Toy Land

Well, Santa ate all his cookies and left behind a tricycle for Brody and an Ariel's Princess Salon for Georgia. The salon is an interactive toy and pretty neat, although I heard it tell her, "Let's cut and style our hair!" Hopefully the play scissors will suffice. I had a horrible thought that she might start looking for the real scissors if the play ones did not get the job done.
Christmas was quiet this year with just me, Chris and the kids. A little sad with family so far away. Nevertheless, the far away family sent many presents and the living room looked like we were a small testing lab for a toy company. Speaking of toys. Brody loves dinosaurs and received two new ones to add to his growing herd. He takes them everywhere and we have seen them enjoying the tricycle, hanging out in Georgia's barbie horse stable, and jumping through the basketball hoop. They are pretty energetic and seem to get around. I found another taking a siesta in one of my cooking pots this evening. I will have to catch them in a photo so that people don't think that I am crazy.

Hark! The Hairless Angels Sing...Brody Dances

During this time of year, I keep several Christmas CDs in the car so Georgia and I can fight over hearing our favorite songs. It is really funny to hear kids sing what they think are the lyrics. Yesterday, from the back seat I heard Hark! The Hairless Angels Sing instead of the Herald ones. Diet Dr. Pepper almost came out of my nose. One of those little priceless moments.
On the car ride back from preschool, Georgia actually let the disc play past "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Little Saint Nick" by The Beach Boys started to play. I like the song, but it is not one of my traditional favorites. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw Brody totally jamming out--head shaking, hands clapping, legs moving. It is something Chris affectionately calls his "Little Stevie" in honor of Stevie Wonder. We have seen it quite a few times and he does not seem to have a particular music genre that sets him off yet. It just makes me laugh out loud when I see it because it is so cute...and not because I am his mother!

Can I be a ballerina?

Today, Georgia and I spent some quality mother-daughter time together and experienced her first ballet, The Nutcracker. She was so excited that she got to wear her fancy, new red dress. I think that it is so entertaining to watch little girls in their best dresses. They act so prim and proper, resist covering up with a coat, and often spin continuously, just to make sure that everyone is watching them. My child is no different and during intermission, she pirouetted and pranced all throughout the lobby. She is a natural ham, so the more that people watched, the more she performed. At the end of the show, after marveling at all the beautiful dancers and their sparkling costumes, she asked, "Can I be a ballerina?" She was especially impressed with the children her age that were in the production. My favorite part was looking over and seeing her face all lit up as she watched the dancing and listened to the music.

Would you like duct tape with that?

The kids are on Christmas overload. I think the lights hypnotize them and make them slightly kooky. I have had to move the nativity set collections to a high shelf because I got tired of telling Georgia that baby Jesus cannot play with Barbie or go for a ride on a tractor. The house is looking pretty festive, the tree is decorated, and the presents are under the tree. Make that WERE under the tree. Now there is just an empty void and a tree skirt under its branches. I now have a hall closet stacked with wrapped packages, which is as safe place (at the moment) since Brody cannot yet turn door knobs. He started by innocently poking at the boxes and progressed to ripping at the paper and quickly glancing around the room to see if anyone was watching. Of course the sound of tearing paper does seem to get one's attention. As does your other child making that "Uuhhmmmm" sound. As in "Uuhhmmmm Mom, Brody is tearing all the presents!"
I later found him climbing on a homemade "gift box ladder" to reach an ornament on the tree that caught his eye. My little construction expert was standing on the top of three boxes and flashed that killer smile of his as soon as he saw me. I thought that I was being intelligent by shoving the larger boxes behind the tree, but one should never underestimate the willpower of a toddler. There he was, not five minutes later showing off his jumping/dancing skills on a box that was particularly bouncy. I think he waits for me to do laundry or load the dishwasher and then makes his move.
So I patched the holes and wondered if I should pick up some duct tape in holiday colors in case the damage becomes more extensive. There are still 19 days until Christmas and I don't know if the wrapping paper will make it. I swear I saw him studying a door knob this afternoon.

