And so they begin

The Christmas gatherings began in earnest on Saturday night. We have another Thursday morning, Thursday evening, Friday morning, Friday evening and Sunday evening! I gotta admit, meeting with a bunch of people who love me and my kid, to eat delicious food that somebody else put a lot of work into is pretty much my ideal way of life. The positive forces in the universe don't nearly often enough conspire to bring these elements all together at once.

First Dentist Visit

This little guy visited the dentist on Friday to have a look at his chipped tooth. The dentist seemed to think the remaining bit of tooth looked healthy and wouldn't need to be capped or removed surgically. We will just wait for it to fall out and a new one to grow in.

Last night I was saying to Derek, "Is it strange that it doesn't feel like Christmas yet?" Four days to go before Christmas and I am in fact feeling a bit Grinch-y, especially when other people are exuberant about the annoying flashing lights that flash in time to a private radio station on Duster Bay (seriously, cars line up along the street and block traffic all the way out to Prairieview Drive until ten or eleven at night! I'd like to say I think it's tacky, but I've driven by once myself and wished I was cheap enough to park and watch like all the other gawkers). Or when Doug mentions he's got two weeks off and I remember the good old days when I had "days off". Yes I'm a little bit grinch-y. But today, listening to my new Christmas CD from Mom, and having picked up some gifts from south of the border wrapped in familiar Christmas paper with tags on them like, "To the best boy in the world, From Grandma", I am, perhaps, starting to feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit.

Connie Nona's Christmas Cookies

What a wonderful visit with Connie Nona yesterday! We stopped in, "For five minutes only" she said, which turned into two hours of visiting. How lovely. I love when Luke gets loved on by his grammies.
Yessir, and you can bet I got the recipe for the delicious morsels of waffledy goodness.
I will share it with you after I've tried it out and have some comments to add.

What HE said

Catch You Up

I've been terribly unmotivated to do anything other than read my book this week (Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett) and haven't been on the computer much. So I apologize for my absence. Today however, was busy. I had Wendy over for coffee and then the neighbor girls came over to make sugar cookies after school. After they left I baked a chicken and made peanut butter balls (I still owe some baking to those burly men who moved our piano!). Now I am tired.

We've been laying low this week, staying out of the cold wind. But today was warmer and we went outside and played in the snow. The snow is very dry and acts almost like sand, so with the help of Jenny and Eileen we buried the lower half of Luke in the snow. Sadly, my camera was inside and by the time I got back out he'd rolled over and out of our snow hill. Luke is also keeping busy taking the vent covers up off the floor and putting things down the pipes like shredded newspaper, the head of the broom, blocks, wipes, socks, and his face. He's also enjoying getting down on all fours to drink out of the cat dish, and climbing up and standing on the kitchen table. Now that we have the piano, we are also spending a significant portion of our day singing and playing.

We were over at Mark and Katie's for dinner last night and their son Jack went to bed before we left. Luke said, "Ni-Night Yuck!" I got a kick out of that. His talking is just amazing. He will repeat entire sentences after me now! When he's on a time out I ask him to "Repeat after me. Don't" dote "Touch" tuch "The" da "Tree" tee. "Don't touch the tree" don' tuch da twee.
I also ask him to repeat nice things like, "I love grandma" and he does it with joy! This evening I made a grumpy Derek smile by asking Luke to pray after me, "Dear God" dear gut. "Thanks" tens. "For" fo. "Sunshine" susha. "And" an. "Daddy" dadd-n. "Amen" A-men!

Sewing Projects

Last week I did a LOT of sewing. This new diaper bag was a rough draft which I am loving just as much as a finished bag. And the other sewing I have to keep a secret until Christmas! But in the New Year I will definitely let you in on the fun we've been having. If you want an easy (seriously - 1 hour from start to finish and a total of $3 spent in materials), fun, cute Christmas sewing project just email me and I will tell you what I've been up to.

So much to say!

First of all, isn't it amazing how children's bodies change so fast and they seem to just roll with the punches? We adults are not nearly so accepting and willing to "move past it". Luke chipped his front tooth Saturday night and I cried more than he did! I mourned the loss of his perfect, beautiful little smile...until he smiled again and reminded me that teeth are not what makes the smile beautiful - it's joy that makes the smile; and this little guy has abundant joy! I joked later that he was hoping for a percentage from the tooth fairy. Don't get too eager Luke.

Secondly we moved furniture this weekend, as you can see above (click the picture to see up close). And we had Dan, Jen and Mara over for supper (they arrived moments after the fateful fall). Mara and Luke were the amazing dancing diaper duo! Such smart children we have, and they've definitely got the beat.

Lastly, I'd like to report that "Nook", as he calls himself, asked to "go poop" last night. We got a toilet seat topper for him a few weeks ago, but we haven't started training him. We just let him sit up there whenever he asks. Well, last night when we put him on the toilet he actually went poop!! We are so proud. After he wiped, he flushed and put his small toilet seat down on the floor and asked to wash his hands. I don't know any other 18 month old children as amazingly intelligent as Nook - I mean, Luke. They say that there are smarter children out there, but I don't think they exist.