Sledding and more firsts

Last Sunday was a beautiful winter day. The temperatures were in the upper 40's and we decided to take the kids up into the hills for a little sledding. We had no snow in town so we drove a few miles west and found plenty. Will's been sledding in our backyard but this was his first trip with an actual sled (as opposed to a giant piece of cardboard from the recycle bin). We stopped off at Target on the way at out of town for a few sleds and some snowpants for Reina.

Does this outfit make me look like an overstuffed munchkin? We arrived at the sledding destination and started getting the kids bundled up. We realized that Will didn't have a jacket. Flashback to the house: as we were getting ready to leave the house, I asked Glenn "do you have Will's jacket?" What Glenn heard me say was "I have Will's jacket." So long story short, Will got to go sledding in his mother's fleece shirt. Parents of the Year. Canyon went with us! For a few minutes, she was spunky and a little bit like her old self. She even chased the sled down the hill a few times. After a while, she just waited for us at the top and kept on eye on all of the shenanigans. Our sledding adventure didn't last too long before hands were too cold and tempers a little short. But we managed to cram a lot of fun into a few minutes.

Faceplant! Mr. Adrenaline bounced up from this one with a big smile on his face.

Hubba hubba! Reina rode the sled a few times but she preferred standing on top of the hill with Canyon throwing snow up in the air. Wheeeee!!!

On the way home, we experienced another 'first.' Will announced that he had to go potty and then of course Reina chimed in that she did, too. Glenn helped Will do his business and I tried to take care of Reina. Yeah.... teaching girls to pee outside is a little tougher than teaching boys. Without getting into the gritty details, let's just say that it eventually happened. But not before we flashed about 20 cars on the highway. (For those of you with safety concerns, I'd like to point out that while it looks like we are peeing on the road, we are actually parked on a little turnout away from the road. But yeah, we are peeing in public.)

What a great end to a lovely holiday weekend. Even though they got cold, both kids seem to like snow sports and being outdoors and that makes me really excited about the future.

It's Christmas!

Christmas morning dawned bright and early in the Pauley household. Will was stirring when Glenn asked him if Santa had visited our house last night. Will popped up immediately awake and ran down stairs to check things out. His face doesn't look very happy in this picture but he was pretty excited by all of the packages. Reina's just wondering if someone is going to comb her hair... The unwrapping began in earnest and both kids demonstrated their aptitude in this area. Will was excited for just about every present that Santa brought. There were a few muttered "but I didn't ask for that..." (we're working on his manners!!) but overall, he handled it pretty well. He was delighted to find some new legos, a Buzz Lightyear outfit, more cars and a cowboy belt and pistol. Santa brought Reina a Jessie doll which was a huge hit. She also received an artist's easel, a hand-made doll from Aunt Vicky, a tea set, books and kitties and all sorts of odds and ends. Santa also brought her a medical kit and she's showing some aptitude for taking people's vital signs. I'm a little concerned about her bedside manner - she seems to enjoy giving shots and cackles after each injection. I don't think that's the attitude you look for in a physician... We had a nice day. After the guests left later in the morning, we all settled down with new toys and books and spent the rest of the day enjoying our laziness. We introduced Will to that age-old tradition that is the Star Wars Trilogy (episodes 4, 5 and 6 - old school style) and he was pretty interested although he kept getting the good guys and the bad guys mixed up.

We had unusually warm weather for Christmas in Wyoming so we did venture out for a walk later in the afternoon. I thought Ballerina Barbie was a little under-dressed but I couldn't convince her to put a coat on.

When we came home, I made oyster soup for Glenn and I and it (surprisingly!) turned out well. It's not what you could label a low-cholesterol or low-calorie food but it tasted pretty darn good.

Now everyone's asleep and curled up with their new toys. Glenn's even upstairs reading the manual for his new GPS unit and I wouldn't be surprised if the GPS is curled up next to him too. We hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and I can't wait to see what the New Year has in store for all of us. Hmmmm, maybe we'll start with a haircut?

