December 2006

12/31/06

Since Monday is Jan 1, I wanted to do the rest of the Christmas pictures today.  You know how I hate to have pictures dated from one month on a page from a different month.  Silly librarian tendencies.

The grandparents came over from their hotel around 8:30.  Much to my mother's chagrin, Ben and David had already done most of the minor food preparation before she arrived.  We had our usual Christmas morning spread of yummy noshes like Christmas stollen (from a bakery instead of homemade), sausage-cheese balls, mini-quiches, baby oranges, and lots and lots of coffee for all the guests.  David had a Coke, I had a cup of tea, Tommy had some milk, and we were ready to open presents.  For the first time in my life, I decided to be totally relaxed about the whole present opening thing and we didn't have any rules or procedures.  We thought Tommy might get too crazy if he had to wait for eight adults to slowly open gifts one at a time in order before his turn came around again.  I started to freak at one point because too much was going on, but everyone kindly slowed down for my benefit.  They all needed refills on their coffee anyway.  I didn't actually do a very good job of taking pictures in all the chaos.  Actually, I was starting to feel pretty sick by Christmas day, so I didn't really take many pictures for the rest of the visit.  I had fully intended for us to use the timer to get a rare group shot of everyone, but it didn't happen.

Tommy made out like a bandit of course, although I was pleasantly surprised by everyone's restraint.  He got all of the specific gifts he'd been hoping for, plus a few that I thought would be perfect for him at this age.  The great thing about being almost 3 is that every single thing is great and exciting.  He said "my very own...!" every time he opened something.  I never feel quite comfortable listing all of his presents here, but I do it every year don't I?  I guess it's nice to have a record for posterity.  Please forgive me if I forget anything.  He really does love every single thing he got this year.  So here's the list -- a nutcracker, lots of books, cool red rubber boots (see hilarious dancing picture below), a one-person teapot and cup combo, a motorized CAT backhoe (or whatever it's called), a gigantic marble run set (that David played with all day), a gorgeous hand-crocheted dinosaur afghan, various toy dinosaurs, his very own digital camera, a Littlest Pet Shop set, and two games. 

As you can see, we did eventually change him from pajamas into real clothes.  Our Christmas dinner was a big success, and I totally dropped the ball on taking pictures.  Mel, Sylvia, David and Tommy were at my end of the table.  Tommy took lots of pictures, but I think he deleted most of them before we got around to explaining what the different buttons on his camera did.  Maybe I'll post the best of Tommy's pictures next week.  It's pretty hilarious to see what he finds picture-worthy.

So that's it!  Tommy had a great time playing with all the relatives.  We were sad that his Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy couldn't be with us, although I have no idea where we would have put them if they'd been here.  Uncle Ben and Aunt Erin spent loads of time playing with Tommy, which was great for both Tommy and me.  Tommy was very sad when everyone left, but he's happy that David's still home from work so they can play together all day long.  He's going to go through major attention withdrawal when David goes back to work and it's back to just the two of us all day long again.

12/30/06

We're buried in snow again.  The snow is almost touching the bumper of David's truck and is getting close to the lower edge of our front window sills.  It's a LOT of snow.  David's guessing there's about 18 inches on the ground in our front yard, and it's still snowing.  Too bad I didn't send David out for groceries yesterday.  Too bad we never picked up a snow shovel.  Good thing David doesn't have to go back to work until Tuesday! 

Plus, I'm still sick.  You know how when you cough a lot your stomach muscles start to really ache?  Well, it feels even worse when said stomach muscles are stretched out over an area roughly equivalent to a 20 gallon crock of sauerkraut.  (Yeah.  That was pitiful.  I couldn't think of a better size comparison example.)

So on with the Christmas pictures!

We started out our gift giving in Tommy's room on Christmas Eve.  He had all the presents to everyone from him under the little tree in his room.  I thought he'd remember the giving part better if it wasn't mixed in with his present opening Christmas morning.  He had a good time passing his gifts out to everyone and helping them open them.  Ben and Erin were in the room too, but I didn't manage to get a picture of them.

Tommy went to bed without a fuss Christmas Eve.  Even though he's been role-playing the whole Christmas morning and Santa Claus thing for weeks, I don't think the anticipation was real enough for him to have trouble sleeping.  Halfway through his books, I remembered that we had not yet set out cookies for Santa, so we had to interrupt his bedtime routine for that.  We set out a plate of cookies and then he pointed a finger in the air and said, "Don't forget the most important thing!  A glass of milk!"  The family all thought that was super cute and funny.   

The next morning, he came into our bed for his usual morning-time snuggles, which was nice.  When we reminded him that it was finally Christmas morning, he excitedly ran into the living room.  Ben & Erin got up to see his response to Santa's gifts.  He found the Crazy Crocodile he's been begging for (a dud of a Hot Wheels car thingy-ma-jigger that doesn't really work) as well as a big box of plastic play food, dishes and utensils and a stocking full of little stuff.  In the week before Christmas we would ask him what sorts of things Santa might leave in his stocking, and he always answered "toys and chocolate and baby oranges and candy."  Santa met his expectations, and even added a small bag of Cheetos.  Tommy's wildly enthusiastic reaction to the Cheetos was "My very own bag of Cheetos!"

