Surprises...

Have I mentioned that I like surprises? Well, I got one today. My in-laws showed up at my house this afternoon and I had absolutely no idea they were coming. Although I did have a lot of questions for my husband today before he left the house. It went something like this:

Brian: I'm taking Claxton with me today. We are going to have guy time.
Me: Ok....
Me (after a long pause): Why today? It's Wednesday, it's the middle of the week. Are you sure you don't need to be working?
Brian: Not today.
Me: Where are you going?
Brian: Why are you questioning me?
Me: Because you are having guy time in the middle of the week. Where are you going?
Brian: Parker's, Fry's, and the bank.
Me: Oh no, not Fry's again.
Me: How long will you be gone?
Brian: I don't know. A few hours. Enough with the questions already.

I left the house about an hour after them to buy groceries and upon my return they were still not home. I dared not call to check on them. So another hour or so passed and I heard the garage door open. Claxton comes running in the house saying, "Mom, Grammy and Grandpa are here, Grammy and Grandpa are here!!!!". I thought at first maybe he was a little confused but I was wrong.

So the plot thickens. Brian informs me that just the two of us are going away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and that he would give me details as needed. While I'm excited, I'm also worried about leaving Julia as I have not been away from her at all. I have a day to get it all together. I have to pack for cold weather and take a swim suit. We leave early Friday morning and will be coming home Sunday night. That's all I know. Stay tuned...

Fifty is the new Forty

You may have heard that line. It's on a commercial for one of the financial planning companies, I think it's Ameriprise. Anyway, I've probably heard it a dozen times or so but never really paid attention to it. Not until this last week or so when I suddenly realized that I have a 'big' birthday approaching. While that phrase is not the main message of the commercial, it has indeed resonated we me over the past couple of weeks. Fifty is the new forty. I could not agree more. Especially today.

I thought I would share the card that my sweet, loving husband gave me today.

The screaming is baaccckkkkk

And it is more piercing than ever. We had thought that we had moved past this stage. It tapered off around Thanksgiving and really didn't hear much of it throughout the entire holiday season. Maybe all of the fun festivities of the season kept her occupied enough that it was not necessary. For whatever reason, it is back and all of us will be glad when this passes. Everyone here deals with it in their own way. Here's Claxton trying his best to cope with the situation one day during lunch.

Julia screaming to the top of her lungs...

Claxton coping with it...

Not yet

When Claxton talks he often begins his sentences with the words not yet. Here's a couple of examples of things he says:

Not yet it's time to go to bed
Not yet it's time to pick up toys
Not yet it's time to eat
Not yet it's snowing again

Twice in one week

We got snow again this week. Life is good for Claxton! It snowed most of the day so we had enough to build another snowman. In fact, Claxton asked if we could build a real snowman today!!! He could hardly contain himself and Julia just looked on in amusement.

The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry

And so it is. We had big plans to spend the first weekend in January organizing, re-arranging a room or two, decluttering, etc, etc, in an effort to start 2008 off with great orderly fashion. We had a plan of attack. A plan which quickly got derailed. Three of the four of us managed to catch a nasty cold. We took the kids to the doctor only to be informed that they have the preliminary stages of Bronchiolitis. The doc said Julia will probably be clingier and want to be held more than normal. This in fact has been true. He also said we should not allow Claxton to run around too much as it would further irritate the situation. Thankfully we are just coming off Christmas where he received 3 or 4 new DVD's. I think we've seen "Cars" at least ten times this past week. As we were about to leave the doctor's office he told us to be prepared for a very long January. Thanks Doc.

I'm now looking around at all the things I wanted to get done and see how none of it has even been touched. I had visions of all the fun organizational baskets/containers and gadgets that I would so enjoy purchasing and placing in just the right places. Instead, we are now the proud news owners of not one mind you, but three humidifiers. One for each kids room and one for me.

We are on the mend now so we'll see how expeditiously we can execute our plan. I'm hopeful to accomplish everything I had wanted to do by the end of the month. Some of these projects should have been done a long time ago right after we moved in this house. But babies came along and priorities changed. So between changing diapers, feeding the kids, reading to and playing with the kids, laundry, running errands, etc, etc I am determined not to put these projects off any more. I am striving to be more organized in 2008.

Surprise, surprise!!

I love surprises and so does our little man. Today when he got up from napping he had a great surprise awaiting him. We captured his reaction on video but am having trouble getting it posted.

We had snow! He was very excited. Our plans were to go outside tomorrow morning and play, but after listening to the weather report we decided we should let him play on the deck for a few minutes after dinner otherwise he might not get the opportunity at all since it is suppose to rain later tonight. So we wrapped up as best as we could (we really don't have appropriate clothing since it is so rare that we need it) and played on the deck for about five minutes or so. Even though the time was short, Claxton had fun. I'm glad we allowed him to go outside tonight. Seeing him so excited was worth every freezing minute. We built a miniature snowman. It looks more like a duck than a snowman, but it served the purpose and Claxton was thrilled to play even for just a few minutes.

We had 'fat snow flacks' as stated by Claxton

Throwing a snowball at Mommy



Trying to make a snowman



Our miniature snowman



Done! (Dad said it looks more like a duck)



Julia stayed warm and watched from the window

Everybody loves the new train table

A few weeks have gone by since Christmas and Claxton is a little more open to sharing his new toys with Julia. He's starting to find that when he shares everybody is a little happier around here. We are not 100% there with the sharing, but progress is definitely being made. Daddy likes his new train table too...

Dancing Queen

Young and sweet only 10 months old... If anyone has rhythm, it's Julia. There's not a toy that plays music that she doesn't start moving to the beat when she hears it. One day this week I watched her as she pressed the music button on a puppy toy she has over and over, for at least ten to fifteen minutes straight. She was on her knees and happily swayed to all of the tunes over and over and over again. I've noticed that if she is upset, she often calms easily if I just start singing to her.

(I was going to post a video of her dancing but couldn't get it to work. Maybe I'll post it later.)

Claxton reading to Julia

The kids were playing on the floor while I was trying to get a few things done around the house, like the never ending pile of laundry and such. I looked over at them to find Claxton 'reading' Pat the Bunny to Julia. He even made sure to show her the pictures along the way. It was one of Claxton's favorite books when he was Julia's age and it's her favorite now too.

Christmas 2007

Here's a recap of the holidays. It includes days leading up to Christmas, Christmas, and time with our families. It's a little lengthy...sorry about that.