Sesame Street Live: 1-2-3 Imagine!

One really great thing that happened during our all-day trip see Santa was one of those right place-right time events.

During our second time waiting in line for Santa, we just happened to be behind a little boy whose aunt was there with him. The boy's aunt works for a local radio station and had several free tickets to Sesame Street Live to give away. So..... guess who got to go see Elmo on Sunday?

We got to see Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and all the gang and had some pretty good seats, too. Reid had a great time at the show and, by some more good luck, one of Reid's good friends from school was also there. We had plans to meet up with Andrew and his parents so we saw them before the show and during intermission. Then we all went across the street for a post-show doughnut at Krispy Kreme!

I'm not sure what the highlight of the day was - Elmo or Krispy Kreme - but either way it was a great day!

The Santa Adventure - 2009 Version

A few weeks ago, Reid and I were running errands at the mall on a Monday. While we were there, we happened to walk past Santa in center court and there was no line. I asked Reid if he wanted to go see him and he was surprisingly eager. (Now, as you might remember from last year's Santa Chronicles, he isn't always so eager...)

We were not prepared for a photo op - unbrushed hair, dirty shirt from lunchtime... you get the idea. Even the photo elf looked as us and said, "So, no photo today?" Yes, we looked that bad. :) Reid looked at Santa and paused for a moment, then he walked right up and started telling him all about the Polar Express. He didn't even ask for any toys, they just talked about trains. It was a great experience.

So, with this new experience under our belt I thought it be great to go back in decent clothes for a good Santa photo. So, on Friday, we showed up with a new haircut ready to go. And so did everyone else.

We arrived at 10:15 am and waited in line for about 40 minutes. Reid still seemed excited and waited patiently. When it was our turn, though, things went south quickly. Reid was hesitant to go to Santa, so I offered to walk up there with him. He walked over with his face covered. Santa - being good with children and all - tried to coax him over and was very gentle. Reid grew more upset and clung to my leg. So, after about 3 minutes of this I told him it was fine if he did not want to see Santa, but that we needed to move on to let the other people in line have a turn. That only made things worse! He didn't want to see Santa, but the poor little guy didn't want to NOT see Santa either. I finally had to drag him away screaming. I know people thought he was upset because I tried to make him do it, but he was really the most upset because I made him leave.

I got him calmed down - finally - only after promising that we could come back and give it another try. So, we had lunch in the food court. Reid said he wasn't ready yet and that he needed to play in the play area first. Next we spent about an hour in the play area. He finally decided he was ready - he looked so brave - so at 1:15 we got in the stroller and headed back to the Big Guy.

Guess what? Santa will be back from lunch at 2:15! I relayed the news to Reid and his response was, "Okay. I'll wait." So... we foolishly went and killed some time, then came back about 15 minutes before Santa's lunch break was to end. Another line! This one was shorter so we only waited about 20 minutes. This time when we got to the front Reid was ready. He still needed a little reassurance to take those first steps toward Santa but quickly decided that he wasn't so bad.

We ended up getting some great photos (I have yet to scan the professional ones) and Reid was SO proud of himself afterwards! You could tell that he knew he had faced his fears and conquered them. Mommy was pretty proud, too!

We Love a Parade!

It's Christmastime, and (among other things) that means parades!


There are plenty of parades to choose from in our area. Two years ago Ross took Reid to the Greenville parade while I was out of town. It is a large production, held in the evening. Of course, they get to show off some cool lights, but it also means it is extra cold after sundown and pretty crowded downtown.

Last year, we went to Mauldin parade on whim. It was on a bitter cold Sunday afternoon, but we were prepared with hot chocolate and blankets. Reid loved it, even if it was a very small town parade. So this year we opted for the Simpsonville Christmas parade - still in the afternoon, but a little bigger and not quite as cold.

Reid was very excited about the parade. We weren't 100% sure about the parade route, but we knew we'd find our way - the town is not that big. :) We ended up taking a turn that allowed us to sit right new to the parade judges. After setting up our chairs, we snuggled up and drank hot cocoa while we waited. Reid waited so patiently.



