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 :)

Crafty Kinda Lady

Ok, just a quick post here before we head into the Thanksgiving holiday week.

My latest craft obsession is my sewing machine. I've sewn just about anything I can think of: curtains for my house, random pillows, diaper/wipes holders for friends with babies, a shower curtain for my mom, and my latest crazy idea is making a crib bumper, skirt, & valance for the SHE.

Over the past week I have sacrificed life & limb (not really but my back has suffered terribly)and I just finished up one of the pieces and temporarily stuffed it because I couldn't stand to wait to see it any longer. I am so tickled that I have to show it off. I have never made anything like this before so this is blogworthy news for me.

Behold 1 half-stuffed piece of a crib bumper!

Check out this welting, man. Debbie (my mother-in-law) talked me through how to cover the welting cord with fabric over the phone. Now that's patience! (thanks, Debbie!) Until we finally discovered some visuals on google to help me.

And, yes, it's reversible!

OK, that's enough bragging about my crib bumper. I just get so excited about crafty homemade things that I could run circles in my driveway and scream but this is a better outlet I think.

John the Communicator

Editor's Note: Well apparently my brain is disconnected. I just noticed I stopped and published my post mid-sentence. It is complete now.

Ok, as promised I will share about John. As he approaches his 18 month mark he is starting to be quite a loquacious fellow and he loves to mimic anything you say. Its lovely and scary at the same time.

I'm trying to teach him about sharing and we practice this most mornings at breakfast. After cereal Mommy and John share yogurt. Mommy's turn (mommy holds the yogurt and eats a spoonful). John's turn (John holds the yogurt and eats a spoonful). I hear a lot of "Nooo! Nooo!" but we press on. After breakfast the other day I was cleaning up and John was playing with toys and all of the sudden he comes running up to me with two trucks yelling "Sha! Sha! Sha!" It took me a moment to realize he was saying "share" and he gave me the trucks. I made a BIG deal about this and said thank you over and over but we regressed at the Children's Museum yesterday when John refused to share anything with Baby Luke. Thankfully 4 month old Baby Luke was very forgiving. Baby steps.

The other day I was holding him and I dropped something and said "OH MAN!" And all of the sudden I hear my little guy exclaim "ah may!"

One of the cutest things he says is please. He always says it like he's asking a question though so it sounds like "peesh?" We've also been working on thank you and today I was at Target holding my coupon book. He looked at me and said "peesh?" so I gave it to him and he automatically, unprompted said "da dow" (which is thank you). That was a first because I normally have to nudge him to say thank you but he did it on his own. I was pretty amazed at this.

We've also been practicing saying hello to strangers in public. For the past few weeks anytime we'd see a new person John would violently shake his head while waving them away and saying "NO!". So whenever I started unbuckling him from his car seat and we were about to enter a public place I would say "John let's say Hello to people. Hello, how are you? Hello! My name is John!" Well, we were at the mall the other day and as we entered every store he said hello REPEATEDLY to everyone and anyone that would possibly listen to him. It was a great departure from the "No! No!" and looks of terror he was giving everyone before. Now we're the other extreme....forcefully polite....if that's possible??

So, all these little things are so fun to witness as he gets older. I just can't believe that a month ago he maybe had 5 words and now words seems to be exploding from everywhere. I had to write down these little instances so I could remember our first weeks of communication.

Odds and Ends

It's been a while folks. We've been busy and I'm not sure with what but I'll give you a quick run-down of the past few weeks. BEWARE: This is a long random post!

Debbie visited us about 2 weeks ago and here are some pics of John helping Debbie edge a quilt for his cousin Nathan.

He's very domestic....and helpful. John insisted on helping take Mamaw's luggage out to the car when she left for the airport.

