Sunday, January 13, 2008

Some pictures of what will be known as "The Christmas That Made Our House Loud":

Casey and Jannelle came by on Christmas Eve and brought this drum for Joel. It is his first "real" drum. And he. loves. it. Oh, my. I said I didn't care what they had brought, as long as it didn't have batteries...



And here is real drum #2. He sets these two up next to each other, along with two metal mixing bowls, and goes to town.



I told my brother that Neil needed a new big travel coffee mug for his car. Well, he got the biggest thing he could find - a 52 oz. mug that says "Bubba Keg" on the side. Nice. This is Joel trying it out.



This is Joel marching with his older drum wearing his new hat. It is just like the one that the guys in Top Secret wear. He wears it all the time. Really. All the time.

So, Christmas was nice, we managed to have at least that one or two days without someone feeling sick, which we can't really say about the rest of December. But Christmas itself was wonderful! Lots of fun, family, friends... lovely. Here's the thing, though - I thought I would save all kinds of time by making lasagna instead of the big turkey and the to-go-withs. Well, that is more work than I thought, mostly in clean up. Also, I didn't exactly read the directions correctly before I went shopping. What I read was 2 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese, and the recipe actually called for 2 1/2 pounds of mozzarella cheese. So, I had to send my brother out for cheese on Christmas morning. The only thing open was a gas station, so he came back with two pounds of individually wrapped string cheese. It worked. So, next Christmas I'm hoping to find something much easier to make AND read the directions correctly.

I have recently learned that, as the mother of a boy, one learns about a lot of things that one has never cared about. For example, construction machines. Never in my life have I known or cared about excavators, magnetic cranes, and the like. Now, however, videos about these things somehow travel from the library shelf into our DVD player. The one we have this week is called "I Love Big Machines". There is a line on the cover of the video that says "Creators of the popular I Love Toy Trains series - almost 2 million copies sold." So, I'm guessing I'm in the company of almost 2 million other mothers.

This week is sweet Joel's birthday. He is very excited about it. When I ask how old he is going to be on Wednesday, he says, "Two!" We made cupcakes (with sprinkles!) for him to take to his sitter's tomorrow. He knows that he gets cake about a bajillion times this week, and he's thrilled. His party is on Saturday, and he chose all red plates and napkins. Two years old is a really, really great age. He is absolutely a blast.

Tomorrow (Monday) starts this semester for me. I have just one class each week, which will be nice. This is my last semester before I start nursing classes. Yikes. I really don't know if I should be trusted with knowing enough to save someone's life. But, Jenn told me that, if I ever lose that feeling, then I shouldn't be trusted with it.

Also, this week I have a midwife appointment and THE ultrasound. But, I won't be updating with the gender. We're not finding out. We wouldn't believe them, anyway. I am really looking forward to seeing this little swimming thing that has been surprising me whenever I lie down or look into a mirror.

(Thanks to Linda who reminded me yesterday that I haven't updated my blog in a long, long time. I hope you two had a safe drive home! It was good to see you!)