This is the kind of parade I grew up with: a small town thing, with every Tom Dick and Harry who wanted to be in it. There were numerous dance troupes, preschools, sports teams, animals, cowboys, sports cars, Shriners in go carts, trains, clowns... and of course the fire truck with Santa at the end!

Thanksgiving

I'm a bit late on posting about Thanksgiving, because it was mostly uneventful (in the good way!).

We left for Alabama on Wednesday afternoon and were met with massive traffic on I-85 South. It took us 1.5 hours to go less than the 55 miles from our house to the SC/GA line. We knew it would just get worse as we got closer to Atlanta so we stopped at a store, bought a road Atlas, and cut across the north Georgia mountains. We had taken that route once before and knew that technically the mileage was shorter but the drive was longer due to the winding country highways. But, with unending stop-and-go traffic on the interstate it was worth the gamble.

It was a long drive regardless, but thankfully we had plans to stay overnight in lovely Ringgold, Georgia, just south of Chattanooga. We got there a little after 9pm - still much longer than it would normally take.

Part of our reason for stopping to stay overnight was so we could have breakfast with our friends Amanda and Josh the next day. I have known Amanda since college and they lived near us a few years ago in Birmingham. I'm so glad that they live where they do now because we drive right past them every time we go to Alabama.

Nothing like a group photo in the Cracker Barrel store!

Reid and Josh, both equally amused by the mechanical hamsters. :)

After our breakfast we made the trek to Ardmore and got there midday on Thanksgiving. Since the big Martin family dinner was not until Saturday, we had a few leisurely days to do whatever. Of course, that included getting up at the crack of dawn with my mom to do some Black Friday shopping. What's great is that we are both early shoppers and we only go for the sport of it, not to get any "must have" gifts. Makes it SO much more fun! We had an awesome 7.5 hours of shopping that morning - since we awoke at 3 am that meant we were home by lunchtime. There's no way I can tell the stories effectively here, but Home Depot was definitely the highlight of the morning. :)

We had a great time at the Martin dinner on Saturday. Lots of good food and seeing the family, and everyone was there as we are the only ones that have to travel. Hopefully one year we'll be able to have all the Weavers in one place, too, though we are all spread out so that's a much more difficult task for sure.


We headed home on Sunday. It was another long trip, partially due to traffic and partially because Ross let me stop at the outlets in Calhoun, Georgia. He didn't bat an eye when I mentioned it - such a good husband. :)

Philosophy 101

I received this email tonight from Reid's K3 teacher, Miss Ashleigh. I am so glad she shares these little gems with us!

This conversation was taking place during snack today. I thought he was about to admit defeat, but then he threw her totally under the bus. I had to turn my back so he didn't see me laughing :-)

Reid: "I got a Thanksgiving napkin for snack today."
Sophie: "Me, too."
Reid: "No, Sophie, yours isn't Thanksgiving."
Sophie: "Yes, it is."
Reid: "Sophie (short philosophical pause for emphasis), Sometimes people are right and sometimes people are wrong, and today you are wrong."

I wonder where he gets this stuff? Ahem. Never mind. :)

Tidbits

Just a few things I thought were worth making note of...

11/07/09

The mail lady was greeted at our door and by both Reid and I in disguise. It happens more than you'd think. She always just laughs it off but I'm sure she thinks we are nuts. :)

11/12/09

Before breakfast, Reid took it upon himself to make a turkey drawing by tracing his hand. When I asked him what the "extra" thing was on the back of the turkey, he said it was a propeller, because the turkey wanted to fly.

11/19/09

On the TV, Kai-lan was explaining how to say 'lantern' in Chinese. The phrase is 'Deng Long.' Reid said, "Kai-lan calls it Deng Long, but I call it Lester."

11/21/09

Ross and Reid were reading a Dora book about counting. Ross would say a phrase then Reid would repeat it, except it was SO not what Ross had said. It was so much like the episode of Friends when they try to teach Joey French. Hilarious! I wonder what his Spanish teacher at preschool thinks of his skills?

