groundspeed

Talking and a Fish Face

For no apparent reason whatsoever Blue says, ""What smells like watermellon?"

So I say: "Your boogers."

And Kaden says, "Good one, Mom."

***

For no apparent reason whatsoever Blue says, "Sometimes I don't wear underwear."

***

For no apparent reason whatsoever Blue says, "Let's sleep the next 24 days and then wake up for Christmas."

***

Toby, who is entirely too tall for his age, reaches for my cell phone on the counter, which I thought I'd pushed out of reach. I say, "Who are going to call?"

Blue says, "He's calling Mary."

I say, "Who's Mary?" (I don't have any friends named Mary.)

Blue says, "You know, Mary and Joseph."

***

If you say, "Happy Hippo" to Toby he will absolutely answer you by saying, "Angry duck." (Thank you, Sandra Boynton.)

***

Toby also likes to walk around saying the word, "Goofbot" over and over. (Thank you, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.)

***

Blue is always asking me, "Is this a fish face?" And then he makes some weird expression that is not at all a fish face, so today I told him to make a fish face so I could get a picture of one of his odd ball non fish face faces, and then he managed to make a fish face. Typical.

Ok. Still odd ball.

Dear Sock Monster,

Seriously?

I did ALL the laundry on Saturday and here's what was left after the final load of clothes was put away. Maybe sock monsters up their eating during the holidays too.

Oh Great Light of the World

It's the first Sunday of Advent.

Toby, Blue and I finished off the leftovers while Kevin and Kaden were at an Upward Basketball practice and came in as I was putting Toby to bed.

We didn't talk about advent.

We've talked about Christmas lights. (Outside lights done!) And decorations. (The kids are already nagging me, but I wanted to clean first. That happened today.) 

And Blue has been saying the next BIG event after Thanksgiving is HIS birthday. (Christmas Smishmas - BLUE IS TURNING FIVE THIS THURSDAY, People.)

Preperations for the light, the hope, faith, joy, and peace, of the world... Not yet. At least not in the light-a-candle symbolic way we like to observe this time of year. Tomorrow, when we sit around the table for a meal together (no basketball, no other disrupting plans) we will light a candle; we will talk about what we're getting ready for. We'll begin discussion about why we will begin to decorate, set up a tree, and plan special holiday events because of who the hubub is about.

We try to keep the focus on faith and not stuff. We don't do Santa or have the kids write Christmas lists. I'm one of those snooty people who avoids Black Friday on principal. (Even so, I found myself at Walmart at 3pm on Friday buying outdoor light hooks.) But I've already got my Christmas cards ordered even though I haven't gotten my advent lessons in order. Hmmmm. (Sigh.)

It's ok. Mary/Joseph/Zacharias didn't seem ready for the news when it was first sprung on them. (Angels!) I'm sure their preparations for the long-awaited savior didn't go exactly as planned either. (Zacharias lost his voice which made things difficult to explain, duties as priest difficult to perform... And poor Mary, before forced to travel for some stupid government census right at month nine. Travel by donkey NOT how I'd want to spend my final days readying for a baby.)

So we celebrate as we can. We worship, observe, reflect when we can. We get caught up in the nothing-to-do-with-Jesus commercial craziness or cultural expectations and then (hopefully) we catch ourselves and pull back for a few silent and holy nights.

I do love Christmas, but in our household we are still tweeking its celebration. We aim to be intentional and not just swept along. It's not about finding balance, it's about faith pervading every aspect of this season. (Or any season.)

Trying. So not there. But trying.

Tickle Fight!

Thank you, Elf.

We've planned on using a family photo from our August anniversary shoot for our Christmas cards, but I also wanted to do a pic of just the boys in holiday colored shirts. A group shot of the three of them was an epic fail (I ended up shooting individual pics) so at one point, inspired by Friday night's movie viewing, I shouted out, "Tickle fight!"

Starfish Wreaths

Our front door Christmas wreath wasn't nice enough to make the move. Christmas 2009 we were at my mom's. Christmas 2010 we were in our new home but TWO new wreaths (because we have double doors) wasn't in the budget, so our doors stayed naked.

This year it wasn't really in the budget either but...

Oh well. 

I wanted wreaths.

I wanted blue and white wreaths to match my blue and white house.  I wanted star fish on my wreaths but I wanted them to be Christmasy not just every-day beachy.

Surprisingly enough I haven't come across exactly what I wanted in a store anywhere.

So I set out to make wreaths. This was my black-Friday project.

I don't consider myself crafty and I've never made a wreath before, but I bought the plain twig wreaths and figured with a glue gun, how could I go wrong?

