Sally Says

2008 Favorites, a set of lists without symmetry, food edition

I used to spend so much time making sure that lists like these were even and ordered and logical and progressive.  Bwahahah!  I had way to much free time in my youth.

Without further ado, in no particular order, here are some lists of food related favorites for all of us at this moment in time, the end of 2008.

Favorite home cooked meals (ie: things both Charlie and Tommy will eat without complaint.  If it's not on this list then one or both of them will not eat it.)

• Burritos - Grandma Sylvia version
• Meatballs, spaghetti sauce, rotini pasta and broccoli
• Teriyaki Salmon, couscous and peas (I know!  Why won't Charlie eat chicken if he'll eat this?!)
• Macaroni and cheese, hotdogs and corn
• Home made vegetable ground beef soup with bread 'n butter
• Chicken & cheese quesadillas with SW frozen vegetable mix (black beans, corn, peppers, onions - they only eat the corn and beans)
• Chicken nuggets, assorted fresh fruits and veggies - I know this isn't a REAL meal, but it works.

Favorite carry out meals that everyone will eat.  We do carry out way more often then we actually eat at restaurants.

• Papa Murphy's pizza - half pepperoni & jalapeno for David, half Hawaiian for the rest of us
• Chinese food - Chicken with Broccoli for the boys and Orange Beef for us, fried rice for all
• Little Anita's New Mexican food - chicken burritos, no chile for the boys, chicken chimichanga with green chile for me, carne adovada chimichanga with red chile for David
• Taco Bell - soft tacos for the boys, crunchy tacos for me, beef 'n potato burritos and baja beef chalupas for David

• McDonalds - cheeseburger happy meal for Charlie ("cheezhambur! flies!  apple juice!  For me!"), 10 chicken nugget meal for Tommy, southwest chicken salad for David, quarter pounder with cheese for me

Restaurants we go to where the boys will eat actual food and behave

• Tomato Cafe (Italian buffet with MEATBALLS)
• Little Anita's (New Mexican, see above)
• Flying Star (breakfast)
• Red Robin (fancy burgers and fries)

Favorite candies

• Me:  Milk Chocolate Lindor Balls
• David: Red Vines
• Tommy:  Skittles
• Charlie:  M & Ms

Favorite vegetables

• Me: Sweet Potatoes
• David: chopped raw veggies with a bit of salad, lots of salt and straight vinegar 
• Tommy:  Red Bell Peppers (duh)
• Charlie:  canned carrots

Favorite fruit

• Me: peaches
• David: green mangos with vinegar and salt (sensing a theme?)
• Tommy: watermelon
• Charlie: blueberries

Favorite drinks

• Me: hot tea with milk and sugar
• David: Coke Zero
• Tommy:  sugar free kool-aid, fruit punch flavor
• Charlie:  apple juice

Tommy's sitting here with me and wants me to make a list just for him, so here it is.

• Tomato Cafe
• red bell peppers
• meatballs
• couscous
• watermelon
• apples
• strawberries
• chicken nuggets
• tacos
• burritos
• everything bagels toasted with cream cheese and cut in half
• waffles with triangle cheese (laughing cow)
• bologna
• hard boiled eggs

I've got to get those cinnamon rolls off the top of the page

Everybody but me is sleeping over here.  It's 9 pm.  I have to wake David up in an hour so he can go to work.  Charlie has decided that napping is torture, and his very loud response to any attempts to get him to nap have been waking David up after just a few hours of daytime sleep.  Poor David.  Poor Charlie.  Poor me!  I don't feel bad for Tommy though.  He gets to watch more TV while I wrestle with Charlie and then gets to spend extra time with Daddy when he emerges all groggy and sleep-deprived in the mid-afternoon. 

The upside to Charlie not napping is that he goes to bed really easily and early.  I couldn't keep him awake later than 7:15 tonight.  The downside, in addition to the immediate downside of not taking a nap, is that the early bedtime makes for a really early morning.  I gaveup and let him sleep on my lap from 4:30 to 5:30 this morning because I'm so tired of trying and failing to convince him to go back to sleep.  I don't even want to think about how early he'll get up tomorrow after going to bed a full hour early tonight.

