It all started when someone left out a few baby carrots. I’m not going to point any finger (ETHAN!!!), but what’s done is done.

It started out benignly enough.

Do you see that? DO YOU SEE IT? A rapid, blood sucking bunny rabbit. SURE, it looks all cute now, but have you seen Monty Python’s the Holy Grail? I don’t want to RISK seeing how fast that bunny can move.

It only got worse. BEHOLD!

THEY WERE MULTIPLYING! I tried to ignore them, but that proved to be the wrong choice.

Oh. My. God. Well, there was only one thing I could do. You may want to skip the rest of this. It gets a little gory.

First…. I killed them. These rapid, carnivorous bunnies had to go. I had children in the house to think of!

Notice how Friday, our cat, on the couch doesn’t even pay attention to what I’m doing. she’s too busy checking out the book she ordered from Amazon. I knew I should have torn up that credit card offer that came for her.
I FEEL NO GUILT SO DON’T EVEN TRY IT!

But what to do next? I was a little desperate. What to do?! What to do!! I grabbed the handiest thing to staunch all the bunny blood.. plastic grass. that’s right… I stuffed them.

It’s surprisingly effective. Of course, even though the blood was stanched, I still had all these bunny corpses to dispose of. Trash? No, first place anyone would look. Paper shredder? My god, man, even I’m not that cruel! I will stuff them with plastic grass, but I won’t shred their empty husks of bodies! The humanity! THE BUNNIMITY!

I did the only thing I could do. How to get rid of eight bunny corpses??

Luckily, I had just the thing.

Put cookies in them and send them to school for my son’s class. Toddlers can handle anything. They won’t even blink. Plus, due to their inherent destructive nature, those feeble bunny corpses probably won’t last the day through. I was as good as HOME FREE.

What was that? Did you hear that?

I gotta go. I think the bunny police are after me.

– amy points out that when everyone’s after you, paranoia is just good thinking.

Make your own paper bunny baskets, and many other paper toys, courtesy of The Toymaker.

Do you have an opinion on either of these? Tell me. I’m torn because while the 30D is supposed to be out any day now, the upgrades from the 20D to 30D are fairly minimal, not the “everyone run to the stores and upgrade!” sort of changes that happened when they went from 10D to 20D. So when it finally does ship, the 20D might drop some more in price making it a better deal. However, there IS the upgrades that it has, site metering, bigger LCD, and some other stuff I can’t remember atm. I’m leaning toward the 20D which seems nearly as good for cheaper, cause you KNOW we’re going to need the other swanky stuff to go with it, like some lenses and maybe the battery grip and possibly a flash. Oy to the vey. Talk about dropping some cash. the 20D after it has hopefully dropped in price some is looking better and better.

Remember how I mentioned googling photography classes recently? OH MY GOD — LOOOOOOOK at this cool photography thingee I found in my googling. Basically, you take your camera and you go take pictures in DC while a professional photographer gives you advice, pointers, how-tos and more. They have a “safari” for the cherry blossoming which, if you don’t know, is a big deal in DC this time of year, and it sounds fabulous. I wonder if I could get my hands on a new camera by April. Anyone else interested in this? Angie???? I didn’t sell you that camera at the yard sale forever ago, but maybe you have another one and maybe you’d want to learn how to use it better! Tamara? Chris? Ann? ANYONE maybe? EMAIL ME YO!

Safaris I want to go on:

• Cherry Blossoms at Sunrise (this is freaking early, but I still would love to do it)
• Great Falls Macro Intensive Workshop
• Waterfall Photography at Deep Hollow Falls
• Canon 20D Safari (ooooohh yeah! this one is already past, but i’m sure they’ll have another)

wouldn’t it be awesome to go on these ones?

• Chincoteague National Wildlife Preserve
• Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

I’m not even going to get into the ones in other countries. Sigh.

-amy dreams in digital.

LOOK! DO YOU SEE? ARE YOU AS EXCITED AS ME? If so, go calm down, jeez, it’s only seeds. THAT ARE GROWING!!! Well, I’m allowed to be excited, THEY’RE MY SEEDS THAT I PLANTED THAT ARE GROWING! You, well, YOU being that excited.. it’s a little weird. Get a grip, yo.
But let’s take a closer look. Just FYI, each little section goes like this: first 2, left to right, is salvia: red in back, purple in front. Next FOUR sections, front and back are pink impatiens. that leaves the last 2 sections, which are day lilies.

