Other stuff that happened in December

I was cleaning off my camera over the weekend and found a bunch of pictures that hadn't found their way onto the blog yet.  I thought that was a good way to wrap up 2012.  What a year huh?  Glenn's illness dominates the year in my mind, but we also get to celebrate the fact that he's perfectly fine today.  We also managed to have a lot of fun, camp and travel with our family and friends, welcome Tootsie in to the craziness on Hawthorne Dr. and send Will off to Kindergarten.  Can't wait to see what 2013 brings. 

We don't have a full-size basketball hoop in our driveway, yet, so Glenn tried to improvise while helping Will perfect his jump shot.  What a dad. 

When 3-yr olds dress themselves.  She has a style all her own.  Also, there wasn't an inch of snow on the ground when this picture was taken.... 

We all have Broncos fever!!  Will wore my #18 jersey to school on the last day before break.  Luckily, Grandma and Pop-pop bought him his own for Christmas. 

At the G&F Christmas party, they had a kids' table full of crafts.  Once Reina saw that table, we rarely saw her for the rest of the night.  She cut and pasted and glued and stickered to her hearts content. 

So did Will. 

Will didn't get to come to our church's Christmas program because he was home on the couch with the Weird High Fever. Reina got to be an angel.   

I wish I could freeze her in time at this moment.  She looks so very Three.  She gamely stood at the front of the church and sang song after song.  She kept making eye contact with me because she wanted to sit with me and she'd glare at me when I shook my head.  Finally she looked over and mouthed "I HAVE TO GO POTTY!"  Everyone within a few rows of us knew what she meant.  When you've got to go, you've got to go! 

It's been a cold month!  That 2.5 degrees wasn't even the lowest that we've seen in the last few weeks.  And yes, it was 61.9 in our house.  Brrrrrrrrr!

The rest of the Christmas season

I'm trying to catch up on the multitude of photos that I have documenting the last few weeks.  What a crazy month! 

Glenn's agency had a Christmas part on the 15th.  One of their photographers generously offered to take family pictures.  A few of us look deranged but at least we are all deranged together. 

Will was a little droopy at the Christmas party but I chalked it up to over-tired and over-excited about Christmas.  Warning bells started to go off when he didn't want to eat any of the awesome food at the party - no mac & cheese, no ham, no rolls, no dessert?!!!  When we got home that night, he felt warm so I took his temp - 102.5.  Yep.  He caught the same virus that Reina had the week before. 

Reina looking adorable at her Christmas party.  The girl knows all of the words and verses to "Let It Snow" and "Frosty the Snowman"

The cute little blonde guy to her right is her BFF David.  I plan on saving this picture for their engagement party in 30 years or so. 

She's got some moves too! 

Santa made a surprise appearance at the party but I wasn't moving fast enough with the camera.  Reina didn't make eye contact with him anyway so you didn't miss much. 

The weekend before Christmas, we headed down to Denver to spend some time with Pop-Pop and Grandma and we also squeezed in a trip to Zoo Lights.  Reina was not impressed with the green snake. 

Still not impressed. 

Will was exceedingly impressed with his glow in the dark sword. 

Reina was also not impressed with my irritating attempts to take her picture. 

Christmas 2012

The official Christmas festivities started with Christmas Eve service at the Fry's church with a lovely service and a 5-yr old holding a lit candle. It all ended well.  We had dinner with Aunt Vicky, Uncle Matt, Pop-pop and Grandma Pop-pop and watched some football.  We came home at a decent hour with two very wound-up children.  Just like last year, there was no objection to going to bed in fact Will kept insisting that he was very tired and wanted to go to sleep.  Before I let him do that, he wrote a note to Santa "Santa:  You can choose.  Love, Will" and a picture of a pirate ship battle, obviously.  

 

 Some of us were very excited to be in pajamas.  Some of us... not so much. 

Christmas morning dawned bright and EARLY.  Like 4:45 a.m. early.  Will raced into our room, "Santa came! And it's time to get up!"  It wasn't actually.  He and I snuck downstairs to watch cartoons so that the other two family members would stay asleep.  I dozed off and on only to be awaken by "Hey Mom - what do you think Santa brought?" or "How does Santa keep track of his list?"  etc. etc. etc. 

