Christmas Scenes

Christmas scenes abound around our home.  In the kitchen there are more disastrous Christmas cookies.

Stupid cookies.

I think I either made the dough with too much butter or not enough flour.  Doh.  No worries; I used the dough to make some cookie bar thingies.  They actually turned out pretty tasty.

In the kitchen window are the goodie bags I made for the neighbors.  I figured we wouldn't look like such Scrooges if we gave people treats.  (We're like one of three people on the street who don't have any lights up this year.  Next year, Lance, next year...)

On the kitchen counter is our assortment of hot chocolate mixes.  My dad always buys a big assortment of hot chocolate mixes around this time of year, so when I saw these at Sam's Club I knew I had to carry on the tradition.  The boys have had a blast choosing a new flavor each day.  (I won't let them use the Dark Chocolate, though - that's only for Mommies. :)

On the kitchen table you can find the gift Spencer made for Lance and I at school.  I might be a little biased, but it's the cutest mug I have ever seen.  Lance and I will be fighting over who gets to use it.

Next to the mug is the boxing Santa Claus Snowman that Spencer drew.  At least, that's what I think it is.  I don't really have the heart to ask Spencer...

It's also accompanied by a letter to Santa that Spencer wrote.  I like that he asks him how his life is and how Mrs. Claus is.  He's no dope - you gotta be nice to the man in red.

Poor kid.  He's not getting that Nintendo DS, no matter how genial his letters are.

And finally, in the living room there is still no furniture, but there is a glittery and sparkly tree.

And a toddler, who has left the tree completely alone all month until just the other day.  Why Cole, why?  I know, you're a toddler and it's in your nature.  But why?

Step away from the tree, mister man.

Random Tidbits

I decided to make a bunch of cookies to give to neighbors and friends for Christmas.  I used a triple chocolate chunk recipe I've made successfully a million times before, only for Christmas I put crushed candy canes on top.  (Yum!)  I made the dough last night since it's better if it ages in the freezer overnight.  I made the cookies today.

Disaster.  Totally flat and crumbly and not friend and neighbor worthy.

I'm hoping that I just let the dough get a little too warm before baking it.  But I have this nagging suspicion that I used some bad baking soda.  We'll see tomorrow.  I only made two pans of the cookies and put the rest of the dough back in the fridge. 

Oh, Christmas cookie tragedies!

*****

Tonight I became one of those moms who takes their toddler grocery shopping at Wal-Mart in their jammies past their bedtime.  In a snow storm.

Before you judge me, let me give a few explanations:

• I had to go at night because I needed to pick up a rather large gift that Santa is giving our family.  This obviously couldn't be done with Spencer and Josh in tow. 
• Cole took a rather late nap this afternoon.  I knew he wouldn't go to bed at his usual time, so I figured I'd help wear him out (and give Lance a little break) by taking him with me.
• He was in his jammies because that's what I put him in for his nap.  I don't usually do this, but I had earlier discovered that he had taken off his pants, onesie, and diaper, and then proceeded to spread poop all over the place.  I knew he couldn't get out of his foot jammies.
• Bright red jammies, with rocket ships all over them.  In case you were trying to visualize.
• Yes, it was snowing.  But I didn't think it was that bad.  And Wal-Mart is all of 1.5 miles from our house.
• I thought it would be less crowded what with the snow and all.  I was wrong.  And I certainly wasn't the only one with young kids there.  What is wrong with people?!  I can only assume all of their toddlers had late naps as well...

*****

In another - yet unrelated - Christmas cookie tragedy, Wal-Mart was out of those special red Winter Oreo Cookies.  This is bad because Josh has been begging for these all month and I keep telling him that Santa will bring them for Christmas.  Hopefully Josh will be satisfied with regular Oreos.

Yeah, I don't think he will be, either.

*****

Today I realized that when I don't blow dry and style my hair it looks an awful lot like a Liz Lemon bad hair day, only a little shorter.

I decided that this is awesome, as I love Liz Lemon and I want to go to there. :)

Heavenly Frost

Remember the temporary calm that came over our car ride to church last week?  We experienced something like that again this morning.

The boys were actually not so bad; a few spats here and there, but nothing that couldn't be (wisely) ignored.  As we drove we talked about the hoar frost that covered every surface in wintry white.  The frost got more and more intense the closer we got to the river.  At one point the entire world was sparkly and white.  Classical Christmas music played softly in the background.  All three boys gazed silently out of the windows.

It was magical.

During this uncommon silence I couldn't help but reflect on and feel grateful for the beautiful world we live in.  I've made it no secret that my opinion of Indiana in the winter is not that high.  But the sights I saw this morning made up for all the other dreary winter days I have spent here.  I wondered how there could possibly be anyone in the world who saw something such as this and not know that we have a loving Father in Heaven?  A loving Father who sent his only Begotten Son to Earth, whose birth we celebrate this time of year.