So do you see what I’m seeing? The red salvia are coming up nicely. The front however, looks like nothing is coming up. This sucks. Since we can see the red salvia coming up, and the seeds are nearly identical, I can only assume that the purple salvia seeds I collected weren’t viable. Darn. Obviously, they’ll still be there for the next few weeks, so there’s still time, but it’s not looking good.

Next, the middle sections of impatiens. When I was planting them I got all concerned that the seeds wouldn’t grow, so I was tossing a ton into each well, and .. well, they’re all coming up, baby! I hope I like these plants, cause it looks like I’ll have a ton! Why might I not like them, you wonder?

Think back to your biology days when they talked about genetics and heredity and the blue eyed mom and the brown eyed dad might still have the green eyed child. The plants that I planted in my garden last year were from a local nursery (ok, it was Lowes) and were likely hybrid, meaning, that they were the careful offspring of 2 different plants to create a carefully controlled outcome, like the pink flowers they had. Or, they weren’t hybrids, they were a carefully controlled “true” plant, that is a direct descendent and their parents had the same characteristics as far as the eye can see. Either way, they weren’t anymore! Now they were in my yard! Out of a controlled environment! Where any old pollen could come floating along on the legs of any old butterfly and WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN! they could have been pollenated by some impatiens 3 blocks away! So basically, these offspring may or may not look like the plants that I saw last year. Honestly, they were pink, and I’m not so hot on the pink, so I’ll be all up for some new mixed up color zaniness. they could all get together and be zany and I could film it for a new hit sitcom. It’ll be just my luck that they’ll all turn up.. pink.

So, back to my flat. Impatiens. CHECK.

The last two sections are day lilies. Looking these two sections over, I grew all sad and mopey and thought about how they don’t seem to be growing… Until I thought about the seeds themselves. Compared to impatiens and salvia, they are huge, first of all. They are also have a very hard, shiny shell. So… in a very non-professional gardener way, I dug one up to see if it had done anything. (I’m sure that’s highly recommended. Dig up your seeds! Don’t let them alone to grow in peace, dig ’em up and check ’em out!) And it had! It had a teeny teeny TEENY tiny shoot sticking out of it. I stuck it back in to finish sprouting. (This is a highly professional gardening act, and should not be performed without the aid of a bioagribotonist. Oh how I kill myself.) These suckers are definitely doing something, they are just taking longer.

I took a picture of the teeny shoot, but unfortunately I’m always taking these day to day pictures at the end of the day when it’s dark and the light is non existent, and well, it didn’t turn out.

So there you go. My update on the seeds.

I ordered my raspberry plants last week also, did I tell you? They are shipping this week, along with some strawberry plants too. I’m so ready for all the lovely warm spring. Definitely need to do the rototillering stuff next weekend. I’m going to have raspberry bushes planted next to my deck, with I think some impatiens next, and then day lilies. I need something that will be dead (an annual, I mean, aren’t I wonderful with the techno gardening terms? “need to be dead.” good lord.) at the end of the year next to the raspberry bushes so I can just rototill right down the row of them, otherwise they will throw out shoots and spread like the weeds that they are, so impatiens sounds nice.

So did I tell you? IT MIGHT SNOW TOMORROW. HAHA! It’s like nature is being all sarcastic to us. Silly nature. Just makes me glad I have started some seeds inside — I really should start some others, but I still am all kerflummoxed on WHAT to grow. I really do love how my impatiens looked last year, so I think I may buy some seeds of white, or maybe purple, and start those. I could easily use up another flat, maybe two, of impatiens, and if I don’t, I could probably give them away, or sell them at the spring yard sale (ooh, i wonder when that is).

On other non-gardening news, I have so much to do, and so much that I WANT to do, that it is tough to actually do anything. what I really need to do is clean out my pantry, it is positively abysmal. there is also tons of laundry to fold, dirty dishes in the kitchen to take care of, and the happy birthday banner for Jocelyn’s party is still hanging up in the entryway.

So instead of doing any of that, I sat down and browsed and researched and lusted over the Canon EOS 20D and 30D (which is *this close* to shipping), browsed around again for the zillionth time looking for a photography class and wrote all this gardening blather here instead 🙂 And now, I think I’m going to head to bed early to fight back against this scratchy sand-papery feeling in my throat.