The Passing of Goldfishy

Well, you'll recall from the Fall Fun post that Reid got a pet - a goldfish, aptly named Goldfishy.

Goldfishy arrived at our house on 10/30/09. He lived with us for 13 wonderful days, and was gone on 11/13/09. He will be be missed.

I had told Reid when we got him that sometimes goldfish live a long time and sometimes they don't. So when we found the dead fish, he was not too broken up about it. I fished him out (no pun intended) and put him in a ziploc bag, just in case Reid decided he really was upset so we could have a fishy funeral (Cosby Show-style).

So, the next day, Reid asked me where Goldfishy was. I reminded him that Goldfishy was not alive anymore...

Reid: Is he still in that plastic bag?
Mommy: Yes.
Reid: Why is he in the plastic bag?
Mommy: I kept him around in case you got sad and wanted to see him one more time.
Reid: We should throw him away. He's trash.

Yes, children are quite resilient. :)

Halloween!

I'm a few weeks behind on the blogging, so I'm just now getting around to the Halloween pics.

This year was Reid's best Halloween yet. We met at the Hennums' for dinner before heading out to trick-or-treat. Reid chose his own costume this year. He was dead-set on being a ghost, much to my dismay. I thought it was a pretty boring costume, not to mention that I knew he wouldn't wear something over his head for any length of time. I tried to deter him but he would not budge. So we set off on trying to find a decent kid-friendly, non-scary ghost costume that didn't cover his face. Not an easy task! I finally found an acceptable one that Reid pre-approved of (ha!) on ebay and snapped it up.

Here it is:

See how excited he was to wear it? It was too long so I had it pinned up here so I could hem up. I won't say in print what we thought he looked like, but let's just say it's quite politically incorrect. When he decided to change to Mr. Incredible - a costume we already own - I was all for it.

Mr. Incredible, Superman (Joshua), and a super-cute lion (Ian) had a great time trick-or-treating. This is the first year that Reid was super into it. He loved it the whole time and was even a trooper when it rained on us.

The only rough patch was when we went into the "haunted cemetery" in the backyard of a house in our neighborhood. They always have a cool setup so we braved it. We ventured into the dark, rainy backyard that was filled with smoke effects. I was waiting for someone to jump out and sure enough... a super scary clown with a leaf blower (yes, a leaf blower!) came out at us. He scared the bejeezus out of Reid. (See the photo on the bottom right above? That's the guy.) After we calmed Reid down and he came to realize that it was pretend, he still didn't like the clown but was much more interested in why he was "blowing air at us." :)

November Birthday Celebrations

We've had a few birthday parties to attend this month. Reid's friends Erin and Joshua both turned 4!

Erin - one of Reid's favorite girls from school - had a party at an awesome park. They played games and had some ginormous pink cupcakes, then took advantage of all the cool playground equipment.

Almost all of Reid's schoolmates, from both K3 classes, were there but you would never know it by looking at our photos. Reid, Andrew, and Max were thick as thieves the entire time...



Reid's best bud, Joshua, celebrated his birthday with s'mores in the backyard. They had the BEST weather (particularly for November) and all the kids loved playing the games that were set up. The biggest hit, though, was roasting marshmallows by the fire pit. We lost track of Reid briefly after it got dark but we found him sitting by himself in a corner of the yard, just sitting and enjoying his s'more. :)

(Here: Reid, Joshua, and our neighbor Cooper at the party.)

Carowinds!

We won a free night at a hotel in Charlotte recently, so we decided to use that as a chance to visit Carowinds amusement park. Reid is only about 40" tall (maybe a little more) so he pretty much only gets to ride the kiddie rides - and sometimes not even all of those. But Carowinds had a great kids area that we made use of for almost the entire day. What a blast we had!

We also enjoyed the hotel as much as we could - Reid loved the hot tub and was fascinated by the restaurant downstairs, so of course we had a great breakfast there that morning.


One of the absolute favorite things we did during the day was the "foam pit" (I'm not sure what else to call it) in the Halloween area of the amusement park. They had created barrier walls with hay bales and had some sort of machine that produced massive amounts of foam, similar to soap suds but not sticky. Reid played there for easily over half an hour - if we could replicate this at our house we would be the coolest parents EVER.

