A Blog Makeover for 2009!

It's been a busy week with Christmas and New Year's fast approaching. I will post Christmas pictures soon. Just wanted to announce the new blog look.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

19 Months Makes a Difference

The photo company that took John's newborn pictures at the hospital emailed me recently with an advertisement in an attempt to finally get me to buy that picture---19 months later. I'm sure it's part of their ploy to pull at your heart strings to make you purchase that baby picture now that your "baby" is not so tiny and fresh any more. Nostalgia...

I was able to copy it from the site.

Here is little Bun, as we used to call him when he was in utero (and for a bit after too....)

Now, tell me, is this the same child?

I know labor was rough on me but it looks like it did a number on John too. As my mom points out, I did pray for a "juicy" (read: fat and unwrinkled) baby and I sure got one. He's not so juicy anymore (at least in the weight department) but his kisses sure are! Mama loves you, little man.

The Christmas Pageant

John's little school had their Christmas Pageant on Thursday.

We had been notified via letter-in-the-backpack that the oldest class (4 year olds) would put on a short skit of the Christmas story. The toddler class (John's class and also the youngest class) would be performing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" complete with hand motions and everything. So for several weeks we have been preparing John for his big debut, singing the song and doing the hand motions that we guessed were correct. He was prepped and did a great job despite the fact that he refused to wear the adorable star headband. You can see and hear his adamant refusal in the video below where he shakes his head and says "BYE BYE" as the teacher attempts to get it on his head.

Sorry for the shakiness of the video. It was video and camera pandemonium in there. You've never seen so many parents crawling on the floor in the hopes of getting a shot of their little one. It was great!

Candy Cane Lane, Cupcakes, & Carousel Rides

All in a week's work for John.

It's been a busy week. Saturday was especially busy so I'll do a recap:

In the morning we went to our church that was having a kids festival called Candy Cane Lane. Crafts, petting zoo, live Nativity, rides, and ponies. What could be better? John was really excited about the live Nativity scene. He got to pet some animals (albeit a bit too roughly).

He accidentally touched the goat's horns and had a bit of a freak out moment here


Here he is petting and feeding the camel. Wow--try to contain that excitement


Here John and his pal Rusty are gettin' into some trouble. Actually that would just be John who tore down about 3 of those lollipop decorations in as many seconds. Those things are way too shiny and fun to just be sitting there.

John and dad spinning in the teacup ride. Hold on!


Later that Saturday we went to one of our neighborhood friend's birthday party. Twins Dade and Warren live around the corner and they had a slammin' party with a bounce house that John LOVED. And what kind of party would it be without the traditional cupcake face-stuffing picture? Let me tell you...black and dark green icing is fantastic when it comes to diaper changing time.

Later in the week we went to Memorial City Mall to ride the carousel with Rusty. We were trying to cheer our friend up the day before Rusty had his ear tube surgery. John appears to be smiling here but he is actually saying "cheese" which is my new trick to get him to smile since he's become very serious when facing the lens (see angel picture below for exhibit A).

And finally a picture of John doing some serious waffle fry-dipping at Chick-fil-a. This was his first encounter with being able to dip something in sauce and he was really into it. Nevermind the fact his sauce containter was pretty much empty. He thought he was big stuff at least.

The Most Darling Little (Somber) Angel

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them , and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." --Luke 2:8-11

Sheer Terror

That is the only way to describe John's reaction at meeting Santa on Friday. We were in line and watched several of the kids sit with Santa. I kept pointing out Santa and John enthusiastically repeated "anta" with me and pointed at the bearded man. I thought we were on a roll. As our turn came up we approached Santa, waved to him, and John even almost smiled at him for a nano second. I thought we were good. Then as I leaned over to put John on Santa's lap John grabbed me with a death grip, his fingernails clawing and sticking in my shirt like a delirious cat and this is what happened....

Can you hear the scream through the picture? I can. It was pretty awful. I think people in Dallas could hear the scream. Here's the full picture.




But, my, what a professional Santa is...he continues to look as jolly as can be despite the terrified child on his lap.



Here's a look at last year.

huh? where am I? who is this guy?

But Wait! There's More!

This evening my parents came over to help desperate old Kyle and me take out the old microwave from it's built-in cubby and measure the opening so we know what replacement type to buy. As they were leaving Kyle exclaimed that there was actual snow falling from the heavens and ACCUMULATING! This is my parents' car.

This is John's car. Hope he doesn't have trouble starting it up tomorrow.

We even made a lumpy snowman with little raisin buttons and eyes and coffee swizzlers for arms.