So lets focus on the cute and cuddly aspects of He Who Will Not Nap, shall we?

Charlie can count to 10 now.  He forgets seven from time to time, but that's OK for not-yet-two.  He went from counting one-two-three to the full shebang in just a couple of days.  He even adds eleven and twelve occasionally.  He learned this from a song of course.  I swear if I sang the Declaration of Independence to him he'd learn the words in a week.  Maybe I should buy him School House Rock.

Charlie's also started branching out in his dancing.  He's currently trying to master those Russian Cossack squat-jump thingies and some sort of half-handstand donkey kick thingie.  Yeah.  I don't know any of the terms.  He can't actually jump with both feet simultaneously yet, but he still puts on a good show.

One of Charlie's Christmas presents that I forgot to mention is a Handy Manny tool box.  I've been surprised by how much he's enjoyed the actual tools.  I thought he'd just push the music button over and over.  He's been carrying it around and "fixing" things.  He turns over his toys and looks for the screws holding them together and then uses the toy screwdriver on it.  It's interesting how much of his imaginative play is focused on mimicking observed behavior.  Tommy was all about fantastic grand adventures.  Charlie's all about doing what we do.

Speaking of Christmas presents, he's still carrying his Wiggles dolls around the house.  I made a bed for them in his room, and he puts them to sleep before his (aborted, failed, fake, pretend, sham - you pick an adjective) nap and at bedtime.  I think this is ridiculously cute.  He wakes them up in the morning and then carries them around with him so they can play.  He frequently tells me, "I Wiggles' friend."  Also, there are four of them so he always takes two trips to move them from one location to another.  I thnk this is hilarious for some reason.  He is capable of carrying them all at once, but somehow doesn't feel this is appropriate or proper.  They deserve to be carried one in each hand.

His favorite word right now is nice.  His favorite blue striped pajamas are his "nice Blue's Clues jamas."  When Tommy offered to let Charlie use his pillow to take a nap Charlie declared that Tommy was very nice.  Blueberries are nice.  Vegetable soup is nice.  His blanket is "nice and soft."  Everything is nice.

OK.  I'm really tired now so I'll stop rambling.  At least the cinnamon rolls are no longer at the very top of the page.  Here's a bonus picture of Charlie.  Consider it evidence that he does actually wear something other than pajamas every single day.

Best Baking Project of the Season

We made cinnamon rolls this morning, and they were excellent.  We made 1/2 a recipe, which gave us four round pans of sugary, cinnamony goodness.  We ate one pan and shared the other three with good friends who live close enough for me to deliver them while still warm.  It was such a fun project that I'm sure we'll do the full recipe next year.  I expect to become very popular if we make this a tradition, so tell me now if you want on the list for a warm pan of homemade cinnamon rolls sometime next Christmas.

  

We made the dough yesterday, and it was super easy.  We just let it rest in the fridge over night.  I got up in a panic at 3 am, and ran in to punch it down, thinking it would be oozing all over the fridge by then.  It wasn't.  I could have stayed in bed.  The first thing the boys did this morning was butter the pans.  Charlie did NOT want any help.

 

Charlie and Tommy helped roll out the dough, and then we spread it with obscene amounts of melted butter and sugar.  Speaking of obscene, I should really take a shower sometime today.

Then I gave them each a shaker of cinnamon and they went to town on that baby.

 

Tommy and David rolled it up.

 

Before baking...and after.  I even got to use my new stand mixer to make the frosting.  Tommy pronounced this recipe "a giant thumbs up!"  Yum!

Charlie Cuteness

I'm doing two posts back to back because David's going to be dismantling our computer.  I'm not sure when we'll be back online, so I'll be taking a blogging break for a few days.  Talk to you soon!

