Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Food and Final Thoughts

It's the last day of the year and I'm rushing downstairs to get a blog post done between dinner out and a party we're going to at our friend's house.  So what are my final thoughts for the year?

First of all, food.   I love food.   I need all the holiday food at the house to go away.   I hope my relatives will take it all with them when they leave tomorrow, because I can't stop eating all the sweets.   I'm looking forward to a leaner (pantry-wise) house in January.

Second of all, family.   It's been a good year and it's been so in part because of my great family.   We have a house full right now and they've all been here for several days.   Uncle Brian asked me tonight if I was ready for everyone to leave.   I told him truthfully that I would be sad to have everyone gone. We have a low drama, high fun family.

The only thing that's been bugging me. I told him, was that I hadn't had a chance to get the holiday decorations up with everyone visiting.    That will start tomorrow though.

The Big Boy Update:  We went today to a local high school to watch my nephew practice kicking; he's the kicker for his high school team.   As Kyle was getting his shoes on at the edge of the wet football field my son asked him, "are your socks waterproof?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told me today, "I have head cups."   I didn't know what she meant until a few seconds later and then I said, "oh, I think you mean you have the hiccups."

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Smilers

Are there some things that just make you smile?  It could be the first rainbow in spring or an old television show you haven't seen in years you stumble on one Sunday afternoon.  It might be a voicemail from an old friend or  a birthday card from your child.  Or it might be that friend you don't go out to lunch with often because you do nothing but smile the whole time you're together.   Smilers.

My mother forwarded an email to me today from a friend.   My mother has sent me emails from this friend before.   This particular email was about the treasure box my daughter got for Christmas.  Her friend is the one who painted the box.     This friend is one of those "smilers" to me.

Every email I've ever read from her has made me smile.   She has such happiness in her words, such joy in her writing that it's infectious and you can't help but smile.   I read the email my mother forwarded today and I realized I had been smiling since the very first sentence.

My mom's friend may well be the biggest, "smiler" I know.

The Big Boy Update:  My son told my father this morning, "daddy, here's how you make jingle bell soup: roll out the jingle bell flat, fold it up, and then put it in a bowl of chocolate milk.  There!  Jingle bell soup."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I told my daughter we needed to get ready to leave this morning and she needed to finish getting ready.  The next thing I knew, she went upstairs and came back downstairs.  She hadn't gotten dressed, but she had a small dollop of something on her index finger.   Without asking, she had gotten the Mederma scar gel tube, put a small amount on her finger and came to me so that I could rub it into the scar on her chin.

Monday, December 29, 2014

The Corner Chair

We have a sofa chair in the corner of our bedroom.   My children are old enough now that they're more adventurous around the house and they've discovered this chair in the corner and more specifically, the triangular void behind the chair between it and the wall.  

My children have all sorts of adventures climbing over the chair, getting in and out of the corner hiding spot, putting things back there with them like the dog's leash, a string, toys and a large roller that they like to use as a "cast" on their arms and legs.    In short, they fit more back there than there is space to fit.   They hardly fit themselves, but somehow, they can fit a panoply of play items back there as well.

They have had more fun in a small triangular void that cost us nothing than they have with most of they toys we've ever bought them.

The Big Boy Update:  We hid the iPads for a while, but the children kept finding them and I got tired of finding new locations to sequester them away so I made a new rule:  If you get the iPad without permission, it goes away for at least that day and possibly longer.   (They don't get the iPads that often if we can help it.)  Today my son got his iPad.  I put it away and told him it was gone for the rest of the day.   He was unhappy with me.   He complained, telling me, "mommy, if I don't have the iPad I'm going to die...I need it...I'm starting to die."   Something tells me he needs to have the iPad taken away for longer than a day with that kind of reaction.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is a gingerbread sneak.    She sneaks around the corner where the gingerbread houses are that she and her brother made with Nana's help and steal candy off the sides of them.   She does this a lot, and since we can't watch her all day long, she's been getting away with it.    The houses are great, but they'll be gone soon.  My little sneak will be sad to see them go.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

I Don't Mind Getting Up

I worked for a long time in the corporate world.   For some years I would have to get up every morning to go into an office.   I liked the office and I liked the people, but I had to get up early to get there.   There were flexible hours, but it still seemed early to me.

I changed jobs and for many years I was a corporate instructor.  I would either be at a site, out of town and I would have to get up early to teach a class.  On days I wasn't teaching I was usually at home.   I still had to get up to do work though.

Through all of the jobs I've had, I used an alarm clock.   I don't like alarm clocks—they make you wake up when you'd like to be sleeping.    For all the years I worked at home and could sleep in a little later, I still didn't like getting up for work.  

I thought I loved what I did, but I guess there was something about each of those jobs that I didn't love, because I never liked getting up in the morning.

My job now is to be a mother.  Yes, sometimes the children come downstairs and wake us up earlier than we'd like, but overall, I don't mind getting up in the morning anymore.

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn't want to get dressed today.   At one point we told him he had to get dressed.   He took off one pair of pajamas only to go and put a second pair on.  After that he was firmly sent to his room until he got dressed.   A short while later he came down dressed, but he had a sly smile on his face because he had put his clothes over his pajamas with footies.   I don't know why he wanted to stay in his pajamas today, but fortunately he got new pajamas from Uncles Bob and Brian for Christmas this afternoon so he's got something new, fuzzy and footed to wear tonight.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  It was time to open presents this afternoon but some of us were straggling upstairs.   My husband sent my daughter up to collect us.    My daughter took her job very seriously, not giving up until she had gotten us all downstairs.

Fitness Update:  16.2 miles today.   We're pushing distance for the marathon we signed up for sometime early next year.   I don't even remember when the marathon is, but today we were only ten miles short of running a marathon.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

They're Real to Them

Earlier today my daughter said to me, "I want to say hi to the rabbit."   I had no idea what she was talking about.  I thought perhaps there was some rabbit on the show that was playing on television.  I  wasn't paying attention because I was cleaning crumbs off the floor.   (My dog is our crumb cleaner but she's away is visiting Nana.)  I asked my daughter about the rabbit and then I realized what she meant...

My father gave us a hand puppet that's a white rabbit coming out of a top hat for Christmas.   We played around with it a bit on Christmas day and then stuck it on the end table in the living room.    My daughter was wanting the rabbit to come alive again.   I picked up the rabbit, put my hand inside and had him slowly appear out of the hat.   My daughter grinned and laughed.   Then in a high, squeaky rabbity voice I said hello and waved the little rabbit paws.   My daughter said hello back and then did more giggling.   I asked her for a hug and then a kiss but my daughter had gotten shy.

She was shy, but not scared.   She got her scooter and asked the rabbit if he could catch her.   After several rounds around the house she told the rabbit to follow her, she wanted to show him something. We went to the counter where the gingerbread houses my children made were sitting and she showed him her house and her brother's house.   She wanted to give him some candy and he happily "ate" a yellow M&M.

I had work to get done so I told her the rabbit had to go back and rest some for now.    Then, a few hours later, my daughter wanted to see the rabbit again.  My son was around this time and he was just as eager and just as excited to talk to the rabbit and show it things.   They were vying for the rabbit's attention as they did jumps and hops across the couch and ottoman.  They never looked at me, even when I talked for the rabbit—and they never stopped grinning.

I had watched the documentary about Kevin Clash, the creator of the character Elmo.  He has been a life-long puppeteer, fascinated with puppets since he was a small child.   He had said children saw him, knew he was there, but it didn't matter because all they did was look at the puppet.

I saw that in action today.   To my children, the rabbit was real.

