Veggie Tales Live

The week before Thanksgiving was a busy week for us. We had a doctor's appointment, I went to see Harry Potter, I worked a wedding away from SRCC, we went to a skating party and we went to Veggie Tales Live! (Not in that order) Cian just loves Veggie Tales and Bob Mano and Cumber. (Bob the Tamato and Larry the Cucumber). I was a bit nervous about how he was going to do since he has never been to a movie, much less a live show. We got there and immediately hit up the merchandise stand. (Yep, I have always been a sucker for the merch). I resisted the urge to buy each cd and movie they had there. Cian wanted to wear this bob mano hat and wouldn't take it off so I bought him a hat and a t-shirt. The hat was promptly taken off as we found our seats. Good thing he didn't do that before we bought it...

I got there early to get a good seat but wasn't very bright because I spent the "early" time shopping and didn't get into the sanctuary until about 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start. I wandered around aimlessly looking for a seat near the front (yes, I tried to sit near the front for veggie tales when I normally sit near the back for church). I couldn't find a seat that wasn't occupied by a coat or a purse (I felt like Forrest Gump, seat's taken) so we headed up the steps to the stadium type seats. This is more my comfort territory anyway.
We found a seat in the middle of an aisle near some kids Cian's age and he immediately went over to try to talk to a little girl. She was scared and her mommy was giving me the eye. I told them he was just friendly and her mom seemed to be ok with him going to sit by her daughter. That is until he tried to hit her. Oops. The show started and Cian was somewhat captivated for at least 5 minutes. It was actually pretty great and I was singing the songs and dancing in my seat but I think I must have embarrassed Cian because he wanted to sit by everyone else. The little girl and the woman on the other side of us who had a sleeping newborn and a video camera. I think Cian got in the way of both of those. Her video sure will be cute with Cian yelling Bob Mano in it though! The lady in front of us was taking pictures and Cian kept looking at her camera screen and saying Cumber or Bob Mano when he saw them in the photos. I think I got him to sit down for an entire song and then it was time for intermission. We walked around during the break, this was a big mistake. I don't think Cian had realized there were stairs he could walk up and down until this point. When it was time for the second half to start we made our way back to our seats. I could tell the video camera lady was excited to see us back to our seats. This time Cian made friends with the little boy in front of us.
He also decided that he wanted to go sit with them instead. (I think I must have stunk).
Much to his dismay he had to sit with me. The second half was just as entertaining for me, I sang and danced in my seat but Cian kept asking to go to the stairs. I thought that maybe he wanted to go down them and dance with the kids in the aisle so when there were just a few songs left we got up to go down the steps. Well, mommy was fooled. He didn't want to dance to "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything", he wanted to walk up and down and up and down the steps. If you heard a kid screaming that was mine, because his mean mommy wouldn't let him walk up and down the stairs in a dark theater. The show ended as Cian was crying at the bottom and we headed home to go to bed. I should point out that he screamed for something to drink the entire way to the car and when we got there I gave him his water from Chick-Fil-A only to realize that he has poked a hole in the styrofoam cup and the water had leaked out all over the cup holder. I didn't realize this before I gave it to him so it also leaked out all over his seat and his clothes. This makes a tired toddler very happy.
We made it home and got in jammies and managed to get a smiling picture with the bob mano hat. I would count the night as a success with a few glitches.

Cian's Birthday Party, The Details

So, I'm a planner. I am also a party blog junkie. These two things combined make me crazy and over the top when it comes to birthday party planning. I am definitely not alone in this. The theme was "What are Little Boys Made Of"or "Spins and Snails and Puppy Dog's Tails". The colors we went with were greens, reds, brown, tan and just outdoorsy boyish colors. Without further adieu...I knew I wanted to do a dessert table, that was actually the second thing I decided about the party. (The first was the theme). I have been looking at Amy Atlas and lots of other party blogs and it seems that dessert tables are what all the cool kids are doing. Our table cosisted of an amazing cake from Signature Cake by Vicki, cookies from the Signal Mountain Cookie Lady, dirt pudding cups and jars of gummy bug candies and oreos. (I used Christmas oreos because the red matched the red in the party colors). The cake stand and the stands I used were tree stumps. The tops came from Hobby Lobby and the bottoms were from Nick, Mary Leigh's husband. Steve's dad actually put them together. The table cloth is burlap left from a wedding. I mod podged scrapbook paper onto some letters from Hobby Lobby for Cian's initials on one of the stumps. the board in the back is just a piece of carboard covered in fabric.

