Early Christmas Moments

Today I wrapped our "Tree Day" gifts for the kids.  Tree Day is a holiday that my mom made up to encourage her children to help put up the Christmas decorations.  We had a huge amount of decorations accumulated in my family.  My house was transformed for the month.  But it took the day to transform it.  If you are helping during Tree Day you periodically get a very small gift.  She has taught this tradition to my children so much so that they really think it is an official holiday so I scurried out to find a few presents (all under a dollar) for the kids.  This made me think of some of my favorite things of Christmas growing up.

I loved the movie Bushfire Moon (I never realized that was its name) growing up.  Our VHS version that my mom taped off the TV might have had some commercials in it, sometimes the first few seconds after an attempted edit of a commercial break were cut off, but I still loved it.  For the life of me I can't find a version to purchase now so I can show it to my kids.

You know what movie I never watched growing up?

My husband's family watches it.  Every year.  All together.  Loudly saying the funny parts exactly in sync with the movie.  Sometimes on repeat all day long.  And they still laugh every time.  You've never heard a great laugh until you hear my father-in-law's laugh.  So now I know how the movie goes.

Which is why this experience was so funny to me a few days ago:

Scene:  I'm upstairs doing chores.  Charlotte, Greg, and a neighbor friend, we'll call her Sally, were playing downstairs.  This is what I overhear:

Greg: Sally is an idiot!  Sally is an idiot!  Sally is an idiot!

I immediately came downstairs and put him on time out upstairs.  After time out and tears had subsided I sat and talked to him.

Me: It isn't nice to call people names.  Not ever.

Greg: Oh-Kaaaay.

Me: Where did you even hear that word?

Greg was silent, but the look in his eyes said I know where I heard that word and you know where I heard that word, but if you think I'm going to say anything you're nuts.  He was properly reprimanded and had to apologize, but the entire thing made me shake my head.  Christmas 2012 here we come!

Why I keep Her

 I finally found the dog pee.

 I had to sprinkle baking soda over the carpet and the vacuum it up to find where it stuck.

That's how I knew it was dog pee. 

 On our brand new carpet.

 And also on the brand new wall too.

 And sometimes I think we're too poor to own this one dog wrecking crew.

 And sometimes I think we should just get rid of her.

 And then I find a million photos 

 that Charlotte

 and Greg

 and Dan have taken of her.

 And I know I'd never be able to do that.

 So instead I buy an industrial size jug of Nature's Miracle

 And hope it works.

Leopard Family

My thoughtful sister has been sending me short clips of her day with her son, my newest nephew, almost every day since he was born.  I've been loving it.  Since I don't get to see him until Christmas this is helping to tide me over.  Because of that I thought I'd share a few clips of my baby for everyone to enjoy. 

This is a photo of my favorite birth mark that he has on his lower back.  Lee has five (or is it six?) birth marks.  I blame Dan, I may have freckles, but that man is part leopard with all of his markings.

This next video is Lee's favorite game to play-jump on Mommy's bed!

And this last photo is not of Lee, but of Greg in the same outfit that Lee is wearing.  It just cracks me up to see how differently this clothing seems to be fitting the second time around.

Funny

We have been hearing about the tooth fairy non-stop for days.  Maybe even weeks.  You'd think that the tooth fairy was Charlotte's best friend!  Then on Saturday she finally lost her tooth.  Or rather I reached over and casually plucked it out.  Then I was surprised at myself because yuck!  That's gross.  But I was tired of the play by play I was receiving about her wiggly tooth.  She was thrilled!  Thrilled I tell you!  We made a tiny felt bag together so she could carry it around with her for the rest of the day.  Yes, she carried that thing around with her for the rest of the day.  Again, gross!

It wasn't until almost bedtime when her being the child of my husband reared it's head.  She comes to me as I'm changing Lee into his jammies with a worried look on her face.  I ask her what's wrong and with a small warble in her voice she asks me, "If you lost your very first tooth, would you give it away?"  In my mind I say, "I would probably throw it in the trash!"  Out of my mouth I say, "Maybe you need to go ask your dad that question."  That was the right answer because he was able to talk to her about the tooth fairy giving her money and what she could do with the money that she couldn't do with the tooth.  Then he told her that she could make the decision to put it under the pillow or not.  (To which I'm thinking Are you crazy?!  Then we're going to have to keep track of a gross baby tooth.  For the rest of forever!)  Then after bedtime she had to get up a few times to tell us that the tooth fairy hadn't come yet.