The Big Boy Update:  My son believes he and his sister sleep in "bump beads."  I suggested he could call them, "bunk beads" but he was having none of it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I said out loud to my husband, "I can't connect to The Moon.   Something must be wrong."   The Moon is our file server, so named because it is very large in storage capacity.   My daughter heard our conversation, got up out of her chair, went over to the window to look up (in the middle of the afternoon) for the moon and said, "something's wrong with the moon.  Maybe there's a space ship?"

Fitness Update:  Three-and-a-half miles mid-morning.   We worked on speed but we were interrupted by friendly neighbors so it's questionable we improved on anything.  We were hoping for a longer run but my friend got stuck at the hospital working for longer than she anticipated and my husband had a tight window he had to go to work in, so we ran for as long as we could wedge in.

Friday, December 26, 2014

The Family of Choice

I like my family.  My parents are nice and reasonable.   They love me and I love them.   My parent's extended family is just as nice and I always enjoy spending time with any of them as well.   I married a nice man—okay, a super guy—and his parents are just about the best in-laws you could ask for.   His extended family, which is bigger than my family, are all wonderful to me and I love spending time with them whenever we can.   In short, I have the best family.   (Don't argue with me on this, hands down, my family is cooler than yours.)

I got an email from our best friend last night.   He's out of town visiting his real family.  He's known as Uncle Jonathan in our family, which is technically an honorary title, but he is just about as close to a family member as you can get without a legal document.

His email was very touching.   He's with his family, but as he doesn't get a chance to see them that often, he's not as close to them as he is to our family.   His email said that he wanted us to know he missed the kids and all of us and that he thought of us as part of his family too.

We love you, Uncle Jonathan and miss you too.

The Big Boy Update:  I asked my son if he wanted some more ham for lunch today.   He said yes.  I asked him if he wanted a big piece or a small piece.   He told me, "I want it six units long."  Not knowing his units of measure, I gave him a sizable piece.   He told me that wasn't long enough, so I added another piece beside it to make up the difference.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to call my mother this morning.   They spoke together for quite some time about three-year-old things.  My mother ended the conversation saying she'd be over in a few hours to play with my daughter, who had asked if they could play in the bonus room together.     When my mother arrived my daughter said, "I don't like you.  I want you to go home.  You played with us yesterday."   (She changed her mind in about five minutes and decided she wanted to play with Mimi after all.)

Thursday, December 25, 2014

The Treasure Chest Day

It's Christmas day and it's late in the evening and I'm just getting to this blog post now.   Our day here has truly been one that has been, "merry" including fun and happy times for everyone.   Although it got off to a rocky start...

My children woke up and although they knew it was Christmas, they didn't really understand that those stockings that were hanging on the mantle that hadn't been there the night before were filled with presents.   They didn't try to go to the basement to see the present they got from Santa and mostly, could television be turned on please?    

Even with the television on, they weren't able to wait for the pancakes (made from scratch) or the bacon (which still had lots of time to go in the oven) and we had to quell their irrational tantrums with food so that Christmas could happen and get back to merry.

After everyone was fed, the present opening was a big success.   My children helped give out  presents, they were engaged with their own presents and they liked the things they were given.    They got some very nice gifts.    There were toys that were fun and toys that were noisy and clothes and art supplies and candy and more than I can remember right now.    I have a favorite present though.

My daughter got a treasure chest.   It was a heavy present from my parents and when my daughter opened it I wasn't sure what it was, but it was beautiful.   It was intricately painted with vibrant colors and my daughter was quite interested in it, only she wasn't sure how to open it.    My father told me it was hand-painted by one of their very best friends and she had signed her work on the back.    By this point, my daughter had discovered how to hinge the top open and look inside.

I knew their friend was a lawyer, but I had no idea she was an artist too.  My father told my daughter that this was her treasure chest.    Being a thing that held treasure, my daughter decided to put some of her presents into the chest.   She put her butterfly wings inside, some hair clips, two books and then she tried to put in her spirograph box.   She got a practical lesson on dimensional constraints and after a few tries, decided the box wouldn't fit.

For the remainder of the present opening, my daughter would open her chest and put things in it or take things out of it.   My son got interested in the chest and added a few of his things as well.    After the present opening was over and we were cleaning up, we took the chest up to the living room and put it beside the fireplace.

After lunch the children played and the adults got ready for Christmas day dinner and the guests that would be arriving at six o'clock.   There was lots to be done, but with all of us working to get ready, it was fairly easy.

During this time, my children got bored, so I pointed out the stockings they had still failed to notice and asked if they wanted to see what was in them?  There were lots of little toys and candy to be had and guess where some of it went?  Into the treasure chest, including some of the chocolate coins.

After the guests arrived, we had dinner, wine, conversation, lots of desserts and lots of happy times all around.   I love having Christmas day dinner, it's one of the best parts of the entire holidays to me.   At one point there was a game my niece played with my husband which happened to involve hiding her cell phone in what else, my daughter's treasure chest.

Eventually all the guests went home.  As I was finishing cleaning up I thought to myself that today was very like a treasure chest to me.   So many of my favorite people and favorite things were contained in it.      It has been a very merry Christmas today.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son got a large, configureable ship from Santa today.   My husband opened the box and my son was so entranced with all the little people, hooks and components that he had no interest in opening presents for quite a long time.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter received a beautiful hand-painted box for Christmas today from my parents, painted by of one of their best friends, Beth, who I had no idea was an artist.    It's so lovely.   My daughter likes opening the lid and putting things into it, and then, sort of like Eeyore, opening the lid and taking them out.

Fitness Update:  Thirty-two flights of stairs.    Wow, I didn't realize Christmas involved so many steps.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Icicles

We have a tree up in our house for Christmas.    My husband went and purchased it, brought it home, did that man thing where they somehow get it into the stand all by themselves and lug it into the house before you realize what's happened.    My children were happy to help put ornaments on the tree later with our neighbor's children and now, we've been enjoying the tree for several weeks.   But something seemed missing.

When I was young we'd get these things called "icicles" that were in a small package.   They were silvery and slippery.   You'd break them apart and then drape them over the branches of the tree.   When you looked back at the tree it glittered in a silvery, shimmery way.  

I loved putting the icicles on the tree.   They were something very much like mylar (and may well have been mylar) cut into thin strips.   You could stretch a strip for a long way and it wouldn't break.  I'm not sure how, but they always seemed to get crumpled.   We would try and collect them to put in a bag for the next Christmas but somewhere along the way they just didn't make it to the next year.

I miss those icicles.   I wonder if they still make them?

The Big Boy Update:  I asked my son what he wanted to give his family for Christmas about two weeks back.  Seeing as tonight is Christmas Eve I think it's time to share his thoughts on the matter.   He said, "I want to give dad a new iPad and Reese a Hello Kitty present for Christmas."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We were swapping gifts with our Uncle Jonathan two days ago.   My daughter watched as Uncle Jonathan opened a gift and said, "you're great at opening presents."

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Stingy Merry

Merry Christmas everyone!   It's not Christmas for two days yet, but bring on the merry anyway.   I hope you get all your merry well worked out, because for some reason, this is the only time of the year we celebrate the merry.  

It's not Merry New Year.   We don't have a Merry St. Patrick's Day and no one wishes you a Merry Valentine's Day.   Labor Day and Memorial Day certainly aren't merry and the other bank holidays such as Columbus day and Veteran's day never struck me as merry occasions, especially on the occasions when I need to get banking business done on those days.

Independence day and/or fourth of July, although usually a drunken bash of a day, hasn't stepped up to being merry yet.   We eat a lot of food at Christmas, but we do the same at Thanksgiving and yet Thanksgiving staunchly remains a "happy" day.   If it was about sweets instead, surely Halloween would rank high enough to qualify for being a "merry" day, but alas, it somehow it misses the mark.

If, however, the word "merry" is somehow associated with the total consumer dollars spent towards that holiday, then I think we have our answer:  no other holiday can afford to be merry.