– amy whispers in a low throaty voice, “Check out my… sprouts.”

… I have updated my “About” page.

(yay me!)

Just so this isn’t only about the about page, here’s a photo I fancy:

hung in foyer, and closeup:

My readymade magazine just arrived, and the crafty urges I’ve been telling you about have grown about 10-fold. And a few of them, I might actually just do!

This sounds really dorky, but I think I’m going to embark on a little art(y) project of a diorama in the box-out above my fireplace. I’ve been thinking alot about my lack of decorativeness and really, I think a lot of it is NOT actually me being decoratively challenged. It is because I AM FICKLE. And I know this about myself. So I think sub consciously, I don’t do much because I’m not sure I’ll like it in six months. Also, I really don’t know what sort of style is really me. I think I’m contemporary with some traditional tossed in. I know I’m not country, but I do fancy some french country sometimes. And what I REALLY know about me is I like to be a bit original. I don’t need 100% originality, but I think I’d like the whole look of a room to be all me, and not look like it could be someone elses. I’m not sure that makes sense, but I think it really means that someone else might HATE it and therefore, it will be all me and could never be someone else – LOL. Maybe (let’s hope this is the real one) it’s actually that it came out of my head and it couldn’t come out of someone else’s, and therefore it is all me. that sounds nicer 🙂
But really, I’m fickle. I know I’m likely to change my mind many many times. So, here’s my goal = EMBRACE THE FICKLENESS! Maybe just do things temporary 🙂 Thus, a diarama that will no doubt be fun to construct and do, even if it looks weird and like crap – hey, I’m fickle anyway, I can always just take the damn thing down.

Oh, and remember when I told you about my big plans for my brother’s photo of my mother’s piano? I was going to get it framed for myself at christmas. Well, it was going to cost over $500, so I scrapped that idea. I have a new one idea for it though. Pixelate it, blow it up huge, print it out and pin it up in my entry way. Or maybe the guest room. Other ideas is to make my own frame. Not sure yet.

I’m feeling so GOOD today, I hope it lasts. Tomorrow I am going to de-clutter and toss a crapload of shit. This mood however, does not mirror my mouth’s health. Specifically, my tongue. I thought about just putting the picture of this heinous canker sore that is decorating my TONGUE (seriously, on the TONGUE? how RUDE.) but it really is disgusting. I mean, it would just BE.. RIGHT THERE. You’d have no choice in your seeing it, because it’d be right there, to see, unless you’re visually impaired, and if you are, you’re in luck, because it’s gross. The rest of you, can click here if you want to see the grossness.*
I also felt domestic today. BEHOLD! these cookies were actually made with a minimal of kid-fussing over who gets to stir/pour/dip/scrape/mix/etc.

* Don’t you love how I spare you the sight of my cankerous tongue, and yet I have no problem TAKING A PICTURE and POSTING IT ON THE INTERNET in the FIRST PLACE. I truly am whack, yo.**

** (Actually, not so much whack, as, addicted to taking pictures of every itty bitty thing in my life, including my cankerous, painful, throbbing, breathing-heavy, sweaty (– oh, no wait, that’s something else. ahem.) erm, where was I? NASTY OWIE TONGUE! I did show you cookies, so hopefully that makes up for at least part of my dementia.

– amy

I recently uploaded the pictures we took on our trip to utah last fall. We drove up to yellowstone and stayed in Jackson WY. I especially loved the Grand Tetons, which are featured in the new banner above. Also have pictures of Old Faithful and a myriad of geysers and waterfalls, as well as Jackson, and the kids playing in Liberty Park in SLC.
See the whole set.

I do wonder if there are people out in the world reading this space that I don’t actually know. Do I know you? Do you know me? I have been taking our gallery of photos and slowly uploading them into our flickr account, and this morning when I opened my email I was somewhat amazed to see that someone I’d never heard of had added me as a contact on flickr. Do they read this thingee here and saw the Christmas photos and then added me? Or were they just a flickr person who randomly found my photostream and thought it was neat and added me that way? I COULD just message them and ask but then I would be a dork. (I am a dork anyway, but this way, nobody knows but you, and me. Shhhh.)

