Understatement of the Year

Oh my poor, sad little blog, still bundled up for winter even though the rest of the family has traded in their coats and scarves in favor of shorts and swimsuits. I am very sorry. I have been very busy. Someday I will bring you back into the loop of our lives. Someday. I promise.

Who knew that January and February could be SO EXCITING?

I'm a sun lover. Winter is generally not my favorite time of year. Everything is cold and gray and should the sun dare to show its face, it's pale and not at all hot. As soon as the excited buzz of Christmas fades away, I start loathing the winter, impatiently tapping my foot at every freezing forecast and whining as only someone who has been a fourteen-year-old girl can do. Scattered throughout the day are all sorts of grumblings:


"I don't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant to get up. It's cooooooooooooooooold and daaaaaaaaaaaaaaark."


"Can you pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease make me tea? I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing."


"Why is it so daaaaaaaaaaark in here? Where's the suuuuuuuuuun."


It's unpleasant. Particularly for the likes of, you know, my family, who are forced to listen to the moaning day in and day out for the duration of January and February.



But this years, it's been a little different.


Yes, I still stay under the warm covers in the morning until the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE, and I still drink some sort of hot beverage ALL DAY LONG, but we've had so much excitement around here that I've hardly had time to do the griping I normally do.


First and foremost, Eric is home! Eric is HOME! ERIC IS HOME! It is just as awesome as I knew it would be, and we are very glad to have him here, on the right side of the ocean.


Then we got a piano. It's a Free-From-Craigslist, a not-so-rare and not-so-nice variety of piano that can be found from a not-so-exclusive online retailer around the country. Being a world-class Free-From-Craigslist, it came completely out of tune and well-equipped with keys in need of refinishing. I took a few pictures of the kids playing on it the first day and realized that it also came with a ghost:

Seriously. Look at that picture. And this one:

There is clearly a woman watching Rhys play the piano. I couldn't see her with my bare eyes; she was only showing up in photos. I thought maybe it was a weird reflection of Rhys, so I made her move. No dice. The ghost woman was still there:

She seems friendly enough, though, so she and the monster in the bathroom door jamb can stay.

In addition to the arrival of the piano and the ethereal woman who lives in it, these cold, gray months of winter have brought the start of swimming lessons. I suppose there's no better time to start swimming than in the dead of winter. The kids love it, and I think all three of them will be little fish in no time at all.

I always knew we'd be on our way to the ER for a play-related injury at some point. I just didn't expect it to be Desi, and I didn't really anticipate a head injury. I guess I assumed it would be Ben with something more like a broken leg. But no, it was Desi with a big bump on the head. Who knew that playing basketball at the gym with Daddy could be so dangerous? Apparently it is:

She's fine, but we took her to the hospital just to be sure. One CT scan later, and she was given the all clear. The adamant declaration of "I DO NOT have an EGG ON MY HEAD" further proved that Desi was just fine.

Nothing makes these dreary winter months more exciting than a snow day. Or ten. It's out of control. And it's snowing again rightthisveryminute. We're supposed to get another foot overnight. I might mind if I were required to drive to work, but I'm not. As far as I'm concerned, if it's going to be this cold and gray, then it might as well be snowing. And snowing it is. It's really quite lovely.

Once your fingers are numb and you can't feel your feet, what else is there to do but drink hot chocolate and play board games. And that's what we do. Rhys wanted to play Monopoly, so we played: Team Eric/Ben, Team Jenni/Desi, and Team Rhys. We all know how long and drawn out Monopoloy can be, and as was inevitable, Rhys started to get bored after awhile. Until she got bored, though, she was doing really well. Here is Rhys's spread:

Here's mine:

Yep, that's right. She had three monopolies and a couple of hotels, and I had four mortgaged properties and a single dollar. This does not bode well for the super-competitive likes of me.

To top off the excitement of the past couple of weeks, Rhys lost her first tooth today. She's been showing her wobbly tooth to anyone and everyone. She had a rather nasty cold last week, and I'm sure it's because she's had her hands in her mouth for the past two weeks wiggling that tooth. Despite her excitement, Rhys managed to think her way into a corner about the logistical nightmare being the Tooth Fairy must be. Yesterday we had this conversation:

Rhys: Mommy, will the Tooth Fairy come when my tooth falls out?

Jenni: Of course.

Rhys: How will she know when it falls out?

Jenni: She just knows. Like Santa Claus.

Rhys: I know how she knows when kids' teeth fall out.

Jenni: Oh, really? How does she know?

Rhys: She has a computer, and that's how she knows. Her computer tells her when someone's tooth falls out.

Jenni: So her computer will tell her when your tooth falls out?

Rhys: Yep!

So even the Tooth Fairy has bought into the technological advancements of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Her tooth fell out at lunch today. I happened to be at the school to help out with their Valentine's Day festivities, so I was sitting there when she opened her mouth to take a bite of her sandwich and her tooth fell out. We shared the excitement with the principal and the guidance counselor, who happened to be on lunch duty today. It was all very exciting, indeed. And now she whistles just a little tiny bit when she talks. And provided the Tooth Fairy's computer is not effected by the ton of snow that's falling, she'll have been alerted (Via e-mail? AIM? Maybe the Tooth Fairy is on Facebook? Rhys didn't have all of those details worked out.) and will be on her way to our house as soon as a certain munchkin is in bed.