 

We had a bit more snow yesterday.  I love little boys in snow pants.  It's still on the grass, but the streets are completely clear as is usual for Albuquerque.

 

Charlie found a green candy cane early this morning.  He was so sticky he had to have a bath.  Let this picture be a warning to you.  Store your candy canes up high. 

Christmas 2008, part 2

Tommy and Charlie really enjoyed opening presents this year.  Tommy took his duties as Christmas Elf very seriously.  His Uncle Benny was always the Christmas Elf (present passer outer) in my family, and Tommy was very good at the job this year.  He even figured out how to read all of our names on the tags so we didn't have to get up off the couch to help him.  Now that's what I call a useful development.

Charlie's most popular present genre this year was The Wiggles.  Uncle Ben and Aunt Erin gave him a new Wiggles DVD that he's watched about 14 times since he opened it.  Tommy picked out a Wiggles guitar for him and David and I found him a Big Red Car.  A couple of days before Christmas I wandered into a going-out-of-business K-B Toys and found a whole set of Wiggles dolls on super-duper-cheapo sale.  Best.  Present.  This.  Year.  He's been carrying those Wiggles around ever since he opened them, giving them hugs and chattering away to them.

Tommy's most popular present genre was Star Wars.  This is a new interest of his, so I kind of had to scramble to add some Star Wars presents at the last minute.  Now I'm glad I did.  He and David started playing the Wii Lego Star Wars game a few weeks ago, and it's been all Star Wars all the time around here since then.  He got an informational flip-file about Star Wars (pictured below) a pair of toy light sabers and the animated Clone Wars DVD.    

 

Let's see.  What else did the boys open?  I've already mentioned Charlie's basketball hoop from Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy.  Tommy got a giant Lego set that makes three different dinosaurs from them.  He's really looking forward to building that one.  He got another Lego set from us and some other cool dinosaur activities from my parents.  Charlie got a bunch of cool train-related gifts from my parents.  Charlie also got a ball pounder toy and a toy lawn mower from Mel & Sylvia.  He's been using it to mow the snowy lawn.   

The other present genre that Tommy was really excited about this year was Scooby Doo.  David and I got him a toy Mystery Machine and set of action figures.  He's been playing with that almost as much as Charlie's been playing with his Wiggle dolls.  Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Mel got him a subscription to the Scooby Doo comic book, and he's really excited about that. They also got him a Spiderman DVD that he's been wanting for over a year.

 

My brother and his wife got Tommy the Wii Ben 10 game and he's been playing it as much as we'll let him.  Luckily, Tommy is a very physically active Wii player, so we don't have to worry about him being a couch potato just yet.  After Tommy goes to bed David starts playing the XBox 350 game that Ben and Erin got him, so it's pretty much all video games all the time over here right now.  David played for SEVEN hours last night after Tommy and Charlie went to sleep. 

Ben and Erin also got a Dragon book for Tommy and a cool phonic magnet set for Charlie.  Charlie's beenbeen pushing the buttons all morning.  At least there's a little bit of educational play going on around here.

  

So that's it for presents.  We have lots of fun stuff to play with over here.  I hope you have lots of toys to play with too. 

Christmas 2008, part 1

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday break.  We're squeezing every ounce of fun, food and sloth out of our five days as possible.  Not having company makes it entirely too easy to sit around in our pajamas for days.

Our Christmas always begins with saurkraut on Christmas Eve. Maybe I'll do a photo-instruction recipe for you all next year.  If you've never had braised saurkraut and pork chops, then you have no idea what saurkraut is supposed to taste like.  It's certainly nothing like the cold pickles you put on hot dogs, although the beginning ingredient is the same.  This recipe includes white wine, gin, shortening, heavy cream and sour cream, so it's a good thing we only eat it once a year.  Charlie pretty much ate bites of pork chops, potatoes dipped in sour cream, broccoli and an orange.  Tommy ate some of everything this year!

