So I've discovered what's worse than being an emotional mom who goes to see "Toy Story 3" in the theaters with her son. Buying the DVD and watching it a MILLION TIMES at home with that same said child. It's one thing to see it, be overwhelmed with my future (we're talking almost 14 years in the future, mind you) and weep as quietly as possible. It's another entirely to have this occur at least once a day for the last 3 days as of course, it's the only movie the boys want to watch. Oh, the humanity! I imagine I will only survive dropping them off at college by being heavily sedated, and possibly hypnotized.
In other news, it snowed here Christmas Day. This made it very festive, but luckily we were not socked the way PA, NJ, etc were. Just a light dusting.
Lots of food was prepared and consumed, lots of love was shared amongst the family's three generations here, and at least one motorized vehicle was assembled for the smallest, youngest member of the group. I hope everyone had as nice a holiday as I did. Except for the part where my back went out...I don't wish that on anyone!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
and in other news...
Connor lost his two front teeth somewhere between school and home. Again. We can't seem to be there for a tooth-losing with this kid! He looks adorable and a little silly, and I can't wait to see his grown-up teeth come in to match the lowers he lost in June.
Drew and Tucker have started playing together in a pleasant way. It's no longer stealing toys from each other and blood-curdling screams all the time. That's down to about 25% of it now. But this weekend, they started sharing toys, playing with each other, and chasing each other. I haven't heard them laugh like that before, and I'm so glad! Tucker especially seems to be going on a mad spurt of language growth. He's finally given in and started answering affirmatively. instead of grunting, he now says, "uh-huh" which is still pretty rude but at least it's a yes of sorts! Our favorite is when he says the word cracker He just relishes it, and it comes out, "crack-ker" over and over again while he stomps around. I imagine he will delight the hordes who are arriving in about 10 days for Christmas.
Drew is fully into imagination play now, and he re-enacts movies, tv shows and books.
All in all, pretty good times here. Glad that it coincided with "the season"...
Drew and Tucker have started playing together in a pleasant way. It's no longer stealing toys from each other and blood-curdling screams all the time. That's down to about 25% of it now. But this weekend, they started sharing toys, playing with each other, and chasing each other. I haven't heard them laugh like that before, and I'm so glad! Tucker especially seems to be going on a mad spurt of language growth. He's finally given in and started answering affirmatively. instead of grunting, he now says, "uh-huh" which is still pretty rude but at least it's a yes of sorts! Our favorite is when he says the word cracker He just relishes it, and it comes out, "crack-ker" over and over again while he stomps around. I imagine he will delight the hordes who are arriving in about 10 days for Christmas.
Drew is fully into imagination play now, and he re-enacts movies, tv shows and books.
All in all, pretty good times here. Glad that it coincided with "the season"...
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Getting ready for Christmas
When I was growing up, one of my family's traditions was that the tree remained undecorated until Christmas Eve. I'm not sure if this started because my parents wisely wanted to limit the decorations exposure to five wildish young children or some other reason. As we got older, it became the most likely day we would all be together, and decorating the tree together was the only way we could consider it happening. Either way, now that I'm a "grown up" and have my own home, I have my own traditions to start with my children.
We got the tree Thursday evening. Drew and Lee went to buy it while I got dinner pulled together for Connor and Tucker, and got them mostly ready for bed. The tree, of course, was wrapped up and the branches were all at about a 15 degree angle pointing up. We explained to Drew that it needed a night to relax. He barely managed to contain himself. At 6:15 Friday morning, there he was jumping on me in bed, saying, "Time to go decorate the tree!" We managed to talk him down again, but it wasn't easy. But for Heaven's sake, we both had work, and he and Connor both had school!
I missed the train coming home from work, so I had to walk home from the metro instead of catching my ride. By the time I got into the house, I could see that Drew would not wait a moment longer. Lee and Drew put the lights on the tree while I put out the rest of the ornaments. We piled on decorations, letting Drew do his own work but helping him to understand that no matter what you can't hang anything on the very tip of a branch. No matter how many cartoons may look like that. He did drop one decoration, and it broke at his toes. Luckily, it was one of a set I got at Target a few years ago and not one of the heirloom ones my parents gave to me on my first Christmas once I was married. He looked up and said, "Oh, no. Well, it happens."
After a while, I decided it was enough, and Drew put the angel on the top with an assist from Lee. It was the first time he did it. I sense another tradition there. The we shut the lights off in the room to enjoy the tree, and Drew made us stand in a circle, holding hands, and proceeded to lead us in song. The song was a slight derivation of "Welcome, Christmas" from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" but he's four, and he had the melody down and led us through with grace. This was completely unplanned, and I was unprepared for it. For all the singing my family has ever done, and the amount of love my sibs and I have of the Grinch, never once did we sing in a circle like that, I am certain that we sang along with Christmas music on the stereo or TV or something. It was lovely, and I really hope it becomes part of our tradition.
We got the tree Thursday evening. Drew and Lee went to buy it while I got dinner pulled together for Connor and Tucker, and got them mostly ready for bed. The tree, of course, was wrapped up and the branches were all at about a 15 degree angle pointing up. We explained to Drew that it needed a night to relax. He barely managed to contain himself. At 6:15 Friday morning, there he was jumping on me in bed, saying, "Time to go decorate the tree!" We managed to talk him down again, but it wasn't easy. But for Heaven's sake, we both had work, and he and Connor both had school!
