Episode 20: Backposting

Wow, I haven't posted in a REALLY long time! Most people think that being a stay at home mom means that I have a ton of extra time on my hands, even after cleaning, cooking, and child rearing all day. The truth is, I only get a fraction of those three areas finished each day, and often find myself with hours disappearing!

So, Snapfish has a deal today and tomorrow where you can get get 999 prints for a penny each! Since I'm old school and I like having physical pictures to look at (instead of a giant folder in my computer that never sees the light of day again), I started going through my old pics to find 999 to print (I think I can do it!).

I found some pics I had wanted to include in my blog almost a year ago, after last Christmas. Billy really enjoyed our Elf on the Shelf this past year. His name is Zheu-Zheu, because the first year we had him, that was all Billy called anything. Christmas with a 3-year-old was my favorite so far, but I CAN. NOT. WAIT. for this year, it's going to be amazing (I hope)! Anyway, on Christmas Eve, I stole an idea from Pinterest and modified it a little, and had our Zheu-Zheu write a letter to Billy explaining that it was time for him to head back North:

Here's what Billy found Christmas Eve morning (not really hidden).

Here's the text of the letter

I loved the idea that, just for a minute, the magic would lift and Billy could touch the elf if he wanted. He was sort of "meh" about it, but I think that might change this year.

Episode 19: Feelings, Nothing More than Feelings

Tricky days lately.

Last summer, my grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She went through some chemo, which made her unbearably sick, so she continued with just radiation for a few months. In March of this year, Grammy was declared cancer-free by her doctors! We were all so excited!

Our joy was short-lived, however, because she visited her doctors with a cough in late July, and was told that her cancer had returned, and there wasn't much that could be done to stop it now. Our whole family was devastated. Our Grammy is so strong, and is still completely mentally present, at 83 years old.

I am very torn. Grammy is the first close family member I've had who has been in real danger of dying, and I'm not totally sure what to do with myself. On one hand, she has lived a very full, happy, and pretty long life. However, The thought of losing my Grammy just makes me cry. Generally, I'm very good at compartmentalizing this type of thing. I just don't think about it and I don't get upset. I know this isn't really healthy, but it's just the way I handle things.  And then again, she could fight this round of cancer, and beat it into submission, too! Cancer is weird that way, some people can just beat it totally, without a good explanation of how.

Where this sadness becomes most difficult is when the Little Man is around. I'll read an email (like the one my uncle wrote about his recent visit with Grammy), or talk to someone on the phone, and I just get sad again and start crying. It's almost like I don't even know what I'm feeling, just that I'm  crying. When this happens and the Little Man is in the room., he notices right away that I am crying. He asks, "Mommy sad? Mommy crying?" I don't know how to explain it to a three-year-old. My best information was that my Grammy is very sick and it makes me sad. I wish she would get better and not be sick anymore. Then LM usually tells me to put my glasses back on (those who have worn glasses know why you must remove them when crying). I told him the other day i would put them back on when I was all done crying. A few minutes of chatting later, LM asked, "You all done crying, Mommy?" When I said yes, he exclaimed, "You not sad anymore, Mommy! You can put your glasses back on, Mommy!" Which, of course, made me laugh, and I stopped thinking about it.

Big Man had some words of wisdom for me that really helped him when his uncle and grandfather were sick. It is a quote from "Zorba," I think from the movie, but it may be from the musical. A man  asks Zorba (speaking about a third man), "What is wrong with him?", and Zorba replies, "Nothing wrong, he is dying." The simplicity of viewing death as a natural part of life, something that is supposed to happen and that nothing is wrong when it happens really spoke to my husband. Maybe I can find some of the same peace myself.

I don't really know what to do about these feelings, or what to do with them when the Little Man is around. I want to show him that it's OK to be sad, and that it is OK to cry sometimes. But, I can't just be sad all the time? Can I? 

Episode 18: Misty Island Party, here we go! (Here we go!)

