End of the Year Wrap-up...

Apparently it has been since mid-November that I have managed to sit down and blog about anything (although I did think about it many times, I promise!). So I am going to attempt to cover the last 6 weeks of the year in one big post. Here goes...

Thanksgiving: Usually we go to my parents house in St Louis, but none of us really felt like making that long drive this year. Instead, we went to visit Bobby's family in Lafayette for the day. The three of us and Bobby's dad hit the road around 8 am and were home by 4 in the afternoon. All of us had a good time, especially Reilly. He had some bigger cousins to play with, and he got to meet his newest cousin, Juliette. Her mama Sarah was nice enough to let him hold her and I think that was the highlight of the day for him! He also had fun being silly in an elephant mask that he found.

Holding baby Juliette

Looking cute in an elephant mask and a crown made by his great-aunt Sharon

Hanukkah: We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in our house. This year the first night of Hanukkah was December 11. Every night, Reilly would help me light the menorah, and he got a present on the first and last nights (since we also do xmas, I thought 8 nights of gifts would be overdoing it!). He was so excited to see all the candles lit on the last night! He had asked me every previous night when we could light them all...it's so hard to be patient when you're 3 years old!

Excited on the last night of Hanukkah

Other Miscellaneous December events:

-December 12, Reilly and I went to a breakfast with Santa, along with his friend Kamron and Kamron's mom. Reilly had lots of fun and I am SO glad he's not scared of Santa!

-December 18, Reilly had his class party at school. All the kids were so excited and so cute eathing their lunches and chattering about what Santa was going to bring them!

-December 18, I took Reilly to Disney Live. Sawyer and Will (his friends from school) and their mom Muffin went with us. Reilly's eyes were big as saucers when Mickey came on the stage and he was mesmerized by the whole show!

Chatting with Kamron at Breakfast with Santa

Meeting the big guy himself

Enjoying a cupcake at his class party

Christmas: Bobby's mom came in for Christmas, like she usually does. She came in a few days before the big day so we had time to do some other fun stuff while she was here. We saw The Princess and The Frog (loved it!), went and saw the Christmas lights in Lafreniere Park, and did a little shopping. Reilly even spent a night with her at the hotel!

Christmas Eve, she spent the night at our house, and Bobby's dad came over early on Christmas Day. We actually had to wake Reilly up, and he was all excited when he saw that Santa had come! We all got wonderful presents, had a yummy breakfast and dinner, and just spent the day relaxing. (pictures to come in a separate post)

And finally...New Years Eve: This was actually kind of a non-event this year. Bobby took his dad to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, and their flight left at 5:30 AM on New Years Day. Bobby, Reilly and I went out for an early dinner, then came home and watched a movie. Bobby and Reilly were both asleep by 11, and I was not far behind them. I guess my days of crazy New Years Eve celebrations are long gone!

So welcome to 2010! I hope this is a great year for everyone!

A Big First

Reilly has three very good friends: Grant, Kamron, and Sawyer. Grant lives 2 doors over from us, and Reilly plays with him a few times a week. Kamron and Sawyer are in Reilly's class at school and the three of them are best buddies. Kamron also happens to live just a few minutes away, so him and Reilly get together a lot outside of school.
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Bobby picked Reilly and Kamron up from school at lunchtime and took them to the zoo. When he went to drop Kamron off at home that evening, the boys decided that Reilly should spend the night over there. Kamron's mom, Mary, called and asked me if he could do it. I said we could try, figuring that I would get a phone call around bedtime, saying that Reilly wanted to come home.
That phone call never came. My 3 year old actually spent the night out all by himself. Mary said she had to go lay down with him for a while to get him to fall asleep, but that he was totally fine. And when I went over there in the morning, he acted like he had just seen me 5 minutes before.
I'm proud of my big boy for doing so well and being so independent. But at the same time...I'm kind of sad that my baby didn't need his mama.

A Special Day at the Aquarium

Reilly loves animals, any and all kinds. He has definitely inherited this love from both his daddy and me...we had 4 dogs before he was born and have added even more animals since then. We are very lucky to live in a city with a wonderful zoo, an aquarium, and an insectarium. Reilly's Pawpaw (another animal lover in the family) volunteers at the Aquarium and over the weekend he arranged a special treat for us.

