Poker? I didn't even know her.

Sorry, a little elf humor.

what they won't be getting

I'd like to know who is buying their child this for Christmas this year.   Of course, the commercial comes on TV during cartoons about six times an hour.  Logan, of course, thinks he wants it.  Its fun!  You feed the dog until his stomach gets extremely and then!  The dogs poops!  What Logan doesn't know is that I'm just going to hand him a shovel with a bow on it.  We have a whole pile of doggie doo right in our own backyard he is welcome to.

Seriously, who thinks of some of these toys?    I saw this at Target the other day and laughed out loud.  Actually, I bet its a pretty fun party toy.

While the toy makers are at it, maybe someone can invent some toys based around some other disgusting things, like "Who Clogged the Toilet", complete with tiny plungers.  Or how about, "Road Kill" stuffed animals?  "Autopsy Lab Kit", that would be fun.

How about Operation.  I HATED that stupid game when I was a kid.  I would literally hide it in the house somewhere far, far away so none of my friends would come over and see it, and suggest we play it.  If by some chance it was found and we had to play, I'd grasp those horrible tweezers while clenching up, waiting for the inevitable 'AUHHHNNNN' at 500 decibels.  I still hate that game.

There are disgusting toys, and then there are toys that are just super annoying and clearly were invented by people who don't have kids. This includes Moon Sand (have you ever tried cleaning that shit up?), Pixo's (those horrible tiny balls that will be from one end of your house to the other), and I'm sure some people won't agree but Zhu Zhu pets. Seriously. You throw it in the toy box and that thing goes thru its entire reel of sounds, squeals and giggles. There is no way to turn it off. Sometimes out of the blue when no one has been near the toy box for hours, it will just go off by itself.


I remember once when Dylan was a toddler, someone gave him a stuffed animal that came with a magic marker, so you could draw all over it.  What a stupid toy. Seriously?  I have been teaching him for three years NOT to draw on anything but paper and now this toy came along and undid that?  It got Freecycled immediately.

As I imagine many, many Doggie Doo games will be come January 4th, once the kids are back in school.

he needed a little Christmas

T did a little decorating of his own last night....

fa-la-la-la-la

We always start decorating for Christmas the weekend of Thanksgiving.  My thought has always been why wait until mid-December when its only going to be up for two or three weeks?  Its so pretty, and its so much work, lets enjoy it for a nice, long time. 

Andrew tackles the exterior illumation (this year having a few Clark Griswald moments) while I focus on decking the halls inside.  And every year, we get a few more things to make every holiday even shinier than the one before.  

Once Christmas comes and goes, I'm ready for it to come down and we often take it all down New Years Day.  By then, the needles are falling off the half dead tree and have been tracked from one end of the house to the other.    And its just nice to get things back to normal before we go back to the routine of school/work/life. 

Christmas is only 11 days away.  The presents are all wrapped, cookie baking is planned, and holiday cards have been sent.  Now is the time to really savor the magic and the spirit of the holiday.

And some of my favorite ornaments.  I really need to have the boys make more ornaments this year.  Handmade and/or with photos and years really are the best kind.  I am also realizing I need to create a few ornaments using the boys newborn baby photos, I don't have any of those.

When it all began...

And along came Bella, our training baby.

And two years later, Dylan arrived.

Merry Christmas 2011.

a busy night

Big T had a busy night last night, and quite the belly ache to show for it. 

The boys left him quite a smorgasbord of candy and milk.  He did his best to finish it off but we found him clutching his stomach laying on his side this morning with chocolate all over his face.

And this was after taking him for a drive around the neighborhood after dinner to check out all the Christmas lights.  Logan passed out, but Tyler was taking it all in.   I think tonight he will do some extra holiday decorating of his own in the family room!

treats for Tyler

The boys got home from school this afternoon and decided that Tyler looked hungry.  They set some treats next to him for him to enjoy tonight (note to self:  Buy some Reeses Peanut Butter cups soon!).  And then composed this note.

******

Dear Tyler,

All the treats I put next to you or in your lap are for you.

Dylan, Logan, Michelle and Andrew

******

I just love this Elf.   He brings another layer of fun to the holidays!  I think tonight he's going to have to write a letter back. 

How Dinosaurs Became Extinct, by Dylan

Dinosaurs have bombs in their pockets.  Dinosaura will box at a boxing rinc.  Then man came along.  Then they found axes and chopped the dinosaurs.  There was blood from the dinosaurs.  The men made a fire and ate the meat. Then the men got the bombs and chucked them at the trees.  Then the men became dumb. 

And that's why dinosaurs became igstinked.

snow angel

Last night, Tyler got into the flour and decided to make himself a snow angel.   The boys found this hilarious this morning and right away checked to see if he had flour all over his back.  Luckily he did!

watch out

Tyler likes the four wheel drive action.

he's baaaaack....

