To enjoy Him forever

I try my best to spend some time each day pointing out the beauty in God's creation to my children. God's a pretty big abstract concept for the two-and-under set, so what better way to illustrate how awesome He is than by showing them something awesome He made? Especially now, when Abby is soaking in so much knowledge, I'd like to make sure she's got a pretty firm foundation of Who made the world and all that's in it on which to build her world view.

This morning, God made it easy for me. We woke up to this glorious sunrise, the likes of which make it pretty impossible not to acknowledge our all-powerful Creator of the universe. Abby loves sunrises and sunsets, and we always remind her as she admires them that God made them, and he made them for her to enjoy. But we've never seen one quite like this.

This morning I brought her to the window and said, "Guess what God made for you this morning?" Her answer brought a smile to my face as she peered through the glass.

"God made a pink sunrise for Abby!" she exclaimed, certain that He made it just for her to enjoy, like we've told her time and time again.

Thank you, Father, for teachable moments like these. Thanks for reminding me of how great you are, and for giving me the opportunity to teach your truth to my children. Thank you for being a personal God who loves us individually. Thanks for knowing and loving my daughter better than me, and for loving her so much on this morning that you gave her her very own pink sunrise to enjoy.

Refined Tastes

Finally...a kid that takes after me. Justin thought it was about time he let Caleb try an olive to see if he'd enjoy them as much as his big sister. The answer? A big, fat NO. The cookies and chocolate milk have had a much better reception.

Abby and her dad can help themselves to all the olives, pickles, salt & vinegar chips and mustard they can find.

Caleb and I will be in the candy aisle if you need us.

And to all a good night!

Caleb's first Christmas was a fabulous one for all of us. My parents were able to be here, the kids had a blast ripping into their presents, Abby reminded us it was Jesus' birthday and insisted we eat more of his cake at lunchtime, Caleb was obsessed with the trash bag full of wrapping paper, Justin scored lots of Georgia Tech gear, and Santa put Cherry Coke in my stocking. I'd say it was a pretty perfect day.

My favorite highlights include...

Playing with the kids' gifts on Christmas Eve

Abby's Christmas morning bedhead

Caleb's excitement at being encouraged to tear paper and rip stuff open

How much the kids absolutely LOVED their train set from Santa

Watching Caleb default to the airplanes every time we offered him his new toys

Abby designating herself as the official hander-outer of gifts

Caleb's fit of laughter every time this duck started singing and dancing

Laughing so hard it hurt while trying to build an impossible gingerbread house with Abby and my mom

Merry Christmas to all!

What all the fuss is about

Of all the ways to prepare a holiday bird, it has the highest rate of failure.

There is serious risk to life and property in undertaking such a venture.

But the payoff is so worth it. Seriously...when was the last time you ate a turkey and willingly went back for seconds?

After educating himself on the finer points of turkey frying under the tutelage of Alton Brown of Good Eats, Justin built his turkey pulley system, cleared some snow and staged our cooker a safe distance from the house, then carefully lowered a 10 pound bird into a pot of hot oil. Forty minutes later, he pulled out a fried-to-perfection, deliciously moist turkey that is the best holiday bird I've ever eaten.

Combine turkey frying with my family's long-standing tradition of cooking the big meal on Christmas Eve so mom doesn't spend Christmas day in the kitchen, and we've got ourselves a holiday tradition worth repeating.

Overheard at dinner

Conversations with my two-year-old that I'd rather not forget:

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Mom: "Abby, are you cute?"
Abby: "No, I'm dangerous."

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Abby: (pointing at dad's Tabasco sauce) "I want some of that dip, please."
Dad: "This is spicy, Abby. Are you sure you want to try it?"
Abby: "I want to try that."
(Abby puts a dot of Tabasco on her finger and touches it to her tongue. The reaction that follows lets us know she's not enjoying it nearly as much as she thought she would.)
Dad: "Abby, do you like that, or do you not like it?"
Abby: "I not like that."