Fall Fun

Reid attended a special "Freak Friday" day at school this week and had a blast! They made crafts, had a cake walk, visited a special "haunted house" room at the school, and even came home with a new pet.

One of the crafts was decorating a Halloween "house" (a milk carton covered in frosting).

Here is our new pet, affectionately named Goldfishy. Ross and I have decided she might last a week... hopefully she'll live longer since we spent $20 in fish supplies! :)

Some of the Chummy Mummy cookies we made for Reid's class Halloween party.

Our jack-o-lanterns that Reid did all by himself.

Posing with the masterpieces...

The Pumpkin Patch!

We drove down to Clemson this year to visit the Denver Downs pumpkin patch and corn maze. It's supposed to be the largest corn maze in South Carolina - it was pretty big!

They had tons of activities: hayrides, a corn cannon, the corn maze, a cow "train" to ride on, rope swings... the list goes on. One of Reid's favorite things this year was the goat walk, where you use a pulley to send a bucket of food up to a plank where the goats walk up to get it. Those goats were hilarious! The also had grain boxes (like sand boxes) to play in, which he really enjoyed. I'm still finding grains in his shoes. :)

It was cool but sunny day and the sun warmed things up quite a bit as the day went on. But Reid was determined to wear his hat, as you'll see in most of the photos...

I love the photo (bottom right) of the guys ready to slide down the corrugated tubing "slide."

Reid liked shooting the corn cannon at the "rooster" (known around here as a Gamecock).

So many fun things to do!

Hanging with the Cousins

Reid and I made a trip to Alabama in early October and had the chance to the see much of my family while we were there. Here are some great photos of Reid and his cousins (technically, my second cousins, I think... this is what happens when the family gets too big!)

All the Martin great-grandchildren.

The kids plus Maggie, the youngest of the grandkids, whom Reid refers to as his "sister."

This is what most of the pictures snapped looked like. It was like herding cats to get these six to all look at the camera at the same time!

Toy Story Double Feature

Some marketing person out there had the bright idea of running a Toy Story Double Feature in theaters to remind us all how much they love those movies before the release of the new one next year. Well, Mission: Accomplished!

Reid and I planned an outing with our friends Amy and Dawson - who is super-duper crazy for all things Toy Story. We weren't sure how the two three-year-olds would do with 3+ hours of movie but they both did great! The showing we went to was at 11am on a weekday which was the absolute best time to take them. The theater was almost completely empty.

Reid has been asking to watch Toy Story 3 ever since - too bad it doesn't come out until June 2010. :( Fortunately (or not), those same marketing people had the bright idea to release some all new Toy Story toys just in time for holidays.

We already have a list going for Santa...

The boys in their Buzz Lightyear shirts with their Buzz Lightyear toys. Do you see a theme developing?

Watching the previews - very exciting!

We were 4 of the 10 people in the entire theater. We loved that!

Did I mention it was in 3D? :)

Race for the Cure

A few weeks ago, Ross ran in the Komen Race for the Cure and completed his first 5K! He has been training for a while and we are so proud of him for taking this on and doing it (because I know I sure couldn't!).

The day of the race was rainy and cold. Reid and I ventured out to cheer him on but ended up leaving the race area before it even started - it was too much for Reid to enjoy that early in the morning. I was bummed that we couldn't stick around to see him cross the finish line.

Great job, honey - we love you!

One Crazy Pumpkin

Reid's teacher sent home a Halloween assignment for us to complete. It was a blank page with the outline of a pumpkin. Reid was to color it however he wanted, then choose facial features and such from a magazine. I cut out his selections and we glued them on.

Here's what we ended up with:


Very Picasso-esque, don't you think?

