As Promised…

Here are the photos of Little Jimmy eating a Schaumküsse from Auntie Kate.  They came in the mail well in time for some Christmas gluttony.

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Once Jimmy heard there was marshmallow inside, he was enthusiastic.  Choosing green (or in this case, turquoise) was natural for my three year old.  He loves the idea of green ice cream, green jello, green cookies.  Whatever!  He doesn’t really understand that the yummy sweets came from Germany.  He just couldn’t wait to pick one out.

Here’s part of the email from Kate explaining the lone “green” sweet amongst many other chocolate and vanilla style flavors.

I LOVE the blue one – it’s called Schlumpf (the German word for Smurf – not to be confused with ‘Schlampe’, the German word for bitch/slut), and I think it tastes just like stuff in the States that made to taste like cake batter. Yum! Please share photos of him enjoying!

 

Pass the hand cream

Happy New Year, friends!  Today I snatched, literally, a copy of Tina Fey’s Bossypants off the stacks of paperbacks at Costco.  Less than $10, Yee haw, I was hoping to see it come out in paperback and the day has arrived!  I cannot wait to crack it open and laugh while I gorge on Enormo-muffins.  Costco has returned to the basics.  No more tinsel or cookies, snack baskets, or fake, pre-lit trees filling the aisles of the warehouse.  Nope.  January has arrived and new beginnings are on the menu.  January is always a month of severe allergies for me.  Both congested and sneezy, and itchy too, I want to sleep all day and all night long.  I want to watch terrible daytime TV and pretend I don’t have to cook or grocery shop for…just…one…more day.  Also, my hands are dry.  James and I have taken to passing a tube of hand cream back and forth whenever we are driving somewhere.  With the kids strapped in the back, a glance down at our hands makes us both gasp a little bit.

Now, the weather’s not frigid.  It’s actually sunny.  I think it’s all the handwashing.  It’s never ending, isn’t it?  Flu season, which feels like it’s officially from August until March, causes such a fright, and all you do between sneezes and diaper changes is wash hands, wash hands, wash hands.  My hands are starting to age.

But besides cracked old-lady hands, I have no complaints.  All is well on the homefront.  I am a musical theatre geek, so I am really looking forward to the premiere of Smash on NBC (a TV show about Broadway tryouts?!  Yeeeeee!,) and the return of Mad Men.  Oh boy oh boy!

 

Santa’s on his way. Let’s wear clean clothes on Christmas Day!

I really enjoy doing laundry.  My mom hates it, and yet she never made me wash my own stuff until I was seventeen and thinking about going away to college (where you need that skill in your toolbelt.)  Now that I am keeping after the four of us, and that’s a lotta clothes, I find that there’s a certain joy to folding and hanging.  Pictured below is all of my kids’ clothes looking warm and toasty in front of the tree.

I am so thankful for all the wonderful gifts that have been given to me ALREADY this year.  My two babes are healthy and smiley.  My marriage is in really decent shape.  Christmas, to me, is a warm cup of coffee and quality time spent with family and friends.  I know I’ll be thrilled to get some new cosmetics or pajamas, or a massage gift certificate, but none of those things really fill me up like coffee and companionship.  What does this have to do with clean clothes…?  Well, I guess I am simply happy to be able to wash, fold, and dress my family today so that we can visit with the rest — the extended family, on the 25th.  I can’t wait to see them.

 

StarTrekNERD Parent gets her first laugh

Oh, the talking Hallmark Christmas ornaments.  How much do they rock?  They bring out my inner-twelve year old.  Luckily I married someone who shares in my enthusiasm and allows me to adorn our tree with a starship, or, technically, a scene from one of the Patrick Stewart films, circa 1998.

“Mommy, I wanna press that.  I want to press the green.”

I look up at the Christmas tree ornament.  ”Oh, you want to push the button?  You want to hear Locutus talk?…Neat, huh?  Isn’t that cool?”