Reina woke up at a more respectable 6:30 and by the time we fed dogs, warmed up the house, and a bunch of other stuff that irritated the two family members who were READY to open presents, it was 7:00 ish.  Will opened up a big castle (not Lego this year) and Reina received a Barbie with a horse that walks. 

Glenn looked festive in his jammies.  I just asked for his (and received) permission to put a picture of him wearing pajamas on the internet. 

 Reina surveying her loot.

 After the first wave of presents, we took a break, started breakfast, shoveled the walk (we had a white Christmas!) and geared up for Round 2.  Everyone came over and we opened up presents for a few more hours and ate a delicious brunch mostly due to my brother-in-law's awesome cooking skills.  I didn't grease the pan enough for the small batch of muffins I was responsible for but the tops were yummy.  Besides the giant castle, Will got a bunch of Lego's, a remote control batmobile that is already tormenting the dogs and a tie from his goofy aunt and uncle who tried to capture his response on video - it was a rather subdued "but I didn't want this..." even after I coached him earlier in the morning about what to say if you open something that you didn't necessarily want .... "thank you."  Reina got a remote controlled cat that meow's every 3 seconds until you finally locate the off/on switch, a pair of cats from her relative cats in Minnesota, Lego's, food, and coloring supplies.  She has opened up a cabbage patch doll from Grandma and Pop-pop, took one look at it and said "But I didn't ask for this" and then she offered it to me and insisted that it should live in my room.  No amount of cajoling could get her to take another look at poor Brynn Lea so for now she remains perched on top of our piano until the picky 3-yr old decides to give her a second glance. 

So by lunchtime, all of the guests had slid back to their own houses (snowy roads out there!) and things started slowing down at the Pauley house.  By 1ish, just about everyone was asleep despite the frequent protestations of "But I'm Not Tired!"

Reina napped with all three new kitties, tentatively named at this point:  Miss Kitty, Miss Kitty and Miss Kitty.

Tomorrow, it's back to the real world of work, cleaning up this house that looks like it's been hit with a wrapping paper bomb and after Christmas sales, but tonight we'll enjoy the last little bit of Christmas 2012.  We hope yours was as happy as Reina surrounded by a bunch of stuffed cats.

Will's Christmas Program

I have a lot of catching up to do.  Reina generously shared her weird virus with Will last Sunday and so he was home for a few days last week.  I may or may not have had a mild version of it but I was too busy at work to do anything but pop a few ibuprofen every couple of hours.  So far, Glenn seems fine.  That along with everything else that happens in a holiday-shortened month, has made for a pretty few crazy weeks.  So let's get caught up on Will's program first. 

The theme of the kindergarten program was "Christmas Cookies" and they sang several songs set to familiar tunes but with completely different lyrics.  They also looked adorable in their little aprons and chef's hats.  Note:  Will insisted that no one else was dressing up theretofore he was not dressing up.  I emailed his teacher after I arrived at work to make sure that Will would not be the only kid NOT wearing a bowtie or holiday dress.  I had a spare set of 'church clothes' in the car in case I, I mean, Will needed them.  He's the third one from the right, or the only one on-stage who's character tshirt is still visible beneath his apron.

At his parent-teacher conference in October, we learned that Will didn't get the highest mark in Music.  We chalked it up to a typical kindergarten (male) response to being forced to stand and sing for any extended period of time.  But we found out at the program that if Will likes the song and knows the words, well he's all in folks.  Head bobbing, swaying, rhythm machine. 

Rockin' out on the circle drum.  This was set to "Jingle Bells'.... "Circle drum, circle drum, we can play the circle drum...."  Yep, still have that little ditty stuck in my head. 

So, remember a few sentences ago when I said that if Will likes the song and knows the words, etc. etc.?  This is what happens when he doesn't/like know the song.  He decides to use this time to clean out both of his ears.  At the same time.  He's making eye contact with me but ignoring my frantic 'pull-our-fingers-out-of-your-ears' hand gestures.

