Best Laid Plans

As I type this I am sitting in a chair outside the room where Michael is taking gymnastics. "Gymnastics," being a fairly loose description of what goes on in the room! I'm in a little chair facing the window into the gym, netbook on my lap, watching four-year-olds do warm up stretching. In this moment I am very thankful for WiFi.

Saturday was our local March for Babies walk. Due to a whole host of out of our control circumstances instead of having a big group to walk with (we'd actually recruited people to our team this year!) it looked like I was going to be walking on my own. The weather was cool and rainy - feeling more like late February than late April. After one last look at the radar I decided it was going to give a dry enough window for Michael to come with me if he wanted - he did.

So Michael and I headed down to the park where we've walked before... I'm not going to lie. It was cold. And we totally opted for the one-mile "family" route, rather than walk the entire three miles. A lot of pieces fell a little flat this year: the weather was crummy, we didn't quite meet our fund-raising goal, we didn't do the long walk. It would be easy to feel discouraged about the whole experience.

But of course it was difficult to feel too discouraged when I had this guy to keep me company:

Do you see that I had to find the WINTER hat for him. The fact that we were there at all is some serious dedication, right? And the following picture is completely misleading, sure the sky was blue in that moment, but shortly after we got home it opened up and poured!

Even though I was sorry not to have our bigger team assembled (next year!), I was grateful to have Michael there with me. He was happy and proud to be walking at the March for Babies event, even if he didn't completely understand what it was. We walked holding hands (I was trying not to loose him in the crowd) and every so often he would lean over and kiss my hand saying, "I'm so happy to be on a walk with you Mommy!"

Me too bud.

*****
By the by... if you were intending to donate to our team and you just hadn't gotten around to it any donations made in the next couple of weeks will still count toward this year's total.  Thanks!

Walk Time

Last year around this time I was marveling at how our family and friends and internet peeps had showed up in a HUGE way to help us raise money for March of Dimes. The persistent begging I did had a lot to do with our success.

This year, I've hardly begged at all... I was working, the kids were sick, blah, blah, blah. And so here we are, mere days (5!) before this year's March for Babies. And there is a large empty spot on my fundraising tracker. The space between what we've raised and our goal.

Lots of people have already stepped up for us this year, but I'm reaching out to those of you who may not already have been bombarded by my email or Facebook requests this week. If you have even five dollars to spare, please consider helping us reach our goal.

If you weren't around or you want to refresh your memory about the dramatic-ish circumstances surrounding Michael's birth, head back to the February, March, and April archives from 2008.

Here is a photo of Michael, taken perhaps the day after he was born, when he weighed just a little over four pounds. He spent the first month of his life in the NICU and then was home with us for another month before I even reached his due date!

Look how big that paci is! In other words, look how tiny the baby is.

And here we are, four years later, and I can barely get a good picture of him these days because he is all little boy enthusiasm and will rarely hold still for a photograph! Almost all traces of his preemie days are long gone.

We are so incredibly grateful for our healthy boy. And it is in large part due to the work done by March of Dimes that our preemie was able to survive his early birth and is a thriving four-year-old now. And while we've come so far, as long as there are babies being born sick or too soon, there is still work to be done.

Please consider making a donation to our March for Babies team, every bit helps. 

Oh, and if you'd like to send some prayers/good vibes for dry weather on Saturday, that's great too!

Thank you.

In Defense of Keeping Them Little

A disclaimer, before I begin... When I write ANYTHING on this blog, I'm generally commenting on a situation as it applies to our family. If your family does x, y, or z differently, I don't necessarily mean that I disagree/disapprove of your choices, I'm only talking about what works for the people under this here roof. I think most of you know that, but just in case... I feel a couple of posts brewing that I feel might be difficult to write without inadvertently offending someone. We'll see.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a Facebook update from a local music venue, announcing that they'd added a concert by The Fresh Beat Band to their summer lineup. I'll admit my immediate reaction was totally hokey - I actually got choked up. Why? Because Harper LOVES The Fresh Beat Band and I knew she would lose her mind with excitement over the idea of seeing them in concert. Matt and I discussed it and decided to go ahead and buy a couple of tickets. Since there aren't really any gift giving occasions between now and the concert, we did tell Harper she was going to have to work this summer to earn her ticket. We'll have her do various jobs around the house and yard (dog duty if you know what I mean) because we aren't complete pushovers, and the tickets were not that cheap for a kiddie concert. Harper is nearly out of her mind with excitement - it was so much fun to show her the tickets.