Bobby left very early Saturday morning for the Ole Miss game, so later that morning just Reilly and I headed downtown to the Aquarium. We were meeting his friend Kamron and his mom there too, so Reilly was very excited.

As soon as we got there, we found Pawpaw and headed to our first special treat...feeding the stingrays! (Unfortunately Mary and Kamron were running late, so they missed this part). Reilly waited not-too-patiently in the line, and finally it was our turn. He was scared to put his hand in and actually feed the stingrays, so he just dropped his fish in. To be honest, I was kind of freaked out to do it too, but I had to set a good example so I acted much braver than I felt.

Next up: petting the baby shark. Reilly was a little scared to do this too, but once he got up the courage to do it, it was ALL he wanted to do..he must have petted the shark 20 times.

By this time, Mary and Kamron had arrived, so we went and checked out some more of the aquarium. We saw penguins, frogs, sea otters, all kinds of fish, plus some birds and an alligator. We took a break for lunch and were walking around some more when Pawpaw called with some exciting news...it was time for us to meet a penguin in person!

We went back into a back room and there was one of the other volunteers with a penguin named Cole (I think). We all got to pet him for a few minutes. I wasn't sure what I thought he would feel like, but it was just like touching any other bird. The boys were really excited, but very good. They were gentle and didn't make any loud noises that would have scared the penguin.

After spending some time in the play area, we rounded the boys up and headed home. It was a really fun afternoon, and one I know that I won't forget anytime soon!

My little prince on a big frog

Petting the penguin

Just being boys...


Petting the baby shark

Checking out the stingrays

The Story of the Pilgrims

Reilly comes home from school almost every day all excited about what he has learned that day. Sometimes, though, he doesn't get the facts quite right. For example, we had the following conversation in the car yesterday...

Reilly: Mama, I want to tell you a story.
Mama: OK, tell me.
R: I am going to tell you about the pilgrims. They wear a hat and a suit.
M: Yes, they do. What else?
R: They came in a boat called the Mayflower. But a lot of them got sick on the boat. They got sick because they didn't have any food and there wasn't a refrigerator.
M: What did they do when they got here?
R: They hunted for turkeys and vegetables.
M: They hunted for vegetables?
R: Yes, they hunted for them in the field next to the lake that I know.

HUH???

Reillyisms

More funny and amazing things that come out of his mouth...



It is often a battle to get Reilly to go potty. He will do anything to avoid going when we ask him too (he gets that stubborn gene from me!). The other day, I told him to go use the bathroom and he gave me a resounding "NO"!! He was wearing a Superman shirt, so I said "come on Superman, let's go potty". He looked down at his shirt and responded with "Superheroes don't go potty!" I guess it would be kind of rough with the tights and all...



One of our family traditions is that on weekend mornings we all curl up in bed together and watch TV. On a recent weekend morning Reilly crawled into our bed and tried to snuggle up Bobby. For some reason, Bobby had slept with no shirt on, which is very unusual for him. Reilly promptly told Bobby to put his shirt on. When Bobby asked him why, Reilly said "I don't like your fur". Bobby has very little body hair, so I'm not sure exactly what Reilly was bothered by, but Bobby humored him and put on a shirt.


Reilly and I were shopping at Sam's recently, when I went to go look for some deli meat. I was standing in front of the big case, trying to figure out what I wanted, when all of a sudden Reilly yells out "Go Meat!"


Reilly loves to take all of his toys out, but hates to put them all away. The other night, we were trying to get him to clean up the big mess he had made in the living room. His answer: "are the maids coming tomorrow? They can clean them up for me". Ummm, no honey, YOU need to pick up your toys.



I put out our holiday decorations the other day. One of the things I put out is an Elf on the Shelf, so that night I read Reilly the book and got him to try and find the elf. I don't think this is going to be a very effective behavior management tool in this house. He told me that the elf is just a decoration and can't fly to the North Pole because he doesn't have wings. I think he is too smart for his own good.

Halloween fun (a little late)

Yes, Halloween was over a week ago, but I am just now finding time to sit down and blog about it. It feels like I have not 5 spare minutes since then, but better late than never, right???


Reilly had a 2 day Halloween celebration. It started on Friday at school, when his class had a party at lunchtime. All of the parents sent food for them to eat, and they all got to wear their costumes to school. Reilly wore his pirate costume again...I just think he looks so cute in it! He (and all the rest of his classmates) had a lot of fun and I think they all enjoyed having so many parents there with them.

