Thursday, January 31, 2008

Birthdays

Last August, we were at the beach for my niece Kathleen's first birthday. We made cupcakes and had a few presents in honor of the occasion, and Kathleen seemed pretty excited about all of the commotion. When presented with her birthday cupcake with a candle on it, however, things went downhill. Kathleen was terrified of the burning candle and not only refused to eat the cupcake, but she started to cry. Even after the offending candle was removed, she would not touch the cupcake.

So, we were a little worried about Nathan's response to his birthday cupcake, having seen what could happen. We should have remembered that Nathan is a future Boy Scout, and thus a future pyromaniac. He was fascinated by the candle, so much so that he reached out to grab the still-burning cupcake and put it out with his chubby little fist. The burn wasn't too bad, and Nathan's tears dried up as he started to eat the frosting on his cupcake. Yum! He ate off all the frosting from both cupcakes and then downed the cake itself. Chocolate makes everything better.


The following day was Chad's birthday, and we celebrated with sushi and a ten-layer cake from Mike's Farm, a local restaurant on a farm. The cake was delicious and finished in a scarily short period of time. We did have friends over to help with the cake, plus Chad's parents came in for a long weekend to see the sights of Jacksonville and to celebrate two generations of Reese birthdays. All in all, an enjoyable and successful birthday weekend, and it really has taken me a week to recover. Yikes! Speaking of which, it's time for a nap...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Happy Birthday!


Nathan last year




Nathan now


Happy birthday Nathan!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Our puppy

Chad and I have recently acquired a puppy dog named Nene. He's very cute, but he's definitely not trained yet. He's just learning the word no. Sometimes he pretends not to hear you the first few times you say it. He loves to bark at other dogs - even from inside the house he can hear the call of his own kind. His favorite blanket is the one with the puppies on it so that he can bark at it. He also enjoys chewing on shoes, destroying any paper products he sees, and playing in the yard. He can quite successfully beg for table scraps, going back and forth between Chad and me when we're eating dinner. He also successfully finds scraps on the floor from when I made dinner three days ago. He's a very cute puppy, but puppies grow up into dogs. Perhaps our little boy will return to us soon.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Back again

You know how when you get really behind on something, like perhaps your blog, the longer you take to catch up, the harder it is to do it? You think, man, it's been almost a month since I've posted - what do I say to bring it up to speed? Here's my extremely belated attempt.

We had a great Christmas. My parents and Mike drove down from Raleigh, and we enjoyed some beautiful weather and each other's company. Nathan had a ball Christmas morning tearing paper and eating bows. At first he was a little confused - we'd been telling him all week that he couldn't tear the paper but now we were encouraging him to do so. But then he got into it as we knew he would. He loved all his new toys and clothes and has a blast playing with all them. We knew since it was his first Christmas that he didn't really *need* very much - the paper was enough fun. It was time to get him some new big boy toys, though, so Santa came through for Nathan. Christmas shopping was so easy this year since I could let him pick out his own toys, and he wouldn't remember them come Christmas morning. If only they were always so forgetful... Nathan loves to ride around on the car and play with all the toys on it. He always has to check in the front trunk to make sure there isn't anything fun hiding there.

After Christmas, we went up to Raleigh for more time with my parents and Mike and a family holiday dinner on the Saturday after Christmas. My Uncle Bob, Aunt Arlene, cousins Dave, Kevin, and Jenny with her crew all came over for dinner. Nathan was having fun playing with his cousins, who thought he was a live doll, and we were enjoying him playing with his cousins, so we left him unsupervised for perhaps a little too long. When we finally saw him again, he had been "made over" by his cousins. The sash was stunning and went particularly well with the dinosaur shirt.


Last week, the weather got downright frigid for these parts - we had highs of 36 and lows of 14, which came close to breaking the records for the respective days. I had a YW presidency meeting down the street on the coldest day, so Nathan and I went on his first ever Polar Bitanic. Now for those of you who aren't Hendersons, a Polar Bitanic is a term my dad and his siblings came up with for explorations on very cold days. Fifty years later, the term is still around. Nathan got all bundled up North Carolina style - no hats, gloves, or scarves. He doesn't own any. I did put a blanket on his lap, though.

After that brief flirtation with winter, we've certainly been back in the warm weather this week, with highs of 75 or 76 for yesterday and today. From a low of 14 and high of 36 last Thursday to a high of 76 five days later. I love North Carolina. Nathan and I went on a walk to the river yesterday, but this time, no coats were necessary. We didn't need long-sleeves or shoes for that matter. The weather was glorious, and Nathan's favorite part was when we sat on the edge of the dock and swung our legs. It made him laugh.

My not so favorite part was the block incident. Nathan almost never throws things, and even if does, he doesn't throw far. Let's just say baseball is not in his future. But yesterday, he decided to see how far he could throw his orange block. It turns out he could clear the stroller and even the dock as his block went soaring out into the river. Thankfully, the tide was coming in and the water was blowing upstream, so it bobbed up to the next dock and with the help of a big stick, the block was rescued from a life among the cypress knees and rushes. After a trip through the dishwasher, it's as good as new. What a funny stinker.

And that is a brief update on the Reese's. Hopefully I can do a better job of staying on top of the blog in 2008. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Years!