 Oh wait!  We are back in again because it involves throwing scarves/napkins(?!) high in the air and catching them.  I'm not sure what song this was, but apparently Will doesn't either. 

The grand finale involved turning your back to the audience, shaking stuff and then turning around again.  The kid has some moves. 

The program was adorable even though they didn't sing one song that I already knew.  They are all so blissfully un-self conscious and participate with gusto.  I'm not sure the 9-yr old Will's going to willingly clamor up onto the stage but who knows, maybe I'm wrong.  In the meantime, I'll make a point to enjoy every little bit of showbiz that comes my way. 

The fever

Last weekend, Reina seemed to be coming down with a little cold.  She had a low-grade fever and seemed a little droopy Sunday morning, but nothing major was going on.  Long story short, I came home from running errands with her and Will on Sunday afternoon and Reina had been really fussy at Target, she kept asking if we could go home yet which should have been a warning sign for me because normally the girl loves Target.  So we came home at the same time that Glenn was meeting with someone who wanted to buy our old car. (I have a new car, it's fabulous and blue and has satellite radio and there's no time to write a big long goodbye post to the old car so I'll just point out that I bought it when Glenn and I were just dating, drove home from the wedding in it, brought both kids home in it, Trigger barfed in it several times and then I backed into a bunch of stuff in it this year.  Thanks for the memories Mazda Tribute).  So the buyers are at our house with a handful of cash, we are trying to track down a notary for the title and in the midst of all of this, I take Reina's temperature and the thermometer reads 104.3.  I panic.  I yell to Glenn that we need to take Reina to the ER.  He yells back that we need to sell the car.  He was right and I called Reina's doctor.  The nurse practitioner on call talked me off of the ledge and I followed her instructions to try to bring the temperature down.  It worked and we never did have to go to the ER.  We did take her to the doctor on Monday and they confirmed that is just viral and we needed to ride it out.  Reina stayed home Monday and Tuesday but is back to her fully animated, energetic self today.  One silver lining is that she was pretty droopy on Monday and was content to sit next to me for hours on end.  It wasn't a bad way to spend the day.  The flip side is that it takes 104+ degree fever to slow her down even a little bit. 

It's now the following Sunday and Will has a fever of 102.5.  Here we go again. 

Today

I had a big catch-up post planned for today, but I'm holding off until tomorrow for a few reasons.  It's been pretty crazy for the last few weeks and things are finally slowing down and naturally, I'm slowing down too.  Reina had a bad cold earlier in the week (more on that later) and now I'm trying to fight it off.  The kids are in bed and I should be wrapping presents or writing cards.  Instead, Glenn and I are channel surfing and watching a Gettysburg documentary. Guess who has the remote?  After the sad events of today, I'm going to say a few prayers for the families and get some sleep so I can take care of mine tomorrow.  Next time:  Will's Christmas program, Reina's 104 degree fever, and a couple of kids really really excited for 12/25.

We call them 'immunizations'

I had to travel for work earlier in the week which meant that Glenn was on drop-off and pick-up duties for a few days in a row.  When I came back on Wednesday, Will asked if I could pick him up early from school.  He likes to get picked up directly from school without having to ride the after-school bus.  I try to do that once every few weeks just for a change of pace.  On Wednesday morning, I promised that I'd pick him up early one day this week.  When I arrived at work, I called the doctor's  office and made an appointment for that afternoon to get both kids a flu shot.  Be careful what you wish for, Will! 

So Will was pretty excited to see me standing outside of the school door.  As we walk to the car, we chat about his day.  Once we get in the car, I tell him that we have to go do something special, that there was a bad bug going around our town that was making people pretty sick and there was only one thing we could do to make sure that we didn't get sick.  We have to go to the doctor to get a shot.  He balks, obviously, and is also pretty worried about this insect that is attacking our town.  Yes, in hindsight, I should've described influenza as something other than a big bug.  So Will and I talk about it on the way to pick up Reina and I tell him that it isn't a very big shot, and he's my big brave boy and we'll go get a snack afterwards and all sorts of motivating, positive things.  He's definitely concerned but not pitching a fit which I considered to be a minor miracle after his behavior at the kindergarten immunizations six months earlier. 