Family picture with lil Frosty! (and, yes, that's John flashing the Gig 'Em sign for the first time)

We HAD to take John outside to experience the snow so we bundled him up and I love his expression. It says "What's wrong with you people? It's past my bed time and I'm cold"

And here's some pictures of our little hedges out front, flocked with snow.

And here is some video of us enjoying the snow!

News Flash

I'm in Houston, Texas and it is SNOWING right now!



John and I enjoyed the view from our back door.

The Informer Lacking Social Graces

Yes, that would be John. He is becoming quite proficient with his vocabulary, as I have mentioned previously. He loves reading the holiday catalogs, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Ballard Designs. They all have colorful balls, socks (stockings), cookies, trees, stars, clocks, dogs, chairs, books, etc...that he likes to point out in the pictures. This is fine by me because I can enjoy browsing my catalogs and entertain John all in one shot.

Today we were sitting at the table for dinner and all of the sudden John exclaims "Poop!" and then points at his rear. He kept saying "poop! poop!" as he was doing the dirty deed. This is great because in case my olfactory senses go completely numb I now have an audible and persistent reminder that I need to change a diaper. Apparently no one has told him that Poop is not a dinnertime topic but at least we're becoming a little more self-aware?

On to other news....today we tore it up at the Memorial City Mall play castle. John's favorite activity was walking THE PLANK. Our biggest achievement is that he didn't get trampled by the big kids.

And other news...I've been in my house for over one year (don't judge me) and have finally decided to use the oven self-cleaning feature. Um, I didn't know it would be an all day affair. It took 4 hours to do the self clean (which I started at 9 AM) and at this time (almost 7 PM) the door is still locked and I can tell that the oven has definitely cooled down. If any one knows how to get my oven unlocked I'd appreciate some help. Our microwave also went out yesterday so we've had quite an appliance meltdown here.

John's Weekend Diary: Museums & Parties

We've had quite an eventful weekend so far. We had some friends come visit from out of town. Last night we ate at Pappasitos (yum) and this morning we went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was both fascinating and disgusting at the same time.

There was a plastinated body of a woman 5 months pregnant, sliced open and you could see the fetus inside. That was interesting for me to see since I'm 5 months pregnant. They also had fetuses that were at different stages of development. Very interesting. I know the people are real but it also looks like they're not real at the same time. John behaved pretty well. Give him a Snack Trap with Cheerios and he's a happy camper for a good hour.

We went to a birthday party for John's friend, Luke, this afternoon. John enjoyed the party thing. Ate some food, tried raisins for the first time, and got to go in and out of a Thomas the Train pop-up tent.

A big highlight were the cupcakes: yum! If only veggies were this tasty

The party animals (that's JT on the bottom left)

What is in this train?

Oh, man this is awesome! You can get inside?!

This is cool, mom....REAL cool.

The Coo-kee Monster with Big Feet

So it's dinner time in the Bethancourt home and usually halfway through dinner something will click in John's head and he will decide that it's an appropriate time to ask for dessert, naturally. Half the food is still on his tray but it's cookie time. What's funny is that John asks for a cookie (which is really a Fig Newton) in a very strange high pitched voice. We're not sure why he says it this way but it cracks us up.

It's just funny that we'll be sitting doing something else and all of the sudden he remembers "Coo-kee". The first time he did this was about 2 weeks ago. Kyle and I were in the kitchen cleaning up dishes. John was still in his highchair and he started to say "Coo-kee?!" I looked at Kyle and quietly whispered "Did he just say cookie? What the heck? How does he know what that is?" We both looked at eachother, then at John, and sure enough he kept on demanding "coo-kee! coo-kee!" Now, John doesn't get a cookie when he doesn't finish his main course but on this day he had finished his plate and deserved a cookie after mom and dad kept torturing him pretending to not know what he was asking!

And this is just a silly picture of John wearing my boots. He loves putting them on and trying to walk but he can't quite move in them so he just falls down.

Mesmerized by Christmas

Yesterday I put a big ribbon and some ornaments on the Christmas tree while John was taking a nap. When he woke up and turned the corner from the hallway he stood there mesmerized by the tree and twinkling lights. It was really cute and I wish I had a video of his reaction because it's one of those things I want to always remember. He started pointing at it and saying "oh! oh! oh!" so I took him up close to inspect it.

He's been pretty good so far. He hasn't yanked the 9-footer down on top of himself. He has yanked on a few ornaments though so we've had to move them higher up. This morning Kyle showed him all the ornaments and described them and John got to touch them. I think he truly appreciated that. And he REALLY wanted to touch the star on top. After Kyle put it on last night John kept saying "tah? tah? tah?" (star) over and over and pointing to the top of the tree.