Sometime recently I was looking at the Facebook page of the venue and I noticed that a parent of one of Harper's school friends had commented on the concert announcement saying she was so glad her daughter was out of that phase. Initially I had a moment of panic, wondering if we were going to end up at a concert primarily attended by toddlers. And it got me thinking. So what?

I don't think many people who know Harper would claim she is immature. But we have been pretty careful with the media influences in our home. I don't try to shelter the kids from the outside world and I am very frank in answering questions about difficult topics. Currently this pertains more to Harper than to Michael, he isn't asking those kids of difficult questions just yet.

My children rarely watch something that isn't preschool television. We do watch the occasional more mature movie, but only with pretty careful vetting and an awareness of our kids' particular sensitivities. I'm careful about what kind of music they listen to and we do have children's music in fairly heavy rotation. We rarely listen to the radio unless it is NPR in the car. They do listen to some adult music, but again I'm aware of the lyrics and pretty cautious.

Even when it comes to toys, we probably skew a little younger than the children actually are. Not in games and books necessarily, but certainly in terms of playthings. Both kids still love the Fisher Price Little People sets and Harper specifically asked for more furniture for her Loving Family Dollhouse for Christmas. Michael has some Little People superhero stuff, but none of the regular action figures yet. I'm not necessarily opposed to these in the long run, but I know his play will be increasingly violent with more adult looking figures and I don't see any reason to introduce him to that if he's not asking for it.

So yes, we're going to see The Fresh Beat Band. And we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. And we listen to Laurie Berkner, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Justin Roberts. And there are still Little People underfoot. Oh, and when Harper had ballet pictures on Tuesday, I didn't even put any make up on her.

I think keeping some of these big kid influences at bay is good for my kids. And I have the luxury of doing so because my seven-year-old doesn't happen to have any older siblings. Will Michael be exposed to some things earlier than Harper was? Of course.

There's no Star Wars here, or Harry Potter (for the kids), or Transformers, or make up beyond chap stick, or pop to drink. I'm not saying never, I'm just saying not now. Because I am a killjoy. And because this works for us. And mostly because there is time. Lots and lots of time. For all of it.

Play Ball!

It's opening day in these parts so I thought I would share a little blast from the past to celebrate...

This one is from about 1.5 years ago:

Four

Dear Sweet Michael,

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated your fourth birthday. I'm writing your birthday letter late - there's not much I can say about that except welcome to being the second child. Let's not talk about your baby book...

It is unlikely a birthday will ever go by without my remembering what a very uncertain beginning you had in this world, or without recalling how tiny you were and how long it seemed to take you to do all the regular baby things like regulate your body temperature, or, you know, eat.

And here you are, a fairly robust four-year-old, weighing in at a mere ten times your birth weight. Without careful attention to your speech or your (considerable lack of) fine motor skills, I doubt anyone meeting you today would guess that you arrived in this world nine weeks early.

Some days you are a mystery to me, Michael. You can be so sweet and gentle, so loving and then all of a sudden your temper flares and you stamp your foot at me when I don't think Cheez-Its are a good lunch. You fight like crazy with your sister as you appear to have decided that you aren't willing to be bossed around any longer. And yet, as much as you can be tough with Harper, you crumble the instant someone reprimands you even a little bit.

You've made amazing strides in the last year, even in the last six months. So many things seems to be clicking along in your little brain. Just yesterday your preschool teacher told me you did great on an assessment that you couldn't complete at all in September. On Monday you jumped from a vault into the pit of foam squares at gymnastics. When you started, in the fall, it was all I could do to lower you in there and pry your fingers from my arms! These small things indicate huge changes in you and what you can do and are willing to do.

One of my favorite ways you've changed in the past year is your blossoming imagination. You love to play pretend and are constantly narrating little stories with your toys. Today you were hosting some kind of imaginary party and I heard you say to one of the guests, a pirate, I think, that you were going to check the ingredients to see if the party food was peanut-free. Then you told him you'd have to call his mother and see if he could eat it.

You are a joy to us Michael and I am trying to soak up all I can of you being little because every day I can see more clearly that you won't be little for long.

I love you.