So it's been satisfyingly surprising around here for the past month, and I'm hoping it keeps up. The absence of dull moments will just make the summer get here that much faster, right? Especially not with this kind of cuteness around:

Hey look - pictures!

I finally moved some photos to a computer that isn't my super slow piece-of-junk laptop, and that seems to have remedied the Blogger Won't Let Me Upload Photos problem.

So here's a little collection I'm entitling The Past Six Months, The Very Best Of. Enjoy!


Spring


Summer


Autumn


Winter

(which you've already seen, but they're just so darn cute that I'm putting them up again!)

And now, onward with 2010!

O Tannenbaum!

Take three very excited children, add a trip to a Christmas tree farm, and throw in a pinch of snow for good measure. It's a surefire recipe for a perfect Saturday.

My good friend, Suzanne, was with us, and as her husband does photography on the side, she had a totally bangin' camera (that I WANT) and posted the photos on the Internet, which means I was able to steal them and put them up here. (Thanks, Suz!)

(Just so you don't get us confused - with the long black coats and long brown hair and the historical record of both Suzanne's husband and Rhys confusing the two of us, it's a very real possibility that you might to the same - this is Suzanne, in the white hat. Isn't she lovely?)


The pictures of this particular Saturday really are worth far more than any words I could possibly write. There is nothing quite like wandering through a snow-covered tree farm, looking for just the right tree.


And then, of course, there is the strapping it on the car. One of the million reason that I love Suzanne: she was completely unfazed by the size of my car and the magnitude of the task of tying the tree onto it. As you might recall, I drive a dinky car. Most folks are shocked that I can get three car seats into my car, let alone three car seats and enough crap for a week at the beach. Or three car seats, a very tall husband, and a sizable dog. Or three car seats, a bunch of WalMart bags full of Christmas stuff, and a Christmas tree. But it can be done. Observe:


Now you might be thinking the same thing I'm sure everyone in the parking lot at the tree farm (most of whom were driving SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks, and the like) was thinking as we strapped this baby on: "Wait a sec - if you tie the tree on through the windows, then you also tie the doors shut. So how do you get in?"

Well, my friend, as Suzanne and I knew well before we even began tying the tree on, before we even left my house in fact, the way into the car after tying the tree on through the windows is to climb through those very same windows. And so, much to the amusement of the kids, the fellows in the parking lot, and ourselves, that is exactly what we did.

And look at that - not a single smudge of mud on the seats. We are goooood.

We took the tree home, got it all untied and set up, and waited for it to dry while the kids danced around and reminded us that we needed lights and decorations. They reminded us of this small detail quite frequently. Every. Twenty. Seconds. (To be exact.)


Because of the current disagreement Blogger and I are having over my desire to upload photos, there are no photos of our short, fat, lovely, decorated tree. I did, however, receive a Christmas card yesterday from our neighbors across the street. I've never met these particular neighbors and would not recognize them if I saw them, but their card said, "We've been enjoying your beautiful Christmas tree. Thank you for brightening up our street." How awesome is that? I think I might have to bake them cookies.

For the time being, you'll just have to imagine how lovely our tree is. Maybe Ben's enthusiasm for the tree will give you a clue.

Happy Holidays!

The blog is broken

I suspect that Blogger might have a really bad case of swine flu.

I've been trying to update here for the past couple of months, and wannabe photographer that I am, I've made many an attempt to get photos up. Photos from Rhys's birthday, Halloween photos, photos showing Rhys's new hair cut, etc. But it's hopeless. Error messages, frozen screens, failed attempt after failed attempt.

And the feeds for the kiddie utterances and the munchkin milestones are broken.

Sigh.

For the time being, I've decided it's a lost cause. I'll try to fix it all once Eric gets home, and I can come up for air.

Suffice to say we're busy, we're tired, we've learned how to read (Rhys), we've turned four (Ben and Desi), and we're very, very excited that Eric will be home - permanently - as of December 22nd. Hooray!

There's no question about it; she's definitely my daughter

For her birthday dinner tonight, Rhys had a very simple request: macaroni and cheese.

And a salad.

Yes. A salad.

My now-five-year-old requested a salad for her birthday dinner.

I'll pat myself on the back later, when no one's looking.

I still haven't found my digital camera, so I had to go all old school and buy film to capture Rhys's birthday party on Saturday. The photos will most likely be developed, scanned, and available for your viewing pleasure at some point tomorrow.

Maybe.

Happy birthday, my Peanut!

I've done it again

I've lost the cable to my camera.

Truth be told, I've also lost the camera.

This is not good. I've got a birthday party to capture on Saturday.

Do you think this might be an indication that my life has become just a bit too chaotic?

Yeah, I think you might be right.