a few Christmas pictures

I'll have to find one of me but here are the rest of us from this weekend at my mom's.

My baby Jackson, age 9, I can never get a picture of him smiling right into the camera - how did she do that!

Teddy - age 11. Look at those eyes. They really are that green in real life, though it's not always quite this obvious.

What a wonderfully sweet picture of Teddy and Brad! I love this.

I don't think Dr. Spock would approve

The boys are in MAJOR fighting and constant bickering mode - 24/7. It's driving Brad and I to drink. While if you were to drop in on any given day you might conclude that Jackson is doing more than his fair share of starting it all, I really think it's all starts with Teddy and puberty. He's just so often disagreeable or mean or argumentative that I think Jackson is protecting himself by lashing out first. This is not really the point of this story but there it is.

One of the things my darling Teddy will do is give Jackson a wedgie. Now this is all good and well except for the fact that Teddy is much bigger and stronger than Jackson, not to mention that Teddy has no sense of when to stop - no upper limit. And occasionally he has bursts of anger that if mixed with wedgie giving could be really bad.

So on this particular day they were outside my room while I was laying down with a bad head cold trying to take a nap and they were bickering and fighting and I was doing my best to ignore them and fall asleep..... Until Jackson was screaming; blood curdling screams. I came out and found Jackson writhing around on the ground gasping for air he was crying so hard. I finally got that this pain was caused by a wedgie. I'd had enough. I walked to Teddy told him to turn around which he did though he didn't suspect what I wanted. I reached in and pulled him up and off the ground by his underwear and gave him a solid shake before putting him down again. He was shocked and horrified. (I might have been too - somewhere in there I was thinking... am I really giving my 11 year old a wedgie?)

It hurt him. He yelled and slammed the door and yelled a certain four letter word (for the first time I might add). I told him to watch his mouth. After about five minutes I came out and told him I was sorry that I had hurt him and much to my shock and awe he sheepishly apologized for hurting Jackson. I told him I didn't think he understood just how much it hurts when a bigger and stronger person gives you a wedgie - I think he gets it now.

I think it may have worked out exactly as I intended for it to though I can assure you I was absolutely not thinking clearly at the time because if I had been there's no way I would have done that. Can you imagine? Geez.

Camela

Christmas 2009

Last night Jackson said he was going to set his alarm to 5:10 am. I think we convinced him not too, knowing his internal alarm clock would wake him before 6 anyway. We told the boys they couldn't wake us until 7:15 am. Brad and I went to bed somewhere around 1:30, though I don't think I feel asleep until nearly two. Not too long after 4am I hear kids running around the house (curse these mommy ears of mine!!!). I go to get them back into bed only to run into bleary eyed Jackson in the hall.

Me: Baby it's way too early to be up
Jack: Teddy woke me, he's downstairs
I'm shocked as Teddy is a sleep-a-holic though he is very excited about Santa visiting. I head downstairs.
M: Teddy honey, it's waaaay too early to be up.
Ted: YOU SAID 4:10 am.
M: There is no universe in which I would ever say 4:10 am is an okay time to get up.
T: BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID!!!
M: Sweetie, it's really not. You need to go back to bed.

I got back to bed though I could clearly hear the kids moving around. I just didn't have the energy to get back out of bed. I rolled over to get Brad to tell them to get back into bed. I gently rubbed his arm (the safest way to wake him). That didn't work. I pulled the covers down and rubbed a little harder. Nada. I pulled the covers back more (he HATES to be cold and often sleeps with his electric blanket on 10) and rubbed harder still. Nope. Finally I just shook him. "Brad." Not a thing. I gave up, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. I saw it hit five but that was it.

Until..... At about 6:15 when Jackson came in.