So, speaking of photos, I’ve been glancing them over as I upload them, and I gotta say, DAMN are my kids cute. I mean really. They also look a lot alike. Sometimes when I’m out somewhere with Jocelyn, someone will tell me how she looks just like me. I seriously do not see it. However, when I/we are out with both of them, they NEVER say that, they always say (if a comment is made) that they look so much like EACH OTHER.

Here is one of Ethan that looks startlingly like Jocelyn, perhaps because he’s hair is getting all long and fuzzy:

Looking at pictures of Ethan when he was littler makes me so nostalgic. He was (and still is!) such a SWEET little boy. He still gets the same look on his face from when he was a baby.

I think overalls should be mandatory for toddlers. HEAR YE, HEAR YE! ALL’ST WHOTH POSSESSETH SMALL CHILDREN, GET THEE TO TARGET TO PURCHASE OVERALLS, STAT!

I recently got a pair of overalls for Ethan, and he totally shunned them. In fact, EVERY article of clothing I have bought recently, except for 1 pair of pants, he has refused to wear. The boy is going to grow out of anything and have to run around naked because of all the clothes in stores are somehow not coming up to the high standards of the The Boy.

Speaking of naked, there was a time when I could barely keep clothes on him. Potty training pretty much consisted of letting him run around naked a lot and putting the potty chair in the living room. Also reading about Joshua, and how he has a bottom for sitting on and a hole in it for making poo-poo!

I have issues with this book. Have you ever thought that your bottom is “making” poop? Frankly, that is a little startling. Also, the book states that the “pee-pee” MAKES “wee-wee”. As I read this book to Ethan, I would always change the wording on the spur of the moment because it just doesn’t sound right. First of all, it’s a penis. Always has been, alwasy will be – no “pee-pee” in this house, thank you very much. I waffled too much on saying either “wee-wee” or just “pee”, so now in our house, it’s wee-wee. I hate wee-wee. I would much rather it be called pee. It really is a weird word, don’t you think? How in the world did urine ever get turned into “pee”? Anyway, the penis doesn’t “make” pee, that would be part of the kidney’s job. I hold no truck with these ON-THE-FLY wee-wee-making pee-pees, that’s just eerie. Aside from the actual nouns used for all the bathroom talk, the wording in the book is just a little weird. “Afterwards he kept making Wee-Wee and Poo-Poo into his diaper and I, Joshua’s mother, kept changing him.” I mean, that’s a little wordy for a toddler who really doesn’t have a lot of mastery over anything yet, let alone english. Good book, just strangely written.

There are some good points to it though. Joshua’s mother brings him a potty, and he opens it up and contemplates what it could be. “Is it a milk bowl for the kitty? — No..” I remember one day Ethan was playing, and we hadn’t even read the book that day, and he said to himself, “Is it a bowl for the kitty? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Is it for flowers? NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Is it bird-bath? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! IT’S A POTTY!!!!!!”

That by far, was his favorite part.

Jocelyn has been talking talking talking lately. Not only does she say, “Awesome!” but the other day she helped daddy empty the dishwasher. Too cute already, but as she took out a cup and hand it off to Daddy, she would say, “Ethan’s cup.” “Mommy’s cup.” “Daddy’s fork.” “Plate, daddy. Ethan’s plate.” Every article belonged to someone.

Family picture:

– amy needs a new flash

WOWEE CHRISTMAS CAME AND WENT AND BOY WAS IT FUN

I feel like I need to do catchup on all the stuff that’s been going on since I last posted. Obviously, Christmas came and went. It was really wonderful. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last Friday I got to thinking about the weekend and decided I didn’t really want to be bothered going to a WW meeting Saturday morning, so I went to one close to my work during lunch. I had a very exciting loss. The bad side of course is the last week has been all Christmasy and staying at home and generally I do rather poorly during holidays and also when I’m at home. So today and tomorrow I’m really trying to get back on track to hopefully maintain that loss, or at least not gain it ALL back. Guess we’ll see Saturday morning.

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve Day!) Ethan and I went out to do some errands and get the Christmas present for James that I had inadvertently not ordered. Ethan was happy that it was a copy of Jarhead on unabridged CD, and thus, he got to play with the Thomas trains at Barnes and Noble for a little bit.

