Christmas, Part III

Christmas officially came to an end for our boys yesterday morning. Santa is a pretty flexible guy who will make a special late delivery if good children are away from home on Christmas Eve. In preparation for his visit, Dominick laid out snacks for Santa and his reindeer. When morning came, he found that Santa had left a series of rhyming clues which sent him all over the house. (Dom pointed out that Santa hadn't thrown away his granola bar wrapper or recycled his water bottle.) Finally, he ended up in the basement. There he discovered his new tool bench and sawhorse set. Noel received a Leap Frog toy, ironically the same one that entrapped Dom's arm earlier this year. It won't happen again, thanks to a redesign. Santa didn't leave batteries, though, so Noel's toy isn't as exciting as it should be. New batteries are currently charging. May they actually work! Do not get me started on the uselessness of rechargeable batteries. Has anybody had luck with these?

Here's a slideshow of some December photos. Don't you love it when you don't realize how few pictures you took during the holidays until you sit down to look at them? I blame the rechargeable batteries. Mom and Dad, I need to copy some of your photos!

Christmas 2007, Parts I and II

We're back home after spending the holidays with family in southwest and southeast Missouri. Like everyone else, we've had a busy December. Now things will settle down somewhat, but our to-do list is a mile long. I'll think about that later. Time to get back to blogging. Pictures will come later.

First, an update: as of December 19, the water leak is no more! In the 3 1/2 weeks between our first call to the water company and the repair, the leak grew from a small wet area in our lawn to a raging river that ran 2/10 of a mile until it ended in a drain. The neighbors must have thought we were really negligent to let it go so long or too stupid to notice. What else would explain all the knocks on our door, followed by "I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a water leak in your front yard." Really?!? The contractor who fixed the leak showed me the section of pipe that caused all the trouble. The crack was deceptively small.

Christmas, Part I: Joplin. This year it was just us, my parents and my grandmother, as it was my sister's first Christmas away from home. How dare she get married! Poor Noel was teething (a molar), so he was very clingy and cried a lot. Dominick made his first dough ornaments. He even gave his snowman the necessary body parts for using the toilet. (Don't worry--you can't tell!) The boys enjoyed opening presents and stockings and eating a big meal on Christmas Eve.

Christmas, Part II: Naylor. As usual, we traveled on Christmas Day, which meant having gas station food for lunch. Then it was another round of presents and another Christmas dinner. Mike's side of the family is much bigger than mine, so there were lots of people to see. Dominick had fun playing with his cousin Seth. By the time we left for home, Noel's tooth had finally started to break through, so he felt much better and graced us with some smiles. Both boys slept most of the way, so it was an easy drive.

New link

Be sure to check out the link to my sister Hannah and her husband Steve's new stationery business, Vellum. When their website launches in the next month or so, I'll add that, too. The designs are modern and stylish, very cool. We are so proud of you, Hannah!

A babbling brook

We have a new water feature in our front yard. It's quite charming, like two little bubbling springs. The problem is we didn't put it there and can't seem to get rid of it. What does it take to get the water company to fix a severe leak? I hate to think of the amount of water being wasted. At least it's not on our side of the meter! The river originating from our yard has become embarrassing. The sign on our door now reads "Please knock/no solicitation/we have called the water company."

The river goes up our block, turns the corner, and continues on the next street.

A close-up of one of the little springs, if you can call them that.

Best wishes to those affected by the ice storm, especially family and friends in Joplin. I hope the power is back on soon.

The Nutcracker

Dominick and I went to see The Nutcracker on Ice today. Ever since he became obsessed with listening to the music this summer, I had promised to take him. This particular production was close, cheap and tailored to kids (i.e. abridged and narrated), so it was perfect. The show began with a synchronized skating group, which happened to be performing "Love" from Cirque du Soleil. I certainly was not expecting to hear Beatles music there, but you know I liked it! Then the real show started. Dom was fascinated by the skaters...for the first few minutes. By 5:23, he started wriggling away and said, "Is The Nutcracker done yet?" I was worried things would get ugly, but he behaved for the rest of the performance. Thank goodness for Santa's appearance after the curtain call, which was noted in the program. That was the key to keeping Dom around for the entire show. We had a good time. Performancewise, it wasn't the best Nutcracker experience of my life (that would be the Pennsylvania Ballet at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia--what a gorgeous place), but it was wonderful taking Dominick, something I'd wanted to do since he was a baby.

I'm calling it

Noel has said his first word: Da-da. Of course he's babbled this for a while, but now there seems to be meaning behind it. This afternoon, while Dom was licking windows, Noel was standing next to him, watching for Mike and saying "Da-da." Not "da-da-da," but "Da-da." I'm hearing more m's in his babbling, so maybe "Mama" is not far behind. Interestingly, Dominick has started calling me Mama since I've been encouraging Noel to say it.

An astute observation

This afternoon, while watching for Daddy to come home, Dominick started licking the living room window. He made a face, and I asked him if it tasted good. He said no, then "It tastes like window." Window must rank right up there with green beans.

Christmas tree

Tonight we bought a Christmas tree. We already have a fake one downstairs, but for the living room we needed a tabletop tree so it would be out of Noel's reach, and I wanted a real one. It's a Frasier fir, very lovely. Most of the decorations are finished now, except for figuring out where and how to hang the stockings (you know Noel will pull on them constantly) and adding more lights outside.

Noel had his one-year portrait session this morning. I wish I could say he was all smiles and having a good time, but that would be a lie. It wasn't too bad, actually, but we didn't get many pictures before he refused to let go of me. Then we had to wait 45 minutes to look at the images on the computer. Grrr! Even I was getting bored and frustrated over that. Thank goodness Dominick was at preschool.

Dom's obsession of the day was a diamond saw blade (in its packaging). He took it from the laundry/tool room, thinking it was a CD, his other current obsession. At the time, Larry from the water company was in the basement installing a snazzy new meter that can be read from outside the house. Dominick took the blade out of the laundry room, then yelled, "Guy! Why did you break Noel's CD? That was his!" I can hardly believe this is the same boy who used to freak out around other people. Now he has no qualms about striking up a conversation, if you can call it that, with anyone. The only reason we were in the basement was that Dom followed the water man down there. Speaking of the water company, we're having a devil of a time getting them to repair a leak that's causing water to bubble up from our front yard. The resulting stream goes several houses up the street, and our lawn, er, weed patch, has turn to mush. I guess I'll have to call again.

Poor Dominick

Tonight, I asked Dom to pick up his underwear and pants from the bathroom floor and put them in his closet with the other dirty clothes. He refused, then said, "You do it, Mom" (uh, no!) and finally confessed the real reason for not obeying: he doesn't have any feet! And here I was pressuring him to clean up. I'm so mean. Other times, his hands aren't working. Today, however, they worked well enough for him to call directory assistance. Lovely. At least it wasn't 911.

I should title this post "Poor Noel. " He's been sick since having three shots yesterday. Despite not feeling well, he learned to stack two blocks today. It was the first time I showed him how to do it, and he caught on right away.

In other news, we finally got rid of the Schlitz light fixture today. I can't believe nobody wanted that thing! I put it on Craigslist but had no interest. Amazing, considering how all our guy friends thought it was so wonderful. Now if anyone wants it, they'll have to buy it at ReStore.