I apparently love Santa.

I am almost done Christmas shopping. I have a few presents to buy, wrap and mail for my family in Illinois and a couple of Santa gifts and stocking stuffers to get the girls, but otherwise, I'm pretty much done. And, I would like to thank the internets for being such a fabulous place to purchase gifts.  I hate shopping and I have had to do very little of it in actual stores this year.  :)

 Oh, and I need to tell you my GENIUS idea this year.  Instead of dragging up the wrapping paper and box of bows, tape, gift tags, etc.every time I need to wrap something, I got smart.  I set up a wrapping station in my basement.  I put up the card table, set up all the wrapping essentials, and as presents are purchased or arrive in the mail to be wrapped, I just bring them straight downstairs and wrap presents while I'm downstairs doing laundry.  GENIUS! I tells ya!!!  I don't have to wait for the girls to go to bed or stare at the mess of wrapping things because I don't want to haul it up and down stairs all the time!  Best idea ever.

 I am reading a fabulous book called Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham. It's about the friendship of FDR and Churchill (duh) and it is well written and has my complete attention (which is hard to do when I am growing a human in my belly). I am sad that I won't be hitting my goal of reading 100 books this year.  I'm only at 68. But, like I said, when I'm pregnant, I just can not concentrate on books long.  I have started and put down numerous books that I just can't get into that I guarantee, once this baby has evacuated the premises, I will be able to try to read again and be fine.  It's so annoying how pregnancy just saps the brain cells from your head.

 This weekend, we are taking the girls to Sea World.  We have one in San Antonio, and the girls have been begging to go, but I did not want to pay good money to go when I'm pregnant and slow as molasses and need frequent breaks to sit and try to breath and whine about how slow and waddle-y I am.  But, I found a coupon for military members for a free day pass, so we printed it out and are taking the girls on Saturday. They don't know yet.  :)  For zero dollars, I don't mind being slow and waddle-y.  Plus, Julia is in love with The Polar Express (which, we have the movie but not the book...so unlike me!  So, she's getting the book for Christmas :) and they have a Polar Express 4-D show at Sea World we're going to go see.  She's going to be beyond excited. Then, once this baby is out and the weather is warm, we'll buy passes for next year.  They have a fabulous water park that everyone keeps ranting and raving about, so I definitely want to be able to take the girls this summer when we can.

 While looking around my holiday decorated home, I realize that I super like Santas. I have a lot of him.  Not just any Santas, mind you, but unique one.  This is my ultimate favorite Santa:

 He's the one on the upper left.  I bought him when we lived in DeKalb and I named him Fat Santa.  Every year, I make the girls come and ooh and ahh over how beautiful he is and make my annual speech about how they can not touch him because he is breakable and if he breaks I will cry like a baby.  Last year, I bought Elisabeth the Santa in the lower right corner.  He is a plastic Fat Santa that she can touch and put on the tree (because she loves my Fat Santa so much, she has asked for him when I die...which is not the first time she's tried calling dibs on things of mine after I croak).  She put him right next to my ornament, which I found cute.

Oh, and my lovely friend Kim bought me this cookie jar last year:

Omg, I love him.  He is still sold at Target and when we go, Julia says, "Oh, look, there's your Happy Santa!".

Well, I have deemed it a baking kind of day. I have a list of Christmas cookies that "need" to be made and I have totally been slacking on it this year.  I mean, it's December 7th and I just made my first batch last night! I know!  I am a slacker.

Colorado visitors.

The weather here lately has been to-die-for lovely.  Highs in the upper 60s and low 70s.  Some rain, but mostly sunny and awesome.  It's hard to remember we're in December because it's just not cold. We have needed jackets, and in the mornings when it's in the low 50s, Elisabeth does need a coat to walk to the bus stop, but otherwise it's just nice, fall weather. Plus, flowers are still blooming and thriving here!

 But, it is Christmas time, which is what we saw when our friends Kim and Chris came to visit us Thanksgiving week.  This is the tree in front of the Alamo:

 and true to Texas form, there are only ornaments of all things Texas--the state shape, the lone star, cowboy boots, etc. Not even one ornament on it that doesn't scream "WE ARE TEXANS!".

Elisabeth was so excited to have Kayleigh stay with us.  It was funny, because the minute Kayleigh walked in the door, those two went invisible.  They played and hung out and half the time we forgot they were even in the house.

 Since it was their first time visiting San Antonio (and Texas, for that matter), we had to take them to see The Alamo.

 Because it was not almost 100 degrees, we explored more of the gardens around The Alamo, which was gorgeous.  Evan, the girls, and I got to see things we hadn't on our first trip.

 Someone tell me what this plant/tree/fruit is:

 Cause i have no idea!!

