Fine as a Frog Hair Split Four Ways

My grandfather passed away last night. Grandpa was always so full of hugs and songs for all of his grandkids. The past few years have been hard. He has been in a nursing home as his health deteriorated. I know it was hard on him being there, and hard on my Grandma seeing him slip away. He sure did give the nurses a run for their money when his mind was better. I'm sure no one there will forget him anytime soon.

We'll be driving to Ohio tomorrow to spend several days with family and attending services. I'm sure we'll share some tears, but also some laughter just remembering what a character my Grandpa Williams was. In his younger years, I can remember spending many a Sunday afternoon at his house while he whipped up "Sunday Supper" for all of us. And afterward he'd settle into his recliner for some football watching, which more than often turned into a cat nap. He taught me the song "It ain't gonna rain no more, no more... It ain't gonna rain no more... How in the heck will I wash my neck if it ain't gonna rain no more, no more?" And my very first driving lessons were on Grandpa Williams' riding lawnmower before I was even in junior high school. The title of this post is his favorite saying. You'd ask him how he was doing, and that would be his reply.

In the above photo are Grandpa and Grandma Williams, with Dylan when Dylan was two, in May 2004.

We'll miss you Grandpa. Rest in peace.

turn right, baby

So Andrew surprised me on Christmas and got me a navigation system for my car. I didn’t realize how damn handy they are, and I already can’t imagine not having one. I love the idea that I will never get lost again while going to pick up a Freecycle item and Dylan asking me "are you SURE this is the right way Mommy?". I’m still not completely used to having a female voice talking to me while I’m driving (and I still haven't named her yet. Penelope? Rachel?...) . Sometimes I want to talk back to her. “It’s okay honey, I know you said turn right but I really need a soda and we’re stopping at this drive thru first. Don’t worry your little head off, we’ll be back on track soon”. What I really want is to download a new voice. Something male, sexy and with a playful British accent. Clive Owen maybe? Something to drown out the sound of The Incredibles in the back seat, playing for the bazillionth time.

Ho Ho Holiday Photos

Posting may be light this the next few days, due the growing addiction to our new Wii system that Santa dropped off.

Happy Holidays!

Grandpa Joa and Grandma Bobbie with their four grandkids...

Josh, Maya, Dylan and Logan (and Aunt Jessica) enjoying some tasty snacks on Christmas Eve...

Dylan and his new skateboard from Uncle Chris and Aunt Jessica...

Then Maya takes a turn on the skateboard in her new tutu..

Uncle Chris, Andrew and the boys check out the new Hot Wheels race track...

Dylan feeds Santa's reindeer...

And the boys leave cookies and milk for Santa...



Christmas morning PJ's by the tree...


Dylan and Logan, fascinated by Elmo Live...

Presents!

Grandma's Christmas tree and all the Christmas booty..

Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Robby with the boys..

Uncle Chris and Andrew made Grandpa Robby a cornhole game in Redskins colors..

Here's Grandpa Robby playing some Christmas cornhole with Logan and Maya.

we're in recovery

Its going to take us a few days to dig out, put everything together, find places for all the new toys, figure out how everything works, and digest all the holiday feasts.

I have not had time yet to download any photos from Christmas Day. But the above is a group photo from Christmas Eve - us, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bobbie (who were visiting from Florida), and Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessica and cousins Josh and Maya.

We and the boys recieved so many wonderful gifts, and the overwhelming feeling of gratitude is more than words can say. Thanks to our families, near and far, for making it such a special Christmas. It truly somehow gets better every year.