After dinner we tried cutting jello jigglers out of red jello with Christmas cookie cutters.  It didn't really work, but they boys enjoyed eating the jello.  Then we went outside to leave some water and sparkly oats for Santa's reindeer.

  

My Christmas morning started bright and early this year.  Charlie's in the middle of another 4 am wake up routine.  I'm getting heartily sick of it.  At least on Christmas morning Charlie had interesting things awaiting him when we both gave up on going back to sleep at about 4:50.

Santa brought Charlie a singing dancing Elmo.  Tommy asked Santa to bring one for his baby brother because Tommy noticed that Charlie always liked playing with them in the stores.  I thought it was very nice of Tommy to think of Charlie when he was writing his letter to Santa. 

Charlie was a bit overwhelmed by Elmo's enthusiasm so early in the morning.  He quickly moved onto eating massive amounts of candy from his stocking.  Then he saw Uncle Terry's present to him.

 

This great basketball hoop set was too big to wrap, so it was waiting for Charlie when he woke up.  Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy decided that it would be the perfect present for Charlie when they were with him at Thanksgiving.  They were right.  It was way more fun to play with while waiting for Tommy to wake up.  It was quieter than Elmo too.

 

Tommy finally woke up around 6, and was happy to find exactly what he asked for waiting for him.  It was a Ben 10 Alien Creation Chamber with all the extra packs.  It works really well, which was something I was worrying about, and he had lots of fun playing with it while we got our Christmas morning nosh out on the table.

We had stollen, bread and cheeses and pate, veggies and dip, oranges and Christmas cookies.  I drank tea.  Charlie drank orange juice.  David drank Coke and Tommy was allowed to have his first-ever Coke.  He was super excited about it, but really only drank a tiny bit of it before becoming completely distracted by presents.

It took us a few hours to open all our presents and it was a very good year for us.  It seems like my Christmas blog entry always reads like a check list of presents.  Sorry about that.  I'm not trying to be braggy or anything.  I know that we're lucky in all that we have.  I continue to write about them because it will be nice to look back and see what the kids were interested in each year, especially in these years when they're so excited about toys.

David's big present this year was an XBox 360.  We have a Wii, but most of the games he likes to play are available for either PC or XBox instead.  He always asks for a new game for Christmas and then ends up having to spend $200+ on upgrading components on the computer to be able to play it.  This year, I just got him the kind of consol he needed.  No more upgrades!  It will save money in the long run.  Our families worked together to make sure he had a large assortment of games to play, and he was very excited when he realized how many there were.  Tommy got one new Wii game from my brother, David's XBox came with 2 games, and David was given three additional new games.  We're set for entertainment for months.  Every single game has been a big hit so far.  David also got a couple of cool tools from my dad and his brother, and a Lowe's gift certificate.

I made out like a bandit this year.  I think David was feeling guilty about all the work he's had to do the past few months.  He doesn't need to, of course, but his presents to me sure were nice.  He gave me a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, a lovely Le Creuset braiser (I've wanted one for years) and a pair of black diamond earrings.  I also got a rice cooker and a lovely set of mugs from my parents, a new crock pot from David's parents, Doctor Who DVDs from my brother (Yay!  Yay!), an Eddie Bauer gift certificate from David's brother, and a book and DVD from Tommy and Charlie.  Very nice.

 

Whew.  I should probably pay attention to Charlie, so I'll finish this up tomorrow. 

What Tommy does while waiting for Santa

 Fight "Darf Vader Himself" with his cohort Char-Char Binks (below).

 Scoff at the potential dangers of salmonella

 Cover every available surface area with sugar sprinkles.  Shirt optional.

Also scheduled for today...

