Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas Time

I can't believe it is time for Christmas. Each year it seems to come faster and faster. We are just about ready. Owen is excited - at least for what he can understand. I tried to explain Christmas to him. He asked me for a present the other day and I told him that in a few days we would go to sleep and while we were sleeping Santa would come and put presents under the tree and then we would wake up and there would be lots of presents for Noni, Owen, Uncee Ben, Mommy, Daddy, etc. He was standing on the floor while I was explaining and looking up at me with such inquisitive eyes and listening so intently trying to understand what I was saying. I finished what I thought was a brilliant explanation of Christmas morning to a two year old and he looked at me so innocently and said "what mommy". I screamed with laughter. I realized how ridiculous it must sound and he wanted with his whole heart to make sense of what I said. I just hugged him and told him that he would get some presents from Santa soon.

This past week was much like any other week. Owen and I went to our last Kindermusik class before the Christmas break. He still loves it so much. He participates in all the songs and follows the teacher around doing exactly what she does. She gave all of the kids a toy microphone for Christmas and a picture of the kids with their moms. Owen carries around the picture of us all day. The class has been good for him in so many ways. This class is about to end, but we signed up for the next semester. Hooray!

Angie and I taught our last class of the 6 week yoga class last week and then we had a drop in class this last Thursday and had 6 people show up. They clapped at the end of class and one of our students even gave us a Christmas present and told us thank you for the wonderful class and said she looks forward to coming all week. We were so excited! It feels so great to be making a difference for people. It is fun to get people moving and see the changes in the poses and the strength they are getting. We have another drop in class on Thursday and then we have a 5 week course, 6 week course and another 6 week course. Hooray for yoga!

Everyone went to the karate party last night with my dad and Kristi and the kids. Ben was Santa. He did a great job! Owen was so excited to see him and actually sat on his lap. He had no idea it was Ben and told him he wanted a choo choo track. Despite being a little nervous and looking a little skinny for Santa, Ben did a great job and all the kids loved him. There was tons of food including a pig! Yes, the whole pig (I have no idea if there is some preparation to cook and eat a whole pig, but as far as I am concerned, there was a whole pig on the table). It was hideous. We sat far away from the poor guy and Angie and I ate some pizza. Ben munched on the pork but said the skin (which was supposed to be "delicious") tasted like eating glass. See, that is hideous! Owen and Santa Ben

Owen got a blanket in the white elephant exchange and carried it around all night looking so proud of his gift. Once we got home I told him to carry in his owl and I would take in the blanket so it didn't get wet. He just stood by the car crying saying O carry it. I gave it to him and he marched proudly in.

After a long day it was time for bed. I told Owen to say goodnight, he wouldn't. He asked Ben to play with him in his "eeky room" (little room). Ben told him he had to go to bed. Owen said "daddy pay o eeky room, maaybe". I told him it was time for bed and brought him back to our room and closed the door. He started crying saying that he had to tell daddy one more thing. He says that all the time, when we leave someone so he can come back, when he is on the phone so he doesn't have to hang up, at bed time to avoid going to sleep. The thing about it though is that he never has anything else to say, he just smiles and you can see his brain thinking of what to say. He finally gave in and went to sleep, even without his "one more thing"

BEN: I had a request from my Grandma for a section on my blog for Ben since he is the only one of us without a blog. I figured I could do that, so this is Ben's update. Ben took two classes at Everett Community College this winter and ended up with a 3.8 GPA. He received a letter from the school yesterday congratulating him on "achieving a significant academic milestone". He is working at the office with everyone and doing a great job. He gets yelled at by Angie periodically but mostly because his desk is a mess. He just laughs at her and sings "Cinderelly, Cinderelly". The hardest part of Ben's day is deciding what he wants for lunch. When I am in the office he starts asking me around 10:30, "what's for lunch". The most alarming part of the story is that he gets to work at 10:00. Ben is living in the barn at my dad's house, (it is all fixed up as a really nice apartment, don't think that he is sleeping on hay) and he is freezing. We are working on getting a heater out there but it hasn't happened yet. He told me the other day he turned on his space heater and it said 39. Ha ha ha ha. Poor Ben. Ben is cold but happy and doing well.

As a final note - congratulations to Angie for getting her ring!! She and Steve are finally getting married. I am so happy for her and I am so glad that she has Steve. He humors her and her antics and you can see that he really loves her. I am glad he will be part of the family and I am glad to see her so happy!! Congratulations Ang - I love you!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Manners

I told Owen last weekend that if he wants to talk to me when I am talking to someone else, rather than screaming "Mommy!" he should say nicely, "Excuse me mommy" and then I can hear him better. He says it all the time, "cuse me mommy, cuse me mommy". He says it with a soft sweet voice and then he knocks his hands together or knocks on my shoulder - whatever that is about.

He is doing a good job asking nicely. Last night I put him in his car seat, he started to freak out and kick and hit my hands off of him and started screaming "Noni do it". I told him he was not acting very nice. He stopped going crazy, tilted his head to the side and said very softly, "pease mommy go away, noni do it, pease go away" and proceeded to push me away, very nicely of course.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

What to do

I struggle so much to put Owen to bed at night. It is a minimum of an hour long drama and most of the time takes longer than that. He didn't nap today and he fell asleep on the way home at 7:30. Fully prepared to have him wake up and take a minimum of two hours to fall back asleep, I brought him in and laid him on the bed. I thought about leaving him, but I looked at him lying there in his jacket, dirty shirt and pants, with stinky socks (he wears rain boots all the time and be glad you are not near them), and I couldn't stand it. There is something so sad about sleeping in your clothes and at the same time something so wonderful about sleeping in clean pajamas. At the risk of being up all night, I changed him. He started to fuss and cry and then started asking for night orange juice. I figured I was doomed. I laid him on the bed all comfy and clean and laid down next to him. He put his arms around my neck and started playing with my hair (he has a thing for hair) and told me that he ate his nanis (chicken nuggets of course) all gone and then by some Christmas miracle he fell sound asleep!! I felt a little lost and confused. Owen asleep at 8:00!! I feel like I have all the time in the world. I figured I better document this day as I don't have high hopes it will happen again.