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Mom: "How old are you, Abby?"
Abby: "Meat!"
Dad: "No, how old are you really?"
Abby: "I'm two!"
Dad: "How old is Mommy?"
Abby: "Old."

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It's a good thing she's cute.

I mean dangerous.

The way to a man's heart

A few weeks ago, a stranger stopped by our table as I was enjoying lunch out with the kiddos. He leaned over, pointed to Caleb's cheeks, and said sarcastically, "You should feed the boy." I get it...he's fat. He eats like a horse, and I'm fairly convinced he's storing up food for the winter in those chubby cheeks of his.

So is it any wonder that his first word is a food word? This morning as I walked through the kitchen en route to the fridge, Caleb spotted the fruit bowl and began flapping his fat little arms, pointing and saying "Nana! Nana!" repeatedly. So I did what any mom would do...I gave the kid the banana he was asking for, and I whipped out the video camera.

He's been making the nana, mama and dada noises for about a month now, but I'm hesitant to give kids credit for noises until they associate them with something. Then, and only then, will I call it an actual word. We've suspected for some time that "nana" meant banana, but I'm ready to go on the record and call it his official first word now.

I'll also go ahead and give him full credit for "Dada," since he's consistent about yelling that whenever Justin walks into the room. And he can have partial credit for "Mama," since he almost always greets me by saying "Mama! Mama!" when I come in the room to get him up from his naps, but fails to call me by name at any other time of the day.

With all the chattering that goes on around him all day long, I'm not surprised to hear Caleb spitting out some words before he even hits his first birthday. I'm impressed he even manages to get a word in at all.

2000 candles won't fit on one cake

In order to give our kids something tangible to attach to the real reason for the season, we got together with Abby Mae and Sam's parents and threw a birthday party for Jesus. We enjoyed a delicious Christmas brunch, complete with a birthday cake, then we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles. (Abby went to Target with me earlier in the week to get all the stuff to make the cake, and informed me and everyone around us that "Jesus wants sprinkles!" So our cake had lots of sprinkles.)

I think it's working. If you ask Abby what Christmas is, she'll tell you enthusiastically "It's Jesus' birthday!" As we drive around looking at Christmas lights, I've enjoyed telling the kids how Jesus came into the world as a little baby to be the light of the world, and the reason there are pretty lights everywhere is because everyone is celebrating His birthday. We've read the story of the baby in a manger almost daily since I unpacked all the Christmas books, and I love pointing out the star on top of the tree and reminding Abby and Caleb that when Jesus was born, God put a big star in the sky over the place where he was born so that people could find Him and worship Him.

Oh sure, Abby's excited about Santa and presents too. But this girl loves a party, and so far, Christmas is about the biggest birthday party she's ever seen. I think she's starting to understand that this Jesus guy is a pretty big deal.

Global warming

I'm trying to win the mom of the year award, but I knew it was going to take something pretty phenomenal to beat out all those moms with the homemade cookies.

So when two feet of snow landed in our backyard, I seized the opportunity to show my kids just how much I love them by spending my spare time constructing this truly awesome four-foot-tall snow slide in the backyard.

Admit it...you're jealous.

Christmas Time is Here

I love Christmas time. At what other time of the year could I convince my tidy husband to let us eat dinner in the office?

We added some Christmas cheer to our Friday night pancake tradition by whipping out the candy cane paper plates and dragging the booster seats into the office to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on Hulu. The kids seemed to love it, though I never realized before just how many times Lucy says s-t-u-p-i-d until now. Thankfully Abby didn't pick up any new words during movie night...she was much too concerned with spotting Snoopy every time he popped up on the screen and yelling "There's a puppy!"

We realized just how much Abby was paying attention when, during Linus' monologue about the angel appearing to the shepherds, Abby looked at us and interjected, "That's shepherds kept their watching..." (the line from "Go Tell It On the Mountain").

It was great to take a break from all the hustle and bustle of wrapping and decorating to watch a holiday classic that remembers the reason for the season. Here's hoping we can help our kids start to understand what Christmas is all about this year...