The Big Boy Update:  My children had watched some television this morning.   At times, I think my son would like to watch television all day, even though we don't let him.   This morning he said to me, "could you turn the television off now?"   I did.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We are still talking about the boat that sank with the king and queen from the movie Frozen.   We've been listening to the soundtrack a lot recently and every time we get to the downturn part of "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" where the boat sinks in the movie, my children ask about it.   Death is a part of the cycle of life, but they're still trying to understand that there were people on the boat and there was a bad storm and the boat wasn't able to make it back and it sunk.   We've talked about weather and storms and how the ocean is big and no, it wasn't the fault of the people and that it was very sad but that Anna and Elsa had each other.   It's been interesting to see how they process the whole thing.   They're not upset, they just want to understand.

Fitness Update:  Gym circuit today of interesting things to do.   I'm getting a little tired of having modified exercises because of my neck, but it's working in so far as I haven't had a bad problem with my shoulder since we started doing the modifications.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Saying Goodbye to Your Home

My husband and I went to a house today for a final walkthrough before a closing.    We met the owner there, who was the daughter and estate owner of the gentleman who built the house, mostly by himself.    She and her brother had grown up in that house and her father and mother had lived there until they died.    Her father had taken immaculate care of the house until he was no longer able.

The sister arrived for a last look at the home before it was sold.   She was sad and I was sad for her.   She knew the home would eventually be torn down and an expansion of our children's school would be built there, but that didn't make leaving any easier today.

We talked about her father and what he did to build the house.   My mother had known her father and had worked his entire career at the same college my mother had worked at for most of her career.   She pointed out pieces of his home that had come from the college when it had done upgrades over the years.  

As we were leaving, I told her we would do what we could to remember her father and family and we hoped the children who would be on the land in the future would have many years of joy as well.

The Big Boy Update:  My son laughed at something, paused and then said, "I want to laugh all day!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter told me at lunch, "french fries make me dizzy."

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Hello Threshold

When my children started at their school I didn't know anyone.   Over time I grew to know the families in my child's class, the teachers my children worked with and some of the other staff and administrators at the school.    I remember one school event early on where all the teachers introduced themselves and I thought I'd never get them all straight.

I was asked to join the board of trustees in the spring of my first year.  I met more people through the end of the first year.   The second year I started substitute teaching.  I learned other children's names from that work.  I was on several committees and I met more people and learned more names.

It's not part-way through our third year at the children's school.   From the substitute teaching I know almost every child's name at school.   They also know me and like to say hello to me.   I know all the teachers and staff as well.   From my work on the board and committees, particularly through the annual fund and capital campaign, I know many more families I wouldn't have otherwise interacted with or met.

In short, I know almost everyone.   We had an all-school event this past Friday in which our students performed for the families and other students.  It's a very nice end to the first half of the school year.   For the first time though, I felt overwhelmed by the number of hello's I was getting.   I wanted to speak to each person who talked to me, but there just wasn't time while I managed my two and found out what I had to to do coordinate cleanup at the end of the event.

I had reached the hello threshold.   There were more hello's to be said than there was time to say hello.   It was nice though, having so many friendly people to greet and talk to before our holiday break began.

The Big Boy Update:  My son lost a sock yesterday.  I don't know where it went, but I think at this point it's gone for good.   For the remainder of the day my son walked around with one sock on.   I asked him if he wanted to take the sock off and he told me, "no, it's my magic foot."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We went to a party at a friend's house today.   My daughter had never been to this house and yet when she got there she wasn't shy at all.   She ran around with the other children there and played without worrying one bit about the unfamiliar adults all around her.  I'm glad she's not clingy and overly shy.

Fitness Update:  Winter Solstice run this morning.   We ran fifteen miles and I'm tired right now as I write this.   That's what training's for though.    It was a great day to run in the park, crisp and sunny albeit chilly weather.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

The First Day of Christmas

We've been getting ready for Christmas for some time now.   We started putting decorations up earlier than normal because of a party we were hosting.    I started ordering presents for friends on November 14th and had mostly everything done and wrapped by early December.   So we were ready for Christmas, but Christmas hadn't started yet.

Presents go under the tree, but the day presents are pulled out, given to friends and opened counts as the first day of Christmas to me.    Last night was that day this year.

We celebrate Christmas on a Friday movie night close to the 25th with our movie night friends.   Last night we all brought presents and swapped them around before the we started the first movie.    My children and the other children her loved opening gifts.   There was paper everywhere.

The adults had a good time too.   My friends know me well, they got me some gifts that I am thrilled to have.   And now that the children are home for the holidays and relatives are coming to visit soon...Christmas has officially begun in our house.

The Big Boy Update:  One of our sitters came to help this afternoon.   I didn't tell my children he was coming, but as soon as Tristan walked in the door, my son ran up and hugged him.    It's great having sitters my children like so much.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The squeezie ball.   My daughter has had a ball sent home she is suppose to squeeze when she has strong feelings and wants to do things like bite, scratch or pinch.   She has plenty of words, but sometimes her emotions take over and she needs to express them in some sort of physical way.   The ball our teachers sent home got lost in about six minutes after we arrived earlier this week.   Today, I found a new ball and told my daughter it was her new squeezie ball.   That ball, too, magically disappeared in short order.   I asked my daughter where she had put the squeezie ball and she walked over to a cabinet, opened it and pointed to the new as well as the original ball.   I should have just asked her days ago where the ball was.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Working Slowly

I'm the layout editor for an online journal.   One of the publishers that I work with has advanced Parkinson's Disease.   Every issue his condition has worsened, but he still wants to be part of the journal and we still would like him to be involved.  

Today I spent several hours on the phone with him, making his editing changes.   He is difficult to understand, but is definitely understandable.  I could tell he was trying very hard to be clear and I know he was having a challenging time.   His sister was going to come and help on his end but she had been unable to make it.  

I was able to understand him, but I had to put all my focus on what he was saying to do so.    At the end, he apologized for being difficult to understand.   I told him I didn't have a problem understanding him and that if he wanted to do this again for our next round of edits, he didn't need his sister from my perspective.

Then he told me, "it's very tiring for me."   I had been focused for several hours on my end and I was tired.   He had been working for some time beforehand to be ready and had then been worn out just from the phone conversation.  

It's hard to appreciate what we have sometimes until we see a different perspective.   I'm impressed by his perseverance and humbled by his determination to continue on with the physical challenges in his way.

The Big Boy Update:  This morning I got the Starbucks breakfast sandwich my daughter and I like to share on the way to school.   When I asked my son if he wanted some, he said no.   He told me that he did like sandwiches, just like Prince Hans did.   Again, another Frozen reference.  There is one line in one of the songs about sandwiches and he's picked up on it from when we listen to the soundtrack.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter likes to play with Ghi Ghi, Gah Gah and Pahmer with her brother.   They get rescued a lot of the time, but sometimes they participate in cooking or other adventures outside.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Grey Hair Realization

My hair grows deplorably slow.   It's dry and frizzy and it has never really been one of my features I've liked.   Then, I discovered keratin complex.   The stylist applies it to your hair in a complicated process that takes several hours, but when you walk out, your hair is straight and smooth and not frizzy at all.   And it lasts for months.  

Do the frizzy and disheveled look I have a great solution for that I really like.   Then there's the color. I've been highlighting my hair for a long time.   I don't think I realized I'd been highlighting it for as long as I have been until I thought about growing it out to its natural color.    I did this mostly because I over-highlighted it.   That was back in the summer months...

I was getting one level of highlight and I told my stylist, "let's make it lighter.  One more shade.  It'll be fun.  I'll look fabulous."   And I did look great, I thought.  I liked the color a lot.    That is, until it started to grow out.  