Now I know why the tooth fairy story started.

This morning after being out in the cold Greg and I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate together.  Or rather I had hot chocolate, he had barely luke-warm chocolate.  He was blowing bubbles.  Then he lowers his cup and says, "Mom!  When I blew bubbles the chocolate splashed up to my snot thing!"  Thinking that perhaps he may have forgotten the right word I say, "Do you mean nose?"  He says, "No.  That little thing below my nose where the snot runs down."  Oh so special.  He thinks his body is specifically designed for snot drainage.

Lee

This kid is on.the.move.  Right now he loves to cruise on the headboard of our bed (just like Charlotte at that age).  He has also discovered the baby gate and how great it is that he can hold on to it.  This morning we spent a good half hour playing Mommy hold my hands while I walk around the house constantly circling around to check in on everyone.  First we went to the baby gate, then to Percie, then to Charlotte and Greg, then to Daddy, then back to the baby gate.  For half an hour.  If we changed directions or heaven forbid stopped there was much anger and tears.

He also loves food.  He caught on to everyone else eating when he was about 4 months old.  At that point I let him suck on a huge piece of apple and he hasn't looked back.  Because of his extreme like of food he isn't the best at nursing.  Don't get me wrong, we've been nursing without any major hiccups.  He just wrestles and wiggles around on my lap the entire time and never lasts for more than 7 minutes a side.  The only time I don't feel like I've got a tiny Olympian in my lap is at night when he's mostly asleep anyway.

Lee loves Percie far more than any other member of our family.  He LOVES that dog and Percie, bless her has figured out that whenever someone is holding Lee she is more likely to get attention from that person.  She ends up following him around the house.  This is probably the beginning of a life long bond.

Lee sleeps on his tummy with his diaper bottom in the air and his head shoved into the corner of his crib.  If he isn't in that position he will be waking up soon.  I could bet money on that.

Lee also LOVES Charlotte.  Her peek-a-boo gets grins and giggles every time.  He seeks her out around the house and when she comes home from Kindergarten is probably the best part of his day.

Greg

This one is all boy from center to circumference.  I never knew how fun it would be to have boys around, but let me tell you I love having him around.

He loves:

• monster trucks
• super heroes
• "just regular trucks"
• all things firefighter related
• trains
• building things

But not only does he love all things boy, he has a good working knowledge of all things Charlotte loves.  My favorite quote I overheard from him last week was, "I want to be the daddy mermaid."

And just when I think he couldn't get any cooler he will climb up onto my lap and help me make a craft.  I never thought he liked making crafts until recently, but it wasn't until Charlotte started school and Lee took a morning nap and the two of us were alone together that he decided that he likes it.  He just has to be sitting on my lap at the moment.

You know what else he likes to do when we are alone?  Help me with whatever I'm doing.  "I can help ya if dat!" is a phrase that both Dan and I have come to love (and sometimes sort of dread).  Together this fall we have folded and sorted socks, raked leaves, planted bulbs (not nearly enough yet), and read books.  We have read and read and read his favorite books.

He also knows the ins and outs of our washing machine.  And needs to know what all the warning stickers on the inside of the lid mean.

Greg's humor so 100% different than Charlotte's.  Whereas she needs to know why something is funny before she'll laugh at it, his laughter comes quickly and without any real understanding.  He has always thought physical comedy is funny and I'm pretty sure he always will, but beyond that he probably doesn't really know why he's laughing.  Just that everyone else is laughing and isn't it fun to join in?  Probably that is the best audience for Charlotte.

What he does like to know completely though is how things work.  What happens to make the door open when he pushes the little button?  Why does the light light up and the buzzer flash when he hits the side to "orthopedics" (which is what my children call the game operation)?  How do pistons work?  I tell you I have done more research on the workings of everyday things that I ever thought I would need to know.  I find myself saying, "I don't know" a whole lot more to this kid than to anyone else.

Greg is a sponge.  He picks up words and ideas and attitudes of those around him so very quickly all the time.  I feel like he changes every day because he's always trying out a new thought, word, or point of view that he's seen in someone else.  It amazes me.  He amazes me.

Charlotte

First, because I never posted Halloween photos here they are in all their glory.  Charlotte was Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for the uninitiated) and Greg was a "skawee" dragon.  Lee stayed home with me, but we thought he would enjoy the Batman cape and arm cuffs.  Getting good photos of my kids seems to be more and more difficult as time goes on!

Charlotte is my little princess.  She loves all things sparkly.