Tyler Snowy is back in The House for his second year.   He arrived Friday morning, ready to watch over our boys and report any and all activities to Santa nightly.  He reports back to the North Pole every night to give Santa the 9-1-1 on any meltdowns, fighting or sassy behavior.  But apparently his very first night, he got a case of the lazies and forgot to make the journey.  Oops!

I can feel he's going to get into a lot of mischief this holiday season.   I wish he came with a reminder alarm every night so we don't forget to move him.  Its hard to come up with enough viable excuses Dylan will believe.  "Oh, Santa was sick and couldn't have company last night."  "Hmmmm, Tyler's reindeer he rides back must have been at the vet."  "Gosh, I bet he must have fallen asleep. I  bet he's in trouble with Santa!".

Andrew goes out of town today for the next few days and he's much better about remembering to move him than I am.   Its a lot of pressure.  I actually sat up in bed very early this morning, "SHIT WE FORGOT TO MOVE THE ELF AGAIN ... HURRY, DOWNSTAIRS!"

Fun tradition..And really, how much longer will Dylan believe in this stuff?  His teacher has ALL the kids in third grade totally believing in this Elf thing, bless her heart.  I really hope we can keep the secret for a few more years. He figured out the Easter Bunny last spring, but we agreed he won't tell Logan.  Somehow he still totally believes in the Tooth Fairy and Santa, and this Elf.  I bought my wrapping paper for gifts this year and hid it, because I know Christmas morning when he finds gifts wrapped from Santa, he'll remember if he's seen that I have the same wrap upstairs.  And starting last year, all gift tags on gifts from Santa were typed labels from my computer so there'd be no handwriting comparisons.   I know one of these days he'll be onto me.  And then it will have to be our secret from Logan as long as we can.

Merry Christmas to Us

We've had a nice year, without having to tap into our 2010 tax refund to cover any unforeseen disasters.   We had a nice enough microsuede couch and loveseat before, buts it was coming up on about 9 years old and we've been wanting leather for the longest time.  We also had a recliner in our family that was getting really worn and needed to be retired to the Man Cave in the basement.  So, we decided to buy ourselves the family room furniture we've always wanted and finish the revamp of our family room that started last winter.

So we started shopping a few weeks ago until we found what we wanted.  It was delivered this week, starting on Wednesday.  Of course, as these things go, it turned into a fiasco when one half of the sectional was torn and had to go back to the warehouse.  Cursing. Two days later the replacement half arrived, but it was the exact half we already had.  Back again.  More cursing.  Now today, the correct half arrived, undamaged and ready to complete the room.

Our family room is topsy turvy right now with the Christmas tree where we normally have another chair and a half, and ottoman (which is temporarily in my office until after the tree comes down).  But these photos at least give a feel for what the new stuff looks like and how it all jives with the entertainment center we got ourselves for Christmas last year. 

Its taken almost 9 years since we moved into this house, but we finally have the family room we've always wanted.  Comfy, everyone can put their feet up, we can seat a lot of people and be cozy. 

Merry Christmas to us!

gratitude

A terrible tragedy occured in our community this past weekend, and its left everyone feeling a little lost and heartbroken for the affected family.   At the same time, so much of the community has come together to help this family.   Thank goodness in times of devastation for some, others come forward with genorosity and kindness.

A friend of mine, in reference to what happened this week, posted this quote on Facebook this week. And since I read it, I've been thinking about it over and over. 

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."


- Melody Beattie

We must always be reminded of what we have, and what we could lose at any given moment.  Life is a precious, fragile gift.

in a pinch, just a list

A quick list is all I can manage.  Each day I've looked at my poor, lonely blog and each day I scamper thru the day full force until my head hits the pillow.   I know I owe a post about our last full day of vacation, as well as a review of our Amtrak Auto Train experience.  I will, I will.  Someday.  Until then, another list.  I've been making lots of lists lately.  Christmas gift wish lists, which holiday cookies to bake lists, and lists about my other lists.

But for today, a quick catch up list of all things happening at  Casa de Lopresti:

• We had a fabulously quiet and cozy Thanksgiving holiday at my Mom and Robby's.  It truly was quiet this year, since my brother, SIL, the twins, and all my stepsisters were elsewhere.  Family friends came from the Eastern Shore of MD and we spent the day enjoying some mighty delicious food.  Always such a treat to spend time together. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. All the togetherness of Christmas, without the added pressure of gift giving.

• Every spare moment I've had, I've been on Amazon.com piling my shopping cart with gifts galore and really trying to knock out the bulk of my holiday shopping.  I'd love to get it done and just sit back and enjoy December and all the upcoming parties and events.  We've decked our halls and have enough cookie exchanges, potlucks and holiday parties to make a girl giddy.