• Play lots of Wii
• Crush peppermint and fruit-flavored hard candies with a mighty hammer for Chocolate Dip Cookies
• keep Char-Char Binks from opening the presents early
• Go out with Daddy to buy a new fish, because Christmas Eve Day without a little shopping just isn't any fun
• Eat pork chops and saurkraut and new potatoes smothered in sour cream with Mommy and Daddy...or maybe just the pork chops and a little broccoli
• Choose the best selection of cookies to set out for Santa

• Scatter some flying-reindeer feed (oatmeal + glitter) onto the driveway

Almost Vacation

Our Christmas vacation officially starts when David gets home from work tonight.  We only have until the end of the weekend this year, but five days is better than none.  The labs officially shut down for the full week between Christmas and New Years, but his project has been deemed Essential and Necessary and Code Red and NOW, NOW, NOW, so he and his homies are returning to 24/7 shift work on Monday.  I guess they could have continued working 24/7 over Christmas too, so I'm glad to have our five days. 

When he comes home tonight he'll be coming off working 38 hours out of a 48 hour stretch...assuming he's home by 10 pm tonight.  He had one 12 hour stretch of not-working that was used for driving, eating and 10 hours of sleep.  He was pretty tired before he even started though, because the first stretch of work lasted 20 hours and started at 10 pm after a regular day off.  He's really looking forward to the start of Christmas vacation, as are the rest of us.

Tommy and I plan to have all the grocery shopping and holiday preparations and cookie baking done by the time David wakes up tomorrow morning.  I expect we won't budge from the house until at least Saturday, maybe even Sunday.  Why leave the house when you don't have to?  We'll have excellent food to eat and newly opened presents to play with.  I can say with authority that there will be much noshing and video game playing around here.

One of my attempts to keep Tommy and Charlie occupied while we wait for David to start his vacation was this little $5 gingerbread house kit.  David actually got to see us put it together in the 30 minutes he took to shovel food into his mouth before collapsing into bed last night.

  

  

 I didn't notice until just now that Charlie was trying to get a candy cane out of it's wraper in about 30 pictures.  Guess we were too busy taking pictures to notice he needed help.  Poor little guy.

Santa, Reindeer and Spinach Pasta

  Ho, ho, ho!

Foot and hand print reindeer!  Tommy's is on the left.  Charlie's  is on the right.  Tommy was wearing shoes, but Charlie wasn't.  Man, that toddler has big feet.

 I made the best pasta a few days ago.  Tommy and Charlie slice the mushrooms for it.  Here's the recipe if you're interested.

Dice 6 slices of raw bacon.  Cook then remove with a slotted spoon and drain.  Leave a film of bacon drippings in the pan and add some olive oil.  Sautee 1/2 onion (diced) and two packages of mushrooms (sliced) until starting to brown.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Add 1/2 bag frozen chopped spinach, one can diced tomatoes, a generous spoonful of jarred garlic puree and the cooked bacon.  The spinach will thaw as it cooks.  Add chicken broth and simmer until reduced as much as you want.  I used 1/3 can and simmered until almost dry then added another 1/3 can and simmered until thick but still a bit soupy.  You can keep adding broth if you need hold dinner.  Add one pound cooked pasta to the pan before serving.  Stir together and leave over low heat for a few minutes so the pasta can absorb the liquid. 

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells - Extended Version

Here's our long version of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, with an extra verse written by me and Tommy together.  If you pass it on, give kudos where they are due please.  I fully expect Uncle Benny to sing this all Christmas.  It should really confuse his Korean students in China.

Jingle Bells, Batman smells

Robin laid an egg

The batmobile lost a wheel

And the Joker got away

Dashing through the snow

With a bat-a-rang in tow

Catwoman's on the prowl

The Penguin needs a towel

Killer Croc's in shock

'Cause Alfred cleaned his clock

The Manbat flies over Gotham town

But Batman will bring him down

Ohhhhhhhhh!  Jingle Bells, Batman Smells...

Bedtime Business

Charlie's bedtime routine always starts with a bath.  We only wash the boys with soap every other day because it's so dry in New Mexico.  Tommy has decided that he'd rather have extra alone-with-Mommy time for reading on non-washing days, so he skips the "playing baths."  Charlie still takes a bath every day because it helps him remember that it's bedtime.