Saturday, the next day, was actually Halloween. This is always a big event on our street. Both ends of the block are barricaded off and everyone sets up tables in their driveway and it's a big block party and always a lot of fun. This year we had invited Reilly's friends from school to join us, so we had even more fun! Only a few people ended up coming, but the ones that did had a blast trick or treating, chasing each other around, and eating lots of candy. Unfortunately, Reilly may have done a little TOO much eating and chasing, since he threw up in our neighbor's golf cart, but a good time was still had by all.

Enjoying lunch with his classmates

The look on his face when he walked in and saw the classroom decorated for the party

Playing with friends Halloween night
Looking cute in his puppy costume

Reilly-isms

More of the amazing things that come from little man's mouth...

We always listen to the radio in the car, and Reilly really pays attention to the lyrics. One of his favorite songs is "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black-Eyed Peas. He asked me in the car the other day if "jockin' my style" is a potty word. Didn't know quite what to tell him.

He also really likes "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift. When he hears it, he always tells me "mama, I belong with you"...melts my heart every time!

Driving home from school yesterday, we were looking at all the houses in the neighborhood that are decorated for Halloween. He pointed out a house with no decorations and said "They didn't decorate their house. That's so sad"

Last night at dinner, Reilly was reading a book at the table while we waited for our food to come. I leaned across the table to look at the opposite page and Reilly said "move Mommy, your boobies are on my book". Well, excuse me!

Boo at the Zoo

Halloween has always been one of my favorite days of the year...I love the decorations, the costumes, and of course the candy ;). Having a little one in the house makes it even more fun, since he is so excited about it! So this past weekend we headed to Boo at the Zoo for a little pre-Halloween celebration.


We have attended this function every year, starting when Reilly was just 4 months old. Every year he has enjoyed it a little bit more as he is able to participate in more of the games and activities. This time, we made plans to meet up with Reilly's friend Kamron and his mom Mary so that the boys could have fun together.


The two of them had a blast! They played games, jumped in bouncers, rode the carousel, ate hot dogs, went through the haunted house and Trick-or-Treated. Reilly and Kamron always have a good time together and this was no exception!

Riding the carousel with Daddy

After getting his face painted


Pirate Reilly and Spiderman Kamron

Rainy Days and Pumpkins

I grew up in the midwest, and fall was always my favorite season. I loved watching the leaves change colors, feeling the chill in the air, and knowing that Halloween was on its way. There isn't a true fall here, but we can do one thing that reminds me of my childhood...go to the pumpkin patch!

Reilly was off school yesterday and I wanted to do something special with him. So I asked his friend Kamron and his mom, Mary, if they wanted to go to the pumpkin patch in Hammond. The ride should have been about an hour, but we got a little lost. Eventually we found it, but not before it started POURING!!!

When we pulled up, there was a building with a little porch where some people were sitting to stay dry. We figured we could wait out the rain there, and at least be out of the car, but the boys had another idea. As soon as we reached the porch, they took off for the petting zoo area. It was only about 20 feet away and we could see them from where we were, so we just let them have fun. They were quickly soaked from head to foot, and having the time of their lives! They loved checking out the animals, and eventually the rain stopped and we could go explore the rest of the farm and pick out our pumpkins.


We all had a fun day, the boys were well behaved, we had a yummy lunch on the way home, and everyone was happy. Gotta love days like that!

Not letting a little rain stop him from having fun
pumping water

this look clearly says "stop taking my picture!!!"


checking out the piggies

2 tired boys on the drive home

Hotty Toddy, Go Rebels!

This past weekend was a big one for Reilly...he went to his 1st college football game. Bobby picked him up from school at lunchtime on Friday and they headed up to Oxford. Reilly was super excited, not just about the game, but because he would be hanging out with his friend Lily Grace (the daughter of Bobby's friends from college). Saturday morning they went to the Grove for some tailgating, followed by the game that afternoon. Reilly didn't make it through the whole game, but he had a lot of fun!



It was actually a big weekend for me too. This was the first time since Reilly was born that I spent a night away from him. It was a nice break for me, but I will admit that I missed him. He was asleep when they got home late Saturday night, but he woke up a little as Bobby carried him up the stairs. When he saw me, his little face lit up and he cried out "Mama"...it made my heart sing!

