Merry Christmas

We had a nice Christmas celebrating with all of the grandparents. The highlights included Molly walking more than 3 or 4 steps for the first time, Austin and I getting to go to church alone on Christmas day, and a delicious and relaxing Christmas dinner (thanks, Helen!).  Molly’s favorite Christmas presents were some plastic bracelets and Elmo silverware (that apparently really hit the spot to chew on), and she actually didn’t tear into wrapping paper like we thought she would.  She actually didn’t like the opening process at all… if it was something she was interested in, she wanted it NOW.  And if it wasn’t something she was interested in, she wouldn’t look.  Tucker’s favorite presents were a real kiddie digital camera/video camera and a puppet theater and puppets.  I’m going to need to post videos of his shows and some of his own movies and pictures.  I think he’s up to about 300 pictures in the past three days.  I’m not sure any of them will ever be able to get deleted because he never gets rid of anything, ever.

  

Tucker got a green monster hat for Christmas so Molly went to the kitchen and got her green frog hat to wear.

Celebrating with Henny and Papa

 

 

I might’ve woken up first, thinking I heard Tucker… and ended up waking Molly and Austin while Tucker slumbered on till past 7. 

Daddy’s girl dresses her daddy.

Santa knows the way to Molly’s heart: a banana! 

 

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Tucker’s friend Henry had TWO Christmas trees, so Tucker begged to get a table tree.  Austin and Tucker went into the woods and found a little evergreen to cut down to fill the need, and Tucker decorated it just perfectly.  I didn’t have a stand so I taped a mason jar to a square of cardboard, and tried to wedge it into the mason jar so it wouldn’t tip over.  I need to work on my wedging skills next year (actually, next year I’d pack it into the mason jar with gravel). 

Quote of the Day

Scene: 3 am, Tucker is outside our door
Austin: What’s wrong? [Follows Tucker to his room]
Tucker: I don’t have any sheets on my bed!
Austin: Where are they?
Tucker: I don’t know, but don’t check the closet!
Austin: They’re not wet?  You don’t need to get changed?
Tucker: It’s a trick!  They’re in the closet!

Molly helps Austin workout

Molly is definitely Daddy's girl, at least lately. On Monday she was so much more content sitting in a stroller watching Austin workout than having my undivided attention inside. Austin took her interest in stride and let her help him pull the sled with weights on it.

Quote of the Day

Austin: Tucker, please stop making that noise.
Tucker: It’s not me, Daddy, it’s a wolf!

Ben’s Christmas Indiscretion

Yes, Virginia, Ben ate the gingerbread house.  No, Virginia, the gingerbread house did not agree with his tummy. 

Last year we put the gingerbread house on a waist-high bookshelf in our sunroom, this year it was in the dining room window.  But we put up our tree the other day, and had to move end tables and lamps, and something ended up right in front of the window, blocking the house. 

What did I do?  I moved the house to an end table that was now in the dining room.   This end table is kitchen table height, every inch as high as the shelf we used for the gingerbread house last year.  But when I was moving it, Ben happened to be in the room, and a piece of candy happened to get knocked off while I was transitioning it.  Ben helpfully cleaned it up.

My lab may be dumb, but he knows what food is.  And he figured out that that gingerbread house was food.  Thankfully it didn’t have very much chocolate on it.

Fast forward several hours: throw-up on floor greeted us as we returned from our morning excursion.  Honestly, this didn’t even raise a suspicion because Ben eats so many socks and other things so that he is always throwing up (I had just cleaned up a regurgitated sock that morning).  But he kept drinking water so I did look around to make sure all our playdoh was accounted for (it was).  Playdoh also does bad things to dogs’ tummies.

I figured it out after I put Tucker down for his rest time.  I was going down the front stairs and saw the destruction.  Actually, there was one very unique thing about this indiscretion of Ben’s: he wasn’t able to finish the whole house.  In fact, he only got about halfway through--he ate two sides and a roof more or less—this is the first time he’s ever not successfully finished an item of food (that I know of). 

Oh, and one more thing: Tucker still hasn’t figured it out so shhhhhh!!!

O Christmas Tree

We made our annual pilgrimage to the best Christmas tree farm ever. The only problem with it is that it takes much too little time to pick out a tree if you're trying to make it a family outing. We tried to be REALLY picky this year, but still was out of there in 25 minutes, including loading/unloading kids and tree. The highlight this year was when the tree almost fell over on Tucker, which the video actually captured!

