"A Christmas Tradition"

That's what the photo holder says on the outside. This is going to be a fun "tradition". What a terrible thing we do to our children just to get a laugh.

Natalie saw a commercial today for Disneyland. "Oh, I wanna go there, mama!" We've been talking about going to SoCal in Feb around her birthday, so I said "Go tell Dad that's what you want for your birthday", and she did, then I told her Goofy, Mickey, and the Princesses might want hugs with her. NIX! "Never mind, mom, Never mind." (that is her new catch phrase lately)

Oh well.

Trail Running

A couple of summers ago, Brady and I started Trail Running up above our neighborhood. I also found out that I need to learn more about my camera, as I've been taking really crappy photos lately, and Larry says it's me and not this camera. Crap. I wanted it to be the camera.

Anyway, Brady and I have so much fun running on the trails in what's left of the woods. It will be so sad when it gets developed, as B and I are making some great memories up there. We usually take Norman the giant Lab, and Katie howled in heartbreak that her man was going out without her. Problem is, last time we took Katie trail-running she almost didn't make it back. She's fatter than me and had to stop and SIT on the walk back. She needs to start on smaller walks, not these aggressive root-hopping, hill-climbing trail runs. And Norman bounds and leaps right along with Brady, they are so cute together (but Norman is the ORIGINAL mama's boy). And ol' Norm is turning 10 in January! That dog has not lost a single bit of his puppy spirit, I think he'll be a puppy till the day he dies. Wild ass dog. And big (like 110 pounds big) And tall (Brady is 45" and Norman comes up to his chest.) But Brady can walk him just fine, 3 years of obedience paid off a little bit, made Norman tolerable.

My little boy...

Asked me last night as I kissed him goodnight "Am I going to have a different voice when I get bigger?" I could tell he was a little nervous about the idea. My first thought was to answer him with this: "Of course not, honey, you will always have your own voice, the sound may change and you will sound more like daddy (made a silly deep voice) but it will always be your voice." He seemed satisfied, and I felt satisfied that I was telling him the truth about his physical body (He's almost half way to puberty!) but also telling him that nobody should speak for you or that he should never feel that he doesn't "have" a voice. I know he didn't get that out of the conversation, but maybe it will open the door to other conversations about bigger things.

And Natalie's big epiphany moment was last week in the car "I'm not a monster mommy, I'm Nat a Wee!" And a conversation on the way to the dump about who in this family has penises and who doesn't. Watch Larry squirm! He did well, I've told him to just agree when they state a fact like that, and it seems to blow over very quickly because they don't have to reaffirm themselves by telling everyone in the grocery store and at school, and on the bus...

The deconstruction begins

I started taking down a few Christmas decorations here and there, since Larry decided to invite everyone over New Year's Day to play poker ALL DAY, I figured I'm going solo on the housekeeping again.
I took down the kids' advent calendars and they asked "Why are you doing that?" and I replied "To put them away for next Christmas" "Oh, YEA, YEA!" the both cheer. I think that they think I'm getting ready to start it all over again... now. Um... NO.
Last night we went to my mom's new "house" here in Bellingham and had pizza with her and Bill, then drove to Lynden to get a last peek at Christmas lights. It was nice except my children are a lot noisier in a car vs. minivan. And especially when I'm sitting right next to them and not 8 feet away. But they weren't fighting, so you have to be happy with happy noise. I think B & N worked Grandma and Bill's nerves pretty good though regardless of their behavior. It's amazing how much I tune out, I feel that when I finally notice the noise level it looks like I'm neglectful, when in all reality, tuning out is a coping device that moms develop. I can still hold a conversation with all the noise, while others find it too distracting to even think, let alone multi-task. But I think we mom's instinctively know what to listen for and what not to (like I hear the "butt/poop" talk amidst all the playing and immediately cue into it, I might not do anything about it, but I heard it.)
Oh well, the grandparents chose to move closer to the kids, they'll have to re-introduce themselves to the "tune-out" technique that they haven't used in so long (of course, my mother never tuned my and my brother out) Ha!

Recovering

I took the kids on a field trip today to one of their favorite places... the dump! To the dump, to the dump, to the dump-dump-dump! I FILLED the entire cabin of the minivan with cardboard, only cardboard. Brady had to scale the pile to climb into his booster, thank god he can buckle himself now, I'd have never made it back down without supplemental O2.