I spray-painted my wreaths white, bought a bunch of star fish and two shells at Shell Bazaar, a few blue ornaments and got out my glue gun. The star fish and shells are just glue gunned on. The ornaments are tied together and then on and then glue gunned in spots to be exactly where I want them. 

That's it. One afternoon and done.

Looking around most nice wreaths cost between $50 and $100 and I'd say each wreath cost me about $25. (It's only that high because I spent $29 just in star fish and the two shells!) Definitely a worthwhile DIY project.

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

For the MFI Thanksgiving lunch I wanted to make these Chocolate-filled Sweet Potato Cupcakes from Better Homes and Gardens. 

Then I realized I'd thrown away my cupcake pan (Note to self - buy a new cupcake pan before Blue's birthday party.), I did still have a mini cupcakes pan but the chocolate kiss insert wouldn't fit. Instead I poked in three or four chocolate chips.  

Oh and this was my first time making chocolate frosting.  Mmmmm. It was thick and yummy. 

Recipe made 55 mini cupcakes.

Dreher Park Finds

One fun thing about the holidays is that old friends come back into town to see their families, so earlier this week I got to meet up with a high school buddy at Dreher Park.

When we arrived at the playground a group of wood storks attracted Toby much more than the slides. This was a problem as they were as tall as him.

After awhile a busload of day care kids showed up so we loaded back up and drove down the road to the next playground. Here we found, well, in Florida, it can only be described as a mountain.

Toby conquered it.

Celebrating Thankfulness

And food. We celebrated lots and lots of food.

There was a moment this morning when I was in the kitchen listening to the soft pops of cranberries bursting open in the pan, becoming sauce and to Toby who kept clinking the silverware on my set tables, the parade was just beginning, and I thought, I SO love this day. One day. One big 'ol meal.

Focusing on what we have and NOT what we want.

Fant-tas-tic.

(You people who buy the canned stuff - why? One bag of cranberries, some water, 1/2 cup of sugar, some lemon, some orange juice if you have it, some cinnamon - bring to boil, simmer about 15 minutes, remove from heat - that's it! And so yummy!) 

I did most of my prep Wednesday. Salad, with the exception of dressing, made. Sweet potato casserole made - just needed to be baked. Spinach dip - made. Rolls and ice cream for pies other people were baking - bought. Linens ironed. Centerpieces made. Tables set. Easy, 2-seconds-to-make banner made and hung.

Here's Blue last week cutting feathers for pine cone turkey centerpieces.

The main table. Napkin "rings" ended up being more leaves I cut for our Thankfulness Tree tied around with raffia. If guests wanted, they could write on their leaf and add it to our tree. It was fun to read leaves after everyone went home.

All I had to do Thanksgiving day was make my cranberry sauce, deviled eggs and the punch. I had even frozen ice cubes for the punch the night before. (Cranberries floating in any drink makes it seem so much more festive.)

So I made my sauce and then Toby, Blue, and I went on our usual 2-mile stroller-roll/bike-ride/walk through the neighborhood. (Meanwhile Kevin was driving half-way across the state to collect Kaden from Papa who was doing the same so they could transfer our boy who we had left behind in Tampa last weekend.)

Later in the morning I set about making snacks. Parade on. Kaden and Blue doing puzzles. Daddy trying to keep Toby away from puzzles.

Mmmmm. Snacks.

Around noon, some friends, a family of five like us, arrived. Their youngest daughter, a 5th grader, is Toby's favorite person, so pretty much the kids then disappeared. I arranged casseroles to stay warm in the oven. Football watching commenced. 

The chaos began as my mother, who was assigned one free-range turkey and stuffing, arrived with her turkey, duck, ham, stuffing, but not gravy because that had spilled all over her car. She quickly barked orders for sour cream and flour to make more gravy and I quickly got to pulling out more platters and rearranging the counter for all her food.  

Soon enough carving commenced:

And then, right on time at 2pm, the eating commenced:

Including our family, we were fifteen in all, that we could all be together was our first reason to be thankful as Tony, an MFI volunteer, had to be in the hospital yesterday and we were worried for awhile that he and his wife wouldn't be able to come. For Tony's sake and because his wife, Patricia, was making the apple pie - it was important they came!

One more picture. Blue, for reasons only known to Blue, emerged from his room playing his guitar while wearing his pilgrim hat, beads, and some 3D glasses.

Food. Friends. Goofy, dancing Blue.

We are blessed.

Now we commence to avoid all things Gray Thursday and Black Friday.

Kevin is movie watching. I, after blogging, will be reading. And tomorrow...

Kevin will be hanging outside lights and I have a wreath project I'm a little nervous about, but with enough glue in the glue gun all things are possible, right? 

Thankful

I'm thankful. I am blessed with a house, food, friends, and freedom of religion. Running water is taken for granted. As are flushing toilets, electricity and even high speed internet access.  