David always does their baths when he's home, so he has better bathtime stories than I do.  I know that Charlie likes bubbles in his bath.  He likes to do push ups and hand stands in the bath too.  He uses his arms to hold his face out of the water and walks his feet up the wall.

After his bath, he runs to find me.  I'm usually in bed with Tommy reading.  Either David or I put on his pajamas and then David brushes his teeth.  He gets a turn to hold the toothbrush, but only brushes his own teeth for about half a second before jumping down off David lap.  Then he announces "Ni!  Yay!" to David and comes running to me.

"Ni!" is his mash up of the words "milk" and "nurse."  As he gets closer to 2 years old, he's moving towards just nursing before bedtime and naptime, but he still really looks forward to those times.  David and I think his word for it is hilarious and have dubbed him one of the "Knights Who Say Ni."  (If you don't know what that is then you are very Monty Python deprived..which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.) 

I read books to him before the "Ni."  He has some favorites right now, including Webster J. Duck, Tomie's Baa Baa Black Sheep, Hush Little Baby (the excellent Marla Frazee version), I Am a Bunny, and any of the Spot lift the flap books.  He's finally started to like Good Night Moon too. (I was about to give up on it.)  Eventually he'll decide he's done with books and run off to say good night to Tommy and Daddy.  There's a lot of running in Charlie's bedtime routine.

Tommy always really wants to give Charlie a hug at bedtime.  Charlie just wants to run into Tommy's room and yell "Bye Tommy!  Bye Daddy!" and then run back to his own room for "Ni."  Tommy tries to entice him by saying "huggie hugs for your Tommy" in a baby voice.  There is usually drama.  Eventually Charlie stands still long enough for a hug.  Then he's off. 

Right before Charlie and I settle in for snuggles and milk, he says good night to all the Pooh Bear characters on his small lamp.  He's very careful not too exclude anybody.  "Bye Pooh Bear.  Bye Pigget.  Bye Hun Pot.  Bye Buttafies.  Bye Bees.  Bye Bee's Brudder.  Bye grass.  Bye light."  And then it's lights off and time to really settle down.  

He always holds onto the green crocheted blanket that Aunt Erin made for us while we're snuggling.  If he has trouble settling down I'll sing Moon, Moon, Moon to him.  Eventually he has to say good night to Mommy and the "Ni" and go to bed.  He has two Thomas the Train blankets, a small Pooh Bear, a green frog, Spot the Dog, a hippo and a duck in his bed with him. 

Tommy Tidbits and Charlie Chiplets

Tommy's teachers taught the kids the words to Jingle Bells, and they sang the song for the parents at their Christmas party.  They sang quite nicely, and accompanied themselves with tambourines they made out of paper plates and bells.  David and I followed up on this sweet Christmas learning experience by teaching Tommy and Charlie the words to the Batman Smells! version of Jingle Bells.  We're all about the sentimental experiences over here.

Charlie's favorite question these days is "Are doing, Mommy?" I think he's working on beefing up his verbal repertoire.  He not only wants to know what I'm doing, he wants to know what that particular action is called.  He'll repeat the question multiple times so he can hear the new word over and over until he's learned it. 

"Are doing, Mommy?" 

"Peeling apples." 

"Are doing, Mommy?" 

"Peeling apples." 

"Are doing, Mommy?" 

"Peeling apples." 

"Yeah.  Peel apples.  I peel apples too?  Charlie help?" 

"No.  The knife is sharp." 

"Oh, OK, Mommy."

I've decided that almost-five is a great age for Christmas.  Tommy really GETS it this year.  He's able to keep the secrets when we tell him what different gifts are.  He helped choose his own gifts for me, David and Charlie.  He randomly gets all excited about how much one of us is going to LOVE one of our presents that he knows about.    I'm really looking forward to opening presents with him this year.

