Snow Ball Wednesday

Kyle had a fun opportunity to try out his new snow pants Wednesday afternoon. Chris worked from home, so about a half hour before the sun set, we went in the backyard and put together a nice snow ball stash and ran around the perimeter of the yard looking for sticks, stone, and berries.

Saturday Night Pizza Playdate

Last Saturday (the Saturday before Thanksgiving), Chris's childhood friends Mary Rose and Rob came over for dinner, as well as Mary's husband Quinn and their 7 month old daughter, Elise. We ordered from Perrys - tasty as always - and the kids attempted to "play" around each other in the basement. Good thing we recently put together a bin of Kyle's baby toys in preparation for Peanut Butter. Elise loved exploring with them, and Kyle acted like he was going down memory lane - a little possessive of his things, but he tried to share here and there.

Peanut Butter: 36 Week Appointment

At yesterday's 36 week doctor appointment ...

- Peanut Butter was measuring head down, but hadn't dropped yet ... still giving us some much needed time to get ready :)
- my bump size was right on track.
- Peanut Butter's heart rate was strong - 140s.
- I got the whooping cough shot which should transfer to Peanut Butter.
- They did a test to make sure there are no bacterias in me that would make it unsafe to delivery Peanut Butter. I should hear the results this week.
- A rash that showed up all over my thighs on Friday is just the result of dry stretchy skin. Since then I've been applying some dry skin lotion and the redness is going down.

I'll be 37 weeks on Wednesday. Technically full term.

Preparation for Baby

In an effort to prepare Kyle for baby, we took advantage of our low-key weekend and gave him a few opportunities to practice sleeping outside of his crib. Friday night went really well. He thought the mattress on the floor was "kinda like a fort" .. super cool in his eyes! He slept until 7 am without a problem. Nap time Saturday afternoon didn't work as well (although his naps in the crib over the past few weeks haven't exactly been stellar). He laid quietly for a while, but definitely did not fall asleep. Saturday night he had no problem falling asleep and staying on his mattress until about midnight. When I checked on his monitor around then, he was asleep, but definitely off the mattress. Chris had to go in and move him! After that we didn't hear a peep out of Kyle until 8:30 in the morning. We found Ky scrunched between the head of the bed and his bookshelf, perfectly cozy and content. Looks like this is going to take a lot more practice than we thought! But at least he's still sleeping through the night.

French fry run w/mommy

Last Wednesday, I took Kyle shopping for winter snow boots. First we went to Kohls. Sadly they only had two pairs of toddler boots - one for $60 and one for $40. If I had a coupon with me, I probably would have bought the $40 ones and called it a day. But I didn't, and I just couldn't justify spending $40+ on a pair of boots that he could potentially outgrow before winter's end, so we moved on. Next stop: Target. They too, only offered two styles of toddler winter boots. Luckily, Kyle seemed to like both of them. And even luckier, they were both only $20. I asked a Target worker if there was anyone working in the shoe department/section who could help us. There was not. I asked if there was a shoe sizer. There was not. Just a mat that Kyle could stand on and try to find the right sized outline for his foot. Going off the mat and his current shoe size, we went with a size 9/10. I let him pick between the spiderman pair and the black pair. I was sure he was going to pick the spiderman pair as he has spiderman shoes and loves them, but he wanted the black ones because they were "kinda like Daddy's". Fine with me. They match his snowsuit and winter coats better. It was a lot of work to get Kyle to sit still, cooperate, and walk around with the boots on, so I promised him (and myself) a quick trip to the food court for some warm McDonald's fries after we finished. Kyle and Mommy are both big fans of french fries ... They cheered us right up :)

Baking Christmas Cookies!

10th Annual Gingerbread Decorating Party!

This morning, the three of us joined Nana, Buppa, and Auntie Donna at Eggsperience uptown to celebrate Nana and Buppa's 35th Wedding Anniversary (11/17/79) and enjoy a delicious breakfast. Then, later on in the afternoon, Amy and Erin came over to kick off our 10th Annual Gingerbread Decorating Party. This year, I constructed the houses out of tissue boxes, milk cartons, egg white cartons, and graham crackers. I also came up with a little twist: each of us had to pull a famous Christmas movie title out of a jar, and use that as inspiration for decorating. Amy had White Christmas. Erin had Christmas Vacation. And I ended up with The Holiday. Everyone had a great time, and all the houses look really neat. Bring on the holidays!

Amy's "White Christmas"

Erin's "Christmas Vacation"

My "The Holiday"

England

LA