A few things to be noted:

* Two eyes: one human and one dog.
* A VERY tiny nose.
* Lovely lips, that have some dog teeth from a Meaty Bone ad added on.
* Two arms, but they are on backwards.
* The cell phone: he said the pumpkin really needed a phone because "everybody has one." (It also came out that this was the real reason for the arms... how else is the pumpkin supposed to hold his phone?)
* The shoes, pointed downward because the pumpkin is "doing ballet."
* And the hair. Oh yes, the hair. It is made up of (brown) dog ears, some lovely blonde locks that look like a bad hair piece, and the very middle part on top is some little girl's hair - he placed it and said is was "perfect." I think it looks like some really crazy eyebrows personally.

There you have it, three-year-old art at it's finest!

Soccer May Never Be The Same

We signed Reid up for soccer this fall. I had my doubts, but we the City of Greenville program is inexpensive and laid back (not to mention the only one that allows 3 year olds around here). We have "practice" once a week, every Thursday night.



The program is perfect for Reid - if it were more serious or competitive, I don't think he would enjoy it at all. He's doing really great. The first week was rough but mostly because we had driven back from the beach the same day and he was overly tired. Every week since has been an improvement. Even though he still says he doesn't want to go, he begs to stay every week.



He's also doing great at listening to the "coaches" - seriously, so much better than I anticipated. :) He's learned to trap the ball, to dribble, but his favorite thing is to make a "big kick."

Tidbits...

Tonight, after a day full of fun activities, Reid was still jumping around and bouncing off the walls. He has become quite the jumper lately. He loves using the leather ottoman as a trampoline (it works quite well, actually), and piles up the beanbag, pillows, and blankets for a series of impressive jumps back and forth.

After watching the show for a while, I said, "Goodness, where do you get ALL that energy?!?"

Reid's reply: "From food, Mommy. That's where energy comes from."

Tough to argue with that logic. Remind me to stop feeding him.

Our Newest "Addition..."

... Addition on the house, that is!

A few months ago we got a pergola on the back patio. We love it - it's just like having a little outdoor room. And, it provides some shade back there several hours earlier than we would normally get it.

Now we just have to stain it... not looking forward to that!

Myrtle Beach 2009

We FINALLY got to go on our beach vacation at the end of August. I didn't think it would ever happen! Since we went to Disney in January, we planned our beach trip to the end of the summer to space things out a bit.

We spent four nights there and Reid's Granna got to come with us. She made the drive from Alabama, which is much farther than our 3.5 hours from Greenville. But Reid was so glad she was there. The weather wasn't great but it could have been worse. It was the warmest/sunniest on the afternoon that we arrived, and we didn't waste any time getting out onto the beach. The days that followed included a morning of rain and some cooler temps, but we were still able to build sand castles and play in the pool. No need for sunscreen!

Reid is a total beach kid. He completely loved jumping in the waves and had no problems when he got knocked down. Of course, it made for a less-relaxing trip for the adults, who were trying to make sure he didn't get swept out to sea. Why does the salt water not hurt kids' eyes but bath water does? Ross made Reid a cool sand "castle" that was really more of a fortress. But, it had a sand throne in the middle that Reid could sit on. He would sit down and wave at everyone passing by like he was the king of the beach. :)

Besides doing the regular beach stuff, we also went to Ripley's Aquarium - along with every other person in Myrtle Beach, the morning it rained - and spent a lot of time at Broadway at the Beach. Our resort package includes some attraction vouchers that can be used at a variety of places, including (thankfully) the kiddie rides at Broadway at the Beach. They have some pretty neat things to choose from but Reid was not interested in trying anything new. He only wanted to do the kiddie rides we did last year and, even then, he only did three of them. Over and over and over. We were there at some point for three days straight.

Ross also took Reid out to the NASCAR theme park and for his first mini-golf game, but nothing compared to the kiddie rides for him. They went to Jurassic Golf and, of course, Reid decided he was afraid of the dinosaurs. It wasn't very crowded and Ross said they covered the first 9 holes in about 6 minutes. Oh well. :)

It was a great trip - much too short, but still great. Would have been better only if I had come home with a tan...

Myrtle Beach 2009 - Photos

Reid was fearless at the beach. How is it that the kid who won't jump into the pool because his head might get wet has no issue diving face-first into huge crashing waves?

