Same tree, same crap, I mean, same BEAUTIFUL stuff

A couple weekends ago, we decorated our parents Christmas tree. I do believe we out did ourselves this year.

We found the beautiful Styrofoam ball with three dots of glitter left that my mom always tries to hid from us. She said, "What until you have kids..." I have kids. One of whom made a beautiful blue glitter Styrofoam ball that he promptly dropped on the floor and got glitter in between my floor boards that I'll never get out. The ball is hanging on our tree and the boy is forbidden to touch it, to think about touching it, or look at it.

Even better than the Styrofoams ball (what says Christmas more than glittery Styrofoam?) was this yellow ornament I found in the box. Apparently, its actually a twist-tie, but it was in the box so it was fair game.

And this ornament I found in the box that my mom said, "Don't go in that box. There's just junk in there." Open invitation. If she really didn't want us in that box, she wouldn't have said anything about its contents.

My new concept in decorating - try the ornament out for the season, if you don't like it, take it back. Just leave it in the bag! As an added bonus, you'll never have to dust your ornaments, just shake the bag off at the end of the season.

After all our treasures where on the tree (my dad and uncle were going to contribute the yule beer cans later), we crawled under and screamed Silver Bells until Rudy cried. Ditty's friend from college even got to share in the family fun.

Cleveland

Thursday, March 13:

Besides for the boy locking himself into a bathroom stall in a gas station in Wisconsin (my deepest apologies for anyone who desperately needed to use that stall, but I wasn't crawling under to unlock it) and his obsession with eating at "Talking Bell" the trip to Cleveland was uneventful. When we got to Zeagan's house, the boy announced he was hungry and she should cook him supper. Zeagan doesn't cook - she makes reservations, so he got an apple instead.

Friday, March 14:

We went to Mongolian BBQ for lunch - my child ate crab, baby corn, and 5 tortillas. He also taste tested everything that Zippy and I got, but that's not unusual. He is really into sharing - which means he eats everything you have.

After lunch, we went to the Children's Museum which had a Galapagos Island exhibit. It was basically a room filled with sand that the boy could dig in to his heart's content.

Saturday, March 15:

We went to Mama Santa's for lunch (yum) and then road the Rapid downtown to visit Zeagan at work. My child ate a butter sandwich and made Zeagan "Hot Cocoa" which was chunks of bread, spinach, and whatever else he could throw in his cup when we weren't watching.

Sunday, March 16:

We had lunch at Panini's (a panini, that is, a real panini, is a beautiful thing), wandered around Coventry, and then headed back to Zeagan's to play with Zabby. The boy impressed us with his mad verbal skillz:

Boy: (gives Zabby brown marker) You can color with this one.

Zabby: Thank you.

Boy: Do you like brown?

Zabby: Yes. Do you like brown?

Boy: I like making in the potty. Do you like making brown in the potty?

Zabby: Yes.

Zippy and I were rolling on the floor. Zabby is 5. I wish I would have had a video camera on those two.

Monday, March 17:

We drove to Wisc. Dells to spend the night at the Atlantis Water park. It is the perfect place for Baba to play - the deepest part of the kiddy pool is 1 foot. The boy runs around the pool (seriously) for a couple hours, goes to bed, wakes up and repeats.

Tuesday, March 18:

We get up and go to IHOP or the pancake store, depending on who you ask for breakfast. The boy "shares" breakfast with Zippy and I. We swim some more and return home.

Christmas Tree Decorating

Every year we put up the Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend. It used to be Thanksgiving day as soon as we got home from Grandma and Grandpa whoever's house, but now we have a 7 PM bedtime to think about. We'd pull the tree out of the box (artificial all the way), throw on the ugliest ornaments we could find (you know, the crap you made in kindergarten), and then crawl under the tree and scream Christmas carols at the top of our lungs. Silver bells has always been a favorite.





Not much has changed. We are our all older, but we still come home to put up my parent's tree on or about Thanksgiving day. We still crawl under the tree and scream (last year, Baba was terrified of our, um, singing. This year he thought it was hilarious). And we still find the ugliest kindergarten crap we can find. Pickings were slim this year as my stinking mother has started to throw away/hide some of our "best" work. We'll make up for it throughout the Christmas season by putting various crap (empty beer cans is always a favorite) on the tree.





Nothing like a family tradition to put in you in the holiday spirit.

In a van down by the river....

We went to visit the Mighty Mississippi a couple weeks ago on the way to my aunts house. Baba started screaming, "Baba get out car now. Baba want to walk!" And since he has mastered the doors in Mom's car we took his threats seriously and stopped the car at a park.

Zippy would have been perfectly content viewing the river from afar. Baba and I wanted to get up close and personal with the river (and on the climb up I almost stepped on the dead fish that we had been discussing the smell of since we climbed down the bank to the river).

Baba wasn't content to just look at the river. We had to draw in the sand. Guess what we drew? What's that you say, tractors and wagons? Ding, ding, ding. You are the winner. Baba's tractors and wagons look more like squiggly lines to me, but I'll let it slide. He is only 29 months.

Ever since we moved to Baba's new house by the pond, Baba has been obsessed with fishing (it fits right in between his obsession with going to Ma and Pa's house, tractors, and trucks). So, Baba found a stick by the river and proceeded to "fish". We caught no fish.

The highlight of the journey down to the river (besides the dead fish, of course). Was the airplane that Baba spotted. I'm still not sure how he saw it. I believe the plane was a couple feet below orbit.

More ride!

Since it was about 8000 degrees below zero yesterday, we met my parental units, my sister, and Poonch II at the Park at MOA to ride the rides. I haven't ridden any of the rides at the park since it opened and much to my delight found I had a blast yesterday.

Unsure if Baba would like the rides or be scared, we bought him three points to ride the choo-choos.

He never smiled the entire time we were riding, but once we stopped, he said, "More choo-choos." I went and bought him an unlimited ride wrist band and my dad took Baba on every ride he wanted to go on (The Park has the coolest policy ever - if your kid is too small to ride by themselves, the required chaperone rides for free).

On no ride did he crack a smile or laugh, but as soon as the ride was over, he would say, "More!"

Timberland Twister is my favorite roller coaster ever. Yesterday was so much fun! We are considering investing in season passes for all of us.