We also walked to a little shopping district called La Villita National Historic District.  Honestly, it wasn't much to look at.  Yes, there were some small, weird shops, but nothing where I feel like we need to go and visit again.  We did happen to find an old church in the district though.  I insisted on going in to take pictures.

Called "The Little Church", it was built in 1879.

Then we walked down The Riverwalk back to our car.  The Riverwalk is something that everyone who has ever visited San Antonio has told us "you have to go to The Riverwalk!", but, honestly, we don't see what the big deal is. We've walked down the part where there's restaurants and where it leads to the mall, but...it kind of sucks.  I'm not going to go visit a million restaurants in one day and I'm certainly not going to go to the mall all the time (omg, I hate malls).  But, when Kim and Chris were here, we found a different part of The Riverwalk we hadn't seen and I liked it much, much more.  No restaurants and swarms of tourists.  No mall and stupid shops.  It was quiet and very pretty.

These are tree roots!  How creepy/cool are they?:

I told Evan maybe we should walk more of The Riverwalk (past all the commercial parts) and we might find what all the hype is about, because that small part we walked was pleasant.

Kim and Chris were here for Thanksgiving.  Since we'd already had a traditional Thanksgiving when my parents came to visit, we all decided to just have a Chinese take-out feast.  We had a big order.

It was awesome.  It was relaxed and yummy and the clean up was super simple.  I would not be opposed to more Thanksgivings like that one.

Don't worry, I totally still made a pie...a pumpkin pecan pie.  It was yummy.

All too soon, Kim, Chris and Kayleigh had to go back to Colorado.  The girls were sad, but we've already made plans for more visits (including us going to visit them in Colorado in June!).

I love haivng friends that are family.

Solitude.

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling grumpy.  Never mind that it was my sleep in day and I slept until 9:30.  Never mind that Evan and the girls were in a fabulous mood.  I was a big, fat, pregnant crab.  I wanted to wake up in a small apartment that only housed me, where I didn't have to talk or interact in anyway with anyone.

Ever have those days?

 Thankfully, my family did not take it personally.  They gave me some space and went about their (annoyingly) jolly ways. It really wasn't personal, but some days I just long for solitude.  I long to be in my own little bubble where I have no one depending on me, monopolizing my time, expecting anything from me. On those days, I would stay in bed as long as I liked.  I'd wander into the kitchen and make 2 eggs over medium with an english muffin lathered in butter.  I would curl up on the couch, cover myself in blankets and lose myself in a book.  I'd have a hot cup of never ending coffee at my disposal, followed by endless glasses of Evan's sweet tea when I was done drinking coffee.  I'd probably watching mindless tv while crocheting beautiful scarves and afghans. I'd take a nap and start all over again, never having had to talk to anyone in real life or on the phone. I'd take a walk (cause my pregnant body would not be tired or swollen) and then go to bed early.  That is my ideal isolation day.. Saturday was one of those days.

 But, for every one of those isolation days I long for, I am given a day filled with silliness and giggles; questions and bickering; random hugs and a few stolen kisses; exasperation at ears that won't listen and a feeling of overflowing love at a glance of two sisters getting along in a loving manner; small kicks and pushes from the newest of our babies growing in my belly.

As I was reminded quite recently (after complaining about a certain 3 year old who must have tabs on my whereabouts at all times) by someone who used to have a little boy who was most demanding in the attention department, I will miss all this someday.  I will soon have teenagers instead of small children.  And even those teenagers won't be sticking around long before I will have grown up children.  I hear that happens much faster than I can imagine.

So, I shall take these days of overwhelming madness and try to appreciate them (though I know full well, I probably won't the majority of the time). I will try to minimize my need to hermit away because some day I will have plenty of hermit days...and I will probably long for small giggles and little hands that instinctively reach for mine.

It's hard being a Juju.

Julia has been exploding into a preschooler lately. 

She has an insatiable appetite for letters and numbers.  She is constantly asking me what different letters are, making me trace my finger along the words while I read, helping her count past 20, and insisting on me writing the numbers and ABCs so she can trace them.

Her verbal language is expanding too. She is figuring out more words and better sentence structure, but that makes her stutter as she tries to say the words in her head outloud.  When she stutters, it totally breaks my heart.  Yes, I know it is totally age appropriate.  Yes, I do realize that just this past spring break she was a stuttering fool when she was bursting with new words and that the stuttering went away once she had it mastered.  Yes, my mother-in-law is a speech pathologist and at my disposal for any questions or concerns (she is not concerned by any means).  But, that doesn't mean that listening to her stumble over her words is not the most heart wrenching thing to listen to.  I have had to tell Elisabeth that we don't interrupt her or try to finish her sentences for her; mainly because that pisses Julia off to no end and usually causes a full blown tantrum, but also because she needs to be able to figure it out without pressure.