Lots of fun at Broadway at the Beach.

Reid's first mini-golf excursion and some of the MANY photos we have from riding the kiddie cars...

We ate dinner at Margaritaville one night. Reid totally loved the theme-i-ness of it all. He insisted on having his picture taken (top right) with this parrot/palm tree condiment caddy from our table. And, he got a balloon parrot - named Polly - from a guy on stilts. Super fun!

Preschool Mischief

Reid started back to school a few weeks ago and was so glad to see all his friends again. He is one of two boys in his class, and the two tend to get into trouble together consistently. Since entering K3, there is now a discipline system - card flipping. Green card = good behavior. Yellow card = warning. Red card = bad behavior.

Reid and Andrew tend to always have the same color card flipped each day. (I wonder why that is....?) So far we have had two red cards and one yellow one. On the most recent red card day, which was last Thursday, his teacher had taken a photo to show the moms at pickup. (Not to worry, Miss Ashleigh took the photo for amusement purposes only.... I think.) :)

Reid and Andrew's parents received a humorous email Thursday night with the photo below, after they had their cards flipped for spraying themselves and the entire bathroom with water during potty break:

Summer Fun

Reid celebrated his friend Bryce's 4th birthday in August. We had a great time playing water games in Bryce's backyard, and eating big blue cupcakes!

Mmm. Sailboat cupcakes...

James is helping Bryce blow out the candles.

All the kids loved throwing water balloons at the chalk target on the fence (a great idea from Sarmite!). Too bad it takes 2 hours hours to fill all those balloons and about 7 minutes for them to be done. :)

Reid ready to take his throw!

******

We had a particularly hot few weeks in July and August. I had been talking to Reid one day about going to the pool so we finally got our gear together and headed out. Of course, we got there and it was CLOSED! (You don't want to know why...)

So, Plan B went into effect. I had bought a Slip 'n' Slide a while back and planned on saving it for next summer but you gotta do what you gotta do. So we set it up! He's not really coordinated enough to run, fall gracefully (without hurting himself or the slide), and then slide all the way down the mat. But he tried and loved it anyway. I expect to see a noticeable bump on the water bill soon!

Tidbits...

A few days ago, we were driving to dinner. Reid was in his car seat, which sits behind Ross, and he says, "Hey, Daddy. You're missing some hairs back there." Out of the mouths of babes, so they say...

Yesterday, Reid fell and hurt his behind. After some soothing, he forgot about it and went on his way. Then later...

• Reid: (pointing to his behind) "Mommy. I hurt my bum."
• Me: "Your what?"
• Reid: "My bum. It means booty."
• Me: "Yes, I know what it means. Where did you hear that word?"
• Reid: "The Wonder Pets said it."
• Me: "Oh. Okay. Interesting."
• Reid: "Yeah. Bum is Spanish for booty."

His Spanish teacher at preschool is gonna love him this year, I can just tell. :)

Reid had his 6 month checkup at the dentist a few weeks ago. This is technically only his second visit. It went pretty well, though not as good as it could have.

The first time he got to be in a semi-secluded little room for his checkup but this time he was out with everyone else. He doesn't love laying back to be checked, plus he can't seem to stop his running commentary long enough for the hygenist to look at everything she needs to see.

He did okay with getting his teeth polished and was willing to try x-rays, even though they didn't go so well. It was all downhill after that though. At the end, there were three of us holding him down while the dentist did the final check and put the flouride foam on his teeth. (No photos of that because my hands were being used as restraints!)

Verdict: No cavities!

Getting the feel of everything...

Not so sure about having his teeth polished. He didn't pitch a fit (yet), but I did have to hold his hands down to keep him from interfering.

Such a big boy!

We attempted to take some x-rays. I thought he *might* cooperate because he has seen x-ray machines on tv and thinks they are kind of cool. He did a great job until they tried to put the bite-wing thingy in there and told him to sit still He was gagging immediately. And who can blame him, really?

And, this is his way of saying he was "done" with x-rays for the day. They got some, but they were blurry so we'll try again next time.