We had a pleasant afternoon making cookies (Chocolate Crinkles) for Santa and playing with the kids. Then night fell, and after waiting an hour to make sure everyone was asleep, the Great Christmas Eve Tryst began. You know, the tryst that every parent makes with their spouse on Christmas Eve, the tryst of putting together all the things that need to be put together, wrapping the presents that still need wrapping, getting everything down under the tree, and NOT forgetting to eat or at least put away the cookies and milk for Santa (we forgot last year. Luckily no one noticed). We were pooped by midnight. James did the brunt of the putting together work however. Maybe next year we should do it earlier, LIKE I SUGGESTED WE DO several nights before. Ahem. Not that I’m bitter or anything. It’d just be nice to have a relaxing Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning I was half awake when I heard the click of Ethan’s door opening and closing as he made his way to the bathroom. After I heard the toilet flush, I propped myself up to check out our door to make sure he didn’t go down the stairs. He started to, but I called him and he came running in and did a whole running flying tackle thing onto our bed. Well, it SEEMS like he did, but he had to climb up the bed first and THEN he did the flying tackle thing over to the head of the bed, where we were. He snuggled in with us for a while while we waited for any signs of life from Jocelyn, and then we all made our way downstairs for Christmas.

It was at this point I realized that we only had like 10 minutes on the tape in our camcorder, as I taped the kids coming into the living room and seeing the little tikes play kitchen that was all set up.

James looked everywhere for more tapes but none were to be had, so I stopped rolling tape and we switched to the camera instead. While I’m disappointed, because when I’m old and they’re all grown I know I’m going to want to see this and FEEL the excitement of the 3 and 1 year olds on Christmas morning. Photos are always nice, but video is better for really feeling it. BUT on the other side, it’s hard to enjoy Christmas when you have to pay attention to the camera. I think maybe setting it up in a corner on a tripod might be the way to go next year. Of course, that’s only if we actually HAVE A TAPE TO TAPE IT ON. Later on we discovered we did not have any AAA or C batteries in the house. I scrounged some out of other older, and thus not important toys to put in the new toys. However, given the amount of toys that were opened, the ratio to those needing batteries and those which came with batteries already installed was actually pretty good.

It was a nice Christmas morning. Not really marred by the fact that the cinnamon rolls I made didn’t turn out at all. I made them the night before, put them in the dish, and then covered with saran wrap and stuck them in the fridge to bake the next morning. They just didn’t seem to want to get “done”, each time I pulled them out they were still doughy. Next year I’m not killing myself making cinnamon rolls from scratch, we’ll just buy the damn things and heat them up for Christmas morning. In my family, we always had homemade bran date muffins, which sounds nasty, but actually was super yummy. But not as yummy as cinnamon rolls, so I cast my own family traditions to the wayside to go with James’ family traditions. Cough. Hey, yumminess wins, what can I say.

POST-CHRISTMAS EVENTS

Monday was a day off of work for both of us, but Tuesday and Wednesday James went back to work while I stayed home, and now today (Thursday) and tomorrow, I work while James stays home. Jocelyn’s day care provider is on vacation this week, thus the staying at home. And while Ethan’s school is open, if Jocelyn is home might as well have Ethan home also. It has been really nice staying home with them. I don’t know if this JUST happened, like it FEELS like it happened, or it’s been gradual and I just haven’t noticed, but Jocelyn is just becoming such a sweet little PERSON. (This is where I probably will launch into Cute Kid Stories, just so you are warned.) She understands so much of what we’re saying, and while she doesn’t string more than 2 words together yet, she is starting to really get this communication thing down and is so pleased with herself for doing so as well.

I remember when Ethan was her age and was just starting to talk a lot, his stock phrase was, “Maybe later.” – And WHAT A BLESSING that it was, because you do not know HELL until you have to take away a toy or try to explain why you can’t go to the bookstore and play with the train table there and then put up with the fit that ensues. With Ethan, he just seemed to latch onto that concept, that sure, I may not be able to do it now, but there is always later, and he was always saying, “Maybe later!” to my, “Not right now,” and oh what a boon that was.

