Merry Christmas!

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Bits and Pieces

We have been completely engrossed in moving, unpacking, meeting neighbors, etc and I have barely had time to blink, let alone the energy to type. Still, I wanted to share a few snippets of our life the past few weeks.

• Out of nowhere, Lauren suddenly loves school. This is a huge step for her since she had been screaming at the top of her lungs every time I handed over to her lovely teacher. I was told that it didn't last long after I left, but I still felt terrible. Her screams are the most ear piercing thing I have ever heard. Now? She grabs her lunch box, walks from the front door to her classroom, and happily hugs her teacher ("Keeeem!" aka: Ms. Kim) and sometimes even spares a second to wave goodbye to me. She also loves to call out to her classmates. "Ink un!" (Lincoln) "Ay laa!" (Layla) "Dom ash!" (Thomas) It's super sweet.
  
  
• One of the funniest things she has done lately, which is saying a lot because this child is hilarious, is telling us she has to go potty, running to the bathroom, and then pulling her shirt up while she stands facing the toilet, just like her brother. This is always followed by "wash hands?" and she skips on her merry way. She woke up dry from a nap one day so I put her on the toilet and she actually went, but I'm hoping guessing that was a complete fluke. I'm not ready to head down that road, yet, although I'm afraid she's going to force me. Sigh...
  
  
• Brenden just finished a fourth round of antibiotics for double ear infections that just will not go away. I took him to see the doctor that placed Lauren's tubes and removed her cyst and he agreed that it was time for Brenden to have tubes as well. They scheduled us for Friday so we won't have to wait long. (Merry Christmas, Brenden...some tubes in your ears!) I'm not sure how it will go since he can understand so much more than Lauren, but I do know that he is very excited about the chocolate ice cream (his choice of rewards) for being brave and listening. I just hope he feels better soon. So hard to see him sick all the time.
  
  
• Speaking of doctor's appointments, we've had several the last few weeks for both kids. I always dread taking them both into a waiting room because I end up chasing them, always going different directions, and looking like the crazy mom that can't control her children. Amazingly, they have both been rather well behaved, listened, and played well with each other at every appointment. Brenden sat quietly while Lauren's stitches were removed and Lauren sat in awe while Dr. Guy showed us Brenden's ears with a video camera. (It was pretty cool.) I know the awful 2's are coming and the horrendous 3's will follow, but right now I'm going to enjoy these happy sibling moments while they last!
  
  
• They've become rather close, at least on occasion. Lauren is always anxious to pick Brenden up from school so she can give him a big hug. Brenden gets really concerned when Lauren is upset, especially while we're eating. He has started offering her food from his plate, making funny faces, and whispering to her to calm her down. (He also claims her screams hurt his ears, which I totally understand.) I just hope that the happy moments when they are laughing at each other greatly outnumber the arguments and spats.
  
  
• December 9th was a huge day for us when it comes to the new house. (Pictures when we actually feel moved in!) We had the blinds installed, cable/internet/phone installed, and the refrigerator delivered. The funniest guy was the blinds installer. He sang to the kids, joked around with them, and even did a great job of putting up the blinds. The Cox guy was also really nice and felt REALLY bad when he managed to drill a hole through our wall (twice) instead of through the beam he was aiming at. I could not stop laughing when it happened because it was just so ridiculous to see a long orange wire sticking out of our wall and the look on his face was priceless. He even thanked me for not getting angry. It worked out in the end since they are going to repair it and we also got a free new wireless router. Score!
  
  
• Remember when I said that Lauren was our "serious child"? Remember when I thought she'd be slightly outgoing, but not nearly as friendly as Brenden? Oh my gosh, was I ever wrong. She is the most friendly, outgoing, charming, energetic, comical, independent child I have ever met. She's talking up a storm and loves to interact with anyone and everyone. Just today she sat across from a couple at a birthday party and spent the entire lunch saying "Nice to meet you" and shaking their hands, talking to them about her pizza, and singing "Happy Birthday" as loud as possible. She has no problems tilting her head, smiling and turning her baby blues on anyone and more often than not it works.
  
  The best story lately: We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for grandpa Mike's birthday. (Happy birthday, Mike!) She was sitting on her grandma Connie's lap, playing on her phone when she suddenly looked up and whined, "Awww, it's chicken!" Everyone, including the guy who was waiting for a to-go order, busted up laughing. She then proceeded to stand as close to his phone as possible with a questioning look on her face. To my surprise, he locked it, and handed it right over. Of course, she knows how iPhones work so she had it unlocked and was playing Angry Birds in about 3 seconds.
  