All Aboard

Today we had lunch with Santa on a train ride from Monticello. Lunch was a PB&J sandwich, but the scenery still covered with snow made up for it. It was FREEZING out, but the kids were good sports. Georgia was a little disappointed when she realized that she would have to share her time with Santa, but perked up when he sat at the front of the train car very near to where we were sitting. She had no problem telling him that she wanted various barbie items for Christmas and that her brother liked trucks. Both of them posed for a photo without the usual expected kid reaction when posing for picture with the big guy. It must be the shopping mall that makes kids cry.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well I guess winter is official. Our first winter storm came and dusted us with two inches of snow. Too bad there was a nice layer of ice underneath that made driving to and from pre-school very interesting, if not extremely slow. The temperature has been about 9 degrees, which will warm up to a balmy 25 (maybe) or so degrees by noon. Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Texas anymore. Nevermind that Georgia and Brody do not know what thermal underwear is and are giving me annoyed looks as I say, "Yes, you do have to wear a coat.....and hat...and mittens." Temperature aside, it was nice to wake up to such a pretty, white scene outside.

Road Trip

When did the term "road trip" become negative? I fondly remember packing up in a car with friends in college and going a great distance, sometimes for no real reason at all. Great fun, great times. Plenty of snacks, plenty of liquid refreshment, and off you go. So now, after having two kids, why are road trips not fun anymore? We had plenty of snacks and plenty of liquid refreshment. Maybe because the liquid refreshments were juice boxes or maybe it was because my husband maniacally insisted that "yeah, we can drive from Illinois to Texas in one day with two kids." Off we went to visit relatives back home. Eight hours later, as we were leaving Missouri, I started to give him the evil eye, and finally in Muskogee, Oklahoma it worked.Road trip aside, we arrived in "Big D" and had a good visit with Chris' mother (Grandma) and grandparents (Guelito and Guelita). Georgia was delighted to spend time with her cousin Erick and had a blast with Brody following close behind. We continued our trip south and made it to Pleasanton. Thanksgiving included time with my parents (Honey & G.P.), my grandparents (Grandma and Pa-Pa) and Aunt Zannah and Uncle Matt. I was thankful for a lot of things this year...including the time I had with everyone, but mostly because the Cowboys whipped up on the Giants and A&M beat t.u. in Austin. This was partially because I had a 6 hour drive with Chris immediately after the game! Needless to say after driving through four states, we made it home, unpacked our new collection of McDonald's toys, and vowed that we were too old for road trips like that and would fly from now on.

Give the mother of the year award to someone else!

So, one of the perks of living in what was once the country, is little creatures that want to share your space. In our case, it is field mice. We noticed them coming out of the fireplace and running around the baseboards and promptly put down those gross glue boards until the exterminator could come. We caught four in all. Of course we left a few of the traps out...just in case. Brody, ever the inquisitive little man ,decided to reach way behind the bookcase to investigate this new object. Since I am still limping, I was not fast enough to stop him. And since he does not respond to "No" it was an effort in futility. He started screaming, not because he was hurt, but because his hand was completely stuck to the glue trap. Nice! I thought that I got all of it off until I later noticed that he had a crayon stuck to his hand. I started wondering how much soap it would take to get this stuff off, and then thought that maybe if it lasts until his twenties we could have him drafted as a wide receiver.

It's the Great Pumpkin

Howdy from Illinois! We are currently enjoying the season known as Fall. For those of you back home, this weather phenomenon has cooler temperatures, the leaves on the trees turn pretty colors, and everyone gets to put on a sweater. We even saw a few snow flurries at the beginning of October. As a Texan who likes most things hot, I must admit that I do not miss 90 degree October and November days.
Georgia is having a blast in preschool. She enjoys dressing up and painting. She is currently having difficulty with using “today and yesterday” in normal conversation. She uses “on this day” and “on the other day” as in, “Am I going to school on this day?”

She has been eagerly awaiting Halloween and had a great time picking her own personal pumpkin directly from the patch. Brody didn’t know what was going on but loved banging on the bright orange “drums” in the field.

Georgia dressed up as a cheerleader and Brody was her football player along for the ride.
Brody is now 15 months. He went to the doctor two weeks ago and was 24 pounds and 32 1/2 inches long. He runs faster than I do and loves to climb and empty my kitchen cabinets and drawers of their contents. In keeping with the typical male’s lack of things to say, we only hear “mama and da-da.” He did however pick up on some baby sign language and knows the sign for “more” quite well. As is more food, more kisses, more...more...more!