Date Night!!

Let me shout it from the roof tops~~David and I are going out with some friends without Reagan!! You'd think that we are brand new parents or something and this is our first time out since he was born. That is not the case. He's 3, and our last date was on our anniversary (in June!!).

We have an amazing babysitter~~Reagan's Tita (David's mom). But Tita has 2 other grandchildren besides Reagan, and we hate to ask her to watch him because we know she has a busy life, too.

Yes, we need to find someone besides Tita. Because sometimes we want to hang out with Tita and Grandpa when they are just Russ and Maggie (or Mom and Dad).

Anyways...our night out is going to be spent with our close friends to celebrate a birthday. We're going to PF Changs (yummy!!), and I haven't had that since 3 years ago. I think the crispy honey shrimp is calling my name. I am looking forward to chewing and eating slowly and actually tasting my food rather then eating so quickly as to avoid the "I'm all done" melt down that can sometimes happen while at a restaurant. I don't think we need to worry about that happening with our friends. At least I hope it won't.

Someone asked me earlier today what our plans were for the weekend. I have no idea~~I'm just too excited and too focused on this evening to think about anything after midnight tonight.

Yeah, I need to get a life.

**Note: I changed my time settings just so that it looks like I didn't miss a day for NaBloPoMo. So for a few days I will be pretending I'm living in California. And really...I did NOT miss a day. I was just a little late for a couple of days. Remember, I did not sleep so it was still a day to me.

Twenty Minutes Late

Just 20.

We had some successes in our house today.

1. Reagan wanted to read a book right before his nap that has tons of little magnets to go with it. I told him that we could read it, but we couldn't open the container with the magnets. We would do the magnets after his nap. I didn't want little magnets all over his bed. So we read the book, and I put it on his dresser so I could take it to the living room with me~~I didn't want him tempted to play with them after I left. Well, I forgot it in his room. So after his nap I went in to get him. The book was on his dresser, but it had moved. He immediately told me that he read the book, but he didn't take the magnets out. What a good boy!

2. Same book...we were playing with it AND the magnets after his nap. Then I went to go and start dinner. He called me saying he needed help with something. When I went back into the living room he had cleaned up every single magnet and put them back into the box. He just couldn't close the box all the way. Way to clean up without me asking you to, Little Guy!

3. I made a meat loaf (from my favorite Cooking Light cook book) tonight. Instead of giving Reagan some of the meat loaf and a corn dog, I just gave him the meat loaf. He didn't eat everything on his plate, but he did try the meat loaf and mac & cheese. And he didn't ask for anything else. Super-duper, Reagan!!

Mr. Manners

David and I have been trying to teach Reagan to use his manners since he took his first breath, and we are beginning to see a polite little boy emerge. Most of the time we need to do some reminding, but we rarely ever have to tell him what to say. For example, if he is given something all we need to say is "Remember to use your manners," (instead of telling him exactly what to say) and he'll say "Thank you."

Today Reagan and I did our weekly trip to By Panda. For those of you who have never been around Reagan personally, this is his name for Chick-fil-a. He has called it By Panda for about year now...this is because the By Panda (see, it is just so common for me and David to call Chick-fil-a "By Panda" that I just typed it without thinking) we frequent is right next to a Panda Express. Which, of course, has pandas all over the building. So this restaurant we started going to that serves Reagan chicken nuggets became "By Panda".

Back to the story. We were at By Panda, and Reagan had pretty much finished his lunch. He decided that he was going to go into the play area. I stayed at the table (yes, I could see him) in case he wanted to come back and eat some more lunch. After a bit I decided that he was finished so I cleaned our table and went into the play room. I had been watching Reagan play with a little girl who was about his age. The girl's grandmother was in the room, too. I sat down next to her, and she said, "Your son asked my granddaughter her name, but she wouldn't tell it to him until they went up to the top of the slide." I said, "Did he tell her his name?" And she said, "Yes. He said: Hi. My name is Reagan. What is your name?"

Yippee!!!! He is always calling kids that he plays with but doesn't know things like "the green girl" or the "the red boy" depending on what color shirt they are wearing. I finally told him that he needs to find out their names, and I told him what to say. "Hi. My name is Reagan. What is your name?" Today was the first time, that I know of, that he did it all by himself without me reminding him.

By the way, her name was Katherine...not "the pink girl".

Spoiled Headlines

Yahoo is my homepage. I would provide a link for you, but I'm scared to even look at the page right now (keep reading). My email is through Yahoo, and I like it. I am also an entertainment junkie (I think). I would much rather see headlines that pertain to Hollywood than to depressing things like "real" news or stocks or politics. So I have my page set to give me celebrity headlines. I also have my email set to do the same thing.