Whew.  I think I'm going to stop here for today.  Come back Monday for part two of Tommy's 3rd Christmas experience!    

12/28/06

Ug.  I'm sick.  It's going to take me a while to get the Christmas pictures up.  We had a wonderful visit with all our company, but now that they're gone I'm kind of just resting on the couch while Tommy and David entertain themselves.  Here are the first few pictures.  Tommy got to make a gingerbread house from a kit with his Aunt Erin, Uncle Ben and Grandma Sylvia on the first day of company.  My parents didn't arrive until the next day, so they sadly missed out on this activity.  Don't worry.  There will be plenty of pictures with them later.  It just might take me a while to put them up.

Construction

Testing the candy decorations for flavor

12/21/06

Tommy got to play outside with Eric and Karen yesterday.  They really helped me out by taking him outside.  I was not looking forward to playing in the snow in the minimal winter gear I have that still fits.

The aftermath.

12/20/06

It snowed for six hours yesterday, and then snowed more last night.  Now it's snowing again.  Looks like we're going to have a white Christmas.  Tommy and David are loving it.  Hopefully the roads won't be too bad for David's parents and my brother and sister-in-law.  They're planning to arrive Friday.

  This was taken at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  There's more snow now.  David came home early so he could take the boy outside.  I'm going to have to do it today.  Maybe I'll just bundle him up and send him out in the backyard by himself.  Yeah.  That's the ticket.

12/19/06

I think most people have gotten Christmas cards with our family picture in them by now. Sorry if you were expecting one from us and didn't get one.  Now that that's finished, I've put the good photos from our 12/06 Portraits up on a separate page for you.  Enjoy!

12/18/06

Let's see.  Where to start.  It's actually much easier to think of short, interesting things to tell you when I post every day.  Taking three-day weekend breaks always make it hard to know how much to write Monday morning.  I'm going to go the lazy, bulleted list route this morning.

• I hadn't mentioned it, but David was sick with his third cold in two months last week.  Poor David.  We can't quite figure out why he keeps getting sick this year.  He's usually super healthy.  Tommy woke up coughing this morning, so if he's going to really get sick he'd better get really sick really fast.  That way he'll be well by the time company arrives Friday night.  Of course it would be better if the boy fought it off and didn't go all snot explosion on us at all.  I don't have any symptoms so far, but will probably catch it from Tommy and be the sickest Sat-Mon.  That sounds about right.  (Oooo. Sarcasm first thing Monday morning.  Maybe you should come back tomorrow.)
• Tommy's still doing really well with potty training.  We still have to remind him to prevent accidents, but that's not too bad.  It might be hard to stay consistent when we have a house full of company, but we didn't manage to get the carpet cleaned anyway.  He did have a couple of random set backs this weekend.  He was on the verge of getting upset by both, but we managed to stay calm and cheerful enough to reassure him.  Luckily for me both happened when David was available to help.
• We had company over for dinner Friday night and it was a really nice evening.  I made pot roast.  Tommy played wildly with everyone and then went to bed easily at his regular time.  Hmm, there's not really much to say about it is there?
• There's less than 10 weeks until the baby's born.  Eeep!  We really are going to get the room ready after Christmas.  And we should probably buy some things.  Have I mentioned that we're doing the nursery in Classic Winnie-the-Pooh from Target?  I'll do a small baby registry there after Christmas.  We're going to paint the room a boring cream this time since it was a pain to re-paint Tommy's room.  And I'm definitely not painting the inside of the closet a bright color this time.  Cream will be just fine.  Then we'll put up a Pooh wallpaper border and frame a set of Pooh prints I've had since I was a child myself.  I'm guessing most of the other stuff in the room with be in greens and blues. 
• We're all done with our Christmas shopping.  All I have left to do is one trip to Costco and one trip to the grocery store.  I'll probably make a bunch of Christmas cookies on Friday too, unless I run out of energy. 
• I'm giving David a pair of red Chuck Taylor shoes that match Tommy's red shoes.  He knows what he's getting because I made the mistake of letting Tommy help me wrap them.  I told Tommy that presents are secrets.  Tommy listened very seriously, so I thought he understood that he wasn't supposed to tell Daddy.  Nope.  His idea of a secret is something that is whispered into the ear of a special person.  After David got home that night Tommy waited until they were alone and then he whispered "Big. Red. Shoes." in David's ear over and over again.  He whispers his secret to David at least once a day.  

12/14/06

The nice thing about being almost 8 months pregnant around Christmas is the built-in take-it-easy factor.  I just can't do hours of running around in one day.  Tommy appreciates it.  Coming home before I exhaust myself leaves us plenty of energy for things like making cookies. 

Tommy had great fun with the sprinkles on the drop sugar cookies.  I let him loose on his own once I realized that massive amounts of sugar sprinkles wouldn't burn too much.