Tucker's Christmas Concert

Tucker's preschool had a Christmas concert on Thursday night that was highly entertaining. Tucker was in the second row behind a little girl in pink so it's hard to see him (he's wearing a green and red stiped polo shirt). I wasn't sure if he'd sing or not, and was surprised by how excited he was and how into it he was. By the end of the concert I think he was the only boy left in his class still actually singing!

He looked forward to the concert all day, and took a bath and picked out Christmas clothes all by himself with no prompting besides asking him to at the dinner table. Wow! He did have a moment of stage fright when we were walking to the concert hall (the local middle school auditorium) when Austin told him this was where the big boys went to school. It took a lot of reassurance to convince him that it was, in fact, just his preschool friends that were going to be there that night.

Besides seeing my little man sing, the other highlight was the youngest class--the two and three year-olds--that had two boys who stole the show. Someone had taught one boy how to bow low, and he spent the first half of the concert continually bowing low. Another little boy in that class had the only solo of the night when he started "This Little Light of Mine" about 10 seconds before everything else--yelling. I think throughout the concert he was as loud as almost all the other kids put together.

Quote of the Day

“Is that tent bigger than God?” -Tucker

Thought of the Day

“Take time to be holy.  The word holy does not mean goody-goody; it means set apart for sacred use.” – Sarah Young, Jesus Calling

Quote of the Day

“Heavenly hosts sing wa-wa-woo-wa!” –Tucker, telling me the words to Silent Night

At church this week, Tucker really got into the Advent singing.  He sang with real pleasure and definite gusto—Austin and I had to restrain our giggles and smiles because Tucker can get quite self conscious these days. 

I wasn’t sure how many other people could hear him, but it turns out his voice carried from the altar to the back row because we had people from both places commenting on his singing.  In fact, Fr. Glenn said that he heard Tucker and his first impulse was to laugh and then his next impulse was to cry it was so beautiful.  “That is how it’s supposed to be done!” he told us after the service.

Visiting the Salt Mines

Austin and I went to Williamsburg for a night away from the kids (thanks Helen and David!).  We didn’t actually go into any of the Colonial Williamsburg buildings, but enjoyed walking around the town, and even stumbled upon a glorious Christmas concert at the Bruton Parish Church.  Since we were late, we got the only seats left—front row! 

One of the highlights was getting to visit a salt spa the next day.  Basically, it’s a room with 15 tons of salt making up the walls and the floor, simulating a salt cave.  You sit in chairs in the cave, and it’s supposed to purify the lungs and help all these respiratory ailments.  Apparently the idea originated from the Polish salt mines in the 19th century—all the miners were so remarkably healthy that a doctor started examining why. 

I’m not sure one session has cured Austin’s asthma or my allergies but we definitely emerged feeling very relaxed and refreshed.  I highly recommend visiting a salt spa if you have the opportunity!

Silly Molly

Do you usually eat with your favorite clothes?  Molly does.  She likes to go to her dresser and pull out the things she particularly loves (her favorite is a black and white polka dotted long sleeve shirt), and then carry them around with her like loveys.  At first I thought that maybe since she liked these items so much she might want to WEAR them, but I was wrong.  If I try to dress her in her favorite clothes she shrieks and throws a tantrum and rips them off, because it means she will no longer be able to hold them.  For this reason, she has never actually worn her favorite polka dotted shirt.

 

In other Molly eccentricities, this is her eating her first banana of the day.  This banana is not just a banana, it is love, obsession, comfort, EVERYTHING.  She keeps her mouth on the banana the entire time, with steady pressure (no actual taking bites/chewing then going in for more)… it’s a continuous lean. 

And here is Molly trying her best to start painting.  She desperately wants to be able to do all the art Tucker does and she actually does draw with some of the paint/markers/crayons/pens… but she, surprisingly, is also wildly erratic with these implements as well and creates quite a hazard to the house. 

Gingerbread Fun

 

Helen treated us to another Gingerbread workshop.  We were more prepared for the rigors of house decorating this year, and Tucker was even better prepared for the amount of candy that was going to be available. 

 

 

 

Santa was there and waved a bell over Tucker’s head to determine if he has been naughty or nice.  The bell indicated nice… I wonder then why he has lost TV privileges and dessert privileges this week?  I must be confused.  :)

 

Incidentally, Santa was also very scary.  Tucker made sure to look away and cover his ears when Santa addressed him.  His awe of Santa made it too much to take in at once.

