St Mark's Halloween Party

Claire had her school Halloween party yesterday, and besides the fit she threw over her costume that morning, I think she had a really good time. She's been sooooo excited about being Cinderella for the last couple of months, but when the time came to wear it "for real" outside of the house, she got too nervous. She wanted to wear her jack-o-lantern shirt instead, and once she put it on her world got a lot better. The school did a little parade around the gym first, then the kids went back to their classrooms for a pizza party. It was so cute to watch her interact with her teachers and friends. Most of the moms told me their child talks about Claire all the time at home, so she must be making quite an
impression on her classmates!

Here comes the Monkey Class!

She waved practically the whole time

Those 2 girls after C are her good friends in the class.

Saying her prayer before eating

The whole class!

Must be fall in Texas

Saturday was such a beautiful day with the clear, cool weather. And one spectacular football game didn't hurt things either. When we weren't working in the nursery during the day we were outside enjoying the back yard. And once Claire went to bed, Jason and I huddled around our laptops following the play by play of the Aggie game. Claire definitely got into the spirit earlier in the day, sporting some new apparel Daddy bought for her. Gig Em!

(yes, that's a cookie she's holding)

Touchdown!

Baby Bits

We had another ultrasound yesterday, and everything is still looking great. Baby Girl is still measuring right on track, with the exception of her head, which is a whole week ahead. Yay.... (Maybe that explains how I gained 3 POUNDS in the last week????) She was lying sideways again with her feet up at her forehead, and we even got to see her stick out her tongue!

Starting next week I'll go for a biophysical profile and a non-stress test every week until she's born. This officially means we're in the last stretch! It also means we need to get serious about finishing her bedroom. Hopefully that will happen this weekend.

The gestational diabetes finally got the best of me, and I've been having to give myself 4 injections of insulin a day. Jason had to give me the first one because I'm a big wimp, but it's not a big deal at all anymore.

This little girl is quite the mover and shaker! She moves so much more than Claire and gives us a show of knees and elbows every evening before going to sleep. She also really likes to wake me up around 4:00 every morning with her gymnastics routine. Hopefully that won't continue after she's born!

Sign Language and Reading

Claire's teacher was a deaf education major at A&M, and she said in the beginning of the year that she would be teaching the kids sign language. At the time, I thought to myself, "Sure, good luck with that," and never heard (or saw) another peep about it. Then last week on the way home, Claire asked me what a D (the letter of the week) looked like. I thought she was talking about writing it, so I told her there was a stick and a hump. She adamantly told me "No! It looks like this." and did the sign for D. Then she proceeded to show me what A,B, and C look like, too. We spent the rest of the drive home talking about sign language, with her asking me what all the other letters looked like, too. I could only remember a few, but I luckily still have one of my special ed books from college that has a chapter on sign language. We pulled it out as soon as we got home, and she's been pouring over it ever since. She's taught herself G,H,L,M,U,V,W, and Y, and she recognizes a lot of the other ones that are too hard for her to make. I've never seen her so intent on learning and mastering a skill before.

And in related news, we think C's just about to start reading. She's known her letters and their sounds for over a year now, but she's just now really starting to figure out that you can put letters together to make words. She can sound out -at words and loves to read The Cat in the Hat with anyone who's willing. She also has a few sight words under her belt. Yay Claire!

Babymoon!

J and I got a much-needed break over the weekend. Claire spent the weekend at Honey and H's, and we had a little "babymoon" before the big day. We decided to stay close to home, so we packed up and headed down to the Riverwalk for a couple of nights. We stayed at Hotel Contessa, and it was sooo nice. They upgraded us to a river-view suite, but we enjoyed their rooftop pool/terrace the most. On Saturday, I spent a glorious morning at the spa, then we checked out the new farmer's market. We headed back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon on the roof enjoying the perfect weather and reading our books, then went back down to get ready for dinner. We ate at The Lodge and it was really great food. We went with the 4-course dinner, but after all the treats the chef sends out throughout your meal, it ends up being 7 or 8. I was so full. It was magnificent. We slept 11 1/2 hours (!!!) Saturday night, then woke up to a lovely brunch at a new French place--Brasserie Pavil. Yes, the whole weekend pretty much revolved around where we were going to have our next meal. What more could a pregnant lady ask for??

The Great Hill Country Pumpkin Patch

We ventured out to a pumpkin patch in Medina last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. The rain was coming down so hard when we woke up that morning, but Claire was so excited about going, we decided to go for it and hope for the best. And we got lucky! There was only a little drizzle every now and then, but that helped to keep the dust down and the temperature cool. I'm so glad we went--Claire had SO MUCH FUN. She loved walking through the pumpkin maze, finding the perfect pumpkin to take home, drinking apple cider out of a fun apple cup, playing with baby chicks, going on a hay ride and brushing the horses. This will definitely become an annual trip!

Can you find her?

Apple cider smile

Our little pumpkin

OK, this evil smile has Aunt Lou written all over it.

Chicks! She was so careful and gentle with them.

Fun in a tepee

Brushing the horses with Grandma

Happy Fall!

Party!

Claire was an extra-special birthday girl this year--she got to have 3 parties! We started off with a small get together with some of our Houston friends when they came in to visit a few weeks ago. Then we celebrated again up at the ranch with Great Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Lou and Uncle Chris. And our last shindig was at our house with all the San Antonio family. Here are a bunch of pictures of the birthday girl:

Friends!

Driving with Honey

Family picture on the buggy

C insisted on a flower cake, so this is the best I could do. And, yes, there are 4 candles. She insisted on that, too....

Really liking this birthday business

Her main present from us and all of her grandparents was a swing set for the backyard. She did lots of research to pick out just the right one:

We all think Daddy and Grandpa did a pretty good job putting it together!

Trying out the swing. Just the other day she split her lip open on it. Of course, school pictures are on Tuesday.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Open House

We had Claire's school open house tonight. It was the first time Jason had been up there, and Claire was very excited about showing Daddy around. She showed him the playground and the gym, and then took him all over the classroom telling him what she did at each center. We met some of the other parents in the class and Claire introduced us to one of her new friends, Taylor. We also got to see some of the work she'd been doing, and we both agreed she's the smartest one there. (Not that we're biased or anything.) We knew she was particular about certain things, as most 3 (!) year olds are, but we had no idea how much of a perfectionist she is. The pumpkin she decorated today is absolutely straight and symmetric, and the yarn hair on her "self portrait" was put exactly where it should be. Miss Amanda even made a point of telling us Claire did all of this by herself and how impressed she is by what she can do. Yay Claire!