We get to Reina's preschool and I go inside to get her and leave Will in the car.  I don't tell her the reason for her early pick-up by when she and I get back to the car, Will calmly informs her, "Reina, you are getting a shot."  She immediately bursts into tears and wails for most of the 5 minute ride to the doctor's office. Yes, this is the girl who didn't make a peep while getting her blood drawn a few weeks ago, but last time she didn't have an older brother narrating, I guess. 

We arrive at the doctor's office and everyone is calmed down and rather plucky about the upcoming ordeal.  Until we get inside.  I inform the receptionist that we are here for the S-H-O-T-S and she gives me a smile and says, "We call them immunizations."  Potato, potahto lady.  I don't know why I felt the need to spell it out at that point, the gig was up.

We have to wait for a few minutes in the waiting room and at one point I look over at Reina and tears are just streaming down her cheeks.  She's not wailing anymore but she's such a sad, forlorn sight. Before too long, the Pauley kids are called back and the real fun begins.

We go into the exam room with the nurse and Will announces that he wants to go first.  He marches over to the exam table and plops himself down. He tells the nurse that he wants the shot in his leg and he points to his calf.  The nurse says that his leg is where the shot needs to go, but she has to do it on his thigh because that's where it works the best.  I tell him to stand up and pull down his pants and this is where things start going downhill fast.  He starts hollering and crying and changing his mind about the whole "I'll go first/show Reina how it's down" kind of thing.  Out of empathy for her sobbing big brother, Reina starts wailing - she's sitting in the exam chair behind me.  I make a quick decision that it's better to just get Will 'immunized' or all shot-ted up so I talk to him calmly and tell him not to look and oops there you go, you are all done and hey it's a Spongebob band-aid!  Ironically, he's done crying before the needle even comes out of his leg but little sister is still screaming behind me.  As soon as I can, I scoop her up and show her how Bobo is just fine and it's all done and he has a band-aid!  Look at the band-aid! 

Now it's Reina's turn and Will is quiet so I ask him to hold his sister's hand and I hold the other one and Reina isn't even crying anymore.  Both kids are officially immunized.  I apologize to the nurse for making her last appointment of the day so dramatic.  The kids pick out a thousand stickers which are promptly plastered to their shirts (note to self, remove before throwing said shirts in laundry because that gunk does not come out) and we march triumphantly out of the office.  Two of the three of us also get a giant lollipop for a job well-done.  Will asks me on the way out if because he had to get five shots for kindergarten, does he have to get six shots for First Grade?  Thank goodness, no.

On the way home, I call Glenn, relay the whole sordid story and inform him that next year, it's his turn. 

Pauleys looking serious

Yes, a photo essay. I am very nearly out of words to write about this family unless someone barfs or requires a trip to the ER tonight.  I was cleaning up the camera from our trip and noticed a recurring theme. 

 

The 'Pondering' gene runs strong in this crew. 

Just to clarify, Reina can look serious but during this trip she didn't stay in one place long enough for me to take a picture of said serious-ness.  Unless she was asleep.  The one thing she was serious about was performing surgery on her cousin.  While she had him trapped, she removed several vital organs, gave him a thousand shots and bandaged his limbs. All while wearing a tiara, of course. 

School lunches

As a kindergartner, Will picks hot lunch a few times a week.  One of our morning rituals is to check out the menu online (technology!) and he carefully considers the options before deciding on which entree or a cold lunch made by Dad.  Will puts a lot of thought into his lunch decisions.  Earlier in the Fall, he had already figured out his likes (nachos - "it's chips and then they put a lot of cheese on it!" and breakfast for lunch) and his dislikes ('that stuff with rice').   The menu is basically the same core items but they change up the side dishes.  Since we are now almost in the fourth month of school (!), Will's pretty familiar with all of the choices.  That's why he surprised me this morning by wanting to have hamburgers from today's menu.  During the other weeks, he's turned up his cute little nose to burgers.  When I picked him up from school today, I asked him how he liked the hamburger.  He told me that it was really good, and it even had meat in it!  I'm so glad.    