Here is some video of John tonight. He was obsessed with finding the perfect spot for the Santa ornament Granny gave him. He moved it about 15 times.


And this is video of why I couldn't decorate the tree with John around. He loves the ladder and can climb to the top in about 30 seconds which is kind of scary.

The Day After

Today I woke up early. Since I was awake and had coupons for Joann Fabrics (of all places?) I went there at 8 AM and got some fabrics to make things for little Biscuit. I decided to forgo all the big stores. As I was headed to Joann's Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Eve Sarejevo was playing and I had to call my mom and say "It's Christmas!!!" I think I woke her up? But I was so excited! I love love love Christmas and all the memories and smells and sights. It's just my favorite time of year. If only the weather would cooperate with me and not act like it's summer I'd be in absolute heaven.

Granny and Papaw came by after lunch. Papaw, Clifton, & Kyle dug trenches in the back yard to add more lines to our sprinkler system. Granny, John, and I stayed inside listening to Christmas music, trimming the tree, and setting out my few little decorations.

Granny brought John an ornament. An Aggie Santa with aTm written on it. Here they are hanging it up together.

After hanging that ornament, John had a suggestion for a tree theme...

Hmm...not exactly the theme I was going for but I appreciate the help, little man.

Thanksgiving Recap

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. We had 16 people at our home yesterday to celebrate. It was a packed house, for sure! I've never hosted Thanksgiving so that was a new experience. We were about an hour late starting but I suppose that's forgivable for first-timer hosts. We ate closer to 2:30 instead of 1.

Kyle fried a turkey (yummers...if you've never had a fried turkey you can't die just yet). My contribution was a pumpkin spice cheesecake, cornbread stuffing, and mashed potatoes. I went to my mom's the night before (she was storing the turkey) to give the bird his spicy injection. When I arrived she declared that she spared me the horror of cleaning out the innards. Thanks mom. Glad I didn't have to see that. I have to psyche myself up to deal with raw chicken breasts and rotisserie chickens so no telling what would have happened to me when faced with a 12 pound gizzardy turk. egh!

I'm thankful that everything went smoothly and we were able to be around our loved ones. We sure missed the ones that weren't there! Kyle and I were reminiscing about how we spent 2 Thanksgivings ago in Philadelphia alone eating take-out pizza from the restaurant across from our apartment building. This year definitely made up for that.

John was the star of the party too. He even skipped his afternoon nap with all the excitement and drank in all the attention he received from his adoring fans.

Now----bring on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

The Big 1-8

Yesterday was John's 18 month birthday. Today we went to the doctor for his check up. He is doing great. He weighs 24 lbs and is 32" tall! He needed to get a few shots today and when the nurse came in she said that she thought 18 months was the worst for shots because the kids are so aware of what's happening and sure enough John was very wary of the nurse and her tray o' needles. I had to hold him down and he cried but what was so pathetic was the aftermath. He kept saying "boo-boo...bay-bee...boo-boo...bay-bee!" and pointing to his leg where he had the "boo-boo". Yes, he was the baby with the boo-boo. And he knew it. How sad.

I had to capture this moment on camera of him literally fleeing the doctor's office for the elevator in a full-on sprint.

Uh, where's that lady with the needle? Quick! Where's the nearest potted plant I can hide behind?

C'mon elevator.....open up....I'm almost home free!

Moving along, here are some notable things about John at 18 months:

He loves to climb things and has become very brave at throwing himself onto the couch just for the adrenaline rush.

He is a big helper and usually tries to help Kyle and I carry/move/pick up something if we ask (and sometimes when he doesn't want to do what we ask he runs away as fast as his little legs will carry him, especially behind the couch where he thinks mom and her big belly can't reach him)

He loves trying to repeat anything we say. Some of the cute words he says are "peesh", "coo-keeee" (cookie--this is said in a very high-pitched voice for some reason??), "hep" (help), "ah may!" (oh, man), "ah-kay-eee" (OK--apparently this is a popular word at our house??), "sha" (share)

He's gives kisses much more freely when asked and it is THE dearest most precious thing ever when he leans his little pure baby face in close to give you a kiss. I could (and do) melt into a puddle every time.

He loves grapes, yo-yo (yogurt), fig newtons, being outside, playing silly games with daddy, doing anything with daddy, reading books, stacking things, watching the garbage truck pass by, dancing to a funky tune....and much more

With tomorrow being Thanksgiving I am just so thankful for my wonderful family and especially my husband and this delightful little boy named John Thomas. I can't believe only 2 Thanksgivings ago he was a mere dream of a person with only 3 months of cook time in my belly. And now what a fun little guy he has turned out to be! I love you, Poochie :)