This has caused me grief many times. For example, last Tuesday after putting Reagan to bed I came into the office to check my email. I pulled up the page, and glaring at me was "Garth Kicked Off of 'Dancing'!". (Was that the correct punctuation...four symbols in a row?) What?!?! The show had just ended a mere 60 minutes before hand. Usually the internet is considerate enough to wait 12 hours or so. I was so disappointed...yet, I watched the results show anyway.

Well it happened again. After putting Reagan down last night I checked my email. I was told by my homepage that Mel B. was in the lead after Monday night. Yes, I still watched the show.

Really, Yahoo. Be considerate of those parents out there that watch tv shows hours, sometimes days, after they have aired. You know what, Yahoo? It isn't even just parents. I know lots of people with DVRs, and they would like to actually watch their favorite tv shows to get results rather then have those results broadcasted so loudly over their internet pages. Don't get me wrong. I believe the information should be there. I think the stories should be available ASAP. But do the headlines have to give everything away? Leave something to be desired, you know?

So, if you are out there waiting for me to respond to an email. You're going to have to wait a couple of hours after I watch the finale of "Dancing".

I added Reagan's Santa picture in the previous post.

Oh no!!!

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!!

I can not believe that I forgot to post earlier in the day. For those of you who are a part of NaBloPoMo, please know that I have not slept...it may be 1:56am my time, but I have not gone to bed yet. So to me it is still Monday th 26th. I will pretend that I did not miss a day.

I took Reagan to the mall today to start our Christmas shopping. Remind me never to take him with me again. I really shouldn't say that because he was spectacular up until the last 10 minutes or so. How is that just a few minutes can erase 2 full hours of amazing behavior??

While we were there we stumbled onto Santa. Reagan was great!! He was shy at first, but then I talked him into sitting with Santa and smiling for the camera. He told Santa that he wants a red Ramone (from the movie Cars). I don't understand how he only told Santa one thing, but he tells me and David about 5 to 10 different things he wants on a daily basis. Santa got off easy.




Gosh. I just really feel like I let myself down...

A Gift from Heaven

A conversation with Reagan as we were parking at Home Depot:

Reagan (holding a Christmas book I bought for him last year): Santa gave me this book.

Me: No, Mommy bought you that book.

Reagan: Santa brought it to me.

Me: (not wanting to argue) Oh, ok.

Reagan: Where did it come from?

Me: (didn't hear him very well) Where did you come from? Or where did the book come from?

Reagan: Where did I come from?

Me: Mommy's belly.

Reagan: (laughing) No, I didn't.

Me: Yes you did. You came from Mommy's belly, and I'll be reminding you of that for the rest of your life.

Reagan: I didn't come from your belly, Mommy. I came from heaven.

David and I looked at each other in shock and awe.

Me: Yes. You came from heaven, and God put you in my belly.

Reagan: I came from heaven, and God put me in your belly.

Me: Right.

November 24th

I just finished putting up our Christmas tree. It doesn't have any ornaments on it or garland yet, but it will by the end of the night. A few years ago David and I invested in a pre-lit tree which has got to be one of the best inventions around (although DVR's are THE BEST). You see, I'm the only one who decorates the house and the tree. And my absolute least favorite thing to do was string the lights on (and off) the tree. So we now have a pre-lit tree. It is up, and the lights are on.

Of course, Reagan thinks TODAY is Christmas. I think we need to get an advent calendar to help him understand that the decorations go up way before the actual day.

Today is my birthday. Ever since Reagan came along, my birthday just sneaks up on us. It has always been a bit lost in the Thanksgiving holidays (last year my bday was ON Thanksgiving), but now with a kiddo my birthday just all of a sudden appears out of no where. I'm ok with that. My sister, my mom, and my little sister called me earlier. I saw my dad yesterday. I have great new appliances. So I have had a great birthday. My little sister (17) asked me if I feel older. Nope. I feel the same.

I made a cake this afternoon for our Thanksgiving dinner we're having tonight with David's family. He had this gooey pumpkin cake at his work, and he found the recipe for me to do it. I HATE pumpkin, so we substituted pineapple for it. We'll see how it tastes. I'm not the baking type.

We're getting ready to go to David's parents' house. I'm looking forward to it. Then I'll be back to "trim the tree". The cold weather here is making it seem like the holidays...much more so than the 90 degree heat we had right before the cold front hit on Wednesday. I think it is in the upper 30's right now. That is COOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD for us in Texas.