We had a little spontaneous playdate over here this morning.  Tommy invited 2.5 friends over and Charlie invited 1.5 friends.  (Duncan was the shared friend.  Charlie thought he was there to play with him.  Duncan thought he was there to play with Tommy.  Tommy was oblivious.)  I'm getting really good at this hostessing for kids thing, if I do say so myself.  We played games and made a reindeer craft and had a snack.  It was a nice way to spend a rainy morning.

 

Charlie is newly obsessed with the Toy Story movies.  Tommy loved them too at this age.  I wish I'd realized how much he was getting into them before I finished my Christmas shopping.  He'd really like a Jessie doll for his birthday (hint, hint).  For some reason, he believes that he should not be wearing pants when he watches them.  He talks about Buzz and Woody and Yee-haw bowboy all the time.

   

Young David

 

This was taken in the Philippines when David was probably 7 or 8 years old.  He must have liked Coke even then.  David's brother Terry is the blondie next to him.  Merry Christmas!

More Snow

It snowed again yesterday.  David's been working nights all month, so I had to go out with the boys this morning.  I had more fun than I thought I would.  I guess avoiding going out in the snow for years and years has made it a bit more appealing.

 

Charlie was still not impressed by the snow.  He begged to go back inside after about 5 minutes.

Tommy loved it this time.  I think it was because I am WAY more adept than David at putting him into his snow gear correctly.  My method, perfected while growing up in the great white north, ensures that his feet stay dry.

  

  

Tommy and I made this groovy snow man while Charlie stood just inside the glass slider and watched us.

Tommy has declared that today is the Perfect Day.  He helped me make pancakes for breakfast.  There was snow all over the place when he woke up, and he got to go out and play in it.  He made a snowman.  He got to watch some of his favorite Nigel Marvin dinosaur documentaries.  He's getting quesadillas with chicken and red bell peppers for lunch.  Hopefully his good-day streak will continue.  Daddy should be up and about by dinner time so he might even get to play some Wii with Daddy today.  It's pretty fun being almost-five.  

Not wanting to leave a bit of a rant at the top of the page

This post is a random assortment of unrelated paragraphs.  Don't you just love those?

We are now the proud owners of a new furnace and a full-fledged AIR CONDITIONER.  No more swamp cooler for us!  Plus, our wonderful new thermostat can switch back and forth between heat and AC in the spring and fall when it's cold in the mornings but hot in the afternoons.  How cool is that?

It snowed on Tuesday!  Charlie had fun for about 10 minutes, but then he tripped on his too-big boots and bashed his forehead on the concrete.  Tommy declared he was cold and didn't like playing in the snow anymore (smart kid).  Thus endeth the first snow day of the year.

  

I called David from Walmart at 5:00 pm last night and asked him to go out into the front yard and take a picture of the gorgeous full moon over Sandia Peak.  This is the sort of thing I use my cell phone for.  It's pretty good don't you think?  Sandia means "watermelon" in Spanish.  The mountain turns pink as a watermelon at sunset during certain times of the year, and it was very pink last night. 

  

He also took this great picture of Charlie and me grooving to some bouncy tunes. 

A sleep success

Charlie slept all night long without waking up until after 5 am SEVEN nights in a row.  It's been heavenly.  Of course he woke up crying and cranky at 4 this morning, but I think his last 2-year molar is about to erupt. 

It's frustrating to me that I can't really tell friends about this wonderful news without getting the "oh, I could never handle/put up with that sort of sleep deprivation" speech.  As if I CHOOSE to ALLOW my toddlers to wake up sick or in pain or thirsty or with a wet diaper.  Like I'm some kind of martyr or idiot who can't figure out how to be reasonable about night wakings.  As if I think 5 am is the perfect time for morning to start.  Dealing with THAT conversation diplomatically over and over again kind of takes the shine off our success.  Why can't people understand that kids' sleep and night-time parenting methods cover two huge spectrums?  Where kids' inborn natures and parents' comfort zone and parenting choices fall on those spectrums varies widely.  Give me the benefit of the doubt, please.