We had favors for the kids and the adults. I called these Es-cargo. The adult favors were mason jars with cookie mix. Mary Leigh is a saint for putting these together. The kids favors were brown paper bags with gummy earthworms, dog noses, gummy bugs and tatoos in them. This stuff was ordered from Oriental Trading. We made the pennant banners with the names on them and the plain ones to hang around the party. We got the artwork from Dana Hale and used the puppy and the snail on the favors and for all the food cards. Instead of doing party hats we had dog ears for the kids/adults to wear.

So I have to say we served all junk food. This is not like me but it went so well with the party! The menu was: hot dogs, puppy chow, snips of snails chips, critter crunch, snail's garden veggies and bug juice to drink. I threw the veggies in as an attempt to make something healthy...

The invitations also came from Dana Hayle's etsy shop. She designed them as well as the thank you cards below. (Sorry to spoil it for those of you getting thank you cards, they are coming this week).
I had so much fun planning the party with Mary Leigh and I can't wait to see it come to life again when Bates has his birthday in January. I would highly recommend finiding a party buddy that you can plan with and do the same theme--it helps with both time and money! (My sister-in-laws would be good party buddies too).

Cian's Party was also featured as the party of the day at Catch My Party. You can see the feature and some more photos here:

http://catchmyparty.com/party-of-the-day/554

Cian's Birthday Party, the party

Cian in his two birthday shirts. Auntie Nina made one and Mary Leigh's sister made the other. Yes, he had a wardrobe change.

After all the planning and crafting, Cian's second birthday party finally arrived! We had the party on November 13th. The theme for the party was "What are little boys made of?". What are they made of you ask, why snips and snails and puppy dog's tails of course! I have to admit that I went a little overboard with the decorations, etc. but that is what I do right?? It's only overboard if you consider spending countless hours neglecting your family so he could have a noteworthy party overboard. That's not bad right? Seriously, I didn't spend as much time this year with his party as last year because I had a friend to share the crafting with. Mary Leigh was a lifesaver and it made the work much more fun! I will save the details post for tomorrow but today I will show you all the wonderful family and friends that were there. Amanda and Daniel came from Birmingham and my parents, my aunt and Ben and Bonnie came up from Chattanooga.

We had enough sugar there to keep a kid going for a week. I am still eating candy and cake for breakfast. This might also be because I haven't gone to the grocery store in a few weeks.... Tracy was nice enough to let us use her house for the party since ours is not quite big enough. Her kindness resulted in the loss of one swing and a broken bed. (It was actually just the drawers under the bed but that doesn't sound nearly as dramatic).

The kids on the swing before the bottom ripped off

As soon as Steve and I got there to set up Taryn wanted to put on the puppy dog ears we had as "party hats". Being the sweet aunt and uncle we are, we said she couldn't wear one until the party started. This didn't stop her from being persistent. It also didn't help that I let the cat out of the bag and told her there was a dog nose in the favor bags. I didn't however let the dog nose out of the bag. (duh dum chhhh).

Cian, his cousin Taryn and Kylie (babysitter's daughter)

So far we have gotten lucky two years in a row and the weather has been warm enough to play outside. We grilled out this time and all the big kids were able to go play four squares.

Caleb and Kyle (cousins) playing basketball

Justin! He took the time out from being a rock star to baby birthday with us. (insert shameless plug for the Protomen here. But really, Justin is awesome).