The Little Man turned three years old on the 11th! The Saturday before his actual birthday, we had a party with all of our friends from the neighborhood, as well as some family that lives nearby.

This year, since LM is obsessed with Thomas and Friends in general, and was recently (about 3 months ago)obsessed with the movie Misty Island Rescue in particular, we decided to have a Misty Island birthday party!

Graduation Day!!!

(I hope that you are all playing Pomp & Circumstance in your heads as you read this. There's a little help in this video at 1:50 if you need it.)

The Little Man had his last speech session today! This final session was a test to see where he currently scores with his speech and comprehension. He scored equal to an average 3-year, 8-month-old on the first section, and equal to an average 3-year, 11-month-old on the second section. That's a two year improvement in only 9 months of speech classes!

I'm very excited to not have to get up so early in the mornings, but I will miss speech class a little bit. I will need to try to find another activity, so that we have something else to do during the week aside from just preschool.

Also, in funny baby news, I taught LM tonight that when I sing "You're unbelievable!" He replies with "OH!" So nineties, EMF.

Episode 17: Words on the Street

So, apparently, speech class is working. The Little Man is talking like crazy! And it has really been an overnight change.

At the end of March (geez, has it really been that long?) an old friend of the Big Man's and his family were in town and came over for dinner. As their children marched around our house and deck, making their own band, LM somehow ended up with his shaker egg in hand. Just for fun, I started singing one of our speech school songs. (Miss Terry calls it school so the kids know it's time to work) Shake, shake, shake and shake, shake and shake and ROLL! I told LM he could sing, and he started saying "Roll!" first time ever! Then, he totally sang along with the next verse, Bang, bang, bang and bang, bang and bang and ROLL! Amazing, right?

Next morning, I went in to LM's bedroom to get him up for the day, and was still wearing my green PJs, which LM pointed to and said, "Geen!!" I didn't even know he could say that! He started gaining a word or more every day. I had to make a list to keep up!

A couple of weeks later, my dad was the lucky person to be the first family member (besides Mama and Dada) who's name LM said! We were Skyping with the family, and he'd been talking so much, we thought we could try, and out comes "Pop-Pop!" My dad was thrilled! (in defense of my mom and BM's parents, Pop-Pop is the easiest to say of all the grandparents' names).

Since then, he's added at least one new word every day, and sometimes 3 or 4 words. Often, they are words that we didn't know that he knew. He has the cutest little voice! One of LM's favorite things to do now is to narrate his play. While he plays trains (his favorite thing EVER), he talks and talks about what the trains (or, "cains") are doing. "Ferdinand follow Bash, Dash," "Bash, Dash follow Ferdinand." Currently, Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand, the Misty Island Logging Locos, are Billy's favorites.

Episode 16: Speak On, Baby!

(I wrote this back in February, and never posted it, so here it is!)

OK, the Christmas decorations are finally all put away, as are (almost) all of the presents, so I can post again!

As you probably know, the Little Man is now almost 29 months old! He's getting really big. However, he isn't talking much more than he did at a year or 18 months old. I had brought my concern to the pediatrician at LM's two-year appointment, and he advised to just see what happens and check back again at 2 1/2. A few months went by, and I was eagerly awaiting the day all my neighbors (and fellow moms) said would come, when the babe suddenly develops a huge vocabulary overnight! When it didn't happen by about December, I decided to call in the big guns and get him evaluated by our county's Infant and Toddlers program.

I was hoping they would also look for signs of autism or asperger's during their evaluation. It's something you hear about more and more often these days, and LM has some tendencies that worried me. He wasn't talking. He has the longest attention span of any toddler I know (he can play trains by himself for half an hour without making a sound). He loves to line things up, especially trucks. Part of me didn't think that autism was likely to be a problem, but I was still really worried about it.