  She spent dinner alternating between shoving as many boneless chicken wings dipped in ketchup in her mouth as possible and dancing with her grandma. We are never lacking for entertainment around here. 

Ours!

Completely, 100%, for better or worse, our house. It only took 129 days between deciding this was what we wanted to do and signing all 124,209,574 papers that legally made us the owners. In all honesty, this whole process was MUCH easier than I expected. We had very few issues and have been extremely happy with how it has turned out. 

I still cannot believe we'll be moved in before Christmas. Merry Christmas to us!

A few pictures I took yesterday of OUR house. Insane. :) 

Playing in Lauren's closet.

Lauren's room.

Brenden's room.

Kid's bathroom.

Laundry room.

Dining room.

Living room.

KITCHEN! :)

Towards the nook.

 And now, the fun part. Moving! *sarcasm, so much sarcasm*

 

Dear Santa....

Brenden is getting better and better at his handwriting, but he's still not quite up to writing an entire letter to Santa, even if it's only just a few words. Instead, we decided to have him draw what he'd like Santa to bring him and when we mentioned that Lauren wasn't big enough to draw her own pictures he happily drew some for her as well. He told me how he would like them labeled and then I helped him spell "Dear Santa".

He needed help spelling Lauren's name, but he signed his name all on his own.

You better believe these are going in a memory book. :)

"Dear Santa"
The left one says "Brenden" and the right is "Lauren".

"Big Pillow Pet with Thomas on it."

Top: "Light Saber with Blue"
Bottom left: "Little Pillow Pet with Thomas on it."

Center: "Dora Pillow Pet"
Top right: "Boots Pillow Pet"

Bye, bye knot!

First off, I just have to say THANK YOU to everyone that had us in their thoughts and prayers today. I had no idea how very anxious I was about the whole thing and it really calmed me down knowing there were so many people with Lauren on their mind. We are all relieved to have the hardest part, the surgery, behind us and I think she's well on her way to recovering nicely.

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(All sorts of words about how we found out about the knot, the first results, realizing that the first diagnosis probably wasn't right, pictures of the crazy knot, the cat scan, and the final results that led to her surgery today.)

Once again we found ourselves up bright and early headed to Hillcrest with Lauren. As usual, she was her happy bubbly self, singing and laughing all the way there. Checking in was quick and the pre-op was easy since it was exactly the same as the pre-op for her tubes. The main difference was the fact that she can walk now, but she surprised me by staying very close to us and not freaking out about being there again. She calmly went to one of the nurses and waved bye bye to us without any tears.

That's when the weight of all the worrying really hit me. It was terrifying to think about what they were going to have to do to remove that knot. I expected it to feel like the minutes were barely creeping by, but the hour and a half went very quickly. Dr. Guy came out to get us himself and said that it went about as well as it could. The cyst was completely removed, as well as her hyoid bone, which will all be biopsied. There was very little bleeding, a very small incision, so she didn't need a drain, which would have meant she was going to be admitted to the hospital at least overnight.

She wasn't completely awake when we went back and they had just given her some more medicine so she could relax. She was moaning a bit in her sleep but that was much easier to deal with than the ear piercing screams after her tubes and cat scan. It took about an hour before she really started waking up and she stayed drowsy all morning.

I'm still surprised at how small the bandage is and that it doesn't seem to bother her as much as I expected. She's asked us to take the tape off several times, which really just breaks my heart. She was also starving but we were told she was only allowed liquids and pureed food, and the packets of applesauce and smooshed bananas really weren't cutting it. I imagine she'll jump up and down tomorrow when she's allowed a cracker.

We had a very relaxed day and Lauren and I are going to take it easy tomorrow and Sunday, as well. I expect we will watch Pocoyo, Little Einsteins, and Elmo at least 294 more times, but as long as she's calm, I'm happy!

Daddy makes a good footrest.

I'm so thankful that everything went so well and that it's over. Now to focus on all the happy things. New House! (Closing scheduled for Tuesday!) Christmas! A new (to us) car!

Oh, you didn't know we got a different car? Guess I'll have to write about that later. :)

Brenden-isms/Lauren-isms

These children...they slay me. :)

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Lauren: *opens lunchbox that I told her not to*

Me: *snatches lunchbox*

Lauren: *cries* "NO! That's MINE! Not nice!"

Me: "I told you not to open it. Sorry."

Lauren: "Give it back!"

Me: "Sorry, kiddo." *thinks: Did I seriously just get into an argument with my 19 month old?!*

(On one hand, I'm super impressed that she has the vocabulary to have a conversation with us. And on the other, I just do not even want to be around when she's a teenager arguing with me.) 