Love,
Mama

Gatekeeper

So every time I think about writing in this space I imagine some internet behemoth, sitting with his giant arms crossed, asking me, "Do you have anything worthwhile to say?" And giving me a suspicious look...

I don't know if I have anything worthwhile to say, but that's really not stopped me in the past.

Here are a few tidbits from the last three weeks:

• Rebound has escaped, twice, in the last couple of weeks. Once when Harper opened the front door to wave at a friend in a passing school bus. He gleefully frolicked around the yard, licking the dewy grass, as I frantically chased him. I only managed to catch the door because he paused to christen the stop sign at the corner of our yard. The second time I was in the front yard with the kids and Rebound on a leash. A truck towing lawn equipment passed on the street and Rebound lunged for it, ripped the leash out of my hand, and chased it down our fairly busy street. I yelled at the children to stay on the drive way and chased him. Fortunately the person driving the truck realized what was happening and stopped, as did the cars driving in the opposite direction. There's a rush of emotion for you. As you can imagine, it was not at all embarrassing to catch up with the dog in the middle of the street when half a dozen drivers are staring at you. Here's hoping that is the first and LAST time anything like that happens. 
• Michael told me the other day that he wants to be God when he grows up so he can die and come back to life. 
• After a little chat about the fact that he probably won't grow up to be GOD, he decided he'd just really like to be a helper at our church when he grows up.
• The kids are on spring break this week and have each had a turn sleeping over at Matt's parents' house. They claim to miss each other. I do not miss the sound of them fighting.
• Tonight is Michael's night away and Harper and I went to see The Lorax. We both enjoyed the movie (although Harper thought a couple parts were a little scary), especially because we were the only people in the theater.

That's all for now - I am thinking it won't be three more weeks before I post again. I've missed you Internets.

The State of Things

I really don't know how any of you people who work full time have time to blog at all. I don't remember exactly how often I managed to do it that one semester that I worked but my guess is that I didn't get to it very often.

As tends to happen when I hit these blogging lulls, I have many ideas swirling around in my head and somehow lack the energy/motivation to get any of them down in this space.

Things are going on around here; a real job prospect, Michael's 4th birthday this week, minor home disasters, visitors, and lots of indulgent thinking about what I really want to do with my life.

Today, though, I'm going to talk about the weather.

As you undoubtedly know, last Friday brought a horrific storm outbreak to this part of the country.

We knew it was coming - the forecasts were so terrible that my stomach was in knots all morning. The PTO board decided to cancel the event we had scheduled for that evening; agreeing we'd rather make the mistake of canceling when nothing bad happened than the mistake of having hundreds of people at the school when a bad storm hit.

I've written here before about the intense anxiety I have about severe weather, especially since the children have been born.

While Michael napped Friday afternoon I spent an hour shuttling things down to the basement, anticipating that we'd be spending a lot of time there in the evening. By the time we had to leave to get Harper from school I'd had time to supply the basement with extra blankets, spare EpiPens, a first aid kit, water for all of us, non-perishable food items, a battery powered radio, flashlights, extra batteries, and the kids' inhalers.

You can laugh if you want, but the other thing I did Friday morning was look up the patron saint of protection against bad weather...Saint Medard, if you're curious, and I asked him to pray for us. And yes, I remembered to thank him when the most severe weather sort of fell apart before reaching us.

We've had this extremely mild winter, unlike anything I can remember, and I worry that it will somehow translate into a very stormy spring. Sigh.

*****

If you want to know how you can help the victims of last week's tornadoes, American Red Cross is a good place to start.

A Tip or Two for Managing Sick Children

Around 8:30 last night Harper woke up crying and I walked in to find she'd lost her supper all over her bed. Awesome.

One by one the members of our family (and the house guests who visited over the weekend) have succumbed to a stomach bug. Last night I was up every ten or fifteen minutes helping someone with his or her various needs.

I don't have a lot of tips for dealing with sick children, but here are the two that seem most important in our house:

1) Set up a portable DVD player and quarantine the sicko in his/her own room.

2) Line the sick bucket/bowl with the smallest sized garbage bags for quick and relatively gag-free changing. I'm in favor of anything that minimizes my contact with the, er, symptoms.

How we handle high fevers and or stomach viruses in these parts.

FYI Caillou is the choice for Michael. You can protest his whining all you want, but no episode has ever been too scary or sad. A very important consideration for my little guy.

Sick bucket, lined and ready.