Happy Holidays!

new bed

We got Dylan a new bed over the weekend, very exciting! Its a full size loft bed. So Andrew built it over Dylan's old twin bed, which is now Logan's big boy bed. And they are rooming together. We've had them sleeping in the same room for about two weeks now, and they both really seem to enjoy it. Last night was the first night for both of them in their new beds, and they both slept well, and until 7:30 this morning - a sign of good things to come, we hope. Dylan loves being "as high as the stars", and Logan thinks its pretty cool to have a big bed (you'll notice his posse of assorted friends came along to the new bed of course). Having them share a room is so cute. I don't know if they'll always want to when they get older. We're keeping Logan's room set up with all his things in there, just in case he decides he needs to be his own man.

a visit with Santa

The boys and I met my mom at the mall today (we must be on crack, school is out, Christmas is in three days, and it was a little INSANE) to see Santa. We saw the long Santa line as we walked into the mall atrium and thought "uh oh". Except it wasn’t the line for Santa, it was the line to get the pager to see Santa. Double uh-oh. "We'll page you when the wait is down to 20 minutes," the girl said. Pretty good system, as the wait time was about 2 1/2 hours. We did some last minute shopping (I’m hooked on Bath and Body Works Midnight Pomegranate antibacterial soap, have you smelled it? Mmmmmm), and as we sat in the packed food court finishing our lunch, our Santa pager went off. Perfect timing. We headed to the Santa Village, and proceeded to wait some more. And more. Because, we heard that Santa is diabetic and has to take lots of breaks to walk around and move his legs. Bless his heart. We spent our wait time watching Logan trying to lick the kid in line behind us, and he also filled his mouth with apple juice and spit it into the fake snow in Santa's Village. And when we finally got our two minutes with Ole St. Nick, he could not have been nicer or more authentic looking. He was a great Santa, and the boys both willingly sat on his lap. And we escaped with just the hint of a headache as the boys licked their lollipops content and oblivous to the holiday chaos around us.

Dylan's Holiday Party

Dylan's school holiday party was Friday. I'm one of the room moms, and was responsible for feeding 25 little munchkins. We had three stations for the kids: gingerbread house decorating, reindeer puppet, and pin the nose on the snowman. And then snacks, of course! The kids were so adorable and grown up. Andrew stayed home with Logan so I could go spend time with Dylan and not have to manage Logan getting into everything. The teachers gave all of the kids a wrapped book. And Dylan made us two really sweet ornaments for our tree.

Here is Dylan on the rug with his classmates:

Making their gingerbread houses look spiffy:

Trying to pin the carrot on the snowman:

Dylan and his good friend, Caden:

Snack and movie time!

sleep update, two experiments

This week, in our ongoing quest to get Logan to sleep, we had two lights bulbs go off. First, putting Logan's bed into Dylan's room. Our theory - maybe when he wakes up at night, he just doesn't want to be alone? We still don't know why he wakes at night and why, in turn, that leads to him getting so upset. The waking is one thing we're going to try and figure out with the sleep specialist doctor next month. But what if we could figure out a way to make him feel safe and comforted at night without it involving us having to do the comforting? So Operation Slumber Party went into effect three nights ago. We literally moved his little toddler bed into Dylan's room so that if/when he wakes at night, he can see Dylan in bed. And guess what? For the past three nights, Logan has slept until at least 6 a.m without crying at night. So maybe we're onto something here. The boys seem to love being in the same room and they've been really good at bedtime and have just gone right to sleep without getting out of bed. As long as this continues to work, they can bunk up together.

We also have another little experiment underway. This week, Logan's OT mentioned the idea that perhaps Logan has some acid reflux, affecting his ability to sleep well. We've never seen any signs obvious of reflux, but its possible kids can have reflux without it being obvious. And it can't hurt to put them on Prevacid for a few weeks to test the theory. The problem is, we can't get him to take the damn medicine. We had it flavored but he still wants nothing to do with it. So if anyone has any good strategies to get your child to take a dose of liquid medication, I'm all ears.

We're gearing up for all holiday fanfare and are officially:
1 day away from Dylan's kindergarten holiday party
5 days away from the arrival of Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bobbie
6 days away from Christmas Eve with them and Chris, Jessica, Josh and Maya
7 days away from the BIG EVENT

Yesterday, my fabulous friend Dianna shared a link to a website where you can create a very personalized video from Santa for your child. Its the coolest thing ever, and when Dylan got home from school yesterday, I told him there was a mysterious email from Santa for him. His eyes were as big as saucers as Santa said his name, and age and talked about what Dylan wants for Christmas (a Wii). When I was little, I remember Santa (a.k.a. my Uncle Reed) calling me on Christmas Eve at my grandparents to tell me he and his reindeer were close and that I better to go bed so he could come to our house. And I believed it was him 100%. But to SEE Santa speak to you directly and have all the facts in line, how convincing! I love the internet! Here is the video I made for Dylan (I made one for Logan too).

pistachio cranberry fudge

This last weekend before Christmas, we actually don't have a whole lot going on. A few last minute gifts and stocking stuffers to get, but everything else is wrapped, we've shipped what needs to be shipped, decorated what needs to be decorated, and now we can settle in to enjoy the holidays.