From the back seat I heard Josh speak out loud to no one in particular, "It's Christmas.  Like heaven Christmas."

Indeed.

The World's Best Pediatrician's Office

My kids go to the best pediatrician in the world, Dr. Oliver (with the Froberg Clinic).  I love her and her office.  She is nice and smart and great with the kids.  She comes into the exam room with a loud "Helloooo" that always gets the boys' attention and stops them in their misbehaving tracks.  And her office staff is awesome, too.  They're so nice and patient and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty for us several times.

Including today.

See, today was Spencer's annual exam.  I figured that it would be a 30 minute appointment at most, so taking all three boys wouldn't be a problem.

It was a problem.

Loudness and misbehaving and throwing toys and getting into stuff and whining and wanting to be held and not wanting to be held and at one point Josh jumped off the exam table and hurting his head and I just didn't have enough arms or strength to tackle them all.  Whew.

But it didn't seem to phase Dr. Oliver or her wonderful nurses.  And even though I felt like the world's most overwhelmed and underachieving mother, they acted as if things were perfectly normal and helped with the boys.

During Spencer's visit Dr. Oliver realized that Cole had just turned 18 months and asked if he was here for his check up as well.  "No," I replied.  "There was some scheduling snafu on my end, so we'll be back in January for that."

"No need!  We can do it right now, if that's okay." She cheerfully replied.

Of course it was okay with me - one less visit is always better in my book.  But I felt a little guilty because I knew we were the last patients of the day - on a Friday no less.  But if she was going to offer I wasn't going to turn it down!

So I stripped Cole down and tried to soothe him for his exam (he's been a bit super-clingy since being sick).  We got through that with only a few tears, while Josh and Spencer bounced off the walls. 

Dr. Oliver then left to get a nurse to come give Cole his vaccinations.  Right then Josh decided he had to go potty.  No, he couldn't wait.  So I sent Spencer to take him, which he was not too excited about, but too bad.

The nurse came in while the older boys were gone.  I figured this was a good thing.  She had to prick Cole's finger so she could get a small sample of blood for an anemia test, which he did not like at all.  Not that the prick really hurt him - he just didn't like the band-aid that was put on his finger afterwards.  That boy got blood everywhere and then shrieked and hollered once we got the band-aid to stay on.

At this point Spencer came back.  Without Josh.  "Go back and wait with Josh!" I told him.  "Aaawwwww, he's taking too long!" was his reply.  Too bad, buddy.  I sent him back, with a sinking feeling.  Josh should not be taking so long.

Cole was still fussing with his band-aid, which distracted him (at first) from the two vaccinations he then got in his chubby little thigh.  (Poor kiddo.)  He was not a happy camper.  I tried to soothe and get him dressed as quickly as possible because Spencer and Josh were still missing.

I finally got over to the bathroom with a whimpering Cole, only to discover a nurse in there with Josh.  She explained that he had been calling out for help, and when she went in she discovered his hands and the wall covered in poop.

Oh, kill me now.

I don't know why I was embarrassed, I wasn't the one covered in poop.  But I was totally embarrassed.  "World's Worst Mother" should be tattooed across my forehead.

I thanked her profusely, sent Cole and Spencer to go look at the large fish tank in the waiting room, and quickly got to work cleaning the rest of Josh up.  Good heavens, Josh.  What a time to exert your independence and decide to do this all yourself.

I finally got everything in order, but still couldn't leave because I had to pay the co-pay for Cole's unexpected visit.  It was now 5:30pm on a Friday.  I felt so bad for all the problems we had caused!  I felt like I should leave a tip or something.

But the staff was so nice and friendly and completely assured me that we were no problem at all.  They were so sincere and convincing that I almost believed them.  I told them not to worry, we hopefully wouldn't be back in until the end of April, once this baby is born.

They cheered when they learned it was a girl.  (I'm choosing to take this in a positive light.)

See?  They really are the World's Best Pediatrician's Office.

Self-portrait Whatever Day It Is, I Don't Even Know Anymore: 22 Weeks

My belly.  It grows.

And growls.  But mostly grows.

Happy Seventh Birthday, Spencer!

Spencer turned a whopping seven years old on Wednesday.  Some moms go on and on about how they can't believe their 'baby' is 'X' years old.  Well, I'm not one of those moms.  I can totally believe Spencer is seven years old.

