Countdown to Santa

William has been asking the very important kiddo question:  "how many days until Christmas?"  

Each time I tell him a number, he counts on his hand to figure out how long he has to wait......and wait.......and wait.  

So, I decided to make a paper chain calendar with him in order to make the daily countdown a little more concrete.  William helped me loop the paper into a chain and staple the ends.  So far, he's really enjoyed the process of tearing off a circle each day and it's made waiting for Santa a little easier!

24 weeks Pregnancy Highlights

24 weeks Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 24 Weeks

 Size of baby: Baby B is the size of a small doll (about 11 inches)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Total of 15 lbs so far. (gained 8 at this last appointment)

Maternity Clothes: I'm wearing my maternity dresses (which I prefer) but I have also busted out my leggings. My black pants are also a staple.

Gender: IT IS A GIRL!

Movement:  She likes having a party at night.  I feel her the most in the evenings once I finally sit down and veg at the tv.

Sleep: I sleep on my left side and wake up a few times in the night to readjust myself.  I also find sleeping on the right side a little uncomfortable and I don't think she likes it! 

What I miss: jogging, but I stay active with William. Climbing 42 stairs to my door everyday, several times a day is also handy.

Cravings: vegetables, eggs, fruit, orange juice, yogurt, and mostly hungry for just 3 meals a day and a late night snack. 

Best Moment this week: Hearing William say his prayer at night and thanking Jesus first for the baby sister in mom mom's tummy. 

Thanksgiving 2010

For most of our married life, Dan and I have never gone home to OKC for Thanksgiving. Especially when I was working at the White House.  There was simply not enough time to make the quick trip home when I had to continue working on the White House Christmas parties (20 plus events in 2 weeks).  Instead, we have taken a few trips abroad, a couple of VA trips, or just stayed put in DC.  It always works out well for us and then we make an extra long trip home (about 2 weeks or so) for Christmas.

We were going to drive to Pittsburgh, PA for Thanksgiving this year just to get out of town and visit a new city.  We made hotel reservations and talked about hitting the Childrens' museum, cog railway, the downtown museums and several local hole in the wall eating establishments.  We were gearing up for a little vacation.

Then we heard the news.  The Pittsburgh turnpike was going to be a nightmare and what was estimated to be a 4 hour car trip had enormous potential to move into the 8 hour car trip category.  Since we were just going to PA for fun and not to visit family for the holiday, we decided to just bag it and stay in DC.  We can always go for a long weekend in the up coming months when there is a federal holiday.  

Wednesday afternoon I cancelled the hotel and Dan took us all to the George Mason basketball game.  My last post highlighted William's big time with the blimp and bag of popcorn.  Success!  Wednesday night as we were driving home from the game at 9:30 p.m., I told Dan we had to stop and get a real Thanksgiving dinner or else Thursday (the next day) would come and I would be terribly depressed eating mac and cheese and a fruit salad from the Harris Teeter salad bar.  So, Dan hit our 24 hour Teeter at 10pm and picked up a FABULOUS last minute Turkey Day dinner!

Thanksgiving day we had a nice, quiet morning of internet shopping for our pre-Black Friday purchases.  We got ourselves a new flat screen tv from Best Buy!  None of that camping out with the natives. Then at noon, Dan heated up our meal while I dug around in the basement for some last minute Thanksgiving table decor.  Our little feast came together beautifully and the three of us settled in for a delicious meal of turkey and all the trimmings!  

Afterwards, William wanted to decorate his giant gingerbread man that Bebe got him when she was in town.  Dada offered to pipe the icing while William scored the job of M&M design technician.  Together they made a masterpiece.

And to cap off our Thanksgiving night, we ventured outside around 7:30pm and hit the Michaels madness sale so I could buy a gingerbread candy village for William to decorate in December.

Sometimes the simple moments are worth the most thanks.

Chick-fil-A Basketball

For our pre-Thanksgiving celebration, Dada had the great idea of going to a George Mason basketball game.  So on Wednesday night, the three of us headed to the basketball court!  William wore his yellow shirt to support the Patriots.  We learned that the George Mason Patriots have an agreement with Chick-fil-a in which if the team scores more than 80 points, everyone in the arena gets a free Chick-fil-a sandwich.  WE SCORED 81~!  FREE MEAL HERE WE COME!

This was his first official basketball game and he loved it.  Could have been the large bag of popcorn or the giant remote control blimp that circled the arena.  Nevertheless, he watched the whole game with great anticipation.  

When we got in the car, he promptly yelled out, "Hurray George Mason!  Thank you for driving us tonight Dada!"

GO TEAM!

Grace Episcopal Thanksgiving Feast 2010

William's preschool class participated in annual school Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday.  I was on the clean up crew, so I went early to watch the whole event.  The preschool class paraded in wearing festive fall headbands.  When William saw me he grinned from ear to ear.  I think he was really happy that I came to watch him eat and perform.