So this weekend, I feel some baking coming on. First, I'm going to try making some fudge. I remember helping my Mom make fudge when I was little, the kind with all the gooey marshmallow fluff in it. I saw these recipes in a magazine, and want to try and make the peanut butter fudge, and the pistachio cranberry fudge. Both sound yummy and check this out -you make them in the microwave! Of course when I bought the 6 bags of chocolate chips today at the store to make all of this, I'm quite sure I felt my ass grow three inches.

Also, I plan on making some white chocolate chip cookies. Maybe with Craisins in them, maybe not. I love white chocolate, even more than regular chocolate. I may also try and make this lemon coconut bread, sounds delish!

Dylan has his school holiday party this Friday. His school has a healthy snack policy, with no sweets allowed, not even fruit roll-ups. I'm one of the room moms, and instead of cookies and cupcakes, which aren't allowed, I have to stick to fruit and pretzels. Oh well, more fudge for us at home then! It will be Dylan's last day of school until January 5th. I'm looking forward to two weeks of not rushing around as much, that's for sure.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday morning we attended the annual Winter Wonderland event at Dylan's elementary school. It's an indoor winter carnival spread out all over the school. The kids can try their hand at games, make arts and crafts, win prizes and even go shopping for gifts. This was our first year attending, and I have to say I was so impressed, once again, by the way his school comes together to hold family events like this. Everyone - the teachers, parents and even local high school students, volunteer so much time to give the kids a day of fun. It was all so well organized and there was so much to do. We stayed for two hours and still didn't get to do everything.

Here's Logan playing Reindeer Shuffleboard. Check out that concentration with his tongue sticking out. The boy is competitive. We need to enroll him in soccer the moment he turns three.

Here, the boys try to reel in the big one doing some indoor ice fishing:

Here's Logan cheating at Snowman Bowling:

And Dylan, getting his face painted with Gingerbread men:

The favorite event was pulling back a giant sling shot to release a whiffle ball and knock over a stack of giant wrapped boxes. I just couldn't get the right angle to take a good photo of that. Logan needed no instruction. He stepped right up, pulled the slingshot back and released it as forcefully as kids three times his age. We're lucky he didn't take out a window. Hysterical.

party in Logan's bed

Remember the scene in E.T. when he hides in the closet among all of Elliot's stuffed animals?


Logan is looking a little like that these days when he goes to bed. Gone is the paci (hooray!) but he now gets every single stuffed animal in his room and piles them into bed with him. There's a whole party going on in in there. I guess whatever makes him feel comforted. And the past three nights he has slept until at least 5 a.m. completely on his own without waking before then. He can put whatever he wants in his bed if it helps.

the magic

Christmas is so many things to me. Its time spent with family and friends, making memories, enjoying each other and laughing. Its the food, the songs, the lights, the bows and ribbons, the decorations and the stories.

But really, more than anything else, its the magic of sharing it all with people you love that fills your heart.

I dare you to read this article as I did this morning, and not want to hug your kids a little tighter after reading it.

When we wake on Christmas morning, and listen to our children squeal over presents and stockings, I will also think of these children and their families who need the magic of Christmas to last all year.

And I will hug my healthy kids even tighter and be forever grateful for the greatest gift of my life.

desperation

I'm too brain dead this week to come up with anything other than a list of weekly highlights. We are seriously beyond sleep deprived these days and things have come of kind to a head (see bullet point #1).