She also has a vast knowledge of Monster trucks, how to build things with Legos, and Marvel comic super heroes.  This morning she took Greg's hand on the way walking to school and said that they were Charlotte and Greg, super hero rescuers.

She is becoming such an interesting and unique individual.  Sometimes I marvel at all the things she knows and her likes and dislikes.  It reminds me that I need to take time to get to know her.  Funny how I can spend everyday alongside and working for someone and unless I stop and take time to listen and ask questions I don't really know who she is.

Charlotte loves to make people laugh.  She is constantly trying to figure out why something was funny and then trying to replicate it.  At times it can be wearying to be her humor teacher and audience all in one, but she's getting so much better.

Yesterday Charlotte read to me at reading time.  Not only could she read sight words and sound out words she didn't know, but she can string them together to form whole thoughts.  That shift seemed to have happened over night. 

Charlotte loves American Girl Dolls, like just about every other girl her age here.  But she also loves the stories.  I checked them out on CD from our library and she has listened to all the stories for Molly, Samantha, Felicity, Kerstin and right now she's listening to Josephina.  I love that she loves the stories behind the dolls.


***Also, I thought of another addition to this list that I wanted to add.  My favorite word that she says right now is instressting as in, "I find reading books to be very instresting."  Speaking of books, we have now finished all of the Junie B Jones from the library.  She is asking me to recheck them out.  Luckily I took the advice of my friend Mindy and checked out How to Train Your Dragon and she is hooked.  So we will be checking that series out next I believe.***

Dan

My husband can sleep through anything and I really mean anything (think small child climbing on him, small and not so small children running around screaming, me talking to him about just about anything after 8pm), except for the bleep of his pager and the vibration of his cell phone.

Dan's side of the bed is the right side.  That isn't his favorite side.  If he had his way I would get the entire surface of the bed.  He would get to sleep about 6 inches above the bed.  I would have to help him with that.  He's heavy.

Dan likes to sing Christmas Carols.  I've already caught him humming a few this year.

He's part of a journal club.  Not as funny as you'd think because it's medical journals, not personal journals.  Though it does make me giggle to think of him and all his co-workers sitting around writing and reading personal journals.

Here's something surprising, he prefers to eat at home rather than eating anywhere else.  I'm not even joking about that.  I thought it was because he didn't like paying to eat other places, but that's not it.  He really does enjoy the experience at home better.

Dan has been teaching Charlotte to wrestle.  I'm not talking about fooling around with Daddy time.  It is that, but he's teaching her proper form, technique, and stance.  It's funny to see a five year old girl with good form trying to pin her dad.

While At Walmart

Did you know my sister's first baby is due on Thursday?  Well it is and that seems to be what my mind keeps wandering to when I get a minute.  Today at Walmart I almost bought the Rock N Roll Johnny Jump Up because I was so excited.  It took great will power to remind myself that I will be seeing the little guy in January and he'll only be three-ish months old.  I'm sure I can buy him one then.  But boy oh boy can I not wait to see this little guy.

Last October Hurrah

Although there were many set backs last weekend we really did have a fun time.  Here's some of what we did:

Walk around Quarry Hill Nature Center.

 Carved pumpkins.  (Not too many photos of this because the camera ran out of batteries.)

 Raked leaves.  (We had a windy day after this so the lawn is covered in leaves anyway.  Oh well, we had fun.)

October

So here it is.  Evidence that we lived through October.  I simply refuse to believe that October is almost over already.  Didn't it just start?

 Also, did you know that Greg's favorite number is 159.

 And Charlotte loves to "pretend" which for all I can tell is a socially acceptable way to boss someone else around.

 Greg can get his grandpas to do almost anything with him (except possibly go into a McDonald's playplace.)

 Lee is suddenly enjoying time to himself!  He doesn't need to be connected to a human 100% of the time.  Unfortunately he has decided that the only human he wants is me.

 Greg stayed up to eat yogurt and watch football with Daddy.  They were in heaven.

 I thought I would include this photo for evidence that I don't ALWAYS dress my babies in one piece outfits.  He looks pretty handsome in this outfit.

 This is the happiest Charlotte has been at breakfast since a week after school started.

 This shows how I need to get a new flash sequence for my camera.  Thirty pictures all looking like this.  Oh yeah, and Lee cruising on the bed.  At six months old.

This was Lee after we walked Charlotte to school this morning.  I don't mind the cold, or snow even, but man does the Minnesota wind get to all of us.