• Logan has completely healed from his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.   He started back to taekwondo tonight and even got a new uniform, since his old one had become capri pants.  We think he is snoring less and as time goes on, we hope his quality of sleep will improve even more.  However, what we did learn this week is his iron levels (directly related to his Periodic Limb Movement Disorder) are still very, very low.  His ferritin (from blood drawn last week) level is now at 23.   In August, his ferritin level was19.   In order to 'cure' his PLMD, his levels need to be at 80 to 100.  So we have a long, long way to go.  He's been on a very concentrated form of iron twice daily supplement for three months, and we thought at his follow up appointment this week, his levels would have gone up much more.  Not only does he not eat a lot of iron rich foods, his body just doesn't seem to absorb any iron he does ingest.  He eats a TON of cereal, which is loaded with iron, but he never wants to eat it dry, always with milk. And calcium prevents your body from absorbing iron, as I talked about here.
  
  So we'll do another three months of iron supplements, and he'll have more blood tests done mid-February to see if his ferritin levels are increasing. Then about three months after that (sometime in May??), we'll likely do another sleep study and see if his apnea and restless legs are more under control.  As always, all in an effort to help his moods and behavior.

 

• Somewhere in between all of this, we decided to wish ourselves a Merry Christmas and buy all new furniture for our family room.  This time last year, we painted the family room, rearranged the furniture we had, and bought a big, new entertainment center and TV.  This year we're finishing the 'revamp' by adding a leather sectional, leather chair and a half, two giant leather ottomans and some new tables.  Photos to come soon!

Florida, Day 5. Last day at the parks.

Since we had Four Day Park Hopper passes, and we had hit all four parks at this point, we decided to use Day Four wisely.  We went back to Magic Kingdom and Epcot to hit a few things we had missed, and to re-ride some of our favorites.  We also wanted to end the park adventure with the Epcot Illuminations Reflections of Earth lights and fireworks show.

But first, a dip in the hot tub at our rental house.

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing I should have started out with the first vacation post being all about the first part of our vacation adventure - the Amtrak Auto Train.   I'll do another post about that at the end, because it was quite an adventure and I think I have some good tips for anyone ever thinking about doing it. 

But, back to the parks.

As we took the ferry boat into Magic Kingdom, we couldn't resist the chance to hug Pluto one more time.  I do think he's my very favorite. 

Then we hightailed it over to Adventureland, a whole section of the park we missed on the first day (which we spent most of in Tomorrowland).  The Jungle Cruise was completely packed, so we opted to skip that and instead got in line for the Pirates of the Carribbean. 

The boys also wanted another visit to the Frontierland Shooting Arcade.

Next, there was a huge line for Its a Small World, but I really wanted to take Logan on it.  Dylan and Andrew hightailed it over to ride Space Mountain again while Logan and I waited and waited to board the Small World boat.   I remember going on it as a kid, but now as an adult, all those dolls are actually kind of creepy. And seriously, once you get that song stuck in your head you're done.

A few more family photos...

And then we were done, and off to Epcot for the last half of the day.

Except first there was a little excitement on the Epcot parking lot tram.  Dylan was eating a Jolly Rancher and his tooth (a back molar which apparently had been loose but I had no idea) got stuck and came out.  Mouth full of blood, holding the sticky green candy in his hand and a big molar stuck to it.  The security guards were super nice and directed us to First Aid, where a super nice lady let him wash up and gave the boys tons of Mickey Mouse stickers.  After the trauma died down, he was pretty stoked the Tooth Fairy would be coming to visit him on vacation (and along with cash, left him a stuffed Mickey Mouse).

The boys wanted to go on this ride again, and during the course of learning about the creation of the universe and space travel, we got to create a personalized plan for our future on a screen in our moving vehicle.

The boys insisted on going the Mission Space ride again.  I absolutely hated this ride with every fiber of my being.  You are locked into this four person space ship, its very close quarters.  The whole experience tosses you while you're screen showing giant meteors (and other things I can't tell you because my eyes were closed the whole time we went on it on Sunday), you crash and land on Mars and all kinds of stuff, there are lights and buzzers going on and I seriously thought about barfing and praying, in that order. 

However, the boys LOVED it.  We had done the more subdued version of the ride the first time.  The boys wanted the FULL experience this next time.  I opted out, thankful to warm a park bench while the three of them got their 'space' on.

After that, we met up with our group again and headed towards the World Showcase to grab some dinner and eventually see the awesome fireworks show.  But not before a stop into Club Cool for a taste of sodas from around the world.  Logan particularly loved this, of course, since he's our sugar-aholic.

We ended up somehow snagging a table for ten in the United Kingdom (it was very crowded), and settled in for some Bangors and Mash, Fish and Chips, pints of cider and Yorkshire pudding.

A great way to finish out our days in the parks. 

We still had one more full day left of vacation, I'll post about that soon.