The Start of a Toothless Grin

Today was a "magical" day for Ms. Anna. She lost her very first baby tooth! And from the wiggling and wobbling in her mouth it appears in a very short amount of time she will have quite a large gap in the front of her mouth as a bottom tooth next to the one she lost and her two top front teeth are all loose as well. I guess she is wasting no time getting in on this whole tooth fairy thing. :-)

Anna was determined to lose the tooth yesterday but she got scared when Bill offered to pull it out for her. I told him it might have something to do with the fact that he kept offering to, "yank it out" for her rather than say "help her get it out." As a 40-year old woman I cringed when he said "yank" so you can imagine the fear it instilled in a 5-year old! Well today she decided to let daddy help her. While sitting at my desk at work my phone beeped with a text message. When I retrieved it there was Anna in her toothless glory! She can't wait for me to get home so I can see the tooth and also for tonight to come so the tooth fairy will visit and bring her money (which she has already planned how it will be spent!).

Here is Anna:

A Very Merry Christmas

It is hard to believe that Christmas is already done. After the mad sprint of shopping, cooking, cleaning and decorating it is all over. :-( Always sort of a let down.

We had a lovely Christmas once again this year. On Christmas Eve we hosted Bill's family for the annual family get together. 18 relatives plus the four of us, ate, drank and celebrated late into the evening. I think everyone had a nice time.

Christmas morning came early after the late night. Bill had to work this year but had arranged for another fire fighter to stay late so that he could see the kids get their Santa gifts, stockings and open their presents from us. Believe it or not at 8:15 both were still sound asleep and we somewhat reluctantly woke them. Santa didn't disappoint as he gave Ryan two more Lego sets to nearly complete his Mars Mission collection and Anna was the proud recipient of "Julie" the latest American Girl doll. Since opening her she has been a constant companion of Anna's. Very cute indeed.

My parents and Aunt arrived in the early afternoon of Christmas Day. We had a lazy day with lots of snacks, gift opening and then a dinner of prime rib. Ryan received a big surprise for a gift from my parents - a digital camera. He was so busy learning how to use it and then applying all he learned that he burned through one set of batteries that day!

Bill and I had agreed to not buy gifts for one another this year given the Disney trip in October, the economy and truly a lack of needing anything. But I think it only reminded us that gifts don't make the holiday and truly it isn't what it is all about. The true meaning of Christmas remains in our hearts and minds and that is by far the greatest gift of all.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Twas The Night Before The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a thing was in order, not even my spouse (he was at work).
The stockings he hung on the chimney by nail,
In hopes that his fingers he didn't impale.

The children were nestled in front of their video game,
While visions of them never sleeping to my head came.
And mamma (that's me) in her workout clothes, in need of a nap,
Had just sat down to try to figure out all this crap (and have the first of many night caps).

When out of my brain there arose such a plan,
That I had to sit down right there and than.
To heck with the windows, to them I will pass,
I shall just vacuum and take out the trash.

The lights on the breast of the week-old dust
Gave me an idea I simply had to trust.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear,
My trusty vacuum and duster that left me no fear.

With a push of the vacuum and a swipe of the duster,
My house would get clean quicker than I thought possible to muster.
Throw the clutter in the closet or under the bed (don't tell anyone),
The mess I soon would no longer dread.

Now Ryan! now, Anna! now Gracie and Sophie!
It's now time for bed and I'm in no mood for being poky!
To the bathroom to brush! To bed to read!
A little peace and quiet is what I now need.

As wrapping paper that before the scissors it does meet,
Is tightly rolled and ever no neat.
So is my gift wrap, my tags and my bows,
Good heavens the presents are all still hidden down below!

And so with some wrestling, I toted the gifts out
The boxes, the bags and gift cards with clout.
As I drew in all the loot, and was turning around,
Sophie came running down the hall with a bound.

She jumped in the bags, she attacked all the bows,
And when she was done she struck the funniest pose.
A look of mischief crossed her kitty cat face,
And it looked like my endless wrapping might feel more like a race.

Her tail it did twitch! Little noises she did make!
Her body was trembling, almost nearly in a quake!
Her paws though clawless aren't really that little,
And I knew my gift wrap would be toast when she jumped in the middle.

I will have to entertain her and try to wrap,
And get it all done in a very quick snap.
For my night is young with much to do,
And I am ignoring my work and writing for all of you (can you tell I procrastinate).

You see there are cards with greetings from us,
That need to be addressed, signed, stamped and stuffed.
And more holiday decorating to do,
And I might like to sleep, wouldn't you?

So not another word should I write,
Or I will never get done all of this tonight.
So laying my fingers upon my MAC keys,
I realize I have to wrap this poem up, oh jeez!

I will spring into action, to myself give a nudge,
And away I will fly despite not wanting to budge.
But I exclaim to you before I sign off,
"Happy Christmas to all, cheers and Mazel Tov!"