And, as with every developmental growth, Julia has been a bear to deal with. Julia has also been determined to do things on her own.  She gets herself dressed and undressed.  She uses her stool to try to reach what she can so she doesn't have to ask for help.  She is furious (FURIOUS) if you at all try to do something for her when she is determined to do it solo.  And her temper?  Boy howdy, that girl is a tiny volcano.  We have really had to scramble to figure out ways to deal with her outbursts. Obviously, hitting or kicking are not allowed, but when she's mad, she needs to physically let it out (unlike our Ebeth who either needs to talk/cry it out or pouts somewhat quietly).  So, we've been letting her leave the room/table/area where her anger started and do her own thing until she can calmly come back and be human again.  Sometimes, when she has decided to throw/slam/destroy things in her anger, we give her the option of going to her room to chill out by herself or with our help.  Honestly, she usually asks us to come with.  Once she's in her room, she snuggles into her bed and we read books or cuddle or she cries until she can talk about why she's so mad.  She is much more of a "3 year old" than Elisabeth ever was. As I've said a million bajillion times, they are so opposite of each other.

Julia's definitely on her way to being her own independent person, even if she does need to have me in her line of vision at all times.

I am most curious to see how she will do when this new baby I am growing in my belly joins the outside world.

Why I am thankful we kept our stupid cats.

Our cats were an impulse buy in June of 2009.  We'd always promised Elisabeth that we would get cats when we moved into a house instead of our apartment.  Evan and I had both grown up with cats and enjoyed them over dogs.  So, one day, while out and about exploring Colorado Springs, we decided to stop at a Petsmart and see the cats there. We ended up leaving with a 1.5 year old male Tabby cat that we named Roosevelt and a 4 month old gray and white kitten we named Figaro.

Now, I am sure that for those of you who own pets, I don't need to state the obvious; that taking care of pets is much more time consuming than being a child whose parents take care of pets.  Yeah...we know that now.  Honestly, after the first couple of months, we were tempted to give them back.  They both had their claws, so they were scratching the crap out of our furniture.  We weren't sure how'd they do being left alone in the house at night, so we shut them in the basement every night, which led to them climbing the insulated walls and tearing them to shreds.  I didn't realize that cats could be so picky about when their litter needs changed or that they'd find new places to pee if they felt there was no more room in their litter box.  We also  found out that Roosevelt prefers to be outside about 75% of the day, which we were unsure about since he tended to hop the fence and wander the neighborhood.

But, the thing that has kept us from every getting rid of the cats (who still claw the furniture and meow at our door at night to be let in so they can sleep at our feet) is that they are so good with our kids. Actually, they are good with almost everyone's kids, because now that we live in Texas and have no fence, they wander around our yard and everyone else's yards.  Roosevelt is a total pet junkie and will roll onto his back for belly rubs the minute any one comes over to say hi to him.

 He is kind of camouflaged here (he's at the base of the tree that Julia is climbing):

 but Roosevelt follows Julia around like a puppy.  They honestly play tag together outside.  It is hilarious to watch.  He lets her pick him up and carry him around willy nilly and never fights or tries to get away.

 He even lets her jump with him on our little trampoline.

 He is friendly and playful and is Julia's buddy.  He likes to be in the middle of everyone and the neighborhood kids love it when they see him outside.  Of course, they all flip the eff out when he scales the trees, but I think I have convinced them all that he is just fine because, you know...he's a cat.  They do that kind of thing.

 As for this massive cat:

he's not near as friendly and bold, but he is also very good with the kids. If they can catch him, he goes limp in their arms and allows them to carry him around (which is hard for Juju because he is "sooo heavy").  Plus, he and Roosevelt are very much best friends for life.  They snuggle and are usually always hanging out together.  I mean look at them:

That is true cat love people.  How could we ever separate them?

Preschool

Julia will be 4 in June.  We've always planned on her going to preschool at 4 because...well, because we think she'd love it.  Plus I'm an advocate of preschool (um, I have taught it for goodness sakes) and know the benefits of being apart of a preschool class to a little one.  If we were still in Colorado, she could have even started this year (at age 3), but I probably would have kept her home until she was 4.

 But, here in Texas, at the school district Elisabeth attends, preschool is not offered until age 4 and it is an all day program.  Yep, all day, as in, 7:45AM-3:00PM.  That is the same schedule my 3rd grade Elisabeth has.

