunu and Papaw and Kellen’s uncle, Bill (real name David but the family calls him Bill), and his three kiddos. It was nice to have some time with this branch of the family that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we should, given how close we live.

The boys loved Jacey’s rocking horse–Cocoa, made by my Grandaddy when I was little–and rode him non-stop. Then we were treated to a show while one of them sang us songs at the top of his lungs until his face turned red and his neck stood out in cords. There were songs about superheroes and cowboys and I don’t even remember what all.

We were all cracking up, and Cade or Carson (I still can’t tell them apart!) was thrilled at the attention. Kellen got video of him showing off for us, and the boys loved watching it afterwards.

Aren’t the cousins cute together?

Finally, even Bill and the kids had to head home, and the party was over. I think I maybe helped put Jacey to bed–maybe–and was asleep before Lee Ann and Kellen were done cleaning up. Hosting a massive birthday party for a two-year-old is tough when you’re  in your first trimester!

But it was a wonderful party. Everybody from the grandparents on down to the babies seemed to have a good time, and I know for sure the birthday girl had a fabulous time.

Although I have to say I’m glad we don’t have to do it again for a whole year. But then–after that–we’ll have another one and be doing these twice a year! Yikes. Scary thought.

Oh, well. Happy birthday, baby girl! I’m glad you loved your party.