Jack: Mom. Mom. (They know it's much safer to wake me) what time can we wake you up?
Me: You've got to be kidding me Jackson. You just woke me to ask when you can wake me?
J: Yeah, what time?
M: 7:15 now go away (I was not feeling very Christmasy)

And that was it.... until 7:13 when our door burst open as did my eyes. but they didn't come in. After about 10 seconds little feet run away and then back again.
Jack: It's still 7:13 we can't go in (they need to work a bit on their whispering skills)
Ted: Let's go wake them
J: We can't. Not until 7:15.
silence for about 15 seconds or so before feet go running away then back again
J: Ted! It's 7:14, only one more minute.
Mom: OMG I can hear you. I'm right here. We'll get up if you go away right now.

Merry Christmas everyone,
Camela

My baby turns 9 today

I'm not at all sure how this is possible. It seems as though he should still be four or so. He's still so much my baby; in fact I call him 'baby' which a few years ago he questioned but totally seemed fine with once I explained that he would always be my baby - long after he was bigger than me. I think he shrugged his shoulders and said - eh, okay.

Jackson is hilarious. He has no idea what the concept of comic timing is - but I tell you he has it in spades; the dramatic pause, the single eyebrow raise, the perfectly timed witty come back. He makes us laugh out loud every day.

Unfortunately he's able to make his peers laugh as well - which means he pays more attention to being the unofficial entertainment then to getting his work done in school. This has been an ongoing issue since birth and I imagine it isn't going away any time soon.

He has a tremendous amount of common sense and overall awareness of how the world works and how things are connected. Often he chooses to use this knowledge to amuse himself or others by starting a chain of events where he's confident of the outcome. It's hilarious and rather scary to watch, though of course we do our best not to fall down laughing and instead to point out the good and not so good times to use this power of his.

The other side of him is this lovely and wonderfully helpful little guy. He's matured so much over the past year, it's been really lovely to see. If I need him to do something - anything - he'll happily help out well unless he's in an ornery, stubborn mood which happens with some frequency.

He has been known to slam his door to great effect and follow that with throwing thing repeatedly against his door. He's full of drama. I have no idea whatsoever where he gets that side of him. (Brad you be quiet!)

This is a picture of him that captures his sweetness.

Odds and ends

Before and After

We have spent a lot of time trying to find the right color for the hallways in our house. We've got a lot of color in our house so the color for these common areas had to compliment all the colors and also work on both floors as we have a two story foyer so the color will travel up there as well. I wanted a light brown or dark tan kind of color and tried out lots of choices; going so far as painting the common areas only to determine I didn't like it. So we tried again and by the time our 2008 Christmas party got here we'd actually chosen the final color after narrowing it down to two choices; coffee and oatmeal (oatmeal won.) The problem was that we'd only had time to do some of the painting and still had one wall that had both choices painted there in big ugly squares. It didn't really bother me at the time - it was sort of one of those... 'it is what it is' kinds of things.... But..

When the party rolled around for 2009 A WHOLE YEAR LATER and the wall looked exactly the same... well I thought that was not a good thing so two days before the party I was on a ladder painting the more obviously unfinished sections; including the wall across from the front door with the two big splotches - phew. All the walls aren't done, but at least it's no longer so dead obvious.

it's the top square of paint that is the winner; oatmeal

This little noel sign on the newly painted wall is maybe my favorite addition to the Christmas decorations this year.

The window that Bandit broke

I talked about it in an earlier post, but here are the before and after pictures.

I guess I should be happy that the window was double paned so Bandit didn't go all the way through... but because I don't love this dog at all it's hard to be that happy.... oops did I say that out loud?

Really? you have an extra window in the basement... yay!

The magical, wonderful, expanding table

Again I talked about this wonderful table in an earlier post but then decided to take some pictures. It folds down into a biggish hallway table and then expands to a card table size and then has two leaves and gets big enough to sit eight - it's the perfect table for an apartment short on size.

At it's smallest - in our last house this sat under a nice pretty mirror except for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

Brad is showing the progress of opening it up to card table size

We've played games and made puzzles on it while this size.

This has both leaves in it (I think) and will sit eight.

Camela

a few things.....

Something you don't expect your husband to say....

"Jack! Licking food off the table is never appropriate."


The great books...