Well, Jocelyn’s stock phrase is definitely, “That’s better.” She says it all the time, whenever anything happens that pleases her. She is on the floor, “Up peas! Up peas!” and I pick her up, and she looks around and states, “Dat’s better.” I am really drilling the manners thing into her. It was only recently that she started to actually say, “Please” instead of just throwing a fit when she wanted something, and I try to NOT give her whatever it is she wants, until she communicates that she wants it. This makes for some unpleasant times if she doesn’t want to say it, but would rather throw herself on the floor with the Jocelyn Volume turned all the way up to “Burst Eardrums,” but generally, it seems to be working out well.

CUTE KID STORIES OTHERWISE KNOWN AS MIGHT AS WELL GET THIS UNDER THE PROPER HEADING ALREADY

Here is a list of cuteness I have observed or participated in recently:

• Jocelyn has an intolerance to dairy. She gets all snotty and sickly if she has milk proteins. Ethan was the same way, but outgrew it by the time he was 18 months old. Jocelyn still hasn’t outgrown it, and as such, has soy milk instead of cow milk. So, it’s fairly important that she not drink out of Ethan’s sippy cup. We let Ethan have soy milk whenever he wants. Anyway, so in the sippy cup department, we have purple and pink cups and lids, as well as green, blue, yellow, and one ghastly orange cup. So being a girl, of course we give Jocelyn some purple and/or pink in her cup and/or lid so we’ll be able to know which one is hers. I have never been all that much of a pink sort of person, and I’m always grumpy when I get her cup ready for the day. I mean really, she should have blue if she wants! Or yellow! Who are these nazis who decide what colors are girly and which are not??! Ahem. Anyway. So the other day, I got her a purple cup and purposefully put a blue lid on it. It’s got purple in it, right? Right! Good enough, dammit!So, the morning goes on, and I catch Jocelyn picking up her (full!) cup, and walking over to Ethan. “Here, Ethan.” I try to correct her, and tell her that it’s HER cup, but she will have nothing of it, and keeps “giving” Ethan the cup. She apparently totally knows which colors are hers and which ARE NOT, and she will not bring cup to lips that do not have pink or purple lids, by george!
• Still on the sippy cups, but different story. Jocelyn loves to pick things up and bring them to you. Even if you didn’t want them. It’s something to do with this age. Also interesting, it’s the same age that she would rather pick something up herself rather than take it from your hand. Case in point, I had a bread stick and broke some of it off and offered it to her, to an immediate protest of, “NOOOOOOOO!” – but when I laid it on her plate in front of her, she picked it right up and crammed the entire thing in her mouth. Ain’t development kooky?

  Anyway. What was I talking about? Oh yeah! So Jocelyn picks up Ethan’s cup and brings it over to him. Ethan is otherwise engaged and didn’t particularly care if his cup was brought to him or not, and barely notices. Jocelyn puts the cup on the couch in front of him and turns to face him. “Dankooo” (jocelyn-speak for “thank you”) she says to him. “Dankoo!” She repeats. “DANKOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” She says again, until I realize that she is WAITING for him to say thank you! She is DEMANDING IT! “DANKOOOOOO!!!!” she hollers at him again, and I have to give Ethan a gentle, “Tell her thank you for crying out loud!” which he does and then she grins and trots merrily off. It was pretty funny.

• Especially when Jocelyn was a baby and couldn’t do any talking for herself, I’ve often referred to her to Ethan, as “our girl”. She would roll over, and I’d say to Ethan, “What is our girl DOING!” to get him engaged in the situation. It has dropped off more and more as she’s grown older and I’ve just used her name instead. The other day, Ethan had come downstairs after waking up from nap time and was playing with his train. Sounds of “HI! HI!” started to emanate from the baby monitor connected to her room. Ethan said to me without looking up from the train, “It sounds like our girl is awake, Mommy!”
• I bought a new plastic bin with a lid to keep Ethan’s GeoTrax train stuff in. I bought an extra one cause I thought it was especially nifty and knew we could use another one for something somewhere. So I brought them in from the car when I bought them and they were hanging out in the family room for most of the day yesterday. The bin height is exactly at crotch level for Jocelyn, which means she can climb into it fairly easily. Ethan was climbing in and out of one of them immediately, so Jocelyn decided to give it a try as well. She climbed in and out of that bin for EASILY a half hour, totally involved in the process of swinging her leg over and bracing herself and then getting her other leg in and sitting down. Then standing up and doing it all over again.