I missed the train coming home from work, so I had to walk home from the metro instead of catching my ride. By the time I got into the house, I could see that Drew would not wait a moment longer. Lee and Drew put the lights on the tree while I put out the rest of the ornaments. We piled on decorations, letting Drew do his own work but helping him to understand that no matter what you can't hang anything on the very tip of a branch. No matter how many cartoons may look like that. He did drop one decoration, and it broke at his toes. Luckily, it was one of a set I got at Target a few years ago and not one of the heirloom ones my parents gave to me on my first Christmas once I was married. He looked up and said, "Oh, no. Well, it happens."
After a while, I decided it was enough, and Drew put the angel on the top with an assist from Lee. It was the first time he did it. I sense another tradition there. The we shut the lights off in the room to enjoy the tree, and Drew made us stand in a circle, holding hands, and proceeded to lead us in song. The song was a slight derivation of "Welcome, Christmas" from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" but he's four, and he had the melody down and led us through with grace. This was completely unplanned, and I was unprepared for it. For all the singing my family has ever done, and the amount of love my sibs and I have of the Grinch, never once did we sing in a circle like that, I am certain that we sang along with Christmas music on the stereo or TV or something. It was lovely, and I really hope it becomes part of our tradition.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
So much going on...so little time!
What's that sound?? Oh, it's silence! Drew is out with Lee, and Tucker and Connor are both napping, though for how long I'm not sure. What to dooooo? There's cleaning to be done, Christmas shopping to prepare for, a dishwasher to unstack, laundry to fold. I think I'll blog instead.
It's been a busy and mostly positive fall here. Drew turned four and has lost a lot of the worst parts of being three already. Unfortunately, he's also lost naps, which makes our weekends a lot harder because we realized we relied on those naps for our own sanity! Luckily, we can still bribe him with quiet time in his room or a video in ours. He's growing like a weed, totally hilarious, and loves just about everything and everyone. He's been in swimming class and he's doing a fantastic job. I'm so proud of him.
Tucker has finally stopped fighting us and started using words! It's still hard to get him to eat dinner, but we've started bribing him with cubes of bread (his favorite food) and it's working, so we're good with that. He's really super funny, tries to make jokes with us even though we've only heard one or two sentences (both declarative) from him. The one I got was, "Put that back!" For the record, I did not.
Connor may be growing faster than the other two boys combined! We've finally found a great additive for his food to bulk up his weight, and it is working! He's getting tall (up past my bellybutton now) and adding pounds. We adjusted his medications again this fall, and fingers crossed, but it's working pretty nicely so far. Only a very few breakthroughs, which is a far cry from the every five nights that was prior to the medication change. He continues to love school, and we love getting good reports. He has a very special friend, Emma, who just loves playing with Connor. We got a great message from his teacher one day telling us that they played a game together where Connor was laid out on his back on the mats in the room, and Emma got big cardboard blocks out and built a tower on his stomach. Then Connor rolled over to knock the tower down, and he smiled and she laughed. They did it over and over again. I honestly thought for a very long time that Connor wouldn't really have any friends, and it's possibly the best way ever to be proven wrong.
Okay, I'm hearing Tucker playing in his crib, which means I should at least get the clean dishes out of the dishwasher before I bring him downstairs for a snack and the usual destruction of order.
It's been a busy and mostly positive fall here. Drew turned four and has lost a lot of the worst parts of being three already. Unfortunately, he's also lost naps, which makes our weekends a lot harder because we realized we relied on those naps for our own sanity! Luckily, we can still bribe him with quiet time in his room or a video in ours. He's growing like a weed, totally hilarious, and loves just about everything and everyone. He's been in swimming class and he's doing a fantastic job. I'm so proud of him.
Tucker has finally stopped fighting us and started using words! It's still hard to get him to eat dinner, but we've started bribing him with cubes of bread (his favorite food) and it's working, so we're good with that. He's really super funny, tries to make jokes with us even though we've only heard one or two sentences (both declarative) from him. The one I got was, "Put that back!" For the record, I did not.
Connor may be growing faster than the other two boys combined! We've finally found a great additive for his food to bulk up his weight, and it is working! He's getting tall (up past my bellybutton now) and adding pounds. We adjusted his medications again this fall, and fingers crossed, but it's working pretty nicely so far. Only a very few breakthroughs, which is a far cry from the every five nights that was prior to the medication change. He continues to love school, and we love getting good reports. He has a very special friend, Emma, who just loves playing with Connor. We got a great message from his teacher one day telling us that they played a game together where Connor was laid out on his back on the mats in the room, and Emma got big cardboard blocks out and built a tower on his stomach. Then Connor rolled over to knock the tower down, and he smiled and she laughed. They did it over and over again. I honestly thought for a very long time that Connor wouldn't really have any friends, and it's possibly the best way ever to be proven wrong.
Okay, I'm hearing Tucker playing in his crib, which means I should at least get the clean dishes out of the dishwasher before I bring him downstairs for a snack and the usual destruction of order.
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