Runs with Scissors

Well...he doesn't exactly run, but he certainly can cut. I came home from work last night to find Charlie running around with a hole in the front of his orange UT T-Shirt (the ONLY one he owns). When I asked him what happened, Jamie said, "Yeah, Charlie - tell Mommy what happened to your shirt!" "I cut it," responds Charlie. "How?" I ask. "Yeah, Charlie - tell Mommy what you cut your shirt with." "Scissors." States Charlie, as if it was something to be proud of. "Where did you get the scissors, Charlie?" I ask. "The little table in the living room," he says. "Tell Mommy what else you cut up today, Charlie." "Um...my mittens...and...some paper...and...um..." Needless to say, he got in big trouble. His shirt is now cut into little strips (by me) and scheduled for a craft project and the mittens are in the trash. He doesn't have any mittens now, either. TTFN JMS

November 21, 2007

Ok ‐ so a little insight on the routine of my mornings. My alarm goes off at 5:30 AM. I get out of bed, stumble across the room, blindly smack at the alarm clock hoping to hit the snooze button (which can sometimes take two or three tries), stumble back to bed, carefully climb back under the still‐warm covers and say a silent prayer of hope that I can have a few more minutes of desperately needed sleep. After hitting the snooze bar for as long as I feel I can get away with it, I drag myself out of bed again, reluctant to abandon the cozy sleepiness I've been enjoying, hook a finger under the collar of my fuzzy pink bathrobe, and head for the bathroom. As I turn the light on in the bathroom, I am momentarily blinded by the intense brightness and make a quick motion to cover my eyes with both hands and squeeze my eyes shut to wait until the sharp stabbing feeling leaves my skull. I then immediately start the shower, adjusting the temperature so it's not quite scalding (but almost) and I step neatly behind the curtain into the streaming water while flicking on the exhaust fan ‐ all in the same motion. Almost every morning, about half‐way through my shower, and somewhere around 6:00 AM, Charlie opens the sliding door to the bathroom and creeps inside with his little fingers over his eyes protecting them from the same intense brightness that so startles me each morning. He enters silently, goes potty, and leaves as silently as he came in, being careful to remember to close the lid on the toilet. When I finish my shower, I reluctantly turn off the revitalizing water and finish my routine of hair, clothes, food, and travel to work. I know that this story isn't really all that interesting, so I've tried to make it as colorful as I could, to make you fully aware of how I feel each morning. But the point I am trying to make here has not anything to do with me...I has to do with Charlie. He has gotten so good at the whole potty thing that he does it unconsciously now; we don't even have to remind him. It's hard to believe that we've gone from wanting to nearly strangle him out of frustration at his reluctance or inability to "get the hang of it" to praising him every morning for doing the entire thing all by himself. He's such a good boy and we're so proud of him! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! TTFN JMS

November 19, 2007

Some friends of ours from church gave Charlie a box of toys that belonged to their grand kids. They just moved into a smaller house and assured me they didn't need or want the stuff anymore. There was the game "Mr. Mouth" where you try to get the flies in the frog's mouth as it spins around using these little catapult things, a bunch of old Match Box and Hot Wheels cars and a few other, larger, cars, and a Cabbage Patch doll for Greta. They also gave us a huge box of "blocks", which really are just pieces of 2x4 cut from other projects that their grand kids used to use as building blocks for towers and bridges and the like. Well...Charlie has been completely involved with the cars from this fine gift. Up to a point where we've had to threaten him with losing them to get him to do what we've asked him to do. I brought out a box yesterday that included all those "new" cars and some of his "old" cars. I lined them all up in an attempt to illustrate what they do at a monster truck show - where the big truck comes barreling down a ramp and then jumps this long line of cars. I showed him once, and he understood immediately. Then, after doing it once himself, he proceeded to remove all his "old" cars from the line, handing them to me and telling me to put them back in the box. He doesn't want to play with the cars he's had forever, he wants to play with these "new" ones. What's funny is, even though he refers to them as his "new" cars, they're really significantly older than he is; I think the oldest one is from 1976! One of them is even a Match Box-type car that really isn't because it was made in England and is a miniature replica of a 1909 Opel...whatever that is. Another funny Charlie story is the ongoing saga of "Baby Pig." Baby Pig was given to us after Greta was born...so technically it is hers, though Charlie has taken it over. At this point, she's too young to know or care, so we've just let him have it. Charlie came to me one day a week or so ago and said, "Mommy! Baby Pig needs a blanket! He's cold!" Well, of course I had to rush right up to find a blanket for Baby Pig, because we wouldn't want him to be cold for too long, now would we? So I located a Harley Davidson bandanna (appropriate, right?) and handed it to Charlie, telling him, "This can be Baby Pig's blanket, OK?" He took it from me, looked at it sideways, and handed it and Baby Pig to me saying, "But mom...he needs to be wrapped like a burrito!" This means that he wants Baby Pig to be wrapped like we wrap Greta; hands pinned at sides and only head sticking out. (We do this for Greta when she's nursing, taking a bottle, or trying to sleep, because if she can move her hands, she won't settle down. Plus, she's got finger nails like little razor blades and has scratched the you-know-what out of my chest!) "Oh!" I exclaim, as the light bulb finally comes on and I understand what he wants. I show Charlie how to carefully wrap Baby Pig like we wrap Greta and hand the entire bundle back to him. He cradles Baby Pig oh so carefully and says, "Thanks mom! Shhhh...! Baby Pig is sleeping!" So now Baby Pig is the newest addition to our family. I'm not discouraging this because he's being so sweet and gentle and nurturing. I'm sure, however, like all things with three-year-olds, that it won't last long. The other thing he's somewhat obsessed with, in a non-irritating way (thank God!), s painting his room. We're kind of at a stand-still with his room, for a couple of reasons. One reason is because we're getting some of Jamie's grandmother's furniture - which is currently in storage in Johnson City - for Charlie's room. From what I understand, it's a double bed, dresser, a night stand, and a desk. I don't want to do any decorating until that stuff is here and I've figured out where it should go. A second reason is because of that darn extra door into his room!!! I'm chomping at the bit to get the door frame knocked out and the wall closed up so I can move forward with the painting! Once we do that, the rest of the stuff will fall into place. Charlie has decided that as well as the blue color, and the chalk-board paint (which is the real reason he wants us to paint his room), he wants one wall red. I've always sworn I'd never paint any wall in my house red...but if Charlie wants one red wall, and one blue wall...that's perfectly fine with me. Hey, maybe he can have one blue wall, one red wall, one white wall, and one wall that's completely chalk-board paint and bulletin-board cork! That would be cool, huh? What's it going to hurt, really? There's always primer! TTFN JMS