Evan and I discussed it and we just can't justify sending Julia there for an all day preschool program. It's a long day for someone so little (and four years old is quite little, which I think people forget).  I looked at the schedule on the school's website, and there are a lot of things that she would love, but eating lunch and napping at school at age 4 feels more like I'm sending her to day care instead of preschool.  It would be different if I needed her in day care, then that full day preschool would be a godsend because it's free through the school district, but I don't.  However, I am going to call the school and see if just taking her for half the day is an option, because if it is, then we'll definitely sign her up.  I do think she'd love preschool, just not a full day's worth.

 The thing is, I feel all this guilt about her not experiencing preschool, but I never went. I started the whole school experience when I walked into my first day of Kindergarten.  And, it's not like I'm worried about Julia's development or learning abilities--she's pretty smart and inquisitive with no red flags that would suggest she needs any early intervention.  I used to be concerned about her timidness in situations where she had to leave me behind (because the girl might love my company to no end), but enrolling her in dance class has really shown us that she is fully capable of being in an environment without me when it's something she loves to do (and she does lovelovelove to dance!).

Plus, um, I have my bachelor's (and some master's classes!) in EDUCATION.  I am fully aware what she needs to know to be ready for Kindergarten and am pretty sure that I could, you know, teach her things needed to know before she steps into her first day of Kindergarten.

It just seems so odd keeping her at home with me another year when Elisabeth started day care at the age of 2.5 and loved every single minute of it.  Ebeth was begging us to go to school so she could meet friends!!  Granted, I worked in the same day care (in the room right next door!) and was able to see her all day, every day.  She also flourished in that kind of environment because the girl thrives off of interacting with other people.  Plus, we had no choice--Evan was in law school and I had to work to make ends meet.  It's just different with Julia.  I'm home all day and don't have to work.  She has never been in a day care experience at all (and I don't think she would have taken to it the same way as Elisabeth did).

So, overall, I feel much better with our decision that, if half day preschool is not an option (because paying tons of moola for a private one is not something we're willing to do...mainly because everything here is a million miles away and also because private preschool is EXPENSIVE!), then Julia gets to stay home with me and the new baby next year.  She can start Kindergarten (which is also full day) when she is five.

Exploring San Antonio with Memaw and Pepaw

While my parents were here visiting, we took them to some new places we'd been waiting to visit until their arrival.  One of the nice things about living somewhere new is acting like a tourist because, well, we are!!!  The weather was so lovely and we were able to do everything we'd planned.

One of the things we'd been waiting to go and see was right on Ft Sam Houston (and just mere blocks from our house).  It's Ft Sam's Quadrangle. Built in 1876, this place is still actively used.  

 We'd been waiting to visit this place until my mom came because one of the attractions of the Quadrangle is the wildlife that live in the park in the middle.  There are deer and lots of birds and, if you bring food, you can feed them.  We didn't tell my mom about the deer (which are her favorite animal) until we had walked into the Quadrangle's grounds and she saw them in the distant.  She was most excited.

 Elisabeth was able to feed at least 3 deer.  They seemed to really like her...and the apples I'd brought along.

 Eventually, one of the deer actually ate from my mom's hand, which totally made her day.

 There were tons of geese and peacocks roaming the grounds too.

 My dad super loved all the history.  There were plaques everywhere telling about all the things the Quadrangle had been used for and the important people who had worked or visited it.  This huge tree:

 was here before they even built the buildings, so the Quadrangle was built around the tree.  It is huge and gorgeous.  It was fun and I told the girls we'd definitely be back and maybe next time we could have a picnic.

 Across from The Alamo is Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, which Elisabeth was beyond thrilled to find. We told her that Pepaw would definitely want to visit that with her, so we spent a day there.  It ended up being much more interesting than I anticipated. I actually learned.  Here are the girls sitting in the largest tire ever made for use:

 They also had cool mind-trick attractions.  This was a tunnel that spun (with lights that my camera's flash whited out) while you crossed a bridge.  It was very funny to watch people losing their balance while crossing. My sister was convinced that the bridge moved too, not just the spinning tunnel, until I made her stand with me at the end and watch people go through.  I think the girls (and my mom) went through at least 3 or 4 times.

 Part of the Ripley's Believe It or Not tickets included going to the wax museum next door.  Ebeth was ecstatic to see the Harry Potter crew.

 And Abraham Lincoln.  (Have I told you that she is really hoping the baby is born on Lincoln's birthday on February 12th?)

Of course, since I do have a membership (!!!), we had to take my parents to visit the zoo.  It was a pretty cool afternoon when we went, so lots of animals were actually awake and active...including the BEARS!!!!

 This bear:

 is 30 years old. She has a sign by her area that says, due to her age, she is allowed to do whatever she wants, which includes spending days inside the inner pen area if that's what she so desires.  Elisabeth was most excited to actually see her since she's never been out the few times we've been before.

It was a fun visit. The girls are already thinking of new things to do with them the next time they fly down.