Grant's room

What we thought would be an easy repainting project has turned into a week long project that has included gems like resurfacing the walls, getting locked into the room when I took the door knobs off but the door still clicked shut, unexpected multiple coats of paint, and now a full wall (floor to ceiling) of freshly painted wood panels to pull off, sand down the glue, resurface that wall, then prime and paint. So a week's worth of work and not much to show for it. We finally just moved all his furniture in, set up his new bed, bought the wall decals, and decided to ignore the fact the top of the walls haven't been finished with paint and the baseboards are missing.

Grant's new twin bed is like the Prince and the Pea. He needs a stool to safely get up and down off the bed, and has already tried to jump off of it several times with me in the room. Which sort of makes me nervous about when I'm not in the room if I think about it too long. His room looks way smaller with the big bed, but way lighter without the dark wood book shelf.

Someday we'll be done with his room. Just in time to get started with the backyard.

Dog sitting recap

I have nothing dramatic to report. He was calm, obedient, house and leash trained, and very very VERY patient with the kids. Grant in particular. Aside from his insistence in sleeping in the middle of the bed each night, he was a joy to have around. The kids loved him, and in fact they almost cried when it was time for him to go home.

So I guess we're getting a dog when the backyard is done.

Christmas 2009

Unlike last year, no one was sick this year. But, like last year, Grant slept in and poor Emma had to pine away the minutes, mentally willing him to wake up so they could see what Santa brought.

Because of the dog, who we were told would eat all people food he could reach, we left a note on the dining room table where we usually leave Santa's cookies and the reindeer's carrot instructing him to check the mantle for his treats this year. Santa is age appropriate in the reading department. He also has a good memory, and brought the kids the toys they had asked for - a Belle dress and roller skates for Emma, plus a Jasmine doll in her stocking, and a train set and Captain Hook costume with hook for Grant. It turns out Santa could have saved $21 or so on Grant's costume and just brought him a hook because Grant has yet to put the costume on. The hook is a big hit, and Grant has learned that using a hook to open a door isn't super effective, but using it to turn on a light is. He's also learned it's hard to hold a golf club with a hook, and we don't use hooks to get Mom's attention or hold milk cups.

We added a new spin to our Christmas morning, incorporating our Advent calendar into the day. After checking out everything Santa brought, we took a break to check the day 25 cubby and talk about the importance of Jesus' birth in our lives. Then we opened the presents from each other before getting ready to head out for the day of visiting family.

We had a wonderful Christmas, a wonderful day, and made wonderful memories.

We're dog sitting

More to come on that subject.

The Nutcracker

Emma and I were offered last minute, Row B seats to yesterday's matinee of The Nutcracker. Free. How could we turn that down?

So we hustled into our nice clothes, and drove downtown, reviewing the Nutcracker story she had read a few months ago with my mom. We snapped obligatory pictures next to the Nutcracker statue in the lobby to document our first ballet together. We took our seats, listened to the orchestra warm up, and clapped our hands with anticipation when the house lights went down and the stage lights went up.

It was magical. Emma was mesmerized, and I sat quietly, reflecting on past Nutcrackers ballets I've seen. She asked appropriate questions to sort out the lack of talking to tell the story, she clapped appropriately, and she studied the ladies up on pointe. She guessed which candy was dancing during Clara's time in the Land of Sweets, and waited in line to meet Clara during intermission.

On the drive home, we both had a hard time deciding on our favorite part. But we didn't have any problem at all deciding to get tickets for next year's show!

The end of a tradition?

It's Hub's birthday (Happy Birthday honey) and Grant hasn't been to the doctor yet nor does he appear to need medical treatment soon. Have we ended the tradition at 2 years?

Back from the land of the lost

Remember when my kids used to nap and I had time to blog? Mmmm hmmm, me too. Nowadays Grant is still learning how to rest in his room, so I spend most of my afternoon escorting him back to his room and reminding him that resting time is playing quietly in his room time. It makes me insane.

Anyway, it's been quite a month so far, what with all the Christmas cheer and such. Decorating our house was a total nightmare and not the lovely event I had imagined it might be. Both kids were tired and borderline cranky, Grant spent the time tossing various decorations out of the bins while I was digging through other bins. Emma spent the time constantly hounding me to help with one more thing before I even had anything unwrapped. Hubs was completely unable to read my mind on exactly what I wanted him to be doing and when. I finally threw my hands in the air, declared I wasn't having any fun at all, turned off the Christmas carols blaring on the stereo, and decided to finish decorating the house after the kids were in bed.