November 15, 2007

Wow. It's been busy lately! I've been planning a large off-site meeting for all the managers and supervisors at my office...which takes place tomorrow. It's been a somewhat difficult task trying to coordinate everyone who is coming to present, as well as keeping the caterer from panicking. Part of the meeting includes a two-hour presentation on etiquette when dining, so you can impress your business partners and co-workers with your knowledge of which fork should be used for which course, how to appropriately use your napkin, and how to lay your silverware in the "resting" position to indicate that you have finished eating. Ugh. Should be interesting, though. The house is coming along nicely, but slowly. Jamie has been working very hard to put as much stuff away as possible, as he has time between wrangling the kiddos. We've had quite a bit of rain (and wind) lately, and now there are leaves all over our yard - which are wet - which need to be raked up - which we can't do until the leaves are dry. Yay. Greta is still not crawling, but she is doing the belly spin. (You know, she'll be on her belly and she'll arch her back and spin around to see whatever she wants to look at.) She's getting much better at standing - and now does it any time she gets put into her crib. She "hangs out" at the corner with an elbow slung over the railing, which leaves her other arm free to do...well...whatever. I'll have to get a picture of that, because it's quite funny. Charlie is doing wonderfully well. He still loves school. He's a great big brother. He loves having his own room. He is doing very well remembering that his dirty clothes go in the hamper and that he needs to always flush the potty and close the lid. He's also geting better at putting away toys without being asked. Last night, as I tucked him in for bed, I spent about 20 minutes in there just talking with him about the day and what he did in school. He told me agbout making a paper-bag turkey and how he told everyone what he was thankful for. His list is as follows: "I'm thankful for:

"My dog and my cat (Note: He doesn't have a cat. Hmmmm?)

"Having my own room

"Painting my room with chalk board paint (Which we haven't done yet, but are planning to do as soon as we close up that 2nd entrance to his room and paint the rest of the room its regular color.)

"Greta, Mommy & Daddy

"Food

"Chapel on the Hill at Nursery School" (This is how he refers to his school)

Anyway - this was all stuff he talked about without being prompted and I thought it was very sweet so I had to share. Hope everyone is doing well! TTFN JMS

November 6, 2007

So, I think our first night in the new house – if I remember correctly – was October 23rd. That means that we’ve been living there for two weeks now. We’re still living out of boxes and bags, but we are definitely making progress. The most difficult thing I’ve run into so far has been getting my husband to get rid of anything. I’m being brutal and getting rid of stuff that I haven’t looked at in a year, doesn’t fit, or things I’ve been keeping because I MIGHT use them someday. I’ve been using a keen eye, too, looking for items that might sell well on eBay – just to get a little extra cash flow. My intent was to spend all of last Friday going through stuff to reduce everything we own by at least half. That, however, did not work out. I got quite a bit done, but there’s far too much to go through in one day! I can’t believe how much useless and unused stuff we’ve accumulated over the years. I’m talking about t‐shirts that we’re keeping for reasons unknown even though they’re full of holes and cannot really be worn, happy meal toys that were enjoyed for approximately 5 minutes and then discarded, coffee cups we NEVER use but are still taking up space on our shelf, and paper, paper, paper. Everywhere I look, there’s another pile of paper. The paper thing is a result of us stupidly putting our filing cabinet in the basement when we moved into the tiny house on California Ave 3+ years ago. We have not having filed a single piece of paper since August of 2004 – SHAME ON US! This is a project I intend to undertake immediately as I cannot handle not knowing where our important files are anymore and this will also significantly cut down on the clutter factor. Another thing that makes me crazy is laundry everywhere. I’ve lived with it for a very long time now because there wasn’t anywhere to put it – but now we have some more space – and there should never be laundry all over the place anyway! AC & UB kindly purchased two sets of hampers for us, and now we have a hamper in each bedroom and one in the linen closet in the bathroom – so there is no excuse anymore. Charlie has decided it’s very cool to have his own hamper and has been very good about using it. I think he likes having it neat, too. (Now if we could just get him to feel the same way about his cars...we’d be doing well!) On to another subject, quickly! Greta Marie stood up, in her crib, all by herself, on Friday, Nov. 2nd! I put her in there so I could get her a bottle, go to the bathroom, advance the laundry and probably do something else, too. I don’t think I was gone for even 3 minutes and when I came back, she was standing and dancing with a huge grin on her face! “Hey mom, look what I can do!” I don’t know, but it seems a bit early for her to be standing up, doesn’t it? I mean, she’s not quite 8 months old, yet! Anyway – I thought it was a fluke. Maybe something she was only going to do once and not be able to accomplish again for a while. But no. I went back a bit later and she’d done it again. She’s now done it about every time I put her in her crib – so I know it’s not a one‐time deal. Well – so goes the battle. Hope everyone is well! TTFN JMS