(Owen watching tv with his trains. We take trains everywhere in his choo choo bag, you have to see it to appreciate it, I will take a picture)

We both had a busy week, the Christmas season is moving so quickly. This year I vowed that I would not be running around on Christmas Eve with the majority of gifts still to be bought. I must say that I am not doing so bad! There is more to do than I would like, but things are coming along. We have been shopping a few times this past week. Owen told me yesterday that he wanted to go shopping with Noni (Angie). I told him we could go. He said he wanted to go to the Old Navy Mall. He loves Old Navy. He has a new coat from Old Navy and runs around with it on telling everyone he got it at Old Navy. We also waited in line for 45 minutes to see the world's scruffiest Santa. Waiting in line reminded me of a time when I looked at the line with hundreds of parents and children waiting to see Santa and thought, wow, I am so glad I get to shop and don't have to wait in that line. But as I waited in line for Scruffiness to come back from what I am sure was a smoke break, I realized I loved waiting in that line for Owen. I waited all that time and I wasn't even buying a picture and it was still worth the wait to see him hug Santa(even if I was afraid of him getting so close to that scruffy man). He still wouldn't sit on his lap, but stood in front of him and told him what he wanted for Christmas, he gave him a hug and we were on our wait. After we walked away he said WAIT Mommy! Nanta..and puckered his lips. Um, lets see if we can find a different Santa to give a kiss to.



We celebrated Ben's birthday this weekend and that means we went out to dinner one time too many. Not wanting Ben to have nothing to do on his birthday, we went to Friday's on Friday. I must have seemed really mean that night. We were waiting and waiting and waiting for a table. I asked one of the girls how long it would be and she said they were still waiting for a table to open up. I sighed and the manager heard me and said she would go look for a place right then. She came back and said the table was just paying and it would be just a little longer. I said thanks and we waited and waited and waited. She finally came over and said we have your table and I will be right there to talk to you. Everyone was asking me what she said and trying to figure out what was going on. I was as well. She came up and apologized a million times for the confusion and delay and wanted to start us out with a few appetizers. She suggested the two most expensive ones and we said ok. She left and although I was never that upset, just anxious to sit down, we all said Hooray!! So we ate like pigs. Saturday we were out shopping all day so we ended up at Red Robin and we ate like pigs. Then tonight was the real birthday dinner, we went to Ben's favorite steak place called The Keg. This time we ate like large pigs.
(I have no idea what this tucked in upper lip smile is about, this seems to be the new smile)

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Snow


We are here in the snow. Not as much as Utah, but we have our fair share. The funny thing about Washington snow is that everything shuts down. Coming from the snowy state of Utah, we just sit and laugh. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the events in Marysville will go on as planned. We are headed off to an electrical parade, photos with Santa, hot chocolate, crafts and entertainment.

We took Owen to the mall yesterday and he saw Santa. He wouldn't sit on his lap, he stood in front of him, made sure I was close and shook Santa's hand and told him he wanted a choo choo. Santa gave him a little puzzle. Big elephant was kicked out of the little stroller that we have to bring for Owen to push and the puzzle took over. He pushed the puzzle all over. He keeps forgetting Santa's name and comes over to me and says "mommy, name again". I remind him and he says Nanta.

Good news about my yoga class, we end the class in 2 weeks and then our Thursday class doesn't start up again until February 2, 2008. The class was sad and asked if we could keep going straight through. I was able to add another 5 classes to our schedule next year and two drop in classes around Christmas. Someone in our class said she is so much stronger and feels so much better going up and down stairs and bending down to pick things up. Hooray for making a difference in people's lives. Angie and I are still getting used to the idea that we are yoga teachers. We are having an even more difficult time getting used to the idea that we may be good yoga teachers :).

Owen is loving the Christmas season this year. He doesn't have a clue what is coming, but the lights on the trees seem to be enough so far. He started out by telling me that Christmas was yucky but seems to be warming up to the idea. He told me that it isn't yucky anymore. He is always such a sweet baby, at the mall yesterday he found a Thomas the Train backpack. He was thrilled. He took it off the rack and packed it with an elmo backpack and we put it on his back. Looking concerned, he got another backpack, packed it with another elmo backpack and said mommy. He motioned that I should put it on. We walked around the store with our backpacks on as he said Mommy buy. O need. Luckily he was tired enough to put them back when I told him we could go home and get his orange juice for bed.

We give him a sippy cup with orange juice in it before bed - I am sure his teeth are not thanking me for that practice. He only calls it night orange juice. In fact, whenever he asks for orange juice now, he says night orange juice.

He is still following his routine of kiss, head kiss, big hug for everyone when saying goodbye. He has now added an additional element of whistling. He can't whistle so he says "woooit" in a high pitched voice. We call Greg all day at work and he says bye daddy, woooit, kisses the phone, puts the phone on his head and gives it a big hug.

Greg has him trained well... Greg has the Iowa fightsong as a ringtone on his phone. As I have been writing this I think I have heard the fight song play at least 10 times.