We don't do this every time one of the children has a little cold, but we have had some success at limiting the transmission of more serious illness with our quarantine solution. And I know mother earth does not care for my garbage bag solution, but desperate times and all that. Fortunately it is not a tactic we have to employ often.

Here's hoping you don't need either of these tips any time soon!

Proud

We were at the kitchen table, finishing up our valentines for tomorrow's festivities, and Michael had been working diligently to write an "M" on each card. 

Do you recall from our childhood days that each package of valentines usually contained a couple of larger cards for the teachers? Michael's set of valentines did and I noticed on one of them that, in the larger space available, he attempted to write more of the letters of his name. He said something about not remembering what one of the letters looked like. I was curious to see how close he was able to come to writing his name (copying my writing) so I handed him a larger piece of paper with his name printed at the top. 

Look what he did:

It may not seem like much to the untrained eye (you can click on the image to enlarge it) but ALL of the letters are there! The "M" is largest and in the middle. "I" is just to the right of "M". "C" is confused about where it should face, but is next to "I". "H" is below "M." "A" is to the bottom left of "M". "E" to the right of "M", and, finally, "L" above "C". 

Michael is still needs lots of work on pencil grip and control. His fine motor skills are fairly weak. But I had no idea he could do this and it absolutely blows me away... 

Michael's path to being a full-fledged reader and writer is already so different from his sister's. And I find myself, embarrassingly, relieved that I am just as able to celebrate his accomplishments, on his own timeline, as I was/am Harper's. 

I'm so proud.

*****

Speaking of writing - I entered a local writing competition today. It is something I have wanted to do for years. Clicking that submit button was honestly one of the more terrifying moments of my life, but I did it. So, regardless of the outcome, I'm a little proud of myself, too. But I don't want to jinx anything, which is why I'm telling you in tiny font. Oh, and don't worry, I proofread it much more carefully than I proofread these blog posts!

Waffling

One of my least favorite things about myself is that I sometimes have trouble keeping momentum behind things I really would like to do regularly. This blog, for example, or exercise, or other writing, or mailing birthday cards on time... there are others. I often feel like I can only muster enthusiasm for one "project" at a time and everything else gets stripped down to bare bones and barely tended. I really should add deep cleaning the house to that list but this blog, exercise, and writing - those are my big three right now. Those are things I need to regularly give time to in order to be happiest, to do the most justice to myself, and I can't seem to fit all three at once.

So I'm frustrated with myself. And frustrated with this space. I mentally compose lots of blog posts as I navigate through my day and by the time I sit down to type they are like balloons slowly losing air. I start writing and you get this!

Harper woke up this morning feeling sick. She's not a leap joyfully out of bed first thing in the morning type of person usually, but she was especially slow and terribly persistent in her protests today. So I told her she could stay home, but she'd have to rest in bed, not lounge on the couch watching movies. (You have to have tangible symptoms - vomit, fever, strep looking throat - to earn a movies all day pass.) She still wanted to stay home. We dropped Michael off at school, Harper went back to bed, and I tried to get some PTO business taken care of.

Around 10 she came to me and said she was feeling better. She had no fever so I agreed to take her in to school. When I picked her up at the end of the day, however, she was back to feeling crummy. By dinner time she actually did have a fever (oops on the taking her to school). So now she's out for tomorrow for sure.

Life has felt a little like Harper's day lately. Not terrible, but a lot of stopping and starting. Shifts in momentum, not always in the direction I want.

Even though we haven't had much winter to speak of this winter, it is still managing to feel like February. Do you know what I mean?

ANYWAY - I don't want to let my blah mood detract from a place I really need to put my energy right now, fundraising for March of Dimes. Sometime in the next few days I'll write more about why this is so important to our family, but for now I will take a moment to direct your attention to the badge on the right - please consider donating or signing up to walk with us this year!

I had the badge up a few days ago but it wasn't working properly - brain fog. It's all good now, click away!

More Michael

The thing about three-year-olds is that they are just funny creatures. At a little past (age) seven, Harper is saying lots of interesting things, but there are fewer and fewer times when she says something that immediately makes me burst out laughing. Michael, on the other hand...

He made a penguin today in preschool. The children were given construction paper pieces to place and glue as they saw fit. Michael's preschool teachers are very good about letting the children do their own work and most of the penguins still came out looking like penguins. Michael made a nice penguin face, but the rest of the project did not even remotely resemble a penguin. I asked him about it on the way home and he told me he moved the pieces around so it would look like a person with a "butt" and the other thing* he and his dad have in common! What?!