The highlighting I'd done before was not that dramatic a change, so when it grew out there wasn't an easily noticeable demarcation of new growth hair.   But when I went one level lighter, as soon as it started growing out it was noticeable.   So I decided to make a change, and this time, I was going to get away from the highlighting altogether: I was going to color it back to my natural color.

It took us two times to get the color right.   The first time we were close, but not quite there.   This is great, I thought.   I wasn't going to have to color my hair nearly as much.    Well, there was the highlighted part.   That part was going to fad out to lighter over time and until it grew completely out, but that was okay.   I was still moving towards lower-color maintenance.

This last time with the correct hair color on the grown-out and highlighted parts, I noticed something though.    I looked in the mirror and saw metal flecks in my hair and what are they doing there and oh...that's grey hair.    OH, I have grey hair!

I knew I had some, but I didn't really know how much because the highlighting and the natural color and the grey hairs before all just melded together and the grey wasn't really noticeable.   But with brown, it was there and I could see it.  

It's not that noticeable yet because there's not that much, but it looks like I may be stuck coloring my hair going forward unless I want a natural grey highlight.

The Big Boy Update:  My son got up, got dressed by himself and came down to breakfast.   He had his button-down shirt on backwards.   He was wearing his jeans on backwards and he had the socks on with the ankle portion on the top of both feet.    Did he care?  No.   I suggested we might want to turn his shirt around because his upper back might get cold.   He suggested I button the shirt up in the back.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We went to a restaurant bathroom yesterday and my daughter noticed the hand dryer on the wall.   She said, "Mom, there's a blowupper.

Fitness Update:   Today was thigh day.   Our trainer almost always focuses on two areas each day, alternating exercises so you have a recovery period.  Today though, it was all about thighs.   He said he wanted us to have strong leg muscles for all the running we were going to be doing as we trained for the marathon.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Sum of Emotions

Do you ever have ideas pop into your head because of something you read, heard or saw?   I had an idea today and I'm not really sure where it came from.  I was sitting in the doctor's office in the waiting room.   The news was on and they were talking about two young men who were possibly facing the death penalty for beating a professor to death.    I don't watch the news for the most part because so much of it is about negative things.    There are lots of negative things happening in our world and I just don't want to wallow in the anger or pain of others.

I thought about those two men and wondered how much they regretted their actions on that day they attacked the professor.   I thought about how one event, one action, one decision can change someone's life from a happy place with hope and a future to one of punishment and regret.    And then I thought about the world.

I wondered if we took the sum of all the emotions from all the people on the planet and added them together, what we would find.    Anger would be negated by joy, sadness would be negated by happiness, distrust would be countered by trust, and hatred would be overwritten by love.

Would we find that our planet is a happy place to be or one of sadness and suffering?   I would hope for the former, but I don't know that that would be the case.

The Big Boy Update:  Two nights with underpants on and he's waking up dry.   This morning he came downstairs and got in the bed with us.   We said, "did you go to the potty?"  He hadn't yet so he decided to go before breakfast.    I am really impressed with him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We have a small scooter that's been in the house since we purchased it.   We got it because at a play date at a park, my daughter didn't want to stop riding on it.   She loves this scooter and rides it all around the house.   She carries it downstairs (where it doesn't really scoot on the carpeted floor) and takes it into the bedroom before going to the bathroom.    She can navigate around walls and doors and now likes to ride on it on one foot with the other foot balanced underneath her.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Underpants to Bed

We've been putting it off, because we knew it was going to be a pain and a drawn-out mess, but yesterday we decided to send my son to bed with underpants on instead of a diaper.     We were prepared, having a plastic mattress cover on the bed, a sheet, then another waterproof covering pad and a second sheet on top of that.    I hoped it wouldn't be more than a two-incident night.

My son went to bed and was excited to be in underpants.   We showed him how we had set up the bathroom in his room with a night light so he could get up and go in if he had a need to use it.    We talked up how he was growing up and how proud we were of him.    Then we walked out of the room and hoped for the best.

My husband had told him he was going to wake him up in a few hours and have him go to the bathroom in the middle of the night until my son got the hang of it.    He was fine with that.     In about an hour-and-a-half after my son went to bed though we heard a commotion upstairs and realized my son was in the hallway.   My husband went to check on him and he said, "I wanted to tell you I had to go potty."   He turned around, went back in his room, went to the bathroom and then went back to sleep.

Waking him up later wasn't a problem and we didn't hear anything until morning.   I came upstairs this morning to see how things were going when I heard a thud and realized my son had gotten out of bed.   He had moved over the stool he uses to get onto his bunk to the window and was pulling open the blinds.   He said, "I wanted to see if it was morning time."   I said to him, do you need to go potty?   He agreed he did and went to the bathroom to go.

His bed was dry.    I can not tell you how many times I told him I was proud of him.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had his first night wearing underpants to bed instead of a diaper last night.   He was fairly nonchalant about the whole thing.   My husband and I were making a big deal about it and he just calmly and quietly went the entire night without wetting the bed and didn't seem surprised at all by it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Back to the Frozen soundtrack and my daughter's ability to envision what's happening in the movie while listening to the song.   Not only does she know that the boat sinks at the point when the song gets sad, she told me today, "now they're going to show another girl."   I had to think this one through too but she was right.   In the beginning of the song Anna is a little girl, for the second verse they show a Anna as a teenager.   I explained to my daughter that it was the same girl, but she had grown older.     We've seen the movie several times, but I'm still surprised how much of a visual connection she's made with the songs and the events being played out in the movie.

Fitness Update:   I ran five miles today.   The first mile was terrible.   My shins were bothering me and I was struggling...and then I looked down.   I had put on my trail shoes.   Could it really be that significant a difference in the shoes?   I ran back to the house, went in and changed shoes.   And yes, trail shoes and road shoes make a big difference.   The shin pain went away almost immediately.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Presents Aren't For Parties Anymore

I remember going to birthday parties when I was a child.   I know I played with the children at the parties, but I have very little recollection of that portion of parties I went to.   I know there was cake, because I always liked that part of any party so I'm not surprised I remember eating cake.   Then, after the eating and the playing was done, there would be present time.

Or at least that's how I think parties usually went when I was young.  It may have been in a different order, but there was usually cake, presents and play time in the standard kid's birthday party recipe.   Today, that recipe has changed.

There seems to be more direction these days on the activities of the party and the food and much less on the presents themselves.   For my children (and the peer group at their school) it's not uncommon to request no presents.   Sometimes parents feel the need to bring a gift anyway, but they're not opened until later when the child is home.

I rather like the no presents plan.   For a child attending the party, commonly they will make or draw on a card telling the birthday child thank you for inviting them.   It's a nice gesture and helps the invited child learn to be appreciative.

When I was young I remember opening all the presents to cries of excitement (mostly from me) at each and every gift.   I'm not running down that kind of fun, because it is, don't get me wrong.   I don't know if there has been a focus shift towards event-type parties that take up lots of the allotted two-hour party time, or if it's a focus on the fellowship of families and friends as opposed to presents and loot.

Either way, it's fine with me.  I'm just here for the cake.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was low-energy at school today, his teacher said.   He is now napping. Is there something brewing on the illness front?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter calls the computer, "my peuter."

Fitness Update:  I have nothing interesting to say other than I went to the gym this morning and our trainer was wearing a red shirt.    He is Mister Fifty Shades of Grey in his wardrobe, so it was an exciting change from that perspective.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

The Reusable Bag Rationalization

It wasn't that long ago that you'd go to a store, buy a new pair of pants or sneakers or underarm hair moisturizer and you'd walk out of the store with a thick, heavy plastic bag.   In recent years the retail merchandise conveyance has changed quite a bit.   Instead of thick plastic, you usually get paper or sometimes you get thin plastic.    In some cases (like many of the grocery stores around here) you can select recycled paper or thin plastic if you don't have your own bags.