In high school I took several literature classes (I don't know what they were really called but I read a great many great books in them) and I've always been grateful for having been forced to read all those wonderful books; Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, Babbit, Canterbury Tales, Catcher in the Rye (one of my all time favorites)... you get the idea. Though through those classes I never once read Moby Dick and I've always felt a little secret guilt about that. A couple of years ago I ordered it through Amazon with the best of intentions. I cracked it as soon as I got it home and ... I couldn't do it. A few months later I tried again but... nope. It's still on the list. I am going to read that book! But so far it hasn't happened. Frankly it hasn't even made it to my "next in line to be read" shelf or the "next group of books I need to read" drawer - but I do know where it is and I. Will. Read. It.

So fast forward to this morning and Teddy tells me he's reading Moby Dick. Wow, I think. That's great! He's 11 and he's reading Moby Dick, I'm impressed. I tell him how I've always wanted to read it, how I recently bought it, but hadn't quite gotten to it yet. I tell him what a great book it is, what a wonderful story it is (totally trying to encourage him to keep reading it as I've found it too dry to capture me and am afraid he'll find the same thing). And really I am in all honesty impressed that he'd be reading it in 6th grade. (That may be perfectly normal; after all he got it from school, but it sort of feels early to me) He is appropriately proud of himself given my reaction and all is well. Then Jackson leaves the room.

T: You know mom, I'm only reading it because of the last name. You know... Dick.

It was all I could do not to fall over laughing at him. Why I didn't see that coming I have no idea. Boy is he going to be sorely disappointed. I was told a Star Trek Next Generation episode was loosely based on the book which I told Ted when I picked him up from school today - I hope that connection will keep him interested when he realizes it's not exciting in exactly the way he was hoping for.

Camela

Jack's birthday

I'm just bad at this NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) stuff, I missed another day... or two.... Oh well.

But boy did we have a busy day yesterday.... that's my only excuse. We had Jackson's birthday party which was at a movie theater from 12 to 5. That's 5 long hours with 15ish eight to eleven year olds. We saw Planet 51 and the kids all loved it. The adults thought it was just okay (or at least I did). The best part as far as the kids were concerned.... while the aliens were seeing the human man naked for the first (and only) time one of them cocked his head and said... "uh that's an odd place to put your antenna." Brad and I were a little surprised the movie went 'there'. But there was much high pitched giggling from the little girls sitting in front of us and when polled later boys and girls alike cited that as their favorite part.

Before and after the movie we were in a party room that was actually situated on a balcony of sorts overlooking the main lobby of the movie theater. It had several games for the kids to enjoy; a basketball shot game, Foosball, ping pong, and air hockey along with a chalkboard the length of the room. The downside to all these games with balls was that occassionally the balls ended up down on the lobby floor. Luckily there were no serious injuries. Here are a few pictures....

Jackson looking sweetly at his brother (ok maybe he was looking at him with that know it all, I'm in charge today look - but from a distance it looks kind of sweet, wouldn't you agree?)

One of my favorite kids in the world (and Jackson's too) Jake.

Josh's ice cream cup exploded on him... oops.

Jack was in kindergarten with Niall and they've been friends ever since.

Teddy was in kindergarten with Niall's brother Devlin and they've been friends ever since. (it's nice how that's worked out so well!)

Teddy's best friend Matthew

Teddy

Chae, Sophie, and LaLia (Sophie and Jackson have been in class together since preschool and are known to carry on like an old married couple)

That's the card Sophie made for Jackson that includes a picture of them at the end of second grade - how cute is that.

Jack opening presents with Brad and the kids looking on.

At one point a bunch of the boys started an impromptu game of telephone...

While the girls played basketball and air hockey.

Then we took some group shots.....

Isn't this a handsome looking group!

Okay, perhaps they are a bit crazy at times

This is their movie star pose

Here they are very, very mad. Jack's so mad he's hiding.

Jackson couldn't believe that everyone was so surprised by my antics.

I think they've all had enough... well maybe not Jackson and Matthew.

Camela