Paul and Bianca--they are awesome too!

It was fun to see Cian open his presents this year because he could do it a lot better than last year. My child now has more toys than he can play with. I think this means we can go light on Christmas this year. I told Santa to keep this year small and add on to next year.

Will was a great helper with the gifts

Testing out the new drum


Ben and Bonnie, Bonnie has her kitty ears on

We had a really good time! I had to leave after the party to go to work so Steve had to do most of the clean up. (No, it wasn't on purpose).

2 Year Check Up

We went to see Doctor Bradley today for Cian's two year check up. I think this was his worst behaved trip yet! He didn't really enjoy anything about the check up. It started with being weighed and he was kinda whiny during that. Then we moved into being measured and he didn't want to lay still. He didn't love having his temperature taken or having them listen to his heartbeat--this was not faring well for the impending shots. We gave him some Handy Manny stickers to try to appease him but he was sooo on to us. He was trying to hold his hands in front of his head try ty to block being poked and prodded. Dr. Bradley is awesome, so is her nurse, and they are awesome for being able to check up and give shots to a squirmy two-year-old.

Eventually Cian had to get two shots and have his hemiglobin levels checked. He squirmed and cried but didn't do too bad. He wanted me to kiss his band aid, it was so cute! My little guy weighs 25lbs 11 ounces and is 32.5 inches tall. He is still in the 25th percent for weight and height and the 95th for his big ole head! I think it just means big brains...

Training

The mornings are getting colder and colder and it is getting harder to get out of bed and run. I am so glad I have a group of people to run with or I think I might skip it. True Story. Patterson Park where Inormally work out/cross train is closed this week so I am missing my Joanna butt kicking. I am hoping to fit a swim in at the MTSU rec center in place of those gym days. My training schedule this week is:

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7T (one mile warm up, 7 miles marathon tempo, one mile cool down)

Wednesday: 8 miles

Thursday: One mile repeats (not exactly sure what this is, guess I will find out Thursday)

Friday: Swimming!

Saturday: 16-mile long run

With the uncertainty about a marathon date I am afraid I will be a little more lax on my training. I am finding that I am eating a ton and just thinking, "oh it's fine, I will just run it off." This is not ok! This has me eating junk and candy all the time! I actually gained a few pounds last week. (Ok, only four but those pounds can add up quick).

I had some friends that ran the ragnar relay last weekend and I am not afraid to admit that I am super jealous. The relay was from Chattanooga to Nashville and you had a team of about 12 people who took turns and had different "legs." It started on Friday in Chattanooga and they ended on Saturday in Nashville. What is fun about being crammed in a van, not sleeping for two days and having to run 17 miles you ask? Not sure, but I am sure I want to find out next year. I am in next year, I am just calling "not it" for running the Monteagle Mountain part.

Halloween Festivities

Last week was a busy week in the George house. It was Halloween week and that meant the Haunted Hayride at work, Hoedown at church and of course trick-or-treating.

We started the Halloween festivities with the Haunted Hayride at SRCC on Thursday. Steve and Cian, Tracy, Caleb, Luke, Taryn, Olivia, Rob, Kyle, Heather and Kylie came up for dinner and the hayride. I pulled out my old Little Dead Riding Hood costume for that night so I could be spooky. I was kind of worried Cian would take one look at me and go running but he wasn't really scared at all. We always do a non-scary hayride and a scary ride. They all went on the non-scary and then a hand full went on the scary. I was able to go on the employee ride after all the members had gone home.

Tracy and I at the hayrideThe kids who didn't go on the scary ride

Sunday we went to Hoedown at my church, World Outreach. Let me just tell you that this is a kids heaven. There are enormous bouncy things and small ones, tents with games, cookies, songs and candy, music, cotton candy, popcorn, cake walk, pony rides and a petting zoo. Lots of candy given in the name of God helps everyone! Cian loved riding the pony and the petting zoo but he did NOT want to sit on the bull. We split from Robbie and the older kids because they could do all the bigger bouncies than the little ones. We stayed longer than we were supposed to and didn't get home to get ready for trick-or-treating until after dark. Steve was at home waiting and was anxious to get out on the road.