It's a good change and things are moving in a positive direction.   In some locations, you are required to have your own bags or boxes to carry our your purchases.    But in some cases, there seems to be a step backwards going on.  

If you go to a fancy or expensive store in a shopping mall, there is a reasonable chance that the only type of bag they will have is a reusable bag.    There are two stores I shop at fairly regularly for general clothing and fitness wear and for some reason, both of these stores only have these thick, very nice bags.  

I asked one time if they had a paper bag because I didn't need a reusable bag and was told, "you can use it for all sorts of things.   They're great for groceries."   Yes, I know they are, but I have plenty of reusable bags that are just the right size for groceries and I don't need another bag every time I shop for new sneakers.  

I'm wondering what the message is though.   Is it that the store wants you to advertise for them?  Do they want to give you a nice bag because you'll associate the quality of their take-home, disposable packaging with the quality of their goods?  

Anyone can refuse a bag or bring their own, but the exception, not the norm from what I've seen.    For now, when I didn't have a bag of my own and wasn't able to carry out the item(s) I bought without a bag (which I've done,) I'm just collecting the bags for some yet-unknown purpose.  

In the meantime, I'll keep in mind that reusable bags, "are great for groceries" and try to remember to bring my own bags when I go shopping in the future.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had his fourth-birthday party today.  Nana and Papa came to town and many of his friends from school were able to attend as well as some from our street.   It was in an indoor playground and I'm fairly certain everyone had fun, including the adults who got to talk while the children played.    When we got home from the party we had a few gifts to open.   I was asking my husband to go slowly on the opening so I could get pictures with cards/names beside them for thank you note writing.   After the third time of my husband telling my son he had to wait, my son said plaintively, "dad, you're ruining my birthday!"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter got in the bath last night and sat down in the water.   She looked around suddenly and said, "hey, something is missing...we need toys!"   She was right, she had forgotten to put toys into the tub from the toy drawer before getting in the bath.

Fitness Update:  Okay, I didn't exercise per-se today, but my husband asked me to check my step count when we headed out to the early birthday party, remembering my four-hundred step morning the other day.   I told him, "I didn't put my phone in a pocket for a while, so I'm sure it's low.   But it wasn't:  it was at over seventeen-hundred already.    Maybe some mornings are more step-intensive than others.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

The Hidden Marshmallow Sandwich

I made sandwiches for my children the other day.   I would love to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them but as my son has a reaction to peanuts at this age, we avoid them for now.   Still, a sandwich with honey and Biscoff spread is still quite a treat and my kids were enjoying eating them.   Then they got full.

I didn't want to throw the sandwiches away, so I told them I would hide a marshmallow in the middle of their sandwiches if they would finish eating them.   Sure, they said, and I went off to get a single marshmallow for each of them.

The only requirements were that they couldn't look for the marshmallow and that they had to finish their entire (half) sandwich.   Did we have a deal?   Yes, we did.

It was the easiest bribe I've ever gotten away with with my children.

The Big Boy Update:   My son was playing with toys in his room and wanted one that was hard to reach.   He looked at me and said, "I want my dragon name."   It took me a minute to realize he wanted the handmade dragon on wheels with his name spelled out in hand-cut letters on its back.   A friend of my father's made it for him several years ago and although my son still can't read, he likes his, "dragon name" toy.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We went to a holiday brunch today with friends.   They suggested waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap.    As we got to the very front of the line, I told my children, "we're next."   It was then that the assistant told me in a whisper, "Santa needs to take a five-minute break to go to the bathroom."   I told my children that Santa would be right back and that he needed to go to the potty.   My daughter looked at me and said with a questioning look on her face, "does Santa have underpants?"

Friday, December 12, 2014

How Many Steps in Breakfast

The new step counting feature of my phone has given me some statistics about my days that have been interesting.    For instance, I didn't realize I was walking miles around my house some days just doing the daily routine at home.

I wouldn't have guessed that I walk on average over six miles each day.   That's average, and weighted on days I run versus those I don't.  I also didn't realize how many flights of stairs I climbed, although I could have guessed it was a decent number given our house and the location of things in it.

There are some days I don't put my phone in my pocket until several hours into the morning.   I wondered how much I walk around during that hour where I get the children up, fed, dressed and off to school.  It felt like a lot of walking and stair climbing, but how much was it really?

This morning I carried my phone around from the minute I got up until the children rode off in the car with my husband.   I checked how much  walking I'd done.    It turns out it was only four-hundred steps—.15 of a mile.    

That's all?   That's how far it is to walk around the corner to my neighbor's house.    That's not far at all.    It sure seems like a lot more work happens in the morning than that though.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is very excited about all the presents, "on his list."  He likes to look at his list a lot (Amazon wish list).   Today and yesterday he got some things from his list.   He is up now, well past his bedtime, still playing with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has been sleeping without pajamas on.   She is doing this because she absolutely loves pajamas with footies...until she gets in bed.   She insists on putting them on, going upstairs to bed and then taking them off before she gets in bed.    This doesn't seem to bother her at all, and it doesn't bother us because the pajamas are still clean the next morning.

Fitness Update:   In the training for our marathon in the spring, we ran a half-marathon distance today.    We were a bit tired, indicating we need to get moving on our training.  

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Three And Four

I now have a three-year-old and a four-year-old child.  Today was my son's birthday.   He's been excited about his birthday for some time now.   It's been complicated explaining the whole birthday thing to him, mostly because it's not all happening on one day.

Today was his birthday, but his party isn't until Sunday.   He knows there is a birthday celebration at school, but that's tomorrow.  He understands Mimi and Gramps are coming in to visit him for his birthday and Nana and Papa are coming too, but they're coming at two different times.    He is looking forward to having cup cakes with his movie night friends to celebrate his birthday, but that's not happening on his birthday either.  

In short, it's a lot of birthday things and events, but they're across several days and my son was trying to figure them all out.

Today, Mimi and Gramps came to town to help my son celebrate.   They arrived after lunch and we spent the afternoon together.    We decided it would be easier to order pizza, so we didn't go out to celebrate.    As we were getting ready to eat, it occurred to me that we had no dessert for his birthday.

But he's four, and he's getting a lot of birthday action over the next three days so we just put a cookie in the oven for each of us and when they were hot and done, stuck a candle in his.

He opened several presents, lit his twenty-one-year candle and got phone calls from some family members.  He had a great day.

The Big Boy Update:   For his forth birthday today, my son got a super hero cape with his initial on it, a helicopter with a search light and a hook, some superhero cool spiderman pajamas and a train book with a train that rode across the pages.    My son loved them all.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Mom, what happened to the boat?"   We were on the ride to school, listening to the soundtrack to the movie, Frozen, when my daughter asked me what happened to the boat?   I didn't know what she meant at first and then I realized why she was asking.   The song that was on was, "Do You Want To Build a Snowman," which is sung by one sister to another.   But while that song is going on, the movie also shows the king and queen going off to sea and their boat being lost in a storm.    My daughter asked where the boat was at the point in the song where the ship is lost, even though the song has nothing to do with it in the lyrics."

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Operation Autonomous Morning Routine

You know how you work on something and then you get lax and suddenly, weeks or months later you realize you've totally lapsed back into your old ways?   This thought occurred to me this morning.   We had been working on having the children get themselves dressed in the mornings.   We had expected them to select their own clothes and put their pajamas in the laundry bin.   We had expected them to get themselves ready for school and they were doing it fairly well until summer started and we forgot everything.  

