One of These Things Does Not Belong!

Well, the holiday season is upon us and I can tell the busy season has hit because I will be posting half the blog posts this month as in the two previous months. Whoops!

My husband and I have always had a "not till after Thanksgiving Day" policy regarding all things Christmas (except for buying gifts - I'll do that year-round if I see the perfect thing for someone!) Alas, this policy, like so many, has been completely ignored by our children. Our oldest especially, as he is eight and is An Authority on Just About Everything.

He is also very adept at getting into the boxes in the garage, and so delved into a Christmas box early. After strictly informing him that the box would be the only one to be opened early or he forfeits a Christmas present, I allowed the kids to get the stuff out of the box and start to decorate the house last week.

One of their favorite things is the Fisher Price Little People nativity set. All three love this toy, even though anything "Little People" in our regular toy selection is considered "baby stuff" by the boys. They had much fun and merriment setting the nativity up and setting out all the figures just so. I didn't really pay much attention until I went to look out the window at some deer the other day.

Can you spot the anomaly?

Just in case you need a hint:

Somehow I don't think the baby Jesus had blond hair, a pink bow, or a cuddly teddy bear. That would be because this is the baby from my daughter's Mom & Baby Minivan set. Apparently the nativity baby Jesus was missing, so the kids had to substitute. 

All you purists out there can relax, the real Little People Baby Jesus was found later that day. All is well in the world once again!

An Atypical First Day of School Photo

So, my oldest son suffers from pretty bad anxiety. Bad enough that even though we are not the sort of parents to rush our kids to psychiatrists and doctors at every little thing they do that is out of the ordinary, we felt his anxiety levels were enough above normal to warrant medical intervention.

So he's on meds, and he's in therapy, and we are constantly working on ways to help him cope. Some days are great, some days are ok, and some days are really really hard. However, even in some of those really really hard days we can still find moments of humor, laughter and joy.

For instance, the first day of school. Every kid is a little nervous, right? Even the most excited ones probably still have at least a twinge of anxious anticipation pinging around inside of them. Isaac, on the other hand, takes that to a whole new level.

Witness his first day of school photo:

Now, this is not your typical standing by the bus or front door with a wide grin on your face first day of school photo, is it?

Despite the evidence above, he actually did get on the bus (after a lot of coaxing) and when I got a call after lunch-time from the school nurse informing me he had a tummy ache and wanted to come home, I was able to convince him to stay, and he made it the rest of the day.

However, in moments like the one above, I've found it invaluable as a stressed-out parent to find the humor in the situation. Ok, sometimes the humor doesn't strike you until later and some of the moments we've been through with him are bad enough that there just isn't any humor to be found. But God truly blessed us with our son, despite the challenges He included, and Isaac does bring so many moments of laughter into our lives.

So when I saw what he was doing, I grabbed my camera. *CLICK* There we have it - our son's first day of 2nd Grade, yay!

Note: after we convinced him to leave the house (but before we had to bribe him onto the bus) I did manage to get this shot, more closely resembling the typical First Day of School photo - albeit the smile is heavily infused with nervous grimace.

Losing My Cool

There comes a time in every mother's life when her child's level of cool outstrips her own. This usually happens around the child's thirteenth birthday, give or take a year or two. In my third child's instance, this happened about 11 years early.

Sunglasses and a cell phone? AND they both match her jammies? I just can't compete with that.

It's Like Christmas All Over Again!

So says my five-year old, who has been "celebrating" Christmas for three months now. He takes random toys from around the house (believe me, there is plenty to choose from, I swear the stuff is breeding) and "wraps" them in one of Dad's boots (for a stocking, don't you know?) or in one of my dish towels.

Then he "gives" them to his brother or sister or me. By "give" I mean, he says it is for you, then proceeds to unwrap it himself and tell you all about it, but don't you dare actually try to take the toy and play with it!

I finally got so tired of him carrying around his father's boots (of questionable cleanliness) that I went out to the garage and gave him his actual stocking.

Although, I have to admit, think about how much better off our finances would be if I could just wrap up any old thing around the house in a dishtowel and give it to someone as their present - especially if I get to then take it back, wrap it up again, and give it to someone else!

Somehow I think if I tried that at his next birthday, it wouldn't fly.


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WWJW - What Would Jesus Watch?

We had dinner at my parents' house last night (Yay Mom for making me a nice dinner when I am so sick!) and my husband drove the boys home in his truck (since he met us there after work) while I took the baby in the van.

He told me that on the way home, Isaac asked if God had DVDs in heaven. My husband said, in typical parental fashion, "What do you think?"

"No, I bet God has On Demand!"


Ahahahahahahahahah!!! I wonder if He watches America's Next Top Model with as much anticipation as the rest of the world? LOL

My Knockers and My Virus

There's a title for you!

First off, I've been sick. Really really ill with a head cold/virus/nasty bug thingy. I don't think I've been this sick for this long in over 10 years.

I haven't been able to taste anything or smell anything in days. My husband picked our daughter up the other day and said, "Whew, she STINKS!" She had just been crawling all over me and had been pooping the whole time. I walked right up and took a big ol' whiff of her diaper with my nose pressed against her fleece-covered bum. Nothing. I couldn't smell even a hint of poo! Which is nice (and I got saddled with changing her as a result, not so nice) but it also means I have to visually check her diaper every 1/2 hour to make sure she hasn't pooped. Oh, it's been fun, let me tell ya!

On the plus side, since I also can't taste anything, my appetite has been fairly nil. So I've lost nearly 10 pounds already. I force myself to eat some toast in the morning and then usually have some soup for dinner. I have been snacking on a few Ruffles potato chips since they feel good and scratchy on my throat and I can almost taste the saltiness, but I can still only eat a few. You know you are sick when you don't even have an appetite for potato chips!

Anyway, want to hear about my knockers? I thought so!

My three year old has been obsessed with his Diego adventurer/explorer kit lately. He is probably at least six months to a year behind his peers verbally, so sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying as he is yammering intently to you. I kept hearing him in the other room saying "knockers." Since I was pretty sure he hadn't sneaked a copy of Playboy magazine into the house, I went to investigate.

He was leaning against the back of the couch looking intently out the window through his yellow Diego binoculars. He turns and holds them out to me.

"Look, Mom! My knockers!"

One Way Cell Phones Have Changed the World

I don't really have anything against cell phones - much. I mean, they are handy in an emergency, even if they are annoying in public restrooms (seriously - how difficult is it to relieve your bodily functions and then call your BFF Tammy?) A cell phone is great if you are at the grocery store and can't remember if you have enough olive oil in the cupboard for that dish you were going to make for dinner and your husband is home giving the kids a bath so you get to actually shop in peace!

However this episode cracked me up and then made me realize how times have changed.

I had run to Target the other morning with my boys and I ran into my BFF Kim. This was unusual since I usually only shop in the evenings so I can leave my kids behind with Daddy and she tends to shop during the day while her kids are in school.

So we chat for a few minutes, even though we'd just had a playdate with our kids the afternoon before. Then her cell phone rings. Nothing unusual in that - it is becoming quite common place. But then I hear her say "Mom!"

Wait - didn't she tell me she was here with her mom?

"...where are you?"

Yup. Her mom had called her on her cell phone within the same shop in order to find her. Whatever happened to the days of parents and children hollering at each other across the top of the aisles? Oh, society! How you've progressed!

My friend walks to the end of the aisle and peeks out. "Mom, I'm eight feet away. Turn around!"

My favorite part is that while my friend just hangs up her phone, her mother properly says, "Oh there you are! Good-bye!"