No crib for a bed

Abby made the move into her big girl bed last weekend, and so far she's done great with it. She loves her big girl pillow and her big girl quilt, and I love how absolutely precious she looks lying there in that great big twin bed.

She's sleeping just fine and has only found herself trapped between the wall and the bed once. We've also been very blessed that (so far) she's been extremely good about staying in her bed and not getting out until mommy or daddy comes in to get her (except for the time she leaned on the bed's guard rail and flipped the mattress...but she didn't do that on purpose, I'm sure).

The Christmas story apparently is taking on new meaning for Abby now that her sleeping arrangements have changed. One day this week after I put her down for her nap, I heard her in her bed singing "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. Abby's got a big girl bed!"

I'll bet Jesus didn't have flamingo sheets...

Here comes Santa Claus

The anticipation is killing them!

Each year our town teams up with representatives from the North Pole to bring Santa and Rudolph down to ride on top of a festively decorated fire truck with horns blaring and wave at all the kids. We had advance notice this year, and we were ready and waiting by the front door so we could run outside when the fire truck went past our house.

Abby loved waving to Santa and even wished him an enthusiastic "Merry Christmas!" as he rode by. Caleb was rightly terrified of the sirens and the flashing lights, and may be scarred for life by the experience. Luckily for him, the next time Santa is near the children will be nestled all snug in their beds, so he shouldn't have to face the guy in red again until the time for next year's Christmas picture rolls around.

Deck the halls

Abby's really getting into the Christmas spirit this year. She loves to point out decorations and lights as we're driving around town, and it makes my heart happy to hear her in the back seat exclaiming, "Look at those pretty Christmas lights! Look at those lights...so pretty!"

So it didn't surprise me in the least when she decided to join in and help me deck our halls this year. After I finished hanging the stockings, decorating the mantle and lighting all of our Christmas candles, our festive little girl added some finishing touches with a few toys she picked out from her playroom.

Unlike her mom, Abby apparently thinks symmetry is important. She was very careful to line up all of her blocks and pegs in ascending order. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to teach her the art of being random.

All smiles

It doesn't get much better than playing peekaboo with dad inside an old beat-up cardboard box.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

To answer your questions: that's a dinosaur he's chewing on, that's an x-ray of his teeth in the background, and, yes, we took our ten-month-old to the dentist. Allow me to explain.

We don't actually love going to the dentist, although I know it's starting to look that way. Caleb had a minor mouth injury this week (short, stout and unbalanced is a bad combination) and the pediatrician thought it a good idea to take him in to get his teeth looked at. Since, thanks to Abby, we already have a pediatric dentist, getting him in this week was no problem.

Thankfully, everything looked fine on the x-rays, so no major dental surgeries for Spike any time soon. The dentist did point out that the poor guy has a whole bunch of teeth hanging out at the gum line waiting to break through any minute. Now at least I have something to blame his intermittent crankiness on.

On another note...anyone else have a pediatrician who ends your phone calls with "Talk to you soon"?

Five minutes of fame

Abby made her big Christmas Concert debut this year at Community Bible Study along with the other kids in the 2's, 3's and 4's classes. Since I had no idea what they'd be singing, I didn't practice her songs with her, so it didn't surprise me in the least that she failed to sing along with such unfamiliar tunes as "I'm In the Lord's Army" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain." She managed to get into "Happy Birthday Jesus" a little bit once she'd had some time to warm up, but mostly she surprised us by just standing on stage staring blankly into the audience. I've never seen her stand still for that long, and probably never will again.

Once she got used to the applause and the other kids singing and dancing around her she started doing some of the motions along with the rest of them. Marching along to "Go Tell It On the Mountain" seemed to be her favorite, so she marched for most of the concert after that. At the end, the kids recited the bible verses they've been learning this year in their classes. So far Abby has memorized:

• "Do not be afraid...your prayer has been heard." - Luke 1:13
• "Nothing is impossible with God." - Luke 1:37
• "The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior." - 1 John 4:14
  (They just started working on that one, so she's not 100% on it yet.)