On the other hand, decorating the gingerbread house the next weekend was really quite pleasant. The kids each had a pie pan filled with various candies and some gingerbread men, so they were occupied while I put the house together and piped the frosting. Each kid decorated one side of the house and the front of the house on their side. It was fun, and Hubs even got in on the action this year.

Emma's winter show at school was awesome. She announced the songs her class was going to sing, getting to speak into the microphone to do so. She was animated, dancing along, doing the signs with great enthusiasm. Overall, it was a typical Kindergarten show - full of unintended comedy with a little bit of singing mixed in.

Emma also had her parent conference during the time of no blogging. As suspected, she's leaps and bounds ahead of the Kindergarten standards. Her teacher wants me to keep her challenged by working on writing in lower cases, learning when to start a word with an upper case, and starting to form complete sentences with proper punctuation.

I subbed in Grant's preschool class during the time of no blogging too. It was great, although, according to his teacher, Grant was particularly poorly behaved. Which was a relief to know he's not that poorly behaved normally. His class is a great group of kids, and while there were some challenging moments of no listening ears (or blatant disregard to what I said, like when I had to chase a girl all around the playground TWICE in order to scoop her up and escort her into the classroom), overall it was super great to be back in a classroom. I told the director I'd like to know if there are any openings in the next few years.

In Kid's Worship at church, the teacher is talking with the elementary aged kids about World Vision and how it helps kids get clean water, medical care, etc. They are encouraging the kids to bring in money to support one of these causes. Emma came home excited to contribute, suggesting she get money from my wallet. I suggested she get money by doing some work. So during resting time that day she wrote out a list of chores she could do to earn money. They included gems like: make sure Grant brushes his teeth, comb my hair in the morning, and give dad a hug. With some modifications, we came up with some chores we could agree on, and negotiated a monetary amount for each chore. Emma has been busy folding towels, vacuuming her room, and emptying the dishwasher, and the envelope she wrote "donate" on is slowly filling up.

Finally, we had a visit with Santa yesterday. For the first time since 2004 there was no screaming or crying, although Grant refused to sit on his lap, opting for standing next to Emma instead. Santa's beard elastic was showing, and he didn't understand a word the kids said without me saying it for him. When we got home, Emma wondered out loud why in last year's picture Santa had a straight beard and why this year his beard was curly. I thought maybe it was because he was going with a different beard style this year and she was satisfied with that answer. Thankfully.

Emma and Me

Emma's choir performance for church is this Tuesday so practice time has been amped up. She had rehearsal all morning yesterday and is singing in both services today. It's been tiring and busy in an already tiring and busy time of year.

But buried in the busyness of it all is the alone time with Emma. She's a different kid when she has me to herself. And I'm a different mom when I have her to myself. She skips along next to me smiling. We sit calmly together between services, enjoying a scone. We delight in our favorite Christmas songs being played on the radio. It gives me a hopeful peek into the future of our relationship, where Emma and Me time is special and cherished by us both.

I just might go insane

The power company tree cutters just showed up to clear cut my side yard from wayward trees that might harm the power lines. They're using three chainsaws in the back yard and the wood chipper in the front yard.

At the same time, Emma is singing a song from her church Christmas show for 9000th time today. She sings the first stanza over and over and over again.

Plus, she's knocked her stool over twice in the last 10 minutes.

If that stool falls again it might be the hair that drove the camel to the looney bin.

Conversations with Grant

Me: Please stop jumping on your bed. You're going to break it and then you won't have a bed to sleep in.

Grant: I'll just sleep in your bed.

M: There isn't room in my bed.

G: I'll just say Peeeeeeease and you can move over a tiny bit.

M: Dad and I take up all the room in my bed, it wouldn't be very comfortable if you joined us.

G: But me say pease.

M: It still wouldn't be comfortable, even if you said please.

G: Me know, me bring my pillow. Then it would be comfortable.

M: How about if you just stop jumping on your bed.

G: Okay. That's a good idea.