1. Logan, at 2 1/2, has hardly ever slept through the night. I've ranted about this many times. Its just become part of our life with him, and unfortunately we're used to it. However, things have gotten really bad lately. We took his pacifier away last week, and every night has been pure hell. We've finally come to the realization that a) this sleeping pattern is NOT normal and b) it is affecting our ability to function and c) something serious has to be done. We need to find out WHY he doesn't sleep all night and WHAT we can do about it. We've mentioned this to many doctors along the way, and we've always been told its behavioral. So we've tried everything they've told us to do. We've even been medicating him at night with melatonin and Benadryl out of pure desperation. We've put him back in a pack n play and out of his bed, just to see if some confinement would help. Nothing works. He wakes up, he screams, he jumps out of the pack n play mulitple times a night, and he bangs on his door to get out. I've spent the entire week researching, calling, emailing and meeting with our pediatrician, to ultimately find a doctor who specializes in sleep disorders in young children. Because at this point, I'm pretty much convinced there HAS to be a physiological reason he is waking and can't fall back to sleep. I finally seem to have tracked down a needle in a haystack doctor (there seem to be NO doctors in the DC Metro area who deal with sleepless 2 1/2 year olds), who has 33 years of experience dealing with sleep issues in young children. The bad news is, he is in Baltimore and Frederick, MD. So on January 8th, I will drive Logan an hour to see him and we'll see what happens. This doctor may very well schedule a sleep study for Logan, and if so, it would be done overnight at St. Joesph's hospital in Baltimore at some point over the winter. But at this point we'll do whatever it takes to get some answers. If someone tells me to adorn his room with chicken feet and dance the wala wala, I will do it. Desperate for sleep does not begin to describe it. There are days my head hurts so badly all day long, and I know its because my sleep cycle is completely out of whack. Andrew sees the chiropractor on a weekly basis, due to stress caused by lack of sleep. And we really have to believe a lot of Logan's behavior issues and hourly meltdowns have to do with pure lack of sleep. We need a solution so life can get better.

2. Logan has decided he loves Campbells Cars chicken noodle soup. And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And this is pretty much all he eats, all day long. And he wants to spread the jelly himself, and eat the soup without any help. So you can imagine what our kitchen looks like on a daily basis. When he isn't eating soup or making sandwiches, he is completely destroying the rest of the house. He is a whirlwind of destruction. I love him. I do. But children who are two really need to come with a designated maid.

3. I have been busy doing work for my part time marketing job and fitting it in when I can. Which is basically during Logan's nap time. Its a total juggling act but I'm happy I've found a way to make some money on the side when I can work it in.

4. Dylan recieved his third Sunshine Award this year at school this week. The kids have to be extra special good to earn this award and she doesn't hand them out easily. I'm so proud of how he's handled starting school. He's making new friends, and we've had some of them over to play lately. Its really cute to watch his social life expand. He has one more week of school next week before winter break begins. I'm wondering how we'll fill our days in between Christmas and New Years, when the days are cold and long. Note to self: research ideas on this soon!

5. As I've mentioned, we began the process of seeing if Logan is eligible to attend preschool early through the county school system. He would recieve more help with his speech and occupational therapies, and I think putting him in a structured setting several mornings a week would be a really positive thing for him. In order to determine if he is eligible, the county has to have a number of therapists, social workers and psychiatrists evaluate him. Next week alone, he has four appointments. This process will take until sometime in February, and then we'll know if he can attend preschool, or if we need to pursue private preschool for him for next fall.


Its all a little overwhelming right now. Pile the holidays on top of it all and its easy to lose sight of the simple pleasures of life. I've been trying to finish up holiday shopping, start the wrapping, do some baking and read the Twilight book series (I'm on #2 - ADDICTIVE). Andrew makes fun because the intended audience for these books are girls around 15, but they've become all the rage with women my age too. He asks if I'm going to start getting into the Jonas Brothers next. But I don't care. With everything I have going on, I need a mindless distraction to take me away from it all, even if only for a few minutes each evening.

