Happy New Year!

I can't believe I didn't make a holiday post yet, but with the festivities over, I think it's high time I post a recap of the boys' holiday happiness this year.

Logan was in his first Christmas play this year. He dressed in a little sheep costume, walked up the aisle, sat with the other sheep (including his "girlfriend" Emmy, an 8-year-old cougar, apparently), and waited for the play to be over. He was adorable, even if he didn't know "Away in a Manger," which the older kids sang at the end of the play. He can, however, sing "Jingle Bells" with gusto (except for the "one horse open sleigh" line-he kind of mumbles through that one.)

Auden was really into the demo (that's demolition, not demonstration) portion of Christmas this year, much to Logan's dismay, since he unwrapped many of Auden's gifts last year. No, Auden made up for last year's disinterest. He unwrapped gifts with a vengeance, and his favorite toys were these Russian-doll style nesting dinosaur figures and stacking cubes. Of course, he enjoyed the demo part of the stacking toys, too. Oh, and he loves this inflatable blue donkey (?) horse (?) bounce toy. It's strangely fitting for the holiday season, since that was Mary's ride and all.

We celebrated Christmas a couple of times with Eric's family and spent a few days with my family, rounded out Eric's vacation with a little stay-cay in Chicago, so we enjoyed a fun, yet restful winter break with family and friends we love. Who could ask for anything more? Oh, and speaking of restful, the boys slept in most days until 7:00, even close to 8:00 on some mornings. I've been trying to set my alarm earlier and earlier this week to try to get back in the swing of things, but the siren song of blessed silence always tempts me to sleep in. Next week is going to be brutal as we start our early wake-ups again.

This week I've been enjoying my time off with the boys while Eric has been going back to work. We've been playing with the new toys...and the old ones. Logan and Auden are starting ever so slowly to play together better. Auden yells "Go!" as the Hot Wheels shoot down the race track Logan got for Christmas. Logan shouts "Lane 5 won!" even though we have no idea which car was in lane 5. They're having little dance parties together with this little music-maker wand toy Auden got for Christmas.

Tomorrow, Logan and I are visiting a preschool I'd like him to go to next year. Hard to believe we're embarking on the school expedition already. Here's hoping we can make this work next year!

Loganism

As we pass the local cemetary on the way for a Holiday visit Logan says: "look, an airport!"

Logan says

Logan got out of the bath last night, and his fingers were all pruney. "Look at my hands, mom!" he says. "I'm as wrinkley as an old granny!" Seriously, where does he get this stuff?

Inconsolable!

Can someone tell me why Logan is crying inconsolably? He's a crazy psycho three year old that is starting to scare me.

Ok...now I know why. He woke up and had to go pee. Instead of verbalizing that, he cried hysterically and peed his pants. He woke up his brother, is still crying hysterically, and all hell has broken lose. I CAN"T STAND IT!

Wow. Logan had worked himself up into such a tizzy it was frightening. He couldn't breathe, was all snotty, and crying/begging/pleading for Mama. Mama had tried to calm him and it wasn't working, so I gave it a shot. I can take a lot, and try not to take it personally, but Daddy is not good enough in times like these. He did not want me, but I managed to get him to calm himself enough to breathe...then I let Mama do the quiet soothing. Makes me sad.

Toddler fun

Two small potatoes + two empty Oberweis bottles = several minutes of toddler fun. Just was watching Auden gingerly placing one potato on top of the bottle, then the other. After topping the bottles with potatoes, he knocked them off and started over again.

Better

Well, things have improved around here. Logan woke up Thursday morning and was feeling much better, though his appetite still doesn't seem totally up to snuff. Auden still has residuals of his sick belly flu, and I (Carly) seem to have a sinus infection or something, but we're generally on the mend. I think Eric, Auden, and I have a date with the doc in the coming week, since I can't seem to shake this annoying cough and Eric's health screening test came back with a low white blood cell count. It's probably a fluke, but with his family history, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Today, it's the series of Saturday rituals: doing laundry, buying groceries, cleaning up the disastrous house. We're planning on purchasing a real Christmas tree today as well. Since Eric and I have been married, we've been putting up an artificial one his parents kindly gave us. It was nice not to have to shell out the big bucks on one ourselves, but since his parents had used it for many years, it's looking a little on the shabby side. We always call it the Charlie Brown tree--the metal "trunk" and "limbs" are starting to show, and it leans to one side, but after some strategic twisting of leftover greenery and placing of ornaments, it actually looks quite nice. Well, this year, I thought we'd start a new tradition. Eric's family went to a tree farm and cut their own tree for many years. Never having done this with my own family, I thought it sounded fun, festive. And when our neighbors asked us if we wanted to join them on their tree-cutting expedition, I told her we'd gladly come along...

So, there we stood, freezing in a tree farm field. Eric wasn't convinced we'd buy one--he said he'd wait and see if a tree "spoke" to him. We were hoping a pine would "speak" to him, since the tree farm owners (tricky fellows) planted pines and firs rather randomly throughout their fields, and the firs were twice as much as the pines. Of course, we had neglected to take one of the brochures that explained how to tell the difference between a pine and fir. Before standing in a field with a bunch of them together, I would have sworn I could have told the difference. Anyway, the neighbors picked out their tree and cut it down. Luckily, they got the right one, and after standing out in the cold for what felt like a very long time, we came home treeless. But, we got free cider donuts out of the deal, and it was nice hanging out with our neighbors and their kids.

So, today we'll get our tree from the Shriner's tree lot, just like I did with my family when I was young...that is, if a tree "speaks" to Eric, I suppose.