What you need to know about Reindeer

Disclaimer: I LOVE the preschool that both kids attend. I'm constantly marveling at the learning that is taking place for both of them. Reina counted to seven the other day and Will's always telling us some new random fact that he picked up. But sometimes, it appears that the information goes a little astray. Here's the conversation we had last night on the way home from school....


Me: Will, you just have one more day of school this week and then you get to stay home with Mommy and Dad and Reina. We're going to make some cookies and watch movies and get ready for Christmas! Won't that be fun?

Will: We need to leave carrots for the reindeer. And cookies for Santa.

Me: Okay, that's a good idea. Do reindeer like carrots?

Will: Yes. Reindeer like to eat bears and hay and fish.

Me: Really? Where did you hear that?

Will: They can also climb trees. Well, the baby reindeer can't climb trees but the mommies and daddy reindeer climb trees. But not the babies. Babies don't climb trees.

Me: Are you sure that reindeer climb trees?

Will: Yes.

Me: Hmmm. What else did you learn today?

It's starting to become obvious that I need a fancier camera because they all look like vampires.

Last night we attended Will's Christmas program. It's held at a small auditorium and all of the kids get to stand on stage and sing a few songs. The teachers do a great job because 1) it's excruciatingly cute (they sang a few verses of "Do You Hear What I Hear" and it made this mommy teary-eyed!) and 2) it's short. You might remember that last year's program featured Will and some near full-frontal nudity on stage. Well, I didn't stick to my plan of stapling his shirt to his pants but I did pay attention to his outfit and we talked about singing the songs and keeping our hands at our sides. We were mostly successful.

When he gets nervous, both of those hands end up in his mouth, which has been a trait of his from the beginning. The shirt was pulled up a few times but he did a great job. He sang and seemed to know the words to most of the songs. During "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" he pointed enthusiastically to the moose on his sweater so clearly we need to work on mammalian identification.

At the end of the program, Santa made an appearance. The look on Will's face was priceless - equal parts surprise, awe and stunned-ness. He stood patiently in line for his turn to get a new book from Santa and a hug. Reina didn't want a hug but she did give Santa a polite "hi."

Look at this cute face! She's getting so big. In spite of the chupee (I know, I know! We are working on her getting rid of it...) she's saying more and more each day. Just today she told Daddy that she loved him and she leafed through a toy catalog saying "I want dat! I want dat! etc." She's also started wearing underwear during the day and she's doing pretty well. She has a few accidents but she seems to be figuring it out pretty quickly. You can find her wandering around the house with a baby or two in her arms and singing the ABC song. She's very talented!

Where does all the time go?

This month is flying by and so many fun things are happening but I have no time to blog. My job has been very busy and we have a lot of evening and weekend activities this time of year and so there's very little free time! I'm counting on a few quieter weeks as the month winds down so I hope that everyone around here cooperates with my mandate. Any bets on whether or not that will happen? The kids are doing well, everyone is healthy (at this moment in time) and the house is all geared up for Christmas. We talk about Christmas a lot and the kids have helped us with some of the shopping and decorating. I can't get them to write Christmas cards though. Darnit. We've had to temper our Christmas talk because some of us have a hard time understanding timeframes. Friday morning, Will came racing and flew into the living room (naked! I don't know why!) and asked, "did Santa bring us presents last night?" He didn't take it well when I informed him that he still had two more weeks to go.

On Saturday, we took the kids to visit Santa. We talked about it in the car and Will was pretty excited. When we got there, I asked Reina if she wanted to see Santa and she clearly said "no." Big brother didn't pay attention to her wishes and grabbed her hand and marched up to Santa without looking back. Reina never made eye contact with Santa or Mrs. Claus but she did answer him when he asked her if she'd rather have crayons or a Barbie for Christmas. "BAHBIE!"