Tonight I went to get something out of the bedroom and I noticed that Michael was still awake. He asked me if I would sing him some songs so we sat together in the rocking chair for a bit. His requests were not very bed-timey though, "Wheels on the Bus," "I Had a Little Turtle," and something he calls, "The Backwards Alphabet Song."

I sang and then we chatted a bit and came around to the topic of St. Patrick's Day. I was trying to explain how we celebrate when Michael's eyes got wide and he turned to me, asking, "Is he a guy that leaves treats in our house while we're sleeping?!"

I was sorry to tell him no, but not as sorry as I would have been to have to explain to Matt why we were going to have to leave St. Patrick's Day presents for the children...

*I'm not shy about naming body parts - I'm just considering search engines.

Coming Up for Air

The time! I don't know where it goes...

Monday I volunteered at Harper's school in the morning and I'm one day short of completing a four day in a row subbing job, which has been fun but tiring. I come home ready to collapse in an exhausted heap except there is dinner and laundry and hair washing and lunch prep and, "Oh look someone pooped in his pants." (Yes, I can hear all of you who do this all the time laughing.) The children I'm subbing for are testing me because they miss their teacher (they are first graders), the children at home are testing me because they miss ME. Let's just acknowledge that that is a lot of testing for one person - thank you.

*****

Because time feels like it is slip sliding away Harper and I did an after dinner run to the craft store. We needed materials for her 100 days of school project and tonight seemed like the best chance to acquire said materials without both kiddos in tow. I greatly underestimated how quickly I could navigate the craft store with Harper. Also underestimated? The amount of patience the outing would take. I could practically hear some alarm going off in my head screaming, "Insufficient patience level reached! Abort current activity! Abort! Coping abilities reduced to dangerously low levels! Code red!" Harper pretended to fall asleep on the way home - perhaps she was trying to avoid unleashing the wrath?

*****

We've been talking to (nearly 4-year-old!) Michael about redecorating his room, which still looks essentially like it did when we brought baby Harper home from the hospital to live in it. His only requests? The color blue and party hats. Party hats? Maybe this is what he means by party hats?

*****

Harper was looking at a painting of the Last Supper and said, "Hey! There's Jesus and his twelve Recyples!"(Pronounced like a cross between disciples and recycle.) So, you know, those Sunday School classes are totally paying off.

Because I'm Not Sure I'll Remember

A funny/curious thing happened in our living room Christmas morning... Michael began turning his back to us when he opened his gifts:

Oh dear boy... he insisted upon taking every last bit of the wrapping paper off before really looking at a gift to see what it was. We think he turned around because he didn't want anyone (read: Harper) telling him what his gift was until he was ready to look at it himself.

And if that doesn't shine a light on their personalities... Harper roaring ahead, without all that much regard for the speed of those around her; and Michael, oh Michael, taking his time, not wanting to miss any detail.

Happy 2012

Ffffuuuuuuffff!

That noise? Was me blowing the cobwebs out of these corners.

So how are you?

We're fine here, truly, and I have no good explanation for my absence from this space. Can we just move forward and pretend it hasn't been several weeks since my last post?

Thanks!

Christmas Sights

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Holiday Frenzy

I don't know if we just didn't feel this time of year was crazy enough, but the children finished school on Tuesday and Wednesday morning we headed down to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area for a couple of family fun days...

First stop was an indoor water park where Michael was scared of pretty much everything, but still in awe of the place...

I snapped the following picture of Harper right before she fell off the lily pad and, er, realized the water was deeper than she thought. Oops. She recovered enough to enjoy some water slides and the wave pool, so no harm done.

After our water park adventure we ate lunch and then headed down to the river where we caught a surprisingly enjoyable marionette show, complete with meet and greet for the kids.

How cute is that bear? It looked like it belonged in a Jim Henson Christmas special - which I think is actually a testament to the talent of the puppeteer.

The show finished just in time for us to catch Arthur Christmas which we all really enjoyed (although it did get a little long for Michael, who was involuntarily giving up his nap...).

After the movie we headed to our hotel and the kids had the run of the pool before dinner.
Neither of them would hold still long enough to get a decent photo, but look! The whole pool just for them!