The crowd in the stadium

Cheering for the Rebels

Walking to the game (he looks so cute!)



Tailgating with Daddy and Lily Grace

Little buddies hanging out

Reilly-isms

I am endlessly amused by the things that come out of my son's mouth. He makes me laugh a million times a day, usually completely by accident. Some recent favorites...

-A few weeks ago, I took him and his friend to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. The other day while we were driving around, he asked me if we could go to Christopher Robin's for ice cream after dinner. Apparently we have been invited to visit the 100 Acre Wood...who knew?

-The other day, I had to borrow a jar of peanut butter from the neighbors because I couldn't find ours in all the renovation mess. The next day, Reilly asked his preschool director to come to the house. When Tim asked him what we would be having for dinner, Reilly told him "sandwiches from the neighbors house"

-While watching TV, Reilly saw a commercial for some dolls and asked if he could have them. I said that they were really intended for girls, and he told me that when he was a little girl, he had those dolls.

-This morning, Reilly was eating on my bed while I got ready. He got crumbs all over the place and I told him that he needed to figure out a way to clean it up. He walked out into the living room and I heard him say "hey, I've got a great idea!"...he came into the bedroom with a dustbuster. It WAS a great idea. Unfortunately, the dustbuster was not charged, so we had to resort to plan B, letting the dogs come in and clean it up.

-Reilly thinks that "underpants" is the funniest word on the planet and likes to use it whenever possible. His favorite way is to replace words to a sang with it. So yesterday on the way home from school, I heard "Twinkle, twinkle, little underpants. How I wonder what you underpants", etc. It actually is kind of funny, and he knows that he can't do it at school, only with mama, so I just let him do it.

The Rainbow Connection

Things have been a little stressful around the house for the last week or so...we are in the middle of a major kitchen renovation, and it has been taking its toll on everyone in the family. One of the biggest issues is that the living room is full of clutter, as are the kitchen and dining room. And of course, all this clutter is just a magnet for Reilly. As a result, he has been staying late at school everyday and I have been keeping him out of the house as much as possible.

Tonight I decided to take him to storytime at Barnes and Noble. I loaded him into the car and had driven about 10 feet when he yelled out "Mommy, a rainbow!" I looked up and sure enough, there was a beautiful rainbow directly in front of us. As we continued to drive through the neighborhood, we could see the rainbow from every street. Reilly was just fascinated by it, and decided that the rainbow was following us. I love his imagination.
A few minutes later, he got all excited and said "Mama, it growed!" I looked up, and the rainbow had turned into a DOUBLE rainbow! I don't think I have ever seen that before. I was kind of cranky and stressed out when we left the house, but how can you be in a bad mood after seeing something as amazing as that?

Football, anyone?

The past week was fairly uneventful. Reilly went to school, I tried to keep the house in some semblance of order, Bobby worked a lot. Just your average week around here. Now we are in day 2 of a 3 day weekend. Football season has started so Bobby is permanently glued to the television.

Speaking of football, we took Reilly to his first football game Friday night. He will be going to some Ole Miss games with Bobby this year, so it seemed like a St. Martin's game would be good practice for him. When we picked him up from school on Friday, he was all excited because the preschoolers had gotten to go to the school's "pepper rally" and he saw cheerleaders and the football team. So he was extra excited when we headed to the game. He was a little restless and wanted to run around in the bleachers, and was starting to get grumpy when we told him he couldn't. Then his friend Sofia and her mom Heather showed up, and he was all smiles. The 2 of them had a great time playing with their pompoms and watching the cheerleaders. I'm not sure how well he is going to do at the Ole Miss games, but hopefully a few more St. Martin's games will get him ready. I realized when we went to the game that we might be attending these games for the next 14 years if he stays at St. Martins until he graduates high school, which is our current plan. That's a lot of football games.

Reilly-isms

If there is one thing Reilly does well, it's talk. He has a huge vocabulary, but like all kids he makes mistakes sometimes. He also comes up with things that just crack me up. Some recent examples...

-He calls the Insectarium the "excitarium". I guess he is really excited to go there???

-The Audubon Zoo is called either the Ottoman Zoo or the Dinosaur Zoo (because of the dino exhibit that is there right now)

-The other night he lookes at Forrest, who was all curled up in a little ball, sound asleep, and said "mama, Forrest is round like a shrimp"

-Driving home from the park the other night, he asked if he could suck his thumb. I told him no, because his hands were all dirty. I looked back at him a minute later and he was blowing on his hands. He told me "I am getting the dirt off my hands with the wind in my mouth"

-Last night we were at our neighbors house and her 5 week old grandson was there, asleep in a pack n play. Reilly insisted on singing him a lullaby...so sweet.