Let The Bells Ring

As I posted earlier, today we headed out into the snow to ring the Salvation Army bells for a couple hours on behalf of the Saint Paul Fire Department. We were stationed at the Lund's grocery store in a neighborhood known as Highland Park in Saint Paul. Our shift was from 1:00 - 3:00 but the Salvation Army forgot to come and pick up the money so we ended up being there until nearly 4:00. We were fortunate because the temp wasn't too bad until the wind picked up during the last hour or so that we stood outside. The only part of me that got cold was my toes. I had on my long down coat so was pretty much covered from head to toe.

It was amazing to me the number of people who dropped money in the fire boot that replaced the normal red bucket on the hook. And there weren't a lot of $1 bills - lots of $5s and $10s. One couple dropped in a check for $200. We got so many nice comments as people found the boot very unique and they seem to have a definite affection for the city's fire fighters. There were even several people who thanked us for standing there and ringing the bells. Amazing. Truly the spirit of Christmas is alive and well in the Twin Cities. A refreshing change from the mood I encountered last night at the Mall of America.

On another note the snow continued throughout the day and is falling as I write. According to the Weather Channel forecast the snow will continue through some time tomorrow afternoon. No worries on a white Christmas here. In addition the wind has picked up and the temps have plummeted as promised. Last check my thermometer read -8 degrees. Not sure where the wind chill sits.

After we finished ringing bells we headed to a little Chinese restaurant nearby called the Cleveland Wok. They have a very small but most wonderful buffet. We arrived just as the buffet opened and the food was very good. Of course no Chinese meal is complete without a fortune cookie and mine provided me with a very curious fortune indeed. It read, "Soon, a visitor shall delight you." Well I will have quite a few visitors this week so I am preparing myself to be delighted. Hope I am not disappointed. :-)

Countdown to Christmas

Wow I can't quite believe when I looked at the calendar this morning and saw Christmas is but 5 days away. With Thanksgiving so late this year it has literally been a dash to Christmas. Interestingly enough for the third year now my work load hasn't lightened in the least even with the holidays bearing down on us. It seems nothing slows us down anymore. Don't get me wrong - I am thankful each and every day that I have a fairly stable job and one I like to boot but it is sad in a way to me that we don't seem to slow down in the business world even to take a collective breath and remember what is really important.

I am happy to report that my shopping is about 90% complete now. Not bad huh? I kept it simple this year and that helped. I think next year I am going to look to more Internet shopping as well. I truly love hitting the malls but my schedule just isn't exactly conducive to it so it seems.

This week was a fun one. At my work we had our employee Christmas celebration. We played hooky on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Park Tavern in St. Louis Park where we had bar Olympics. We were split into four teams of three people each and played two games of bowling, a round of darts and two rounds of pool. I pretty much stunk at all of it but I did throw one strike in the two rounds of bowling. Having never thrown a dart in my life imagine my surprise when on my second dart I got a bulls eye! Pool - well that was another story. I don't get the fun of that game. The darts and bowling were more my style. Here is a photo of my team "The Young Guns." From left to right: Nik (drawing a blank on his bowling name), Jeremy "Rev" and yours truly "Pinky." I am so proud to say we came in 4th place! :-)

I had to cut out from the fun early as Anna had her holiday dance program that evening and I had mom duty to get her dressed and her hair looking pretty. We have had a pretty rough start to dance this year as Anna suddenly and inexplicably developed a fear of attending dance class. So strange as this is her third year. She missed classes as a result and then illnesses didn't help. But it seems with age comes the ability to better learn dances so she still did pretty well on her three numbers - ballet, jazz and tap. Here are a couple photos I captured as well as a class shot.

The dance studio always has Santa there so Ryan and Anna took a moment to say hi.

Today we are getting a dumping of snow. I am hearing numbers ranging from 4 - 8 inches. Not such a big deal except there are high winds expected to arrive at some point driving the temps down and most likely blowing the snow and making travel, etc. treacherous. Soon we are headed over to Saint Paul to ring bells for the Salvation Army on behalf of the Saint Paul Fire Department. I will try to capture some photos to share with you. I am hearing reports that they are very far behind where they need to be donation-wise. No doubt the economy is having a HUGE impact - more families now in need and less families able to give. I hope we are successful in getting some nice donations.

Riding a Roller Coaster

I have had some tough weeks recently parent-wise. I equate being a parent to a long-term roller coaster ride. You first approach it with wide-eyed wonder as you try to take in the twists, turns, descents and ascents and you wonder what it will hold for you when you hop in your "car" and begin your ride. You feel excitement for the unknown that lies ahead and also fear. You don't expect the ride to be without bumps along the way and in fact your "car" may even stall on the track at points. But still you push ahead and when your car returns to the "loading" area you happily opt for another go around. And so it goes.

Parenting a child with ADHD is no different except for one thing. When you step into your "car" you get to put on a blindfold. With no way to ever see what is ahead of you, you are unable to anticipate the curve coming around the bend, the sudden drop or the steep climb. It comes at you from different directions and just when you think you are confident and maybe even no longer afraid, you suddenly find your "car" might have even jumped the track. Well the latter is how I am feeling these days.

