The Holiday Season

We've had an exciting few months in Nashville! The kids have had a blast getting ready for Christmas. Laura went all out this year on the decorating. She busted out string after string of lights, hung clusters of stockings and Santa plates, set up two Christmas trees (half-off Saturdays at Goodwill are glorious), and cut out about a finity snowflakes with her paper-crafty skills. I cut out a single snowflake. The kids voted unanimously that mine was the best. They are good kids.


I decided I really wanted to do roof lights this year. So I did. The first attempt to mount the rooftop was unsuccessful. We have a 6-foot A-frame ladder which, if I stood on the very top allowed me to get my upper half completely onto the roof. Now with my extreme upper-body strength it would have been no thing to just hoist myself up. But I'm no dummy. Coming down is always the worst part of these ventures. I asked Laura to climb up the ladder behind me and simulate what it would be like for her to catch the weight of my lower half and guide me down. That was a good bonding experience, but in the end, we were no closer to getting me on the roof. Laura then dared me to go ask our neighbor with the Poker van if he had an extension ladder. She'd already asked our the two neighbors that she's friends with, and I scouted out the old folks' backyard and carport next door with no luck, so Poker-van man was our last bet. Well it turns out he did have an extension ladder, and three hours and one sore back later, we had lights up. Huzzah!

Along with watching Christmas movies and coloring in Christmas coloring books, the kids made gingerbread (graham cracker) houses to help put them in the proper spirit. I made a pretty epic discovery in the process--all those empty egg nog cartons laying around after consuming too much egg nog actually make a really good base structure on which to build a gingerbread (graham cracker house). 

In other news, Thomas is obsessed with Batman. In fact, he literally just told me that he wants to be Batman when he grows up, and he insisted that we show him some YouTube videos on how to become a ninja. There's this Batman video game that Thomas likes to play, but he hates to mess up. Like, he become paralyzed and starts crying if he feels like he's about to enter a room in which he could get offed by a bad guy. But at least it's forced Laura to have to learn enough video gaming skills to help him out. Thomas also enjoys dressing in his Batman costume and chasing Nancy around. She typically plays the role of Joker's ex-girlfriend (Harley Quinn...not sure how Thomas decided their relationship, but Nancy's cool with it). Unfortunately Thomas sometimes decides that hard plastic dinosaur toys can function as his baterang, and he gave Nancy a pretty good welt earlier.



Nancy is as nuts as ever. She has taken to waking up super early each morning, walking into our room, and saying "Daaaad! I want to watch Mommy Finger!" Mommy Finger, of course, being code for any childish Internet video. If Laura ever responds to her first in situations like this, Nancy is quick to scream, "NOO! I'm talking to DAD!" which is cute but makes for a shrill wakeup call. She also enjoys watching Doc McStuffins and playing Barbies. She will play Barbies all by herself, narrating aloud their little plastic lives and adventures. It's pretty amusing.

Charlie is finally over the worst of his cutting teeth, it seems. He had about four molars coming in at once, so that made for some nasty sleep habits. Charlie loves dancing lately. He does this thing where he slightly squats, up and down over and over, with one arm pushed out in front of him, wrist point forward and fingers pointing down. It's pretty inspiring. His second-best move is to spin in circles till he's dizzy enough to run himself into some furniture. He also loves being outside, which has made life tricky since things turned cold. But he still often grabs one of my shoes or Laura's shoes and brings it to us expectantly, hoping to play outside. He's basically a dog. He's also taken to hitting Nancy for no apparent reason. She's just there, and so he has to hit her. He also initiates peekaboo and waves and says "goodbye."





Laura recently decided to drop a few piano students, opting to only teach in the mornings to some middle school students. She realized that teaching in the afternoons most days meant she was hardly seeing Thomas on those days, due to his 8-hour days with Kindergarten. So far she's happy with the decision!

As for me, I had a quick work trip to San Francisco this week. The conference I went there for was a bit boring, but the hotel was cool and free shrimp is never a bad thing. Plus I spent 10 hours on airplane over three days, which allowed me to get deep into the Stephen King book I started reading--The Stand. I've never attempted a Stephen King book before, and since he's iconic and I'm super brave, I figured I'd give it whirl. My brother, Luke, is reading it too, so we can chat about it and remind each other it's just fake and there's not really a superflu virus summarily wiping out 99% of the world's population.

Now I need to join the rest of the fam who just started watching The Three Ninjas, which is how Laura responded to Thomas's request to get some ninja training. Perfect. 

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Winter in Nashville

It's been an exciting few weeks here in Nashville. Of particular note is Charlie's delving into the cruel world of eating with a spoon. Yes, those are processed green beans. Yikes.

Thomas is really trying hard to convince us he's capable and ready to quit wearing diapers to bed. Considering he still occasionally wets himself through his diaper, we have our doubts.

Nancy still wakes up during the night on occasion, yelling, "It's not dark yet!" This, of course, is hardly true at 3:00 a.m. Typically all she needs is to have her blanket put back on her and she goes back down. Laura has tried teaching her how to put her blanket back on by herself. So now, rather than calling for us to help her, she calls out, "Mommy! I did it!"

I'm not going to talk about Charlie's nighttimes. Because it elicits swears.

Thomas has moved on from his obsession with Spiderman, and is now completely enamored with Power Rangers. He gets to watch "controller shows" during the day sometimes (YouTube videos he navigates with a controller on the TV), and about a month ago he discovered Power Rangers. Who knew there were about 20 seasons? That's incredible. Thomas quickly fell in love with Power Rangers Samurai, but realizing how utterly adulterated that version is, we checked out the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for him from the library. You know, with Jason, Billy, Trini, Zack, and the oh-so-fine pink ranger, Kimberly. 

Laura went to a ward ladies' book club recently. The book was The Bishop's Wife. I read it as well when it was laying around. The consensus: that's a terrible book. It seems to have been written for 11-year-olds and people who hate men and are convinced every other person in their neighborhood is a potential murderer.

My parents sent us a Valentine's Day package, which included socks for the kids, candies, and The Land Before Time. We watched the movie this morning. I thought I could make it through without sobbing this time. I was wrong. I have watched many heavy and sad movies without blinking an eye, but The Land Before Time kills me. That and Finding Nemo. We also had a homemade heart-shaped pizza party to celebrate the holiday (including watching more Power Ranger).

For my birthday, Laura surprised me with tickets to the Music City Roots show--a live radio show that features some great artists. This particular night was a tribute to Sam Phillips (the producer of Sun Records who discovered Elvis and many other rock-n-roll legends). The music scene is definitely awesome here!

We've had a fair amount of winter weather in the past few weeks. One Friday we got about six inches of snow in eight hours. They say it's the most snow in this area in the last decade. The city shuts down when there is even the slightest bit of snow, so I got the day off work and the kids and I had some fun sledding down the steps in the back yard.

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