You Should See the Other Guy!

Michael had sinus surgery the day after Christmas. When I went to pick him up, I expected him to have some nose bandages. I was shocked to find his whole head bandaged. I didn't realize it was simply an ice pack and washcloth over his eyes. I thought maybe there were complications and I'd be nursing a blind man. (There were complications which resulted in some loss of vision for two days, but his vision cleared up by Saturday.) Anyway, he was pretty miserable for awhile, but he's feeling better. Now he just looks like a washed-up prizefighter with a bad cold...



P.S. I wasn't initially intending t0 post these pictures, but he said he didn't mind.

Megan's Christmas Eve Journey

Even though I should be getting ready for bed, I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this one. Yesterday, Michael propped Megan up on this little chair. It fell over, so my brother, David, turned it around for her. She began to push it away a little, and then take very wobbly steps toward it. Notice her progression in the pictures how she moves from right to left past the background. Very exciting! She got a V-Tech walker today as one of her Christmas gifts. It's a little fast still, but I think she'll be cruising around with it pretty soon!

Her hair looks terrible, I know.

I never think about fixing it before I start snapping away...

Merry Christmas!

Even though the day is almost over, I wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

I would add more to this post, but I'm so tired that when Michael just asked me a question and I responded to him, a few moments later, he called me by one of my nicknames to see if I had been listening. I realized that I had answered him in my head, not out loud. I need to go to bed!

Mom! I Have A Boogery Nose!

That is the refrain I've been privileged to respond to a million times a day since Sunday, when Thomas caught the bug Mason introduced to our family at the beginning of December in full force. Yesterday, we had nose blowing lessons so that hopefully I could get a little more leeway in between when Thomas needed his nose wiped. I must be too much of a coddler. I keep telling him he can wipe his own nose, and I try to get him to do it. Yet it seems like such an emergency to him (Mom!!! My nose is running!!!), and somehow I am more effective at it than he is, so I just do it for him and get the agony over with.

Christmas Tree Woes

Last year, we bought a live Christmas tree at the beginning of December. Michael trimmed the bottom off, and we brought it inside and tried to put it in our pretty tree stand. However, the bottom branches were too low on the trunk, so Michael had to haul it back outside, trim off the bottom branches, and bring it back inside to put it in the tree stand. It was a huge mess and hassle. We didn't know the rule about maintaining a gallon of water in the tree stand on a daily basis, so we accidentally starved our tree for the first couple of weeks by only watering it occasionally, as we would a plant. Long story short, the tree barely made it to Christmas, and really, it should have been thrown out before.

This year, we tried again. We bought a live tree. Michael trimmed off the trunk plus the lower branches before he brought it in to put it in the tree stand. However, this year, we bought a different type of Christmas tree, where the branches go up more than out, so it wound up looking scraggly at the bottom on one side for lack of branches. Also, once the tree was trimmed and stood up in the tree stand, we could see how knarly the trunk is. The tree leans forward and refuses to stand upright. Michael thinks it looks like a bush shaped to resemble a Christmas tree.

We tried to take good care of it. We made sure to water it, and I've been checking the water level almost every day. I realized yesterday that we've hardly had to water it at all because the water is always at the high point. So, today after I checked the water level, I looked at the needles. Sure enough, they are turning brown at the tips. When we first bought the tree, it was nice and soft. Now it feels brittle. Not only do we have to deal with the death of our tree, but our 2 year old keeps stripping the poor thing of its ornaments! I gave up redecorating it after the second day. Now I'm just waiting until the night before company comes to put the ornaments back on. Our fake garlands wrapped around the staircase look better than our "live" tree. I give up. I think we'll go ahead and get that 7.5' tree from Costco and trim down the top so it fits in our room with the angel on top.

Lousy Timing For Great Moments

My camera broke last Friday in the middle of McKenzie's school activity making candy houses. At the same time, Megan has grown in three top teeth and mastered sitting up on her own. Yesterday she pulled herself to standing, and today she even crawled on her knees!!! (Instead of her usual army crawl. I'm dying without my camera!!!

Mason's 2nd Birthday pics

Mason's birthday was Friday. It turned out to not be the best day to celebrate his birth, since Thomas was contrary from the moment he got out of bed until the moment he finally fell asleep that night. Plus, Mason got sick and wound up with a fever after dinner... and Michael didn't get home from work until after 10pm b/c he was on call. Fortunately, we celebrated M's bday on Thursday, which was Michael's day off. It was relatively low key.

We took him to McDonald's for dinner (figuring that is probably his favorite food at this age). He had a blast playing in the play area. When we came home, we had cake balloons (possibly his favorite birthday gift)and he got a bb hoop and some GeoTrax for his birthday. (Thomas and McKenzie have since taken over his GeoTrax, but Mason doesn't seem to mind since there are three trains now, so at least he still has one to play with.)

Tough Love v. Spanking

I almost forwarded this to a bunch of people in my email, but then I decided to just post it on my blog, and those who cared enough to check this could get a laugh! ;-)


~ Tough Love vs. Spanking ~
(a psychological conundrum)

It seems that these days most Americans think it is improper to spank children, so over
the years I tried other methods to control my kids when they had one of 'those moments.'

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

They usually calm down and stop misbehaving
after our car ride together.

This worked so well for my children that I now use the method on my grandchildren.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions
with my grandson, in case you would like to use the technique.

Sincerely,
A Friend