Last Thursday Emily and I headed to the Nutcracker Market. I'm a HUGE fan of the NM. It's a once-a-year craft/Christmas/home decor bonanza held in the Reliant Center and I am always so excited to go. I think Emily thought I was crazy when I told her I was there last year for almost 6 hours (and that was with my mom and carrying John in a baby carrier since no strollers are allowed). Well, we ended up being there for almost 7 hours this year. Yep, I'm hard core when it comes to the Nutcracker Market. I'll let you read about it on her blog. There's a picture of us carrying our loot. Let's just say that hauling the teepees out to the car was no picnic. One of my favorite things I got was for Princess B: A little dress and 2 hair bows....
...yeah, I couldn't resist this piece of adorable. And the hair bows....the teeny BOWS! But that was all. I thought I restrained myself pretty well considering the cute factor at the NM was off the charts!

Last Saturday John and Kyle went to Buffalo Grille for a "guys breakfast" with one of Kyle's friends and his 6 month old son. When they returned I asked John what he ate and it was reported that he ate French Toast and loved it (who wouldn't love sugared up sweet bread?). Then John proceeded to show me his enormous stuffed belly.

On Monday we went to the zoo with Marshall and Logan. This was our inaugural visit and I think John liked it. We saw fish, monkeys, lions, tigers, birds, goats and more.

Here we are hanging with the monkeys.

John is mesmerized watching the lion and lioness take a lazy nap

As is his temperment, John was fairly apprehensive about this petting-zoo-goat-thing at first....

then he got this crazy sly look on his face....

and asked for a brush so he could beat up the poor goat

After washing our hands VERY well (the goats were disgusting, man) we went to the playground to hang with Logan

I have more to post about how fun John is these days and all the words he is saying but this is already too long....until next time....

Good News for a Rowdy Brother

We went to the doctor yesterday and are happy to report that we will soon be celebrating the arrival of Little Princess B....it's a girl!!!! The seventh grandchild on the Bethancourt side and the first girl on either side of the family!

Here is the head and face on the left. There's a little circle by the cheek that is her fist. Not sure what the blob is on the right. She was in a weird position so they kept poking me. We never saw a good profile shot.

Here's a foot



Here's a hand. The thumb is on the far right.

Everything looks healthy and normal so far. Please continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy....

So I was excited to blog about this yesterday but John had an uncharacteristically rowdy day. I'm wondering if they gave him sugar at MDO yesterday? I have to preface the story by saying that my dear child is so cautious and careful. He likes to do things slowly, correctly, and without a lot of interference from other people or children in his "personal bubble". Which is why it probably took him almost 15 months to walk....if he was going to do it was going to be done well and correctly! So I've never had to worry about him taking too much risk....until yesterday that is.....

Incident #1: We were playing on his swing/climbing toy and he started dangling himself by his arms through one of the holes which is very uncharacteristic of him. He gets nervous when he's too "free". But not yesterday.

Incident #2: Then we moved on to his rocking elephant which he was riding so vigorously that his momentum flipped him over the top of the rocker and he smashed face first onto the driveway. He scratched up his forehead and little nose. It looks really worse than it is.

Incident #3: Then we came inside because it started to rain. We were reading a book and John thought it was funny to keep jumping across my lap digging his elbows into my tummy. No. Not fun.

Incident #4: Then after sitting on the couch for about 2 seconds he figured out he could fling his body against the pillows so he would bounce back. I made a one-handed mommy rescue as he fell backwards onto the floor, narrowly missing the edge of the coffee table.

This all happened within an hour so I was really exhausted by having to watch him like a hawk.

Incident #5: Then in the kitchen he decided to start violently snatching the dish towels from the oven rail where I always keep them. He was having fun so I let him do it even though it was annoying me. I turned my back and all of the sudden I heard him crying. He had pulled the dish towel so hard, flung backwards, and somehow got his head wedged in the toe-kick under the kitchen island.

Oh my, I was really ready for Kyle to be home at this point. The child was officially "Bonkers" yesterday. And now I'm enjoying the sweet sound of silence as he naps. Hopefully this evening will be less "dramatic"......