My son is a complete pack rat and insisted in collecting every scrap of leftover candy to take home.  It wasn’t just about the candy either, he collects tiny pieces of everything that anyone else in the world would throw away.  It makes craft time with him challenging, and I frequently have to raid his art area to throw away the detritus.  One of his favorite things right now is cutting paper into miniscule bits and calling it “wrapping paper” and then insisting these scraps are all treasures.  Hmmm.  At least in this candy case we convinced him that 1/3 of it needed to go to Henny and a 1/3 of it needed to go to Luisa, so we only got 1/3 of the leftover candy junk.

Tucker’s New Love

Tucker has a new love in his life and her name is Candy Land.  I was wondering when he would get interested in board games and actually following the rules.  When he was two he received a fishing game as a present and it immediately dispersed around the house as fodder for random imaginative things (fish sandwiches, treasure, etc.).  I tried to play it with him but the idea of the thing was completely lost on him.

Fast forward two years to Candy Land.  We gave it to him for his birthday in September and it took a couple months for him to warm up to the idea of following rules, but now he is absolutely obsessed.  In love.  Transfixed.  He still is torn whenever he receives a bad card about whether he REALLY should follow it because as he states almost every turn "I want to win."  But, my secret to getting him to follow the rules is to remind him that if he goes backwards like the card says the game will be longer and we will play longer. 

The one thing to be prepared for is that when he asks what piece you want to be because you can choose first: whatever piece you pick is going to be the one he wants.  Related to this, my other big Mommy secret these days is when Tucker has leftovers in the fridge I want him to eat, if I offer them to him and he says "No, I don't want that."  All I have to say is, "Okay, well maybe Molly wants them instead."  The idea of Molly taking something that was his stuns his little brain and suddenly he does a 180 and is begging for his leftovers.

Quote of the Day

“One day the sun came out and shone on all the daddies and all the mommies and all the boys and girls so they would know how great Jesus is.”
-Tucker, telling me what he drew his picture about
Here’s a picture of my sensitive artist (you may notice that we have turned his train table into a large art workspace at least temporarily—how can he be so big already?!):
 

Craft Time

 

A month ago I decided to turn a basically unused corner of my office into a craft area.  With a lot of help from Austin, it turned out spectacularly.  So now instead of hiding random materials in spare closets and hauling it all out when needed, I get the luxury of an eight and a half foot work surface and more storage than I can fill up… yet.  

I wish I had taken before pictures.  The only things we bought for this desk set-up was the cabinet on the right ($30 from the Habitat Store), some white wallpaper tiles for the pie safe, white paint and sealer for the desk, four 12x12 cork boards and fabric to cover them to make the fun red and white bulletin boards ($14).  That puts the transformation at less than $100, and most of the paint and sealer will be left over for future fun.  Most of the materials came from pieces of my father'-in-law’s office in Annapolis that he recently dismantled, though it took some ingenuity to reconfigure it in a way that would work here.

I also collected all the spare containers I could find in the house and took them all out back and spray painted them so they’d be in the same range of colors.  I also took a gold lamp and turned it bright and white.  The only thing left to do is let the paint on the counter fully cure (approximately two weeks) and then I’ll seal it with an acrylic polyurethane to make it durable enough to stand the test of projects. 

The big question is: why am I sitting on the couch blogging when I could be crafting?

Quote of the Day

Tucker: I smell something.

Me: What is it?

Tucker: I think it’s the cake in the fridge for later.

***************************************************************

Me: What did you dream about last night?

Tucker: I dreamed about the shadow in my brain.

Quote of the Day

Papa: What does okay mean?

Tucker: It’s what you say to get out of timeout.

Quote of the Day

Austin: I need more contact lenses.

Tucker: You need more Father Glenn-ses?

Molly rolling around

This video is of Molly rolling around yesterday on the couch, generally having a fabulous time.

Bible Study Concert

I find this video hilarious. Tucker had a concert last year where he was so animated he was the star of the show... no longer! The shy monster has gobbled him up and this time he stood in a corner looking at his friend. I think he mouthed the words once!

My Molly Monkey

I dropped Molly's last nursing session ten days ago, thinking it would be a pretty drawn-out and horrible experience since she was so attached to nursing in bed in the morning. Wrong. She has not been mad or frustrated at me at all, and seems to enjoy her new morning routine as much as the last. So now she watches the news with Austin while devouring one or two bananas. In fact, she is such a Daddy's girl that she probably likes this better because she gets to snuggle with Austin. The actual banana-eating session is pretty funny; she eats them in a trance-like state with her mouth leaning into the banana and eating it in one continuous-pressure mouthful, much like a snake with its prey.