I realized this morning due to a conversation I had with my neighbor, that we were spending our mornings selecting clothes for the children and helping them (or arguing with them) through each step of their morning routine.   They are old enough to dress themselves completely and make appropriate selections on clothes and outerwear.    Even if they make poor choices, they will learn a valuable lesson about temperature and warm clothes and that's also a good thing. 

This morning I told them we were doing something new and I was excited, because I knew they were going to be great at it.  I explained my expectations and they were eager to go back upstairs and get their own clothes.    I helped them understand the new process and tried not to laugh at the strange outfit my daughter selected.  I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the car without a single argument—on time.

I told them that was our expectation in the future and if they weren't dressed by departure time (we'll give them reminders) then they will go to school in whatever they have on (or not on) and we'll send in their clothes with a note to their teacher.   

I'm thinking we're going to have a day or two where they will fail and have a lesson as a result.    My husband agreed it was a good plan.   I'll have to let you know how it goes.

The Big Boy Update:  Tonight my son helped me make the favor bags for his birthday party on Sunday.   He wasn't sure what it was all about until I explained.   He then got interested, helping me select which items would go in the bags in preparation.   That involved counting a lot of things to twenty—which he's getting pretty good at.   Then we got the little bags and went down the line, putting one of each item into each bag.    Well, aside from the candy.   My son liked putting candy into the bags.   He told me, "I'm a stuff giver.   I'm giving a lot of stuff to my friends."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My husband was playing some game with my children tonight while I did some work.  I heard them all laughing and when I came up I saw cushions and pillows all over the floor.   I joined in the game and we all laughed together.   One of the things that made my daughter laugh was putting a large sticker that came off the sofa chair onto her stomach.  It was so big it covered most of her belly.   She would pull up her shirt, put the sticker on, laugh and run away.    That sticker had enough sticky stuff on it to last a good twenty sticks before it ran out of tackiness.  

Fitness Update:   My neighbor needed to go extra early to the gym today because of an early meeting she had.   We needed to leave at five o'clock which meant I needed to get up at four-forty-five.    That nerve medication I'm taking (that's helping) is more helpful if I've taken it more recently than just before bedtime the night before, so that means setting my alarm for 3:45 to take it.   With all the getting up early and setting an alarm for earlier still, it feels like the morning starts almost before the night is over. 

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The Little Drummer Boy

I played piano as a child.   I can't remember how many years I took piano, but I'm fairly sure it felt like my entire childhood to me at some points.    I wasn't particularly good at playing the piano and I absolutely refused to read music.   I still look at a sheet of music and think to myself how it still looks like scribble-de-scrabble stuff.   I can tell if a song is complicated or simple, and if I take the time to slowly and painfully read through each note, I might make out a bar or two eventually.    It's rather like someone who has a conversation with someone in sign language by spelling out each word and taking the time to look up each letter sign in-between each letter.

I had a few songs I was good at playing though.  And I like to make up little tunes from time to time. One of the songs I liked playing during the holidays was, "The Little Drummer Boy."   It was just a few notes at a time and it was easy and slow to play.    There was use of the foot pedal (which was always fun) and it was an eerily sad and moving piece.  

My father would ask me to play it on nights around or on Christmas.  He and my mother would sit in the living room where the piano was situated and I'd play and they'd listen.   The song was so slow that I could play the tune while reading the words on the sheet music below it.   I remember the sheet music was on a yellow or orange book of a non-standard shape, being shorter and squatter than most of my other music.

I always thought the song was so say and yet so poignant at the same time.   I always tried to do my best when I played The Little Drummer Boy, thinking of that little boy who played his drum so very long ago.

The Big Boy Update:  My husband tells stories about Super Helicopter man at night when he puts my children to bed.   My son wanted me to tell one the other night (my husband makes them up on the fly) and I told him I was planning on telling a different kind of story.   "That's okay, I'll tell one," he says and immediately launches into a story.   As it turns out, Super Helicopter Man has a friend named Jumper Girl.    Jumper girl helped to "save the day" after coming, "to the rescue."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter said to me yesterday, "I spy with my little eye...I smell like poopie."    Can you guess which room of the house she and I quickly visited next?

Monday, December 8, 2014

Keeping the Holidays Green

We try to improve our "greenness" a bit every month.    We try to reduce our carbon footprint over time.   And we try to be better citizens of the planet each year.  This holiday season however, we're going "green" in a way we hadn't anticipated.

It's that time of year at school when the children get the first runny noses.   The noses start to run late fall and continue until what seems like the start of shorts and t-shirts season late spring.    This year my daughter started the runny nose trend at our house.    My son has it, but he seems to be keeping it all in his head.    We can tell this from the noises he makes from time to time.   We can ask him to blow, but things don't come out.   Still, we know something is in there.  

My husband and I got whatever this head congestion strain is and both he and I are seeing quite the interesting output in our tissues.    I've heard people say, "it's green!" but I'm always a skeptic.   I would think to myself, "I bet it's just a darkish yellow."   My husband shouted out from the shower yesterday that something frightful and was now on the shower floor and did I want to see, just to have confirmation on actual greenness.   I declined.

I declined, because I, too, was experiencing the same thing.   It's green, and it's not pleasant.    Hopefully we're on the tail-end of whatever this is.   My father phoned yesterday and told me he had it as well from our visit at Thanksgiving.

Let's hope for a little less-green Christmas than we're experiencing right now as a family.

The Big Boy Update:  My son said some very unkind things to me in the car the other morning.   I told him I didn't speak to people who were rude to me and began ignoring him and talking with his sister.   He wanted to apologize, but he was having a very hard time doing so.   He tried for about five minutes to say, "I'm sorry" without actually saying the words.   He said things like, "Aye shashhie" and, "eie swwashhi."   I explained that I would know he was truly sorry when he said it in clear words and sounded like he meant it.   It took another five minutes but when he gave in, he did a nice job of apologizing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to do some cooking this afternoon.   She got her play blender, two small carrots out of the refrigerator and some water.   She selected some pretend pieces of bread from her kitchen toys.   She started blending that carrot up in the blender (it really spins things around) and told me, "I'm making you a sandwich cake, mom."

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Watching the Lollipop Tree

My husband and I have been working it seems all week to prepare for a party we were hosting for the school today.   The party seemed simple enough in and of itself: adults upstairs and children downstairs, catered food and a few beverages upstairs, standard kid fare downstairs.   There was to be a craft activity for the children to do in the basement.   I didn't coordinate the catering.   I didn't have anything to do with the craft.   And yet it seemed like there was just a lot to do.

Mostly it was preparing our house for Christmas.   It's earlier in the month than we normally do, but it needed to be done before the party.    Since we were hosting a party that had a holiday theme attached, I wanted the house to be a little more festive than I suppose I would have normally made it.

Now that it's done though, I'm glad we did it early.   The house looks great and the candles made it smell all holiday-ish for the party.  The children had a wonderful time in the basement and back yard—hooray for clement weather in December—and the adults socialized and had fun like adults are good at doing.

I had put decorations all around, trying to put the right sized items in each location.   This is something I'm not that good at.  I know a tiny thing in a large location won't stand out and a large thing in a cramped location will look forced.    So I spent time moving things here and there to find homes appropriate in size, color and balance.   I am terrible at this so it was a cumbersome couple hours of moving things here and there, looking at them, thinking, "no that doesn't work either," until I eventually got it right.

One of the items I put out was a lollipop tree my father had made and given to us several years ago.  He found some handmade, unfinished wooden lollipop trees from an estate auction and decided to finish them.   He painted it, built a base and gave it to us for a Christmas present one year.    This year I had my children put colorful lollipops in the tree.    They of course wanted to eat the lollipops, but we decided to have them after dinner.     When the tree was done, I put it on the butler's pantry countertop at the top of the stairs and my children promptly forgot about the lollipops.