I've said before that Charlie is a great sleeper unless something's bothering him, and that's still true.  He's never had to "learn" that sleeping is more fun than mommy in the night.  He likes to sleep and isn't afraid or or resistant to going to sleep.  It's been so much easier this time around to get up in the night because I can always immediately see the root cause of his wakings. 

I probably do go in to him more quickly than I did Tommy because Tommy is still a really light sleeper and I certainly don't want to deal with TWO awake kids at the same time.  That reality makes crying sessions in the middle of the night pretty impossible for us, so I'm glad Charlie is pretty easy to soothe in the night and not likely to wake up unless something is bothering him. 

One of the main things that wakes him up these days is a wet diaper.  I'm certainly not going to train him to ignore that!  The kids who are taught to ignore that or who are naturally oblivious to the sensation sometimes have trouble with night-time potty training and bedwetting.  Charlie and Tommy have both found peeing to be a Wake-Up! event since about their first birthdays.  As much as I love to sleep myself I'm thankful for how this reaction to peeing in the night will help us in the long run. 

Charlie seems to be able to go about 8-9 hours without peeing now, which is a huge improvement.  We're at the stage now where he wakes up to pee between 4 and 5, which is difficult because it's too close to morning for him to easily be able to go back to sleep.  It's only a matter of months before his bladder can hold him 9-10 hours, and then we'll be GOLDEN.  In the meantime, he often gives up on sleep when he wakes up to pee but then makes up for it with a 3+ hour nap.  I can't complain about that!

So for now, I'm just happy to get a nice long stretch of sleep most nights.  So congratulate me on my 7 nights of good sleep!  And please don't negate that congratulations by shockingly exclaiming how horrible getting up around 5 am is. I'm just happy to be sleeping, no matter how early the morning comes. 

Did Michael Phelps Mom panic 18 years ago? No, she did not.

Tommy has an exciting event on Saturday.  David has a friend whose wife is an Olympic swimmer.  She has a swim team, and likes to start working with kids before they actually know how to swim.  David hopes that he has passed his super-duper-swimmer genes on to Tommy.  He's taking Tommy to try out for the team on Saturday.  If he's accepted onto the team he'll have one 30 minute lesson/practice once a week. 

My reaction to the whole thing went something like this...

He's not yet 5 years old?!  This is crazy!  He hasn't learned how to ride a bike or pump a swing yet.  I don't know anything about being a sports mom.  I'm certain to screw it up.  It's too early!  Will I have to get in the water?  I don't want to!  How in the world will I keep Charlie out of the pool for 30 minutes each week.  Eventually I'll be driving him to swim practices four times a week at 5 am.  Waaaaah! 

Once I stopped hyperventilating about it, I agreed that it is a good opportunity for Tommy.  He does love playing around in the water and could use some extra exercise and if he does turn out to be good at it there's no better way to grow up to be an Olympian than to start training with an Olympian when you're young.  I'll just have to make sure to continue to sign him up to musical theater and buy him lots of legos and books.  Just to even out the influences, if you will.

I'll let you know how it goes. 

Twinners

  

Clean up on file 12

Randomy randomness over here today.  I'm getting behind on posting pictures.

   

Tommy picked the new tree topper.  The boys took on the task of installing it at the top of the tree.  I didn't have to lift a finger to get this holiday task accomplished.

  

I was playing around with my fancy tripod David gave me for Christmas last year.  I wanted to see if using it would make it possible to take tree pictures with no flash.  They turned out OK, but little kids don't stay still for very long. 

 

Sometime my attempts at getting pictures of them together don't quite come together as I'd wish.  Ooo, seeing the fish tank in the background reminds me that it's been a while since I posted a fish tank photo.  I'll have to do that sometime soon.

Wheee!

 

Aren't they civilized with their little Santa mugs?

I did it!

We finally got Charlie a booster seat so he doesn't have to eat standing up on his chair any more.  He's all about doing things himself these days, and is so proud when he masters a new skill.  Climbing up into his chair himself is one of those proud accomplishments.  Charlie says, "Yay I did it!" every time he climbs up.