Then we stopped at Freddie's to return a couple of things (absolutely no waiting to return stuff, Larry said the same thing is happening at Costco... are people waiting for the weekend?) And the kids thankfully wanted to go to the playland. But I gotta say, that playland sucks ass. Every time I take the kids there, there is a video playing and the attendant is hiding behind the counter, as far away from the children as possible. I want to shop at Freddie's because the prices are better, and grocery shopping is so much easier solo. And I know my kids are having fun when they are at Haggen. Last time I went to pick them up at Haggen I was told "4 more minutes mom". They were building towers to knock down, coloring together, being read to. I know it's free, but there is a drastic difference in the time my kids spend at each place. I felt so guilty leaving them at Freddie's playland, that I went and retrieved them and finished shopping with them, so at least someone would be talking (yelling) at them.

And I have to say, the fighting in my house hold between my children is slowly decreasing. This summer I thought I might run away and never come back I was so exhausted from the CONSTANT fighting. Plus it brings horrible flashbacks to my childhood, and the deep running loathing I had for my little brother (sorry Rich, love ya now, thanks for not kicking my ass now that you can). They actually PLAY together, and LAUGH with each other, and sit QUIETLY together. This sounds so cheesy, but it truly makes my heart smile that they have a love for each other and that there is hope that they will have happy childhoods together instead of separately. I'm a total cynic to the worst degree, but when I see these sorts of things, I really SEE them.

Christmas Morning

I was worried that I would wake up to a battle Christmas morning. We found out the night before that Larry, who was scheduled to do the building check at Costco that day, was supposed to meet the other managers at 8 am, not 6 like we had hoped. So I'm thinking "great, just as the kids wake up to see that Santa had come Larry will be gone and I don't want him to miss anything." But luckily, Natalie woke up at 8 and didn't notice anything ("I want eggs, mom") and Brady woke up as Larry walked in the front door!

Then at 11, my brother Richard and his girlfriend Hannah, my mom and her fiance Bill, and us had brunch. I figured it would be easier to do than try to orchestrate a big dinner (last year's was a disaster). Then Hannah and Rich could still have time to go visit her family. Brady loves his "Uncle".

Now comes the clean up, something I suck at. And Larry (not me) forgot to take the damn garbage can to the curb last night!!!! Brady will love to take an extra trip to the dump, but what a pain in the ass. I did make a large trip to Goodwill today while Brady played at Aiden's. It's becoming difficult to purge toys with him around.

It was a really nice day, and topped off by a visit from Tracy and her friend Holly and Holly's son Salem. He got a REAL Light Saber, way cool. Larry's eyes lit up when he saw it. I sure hope everyone had a peaceful celebration, on to New Years!

Christmas in the City

We went to Seattle yesterday to do all the things I listed earlier, it was such an awesome trip! The weather was beautiful, and the whole day was just so much fun!
First we stopped at the Seattle Center and caught the monorail to Westlake Center. The kids absolutely loved it, though Brady had a death grip on my hand until the monorail started and he noticed that Natalie was standing with her face against the window, then he thought it was pretty cool.

Then we cruised over to Macy's to see Santa (on the 5th floor!) and stood in line for 20 minutes to see him. Natalie started to get nervous as we got closer and I tried every bribe in the book (and told her that Santa held the Carousel tickets, and she couldn't go unless she sat on his lap, prepping her for pedophiles?) So the picture is being mailed and you bet it will be posted, very little of her body was touching Santa and she is very red. This is the first year I've had a child react so strongly against Santa. Brady has been nervous before, but never frightened. But she wanted her "payoff" of the carousel ride, so we went back to Westlake to wait in another line to ride on that... but we had fun in line!

We had a celebrity sighting (minor, but I'm a huge fan) Joel McHale from The Soup on E!. So I snagged a picture, he used to be on Almost Live! here in Seattle back in the day, so he must have been home for the holidays. I didn't bug him though because he was clearly with family. But I did paparazzi his ass! And this poor, unfortunate girl was in line too, I thought I had the worst haircut in childhood history (will post later) but this girl takes top honors. Got a picture of that too.

Then back on the monorail to McCall Hall to watch the Nutcracker. I'm sorry but nothing holds a candle to watching it there. The Hall is grand, the sets are designed and painted by Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild things are and Little Bear) and an old friend of mine's parents actually founded the Pac NW Ballet, and the choreography is done by his dad, Kent Stowell, world class! And the kids loved it, which made me so happy. Larry loved it too.

Well I'm pooped, got a itunes gift cert. for Christmas, so I've got to get to work on my rap CD before bed. Will post about Christmas tomorrow!