Seventeen pictures of Thanksgiving weekend

On Wednesday, the four of us piled into the car and we headed out for Omaha to visit the Nebraska Pauleys.   The bazillion-hour car ride didn't go as badly as I had anticipated.  No one threw up, threw a giant tantrum or threw anything out of the window.  We didn't have to stop every 45 minutes and before we knew it, we were in Omaha.  My pictures from the weekend loaded backwards so instead of restarting everything, we'll just start at the very end..... 

Reina and I at a restaurant in Ogallala a few hours from home last night.  I include two pictures as proof of how hard it is to capture any of us with a normal pose. 

C'mon Reina, just look at Daddy!

Glenn and Will at the same restaurant and with the same dilemma. 

Before we left for home yesterday, we spent a few hours at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. It's a pretty neat museum housed inside the old Union Depot in Omaha. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the inside of the Depot - it's a really neat restored Art Deco room - you feel like you are taking a step back in time.

 

This is a fuzzy picture but I had to include it for the look on Reina's face. She looks like she's off on a grand adventure.  This is a streetcar inside the museum. 

Inside a Pullman car with cousins.  And a 5-yr old who doesn't want his picture taken.

And more cousins and aunt and uncle.  

And 3-yr olds who don't want their picture taken. 

Santa was at the museum and Will had a list a mile long for him.  Reina had a few things on her list but she whispered them to Santa so some things were lost in translation.  We do know she wants a magic wand.  A real one, thank you very much. 

On Friday, some of us woke up early and did a little Black Friday shopping.  It wasn't too crazy and we did find some good bargains.  It's ironic that I can't get up at 6:30 a.m. to jog most days, but I can jump out of bed to face crowded stores and crazy shoppers on a vacation day... mysteries of life.  So after shopping and lunch, the whole gang headed to the zoo in Omaha. 

Reina swinging from a vine.  She liked the monkeys and wanted me to pretend that she was a baby monkey while we walked around the zoo.  I don't have to stretch my imagination too much with that one.  I usually think of her as a spider/howler/chimp most days....

I don't know why Glenn's the one looking freaked out here.  I'm the one who refused to go across the rope bridge and I'm taking this picture from the safety of solid ground after I took the solid-ground shortcut around the bridge.  It's very Indiana Jones Temple of Doom, without the human sacrifices and crocodile infested waters below.  Cute guy though. 

The zoo is pretty neat but one of the highlights was definitely the aquarium.  The fish swim on both sides of you and above your head and it's hard not to get a little freaked out when there's a 6-foot shark swimming directly at you, even with a big pane of glass in between.  Reina was captivated by the aquarium and we had to drag her out of there.  But not before she had some face time with a turtle. 

Sharks and fish and all sorts of ocean creatures.  Eeek.  

Aquarium girl.  At the sea horse tank, one of the zookeepers was wearing scuba gear and cleaning the inside of the tank.  Reina was fascinated by the "deep sea diver" and she could've watched the tank being cleaned all day.  She finally got up the nerve to give the zookeeper a shy wave and she happily received one in return.  Thanks "deep sea diver" for making her day. 

Alright, we've made it backward to Thanksgiving Day.  We had a delicious meal that was mostly made by the Omaha Pauleys. I did manage to make two pies that were pretty good - and I remembered sugar this year.  Yeah!  We stuffed ourselves with really good turkey and all of the trimmings.

Again, it's hard to get everyone looking in the same direction... or not holding giant pieces of turkey in front of their faces, Will. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

The Pauleys pulled out all sorts of toys and distractions for the younger set.  Will was fascinated with big cousin Ben's Lego collection.  Reina was focused on the tiaras and jewels and fun dress-up clothes that were at her disposal. I thought she had a regal, flapper, 1920's vibe going on here.  She also got her hands on a toy medical kit and handed out medicine and injections to everyone.  We are also pretty sure that she performed anesthetic-free surgery on poor big cousin Ben but he lived to tell the tale. 

We had a great trip and a happy Thanksgiving.  Back home today, we are looking forward to the holiday season.