Category Archives: Happenings

Thanksgiving, 2011

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I’m now two weeks late with this. And I feel we’re well in to the Christmas season. But here are some pictures of the cousins having a blast swimming with Grandma on Thanksgiving. Somehow, I didn’t get a picture of the fabulous feast that my Mom created! We visited pretty much all day and Paul loved having so much time with his cousins, Daniela and Jessica (and baby Noah).

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Browse six pictures (larger) at Flikr with a guest pass here. To see all the photos we have online, be my friend on flickr (for free). My email on flickr is rebecca[at]reid-family[dot]org.

Halloween Festivities

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As you probably know, I hate Halloween. From the extra candy everywhere to the greedy kids to the scary costumes, I just don’t like it. But. Paul loves dressing up. So this was the year to join in all the Halloween fun. We even went trick-or-treating to the five people on the street we kind of know. Paul loved being Winnie-the-Pooh. I think the costume made him look a few years YOUNGER than he is. At any rate, he made a very cute Winnie-the-Pooh. He won an award at the ward party’s costume parade for cutest costume! I did feel a little guilty since his costume cost $4 at Goodwill; other moms actually, you know, made their kids costumes. Ah well.

I was going to wear my Karate Gi to the ward party so I could say I have a “costume.” But when I went to get ready, Paul looked at me in confusion. “But you’re going to be a Mommy for Halloween,” he informed me. “And you’ve been wearing your costume all day.”

Ok, then.

So with out further ado, here’s the cute kid. Larger pictures are on Flickr for friends and family to see and/or download.

At library Halloween story time.
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At preschool
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Ward Halloween party!
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Costume parade
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Playing carnival games
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Paul with the pumpkin he carved with Daddy
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Getting ready to go trick-or-treating
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Paul’s First Primary Program

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MG_2150[1]Paul has been singing the primary songs around the house for months, so I was excited to hear him sing in Sacrament Meeting.The primary chorister said at the practice that he was one of the loudest singers!

Alas, apparently he used up all his singing. He sat and squirmed, and he picked his nose, and he danced around on the stand. But he did just turn four, so he was the youngest up there.

Nevertheless, call me biased, but he’s still very cute ! Here he is singing my favorite song from the program. It’s my favorite because he has this adorable trouble pronouncing some letters that I hope I never forget the sound of.

Remember, “At woke or at pway, in daaaakness or yite, be twoo, be twoo and stand fo-ah the wight!”

And then, just to prove that we do know the words of “Scripture Power,” here that is too.

Paul’s Fourth Birthday

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Paul has been playing “birthday” with imaginary friends for months. He will stir up a bunch of toys in a bowl with a spoon to make a “cake,” then he’ll spread out a blanket, wrap a toy in another blanket (to be the present), and then invite me to celebrate with him. His imaginary friends regularly turned two or maybe 10, and I have had dozens of birthdays since my last special day in January.

So needless to say, I was rather excited to help him celebrate his real special day. Although we don’t plan on having a friends birthday party every year, this was definitely a year to plan something fun.

I was told that a theme is not necessary, but I chose one anyway. Paul loves the concept of Super Why!, who is a superhero for preschoolers because he can read. Besides, Paul has learned how to read, so playing on the theme of reading, alphabet, and phonics was just what he liked. My games were rather loosely based on the show — but it didn’t really matter, because Paul went around for days telling everyone he was Super Paul because he knew how to read. That was the idea in my mind.

A few fun things about planning a party with a kid who is really excited: As I began making lists, he was jumping around the room.

“Can we play Duck Duck Goose?! Don’t forget we need decorations! I need a party hat!”

(He insisted on the party hat. He wore it for about 10 seconds and then told me he didn’t want a party hat. Sigh.)

Below, I have a video that has collected still shots from the birthday party, plus us singing to him as well as still shots from the rest of the birthday party. If you’d rather, you can browse the Flickr collection of photos here.

It’s a….

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Baby Girl!

Paul has accepted that the baby will not be a monkey. A few times in the past week, he has said he hopes for a sister. Yesterday, he said he hopes for a brother. But a sister it is!

Baby is 100% normal in the measurements and has plenty of space to move around. I was about 19 weeks when I had the ultrasound yesterday and baby was even a few days larger than 19 weeks. So, despite the fact that I’m still wearing normal clothes and everyone (and I mean everyone) thinks I’m very small for being that far along in pregnancy, no worries — baby is perfect.

(The nurse that took my blood pressure even thought I was 9 weeks pregnant. I said, “no, 19 weeks.” She was shocked.)

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Paul took this picture of me last week (at 18 weeks.)

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Open mouth. She’s screaming or singing.