We spent the night in the hotel and, despite our very active day, no one slept much. Oh well. We hung out a bit the next morning then headed back to the river to visit the aquarium. With a quick detour in front of a giant Christmas tree...

Once in the aquarium Harper happily danced with "Rocky" and then was a "grand marshal" of the penguin parade - she was thrilled!

We enjoyed the "Scuba Santa" show in the aquarium theater and he even posed for pictures afterward.

We ended the day getting up close and personal with some sharks - look at those teeth!

We left the aquarium in the early afternoon and ate some lunch on the way home yesterday.

Today I have pretty much been in the kitchen all day long (cookies, soup, bread, caramel mix...) and tonight (as though they haven't had enough this week!) Matt and his dad and sister took the kids to a hockey game. Michael came home with a puck given to him by one of the refs.

It's a good thing Christmas is only two days away - after the week we've had it will take something pretty spectacular impress the kids!

On a side note, Harper keeps telling me that this is her favorite time of year. She says she likes the special treats and the presents, but mostly she likes being with the people she loves.  Based on the greeting she gave her Aunt Meaghan today I think she means it.

A Visit With Santa

Who knows if this is the last believing visit for our oldest? If so, it was a good one.

We visited Santa - and nobody cried! Or hid. Or refused to talk.

Success!

Can you see the line reflected in that huge ornament?

My how they've grown.

For kicks(?) you can click here to recall how last year's visit went.

Helpful (?) Holiday Craft Post

Earlier this fall, before Harper's birthday, I began looking for gift ideas for her. We have very generous family members who give to our children at their birthdays and Christmas and they often ask for ideas - many of them don't necessarily know what we have already or what the children would enjoy.

As I was browsing in a nearby toy store I saw a kit for making Christmas ornaments. I liked several things about this as a gift for Harper:

1) It was a non-messy craft. She loves to do craft projects and I especially appreciate activities that allow her to feel crafty but don't use glitter, glue, paint, or clay. (That's what school is for!)

2) We could give them away as Christmas gifts from her. I still have a handful of ornaments made for me by former students, and smile when I take them out and put them on the tree. Of course we aren't at most of these people's homes for Christmas, so they never have to hang them and who would know?

3) I didn't have to store the finished project! My number one pet peeve about crafts (and really, lots of toys) is figuring out where to put them when they've been completed. Don't get me wrong, there is evidence of children's work all over our house, but we have limited shelf/wall space. Especially for things like the Sticky Mosaics - so nice to do, but then where do they go? In my case most of them are subtly disappeared while the children are in school.

So Harper received two kits for her birthday. One for the Very Merry Ornaments (Very Merry Ornaments Kit, here.) and one for Beaded Snowflake Ornaments (Beaded ornament kit, here.).

I want to be sure to point out that BOTH kits have been a lot of fun and a good quiet distraction during these crazy days leading up to Christmas. Having said that, the beaded ornaments turned out spectacularly, and the other set (Very Merry) I don't really see making it past this holiday.

Here's a photo of one of the Very Merry Ornaments:

Harper enjoyed making these - the sticker element was fun and the idea was to make a pattern of three different types of paper strips. I think this could be re-engineered to work a little better. The papers attach at the top and bottom of the ornament, but there is nothing but air (and a very thin plastic stick) in the middle. The papers don't really stay in place and I have noticed the little sparkling stickers are starting to fall off of the first ornaments Harper made. These are still cute, but I don't think they will hold up beyond one season. I wonder if some sort of ball to wrap the papers around would help?

The beaded ornaments are gorgeous and look like they will hold up - they also look like something I'd be happy to put on my tree. They could even be displayed after Christmas as winter decor!

Some photos of the process and the final products, working with the beaded kit:

The look on her face is saying, "Just leave me alone so I can finish this very enjoyable project!"

I loved that the beads came all neatly organized. The kit suggested working over a towel so dropped beads don't roll
away. I don't know if I ever would have thought of that but it was a brilliant suggestion!

Finished Snowflake and Mirror

Snowflake on the Tree

Another Snowflake on the Tree

Snowflake and Wine Glasses

I'm already thinking I might keep an eye on the price of the beaded snowflake kit and maybe purchase some for Harper to make next year... Maybe the price will drop a bit more after Christmas?

I'm not sure I would try the paper ornaments again, unless they made some changes to the structure of the ornaments.