It was so fun to watch our little girl up on stage in her first performance, and I know she was thrilled that Daddy came to watch her! I've always wondered why our parents could get so excited about watching old home movies of our school plays and concerts. Now I get it.

Click here to see the video of Abby's big debut.

Both knees

Santa's lap was full this year for our annual photo. Abby's tactile reflex kicked into high gear again this year, and she was far too interested in the fur on Santa's suit to smile for the picture. Caleb panicked the moment I sat him on that red velvet knee, and spent his few minutes on Santa's lap with his eyes darting back and forth between his parents and Santa's (apparently terrifying) beard. They managed to catch him in mid-pout, which was better than I had hoped for.

Forty-five minutes in line, $32 and about two minutes with Old St. Nick, and this is what we have to show for the experience. Gotta love the holidays...at what other time of year would you pay that much for a mediocre photo of your kids sitting on a stranger's lap?

In the wee small hours of the afternoon

We're not really sure when it happened, but sometime in the past few months, we realized that Caleb has become fun...as in play with me, tickle me, smiling, laughing, playing with friends, high fiving kind of fun. He interacts with us, he mimics our sounds and movements, and with his newly acquired speed-crawling skills, he even likes to play his own ten-month-old version of tag (and we're always It).

I'm sure when Abby did all this stuff we were just beside ourselves with awe and wonder. I'm fairly certain we called the grandparents and recorded every new skill on this blog. Heck, I even marked the date that each of her teeth broke through in my planner. But with the second child...not so much. (Recording anything he does in my planner would rely heavily Abby not hiding it and Caleb not ripping pages from it.) I love him just the same...it's simply too busy around here for me to notice much of anything, much less make a note of it.

And that's why my favorite time of day is right after Caleb's afternoon nap. I can count on his sister sleeping about a half an hour longer than he does, so for at least thirty precious minutes a day, I have him all to myself to cuddle and play with and enjoy. There's no crazy two-year-old running through the house like a banshee, no one to share toys with, no one to interrupt storytime. It's just me and my boy, hanging out, enjoying each other's company. I love those times, because without them I probably wouldn't know how much he loves to drop blocks into the little shoebox I cut a hole in the top of, or how much he enjoys pushing chairs around the room, or how much he adores a good game of peekaboo.

I know he won't remember these moments. But I'll never forget them.

Since we've no place to go...

Let's see...last time we had a big snowstorm, Justin and I were headed to the hospital in the middle of the night through sleet and snow for Caleb's birthday. This time around, the freezing temperatures and precipitation were much more enjoyable.

The skies dumped about four inches of snow on us, which proved to be just the right amount for making snow ice cream, snow angels, and a four foot tall snowman. We spent just about every waking daylight hour bundled up playing in below-freezing temperatures, and even a bit of time after the sun went down.

Caleb was kind of stunned by the flakes hitting his face, and had some difficulty sitting up due to the incredible amount of clothing he was wearing to stay warm. He did enjoy holding onto Justin's hands and walking through the snow. Time to get the boy some snow boots!

Abby's going to be pretty well hydrated for the next few days, seeing as all she wants to do with the snow is eat it. Maybe I could throw some frozen vegetables out in the yard...

Three little bakers

After more than a week away, Abby was missing her best buds pretty badly. So we invited everyone over for a cookie making play date. Abby Mae made quick work of eating as much dough as possible while Abby Jean tried to build towers in the dough with the cookie cutters. Three-year-old Maddie tried to maintain some sense of order by repeatedly flattening the dough the younger girls messed up and showing them how to press one shape at a time into the dough to make a cookie. It was a valiant effort, but in the end, fun and deliciousness won out and the girls gave up making cookies and instead treated my would-be cookies like playdough, rolling it into balls and then devouring them one by one.

We did manage to bake about ten cookies, though none of them were shaped like any of my holiday cookie cutters. Maybe next year.