From Cool Mom Picks
Yesterday was Daddy Day #1 for T and B, T being out of school until Wednesday, January. B said that T was very good - no tantrums, no whining, and he stopped kicking the seat back in the car when asked. We were in the kitchen discussing the day and B said, "I'm going to tell Noodle what a good boy you were all day," and he walked in to the dining room where Noodle was sitting on the hutch. [Noodle is our Elf on the Shelf].
A little while later we praised T for something else he did that was nice. He climbed down from his perch on the step stool and said, "I'm going to tell Noodle to tell Santa!" He ran over to the hutch and looked up at Noodle expectantly, "I want presents! I have been a good boy; tell Santa Noodle." He ran back into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. "T you said you want, you want. Is that the nice way to make a request?" I asked. T ran back in and looked up at Noodle. "I want presents please, please tell Santa I have been a good boy." He ran back colliding into me for a hug.
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T has been working his puzzles lately. We got him four 25-piece puzzles for $3.99 when we were in Corvallis this summer. They were a little hard for him then, but he is really getting the hang of them now. He told me that one of his classmates asked how to start a puzzle. "I said," T told me," that you start with the corners."
We've also been working through looking at each puzzles piece for clues and in some instances grouping them to figure out where they go. One of this puzzles is construction vehicles and each vehicle is a different color. When T asks me where a piece goes I ask him what color is on the piece. He generally figures it out then. Another of his favorite puzzles right now is his body puzzle. It tickles him that the little boy is naked in one layer, and he mentions every time that the skeleton layer is a little scary. He doesn't quite get the organ layer, but he is learning. We're giving him a Melissa and Doug Dino puzzle for Christmas.
Same Old: didn't get enough sleep last night (or any of the nights in recent memory). I stayed up way, way, way too late making gifts. The good part was that I created stuff and I liked that. Bad thing was that I was up so late and as much as I try my stuff always has small mistakes that make it known that it is not made by a professional or a really great crafter. However, I am happy with the results. Pictures to come.
New: We have something new in the driveway. More on this later, but we brought it home Saturday evening. It is not new (though practically), but new to us (it was a rental). While B does not seem totally enamored with his decision, he is releived to have finally completed this search, and thus to have that part of his life back. He still plans on selling the Z, but perhaps no longer the Porsche. "Minivan" has been mentioned several times, but then he says, "It meets all of our requirements." It is a really pretty blue.
New: I am sitting in a new seat at work again. It is the mass move around time for the development folks for our product. Work on the next release is beginning, and all but one of us writers have been placed on development teams. While writers and testers don't work in the same way that others in development work, it was thought that all would benefit from writers being incorporated in the teams. We'll see. I am concerned about a number aspects of this, but hopefully I will surprise myself. I am on an enhancement team with five others, one of whom is from my old product group. I was second lowest seniority wise, but I still got a seat next to the windows, and with a view of windows where the blinds are hardly ever shut. It is in a two-pack rather than the middle seat of a three-pack that I has been my lot the majority of my time with the company.
One of T's classmates went to Disney World this week. T said, "We should go to Disney World! I want to go to Disney World!" Here comes the onslaught I guess. He also wants to see the Lion King, and he said the other day, "Mommy we should go to Aust-rail-ia. We should go for a week." If we go T," I said, "we will go for at least a week!"
This morning T asked for a story on the way to school. At first it was to be a mermaid story with two mommies, but it quickly changed to regular people, then to a mommy and a daddy, then the boy in the story turned into a bull dog (T is fascinated with bulldogs; he wants a bulldog.) I had to be nimble in my story telling! Oh, and the people weren't wearing anything - they didn't like clothes. So we had to change the location of the story from snowy Pennsylvania to much warmer Arizonia. The people also didn't have much money so they were driving to the next town to see if anyone would give them winter coats, and that is when T, the young boy, became a second bulldog in the backseat of the car.
]]>My fertility monitor showed two bars out of three this morning. That indicates high fertility, or an optimal time for baby making before ovulation. I should be elated, no? I was... EIGHT days ago when it first showed up (it feels like so much longer ago)! I'd jumped from low fertility, or one bar, to peak fertility, or three bars with an egg, overnight for several months, and then last month went without ovulating at all. So it made me really happy to see the two bars last week; I was almost giddy.
Now those two bars seem to mock me. Day 18 and on high fertility. I've had cycles as short as 20 days (as long as 45 too, but that is much more rare.) I am thinking I will be going from high fertility right into my period this month - how's that for optimistic? Of course this is all attributed to my age and the hormones rushing through it.
I can't seem to gauge my body either. I feel pain in my ovaries but it doesn't seem to correlate to anything - not the monitor, not my temperature (I finally got on the whole charting band wagon), certainly not to finding out I am pregnant. My acne seems constant these days so is not so much a harbinger of ovulating or my period. And sore breasts, they don't seem to indicate anything either.