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Our baby girl with stars in her eyes.

A Visit from Grandma Peggy and Papa Paul!

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At little Paul’s preschool

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On the train

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At the train restaurant

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At the car museum

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At the car museum

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At the car museum with Lightening McQueen!

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At the car museum and Doc Hudson!

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Being silly at the car museum

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Being silly at the car museum

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Gasp! Don’t drive yet! You’re not 16 yet!

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An early birthday cupcake to celebrate four years.

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Yummy!

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See all the pictures from Grandma and Papa’s visit here on flickr!

“Why Is the Flag Coming Down?”

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Paul asked me this as we passed a flag on our way to church this morning. I told him that ten years ago today some bad men stole an airplane and killed a lot of people. We fly the flag half way up to remember that lots of people died.

“Who were the people that died?” he responded. “Tell me their names.”

I didn’t have any names for him. I didn’t, in fact, know any of the 3,000 people who died that day. I didn’t even see the television coverage until after I returned home from campus a few hours after the fact. I found out about the towers as I walked in to my economics class at 9 a.m. Mountain Time, just 20 minutes after I’d finished reading the New York Times and heading out for class.

It struck me, though, that his first reaction is to connect with the people who died. He could have said, “Why would bad men do that?” but no, he knows that some people are bad in the world. He just wanted to remember along with me and all the others that put our flag at half mast. I had just told him that we lower the flag to remember. He was remembering through me.

(Ten years is, he informed me a few days ago, the definition of “old.” One is not “old” until they are ten. Then they are old. He is still not old. Apparently, the attacks in NYC are now “old.”)

It was somewhat reassuring that this year I didn’t have to have a discussion with him about the bad people. “Terrorist” is still not in his vocabulary. But “remember” is. We can all do that each September 11. Let’s focus on the good. Let’s remember.

 

First Day of Preschool 2011

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It’s that time of year again! It’s (finally) time that Paul can go back to preschool!

He has been asking for weeks when he can go back. Most of his friends started two weeks ago. Today was his day! I tried to prepare him by reminding him that he has a different teacher this year, that he will have new friends in his class.

His main concern this morning?

“But will my teacher have an ABC carpet?”

She does, he was happy to see. Looks like a promising year, even if I couldn’t get a good picture of the school boy this morning…

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Summer Family Fun Days

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My goal this summer was to make it “fun” for Paul so he wouldn’t miss preschool. Well, having morning sickness (more properly, most of the day sickness) kind of drained my energy. But we did do some fun things! Here are some photos and videos of our fun activities.

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Rockford Children’s Museum, June 17, 2011

Paul got to pet some animals at the children’s museum. He talked for days about how he wanted a pet duck-turkey-donkey-etc.

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I ask him now, months after the fact, and he says his favorite was the baby duckling, “and the goat!”

The museum also had tons of imaginative play, including a train, a bank, and a post office mail box and costume. There were a number of science exhibits too, but they were geared toward a little older kids. Definitely a place to return to at many ages. He had a great time and still asks to go back.
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Train Ride

July 8, 2011

We rode the train to Des Plaines to visit the train restaurant for cupcakes. He still talks about this all the time too.

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Reading with Grandma

July 22, 2011

This is a really long video, so don’t feel obligated to watch it all. Grandma reads a page, and then Paul reads a page.

 

Schaumburg Nature Center

August 16, 2011

We met a few friends and went for a short (1 mile each way) hike at the Schaumburg Nature Center. There was a silo to climb up, and lots of nice walking trails. We had a picnic at the “farm,” where chickens begged for a few crumbs. The kids had a blast, although Paul (and some of the others) were quite exhausted by the end of the walk back.

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A nice trip with friends to end off the summer.

Trip to the Mall

August 18, 2011

Maybe this is lame pregnant Mommy, but I was looking for something else to do so we went to the mall and walked around. Paul’s friends were already starting preschool and Paul was looking for fun (he really wants to go back to school). Anyway, Paul “rode” on the coin operated toys without my paying any money… that was our fun day… Hey, he DID have fun.

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Touch a Truck

Algonquin, August 20, 2011

I thought we’d be rained out, but then the skies cleared and we headed over to our township’s annual touch-a-truck event. Paul got to sit in all sorts of trucks. What a blast! He got to turn on the police car siren, and he was most excited to see the cement truck, although he wasn’t able to sit in that one.

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We also went to the pool a number of times, but I didn’t take any pictures. I’m not sure if the summer membership was worth it (not sure how many times I went and if it was $100 worth), but because I didn’t pay $5 every time, I never felt bad going for just an hour! I wish I hadn’t been sick for so much of the summer, but then, I’m very excited to be pregnant, so I’m very happy I was!