Merry Christmas!

Opening presents:

We like to hug:

Ready for Santa

Our Christmas jammies are on:

Christmas stories have been read:

Cookies have been decorated and left out for Santa:

The children are nestled all snug in their beds:

The stockings have been filled:

The presents have been wrapped and put under the tree:

We're all set.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sam is Thankful

I forgot to post this video on Thanksgiving...

Celebrating Noah

Noah was Student of the Month at his elementary school for November. Yay for Noah!! I am so proud of him. To celebrate, I told him that this weekend he could choose what we did. I was not at all surprised when he chose to go to his favorite mall with the crazy play areas. First we rode the Carousel (is this post sounding familiar?)...

Sam was not in a merry-go-round mood and opted to sit out with my dad instead (my mom and dad are here visiting for Christmas and it is WONDERFUL):

Then of course the boys spent some time at the play area, after which we went out to dinner and introduced the boys to the concept of "toasting." We toasted Noah's student-of-the-month-fabulousness and he and Sam got really into the clinking of the glasses. They also quite enjoyed our cries of "Tallyhoe!" which is a toasting necessity in my family.

To top off the celebration Noah got to do some rock climbing. The kid is seriously good at this. I took him to the rock wall at the gym a couple of months ago and he would scurry up the wall like it was nothing and then he'd look down at me (barely half-way up) and say encouraging things like, "Come on Mom, you can do it! Just keep going, you're almost there!" Here's the little spider doing his thing:

Good job Noah!

(That reminds me... Yesterday when I came home from work I saw that Noah had left me a picture on my bed that said "Good goob [sic] Mom!" with a behavior chart like the ones he gets at school from his teacher. He gave me all blues and purples, thank you very much. I am evidently a very well-behaved mother.)

Noah's Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I really want a trampoline, a big bouncy ball, a toy zebra, two coloring books for my brother and I, and a teddy bear, a bacugans, and a toy giraffe for my mom. Star wars toys, and a toy caterpillar. I have been a good boy and I think I really deserve it.

Nut's Hat

The other day the boys and I were walking through Hermann Park. Sam, whom we have called Peanut or Nut since before he was born, was excited to find acorn tops on the ground. He picked one up and exclaimed, "Look Mama! It's a nut hat!" He then proceeded to put it on his head and say, "Cause I a Nut!"

Welcome Jane!

Yesterday my little brother Tom and my sister-in-law Aly had their first baby - a little girl named Jane. We are so thrilled to have a new addition to our family!

When I showed her picture to my boys they both gave their approval by saying, "I like her." Then Sam observed, "She's cuddling in her bed."

Welcome to the world, sweet baby Jane! We're so happy you're here!

Let It Snow

Note: I realize that this post will make my friends in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and in Colorado roll their eyes. Rest assured that I do understand the absurdity of it all. However…

It snowed here in Texas the other day!! This was a very exciting event for us as it very rarely snows here (as in, next to never). It started out as wet-almost-like-fluffy-rain snow but as the day went on we actually accumulated enough to stick on the ground. Granted, we could still see an awful lot of grass so it was more like snow patches but we’ll take what we can get.

The absurd part is the level of panic this “snow storm” created. My office closed mid-day. Several schools in the area closed. My college sent out an “emergency” correspondence and cancelled classes that day and the day after (despite the sunny skies and the fact that everything had basically melted by then). Seriously, people. It was pretty ridiculous.

In any event, my kids had a blast playing in the snow. It was so funny (and kind of sad) because Noah was totally psyched about making a snow angel but when he stood up to admire it, he looked down and said, “Hey, where’d it go?” Poor guy; snow angels are pretty elusive when there isn’t enough snow to completely cover the ground.

Here are some pictures from our very exciting snow day:

Because it rarely snows here, the Museum of Natural Science hosts an annual Snow Day and actually brings in 80,000 pounds of snow for kids to play in. Coincidentally, it fell this year the day after our real snow day. Because my kids had so much fun playing in the snow on Friday, I brought them to the museum to play in the snow some more the next day. Can you believe that I actually paid $10 for my kids to get 15 minutes of play in this??

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Artwork by my niece Abby, age 6)

Multi-tasking

Sam didn't let snack-time or a phone call from his cousin Ryan slow down his playground fun. The boy had things to do.

My Noah:

Flashbacks

When I was in second grade, I had a friend named Annie who made me hang up her coat every morning by threatening not to be my friend unless I did. Being the timid little doormat that I was at the time, I obliged her again and again.

Then one day I told my older brother and sister about it and they were pretty mad. My brother spent an hour coaching me on how to say, "That's okay, Annie, I don't need friends like you!" while flipping my hair and turning on my heel. My sister (an intimidating 5th grader at our elementary school) found Annie in the hallway the next day and threatened her to never boss her sister around again. Her little talk was effective and I never had to hang up Annie's coat again - although I missed out on the opportunity to use my well-rehearsed come-back.

Today I was able to channel this experience from 23 years ago into a teaching moment with my boys. I overheard Noah tell Sam to "pick that up or I won't be your friend anymore." Well, that's certainly not going to fly in this house so I sat Noah down and explained in no uncertain terms that we never boss people around and threaten friendship like that. I think it went well. Although he seemed a little bewildered at first when I burst into the room screaming, "Hang up your own damn coat, Annie!"**

Ahh, the circle of life.


**Postscript: Of course I did not actually say this to my child. I am told this point requires clarification.

I love kindergarten. For real.

This is Noah, proudly dragging his potato-turned-turkey down the hallway of his elementary school in the kindergarten's Turkey Day Parade.

The potato-turkey's chariot is a shoebox lid which, much to Noah's complete mortification, was originally pink. This was a very big deal at our house until I assured him that I would be covering the offensive pink shoebox lid with purple paper. To the average person, it may not seem that going from pink to purple would be enough to properly de-girl the shoebox lid. But purple is a highly regarded color in the kindergarten world (being the highest level one can acheive in behavior motivation) and has therefore become gender-neutral.

Noah has started being very aware of gender differences. It's hilarious. One of his best friends at school is a girl from his preschool days that he'll play with sometimes at recess (she is not in the same kindergarten class). When I ask about her he makes very clear to me that she is just a friend. Not a girlfriend. Just a friend, mom. Duly noted.

It cracks me up the things that he picks up at school. I think my favorite so far is the introduction of the phrase "for real" into his jargon. He says it ALL the time and I love it.

N: "Mama, I was on blue today."

A: "Really, baby? That's great!"

N: "For real."

I love kindergarten.

Close Call

So last week I had a physical and my doctor saw a mole on my back with irregular borders and a dark center. Those are the suspicious kind, so she cut it out and had it tested. I had the stitches removed this morning and discussed the results with my doctor. Thankfully, it was not cancerous yet but there were some irregular cells that would have developed into cancer had they not been removed. So this is an official reminder to you all to stay on top of your doctor’s check-ups. I’m pretty happy right now to not have cancer. Hooray!

My mom said I need to ask Santa for some sunscreen. The thing is though, I’m actually really good about wearing sunscreen. I put it on every single time I’m going to be out in the sun and I reapply and all that. But unfortunately, I live in a climate with really intense summers that last for a good portion of the year. Not good for someone with fair skin like me who is, evidently, prone to developing irregular-cells-that-may-become-skin-cancer. Sigh. So I’m adding “to reduce my risk of malignant melanoma” to my list of reasons why I really want to move back to Northern California (no offense, Texans).

Halloween Pictures