Merry Christmas

Lovey

This is David’s friend, Woof. Woof was a gift from David’s godparents before he was born. They gave us this plush dog at our baby shower because their nephew had the same toy and it was his lovey.

Of all the toys, blankets, and stuffed animals that David owns, its adorable that he chose Woof to be his best friend. We never encouraged him to choose a lovey, so it was clearly fate that David and Woof found each other.

David takes Woof everywhere. They sleep together, eat together, play together, go to school together, go to church together, and ride in the car together. The only place Woof doesn’t go is into the bathtub, and that’s only because Mommy won’t let him. David even shares his food and toys with Woof, which is amazing, because David hates to share.

Since David loves Woof so much, Woof gets dirty quickly. Woof also gets sticky when David shares his french toast at breakfast. Evidentally, Woof likes pancake syrup just as much as David does.

Sometimes Woof needs to take a bath. Woof took a bath last Saturday. Mommy put him in the washer machine right after breakfast. We were having so much fun that she forgot to move him to the dryer right away. Daddy panicked at naptime when they couldn’t find Woof, but luckily, Woof was safe and dry. Close call!

Mommy and Daddy have often heard that wise parents keep a spare lovey in case of an emergency. They thought this was a good idea, so they asked David’s godmother where she bought it. She ordered it online because it was sold by Ty (the lovely folks that brought the world Beanie Babies) and it had been retired.

Mommy looked on Amazon and found him!

Only $99!

Mommy looked again and realized that the expensive Woof was the wrong color. The Woof in the correct color is also sold on Amazon.

Only $29!

Mommy is cheap, so Mommy looked on Ebay.

$19.99 and free shipping!

Hurray!!

Now, does anyone have any suggestions for making the new Woof smell and look like the old Woof???

The Joy of Parenthood

Now I have four people reading my blog. Oh, the sweet joys of success!

My most recent bloggy victim is a newlywed anxiously awaiting the arrival of his first child. Although most of my comments on his blog encourage him to savor ever moment of his freedom before its gone, there are so many joys of parenthood that I never truly appreciated until I experienced them for myself.

In an effort to embrace an attitude of gratitude this holiday season, I’m posting this:

Baby Addict’s Top Five Reasons that Being a Parent Rocks

1. You get to experience your soul mate in an entirely new way. You know the best friend and lover in them, but you don’t know the parent in them until your first child is born. Watching your mate protect and care for a tiny, needy human being that is a part of yourself will inspire a new depth of love. (Although sleep deprivation makes it difficult to share your adoration adequately)

2. You get to be the hero. For the first couple of years, you will be the person your child runs to as soon as you walk in the door. You will be the one your child wants to sleep with when they are sick. You will be the one that cuddles your child when they are afraid of the dark, or the lightning, or the big, scary world of sleep. You are everything.

3. You get all the love. Babies are full of love and all the cuddling, hugging, smooching, and baby wearing gives you all the human contact you could ever crave (and sometimes more).

4. You get all the credit. There has never been another baby in the history of time as cute and smart as yours. The great news is that it is entirely due to your fabulous genes and talented parenting skills.

5. You get to see the world in a new way. The most mundane things are new and beautiful when your baby sees them for the first time. Rather than whine about the snow covering your car, you will be thrilled to share the moment when your baby licks his first snowball.

There are so many more reasons I could add to the list, but this post would be entirely too long. Although its more entertaining to whine about the challenges we face, parenthood is definitely a blessing.

I’d love to hear what you would add to this list!

I'm IT

Remember recess in elementary school? Did you ever find yourself leaning on the fence chatting idly with a bestest best friend and suddenly someone runs up and tags you for a game you’re not even playing? Remember how you felt when you tried to explain that you were an innocent bystander and you really weren’t IT but everyone was so busy having fun that no one heard you and your only choice was to play along and get it over with? Remember that?

That’s exactly what happened to me today. I’m at work, minding my own business, trying to look busy when I’m really not, when Eric tagged me for this meme.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t mind a meme and certainly not on a day when I’m trying to kill some time at work anyway. My only complaint about this meme is that it requires me to take a photo of myself RIGHT NOW and post it online.

How cruel is that, folks?

So, here’s my glamorous photo.



In the interest of sharing the joy of the season, I’m tagging these folks as well.

Heather at Not A DIY Life

Lynette at Day In The Life Of Ordinary

Brandy at Peanut Butter and Jelly

In All Seriousness

I'm wondering who this kid is in David's school portrait?

