Dinosaurs

So, for today, Vic and Grace stayed home from church and Atticus and I attended Sunday School, Church, the Annual Meeting and then our LIFERs lunch with other families from our church. Because of such a long day and knowing Grace doesn't last that long, we decided she and Vic would take a father daughter at home day instead.

On the way to and from church, Atticus and I, per his request, talked about all extinct and endangered animals and then what our favorite dinosaurs were. Then, in opening worship before Sunday School, as everyone sang "The Battle of Jericho", Atticus made up his own song that went along the lines of "the big woolly mammoth killed the saber toothed tiger lalalalalal". Then, as our little toddler class walked around outside to find things that God made, Atticus was sure to share random thoughts about "endangered species" with the other teacher.

Once we got home, he immediately went to the playroom to start setting up his dinosaurs. We decided to let him skip his nap since he was playing so quietly. He did come ask me occasionally what dinosaur family a particular dinosaur belonged to because he said he was setting them up with their families. At one point, he comes through the kitchen with his airplane full of dinosaurs and they landed on a table in the living room. At that point he re-set them up in their families in that room. When he was done, he made both Vic and I close our eyes and he led us to the table and told us to open them so we could see his setup. He told us all the families. First, I should tell you that he really is learning the types of dinosaurs, but I mean really and truly - those are hard words to say and hard to remember unlike all of his "regli-ur" animals he knows so well. So, when we asked him which was which, he pointed out each family and these are the answers we got:

Stegosauruses
Tall-e-osauruses (the tall ones)
Humply-osauruses (the ones with humps such as the brontosauruses)
Horn-e-osaurusus (the ones with horns on their heads)
Triceratops
Ankylosauruses.
Flying Lizard Sauruses (the flying dinosaurs)
Tigerosaurus (a T-Rex that happened to be colored like a tiger)

And then he picked up the T-Rex to make it eat one of the dinosaurs and told me that dinosaur really liked to eat meat and blood. Nice.

He played with them awhile longer moving them around and lining them up and having them attach one another occasionally.

He loves animals. Regli-ur Ones. Endangered Ones. Uh-stinct ones. And now Dinosaurs. Oh and do you want to know why regli-ur animals are uh-stinct? It's because the Indians killed them all. And do you want to know why all of the dinosaurs are dead? It's because a big rock hit the earth and the earth changed. And do you want to know his favorite dinosaurs? Well, today it is the brachiosaurus, ankylosaurus, and the stegosaurus. And do you know why I know all of these answers? It is because Atticus told me. Smart little guy, huh?

 

 

A Dromedary Christmas, our Christmas Program, and a sick baby

So, the best memory I will have of this year's Christmas, for Atticus, is that it was all about dromedary's. Back in September, GG came in to keep the kids while Vic and I attended Katie and Kristofer's wedding. She brought him a book called Animal Parade and it has lots of animals. That weekend, the two of them spent lots of time on her iPad looking up the new animals such as tapirs, okapis and dromedary's. From that weekend, Atticus took away certain facts about them including a big one teaching us that a dromedary was a camel with one hump. Since that moment, he was very interested in dromedary's and if he saw a book with one or a picture of one, he would tell us immediately that it was a dromedary or better yet, that it was NOT a dromedary and was just a camel because it had two humps.

So, when Christmas started getting close and we started asking him what he wanted for Christmas, he would say a couple of random things such as wanting a toy computer (first time we'd ever heard of that one!) or new animals or new books. But, he still didn't quite have down the "making a list" part of Santa and Christmas understood. Then, he decided when he saw Santa in Santa's Wonderland that he wanted to ask for a dromedary. From that moment on, that was ALL he wanted. Our friends would hear that or people at church would hear that and ask him about this. They would ask him if he wanted a real dromedary and he would clearly state that he only wanted a toy dromedary (thank goodness!).