-I was playing with the camera the other day and took a bunch of pictures of a friends baby, including some close ups of her feet. When I showed them to Reilly, he told me "baby Regan has such cute feet, I want to tickle them"

Duck, Duck, Goose...

And some nutria and turtles too!
Living in south Louisiana, I try to spend as much time as possible indoors during the summer, since it's often unbearably hot and humid. This past week, we were very lucky and had some unseasonably pleasant weather. I decided to take advantage of the cooler days and take Reilly to the park to feed the ducks and play on the playground. We went 2 nights in a row, and had a lot of fun both times.

Calling the geese to come to him...it didn't work

A nutria, yuck! They give me the creeps.

I love the light in this picture



My little tree-hugger!

Just being cute

A Day at the Farm

We are very lucky to have several kids around Reilly's age who live on our street. Reilly's bestest buddy Grant lives just 2 doors down from us, and Elizabeth lives about halfway down the block. Elizabeth's mom Holly invited Reilly and I (Bobby was out of town) to take a little road trip on Sunday, to go visit her horse on the farm where it lives. We had gone to a barn uptown with her last month to see some horses, and Reilly had a blast, so I couldn't pass up this invitation.

We all piled into Holly's car and hit the road...across the Causeway to Covington, a quick stop at Raisin' Cane's for lunch, then on to Folsom and the farm. When we got there, we let the kids out of the car and Reilly just took off running to see the cows. He was so excited because they were mooing at him! There were 10 or so adult cows, 1 bull, and 2 babies. In another pasture, there were 3 horses and 2 donkeys. We fed the horses and donkeys some apples and carrots, petted them as much as they would let us, and just let the kids run and play for a few hours. By the end, they were both dirty and tired, but they had a great time! After a little stop for some ice cream, we headed back across the lake, and Reilly passed out in the car on the way home!

Thanks so much to Holly and Elizabeth for letting us join in on your fun afternoon!

Playing Hooky

A few weeks ago, I found out about a wave pool at Bayou Segnette Park, across the river. I decided that I wanted to take Reilly, but the article I read about the place said that there is a line to get it on most days, since only 100 people are allowed in each day. I figured that if I waited until school started back up, we would have a better chance of getting in. So this past Friday, I kept Reilly home from school and we headed to the pool, along with our neighbor Holly and her daughter Elizabeth, who is 4 months older than Reilly,

I was right about waiting...we were the ONLY people there! Reilly and Elizabeth had a great time. They didn't spend much time in the wave pool, but there was a nice splash area for the little ones, and a bunch of sand that they had a blast digging in. It did rain for a little while, so Holly and I took cover under an awning, but the kids just kept playing in the sand...it didn't bother them at all! I will definitely be going back to this place!

Making sand angels


waiting out the rain


going down the slide

splishing and splashing

Boys will be Boys

The other night, Reilly asked me if we could go outside and take a walk. Bobby was cooking dinner and Reilly was getting underfoot, so I agreed to take him out. For some reason, Reilly also insisted that we had to bring his wagon with us. Why? I have no idea, but he threw such a fit when I said no that I relented and let him bring it. (Hey, a mom's got to pick her battles!). As we were headed out, Bobby handed me the new camera and told me to take some pictures of Reilly. He didn't know it at the time, but that turned out to be a great idea!

There is a canal behind our house, and if you walk around the corner, there is access to it. Reilly likes to go see what is over there, so we headed in that direction. When we got there, there 2 boys already there. They looked to be about 12 years old, and they had fished a big turtle out of the canal. When Reilly saw that turtle, he was SO excited! We have 2 turtles in an aquarium in our house, but they are pretty small. This one was a lot bigger, and the boys were very nice and let Reilly look at it, put it in his wagon, and even hold it. They were very patient with him, and answered his millions of questions without getting annoyed. Thanks boys for being so nice!

After a while, the boys returned the turtle to the canal and rode off on their bikes. Reilly is still talking about that turtle 3 days later. What is it about boys and creatures???

I tried to put the pictures under the post, but I couldn't figure out how!!!