Look closely at Reina's body language. Does she want to punch Will or Santa? Santa must think that we are in the transportation business because Will talked his ear off with requests for a green semi-truck, a red semi-truck, another racecar, a policecar, etc. etc. etc. He was not shy one bit and we are now firmly in the Santa camp at the Pauley household. At this point, I don't think we'll be able to tell him when it's Christmas Eve. The kid won't sleep!

Tonight was Reina's Christmas program at Montessori. The toddler has a great little program where the kids sing a few sings, do a book exchange, eat a cookie and go home! The whole thing lasts about 45 minutes which is just within their time limits.

Reina was a little concerned as to why we were back at school. She joined her friends for the singing but didn't crack a smile the entire time. She did ring a bell with amazing proficiency. She scored a big Disney book in the book exchange which means that we'll have a whole new cast of characters for the kids to become enthralled with (Mickey, Minnie, etc.).

Finally, she grudgingly posed in her Christmas finery. I could never get her to look at the camera.
Finally, it's becoming a tradition for one of the kids to do something weird with their clothing during the Christmas program. (See last year's post about Will and his self-induced front wedgie whilst singing "Up on the Rooftop.") Reina didn't disappoint this year. She crammed most of the overskirt into her mouth while waiting her turn during the book exchange and started to recreate it while I was trying to take her picture afterwards. Ah well, good thing she's so cute!

All About Tonsils. Again. Seriously.

So my last post about Will being recovered from the tonsillectomy was a little premature. That was Tuesday? He only lasted part of the day at school on Wednesday, went back to the doctor on Thursday and stayed home Friday afternoon. After another round of antibiotics and some adjustment of the pain medicine, he FINALLY started feeling better on Saturday and by Sunday, he was running around like normal. Now we get to go through the process of weaning him off of all of the fun things that happen when you don't feel well (sleep in mom and dad's bed, eat marshmallows for breakfast, watch movies whenever you want... etc.). I'm still glad that we had the surgery, I do think it will benefit his health but MAN have the last few weeks been rough.

Now that the fog has lifted, we can focus on all of the other craziness going on right now. Are you familiar with the books If You Give a Pig a Pancake? The plot is not overly complicated but essentially, if you give a pig a pancake, he's going to want some maple syrup to go on it and then that's going to remind him of something else and that's going to make him want to do something else, etc. etc. etc. Well, that's a little of what life is like with Reina. If Reina sees you putting on your makeup, she's going to want to help you. When she walks into the bathroom to help you with your makeup, she'll see the potty and that reminds her that she wants to go. So you'll have to stop putting your makeup on and help her with the potty. After she goes potty, she's going to want to wash her hands and then that will remind her that she wants to do something else and then the next thing you know, you are 15 minutes late to work and Reina's in the hall closet putting on your boots. We decorated the Christmas tree on Friday and the holidays are now officially in full swing at the Pauley house. Will asks every morning if it's Christmas yet and my attempt at helping him understand the season with an Advent Calendar have only been marginally successful. They were both pretty excited to help decorate the tree. Reina was very organized and put all of her decorations on one branch. Will was distracted by a new toy from McDonald's (that he received at a birthday party earlier in the day) and ended up using the Christmas Tree as a prop/background in a long and bloody battle between Transformers. Testosterone. On Saturday, we headed down to Brighton to visit the grandparents and my Uncle Paul. I didn't get any pictures but everyone had a good time. The kids were a little shy at first but by the end of the day, Uncle Paul was throwing Will around and making Reina giggle. Both kids fell asleep before we even got back on the interstate which makes for a nice drive for the parents.

On Sunday, Will helped me make a few batches of Glenn's grandmother's German Christmas cookies. Will really likes to help me cook right now, although when it comes to the cookies, he's probably more interested in the batter than in the final product. We ended the weekend with a few rounds of "Jingle Bells" and a Santa hat parade.

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season too!