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Brenden's new favorite saying has become, "Hey you guuuuuys!" It's equally funny and annoying at the same time. I thought for sure it was from The Goonies, although I have no idea why I thought that since he's never seen it. He's also taught Lauren to say it, which is actually pretty cute as long as I'm not on the phone or trying to order food at a drive thru.

It has also morphed into new phrases, said with just as much enthusiasm and volume. They include, but are not limited to:

"Hey you gorillaaaaas!"

"Hey you mommy/daddy/Brenden/Lauren!"

"Hey you sillyyyy!"

"Hey you ________!" (Insert word that Brenden knows he's not supposed to say so he whispers it and possibly get in trouble.)

He's been playing the Electric Company on pbs.org (I thought it was pbs.com and he quickly informed me that, "No, mommy. Not .com, pbs.org. Again, the teenage years are going to be...interesting.) Apparently, they totally stole "Hey you guuuuys!" and have been teaching it to the children of children of the 80's, totally confusing us as well as driving us crazy.

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Lauren's new found obsession is ketchup, which cracks me up. I finally had to move it to the top shelf of the refrigerator because she kept grabbing it and dragging it around with her.

She will dip anything into it, which is why the other night she had rice and vegetables with ketchup for dipping. 

I cannot get enough of her little personality.

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Brenden, used to being our main performer and center of attention, could not be outdone. So, while we were driving home talking about school he started singing, which is not out of the ordinary. However, his choice of song was so out of left field that I called Tim and made Brenden sing it to him. Then I made it sing it again when we got home:

Oh. My. GOOOSH. I think we need to talk to his teachers about their taste in music. ;) 

Brenden-isms

Brenden has become obsessed with the idea of "being bigger." He's anxious to be able to do all the things that we've told him he's not old enough or not big enough to do. If I want him to eat something or to go to bed all I have to do is remind him that he has to eat his veggies and get lots of rest if he wants to be like daddy.

He likes to tell me all the things he'll be able to do when he's bigger. "Mommy, when I get bigger I'll be able to lift heavy things for you." "When I get bigger I can drive the car." "When I get bigger you'll let me drink pop." This morning, we were driving to school and once again, he piped up from the backseat.

"Mommy, when I get bigger I'm gonna be in the Army."

And then my heart skipped a beat. Would I be upset if my son decided to serve his country like his dad, grandpas, uncles, great grandpas, cousins, etc? No. But the idea of where our country could be at that time, what war we could be fighting, scares me to death.

"What would you do in the Army, bud?"

"I'd go to college!"

"That's awesome! What would you do after college?"

"I'd get out of college."

I guess I need to explain the whole purpose of college a little better. 

"What do you want to do when you grow up?"

I thought he'd tell me he wanted to drive a tank, like daddy, or wear Army clothes. 

*whispers* "I'm gonna be the Blue Power Ranger."

And then all was right in the world again.

We're both going to enjoy him being little for as long as possible.

We're Off To See the Wizard!

I don't get much one on one time with Brenden anymore, so when Lauren won tickets to see The Wizard of Oz in Bartlesville on Tuesday (Thank you everyone!) I was excited to take him to his very first musical. We talked about what we would see, how the wicked witch wasn't really wicked, she was just pretending, and that it was like watching a movie with real people.

In the days before the show if he wasn't acting right I would just say "Wizard of Oz..." and he would immediately straighten up. He was just as excited to go as I was! I will admit that I was a little nervous about how he would behave but I figured since the tickets were free and we got fantastic seats that it was worth a shot.

My handsome little man and me.

As soon as we walked in he was ready to find his seat. You would think I was handing him a $100 bill and not just a ticket. Waiting for the ropes to open almost had him jumping out of his shoes. When we finally got settled in, luckily next to some very nice people who did not seem at all concerned about sitting by a 4 year old, he was upset because the show hadn't started. Of course this gave him plenty of time to ask me about every little thing in the theater... "Why do we have assigned seats? Why does that little girl have a wand and I don't? What is up in the ceiling? Where is my wand? Why do the seats move when I stand up? Mommy, I need a wand. When is the show going to start? Where is my costume? I don't think I can watch this without a wand." And on and on...

It only took 5 minutes once the show started before he was hooked. During the very first song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", he looked at me with eyes as big as saucers and said in an awed whisper, "This is my favorite!"

There were a few iffy moments, like when the wicked witch was announced with a bright flash and loud bang (even I was startled!) or when a creepy new character walked on stage. I tried to let him know when something was coming on, like the lion or the tin man, so he wouldn't be surprised, and that helped a lot.