And it was always necessary to explain to most people what a dromedary was, when he was asked what he was asking Santa for. But, I couldn't help but love hearing him talk about dromedary's and if Santa would bring him one especially as December progressed and his understanding of Santa coming down the chimney and making toys at the north pole was understood. In fact, I loved this picture below of the list his teacher helped him fill out at school for what he wanted for Christmas. I was ecstatic that he stuck with what he wanted because I know he is shy at school and I know he could have just said what another kid said. And, I love that she didn't really know what this was either. I also think she made him explain it to him on the last question since she included "one hump" on the list.

It was a bonus to see dromedary's or even camels in all of the Christmas stories of Jesus being born. And of course, all of our nativities had dromedary's in them for him to play with.

And to top it all off, when we started preparing in Sunday School for our annual Christmas Program, that Atticus was going to be in for the first time, we realized there was a costume for a camel, or dromedary, as Atticus would tell us. At first, it was chosen by someone else, and for 2 Sundays in a row, I had to remind Atticus, who would tell me over and over he wanted to be a dromedary in the "Chwimpus pwogwam" that he could be a cow or sheep and how important those animals were. Then, on the Sunday of trying on costumes, the first girl changed her mind. We put the costume on Atticus and it fit perfectly. He was SO excited to be a dromedary and didn't even wince at putting on the camel head hat, which I expected him to not want to wear.

So, for our Christmas Program, we had a superhero themed program to go along with our superhero themed Sunday School year. The kids practiced songs each week for about 4 weeks and we practiced the hand motions and words at home with Atticus for Away in a Manger, Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem and Go Tell it on the Mountain. The biggest practice day was the day before from 9-11am where they all ran through the program together and the big kids ran through lines over and over. I learned my lesson this year that we had entirely too much practice for Atticus for the program. He was ok with the Sunday School practice times, but next year, I will just let him skip the Saturday practice. It was too much and as I'll tell you soon, it must have made it less fun for him because he was not his little self during the actual program and ended up crabby and whiney. I was sad for him but sad for those of us who had been so excited to see him in his costume and sings songs!!

So, first of all we had a really busy Saturday with the program practice followed by lunch and cupcakes for Jesus' birthday and then we went Christmas caroling with members of our church to some of our homebound members. GG had come into town for the weekend so she was home and Vic and Grace had planned to go run some shopping errands. Well, around 11 or so, Vic sends me a picture of Grace crying in the car and had just gotten sick everywhere. Poor baby! They headed home to clean up and snuggle all afternoon  between fevers and just not feeling good. Atticus and I finished our duties and got home around 3 to everyone napping. After all woke up, Grace did better the rest of the night and felt better and while she still had fever on and off, she never got sick again and her fever went down with Tylenol. So, we decided she must have gotten carsick and didn't have a stomach bug of any kind, but was just fighting an ongoing cold.

She was pretty snuggle that night.

On Sunday morning, we all got up and Atticus and I headed to church around 9:30. This was too early again for him. We had over an hour to get dressed and wait around. Most kids either worked on lines or watched a movie, but the movie didn't entertain Atticus enough and I had things to do around the church so he just followed and whined. I figured he was tired because he stayed up late the night before but generally when he is excited about something, as he had been for weeks for the Christmas program, not having enough sleep for one night would not phase him. But, he whined and was grumpy and then happy for a few moments when everyone arrived (GG, Vic, Grace who had no fever and felt fine that morning, and Chris and Katherine). So, I had a stern talking with him about behaving and doing what he needed to do in the program and the program began.