The last week

The last week has been hard! Will's recovery from his tonsillectomy has been complication-free but it's still been rough on patient and parents. We've had little sleep as he often gets up a couple times for another round of pain medicine and the days are spent trying to keep him entertained with every Pixar movie in existence. Tempers are short and nights are looooong. But, he went back to preschool for the morning today and I'm hopeful that he's back to his regular schedule tomorrow. I'm glad that we had the surgery, but it definitely was harder than I thought it would be.

Since I don't have enough going on right now (ha ha), I decided to do an art project with the kids before dinner tonight. Some of us took the coloring assignment pretty seriously .... And some of us tried to eat the glitter glue immediately after this picture was taken. It's non-toxic, right?

Here's hoping the next week is easier than the last. Happy December!

Tonsils, part 2

Will tonsillectomy went well yesterday and we're all home and trying to keep him comfortable. There's not a sleep going on for anybody except Reina but our little trooper is hanging in there. Except for the 30-minute negotiations* that take place every time it's time for another round of pain medicine, he's been a model patient.

As I predicted and feared, Will was not a big fan of being at the surgical center. He caught on pretty quickly that we were there for more than just a regular doctor's visit. When it came time to put on the little surgical gown, we had to bring out the big guns (The Mack semi-truck from the Cars Movie and the Lightning McQueen with whitewall tires, not to be confused with the 2 other Lightning cars that he already has - one with fake mud and the other one from the beginning of the movie.) and that kept him busy until it was time for the nurse to take him back. At that point, he really freaked out and one of the hardest things I've had to do as a mom was to unwind his little arms from around my neck and hand him to the nurse. The doctor told us later that Will just screamed "No shots! No shots" until he mercifully went under the anesthetic. Luckily, he doesn't seem to remember any of it.

The surgery only lasted about 45 minutes and the doctor came out to let us know that everything went well. Will was supposed to spend some time in recovery but the nurses had to come get us because he would not settle down long enough for them to check his vital signs. When we went back there, he was standing on the recovery table and yelling so loudly that there was no doubt his lungs worked. Some people get nauseous from anesthetic, Will apparently just gets really, REALLY mad. It took all three of us (me, Glenn and Pop-pop) to get him calmed down enough for the nurses to take the monitors off and remove the IV. Not surprisingly, we were discharged a few minutes later. I think a screaming 3 1/2 year old sort of impacts their ability to make it a peaceful recovery room for all of the other patients.

So now we're home, trying to keep him hydrated and pain-free and watching every movie made by Pixar and Disney in the last decade.

Will and his beloved "Lightning Truck." He really wanted this for Christmas and he was pretty excited when it showed up early.

File this one under, "anything you can do, I can do better." Reina's having trouble understanding why Will gets popsicles and pudding for dinner. At least she gets a spot on the couch too. She's being a pretty helpful little nurse though. This morning when she woke up, Will was crying pretty hard and we were trying to help him get the pain under control. Reina came trotting over, took her chupee out of her mouth, and offered it to Will. His response to her generous gesture? "But I'm not a baby!" Thanks anyway, little sister.

*The negotiations go a little like this: Offer, cajole, plead, beg, remind how it makes the pain inside his head go away, offer again, cajole, plead, raise voices, threaten, threaten again and then FINALLY medicine taken. Much enthusiastic "what a good boy!, yeah Will!, you are so brave!, etc.

A facial hair extravaganza

The following is a very special blog post brought to you by co-authors, Glenn and Lucy. A few months ago, Glenn came back from a 10-day trip to Alaska looking like this: He decided to try to grow a beard and Lucy didn't object, although she did feel like she was sneaking around with her boyfriend Jake, a lumberjack. That was an especially odd feeling to have while standing next to Glenn at church. The beard started to fill in pretty quickly. Before we knew it, we had reached Full Beard status. Here's Glenn's interpretation of Full Beard: Rugged but sophisticated. Looks equally good at a logging camp or a poetry gathering. It adds a bit of earthiness. Commonly worn by prophets and the homeless.