“Yep.  It’s a man.”

“It’s Locutus of Borg.”

“And Mommy.  It’s you, Mommy.  That’s you.”

 

Brunette and beaut-e-ful

I got so many compliments on my outfit today!

 

Kids’ room — So far so good

I moved Lill-Bill into her brother’s room yesterday.  I needed better sleep.  Admittedly, I was still waking up each time she grunted or groaned at 3:00am.  And…after eight months of even just one little bitty waking each night, I was starting to drag during the day (with two oh-so-alert children.)  Lily’s been completely bottle-fed for about 6 weeks, and I hadn’t fed her in the middle of the night in months.  It didn’t seem to be problematic having her crib at the back of our bedroom.  No chance she could wake her brother up, or her brother could climb into her crib for a cuddle…eek!  And yet I found myself climbing out of bed every single morning at 3:00 or 4:00 or even 5:00 to bring the baby into Mommy and Daddy’s bed for a snuggle and some more sleep.  Oh, she is so little and so warm and sweet!  She won’t stay this way!

But it looks like now I’m done.  If I remember correctly, as babies become more mobile, and ready to crawl and stand, they aren’t as easy to put down for naps.  They grab at your hair, your phone.  They don’t sleep all day while you shop (ah, the good old days!)

So her crib is right in the middle of her brother’s room and I must find the right place for it.  Maybe an interior wall, away from the cold December drafts?  It felt good to open my eyes at 6:00.

 

Like Peter Parker

Today I asked myself, “Self, how long has J been mad for Spiderman?”

To which I replied, “Gosh, at least three or four months.”

He has no idea that there is another live-action movie coming out soon.  I won’t let him watch the first three because he is, after all, only three years old.  I think it would be poor parenting for me to pull out the DVDs and go, “Dude, check this out  You ain’t seen nothing until you’ve seen this!!”

So, what is it about the red-suited man that gets him so jazzed?  I mean, yesterday he stated plainly, “I wanna put on my Spiderman costume.”  I happily obliged him, making sure to help him undo the velcro back closure once an hour, peel off the polyester onesie and encourage a sit on the potty.  He likes to scale the couches and coffee table like a crime-fighter when he’s wearing his suit, and I keep telling him to be careful and ‘please sit on your bottom’ but I cannot put a stop to it.  Not really.  He feels powerful and magical when he is dressed up.  It has carried him passed Halloween and into November and he still loves Spiderman.

James and I think it’s so incredible how little people choose their favorite characters.  From all available merchandised heroes, he seems hooked on this one.  He has an activity/coloring book aimed at 5 year olds at least, but we like to color the pictures and talk about all the characters we see.  I explained to him that the young man in all the illustrations is Peter Parker.  When Spiderman “takes off his hat” he is Peter Parker.  And when Peter Parker puts on the Spiderman hat, he is Spiderman.  Jimmy thinks this is really cool.  He totally gets it.

 

It’s never cold in San Diego

Below is a park in North County San Diego.  On Turkey day.  This park has a babbling brook that just called out to my son, his very nature tickled by the moving and flowing current.  Kids love water that drips, rains, or rushes.  I think water reminds us of, like, the pulse of life, and even if it’s cold, it thrills a child like very little else in this world.

 

So Busy…

I am sorry to say that the obligatory Halloween post is still languishing on the to do list.  Boy, did my babies look cute!  Today is Sunday and we are home watching Pixar movies and watchin the rain.  Daddy’s putting in extra hours at the office.  Lily has a sniffle nose.

And this little dolly somehow found himself in my eyeglass case (Vera Bradley addict, here!)  He appears to be saying, “cover your mouth when you cough.”

Be back soon!

 

Clothes make the man

You know how at preschools they have you keep an extra set of clothes in the cubby, just in case?  His always makes for a classy outfit.

Apparently, there was poop today, all over everything he wore.  Even his socks.