NOT that that is a bad thing.  I'm just sayin', he's a very typical seven year old boy.  Take, for example, a list of the things he currently likes:

• Bodily humor
• Video games
• More video games
• Board games
• Running around like a crazy lunatic
• Picking on his little brothers
• Talking.  Talking.  Talking.  Talking.  Enough with the constant chatter, Spencer, sheesh!
• Groin injury humor
• Playing outside
• Leaving a trail of winter and school gear on the floor from the front door and all around the living room when he gets home from school.
• Whining about having to clean up said trail every afternoon.  (As if it's always a surprise!)
• Being as emotional as a hormonal 13 year old girl sometimes and over the silliest things.  (Trust me, this is actually normal.  I've asked around.)
• Spending time with his Dad.
• Talking some more
• Reading
• Not caring about whether or not he has hat hair (which he does all the time now that it's so dang cold)
• Not writing
• Playing with his friends
• Trying to come up with excuses to not have to go to bed
• Specifically excluding his younger brother from his bedtime prayers in order to get a reaction out of him.  (It works.)

See?  Seven year old boy.  And I love him.

As mentioned in a previous post, despite my brush with death, not making a birthday cake for Spencer was not an option.  So this is what I came up with.

Not so bad, right?  Okay, that candy cane in the middle is supposed to be a 7, but I could never get it to bend just right.  I kept warming up the candy canes in the microwave, and no matter what I did they would start melting into goo at a certain spot.  This was the best I came up with.  (Spencer liked it.)

Why yes, those are candy cane Hershey Kisses.  Spencer was especially excited about those.

Because I knew he would freak out about this gift, I let him open Super Mario Galaxy 2 (a Wii game) after he finished his homework.  (Plus, I knew he would be very upset to open it after dinner and only have a little time to play it before bed.)  (See?  I can be a nice mom!)

I wish I had gotten his reaction on video.  He literally jumped up and down and cheered.  So did Joshie.

Here's the birthday boy with his cake.  He wasn't really interested so much in the cake as in the presents just to the side.  (Surprise surprise...)

Maybe that's why I could only get those weird deer-in-headlight smiles from him...

Here's our traditional video of the birthday song.  (I especially like the missing teeth grin.  Perhaps that's why he missed that last candle.)

You can hear Cole kinda hollering in the background.  That's because he really wanted that cake.  We were mean and wouldn't let him just go at it.

Spencer was quite excited about the remote control helicopter Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie gave him.  (And what little boy wouldn't?!)

He also really liked Connect Four, which Cole and Josh gave to him.  (I have now played this game approximately 387 times since Wednesday.)

He was not so excited about the jammies I had wrapped up and given to him.  (He really needed some new ones!)  His face screwed up and he said in a tear-full, melodramatic voice "But these aren't a toy!!!!"  He was very much offended.  It was awesome.  I plan on giving him jammies every year now.

Finally, Cole got some cake.  Which he barely put in his mouth, but which he did manage to get all over the kitchen. 

Happy birthday, Spencer!  You're the cutest, smartest, best seven year old I know and I love you!

Spencer's First Grade Christmas Program

Even though we really probably shouldn't have, we went to Spencer's First Grade Christmas Program on Tuesday night.  I was still feeling kinda gross and VERY tired, but I knew Spencer would be VERY sad if we didn't go.  Plus, I'm 93% sure we didn't infect anyone there, so there's my other excuse for going.

Whenever I go to public events such as this I am constantly amazed that what others (meaning the general public) considers appropriate clothing and behavior.  Not that we were super dressed up, but we certainly weren't in velour track suits with slogans written across the bum like certain other families.  I'm just sayin'.

So anywho, the First Grade Christmas Program was pretty much what one would expect it to be - darn cute.  Josh and Cole weren't that interested in watching, but that was to be expected.  Cole spent much of his time on the floor or whining in our laps.

At the beginning of the program all the first grade classes marched in behind large, glittery signs that had their teacher's names on them.  It was totally like the Olympic Parade of Nations, only a lot (thankfully!) shorter. 

Did I mention that it's really hard to get decent pictures in a dark elementary school gym?  Well, it is.

Spencer was so very proud of himself!  He knew all the words to all of his songs.  He even got to be a jingle bell shaker for their version of "Jingle Bells". 

Finally, here's some Grandparent eye candy in video form.  First graders singing are always pretty funny/amusing/cute.  I especially like the first part, where you can totally hear one of the kids in front of the microphone belting it out.  Sing it, brother!

I also like Spencer's actions during "My Christmas List" and his very proficient jingle bell ringing during the last song.

In case you were wondering, the kids really did have their Christmas list written on those scrolls of paper.  Spencer's list included: "A Wii game", "A computer game", and "A Nintendo DS".  Hmmmm... well, you will be 33% happy with your Christmas loot this year, Spence.