I was also thinking it might be fun to try these for next year - we'll see if I remember in the fall.

Another Holiday Assortment

Fun with the Nativity!

Bet you didn't know that Princess Tiana bunked down with Baby Jesus! Please note that the Wise Men actually brought flowers and other purple plastic objects. Purple plastic was rare and valuable in those days. 

Also, Mary and Aurora were BFFs which is why Mary is sporting Aurora's crown. With those kind of princess connections, you'd think they might have found a better place to sleep than a stable. Where are the good fairies when you need them?

*****

I'm not sure what the excitement is, but Michael keeps asking if he can watch me wrap gifts. I think he's just interested in what the gifts are. He keeps asking, "Can I watch you wrap them up? Are you going to wrap some up now?"

He was very disappointed when he realized I wasn't going to show him all of Harper's gifts. I only showed him two, and let him choose one as his gift to her.

*****

I think I've mentioned before that Michael is a sensitive boy and can get emotional about movies we watch (I might have scarred him for life with An American Tail). So far about 50% of our Christmas shows have made him cry. The original Frosty the Snowman was the most traumatic.

He also gets upset when we sing,"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Every single time he asks, "WHY won't they let him play?"

*****

I always buy nice wrapping paper but I am a decidedly unfussy gift packager. I don't even bother with ribbon and/or bows most of the time and I've started to feel guilty about the boxes we use for gifts. There will be a nice gift, and nice paper, but in between - when receiving a gift from us - you are likely to face either a) a Circo brand shoe box or b) a Market Day chicken steaks box. Classy. What can I say? They are good sizes and I have an abundance of them. Still, I'm trying to use slightly fewer of those (I'll save them for mailing you things!) and go the more traditional shirt box route.

If you expect to receive a gift from us this year, just know that you should unwrap the box and open it or you'll have no idea what you're really getting. I also have a lot of American Girl boxes in the basement. I'd hate for you to think you were getting some accessories for Molly or Kit and be disappointed with an iTunes gift card...

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In a final, and random, note. I had a big spike in blog traffic today. Apparently someone found the Christmas craft we did last year and linked to it. If anyone clicks around on this blog looking for more craft ideas, wow, are they going to be disappointed!

In Which I Ignore My Own Guidelines

Several years ago I wrote a little set of guidelines for giving gifts to teachers. (You can find it here.) One of the things I suggested was not preparing food for teachers. Or, rather, I cautioned that some teachers might not eat homemade treats. This is still true, but this year we have a lot of people we wanted to do some small holiday recognition for and making something edible just seemed like the best way to go.

AND I have a snack mix recipe that has always been a huge it, so I feel pretty confident that anyone who likes a little something sweet will either enjoy it or know someone who will happily take it off his/her hands. 

The thing is, we will do a nicer/bigger gift for our children's main teachers. But, especially in Harper's case, I don't want to leave anyone out. Because of all the people who are part of our allergy plan at school I get a very concrete sense of the whole, "it takes a village," thing. We have 11 people we are bringing something to at Harper's school. And then you add the neighbors we usually give a little sweet to and Michael's 4 teachers and you have, well, A LOT of people to provide a gift for.

Don't get me wrong - I LIKE recognizing these people and thanking them for the jobs they are doing (or for being great neighbors!), so I'm not complaining, just noting, that I had a lot of people to make snack mix for!

I'm also really enjoying my new camera and this was a good excuse to take pictures of stuff.

Here are the ingredients:

This recipe pretty much had me at butter and brown sugar...

 So you mix the dry ingredients in a roasting pan, then melt the sugar, syrup, and butter together and stir it for a very long time (lots of standing at the stove, this is a recipe that needs tending). Then you add the vanilla and baking soda, dump it over the dry stuff, stir and put it in the oven. Then you stir it at fifteen minute intervals for about an hour. Finally you dump it out to cool and it looks like this:

You will spend the next half-hour or so waiting for it to cool enough to be put into a container or gift bags/boxes. During this time you will need to stand guard and shoo away little children who will repeatedly enter the kitchen looking for, "Just one piece, please?!" And you will have to say no, because each batch will only yield four of these:

One down, nineteen to go.

I made four batches yesterday and then ran out of butter. Matt went to the store today and restocked my supplies - I will have another marathon day this week or next weekend and then we should be all set. That is, until it is time to bake cookies!

Yummy, sugary, goodness!