Lucy's interpretation of Full Beard: We won't have to hire anyone to dress up as Santa Clause this year.

So after a few weeks of Full Beard, Glenn decided to scale back to the Goatee, or Goat as it's commonly referred to around here. Glenn's interpretation on the Goatee: Has a sporty look but a level of unpredictability to it. It's tough yet approachable. I may be interested in what you have to say or I may punch you. Commonly worn by athletes and bouncers.

Lucy's interpretation: In order to adequately immortalize the Autumn of Facial Hair, we had several photo shoots in the front yard (as you can tell). In this photo, the goatee is relaxed yet serious. Or wait, maybe this one is friendly and frisky. I can't tell. The goatee is very complicated. Well, nothing lasts forever and so it goes for goatees. I woke up last Monday to this guy:

Yep, that's Glenn with a handlebar mustache. He asked me if I wanted to go ride motorcycles after work. I said no, but that I would be interested in helping him rob a stagecoach.

Glenn's interpretation of the handlebar mustache: Few things better say, "I have no idea what the opposite sex finds attractive." Wearer is extremely self-confident or dim-witted. Most commonly worn by bikers or cowboys.

Well, our journey with Facial Hair must come to an end. But not before we unveil the final stop on this wild ride. Beware, this last look is not for the faint of heart. Glenn's interpretation of the Hitler Mustache: Either a die hard Charlie Chaplin fan or deranged, with a potential cannibalistic streak. Either way it is not recommended to approach this person. Or wear this look to work.

Lucy's interpretation: Please, just shave it off as fast as you can and don't you dare leave the house looking like that.

Well, it's a few days before Thanksgiving and Glenn is back to his clean-shaven self. I'm happy to have his face back and the money we are now spending on shaving cream and the various accessories is at least not being spent on therapy for our children. Besides, there's always next hunting season. Civil war beard? Fu man chu? Neck hair? Stay tuned!

Birthday parties and bouncy houses

Last weekend, we traveled down to Fort Collins for a birthday party. The party was at one of those bouncy houses/inflatable stuff places. Long story short, the kids had a BLAST! They ran around until they were both ragged and Will told me at the end of the party, "I just want to go home." I should clarify that he told me this while lying face down on the floor. Reina even enjoyed herself. She's not as adventurous, or maybe fool-hardy, as her brother but she definitely displayed some adrenaline-junky-like tendencies by enlisting the birthday girl's 10-year-old cousin to carry her up the giant inflatable slide about 1400 times. Here she is in one of the bouncy houses. Hmmm, I wonder which side of the family she inherited her sense of balance from? At the end of the party, the grown-ups attempted to take a group photo. The phrase "herding cats" comes to mind when you undertake a project of this magnitude. (Mostly) Everyone is sitting facing forward. Some kids are even smiling. Some look happy, some look tired. Let's zoom in on the Bronco Babies okay? Little Miss Oral Fixation is missing her chupee. Will's wondering if it's time for cake. Awww, well things are looking up when the cake and ice cream arrives. You can see in the background that everyone else is gathering around to sing "happy birthday." Not my two. It's ice cream time! After the birthday party, Aunt Vicky joined us and gamely drove around Fort Collins so that I could run some errands while the kids dozed in the backseat. After a while, we met up with Grandma Hansen and two of my aunts who endured a rather wild dinner with sleep-deprived kids in a sit-down restaurant. The kids were so tired that they didn't even wake up when we arrived back home and I changed them into the jammies. A very fun day was had by all!

File this one under, 'anything Will can do, I can do better.' Plastic Buzz wings designed for a 6-yr old? No problem! Strap those puppies on and let's around the house bouncing off of the furniture! I don't know what's going on in this picture but I like it.

We have a very special post coming soon so stay tuned. No, no one's pregnant again.