I had forgotten too, but the children who came to our event today didn't.   They came up and down those stairs multiple times and I think every time they did so, they looked at the lollipop tree and thought about the lollipops on it.    Towards the end of the party one little boy got up the nerve to ask if he could have a lollipop.   I told him it was fine with me if his parents said yes.

The next thing I know, children start appearing from all over, asking me if they, too, can have a lollipop.    It was fun, watching them each reach up and select the color they wanted just before they left to go home.

The Big Boy Update:   I found a pacifier in the go bag a week ago.   I gave it to my son to see what he'd say.   He looked at it and told me, "no, I'm a big boy."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had an alligator bath toy that fell over the edge of the tub.   She said, "hey, give me that dragon back!"  I told her, "it's an alligator."   She responded, "no, it's not" in such a definitive tone that I didn't even think about arguing the point.

Party Update:   I didn't do anything today exercise-wise but I sure feel tired.   I've been standing and walking around the house all day preparing for, hosting and then cleaning up after a party.   I walked five miles in my own house as I did so.    I think it's time for bed.

Adding Stuff

We're having a holiday party/event for something school-related tomorrow.   There are forty-six coming as of last count.   I'm looking forward to it for several reasons: there will be children, we're sharing interesting information with the attendees and it's just a great bunch of people to spend an afternoon with.

We've been putting up our holiday decorations for the last few days.  I think there are four bins in the attic that contain all the ornaments, lights, outdoor lights, stockings and any other holiday-type thing we might want to display around the house.  

We've been to several homes in the past week and I've had a chance to see what decorations other families have up.   Suffice it to say, we are on the meager, paltry and skimpy side.   We have one neighbor who spends weeks getting her indoor and outdoor areas transformed.   Her house is spectacular, without a doubt, but it's not something I strive to have in my own home.

We went to a party yesterday and I was really taken with their decorations.   They had things all around, but they were tasteful and purposeful and everything seemed to fit.    They had more than one  Christmas tree, but the husband was quick to point out that that one over there had plastic ornaments and the lights were built in.     Even so, their house looked nice.   I liked it better than the few little things I had strewn around our house (even if I love those few little things.)

Today I decided I'd see if I could acquire some more holiday stuff.   I was looking for larger things that would sit in a room on a shelf or on a table and be noticed.    I was looking for things that looked great but were also inexpensive.    I knew just the place to go:  Home Goods.  

I was not let down.   I filled a cart full of things that again and again key surprising me with their low prices.   I got lots of lovely things that are now in my house, making things look a little less dinky and a lot more festive.  

I also got a second Christmas tree.   The main tree is in the basement, decorated in quite the crazy style by the children and our neighbor's children.    I got a small, artificial, white tree with colored lights for again, a difficult-to-believe low price at Wal*Mart.   Connect three sections, plug it in, wrangle the limbs around a bit and you're done.    Stick some of the stylized boxes and bags from Home Goods underneath it and you have a second tree that just looks happy all by itself.

We have more stuff now, but I think it's made the house look like it's actually involved in Christmas this year, instead of holding up a few knick knacks on shelves like it did last year.

The Big Boy Update:  I was decorating with my new things this afternoon.   My children had helped me pick them out earlier.    My son was near the Christmas tree working with some tools he had.  I asked him if he was working on our tree.   He looked up at me and said, "I am excited for Christmas."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  At buffets my children are old enough to help pick out their food now.   My daughter had picked out several things when she looked at her plate and said, "that's enough."    (It was, she had a reasonable amount of food on her plate.)   Then she looked at the plate and said, "I wanted the green plate."   I looked over and realized I had grabbed the orange plate (my favorite color) and hadn't even considered the green plate for her.    You can be sure the next time back to the buffet she selected a green plate.

Fitness Update:   Girls on the Run Reindeer Romp 5K.   I ran a 5K with my neighbor and her daughter, Madeline, who had been working hard to train up for her first 5K.   She did very well, walking only a few times in the whole distance.    It was a packed event in the rain and drizzle, but it was fun.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Five Years

Some things seem to drag by in time while others go by in a blink.  Today is my husband and my five-year anniversary and it seems like one of those time flying versions of things.   On the one hand, our wedding day seems long, long ago.   It was before two pregnancies, two children, building a house, and becoming friends with many, many new friends from both our school and neighborhood communities.

We celebrated tonight with a sitter for the children, a dinner out involving lots of meat for my husband at a Brazilian Steakhouse.   Then we went to a holiday party at the home of one of our neighbors.     I officially have holiday decoration envy after seeing their home.

It's been a crazy, fun, busy, memorable and happy five years full of love.

The Big Boy Update:  My son can zip his own jacket now.   That doesn't sound too complicated, but getting the little lead inset into the slot with the zipper head all the way at the bottom is a learned skill with many steps and significant coordination.    He insists on zipping his jacket now and has even offered to help his sister zip hers.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter can eat a gogurt with ease now.   If you haven't heard of this product before, it's yogurt in a plastic sleeve.   The sleeve flops around with the yogurt in it and it's challenging to eat without getting it everywhere.  They are banned from our school they have proven to be so messy.    There is one place we eat from time to time that has them as an option with the children's meal and my daughter loves to get them.   She has figured out how to suck and then squeeze up from the bottom without spilling (much) of the contents.   She's slow about it, but she's happily engaged while she's working on getting the yogurt out.

Fitness Update:   My neighbor thinks we need to start training now.   I think that the training schedule indicates we don't need to start until the week of the 17th, but I may be a lot more lazy than she is.   We ran ten miles today.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Implanting Fiber

One day when I lived at my last house I got a letter saying AT&T had this thing called U-verse.  It was fast.  It was so fast I wouldn't know what to do with all that internet fastness.   If I wanted to get U-verse, contact AT&T right now, because I totally needed the fastness.

I liked fast internet connections with large bandwidths.  I contacted AT&T.   "Oh dear, we are sorry to let you know U-verse isn't available in your area yet," their web site told me.    There was no fiber in our neighborhood.  We didn't know why the mailing had been sent to me, but it was fun to think about those blazing internet speeds for a while.

Then I got another mailing about U-verse.   The situation was the same thing in our neighborhood three weeks later, so I'm not sure what was happening with their mail sorting.    That wasn't the last of the mail either.   We got more and more.  Sometimes, we'd get two in a week.   It became a joke: we'd try and guess how many U-verse mailings we'd get in the mailbox that day.  

I don't know if U-verse has come to that neighborhood, but three days ago it started to come to our new neighborhood.    There were men spray painting underground lines all over the entire neighborhood.    A man went around handing out a sheet explaining U-verse (and it's massive bandwidth) and the plan to put it into our neighborhood over the next several days.  We got an email from the community manager saying mostly the same thing and to welcome them in as they worked to place the lines.

The next morning the neighborhood was invaded by what I would guess was easily a hundred workers.    Most of these men were hole diggers.   These guys were experts at digging holes.   They dug perfect holes with beautiful straight walls.   They skillfully pulled up the grass and carefully kept all the dirt on tarps.    Then the orange tube came around that would eventually contain the fiber.   Holes were bored horizontally from dug hole to dug hole until the orange tube was run all around the neighborhood.

The hole diggers then put the dirt back in the holes.   They packed the dirt back down with a compactor tool and then replaced the grass.    We had three holes dug in our yard and unless you go looking for them, they're not even noticeable.  