The evaluators from Infants & Toddlers came out on 12-20 to check out the Little Man. We saw a Speech Therapist and an Occupational Therapist. They did lots of tests that looked like play, and asked lots of questions. At the end of the evaluation, it was determined that LM was right on track (scoring 24-28 months) with gross and fine motor skills, but was delayed in speech. He scored at 20 months, and was age 27 months at the time. That means he was exactly 25% delayed, which just qualified us for free speech therapy services from the county. As my mom says, that's exactly the score you want, just enough for help, but not any more behind than that.

I did ask about autism, and they said that he showed no signs of autism or asperger's, so that was good news, too. 

We started speech classes with Miss Teri in January. Little Man did well the first time, but Miss Teri said he was a little bit peculiar! (Poor choice of words, I think, as I got worried.) He has a long attention span, and was far more interested in figuring out how the Duplo gate worked than playing with the big barn she brought with her! Also, the fact that he knows lots of letter sounds, but not any words. He threw one tantrum, when she took the blocks away to do something else, but otherwise behaved well. I was a little disappointed, since he didn't really seem to catch on to what he was supposed to be doing, but everyone reminded me that it was only his first day! He didn't even know what to expect, much less what he would be expected to do!

He just had his second class last week, and things went better. He is still gaining some new words (of course, none of them are the words we are supposed to be learning for homework), and seems to be trying a little bit, at least.

Episode 15: Fa-hoo Fores, Da-hoo Dores, welcome Christmas, Christmas Day!

I haven't posted in a while, and this Christmas questionnaire has been going around my friends' blogs (Patchie and Marizabeth to be exact), and I thought I would throw my blogger hat into the ring and talk about CHRISTMAS!!! 

I love, love, LOVE Christmas! It is, by far, my favorite time of year! I love the lights, I love the presents, I love Santa, I love the tree, the music, the specials, all of it! So, without further ado, here we go:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

 Egg Nog, for sure! Especially good out of the little German(?) footed glass that my parents had. I always used that for my egg nog when I lived at home.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Santa always wraps presents. With the rare exception of an unwrappable gift like a bicycle or scooter.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

I always liked colored lights on the tree, but the Big Man hates them, so we have white at our house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

We have a Kissing Ball like this one, with mistletoe printed on it. I figured it was safer than real mistletoe, and it looks better than my parents 1970s(?) plastic mistletoe ball.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

Usually, the weekend following Thanksgiving, to be ready for the big party we have every year.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?

There are so many to choose from! I love pumpkin bread, especially with cream cheese on it! Also, Pilsbury cinnamon buns for breakfast on Christmas morning, and stuffed shells for dinner!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

I think my favorite holiday memories are the traditions we had every year. I loved decorating the tree, my mom would hand us an ornament, and would direct where to put it on the tree, one of my favorites was a little carousel with a family of snowmen on it. I liked looking for crumbs in the bottom of the milk glass that we left for Santa (it was proof that he had been there). 

Going to the Christmas tree farm to cut down a live tree was always fun, too. My dad used to bring his electrical marking tape, that non-sticky plastic tape that comes in neon colors. We would always mark the trees we liked, so we could find them again, but we never could find them. I like to think that we saved a few Christmas trees everytime we went to the farm. I also loved watching the guys put the tree through the tying-up machine, and the hayride out to the tree fields!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I don't really know. I distinctly remember a cafeteria conversation where one kid I knew insisted that the way to find out was to compare Santa's handwriting to your parents'.  If it was the same, you knew he wasn't real.

