Scissorbill

Nope, I'm not traveling to a Muslim country.  I'm facing the cold and running outside this winter.  And I learned to apply Vaseline to exposed skin.  I went out on Wednesday in the low 20's and my eyeballs were sore for a couple of hours after.  I guess I'll just have to toughen them up.

We're taking down the tree today.  I look forward to pulling these smiling faces out again next year.

I'm grateful to my mom for all the wonderful Christmas memories I have.   I now realize how damn much work it is!

I love it!
It came from Denmark.  In Allan's coworker's luggage because his own suitcase was too full!

I've found a few interesting things on my runs.  I leave the used condoms lay.  I pick up all money including pennies.  I have probably found a total of two dollars in change, a wrench, and a Yankee candle air freshener with plenty of apple smell still in it.  Today I was admiring Christmas decorations and thinking we needed a red bow for our wreath on the door and not a half a mile later I saw one discarded and half buried in a bush on the side of the road.  Yay!

Merry Christmas everyone!  My kids are celeebrating by playing out all the possible permutations of two against one.

"Mommy, here's your present but you CAN'T OPEN IT TILL CHRISTMAS...it's a cup."

I got home from a tough workout and the doorbell rang.  It was a delivery man with one of those Edible Arrangements.  I immediately thought he had the wrong house but saw the card was addressed to me from the family of the boy I watch after school.  It made my day!  And the whole family gorged on fruit.

We had a busy and messy afternoon yesterday:




And this picture shows exactly why Tom's cookies are segregated:

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Allan has been in Denmark all week so I've adopted a friend's habit of taking it easy when her spouse travels.  She said she doesn't pack the kids' lunches and hired a babysitter to come and watch her little one while she puts her older kids to bed.

My idea of taking it easy:
-No lunches packed, this means David has eaten the 'cereal and yogurt' option at school all week
-Tom only had one bath and it was at 3:00 pm because that is when I had the energy to do it.  I haven't been falling asleep like I usually do so I'm tiiiired
-I didn't take the trash out on Tuesday.  The bin was only *half full so it can wait another week.  This also means I didn't have to roll the empty bin back up the driveway on Tuesday evening
-I skipped squeegeeing the shower doors
-I have not limited TV for the kids
-I took them to a holiday party on Sunday for dinner, fed them cheese & crackers for dinner on Monday, took them out on Tuesday, let Alex make **macaroni…

I've gone from buying Hess trucks for Alex, David, Tom, my nephews Jameson, Gage, & Austin to buying one for Tom only.  :(

These two!  They know Santa is something people like to pretend but they also saw the kids that visited him at the party last night were walking away with candy canes!

I was concerned about David at the beginning of kindergarten because Tom knew his letters better than David did.  But somehow at the middle of first grade David has caught up and is reading beyond grade level and doing just fine.

I was concerned about Tom because here in Connecticut the kindergarten cutoff date is Dec 31 and his birthday is Dec 2 and it seems like parents of boys born late in the year tend to hold them back, or 'redshirt' them.  We have no compelling reason to hold him back.  I know someone has to be the youngest in the class but with all the kids who are held back he will be a full year younger than they will and I don't want to push him too hard.  But I think he'll go to kindergarten next fall and likely end up right where David is in first grade.  And they can go to the same school for another year, they are very close and I think they'll both like that.

Alex's report card came home Monday.  The C in art wouldn't have stuck out so much if it hadn't been amidst a sea of A/s.  I emailed his art teacher, very diplomatically, and her response was, "if he got a B on his project that is what his grade should be I must have entered it wrong I'm on bedrest pregnant with twins."

So yesterday a new report card came home, all A/s and one B!

I'm going to make Tom's eating my priority.  I have three books on request at the library and yesterday I got him to try a bite of clementine.  He seemed to like it but refused to eat any more.  I tried a saltine cracker today but all he would do is lick it.  I'm trying to get him to try new things without using force!

Tom: 42" 41.4 lb
Alex: 45" 46 lb
David: 40.5" 35.8 lb

And the poor little mite got three shots and a finger stick.

Alex was close but not quite taller than Grandma in July but now he's definitely the taller one.  He also hit 100 pounds recently.  And tomorrow my little boy turns four.  They grow up so fast!