John's Aggie Adventure

Saturday John went to the Aggie game with Kyle and Debbie. Apparently he did great and enjoyed clapping when the crowd clapped and listening to the Aggie Band. I stayed behind and enjoyed a FREE DAY. I just didn't even know what to do with myself. Thanks to Kyle and Debbie for letting me have a little break!

I was told that Kyle made John walk up the ramp all the way to the seats. John's superhuman feat was fueled by a trusty chocolate chip cookie in hand that he had snagged from the tailgate party earlier.

I like this serious shot because it looks like he's disgusted by watching a big play go wrong...and you can see his fancy earplugs

Everyone finally made it back home around 9 PM and the little one was exhausted but he selpt like a brick. I enjoyed my day off but it sure was quiet around here without my little sidekick. I missed him a lot!

The past few days I have been MIA. And for good reason. I've been buried in an organizing avalanche and our home has looked like a disaster zone (more so than usual considering John's toys are usually spread all over the place).

It all started with my desire to clean out my closet--store my summer clothes in bins and bring out the winter clothes and remove clothing that is undesirable and/or unfitting. Once I started that project my organizing spread to the whole house including all closets, the office cabinets & filing, the utility room, and even the pantry.
The main issue is that the guest room will soon be John's new room and Baby Biscuit will occupy John's old room. So I had to redistribute all the random items that had piled up in our guest bedroom closet. I spent almost 4 entire days organizing and Kyle has graciously put up with a crazy looking house, a wife with serious back issues that have gotten worse with all the activity I have created for myself, and the purchasing of multiple plastic bins. If you've been to Target and can't find plastic bins it's because they are all at my house.

Tagged - Let's Be Random

Ok, so I was "tagged" twice this week by two different friends (Monica & Shannon) so, under duress, I will finally post a list of random things about myself:

#1 I took about 4 years of piano starting when I was about 6 or 7. Then I decided I hated practicing and left it by the wayside. After watching Gordeeva & Grinkov skate to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata at the 1993 Olympics I decided I wanted to learn how to play that song. That summer I was so bored out of my mind (not old enough to work or drive) that I decided to teach myself the piece. I don't do well playing and reading music simultaneously so I taught it to myself through repetition where I could play it for memory. It took many days and hours to get the piece down but I did it and the song is still one of my favorite classical pieces.

#2 I have something my husband calls "The Crash and Burn Syndrome". I am famous for having so many hobbies that I don't know what to do with myself. However, when I decide to take up something I get so focused that it consumes every minute of my spare time (See random fact #1, jewelry-making, scrapbooking -- which I have sworn off forever at this point, photography, sewing, web-design, and any art project I take on). And then after days, weeks, or even months straight of obsession and laser-like focus I leave the hobby for months or years. But I usually come back to it eventually.

#3 I CAN NOT stand finger licking. There's really not much else to say about that but it grosses me out terribly.

#4 I am probably one of the only people in the world who is is silly enough to have gotten trapped in a subway turnstile. I'll spare you the details in this post but you can go here for the full story.

#5 I don't know if this is really a random fact because most people know it but Nutella is so loved and cherished by me that it is hardly allowed to darken the door of my pantry but for special occasions because I have been known to eat frighteningly large quantities of the substance. I secretly suspect that in August my mother-in-law was attempting to be rid of me by means of Nutella overdose. How? By storing a COSTCO-SIZED jar of it in her house?! Thankfully I was in the early stages of my pregnancy and the stuff didn't really appeal to me....and I survived.

#6 I won the 1st grade spelling bee at the ripe age of six with the word "ENCYCLOPEDIA". I am still an excellent speller which is one reason why my husband married me becuase, let's be frank, he stinks at spelling.

#7 I have taken a ride in a basket, suspended by a thin cable, over a ravine in the Ecuadorian jungle; I have climbed up to the snowy edge (14,000 feet) of the Cotopaxi volcano in the Andes mountains; and I have intertubed down river rapids in Mindo with a mute guide.