After the feast, the preschool, junior K and kindergarten classes each performed a Thanksgiving song.  William's class sang 2 songs:  Gobble Gobble Turkey and Angels Watching Over Me. 

William loves to sing, so it was no surprise to me that he was one of few who knew every word and hand motion.  Well done WBB!

Giving Thanks by William Barron 3.5 years

I saw a really cute turkey craft in a magazine and thought it would be a very easy project to do with William.  So we came home from school today, had lunch and of course played airplanes for 2 hours.  Once William's airport was complete, we set out to create our Thanksgiving turkey.

William collected leaves and glued them on the bottom of our craft paper.  He selected yellow for the turkey's feet and gladly dipped both hands in the paint to create the turkey's legs and toes.  He insisted on blue for the turkey's eyes since "blue is one of the colors on American Airlines."  Ok.  Whatever works for ya.    He glued on the nose and gobbler with very serious precision.  

Then it was time for the turkey's feathers.  I asked William to tell me what he was thankful for this year and he rattled off a long list for me.  I wrote each answer on a strip of paper and gave each one to William.  He worked very hard on getting each feather in the perfect place, and could not bear the idea of overlapping any of them.  

Here's his list:

Airplanes

Trucks

Trains

Ava

Caroline

Meme and Mac

Bebe and Pops

Gram and Bubba

Dada hiking

Mom Mom

Baby in my tummy

Snacks

Fruit Roll Ups

Computer

Santa

Tools

Me Too!

Playing

I think it turned out adorable and William was SO PROUD!  He asked me to put it on the front door so everyone can see it.  

I am so thankful for my very best boy!

Mr. Fancy Pants

He asked me to take his picture before church on Sunday.  

So I did.

Just Talkin' like a big brother

William:  "Mom Mom, we need to get baby sister a cute baby doll so she can have a toy since I have tons of airplanes.  She can't play airplanes with me because they have small parts."

William:  "So, we are going to go to the hospital on Big Brother Day in March which is actually after I turn 4 on my birthday in February and we will pick up my baby sister.  She's so cute.  

William: "Do we get to pick her out?"

William:  "First Santa comes at Christmas, then it will be my birthday in February and I will be 4 years old and then after that winter will be over and we'll have Big Brother Day in March to pick up baby sister."

William:  "There is a baby in Mom Mom's belly and the doctor will help us get her out.  Then we'll be so excited to have a baby sister and we'll all say "huuuurrrraayyyyy!" and she can celebrate Big Brother Day with me."

William:  " Mom Mom we need to go the store and get one of those babies like my friends have so we can have one in our house.  I think that would be fun."  - Little did he know I was 5 weeks pregnant when he told me that!

William:  "When are you going to get her crib ready so she can spend the night in my room like a slumber party?"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR POPS!  

WE LOVE YOU!

20 week Pregnancy Highlights

20 weeks Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 Weeks

Size of baby: Baby B is the size of a banana

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 2 lbs.  Total of 7 so far.

Maternity Clothes: I'm wearing my maternity dresses (which I prefer) but I have also busted out my maternity pants. Don't like anything tight around the waist. 

Gender: IT IS A GIRL!

Movement:  A little bit.  Most movement is felt down low during the day.

Sleep: I sleep on my left side and wake up a few times in the night to readjust myself.  I can now sleep on my right side but in past it has been uncomfortable. 

What I miss: jogging, but I stay active with William. Climbing 42 stairs to my door everyday, several times a day is also handy.

Cravings: vegetables, orange juice, yogurt, and mostly hungry for just 3 meals a day.  I don't feel as "starving" as I did with William.

Best Moment this week: Telling William he's a big brother!  Boy was he thrilled! 

Happy Halloween 2010

Sunday night William suited up in his Fighter Pilot costume for his 2010 trick-o-treating mission.  We met up with Ava (the princess) and Lucy (the lady bug) in our parking lot and the trio set out for success.  We hit the whole neighborhood and William walked up to every door like an old pro.  Everyone LOVED his uniform and asked him all kinds of questions about it - what's your rank?  are you Air Force? what do your patches mean?, etc.  He spoke up and answered all of them!  Very impressive.  After a couple hours of collecting loot, we headed home to survey his winnings.  

Ah, the sweet taste of SUCCESS!

Grace Episcopal Preschool Halloween Party

Friday was William's class Halloween party.  I was on the set up committee so I arrived early in time to see the kids parading up and down the hallways in their costumes.  William was so proud of his outfit and he got many compliments on his patches!

The kids came back into the classroom for the snack time party.  It was very low key.  They had several different Halloween snacks and sang a few Halloween songs for the moms who were there.  Once that was over, we helped the kids get of of their costumes so they could proceed with their day.  The whole event lasted about 1 hour which was perfect.  By the time William got home, he was ready for a nap!