Cian wouldn't actually eat the cotton candy. I took one for the team and ate it

The big boys waiting for the Titanic Slide
Cian loved riding the pony!

Tracy and her girls

We went over to Bill and Karen's for trick-or-treating. I love going to their house on Halloween. They always have goodies (candy, cupcakes, etc.) and they make hot cider and hot chocolate for us to have when we get back from trick-or-treating. They also made a warm stoup (soup/stew) for us to eat when we got home. Karen always goes with us and Bill stays home to hand out candy. We stayed out until about 8:45 and Cian did pretty well in the beginning but got pretty cranky by the end. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that all he had eaten was sugar all day?? Maybe.

I think this is Cian's "You mean I really can't have candy for dinner?" face

Jedi!

All the kids after getting home from trick-or-treating

Marathon

Ok, so it looks like the Rocket City Marathon in December is not going to happen. I am kind of sure this is God telling me I was trying to cram too much in that weekend. (Work Friday, run marathon Saturday morning, work Saturday night and go to Steve's Christmas party). Yes, Steve was right the entire time by telling me I shouldn't run the marathon. God confirmed it. Now I have this debate as to what marathon to run. I really want to run Disney on January 9th but I am not sure about finances and spending that much money to go to Orlando again. Selfishly I really want to go down there because that would be the coolest place to run your first marathon! I would love to see Belle while running through the park. Thinking realistically I am not sure it would be wise to do that right after Christmas.

Since my mileage is up so much I would like to run one soon and not lose the momentum I have gained but if I have to wait until Music City in April it wouldn't be the end of the world. Despite not having a firm decision or date for my marathon I am still going with my training! Here is what my week this week looked/looks like:

Monday: off (supposed to be cross train)

Tuesday: 4 miles easy, step aerobics

Wednesday: 7 miles sprints (1 mile warm up 10 quarter mile sprints with quarter mile recovery in between and 1 mile cool down)

Thursday: off

Friday: 6T (1 mile warm up 6 miles at marathon tempo and 1 mile cool down)

Saturday: Cross trail

Sunday: 15 mile long run

Wish me luck!

Two years..

Two years ago I was dog tired in the hospital with a newborn that I had absolutely no idea what to do with. I got to see the face I had been waiting 9 months to look at. The face that would forever change my life. I became more than just Becca, I became mom.

A year ago today I had made it through the sleepless nights of the newborn phase, I had a crawling (not yet walking) little baby who was learining how to communicate with us and crawling into everything! A little boy who had a great arm and could call us mama and dada and loved pestering the doggies.

Today, I have a full on two year old boy. One who lets you know (with lots of words) what he is thinking and what he wants. I have a boy full of personality and full of love. One who love to watch "tales" (veggie tales) and see Bob Mano and Umber. (Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber). One who loves George, curious george, and bring him everywhere he goes. One who likes to read his bible and calles Noah snowman. I have a boy who says "wuv ooo" and gives kisses. This boy also screams and says "don't like it" if I pick out the wrong shirt for him to wear. (These days are kind of a struggle getting dressed). My two year old has a look that he gives right before he does something he knows he is not supposed to do. He loves to sing and dance and pretend like he is falling off his rocking giraffe. (It is the cutest thing, I will post a video sometime). He loves to play baseball and pretend like his legos are a gun.

My life has changed so much in two years, it is amazing how one little person can touch your life so much that you know you will never be the same. The love you feel for your child is like no love you have felt before. I can't think of a cooler guy to hang out with (well Steve is pretty close) or anyting I would rather do than spend time with my boys. We will always be Cian's mom and dad and he will always be our little bee bop.

Happy Birthday Cian bee bop! We will always love you and be thankful for you.