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!