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.

Standing for the first time

She's cruising now. Claxton was taking his afternoon nap when this occurred. My guess is that he will not be very happy when he catches Julia at his new train table. She crawled right up to the table and pulled herself up as if she had been doing it all her life.

Preparing for Christmas

Over the past couple of weeks we've been trying to do an activity every day in preparation for Christmas. It's part of our participation in Advent. Some days we've gone somewhere or attended an event. But typically we take 10-15 minutes right after dinner every night and do something together as a family. That's the time we are all awake and together but it's not yet bed time and part of that routine. Our activities are simple, but enough to keep the attention of a 2 1/2 year old for a few minutes. There's always a one to two minute lesson pertinent to what Christmas means. This is our first year giving it a try and we've missed a few days, but all in all I think we've done a decent job. The best part is that every day around dinner time Claxton starts asking "when are we going to advent?"

Here's some of the things we've done:

• made an angel ornament
  
• made a sheep ornament
  
• made cookies and decorated them
• shopped for a Christmas tree
• decorated our Christmas tree
  
• made a star ornament
  
• gave the birds in our yard a special feast
  
• donated toys for some other kids to have presents under the tree
  
• donated some food for other families
  
• talked about the things we treasure
  
• talked about who Mary & Joseph are
  
• talked about Jesus and his birth
  
• talked about good things God has given us
  
• attended a Christmas program
• rode around to look at Christmas lights and decorations

I have to say that this short time each night has been very special for our family and we all look forward to it every night. Hopefully next year I'll get a head start on planning our activities. We definitely want to do it again.

Essentials for great baking

1. Getting flour on your face in the process...

2. Waiting patiently for it to bake



3. Getting to taste what you've just baked as soon as it out of the oven and cool enough to eat

On to bigger and better toys

Julia has been crawling very well for almost a month now. So we've had to start being more careful with what toys we have available on the floor when she's on the move. And having to share on a regular basis is something new for Claxton. Something that he is not always pleased about. She's very proud of herself here where she has been able to get her hands on his airplane for a little while.

As soon as he is aware that she has something that belongs to him, it usually spurs on a conversation something like this:

Claxton (observing Julia with one of his toys): "Julia don't want that. She don't want it"
Me: "Well she must because she is playing with it."
Claxton (as he is heading towards Julia to politely take it away from her: "No, Mommy, she don't want it."
Me: "Claxton, it's important that we share. Julia is not hurting anything. It's okay for her to play with some of your toys too."
Claxton: "But I don't want her to play with it."
Me: "Life's hard. Get over it."
Claxton: "Oh."

Story time with a surprise guest

The Reading Tree hosted a special Christmas story time with a reading of the Polar Express. At the end of the story, the children were greeted by a surprise guest who gave each child their very own silver bell. Bet you can't guess who it was! It was interesting watching Claxton. He wasn't quite sure what to do when Santa entered the room. He just stood and stared. Our child who is usually very vocal and animated was still, quiet, and watched with his hands behind his back. Once he realized he would get his own bell he came to life again. So Santa handed out the bells, then we talked to Santa for a few minutes and of course I captured a photo of the kids on his lap.

I'm probably a little biased

But isn't she just adorable. She has gotten into the habit of crawling under the table and looking out the window. Often times she gets herself in a bit of jam and needs help getting out. Who could refuse that sweet smile?

This is just a comfortable position for her. I have no idea how she does it, but she can sit in this position and play for twenty minutes or so. I love watching her play especially when she does not realize it. Every morning I pull out the baskets with her toys and she's usually good to go for 20-30 minutes. More often than not this is the position she likes best. It's rare to find her on her sitting on her bottom playing.

A streak of creativity

Claxton had a couple of days where he was just coming up with all kinds of new ways to use different items. These two I captured and thought I would share:

"Look Mom, this is a camera. You have to press the button to take the picture."

"I'm going to take a picture of you, smile!"

(Note: The power strip was not plugged in. It was out in the middle of the room on the floor because we were in the process of decorating for Christmas.)



"Hey Mom, watch me! I'm iceskating."

I gotta give it to him, he's got a great imagination.

In search for the perfect tree

Every year we go to a local tree farm to search for that perfect Christmas tree. This year Claxton enjoyed running between the trees and of course informing us that he liked each and every one of them. It didn't take very long for us to settle on one. Julia was curious about the tree and kept trying to touch them as we walked around, but mostly I think she just liked watching Claxton run all over the place.

Time to lower the crib

When I went in to get Julia up from her nap today she was on her knees holding on to the rail trying to pull herself up. It can't be time to lower her crib already. It's just too soon. Wasn't it just a few days ago that we moved her from the bassinet into her crib? Seems like it anyway. Daddy and Claxton will have to take care of this right away.