My van died recently and buying a new one would have been an inconvenience and a big-time budget stretcher but not an impossibility. Even so, Kevin's dad gave us his car on loan indefinitely until we buy a new one. I am thankful for this.

I'm thankfor the 99% being willing to protest, give up comforts, and stand up to injustice. I'm thankful for the 53% who shoulder so much of our country's taxes and needs. I'm thankful for the 1% who also speak out for injustice and step up to do their part.

I'm thankful for nieces and nephews... all the fun cousins my kiddos know and love to play with.  I never had the cousin thing growing up. My mom is one of two and her brother never had kids. My dad is one of five but he is not close to his family and I never knew any of my cousins on his side.  I have older half siblings but for the most part, growing up, it was just me.  Siblings I didn't miss. (Attention. Stuff. All mine!) Cousins... (Built in friends at all family get-togethers) I missed.

This past weekend, for the first time since Bethan and Stella arrived, all the Stratton-side cousins were together for an early Thanksgiving.

(Oh yes. This group together makes for a noisy house.)

I'm thankful for my husband. Specifically I'm thankful for how much he loves his kids and comes up with fun ways to spend time with them. Friday night he took Kaden and Blue to a father/son camping retreat he found out about because a guy he works with was going. The boys loved the paddle boating, lake with tall slides and rock wall with a zip line, but mostly I think they loved their special time with Daddy.

 

I'm thankful that we've gone three months without Blue peeing on anything or breaking anything on purpose.

I'm thankful for TWO amazing vacations this year. One to celebrate our ten-year anniversary and one to celebrate a wedding and beginning of a marriage.

I'm thankful for my collection of Christmas albums. I'm usually a stickler for waiting until after Thanksgiving, but Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong may possibly have already been keeping me company when I'm up late reading. (Shhh. Don't tell Kevin.)

I'm thankful for the Fragile X Community. Online or in-person, I know I have people who have answers to my questions.

I'm thankful for Fragile X research and all the advances from this year.

I'm thankful for whatever technology allows me to stream Pandora through my TV. My Mumford and Sons station makes for many a happy late afternoons when I'm cooking dinner.

These guys:

They are noisy. Sometimes they smell bad. No matter how often I clean their bathroom it is always a mess. They fill my days with good and bad, but they are mine. And I am so thankful.

And I'm thankful that tonight begins the baking, baking, baking and prepping, prepping, prepping. MFI Thanksgiving in the hangar tomorrow. Thanksgiving Day at our house - the count is at 15. LOVE it!

Mr. Silly Rotten Stinker

A few things our Tobes has been up to this week:

Walked in on Toby playing peekaboo with his Elmos.

Walked in on Toby sitting ON TOP of the dining room table "helping" Blue with a workbook page.

Also:

*Toby pulls on me all day and says, "Horsie? Horsie?" But in the event that I give in, and get down on all fours, he usually just starts laughing so hard ne never actually climbs on my back.

*He loves to wash Blues hair. As in, I put the shampoo on Blue's head and Toby wants to be the one to work it into a lather.

*If you know Toby at all you know that he loves to sing. A few weeks ago, out of nowhere, he added the Happy Birthday song to his repertoire of songs he will bust out with at any time for no apparent reason. The other day I was changing his diaper and he started singing the Happy Birthday song. When he got to, "Happy birthday dear...." He filled that in with, "Poopy."  

Yup, my kid sang Happy Birthday to his poop.

*Toby has never climbed to the second level of our outdoor playset. Wednesday afternoon when I really wanted to finish the book for my book group that night, I thought, throw kids in backyard and I get to sit on the patio and read. This was the day Toby decided he would climb the steps to the second level. Blue yells for me. I run over. Toby reaches to get down. I put him back at the steps and tell him to go up. But with me there? No way. He acted like even putting two feet on the FIRST STEP was IMPOSSIBLE. So I walked away. Without Mommy available anymore, he was back to the top before I'd made it back across the yard to my book. So much for reading time.

*We have just, in the past month, introduced Toby to the concept of timeout. Usually for hitting me.  Yesterday, he came up, smacked me on the leg, and then in my stern voice, said, TIME OUT!  (He's winning; I'm losing.)

*He has a cradle full of stuffed animals, a tub full of board books, and a basket full of toys in his room, but when he's in there he usually prefers to take all his clothes out of his drawers and all of his diapers out of the bin where I keep them and spread these things all over.

*On Wednesday at Blue's Thanksgiving Feast not only was Toby up there standing with Blue's class, but he also attempted to sing along to the songs he'd never heard and made up motions.

My silly, rotten sinker... has been keeping us very entertained.