Speaking of charting, I've now done it for a little over two months. I am better at it than I thought I would be, but that isn't saying much. This month, right at a crucial point, I failed to write down the temps I took. I remembered to take my temp - good first step - then failed to chart it. Uhg! Two days in a row! The days preceding a huge jump in temperature then a huge dive in temp. I think my charts are indicating I a problem, but then there are holes in the charts that make reading them not so easy. Charting is as nerve wracking as I thought it would be, but also interesting.
Another day is starting... will it be high fertility or the golden egg?
A couple of weeks ago Mr. Nathan, the lead teacher for T's class, asked the kids what they were going to do next fall. T's answer: "Eat crab!" Today Mr Nathan gave each of the families a very cute book about the holidays and as a memento of the first part of the year. He asked all the kids about the holidays, then added the remarks to photos and drawings from each child. It is quite a little treasure. Here is what T said:
I'm getting ready for Christmas. I'm putting wreaths up at my front doors. I get candy for Christmas. You get presents from Santa Claus. He's a man that has a big white beard and he only has a little bit of hair on his head. He has helpers to make presents. The helpers are elves. They are little people. They make toys with wood and clay and glue with hammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches. I celebrate Christmas; I get all my family together at my house. We eat chicken.
From remarks from other kids I learned Santa has a giraffe, blue and black motorcycle, and goat. He tells you what you want for Christmas and if you aren't good you may get a switch which is a stick to whack your ear with. Mrs. Claus brings the new lip balm.
]]>Last night we started a draft letter to Santa. I started for T, "Dear Santa, T do you want to say anything to him before you request any toys? What toys would you like to put on your list?" "Dear Santa, tarantula," T said. "Just tarantula? Do you want to say anything before that?" I asked before B piped in, "What other things would you like T? Mommy said there toys at the Kroger that you liked."
We didn't get very far before B said we were out of time and T needed to get to bed. Before he left the table however T said, "This is what I want to say, 'And a very happy merry Christmas!'"
From Cool Mom Picks (the 'green links' below may have been from somewhere else)
From Craftzine
From other
The scene: T's bedroom as he climbs into his Dad's lap and I turn out the light and prepare to leave.
T:: I want a sister so I can rock all the time.
B:: Why do you want a sister?
T:: So I can rock all the time.
B:: Why would you rock all the time?
T:: Because she would be in my bed and I wouldn't have any where to sleep.
B:: Oh. She would have her own bed. Would you like her to be in here or somewhere else?
T:: Here! But where would she go?
B:: We would find room for another bed in here.
T:: OK. Mommy you have to make a sister!
M:: OK, I'll work on it.
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T and I went to Kroger after I picked him up from school. They have a large tree with presents under it - unwrapped toys. T begged to look at it when we were there on Monday, so today we went by so that he could tell me what we should put on his list for Santa.
First up, some Fisher Price Imaginext Lost Legends (??) Dinosaurs with people. The ones they had were both Triceratops. "I want both triceratops! The skeleton and the regular." [edit: I was wrong about them being triceratops]
Next, he studied and wanted a frog game, and then he spied some Hot Wheels Big Rig Racers. He held one tight while he looked at other toys. Then he spied some Disney Barbie type dolls. "I want that fairy," he said with a little bit of awe in his voice as he pointed to a Disney princess doll. "But look they have an Ariel mermaid," I said. He stared at her. "I want Ariel! I want to take her home now." It took a lot to pry the box from his hands. (Ariel has joined Sydney as his story mommy when he requests mermaid stories, though yesterday he said he was done with mermaid stories and only wanted fairey stories)
"If you could only get one, which would you get, Ariel or the Big Rig?" T thought for a long time and looked at both toys. "Ariel," was the answer. (BTW Wednesday at Target he wanted me to go down the doll isle where he pointed out a Barbie 'in underwear' (bikini swim suit) that he wanted - to go along with the dinos and super heros he pointed out.)
We turned the corner where there were a lot of car racing toys - Hot Wheels things that shot the cars out to race down track or fly through the air and through hoops of 'fire'. He wanted several. Again I asked either or, this time these cars vs the dinosaurs. The cars won.
I put T back in the cart and we started back down the aisle. He was a little upset. "Santa is never going to come!" he pouted.
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I have put it off so now must go... on the way home, after drinking a small container of Horizon Organic Vanilla milk (which I got him cause he was getting very cranky - a sure sign of hunger) T threw up all over himself and the car seat. All the cloths that we had kept in the car for such purposes had been used so I had nothing to clean him up with. "Do you want me to stop of just hurry you home?" I asked. "Get me home," he wailed.
After a bath he was fine.
From Craftzine