Six Random Things

I've been blog-tagged! My old Children's World marketing buddy Your Mom tagged me. Sarah is one of the funniest people I've ever worked with AND she can sing just like Adam Sandler. She worked in our Golden, Colorado office, I was in Northern Virginia. And when our marketing team got together for meetings every few months we'd just laugh our heads off. You know, many of my friends are women I met after having Dylan. We all became moms together. But when I worked with Sarah, neither of us were moms yet. So its entertaining reading her blog and relating what I knew about Sarah back then to how she is a mom now. I love it!


So the rules are that I have to post six random things about myself then, I have to tag six other people. Here we go.


1. I dream at least once a month that I am back in high school and I have forgotten my locker combination. I'm late to class and I can't open my locker to get my books and I panic. This dream is so stupid because anyone who knows me knows that a. I'm the type of person that wrote down my locker combination in at least 17 different places and therefore would never forget it and b. I was such a geek that I usually carried all my books around in my backpack and therefore didn't really need a locker (except where else would I have hung my Tiger Beat Magazine photos of John Stamos in all his feather-haired glory?).

2. In high school, I had Robert Smith hair for two years. My friends and I only listened to new wave music, only bought our clothes at thrift stores, and spent all of money that we made as shampoo girls at a hair salon buying tickets to see bands called Gene Loves Jezebel, the Sugarcubes, the Soup Dragons, and Echo and the Bunnymen and drinking peach schnapps in the concert parking lots. I was a regular at the 9:30 Club in its original tiny, dark and musty location. I have to find a photo of my high school hair, it was quite a spectacle. Sorry Mom, I'm sure it was quite embarassing to take me in public.




3. Some of my death row foods include tomato and fresh mozzarella salad with basil, gooey swiss cheese fondue and crusty bread, really meaty jumbo lump crab cakes, fresh juicy peaches, bacon wrapped scallops, Five Guys cheeseburgers and french fries, pistachio ice cream, salmon pad Thai, Chik-Fil-a vanilla milkshakes, mango sticky rice, my Mom's guacamole, and Ledo's pizza with bacon on top.


4. On multiple occassions at a previous advertising job, I had to dress in a Popeye the Sailorman costume to help promote Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits. It was a great way to meet guys. Umm... not. It was hot in there, people, and I was a sweaty humiliated mess.


5. I do not like olives. Or mushrooms. Although if the mushroom is incorporated well into a dish I am learning to tolerate its miserable little fungal existence. But olives have got to go. Also, I can't drink red wine. The heartburn KILLS me.


6. One of my favorite movies is Stealing Home, with Jodie Foster and Mark Harmon. There is something about that movie I just can't resist. I've probably seen it a hundred times. I don't think it was ever a big hit, but there is something in me that just connects with that movie. Its funny and so tragic all at once. Sometimes in life, you just have to touch the drain.


Okay, I'm tagging my friend Sandee, whom I met online on a parenting board when I was pregnant with Dylan and she was pregnant with her second child. We've stayed in touch all these years and have never met in person (yet!). Dianna, my hilarious mamasita. jerseybaby, my witty, charming friend Kristin. My lovely friend and neighbor Paige. My good friend Danielle down south in Virginia. And let me give a shout out to my great friend since high school and former bridesmaid, Julie, all the way out on the Eastern shore of Maryland. You're next, ladies!

bus stop crush

Today, Dylan got off the bus and had an announcement for me.

D: "Olivia asked me if I'd be her boyfriend."

Now, this was interesting to me because in all of our interactions at the bus stop this year so far, Olivia is always just the sweetest, cutest, quietest thing. I can't imagine her making a move, so to speak.

Me: "Oh really? And what did you say?"

D: "Well, I told her yes I would and then I told her all about my markers."

D: "Hey Olivia, wait up!" (He hurries after her down the sidewalk as she tags behind her big sister). "And the blue marker smells like blueberries, and the green one smells like apples, and the red one smells like cherries and you can come to my house and I'll let you use them and we can color and we have lots of video games in our basement, I bet you're good at racing....."

At this point he had followed her halfway down the sidewalk and she was looking straight ahead, focused on just getting home and for all of the talking to stop and I have to think she was wondering "what the heck was I thinking?"