12/12/06

David's parents bought Tommy the BBC documentary series about the ocean that he's wanted for a long time.  They gave it to him at Thanksgiving.  He's been rather obsessed with it since then.  Sometimes I think he's just an average almost-three-year-old.  Then he picks up on something like this.  There are 8 one-hour segments in the set, and his favorite one is about THE DEEP.  You have to say it in a very loud and ominous voice.  That's what Tommy does.  He totally gets that the ocean is very big, but if you go way, way down to the deepest part where it is very dark then you'll find the amazing deep sea creatures that he finds so fascinating.  Our deep sea vocabulary is growing almost as fast as Tommy's is, but it's hard to keep up.  He talks about bioluminescence and copypods and deep sea jellyfish and gulper eels and angler fish and spook fish and fangtooths and volcanic smokers and PREDATORS (again with the ominous voice).   All of these have roles in the elaborate games he comes up with.  Luckily we have one book that his Uncle Terry bought him about the ocean that has one measly page about THE DEEP in it.  We look at that page a lot.  I'm going to try to find him a photo book about THE DEEP, but it's hard to tell on Amazon which ones will be mostly pictures.  So if anyone sees a good book on the subject when you're out and about let me know, and I'll send you money for it.

We had our photos done yesterday!  I'm really happy with the results.  This time we got some with all three of us and some of just Tommy.  I'm not going to post the best ones online until our friends and family get their Christmas cards.  That way I won't ruin the impact of the photos enclosed in the cards.  I really need to get moving today and get them finished and mailed. 

**UPDATED**  All the professional photos are on the 2006 Portraits page now.

12/10/06

Tommy likes to sing lullabies to the baby.  (That's a tan-colored panel on my pants, not skin.)

I've put up the week 28 pregnancy picture if you're interested.

12/08/06

Sudsy Santa says "Ho Ho Ho!"

While pretending to fly across the night sky in Santa's sleigh, Tommy said he could touch the clouds.  I asked him what they felt like.  His reply was, "Macaroni!"

12/07/06

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care"

I finally found a yarn darning needle at a fabric store and sewed Tommy's name on his stocking.  Mine is the original (more than 30 years old!).  David's was made for him 11 years ago, right before we got married.  I had Tommy's made last year and had enough forethought to ask for an extra one "just in case."  Tommy said I needed to sew "Baby" on the last one.  I replied that we needed to give the baby a name first, and then I'd sew that name on the stocking.  His response was "his name is Baby Jesus!"  Um... I think there are some gaps in his religious education.  He knows Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday, but now he's got it all mixed up with the imminent birth of OUR baby.  Oh well.  He'll figure it out.

12/06/06

We've had a busy first part of the week.  Sometimes it's hard to remember what we did after a few busy days.  On Monday we had our weekly play date with Cindy, Claudia and Duncan.  While Cindy and I were in the kitchen finishing up our lunch, Tommy decided that Duncan needed to see the Christmas tree from his favorite angle.  He rolled Duncan as far under the tree as he could.  Cindy saw them through the various glass doors that open both rooms onto the outside patio, so we were able to come running before Tommy pushed Duncan far enough to topple the tree.  Tommy was very proud of himself, so we didn't really scold him.

Yesterday we did a bunch of shopping.  It was one of those days when I didn't leave the house with a definite plan beyond a quick trip to Costco.  We ended up out and about for four hours and my hips were really cursing me by bedtime.  We wouldn't have stayed out that long, but Tommy happily used the public restroom after lunch so it didn't seem necessary to come home right away.  After all that running around the boy zonked out on the couch for a couple of hours.  Those surprise naps are always nice while they're happening, but we pay for them at bedtime.  He wasn't difficult or wound up or anything.  It just took him an extra hour to be ready to sleep.

So I guess we're just puttering along with life as usual around here.  We're doing Christmas shopping and trying not to spend too much money and the usual stuff.  I'll have to put together some Christmas craft projects for Tommy for the next couple of weeks.  We can't go out shopping every day between now and Christmas or we'll break the bank.

12/04/06

Here are some tree trimming pictures.  Every Christmas just gets more fun than the last.  As soon as we started taking the tree out of the box Tommy reminded me that we weren't supposed to touch the lights.  He remember that from last year.  He's spent a lot of time since we set up the tree lying on his back with his head under the tree looking up at the lights.  He's anxious to buy some presents to wrap and put under there, so we shouldn't have any troubles getting him to understand buying, wrapping and giving presents to loved ones.

He has a small tree in his room this year.

After we took his picture trimming the tree he wanted to use the camera to take our picture.  This looks pretty good for a not-yet-three year old doesn't it?  We've already bought him a Kid Tough Digital Camera for Christmas, and I know he's going to love it.

12/02/06

Some pictures from gymnastics class...

When you're putting up Christmas decorations, it's important to wear only underwear.  It's very hot work.  Then, when you find a packet of small bells you can put them into your underwear.  Running around with bells in your underwear is fun!  You can sing jingle bells while running and shaking your groove thing.  It will make Mommy laugh.

12/01/06

A nifty new winter hat arrived yesterday from Grandpa Wayne.  Too bad Mommy sometimes cannot take a correctly lit picture.

See the archives for earlier entries.