I was getting groceries a week ago Friday and a woman couldn't believe I was buying three bunches of bananas. I told her they might get us through the weekend. Another friend mentioned that her family can't go through a bunch of bananas before they go bad. I live with a bunch of monkeys. Yesterday, Molly ate four bananas, and would've eaten more if we had let her. (We usually try to keep it to 2 or 3!)

In other news, Molly is still crazy. I found her yesterday standing without holding onto anything on top of one of Tucker's chairs. Since she isn't able to stand for more than a few seconds without holding onto anything, this is a precarious situation. As long as she doesn't get hurt, she loves falling. She used to love climbing up the stairs, but now climbs only enough that she can slide down them on her stomach.

Molly likes playing with Tucker's Halloween candy, but I was under the naive impression that she just liked the shiny wrappers and didn't actually really understand it was candy. Yesterday, Tucker was eating Starburst and I let Molly have a second package to hold while I read them books before naptime. Somehow Molly managed to get hold of one of the little pieces I had unwrapped for Tucker from his package and completely ate it in the space of time that I was reading Tucker a book. She was very smart about it--was facing away and apparently absorbed in another task--and by the time she turned around I could just see the red juices around the ring of her mouth. She was delighted and showed me that there was only a tiny sliver left in her mouth. What 12 month-old can chew Starburst? In fact, Molly finished her piece before Tucker did.

Molly is doing things Tucker didn't do at her age. She already takes markers and crayons and draws on paper. She loves puzzles--I keep a puzzle in her crib and hear her trying to put the pieces in during naptime (and she can do ones that are easy shapes like circles). And one of her favorite things is putting things away, organizing and sorting--I think she may have gotten my organizational tendencies. And she also already knows how to jump. I don't think Tucker left the ground like that till he was two!

On a side note, Molly was 20 lbs 4 oz and 30 inches at a year, which is pretty average, though a bit tall. I realized if I don't report that here, I will forget!

Quote of the Day

“My cheese is dead!!!!” –Tucker, screaming down the hall at 2 am

Lots of singing: processionals and light up shoes

Here are a couple recent videos of Tucker. The first is his rendition of a processional at church… he was carrying the Swiffer around the house as a cross while chanting until Austin made one of his own. The lyrics to this song he made up make sense, but sometimes he sings Jesus chants to the tune of Old Macdonald, and in fact, the other week I think the lyrics went something like “Old Macdonald tickled Jesus….”





The second video is Tucker enjoying some new light up shoes by dancing in circles to make them light up.

Happy Halloween!

We began our Halloween celebration on Friday at Tucker’s school.  Everyone dressed up as a character from a story and brought their book in for show-and-tell, then they paraded around into the other four year-old class. 

Tucker dressed up as Ben, our dog, this year.  He was quite adamant that he was NOT Spot the dog, but I managed to still send him with a Spot book because surprisingly, Ben is not the main character in any books that we own. 

I got his costume off ebay but it was too small so I had to use some fabric from the legs to extend the hood and then make the costume end with the body and not have legs.  It worked well enough.  Tucker was happy.

 

 

Molly enthusiastically helped celebrate at Tucker’s school.  She especially enjoyed her first strawberry cupcake. 

 

Tucker’s class (one little boy is missing)

  Tucker’s beloved Miss Karen and Miss Kim

Our actual Halloween day celebration was a bit chaotic.  Tucker fell asleep during rest time (a once a month occurrence) so we missed our afternoon festivities.  Which meant that Molly celebrated Halloween by screaming while I put her ladybug costume on and then wearing it for about 10 minutes on the porch before going to bed.  She was especially not impressed by the hood.  Wearing a hood is child abuse, in case you didn’t know.  But at least she posed for a few pictures.  She also had a ballerina outfit, but it is a little small and I couldn’t manage to get her in it.  I think if she worked on being more docile it might be possible, but not with her current commitment to cooperation and dressing up.

 

We ended up going trick-or-treating in a friend’s neighborhood at the last minute since we slept through our afternoon festivities.  Tucker’s never done actual trick-or-treating before and I think it was a little scary but very fun.  My friend Katy had told me that her neighborhood was known as THE Halloween neighborhood in our area, but I was not prepared for all the streets to be completely lined with the cars of people who had driven in just to trick-or-treat.  It was a complete zoo.  The houses in the neighborhood were decked out, though I celebrated by helping pass out candy while my mom accompanied the trick-or-treaters.

 

Ben and Ben

 

Enjoying the fruits of a long evening.