I know that I went through a period of peeking at the presents, though, at about middle school age. And, based on what my friends have posted, I was a terrible big sister. My little sis caught me peeking at the presents one year, and asked what they were. I told her that they were our Christmas presents, and then my mom caught us. She told my sister that they were presents for the little girl next door, and told me that I had ruined Christmas. I don't remember if I peeked after that year, but it was around that time that I stopped, because I was tired of pretending to be surprised on Christmas morning.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

My sister and brother and I used to open our gifts from one another on Christmas Eve, but I don't do it any more.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

By hand? (weird phrasing on this question). We have red cranberry-colored beads instead of garland or tinsel, and white lights. Tons of ornaments collected since the Big Man and I have been living together, as well as a few from each of our childhoods. We still keep several of the clay ornaments that we bought our first Christmas together. They were only $1 each! They remind me of our first house together. I also have several that my mom sent me on our first Christmas in our own house. Some of them had been hanging on my parents' tree since they were first together, so they are really special to me, too.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?

Love, love, LOVE IT!!! It just makes it winter like nothing else can!

12. Can you ice skate?

I can, but haven't in a while. During my high school years, nearly every weekend was spent at Twin Ponds ice rink! I used to be able to do crossovers going backward. I rocked the rink!
 

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

In 10th grade (I think, maybe 9th), I was taking flute playing really seriously. I had started private lessons and both my private teacher and band director were encouraging me to buy a better flute than the 6-year-old beginner model that I had. My mom had taken me to the instrument store and I found a $1200 flute that I totally fell in love with! But, I knew that was WAY too much money and there was no way I was going to get it. For the next few months, I constantly joked with my parents that if they found an extra $1200 lying around, they should get it for me. 

Well, on Christmas morning, we always opened our one "big present" last of all. My sister handed me a shirt box, and I opened it. As soon as I opened the box, I saw the flute case. I looked at my mom and said, "No way!" I just kept asking, "Really? Really?! NO way!" I had to open the whole case and see the actual flute before I was convinced. My mom asked if I thought they had filled it with bricks! 

That flute served me all through high school, and is still one of my most prized possessions. Definitely the best Christmas present of all time.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?

It's hard to decide. Of course, I love seeing friends and family, but I also like the ceremony and traditions. I love to see all of our ornaments and remember why they are special, I love watching all the same movies year after year, and I love Christmas music!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

I love Toll House chocolate chip cookies! Also, homemade fudge is always part of our family's Christmas spread. And, kiffles and raspberry almond cookies from The Kiffle Kitchen!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

I don't know if I can pick a favorite. I love doing the tree every year with Mitch Miller's "Holiday Sing-Along with Mitch" playing on the radio, and I love to watch all of our Christmas movies. When I was little, it was my job to put the topper on the tree, since I was the oldest child. That was always one of my favorite traditions.

17. What tops your tree?

Now, we have a ribbon. My parents had an angel for a long time. We are thinking of changing to an angel or star, so that the Little Man can start putting the topper on the tree, since it is his job as the oldest kid!

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?

I love getting presents!! I like getting presents, but I always stress myself out trying to come up with good ideas for everyone. Although, my mom says I give great gifts, so I guess I end up doing alright in the end!

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?

Peppermint flavor? Yuck. But the rainbow cherry-flavored ones? Yum-o!

20. Favorite Christmas show? Show or movie?

Oh, there are WAY too many to choose from. Love A Muppet Chirstmas Carol, my favorite Christmas Carol ever! And the only one that makes me cry when Tiny Tim dies, every time. Of course, the old claymation Rudolph. And, How the Grinch Stole Christmas - but the old, animated one, not the Jim Carrey movie. I love the lesser-known A Christmas Toy ("You are thrilling, Meteora!!"), as well as A Muppet Family Christmas. And, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street! I love Bert and Ernie doing the gift of the Magi, and the song A True Blue Miracle.

21. Saddest Christmas Song?

There is a song on my Rockapella Christmas album called "Christmas Without You" which is so sad!

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?

There are WAY too many for me to pick just one! I love the Muppet Christmas songs - Keep Christmas With You, True Blue Miracle, Together at Christmas, One More Sleep 'til Christmas. I love, of course, Must Be Santa from the Mitch Miller album. I love my Jethro Tull Christmas album, with Birthday Card at Christmas, and A Christmas Song. Too many to choose from!!!

What is special about your Christmas?