When I signed on for this parenting thing I agreed to a lifetime pass. Right now however I feel as though I am need of a bit of a break from the ride. Who knew a 50 pound 10-year old could take so much out of me? I know it is no fun for him either but much of the time once the meds kick in in the morning there is no recollection of the bad behavior. A seemingly total disconnect from the bad behavior that resulted in consequences like groundings from computer, video games, TV, etc. etc. What a baffling and frustrating disorder.

But not to worry, I am not fleeing my "car." Just don't be surprised if you find me hiding under the front. :-)

The Birds and The Bees

Well I think I may have misspoke a few weeks ago when I recapped my conversation with Anna about how babies are made. If memory serves me correctly I believe I commented on Ryan's apparent lack of interest in subjects such as this.

We received a phone call this week from the teacher at school who had confiscated a "racy book" that Ryan had on the bus. Another child had tattled that "Ryan has a book with dirty pictures in it." Of course what immediately comes to mind is something Playboyish in nature or maybe worse, right? Well (at least as far as I am aware) we do not have books or magazines in our house of this nature so I was baffled as to what book he had. It turns out he had a book titled "It's Perfectly Normal." This is a book designed for parents to use with their kids to discuss the changes their bodies will go through, etc. This book and a partner book that details how a baby is conceived, etc. are I believe very good tools for parents but they have a controversial reputation from what I can tell.

I got these books by way of my old job at Realityworks where our focus was life skills education for teens and pre-teens. The author of these books contacted me and sent samples of the books in the hopes we might offer them for sale. We decided not to but she encouraged me to keep the books for my children. I thought they would be very helpful some day so tucked them away.

The weekend after Thanksgiving I went on a mad cleaning spree in our basement unearthing a bunch of books. These books were in the pile and unbeknown to me Ryan claimed "It's Perfectly Normal" for his own. The story we got from the teacher was that he had the book on the bus and was showing the pictures to others. The pictures are actually illustrations geared toward a kid but are graphic none the less.

So on Monday night after receiving this call (and me communicating via email with the teacher to hopefully save some face!) we sat down with Ryan to have a talk. We stressed that we weren't mad but wanted to hear his side of the story. It took quite a bit of coaxing but he did confess and claimed the title "interested" him because it was so different. We were pretty frank with him about the book and its purpose and of course then had to ask if he had questions or was curious about things with his body. He claimed no, but interestingly enough after I told Ryan he was more than welcome to read the book once we got it back from school, his interest seemed to pick up and he was very receptive to that.

I also had to chuckle a bit because I later overheard Bill telling Ryan that girl's private areas are OFF LIMITS. :-)

Later Bill asked me if I thought Ryan was telling the whole truth and I said, "absolutely not, do you?" Bill said "no but I remember being 10 and being curious." Big sigh. And so it begins I guess.

This is just another example of why my gray hairs continue to multiply . . .

It Must Be The Holiday Season

I was a bit shocked and embarrassed when I logged onto my blog to discover I hadn't posted since before Thanksgiving. Where does the time go? Quickly I thought, "oh yeah it is the holiday season and time goes into double overdrive on the race to Christmas." I have been especially busy at work with a large scale project for one of my clients that has taken quite a large chunk of my time and taken me out of the office quite a bit. In our house we seem to continue to battle illnesses. Ryan came down with the nasty cold I was fighting a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he got a more serious version than I did and ended up at the doctor the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. He still has a lingering cough. Nasty stuff so early in the season. This past week Anna got quite sick with a stomach bug and spent two days home from school. She bounced back pretty quickly but now it appears Bill is down for the count. Oh how I hate when the older "boy" in the house gets sick. :-) Aren't I mean??

Since last writing we traveled north to Cambridge to cut down our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This is a traditional event that Bill and I started way back in 1991. Other than the 8 Christmases spent in Eau Claire (where we found a tree farm there to cut a tree at) we have always gone to Cambridge. We have enjoyed near-balmy temps to frigid ones in all the years as well as barren ground to knee deep snow. This year was pretty mild with only a light dusting of snow. And this year was a first for me who usually walks around for an hour or more to find "the perfect tree" as I found our tree on the second time I asked Bill "how does this look?" Apparently with turning 40 comes decisiveness? Ha ha ha.
We also celebrated Ryan's 10th Birthday. He turned 10 December 3rd but we didn't get to really celebrate since Bill was working and Anna was sick. So we surprised him with a small cake the next night. He also had a small party with some family yesterday and tonight we took him to Famous Dave's for his birthday dinner. I still can't believe he has entered double digits in age. Doesn't seem possible.

No I haven't officially started Christmas shopping but I do have a pretty good idea in my head of much of what I will be buying when I get the chance. Money is tight for us this holiday season (as I am sure it is for everyone) so gifts will be light. We have prepared the kids for fewer gifts especially given the October Disney trip. We even have told them times are tough for Santa. Bill and I have tried to agree on a "no gift exchange" truce this year and I hope we are both good on it. I know Bill really has his heart set on a flat panel HDTV but it may have to wait for ts refund time. I would also like to get in some baking but we will see if I have the time. Sad as that is likely my most favorite thing to do for the holidays.

Hope you enjoy the photos sprinkled throughout the post and if anyone out there wants to take my shopping list and get it done for me just drop me a line. :-)