Thursday, December 29, 2011

Closing the year..

I'd like to tell you I will post again this year, but honestly - I'm not sure.

We've loved my vacation. What's not to love about spending days preceeding Christmas in our favorite hotel of all times when we visit Disney! J loved Mickey's Christmas party & the added bonus of both grandparents joining us in Orlando to share in this trip for him... Such a wonderful treat!

With this trip came J making his first real wish. We were waiting for the Small World ride & Matt gave J a penny to toss in the water. He thought it was great & wanted to do it again, so I explained the ideas of wishing wells. Well this little guy surprised me! He held onto that penny & thought for the longest time. As we were finally getting to the start of the line he pulled on my shirt & had the best smile. "Mommy I made my wish!". Of course, I had to know what it was...

All I will say, as Mr. M said, a wish is to be private, it was thoughtful & earnest & totally heart breaking. I can honestly say my first thought when he concluded by saying "Love Jacob" was your wish is my prayer.

Right after returning Christmas was upon us, followed by post vacation catchup... 8 loads of laundry Monday. Tuesday we spent doing Holiday pictures postponed due to his nose/pink eye/sinus infection nonsense. Today was spent enjoying friendships & with plans to repeat more of that tomorrow...

So, yes I will wish a Happy New Year now & go back to my savoring of these next few days.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

a boy & a box

and the magic an imagination can bring
 J has had more fun with this box
than any toy we've bought him
and I love it for him

Friday, December 16, 2011

It's Advent Time!

J & I have had so much fun this year celebrating Advent!  We've found a church we ADORE!  And so many fun Christian books, celebrating Jesus' birth in addition to Santa & J's favorite Elf "Chiminey". 

I'm spelling Chimney the way J is saying, because I think it is so sweet.

First up... The wonderful Advent Calendar my boss gave J this year.  She is so generous in sharing in J's celebrations, that when she gave this to me early this year, I was so touched.  It came with a wonderful selection of ideas on things to do with it...

Unfortunately, most of those have gone the wayside this year, but next year, I can plan for them & I'm so looking forward to it!

This year, I filled each cubby with an array of treats... From the Mott's Fruit Snacks to ornaments for our tree to Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips... I even caved and stuck in a few PEZ delights, much to J's complete & utter joy.
Miss Kathy also gave J a simple chocolate filled Disney version... So we start each night with a piece of chocolate, in celebration of our upcoming Disney visit.  Then we move to the big Advent house that is positioned just in front of our tree, so J can sit & stare at it for hours, in hopes that the day will pass more quickly until he can uncover his next treasure...

Then, while J is enjoying his treats, we sit and read from a Gospel to follow the Advent message.  We spend time discussing what the Gospel is saying, and how it relates to our real life. 
I've loved sharing the verses that always had such an impact on me... Some nights, I think J is absorbing it... The message on how widow gave so little, but so much in comparison to what she has, I was able to relate it well for J... The verse John 3:16, yeah, that night - I think I lost him to "what can we do next mommy?"

Sigh... At least I can say we are trying...

Thursday, December 15, 2011

1st things first... The broken nose...

The start to my recent chaos...

On December 1st, my plan for Advent came to me... We would read Bible verses that go with Advent together each night as we did the Advent calendar. 

So I raced out of work to hit the local Christian book store to get J a children's Bible.  I was so excited, that when I received a text from Miss Cheryl with the below picture, I didn't flinch.

J falls.  He cries.  It happens.  He is a boy.

And let's face it, I've been warning him for a week (or possibly more) that he needed to sit still in his big boy chair or he was going to get hurt.
He proved me right...  He was bouncing around like a child with 'ants in his pants' and fell right out of his child, we believe he caught his nose on the way down on the actual table.  Needless to say, many tears were had..

But he was not in so much pain that Miss Cheryl couldn't pull him out by saying "now if Mommy was here what would she tell you?"

J, sniffle, "That I have to be careful & pay attention"

By the time I got home, he was all bathed & smiles, ready to start his Advent calendar activities...

His nose, however, had started swelling already... 
By morning, it was obviously broken.  Even his teacher, Mrs. Bach, said when I picked him up to take him to the Dr that it was obviously broken...

So yes, it is official... First broken bone, truly mostly just soft cartilage, is this boy's nose.
That smile?  Yeah, that would be his happiness after learning Mommy wasn't going back to work.  Love him!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

How does one take down a blog???

Fairly simply...

One's 3 year old breaks his nose.

Then, said child, develops pink eye & a sinus infection on the day close starts.

Then Mommy promptly falls victim to the sinus virus plague going around, bringing Daddy down with her...

And that would be my past two weeks.

If you add in a monthly close, forecast & finalization of the budget into the mix...

Counting the days till vacation for two weeks.

Counting. Counting. Counting.

As I said to J this morning... We are down to 2 ups.

But those will be with Daddy traveling to Vegas for the Honda CRV launch, so two days of just us.  Three days, two nights.  Then I will not walk through the doors of work until the New Year, and J will not go to school.

We are both so excited.

But first...

Plague - please leave...

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Where is our Elf?

Currently we are playing - Where or where is Mr. Elf?
When he first arrived, he was in our tree, then he moved to our mantle to eat a candy cane (much to J's dismay), then he was into our cabinet to raid J's jelly beans (this may or may not have brought tears), then he got daring & hung out at J's level for a day, but by the next he was safely hanging from our dining light fixture...

It's so funny, when Mr. Elf is down low, J is very careful to tell me not to get to close because we can NEVER touch him.  He'll lose his magic & he won't be able to fly back to Santa & that will be soooo sad.

And the reason I'm calling him Mr. Elf is we are currently wavering on his name.  I'm thinking we may end up calling him Chiminey Pepper.

J really likes both names, but isn't sure - so I figured if we combine them, he'll be overly delighted.

Friday, December 2, 2011

It's cold, but we are ready...

Snow flurries were flying Monday.  Yesterday it was 40's, but by Sunday we are supposed to be in the 30's with slush.

But J is ready!  He is so proud of his yellow coat he picked out personally.  He loves his matching hat & gloves, however, Mommy is cruelly acknowledging they will get lost if he takes them to school - so I'm saving all this cuteness for the weekends, favoring his cheap mittens & hat for everyday at school.  J is thankfully cool with it, since he loves him some Peanuts gang...   His school plays outside for recess as long as it is over 20 degrees.

He is so anxious to start wearing his boots to school, so he is ready for the snow.  Which, I have to be honest, makes me ready for it as well. 

Please ignore the empty pool behind J.  We have finally figured out what caused the leak, the seam cracked.  After a failed patch session, I learned seams cannot be patched.  :(  We knew we had to get a new liner, but at this point in the year, getting a new one only means, we will repeat the process in May when it warms up, as they cannot properly stretch the liner in our current temperatures. 

My Dad has given us a great idea as a quick fix for this winter, and we will be trying it, with the pool stores blessing, but we also know - if it fails, we will most likely be paying for two liners & installs.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Future Rockstar!

If you are my FB friend, you have seen the adorable video I took of J & our neighbor Skye rocking out the iCarly theme song. 

J has never seen the show, but Matt had the song on his iPod & J LOVES it.  He always asks for the "I know you see" song.  It took me the longest to figure out what the heck he meant.  It was only through chance I heard it on my iPhone this summer & it dawned on me this was what J meant.  He promptly confirmed, I was correct.
But rocking out on his own, is just fine by J as well.  Especially when he has an audience beyond the boy in the mirror of his closet doors.  This was taken with Skye looking at J in awe of what he was doing... It is so hard to be a whole year and half younger when the eldest is only 3.5 years old.