First, let me tell you that he was adorable in his costume. It's just a fleece onesie and doesn't even have a hump or tale. But, it has a camel head. He was kind of cranky about keeping the onesie on before the program but thankfully, started the program with it all in place. It was funny because he didn't want to walk down the aisle with all of the other kids and not with me, so I followed him down there and then went to the side of the front row with the other Sunday school teachers to help kids sign songs and do hand motions. Right before, I took Grace from Vic. She was getting whiney and only wanted me and I didn't want Vic to miss the program. So, I've got Grace who is sitting with me on the front row but starting to whine. Atticus on the other hand, stayed with the group of kids after they walked in, but planted himself right in the front of the group in the middle of stage. It was pretty funny. The sad part was that he had no smiles on him. He looked bored and tired and not thrilled to be a dromedary on that day. As the program progressed, he would halfway do the motions to the songs (and really only when he could see me and do them with me while they sang) but otherwise, he would sit on the steps or lounge on the steps and then finally just laid down in the middle of the group as if he needed a nap. I was doing my best to get him to stand up, although I know that a cute part of every program is when the little ones just do their own thing up there. But, I felt like he knew how to behave and was just doing what he wanted to test me. I think it was 50% of that and 50% of just being tired. I also had Grace with me, who was not always behaving. At one point, I just walked to the side of the church with her. She was not feeling bad yet but very needy and wanting to be held or lead me around although this was not the time to do either of those things. I was afraid to leave the sanctuary because I didn't want Atticus to not see me there, although our family was right in the 2nd row. So, it was one of those parenting moments of hoping that I was not distracting to people dealing with Grace squealing or whining on the side, or that people thought Atticus was super misbehaved or just miserable in life based on his performance, ha! I also wasn't getting any pictures of this adventure but thankfully Katherine and Vic and GG got plenty of funny ones. Overall, his casting adventure as a dromedary was just spread too thin. Always tough with the first kiddo - we've got to learn how to do everything with him. For Grace and any others we have, maybe I will be more prepared!

But, of course, the point of doing the Christmas Program was to learn the story of Jesus' birth and to teach Atticus how important it is to share that story, even in the form of a Christmas program at church. And, honestly, I was proud. A year ago, he NEVER would have gone up to the front of the church or been comfortable enough to just lay down there or be up there at all without me or Vic and he might have just cried. But, he didn't. And what he did was exactly what any other toddler could have done. And, as Melbo said "that's what dromedary's do, I guess, is sleep". There is more "Dromedary Christmas" fun to come in my blogs!

 

So, here is a happy moment for our dromedary that Sunday morning.

And here he is getting kind of cranky while we wait in line to go into church.

 And here I am trying to cheer him up by wearing his camel head and taking pictures on my phone.

And here he was at the beginning: front and center.

 

And here he is participating in a song at one point. And this is why I should not be hard on him. He is actually doing the choreography although nobody else around him is. So, he is actually doing a great job! 

 At one point, he chose to sit down.

Then, he chose to recline back.

Then, he chose to at least pay attention to the program that was happening around him again.

 And then, at some point, he just gave up and slinked down to the ground to lay down and take a rest. This was towards the end. And as much as I was on the side trying to motion for him to stand back up, I pretty much just had to accept this ending and move on.

 

This was the only picture I got from my side view before Grace decided she needed to move around. he seriously was the cutest dromedary!

It was really fun to have GG come see us and go to his program!

And this was Grace walking the halls after the program feeling good and happy. This lasted a couple of hours and then she got super tired. After naps that day, she woke up feeling good and happy.

So, GG let Vic and I go on a date for dinner at Abuelo's and to see White Christmas in the theater! It is one of mine and Vic's favorite Christmas movies and was really fun to see on the big screen!

 



 

So, Monday morning, Grace woke up with another fever. This was her 4th day, so I took her into the doctor who said she had slight ear infections in both ears. She perked up with tylenol, we got her prescription and then she threw up. This was strange since she had not thrown up since Saturday. But, this turned into a normal kind of bug. She did lots of throwing up that afternoon and evening and just didn't' feel good. I will say that being a parent is funny; I mean - I was thrown up on twice that day and honestly, I didn't flinch. It's gross, but you feel so bad for your baby throwing up and you only want to help them that you don't think twice about that nasty mess on you. Even this part of parenting is ok with me. 