This crew ran conduit through our neighborhood with amazing speed.   They came back today to do more work finalizing things.   I'm not sure when the fiber itself will arrive, but it's been exciting to watch the progress so far.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was talking to me, telling me who he was, who his sister was and who daddy was.   I asked him who I was and he told me, "you don't have a name.  Someone took your memory away."   Is it uncanny for a three-year-old to say something like that?   Or, did he hear it from somewhere else and was simply repeating it?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's face does not like her mucous.   She has lovely skin in the morning when she leaves for school and a short four hours later she comes home with raw-looking, red cheeks.   This is because her nose is runny and she's too busy doing other things to get a tissue and blow it like she should, so she wipes it on her sleeve and much of it gets on her cheeks.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Seventeen Years : One Hour

We're hosting a school event at our house this weekend for both adults and children.  To keep the children occupied, we've got a holiday craft planned.   The person who is coordinating the craft decided on Shrinky Dinks.   I absolutely loved doing Shrinky Dinks when I was young. There is something about watching the magical wiggling and shrinking of the plastic in the oven through the glass door that never really loses it's wonder.    I was all for it.

We talked about how we would do the baking of the ornament.   We have an oven in the kitchen, but we had planned for the children to be in the basement while the adults had cocktails and socialized upstairs.   It suddenly occurred to me that our toaster oven could do the job downstairs.   We could just relocate it to the bar in the basement and some of the older children could help with baking and shrinking part.  

I sent an email with my toaster oven suggestion and I got positive responses back.  That's when I realized what I'd done: I'd just offered up my burnt-on, baked-in, crusty toaster tray covered in seventeen years of grime.    Oh dear.

I talked to my husband about it and we briefly thought about getting another toaster oven, especially given the age of our current one.   I considered it, but the one we have really doesn't have any issues, other than the serious layers of residue.   I wondered if there was some magic cleaner that would whisk away all the baked-on mess.    I checked the internet.    I wasn't overly excited with the results I found.

It turns out (from what I read) that there is no magic, "stick it in this solution and in an hour, presto, good as new."   There were several people who debunked suggested quick fixes—with pictures.    The  message was clear: it was going to take hard work and lots of scrubbing.

Could it be that bad?   I'd been covering up the tray for, oh, over a decade with aluminum foil that I'd let go until it was hole-ridden and nearly baked on itself.   Then I'd peel it off the sheet, which was stuck to the gunky tray underneath and apply a new sheet.  

This morning I prepared to clean that tray.  With abrasives in hand, I started to scrub.   One suggestion was a magic eraser and another said steel wool.   But be warned, I read, steel wool is strong stuff and you might get scratches on your pan.    I went through not one, but two full-sized steel wool pads to get that tray clean.   That Magic Eraser helped about as much as a cotton ball would have.  The scrubbing continued and as I started to discover bits of aluminum under the brown and black layers, I became more resolved to not stop until the pan was clean.

It took an hour.  I'm disappointed I didn't take a before picture because it was pretty frightful.   I think an hour's scrubbing for solid, uncomplaining service from a kitchen appliance for seventeen years isn't too bad a price to pay.    But I'm not waiting seventeen years to clean that tray again, though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked for milk at dinner.   I told him I would get him some.   He said, "I like milk."  I told him, "I think milk likes you too."   My son said back, "milk doesn't like me.   Drinks don't like anyone.  They don't play with anyone.  They don't work with anyone.  They are just drinks."  My husband told him he was right.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter can fall down when nothing is in her way.   She can trip, run into the only thing in the room and bump her head on the single thing in the way.   I have no idea how she has made it this far being as clumsy as she is.

Fitness Update:   My L4 joint has been so bad I've had problems getting up and down lately.  It was in a serious state this morning at the gym and I spent probably a fourth of the time trying to get the muscles to release.   I got put on "kiddy" exercise.  

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

How Slow Can You Go?

That title is about running.   I started running some time back and I didn't think it was possible to run a 5K, much less anything longer like a half-marathon.    I learned that running wasn't that hard (for me) and adding distance wasn't too terribly difficult.   We trained up for a half-marathon and then did a marathon the next year.

I have never been fast though.   I mostly run at a pitiful plod.   I've tried running faster from time to time but I ran into shin splint problems or IT band problems.   It seemed like every time I tried to work on speed, something in my body put down a it's figurative foot and told me it just wasn't going to happen.

Today I find myself signed up for not one, but two marathons in the next calendar year.   This is totally due to peer pressure because left to my own lazy devices I sure as hell wouldn't have signed up.    The latter one next year is on pavement and I didn't enjoy the half-marathon we ran last year for pavement-based reasons.    My feet dislike pavement.    The one that's in March, however, is on trails or compacted ground.   That fact alone was enough to sway me into saying, "sigh, okay, I'll sign up."   Can you sense my enthusiasm?

I'll have to circle back around to the nerve pain and the Lyrica I'm taking now, but in short, it's helping.  It's helping a lot.   That, and I found out the shoe I like, while great for my feet, wasn't the best for running on roads.   Sure, I had a trail shoe, but the other shoe I was running on wasn't good for roads.   So maybe there's that as a positive too.

So I'm signed up and I suppose I'm going to work on pacing.   Today we did a test run to see if we could make a starting pace.   I run slow; I have no problem running over eleven minute miles.   Today, we tried to get to eleven minute miles.    And we did it.   It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.   My shins didn't hurt and my IT band didn't make a single complaint.  

So it's not how slow can you go any more.   I have no plans to make fast times, but getting a bit faster would be a nice improvement on my running.

The Big Boy Update:  My son said today, "I want to go to jingle bells."  My husband told me, "he means Bojangles."    Later in the day I was talking to my son.   I told him I loved him.   He told me, "I like your heart.  I love all of you."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son and daughter were talking about their two imaginary playmates: Ghi Ghi and Gah Gah.   My son said one was a girl and one was a boy.   My daughter clarified, decisively saying, "Ghi Ghi is a girl and Gah Gah is a boy."

Fitness Update:  Five miles at eleven-minute mile pace.   Slow, I know.   But it's a basis to start from.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Presents From the Children

We decided to let our children pick out Christmas presents for their family members this year.    We weren't sure how it would go, but we had faith they would select something.   Yesterday we went shopping to see who we could get checked off our list and we were more successful than I thought we would be.

My son wanted to get everyone either a truck, train, plane, transformer, claw grabber or other tool.   My daughter was more interested in picking out an appropriate present for each person, provided that present was candy and it was for her.  

After much redirection and lots of refocusing, my children helped select something for everyone.   If you're a family member and you're reading this, there will be a very special present under our tree just for you now.  

I can't tell you what your present will be, but I am fairly certain you all meet the age requirements on the packaging.

The Big Boy Update:  The dar-vay.    My son has talked multiple times about a Christmas present he wants.   We've been putting lots of things, "on the list" which has been a wonderful mollifying tactic. My husband found out that this "dar-vay" was in fact an actual item on the list.   I think it's a boat or something.   Apparently my son wanted to show him what he meant and my husband had him look through the list.   He found his dar-vay again at Target the other day, re-confirming that it's a single item in his mind.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made herself a snack this afternoon.   She was not suppose to be making herself a snack but Uncle Jonathan and I were working on something at the computers and we assumed she'd be fine upstairs with some nilla wafers, juice and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the television.   We came upstairs to find the bar chair moved into the kitchen and my daughter sitting on it in just the right area of the counter so she could see the television.   In front of her was a yogurt, a bowl with pretzels and a banana, mostly eaten.   She said, "I got a snack."   She had gotten on top of the counter, gotten a bowl, gone to the pantry, taken the clip off the pretzels, put some into the bowl and then folded over the bag and replaced the clip.   She went to the refrigerator, climbed up to a high shelf to get a yogurt.   She'd taken the lid off, thrown it in the trash, gotten a spoon and taken it back to her perch on the bar stool.   She'd selected a banana, peeled it and then, her snack all prepared, watched television while she ate.

Fitness Update:  The gym was extra full today with all of the people we normally train with in on the Monday after Thanksgiving in to start their post-holiday pound penance.   Don did not go lightly on us.