He had his photo taken at daycare and this is what the photographer captured:




I tried to take his photo at home, and this is what he gave me:

How much do I have to pay to get a smile out of this kid???

Empty

I feel negligent in ignoring my blog for so long, but I honestly can’t think of anything uplifting to share. This blog is a place where I share the many joys of my daily life. I haven’t been here for awhile because that joy is missing and I can’t describe the feeling that is filling the void it left.

Rest assured that David is happy and healthy and as joyful as ever. Mommy is just missing that peaceful feeling that comes from knowing that you belong in the world and there are other people in it that would miss you if you were gone.

When I feel that peace again, I’ll be back to share it with you.

Seeing the Future

My guys are sick this week and I feel so much sympathy as I watch them struggle to breathe and fight to sleep. Daddy and David both have bronchitis and have been taking antibiotics since Saturday.

I’m hoping their infections are bacterial and not viral, so this will be done and over with quickly. Their doctors warn that their infections could evolve into pneumonia, which Daddy had last year (although he didn’t tell me his diagnosis until months later. He only consented to a doctor visit after I nagged him for three weeks to go. Please note, normal flu does not last for three weeks)

The only thing worse than watching your family battle illness is knowing that you are the only healthy person left in the house to be attacked by their germs. I try to get more rest and eat well, but that’s hard to do when a screaming toddler finds his way into your bed at all hours of the night.

Its like facing the electric chair. Only 17 days until Christmas and these germs are stalking me!

Excuse me while I reach for what David likes to call, “Magic Soap.”

How I Know I'm Old

We recently celebrated the Queen of Sheba’s 18th birthday.

I think I’m still in denial. She can’t possibly be old enough to vote and buy lottery tickets already!

Our family tradition is to celebrate with a dinner at the birthday girl’s favorite restaurant, but I felt that this birthday was too special to be celebrated as just another common day. I recommended that Daddy take the Queen of Sheba on a Daddy & Daughter Date, and that’s exactly what they did.

They enjoyed dinner at Melting Pot, a fancy fondue restaurant that I’ve been lusting after for quite some time. They later confirmed that I would love this place because the only food yummier than chocolate is cheese, and this place melts them both. Yummy! After dinner, they headed downtown for the annual Holiday Lighting Festival.

While they were out having fun, we were home having fun, too. Skywalker and Mommy took Little King David to Chick-Fil-A for chicken nuggets and a romp in the indoor playground. The restaurant wasn’t very busy for a Saturday night, so we joined David in the tunnels and the slide. It was great fun!

At the end of the evening, we all gathered in our kitchen and sang happy birthday. Skywalker even put aside the sibling rivalry momentarily and played the Happy Birthday song on her guitar. Queen loved her cake, which we decorated in the Chinese characters for Happy Birthday.

There’s nothing like a child’s milestone birthday to make a woman feel ancient!

My Favorite Creatures

I realize that its been awhile since you heard from Mommy, but she’s been really busy with school lately. She just finished an Advanced Placement Exam today that will give her credit on her transcript for a Computer Information Systems course that she needs to graduate. Since she passed the test, she doesn’t have to take the class and that will help her to graduate an entire semester earlier. That means more time to spend with me!

While Mommy is busy, I want to tell you some more about our trip to Cancun. I learned so many new things there and I want to share them with you!

I saw some really cool animals at our resort. As we walked around, I saw iguanas laying out in the sun. I tried my best to pet one of them, but they were always faster than me.

At night, we saw geckos everywhere! My Dad caught a baby gecko and let me pet him with my Nice Hands. We let the baby gecko go home because he wanted to see his Mommy and Daddy. I loved that baby gecko and I’m obsessed with drawing baby geckos. I can’t draw really good yet, but I like to ask my sister to draw me a picture of a gecko on my Magna-Doodle. I love to do it again and again and again, but my sister eventually grumbles about it.

At night time, we saw some bats flying around in the jungle. They were hard to see because they fly really fast, but one of them touched Mommy’s arm. I don’t know why she wasn’t more excited about that.

I met a monkey on the beach one day. He was on a leash, so I knew he was someone’s pet. We also saw some monkey creatures in the jungle, but I don’t know what they were called.

I loved Cancun because it was just as exciting as visiting a zoo! I really want to go back someday so I can finally pet an iguana.