 

She felt bad all night. She had no energy and just wanted to be held and comforted or curled up to watch Frozen or Paw Patrol. While I hated for her to be sick, it was extra sweet snuggling with her!

Our October: Halloween, Fall Fest, Pumpkin Patch's, Zoo, Stockshow, Barnyard

I'm going to lump all of our October events into one blog. It was a fun month! We went to the pumpkin patch at our local Farm Patch 3 times, attended our Church's Fall Festival, and went Trick or Treating. I'll let the pictures do the talking. For Halloween themed things, we will start with the Fall Festival we have at our church. It just gets bigger and better every year! Grace could walk this year, so she loved running around and we even convinced her to try a couple of booths. Atticus was an old pro at it and loved to play games to get candy and then eat dinner consisting of Cheetos and cupcakes.

 Here are Jamie, Kristi and myself - three of the many people who put on the Fall Fest; however, Kristi was our leader! She's the most creative at things like this!

 Atticus had one of his best buddies, Maci, to play with him after the Fall Fest was over and the mama's and daddy's were cleaning up!

 And here are a few of the daddy's too. (Eric, Vic, Mike & Matt)

 

We also went to the Farm Patch's Pumpkin Patch 3 different times. There were the animals, hay maze, and other pumpkin themed things for them to play with and see. But, Grace's favorite this year was this old swing. She found it every time and just crawled into and played there for awhile each time we went.

 

 

It's also a fun time of year to dress in cute Halloween outfits and skeleton pajamas or do Halloween things like eat lots of candy corns or "mummy dogs" and pick out pumpkins and go to Atticus' Halloween party at school where he dressed up with his teacher and class!

And then finally, we had Halloween. Halloween was so much fun this year. First of all, about a month before when Whitney was in town, she came up with this great idea to make Atticus a bug catcher and Grace a bug! This was easy to sell the kids on because 1) Grace is too young to understand Halloween. and 2) Atticus didn't really remember much about why you dressed up for Halloween from last year, so it was easy to dream something up and just convince him to be it....thus, the bug catcher was a hit! I'm sure next year, he will have an idea of what he wants to be so I was super excited to get them to be in coordinating costumes at least once!

 

But, he really did want to be a bug catcher. I found a "Safari vest" online and ordered it along with a khaki hat, bug net, and toy binoculars. I sewed on a handwritten sign for his back that said "Bug Catcher" and sewed on a couple of bugs on his vest. I also filled his pockets with bugs to make it more fun for him. Other than that, we used his khaki pants and a t-shirt he already owned and we had a costume! I was really excited that he was excited to be a bug catcher. He talked a lot about being a bug catcher for Halloween but didn't get too much into actually wearing the costume until the day before Halloween when he got to dress up at school. But, he posed for pictures and told me about parading around the school in his costume. Better yet, he LOVED that Grace was "his bug". For the second year in a row, my friend Cecilia has let us borrow a costume. Thank goodness, she saved me from buying or making a butterfly costume, because she had one! Grace didn't wear hers until Halloween night, but we put her hair in pigtails to make antennae, put her in a t-shirt and some black leggings and threw her little velcro butterfly costume on over that. She was PRECIOUS!

 