  Even more amusing is even AFTER she’s done it 20 or so times, she started to get all anxious at that point when she has placed one leg over, and her foot hasn’t quite touched the bottom of the bin and she starts to feel all, “oh no i MIGHT lose my balance and why was i doing this in the first place????!” and starts to “Uh! Uh! Uh!” about the situation until there we go, her foot hits the bottom of the bin and her hands are firmly placed on the bin’s sides and then she’s in (“Dat’s better.”) and she lowers her little bottom down and kind of slides until she’s almost laying down inside the bin. Then she looks over at me and says, “HI! Mommy! HI! LOOK! FEETSIES! HI!” and then temporarily freaks out as she tries to get upright again even though she has already done it successfully the last 30 zillion times without any help, manages to get up, and then does it all again another fifty zillion times.

• Ethan doesn’t quite know the meaning of some words, despite parental issued corrections. He will interchange other words for the actual word he means. In his head, it means what the other word means.
  • “Last night” is code for anything that happened in the past.In addition to this, I think he thought that nap time was actually nighttime, and after nap time it was a new day. He loves to get dressed, and he usually comes down from nap time in a new set of clothes, even when I tell him he doesn’t need to change clothes. So sometimes he’ll make a reference to “Last night” when he actually means “this morning”. It’s actually a little scary, because he thought that he was actually staying overnight at his school, with the whole nap time = nighttime = new day thing. This is how I actually realized his misconception. It’s tough, because everything in the past is already “last night”, but he referred to something as “yesterday” and when I tried to correct him, he was really adamant and to explain, told me that it was before nap time, therefore, yesterday. We’re working on correcting this issue.
  • “Anything” actually means “nothing” or sometimes, “something”. Same thing for “anywhere” and “nowhere”.

    James: “Whatcha looking for Ethan?”
    Ethan, all trying to be sneaky and hide his true objective: “Anything.”

    Amy: “Where did your hot dogs go?”
    Ethan: “Anywhere! – Just kidding mommy, they’re in my tummy!”

• That last example reminded me of something Ethan did once. It was a while ago (like, probably over 6 months ago) but I believe it went something like this:

  Mommy: Where did your dinner go?
  Ethan: It went in my mouth, and down my throat, and into my tummy!
  Mommy: It sure did!
  Ethan: And then it went down my legs! Into my toes!
  Mommy: It did not!
  Ethan: It did too! And then it went to my bottom and I poop it out!
  Mommy: Well at least that part is right.

  I belive at this point, Daddy pointed out that if you get technical it DOES go to his legs and his toes and everywhere.

• Last night it was my turn to put Jocelyn to bed, and they had had baths just before. I had Jocelyn in her room, and James was still getting Ethan out of the tub and bundled into a towel. We heard him pull the plug in the tub, and could hear the gurgling water going down the drain noises. Jocelyn heard it, and stopped what she was doing to sing, “BYE BYE POOP!! BYE BYE WEE!”

On Tuesday, I took down the tree. FIrst of all, it was not a good tree to begin with. It was CROOKED.

I never did post about the day that it FELL OVER due to it’s crookedness and *cough* our inability to get it into the stand straight. So one morning it totally just fell over. Also, I let it go dry for too long and once that stump gets all dried out no amount of watering is going to get moisture to those needles and if they’re dry they fall off and that’s that. So I was looking at our sad tree, no presents underneath anymore to direct one’s attention there, and no presents to cover up the MASSES of needles that had fallen off. So with some “help” from the kids, we stripped it of ornaments and lights, and I hauled it into the garage to await trash day. It took my three separate vacuumings to get all the needles up, because about 3 bucketfuls had dropped in the de-decorating of the tree. Plus tons of itty bitty branchlets that were too big to just vacuum up and therefore had to be picked up by hand. The kids actually were a very good help at picking those up and putting them in the trash. Ethan used his new garbage truck to “collect” them and then “dump” them into the trash.

So our tree is down, which makes more room for GeoTrax Train Setups Extraordinaire! I took some action shots.

The timeless “My Little Pony On The Tracks” dilemma.

I think I’ve inflicted enough word-pain on anyone reading this today, so I will stop. It was a nice holiday. This weekend, I may send out year-end cards. If I remember.

– amy brings her face close to yours and gives you a great big “MMMMMMMMMWAH!!!!”

And this isn’t even their cutest.