Stinkin' pilgrims

My favorite time of year.... sort of

Today we undecorated from Halloween. It's sad for me because I love Halloween so much but.... if we don't pull them down now... well.. I might lose my mind. Thanksgiving is only 19 days away and we're hosting for my father's side of the family (we haven't actually invited anyone yet, but it's on the list for tomorrow) - that's roughly 20-25 people depending on who comes. We love hosting big family holiday dinners but of course it's a lot of work. And then right on the heels of Thanksgiving dinner, our annual Christmas party is always the first Saturday in December (the very next weekend) which is.... oh holy Hell... 28 days from today.

A few years ago we also hosted Thanksgiving and we didn't start decorating for Christmas until the next day because we didn't want to have the house all decked out for Christmas when it should be crawling with pilgrims - but alas that mad rush in the following eight days while we were both working full time nearly caused a divorce..... so...

From that point forward we decided to skip right over the pilgrims. Who likes pilgrims anyway. Stinkin' pilgrims. (okay I'll admit to a little guilt about this. My paternal grandma who was an amazing woman and an amazing cook held Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year and her house was totally decked out in pilgrims and cornucopias and all other appropriate type Thanksgiving stuff for Thanksgiving and tons of Christmas stuff for Christmas (she even hung different pictures on the walls for each event) but... I just can't live up to her example and I've decided I just have to get over it.)

So we skip the pilgrims and move straight from skeletons and graves to trees and wreaths and lights. The family will have to adjust to a Christmasy Thanksgiving dinner. I promise I won't play a single Christmas carol during dinner. So today Brad took down our graveyard and eyeball lights and started to put up our house lights for Christmas, while I did similar things inside. The Christmas decorating process in this house takes a very, very long time because frankly I'm a little insane about it.... but I do love how my house looks all decked out for Christmas.

Camela

They've all been debleated

A quick movie review of Men who Stare at Goats.

uh.

um.

I'm not sure what to say about this.

Okay. I liked it. I think. It was very "Cohen Brothers"-ish". I was totally and fully engrossed in the story the entire time. Though I think 'story' is a bit of a stretch. I laughed out loud plenty - though it was often more of a 'laugh at you' than 'laugh with you' kind of thing. The two best lines that had Brad and I falling out of our seats laughing were "They've all been debleated" and "Silence of the Goats". I'm still laughing while I type this - total hilarity. It was full of very smart, dry, need-to-pay-attention-to dialog. I recommend it, but can't really tell you why. Brad says it's a movie about redemption - I think that's a big huge stretch. it's sort of in there, but like a hint at the end and even then you're not really sure it isn't a big joke.

Oh and I think I should get a pass on skipping yesterday of NaBloPoMo cuz it was my anniversary. Has anyone noticed that some people say NaBloPoMo which stands for National Blog Posting Month and others say NaNoBloMo which stands for something else maybe National November Blog Month? Any thoughts?

Bedtime in our house

First let me say this NaBloPoMo thing is very hard and it's only the 5th. To top it off I just linked the blog with Facebook and so now my FB pages are filled with these inane things - I may have to sever this link yet... we'll see.

When Brad's in town we trade off on who puts which boy to bed each night and how the actual bedtime ritual unfolds seems to change and evolve for each parent and each kid over time - I'm sure this is true everywhere. For the first six years or so of Jackson's life he was a royal PITA going to bed; everything about it was hard. In fact let's start at the beginning shall we..... Brad and I believed in the cold turkey method of getting your kids to sleep through the night when they were babies. We consulted books and friends and doctors and decided between 4 and 5 months was the right age. So the first night for Teddy we put him down and closed all the doors between him and us and turned on the TV and radio and kept the monitor off only checking it periodically and on the first night he cried for 12 minutes and on the 2nd night he cried for 7 minutes and then we never heard from him again and we thought - okay wow the books and friends and doctors were right. That was easy.

Then along came Jackson.... (it's a good thing he's cute)... So being the 2nd child we still closed the doors and we still went into a different part of the house but eh.... I just wasn't as worried about this one, I knew he'd figure it out eventually. So the first night after 45 minutes of progressively louder crying he hit that high pitched screaming stage where he was beginning to lose his voice. And well that was where my limit had been met. So I went and got him. This same pattern of him sobbing for 45 minutes until he moved to the screaming stage lasted EVERY SINGLE NIGHT until he was 13 or 14 months old. Did I mention - every single night. (I maintain he's the single most stubborn human that's ever lived - Brad thinks that's me, but I just can't believe I can compete with that kind of stuff).

