Merry Christmas!

(Those are some seriously cute kids.)

Inevitability

Three years ago, while driving through town, Ian and I encountered a short delay as we entered a school zone and waited for some children crossing with the crossing guard. As I looked out my window I watched as a young boy stepped off the sidewalk and into a large puddle of water on the side of the road. Then, unbelievably, he just stood there. For what seemed like forever. Apparently content to be up to his ankles in the cold water.

I slowly turned to Ian and asked, "Why would he do that?" Ian's answer basically attributed all such acts of randomness to the fact that he was a boy.

I spent longer than necessary pondering this newly-attained knowledge. This scene actually replayed in my mind only seconds after receiving the news that our third child would be a boy...and almost reduced me to tears. Suddenly I was looking at a future where a child of mine would potentially do all sorts of things, like standing in a puddle of water, for no reason other than he is a boy.

Gasp.

Today...three years and many "boy" moments later I found myself standing quietly by, camera in hand, capturing my boy's inevitable leap into this unfathomable world of boyhood.

And I was fine.

Santa

We went to the mall yesterday to visit Santa (and to pay someone else far too much money to take a subpar picture of my kids). They did great and, amazingly enough, Curtis didn't try to make a break for it. Lindy looks like she's less than thrilled to be sitting next to the nice, festively-dressed Santa but apparently she just wanted to put her arm on the giant armrest. According to her that chair was "awesome".

(We use that word a lot around here.)

Introducing Snow

Today we introduced Curtis to a little thing called Winter. He was enthralled...and a little bit confused. For the first little while he just stood there staring at his feet as they swept around in the strange white stuff.

Soon, however, he was off and running. He even "helped" dad shovel the driveway. He looked like such a big kid in all that snow gear. He's growing up too fast.

Annoyances

Ian and I went on a date tonight. A genuine cologne-involved excursion for dinner and a movie. The dinner part was great (JCW's...how can you go wrong?) but somewhere between locating our seats and the end of the movie we experienced a slight complication. This difficulty presented itself in the form of 4 teenage girls, 4 cell phones, and a penchant for seat-kicking.

For the most part, I was able to enjoy the movie and even shed a couple tears...all in spite of the Teen Girl Squad camped out behind me. When I wasn't listening to them giggle, ooooh, and awwww in response to the multiple (so very many) texts they received during the movie, I was involved in a strange battle for seat-back territory. Apparently Teen Girl #3 thought my seat back belonged to her lounging legs. After the 20th kick in the head I was forced to verbally inform her that she was overstepping her bounds.

As I ponder the events of the evening I am led to ask three important questions:

1. What kind of child is so oblivious to other people that they have no idea they have actually smacked someone in the head with their hideous uber-pink Ugg?

2. Are we really so dependent on our texting that we can't turn off our cell phones for a measly two hours?

and

3. How in the world to I prevent my daughters from becoming one of them?

I swear to you, if I ever hear of my daughter kicking someone in the head or texting for 2 hours straight and driving unsuspecting strangers to distraction with her whispering...heads will roll!

Gingerbread Houses

The Babcock's invited us over for a night of gingerbread-house-making madness. (This year the role of gingerbread was played by graham crackers. And, I must say, graham crackers are definitely the way to go, especially when kids are involved...much less chance of a cave-in.)

Marci had all sorts of Christmas candy goodness for the kids to stick all over their little creations.

Always one to explore his construction-worker side, Ian demonstrated the dovetail technique. This super-sturdy method made it possible to construct a tiny little chimney. It also involved a lot of tiny sawing. I've decided he'd make a great elf.

And Marci and I had some laughs of our own. (Marci's idea, of course.)

We had a great time! This might be the start of a new Christmas tradition. I can only imagine what Ian will bring to the table next year.

Seattle

Lindy and I took a vacation this last weekend. A quick mother-daughter trip to Seattle for this:

The beautiful girl pictured above is my niece. She is an amazing dancer and was chosen to dance the part of Clara in the Nutcracker this year. We couldn't pass it up...we just had to be there. And I'm so glad we were. It was incredible. It was so much fun to be able to participate in something that is such a big part of her life. And she was phenomenal. I'm not just saying that because we're related. She's good. But that's not all; she's good inside, too.

Lindy loved the ballet. In fact, Lindy loved everything about Seattle.

She got to stand up, holding onto the pole, while riding the airport shuttle...and thought it was awesome:

She tried Mongolian BBQ for the first time...and LOVED it:

And her cousin (the one she follows around 99% of the time) introduced her to "inventing things". He had a box of odds and ends he'd found (twist ties, wires, paper clips, elastics, springs...you name it) and he graciously let Lindy create all sorts of things. She was in heaven:

It was a fun trip. A big thanks to my brother's family for giving us a wonderful place to stay and for the amazing weekend. We can't wait to see you again soon!

Maybe Not

If you have ever met our little Ellie you will find out quite quickly that she has her own unique way of pronouncing sounds and words. Most of the time it's downright endearing. Some of the time, however, we find ourselves faced with a situation we didn't anticipate.

Tonight, for example: While sitting at the dinner table Ian casually asks, "Should we start calling Curtis "Curt"?"

With a quizzical look Ellie asks, "Curt?"...which comes out sounding like, "Turd?"

Uh...Um..."Curtis" it is!

Post Edit: No, I don't know why Ian suggested calling him Curt. I didn't ask.

Pushing Buttons

Do you ever feel outwitted by your children?

I do.

Daily.

Have I mentioned that my 6 year-old and I are veritable Peas in a Pod? We are. We typically battle back and forth, raising the ante to ridiculous levels, until we are in a complete and total mother-daughter train wreck. The fact that I'm 30 years her senior and a supposed adult doesn't help. Being Peas in a Pod also means she's the one person who knows exactly where my buttons are and how to push them. Trying, in the least.

A mild example from last night: As she was pitching her nightly fit about bedtime and raising the bar on whininess, I told her if she didn't stop making noise I'd have to shut her door (she likes it open a crack). Her response? "I'll just be louder!"

How do you respond to that? It's not like I can shut the door more.