During intermission I had to promise him more than once that no one would take our seats if we got up. He was not ready to go yet! It took one of the nice guys sitting next to us telling him he would save our seats before he would agree to take a bathroom break. The entire way down the hall he skipped and sang, "We're off to see the Wizard! The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!" I could not stop smiling. :)

The show started at 7:30 pm so I knew he would be tired, but he was a trooper. Only once or twice he asked me if I had a pillow so he could lay down and when he said he was ready to go home he admitted it was only because he was scared of the witch.

I'm very happy that we made it through the entire show. He hugged my legs and beamed at me in between clapping and cheering for the actors taking their bows. He excitedly told my parents all about the mean witch and the funny little dog and the tornado and the Wizard and Dorothy and the lion. I never thought he was going to go to sleep!

It was a wonderful night and something I will never forget. I'll definitely be taking him to another play, hopefully soon.

And yes...I did get him that wand...

Christmas Cards

Like most parents, we realized very quickly that when we send out Christmas cards, people expect pictures of the kids to be included. One year I sent out a "Top Ten List" as an overview of our year and, while everyone appreciated it, many people told me they shook their letters and checked their envelopes, but couldn't find a single photograph. Since then I've made sure that the kids are front and center for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, that means I either end up spending hours trying to figure out which of the 7000 pictures I took of the kids throughout the year to use or figuring out a way to get new pictures taken that are more recent and holiday themed. Both of these options are difficult because:

1. I find my kids ridiculously cute. (Even if no one else does, although my mommy brain says, "How could that be possible?!) This means it is beyond difficult picking less than 10 pictures of them that I just have to include. Thankfully, Tim is a lot better at narrowing choices down.

2. Even with Tim's help, it takes for-EV-er. I have a lot of important things to do. Like watch Grey's Anatomy. And eat popcorn.

3. If we decide on doing something holiday themed, I have to figure out what clothes they will wear, how they will be posed (hahaha! Like I could ever get them to actually pose.), and find a time when they are both in a decent mood (again...HAHAHAHA).

4. If I can somehow achieve all of those things I then have to figure out a way to simultaneously:

a. Get them both to smile.

b. Get them both to look in the same direction.

(I can hear you laughing at me through my computer screen.) 

I wanted to do something fun for their pictures this year and I asked for advice on Facebook, where I usually go to for inspiration/advice/commiseration. (I have some seriously smart and funny family and friends on there.) My friend Kristen suggested everyone in moving boxes, a sort of Merry Christmas/We Moved card and Tim and I loved that idea. (Thanks, Kristen!) I have a ton of ideas for next year, too! I wish I had had more time to set it all up this year, but I think what I got will work. 

It took awhile, but I finally got a decent picture of both of them together and separately. It took about 50 pictures to get there. Thank goodness for digital cameras! You'll have to wait to see which pictures I chose to use, but please enjoy these not-exactly-card-worthy shots. 

Brenden: Like this? Is this good? Not scary, right?
Lauren: I want out of this box!

Lauren: Hey, I look cute!
Brenden: Not so fast! I'm pulling my "fake laugh" face. Ha. Ha.

Me: Oh yes...perfect.

Box: IMMA BREAK NOW!

(No worries, they were fine.) 

I didn't get any individual shots of Lauren, but Brenden is enough of a ham that he let me take a few more of him.

CRAZY EYES!!!!

How about no eyes? 

Say, WHAT?

Mommmyyyyy....

And...we're done.

Wordless Wednesday

"Coffee makes it possible to get out of bed.

Cupcakes make it worthwhile."

~Author Unknown

Cloud Watching

A few days ago Brenden begged to go outside, which usually happens roughly every 5 minutes. The weather was warm and Lauren was napping so we grabbed our shoes and headed out.

He happily bounced around on the trampoline, throwing the big bouncy ball to me and laughing at Romeo playing fetch. Eventually he decided to lay on his back and be still for a bit, which is completely uncharacteristic.

"Mommy, come look at the clouds with me. I see Mickey Mouse's shoe!"

There is no way to say no to that.

We found a turtle, a chair, a "mad" face, and even a toilet.

Then, as randomly as he started, Brenden was done. "Let's go inside. I'm hungry." I know someday he'll be too busy to spend a lot of time with me. He's much too outgoing and friendly to want to sit around with his mom once he has more freedom. That's why I'm going to lock that afternoon, along with the other morning, up in my memory. I feel blessed that I have that picture, that feeling, that I shared with my son.

I can't wait for the next one.