So, last year, Halloween was fun. We put Grace in the stroller and went through our entire neighborhood with just the 4 of us and helped Atticus trick or treat. Now, while this boy will do anything for candy, he was still only 2 1/2 last year and just learning how to trick or treat. But, this year he was a pro. First, we had the Mariott's over (Russell, Sarah, Austin & Aubrey) for soup and mummy dogs along with Chris and Katherine. Austin and Aubrey were dressed up as Woody & Jesse from Toy Story so they coordinated as well. Atticus was really excited to have Austin over to trick or treat with him. Then, we headed out to take some group pictures....as you would expect, we took probably 40 pictures and got one good one! Then, we loaded the girls up into the wagon and as a group of 6 adults, 4 kids, and the boys beers in hand, we took off to trick or treat. Atticus and Austin knew exactly what to do this time. It only took a couple of houses for Atticus to get in the swing of things. I cannot tell you how cute it was to hear him say "Trick or Treat!" or "Happy Halloween!" when the door was opened and then "Thank you!" after getting the candy. He almost seemed a little too grown up for me as he didn't need my help at all this year to trick or treat. And as soon as a house was done, he would yell "Let's go everybody!" and he and Austin would lead us to the next house. I was just so surprised at him because he is usually my reserved little boy who takes awhile to warm up to things like this. But, he was proud to be dressed up and trick or treating like a big boy. Grace, on the other hand, was kept in the wagon for most of the night. Towards the end of the night though, when we only had a few houses left, we let her out to trick or treat herself. She learned fast and would run up to a house with the big boys to get her candy too. She did not exactly know why she was getting candy or even care that much about it. But, she liked to touch Halloween decorations and knock on doors and mostly just run free. And, I loved it when Atticus would automatically tell people that he was a bug catcher and "my baby is my bug" when a door was opened. As for the adults, we had fun too. The boys all drank a beverage and while we walked, they played a game: "if you see a kid dressed up as a Frozen character, take a drink." It was funny until I saw them giving Grace an unopened beer to try to drink! Goodness! :) It was a really fun night. And I was so proud of Atticus for being well behaved and using his manners at each house. And, I loved, loved, loved, those costumes! 

 Also, last but not least, we continued investing in our children's future by giving them as much "animal time" as possible including a trip to the Saddle & Sirloin Children's Barnyard again, the Waco Zoo, the Brazos County Fair and a trip to the Jersey Barnyard in LaGrange (technically on November 1st). Here's just a quick handful of pics! First up, the Children's Barnyard.

 And now, the Brazos County Fair.

 

 

 

And then we went to the Cameron Zoo in Waco. He was in his element when we went to the zoo. I decided we would go when I woke up that Friday morning and almost called friends to join us. But, in the end, I was glad I didn't. Sometimes, I feel the need to cram lots of social time with friends and family into our schedules but on that day, I realized that sometimes I need to step back and let the kids be the center of my attention for special occasions and only spend my time with them. It turned out to be a perfect day. Grace was content almost the entire time in the stroller while Atticus got to soak up every bit of his love for animals at his own pace through the zoo. He would ask lots of questions and loved looking at his zoo map to see where we were going next. It was so extremely special to spend the day with him. He continues to ask when we are going to the "petting zoo" even though it's just a regular zoo. I plan to take him more often when we have good weather days. This was another day that he was completely comfortable and took no time at all to warm up to walking through he zoo. For me, sometimes it is tough to figure out what the kids are feeling or are happy with or upset with. But on this day, he was so happy and relaxed!  

 

 And lastly, we went to the Jersey Barnyard the morning after Halloween. I loved this trip. It is a farm that has all of the farm animals and for a small fee you can walk around on a tour, which includes feeding a baby calf and a hay ride down to the milking barn where you can pet a Jersey cow. Atticus loved this; the only drawback was that he wanted to spend MORE time petting animals and going back and forth to them. You can do that as much as you want, but of course Atticus would want to do it all day! Grace enjoyed it too. She did a lot of squealing in excitement when the animals would get close. I think my favorite animal to pet was the Jersey cow. First of all, I was so surprised at Atticus because he was so interested in petting her and looking at her and was not at all afraid to walk up so seriously to check her out. Grace, on the other hand, also had no fear. She would have just crawled underneath her if that meant she could walk to where she wanted. Of course, you can imagine what this does to my "stockshow loving/can't wait to put them in 4H/what kind of animals should we show?" heart. I showed dairy goats for 10 years so of course, in those moments I already began to contemplate all that we would need to learn and do if Atticus decided he wanted to show dairy cows one day! It was definitely a fun day for our little family!

And that was our month! So extremely busy, but lots of good memories this year!