So at some point a couple of years ago Jackson got EASY to put to bed and I've done my best not to mess with that. He just wants his back rubbed for a few minutes and that's pretty much it. Though I do find it amusing how specific he is in his directions of just how he wants his back rubbed. "Mom, can you get my whole back? A little lighter please. Can you get my shoulders too. Will you use your fingernails. No, like this (where he'll demonstrate exactly what he wants on my arm). I think this bodes well for his ability to communicate his wants in the future.

And now there's Teddy. I love putting Ted to bed. We have these loud raucous battles where he's trying to best me. Trying to keep me from tickling him or trying to throw me off the bed. I often say "One day you'll be stronger than me, but that day isn't today." And so when it's my turn to put Ted down the battle's on. I still win every time, but he is definitely getting stronger, and that day will be here soon enough. More often then not Brad has to come in from putting Jack down to tell us to quiet down because we are both laughing so hard. It's the time where we are both silly and being purely kids - it's totally fun and one day when it's gone, I'll miss it.

Camela

I almost forgot

I swear this does not bode well for my NaBloPoMo. So just a bit about today.....

Teddy had his first basketball practice even though he still has at least one more soccer game. Jackson's first practice is tomorrow night. I have cramps that would kill a horse and am really thinking this whole being a woman thing is for the birds! I actually left work early because of them which happens once a year or so. I find the most interesting thing about this for me is that my brain stops working in direct relation to how much pain I'm in. Brad's trying to talk to me and tell me his upcoming travel schedule. At some point I have to stop him because all I'm really hearing is the Peanut's teacher talking Mwa Mwa Mwa Mwa Mwa Mwa. I'm sure he was telling me something interesting or maybe even important but yeah... my brain is just not capable of processing anything right now.

Jackson's crazy soccer pictures

This first picture is him alone with the soccer ball. Of course he picked picture day to wear his shin guards outside of his socks - a soccer no no - and of course neither of his parents noticed. But besides the ridiculous hair this is a pretty good picture of my kid who normally shies away from actually smiling for a camera. He usually either runs away, turns his back or makes a ridiculous face.


And this is his team picture and a perfect example of his normal picture persona. In case you can't tell, that's him in the front row 2nd from the left - even his body posture is whacked.. that's my kid!

More differences about the boys

It came time to carve the pumpkins this year and as is usually the case this falls under my list of to-dos. If there is the slightest craft element to it Brad quickly says - this is ALL you Camela, I couldn't possibly do it.

I've been using those carving templates for years now and often end up doing 2 or more pumpkins one night working late into the night because I couldn't start until the boys went to bed otherwise it would take 5 times as long and there would always be fighting and crying but last year Teddy did a lot of his and I was excited for him to do the whole thing this year.

So I give him the books to flip through so he can pick what he wants and he quickly picks a ghost in a graveyard. Great! Unfortunately I mention that he'll need to go slowly and be careful which spooks him into thinking he'll totally mess it up - and it would be awful for him if he were to create something that wasn't FANTASTIC - he's ultra worried about what others think of him. I was able to talk him into doing some of it and if I hadn't actually waited until Halloween day to carve them I easily could have gotten him to do it and to be happy and proud about it too, but... oh well maybe next year. Here's his choice.


And then there's Jackson. I gave him the books to look through and he finally looked up and said... "I'd rather do an original design." Yeah okay. So we worked back and forth and came up with this which is maybe my favorite pumpkin of all times because it came with sound effects. Whenever Jackson or I would see the pumpkin we would belt out an awful operatic soprano note. Then fall over laughing.

NaBloPoMo - ok so I'm late

I want to get rid of my spurty blogging nature so I thought participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month where you add a blog post each day for the month of November) would help me along with that.... of course then I forgot. oops.

So already I've failed, I figure that takes some of the pressure off, right? Let's consider this little blog post-lette my replacement for yesterday and I'll pretend it happened on the right day. A friend suggested I could change the date and make it seem as though I got it right, but eh - I am what I am.